When The Rich Son Falls

Thirty Two

“It’s cold,” was the first thought that entered Topher’s mind when he woke up the next morning; it was different from the past few days, when he had been sleeping in the attic which didn’t have air-conditioning, and he’d always wake up feeling icky. That morning was cold, and Topher felt more comfortable in the cold.

The next realization that came to him was the fact that he was completely butt-naked—which was something he didn’t really mind, even though he was on somebody else’s bed. He turned his head to the right, where James laid in fetal position, fully wrapped in a blanket from head to toe that the only thing Topher could see from him was the top of his hair. Topher knew James was many things, but he didn’t think that a blanket thief would be one of them. But he didn’t mind. He had a great tolerance for low temperatures anyway.

He slowly sat up and looked around, careful not to make movements that would wake the other man up. The door was just right there, and with how deeply James was sleeping, he could easily make a quick exit like he always did in casual agreements like this. It would make things less awkward for the both of them when he wakes up anyway.

Topher looked at the blanket cocoon that James had made for himself when it moved. James rolled to his other side, facing Topher. He could see a small frown on James’s face that relaxed when he finally settled in on his new sleeping position. Topher glanced at the door once more, then decided to lie down on his side. Leaving would make things less awkward, but then he did like seeing James look all flustered, so he decided to stay.

He watched the man sleep instead.

James looked like a typical man in his late twenties. His face was slightly puffy and his hair was unruly like a normal person’s in the morning. His body, as Topher recalled from last night, was nothing out of the ordinary as well. Yet even in the morning after they had already spent the night together, Topher still found that he wanted to touch his skin and kiss his lips until he was wide awake. He wanted to mess with him until his ears turned red. He wanted to do nice things that would make him smile, and say weird things that would annoy—

“Stop it.” Topher heard James murmur before he opened his eyes.

“Are you actually a magician?” Topher kiddingly whispered. “How’d you know?”

“You stare at me so often, I’ve developed a weird sense for it.” James stretched his legs and lied on his back, closing his eyes once more. “Plus, you were breathing in my face.”

Topher lightly chuckled but didn’t move from his position nor spoke. He kept his eyes on James while a smile stayed on his face.

“You’re still doing it,” James muttered, turning his head to frown at Topher suspiciously. “What is it this time? Do I have gunk on my eye? Do I look too ugly in the morning?” he asked sarcastically.

“Nope, but you are grumpy in the morning, apparently.”

James rolled his eyes and sat up, only proving his point. “Anyway, since I’m already up, I’m going to go ahead and use the bathroom first. You can,” he looked at Topher and only then realized that he had no clothes on. “Please put on some clothes,” he sighed.

“I don’t have clothes here,” Topher shrugged. “Remember? When we started last night, all I had was a towel on, which we then used to—”

“Okay, okay, I get it,” James visibly cringed into his knees. “Just—I don’t know, I guess you can borrow my shorts over there. Just add it to your laundry after, okay?”

Topher narrowed his eyes at him. “Why are you suddenly being shy when just last night, you were really—”

“Tut, tut, tut!” James let an arm out of his blanket cocoon to put a hand over Topher’s mouth in order to shut him up. To his surprise, Topher slyly smiled then grabbed him by the wrist and proceeded to put two of his fingers in his mouth. James’s eyes widened as he immediately pulled his hand back.

“What the hell are you—" Before he could finish, Topher grabbed a fistful of his blanket and pulled him back down on the bed; and while he was still recovering from that shock, Topher swiftly moved to straddle him and pin his exposed arm by his side.

“If you keep placing your hands near my mouth, I tend to get the wrong idea,” Topher said, and the look in his eyes clearly showed his intentions.

James swallowed and tried to get his other arm out of the blanket, but it was impossible with Topher’s upper body pressing him down. He then tried to wriggle his legs, and when that didn’t work, he gave up and glared at Topher instead. “ Your d**k is on my blanket, you goofball!”

“How is that a problem?” Topher laughed. “Last night, my d**k was in your—”

“Oh, my goodness, please! It’s too early to talk about those kinds of embarrassing things!” James hopelessly wailed; his face already red with everything that Topher had been saying.

“It’s never too early for that, Jimmy,” Topher teased, lowering and tilting his head slightly to the right. “That’s why there’s this thing called morning s*x,” he softly whispered.

“W-well, I don’t have time for that,” James indignantly replied with his reserve clearly wavering, as his eyes stayed on Topher’s lips. “I have work to do.”

“Yeah?” Topher tugged on the edge of the blanket by his chin, so he could pull it down until James’s neck was exposed. “What kind of work?” he asked as he softly placed kisses from his cheek to the side of his neck.

“What do you mean “what kind of work”?” James’s jaw clenched as his eyes fluttered close. He didn’t even notice that his hand had been free for a while and was already on Topher’s shoulder. “I have the hotel, I have to round up volunteers for the school, I have to find stores that sell—” he stopped for a second as he felt Topher’s warm tongue on his cold skin, “that sell good yet cheap materials…”

Topher stopped and raised his head until he was looking down at James. “Right, the charity you’re running to rebuild a school,” he thoughtfully said, pulling James out of the mood he had set earlier as the topic became more serious.

“Yeah, that one,” James looked up at him, slightly confused. “What about it?”

Topher’s eyebrows met in the middle, clearly done with his teasing. “Nothing,” he said.

“This again?” James chuckled, finally managing to push Topher to the side, who let him do so. He stood up and took off his blanket to throw it onto the man’s waist. “Are you going to ask me again what I’m getting out of it?” he said with a smile, opening his closet to grab some clothes.

“No, not really,” Topher replied. It was a very random moment for him. He was just there, on the bed with his junk covered by a blanket, looking up at someone in boxers early in the morning; but it was then that he realized how attractive James truly was—and not just in a lustful way that he had seen him before. Maybe it was the day they had spent together, wherein he’d witnessed the man smile at him more than he had before; maybe it was the night they’d had after weeks of having nothing; or maybe it was that Topher was reminded that he had never seen someone with as much passion and kindness that James possessed.

Whatever the exact reason was, he knew one thing for sure: he did the right thing breaking one of his rules last night.

“You’re staring again,” James sighed, throwing a clean towel onto the bed which snapped Topher out of his thoughts. “You can use that later while your towel goes into the laundry. I’m going to go take a bath. As for last night…”

“I won’t tell anyone.” Topher assured him with a smile.

James subtly smiled back and nodded. “Thanks,” he said, then he walked out of his room.

Topher stayed in bed for a minute longer, staring up at the ceiling with his hand on his chest. He could’ve stayed for a longer time since he didn’t have anything to do, but then he heard the doorbell ring. Knowing that James was in the bathroom, he stood up and wrapped the towel around his waist. He wouldn’t want to risk Mrs. Mei getting a heart attack if he opened the door naked and it was her outside.

The doorbell rang again just as he left the bedroom, so he called out, “Hold on a second!” as he rushed. Without bothering to fix himself up, he opened the door with a wide smile, only for it to fade as soon as he saw who it was on the other side.

“Leonard,” he muttered. “How the hell did you find me?”