The first night Toris spent at his charge's home, Feliks made him a bed on the sofa with two pillows and a blanket. The blond offered to lend him his own bed (Feliks would be working till morning anyway) instead of sleeping in a the living room that doubled as a workspace.
Toris declined.
Two hours later, he was cursing his choice and proper manners. Everything reminded him of the deadline. The mouse clicks , sounds of pencil moving on paper and the evil gleam of the monitor, shining brightly onto the wall from behind his back. It was driving him and his stomach crazy. He should have taken his Ipod with him. Toris tried to concentrate on something different, next holidays or his brother, but nothing proved a worthy distraction. After, what was probably century worth of stress, Toris finally calmed enough to control his stomachache.
It was a long night. Toris finally fell asleep when his coworker decided to get a break and take a shower around 3 AM.
The evening found Toris and Feliks, sitting on the floor of the living room, eating delivery pizza. The dark circles were peeking from under the blond's prescriptioned glasses, need only as an anti-reflection filter. Feliks denied being short sighted (It was true. Toris found out later that Feliks was far sighted.)
Toris finished his half of the pepperoni and was now looking at his companion's attempts to stuff himself. His brain was numb from restless sleep the night before. He sympathized with Feliks, who worked with 4 hours of sleep for the last 2 days and spent most of the time bent over a piece of paper drawing or staring at a computer screen. Apart from redden eyes, the illustrator looked rather refreshed and lively. Some people have stamina.
In a few days they would hopefully finish the assignment, Toris thought as he closed his eyes and slowly started sinking into more horizontal position on the carpet. He hated sleep deprivation.
Feliks was in the middle of telling a tale about his and Francis high school days which, in his current state, Toris found very hard to follow.
"And you wouldn't believe it." Feliks gesticulated in a frenzy "Francis had the guts to smile and talk back to the principal after he was caught having sex in his office. It was something that everybody talked about for days." Toris definitely could believe that.
Well, I never had such wild adventures in high school Toris thought with a hint of jealousy.
"But you know, I was always that little wimpy kid that followed the school playboy around so I can't tell anything interesting about myself."
Toris smiled at him in reply. It was easy to have a conversation with Feliks, one just had to sit back, relax and listen.
"Okay, Mr editor," Feliks shoved the last, enormous, bite of pizza into his mouth and tried not to choke "if ya wanna help me, you can go over that pile of mags in the corner. I need some photos of girls cuddling together or doing some other naughty things."
" Ah, yeah, sure" Toris tried to muster his most straight business face. He knew it would come in handy someday.
When Felik's stifled laughter was heard, he knew he didn't succeed. "Oh my god, so you're the fan of Claire and Julia as well. You should have told me" With the growing embarrassment, editor's eyes trailed to the balcony door and the view outside. God, must he be so prudish. "Pshh. I have extra naughty pics I sometimes do as a practise, I'll show ya later."
Feliks gracefully got up from his spot and walked to the desk, stretching his back on the way. To late in stuttering his reply, with a resigned sigh Toris turned to the tower of books and magazines in the corner.
On top was a glitzy teen mag, irrelevant.
Then there was a Playboy, Toris felt his cheeks becoming flushed and glanced with guilt at the illustrator working at the opposite end of the room. Feliks back was bent over the desk, already immersed in work.
As if handling a bomb, Toris slowly set it aside and considered opening. Judging by the cover, the content would most certainly suite as research for perverted stories written by Francis. Not that Toris ever read them.
How his publishing house ,specialising in kids books , printed all the 'romance' novels was still a mystery. There was more to life than popularity and profits.
And sex set in gaudy romance plots.
He left the magazine aside as a start of 'adequate for research' pile, he would open 'the relevant material' later. With this kind of labelling everything seemed under control.
There were some books on the pile, mostly for children. Toris took one and instantly recognized the style of another illustrator in the company, the sweet animals drawn by Mr. Väinämöinen.
Next came issues of Playgirl, Toris gulped audibly. He felt embarrassed just from looking at the covers. He hoped that wasn't relevant for this project.
Half an hour and one moral dilemma later, Toris hesitantly opened the Playboy.
Feliks was humming softly while working.
"Feliks are you alright?" no response. The Illustrator's gaze hung on the view outside the window. Eyes glazed, cloudy and very much absent. Not even a flinch came from more coaxing and squeezing of the shoulder. Feliks was either hypnotized or sleeping with his eyes open. Toris lifted Feliks out of the chair and slowly shifted the dead weight of the other's body to support it fully, carrying it all the way to the bedroom.
The moment Feliks' body hit the materce, his eyes slipped closed. It was a sorry sight, half dead body in a pile of rumpled, oversized clothes. Feliks long hair was tide and front bangs were kept in place with pink bobby pins. 'Embarrassing' Toris thought but smiled. Carefully, he removed the glasses from the others' face. A very delicate affair, thou he suspected not even an earthquake would wake Feliks up. Toris took the 'wonderful magic potion' (articial tears for dry corneas) and dumped two in each eye. At last he was useful.
It was sunday afternoon. They, mostly Feliks, managed to work constantly throughout the weekend and finish 9 out of 12 illustrations. They still had a day and half left till Tuesday. Toris made quick calculations in his head, he could probably let the other sleep for 8 to 10 hours. He could even wake Feliks up around 5 am to get back to work. it's not like their biological clock wasn't messed up already. Now was the time to do something productive and aid the project, Toris went to make dinner.