Tobi (Male x Male)

Chapter 13 - The Café

Friday morning brought grey clouds and drizzle.

Not that I minded the change in weather. After the excursion into the hills the previous day and sharing my mental burden with Tobi, I was feeling lighter somehow, and that overshadowed any sorrow the weather might have brought.

It wasn't that I was feeling less guilty for what I'd done. On the contrary, the remorse was still very much present. But there was something about not having to shoulder it alone anymore that made it a little more tolerable. Something about the way Tobi had handled my revelation that helped me to be a little more grounded.

I stared out of the window at the light rain that snaked down the glass, deep in thought as I brushed my teeth.

Other than the obvious distress created by my confession, I'd enjoyed being outside my home with the platinum blond. The turtleneck had covered any evidence that he was Katki, and he hadn't displayed any behaviour that would have drawn attention to himself.

Getting him used to public places seemed like the most sensible next step. As I continued to watch the raindrops meander down the window, I determined that if we were going to try visiting a public place, a rainy weekday would be better than a weekend because there would be fewer people to contend with and I didn't want him to feel overwhelmed. There didn't seem much point in waiting for my next leave of absence from work, so I considered whether this was something we could attempt today.

Other than the relatively short time that Tobi had been free of the compliance drug, I couldn't think of a good reason why we shouldn't at least try. We appeared to trust each other already, and I felt the overall risk was small.

Tobi seemed excited when I proposed the idea to him, and we set off soon afterwards, sharing the only umbrella I owned.

I decided the most sensible course of action was to take a transport bus to Linn, a town that was further away than I'd normally travel to, as this lowered the probability that we'd encounter anyone I knew.

Upon our arrival, Tobi disembarked the transport bus before I did, wide-eyed and excited about his first experience of being relatively unrestricted in a public place. The bus had stopped in the small shopping area, and I watched as his sky-blue eyes took in everything from the brightly coloured displays to the people scurrying through the light rain to reach their destinations.

"This is incredible!" he enthused from under our umbrella.

I smiled.

For me, this was just a drizzly Friday in the shopping district of an adjacent town. To Tobi, this was a whole new world, and he was looking at it with the joy and wonder of a child in a playground.

"Do you want to have a look in some of the stores?" I asked him, and he nodded his approval eagerly.

We soon found ourselves in a small clothing store with a couple of others. Looking every bit like a fish out of water, Tobi followed me, his curious blue eyes darting around the clothing rails and other customers with interest. I bought him a couple of hooded sweaters with high necklines that covered his markings, to give him options if he found he wanted to visit other places in future, and a winter coat, since the colder season was approaching.

I wondered what we might get him to wear once the warmer summer weather arrived, but decided anything could happen by then, and we'd cross that bridge when we came to it.

"You didn't have to do that," he said to me quietly as we exited the store.

"I wanted to," I smiled back. "These will hopefully give you a little more freedom to move around in public. And besides, you have no way of earning money, so if you need something I'll get it."