"I'm so glad I was able to help."
Drake finally let go of Liam's hand and I could see the reluctance in him. Drake's face was hidden behind the mask, but his skin was flushed as if he was overcome with emotion. Despite those emotions, he kept smiling, his eyes crinkling in the corners.
"What's that?" he said, pointing to the toy in Liam's hand.
"It's Bumblebee," Liam said, holding the toy up. "A transformer from the movie. Did you see it?"
Drake shook his head. "No, I never did see that one. What does it do?"
"You transform it into a car, like this," Liam said and proceeded to move the various body parts around until finally, with considerable effort, the toy appeared to be a yellow car instead of a yellow robot. "He works for Optimus Prime. He's the head autobot. They're from Cybertron."
"Wow," Drake said and took the car from Liam's tiny hands. "That's amazing." Drake fiddled with the car and then shrugged. "It's too hard for me." He handed it back to Liam, who quickly disassembled it so that once more, it was a robot.
"See?" Liam said, holding it back up. "Simple. Even I can do it. My dad taught me how."
Drake nodded and I heard him exhale. "That's cool. Your dad must be pretty smart to show you how to do that."
"He's an engineer. He makes things so this was easy for him."
Drake stood in silence for a moment and watched as Liam assembled the robot once more into a car. He held it up for us to see how fast he was able to transform the toy, a smile on his face.
Drake smiled and then glanced at the clock on the wall. "I guess we better go. I'm glad to see you're all better."
Liam nodded, his focus on the toy once more. Then, he turned back to the television and Drake turned away as well, taking my hand and pulling me out of the room behind him.
We removed our scrubs and masks in the anteroom and didn't stop by the nursing station, but Drake nodded to the nurse as we passed. He pulled me along down the hallway, past the playroom once more and down a set of stairs instead of taking the elevator. Once outside of the hospital, he stopped. It was dark now, the sky overcast, the streetlights on. Cars drove by on the street bordering the hospital, the sound of the city around us.
Drake held a hand over his eyes and struggled for a moment to get control over himself, one hand still holding mine.
"He looks really good," I said, squeezing his hand.
Drake finally looked at me, his eyes wet.
"He does," he said, forcing a smile as if to hide his emotions. "He's happy. He has parents who love him." He nodded as if reassuring himself. Then he pulled me into his arms, and we embraced. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down to me. He nuzzled my neck, his lips kissing the skin beneath my ear.
Then, he pulled away, out of the embrace and sighed.
"Let's go home."
We decided to stay at Drake's apartment for our last week in Manhattan so we could be alone. We had to make sure everything was packed up and ready to go from Drake's place. Earlier, before dinner, Drake made sure to re-check his suitcases and ran through a list of items he needed for teaching his class. Some of his things for his course had already been shipped off to the university, but his personal belongings, and other items he wanted to take with us, a few of his father's personal mementos, he was shipping later.
"I'm not sending any of this," he said as he sorted through his bondage gear. "Don't want it to be found by curious housekeepers or border security. We'll have to improvise when we get there. No cuffs, no spreader bars, and no butt plugs. Just me." He grinned at me, a wicked look in his eyes.
"You're more than enough."
"I hope so. I'm a very jealous man. Don't want you getting too attached to B.O.B. or Big or anything…"
"With you, Drake," I said and wagged my eyebrows at him. "Who needs substitutes?"
He folded up one box and closed it with packing tape, writing information on the label.
"I want to ship your painting though," he said. "The one with the sheet covering my," he said and smiled. "Manhood."
"Manhood," I said and smiled back.
"The risqué one can stay here. When we come back, I want it moved to our bedroom on 8th Avenue."
Our bedroom. I liked the sound of that. Drake was starting to really think of us together as a real couple.
"You really aren't going to ship any of your toys and implements?"
"I can always buy some rope. Leather. I'm handy enough. I could probably even build you canvases for your studio."
"What studio?"
"The one we'll make sure to have in whatever house we get." He came to me and wrapped his arms around me. "I want you to paint as much as you want while we're there. Do what you want. I'll be really busy at the college and hospital so you have to do what makes you happy."