First Flight (18 page)

Tanner’s amusement disappeared. “Oh. Right, is everything okay?”

“More or less. Kevin came over yesterday and, uh, he ended up getting arrested. It’s a long story. Is it all right if we take off for today?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. If you’d be willing to come in and cover for Stacy tomorrow that would be best for everyone.”

“Sure, I can do that, not a problem. Thanks, Tanner. I appreciate this.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just be sure that the cops know I’m in line to kick his ass.”

Jesse laughed. “I don’t think they’ll approve of that, somehow, but I’ll tell them. You’re after my dad, just so you know. Although if you ask nicely, he might be willing to take turns with you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. See you later, Jesse.”

“Later,” Jesse said, and hung up.

“Jesse?” Chris was frowning, his eyes still closed as he felt around. When he ran into Jesse’s leg, the frown faded away. “Jesse.”

“Hey.” Jesse set the phone down and settled down beside Chris once more. “G’morning, if you’re awake.”

“No,” Chris said. “Work today?”

“No. We have to talk to the police and stuff today, so I was just asking Tanner if we could stay home. He said yes.”

“What’s
stuff?
” He opened his eyes, enough to see Jesse’s face. “Food?” Chris wouldn’t have minded going to work, but the thought of being able to stay beside Jesse all day made him feel warm again.

“Stuff is, yeah, food. And Bright-tail, and I don’t know what else. Painting the garage, probably.” Jesse thought about that. It would mean explaining
fag
to Chris, but it would also mean working together. And paint was notoriously messy, which meant they’d need to get clean. Painting the garage might be just fine, after all.

“Painting the garage? Hm. Kissing too? I missed having lips.”

“I’m sure we can fit kissing into the schedule, today,” Jesse said, reaching over and ruffling Chris’s hair. “Yeah? I missed your lips too.”

“You did? Show me.” Chris pulled at the hem of Jesse’s shirt, moving his head over and bumping his nose against Jesse’s. “Now, please. Want.”

And who was he to say no to Christopher? Jesse kissed him, expecting the warm reciprocation. He didn’t quite expect Chris to push and pull at him, urging him over onto his back. “Chris?”

“Want,” Chris said, again, as he slithered over on top of Jesse. “
Want
, Jesse. Want you
naked
. Want to taste you, please?”

“Sure, okay,” Jesse said, sliding his hands under Chris’s pajama pants. Oh, yes, he’d missed more than just Chris’s lips; could hardly wait to be pressed up against a naked, willing Chris. “But you’re kind of in my way. And also not-naked.”

“I know,” he said, and then he kissed Jesse again instead of moving. Jesse’s hands moved over his skin, squeezing, rubbing. He pressed Jesse down into the mattress. “Want.”

The plaintive word served only to make him harder, and Jesse went from holding to pushing. “Move, then, so I can get you—yeah, there we go,” he said, shoving Chris’s pants down.

“You too,” Chris said, tugging at the tie of Jesse’s pants. “Now.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jesse said, but he was smiling as he wriggled the soft fabric out of their way. “Come here.”

Chris hummed into the kiss, his back bowing as he rubbed himself against Jesse. It was good, with Jesse warm and soft and hard all at once under him. “Not enough,” he mumbled, as Jesse gently bit the edge of his jaw, “more? Jesse, I think I need—
we
need to have more.”

“More?” Jesse was all for
more
, but he wasn’t sure what Chris had in mind. The last thing either of them needed was a misunderstanding, and a flash of guilt wracked him as he remembered the kiss under the tree.

“More.” Chris sat up and pushed Jesse’s shirt out of the way so he could
touch
. “Inside, it says
join
. Like it says
eggs are good
and
give Jesse things
.”

“Join?”

“Bodies,” Chris said, then leaned over and kissed him. “Can we? Do humans do that?”

“God,
yes
,” Jesse said, afterward, as soon as he understood what Chris was really asking for, “just gotta be sure Mom and Dad aren’t home, okay?” He thought he might have risked it even if they were, just because Chris wanted it. Wanted
him
.

“Both left. I heard them.” Chris ran his hands over Jesse’s chest again. “Now?”

Jesse pressed a hand to Chris’s side. “Yeah, sure, now’s fine. But we need to get our pants off and I need to go get a couple of things, okay?”

“Oh-
kay
,” Chris said, moving off of Jesse. He kicked his pants off, then curled up in the corner of the bed to watch the other young man. “Hurry.”

“I’ll be there in a second,” Jesse said, pushing his own pajamas off of his feet. He sat up and peeled off his shirt, then got up and went over to the dresser. There they were, in the back, under socks missing their matches and some old shorts he hated: a little bottle and a couple of blue-and-white foil packets. He grabbed all three and carried them back to the bed. “Okay, so, you lay down here, okay?”

Chris nodded and stretched out in the middle of the bed, his gaze on the things in Jesse’s hands. “What do you have?”

Jesse looked down, feeling weirdly nervous. “Uh, it says Bioinnovations Super-Slick Personal Lubricant,” he read off. “It’s for making you slippery. And, um, these are condoms.” He held them up.

“Okay. What do we need those for?” He remembered Jesse offering to find a condom, the night that he’d
gone down
. He hadn’t asked, Jesse hadn’t explained, and then he’d been a bird, so he still didn’t know what they were.

“For making us slippery,” Jesse said, kneeling beside him, “and to make cleaning up easier and faster.”

“Okay.” He reached over and ran his hand up Jesse’s near leg, loving the feel of his skin. “Can we now?”

Jesse leaned down and kissed him. “Yeah, we can. Hold still, okay?” He smiled at Chris and put his hand on his hip.

“Yes.” Chris said, but he rearranged the pillows so he could look down the length of his body. It was so good to have it back, even if his feet were dumb again. At least he had thumbs and Jesse to make up for it. “Now what?”

“Now I’m going to put some of this on you, like this.” He popped the top on the lube and dribbled some across his fingers, then smeared it with his thumb before he stroked it over Chris’s erection.

“Oh, it
is
slippery. And kind of cold,” Chris said, even as he pushed up into Jesse’s grasp. “But it’s nice.”

“Sorry,” he said. Jesse opened one of the condoms and held it up. “And now this goes on you, like this.”

“It’s green.” Chris watched, amused, as Jesse rolled the thin membrane down his cock. “It makes me look funny.”

“I know.” He smiled at him, puddled more lube in his hand, and slicked it over the rubber. After a few passes, he set the bottle aside and swung his right leg over Chris’s hips. “And now, it’s time to do this.”

“Okay,” Chris said, his curiosity replaced by a concerned frown as Jesse reached down behind himself and got hold of Chris’s cock. He lowered his body, then moved his hand before trying to settle down again. “What are you doing?”

“I’m just trying to….” Jesse bit his lip and adjusted his position again, then pressed himself down, against the head of Chris’s cock. “Ah, there.” He waited, resisting the twin desires to rise and fall, as his body got used to Chris’s size.

“Oh, that’s not—are you sure this is right?” Chris said, his frown and his concern deepening as he watched Jesse’s face.

“It’s exactly right,” he said, pushing himself down a bit before stilling again. “God, it is
so
right.”

The slick close heat of Jesse’s body was better than his mouth, better than just sliding up against one another. It made him feel hot all over, made him need to move. “
Want
, Jesse, want more, okay?”

“Ah, hey, not so fast,” Jesse said, rising up as Chris moved under him, into him. “I know, I know it’s hard to wait, but I really need you to. It’s been way too long.”

“I will try,” Chris said, earnestly, his fingers passing lightly over Jesse’s skin. “I like that you’re kind of fuzzy. Been too long?”

“Thanks.” Jesse slipped down again, a little farther than he had before. “Mm, yeah, can’t remember the last time I did this. Don’t
want
to remember. It’s not important,” he said, then considered Chris’s face. “Heh, I’m fuzzy? I’m scratchy, too. You’re not, maybe because you’re an adult raven?” He did his best to ignore the bizarre element of his words.

“Maybe,” Chris said, reaching up and touching Jesse’s stubble. He’d never thought about it before, mostly because he didn’t really care. “You feel nice all over.”

“Yeah?” Jesse caught Chris’s hand and kissed his palm. “So do you.”

Eventually, after plenty of kisses and more sweet silliness, Jesse moved off of Chris.

“Oh, are we done, now?” How disappointing. Chris decided that since it wasn’t
quite
as nice as the things they’d done before, there wasn’t any reason to do it again. Well, unless Jesse wanted to, anyhow.

“Not even close,” Jesse said, tugging gently at his shoulder. “I just wanna trade places with you, okay? Let me lay down, there.”

“Oh! Okay.” In that case, maybe it would get even better. He nodded and the two of them got rearranged. “Do you need one of these?” Chris pointed at the thin green sheath.

He wedged a folded pillow into the small of his back. “No, not right now. I just need you to put some more of this on your dick there and, uh, fuck me. Please,” Jesse said, holding the little bottle out.

“Fuck you?” Chris took the lube, carefully, looking it over before he opened it. “How much do I need?”

“Yeah. Just enough so you’re nice and slippery, but not so much that you’re dripping all over.”

“I don’t know how,” Chris said, his face set as he concentrated on squeezing the cool bluish stuff into his hand. He closed the lube again and thought about what he knew of the word. “It’s not a nice word, and it’s a rude way of saying something about sex, so we don’t say it when we don’t want to make people mad.”

Jesse watched as Chris’s hand moved over the rubber. “Yeah, fucking
can
be a rude way of saying having sex, but it can also just mean that somebody
really
wants to do it. Like me, right now.”

“Words are a lot of trouble,” he said, his hands on his hips. “I’m slippery, now.”

“I know, so let’s forget about them,” Jesse said as he pulled his knees up, reaching down between them to hold himself open. “Come here, okay?”

“
That’s
where—I know you said it
was
, but….” Chris tilted his head, looking down at Jesse. “Are you
sure?
Are you sure this is right?”

Jesse nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure. It’s okay, I promise. Just go ahead, but not too fast at first.”

“If you say so.” He shuffled closer, then closer, then closer still. “You aren’t moving. How do you stay so far away?” Chris grumbled and finally worked out how to get where he wanted to be. “There!”

“Yeah, right there,” Jesse said, letting his legs relax and touching Chris’s chest. “Remember how we were moving a minute ago?”

“Yes, like this.” Chris lifted himself up, then pushed into Jesse again. “I like it, but….”

“Right. But what? Not enough for you?”

“No. More? Could we, could I move more?” He shifted backward, then forward again as Jesse hummed below him.

He curved his spine and lifted his hips, biting his lip as Chris slipped a little deeper. “Oh, yeah, you can move. God, Chris, go for it,
please
.”

“Yes!” A solemn nod and Chris let his body have its way. He was lost, for a minute or two, delighting in the motion and the way Jesse felt under him. Then the sounds that Jesse was making began to filter through and Chris stilled, touching Jesse’s face. “Jesse? Am I hurting you? Are you going to
break?
”

“No,
no
, don’t—God, you
stopped!
Huh?” Jesse forced himself to pay attention to Chris’s worried face. “What’s the matter?”

“I did stop,” he said, nodding at Jesse. “The sounds you were making, I didn’t know if you were hurt or maybe breaking.”

“Oh! Oh, no, it’s okay.” Jesse turned his head and kissed Chris’s hand. It hadn’t occurred to him that his obvious pleasure wouldn’t be. “No, baby, it’s good.
You
are good, God, so good, Chris. You feel so good and you’re making me feel amazing, I promise.”

“Okay,” Chris said, leaning down and kissing him. “So I can keep going?”

“Please,” Jesse kissed him back, quick little pecks between each word, “please, please,
please
, Chris.”

“Yes,” he said, and began to move once more. That—the closeness of joining—
that
was what he had waited for. He loved the way Jesse touched him, held him; loved the heat that surrounded him.

“Y’feel so good, Chris,” Jesse said, stroking himself, “’M almost there. Don’t stop, okay? So good, just don’t stop.”

“Won’t,” Chris said, though the newly familiar tension was beginning to build within him. If it built too far, he might have to. It felt nice, though, and the way Jesse was talking to him was just adding to it.

“God,
God
, so close, so good,” Jesse arched his back, tightened his legs, “I’m gonna, God I’m gonna—
Chris!
”

“Want!” Chris could
feel
it, the thing inside him that was ready to snap but wasn’t quite
there
, if he just kept moving maybe it would. “Jesse, Jesse, it’s….”

“C’mon,” Jesse panted, a last tiny shiver slipping over him as Chris thrust into him, “come for me.” He rose to meet him every time, touching his arms, his face, kept encouraging him.

Chris cried out as the bright pleasure flared white behind his eyelids, as he curled up and went still for a long moment.

Jesse petted Chris’s hair, feeling stupidly content, until he heard Chris make a funny sound. “Chris?”

He pulled free of Jesse’ body, then wriggled around until he was lying beside the other man. Chris wiped sweat from his face, sniffed again, and heaved a shuddery sigh. “We joined bodies,” he said, quietly.