Utterly Forgettable | MM Romance | Complete

Two: As Though Cerberus Were At Your Heels (2/2)

"Very well," Emery cut straight to the point. "You've seen my face. Do you require anything else?"

Yes, Josh had seen his face. If he hadn't been determined to get Emery home with him before, his face alone would have convinced him, not to mention his feet. At least one was bleeding; Josh couldn't see the sole of the other one, but he'd hazard a guess it was in no better condition. The sooner this was over, the better. "I drove here. Come with me. There's food and we can talk."

"We have nothing to talk about." It wasn't dismissive — it wasn't an attack. It was resigned, matter-of-fact. As if Emery had long ago made his peace with them never speaking again. Maybe he had. Josh certainly had, before tonight, but now...

"You look like hell and it's cold out here. Please," he entreated. "Come with me." He couldn't see Emery's expressive brown eyes with the poor lighting, but Josh imagined they were as distant as the infuriatingly stubborn man could make them. Josh gripped the wooden seat tight enough to hurt, to keep from trying to draw Emery into a hug Emery might not allow.

Emery's voice was not unkind. It never was, even when he was dismissive. "Going with you would serve no purpose, Josh." More dry coughing. Josh needed to get him to see a doctor tomorrow, but first he'd need to convince him to come. "Leave me be. Go home."

"Go ho— do you honestly think I could just go home and sleep knowing you were out here?" His heart clenched. "Where are you planning on sleeping? On this bench? In the woods?"

It was jarring, seeing Emery rub at a beard he'd never have chosen to wear. "I'm not your problem. Walk away."

"I left the car next to Natural History Museum. Double-parked, so it might not be there long. Can we at least have this conversation there, where it's warm?"

"You left it where? You've taken complete leave of your senses. You'll be towed."

"That's something you're willing to talk about? My car being towed? While you see 'nothing to discuss' about you sleeping on the streets?" Josh felt as incredulous as Emery had sounded. "Emery, I'm begging you—"

"Goodnight Josh." Emery rose, shivering as his bare feet made their slow painful path away from the bench. "It was good seeing you."

Josh had hoped it wouldn't come to this. He wasn't sure Emery would forgive him for what he was about to say, but he could see no other way forward. "Emma would never have forgiven me if I just left you here like this."

The effect was immediate. Emery spun to face him, radiating hurt and betrayal. "Don't use her like that."

"You're not giving me much of a choice. And you know how she was." He swallowed, hating the painful memories he had to dredge up. "How much she loved you. Please come home with me. At least for tonight. Take a hot shower, eat something, sleep in a real bed. Tomorrow morning we can talk and, if you still insist, I'll drive you wherever you'd like. Please. For her if not for me."

Emery's answer was delayed by another bout of dry coughing that wracked his frame. Josh waited him out, hoping against hope he'd gotten through to him. For a moment that stretched far past its welcome, they studied one another in silence. But then, "Very well. Just for the night. And tomorrow you'll let me leave."

"After we talk." He held his breath.

"After we talk," Emery confirmed.

Josh let go of his grip on the bench, hands aching, as he let out his breath in a rush of relief. He'd get Emery home. Warm, fed, safe. If it'd been up to him he'd have carried Emery to the car, so he didn't have to walk, but it was enough to know he'd be comfortable soon.

And, if Emery thought Josh would just let him leave in the morning without a plan, then he had another thing coming.

#

Luck was on Josh's side tonight. He'd managed to find Emery, to talk him into coming home with him, and despite how long it had taken them to get back, his car was undisturbed, in the exact spot where he'd... Parked it was too generous a term. Lightheaded with relief, he loosened his hoodie and pulled it down, running a hand through his hair to give it some semblance of form again.

Emery stopped moving. "This was a mistake. Accompanying you serves no purpose."

"Wha– no. We agreed." Josh made to unlock the car only to have it confirmed that he'd left it unlocked to begin with. "Please get in, it's cold out here."

"I'm not getting in your car." Emery took a step back, then another. One of his hands was balled into a fist, shaking, while the other one scratched his head; he was looking everywhere but at Josh.

What could have changed his mind in such a short time, Josh didn't know, but he wasn't above any sort of tactics to get Emery off the streets. "I always thought I could trust your word. Are you going to start lying now?"

Emery swallowed hard. "You still wear your hair long."

It was such a baffling non-sequitur it took Josh a moment to acknowledge the obvious. What did his shoulder-length hair have to do with anything? Emery was wracked with another bout of coughing, reminding Josh of the pressing need to get him out of the cold. "I... Yes? Can we discuss this inside the car?"

"I can't. Go home."

"You said you'd come home with me tonight."

"I have head lice, Josh." It was impossible to mistake the humiliation in Emery's eyes for anything else. "The beard too, it's... It's crawling with them." The hand that wasn't scratching his head rubbed furiously at the beard. "I can't get in your car and I certainly can't go to your house."

Josh's chest felt trapped inside a vice in the face of Emery's utter mortification. Such a common pest, and Emery felt his dignity diminished by it. The streets had robbed the proud man of everything; Josh would be damned if he'd allow them to take anything else.

He kept his voice as even as he could, careful not to spook Emery with the forcefulness of tone he was struggling to suppress. "Millions of people get head lice. I caught them often enough as a child. Lice don't survive on the furniture and they don't jump. It's not as if I'm carrying you — please come home with me like you said you would. You can shave the beard if you'd like and we'll get you treatment for the hair." Emery's eyes widened at the mention of shaving and Josh couldn't tell if it was in anticipation or dread. "Or we can treat the beard too if you want to keep it. It's not a reason for you not to come."

"You're going out of your way to extend me kindness I haven't earned from you. I don't want to repay that by..." He gestured towards Josh's hair.

"If I happen to catch lice I'll get treated, but I won't. Don't worry about that."

"Would it be possible for me to shave it all? The hair too?"

"Sure, if that's what you want. But if you want to keep the hair–"

"No. I want them all gone. The hair will grow back."

"Okay." Josh's tone was still pleasantly neutral, devoid of judgment. "Do we need to get you treatment for any other sort of lice? Body lice can be dangerous for you, and then there are–"

"I don't have body lice," Emery replied, his posture stiff. "Or the other kind. Just the hair and the beard."

"Okay. We can go straight home then, if you're absolutely sure you want your hair shaved."

Mollified, Emery got in the car, sitting with his head curved rather than allow it to touch the headrest, despite just having been told lice didn't survive on furniture. Josh had little hope that not everything would be such a hard-fought battle between them.

The drive back would have been deathly silent if not for the frequent and rather worrisome bouts of coughing coming from Emery. Josh was torn between wanting to talk — wanting to know what had happened to Emery since his very public trial, or even before that, since the last time they'd seen each other — and wanting to give him some space. He opted for the latter. The conversation could come in the morning, with Emery fed and rested, preferably while they were on their way to the hospital to get that cough appraised.