Herein lies Chapter fourteen

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Paris decided to leave. This was no way influenced by Charlie’s glares, Kendricks’ ‘understanding’ comments, Chloe’s romantic ramblings, Angelo’s overly pragmatic advice or anything else one of his other friends may have said or done.

The decision was heavily influenced by Genji’s smiles, Genji’s blushes and Genji’s insistence that he’d be alright if Paris stayed. It may also have had something to do with the way Genji smelled, and the way he laughed and the way he always slept with his head pillowed on Paris’ chest.

Genji liked to claim that his baking had something to do with it as well.

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As Orstat’s visit drew closer, the shop got even busier. There were flyers to hand out, and possible employees to interview and train, records to stock and rabid fans to manipulate into behaving.

Kendricks was worried throughout, the added stress making him short-tempered.

But when Orstat finally did arrive, his limo pulling up to the storefront, everything went smoothly.

Orstat himself had no complaints, although he had a good laugh over Genji explaining he was bringing his boyfriend home with him. Luckily there was still another first class ticket to be had.

The flight itself…well, Paris hadn’t flown before, and while he wasn’t scared, he was certainly nervous. Orstat, in an attempt to relax Paris, jokingly asked if the two of them were planning to join the mile-high club.

Genji hoped he was joking, anyway.

They both blushed and Paris hid his head in Genji’s chest, while Genji said maybe they’d try it on a later flight.

Orstat grinned at Genji and, with a wink, told him that his brother was a member.

Genji’s blush reached new heights as he muttered that that had been too much information and buried his face in Paris’ hair.

The rest of the flight passed without anything worth mentioning.

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Genji was practically bouncing in his seat as Orstat’s limo drove down the long road that eventually ended in the Mavelin driveway. Paris was staring quietly out the window, half-listening to whatever story Orstat was telling- it had started as one about how he met Genji’s father, but that was back when they’d left the airport, and the story, unlike them, had gotten lost at some point. Charlie was curled up in Genji’s travel bag.

Genji barely waited for the limo to stop before jumping out and running up the long flight of steps. He stopped half way and ran back to grab Paris and their luggage.

“Did you tell them we were coming?” Paris asked, as he allowed himself to be dragged up the steps to the door of a…house…that was probably bigger than every house Paris had previously been in before, had they all been attached to each other.

“Um,” said Genji. “Maybe?”

Paris sighed. “That’s a pretty big thing to forget.”

“Oh, well, I didn’t tell them I was leaving, either. Should we sneak in and pretend I was there all along?” he asked, tone almost too light to be joking.

“Hey,” said Paris, snagging Genji’s free hand and pulling him back when they were on the landing in the middle of the steps. “What have you got to be nervous about?”

“M-maybe nothing?” Genji said.

“Maybe nothing?” Paris repeated.

Genji’s backpack started grumbling and unzipped itself. Charlie poked his head out, and then climbed out the rest of the way.

Once he’d freed himself and kicked a plastic dinosaur bracelet off his foot, Charlie flew up to Genji’s shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he said, patting Genji’s hair. “They missed you.” Then he launched himself back into the air again and flew up to the door.

Genji smiled weakly at Paris and picked his bag back up before starting once more up the steps.

Paris followed quietly.

There must have been some sort of pet-door for Charlie, because by the time Genji got the door opened, Charlie had reappeared- perched on the shoulder of a brown-haired woman in a fashionable, if casual, blue sweater.

“Genji?” she asked, smiled.

“Mom!” he cried, launching himself across the room and into her arms. “Aunt Lynnea, I mean.”

“You promised me you’d grow out of that,” she said, hugging him tightly and patting his back. “I think you grew.”

“Unless you shrunk,” Genji replied, smiling as he pulled back out of the hug.

Paris, standing by the doorway and trying to decide how awkward he was feeling, could see a distinct resemblance between the two of them. If I didn’t know better, he thought, I’d believe he was her son. Hang on, do I know better?

“I’m not quite old enough to shrink, yet,” Lynnea said. “But, well, how was Chicago?”

Genji shrugged. “It was okay. I broke up with Nyle.”

“Oh good,” Lynnea said.

“Hey!”

“Well, he was-“ she cut off whatever she was going to say. “Well, we never thought it would last. Now, are you going to introduce your new friend?” she asked, nodding over to Paris.

Genji blushed. “Aunt Lynnea, this is my new boyfriend, Paris. He comes with a high school diploma, and full Charlie acceptance.” Lynnea swatted at his head, but Genji ducked.

As Paris shook her hand, a voice announced, “Everyone, Grungy has returned,” over some sort of PA system. All three of them looked around, and Paris saw a young man coming down the nearer side of the double staircase.

“Philip!” Genji shouted, delighted, not offended, and he ran up the stairs towards his brother.

Philip cursed. “Not on the stairs!” he yelled, running back up them and down the other side. Genji followed, and tackled him once they were on level ground again.

“Did you bring me a souvenir?” Philip asked when Genji finally got off of him.

Genji frowned at him. “Yes,” he said slowly and with no trace of truth in his voice, starting to dig in his pocket.

At which point Philip glanced behind his brother and saw Paris. “Is that it?” he asked, nodding at the blond.

“No!” Genji shouted, suddenly gluing himself to Paris. “Mine!”

Philip raised an eyebrow, looking Paris over, and he smirked slowly. “Wanna share?” he asked.

Paris blushed.

“Not bloody likely,” Genji snapped back. “Get your own boyfriend.”

“And so the prodigal son returns,” said a voice from a door behind Paris.

“Oliver?” Genji asked, turning.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I threw out all your stuff and saved over all your characters on the game machines.”

“Did you?” Genji asked. “I guess it’s only fair, since I deleted all of yours before I left.”

“You did?” Oliver asked, almost failing to hide his smile.

Genji nodded. “It was an accident, but why else would I have run away?”

“I thought it had something to do with that asshole boyfriend of yours.”

Genji broke into a grin. “I’ve got a new one now. Oliver, meet Paris. Paris, this is my cousin Oliver. He’s almost my twin.”

Paris’ eyes flicked between them for a moment.

“Genji’s older by a month,” Oliver added, holding out a hand to shake. “Europa, our other cousin, is three months older than him, and she’s our triplet.”

“Sometimes,” Genji added, watching down the hall as he held Paris’ non-shaking hand.

“Charlie!” two little voices screamed, suddenly followed by two small children, who ran towards Lynnea.

Genji snapped his arm out at the right moment to catch the smaller of the two children by the waist. “What about me, Tibs?”

“Genji! You’re back!” Tybalt cried, hugging his brother briefly before squirming out of his arms. Tybalt took off after Charlie and the other child.

At which point the rest of Genji’s family appeared- which was far, far too many people for Paris to handle, so he stepped backwards until he was pressed against the wall.

The first lady- Genji’s Aunt Lynnea- appeared leaning against the wall next to him. She smiled at him. “Too many of us?” she asked.

Paris nodded, giving her a wry smile.

“They’ll settle down soon, don’t worry.”

Paris gave her a disbelieving look, and she laughed.

“Alright, guys,” Lynnea called. “Genji just got back, let him breath a bit.” Amazingly, everyone stopped to listen to her. “He can tell us all about it over dinner,” she added. “But for now, Genji, why don’t you take Paris on a tour of the house; get him settled in.”

“Thanks, Auntie,” Genji said, giving her another hug before grabbing Paris’ hand and dragging him down the hall.

Paris skipped a bit to keep up. “Do we need to bring our bags or anything?” he asked.

“Oh.” Genji stopped. “Yeah, we had better.” They turned around and went back to the entryway. Genji peered carefully through the door before they entered, but his family had vanished.

Luggage firmly in hand, the two of them went down several hallways and up several flights of stairs. Paris wasn’t sure if he was lost or not; it was all straight halls and no turns except for the stairs, but every door looked quite a bit like every other.

“What kind of room would you like?” Genji finally asked.

“Uh,” said Paris, “Yours? Or close to it?”

“Well, yeah,” Genji said, but this place is huge, and there’s not really all that many of us living in it, so you could have a big room or a bigger room, or one with a balcony. A red room or a green room or a pink room. One with furniture, one without, or one with a bathroom attached.”

Paris laughed. “You’re starting to sound like a Dr. Seuss book,” he said. “But seriously I don’t really care what kind of room I’m in, so long as it’s not too hard to find, and you’re nearby.”

“Alright,” said Genji, stopping before a door. “This is my room- mine and Oliver’s.” He opened the door onto mess. “The mess isn’t mine.”

“You share a room?” Paris asked, wandering inside after Genji, careful to watch his step.

“What did he do; explode the closet?” Genji muttered. “Yeah,” he said louder, tossing his suitcase onto the lower bunk. “We just always have. I tried to move out once, but Oliver kept sneaking into my room so we could talk before bed, and then we’d both fall asleep there, which was fine, except Philip came in to wake me up early one morning and asked if we were ‘boffing,’ and was that why I wanted a room with a bigger bed? So we both just moved back in here.”

“You’re brother thought you were sleeping with your cousin?” Paris asked, alarmed.

“Well, we’re not actually first cousins, so it’s not actually incest, even if we had been. But he’s almost my twin, and it just feels wrong.” Genji bent down to dig under the bed for something, and Paris looked around the room.

“Are those clothes yours?” he asked, nodding to the closet. It didn’t contain anything like what Genji’d worn in Chicago, but, from the brief introduction Paris had had with Oliver, they didn’t seem much like his clothes, either.

“Some of them?” Genji said, looking over. “We shared when we were younger and the same size. Mine were mostly towards the right.” He stepped over to the closet and shoved some of the clothes over, making a funny face at what he saw. “What has he done?” Genji muttered, shaking his head. He stepped away from the closet. “I wasn’t gone that long,” he added with a sigh. “Oh well, I was going to pick a different room now, anyway.” He grabbed Paris’ bag and ran out of the room with it. Paris followed.

Two doors down Genji stopped again, pushing open a door. “Is this room okay?” he asked. “I’ll probably take the one in between.”

Paris stepped inside slowly. It was a very very nice room. A patterned deep-blue rug covered most of the floor, the rest a dark wood that matched the woodworking along the floor and ceiling. The furniture was elegant and middle brown in tone. The walls were white, with tasteful landscape paintings hung on the walls. The curtains and bedspread were tie-dyed indigo and white, which didn’t look nearly as tacky as Paris thought it should. It was a little…rich for Paris’ tastes, which ran to eclectic and cheap, but it was still very nice.

It did have one thing in it that suited him perfectly, though, and that was Genji, who had stopped at the foot of the bed and turned around when Paris didn’t follow him in.

“We can change things around, if it’s too much,” Genji said.

Paris smiled at him. “It is too much,” he said. “But there’s one thing about it that’s perfect.” He walked forward slowly, backing Genji into the end of the bed.

“Really?” Genji asked, smiling even as he backed up.

“Yeah,” said Paris, closing the distance to Genji and sliding his arms around his waist. “That lamp over there,” Paris said, pulling one arm back to point. “It’s perfect. Just look at it.”

“Paris!” Genji said- it was almost a whine.

“What?” Paris said turning back to look at Genji and getting the full force of his pout. “Oh, well, you’re okay, too.” Pulling Genji close, Paris leaned down and kissed him; slowly and thoroughly.

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The Endish. Maybe. For now.

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And thank you for the reviews I've gotten and the reviews I'll get.

That was it. That was the last Chapter. You should all count yourselves lucky that it wasn't twice as long, and if it feels a bit cut, that would be why. Stupid Mavelins and all wanting their cameos. NO! No I say! get your own story! and please don't make me write it...