William and the Wolf

The Eyes

William's face was bright red as he rushed to answer the door.

Anthony had quickly delegated the duty to him, with only a “I’d scare them away” as an explanation before he disappeared into the backroom of his workspace.

It really was no wonder everyone thought the man was a shadow.

William, on the other hand, didn’t know what to think.

He couldn't believe he'd gotten lost in Anthony's eyes again.  If he didn't know better, he'd believe the man practiced hypnosis.  "Would you stay here forever?" he had asked him, whispering it like he'd meant it, making William's stomach flutter strangely.  Thank goodness that doorbell had rung, or who knows what silliness William would have responded with.  He realized now that Anthony had only been teasing him again.  Of course he couldn’t have meant that.  One new thing learned today: Anthony could tease with a straight face.  William’s still-burning mouth was proof of that.

The ABT Security workers seemed extremely ill at ease when he opened the door.  The younger of the two men was hesitant even to step across the entrance. But William made sure to give them a warm smile and started on some small talk about the lovely weather that day and they seemed to feel relax a little, enough to begin their job.

He showed them the front door, the back door, and any large windows that might need some sort of security for, and their eyes were wide following him all the way through the house, like they still expected something to jump out at them.  They told him the various options they could set up for him and, since the owner of the house still wouldn’t show himself, much to William’s disgruntlement, he went ahead and got motion detectors for the two doors and the large windows in the kitchen and parlor.  When they needed the phone number for the house, he thankfully had it still saved in his cellphone, but as they were installing the equipment, William thought enough was enough and went searching for the man who was supposed to be dealing with all these details.

He finally found him in the office, clearly pretending to work because the big sheet of paper in front of him was blank.

“What are you doing?  Shouldn’t you be out there making certain everything is to your liking?”

“You are much better talking with them than I.”

“But this is your house.  I don’t even know how much you want to spend for all this.”

“I trust your judgment.”

“Why?  I could be terrible.”

Anthony was silent as he stared down at the paper he still intended to pretend he was working on.

William nearly started to say, “but I’m not,” but forced himself to keep quiet.  It was a valid question.  Why would Anthony trust someone he’d known less than 24 hours with the security of his home and the thousands of dollars worth of paintings inside that home?

“I can read people.” Anthony’s voice was low but confident.

“What?”

“I can read people’s intentions, personality… I trust you because I know you can be trusted.”

Those words did something funny with William’s chest.  He’d never had someone trust him before.  And Anthony had said it so… matter-of-factly.  “Are… you sure?”

Anthony’s eyes flicked up to lock on his before dropping down again.  “Yes, I am.”

William spun around before he gave his response, not wanting to show off his blushing cheeks as his heart hammered in his chest.  “Okay then… Thanks.”

The workers were quick-working, getting the keypads for the security systems set up for the front and back of the house, and William kept them company while they were working on it.

When at last he heard someone coming up behind him, he breathed a sigh of relief and moved to introduce…

Mate.

William looked down at the dog unimpressed.  So, Anthony was going to stay hidden the entire time, huh?

A startled yelp from behind him reminded William that not everyone was accustomed to Mate, and he spun with an encouraging smile on his face to find the two workers staring at Mate in wide-eyed horror.  “Hey, you haven’t seen my dog, Mate, before, have you?”

He plopped down on the floor next to where Mate was sitting and looped his arm around the enormous dog’s neck, hoping to the high heavens the contrary dog would play along.  It would be just his luck to have Mate bite his face off while he was demonstrating how safe he was.

He quickly had to get up on his knees to finish looping his arm though since Mate was so big.  Geez, I really need to find out the breed of you, you big brute.

“He’s a savage-looking mutt, I’ll give you that, but don’t worry, as long as you don’t try to break in or anything—” Can’t have them think he’s too easy-going. “—he’s just a big lovebug.”  And he dared to ruffle the dog’s head and scratch behind his ears.

Thankfully for his face, Mate seemed content to oblige him.  William’s racing heart started racing a little less quickly.

The workers seemed to believe him, at least enough that they continued their installation.  Did they go much faster than they had before?  He wasn’t sure.  But everything seemed to be fully functional when they showed him and Mate how to work the keypad.

“You’ll just need to pick a passcode that will be easy to remember but hard to guess,” the older worker, Paul, told him at last.

Not even bothering to search for Anthony at this point, William thought for a moment, wondering what in the world Anthony could possibly choose.  But, coming up with nothing, he went ahead with one he would remember.  It was Anthony’s fault for not sticking around, anyway.

“3-9-6-8,” he said, smiling secretly. 

Of course it then became time for the financial side of things but thankfully the workers just handed him an invoice to sign—he really hoped it wasn’t illegal to sign for someone else’s house—and he got to keep a copy of the invoice, they told them he could just contact the number for setting up regular payments and such, then they were on their way.

Much to his credit, Mate didn’t do anything to make the security workers more nervous, beyond staring silently at them with his glowing green eyes, and even then, that was dulled down in its intensity because he would lean into William whenever they stopped moving and kept nudging him until he put his arm around Mate’s neck again.  Silly dog.

When at last they were gone, William rose and called out to Anthony.  “It’s safe to come out now, they’re gone,” he sang out, before looking down at the papers he’d collected.  When he heard no response from Anthony, he sighed, set the papers on the kitchen island, and went looking for that unruly painter.

Surprisingly, he wasn’t in the workroom, nor in the backroom of the workroom, which was full of shelves of various paints and chemicals.  Realizing this room would be great evidence against that rumour about mysterious purchases from the hardware store, William loped back into the kitchen to grab his camera, leaving Mate behind in the workroom.

When he got back and lifted his camera to take a picture of the storage room, he nearly dropped his camera with a yelp because suddenly in his viewer Anthony was standing right in front of him.

“Geez, don’t just appear out of nowhere like that!  You nearly gave me a heart attack,” William complained.  “Where were you?  You missed the whole thing.”

“Working,” came the wondrously illuminating reply.  “They’re gone then?” Anthony asked the question but didn’t wait for William to reply before leaving the room.

William glared after him but sighed and followed, saying automatically, “Come on, Mate.”

He was at the door before he realized that he didn’t hear the dog following.  Confused, he turned and looked around the workroom.  “Mate?”

He walked back to the storage room.  “Mate?”

Damn it all, seriously?  Like owner, like dog, the damn dog didn’t wait for him either.

He walked into the hallway, looking down the hall for Mate as he turned up toward the kitchen and banged right into a hard chest.  Hands came up to catch him from falling as he gasped, his shocked eyes coming swiftly up to meet Anthony’s.  “Sorry, I wasn’t lo—”

His words died in his throat, like they always did when faced with Anthony’s intensity.  But he’d never been this close before.  He could see his own startled face reflected in Anthony’s eyes, which quickly dilated and started to turn from brown to gold to—Anthony’s eyes closed, turning his head away as he released William’s shoulders and stepped back before turning toward the kitchen.  “Come on, let’s get that interview done.”

Unable to control the shivers that went through him, William secretly hugged himself to try and get rid of the sensations tumbling through him as he followed Anthony silently.  Hell, yes, let’s get this done so I can get the hell out of here.  I’m going insane.

He looked at Anthony’s back and thought about the eyes he’d seen this time, eyes that Anthony had quickly hidden away from him, but not before he had read their message.  They had expressed hunger.  And maybe… I’m not the only one.