Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

his way to his feet and almost to the bedroom door. "I'll run down to the drug store after breakfast, and we'll see about that hair dye." Daren stumbled a bit, but Sebastian caught him, one hand at his elbow, the other pressed flat against his chest, stopping a face-first tumble.
    "Thank you."
    Sebastian smiled. "That's what I'm here for."
    ****
    Sebastian pulled off his gloves before setting the timer on his phone. "Ten minutes, think you can manage?"
    Daren was sitting in the bathtub, his head tilted back. "Does it really need to be ten minutes?"
    Sebastian held out the box the hair dye had come in. "That's what it says on the box." It had taken Sebastian a good deal longer to pick out a box of hair color than he had thought it would and he ended up shuffling in the aisle for a while until the girl who had rung up his tabloids came to help. Sebastian had checked before he left and found that Daren's hair wasn't so much black as it was a very dark brown. He wanted it to look as natural as possible so when it grew out a bit it wouldn't look like a dye job, but that left him scratching his head over highlights, lowlights, and quick colors.
    Daren read the box and sighed a bit. Sebastian was working out that Daren wasn't actually the most patient person on Earth. Daren tilted his head back further and stared at the ceiling while the clock on Sebastian's phone counted down the seconds. Through the wall, they could just make out The Price is Right theme music. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Daren asked out of the blue.
    "What?"
    "I mean when you go to college and stuff, what do you want to be? I mean, I don't know what you do, but it can't be that exciting."
    Sebastian couldn't claim that pharmaceutical distribution was his life goal. He'd been offered a job as an EMT, but he'd been sick of other people's blood. "Not really, no. I don't know. I figured I'd just take some random classes and see what sticks."
    "Why not Medicine? You'd be a good doctor."
    Sebastian snorted. He'd given that about thirty seconds thought back in the day. "No, I'll pass. When you're a doctor you have to deal with people dying on you, and I've got zero desire to ever witness that again. It's a very overrated experience. How about you? What were your plans if you hadn't gotten kicked out of eight high schools to piss off your father?"
    "I don't know. I think I might actually be good at business, but I'd rather beat myself over the head with a brick before that. Literature maybe, I like to read. I used to write a bit when I was, like, ten. Richard used to take me camping. He knew the Latin names of all these plants and if they were poisonous or anything. I always kind of liked that."
    "Botany, maybe? You can go tramping through the rainforest looking for the plant that will cure a common cold."
    "It's stupid thinking that far ahead. Got to make a run at the windmills first, right? See if I come out of that alive."
    Sebastian's phone chirped at him then, but it wasn't the alarm.
    How are you doing? — Rachael
    Sebastian mulled over those few words. He could fill a novel with how he and Daren were doing at that point.
    Daren rolled his head towards Sebastian with a questioning look. "It's just Rachael."
    "Wondering how your boyfriend is doing?"
    "You heard that?"
    "The walls in this place aren't that thick."
    "I was trying to make up something they'd believe on the fly."
    "It's okay. I'd probably have laughed if I hadn't been completely freaking out." Fine. Getting better. Sebastian quickly typed then sent.
    His phone beeped again, but this time it was the alarm.
    "Okay, let's see what the damage is."
    Daren leaned as far back as he could while Sebastian washed away the dye then ran a bit more shampoo through just to make sure before a final rinse. Daren gave his head a bit of a shake and ran his fingers through it. "Well, how do I look?"
    Sebastian swallowed a bit. Contrasted with the dark hair, Daren's sky blue eyes absolutely shone out from his face. He looked a bit younger, but not juvenile. If anything, he looked more mature and a little healthier. He certainly didn't look like Gerald Delaware from the tabloids anymore. "Good. Here, take a look." He helped Daren from the tub to look in the bathroom mirror.
    "Jesus." He ran his fingers through his hair a few more times. "I've had my hair bleached since I was fourteen. I don't recognize myself." He turned his head one way then the other, examining himself from a few different angles.