by Amy Lane
Donnie rolled his eyes. Chase had managed two years of state college while working at the same time. For the last six months, he’d been living with his girlfriend and paying rent —it seemed to be the guy’s goal in life to be a real live professional, and if Donnie didn’t think he was desperately unhappy, he’d have been a little jealous.
But Chase was still his best friend, and Donnie wanted to talk.
“Chase?”
“Yeah?” Chase was outfitting his character with some new gear using all his points. He could easily do that and talk to Donnie, so Donnie wasn’t offended.
“I spent, like, the entire last week with Alejandro. You know that, right?”
“Yeah, so how’d that happen?” Chase asked, his voice dripping with disbelief.
So Donnie told him. He left out what the sex had actually felt like, or who’d done what to whom, but he was honest. It had been wonderful.
In the middle of his story, Chase paused his character and looked at Donnie seriously. His eyes were so blue, and for a moment, Donnie remembered when Chase was a close second in his “who’s starring in Donnie’s porn dream” contest.
“That’s really wonderful,” Chase said, his voice thick. He’d dyed his hair this summer, for no reason Donnie could think of, until it was as white-blond as Donnie’s own. “I’m happy for you.”
Donnie smiled shyly. “Yeah?”
“Absolutely,” Chase said, and then his attention was completely on the characters on Donnie’s small television screen. “You guys gonna move in?”
Donnie blushed, because he’d been thinking the same thing. “It’s a little soon, isn’t it?”
Chase shrugged. “Yeah, but I moved in with Mercy after, what? A couple of months?”
“Yeah, but—” You’re not in love with her. Donnie stopped and looked away. He couldn’t finish that thought. “Maybe. Soon. After he asks me.”
Chase pressed “Save” and looked at him. “What, are you a fainting maiden? ‘Oh no, Yandro! I am the girl in this relationship, I couldn’t possibly move in with you! It would compromise my reputation!’”
Donnie chortled and threw a pillow at his head that Chase deftly fielded. “Asshole.”
Chase nodded. “Yeah? You knew this.” Something about Chase’s eyes told Donnie he wasn’t kidding.
“You’re a good guy,” Donnie said seriously, and Chase shrugged.
“Wouldn’t know it by how I treated you. All I’m saying is, you’re not a little kid, Donnie. You’re a grown-up. You think you and Yandro are ‘it’, do it! Even if you’re not ‘it’ in five years, you’ll have a chance to figure it out now!”
“What about you and Mercy?” Donnie asked quietly. “Are you ‘it’?”
There was a silence, and Donnie could swear Chase’s lips were moving with something he didn’t say, and then he actually spoke. “We do ‘it’, is that what you’re asking?”
“You do realize you do that a lot, right?”
Chase slid a glance over to him and then went back to the video game—he was on “practice” and could have paused any time. “Do what?”
“Answer a question with a question that I don’t think was your real answer.”
Chase started to laugh helplessly. “Donnie? You’ve loved the guy for years. Jesus, take a chance, okay? You’ve got parents that’ll catch you if you fall—but you know what? I don’t think you’re gonna fall.” Chase looked at him full on, and his blue eyes were warm and his expression was so sincere Donnie wanted to cry. “You’re golden, boy. You’ve got… the best heart of anyone I’ve ever known. I think God rewards people like you by not breaking their hearts, that’s what I think. You get close to Yandro. You take all your time dating him, but remember. You’re a good guy, and you deserve the best.”
He went back to his video game, and Donnie went back to playing next to him. Somewhere in Donnie’s chest he felt a freedom, a flying sensation. His parents would catch him, but he had friends, and he had Yandro, and he thought maybe Chase was right.
Sometimes baby birds really did fly their first time out. He was ready to fly.
Alejandro
DONNIE was young, and he spoke like a young man with little on his mind—but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a mind to speak of.
“Don’t look so serious!” Alejandro kidded. Of all the times you wanted your lover to look studious, kneeling between your naked thighs while penetrating your ass with a well lubricated finger was not one of them.
“I don’t want to hurt you!” Donnie responded, and then wiggled his finger.
Alejandro made an embarrassingly loud sex sound, because God! Did that feel fantastic!
“Not pain!” he panted, and then he felt another finger at his entrance, and Donnie’s firm hand on his cock.
“Glad to hear it,” Donnie chuckled wickedly, some of his confidence restored. “So, you don’t bottom because…” those fingers stretched and that hand stroked and Alejandro lost the ability to speak for a few moments as he clawed the sheets beneath his naked back and spread his legs wider in invitation.
“I liked being in control,” he panted, and Donnie lowered himself enough to take Alejandro’s cock in his mouth and suck slowly, slowly, while he penetrated Alejandro’s tingling rim just as slowly with his fingers. Alejandro was going to come, he was, just from this slow torture, but he couldn’t—he really couldn’t, because he knew from experience he’d be too tight and too tender if he did that for Donnie to do what he really wanted to do and fuck Yandro into the mattress.
Donnie pulled his head back and grinned up at him, his mouth coated in spit and swollen from Alejandro’s cock, and between that and the grin, he looked… delicious.
“How’s it feel,” he asked, wiggling his fingers. “Giving all that control to a nineteen-year-old kid?”
“Unnnggh…” Yandro gasped. “Happy birthday, Donnie, your birthday’s in April now fuck me!”
God, he was so certain! Alejandro had needed to be on his own for three years before he had that sort of confidence. But Donnie had it. He rose to his knees and positioned himself carefully—bare. He was bare. Alejandro was in a relationship where a man’s naked skin was sliding into his body and as his ass stretched… stretched… stretched… and then clamped down and locked on Donnie’s shaft, his whole body broke out into cold sweat with the effort not to just erupt at the thought.
“Good?” Donnie hissed, sliding in more… and more… on God, was Yandro’s boy hung!
“Unnnghhh…” Alejandro groaned, and Donnie’s chuckle was strained this time as he slid in some more. It was powerful. It was excruciatingly pleasurable. And finally, it was done. Donnie was there, to the hilt of his cock, shifting in and out in tiny increments, his entire body longing to lunge in something so powerful even Alejandro was a little afraid.
Alejandro started to shake. “Good,” he whispered, his hands smoothing the muscles in Donnie’s taut shoulders and his neck. “It’s good. So good… just… Donnie… oh hell… you can move now… can you move now? Oh please… please Donnie… just… move! Fuck me dammit!”
And Donnie had just enough breath to chuckle before he pulled out to the ridge of his crown and slowly slid back in. And again. And again. And Alejandro lost his mind and started shouting, “Fuck me, dammit! Harder! Faster! Christ, Donnie, fuck me with that thing!” And Donnie must have really loved him, because he did, hard and fast, practically a rabbit fuck, but with more power, until Alejandro saw stars, a rainbow of them, bright and splashy against the white of his closed eyes, and his cock erupted between them, and still, Donnie didn’t let up with that delicious, painful pounding in Alejandro’s ass.
If Donnie hadn’t been so young, he probably could have kept it up until Alejandro passed out. As it was, Yandro was grateful when Donnie growled, “Hnnnnnnggggg… Crap!” and came.
It was… luxurious, feeling that seed, so very much of it, sliding out of his body that way, around Donnie’s invasive flesh. Alejandro flexed his muscle rim, just to feel Donnie con
vulse inside him again, and then Donnie’s mouth was on his, and Donnie’s cock had slid out and it was just Alejandro, kissing Donnie, wanting to take all of him inside again, his body still weeping with come.
“Good?” Donnie asked shyly, pulling back from the kiss, and Alejandro felt himself blushing.
“Yes,” he whispered. “I think you need to do it more often.”
“Awesome.” Donnie kissed him again, and then very little was said for a few moments as they touched, and trembled and came down from the high of that magnificent sexual rush.
When things were still again, and the early August light had stopped pounding behind Alejandro’s closed eyelids in time with his heart, Donnie kissed his temple.
“Yandro?”
“Hmm?”
“You trusted me, right? To do what we just did?”
Alejandro opened his eyes, realizing that Donnie was serious.
“Yes, Donnie. I trust you very much.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You realize I haven’t slept in my own room for two weeks, right?”
Alejandro blushed. “Are your parents complaining?”
Donnie shook his head. “No. But school starts in a couple of weeks, and it’s going to be harder to find time together. Unless, you know. I live here.”
Alejandro’s eyes opened very wide. “You’re still very young!”
Donnie nodded his head. “Yes. Yes I am. But I love you. And you trusted me to do that, and to do that right. Do you trust me not to screw around on you if I live here?”
Of course. There was no question. Donnie couldn’t hide a thing like that if he tried. “Yes,” Alejandro murmured, his heart pounding with a sudden realization.
“Good. Because I trust you. Besides. You know my family. They’ll fucking kill you.”
Donnie’s Labrador grin and his dancing eyes let Alejandro know he was kidding—but the threat also made his point. Alejandro was family, whether Donnie lived there or not.
“You really think this is wise?” he asked at last, suddenly wanting it so badly he could hardly breathe. His Nana hadn’t responded to his letter yet—but he had hope. He had faith that she wouldn’t turn her back on him like the rest of the family. Maybe he had enough faith to let all of this color, and this joy, and this love into his life.
Donnie shook his head. “My friend Chase said that if I thought it was right, I needed to make it right.”
How very simple, when Alejandro would have made it so complicated. “Your friend seems very wise.”
An unusual look of complexity crossed Donnie’s face. “He is,” Donnie said, obviously troubled. “He’s wise about everyone but himself. But he is wise about everyone else, and I think he’s pretty damned right about us.”
Alejandro smiled, and pulled Donnie’s head down so he could kiss that troubled look away.
“I will think about it,” he said softly. “But I think, you know, maybe if you fuck me into submission a few more times, I might say yes.”
Donnie’s smile was maybe more brilliant, because now Alejandro had taken the full measure of all that was behind it, and the boy’s heart was vast and bright.
“I think I can do that. Gimme fifteen minutes, and we can start on that, okay?”
Alejandro blinked, and then felt his own cock start to move a little, just hearing that. “I think we can do that. You don’t work tonight?”
Donnie shook his head, that grin becoming more wicked by the minute.
“Well, I think we can do a lot of damage on that promise,” he said, laughing, joyous, and seeing color in every mote of sunlight from his window.
BY THE end of the hot California summer, Donnie had made plans to move in. A week after his last box was unpacked and integrated with the rest of Alejandro’s things, making an eclectic, exciting rainbow of clutter in the once-pristine home, a package arrived from Alejandro’s grandmother.
It contained two pairs of socks knitted in bright red wool. The second pair was at least as big as Donnie’s unapologetically sized feet.
Donnie’s Fish Socks
Materials:
Worsted weight wool yarn in cream (A) and navy (B)
Sized three DPNs or 36” circular
Yarn needle
Yarn scissors
Gauge: 6 stitches per inch, stockinet
Abbreviations:
C1B/2F—Cable one purl stitch back and knit the two knit stitches, then purl the stitch on the cable needle.
C2F/1B—Cable two knit stitches forward, purl one stitch, knit the two stitches off the cable needle
C3B/2F—Cable three stitches back, knit two stitches, purl 1 stitch and knit the two stitches off the cable needle
C2B/2F—Cable two purl stitches back, knit two knit stitches, purl two stitches off the cable needle.
C2F/2B—Cable two knit stitches forward, purl two stitches, knit the two stitches off the cable needle
WYFT—Wrap Yarn In Front and Turn
Notes:
This pattern is worked from the toes up and is sized for a man’s medium foot. If you wish to make the pattern narrower or wider, the place to add or subtract stitches is in the sole of the sock, not in the instep, because the instep is taken up by the pattern. If you wish to make the pattern longer, the place to add stitches in the instep pattern is in the part of the fish cable that is not adding or subtracting—just keep working even for a couple of rows (or take a couple of rows out), making the gills and the fish longer or shorter before you start the cable for the tail.
The pattern is written so that the instep pattern is worked first and the sole stitches are worked next. During the increase for the toe, if you are working with DPNs, you will need to add a third DPN to the sole stitches when it becomes awkward to work with just two needles. Remember that the side with two needles is the side with the sole stitches, and the side with one needle is the side with the instep.
The fish eye is worked for the right sock first, and then alternate directions for the left sock. This isn’t really necessary—I just sort of like the eyes on opposite sides of the socks. Feel free to blow that (or any other part) of this pattern off if it suits you!
Directions:
Toe:
Using Navy (B) and a figure-eight cast on, CO eight stitches, four on one needle, four on the other.
Knit 1 round
Purl 1 round
Knit increase round by k1, m1, k2, m1, k1, changing needles, k1,m1, k2, m1, k1
Purl next round
Knit increase round by k1, m1, k4, m1, k1, changing needles, k1, m1, k4, m1, k1
Purl next round
Knit increase round by k1, m1, k6, m1, k1, changing needles, k1, m1, k6, m1, k1
Purl next round
Continue to increase the toe in the same pattern until there are a total of 44 stitches, 22 on the instep, 22 on the sole. End on a purl round.
If you are working with DPNs, when it is comfortable, add a third needle to the sole stitches to make it easier to work in rounds.
Foot:
Change from Color B to Color A, knitting the instep side first.
Round 1—knit 11 stitches, m1, knit the other 11 stitches for a total of 23 stitches on needle, then knit all the way around.
* From here on out, all pattern stitches will be for the instep. The sole will be worked in stockinet until the heel, which we will discuss when we get there!
Round 2—purl 9, knit 5, purl 9
Round 3—purl 9, knit 5, purl 9
Round 4—purl 9, knit 2, purl 1, knit 2
Round 5—purl 8, C1B/2F, purl 1, C2F/1B, purl 8
Round 6—Work even
Round 7—purl 7, C1B/2F, purl 3, C2F/1B, purl 7
Round 8—Work even
Round 9—purl 6, C1B/2F, purl 5, C2F/1B, purl 6
Round 10—Work even
Round 11—purl 5, C1B/2F, purl 7, C2F/1B, purl 5
Round 12—Work even
Round 13—purl 4, C1B/2F, purl 9, C2F/1B,
purl 4
Round 14—Work even
Round 15—purl 3, C1B/2F, purl 11, C2F/1B, purl 3
Round 16—work even
Round 17—purl 2, C1B/2F, purl 9, knit 2, purl 2,C2F/1B purl 2
Round 18—purl 2, knit 2, purl 9, knit 2, purl 2, C2F/1B purl 2
Round 19—purl 1, C1B/2F, purl 10, knit 2, purl 2, C2F/1B purl 1
Round 20—purl 1, knit 2, purl 11, knit 2, purl 3, knit 2, purl 1
Round 21--23—purl 1, knit 2, purl 17, knit 2, purl 1
Round 24--25—purl 1, knit 2, purl 7, knit 3, purl 7, knit 2, purl 1
Round 26-28-- purl 1, knit 2, purl 6, knit 5, purl 6, knit 2, purl 1
Round 29—36--purl 1, knit 2, purl 5, knit 7, purl 5, knit 2, purl 1
(This next part is going to look complicated—it’s not. You’re cabling for the back of the fish while keeping the k/p pattern for the gill for another three rows)
Round 37—purl 1 C2F/1B purl 4, knit 7, purl 4, C1B/2F, purl 1
Round 38—purl 2, knit 2, purl 4, knit 7, purl 4, knit 2, purl 2
Round 39—purl 2, C2F/2B, purl 11, C2B/2F, purl 2
Round 40—purl 4, knit 2, purl 11, knit 2, purl 4
Round 41—purl 4 C2F/2B, purl 7, C2B/2F, purl 4
Round 42—purl 6, knit 2, purl 7, knit 2, purl 6
Round 43—purl 6, C2F/2B, purl 3, C2B/2F, purl 6
Round 44—purl 8, knit 2, purl 3, knit 2, purl 8
Round 45—purl 8, C2F/2B, C2B1F, purl
Round 46—Purl 10, knit 2, knit 2, purl 9
*At end of the instep needle of Round 46, break A (cream) and attach B (navy), then work short row heel as follows:
Short Row Garter Heel:
Row 1—knit 21, wyft
Row 2—knit 20, wyft
Row 3—knit 19, wyft
Continue on in this way until there are only four stitches left on the needle.
Row 18—knit 4, knit last stitch and stitch wrapped around it as one stitch. Move yarn forward. Turn.
Row 19—slip first stitch as if to purl, knit 4, knit next stitch and the stitch wrapped around it as one stitch. Move yarn forward. Turn.