Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

ninety-nine point eight."
    Daren nodded and reached for his cane. It seemed he had come to the same "we are men and we don't have to talk about things" conclusion, which was fine with Sebastian. As Daren slowly limped his way to the kitchen table, Sebastian hovered by his left side. It only took the cane catching or putting his foot down at the wrong angle for Daren to go down in a heap.
    Once Daren was safely seated again, Sebastian grabbed two soup cans from the cupboard. "What are you in the mood for, chicken noodle or minestrone?"
    "Minestrone. I was supposed to be at a friend's birthday in Rome today."
    "I'm sorry."
    "It's okay, he's actually kinda an asshole. But I'm sure he thinks the same thing about me."
    ****
    Sebastian let the fever burn itself out, and it seemed to have done that by the time he'd tucked Daren into bed for the night and was doing a last cleanup on the kitchen. The morning had not been mentioned, spoken of, or hinted at. The day had progressed pretty much as normal. Daren had been a little quiet, but it seemed to be a peaceful quiet. A calm after the storm and possibly before another.
    His phone bleeped.
    How R U and the BF doing? — Ty
    Sebastian laughed at the text. Ty, Rachael and occasionally Jimmy had gotten into the habit of texting him every couple of days to check on him. Under the policy of wrapping lies in truth, he'd been sending back little status updates. It was a balancing act. He didn't want Daren to seem too much better or they might try to come over again.
    Bit of emotional drama today but way overdue.
    He hit send, put away the last of the dishes, and decided not to bother with the Late News. He'd gotten into the habit of scanning various news sites for any information concerning Gerald Delaware, but there had been nothing new. He stripped down to his shorts and a T-shirt and climbed into bed, under the blanket and over the sheet, careful not to wake Daren in the process. He was also careful to move as far towards the edge of the bed as he could without falling off.
    They might be going through a whole "it didn't happen" thing, but it did happen, and Lord only knew what was going on in Daren's head. He was already dealing with physical and psychological trauma, a nineteen-year-old's existential crisis, a stretch of sobriety, and the knowledge that his family was trying to actually kill him. A sexual identity freak-out on top of everything else did not seem like a good idea. Then again, it could just get lost in the mix. Or possibly Daren was enough of an urban child of the 90s and the new millennium that gender and sex identity was just sort of passé.
    Sebastian folded up the spare pillow under his head and filed all the worries away for later, after a hopefully decent night's sleep.
    When morning did come, the first thing Sebastian saw was Daren staring at him with those wide blue eyes, hardly even blinking. It was mildly disconcerting but not as odd as the fact that he had mostly slept through the night. He wasn't sure if he was getting better at sleeping through Daren's nightmares or if there were just fewer of them, but he could only recall being woken twice.
    "Good morning." Daren's voice was still a little hoarse.
    "Morning. You let me oversleep again."
    "Didn't think it mattered. I've been thinking this morning." Sebastian braced himself. "You're right, I should dye my hair back to black. Maybe cut it a bit."
    Sebastian hoped the wave of relief didn't show on his face. "I can only do one kind of haircut, and it's the kind that makes you look like you're about to enlist, but I think I can manage a box of hair dye."
    "Good."
    Sebastian sat up and stretched his back. His bed was far preferable to the chair, but he also knew he could use a new mattress. It had been a planned use for his small savings account. Now it looked like that savings was going to be paying unexpected bills.
    "Um…" Daren hadn't sat up, and his voice was tentative. Sebastian braced himself again but didn't turn around to look at Daren. "About… I mean, just so you know… Um… I'm not… I mean, there was this one thing, but…"
    "Existential identity crisis. Don't worry about it." Sebastian tried to use his best, "we're men, we don't need to talk about stuff" voice.
    "Okay. Right." There was genuine relief in Daren's voice.
    Sebastian hopped out of bed as Daren sat up. "I'll get breakfast on. I got eggs yesterday. How do you like yours?"
    "Scrambled?"
    "Scrambled I can do. If you'd said