Cade
CADE
had experienced long weeks before, but none as long as the one where he and Elias had been practically strangers. The worst part was he knew it was his damn fault. He chose to stay away from Elias, and his friend simply respected ’s unspoken wish to be left alone. knew he had to suck it up at some point and talk to Elias, but the problem was he didn’t know what he was supposed to say.
Hey, I know we had a bit of hand-on-dick fun, but that’s left me feeling like my head is imploding.
shook the thought away, irritated that despite having spent days thinking, he still hadn’t come up with anything better. There wasn’t exactly a handbook for what to do when you somehow found yourself getting sexually active with your straight best friend while you too, were straight. And the one person he would have talked to about it was Elias, so that wouldn’t help.
He lay his head against the truck he was scrubbing and sighed.
“You alright?”
Elias’ voice brought upright with a startled grunt. Spinning around, he spotted Elias standing at the door to the hallway, concern etched on his face.
“Yeah, just tired of scrubbing every last corner of this thing,” grumbled, turning back toward the truck.
Which was true. The chief expected that every time the truck went out, it was cleaned, and deep cleaned at that. Which meant every nook and cranny, every corner of every compartment, had to be wiped and cleaned. Since Matt had gone out for his demonstration at the school earlier that day, the truck had to be cleaned.
“Matt said you offered to do it,” Elias said.
grimaced. “Yep, and I’m regretting it as we speak.”
“You know he’d help if you asked.”
“Yeah, but I’m not asking.”
“Stubborn.”
“That’s me.”
Silence hung around them again, and felt the oppressive tension begin to sink in. didn’t turn around, though. He didn’t want to see the dark bags under Elias’ eyes. He didn’t want to know that Elias, who already had sleep problems, was sleeping even worse than usual. God, he felt bad enough about the whole thing. He didn’t want to add even more guilt on top.
Elias cleared his throat. “Look, ?—”
closed his eyes. Was Elias really going to do this here?
“I think it’s about time we talk,” Elias continued.
“Yeah?” asked.
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I know it’s time.”
couldn’t help his slight smile. He would bet Elias had set a deadline in his head of when he would say something. Plenty of people would have done the same thing in his place, but knew that when Elias made up his mind, it was made. Elias could call stubborn all he wanted, but had yet to meet someone as bullheaded and determined as Elias when he made a decision.
finally forced himself to turn around and face his exhausted friend. “I really don’t think right now is a good time.”
In the firehouse? Yeah, that would be great. All they needed was the chief or Keith to come wandering out and hear them talking about the awkwardness of Saturday night. Then, not only would everyone know the whole he and Elias dating thing was a lie, but that there was more to the story.
Was there more to the story?
That was what was eating at . Maybe he could live with what happened, even deal with it if he knew precisely why they’d done it. Never in two years of friendship with Elias had felt so much as a flicker of desire to have his friend’s dick in his hand. Yet after one night, one dance, one kiss, had been putty in Elias’ hand. God save him, he’d enjoyed it.
But why?
Elias’ brow furrowed, darkening his features. “Then when?”
flopped his arms at his side, making a helpless noise. “I don’t know, Elias, but not now.”
“That’s not even close to a good answer, and you know it,” Elias growled.
’s jaw tightened. “You don’t get to tell me when I need to talk.”
“I get to have a say when you leave me to hang out and dry. This is crap, . We can’t be okay if you continue to avoid me. I thought letting you have your space might give you time to be okay, but clearly you’re in one of your ‘need to deal with it but won’t’ moods.”
“Uh, excuse me?”
Elias snorted. “You know what I mean, and you know I know. Something messes with you, and sometimes, you need to be left alone to deal with it. Other times, you gotta talk about it and will. And every now and then, you should talk, but you won’t, and you act like... this, until someone makes you, usually me.”
slapped the sponge back into the soapy bucket. “I don’t need to talk about anything.”
“The hell you don’t,” Elias shot back, eyes narrowing almost to slits.
“I don’t!”
“Fine, be a stubborn dumbass. But I do need to talk about it. How about that?”
blinked. “Well...not now!”
“When?”
“I don’t know!”
The shriek of the alarm cut through Elias’ next retort. They froze as the alarm rose and fell before they shook off their surprise. ’s frustration evaporated, and he watched as Elias’ dark eyes turned away from his face and up toward the alarm. Without needing to say anything, they both moved, heading for their gear.
“Later,” said as he pulled open his locker.
“I’m fucking holding you to that,” Elias told him as he pulled out the jacket and pants.
* * *
The flames licked the sky as their truck barreled down the street. People were crowded on the opposite side of the burning building, eyes wide and mouths constantly moving as they gossiped. The building, built in the style of an old hunting lodge, was puffing out thick clouds of black smoke, blotting out the sun as it rose into the sky.
yanked the radio from its hook. “Keith, Davis, get to the hoses. Keep it from spreading.”
Keith’s voice crackled back. “On it.”
elbowed Elias beside him. “Us too.”
Elias nodded, hopping out of the truck with following suit. Habit and training took over as they began to work. Thankfully, it wasn’t one of those fires where some idiot had blocked the hydrants. While always got a small dose of pleasure from breaking the windows of a car whose owner thought they didn’t have to obey the law, he preferred not to deal with the screaming later.
They worked quickly, neither noticing the sounds of the nearby crowd. Setting up the hose, they got to work. braced, gritting his teeth as the water worked through the hose. Between him and Elias, though, the hose stayed in one place and didn’t rip out of his hands. On his first call, had watched a hose fly out of a man’s hand and smack his partner in the face. After seeing the bloody, broken nose and bruised face, had made sure always to have a firm grip when he was working.
Elias’ voice was thick behind his visor, but audible. “We’re going to need more people. This isn’t enough.”
nodded, but thankfully, someone had already called in more than just their station. The building was large, and he didn’t know what the hell was in there, but it had apparently caught swiftly. had a feeling the arson specialists would be paying a visit once it was all said and done.
“At least there’s nothing close,” threw out.
“Yeah.”
They managed to douse as much of the surrounding area as possible while battling the fire at the edges. To his right, he could see Keith and Davis working hard to keep their side under control, but Elias was right. There was no way the four of them would be enough to keep the fire down.
“You smell that?” Elias asked.
shook his head. “No, visor kind of ruins it. What?”
“Smells like gas to me.”
How the hell Elias could smell anything but smoke and his own sweat was beyond . But after working with the man for two years, knew better than to argue. It was a bit of a joke between them that Elias had a superhuman sense of smell. If Elias said he smelled gas, it had probably been used as an accelerant.
Still holding tight to the hose, brought up the walkie on his jacket. “Boys in blue, if you could get the civilians back, way back, I would appreciate it.”
“Something bad?” a wary-sounding voice replied.
“Dunno, but better safe than sorry,” said.
He didn’t bother looking over his shoulder to check if the police were doing just that. At times like this, the police could only maneuver the crowd back as gently as possible so as not to start a panic. was sure everything would be fine, but if there was gas, there might be some remaining to feed the fire. The last thing they needed was to have a crowd of civilians in their way if they needed more room.
Elias grunted. “Sounds like backup is almost here.”
nodded, hearing the rising and falling sirens of incoming trucks. From the sounds of it, there was more than just one station coming to help them, which was good. Old buildings could be tricky to put out with a small, four-man crew. At worst, the fire could engulf the entire thing instead of just eating away at rooms and hallways, sometimes finding flammable surprises along the way.
“Sorry,” Elias grunted, adjusting the nozzle head.
“For what? If you smell gas, you smell gas,” called to him.
“Not what I meant.”
“Then what?”
Elias glanced at him, his face obscured by the sun hitting the visor. “For pushing you. I shouldn’t be pushing you, not about this.”
Oh, that.
sighed, shaking his head. “No, don’t be sorry.”
They did need to talk. hated to admit it and might have avoided it completely if Elias hadn’t all but pinned him to the wall over it. But having it thrown in his face told him maybe it was time to find his spine and talk to his friend.
“Look, if you want to talk, just...come find me, alright? I’m sick of not having my best friend. I want back,” Elias said, voice tight with focus.
smiled. “Okay.”
Then, the world exploded.
Hot air slammed into as a massive wall of fire shot into the sky. The breath was knocked from his lungs as he tumbled backward. No air left to grunt, hit the ground soundlessly on his back. Blinking rapidly, he stared at the sky, filled with pouring black smoke and burning pieces of wood and paper.
sucked in his first breath of air, his lungs screaming for oxygen. His body ached, battered by the invisible blow and his back hitting the ground. His ears rang, and as he strained, he realized he could hear cries and yells, but it was as though they were coming from underwater. His mind whirled and hiccupped, trying desperately to figure out what had happened.
Finding his strength, he pushed himself upright and stared at the building, or rather, what was left of it. The roof was entirely gutted, flames and black smoke pouring into the sky. The windows were all gone, and several walls were missing.
“An explosion?” asked dumbly.
Before he could begin to wonder how it had happened, his gaze fell on a pile of debris nearby. At first, it could have been mistaken for any pile of wood and plaster blown away from the house.
Except for the booted foot sticking out from the bottom of the pile.
“Elias!” yelped, scrambling to his feet.
rushed over, heart pounding. There was no movement, no call, nothing from Elias to show he was alive. smacked the first layers of debris away, grunting as he had to move larger chunks of wood. When he got to the bottom, he let out a low moan of pain. A thick wooden ceiling beam, still smoldering from the fire, lay across Elias’ back. Elias was unmoving, his face obscured by his visor, and couldn’t tell if he was breathing.
“Fuck,” grunted, trying to grab hold of the beam and yank it away.
His muscles strained, and he felt it give the slightest inch and no more. Mentally screaming to stay calm, he looked around frantically for something to help lift the beam.
“!”
Davis’s voice brought around, and he saw him and Keith running toward them. They looked unharmed, and relief shot through him. Keith was an asshole, and Davis could be just as bad sometimes, but dammit, he was glad they were alive.
“Ax! Get an ax!” barked.
Thankfully, Davis veered toward one of the trucks without hesitation. Keith jogged up to him, his eyes falling on Elias, and he groaned.
“Shit.”
stilled, trying to pretend he wasn’t standing over his best friend pinned to the ground and possibly dead.
looked at Keith. “Get the EMTs. Davis and I can get him out with the ax.”
Keith glanced at him, his visor pulled up, and could see the unspoken question in his eyes. ’s gaze hardened, and Keith nodded, running toward the crowd. It was only then he realized people were freaking out. Cries and shouts rang out, and while was sure they were at a safe distance, he couldn’t promise that nothing had flown that far.
He didn’t care.
crouched by Elias’ head, gently pulling up the visor. Elias’ eyes were closed, a bruise forming where his head must have smacked something. But he was breathing, thank God, he was breathing.
“Hold on, Elias, don’t you fucking die on me,” whispered, chest clenching. “Don’t you fucking dare.”