Chapter Sixteen
On Friday, Luis packed a weekend bag, shutting down any thoughts on what the weekend plans might entail, and got in his car.
Nerves followed him the entire drive to their house.
Luis knocked on the front door of Julien and Karim’s house half an hour later, and Karim answered.
“You have a key–” Karim’s expression darkened as he caught sight of Luis’s face. “What happened?”
Luis had gone back and forth about whether or not to put a bandage over it. His cheek was bruised too though, and a bandage couldn’t hide all of that.
“Cat,” Luis said.
Karim frowned but stepped back to motion Luis in.
“Right, the cat you definitely have,” Karim said dryly.
“You can leave your duffle here for now, the room’s not ready.
Julien got fussy with what sheets should go on the bed.
” Karim indicated the space beside the entryway console table. Luis dropped his bag.
“Dinner’s ready though,” Karim said and led him next to the dining room.
“Hello,” Julien greeted them when they walked in. He noticed the cheek immediately. “Luis, what happened?” He asked with a frown.
“Nothing,” Luis said quickly.
“It’s from his cat,” Karim said.
Julien’s brows went up. “Oh.”
Had they decided ‘cat’ was code for something?
“So uh, what’s for dinner?” Luis asked, trying to move the attention off of him.
Julien shared a look with Karim and then said, “Lasagna.”
In the center of the table was a covered casserole dish. Luis took his usual seat as Julien poured him a water
“It smells amazing,” Luis said.
Julien smiled, but it was dimmer than usual. He still looked troubled. “Yes.”
Karim reached over to remove the foil. “Have at it,” he said, gaze stuck on Luis.
##
Dinner went quick. Julien carried the conversation, talking about work and then asking how Luis’s week had gone. Luis avoided anything about his mother, apologizing instead for having been too busy to watch their movie of the week or play Karim in Words with Friends.
Karim’s furrowed brow told Luis he wasn’t buying that for a second.
“So uh, what’s the plan tonight? Are we going out?” Luis asked when they’d all moved to the living room after dinner. He didn’t need a bite this week, and he also felt… shy on the subject, so he didn’t bring it into the conversation.
“We can also stay in,” Julien suggested. “Do something different. We have bottled blood here.”
Karim made a face of disgust across the table.
“We should go out,” Luis said. He liked the idea of staying in, but maybe too much. Maybe he needed to stick with what was safe and familiar right now.
A look passed between the two vampires. “Are you sure?” Julien asked.
“Yeah. I wouldn’t want Karim to suffer through bottle blood,” Luis said.
Karim made a disgruntled sound like he wasn’t sure whether or not to be grateful. They exchanged another look that Luis pretended not to see.
And then they went out.
It was only on the drive back from the bar that it occurred to Luis how, despite his best efforts, tonight was still going to be different.
In the back of the car Julien and Karim were drunk, and this time, instead of dropping them off at their door, Luis was going inside with them. Staying the night with them.
Sleeping with them–
No. Sleeping in their guest room. A normal thing that normal people did with friends. He’d stayed over Cassie’s all the time.
“Luis is staying, right?” Karim whispered to Julien when Luis had parked the car in front of the house. He did it in the manner of the drunk–too loud and believing he was being discreet.
“All weekend if we play our cards right,” Julien replied, accent thick.
Luis ignored a swirl of butterflies and got out of the car.
The cool air helped. He rounded the car to help Julien with Karim.
Luis had done this bit enough times that he was familiar with how best to wrap an arm around Karim’s middle to steady him.
He was big, far too dense for Luis to even dream about carrying, but he could support him well enough to the door.
“We’re playing cards?” Karim asked, and Julien laughed.
At the door Luis put his key to the lock.
“We could, I suppose,” Julien said pensively.
“That’s not usually what we do when we get home...” Karim said, voice dripping with meaning.
Luis faltered, almost dropped the keys. It was impossible to miss what he was alluding to.
Luis pushed the door open and the three of them made their way inside. Distantly, one of the rooms had a light on, and it cast enough light to navigate the hall.
“New plans,” Julien said. “Yes, new plans for a new night.”
“Plans, plans, plans,” Karim crabbed under his breath. “You’ve so many plans and they all take so long.”
“But aren’t they worth it, darling? Don’t I always get you what you want…?” Julien asked trailing off. He was trying not to slur, but Luis could still hear it. “Here, I’ve got him.”
Julien took over, taking better hold of Karim and guiding him to the living room where Julien attempted to set Karim gently down on the couch, but their lack of coordination left him half sprawled off the seat.
“Like a sacka—sack of potatoes,” Karim commented, squirming up onto the couch.
“Sorry, mon c?ur,” Julien said. He took a seat, tilting into Karim like he couldn’t hold his usually excellent posture. Luis bit down on his lip to keep the laugh in.
“We playin’ cards now?” Karim said, voice muffled from Julien’s shoulder. “Or having sex?”
Julien’s hand came up to try and cover Karim’s mouth, but missed.
“Shh, none of that,” Julien said, softer than he would’ve said it had he not been two drinks in.
Luis retreated to his usual seat on the couch across from theirs, and tactfully said nothing. His heart was pounding, the back of his neck itchy. Karim was just being Karim, he reminded himself.
“Apologies,” Julien said a moment later, turning to Luis. “We don’t usually… entertain after drinking.” The words came out over pronounced. “I wasn’t… thinking it through.”
“It’s fine. It’s late, we could uh, go to bed?” Luis cringed after he said it. It was definitely too early for vampires to go to bed, and so it otherwise just sounded like he was alluding to something else.
For once Karim missed the opening.
“Late for you,” Karim said instead, flopping his head onto Julien’s shoulder. “S’like midday for us. No sleeping. Are you gonna sleep? You could, but what about cards?”
“Oh, the cards.” Julien rose from his seat, dislodging Karim and getting a scowl for it. Julien didn’t notice, wandering over to a side table. He opened a drawer and pawed through it before coming back with a pack of cards.
He paused then, as though a thought had struck.
“Unless you’d like to sleep, Luis? I know you’re not nocturnal,” Julien blinked too many times looking at Luis, like he was trying hard to focus, to appear more sober than he was.
“Oh, I’m okay. I’m usually up late,” Luis said. “I just–I wasn’t sure if you two wanted to uh–to be alone?”
Karim smirked, “Why would we want to be alone when we invited you here?”
Beside him Julien nudged him meaningfully as he shook his head. “Hush. Ignore him. We’re playing cards.” Julien opened the card box and promptly spilled them all over the coffee table.
“Oh,” he said with a frown. Karim snickered.
As the only sober party, Luis leaned forward to get the cards. “How about I deal?”
Julien nodded sheepishly. Karim draped himself back over his husband, pressing a kiss to Julien’s cheek.
“It’s okay babe, your coordination is shit after drinking.” Then to Luis, “How about Poker?”
“No betting,” Julien added.
“Aw, c’mon. We had a good time in Brussels, didn’t we?” Karim goaded.
“And we were almost arrested,” Julien said. Then he turned to Luis. “Don’t let him bet anything.”
Luis nodded. “Alright.” He had all the cards back in a pile, and went about shuffling them. “How about Blackjack instead?”
Karim huffed, “Fine.”
They played Blackjack for over an hour. Luis dealt multiple rounds and tried not to laugh at the drunk vampire’s attempts to best one another.
Karim won most of the hands, but at some point Julien forgot what they were playing and started trying to match the suits in his hand like he was playing Go Fish.
Luis only caught on after a few rounds, and called it quits on Blackjack.
They switched to Go Fish next, which Julien was better at. Karim was weirdly more competitive about this game than Blackjack, and sort of a sore loser. Eventually, Luis called it quits on the game because Karim had tucked himself into a corner of the couch pouting about his losses.
Once the cards were packed up, Luis was hungry again. Karim perked up at that and practically dragged Luis to the kitchen.
Luis had only seen the kitchen during the tour, but he took up the counter seat Karim motioned him to before getting the leftover lasagna from the fridge. Julien wandered in and took up the seat beside him with a contented sigh.
As Luis polished off another serving of lasagna under Karim’s watchful eyes, Julien started to tell the story of how Karim had almost lost their car in a round of poker in Brussels. They’d had to flee the police and some hired muscle to get out unscathed. Julien hadn’t let him into a casino since.
Karim looked proud of this accomplishment.
It was almost four when Karim took his empty plate to the dishwasher. Belly full, Luis yawned.
“Bedtime,” Karim declared. Sobriety was beginning to come back to both of them, and Luis wasn’t sure whether he was grateful or disappointed for it.
Julien nodded. Then, “Oh! The sheets in the dryer, I forgot!”
But Karim was already moving around the kitchen island, waving him off. “No, no. I’ll do it, you sit. You’ll break something if you try to make a bed right now.”