Quietly Burning (Minicat)

New Home 0.4

"This smells like heaven."

"It tastes even better." Tyler laughed at him as Craig shoved his nose into the plastic takeout bag, inhaling the godly smell through his nose and groaning.

After they ordered and picked up their food, Tyler drove them back to his apartment to dig into the glorious takeout and get Craig settled into his new home. As they pulled up to his place, Tyler glanced over at Craig. "It's Thursday, right?"

Craig looked at him, curiously, "Yeah? Why?"

Tyler nodded, more to himself, and got out of the truck. "I'll tell you over food. Let's get you inside, first." Craig couldn't agree more.

Once inside, Tyler set two of Craig's suitcases behind a couch and took the food from Craig. Craig set his duffel and small suitcase next to his other stuff, and took a moment to look around Tyler's place. It surprised him how well kept everything was, and how big and expensive it all looked. It made him feel slightly out of place, like he asked too much to stay in a place like this. The part of him that believed, from the beginning, that he didn't belong here and he didn't deserve to be here was slowly growing larger.

"Hey." Tyler grabbed Craig's attention away from his wandering thoughts. "Food is gonna get cold with all that thinking you're doing. Get over here and stuff your face with me." He smirked when Craig laughed, noticing how he gave in and relaxed.

They sat down at the table, and dug in.

"You weren't fucking kidding, holy shit," Craig mumbled in between bites.

"Right? Best shit around."

They ate in silence for a while enjoying the flavors they shoved down their throats. 

"So." Tyler swallowed. "Was the flight okay?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I slept through it all. I was pretty exhausted after, uh, the thing."

Tyler twirled his fork, eyeing Craig. "Right. Sleep okay?"

"Dreamless and quick, which I'm happy about." Craig pointed his fork at Tyler, "What was that earlier about today being Thursday?"

"Oh yeah. I have a thing planned Saturday. I'm meeting up with family at a bar around 8:00. You feeling up to that?"

Craig chewed his food slowly for a moment. "Like... Meet your family?"

"Yeah. Well- they're not blood family, but they're the best family i could ask for."

It never crossed Craig's mind that he knew nothing about Tyler's family. Hesitantly, he asked, "Oh, so not your parents or anything?"

Tyler's shoveling of food slowed for a moment. "Uh, no. No parents."

Shit, did I mess something up? "Oh... Sorry, um... what happened?"

Tyler glanced over at Craig, who was quietly scraping his food into a pile. He smiled, "It's a long story I'll have to tell you another time."

Craig kicked himself, feeling terrible. "Oh, okay, s-sorry, I didn't mean t-"

"Hey, it's cool. Not upset over it."  

They finished up their meal, Tyler breaking the thin ice they were treading on by nudging him and asking if he wanted to play COD. Craig's face lit up like a Christmas tree, and it was the most adorable thing Tyler has ever seen (well, no, it actually isn't. He's seen Craig get angry over hiccups, and get flustered by an onslaught of compliments Tyler tossed his way, when they first video called). 

Within the next ten minutes, they were shouting at each other and elbowing each other to get the other to fuck up. The switched back and forth between zombies and multiplayer, having the best first night they could ever ask for. By the time Craig began to tire, it was almost 3 AM.