The Great Grey

Jacob was, very obviously and unquestionably, an extremely handsome (and educated) man with the most wonderfully magical shop in this little London town.
Unfortunately, he and Nathaniel had a sad tendency to misinterpret each other’s words.
And these were the only, though very strong, reasons why Nathaniel was not suggesting meeting somewhere else after all that heavy spider information. He did not want Jacob to think he had a change of heart, or worse — to give Jacob enough time for him to find his own change of heart. In the end, Nathan could only hope these weavery things were too small and too far down for him to actually spot them in action.

“Was that porter also a maid?” asked Nathaniel only half-jokingly.
He almost hit his head on the ceiling, despite the warning, and did hit it on the bathroom’s door frame. “I’m fine,” he said out of habit and smiled reassuringly.

They had a strange dynamic, Nathaniel thought while washing the webs and the street off his hands: they practised the most radical and speedy definition of off-and-on-again. His main goal was to keep their… friendship on the ‘on’ from now on, and in order to do that, Nathaniel knew he had to watch his temper — a doable, feasible task, though subject to many unknowns.
“I am ready to put our virtues to the test,” said Nathan in a solemn tone, turning back to Jacob. “Please, lead me to the bedroom now. The temptation is strong, my dear Mr Smith. There is no better time or place to see if we can resist those devilish whispers of sin.”

He had zero intentions of abstaining, of course, and started removing his coat on his way to the bedroom. His movements were purposefully unhurried, but his intentions were unmistakable all the same.

“Well… I hope it soothes you to know that a maid graces these premises with her presence at least once a week,” sensing Nathaniel’s squeamishness, Jacob tried to mitigate the damage. The man of his size disliking spiders — how silly was that, really? It was hurtful to know that Nathaniel didn’t share his adoration and respect for gracious little weavers and hunters, but there was nothing new to Jacob: he was used to being considered a little mad because of objects of his adoration.

His maid was no different from the great majority of people. She barely tolerated Jacob, but spiders became her nemeses. For several weeks, Jacob tried to protect his co-lodgers from being smudged and warily watched the maid’s every move to the annoyance of them both before she learned to leave poor defenceless creatures alone. In a few months, a truce and a compromise were reached: the maid cleaned upstairs and ushered — gently! — all stray spiders downstairs, where they could reign free, their webbing (mostly) undisturbed.

A dull bump interrupted Jacob’s lamentations.
“Oh, are you alright?” he belatedly asked in alarm. Thankfully, Nathaniel didn’t knock himself out, and Jacob could spend the next few minutes planning his next moves.

“Yes! The time of the great test has come! To the bedroom, at once!” Jacob declared, matching Nathaniel’s solemn tone, and beckoned him to the bedroom.

Not wasting time, he drew the curtains, fished out a small bottle of oil from his drawer, which he presented with a flourish, and put it on the honourable place on his bedstead. With this done, Jacob started to undress. Immediately, he was tempted to lean into Nathaniel for a kiss but stopped himself. He was not going to blink first in this little game of theirs.

“I must say I am very glad that you have decided to join me in this challenge of resolve today, my dear Mr Blackwood,” Jacob announced in the same dignified voice, unbuttoning his waistcoat in the meantime. “I quite missed you. Days without you proved to be too long.”