Since the Phoenicia had remained largely undamaged beyond the walls of Michael's abode, its residents were able to return to their homes. For those whose nostrils were affronted by the vestiges of smoke, suites at every high-priced hotel on the island were booked out to allow time for a thorough clean up process. The only resident still left entirely in the dark about the whole situation, was the one that had been affected the most.

Michael was out on the high seas when the incident occurred, and there'd been no way of reaching him by phone. It's unlikely he would have answered their calls anyway, busy as he was trying to convince Tibur to let him slip a hand into his pants.

"No" he'd told him firmly in response, "Only kissing..." 

When The Playful Tiger came into port, Tibur and Michael were rudely booted from the vessel along with the other staff and guests. There was a rumor that Mr Aster had already decided to summer in Cabi instead this year, Modesh no longer suiting his 'discerning tastes'.

Shyly holding hands as they walked to the bus stop, Tibur decided it was time to discuss things plainly. They were on dry land after all, he wanted to know where he stood.

"So..." he began.

Michael smiled sweetly at him. "So..." he repeated.

"Are we... dating now?" Tibur asked.

"Huh?!"

The question was unexpected, and seemed to take Michael by surprise.

"Well, you told me you like me, you're holding my hand... and we kissed. A lot. Doesn't that mean we're dating now?" Tibur couldn't see another explanation.

But Michael could.

"Do we really have to label things?" he asked, "I mean, yeah we kissed. But it's not that big a deal, is it? We're still just figuring things out, we don't have to take it too seriously. It's not like I was your first kiss or anything... was I?"

Tibur broke his hand free from Michael's grasp.

"No" he said, "You weren't."

"There's no need to get upset about it..."

"I'm not upset" Tibur replied, "If anything I'm grateful for the reminder. I'd almost forgotten how easy it is for you; when having sex is like shaking hands, why would a kiss mean anything to you?"

Michael took a deep breath, Tibur was failing to understand him again.

"I'm not saying it didn't mean anything" he explained, "it's just... you know, it's a first step. We don't even know if we're physically compatible... rather than get wrapped up with labels and all the pressure that comes with them, we should take our time exploring things. If it feels right, then maybe where can see where it leads..."

That was what it came down to. Sex.

"I'm not interested in helping you experiment" said Tibur, "There's a club over in the east if that's what you're looking for. You've already fucked all the women on the island, so why not work your way through all the men? Maybe you'll get lucky and feel something."

Michael tried to take his hand.

"I told you. I like you. But I don't think I'm crazy for not wanting to define things. I've never been the serious type. I mean, I wasn't even into the idea of dating a woman, let alone a man. I need to be sure this isn't just a waste of time." 

His explanation wasn't helping.

"Why don't we just, try things first..? Kissing you felt amazing, I'm not going to deny it." His hand was stroking Tibur's arm. "I can only imagine how good it would feel if we took things further... Don't you want that, Tibur..? To feel what it's like?"

Michael's hand brushed against his jaw, his finger lingering on Tibur's velvet lips.

Beyond his expectation, Tibur opened his mouth, his tongue guiding Michael's finger inside as he licked the tip and wrapped his lips around it.

"Tibur..."

His large eyes were shining as he sucked Michael's finger, watching as he succumbed to his slow and deliberate movements. Waiting for him to lower his guard...

"Ow!"

Tibur's teeth were sharp.

"Be thankful it wasn't your dick" he told him, jumping onto the bus that Michael had failed to notice, just in time for it to pull away.

Michael had fucked things over again. Ignoring the missed calls and unread messages on his phone, he ordered a taxi and spent the journey composing a text to send to Tibur.

'My finger fucking hurts by the way. I'm in a taxi... I don't know if I should ask them to take me to the hospital. I'll come home for now, but maybe you can take a look at it for me? At least you can translate what happened to the doctor...'

He'd deleted and rewritten it time and again, until at last he hoped to elicit some sympathy. He didn't. Tibur read the message and threw his phone on the bed; gathering up his dirty laundry to take down to the communal washers.

When Michael arrived back at the Phoenicia there was still no reply from Tibur. He was staring at his phone and wondering whether he should draw on his finger with a little red ink when the security guard stopped him.

"There was a what..?!" he asked, presuming there'd been some kind of mistranslation.

The guard apologized profusely for failing to see the danger of Michael's unexpected guest; but it didn't change the fact that his apartment had been badly damaged by the fire. It wasn't safe to stay there. 

When Tibur returned to his room there was another message from Michael. After threatening that he needed a doctor, he'd switched to an even more absurd attention-grabbing tactic. Some kind of nonsense about there having been a fire while they were out. Tibur rolled his eyes.

When his timer went off, Tibur headed back down to the laundry room, ready to throw his things in the dryer. A couple of students were playing cards while they waited for their bedsheets to finish up.

"Do they think it was arson?" asked the loser.

"Probably an insurance scam or something" suggested the winner, "you'd think the Phoenicia would have better security... I heard the place was torched."

When Tibur got outside, he found Michael sitting on the curb.

Putting aside all the bullshit he'd been told since they left the boat, he wrapped his arms around Michael's body and let him rest against his shoulder.

"I don't have a bed" said Michael after a while, "Can I stay with you tonight..?"

The foreigner stood awkwardly in the lobby while Tibur reasoned with the dorm's night guard. A reluctant nod seemed like a hopeful sign. Michael was led into the elevator and the button pressed for the fourth floor.

"It didn't light up" Michael pointed out, "do you need to press it again?"

"The light hasn't come on the whole time I've lived here" said Tibur, "Just be grateful it's working at all."

The heavy fire doors and the oppressive smell of shared living were far from homely, and yet Tibur's small and tidy space felt like a port in a storm. Michael sat on the bed and took in the lingering traces of Tibur's scent.

"Can you turn up the A/C?" he asked.

"It doesn't work" Tibur explained, "but since there's unlikely to be any noise pollution from my neighbor tonight, I guess I can open the window."

Looking out at Michael's darkened apartment across the way, he realized his words may have been too harsh.

"You can take a shower first" he told him, "It might help you cool down."

While Michael was squeezing his large frame into the tiny bathroom, Tibur picked out a T-shirt and shorts for him to change into; he couldn't quite bring himself to share his underwear, uncertain whether they could even wear the same size.

"Do you have another toothbrush?" Michael asked.

He didn't.

"Only mine" he said through the door.

Tibur had meant that there wasn't one for Michael to use, while Michael took it to mean that Tibur's toothbrush was fair game. Given how intimate they'd become with each other's mouths, he didn't think it would matter.

"It does feel better" said Michael, stepping out into the bedroom, dripping wet and with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

"You can wear these" said Tibur, handing him the clothes and averting his eyes.

"That's okay" Michael replied, "It's too hot to get dressed. I'll just stay like this for now."

Tibur considered forcing him into covering his half naked body, but in the end he took pity, stealing glances at the droplets of water that slid down his chest.

"And they're okay with you having someone spend the night here..?" Michael asked him, "The last thing we need is for us both to end up homeless."

"Usually we have to give a little more notice, but I explained the circumstances and they made an exception... overnight guests are allowed. So long as they're not of the opposite sex..."

Michael couldn't help but laugh, sitting back on his hands as he lounged on the bed, his towel slipping seductively down.

"I need to get my things from the dryer" said Tibur, "You can wait here..."

The musty smell of the poorly ventilated hallways cooled his ardor. Tibur took his time, too afraid of his growing attraction to the idiot man in his room to think about hurrying back. It was just as well, giving Michael the chance to run a curious eye over Tibur's things. 

He'd never thought to ask what he was studying, but the engineering text books were enough of a giveaway. Sticking out from the pages of a notebook was a photograph. It must have been at Tibur's elementary school graduation; he was holding a bunch of wildflowers, his parents and grandmother dressed in their Sunday best and staring awkwardly into the camera, as Tibur beamed with a proud and energetic smile.

He looked so young, and so happy. Michael took a picture of it on his phone. His finger hovered over the 'delete' option, unable to fathom why he'd even want to keep such a thing. He didn't even have his own family pictures stored in his gallery... why would he want Tibur's? Because it's funny, he lied to himself, I can tease him about it sometime... 

He smiled again at the photograph before tucking it away inside the notebook. There wasn't much more to see; Tibur's room was compact and contained, with not enough of his personality there for Michael to revel in. Only a bunch of books. One of which happened to catch his eye, a library book with an unusual title:

'A Study of Man and his need for Sexual Validation'

The word 'sex' had obviously drawn his notice, but it turned out to be a boringly sanitary look into the psychology of bragging rights. Michael sensed that Tibur had misunderstood him, it's not like any of it pertained to him. He wasn't guilty of sleeping around to gain other peoples' approval... right? When Tibur returned with his laundry, Michael was two paragraphs deep into the chapter titled 'Endemic Peer Pressure'.

"I'm going to use the bathroom" he said, once the clean clothes were returned to their rightful places in the closet.

Michael didn't pay him much attention, absorbed as he was in his reading. It was only when he heard the sound of the running water that his focus switched. Tibur was in the shower, mere feet away from him. Naked.

"Do you need my towel..?" asked Michael, forming his excuse and trying to open the bathroom door. He hadn't expected that Tibur would have locked it behind him.

When he at last came out, Tibur was dressed in a long-sleeve T-shirt and long pyjama pants. He was in danger of overheating, but it seemed to be the safest option. The absence of skin on show didn't stop Michael from mentally undressing him; he smelled clean, fresh... his body was begging to be dirtied again.

Michael opened his towel, touching himself with increasing intensity as he watched him drying his hair.

"What are you doing..?" Tibur asked him from the doorway.

"This is as much as I can do, right?" Michael replied, "I can't touch you... but at least I can touch myself..."

Tibur threw his balled up towel at Michael's chest.

"If you're going to do that, you can do it in the bathroom!"

Michael was willing to comply, smiling at Tibur as he walked past, stark naked, into the tiny student bathroom.

"Do you want me to close the door?" asked Michael, "I'm more than happy to leave it open if you want to watch..."

 Tibur slammed it shut and ran to the window, gulping in the night air in an attempt to regain his wavering focus. When Michael came back out, Tibur was occupying the cramped space beside the bed; laid on the floor with only a sheet as a mattress.

"You can take the bed" he told his guest.

Michael stepped over him, and Tibur shut his eyes tightly. It was more of Michael than he was willing to see.

"I used your lotion" said Michael as he laid down, "I hope you don't mind... but the smell of you was turning me on. I can't begin to imagine how much more fun it would have been with your hand though. Maybe next time we can help each other..."

"There won't be a next time" said Tibur.

Michael smiled and turned off the light.

"Don't be too sure of that..." he said, "Whatever this is between us, it's not finished yet. I'll see you in the morning, Tibur. Feel free to join me on the bed if you get too lonely on the floor..."

Tibur stared up at his familiar ceiling, doing everything in his power not to look over at the naked man exposed on the bed, the faint glow of moonlight outlining the shape of his powerful body.

Don't, Tibur told himself, Don't you even think about it...