“My grandma gets a ‘Yes, ma’am’?’” Trevor wondered lightly as they made their way down the sidewalk toward G.G.’s house.
At Trevor’s side, a pastry box held to his chest, Sky ignored the question. He used his free hand to wave across the street. “That’s where Nancy lives, obviously.” He studied the house in apparent fascination. “It’s weird how I saw the house when I visited before but I never thought about it. Now I’ve heard all about it and the people in it, and I know it.” He rubbed his mouth then resumed gesturing at their tiny neighborhood. “They don’t know me, though.”
“Sky.” Trevor did his best to cut off the rising tide of anxiety, although he should have known there was going to be an issue when Sky had changed into a shirt that belonged in an office before leaving the house. Trevor had at least had the sense to get Sky to go back and grab his sweatshirt to wear over it; something that worked as armor but was also more Sky. His sneakers were at least more personal, since he’d chosen the pair he’d asked Trevor to draw all over years ago.
Sky glanced to him, visibly tense, if not terrified.
“I can guarantee he’ll be more scared of you,” Trevor assured him.
“I’m not a spider,” Sky said with an eyeroll that Trevor found comforting, before turning his incredible attention to G.G.’s house as they drew closer. “Done nothing with his yard. Which… I would get judgy about, but I wouldn’t do shit with a yard, either.” He carried on despite Trevor trying to interrupt again. “A regular suburban house, if larger than the others on the street. Regular paint colors, even. Not that they suck. They’re fine. Again, I also wouldn’t think to repaint a house.”
“He built the garage himself, according to my grandma.” Trevor reached down to snag Sky’s free hand.
“And, of course, there is the interior you went into ecstasies about,” Sky continued.
Trevor stopped. “You don’t have to do this.” He stared at Sky until Sky stared back. “If you’re really not okay with this I can call it all off. I won’t hurt you for anything, Sky. Not for anything.”
Sky sighed heavily as if put upon, but Trevor didn’t think it was about meeting G.G. Sky lowered his chin then looked up again over his glasses. “I’m not against it. I told you that. This is nerves.”
“G.G. makes you nervous?” Trevor didn’t know why he was asking. He already knew that.
“He sounds amazing!” Sky exclaimed, exasperated. “You think I’m amazing, but I’m really a run-of-the-mill nerd.”
Trevor smiled. “My nerd.”
“Impossible,” Sky scoffed, tugging his hand out of Trevor’s only to immediately grab it again. “You think I’m enough to woo him to our side?”
“Woo?” Trevor made a face at that word but didn’t argue because our side made him too happy. “Yeah.”
Sky bit his lip. “But I don’t do, like, food. Or decorating. Or pets, even.”
Trevor frowned. “I don’t expect everything from everyone?” It was half a question because he was confused. “Why would I?”
It earned him an intent look. “Does he expect that from you?”
Trevor swung their clasped hands. “G.G. doesn’t expect anything. He would like some attention. And I think he should be loved. But he won’t demand either even though he’s… he’s so hungry, Sky, exactly like you said.”
“Ugh, stop.” A flicker of a smile lit up Sky’s face. “It’s making me want to pet him and I don’t know him.”
Trevor resumed walking, breathing easier once Sky was. “Well, you do think he’s hot.”
“Because he is. Facts.” Sky swung their hands on his own, at least until they reached G.G.’s door. Then they both stood there, daring only to step onto the porch.
“I’m nervous too,” Trevor confessed quietly after finally knocking on the door. If his grandma hadn’t been so insistent, he might have admitted that sooner. This wasn’t just bodies. These were hearts Trevor was trying to keep. “It’s the height of arrogance to think I could have both of you.”
Sky glanced sharply up at him but then jolted and faced forward as the door opened.
G.G. was in jeans again, which still had to be a struggle for him to get into with his hand. His shirt was a long-sleeved undershirt that looked soft and had probably been easy to slip on. He met Trevor’s gaze and smiled, not a huge smile but also not guarded, and then he looked over to Sky and every emotion disappeared from his face except for the giveaway flood of color.
“Good… is it still morning?” If it was, it was only by a few minutes. “Well, good afternoon.” Trevor smiled as warmly at G.G. as he could when his whole chest was a bundle of cold nerves. “I got an unexpected visitor last night and I thought you should meet. We brought you pastries.”
“Pet treats?” Sky muttered, possibly sarcastic, possibly not. G.G.’s attention darted down to their hands, then to the pastry box, before returning to Trevor.
“Not the kind you got me,” Trevor pressed on with more determination. “I didn’t have time for a special order. But fresh croissants are always nice.” He was talking too much, like he had when he’d first started meeting with G.G. He’d thought then it had been the tension of being near a crush but now he thought it was to fill the silence that G.G. resolutely wasn’t filling. “G.G., as you might have guessed, this is Sky. Sky Coelho, this is Gregory Griffin—G.G.”
“Nice to meet you,” G.G. said with his perfect manners. He nodded at Sky but didn’t reach for the box of pastries. “You didn’t have to get me anything. But thank you for thinking of me.”
“Fuck,” Trevor said with feeling. Thankfully, he’d brought along a smart-boy wizard.
“He’s hotter in person,” Sky confided, a bit too loud for it to be secret.
G.G.’s startled focus turned to Sky, and whatever Sky’s expression told him made him look to Trevor with his eyes huge and bright over his ruddy cheeks. “I wasn’t really expecting visitors.”
“I know that, baby,” Trevor answered quietly, making G.G. and Sky’s breath catch in unison. “And I’m not expecting anything of you. But I thought you should meet. Partly because I would like it, but also because I think you’ll like it too.”
Something too small to be a frown brought G.G.’s eyebrows together. He glanced from Trevor to Sky, settling on Sky for one wary, worried second. “You don’t have to do all this. I told you what I expected. It’s okay if you want to be with Sky. I’m glad you two worked it out.”
The long sigh from Sky seemed to confuse and alarm G.G. even more.
“You did tell me that.” Trevor was soft. “You were very brave to do it. But I want to make you happy and this might help.”
Blushing or not, G.G. raised one eyebrow. “Oh? This is just for me?”
It was the first time he’d ever been sarcastic, but as strangely delightful as Trevor found it, sarcasm was about disguised hurt or anger. Or fear.
“You said there was room for more than one in my garden,” Trevor reminded him gently, so gently.
G.G. shot Trevor a wounded look.
“G.G.,” Sky broke in, “Brian Trevor has never been on the receiving end of Brian Trevor. He doesn’t know how scary he is.”
Trevor allowed himself a scowl. “I try not to be scary.”
Sky kept his gaze on G.G. “There’s no happy ending guaranteed here. There never is, outside of some stories. But I would really like to see the inside of your house and meet your cat. Although I’m not great with animals, to warn you.”
“You’re fine.” Trevor couldn’t let that go. “Ellie already loves you.”
“Trevor thinks you can perform miracles,” G.G. said to Sky, then lowered his head as if resigned. A moment later he nodded before stepping back to let them in.
Trevor gave Sky a quick kiss on the temple as he released him in order to wave him into the house first.
“Would you like some coffee?” G.G.’s manners remained flawless. He moved stiffly toward the kitchen.
Trevor debated following him to get him alone for a minute. “I’m good. Thanks, though. Sky?”
“Yes, please,” Sky agreed instantly with too much energy. “I love your grandma, Trevor, but she can drink coffee all day because she makes it weaker than I do. I need some more.”
“…Literally had an iced coffee like an hour ago.” Trevor narrowed his eyes.
Sky gestured loosely at the air. “I got a work present of one of those coffee machines that makes a cup in like ten seconds and it’s so easy to use.”
Trevor poked him in the shoulder. “I’m making you a salad with dinner and you’re eating it.”
Sky’s gaze flew up to meet his. “Yes, Bri… Trevor.”
The moment of quiet that followed made them both turn toward G.G., who was by the door to the kitchen, watching them.
He smiled, slight and small. “I really am happy for you.”
Whatever Trevor might have said slipped from his mind when Sky hurried forward to offer G.G. the pastry box again.
He said, “Croissants!” cheerfully, then seemed to realize it sounded like the world’s saddest consolation prize, because he added, “Some with chocolate!” Then murmured, “Oh shit, I sound like a toddler.”
“Thank you,” G.G. replied, accepting the box and then just holding it in one his good hand. “Look,” he said to the pretty stripes and logo, “if this is about a threesome, I don’t think I’m in the mood for that today.”
“The croissants are to make you smile.” Trevor made his voice even. “And it’s not. Not… like that. Not to be rude, G.G., but if Sky and I wanted a threesome, we could get one using an app or asking around our other friends. That’s not why we’re here. You’re more than that, or at least, I’d like you to be. Sky? Thoughts yet?”
Sky carefully took the pastry box from G.G. and moved to set it on the dining room table. He came back to stand in front of G.G., a short, compelling figure. He lowered his voice. “G.G., that’s what you like to be called, right? So I know I’m not offending you?”
“That’s what people call me.” G.G. regarded Sky warily. “Except for Trevor.”
“Oh, really?” Sky turned for a second to give Trevor a smartass sort of look. But his attention returned to G.G. almost immediately. “Anyway, to make this less awkward for you, I will tell you an awkward story about me. Which… just so you know… is not a thing I like doing. I get enough shit without baring my pink underbelly to the world.” He flung a hand behind him in Trevor’s direction. “Do not ‘Sky baby’ at me right now, please.”
He cleared his throat then lowered his hand.
“You really don’t have to,” G.G. said, some of the stiffness leaving him.
Sky waved that off.
“Trevor was in my friend circle for a long time. You know how it is, a friend of a friend at first. I knew he could be somewhat trusted because he was in the gaming group and everyone in that group is some shade of queer, but it took us a while to become closer friends. And… in that whole time… I liked him so much.”
Trevor stared hard at the back of Sky’s blue pouf.
“So much,” Sky confessed to G.G. again. “But I just watched him, and wove dumb stories to myself, and thought, He’s not going to like you, Sky. You’re too odd. He doesn’t even watch the movies you watch and he draws furry porn—I was judgy about that at the time. Sorry.” There was a hand flap for Trevor before Sky carried on. “And I was… I wanted things. Things I knew intellectually were normal and fine, but asking for them from strangers was terrifying, and asking for them from him was impossible. Best left to fantasies, I thought. Nice, safe fantasies… except the fantasies made it worse. The crush, I mean. Truly humiliating to be a so-called genius and still get crushes. Especially on someone who didn’t think of me that way.”
Trevor didn’t growl. He was not a person who growled. But he did make a noise.
“So,” Sky said, louder than before, looking at G.G. who seemed riveted, “I had my embarrassing crush and I did nothing about it. Just lived for game sessions like a pining dork. Until one night, he stayed after to help me clean up, and he said, ‘We should get food.’ It had been like eight hours and I’d only eaten some pretzels because I was preoccupied. That’s what I thought he meant, and maybe he did, you know how he is. We walked to a food truck that always parked outside the bar by my old apartment. Then we walked back, talking. The movie thing didn’t matter much, in the end. And he kept politely pushing for me to eat more, to which I said—this is mortifying—that if he was going to order me to do something, he might as well order me to suck his dick.”
“Oh my God,” Trevor realized out loud. “You were doing it even then!”
“And did he?” G.G. asked, silencing Trevor completely.
Sky scoffed. “He said, ‘Impatient. We haven’t even finished our first date.’”
G.G. gave a deep sigh.
“Right?” Sky demanded. “Obviously, I pounced on him. I couldn’t help myself by then.”
Trevor felt like he ought to object or say something, but Sky the Wizard was at work, so he kept his mouth shut.
Sky laid a hand gently on G.G.’s arm. “Did you really think that Trevor was only going to boss you around as needed and fuck you occasionally? Were you as dumb as me? If you watch him at all like I did, you have to know he means what he says. It’s horrible, getting used to that. Makes you feel like the worst kind of person for not trusting him even though he’d never think that.”
Trevor kicked himself into some sort of action, ignoring his burning face. “I can step out if you guys want.”
“Did you think we wouldn’t discuss you?” Sky twisted around to give Trevor a look that was both adoring and scornful. “Really, Trevor. You’re our single common point of interest. So far, anyway.”
“That’s because you haven’t looked through his books yet,” Trevor managed.
“Oh yeah.” Sky perked up, then frowned before facing G.G. again. “I won’t push for that. I already feel like an intruder in your home.” He glanced over the beige walls as if they held answers. “Do you really not use hookup apps?” he asked G.G. curiously. “Trevor says he never saw you on one. I would’ve DM’d you so fast. In the alternate universe where that would happen, I mean.”
G.G. blinked rapidly several times. It might have been the abrupt subject change. It might have also been the implied proposition.
Trevor nodded to himself. “I’m going to make coffee,” he announced. “Actually, maybe tea for you first, Sky, if G.G. has any. You’re already wired. G.G.?”
G.G. moved his stunned gaze to Trevor. “I… In the cabinet above the coffee machine. Trevor, I….”
“It’s okay, Gigi baby.” Trevor gave him a smile. “Sky goes after people from several sides at once but it’s because he’s scared too. So scared he doesn’t want to give them a chance to get him first.”
“Nuke the site from orbit,” Sky muttered in annoyance. “It’s the only way to be sure.”
Trevor kept his focus on G.G. “He’s an analyst, and he’s very good at predicting things. If you find it intimidating, know that his socks don’t match today.”
“They matched when I packed them!” Sky huffed immediately, then pulled on his jeans to examine his socks for himself. “Fuck,” he swore, confronted with one blue and one black sock. “You could’ve told me earlier—not that I need you to dress me.”
Trevor smiled.
“But if I did,” Sky continued not a second later, “I would ask you. Try to ask you.”
G.G. glanced to Trevor, a question in his eyes.
“Sky is working on expressing his needs more clearly,” Trevor filled him in.
“Ah,” G.G. spoke up unexpectedly, addressing Sky. “That’s sometimes less than great. I mean, when they don’t take you seriously. But he does.”
Sky nodded. “He does.”
G.G. inclined his head, putting him closer to Sky. “Have you seen your notebook?”
Trevor’s heart flailed in his chest, which hearts should not do.
“Notebook?” Sky shifted as if he needed to keep an eye on Trevor and G.G. at the same time. “He mentioned something, but no. Should I?”
“You can look if you want to.” Trevor would have to explain the daydreaming doodles of Sky in the margins but Sky had the right to see it.
Sky studied Trevor intently for a moment, then turned to G.G. “See what I mean? Surely you’ve realized that he’s something special.”
Sky said it as if they were sharing a secret, but that was because Sky’s tests weren’t like G.G.’s.
“Sky,” Trevor tried to intervene.
“Shush.”
“Shush?” G.G. echoed. He looked at Trevor. Sky did the same.
Trevor straightened reflexively but didn’t step back. “We’re not playing. Sky gets to shush me. So do you, if you want to. I’m going to get that coffee now.”
G.G. cleared his throat, though his voice remained as husky as ever. “Tea sounds nice, actually.”
Trevor would hold in his sigh of relief until he was alone. He smiled and nodded. “Tea, then.”
“Is your hand okay?” He heard Sky ask as he went into the kitchen. G.G. must have answered quietly, because after a pause Sky said, “You bleeding and needing help? I bet Trevor was salivating.”
“Like a wolf in front of a steak.” This time, G.G. was perfectly audible.
“Hey,” Trevor protested, turning from the cabinet. Miss Delilah was on the bench seat of the nook staring at him. “Hurtful,” he told her, but stopped what he was doing to go see if she needed food in her bowl.
Sitting at the table with everyone holding a mug of herbal tea was slightly less awkward but Trevor didn’t think anyone really cared about the tea. G.G. had opened the pastry box at some point and was slowly picking apart a croissant. He either liked to savor them or it was to occupy his hands.
Sky twitched until G.G. pulled out one of the chocolate ones and handed it to him.
Trevor hid a smile behind his cup and tried to think of ways to reward them both, if he was lucky enough to be allowed to.
Sky was currently marveling about G.G. building Trevor a desk in a way that had G.G.’s face as fiery as a road flare. At the same time, Sky leaned back and went into what had to be his business mode. “He needs a desk, you know. He balances a lot of things and that thing in his room looks rickety as fuck. If he’d said,” that was crisp, “I would have bought him one. But this is better.”
“I’m fine. My current desk works fine,” Trevor insisted. “I’m not that busy yet.”
“He could be, you know,” Sky told G.G., talking to Trevor without actually talking to Trevor. “He could be working constantly. He has an audience already. But even without that, with his regular work, he should have a real setup. He’s got his family business stuff, and then all his grandmother’s information that he keeps track off. Medical info for right now, but I saw her today—the recipes will come first, but she’s going to have him managing the whole family before any of them realize it’s happening.”
“And the garden plans,” G.G. pointed out.
Sky nodded. “And Ellie’s appointments… and Mr. Tammy’s too, in time,” he added. “And… and my notebook, and the schedule he wants to make for me.” He took a quick sip of tea. “And G.G.’s notebook. You have one too, right?”
G.G. glanced over to Trevor.
“He does,” Trevor answered.
Sky looked between them, frowning slightly.
G.G. must have taken it as a sign that Sky wasn’t happy. “I wouldn’t come between you two.”
“Oh man, I should have made that joke,” Trevor realized, truly upset that he hadn’t.
Sky, subtly but definitely, squirmed in his chair.
He was charmed, by G.G.’s worry over them or G.G.’s blushes, but Sky was definitely being charmed. Looking back on all those earlier gaming sessions where Sky had been crushing on him, Trevor recalled a lot of Sky being even more restless than usual.
G.G. didn’t seem to know what to do with Sky’s attention, but sighed to himself when Sky reached into the pastry box to make sure G.G. got one of the chocolate croissants next.
Trevor asked if G.G. wanted it heated, then got up to do it, keeping an ear tuned to his boyfriend and their potential future boyfriend.
“That’s the thing though,” Sky said quietly after the microwave had dinged and Trevor extracted a warmed pastry. “Trevor takes on all these things and I suck at remembering that he does that. I forget to give him breaks from himself.”
“I like doing these things,” Trevor objected mildly as he returned to put the plate and pain au chocolat in front of G.G.
“You can’t Dom the world, Trevor baby,” Sky mocked him, or didn’t mock him, it was difficult to tell.
G.G. watched them with an interested light in his eyes.
Trevor sat heavily, giving Sky an irritated look. Sky responded to it by sighing.
“He really does like it,” Sky agreed. “I expected something like this to happen, even if it wasn’t with his hot neighbor crush.”
G.G. raised his eyebrows nearly to his hairline and glanced to Trevor. Trevor gestured emphatically at him. If G.G. hadn’t already been flushed, that revelation might have done it again.
“And I can see you like him,” Sky continued on, drawing G.G.’s eyes back to him. “But also… it’s annoying.” Sky crossed his arms. “Like. You already make him better. You give him confidence. I can’t do that. I can’t even,” he lowered his voice, “say the things I’m supposed to say.”
“It’s a work in progress.” Trevor leaned over to take Sky’s hand and give it a kiss.
Sky gaped at him for a moment, his face starting to grow flushed now too.
G.G. coughed delicately. “That’s… that’s just different needs. Probably. I don’t know the details, but people want different things from a Dominant.” Sky clearly hadn’t experienced G.G.’s sudden directness yet and was too taken aback to manage a response. G.G. studied him. “Do you like it when he makes you say things? I mean if he does.”
The way Sky shifted in his seat was not casual. “Yes.”
G.G. cocked his head to the side. “Does he reward you for it?”
Sky’s squirm would be obvious even to G.G. “Yes.”
G.G. held out a hand, palm up, his fingers shiny with butter. “Then that can be part of your time together. It doesn’t have to be the same for everyone.”
Sky breathed, in and out, slowly and carefully. He gave Trevor a quick, guilty sideways glance, then went back to gazing at G.G. “Be like that then.” It would have been a snarl if he hadn’t been nearly giddy.
When G.G. looked to Trevor in confusion, Trevor discreetly gestured that it was fine. G.G. only seemed more confused. Trevor wondered what he looked like, watching Sky fall under someone else’s spell for once. But he held up a finger, signaling for G.G. to wait.
Sure enough, after some fidgeting, Sky expelled a breath and then said loftily, “G.G., I hear you have some books I will like.”
“Most of them are in the living room,” G.G. replied, baffled but almost smiling. “Do you want to go look at them?”
Sky poked through G.G.’s copy of The Silmarillion for probably ten minutes, looking up every minute or so to say, “He’s made notes, Trevor,” or “This edition has a typo and he found it.” Trevor puttered around G.G.’s dining room and kitchen, straightening up and washing dishes, keeping an eye on the two of them from a distance.
Miss Delilah wandered into the living room after a while, curious about the noise from the strange human she didn’t know, and made a show of watching Sky from one of the perches on the cat tree.
The cat tree had distracted Sky for another few minutes. He traced the grooves and patterns in the wood with his fingertips in between offering his hand to Miss Delilah to sniff until he was finally permitted a small scritch under her chin.
She jumped away after that, upsetting Sky until he realized she was heading for the sunny perch in the window and it wasn’t a rejection.
Sky went back to the books then, studying old, dinged copies of classics and genre books with narrowed eyes until he found the row of Star Trek paperbacks. He gasped, picked up two, and then plopped down on the purple ottoman to flip through them.
Trevor returned to the living room to check on G.G., who stood awkwardly by his unused fireplace, watching Sky invade his bookshelves.
“Where did you get them all? The books?” Trevor asked to distract G.G.
G.G. tore his gaze away from Sky—or Sky handling his precious paperbacks. “Some I’ve had since childhood. The rest… library book sales. Garage sales. That sort of thing.”
“You go to garage sales?” Trevor got some nice comics at a yard sale once, but it had been ages ago. “Okay, I unironically love that.”
Sky poked his head up, glasses near the tip of his nose. “These are books I read at the public library as a kid,” he revealed, not adding, waiting for my parents to remember me and pick me up but Trevor heard it. “It never occurred to me to go looking for them now. This is… aaaah your house is magic. Trevor was right. I hate it. I can never do creative things.”
He made a distressed face, then returned to flipping through his Trek paperbacks.
“He doesn’t hate it,” Trevor translated, though it didn’t take long in knowing Sky to realize that Sky could express affection and his desires backwards.
“I get why Trevor was nervous to approach you, G.G.,” Sky said without looking up. “You’re hot, and you’re older, and experienced, and you have established tastes, and you’ve learned things I am just now realizing. Aaaah. I want to sit in that cat tree for some reason.”
“Maybe you could get some chairs in your apartment, Sky,” Trevor suggested. “Like a big, comfy one to put in a window to—oh, wait.” Sky might not need to decorate his apartment now. Not if he wanted to move back here.
“You don’t have furniture?” G.G. latched onto that, horror in his voice. “Do you need some?”
Trevor was tickled. There was no other word for the trickles of light in his chest and the bubble of laughter he had to keep in his throat.
Sky flapped a hand distractedly. “My environment doesn’t really matter to me.”
Trevor coughed. “Yes, it does. You relax more in safe, pleasant spaces.”
“Like this place.” Sky looked up, pushed his glasses into their proper position, and turned to G.G. “Trevor told me he expected to see stained glasses in here. Is that what’s going in the dining room wall?”
“No.” G.G. rubbed his undoubtedly stinging cheeks. “That will be etched glass. But… there’s stained glass in the master bathroom. I… put it there when I redid that room.”
“Holy shit.” Trevor couldn’t help it. “Did you give yourself a big, luxurious bathtub, Gigi baby?” And to think Trevor had joked to himself about washing him.
“I love how you treat yourself,” Sky said, putting the books down and getting to his feet. “There are romance novels of the BDSM variety in this collection. Some of them straight, but not all of them. G.G.,” Sky went on seriously, “you’re cool. Trevor should have said.”
“I’m really not,” G.G. objected.
“I didn’t say he wasn’t,” Trevor argued.
“But you didn’t say he was.” Sky gestured around the room with both hands.
“Nobody thinks I’m cool,” G.G. insisted weakly. “I’m in my forties, for one.”
“Irrelevant to this discussion.” Sky dismissed that but focused intently on G.G. His posture softened. “Trevor’s tattoos are good, don’t you think?”
“What?” Trevor was as caught off guard as G.G.
“Yes,” G.G. agreed cautiously, eyes on the smart boy insinuating himself into G.G.’s space.
“It’s not just the placement or his choices, though those are great. Did you know neither of those tattoos are done in his style, but he designed them? One is anonymous ad-copy he imitated. The other Trevor drew but in the style of another artist as a tribute. He’s unbelievably talented even though he doubts himself.” Sky rolled on despite Trevor’s attempted interruption by calling his name. “He has excellent taste.”
That was pointed.
G.G. understood. “I’m included in that?” he asked, bemused and still blushing.
Sky gave a nod. “He’s going to scoop you up and try to keep you.”
Trevor scowled. “Sky, you’re making me sound like a sparkly vampire. I’ve only offered….”
Sky gave Trevor a Look with a capital L before continuing his talk with G.G. “To tell you a not-very-secret secret, Brian Trevor’s family doesn’t get him. They love him, but they don’t understand how he is. Nor do they try to understand or appreciate him. So he’s got all these extra feelings inside him he’s learned not to share with them. He’s got so much that it spills over. That’s why I was expecting something like this to happen. Covid sort of halted whatever exploration Trevor might have done, but he was going to do it.”
“Make a family of his own, you mean,” G.G. remarked. Trevor stood there, hot all over and exposed as hell, not that either of them so much as glanced at him.
Sky beamed at G.G. “Exactly. My only real surprise is that he still loves me.”
Trevor forgot his bared pink underbelly to focus on Sky. “Of course, I do.”
This was ignored too.
“But that was my mistake and my own problems, which I am working on.” Sky heaved a breath. “G.G., do you think we could talk sometimes? If that’s okay? About anything? And this stuff.” He waved between them, seemed to remember G.G. could not read him like Trevor, and huffed before saying clearly, “Sub stuff. That means it’s not for you, Brian Trevor,” he added primly, acknowledging Trevor at last though keeping his attention on G.G. “Even if you decide for some crazy reason that you don’t want Trevor, I’d like someone to talk to about it, and maybe you would too? And maybe also about Trek and the problems in reading Dune at an impressionable age?”
“Oh.” G.G. was quiet. “I… yes. That might be nice.”
Sky gave him another beaming smile before narrowing his eyes. “Do you ever play tabletop role-playing games?”
“Sky.” Trevor had to reel Sky in. The reputations of board game people and polyamorous people were at stake.
“What?” Sky was innocent. “We can always use another player and,” he gestured to the books, “he might enjoy it. It’s all online these days anyway,” he confided to G.G. “So less social pressure. If you’re interested.”
“I know you’re being polite, but thank you,” G.G. said, the worst, and best, thing he could have said to Sky.
Sky turned to Trevor, his hands clenched with anger or some desire that was pissing him off. “Even I want to take care of him and that’s not my thing.” He was shocked. “And God, this house. He doesn’t need protection. And yet.” Sky threw a hand up between them, splaying his fingers like a game show hostess at G.G.’s red face. “You said he blushed, Trevor, but not like this.”
“It’s a physical response I can’t control.” G.G. frowned, clearly not understanding Sky’s real complaint. “It’s never gone away. Any emotion at all and I’m a tomato.”
Tomato was probably better to think than pink poodle. Trevor kept that to himself. In fact, he stayed out of it altogether, watching Sky struggle with himself in front of a perplexed G.G.
Trevor scooted back, then sat on the couch, Miss Delilah sunning herself somewhere above him. He might have been smiling, but couldn’t have said what kind of smile it was.
“Did Trevor warn you about me?” Sky asked G.G., drifting closer than he might have realized.
G.G. shook his head. “Warn me? No, the opposite of that. I would have said upsell, but now I see he wasn’t exaggerating.”
Sky whined, biting his lip to stop it. Trevor, still stuck on Sky’s version of their first date, wondered if Sky was thinking about what he would have done if he’d met G.G. then too.
Waited for Trevor to herd both of them toward this, most likely, while trying to herd Trevor in his own way, with “jokes” and acting like a brat.
“I’m…. It’s good that you can do what I can’t,” Sky admitted in a whisper, possibly not wanting Trevor to hear. Trevor glanced away, offering more privacy too late to do any good. “…Say things like that. Anyway, I think this meeting went okay. You aren’t going to hide from Trevor now or anything?”
G.G. paused for long enough for Trevor to decide to look back at the two of them. G.G. shook his head.
“And you’ll help me take care of him when he needs it?” Sky pressed.
“Really?” Trevor demanded, a crack in his voice.
Sky looked at Trevor for a second, his gaze warm. “Margaret is worried he’ll devote all his time and energy to this… to us… and none to himself. So we have to ensure he doesn’t.”
Well now Trevor knew what his grandma wanted to talk to G.G. about.
“I… noticed,” G.G. said, surprising him and possibly Sky as well. “He does need that. It didn’t seem my place, but I did try.”
“Oh, good boy,” Sky praised him excitedly. “Yes, that’s exactly it. You’ll keep being good to my Brian Trevor, won’t you? Even when I’m not around?” He wasn’t asking. His tone, while not stern, allowed no argument.
G.G.’s eyes went wide.
Sky’s eyes went wide to match a second later. He jerked his head away, glancing to Trevor, looking about as stunned as G.G. did… and about as turned on.
Trevor sat back against the cushions, spreading his legs before sliding a hand over his thigh.
“Um,” Sky said brilliantly, turning to G.G.
“Yes,” G.G. agreed, voice lower.
Sky let out a shaky breath before whining to Trevor. “Trevor?”
Trevor thought he should be more surprised. But he wasn’t. He was smug, and hot, and something beyond proud. He closed his hands into fists and shifted, aroused but not intending to do anything about it.
“Would you like to take care of G.G. too, Sky?” He could have out-purred Miss Delilah. “A little?”
Sky bit his lip.
“Sky,” Trevor prompted, not amused.
“I don’t know,” Sky confessed breathlessly. “Maybe, I think.”
Trevor opened one hand. “Then go ahead, if he wants you to.”
Sky spun toward G.G. to say, snapping and fierce. “If you’re good to him, I’ll be so good to you.”
G.G. shivered. “I did offer to get out of the way,” he said, his voice huskier than before.
Trevor scoffed quietly to himself.
“But yes?” Sky was nearly toe to toe with G.G. “You, ah, you said you weren’t up for the idea today, and this has been emotional enough. But I…. Trevor,” he complained.
“You want something from G.G.?” Trevor guessed. Several possibilities occurred to him. But it wasn’t his job to speak for Sky. It was his job to make Sky squirm and/or say it himself. “You’re going to have to tell me what you want, Sky baby.”
“Mean.” Sky made the word a curse. “I’m not going to kiss you,” he said to G.G., revealing precisely what he wanted. Trevor should have guessed, actually. Sky gathered information. That was what he did—unless, of course, he was scared of what he’d find so he avoided it. “You’re worried and maybe right to be. You should feel safe and… other good things.”
“Happy? Trevor suggested, no less smug, hot, and proud. “Taken care of the way I take care of you?”
Sky nodded quickly in relief. “Yes, Trevor. Yes.”
Trevor addressed G.G. “Sky would like to kiss you.”
Sky’s tiny gasp of betrayal was perfection.
“But he’s worried about getting hurt,” Sky murmured anyway. “So, I shouldn’t now. But at some point…”
G.G. put a hand on Sky’s shoulder and bent his head to kiss him. A brush of lips at first, Sky’s mouth half-open, G.G.’s soft. The kiss deepened almost immediately, G.G. pushing forward with a small sound of hunger and Sky reaching up to steady him.
Trevor considered giving them another moment of pretend privacy, he really did. But he couldn’t have looked away if someone had paid him to.
Nonetheless, when they finally pulled apart, both of them breathing heavier and staring dizzily at each other, Trevor stayed quiet so they could go on without worrying about their audience.
He tried to think around the flames licking at him, the growing urge to order them both closer so he could touch them. He was supposed to be responsible. This was a matter of hearts, exactly as he’d told Sky.
He didn’t feel jealous. Envious, maybe, to watch Sky and G.G. enjoy a new first kiss with each other. Turned on, definitely. Surprised that he’d guessed right even though he knew Sky. He was simply… hot. No, possessive. That was the word. Not jealous, but possessive. Off-the-charts pleased that he got to witness that but starving for more. For them to turn to him and say they were his.
That felt selfish as well as arrogant.
Trevor felt it anyway, sitting like a lump on G.G.’s couch while Sky and G.G. seduced each other with mutual brilliance and concern.
When they both stepped back then turned to him, he was prepared.
He smiled. “Don’t mind me.”
G.G. spoke first. “Are you bothered?”
“About that?” Trevor shook his head. “Anything but. It’s just… it’s nothing. This is more than I anticipated but exactly what I wanted.”
“Yeah, you said you wanted it.” G.G. didn’t seem to believe Trevor, though. “Well, you said you wanted both of us. Maybe not this.”
“No, this is very good,” Trevor argued. “I mean what I say. Right, Sky?”
“Yes.” But Sky frowned. “But getting what you want, getting more than what you want, can be….”
“A lot,” G.G. finished gravely. “Trevor, are you okay?”
Trevor’s throat went suspiciously tight. He swallowed. “It is a lot,” he admitted. “What if I fuck up? No, I will fuck up. That’s how things work. But hopefully not too badly. Not seriously. I want to do well. And I know no one has forced either of you but really,” he gestured at himself and the Colonel-Mustang-in-a-bikini t-shirt he was wearing. “Are you sure? Is what I should be asking. But here we are.” He expelled a breath and met Sky’s worried gaze. “This is what I want. You two discovering that in front of me? Incredible. Awesome. But reaching for that is…” he moved his gaze to G.G. “…a lot. And yeah, I know, ‘Stay afraid but do it anyway.’ But…”
“Trevor,” Sky interrupted him. “I don’t have any doubt, if that helps. Not about you.”
“I broke up with you,” Trevor had to point out. “I’m an idiot.” He scrubbed his face with his hands and looked up in time to see Sky and G.G. exchange a look. “Oh no.” He should have anticipated this. He had, in fact, and then forgotten.
Sky walked over to him and then collapsed onto the couch at Trevor’s side, his feet on the floor, the rest of him draped against Trevor. He tipped his head back to look at Trevor from very close.
G.G. approached the couch as well, but stopped at Trevor’s other side without sitting down.
Trevor stared up at him in confusion.
“May I?” G.G. asked anyway, and it took Trevor a second too long to understand what he meant.
He nodded blankly, then kicked himself and reached for a pillow, moving Sky for a moment. He leaned forward to push away the coffee table and then place the pillow on the floor by his foot. G.G. fell onto it on his knees, in a somewhat relaxed stress position. Trevor didn’t demand a real one. He put his palm to the side of G.G.’s face and brushed his thumb over G.G.’s mouth.
“Relax more if you want,” Trevor suggested. Herded. Consensually bullied. “It’s been an emotional day already. Sky was right about that. As he usually is.”
G.G. sank down lower, not quite curling his legs to sit on them, but looking as if he might. He watched Trevor steadily, waiting.
Trevor grabbed another pillow, putting it at the edge of the couch cushion right by his knee. “To rest your head.”
G.G. sank down a bit more, resting his head where Trevor had allowed it. Trevor slid his hand into his hair and G.G. closed his eyes.
“I…” Sky murmured, stopping himself without expressing the rest of his thought. He curled closer to Trevor’s side, but when Trevor glanced at him, his attention was on G.G. Trevor, watching Sky, began to run his hand gently through G.G.’s hair. “Trevor,” Sky whispered. Not whining. Not yet.
“Yeah?” Trevor asked, equally quiet, waiting for Sky to raise his head.
Sky was flushed. “You didn’t tell me to do that.”
“Do you want to?” Trevor made it a question. Sky had to be tortured to admit to things.
Sky looked down at G.G., whose eyes came open. Whatever they exchanged in that glance made Sky work his jaw. “He looks…. I didn’t say I did. Some submissives don’t do that.”
“True,” Trevor agreed calmly. “But G.G. does. He wanted me to feel better and it also makes him feel better.”
Sky’s gaze met his, his eyes wide, his bottom lip darker from where he’d bitten it. “You didn’t tell me to do that,” he said again. Whined it, really.
Trevor took the last pillow he could reach and tossed it to the floor at Sky’s feet. He pointed.
Sky’s frown was beyond frustrated.
Trevor smiled viciously. “If G.G. can do it….”
Sky grumbled but slid to the floor. He spent several moments noisily changing position and moving the pillow around. G.G. opened his eyes again until Trevor resumed petting him.
Trevor snapped, “Sky,” and Sky put his chin on Trevor’s knee.
He gazed up at Trevor expectantly and drummed his fingers against the bottom of the couch. Trevor could feel him doing it.
“Put your hands behind your back,” Trevor told him, and shivered when G.G. obeyed with only the smallest change in position. The order hadn’t been aimed at him, but Sky saw him do it and transferred some of his glare to G.G., who didn’t see it or didn’t care.
“Doesn’t it bother you, G.G.?” Sky demanded, sliding his cheek against Trevor’s jeans.
“What did I say, Sky?” Trevor traced the top of G.G.’s ear.
Sky glanced at G.G., at that gesture, and then at Trevor. Scowling, he slid his hands behind his back.
G.G. opened his eyes again to look at Trevor in question. Trevor nodded.
G.G. gave Sky a glance. “It doesn’t bother me.”
“Even though I’m watching?” Sky asked as if fascinated. He rubbed his cheek over Trevor’s knee again.
“G.G. likes to be watched sometimes,” Trevor revealed to let G.G. stay relaxed. “And admired, I hope.”
G.G. breathed out, noticeable tension leaving him.
Trevor let his hand settle at the back of G.G.’s neck then turned to Sky. “You don’t have to,” Trevor reminded him. Sky’s gaze came up to his. “Would you like me to hold your glasses?”
Sky nodded jerkily, then started to reach for them and only just stopped himself, looking pissed, then guilty, then pissed again. Trevor smiled as he took Sky’s glasses and left them higher up on his thigh.
His first touch through Sky’s hair made Sky bite his lip and duck his head. Trevor traced the soft skin of his nape, the lobe of one ear, the indent from the arm of his glasses.
He half-expected some continued struggle, a snappish remark about pets. Sky, however, was silent for at least a minute of tender attention. Then he said, heavy and slow, “Oh. This is… G.G., this is….”
“Yes,” G.G. answered huskily, as if he understood exactly what Sky meant.
Sky put more of his weight against Trevor’s leg, then dropped his head to the couch, his forehead pressed to Trevor’s outer thigh.
Trevor put his palm over the top of Sky’s spine and increased the pressure, just a little. “The stillness?” Trevor wondered.
Sky sighed, low and sweet.
Miss Delilah moved around above them. Trevor looked up, then back down at the incredible sight before him.
“I’ll probably mess up,” he whispered, scared to even touch the two of them. They were fragile and beautiful. He was lucky and foolish. He wasn’t giving them up. “I will mess up,” he said, painfully honest. “But I’m going to do my best for you. Okay?”
There was silence, which he expected without a firmer command for their attention. And then, softly, almost in unison, two murmured replies.
“Yes, Sir.”