Gay Kissing

There was something about the way he looked at me, something tender and kind. My vision, once blurry, focused on his face, his expression filled with concern. 

“Hey- you’re awake- what happened? Can you hear me?”

His voice was gentle and quiet as he spoke, and I let out a soft sigh as I closed my eye. The pain that I remembered was gone, and despite a strange feeling of emptiness, I was calm. 

“Wait- hey, come on-“ I felt his hand scoop under my cheek, bringing my face towards his. 

“Say something- I don’t care what…” I huffed, opening my eye again to look into his. 

“… Hey.”

My tone was much more exasperated than what it should have been, with my single word slurred and muddy. I saw the expression of the man above me soften, with a brief sigh escaping his lips. 

“Hey! Listen- uh, your arm is… Nevermind. You just fell through a portal into my house, so…” I groaned, and sat up, which surprised the man in front of me. He backed away, and cleared his throat. 

“… The rift device you have, it’s Arche’s, right? I tried to call him to let him know that you were here- uh, not that I really know who you are, but he wouldn’t answer.” I reached my left arm up to rub my eye, but paused, realizing that I couldn’t feel it at all. I paused, and looked down at where it should have been- in its place, there was a crudely healed stump. 

“You came here without your arm, and you bled everywhere, so I did my best to heal it…” I paused, and looked back at the man. 

“How long have I been asleep?” He shrugged, and sat down near me. 

“At least three hours now. I tried to heal your other wounds, but… I couldn’t.” I shrugged, and looked down at my one remaining arm. 

“That’s alright- you healed me? How?” The man held his hand out to mine, a faint blue glow emanating from his palm. 

“I’m a beholder! It just means I have magic and all of that- I’m guessing you don’t have those in your dimension?” I shook my head, a bit put off by the whole situation. 

“No, I don’t… How did I get here? I don’t remember opening a rift, or losing my arm…” The blonde next to me frowned, unsure.

“I wish I knew- I’m sorry, dude. But… I'm glad you’re alive?” He let out a weak chuckle, and I gave him a soft smile. 

“Thanks. I appreciate that you saved my life,” I murmured.

“I should ask, though- what’s your name? And what’s up with the horns?” He laughed, and shrugged. 

“My name’s Sammi - and these are just a part of me! I’m a demon. And a beholder - so that’s kind of special, I think,” he proudly explained. I nodded, and scooted closer to him. 

“Sammi? That’s a cute name. Fits you.” He paused, his cheeks turning a light pink. His face started to turn red in the way that all white people do when they’re flustered, and it was a little endearing. 

“Oh, uh, thank you? Uh…” He paused, trying to recover from the compliment. 

“What’s your name?” I flexed my one remaining arm to him, and showed him my wrist. 

“It’s Nick. Look, I got my own code too - not as impressive as magic, but it’s kind of a cool medical thing.” Sammi’s eye widened, his curiosity trapped behind his blue iris. 

“What’s it mean?” I slowly turned my wrist in the light, the tattoo shimmering and changing text. It showed a barcode-like tag, and then a symbol. 

“It means that I’ve got some kind of rare blood type - universal donor. I got it after I got into an accident and they found out when trying to treat me. I almost died,” I explained. 

“So if you ever need blood for anything - I have a lot of it, and it’s all ‘special’.” He smiled, and stifled a laugh. 

“A lot of it? I appreciate that, but you were just bleeding out on my carpet.” I paused, and bit the inside of my cheek. 

“… Oh. Right.”

He put his hand on my shoulder, his entire body warm to the touch. 

“Sorry. Maybe that was too soon,” he admitted. I shook my head. 

“Nah, you’re telling the truth. You have a nice house, by the way,” I chimed while looking around the room. It was a little dirty, with a guitar and drum set sloppily thrown in a corner, but most of it was clean. His TV was old, ancient, even - but that was probably just because I was from the future. Probably. 

His couch was on the other side of the room, with a few scratches and a bit of stuffing poking out towards the bottom. A small dog was curled up on one of the cushions, not caring about the noise that we made. Although it wasn’t really much anyways. I looked back at him, and he was grinning.

“You think so? I haven’t cleaned in forever- or had anybody over in awhile.” I shrugged. 

“Looks pretty good to me. Do you sing?” He paused, and slowly nodded. 

“Oh, uh, sometimes - why?” I glanced back over towards the guitar and drum set. 

“Just curious - most guys that I know who play guitar also sing. Adding you to my statistics list.” He laughed, and awkwardly rubbed his neck. 

“Ah, that makes sense.” We sat in silence for a moment, before he stood up. 

“Well, I was planning on making lunch- before all of this happened,” he admitted. I cringed. 

“Right, sorry.” He shook his head, immediately looking upset. 

“No, no- not your fault! I was just a bit busy. Plus, since you’re alive, it means I can cook for more than one person.” I felt a bit of excitement tug at my chest as I stood up, ready to help him cook. 

“I’ll help- it’s the least I can do after you saved my life. I promise I’m good at it,” I explained. He nodded, and awkwardly shrugged. 

“Oh, I was just gonna heat up a pizza.” 

I paused, and slowly nodded. 

Ah. Yeah, that’s fair. 

“I like pizza,” I assured him, “if you want, I can put it into your oven!” He smiled, relieved that I didn’t mind his choice of food. 

“Sure, just don’t burn yourself.” I let out a hum of acknowledgement as I walked towards his fridge, ready to grab the frozen pizza. He stood in the kitchen, awkwardly fumbling with his phone. 

“Oh, hey- I finally got a hold of Arche. Do you know him? Your portal thing kind of looks like his stuff, so-“ I shook my head quickly, and cleared my throat. 

“Who? No, I don’t know him,” my voice cracked when I spoke, and the demon suspiciously stared at me for a moment, before nodding. 

“… Ookayyyy…” 

I grabbed the pizza from the freezer, and opened the box after reading the instructions. Sammi kept looking at me as I anxiously turned on the oven, and I gulped. 

“I mean, If I did know him, it wouldn’t matter, right?” The demon paused, and shrugged. 

“I guess not- but you’re being really suspicious about it, so I’m guessing you do know him?” I paused, and coughed.

“What? No, no, I don’t know who you’re talking about… Uh, it’s just a weird question, and-“

“That’s his rift device you have, isn’t it.” 

I froze, and bit the inside of my cheek. Well, so much for that. 

“… Yeah.”

I went back to focusing on putting the pizza into the oven as he shrugged. 

“Okay. So, you don’t want him knowing that you’re here?” I shook my head.

“No, I’d really prefer if he didn’t-“

“Why?”

I bit the inside of my cheek, closing the oven door after sliding the pizza in. I avoided eye contact with Sammi for as long as possible. 

“… Uh…”

I could feel his gaze stay on me, as I wracked my brain trying to find an excuse. 

“He’s… I did something, and he…” I tried to cough up a coherent sentence, and failed. 

“He’s helping my brother after I fucked up and hurt my dad,” I explained vaguely. Sammi’s gaze softened as I turned to look back at him, and he put his hand on my shoulder. 

“Oh, hey, that’s alright- he kind of helped me with my shitty dad too,” the demon explained. I was a bit surprised, and my eye widened. 

“He did?”

“Yeah. My dad kind of sucked,” he laughed.

“So I get it. Sometimes you gotta… I don’t know. Fight back.” I nodded slowly, and sighed. 

“I did- I just feel bad, you know? I made such a big deal out of it.” Sammi patted my back, his smile gentle and kind. 

“It’s alright. I literally exploded on my dad once, so, it could be worse,” he half-joked. I smiled. 

“Damn. That’s kind of brutal.” He awkwardly shrugged. 

“I didn’t mean to, stuff just gets out of hand sometimes. I still feel bad about that, even though he probably deserved it. You know what I mean.” I nodded. 

“I think I do,” I replied. He rubbed my shoulder gingerly, and I scooted closer to him. It was soothing, a kind of pleasant touch that I hadn’t felt from a man before. I leaned into it, probably too much - but he didn’t seem to mind. 

“Thanks,” I murmured. He smiled. 

“Sure thing! You probably need a break anyways.” I nodded, my heart pushing against my ribs at a faster pace than normal. This was the first time in my life that I had felt loved like this. 

“Yeah- uh, I can breathe now too. Did you fix my ribs?” The demon shrugged. 

“Probably, although I didn’t really know that they were broken. I just tried to heal as much of your body as I could, so I’m glad it worked,” he admitted with a soft laugh. I nodded. 

“I am too. You, uh… you didn’t see my face, did you?” He paused, and I could feel him sigh. 

“I wasn’t trying to look, but… Yeah. I knew that I probably couldn’t undo all of that scar tissue, but I wanted to give it a shot - you aren’t bad looking under all of that hair.” I shrugged, staring at the pizza in the oven. 

“That's nice, but you don’t have to lie about it. I’m missing an entire side of my face.” Sammi shook his head.  

“What does that matter? I’m missing an eye too- it doesn’t make me ugly!” I stifled a laugh, and shook my head. 

“You couldn’t be ugly even if your face got hit by a truck.” He blushed, and cleared his throat. 

“I, uh… Thank you, but you aren’t ugly either. You’re handsome, in a manly way.” I glanced back at the demon, amused. 

“You think I’m manly? In this outfit?” He nodded, firm with his wording. 

“Yup! You look like an assassin, dude. It’s kind of sick.” A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. 

“Thanks. My dad thought that my outfit was gay.” The demon pat me on the back, before taking his hand off of me. 

“Well, I think your dad sucks, and that being gay is cool.” I nodded in agreement, and moved to rest my head on his shoulder. 

“Hm. You think so?” He paused, and cleared his throat a bit awkwardly. 

“Yeah! I do… I’m kind of cool,” he admitted, a bit anxious. My stomach flooded with butterflies as I realized that I had a shot with this guy - and although it was probably too early to try to go for anything, I might as well reciprocate the sentiment. 

“Oh, I’m very cool,” I explained suavely. 

“I’m so cool, I make other guys cooler just by being around them.” The demon laughed a bit awkwardly, and looked away. 

“Good to know- if I ever want to be cool, I’ll ask you for help then,” he joked. My cheeks turned a deep red. 

“You can ask me anytime,” I replied. He paused, his face pink and flustered. Nice. 

“I, uh- maybe I will.” I nodded with a grin, and looked back towards the over. I watched as the pizza’s cheese turned a light brown at the edges. 

“… You can ask me after dinner, if you want.”

Sammi paused, and took a quick breath in. I turned to face him, my heart pounding in my chest. 

“Here,” I began, “let me show you.”

I took his hand into mine, and after a moment, I leaned in and gave him a brief kiss on the cheek. His face went from a light pink to a deep red, as he cleared his throat.  

“That was…  You’re…” He let out an awkward laugh, as I shrugged. 

“Sorry, I just wanted to kiss you.” My admission felt a little desperate, and corny - but he seemed to find it endearing. 

“I’m… I’m glad that you like me enough to kiss me,” he admitted. I smiled. 

“Yeah, I do.” I continued to hold his hand in mine, as my eye met his gaze. 

“Thanks for that,” he replied. I nodded. 

“Any time.” I nearly pulled away, but he held my hand and squeezed it. He took a deep breath, and looked down at the floor in embarrassment. 

“… What about all the time?” I paused, and stared at him in disbelief. Already?

“Yeah,” I replied with a grin, “all the time works for me.”