6. Chapter 6 #2
The shop wasn’t just dim and hazy looking, but… tilted?
“Okay!” Curtis had his arms around Daren now. When had he come out from behind the counter? It was nice to not have to hold his own weight up though. He felt so warm and pressed his burning forehead to Curtis’s cool neck. “Yeah, you’re not going anywhere but home and to bed.”
“Hey, Curtis! Hi, Daren! Is everything okay?”
Bradley. Somewhere in the past few months, Daren had ceased being Mr. Montgomery. He couldn’t remember when though.
He couldn’t remember much of anything right now.
What was the question?
“Hey, Bradley. Mind watching the shop for, like, half an hour, so I can get this lump of a once-person home to bed?”
“Oh shoot! Really? Did he catch that flu going around?”
How did everyone know about this flu besides Daren?
“Of course I can watch the place for you, Curtis,” Bradley’s peppy voice continued—too peppy. Too loud when Daren’s head was pounding. “I have cashier experience. You are so sweet for helping your friend.”
“Thanks, Bradley.”
“N-no, but… I can’t,” Daren protested, feeling Curtis maneuvering him toward the door more than consciously moving his feet. “I-I have to—”
“I’ll take care of the groceries, okay? They’re on me today, and I’ll get it all in your freezer and fridge until you’re better. You know…” Curtis dropped his voice to a whisper as they exited the shop to the warmth of summer. Too warm. Daren wanted the air conditioning back.
Or was he too cold? How could he feel too hot and too cold at the same time?
“If you’d just tell me who you’re seeing, I could let the lucky guy know why you’ll miss your dinner date.”
“I can’t,” Daren said, feeling far too awful to even make a face.
“Can’t blame a guy for trying. Come on, then. Home. Now. You’ll thank me later.”
But Daren couldn’t go home. He couldn’t. He had no way to tell Lilo what was happening. He had no way to communicate with Lilo at all if he didn’t see him in person.
Everything between them could be disrupted so easily…
“Stay with me, pal, okay? You’ll feel better once I get you into bed.”
“You wish,” Daren managed to tease. He was shivering as he laid his head back after being deposited into the passenger seat of Curtis’s truck.
“Ha, ha. See, can’t be too bad off if you’re cracking jokes. You’ll feel better tomorrow.”
But Daren didn’t. He didn’t feel well enough to get out of bed for days after Curtis brought him home. He barely even remembered the passage of time, as it went by in a fog of misery and fever dreams, with only the occasional cognizant moment.
Curtis wasn’t always there, but the times when Daren was most lucid were usually because Curtis had roused him to get him to eat or drink something, take meds, press a cold washcloth to his forehead, or help him change clothes.
At one point, even though Daren was definitely not thinking clearly, he remembered being adamant about Curtis opening his bedroom window. It was right beside Daren’s bed and had a view of the ocean.
“Please… I need to see the water… and… and he needs to see me.”
“Who? Glooscap?” Curtis had snorted.
“Yes.”
Unlikely as it was that Curtis believed he meant that, he still did as Daren asked. “But only because it’s summer and the fresh air might do you some good.”
Days continued to pass until, finally, Daren’s fever broke, his mind cleared, and he was healthy enough to return to his routine.
The first day he felt that way, Curtis was thankfully not around, or he probably would have stopped Daren from weakly taking his boat out after a long shower.
He had to though. He needed Lilo to know that he hadn’t abandoned him.
As soon as Daren was even barely around the safe seclusion of the rocky cliffs to Lilo’s estuary, the tentacled sea creature practically threw himself onto the deck of the boat. “Daren!”
The boat was still motoring forward, but to avoid tipping over, Daren rushed to the bow where Lilo had hurled himself, tentacles dragging beneath the boat due to their speed. “Lilo, I am so sorry—”
Lilo clutched Daren by the front of his jacket and kissed him hard, cutting off his apology for the missing days. They kissed a little longer than they probably should have before Daren remembered the motor and hurried back to kill the engine and make anchor.
Only then did Daren get to explain why he had been gone for so long and failed to make their promised date.
“Lilo know. Lilo see Daren through window. Daren okay?”
“I’m fine now. I was just sick for a few days. You saw me? Having Curtis open the window actually worked?”
Lilo nodded. “Curtis friend who helped?”
“Yeah. He was the one helping me. We’ve known each other since we were kids.”
“Curtis… more than friend?” Lilo asked slyly, which at least told Daren that he was mostly teasing.
“We are just friends. I promise. But you really came to check on me? Wasn’t that too dangerous? What if someone—”
“Not first time Lilo go to Daren’s home. Lilo careful.”
“You… wait, when else have you been to my home?”
Lilo bashfully looked away. He had followed Daren before. He must have. In Daren’s feverish state, he hadn’t even really thought about how Lilo technically shouldn’t know where he lived, but he had, because he had been there before.
Risking being seen and who knew what else.
“Lilo—”
“Lilo never want to be away from Daren again.” Lilo lifted higher onto the ledge of the boat to coax him closer for another kiss.
What could Daren do but offer one to him?
But the joy he had felt at seeing Lilo, kissing him, touching him, being with him again, was soured by the past few days and the hardships inherent in this relationship that he had spent months ignoring.
“Yeah,” he said to Lilo, pressing his still vaguely warm forehead to Lilo’s. “Me too.”
How could they though? How could they continue like this and never be away from each other when they were like that old, awful saying:
“A bird may love a fish, but where would they build a home together?”
Daren honestly didn’t know.
LILO
Lilo was so relieved. All was well! Daren was well, Curtis, whom Lilo had been a bit perturbed about when initially seeing him care for Daren, was simply a good friend, and nothing, not even illness nor time apart was going to keep Lilo and Daren from having their happily ever after.
A real happily ever after too, not like the somber ending to that horrible story about the woman with a fishtail.
A fishtail instead of tentacles sounded so strange anyway.
How did she grab things? Just with her hands?
But Lilo was relieved, content even, to finally know for certain that he and Daren could weather anything, and soon, they would never need to be separated again.
He’d make sure of it.