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Shatterstar and Adam X, the X-Treme walked slowly out of the main area of the gym and into the connected bathroom. Both alien men were drenched in sweat and smelled rather rank. It had been a good workout, but they were both ready to go home and eat their weights in Chinese food. Shatterstar was not one much for food, but he was always alright with acquiescing to his off and on boyfriend’s tastes in Earth food.
Adam stripped off his worn tank top and tugged at Shatterstar’s arm. “Take a photo with meeeeee.” He whined petulantly, an odd gesture from a big guy like him. Nevertheless, it worked, and Shatterstar flexed and allowed himself to be pulled into a selfie style photo in the gym’s bathroom. He saw little use in gestures like this. They seemed vain and rather pointless. But Adam had spent more time on Earth than him, so he just expected his partner knew more about these things than he himself did. That, and they made Adam happy. He liked making Adam happy.
They drove home in silence, the quiet only punctuated by X-Treme taking long sips of his energy drink as he drove. He seemed to be a master of multitasking while driving, an art that Shatterstar was not sure if he abhorred or admired yet. He let it slide. He just wanted to go home. He was soaking in sweat, and he was tired. He was ready for some reclining on the old couch in their apartment. It had taken some time to get him used to the idea of relaxation and rest, but now he had become somewhat used to the idea that life was not all about working and fighting. Just mostly.
When they reached the apartment complex they lived in, Shatterstar brushed past Adam to get inside and change in their bedroom. He took a quick shower, and then he changed into a pair of clean, non-sweat soaked underwear and a long t-shirt. He utterly eschewed the need for pants. He brushed out his now stringy and damp, orange hair, letting it fall down almost to his waist. He heard Adam outside putting in an order for Chinese. He hoped that he would not order too much. Last time he had, Adam had overeaten and had been sick for a day.
“Your turn.” He walked out of the bedroom and into the living area/kitchen to see Adam hang up the phone, looking rather pleased with himself.
“The Chinese place down the road is having a buy one get one sale on shrimp friend rice. I ordered a lot of that, as well as egg rolls for days, and wonton soup.” He licked his lips eagerly and tossed his long, Legolas-like blonde hair behind him and strode into the bedroom. Soon, Shatterstar could hear the shower going and the raucous noise of his roommate/lover singing in the shower. Yes, this was his life. Ever since he had split from X-Force and more importantly, from the first love of his life, Rictor.
Within the half hour, a Chinese food delivery man arrived, and Adam went down to retrieve the food, leaving Shatterstar to lay out plates and bowls for the meal. When Adam returned, his arms were loaded with all manner of food goods, much to Shatterstar’s mild chagrin.
“What did I say about overordering earlier today?” Shatterstar scolded gently, opening the bags. Four boxes of shrimp fried rice. Not to mention a solid dozen egg rolls, and two quarts of wonton soup. That would feed them for at least one more meal tomorrow, assuming Adam did not go ham on the rice like he did last time they ordered it, and then proceeded to puke for an hour.
Well, it looked like the hubris of his boyfriend extended to shrimp friend rice. Shatterstar ate a couple plates and then a bowl of soup and an egg roll and found himself comfortably full if mildly distended. That was fine enough. He would sleep it off, maybe take a long bathroom break. Adam, on the other hand, was plowing his way through a second box of friend rice. He was very adept at the art of chopsticks, and was going faster than Shatterstar had been on his first plate. He had also had his own quart of soup and three egg rolls. In short, a lot of food.
“Slow down, Adam. You’re going to burst open and die at this rate.” Shatterstar chuckled. He took his plate to the sink and washed it. He heard an earth-shattering belch from him and a soft thud. He turned around. Adam had gently chucked the remnant box of fried rice onto the table, as an admission of his status of finished, Shatterstar guessed. He was now leaning back in his chair, rubbing his stomach mournfully.
“Holy shit. I feel like I’m dying.” Adam said dramatically, throwing an arm over the back of the chair in a melodramatic fashion.
“It’s what the people around here call overeating, Adam. And you’re chronically guilty of it. Especially with this kind of food.” Shatterstar gently patted his stomach and put the rice in the fridge, as well as the last of the egg rolls. Why had Adam ordered a dozen? He would never know.
“Ugh.” Adam stood up unsteadily and staggered to the couch and threw himself down there. He laid on his stomach for the briefest of stomachs before flipping over with another loud moan. Shatterstar hid a smile. For all that he felt bad for Adam, this was always an amusing ordeal.
“You want some Tums? I hear that those are good for bloating and the like. Barring that, I’ve got nothing for you.” Shatterstar held up the small bottle that Rictor had given him what seemed like ages ago. It was one of the only ties he had to that time before he had reunited with Adam.
“No. I want everything to just leave my stomach. ‘Star… Why do you let me do this to myself?!” Adam whined from the couch, rolling on his side, clutching what Shatterstar observed to be his very swollen stomach.
“I am your boyfriend, not your babysitter. I also learned from experience with the all-you-can-eat shrimp scampi incident a month ago that overeating ends in puking and pain.” Shatterstar crossed his arms and sat down on the couch next to Adam and gently rubbed his stomach eliciting a contented moan from his boyfriend.
He sat like that for awhile, rubbing Adam’s swollen belly while talking about little bits of nothing, and he was getting ready to turn on the television when Adam shot upright. “Shit!”
“Adam?” Shatterstar looked at him, concerned. He was not entirely sure what was going on, although he had an inkling of what was about to occur. He backed away.
Adam made an awkward, choking noise and clutched one hand at his stomach, the other hand at his mouth, and half ran, half waddled to the bathroom. He made it about half way there before he crouched down at the small bedside trashcan in their bedroom and started projectile vomiting inside of it and a little bit on himself and the floor by the bed.
Shatterstar had seen Adam puke before, and it was never a pleasant affair. First off, it smelled rank and it was always messy. It was as if the guy had never heard of the concept of aiming. Second, it was a weird, fluorescent blue color that was virtually impossible to get out of anything. It was terrible. And because he was puking so soon after eating all of that food, there were flecks of rice, vegetable, wonton, and shrimp mixed in with the weird, soupy, blue stuff. It was a rather disgusting affair, and now it was all over his boyfriend, his trashcan, and even a little bit of splashing on the floor from the initial hurl.
“Adam!” Shatterstar said, half concerned, half admonishingly. He walked over and gently nudged him with his foot, with another round of puking following. He was not sure if the two were connected. He did not dare touch him for another minute or two before Adam weakly moaned.
“’Star?” He groaned pitifully. He looked up at Shatterstar, mouth stained blue. “I feel…” he gave a little hiccup, “better?”
“Well, that’s good. But you puked all over yourself and a bit on the floor. We’re going to have to scrub like hell to get that out. Do you think you can make it to the bathroom and take off your clothes so we can soak them in a bucket?” Shatterstar walked away for a few seconds to retrieve the designated soaking bucket from under the sink. This was not a first-time occurrence to his food inclined lover.
He knelt down and helped Adam stand to his feet and walk into the bathroom. He sat his boyfriend down in the bathtub and then handed him the trashcan. The smell was repulsive. Shatterstar resisted the urge to gag. While he was not new to this problem, he could never get used to the smell of Shi’ar puke. It smelled like, well, Shatterstar was not sure how to describe it. But it was just not a good smell.
He heard a much weaker puking noise as he wiped up the worst of the vomit from the floor. He heard a much weaker retching noise and was glad he had given Adam the trash can. The only reason he was in the tub and not by their toilet was because the bathtub was easier for Shatterstar to clean and it was not nearly as reliant on Adam’s ability to aim at something. He did not have much trust in him in that area at all. At least it was not a lot.
“Are you done yet? You can’t have much more.” Shatterstar handed Adam a package of wet wipes to get the worst of the puke off of his body. He was not a nanny. He was not going to wipe puke off of X-Treme.
“I think… I should never have wished that everything left my stomach. I got my wish, but oh god… the smell.” He grimaced, scrunching up his hawk-like nose. He peered down into the trashcan at the small puddle of blue mingled with the bits of rice and other food remnants.
“Don’t look at it. It’ll only make you sicker. Rictor told me that once when I got motion sick and vomited in the car.” Shatterstar said sagely, bringing up his ex for the first time in a while, taking advantage of the fact that Adam probably was only half listening.
Adam listened, for once, and set aside the trashcan and started to towel himself off with the moist towelettes. He soon smelled like a faint mix of puke and lemons. It was better than nothing. He stripped off his shirt and threw it in the trashcan. They both knew that it would be unsalvageable. There was something about Shi’ar vomit that Earth detergents were unable to touch.
By the time Shatterstar had set the bedroom back to a semblance of cleanliness and thoroughly scrubbed up the floor as best he could, Adam was back on his feet. He did not look so good, but he had changed into a clean shirt and pants and was now walking about the apartment unsteadily.
“Are you sure you’re done puking? I do not want you laying down in our bed if you’re just going to upchuck in it.” Shatterstar looked at him with a skeptical air. He was not prepared to deal with his bed being soiled. The floor was bad enough, for the third time, no less. There were a couple other permanent blue stains on the floor of the apartment carpet. He was not getting that security deposit back.
“Yeah… I don’t think I could vomit more if I wanted to.” Adam groaned, pulling his hair back behind him into a ponytail. At least his hair was clean. Last time he had been sick, he had gotten it all through his hair. Thankfully, that had come out. Shatterstar did not know what either of them would have done if Adam had managed to stain his hair blue with his own emissions.
“Fine. I’m going to make you some peppermint tea. It’ll soothe the stomach. You lay down and don’t get up until tomorrow.” He watched as Adam crawled into his side of the bed and laid down, back facing Shatterstar. When he was satisfied that Adam was not going to get out of bed or be restless, he walked into the kitchen and brewed both of them tea, as he too was not feeling his best. He had not eaten as much as Adam, but he was still getting used to the art of eating. It was an odd feeling in his stomach, and not always a welcome one. But he had learned that not eating seemed to unnerve people, although Adam was rather tolerant of it.
He walked into the bedroom with the teas and found that Adam had fallen asleep, one arm dangling off of the bed. He was snoring softly, breathing deeply, his side moving up and down as he slept. Shatterstar smiled. He was adorable. From the long blonde hair and the pointed ears down to that ridiculous soul patch. He set the tea beside Adam on the bedside table before sipping his own. He watched him sleep until his own tea was gone, and then he laid down beside him and fell asleep, sleeping soundly through the night.