"Something is happening, and it's pissing me off!" Folarin said later that day, as he pounded his frustration into Lucy who was loving every second of it.
"I'm here for these agro strokes, babe but can we leave the talking for later?", she managed to say between moans.
Folarin raised one of her legs and threw it over his arm, slamming deeper into her. "Chuka is fucking with my head."
Lucy's eyes rolled to the back of her head. "Oh God! Yes!"
His strokes were long and deep and hitting all the spots. She liked Angry Folarin. He fucked like a god. "H-how is he doing that?", she asked, trying to pretend she gave one solitary fuck about anything other than what she was feeling at the moment.
Folarin felt his orgasm build and started to thrust faster. Lucy lost her shit with each stroke, forgetting to care whether the neighbours heard her or not. Folarin came with a growl and Lucy screamed out her climax as he finished them both off at the same time. He rolled off her, sweaty and breathing heavy.
"I don't know, it's just random shit." Folarin continued, as if there had been no pause in between. He rolled to his side and propped himself up on his elbow, facing a still blissed out Lucy. "There's this...I don't know whether to call it tension between me and him."
"Ooh, what kind of tension?", Lucy sat up, waggling her eyebrows as she listened with renewed interest, the side of her head resting on her fist.
"Not like that, you freakshow." Folarin rolled his eyes. "It's like... Okay so, I'm not a selfish person, yeah but I'm also not a selfless person either."
"Oh, that's a fact."
"I like to do whatever the fuck, whenever the fuck." He paused. "And yet lately...". Then he told her everything. The falling thing while they were shooting, his weird reaction to it and then the thing at the hospital and how it had fucked him up and was changing him in ways he didn't like. Plus all the other strange shit that had been happening.
"Yeah, I was wondering about that. You have picked up some new habits lately. And I noticed you don't light up as much."
Folarin let out a frustrated huff in response.
"Aww... that was all because of him?" Lucy looked at him with cute puppy eyes. "That's so fucking adorable. You know what? I ship it."
Folarin shot her dirty look.
Lucy laughed. "Would it be so terrible if you two were a thing? Lean into it jare."
He gave her a dry stare. "Would it be so terrible if two STRAIGHT men were 'a thing'?", he said, doing the last part in a girly voice and air quotes. "Do you hear yourself?"
"Oh, please. Straight. Gay. Pansexual. Potsexual. Labels are for Birkins. What does your heart say?"
"What does my â . Okay, I'm done." Folarin pulled back the covers and started to get off the bed.
Lucy laughed, grabbing his arm. "Get back here."
"This conversation will only continue if you vow to never say cringe shit like that again."
"I make no promises." Lucy giggled. "But seriously though, you two would be good for each other."
Folarin gave her an even drier stare.
"Think about it. Who knows either of you better than you two? Who can take care of Chuka better than you? Who can take care of you better than Chuka?"
"We're grown men. We don't need taking care of."
"Oshey." Lucy threw her hands up in mock salute. "Alpha male."
"You know this." Folarin said, smugly.
"Oh, shut up. Adults get married so they can have a person. Someone who would stick by them and take care of them in a way they can't take care of themselves."
"We're getting married now?" Folarin raised a brow. "Has someone informed Chuka?"
"Oh my â", Lucy let out a frustrated sigh as she rubbed her eyelids. "You're infuriating."
Folarin shrugged. "I try."
"I'm serious, Folarin. Your friend doesn't have the best luck with women."
"So, I need to make that permanently my problem?"
"No, you need to acknowledge that you two are already to each other what he's trying to find out there."
"Oh Jesus. Do you have a gay kink or something? You one of those yaoi fetish people?"
"Okay, lemme first take a second to process the fact that you know what 'yaoi' is. One sec." Lucy said, then paused dramatically for a few seconds, staring at thin air, with both her hands clasped and her index fingers resting against her lip in a pondering pose.
Folarin shook his head.
"Secondly, yes. I am a proud Yaoi Fangirl, and I don't care who knows it."
"Ridiculous."
"But more to the point, this isn't about me. It's really about what's right for both of you."
Folarin scoffed. "You're insane."
"Am I?"
"He's my best friend. Nah, he's my brother."
"But he's not though."
"You're right. It's beyond even that. He's...it's like...I'm not even sure there's really a word for it."
"Oh, you mean 'Soulmate'? Yes, there is."
Folarin palmed his face and let out a long-suffering sigh.
"Okay debate me." Lucy said, sitting upright and looking down at Folarin, his eyes following the movement of her beautiful breasts. "Give me all your arguments for why you're not soulmates."
"I only need one." Folarin said, then pulled back the covers, revealing his flaccid dick, lolling to the side like a drunk, bald little man. "He owns one of these."
Lucy looked at it. Even limp, it was a beast. For a split second she was tempted to put it in her mouth - just to make it hard again. For no reason. "Rubbish talk.", she continued instead. "For one thing, soulmates don't necessarily have to be together. Soulmates can be friends, can be siblings, twins even. It's not always a love match."
Folarin lifted his head up. "So, you're making my poi-"
"But in this case, why not?" Lucy interrupted.
Folarin let out an exasperated groan and let his head fall back on the pillow.
Lucy got up and straddled Folarin, sitting on his belly. "Listen to me." She said, counting on her fingers. "You know how to take care of Chuka. Whenever he's in a bad place, you're the only one who's ever able to get him out of it."
"That's because I'm closest to him. If he had other close friends, they'd be just as skilled at that."
"Oh, you want him forming other friendships? As tight as yours is?"
Folarin hesitated. "Of course.", he said unconvincingly.
Lucy scoffed. "I can't believe you've won awards for your acting. It's terrible."
Folarin rolled his eyes.
"Two, - and don't interrupt me again â he knows how to take care of you. He speaks 'Folarin' fluently and in every dialect there is. Remember that time you were sick?"
"Here we go.", Folarin sighed.
"And you refused to eat so you could get your injection? Even when your mom was begging you. Seyi and I did everything we could too. I even promised you anal. Nothing."
"See,.."
"Who got you to eat?"
"You mean who took my phone and threatened to go live and tell my followers I was 'crying like a bitch'?"
Lucy laughed, recalling the look on Folarin's face as he begrudgingly ate the food his mom had brought, glaring daggers at Chuka the whole time. "Exactly. He knew better than anyone else that the only thing you and your obese ego would respond to, was the threat of public humiliation."
"And this proves what?"
"Three,", Lucy continued, ignoring him. "You wouldn't be able to function normally without each other. You just wouldn't."
"Okay, let's ignore the ridiculousness of that statement for a second. Without each other? What does that even mean?
"You could lose him, Folarin."
Folarin felt a thud in his chest. "The fuck?"
"First off, how much more heart ache and betrayal do you think he'll be able to withstand before it fundamentally changes him as a person? The Chuka you know would cease to exist if he keeps taking hits."
"You sound like he's cursed. He could get it right the next time. In fact, I'll see to it myself.", Folarin said.
"And then there's that too. What if he does get it right. And he meets someone he can actually sustain something solid with. Good wife, they make a couple of kids, everything."
"Great. How is that a problem?"
"Great for them. Bad for you. You really think it'd be the same between you two?"
"Uh...Chuka had Lisa for three years. We were good."
"I said a good wife, Folarin. An actual partner; who's around, who pays attention, who's fully invested. That plus children."
Folarin frowned. "I'm lost."
"You wouldn't be the most important person in his life anymore, you idiot. It would be them."
"Err...okay? And?"
"Those random trips you two take very year? That's him and them now. And if new wifey has a problem with how much you two hang out? That's less and less face time."
"That's -"
"And if he decides to move abroad with his family?"
Folarin's chest did that thud thing again.
He scoffed. "Chuka wouldn't leave.", he said, trying to convince himself more than Lucy. "Everything is here. His life, his status, his businesses. What would he do abroad?"
"What if he discusses it with his new wife and they decide it's what's best for their family?"
Folarin fell silent.
"Can you honestly tell me you're certain your friendship would survive long distance?"
Silence.
"And then there's depression. That's another way you could lose him."
Folarin looked at her and made a face.
"Say, he never even finds that, and love continues to elude him, it might take its toll. For somebody who loves love that much, the fact that it keeps refusing to love him back would eventually be extremely depressing. So, he'll either stay alone or he'll marry someone just to marry, both of which would make him miserable."
"Well, that got dark." Folarin said, lifting Lucy off him and swinging his feet off the bed. He sat up, resting his palms against the mattress on either side of him, and stared at the ground.
"It's a possibility.", Lucy said going to sit beside him with a hand on his shoulder.
"No, it's not. You're reaching."
Lucy paused. "Am I?"
Folarin said nothing.
"And at that point it would be difficult for even you to get him out of it. And that would start to affect you too."
Folarin was silent for a long time.
"So," he said finally, "to save our friendship and to save his life, I have to be with him." He looked at Lucy, his eyes filled with emotion.
Lucy was touched, happy to see she was finally getting through. "You don't have to, but it might be a good idea to explore it.", she said, her eyes mirroring the softness in his own.
Folarin nodded softly and looked back at the ground.
Then he suddenly burst out laughing.
"Oh, for fuck's sake.." Lucy said, palming her face.
"That was good. That was so good." Folarin said as he guffawed loudly, wiping a tear from his eye. "You're sure you will not do comedy?"
Lucy threw her hands up in surrender. "You know what? Don't take this seriously. But nobody can say I didn't try."
"No. Nobody can say that." Folarin laughed, throwing his legs back on the bed and lying down as he started to stroke himself.
"I can't wait to say, 'I told you so.'. You'll see nau." Lucy said, her arms crossed over her bare breasts.
Folarin reached for her and pulled her towards him. "Guy, stop talking nonsense and come sit on this dick." He pulled her back towards him, and Lucy threw one leg across in the same motion, straddling him. Folarin reached up and grabbed her breasts.
"You're just so â"
He tweaked her nipples.
"Ah!", she moaned, cutting herself off.
Folarin reached down with one hand and slid into Lucy's sopping wetness. Then he grabbed her hips with both hands and slammed into her from below.
And Lucy forgot how to speak.