Coming Home

Gary’s house smelled of peppermint and chocolate. Gary’s house always smelled of peppermint and chocolate. But the smell seemed to be tripled by the winter season. The sharp cold and snow outside enhancing the warm, cozy feeling Hunter naturally associated with the scents that permeated Gary’s house.

Warm and cozy and welcoming.

Hunter took a deep breath, taking the scents and the feelings of home into him as he set aside the small wicker basket he was carrying and closed the door behind him. He could hear the shuffling of papers and the sound of what might have been a pencil hitting the floor, then Gary’s voice called out from his study. “Is that you, Hunter?”

The man himself appeared almost immediately after, wide grin splitting his face. Hunter was unsurprised to see that Gary’s hair had again changed color. Last week it had been ink black, two weeks before that apple red with streaks of dark green. Today it was bleached, the tips dyed in a rainbow of colors. The multi-colored locks tickled and caressed his cheeks as Gary stood up on tiptoe to plant a quick, chaste kiss on his lips. “You’re late, lover.”

“I had to stop by the apartment first to check up on a few things.” Well… it was almost the truth. Gary accepted it, anyway.

He allowed himself to be led into the sitting room, where Gary pretended he was strong enough to force Hunter down to sit on the sofa, and Hunter humored him by doing just that. Gary leaned in for another kiss. “I’ll go get you a drink.”

Hunter did not bother to protest that he could get his own drink. It had long ago been established that Friday nights were Gary’s own to spoil and pamper Hunter as he so chose. Hunter had never been able to find a reasonable argument out of it.

But then, it could not be said that he had ever really tried to, either. It was nice to be taken care once in a while. He had never really thought to enjoy such downtime before. He had always looked forward to the weekends with that same sort of dread that his coworkers did Mondays. The weekends for him had just been an excruciating number of empty hours. Most of those hours he had spent barricaded in his apartment, poring over documents and files, doing work he probably should have been getting paid for just so the hours would pass and go away.

Now, though, he had something to look forward to. Even if he still did not do anything, he spent his weekends better. And he knew he had to be healthier for it. It more than made up for the ungodly hour he had to get up at every morning to make the three hour drive back into the city, and it definitely gave him the necessary motivation to make the three hour drive out of the city every Friday afternoon.

They had met at an amusement park, oddly enough. He had no idea what had prompted Gary to visit. No doubt simply because of his nature and his enjoyment of pure whimsy. It was an environment wholly suited to his personality. Just as the banana yellow pants and candy apple red shirt he was currently wearing. A stunning contrast to Hunter’s charcoal black suits and unerringly straight ties.

Hunter had gone along with his sister and her two sons. The week before the trip she had started badgering him—as she always did every three or four months—about his deplorable social life and how he really needed to get out and enjoy himself and find his fun side again. Hunter did not really think he had ever had a fun side, but he had relented and given in, hoping the excursion would buy him at least six months of silence from her quarter.

He had been standing at the bottom of a water ride, waiting for Helen and the munchkins to complete their journey, still twitching to think that his sister had expected him to fold himself in that cramped log and travel through what amounted to an exaggerated water slide. Never mind the spatial issues, there was every possibility he would get wet. Very wet. Hunter did not do wet unless it was naked and in the shower.

Helen had been a bit put out. But then, she had already been put out. She had asked him to dress casually since they were supposed to be enjoying themselves. Apparently their ideas of casual had differed, because she had not appeared overly impressed by his efforts when she had picked him up that morning. Hunter could not determine what her problem was. He had left off the jacket and the tie; he had even rolled up his sleeves, a point that should have impressed her.

He had already followed his nephews along on three of the kiddie rides and a trek to visit some character from a cartoon that they both adored. He had felt himself entitled, then, to sit one out and let Helen play the tag along. He was not getting wet. So he had stationed himself at the exit, nursing a bottle of water and wondering how much longer this small journey into Hell had to last before his social obligations for the year were met.

That was where Gary had found him. Gary, purple hair cut into short spikes and dressed in pumpkin orange shorts, an olive drab green tee-shirt, and sandals with bright blue straps, had walked right up to Hunter, thrown his arms around Hunter’s neck and given him a quick soft kiss on the lips.

You looked like you needed a hug. He had grinned boyishly then. The kiss was entirely self-gratuitous.

Hunter had been too stunned to react as he probably should have, and by the time the moment was well over, he could not recall any of what had been said or what had happened. He was aware of being one business card short. Somehow the purple-haired stranger had wrangled a name and number out of him. However, he had had no expectations of anything beyond a call for quick legal advice. If he got anything at all.

It was therefore with some surprise that he had come home two nights later to a message on his answering machine, asking for something that was definitely not legal representation. Six months later, Hunter was still amazed that someone of Gary’s character and personality would find anything about him worth getting attached to. But Hunter had long since stopped questioning it. Gary loved him; he loved Gary.

There was really only one thing that needed to be fixed. And that was happening tonight.

Gary came back into the room with two steaming mugs. The scent of cinnamon and apple mixed with the steam swirling out of them, and Hunter breathed that in as yet one more indication that this—Gary’s house, with its essence of chocolate and peppermint—was truly home.

Gary set the mugs down on a side table and slide onto Hunter’s lap, straddling his thighs and twining his arms around Hunters neck, ducking his head to deliver a proper, deeper kiss at last. It was the only function Hunter actually served, posing as Gary’s chair. In all the time he had spent here, he could count on one hand the number of times he had seen Gary sit anywhere else but on his lap.

Not that Hunter was inclined to complain. It all suited him just fine.

“Did you have a good week?” Gary asked when they broke off. He drew back far enough Hunter could see his face, fingers playing idly with the curls at the back of his neck.

Hunter shrugged indifferently, though he was unable to contain his smile. “It improved.”

“Good.” Gary grinned and leaned in for another kiss, but Hunter halted him.

“I have a present for you.”

“Oh yeah?” Gary’s eyes sparkled, the surprise and pleasure clearly evident.

Hunter leaned his head back and released a sharp, shrill whistle. Immediately, the basket he had set beside the door earlier erupted, the lid seeming to explode open as a small, black ball of furry energy jumped out and dashed toward them, tiny paws thumping mutely on the hardwood floor.

Gary laughed delightedly as the black Labrador puppy bounded into the tiny space between them and immediately began searching for any available skin to lick. “Oh! What’s his name?” He moved a hand to ruffle it behind the ears, setting the pup’s tail to wagging at hyper speed.

“I thought I’d leave that up to you. You’re better at that kind of thing.”

“Then Snowman, definitely.” Gary grinned, leaning down to murmur nonsensical sounds into the pup’s ear.

“He’s black.”

“Precisely.” Gary straightened up to give him another kiss. “To what do I owe such a wonderful, lively gift?”

“Because I love you?” Hunter gave his nose a light nip. “Also, he’ll give us a reason to go the park.”

“We go to the park every weekend, anyway.”

“But now we’ll have an excuse to go every night.”

“Oh well… I suppose if we have to hav—” Gary stopped, blinking for several seconds in silent confusion before his eyes widened to almost half their size. “Every night, Hunter?”

Hunter smiled. “I’ll need some helping unpacking the car later.” He had one suit case and three boxes full of all his worldly possessions taking up space in the back seat and trunk. He had resigned his position at the firm almost three weeks ago and had found a place in a small company only six blocks from Gary’s house that was only too glad to have his legal expertise for so cheap. He would start there in another week. He would not be returning to the city except under extreme duress.

There were some points Hunter could agree with Helen on. He did need to spend more time with his fun side. It worked out nicely that Gary was it.