Once Upon a Rainbow Volume Three Read online

  “Yeah…okay. Fine,” José huffed, leading the way back past Fae's bedroom to his own. “Quietly,” he hissed when Tecún's feet clomped again. Shooting a look back over his shoulder at him, José’s heart jumped at Tecún’s sheepish grin.

  There were landfills that were cleaner than José’s room, but he hadn’t expected company. When they’d first moved in together, Fae had put a stop to José snacking in his room. He had her to thank for the absence of pests from their rental, but his clothes littered every surface. Brushes, crumpled sketches, and an empty fish bowl took up most of his desk. He slept there, but most of his time was spent in the studio or, more recently, sitting at Old Town furiously pounding shots of espresso, feeling guilty for not being in the studio.

  Thankfully, his bed was rumpled and unmade but relatively clear. “There,” he said, nodding. “Lie on your stomach.”

  Tecún dropped the tarp by the door. José looked away. Now that he knew Tecún was a living thing, he felt weird for having admired him earlier. Had he noticed?

  The bed creaked on its shoddy metal frame when he crawled up toward the pillows. José sat at the edge with his sandpaper and sealant and pulled Tecún's foot into his lap so it hung out over the side with the discarded tarp beneath.

  At the first scrape of sandpaper, Tecún snickered and jerked his leg. “Sorry.” His voice was muffled by José’s pillow.

  “It’s fine. Try to relax.”

  It took some more giggling, but José finished. His eyes were beginning to droop when he brushed the seal coat over his feet. He snapped the aluminum top back on the can, set his brush on it, and collapsed onto the mattress.

  “You need to stay still for an hour,” he mumbled to Tecún.

  “Excuse me?” Tecún asked. José squinted one eye to find Tecún looking down at him. He pushed up on his arm and looked at the clock on his nightstand. He hadn’t reset it since daylight saving time started.

  “When the first number on the clock is ten.”

  “Okay.”

  Damn if Tecún didn’t take “still” to the next level. José fell asleep with a great, solid lump in bed next to him.

  Apparently, he didn’t need to breathe.

  Chapter Two

  AN HOUR WAS a very long time. Tecún had never watched minutes go by before, but it was boring. They only moved one by one, and the first number was stuck at nine forever. Beside him, José was making soft noises. His entire body moved when he breathed, like the wind lived inside his chest. It was far more entertaining to watch José than the gleaming numbers on his other side. The man’s chest rose and fell. His nose twitched and flared, and a gust of warm air rushed over Tecún's fingers as he held his hand out in front of José’s face. It tickled.

  Most intriguing, José’s hair was soft. It bent and shifted when Tecún reached out to touch it, and was made up of a million different pieces. He reached up to touch his own to see if it were at all the same, but his hand bunked solidly against the straight etches that made up hair that fell past his shoulders. He frowned. It didn’t move. José’s was much nicer.

  Idly, Tecún ran his fingers through it until José made another sound and rolled over. A glance at the numbers, and Tecún realized the first had finally changed. He wiggled his toes. The spaces between them were no longer slick and wet, but just to be sure, he bent over and touched the arches of his feet. They were dry.

  José hadn’t said anything about what to do after the hour was up. He could ask, but he didn’t think he’d like the answer. Anyway, José looked cozy, curled up and sleeping. He didn’t want to disturb him, so he squirmed to the edge of the bed and got up as quietly as he could. Dragging his feet and standing high up on his toes, he slid across the hardwood floors to sneak out of José’s room.

  Sliding was fun. He could feel the ridges between every board as he made his way down the hallway. The room they’d passed before was open now. He peeked his head in, but no one was there. There was a globe with dozens of colored glass lenses, posters on the wall of men sporting black-lined eyes and lip rings, and a dark-blue blanket with pinprick stars.

  Tecún backed out and skated slowly, stretching out his legs down the length of the hall, around a room with couches, and into another with a long, heavy-legged oak table that had seen better days. On top of it, a woman was reclining, one arm draped over her eyes. José’s hair was black, but hers was bluer than the sky, and her skin was painted with every color in the whole world. She was wearing something with straps that showed off the paintings on her chest. Tecún stepped closer to touch them.

  The second his finger grazed her skin, she came to life, sucking wind into her chest.

  “I’m dead,” she announced with a put-upon sigh.

  “Really?” Tecún asked. “You don’t seem dead.”

  The woman dropped her arm and squinted up at him. “I’m dead where it counts,” she explained.

  Tecún frowned.

  “In my soul. Nothing matters. It’s turtles all the way down, kid. Just one turtle after the next, forever.”

  That didn’t sound so bad. Tecún liked turtles.

  She swung her body around until her legs were dangling off the table. Her bare feet were small, and the paintings ran all the way from the tops of her thighs to the tops of her feet. Her eyes weren’t like José’s either. They had color too. She had color everywhere, while José was made up of dark, alluring blacks and golden-brown skin and the rare splash of pink. Tecún thought his subtlety was lovely but wondered at how a woman could be made up of so many colors. Her eyes were blue and edged with black like those men in the posters in her room. When she blinked, the skin above them shimmered gold. Again, he tried to blink.

  “It’s not like that,” she informed him. Tecún flinched when she reached toward his face, but her little fingers pressed against his brows to hold them still. “Just with your eyelids.”

  “What?”

  “Just…you keep this part still.”

  He tried again.

  “Better! I’m Fae.” Fae presented her right hand to him. He gripped it, and she shook his whole arm. “You’re weird.”

  “I’m Tecún,” he corrected.

  “Sure. Cool. What the hell are you, though?”

  He scowled. Why did people keep asking him that? “I’m not a demon, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Okay, so how’d you get here?”

  “I was in the forest.” They’d cut him down with buzzing saws and carved him so that he was not so large. “Men cut me down, then carved me down, and carved me down some more. Then, José took me out of the wood they’d left.”

  “Did he?” she asked.

  Tecún smiled warmly. “He did.”

  “Charming.” Fae scanned down Tecún's body. His head cocked. She was not as wistful as José was. He fondly considered the way that José had looked at him. While Fae seemed merely curious, there was something desirous in José’s dark gaze that made Tecún feel wanted, full, and electric.

  “So, you’re not a fan of clothes?”

  “I do not have any.”

  “José!” she yelled, making Tecún jump.

  There was scuffling from the back of the house, some cursing, and after about a minute, José stumbled into the dining room, clearly flustered.

  “I, um, listen, this isn’t what it looks like—”

  “It looks like you carved a man—a fine as hell man—out of wood, and he’s started walking and talking.”

  “Okay, yeah, that’s about it.” José’s fine-threaded hair was rumpled, and when he reached back and scuffed it, it stuck out at funny angles that Tecún wanted to comb down with his own fingers.

  “Legs are convenient,” Tecún agreed. Fae and José both stared at him, and he smiled back at them.

  “Well, sure. Yours are nice,” Fae agreed, “but you could stand to cover them up. You seriously made him walk around naked?” she asked of José, who flushed a shade that Tecún had never seen before. Yes, that pink was a sweeter color than any of Fae’s paintings. “I mean, I get it—” Her hand gestured at his middle.

  Proud, Tecún tipped his chin up a little.

  “I was waiting for his seal coat to dry,” José sputtered, earning a dramatic eye roll from Fae.

  “Come on,” Fae said, grabbing Tecún's arm and tugging him back to José’s room. He sat on the edge of the bed while she dug through José’s closet.

  José followed them and went to his dresser. He pulled out a pair of small blue shorts, which got another eye roll from Fae when she turned around with a bundle in her arms.

  “Yeah, because he’s gonna catch his wooden dick on his zipper,” she huffed as she eyed them skeptically.

  “You never know. Put these on.” He stuck them out to Tecún, who stood up and wiggled them up his hips. They were snug, soft, and touched him everywhere. Fae then shoved a pair of trousers and a plain black T-shirt at him. José’s shoes were too small for Tecún, so Fae made him wear something that she called his “shower shoes.” When they had finished, Tecún spread out his arms and turned around for inspection.

  “Yeah, he’s never gonna pass for normal,” José lamented.

  “You kidding? Beauty vlogging was made for this. Don’t doubt the magic of a good contour. We’re going…to…Sephora!”

  BEFORE THEY COULD leave, Fae painted Tecún's long hair black—a shade very similar to José’s, but the honeyed light caught José’s strands and glinted off of them. In the mirror, Tecún’s hair looked flat. She did something to his eyes and eyebrows too. José still seemed skeptical that he’d pass for human, but Fae brushed him off.

  “No one looks at anyone else at the mall. He’ll be fine,” Fae insisted when she was finished.

  “That’s all people do at the mall,” José
protested.

  Tecún didn’t know. He’d never been to “the mall” before.

  It was the most splendid place in the whole world, though, even worth the bus ride. There were a hundred different stores! And clothes in every shape and color, a candy store with jars filled to bursting, and hundreds of people—even a juggler. Batons of fire flew through the air above his head as he balanced on a one-wheeled contraption, and Tecún flinched back. Fire frightened him.

  “Don’t worry,” José mumbled as they passed. “He almost never drops anything. The knives kind of freak me out, though.”

  Tecún tipped his head to the side. José’s body was softer than his own. Perhaps knives were more worrisome when you were fleshy and warm. “Okay,” he agreed.

  He stretched his neck out to look at the juggler as they passed. He had an especially round backside.

  “Coming?” José pressed.

  Smirking, Tecún nodded. “Coming!”

  Sephora was full of a thousand thousand tubes, compacts, and brushes—not dissimilar from Fae’s paintbrushes. She patted him on the shoulder, skirted around him, and disappeared into the rows. Were they meant to follow? Tecún shared a high-browed look with José, who shrugged and got out of the way of a tall, thin young man with hair blonder than any he’d ever seen before.

  “Over here!” Fae called, peeking out from around the edge of a display and waving at them. If she hadn’t had such brightly colored hair, Tecún wasn’t sure they’d ever have seen her.

  José pulled him through the people and stands. Fae had something in her hands and stood up on her toes so she could use her fingers to smear it all over his face. “If this shit can cover Emmy’s pores, it can hide wood grain,” she explained to José. They were both staring at him. “Go like this,” she said to Tecún and made a pursed-lip face like a fish. She dabbed something creamy and pink on his cheeks.

  Fae was sporting stripes of a dozen different colors on the inside of her forearm. She dabbed a little of this here, a little of that there, all the while, dropping small boxes into a basket she’d shoved into José’s hand.

  “Holy shit,” a girl said behind them. She’d stopped to stare, too, dragging her mother with her. The older woman cocked her brow and gave Tecún a once-over.

  When Fae was finished, she grabbed him by his shoulders and turned him around to look into the little round mirror at the end of the row. His face had colors, just like José’s. Slowly, a smile spread his lips over his teeth. He shifted to see himself from different angles.

  “You like?” Fae asked, a smug look on her face. Tecún nodded.

  “What do you think?” he asked José, whose throat bobbed when he swallowed.

  “’S good,” José mumbled. He’d turned extra pink, and Tecún wondered if he’d put color on his face too.

  “Awesome! Well, there you go,” she said, dropping one last little box in the basket José was holding.

  José led the way to the checkout counter, where the lady scanned all the little boxes and moved them from the basket to a bag.

  “Your total’s on the screen,” she said. Once she’d prompted him, José looked down at it. Tecún shifted and peered down beside him. It said $175.32, but Tecún didn’t know what that meant.

  “Seriously?” José asked, staring at Fae.

  “It’s worth it,” Fae said. “He can’t go around looking like…well, you know.”

  “I don’t mind looking like well-you-know,” Tecún repeated. Fae sent a smile his way, but José shook his head.

  “It’s not a big deal,” José said. He pulled out a plastic card and shoved it in a box with buttons, where it stuck halfway out the bottom. “Really.”

  But Tecún had seen José’s face when he saw the number. It was a big deal. José punched in some symbols of his own. Obviously, this had cost him something, but Tecún didn’t understand what. In any case, it warranted repaying him in some way.

  “Receipt in the bag?” the woman across the counter asked.

  “That’s fine,” José replied.

  “Have a good day,” she said once she’d deposited a slip of paper in with all the little boxes that Fae had picked out. Then she turned and smiled at Tecún. He smiled back. “You look good, sweetie.”

  “Thank you!” Tecún beamed.

  José had already started to make a pathway out of the store and he had to double-step to catch up. Once they were outside, Tecún reached for his hand.

  When José spun around, he looked startled. The bag in his hand bumped Tecún's leg, he was so close.

  Tecún curled his wooden fingers around the back of José’s neck and gave him a kiss. José’s mouth was warm and wet. His lips were yielding and so soft that Tecún's stomach clenched around an unfamiliar weight.

  When he leaned back on his heels, still holding onto José’s neck, he grinned at him. “Thank you.”

  That lovely pink returned to José’s cheeks when he replied. “No problem.”

  “Ugh, get a room!” Fae said, bumping into Tecún’s back and marching past them. She shot him a smirk over her shoulder. “Come on. You need some decent shoes too.”

  Sparing one last look at José’s soft lips, Tecún let him go and followed after her.

  They’d made it past three more stores when he saw them. A kid was wearing shoes that laced up on top, and every time he took a step, lights flashed on the bottoms.

  Wide-eyed, he spun and pulled on José’s arm. “I want those,” he said, pointing.

  Chapter Three

  JOSÉ COULDN’T BELIEVE how hard it was to find a pair of light-up sneakers in a men’s size twelve. If he could find a pink bunny onesie with attached slippers for Lysandra’s slumber party, the whole array of nostalgic kids’ clothing should’ve been outfitted for adults. Tecún didn’t seem too put off when they couldn’t find any, particularly after José found him a flashlight frog keychain to make up for it.

  In the middle of the night, José was regretting the purchase.

  “Can you please stop?” He’d tried covering his head up, but that made it hard to breathe. Tecún had spent the last hour flickering the light. Click, click, click. “Please?” Click.

  With the light off, Tecún turned and stared at him in the dark. José sank into the pillow and turned his head to look back at him. His curtains thin enough that the streetlight outside, hanging over the back parking lots of the campus-adjacent restaurants, provided enough illumination to make out the smooth, hard planes of his face.

  “You can’t sleep?” Tecún asked.

  “Not really,” José admitted. He was worried about his senior project. How could he expect Tecún to stay still for that long? What would happen if he didn’t? What would people do if they found out about him?

  More importantly, he was thinking about that kiss.

  José hadn’t been grabbed and kissed like that in, hell, ever? He’d had boyfriends before, but they were clumsy or forceful. Tecún had seemed, more than anything else, excited.

  Kissing him was bizarre. His lips were hard, but they moved against his gently. The strength of Tecún’s arm around him and his hand curled around the back of his neck had made him feel safe. How ridiculous was that? José was really starting to wonder if he was sick. This was all some wacked-out dream he’d conjured because it’d been too damn long since he and Liam had broken up. He was lonely, so he made himself a wooden man.

  Despite how crazy it was, José’s breath came out in a long, relaxed sigh when Tecún reached over and touched his cheek.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll stop,” Tecún mumbled.

  “Okay, good. Uh, good night.”

  He rolled over. Facing Tecún while sleeping was way too intimate.

  After a while, his thoughts raced away from him, and he stopped worrying and started dreaming of the wooden man pressed tight against his back. José sank under the weight of Tecún’s solid arm draped over his hips.

  In the morning, that arm wasn’t as comfortable. He’d pushed it off as gently as he could. From the way Tecún was watching him, he wondered if he’d ever slept.

  “Stuff to do,” he mumbled as an excuse for disturbing their coziness.