Space, Man

by Sharon Maria Bidwell

  “On earth, most people choose a partner of the opposite sex. You should have that freedom of choice as much as anyone should, but until you’ve spent some time here on earth, I don’t feel you can choose. You’ve nothing to base the decision on. I’m afraid that my preferences have influenced you.”

  “Is that all that worries you?” Mani asked. “Then you should understand that on my world there are so many males to females that we are not allowed to mate physically with them. We do not share sex. Many fear it will lead to violence, squabbles over the females, and inefficient pairings would further diminish our race. It has been this way for so many centuries that it feels normal to us, yet if I had known I could quench my need and passion in the arms of a friend, I would have turned to another male, ages ago. You do not have the say in what I should think and feel. What if it’s too late and I have already given you my heart?”

  Alex hesitated. He hadn’t thought of that. His gaze slid left and right, searching for some way to deny what he could see in Mani’s eyes. Slowly, he moved to sit on the bed, aware those intense violet eyes followed his every move.

  “Alex, I feel you are more worried about your heart than mine, but you have nothing to fear. I won’t hurt you.”

  One of those long, slim hands linked into his. Alex stared at it for several moments. “You... You’ll leave,” he finally managed to stutter out. “No matter what we feel, one day you’ll leave. You’ll return home. You’ll...”

  “I’m never going home.”

  Alex looked up in surprise. “What?”

  “When we leave, we leave for good. We go out into the universe and we journey until we find a new home or die alone. For us, a home can be somewhere... or someone.” Those eyes flashed and sparkled. Mani lifted his other hand and laid it against Alex’s chest over his heart. The movement caused the blanket to slip off one shoulder, revealing a long line of skin the colour of clotted cream. “I can only say it so many ways. I want this, with you. Show me how.”

  A thousand arguments clamoured, but Alex’s pounding heart drowned out the sound. The hand slipped from his chest down to his barely concealed cock, stroking it through the thin cloth of his pyjama bottoms. Mani leaned in, filling his vision with warm, buttery skin, and the dusk of those eyes, which now looked almost purple in the dim light. Standing up, Alex tugged once on the garment, and the cloth unravelled, falling from his flesh. He stepped out of his trousers and kicked them aside. Unable to help it, he gave his already straining member a few, hard strokes. At once, a solid, but still cool, grip fastened around him, taking over. Alex hissed, and then almost laughed. Well, he’d wanted to warm Mani’s chill skin, but the idea that his cock gave heat to that hand almost made him hysterical.

  “Does it feel better to have someone else do the stroking?” Mani asked. His voice quivered, sounding a little hesitant and unsure. For the first time, he didn’t sound quite so certain of his decision. Alex caught his gaze with his own, and Mani flushed. “I’ve only done this a few times to myself, and found it frustrating after the first time. Then, it quickly grew boring, though I admit, on your planet sensation counts for more than it does on mine. Still, it was easier to let passion wither and die. Nothing else on my world is allowed.”

  “Like this,” Alex gasped, determined to go on, unable to stand the thought of Mani having no knowledge of such pleasure. Kneeling, he took hold of Mani’s shaft, stroking him in such a way to make it swell. It took a little coaxing and then, as the flesh began to grow, Mani gasped. Alex kept up the strokes, making his fingers caress, as well as pump, now. Lowering his head, Alex took the soft glans into his mouth. His reward was a cry, almost as loud as a shout, tumbling from Mani’s lips to echo around his bedroom. Bobbing his head, Alex kept his tongue busy. It didn’t take long, and Alex felt no surprise over the alien’s quick release. A noise resembling a sob now filled the room, and a hot flood filled his mouth. Even before he was done, Alex lifted his head to watch. Finally, he rose to sit beside the other man on the bed. Mani, whimpering and almost crying, fell against him, his head lying in the crook of Alex’s shoulder. Small, anguished moans continued to fill the room with their melancholy sound. Alex hushed him, stroked his hair, his face, until the pale man calmed. Glittering eyes turned up towards his face.

  “I’ve never felt anything like that before.” Mani swallowed. “Can I do the same, for you?”

  “Only if you want to.”

  Mani nodded. There was a touch of reservation to it, but mostly the eagerness won out. Alex smiled. “Let’s get your hair dried first.”

  * * * * *

  Settling against the head of the bed into a nest of pillows, Alex watched the other man crawl on all fours towards him. Keeping low to the bed meant all that white hair tickled over his legs and thighs. Mani’s gaze flicked back and forth as though the alien didn’t know which part of Alex to drink in first. Inevitably, that gaze came to rest on his cock. Gently guiding, Alex nudged him closer to it. At the last moment, Mani spoke.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  “Just do what you want. I’ll guide you if you need it, but you won’t. You’ll know what to do.”

  Not sure that statement was entirely true, Alex discovered he was closer to the mark than he realised as moist heat engulfed his cock, holding him there, feeding on him. When Mani pulled off, Alex let him go, ready to accept the alien didn’t want to do this. He was mistaken. That tongue set to licking, tasting, tracing the map of veins running close to the surface, flicking around the base and then spiralling up the length, to lap at that sensitive spot just at the back that always sent sparks flashing off behind Alex’s eyes. He gasped, instinctively arched, and Mani opened his mouth wide and took him in. He bobbed, licked, and sucked, his tongue alive and moving. Alex was only aware that Mani looked up the length of his body, perhaps seeking approval, as a point of light struck one of those violet eyes. Alex tried to shout out a warning, but at that moment Mani dug his fingers into the fleshy part of his thighs as though he knew, as though he were determined to hold on. Mani’s throat worked and Alex saw stars. His last thought before he poured out his desire was that he’d never look at the night sky the same way again.

  * * * * *

  “Is this your true form?” Alex asked sleepily, tracing fingers over Mani’s skin, finding every crease and curve of that magnificent body.

  “It is one of them.”

  “One?”

  “I have three natural forms. One, the one I use on my home world, I could not sustain here on earth. Anyhow, I would not want to. It is...” He shrugged.

  “What? Ugly?” An image of some kind of ape or troll came to mind and immediately, Alex decided he didn’t care even if that were true, but he just couldn’t match the idea to the sheer beauty gazing up at him.

  “No.” Mani laughed. “Just boring. You would no more look at me than you would a plank of wood.”

  Alex looked along the length of that pale body that lay back in a tangle of blankets. He couldn’t imagine that either, and speaking of wood, he and Mani had barely ventured out of bed for the last twenty-four hours, although it hadn’t just been for sex. They’d slept a great deal in each other’s arms. Hmm... Mani in his bed for real was so much more remarkable than his dreams. He’d quelled a flash of guilt when Mani had remarked how the small back bedroom was so much colder. Well, he’d tried to more than make up for it, by trying various ways to keep the alien warm. They still had a few things to try yet.

  “This form I like, and I can feel so much more, which I like as well.”

  Alex echoed the sentiment with a brush of his lips over the creamy skin, and Mani shrieked with laughter as though it tickled him. “You said three forms.”

  “My last form, I could sustain very well here, but it would alarm most people. Although...” Mani grinned and the expression was one of such true joy that Alex found it impossible not to grin back. Mani reached down and stroked Alex’s face with a finger. “I think you would find it attract
ive to look upon. I just meant that people would notice me, and wonder what I was and therefore, fear me.”

  As if they could fail to notice you now. Still grinning, Alex trailed a finger down the centre of Mani’s chest. “More attractive than this?”

  “You find me attractive?”

  “Oh, stop it,” Alex chided gently, nudging the other man. “You know I do. Stop fishing for compliments.”

  Mani laughed. “I cannot seem to help myself.” His face calmed, grew a little more sober. “I want to hear how much you like me. I want to hear that you desire me. I want to know that you will allow me to stay here with you.”

  “No chance.”

  Mani frowned, and Alex stifled a laugh. “You’re staying with me, no matter where I go. I can’t wait to show you London, where I live, to take you places all over the world.”

  Mani smiled. “Nowhere is as good as in your bed.”

  Alex’s heart gave a start. Maybe Mani wasn’t the only one who needed to hear a long never-ending stream of compliments. “So, this other form...” Alex said, as a distraction, for he was once again aroused.

  There was one thing he very much wanted to do, and Mani said he wanted it, too, but despite Alex’s patience, and plenty of lube, the alien just hadn’t been able to accommodate him yet. It proved so awkward that Mani had become convinced it didn’t work. To prove it would, and because, if he couldn’t bury his cock inside the alien, then he wanted Mani to penetrate him, Alex had shown him how. Even that had taken awhile and some coaxing, Mani convinced he would only cause Alex pain. Even when Alex had moaned in pleasure, Mani looked dubious as to whether it wasn’t just a cry of suffering, until Alex dragged the other man against him hard. Then and only then, Mani gave him the rhythm he wanted, crying out in something that sounded remarkably like misery himself. Tight, so tight, so smooth, so arrrrgghhhhhhhhhh...

  After that, Mani wanted to try again but still no luck. Alex had soothed him and reassured him it didn’t matter. If they could never do it that way, it didn’t matter. Mani accused him of lying and, okay, he was. He very much wanted to bury his cock, but if it were not to be, it wouldn’t stop him loving Mani with all his heart. It’s okay, my love. We have time. The problem was not so much his frustration, as that of the alien’s, who clearly wanted to experience the full length of Alex’s cock inside him now.

  “My other form is quite beautiful,” Mani explained, his gaze growing animated, as though he wasn’t beautiful now. Alex smiled in amusement. “It is the one we use to travel, for it is incorporeal. I never thought to be able to share it with someone, but you, Alex, yes. I think you would enjoy seeing it.”

  “Incorporeal?” Mani had said something about that once before. Alex lifted up just enough to ease his weight, curiosity gripping him now. The movement allowed his erection to rub against the other man’s knee. It caught Mani’s attention.

  “You...?”

  Alex made a dismissive gesture with his fingers. “Don’t worry about it. It’s going to happen frequently around you, I fear,” he added, grinning. “You were telling me about your incorporeal form.”

  “Yes, it...” Mani’s words trailed off. He blinked, his eyes flashing. Alex could almost see the light bulb going off in his head, though he had no idea what Mani was thinking right now.

  “Of course!” the alien cried out. “That might work. It might... be incredible.”

  “What? What might work?” However, despite his questions, Mani only smiled at him. “Trust me,” he said, sitting up, rising to his knees. He glanced down. “Grease your cock for me.”

  Frowning in amusement and puzzlement, Alex did as he asked. Kneeling there in front of the other man, his erection slick and evident, struck him as a little silly, but when Mani’s fingers touched either side of his face, the alien leaned in to kiss him and then drew back, so they could look into each other’s eyes, he was lost for words.

  “I hope you like this,” Mani said.

  “I’m sure I will,” Alex answered. He had no idea what Mani intended to do, but he meant every word. At once, that so pale skin became paler still, grew translucent, until Alex could see the fine map of veins, and threads of blood running just under the skin. The sight proved a little alarming, but it was also quite beautiful to see. The light grew in intensity, changed from white to buttery yellow. It grew almost too bright to see, and then dimmed. Alex blinked and then gasped, realising he could see through Mani, see the room as though he were looking through a ghost.

  The touch of fingers at his face grew lighter, lighter, lighter still, and faded away. The last thing of Mani to fade away was those violet eyes. What remained in front of Alex was a white to creamy yellow pulsing source of light like flames, containing little violet sparks.

  Mesmerised, he reached out. His fingers sunk into the light. It bathed his skin and danced along it. He could only describe it as the softest brush of skin against skin, but it was softer even than that. A laugh escaped him. He couldn’t help it, couldn’t contain it. The sound was pure joy and shocked him back into silence. The white fire grew closer, yet he felt no fear. Some small inner cautious voice asked what did he know about the alien really, but he couldn’t bring himself to listen to it, couldn’t care. If Mani meant to destroy him, what a way to die!

  The light spread over him, around him, sunk... into him. Alex gasped. He now knew Mani meant him no harm for this was like truly joining with another person. This was what people strived for when doing the horizontal dance, and although he didn’t want to give up the bliss of the other, this he could grow used to enjoying as well. He was still his own person, with his own will, and it wasn’t like sharing a lifetime of memories or anything, but he suddenly knew Mani. He understood him. He felt his love and sent it right back with one thought. White flame. Mani was his white flame -- a fire he would happily stoke until they burned out.

  The flame retreated, and Alex waited for the moment when he would feel bereft. It never came. The fire sunk down, stretched out, laid back against the bed, and if it had contained heat, Alex would have expected to see the sheets catch alight, despite the strange colour of the flames. It wrapped around his legs, his hips. It beckoned him forward and he went willingly. It coalesced, gathered, began to grow distinct. Mani came back together in human form with a shout that echoed from Alex’s mouth. Mani returned, fully formed around him, with Alex’s cock buried deep inside.

  * * * * *

  At first, the sheer force of pleasure drowned out any other concern. Then Alex stared down into Mani’s face, alarmed. If this drew a gasp from him, what must it feel like to Mani, to manifest with a rigid cock already inside you? He thought to pull back, was too afraid to move, and finally reached out to touch the other man’s face. “Are you alright?” That had to hurt... didn’t it?

  Mani gasped. His chest and stomach heaved. “It feels... Oh!” Those violet eyes rolled up into his head. Alex tensed to pull back, fearing the worse and thinking that perhaps a short, brief spike of pain at his withdrawal would be better than just to lie there and continue to hurt him like this, when Mani smiled. “I want you to make me so slack we never have to fight to fit together like this again.”

  “I don’t actually mind how we came together,” Alex explained, ignoring the unintended pun and longing that the remark invoked, “just as long as nothing I’m doing is hurting you.”

  “Not... hurting.”

  Those long pale legs wrapped around his hips. Long slim arms reached up for him.

  “Fuck me, Alex,” Mani said, his voice low and heated. “Make me yours.”

  * * * * *

  “Hey, man. Heard you hooked up with some albino for the winter.” Bray laughed. His laughter made Alex think even more of a donkey. Alas, Bray lacked the associated charm. Bray sidled up to him, swayed that pert little backside in his direction, so that it made him perform an odd, crab-like, sideways walk. Alex, hidden safely behind dark glasses, kept the merriment off his lips, and only let the amusement reach his eyes. Bra
y stroked his face, oblivious to passers-by. He leaned in, whispering. “You don’t have to settle for second best, you know. I’ve missed you, dude. It’s summer. We can have some fun just like old times. I dunno. Things were just getting too heavy. I wasn’t ready for it. I needed space, man. Just needed space. Things change. I hoped to catch you around. I knew you were staying with your folks somewhere nearby, that place with the famous fish restaurant guy.”

  “Padstow,” Alex said.

  “What?”

  “My folks live at Padstow.”

  “Yeah. That’s the place. I’m sorry I was against meeting up with them. I’d be happy to head back with you now. Besides, surf’s died for the day.”

  Alex stared at the ass currently blocking his view of Newquay. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of pure white hair. Immediately, his thoughts turned to the first few days when he and Mani made love more times than he could count, his tongue and fingers attempting to loosen an innocent hole, just a couple of hours prior to taking a less conventional route using Mani’s incorporeal form. Softly, words soothed as well as other things greased the way. Gasps, soft sighs, and moans beset his memory. A tight frown on the brow of that shaking head, flailing from side to side, not in denial, but in a silent plea for more, stirred his cock even now. His jeans grew tight. Face to face, when those sparkling eyes shot open, Alex had claimed a kiss, tongue and lips giving and receiving, drinking down their mingled shouts of joy. A strong need to be inside filled him even now and, without looking, he simply held out a hand. Long, cool fingers slipped into his, and he pulled Mani into the curve of his arm.

  Bray’s gaze shot sideways, those blue eyes going wide. His gaze flickered up and down, his expression edging from surprise to disgust. “I meant the albino quip as a joke,” Bray said. “You can’t be serious.”

  It crossed Alex’s mind to wonder whether Bray truly found Mani distasteful, or if he just couldn’t stand the competition. Alex truly didn’t care either way. “I love him,” he said. “My parents’ love him.” His tone implied no one could beat that winning combination, but he doubted Bray would get the subtlety. Bray’s eyes wandered back in disbelief to the alien’s face. Alex stroked Mani’s back in soft circles. The relaxed way Mani leaned into him, his attention all for Alex, and barely regarding the other man, told Alex that the alien was calm, unaware of any threat. That was good, because he had no need to worry. Turning his head, Alex kissed Mani’s temple, and then whispered into his ear. “I want to fuck you. I want to be inside you.” Mani swallowed hard, audibly, in response.