"It's a pillow, use it for something." MArk walked across the hall into the living room where he had left the ipad. Thankfully it was on a table and not the floor. Ace was being much more responsible lately... Something must be wrong. Mark came back in and was told to go shower. Ace was stretching like a cat on the bed and Mark caught himself looking over Ace. His shirt was riding up and showing his forming muscles. He was trying so hard to be strong, Mark noticed that he felt proud of his patient. It didn't help that he also caught sight of the hips peeking over the waist of the pajama pants. Nope. Nope. Stop looking, nope. "You're very interested in my hygene of late." he said and looked at the dresser as though he were searchign for something. He stepped over and handed the ipad to his patient and almost rolled his eyes. "So that you can dry me? That sounds boring. What's so special about running a towel over a body?" He knew that Ace was getting more and more entertained with bodies and sexuality in the last years. Mark doubted that anyone had ever explained much of puberty or the things there involved with him. Mark had helped explain growth spurts when Ace was suddenly too tall for his clothes. His patient had gone from being five feet even to five foot five almost over night. But the rest... Well fuck, he'd been strapped down to a bed and blindfolded for years. No one had been able to explain vampirism to him much less anything else. And Mark knew that Ace was finding things on the internet to answer his questions. He knew that for every show Ace watched there was a fanbase creating stories and pictures of the characters together. He knew that some of the things on Netflix weren't all together safe either. To his knowledge Ace hadn't ye watched what might be known as actual pornography but it was coming ... eventually. Or perhaps Ace didn't have an interest in it. He did know that Ace had an interest in him.<br/><br/>Mark walked to the bathroom to turn the water on. Ace was giggling at the screen of the iPad and blushing at something. Mark was curious to find out what it might be but let it go. The doctor couldn't deny that he was at least somewhat to blame for Ace's curiosity. He could have sat the patient down at any time and explained things to him. The truth was that he actually hadn't even thought about it until Ace had begun to openly flirt with him in recent years. Being in his mid twenties when Ace had come to live with him as a young teenager, Mark never would have entertained a single romantic notion. Not while Ace was still so young. After peeling his clothes off and stepping in the shower Mark continued thinking. The first several years had been about teaching Ace self control and how to drink and feed himself properly. He had learned to be careful of his own ailments and come to trust Mark. Now that everything seemed to have settled into a recognizable routine... It wasn't much of a shock to Mark. Even though he was certain that Ace hadn't thought about the techinicalities as much he had, there was enough to doubt for the doctor. For one, Ace never got exposure to other people. If Mark wasn't right for him or if he wanted someone different, how would Ace have the chance to remedy that? How could Mark even find him others to socialize with? His patient might worry over hurting them as he had those in the hospital. Mark ran a hand over his face and washed his hair, his body and stood for a moment, letting the water warm him to the core. It felt so relaxing and to have just a minute to himself after rushes of patients and worrying about Ace and, well, forcing himself to ignore Ace's advances. But if he let them fall into a romantic relationship, if he let them become more than just a doctor and patient, more than roommates and it wasn't right, how could he resume what they now had. Would Ace's trust in him be broken? The possibilities for disaster were endless. To silence his own thoughts, Mark shut the water off and stepped out. Making breakfast and getting dressed would be a good way to move forward. He felt a little bad about dressing. BEcause maybe, no matter how small the possibility, if Ace saw him naked it wouldn't be such a mystery and it wouldn't be fun. Or it would(and Mark was 99% positive) it would make things inifitely worse. After buttoning his jeans and pulling the shirt down he walked out into the bedroom again to find Ace sitting on the bed, watching the screen. Pulling the towel over his head Mark began to dry his hair but paused. He walked over and sat next to Ace, inclining his head towards his patient. "Are you going to dry my hair or not?" he asked lightly.