A Challenge Accepted - 1. A Challenge Accepted

“Damn it!” Jerry rubbed his forehead where he’d just smacked into the edge of the open door. He whirled around at the sound of laughter behind him and tripped over his own feet at the movement, ending up sprawled on the floor.

“Maybe you should try walking backwards, at least then you’d have a reason for running into things and falling over your own feet.” Chris, his long-time boyfriend, continued to laugh as he reached down to pull him to his feet.

“You think so, do you?” Jerry scowled, even as he reached up and took the proffered hand.

“Oh come on, admit it, you’re a klutz and you know it, but you’re my klutz.”

“I’m not that bad! I’ll even prove it to you.” Jerry rubbed his ass where it had come in contact with the floor.

“Oh? This ought to be good. How do you propose to prove it when you’re constantly running into things?”

“I’m going to walk backwards the rest of the day.”

“And just how exactly is that going to prove anything?” Chris leaned against the wall studying him.

“Because, when I don’t run into anything you’ll be forced to admit that I’m not as bad as you think.” He turned around and started moving backwards down the hall he’d just come down. He turned to go into their bedroom and misjudged how far he’d gone and ran backwards into the wall next to their door.

“Oh yeah, that’s proving it to me all right!”

“Oh bite me!” Jerry shot back.

“With pleasure.” Chris moved purposely down the hall towards him and Jerry watched for a moment before stepping to the side and through the door to the bedroom. He shut the door on a surprised Chris and pictured the room in his mind. Moving much slower than he had before, he took a couple of cautious steps back until he could see the corner of the queen size bed out of the corner of his eye. He turned and moved until his knees pressed against it and fell backwards to stare up at the ceiling.

What the hell had possessed him to accept that challenge? It wasn’t like Chris had been serious, so why had he felt driven to prove a point? One that he had little to no hope of proving at that. He really was a klutz; Chris had commented multiple times that he needed to be wrapped in bubble wrap just to keep from hurting himself. He’d even gone so far as to toss a roll into the cart at Wal-Mart. He heard the squeak of the hinges as the door swung open and turned his head to see Chris standing in the doorway.

“I need to run to the store to find something to fix for dinner, do you need anything?”

“Nah, I’m good, but I’ll go with you.” Jerry levered himself up off the bed and moved towards Chris, fighting the urge to turn around and watch where he was going.

“No, you’re not. Not if you don’t walk like a normal human being.”

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun!” Jerry tried to put some enthusiasm in his voice as he came up against a solid chest and felt corded arms wrap around him.

“Nope, not happening.” Chris leaned down and nipped at the tender skin just below his ear.

“Yep, it is. Your choice really, you can either just take me with you or I can call a cab and then you won’t be with me to make sure I really don’t hurt myself.

“Or, you can stop this nonsense and we can just go to the store.”

“Well, that isn’t going to happen, so guess it’s option number one, you’ll take me to the store with you.” Jerry stepped back, forcing Chris out of the doorway so he could make his way slowly down the hall. He had never realized how hard it really was to continuously walk backwards and struggled to walk straight and not weave back and forth. He smiled as Chris just shook his head and then followed him.

***

“So what are you in the mood for tonight?” Chris grabbed a shopping cart as they walked into the store.

“How about enchiladas?” Jerry forced himself to focus as he moved, hoping he wouldn’t embarrass himself by falling on his ass.

“They are so time consuming, how about spaghetti?”

“What was the point in asking if you already had a plan?” Jerry tripped and reached out to Chris to help stabilize himself.

“No point, I guess. Do you even realize all the odd looks you’re getting?” Chris asked as he pushed the cart alongside his still walking the wrong way boyfriend.

“Yep, I can see ‘em after I pass.” Jerry laughed at the aggrieved sound of Chris’s voice.

“At least keep a hand on the cart so that you hopefully won’t walk into people,” Chris begged.

“You just want to spoil the fun.”

“No, but I don’t want you walking into some innocent bystander. Besides, what if it was a kid that you ran over, you’d feel bad and so would I.” Chris pushed the cart slowly, matching his speed to Jerry’s awkward gait.

“Alright, I would hate to step on a kid,” Jerry conceded and wrapped his fingers around the side of the cart. Truthfully, he hadn’t been ecstatic at the thought of navigating the aisles blind and was grateful that he’d be guided by the cart, and through it, Chris. It only took a couple of minutes before he realized it wasn’t that good of a plan either.

“Okay, this is absolutely ridiculous.” Chris pulled the cart off to the side. “We’re just going to get what we really need and then we’ll come back tomorrow. Every time I turn the cart it either runs into you or it goes one way and you go the other.”

“You’ve only hit me with the cart once.” Jerry knew he couldn’t say anything about the other thing, because Chris was right. He really didn’t want to admit it because he didn’t want to prove Chris right, but he was actually tired of walking backwards. It was a lot harder that he had thought it would be. The only good thing about it was that he was able to see Chris, but even that wasn’t enough incentive to keep him doing it. He was ready to call a truce when he heard his man sigh.

“I’ll make a deal with you.” Chris said after a moment.

“What kind of deal?”

“You go back to walking normal and not only will I make the chicken enchiladas for dinner, but after that we can watch whatever movie you want.”

“Any movie? No matter what it is?” Jerry asked suspiciously.

“Any movie. Now, do we have a deal?”

“Throw in control of the radio on the way home and we have a deal.” Jerry knew Chris would agree, this wasn’t the first time they had made a similar deal. Any time one of them was doing something to bug the other they’d come up with similar incentives to get them to stop.

“Fine, now turn around and walk normally.”

Chris shook his head as his lover turned and started walking away, smirking at his victory. It was wiped away with Chris’s next words.

“Just so you know, I decided to make enchiladas as soon as you told me that’s what you wanted.” Chris smiled as he walked past. “Next time you want to try something new, you’d be better off just to wrap yourself in bubble wrap. At least then you’d be safe while people stare at you like you’re one step away from the loony bin.”

As he passed, Jerry looked in the cart at the roll of bubble wrap that Chris had snuck in. He lifted his gaze to his boyfriends now departing back and shook his head before falling into step behind him, a grin teasing at his lips.

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