Dean leaned his head back against the couch and let out a sigh as he fanned himself with his hand, not bothering to look over at his brother, “What do you want me to do about it?”
“Fix it!”
That made the blonde snort, “Yeah, let me just go outside and use my powers to make the sun go away.”
“I know you don’t have powers,” The annoyed voice from his left got him to look over – his brother’s bangs were stuck to his forehead because of how hard he was sweating, and he had the makings of a Bitch Face clouding his expression, “But you usually know what to do!”
“I’m nine!” Dean let out an incredulous chuckle, “Uncle Bobby’s already working on the air conditioner.” He craned his neck in an attempt to look out the window to the backyard, “We just gotta wait ’til he’s done.”
“Ugh!” Sammy flopped over sideways onto the couch, face smushing into the cushion, “He’s taking so looong!”
“Maybe it was really broken?”
That earned him another groan of annoyance, “It’s too hot!”
“We’re already on the first floor!” Dean stopped trying to locate the father figure and turned back to the living room, eyes sweeping across it uselessly, “It’s not like we can get any low-” His eyes stopped on the door to the basement door, huh.
You don’t have to wake up an hour earlier, rush out the door and then squish yourself into an over-crowded bus/train, or sit half-asleep in traffic.
No crowds/excessive noise right when you wake up and there’s no mad-dash to get home at the end of the day, where you do that entire process in reverse, because you’re already home!
9. You Save Money!
That’s right, working from home can actually save you money. You don’t need to pay for as much gas or a public transit pass and, you’re less likely to feel the itch to exit the office for a breather since you’re, y’know, not actually in the office – which means you’re less likely to hit up the vending machines in the hall and/or run out and buy lunch or a coffee.
If you’re hungry throughout the day, you can just raid your own kitchen and make your coffee at home.
8. No Dress Code
Uncomfortable shirts? Poke-y underwire bra? Slacks that are a little too tight around the middle? Those are all problems of the past! Now, you can roll out of bed and work in your pj’s/sweats, if you so choose.
Even if your job requires you to be on-camera for a portion of your shift, you can still where whatever you want out-of-frame. And, you can rip it off and swap it for comfier clothing the second that part of your day is over, instead of having to keep it on longer because you have to commute home.
7. No Annoying Co-Workers
Stealing your lunch from the break room fridge? Stinking up the communal bathroom? Getting roped into unnecessary water-cooler talk?
All problems of the past now that you’re working from home!
Sure, you might still have to listen to them during calls, or internal IM messages, but one good thing about this is that you can either ignore their message completely until you’re ready to deal with their bullshit, and/or, mute/lower their volume in a call if they’re truly grating on you.
Just be sure you don’t miss if they say anything actually work-related.
6. More Productive Breaks
No need to wait until after work or the weekend to toss a load of clothes in the washing machine, or to wash a few dishes. Already being home means you can easily cross off a few chores from your to-do list – or at least, make a dent in them – while you’re on the clock!
5. Cleaner Bathrooms
Does anyone actually like going to the bathroom in public? I’ve yet to meet someone who does.
Being home means you get the luxury of using your own bathroom the whole day, so you’re arguably more comfortable taking bathroom breaks. Which is great, because having that comfort might also spur you on to stay more hydrated/eat more regularly, since you’re not attempting to avoid food and drink in a bid to escape needing to pee – or otherwise – in public.
4. You Can Work From Anywhere
Depending on what your job actually entails, you can basically work from wherever you want: your bedroom, a park, cafe or even a friend’s couch!
As long as you have internet – and, let’s be honest, almost everywhere a person can go nowadays has internet – you can work to your heart’s content.
Granted, technically this means wouldn’t actually be working from ‘home’, but your boss doesn’t need to know that. If you get your hands on a VPN, you can work from wherever you want without issue.
Just be sure not to get too distracted if you choose to bring your laptop to a beach.
3. Less Sick Days
I know, this one actually sounds bad, but let me explain. When you’re sick, usually, all people want to do is stay curled up in bed until they feel better – working from home allows you to do this!
Sure, you’ll have to get up and grab your laptop, but it sure as hell beats getting all dressed up, commuting to an office where the lights are suddenly too-bright and dealing with overly-chatty coworkers all day.
You still won’t feel like working, but you’ll probably be more likely to rally enough to open your laptop in bed.
2. Less Likely to Get Sick
While we’re on the subject of sickness, working from home means you’ll be less likely to even get sick in the first place!
You won’t be forced to get packed in with a bunch of strangers and all their who-knows-where-they’re-from germs and/or their hygiene standards that might not match your own – if the pandemic taught us anything, it was, unfortunately, that people in general are a lot grosser than we initially thought – which means you’re less likely to pick something up and bring it home.
1. You’ll Be More Productive
Without all the distractions of coworkers, weird building noises, screaming customers and excessive meetings that absolutely could’ve been an e-mail, you might find that you’re better able to focus on the tasks on your to-do list, which means you’ll be able to get them done faster.
Faster task checking-off means you’ll get more done in a day, and getting more done in a day gives you the potential to knock off work earlier than you would if you were sitting in a cubicle in-person.
No one is around to see if you take an extended lunch break, or go sit on your couch to eat dinner at 4pm instead of 5pm – and as long as you got all your work done, nobody will care, either.
You might even find yourself competing with yourself to see how much work you can get done in a shorter amount of time, to give yourself the gift of more relaxing time.
This is something I actually found myself doing at a previous job. The boss loved it because I was seemingly being super-productive, and I loved it because I got so good at out-competing myself, I was eventually only working half days.
The pay decrease stung a little, but I loved clocking in at 9am and being done for the day by 12pm. I used the rest of the day to focus on my passion projects, which meant I was being more productive on two fronts.
You can essentially give yourself the gift of time… how cool is that?
Like the website? Support me on Patreon! You’ll get cool insider benefits and the satisfcation of knowing you’re helping an indie author live their version of ‘the dream’ – for as little as $1/month!
The re-write of my second book, Melting Hearts, Sunburns and Tanlines is coming out soon, so I decided to contrast the long-form fiction of the book with this extremely short fiction challenge!
It’s also not a coincidence that there’s 10 weeks of summer left and 10 stories here. Feel free to read 1 a week to give yourself a micro-dose of summer antics – with a dark twist!
Or, read them all now and then end your summer by (re-) enjoying my second book!
Written: 26.06.18
NFF
1. What a scorcher! He kicked the door to his motel room closed as he wiped sweat off his face. At least I’ve got… his thoughts trailed off as the AC made a terrible crunching noise before bursting into flames.
2. “My ice cream tastes funny.”
The ice cream man leaned a little further out over his counter in, using his free hand to slide the cooler door closed, smile faltering slightly as it caught on the wrist of the dead body, “It’s just a new recipe, that’s all.”
3. “Somebody, anybody – help!”
The lifeguard checked his watch as he heard the commotion that was happening on the other side of the pool and shrugged, “I’ve still got 5 minutes of break left.”
4. She held her hand up over her mouth in an attempt to keep her laughter at bay as her husband walked in – he was was practically glowing, his skin was so red.
He noticed her face as he flopped down on the couch with a defeated frown, “I did forget the sunscreen.”
5. He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she walked out in the new bikini, “I-I think I love you.”
That earned him a chuckle and she waved a dismissive hand as she turned to look at herself in the dressing room mirror, “Guess that means I’ll take it.”
6. The mom’s face lit up with a confused smile as her three-year-old came running back over to where she was sitting, “Where’s Daddy?”
The toddler presented a single flip-flop that was spattered with blood, before pointing out toward the water, “Swim.”
7. His eyes bulged out as he fell to his knees, weakly reaching out to grasp at her skirt with one hand while the other pounded itself into his chest.
She moved a few steps backward as she watched him choke and frowned at him with feigned confusion, “I thought you said you liked grapes with women?”
8. The toddler’s bottom lip poked out as he took in the expression on his mother’s face. He turned back to the freezer that held the family dog and shifted his weight – maybe Daddy was kidding when he talked about making a dog-sicle?
9. “Baby, I’m so sorry!” He rushed over to his girlfriend, boulder settling into his stomach as he watched her pick the broken bits of balloon off her now-soaked shirt.
She swatted his hands away as she took a few steps over to the bucket of water balloons that was sitting on the lawn, unable to keep the smirk off her face as she sent a wink to his friends, “It’s okay, Baby – I’m not mad.”
10. He trudged through the door, shaking his head in defeat – sighing as sand fell from it. He made it inside and let out a deflating sigh as he tossed the un-used knife onto the side table, I’ll try again next year.
Want to read more short stories? Sign up for my Patreon!
I post NEW short stories every 2 weeks on Fridays and already have over 200 just waiting for you to discover them!
The next step in showing you guys how to complete the diamond sticker I’m using for my 10 Year Re-Writes is to actually show you how to make the diamond-studded words!
If this is the first tutorial you’re reading (or even just forgot because it’s been a while), this tutorial will be building on the last one from March, so if you haven’t read that one or need a refresher, go read/play around with that tutorial and then come back.
Okay, you good? Great!
Now we’ll get into today’s tutorial!
Step 1
Using the Type tool, type out some example text, or whatever text you want to use the effect on. For the purposes of keeping things simple, I simply chose Diamond Words. Once you do that, go up to the Font box in the top-left and change the font of your text to one that looks like a bunch of dots.
The specific font I’m using is called Fortuna Dot.
After you do that, Duplicate the layer. There’s a couple ways you can do this.
The first way, you just select the layer in the Layers Menu, then right-click and choose Duplicate Layer from the drop-down menu that opens.
Or, the other (and one I use most often) is to select the layer in the Layers Menu and then hold down the ALT key on your keyboard and drag your mouse either up or down until you see a small double mouse pointer appear. Once that happens, you can stop dragging and stop pressing the ALT key.
Used a purple background so you’d be able to see both the black and white mouse heads
Once you stop dragging, you should also notice a duplication of the layer has appeared in the Layers Menu.
Once you have the Duplicate Layer made, go up to the Fill box, and change it from 100% to 0%.
Step 2
Clicking back onto the original layer, bring up the Blend Mode options and apply the below values/settings.
Pattern Overlay:
Blend Mode: Soft Light
Opacity: 45
Pattern: Use Diamond patter from last tutorial (yes, again)
Scale: 100
Step 4
The last piece of the puzzle for this effect is to add some Lens Flares to give the studs the illusion of shining!
You can add as many or little as you’d like.
One thing I learned that can help make the Lens Flares look more believable as shines, is to rotate some so they’re not all facing the same direction and, vary the size a little. This’ll help make them look less added-on and more natural.
For example:
Above are all the Lens Flares in the same position and sizing, versus:
What it looks like when you add in some variation. Do you see the difference it makes?
Once you’re happy with the size, quantity and placement of them, you’re done!
Don’t forget to save both a PSD and JPEG/PNG version of your work, so you can go back in and change elements if you feel like you need to later.
Also, since I did the tutorial on a black background, you might be wondering what the point of adding the Drop Shadow was, so…
That’s what the effect would look like on a different-coloured background.
“Whoa!” Dean quickly tossed the wrench in his hand at the floor, barely catching the tail-end of his daughter’s dress as she bolted toward the front door, “Where’s the fire?”
Taylor blew out an annoyed breath as she pointed her thumb over her shoulder, “The ice cream truck!”
“What about it?” Dean blinked at her absently as his brain played catch-up. After a minute – in which, his daughter tilted her head to the side and squinted her eyes, doing a damn good impression of Cas’ confused face – his ears finally picked up the jingle playing just beyond his door, “Oh, r-right. Sorry, Sweetheart.”
He dug his free hand into his pocket, before handing her a bill and nodding, “Stay on the block.”
“Yes, Daddy.”
Her overtly-sweet tone made him laugh as she raced out the front door. Dean shook his head and moved so he could see her and the gang of other kids out the living room window. He caught the eye of one of his neighbours who nodded to him. Dean raised his hand in silent appreciation before he turned back to the couch he was supposed to be fixing.
All Cas had not-asked him to do was tighten the foot rest, yet here he was, surrounded by miscellaneous couch parts, his toolbox and definitely more screws than what he remembered taking out of the thing.
One could argue it was not, in fact, going well. Especially since it was already – Dean flicked his eyes up to the clock on the wall – 6pm, shit.So much for surprising him.
Dean blew out a breath as he looked around the mess, Cas’ll have a field day if he gets home from work and sees this.
“Okay, new plan!” Dean clapped his hands and nodded to himself, put everything back as fast as possible and hope he hits traffic.
Just as Dean got back down onto his knees, the front door burst open.
So, you’ve got a cool idea for a book. Or, maybe, you’ve just finished spending months or years of your life pouring your ingenious idea out of your head and down onto paper. You’ve shed tears, bashed your head against the wall and finally, finally nailed down a satisfying character arc. You’re ready to share your baby with the world!
There’s just one problem.
You don’t have a title.
Your baby, is nameless.
You can’t start bragging about – I mean, showing it – to people until you come up with a name. But, you’re a writer! How can you be expected to perfectly encapsulate the epic highs and lows of your definitely-over-the-minimum-word-count baby in just a few words? Or worse, one word?
It takes you paragraphs and countless pages to paint a picture.! Trying to downsize your epic idea for the back blurb was bad enough, but now you’re expected to downsize it again?
Before you turn your anxiousness into a full-blown panic spiral, I want you to listen to me: breathe. It’s going to be okay.
I’m going to tell you some hopefully helpful tips that have helped me in my titling-things journey.
Sit back, relax, and take a read.
1. Don’t Overthink It
I know, I know, ‘titles are the first impression of your book anyone will get! The title is how people find/recommend/talk about your book to others!‘
Listen, I’m not saying that titles aren’t important. What I’m saying, is that getting all twisted up in knots over finding one perfect word or phrase is only going to drive you insane. Obsessing over it will only actually stall the process and get you more frustrated – not solve the problem.
Take a breath, slow down, relax.
You can’t poop out a good title, and trying to force one out when your brain isn’t in the right state either won’t get you anywhere, or worse, will saddle you with a title you actively hate. But then you’ll be stuck because you can’t think of a good title because now you’re so twisted up with fear and panic and there’s no more time before your deadline…
That wouldn’t do anyone any good, so I need you to close your laptop.
Yes, I’m serious.
Go for a walk, watch a movie, call a friend, vacuum, do your laundry, paint your lawn – I don’t care. Just go do anything other than staring at your untitled work. Try to take your mind off it. Give your subconscious time to mull things over, and then come back to it in a few hours, or hell, even a few days. (Assuming your deadline allows that)
2. Try Picking a Title First
Leaving titles to the last minute was something I used to do all the time back when I was in school. I thought they were so important, they deserved the most amount of my attention, and how could you properly title something if you weren’t finished writing it, anyway?
If you’ve been a writer for any length of time, you know why that line of thinking is dangerous.
Instead of taking all the time I needed to focus on finding the perfect title, I ended up scrambling at the last second to not-hand-in something with a shit/clearly-last-minute title like Story for English 37, or worse, Untitled.
To avoid spinning my wheels in the last few minutes before a deadline, I started making myself title the short stories we had to write for English class first. Before I was allowed to write one word of the story that was already forming inside my head, I had to title it. The page would stay blank until I thought of a title.
And, do you want to know what I discovered?
Titles came to me a lot faster than when I used to leave them until the end!
By forcing myself to think of a title first, I had managed to hack my brain into not-over-thinking because of my eagerness to get passed that part and actually start getting the story out of me.
It sounds fake, I know – I thought that it would stall all my work forever when I first came up with it – but just, trust me.
Try it and you might be surprised how well it works.
What have you got to lose by trying it just once? Either it’ll work, or you’ll be stuck in the exact same title-less boat you’re in now.
3. You Can Always Change The Title Later
I know generally for marketing purposes, people don’t like when things change their name. You’ve spent time, money and effort into getting this one name recognized, why would you want to tear that all down by changing it’s name?
Well, just like editing your book, you are in charge!
If the title you chose just no longer feels right, you can absolutely change it! Call it a second edition, an update, the Author’s Version, whatever – if you don’t like the title, you have the power to change it.
Sure, resubmitting for a new ISBN and/or a new copyright patent might be annoying, but isn’t a small annoyance a small price to pay for you to have a title that you’re actually happy – and, dare I say – proud of?
Also, sometimes just knowing that changing something is on the table can bring a kind of relief to your brain. Just like knowing cancelling plans is on the table, it might give your brain the little break it needs to actually slow down and breathe.
This isn’t a runaway train, you can stop, rewind and change directions at any time.
Do you want to know something funny?
Since I started telling myself changing the title was an option, I’ve never actually felt the need to.
I don’t know if it’s because my subconscious secretly picks something that works based on the story that’s already in my head, if all my ideas are just easy to find titles for, or hell, maybe I’m just insane enough I can find the logic in any title I end up picking – but I’ve never once actually gone back and changed a title once I’d already picked it and finished writing.
Ever.
4. Your Title Can Be Anything
A random word, a line from a song you were listening to when you were writing it, an in-joke, your favourite colour, your dog’s name… There’s no rule that says your title has to perfectly encapsulate everything your book is trying to say in one word or phrase.
Hell, there’s not even a rule that says it has to be on-theme at all!
Just look at some emo/alt songs! Over half of them are really long lines ripped from poems that appear to have nothing to do with the actual subject matter. And a lot of them are still great hits and beloved by millions!
Don’t believe me?
Look up some of these song’s lyrics the next time you have a few minutes to kill:
All Time Low:
Keep The Change You Filthy Animal
Get Down On Your Knees and Tell Me You Love Me
The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver
The Girl’s a Straight Up Hustler
Panic! At The Disco:
Build God, Then We’ll Talk
I Constantly Thank God for Esteban
I Write Sins, Not Tragedies
Lying Is The Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off
Nearly Witches
She’s a Handsome Woman
The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage
There’s a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered, Honey, You Just Haven’t Thought of It Yet
Yes, those are all real songs and their actual titles.
Granted, you can argue some of the above titles match the general vibe or do match the over-all theme of the songs, if you squint and tilt your head a little. But the rest? Don’t match at all – and that’s okay!
A matching title isn’t a requirement for people to enjoy your work. Sure, it can be beneficial to have a title match the themes of the work, but hey, we’re crazy creative types, right?
Our ideas can’t always be confined to conventional rules.
Also, sometimes you can pick a title that you know is relevant, but other people won’t ‘get’ it right away – that’s okay, too!
Not every book is meant for every reader. It might take you some time to find your true audience, but I promise the readers who do get it, will love it!
Back in high school, one of my English teacher’s submitted one of the short stories I’d written for class to one of the writing contest things they had. A different teacher was in charge of gathering the submissions and organizing them into a collections book, so we’d have something to take home and marvel over one of our stories was in print.
What I didn’t know until I was handed the book and asked to read my story outloud to the group, was that that teacher had apparently not only changed the title, but she’d also rewritten a few of the sentences and changed one of the character’s names!
Needless to say, I was not happy.
I asked her after the presentation part, and she flippantly told me she didn’t understand the title I’d chosen, and thought the one she’d chose ‘fit the material better’. She said absolutely nothing about the other edits she made.
My English teacher had found me a little after that and she asked me about the story. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but it was something like, ‘your voice seemed a little… lost, in this one. Is everything alright?‘ I told her what happened and then asked if she wanted to read the original – which I had on me because that notebook never left my bag – she agreed, read it and then told me she was confused as to why the teacher felt the need to change the elements she did!
I still have no idea why she changed them, either.
At least the title I could kind of see – it was a little bit of an in-joke between me and my English teacher – but it also actually goes with an element of the story! It’s not an overtly obvious element, unless you really like numbers, but it goes nonetheless.
I don’t understand why she didn’t just ask me to explain if she didn’t understand, or at least give me a heads up that she would be changing elements!
Anyway, if anyone would like to read that original short story, I published it – exactly as I intended – in my book First Try. It’s the short story titled 500.
If you don’t understand the title, I’ll understand. No hard feelings. I know what it means and the people I actually wrote it for know what it means, and that’s enough for me.
And hey, who knows? Maybe one day you will get it, and then you’ll end up gaining a deeper appreciation for it.
Just like your audience might with your not-on-the-nose title.
Sam huffed and shifted his weight on the lumpy motel bed, “Do you get some sort of sick enjoyment out of waking me up with your stupid shit?”
At the lack of answer, the giant huffed and rolled over, not bothering to open his eyes – not that he was fully asleep yet, anyway, “It’s happened way too many times now to simply be a coincidence.”
Another moment of silence passed, much to Sam’s annoyance.
He cracked an eye open and sat up, reaching for the lamp on the nightstand, “I swear to God, if you’re not bleeding out-”
Sam cut off the end of his sentence as he saw his brother getting choked out against the wall by the door, shit.
Sam was out of his bed and stalking toward the monster in the next instant. He couldn’t help the pit that dropped into his stomach as the stench of sulphur invaded his nose. Instinctively, he brought his hand up.
It only took one twist of Sam’s fist for the demon to lose his grip on his brother and stumble backward, letting out a loud cry of pain.
Sam zeroed in on the creature as Dean got himself back to his feet, voice turning hard, “How did you find us?”
“I… I can’t.”
Sam took a step closer and twisted his fist again, “How?”
The demon let out another cry of pain and fell to it’s knees. “H-he’ll… kill me.” It took in some huffing breaths and brought watery eyes up to the giant, “P-please.”
The CI averted his eyes to the carpet of his handler’s office as he shrugged, sinking his hands into his pockets – his signature trying-too-hard-to-seem-nonchalant stance, “You told me not to go after the painting.”
Peter huffed and stood from his desk, “That didn’t mean I gave you permission to go after the jewels!” At the lack of change in the man’s expression, Peter placed his hands on his hips, “Since when do you steal jewels, anyway?”
Neal frowned and offered a half-shrug, bringing his eyes back up from the floor, “I like a lot of things.”
Read the full story on my Patreon! I post new short stories every 2 weeks on Fridays and already have over 200 just waiting for you to discover!
You smile as you see him standing on his front porch, with that infectious thousand-watt smile. You do your best to ignore the butterflies you feel in your stomach as you climb up the front porch steps, will you knock it off? It’s not like it’s the first time you’ve been here.
Your eyes meet once you join him on the porch, and you can’t help but smile at him, he looks frozen, “… What?”
“N-nothing,” he quickly turns and opens the door for you, “Y-you look beautiful.”
You feel your cheeks flare as you step inside his house, butterflies going crazy as you kick off your shoes, “Y-yeah?”
“Oh yeah.”
You try to swallow down the smile you feel at hearing his breathy voice as he closes the door, oh man, has it really been that long? He turns back to you, leading the way up the stairs to his bedroom. You take in a deep breath in a failed attempt to calm your excitement, seriously, why are you so giddy? You’ve done this a million times.
You get inside the privacy of his bedroom, and can’t help yourself as he closes the door. Not so easily, you pin the man to the door, getting up on your tip-toes to capture his lips with yours, finally. You smile against his lips as you pull a moan from him, at least I’m not the only one who’s eager.
You back off him after another moment, brows furrowing in confusion as he chuckles. He moves to the bed, shaking his head as he sits down, patting his lap, “I just didn’t think it’d been that long.”
“Trust me,” you jump up on him, wrapping your arms around his neck, “One day without being here feels like a month. That was entirely too long.” You nuzzle his neck, breathing in his scent, “I missed being close to you.”
He brings his hands up your back, eyes shining as he lifts you up, laying you down on the bed, smirk on his face, “Let’s fix that.”
You close your eyes as you feel his lips meet yours again. You wrap your arms tighter around his back, holding him as close as possible, slightly annoyed as you hear the phone start ringing.
His warmth disappears and you groan, “Nooo…”
You open your eyes and sit up, disappointment nearly crushing you as you wake up alone in your room, fuck. You run a hand through your hair and grab your phone, turning your alarm off, I’m starting to dream about him? Oy… You shake your head and let out a heavy sigh, getting out of bed. You move to open the curtains, looking out the window at the dead street, this quarantine cannot end soon enough.
Sam rolled his eyes at the whining call that floated down the stairs from his boyfriend. He just flicked to the next page of the book he was reading, not bothering to get up off the couch, “Whaaat?”
“Come here!”
“Why?”
After a few moments of silence, Sam huffed and got up, if this is something stupid, I swear to God… He begrudgingly made his way up the stairs, doing his best not to curse his boyfriend. It wasn’t Gabriel’s fault his boss had been on a rampage lately and today was the first day off he’d managed to get in three weeks.
His brows furrowed as he made it to the second floor and saw the bathroom door closed, okay, maybe not a dumb thing after all. He closed the small distance and brought a hand up to knock, “Gabe?”
“Come in!”
Sam’s brows furrowed farther at the sing-songy voice that floated through the door. He hesitated a moment before walking in, “… Is everything okay?”
He stopped short in the doorway as he spotted his boyfriend – perfectly fine, sitting happily in an overly-bubbled tub. He turned to the giant as a shiver ran through his body, “Close the door!”
“Uh, right, sorry,” Sam quickly closed the door and took a couple dumbfounded steps into the room, “So…?”
The trickster scooched himself over to one end of the tub, nodding at the opposite side, “Join me.”
Sam deflated with relief, “This was your emergency?”
He blinked up at him innocently, “I never said it was an emergency.”
Sam couldn’t help but shake his head and chuckle at that, “I was in the middle of reading.”
“You don’t wanna be in the middle of me?”
“You should be capable of taking a shower without me, y’know.”
“I can,” Gabriel sent him a wink as his signature smirk lit up his features, “but it’s more fun with you.”
“How are you possibly still this horny?”
“That’s my secret, Sammich.” Gabriel got up onto his knees at that, which made him just tall enough, his dick poked out from above the bubble line, “I’m always horny.”
Sam shook his head again and raised an eyebrow, “Is that supposed to entice me?”
Gabriel moved his hips from side-to-side and wiggled his eyebrows up at the giant, “Nooo…”
Another chuckle escaped the giant’s mouth at that, and he felt his cheeks flare. He licked his lips and looked back to the closed door, I could always finish my book later…
After a moment of not-too-hard-deliberating, he peeled his shirt off and took a few steps closer to the tub, “You’re an idiot, you know that?”
“Yeah,” Gabriel sat back down, satisfied smile on his face as he watched the giant start stripping, “But I’m your idiot.”
Sam shook his head again as he started to undo his belt, “You know I barely fit in this tub alone, right? How comfy do you think it’ll be with both of us?”
“Pfft, please,” Gabriel waved a dismissive hand, and winked back up at his boyfriend just as his pants fell, “I’m sure I’ll find somewhere else to sit.”
