A Hike on Mount Shady

"Charlie! Charlie, where'd you get to?" Hank paused next to one of many trees and looked back. He knew exactly where he was and where he was going, but he wasn't completely sure Charlie did. Not yet, anyway. Hank had spent his whole life in that stand of trees; Charlie only had a year or so and not much of it back in the woods. Hank was pretty sure he could blindfold Charlie and put him in their front yard and trust Charlie to find the backyard, but that wasn't the same as going halfway up the mountain in winter, even if the mountain was their backyard. "Charlie!"

"God, I'm right here, Hank. Don't panic." Charlie came up the slope and around a clump of bushes, his eyes rolling. Again. "Don't see how you can miss me." He was dressed head to toe in hunter orange, at Hank's insistence. "Look like a big ball of idiot."

Hank bit his lower lip. "You look like someone who won't get shot by some yahoo out here poaching deer."

"I still don't think that the orange pants were necessary. A vest and hat are reasonable, I'll give you that. But the jacket and pants are just signs that you have an actual sense of humor." Charlie stomped his way up to Hank and looked down at him. "The fact that I actually put them on means I'm a fool for you, I suppose. Don't tell anyone, okay?"

"Your secret is safe with me." Hank nodded solemnly, his insides turning mushy. That secret had safely been the property of most of Shady Ridge for more than a year; they were just lucky that the majority of the town's population thought that it was cute and not vile. There were some bad eggs, of course, but aside from a few letters, a broken window, and one memorable brawl when Charlie got hammered on free beer at the roadhouse, they'd been mostly left in peace.

"Tell me again why we're this far up the hill?"

"It's a mountain," Hank corrected before he could stop himself. Charlie'd figured out about a week into clearing their plot of land that Hank had a pet peeve about tourists calling Mount Shady a hill. He didn't say it often, and it had taken Hank a while to figure out Charlie was pulling his leg, but Hank had yet to learn to let it slide. "Damn it, man."

Charlie grinned and started walking again, careful of places where there was still ice on the rocks, the sun not yet melting it away. "Not much snow this year."

"It's early in the season yet, and we're not really that high up. Hell, our yard likely won't have snow at all, 'cept for a few mornings. My place in town hardly ever had any."

"Not like New York."

Hank sighed to himself. "No, baby. Not like New York." They'd had the same conversation the year before, too, Charlie's first Christmas in Shady Ridge. Hank sort of thought they'd be having it again and again each year until the end of time. Only part of that was a good thing. "Why don't you go home for a few days, Charlie?" He'd said that before, too.

"I am home." Charlie looked back over his shoulder and smiled. "It's just a different home, is all. I'll stop talking about it."

"No, you won't. And I wouldn't want you to." Hank walked with him, going up to the next copse of trees and around to the west. "It is different. That's the truth."

Charlie nodded and reached for a pine branch. "Yeah, but I don't want you to think I liked it better there than here."

Hank laughed. "Charles Hise. You spend eleven months out of the year hiking, fishing, hunting, chasing bad guys, looking for your next beer, working out, having sex and grilling steak. For eleven months you're happier than any man has a right to be and you don't mention New York at all. You haven't said the word 'Albany' in a year and a half. So what if you miss snow at Christmas time? If I could buy you some of the stuff, I would."

To Hank's surprise, Charlie's eyes suddenly grew sharp and bright with tears that were blinked away before Hank could really process that they'd been there. "You would, I know." Charlie gave him a hard kiss, the tip of his nose cold on Hank's cheek when he nuzzled him. "And you're right. I'm freaking happy here. With you, with Shady Ridge, with this damn mountain we're climbing."

"Hey, your idea to be up here. Not my fault that this is where the fir trees around here like to grow." Hank resisted the urge to go back for yet more kisses. "See what you need yet?"