His Amber Eyes

Blood stained his shirt!

Wet hair hung across his forehead, and his beard and shirt glistened from the Japanese monsoon rain. Looking down at the man on the other side of the doorway, the stranger croaked through chapped lips, “Can I come in?”

Nick normally doesn’t open the door to strangers who are injured and look like they could run the Yakuza all by themselves. And yet here he was, standing in the rain, leaning against his door frame, with his hand gingerly pressed against the gash on his chest.

“Yeah.”

Nick helped the man inside, wrapping the man’s arm over his shoulder. Guiding him to his couch, Nick felt this stranger’s weight pushing him down. Sitting him down, Nick carefully unbuttoned the stranger’s shirt to clean his wound. The gash was deep, running from under his left clavicle and stopping under his right pectoral. Nick didn’t want to admit it to himself, but this man was surprisingly toned. There was a large tattoo of many roses across his right shoulder that reached to the middle of his bicep. The stranger noticed his stare and examined this man who generously let him into his home.

Nick was small and thin, with wider hips and thighs that were shown prominently by his silk nightgown and sheen night robe. His hair was short, but fluffy, with his bangs resting over his forehead and curling in tufts in all directions. His icy blue eyes trailed down this stranger’s tattoo in awe. Nick’s eyes finally met with the stranger in front of him. This man had lovely amber eyes, and they enticed Nick for a short while.

“I’ll get you patched up.”

The man nodded and Nick walked to get his first aid kit.

Nick’s house was spacious, with wood flooring, dark apple wood furniture in a few places and a black contemporary couch. There was a small, decently sized TV in the living room that this stranger was in. Nick came back from excursion with a medical kit in his hand. He sat down next to him and opened the kit. Looking at the stranger in front of him, he handed him a pillow.

“You can grip this if you want. This is going to hurt a bit.”

Nick sprayed some antiperspirant on the wound to clean it. The man hissed through his teeth and gripped the pillow that Nick gave him. Sweat beaded on his forehead a little bit as Nick cleaned the wound with gauze and disenfectant. Nick looked up at the stranger as he cleaned the wound

“So what’s your name?”

The man looked down at Nick with his Amber eyes.

“Cliff Alchemy. And you?”

“Nick Akagi.”

It didn’t take long before nick was able to bandage Cliff’s wound. Cliff carefully sat up in his spot as Nick shifted in his spot next to him.

“Can I get you anything to drink, Cliff?”

Cliff looked over at Nick and smiled.

“Some water would be fine.”

Nick smiled sweetly at Cliff before getting up to grab some water. Cliff watched him leave and found blush creeping up his cheeks. Realizing this, he shook his head a bit to prevent his cheeks from getting any redder than they probably already were. Nick came back with a glass of water for Cliff, taking his place back on the couch beside him. Cliff gently took the cup from Nick and drank the water from it, giving Nick time to stare at Cliff’s hands that were holding the cup. They were scarred, and he had a tattoo of a spider on the back of his thumb. Cliff took notice of this and glanced at Nick.

“You see something you like?”

Nick became flustered at first and gripped the couch. Not wanting to lose his cool, Nick decided to play coy with Cliff. He put on a smirk and looked up at him with his hands pressed against the couch. Cliff could see his eyes from underneath his bangs.

“Oh, it’s just your tattoo, that’s all.”

Cliff rolled his eyes and smiled playfully at Nick and laughed. Nick looked surprised at this. This wasn’t exactly a reaction he was used to.

“I’m sure it’s just the tattoo.”

Nick looked at the bandaged wound that he helped heal. It was a bit bloodied now from the wound seeping through. Nick bit his lip and cringed a little as he gripped his nightgown. Cliff noticed this and looked at Nick in question and with a newfound concern.

“I never asked this when you first came in, but...how did you get that wound?”

Cliff rested his elbow on the arm of the couch and his cheek on his knuckles.

“Someone was trying to kill me.”

Nick’s eyes widened at this statement that Cliff made. He scooted closer to him, his hands on Cliff’s right arm.

“Who?”

Cliff looked away from him and at the floor. Nick tilted his head to try and look at him from where he was sitting. Cliff’s eyebrows furrowed as he spoke.

“I can’t tell you. They’d go after you too.”

Nick got up from where he was sitting and paced his floor. His tendency to overthink things got to him as scenarios began to play over and over again in his head. Nick had just met this guy only to learn that he could possibly be killed for whatever it was that he did.

“Maybe you could stay here with me. Whoever is after you won’t know where you are and you could hide in the shadows for while. They don’t know that you’re here, right?”

Cliff carefully got up from Nick’s couch, his jeans now crumpled from air drying. He looked down at Nick with his hands jammed in his pockets.

“It won’t matter. They’ll find me no matter what, and they’ll kill you too.”

Nick growled a bit and grabbed Cliff’s hand, yanking him down to his level. Cliff, a 6’3 man, had to break his back to match up to Nick’s height of 5’6.

“Well it matters to me!”

Cliff’s eyebrows furrowed as he scowled at Nick. He gripped his shoulders and began to shout at him.

“Why? You just met me! Have you lost your damn mind?”

“Maybe I have! But all I know is that I’m not backing down from what I say.”

Cliff looked at Nick with a bit of a surprised expression. Nick was frowning as well, but Cliff found Nick’s face to still be pretty even though he was angry. Cliff sighed and loosened his grip.

“You really aren’t backing down, are you?”

Nick shook his head no as Cliff chuckled.

“Then I guess I can’t say no.”