*
Shadow loved baths and showers now. Gray smelled like moonlight after his, but he was generous enough to let Shadow have one while he searched for appropriate clothes. The warm water trickling down Shadow’s back reminded him of long fingers caressing flesh, and when he closed his eyes, it was easy to imagine Gray with him, gently petting him from behind or rubbing him with the sponge.
“Hurry up!” Gray said from the other room, wrecking the fantasy in which Shadow once more filled that soft mouth with all his cum. Never before had he experienced pleasure so focused, so glorious, so fulfilling.
He easily got hard around Gray. Thinking about being close to him was exciting but not as intense as actual touching. Physical contact sent him into a frantic spiral of excitement that made it too hard to focus on anything but connecting. What he hadn’t expected was the bliss Gray’s lips offered him. Up until then, he’d thought the biggest pleasure was simply having his cock, but when he came, for a while it had felt like being one with the Others again. No pain had existed, no time, no barriers. One melting into the other.
If only Gray had allowed a deeper connection, if he had truly allowed Shadow inside, Shadow would have shown him just how strong their bond was. But when Gray had rejected that notion, too busy with the pleasure at hand, Shadow didn’t want to push and scare his chaotic lover.
He wouldn’t have Gray wait, so he rushed out of the tub, dripping water all over the floor. As instructed through the door, he took a clean towel out of a white cupboard and dried himself before stepping into the bedroom with the water-absorbent cloth wrapped around his hair, because the mane wouldn’t dry fast enough.
Gray glanced his way, only to rapidly turn his head. “Come on! You shouldn’t expose yourself like this. Hide your dick.”
“Oh. Right.” Shadow grabbed the first thing at arm’s length. A strange metal container painted with the pattern of blue flames over a black background. It was much lighter than he initially thought it would be, and convenient enough to hide his crotch behind.
Gray’s eyes widened and color drained from his face within seconds. “No. Put it back,” he whispered, but his voice sounded as if he’d been injured and was about to bleed out.
Before Shadow could react, Gray snatched the container out of his hand and pulled it to his chest. “Just dress, okay? The clothes on the chair are for you,” he mumbled, carrying the thing all the way to the bed where he faced away from Shadow, still cradling the strange box to his heart.
Shadow shifted his weight nervously, his gaze swiping up and down Gray’s clothed back. He always seemed more covered than everyone else Shadow had met in the clubhouse, but asking to see more skin would have given him nothing but Gray’s scorn. He wasn’t even sure what he’d done wrong this time.
“What is it?” he asked after a moment of tense silence. He pulled on another set of incredibly soft clothes. Gray’s didn’t feel nearly as smooth, but the items borrowed from Beast, the shirts especially, were soft as cobwebs. So much so that Shadow’s appetite was piqued when he imagined a fat, delicious spider hiding somewhere between the threads.
The charcoal jeans and pigeon blue longsleeve Gray put on while Shadow had been bathing complemented his body shape, but they were also armor to keep Shadow’s hands away. He took his time pondering Shadow’s question but in the end put the container in his lap and petted it as if it were a cat.
“It’s my brother.”
Shadow’s head fizzled as he stared at the small size of the box. “But… how? Shouldn’t your brother be human?
Gray frowned. “It’s his ashes. In an urn. Christ.”
Shadow’s mind raced when he realized what that meant. “He’s… no more?”
The twist that for a moment pinched Gray’s features made Shadow want to enfold him in his arms and lick away all the pain, but Gray put the urn on the other nightstand and rose. “Doesn’t matter. We’re late for food”
Shadow didn’t dare ask any other questions and followed Gray out of the bedroom, kept safe from the sun by only a thin blanket. They didn’t talk, so Shadow took his time wondering how to crack Gray’s surface and get to the juicy insides. Like an armored beetle, Gray was keeping himself safe, but if he only knew that Shadow would never hurt him, surely he would open for longer than what he now considered a slip of judgement?
As they reached the first floor and walked down a hallway that seemed to have no end, voices and music became louder with every step. So did the stink of human food. Somewhere in the air, Shadow sensed mold, but the scent was too faint to enjoy.