a spectacular teaser
Oct. 13th, 2022 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luninosity*"final-ish" because there'll be the holiday JMS Books advent calendar short fluff, and then Jason and Colby have fairly prominent roles in Leo's upcoming novel, too! So we'll see them again.
"Spectacular" is the story in which...well, to summarize...Jason & Colby spend time with Jason’s family, do some switching in bed, and talk about something they maybe didn’t completely talk about way back in book one… (Amazon ) (JMS Books )
It's a bit of an odd feeling - like, with the trilogy and all the bonus stories, we've spent around 300,000 words with these characters, in their world and their POV! And it's...not quite over - see above note about upcoming things! - but it'll be a change, as an author: not being in their heads as much anymore. But it also felt like the right (semi)ending story for them - how far they've come, from then to now. (Plus, being in Leo's head, for his book, is a delight...)
...well, here, would you like a small teaser?
#
They stayed another night. The hospital was keeping Jason’s father for a day in any case, and arranging for physical therapy, rehabilitation, recovery, all of that. Jason took many notes—mostly reminders of what he already knew, but just in case—and asked about medications, prescriptions, timelines, diet, everything he could think of.
His father threatened to never let him drive the Aston Martin again. Jason said, “I’ll print out the physical therapy checklists and recommended exercises when we get home, with illustrations,” and his father said, “Son, I’ll have your mother show Colby those baby kitten Halloween costume photos,” and Jason stopped talking.
He'd print the exercise checklists out anyway. With a helpful schedule.
Colby, coming back into the hospital room with coffee for everyone, didn’t ask the question but looked at Jason, clearly having heard the very end of the Halloween-related threat.
Jason muttered, “Don’t ask,” and accepted dark roast with cinnamon and macadamia-nut flavors, and tried again to adjust his size versus yet another ubiquitous hospital chair-menace.
“Oh,” said his mother, “Jason was an adorable kitten, that was his first Halloween, you know, only a baby, and I do love cats but we could never have one, allergies and all, so Luca and I thought, you know, what if we made him the cutest little kitty, with ears and a tail…”
“Mom.” Jason attempted, without success, to bodily disappear into a cup of caffeine.
“I’m sure,” Colby said, extremely politely, with absolutely delighted eyes, “he was the most adorable kitten anyone’s ever seen. Are there pictures?”
“Yes,” Jason said. “Tell me where they are, so I can find them for you.”
His mother pointed her own cup his direction. “Not even subtle. Try harder.”
Colby, halfway through sitting down next to Jason, hid an outright laugh behind a desperate gulp of coffee. Possibly he was continuing to be polite, or he wasn’t sure about acceptable reactions in a family dynamic he was still learning. Or both; Jason couldn’t quite tell, but—knowing Colby—both was the most likely answer.
“You can laugh,” he told his husband. “As long as you don’t get to see the tail.”
Colby tried to inhale coffee, sputtered, gave up. “Please?” He leaned a shoulder against Jason’s, after: relaxing.
“I’m borrowing your car for a week,” Jason said to his father. “A week. While you can’t chase me down to get her back.”
Luca narrowed both eyes at him. “Who says I can’t? I’ll send Nicky after you.”
Colby murmured into his coffee, too quietly for anyone but Jason to hear, “I do appreciate seeing your tail.”
“You’ll all thank me when you have organized appointment calendars and automatic prescription refill reminders,” Jason retorted, and then, under his breath, to Colby, “I don’t even know what that means!”
Colby put up both eyebrows. “I thought you liked it when I—”
“Sweet and innocent,” Jason muttered, “in what universe?” and took his husband’s coffee and tried that one. Colby had mysteriously acquired really good coffee, not the hospital imitation sadness. His tasted, improbably, like apples and cream. “Where’d you find this?”
