Chapter 4:

Delectatio morosa

“There are some extra sheets in the dresser here, Luca.” Felix’s room was simple in comparison to the rest of the orphanage. It was a medium-sized room, large enough to accommodate four adult men comfortably on bunk beds. The white walls and wooden floors were warm and inviting under the warm yellow light of the ceiling lamp. The room was simple, as it should have been, but it had hints of Felix’s modern tastes. Luca felt as if the man had not changed in the least in the past ten years.

There was a wooden twin bunk bed to the left side of the room, and to the right there was a large wooden bookshelf full of different theology and philosophy books. In the right corner of the room, there was a study desk with books and other study materials neatly stacked to the side, and a laptop rested shut in the middle of the table. Just above the desk was a brass crucifix. The crucifix itself was simple, but the design was lovely, Luca thought as he looked at it. The window between the bunk and the desk was closed and covered with a long, grey curtain, hiding the view outside with the thick fabric. 

“Hey, Luca, there are some extra sheets in the bottom of the dresser there.” Luca turned around to face Felix, who had just entered the room, now holding a pillow in his hand. “It should be in the bottom-most drawer.”

Luca looked by the door, and there was a simple dresser resting just by the door, near Felix. Thanking him, he walked past him and opened the dresser, quickly receiving the bedding to dress his bed for the night. “Do you have any extra blankets?” He was not sure if the storage room still had the extra blankets, but it was worth a shot to check.

Felix shook his head and said, throwing the pillow into Luca’s filled arms. “I can grab those. You wait here and climb on the bed. I can pass them to you once the bed is made.” 

Luca agreed, pushing the pillow out of his face. While Felix walked out of the room again, Luca grabbed onto the wooden side of the bunkbed and skillfully climbed it. If it had not been for his bunk beds in his university dorm, he would not have been as comfortable climbing the bed like he had as a child, considering his height. Thankfully, the ceiling in the room was tall, and he was able to stand on his knees and put the sheet on with a little bit of awkward fiddling. 

By the time the sheet was on the bed and Luca had put the pillowcase on the pillow, Felix was carrying a large, folded green comforter in his arms. The blanket looked fresh. Luca could only reach down as Felix brought it over and thanked him, lifting himself down from the bed after he threw the comforter on the bed with a lazy toss. Felix frowned, but Luca was not concerned. He would be sleeping in it soon anyway.

 Felix shook his head again, this time looking as if he were chastising Luca for his poor habits. As a child, he would often throw his blanket on the bed, leaving him to be chastised by the nuns and sent back to the room to straighten up his bed. With Luca’s stubborn personality, he would often leave his bed the same way everyday, leaving the nuns at their wits end. After getting in trouble for his troublesome bedmate, Felix would nag him every morning until he finally would help Luca make his bed, up until he left the orphanage all together.

“You haven’t changed a bit, Luca.” Felix said with the same gentle smile he always had.

Luca shrugged lightly and said with a laugh, “I’d like to think I have.” 

After adjusting the bed, Luca and Felix prepared for their showers. They took their toiletries and pyjamas with them in their arms as they walked down the hall to the now empty showers on the boys side of the dormitories. Though it had been a long time, Luca was still familiar with the boys’ bathroom and he was able to walk to the showers without Felix’s assistance. When they reached the bathroom, the doors were open to allow the steam out of the room that had not escaped through the vents, making the room a little hazy.

The air inside was clouded, but it was easy to see the newly decorated bathroom. The walls were still a clean white, and the tile flooring was still damp from the recent showers. To the right side of the room was the changing area, filled with lockers, shelves, and hooks to hang the clothing on. To the left side was the clothing hamper for dirty towels, not far from the general laundry hamper for the boy’s to place their clothes to be washed. 

“It feels like everything’s changed.” Luca said as he looked around the room, his eyes wide at all the changes. He could not help but smile and think back to all the times he and Felix had played around in the showers, throwing soap and towels at each other and doing other annoying things to entertain themselves. Thinking back, he was a little terror, and he often would drag the poor, innocent Felix into his troublesome escapades. 

Felix walked to the side and placed his toiletries on the wooden bench, “With all these changes, it’s easy to feel like that.” He pushed aside the stray hairs in his face with the back of his hand, looking particularly natural as he did so. “I’d like to think it’s been for the better, though.” Hearing Felix, Luca could only smile and agree, looking warmly at his friend. 

 Luca placed down his clothes on the bench and began to undress, taking off his shirt first and dragging it over his head. With the shirt off, it was easy to see his well developed muscles. Having trained all year round, Luca was in top shape, and his core muscles were firm and prominent. Even his arms had visible muscle tone from months of training, and his skin was a healthy tan tone from exercising outside. With his pants taken off, it was easy to see the muscle lines in his calves.  

Felix was quick to follow suit, taking off his turtleneck slowly and pulling his arms out with slow movements that some would consider almost seductive. Though his abdominal muscles were not as defined as Luca’s, his muscles were firm from regular exercise. It seemed he continued to exercise regularly as he promised Luca in his letters.

Luca patted Felix’s back with his hand as he smiled and said proudly, “Have you been running around the street by the church? You look like you’ve been taking care of yourself.” Luca was always worried about Felix when they were children. Felix was underweight and shorter than average when he was young due to malnutrition, and while Luca lived at the orphanage, he made it his job to make sure Felix ate enough and took better care of his body. Fortunately, it seemed that Felix took his words to heart when he was young and kept himself in shape too. 

It was not uncommon for Luca to act like such a dad, so Felix did not mind it. He only laughed and joked back, “It’s because I didn’t want to fall behind.” 

After stripping down, Luca wrapped a clean towel around his waist just as Felix began to take off his pants. Rather than waiting for Felix, Luca grabbed his toiletries and began to walk to the showers, shooting off a quick, “Take your time. I’ll be washing up.” The towel was long, draping just above Luca’s knees as he walked towards the showers, his back bare and light under the fluorescent lighting in the showers. 

Felix watched as Luca walked, his eyes moving on the clear muscle lines on Luca’s back until they trailed down towards the parts of Luca’s body where the towel covered. His eyes darkened a bit as he moved his gaze down to the man’s calves, and then to his feet, his gaze taking in Luca’s departing figure with an uncomfortable pause. Felix could only restrain his gaze, closing his eyes as Luca’s back disappeared behind the stone wall, moving towards the showers. 

Once the curtain had been pulled aside on Luca’s shower, Felix finished removing his pants and put his hand on the waistband of his underwear, his gaze slowly moving towards the pile of Luca’s dirty laundry, which had been lazily piled together on the wooden bench with little care. On the top of the pile was the pair of boxers Luca had just discarded. The pattern was a simple plaid tone, much like Luca’s taste. Felix could only shoot another passing glance at the pair before he laughed lowly to himself and removed his own undergarments, the smile on his face growing as he grabbed a clean towel from the bench and wrapped it around his waist. 

Just as Felix had begun to walk towards the showers, the sound of a showerhead turning on rang out, and the heat of steam bellowed out from behind the curtain in the shower hall. Eight showers were lined up together, but only one on the right side was in use in the middle of the room. Following the sound of the shower, Felix walked to the right of Luca and entered the shower cubicle before he pulled the curtain aside and removed his towel from his waist. With his body bare, he hung up the towel on the hook just outside of the range of the shower head and walked under the metal shower. 

Finally, he pulled the chain, pouring down the water over his head, wetting his short hair with the cool water as it slowly warmed. As the shower water heated, Felix and Luca made idle conversation, talking about passing things and other thoughts that had passed their minds until they both began to lather up with their soaps. 

Just as Luca had lathered up his body with the soap and began to wash his arms, he sniffed the air, his sensitive nose catching the smell of something he had sniffed numerous times before that brought a strange wave of nostalgia that swelled in his chest. “You still use the same soap.” Luca joked, the tip of his head barely reaching over the stone partition between the two showers. “It’s hard to forget that smell.” His laugh echoed through the small shower stall, muffling the sound over the rush of water through the two shower heads.  

Felix laughed, “Shower clean. It’s the only soap the orphanage will buy.”

“I don’t mind. I just think it’s funny.” Luca was happy to hear Felix laughing so much. It was a far cry from when he had last seen him when he had been adopted, back when Felix’s spirit was still recovering from the damage done by his biological parents. Seeing him smiling and laughing so naturally, it made Luca want to laugh too. 

After rinsing down in the showers, Felix and Luca hurried out of the showers and dried off before changing into their clean pair of pyjamas before they wiped down the water on the floor and threw the dirty towels into the hamper. Because the clothing hamper was full of the children’s clothes, Felix offered to take the dirty clothes to the laundry room, and Luca was unable to refuse Felix’s insistence. Luca passed his messy, dirty clothes to Felix with a sheepish “thanks” before he slowly walked back to Felix’s room.