by Joe Lechene
“Tristan, how many fingers do you see,” she asked?
He replied, “Umm, three.”
“Oh, thank God,” the nurse exasperated, “I’m gonna go get the floor doctor to check him over.” She looked directly at me and said, “Don’t let him get out of bed before we come back.”
“Where’s he gonna go with a cast on his leg and arm?”
The nurse replied as she was walking out the door, “You never know. Stranger things have happened in this place.”
As she walked out the door, I started to laugh and noticed that Tristan was giggling as well. I had missed seeing this side of my baby for the past two weeks. It seemed like he just woke up from a long sleep and nothing ever happened. Since I had been longing to be with my boyfriend, I lowered the side bed rail. Very carefully, I scooched Tristan over and laid down beside him on the bed. As it was such a small bed, I laid on my side and draped my arm across his blanketed stomach. I had a feeling that we might be waiting a while for them to return. So, finally holding my baby beside me, I explained everything that happened over the past two weeks.
Just as I finished recapping the events that led to Tristan’s current condition, the nurse returned with the doctor. I could tell from the scowl that the nurse was giving me that she wasn’t happy with me in the bed. After rolling back off the side of the bed, I resumed sitting in the chair that has been my temporary home. The doctor started looking Tristan over, pretty much doing everything that the nurse did plus a little extra.
The doctor said, “Well, everything looks good. I see no reason why he can’t be discharged later today. The neurologist will be the final one to clear him for discharge in the morning. But, it seems like his higher brain functions have fully recovered. Of course, he’ll need some physical therapy and to follow-up with the ortho.”
I ran my hand through the top of Tristan’s long dirty blonde hair. I could feel his head push back into the palm of my hand. “That’s great news doctor. It’ll be nice to get him back home, well both of us actually.”
The doctor nodded back at us before leaving the room. The nurse stayed behind and said, “We’ll have to wait until the neurologists see him in the morning before we start the paperwork. You two might as well make yourselves comfortable and get some rest for a few hours.”
She winked at us before turning off the light and shutting the door behind her. Since I was pretty sure that we wouldn’t have any more visitors for a while, I carefully climbed back in bed. With his cast clad limbs still hindering his movements, I tried to position myself without moving him too much. I ended up laying my head on his shoulder and pressed my front into his side. His broken forearm was draped across his stomach with my hand holding the fingers that were protruding from it.
Tristan turned his head and gazed into my eyes in the dim light. “I love you, Ian. Thank you for not leaving me.”
“I would never leave you, baby. You’re stuck with me forever.”
Both of us closed the few inches that remained between our lips. The lips that I had missed so much over the past two weeks. Exhaustion washed over my body much sooner than I wanted it too. My head fell back against Tristan’s skinny shoulder, releasing our lips in the process. Tristan caressed the side of my neck with his good hand while I quickly fell asleep beside my lover.
XVIII
I had spent the past two weeks waiting for the day that I could take Tristan home from the hospital. However, I hadn’t really thought about what it would be like taking care of him once he was home again. For instance, the thought that he would need crutches never even crossed my mind until he was being discharged. Tristan struggled with them at first, but by the time I got him into our apartment, he was getting the hang of it. I just had to make sure that he wasn’t letting the tops of them rub his underarms raw. That would probably hurt me as much as it would him.
The other thing that turned out being a pain in the ass were the casts themselves. It wasn’t like there were just one to contend with, he had two of them. As soon as I got him home, I stripped him down and got him into the bathtub. The sponge baths in the hospital kept the stench to a minimum, but he was still in dire need of a good scrubbing. He had his arm resting on one side of tub rim while his opposite leg was propped up on the other. Thankfully, the cast on his leg stopped right before his knee.
While the bathtub was filling up, I took off my own clothes and threw everything that we were wearing in the washer. It wasn’t because I was a germaphobe or anything, both of us just stank like hospital and body odor. Once the water was up to the base of his neck, I started scrubbing every inch of his twink body. Tristan laid back and closed his eyes while I finally had the chance to give him the cleaning he needed. When I reached his groin, I wasn’t shocked to find him already fully aroused. However, I just washed his rod off like the rest of his body and continued with my task.
Once he was as clean as I could get him, I drained the dirty water and refilled the tub. After kissing him on the forehead, I left Tristan to soak in the tub while I showered off. I let the hot spray wash the past two weeks off me. I didn’t realize how long I was in the shower until I heard Tristan calling my name. I turned off the shower and dried myself off. After throwing the wet towel in the hamper, I went back over to the tub and pulled the drain plug. As the now lukewarm water ran down the drain, I grabbed a fresh towel off the shelf. When the tub was finally empty, I dried Tristan off the best that I could with him still laying in the tub.
Carrying Tristan bridal style, I took him into our bedroom and got him situated on the bed. After making him as comfortable as I could, I slid into bed beside him. Since it was difficult for him to move, I draped myself over his chest and nuzzled my head against his pec. His chest wasn’t the most comfortable thing to sleep on, however, it still felt amazing to be sleeping with him again. I quickly fell asleep, cherishing the feel on Tristan’s naked body underneath mine.
…
I woke up around my usual time midmorning still sleeping in the same position that I fell asleep in. The steady sound of Tristan’s heart was thudding gently under my ear. I could have stayed like this for hours, but my bladder was taking precedence at this particular moment in time. Reluctantly, I slid off my sleeping baby and got out of bed. With my morning wood leading the way, I felt my way to the bathroom. After relieving my full bladder, I walked back out to the bedroom.
Instead of seeing Tristan’s beautiful sleeping face, all that I could see was the mop of hair on the back of his head. I pulled back the covers to find him now laying on his stomach. Rather than laying back down beside him, I straddled his thighs and started to rub his slender back. He didn’t have much muscle to rub, however, my hands still caressed his soft skin. As my hands roamed over the backside of his torso, his hips arched up into me. His little butt brushed lightly against the underside of my shaft. I was so content with touching him that I hadn’t even noticed my own arousal.
I bent down and parted the hair draped over the back of his neck. Starting at the now bare spot on the back of his neck, I started kissing my way down his spine. His soft moans could be heard even though they were muffled by the pillow. When I reached his cute little ass, I spread his cheeks and continued south. Once my assault on pucker started, his moans became louder and he started squirming underneath me. My mouth was soon joined by my fingers as I worked one into him. The twink beneath me bucked his backside into me, inadvertently asking for more. I slid another digit into him as my tongue lapped around the rim. He wiggled around underneath me as I worked on his sweet spot.
“Ian… please,” he begged in front of me.
“Please what?”
He muffled into the pillow, “Make love to me.”
That was one thing that I definitely didn’t need to be asked for twice. I adjusted myself, so I could grab the bottle of lube from the nightstand. Once I was thoroughly coated, I replaced my fingers with my throbbing member. Even though he didn’t remember the lapse in time, it had been over two wee
ks since we’ve been intimate together and I didn’t want to hurt him. As I slowly slid myself into him, Tristan pushed his cute little ass back and met me in the middle. Since I had loosened him up some already, there wasn’t too much resistance sliding into him. I pushed Tristan back down onto the bed underneath me while I gave him a minute to adjust.
He had his good arm positioned with his hand above his head on the pillow. I grabbed the side of his shoulder right under his arm and held him by the armpit as I slowly started to make love to him. Tristan moaned into the pillow every time that I bottomed out in him. This was by no means one of my favorite positions, but under the circumstances, there weren’t too many options. One thing was for certain though, it had been two agonizing weeks since I had any intimate with my time lover and it was all too soon coming to a climax. I kissed the back of his neck and held onto his armpit for dear life as my muscles tightened and I unloaded deep inside him.
After pulling out of my baby, I gently rolled the twink over. He was still hard and leaking like a faucet. I had a very short internal debate about how I was going to finish him off. The debate ended with me straddling my lover and lubing him up before lowering myself onto him. I watched as his eyes rolled back as my butt settled on his lap. Not to mention, it felt amazing having him inside me again. Tristan completed me in ways that I could never begin to explain to him.
I gripped the side of his chiseled stomach with one hand while I held his bicep beside his head with the other. Gazing at the beautiful man in front of me, I slowly started riding him. I knew that he was already close and I didn’t want the experience to end too soon. Keeping him in my grasp, I bent down until our lips met and kissed him with two weeks’ worth of kisses. Tristan opened his mouth and quickly met my tongue with his. He started pushing himself further into me, but I moved my hand from his side to his hip and held him down. I didn’t want him busting any sooner than necessary. Actually, it was starting to surprise me that he was lasting this long.
While still holding his ass against the mattress, I broke off the kiss and diverted my attention to the fur lining his exposed underarm. I stopped the movement of my hips with Tristan completely buried inside me. My boys were resting on his soft pubes while my nose brushed through his pit hair. His natural scent was intoxicating and driving me wild. I could feel myself stiffen right back up to full mast within seconds. I gave his pit one smooth lick from the top of his side to the other side of the joint. Tristan moaned beneath me tried to push into me again.
I relinquished my hold on the twink’s arm and he moved his hand from behind his head down to my groin. He grabbed onto me and started stroking. I started sliding up his shaft to the head and then back down him again slowly. Even though I already came just several minutes ago, the feel of Tristan’s hand wrapped around my shaft was bringing me to the brink again. I let go of him and held onto his shoulder instead. Tristan immediately matched my hips movements and thrust into me. It was only a matter of seconds after that before Tristan bottomed out in my ass and his back arched off the bed. I could feel his shaft spasm inside me as he unloaded two weeks’ worth of Tristan juice in me. I came again right after he did and shot what little I had left right on his dirty blonde happy trail.
Tristan was still recovering from his orgasm when I leaned back down and kissed his lips. He still couldn’t move to respond to the kiss, but I kept my lips on his anyways. After he caught his breath, he kissed me back. We kissed until he finally went soft and slipped out of me. Although I missed him inside me, it was kind of a relief to have him out at the same time. It had been a while since I bottomed for him and I was a little tender down there. After breaking off the kiss again, I went to the bathroom and grabbed a wet washcloth. I cleaned him up with the washcloth before jumping in the shower and rinsing myself off again.
After closing the curtains and turning the lights off, I re-joined my baby in bed. Tristan had already fallen back asleep under the covers. I snuggled back up to him and pulled the warm blankets back over me. Neither of us had anyplace special to be today or any plans, so there was no hurry to get out of bed anytime soon. The sweat was still drying on his chest as I nested my head into the side of his neck. His natural scent relaxed me as I drifted off sleep breathing it in.
…
Tristan was propped up on the futon in my office with every pillow that we had in our apartment. He was eating his bowl of cereal while I sat at my desk going through two weeks of mail. After tossing all the junk mail and putting the bills on my desk, I opened the manila envelope from my publisher. I received an envelope like this from them every few weeks. It contained all the fan letters that they received for me. Getting fan mail wasn’t something that I expected after my first novel was published. I still remember my first letter like it was yesterday and the feeling it gave me that my book had actually touched somebody the way it did. Even after all these years of writing, I still enjoy reading through them.
Before I started going through the letters, I got up and tended to Tristan. I took his now empty cereal bowl and made sure that he was still comfortable. He went back to watching cartoons while I returned back to my desk. Most of the fan letters that I read through were similar to the countless others that I had read. That was until I stumbled across one that stuck out from the others. The envelope was the first thing that caught me off guard. It was computer printed, versus the hand-written addresses that the rest had on them. There was also no return address on the envelope which was very weird. I was hesitant even opening it, but curiosity was getting the best of me. After turning the envelope over, I slowly opened it and pulled the crisp white letter out of it. Like the envelope containing it, the letter was typed and printed.
Dear Ian,
I was deeply troubled to hear about what happened to your boyfriend. Especially after what happened to his previous boyfriend in the same alley. It is hard to believe that something like this is still happening in this day and age. Although what happened to him is unfortunate, everything tends to happen for a reason. Maybe this incident will lead you to rethink some of your past decisions. Sometimes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and you don’t realize what you really lost until it’s gone. Ian, you above all should know what lost love is like after writing so many novels about it. Perhaps after this incident, our paths will reunite once again.
Sincerely yours,
A Ghost.
I dropped the letter on my lap and looked over at my lover on the couch. He looked so innocent sprawled out even with his casts and healing bruises. It pained me to think that these attacks were initiated on purpose. That the course of events that killed Erik and nearly killed Tristan were planned. I rested against the back of my chair and covered my face with my hands. This ‘ghost’ from my past suddenly felt more like the grim reaper standing over me.
I picked the envelope back up from where I laid it on my desk. Looking at the postmark over the stamp, I noticed that it was dated the day after the attack on Tristan. After laying the letter and envelope back on my desk, I walked over to the futon and laid down beside Tristan. He slid towards the back giving me enough room to lay on my side facing him. I wrapped my arm around his thin stomach and laid my head on his shoulder. My fingers dug into the side of hip through his loose basketball shorts.
Tristan grabbed onto my wrist and asked, “Ian, is something wrong?”
“Tristan, why did you leave work early that night?”
He replied, “Well, it died off kinda early and David said that I could dip out.”
“Why didn’t you call me and let me know?”
“David said that he would text you.”
That son-of-a-bitch, everything suddenly started to fit together. Of course, the letter was way too vague to be considered threatening by itself. There had to be a way to prove that he had something to do with this. It was just a number of coincidental things right now that only made sense in my head. I had to figure out a way to tie everything together with proof. For the time
being though, keeping Tristan safe was my top priority. His life could very well be still in danger.
…
‘I sat on the couch playing Call of Duty while he made out with his girlfriend on the love seat. He knew damn well that what he was doing was tearing me up, yet he continued like I wasn’t even in the room. After everything that we’d been through, he acted like I wasn’t his lover when she was around. I wanted to grab her by that long blonde hair and slam her face off the wall. Of course, that wouldn’t help the situation that I was in any. Instead, I took my aggression out in the game and concentrated on it. It was the only thing that would keep me from going off on her until she left. I knew that once she left, my stallion would come back to me.’
XIX
I sat on the couch in the living room beside Tristan. We had his leg propped up on a couple pillows on the coffee table. His side was leaning against me as we watched some movie on Netflix. I was too busy holding his hand and rubbing his leg instead of paying attention to what was on the screen. Spending this time with him meant more than anything right now. Just as Tristan rested his head on my shoulder, there was a knock on the door.