Chapter 2: Chapter 2
“Yaz!” Ali called again.
Silence. And a strange silence. There was a familiar blue bag open in the living room doorway—Harry’s baby bag. Yazid must have been babysitting little Tanya, but the silence said the noisy toddler was long gone. The washing machine was humming to itself in the kitchen, and the post had been cleared off the mat but…still silence. No boyfriend. Huh.
Ali shrugged and headed upstairs. He’d probably gone to the shops, or popped out for a drink with Kevin and Harry. Yazid was slowly getting more sociable now, and it meant he was irregular sometimes. Ali shrugged out of his work shirt and rummaged for a T-shirt, intending to change, text him, and go and join him in wherever-today-ville. If he couldfind a clean T-shirt so close to laundry day, but anything was better than the itchy crap work made him wear, and—
“Gotcha!”
Ali shrieked as claw-like hands seized around his waist and he was bodily hoisted into the air. “Fuck!” he yelled, writhing, but Yazid had momentum and glee on his side, and dumped Ali gracelessly on their bed. Ali squirmed, twisting over only just in time before his out-of-control other half followed, and he was trapped between Yazid and the mattress.
“Hi,” Yazid said, and beamed.
“Bastard!” Ali retorted, shoving at that chest, then groaned as a hot mouth found his jugular and sucked. “Urgh. Still a bastard.”
“Mm,” Yazid hummed. He smiled against Ali’s skin before pushing up on his elbows and grinning at Ali from close range. “How was work?”
“Less fun than this,” Ali said, grinning back in spite of himself. His head was spinning a little, but Yazid was a warm anchor, and Ali didn’t mind being off-kilter if Yazid was around. He was weirdly calming, for such a manic freak.
“Mm, and no shirt, lucky me,” Yazid pointed out, dropping his head briefly to kiss Ali’s chest. He was damp and hot, fresh out the shower, and Ali hummed at the pleasant sensation. “To what do I owe the honour?”
“I was changing, then you and your grabby hands interrupted,” Ali said snottily, wriggling his own hands free until he could cup them around the base of Yazid’s neck and pull his face in for a kiss. “Mm.” This was a game—what had Yazid cooked at work today? Sometimes it was easy, and sometimes…“Were you experimenting?”
“Yup. New menu,” Yazid said, and cocked his head. “You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?”
A cool feeling began to inch its way up inside Ali’s chest. “Er…”
“Today? The twenty-second? Anniversary?”
Ali’s face flooded with heat. “Oh my God…I—I am so sorry, I just…today was so busy at work, and then I went straight to the blood drive, and…”
Yazid laughed. Yazid did a lot of that these days, and it was so powerful to see the flash of teeth and the creases that formed around his mouth that the stumbling excuses were stopped in their tracks.
“Don’t worry, just remember now, fake you knew all along, and let’s get ready to go out.”
Ali ran both hands through that thick, dark hair and watched it ripple under his fingers and fall back into place. “Go out where?”
“Wherever,” Yazid said.
“Wherever? What a plan.”
“You and me and plenty of sucking face—and other stuff, if you fancy it.”
Ali rolled his eyes, and rolled them over to bracket Yazid’s waist with his knees, push back that fluffy hair, and kiss his temple. “You’re mental,” he half-praised, half-scolded. “It’s the anniversary, we have to go somewhere. And be romantic and shit.”
Yazid’s grin softened. “A whole year.”
Ali felt a matching smile start to spread across his own face, and stroked his fingers through Yazid’s hair yet again. It had grown back in even thicker than before, glossy like it, too, was celebrating the win. One year. Twelve months. Three hundred and sixty-five days since that very first negative test result.
And every single one of them waiting for the break to be over, and…and yet the test results kept coming back clear. Again and again. And Ali hardly dared hope it was over, but…
“I am,” he whispered, “so fucking proud of you.”
“For what?”
“For beating it,” Ali murmured, and dropped a light, open kiss on the corner of Yazid’s mouth. “For winning. And staying with me, despite all the shit that came with me, and…just winning.”
Yazid shook his head faintly. “What shit?”
Ali rolled his eyes. “Uh, you know what shit.”
“Yeah, but your crazy fucknut of a brother aside…I needed you to beat it. Wouldn’t have done it without you.”
Ali’s flash of humour subsided, and he stared avidly at Yazid’s face, as though re-learning it. “Love you,” he whispered.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone