Date: 17 Oct 2000 00:44:36 -0000
From: Mikey <mikey@maileditor.com>
Subject: Come Home - 4

Coming Home:

The old man leaned wearily on the fence.  The leaves of the tiny Japanese
maple drifted down to carpet the mound with red lace.  The dark mulch
beneath it was carpeted with the tiny wild violets.

"Don't know how long it'll be, Granny.  Not the same without the boy
around.  Beauty's lad is doing well.  He's gonna be a big one.  Wolf's
doing better.  He's healed now, but something's missing.  I look in his
eyes and the wounds are still there.  Don't know how long it will take for
him to come all the way back.  Or even if he will.  I think he will.  He's
a strong pup, but he's changed, not so happy.  He knows the world can hurt
now.

"Max came by twice now, but he didn't stay long.  His eyes look bruised.
He was crying by the pond.  Wolf tried to comfort him.  But he don't
understand why Max won't play anymore.  Butch says the boy still wakes up
screaming some nights.  He said the men were drugged out of their minds.
At least they're dead, after what they done to our pup and his man.

"Butch and them wanted to have a funeral for the boy.  I told them, he
ain't dead, just gone.  They think I'm getting old, that I'm just senile
from grief.  But they're wrong.  The boy'll be back.  I know it.  I'll
wait, however long it takes him; I'll be here for him when he returns.  I
never gave up yet.

"I miss you, Granny.  It's awfully lonely here."

He watched the leaves fall slowly.  A large shadow beside him whined and
nudged his hand.  He sighed and cupped the big head in both hands.  Pappy
stared into the golden eyes.  But they were just the eyes of a wolf.

"You can do it, boy.  Come home."

The lonely words drifted on the wind long after the man and the big wolf
made their way into the dark house.  That night as the man slept, the wolf
raised his head and stared unblinking into the dying embers of the fire.  A
spark flickered, reflected in the golden eyes.  The ember died.  The spark
in the eyes remained.

He stood and stretched.  The shadows on the wall shifted and elongated
briefly, then faded with the dying flames.  A silent form padded into an
empty room, a heavy weight settled on the bed, dark head on paws, waiting.

---

'Help Kelly!' Max moaned as he tried to focus his blurry eyes.

'Kelly?  Where's Kelly?  He's not here, Max.  Max?'

'Kelly!'

'Kelly?  Oh God, NO!'

Max jerked up as he woke from his recurring nightmare.  Sweat beaded his
forehead as he stared frantically around the quiet room.  A moment later,
his door swung open, his uncle moving quietly for all his bulk.

"Max, you okay?  Another nightmare?" Butch asked in concern.

"Yeah.  I just keep seeing that night again."  Max wrapped his arms around
his knees.  "He's lying there, hurt.  I close my eyes, and then, when I
open them again, he's gone."

Butch sighed and sat on the bed, watching as his nephew absently wiped the
tears from his eyes.

"You know, Max, no one but you ever saw him there.  Yeah, I know we found
the blood, but that could have been from one of your attackers.  Maybe he
just got scared and ran."

"No!  Kelly wouldn't leave me like that.  And even if he did, where is he?
No one's seen him for the last two months.  Even Pappy says he's not here.
I loved him, Uncle Butch.  Why would he leave me like that?"

"I don't know, son.  I just don't know."

Butch looked over at Max, then back at his hands.  "Did I ever tell you
that I used to date his Mama?"

Max looked up in surprise.  "No."

"Well, I did.  All the way through high school, Jenny and me.  I thought we
were gonna get married right after we graduated, but then, she left.  Just
disappeared.  Six years later, Pappy comes back with this four year old,
Kelly, says he's all that's left of Jenny.  I never did find out what
happened to her.  Pappy wouldn't say.  That boy was different too; all eyes
and hair, didn't even talk.  He was too young to be mine.  He brought back
the first of those wolves, also.

"Anyway, what I was trying to say is that maybe he just took off.  Pappy
says he ain't dead, there's no body...  Maybe you just thought he was hurt.
You had a pretty bad concussion there.  Doc said that you might have
hallucinated."

Max shook his head slowly.  "I don't think so.  You said you heard the
screams, you saw the blood, the knife.  Aw hell, I don't know what I think
anymore.  All I know is that he's gone... and I miss him."

There was silence for a moment, then Butch heaved himself to his feet with
a sigh.  "Well, it's almost time to get up anyhow.  Why don't I make some
coffee and you wash up."

"Yes sir," Max sighed as he slid out of bed.  Another day.  He wondered
when it was going to get better.  He could feel the aching hole in his
heart where Kelly belonged.

***

Pappy looked out towards the pond and shook his head as he saw the
moonlight reflect from the bottle.  "Boy's gonna have a headache in the
mornin'," he muttered.  "That bottle was full when he got here."

He turned and walked up to the porch.  There was nothing he could do to
help Max.

Max swallowed air with the last drop of whiskey and shook his head,
watching with bemusement as the moonlight danced across the two ponds.  No,
just one, but it was blurring as he vainly tried to focus on it.

He lay back against the grass and moaned, remembering the last time he had
laid here, in this spot.  Then, a warm wet body had curled up against him,
damp hair brushing his legs and stomach, soft lips moving along his
erection, golden eyes watching him with desire.  He had taken his love for
the very first time.  He closed his eyes and tried not to cry.  He dozed
lightly.

A faint splashing in the pond brought him partially back.  He opened his
eyes slowly, to see the shadows coalesce into a slender form.  Max watched,
disbelief suspended in his sleepy gaze.  After all the alcohol he had
poured into himself tonight, a dream or two was only to be expected.  After
all, there was a full moon.  Wasn't magic supposed to happen under a full
moon?  So it must be right.

His love's slender naked form moved gracefully towards him, kneeling
slowly.  His form blurred slightly with the moonlight and the whiskey.  As
silent as he had been in life, Kelly said nothing as he unfastened Max's
shirt, pulling it aside to bare his tanned and furry chest.  Max sighed
with pleasure as the soft lips brushed against his.  He closed his eyes and
pulled the other closer.  He did not dare say anything.  He was desperately
afraid that the dream would fade away if he spoke.

Warm lips traced his jawline and trailed down the corded tendons of his
neck.  Max stroked the hard chest above him gently at first, and then with
more urgency.  He was vaguely surprised at the warmth he felt.  He had
always expected that ghosts would be cold somehow.

'No, don't think that.  Don't think of anything but having Kelly back.
Don't wake up.  Please don't wake up.  Just a little longer.'

When his hands drifted down to the lean waist, Kelly flinched.

'Of course.  That's how he....  If I can't forget it, why would my dream?'

Max forced himself to ignore the ridged line slashing across Kelly's
stomach.  He didn't want to think about that.  He raised his hands to cup
Kelly's face, toying with the tiny microchip earring that his love always
wore.

Hands unfastened his jeans, then pulled them off along with his boots.  He
arched his back and gasped as that hot wet mouth closed over his aching
cock.  He hadn't even jacked off since...  Max buried his fingers in the
thick dark hair even as he buried that thought.  He concentrated on the
sensations burning through his body.

Kelly's tongue slid across the head of his cock, both smooth and rough at
the same time.  Light nibbling bites along the side of his thick shaft left
Max arching his back and tensing his flanks.  With one last slurping kiss,
Kelly pulled off and rolled Max on top of his body into a position achingly
familiar to both of them.  Kelly had always insisted on being beneath him
when they made love.

Max pushed himself up on his arms as he spread Kelly's legs with his knees.
He stared down into the golden eyes, moonlight reflecting across their
surface.  As he probed, then pushed gently into the hot body of his lover,
he dipped his head to taste Kelly's mouth.  Strong arms wrapped around his
neck and held him tightly as he moved slowly at first, then faster as the
urgency caught up to him.  He could feel the delightful pain as Kelly's
fingernails scraped across his shoulderblades.

As his orgasm speared through his body, he dared to whisper, "I love you,
Kelly.  Please don't leave me again.  I love you."

Warm lips pressed against his as he gasped for breath before collapsing on
top of the slender muscular body beneath him.  He could feel the silent
pulsing of the cock trapped between their bodies as Kelly came also, warm
cum across his stomach.  The combined effects of his exertions and the
alcohol overwhelmed him.  Max sank into the darkness.

***

The sun shining in his eyes woke him from his drunken slumber.  Max moaned
as he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.  Cold wetness against his
stomach brought awareness surging.  He looked around in confusion.  He lay
naked beside Pappy's pond, an empty bottle alongside his discarded
clothing.

Max sat up and shook his head.  That was a mistake.  He clasped it and held
it for a few seconds, trying to make sure that his head would not really
fall off.

"What the hell?" he wondered.  Then, the dreams of the night caught up with
him.  He groaned and tried to decide whether he wanted to cry or yell in
frustration.  Neither, his head hurt too badly as it was.  Finally, he
decided on just getting up and slinking back home.  He stood, wearily stiff
from spending the night outside.  He must have slept on some sticks; there
were scratches across his back.  As he dressed, he looked down at his body,
noting with disgust the evidence dried on his stomach.

"Great, just great.  Not only do I get totally shit-faced, but I must have
jacked off too."

Memories of his dream in the moonlight returned.  He sighed.  "I wish you
were really here, love.  How could a dream be so warm, so real?"

Max scooped up the empty bottle and glanced around.  Wolf stood up from
where he lay in the shadow of a large tree and bounced across to him,
wagging his tail, and nudging the tall blond man with an enthusiastic damp
nose.  Max sighed and ruffled his ears, automatically avoiding the
microchip tracing transmitter in his ear.  Pappy used that to trace the
wolf's location and keep track of him.

"Hi boy."

Wolf bounded ahead as Max trudged out to his car, then sat watching as the
red convertible pulled out and left.  He whined once, then dashed towards
the house at the sound of a door opening.

***

Pappy brushed the leaves off of the small white marker under the
red-branched tree.

"Something's different about the pup now, Granny.  There's a spark in his
eyes that wasn't there before.  Pup stayed out all night by the pond with
Max.  Something happened.  I don't think it will be much longer before the
boy's back.

"We'll see, my love.  We'll see."

Pappy closed the gate behind him and headed towards the empty house.  A
large black wolf waited silently on the porch for him.  He cupped the heavy
head in his callused hands and stared into the intelligent golden eyes.
The wolf stared back.  A slow smile spread across the old man's face and he
patted the huge black head.  It would not be long now before his boy was
home.

"Good boy."

A rough tongue swiped his hand and they went into the house, together
again.