Micah: Just so you know, I crashed at your place last night with Noah. Nothing happened and I slept on the couch. Figured I'd mention in case you look at the security cameras.

Alistair: Thanks for mentioning, Noah warned me

Micah: Cool

Alistair: So you two met at the suspension demonstration huh

Micah: Yeah

Micah: He's insane

Alistair: Lol

Micah: Lol? That's all you have to say

Alistair: Lol x2

Micah: 🖕

Micah: Sooo fucking hungover

Alistair: Lol x3

Micah: Fuuuuuuck my liiiiiife

Alistair: [Screenshot of the security footage showing Micah crashing on the couch at approximately 5AM]

Micah: Get that shit out of my face oh my goddddddd I don't even remember that

    Micah worked at five that day, which meant powering through the worst hangover of his life. He was getting too old to be drinking tall glasses of straight liquor and expecting to stand the next day.

    After throwing up the last of the alcohol in his system, he left Alistair's place. Noah wasn't even awake. He left a note behind that thanked Noah for getting drinks with him and that they'd be seeing each other around, most definitely.

    He did not leave his number behind.

    He made a pitstop at his favorite hangover solution spot: a smoothie shop that kicked every neuron in his brain back into gear. After a ginger shot and a breakfast of champions, Micah was coherent enough to make his walk of shame (sans sex) back to Presley's place.

    He used Presley's at-home gym to sweat out the last of the alcohol in his system. His brain was still fluffy with a low-tier buzz.

    At work, he received a text from Alistair. "Noah wants to pick you up from work tonight. Mind if I give him the address?"

    "Fuck," Micah thought, and decided that hanging out with Noah was better than the alternative: being alone with his thoughts at Presley's place.

    He confirmed the plans, and Alistair gave him a thumbs up. Noah arrived at closing.

    "Wow! You look hot!" Noah cheered, much to the amusement of Micah's remaining coworkers.

    Micah's cheeks colored. "Whatever. Alistair said you had plans?"

    "Yup! Finish up and let's get the fuck outta here, man."

    Micah glanced desperately at his coworkers to give him a reason to linger. Instead, his co-bartender said, "We already counted tips. I'll finish up here."

    "Thanks, I guess," Micah said, and stepped around the bar to be dragged off to the streets by Noah.

    They bar-hopped until one in the morning where, under neon lights, Noah hauled Micah's ass into a gay dance club. It was then that Micah remembered that he was in the presence of a man with limited time in the city and not a care in the world.

    By then, Micah was tipsy enough to also not have a care in the world.

    He let Noah spin him as the two of them raved under flashing, spinning lights. The air was soft in the humidity of peoples breaths on Micah's back. He swayed, arms in the air, and jumped to the beat.

    He escaped the crowd to shed his jacket and tie it around his waist. The heat was getting to him, and no amount of rolling up his cuffs would help. He unbuttoned the entirety of the front of his work shirt and, after acquiring enough ogling from one particular man, invited him to the floor to grind on.

    Raves weren't really Micah's forte, nor was clubbing, and he hadn't been to one since freshmen year. Being drunk made the experience exhilarating, though. He didn't mind it, not one bit, not when he was practically having clothed sex with a stranger on the dance floor, Noah at his back, and—

    And Erika was staring at him.

    "Oh, fuck," Micah swore, tripping to a halt. The man bent over in front of him startled, cursed, and straightened up when Micah nearly knocked him over.

    Erika was in the crowd with her flock of girls. Her hair was in a low, frizzy bun that was losing its grip on reality.

    "M-Micah," she said, though Micah only saw it on her lips.

    He glanced back at Noah, completely ignoring the, "What the fuck?!" from the guy he'd asked to dance.

    "Sorry, I gotta—" he said to the guy, and simply turned, and left.

    Micah was nearly to the exit when his arm was yanked so hard his shoulder popped. He yelped, startled, and nearly fell into Erika. The rage he saw there only served to destabilize what little control Micah had over his nerves.

    Erika's eyes were wild. She'd left her glasses at home. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!" she screamed over the music.

    Over her shoulder, Micah caught sight of Noah. It was hard to miss him in the crowd, or how he parted through like a bulldozer.

    "Erika, I really don't want to talk about it," Micah said.

    She shoved him. Hard. "Where the fuck have you been?! Hah?!"

    "E-Erika—"

    Noah had arrived, and he did the absolute last thing Micah ever expected a human being to do. He seized her by her loose bun and hauled her back.

    She screamed, slapping at his arm.

    Micah was horrified. "That's my cousin! She's cool!"

    "Your cousin?" Noah said. There was a level of terror in Erika's eyes that Micah had never seen before. It was primal and two seconds away from kneeing Noah in the crotch.

    He let her go, and she took a massive step away. Her girl friends were upon them then, shouting profanities at Noah.

    Noah seethed in her direction, "Don't you fucking lay hands on him unless you wanna mess with me. I don't give a shit who you are. Cousin or not, you're dead."

    "Someone get security!" one of the girls shouted. They had a protective arm around Erika, who had a hand to her hair. Her ponytail band had fallen out.

    Micah mouthed, "I'm sorry!" as he took Noah by the arm and towed him out of the venue before security could show up and kick them out.

    Out on the sidewalk, Noah was already talking. "What the fuck was her problem?"

    "Dude, you grabbed her by the ponytail."

    "Yeah, and? People get paid to have that done to them and I did it for free."

    Micah slapped a hand over his face. He dragged it down, slow and heavy, so his eyes sagged. "I think I'm done for tonight," he said.

    "What? No! We're just getting started!" It was nearly three in the morning.

    "Seriously, Noah, I can't," Micah insisted, but what he really wanted to say was, How can you have this kind of energy?!

    Noah clapped his hands onto Micah's shoulders. Micah tried not to look at him, but one glance confirmed it. Puppy-dog eyes, and they were rivaling Benny's.

    "We're gonna get a drink," Noah said, and already Micah was not on board, "and we're gonna take a deep breath, decompress, and you're gonna tell me what the fuck that was about. Alright?"

    "Ah, no," Micah said, "actually, we aren't going to do that. I'm going home."

    "Take me with you!"

    "No," Micah laughed, weaving his way out from Noah's grasp. "No, thank you."

    "Then one last drink. Just one! Please? Pretty please?"

    Micah sighed. They'd come this far, what harm would one drink do?

    They ended the night at a bar down the street from Alistair's place. There, Noah attempted once again to weasel the information out of Micah. He would never budge, but he still had questions that needed answering.

    And tonight is the last night I'll ever go out with Noah, Micah told himself, which meant those questions needed to be answered now.

    "So what's it like in Toucan?" he asked.

    "Tucsan? It's fine, I guess. Though, Alistair moving has got me thinking about moving myself. Maybe LA. I hate the cold."

    "Seriously? Don't you run hot?"

    "Yeah. Weird, huh?"

    "Definitely weird. So what's your club group like in Arizona? I take it Alistair was a part of it."

    Noah gave this some thought. Micah drank, casually, and hoped it didn't sound like he was prying. "Yeah, he was. We have a pretty tight-knit group. Honestly, all of my friends are from the club."

    "Really? How many are in the group?"

    "Well, core group? Five or six, depending on who's in town. Alistair's kind of on the outskirts though." Micah tried to seem unaffected by this news. "'Cause you know how he is with crowds and stuff. Doesn't go to a whole lot of events."

    "Totally."

    "We were surprised that he even wanted to move to New York. Like, what sort of person with crowd anxiety moves to the biggest fucking city in America?"

    Crowd anxiety. Micah supposed this tracked, especially with his germ anxiety.

    "So you don't know why he moved?"

    "Eh, something to do with work."

    Oh my God, Micah thought, he doesn't know Alistair has a brother here.

    "Interesting," Micah concluded, and decided to lie. "Yeah, I didn't even know he moved here from Arizona."

    "I think he grew up there. Or something."

    Micah leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "He mentioned he was seeing someone regularly in Arizona. I'm guessing that was you?"

    He knew it wasn't Noah. Alistair had mentioned his regular being a sub, and Noah did not have that energy at all from what Micah could tell.

    "No," Noah confirmed, and then reconsidered. "Well, if you count, like, once a season regularly."

    Micah rose an eyebrow.

    "That would be Olly," he said. Micah watched as Noah spun his glass around at an angle, fingers trailing on the rim. Wistful. "I shouldn't talk about them, though. It was hard on them both when he moved."

    Micah frowned. If he and Alistair were anything alike, breaking up a benefits situation wouldn't hurt beyond a scratch. A paper cut.

    Unless it's like Benny. A proper friend, Micah thought.

    "Oh. That sucks," Micah said. "I didn't know about... Olly."

    "Say your prayers. Sorry, Alistair, I blabbed," he said, crossing his chest and kissing his thumb. He waved a dismissive hand. "But it's over now. So be it."

    Micah wished he'd had this information when he was housesitting. Maybe he would have recognized Olly's name on something, somewhere, anywhere—

    Micah shook his head, alarmed by the thought. Quit acting like a jealous freak! he thought. It wasn't that he was even jealous. He wasn't a sub. He'd never be a sub.

    And yet a gap in Micah's chest ached at the thought that he couldn't fill that same gap in Alistair's life. There would always be someone else to fulfill the needs Micah couldn't meet, and that was okay.

    That was fine.

    Doesn't change the fact that I need to know who Olly is, he thought, bitterly.

    Noah squeezed his shoulder and gave him a shake. "But seems like his life here's pretty good, so it all worked out!"

    "It's cool that he still has you guys," Micah said through a strained smile. Internally, though, he was feeling especially evil.

    Noah nudged his shoulder. "But now he has you, too."

    Micah's head felt weighted with want. He wanted to go to Alistair's place again, but knew he shouldn't. The New Year's party was becoming the highlight of this purgatory. "Quick question, and you can say no. No hard feelings."

    Someone such as himself would recognize what this meant, and Noah was quick to catch on with a sultry raise of his eyebrow. The man smiled, half-laughed, and said, "I don't think we're compatible like that."

    "I was just thinking we make out. If you're interested."

    "Oh." Noah reconsidered the offer. He leant a hand against the back of Micah's chair and said, "Here?"

    "Or in the back of a taxi to Alistair's place?"

    "Or that! I like that!"

    They paid their tab and were out of the bar before long. In the vestibule, Micah got ahead of himself just from watching Noah don his leather jacket again. The loose waist on the jacket only defined his narrow and polished waist before the upper half of him was swallowed up by dense, sturdy muscle.

    God, he's like a fucking bodybuilder, Micah thought, hands to Noah's waist as he pulled the man back from the exit, turned him, and dragged him down by the back of his neck for a first, hardly chaste, kiss.

    They madeout until the hostess told them to get lost. Noah's lips were just as rugged as the rest of him, skin coarse with fresh stubble and breath sweet and tangy from the liquor. Micah chased after it in the cold, even as their breaths froze against their cheeks.

    "Taxi," Noah rasped, pulling back. He cleared his throat, sparing Micah a smile before turning to wave down the nearest one, shouting, "Taxi! Over here! Right fucking here, bitch! How are you missing me?! I'm built like a fucking refrigerator over here!"

    He almost hit the hood of a taxi that drove past them at a sluggish rate. Someone was clearly in the backseat already, and Micah had to drag Noah off the road, laughing.

    Noah spun into him, cackling, and grabbed Micah's face with both his hands. He smothered Micah's mouth with his own. In a deep snarl, Noah seethed, hands tight to Micah's jaw, "Fuck, I could ruin you, you know."

    "I'm not drunk enough for you to be saying shit like that."

    "I don't care. It needed to be said." They kissed again and were truly never going to catch a cab this way.

    Micah pulled Noah down the sidewalk to the subway. In said subway, they were given five minutes as live entertainment against a support beam for the few stragglers still awake at this ungodly hour. Micah couldn't get enough of his waist, goddammit! He dug his thumbs into Noah's obliques and pinched them hard as Noah's tongue traced along the length of his own.

    When their train arrived, Micah led the way. They didn't have far to go, so he pushed Noah's head aside, saying, "We have to pay attention."

    "You have to pay attention," Noah said against his neck, biting into a tendon. Micah winced, grinning a little as he tipped his head to the side. "I'll move when you tell me to."

    "Fine," Micah said, a bit dazed as he waited for their stop announcement. All the while, Noah sucked and nibbled a mark beneath the collar of his work shirt. Micah passed a hand up through Noah's shortly-cropped hair and only tugged on it when their stop arrived.

    He pulled Noah's head away, which earned him a particularly harsh nip. "Okay, ow, that one hurt."

    "Are we there yet?" Noah said. Exhaustion was turning his voice sluggish now.

    Micah rolled his eyes. "Yeah, follow me."

    He walked Noah to the revolving door of Alistair's building. Before separating, Noah's hand wound around Micah's neck to drag him in for one last kiss.

    "You're lucky Alistair's house guest rules are cockblocking me," Noah said, and Micah felt the distinct impression that he was telling the truth. Micah had come and saw for himself whether or not Noah would respect that rule.

    And realized that, if the rule didn't exist, Micah probably would have followed Noah up there.

    Probably.

    Not, Micah reasoned. He wasn't in the market to be made to submit.

    "I'll see you on Wednesday then, I assume."

    "So you'll be there?" Noah said.

    "Wouldn't miss it."

    "Maybe I could tie you up. Would you like that?"

    "Not particularly. It's a nice thought, though."

    "It's better than nice. I'll be thinking about that later... and maybe the day after... and the day after that..."

    "Stop," Micah laughed, shoving him toward the door. "Goodnight, Noah."

    "And the day after that!" Noah cheered. Once past the revolving door, Noah pointed at him through the window and shouted, muffled, "And after that—!"

    Micah rolled his eyes away and walked off, snickering.

_______

Alistair: Noah wants to go to the gym with you

Micah: I told him I'd see him at the New Years party

Alistair: He's asking what gym you go to

Micah: Ugh

Micah: Fine I'll walk him there

Micah: Now?

Alistair: Yes

    Noah wasn't exactly in the same weight class as Micah, but he appreciated having a spotter that would let him push his limits.

    The morning of New Years Day, Micah met Noah in the lobby of Alistair's apartment building. He gave the receptionist a plastic smile before walking out with Noah and explaining, "I have beef with her."

    "She seems nice, though."

    "She's a villain," Micah swore.

    The gym was uncharacteristically quiet, which Micah blamed on locals traveling to avoid the New Years' chaos. By next week, the resolution-goers would flock to the gym, and Micah would stick to Presley's at-home setup.

    He didn't miss the impressive looks Noah got as they crossed the floor to their next workout. The man looked like he was meant to be captured in 4K at a muscle-man competition. Near the end of Noah's next rep, Micah said, "If you move to New York, you could be a bouncer."

    "You think so?" Noah said, teeth gritting against the strain. They'd gone on long enough that not only was Noah glistening with sweat, but he was pumped, too. "I dunno. I kinda like my job."

    You have a job? Micah almost said. "What do you do?"

    "Chemical engineering."

    Micah had no words.

    They made a pitstop at the smoothie bar down the street where Micah's hangover remedy originated. After a grueling workout, the chill in the air was refreshing. He burrowed his face behind the collar of his jacket as Noah raved on and on about this girl he'd been seeing in Toucan.

    Amused, Micah asked, "Is she into the whole... scene too?"

    "The club? No. No way," he said.

    Micah blinked. "Isn't that, like, an important part to you?"

    "Yeah, but I don't need a partner who's into that. It's like cheesecake."

    Micah burst into laughter. One thing was certain about Noah: the man made him slap-happy at the oddest hours of the day, like eleven in the morning. "What does cheesecake have to do with it?"

    "Because it's super rich! And I like it in small doses, but if I'm eating cheesecake everyday, I'll have hot girl tummy problems for life!"

    Micah was beside himself with laughter, covering his face. To anyone else who knew him, he likely looked like he was losing his mind. Micah, giggling in broad daylight? The world wasn't ready to see that, and so the world decided to punish him.

    By reminding him that they were walking in front of one of Kennedy's favorite brunch places. The very one he, Kennedy, and Benny would gather at on Wednesdays.

    It was Wednesday.

    Micah startled at his own reflection in the seat they normally sat at, but through the image, he saw Benny.

    Staring at him.

    The air, the traffic echoing on the skyscrapers, and the taste of strawberries on his tongue ceased to exist. A tingling sensation took over Micah's entire nervous system, and it started at the back of his neck in a shudder.

    It may have been a second, it may have been two, but it ended with Benny standing so fast his chair tipped backward.

    "Run," Micah said, and then frantic, "Run!"

    "Run where!" Noah shrieked, lurched forward by Micah's hand grabbing his wrist and taking off with him in tow.

    They were careening around the corner when his name was screamed down the street, Benny's voice cracking, "Micah, wait!"

    "Do you know—that guy?" Noah said.

    The bitter cold was stinging Micah's lungs. There was a break in traffic. The steered them off the curb and sipped between two bumper-to-bumper parked cars. Noah cursed, rattling into the trunk of the neighboring car.

    Micah dropped Noah's hand and his smoothie to cross, looking both ways.

    Benny was at the corner now.

    "I can beat him up for you if you want!" Noah said, just a pace behind Micah as they slipped into an alley and cut around a rancid dumpster.

    "No, definitely don't do that!" Micah said. He paused to catch his breath. They were at a hotel entrance now, the driveway splitting down the block. He turned left. They needed to get to Alistair's place, which meant the subway.

    Now!

    As if the gym hadn't pushed him to his limits, the sprint to the subway definitely did. Sneakers chalky with ice salts, he nearly tripped down the grated stairs. Noah caught him under the arms, steadying him. Together, they peered through the railing spokes and waited to see if Benny would appear from the hotel entrance alley.

    He didn't.

    "Are we in the clear?" Noah asked, chest heaving. He glanced down at Micah. "What was that about?"

    "I think we're fine," Micah said. His heart had lost complete control and was on a race long after they'd stopped running. He tapped his hand against his chest as they walked through winding, tiled halls to their subway stop.

    "You don't talk much about yourself, you know that?" Noah said. "First that girl at the club, and now people are hunting you down in the streets. Do you owe money or something?"

    If Micah didn't feel so lightheaded, he'd laugh. He needed that oxygen, though. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

    Noah rubbed his shoulders aggressively, working feeling back into them. "Hey, we're good. Where are we going, huh?"

    Every thought in Micah's brain had scrambled. It was all coming up Benny, Benny, Benny.

    I just want my best friend back, he thought, lips wavering.

    He sucked in a sharp breath and forcefully blinked. When his eyes opened again, he forced them to see, to read, and identified the sign to their stop. Noah's hand continued its circles on Micah's back through the walk, through the train trip, until they were at the stairs leading out of the subway.

    At Alistair's apartment, Noah said, "You look like you could use a distraction right now. We could watch a movie or something. I've been rewatching Spongebob."

    "What?" It was the only word Micah could come up with.

    "Yeah. It's, like, super distracting."

    "Spongebob?"

    "Yeah."

    "What do you even watch that on."

    "Alistair's got a ton of streaming services. Come on, let's go up."

    Micah didn't so much as sigh as he did sob.

    Noah didn't wait for an answer beyond this. He steered Micah by the shoulders through the revolving door. Micah ducked his head to avoid looking Cerberus in the eye as Noah navigated him to the elevator where, before the doors even closed, Micah was already shuddering out tears.

    "Here, have the rest of my smoothie," Noah said, pushing the cup into Micah's hands. He forced the straw to Micah's mouth, and drinking the smoothie managed to calm Micah down enough to breathe properly to avoid suffocation.

    Meanwhile, Noah sifted through his wallet for the keycard. He swiped them inside, only for the door to bump into something on the floor.

    "What the—" Noah started.

    "Hey, sorry." It was Alistair.

    A second later, the suitcase was wheeled away and cast across the floor. Noah pushed the door open further, gasping at the sight. "Dude! I thought you weren't gonna be back until noon!"

    "Yeah, took the train instead of a taxi," Alistair said. He was wearing grey sweats and a mint green hoodie with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He hugged Noah and said, "How was the gym?"

    "Good, but—" Noah glanced back, gesturing to Micah.

    Who wasn't there.

    Noah doubled back to the hall to look. The elevator doors were closing.

    Alistair leaned out after him, hanging off the doorframe. "Something wrong?" he asked, glancing at Noah.

    Noah rubbed a hand over his hair, confusion furrowing his brow. "Yeah, I brought Micah up with me."

    Alistair gave a dismissive wave of his hand. "Don't worry about it. We usually only see each other at parties unless it's on business, so I'll see him later."

    "No, I—Wait, you're going to the party?!" Noah cried, baffled.

    Alistair confirmed this, and Noah thrust both fists in the air, triumph shining. Alistair laughed and shut the door behind them, which just brought Noah's attention back to Micah.

    "I should go after him," Noah said, "I think he's going through something."

    Alistair assessed Noah's phrasing with a neutral look. At last, he said, "If he's going through something, don't chase after him."

    "I guess. This guy was chasing us and Micah just booked it. Holy shit, if I'd known we were gonna be running sprints I would've prepared better. I'm not built for cardio like that."

    Alistair hesitated. When it came to chasing Micah, Alistair considered himself to be an expert. He was not, under any circumstances, aware of anyone else physically chasing Micah through New York.

    "What did this guy look like?"

    "I didn't get a good look at him. But he was all, 'Micah, wait! Micah!' Really heart-broken-like. You know what I mean? You said he gets around, right? Maybe it's a scandalized lover."

    Alistair dragged a hand over his eyes. That sounds exactly like Benny, he thought. "Yeah, maybe," he said, knowing Noah's suspicions were partially true.

    He knew intimately how long it'd been since Micah had spoken to Benny. To see each other in person must have been a nightmare to the both of them. "How did he take it?" Alistair asked.

    Noah released an unsteady breath, hands on his hips. "Poorly, I'd say. He was crying when we got inside. You know what? Maybe I should go after him—"

    Alistair stood in the way of the door. "Trust me, he'll be fine. I'll text him later."

    "You sure?"

    "Positive. And we'll see him at the party later anyway."

    "Right." Noah took a deep breath and nodded, more confidently. "Yeah, you're right." And then, scoping out the place, he said, "Man! I haven't cleaned yet!"

    "Don't worry about it. I prefer cleaning myself."

    "Nonsense!"

    This time, Alistair growled, "Noah, no."

    "Noah, yes!"