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His home had felt more than just empty for a long while, since Carlos left to go through the door of the house that doesn’t really exist. It took a toll on him to keep things up in his end after not hearing anything from Carlos for weeks and weeks. Their Apartment had started to feel, sound, and smell less and less like home to the Radio Host. That was their home and now it was vacant one spot.
Things got better immediately after hearing his long lost boyfriend’s voice again over the phone. Though, there was still that pang that he couldn’t actually be with him, even if they skyped nightly.
They mostly talked small talk. It was nice, while it lasted. Carlos usually hung up after ten or fifteen minutes because of some new scientific discovery or some strange phenomenon.
“Carlos, what’s wrong?” He noticed the curiosity in his boyfriend’s face and voice as he heard the answer.
“I need to hang up on you. I need to find out what that was.” He heard Carlos say. That hurt just a little to hear. “Anyway, I love you, stay safe.” Though, that did help somewhat with the sting of his boyfriend leaving him for something more interesting that a skype call.
Cecil was jealous of that desert, as crazy as it was. It wasn’t so much the desert, but everything even remotely scientifically interesting in that desert.
It was nearly a week before Carlos answered his phone next. He was rambling on about something with the water drying up. That was a big concern. Who knew what could happen in a desert where there is always phone reception and never ending battery. Did Carlos even need to drink or eat? Maybe he would ask that to Dana next time he heard from her. It wasn’t something he wasn’t to start with Carlos. He knew his wonderful scientist boyfriend would be the scientist he was and not eat or drink to find out, which would end badly for everyone.
Though, Carlos was following a suspicious pathway apparently in the desert and that concerned him enough, considering what had happened at StrexCorp with the CEO and their Radio Host. He shuddered just thinking about it. “I love you too.” He responded as the call ended, letting Carlos sleep.
The Radio Station was giving him his freedoms back slowly. He had a lunch break now and even was able to start playing his preferred weather and advertisements again. Things were starting to go well again, except that it had been a few days since he last heard from Carlos. He left voice messages and texted him several times, but got no reply and it was worrying him, especially since the last they spoke, Carlos talked of having no water anymore.
There was a commotion at the Radio Station early in the morning after a week and a half of not hearing from Carlos. He put on the weather and walked out into the hall to see Carlos on the floor, covered in sand from head to toe and his perfectly tanned skin burned terribly in some places, just red in others.
He rushed home with Carlos, just happy he was back. He wiped off the sand and put on aloe to calm the burns to his sleeping, perfect boyfriend. He brushed his perfect hair and changed his clothes into pajamas and laid with him in bed. Finally. Everything felt, sounded, and smelt right again.
He even woke up to the sound of that perfect voice. “Carlos… I missed you.”
Carlos gave his reply, but jolted suddenly. “Carlos… are you okay?” All he got in return was a simple ‘yeah’ and he held him closer for comfort.
“Turn around, Carlos…” Cecil wanted something more intimate than a back. He wanted to kiss and love one another into the night, as long as Carlos could move like that. Carlos complied and turned over for him, eyes closed, but face relaxed. “Well, open your eyes…” It was peculiar that Carlos had them closed. They were just the perfect shade of brown too… So homey feeling.
“You’re not going to like them.”
“Why not?”
“They aren’t what they used to be… I-I had to do something to get out of the desert…”
“Carlos dear… Nothing’s changed. I don’t care if something happened.”
“No, really, they’re a problem. Cec, you have to understand.”
“I can’t understand something I can’t see.”
He shuddered when he noticed what Carlos’ eyes looked like when he opened them; glowing like the sun and grainy like the sand of the Wastes. “C-Carlos… merciful Gods… What happened?”
“No… A Smiling God.” Carlos shook his head and let out a small sigh.
Cecil was getting worried about Carlos. He hauled himself in his lab again to stay. He didn’t come home that night and Cecil slept alone like he had for the past several weeks, curled up under the sheets and clinging to the pillow that vaguely smelt like his sun kissed hero boyfriend. He woke to find no Carlos either and prepared breakfast like usual, for one, but leaving some extra in the fridge incase Carlos decides to come home. Cecil hoped he would be home before he had to eat the leftovers at the end of the week like he had been before. He wasn’t going to waste all that food he saved after all.
He let Carlos be himself though. He was sure he had some important science to attend to in the lab after being away so long. He simply accepted that with a sigh. That’s the life of having a scientist boyfriend though, isn’t it?
He grinned when the door opened though. Carlos had come home! Just before he was about to eat all those leftovers he had made for him. Though, that grin fell when he noticed the misplaced one on Carlos’ face. “Carlos? What’s wrong? You’re home early…”
“I wanted to see you.” Cecil could only stare at the nearly blinding light that followed where his shadow should have been. He noticed that his boyfriend was nearly glowing. Did he drink some weird mixture again instead of his coffee? “I wanted to hold you and kiss you and take you somewhere.” He felt arms wrap around him carefully.
“C-Carlos…” He put his head on Carlos’ chest. “Where?”
“A land of perfection.” Where was tha-
The second Cecil’s lips locked with Carlos’, blinding sunlight burst behind his eyes and he gasped, unable to speak as his vision, throat, and lungs filled with sand and sunlight. He felt sand grating against his arteries and skin. Everything was being eroded and washed out with the light and sand until there was nothing and when he looked up to Carlos, he grinned with glowing sandy eyes and kissed him again.
In another flash of light, which wasn’t nearly as blinding, they found themselves in the beating heat of a glaring sun and the light of a Smiling God over them.
They grinned and greeted him fondly.