Page 37 of Suffer No Fools
"Gods, it's next Monday," Stan said as he tucked the paperwork away inside the drawer beneath the side table.
"How do you celebrate Solstice here?" Hugo asked, taking Tovey's offered hand and extending the other to Stan once he finished tidying.
"Petri will make us some amazing chicken dishes, I imagine." Stan's look of longing seemed more fitting for a gold necklace or a priceless jewel. Hugo had sampled his first taste of Petri's cuisine over lunch, and he had to admit, the vegetable stew was far better than anything he'd eaten under Coryn's rule.
"You didn't answer the question," Tovey chided once they lay in bed. This time, Hugo was in the middle, with Stan wrapped around Hugo's back and Tovey facing them on his side. "Did you have fun on our date?"
"Yes." That much was true.
"But ..." Tovey lifted his chin with his thumb until he met his gaze again.
"I don't like touching worms. Or fish. The boat ride and the conversation were wonderful, though."
Tovey laughed. "Yes, they were." With his hand on Hugo's chin, Tovey leaned forward and kissed him.
"I had a great time on our date, too. I can't wait for next week."
Hugo's chest felt light, not only from the kiss. Tovey wanted to go on more dates with him. He only hoped Tovey still felt the same way after his date with Stan.
#
Stan
This was such a bad idea. Stan had never been on a date with Tovey. They'd hooked up one night after too many ales at the tavern, and things had progressed like wildfire from there.
Tovey had accompanied him aboardStarlight Specterthe morning after their first hookup. He'd shown off his skills by circling her anchor without pulling it free. Efren had been so impressed, he'd hired him to accompany Priscilla, their main air weaver. Before the end of the winter, Efren had convinced her to retire.
Stan agreed with the decision. She'd endangered the entire crew by blowing holes in their sails and almost flipping the ship over on her side in calm waters. Still, Priscilla hadn't liked to share power, so Stan's job had been using his earth weaves to pull them along.
Tovey had wanted to try sharing, and once they'd shown Efren how much faster they could go, it stuck. Now, instead of pulling the ship with his earth weaves, Stan had to take a back seat to whatever power Tovey wanted to give him and filter it into the secondary sail as though it was his own.
He felt just as worthless on their first date. He sat in the fishing boat, watching a line that never moved. Stan had gone fishing with the other children on weekends, but it wasn't something he would have chosen to do alone.
At least there had been conversation to help the time pass with the other children. Tovey hadn't spoken to him once since they'd finished their inventory count for the day. He'd led Stan to the rental dock, haggled with Martiz's nephew about the cost to rent a skiff, and then he'd sailed them to the west of Aquarion, beyond the shallows to a deep blue section of ocean.
Stan stared into the depths as he rejected every topic of conversation as it came to him. The weather? No. The types of fish on this side of the island? Efren would know better than Tovey, who would probably think him foolish for wondering.He'd even wondered if they should discuss their relationship, either what had happened in the past or what they were doing with Hugo now, but he wasn't that desperate for a fight.
With Tovey, talking about anything beyond sex between them always became a fight. Sometimes, Stan didn't even know how the fights started, but they ended the same way, with Tovey storming off and refusing to speak to him for at least a week.
"Did we have a fight I don't remember?" he asked. "Is that why you're so quiet?"
Tovey frowned at him. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing."
Tovey shifted in his seat. He stared at his fishing rod as though willing the line to move and end their awkward non-conversation.
"I'm sorry." Stan fell back on his old habit. He didn't know what he'd done wrong, but he would keep apologizing for it. Tovey didn't have to forgive him, as long as he stayed close enough for Stan to love him from afar.
He sucked in a breath at the realization. He did love Tovey. He'd loved him for a long fucking time. He loved the way he laughed and the way he moved, the way he argued and even the way he threw punches when he was so furious he couldn't find words to express his anger.
Stan knew when to dodge and when to block. He only wished he could make Tovey stop hurting them both with his enraged outbursts. Only then could they heal instead.
Silence wouldn't fix anything, but Stan still didn't know what to say. He fell back on his usual pastime, humming a tune. If Tovey was in a good enough mood, sometimes—
Tovey's voice lifted over his with the melody to his baseline harmony. The hairs at the base of his neck stood on end with the sheer beauty of it. Singing with Tovey always made him feel connected to something greater than himself. Neither ofthem remembered all the words to the old song, but the melody and its harmony were easy enough to riff on until they were singing another melody of their own.
Tovey was jerked from the song by a powerful tug on his line, one that threatened to pull the boat. Stan held them steady. He kept the craft from listing too far toward Tovey's side so he could brace against it and try to pull the creature in.
