“Did he…uh…”
“Did he what?”
“Have a boyfriend? Before, I mean?”
“That’s something I’m going to let the two of you discuss.” Erik pulled a cigarette from his pocket, followed by a lighter. He placed the butt between his lips, lit it, then inhaled the sweet nicotine before offering it to Dakota, who promptly shook his head. “I’ll tell you something right now, just so you won’t have to wonder about it—he didn’t screw around.”
“Thanks for telling me.”
“I’m not sure if the two of you’ve done it or not, but I’m just letting you know. Jamie’s a good, honest guy.”
“We haven’t,” Dakota admitted quietly. He felt a blush creeping into his cheeks shortly after he said it. “Should I be embarrassed for admitting that?”
“I don’t care. Besides, I figured Jamie wouldn’t have done it with you anyway. It takes ages for him to do anything, let alone have sex.”
“I appreciate what you did for us last night, Erik. I really mean that.”
Erik flicked the ashes from the cigarette over the side of the tower railing and cursed as the cigarette went out. “Stupid move on my part.”
“It’s just a cigarette,” Dakota smiled.
“We’re running low on them too. They won’t last forever.”
Dakota shrugged.
He took his seat in one of the two chairs in the first tower, set his hands in his lap, and closed his eyes.
He used to love the rain.
Hours later, after Dakota and Erik returned from their watch posts, a storm began to blow in. Hail buffeted the building and a sickly growl began in the distance. It first began as a low, throaty sound, echoing ever so softly like a cat when working up to a hiss, then eventually began to snarl like dogs in a courtyard. This snarl eventually turned into a chorus of banging hammers until, finally, the true noise came, the sound that shook the earth and threw Dakota slightly off balance.
“It’s a big one,” Dustin said, emerging from his room to look out the bay windows.
“Yeah,” Dakota agreed, “it is.”
Each clink-clink of the hail made him grimace. It sounded like glass slowly breaking under the immense pressure of an underwater laboratory.
And then the sharks will come.
He chuckled at the thought.
“Something funny?” Dustin asked.
“Not really,” Dakota smiled, content with the image inside his head. “Just thinking to myself.”
“Hopefully this doesn’t get any worse. We don’t want flooding.”
“Arcburrow doesn’t have a flooding problem.”
“Not when the sewer was maintained.”
Dakota swallowed a lump in his throat. It’d been bad enough during the first few weeks, when the sewer systems were slowly overfilling with waste in the absence of human attention. Thankfully, the rain had managed to wipe away most of the smell, but not without flooding smaller, suburban areas at the bottoms of hills.
Does Arcburrow’s sewer go up or down?
He didn’t know. Even if he wanted to, he probably wouldn’t pursue it. Just thinking about it made him want to gag.
A clap of thunder shook him out of his thoughts.
“I feel for whoever’s out there right now,” the older man murmured, running his fingers through the length of beard on his chin.
Dakota smirked. Apparently, Dustin had no idea that it was Kirn and Wills out in the towers freezing their asses off and getting pelted by hail and rain.
I shouldn’t be thinking like that.
Still, he reveled in what Kirn and Wills’ arrogance had gotten them. They were, after all, the only two who’d complained about the shortened schedules. Let them sit out in the cold and rain—he didn’t care.
“Hey,” Jamie said, offering a slight wave as he came up the stairs. “Quite a storm we’ve got here.”
“I’d say,” Dustin said. “How are you, sir?”
“Better, thanks.”
“Glad to hear it.” The man yawned and stretched his arms over his head. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I should probably get going. I’d like to catch up on some sleep before I have to go out in that hellacious weather.”
“Sleep well,” Jamie smiled. Dustin nodded and disappeared into his and Michael’s room. When he was sure that no one was around, Jamie stepped forward and gently pressed his lips to Dakota’s forehead. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” Dakota smiled. “We probably shouldn’t be doing this in public.”
“What?”
“PDA.”
Jamie blushed and ran his fingers through his hair.
“I’m not worried about me,” Dakota said. “I’m worried about you.”
“Honestly, I couldn’t give a fuck about what anyone thinks right about now.”
“Me neither, but I don’t think it’ll reflect kindly on you if we’re caught together.”
“Who’s going to bitch? Kirn and Wills?” Dakota shrugged. Jamie laughed and slapped his arm in response. “Seriously, Dakota, I could give a flying fuck about their opinion. All they’ve been doing is giving me shit since…well, you know.”
“I’d say you can’t really blame them, but you kind of have to.”
“I just wish they’d cooperate with me, that’s all.”
“I know.” Dakota frowned when the rain began to lessen. He sighed shortly after. “I don’t know what to tell you. You’ll figure something out.”
“You’re not disappointed in me, are you?”
“No. I understand your situation.”
“But you’re not happy with it, are you?”
“I’d be lying if I said I was.”
“DADT really fucked me up,” Jamie said, leaning back against the banister. He took a look behind his shoulder—most likely to look for prying ears, but also to check if he might fall—then turned his attention back on Dakota. “I’ve always been pretty good about hiding who I am. I guess you could even go so far as to say I’m ‘straight acting,’ if you want to call it that, though I never really denied who I was. I just didn’t talk about it much. When I joined the army though, I had to play by their rules. Their way or the highway, you know?”
“I understand.”
“I’m on the fence. Right now, I’m pretty much at the point where I’m ready to just say fuck it and not hide anymore, because it’s the end of the world and I’m not about to let some dickwad dictate who I can and can’t sleep with. I understand where you’re coming from. It’s the only thing keeping me from doing just that.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about it,” Dakota said.
“You’re not out to anyone, are you?”
“Other than you, Steve, Erik and Ian? No. I told Alexis, but that was only because I didn’t want her to freak out when I was looking her over.”
“Which she probably did anyway,” Jamie laughed. “Most girls don’t think you’re gay if you’re trying to get them naked.”
Laughing, Dakota leaned against the wall and tried to gain his composure, hoping that the sound wouldn’t echo off the walls and attract any unwanted attention. It took him a few minutes to stop—and it took him even longer to recover from a coughing fit he endured whilst trying to do so—but he finally managed to get a hold of himself and looked Jamie straight in the eyes. “Sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about. It’s always a good thing to laugh.”
Dakota couldn’t agree more.
He started worrying about his current situation the night Steve knocked on his door. Alone, dressed-down for the night and unsure who might be knocking at this ungodly hour, Dakota rose from his place on the bed and crossed the room, sighing when he saw it was only his friend coming to check on him.