Page 54 of Wrestling with Daddy

Nathan couldn’t remember the reason why they hadn’t showered together. He regretted it, though, whatever it had been.

He was pulled back to the conversation, though, to Ken frowning at him. “Don’t do what?”

“That.” Nathan huffed, waving his arms up and down as if he thought that would help explain anything. “Act all soft and shit.”

“Language,” Ken warned.

He didn’t say or do anything else, though.

Nathan’s eyes squinted, ignoring that wobbling, the way his legs didn’t feel so strong as he placed himself in front of him, arms crossed.

“I don’t want you to leave,” he hissed. “And I know that’s stupid and I’m acting like a child, which only makes me angry as fuck, but yeah.”

“How can I make you feel better?” Ken’s voice was still soft, still treading through unknown waters.

Nathan wasn’t a child, for fuck’s sake.

Even if he could admit to throwing tantrums sometimes.

Today was different, though.

“I don’t know!” He nearly exploded, the chin wobbling making an appearance again, his voice cracking. “I know people have scenes and getaways all the fucking time, and they’re cool and they can say goodbye like adults but I don’t fucking want to do that. I wantyou.”

Ken’s hands cupping his cheeks stopped his tirade, his lips pushing against his in a touch that wasn’t gentle or pretty. It made him momentarily forget why it had been important in the first place.

“I want you too, Nathan.” Ken spoke slowly, giving him a gentle shake when his eyes drifted from Ken’s intense stare. “I want you to feel secure in that.”

“But days ago you were all about how things weren’t going to work or we had to do so much talking because… whatever, whatever.”

He hadn’t meant to make Ken sigh or look up as if he was trying not to be frustrated by what he’d said.

It still happened, though, still proved Nathan’s point that Ken wasn’t going to stay.

“I know I did,” he said. “I also know the boy I thought you were and the boy you keep showing me when you don’t think I’m looking are two completely different people.”

Nathan frowned.

“What does that mean?”

Why was he acting so clingy?

He’d read stories on his own site, even written a few of them, about queer and kinky couples who just knew two days into meeting each other. Earlier, even. He’d done research on it, too, and knew the numbers. How they were higher than people would think, and how those couples worked more often than not.

It still… It didn’t apply to him.

Not in the long term.

It couldn’t.

“You’re not the brat I thought you were.”

“But I’m a brat.”

He was.

Thankfully, Nathan didn’t have a lot of time to wonder what Ken meant with those ominous words. If he was trying to tell him what he was or wasn’t…

“Sure, you’re playful, and you like challenging me, as annoying as that can be. But you also strive to please, to obey me even when bending orders.” Ken punctuated the statement with peppered kisses spread over his lips, his nose, his forehead. Nathan was now trying really hard not to giggle, which only added to his frustration deep inside. “That’s never been my experience with brats.”