by Sean Michael
“I bet you have some stories.” Temple’s slow smile was something else.
“You know it.” Luke wasn’t sure what to do. Temple seemed so…different. Maybe it was those dark chocolate eyes that looked at him like he was the only thing in the world.
“What made you want to be a piercer?”
“I fell into it. I worked at a metal working place, worked at a jewelers for a bit, then I got into designing pieces. When I went to get some certifications, I met Donny—he owns the shop with me—and he thought we could have a working concern.” He still made his own jewelry. It was a lucrative side business.
“So you’ve got a creative bone in you.” Temple looked pleased by that.
“It’s a thing. What about you, man? What do you do?”
“I ride my bike, seeing the world.”
“No shit? That’s pretty fucking cool.”
Temple nodded. “Yeah. I was diagnosed with cancer five years ago. Since then I’ve taken a do it now or never do it attitude.”
“Good for you!” Christ, how bad did that suck? “Are you in remission?” Was that too personal?
“So far so good. I have to go to the hospital for my five year check-up soon. Supposedly I can consider myself cancer free if I come back clear on this one and I won’t have to go back for another five years.” Temple shrugged. “They gave me six months and I’m still here.”
“Congrats, man. That’s amazing. Honest.” It really was. Luke liked hearing positive stories, successes.
“Thank you.” Temple took his hand. “It’s changed my life. I used to be a corporate shill, overworked and unhappy.”
“Yeah? I can’t imagine you as a suit.” Maybe it was because that was all he’d seen Temple in, but the man’s leathers seemed to fit him to the bone.
“I can’t either.” Temple winked, chuckled.
That tickled Luke, and he started laughing.
Temple’s eyes lit up. “Oh, man. That is a great sound. I want to hear a lot of it.”
The food came then, and Luke dug in, humming at the sweet flavor. It gave him an opportunity to change the subject back to more neutral ground. “So, seriously, what kind of ink do you want?”
“I want a creature on my back. Something big and fierce. To represent the beast inside me that fought the cancer.” Temple grabbed a cucumber slice and munched on it.
“Cool. That’ll take some time. How long are you in town?”
“However long I need to be.”
“Cool.” Luke had been in the city for ten years now.
Temple seemed pleased with his salad, munching away on the lettuce and all the raw vegetables cut up into it. “Do you know the city well? I’d love a tour guide.”
“I’ve lived here a long time.”
Donny would shit a pink Twinkie if he knew what Luke was contemplating.
“You could show me all the things that people should see that aren’t in the tour books, then.”
“I could. Totally. I mean, if you’re not a serial killer. I’m not into those.” He had to at least acknowledge that this wasn’t the safest idea, right?
Temple laughed softly. “I’m into life, not death, man.”
“Oh, good. I’m not ready to die.”
“No, you have a lot of years left to you, darling.” Temple reached out and squeezed his hand.
Luke swore to God electricity shot up his arm at that touch. “Darling?” No one said those sorts of things to him.
“You are. I can tell.”
“Are you a psychic or something?”
“I’ll take ‘or something’ for five hundred, Alex.” Temple touched him again. “I’ve learned to be empathetic and aware of my surroundings. It’s how I healed.”
“Oh.” Okay. Weird, but whatever. Who was he to judge? He took two days to heal from a paper cut.
“I’m freaking you out.” Temple pouted.
“Freaking me out? Honey, I own a tattoo shop. I cut a man’s penis open and sealed medical grade ball bearings in it. Interesting, sure. Freaky? Not a snowball’s chance in hell.”
“Yeah?” Temple smiled. “Good, good. Some people don’t get me.”
“Most people don’t get other people. It’s mostly all polite shit.” That was why he was in the business he was.
Nodding, Temple ate more of his salad. “So someone wanted a ball bearing in his penis, huh?”
“Six.”
“What?” asked Temple, his eyebrows drawing together.
“Six of them,” Luke clarified.
“Wow. I’m not one to judge but, ow.”
“Yeah. Not my personal thing, but whatever.” He had jewelry for sure, but not that.
“So does the piercer have any piercings?” Temple asked, voice suddenly seeming more intimate again.
“Of course. Have you ever met one who didn’t?” He hadn’t.
“You’re my first.”
Luke chewed his pancake, pondering that. “First piercer?”
Temple bobbed his head in the affirmative. “Yes.”
“Ah. We’re an interesting bunch.” They had to deal with a lot more panic, it seemed like, than the tattoo artists did, even though tattoos hurt more and for longer.
“Yeah? Tell me all about it—about you.”
Okay, that was panic inducing. “You should tell me about your travels.” Luke made small talk, that’s all.
“I’d rather learn about you,” Temple insisted.
“I own a shop. I’ve got a sweet tooth and a hardcore coffee habit. I don’t drink or smoke and, unlike every other piercer on earth, I listen to country music.”
“The people’s music, that’s cool.” Temple pointed to him. “What have you got pierced?”
“I have an apadravya, a frenum piercing, two pair of hafada, and a guiche. I have double nipples, too.” Then he started pointing. “And I have a lateral eyebrow here, a tongue webbing piercing.” He wagged his tongue. “The double here by my lips is called spider bites. And then there’s my ears.” He started wiggling them. Instead of having plugs in his lobes, he had dozens of little shiny rings decorating him.
“Wow, have no idea what everything up to nipples means. It sounds exotic.”
“An apadravya is through the head of the penis, like an ampallang, but up and down. The frenum is under the glans. Hafada are in the ball sac.” His cock was beautiful, decorated and adorned.
“I want to see that. Did they hurt? Stupid question—did they hurt for a long time?”
“The apadravya hurt like a motherfucker, man, and it took six months to heal.” He loved how it looked now, though. It had been worth the sacrifice of not being able to jack himself.
“I want to see it,” Temple said again.
“I think the waitress would fuss.”
They were grinning at each other again, like monkeys. There was just something about Temple that brought it out in him.
“You’re going to have to take me home, then,” Temple suggested. “Or to a hotel.”
“I could take you to the shop.” But then they’d have company.
“I want to do more than just see the apadra…apadravya.”
“You want to see it all?” He totally swung the dick way, but he was fairly low key about it. Not to mention that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d picked someone up.
“Yes, I want to see it all.” It was clear Temple also swung the dick way.
“Huh.” He got come-ons all the time—all the time—but he never took anyone up on it. Temple’s smile, though, it made him want to. “I could be convinced to let you see.”
“And what can I do to convince you?” Temple asked.
“Tell me something about yourself.”
Maybe Temple would talk him out of his interest. It could happen.
“I’m vegan—I try to eat raw, actually. I meditate, do Tai Chi. I’m sure the medicine helped, but I cured myself of cancer.”
“Raw? I bet you’re starving all the time. Good for you, though. That takes
some discipline.”
“I’d rather be a little hungry than dead.” Temple gave him a nudge.
“Yeah. Yeah, I bet.” He didn’t meditate. He worked and he played in his studio and he ate lots of pancakes.
“And I believe in following where the universe leads me,” Temple added. “And today, it led me to you.”
That didn’t sound as weird to Luke as it maybe should have. “I feel like we should have met before. Isn’t that odd?”
“No, I think I know what you mean.” Temple took Luke’s hand, linking their fingers together.
“You never asked if I was queer, you know.” Most people did before asking for…more.
“I didn’t have to.”
“No? Does it show?”
“I don’t know. I just knew you were.” Temple shrugged. “Maybe the same way I could tell I was meant to meet you.”
“You’re like a mystical man.” He should be fucking creeped out. He so totally should. The thing was that he wasn’t. At all.
“Nah. I just follow the wind.” Temple smiled, then pointed to their empty plates. “Will you take me home?”
“Yeah. I don’t live far.” In the condos a block away, actually. They’d just been industrial when he had bought in, but now they were apparently the place to be.
“Yeah? You work and live close together, eh? That’s pretty cool. Commutes can be fun, but you do it often enough and you get in a rut.” Temple pulled a twenty out of the pocket of his jacket.
Luke got his wallet, found a ten. “I like the neighborhood. I’ve been around a while.”
“I’m not surprised. You have a settled aura about you.”
“What does that look like?” A settled aura? What the fuck?
“You’re calm, settled. You don’t have a lot of wrinkles.”
Luke smiled, surprisingly pleased at that. “No one’s ever said that to me before.”
“No? Well, it’s true.”
They went out of the restaurant, and he noted again how tall Temple was. The man made him feel almost small.
Smiling at him, Temple put an arm around his shoulders. “This okay?”
“It’s a friendly part of town, no one will bother you.” There were places where it wouldn’t be a good idea, but this was not one of them.
“No wonder you like it here, then.”
Temple’s arm felt good across his shoulders, the back of his neck.
“It’s a good place. Donny lives next door with his lovers.”
“Lovers? Plural? Good for him, man.” Temple seemed very non-judgmental.
“Yeah. He’s got charisma.” And a huge dick, a ready smile, and he loved sex. Adored it.
“So how many is ‘lovers’?” Temple asked.
“Two. He lives with Les—he’s a chef—and Marco, who is a crazy performance artist.” Luke was pretty sure Marco was going to get himself killed some day, but it wasn’t his place to worry.
“That sounds like a lot of people to have to keep happy.” Temple looked around. “You’re not attached, though?”
“No. No, I don’t…” What? Have sex? He didn’t. He was much pretty abstinent, all told. “This is unusual, to have someone over who’s not one of the guys I work with.”
“Cool. I like being your unusual.”
They headed into the little complex. It was starting to look hip, charming. When he’d bought his half, it had taken him years to do all the renovations.
“Oh, this is nice.” Temple took it all in.
“Thanks. I’m in number two.” He headed up the stoop, past the fruit trees that Les had planted in their shared yard above the dozens of raised beds. Thank God Les had a green thumb.
“Oh, look. Apples. Can I have one?”
“Sure. Les is the gardener. I let him have his way with the entire yard. We share a backyard, too.” He unlocked the door, the little entryway opening into a modern place, the walls covered with photographs and artwork from Donny, friends.
Temple grabbed an apple, wiped it on his shirt then started eating, looking around his place, checking out his furniture, the art.
Everything was simple—clean lines, solid fabrics—but colorful, cheerful. There was enough drab sadness in the world. “Uh, do you drink beer?”
Was beer vegan?
“Not recently, but I have in the past. I allow myself to cheat on eating raw. It’s a lifestyle, but not a religion.”
“You want one? I have a kickass microbrew that’s local.”
“Sure, if you’re having one.” Temple continued to check out the artwork on his walls.
Luke headed into the kitchen, with its little table, the cheery blue and yellow paint. He grabbed two beers, headed back into the living area. “Here you go. Cheers.”
“Thanks, Luke.” Temple knocked their bottles together, a bright smile lighting up Temple’s whole face, although the guy didn’t actually drink from his bottle.
“You want the rest of the tour or to sit?” He could go either way, although they had their beers now.
“Let’s sit for a bit,” Temple suggested. “Then you can give me the tour, show me your magic penis.”
“Magic penis. My wand of wonder, huh?” Luke snorted as he plopped down on the overstuffed sofa.
Chuckling, Temple nodded and sat next to him. Close. A tingle spread over his hands, his feet. The chemistry between them was amazing.
Temple cupped his cheek. “Can I touch your face piercings?”
“Sure. They’re all well healed.”
Temple touched his eyebrow piercing first, then the spider bites. “These two are the most fascinating. Of the ones I can see.”
“Yeah?” He wiggled the spider bites with his tongue, going for playful.
Temple reacted as he’d hoped, laughing, touching them again, along with the side of his mouth. “Spider bites. I love it.”
He opened his mouth, lifted his tongue showing off his web piercing, the captive bead ring right there.
“Does it make you crazy? Always having it in your mouth?” Temple reached into his mouth and touched it, finger lingering for just a moment before slipping away again.
“I don’t even notice it.” God, that was insanely intimate, close. Unnerving.
“No? What do your lovers think?”
He answered without even thinking. “I don’t have any.”
“A beautiful man like you?”
“Oh, I…” He chuckled, embarrassed, unwilling to explain.
“I want to kiss you, feel it, and taste it.”
“Taste it.” His belly went tight, his cock swelling almost painfully in his jeans.
“Yes.” Temple tilted Luke’s chin and leaned in, slowly bringing their lips together.
Luke’s lips parted, the act of kissing at once unfamiliar and as natural as breathing. Temple’s tongue slipped between his lips and touched the captive bead. He sucked in a deep, deep breath. Temple’s moan pushed into his mouth, filled his lungs.
It was surprisingly intense, the connection strong, electric.
One of Temple’s hands cupped his cheek, thumb stroking his skin. He could see his own reflection in Temple’s eyes, his expression shocked. Temple touched the web piercing in his mouth again, before slowly ending the kiss.
He wasn’t sure what to do exactly, so he backed off, took a sip of his beer. Reaching for his ear, Temple stroked his piercings there. There were more than a dozen, the tiny bits shiny in the light.
“You’re stunning, Luke. Decorated and lovely.”
“Thanks.” Crazy. This whole thing. Crazy and wonderful.
“I’m looking forward to seeing your other decorations.”
At Temple’s words, Luke unbuttoned his shirt, exposing his nipples, both pierced twice. The heavier gauge was in the back, the smaller ring resting inside the larger.
“Are they sensitive?” Temple asked, touching not the jewelry, but the very tip of his right nipple.
“Yeah. I play with them a lot.” Shut up, Luke.
; “Oh. That’s good information to have.” Smiling, Temple shifted from touching his nipple to tugging on the ring.
“Where did you come from?” Luke asked.
“I’ve been everywhere, man.”
“There’s nowhere that’s home?” Did true nomads truly exist these days?
“I sold everything, bought my motorcycle and went.”
“That’s brave.” Or stupid. Luke knew he couldn’t do something like that.
Temple shrugged. “I don’t think I was brave. I was terrified I was going to die before I had a chance to see everything, do everything.”
“Didn’t you have to be in the hospital and stuff?”
“I did, but not as much as they wanted me to. I could feel it killing me and I ran.”
“Wow.” Brave. He wasn’t sure he would have made the same decision.
Temple smiled. “It saved my life. The running, I mean.”
Then Temple tugged on his other nipple ring and Luke arched, just a little, his lips parting. Damn.
“So responsive.” This time Temple tugged on both.
“I’ve never met someone so…” Direct? No, that wasn’t true. He knew a lot of amazingly sexual gay men who were direct and honest about their needs. He just didn’t usually respond like this, let them in. And Temple was more than simply direct, he was…
“So what?” Temple asked, tugging yet again.
“I—I don’t know. I don’t have words.” He made things with his hands, he wasn’t a fucking poet.
“Did I make you speechless?” Temple’s hands slid down along his chest, tracing his belly.
“I’m not the brightest guy on earth.” His belly drew in, the tree inked on it shifting.
Temple seemed fascinated by the tree, fingers following the branches, tracing the leaves. “Don’t put yourself down, Luke.”
“Oh, I’m not.”
“No? That wasn’t a positive sentence. Positivity is an amazing thing, Luke.”
Leaning in, Temple touched his tongue to Luke’s right nipple and Luke was positive this was the most interesting thing that had happened to him in years.
Temple flipped the ring in his nipple, up and down, fingers sliding around his waistband. The sensation was so much bigger than when he worked his own nips while he jacked off. Kissing his way over, Temple licked and flicked the ring on his other nipple, fingers still lingering at his waist.