Mephisto pushed aside the bedspreads and started to explore Daniel's body with hands and mouth. He circled the shell of Daniel's ear with his tongue and worried the lobe between his teeth. Then he slowly inched his way down, brushing the sensitive skin of Daniel's neck, shoulders and collar bone. When Mephisto circled one of his nipples with the tip of his tongue, Daniel moaned in pleasure.
Mephisto licked the small rosebud, blew cool air over it, and then sucked hard. Daniel wriggled in response.
“Oh...” Mephisto sounded fascinated. “You have sensitive nipples. Like mine.”
If that was a hint for Daniel to do the same to Mephisto, Daniel wouldn't shy away: he combed his fingers through Mephisto's chest hair, found a nipple and rolled it between his fingers.
Mephisto moaned and, lying back, held Daniel's nape to pull his head down to one of his nipples. Daniel sucked enthusiastically, intoxicated by the male scent that rose from his lover's body.
Mephisto slipped a hand inside Daniel's briefs and squeezed his buttocks. Daniel's cock throbbed.
“Vlado... I won't last long,” he warned.
“Teenagers...” grumbled Mephisto, and pulled Daniel's briefs down in a slow and unbelievably sensual move.
Daniel felt relieved to be free from the confinement of his briefs.
They often saw each other naked, but now it was different. Mephisto devoured him with his eyes, as if in wonder because Daniel was fully erect for him. Daniel reached out for him, eager for contact, but Mephisto kept his distance while he removed his own briefs. Seeing how big the other man's erect cock was, Daniel felt intimidated. It was as if he had finally realized what he was doing — he was having sex with another man. But Mephisto lay down beside him again and embraced him, and Daniel forgot any fears or objections he might have had. When Mephisto's fingers curled around his cock, Daniel almost exploded. Mephisto guided his right hand and showed him how to use it to rub cock against cock.
“Do you like this?” asked Mephisto huskily.
“Yes,” answered Daniel, panting, relishing the silky feeling of Mephisto's cock against his own.
As they stroked each other, Mephisto bent his head a little to kiss him.
Squeezed between Mephisto's hand and cock, and between luscious kisses, Daniel was in paradise. They both found a perfect rhythm. Tension built inside Daniel, slowly, until it reached its peak and the world shattered in a shower of excruciating pleasure, his semen covering Mephisto's hand. Mephisto continued thrusting against him, faster and faster, sweating, panting, until he finally came too, his body arching up convulsively and his semen spurting and mixing with Daniel's.
Mephisto collapsed on top of him; Daniel rested an arm on his lover's back. Mephisto rolled off him to lay by his side, wrap a possessive arm around his waist and gaze at him with an inquisitive look.
Mephisto looked so fragile, so vulnerable right now that Daniel hugged him tight, pressing their bodies together again.
“I think I'm going to fall for you,” confessed Daniel.
“What are you waiting for?” asked Mephisto, in a relieved and playful tone.
“I want to be sure that this isn't a dream.”
Mephisto's eyes scanned the bed. “If it were a dream, we wouldn't have to wash the sheets.” He quirked up an eyebrow.
“Would you like a shower?”
Though Daniel was tired and satiated, the idea of a shower held new promises of pleasure. Promises that were fulfilled a few minutes later, under the tepid water. Imperfect as the settings might be, a new world was being unveiled to Daniel.
8. Famiglia
The Professor noticed it as soon as Daniel entered his shack early in the morning. “You're glowing today.”
Daniel blushed and tried to sound nonchalant. “Yeah, this morning I woke up with this silly smile on my face, I don't know why.”
“Is he that good?” asked the Professor, arching up an eyebrow.
Daniel felt his face become even redder. “I have no idea what you're talking about.”
“Don't worry, he didn't tell me anything. But when I saw him earlier this morning, he had that same silly smile on his face, as you put it. Because a silly smile like that doesn't match his face, I had him do just silly errands today. I don't want to run any risks.”
Daniel pulled the armchair closer to the Professor's desk. “What exactly is it that he does for you?”
“We're just friends,” joked the Professor.
“No, seriously.”
“Oh, you're clever enough to know that I cannot tell you that. I can only tell you that from here we handle important activities that ensure the comfort and safety of many people who rely on us,” said the Professor.
“Including me.”
“Yes, in a way.”
“He doesn't do anything that involves violence, does he?”
“No, Daniel, don't worry. Let's say that he's my spokesperson.
He has always done the 'diplomatic' part of the operations, not the
‘military’ one. However, he's a fantastic strategist and helps me to structure the ‘military’ part, too. Anyway, we don't have any military structure here, in the Detention House. We just talk to the leadership...”
Daniel interrupted him: “Like Umbelino?”
“Yes, Umbelino is an important leader in this block. We talk to people, promote contacts, facilitate agreements, those sorts of thing.”
“Do you talk with members of organized crime? There don't seem to be many people from the Radical Vanguard of Crime in our block.”
“The RVC is stronger in Block Five. In our block, Umbelino led a secession, and they ended up forming a smaller, inner group called simply ‘The Movement,’” explained the Professor.
Daniel decided to ask the question that had been nagging him since he had known Mephisto and the Professor. “Why me? I mean, why are you protecting me?”
“I think you already know the answer.”
“Because Mephisto ‘chose’ me?”
“He went to the Infirmary to ask Dr. Lopes for some pills for my blood pressure. I suffer from high blood-pressure,” explained the Professor. “That was when he saw you there. He came back telling me there was a new prisoner in the Infirmary who appeared to be barely of age, and who was obviously a middle or upper-middle class young man. He was afraid you might be slaughtered by the bullies, and he told me what a shame this would be, because you were probably an intelligent, cultivated young man who might be of help.”
“He told you all that? But he didn't even talk to me in the Infirmary!”
“The doctor told him you were a college student. Besides, Mephisto is very intuitive, and can tell who you are just by looking at you.”
“Oh, but not like you. You seem to read other people's minds!”
exclaimed Daniel.
The Professor smirked. “It's true, that's one of my gifts. I'm very observant.”
Daniel pondered on what the Professor had told him, that he
“might be of help.” “So you're planning to use me somehow.”
The Professor frowned. “To use is an ugly expression. That's not how we work. You will never be pressured into doing anything you don't want to do. We just see you...as a friend. We believe you are worthy of our friendship.”
“I belong to the famiglia,” joked Daniel, affecting an Italian accent.
The Professor laughed. “You're really a very smart young man.
Mephisto wasn't mistaken about you.”
Daniel felt flattered, in spite of the Professor's patronizing tone.
A few details still troubled him, though. “When you said I might be prey for Mephisto, and that he always gets what he wants...what exactly did you mean? Did he plan all that?”
“What do you mean, 'all that'?”
Daniel felt exasperated. “I don't know!”
The Professor shook his head. “Sometimes I forget you're still a teenager. Why worry so much? He likes you a lot, this is evident. Is it so bad to hav
e let yourself be seduced, if that's the case, when you know the guy cares about you?”
That was a good question — a question Daniel didn't feel able to answer yet. “I don't know. I don't like to be manipulated.”
“No one likes it. And yet we're always letting ourselves be manipulated! It's inescapable.” The Professor had a Mona Lisa smile on his face. “I also think there's a strong dose of paranoia in your concerns, which is not surprising, considering you're a middle-class young man who suddenly found himself surrounded by ugly, dirty and bad guys.”
Daniel sighed. “Daniel in the lions' den.”
“Precisely.”
“Only instead of an angel of God, two dark angels came to protect me.”
“Would you rather have a pink angel with a golden halo, and playing a heavenly harp?”
Daniel grimaced. “Ugh, no. I think I found the angels who best fit my needs!”
_________
Daniel and Mephisto started sleeping together on the lower bed.
Both were thin, and Mephisto, who had made a point of sleeping on the side away from the wall, said he didn't mind sleeping in a narrow space.
“This way I can benefit from the sheets and blankets your mother brought you,” he joked, snuggling up to Daniel.
“And I thought you wanted to sleep with me because of my charm and personality. How naïve of me,” retorted Daniel, also playfully. “The Professor always says you're Machiavellian.”
“You've been talking too much with him.”
In spite of the playful tone, there was also a concern in Mephisto's voice that didn't go unnoticed to Daniel.
“What would you think if I started working for him too?” asked Daniel, and felt Mephisto tensing.
“Did he ask you that?” Mephisto asked
“No! I'm just speculating.”
“Well, stop speculating, then. I don't want to see you involved in any of this,” snapped Mephisto. “Daniel, you're still young, and you won't stay long in prison. If you stay out of trouble, you can start your life all over again, go back to college, and so on.”
Daniel wrapped an arm around Mephisto's waist. “I know, Vlado. Don't worry. I won't get into trouble.” Daniel thought it best to change the subject. “There’s something that I'd like to know.
When did you decide that you wanted me?”
Mephisto brushed the knots of his fingers on Daniel's face.
“When I saw you in the Infirmary. Dr. Lopes asked me to find a safe place to put you. I wasn't very enthusiastic about the idea, but when I saw you...”
“Dr. Lopes is part of your organization?”
“Dr. Lopes is, so to speak, a good friend of ours,” answered Mephisto, a soft sardonic smile on his lips.
Daniel rolled his eyes at the euphemisms employed by the Professor and Mephisto, but he understood why they had to use such coded language. Thinking of what Mephisto had said, another detail came to his attention. “So you fell in love with me just because of my good looks?”
“Who said I fell in love with you?” asked Mephisto, trying to sound sarcastic, but with an unmistakably affectionate tone.
Daniel looked at him sideways. “If you don't behave, I'll send you to the upper bed.”
Mephisto cupped Daniel's cock with his hand. “You wouldn't do that,” murmured Mephisto, in a silky voice, rubbing his thumb teasingly across the head.
Daniel's cock reacted immediately to the touch, and Daniel couldn't concentrate on anything else.
“You've asked me when I decided that I 'wanted' you.” Mephisto cruelly withdrew his hand and rested it on Daniel's waist. “That was the question I replied to when I first answered. 'Falling in love' is something more complicated. I don't know. I just know that, when I saw you in Shadow's hands, I realized I couldn't stand losing you. I cursed myself for that.”
“Why?” asked Daniel. “Am I that bad?”
“Because I didn't have any hopes. I never thought I could have you. I knew you were repulsed by me.”
Daniel felt his heart shrink and stroked the smooth hair on Mephisto's chest. “Vlado... When I arrived here, the jailer who escorted me, Josiah, told me you were a short-eyes and you were going to rape me.”
Mephisto froze and became paler than the white sheets. “Son of a bitch. I'm going to kill that motherfucker.”
“Sh, calm down. Forget about this. I shouldn't have told you that, but I had to explain why I was afraid of you.”
“So he just told you, 'He's a short-eyes and is going to rape you'?”
“He said you were a short-eyes, a rapist. That you liked boys my age, that you were lurking in the Infirmary, stalking me, and that I was going to be your dessert.”
“How can people be so rotten? The jailers do this on purpose.
They like to terrify the fish. I should have realized that could happen, I should have warned you!” Mephisto took a deep breath and traced Daniel's lips with the tip of his fingers. “I'm sorry, Dan. That shouldn't have happened.”
“It's over, now. And that’s not the only reason why I was afraid.
It's just that...all that’s happened, even what happened between us, was new to me. It still is.”
“I know.”
“Let's not talk about this now, okay?” asked Daniel, approaching his lips from Mephisto's.
Mephisto answered with an almost chaste kiss, simply allowing his lips to settle lightly on Daniel's.
_________
Now that Daniel was sleeping with Mephisto, he thought it might be easier to talk with Julinho about their respective
“husbands,” but soon he realized he was mistaken. He couldn't tell Julinho that Mephisto didn't force him to do anything, that he was attentive, caring and didn't even suggest that Daniel should let him fuck him. Even without knowing these details, Julinho found their relationship weird. He couldn't understand why it was Mephisto who usually cooked for Daniel, and why Mephisto agreed to share all the housework with his “chicken.”
“It's not normal, Dani. If you like it that way, it's okay, but if I were you, I'd hate it. I wouldn't know what to do if Alfeu didn't give me directions.”
“Why? Wouldn't you like to do other things, things that you can't do because you spend all your time working for Alfeu?”
“Oh, no, I'd feel empty, you know? I need someone to tell me what to do, otherwise I'm completely lost. Besides, I have to do things for him, because, well, he's a lawyer, he has more important things to do. I like to think that he needs me.”
“Have you always been like that? I mean, before you came to prison?”
Julinho shrugged. “Before I came to prison, my mom bossed me around all the time.”
“Why were you arrested?”
“My dad took a hike and left Mom raising five children alone. I had to become an aviãozinho11, what else could I do? One day the Military Police mounted a blitz on my shantytown, and we got busted. I was arrested almost six months ago and I haven't gone to trial yet. Alfeu says I may get about five years.”
Daniel pitied Julinho, but Julinho didn't look unhappy at all. That was something Daniel couldn't understand, let alone accept.
Although he had never talked to Alfeu, Daniel felt repulsed by him.
Alfeu wasn't even attractive, with his rough skin and froglike face.
Why did Julinho submit to him? Perhaps Julinho's life outside the prison had been so bad that the hell he was going through now didn't seem worse in comparison.
_________
The first disagreement Daniel had with Mephisto after they started sleeping together was, once again, caused by jealousy. This time, however, the green-eyed monster's victim was Mephisto.
They were walking back from Daniel's capoeira class to their shack when Mephisto said in a low voice, so that no one but Daniel could hear, “I saw you playing capoeira with that Lando. You seem to be pretty attuned to each other.”
Daniel held back a fit of laughter. “Oh, yeah, we are. Our bodies fit perfectly together. And
his dark skin contrasts with mine. It's very...sensual.”
Mephisto held his arm so tightly that Daniel almost cried out in pain. Daniel was sure Mephisto was going to remind him of the prison rules, that he was his owner and Daniel couldn't be caught with another man, but nothing like that happened. Mephisto released his arm instead, and kept walking without looking at him.
Daniel tried to hold his arm, but Mephisto shrugged him off.
Daniel insisted. “Don't be silly. I was joking. You know I'm not attracted to men.”
Mephisto gazed at him in disbelief. “You'll have to make up a better excuse. That one doesn't hold water anymore.”
“No, it's true. I don't like men. Just you.”
They were in the middle of the corridor, but Mephisto stared at him with that intense, penetrating look that always made Daniel melt.
Finally breaking the spell, Mephisto grabbed his arm again to push him along. “All right. But don't ever play with me like that again.”
The next days, Daniel repeatedly invited Mephisto to play capoeira with him, but Mephisto squirmed away saying he didn't want to be compared with “the other one.” Daniel understood his feelings.
Lando played capoeira exceedingly well, and Mephisto hadn't practiced for many years. Mephisto knew he couldn't beat Lando at that.
_________
One day when Mephisto left on a mysterious mission to Block Five, authorized by the administration, Daniel spent the afternoon talking to the Professor, amidst books and coffee cups. That was when he finally decided to disclose to the Professor the ideas on the prison system he had been working on for many days.
“I've been thinking about the space and time organization in prison,” began Daniel. “Nothing is random in this organization.
Everything has a function. Nothing is gratuitous or superfluous.
Each space is conceived to serve a unique function. There are spaces for circulation, for work, for sleeping, for eating, and so on. No indetermination, no ambiguity is allowed. Everything follows a disciplinary plan.”
“The disciplining of the daily life,” completed the Professor.
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