Full Circle
Part Two

Rating: PG
Category: AU
Pairing(s):Nathan/Charles, Toki/Skwisgaar.
Warnings: None
Summary: Nathan comes home. But there are still unsolved matters.
Notes: For deth_pixie for paying for my LJ for me. Thanks hon. She asked for “Charles/Nathan something cute and fluffy and maybe a tiny bit smutty? Please?” Your wish is my command.

This is Part Two. If you haven't read Part One, click here.

The seizure had been a massive one, and placed an incredible strain on Toki’s entire body. There was talk of damage to his brain and heart, though the doctors would not know to what extent until they had a chance to examine him. Patricia suddenly found there was nothing more dangerous on the planet than Skwisgaar defending his family. With his tiny daughter in tears and Toki in the hospital, he went for Patricia like a rabid pit bull and had to be physically restrained from tearing her apart with his bare hands. Suddenly finding herself without an ultimatum that would have any effect on her ability to control the situation, she left, and Nathan followed. Not to save his relationship, but to get his cat and horses.

Enough was enough. It was time to go home. His family needed him.

Nathan returned home for good with eight of the most glorious Friesian horses Charles have ever seen, and the ugliest cat on the planet. It was a three legged tom with fur that stuck out at all angles and lengths, a riot of bent, broken whiskers, and a half a tail. Nathan called it Bill. All it lacked was a penguin named Opus for a friend.

Charles had hoped that Patricia was out of Nathan’s life for good, but having to move out of the sprawling ranch house with its acres of wildflowers and horses and back into her parents’ basement was a bit more of a reality check than she was prepared to deal with. She would call several times daily, weeping and apologising, and Charles feared Nathan may take her back. This would prove disastrous, because there was no way Skwisgaar would have her in the house after her latest bitch-fit caused Toki to have a seizure that landed him flat on his back in the Mordland hospital, and still had Rakel waking up at nights screaming from the memory. If Patricia succeeded in wooing Nathan back, he would leave, and one more upheaval in his life was the last thing Toki needed.

“Charles?”

Charles looked up from his desk, and saw Nathan standing before him. Once more he felt his heart do that strange little skip in his chest, and he smiled.

“Hi.”

“Hey. Um… I need some stable hands to help look after the horses. I was hoping you could arrange that for me.”

“Sure. I can do that,” said Charles quietly. “How are the horses?”

“Uh… think they’re kinda pissed off about being loaded into a plane and flown here, but they’ll get over it.”

“And the cat?”

“Probably hasn’t noticed.”

“And how are you?”

Nathan shrugged. “Dunno. I really don’t. I didn’t wanna be back here this soon with all this crap still in my head, and it may be better for Toki but it’s kinda screwing me up.”

“I’m sorry,” said Charles. “Do you… wanna talk about it?”

“No,” said Nathan. “I really don’t.”

“Is there anything you need for it? A doctor or a specialist…?”

“I’ve been to doctors. They tell me there’s nothing wrong with me. Same as Toki.”

“Well… what do you think about that?”

Nathan shrugged. “I don’t think there’s really anything wrong with me either. I’m just… not who I thought I was. Look I don’t wanna talk about this, okay?”

“If you talk about it you might find a solution,” said Charles.

“GET OFF MY FUCKING BACK ABOUT IT!” he suddenly roared.

Charles dropped back into his chair, brown eyes enormous. Nathan stormed out of his office, and slammed the door after himself. There was a long silence, and Charles found his hands were tingling and trembling, and his heart was pounding. Scared and feeling a little sick to his stomach, he bent down to scoop up his daschund, cradling her furry warmth.

“Well that was more excitement than I needed,” he said quietly.

In the hallway, the quick clop of Astrid’s little hooves passing by could be heard, and Skwisgaar’s derisive snort.

“Finally findings horse you size I see.”

“I’d watch it if I were you,” said Pickles. “I used to do barrel riding with the local 4H club.”

“Bigs deal. Anyones can sits on a barrel.”

“Are you going to teach Rakel to ride?”

“Well first I woulds has to know how to ride. Buts all I knows how to do is falls off.”

“I can teach her. She has this awesome little pony; she should know how to ride it.”

“Ja. Maybes you right. Every littles girl shoulds has a pony.”

Charles sighed quietly. Well at least the boys were getting along. Life would be just dandy if Toki would get better and he could find out what the hell was eating Nathan…

Charles narrowed his eyes. Maybe he couldn’t. But chances were good that certain other people could…

Still holding his small dog close, he walked over to the door of his office and opened it, stepping into the hallway to watch Pickles ride Astrid at the quick “amble” gait the little horses were famous for.

“Pickles get off that dog,” said Charles.

Pickles grinned. “Isn’t she great? I might have to get me one.”

“She’s very cute,” said Charles, reaching out to pet the soft black nose as Pickles drew the pony to a halt. “She better be careful around Nathan’s horses. They could step on her. Have you two seen Nathan recently?”

“No,” said Pickles. “Why?”

“Oh he just seemed really upset when I saw him earlier. I was wondering if you two had any idea what was bothering him,” he said innocently.

“Probablies dat….” Skwisgaar muttered something in Swedish that was likely very descriptive and not complimentary in the least.

“Dood, you don’t think he’s planning on going back to her, do you? Because that… would suck.”

“Ja an’ woulds upset Toki,” said Skwisgaar.

“And Toki doesn’t need any more bullshit.”

“Yean and what does he need her for anyway?!” said Pickles. “He’s got us! Dood… we gotta get to the bottom of this. He can’t leave again.”

“Well don’t be doing anything drastic. Nathan has a right to his privacy,” said Charles happily. He almost chirped.

Pickles and Skwisgaar looked like the angels that Archangel Michael was forever catching smoking and rolling dice behind the outhouse.

“We won’t,” they lilted.

***---***

“DAMMIT!” Nathan bellowed. “Why is it every time you assholes have a problem, I wake up soaking wet and tied to a chair with taser probes in my nuts?!”

“You’re not going back to that harpy!” Murderface yelled.

“Ja!” said Skwisgaar. You is stayings home wit’ us!”

“Well who the hell said I was leaving?!”

There was a long silence. Somewhere a cricket chirped.

“Yer naht leaving?” said Pickles.

“No I’m not leaving! Who said I was?!”

“Buts you is keeps talkings to da crazy lady!” said Skwisgaar.

“Nathan flung his wet hair out of his face, then spat blood on the floor. “She keeps calling ME. I don’t call HER. And I promised Toki I wouldn’t! Are you guys accusing me of breaking a promise to a kid who is lying on a hospital bed and probably wondering where we all are?”

There was another silence. Nathan sighed. “Well that’s just sad.”

“Then why were you yelling at the robot?” asked Murderface.

“The robot?” said Nathan. “You mean Charles?”

“Yeah, dood, you were yelling at him,” said Pickles. “He’s really worried about you.”

Nathan’s hell-green eyes narrowed. “Charles put you up to this.”

“No,” said Pickles. “He just said he was worried….”

There was silence again as the four looked at each other. They were not bright. And they knew when they were not bright. Just as surely as they now knew they had been artfully played to unearth Nathan’s secret on Charles’ behalf.

“Oh I am gonna hurt him,” said Nathan.

***---***

Twenty minutes later, Charles was awakened by the sensation of a very large hand closing around his throat. His eyes flew opened, and he saw Nathan standing above him.

“I said it was none of your fucking business!” Nathan snarled.

“Nathan it is three-thirty in the… why are you wet?”

“Because Skwisgaar, Pickles and Murderface knocked me unconscious in my sleep, dragged me into the basement, tied me to a chair, threw a bucket of water over me and tased me!”

“I see.”

“They did it because YOU said you were worried about me! WHY THE FUCK CAN’T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE?!”

Charles reached up to remove Nathan’s hand from his throat. “Because I am worried about you. I care for you. And you’re going through something that is eating you alive and I want to help.”

“You can’t help. No one can help. Everything is all fucked up and I can’t make it right.”

Charles sat up, then reached for Nathan’s hand, pulling him down to sit on the bed. “Nathan… there is no need to eat yourself alive. Is it something having to do with Patricia?”

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Sorta. But… not in the way people think…I DON’T WANNA TALK ABOUT THIS!”

“Why?” asked Charles. “What’s holding you back?”

“Humiliation. I don’t wanna make an ass of myself and have everyone laughing at me.”

“Nathan,” said Charles softly. “There is no one here but you and me. And I am not going to tell anybody a word you say.”

Nathan gazed at him for a long moment, the wheels in his head turning. Finally he seemed to come to a conclusion.

“I… learned something about myself. And… it wasn’t… what I thought it was. It… really shook me up because I’d been going around with this idea in my head, and…” He sighed quietly, and seemed to sort out what he wanted to say before he continued speaking. “I fell in love with a guy,” he stated morosely.

Charles raised an eyebrow. “Does he know?”

“Well he probably suspects, I’m about as subtle as a shotgun blast in a men’s room.”

“Good god you didn’t approach him in a men’s room did you?”

“NO!”

“Oh good.”

“Geeze Charles give me a little credit.”

“Well I’ve seen you do some… well…”

“Well I didn’t do anything stupid this time. I ran. I got the fuck out of town and I hooked up with the first female I found and I hid. Because I didn’t know how to deal with the way I felt and because I didn’t want to make an idiot of myself. He wouldn’t want me anyway so there was no point letting him know.”

“So Patricia was a shield,” said Charles softly. “You used her to avert suspicion from the fact that you… liked this man.”

Nathan nodded. “Yeah. And she was such a monumental pain in the ass that she made it so…I didn’t have to think at all. About anything. About how I felt, about how he might react if I told him, even from how much it scared the crap out of me that I could feel that way about another guy in the first place. I had her and I had my horses. And I kept telling myself I was there so I could think but the truth is I wasn’t thinking at all. I was just hiding from both him and me.”

Charles smiled slightly, wanting to reach up to brush the wet strand of hair out of Nathan’s face.

“How do you know he wouldn’t want you?”

“Because I’m big, I’m dumb, I’m ugly, and the sex would be awful because I got no idea how two guys… would… y’know?”

“I’m sure he’d be happy to show you.”

Nathan gave Charles a jaundiced look. “And how do you know that?”

Charles nervously bit his lower lip, then carefully, cautiously, slid his hand into Nathan’s.

“Because I would be.”

Nathan did not react at first, then slowly closed his hand around Charles’. “I… don’t know how to deal with this. At all. I’m really freaked out and… a lot of the shit in my head that I thought was true just suddenly got flung out the window.”

“We don’t have to deal with it right now,” said Charles quietly. “We’ve both got a lot to learn about each other. I thought we could just… hold each other. Maybe sleep beside each other.”

“Charlie if I have you beside me in a bed I’m not gonna be sleeping, I’m going to be trying to figure out how to fuck you.”

“Believe it or not I’m good with that.”

“Oh you are, huh.” Nathan grinned. “I’m… really not sure…”

“Nathan… we have the rest of our lives to figure this out.”

“Good because that’s probably how long I’ll take.” He gazed at Charles for a brief time. “What would you do if I kissed you?”

“Melt.”

“Oh yeah?”

Nathan moved closer, lowering his head to press his lips against Charles’. So far so good. Charles threw his arms around Nathan’s neck, his breath catching, ignoring the feeling of cold water running over Nathan’s shoulders from his hair. They sank back to the bed, holding each other close.

“I’ve wanted you for so long…” Charles whispered.

“Yeah well you're gonna have to show me how this works. ‘Cause I got no clue.” Nathan kissed his chest.

“You never did this with a girl?” Charles asked. Nathan laughed.

“Well, yeah, I did it lots with girls. I know where it goes with girls. There's only one place I can think of on a guy an'... well that's kinda sick.”

“Well guess what.”

“That’s where it goes on a guy?”

“M-hmm…” Charles said, and grinned.

“Terrific. Yeah I thought so but… ah I’ll sort it out. It just… gonna take some getting used to.”

Charles kissed him softly. “Nathan lots of people are bisexual.”

“I’m not bisexual, Charles, I’m straight. I know I’m straight. That’s why this is screwing with me so hard. Pickles is bi. We know he’s bi. He likes girls but if he sees a guy in a tight pair of jeans and a cowboy hat and one of those longrider coats… he reacts. Like you can see him react, and then he goes over to talk to the guy to see if he wants to play. He likes girls but he likes guys too. Me… I never… looked at a guy that way. Never ever. I’m not into men at all. That’s why this is fucking with me so hard. I’m not like this, and I know I’m not like this! I just… want you. And I don’t know what that makes me…”

Charles touched his face. “It makes you Nathan Explosion. A perfectly normal guy who just found the exception in his rule.”

Nathan seemed to think about that. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He kissed Charles gently. “Wanna just… fool around a bit?”

“I’d love to.”

The night passed slowly. Nathan was curious, but shy, and morning found Charles rumpled, aroused, and exhausted, not to mention frustrated. But he couldn’t force Nathan. He was already fighting his own sexual orientation to be with him; getting him upset about his ability to perform was not going to make things better. Finally it was time to get up and start the day, despite the situation. Massive corporations did not run themselves.

“I’m sorry,” Nathan mumbled as he finished dressing, unable to look at Charles.

“It’s fine,” said Charles quietly, pulling on a clean shirt. “You’re nervous. It makes perfect sense.”

“Yeah but it’s kinda rotten that I spent all night working you up for nothing.”

Charles just shrugged, and smiled. “It’s fine, Nathan, it’s nothing I can’t handle myself. I have a very well-stocked toy chest.”

Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Toy chest? Like…?”

“Sex toys.”

Nathan’s jaw dropped. “You have…?”

“Well Nathan I am an adult, I do have needs.”

Nathan seemed positively stunned by the idea. “Yeah but…!”

Charles reached into the bedside table and pulled out a rather large dildo. Nathan stared sourly at the cream-coloured silicon device. Charles felt himself become a little nervous.

“Is that okay?”

“I dunno. It kinda bugs me.”

“It does?”

“Yeah. Because... I should be a better man for you.”

Charles smiled. “Nate, you're a wonderful man. And that... that's just something I've done for awhile. I mean I haven’t… had anyone in my life and… well it’s just not wise for me to be going out and picking up strange men. So… I have this.”

Nathan stared at the dildo a while longer, then took it. As Charles watched, Nathan drew a bowie knife out of his boot, stabbed the thing with obvious loathing, impaling it onto the wall, then stormed out to clean horse stables that did not need cleaning. Charles sighed.

“'Kay... So that was a little uncalled for….”

He pulled the knife out of the wall, then drew his impaled toy off the blade, accidentally splitting it in half. He jiggled the thing, watching the bits flop.

“I died for love!” the dildo said, sounding amazingly like Facebones.

“You performed admirably,” Charles assured it.

“Your boyfriend has issues, Charles.”

“Tell me about it. I think I'm going to start locking the drawer your brothers are in.”

“Yes that may be wise. Can you imagine if he found your Portable Man? And Big Bad John? Goodness me, you may need a safe!”

“I have a safe,” said Charles.

“Then lock them away!” beseeched the dying dildo. “Do not let their fate be mine. Farewell dear Charles! I could never love another as I have loved you!”

The dildo uttered a series of gasps and spasms worthy of an academy award, and then Charles dropped the thing into a trash can.

“It's okay. My warranty covered acts of boyfriend.”

“Eh...” said a familiar voice in the vicinity of the bedroom door. “If you're done talking to your dead dildo, I sorta need your opinion on a serious legal matter that totally isn't my fault.”

“What I do with my Saturdays is my business,” said Charles. “What is it?”

“Your wiener dog is making puppies in the hallway with Simon's international champion Pekinese.”

Charles gasped. “SHIT, MY BABY!”

Charles fled the room and ran into the hallway, Pickles following close behind. Once he arrived, he saw his purebred wiener dog was indeed doing the nasty in the middle of the hall with Gear Number 88’s champion Peke Mr. Wu.

“Schatzi, no! Get out from under there! Dammit, Schatzi, I spend $1600 on a boyfriend for you this morning! His name is Luftkopf and he can do a handstand for two seconds!”

“MR. WU WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” Simon came running up, staring in horror at the atrocity that was happening before him at ankle level.

“He's violating my baby!” said Charles. “Schatzi, you're a bad dog!”

“Dood,” said Pickles. “That is gonna be one batch of fugly puppies.”

“That remind me,” said Charles, turning to face Pickles. “HOW exactly did both of the dogs get out?”

“We have a very alert and curious two year old Swedish girl with NO understanding of the situation who likes doggies.”

Charles sighed loudly. “Well, if there are puppies, her daddy is finding homes for them. Now I have to give Schatzi a bath and hope Luftkopf is a better shot.” He resumed chastising his dog. “That was very unladylike, Schatzi. You and I have to have a talk about making better choices!”

“Yeah, how dare you breed her to that wiener Luftkopf,” said Simon.

Charles yanked Simon’s hood off and walloped him with it. From off to his left he heard someone clear his throat. Charles ceased flogging Simon to look in the direction of the sound, finding Dr. Blackwood standing before him.

“Yes?” Charles asked.

“I would like to see all of you in my office,” said Blackwood softly. “It’s about Toki.”

Charles felt himself grow cold. “He’s all right, isn’t he?”

“He’s resting. But I need to speak to you, Pickles, Nathan, Murderface and Skwisgaar about the situation.”

Charles nodded. “All right. We’ll be there.”

Within a few minutes the small group was gathered within the office. Blackwood was there, along with two other people, a man and a woman, each dressed in white coats.

“So what’s this about?” Nathan growled.

“Do you knows whats is causing da seizures?” asked Skwisgaar.

“We have a pretty good idea,” said Blackwood. “Boys, these are my friends Doctor Angela Porter and Doctor Phil Barlow. They’re specialists in psychological disorders and psychosomatic responses.”

There was the sound of crickets chirping.

“They specialize in mental illness,” Blackwood clarified.

“I don’t understand,” said Charles. “What does this have to do with Toki’s seizures?”

“We’ve examined Toki for every possible type of seizure known to medical science,” said Blackwood. “We can find absolutely no reason for them. We can’t even find a trigger for them, except one. You five people.”

“We makings my Toki sick?” Skwisgaar asked.

“The first seizures happened after Charles left,” said Blackwood quietly. “Further study showed a pattern. Toki would have a seizure after almost every interaction with one of you. When you started to return, the seizures lessened in frequency until they almost stopped. Then when it looked like Nathan was going to have to leave forever to be with Patricia, he had the big one. The one he’s currently in the hospital for. And we finally figured it out. The seizures are not caused by anything physical. They are a psychosomatic response to his fear that the only stable loving family he has ever had or known is broken up for good.”

“So he’s faking it?” asked Nathan.

“No not at all. The seizures are very real. The damage they are causing is very real. But he knows if he asked you to come, you wouldn’t. Because he has asked in the past and no one did. So… his brain took control. He knew if he was sick enough, you would come back. Toki is killing himself so you will stay.”

“But… I don’t get it,” said Pickles. “If that’s what this was all about… why didn’t he tell us?”

“Because he didn’t want to worry you,” said Blackwood. “Toki didn’t know why this was happening anymore than we did. This is not a conscious, intentional thing. He didn’t want to upset you with his unidentified illness, so he said nothing.”

“So… as long as we stay a family…. He’ll be all right,” said Nathan.

“Looks that way,” said Blackwood.

“Gee I don’t know,” said Murderface. “Stay here with you douche bagsh? I dunno, I’ll have to think about that…”

“Leaves and I kills you,” said Skwisgaar.

“Well since you put it that way…”

“So it’s settled,” said Nathan. “We stay together. No more taking off like whiney little snots when there’s a problem. We stay. No matter how much we might end up hating each other.”

“Aw, DOOD!” exclaimed Pickles. “This means we all have to admit we love each other!”

“Oh man that’s harsh,” said Nathan. “But… I mean we can just act like we normally do, right? We don’t have to go all… pink hearts and flowers and shit.”

“Ja,” said Skwisgaar. “We don’ts has to goes all fluffies bunnies an’ stuff.”

Rakel wandered in just then, clad in her favourite fairy princess outfit, covered in pink glitter and brandishing a sparkling wand, decorated with fluffy pink feathers with a star on top, and climbed onto her daddy’s lap. Nathan looked at the child, then at Skwisgaar.

“This is all your fault.”

***---***

Toki slowly got better. Gradually the effects of the seizures healed, and eventually he seemed to be more or less normal. There was still some lasting damage to his heart that would likely cause issues in his later years, but for now he was well enough to live a normal life. He and Skwisgaar moved into Skwisgaar’s apartments within the keep, and settled into a loving little family, working together to raise Rakel. Murderface and Pickles settled into their usual routines, and Nathan happily worked with his horses and continued his slow assassination of Charles’ dildo collection. Schatzi the daschund gave birth to an eclectic litter of bizarre-looking little long-haired, snub-nosed wiener dogs, and Charles just decided to keep them. They were pretty damned cute, after all.

Nathan hadn’t moved in with Charles, but he was spending a great deal of time with him, and walked in one night just in time to catch him deleting all of his bookmarked porn. Charles sat back and awaited a reaction, but none came.

“I deleted your porn.”

“Uh huh.”

“Aren’t you going to say something?”

“Like what?”

Charles raised an eyebrow. “You’re not bothered that I did it?”

Nathan dropped down into a chair and opened a beer. “No. Why would I be? Seems fair. I killed your dildos after all.”

“I’m just trying to understand the way your mind works.”

Nathan grinned. “See there’s your problem, you assume I have a mind.”

“Dammit stop killing my dildos!”

“No! If I can’t have sex with you then why should they get to?”

“That makes… absolutely no sense,” said Charles.

“And the time-travel hefty bag did? The island of wayward kitties? Making coffee in a volcano?”

“Touché. But stop it.”

“Fine. I hired someone to do it for me anyway.”

Charles watched as Schatzi paraded by with something long and cylindrical in her mouth. “That’s… disgusting.”

“Gets her teeth really clean though.”

“Nathan she’s bringing it over to the puppies!” Charles leapt out of the seat and chased after his dog. “Nathan I will get you for this! Give me that. Bad dog. Nathan what will end this irrational hatred you have of my sex toys?”

“Being able to do you myself.”

Charles returned to the room, dumping the gnawed toy into the waste paper basket.

“Believe it or not, I'm really looking forward to that myself.”

"Yeah well I just need to stop being... scared. Something. It's not like I don't want you."

“I know, Nate. It must be difficult. I've always liked guys, so it wasn't a big deal for me.”

"Yeah well I gotta tell you it was a huge mind fuck looking at you and realizing... wow. You were hot. But... I mean you were hot even before I knew you. Pickles said maybe I thought you were hot because we were friends but you were hot even before that."

"It's a strange thing. Sexuality isn't nearly as black and white as people think. I mean, my sister knows a gay man who never once had even the slightest sexual thought about a woman. Until he met his wife."

"Same thing with me and you but in reverse," said Nathan. "Wanna maybe... lie and the bed and... see what comes up?"

Charles smiled. "Sure."

Nathan finished his beer, setting the bottle aside, and walking over to the bed and lying down on it.

"C'mere you cute thing."

Charles approached the bed, climbing in beside Nathan, who drew him close and kissed him, touching his face.

"I really do believe I'm in love with you. That's the only word I have for how I feel for you. And I'm trying my best to give you what you need. But it might take a while. I hope that's okay."

"It's okay, Nathan. I've waited for you a long time; I can wait a little longer."

Nathan grinned. "That's so cool. I can't believe that... you liked me too."

"I did." Charles smiled softly, stroking Nathan's cheek with the backs of his fingers. "I've pined like a teenage girl over you."

“Well… at least we’re together, right? I mean that’s what counts. The sex will come in time.”

“Sooner if you stop ruining my toys,” said Charles dryly.

“If I can’t have you then no one can.”

Nathan slowly undressed him, touching him, exploring him carefully as Charles closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Nathan’s hands sliding over his body. He let out a soft cry as he felt Nathan kiss the skin on his stomach, reaching down to clutch the long black hair.

“My god you’ve got a big dick,” said Nathan.

Charles sighed. “That’s great Nathan, that’s… just what I wanted to hear right now.”

“Just wondering if it was going to fit in my mouth.”

Charles raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, did you say…?”

His words were suddenly cut off as a wet heat slid over the head of his penis. He arched his back and gasped loudly. Nathan grinned.

“Thought you might like that.”

“Shut up and do it again.”

Twenty minutes later, Charles was lying in a frazzled but very satisfied naked heap beside Nathan, who was still fully dressed but a little rumpled himself. He and the sex toys had come to a mutual agreement regarding pleasing Charles, and it had worked out very well. Charles pressed closer, pulling the covers over himself.

“What about you?” he asked sleepily.

“I’m fine,” said Nathan. “I’m not tired. I thought I’d go for a midnight ride. Is that okay with you?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll be here when you get back.”

Nathan kissed him softly, then tucked him in. “Love you, Charlie.”

“Love you too.”

Nathan got up, Charles immediately burrowing into the warm spot he vacated. Then as Nathan walked away, Charles could swear he heard the click of a small recorder being activated, and Nathan’s low voice speaking to it.

“Idea for a song – guy gets his dick shot off and it comes back from the dead as a zombie cock to do his girlfriend. And that happens forever.”