By Any Other Name (8 page)

They sat at the breakfast bar and dug into the breakfast.

“You’re going for a run?” Skye asked with a hopeful tone.

“Yeah, I think I will, looks like the weather will be nice. You can tag along if you want.” He smiled and realized that despite the occasional sign of not being just an average guy, Skye was pleasant company and a very intelligent person.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Skye asked suddenly and ducked his head a bit, looking at Thom from under his slightly curly bangs.

“Sure, go ahead,” Thom said and took his mug into his hand just to have something to concentrate on. He felt slightly nervous, not knowing Skye well enough to actually be able to guess what sort of thing the other might be asking.

“Your name is Thomas, right?” Skye asked, and Thom nodded. “So
how come
Dru calls you Thom?” The brown eyes looked at him for a moment before turning away.

“Well… I met Dru a bit over three years ago. He was working in this coffee shop in the city. It’s around the corner from the firm I work at. So I went there occasionally, and this gorgeous blond was working there one day, and I couldn’t really understand why he would flirt with me.” Thom smiled a little at the memory and saw the corner of Skye’s mouth twitch. “So when he finally asked me out, I countered his question by asking what he would possibly think a boring older guy like me, a dry lawyer at that, would have to offer someone like him.

“And he looked at me—by then he knew my name and I knew his,” Thom said and took a sip of his coffee, “and he said, ‘You know, I bet everyone calls you Tom or Tommy, right?’ and of course I could only nod. My family calls me Tom, and my mom, when I’ve been good, calls me Tommy.” He chuckled a bit before leaning back and stretching a little on his barstool.

“So Dru looks at me and says, ‘You’re none of those, you’re Thom’. And then he refused to explain it,” Thom said and looked at Skye, who looked a bit uneasy for a moment.

“That’s almost the exact same thing I said to him when I named him Dru,” Skye said and blinked. The younger man seemed to be trying to figure something out, like he didn’t know what to say, and then he looked at Thom again. “I’m glad he could show that to you. I’m glad that he found you. I just want him to be happy.” And then he got up from his seat and took his plate to the sink.

Thom had a feeling it wasn’t quite that simple but didn’t push the issue. “I’ll go change into my running gear. Do you need to borrow anything? And do you take your meds now or when we get back?” he said casually, reminding Skye of the medication without preaching about them, he hoped.

“I have my gym clothes, but a sweater might be nice if you have one? The meds I’ll take after I have a bit more to eat in a couple of hours,” Skye said in a neutral tone. At least he didn’t seem to be offended by the reminder or question or whatever it was.

“Okay, I’ll find you a sweater, then,” Thom said and went back upstairs to change.

In ten minutes he was doing a few stretches while waiting for Skye. When the man came down the stairs, Thom handed him a green hoodie. “This should fit, it’s a bit big for me.” He grinned and tried not to pay attention to the scars he could see on Skye’s arms. There were many, and he could only imagine what the rest of the man’s skin looked like. He had been mostly covered up since they had met, so Thom hadn’t been able to see the scars before.

“We’ll walk to the end of the forest path and then jog from there. It goes around the neighborhood nicely; you can’t get lost even if you wanted to run alone at some point,” he said as Skye avoided his eyes and pulled on the hoodie. They headed outside and took off in a fast walk.

“Did you get any sleep?” Thom asked.

“Yeah, four hours or so, more than I expected. No nightmares, just woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I gave up.”

“That’s good though, right?”

“Yeah,” Skye agreed as they got to the beginning of the forest and started to jog, “almost too good or too easy… so we’ll see.”

There was something ominous about the statement, and Thom wondered what it meant, but he concentrated on the exercise instead of quizzing Skye.

The whole run took about half an hour, and Thom felt a lot better when they were back at the house.

“You’re off to work soon?” Skye asked as they climbed the stairs to the front door.

“I have about an hour. I should be back around five, and Dru will wake up eventually.” He smiled.

“I think I can entertain myself. Do you think he’d wake up sooner if I made breakfast? Like pancakes and stuff?” Skye asked as they walked toward their respective bedrooms.

“You can try.” Thom chuckled, and Skye flashed him a little smile before vanishing into the guest quarters.

Thom didn’t see Skye again before he had to leave and didn’t go looking. Things were looking okay, but he had a feeling that wouldn’t last for long. Eventually there would be things that would fuck everything up for a while; they just had to try to get it to the controlled chaos state of things. Thom hoped it would work.

Dru

Dru
woke up slowly, listening for the sounds he knew wouldn’t be there. Thom would’ve left for work already. Stretching on the bed, the blond smiled a little. He did love his partner so much it hurt sometimes, and after three years, he had gotten used to waking up alone most mornings. He knew Thom would return to him eventually, and that made the brief feeling of loss he experienced every mornin
g pass.

He got up and walked into the bathroom. Dru relieved his bladder and took his toothbrush into the shower with him, one of the things Thom frowned upon but Dru did when he was alone in the mornings. Midway into his shower, he woke up properly. It was like the ends of some lines in his mind had been crawling to each other to connect properly and they suddenly did.
Skye
. Skye was in the house somewhere.

As quickly as possible, Dru finished showering and went to dry himself and pull on some clean clothes for the day. He needed something to eat. That was when he looked at the time, surprised that it was only a bit past eight. Then again, they had crashed early. He was sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling on some socks when he heard a quiet knock on the door.

“Yeah?” he called out, and the door opened.

“Morning. Glad you’re up. There are chocolate chip pancakes and fresh coffee downstairs,” Skye said and smiled briefly at the way Dru’s eyes widened. “I was tipped off.”

“Figures… for a moment I thought you were a psychic or something… my favorite kind of pancakes.” Dru grinned and got up, walking to the door.

Without thinking, he placed his hand on Skye’s arm like he did so often with his closest friends, even though he was anything but touchy-feely. Once again Skye recoiled from the touch, backing off in an instant, nearly banging against the wall on the other side of the hall.

“Shit!” Dru hissed under his breath.

“No… sorry, it’s a gut instinct. I’m sorry.” Skye raised his hands as if surrendering.

“It’s not your fault,” Dru said and walked down the stairs. “I mean, we should remember not to touch you like that. It’s just that we touch each other a lot….”

He was sure he heard Skye say something like “I’ve noticed” under his breath but didn’t comment on it.

“So we do that to our friends too, and I really need to adjust to this thing,” Dru said as he poured himself some coffee and added milk to it.

“No… it’s not right… it’s me who should be trying to get used to it. I mean, I’m supposed to be planning a life outside this house. How do I do that if I’m constantly afraid of people touching me?” Skye said sensibly as he plated their pancakes.

“I suppose you’re right, but it’s not easy for you, and we should be more cautious, at least for now.” Dru frowned and then hummed in delight when he took his first bite of the best pancakes he’d ever had. “Oh wow… you get to make breakfast as often as you want. If you say you can’t cook and then come up with this… impressive.”

Skye grinned briefly, the old kind of open grin that made Dru’s stomach clench for a moment in a familiar way. Then Skye lowered his eyes and concentrated on his own plate.

“Did you get any sleep?” Dru asked, and Skye told him about his morning. “Great, I wasn’t going to go for a run anyway today, so I’m glad Thom showed you the route. I might do a bit of running on the treadmill or something, but I’m not really feeling doing it outside.” He shrugged.

“I was thinking… would it bother you if I took my book upstairs while you work? I might actually be able to fall asleep for a few hours on the couch up there,” Skye asked in an almost shy way that somehow made Dru feel like he had in the old days. He had been asked things in that same way countless times before. When asking for anything from some of Dru’s candy to borrowing his bike to giving him a ride or going camping, that had been the way Skye expressed himself.

“Sure, if you can handle tapping on the keyboard, cursing, and a little music and possible phone calls and faxes,” Dru said, having a feeling this was one of those little steps he shouldn’t be making a big deal of.

“Great,” Skye said, and they continued to finish their breakfast.

When they were done eating, Skye took his pills and Dru insisted on cleaning the kitchen.

“Oh, I’m not sure how empty of clutter the office couch is,” Dru said as Skye went to fetch his book from the library.

“It’s okay, we’ll clean a bit of your kingdom if we have to.” Skye smirked over his shoulder, and Dru’s stomach flipped a bit again.

It wasn’t just that the flashes of his friend were coming through, it was also the fact that he had once been in love with this man, and Skye had grown into someone stunning. Hell, if Dru were single and he’d met someone who looked like Skye somewhere, anywhere, he’d try to make a move. His friend was that gorgeous. Of course he had noticed the scars and wondered how many more there were and whether he’d get to see those.

When he got to the loft and went to turn his computer on, Skye came in from his room with a blanket and a pillow. “See, no clutter. I think Thom must have cleaned it a bit yesterday.”

“Hmm, yeah, might be true. Want to have the window open for fresh air?” Dru asked and pointed at the little window at the end of the hallway. The windows of the loft itself, the same ones that lined the back wall of the living room, were permanently shut, but the little windows in the hall could be opened.

“Sure, can you do it?” Skye asked as he put the pillow and blanket on the couch and tried to settle down comfortably.

Dru went to open the window and inhaled the morning air. It was a great scent, the trees and some flowers outside. He should take a day off soon just to be able to hang out in the garden a bit more. Sometimes he took a laptop to the deck, but that was it, really. Besides, the sunlight always got on his nerves when it reflected from the screen.