An Unexpected Guest

 

By AJ

 

 

Adam  hummed softly to himself as he retrieved his suitcase from the baggage carousel and headed toward long-term parking. Business trips were a part of his job but this one had been longer than usual - almost two weeks - and he was anxious to get home.

 

Everyone else seemed to feel the same way. They had rushed through the last day's agenda with very little of the interdepartmental bickering and political maneuvering that normally accompanied these meetings. As a result he had managed to catch an evening flight instead of waiting until the next morning.

 

As soon as his convertible cleared the parking garage he stopped and pulled out his cell phone, intending to call Seb and have him open a bottle of wine and prepare a light snack. He was ravenous.

 

The phone rang four times before asking him to leave a message after the beep and he frowned at his own phone as if it were the culprit. When he tried Seb's cell and it went straight to voicemail, the frown deepened. Seb was grounded; there was no reason for an unanswered phone.

 

His good mood, already evaporating, went up in smoke when he pulled into the driveway and realized every light in the house was on. "Seb!" he shouted as he entered the front door, only to be brought up short by his first sight of the living room. It looked as if it had been ransacked. Every flat surface was littered with debris, including the floor. Cans, bottles and empty fast food wrappers warred for space with cd's, dvd cases and game controllers while every available chair was covered with blankets and clothes. A second  heap of sheets and blankets was dumped on the couch.

 

"Seb!" he shouted again, picking his way through the wreckage, turning off excess lights as he went. There was no one in the kitchen, although there was ample evidence that Seb had been there at some point. A lone slice of desiccated pizza clung to its cardboard box amid a welter of beer bottles, coke cans, empty microwave boxes and dirty dishes.

 

Something crunched underfoot and he looked down to see that he was standing on a mound of potato chips spilling out of a bag split down its seam. "SEBASTIAN!"

 

He headed up the stairs, his feet sticking on every tread, past the pile of wet towels outside the bathroom door, past the pile of dirty socks and underwear outside the bedroom door and into the master bedroom.

 

"Sebastian!" He ripped the covers off the man sprawled across the bed, pillow over his head. "What the hell-- WHO the hell??"

 

The lanky blond spread-eagled across the bed in naked glory was clearly not his lithe, graceful partner.

 

"Where's Seb?" he demanded.

 

"I 'unno," the stranger mumbled, fumbling for the beer can on the table next to the bed.

 

Adam plucked it out of his reach, scowling at the ugly ring on the antique wood as he did. Recognizing that he wasn't going to get a coherent answer, he headed for the guest room.

 

"Sebastian!' He ripped the covers off the man sprawled across the bed, pillow over his head. "JOSH?? Where the hell is Seb?"

 

"Shh." Seb's closest friend looked up at him blearily. "Don' shout."

 

"I'm going to do more than shout if someone doesn't tell me where Seb is!" Adam threatened.

 

The slamming of the front door and a jubilant "Adam! You're home!" answered his question. He walked out into the hall as Seb bounded up the stairs and hugged him enthusiastically. "God, I missed you! Adam?" Seb drew back at his unenthusiastic response. "You're mad, aren't you?"

 

"Let's see. For starters, you didn't answer either phone." Adam began ticking items off on his fingers. "The house looks like a tornado has been through it, there's a naked man in our bed and you've evidently forgotten the definition of the word 'grounded'. Why on earth would I be angry, Sebastian?"

 

"But there's a perfectly logical explanation for all of it," Seb assured him nervously.

 

"And I can't wait to hear it."

 

Seb shifted his weight from foot to foot, obviously having second thoughts about the credibility of his explanation.

 

Adam sighed and took charge once more. "Go down to the study and find a corner. I'll be down in a few minutes."

 

As Seb trudged down he stairs he had bounded up a few moments earlier, Adam went back through the master bedroom to the bath and got the ibuprofen out of the medicine cabinet and downed three of them.

 

 

Seb leaned his forehead against the wall, wondering, as he usually did at this point, how in the hell he had gotten himself into this mess. At least he had been smart enough to lock the door so Adam's refuge wasn't trashed. It was the only thing he had done right, he thought bitterly. He straightened up guiltily as Adam entered the room. Poor Adam. What a homecoming. The guilt increased.

 

/And so much for the hot reunion sex,/ a little voice in the back of his head jeered.

 

/Shut up,/ he muttered fiercely. /I feel bad enough already./

 

"All right, Seb. Why don't you sit down and give me your logical explanation now?" Adam directed, oblivious to the conversation in Seb's head.

 

As he sat across the desk from Adam, Seb felt like a candidate interviewing for a job he wasn't qualified for - worse, one with numerous fallacies in his application and no idea how to answer the question. "Where do you want me to start?"

 

"Maybe with the strange man in our bed?" Adam suggested mildly.

 

"That's my cousin Cameron. He called the other day and said he was at the bus station and he was out of money and needed a place to stay while he wired his sister for more. I couldn't say no, Adam. He's family."

 

"But why our bed? Why didn't you put him in the guest room?"

 

"Because Josh is in the guest room. He called and said he had a fight with Greg and needed a place to stay for a few days. I couldn't say no, Adam. He's my best friend. And Cam said he can't sleep on the couch," Seb anticipated the next question," because he's taller than me and it makes his back hurt. So I gave him our bed and I took the couch. And then things got kind of out of  control."

 

His speech quickened as injured feelings took over. "All they want to do is sit around and drink beer and watch movies and play video games. They won't help with anything and we ran out of groceries and neither one had any money to help pay for more but they both gave me a list and they won't help clean up and  I wish they'd just get the hell out but when I told them that somehow they ended up being the victims!"

 

Adam sighed. "And you thought buying your friends beer was more important than obeying me about being grounded?"

 

"Cam isn't my friend, he's my cousin," Seb corrected bitterly. "And if I hadn't gone to the store they would have and I wasn't trusting them with my car."

 

"Why didn't you tell me about this when I talked to you yesterday? And why didn't you answer the phone when I called?"

 

Seb stared at the floor. "Because I knew you'd be mad and I didn't want to ruin your trip," he mumbled. "I thought I could handle it and they'd be gone before you got home. And I did start cleaning up, I was doing laundry, and I was going to make them leave in the morning, I swear."

 

"So you ignored the call from me tonight?"

 

"No!" Seb sounded shocked at the very idea. "I'd never ignore a call from you! I didn't get it. Cam unplugged all the phones because the ringing distracted him during his video game."

 

"And your cell phone?"

 

"It doesn't work anymore. Cam borrowed it to call his girlfriend and stuck it in his pocket and when he went to the bathroom it fell out and my cell insurance doesn't cover water damage. But he said he'll replace it as soon as Western Union gives him his money."

 

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose and wondered if it was too soon for more ibuprofen.

 

"Are you-- I'm sorry, Adam. I didn't mean for it to happen."

 

"You didn't mean for it to happen but you didn't stop it, either." Adam was implacable.

 

"I didn't know how!"

 

"Answer one more question for me," Adam requested. "Are you really a totally helpless victim here or were you having a good time, too? At least part of the time?"

 

Seb's bowed head and refusal to meet Adam's eyes were answer enough.

 

"Go ahead and get your pants off. I'll be back in a few minutes."

 

Ignoring the frantic protests behind him, he quickly ran up the stairs where he checked to see that both guests were still comatose and got a clean t-shirt and pair of soft flannel sleeping pants for Seb.

 

"Adam, you can't!" his partner continued his protest as soon as the older man walked back into the study. "Not with people in the house!"

 

"Neither one is going to wake up before morning but we'll lock the door just in case." He suited action to words, then sat down on the straight-backed chair and held out his hand. "Come on, sweetheart. Let's get this over with."

 

As Seb unwillingly lay across his knees, Adam adjusted the younger man's position so that  he was held tightly against Adam's stomach.. He pushed Seb's navy sweat shirt up, revealing the soft perfect swell of his buttocks - buttocks Adam had had other plans for tonight - and rested a hand against them while he took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for the ordeal ahead.

 

The first swat landed hard across both cheeks and Seb jumped and yelped at the impact. As the hand unerringly tattooed every inch of his butt, he began to squirm frantically, trying to get away from the punishment.

 

"Adam, stop!" he begged. "I'm sorry, I was wrong, I screwed up, it hurts, please stop!"

 

He struggled to reach back and block the punishing swats but Adam caught the flailing hand and held it firmly as he continued the process of turning the exposed skin an even red.

 

Seb was breathing hard, struggling to hold back his sobs, tears running down his cheeks and dripping to the floor, by the time Adam applied three hard swats to the curve of his upturned butt and released him.

 

"I'm sorry, Adam," he whimpered as he slid to the floor next to the chair.

 

"Shh, it's all right, babe," Adam lifted the younger man to his lap, carefully protecting the poor butt he had so severely chastised.

 

"I didn't mean to!"

 

"Shh, I know. It's over now." Adam soothed and comforted, cuddled and petted until the tears had died away to an occasional shuddering breath. Then he set Seb on his feet and stood up. "Stay here and get ready for bed," he ordered gently. "I'll be right back."

 

His first stop was the living room where he cleared the couch with one sweep of his arm. Then upstairs, where he cleared the covers from the bed with the same single movement. He was wrestling Cam to his feet when a movement in the doorway caught his eye.

 

"Didn't I tell you to wait downstairs?" he asked the dark-haired man hovering there like an uncertain ghost.

 

Seb gulped and nodded mutely but held his ground.

 

"Go get some clean sheets, then," he ordered, unable to resist the appeal in the tear-drenched eyes.

 

As Seb moved to obey, Adam yanked Cam upright. "Come on, sleeping beauty," he grunted as he half-walked, half-carried the stumbling, whining man downstairs and dumped him on the couch. "I hope you wake up with a killer hangover *and* a backache that makes you look like a pretzel!" he growled before heading back upstairs.

 

Together he and Seb remade the bed and got into it, where Seb immediately attached himself to Adam like a limpet, resting his head on Adam's chest with an audible sigh.

 

"I love you," he whispered.

 

"I love you, too," Adam replied, tenderly stroking his hair. "Go to sleep, babe. It will all be better in the morning."

 

As Seb slipped into sleep, Adam's stomach rumbled. He briefly considered getting up for a snack but his memory of the kitchen dissuaded him. Instead, he wrapped his arms more firmly about Seb, listening to the soft gentle breathing until he too slid into a deep, dreamless sleep.

 

The End