{I'm officially going to ignore Helen from now on - every time she posts something, I get a story idea, and I don't have *time*, I tells ya. . .
God help me, I think my Knox Overstreet is channelling one of my Dan Rydells.}
"Marks"
by MonaR.
monaram@yahoo.com
"I think - " The words were somewhat breathless, and also interrupted before Neil could completely finish his thought.
Knox stopped. "What?"
"I was going to say, I think you've got it."
"Oh." There was a lengthy pause, and then Knox said, "Did you want me to stop, then?"
Neil grinned at him. "I didn't say *that*. I just said, I think you've got it. We've been coming out here for three nights, now, and I can see a definite improvement in your kissing technique." He paused. "I'm sure Chris will be impressed."
"But you don't want me to stop?"
Neil shook his head.
"You're not cold?"
Nose and cheeks flushed red, Neil said, "I'm freezing. Aren't you?"
"I hadn't really thought about it." Knox stopped, looked around, and shivered. "Yeah, I guess so. A little."
"It's really cold out here." Neil grinned again, even more broadly. "That still doesn't mean that I want you to stop."
"But maybe you want me to do something to warm you up?"
"I wasn't hinting, if that's what you think." Neil laughed out loud. "What, for instance?"
"I don't know." Knox pretended to think, for a moment. "I could build a fire."
"Do you have matches?"
"No."
"Then you can't build a fire, unless you know how to rub two sticks together - and no, don't even *think* of going there," Neil added, quickly.
"How do you know what I was going to say?"
"You had that look in your eye."
"What look?"
"The look that Charlie always gets before he's about to come out with something particularly filthy."
"Like suggesting I practice kissing?"
"Something like that."
"I'm kind of glad he suggested it."
"Yeah? Me, too." Neil winced, and sat up. "Except I think I've got a rock sticking in my back."
"Really?" Neil shifted a little, and Knox picked up the rock that had been underneath him. "Why didn't you say something before?"
"I was distracted, I guess. I didn't really feel it through my coat."
Knox reached for the flashlight they'd brought and switched it on. "Turn around and lift up your shirt."
Neil looked at him with some alarm. "Excuse me?"
Knox frowned. "I want to see if you've got a bruise."
"I don't, believe me."
"But - "
"Knox, it's okay. It's just a little sore." He sighed. "It's late. We should probably go back to the school before somebody finds out that we're gone."
"Yeah, we should," Knox agreed. He dropped the flashlight and pushed Neil back down on his back, where he'd been lying before, and kissed him. "Do you think someone would notice if I gave you a hickey?"
Neil laughed. "I don't know. I guess it depends."
"On what?"
"Lots of things."
"Like what?"
"Well - " Neil thought about it for a moment. "On where it is, for one thing."
"Say, on your neck."
"Back or front?"
"Kind of on the side."
"Maybe. Depends on whether it's above the collar or not. And on the size."
Knox measured out a small size with his fingers. "About - this big." He touched a spot on Neil's neck, low beneath his left ear.
"That's not very big. And how dark it is."
"Not very dark - not yet."
Slow realization dawned on Neil. "Knox?"
"Uh-huh?"
"Did you give me a hickey?"
"Yeah."
"Really?"
Nodding his head, Knox said, "Yeah. Is that a problem?"
"Can you un-do it?"
"No."
"Then, well - yeah. It's a problem. I have a hickey. You gave me a hickey."
"I didn't plan on it."
"I hope not."
"I didn't. It just - happened. Like a lot of things." He pressed his mouth against Neil's, and pushed his tongue inside, running over teeth and tongue. They were stretched out full-length on Neil's coat, which was spread out on the cave floor.
When Neil next came up for air, he said, "We have really got to stop doing this, Knox."
"Why?"
"Well - I'm almost sure that making out with one of my classmates is not exactly what my parents had in mind when they sent me to Welton for a 'well-rounded education'."
Knox grinned at him. "No?"
"No," Neil said, shaking his head. "In fact, I'm pretty sure that if my father saw us here together right this moment, he'd have a heart attack *and* a stroke, all the while simultaneously screaming at me, telling me how disappointed he is in me, and how I never think of anyone except myself." He sighed. "You know, I'm starting to think he's right."
"He's not right," Knox said, firmly. "I don't think my father would even notice."
"Why?"
Knox shrugged. "He's never really paid that much attention to me. I've got two brothers - one older, one younger. In that sort of scenario, the middle child just sort of squeaks through."
"Huh." Neil ran his hands absently through Knox's hair. "I wonder what's worse - to have a father who doesn't particularly care about what you do, or one who wants to run your life all the time?"
They were silent for a moment, thinking. Knox shifted, so that he was on his side, and Neil moved with him, wrapping his arms around the other boy, and pressing his nose against Knox's throat.
A shiver wracked Knox's body. "God, you *are* cold." He didn't move, however, just started to rub some warmth into Neil's arms. After a moment, he unfastened his coat and wrapped it around Neil.
"Oh, you're warm," Neil sighed. "Why are you so warm?"
"I can't imagine," Knox said. "It just sort of happened." He kissed Neil again, and bit his lips.
The gentle kissing quickly turned passionate, and Neil found himself on his back again, this time wrapped in the folds of Knox's coat, the other boy on top of him, a knee shoved hard between his thighs, rubbing against him. He didn't even react when Knox moved his lips away from his mouth and placed them over his throat, nibbling, just lay there, eyes closed, passive. Then a thought struck him, and he pushed at Knox to stop. "No - wait."
Knox looked at him, puzzled. "What?"
"No more hickeys," Neil said, sternly. "I'm starting to think that you're part vampire."
"I'm not," Knox laughed. "And I won't do it again, I promise."
"Swear?"
"Cross my heart. No more hickeys - at least, not where someone is likely to notice."
"Why don't I feel reassured?"
"So do you want me to - "
Before he could finish his question, Neil raised his head up and kissed him, full on the mouth. "Here's the deal: when I want you to stop kissing me, I'll say, 'Knox, stop kissing me.' Okay?"
"Okay."
"Okay." When nothing else happened, Neil said, in a tone of studied casualness, "So, you were doing a really good job of warming me up, there."
"Really?"
"Uh-huh. Especially - " Neil lifted his hips and rubbed them against Knox's leg, still pressed in between his thighs. "Especially that."
With a laboured moan, Knox said, "I think we're getting a little beyond just practicing kissing, Neil."
"Yeah, I think you're right." Neil lifted the shirt-tails of Knox's shirt, shoved up his undershirt with one hand, and touched him, cold hands pressed against a very warm stomach. A shiver like butterfly wings coursed through his skin, and Neil absorbed it. He pushed Knox up so that he was sitting on his heels, and brought his lips up against that warm skin. Knox moaned in his throat.
"What are you doing to me?" he asked.
"I have no idea," Neil said. He undid a couple of buttons, to give access to more warm skin. "Does it feel good?"
"So good," Knox said. His eyes were closed, and he could barely speak.
"Do you want me to stop?"
"When I want you to stop - ah, Neil, Jesus - I'll say, 'Neil - stop.'" Breath harsh in his throat, "God, Neil, don't stop."
Neil didn't stop. He continued to press kisses against Knox's stomach, pushing them higher and higher, until the cloth of his undershirt would no longer give way, hitched under his arms and bound there by his coat. Frustrated, he pulled Knox down again, and kissed him on the mouth, hands roaming down his body this time, till they reached the waistband of his pants, where he stopped, unable and unwilling to move them any further. It was somehow easier that they still were mostly dressed - it felt easier, and better, and just *good*.
Knox shifted a little, so that he could undo a few buttons on Neil's shirt, just to touch him. He shrugged out of his coat but kept it around his shoulders, to provide some warmth and protection against the chill night air. Finally, he collapsed against Neil and kissed him, rubbing their lower bodies together. Neil's arms were tight around his back, hands pressed into the skin, like he was trying to cement them together by sheer will.
Neil felt the heat rising in his body, and it was getting harder to breathe, something that had nothing and everything to do with the fact that Knox was on top of him. He wouldn't stop moving, not even for a moment, and Neil couldn't make himself say "stop" even though some part of him thought that he should, because he wanted it *so* badly. It felt so good.
Knox's teeth bit into his chest, above the collar of his undershirt, and the last thing that Neil thought was 'you said no more hickeys', and he was holding Knox so hard that he knew he was leaving bruises, but he didn't care, he couldn't. He gasped for air, and waited for the feeling to return to his extremities.
It took a few minutes for either one of them to speak. Finally, Knox said, "We're a mess."
Neil chuckled. "Thought I'd lost you."
"Are you kidding me?" Knox raised his head. "Where would I go?"
"I didn't mean that - I meant - " Raising his head, he waited for Knox to move off of him, and reached for the flashlight. When he flicked it on, he saw Knox's pale face, and assumed that his friend was mirroring the look on his own face: shock, a little fear, a little lingering desire. Seeing him like that struck something deep inside Neil, something that had been hidden in the protective darkness. "Wow," Neil said, swallowing hard.
"Yeah."
"I didn't plan on that happening. I mean - when I suggested that we come out here, I didn't - "
Knox stopped him. "I know. I mean, I didn't think that you had."
"This is really - weird."
"Yeah."
"We should go back."
"Neil, we're a mess."
Neil turned the light on himself, and realized that his pants were indeed a mess: dirt and dust and a damp stain on the front that was still soaking through. He felt himself flushing red, hotter than could be blamed on the cold air. "We've got to go back. We'll just - hide everything." He shut his eyes when he realized what he'd said, and how it sounded. "You know what I mean."
"Neil - "
Neil was up on his feet, brushing himself off and straightening himself up, re-buttoning his shirt, tucking the tail ends into his pants. "I wonder how late it is?"
Knox, who was also on his feet, looked at his watch. "It's only twelve-thirty."
"That's not too bad. Maybe nobody knows we're gone, yet."
"Neil - " Knox held his arm, and kept him from leaving the cave. "Don't be like this."
"Like what?"
"Like nothing just happened." He pulled Neil's unrelenting body against his, and held him there. "It *did* just happen."
After a moment, Neil hugged him back, tight, just for a moment. "We have to go," he said, again.
"Okay." They walked to the mouth of the cave. There was moonlight, but it was mostly hidden in the thick growth of trees. "Neil?"
"Yeah?"
"Can we come back, sometime?"
In the darkness, Neil smiled.
The End
MonaR.