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Title: Laughter is the best
medicine - Part One.
Fox sighed crossly. No way
would Alex ignore Walter’s instructions to come inside out of the sun if he
were here. Shrugging, he left Alex lying in the garden. Serve him right if he
turned pink.
Alex sighed as he turned
onto his side, reaching for the sun tan cream. Although he wasn’t worried about
Fox’s constant nagging, he was worried that Walter would come home unexpectedly
and check the level of liquid in the bottle.
He looked at his watch and
realized it had been two hours since he had re-applied the thick white cream,
and four hours since he had laid face down, his head pillowed on his arms. And only about two minutes since the last time Fox had reminded him
not to let himself burn.
‘Do my back Fox, pleeseeee.’ Alex purred. He smiled to himself as, a moment later, Fox got up from his chair and came across, kneeling
beside Alex.
‘Um, Alex, you’re really
red. Maybe you should go inside.’
‘Fox!’ Alex snapped. ‘You’re just jealous cos I tan and you burn.’
Fox stood up. ‘Alex, you’re
burned. You missed most of your back and it’s really red. Go inside.’
Huffing, Alex twisted round,
trying to see if Fox was lying. ‘Omigod!!’
Fox nodded with an ‘I told
you so’ look and helped Alex up from the sun lounger. ‘Go inside. I’ll put some
after sun stuff on it. Maybe it’ll cool down.’
Alex could hear from Fox’s
doubtful tone that it wasn’t likely, but he walked slowly inside, legs shaky.
Forget the pain of the sunburn. Walter was going to be *really* angry.
************************
Walter was really exhausted.
The office had been hot and stuffy, the car not much better and he was looking
forward to sitting in the cool living room with an ice-cold beer…
Being met on the doorstep by
one of the two younger men he lived with was *not* good. Frowning, he asked
quickly: ‘Fox, what’s wrong?’
‘Alex is burned.’
All thoughts of beer pushed
from his mind, Walter looked around. ‘Where is he?’
‘Upstairs. Walter, I tried…’
Fox sighed as he followed Walter upstairs.
Alex lay on his stomach, the
blue oily sheen of the after-sun gel doing little to hide the several patches
of bright red flesh across his upper back. He sniffled and whimpered as Walter
examined him carefully, picking up the phone with one hand, the other resting
on Fox’s thigh.
‘Dana, it’s
Walter…yeah…Alex is sunburned…yeah, Fox did that…okay thanks. Bye.’
‘Dana says to keep applying
the gel until the skin is cool to the touch and to keep your fluid levels up
and your stomach empty in case you need to…well, let’s see how you are in a
couple of hours.’
Fox handed Alex the
half-empty glass of chilled water and took it from Alex when he had almost
drained it, taking it downstairs to refill it.
Walter sighed angrily.
‘Alex, what did I say before I left for my meeting this morning?’
‘Um…goodbye?’ Alex tried hopefully.
‘I *said* Alex, don’t stay
out past eleven in the garden and make sure you each apply the other’s sun
lotion.’
‘Fox kept putting too much
on!’ Alex griped.
‘Better too much than none
at all Alex!’ Walter growled. ‘And why did you stay out past eleven?’
‘I fell asleep.’ Alex
pouted.
Walter took hold of Alex’s
wrist. ‘This watch has an alarm.’
‘I hurt Walter. I really
hurt.’
Walter got up. ‘I know Alex.
But you were stupid, and you have only yourself to blame.’
Alex sniffled into his
pillow as Walter gently re-applied the cooling gel, trying not to scream as
Walter stroked the stuff across his most burned patches.
Fox’s reappearance, with a
fresh glass of chilled water, together with a couple of magazines, seemed to calm
Walter a little and Alex was grateful Fox didn’t seem interested in teasing him
over his stupidity. In fact, he seemed more concerned than amused. Alex lay his damp cheek on the cool cotton pillowcase and closed
his eyes.
Sighing, Walter walked to
the door, looking back at the small form on the huge bed. Shaking his head he
descended the stairs taking a deep breath before walking into the living room,
already thinking about comforting the other person in his life.
To be continued... (writing it now!)
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