that sucks
Daddy
Agreed
Nathan frowned. Daddy was upset, and he didn’t like that—not just because he would’ve loved to start the morning with some sort of… sexual activity or teasing. He’d wanted to have a lighthearted exchange, for himself, but also because he couldn’t stop thinking about the times he’d managed to make Ken laugh or even just let out a chuckle.
It had become the best thing in the world.
He just wasn’t sure how to recreate it, with the distance and job-related stress blocking him.
And, even though he knew they’d keep talking after the twenty questions were over, he still wanted to put his last one to good use—to make an impact.
Daddy
Don’t stay up too late working
Nathan
okay Daddy
He probably would because his concentration in the mornings hadn’t always been the best. It was okay not to tell Daddy this one time, though.
Nathan ruminated about that while making himself a cup of tea. He was trying to balance his caffeine intake by reserving it for work hours and replacing it with tea the rest of the day.
It was kind of working.
* * *
Nathan
I’m bored, Daddy
Nathan worried his lip between his teeth. The image he’d sent wasn’t revealing, nothing like the video from less than a couple of weeks ago. There was nothing incriminating about the selfie where he pouted to the camera while holding the large cup of iced coffee he’d gone out to buy during a short break.
Perhaps his plan to swap coffee with tea wasn’t working that great.
Daddy
Still at work, sadly
Let’s do something. Finish up what you’re working on, and I’ll give you one of your questions
Ohh.
Nathan considered it. Finishing up the article he’d been trying to write for the past hour—hence the needed break to the quaint café down the street—was going to be painful. He loved working from home, and the LGBTQ+ news site he’d landed a gig at a couple of years ago, but it was still boring sometimes. It definitely was when they asked him to write about sports and statistics that didn’t hold his interest.
It was the only downside of having a father who hadn’t been obsessed with turning him into a scholarship athlete or taking him to games.
However, Ken had two questions left, and Nathan was curious as to how he was going to use them.
Toocurious, really.
He also had a feeling that Ken knew, but that he’d figured out curiosity was the best weapon to hold against Nathan.
Dammit.
It took a couple of hours. He had to keep double checking all the research he’d put together, then figure out how to write it so it wouldn’t be as unbearably boring as reading about it had been.