Page 10 of Static/Cling

Bjorn winked and bit into his toast. “But I’m your pretty idiot-jerk, right?”

“Obviously.”

Bjorn could have cut and crushed his own avocado, buttered his own bread. All he really needed Leif for was the actual touching the toaster bit. But Leif did it all, and that’s how they worked.

Bjorn swept and dusted and tidied and cleaned the toilet because he couldn’t ruin anything with those tasks, and Leif kept them fed. There had been a few mishaps early on with the dishes, before they figured out that a metal sink full of soapy water was no place for the hands of a man who couldn’t control the flow of electricity through his body.

So Leif washed and Bjorn dried and put away. After a decade, they’d figured out what worked, domestically. Bjorn thought it might take the rest of his life to figure what he would do if Leif ever found a guy he wanted to be with, and left Bjorn to look after himself.

If the worst thing about them was that Leif didn’t cuddle after sex, or call himself Bjorn’s boyfriend, then really, he didn’t have much to complain about.

“Hello.” Leif snapped his fingers, bringing Bjorn back to the present. “I’m moving my physio appointments to the evenings so we can ride in together from now on. I walked over from their office today, and it was hella long. I don’t want you to have to do that all the time.”

Leif’s physiotherapist was on the street-level of their apartment building, but since his appointments were first thing in the morning, it had left Bjorn to walk to their new job on his own. He didn’t dare take the bus alone in case he shorted something out trying to pay or ring the bell for a stop.

Driving, of course, was out of the question for Bjorn, and not just because they couldn’t afford a car.

“I didn’t mind,” Bjorn said, because really, he didn’t mind. Walking wasn’t that big a deal.

“Not now, sure, but you will when it’s thirty below.”

He had a point.

“This way, we take the bus together in the morning, and home at night, and I just stop downstairs, do my thing, then come up to make food. You can shower while I’m being tortured.”

The physiotherapy he endured three times a week kept his back mobile after the accident in college that had nearly killed them both. It had triggered Bjorn’s so-called gift, and almost paralyzed Leif. Why his friend stuck around after that, he had no idea, but he wasn’t brave enough to question it. Just in case.

He certainly was not about to ask Leif to be his chauffeur on top of the rest, so bussing and walking had been what worked.

When they’d cleaned the apartment, Leif made more toast, some with fresh avocado Bjorn had run to the market for, andsome with Cheese Whiz for himself. Like they did most nights, they ate it on the couch with the television on.

This time, Leif fell asleep on him, and Bjorn amused himself by shooting sparks across the room, trying to see if he could hit the far wall. He didn’t want to wake Leif up to turn off the TV or dislodge him to go to bed himself.

Accidental cuddling was better than no cuddling.

When he did manage to toss the sparks far enough to bounce off the wall, the lights and television flickered.

Leif reached up, redirected his out-flung arm to point at the wall between the bedroom and the living room, and yawned. “That wall. No wires.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Bjorn delicately shifted to put more weight on his left ass cheek. “Did I wake you?”

“No. Wasn’t asleep, exactly.”

So maybe not-so-accidental cuddling? Bjorn didn’t say anything lest he draw too much attention to the fact that although he’d pushed himself upright, Leif had stayed close enough to lean.

After a few more minutes, Leif sighed. “I was thinking.”

“About?”

“What if they send you on a mission, but they don’t send me with you?”

“They won’t.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m not going anywhere without you, boyo. And anyway, how would they? Not like they can put me on a plane or something. I’m not even sure why I’m there. There’s only one time I can really control it, and I sure as shit am not using it that way on anyone but—” He clamped his mouth shut.

Leif chuckled a filthy chuckle.

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