lxhote:

            “…..— I didn’t think you’d be in here.”

    He makes a vague gesture to the cat curled up on the back of the couch nearby, chews the inside of his cheek a little.

                         ”I was just talking to Fidget, Seth.”

    He pauses, and then he’s gathering Seth up into his arms and hugging him tightly, wanting to kiss him but resisting.

               ( It was harder to resist these days. He tried to pretend he wasn’t starving, like he wasn’t alone in the woods for a week, not eating.)

                                                                  _{❝——Still.❞
                                      ❝I’m not too sure Fidget wants you to–…❞
                                            ❝…call yourself his daddy, Paul.❞}

         _{When we speak of playfulness and benevolent nature, and when we refer to the children of our age as being boisterous or counterproductive in their ways, we forget to mention the fact that humanity has advanced;  it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.}

<sub>Allow him–for only a moment–to make this innocent, yet frisky and rather exuberant remark, meant to vaguely offend, but more to entertain.
A joke, if you will.

              He hadn’t exactly taken into account the strife that coincided with Paul’s experiences.
       For Seth, all that mattered, was that he missed Paul, and that he was here now.</sub>

                                                     _{❝…Where we——–❞}

                                                         _{❝————— ! ❞
                                                                ❝…Oh — ❞
                                                                    ❝–….❞}

         _{Once he’d been beckoned by his snug and genial embrace, Seth had failed to recall precisely what he was going to say. Paul’s strength had been invitble – and even if Seth had been graced with the opportunity and the skill to push him away, he wouldn’t want to. He liked it here–and it smelled of sawdust–like pine–and and Paul’s cologne. He was never exactly sure of the brand, the company. It smelled somewhat of citrus, with a hidden mask or undertone of timber and musk, as if the gas that permeated the room–itself–would have a flaxen glow.} 

_{He put a hand flat against Paul’s chest, mindlessly tossing and rolling the drawstring of his hoodie between the pads of his thumb, and his index finger. He looks down.}

                                              <sub>❝…I was only going to ask.❞
                                                                   ❝—-❞

                                                    ❝Where you’d gone.❞
                                                    ❝…Where you were.❞

                                         ❝You don’t have to tell me ! I —- ❞
                                                 ❝–….I was just curious.❞

                                                                ❝…Is all.❞</sub>