Ashes to Asher

It was no surprise to anyone that the people selling the house jumped at the offer Janice submitted to them for Emil. Emil and Danny followed her back to the office where she worked in the city and then returned to the diner that afternoon with the keys to the house. Asher took a few minutes to leave the diner in the capable hands of his number one waiter, Danny, and went with Emil to look at the house.

"I've been in love with this house since I was a kid," Asher told Emil as they walked up the sidewalk to the front door. "I might have seriously disliked the mean old coot that lived here, but I loved this house. I never saw the inside before, though."

"Well, you get to see it today, and you will see it a lot in the near future," Emil smiled eagerly.

"Oh, is that so?" Asher returned the smile happily.

"Yes, I'm putting you in charge of the remodel of the kitchen while Danny and I retrieve my stuff from the storage unit," Emil announced as he unlocked the door. "Will that be a problem for you with the diner? I mean you should only have to come here for a few minutes at a time very occasionally if they run into issues or just to check up and make sure they are doing it the way they should."

"I'm sure I can make do with supervising a crew, especially if we offer them one meal a day at the diner while they are working on the house," Asher offered.

"You're so awesome," Emil squealed and hugged the older man tightly as they stood in the entry hall.

"Wow, this place is even more gorgeous inside than I thought," Asher gushed as he looked around. "OOOO, look at these doors," he cooed as he ran his hands up and down the geometric patterned glass doors to the living room. He walked into the living room and took Emil by the hand, leading him to the rounded corner by the front door with the curved wall of glass bricks. "I always thought this would be the perfect spot to put a Christmas tree, but Old Man Heiney never decorated for anything." Still holding Emil's hand, he spun around and rushed over to the fireplace. "What do you know? He really had a fireplace. Me and Robbie would have put money on it being just a cauldron in the middle of the room where he boiled students bodies for his dinner."

"Typical belief about hated teachers, I suppose," Emil chuckled. "For me, it was Mrs. Murray. Hated me for no reason that I could ever think of, and I was convinced she was the head witch in a coven."

"Yes, exactly," Asher gushed. "Almost everyone's had a horrible teacher with more power than they should have had." By this point they were in the future office at the back of the house. "What a… quaint, little room," Asher said trying to sound upbeat about it.

"Yes, the perfect spot for a home office, don't you think?" Emil questioned him.

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that, but you're absolutely right," Asher gushed suddenly. "That corner window will bring in the morning light so nicely, and is perfectly positioned to avoid the glare that can come from evening sunshine." Then he opened the door to the kitchen. He immediately slammed it shut, and blocked Emil from going through it. "I see what you mean about that. I will protect you from that horror, my adorable little purple people. Let's go back the other way. I wouldn't want your pretty eyes to be damaged by that… that… monstrosity."

"I did see the kitchen when I toured the house," Emil laughed.

"And you survived? You're so brave and strong," Asher whispered as he nearly crushed the smaller younger man in a bear hug.

"Did you call me adorable and say I have pretty eyes?" Emil asked, his voice muffled from his face being smushed into Asher's chest.

"I…umm…uhh…. Which room is next on the tour?" he valiantly misdirected.

"I want to show you the future dining room," Emil chuckled and led Asher back through the living room, still holding hands.

"Oh, look this is the same flooring as the living room," Asher observed. "That dining set that Ashley showed me pictures of on her phone is going to look fantastic in here."

"She took pictures of the furniture?" Emil asked in confusion.

"She told me you wouldn't let her help load the stuff into the truck, because you were being an unexpectedly chauvinistic male pig, especially for such a queen, her words not mine."

"Well, she had on heels," Emil pointed out. "It wasn't about her not being able to lift the stuff, it was about her not being able to do it safely in those shoes. How dare she call me chauvinistic? I was just trying to keep her from hurting herself."

"I will happily explain that to her this evening," Asher promised. "She also said she knew you would want to tell me about the furniture and she knew I would need pictures to see it the way you describe it. She was right."

"I will remember that for the future," Emil mumbled. "She asked about clothes for the day, she didn't ask about her shoes."

"So… That kitchen…" Asher began. "Was Danny telling the truth that the real estate agent said it blended with the house beautifully?"

"She did," Emil confirmed.

"Straight white women decorators," both gay men said sadly.

"Lighter topic, now, please," Emil announced as he literally shook off the memory of that hideous kitchen. "Let me show you our room," he blurted as he dragged Asher to the stairs. He was halfway up them when he realized what he had said. He looked back at Asher coming up behind him and saw the man was blushing. He'd never seen Asher do that before and it was so cute that he tripped on the next step and almost fell, but Asher caught him in a hug.

"Careful, sweet cheeks," he whispered, and then blushed even more. "I mean… umm… Be more careful on the stairs."

"Thank you," Emil returned softly. He finished the climb and opened the door to the right first. "This will be Danny's room… for when he sleeps over here. You know, to give Ashley and Jimmy some privacy."

"You're giving Danny his own room in your house?"

"Ashley was suggesting it as soon as she saw the furniture," Emil pointed out. "I'm not some creep with naughty thoughts and plans for the kid. I just thought he might not want to be around all the time while his mom and Jimmy are in the honeymoon stage."

"I guess it's a good thing you got two beds for his room, then, because I'm not going to want to be around for their honeymoon stage either," Asher said wrinkling his nose in distaste.

"Wait, doesn't Jim have his own place?" Emil questioned.

"Jimmy was sort of forced into the constable job," Asher stated, and then explained. "When Jimmy's parents died in a car accident in the city, he was only 22. To pay their final expenses, he had to sell pretty much everything but the clothes on his back. The head of the city council at the time offered him the job of constable and tweaked the contract a bit to allow him to live in the office. What was cell 2 became his bedroom. Don't give me that look, we replaced the bars with a wall and a door. This ain't some spaghetti western movie set."

"You just said we," Emil pointed out. "How involved were you with the city council at the time?"

"No more than I am today," Asher hedged a bit and blushed.

"You're still on it, aren't you?"

"Well…."

"You're the chairman aren't you, or whatever the title is."

"No, that would be Moony," Asher admitted and flinched away as if he expected to be smacked or yelled at by the smaller man.

"You two angels," Emil surprised Asher by hugging him. "You didn't just give a young guy a handout, you gave him a sense of purpose and a reason to belong. But wait… if he lives…."

"Why do you think he's at the diner for every meal, and my house every night to watch tv with Ashley and Danny?" Asher expounded. "I'll tell you another secret. I've always planned to leave my house to Ashley so the three of them can be a proper family at some point. I had just about given up on that idea ever happening until you walked into my diner that day. Ash and Jim deserve a place to grow old together."

"Are you saying you don't?" Emil prodded. "I mean I get it. Really, I do. Up until recently, I believed that I would just take care of everyone else, until I couldn't anymore, and then I would just quietly slip into a home somewhere and fade away. I never had anything to leave to anyone, and I didn't have anyone to leave it to, either."

"Purple doesn't run, it jumps and screams until all the attention is back where it belongs, and purple never, ever should fade, unless it's to become lavender maybe with some silver highlights," Asher said softly, and squeezed the hand that was still holding his.

"I don't think I've ever been told that I'm getting gray hair in a nicer way," Emil snorted.

"I did not say that, because you don't have any," Asher defended.

"Liar, I do and I know it," Emil pouted.

"Ah, but you see, I'm taller than you and I can see more of your hair than you can," Asher assured him. "I would know if you had gray because I know what they look like, all washed out, faded, and good for nothing."

"How dare you say that about yourself?" Emil growled suddenly. "Don't you know that gray hair is like the medals on a soldier's chest? They show you have survived everything that has been thrown at you. You've earned that snow on the roof; don't let anyone diminish it, not even you."

"Well, my father always said, snow on the roof just means there's better insulation for the fire inside," Asher shrugged. "Of course, he mostly said that to pick on poor old Barney who is bald. Barney got his own back, though."

"Yes, I'm aware," Emil wrinkled his nose. "I'm bald because I burn too hot to keep snow on the roof," he quoted the old man.

"Well, he is still going strong at his age, so there must be something to that theory," Asher said thoughtfully. "Although, I do not recommend visiting him on a Friday night. Him and Moony sometimes get a little too…."

"Excitable?" Emil suggested.

"Well, that's one word for it," Asher agreed. "I was thinking of naked, though. They get way too naked for a house that has way too much glass and not nearly enough curtains."

"Oh my," Emil squeaked. "That's more information about the two of them than I needed in my life."

"Sorry," Asher told him, not sounding sorry at all. "At least for you it's just mental images."

"Ok, then, new topic," Emil announced loudly. He dragged Asher over to the door out onto the covered roof deck. "I have no furniture in either storage unit for out here. I can look for that once I've gotten settled in here though. I'm so excited about this place. I've never had a place of my own before and I never believed that I would find a place that is right out of my dreams like this. Every moment since I arrived in this little town has been a favorite dream come to life. I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and be alone, or with another patient like Psycho."

"You had a psycho patient?" Asher questioned.

"I shouldn't call him that," Emil admitted. "He was a personality disorder case, so in some ways he was a bit psychotic, but he never hurt me permanently."

"Wait… What?"

"Never mind, I don't want to think of him anymore, he died several years ago and I would much prefer to think about my future than my past," Emil said as he unlocked the door from the roof deck to his future master bedroom. "I can't wait to get that new furniture in here so I can spend my first night in my own house. Hmmm… I need to think of a place up here to put one of those little single serve coffeemakers so I can really enjoy that covered deck."

"I am going to want to hear more about that patient someday, but for now, I would suggest putting your coffeemaker somewhere in the bathroom. That way you can bring a cup out to the patio, or you can enjoy a nice relaxing tea and a soaking bubble bath, if the tub is big enough," Asher told him.

"The tub is enormous," Emil gushed and grabbed the older man's hand, dragging him from the room toward the bathroom. "Look at that tub; just screams out bubble bath soaks, doesn't it? And the shower is even bigger, I swear there's room in there for two pe…. Umm never mind that. It's big, and so is my mouth and I'm shutting up now because I'm just making this worse."

"You're so cute," Asher laughed gently. "Getting back to the original point, these built in shelves at this end of the bathroom by the door would be a great spot for you to put your single serve coffee and tea maker."

"I've never really had relaxing tea," Emil confessed. "I love iced tea, but I've never actually tried like any of those fancy herbal teas or hot breakfast teas."

"Well, let's get back to the diner so I can get back to work, and I will fix you one of my two favorite herbal teas," Asher suggested. "I think it's the perfect flavor for you to add your caramel magic to it. I would suggest the other, but it's really meant for just before bed, so adding sweet caramel to it might be counterproductive."

"I'm intrigued," Emil smiled. "My tongue is all yours. Umm… I mean my palate is in your capable hands, Mr. Danvers."

"May I never lead your tongue or your palate astray," Asher said as he started down the stairs. "Although this dirty mind of yours that I am seeing lately is quite entertaining."

"Asher!" Emil whined as he followed the other man out of the house.

For the record, Emil absolutely loved the hot herbal tea which was peach flavored, especially with an unhealthy amount of caramel added to it just for him. As it turned out, Asher's other favorite was also peach flavored but was specifically made as a sleep aid, and it turned out to be just as good, and quite helpful as well. Emil hadn't thought that he would ever get to sleep with his mind stuck on the slips his mouth had made that day, but the sleepy tea did the trick in almost no time.