September 7, 2008

Bug and Danny
by Vic Winter

Bug wandered around his little apartment, cleaning and dusting and generally tidying.

“Danny’s coming over today,” he told Sedgewick, his little gargoyle who was peering at him, head tilted as he talked. “If he likes you, then I’ll know he’s possibly the guy.”

Sedgewick didn’t answer, of course, but it made Bug feel better to have someone to talk to. Someone who at least appeared to be listening.

He’d been on several dates with Danny and, unlike what usually happened, they’d all gone well. There had been no major disasters and the minor ones had not been his fault. Maybe it was because going out with Danny didn’t make him nervous and nothing got him into trouble more than being nervous. Dates almost always made him jumpy and then random accidents started happening with his magic. Not only was it embarrassing, and occasionally dangerous, but it always spelled the end of the date and of the relationship.

Danny was different. “Danny was special,” whispered a little voice in his head.

Bug smiled to himself and nodded. He focussed for a moment and, just like that, his little apartment was sparkling clean. Then he remembered that he’d been doing it by hand to fill the time before Danny got there. So he didn’t have time to worry and fret over things.

“What am I going to do now?” Bug asked Sedgewick.

The little gargoyle trilled at him and climbed onto the counter in the kitchen alcove, looking at him hopefully.

“You want a snack?” Laughing, he grabbed an apple and began to cut it into slices. Sedgewick climbed onto his back, head resting on his shoulder. Dipping a slice of apple into peanut butter, Bug passed it up to Sedgewick. “Just don’t get my shirt all peanut-buttery.”

Sedgewick twittered at him and began to eat, the noisy little nibbles comforting, familiar.

Humming softly to Sedgewick, Bug put some chips in a bowl, licking the barbeque flavouring off his fingers. Sedgewick rode happily on his back until the knock on the door, and then Bug’s little gargoyle scampered off to hide behind his favourite chair. Well, maybe it was as important for Sedgewick to like Danny as it was for Danny to like the gargoyle.

Bug hurried to the door and checked the peephole. Smiling when he saw Danny’s blond shag, he opened the door and invited Danny in.

“Hi, hi. Come in, come in.”

Danny did. “Hey, Bug. I brought strawberries.” Danny looked around as he said it, probably looking for Sedgewick. Danny’d said he’d never met a real live gargoyle before. Bug figured Danny hadn’t spent a lot of time in the magic quarter for that to be true.

Sedgewick wasn’t that strange of a pet, not here. Bug had had the gargoyle ever since he’d left home to come live in his little apartment in the magic quarter.

“It isn’t very big,” he told Danny, meaning his apartment.

“It suits you, though.”

“Because I’m little, too.”

Danny laughed and looped long arms around him. “You’re just the right size for you.” And that right there was one of the reasons he liked Danny so much.

Danny kissed him on his nose and then on his lips. Bug sighed into the kiss. It felt so nice: warm and soft. He wrapped his arms around Danny’s middle and cuddled in, hoping for more of the sweet kisses. Danny shared them with him, seeming as happy as he was to just stand together and swap spit. The expression got him giggling and Danny pulled away, smiling down at him.

“What’s funny?”

“Oh, I...” He felt his cheeks heat. “Well, I was just thinking that I liked kissing you and for some reason the expression ‘swapping spit’ came to mind and it made me laugh.”

“Swapping spit?” Danny started laughing, too, but not at him; it was clearly with him. And there was another reason Danny was special. He sure hoped Danny and Sedgewick liked each other.

“Come sit.” He pulled Danny over to the old purple couch with its myriad pillows. It made a lovely nest for two people to sit together cosily. “Sedgwick will come out when he’s comfortable,” Bug promised.

Danny looked around again, eyes searching. “Okay. Hey, are those chips?”

“Yeah. Barbeque.”

“My favourite! You remembered!”

Bug nodded, his smile growing wide. He remembered everything he knew about Danny. He liked the guy a lot. A really whole lot.

They munched on chips and chatted – talking with Danny was easy and whenever they lapsed into silence, it was okay; he didn’t feel the need to fill the quiet with endless babble.

Sedgewick finally decided to come out from behind the chair and check Danny out from close up. Bug laughed at the expression on Danny’s face as he caught sight of the gargoyle, his hand halfway to his mouth, fingers holding several chips.

Bug waited anxiously while Sedgewick checked out Danny, and Danny checked out Sedgewick. Finally, after what felt like forever and was stretching the easy silence, Sedgewick hopped up onto the couch next to Danny, twittered, and held out his hand expectantly.

Danny dropped the chips he was holding into Sedgewick’s little hand and Bug drew a relieved breath.

The little gargoyle ate the chips and held out his hand again.

“Is it okay if I feed him?”

Bug nodded, adding barbeque chips to the list of things that Sedgewick liked. His pet and Danny already had something in common.

After two more chips, Sedgewick climbed right into Danny’s lap, happily eating the steady stream of chips that were fed to him.

“He likes strawberries, too,” Bug noted. “How did you know to bring them?”

Danny shrugged. “I like strawberries and I thought it would be fun to feed them to you. You know, like in the movies.”

Bug grinned. “How romantic.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Danny laughed and rolled his eyes.

“I like it,” Bug told him. “I like you, too.”

Danny’s arm went around his shoulders. “The feeling is mutual, Bug.”

Bug beamed, and took the bull by the horns. “So that makes us boyfriends, huh?”

Danny laughed. “Yeah, I guess it does.”

“Boyfriends who don’t date anyone else?”

Sobering, Danny nodded. “Yeah. I don’t want to see anybody but you.”

“Oh, good. Me, too.” Bug threw his arms around Danny’s neck and pushed their mouths together. Danny kissed him right back.

Sedgewick complained loudly and when that didn’t stop them, climbed off Danny’s lap, complained once more, and disappeared into the bedroom.

That was okay with Bug. He needed Sedgewick to like Danny, but he didn’t need his gargoyle to like him kissing Danny.

Then Danny’s tongue pushed between his lips and he forgot about Sedgewick altogether.

***

Today's clue: Dr. Fell insisted on having his *own* letter and wouldn't share with Syd.