1.9

(Heathcliff)

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There was a lot getting under my skin. I paced around the house one Tuesday morning, waiting for Pilona to come back. And wondering which couches I wanted for the empty living room.

Pilona was feeling better after getting his back snapped at the hammam and even promised to make the trek back to Earth for me. Either alone or with a bodyguard, which poor Penama was not equipped to be.

And she was gone without a trace when Pilona “let her out” one night. I missed that babbling daemon more than I ever thought I would. Not because I could actually understand her, because no one actually taught courses in Daemonic, but for what she gave us.

She tended to the plants in the atrium and outside. She washed some windows and emptied mouse traps. But I could live in death and filth but not without the most important thing.

Ice. We had a good few weeks with the unmelting ice we were promised, and Governor Cook was happy for once. But some smaller pieces weren’t started at the supplies dried up. Nothing. And the ice suppliers in the city were tied up in other requests too. Nothing left in the quantities we needed, as clear as we needed, or as unmelting as Pilona promised. Even Tom was feeling miserable about it, but at least he could record music. His mind spun with musical revelations or at least new ways to remix his two best albums.

There was a lot Tom could do though, and it was mostly Kate. At some point we got them an actual bedroom, with enough gold trim on the walls to make a daemon balk. I liked Kate’s sushi pillows a lot more. They made me hungry for eel rolls.

But Heathcliff, says the prying stranger, Romeo could take you out for sushi rolls at any time if you asked! First off, he didn’t like sushi. But more importantly, I started to see him less, but not for a lack of trying.

A tangent: my first and probably only mistake with Romeo was thinking that the thing that made us the most different was our ages. As much as I loved tracing the lines in his face with my fingers, I usually didn’t think about it.

At first it seemed like he had a day job, which worked well with me working whenever I wanted to. The fact he could be called to it in the middle of the night didn’t change that. It’d be as bad if I dated a nurse after all. And dating a special agent scared people…if I was allowed to tell them that.

Because of that, Romeo and I spent a while trying to plan a picnic at the Butterfly Esplanade. In that time, I could have crashed at his apartment for two weeks instead and gotten a blowjob every day. He didn’t want that either, but a picnic was fine, especially at the Esplanade. It was a gorgeous park with butterflies under its signature geodesic dome, and I wanted to eat sandwiches with him and make out on the grass. I could see it from his apartment and was always curious.

I was looking forward to that all week. But then all the dreams of his lips and getting ticks in my hair were crushed: he cancelled. Romeo never cancelled once we actually made plans, and I dug out the family’s shrimp salad sandwich recipe for nothing. It was a shock. He was renowned enough among the feds to get whatever time he wanted off for dates.

Well, things could get busy, absence made the heart grow fonder, and I had a pretty great lunch. Usually the promise of fun helped me and I was glad it did, because that was the first of several rejections on top of not going to the ball with him. And he was otherwise thrilled for that.

I was mostly mad at myself. I needed to find my spark again, so I could be as vibrant as ever when Romeo came back. But most of all, I needed ice. And Pilona was late for once.

“Heathcliff! Show some respect to your elders and walk me in.”

“You could teleport into the foyer,” I said. “I’m sure Tom and Matty know how weird I am by now.”

“And ruin your floors? It creates so much dust, I would never,” said Pilona. “How hard is it to find ice in a vast city? Don’t you have bars, artists, and god forbid, hockey?”

“Hockey isn’t played on clear ice.”

“Bars use clear ice, unless things have changed. You are nowhere near as creative as I thought.”

“If I could sculpt something out of a rocks glass, I would,” I said. “I bet you’re gonna say that my great-grandpa could do that and more but I just wanna cuddle with my boyfriend.”

“Suit yourself,” he said. “He still made time for cuddling.”

“And where is Penama anyways? I thought you’d wither and die without her.”

“I have my suspicions,” said Pilona. “Hire a groundskeeper. Get creative and gather ice from the harbor, I know it always floats down here.”

Our new groundskeeper was named Truman. I can’t forget an old man who kept our atrium green.

And Tom and I struck a deal with the Banzai Lounge, who kept a lot of smaller ice blocks around for drinks and kakigōri. We could explain that one to the governor, right? The lounge must have liked the publicity Tom even being in the freezer might have brought. He kept talking about making a new album but I kept him prisoner in the sculptor’s room. Maybe I needed to change that if I wanted more rap and rock in my life. As anyone should.

He got ornery, but it paid to be patient with Tom too. One day, he hated me. Another, he took me ring shopping…for Kate. I was going to help my best friend get married! It was every gay best friend’s dream come true. And he had the guts to want to do it at the governor’s ball. At least City Hall had some beautiful hallways and alcoves for them to hide in.

And then, Kate had to work. We didn’t get invited to the governor’s ball after all, not even for me to lovingly look at Romeo from the other side of the room. I got why he didn’t want to be seen with me. Not every workplace was kind to the idea of a gay daemon prince, and that’s why I didn’t have a real job. Also, we were classless rubes. After setting up the sculptures, Tom and I got kicked out. Hands freezing, dressed in our finest, only given a pity gift of wine from Governor Cook’s desk drawer.

“So you wasted my whole night,” mumbled Tom.

“C’mon, you don’t like the people watching? The cheap wine I picked out? The dressing up for no good reason?” Kate always wanted to see him in a good jacket, and I agreed. Sadly, she was working that night. “Ah right, we messed up your big engagement dinner.”

“You messed it up. I thought you, I dunno man…you took Kate’s phone.”

“Yeah, and I was wrong about when she was working. That’s on you for thinking I can read.”

Tom fidgeted with his hands. There was a part of him that couldn’t even look in the window, while I was judging Lady Cook through it. Absolutely inelegant. She was stumbling drunk and periwinkle was so out as a color.

“Hey, no more big jobs for a while, I really want to do this album and tour,” he said.

“With Lola Belle?”

“Stupid fucking tabloid reader.”

I shrugged my shoulders. Sometimes I messaged Kai for juicy details and dodged the nasty stuff he sent me instead. And less often, I put a few of Lola’s songs on our sculpting playlist. “I think you two are like chocolate and peanut butter.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really bad for my health.”

Tom had enough, and a celebrity Hummer service at his beck and call to go back home. Or get into the Prosper Room and share a bottle of Hennessy with someone else important. I was always jealous of him for that, I wanted an empty Hennessy bottle to display in the foyer.

Meanwhile, I stayed until I could catch a glimpse of Romeo. He was dazzling in a tuxedo, even if it’d take me a while to get him into one myself! The blue shawl over his shoulders really completed the look. Now that was a man who knew his shades of blue. But what I would have given to hang off his arm for the night.

I wasn’t mad at him and figured it was about the event capacity and fire codes. They wouldn’t even let Tom in, after all.

---

After a lot of hair-pulling and twiddling my thumbs, I forced Romeo into a date. I also felt bad about it. He said that he was having trouble sleeping and looked half-dead most of the time. Maybe I made it worse by being around his apartment. My heavy sleeping made his jealous and I was just a little too hot to ignore.

But this one was irresistible. It was in the middle of the Euro Cup and Italy was doing well. The Bridgeport Sports Zone showed all games and drinks there were almost palatable. Romeo always rooted for Italian football, since his mum would pinch him by the ear if he didn’t root for his cousin Edoardo. Meanwhile I thought they always had the cutest players.

And with the allure of a crowded bar full of jocks and meatheads, we made it into a triple date. I didn’t expect it at all. For starters, I didn’t think any of my friends actually liked Romeo at first. He was a lot older than Kate and Matty, too uptight for Tom, and they all probably thought I was too good for him. It was definitely the other way around though.

The footnote here is Matty. He actually got a girlfriend and what I remember the most about them that night was neither of them drinking. And rooting for Switzerland to piss us off. If it matters, her name was Polly.

Football was nice and all, but I kept my eye on Tom and Kate. I already booked a venue for their engagement so I was starting to fear the worst: that Tom would ruin my plans and Italy would lose.

Stupid Heathcliff, wasn’t the wedding more important? I had to make sure that Kate would choose good colors for it after all.

It didn’t matter. I was crushed when they went into the VIP section, something I didn’t think a sports bar needed. People could recognize Tom but I was still a nobody, which had its perks too. But I think the VIP section was where they kept the better drinks, so it was a double-whammy of pain.

On most days, I charitably thought of myself as “conspicuous”. Bright clothing and hair, a loud voice, pretty tall. I wasn’t going to get past the bouncers.

But during the Euro Cup, it was easy. And ballet made me forever light on my feet.

“Oh no, my deposit!” A thousand bucks on the Atlantis Experience down the toilet because Tom’s good taste left the room, and he bent down on a dirty bar floor with Kate’s ring. At least she was happy.

“Forever and ever, honey!” The diamond glistened on her finger, but I didn’t think her daemonic family would be pleased. Gold and jewels were a part of our culture after all.

“Well that’s a disappointment,” said Romeo, touching my shoulder. I melted a little; he made this wait for a simple touch too long.

“Did you bribe your way in here?” I asked him.

“No, but now the owner believes he’s part of a federal investigation.”

Of course he carried his badge around all day! Those selfish moments only added to his charm, or, I knew I’d do the same thing if I was smart enough to pass through Quantico.

“I’ll order you something this time, I know you’ve been busy,” I said to him. He had these bags under his eyes and didn’t smell as good, but I’d still give him a seven outta ten for smell. He forgot his good cologne though. “And to think all I’ve been doing is complaining about ice.”

We found a seat for ourselves and I got Romeo his favorite drink, which was anything brown. I went with a Guinness in a bottle, our shared guilty pleasure. It tasted like nothing so it went with spicy wings and curry, though he wasn’t that hungry that night either.

He fidgeted with his beer instead of chugging like I wished he would. Then he’d actually have fun and be at peace with his life, which I knew he was always chasing.

“So, yeah, it sucks when I can’t sculpt and have to pay a groundskeeper,” I said. “Surely your building’s nicer.”

“It is,” Romeo said quietly.

“Bet they trim the hedges and everything.”

“Yeah…”

“C’mon, don’t make this as awkward as when we first met,” I said. “We’ve seen too much of each other by now.”

His eyes narrowed. “How much do you pay the groundskeeper?”

“I dunno! My uncle handles that and Truman doesn’t complain about the wages,” I said. We had a guest room for him though, and instructions for Kate to think of him when cooking breakfast. “I miss the old chick though. She was a weird one but she worked twice as fast.”

“How well did you know her?” Romeo asked.

“Wish it was more, uncle’s pretty desperate to find her. I don’t think he can put his shoes on without her help. And he’s financing all this.”

“Even the shirt on your back?”

I rolled my eyes. “You know that’s the least important thing between us.”

The football match was winding down. It was a draw between Italy and Switzerland, with one goal a piece, and draws were so boring. Perhaps a real football fan would disagree, but I was just a knucklehead who usually called it soccer. I wasn’t transfixed on it, but neither was Romeo.

Hell, even Tom and Kate were getting in the spirit of it, but they were high on adrenaline and love. I figured four years would be enough time for Romeo to retire and take our relationship to the next level at the next Euro Cup.

“Are you watching the game?” I asked him, not taking my eyes away from the screen and the little black pixel they were kicking around. I’d understand it one of those days. Football was one of those eternal sports, kind of like basketball. I’d probably live to see a world too hot for hockey and too dry for baseball but the other sports adapted. And centuries later I’d be telling kids the oral history of football from back in my day.

“Are you scared about me being immortal?” I whispered to Romeo.

“No…I know it’s important to you. I also don’t think you’re dumb or unlucky enough to die before I do, if you could,” he said.

“Oh, don’t underestimate me.” I tried to grab Romeo’s hand but it felt limp when I did. We also missed Italy’s last-minute winning goal. “I’m gonna pretend that I don’t hear the cheering.”

“Yeah. Listen, Heathcliff, I need to go home. This was a mistake.”

“The date or not seeing the final goal?”

“The date…it’s not you. I’m exhausted.”

“I’m not putting you behind the wheel of a car then, I’m calling Truman,” I said.

I told Romeo that I wouldn’t watch him outside, but worry got to me and I did. He looked like a wreck, slumped over on a park bench and waiting for someone to drive his beloved car.

I think that’s why I remembered Truman the groundskeeper. He saved us from drunk driving, something that became a lot harder without him. As if I’d become a responsible old man.

“Do you like the ring?” Kate asked me at the elevator, holding out her hand to let the gem sparkle in the fluorescent light.

“Tom didn’t take any of my suggestions,” I mumbled.

“It’s soooooooo cute, he engraved our names on the inside but I also don’t wanna take it off.”

“Do you think I messed up?”

“Nah, you two are perfect,” said Kate. “I bet Uncle Pilona will know what to do.”

“Hardly.” Maybe I was the one making things stale. I was supposed to be the wild and crazy one of the relationship after all. No regular job, no office dress codes, no sense of mortality. And yet, most of my hair was its natural color. Despicable. Keeping natural colors was something every other Ironstar did back in Twinbrook.

With all my love to my family, I was different.

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Not to expand the cast with the fucking groundskeeper but Truman was a legit part of the household for a while and I was feeling bad leaving him out. Not really a plot-important character, and he actually starts out as one of the pre-made social worker NPCs. It’s simple: some of the service NPCs have neat genes, and I don’t play this file with StoryProgression anyways. One day I’ll find the balance for showing these things off…

Hardest shot? The ice blocks on the hand carts! Another item that refused to tilt properly though I used some extra mod magic in the end.

EA goofed up and didn’t include FIFA footage for the sports channel in TS3, I didn’t even show any ice sculptures in the governor’s ball shot either.