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“That’s me,” Adrian agreed. He joined Eric, close enough that their shoulders brushed, and made grabby hands for the cup of tea. Eric handed it over without even thinking about it, watching Adrian take a sip before he realised that this wasn’t really casual, was it? Sharing a morning cup of tea.
“Sleep okay?” he asked to gloss over his momentary confusion.
“I always sleep okay. It’s just my alarm that goes off too early.” Adrian handed the tea back with a smile, his face lit by snow-reflected brightness. “You?”
The question made Eric pause. He often struggled with sleep, lyrics and snatches of a melody weaving webs in his mind the moment he closed his eyes, London traffic a steady hum, a passing ambulance shaking him awake. Not here. The hotel wasn’t entirely silent at night—there was the creaking of floorboards and the murmur of the river, the occasional clang of an old radiator heating up. But somehow, those were the kinds of sounds that lulled Eric’s mind into a state of calm. Even when he woke up at night, it didn’t take him long to fall back asleep.
“I did, yeah. Think I sleep better here than at home.”
“We hear that a lot.” Adrian reached for the tea again, their fingers brushing over the cup. When Eric wrapped his arms around his chest, cold yet unwilling to head back inside just yet, Adrian sent him a bright look.
“I’d offer to warm you up, but it might clue my parents in that something’s changed between us.”
Briefly, Eric’s vision was obscured by the memory of Adrian straddling him, body outlined by the gentle glow of a single lamp, gaze steady. Eric exhaled, breath visible in the still air.Don’t fall.
“Something’s changed?” With a playful smile, he tilted his head as he took the cup back. “Whatever do you mean?”
“I’d illustrate, but…” Adrian lifted a regretful shoulder. “That may take a while, and I think I need food first.”
“Valid point.” Eric inhaled the comforting, floral scent of tea, then turned to head inside, Adrian close behind. As soon as they were in the lobby, Adrian pressed up against Eric’s back, arms coming up to trap him.
“Good morning,” Adrian repeated, sounding rather more awake now.
Eric leaned into him, the curl of heat in his stomach at odds with the lingering chill of the outside air. “You already said that.”
“Worth reiterating.”
Rather than strive for a response, Eric set the cup down on the reception desk before he angled his head for a kiss, the taste of tea shared between them along with a hint of toothpaste. There was none of last night’s urgency, just an unhurried slide of their mouths, Eric’s body slowly warming up as a minute passed, and another, quiet breaths shared between them.
Footsteps startled them apart. By the time Adrian’s dad appeared in the corridor that led to the ground-floor flat he shared with Adrian’s mum, Eric had retrieved his cup of tea while Adrian was shuffling through some papers as he said something about the Christmas tree delivery. Eric hoped he wasn’t blushing.
Adrian’s mum joined them not long after, and they all had breakfast together. At the sound of the snow plough, Adrian and his dad dashed outside to offer the driver some coffee in exchange for the latest town gossip. Eric helped clean the table before he went upstairs to work on a song that was intended as a summer party tune about the beach, sunshine, and ocean waves. It couldn’t be further from his current surroundings, yet the words flowed easily—salt in the airandsandy toesandlet’s make this last today.
He moved to the piano around midday and lost himself in the music. Distantly, he was aware of Adrian passing through, pausing to listen for a while. When Eric glanced up at some point, five minutes later or ten, Adrian was gone.
“You need a break.”
Eric blinked, reality filtering in like raindrops through foliage—the dining room and Adrian a couple of steps away. It must have stopped snowing because sunlight slanted into the room, warming the old wooden floorboards. That hadn’t been the case last time Eric had resurfaced. “What time is it?”
“Time for a walk,” Adrian said, firm but not unkind. “You’ve been at it for three hours straight.”
Oh. Eric would have to get himself outside if he didn’t want to miss the daylight. What was it Adrian had said?
“A walk?” Eric echoed.
“It’s that thing where you put one foot in front of the other.” Adrian’s smile burst like stardust, and that was too much, wasn’t it? Too in-your-face. Eric needed to find a subtler description. “You ever done a snowshoe walk?”
Reality still lagged by a second or two, and so did Eric’s response. “Just a couple of times in Chamonix.”
“Good. Let’s do one.”
It would be nice to get some fresh air. Eric took a deep breath before he got up, the room tilting briefly before everything righted itself. Had he really been at it for three hours? “I don’t have snowshoes.”
“We’ve got several pairs.” Adrian reached out for a fleeting touch, his hand skimming along the side of Eric’s arm. “Come on—let’s grab our winter stuff and a few nuts to go.”
The left side of Eric’s brain was clearly waking up because he managed a grin. “Define nuts, please.”
Adrian grinned back. “Sustenance. You haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
