Tiger Winter - 5. Flirt

Because he’d only just stretched his flat-pack furniture muscles, Emmett got the joy of putting up the new single bed when it arrived in two boxes. The spare room wasn’t big enough for a double, but since Emmett figured that Huan-Yu’s cousin was going to be on the diminutive side, even if he was a tiger, he doubted it would be too much of a problem. The spare room was directly opposite his, and Emmett was curious to meet the person he’d be sharing space and a bathroom with. He’d moved across town to avoid student-based life, and the introduction of someone who’d been travelling around the world for a year, apparently without plans, seemed to contradict his new life-style choice.

The room looked awfully bare, worse with the empty bed sitting in it, and Emmett moved a small desk lamp and little table in to keep the bed company. Even though Huan-Yu hold told him not to bother, Emmett took sheets and comforter from the linen closet in the hallway and made up the bed so it looked a bit more homey.

“I’ve never met a tiger.”

“You still won’t have. Jian’s not a tiger.” Huan-Yu sipped his tea. Emmett had tried some, but been generally unimpressed with the weak green flavour.

“But, you said-”

“That he’s from a tiger family? Yeah,” Huan-Yu shook his head gently. “The Kiang’s are a dynasty in every sense of the word. Yéyé Kiang had six sons, my ‘uncles’, and one daughter. Floating Jasmine is Jian’s mother: she married a human. He’s the only non-shifter in his family. We have a lot of cousins.”

“That’s gotta suck,” Emmett frowned, “so when will he be here?”

“Sometime tomorrow?” Huan-Yu shrugged. “He said he was gonna get on whichever flight was leaving next, but Jian’s never been the most organised person in the world. He’ll call me, probably, and work won’t mind if I take off early to go and get him.” The panda smiled as he followed his housemate downstairs. “How are the students? Is their training going well?”

“I accidentally made them all into camp-sleep-gear snobs,” Emmett admitted. “Some of them are so obsessed with what I told them about staying warm outdoors they refuse to believe anyone who works in a shop actually knows anything about their own product. They’re coming along well though. We all went out to the mall the other day to practice spotting with binoculars in the food hall: they turned it into a bit of a game.”

“And you got to secretly ogle Zeke?”

“Not as secretly as I’d hoped,” Emmett sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. When Zeke had wandered through the food court, checking on the plant maintenance completed by his employees, Emmett had fixed his new bright-yellow binoculars on him and followed the man around. Within a minute, some of the students had noticed, started copying him, and Nolan had started to narrate what he saw in a passable impression of Sir David Attenborough. This had attracted some attention, and when Zeke had looked up and saw them, he had not been impressed. Emmett knew he would have to work his way back into Zeke’s good graces.

He bid his housemate goodnight and headed out towards Zeke’s. On the way, Zeke texted him with a single word ‘Chinese’, and Emmett took the subway all the way out to the Lucky Star to get satay chicken skewers, prawn crackers, and beef with mango. It was a long way to go, but Emmett had always liked the food when he lived in the city, and he was trying to make Zeke happy after all.

Zeke was slightly surly when Emmett got there, but the polar bear got a kiss on the cheek for his trouble. There was a cookery reality TV show on, and they sat cuddled together on the couch, trading snarky comments about the culinary abilities of the contestants and eating their take-out.

“Do you cook?” Emmett asked as the credits rolled. The food was long finished, and Emmett had removed every single scrap of meat from the skewers. He was hungry again, but not enough for his body to start grumbling about it.

“No; I mean, not really,” Zeke shrugged, “there’s not a lot of point cooking for one, and there are so many awesome restaurants and take-out places in the city. My mom wasn’t much into cooking either. Your family cook?”

“Yeah, my pop is a great cook, my step-mom too.” Emmett blinked softly: Ryley might have begged him to cook seal when he got home, but no one made fish soup like his father did. Back home they ate every three days, more or less like Emmett did now, but there was always a pot of fish soup on the stove. Always warm, full of salmon, arctic cod, char and polar plaice, Emmett had no idea how his father made the broth taste so rich and wonderful, but the moment he got home, Emmett knew exactly where he would be headed.

Emmett cleared up the plates while Zeke vanished upstairs. He half expected the cold-shoulder treatment, but his boyfriend kissed him hard as he turned from shutting the bedroom door.

“I don’t like fighting with you.”

“Me neither,” Emmett wrapped the young man up in his big arms and lifted Zeke bodily, “let’s not do it again.”

“Don’t bring your students to my work.”

“Deal,” Emmett carried Zeke to the bed, dropped him onto the mattress, and pushed him back when he tried to get up. “Let me make it up to you.”

He massaged Zeke’s crotch through the thin material of his slacks, and grinned as Zeke moaned. Whether or not he was still mad with Emmett became a moot point, because his quickly thickening cock gave away how much Zeke desired him. The polar bear stripped his lover of his slacks and underwear quickly, and grabbed Zeke behind the knees, tugged his bare ass to the edge of the bed, parting his thighs, before kissing the tip of his engorged penis. Only when Zeke whimpered in pleasured frustration did Emmett wrap his mouth around his boyfriend’s erection.

Zeke purred, clutched at Emmett’s pale hair, whimpered and dug his fingernails into the polar bear’s thick set shoulders. Emmett held his hips tight; his nose pressed against the skin of Zeke’s smooth tanned crotch, his tongue undulating along the length of Zeke’s delightfully proportioned member. When Zeke cried out his name in fevered passion, Emmett knew he was going to be forgiven.

He released Zeke’s cock from the hot, constricting confines of his mouth long enough to saliva coat a finger and had Zeke whimpering in resumed frustration. On continuing the blow-job, Emmett worked his slicked-up digit into Zeke’s tight passage and half-growled at the force with which the young man bucked against his mouth. Being hit in the nose by his partner’s pubic bone was not attractive, but shortly after Emmett found his prostate, the man became a wriggling puddle of bliss and wonder in Emmett’s arms.

Two delicious orgasms later, Emmett jerked himself off under the watchful and instructive gaze of his boyfriend before hugging Zeke against his chest, and drifting off to sleep.

*

When Emmett returned from the university the following day, the door to his bathroom was shut, and the unmistakable noise of someone showering emanated from it. The door to the little bedroom he had helped to create was open however, and lying spilled on the bed was a large backpack of the type favoured by round-the-world travellers and hiking expeditions, its contents generally brightly coloured and crumpled. There was also a large, vibrantly ocean-blue and lime-green surfboard leaning against the wall, and Emmett arched an eyebrow at it as he retreated to his own bedroom.

Their new guest was in, and Emmett’s natural curiosity kept tugging at his attention as he put the previous day’s clothes into the laundry. The only bad thing about sleeping over at Zeke’s was the need to carry his spare clothes around in his satchel, books and teaching notes jammed in with spare socks and boxers. He changed into looser fit relaxed-cut jeans and a thick cotton t-shirt branded with Rye’s ice-hockey team from which he had removed the sleeves, before gathering up the collection of wildlife observation proposals from his students. Reading through them would make for an interesting evening.

Emmett walked right out of his room and stopped himself before he smacked into his temporary housemate.

“Huan-Yu wasn’t joking, you’re fucking huge,” the boy grinned at him, even and very white teeth flashing below eyes that burned a strange kind of amber-orange, “you must be Emmett; I’m Jian.”

“Hey,” Emmett shook the proffered hand and smiled back, “it’s nice to meet you.”

Jian was short, though probably a couple of inches taller than Huan-Yu, and unlike his cousin he was rangy and athletic. And Emmett could see exactly the way he was put together, saved the caramel-tea brown of his skin in his mind, and counted the soft ridges and dips of muscles in his abdomen, because Jian stood there in nothing but a splashily coloured thin beach towel wrapped low around his hips.

“You too. I kinda forgot to pack shampoo before I left Cali,” Jian ran his fingers through his jet black hair, pushing it over his skull, “I borrowed yours, sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Emmett shrugged.

“I figured if we’re gonna share a bathroom I’ll just buy a replacement before we run out.” Jian grinned at him, and Emmett pulled his gaze away from the young man’s chest where it then became snagged on the shape of his lips. “I suppose you eat? Polar bears eat right: you’re not gonna leave me being the only one having dinner are you?”

“Don’t worry, bud; I eat. I even bought a fridge.”

“Excellent,” Jian’s smile was full of satisfaction, “I’ll see you when I’ve found some clothes then. Nice to meet you, Emmett.”

Emmett wandered down to the kitchen feeling rather like he’d fallen through the polar ice without his fur on. It wasn’t unpleasant, so much as generally shocking, and he was still a little bit dazed when Huan-Yu followed him in from the lounge with a smile and the effervescent aroma of green tea and lemon.

“I see you met Jian.”

“Is he always like that?” Emmett blinked to clear his head.

“He grew up with tigers,” Huan-Yu sipped his tea, “he’s the strongest person I know: and one of the most tactless.”

“He seems nice.” Emmett began to assemble equipment and ingredients for his dinner. It felt like the right sort of day to have the seal blubber, so he took his big knife and began to slice the meat and fat into thick cubes while the butter clarified in the pan. Describing Jian as ‘nice’ was a good way to cover the fact that the moment Emmett saw him his heart had done something unusual and moderately painful. Announcing that he was now living with a really cute guy was not going to please Zeke at all, and Emmett wondered how long he could avoid telling his boyfriend about their new visitor.

“Oh my god that smells good,” Jian was back in the doorway, dressed in hibiscus patterned board shorts and an oversized hoodie. Even his bare feet and ankles were smooth and well formed, and Emmett scowled at his libido for having taken notice. “What are you cooking?”

“It’s seal,” Emmett shook the pan and began to turn the little cubes so they would go brown and crispy on all their edges, “and there’s a chilli marinated salmon,” he glanced back at where the young man stood, looking excited and faintly jealous, “you grab me another frying pan from the cupboard and I’ll feed you.”

Jian dashed to complete the task, and soon they were cooking side by side, Jian flipping the big salmon chunks deftly with his wooden spatula while Emmett sautéed potato slices in the rendered seal fat with some pepper and paprika. Jian obviously knew how to cook. Huan-Yu had retired to the living room with his tea and a small bowl of cucumber slices, but Emmett figured he was still keeping a close eye on them.

“So, what were you doing in California?” Emmett asked as he began to lay out some plates.

“Surfing,” Jian shrugged non-committedly, “playing around on jet-skis and mucking around on the beach. Before that it was Florida, Hawaii, and Australia: more of the same. Beach parties, wind surfing, kite boarding, more surfing, and boat parties, all the good stuff.”

“You do realise Toronto hasn’t got any of that stuff? It’s gonna be properly winter soon, all we’ll have is lots of snow. I suppose you snowboard too?”

“Never tried it actually, but maybe you can show me,” Jian smiled warmly at him, and Emmett grinned back before he could stop himself. Internally he growled, because there was no way on earth he could have mistaken Jian’s gesture, his tone, the way he stood next to Emmett with his hip practically against Emmett’s thigh: the young Chinese man was flirting with him. “Can I have a beer?”

“Are you old enough?”

Jian jabbed him in the ribs, and his knuckles were pointy. He might have been a little guy, but Emmett knew then that Jian could pack his punches well enough.

“I’m twenty-two, jerk!” He laughed as he opened the fridge, “just ‘cause you’re thirty you think everyone else is a child?”

“I’m twenty-eight, thank you.”

“See? Six years isn’t that big an age gap,” Jian licked his teeth, his eyes flashing, “I can keep up with you just fine.”

Emmett decided not to dwell on the many shades of meaning behind Jian’s words, and piled the seal chunks into one dish while the potato slices went onto a plate. Just as he was reaching for the spicy salmon, Jian put a hand on Emmett’s forearm and the polar bear found all of his attention drawn to the point of contact.

“So big guy, do you like to play rough?”

“Huh?” Emmett strangled the syllable in his throat.

“Ice hockey,” Jian touched the material covering Emmett’s chest, then took the two beers, cutlery and empty plates from the surface, “what did you think I meant?”

Feeling like he’d fallen off a cliff, Emmett followed him into the main room.

They ate on the sofa and Huan-Yu nibbled his cucumber slices while Emmett and Jian chewed their way through salmon and seal with enthusiasm. The skinny Chinese man knocked Emmett’s elbow as he speared another cube of seal and blubber.

“This is amazing. You’re an awesome cook.”

“I’m not really…”

“Cute and self-depreciating,” Jian sighed happily, “please feed me again?”

“Sure,” Emmett laughed, “You’re such a skinny little thing; I doubt you’ll even make a dent in my supplies.”

“So how long are you staying, Jian?”

“I hadn’t really planned anything ‘cuz: a few weeks, maybe more, as long as Emmett doesn’t mind me sharing his bathroom.”

“Fine by me.”

“I thought you’d be heading back to Australia; you hate the winter,” Huan-Yu remarked.

“Yéyé said I had to check in with family,” Jian shrugged, “and no one has seen you in like four years? I saw all these big aeroplane things at the airport,” Jian laughed, “turns out they fly to China and everything.” Their new housemate jumped up from the sofa and rubbed his flat stomach. “Your food is amazing Emmett: I might just have to stay forever.” He began to gather up the plates as Emmett chewed through the last chunk of seal meat, “I’ll do the dishes. You want another beer?”

Emmett waggled the brown glass bottle, there was only an inch or so left.

“Sure, why not?”

He half watched Jian retreating across the hall and into the kitchen, but he couldn’t really see anything bar the side of the fridge. After a moment, Huan-Yu got up to follow his cousin, and Emmett reached for the remote and turned the television to his favourite sports channel. They would be just about in time for the hockey game, because in five minutes the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Pittsburgh Penguins were going to collide spectacularly on the ice. Supporting ice hockey was practically a sport in and of itself back home, and when Emmett couldn’t get a broadcast of a Wolves game, he cheered for the Maple Leafs: they played really hard and he fancied Tyler Bozak in a roundabout way.

“I’ll go help Jian,” Huan-Yu muttered as he vanished from the room.

Two open doors and the four foot wide hallway were not enough to mask their conversation from Emmett. Even though Huan-Yu didn’t speak loudly, Emmett had the enhanced senses shared by all shifters.

“Jian!” Huan-Yu hissed, “I can’t believe you asked him that!”

“Why?” Emmett could practically hear Jian shrug, “it’s not like there’s great deal of point spending ages beating around the bush.”

There was a pause and Huan-Yu sighed in exasperation.

“You do not just up and ask my housemate if he likes to ‘play rough’, Jian! I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“He’s a fuckin’ polar bear dude: he can deal with it.”

Emmett looked sideways through the doorway and caught a glimpse of Jian as he opened the fridge. The newcomer saw him looking, and Emmett glanced away quickly, covering the motion by swigging the last of his beer.

“You don’t even know that he’s gay!” Huan-Yu whispered.

“Er, yeah I do,” Jian’s tone was cocky.

Emmett grinned to himself, and then his conscience kicked him in the ankle and reminded him he had a boyfriend, and he shouldn’t be happy a cute guy was trying to flirt with him.

“I can hear you two, y’know.” Emmett leant forwards so he could see into the kitchen properly and stared at his housemates for a long moment. Jian was holding a bowl of chilli flavoured tortillas. “Are you bringing chips or what? Game’s gonna start without you…”

Jian sniggered and jabbed his cousin’s shoulder.

“You watch sports now?”

“No, Emmett watches sports. I just can’t be bothered to change the channel.”

“Oh Rain,” Jian handed Emmett a beer and dropped onto the other end of the couch with the bowl of chips, “Pandas are so unambitious. Oh, ice hockey!” They clinked bottles as Huan-Yu settled down crossed legged on the little armchair with an aloe-vera juice. “Who’s playing?”

“Maple Leafs are gonna trash the Penguins: you’re in for a good introduction to the sport.”

“I’ll leave you two to it,” Huan-Yu sighed, getting up again.

“Don’t spend too much time arguing with teenagers over the internet, Rain. Have fun.”

Emmett sipped his beer and looked sideways at his new companion as the game started.

“Why do you call him that?”

“Rain?” Jian smiled, “that’s what his name means. Huan-Yu translates as ‘Joyous Rain’.”

“That’s nice,” Emmett smiled, “it sort of suits him.” On screen Sam Carrick slammed into one of the Penguin’s centre forwards while Tyler Bozak scored the first point. Emmett cheered. “What about you? Does your name mean something?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not going to tell me are you?” Emmett arched one eyebrow, “pass the chips.”

“Fuck!” Jian’s exclamation accompanied several players ploughing into the barrier and the ice as they fought for the puck, “I forget how violent team sports are.”

“You think this is bad, you should see us out on the ice back home.”

“I’ll bet polar bears don’t pull their punches either,” Jian grinned and drank his beer, only momentarily glancing away from the screen.

“Only about as much as tiger’s do, I expect. My little brother plays for the Capital Wolves,” Emmett gestured to his t-shirt, “we play on the river in the winter sometimes. I suppose it’s our version of kick-about.”

“Huan-Yu told me you come from a town with no roads?”

“Yup, gotta take the train home for Christmas. ‘Course, I can put my truck on the train too; I wouldn’t wanna leave it in Cochrane for three weeks.” Emmett watched Jian watching the hockey game, “you don’t miss home?”

“Not especially. Being the only human in my family isn’t huge fun a lot of the time. Yéye is always dissatisfied with me.”

“Your grandfather?”

“Yeah. My cousin’s all went into business: banking, retail management, law, corporate accountancy, real estate. I am a general disappointment, because I like to muck around in the sea and go to parties.”

“Not a popular decision?” Emmett guessed, “I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. If I go home now, my father will finally force me to join him at the tax office and I’ll spend the rest of my life being bored out of my mind.” Jian sighed heavily. From what Emmett knew about traditional Chinese families, and the way Huan-Yu had spoken about the Kiang dynasty, the polar bear could well believe the pressure Jian would be put under at home.

“Maybe you could turn pro and surf forever?”

“Ha! Maybe… not like you guys have any decent waves around here though. OHHH! Yikes, that’s gotta hurt,” the Penguin’s goalkeeper was bleeding on the ice, “and you say your little brother does this for fun? I’ve got to meet this guy.”

“You’ll have to come home for Christmas then,” Emmett replied casually. “Jeez! That’s gonna need stitches. He hit the wall with some speed, eh?”

Not since before his last wilderness expedition had Emmett had anyone to watch ice hockey with, and Jian threw himself full force into the match, routing for the Maple Leafs, providing his own little bursts of commentary, and smiling when Emmett corrected him on the finer points of the game. They munched their way through the bowl of chips, drank another beer each, and by the time the game finished, Emmett was grinning broadly.

“That was fun.”

“Why do I doubt that Rain enjoys the games?”

“He doesn’t normally stay. I feel like a bit of an idiot sitting here and cheering by myself,” Emmett admitted.

“You’re not an idiot Emmett.”

The big polar bear glanced over at his new friend. Jian had moved closer at some point during the game, and now they were only separated by a few inches of the black leather sofa. The young man was smiling at him, his unusually coloured eyes dancing happily. Emmett smiled back, laughed breathlessly, and blinked. In the space of shutting his eyes and opening them again, Jian had sat up and kissed him.

It was such a shock that Emmett froze, motionless on the couch as his senses were assaulted by Jian’s exotic flavour. The press of his lips was all at once soft and rough, wind chapped but gentle, and Emmett felt the sensation bypass his brain and shortcut towards his crotch. The polar bear grabbed his self-control with both hands and hauled himself away from the point of contact.

“No,” he panted, hid thick fingers digging hard into the arm of the couch. “I’m sorry, Jian. I have a boyfriend.”

“Oh…” Jian shrugged, obviously unhappy, but trying to make light of the gesture, “never mind then.”

“Please, you’re a nice guy Jian…” Emmett didn’t really know what to say. It was even more of a shock to the system than the first time he had jumped into the frozen Moose River.

“It’s cool,” Jian stood, straightening his hoodie and stretching his shoulders, “we’ll be good friends instead, eh?”

“Yeah…” Emmett stayed sat down, not entirely trusting the ability of his knees as load bearing joints, “I’ll see you about tomorrow I guess?”

“My bedroom is six feet away. You’ll see me,” Jian grinned easily, as though nothing had happened, “goodnight snow-bear.”

“’Night.” Emmett tried very hard not to watch him go, and he failed.

*

Zeke dumped the Indian take out on the counter as he walked in. Emmett had reached the flat fractionally before his boyfriend, and followed Zeke up, carrying his favourite book of maps under one arm. Strictly speaking, Emmett hadn’t needed to go to the university, there had been no lectures to give, seminars to discuss, or tuition sessions and meeting to attend. But he’d woken up early, feeling hot and uncomfortable, and decided that escaping the house was exactly what he needed.

It had snowed again over night, thicker and plusher than last time, and the temperature had dropped dramatically. Emmett had spent the day in his office with the window open, transferring new migration data over onto his North American maps in minute detail. A group of Canada geese he had tracked for half a decade had broken their pattern and flown off to England, and so Emmett’s blue biro dotted line crossed the ocean, annotated in tiny capital letters and illustrated with a microscopic stylised flying goose.

“God, my day was awful,” Zeke shrugged out of his coat and stripped off his gloves as he spoke. Emmett’s only concession to the cold was a lightweight jacket over his cuddly knit sweater, and thicker boot socks. “Three of my staff phoned in sick with the flu and one had child care issues because her babysitter was sick too. Only one of the relief staff who actually picked up his phone could make it in.”

Emmett made a sympathetic noise in the back of his throat.

“It was hell, I had to actually go out and do rounds with the plants. I hate weeding.”

Emmett started to lay out the food on the counter, finding plates and cutlery while Zeke bitched about his day. He still couldn’t fathom the fact that a man, who worked with plants and had studied them for his degree, didn’t like actually getting his hands dirty. It was weird.

“But at least I get to come home and spend time with you,” Zeke snuck his hands up under Emmett’s shirt and jumper and hugged him hard. “That makes everything better.”

Emmett smiled to himself and folded his arms over Zeke’s hugging the smaller man back only slightly awkwardly before turning around and gathering him up in his arms.

“The food’ll keep,” he smiled broadly. “You’re not going to enjoy it if you’re all tense and stressed.” Emmett emphasized his words as he stroked down Zeke’s spine to the delightful curves of his arse, and Zeke moaned against him, tilting up his jaw, his lips seeking Emmett’s own.

It was a good kiss, firm and hot and very quickly giving way to the play of tongues and teeth, and Emmett smiled inside his head as his body reacted in just the way he wanted it to. Within ten seconds his erection was digging into Zeke’s lower abdomen like a hot iron bar.

“Someone’s excited.”

“Can’t help it,” Emmett opened Zeke’s shirt, and spoke with his lips against his lover’s soft skin. “You’re just so fuckin’ beautiful.”

“Bedroom: now,” Zeke commanded.

“Yes, sir.”

Zeke was happy, hot and bothered just as much as Emmett was by the time the polar bear dropped him onto the mattress, and Emmett took his chance, pulled Zeke’s shoulders up to meet his own chest and got them both naked enough to grind his hard-on into the valley between Zeke’s pert cheeks. Zeke whimpered: Emmett growled, running his hands down Zeke’s taught torso, wrapping his fingers around the slender young man’s cock and jacking him in a manner which he knew was torture. Zeke reached around, dug his fingers into the back of Emmett neck, and Emmett bit his shoulder, sucking the skin and making Zeke whine.

They didn’t talk, but Emmett let go only long enough to roll on a condom and slather his aching cock in lube. He parted the mounds of Zeke’s beautiful arse with one hand, held the other tight over his lover’s heart, and slide into him with one quick thrust. He’d bruised the tender skin of Zeke’s neck, and now watched over his shoulder as his lover began to jerk himself off, his hand moving in time with Emmett’s thrusts. There was no noise but the low squeak of the bed, their ragged breathing and the slick erotic sound of flesh on flesh.

Emmett knew the moment before Zeke came, tension flooding through his body before he cried out, spurting over the sheets: Emmett hoped they weren’t fresh on that morning. As Zeke came down from his high, Emmett pushed him forwards, and the young man braced himself on hands and knees as Emmett began to pound him mercilessly. He loved the sensation and the view the position offered, Zeke’s upturned rounded butt and his narrow waist, the furrow of his spine. Emmett grabbed his hips, thrust himself into his partner about as hard as he could and groaned as he came inside Zeke’s warm body. He fell over his lover’s back panting.

“Whew…”

“Mmmm…” Emmett was characteristically sleepy post-orgasm, but managed to roll over onto his side so Zeke could continue to breathe unhindered.

“You wanna watch TV on the sofa? I’m gonna bet you’re not hungry now.”

“Hmmm…” Emmett couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes, but simply wrapped his huge arm over Zeke’s torso, stopping the young man from wiggling away. There was a wet noise as his softening latex-covered cock slipped from his boyfriend.

“I’m gonna heat up the food,” Zeke managed to twist around and kiss him, “go pass out on the sofa so I can cuddle you. You’ve got to be good for something.”

“Hey!”

“Something other than epic sex,” Zeke kissed him again, “come on big guy, up you get.”

Emmett cleaned up in the bathroom, discarded the condom and washed crotch and armpits with the shower head. He hadn’t had the foresight to bring sweatpants with him, so he pulled on his boxers before arranging himself comfortably on the couch. A few minutes later, Zeke came and sat in the space between his thighs, eating chicken korma and rice from the take out container, and Emmett snuggled into the crook of his neck as he chose a television channel. The hickey he’d given Zeke was a dark purplish bruise the size of a loonie, and his boyfriend would have to button his shirts right up in order to hide it. The mark made Emmett strangely proud, and very satisfied.

Zeke could’ve picked anything to watch, Emmett was sleepy and sated enough not the care at all, but he chose a nature documentary about tropical jungle habitats, specifically focusing on amphibians and tiny, overly colourful and very poisonous frogs. When he was more awake, Emmett liked to correct wildlife programs, especially when they were about cold climates, but he simply watched along with Zeke, not entirely un-fascinated even though most of the information was common knowledge to him. It was nice to witness a change in Zeke’s viewing habits, though Emmett wasn’t relaxed enough to trick himself into thinking he’d seen the last episode of Project Runway he would ever watch.

By the time it was actually late enough to go to bed, Emmett had summoned the energy to make out with his boyfriend in a slow and lazy manner for ten minutes, and Zeke ended up giving them a dual hand job, both grunting in pleasure with their foreheads touching, before Emmett fell asleep, naked and satisfied, with Zeke in his arms.

*

His dream was awesome.

Emmett knew it was a dream, because he almost never actually had sex in the thick powdery snow, surrounded by the canopy of the trees back home: especially not with the snow against his back as warm and fluffy as a feather duvet. His brain was treating him well, because while Emmett couldn’t tear his eyes away from the white sky and silhouettes of black pines, his dream partner was giving him the most fantastic of blowjobs. It wouldn’t have been the first time Emmett’s mind had basically given him himself as a sexual partner, usually dressed up in the shape of whomever he was currently seeing, because while Emmett knew he gave amazing head, he was seldom on the receiving end of ministrations as skilful as his own. Dream-Zeke however, was suckling on him like a man dying of thirst, and Emmett closed his eyes against the brightness of the snow and gave in to the fantastic pleasure of the dream.

Just as Emmett thought he might explode, the sensations retreated, and he was being kissed, wet lips and tongue up his abdomen and chest, nimble tongue flicking at his nipples and making him thrash and moan. The snow shifted underneath him, rolling him upwards, supporting his shoulders and lower back as his dream-lover straddled him and sank over his cock. Emmett watched his hard column of flesh vanishing into the tight tan-skinned body of his partner, and his eyes drifted upwards to find a pair of tiger-orange eyes grinning down at him.

“Oh yeahhh…”

Emmett woke with a sledgehammer to the heart. It took him a long time to remember where he was, and then Zeke mumbled incoherently and rolled over. The polar bear glanced down, dreading to find he was lying in bed with an erection caused by dreaming of someone else. He blanched and blushed in quick succession, realising that the truth was worse, and in the morning he would have to find a way to explain to his boyfriend he’d had a full on wet-dream and ejaculated in his bed.

Emmett hoped his deception skills were up for the challenge in the morning, because telling Zeke he had come while thinking about his housemate’s cousin was not a conversation he wanted to have: ever