"That's got nothing to do with anything."

☆

"You're a father?" Tamesh somehow mutters the words almost in disbelief. 

Blake lets a sarcastic snort leave his lips. "Tam, I have a son, but I'm no father." 

"But, your son? Where is he now?" Tamesh questions. 

"With my parents." Blake sighs. "That's part of the 'deal'." Blake quotes the line, raising an eyebrow. 

Tamesh still looks confused, he furrows his brow in question. "What do you mean deal?" 

"Samson, my parents call him Sonny, he's four now. They are raising him as his own. I'm the prodigal big brother. Hannah had Sonny and was told she couldn't keep him. If she did, she would have to do it alone. That's when my parents stepped up." Blake sighs, looking Tamesh in the eyes. "The deal was that no one was to know about Sonny's parentage. Hannah would go to the States and Sonny would be raised as a sibling." 

"Do you still have feelings for Hannah?" Tamesh felt like he was prying, but something inside of him really wanted to know. 

"Let's just say our little mistake put somewhat of a strain on our relationship...." Blake reaches again for his beer, taking a large mouthful "...She hates me and I don't blame her."

Tamesh just looks at Blake, who is now staring into space. There was still something not quite right about the situation. Something Tamesh couldn't figure out. "Blake, I still don't get why you can't go back home?" 

Blake lets a dry laugh leave his lips. "Because Tam, my parents will kill me. I brought shame on them. I created a war between my family and hers. If I go back, I will upset the apple cart."

Tamesh finds himself looking around Blake's room, as if searching around him for an answer, as if it were tangible. He ends up just grabbing his own beer tighter and taking a mouthful of the bitter liquid. 

Blake however, had gone into some kind of fixed stare. Almost trance-like, as if he were someplace else. The silence of the room almost seems louder than the drumming noise of the party music outside. That is until Blake's words cut through the stillness like a knife. 

"I want to see him. I want to get to know my child." 

Tamesh almost chokes on his drink.  The sudden break of silence made him jump, rather than what was being said. Blake now looks at Tamesh having a choking fit, it almost is like he is taken out of his revelation, as he begins to slap Tamesh's back, with Tamesh gradually recovering from his situation. 

"I'm sorry." He says, wiping tears from his eyes brought on from the coughing. "That looked like bad timing. I mean, I think it's good, yeah it's nice you want to make that bond."

Blake's hand, which had been slapping Tamesh's back, now rests on his shoulder. He gives it a slight squeeze, as he smiles at the artist. "Thank you!" Is all he says. 

Tamesh now looks at Blake confused. "Thank you for what? I didn't do anything." 

Blake maintains eye contact. His smile remained. "You." He begins. "What is it about you that gets me like this?" Blake wonders, chuckling lightly. 

"I...I don't know what you mean?" Tamesh says nervously. His body going into some type of panic mode that he seemed to have no control over. 

"Yeah you do Tam. I'm not blind." Blake now removes his hand from his shoulder and edges a little closer to Tamesh's flush red profile, with the artist still not being able to bring his eyes around to meet Blake's gaze. "I've seen the way you get when you sketch me." 

"And how is that exactly?" Tamesh tries to act dismissive, but he has made an error of judgement. He has turned his head and is now glancing into those deep brown eyes of the model, just for a fraction of a second.

Blake's eyes seem to navigate Tamesh's face, a slight smirk twitching his upper lip. "Well, let me see..., your cheeks get rather rosey when you and I are in the studio." 

"It's just hot in there!" Tamesh insists, though he knows he keeps the place well vented because of the paint fumes. 

Blake laughs at the response before continuing. "...And you can't always look me in the eyes for too long." 

"That's got nothing to do with anything." Tamesh argues, naturally looking away from Blake's gaze. Inadvertently proving Blake right.

"Prove it!"

"What?"

"Prove me wrong! Look me in the eyes Tam." Blake proposes.

"Now you're just being childish, I'm not playing games." Tamesh says, choosing this moment to turn away from Blake to take a drink. 

"I'm not playing." Blake raises an eyebrow, eyes still burning a hole in Tamesh's profile. 

Tamesh forces his head to turn to stare at Blake, who's now literally hovering above his shoulder. Blake was staring wide eyed back at him. "You see Tam, no one knows about Sonny, not even Henry. There's something about you that makes me want to show you my soul, to confess, to face things...to be....bold." 

Tamesh didn't quite know what was happening right now, but he could clearly see Blake's gaze had strayed from his eyes, as it was presently hovering over his lips. Blake slowly raises a hand, the pads of his index and middle finger gently brushing over Tamesh's full lips, making him pull them into his mouth, the touch too sensitive.

"Blake...what are you doing?" Tamesh's eyes are still fixed on the model's as Blake lets a small smile spread across his face, his hand now cupping Tamesh's right cheek. 

"Come on Tam...you know what I'm doing?" He says, his voice low and smooth, like silk. 

Tamesh is unable to move. It's as if he's paralysed. Blake is in no way, pinning him down, forcing him to be in this position, but he feels powerless to stop what is about to happen. All he has is his voice. "Wait a minute." He manages to say, his voice just above a whisper. 

Blake stops, looking back up into Tamesh's big eyes. Eyes full of innocence for a man of his age. "What's up, you don't want to?" 

There it was. The big question. Tamesh had never been in a situation like this in his life! He wasn't supposed to be like this. He wasn't the loving kind. He was socially awkward, an artistic fool. He liked what he liked. His books, his classical music, his favourite ramen, his creative freedom and this was new, very new! 

Blake, who has been waiting for a response from Tamesh, decides to wait no more. "I guess your silence means yes." He mumbles under his breath...