Warrick Tobias

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TWO TURTLEDOVES

by Harper Kingsley

turtledove: a small Old World dove with a soft purring call, noted for the apparent affection shown for its mate

"What is this?" Warrick asked, holding up Vereint’s jacket. There was what looked like a scarf attached, but he’d noticed it was lined with a plastic bag.

"That? That’s my smoking bib." Vereint was flipping busily through the TV Guide. From his faint frown, there was nothing he wanted to see.

"’Smoking bib’?" Warrick asked. "I need more explanation."

Vereint’s sigh was audible. He slouched lower on the couch, knees spreading wide as he settled himself. He stared raptly at the TV as he spoke, "You know the stuff I get from Donovan’s is strong. I don’t exhale where the people will be effected. And I get to hotbox myself. I think it’s a sartorial win."

Warrick sighed and shook the jacket in his hand. "This jacket is so ugly. We’ll visit Florian’s and I’ll have him make you some better clothes. This is a terrible rag."

Vereint turned his head to look right at him. Their gazes met and held. "What if I said it’s my favorite?"

"Then I love it because I love you," Warrick replied. "It’s very ugly, but I’m sure you somehow make it work for you."

Vereint laughed and held his arms open. "Get over here."

Warrick dropped the jacket on a chair in passing and allowed himself to sink onto the couch. He nuzzled into the comfort of Vereint’s body. "You’re always so warm."

"Said the cryokinetic," Vereint laughed.

=END=

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A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE

by Harper Kingsley

"What is this?" Vereint asked, walking around the stack of flat pak boxes curiously.

Warrick looked up from his cross-legged position on the floor to give a welcoming smile. "What, no kiss hello?"

Vereint shook his head with a fond smile, but agreeably leaned down to give Warrick a peck on the lips. "There. Now what is all this?"

"This," Warrick said, "is a gift from the new CEO of the Partridge Corporation. He’s trying to seduce me into business with his company."

"But what is it?" Vereint flopped on the floor next to Warrick, leaning against his arm until Warrick wrapped it around him. Warrick didn’t mind, always happy to have Vereint nearby.

"It’s called a Pear Tree," Warrick said. "Once it’s assembled, it’s like a cat tower for people."

"What?"

"Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but that’s how Partridge tried to explain it to me. A seven foot tower for humans. It’s made for climbing, lounging on, and I’m assuming we’re supposed to scratch it with our claws or something. I don’t know. It was a gift and he sent it straight here, so it’s not like I could refuse it."

"Huh." Vereint opened the nearest box, eyeing the poles and boards curiously. There was a piece of cardboard labeled "Hardware" in red taped to the lid that held vacuum packed nuts, bolts, washers, and an allen wrench. "At least it comes with tools."

"There’s supposed to be everything you need to assemble it in the kit," Warrick said.

Vereint found a sheet of full color drawings and turned it this way and that. "Is this some kind of sex thing?"

"What?" Warrick peered at the paper. "What are you seeing that I’m not?"

Vereint’s grin was naughty. "I’m seeing that you’re home and I’m home, and these boxes can wait for later, don’t you think? How often do we get the place to ourselves with no expected interruptions?"

"When you put it like that…" Warrick stood and held out his hand to tug Vereint to his feet.

.

By the time Melissa returned from her sleepover the Partridge Pear Tree had been assembled and had pride of place in the library. It was seven feet tall and spread wider than the height of either of them. This allowed them to lay down full length on the hammock section or curl up together on one of the four round platforms.

"I’m not sure what he’s expecting from you," Vereint had said upon first trying the human cat tower, "but I think I like this thing. Tell Partridge he’s got a winner with this Pear Tree."

Melissa, on seeing the human cat tower, crossed her arms and eyed it suspiciously. "Do you guys wait until I’m not around to buy weird things because you know I would poo-poo all over your ideas? What even is this thing? Where did you buy it, from one of those weird infomercials you keep letting suck you in?" She raised an eyebrow at Vereint.

"Hey, I… I feel very attacked right now," Vereint said, and Warrick laughed when Vereint began chasing Melissa around the apartment. He was moving at normal human speed, and her shrieking laughter rang through the rooms as she ran.

When Melissa came back into the library, she threw herself at the human cat tower and climbed rapidly upward to the very top platform. "I’m king of the mountain!" she yelled.

Vereint didn’t try to climb up after her. He tipped his head back and grinned at her, so wide that it squeezed his eyes nearly shut. "So I guess you like this thing, huh?"

Melissa rolled onto her back, her dark hair hanging down over the edge. "Yeah. I guess this thing seems pretty fun. We can keep it."

"Well, thank you very kindly, Your Majesty."

Warrick watched the people he loved–his family–and smiled.

Life is good, he thought.

=END=

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0 comments on "Heroes & Villains: “Dinner For Two” by Harper Kingsley"

Title: Dinner For Two
Author: Harper Kingsley
Series: Heroes & Villains
Setting: post-The Wedding, pre-Allies & Enemies
Characters: Vereint Georges, Warrick Reidenger Tobias

Inspiration:

Walking into the penthouse, Warrick was greeted by bags of groceries on the counter and Vereint wearing an apron and nothing else. The sight of that devilish smile and those bare arms and legs made Warrick hitch his step on the way to the hall closet to hang up his jacket.

“What’s going on?” he asked slowly. He couldn’t help tracing his gaze over Vereint, seeing where the brightly colored fabric curved, bent, cupped, and what it did and didn’t cover. It took him an extra few seconds to get his jacket on the hanger and the closet door closed.

“I thought we’d cook dinner together,” Vereint said. “I saw this recipe for garlic butter steak.”

“Steak?” Warrick’s mouth salivated at the thought. “Butter… That’s going to be a calorie bomb though.”

“Tonight’s special,” Vereint said.

“Oh?” Warrick crossed the intervening space and wrapped his arms around Vereint. He peeked over Vereint’s shoulder and couldn’t help grinning at the sight of a bare back and buttocks. He let the fingers of his right hand drift off the apron and lightly brush against Vereint’s skin. He was always so warm.

Vereint obligingly pressed closer to him, one hand going into Warrick’s hair. “Mm.”

“Why’s tonight special?” Warrick asked. He tried to walk Vereint toward their bedroom, but Vereint didn’t move. Warrick stopped pulling at him, resting his whole weight against him instead. If Vereint didn’t want to be moved, there would be no moving him.

“It’s our anniversary,” Vereint said. He must have felt Warrick’s body stiffen with sudden panic because he laughed. “Don’t worry; it’s not our wedding anniversary. It’s the anniversary of the first time I took you hostage.”

“What?”

“You know, when we were in that bank–”

“And you were wearing that horrible shirt!” Warrick laughed and squeezed Vereint.

“That’s when you fell in love with me,” Vereint said.

“No way,” Warrick said. “You terrorized a bank full of people and took me hostage. I thought you were a brat.”

“A brat that you immediately fell in love with because that’s the kind of person you are. You thrive on adversity.”

“And you being a brat is what you consider adversity?”

“No. I call that ‘charm.’ The adversity part comes in when you try to resist jumping my bones as we sear the rib-eye I’ve got on the counter.” Vereint tugged himself out of Warrick’s arms and headed toward the kitchen. The flirty wink he tossed over his shoulder and the way he flexed the globes of his ass were a dare.

Watching him go, Warrick shook his head with a rueful grin. He could definitely feel the adversity now.

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1 comment on "Excerpt “All That Remains” – from Chapter Five"

Title: All That Remains – excerpt Chapter Five
Author: Harper Kingsley
Genre: superhero. science fiction. action. mm.

EXCERPT-

They didn’t get to enjoy the afterglow for even five minutes before someone rang the front doorbell. Then rang it again, and again, and again, before leaving their finger on the button for a long time.

One look at Vereint’s darkening expression had Warrick climbing out of bed. “I’ve got it.”

He pulled on a pair of black sweatpants and a loose gray tee shirt.

“No underwear?” Vereint asked.

“I don’t care if whoever that is sees me free-balling,” Warrick said.

“But it might be one of Nicky’s friends. Put on your robe,” Vereint ordered. Then rolled on his stomach and burrowed his face into his pillow. “I’mma sleep now.”

Warrick rolled his eyes fondly. “If you weren’t so cute…” He picked his robe up off a chair and slipped his arms in the sleeves, tying the belt as he left the bedroom and padded barefoot down the stairs.

Whoever was on the porch rang the doorbell again.

“Okay, okay. I’m coming!” Warrick called. He could feel himself getting irritated. His evening with Vereint was being spoiled by this interruption.

He forced himself not to jerk the door open. The last thing he wanted to deal with was a broken front door. Instead he —-purposely—- turned the knob and opened the door.

“Can I help you?” he asked the delivery man in a frosty tone.

“It’s a good thing you’re here. I was about to leave.” The guy proferred a clipboard. “I need a signature, please.”

Warrick took the clipboard but didn’t sign until the delivery man showed him the package with Vereint’s assumed name on the label. Then he scrawled a signature on the digital paper and exchanged the clipboard for the loaf of bread-sized box.

“Thanks,” he growled, then slammed the door and locked it. He waited until he heard the truck start up and drive away before carrying the package upstairs to Vereint.

“Who was it?” Vereint asked when Warrick came in the room.

“A delivery for you.” Warrick set the box on the bed and began stripping back down. He wasn’t giving up a rare opportunity to lounge naked.

“Hedonist,” Vereint teased. He didn’t lift his head from his pillow, just reached out a hand to snake the box across the covers toward himself. He fumbled at the tape with one hand, eventually pulling it off the lid in one strip.

Warrick climbed into his side of the bed and sat with his back against the headboard. His pillow was somewhere on the floor. “What’d you get?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

“So it could be a bomb, and you’re opening it on our bed?”

“Yes.” Vereint fumbled the box lid open and tilted it toward Warrick. “What’s in there?”

Warrick reached out to move the brown packing paper out of the way. “It looks like a creepy doll. Is someone going to try and serial kill us now?”

Vereint snorted. “I’d like to see someone try.” He lifted the doll out of the box by its head, tilting it so he could get a good look. “Hm. That is creepy. Who’s it from?”

Warrick glanced at the widely smiling bald ceramic head with the hand and foot-less white cloth body and fought a shudder. He looked at the outside of the box, then the inside. He even flipped it over to show there was nothing inside.

“There’s no name,” he said. “Someone went out of their way to send you a creepy doll anonymously. Strange and suspicious.”

Vereint rolled over and sat up, the bedcovers pooling over his bare lap. He picked up the doll with both hands and examined it closely. “Whoever made this knows how to sew, yet purposely made it look amateurish. It’s a taunt.”

“What–“

Vereint whipped the doll around by one leg and smacked the head against his night table. The head cracked apart, a small slip of paper falling out.

Vereint snatched the paper out of the air and spread it open. “‘I know who you are,'” he read aloud. “What the shit is this?”

/end excerpt

*

Wanna know who these guys are before reading “All That Remains”? Check them out first in “Heroes & Villains“, then follow it up with “Allies & Enemies.”