Chapter 14 #2
“I knew who you were the instant I saw you because I have had a crush on you for a while. You were basically my age, but even a year younger, you were so good. Like, not just with how you jump, but with how beautiful you look on the ice.”
“So you didn’t want me to know you were a fan?” Dmitrii was trying to sound calm and collected, but when he shifted, his shirt had lifted a little and now the tips of Tyler’s fingers were against the bare skin just above his jeans which made it so hard to think.
“I one hundred percent did not want you to know I was a fan. I thought you’d find it creepy or something.”
“You didn’t do the best job of hiding it.” He found himself leaning more into the touch.
“I didn’t want to lie to you, especially after I saw you skate your program.”
That caused Dmitrii to pull away slightly. “I don’t want pity.”
“It’s not pity. It’s … I had been worried you were seriously injured.
You went quiet on your social media, and no one posted any footage of you.
Even the fan accounts I knew of didn’t have any information.
The only thing we knew was the statement from your coach that you were under doctor’s care following the accident at Europeans and were looking forward to returning to the ice.
” Tyler moved onto his side, not even pretending he was watching the movie with the teenagers running through the forest to avoid a knife-wielding monster.
“They didn’t want to say what was wrong.” Dmitrii reached up, his fingers barely touching the pale scar on the side of his head.
“I was surprised your hair is short enough that the scar is visible.” Tyler’s hand reached up, not to touch the scar itself, but lightly pressing where Dmitrii’s fingers were against his head.
“I didn’t have a lot of choice about it, and growing it back out seemed…
” Dmitrii trailed off, his eyes dropped, but maybe he should say it out loud.
“My doctor asked me about the hair. I didn’t really tell her.
” He sighed before he continued. He couldn’t make eye contact, but he kept talking.
“When I got injured, they had to shave a lot of it because they needed to get to the wound, and I was unconscious for a while.”
“I knew you were still unconscious when they took you off the ice. I didn’t know how long it lasted.” Tyler’s hand dropped, moving back to Dmitrii’s waist to pull him a little closer.
“It was about two days. They were really worried. I finally woke up late on the second day. I remembered my name, the year, what I had been doing and all the other questions they asked, so they were happy that I remembered everything up to a few moments before the accident. While I was unconscious, they had shaved one side almost flush, and the other side was long and in knots. No one had washed it during the entire time I was in the hospital. There was still dried blood in it.”
“I’m so sorry, but it makes sense to have shaved it.” That warm, comforting arm was still around him, holding him close as Tyler tried to reassure him.
“So, yeah. A nurse shaved it the rest of the way, and for the first time since I was six, I had a buzz cut.”
“Bet you looked adorable with it when you were six.” Tyler’s voice dropped a little as he said it.
“I thought you liked how I look now?” Dmitrii’s heart sped up as he tried to flirt, but the hand that never seemed to leave him was giving him confidence.
“No, I think you look handsome now. Absolutely gorgeous, like a dream come to life.” With that, Tyler leaned in to press another soft kiss to Dmitrii’s lips.
He didn’t resist, just melting into Tyler. For as chaste as the kiss was, he still couldn’t hide a soft noise deep in his throat.
“You like that?” Tyler’s fingers just barely slipped under Dmitrii’s shirt to touch skin he hadn’t felt before.
Dmitrii couldn’t respond at first. Every conscious thought in his head urged him to see how far Tyler would go.
Then his responsible side kicked in, and he pulled back a little.
He realized two things. First, neither of them were paying attention to the movie.
Second, he had never actually turned on the English subtitles, which made the fact Tyler had paid no attention to the movie very obvious.
“Did you suggest a movie so you could kiss me?”
“I didn’t think I was the one who suggested a movie?” He laughed a little as he shifted more onto his side. “Maybe I did; I don’t know. I just wanted to spend more time with you?” Tyler’s free hand moved to Dmitrii’s face, gently stroking his thumb along Dmitrii’s cheek.
Dmitrii did not exactly have the ‘romantic’ experiences one would expect at his age, but he knew how much he was enjoying this. His eyes half-closed at the gentle touch. “I forgot to put the subtitles on the movie.”
“I just figured they’re being stupid and on some sort of vacation, and that monster is going to kill them off one by one in a series of jump scares until finally the last one or two of them manage to either kill the monster or get away at morning?
” Tyler didn’t even try to hide how much of a tease that was about the movie clearly being very formulaic.
Dmitrii’s eye roll was instantaneous as he softly smacked at Tyler’s shoulder. “Yes. Clearly, it’s like every other movie.”
“It’s entirely a date movie, because then you can get startled and move closer with no one thinking you were trying to get closer so we could kiss.”
“How did you know that I’d want to kiss you?”
“I didn’t know. I was hoping.” Tyler leaned in again. This time the brush of lips was softer and longer.
Everything about this night felt right, unlike any other time Dmitrii had kissed someone.
There was no instantaneous attempt to turn it into more.
No, this was so soft and gentle. There weren’t rough hands trying to touch him more than he wanted.
He had no desire to break this off and walk away.
Instead, he let himself relax as he wrapped his arms around Tyler.
The feel of a warm body this close to his as they shared the same breath sent shivers down his sides.
Kissing him was so nice. Then, one of Tyler’s hands moved to his hair, and he felt himself relax even more.
For as much as he really didn’t like how his hair looked this short, he loved how it felt.
Even when he was just washing it, it felt nice.
When Tyler let his palm stroke over the short hairs and then pressed his fingers lightly to the shortest bits at the back of his neck, Dmitrii struggled to hide the soft noise that slipped from his lips.
Tyler pulled back with a smile. “This is nice.” He seemed relaxed, as if some sort of calmness had now taken over.
“This is.” Dmitrii didn’t know what else to say.
His brain was having a hard time processing thoughts, let alone thoughts.
He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt like this.
No, he knew he had never felt like this.
The way Tyler looked at him and touched him made him feel like he really mattered, like someone cared about him.
“Next time I will come up with a better idea for a date?” Tyler ran his thumb over Dmitrii’s jawline before he placed another soft kiss on his lips.
Dmitrii blinked at that. Was this a date? Did he mean he was going to be asked on a date? Could he risk going on a date? He paused for a moment before whispering, “A date?”
“If you’d like to? I have school Monday and Tuesday until late, but dinner Wednesday? I’d say tomorrow, but I’m expected to go with everyone to Max’s swim meet up in Maryland.”
“Yeah, I’d like that. Wednesday.” A date sounded amazing.
Before he could overthink things, Tyler pulled him back in for another kiss.
This time, he just relaxed and let it happen.
With his arms around Tyler’s neck, he didn’t resist at all as Tyler pressed him into the bed and hooked a leg over him.
Pressed tight felt good. Kissing felt good. Everything about tonight felt so good.
Dmitrii lost track of time. The movie continued on, filling the hotel room in blue light as he felt the warm press of Tyler’s body.
The night seemed to last forever, yet still it felt over in an instant.
As the sun was rising over the lake on the TV screen with the end credits rolling, Tyler sat up.
“I should probably head home. I have to be up early …” It was so clear that Tyler did not want to leave.
Dmitrii pushed himself up with his elbows. “It is getting late.” He wanted to say something irresponsible, but he didn’t. Instead, he pressed his fingers to his kiss-swollen lips. The cherry lip balm was gone, but this was better. “Tonight was nice.”
“It was.” Tyler leaned in for another kiss. “I’ll text you?”
“Umm, instead let me add you on my Instagram. My real Instagram, not the public one. Do you have a private one?”
“Yeah. I have my family one and my skating one.” Tyler pulled out his phone, and when Dmitrii pulled his out, they quickly added each other that way. “Why are we doing this instead of texts?”
“I’m just a little paranoid.” Dmitrii dropped his eyes, looking down at his phone. “If they read too much into the texts.”
“They? Oh, your coaches?” Tyler’s expression became more serious. “Is the Instagram messaging safe?”
“Yeah, there isn’t a record of it on the phone, and I delete the messages all the time from the account.” He hated that he had sobered the mood so much.
“Then I will send you a message that way. I don’t want you getting in trouble.” This time the smile was softer as Tyler pressed another kiss to Dmitrii’s lips.
With a promise to keep in contact and a date planned for Wednesday, Tyler threw on his shoes to leave. It was already almost midnight, and he had to be up at six AM to travel for his brother’s swim meet.
About fifteen minutes after Tyler left, Dmitrii grabbed his phone as it beeped. It was already a message from Tyler, a simple ‘I miss you already’. Maybe it was sappy, but Dmitrii smiled as he stripped down to go to bed. Today had been a very, very good day.