(Closed to Gabe - Sirens Gone Wild plot~)

[freefromsin]

Caleb wakes up with the overwhelming feeling that he needs to see Gabe.

It's one step away from thinking Gabe is in trouble, that urgent. There's no explanation, but the panic, the desperation, the longing are a physical ache in his chest that's impossible to ignore. He scrambles from bed, pulling on shoes while stumbling for the bathroom to take a quick piss. He manages a five second teeth brushing, but doesn't bother with his hair. He went to bed in cotton shorts and a tank top and he figures he's dressed well enough, he doesn't have time to change, he has to go.

He slips quickly and silently out of the house. It's pouring but that doesn't stop him from sprinting down the driveway to the sidewalk. It's a brisk five or ten minute jog to Mira's house, and surely the most exercise he's had in awhile, but he hardly notices. He's panting and drenched by the time he reaches their block. Shivering, he rubs a frantic hand over the back of his neck; it's early and he doesn't want to piss Mira's family off by knocking at the door and potentially waking anyone up, but he needs Gabe. Gabe needs him, he just knows it.

After some manic pacing in front of Mira's house, he finally walks to the porch and gives a determined knock. Or two.

...Three when no one answers right away.

Comments

[freefromsin]

"Oh, that's-- you can keep that," Caleb says, trying to keep from blushing. He likes to think of Gabe wearing it, even if he never does.

"Thanks. That's really nice of them." He gives Gabe a tiny smile and shuffles into the kitchen to figure out how to make a coffee.

[overdrawing]

Gabe pauses, surprised but grateful, "Are you sure? I know you don't have a lot of stuff right now." But he wants so badly to keep that shirt, to wrap it around himself and pretend that things are okay.

"They're too nice to me," he admits. "I don't think I do enough to earn it."

[freefromsin]

Caleb looks over his shoulder with a smile. "Yeah, I'm sure. I still have your sweatshirt, so it's a fair trade. Besides, I like my clothes baggy." Which is probably the only reason his flannel even fits Gabe, who's so much taller than he is.

"Sometimes people just like to be nice, Gabe." He picks out a little flavor cup and turns the machine on.

[overdrawing]

"Oh, I wondered what I did with that," Gabe says, smiling faintly. It's hard to suppress the mental image of Caleb in a sweatshirt that's too big for Gabe. On his friend, it must drown him. "You keep it too."

[freefromsin]

"Okay," Caleb says, grinning. "I promise I won't keep what I borrow right now, though. I probably shouldn't take all your clothes." He pulls the wet tank top over his head, grateful to get the cold, chafing piece of clothing off.

[overdrawing]

"Good, because I don't have that many to borrow." He has five days' worth of clothes that he cleans fastidiously, often in the sink of the guest room's en suite so as not to occupy their laundry room unduly.

He's about to say as much and then Caleb stands there shirt less and Gabe has to bite his lip for a second.

[freefromsin]

Caleb is just innocently waiting for a dry shirt, that's all.

...Okay, so maybe he knows what he's doing, and maybe he just likes flirting with Gabe. But it's totally harmless. He smiles, conveying the harmlessness of no shirts.

"If there's a dryer I can use, I can even get the clothes back to you before I leave." He takes hold of the waistband of his cotton shorts like he's going to take them off now, too.

(He isn't, but he wants to see if he can make Gabe blush.)

[overdrawing]

Gabe's mouth goes a little dry and he hurriedly looks away, busying himself with getting clothes. He can feel it now, curling in his stomach, that he wants and he cannot act on this. It's a sin and, worse, Gabe doesn't trust his powers not to flare up. If he accidentally coerces Caleb into something because of his own flawed nature, he doesn't think he could live with himself.

"Yes, it's right here. Follow me." Gripping them a little too tightly, Gabe pushes a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt at him.

[freefromsin]

"Thanks," Caleb says, keeping his gaze locked on Gabe's as he slowly takes the clothes from him. Gabe isn't very good at hiding anything, and it only makes Caleb want him more. But he can wait. The last thing he wants is for Gabe to freak out again and run away. He only hopes that by the time Gabe is comfortable with himself, he'll still like Caleb.

Caleb follows him to the laundry room and closes the door behind him so he can change clothes and toss the wet ones in the dryer. He returns, padding out of the room in too-long pants and a baggy shirt, hair damp and mouth curled in a lazy smile.

"Is the coffee ready?"

[overdrawing]

"Yeah it's there," he starts, trying to compose himself as he goes over and retrieves Caleb's cup. In the space it takes to turn back and face him, Gabe thinks he's affected a transformation. Caleb is in pajama pants that hang off him comically, but there's something about his smile...

"Caleb, please don't look at me like that," Gabe pleads.

He already lured him once. If he loses control, he won't forgive himself.

[freefromsin]

Caleb stops in his tracks. He blinks, caught off guard, and his smile dims. "Like what?" he asks. He hadn't been trying to flirt or look at Gabe in any certain way this time.

[overdrawing]

"Like..." Like he wants Gabe. His whole stomach tightens and he shakes his head a little. "I already lured you here. I-If you look at me like that, I might do it again."

It's a weak excuse for his own lack of restraint and he knows it, but the idea that he might lose his grip and hurt Caleb makes him feel ill.

[freefromsin]

Caleb's eyes seach Gabe's face. "I don't get it. I'm already here. What, you're gonna lure me five feet closer?"

What would happen if he did? All Caleb could really remember from earlier was that it had filled him with an urgency to see Gabe, how could it affect him any further if he was already in the room? Was there more to it?

[overdrawing]

"More like what if I lured you into kissing me or something? What if that's what I did...before." It's the first time he's really alluded to their night in the hotel room. "If I force you to feel something and it's not real that..."

That would make him despicable.

[freefromsin]

"Me wanting to kiss you isn't some accidental magic," Caleb says, cutting Gabe off. It comes out harsher than he meant it to.

"I wanted to kiss you for years," he continues, stepping closer of his own sound mind. "I wanted to kiss you while you were hundreds of miles away. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work that way."

[overdrawing]

At first he flinches and then Gabe listens, freezing in place because he doesn't know what to do. There's a low, warm buzzing in his head and it keeps telling him that how could this possibly be wrong?

"And now...?"

[freefromsin]

Caleb's eyes flicker from Gabe's mouth, to his eyes, and back. He closes the distance between them, pinning Gabe back against the counter, grabbing the edges on either side of Gabe's body so he'll keep his hands off him. "I still want to," he murmurs.

"You stopped the spell earlier, right? Stop it again if you think that's what this is."

[overdrawing]

Gabe can't miss the way Caleb's eyes dart over him, even as all of his ingrained beliefs fight against every instinct to close the space between them. Underneath all of it, too, Gabe is afraid that this isn't real. Either it's not real because he's accidentally coercing Caleb or it's not real because there's no way Caleb could actually want him.

But when he bites down on any words and silences any internal song, Caleb is still right there.

[freefromsin]

Caleb waits, watching Gabe's face for a reaction, keeping his body close but not touching. He raises an eyebrow when he sees Gabe's concentration break. "Am I under a spell?" he asks, feeling no different than he did minutes ago. He still wants to kiss Gabe like he always does, still wants to touch him, still wants to be here. Wherever Gabe is.

[overdrawing]

"I'm...I'm not casting one." He's crushing down every single piece of magic he knows of, trying not to let any of it slip loose. "You're still standing here..."

[astra_inclinant]

Mira's soaked when she comes in; her parents have already texted her to make sure she got home all right, because the wind is ridiculous, the rain coming down in buckets.

They're over at a friend's house, celebrating the visit of a mutual acquaintance from overseas, and that means it could be any time between now and daylight when they come home from catching up.

She's tired, though, and all she wants to do is drop her shit in the middle of the floor.

Instead she hears the sound of soft voices and freezes, leaning toward the doorway of the kitchen to see what's going on.

Gabe, backed up against the counter, looking wide-eyed at a slim, cute bleached-blonde boy with his hands against the counter, inches away, looking right back.
She can't help but be amused, and also a little surprised.

Mira leans her hip against the doorway and watches them quietly for a minute before clearing her throat, smirking.

[freefromsin]

"That's because I like you--" Caleb starts to say, when he hears the sound of someone clearing their throat. He quickly moves away, putting his own back to the counter to stand next to Gabe. His cheeks go warm, and probably red, when he sees a girl in the doorway looking right at them.

"Um."

[overdrawing]

"Mira," he breathes. Gabe goes a similar shade of red, not only embarrassed but ashamed. He's a guest in their house and he's just inviting strangers in? He hasn't even told Mira about Caleb, not in any capacity, which is a disservice to Caleb as much as it is to her family and...and...

He doesn't care if he's over six feet tall. He has never wanted so badly to hide under the bed.

[astra_inclinant]

Mira just leans on the doorframe, nonplussed but mostly amused.

"Hey," she says, and peels off the buttondown she's wearing over a tank top, because whether or not she has cute teenagers making out in her kitchen (or thinking about making out, really), this is still her house.

"I'm Mira," she grins at the blushing boy she doesn't know. "I see you know Gabe already."

The tease is light-hearted. If "adopting the puppiest of wayward puppylike queer kids" had been an option on career aptitude tests, she'd score pretty high. Really, she's mostly impressed Gabe has gotten anywhere past blushing and self-loathing with someone else.

"You guys might want to take this to the bedroom," she says nonchalantly. "My parents are gonna be all tipsy and cuddly and shit when they come in, but my mom has a sixth sense for the worst time to ask people if they're being careful."

[overdrawing]

The sight of Mira taking of her shirt makes Gabe avert his eyes out of instinct, only the first place he glances is at Caleb and his distraction catches on the line of Caleb's collar bone. He's never thought of collar bones being of any particular interest, but on Caleb he can't look away.

He's in so much trouble.

"This is Caleb. I knew him from..." He can't bring himself to say "home" when it's not true. "Before I came here."