fortissimo

“Gyuuu…that was more painful than I imagined.”
I walked up the path to Anthony’s home, exhausted from the evening’s battle. The young witch had fallen victim to Lorenza’s blade in perhaps the shortest battle in this war. All it had taken was one stroke from that blade, and the witch was gone. However, that didn’t mean there weren’t other fights during that time. Some of the 9th Lord’s goons had cornered me and tried to take away my Shard Marker, but I managed to survive the encounter.
“I wonder if Anthony would be willing to give me a backrub? It might give him something useful to do for one...”
I finally reached the doorway after the short hike up. I unlocked the door and made my way inside, carefully locking the door behind me. From the living room, I could see a flickering light; most likely it’s coming from the TV.
“Anthony?” I called out, but no reply came. Curious, I walked into the living room “Anthony, I’m home.”
“T-Thomas…?”
I heard his voice from below. Looking over the couch, I saw that he was laying down on the ground next to a couples of glass bottles.
“Anthony…” I went over to help him up from the floor, pulling him up on the couch. His breath stunk of alcohol, and his cheeks were flushed red. The poor bastard must’ve drunk himself under the table.
“Anthony, where’d you get the liquor?” I asked him. He gave me a toothy grin before responding,
“From your stasho’course. I thought I’d get you back for what you did by gettin’ rid of them. But when I saw what kind they were, I couldn’t resist taking a little sip…” he slurred.
“You took a lot more than a sip, idiot…” I reached out to try and lift him up, but he refused my help.
“Sit down Tom, I don’ wanna be alone on here.” He patted the space next to him, motioning to me. Sighing, I did as he asked of me. For a while, we sat there quietly, neither one speaking, finally, he asked
“Care to tell me where you’ve been goin’ in the evenin’ Thomas?”
I bit my lip; One of the things they told us not to do was to tell a human being about the war. So I couldn’t risk saying anything.
“Well, I’ve just been going to visit a co-worker….”
“Doin’ wha’? I know you’re not one to work harder than you need to. Tell me what’s really up.”
“I can’t.” When he heard me say this, his airy expression turned sour.
“I knew it. You’ve got someone else, don’cha?”
“Huh?”
“You’re fucking someone.” He was glaring at me when he said that, as if the declaration had offended him.
“I’m not, Anthony.”
“Then why can’t you tell me where you’re going?”
“Because I can’t! I…I don’t want you getting dragged into it as well.”
Through his glazed eyes, I could see that he was confused by what I meant.
“There is a reason I’ve been going out in the evening, but I can’t tell you, if only to keep you safe Anthony.”
“Ah, ’s that right?”
“Yes.” I answered.
“Good, because,” he put his arms to my shoulders and pushed me down gently against the couch, “I don’t want anyone else to have you.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips against mine. Despite his drunkenness, he was still quite good at it. When we separated, I couldn’t help but let out groan.
“Anthony, that was…”
“I didn’t want to tell you how I felt,” he said, “I was afraid that if you rejected me, we wouldn’t be able to be friends anymore. But since you started leavin’ in the evenings, I’ve thought about us. Truthfully, I only drunk the booze so I woudn’ get cold feet or think about what might happen.” He started to get off of my, but I pulled him back against me.
“Tom…?”
“I’m not too sure how I feel about you, except as one of my closest friends. But considering what you’ve done,” I grabbed his head and planted a kiss on his forehead; “I wouldn’t mind trying and see if being together works for us.”
“You mean it?” he asked
“I do.”
Pleased with my answer, he kissed me again, but this one was much different from the first one. It felt not only dirtier, but more passionate. By the time we broke it up, we were left breathless. In our eyes, we could see something flickering. To my mind, it was something indistinguishable, but to my body, it told it everything it needed to know. I reached up and began to undo the buttons on his uniform while trying to resist the urge to just pop it open. In the dim light given by the TV, I could make out his taught chest somewhat, but couldn’t clearly see it.
Anthony smirked when he saw my disappointed look.
“Not enough for you?”
“No…”