Since the first time they met at the beach, Iolana hadn’t had the opportunity to visit Thomas again. Even though he was the school therapist, and someone the slave had considered many times to visit, she just didn’t. It wasn’t something she was used to doing, seeking help or talking to a therapist, but she hadn’t forgotten his act of kindness.
Now that it was summer break though, she figured she should stop by and at least say hi. On an island full of so many intimidating and scary people, Thomas was someone who genuinely seemed kind and patient. And that seemed like a relationship Iolana wanted to keep. Finding his office, Lana sucked in a small breath before gently knocking on the door an peeking in to see if Thomas was in.
Thomas was often getting in trouble - or just getting himself hurt in completely ridiculous accidents around the royal palace. Sometimes they even let Thomas in the yard, down from the houses in the treetops, which often turned out to be a terribly bad an idea.
Once he nearly got tampered by the horse. The other time he got lost in the woods and Adorellan and his men had searched him to the dead of the night, just to find the young prince curled up under the tree sleeping, probably exhausted from wandering around, his long blonde hair a mess, twigs and leaves caught in it.
Adorellan was often bustling, and often everything felt like things were going to fall apart. The great evil was rising from the west, and the elven king had a worry over his people, his lands. The king of humans had requested for his help, and even the dwarfs bad made their approach.
He didn't have a time for his son, and when Thomas didn't get the attention he needed, he became wild and reckless, and had multiple nurses and his wet nurse running after him. Adorellan hadn't been the same ever since his wife had died giving birth to his youngest son - or when his human lover had died when he'd been still young elf. He never had turned out to be the father he had dreamed to be all those years ago.
It was yet another winter day as the guards came running in. Thomas had climbed to one of the trees and fallen down, broken his arm. He'd been taken to the healer, but the child was crying. Adorellan hesitated just a moment before stood up from behind his desk and hurried out with them.
There his son was, laying in his bed, face a bit red from crying and eyes still wet as the old healer sat by him, nursing his arm. "Thomas, amin yondo", Adorellan breathed out, hurrying by his son's side, his hand laying on the side of younglin's head, stroking his hair out of the way, eyeing the bruises on his face, his split lip, his ears lightly pushed back.
"Atar", Thomas said quietly, wriggling on the bed and reaching up for his father. "You silly little thing", Adorellan continued quietly, stroking Thomas' hair. "Haven't we told you not to climb a tree? You're clumsy, with your long limbs. Clumsy as a tiny dwarf." Thomas gave him a small, insulted frown as if he understood what Adorellan was saying to him.
"Atar, I'm sorry", Thomas said softly, leaning up to push his forehead against his. Thomas had just wanted to impress his father, to climb higher than any of the other elven children had managed to climb.
"You scared me to death, seldo", Adorellan murmured. Thomas smiled up at him. "I climbed higher than Gobel, atar", Thomas said, wincing a bit as the healer arranged his thin, broken arm. It would be healed soon enough, even though it hurt now.
"You did?" Adorellan said, chuckling down at his son. "I am proud of you." It made Thomas smile only wider. "Teil brought me here after I fell. Gobel ran away. He knew we weren't supposed to be climbing in trees." Not until then Adorellan noticed the child cowering in the corner of the room. As an older brother he'd been supposed to take care of Thomas, but he had helped him to climb instead, annoyed by Gobel's attitude towards them both.
Adorellan eyed the oldest of his sons silently, his brows slightly furrowing. Teil looked away quickly. "Seldo", Adorellan called out for him finally, reaching his hand out towards the young elf, slowly approaching his teens. "Come here."
Teil hesitated, shifting at his feet before walked over to his father and his younger brother. Teil expected a slap, anything like that - he had never gotten along well with his father - but it never came. Instead Adorellan pulled him closer to them, delicate fingers gentle on his hand.
"You saved this clumsy thing?" he asked, keeping his voice low and soft. Teil nodded, his ear twitching lightly as he looked up at his father's bright eyes. "Yes, atar", he replied to him. Adorellan nodded slightly, before breathed out heavy, exhausted of his work and the worry. "Good job", he praised Teil quietly and rubbed his hand over his arm.
"Your brother sure isn't the quickest bunny in these part of woods", he murmured out, receiving a yelp out from his youngest son. Teil gave a small, knowing smirk over at Thomas, receiving a pout of a lip.
"Just make sure this little fool doesn't climb another tree until he learns to coordinate his limbs", Adorellan said gently and looked over at Teil, getting another obedient nod. "Yes, atar." Teil gave a small, testing smile. As Adorellan smiled back younger elf's shoulders relaxed. "Now keep company to your brother", Adorellan said, patting Teil's shoulder before pulling away.
"And you stay in bed", he added, pointing a finger at Thomas who gave a small, mischievous smile and Teil knew he'd have to tie the youngling to the bed to make him stay there.
Thomas burst in the library, holding a huge stack of books and papers, his face mostly hidden under the huge beanie hanging on top of his head and the thick scarf wrapped multiple times around his neck.
His first finals were closing - God help his poor soul - , and he felt the cold claw of failure grasping onto him. He hadn't studied hard enough, made enough notes... Something would surely go wrong.
Luca was the new librarian in the local library, sitting behind the counter, slightly hunched, going through his papers with a part of his blonde, long hair tied up on a messy bun on the back of his head as the rest of it flew on his shoulders and framed his face.
He gingerly pushed the glasses on his nose higher in a way that made something flip in Thomas' gut.
Thomas stood by the doorway long enough for Luca to finally look up and meet his gaze. The man nodded to him as a hello and gave a small smile before turned his attention back to his work. He brushed his hair behind his ear, giving Thomas enough time to notice how man had the cuffs of his worn, big cardigan pulled over his fingers. Luca picked up the phone as it started ringing and wedged it between his ear and the shoulder, his voice quiet enough for Thomas not to hear it.
Finally the young first grader left his spot and headed between the long rows of the books , finding a spot for himself and sat down. He wished that he'd stopped by at the Starbucks on his way here, but it was too late now. He'd be stuck here until the late hours.
As he flipped through the pages of his books, his thoughts wandered back to the librarian time by times. There was something about the new man, something sweet, something gentle, something mysterious. Thomas couldn't stop himself smiling as he told himself to stop thinking about it for now. He had work to do. Still part of him never stopped dreaming of man's hands on him and -
Hearing a gentle, squeaking noise of the wheels of the book cart, Thomas lifted his gaze to see Luca nearing, pushing the cart along with himself. He stopped time by times to pick up a book and settle it in the shelf.
Thomas watched quietly for a long time, long enough to see when Luca picked up a book and flinched slightly, quickly settling the book down on the cart. He lifted his hand, pulling down the sleeve of his cardigan and rubbed his wrist. It had been tied up with a support bandage. Luca rubbed on his wrist, small wrinkles appearing on the bridge of his nose.
The silence was deep until Luca glanced at the teen sitting on the floor and sent a small, charming smile on his way. He lifted his bandaged hand a bit, letting out a quiet chuckle. "I ain't as old as I look", he promised. "Just having some problems with joints lately", he continued, and for a moment Thomas pondered why the man was sharing this with him.
He answered with a dumb 'oh' at first, and that's what broke their connection that time. Luca took that as a sign to back off and nodded a bit hastily to him and rubbed his wrist for a moment longer before pulled his sleeves over his fingers again and started putting books in the shelves again.
He passed Thomas and Thomas couldn't stop staring for a while, studying the older man. He couldn't be over forty, couldn't he?
-
The second time they met was few days before Christmas. Thomas was over and done with his finals, and apparently he hadn't done too badly. He'd been on a vacation for a while now, and he hadn't gotten around to returning his books before now.
He waddled in the library with a stack of books and headed over to the counter, biting the chain of his keys between his teeth to keep his hold onto them.
"G'mornin'", he drawled past the keys and bent down a bit to settle the books on the desk for returning. Lifting his gaze he saw the blonde man sitting on the other side of the counter, looking up at him, small, slightly unsure smile on his lips. Right. Thomas had put him off last time. This time he smiled as a greeting, and with a genuine joy of seeing the man here again.
"Hey", he breathed out, stroking his hand over the cover of the copy of the Human Anatomy & Physiology (edition six) as if to smooth it out. Luca smiled a bit wider. "Good morning", he replied, then reached his hands out to pull the pile of books closer. Something in Thomas made him automatically help the man and push the books closer to him, reminded by the incident between the shelves.
"It's quite cold outside", he commented, staring at the man, trying to engage him into a conversation that he'd failed to do the last time. Luca nodded, starting to beep the books with the laser reader.
"They promised a white Christmas", Luca finally said, voice soft. He took just a few seconds break to straighten his stiff fingers, but enough for Thomas to pay attention to. As a pre-med student, he was already diagnosing him a bit, as rude as it might have been.
Luca glanced up at him, recognizing the look. "You're a pre-med student in the uni, aren't you?" he asked, receiving a confused 'huh' from Thomas. Luca chuckled, shaking his head a bit. "Either you're a pre-med - we get you guys a lot - or otherwise just interested in human anatomy enough to loan five over 300 page books. And they ain't light reading, that much I know."
Man glanced up at Thomas past his thick framed glasses and smiled, the dimples appearing on his cheeks, leaving Thomas breathless. "Er, yeah. My first semester", he finally got out, and he smiled widely back to the man. He reached his hand out of an old habit for a handshake. "Thomas", he introduced himself before felt dumb. Man clearly had some problems with his hands, and he here was offering more stress on him. Idiot.
Luca just smiled and lifted his hand, sleeve pulling away from over his hand, revealing the support bandages around his hand and wrist, disappearing under his sleeve. "Luca", he introduced himself back and took Thomas' hand in his, shaking lightly, his grip on Thomas' hand so gentle and careful that it nearly startled the younger man.
Instead he just smiled and squeezed ever so lightly before letting go. "So you're new around here, huh?" Thomas asked, pushing his hands in his pockets as the man checked his books through. Luca nodded, a strand of blonde hair escaping from behind his ear. "That's right", he told the boy. "I started here in November. It's a part time job until the end of the spring", he explained, his eyes on the screen of his computer as he struggled to read the worn barcodes from the last of Thomas' books.
Man cursed softly and ended up typing the code in the right field and checked the book in. He printed out the receipt for Thomas and thanked him, but they ended up talking for much, much longer time, Thomas explaining his living arrangements in the campus and Luca explained him about how he'd moved from Atlanta to here - it was much calmer in here.
At some point of the conversation the subject was slowly moving to Luca's condition. Luca shrugged it off at first. His wrists got sensitive and sore easily, but finally he admitted to Thomas that yes, he had rheumatism. Rheumatoid arthritis, to be exact, and Thomas nodded in understanding as the man started speaking.
Luca was 43 and wore the support bandages and ate lots and lots of painkillers to somehow do his job.
It all ended with Thomas asking if Luca would want to have a coffee with him and for some God forbidden reason Luca promised to see if he had time in the weekend, and Thomas told him he'd hold onto that promise.
-
Few months passed, and it became a habit for them. Luca got out of work around eight, and that time Thomas left from labs and headed out to meet Luca at the stairs of the library.
Then they proceeded to walk the block to the small bar/cafe close by, and drank cups of coffee or tea, depending on a day. After few times it didn't seem so odd anymore that Luca was hanging out with a kid who could have been his son.
They just enjoyed each others' company.
First they sat silently and chatted about this and that, then they talked about their lives and it turned out that both of them sounded much interesting to each other than they had seemed to be. Boring, small stories turned into adventures as they shared them to each other.
It took six moths for them so get close enough to spend a good time at Luca's door steps after their hookups, just talking. Luca leaned on his door, chuckling and shaking his head, smiling that charming smile to Thomas again, dimples deep in his cheeks and wrinkles appearing on the corners of his eyes.
Thomas' fingers lightly brushed over man's arm and they were silent. Luca watched Thomas' fingers slowly moving their way up his arm and to his shoulder. Their hearts raced. It was so intimate. Something new. Thomas' fingers brushed lightly over man's lightly stubbled cheek and Luca see how boy bit on his lip.
They still didn't say anything as Thomas leaned in, closing his eyes and lightly pressing his mouth over his. Luca knew he should have pulled away but instead he fluttered his eyes closed, lifting his hand to settle it on Thomas' hip. He stroked lightly over it before his wrist started aching and he stopped, focusing on Thomas' mouth instead.
His tongue slid tentatively over Thomas', and as the younger man replied, the kiss deepened, and soon they were struggling to get the door open and get themselves inside of Luca's small, homey apartment.
The clothes were off soon - and Luca felt so unsure of the bandages - but Thomas didn't mind. He whispered to him quietly, keeping repeating 'come here, come here' in soft tone before pulling him close, hand cupping the back of man's neck. His other hand came to untangle man's bun, letting his hair fall free.
Their sex was slow, exploratory. Luca over Thomas, hips flexing against him, rutting their hips together. Thomas arching into him, gently pushing him on his back, riding him, moaning and panting softly, his hands leaning on Luca's flat, taunt stomach, on man's knees. Luca would sit up and wrap his arms around him, slowly fuck up into him, and it was perfect. Luca was aching at the end of it, having to shift around to find a comfortable position, and Thomas was sore, but it was perfect.
They laid awake for hours, just watching each other silently. Thomas' fingers stroked over Luca's cheeks, and then a small smile lingered on his lips. He came close, pulled sheets over them and kissed his nose, making heat pool in Luca's belly in a pleasant way. This might have been a heat of the moment, but he didn't have a heart to ask boy to leave.
And it was good. He wanted Thomas there.
And it surprised him to find out, that when he woke up in the morning, Thomas was still there, laying next to him, his arm wounded around Luca's middle, his head rested on man's shoulder, content look on his sleeping face.
