Trevor could tell him what he’s thinking. Hewilltell him, eventually. But not yet. For now, he brings their joined hands up to his mouth and presses a kiss to the bumblebee on the inside of Skyler’s wrist. Then he asks him, “Would it be too cheesy if I call the label Sun & Stars Records?”
“Yes.” Skyler nods emphatically. “But please do it anyway.”
Trevor grins before kissing him.
He just might.
Pulling away, he glances around Skyler to peek into the skillet on the stove. “You’re going to burn the meat,” he warns.
Skyler gives him a ridiculous wink. “I’ll burn yo—”
He holds up a hand to stop him. “I swear to god, if you say something about my meat, I’m not having sex with you tonight.”
“Yes, you are,” Skyler says simply. And then he takes Trevor’s face in his hands and kisses him deeply.
And well. Yeah.
After dinner, they doend up having sex, but Trevor’s a little uncomfortable with how it happened. As they were loading the dishwasher, Skyler mentioned that Trevor wouldn’t need to get a loan to start his label, because Skyler could give him whatever he needed. And Trevor knows Skyler has the best intentions, that he’s always been beyond generous with everyone he cares about. But he wants Skyler to understand that, while he appreciates his advice and opinions, this is something he needs to feel like he can do for himself.
Instead of trying to explain that, though, he brought up the fact that Skyler still isn’t letting him pay for half of the electricity and water bill and whatever else goes into keeping up this property. Skyler looked at him, face screwed up in confusion, and the next thing he knew, they were arguing.
It wasn’t heated. It was nothing like the fights they used to have when things had gotten really bad in the band days. But it ended the same as so many of those ones—Skyler kissed him to shut him up. He backed Trevor into the counter and started yanking his clothes off him. And Trevor went with it, because how could he not?
It felt great when Skyler had him bent over the counter, but now as they’re finishing with the dishes (anderm, wiping down all the surfaces), he needs to say something.
He tosses a dirty rag into the sink and turns to Skyler. “You know how we used to have sex to mask our problems?” he asks, and then continues without giving Skyler a chance to answer. “Like we figured as long as we were still having a ton of sex, then our relationship was still good? You would make me mad, and then you’d get on your knees to suck me off and I’d forget about it. Or I’d hurt you, and then try to kiss it better, as if it were a physical pain rather than emotional.”
That was when things started going more and more wrong, and they were desperately trying to hold on to each other but doing it in all the wrong ways.
His eyes lock on Skyler’s, and he knows Skyler’s remembering the same things. “We can’t let ourselves do that again.”
“We can’t have sex?” Skyler quips, but he’s too quick with it and his tone doesn’t quite hit the mark, making Trevor suspect he’s trying to mask his worries with humor.
“You know what I mean,” he nudges.
“I do,” Skyler says more seriously. His face twists briefly into what might be regret. “I do. And we won’t. We’ll make sure to always talk through our problems.”
That’s what they thought they were doing last time. Trevor can only hope that this time they’re more mature and they really will.
Skyler wipes his hands on a clean dish towel and steps closer. He squeezes Trevor’s shoulder gently, then slides his hand down his arm, fingers settling loosely around Trevor’s wrist. “And when I’m being an idiot, please tell me.”
“What?”
“The money thing. I wasn’t exactly listening, but I do get it. I’ll show you the bills and you can contribute something. But you’re still paying for your own house, so you have to understand that I won’t let you pay half.”
Trevor can’t keep his eyes from drifting down to Skyler’s fingers. After the totally dirty things Skyler did to him twenty minutes ago, this soft, innocent touch shouldn’t feel as intimate as it does. But it feels like connection and understanding and safety. “Okay,” he agrees. “That sounds fair.”
“And about the money to start your label.”
He groans.
“No, listen to me,” Skyler insists. His hold on Trevor tightens. “It’s dumb for you to take out a loan and pay interest when I have the money to give you. But if you don’t like me just giving it to you, then I could be an investor. It’d be your company and you’d be the one running it, but you’d pay me dividends out of the profits.”
It sounds reasonable, but he shakes his head automatically, and Skyler frowns, waiting for his argument. Trevor’s not sure exactly what it is though. Just a tiny seed of doubt planted in his brain that’s telling him this might all be too good to be true. That he probably can’t trust good things.
He doesn’t want to hurt Skyler by trying to explain that, so he settles for asking, “Why are you so good to me?”
And Skyler takes it as a rhetorical question, wraps one arm around Trevor’s waist and pulls him into a hug, humming happily into the spot behind his ear. He thinks that was Trevor agreeing to his proposition.
