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Steve Sloan jogged up the stairs to the deck at the back house, coming to a complete and appalled stop when he saw what awaited him on the deck itself. “Jess.”
When Steve had left to go to work that morning, Jesse had been sprawled on a chaise lounge, studying some medical files. Steve distinctly remembered cautioning the younger man not to fall asleep in the sunshine, but Jesse had just waved the warning aside. Steve had hoped to leave his shift early, looking to join his lover for a shared afternoon off. He was held up at work longer than anticipated, though, and it looked like Jesse was going to pay the price. Not only was the younger man asleep, but he’d turned over onto his belly at some point, leaving his bare back exposed to the sun.
His bare and now decidedly pink back.
“You never do anything by half, do you, babe?” Steve muttered under his breath. Sometimes Steve wished that his young lover didn’t throw himself at life quite so enthusiastically.
Steve had lived in California all his life and, although he wasn’t a doctor like his father or boyfriend, he knew how to deal with sunburn. He walked passed Jesse without waking him; the burn itself must have happened hours earlier when the deck was drenched sunshine. It was shaded at this time of day and there was no sense in waking Jesse until Steve was ready to alleviate the pain that younger man would no doubt feel.
Steve made a quick stop in the kitchen and then headed for the bathroom. As he ran cool water in the tub, he rummaged through the medicine cabinet, and although he was able to pocket some ibuprofen, he came up empty for the main item he was looking for.
“Great,” Steve swore softly under his breath. “This gets better and better.”
He dug his cell phone out of his back pocket and entered the code for his father. He wasn’t sure if he would get the other man, since he knew his dad had rounds to do, but thankfully the call was picked up after only two rings.
“Steve!” As always, his father sounded happy to hear from him. “I thought you were working this afternoon.”
“I was, but I snuck out early.” Steve explained. “Meant to spend the afternoon with Jesse, but I found him napping on the deck, right where he was when I left this morning.”
“Oh, no.” The house was actually Mark’s and he knew what a day on the deck meant. “Please tell me he had sunscreen on.”
“I haven’t actually had the heart to wake him up yet and ask.” Steve admitted. “He’s doing a pretty good impression of a lobster, though.”
Mark’s sigh was loud, even over the phone. “Norman’s working the residents too hard again if Jesse can sleep like that; I’ll talk to him.”
Steve leaned against the counter with one hip. “You better warn him that Jess isn’t likely to be at work a couple of days.” He shuddered involuntarily as he imagined putting any fabric, even a soft one, over that reddened skin.
“Will do,” Mark readily agreed. “Is that reason you called?”
“No, we’re out of Thermazine,” Steve told his father, “and I think Jess is going to need some. Can you bring a tube or two home with you?”
Mark sighed again. “I hadn’t realized we were out, we might as well stock up, so I’ll bring plenty. In the meantime, you know the home remedy.”
Steve laughed softly. “Already ahead of you, Dad. Jess isn’t going to like it, though.”
“No, I suppose he won’t,” Mark agreed. “But maybe that’ll teach him to not sleep outside or at least to set an alarm.”
After agreeing and exchanging goodbyes, Steve disconnected the phone. The tub was sufficiently full, so he turned off the water. With no other legitimate reasons to delay the inevitable, Steve made another quick stop in the kitchen for a glass of water before heading back towards the deck.
Jesse was right where Steve had left him. No doubt the young man was so tired that he hadn’t moved much since falling asleep and so the discomfort from the burn hadn’t awakened him. Steve set the glass of water down and crouched by the chaise lounge. “Jess.”
The younger man murmured softly and turned his head towards Steve’s voice, but didn’t truly waken. Steve didn’t want to put a hand on one of his lover’s burned shoulders, so he instead gently stroked Jesse’s cheek with one finger. “Come on, Jess, time to wake up.”
This time Jesse’s eyes opened a sliver and then more readily when the young man realized who was calling him. Jesse’s face broke out in a wide grin and before Steve could stop him, Jesse sat up. His smile immediately drained away. “Ow! Did someone spill acid on me while I slept?”
The young man was even more puppy-like than usual as he twisted around to try and look at his own back, much like a young dog chasing its tail. Of course, the movement caused his back to hurt even more. “Ow, ow, ow.”
“Careful,” Steve put gentle hands on Jesse’s shoulders, bringing the twisting to a stop. “You’ve got a pretty bad sunburn there.”
“Sun-?” Jesse looked confused for a moment and when his expression cleared, he looked downright contrite. “You told me not to fall asleep out here.”
“Yeah, I did.” Steve couldn’t be angry with Jesse; he knew how miserable the younger man was going to be. “Here, take this.”
Steve dug the ibuprofen out of his pocket and offered them to Jesse. Once Jesse had popped them into his mouth, Steve handed over the water, watching in satisfaction as the younger man drank it all down. “Come on, let’s get you inside before you start hurting even more.”
Jesse allowed himself to be helped up from the chaise, hissing when the movement pulled at tender skin. “Too late, it hurts enough already.”
“I called Dad,” Steve explained as he gently guided Jesse into the house. “He’s going to bring some Thermazine home when his shift’s over. Until then, we’ll just have to make do.”
“At least it hurts,” Jesse was clearly trying to find a positive. “If it didn’t, it would mean that the burn was deeper. That would be bad.”
“Very bad.” Steve agreed on the outside, but inside, he privately thought that Jesse’s sunburn was going to painful enough the way it was.
The two men made their slow way through the kitchen, Steve keeping to the pace that Jesse could manage and doing his best at not laughing at the waddle the young man used to minimize the pain. When they got into the bathroom, Jesse looked at the bathtub full of inviting cool water and smiled in relief. . . until he got a whiff.
“Is that vinegar?” Jesse asked, his nose wrinkled at he sniffed.
“Yup,” Steve had added the vinegar he’d obtained in the kitchen. Not wanting to go into detail, he did his best to encourage Jess into the tub without actually touching his reddened skin. “Get in.”
“Wait a minute,” Jesse pulled back. “I’ll smell like a pickle.”
Steve snorted. “That’s better than hurting, isn’t it?”
Jesse still balked. “Who’s the doctor here?”
“This is a cure of my dad’s,” Steve patiently told him. “I’ve had plenty of sunburns growing up and, believe me, vinegar helps. Don’t know why, but it does.”
“Hmmm. . . .” Jesse looked thoughtful. “Maybe it changes the pH of the skin?”
“I don’t know,” Steve was tired of cajoling and simply put his hands on the waistband of Jesse’s swim trunks. “Let me help you take these off.”
Jesse chuckled, despite his discomfort. “Any excuse, huh, Steve?”
Steve snorted, but he had to admit that he was relieved to see that Jesse’s ass had escaped being burned. He playfully cupped the firm globes as the swim trunks dropped to the floor and Jesse kicked them away. With a small moan, Jesse leaned forward and rested his head against Steve’s chest.
“I think that’s the worst thing about this sunburn,” Jesse’s voice was muffled as he pressed against Steve. “Your hands are on me and I don’t want to do anything about it.”
Steve reached down and put a hand under Jesse’s chin, lifting his head so he could kiss him gently. “Not going anywhere, babe. The burn’ll fade and I’ll still be here.”
“Thanks, Steve.” Jesse smiled. “I guess a sunburn isn’t going to kill me.”
“In the tub,” Steve put a hand under Jesse’s arm and helped him into the water.
Jesse settled into the water with a grimace. “I guess I was lucky I had my trunks on, otherwise sitting would be even more unpleasant than it is.”
Steve perched on the side of the tub and used a sponge to carefully sluice water over the red skin on Jesse’s back. He could literally feel the heat radiating off of it. “How’s the vinegar?”
“Actually, it’s not bad,” Jesse replied, eyes closed as Steve tended to him. “I do feel a bit better.”
“Good.”
The two men fell into a comfortable silence. Steve knew that the vinegar water was doing its job as the soft sounds of discomfort Jesse was making tapered off.
“Think you’ll live?” Steve eventually asked.
Jesse opened his eyes with obvious reluctance. “Yeah, thanks.”
Steve handed Jesse the sponge. “You stay in a few more minutes. I’m going to find something for you to wear.”
“Maybe your old LAPD shirt?” Jesse asked, doing the puppy dog eyes thing that was always so effective with Steve. “It’d be soft and way too big. Don’t want anything too binding.”
After getting up, Steve kissed Jesse’s nose, pleased that Jesse had fallen asleep on his stomach and that his face hadn’t been burned.
“Sure, anything for you,” Steve stepped out of the room, and then ducked his head inside to add, “My little pickle.”
He ducked out of the door again just in time. Steve heard the wet sound of the sponge hitting the wall next to where his head had been just a moment before. Steve laughed to himself as he went to fetch the shirt that Jesse had requested. Jesse was going to be miserable for a couple of days, but if he could keep his spirits up, it wouldn’t be so bad.
But something told Steve that he’d be thoroughly tired of the smell of vinegar before Jesse’s skin went back to normal.