Enjoy!


Norman's POV

It had taken longer than I thought it would to mow his yard. The grass had gotten rather tall. I had finished and was sitting on his back porch when he came out with a cup of tea. "You have no idea how much I appreciate you doing this for me." I look at his broken arm and then back up at him "Maybe this can be an excuse for me to come up here. I can tell mother that you hired me to mow while you heal."

He sits down beside me "That's not a bad idea. That way you actually would be here every weekend. Of course she wouldn't know you'd be staying in my bed." I nod in agreement and take a sip of the tea. "What time is it?" I wonder out loud. "Almost 4" I sigh "Well that explains why I'm so hungry." He laughs and pulls me to him. "I'm sweaty… you don't want to hug me" I protest. "I don't care. I'm also already making supper."

"Before we eat do you mind if I go shower?" He lets me go and nods "You can use the one in my room. There should be towels, feel free to use my soap." I nod and head to his room. I close the bathroom door and strip down. I step into his shower and turn the water on. It blasts warm water almost instantly. It feels good to shower after doing sweaty work. I grab his axe shampoo and dribble a little into my head. The goop is black which surprises me at first. At least until I realized the soap was called black.

I try to get done quickly, but the smell of the soap combined with the warm water is too relaxing. It's almost like he's in here with me. If I close my eyes the smell tricks my mind momentarily. I shut the water off eventually and slip into my pajamas. I hoped he wasn't planning on taking me out anywhere. I fully planned on staying here for the rest of the day. I head down stairs and the smell of spaghetti hits me.

I spot Alex in the kitchen. His back was turned to me, but I could see he was scooping food onto plates. "It smells delicious" I compliment. He looks over his shoulder and grins "You feel better?" I nod "Do you need any help?" he comes over with a plate of the food he had made and sets it on the table. "No. You sit… you mowed my yard… this is my way of saying thank you." I grin and take a seat. He brings over another plate and sits it opposite of me.

He finally sits down once he pours us drinks. "Let me know what you think" he says. He watches me take the first bite. I hold back my moan, but it was that good. I swallow and he looks at me expectantly. "Don't say anything, but this is better than mother's" I feel slightly guilty for liking his dish more, but that doesn't stop me from taking another bite. "Maybe if you come over more I'll make it for you again."

When we finish I try to help him with cleaning, but he refuses to let me help. I end up sitting on the couch as he cleans up. It doesn't take him long considering he has a dishwasher. I didn't know that when I had washed his dishes earlier. It had been nice to do something as normal as washing dishes with him though. When he returns he offers me the back massage I had wanted. I automatically accept.

He leads me to his room where I lay down on my stomach on his bed. He sits on me and begins to rub my shoulder with his good hand. "I'm sorry if this isn't good. I only have one hand." I sigh into the bed "It feels good" I murmur out. He continues to rub his hand down my back. He hits all the good spots and eventually I'm close to falling asleep.

I don't know how much time passes by, but he doesn't stop until I ask him to. "Thank you." I say sitting up. "Do you want one?" he shakes his head "No this was just for you." I move closer to him and start rubbing his shoulders anyway. He lets a small appreciative sigh out. "You're my boyfriend. We do things for each other" I say with ease. I move so I'm behind him. I continue to rub his back and he doesn't refuse the message anymore. He does sigh and make little moans of approval as I rub the points I feel need it the most.

"Thank you" he whispers "That was fantastic" he twists to look at me. I smile "I'm glad… I think you needed it." He nods "I guess so." he moves closer to me "I wish I could kiss you." I swallow hard from his words. I had found myself thinking about kissing him since we first started to date. "Then why don't you" I whisper. I knew the answer to that question already. He does lean in closer to me. "I want to" he whispers inches away from me.

Shivers run through my chest. He brings his hand up and cups my face "I want to" he whispers again. We are so close now and I really want him to kiss me. I don't move though. He tilts his face up and we lock eyes "We've waited this long though" he says bursting my bubble. I was torn between wanting to wait and wanting to slam our lips together. "We can wait a little longer right?" I swallow and he moves away and lets his hand fall. "You're gonna be the death of me" I joke. He pulls himself to cuddle into my side. "I could say the same" he remarks.

We lay there for a while. I'm thankful for the time to get my heart rate back to normal. Well as normal as it is when he is around. He always has my heart pounding hard. Even though it was early we fall asleep. I wake up a little past 12 a.m. and notice Alex isn't in bed. I look around and see the light in the bathroom is on "Alex?" I call. My throat was dry so it didn't come out right. "Alex?" I call again after clearing my voice.

"Hey" I hear from behind me. I turn to see Alex standing there "Sorry… I went to take a shower. I didn't want to wake you so I used the other bathroom." I turn back to the bathroom "The light…" he nods "Yeah I had to grab a towel… I guess I forgot to turn it off." I nod "Oh" I say. I go and turn the light off and crawl back into bed. "Are you okay?" he asks me. He slides his way into the bed and pulls me close. "I thought maybe you had left...I don't know…" he tightens his arms on me "I wouldn't leave without leaving a note."

I bite my lip because that wasn't what I meant. I didn't think he had been called into work… I thought he had left me. I knew it was his house… but it was still something I feared. "Babe?" he asks. His voice is quiet "Tell me what's wrong." A small smile flashes over my face. He knew me too well. "I thought you had left...me." I say softly. It sounded stupid. His answers tighten around me. "I would never… just leave…" he says quietly. "I'd never just vanish." He lightly scratches my back. I love it when he does that. He has no idea how good it feels.

After awhile the scratching stops and I'm sure he has fallen asleep. His words did comfort me to an extent, but I was still afraid to lose him. My mind flashes back to what my mother said the day I accused Alex of just wanting me for sex. "I love you Norman. I'm the only one who does." She kissed me and hugged me before leaving. She didn't say it in a rude way and lord knows she has said that exact line to me dozens of times before. It just hit me harder and differently because I had someone else in my life.

It couldn't be true right? She is not the only one who loves me. I know Dylan loves me. He may not say it, but he brought me here. That could have only been done out of love right? If he didn't care he wouldn't have asked me all of those questions about Alex. He wouldn't have spent an hour telling me to be safe. He wouldn't have threatened Alex if he didn't care.

And Alex… I think as I run a hand gently over the arm that was draped over my body. Alex cares about me. I can feel it in the way he holds me.

I care about him too.

The next morning I woke up to Alex nudging me. He has a tray of food which he sat on the bed. "I always wanted to have breakfast in bed with you." I say with a smile. He slips into the bed with me and we begin to eat the pancakes he had made for us. "You should be careful. I'm getting used to be spoiled." He laughs in response "Well maybe that's what I want. You deserve to be treated like this."

I help him clean up even though he complains about it a little bit. "What would you like to do today?" I ask while I place the last cup into the dishwasher. He starts it and shrugs "I wanted to take you hiking, but it looks like it'll rain." I grin "Do you not own an umbrella?" He nods "Well yeah, but I didn't know how you would feel about that." I smile "I'm up for it if you are." He grins "Alright. Let's do it."

We get dressed and I borrow one of his rain coats before heading out. He shows me a trail he likes to walk that is right behind his house. It goes up into the woods. He grabs my hand and we walk together into the woods. The clouds are started to gray as we walked, but we continued going. I didn't mind being caught in the rain. We walk deeper into the woods and he stops when we get to a bench. "Alex?" I ask. He looks at me "Would you like to sit?" I shrug and take a seat. He sits beside me "I love this spot. It's relaxing." I can see what he means because the light comes in from the trees and plays with the shadows.

We make it back to the house before it starts raining, but only just. We spend the rest of the day watching tv. Dylan comes to pick me up at 7. We had only just sat down to eat. I managed to talk him into staying and eating with us. It was leftovers, but it was still good. It was intense and awkward. The deafening silence wasn't helping.

Once we finish eating I help Alex clean up before going to get my things together. I hug him goodbye like we had done several times in the past. I almost didn't want to let go. I only did because I could feel how tense Alex was. I wouldn't subject him to Dylan's glares for any longer.