Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

Piper fidgeted at Juno's door, waiting for him to answer. He'd been kind of a nervous wreck all morning. He started his day by calling out sick, then headed to the bookshop, where he paced the aisles, not quite sure what he was looking for.

He knew what he wanted. He'd spent hours researching online and had been at the bookshop doors before they opened, and he ignored the raised brow of the employee when he was finally let in. He felt entirely out of his depth as he perused the journals, and he let out a small breath of relief when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Can I help at all?"

Yeah, he'd been there way too long. Piper rubbed the back of his neck and offered a sheepish smile at the short woman with a name badge that read Crissy. "I'm shopping for my—uh. Friend." Friend sounded wrong, but Juno wasn't officially anything else to him. Not yet. And he didn't want to say the word lover to a total stranger.

"For journals?"

Piper heaved a sigh and shrugged. "Yeah, but it's complicated. He's losing his vision. He won't go completely blind, according to his eye doctors, but…" Piper trailed off with a shrug. "The internet said high contrast was the way to go, but I don't even know how to find that. I don't really know how that translates to paper."

"Ah." Crissy's smile widened. "One of our employees has low vision, so we carry a lot of helpful things here that he helped us order." She led him to the end of the aisle and pulled two journals from the endcap. "One of these is dark pages. We have markers here that write in bright pastels that you can see on black." She handed him the one with a black cover and the year embossed on the front in gold foil. "This other one is white pages with really big lines, so if he needs to write larger to see it, he can use a Sharpie."

Piper clutched them to his chest and allowed Crissy to show him the markers. He picked up way too many, but he didn't think Juno would mind. Laugh at him? Probably, but at least he tried.

"So, your coworker. He's good, right? His life is good?"

Crissy burst into laughter as she rang up each marker. "I'd like to think so. He's married with kids, and he seems pretty well-adjusted."

Piper chuckled when she winked. "Sorry, that sounded rude."

"I'm guessing this is all very new, right? And he's freaking out?"

Piper bit his lip and nodded. "As of the day before yesterday, I think."

Crissy winced. "Okay, yeah. Unfortunately, Ben can't really relate. He was born blind. He has ocular albinism, though, so he's been dealing with contrast stuff his entire life, and he swears up and down by these markers."

"Then I'll take them." Piper wasn't entirely sure Juno would appreciate the gift, but he was willing to take the risk.

Crissy swiped his card, then handed it back and slipped the receipt into his bag. "So the one thing I've learned from Ben is that there's people out there like him when he's ready to meet others. Ben is a cool guy, but he's also just a guy. Tell him he's not alone."

"Thanks," Piper said. He wasn't sure he could tell that to Juno. His life hadn't exactly been full of people who gave a shit, and he wasn't sure hearing that wouldn't trigger a flood of trauma. But he appreciated the sentiment, and it felt nice that a total stranger would give a shit.

He smiled at Crissy and grabbed his bags, then proceeded to have a small anxiety attack in his car at the thought of doing this all wrong. The risk was worth it, yes, but he wasn't sure he was prepared to deal with the possible fallout of getting it all wrong.

But he was determined to try, and that alone calmed him down. Juno deserved people in his life who were willing to fight for them. And, more than that, who were willing to just stay.

And that was why he was standing at Juno's front door about four hours after dropping him off. Juno had asked him to come over after his shift, and Piper hadn't told him that he was calling out, so there was surprise written all over Juno's face when he opened the door.

"Uh? You're here? I thought you had work."

"I called out sick. And I got you something," Piper said, shuffling from one foot to the other.

Juno blinked at him, then shook his head. "Jesus Christ, you're something else. Come in." He stepped aside, and Piper shut the door behind him.

The apartment was very small and very dark, all the blinds drawn. It was lit by a small lamp on with a dim bulb in the corner of the room.

There was a bed in the corner, a dresser that held Juno's TV, and a very small kitchen with a two-burner stove and a small table with two chairs beside what looked like a pantry. One of the doors off to the side he assumed was a bathroom, and that was it.

It was everything and nothing like he'd expected.

"I'd give you the tour," Juno said, walking over to his kitchen table, "but this is pretty much all there is."

"It's nice."

"It's a dump," Juno said with a small laugh, "but thank you for being kind about it. We don't have to hang out here, though. We can go literally anywhere else."

Piper walked up, abandoning all pretense and worry about what he was or wasn't allowed to do, and he wrapped his arms around Juno's waist. Lowering his head, he kissed his neck. "I don't care where we are. I just like spending time with you."

Juno shivered and leaned back into his grasp. "You're being nice."

"I am. Is it working?"

Juno laughed again and tilted his head up. "Yeah. It is. What did you bring me? Is it food?"

Piper winced. Fuck, he should have brought lunch. "No, um." He stepped back and held the bag toward Juno. "I went to the bookshop this morning after I called out."

Juno's expression was unreadable as he took it. "I didn't put books on my bucket list. I've actually been doing audiobooks for years now because I can read while I work. That won't be a big change for me."

Piper's smile only lifted half his mouth. "They're not for reading. It's actually for your bucket list. I, um…" He hesitated, picking at his cuticle. "I read some stuff last night when I couldn't sleep. Some websites suggested that for writing, you should use high contrast so you can see it. I mean, I know you can see it now, but in the future…just in case…" He trailed off when he realized Juno had frozen in place. "Sorry."

"No." Juno's voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. "No, this was…this was sweet." His hands shook a little as he set the bag on the table and pulled the black journal out. His thumb traced the embossing, and then he opened the pages. "How do I write on this?"

"Metallic markers," Piper said. He stepped closer and fished two of them out of the bag. "And if that one doesn't work, I got a white one with Sharpies."

Juno swallowed heavily, then dropped the journal and turned, pressing himself into Piper's body. It was far too easy to hold him, to lean down and take the kiss he'd been craving. Juno was so open to him, so ready, so willing .

He groaned as Piper's hands trailed down and cupped his ass, urging him to rock his half-hard cock against his hip. "God," Juno moaned, his voice thready.

Piper sank his teeth into the crook of Juno's neck, right where he bore his mark, and he felt almost drunk at the way Juno melted into his arms. "Like that?"

"Fuck. Yeah. Yeah, I really do. I?—"

The moment was shattered by the sound of Juno's phone going off. It rang and buzzed against the table, and Juno went stiff all over before wrenching away and picking it up. "Babe, hey. Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm free. No, I'm not with anyone."

Piper went cold all over, like someone had dunked him in the arctic sea. Babe ? Not with anyone ?

As na?ve as he was when it came to relationships, and as much as he was willing to do almost anything for Juno, he wasn't going to give himself over to a cheater. He just wasn't. He caught Juno's eye and pointed toward the door, mouthing, ‘I'm gonna go.'

Juno's eyes went wide. "No, wait! No, babe. No, I'm not talking to you. Uhg, fine, no, I'm not alone, but we're not talking about who I'm with right now. Hang on a second." Juno pressed the phone against his front. "Please don't go. I promise this won't take long."

Piper's head was spinning. What was happening? "I don't want to interrupt."

"It's Oliver," Juno said. "I swore I'd talk to him today about Miles's surprise birthday party. I promise I won't be that long." Then Juno mouthed very carefully, ‘I'm not ready to tell him.'

Piper let out a breath. He didn't think his first reaction was wrong, but he trusted Juno. ‘Okay,' he mouthed back.

Juno grinned, looking like he wanted to both laugh and cry, and he leaned on his chair as Piper turned and headed over to the bed. It felt strange to make himself comfortable there without being invited, but there was nowhere else to sit. He half hoped Juno would join him, but the younger man took a seat in the kitchen chair and pressed his face into his hand.

"…yeah. No, I'm not telling you who it is. Yes, it's a hot guy, and that's all you're getting," Juno said.

Piper flushed. A hot guy. He almost laughed. He hadn't been called that in about a decade. He looked over and stared at Juno's profile. He was so, so beautiful. He had his nose wrinkled and his brows furrowed, and he was playing with a small, white cardboard box that had a multicolored pattern on it. It looked familiar, but from where he was sitting, he couldn't see what it was.

"Yeah, count me in as long as someone can pick me up. I'm not driving right now. Okay. Okay. Babe , I have to go now. Go drama all over your husband and leave me alone! I love you so fucking much. Yeah, I'll call you later. Bye." Juno dropped the phone on the table and pressed his face into his palms, groaning loudly. "He's a lot."

Piper rose and took three strides, and then he was behind Juno's chair. He reached around him and tipped his head back, leaning down to kiss him. It was chaste this time, lips pressing and warm, and he hoped Juno could feel all the affection he was holding for him.

"So. You call your friends babe?"

Juno snorted. "I call him that. He's very needy when it comes to affection. It, uh…it was kind of a foster kid thing. Some people go the opposite way. They have a really hard time accepting affection and pet names, shit like that. But some people are like us."

"Like the way you go pink in the cheeks when I call you sugar?" Piper murmured, running a finger over Juno's freckles.

Color rose high in his cheeks. "Yeah." His eyes were less green today, Piper noticed. They were almost a honey-hazel. "I really like that." Juno's tone was soft, but it lacked the heat from before, and Piper let the moment go. There would be time enough for that later.

He let Juno go and took a step toward the other chair, sighing with relief as he sat. His gaze moved back to the box on the table. "Is that?—"

"Oh. It's a genetic kit thingie." Juno flipped the lid right side up. "I've been on the fence about it. If none of my relatives have taken it, it's not going to help me find anyone. And some of them could be on there, but they might not want to hear from me." He bit his lip and met Piper's gaze, but he didn't hold it. "I want to see if any of them are like me."

"You mean your condition?" Piper asked.

Juno rubbed at his eye. "Yeah. Everything I read said that even siblings who both have it could have wildly different experiences, so it's not like I can look to them to see what my future's going to be like. But…I don't know. At least it'll be something?"

"What's the worst that could happen?" Piper asked.

Juno shrugged. "Rejection."

"Which means you'll end up exactly where you are right now, right? No answers? So what's the best thing that could happen?"

Juno squeezed his eyes shut. "Family who gets me. Family who gives a shit." Juno stopped and laughed. "You should have been a therapist. You sound like mine."

Piper reached over and snagged Juno's hand, kissing his palm. "Hopefully, she's not into you as much as I am."

Juno wrinkled his nose. "No, honey. She's absolutely not."

Piper went warm, and he reached for Juno, drawing him to his feet. Holding him close with one arm, he reached past him and seized the little DNA kit with the other. "I have a plan."

"Mm?" Juno blinked up at him, doe-eyed and precious. "Tell me your plan."

Piper had to kiss him first before speaking. "I cuddle you."

"Liking this plan already."

"You spit into your little tube…"

"Less romantic," Juno said with his nose wrinkled.

Piper grinned and kissed it. "…while you put on your baking show."

"You're winning me over again."

"Then I make you come, we wash up, and I take you out for something really decadent to eat."

Juno closed his eyes, like his blink was aborted halfway through, and he pressed his face into the center of Piper's chest. "I'm starting to feel spoiled."

"Good." And it was good. Piper had no idea how long this was going to last, so he intended on making sure Juno enjoyed every second he allowed Piper to stick around.