“Gross!” squealed Zach.
Josh’s eyes flew open and he let out a silent sigh as he saw Zach standing over him holding the wet washcloth.
“Now you made it harder to clean up. I swear it was neater with condoms,” said Zach with a slight whine.
Josh gave the smaller boy a tight smile, took the cloth from him and started wiping off the drying semen. Once he’d finished, he took it into the bathroom, finished cleaning himself and dropped the damp cloth into the clothes hamper. Coming back into the bedroom, he crawled into bed and spooned Zach. As he drifted off to sleep, he wondered what sex would be like with someone without all of Zach’s issues.
>
Darrin was on edge while Emma went through the last of his edits. The grant proposal they had been working on for months was due in a few days and they were doing the final revisions. This was the semester that Darrin had his mid-point review to let him know if he was on track for tenure, and this grant would be an important component of a successful review. They had already completed the work on a smaller grant they’d gotten right after Darrin arrived, but this one was much larger and from a more prominent funding source. They’d been through it together numerous times, but it was largely Dr. Ruck’s reputation they were using to attain the grants. With her history of top quality work, she was a collaborator who was eagerly sought after. Because of this, her opinion was very important to Darrin, and critical to the success of the application. Finally her eyes lifted from the page.
“I don’t have any suggestions, Darrin,” said Emma, “Everything looks in order to me. I think we’re ready to submit.”
“That’s excellent! I’m excited about the work that we could do with this grant.”
Emma chuckled, “This should be enough to get you tenure, if you get your ass busy and write the journal articles.”
“No problems on that end,” said Darrin, “I already have one in the pipeline from the first grant and there should be two or three from this one.”
“I agree. I think you’re in good shape for your review. How about your teaching and committee work?” asked Dr. Ruck.
“They are all good, at least as far as I can tell. My student reviews are better than the department average and I’m on several committees.” Darrin chuckled and continued “And I’m the advisor for the Gay-Straight Alliance on campus. But I think that’s going to be a permanent assignment.”
Emma chuckled heartily and nodded, “Probably so! Well if you want me to look over your paperwork, I’d be happy to do that.” The two continued for several more minutes. Completely unaware that Kevin Boorman was standing in the hallway, quietly listening into their conversation.
>
Mitch walked into the house with bags hanging from every finger. Trent’s week was up and he had managed to not slip and say fuck through the whole time. Mitch knew there were some close calls where it had almost slipped out, especially when Trent had to deal with Josh. But Mitch wasn’t going to call him on that. Besides, he was getting tired of seeing the same pair of ragged boxers through the holes in Trent’s jeans day after day. He was going to get Trent clothes anyway, and this way Mitch got at least a week without the barrage of ‘fucks’. It was a win-win situation.
As he walked into the living room, the other three were sitting quietly around a roaring fire that had the room toasty and warm. Darrin was working on his review paperwork and the other two were both doing homework, at least that’s what he thought they were doing. Throwing the purchases on the table, Mitch turned to Trent with a smile.
“Alright Trent. You won the bet. Here’re the clothes you won.”
Trent almost bounced as he went to see the contents of the bags. It was soon evident that Mitch had bought far more than they agreed to in their bet. Josh’s mouth twisted into a frown, but he resisted any other outward sighs of displeasure at what was taking place. Josh would never admit it, but he was not that happy to be displaced as the sole child of the pair. Darrin had already told him they were celebrating Trent’s birthday and that he was expected to at least be present. But they never said he had to like it, or do more than tolerate Trent.
Trent quickly inventoried the clothing, happy with the piles of clothes that Mitch had selected. He glanced around, then grabbed the bags and sat them beside the exterior door for him to take when he went later to the guesthouse. Returning, he sat beside the fire and glanced around the room, looking carefully from face to face.
Finally he burst out. “They ain’t presents. I won ’em. So don’t bitch at me about it.”
Mitch threw up his hands in defense. “No. You’re right. You won ’em.”
Darrin picked up the conversation, “But we do celebrate birthdays around here, and today is yours. So if you’ll tolerate us for a few minutes, we thought we’d have some cake. We got chocolate, hope you like it.”
“Don’t get all fuck’n buddy buddy on me. I don’t plan on staying here long,” said Trent.
Josh started to retort, felt Darrin squeeze the back of his neck, and settled back into his chair without sarcastic comment. Mitch walked into the kitchen to retrieve the cake as Darrin tried to make small talk with Trent. Trent glanced up and grinned as Mitch walked back with the cake, causing Darrin to look too.
“Goddamn it, Mitch! I thought you’d tossed the last of those damn candles!” yelled Darrin as Mitch walked up with a life sized wax cock flaming on top of Trent’s cake. Walking to the table, Mitch looked at Darrin with a completely innocent smile.
“This is the last one. Don’t blow a gasket. Something special for Trent’s first birthday on the ranch,” said Mitch.
“And last one,” said Trent.
“Good!” said Josh under his breath.
Darrin gave Josh a scolding look and then turned back to the flaming dick on their table. Realizing Trent had a tiny smirk of a smile, he decided maybe something this over the top would help him relax. Motioning to Mitch, Darrin watched as the cake was put in front of Trent, who promptly blew out the flame. Smiling slightly, Trent carefully removed the candle and put it beside his plate. Darrin quickly divided up the cake and the four men had soon devoured the entire thing.
When Trent stood to leave, Darrin noticed he was taking the candle with him. “Trent, what do you want with that?”
Trent turned the white object in his hand, appearing to look at it closely. Looking up at Darrin without a trace of humor he began “It looked like a good fit for my ass. I thought it’d be a great toy to use during my jackoff sessions.”
Josh scowled at Trent and then let out an explosion of air in frustration at Trent’s adolescent humor. Mitch was holding in a burst of laughter by only the thinnest of strands and refused to meet Darrin’s eyes. Darrin took a deep breath and simply held out his hand to Trent. After a few seconds, Trent dropped the candle into Darrin’s hand and turned to leave. With a slight smile at Mitch, he grabbed his bags and left the house.
Josh turned to them. “I can’t believe you let him get away with talking to you like that!”