by Dan Ackerman
“I’m not pouting. I’m angry.”
“Because…?”
“I don’t know.”
Arden offered him the bar of soap.
He took it and made a show of huffing and sighing while he washed.
“So, I don’t think you have plans, I made an appointment for us to go meet with Frakes tomorrow afternoon. He knows I’ve been trying to replace him anyway, so this won’t surprise him. I’m going to try to sell him on a, uh…six-month transition period for you to take over. I’ll agree to keep him on for a year after that, too, as a sort of…consultant to the Media Department.”
Oggie switched with Arden to stand beneath the water and rinse.
“Assuming you meant it about taking that position?”
“I did.”
“Perfect. I’m going to get new staff hired and trained, but that will…well, if I’m going in later like this, and if I want to train quality people, I’ll have to take longer than two weeks. I hope you don’t mind.”
“I guess not.”
“But I’ll still be home for dinner.”
Oggie glowered at him as he washed his hair.
“What?”
“I’m still mad.”
“Really mad?”
“I don’t know!” Oggie snapped. He immediately looked reticent. Hair still sudsy, he put his arms around Arden and dragged him close. “I don’t.”
Arden’s hair immediately got soaked. He held in the complaint. “Are we okay, Oggie?”
Begrudgingly, Oggie answered, “Yes.”
“Eden is okay, too. I needed someone to point that out.”
Oggie stayed quiet.
“I need you.”
Oggie snorted. He let go of Arden and went back to washing his hair.
“I need you and I’m sorry I didn’t do better. I will do better.”
“Great. Can’t wait to see how it goes.”
Arden touched Oggie’s arm. “I love you.”
The irritation and haughtiness on Oggie’s face softened. “I love you, too, shug.”
“I’m gonna go order breakfast.”
“Toast,” Oggie requested.
Arden stepped out of the shower. He had to find an extra towel for his hair. “You know, you play your cards right and uh…” What he’d wanted to say felt silly and presumptuous.
“And what? You’ll finally fuck me?” Oggie guessed.
“Well, that.”
“I’ll feel so privileged to have your cock in my ass, Your Eminence.”
“Absolutely not,” Arden said. “You’re going to fuck me into the mattress if we’re going to do anything.”
Oggie chuckled.
“You want anything other than toast?”
“Oh, just a big heaping helping of that ass.”
Arden grinned. “You know, with a mouth like that you’re never going to find a gentleman to marry you.”
Oggie poked his head out of the shower. “I thought my mouth was exactly why you were going to marry me.” He said in such an exactly right way, holding Arden’s gaze, that even disheveled from the water and blotchy from the heat of the shower, something in Arden quickened.
Arden tossed aside his towel and climbed back into the shower. He slid his arms around Oggie and kissed him. He’d have to skip breakfast, or eat on the go, or just plain be late, but he couldn’t go now.
Oggie twined around him.
They fumbled with each other, soap-slicked hands slid between each other’s legs, their mouths practically sealed together.
Oggie shoved him back against the wall, his fingers comfortably firm around Arden’s throat.
He fumbled his hand out of the shower and found the lube Arden kept in the counter drawers. “Turn around.”
Arden almost protested. He wanted to see Oggie, to keep kissing him.
Oggie bit his shoulder and slid slicked fingers inside of him. “Turn around.”
Arden whimpered. There was an art to his brutality.
“Go ahead, shug, I’ll make you scream,” he promised. He took his hands back and kissed Arden’s throat. “Okay?”
“Okay,” Arden managed. He turned without protest.
Oggie kissed the back of his neck. He wrapped an arm around Arden’s throat, wedging him between the shower wall and Oggie’s body. “Is this what you wanted?” he asked, finding an odd blend of menace and warmth.
“Yes.”
Oggie pushed inside of him, the movement deliberate and forceful.
Arden squeaked, mostly in surprise. He hadn’t meant to, and he hated that he’d done it.
“Too much?” Oggie asked.
“Been a while,” Arden answered, his cheeks warm.
Oggie kissed the back of his head. He moved more subtly this time.
Arden pressed back against him.
“Harder,” he asked after a few of those more careful movements. He kept asking until they were nothing but thrusts and grunts, one seamless thing jerking its way towards a quick and desperate climax.
And a blissful one, one that drained Arden of doubt for the moment. He breathed slowly after Oggie released him, his forehead against the wall.
How had he not made time for this?
Oggie sighed against his throat.
Arden twisted so he could see him again.
Oggie skimmed his thumb over Arden’s lips. He tilted up Arden’s chin and pushed aside Arden’s hair to reveal the places where he’d bitten him, checking for marks. “Everything okay, sugar?”
“Perfect.”
Oggie bit his lip. “I could have gone a little…a little harder. If you’d wanted.” Quickly, he added, “Or easier. Whatever you want.”
“We have to see.”
Oggie took the washcloth and started to wipe away what they’d spilled from Arden’s skin. He did it so gently that when he offered, “I’ll still fuck you into the mattress later if you want,” it took Arden by surprise.
He would never get to work at this point. “I’ll marry you. If you want.”
Oggie pulled back, a half-smile on his face. He tilted his head. His smile widened, soft and tentative.
Arden grinned. He raised his eyebrows. “Don’t pretend you weren’t serious.”
Oggie let out a chuckle, then had to cover his mouth. “Shug, really,” he said between giggles.
Arden’s smile only widened. He kissed Oggie, who couldn’t stop laughing enough to kiss him back. “I’m not saying right now…”
“No, of course not. I don’t even know if I like you anymore, I haven’t seen you in months. And this is definitely not how you’re going to propose to me, either,” Oggie sniffed. But he smiled while he said it, a broad, goofy smile. “Although I did like that little squeak…!”
Arden blushed.
“I’m not teasing!” Oggie insisted with a kiss. “Very becoming. Did you ever make that noise for Rhys?”
“Oh, let’s not do the jealous thing!” Arden insisted.
“Who says I’m jealous? Maybe I just need something to think about when you’re gone again all day,” Oggie said. “I bet watching him hate-fuck would really do something for me.”
“You might actually be a menace to society.”
Oggie beamed and climbed out of the shower.
Arden went to work with a piece of toast in his hand and his hair still damp. He also went with a settled sort of calm that he hadn’t felt in years if he’d ever felt it at all.
Eden wouldn’t fail.
It couldn’t. He and Oggie had a whole life to spend together. Darcy had to grow up and Rhys had to give his daughter everything he’d never had. Winslow needed peace in his final years.
The autarky would fail. The peers would disappear. The workers and Terrans would surely have the run of the station before Arden took his final breath.
Eden would thrive.
About the Author
Dan is an author and educator who has lived in Connecticut for their entire life. They received a degree in education and later
wrote their Master's thesis on representation of women in same-sex relationships in contemporary Spanish literature and cinema.
More from Dan Ackerman
What Everyone Deserves
2017 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention
"Although the story deal with some real 1950s issues – discrimination, homophobia, interracial couples and hate crimes – it did it in a way that perfectly suited the characters and the story." - Divine Magazine
In this 1950s period drama, Junius is a New York City fertility demon with a crush. Ever since falling from heaven he's been alone. Except for the mothers and children he watches over.
James Kelly Rosenburg, a black soldier with snowflakes in his hair, walks right into his life with a big problem. James Kelly, turned vampire during the war, is new to New York and its prohibition against vampire killing in city limits.
Junius offers to teach him to overcome his bloodthirsty instincts and live a proper Manhattan life. Their growing friendship leaves them both conflicted as they explore a city both welcoming and alienated by their kind.
That Doesn’t Belong Here
2018-2019 Rainbow Awards Honerable Mention
"I liked the ... atmosphere that he created, alongside the paranormal creatures that roam the street. I liked that he wrote characters I could emotionally care for. If Ackerman writes another LGBT fiction, I will give it a try for sure."
- Ami, The Blogger Girls
That Doesn't Belong Here begins when Levi and his friend Emily discover an impossible creature in an abandoned pick up. The thing is wounded, frightened and the two friends cannot leave him to the mercy of rubberneckers and tourists. This novel explores what it means to be a person, as the creature, Kato, begins to display not mere intelligence or friendliness but what can only be explained as humanity. The question of who we are allowed to love arises for Levi and Kato, as they are not just crossing the boundaries of gender or sexuality, but of species.
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Penumbra
About the Author
More from Dan Ackerman