The rain outside is raging, coming down like it has something to prove. Lukas is staring at the TV like he’s willing it not to go out, but every time there’s a tremor of thunder it ripples and Lukas winces like he feels it too. Philip has a book in his lap but he’s given up on trying to focus on it, the rain and the TV and the look of concentration on Lukas’s face all heavy detractors from the task at hand.
The water streaks the windows but Philp doesn’t look at that. He puts his hand on Lukas’s knee and Lukas’s eyes immediately stray over to him, the corner of his mouth tugging up into a smile.
“What?” Lukas asks, eyes soft and endearing as he looks at Philip, with that gaze that tends to make Philip blush.
“I’m tired of playing the quiet game,” Philip says, picking at the hem of Lukas’s shorts.
“I thought you were watching basketball with me.”
Philip scoffs. “Yeah, maybe for like…ten minutes, and then I started to read because I could see you were engrossed because apparently you care more about basketball than—”
Lukas immediately calls his bluff and leans in, the couch squealing as Lukas starts kissing Philip’s neck. That spidery warmth grows and spreads in Philip’s gut as Lukas slides his hand around Philip’s middle, tugging him closer.
“Maybe you should have alerted me to the extent of your neediness,” Lukas whispers against Philip’s skin, all hot breath and soft lips.
“Not needy,” Philip says, closing his eyes. “Just very—not into basketball.”
“You should have said,” Lukas says, laughing and leaning back a little bit. “I didn’t know you were this bored, we could have watched something else, or…done something else, Helen and Gabe are out for like, ever and dad knows I’m sleeping over.”
Philip rubs his hand back and forth over Lukas’s chest and looks into the brightness of his eyes. They’re still learning each other, but each little piece of information adds to the rainbow mosaic of things he loves about Lukas. How much he likes chocolate milk. How he gets kinda pissy in movie theaters without recliners. The way he effortlessly takes off his clothes. How he doesn’t really like touching public phones, even though he gets dirty and muddy on the regular when he rides his bike. How he’s been tending to waking up early the nights they spend together, so he can watch Philip sleep.
He takes his time to find things out about Philip too, needling him and questioning and asking for stories. In the beginning Philip might have mistaken some of these methods as ways to get into his pants, but now Lukas looks at him, really looks at him—all open honesty—he follows up, and he remembers.
Philip was trying to withstand the sports thing, but then he realized that yeah, he still thinks sports are boring, and they’re even more difficult to contend with when he’s got Lukas sitting next to him.
Sometimes Philip chastises himself for basking in this new, fragile happiness. But then other times, like now, he can almost see the gleam of her smile, the encouragement in her voice.
Philip touches Lukas’s cheek and Lukas closes his eyes, nuzzling their noses together. “Let’s go out in the rain,” Philip says.
“Serious serious?” Lukas asks.
“Do you want to?” Philip asks, pressing a few feather soft kisses to Lukas’s cheek.
“In all our clothes?” Lukas asks. “I like this shirt.”
“It isn’t acid rain,” Philip laughs.
“Good, because then I’d be worried about more than our clothes,” Lukas says. He kisses Philip then before Philip can say anything else, holding his face in that gentle way that he does. “You just wanna run around in the rain with me, huh? No ulterior motive?”
“What would be my ulterior motive?” Philip says, nipping a bit at the corner of Lukas’s mouth. “I’m gonna get Lukas really wet so I can—no that’s literally the reason. Let’s go make out in the rain and then come inside and take a shower.”
“You keep concocting these movie scenarios,” Lukas says. “We better not get hit by lightning.” He gets up, pulling Philip with him.
“We won’t,” Philip says, tugging off Lukas’s shirt and throwing it aside. Lukas gives him a look. “What? You like that shirt.”
“Ogling me,” Lukas says, wagging his eyebrows. “Ogle away.”
They rush outside then in a fit of laughter and it takes all of two minutes of being out from under the porch cover before they’re soak and wet. Lukas tugs Philip in and kisses him, cradles the back of his head and sneaks his hand under his shirt at his lower back. Philip knows Helen would call him crazy if she saw them doing this, but it feels like a certain kind of freedom that he wants to hold in his hands and call his own. Lukas humors him, almost always does nowadays, and Philip doesn’t know how to express his gratefulness. So he kisses him as hard as he can, twists and plays with Lukas’s hair just how he knows he likes, and presses their bodies close so they fit together the way they were always meant to.
Philip always remembers the second time they had sex, after everything happened. Lukas was still healing, Philip’s heart was still broken, and they touched each other like the world was ending. Lukas traced Philip’s body with his hands like he was trying to memorize every bit of him and they were quiet, mostly, breathing into each other’s mouths, moving in each other’s grip. Tears stung at Philip’s eyes for what he had lost but for what he had found, too, and how at one time he thought he’d never be doing this again. Lukas rested his hand over the pulse point in Philip’s throat and shushed him softly, kissing his eyelids and the tears away.
Your heart, he’d whispered.
Belongs to you, Philip had said back, moments before he came apart.
And Lukas tugs him closer now, months of intimacy built, a life together slowly fitting, seeming more real with every passing moment. The rain is loud and the sky lights up on the horizon, like past fears trying to remind him they’re still there.
But right now, Philip doesn’t look back.
“Lukas,” he whispers, tracing a stream of water down Lukas’s cheek.
“Baby,” Lukas says, with that tone that makes Philip’s body tremble.
Philip ruffles his hair, grinning to himself and staying right here, right in this moment. “You look good wet.”
Lukas hums to himself. “So do you.” He kisses him again, deepens it quickly and Philip can’t help but arch up into him, moaning into his mouth. There’s a loud crack of thunder and they both startle, pulling apart. “Okay,” Lukas says, in a rush of breath. “Shower time.”
Philip smiles again, his hands slip sliding over Lukas’s bare chest, fantasizing about more bare skin at his disposal in less than five minutes. “Just don’t drip too much on our way there.”
They both start racing back inside and Lukas laughs, hands around Philip’s middle.
“Oh yeah, sure, lemme just stop gravity so the rain water doesn’t get on the floor—”
“Let’s see you do it, fancy pants—”
Philip’s soaked to the bone and shivering but he feels warm down to his core. As soon as they get back inside Lukas grabs Philip and groans, draping him over his shoulder. Philip keeps laughing, smacking Lukas’s ass over and over, making him yelp.
“Hey, hey, hands off the merchandise—”
“I’m the highest bidder, Waldenbeck, sorry to say—”
“Well, Shea, might as well wait to get the whole show—”
Philip grins, still laughing as Lukas bites a little at his thigh. They’ve got a couple hours until Helen and Gabe are gonna be back, and tomorrow’s a half day at school. The hope inside him blooms a little bit, and once Lukas puts him down on the bathroom tile floor and draws him close for another kiss, it feels like hope is all there is.