Cade
CADE
Neither drinking and gaming with Elias nor a few hours sleep was enough to shake the nerves jangling around in his head. had barely managed to swim to consciousness before the night's events sank into his thoughts again.
“Ugh,” he grunted, rolling out of Elias’ bed as gently as possible.
Elias, thankfully, didn’t stir as ’s feet hit the floor, and he pushed himself up. His friend had practically passed out the night before. It was a testament to how tired he was normally and how willing he’d been to stay up and hang out with to keep him distracted. Only when it became evident that couldn’t keep his eyes open did Elias finally announce that they needed to go to bed.
It was those little moments where Elias showed who he really was under all the quiet stoicism, and thought his friend truly shone. Not once had wondered whether he could depend on him. And the thing was, Elias wasn’t afraid to speak up when it counted. Whether it was to tell the guys at the station to piss off when they were being bigger dicks than usual or, like the night before, refusing to let insult himself when maybe, just maybe, had meant the self-denigration.
How could he not? It had been stupid to panic at Christine’s questions, at her repeated attempts to date him. Even worse, he shouldn’t have dragged Elias into it. He shouldn’t have been surprised that Elias wasn’t pissed about it. For one, he was the sort who would have and indeed had, shrugged off the idea that he might be into guys. And couldn’t help an amused smirk at the fact that Elias thought being accused of dating wasn’t an insult.
“What’re you doing?” Elias grunted suddenly, eyes still closed.
froze, realizing he’d been standing at the end of the bed, watching his friend sleep. Heat flamed in his cheeks, and he was suddenly glad Elias had his eyes closed.
“Zoning out,” said hurriedly.
Elias gave another characteristic grunt, rolling onto his back. “That time?”
nodded. “Yeah, figured I’d hop in the shower and give you time to become a person again.”
had always been a fairly light sleeper. Adjusting to the demands of sleeping on shift in the station had come easy to him. Yet, despite having done the job as long as , Elias still wasn’t quite as good at it. Sure, if he was napping in the station and the alarm went off, he was on his feet and ready to go as quickly as anyone else. Outside that, however, the man woke slowly and took forever to come to full consciousness. Elias always joked it was his reboot process, where he had to spend twenty minutes trying to come to terms with his existence and then more to remember his own name.
“Mmph, coffee?” Elias asked.
“I’ll get it started,” promised, patting Elias’ blanket-covered foot.
And just like that, his somber mood evaporated. Other people might think it strange that he and Elias spent so much of their free time together. And they probably thought it even stranger that two heterosexual men spent their shared nights in the same bed.
Honestly, he’d prefer to wake up in the same bed as Elias than most of the women he took home with him. That had been an odd realization the first time he’d had it over a year and a half before. But since then, had realized it was true and accepted it happily. Sure, they weren’t fucking each other, but it was nice just to have someone there to wake up with, to have companionship in the evening and the morning. They knew each other’s habits inside and out, and there was comfort in that.
As though showcasing that fact, took the cold gallon of water out of the fridge rather than use the tap where he’d normally get water for his coffee. After making Elias’ coffee for several months, he didn’t have to put much thought into the water-to-coffee ratio. had always thought he liked his coffee strong until he’d had Elias’ coffee for the first time, which was so thick it should be classified as sludge.
Just as ’s finger hit the button to start brewing, he heard the bathroom door close gently. Sighing, he leaned against the counter and waited until he heard the flush, followed by running water. He listened further, waiting to see if Elias had forgotten what said, as he was prone to doing in the morning. To his mild surprise, he didn’t hear the shower come on, and instead, the bathroom door opened quietly, spilling light into the hallway.
Smirking, took a bottle of water from the fridge and returned to the bedroom. Elias sat at the end of the bed, staring at his lap and rubbing the back of his neck.
“Coffee should be good to go in five,” told him as he opened the closet.
“Good.”
“And I promise a max of ten minutes in the shower this time.”
“Liar.”
That made smile as he fished a change of clothes out of the small compartment in the closet he used for his stuff. was a sucker for his morning showers. Which meant that sometimes he forgot to share the time they had in the morning so that Elias could have one as well. Then again, it wasn’t his fault that Elias had convinced his landlord to let him put in a huge tub with all the fancy workings that made a shower heaven at Elias’s place.
The thing had extra jets, for God’s sake.
“Just come yell at me at the ten-minute mark,” said as he closed the closet.
Elias grunted, and took that as an affirmative as he swept off to the bathroom to start his day.
* * *
As Elias slid the car into the parking spot, slipped out into the bright morning sun.
“You know, as much as I hate these morning shifts, at least the traffic isn’t bad,” offered.
Elias stepped out, still clutching his huge travel mug of coffee. “I just wish everything, our shift, and the traffic could be a little later. Waking up at the god-awful start of the morning will never be easy for me.”
“How is it that I’m the party animal, but you’re the one who wants to stay up late when you’ve actually had some decent sleep?” asked.
“I never get decent sleep.”
“I think they call that insomnia in some circles.”
“Probably.”
“Something you can go to the doctor for.”
“Tried that, remember?”
sighed, shaking his head. He, of course, knew that Elias’ sleep problems had started long before they’d met. Something about the onset of puberty had sent the chemicals in Elias’ brain haywire, and suddenly, the man was having sleep issues left and right. His mother had tried to get it looked at, but after several medications, different techniques offered by sleep specialists, and even a few desperate herbal remedies, Elias had given up.
“There’s always changes in medical advancements. They might still be able to help,” offered as they reached the back door.
“, I do not need to hear it from you too,” Elias grumbled.
“Fine, I’ll just spill all my woes to your mom next time she calls me.”
“I will end your life where you stand, Masters.”
laughed as they entered the building, the sound echoing up and down the hallway. The thing was, might bring it up the next time he spoke with Elias’ mom. Alexandra was a good woman who loved her son dearly and still occasionally treated him as though he were eight years old. She also adored , which, while bewildering at first, was something had inevitably given into. When it came to Alexandra’s love, you were held hostage by it until you gave in or just accepted it from the outset.
“Need to call her again,” Elias muttered as they entered the mess hall.
“Oh yeah, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Talked to her a bit last night, which was why I was late.”
“Oh. Shit, God, if I’d known that, I would have told you to be more late.”
“And what, risk you saying something else to Christine? Yeah, right.”
“You have no faith.”
“Nope.”
They stopped as they crossed the dining room, realizing how quiet the place was. turned to find Matt at one of the tables, reading what looked like the next in the series of werewolf warrior books he’d been engrossed in lately. swore up and down he wouldn’t ask the man what it was about. The last time he’d done that, ended up dropping serious dollars on an eight-part series of books after Matt had lent him the first.
It was the other two, Davis and Keith, that drew ’s attention. The two men watched them warily as though they were two venomous snakes. frowned, shooting them a questioning look. Before he could get the question out, Keith pushed back from the table, leaving his bowl of cereal and marching out of the room.
“The fuck?” proclaimed.
Davis looked between Elias and , brow furrowed as though he were thinking way too hard about something. After another confused pause, he also got up, albeit with more hesitance and less anger, as he followed his friend.
looked at Elias. “The hell happened when you worked with them the other day?”
Elias shook his head. “I went on a call with Davis, not Keith. And nothing happened. It was a normal fire. It didn’t even take much to put it out.”
turned to the only other person in the room. “Yo, Matt, the hell is up their ass? Did you offend their delicate sensibilities by daring to say you were dating a guy again?”
Seriously, those two had to grow up. Davis wasn’t too bad, though it was obvious to anyone with a working pair of eyes that he wasn’t comfortable around Matt. Keith, however, always seemed to be a hair’s breadth away from saying something nasty. The only thing keeping him in line was that the rest of the station wouldn’t have tolerated it. They were all full-grown men who had grown up with the understanding that it didn’t matter where you stuck your dick, and was almost sure Elias had threatened Keith once.
Matt looked up, brow raised. “Seriously?”
winced. “C’mon man, I wasn’t taking a jab at you. I was making fun of them.”
Matt’s brow never lowered as he marked his place in his book. “Yeah, I’m aware of that. But that’s not what I meant.”
looked at Elias, seeing his sudden frown. “What? What’d I miss?”
Elias’ frown deepened, but before he could say anything, the chief’s voice boomed into the room. “Kaidan, Elias, my office.”
“Oh, Jesus, what’d we do?” asked as he threw up his arms in exasperation.
Fire Chief Irons was not a man to be kept waiting, however. The man was built almost as big across as Elias but on a body a few inches shorter than . Normally, he let the station go about its business without much interference, doing his job without needing to breathe down everyone’s neck. However, his beefy neck was beet red, which was a sure sign the older man was stressed.
“Now,” Irons barked.
“Coming,” sighed.
They followed after him, with glancing at Elias for help or an idea of what could be going on. Elias looked even more concerned than before, but other than that, couldn’t get anything from the man. Right before they entered the office, caught sight of Keith at the end of the hall, preparing to enter the garage. As he stepped through, Keith shot him a dirty look, which only irritated further.
As usual, the chief’s office bordered on a disaster. Despite the fact that paperwork had gone the way of the dodo, Chief Irons still managed to have it heaped up all over the place. The computer was buried under folders, and a couple of notepads were littered around the monitor's base. Thankfully, the chairs were free of clutter, allowing them to sit without moving anything.
“Chief, what the hell is going on?” demanded once all three of them were seated comfortably.
Irons looked between them, his gaze finally settling on Elias. “Something tells me our resident quiet guy has an idea.”
’s head jerked toward him. “Elias?”
Elias’ face spasmed into a grimace. “Last night.”
blinked, confused. Then, realization hit home with the force of a fire truck slamming into him.
No. She didn’t.
Irons nodded. “I see someone’s finally getting it.”
“Chief,” began to sputter.
Irons ignored him. “It was real interesting getting a call from Christine Hoffman last night. Normally she only calls me to talk shop, maybe get my opinion on a few things. She’s a busy woman, so she doesn’t take an interest in much else.”
closed his eyes. No, she didn’t, but she sure would when it came to something she wanted badly enough.
“So you can imagine my surprise when she called to congratulate me on the ‘diversity of my workplace’ and the ‘inclusion of minorities.’ Truth be told, I thought she was talking about Matthew and his boyfriend or that Elias here is only half-white,” Irons said, motioning to the now stone-faced Elias.
snorted. “Like she’d even know Matt exists. Don’t even think she knew Elias existed.”
Until threw him in front of her.
Irons nodded. “I was half right. She was talking about Elias. But she was talking about you too. It’s a good thing I was already sat down when she informed me you two are a thing.”
And there it was. God, knew that was the only reason Christine would call Irons after what had happened last night, but hearing it was still a punch to the gut. He’d never given it a thought that what he’d told her in a moment of desperation would leak into the rest of his life. Sure, maybe it would affect his relationship with Christine and keep her watching him closely, but this was too much.
“Told her she had to be confused. here can’t keep it in his pants when it comes to the ladies. Everyone knows that. And while Elias ain’t exactly strolling them through his door like an amusement park, ain’t no secret that he’s strictly for the ladies. Then she told me that you told her that was the case, and Elias agreed with you.”
gritted his teeth. “That is what happened, yes.”
Irons looked at Elias. “That right?”
“That’s right,” Elias said softly.
Irons leaned forward, clasping his hands before him. “So, I didn’t say much to her after that. Just told her we don’t give a shit where you put your pecker on your off-times. Mind you, I said it in much nicer words, but it’s true. Thing is, I don’t quite believe this story.”
took a deep breath. “Look, chief?—”
Irons held up a hand, shaking his head. “And personally, I don’t care what the truth is. If you two are together, like everyone around here has been saying for a couple of years, that’s your business. Just make sure you keep it off the clock. But, like I said, I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. What I do know is that she’s awfully interested in this here relationship she says y’all are having.”
“Yes, yes she is,” agreed.
“And I also know that she ain’t just tellin’ me for my own good, and she didn’t call me up to congratulate me. She don’t care about none of that so long as we don’t do nothin’ around here that makes us look bad. So that tells me she’s got a reason, and since you seem to know her so well, I’m thinking that reason is you, .”
said nothing, taking the hint that he should keep his mouth shut.
“And on that note, I don’t wanna know the truth. Frankly, it ain’t my business. But I’m tellin’ you right now, her interest in this makes me nervous. She didn’t say nothin’ outright, mind you, but it made me nervous all the same.”
gave him a humorous smile. “She’s, uh, good at giving you the feeling that what she says isn’t what she means.”
Irons nodded. “And that you know exactly what she means. So, if I’m wrong, and you two are an item, there probably ain’t going to be a problem. But if this is some bullshit you two cooked up for whatever reason, and she finds out, there is gonna be a problem. Then y’all are gonna have a problem with me, understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Elias said softly.
“Good. I needed you two to know the score. Now it’s lookin’ like there’s a game in session,” Irons said, finally leaning back in his seat.
forced a smile that felt more like a grimace. “Thank you, sir.”
Irons snorted. “Don’t thank me, but now ya know what’s going on. And for the record, whether or not this is real, you let me know if those two idiots out there make any trouble. Already threatened Keith a couple of times when Matthew joined up, and I ain’t afraid to do it again.”
“Noted,” said, pushing out of his seat.
Elias was already in the hallway by the time reached the door. It wasn’t like he’d expected his friend to say much, but the knot of worry in his gut was tightening. Elias’s expression gave nothing away as he nodded toward the locker room. ’s mind was already racing to figure out what he would say as he followed his friend.
Elias spoke first once they entered the locker room. “I knew this wasn’t going to end quietly.”
“I’m so fucking sorry, Elias. I didn’t think she would...I mean, to call the chief,” rambled.
Elias shook his head, holding up a hand. “Don’t. Stop fucking apologizing already. Jesus, .”
straightened, feeling slightly embarrassed that he might have been overreacting. “Sorry.”
Elias sighed. “That one, I’ll let go. Listen, if she’s really up to something, and I’m betting the chief is right, and she is, this won’t stop anytime soon.”
“It’s just going to get worse,” said somberly.
Elias kept his voice low. “Yes, yes it is. She’s not going to stop until she’s either satisfied we told her the truth, yes, ‘we,’ not just you, or she catches us in a lie.”
smiled a little at the reminder. “Okay, so what do we do?”
Elias snorted. “I guess, for now, you and I are dating. Which means we put up with stupid shit from Davis and Keith, most likely. And it also means we’re gonna probably put up with more shit from other places. If we bail out now, she’ll get the claws out, and the chief will have our balls in a jar on his desk.”
“Great imagery.”
“The point is, she’s not going to stop. Not until she gets something .”
“So we just...date?”
“Pretend and hope she loses interest, or we can go on long enough and ‘break up’ at some point. Until then, we better get our big boy pants on and get ready to act really convincing. Because if she gets mean enough, she can cost us our jobs.”
“Christ,” swore, knowing he was right.
“I said it last night, and I’ll say it again. I’m in this, I was involved the minute I backed you up, and I’m not gonna be pissed about that. So we both better be ready because this shit is only just starting,” Elias said with a grim expression.
“And boy, I can’t wait to see what comes next,” muttered.
“Personally, I’d be more worried about when your mother finds out,” Elias said, clasping a hand on his shoulder before walking out.
stared after him, Elias’ words sinking in.
“Fuck.”