A Fluffy Tale 2: Warm & Fuzzy (19 page)

Spen said Daniel was in control, but then
he’d gone and decided that they would just be friends, without even asking.
Okay, he had good reasons but...a trial could be a year or more away. Maybe he
was using it as an excuse. Daniel hadn’t exactly given him a lot of room to
manoeuvre.

“Danny? You okay?”

“I’m fine.” He picked up a forkful of food
and ate it. “So what will happen to Cross-Channel now?”

“I’m sure I don’t give a flying fuck. I’m
more worried about you.”

“Well, don’t be. Things are under control.
I’ll email my aunt tonight and see what she says. I’ll call Zachary, tell him
about the new charges, and ask him about the bail thing. And next week, I’ll
talk to Stern.”

“And get tested.”

Daniel shrugged. “Yeah. You don’t need to
worry.”

Spen cocked his head like Daniel had said
something he didn’t understand, then shrugged. “Okay.”

They ate the rest of the meal in silence, to the obvious confusion of the kems who kept
giving them worried little chirps and squeaks as they nosed around the table.
They wanted to play, that much was clear, but they wanted to stick close to
their humans too. Finally, Kani and Myko both climbed into Daniel’s lap, forcing
themselves up under his arms so they could peer into his face with identical
expressions of concern. Spen laughed, and Daniel couldn’t help smiling.

“What do you mischiefs want, hmmm?” He
petted them both, and Myko snuggled into his hand. Kani snuggled into Myko
instead.

“They don’t want you to be sad,” Spen
murmured.

“Neither do I, but I can’t just click my
fingers and make it all go away. I wish I could.”

“No, you can’t, but you don’t have to do it
on your own, either.”

“I do at least until the trial is over.”
Spen frowned and looked about to say something, but Daniel cut him off. “Look,
I really should get moving. You need to pick up your mum,
I need to do some shopping and cooking. And cleaning, because I don’t want Dee
to think she has to lift a finger before Monday or the whole of next week. I
should call my grandmother, email my aunt—”

“I understand. You’re busy. So let’s go.”

Perversely, Spen’s brusque efficiency,
walking out of the café ahead of Daniel, taking the lead on the walk back to
the car, hurt. Daniel was only trying to prove that he didn’t need a nanny, and
that he wasn’t expecting Spen to solve all his problems.

They were back at Daniel’s house in twenty
minutes. “Uh, do you want to come in?” Daniel asked.

“Not if you’re busy. There’s a few things I
could do for Mum and Dad since I’m around.”

“Oh.”

Spen turned to look at him. “Danny....”

“Yeah?”

“I, uh...um...let me know if you hear from
Shah again, okay?”

“Sure. Guess I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah.” Spen reached over. Daniel thought he was after something in the glovebox and by the
time he realised it was his hand Spen was after, the
moment had passed. “You look after yourself, kiddo.”

“Bye.” Daniel got out of the car before the
conversation got tangled up again. He waved cheerfully as Spen drove off, and
wondered why, if he was supposed to be in control of this situation, he felt so
lost.

~~~~~~~~

“Shit,” Spen cursed softly as he drove up
to the intersection. What had gone wrong? One minute all was fine and cheerful
and friendly with Daniel, next minute the kid closed up tight. What had he
done, or not done? Or was it nothing to do with him at all?

This was what he’d tried to tell Daniel
before—about not knowing what he was doing. But he thought it had been
going pretty well up to...well, up to when it stopped going well.

He needed advice, so when he arrived home
and parked the car, he called the only person he could talk freely with about
Daniel and his situation. “Beanie! How did you get on last night?”

“Uh, that’s kind of why I called, Julian.
Are you free this afternoon?”

“No, sorry. Leo’s got appointments. Why
don’t you come over for supper?”

“Will Zachary be okay with that? I don’t
want to intrude.”

“I’ve got him trained. He hardly ever kills
and eats visitors now.”

Spen grinned. “That’s reassuring. Six?”

“Yeah. Zachary won’t be home but we can
talk while I cook.”

“You’re cooking? Wow.”

“Remind me why I like you?”

“My charm and extreme height?”

“Must be. See you at six, Beanpole.”

The prospect of talking to Julian, and
maybe even Julian’s canny boss and his scarily smart husband, helped ease
Spen’s anxiety slightly. So did throwing himself into cleaning the bathroom,
mopping all the linoleum floors, and doing a thorough vacuum on the carpeted
surfaces. When he finished, it was time to pick up his mother. She knew as soon
as she saw him something was wrong.

“Oh, love, what happened?” she said as he
set off.

“I really don’t know, Mum. He’s up and
down. Maybe that’s normal.”

“I think so, Spencer. He’s not had very
long to adjust.”

“No.” Spen thought about telling his mother
about the added emotional component, but he didn’t know he wanted to violate
Daniel’s privacy to that extent, when his mother was still involved in caring
for Daniel’s siblings. Since he wasn’t sure exactly how Daniel felt about him
now, and how to describe his feelings, there was a certain amount of cowardice
in that discretion.

He did tell his mother that Noble was to be
charged with rape. “And how does Daniel feel about that?”

“He’s worried about Noble coming after the kids.
I can’t say it’s totally not going to happen.”

“You hear some terrible stories. Can we
help? I’d hate anything to happen to those children.”

“He’s looking into some ideas, but if you
can offer to keep an eye on them, I think he’d be grateful. The risk is
probably small, but Noble is a real creep. A really dangerous creep.”

His mother shuddered. “And a man with a
wife and children. Do they know, do you suppose?”

“They do now. Frankly, I think she should
pack the kids up and run like hell, but who knows what she’ll do. I’ve got more
than enough to do worrying about the people I know and care about.”

His mother didn’t say anything, but she
patted his knee sympathetically. He didn’t want to burden her too much with the
ugliness of this business. For two weeks, he’d been struggling to cope in
secret with what he’d learned about Noble and his predatory crimes. What he’d
learned had been done to Daniel, and to two other young men he’d worked with,
had given him nightmares. He didn’t want to inflict that knowledge on his
mother more than was absolutely necessary.

She was delighted at the clean floors,
protesting he shouldn’t spend his day off doing housework. He didn’t tell her
that it was either that or go nuts worrying about Daniel and the whole
clusterfuck. Instead he just kissed her cheek. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do
it. Anyway, it’s not a favour, because I live here too.”

“Glad to have you, love. Are you here for
supper, or are you going back over to Daniel’s?”

Spen hid a wince. “Actually, Julian invited
me over, so I thought I would go. I’ll take a taxi though.”

“That’s nice of him. Daniel’s with the
children, I suppose. I wonder what he’ll tell them.”

“No idea. We talked about it, but I don’t
know what he finally decided. So I’ll, uh, go shower and change, and see you in
the morning.”

Spen hadn’t been over to Julian’s new digs,
though he’d heard about them. He appreciated the swish neighbourhood and
architectural beauty of the building where Julian and Zachary lived, but on the
whole, he wouldn’t want to live there. His parents’ place was a nice,
comfortable, middle-class home, and he’d never wanted more. Still, he was happy
for his friend, moving up from a fairly grotty flat to a lovely apartment with
a great friend and boss, not to mention the stunningly handsome, if somewhat
reserved spouse.

Myko and Pyon immediately ran off to make
mischief elsewhere in the apartment. Julian handed him a glass of chilled white
wine, and told him to sit on the other side of the counter while he did things
to vegetables. “Okay, what’s made those brown eyes blue, Spen?”

Spen ended up spilling
everything—what had happened the night before, the revelations about
their mutual feelings, the visit to the rape crisis centre, lunch, the call,
everything. Not long after he started, Leo wandered in, accepted a somewhat
smaller glass of wine from Julian, and made himself comfortable in an armchair
near the kitchen, petting his little white kem while listening without comment
to what Spen was saying. Neither he nor Julian looked all that surprised when
Spen admitted that he and Daniel had been nursing mutual crushes, and when Spen
said that he didn’t know why Daniel had turned all stiff and unfriendly over
lunch, Julian just shook his head and grinned.

“What’s so funny?”

“You were with Rob too long, I think. This
is how it goes when you’re still feeling each other out. You’ve just forgotten.
Right, Leo?”

Leo smiled. “Well, dear boy, it’s a while
since I’ve had to deal with this kind of thing too, you know. But Spencer,
Julian’s right. Even without the complication of this terrible affair with his
employer, love is surely a terribly confusing business for a young man like
Daniel, especially one who seems to have been rather sheltered and devoted to study.
I’d be surprised if he’s experienced in such matters at all.”

“Love? We’re not talking about that,” Spen
said.

“Not yet,” Julian said, still grinning. “Relax,
Beanpole. Sounds to me like he has way too many things going
on in his head. He really likes you—blind Freddy could tell
that—and you really like him. Give him more than twenty-four hours to
adjust.”

“Oh.” It hadn’t even been that long,
actually. It had just felt like longer.

“Not to mention,” Leo said, “if he
has
been nurturing these feelings for
some time, especially over what has to have been a most trying period, he’s
probably terrified of making a mistake with you. Just as you
are, for different reasons. As the more experienced partner in this
relationship, you may have to make allowances and take control of things for
him.”

“I said
he
was in control. I don’t want him to feel like I’m pressuring him, like Noble
was.”

“But, my dear fellow, if you back off
now
, having declared your affections, he
might see that as a lack of enthusiasm. His self-confidence is rather low, I
noticed. Not surprising, when he was doing a job for which he was ill-suited,
which ended so disastrously, and now he’s being forced by the judicial process
to see himself in the role of victim—for the second time, since he’s
involved in this tedious suit against the crane company. You and I may know
that he has a multitude of fine talents and has done rather well at keeping his
family together despite the tragedy of his parents’ death, but he needs time to
recover and see himself more positively.”

“See, I’d like to help there too, but I
don’t know what to do. He’s ruled out going back to finish his degree and
without that, he can’t work as an engineer.”

“Ah,” Leo said. “Actually, this is
something Julian and I have discussed today, but we need Zachary to give us the
benefit of his legal experience before we can come up with a proper plan.”

“Zachary?”

“Don’t worry, Spen,” Julian said, drying
his hands on a towel. “Leo’s on the case. You don’t need to worry about a
thing.”

~~~~~~~~

The kids had gone to bed an hour ago. They’d
taken the news about Tony and the job more calmly than Daniel had feared,
swallowing the half-truth as complete truth because it was so awful, they
didn’t need to imagine anything worse. Dee was still worried about the
finances, of course, but Daniel was able to wave that away by saying things
weren’t settled with the company yet, and he thought they would have another
position there he could fill, at least temporarily. Not a lie, exactly—it
was always possible they did, even if Daniel would rather chew off a foot than
work there any more. The most important thing was not distracting Dee from
these crucial exams. He thought he’d managed to avoid that pretty well.

Suggesting a trip to Aunt Lisa’s rather
than a summer visit to their grandparents—which, from the conversation
Daniel had had with his grandmother earlier, looked unlikely anyway on account
of his grandfather’s condition—had thrilled Alex, while Dee was torn
between worrying about the cost, and growing excited about a possible overseas trip.
Daniel had emailed their aunt hours ago, and now sat in front of his computer
half waiting for an answer, while doing everything he could to avoid going to
bed.

He’d mucked things up again, hadn’t he?
Spen was trying to give him space and not mess up the court case because he
knew how much it mattered to Daniel, but Daniel had reacted like a brat, hurt
his feelings, and made him feel unwelcome just when Daniel needed him most. If
Spen never came over again, it would only be fair punishment.

Kani meeped at him from
his lap. Daniel stroked him. “You guys are so
much smarter than me. Kems always know what we’re thinking.”

Kani squirmed out of his light grip and
jumped onto the desk. “Careful. Some of that’s fragile.” Kani turned and gave
him an old-fashioned look, as if to say that Daniel didn’t need to remind him
about something so obvious. Thinking back, Daniel wondered if the spilt tea in
Tony’s office had been as accidental as it looked. Kems were, apart from all
their other many talents, excellent judges of character. Kani and Myko hated
Tony from the start. Daniel should really have paid attention to that.

“What are you up to now?” Kani was nosing
around with a little more intent than usual among the models and notepads. “No
food in the bedroom, squirt. You know that.”