While he'd been eating John had forgotten about the mess he'd made and how most of the cleanup had involved a quick rub with a towel, but now the memory barged back with a vengeance. His crotch suddenly felt... sticky. Face reddening again, he made a show of sniffing the air.
"No, I don't smell anything -- except this sausage," he added, holding up a forkful, but Brian didn't take the bait.
"Not the food, something else," he said, looking around distractedly. "More like an animal. A big animal."
"Maybe something escaped from the zoo?" John suggested. "You could check the news on TV. Or, uh, maybe just a skunk, or..."
Brian clearly wasn't listening. He was halfway standing up, one hand on the table, inhaling deeply. "Definitely something," he muttered. "What is it? What's it coming from? Are you hot?"
It took John a moment to realize that the last question was addressed to him. "Yeah, I'm a little hot," he said carefully. "But that's probably just the stove. You didn't leave something burning on there, did you?"
"Good, yeah, me too. Hot." Brian stared at him again, then looked away. "I think it's coming from over by you."
John was beginning to worry now. Brian was acting pretty weird. And this was Brian, possibly the most grounded, practical guy he knew. He was not the man you'd take on a bachelor party, but he was everything John wanted in a room-mate: stable, reliable, and unlikely to binge on John's tequila. Except that now he was bending over and earnestly sniffing the air at waist height as he shuffled towards John.
Maybe it isn't just me, thought John. Maybe there's a fever going around, making people get jumpy and hallucinate or something. Maybe I didn't really turn into an orc in a public restroom. God, wouldn't that be a relief?
John took Brian's arm as he approached and gently sat him down in a chair.
"Take it easy there. You look too hot -- let me get you a glass of water."
Brian grinned broadly at him as he spoke. When John brought the glass he took it and drained it in one go, then thumped it down on the table.
"So," he said, still beaming, "you do think I'm hot, do you?"
OK, thought John, what the hell? I know he's not gay, so why is he coming on to me? (But then, added a little voice, you weren't gay until a few days ago, and look what you've got up to since then.) He'd been fantasizing about this not long before, but now he was confronted with the reality it just felt... strange. Would it be wrong to do this when Brian wasn't thinking clearly? Then again, Brian was the one hitting on him. But... what about the orc thing? He was fine now, but what if that started kicking in?