Warm Welcome part 1
Eli was enjoying a well deserved break.
His auction last week was incredibly well received. Both Gloom and
Clockworks had started
a three way bidding war, going out for very large sums of money. In a
way, those few days of tenseness between Soren and himself had been
quite profitable. But he didn't care about that. He just wanted Soren
back to his normal self. He was getting there, but he was still
stressed about his sick Aunt. Soren walked in the
door. He was coming home closer to seven rather than six now, but he
was happy with his new position. He was promoted to a lab assistant
rather than just being a techy, and he was eager to start on the new
experiments and projects now that the fallout from the break in was
over. They found the culprit the Monday after Eli managed to get
Soren to tell him what was going on. Eli had a feeling that the
promotion was recompense for how hard they ran Soren while they
thought he was the culprit. Eli wished he had the ability to cook, as
Soren was always ravenous when he got home.Eli got up and
kissed Soren on his silver cheek. He hung up his jacket and backpack
for him. Soren immediately went to the kitchen and put water on to
boil. He had a red sauce simmering all day, and he was starting to
prepare some hand-rolled meatballs. Eli stayed nearby and savored the
smells. Dinner was ready fast, and they both sat down to eat. Soren
tucked in for a minute, and once he had gotten some food down, slowed
down so he could talk. Eli started with a
simple question that had a lot of meaning underneath. "How are you
today?" He asked this every few days in attempt to coax out
anything that might be simmering beneath the surface. It may be
painful for Soren to talk about it at the time, but Eli wanted to
make sure another meltdown didn't happen. "I'm fine," he
said with a smile as he grabbed Eli's forearm. But it was a different
kind of "I'm fine" from last Sunday. Soren was actually feeling
OK. "The test subjects are doing well. We think we can get them
ready for experimentation in three generations. Then we can start
recollecting the data we lost. I also got to call Aunt Aly on the way
home. She tries to call me when no one is around. She's feeling
terrible but the doctor says that she is reacting well to treatment."Eli smiled. They
finished dinner and cleaned up together. Soren felt like slipping
into Lordran for a while, so he popped in Dark Souls. Eli laid his
head on Soren's lap. He loved to watch Soren play as much as he loved
to play himself. Plus he got to talk to Soren now, and Soren was
always happy when he was exploring Lordran. "Just so you know,"
said Eli, stroking Soren's silver tails, "My parents can't make it
down here. Our schedules just don't match up." Eli heard Soren give
a little sigh of relief. "They're not monsters you know. They do
want to meet you." "Sorry," said
Soren, "I just get nervous when meeting new people. And I was
afraid that they'd be like be my last boyfriend's parents."Eli was curious and
amused. "I told you I came out to them when I was 16. They were all
fine with that. But what do you mean? Were your last boyfriend's
parents that bad?" Soren nodded. "My
first and previous boyfriend, he was a Furret named Milo. He was a
straight A student, an amazing baseball player, a total geek, and
absolutely gorgeous. He was also into guys. However, his parents were
not happy that their role-model son was gay. So after he came out,
his parents were really mad. When he told me, we came up with a
plan."Eli was intrigued.
"Go on... what did you do?" Soren smiled. "It
was straight out of a B romance novel. You'd eat this up. Milo
pretended to date Sasha. It wasn't much of a stretch. She was such a
boy magnet. Milo said his coming out was a bad phase and he got over
it. But whenever he went out with Sasha, we'd just meet at a town
about 10 miles north. His parents didn't care how late he stayed out
as long as he continued to excel at baseball and school. My parents
didn't care either. They thought I was a lost cause anyway." Eli smiled.
"sooo... what did you do?" Soren knew Eli
wanted all the dirty details. "The normal date stuff. Dinner,
movies, long walks... sex." Soren grinned. Eli laughed,
sitting up now to face Soren. "Where?! But you had nowhere to go!"Soren shrugged.
"You know that Sasha's parents travel a lot. Sasha lent us her
place while she stayed with a friend." "Ooo!
That's so illicit,"
squealed Eli. "Was it good?""Fantastic,"
sighed Soren. "Obviously it was my first time with another male.
Hell, it was both of our first times with anyone. We got away
with it four times. He was strong, he was big, and he was...
flexible."Eli gave Soren a
fake pout. "Was he as good as me?"Soren kissed his
partner. "No," he said, quite truthfully. Then he sighed. "It
obviously couldn't last. At the end of our senior year, right after
graduation... Someone saw us kiss. And they told his parents." He
paused and sighed again. "They were so furious. They moved away in
less than a week. They forbade him from leaving the house, using a
phone, or using email. I wish I would've talked to him again. To
apologize. The only bright side was his parents were so mad they
forgot to tell mine what we were doing. When I came out my dad
would've pulled my tuition if it hadn't been too late. If they found
out then I wouldn't even have been able to go to college. But enough
about my old flames. Were you gonna say something else?" Eli returned to
Soren's lap. "My parents want you to come to Thanksgiving." Eli
felt Soren's silver fur bristle a bit. "You can't run from them
forever. You can't expect to live with me like this and not meet my
parents. They're really nice and want to meet the famous Soren Saul
I've told them all about." "I hope you
haven't talked me up too much," said Soren playfully. "I don't
want to meet any unrealistic expectations you set for me." He
paused a minute. "I'm sorry. there's really no good reason for me
to be nervous. I just am. I would love to come. I really would." "Can I tell them
when they call next?" asked Eli, stroking Soren's arm now. The silver fox
nodded. "Who else will be there?""Just us, my
parents, and my sister," said Eli. "Most of my other family
members live out west, so we only visit every other year."Soren sighed. A
smaller crowd would be easier for him to get used to. "Cedar Rapids
isn't too far of a drive. Only about 4 to 5 hours?" "Yeah,"
confirmed Eli. "can we take your car? You get so much better
mileage." Soren nodded, then
sighed. "I just wish you could have met Grandma Jeanne.
Thanksgiving with her was fantastic." "Wasn't she the
one who taught you music?" Soren nodded again.
"She was a widow. My Grandpa Gregory died when he was 57. about 3
years before I was born. Heart attack. He was a chain smoker." Eli nodded, hoping
Soren would say more.Soren began talking
again, turning off the game to give Eli his full attention. He began
to rub his beige shoulders. "She started teaching me after I said I
stopped believing in God. My parents started to act really hostile,
so she took me out of the house under the guise of teaching me
violin. She taught me all about music. And she talked to me about her
faith, or lack thereof."Eli raised an
eyebrow. "She didn't believe either?" Soren shook his
head. "Nope. But she knew that Catholicism was really important to
Grandpa Gregory, so she let him teach it to my mom, even if she
didn't believe herself. No one knew except Grandpa. But when I
stopped believing, she told me all of about it. Whenever I felt too
pressured in the house, I could walk to Grandma's and learn more
music. In five years she taught me violin, piano, cello, bass,
clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone. Almost all those instruments
upstairs are hers. When she died, she left a lot of stuff
specifically for me in her will. My parents were rather furious. They
thought they would get all of her inheritance." Eli felt honored
that Soren was letting him learn music on the instruments that his
grandmother gave him. He felt like Soren was sharing memories, a
legacy, by teaching him music again. "Grandma
was also a big help three year later," continued Soren. "When I
was realizing I was gay. I knew I couldn't tell my parents, and my
brother, Chris, wasn't a good confidant either. We had grown apart
after I lost faith. So I told Grandma about these feelings. And she
said it didn't matter to her. That was one of the best things to
hear. That she still loved me regardless of who I loved.
She started teaching me more about cooking after I got into high
school too. I was basically living with her for my sophomore and
junior years."Eli sat up and
hugged Soren. He knew that Soren's grandmother died before his senior
year of high school. Soren was unfazed though. "You would have
liked her," he said. "she was a better cook than me, and she
loved to dance. She could still dance until right before she got
sick. It was pneumonia. I'm sure she would have loved to meet you."Eli was skeptical.
Soren's cooking was restaurant level when he wasn't rushed. If his
grandmother was better than him, she could've run a five star
restaurant. He decided to return to the topic of Thanksgiving. "You
wanna go through their names again," he asked as he wrapped his
arms around Soren's silver shoulders. "That's a good
idea," said the silver fox. Eli knew Soren was
terrible with names and faces. "You know who my dad is, right?""He's the lawyer.
I've never seen him out of a suit," responded Soren. "his name
is... Logan?"Eli nodded. "That's
right. And you know who my mother is, right?" Soren paused,
thinking. "It's not... Laura... no that's not it. Is it... Lyra?
Doesn't she write children's books?" Eli smiled. "Right
again. By the way, do not call them Mr. and Mrs. Vatra. That's way
too formal. They won't let you get away with it."Soren sighed. "I'll
try. I was just raised like that. Sorry." "And can you
remember my sister," asked Eli. Soren had trouble
with this one. He had never met or even seen Eli's younger sister
outside of photos. "You got me there."Eli sighed. "Her
name is Eleanor, but people call her Elly sometimes. She's into
gymnastics. You'd like her, she's studying Personal Power
Applications." Soren brightened up
with this news. "I was reading about that. There was a journal
about the potential of using inner powers for medicinal purposes."Eli made a swishing
sound and threw his hand over his forehead. "All that sciencey
stuff is Greek to me. Talk to her about it." Soren smiled. "I
look forward to it," said the silver fox, quite genuinely. Eli kissed him on
the cheek. "See, it won't be that bad." The two foxes went to bed
soon after. Eli wrapped his arms and tails around Soren as they
folded themselves into the sheets. They drifted off to sleep,
together.