James was the first to speak after another ten or fifteen second silence; "it's nothing to worry about; there have been snowstorm watches every week for months, nothing ever happens," he shrugged.
"This isn't a watch, James, this is a warning. There's a difference. A watch means it could potentially happen, a warning means that it will happen. Dude, you grew up in fucking north central Quebec. Surely, you're not stupid enough to not take something like this seriously," Greg snapped, glaring at James. "Whatever, I'm going to the store before the storm sets in and getting supplies before all we're left with is some crap like canned eel or something,"
"Hey! No fighting! We've got to sort this out. You're not going out in that weather with your leg the way it is Greg," Rob interrupted, getting up out of the armchair, and Greg looked over at him with a glare of pure irritation, "you might have done enough physiotherapy to be able to walk around the house or around in good weather without that cane; but your leg is still weak. No way are you going to go out in that weather,"
"You heard the warning, Rob! A week! We could be isolated for a week! Do you think that we have enough food supplies here, right now, to last the five of us a week?" Greg nearly shouted, "we don't even have any bottled water, I'm going to go to the store before there's nothing left," James' phone started buzzing in his hand, and Greg snatched it and answered it before James could, sounding as though he was agreeing to whatever the other person was asking for, "make it eight of us; Phil and Ryan are coming to stay here with Grace. They're going to grab some stuff and head over,"
"Why?" James frowned.
"What the fuck do you mean 'why?' They live in that shithole of an ancient trailer in the bad area of Warren, that's why. The three of them will fucking freeze to death in that trailer. God James, you're so fucking selfish!" Greg snapped.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Rob got up, "before fists start flying, let's sort out a game plan. Greg you're going to stay here and watch the kids, James and I will take both of the trucks and go get some food, some supplies, and some bottled water… enough for eight people for a week. And if it's longer than a week, well then, then we will need to have some hard conversations and decisions to make," he joked, trying to lighten the mood a little bit, but neither even cracked a smile; he walked into the kitchen and grabbed the keys to the Chevy, chucking them at James, "let's go! Greg, bring in all the pot and the bongs before it gets too cold; I'm going to stop at a dispensary along the way, if we're not going to have any power then we will need something to keep the troops all entertained,"
"Necessities!" Greg yelled out in frustration at the both of them; James nodded, as he did up his heaviest winter coat and pulled on his boots, Greg walked over and handed him his wallet, but Rob was already out the door. "James, make sure you get some candles if you can find any, okay? And buy enough food that doesn't need cooking or refrigeration for all of us for a week, oh, and dog food! Because fucked if I know, Rob is just going to end up buying pot and booze. Drive safely!" James just nodded, playfully mock saluted, and walked out into the deteriorating weather.
Ten minutes later, a rapid knocking came at the door, and Greg walked over to answer it; "did you forget something, Jimmy?" Greg called out through the door, to open it to see Lisa of all people, standing there soaking wet and freezing; "Lisa! What are you doing here?" he gasped.
"My sister is getting treatment at a local hospital, and I came to support her; unfortunately, she's in hospital at the moment, and her place isn't really suitable for this kind of storm, so I'm looking for somewhere to ride out this storm… I was hoping I might be able to stay here," she admitted, "I know that things ended so, so badly last time, and I was never intending to bother you and James again; but I'm basically trapped and I don't know where else to go; all the hotels are booked out or closed, and you guys are the only people I know in Detroit,"
"Lisa, come inside, you're letting the heat out," Greg instructed her, and she came in, "look Lisa, you can have a hot shower here and we'll get you some fresh, warm clothes, but… are you positive that you don't have anywhere else to go?" and Lisa sniffled and shook her head, hanging down.
"I've only got my car, and they're saying that this storm is going to be extreme and last at least a few days and maybe even a week. The highways are all backed up that I can't get out of the city," she sniffled again, wiping her nose with her frigid sleeve.
Greg sighed, "you'll die if you have to stay in your car, go upstairs and get in the shower. James isn't going to be happy about this…" and she nodded, thanking him profusely, before running upstairs, "another hungry mouth to feed," Greg sighed, before texting James 'scratch eight. We now have nine people to feed'.
He went downstairs and pulled out a pair of thick sweatpants, a top, a thick hoodie and some thermal socks and brought them up to the bathroom; and once she came out, dressed in the new clothes, Greg sighed; "Lisa, we've got to lay down some ground rules for you staying here. You have to remember that you're really putting us all out by doing this, and the only reason that I'm letting you stay here is because it's a state of emergency, and you'll be killed by that storm otherwise. Anything that happens here, you can't complain, because we're spreading ourselves thinner by having one extra person here. You can't hit on me, you can't be abusive or set James off in any way- he's already going to have his nose way out of joint by you being here full stop. This is our home. You can't complain about anyone smoking, or if anyone has a drink. Not that the kids will be doing that, but us adults might, in fact almost certainly will, and you need to keep your distance from me, okay?"
Lisa nodded, "thank you," she whispered in gratitude, her head hanging low. Greg instructed her to go downstairs. The door pounded and Greg went and answered it, ushering Phil, Ryan, and Gracie inside, as Ryan brushed off the snow off her coat just outside the doorway. Gracie ran up to Tyson, carrying her favourite stuffed bear and stuffed cat that she had to sleep with, and asked if he wanted to go play in his room, to which he nodded enthusiastically and chased her upstairs to his room.
"Oh, not this fucking woman," Phil rolled his eyes when he saw Lisa; "Greg, what is she doing here?"
"She rocked up at the door about ten minutes after James and Rob both left to get supplies. She was freezing cold and wet with nowhere else to go apparently. She said her sister is in hospital and she's here visiting her, but her sister's place isn't safe in this weather. She's made her mistakes; but she's been a friend to James and I for a really long time, plus she saved his life. I couldn't leave her out to freeze," Greg justified.
"You know that James is going to kill you for this, right? Like actually kill you?" Phil raised his eyebrows at Greg.
"Yeah," Greg nodded awkwardly, "I already laid down some ground rules. She's to keep her trap shut about anything and everything, keep her hands and thoughts to herself and leave as soon as it's safe to do so. Plus, I don't want her drinking,"
"I just hope that's enough to keep James' temper at bay," Ryan added, sitting down on the couch, "I thought you guys were having a sober house because of Rob's… troubles?"
Greg sighed and rolled his eyes; "Rob's brought alcohol home before the warning was announced, and depending on how much water James is able to get; I'm not throwing out anything drinkable right now. If he is only able to get enough water for the kids, then we'll all have to drink whatever is available; if that's alcohol and we have to duct tape Lisa's mouth shut; then so be it. Plus, if it lasts longer than a week; which is how long we're aiming to have preparations for; we can eat Lisa first," as Lisa looked up between them with horrified, scared eyes at Greg's words; the last sentence of which it sounded as though he were only half joking. Phil walked back out to the SUV and retrieved with a couple of large camping back packs, dumped them inside, grabbed several large boxes full of food and then finally two 24 packs of water bottles and a 36-pack carton pack of Coke.
"Clothes, food, water, Coke, and there's a couple of bottles of spirits and the euchre cards to play to pass the time," Phil pointed out, and Greg grinned as they shifted the stuff downstairs into the basement.
James and Rob returned to the house about an hour and a half later, and the weather was already beginning to turn rather violent. Phil and Ryan helped James and Rob carry in enough food and drinks to support a small army; which to Greg's disappointment, included an awful lot of beer and spirits that Rob bought; "at least I bought enough pot that none of us are going to give a shit," Rob looked at Greg's disapproving eyes and chucked him a mountain of marijuana.
"What's she doing here?" James questioned Greg angrily and pointing at Lisa, grabbing him roughly by the arm as soon as everything was brought inside so James' back was facing towards everyone else, once the front door was closed and latched.
"She rocked up about ten minutes after you left. Said that her sister is sick in hospital, and she was visiting but had nowhere safe to go in the storm and every hotel in the greater Detroit area is either closed or booked out; that she would've been left in her car to freeze. She was soaked to the bone, James, and probably already hypothermic. I couldn't leave her outside like that; she was probably an hour away from freezing to death, if that. I've laid down some very strict ground rules, and she's going to follow them to the letter, and you can add your own too… but James, I couldn't leave her out there to freeze. That would've been murder. She'd be dead by now if I hadn't brought her in, let her have a hot shower and borrow some clothes. She's going to keep her distance, keep her mouth shut about everything, not drink, and keep her hands and thoughts to herself. She saved your life, James… she was the one who gave you CPR back in South Dakota when I was too terrified and in shock to do anything; and then she did it again when she fought dad and Henry off. We owe her this, James. I wouldn't have ever let her back in if it wasn't a life-or-death situation," Greg pleaded.
"Fine, but you're going to pay for it, Greg. One chance, she's got one chance, okay?" James looked over his shoulder at Lisa who nodded quickly, "come with me downstairs, Greg, we need to have… an adult conversation for a little while, okay?" Greg could see the sexual desire in James' eyes as he took a step forward, and with a tiny, automatic glance down could see a bulge beginning to develop in James' crotch through his thick jeans. Greg nodded submissively, and turned around, opening the basement door and walking downstairs, "hurry up," James hissed loudly, "you've fucked up and I want to start sorting this out as soon as possible. Right now," before he turned around and latched the lock on the basement door.
"What is he going to do?" Lisa asked, "is everything okay?"
"That's just their relationship dynamic, James is the boss and makes the decisions, he is the 'man' of the pair, as much as they hate me pointing that out because they're both men, blah, blah. Plus, they're newlyweds. It's just constant fucking; that's what newlyweds do," Rob shrugged, "anyone for some coffee?" to which Ryan and Phil readily agreed, Ryan leading Charlie by the hand towards the kitchen. Lisa then hesitantly followed, glancing for a split second at the closed door before following the others into the kitchen; I hope you're okay down there, Greg. I'm so sorry I did this to you. I hope you don't get hurt.
Downstairs, Greg looked over in the dim light at James' darkening face; "you didn't think to ask me first?" and Greg shook his head, repeating the same explanation that Lisa was hypothermic on their front step, and he didn't have time to wait for James to come back, but that he should've rung first to tell him. All the while as James looked up towards the ceiling, biting down on one side of his lower lip and shaking his head ever so slightly; "damn straight," he muttered, "get on your knees, Greg," which Greg automatically lowered himself down onto the carpet. Kneeling down in front of his husband, the man that he loved, Greg looked up at him, and from this angle; James seemed enormously tall. Greg dropped his eyes down to the carpet and to James' thick socks, focusing as much as he could on the little fabric fibres and stitching in the socks. Upon hearing an unbuckling belt, Greg looked up and saw James pulling his belt through the loops; "let's keep this on hand for later, just in case," he referred to the belt in his hand, Greg gulped and nodded. "Do a good job Greg, now and afterwards, and I might just be happy with you after all," James smiled down at him; his hair falling forward from his shoulders and hanging over Greg's head, "you're lucky I didn't end up splitting or making assumptions before, Greg, after seeing Lisa there in our lounge room; knowing how much she tried to steal you away from me. You're lucky that a round of sex with my husband, show you that you are mine, show her that you're mine; is all that I'm after, given she was in our house without me! With you hiding her from me. Hiding her from your husband!"
Greg watched with acute detail every tiny movement that James made, nodding in silent agreement at everything he had to say. He watched James unbutton his jeans and slide them down, revealing his growing erection through his underwear, which he gently rubbed and re-excited himself a bit more; before pulling his underwear down as well as Greg looked up and saw all eight and a half inches of James' manhood in front of him. Greg leant up and forward more onto his knees as he spat onto James' cock, opened his mouth as wide as he could, dropped his tongue down and pushing the back of his tongue forward, and gave James the best blow job he could remember doing. "Fuck," James muttered, feeling weak at the knees, "fuck, you're such a talented man, Gregory Gallagher, no wonder I have to keep you on a such a short leash," he held the back of Greg's head as he could feel himself edging and beginning to cum. James held Greg's head as far down his cock as he could; essentially almost at the base, and could hear Greg choking and gagging; "that's the sound I like to hear," James smiled between gasps, "choke for Jimmy,"
Greg felt the cum shoot down his throat and resisted the urge to cough, and instead limited it to gagging, which he knew turned James on even more than if he didn't. Upon swallowing James' cum; Greg looked up at him, and James placed his hand on the side of Greg's face gently running it down in a mixture of a possessive and loving gesture, "I love you so much," James smiled down at him, already with his hand on his cock, trying to re-excite himself again, "you screw up sometimes, Greg, but don't we all? The important thing is that we always come back to each other, and we never stray; husbands forever, you and I, aren't we?" to which Greg nodded, before taking James' balls into his mouth to help re-excite his husband, as James smiled down at him.
Once James was almost completely erect once again, he pulled back slightly, and helped Greg up to his feet, who stumbled a little from having too much pressure through his bad thigh for too long; James helped him sit down on their giant bed. Greg pulled his coat off and removed his shirt; just as James gently guided him down, pulling at his sweatpants and underwear, pulling them down and off, dropping them to the floor beside the bed. "Roll onto your belly," James ordered, and Greg grinned back, pulling James in for a passionate kiss and leaning back, dragging James down with him with a crash they both collapsed onto the bed. James let out a little bit of a whimper upon hitting the bed, "oh now you're really going to get it!" he jokingly ordered, momentarily tickling Greg as he laughed and gasped, wriggling underneath James. James paused, leant forward and kissed Greg with deep passion, as he could feel himself swell the remainder to his full size, before rolling Greg over, straddling and leaning over him, kissing and gently biting down his back as he gently ran his thumb over Greg's asshole, placing a bit of pressure until he opened up, and James then prepared himself, and gently placed his cock over Greg's opening and gently pushed his way in.
Greg gasped and moaned in a combination of pleasure mixed with a tiny amount of pain as he was being stretched to take in James' girthy cock, as James began thrusting and fucking Greg, his hand grasping onto Greg's shoulder, he leant forward and bit down on the back of Greg's neck and held on. "What is it with you and biting?" Greg asked whimpering, much louder than he intended to, in between gasps and moans in time with James' fucking.
"It feels good," James growled, followed by an animalistic, possessive growl, as he pulled his mouth up and across slightly.
"Hey!" Greg almost shouted, "I'm fine with you biting, but don't bite down on my neck like that and then try to lift and drag me around the bed like a leopard with a fucking gazelle!"
James released his jaws, and Greg turned his head around to see James' dilated, black, aroused eyes staring back at him, as he fucked him deeper, and Greg couldn't help but let out a crying yelp of pain which James either ignored, or didn't hear in his extremely aroused state as he started increasing the pressure and aggression of his lovemaking. James bit down, this time over Greg's upper arm, and again held on, James' body became more rigid and tight; "you're about to cum, aren't you?" Greg asked and then yowled loudly as James bit down deeper and dug in, and Greg was sure that he'd punctured the skin and drawn blood. Within several seconds, James released his mouth and pulled out.
"Greg, you are absolutely amazing," James panted, out of breath, "I can't believe it took us twenty years of knowing each other before we ever had sex, before we ever fell in love," as he started getting dressed again, he smacked Greg on the ass, "don't think that even though this house is stocked full of people; that we're going to go the next week without having sex. I'm still going to be fucking you three times a day, at the very least. I'll see you upstairs," as Greg was finishing getting dressed.
"James, you've got a little bit of blood on your lips and teeth," Rob said casually, when James walked upstairs and into the kitchen where the adults and Charlie were sat, "you fucking mad vampire you are," Rob laughed loudly and Lisa tried to hold back a look of horror and concern as she wondered where Greg was; especially seeing James grinning and laughing back at Rob with his lips bright red, and his slightly pointed canine teeth blood stained, showing up as a slightly pink colour. James walked over and put a pot of water on to boil to make coffee for himself and Greg.
Greg walked upstairs shortly after; the bite marks covered by his coat aside from the one on the back of his neck that half showed. "It hasn't become much colder," he pointed out, taking a sip of his coffee, "and at least we still have power,"
"We've filled up the bathtub upstairs to use for toilet water," Ryan pointed out, "with nine people, including six adults, all sharing a single toilet; for at least a week without water, we're going to need it to not gas ourselves from the stench of sewage when the water is cut off. There's a jug to use to scoop up water to use to flush the toilet,"
Greg nodded, "not my first lock in blizzard rodeo. Had quite a few growing up in South Dakota, and James grew up in some tiny, random ass town in north central Quebec, so it's not his first either,"
"They're predicting the temperature will start dropping in the next half hour or so. The snowfall is just now starting to pick up a lot. I just saw on Facebook that everything is cut off and isolated and that as of in ten minutes time, nobody is to move about aside from emergency vehicles," Phil pointed out on his phone, "looks like we're stuck here. Anyone for a game of euchre? No alcohol for you or you," he pointed at Rob and Lisa, "last time we invited you into shot euchre, shit went down bad…" Phil shot a dirty look at Lisa, "ah, fuck it, let's just play regular euchre for a while, not shot euchre; maybe later on tonight us four guys can play shot euchre," as he started dealing out the cards, and Charlie came and sat on Greg's lap, snuggling up, ready to doze off to sleep.
Within the next hour or so, the temperature had plummeted, and everyone was visibly shivering; "maybe we should start thinking about moving into a room that isn't external," Phil suggested, just as a roar of a frigid gale sounded as though the roof of the house was about to peel off, and frozen air started blowing through a crack in the wall.
"There isn't any," Rob muttered, "every room of this house faces outside,"
"There's the basement," Greg suggested, "it's getting too cold up here, poor Charlie is nearly frozen. Even Shady looks cold," he pointed down at the dog who was curled tightly around James' ankles. "We can move the portable heater down there and sit around that. There's a thermometer down there as well that we can keep an eye on the temperature,"
"We should be fine for a little while," James muttered, just before a roaring gale followed by a loud crash echoed through the house and the lights went out, "and there goes the power, and with it, any hot water,"
A piercing scream of terror broke through the house and immediately everyone looked up and around, before hearing pounding footsteps tearing down the stairs, and within seconds; Gracie and Tyson were standing at the doorway shivering and on the verge of tears, "it's dark!" they wailed in unison terror.
"Yeah, the power has gone out. We were just talking about heading down into the basement; here, you guys can help bring some things downstairs," James responded, "Tyson, go and grab all the blankets you can carry and take them down into the basement and Gracie, you do the same with pillows," as James took control of the situation, making orders and organisation. Before long, the card table had been set up again downstairs, the drinks and food were all down there, along with all other necessary supplies. Ryan switched on the battery-operated radio and the adults again crowded around the card table lit up by a candle; smoking and playing euchre, while the dog slept at Rob's feet, and the kids were sitting on the floor playing.