Work Text:
The happy ending I promised for "Why can't we be like that?"
~~~
“Here – no, not there! Adam!”
Adam mumbled unintelligibly as he fell face-first on his bed. The world was spinning – well, he already knew it was; it was just spinning in his vision too.
Carol huffed, arms aching after wrestling her friend home. She went quietly to the kitchen and took back a glass of water for Adam who was not yet snoring, but merely going on about how Nigel was so gorgeous and so was his wife.
She sat beside him, speaking softly so as not to grate on his nerves by speaking too loud. “Adam, can you drink a little? It’ll help you with the alcohol.”
Truly, he didn’t drink a lot, just a couple of beers and a shot of vodka, but him being a non-drinker prior to now made him look like he’d swam across a case of beer and a bottle or two of brandy.
Adam opened his blood-shot eyes, red from drinking and crying both and tried to get up on his elbows. “I want Nigel.”
Carol pursed her lips and put the glass of water on the side table. “I know, honey. But he’s not here.”
“He’s with his wife.” Adam sobbed, shoulders shaking as he fell on the bed again.
Carol’s throat tightened. She’s already cried with her friend in the car. With a helpless sigh, she rubbed his back. “I need to go home now. I can’t stay, Adam.”
“You have classes tomorrow and I need to go to work. But I don’t know if I – if I can because my head is so weird and there are colors on my bed sheets that were not there this morning… oww… and Nigel…”
Carol bent down and kissed the mess of his hair before standing up. She placed Adam’s phone beside him before she left.
“Carol?” Adam called out and groaned. She must’ve gone already.
Sniffling, he grabbed his cellphone and swiped at the screen. He moaned in agony upon seeing him and Nigel there, arms locked around each other, tanned and smiling, with the Miami sun high in the background. Last year was perfect. Tonight was…
“Nigel…” Adam cried; thumb tracing his lover’s face on the tempered glass. “I need you… please…” he sobbed again, harder now, his emotions drowning his reason.
He didn’t want to fall in love. It just happened. Nigel happened. One moment he was standing outside the office building elevator, waiting for it to open, and the next, he was tripping on a man crouched on the floor as he entered it.
Nigel had been there to see why the damned thing kept on stopping on the eight floor – surely it was not a ghost. Adam told him ghosts weren’t real, and the man smiled at him before telling him about his grandmother waking him up one morning in Romania when he was ten and him being aware that he was suddenly in the kitchen staring at the open stove with his mother screaming at him before he could put his hand in the fire. Adam gave him a weird look that only made Nigel laugh. He said it was a true story and the elevator better stop if he was lying – and the thing did stop just then. Adam laughed at this and so did Nigel. He asked him if he wanted to get a cup of coffee when he got off work later and they had never been apart for too long since then.
It hurt so much to be apart from him, and only then did Adam had become sure he was in love. Every month, there was a weekend when they didn’t see each other – when Nigel and his wife went out of town to visit his mother in law. He had been okay with this arrangement for two years, until recently.
Nigel said his mother in law now wanted her daughter and him to have a kid. They were both not getting younger, she said, and maybe they should move to California to manage the family business. Nigel was not having any of it and neither was his wife.
But she told him that she did want a child too, and so they’ve been going out longer during weekends – more weekends that Adam didn’t get to see Nigel. More weekends that spelled boredom and worry. More weekends that Adam tried to occupy his thoughts of anything else but Nigel. And tonight was one of those times when he had to get away from wasting the hours thinking of him – his first time to accept Carol’s invitation to a bar, to drink and dance.
And he bumped into them together – Nigel and his wife.
Adam whimpered as his head began to throb. He reached out for the glass of water, swiping the last call button as he got up and drank a little. His head was aching and his chest too.
“It hurts so bad…” he cried softly, burrowing into the pillows. “I can’t take it… it hurts…”
///
Nigel closed his eyes, letting his tears flow under the torrent of the shower. He was a dumb fuck. He hurt the only one he loved so much. Though he hadn’t intended to, he still did hurt him – Adam. Even thinking his name had his chest constricting.
“Are you coming to bed anytime, babe?” his wife called out from the other side of the bathroom door.
Nigel cleared his throat. “Yeah… I’ll be out in a sec.”
He heard the dull thud of her feet as she walked away, and he sighed heavily as he turned off the shower. He schooled his face to an easy smile before stepping out.
“Someone’s trying to call you.” His wife said, turning a page of her book and propping her glasses higher on her nose.
“Yeah?” Nigel walked over to his jacket, toweling his hair dry and took his cellphone out, swiping the screen to answer it before seeing who was calling. “Hello?” He said, giving his wife an answering smile as she decided that she was finished reading for the night and placed her book and glasses on the side table.
“It hurts so bad… I can’t take it… It hurts…”
Adam.
Nigel’s blood ran cold. “H-hey… Are you okay?” He could hear his own heartbeat in his ears and a throbbing pain was beginning in his chest.
“Who is it?” his wife asked, curious.
Nigel raised a hand at her and nodded at the same time. “It’s okay…” he said to her as much as to who was calling.
“No… It isn’t okay in a-any sense or fa-fashion…” his boy sobbed, his breath hitching quickly. It seemed like he hasn’t realized he was talking to Nigel already.
“I – “
“I just need you here… please… I can’t –“ Adam cried, the hitching in his voice now becoming desperate sobs that cut right through Nigel’s heart.
He could see it clearly. Adam would be laying on his side in a fetal position after having rocked himself tired, making himself as tiny as he could so he won’t be seen, trying to be quiet so he won’t be heard, trying so hard to hide his pain – trying not to hurt himself, as Nigel told him to do because if got hurt, he’d be hurting Nigel too. And Adam didn’t want that. He didn’t ever want to hurt the only person he loved.
Without another word, Nigel hurriedly dressed, pulling on his underwear, a t-shirt from the drawer and his pants. His jacket came next at the same time he was walking to the shoe rack. He didn’t bother with socks.
He could still hear Adam whimpering, begging for him to come because it’s so hard to breathe…
“Where are you going?” his wife called after him. “Who are you talking to? Nigel?” She was getting agitated.
Nigel threw her a perfunctory look as he swung the front door open.
“Nigel…” Her face was awash with worry for imminent loss, anger and disbelief.
Nigel swallowed the lump in his throat. She had been nothing but good to him, kind and loving. And here he was, practically throwing all of that – all of what they had at her face.
“I’m sorry, Bev.”
She blinked twice and inhaled sharply, her face reading nothing as she shook her head. “I was hoping I was wrong.”
Nigel kept silent. He owed it to her.
“That boy…” she stopped and bit her lip, then flipped the long tail of her hair to her back – a habit she had to mask any strong emotion she was trying to rein in, her calm before the storm. “When you went to Miami…”
Nigel nodded. “Yes.”
“And tonight at the club.”
“Yes.”
Bev shook her head again, halting Nigel from speaking. “You’re a fucking coward.” She spat. “You don’t deserve him.” She said.
“Nor you, Bev. I don’t deserve you.” Nigel replied, his voice cracking.
“Don’t patronize me,” Bev said, angrily wiping the wetness from her eyes. “I’ll stay at a hotel. You’ll have until noon to pack your stuff. Now get the fuck out.” She said, turning away to the bedroom and banging the door close.
“I’m sorry…” Nigel whispered as he too turned away and left.
///
Nigel hated it when he was right when it came to Adam and his anxiety attacks. His boy hadn’t closed all the locks he had installed because he was too upset, and Nigel got in too easily with his own keys to his place. The living room light was on and it wasn’t conserving energy. He flicked the lights off as he passed the switch and went to Adam’s room. And there on his bed was his angel, his whole body tight as he shook.
“Darling…” Nigel said as softly as he could as he knelt beside Adam, cupping his tear-stained cheeks tenderly. “I’m here, baby. You called me and I’m here.”
Adam’s blue eyes trained on the man before him, not yet ready to believe he was real. “Don’t lie to me.”
Nigel shook his head and gave him a tired smile. “I left Bev, the useless piece of shit that I am, because I need to be here with you, Adam. Do you see?” he said, taking Adam’s damp palms and squeezing them. “I’m real, baby, and I’m staying with you.”
“You wife…” Adam said. “We hurt her.”
“No, Adam. I hurt her. I did.”
Adam closed his eyes, sighing. Everything will be all right now. Nigel was here with him. His body relaxed as he was naturally calmed by Nigel’s presence – the sense of security only he can give him. It told Nigel it was okay to come close, to hold him. And this he did as he laid himself on the bed, tucking Adam’s head under his chin and hugging him as his boy gravitated to him as the moon did the earth.
“What’s gonna happen now?” Adam asked, his hot breath fanning Nigel's neck.
Nigel kissed the mop of his curls. “Now, you’re gonna sleep,” he said as he wound his arms about Adam tighter, and they stayed still and quiet for long minutes.
“It’s either no-fault divorce or adultery.” Adam said afterwards.
“Shh… just – I’ll take care of that, Adam.”
“Like you take care of me.”
“Like I always do, yes.” Nigel replied, his heart full and at peace. “I love you, Adam Raki.”
Adam looked up, touching his face as he did, and smiled his sweetest smile. “Nigel…”
“My Adam…” the older man said as if in reverence of this man lying here in his arms. He bent down and gave Adam’s lips a brief kiss that spoke of promises that he will not break, of their love that he will protect, of his boy’s heart that he will forever keep.
“I love you…” Adam said, his eyes alight with happiness.
“I’m yours…” he whispered, his lips brushing Adam’s, and his lovely boy nodded.
Tomorrow was the beginning of their new life – a life they will live together. Nigel knew he had narrowly escaped the onslaught of a storm to get to where they were now and he also knew that he would still need to battle through it. And yet he had no fear of the coming maelstrom – all because of the happiness that he had been blessed with by the only one he loved.
///
FIN