Categories > Original > Romance
Title: Raindrops On Roses
Author: Allison Wonderland
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Raven and Taylor make holiday plans.
Warning(s): Language, homosexuality, and consensual sex between two adults of the same gender.
Disclaimer: Mine.
Note(s): Comes directly before Whiskers On Kittens.
Word Count: 8,654
Taylor shifted his coffee cup from his right hand to his left and tried the doorknob. It refused to turn and he sighed. Of all the times for Raven to listen to him and lock the door when he was home alone he had to pick the one day when Taylor’s hands were full. The ex-cowboy turned fashion designer dropped his laptop case gently to the carper in the hallway, and set his Styrofoam Starbucks cup beside it. Running his hands over his pockets he found no bumps or bulges to indicate that his keys might be there. Which meant he had probably left them at the Fantasticka office. Raven should be awake by now anyway, he realized as he caught a glimpse of his watch out of the corner of his eye. Taylor was home later than he had planned to be, a lot later. His boyfriend had probably been awake for several hours.
“Raven!” he called, knocking on the door. “I’m home but I forgot my keys. Come unlock the door.”
There was no answer, no yapping puppy, no bare feet padding across the floor toward the door, no hyper blonde flinging himself in Taylor’s arms to spill coffee on the hallway carpet. Again.
He decided Raven was either out – but not with Princess who had left the office at the same time Taylor had – or in but being a little drama queen because Taylor was late. He checked the outside pockets of his leather laptop case and just as he was about to give up the tips of his fingers encountered a familiar small metal key chain. So he had not forgotten his keys after all, only misplaced them. Taylor shouldered his bag, picked up his coffee cup, and unlocked the door.
When he stepped inside the apartment it was eerily quiet. There was no hyperactive cocker spaniel puppy rushing out of wherever she had been making puddles on the floor most recently to yap her greeting at him. There was no sleepy blonde lying on the couch watching cartoons. His boyfriend did not launch himself into his arms, or even put in an appearance.
“Raven!” Taylor called, wondering where he could possibly be. Clearly Raven had been home. His boots lay in a heap beside the door and his coat had been tossed carelessly on top of them. Taylor assumed he was still there. Riley’s leash, sweater, and bag still hung neatly on their hook beside the door, which mean the puppy was still there. If Riley were home alone without Raven she would have been at the door to greet Taylor the moment she heard his key in the lock. Since she had not shown herself she had to be wherever Raven was.
Taylor left his cold coffee and laptop case on the table beside the door out of reach of small teeth. He pulled off his cowboy boots since they were wet and sat them on the rug next to the table, where Raven’s boots should have been, and hung his coat on the hall tree, again where Raven’s should have been. Concerned and on the verge of worry because of his boyfriend’s recent ordeal with pneumonia, Taylor went in search of his wayward boyfriend. Since they had revived their romantic – not to mention sexual – relationship only a little over a week ago Raven and Taylor each still had their own bedroom because they had remained friends and shared the apartment after the breakup. The apartment was small, barely big enough for the two of them and Raven’s puppy, so there were few places the blonde could be. He ruled out the bathroom because the door was standing open and he could clearly see no sign of his boyfriend although Raven had obviously been there not long ago; his bright pink towels were still lying on the floor tiles. Although those could have been his morning shower because Taylor had been too busy getting ready himself to pay attention to what his boyfriend was doing. That left just their bedrooms as places where Raven could possibly be.
He went to his own room first because that was where they had been sleeping. The room was empty but there were signs that Raven had been there. The blue, white, and brown striped comforter was rumpled as if someone had been lying on it. The pillows – encased in dark blue fabric that matched the comforter and the sheets beneath it – were slightly dented as if someone’s head had lain in the crease between the two of them. A tiny pink tee shirt lay on top of the comforter and a crumpled pair of jeans with lacy pink panties peeking out of them on the floor. Taylor took a moment to put them in the laundry basket and straighten the bed before going in search of his boyfriend in Raven’s own bedroom.
Taylor pushed the door open, ready to tell Raven he needed to learn to pick up after himself – again – and stopped short. It was impossible to be angry with his boyfriend when he was so cute. Half of Raven’s bed was filled with stuffed animals, a rainbow colored array of Care Bears and Hello Kitty characters as well as various cute and fluffy things – mostly cats and dogs along with one baby seal and a monkey that were limited editions from FAO Schwartz’s Build-A-Bear department. The other half of the bed was all Raven needed for his afternoon nap. He was curled up on his right side on a pink and white striped Hello Kitty sheet with the matching pink comforter covering him to just below his shoulders. His tee shirt – one of Taylor’s that was too big for its owner, never mind Raven – had slid off of his porcelain pale left shoulder. The hand at the end of the same arm clutched a brownish lump that had lately been a teddy bear.
That teddy bear was sometimes a sore point between Raven and Taylor. At some point in the past – and Raven had photos to prove it – his teddy bear had been dark brown – roughly the same color as the chocolate Taylor liked so much. Its fur had been as soft as a kitten – this he had taken Raven’s word for because it was impossible to tell from photos – at some point in the past. It had been a gift to Raven from some relative he had probably not seen since then. That had been twenty-four, almost twenty-five, years ago and after over twenty years of being clutched in Raven’s arms every night, it had been reduced to a barely recognizable threadbare dirty brownish lump. In its entire existence it had been washed exactly one time – the time Taylor’s mother had decided the filthy thing had no business being on her clean sheets and added it to the laundry pile. Every time the two of them were in the FAO Schwartz store, which was every time they went out together and ended up within ten blocks of it, Taylor offered to replace it with a with a brand new one that still looked like a teddy bear and retained its new smell. There were fluffy ones, fat ones, skinny ones, and ones Raven could customize and design himself but on every visit Raven had squealed and giggled over every stuffed animal in the store –and there were thousands of them – and decided he preferred his threadbare almost brown lump to anything the store carried.
Raven’s other hand, the one on the side he was lying on, was curled into a loose fist up by his face, his thumb in his mouth. Taylor knew he should have thought it crazy or creepy or just plain strange that Raven was almost twenty-five years old and still sucked his thumb like a toddler. Despite all that crazy, creepy, and strange were the last things to go through his mind when he watched his boyfriend sleep. Taylor had seen Raven asleep with his thumb in his mouth for the first time several years ago. He had still thought he was straight at the time and Raven had been staying with him to avoid an ex-boyfriend turned obsessed stalker. Even back then he had not been shocked or even surprised at Raven’s childishness. It had seemed just as much a part of him those few years ago as it did now. Taylor had even come to see it as refreshing that Raven was so childlike when most of their equals in the fashion industry were interested only in their careers and too obsessed with finding the next big thing to worry about if their favorite stuffed pink unicorn would rather sit on the bed or on the bench in front of the makeup table. He had come to see it as normal – not to mention completely adorable – to wake up in the morning, or occasionally in the middle of the night, to find his boyfriend of almost five years snuggled against him either curled up in a ball or stretched out on top of Taylor with his thumb in his mouth and his teddy bear in his arms.
Taylor sat down on the side of the bed, carefully so he would not wake Raven, even though waking his boyfriend was exactly what he was going to do. He was not worried about Raven exactly but he was definitely concerned. The blonde’s recent bout of pneumonia had lasted just under a month and had made Taylor realize just how much he loved Raven, how much he was afraid of really losing him. Now, even though Raven had officially recovered Taylor still thought he seemed way too fragile. He was thinner, his face looked more sharply pointed, and Taylor thought he looked paler. He had lost five, maybe as much as ten pounds, weight he did not have to spare, and was tired much more often and much more easily than he ever had.
After his illness Raven had only gone back to work on Monday – four days ago – but it exhausted him so badly he had not managed to stay past noon. Today, as on the other three days, Raven had been back at the Fantasticka offices, when Taylor had noticed Raven becoming tired – around noon – he had insisted they go to lunch. After lunch he had sent Raven home for a nap with the promise that he would leave the office early as well.
Taylor had had every intention of leaving the office at 3:00, three hours earlier than usual. For the last three hours of the workday he had planned to leave Princess – their close friend and most competent intern – in charge. He had actually been on his way out the door when a potential problem had struck. One of their fabric suppliers had only ordered half the amount they had bought and could get no more. Because it meant a potential runway disaster in February Taylor had stayed to handle it himself. In the end he need not have bothered because it had been Princess who had suggested they order a different fabric that complemented the original so the two could be used together. Even so it had taken two hours.
When Taylor had walked through the door a few minutes ago he had expected the same sight that had greeted him all week: Raven, up from his nap, curled up on the couch in the living room with his teddy bear, his twelve week old puppy Riley, and his favorite blanket and pillows watching Cartoon Network or Toon Disney. Today the only exception he had expected was the addition of two hundred or so questions about what was wrong at the office that prevented him from coming home when he said he would.
“Raven,” Taylor said softly. It was never a good idea to startle Raven awake. He hated waking his boyfriend anyway. The usually hyper blonde seemed so sweet and innocent when he was asleep that all Taylor wanted to do was watch him. It was only when Raven was awake that one got to witness the hyperactive drama queen. Taylor brushed a strand of naturally black but bleached such a pale blonde it was almost white hair away from Raven’s face and waited for a moment. His roots are showing, Taylor realized as he Raven watched. That meant a million and one calls to his stylist with almost no chance of getting an appointment to have his hair done this close to Christmas.
When Raven did not even stir Taylor sighed. Now what was he supposed to do? “Raven,” he whispered again, a little louder this time. Maybe the whispering was why Raven was still asleep but waking him up more loudly was never advisable, particularly because Raven had been so jumpy and prone to nightmares while he had been ill and Taylor doubted he would be asleep unless he really needed the rest. The doctor had taken Raven off the antibiotics only about ten days ago. That was the same night they had made love for the first time after returning to their romantic relationship from the ‘just friends’ they had been for the past year. Their feelings had come out one night while Raven had been ill but even before then Taylor had considered it his responsibility to take care of the blonde, simply because they were close and lived together. Being romantically and sexually involved with his boyfriend once again made him feel even more responsible and made him realize that Raven’s sudden clinginess was probably more the result of their renewed relationship and less because of his pneumonia.
Raven’s lack of energy worried Taylor more than his lack of color or his clinginess or the way he was so docile and almost more than how thin he had become. He had never seen his boyfriend so dull and lifeless. The ex-ice skater hardly seemed like the same person anymore. The Raven that Taylor knew and loved was bright and sparkly and full of energy. He bounced rather than walked and never took naps during the day. Since the onset of his pneumonia Raven had spent most of his time in bed asleep or on the couch watching cartoons.
“Come on, Raven.” Taylor’s right hand slipped beneath the blankets to rub Raven’s back through his shirt. He felt warmer than he should. Taylor tried to tell himself that was only because Raven had been under the blankets but he did not quite believe it.
Raven whined, a soft sound that could have been part of a dream or could have meant he was about to wake up before he was ready. Taylor hoped it meant the latter. He scooped the puppy off of the pillow, careful not to pull Raven’s hair. The puppy, like her owner, was sound asleep. Taylor’s hand held her around the middle, her head protruding from one end and her tail from the other. She looked up at him, yawned once, and went back to sleep.
“A lot of help you are,” Taylor told the puppy. “You could at least lick him or something.” He put the puppy in her fuzzy pink basket. She woke up long enough to lick his fingers.
A tiny sound much like one Riley would make, came from the bed, accompanied by Raven rolling onto his back. Taylor only saw the movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his attention back to Raven in time to see the blonde’s eyes flutter open. Raven let his thumb slip out of his mouth and moved the same hand to rub his eyes. “Taylor?” he asked, his voice hoarse and sleepy.
“It’s okay,” Taylor hastened to reassure his boyfriend. “I’m right here.” He captured Raven’s hand and brought it away from his eyes. “Don’t do that,” he scolded gently.
Raven whined, clearly still half asleep. His other hand moved up to rub his eyes and Taylor caught that one too. “Umm,” he murmured, trying to blink the sleep away since he was unable to rub his eyes. “You’re home.”
“Yes,” Taylor agreed. “I had noticed that.”
“Hmm.” Raven’s sharp nailed little fingers laced themselves through Taylor’s. “Why?”
“Because it was time to come home,” Taylor explained patiently. Raven was about as comprehensive as a retarded toddler when he was sleepy. “It’s past time to come home,” he corrected himself. “There was a problem with one of the fabrics we’re using for the February show and I felt better handling it myself rather than leaving it with Princess. But Princess fixed it anyway.” Their most trusted intern was showing real promise where business was concerned as well as in terms of fashion and design. “More importantly,” he began seriously, “why are you still asleep?”
“Because I’m tired,” Raven stated simply, as if there was nothing wrong with just having slept for five hours straight. If he had really been asleep the whole time he had been home.
“How long have you been asleep?” Taylor asked. That was the more important question and did not have an obvious answer.
“Umm…” Raven said thoughtfully. He sat up and moved into Taylor’s lap, his favorite seat. He hoped it would have the additional benefit of helping him distract his boyfriend, to make Taylor forget how long he had been asleep and that he was still not quite feeling like himself. “You’re comfortable,” he claimed.
The blonde annoyance brought that up every time he was sitting in Taylor’s lap trying to avoid a particular topic of conversation. Taylor knew his boyfriend was just trying to distract him. It usually worked but this time Taylor was determined to get an answer to his question before he let himself become too distracted. “That’s nice,” he said, trying to pretend that having Raven all warm and snuggly in his lap had no effect on him. He failed miserably but hugged the man in his lap close as he asked. “Now how about we discuss how long you’ve been asleep?”
“Don’t wanna.”
Taylor realized belatedly that he should have expected that. “How long have you been asleep?” he asked more firmly. Maybe it was wiser not to give his boyfriend a choice.
“Not long,” the blonde said evasively. He had arrived home around 1:00, gone into Taylor’s room to change into a pair of his boyfriend’s boxers and a tee shirt, and laid down on the bed. But Taylor’s bed had not been comfortable without Taylor in it so he had gotten up, found his puppy, then gone to sleep in his own bed with his teddy bear. Since Taylor was home it was probably somewhere between three o’ clock and six o’ clock. He hoped it was the former because a two hour nap was not unheard of but a five hour nap was likely to clue Taylor in to the fact that Raven had not felt at all well earlier in the day. And that would probably mean another trip to the emergency room or one of the city’s many urgent care facilities.
“Raven.” There was a note of annoyance in Taylor’s voice even though the fingers playing up and down the bumps of his spine were gentle. “How long have you been asleep?” he repeated. “If you don’t tell me I’m going to squeeze Riley until she squeaks.”
An ill-timed giggle escaped Raven’s mouth. Had he been completely awake it never would have gotten out. His hand flew up to cover his mouth before more could come out. He turned his face toward Taylor’s shoulder so the younger man could not see him smiling. Squeezing Riley until she squeaked was hardly going to hurt her. A poke or a squeeze was all it took to make her squeak because the puppy interpreted it as an invitation to play. She had not learned to bark yet and the closest she could get was a high-pitched squeak.
But Raven decided to give in anyway. When he was sure another badly timed giggle was not going to escape he turned his face away from Taylor’s shoulder but did not break contact with his boyfriend. “Since about one thirty or two o’ clock,” he answered finally. Even if Taylor thought he was still ill or becoming ill again life would not be unbearable, far from it in fact. There would be more cuddling and more hugs and kisses, movies in bed, being read to from his favorite parts of the fairy tale book and Alice In Wonderland, Taylor’s undivided affection and attention, and maybe if he happened to be really lucky his boyfriend would paint his toenails pink with those glittery snowflake stickers again.
Taylor idly petted Raven’s stomach beneath his shirt as he tried to add up exactly how many hours that had been. Math had not been his best subject in school. “You were asleep for four hours?” he asked.
“I guess so. It sounds like a long time when you say it like that.” He toyed with a button on his boyfriend’s shirt until Taylor gently moved his hands away.
“Are you still sick?” Taylor asked. Raven thought he looked concerned. “That’s a long time for someone completely well to be napping.”
Raven considered that for a moment. The chest achy feeling from the pneumonia was completely gone but it had been one of the first symptoms to go. And his stomach felt…but before he could decide how his stomach felt he found Taylor watching him, waiting impatiently for an answer. “I had a dream about you,” he said mostly to buy time but also because it was true.
“Did you?” Taylor asked absently.
It was obvious to Raven that his boyfriend could not have cared less. He seized that question to avoid the one about whether or not he was sick. “Uh-huh,” he said. “It was summer and we were in Montana at the ranch and everything was all green and pretty. It was raining, not like hard or anything but soft and warm and it felt good. Then you came and brought me roses and the rain fell on the roses and turned into diamonds.”
Taylor was suddenly reminded of a very important question he was considering asking Raven but even that did not deter him from his original mission. “That’s nice, honey,” he said. His hand continued absently rubbing Raven’s stomach beneath his – or to be more accurate Taylor’s – old stretched out tee shirt. “But you didn’t answer my question.” He was more concerned about Raven’s health than his dreams.
“My stomach hurts,” Raven admitted without thinking. Then he realized what he had said and his thumb went into his mouth again, partly because he was still in that sleepy, content state and Taylor was holding him but mostly because the half second it would take him to remove it in order to speak provided him with that extra fraction of a second to think about what he was about to say.
“Are you getting sick again?” Taylor asked, worried. “Do you feel sick?” He hoped not. There were two distinct parts of Raven that made up who he was. There was the demanding, bitchy, pissed off toddler part and the snuggly, cuddly part that hugged its teddy bear, sucked its thumb, and otherwise acted like a twelve year old girl. Normally the two parts formed a happy medium that resembled a functioning adult. However, when Raven was ill Taylor had found himself alternately dealing with the demands and tantrums of a pissed off toddler and the tears of a highly emotional little girl who had lost her teddy bear again and wanted held constantly. It was not an experience he wanted to repeat any time soon. Or at all, really.
Raven took a moment to consider the question before he finally provided an answer. His thumb came out of his mouth long enough for him to say, “Not really,” before going back in again. He let his head rest against Taylor’s shoulder and closed his eyes. Raven did not really feel sick, at least not as much as he had. He had a headache but that could have been because he had slept for so long. It had happened before. His stomach hurt but maybe that was because he was hungry. Lunch had been several hours ago but he had been so sleepy then that he had only picked at his salad.
“Are you sure?” Taylor asked. His hand paused in its movements against Raven’s stomach. “You feel feverish.” When he had felt his boyfriend’s unusually warm skin earlier Taylor had just thought he was warm from being under the blankets. But now that Raven was snuggling into his lap he could feel the blonde’s skin better. He was nowhere near as warm as he had been during his pneumonia scare but he was definitely feverish. It was not just the heat of the skin beneath Taylor’s hand that led him to that conclusion. It was the unnatural color in Raven’s face too. The older man was normally very pale. The pinkness in his cheeks looked completely healthy to anyone who did not know him as well as Taylor did.
Raven shrugged. He felt warm but he thought that might be because he had been under the blankets so recently or maybe because he was in Taylor’s lap. Being so close to his boyfriend always made him feel a little overheated. “I really think I’m all right, Taylor.” Being ill might get him Taylor’s undivided attention but it would also get him another doctor and more medicine. The trade off hardly seemed fair. And he was feeling all right except that his stomach hurt and he felt not really hot but warm so maybe he did have a fever.
And were those the same symptoms Taylor had exhibited a few years ago when he had had to have his appendix out?
Taylor was still not convinced. “Maybe you should have something for it,” he said. “You know, just in case it’s something that…isn’t good.” Taylor was never going to get over what he thought of as almost losing Raven even though Raven and the doctor had both assured him that, while seriously ill, Raven had not been in any danger of dying – another word Taylor did not like thinking of where his blonde annoyance was concerned. “If you do have a fever…” He took his hand from under Raven’s shirt and pressed his palm to the blonde’s forehead. “I still think you feel a little too warm,” he insisted. “How about a Tylenol?” If Raven did have a fever a Tylenol would help with it and if not the little white pill was mild enough not to harm him.
A Tylenol was quite possibly the last thing Raven wanted. Taylor and the nurses in the hospital had pushed entirely too much medicine on him while he had been ill with pneumonia. It always made him sleepy so he would probably end up going back to sleep if Taylor insisted he had to have yet more medicine. But it would make his headache go away and Taylor was here to hold him while he slept this time. “Mmmkay,” Raven murmured. His sharp nailed little fingers reached up to play with one of Taylor’s necklaces: a silver chain with a silver Celtic symbol hanging from it. It was an endless source of fascination for Raven because it looked like a series of complicated knots and he had never been able to figure out where he started or ended.
“Don’t do that.” Taylor gently disengaged Raven’s fingers.
Raven let his hands fall back into his lap. Somehow he always ended up doing what Taylor told him to do. It was as if he were a child or something. “And I want a drink of water if I have to have a Tylenol,” he said so it would not seem as if he were giving in without a fight or at least a token protest. “Not tap water,” he added. “And then I want to cuddle.”
“Of course you do.” Curled up in Taylor’s lap or at least next to him was Raven’s favorite place to be lately. The ex-cowboy touched his lips to his boyfriend’s so briefly it could hardly be called a kiss – not because he was afraid of catching whatever Raven had but because he wanted to get some sort of fever reducer into Raven before he reconsidered. Taylor was sure that if he were going to catch Raven’s illness he would have already. “Get off,” he said, “and I’ll go get your water and a Tylenol.”
Raven – typical immature Raven with his mind constantly in the gutter – giggled. “Get off,” he repeated and giggled again.
Taylor shook his head. You really are a twelve-year-old girl, he thought. Taylor’s theory about Raven’s personality explained so much. He gently moved Raven back onto his Hello Kitty infested bed and stood up. Taylor put Raven’s teddy bear – he really hated touching that thing – back in its owner’s arms and pulled the blankets up to Raven’s chin. Raven’s right hand – the same arm that was holding the gross little teddy bear – immediately reappeared and his thumb went into his mouth. Taylor left him that way to go into the kitchen for two Tylenol and a cold bottle of water from the refrigerator. He returned to the bedroom, wondering if Raven had changed his mind by now.
Raven made a face as he swallowed the Tylenol but he did it without protest. No matter how quickly it went down he always tasted it and the bitterness was almost bad enough to make him vomit. But he had had enough of that while he had been ill and managed to hold it back now. “You said we would cuddle,” he reminded his boyfriend when the Tylenol had gone down and he was sure it was going to stay there.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go out to dinner or…I don’t know…shopping or something?” Taylor hated shopping with Raven but it would be one way to get him out of bed. Every Friday night after work they went out together to dinner or a movie or even just to the takeout place and the video rental store. Raven loved it and normally spent the time before they went out bouncing off the walls and yelling at Taylor to hurry up because they were going to be late. As annoying as it always was when Raven got all hyper and excited Taylor would have given anything to have that back. Not that he minded cuddling with his boyfriend or the ‘read Alice again, Taylor’ that would eventually follow either, he just preferred to see Raven not in bed half the day.
Dinner, Raven thought, or shopping. The concept was appealing. Not so much the dinner part because Raven was not sure how much he could eat but he thought he might be able to handle McDonalds. It was the going shopping with Taylor that he wanted the most. The last time they had gone shopping together had been in March, just before Raven’s birthday and just after they had made up from the fight that had ended their romantic relationship enough to be just friends. It seemed like such a long time ago. They had gone shopping at the Sanrio store in Times Square because Taylor had had no idea what to buy Raven for his birthday. It had taken hours and they had gone from Sanrio to Toys R Us to Build A Bear where Raven had finally decided on a pink poodle he had stuffed himself and dressed in a sparkly red evening gown.
But he was sort of hungry. They could go to McDonalds then shopping and maybe a movie too. It could be considered their first date since getting back together. “Cuddle first,” Raven said decidedly. “Then dinner. Then shopping. Then a movie.” Raven wriggled over as far as he could with half of his bed full of stuffed toys and patted the space on his Hello Kitty sheets beside him. “Cuddle first,” he repeated.
Taylor had not thought Raven would want to go out anywhere, not even shopping, never mind dinner and a movie too. But if Raven wanted to go out he was willing. “Cuddle first,” Taylor agreed. That was when he realized that if Raven got his cuddle first request granted there would probably be no dinner, no shopping, and no movie. Raven would snuggle against Taylor, his thumb would go back into his mouth, and he would fall asleep again. But if Raven was sleeping so much he probably needed to. Taylor had already taken his wet boots off at the door. He stood up and took his jeans off too before slipping between the pink and white striped Hello Kitty sheets on his boyfriend’s bed clad only in a tee shirt and boxers almost identical to the ones Raven wore.
Raven moved into Taylor’s arms almost before the younger man had a chance to make himself comfortable. Without having to worry about Taylor’s rough jeans against his own silky smooth skin he settled into his favorite position: snuggled against Taylor as close as he could get with the top of his head beneath his boyfriend’s chin and his toes resting on the tops of Taylor’s feet, their legs so tangled it was impossible to tell which limb belonged to who. Raven made a sound something like a purr and his thumb went back into his mouth. He relaxed into Taylor’s arms, the warmth of his boyfriend’s body comforting him almost as much as the hand stroking his back beneath his tee shirt. He stretched, wriggled his toes, and relaxed against Taylor again. The sleepy, safe, content feeling he felt in Taylor’s arms began to settle in again even though he had just awakened from a five-hour nap.
Taylor ran his hand up and down the ridges of Raven’s spine beneath his shirt. In addition to Raven’s sleepiness and unwillingness to get out of bed and lack of appetite, Taylor was starting to worry about his weight. It was not that he weighed too much – which Raven always worried about needlessly – but that he had become too thin. In all the years Taylor had known Raven the older man had not had a spare ounce of fat on him and an extra five or ten pounds would not have hurt him. Taylor attributed it to the fifteen years Raven had spent as a figure skater. He had picked up quite a few unhealthy eating habits – like starvation dieting – and had not yet been out of that world long enough to break them. But during the last month he had lost his appetite due to being ill and his eating habits had deteriorated even further. What very little he had eaten – mostly Popsicles and ice cream – had seldom stayed in his stomach anyway. In that month he had lost at least five pounds, possibly as much as ten.
And yet despite all of his concern about Raven’s weigh – or lack of – Taylor still found himself thinking about the soft pale skin beneath his hand and how warm it felt beneath the coverings of clothing and blankets. Perhaps it was a little feverish as well. The thought that maybe Raven was ill again completely put a stop to any thoughts Taylor was beginning to have about doing more than cuddling Raven before they went out to dinner. If they went out to dinner.
No sooner had Taylor squashed that idea than Raven’s thumb came out of his mouth with a pop. That same warm little hand burrowed beneath Taylor’s tee shirt to find not quite as warm skin there. Fingers traced the muscles of the ex-cowboy’s stomach down to the elastic waistband of his boxers. They hesitated there only a fraction of a second before slipping inside. “Taylor,” Raven murmured. He pushed his hips against his boyfriend’s. The safe, content feeling was still there but the sleepiness had changed to a drowsy, sexual sort of feeling. “Love me.” His voice was hardly more than a whisper but in the quiet room Taylor heard him just fine.
A long time ago Taylor had come to understand Raven’s own personal language. Every word he spoke meant five different things. It was easy to unscramble the meanings if one knew Raven well enough. Fortunately Taylor did. “I don’t know, honey,” he said. “Are you sure you feel well enough?” He gently dislodged Raven from the comfortable position and turned both of them over so the blonde was lying flat on his back on the bed. Still lying beside him, Taylor studied Raven. He was more pale than normal but that was nothing new. There were dark circles under his eyes but those too had been there for some time. And Taylor was absolutely sure he felt feverish.
“I feel fine, Taylor,” Raven tried to reassure his boyfriend. It was not strictly true. There was a sort of tickling sensation in the back of his throat and he felt sort of warm and his stomach still hurt but his head felt a little better. He was certainly well enough to make love with Taylor.
“Hmm.” Taylor pushed Raven’s white blonde fringe back from his face. That hair annoyed him to no end. It looked so itchy and uncomfortable in Raven’s face and yet Raven claimed it did not bother him. With that one piece of hair brushed out of the way his bright blue eyes were revealed. The corners of his wide mouth curled up into his most angelic smile. Taylor always found it hard to resist that particular smile. He closed the space of only a few inches between them and kissed him.
Raven’s arms wrapped around his neck to hold him there. His long lashed eyelids slid shut and his toes curled against Taylor’s legs. He made a little purring sound in his throat.
It was not hard for Taylor to break Raven’s grip on him. He pulled back to look at his boyfriend. The blonde hardly seemed as if he were going to break if Taylor touched him the wrong way. Still, he did seem sort of fragile.
Raven’s eyes drifted open again. “Well?” he asked softly with no hint of the demand that was usually in his voice.
Taylor gave in. He always did. “Oh, all right,” he said as if it were a huge ordeal to make love with Raven. The blonde giggled but Taylor cut it off by kissing him again. His tongue thoroughly explored the inner recesses of Raven’s mouth as his hands slid beneath the older man’s tee shirt to rest on the pale, slightly warmer than usual skin of his stomach. Raven’s fingers curled into the childish sheet beneath him. He had grown so used to not having Taylor’s hands on him in the past year that now that they were back together the sensation was overwhelming. His boyfriend – the word was enough to make him shiver deliciously when it applied to Taylor – moved his hands up farther. Fingers brushed over Raven’s nipples, one of the most sensitive places on his body.
His back arched up off the bed. “Taylor!” he gasped. One of Taylor’s hands left his nipples and moved down to push his hips against the bed again.
“Easy, baby,” Taylor said softly. He doubted their activities would hurt Raven but he would probably be tired out by the end, considering how little physical activity he had done lately. Taylor was still hesitant to take any chances but it was probably too late to worry about that now. He brushed that same piece of hair away from Raven’s face again. God, it was annoying.
Raven’s arms wrapped around Taylor’s neck again. He lifted his head from the pillow and kissed his boyfriend. His tongue flitted into Taylor’s mouth and he jerked his hips upward against the ex-cowboy, rubbing his own erection against Taylor’s through the thin fabric of two pairs of boxers.
Unprepared and caught completely by surprise Taylor moaned loudly. His head dropped to rest on Raven’s shoulder. He struggled to quell the desire to just pound into Raven and fuck him without any regard for his well-being. Only his boyfriend had ever had that effect on him. Normally Taylor would not have even tried to suppress it; he knew Raven liked things fast and hard sometimes but he had asked for something else and that was what Taylor intended to give him. Besides Raven was still ill no matter how much he might claim otherwise. Taylor did not want to risk breaking him or something.
Raven’s strawberries and cream scent and the soft, warm skin against his own were hardly helping matters any. After a moment Taylor managed to lift his head and look down at his boyfriend. He found Raven grinning at him in the near darkness.
Raven giggled. “It’s your fault,” he said. “Finish what you started.” But he did not give Taylor time to finish what he had started or even to respond. Instead he used the arms around his boyfriend’s neck to pull Taylor’s head down to his own and pressed their lips together again.
Taylor’s right hand moved up beneath Raven’s tee shirt again. His fingers traced the delicate muscles of his boyfriend’s stomach, moved up his sides, over his ribs until his fingertips found a hardened nipple. Raven whimpered into the kiss and Taylor’s other hand journeyed downward, across the hardness beneath the cotton fabric of the boxers Raven had pilfered from his dresser drawer.
Raven’s hips arched up beneath his hand. “Taylor,” he whined. “Please.”
Sometimes Taylor liked to draw things out, to tease and torment Raven until he was ready to explode. But this time he gave in. Raven was still not as well as he wanted to let on and the last thing he needed was to be more worn out. His hand gently rubbed the hardness he had found in his boyfriend’s boxers.
Raven made a sound that was part whimper and part sigh. His hips arched up off the bed again as he pushed himself into Taylor’s hand. Taylor’s touch became firmer and the whimpery sigh became a loud moan. The erotic noise caused Taylor’s hips to jerk reflexively, pushing his still clothed erection against Raven’s. Raven’s hands had, up until that point, been gripping Taylor’s sides hard enough to leave little purple half moon marks where his nails had dug in. Those same sharp nailed little hands moved to tug on Taylor’s tee shirt. Taylor shifted to a more upright position to let Raven pull his shirt off over his head. The blonde tossed the offensive garment over the side of the bed and ran his pale hands over the tan skin he had uncovered. He wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s neck again. Raven tugged Taylor down to kiss him again.
Taylor’s tongue slid between Raven’s soft pink lips. He felt Raven smiling into the kiss. His hands pushed Raven’s shirt up his stomach to his chest. They pulled apart momentarily and Raven’s tee shirt went the same way Taylor’s had. With that second obstacle out of the way Raven did his best to pull Taylor back to him for another kiss. Taylor avoided his hands and the sharp fingernails attached to them to press his lips to the point on his neck where his pulse beat so strongly. He kissed the spot where neck met shoulder then moved again to kiss his way down farther.
Taylor’s mouth on first one nipple and then the other had him gasping and moaning again. The attention was far too brief. The wet heat of Taylor’s mouth traveled down the center of Raven’s chest and stomach to his navel. The ex-cowboy’s tongue dipped into the tiny depression and Raven giggled. His stomach was incredibly ticklish, it was one of the things he had hoped Taylor had forgotten about him in the year they had been separated. It seemed his boyfriend had forgotten nothing. “Taylor, please,” he begged for the second time that night. “I want you so much.”
Taylor hooked his fingers in the cotton covered elastic waistband of Raven’s borrowed boxers. The blonde lifted his hips from the bed again, this time to allow easy removal of his last article of clothing. His stolen boxers were tossed over the side of the bed. Hot little fingers edged inside the waistband of Taylor’s boxers and a moment later they followed the other clothing to the floor.
Raven reached up to wrap his arms around Taylor’s neck and pull him down for another kiss. Without breaking the kiss Taylor reached for the little white tube of lubrication lying on the nightstand. It had been left over from before their big fight and was almost empty. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realized they were going to have to pay a visit to the pharmacy before doing this again but it was only a fleeting thought. The cap had never been put back on the tube and he squeezed all the slippery substance that remained in the tube onto his fingers with one hand. Taylor reached between Raven’s legs and quickly thrust one finger into him.
Raven pushed his hips toward his boyfriend’s hand in an attempt to impale himself further. His head fell back against the pillow and a half whimpered moan came out. Taylor added another finger, carefully stretching Raven. They had only made love twice since getting back together and the last thing Taylor wanted was to hurt Raven. When the blonde only gasped and arched his hips off the bed he took that as a good sign and added a third finger. Raven’s breath grew shorter as Taylor’s fingers thrust into him then pulled out again.
In.
Out.
In.
Out…
Raven’s hips moved in short jerks. His pink fingernails dug into Taylor’s shoulders. His breath came out in tiny gasps.
And then Taylor hit that tiny spot inside him, the one little spot that could bring him more pleasure than the entire rest of his body.
Raven made a sound that was more scream than moan and pushed his hips toward Taylor’s hand. “Oh, yes! Taylor! Please, there! Please!” he begged.
That finally convinced Taylor that his boyfriend was ready for more. He withdrew his fingers and let Raven pout for only a fraction of a second before thrusting inside his hot, tight little passage.
Raven moaned. His toes curled so tightly he thought they might break. He wrapped his legs around Taylor’s waist to pull him deeper inside. Taylor pulled out then thrust back in again. Raven’s back arched off the bed. He made another whimpering noise.
And was drowned out by the shrill ring of the phone on the nightstand.
Taylor went limp on top of Raven but not inside him. “Shit,” he muttered into his boyfriend’s shoulder.
Raven wriggled beneath him to remind him of what they were in the middle of. “Just ignore it.
There was nothing else Taylor would rather do but how was he supposed to fuck his boyfriend – never mind enjoy it – with the phone ringing right next to his head. “I can’t,” he said. Not moving from inside Raven, he reached for the phone. “What?” he snapped into the receiver.
“Why Taylor Rochette! Is that any way to speak to your mother?”
“Oh, God, Mama,” he said. “I’m sorry.” Raven wriggled beneath him again to remind him of what they had been doing. “It’s just that I’m busy right now.”
“Well, I won’t keep you but a moment. I’m planning the menu for Christmas-“ Christmas was a big to do at the Rochette’s ranch – “and I need to know if you’ll be here. You missed Thanksgiving,” she reminded him.
“I don’t know.” Taylor glanced down at Raven. The blonde was doing his best pout. He seemed better but Taylor doubted he was up to making a flight to Montana and the chaos that was the extended Rochette family. “I don’t think I’ll make it for Christmas.” There was no way he could leave Raven alone. Maybe sometime in February after Fashion week…
“You haven’t been home since September,” she pointed out.
Taylor always went home to Montana at least three times a year: once just after fashion week in February or at the beginning of March that served as both much needed downtime after the hell of Fashion Week and let Taylor’s family celebrate his birthday, in September after fall Fashion Week, and for either Christmas or Thanksgiving. “I know,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to make it after Fashion Week.” There was no way he could get there any earlier.
“Christmas,” Raven hissed at him.
Taylor shook his head and swatted the hand reaching for the phone. His mother began to lecture him on the importance of family. Raven pouted. If Taylor went to Montana that meant he would get to go too now that they were back together. Raven loved his boyfriend’s family; they were exactly the type of family always depicted in Christmas specials with perhaps a few extra horses and children. They were so much more a family than Raven’s own family. He reached for the phone again only to have his fingers slapped again. Raven pouted for a moment, until he remembered that Taylor was still firmly seated inside him. He squeezed his inner muscles tightly around his boyfriend.
“Fuck!” Taylor cursed. Unfortunately for both of them he still held the phone.
“Taylor!” his mother exclaimed.
Taylor glared at Raven who only gave him his most innocent look. “I’m sorry, Mama,” he said, “but Raven’s being a little bitch.”
Raven smiled proudly as Taylor’s mother began her profanity lecture.
Taylor covered the mouthpiece of the phone with his hand. “What the hell are you trying to do?” he asked.
“I wanna go,” Raven whined. If he whined Taylor would give in faster.
“Go where?”
“To Montana. For Christmas.”
Taylor frowned. “Are you sure? It’s a six hour flight and you know how loud and chaotic holidays are with my family.”
“I’m sure. I didn’t get to go last year, remember?” Their big breakup had happened only a week before Christmas.
“I remember.” If Raven was still not feeling well by then he could sleep on the plane and Taylor’s mother would hardly mind having a sick ‘child’ to look after. “Um…Mom?” he said into the phone, cutting off the profanity lecture. “I guess we are going to be able to make it for Christmas.”
“You’re bringing someone with you?” she asked. “A special friend?”
“Uh…” Taylor said, confused. “I’m bringing Raven.”
“Oh. I’ll have to rethink the sleeping arrangements then. I don’t know where we’ll put everyone.” His mother sounded disappointed but why-
Taylor mentally kicked himself. He had not spoken to any of his family in well over a week. “Mom,” he said, “Raven and I are back together.”
Oh, yes we are, Raven thought. They were together in more ways than one. He wriggled to remind Taylor of that.
“I’m so happy for you, dear,” Mrs. Rochette said. “you’ll let me know when you’ll be here?”
Taylor promised he would, said goodbye to his mother, and hung up the phone. Then his attention turned back to Raven. “You,” he said, “ are such a little bitch. Do you have any idea-“
Raven giggled beneath Taylor and wriggled against him. The rest of the ex-cowboy’s words were soon forgotten.
Author: Allison Wonderland
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Raven and Taylor make holiday plans.
Warning(s): Language, homosexuality, and consensual sex between two adults of the same gender.
Disclaimer: Mine.
Note(s): Comes directly before Whiskers On Kittens.
Word Count: 8,654
Taylor shifted his coffee cup from his right hand to his left and tried the doorknob. It refused to turn and he sighed. Of all the times for Raven to listen to him and lock the door when he was home alone he had to pick the one day when Taylor’s hands were full. The ex-cowboy turned fashion designer dropped his laptop case gently to the carper in the hallway, and set his Styrofoam Starbucks cup beside it. Running his hands over his pockets he found no bumps or bulges to indicate that his keys might be there. Which meant he had probably left them at the Fantasticka office. Raven should be awake by now anyway, he realized as he caught a glimpse of his watch out of the corner of his eye. Taylor was home later than he had planned to be, a lot later. His boyfriend had probably been awake for several hours.
“Raven!” he called, knocking on the door. “I’m home but I forgot my keys. Come unlock the door.”
There was no answer, no yapping puppy, no bare feet padding across the floor toward the door, no hyper blonde flinging himself in Taylor’s arms to spill coffee on the hallway carpet. Again.
He decided Raven was either out – but not with Princess who had left the office at the same time Taylor had – or in but being a little drama queen because Taylor was late. He checked the outside pockets of his leather laptop case and just as he was about to give up the tips of his fingers encountered a familiar small metal key chain. So he had not forgotten his keys after all, only misplaced them. Taylor shouldered his bag, picked up his coffee cup, and unlocked the door.
When he stepped inside the apartment it was eerily quiet. There was no hyperactive cocker spaniel puppy rushing out of wherever she had been making puddles on the floor most recently to yap her greeting at him. There was no sleepy blonde lying on the couch watching cartoons. His boyfriend did not launch himself into his arms, or even put in an appearance.
“Raven!” Taylor called, wondering where he could possibly be. Clearly Raven had been home. His boots lay in a heap beside the door and his coat had been tossed carelessly on top of them. Taylor assumed he was still there. Riley’s leash, sweater, and bag still hung neatly on their hook beside the door, which mean the puppy was still there. If Riley were home alone without Raven she would have been at the door to greet Taylor the moment she heard his key in the lock. Since she had not shown herself she had to be wherever Raven was.
Taylor left his cold coffee and laptop case on the table beside the door out of reach of small teeth. He pulled off his cowboy boots since they were wet and sat them on the rug next to the table, where Raven’s boots should have been, and hung his coat on the hall tree, again where Raven’s should have been. Concerned and on the verge of worry because of his boyfriend’s recent ordeal with pneumonia, Taylor went in search of his wayward boyfriend. Since they had revived their romantic – not to mention sexual – relationship only a little over a week ago Raven and Taylor each still had their own bedroom because they had remained friends and shared the apartment after the breakup. The apartment was small, barely big enough for the two of them and Raven’s puppy, so there were few places the blonde could be. He ruled out the bathroom because the door was standing open and he could clearly see no sign of his boyfriend although Raven had obviously been there not long ago; his bright pink towels were still lying on the floor tiles. Although those could have been his morning shower because Taylor had been too busy getting ready himself to pay attention to what his boyfriend was doing. That left just their bedrooms as places where Raven could possibly be.
He went to his own room first because that was where they had been sleeping. The room was empty but there were signs that Raven had been there. The blue, white, and brown striped comforter was rumpled as if someone had been lying on it. The pillows – encased in dark blue fabric that matched the comforter and the sheets beneath it – were slightly dented as if someone’s head had lain in the crease between the two of them. A tiny pink tee shirt lay on top of the comforter and a crumpled pair of jeans with lacy pink panties peeking out of them on the floor. Taylor took a moment to put them in the laundry basket and straighten the bed before going in search of his boyfriend in Raven’s own bedroom.
Taylor pushed the door open, ready to tell Raven he needed to learn to pick up after himself – again – and stopped short. It was impossible to be angry with his boyfriend when he was so cute. Half of Raven’s bed was filled with stuffed animals, a rainbow colored array of Care Bears and Hello Kitty characters as well as various cute and fluffy things – mostly cats and dogs along with one baby seal and a monkey that were limited editions from FAO Schwartz’s Build-A-Bear department. The other half of the bed was all Raven needed for his afternoon nap. He was curled up on his right side on a pink and white striped Hello Kitty sheet with the matching pink comforter covering him to just below his shoulders. His tee shirt – one of Taylor’s that was too big for its owner, never mind Raven – had slid off of his porcelain pale left shoulder. The hand at the end of the same arm clutched a brownish lump that had lately been a teddy bear.
That teddy bear was sometimes a sore point between Raven and Taylor. At some point in the past – and Raven had photos to prove it – his teddy bear had been dark brown – roughly the same color as the chocolate Taylor liked so much. Its fur had been as soft as a kitten – this he had taken Raven’s word for because it was impossible to tell from photos – at some point in the past. It had been a gift to Raven from some relative he had probably not seen since then. That had been twenty-four, almost twenty-five, years ago and after over twenty years of being clutched in Raven’s arms every night, it had been reduced to a barely recognizable threadbare dirty brownish lump. In its entire existence it had been washed exactly one time – the time Taylor’s mother had decided the filthy thing had no business being on her clean sheets and added it to the laundry pile. Every time the two of them were in the FAO Schwartz store, which was every time they went out together and ended up within ten blocks of it, Taylor offered to replace it with a with a brand new one that still looked like a teddy bear and retained its new smell. There were fluffy ones, fat ones, skinny ones, and ones Raven could customize and design himself but on every visit Raven had squealed and giggled over every stuffed animal in the store –and there were thousands of them – and decided he preferred his threadbare almost brown lump to anything the store carried.
Raven’s other hand, the one on the side he was lying on, was curled into a loose fist up by his face, his thumb in his mouth. Taylor knew he should have thought it crazy or creepy or just plain strange that Raven was almost twenty-five years old and still sucked his thumb like a toddler. Despite all that crazy, creepy, and strange were the last things to go through his mind when he watched his boyfriend sleep. Taylor had seen Raven asleep with his thumb in his mouth for the first time several years ago. He had still thought he was straight at the time and Raven had been staying with him to avoid an ex-boyfriend turned obsessed stalker. Even back then he had not been shocked or even surprised at Raven’s childishness. It had seemed just as much a part of him those few years ago as it did now. Taylor had even come to see it as refreshing that Raven was so childlike when most of their equals in the fashion industry were interested only in their careers and too obsessed with finding the next big thing to worry about if their favorite stuffed pink unicorn would rather sit on the bed or on the bench in front of the makeup table. He had come to see it as normal – not to mention completely adorable – to wake up in the morning, or occasionally in the middle of the night, to find his boyfriend of almost five years snuggled against him either curled up in a ball or stretched out on top of Taylor with his thumb in his mouth and his teddy bear in his arms.
Taylor sat down on the side of the bed, carefully so he would not wake Raven, even though waking his boyfriend was exactly what he was going to do. He was not worried about Raven exactly but he was definitely concerned. The blonde’s recent bout of pneumonia had lasted just under a month and had made Taylor realize just how much he loved Raven, how much he was afraid of really losing him. Now, even though Raven had officially recovered Taylor still thought he seemed way too fragile. He was thinner, his face looked more sharply pointed, and Taylor thought he looked paler. He had lost five, maybe as much as ten pounds, weight he did not have to spare, and was tired much more often and much more easily than he ever had.
After his illness Raven had only gone back to work on Monday – four days ago – but it exhausted him so badly he had not managed to stay past noon. Today, as on the other three days, Raven had been back at the Fantasticka offices, when Taylor had noticed Raven becoming tired – around noon – he had insisted they go to lunch. After lunch he had sent Raven home for a nap with the promise that he would leave the office early as well.
Taylor had had every intention of leaving the office at 3:00, three hours earlier than usual. For the last three hours of the workday he had planned to leave Princess – their close friend and most competent intern – in charge. He had actually been on his way out the door when a potential problem had struck. One of their fabric suppliers had only ordered half the amount they had bought and could get no more. Because it meant a potential runway disaster in February Taylor had stayed to handle it himself. In the end he need not have bothered because it had been Princess who had suggested they order a different fabric that complemented the original so the two could be used together. Even so it had taken two hours.
When Taylor had walked through the door a few minutes ago he had expected the same sight that had greeted him all week: Raven, up from his nap, curled up on the couch in the living room with his teddy bear, his twelve week old puppy Riley, and his favorite blanket and pillows watching Cartoon Network or Toon Disney. Today the only exception he had expected was the addition of two hundred or so questions about what was wrong at the office that prevented him from coming home when he said he would.
“Raven,” Taylor said softly. It was never a good idea to startle Raven awake. He hated waking his boyfriend anyway. The usually hyper blonde seemed so sweet and innocent when he was asleep that all Taylor wanted to do was watch him. It was only when Raven was awake that one got to witness the hyperactive drama queen. Taylor brushed a strand of naturally black but bleached such a pale blonde it was almost white hair away from Raven’s face and waited for a moment. His roots are showing, Taylor realized as he Raven watched. That meant a million and one calls to his stylist with almost no chance of getting an appointment to have his hair done this close to Christmas.
When Raven did not even stir Taylor sighed. Now what was he supposed to do? “Raven,” he whispered again, a little louder this time. Maybe the whispering was why Raven was still asleep but waking him up more loudly was never advisable, particularly because Raven had been so jumpy and prone to nightmares while he had been ill and Taylor doubted he would be asleep unless he really needed the rest. The doctor had taken Raven off the antibiotics only about ten days ago. That was the same night they had made love for the first time after returning to their romantic relationship from the ‘just friends’ they had been for the past year. Their feelings had come out one night while Raven had been ill but even before then Taylor had considered it his responsibility to take care of the blonde, simply because they were close and lived together. Being romantically and sexually involved with his boyfriend once again made him feel even more responsible and made him realize that Raven’s sudden clinginess was probably more the result of their renewed relationship and less because of his pneumonia.
Raven’s lack of energy worried Taylor more than his lack of color or his clinginess or the way he was so docile and almost more than how thin he had become. He had never seen his boyfriend so dull and lifeless. The ex-ice skater hardly seemed like the same person anymore. The Raven that Taylor knew and loved was bright and sparkly and full of energy. He bounced rather than walked and never took naps during the day. Since the onset of his pneumonia Raven had spent most of his time in bed asleep or on the couch watching cartoons.
“Come on, Raven.” Taylor’s right hand slipped beneath the blankets to rub Raven’s back through his shirt. He felt warmer than he should. Taylor tried to tell himself that was only because Raven had been under the blankets but he did not quite believe it.
Raven whined, a soft sound that could have been part of a dream or could have meant he was about to wake up before he was ready. Taylor hoped it meant the latter. He scooped the puppy off of the pillow, careful not to pull Raven’s hair. The puppy, like her owner, was sound asleep. Taylor’s hand held her around the middle, her head protruding from one end and her tail from the other. She looked up at him, yawned once, and went back to sleep.
“A lot of help you are,” Taylor told the puppy. “You could at least lick him or something.” He put the puppy in her fuzzy pink basket. She woke up long enough to lick his fingers.
A tiny sound much like one Riley would make, came from the bed, accompanied by Raven rolling onto his back. Taylor only saw the movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned his attention back to Raven in time to see the blonde’s eyes flutter open. Raven let his thumb slip out of his mouth and moved the same hand to rub his eyes. “Taylor?” he asked, his voice hoarse and sleepy.
“It’s okay,” Taylor hastened to reassure his boyfriend. “I’m right here.” He captured Raven’s hand and brought it away from his eyes. “Don’t do that,” he scolded gently.
Raven whined, clearly still half asleep. His other hand moved up to rub his eyes and Taylor caught that one too. “Umm,” he murmured, trying to blink the sleep away since he was unable to rub his eyes. “You’re home.”
“Yes,” Taylor agreed. “I had noticed that.”
“Hmm.” Raven’s sharp nailed little fingers laced themselves through Taylor’s. “Why?”
“Because it was time to come home,” Taylor explained patiently. Raven was about as comprehensive as a retarded toddler when he was sleepy. “It’s past time to come home,” he corrected himself. “There was a problem with one of the fabrics we’re using for the February show and I felt better handling it myself rather than leaving it with Princess. But Princess fixed it anyway.” Their most trusted intern was showing real promise where business was concerned as well as in terms of fashion and design. “More importantly,” he began seriously, “why are you still asleep?”
“Because I’m tired,” Raven stated simply, as if there was nothing wrong with just having slept for five hours straight. If he had really been asleep the whole time he had been home.
“How long have you been asleep?” Taylor asked. That was the more important question and did not have an obvious answer.
“Umm…” Raven said thoughtfully. He sat up and moved into Taylor’s lap, his favorite seat. He hoped it would have the additional benefit of helping him distract his boyfriend, to make Taylor forget how long he had been asleep and that he was still not quite feeling like himself. “You’re comfortable,” he claimed.
The blonde annoyance brought that up every time he was sitting in Taylor’s lap trying to avoid a particular topic of conversation. Taylor knew his boyfriend was just trying to distract him. It usually worked but this time Taylor was determined to get an answer to his question before he let himself become too distracted. “That’s nice,” he said, trying to pretend that having Raven all warm and snuggly in his lap had no effect on him. He failed miserably but hugged the man in his lap close as he asked. “Now how about we discuss how long you’ve been asleep?”
“Don’t wanna.”
Taylor realized belatedly that he should have expected that. “How long have you been asleep?” he asked more firmly. Maybe it was wiser not to give his boyfriend a choice.
“Not long,” the blonde said evasively. He had arrived home around 1:00, gone into Taylor’s room to change into a pair of his boyfriend’s boxers and a tee shirt, and laid down on the bed. But Taylor’s bed had not been comfortable without Taylor in it so he had gotten up, found his puppy, then gone to sleep in his own bed with his teddy bear. Since Taylor was home it was probably somewhere between three o’ clock and six o’ clock. He hoped it was the former because a two hour nap was not unheard of but a five hour nap was likely to clue Taylor in to the fact that Raven had not felt at all well earlier in the day. And that would probably mean another trip to the emergency room or one of the city’s many urgent care facilities.
“Raven.” There was a note of annoyance in Taylor’s voice even though the fingers playing up and down the bumps of his spine were gentle. “How long have you been asleep?” he repeated. “If you don’t tell me I’m going to squeeze Riley until she squeaks.”
An ill-timed giggle escaped Raven’s mouth. Had he been completely awake it never would have gotten out. His hand flew up to cover his mouth before more could come out. He turned his face toward Taylor’s shoulder so the younger man could not see him smiling. Squeezing Riley until she squeaked was hardly going to hurt her. A poke or a squeeze was all it took to make her squeak because the puppy interpreted it as an invitation to play. She had not learned to bark yet and the closest she could get was a high-pitched squeak.
But Raven decided to give in anyway. When he was sure another badly timed giggle was not going to escape he turned his face away from Taylor’s shoulder but did not break contact with his boyfriend. “Since about one thirty or two o’ clock,” he answered finally. Even if Taylor thought he was still ill or becoming ill again life would not be unbearable, far from it in fact. There would be more cuddling and more hugs and kisses, movies in bed, being read to from his favorite parts of the fairy tale book and Alice In Wonderland, Taylor’s undivided affection and attention, and maybe if he happened to be really lucky his boyfriend would paint his toenails pink with those glittery snowflake stickers again.
Taylor idly petted Raven’s stomach beneath his shirt as he tried to add up exactly how many hours that had been. Math had not been his best subject in school. “You were asleep for four hours?” he asked.
“I guess so. It sounds like a long time when you say it like that.” He toyed with a button on his boyfriend’s shirt until Taylor gently moved his hands away.
“Are you still sick?” Taylor asked. Raven thought he looked concerned. “That’s a long time for someone completely well to be napping.”
Raven considered that for a moment. The chest achy feeling from the pneumonia was completely gone but it had been one of the first symptoms to go. And his stomach felt…but before he could decide how his stomach felt he found Taylor watching him, waiting impatiently for an answer. “I had a dream about you,” he said mostly to buy time but also because it was true.
“Did you?” Taylor asked absently.
It was obvious to Raven that his boyfriend could not have cared less. He seized that question to avoid the one about whether or not he was sick. “Uh-huh,” he said. “It was summer and we were in Montana at the ranch and everything was all green and pretty. It was raining, not like hard or anything but soft and warm and it felt good. Then you came and brought me roses and the rain fell on the roses and turned into diamonds.”
Taylor was suddenly reminded of a very important question he was considering asking Raven but even that did not deter him from his original mission. “That’s nice, honey,” he said. His hand continued absently rubbing Raven’s stomach beneath his – or to be more accurate Taylor’s – old stretched out tee shirt. “But you didn’t answer my question.” He was more concerned about Raven’s health than his dreams.
“My stomach hurts,” Raven admitted without thinking. Then he realized what he had said and his thumb went into his mouth again, partly because he was still in that sleepy, content state and Taylor was holding him but mostly because the half second it would take him to remove it in order to speak provided him with that extra fraction of a second to think about what he was about to say.
“Are you getting sick again?” Taylor asked, worried. “Do you feel sick?” He hoped not. There were two distinct parts of Raven that made up who he was. There was the demanding, bitchy, pissed off toddler part and the snuggly, cuddly part that hugged its teddy bear, sucked its thumb, and otherwise acted like a twelve year old girl. Normally the two parts formed a happy medium that resembled a functioning adult. However, when Raven was ill Taylor had found himself alternately dealing with the demands and tantrums of a pissed off toddler and the tears of a highly emotional little girl who had lost her teddy bear again and wanted held constantly. It was not an experience he wanted to repeat any time soon. Or at all, really.
Raven took a moment to consider the question before he finally provided an answer. His thumb came out of his mouth long enough for him to say, “Not really,” before going back in again. He let his head rest against Taylor’s shoulder and closed his eyes. Raven did not really feel sick, at least not as much as he had. He had a headache but that could have been because he had slept for so long. It had happened before. His stomach hurt but maybe that was because he was hungry. Lunch had been several hours ago but he had been so sleepy then that he had only picked at his salad.
“Are you sure?” Taylor asked. His hand paused in its movements against Raven’s stomach. “You feel feverish.” When he had felt his boyfriend’s unusually warm skin earlier Taylor had just thought he was warm from being under the blankets. But now that Raven was snuggling into his lap he could feel the blonde’s skin better. He was nowhere near as warm as he had been during his pneumonia scare but he was definitely feverish. It was not just the heat of the skin beneath Taylor’s hand that led him to that conclusion. It was the unnatural color in Raven’s face too. The older man was normally very pale. The pinkness in his cheeks looked completely healthy to anyone who did not know him as well as Taylor did.
Raven shrugged. He felt warm but he thought that might be because he had been under the blankets so recently or maybe because he was in Taylor’s lap. Being so close to his boyfriend always made him feel a little overheated. “I really think I’m all right, Taylor.” Being ill might get him Taylor’s undivided attention but it would also get him another doctor and more medicine. The trade off hardly seemed fair. And he was feeling all right except that his stomach hurt and he felt not really hot but warm so maybe he did have a fever.
And were those the same symptoms Taylor had exhibited a few years ago when he had had to have his appendix out?
Taylor was still not convinced. “Maybe you should have something for it,” he said. “You know, just in case it’s something that…isn’t good.” Taylor was never going to get over what he thought of as almost losing Raven even though Raven and the doctor had both assured him that, while seriously ill, Raven had not been in any danger of dying – another word Taylor did not like thinking of where his blonde annoyance was concerned. “If you do have a fever…” He took his hand from under Raven’s shirt and pressed his palm to the blonde’s forehead. “I still think you feel a little too warm,” he insisted. “How about a Tylenol?” If Raven did have a fever a Tylenol would help with it and if not the little white pill was mild enough not to harm him.
A Tylenol was quite possibly the last thing Raven wanted. Taylor and the nurses in the hospital had pushed entirely too much medicine on him while he had been ill with pneumonia. It always made him sleepy so he would probably end up going back to sleep if Taylor insisted he had to have yet more medicine. But it would make his headache go away and Taylor was here to hold him while he slept this time. “Mmmkay,” Raven murmured. His sharp nailed little fingers reached up to play with one of Taylor’s necklaces: a silver chain with a silver Celtic symbol hanging from it. It was an endless source of fascination for Raven because it looked like a series of complicated knots and he had never been able to figure out where he started or ended.
“Don’t do that.” Taylor gently disengaged Raven’s fingers.
Raven let his hands fall back into his lap. Somehow he always ended up doing what Taylor told him to do. It was as if he were a child or something. “And I want a drink of water if I have to have a Tylenol,” he said so it would not seem as if he were giving in without a fight or at least a token protest. “Not tap water,” he added. “And then I want to cuddle.”
“Of course you do.” Curled up in Taylor’s lap or at least next to him was Raven’s favorite place to be lately. The ex-cowboy touched his lips to his boyfriend’s so briefly it could hardly be called a kiss – not because he was afraid of catching whatever Raven had but because he wanted to get some sort of fever reducer into Raven before he reconsidered. Taylor was sure that if he were going to catch Raven’s illness he would have already. “Get off,” he said, “and I’ll go get your water and a Tylenol.”
Raven – typical immature Raven with his mind constantly in the gutter – giggled. “Get off,” he repeated and giggled again.
Taylor shook his head. You really are a twelve-year-old girl, he thought. Taylor’s theory about Raven’s personality explained so much. He gently moved Raven back onto his Hello Kitty infested bed and stood up. Taylor put Raven’s teddy bear – he really hated touching that thing – back in its owner’s arms and pulled the blankets up to Raven’s chin. Raven’s right hand – the same arm that was holding the gross little teddy bear – immediately reappeared and his thumb went into his mouth. Taylor left him that way to go into the kitchen for two Tylenol and a cold bottle of water from the refrigerator. He returned to the bedroom, wondering if Raven had changed his mind by now.
Raven made a face as he swallowed the Tylenol but he did it without protest. No matter how quickly it went down he always tasted it and the bitterness was almost bad enough to make him vomit. But he had had enough of that while he had been ill and managed to hold it back now. “You said we would cuddle,” he reminded his boyfriend when the Tylenol had gone down and he was sure it was going to stay there.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go out to dinner or…I don’t know…shopping or something?” Taylor hated shopping with Raven but it would be one way to get him out of bed. Every Friday night after work they went out together to dinner or a movie or even just to the takeout place and the video rental store. Raven loved it and normally spent the time before they went out bouncing off the walls and yelling at Taylor to hurry up because they were going to be late. As annoying as it always was when Raven got all hyper and excited Taylor would have given anything to have that back. Not that he minded cuddling with his boyfriend or the ‘read Alice again, Taylor’ that would eventually follow either, he just preferred to see Raven not in bed half the day.
Dinner, Raven thought, or shopping. The concept was appealing. Not so much the dinner part because Raven was not sure how much he could eat but he thought he might be able to handle McDonalds. It was the going shopping with Taylor that he wanted the most. The last time they had gone shopping together had been in March, just before Raven’s birthday and just after they had made up from the fight that had ended their romantic relationship enough to be just friends. It seemed like such a long time ago. They had gone shopping at the Sanrio store in Times Square because Taylor had had no idea what to buy Raven for his birthday. It had taken hours and they had gone from Sanrio to Toys R Us to Build A Bear where Raven had finally decided on a pink poodle he had stuffed himself and dressed in a sparkly red evening gown.
But he was sort of hungry. They could go to McDonalds then shopping and maybe a movie too. It could be considered their first date since getting back together. “Cuddle first,” Raven said decidedly. “Then dinner. Then shopping. Then a movie.” Raven wriggled over as far as he could with half of his bed full of stuffed toys and patted the space on his Hello Kitty sheets beside him. “Cuddle first,” he repeated.
Taylor had not thought Raven would want to go out anywhere, not even shopping, never mind dinner and a movie too. But if Raven wanted to go out he was willing. “Cuddle first,” Taylor agreed. That was when he realized that if Raven got his cuddle first request granted there would probably be no dinner, no shopping, and no movie. Raven would snuggle against Taylor, his thumb would go back into his mouth, and he would fall asleep again. But if Raven was sleeping so much he probably needed to. Taylor had already taken his wet boots off at the door. He stood up and took his jeans off too before slipping between the pink and white striped Hello Kitty sheets on his boyfriend’s bed clad only in a tee shirt and boxers almost identical to the ones Raven wore.
Raven moved into Taylor’s arms almost before the younger man had a chance to make himself comfortable. Without having to worry about Taylor’s rough jeans against his own silky smooth skin he settled into his favorite position: snuggled against Taylor as close as he could get with the top of his head beneath his boyfriend’s chin and his toes resting on the tops of Taylor’s feet, their legs so tangled it was impossible to tell which limb belonged to who. Raven made a sound something like a purr and his thumb went back into his mouth. He relaxed into Taylor’s arms, the warmth of his boyfriend’s body comforting him almost as much as the hand stroking his back beneath his tee shirt. He stretched, wriggled his toes, and relaxed against Taylor again. The sleepy, safe, content feeling he felt in Taylor’s arms began to settle in again even though he had just awakened from a five-hour nap.
Taylor ran his hand up and down the ridges of Raven’s spine beneath his shirt. In addition to Raven’s sleepiness and unwillingness to get out of bed and lack of appetite, Taylor was starting to worry about his weight. It was not that he weighed too much – which Raven always worried about needlessly – but that he had become too thin. In all the years Taylor had known Raven the older man had not had a spare ounce of fat on him and an extra five or ten pounds would not have hurt him. Taylor attributed it to the fifteen years Raven had spent as a figure skater. He had picked up quite a few unhealthy eating habits – like starvation dieting – and had not yet been out of that world long enough to break them. But during the last month he had lost his appetite due to being ill and his eating habits had deteriorated even further. What very little he had eaten – mostly Popsicles and ice cream – had seldom stayed in his stomach anyway. In that month he had lost at least five pounds, possibly as much as ten.
And yet despite all of his concern about Raven’s weigh – or lack of – Taylor still found himself thinking about the soft pale skin beneath his hand and how warm it felt beneath the coverings of clothing and blankets. Perhaps it was a little feverish as well. The thought that maybe Raven was ill again completely put a stop to any thoughts Taylor was beginning to have about doing more than cuddling Raven before they went out to dinner. If they went out to dinner.
No sooner had Taylor squashed that idea than Raven’s thumb came out of his mouth with a pop. That same warm little hand burrowed beneath Taylor’s tee shirt to find not quite as warm skin there. Fingers traced the muscles of the ex-cowboy’s stomach down to the elastic waistband of his boxers. They hesitated there only a fraction of a second before slipping inside. “Taylor,” Raven murmured. He pushed his hips against his boyfriend’s. The safe, content feeling was still there but the sleepiness had changed to a drowsy, sexual sort of feeling. “Love me.” His voice was hardly more than a whisper but in the quiet room Taylor heard him just fine.
A long time ago Taylor had come to understand Raven’s own personal language. Every word he spoke meant five different things. It was easy to unscramble the meanings if one knew Raven well enough. Fortunately Taylor did. “I don’t know, honey,” he said. “Are you sure you feel well enough?” He gently dislodged Raven from the comfortable position and turned both of them over so the blonde was lying flat on his back on the bed. Still lying beside him, Taylor studied Raven. He was more pale than normal but that was nothing new. There were dark circles under his eyes but those too had been there for some time. And Taylor was absolutely sure he felt feverish.
“I feel fine, Taylor,” Raven tried to reassure his boyfriend. It was not strictly true. There was a sort of tickling sensation in the back of his throat and he felt sort of warm and his stomach still hurt but his head felt a little better. He was certainly well enough to make love with Taylor.
“Hmm.” Taylor pushed Raven’s white blonde fringe back from his face. That hair annoyed him to no end. It looked so itchy and uncomfortable in Raven’s face and yet Raven claimed it did not bother him. With that one piece of hair brushed out of the way his bright blue eyes were revealed. The corners of his wide mouth curled up into his most angelic smile. Taylor always found it hard to resist that particular smile. He closed the space of only a few inches between them and kissed him.
Raven’s arms wrapped around his neck to hold him there. His long lashed eyelids slid shut and his toes curled against Taylor’s legs. He made a little purring sound in his throat.
It was not hard for Taylor to break Raven’s grip on him. He pulled back to look at his boyfriend. The blonde hardly seemed as if he were going to break if Taylor touched him the wrong way. Still, he did seem sort of fragile.
Raven’s eyes drifted open again. “Well?” he asked softly with no hint of the demand that was usually in his voice.
Taylor gave in. He always did. “Oh, all right,” he said as if it were a huge ordeal to make love with Raven. The blonde giggled but Taylor cut it off by kissing him again. His tongue thoroughly explored the inner recesses of Raven’s mouth as his hands slid beneath the older man’s tee shirt to rest on the pale, slightly warmer than usual skin of his stomach. Raven’s fingers curled into the childish sheet beneath him. He had grown so used to not having Taylor’s hands on him in the past year that now that they were back together the sensation was overwhelming. His boyfriend – the word was enough to make him shiver deliciously when it applied to Taylor – moved his hands up farther. Fingers brushed over Raven’s nipples, one of the most sensitive places on his body.
His back arched up off the bed. “Taylor!” he gasped. One of Taylor’s hands left his nipples and moved down to push his hips against the bed again.
“Easy, baby,” Taylor said softly. He doubted their activities would hurt Raven but he would probably be tired out by the end, considering how little physical activity he had done lately. Taylor was still hesitant to take any chances but it was probably too late to worry about that now. He brushed that same piece of hair away from Raven’s face again. God, it was annoying.
Raven’s arms wrapped around Taylor’s neck again. He lifted his head from the pillow and kissed his boyfriend. His tongue flitted into Taylor’s mouth and he jerked his hips upward against the ex-cowboy, rubbing his own erection against Taylor’s through the thin fabric of two pairs of boxers.
Unprepared and caught completely by surprise Taylor moaned loudly. His head dropped to rest on Raven’s shoulder. He struggled to quell the desire to just pound into Raven and fuck him without any regard for his well-being. Only his boyfriend had ever had that effect on him. Normally Taylor would not have even tried to suppress it; he knew Raven liked things fast and hard sometimes but he had asked for something else and that was what Taylor intended to give him. Besides Raven was still ill no matter how much he might claim otherwise. Taylor did not want to risk breaking him or something.
Raven’s strawberries and cream scent and the soft, warm skin against his own were hardly helping matters any. After a moment Taylor managed to lift his head and look down at his boyfriend. He found Raven grinning at him in the near darkness.
Raven giggled. “It’s your fault,” he said. “Finish what you started.” But he did not give Taylor time to finish what he had started or even to respond. Instead he used the arms around his boyfriend’s neck to pull Taylor’s head down to his own and pressed their lips together again.
Taylor’s right hand moved up beneath Raven’s tee shirt again. His fingers traced the delicate muscles of his boyfriend’s stomach, moved up his sides, over his ribs until his fingertips found a hardened nipple. Raven whimpered into the kiss and Taylor’s other hand journeyed downward, across the hardness beneath the cotton fabric of the boxers Raven had pilfered from his dresser drawer.
Raven’s hips arched up beneath his hand. “Taylor,” he whined. “Please.”
Sometimes Taylor liked to draw things out, to tease and torment Raven until he was ready to explode. But this time he gave in. Raven was still not as well as he wanted to let on and the last thing he needed was to be more worn out. His hand gently rubbed the hardness he had found in his boyfriend’s boxers.
Raven made a sound that was part whimper and part sigh. His hips arched up off the bed again as he pushed himself into Taylor’s hand. Taylor’s touch became firmer and the whimpery sigh became a loud moan. The erotic noise caused Taylor’s hips to jerk reflexively, pushing his still clothed erection against Raven’s. Raven’s hands had, up until that point, been gripping Taylor’s sides hard enough to leave little purple half moon marks where his nails had dug in. Those same sharp nailed little hands moved to tug on Taylor’s tee shirt. Taylor shifted to a more upright position to let Raven pull his shirt off over his head. The blonde tossed the offensive garment over the side of the bed and ran his pale hands over the tan skin he had uncovered. He wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s neck again. Raven tugged Taylor down to kiss him again.
Taylor’s tongue slid between Raven’s soft pink lips. He felt Raven smiling into the kiss. His hands pushed Raven’s shirt up his stomach to his chest. They pulled apart momentarily and Raven’s tee shirt went the same way Taylor’s had. With that second obstacle out of the way Raven did his best to pull Taylor back to him for another kiss. Taylor avoided his hands and the sharp fingernails attached to them to press his lips to the point on his neck where his pulse beat so strongly. He kissed the spot where neck met shoulder then moved again to kiss his way down farther.
Taylor’s mouth on first one nipple and then the other had him gasping and moaning again. The attention was far too brief. The wet heat of Taylor’s mouth traveled down the center of Raven’s chest and stomach to his navel. The ex-cowboy’s tongue dipped into the tiny depression and Raven giggled. His stomach was incredibly ticklish, it was one of the things he had hoped Taylor had forgotten about him in the year they had been separated. It seemed his boyfriend had forgotten nothing. “Taylor, please,” he begged for the second time that night. “I want you so much.”
Taylor hooked his fingers in the cotton covered elastic waistband of Raven’s borrowed boxers. The blonde lifted his hips from the bed again, this time to allow easy removal of his last article of clothing. His stolen boxers were tossed over the side of the bed. Hot little fingers edged inside the waistband of Taylor’s boxers and a moment later they followed the other clothing to the floor.
Raven reached up to wrap his arms around Taylor’s neck and pull him down for another kiss. Without breaking the kiss Taylor reached for the little white tube of lubrication lying on the nightstand. It had been left over from before their big fight and was almost empty. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realized they were going to have to pay a visit to the pharmacy before doing this again but it was only a fleeting thought. The cap had never been put back on the tube and he squeezed all the slippery substance that remained in the tube onto his fingers with one hand. Taylor reached between Raven’s legs and quickly thrust one finger into him.
Raven pushed his hips toward his boyfriend’s hand in an attempt to impale himself further. His head fell back against the pillow and a half whimpered moan came out. Taylor added another finger, carefully stretching Raven. They had only made love twice since getting back together and the last thing Taylor wanted was to hurt Raven. When the blonde only gasped and arched his hips off the bed he took that as a good sign and added a third finger. Raven’s breath grew shorter as Taylor’s fingers thrust into him then pulled out again.
In.
Out.
In.
Out…
Raven’s hips moved in short jerks. His pink fingernails dug into Taylor’s shoulders. His breath came out in tiny gasps.
And then Taylor hit that tiny spot inside him, the one little spot that could bring him more pleasure than the entire rest of his body.
Raven made a sound that was more scream than moan and pushed his hips toward Taylor’s hand. “Oh, yes! Taylor! Please, there! Please!” he begged.
That finally convinced Taylor that his boyfriend was ready for more. He withdrew his fingers and let Raven pout for only a fraction of a second before thrusting inside his hot, tight little passage.
Raven moaned. His toes curled so tightly he thought they might break. He wrapped his legs around Taylor’s waist to pull him deeper inside. Taylor pulled out then thrust back in again. Raven’s back arched off the bed. He made another whimpering noise.
And was drowned out by the shrill ring of the phone on the nightstand.
Taylor went limp on top of Raven but not inside him. “Shit,” he muttered into his boyfriend’s shoulder.
Raven wriggled beneath him to remind him of what they were in the middle of. “Just ignore it.
There was nothing else Taylor would rather do but how was he supposed to fuck his boyfriend – never mind enjoy it – with the phone ringing right next to his head. “I can’t,” he said. Not moving from inside Raven, he reached for the phone. “What?” he snapped into the receiver.
“Why Taylor Rochette! Is that any way to speak to your mother?”
“Oh, God, Mama,” he said. “I’m sorry.” Raven wriggled beneath him again to remind him of what they had been doing. “It’s just that I’m busy right now.”
“Well, I won’t keep you but a moment. I’m planning the menu for Christmas-“ Christmas was a big to do at the Rochette’s ranch – “and I need to know if you’ll be here. You missed Thanksgiving,” she reminded him.
“I don’t know.” Taylor glanced down at Raven. The blonde was doing his best pout. He seemed better but Taylor doubted he was up to making a flight to Montana and the chaos that was the extended Rochette family. “I don’t think I’ll make it for Christmas.” There was no way he could leave Raven alone. Maybe sometime in February after Fashion week…
“You haven’t been home since September,” she pointed out.
Taylor always went home to Montana at least three times a year: once just after fashion week in February or at the beginning of March that served as both much needed downtime after the hell of Fashion Week and let Taylor’s family celebrate his birthday, in September after fall Fashion Week, and for either Christmas or Thanksgiving. “I know,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’ll try to make it after Fashion Week.” There was no way he could get there any earlier.
“Christmas,” Raven hissed at him.
Taylor shook his head and swatted the hand reaching for the phone. His mother began to lecture him on the importance of family. Raven pouted. If Taylor went to Montana that meant he would get to go too now that they were back together. Raven loved his boyfriend’s family; they were exactly the type of family always depicted in Christmas specials with perhaps a few extra horses and children. They were so much more a family than Raven’s own family. He reached for the phone again only to have his fingers slapped again. Raven pouted for a moment, until he remembered that Taylor was still firmly seated inside him. He squeezed his inner muscles tightly around his boyfriend.
“Fuck!” Taylor cursed. Unfortunately for both of them he still held the phone.
“Taylor!” his mother exclaimed.
Taylor glared at Raven who only gave him his most innocent look. “I’m sorry, Mama,” he said, “but Raven’s being a little bitch.”
Raven smiled proudly as Taylor’s mother began her profanity lecture.
Taylor covered the mouthpiece of the phone with his hand. “What the hell are you trying to do?” he asked.
“I wanna go,” Raven whined. If he whined Taylor would give in faster.
“Go where?”
“To Montana. For Christmas.”
Taylor frowned. “Are you sure? It’s a six hour flight and you know how loud and chaotic holidays are with my family.”
“I’m sure. I didn’t get to go last year, remember?” Their big breakup had happened only a week before Christmas.
“I remember.” If Raven was still not feeling well by then he could sleep on the plane and Taylor’s mother would hardly mind having a sick ‘child’ to look after. “Um…Mom?” he said into the phone, cutting off the profanity lecture. “I guess we are going to be able to make it for Christmas.”
“You’re bringing someone with you?” she asked. “A special friend?”
“Uh…” Taylor said, confused. “I’m bringing Raven.”
“Oh. I’ll have to rethink the sleeping arrangements then. I don’t know where we’ll put everyone.” His mother sounded disappointed but why-
Taylor mentally kicked himself. He had not spoken to any of his family in well over a week. “Mom,” he said, “Raven and I are back together.”
Oh, yes we are, Raven thought. They were together in more ways than one. He wriggled to remind Taylor of that.
“I’m so happy for you, dear,” Mrs. Rochette said. “you’ll let me know when you’ll be here?”
Taylor promised he would, said goodbye to his mother, and hung up the phone. Then his attention turned back to Raven. “You,” he said, “ are such a little bitch. Do you have any idea-“
Raven giggled beneath Taylor and wriggled against him. The rest of the ex-cowboy’s words were soon forgotten.
Sign up to rate and review this story