Pest Control, page 6
Except the ball never left his hand. Instead, the world slipped out from under him, his cleats unable to get enough traction on the ice hidden beneath the snow. Rhys fell backward, both feet in the air. For a moment, he swore he saw his life flash before his eyes as he plummeted to the ground in slow motion, cursing himself for running in these conditions. Why had he thought this would be a good idea? Now, he was certainly going to break a bone, or even split his head open on the hard ice, all because he wanted to win a fucking snowball fight.
But just before he hit the ground, only an inch away from impact, an arm caught him by his waist. For a moment, he thought he might have actually died after all and gone to heaven, staring up at the beautiful cloudy sky, head spinning, until he heard a voice calling out his name—a voice that begged him to look.
And so he did.
He expected to be greeted with the sight of God welcoming him to heaven, but who he actually saw was just as breathtaking. A person with a manly, sharp jawline that contrasted perfectly with full, pinkened cheeks. A person with equally plump lips, soft and begging to be kissed and somehow unaffected by the cold that should’ve made them chapped and dry. A person with two familiar, dark-brown, enchanting eyes, framed by long, thick eyelashes, which had caught specks of snowflakes. The eyes were wide, but not in the puppy-dog way Rhys was used to. They were terrified, scanning Rhys’s body up and down.
“Rhys!” Everett exclaimed. His voice was so deep—had Rhys ever noticed that before? “A-are you okay? You almost broke your head open or something. Thank fuck I managed to catch you in time.”
As he registered the words, Rhys realized the position he was in, cradled against Everett’s chest like a baby, or maybe even a bride. He stared up at him as if hypnotized, admiring his facial features, which was nothing short of extremely embarrassing. Rhys’s cheeks instantly turned red, and he moved a gloved hand up to hide them from view. What was wrong with him? Had he actually hit his head or something?
“I-I…I’m okay,” he replied quietly, his voice cracking. “I…thank you, Everett. You just saved my life.”
Everett sighed in relief as he pushed back the fringe from Rhys’s face. “I’m so glad you’re okay. You weren’t wrong; the snow’s dangerous. And I thought my little slip earlier was scary.”
“W-will you let me get up now, please?” Rhys rasped.
“Uh…yeah. Yeah, totally, uh, sorry.”
As if touching Rhys had burned him, Everett quickly helped him onto his feet and let go, then shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. Rhys averted his gaze as he dusted the snow off, cursing at himself internally for having been such a ditsy idiot—not only falling, but making the situation even weirder by creepily staring at Everett, scaring him in more ways than one. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw how Everett’s body had shrunk in on itself slightly, as if he was afraid to be reprimanded—though Rhys hadn’t said a word as they walked back to the cabin in silence.
Luckily, it wasn’t a very long walk, only half a mile or so. Unfortunately, despite the short length, time seemed to slow down for the sole purpose of pointing out the awkwardness between them. Too many thoughts whirled like some twisted tornado in Rhys’s mind, all centered around Everett.
He felt so ashamed for making Everett uncomfortable. All he’d done was save Rhys from cracking his head open and dying, not creating some sort of cringy Hallmark movie moment where the main characters realized their attraction toward each other. Yet, Rhys’s adrenaline-fueled brain had gone there anyway. And now, when he glanced over at Everett as they walked, Rhys was reminded yet again of his attractiveness. Not only his face, but his large frame, his long legs that had moved fast enough to catch him before he hit the ground, his strong arms that held his weight for so long—
Rhys shook his head, trying to rid himself of the thoughts. What was he, thirteen years old again when he’d realized his attraction toward the same sex? What was wrong with him? This was wildly inappropriate. Everett was his friend, his student, not some man he’d met at a bar. Rhys didn’t even know if he was gay or not. He knew very well from experience that any sort of attraction toward a friend—a straight friend—would surely end up in disaster. And this was one friendship Rhys definitely didn’t want to taint and ruin. There was no way he would let himself be attracted to Everett. Sure, he was handsome, but it didn’t mean a thing. Rhys didn’t need to care, didn’t need to make this more than it was.
He didn’t care. He didn’t.
“Rhys?”
He snapped his head up, thoughts falling aside like a discarded cloak, draping itself across the ground in heavy wrinkles.
“Y-yeah? What’s up?” he mumbled, trying to appear normal with a strained smile.
“You…okay?” Everett asked, tilting his head to the side.
“Yeah, I think so.” Rhys decided after another moment of quiet. “But I won’t be if I have to stay here and freeze my ass off for much longer. Let’s go inside, okay?”
Everett grinned. “You’re right; sorry for stalling. Let’s go warm up by the fire. Your lips are turning blue right now.”
Unlocking the front door with a click, Rhys nodded eagerly. “Sounds like a great idea,”
He looked back over his shoulder for a moment, sighing when he saw how much snow he still needed to clear. He’d have to finish the chore soon and eventually go fish and set snares. But for now, all he wanted was to forget about what had happened and actually feel his fingers and toes again with the help of the fireplace.
He tried not to think about it as they ate dinner, his cheeks pinkening at Everett’s slight groans of admiration at the food’s flavor. He tried not to think about it when they lay down in bed together, Everett’s body cocooning him in comfort and warmth. Thankfully, Everett didn’t seem to feel uncomfortable any longer, holding him close as they did every night. To Rhys, however, it felt different, knowing an attractive man was spooning him with his butt pressed to his crotch.
Clearing his throat, Rhys decided he wouldn’t allow his thoughts to snowball yet again—there were plenty of other more important things to worry about.
“So, the snow melts pretty slowly here in the mountains,” he began, voice a bit rough from all of the yelling and laughter. “This will probably be gone in about a week, or at least mostly gone. Then, we’ll be able to go hunting. But for now, we’re going to have to conserve more and go catch fish and rabbits more often.”
Everett nodded with a yawn. “Sounds good to me.”
That deep, smooth baritone voice. Did his voice have to sound so damn hot? Couldn’t he notice that Rhys was trying to ignore his annoyingly attractive qualities right now? The nerve!
“G-Good,” Rhys mumbled, sounding and feeling flustered—which became worse when Everett, for some odd reason, decided to hold him closer, his hands wrapped securely around Rhys’s waist.
Why did Rhys enjoy this so much? It must’ve been because of the warmth. He was merely using Everett as a space heater. It was mutually beneficial cuddling to keep themselves warm through the cold weather. Nothing more, nothing less. Absolutely nothing to overthink. Strictly platonic.
Chapter Six
Unfortunately, Rhys’s estimation of the snow clearing within a week was far from accurate. The snow did begin to melt away slowly, which made the pair of hunters hopeful and itching to get back out into the forest. At the end of the week, Rhys planned for them to hunt the next day, since it should be clear enough. But winter had other ideas.
Rhys awoke at dawn to the sensation of a warm body pressed up against him. He jolted up and let out a groan. Sleepily leaning on Everett’s tensed shoulder, he pressed a hand to his chest, trying to catch his attention. Everett’s heart thumped quickly as he took in loud breaths through his nose.
“What’s wrong?” Rhys mumbled with a yawn. “Did you have a nightmare or something?”
“Do you smell that?”
Rhys also took in a deep breath. All he smelled was the remnants of their dinner and the smoke from the fireplace. “What?”
Everett shook his head firmly. “The snow, Rhys, the snow. It’s…it’s so strong. How can you not smell that? Don’t you at least feel the buzzing? Or hear the rumbling?”
At the word “snow,” Rhys’s eyes widened, all tiredness lost. “Shit, are you saying it’s going to snow again?”
He scrambled to stand and rushed over to the window, where he peered through the foggy condensation his breathing created on the cold glass. It was indeed snowing outside, but not too much, only a small sprinkle of snowflakes blowing in the wind—which was oddly quite rough. The gusts of wind created a howling noise and shook loose the snow that clung to the tree branches. But the real, most concerning part were the clouds in the distance, just barely visible as the sun began to rise over the horizon, contrasting the darkness of the clouds to the lightness of the sky they blocked out. If he concentrated hard enough, he could hear the rumbling of the oncoming storm.
“A blizzard. A fucking blizzard,” Rhys hissed, gripping the wooden windowsill. “You’ve got to be kidding me! That looks like it might hit within the hour. Shit, what am I going to do? The amount of snow it’ll dump on us could block us in for weeks. I guess we’re gonna have to use my emergency food and wood supply after all. This is bad.”
“Will…will that be enough for the both of us?” Everett asked meekly.
Rhys sighed, scrunching his eyes shut and massaging his temples. A migraine was already coming on from the stress. “I don’t know. I think if we ration it well, we could last for a month. Which could be enough, as long as the blizzard doesn’t stay too long. They usually don’t last longer than a few days. So, if that holds true, we could be fine.”
“You don’t sound so sure about that…” Everett looked down at his feet. “Maybe…maybe it would be best if I left, so I wouldn’t use up all of your food—”
“Everett, no,” Rhys interrupted sternly. “Where would you go if you left, huh?”
Everett was silent for a moment. “Um…”
Rhys sighed again and reached out to hold Everett by his shoulders. Everett peered up at him with his bottom lip bit harshly between his teeth, which looked quite painful. Rhys lifted his thumb up to Everett’s mouth and gently tugged the lip free. It was tinged slightly red from a drop of blood, the same color as Everett’s cheeks. His eyes were wide, innocent, and terrified, like a deer staring down the barrel of a gun. Even though Rhys was smaller than Everett, a burning desire to protect this adorable creature simmered inside him. How could Everett even think of doing something so dangerous?
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. You have nowhere to go,” Rhys said, stroking his cheek. “If you left, you’d just freeze and starve to death out there. Don’t even think about doing some superhero sacrificial shit so I could survive. I’d rather starve in here together than live because you died in that damn storm. Got it?”
“B-but…” Everett leaned into Rhys’s touch in a way that was so incredibly endearing. “I feel really bad about taking all of your resources…”
“No ‘but’s,’ Everett. You’re staying here. There’s no need to leave, okay? We…we’ll be fine. It’ll be hard, but we’ll make it out of this blizzard alive. Together,” Rhys said softly, a smile growing on his face, which Everett returned hesitantly.
“To-together. Yeah.”
★
With the snow impeding any efforts to leave the cabin, Rhys and Everett were effectively housebound, and the days began to tick much slower.
For Rhys, it was nothing new. Sure, he greatly missed being able to go outside, but he was perfectly content with spending his days by the fireplace reading a book aloud or completing chores around the cabin. However, for Everett, it was as if he were stuck in a living hell.
The first two days went relatively well, with Everett occupied by assisting Rhys with tasks such as scooping up snow to melt for water storage, patching a small roof leak, and planning out how to ration what food was left in the cellar, as well as napping together. But, as the days continued to pass, Rhys noticed Everett was quickly becoming bored and stir-crazy. At almost any moment, he caught him staring longingly out of the window at the roaring blizzard, whining under his breath. He’d pace around aimlessly when Rhys was occupied with something unrelated to him.
And on the fourth day, Everett’s behavior escalated even further. When Everett left for his afternoon outhouse trip, instead of coming back within ten minutes as normal, he didn’t return. Nor did he when another ten minutes had passed, worrying Rhys that something bad had happened to him. He quickly shoved on his cleated boots and bundled himself up in his coat. He stepped outside and headed toward the outhouse. Cupping his hands over his mouth, he called out Everett’s name over and over again as his heart and his mind raced with the terrifying possibilities.
Maybe Everett had decided to leave after all to make sure Rhys would be able to survive— No, he had agreed he wouldn’t do that. He had to have gotten lost. Even though the path between the outhouse and cabin was short, the blizzard was thick enough to blind a person walking through it, and they could accidentally go a bit too far north, passing the cabin. Or he could’ve injured himself somehow. Even though his leg was closer to being fully healed, if he had taken another nasty fall, it was possible the scab could’ve reopened. He could’ve been dragged off by some hungry predator, hit by an object blowing in the wind, fallen into the river, or—
“Everett!”
He suddenly appeared out of nowhere into Rhys’s field of vision. Not from the outhouse, not from the cabin—instead, from the forest. His teeth were chattering and his lips were blue, but they lifted into a wide grin.
“Everett, what the fuck? What happened to you?” Rhys exclaimed as he pulled the shivering man into a hug. “Did you get lost or something?”
Everett shook his head and wrapped his arms around Rhys as well, hooking his chin over his shoulder. As he talked, his deep voice vibrated against Rhys’s neck. “N-no, I wasn’t lost… I was just, um, taking a w-walk—”
“Taking a walk? In a blizzard? What were you thinking?” Rhys squawked, pulling back to look up at Everett with a sharp glare. “Fuck, you scared the absolute shit out of me for a walk? Why would you do that?”
“I-I’m sorry, okay? I just needed to get out of the cabin for a while!” Everett said, averting his gaze sheepishly. “I didn’t mean to worry you… I was only going to be gone for a couple of minutes. I feel a lot better now though!”
“You think I wouldn’t be worried when you went missing for twenty minutes? You—ugh, it’s fucking freezing out here,” Rhys grumbled when a particularly brutal gust of icy wind smacked them, almost making them topple over. “Let’s talk about this inside.”
Pulling Everett behind him, Rhys marched back to the safety of the warm cabin. Rhys sat Everett down in front of the fireplace and cocooned him in a blanket. Then he practically force-fed some hot broth down Everett’s throat until his skin tone turned back to normal and his shivering stopped. The entire time, Everett didn’t meet Rhys’s concerned gaze, instead, he stared into the flames.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, hanging his head low. “I really didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Look,” Rhys said. “I know it’s hard being cooped up in here. I know. But you really can’t be waltzing out into a blizzard. You could have died, Everett. Could’ve gotten lost on that walk. You’ve got a good nose, sure. But I doubt you’d be able to sniff your way back to the cabin in a blizzard. So, no matter how bored you are, no matter how much pent-up energy you have, you can never, ever do that again, all right?”
Everett sighed and nodded. “Okay…I understand. I won’t do that again.”
Rhys chuckled, ruffling his hair, which was still speckled with snowflakes and tangled from the wind. He carefully carded his fingers through it like a comb, gently detangling the strands as Everett peeked up at him.
“You better not! I swear, you almost gave me a heart attack. Thank fuck you’re okay though. You and your damn energy. You really need another way to get it out, safely. Hmm…oh!” Rhys snapped his fingers with a grin, a lightbulb going off inside of his brain. “How about we start your reading and writing lessons, if you’d be up for it?”
“I dunno,” Everett said with a shrug. “I don’t think I’d be any good at it.”
“Nonsense. That’s what you thought about hunting, but you did amazing at that too. Trust me, you’re plenty smart. I think it could be really good for you in a lot of ways. It’s something you need to know to survive and also give you a mental workout. Learning can even be fun, once you can read books yourself. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Everett’s lips upturned into a small smile. “That would be nice, actually. I’d love to read to you like you’ve been doing for me sometime, if that’s possible.”
An image appeared in Rhys’s mind, one that had his cheeks tinging pink, of him and Everett cuddling by the fire, Rhys lying on his rumbling chest as he listened to his deep voice for hours. It certainly would be nice for a change, but also dangerous at the same time. Rhys would have to make sure to keep Everett away from his more risqué books, such as some of the romances that had pretty graphic sex scenes. If Rhys were to listen to Everett describing one of those…he would be a goner for sure.
“I’d like that too,” Rhys said, trying to keep his voice as normal-sounding as possible. “I probably have some books that’d be easy to read for a beginner. Harry Potter, some poetry books—stuff like that. If we work hard, I’m sure you could even do so within a few weeks or so.”
“Really? That fast?”
“Yeah! Like I said, you’re smart, Everett. I believe in you.”
Everett’s face broke into a wide, toothy smile that turned his eyes into little crescents, a face so breathtaking Rhys worried that, maybe, he was already gone for this man.
Fuck.
