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Flint had a long day. His students fell asleep in class and then got upset when they got horrible grades on their horrible papers. He caught three of them plagiarizing. Ten visited during his office hours, and one of the boys actually broke down in tears. One of the girls stormed out, saying that she was going to speak to the department head. Flint was the department head and was already dreading that.
He dragged himself from his car with a grunt. His shoulder and back muscles were in knots. He walked into the kitchen to find takeout waiting on the counter for him. Silver’s not allowed to cook since the food poisoning incident. And the ruined pot. And the fire incident. Flint grabs a container of what looks like some form of lo mein and a fork.
Music was floating from the backyard. Silver was always doing something back there, usually listening to music and swimming in the pool. Flint slides open the patio door so he can join him outside.
Silver was jumping on a trampoline and singing some song at the top of his lungs. His black hair was going everywhere, and some strands were sticking straight up from the static. Flint just smiles and sits in a plastic lawn chair and watches him.
It’s not long before Silver spots him. “Hey, babe.” He jumps off quickly, kisses Flint on the cheek, then climbs back on to start jumping again.
Flint turns down the music. “And when did we buy a trampoline?” he asks coyly.
Silver smiles. “Since this morning.”
“Have you been out here all day?”
“Nah. Only about thirty minutes.”
“Have you eaten dinner?” Flint worries. Silver forgets to eat sometimes. He just gets so caught up in running the bar. There’s always something going wrong that needs attention. He shrugs which means no.
“Get over here,” Flint orders. Silver groans and flops onto his back. “Come on. You need food.”
He crawls down again and sits on Flint’s lap. He offers Silver a fork full of noodles which he takes gratefully. Flint rubs his back as he chews and relinquishes the food. It must have been a while since he ate because he’s shoveling it in his mouth as fast as he can.
Flint closes his eyes and tips his head back. “It’s a beautiful day,” he comments. Silver just grunts in reply.
After the food is gone, Flint pushes Silver off him. He slips off his shoes. Crawling on the trampoline was harder than he thought it would be.
“You’re going to get your boring, white socks dirty,” Silver calls to him.
Flint chuckles and starts to jump. He doesn’t try any fancy moves like Silver did. Just jumps up and down. He never jumped on one before. Poor kids in small apartments didn’t get luxuries like this. It’s fun but tiring. After a little bit, he gets off and walks to Silver.
“I like the new toy,” he says as he bends down to kiss him again.
“Me too. Wanna watch a movie?”
“Yeah,” Flint replies, pulling Silver to his feet. “I want to take shower first though.”
“Do I get to join you?” he asks biting his bottom lip. He knows exactly what that does to Flint.
Flint wraps his arms around him and smiles at him. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The smile knocks the air out of Silver. After so many years and so much stuff, Flint still looks at him like he thinks he’s amazing.