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In all fairness, Marc wasn’t really sure how he was expecting his night to go when he came home from school that day. But he was pretty certain that having his boyfriend, Nathaniel, show up on his doorstep in the middle of the night was not on that particular list. Especially when Nathaniel was showing up with no coat on, dripping wet from the pouring rain outside, and looking like he’d been crying as his teeth chattered together, and his body shook from the cold as Marc took a little too long to notice the worrying blue-ish hue that was starting to take over his skin.
“What happened?!” he blurted out. Reaching his hand out, and pulling Nathaniel inside by the arm tried his best to quickly shut the door again without waking up his parents.
“M-My mom kicked me out,” he stammered. Speaking through his chattering teeth as Marc dragged him into the kitchen, and sat him down at the island before hurrying off to get him a towel from the hall closet. “I-I told her about us…a-and she threw me out.”
“Are you hurt?” Marc asked once he came back. Wrapping the towel around Nathaniel’s shoulders as his boyfriend gave a small shake of his head.
“N-No…N-Not physically at least,” he shivered. Bringing his hand up to wipe his eyes as Marc brought the towel up to start drying off Nathaniel’s hair, and pressed a warm kiss to his icy forehead. “C-Can’t really say the same emotionally…”
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked. Wiping away the rain water and dried tear drops from Nathaniel’s skin with the towel before he brought his hands up to gently hold his frozen skin in his palms. Hearing Nathaniel let out a low, heavy sigh as he relaxed against his touch, and gave him a small, barely noticeable nod and a muttered ‘sure’ that Marc almost missed since it was so quiet. “Alright. You go get a shower, and get warmed up. I’ll get you a change of clothes, and put the kettle on for some tea.”
“B-But you’re nice and w-warm though,” he said. Bringing his free hand up to hold Marc’s a little closer to his face. Relishing in the warmth as it sunk into his skin, and letting the corners of his mouth curl into a small smile as he heard Marc let out a huff in place of a laugh before he pressed another kiss into his hair.
“I know. But we can’t have you catching a cold after being out in the rain,” he said. Hearing Nathaniel let out a reluctant groan as he took his hands into his own, and helped him up to his feet before guiding him towards the bathroom. Letting him go to turn on the light, and quickly closing the lid of the toilet so he could sit Nathaniel down, and give him the quiet reassurance that he wasn’t going far as he turned on the shower, and let it run for a few moments so that the water could heat up as he slinked back into his room to get Nathaniel a change of clothes before he came back to adjust the temperature and get him another towel. “I’ll be in the kitchen making tea. So you just take your time.”
“Okay…” Nathaniel muttered. Getting up from the toilet, and tossing the towel that had been around his shoulders in the vague direction of the hamper as Marc set his pajamas down on the sink. “And thank you for letting me stay here…I really appreciate it.”
“It’s not a problem,” he said. Taking Nathaniel’s face into his hands again, and gently guiding him up to look into his eyes. “This is a safe place for you, Nath. You’re always welcome here. Day or night.”
“Are you sure I’m not too much of an inconvenience?”
“Hardly,” he said. Pressing a quick kiss to his boyfriend’s lips before he let him go again, and started heading towards the door. “I’m going to put the kettle on for tea. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?”
“Yeah. I’ll see out there,” Nathaniel said. Turning away from him, and going to pull his shirt over his head as Marc quietly shut the door behind him, and went back out into the kitchen. Grabbing his father’s electric kettle from the counter top, and filling it up with water before setting it back down, and turning it on with a click of a button as he reached up to get the tea cups from the cupboard above his head.
“Marc?” his mother’s voice asked. Making Marc freeze up as he slowly turned around to look at her with his arm still raised. Seeing her standing in the doorway to her room, dressed in a worn out T-shirt, and wrinkled pajama bottoms with her hair tied into a loose braid that draped over her shoulder as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Is everything alright?”
“Yeah. Everything’s fine,” he said. Getting the tea cups out of the cupboard, and turning the kettle off as the water quickly came to a rolling boil, and grabbing the box of tea bags that were sitting on the counter as his mom peered down the hallway when she heard the shower running.
“Who’s in the shower?” she asked.
“Nathaniel,” he said. Placing the tea bags into the cups, and adding a little bit of honey to Nathaniel’s before pouring the water into them. “His mom kicked him out.”
“Is he okay?”
“As much as he can be,” he said. Stirring the honey into Nathaniel’s tea, and going into the fridge for the almond milk as he heard the shower turn off. “Did you want me to get you something while I was in here?”
“No, thanks. I just wanted to check and see who you were talking to,” she said. Turning to go back to bed with a yawn as Marc set the tea down on the island, and quickly wiped off the stool Nathaniel had been sitting on earlier with the dish towel so that there wasn’t just a puddle of rain water sitting on the worn down pleather. “Try not to stay up too late if you can help it.”
“We won’t,” he assured. Giving his mom a small smile as she stopped in the doorway to her room to look back at him. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Hearing the bathroom door open as his mother’s door clicked shut, Marc turned to look back at Nathaniel, and widened his smile a bit as he stepped out into the dim light of the kitchen. The blue-ish hue of his skin now gone, and replaced with a healthier shade of pink, with his tomato red hair wrapped up in the mint green towel he’d given him earlier, and wearing a rainbow tie-dyed hoodie and a pair of dark grey sweatpants that were just a little too big on him, and made him look even cozier.
“Better?” he asked.
“A little,” he admitted. Coming over to sit down at the island again as Marc silently passed his tea over to him, and watched as he quietly wrapped his hands around the ceramic to warm his hands up. “I can feel my fingers and toes again at least.”
“Good. I’m glad,” he said. Reaching across the counter to take one of his hands into his, and running the pad of his thumb across his pale skin as Nathaniel felt his cheeks grow warm, and brought his cup up to his lips to take a drink. “So. Do you want to tell me why your mom kicked you out?”
“It’s stupid…” Nathaniel grumbled. Setting his cup back down on the counter as he took his hand back from Marc so let his hair down from the towel, and ran his fingers through the damp strands to try and push it out of his eyes even though his bangs still fell across his eye. “I was sketching some new character ideas for our next comic, and left them sitting out on my desk. And when she saw that I drew two of the male characters kissing, she got mad and started throwing a fit over it.”
“And she threw you out over it?” Marc asked. Seeing Nathaniel nod his head shamefully as he took his face into his hands again, and gently ran his thumbs along his cheekbones.
“Yeah,” he said. “Said that I made the characters look too much like you and me. And when I reminded her that we’ve been dating for the better part of a year, she completely lost it, and told me to get out.”
“Where was your dad in all of this?”
“Same place he always was. In the living room, trying to act like he didn’t exist,” Nathaniel said. Gently moving his boyfriend’s hands away from his face so he could take another sip from his drink as Marc moved to sit down beside him. “And it’s not like I can count on him to try and do anything about this. Because he’ll just crumple and take her side like he always does.”
“Well, has your mom done this before?” Marc asked. “Throw you out, I mean.”
“I want to say ‘no’. But I’m pretty sure the thought crossed her mind more than a few times during our fights,” he said. Feeling his eyes well up with tears again, and wiping them away quickly as Marc set a hand on his shoulder. “I think the only reason she hadn’t done it up until now was because Alix and Juleka were always with me, and normally found an excuse to drag me out of there before things could escalate too far.”
“But she always welcomed you back after she calmed down. Right?”
“‘Welcomed’ is a pretty loose way of putting it,” Nathaniel grumbled. Staring down at his reflection in the surface of his tea so he wouldn’t have to see the concerned and pitiful look in his boyfriend's eyes. Because he knew that if he did, the dam would break all over again and he’d start crying again. “And it’s never with open arms.”
“How long do you think she’s going to keep this up?”
“Honestly…I don’t really know,” Nathaniel said. Noticing the crack in his voice, and choking back a sniffle as he wiped at his eyes again, and felt Marc’s hand move to rub his back. “But I wouldn’t count on it being any time soon, though…Her parting words to me right before she slammed the door in my face were that I was no longer her son.”
“Oh, Nath,” Marc cooed. Standing up from his chair and hugging Nathaniel close as the first sob broke free from his lips. Running his fingers through his damp hair as he turned to bury his face into his shoulder, and feeling him wrap his arms around his waist as he whispered soft reassurances that he’d be okay before pressing a soft kiss to his temple. Letting Nathaniel cry out all his tears as he held him in his arms, and feeling a few of his own slide down his cheeks as he felt a sense of anger well up in his chest at the fact that his mom would throw him out over something as simple and stupid as a few strokes of ink on a page just because it reflected a truth about him that she didn’t want to accept.
“I–*sniff*--I just wanted her to love me…” he said through his sobs.
“I know,” Marc soothed. Hugging his boyfriend a little tighter before Nathaniel pulled away from him to wipe his eyes.
“I’m getting snot all over you. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s fine,” he said. Reaching over to grab a paper towel from the roll that was sitting next to them so Nathaniel could blow his nose as he wiped away his tears with the pads of his thumbs, and pressed another kiss to his forehead as he sniffled. Resuming his place on the chair beside him once Nathaniel had calmed down again, and keeping a hand on his back as he watched him take another sip of his tea to try and settle his raw and rattled nerves before he spoke up again. “So, what was our next comic going to be about?”
“Mm,” he hummed. Setting his tea cup back down on the countertop as he turned to look back at him. “You don’t want to hear about that.”
“Yeah, I kind of do,” Marc said. Nudging his boyfriend in the ribs playfully, and seeing him crack a smile for the first time that night since he’d shown up on his doorstep. “I’ve been suffering from writer’s block for the better part of a week. I need some inspiration.”
“Well, there really isn’t much of a story to it yet. But it starts out with an art conservator living in New York…”