A Boy Called Cin (17 page)

"He cooks?" Rachel sits down next to Cin. "Can I have him?"

"Might wanna wait until you taste it." Tom takes his pan off the stove and divides the contents out between three plates. "Try before you buy, y'know?"

"I will fight you." Cin grabs his fork and tries a mouthful. It's delicious, but he's come to expect that from Tom's cooking now that he knows what he's doing in the kitchen. He takes another mouthful before remembering to say anything, a soft, needy noise catching in this throat. "So good. Can't talk. Eating."

Tom chuckles and starts in on his own breakfast while Cin watches. He's come to appreciate watching Tom eat, since it's something he enjoys without reserve.

"Unfortunately, I'm kind of in love with Cin. So I'd really like to stay with him, if that's all right with everyone."

"Fine. I'll just find my own hot, older lover who knows how to cook." Rachel sighs dramatically.

"Is it entirely necessary that I graduate in the ceremony?" Cin looks up at Tom. "We could spend the day in bed instead."

"Nice try, but you'll regret it if you don't. Trust me." Tom steals a bite of Cin's omelet. "Besides, Poppy wants pictures, so she can embarrass you at your twenty-first," He says with mouth full. Cin lets it slide, focusing on the implication instead.

"She's coming?" Cin lights up. He thought it was just going to be Tom and Rachel, which is more than enough support for him, but having Poppy there as well would be amazing.

"Got her ticket even before I did." Tom beams. "She's got connections. Also, she's kind of adopted you as the baby brother she always wanted."

"Okay, fine, I'm going." Cin finishes his omelet and gets up to set the plate and fork in the sink, running water over it briefly. Packing the dishwasher can wait until they get back.

"That's good, because we're picking her up at the airport before we go."

"Are you sure she'll be happy riding in the vehicle I generously describe as 'my car'?"

"I'm positive she won't, which is why I got you a graduation present." Tom pulls something out of his pocket and it takes Cin a moment to realize that they're a set of keys. Car keys.

"I'm going to kill you," Cin says as he takes them. "You can't just give me a car."

"Pretty sure I just did," Tom replies, raising an eyebrow at Cin. "You need it. For my sake, if not your own. I'm always convinced yours is gonna break down in the middle of nowhere and you'll be stranded and alone. It causes me a lot of stress."

Tom turns to look at Cin with pleading puppy eyes that he almost never tries. It's lucky, because he'd get away with a lot more if he did it more often. They're irresistible.

"Hey, I mean, if you don't want it…" Rachel trails off with her last bite of omelet halfway to her mouth.

"No." Cin holds the keys close to his chest. "My boyfriend, my car." He stands on tip-toes to kiss Tom's cheek. Tom blushes darker at that than the filthiest things Cin's ever said or done to him.

"We need to go in twenty minutes. Get dressed." Tom gives him a light tap in the direction of his bedroom, which Cin goes along with. He's still nervous about the whole graduation ceremony thing, but things are looking better already.

The car turns out to be a mid-sized SUV, which Cin initially argues is too much car for him, but Tom points out is big enough for him to carry his stuff around in. Rachel is, unsurprisingly, also on Tom's side.

Poppy is on Cin's side initially, as far as the unnecessary size goes, until she climbs into the front passenger seat and stretches her unreasonably long, gorgeous legs out. Then it's perfect and she spends the whole time from the airport to the ceremony plotting to get one of her own in the most obnoxious shade of pink she can get someone to respray it.

Cin has never, in his wildest dreams, expected not one, but three people he cared deeply about to attend his graduation. He wasn't actually expecting
anyone
to attend his graduation, except maybe Rachel, if hers wasn't at the same time. But when his name's called, there he is smiling and waving at, of all people, Tom and Poppy Walford and his best friend since he started school.

Tom is, as expected, embarrassingly loud and ends up drawing attention to himself, but most people manage to confine themselves to taking what they clearly think are surreptitious snapshots of him. Cin doesn't go out in public with Tom a lot, so he hasn't been exposed to Tom causing a stir just by virtue of being who he is. He's getting the feeling, though, that he'll be exposed to a lot more of it as their relationship becomes more and more public.

When Cin comes away from the stage, Tom's there with his arms outstretched, broad grin on his face, and Cin lets him pull him into a hug. A few people are still looking sideways at him, but most of them are focused enough on their own students not to stare. The few who do get treated to Poppy's best lawyer glare, which is a terrifying thing to be on the wrong side of.

"Am I obliged to tell you about all the job offers lining up after they saw your work in my office, or can I just assume you'll come work for me?" Tom murmurs to him. Cin blinks, not sure at first that he's heard right.

"People want to employ me? As an artist?"

Tom nods. "I show you off a lot and I know a lot of people who need artists for one reason or another. I promised them I'd tell you they wanted interviews when you graduated."

Rachel chuckles. "It really is about who you know, huh?"

"He's got jobs lined up for you, too," Poppy reveals casually. "He just wants to make a big dramatic thing of it."

"Thanks for that, Poppy. Someone remind me she did that closer to her birthday?"

"Which you have to come to this year." She pokes Cin in the ribs. "Since you can't argue that you've got too much school work to do. Thanksgiving, too."

Cin hated having to say no last year, but he'd been in a haze of final-year portfolio work since the fall. This year, he'd get the time off like a civilized person. Tom wouldn't put him forward for any jobs that'd interfere with them getting to see each other.

*~*~*

A week after graduation, there's a knock on the door, and Cin has a brief, playful argument with Tom about who should open it, which he loses, because it
is
his name on the lease and if it's someone looking for Tom, he'll only tell them to go away.

When he opens the door to see his mother standing on the other side, Cin's first instinct is to call frantically for Tom. The space of time between calling out and having Tom at his back could be three seconds or three minutes. Cin has no idea, because his brain shuts down. He's not ready for this. He needs Tom with him for this.

Cin's mom looks Tom up and down, eyes full of recognition, and then pushes past them both on her way into the apartment.

Cin turns and watches her look around, assessing his home and his life and choice of partner all in one long sweep of her gaze. Behind him, Tom puts a gentle hand on his shoulder. Which is good, because his knees are ready to buckle.

"Mom." He clears his throat to try to say something else, but nothing comes out.

Tom holds out his free hand in front of Cin, an offer of welcome to his mother. Cin doesn't
want
her to be welcome, but he also doesn't want an argument, so he says nothing and watches her shake it.

"You can call me Caroline."

"Tom." There's pleasantness in Tom's voice that Cin recognizes as the tone he uses with people he doesn't really want to be nice to, but also doesn't want to fight with. At least they're in agreement on that.

"Oh, I know who you are." Caroline waves him away and then drapes herself onto the couch like it's her own. "And I understand you're dating my daughter."

"Son," Tom corrects firmly. Caroline raises an eyebrow, but doesn't take up the point.

"Yes, and she's grown a beard. I suppose there's no accounting for taste."

Cin feels Tom tense up behind him. He reaches up to his shoulder to take hold of Tom's hand, squeezing lightly. "This is my problem," he murmurs, loud enough for his mother to hear. "You should go back to bed."

"Oh, but I want to meet the man who's stolen my baby's heart!" Caroline enthuses. "You're much more handsome in person."

"What do you want, Mother?" Cin's not in the mood to deal with her, and although he's wary of leaning on Tom's support, he has it right now and he's more comfortable relying on him than his biological family. The realization that he really doesn't need to be nice to her makes him square his shoulders and link his fingers with Tom's, who gets the hint and stays.

"I want you to come home. You've finished school and now everything can go back to normal." She smiles exactly the same way a wolf does when it decides it has you cornered, teeth bared and ready to lash out.

"That's unfortunate, because I promised Tom I'd move in with him in New York just this morning." He hasn't made any such promise. Tom asked him and told him to think about it a few days ago, especially since all the places Cin wants to work that Tom has contacts in are based there. Cin doesn't want to seem like he's making the decision to spite his mother, and he had already decided that he's going to accept, but the timing does send a thrill of vicious glee up his spine.

Caroline's whole expression changes in an instant. "But we need you at home!"

"Mmhmm." Cin nods. "To sit behind the reception desk in your failing real estate office, wearing a nice dress and smiling politely at old men who can't meet my eyes for staring at my tits? Don't think I've forgotten what it was like."

Tom makes a soft noise and grips Cin's hand tighter.

"Considering who you're sleeping with, I'd have thought you didn't really mind older men."

"Was that really your best effort at a comeback? You're slipping." Cin squeezes Tom's hand nervously. "Get out of my apartment before I call security."

"You're throwing your own mother out?" Caroline's eyes widen. She'd clearly expected just to walk in and drag Cin home, which he wasn't about to allow to happen.

"I seem to remember you throwing your own son out," Cin says sweetly. "I thought you'd appreciate the symmetry."

Tom steps out of the way to clear a path to the door, subtly taking Cin with him. Caroline looks between them, then stands and wrinkles her nose in what Cin imagines is genuine disgust that she can't hide any more. She heads for the door as she was asked, but pauses in front of it and points at them. "You are
both
perverts, and I'm going to let everyone know."

She storms out of the apartment in a swirl of designer coat before Cin gets a chance to ask exactly who she thinks 'everyone' is and in what way that could possibly affect his life. He walks on shaky legs to collapse onto the couch his mother just vacated.

"You okay?" Tom asks softly.
He
doesn't look okay, pale and stunned, but he comes to kneel on the floor beside Cin and takes his hand all the same. "You don't have to move in just 'cause you said you would."

"And yet, I still intend to." Cin squeezes Tom's hand. "You must think I'm awful, speaking to my mother like that."

"I mean, she's your mom and not mine, but she kinda didn't seem like the nicest person on Earth. I get it. Family's just something you're born with, sometimes."

Cin shakes his head. "You're my family. You, and Poppy, and Rachel. She's just my mom."

"What about your dad?"

Cin's never really talked about his family to Tom, and Tom's never asked before. It's understandable that he would now, though. "Worse. He would've swung for you, and to be honest, I love you, but I'd put my money on him."

Tom nods. "I would've gone down fighting."

"You certainly would've gone down." Cin smiles wryly. His father is taller than Tom, who isn't a small man, and very proud of being a champion wrestler in college.

"He ever hit you?" The question comes out like Tom's ready to cry just over the thought of it. Cin shakes his head again.

"No, never. Threatened to a few times, but that would've given me something to show. He's a smarter man than that. He would not take kindly to someone nearly his age touching his baby girl, though."

"Luckily for me, I'm not doing that. Because you're not his, you're not a baby, and you're definitely not a girl."

Cin beams and leans in to kiss Tom, intending to keep it a quick 'thank you', but lingering a moment longer, just to breathe in his scent and feel his warmth and reassure himself that Tom was still here.

"I think we deserve another hour in bed after all that." Cin stands and tugs Tom toward the bedroom.

*~*~*

"Can I tell you about my parents?" Tom reaches out lazily to stroke Cin's hair. Their extra hour in bed, which Cin completely intended to be innocent napping, turned quickly into comfort sex when Cin started crying. Right now, though, he's a whole lot more relaxed, and it's not as though either of them needs to be anywhere else.

"I'm a little disturbed that you were thinking about your parents during sex," Cin teases. "You can, if you want to."

Tom rolls over to face him, and while Cin realizes there can't be a lot of
good
to go with Tom's parents, it's around then he gets that this is going to be a more serious conversation than he imagined.

"I don't know if they're alive, or dead, or where they might live or whatever. Haven't talked to 'em in maybe fifteen years. More, probably."

Cin's mouth falls open. "I'm sorry."

Tom waves his hand at Cin to dismiss his concern. "Don't be. When you're my age, you might be saying the same thing." He lets his hand fall on Cin's thigh, stroking circles with his thumb. Cin wants to tell Tom he loves him, but he also doesn't want to derail the conversation, so he says nothing.

"Anyway," Tom continues. "Dad beat the crap out of me sometimes, but it was kind of okay then, y'know? Never touched Mom, but he didn't make her life easy, either. Drank a lot. Mom was miserable, and looking back, she was probably really sick, but she took it out on Poppy. Especially when she started talking about being a girl. That was…" Tom's voice breaks. Cin wants nothing more than to hug him and never let go.