Part XI - That You and He Might Touch Each Other
The thing about profound, transformative experiences--an evening spent on your knees in the upper bathroom of the Stag, for example--is they transform only you. The rest of the world, and your daily life in it, cares very little. It carries on much the...
Part X - And Thus They Welcomed Me, One Among Their Band
The Stag was much as it had been last time. A little less crowded, though maybe not. A little less noisy, though only possibly. The same lights over the dance floor. The same pornographic encouragement on the screens. The same alcohol and cologne,...
Epigram
There is no need to balance every joy with every sorrow. If paradise is waiting it can wait until tomorrow.
Part IX - As I Would Save a Stranger in the Street
All the ride home, Leo had been idly running his thumb, in small circles, over the tiny padlock on his chest. Will and Sam had laid in eachother's arms, apparently very satisfied with an afternoon's work. Leo sat on the floor, cross-legged, since he'd...
Part VIII - The Heart is Just a Muscle
God knew where his shirt had been all day, but he wrestled off his jeans and boxers the second the door shut behind him. "Get your slave ass in here," Sam's growl drifted from the living room, "now." Leo scrambled. If nothing else, Sam clearly knew...
Part VII - Who Are You, Taking Coffee No Sugar
Leo came down in the morning without a shirt. He'd woken up to find it gone from the neat pile on the floor. "Huh," Will hadn't sounded surprised. "Guess you're not wearing a shirt today then, pup." The living room held only that dim, clear, faintly...
Part VI - These Waters That Reflect No Stars
Will reached his and Sam's room to find Leo's jeans, shirt, and boxers folded on the floor at the foot of the bed. The wolf himself was naked, on his knees, beside them. "Uh," Leo began nervously, "you didn't say whether I was to kneel, sir,...
Part IV - All and Then Most of You, Some and Now None of You
"You keep any kind of exercise routine?" "Uh, no sir. I used to be on the football team in high school, but the last few years..." "The breakup again?" "...yessir." Will gave him the kind of look you would give someone who said they'd blown all...
Part III - New Unfolding His Imprison'd Pride
This picnic table probably hadn't been here when this place had been actual offices. Will's keen investigative instincts told him that the taco truck people had brought it and set it up. An operating office park wouldn't have a plastic table with a...
Part II - The Tender Things Are Those We Fold Away
"You work in the morning?" "Yessir." "Really, on Saturday? Huh." Kane was being very patient, he thought, while Will passed a beat-up phone back to whoever-the-hell-this-was. "You're gonna text me on your first break, then." "Yessir. Uh, what do I...
Part V - No Laws to Treat My People Ill
"Oh it was fascinating, the seminar on impasto technique actually came to blows! Between the Van Gogh faction and the Rembrant fans!" judging from the stoat's tone this was wonderful news. "Convention security had to taser three different...
Part I - He Gave to Mis'ry All He Had
"Oh hey, didn't expect you to be working tonight." "Well, I hear Keith," Kane didn't even bother pretending to look at the ID he'd been handed, for all he knew it could have said 'William Adler, President of Space Balloonland,' "finally broke up with...