"Isn't this place a bit big for you?" With a groan, Tyler sat down on the narrow stairs to stretch out his leg for a moment and while he gestured with both arms toward the spacious house around them.

"Perhaps..." Lance mumbled as he swept with his hand over the dusty and worn kitchen counter where shallow knife strokes mixed with dark red sploshes from wine or perhaps tomato sauce. It felt comforting somehow to know that the house had been lived in by someone else; that it was a home rather than just a shelter. "But I'm getting a really good deal on it from my buddy."

After his sudden leave from the army, Lance's friends at the base had been confused, to say the least. Especially since he hadn't been able to offer a good explanation to them, having been sworn to secrecy by his commander in exchange for good recommendations. Which meant that some previously close bonds had been broken in the process.

Luckily, Jason, one of his closest buddies, had reached out anyway and asked if Lance needed somewhere to live back in their hometown. Perhaps Jason suspected the position Lance had been put in by his commander. After all, Jason had been with Lance on the night when he first met Marisol. It turned out that Jason had inherited his parents' house a few years ago, but never really done anything with it since he had a home at the army base. So in exchange for Lance doing some well-needed maintenance work, Jason offered to rent him the house basically for free.

Which was why Lance and Tyler--who tagged along since he was in the car anyway, getting a ride home from school--currently inspected a slightly rundown townhouse in a neighborhood close to the university.

"Maybe..." Tyler fiddled with his pantleg to straighten the sleeve under his prosthetic leg, which had puckered around his knee, as he hesitated on the words. "Maybe I could... like..."

Able to suss out what his mumbling cousin wanted to ask, Lance stepped out of the kitchen and peeked through the ornate banister on the stairs. "Tyler, do you want to move in here with me?" he asked. "I definitely have room for you and I would enjoy your company."

With a relieved smile, Tyler nodded. "Maybe it could be good. Like... I want to be more independent and stuff again. But... if I do need help, you would be around." He looked up with an embarrassed expression. Lance knew Ty hated to admit his shortcomings so this couldn't be easy for him to say.

"You know I'll always be around if you need me," Lance confirmed and nudged his cousin's shoulder through the banister.

"But only if you want to..." Tyler quickly added, pulling down his pant leg again. "I don't want to be a burden on you."

Lance sat down on the rickety stairs next to Tyler and tousled the messy blonde mop on his cousin's head. Perhaps his own hair would look equally unkempt if he let it grow. "You wouldn't be a burden, Ty," he said and put his hand on Tyler's right knee. "And it's a great idea. I could definitely use the company. I... was a bit lonely at base. I mean, I had friends but my apartment was always empty at night. So it will be nice to have someone to come home to."

"Wouldn't you rather come home to a pretty lady though?" Tyler teased. "Instead of your rowdy gay cousin..."

"Well, yes... but I don't think I will get an offer from a pretty lady any time soon." Lance sighed and gave out a slight chuckle. He wasn't sure if his love life was a comedy or tragedy. "So you will do, Ty."

To showcase his excitement about the prospect of not living alone, Lance draped his arm over his cousin's shoulder and pulled him in for a quick embrace.

"That's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me..." Tyler mumbled with a happy grin and patted Lance's shoulder as they released the huddle. A sprinkling of dust swirled around them, disturbed from its place on the banister by their movements.

"Maybe you could stay here on the ground floor," Lance suggested and pointed to the area in front of them. "And I can take the upper floor. You'll have a bedroom and ensuite over there..." he gestured to the left of the stairs, "...and we can make the dining room into a TV area for you. So you can have your Xbox and stuff."

It would definitely be easier for Tyler, who still wasn't quite accustomed to his prosthetic leg and often took it off at home, to not have to climb stairs every day. But Lance didn't want to remind Tyler of this uncomfortable truth by speaking it out loud.

Tyler nodded. He'd probably thought the same thing as well. "And the kitchen is down here as well," he added cheerily. "So I'll have easy access to snacks."

"I guess I may need to get a fridge upstairs as well. " Lance sighed and stroked some dust bunnies out of his cousin's hair. "Otherwise I might not get any snacks..."

Sitting among the swirling dust, they planned out how to set up their shared living in the rickety townhouse. A gym room in the basement. A breakfast bar in the kitchen. An office upstairs. A swing set in the garden for Emmie to play on when she visited.

And, of course, most importantly, a system for how to communicate to the other that they had nighttime company. A sock tied around the banister was the agreed-upon solution.

Author's Note: So this story is now moving along forward again, as a dual POV, which will hopefully add a layer of understanding to where Lance is coming from in his relationship.

As for Nanowrimo, I haven't been moving forward as much this week since I've been going back and changing up some things in the outline. But now I should be all set to move forward again and I'm still aiming to have a draft of 50k or so finished by the end of November (this story is more of a novella, so it will be shorter than SLB, and will probably land somewhere around 40k-50k when it's finished).