by L. A. Ashton
Kaito made a mental note to feed Banshee directly before Cristian was to ever meet her.
Luna started to wiggle, and Cristian set her on the ground. She wandered off, tail curling in the air. Cristian sat on the foot of his bed and sighed, mood less chipper than his usual. Kaito looked at him—this beautiful man, legendary in his skill and profession, and wondered what he was doing. What he was expecting.
Cristian was a superstar who lived in Spain, and Kaito was…
“I must apologize again,” Cristian said, interrupting Kaito’s thoughts. “For being distrustful.”
Kaito cleared his throat and crossed the room, joining Cristian in his perch on the bed. “No apologies are necessary. I should have been clearer. Or less stupid.”
Cristian chuckled and shook his head. “Things are difficult over long distances. There are so many places for miscommunication.”
The shift in mood settled like cement in Kaito’s gut. He clasped his hands over his lap.
“I like you,” Cristian said. “I think you are very talented and handsome.”
Kaito looked at Cristian like he was deranged.
“Why do you look at me like that?”
Kaito glanced back forward. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Cristian touched Kaito’s leg, a gentle finger tracing circles over his khakis. “I think you do not see yourself how any other person sees you.” Cristian kept his eyes on the swirling motion of his hand. “I regret we cannot do things the normal way.”
The moment felt like both a beginning and an ending—a confirmation and a goodbye. Kaito braced himself for the internal drop and crash of his organs and endorphins. He’d been able to touch greatness—arguably, much more than touch. It should be enough. It’d have to be enough.
“I want to spend much more time with you,” Cristian said. “I think you underestimate how fond I am of your writing… It resounds within me. Someone who sees the world that way, someone with thoughts so beautiful… If only the sliver I’ve seen shines so brightly, I can’t help but want to know what the rest is like.”
When Cristian finally looked back to him, Kaito was dumb and gape-mouthed. “You’re serious,” Kaito said, a question as much as a statement.
“Of course, I’m serious.” Cristian touched his cheek. “Even now, I wish I was in that head seeing what you see, just as you see it.”
Kaito shook his head, mind spinning in tight circles. “I see exactly what everyone else does—”
“You don’t,” Cristian insisted. “No one sees anything exactly the same as another; that’s part of the beauty of being human.”
He’s serious. Kaito wanted to wrap the whole of his body around Cristian like a lovestruck python. He wanted to press their foreheads together and shake Cristian’s shoulders and tell him how difficult all of this was to parse because to him it was like living his most indulgent fantasy. Instead, he lifted one hand to press a thumb against Cristian’s forehead. “And I wish I was the one seeing the world the way you see it.”
Cristian smiled. “I can try to show you.” Kaito dropped his hand, as it was in danger of shaking. He wrung his fingers, and Cristian took a deep breath, as if working up to what he wanted to say. “I’m planning to stay in the United States for a while,” he finally started. “I wanted to take a vacation. I thought it might be nice if I had someone to travel with me—someone a little more conversational than Luna.”
Kaito stared at him. Doubt kept the words from permeating.
Cristian stared back. “What do you think?”
“I think you deserve a vacation,” he said.
Cristian shook his head, his smile blocking off a chuckle. “Thank you. That’s not what I meant.”
“I’m too insecure for subtleties,” Kaito reminded him.
This made Cristian laugh fully, eyes squeezing shut. “Okay, okay. I’d like you to vacation with me. We can’t do things the normal way, but we can still try. Get to know each other. Go from there.”
Kaito looked at his lap. “I’d love to. If you’re willing to take that risk.”
“What risk?”
“Spending all day every day with someone right away is…eye-opening. Not always in a great way.”
“It’ll be a crash course,” Cristian admitted, bringing his finger up to coerce Kaito’s chin upward. “But I’m okay with that.”
Kaito’s throat had gone dry, and he was close to trembling. He wanted to kiss him. “Me too,” he said.
Cristian leaned forward and pressed their lips together, forcing Kaito’s shudders to the surface. His mouth was soft and gentle, his hands barely resting over Kaito’s own. Waves of emotion rose in him over and over again, filling his lungs and throat until he worried he’d drown in it. His eyes prickled even beneath the veil of his eyelids; relief and desire and frantic joy warred within him. The tenderness of Cristian was too overwhelming—Kaito felt too much like an open wound, too sensitive. He didn’t want to quake and cry with relief. He didn’t want to be that guy, because even as he’d tried with all his might, he’d fallen too deep too fast.
He lifted his hands and tugged on Cristian’s shirt—urged him closer, kissed him harder.
Cristian followed the direction, the shape of his lips betraying his smile. Kaito pulled him until he was lying across the bed, Cristian’s arms caging his body. Cristian broke the kiss and smiled down at him. “Not shy now?”
Kaito’s eyes didn’t leave Cristian’s mouth. “It’s the libido again.” He yanked him back into a bruising kiss, hips rising off the bed as his body flushed hot with want. Cristian’s hands began to roam, freed by Kaito’s lack of inhibition.
The weight of Cristian’s body and his fingers slipping under Kaito’s shirt helped win the war; the trembling softness in him effused into trembling desire. Need burned under his skin, demanding impossible closeness for its satisfaction.
He slid his hands around Cristian’s waist, feeling the soft warmth of his skin beneath his fingertips. He ran his thumbs over the seams of his abs, tracking and graphing the strength of him. Kaito slipped just the tips of his thumbs past Cristian’s waistband—a suggestion.
Cristian purred and pushed their hips together. His length pressed into Kaito, dragging sensation over Kaito’s cock through the veil of fabric. Breath hissed into his mouth, his hips jolted.
Impatience made him shake. He shoved his hands under Cristian’s shirt and urged it upward. Planes of muscle stretched and moved beneath his palms, and Kaito desperately wanted to cover every inch with his mouth.
Cristian obeyed Kaito’s directions, pulling his shirt above his head and tossing it aside. But then he hovered for a moment, not returning to their kiss even when Kaito tugged at him. Cristian smiled and played at one of the buttons of Kaito’s shirt. He traced it—glanced at Kaito, back down again—and undid it. He looked back up.
Kaito wasn’t a masterpiece with his shirt off like Cristian, but if that was what he wanted…
Kaito nodded. Cristian smiled, and his fingers slid lower to undo the next. He worked far too slowly, appearing to enjoy how Kaito squirmed beneath him. When the final one was undone, he pushed both sides aside and tugged the undershirt from the tuck of Kaito’s pants. He dragged the fabric upward and gazed down at Kaito. His stomach was flat—void of the gorgeous lines etched into Cristian’s abdomen—and milky like he’d never seen the sun. His abs hadn’t, really—he wasn’t a beachgoer.
Cristian dipped down and began kissing him, waistband to collarbone. Chills erupted across Kaito’s body, and the already throbbing length in his pants became slick as precum slid around his cockhead.
While Kaito peeled off his button-down and undershirt, Cristian descended. He kissed the creases of Kaito’s abdomen as he went, and then around his belly button before moving to the waist of his pants. He pinched the button undone and dragged the zipper down as Kaito sank back against the mattress. When he began to pull the pants down, he looked up at Kaito and licked his lips.
&nbs
p; Kaito exhaled as if harassed, head falling back against the comforter. It was just as before; looking at Cristian and experiencing Cristian at the same time was almost an overload in and of itself. His pants were pulled off his hips—he lifted them to ease the process—and then the boxers were tugged away as well. Kaito glanced down just in time to see Cristian kiss the head of his cock, plush, pink lips fitting against a plush, pink head.
Kaito tried to take a few even breaths—he couldn’t lose his composure yet; that’d be embarrassing. Cristian pressed down until the head of Kaito’s cock forced his lips to part and then took him back into his throat.
Kaito groaned—composure was a fantasy concept; it was no longer attainable. His back arched and his toes curled as Cristian’s mouth slid down to his base. His tongue was hot and pliable, slipping around Kaito in different directions as he moved up and down the shaft. He pulled away, swirling his tongue around the tip before finally allowing the cock to bob free.
He crawled back over Kaito, encasing Kaito’s form with all his limbs. It was suddenly distressing to be entirely naked beneath him, Cristian’s pants still on. Kaito touched at the button to Cristian’s pants. He understood.
Cristian undid his trousers and shed them and his briefs at the same time. Kaito committed the view to memory as Cristian resituated over him. He looked like an actual Greek statue, save for the hefty erection suspended between them. His muscles were cut like marble, his shoulders strong and his legs sculpted. Cristian dipped lower, speaking in soft tones above him: “Do you…? Is this…?”
“You on top,” Kaito blurted, both hating his lack of eloquence and glad to be done with it.
Cristian’s eyes smiled before his mouth, which followed suit. His face was softer now—not as confident or coy as was his usual. “Okay,” he said. He leaned in and kissed him, bringing their bodies close. Their lengths bumped, and Kaito gasped against his mouth.
Kaito reached down, touching them both in the same movement. Cristian gasped—just a thin exhale against Kaito’s neck. Wrapping his hand around them, Kaito stroked them together in slow, languid movements. Cristian shivered above him and took his bottom lip into a tender kiss. It felt extremely intimate, holding and pressing mirrored arousal together, the tangible feeling of reciprocated desire.
He let go, not wanting to challenge what felt like a constantly perilous state. Cristian lifted his head, took a few deep breaths, and stood. He moved to rifle through his luggage, and returned with a condom and a bottle of lube. He sank to his knees next to the bed, gently guiding Kaito’s thighs wider.
It was Kaito’s turn to obey, and he did. Even as he became anxious and squeamish at the idea of Cristian seeing him so…close? bared? there? But that fear was replaced with shock when Cristian leaned forward and dragged his tongue over Kaito’s entrance.
Kaito almost shrieked, and he might have if it hadn’t been for the wild thrill of pleasure that jolted from the touch. Cristian spread his legs wider and moved forward, pressing his tongue against the puckered indentation before sucking very lightly at the flesh. Kaito moaned, his hips squirming away from Cristian’s mouth.
Cristian pulled away. “You don’t like it?” His smile suggested he knew otherwise.
“It’s— It’s just—”
“Yes,” Cristian agreed, pouring lube over his fingers. “But I like doing it. If you like it.”
More shudders. Kaito didn’t have time to think about it; Cristian was delicately pressing a finger to his rim. The first finger went in smoothly, Kaito’s body opening up as greedily as it always did. He tried not to gasp too much at the pressure, tried not to push harder against Cristian’s hand in a plea for more. Something told him he failed. Cristian soon slid back out and pressed forward with two fingers.
That was the stretch Kaito ached for. His rim adjusted around the new girth as Cristian slid in—slowly, way too slowly—and the pressure inside him made his lungs feel empty. Cristian waited as Kaito caught his breath, then went back to moving. He teased at him, curled his fingers, and then scissored them as he dragged outward, stretching him just enough to make the prickling heat spread from his rim to his chest. Eventually, he added a third, just long enough to make sure Kaito was ready, and finally he withdrew.
“Ready?” Cristian asked.
Kaito was having trouble catching his breath. “You,” he breathed. “Let me—” He moved to sit up, and Cristian pushed him back down.
“Not necessary,” he said. His accent sounded thicker—or maybe the roughness of his voice just made it smoky. He rolled the condom on and dumped lube over himself, sliding his hand over it twice for an even spread. He pulled a pillow toward them and patted Kaito’s hips. “Lift?”
Kaito lifted them, and Cristian slid the pillow underneath.
“This okay?”
Kaito nodded, his body shaking. It could have been the cold of suddenly not having Cristian as near him, or more likely the chill that followed emptiness. But it was also nerves, because Cristian was leaning back over him, and their hips were squared and aligned, and everything was very close and very real.
Cristian touched his cheek. “We can stop.”
“It’s not that,” Kaito assured him with a too-vicious shake of his head. “I just—” He swallowed, then reached down to touch Cristian’s length. “Please,” he said.
Cristian kissed him and guided his cock to Kaito’s entrance. His head fit against the rim, wet with lube and somehow still warm. They both took a few steadying breaths, and then Cristian pushed in. Kaito spread for him, slick and pliable from lube and prep work. But he was still so much. He groaned as the head slipped inside, and he stretched for the unyielding girth of Cristian’s shaft.
Cristian gave him time to adjust, his own chest heaving as he waited. When Kaito was ready, he pressed onto Cristian and sank lower around him. Cristian groaned and brought his hips forward.
The more space Cristian occupied inside him, the less Kaito could breathe. The friction sent hot sparks from his rim all the way to his fingers, and the pressure pushed at him from the inside out. He groaned, desperate for the cold intake of air and even more so for friction.
Cristian began moving, slowly working into a rhythm. Kaito’s head swam and buzzed with it all, each sweep of hips sending a shock of pleasure through him.
Kaito covered his mouth to stifle the sounds threatening his throat. Cristian reached up—very tentatively—and pulled the hand away. His gaze said “Please?” Kaito nodded. Cristian pulled away, and when he slid back forward, Kaito moaned. He was driven by compulsion to block the noises, but he clutched the comforter instead. Cristian leaned forward far enough to brush his lips over Kaito’s cheek, then kissed the corner of his mouth.
He began again, forcing his hips in and out in a mounting rhythm. The space behind Kaito’s eyes was swirling black static. Cristian swung his hips lower and grazed his prostate, rendering Kaito blind and groaning.
“Ah?” Cristian breathed, delight in his voice. “Is that it?”
He repeated the motion exactly and Kaito almost shouted. The building pleasure around his rim and in his stomach jolted higher, teasing Kaito’s body with the idea of release.
“Kaito.” Cristian reached forward with one hand, fingers brushing against Kaito’s untouched length. “You feel so good.” He wrapped his palm around Kaito’s shaft, and Kaito moaned. He was wet and warm from the relentless spill of precum, so when Cristian began pumping his hand, the action almost sent Kaito right over the edge.
He arched into the touch and felt the shift of his body around Cristian’s cock. Cristian kept moving, kept the pace and rhythm of his hips. The glancing against Kaito’s prostate, the sliding of Cristian’s hand, the friction of his shaft on his opening—Kaito’s limbs filled with telltale static, and the tangle of tension in his belly threatened to unravel.
The pleasure was almost unbearable. Kaito spiked high—every single nerve in his body bowstring taut, his lungs incapable of drawing air, his eyes glassy
and hot with barely contained ecstasy. One more thrust and the perfect slide of a thumb over the head of his cock broke him open. Kaito’s hips snapped and he groaned. The intensity made him spasm—hot tears spilled over his eyes as cum spilled over his stomach. His rim flexed around Cristian’s unforgiving girth, and with each squeeze, a shock of pleasure rippled through his limbs.
Cristian’s breathing went ragged, and the dutiful rhythm of his hips began to falter. He had been holding out, and now that Kaito was shattering around him, he seemed ready to collapse inside.
His thumb pushed Kaito’s hair away from his face, and right as Kaito’s spasms began to taper off, he came, gasping Kaito’s name and bucking his hips.
Kaito felt a new pang of pleasure rush through him, and he relished each strained breath and rock of Cristian’s hips. Cristian wound down, almost crumpling right there on top of Kaito. Finally, he exhaled and propped himself higher on his elbow. His forehead was dotted with sweat, the faint sheen somehow adding to his beauty.
“Ready?” he asked.
Kaito nodded and took a deep breath in before releasing it in a rush. Cristian pulled out with the exhale, and Kaito shivered at the uncomfortable emptiness.
“I’ll be right back,” Cristian said, accent still heavy. He disappeared around a corner, and judging by the sound of running water, he was in the bathroom. Kaito crawled up to the head of the bed and peeled the immensely fluffy comforter down. He cleaned up his stomach with a tissue before slipping underneath.
The faintest jingle of Luna’s tag on her collar announced she’d entered the room, and soon she was leaping onto the bed. She sniffed Kaito’s face, and he narrowed his eyes.
“You weren’t watching us, were you?”
She stared back at him with unwavering green eyes.
“Don’t be weird,” he whispered.
She began to knead the bed beside him, and Cristian returned. When he saw the two of them, he paused, buck naked and grinning. “I’m tempted to take a picture,” he said.
Kaito looked him up and down. “Me too.”
Cristian chuckled as he closed the distance between him and the bed. He hoisted Luna away as he crawled back in and set her on his chest. She went back to kneading.