FicWad

Title: Vinegar Scented Rainbows

Author: Allison Wonderland

Rating: NC-17

Summary: It’s Easter season and Raven is bored. For Taylor, this is a Very Bad Thing.

Warning(s): Homosexuality, language, graphic consensual sex between two people of the same gender.

Disclaimer: If I owned them…never mind. Disclaimers aren’t supposed to be rated NC-17.

Note(s): None.

Taylor loves living with Raven, loves his sweetness, his boundless energy, his enthusiasm for life, and his captivating, childlike nature. But he likes those rare occasions when he is home alone without Raven too. As much as he loves his boyfriend and everything that comes with the package there are times when the hyperactive blonde can be a little too much for any sane person to handle. Those are the times when he suggests that Raven take Audrey, his equally hyperactive Jack Russell terrier, to the park to let her run alongside him while he skates. Raven will be gone for a while, maybe an hour or two. Taylor will spend the short silence sitting on the sofa in the living room with Honey, his white and honey colored Shih Tzu, curled up in his lap and watch television if there happens to be a rodeo or horse race or something of that nature on. If there is nothing of interest on any of their 500 television channels he reads a book or calls someone back in Montana. But two hours is all the quiet Taylor can stand and Raven always returns just as the quiet is becoming too much.

His arrival is heralded, as always, by the door opening. Audrey barks and her toenails clack against the tiles on the kitchen floor. She runs into the living room, jumps into Taylor’s lap, and swipes her tongue up the side of his face. Honey runs for cover and Audrey jumps down and follows him.

And that is when Raven appears in the doorway between the living room and kitchen. “Hey babybabybaby!” he squeals and bounces into Taylor’s lap. The blonde man giggles when he lands, straddling Taylor’s knees, and makes himself at home in his favorite seat in their apartment.

“Do you want something?” Taylor asks. Taylor wants something. He wants to see the end of the Bull Riding National Championships and he would have been able to had Raven waited a few more minutes to come home. But now the other man is perched on his knees, blocking his view of the television. The fastest way to get rid of his current hindrance is to give him whatever he wants.

Raven tips his head to one side and studies Taylor. He is undeniably the cutest thing the younger man has ever seen but he is also the most annoying thing he has ever encountered. “Taylor,” he says and grins.

That grin is enough to tell Taylor he is in trouble and Raven is up to something. There are three phrases he hates to hear his boyfriend say. The first of those three is ‘Why’. When Raven is in one of his ‘why’ moods they can have a conversation that lasts for hours with Raven asking only one question and Taylor answering it several hundred times. The second of those three is really more like three phrases in and of itself but they always come at the same time. ‘Don’t wanna, not gonna, can’t make me’ is perhaps the most childish thing Taylor has ever heard issue from his lover’s mouth. But it is also the most true. When Raven has no desire to do something and flat out refuses to, there is no way anyone, not even Taylor, can make him. But by far the worst thing for Raven to say, worse even than the other two combined, is ‘I’m bored.’ When Raven is bored there is no way to know what might happen and it is best to stay away – far, far away.

Of course if you are Taylor and happen to live with Raven, that is next to impossible.

“Taylor,” Raven sings again when Taylor does not respond the first time except for a roll of his eyes. That sweet but evil little grin returns.

Taylor experiences a moment of something akin to pure terror. Oh, no, he thinks. Not that. Anything but that.

“I’m-“

Oh, fuckno!

“Bored.”

Taylor briefly wonders what he is going to have to fix, repair, or replace once the day is over. He comes to the conclusion that if it is not Raven who has to be taken to the hospital for fixing or repairing and who is in fact not replaceable, he does not care. Having his lover decide to do something besides fill the apartment complex swimming pool with pink Jell-O and inflatable penguins like he did the last time he had been bored will also be a plus. “What am I supposed to do about it?” Taylor asks finally. He will not bring up the incident with the swimming pool and the Jell-O and rainbow colored inflatable penguins just in case Raven starts getting any ideas from the mention of that little escapade. Still, he immediately regrets asking what he is supposed to do about Raven’s boredom because Raven will undoubtedly think of something outrageous Taylor can do to ease his boredom.

But Raven gives Taylor a general answer instead of his usual imaginative suggestion for easing his boredom. “Entertain me,” he says as if it is the most obvious thing in the world.

Maybe Raven really is bored, Taylor thinks. It is a rare day when the blonde man really is bored and not pretending to be bored just so Taylor will give him his full attention. If he really were bored…well, maybe he would be unable to think of some eccentric idea for something he wanted to do.

“Entertain me, Taylor,” Raven persists when Taylor does not comply quickly enough. His big bright eyes stare into Taylor’s unflinchingly and he smiles, prepared to thoroughly annoy the other man until he gets what he wants.

“Raven…” Taylor says, unsure what else to say that will not volunteer him for another of Raven’s bizarre methods to provide himself with something to do.

“Taylor…” Raven echoes in the same slightly exasperated but mostly amused tone of voice his lover has just used.

“How did I get stuck with you?” Taylor asks. “You’re the most annoying thing I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting,” he says and Raven’s smile grows. “Worse than Audrey,” Taylor continues.

Raven shrugs. “Just lucky, I guess,” he says cheerfully.

Taylor rolls his eyes. “I guess,” he agrees. He takes his attention away from Raven long enough to pick up the remote control and turn off the television. The bull riding national championship is over anyway and thanks to Raven he has no idea who won. He places the remote control back on the end table beside the sofa and cups Raven’s ass in both hands to pull him closer so the blonde’s feet are resting on the edge of the sofa cushions and his full weight is no longer sitting on Taylor’s knees.

“Taylor,” Raven whines, “you promised to entertain me.” He snuggles into his new position, still on Taylor’s lap but with his legs on the couch now, one on each side of his boyfriend.

“Go play with Audrey,” Taylor instructs. He, as usual, has no idea how to entertain Raven and does not remember promising to do so.

Audrey, sitting on the floor beside Taylor’s feet, yaps in agreement. Ever the hyperactive puppy – who reminds Taylor so much of her owner – she jumps onto the couch and swipes her tongue up the side of Raven’s face, making him laugh. Then she jumps down and is off running crazily through the apartment again.

“I already did,” Raven complains.

Taylor rolls his eyes. “Then do it again.”

“I don’t wanna.” Raven pouts and Taylor, unable to resist, kisses him.

“Watch television. I’m sure you can find some cartoons on at least one channel.” Raven loves cartoons, particularly Disney ones or ones that are mostly pink like Hello Kitty. Every Saturday morning he can be found having a breakfast of some sort of colorful, sugar coated cereal at the living room coffee table in front of a television blaring cartoons.

“There’s nothing on.”

Taylor laughs. He can barely resist rolling his eyes again. “Honey, we have 500 channels. There’s always something on.”

Raven sticks his tongue out. “Isn’t,” he insists.

“Read a book,” Taylor suggests even though he knows how futile that suggestion is.”

Raven makes his ‘eew’ face.

Taylor searches his mind for something else. “Take a nap,” he says finally. Yeah. Like that’s going to happen. Raven never naps during the day unless there is sex first. Which, come to think of it, is not entirely a bad idea.

“Don’t wanna.”

“Then I don’t know what you can do.” Taylor decides that ignoring Raven is perhaps the best policy. He reaches at random for a magazine on the end table and finds himself opening the newest Vogue to a random page somewhere in the middle. He turns his attention from Raven to the magazine even though he really does not want to read it and wonders how long it will last.

Raven bounces and Taylor winces. “Taylor!” he sings.

Taylor ignores him.

Raven, never discouraged, continues what Taylor thinks must be a crusade to see how far Taylor can be pushed before he dies of being annoyed. “Let’s go shopping!” the blonde man demands.

“No!” Taylor says, perhaps louder than is really necessary but he feels he must make it plain that he will never take Raven shopping again. The first – and only – time Taylor had willingly taken Raven shopping was the day he had learned his credit card did indeed have a limit – a limit few people ever reached, but a limit all the same.

“Pleeaaseee, Taylor?” Raven begs.

“Go shopping by yourself,” Taylor suggests.

“That’s no fun.” Raven pouts. That always works.

“It isn’t working, Raven.”

Well, mostly. “Okay!” He perks up again. “Let’s buy the mall!”

Taylor shakes his head. He has given up ignoring Raven and places the magazine back on the table. He was not reading it anyway. “Raven,” he says, laughing, “I don’t think the mall is for sale.”

“Hmm…” Raven ponders that for a moment. “Yeah,” he says finally. “You’re probably right.” He gives Taylor his biggest, saddest someone-just-ran-over-my-puppy expression. “But we have to do something. We never do anything together anymore.” By the end of his last statement he is almost whining.

Taylor briefly considers reminding Raven that they saw a movie and had dinner together only last night. Then he thinks better of it and asks, “What do you want to do?”

“Ummm…” Raven says. Then he falls silent for several blissful seconds. Then he smiles brightly. “Let’s color Easter eggs!” he exclaims.

Taylor looks at Raven for a long moment. “Huh?” he finally asks, completely confused. Raven wants to…color Easter eggs?

“Yes!” Raven is obviously enamored of his newest brilliant scheme to entertain himself. “And then we can have an Easter egg hunt!”

Taylor eyes Raven warily. “Aren’t you a little too old for that?” he asks. Taylor has not participated in an Easter egg hunt since he was…well, actually he can not remember the last time.

Raven rolls his eyes as if his boyfriend’s question is the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard. “Not for us,” he says as if that should be obvious. “For the puppies.” Raven scoops both Honey and Audrey – who have returned to lie on the sofa – into his arms and kisses each of them. “We’ll color the eggs and then we’ll hide them and the puppies can find them.”

And then Taylor would have to clean the floor when the puppies finished eating the eggs. “I don’t know, Raven,” Taylor says.

“Come on, Taylor! Its going to be fun!”

“Raven…” Taylor could feel himself relenting. It would keep Raven entertained.

“Please?” Raven gives Taylor his best I’m-the-sweetest-thing-in-the-whole-world-give-me-what-I-want look.

Taylor rolls his eyes. “Fine,” he says.

Raven squeals again and claps his hands. He is undeniably cute but Taylor is suddenly thankful he and Raven will never have children. Dealing with more than one Raven is not something Taylor ever wants to do. “Good!” Raven says and bounces on Taylor’s lap. “I’ll go boil the eggs!” He moves as if to get up.

Taylor’s hands seize Raven’s hips and pull the blonde man back into his lap. “No!” he says forcefully.

Raven frowns. “Why not?”

“Because I like the kitchen just the way it is. It doesn’t need to be a pile of ashes.” Not quite a month ago Raven had attempted to bake Taylor a birthday cake. Taylor had come home to find an apartment full of smoke and Raven freaking out because he had wanted to surprise Taylor but ruined it. “I’ll boil the eggs,” Taylor says. He half lifts Raven from his lap to the couch then stands. His cooking skills are only slightly better than Raven’s but at least he knows how to boil things. Sort of. Taylor goes into the kitchen, one Raven (and thank god that’s all there is) and two dogs following along behind him.

It is not even noon and the day is already promising to be interesting.

When the eggs are boiled and have sufficientlyl cooled – or cooled enough that coloring will not hurt them the way Taylor will hurt Raven if he asks if the eggs are cool enough to color one more time – Taylor takes them out of the pan, puts them in the biggest bowl he can find – not that nearly two dozen eggs fit well into anything smaller than a swimming pool but Taylor is not about to mention that to Raven. The white interior of the pool is still stained pink in some places from the Jell-O fiasco.

“Raven!” Taylor calls as he takes several bowls – all plastic, not the antique China his grandmother gave him when he and Raven had decided to move in together – on the kitchen table, “come in here and help me!” Raven, tired of waiting, has wandered back into the living room to watch cartoons but there are no sharp objects or hot burners involved in mixing water, food coloring, and vinegar. He is sure Raven will be unable to injure himself on it.

And thankfully he does not; although the kitchen does smell more like vinegar than it should by the time he finishes. Taylor purposefully neglects to point out, although doing it after the fact will have no point anyway, that an entire bottle of vinegar is not usually needed to dye Easter Eggs.

Just as Raven puts the first of the eggs into a bowl of green dye – a white bowl Taylor realizes too late – Audrey wanders in from the direction of the living room.

“Raven,” Taylor says, slightly annoyed, “Why is that –“ pointing to Audrey- “in the kitchen when we are?” Raven’s dog is not allowed in the kitchen when something is going on there because she is more hyperactive than Raven.

“She isn’t hurting anything, Taylor.”

Not presently anyway but once she becomes her normal hyper self when she realizes her humans are nearby she will. Taylor prefers to have the dog out of the kitchen and away from the bowls of colored dye when that happens. “That dog is too hyper to be in the kitchen while you’re doing that,” he tells Raven.

Raven stirs the egg in the green dye then turns his attention to Taylor. He pouts prettily but it does not work so he places a hand on each of Taylor’s shoulders and watches his face for a moment. “Please Taylor?” he asks. Raven kisses Taylor long and deep until neither of them can breathe.

“Fine,” Taylor says and has to fight not to roll his eyes again at how easily he gives Raven exactly what he wants every time he asks. “She can stay here but if she shows the slightest sign of bouncing off any walls I want her gone. Understand?” Taylor cups Raven’s chin in his hand and tips the slightly shorter man’s head up so they are looking straight into one another’s eyes.

Raven knows that is as goos as it is going to get. He agrees and goes back to coloring the eggs. It is only after Raven has returned his attention to his newest project that Taylor notices the went green handprint – very much the same size and shape of Raven’s hands – now residing on each shoulder of his formerly white shirt.

When Raven is almost half finished Audrey jumps into Taylor’s lap. Her tail thumps against his leg and her front paws find his shoulder. She swipes her tongue up the side of his face again. Then she sits down, tail still thumping wildly, and yaps at him.

This does not suit Taylor at all but he does not dare move Audrey when she is showing signs of becoming hyper again, particularly when she is this close to so many bowls of colored egg dye. “Raven,” he says instead of trying to move Audrey.

Raven turns around, both hands dripping colored egg dye on the floor and his bare feet. “What?” he asks.

“Get your baby off me before her tail knocks something off the table.” That tail never stops moving and it is dangerously close to knocking several bowls off the table.

Raven plunges his hands into the pink dye and stirs the egg in that bowl before turning to lift his dog from Taylor’s lap. “Be a good girl,” he tells her. “Don’t knock the bowls off the table.” Then he adds as an after thought, “And don’t eat Taylor. He’s our friend.” Raven places Audrey on the floor, leaving a bright pink hand print on each of her sides. Then he takes an egg out of the bowl of uncolored ones. “Here, baby,” he says and rolls the egg across the floor for her to chase.

Audrey runs off after it. Raven goes back to coloring eggs. Taylor sighs and sits back in his chair. He knows this is going to be a long day.

Raven is almost finished when Audrey loses her egg under the refrigirator. She spends several minutes attempting to retrieve it before giving up and going to find her humans again. She whines plaintively but her daddies ignore her.

She does it a second time and finally receives Taylor’s attention. “Raven,” he says, “Your baby wants you.”

Raven looks down. “Be a good girl, Audrey,” he says. “I’ll be finished in a few minutes and we’ll play Easter egg hunt.”

Audrey’s tail thumps the floor and she jumps onto the chair beside Raven. He reaches out one hand to pet her and leaves a trail of blue dye down her back. She sits there watching Raven for several minutes before he picks up an egg and drops it into the purple dye.

Curious, Audrey stands up on her back paws to see what Raven is doing. She places her front feet on the edge of the bowl and peers in.

Raven does not see her.

But Taylor, who has been watching the two of them with the intensity with which Raven watches his cartoons, does. “Raven,” he says, “get your baby before she turns herself purple.”

“Come on, baby,” Raven reaches for the half-grown puppy.

She leans forward farther, partly trying to evade Raven’s hands but mostly trying to see what is swimming in the bowl. Her paws slip on the wet edge of the bowl and it flips, splashing both Raven and Audrey with purple dye.

The frightened puppy jumps onto the table to get away from it. The other five bowls of egg dye fly into the air, covering everything, including Raven, Taylor, and Audrey, in brightly colored water that smells strongly of vinegar.

“Damn it, Raven!” Taylor says angrily. He wipes the color from his face with the back of his hand. “Get her before she gets on something that can’t be washed!” Taylor starts toward the dog himself only to step in a pool of orange dye. His foot slips and he reaches for the nearest thing – Raven – that he can grab to break his fall. But they both go down with a splash into the colorful puddle that was once the kitchen floor.

They lie sprawled across the formerly white tiles of the kitchen floor in a puddle of pinkpurpleorangegreenyellow dye, limbs tangled together much the same way they are upon waking in the mornings. Taylor knows his shirt is ruined, along with his jeans and probably Raven’s clothes as well. After he catches his breath – because landing in a puddle of water, vinegar, and food coloring is enough to knock the breath out of someone, albeit temporarily, without having all 100+ pounds of blonde ambition landing on said someone – he says, “Move, Raven. We need to clean up the mess your dog made.”

But Raven stays right where he is, only lifting his head to look down at Taylor. “Are you mad at me?” he asks. His big blue eyes stare into Taylor’s with the same hurt puppy look he gets every time he suspects Taylor may be cross with him. His bottom lip quivers and he sniffs just for effect. There is no way Taylor can be angry with Raven when Raven gives him that look.

“I’m not mad exactly,” Taylor answers. “And not exactly at you.” He starts to go on but Raven interrupts. Again.

“Good.” He sits up, straddling Taylor’s legs, and unfastens his belt, tossing it aside. He pulls his once pink but now multi colored ‘Hello Kitty’ tee shirt over his head and tosses it aside too.

“Raven, honey,” Taylor says, “when I said we should get changed, I didn’t mean we should do it here.”

“I like here” Raven disagrees. Taylor does not seem to be very willing to lose his clothes on his own so Raven decides to do it for him. He reaches out to unbutton the first few buttons on Taylor’s formerly white shirt, revealing skin just begging to be tasted. Raven has never been one to resist temptation. He lowers his head and drags his tongue down Taylor’s throat. The younger man tastes of watery vinegar at first but beneath that there is something that is uniquely Taylor. He grazes his teeth over the skin he has just licked. Beneath him Taylor gasps and his hands – originally placed on Raven’s waist with every intention of moving him away – pull the lively blonde closer.

Raven moves backward, dislodging both Taylor’s hands and the enormous belt buckle that he has been – somewhat painfully – sitting on until now. He supposes he probably has the imprint of a horse, a boot, the state of Montana, or whatever is engraved on Taylor’s larger than fashionable or practical belt buckle today on his ass despite the protective layer of clothing between unforgiving metal and soft skin. Raven decides that perhaps it is best if Taylor’s belt buckle is gone all together. He removes it then untucks and unbuttons his boyfriend’s shirt, pulling it open to reveal yet more bare skin.

Taylor looks up at the blonde man still sitting astride him and opens his mouth with every intention of asking exactly what Raven believes he is doing by stripping the two of them in the middle of the kitchen. This is nothing new to either of them. They have had several sexual encounters on the kitchen floor but not while lying in multi-colored puddles with the entire kitchen reeking of vinegar. But before any words can come out of Taylor’s mouth Raven kisses him and a tongue that is definitely not his own enters. They kiss briefly then Raven moves away again, never content to stay in one place long.

He licks his way down Taylor’s chest, stopping only briefly to perform obscene acts upon each nipple with both his teeth and tongue. At the same time he slides his hand down to rest on the ever-growing bulge in Taylor’s jeans.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Taylor asks finally, a bit breathlessly.

Raven grins, that same sweet but evil grin that means Taylor is in trouble. “Do you want me to stop?” he asks.

Taylor glares at Raven. Then he pulls Raven tightly against him and flips the two of them over, pinning his lover to the floor beneath him.

Raven pouts. “That’s not fair!” he complains.

Taylor seems to ignore him. His hands unfasten Raven’s jeans and one slips inside. He lets it rest briefly against Raven’s hot flesh over his brightly colored flimsy excuse for underwear. “Is this what you want?” he asked.

Raven’s only answer is a soft moan as he closes his eyes and begins to rub himself against Taylor’s hand as well as he can while lying on the floor.

“What’s wrong, Raven?” Taylor asks. The hand inside Raven’s pants squeezes gently and the blonde makes a squeaking sound that turns into another moan. “Is that what you want?”

“I-“ Raven begins but he is cut off when Taylor’s hand moves again. His hips lift toward the stimulation his lover is providing.

Taylor takes advantage of the new position to hook his fingers in the waistband of both Raven’s jeans and underwear and pull them down and off. Raven smiles as his ass makes contact with the cold wet floor again. Once again he has gotten what he wants. He kicks his pants off his feet and stretches, content as a kitten despite the uncomfortable survace beneath him. But Taylor only sits back between Raven’s knees and looks at him, colored dye soaking into the knees of his own jeans.

“Taylor!” Raven protests. He has never been accused of being a patient man.

“Is there something you want?” Taylor asks. He can be more infuriating than Raven when he wants to.

“Stop looking at me and fuck me already!” Raven splashes one bare foot in a particularly large pool of dye.

“I’m not sure I should,” Taylor says.

“Taylor!” Raven says again.

Taylor decides he should humor Raven if he wants the blonde to be congenial later. After all, it is going to be enjoyable for both of them. He glances at Raven’s face, beautiful despite the unhappy look he is currently directing at Taylor. Taking his own sweet time about it – because Raven does the same thing when their positions are reversed and also because if he has to be honest, teasing Raven is just fun – he presses his llips to the inside of each of his lover’s thighs, being sure to keep the kisses brief so Raven will not get any ideas about Taylor giving him what he wants just because he wants it. Besides, it is Raven’s fault they are in this position.

As that thought crosses his mind Taylor decides Raven deserves anything he wants to do to him. He glances up at his lover’s face and the more pleasant expression on it before returning his attention back to the task at hand. Taylor’s hand encircles the base of Raven’s erection and he traces a circle around the head with his tongue.

Raven gasps and his nails dig into the hard tiles beneath him. “Fucking hurry up, Taylor. I’m going to ruin my manicure on the damn floor.” Not to mention his back.

Taylor chooses to ignore him. Instead of replying like he knows Raven wants him to, he uses his tongue to wipe away the drop of moisture glistening at the tip of Raven’s cock. His left hand moves quickly to Raven’s right hip to push him back down onto the floor as he arches up toward Taylor with a soft moan. He retraces the circle his tongue has made earlier and Raven makes several more strangled noises that Taylor supposes are supposed to be another threat. Not understanding – not that he would have paid attention if he had – he gives Raven no warning before taking the whole of the blonde’s erection into his mouth. Raven’s hips lift off the floor.

But just as Raven is beginning to think he will quite possibly die should Taylor stop…

He does.

Raven opens his mouth to complain but Taylor moves up to kiss him before he can get a word out. Then he stands up, pulls a small tube out of the pocket of his jeans, and finishes taking them off before joining Raven on the floor again. They kiss again as Taylor settles himself between long pale legs that immediately wrap around him.

Raven is strangely compliant now that he is so close to getting what he wants. Taylor, holding most of his weight on his elbows, transfers the little white tube to his lover’s hand – a hand whose manicure has not been ruined despite what its owner says. Raven twists the top off and smears a generous amount of the clear jelly-like substance – they have recently used the last of Raven’s favorite pink cotton candy flavor – onto three fingers of Taylor’s right hand.

Taylor’s slippery hand moves between Raven’s legs and Raven unwraps them from around his waist and lowers his feet to rest flat on the floor, knees upraised and spread far apart. One of Taylor’s slippery fingers presses against Raven’s opening and, encountering no resistance, slips inside.

Raven moans and the sound bounces off the tiles on both the walls and floor, sounding much louder than it really is. He tries to move, to impale himself on that single finger inside him, wanting – no, needing – it and more farther inside. Taylor holds him down again with the hand still on his hip and inserts another finger at the same time. When Raven’s reaction to the second invasion is even more positive than the first, Taylor adds another finger. Raven’s breathing grows more ragged and he feels he may explode at any moment. “Fuck,” he gasps. “Get on with it, Taylor. I swear if you don’t I’ll-“

Raven does not have a chance to finish – or carry out – his threat because Taylor chooses that moment to ‘get on with it.’ He removes his fingers and in one quick movement sheaths himself in the hot tight heat of Raven’s ass. He is still for a moment to give Raven time to adjust but the blonde has other ideas. He pushes himself hard against the other man. Taylor takes that as an okay to move. Raven clenches his fists against the tiles beneath him, further ruining his manicure and digs his heels into Taylor’s back. His boyfriend uses his cock to repeat the same movements his fingers have made only moments earlier. Between the hand on his cock and Taylor inside him it takes hardly any time at all for Raven to reach the point of orgasm again. He arches up against Taylor as he comes, coating his own stomach as well as Taylor’s with a milky white substance. The sight of Raven so caught up in his own pleasure combined with the blonde’s muscles clenching around him even tighter drove Taylor to climax too.

There are three phrases he hates to hear his boyfriend say. The first of those three is ‘Why’. When Raven is in one of his ‘why’ moods they can have a conversation that lasts for hours with Raven asking only one question and Taylor answering it several hundred times. The second of those three is really more like three phrases in and of itself but they always come at the same time. ‘Don’t wanna, not gonna, can’t make me’ is perhaps the most childish thing Taylor has ever heard issue from his lover’s mouth. But it is also the most true. When Raven has no desire to do something and flat out refuses to, there is no way anyone, not even Taylor, can make him. But by far the worst thing for Raven to say, worse even than the other two combined, is ‘I’m bored.’ When Raven is bored there is no way to know what might happen and it is best to stay away – far, far away.

But there is one phrase Taylor loves to hear Raven say and, lying freshly showered on their bed amid the piles of pillows and blankets some half an hour later, with Raven snuggling against him, Taylor is reminded of what that is.

“I love you,” Raven says and, exhausted from a long day of planning their next fashion show, skating, playing with Audrey, and their earlier activities in the kitchen, he drifts off to sleep. Taylor stays awake long enough to gently kiss his sleeping boyfriend’s lips. As he too drifts off to sleep he thinks vaguely that, not matter the havoc he may create all day, Raven looks like an angel when he is asleep.