I didn't remember driving home or where my left shoe had gone. My chest hurt terribly as I trudged up to the door, soaking wet from the rain. It took me a minute to get the key in the door, then push it open enough to walk inside. The loud storm outside was still raging when I slid off my right shoe and walked into Jayson's room. He was fast asleep, his chest rising and falling slowly with his steady breathing. I knew it was so, so wrong to do it, but I couldn't stop myself from whispering his name.
"Jayson."
His breathing remained the same, steady and quiet.
"Jay?"
I saw him take a deep breath, then slowly roll over onto his back. His eyes weren't visible since the lightning seemed to have stopped for the moment, but I could feel them on me in the dark room. When I didn't get into bed or say anything, he slid out from under the blankets and walked over. He knew where I had been, anyone would after I'd vanished in the middle of the night, even if he couldn't see that I was soaked, had white stains on my clothes and seaweed laced through my hair.
"Park."
His fingers gently grasped my elbows, and he took in a sharp breath. My skin was frigid from the rain, but I didn't really feel it anymore, though he must have.
"Parker."
"I..."
My head ducked in upset, shoulders dropping as I looked at the floor between us.
"I let him go."
"Parker, that could cost you your job."
He was whispering, but the urgency was there. I knew it had been a risk, especially with the way we had done it. I should have put in a request form to release the specimen, then let more samples be drawn if permission was given for release.
There would never be permission.
"I know."
My voice was nearly mute when I replied. Both of us stood there staring at each other until he dropped one of my arms and gently tugged me toward the bathroom. The storm was the only sound besides the now-running water in the bathtub. Once it began filling, he stood and helped me pull off my soaked clothes. He didn't mention the new bite mark on my shoulder or the seaweed in my hair. When I was completely naked he turned back to the water and waited until the tub was full before turning it off. The room was heated by that time, the steam building up even though the door was mostly open.
"Jay..."
He turned to me in the darkness, but again, instead of speaking, he just reached over and gently tugged me toward the bath.
"Jayson, say something. Y-you're mad, I know you are."
He nudged me until I stepped into the tub, but I didn't sit down yet.
"Jay, talk to me."
"What do you want me to say, Park?"
I inwardly flinched at his tone. He sounded almost... defeated? Did I really matter that much to him? He was my roommate. He had a girlfriendâat least I thought he didâso why wasn't he with her during these nights instead of here since I ruined the experiment he stayed home for?
"I... I don't know."
With a quiet sigh, I got myself situated in the bath. The temperature was near scalding, and it felt wonderful as my skin slowly revived from the chill of the storm and ocean. I was just leaning my head back against a towel I kept folded in the back of the shower for this kind of stressful situation when the water suddenly shifted and I felt it rise a few inches. That made my head snap up and mouth drop open.
"J-Jay?"
He looked across the bathtub at me as he lazed on the left side of the spigot. It looked like an odd fit, but he seemed to make it work. I noticed the water move with his arms and yelped when I felt his hands grab hold of my ankles.
"Jay? What are you doing?"
My legs bent out of the water as his hands slid up to the fold in my knees, then pulled them close. I had to use my hands to hold myself above water and couldn't really pull back since the bottom was so slippery. Thus, I ended up in a very naked lap with strong arms loosely looped around my waist.
Okay, this is seriously weird. Not that I haven't dreamt about this type of situation, but definitely not with the same circumstances leading to it.
"Jayson, what the hell are you doing?"
He didn't answer, making me bristle in annoyance.
"Come on, man. You don't just pull some naked guy into your lap and do nothing?"
Err, I meant say nothing.
"Okay..."
My gaze snapped up to his.
"Huh?"
His mouth covered mine in an extremely chaste kiss. It felt nothing like what I was used to with Callem's way of showing affection, but even having such awkward timing, I couldn't find it in myself to push him away. Sure, I had promised that I belonged to Callem, but he was free now and would probably forget about me soon. I needed to get myself back together, and if Jayson was willing to help me, I had no complaints. He began moving his lips against mine when I didn't try to push him away, and I quickly responded by opening my mouth. I expected him to push his tongue in with the invitation and begin exploring, but he actually pulled away and covered his mouth with his fingers.
"Jay?"
He glanced at the tile wall, and I could have sworn that he almost looked... embarrassed?
"I'm sorry, Park. I... I'm not sure what I'm doing."
Normally, I would be annoyed if someone came onto me so readily and then bailed, but I couldn't blame him. He wasn't even gay. God, he probably figured out I was and decided to try to help me relax. I grinned at that thought and leaned against his chest, loving that he shifted his arms to hold me closer.
"It's okay, Jay. I know you're not gay, and this was really weird, but thanks for trying to cheer me up."
I felt his body tense, but it only lasted for a moment before he chuckled and let his chin rest atop my head.
"Yeah, I don't think I'm cut out for it."
"Haha. Not many are. That's why it's so damn hard to find a decent boyfriend."
He laughed again lightly and then stuck his wet finger in my ear.
"Ah! What the heck?"
I shoved away from him, but he quickly followed, trying to pin me, though it was impossible because of the slippery floor of the bathtub.
"You are not getting away with that!"
Growling, I used my smaller stature to move around his body and jump on him as he was turning to defend. A good bit of water splashed out of the tub with the motion, but neither of us seemed to care. I landed on his side and got a few good tickles in before he managed to toss me out of the water. I wanted to be mad, but he had a really soft mat right in front of the bathtub that made the fall bearable. He quickly jumped out of the bath right over my body, raining water down on me before he grabbed a towel and ran to his room.
"H-Hey!"
I did the same, drying myself off slightly before tackling him. He had made the mistake of trying to dry his hair and thus, hadn't seen me coming.
"Hah!"
He yelped as I fell into his bed on top of him, but I immediately found myself on my back not a second later, the towel draped over his shoulders lopsidedly while he stared down at me. There was barely enough light to see the smirk on his face, but it was definitely there.
"Hmph! Let go. No fair."
"Hm, no fair? How so?"
I struggled against his grip but got nowhere.
"Hmph! Fine, you win."
He gave a deep chuckle and commented in a cheerful tone. "So, you won't run off anywhere tonight when I pass out?"
I rolled my eyes and sighed. There was nowhere left to run, no one left to run to.
"I'll stay right here."
"Good."
My wrists were suddenly released as he climbed out of bed, tugging on a pair of boxers before flopping back down onto the damp blankets. Aw man, I wish I could have at least looked, but it was way too dark... and now he had boxers on.
"Com'ere, you pain in the butt."
His arms opened, and I quickly scrambled into them right before the blanket was pulled over us.
"So... Does that mean I get to top when we do it?"
"Wanna sleep on the floor?"
"Mm, so tired."
His arms wrapped snugly around me, and he chuckled.
"That's what I thought."
The next day, we were back to normal. Well, almost normal. I could tell that Jay was trying little things differently. He brushed his teeth in the bathroom as I took a shower instead of waiting, then made me breakfast instead of begging me to do it, and he even got my laundry running while I ate.
"Okay, you're scaring me," I said over a bite of hash browns while I sat on the sofa. He grinned and shrugged as he walked over to the door and began slipping on his shoes.
"Where are you going?"
I had gotten a call from my boss when I woke up, and I was on leave until further notice, which I figured would happen, but that meant I could relax for at least a few days before I had to worry about possible job hunting. Jay straightened and rolled his shoulders.
Hm, he's stressed?
That was something he always did right before doing something he didn't want to.
"Well, I figured you'd want to go down to the beach and see if your boy made it."
Oh! That is a good idea.
I quickly shoveled the last of my breakfast into my mouth and ran over, hopping out the door as I pulled on my spare pair of shoes. They were old silver and white tennis shoes, but eh, they would do for now.
"Hah, someone excited?"
I turned as I got to his car, bouncing on my heels while I waited for him to unlock the doors.
"I really hope he made it. He didn't deserve to have to stay with humans."
He smiled and nodded as he hit the electronic unlock button and we both slipped into his car, then headed off to the beach. We scoped out the area where I had released him but didn't see Callem anywhere. There were also no marks leading out of the water, making my heart soar.
"He made it."
Jay put a hand on my shoulder and leaned to press a kiss against my cheek.
"You did well, Park."
I nodded and looked toward the docks.
"Ah, hey, it's Ken. Wanna go say hi?"
Jay shrugged and started over while I followed on his heels.
"Hey, Ken."
My friend looked up from where he loaded some bait into a net, then waved.
"Hey, Doc! What's up?"
We hopped onto the dock and approached him, glancing at the net before meeting Ken's gaze.
"What's up with the bait net? Started shark fishing again?"
He gave me a grim frown and shook his head.
"No... I think that thing I shot before is back. Dunno how it survived, but another one of my big nets was shredded this morning."
My face paled, and my lips pursed.
He couldn't.
"You okay, Doc?"
"Uh, yeah. Hey, um, how much is it for ten pounds of fish?"
He raised his bushy brows and thought for a moment, then gave me a number. "Forty, for you."
I nodded and reached into my back pocket... and realized immediately that I had completely forgotten to grab my wallet.
"Here."
Jay's arm moved in front of me to hand over two twenties. I looked over my shoulder at him, but he was focused on Ken.
"Uh, okay, so, what kind do you want?"
"We'll take the chum salmon."
"Okay, I'll give you four fish. That should be a bit over ten."
I nodded and followed him, getting the fish and a strong rope. During the next twenty minutes, I managed to string the fish on the rope decently enough.
"Sweet, this should work."
"What the hell are you doing, Doc?"
I looked up at Ken and grinned.
"The thing stealing your fish is extremely important, so I'm going to feed it."
"You know it'll start relying on the fish you're givin' it, right?"
"I have a feeling it'll start hunting more once it heals. Can you give us a ride out so we can hook it up?"
Ken seemed confused but ended up shrugging with a nod.
"Yeah, sure, come on."
I hopped up and followed after him, Jay right behind me as we slipped into the glass-bottom boat. While he was steering, the question I figured would come sounded from the front of the boat.
"So, what kinda thing is it?"
Jay and I glanced at each other, then back up at Ken.
"Just an endangered type of dolphin. Could you not tell anyone about it, though? We don't want it caught up for research if we can keep it alive."
He nodded, knowing how against that kind of stuff I was.
"Sure, Doc. Here we are."
I smiled and leaned over the edge of the boat to rope the fish around where he had one of his main nets tied out. It only took a minute to fasten everything up.
"Alright, all done. Let's head back."
He nodded and turned the boat around, getting us back to the dock in minutes. I didn't think Callem would be around so early in the morning, but right as I was climbing up onto the dock, I heard a loud splash in the water and turned to see the rope being tugged on from beneath the water.
"Heh, looks like your idea worked. I'll put out a few extra later if it ends up eating all of those, but that amount of food should easily sate a dolphin."
I nodded, remembering how much he'd eaten while in Jay's pool, then the facility.
"Thanks, man, if it gets washed ashore, please call me first, okay?"
"You got it, Doc. I'll keep an eye on your critter for you."
I patted his shoulder and smiled, then headed back up the beach with Jayson. We had some shopping to do for our own future meals, and I had some serious thinking to do. Obviously, Callem wasn't able to hunt yet, but at least I had the situation under control. For now.