Milo didn’t bother to look up as he heard his front door open and close, just grunted out a response to Lewis’ greeting.
“Busy?” Lewis asked, sounding amused.
“Extremely,” Milo said, keeping his eyes on his laptop. He weighed his options, considered all the possibilities—then finally moved the five of clubs to place on the six diamonds, then moved the four of hearts on top of the five of clubs, which revealed the ace of hearts he’d been needing.
Laughter in his ear made him jump and yelp—and nearly made him both him and his laptop go tumbling off the couch. He glared up at Lewis, who only laughed again. “Sorry to interrupt your work—”
“I almost had a new high score, damn it,” Milo said.
“You can get scores on solitaire? Never mind—” Lewis took the laptop away, making Milo pout, but then straddled Milo’s hips and leaned down to kiss him which was so way better than solitaire so Milo permitted it. “Hi.”
Milo laughed, blinking as Lewis removed his glasses and kissed him more thoroughly. “I think you said that already.”
“No, I actually said ‘I bet you’re not listening to me’.”
“Oops,” Milo said. “Sorry.”
Lewis grinned. “No worries, cause now you have to come with me.”
Milo’s pout returned as Lewis climbed off him and stood up. “I would prefer ‘come with you’ in the naked and sweaty sense, rather than the ‘go out in public and deal with people’ sense. If you’re not coming over here to turn my lazy Saturday into a porn Saturday, then you’re no good to me.”
“Oh, get up,” Lewis said with a laugh. “It’s only a few blocks away. The chick at the pet store said I should be sure to take my geek out into sunlight at least twice—oof.” He attempted to give Milo a wounded look, but still looked too amused for it to actually work.
He also looked edible, in the faded jeans Milo loved best and a teal colored t-shirt that had to be new cause he would have remembered Lewis in that color. Speaking of clothes, he needed something with a few less holes in it. “Hang tight, Lewy.” Ignoring Lewis’ whining at the nickname, he strode down the hall to his bedroom and stripped off his t-shirt, then pulled on a dark purple t-shirt that Lewis had bought him for his birthday.
Shoving his feet into sandals, and raking his hands through his hair in a futile effort to tame his curls without having to find his comb, he returned to the living room. He tried not to flush at the look Lewis gave him, but more than a year later he still was disconcerted whenever Lewis gave him looks like that. “I thought you wanted to go out,” he said, as Lewis pushed him up against the bit of wall between the front door and kitchen.
He wrapped his arms around Lewis’ neck, more than content to be thoroughly molested, making pleased, encouraging noises when hands shoved up beneath his t-shirt, sucking at Lewis’ lip—
And glaring when Lewis abruptly pulled away. “If you’re just going to be tease, I’m going back to solitaire.”
Lewis kissed his nose. “I do want you to see something, and I promise I will make up for the teasing later.”
Milo just continued to glare at him.
“If you stop pouting, I may even buy you dinner.”
“I like pouting,” Milo replied, glare finally cracking beneath the grin he couldn’t hold back. “So what are you showing me that has you nervous enough to cater to my every whim?”
Lewis snorted, and dragged him out of the house, replying, “I cater to you because I like tapping your very fine ass.”
Milo elbowed him and slid out of reach, walking a bit faster and looking over his shoulder, “So you only love me for my ass?”
“Well, and you fix my computer,” Lewis said, then bolted past him, laughing as Milo bellowed and gave chase.
He finally caught up to Lewis at the intersection, forced to stop as a crowd of moms and kids strolled by in an ominous gang of wholesome family life—probably headed to the church fair. Milo hadn’t been in years, and wondered absently if it had changed since the days he’d gone as a kid. “Please don’t tell me we’re going to the fair, because I will totally break up with you.”
“Hell no,” Lewis said. “I don’t attend functions that don’t serve alcohol. This way.” He took Milo’s hand and led him across the street, then down two blocks, turning left onto Kemper Ave. “So you know that spread I was doing the past several months—”
Milo looked at him with amusement. “You mean that ad campaign for that new women’s clothing line that’s had you at work twenty four seven, half-starved and cranky and two steps from murderous. The one that produced that billboard downtown and the one on the highway, plus the bus ads and will probably get you that award—”
“Yes, that one,” Lewis said, amused and exasperated.
“Eh, I sort of vaguely recall it,” Milo said.
“Oh, fuck you,” Lewis retorted.
Milo gave him a look. “That was my initial hope, yes. So why are we out here getting attacked by children and sunlight?”
Lewis just laughed, and stopped walking to kiss him slow and sweet. “I do love you, you know that right?”
“Yeah, I know it,” Milo said, flushing. “Just goes to show all your taste is in your clothes, but I’m okay with that.”
“Idiot,” Lewis said, then resumed walking, still holding Milo’s hand. “So, I brought up the Be Your Sweet/Sexy/Etc Self campaign because my company gave me a bonus for being such a good, money-making bitch. Like, a stupid-crazy bonus, and I wanted to do something stupid-crazy with it.”
Curiosity piqued at Milo as he suddenly wondered where all this was going, but he only said, “Yes, you may buy me—something extravagant.”
“How about a house?”
Milo frowned, confused. “Uh, I already have one of those. I know I have a lot of DVDs, but they don’t need their own building quite yet.”
Lewis laughed, and they stopped again. “No, I mean—neither one of us is particularly attached to our house, right?” Milo nodded, because that was true. Lewis had bought his house after he’d moved to the area to start his new job, and Milo had bought his so his mother would leave him the hell alone. “So, I was thinking at this point it’s stupid to have two houses, but combining our stuff would require a tad more space—”
“What?” Milo asked, startled, even though he totally should have seen that coming. “You want to move in together?”
“Dork,” Lewis said. “Yes, I want to move in here.” He pointed.
Milo finally bothered to notice where they had stopped, right in front of a house with a ‘for sale’ sign in the yard. It was a nice house—fucking huge. Two stories, brick, with a fancy front porch and actual pseudo-cobblestones for a walkway. It had a two-car garage, and a fence around the backyard—a yard that at least from the street, looked like it was probably huge.
“It’s three bedrooms, two bath, kitchen, living room, rec room, sun room—and it has a pool,” Lewis added excitedly. “The realtor is supposed to be here…” He paused to look at his watch. “In like five minutes or so. If you wanted to see it, I mean?”
He looked so anxious and hopeful and cute that Milo couldn’t even process anything for a moment. “What in the world are we going to do with three bedrooms?”
Lewis’ face fell a bit. “Well, office for me, and I don’t know, guest room? DVD storage? Do you not want…?”
“Oh, shut up,” Milo said, and jerked him close to kiss him. “I’m just startled by how much house you want for us. We don’t have that much crap.”
“But I like this house, and it has a pool. I’ve always wanted a pool.”
Milo laughed. “So I’m just a good excuse for you to justify buying a big house with a pool?”
“Yes,” Lewis said. “I am using you to buy a fancy house. Also maybe a dog?”
“All right, but if you try to install two point five children I’m leaving you,” Milo said. “I can only stand so much of this hallmark crap.” He stared at the house, Lewis’ excitement contagious. “We should get a new bed, too.”
Lewis grinned, “Good idea. Oh, and did you know that dude from the candy store lives down this way?”
“Sherlock? Cool.”
“Yeah, and there’s another couple of guys down that way—” He pointed up the street. “Ren and Dave, they’ve got three dogs, really cool guys—”
“How long have you been plotting this?” Milo asked, amused.
Lewis looked a little embarrassed and a lot happy. “Well, uh, maybe a little while. So yes, you’ll move in with me?”
“Yes,” Milo said, and did not at all care that they were making out like teenagers when the realtor drove up.