Holiday Cheer from Andrew Grey and Amy Lane

’Twas the Night Before

’Twas the Night Before

TRUE TO his word, Hal disappeared for a few hours the next day, right after their time at the pool. Pierce used the time to talk with his new employers and to take a look at the projects he’d be starting in March. He readily admitted to himself that the job would be a lot more fun than his old one—he seemed to have landed on his feet there, and another layer of the depression that had dogged him when he’d arrived at the condo peeled away.

I’m a provider again. I can even provide for… a college student. Or a massage therapy student. Or a dog. Or whatever.

Oh, the things he didn’t want to think about.

He spent two hours writing a research-and-development plan for something he wasn’t supposed to do for two months, just to avoid the thing he might have to do in slightly more than a week.

Hal showed up in the late afternoon, teeth chattering and lips almost blue with cold.

Pierce greeted him, holding his fingers and rubbing. “What in the hell?”

“Power’s off at the condo,” Hal muttered. “Wish I’d known—had to throw out all the frozen food.”

Pierce frowned. “Wait. Power’s off? It’s not off here?”

Hal turned away, jaw locked grimly. “My parents had it turned off in their unit. Told the manager it wasn’t supposed to be occupied.”

Pierce gaped. “Uh….”

Hal shrugged. “Yes, they knew this was where I was. Yes, it was a tactic to get me to cave. But when I told the manager I was here, he recognized me, assumed it was a mistake, and told me he’d have it back on tomorrow.”

Pierce shivered and wrapped his arm around Hal’s shoulders, wanting to warm him up from the inside out. “Did you get all your shopping done?” he asked hopefully.

“They canceled my credit cards,” Hal muttered glumly. “But I’ve got a bank account they can’t touch. I’ll go into town tomorrow and get cash.”

Oh hells. “Oh baby,” Pierce murmured, holding him tighter. “I’m so sorry.”

Hal shook his head—but sank into Pierce’s hold. “I’m not,” he said fiercely. “If they wanted to show me who they were, they couldn’t have picked a better way to do it.”

“But… but… what will you do… you know. After?” After I leave. After I ride off into the sunset to be with my family when you’ve just realized you don’t have family to speak of.

“I have power until New Year’s. I’ve got money. I’ve got a car. Don’t worry, Pierce, I won’t be homeless.” Hal pulled away, not looking at him, and started hunting around the kitchen. “Did you cook?”

“We bought a roast—I threw in some onion soup and some carrots and some stewed tomatoes. It wasn’t much.”

“You cooked!”

Pierce had to smile, although he wasn’t sure he could breathe. “Sure. We’ll call it cooking.”

Hal turned to him, face alight. “For me? You cooked for me ?”

Come home with me. I’ll cook for you forever.

Pierce almost said it out loud, which was ludicrous because he only had four or five things, tops, that he could make without embarrassment. One of them was ham. “Yeah,” he choked. “Of course. You’d tell me, right?”

“Tell you what?”

Hal poked the contents of the slow cooker with the wooden spoon next to it and breathed in rapturously. “The meat’s falling apart. Can I eat? It looks great. Let’s eat!”

“If you were going to end up homeless. If you had nowhere to go. You’d tell me. You’d say, ‘Hey, can I have some help here, ’cause we’re friends and lovers and I know you don’t want me to be alone and homeless and alone.’”

Hal looked over his shoulder. “You’d tell me , right? If you were going back to Sacramento to be alone and not homeless but still alone.”

“It’s not the same thing,” Pierce rasped. He could see himself clearly, in his little house with the big yard, with no Cynthia, working until the wee hours of the night, until his body knotted up and he could barely move, all to avoid the sound of his house when there was nobody there.

Hal left the roast alone to kiss his cheek. “Sure it is,” he said softly. “But I’ve got more than enough to rent an apartment and live on my own, so don’t worry about it. Let’s eat.”

Wabbit season.

Duck season.

Lonely season.

Fuck season.

Wanting season.

Suck it season.

Crying season.

Denying season.

Pierce was beginning to see why that bit always ended in “Bang!”

HAL’S WHIMPERS woke him up at 4:00 a.m.…

“Wha—?”

“Sorry.” Even in the dark, Pierce could hear his teeth chattering. “Bad dream.”

Pierce rolled over and pulled him close. He’d put on boxers after lovemaking that night, but Hal was still bare and naked, vulnerable under their little blanket fort. Pierce wrapped his arms around his shoulders and tried to be his human shield.

“Shh. It’s okay, baby. Don’t worry. Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

Except you, Pierce, you cowardly coward who cowers.

Hal didn’t say it—maybe he didn’t even think it. But it was there, drifting between Pierce’s ears, even as Hal settled down and fell asleep.

THE WEEK passed so quickly. Aqua, rubdowns, walks that grew longer and longer. Pierce had always assumed that a vacation with nothing to do would be a death sentence of boredom—but not with Hal. Sitting in front of the television was a treat. Surfing the net or working was a treat.

Just hearing him breathe in the same room was a treat.

And after his mysterious trips to clean out the condo—and how much damage could he have done in two days? Pierce was starting to be seriously concerned—greeting Hal as he walked in the doorway was like Christmas and his birthday rolled into one.

Except on Christmas, Pierce would be gone, and Hal would be here, in his condo. With parents who could turn the heat off at any moment.

December 22, Pierce got a text from Sasha:

You’re coming, right? Have you booked a car?

Pierce looked at the text and grimaced. Yes, he should probably try to book a car ahead of time.

Not yet.

Why not!

Busy.

With your friend?

Pierce sighed.

I don’t want to leave him.

Invite him to come.

It’s complicated.

Coming over for Christmas? So easy. I’m making ham. Feeds everybody.

Oh Jesus. Pierce’s sister. Best. Human being. Ever.

If I invite him for Christmas, I’ll invite him forever.

There was a pause, and Pierce wondered if he’d even mentioned he was sleeping with the neighbor.

THAT kind of friend?

Yes.

Good enough for forever?

Yes.

He stared at the word. Felt compelled to add:

He’s young. He’s just starting out. He’s getting his massage certificate. What would he do with me, Sasha? I’m grumpy and divorced.

And still that incriminating silence.

And his whole life is here. And mine is in Sacramento.

He stared at the phone and willed his sister to text something.

And it’s been a shitty year. Why would he follow me 3000 miles when there’s other people here? I probably still can’t drive. I don’t want him to pity me.

And… nothing.

What if he said no?

He’d be almost as stupid as you are.

Sasha!

I’ll book the car for twelve. If you cancel it for whatever reason, let me know.

He’s TWENTY-THREE.

I love you, Pierce, but Jesus, you worry too much.

He was in the middle of typing “I love you too,” when she texted again.

I don’t feel like arguing either. If you show up here heartbroken I’ll need my strength. TTYL

And that was that.

PIERCE WOKE up the morning of the twenty-third feeling the sort of despair in his stomach he hadn’t felt since the hospital, except reversed.

In the hospital it had been Oh shit, I’m in the hospital, and I’m trapped here until they say I can go home, and then I’m with Cynthia and I’m trapped there, and then I’m home, and that’s worse.

Now, the day before Christmas Eve, it was Oh shit. I’m going to have a wonderful day with someone I love, and then I’m going to have to leave forever because….

Why again?

Because grown men who knew how the world worked didn’t fall in love in a month? In a week? In a day?

In the first hour, when I was pissed and he was hungover, and he helped me first and came on to me second?

“Hey,” Hal said at his side.

Pierce rolled over to smile at him, holding the sheet up in front of his mouth because he’d caught himself snoring once or twice the night before and his breath could give dragons a run for their money.

“Hey,” he said back. “Happy Christmas Adam.”

Hal grinned and pulled the sheet away. “The day before Eve,” he murmured, then touched lips with him.

Pierce gave up on protecting Hal and opened his mouth, all the things he wanted to say shorting out like a neon sign in a windstorm.

The kiss went long and deep, and Pierce moaned, needing.

Hal pulled away and smiled shyly. “So, you need to take a hot shower—”

“No workout?”

He shook his head. “No. No workout. Today is better than a workout. I’m going to get my massage table from upstairs—”

“You have a massage table?” Well, it was a good thing Pierce had chickened out, wasn’t it!

“Yeah. I thought you knew that—you asked me what I needed. Anyway. I’m going to bring it down here and heat up the oils.” He grinned as he swung out of bed. “That’s going to be my Christmas present to you,” he said, proud of himself. “A full-body massage, and then we’ll make Christmas cookies—”

Pierce frowned. “You bought ingredients?” Hal had gone shopping the day before, while Pierce had been answering some questions with the new bosses online.

“I did.” Hal grinned smugly. “And I bought a ham and some asparagus too, so we’ll make cookies and then cook Christmas dinner and then….”

He grinned at Pierce with a predatory quirk to his eyebrows.

“What?” Pierce asked, actually breathless.

“We’ll see how far you can stretch,” Hal hummed. He twisted in the bed, leaned forward, and placed his lips right up against Pierce’s ear. “I want inside you so bad.”

Pierce’s eyes honest to God rolled back in his head, and his chest tightened with the need to breathe.

“You want it too,” Hal said, those amber eyes lit up from inside with lust and hellfire and unholy desire.

“So bad,” Pierce moaned breathily.

“Merry Christmas to us.”

Pierce nodded, completely helpless, his heart full of words that meant forever, his brain full of that light from Hal’s smile.

THE MASSAGE table didn’t seem like much—it came in folded, on wheels, with a little latch to hold it closed. Pierce got out of the shower and watched as Hal set up the table and put one sheet down on the bottom.

“I’m supposed to do this with two sheets,” Hal said, sounding very professional. “Because not everybody wants to be all naked and stuff in front of someone who’s just going to rub their muscles.” He glanced up at Pierce and winked. “But I’ve seen all you got, so we only have to use it if you get cold. The one on the bottom is to sop up the extra oil so you don’t slide around the table like a pancake on a griddle.”

Heat rose up from the balls of Pierce’s feet to flush across his neck. “I, uh, take it I’m the only one who gets the optional top sheet.”

Hal laughed. “Yeah. I mean, people make a big deal about massage therapists and happy endings, but the fact is, getting a full-body massage is really a whole big… thing. A lot of people practically go into subspace when they’re getting a body rub—muscles in their necks and back that haven’t released in years suddenly don’t hurt anymore. It’s pretty euphoric.”

“No sex necessary,” Pierce said—he’d known this before, although he’d never gotten a massage himself.

“Oh, it’s necessary,” Hal purred, waggling his eyebrows. “But that’s just because I want you. Really fucking bad.”

“Again,” Pierce said softly.

“It’s not getting any less urgent,” Hal agreed calmly. He swallowed and bit his lip shyly. “It’s just this… this massage thing. It’s different. It’s not sex. I… it’s something I do really well, and I wanted to… to give it to you.”

Pierce got it. “It’s my Christmas present,” he repeated, delighted.

Hal nodded. “Exactly! I couldn’t….” And now his bit lip seemed vulnerable. “I couldn’t find anything good,” he said finally. “Everything I found was an ‘us’ thing. I needed a ‘you’ thing. This thing—I mean, there’s sex tonight, but it’s ten in the morning. This thing is all about you.”

Pierce studied his bare and bony feet for a moment. “Jesus, Harold. I just got you a teddy bear.”

“And Legos,” Hal said softly. “And you.”

Pierce opened his mouth—not sure of what he’d say next—but Hal called him over. “If I was with a client, I’d leave the room, because, you know, privacy and professional. But here—give me the towel, I’ll put it down where your crotch is supposed to go. Now lie flat, facedown—yeah, face in the face cradle when you get settled.”

Pierce complied, taking his time because Hal was right. They did know each other—he wasn’t self-conscious about how long it took to get situated, to place his limbs so they wouldn’t hurt, to be in a position where touching would be okay.

“Now I’m going to put some music in—I’m going to use movie soundtracks, because most of the time those don’t drive people bugshit, okay?”

Pierce had to smile. “Okay.” He put his face in the face thing, and Hal adjusted it so it didn’t feel like his neck was going to drop off, and then….

Transported was the only word.

Hal was right—it wasn’t sexual, even though Pierce and Hal were sexual creatures to each other.

But it was amazing . Hal’s cheerful, kind patter and his hard, no-bullshit hands just sort of… pushed all of the tension, all of the pain out of Pierce’s body. They talked, like they always did. Telling stories, bullshitting, zinging one-liners, but the whole time Hal’s hands, his careful, caring, marvelous hands were ridding Pierce of every angry toxin that had knotted his muscles from his toes to his tingling scalp. Toward the end, the conversation died, and Pierce was only vaguely aware of himself, floating, the euphoria of pain and stress release suspending his busy, doubting brain, putting a hold on all the words, the obstacles Pierce tended to put in his own way.

There was only peace.

“Here you go,” Hal said, sitting him up. He must have gone into the other room for clothes, but Pierce didn’t remember him going. “I’m going to put on your sleep shorts and your T-shirt. If you feel like dressing up later, that’s fine, but until you’re a little less floaty-pants, that’ll do.”

“Floaty-pants?” Pierce asked, bemused.

“Yeah. Dude—that euphoria thing is strong within you. I’ve got over 300 hours, and I don’t know if I’ve ever massaged anyone that tense.” He looked down, worried. “I… I wish I’d done it sooner, but you didn’t seem that excited about the idea.”

Pierce was too stoned on holistic pain relief to lie. About anything. “I didn’t want to take advantage of you,” he said baldly. “Because you’re young. And pretty. And you could be spending your time with hipsters and cute college students and you spent a month making a bitter old guy feel like sunshine.”

Hal paused in the middle of slipping his shorts on. “Like sunshine? No, don’t get up—I’m going to put your sandals on or you’re going to kill yourself on the tile.”

“My feet are slippery,” Pierce said wisely. Hal had spent twenty minutes on his arches and between his toes and… mmm….

“Yes, they are. I made you feel like sunshine?”

“Like the light from the sea through the sliding glass door,” Pierce said, gesturing vaguely to the view. Hal had pulled back the blinds that morning, and the whole world glowed gold. “I hated it when I got here. But you make my heart feel like that. And I’m like the storm. All grim clouds. And how do I ask for more sunshine?” Pierce smiled benevolently. “I don’t know how I’ll even see the sun again when I can’t see you.”

Hal blinked hard and stood Pierce up on his sandals while wiping his eyes off on his shoulder. “That’s…. God, Pierce. You’re really saying these things to me. Do you even know what’s coming out of your mouth?”

“Speaking of my mouth, are there cookies?”

Hal’s laugh sounded a little bit hysterical. “Just sit here, big man, and I’m going to clean up and make you such amazing Christmas cookies, I’ll ruin you for Christmas forever unless I’m there to cook for you.”

“That would be amazing,” Pierce said benevolently. “The having you to cook for me. And the Christmas. And the forever. I’ll have to ask you sometime.”

“About what?” Hal whispered, wrapping his arm around Pierce’s waist.

“About forever.”

“You do that,” Hal said. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Pierce pouted. “But I’m leaving tomorrow. I’ll have to text. Texting’s no good. Can’t smell you then. You smell like sunshine and cookies.”

Hal sat him down in one of the kitchen chairs and cupped his cheeks. “You ask me whenever you’re ready. Don’t worry, Pierce. I’ll always be there.” And then he bent forward and took Pierce’s mouth. For a moment the sunshine went away, and they were gliding over big fluffy clouds in a starry sky.

Not storm clouds at all.

For a moment Pierce hoped Hal could see him just like that.

And then Hal was gone, doing things with the massage table and washing his hands and starting work in the kitchen, and Pierce was left staring out into space, dreaming about a starry night above the clouds while lost in the smell of sunshine.

And cookies.

IT TOOK him about an hour to come down, and that was only because the sugar high from all the cookies gave him the kind of jolt needed to cut through all those lovely endorphins.

Finally, though, by the time dinner was done, he was completely in the moment. His body felt loose and functional, and his mind was thrilled to be following Hal’s perky banter through ham and potatoes to biting the heads off the reindeer-shaped cookies and letting the headless bodies thrash around spouting pink frosting blood.

And then pelting each other with M&M’s they were supposed to be using as decorations.

When they’d stopped laughing—and Hal had swept up the candy—they retreated to the living room to watch Christmas movies.

Pierce stared at Love Actually thoughtfully. “Weird.”

“What?” Hal was a cuddler—he pushed aggressively into Pierce’s arms, and Pierce wrapped himself around Hal’s shoulders.

“It’s… it’s hard to know it’s Christmas here. I mean, the stores were all decked out—and the Christmas tree helps.” On one of Hal’s last trips, he’d strung lights along the valance for the blinds, and that helped too.

“It’s not cold enough,” Hal said moodily. “Not like places that snow. I hate Florida.”

“No—I mean, it’s in the sixties, so it’s a little warm. It’s….” Pierce grimaced, feeling foolish because it had taken him a month to figure this out. “It’s the sun. It’s in the wrong place. And it feels like it can’t be Christmas when the sun is in the wrong place.”

Hal squinted up at him. “Are you still on your massage high?”

Oh God—how embarrassing. “No! It’s… it’s just odd. That’s all. Odd.”

“Sure. Whatever. Besides—tomorrow’s not Christmas. It’s Christmas Eve.”

Pierce grunted. It felt more like D-day. “You know, you could just come with me to my sis—”

“Wabbit season,” Hal snapped.

It was the first time they’d had to use the personal safeword that day.

“It is not,” Pierce argued. “It is not Wabbit Season. Why would going to my sister’s be—”

“Wabbit season,” Hal insisted, scowling up at him. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

Pierce could have pointed out the whole car situation, but he didn’t. This felt bigger than having to cancel a Lyft an hour before it showed up at his door.

He squeezed Hal—hard. “You had better not disappear from my life tomorrow, you idiot duck,” he muttered.

“I promise, no boom.”

Pierce sat up like he’d been stung. “Was there? Was there ever going to be a boom?”

Hal rolled his eyes. “Cool your jets, panic man. I was going to drink myself to death—and I told you how that ended. No. There was not going to be a boom.”

Pierce settled back down into the couch, but now his hands were shaking and clammy, and his pleasant Christmas doze felt shattered.

Hal sighed, took his hand, and kissed it. “Shh… it’s just this night, baby. Just you and me and this movie and Christmas. Watch the movie. Hold me tight. You’ll feel the Christmas thing—I promise. And the sun is exactly where it’s supposed to be. I swear.”

Pierce nodded, soothed by his words, by his soft kiss on the palm of Pierce’s hand—and by the sweet movie that both of them quoted as it played.

“Did you hope?” Hal asked toward the middle of the movie.

“Hope for what?”

“That the guy from Walking Dead would find a guy instead of a girl?”

Pierce chuckled. “Well he found Daryl!”

“I meant in this movie.”

Pierce thought about it. “No,” he answered at last. “I was too busy hoping the girl with the brother didn’t answer the phone.”

Hal grunted. “Why?”

“Because the people you love should never get in the way of the people you love.”

Hal was quiet for a moment, lying sideways with his head on Pierce’s lap. “You could be the best person I’ve ever met,” he said.

Pierce stroked his hair back from his face, his heart so full in that moment he couldn’t hear the incessant crashing of the surf. “Not even close—shh… it’s the part with the Dido song….”

They watched the movie, entranced, and then Hal stood up from the couch and offered him a hand up. Pierce stood, and Hal cupped his cheeks, giving him a brief kiss.

“Go undress,” he said, giving orders naturally. “Pull down the duvet and lie on your side. I’ve got an idea.”

Pierce shuddered, thinking he might know what this particular idea entailed. If he was right, it was a good idea, and he wanted to be a part of it.

He walked his newly loosened body into the bedroom, stripping out of his sleep shorts, boxers, and T-shirt, and unlike getting the massage, he suddenly felt very naked, and very sexual.

And in spite of the scars on his body, the silver strands of hair on his head, the lines in the corners of his green eyes, he didn’t feel old and wrecked, as he had when he’d arrived here.

He felt young and desirable and in desperate need of whatever Hal wanted to dish out tonight.

He lay down on the bed on his side—not facing the end table, like Hal probably expected, but facing the center of the bed.

Hal finished turning off the lights and locking up and walked into the bedroom shucking clothes, dropping them in his usual pile next to the bed. He looked up and caught Pierce’s eyes on him.

“What?”

“I was remembering that first night. In the dark. How you didn’t even want to talk about it.”

“I was afraid,” Hal told him quietly, crawling to the middle of the bed so he could talk to Pierce eye to eye. “I wanted you so bad—so bad. But you were so… so angry. Closed off. Hurt. I thought maybe if we just kept it us, in the dark, you’d let it happen.”

Pierce closed his eyes and savored how far they’d come. “I don’t want you in the dark,” he said. “I want… I want to walk down the street with you. I want to introduce you to everyone I know. I—”

Hal put two fingers on his lips. “I want you,” he whispered. “All of you. Now roll over and turn off the light.”

Pierce did, staying on his side and facing away from Hal’s amber eyes.

Hal’s hands—his magic hands—skated over Pierce’s shoulders, his arms, his side, and Hal pressed up against Pierce’s back, aggressively naked. The thought of him—all of him—lined up against Pierce’s bare back sent a shiver of recognition, of arousal zinging through Pierce’s body.

Hal pulled the longish hair from Pierce’s ear and started talking dirty. “You like my hands?”

“Yes.”

“Where do you want them?”

“Everywhere.”

Hal bit his earlobe softly. “Be specific.”

“Nipples,” Pierce said, aware that his were tingling, needy, wanting attention in the worst way.

His was rewarded with a soft scraping of Hal’s nails against the ridge of flesh, and he whined.

“Not enough?” Hal tormented.

“Pinch!”

“Sure.”

But he was so greedy for the pinch, it arced through his body, electricity seeking all his erogenous zones, and he cried out and thrust his hips back and forth, immediately aching and needy.

Without prompting he propped his knee against the bed, opening his groin and his back end up for all the most exciting play he ever needed.

“Want something else?” Hal asked, laughing.

“Touch me,” Pierce begged, shameless. “All the places.”

“Sure.”

Oh, he was wicked, this boy. He touched Pierce’s flanks, the outside of his thighs, the very edge of Pierce’s crease.

“You’re teasing me!” Pierce accused, whimpering and not caring.

“You’re being vague,” Hal said, laughing. “Now be specific—”

“Stroke my c… inner thighs.” Pierce loved the tantalizing touches—he would ask for them.

“Ooh—I like how you think.”

Hal palmed his inner thighs, both of them, sliding the sides of his hand down the juncture of his body, feeding his wants while keeping his needs just hungry enough.

“My balls,” Pierce panted. “My taint….”

“Teasing yourself!” Hal purred, thrusting up against Pierce’s buttock, his cock leaving a patch of wet against Pierce’s skin.

“You’re doing such a good job for me!” Pierce moaned. Hal cupped his balls, scooting down a little on the bed to get access and leverage, and Pierce moaned again, breathily.

“You want more teasing?” Hal urged. “What else do you want?”

“Lick me,” Pierce begged, unafraid. This was Hal—he wouldn’t leave Pierce hanging. Hal moved all the way down, leaving a string of kisses down Pierce’s spine. When he got to Pierce’s backside, Pierce’s propped knee still holding him open and accessible, he parted Pierce’s cheeks and dove in.

And Pierce almost cried.

“It’s so good,” he panted, forgetting how this thing was supposed to work. He reached down to stroke his cock, and Hal punished him by stopping with the tongue action.

“But… but….”

“That’s going to make it over too soon,” Hal told him. “Just for that, roll over on your stomach.”

Pierce didn’t hesitate—but he did have to adjust himself to make sure he didn’t squash his dick against the bed and tweak it forever.

Hal got between his legs, spread his cheeks, and stuck two slick fingers inside. Pierce bucked into the intrusion, driving them deeper.

“More,” he begged. “Are you happy?”

Hal kept thrusting them and pulling back, and Pierce’s body ached with need, hot and cold sweat popping out on his brow, on his back. Oh God , he needed the whole reaming act. He pulled his knees carefully under him, feeling some stiffness, some pulling on muscles, but thanks to the work he’d done this month, thanks to the massage earlier in the day, no pain.

And he sat there, spread and vulnerable, and begged the most intimate of acts from a kid he hadn’t known a month ago but couldn’t imagine not knowing tomorrow.

“Cocky, aren’t ya?” Hal asked, thrusting his fingers in harder and faster. A cool slick drizzled down the fingers, and Hal spread it around. Pierce groaned, welcoming the stretch, the invasion, wanting more.

“You’re the one with the cock,” Pierce taunted back. “Are you going to do something with it?”

Hal bit his asscheek delicately, the tiny needles of pain driving Pierce higher.

“You think you’re ready?” Hal asked, voice muffled in Pierce’s flesh.

“I am,” Pierce begged. “I am. I so am.”

Hal moved from the vee of his legs. “On your side again,” he ordered, then changed his voice. “It’s good you can do this for a little bit now, but I don’t want to take you like this—it might rip some things that just got stretched, okay?”

“Deal,” Pierce mumbled, rolling to his side and propping his knee up again. “Now are you gonna— yes ….”

There was something irrevocable about someone’s cock in your ass.

Hal’s cock was sized generously, but it was more than that. It was flesh inside your flesh, it was giving somebody a pass to your body and hoping they respected you enough to not hurt you.

Hal’s body could have hurt, but it didn’t. It filled Pierce, stretching him more, destroying his guards, the shelters Pierce had hidden in, the barriers he’d erected, swearing that he and he alone could exist behind those walls.

Hal battered them down and took their place, and Pierce cried out, not in pain, not even in pleasure, although he was aroused beyond endurance, but in surrender.

Still, Hal kept thrusting, kept fucking , and Pierce cried out again, gibbering, begging, needing more, and more, and more—

“ Now ,” Hal panted. “ Now you can grab your cock! C’mon, Pierce, stroke it. Squeeze it. Thumb on the top, dig it into the pee slit—that’s right… tighten for me, baby. C’mon… you’re almost there… oh God… you’re so warm. So hot. So good. Come, baby… come for me…. Come! ”

Pierce shouted, the orgasm contracting all his muscles, even the ones wrapped around Hal’s cock. His cock spurted, his hand growing hot and sticky. Hal gave a strangled cry behind him, and Pierce felt it, Hal’s spend, scalding a path inside.

Claimed. Marked. Wanted.

Pierce moaned softly as come trickled from his backside, his entire body trembling with reawakened arousal—and more.

He belonged to somebody. Somebody in his life wanted him, had staked a claim, body and soul.

The thought was annihilating—and it spiked his desire like nothing else in the world.

Hal’s turn to moan, and he bit the juncture of Pierce’s neck and shoulder.

“Again,” Hal whispered.

“Oh God yes.”

“Again,” Hal chanted, snapping his hips so they bounced off Pierce’s backside. His cock had hardened already, gotten, if anything, fatter and more demanding.

“Please.”

“ Again! ”

And Hal fucked him hard, without mercy, without hesitation.

Again.

Christmas Eve Morning

PIERCE STARED at the note, feeling again the deliciousness of his used body.

The amazing vibrancy of his reawakened heart.

He’d packed the day before, and he didn’t even stop to shower before pulling on his clothes.

He wasn’t sure what he was going to say, but he wanted to be wearing Hal’s sex on his skin and inside his body when he said it. He barely stopped to splash water on his face and brush his teeth.

He knew which condo belonged to Hal’s parents—had seen Hal disappear into it those first days—and it had always loomed, tall and unapproachable, the stairwell daunting to his wounded limbs.

The walk wasn’t easy—he used his cane and the rail—but every step felt like he was ascending a tower, maybe to battle for the prince inside.

He didn’t even wait to catch his breath before banging on the door.

He heard sounds inside—scurrying—the slamming of drawers and a muffled “Oh dammit!” before the door opened.

Hal stared at him, surprised and joyous.

His eyes were red-rimmed, like he’d been crying.

“No,” Pierce snapped, rubbing under Hal’s eyes with a gentle thumb.

“No?”

“No, I’m not going to talk to you before I leave. I’m going to take you with me. Come with me. Don’t stay here.” Pierce took a deep breath, and before it could hit him that he’d said the words, he kept going. “And it’s not pity. I mean, it is, but for me. Without you. Without you I’d feel so sorry for myself I’d curl up and die. I almost did, and that was before I knew you. But now that I know you—now that”—he shivered—“now that I feel you inside me, forget about it. I can’t go on. I can’t go home. I can’t… can’t just pretend that it’s Christmas unless you’re there with me. Stay with me. We’ll visit my sister—she’ll feed you ham. We’ll drive to Sacramento, and you can be a massage therapist there. I’ll take you to the mountains and the ocean, where the sun’s in the right place.”

He paused, and Hal just gaped at him, mouth open, eyes stunned.

Pierce’s voice broke. “Just stay with me. I love you. And it’s stupid and idealistic, and I don’t care. We can be that couple, the one who was never supposed to meet but who stayed together forever. I just know—” He took a deep shuddering breath and wiped his cheeks on his shoulders. “—I just know my life won’t be good—not the job or the house or the friends or the family—none of it will be good without you in it.”

He took another deep breath—or sob, actually—and wiped his eyes again, getting a good look at Hal.

Who was smiling and crying at once.

“What?” Pierce demanded. “You’re just standing there—what? C’mon, say some—”

Hal opened the door and showed the two neatly packed suitcases next to him.

“Do you think I was going to let you go?” he asked. “I was gonna stalk you to Orlando and make you love me.”

Pierce laughed, shaking, and opened his arms. Hal went—oh, so easily. He fit, like he should be there all the times forever.

“Achievement unlocked,” he rasped, burying his face in Hal’s hair and taking comfort from his smell. “Stalking unnecessary. Come home with me.”

“Yeah.”

“Be a massage therapist.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll love you so hard, nobody’ll care that you’re a kid and I’m a grown-up.”

“You’re not a grown-up,” Hal said against his chest. “You’re a unicorn.”

“Unicorns are the best,” Pierce agreed.

“We should know.”

He’d be a unicorn for the rest of his life—forever—if it meant Hal could be there next to him, snarking, believing, playing, for every Christmas—and every day thereafter.

IT TOOK them less than an hour to be ready to leave.

Pierce locked up the condo regretfully—it had been a good home for a month. It had, in fact, been witness to some of the happiest moments of his life.

“Where’re we going again?” Hal asked, checking the Lego Christmas tree carefully, surrounded in its bed of teddy bears and brightly wrapped gifts.

“Orlando,” Pierce said, holding up his phone. “I’ve got the directions here, because I can’t remember for shit.”

Hal nodded, like he got that. “And afterward?”

Pierce dared him with his eyes. “North Carolina,” he said, wondering if this would get him left on the curb. “To tell your parents to forward your mail to Sacramento.”

Hal jerked back. “That’s a terrible idea.”

“Indeed it is. Gonna fight me on it?”

“Mm….” Hal gnawed that lush lower lip. “No. No—it shall be terrible and uncomfortable and irritate the crap out of them. They’ll loathe you.”

“Excellent. I like this plan!”

“And after that?” Hal prodded.

“New York,” Pierce said grandly. “I’ve never been. I don’t have to be home until February. Let’s enjoy this shit.”

A dreamy smile took over Hal’s face. “Really? Adventures?”

“Two knights riding a CR-V unicorn,” Pierce told him grandly.

“Two unicorns with opposable thumbs,” Hal corrected.

“We’ll conquer the world,” Pierce decided, hopping in the car and getting this road on the show.

He slammed the door with a satisfying thunk , and Hal hopped in and hit the ignition.

“As long as in the end we end up in the same stable.” Hal’s eyes were big and limpid amber, and Pierce got it.

“Yeah, unicorn,” he said gently, squeezing Hal’s knee. “There’s home at the end of the rainbow. I promise.”

Hal’s face lit up, like he’d needed to hear it one more time. “Then into the great wide yonder it is!” He gestured grandly into the unexpectedly bright, crisp day, and hit the ignition.

They had relatives to visit and cookies to bake and grand adventures before them.

And a life together at the end of the quest.

There had never been happier unicorns.

* Stay tuned for the adventures of Hal and Pierce, continued on Amy’s blog.