Page 71 of Piece Us Together
He doesn’t.
“You’re cold,” he says three minutes into the movie. I look down at Nolan to find him watching the movie adamantly.
I look over to find Maison staring right at me.
Oh.
“A little. I forgot to grab—” before I can finish, Maison is spreading his blanket so it covers both of us. Part of it flutters around Nolan’s head. He laughs and swats playfully at it. Then it settles, and Maison and I are…sharing a blanket. We’re not pressed together beneath it, but we’re close enough for me to immediately feel the heat coming off of him. To smell his deodorant.
Close.
We’re so close.
I place a hand on the crown of Nolan’s head, trying to steady myself through him. Except he turns to grin happily at me and that pang in my chest, that ache, thatwant, want, wantonly worsens.
I might be falling for them in different ways, one elegantly, one like a bumbling fucking idiot, but I’m still falling for them both. There’s no denying it. No escaping it. I’m fucking doomed.
Iron Man—who isn’t actually Iron Man yet, it seems—is in a cave, and it’s emotional, and I try to pay attention, I do, but the three of us are so, soclose.
The other man in the cave sacrifices his life and Nolan makes a soft, sad noise. Maison puts his hand on Nolan’s head to comfort him, his pinky overlapping with mine beneath a blond lock.
I can’t breathe.
Tony talks to his little robot, all sarcastic and grumbly, and Maison chuckles, the sound warm and deep and somehow rumbling in my own chest.
The electronic man called Jarvis helps Tony—now officially Iron Man, it seems—fly in his full suit for the first time. Maison sighs wistfully. “I wish I had a Jarvis.”
Nolan snorts. “You do. His name is Ace.”
And Maison laughs hard, bending over with it, and when he straightens and says, “I’m telling him you said that,” his shoulder is pressed against mine.
Jarvis sarcastically helps Tony make his newest suit, giving him snark left and right, before Tony leaves with a teasing“Don’t wait up for me honey,”and Maison chuckles and says, “Holy shit, he reallyismy Ace.” And this time Nolan is the one laughing hard, his head tipping back to hit my right knee and Maison’s left. Then he twists around, eyebrows going high when he sees just how close we’ve gotten behind him.
He and Maison share a look I can’t place before he turns back around and settles his head against our kneecaps.
I place my hand on his head again while Tony causes trouble at a party.
Maison breathes out, slow and controlled, then places his hand with three fingers over mine.
I don’t really watch the movie after that.How can I?
We’re all so fucking close.
Chapter Sixteen
Nolan
I’m pretty much having the best day ever—at least top three—and I don’t even have to feel guilty about it because Maison is all soft laughter and easy touches, and Hunter is all sparkling eyes and looks of wonder, and they’re touching, they’re so close, we’re all so close, and it feelsright. Overwhelmingly so.
Their hands are both in my hair as another movie comes to an end, anchoring me, caring for me. The credits roll. Hunter doesn’t get up right away, having learned his lesson about end-credit scenes in Marvel movies by now. If I was a brat, I’d call him a good boy. I play it safe and just think it instead. It’s still pretty satisfying.
“Do you need anything, Nol?” Maison asks the moment the credits are finished, falling into what now feels like a routine of post-movie care. His hand travels from my hair to the side of my neck. His thumb starts working the muscle there. He’s paranoid I’m going to get sore, even though I’m pillowed on both sides by them.
I lean into his touch, not needing it, but finding it nice all the same. Especially when Hunter’s thumb joins in, trailing down to rub the other side. I can feel their fingers overlapping against the back of my neck, something that shouldn’t make me feel as warm inside as it does.
It’s like I’m surrounded completely by them. I could float away on the feeling if I didn’t have their hands keeping me grounded.
Someone chuckles—Hunter, my brain supplies as it comes back online. He cards his fingers through my hair before tightening his grip to tug my head back enough for me to see them peering down at me. “You were asked something, darling. You getting sleepy on us or what?”