Glitter

Chapter Five

Henry

“I know you don’t like people, Sir Cattus, but I need you to not be an asshole tonight when Blue comes over. Do you think you could do that for me?”

From the sunny spot in the spare bedroom that was the only place in the house to fully capture the last rays of the day, Sir Cattus lazily looked up at me and slowly blinked. A wide yawn followed that before he rolled over and promptly fell back asleep.

“Good talk,” I said, standing in the doorway with my arms crossed. Sometimes I didn’t even know why I bothered to chat with him.

I’d rushed home from work to check that Sir Cattus hadn’t gone on a random wild bender and undone all the cleaning I’d done ever since Blue had agreed on Tuesday to drop by tonight so I could see if my prep work would fit into his lunchbox.

Considering that it was Friday, Thomas had seemed pleasantly surprised that I’d hightailed it out of work right at five when everyone else finished up for the week instead of sticking around to all hours like I usually did. He’d been happy that I’d been leaving earlier than him every night this week, but thankfully he hadn’t questioned me as to why.

All week, I’d been tinkering away on building a small glitter bomb that would fit inside Blue’s lunchbox, which sounded simple enough in theory, until I factored into account that it needed to be a comparable weight to at least one of his lunches so it wouldn’t immediately set off alarm bells to anyone picking the lunchbox up, and the blast radius of the glitter needed to have a narrow target window so it wouldn’t affect other people’s lunches or the overall fridge too badly if it was opened inside said fridge. Add in the fact that I also wanted to have a camera in there to record the culprit and their reaction to being bombed, and it was proving to be quite a challenging build.

I loved every minute of it.

Working on this project every night since I’d watched the video reminded me what I loved about engineering and why I went into the field in the first place. Sure, there were frustrations when something wouldn’t go my way, but every failure meant I was one step closer to my goal.

Plus, putting a bully in his rightful place was an added bonus. Blue deserved to be left alone, and if I could help make that happen a little more quickly, then I’d end up being happy, too.

After exchanging numbers on Tuesday, he’d been able to text me the measurements I needed for the build, but it wouldn’t be until I could properly fit the prototype into his physical lunchbox that I’d be sure if what I’d worked on would actually function in practice. There were always unseen variables in this type of build, which is why I’d requested he drop it off tonight after work so I could have the weekend to make sure it was fit to be rolled out in practice this coming Monday morning.

There was obviously no deadline that I had to hold to, but honestly, the sooner we deployed the glitter bomb, the better off both Blue and I would be. Blue, because Travis would hopefully not only get off Blue’s back but also be officially warned, or better yet, let go from his role in Eckersley’s Institute. And me, because the longer the build would go on, the more I’d want to tinker with it and second guess myself.

The smell of my mom’s lasagna lingered in the air while I was fussing with all the electronics that I needed on the dining table when the doorbell rang. I hurried to the door and flung it open to find Blue poised to ring the bell again, his finger hovering in midair.

“Henry!” Dropping his hand, he beamed at me before holding his lunchbox out in front of him for me to take. “I have brought what you requested!”

Carefully taking it from him, I weighed it in one hand to take a guesstimate of what lay inside. I’d need to use a set of scales to get a proper record, but this would let my brain work in the background while I showed Blue around my home. I’d asked him to fill it up with his heaviest lunch so I could compare what I’d built to what he might typically be expected to carry.

Plus, we could add it to what I’d prepared us for dinner and have the meal act like a quasi-date.

Not that I was telling him that. As far as Blue was concerned, this was just a meeting of the minds over a shared meal while we nutted out how to take down a bad guy.

But wouldn’t it be wonderful if he thought the same as I did?

“Wow, something smells good,” he said, his nose twitching in the air before a slow grin emerged on his face. He looked at his lunchbox in my hands and bit his lip to stop himself from smiling more, though I didn’t know why.

“Come in,” I said, holding the door open for him and motioning him in with the hand that still held his lunchbox. “Let me show you around.”

He entered, then waited for me to give him a quick tour of the front section of the house, which was basically comprised of the combined lounge and dining area with the kitchen immediately in front of the front door.

“The bedrooms and bathroom are down the hall,” I said, nodding in their direction as I wandered over to the dining table to place his lunchbox down, before turning around to wait for his reaction. I ran my hands through my hair, trying to tamp down the cowlick I knew would be sticking up like it always did. “And there’s a covered patio on the other side of this wall where I thought we could eat?”

Blue looked around at my humble little two-bedroom cottage, his eyes wide with wonder. “Henry, your home is gorgeous.”

Even as I felt my cheeks flush, I felt the tension drain from my shoulders, not realizing until that moment how much I needed him to say that he liked my house. It was only a small place, but it was home, and I wanted him to be comfortable here, even if it was only for a couple of hours. “Thank you.”

“And who’s this?” he cooed, crouching down in front of the hallway.

A vision of him on his knees in front of me, naked and looking up at me as he lapped at my cock, rushed through my head. I coughed to stop the pulse of arousal that worked its way quickly to my dick at the thought, then turned around to see my cat sauntering down the hall like the king that he was, which surprised the hell out of me considering he hated almost everyone and hid away for hours whenever I had visitors. “Ah… That’s Sir Cattus.” Astonished, I watched the cat in question sniff daintily at Blue’s outstretched fingers, then headbutt his hand looking for pets. “Sir Cattus Weatherington the Third, actually.”

Blue grinned. “There have been two Sir Cattus’s before this beauty?”

“No, he’s the only Sir Cattus I’ve ever shared my space with,” I admitted with a frown as I watched them both interact.

“Well, hello, Sir Cattus Weatherington the Third. Aren’t you a stunning creature?” Blue gently ran his hand over Sir Cattus’s head, scratching behind his ears. A loud purr vibrated through the room, letting everyone know how happy he was.

“What the fuck?” I muttered under my breath, blinking stupidly at the pair in front of me.

Blue raised his head to look at me quizzically, even though he was still patting my cat. “What’s up?”

“Are you like some sort of cat whisperer?” I asked him, still not quite comprehending what I was looking at. “Sir Cattus never gets this close to anyone that visits me. Not even my family can get that close to him without him freaking out.”

“Aw, he thinks I’m special,” Blue cooed at Sir Cattus, letting his hands fall when Sir Cattus decided he wanted to rub his chin up against Blue’s thigh. Blue shifted slightly, letting one knee drop to the floor so he could hold the crouch longer, watching my cat basically do whatever he wanted.

He wasn’t the only one. I wondered if Blue would allow me to rub against him as well?

“What breed is he?” Blue asked, his eyes still on Sir Cattus. “I’d almost guess Persian, but his fur isn’t long enough, and his face isn’t as smooshed as I’d expect.”

“He’s a very spoiled rag-doll.”

Blue chuckled and slowly stood up to not startle Sir Cattus. “He suits you.”

“He does?”

“Mm,” he said, still watching Sir Cattus butt against his legs. “He’s the type of pet I’d expect you to own. It’s hard to explain.”

The shrill sound of the oven timer went off, distracting me from asking him to elaborate. I busied myself with getting the lasagna out of the oven and plates out of the cupboard for us both. “Before I plate up, can you please weigh your lunchbox? The scales are on the table. Sorry, I meant to do that before the timer finished.”

“Sure.”

I glanced over when things got quiet, and I looked over to see him searching for somewhere to write the result down. “There should be a brown leather sketchpad on the table. Use the next available page to record the result.”

He nodded, picking up the pad in question and flicking through it until he found a new page to scribble down what he needed to. He then went back through the previous pages to look at the schematics I’d mocked up last weekend. “Jesus, Henry. These are incredible. The detail…”

I shrugged, plating up the food. “They’re just rough workings.”

His eyes widened. “This is rough? ” He looked up to see me putting the pan back in the oven to keep the leftovers warm. “Oh, you need my food, too. Hold on.” He picked up his lunchbox and brought it over and cheekily flipped the cover off to reveal more lasagna before placing the cover back on at an angle and popping it in the microwave.

At the sight of his mischievous grin, I laughed. “Now I know why you were hiding a smile when you arrived.”

He shrugged, his grin remaining firmly in place. “We should pit each one up against the other and see which is the superior meal.”

“Oof,” I said, wincing. “If mine loses, you’ll need to promise me you won’t ever tell my mom. This is her recipe.”

He raised his hand palm out, smile getting ever bigger. “I swear I will not say a word upon penalty of clothing and shoe loss.”

“Let’s not go that far,” I said, grinning as the microwave beeped. I halved the portion he’d supplied and dished them out on smaller plates, my nose twitching with the spices he’d used. “Gosh, this smells just as good as my mom’s.”

Once we had all the plates in hand, I led Blue out to the covered patio, flicking the light switch on as I went past. Colorful fairy lights lit up the space, lending a soft ambience to the area reminiscent of Christmas, even though it was June.

“Wow,” Blue said, looking around the small, mostly enclosed space. “I love this.”

I tipped my head in thanks. “There are bright overhead lights I can turn on if you want, but I thought you might prefer a less harsh environment.” I set our plates down on the low table in the center of the space, with Blue following my lead. “I do most of my builds out here rather than in the garage, so I need the brighter light, but it’s also nice to have dinner out here sometimes.”

“I can see why.” He settled into the outdoor lounge and shuffled the table closer once I took the seat next to him. “It’s so calming out here.”

“This space is the reason I chose this floor-plan.” I picked up the smaller dish so I could taste his lasagna first. “I don’t need a lot of space to live, but I do need a couple of good workspaces. This has great all-weather coverage.”

He nodded, taking a bite of my lasagna. A low moan came from him as he closed his eyes and tipped his head back. “Damn, Henry. This is good .”

Trying hard to swallow the reaction I had to his moan, I chuckled. “Glad you like it.” Knowing what my mom’s lasagna tasted like, I popped my fork into my mouth with a bite of Blue’s and mimicked his moan with one of my own. “So is this, Blue. I don’t know if I can separate them. They’ve both got such distinctive tastes.”

We fell into silence as we devoured the meals in front of us, each agreeing that it was too close to determine which was the better lasagna.

Once we were both full and comfortably leaning back on the lounge to pat our slightly distended stomachs, I turned my head to the side to look at Blue. He had his eyes closed and a content smile on his face. The colored lights gave his skin a glow that almost felt mystical. I sighed, knowing that I was likely going to break his calm with the topic I knew I needed to bring up. “What were your plans for Travis if I hadn’t suggested the glitter bomb?”

All week Blue and Amy had been sitting with me during lunch, and although we hadn’t talked much about what I had planned, we hadn’t talked at all about how Travis had treated Blue the prior Friday night. I got the distinct impression that Blue didn’t want to let Amy know, maybe as to not let her worry? I didn’t know, but it worried me that there didn’t seem to be any way to resolve Blue’s issues.

Blue’s jaw tightened, and I felt the tension roll off him in waves. “Amy and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago.”

Silence filled the space while I waited for him to get his thoughts into order.

He rolled his head from side to side before hauling himself up to a seated position with a groan. He opened his eyes and turned slightly so he could look at me properly. “My boss knows what’s been going on with Travis, but his hands are largely tied with reporting him because of the connections Travis has within Eckersley’s. A couple of weeks ago, he suggested looking for ways to get proof of what Travis was doing through unofficial channels.”

Sitting up, I raised an eyebrow and leaned forward. This sounded promising. At the very least, Blue had his manager in his corner. It also meant that there were other avenues that we could explore if the glitter bomb either failed or I couldn’t get it to work because of the size limitations.

“Amy and I chatted about what we could do for days afterwards,” he continued. “The obvious solution would be to taint the food, so management could cross reference the dates of my complaints with the days he had to leave work early.”

I nodded and took a sip of water while I waited for him to continue. It made logical sense and was the solution that most people used when lunches were stolen in an office environment. If this had been going on for a while, I was surprised Blue hadn’t done this already.

“The only issue is that there’s no regularity to when Travis will take the food. If he took it every day, it would be a simple enough fix: coat the food in food grade mineral oil and sit back and wait for the metaphorical fireworks. But if I can’t predict when he’s going to steal it, I’d be wasting my lunch for nothing.”

My brow furrowed. That raised some concerns, but they weren’t insurmountable.

“The other obvious option is to taint the food with chili flakes, but I’m not someone who can eat really super-spicy food, so again, unnecessary food wastage.”

I hummed as I took in his words, crossing off options in my mind of things that might be a suitable alternative to the glitter bomb.

“Another option is to use common ingredients that might induce an allergic reaction,” he said, but then he frowned. “But as my boss pointed out when we had our most recent chat, that could end up killing Travis. As much as I hate the man, I don’t want him to end up dead or hurt enough to go to the hospital.”

“Fair enough,” I murmured, taking another sip of water.

“Amy and I were still trying to come up with a workable solution that would also give us the proof we needed that it was him doing it when you suggested using a glitter bomb.” He tilted his head to the side as he pursed his lips. “It’s a fantastic solution, but again, we have no way of knowing when he’s going to take my food. On the days we try it, I’d have to find an alternative for my lunch, considering I wouldn’t have access to my lunchbox for that day.”

I waved a hand in the air, dismissing his concern. “Don’t worry about your meals. We can find ways of smuggling your lunch in on trial days. We’d just have to make sure Travis wasn’t in the lunchroom when we planted your lunchbox.”

Idly, I wondered if simply not using Blue’s lunchbox at all would be enough to stop Travis, instead using a generic paper bag with someone else’s name on it. At the very least, it would be a reasonable alternative for when we tried the glitter bomb.

Unfortunately, all of this would only affect the food issue. Travis assaulting Blue once led me to believe that it was highly possible that it would happen again, especially if Travis couldn’t steal Blue’s lunch anymore. I suspected that solving the food issue would only win one battle out of a much larger war.

“Come on, let me show you what I’ve come up with so far.” I stood up, motioning for Blue to follow me back inside, grabbing the empty plates as I went.

After putting all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, I led him over to the dining table, where I had a shoebox set up with a small prototype installed. I picked it up and gave it to Blue. “Here you go. Open what’s inside the box.”

His wide eyes gleamed at me as he tried to stifle a grin. “I won’t break anything, will I?”

I chuckled. “I don’t think you will, but if you do, it wouldn’t take long to fix. This is just a prototype.”

“Okay…” he said tentatively, his hands trembling slightly. He weighed the box in his hands. “It’s not very heavy, is it?”

Smiling, I shook my head. That was by purposeful design.

Chewing his bottom lip enough to make me worry he was going to draw blood, he set the box down on the table in front of him and lifted the lid carefully.

Nothing happened. He let out a breath and laughed to himself. “Oh, there’s something in the box.”

“Yup,” I said, grinning. “That’s what I want you to open, but open it in the shoebox, please.”

His eyes shot to mine with a small amount of alarm. “Oh, okay…”

He looked down to study the small lunchbox that I’d purchased from the local grocery store to experiment with to get a working prototype. It was a little larger than his, so I’d need to make some adjustments, but I wanted to see his honest reaction to this before I took it any further.

Ever so carefully, he reached into the shoebox and lifted the lid of the lunchbox inside. As soon as it cleared the base, glitter shot out, swirling around the lunchbox and coating the inside of the shoebox in glitter. If he had opened it outside of the shoebox, he’d now be covered in the stuff.

He burst out laughing. “Oh, my God! This is fantastic!”

I grinned at his enthusiasm and sat down, motioning for him to sit down next to me. “Go on, lift the lid. Take a look inside.”

Before he sat, he lifted the lid and stared at the contraption inside the lunchbox. A small air pump was rigged under a bowl that was still rotating, trying to spread the glitter that no longer lay inside it. Next to the bowl, there were two plastic dowels that had popped up when the lid was removed. He pressed one of them to see it retract back into the casing that held the bowl.

“The dowels let the mechanism know the lid’s been removed,” I explained, pointing to the other one. “Once the pressure on the dowel lifts, it sets the bowl into motion, and the air pump underneath it pushes the glitter up and out.”

A look of childish joy and excitement washed over Blue’s face. “Henry… You built this? You built this for me? ”

I felt my face flush in embarrassment as I shrugged.

He beamed as his attention swayed from me to the glitter bomb, then back to me. “No one has ever done anything like this for me before.”

Figuring I should probably change the subject, I coughed and pointed at the lid that he’d dropped to the side. “There’s also a mini camera attached to the lid that records audio and visual, either continuously or via motion capture.”

“There is?” he said, his voice getting excited again. He lifted the lid to look at the small spy camera I’d purchased the prior weekend. “Where’s the lens?”

I rotated the lid in his hands and pointed at the tiny hole at the end of the camera. “I got one that records audio as well, just in case Travis opens it from the other side.”

He turned to me with wide eyes. “It’s recording us now?”

“Yup. It saves everything to USB. I’ll show you later how to check the recording.”

“Holy shit.”

While he returned his excited attention back to the glitter bomb, I laughed at his enthusiasm. “I mean, this is just the prototype. I need to check if this will fit your lunchbox and also come in under the weight you recorded earlier, but it’s a start.”

“It’s a fantastic start, Henry! I can’t believe you made this.” His eyes glistened as he lifted the lid closer so he could inspect it more. “And you made it for me…”

I patted him on the shoulder as I stood up. “You’re worth it, Blue.”

His brow furrowed as he looked at me, his eyes glittering even more from the overhead lights. His bottom lip trembled slightly before he bit it and pressed his lips together so tightly they turned almost white, before repeating quietly, “No one’s ever done anything like this for me before.”

Smiling kindly, I patted him again before I went over to the kitchen to grab us both a drink.

“How did you even think to make something like this in the first place?” he asked, still toying with the prototype.

Humming, I wondered what I should tell him. Should I admit that the inspiration came from him? If I’d never seen the picture of him wearing glitter, the video that inspired the build would never have caught my attention, which in turn would never have led me to build the glitter bomb sitting in front of him. I opted to err on the side of caution. “I saw a video on YouTube.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

“Huh.” He poked at the dowels again. “Such creativity.”

“Yeah, the guy who uploads these videos is insanely clever, but he explains everything in kid friendly terms.” I picked up his now full glass and headed to the lounge. “Here, I’ll show you.”

Blue put the lid down and almost skipped to the sofa, taking the glass from me when I offered it to him.

I sat next to him and brought up the video that had started this whole thing. We watched it, then watched the next video, and then the next. It didn’t take long for us both to fully relax into the sofa.

After the fourth video, I felt Blue lean against my shoulder. I glanced over and saw nothing but his hair nestled against me, the pop of green hair stark against the sleeve of my black hoodie. His hand gripped my upper arm, holding it steady as he relaxed further into me.

A warmth spread through me at how comfortable he was, how right it felt for him to be there.

Deciding not to move, I let the videos run. After another twenty minutes, Sir Cattus stalked across the room and made his way to Blue’s lap, settling in easily with his tail wrapped around himself. I was astonished that Sir Cattus would do something like that, as he’d never deigned to sit on anyone’s lap other than my own.

Blue absently scratched Sir Cattus’s head, but even that eventually stopped, his hand resting gently upon Sir Cattus’s back.

When I heard Blue’s breaths even out, I realized he’d fallen asleep, still curled up against me. I blinked, not knowing what to do. I’d never had anyone fall asleep on me before. Well, except for Sir Cattus.

I let a few more videos run to see if Blue would wake up, but he seemed to just fall deeper into sleep. When I noticed it was getting close to eleven, I shuffled a grumpy Sir Cattus off Blue’s lap and ever so gently maneuvered Blue back so I could get out from under him. He mumbled something too low for me to understand but didn’t wake up.

Carefully, I lifted Blue into my arms and took him to the spare room and lay him on his back on the bed. I removed his shoes, then softly placed a blanket over him so he could stay warm. He mumbled again, this time rolling onto his side and curling up into the blanket.

I watched him for a moment, a gentle smile on my face, before I realized I was being a creep and left the room, quietly closing the door behind me, knowing that if I didn’t shut Sir Cattus out of the room, he’d incorporate it into his midnight zoomies. I went through my usual nighttime routine, turning all the lights off and making sure everything was locked up before I headed to bed.

The feeling of contentment was so strong it made my heart clench with want. I could easily see more nights like this, where we all cuddled up together and watched a movie or read a book. I wondered if that was something Blue would want, and if so, would he want that with someone like me?

As I lay in bed waiting to fall asleep, I contemplated if Blue would still be there when I woke up tomorrow, or if he’d leave during the night without a word.

I desperately hoped he’d stay.