Being Wrong | ✓

Part 16

Travis lay down on his bed, placed Artemis on his face, and made excited sounds into her chest fluff until she squirmed away in disgust.

Travis rolled onto his side and watched Artemis as she started pointedly grooming herself. "Charlie is my boyfriend."

"Mrr," Artemis said, because she was polite and knew how to participate in a conversation.

"And he kissed me," Travis told her, even though she'd seen that for herself. "Goddamn, he's cute."

"Mrrw," Artemis said, then placed a paw on his forehead to hold him still and started licking his cheek.

Travis shut his eyes and let her clean his face with her raspy, slightly fishy smelling tongue.

He'd been a little worried Charlie might not be completely sure about all this, or might have just been trying to give Travis what he wanted, but then that kiss... It had been brief, barely more than a peck, but it had been real.

Doubting Charlie had been stupid, anyway. He wasn't the kind of guy to not know what he wanted or to be dishonest about it. Not like his relationship with Jax, which had been built entirely on Travis' naivety and eagerness to please being taken advantage of.

Travis didn't yet know what a relationship with Charlie would look like; whether it would be sexual, or just a slightly more intimate version of what they already had. The only thing he knew for sure, because he wouldn't allow things to be any other way, was that it would be good. For both of them.

#

Travis was too buzzed to sleep well that night, and the next morning at exactly 7am he knocked on the door to Charlie's grandparents' house.

"Good morning, Travis," Charlie's grandma said when she opened the door. She sounded like she wasn't sure if she found him amusing or annoying.

Either way, Travis was pretty sure she didn't know he and Charlie's relationship had changed, so Travis did his best not to smile too hard. If he let himself grin like he wanted to, she'd probably realise exactly what was up and suspect they'd been up to even more than they really had. "Is Charlie going to school today?"

"Why?"

"Well, if he's going I'll go too, and if he's not we can stay in and have another movie day. So... I wanted to know so I'd know whether to get ready for school or not.

She frowned, though Travis didn't know that that necessarily signaled disapproval. She seemed to do that a lot when she was thinking. "Well, I'm not sure yet what would be best. What do you think?"

"You could ask him if he felt up to going or not?" It was so obvious that it was hard to say it in a way that wasn't a little insulting.

"Hmm." She gave Travis a critical look. "Stay there."

Travis stayed, and waited, as she shut the door in his face. He hummed to himself and rocked back on his heels.

A few minutes later she returned, and this time she opened the door wide and waved him in. "He wants to talk to you. He's starting to look more himself again, at least."

"Healing takes time," Travis said. Sometimes a lot of time, and sometimes there were things that never really went away. Things that lingered at that back of your mind as a cold reminder of how dark the world could be, a permanent rewiring of your brain to keep you alert.

But mostly it was time and rest and love, and all that nice stuff.

Charlie was bundled under his blankets, his hair still mussed from sleep. He'd never looked more gorgeous. It was probably way too soon the be thinking about such things, but Travis ached with the desire to wake up next to that sleepy face.