Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 18:37:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Reid <saboteur_98155@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Compound- Chapter 8 (gay male/celebrity)

=DISCLAIMER=
This story is meant to imply nothing about the
sexuality of the real people involved. Anything
mentioned from this point on is purely fictional and
not meant in any way but the highest regard.

The lyrics used within are not meant to imply anything
about the individual preferences, practices, or
lifestyle choices of neither Moby nor Lenny Kravitz.
The lyrics are not used for any personal monetary
profit...

Thank you for the feedback... all two of you. But in
all seriousness, if you enjoy the story then I'm glad
regardless of if you contact me.

I'm always open to feedback, positive, negative, or
constructive so please feel free to let me know what
you think. I'm also needing ideas for general
characters, gay or straight, for my story. I need
things like name/age/general height and
weight/background/personality traits and the like.
This also goes for people who want to be included in
the story as an actual character so let me know! I've
gotten several but I can ALWAYS use more.

The mentions of previous works of gay fan fiction are
meant in the utmost respect...

Comments, Suggestions, and Criticisms can be sent to
saboteur_98155@yahoo.com

I can be reached on ICQ at 70639912...

Enjoy!


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||  The Compound- Chapter 8                         ||
||  By Reid                                         ||
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	"Do you have to do that?" I grumbled, burying my face
in the pillow.

	"Hey, they itch!" Zac said, his hand jiggling under
the covers.

	Unable to come up with a suitably witty response, I
rolled over and sat up on the side of the bed and
yawned, stretching my arms up over my head. My feet
felt odd when they pressed against the cold tile floor
and I shivered and tried to block out the meaty
jiggling sound behind me. The dryness in my throat was
particularly wonderful and I hacked a few times and
reached over to grab a clean T-shirt from the dresser
and as I pulled it on, thankfully, the sound stopped.
My eyes didn't want to focus quite yet and I searched
under the bed for my shoes.

	"You know, Reid. I think you gave me crabs."

	"Is 'crabs' Hansonese for 'not showering good
enough'?" I said. Yeah! That was the comeback I
needed.

	"Just for that..." Zac said, and seconds later his hand
was rubbing in my face and before some undiscovered
fungus could be transferred to my precious face, I
managed to fight him off. He was pretty pleased with
himself and laughed for a good three minutes before a
quick slap on his bare ass calmed him down. We both
laughed as I pulled out my shoes and put them on,
struggling to tie the laces in my still sleep dumbened
state.

	"Where ya goin'?" He yawned and stretched out on his
back under the covers.

	"I'm going to the ASM. My throat feels like
sandpaper."

	"Uh oh," Zac grimaced, "Your dad again?"

	"Yup. This time it was seven hours in a car trunk
without water... in the middle of July."

	"What the fuck!? Can't we have this guy killed?! I've
got the money."

	"Killing him wouldn't solve anything. He's done so
much damage; he'd probably sprout horns and a spiked
tail and dash away laughing. That's the only way he
could have gotten away with everything he did." I said
as I stood up and touched my toes a few times to try
and loosen up a bit.

	Zac didn't say anything and he sighed softly and
traced patterns in the sheet with his finger.
Immediately, I felt bad for ruining what should have
been a glowing morning after cuddle session. I sat
down next to him on the bed and held his cheek gently
and kissed him softly on the lips and when the first
kiss felt so good, I did it again a few times and let
my hand wander down to his bare chest. He smiled and
kissed me deeper and I felt his hands start to pull my
shirt up and off me, but I stopped him.

	"I need a drink," And when I saw him smile and slide
his hand under the blankets, I quickly added, "A drink
of something that won't require sucking and licking.
My tongue would feel like sandpaper."

	He shuddered and curled into a ball and I kissed him
on the cheek before getting up off the bed and walking
out the door. The external hallway outside our room
felt unusually chilly and it was so startling that I
actually found myself blowing into my hand as I turned
the corner to the ASM. The halls were pretty empty
since it was still early and the ASM was unused at the
moment and my mind flashed back to the occasional
twenty minute long lines that formed when everyone in
the sector was still getting used to being there. When
I stood in front of the machine, I could see down the
hallway where Keri was talking to two of the uniformed
maintenance women and it looked like she was pretty
concerned with the conversation. Shivering, and then
feeling odd because I couldn't remember the last time
I'd shivered from cold, I looked at the pad of the
ASM.

H20   [AVAIL]
FP     [AVAIL]
OJ     [AVAIL]
AJ     [AVAIL]
GJ     [AVAIL]
CJ     [AVAIL]
TJ     [AVAIL]
GfrtJ [AVAIL]

H20 was water. FP was Fruit Punch. OJ was orange
juice, AJ was apple, GJ was grape, CJ was carrot, TJ
was tomato, and Gfrt was grapefruit. So many choices
and so little real actual "food" going into the
choices. Instead of trying to gag down a bottle of
imitation tomato juice, water sounded decent and I
typed in an order for three bottles in case I needed
more during the day. Another chill ran through me and
I rubbed my bare arms as the machine processed my
order. Keri and the two maintenance workers had left
and the hallway was empty and when I jumped up and
down to keep the blood flowing in my legs, the sound
of my feet hitting the floor echoed down the hall.
Just like a little kid, I did it a few extra times
just for the kick of hearing it bounce of the walls.

"Hey... are you Reid?" Someone said from behind me. I
stopped jumping and turned around to look at him. My
breath wasn't exactly taken away but he was pretty
good looking and instantly, something inside me
recognized him but I just couldn't place him. He was
about six feet tall, spiked brown hair, nice tan, blue
eyes... but I didn't really remember where I'd seen him
before.

"Yeah. That's me."

"Hi, I'm Devon. I just got here yesterday."

"Oh... yeah! Devon Snow, right?"

He blushed a little and did a little salute, "Yeah.
Daredevil extraordinaire."

We shook hands and he leaned up against the wall next
to the ASM and said, "So... what do I need to know about
this place? I mean, you've been here a while, right?"

"Yeah but why would you ask me? I'm far from certified
as a tour guide or anything."

"You do seem to know how to help the celebrities who
get in here." He said and smiled jauntily. Usually, I
would have been offended at something like that but
Devon's natural charm seemed to keep me from getting
steamed and all I could do was smile and try not to
blush too obviously.

"Well, yeah..." I was knocked off kilter by what he'd
said.

"Relax, dude. I'm not trying to hit on ya or hit on
him... I'm just wondering something."

"What's that?" The ASM beeped and I waited before
taking out the bottled water.

"I'm wondering... like, what's the best way to go about
finding someone here? When I heard about it back on
the mainland, I figured that I'd come on in here and
instantly, I'd find someone and we'd fall in love and
everything would be dope. But it isn't like that, ya
know?"

"Yeah, I do," I opened the small door and pulled out
the water. I opened a bottle and took a few sips,
"Let's go for a walk."

"Cool." He said and we walked down the empty hall in
the general direction of the main hallway. For a
daredevil, Devon sure seemed nervous and it was a
little cute to see him so shaky.

"Think of it this way," I was struggling to come up
with a good metaphor, "Imagine having fifteen thousand
men and women in a place like this. Seventy five
hundred men and seventy five hundred women. It's not
going to be any easier for them because regardless of
the fact that they want companionship, they aren't
going to be automatically attracted to every member of
the opposite sex. It's the same kinda thing here."

"Not everyone here is going to nut over any given guy,
right?"

"Yeah," I said, realizing how much easier it was to
explain to someone who wasn't a militant dogmatist
Christian, "Despite what pop-sentiment says about the
gay lifestyle, we aren't going to just want to screw
everything with a penis. It's going to be just as
tough here as it would be back there because you're
going to want to find someone you have stuff in common
with, someone who will love you for you, and if you're
smart, someone who will be committed to just you."

"Damn... so I'm gonna have to put in the work if I want
the reward?" He said.

"How do you mean?"

"I mean, if I want to find someone, then I'm going to
have to do all the stuff that I'd do for a girl?"

"Like Britney?" I said, smiling.

"Ugh, don't ask." He said and made a hilariously sour
face, "But you know what I mean, right? Like I'm going
to have to write poems and give massages and snuggle
and do all that kind of stuff, right?"

"Well... if you find someone who you really love, it
won't be a matter of 'have to', it will be a matter of
'want to and hoping to never stop'." I said in a very
wise tone.

"Wow... that's heavy. But it makes sense. It's all
really true because even though we're here and among
our own, you can never choose who you fall in love
with and even then, it's hard to tell." He said as we
turned around and walked back in the direction of our
hallway.

"It's what I've learned in my years."

"How did you know? With Zac, I mean."

"How did I know he was the one?"

"Yeah."

"When we went through a door and I found myself
putting my hand on his shoulder as he walked through.
That's when I knew that this one person had appealed
to all my instincts and had made me want to choose
nothing but the highest possible good for him." I said
and went to put my fingers into the pad on the door,
"Take care of yourself, Devon."

"I will. Just one more thing?"

"What's that?"

"Is his brother, Taylor I mean, is he... you know..."

"I don't know. We don't talk much about that."

	"Oh... well, I'll just have to keep hoping, right?" He
smiled and went back down the hall to his room.

My paternal instincts felt warm and fuzzy and I was
proud of myself for being such a good, "older
influence". And then I started thinking about how my
parents didn't want me to "corrupt" my younger
brothers and give them "the disease" and naturally,
the good feelings inside me turned to bitterness
towards my parents. Damn them! Before my fist could
put a hole in the door, I was able to get my temper
under control and after a few deep breaths; I felt
better and went back in the room. Zac had showered and
he was back in bed and examining a bruise on his knee
while I cleared a space on the dresser and set down
the two extra bottles of water. A small white envelope
was sitting on the desk, weighed down by one of Zac's
seashells and it looked like it had been delivered a
few minutes ago.

"What's this?" I asked as I moved the shell and
noticed my name printed in Comic Sans MS font across
the front of the envelope.

"One of the guards brought it by for you." Zac said,
still rubbing at the spot and not looking up.

	I tore open the envelope and pulled out the folded
piece of paper. Instantly, a smile came across my face
and I felt happy again. My boss, well, my EX-boss, was
coming to visit me in a few days. The paper only said,
"A.Nicoro will be arriving in three days to see you."
I sat down on the bed and sighed, hoping that this
time, she wouldn't make a huge scene about how unfair
the whole system was. My boss was a particularly
imposing person when she wanted to be, standing 6'2"
and of Guatemalan, Chilean, and Colombian descent, and
she took a great deal of almost sadistic pleasure in
standing up to people and feeling how intimidated they
were. After serving seven years in the air force,
she'd walked away to help the environment because,
according to her, "the tree huggers needed an
authentic bad ass to help the cause." And we sure as
hell didn't disagree because regardless of being
intimidated, she was right. Her black belts in Jiu
Jitsu and Tae Kwon Do helped too.

	"What's it say?" Zac turned his attention away from
his knee and threw his arms around me from behind, his
wet hair slapping my shoulder.

	"My boss is coming to visit me."

	"Is this the same boss that threw a shovel at your
dad?"

	"The same one." I said and the memory of her doing so
almost brought a lump to my throat because it was the
first real time that anyone had stood up to him.

It was the day after I'd been told to get out and as
she was helping me move my things, he tried to hit me
with a belt but she had grabbed his hand and shoved
him back into a box filled with old grapes. I still
remembered the look on his face as if it was
yesterday... the shocked look of a thuggy asshole being
told that his behavior wasn't going to be tolerated.
And then as we were loading the truck, he tried to hit
us both with a 2X4, but she picked up a snow shovel
and tossed it at him... nearly chopping off his foot in
the process. He'd tried to have her arrested but we
were already out of the state by then and nothing
could be done because he didn't want to admit to the
police that he'd been basically, a heartless child
abuser.

	"Awesome." Zac said and kissed me on the cheek and
hugged me tightly.

	"Yeah... she is. She's luck they're letting her come
back."

	"Oh yeah... she kicked out the window of the warden's
office."

	"They were too scared to arrest her." I said and
started laughing at the memory.

	"Well, now I get to return the favor." Zac said and
rolled backwards and onto the side of the bed as he
pulled out the clothes he was going to wear.

	"What do you mean?" I asked with more than a little
wariness.

	"You met my mom and made me proud. Now I get to meet
your boss and make you proud." He stated cheerfully.

	Now normally, I would have gotten an uneasy feeling
but something weird inside me took away the uneasiness
and suddenly, a sensation of pride and an actual
desire to have her meet Zac took over. In fact, she
and Zac would probably have a lot in common and would
most likely get along quite well. They were both loud,
alternatively urbane, intelligent people who shared
many of the same philosophies in life... they both
enjoyed a hearty meal, they both could disarm people
with their wit, and they both had no problem walking
around naked. At least she had to decency to wax her
body.

	"What's her name again?" Zac asked as he pulled on a
pair of shorts.

	"Angelita. But she hated it when we called her that.
We always called her Angie. Or Lita. She was fine with
whatever we wanted to call her."

	"She sounds awesome. A little violent, but awesome
none the less." He said in his mock "politician" voice
as he put on his shirt and socks.

	"She's only violent if you attack. If you play dead,
she might just sniff you and leave."

	"Well, I'm good at that."

It took me a minute to get the joke but after it
registered, I chuckled and pinched Zac affectionately
on the waist and laughed as he squealed. The next few
minutes were pleasantly quiet as I changed into clean
clothes and Zac got his notebook ready for his
classes. A sense of excitement had started to grow
inside me and in a way, I was able to identify with
how and why Zac was so excited when his mom came to
see him. It would be a good chance to connect with the
world that we'd left behind and honestly, in my heart,
I knew that Angie was the best way I could do so. Even
then, it was still hard for me to believe that she'd
actually stood up for me all those times and even
though I knew she was right all the times she'd told
me to stop letting my parents control me, I still had
not let myself believe it. But right then, I realized
how right she was. All the times I'd felt resentful to
her for talking about my parents the way she had, she
was right. She was right about them. And she was right
when she said I didn't need them. I had Zac... and I had
Keri... and Dr. Howard... and Brandon... and Devon, too. I
didn't need my parents.

	"I don't need my parents." I said out loud and Zac
looked at me.

	"Welcome to the real world, Reid." He said, smiling.

	"I don't need my parents..." I said again. I was having
a big breakthrough.

	"Yup." Zac said and sat down next to me.

	"I don't need my parents and I don't need to let them
control me anymore. They treated me like a dog. Why
should I feel any sense of loyalty to them? Screw 'em.
They can go to hell for all I care." I said and it
felt like a huge knot in my chest was untying.

	"That's right. Fuck 'em! And not in the good way."
Zac giggled and hugged me tightly and kissed me
several times on the cheek and neck.

	"My parents can go to hell." It felt so good to
finally say that. It felt even better to actually
believe it, too.

=Tulsa...=

They were starting to notice. And not just his family.
The press was starting to notice how pale and sick he
looked all the time and they had begun to ask...
"questions". They began to wonder if the "obviously
gifted" Hanson brother was developing a chemical
dependency problem. On one hand, his loyalty was split
between the band and his family. Part of him wanted so
badly to never let his family down and always come
through in the end but if they had to go any longer
without commenting on the rumors, it would kill him
and he would let them down in the biggest way. If they
went too long with out commenting, it would hurt the
band and ruin any chances of being a successful duo in
the rock industry and that would let down the one
person in the world who's opinion of him he actually
cared about. He was screwed either way.

He wanted so badly to end it all. He wanted so badly
to just go to his parents and ask them to call the
government and risk being sent off and locked up but
he couldn't bring himself to do it. For nearly five
agonizing years, he'd hidden the truth and the older
he got, the more it tore him up inside and the more
ache it created in his soul. There were times he'd
come close to shouting it out on stage or standing up
in an interview or in church and just telling the
world the truth and risking the consequences. He'd
wanted to do it so bad... but he'd been beaten to it. It
was almost too fitting that right when he was at the
breaking point, his little brother had stepped in and
done it. Even when they asked him and interrogated him
and when he'd given them all the right answers and
even when his best friend had pretended to be more
than a best friend to protect his image... he still
wanted so badly to just end all the lies.

But he couldn't let them down. So many people had
sacrificed and given their time and energy to build
him and his brothers into a famous machine of original
music and witty responses to the boyband and
girlfriend questions. Producers and managers had
risked their credibility and put their reputations on
the line for the three long haired waifs who wrote
upbeat pop songs that made you just want to tap your
feet and smile... they'd put it all on the line. And
they were the same people who told him that if he
confessed or did something "stupid", it would all be
ruined... the hours they spent working... all the touring
and promotional appearances all over the world... all
the money... all the burned bridges... all the concerts
that he wore a tight tanktop to impress uhhh "the
girls"... all of it would be thrown away.

Gone in the one instant he decided to be himself.

But would it be worth it? Would it be worth finally
being true to himself? Was his personal serenity and
inner peace worth screwing over a bunch of money
grubbing, back stabbing assholes who had treated him
and his family like fame whores and made them
compromise their dignity?

Hell yes it would be worth it.

=The fixation...=

	"All right. Bonds, you had something you wanted to
discuss, I understand?"

	"Yes, ma'am."

	"Go ahead."

	"Thank you... As part of my duties working on sector J
this past week, I've noticed that resident #0034582
Jared Raines has been exhibiting extremely obsessive
traits concerning resident #0097734 Zachary Hanson.
The info track system has recorded numerous attempts
on his part to locate Zac and he's also made several
disturbing queries towards physical sedation and
weapons making."

	"What do you want us to do, Julie?"

	"I want you to move him back to sector X. He's too
unstable to be kept in sector J."

	"Has he done anything to suggest he's planning to
follow up on these queries?"

	"No, but the fact that he IS looking into this
information should be looked at."

	"Julie, he's a vegetable."

	"We need to move him back to X."

	"Julie... he hasn't done anything concrete. Until he
actually makes attempts at anything, that is when
we'll have the cause to move him back to X. Are you
aware of the kind of lawsuits we would open ourselves
up to if we moved him back without just cause?"

	"I understand that. I swear to God, I do. But this
repeated behavior should be just cause."

	"He hasn't done anything."

	"He murdered 30 little boys. He went into their
bedrooms, kidnapped them, took them to a tunnel under
his house, and raped them and killed them. All the
electro-shock treatment we gave him may have taken him
down a notch but that core is still inside him. He
still has that look in his eyes!"

	"I know that because you have a degree in psychology,
everything has significance--"

	"Please listen to me!"

	"Julie, I am listening. Jared Raines is a vegetable.
He is a 23-year-old vegetable who is just waiting for
the one shock that's going shut him down completely.
Now God knows I don't want to see anything happen to
Zac Hanson let alone any of the other 15000 boys here
and that includes Jared Raines. If we put him back in
X, they'll just go right back to raping him because he
doesn't put up a fight."

	"What do you think he's doing? What do you think he
was doing when he was being raped constantly? All of
that has built up inside him and if we don't put him
back in X, it will explode and even at half mast, he's
smarter than most lunatics."

	"Julie... he's staying on J. Until he shows just cause
to move him, that's my final decision."

	"Will you put him under observation? As a personal
favor to me?"

	"Yes, I will."

	"Thank you. For that, at least."

=830pm. All residents are expected back in their
rooms.=

	WHUMP! Zac caught me off guard with the pillow and
knocked off the end of the bed and I knew I had to
strike back quickly. When he swung the pillow over the
bed, it opened him up for a pillow show and with a
good, solid swing, I caught him right upside the head
and sent him sprawling backwards. Capitalizing on the
opportunity, I sprung back up and smacked him on the
shoulder with it as he struggled to get a hold of the
pillow. Two quick shots later, he was on his back and
I straddled his hips. Moving like a stealthy predator,
I grabbed his hands and held them above his head and
he squirmed underneath me.

	"OK... now... are you gonna be a good boy?" I said, and
rode Zac's bucking hips, keeping pinned to the
mattress.

	"No! You can't keep me down!" He growled between
laughs and tried his best to throw me off. All
machismo aside, it was a pretty tough battle to keep
him down and he had a lot of power in his lower body.
He groaned and tried to throw me off but I downplayed
the effort and mocked him, and we both laughed.

	"Listen, little boy. You need to have respect for
authority." I said in my best 'reprimanding' tone.

	"No... no! No! No! I'm tough and the world needs to
cower in fear of me!"

	"It's past your bedtime, young man. I think you need
to go to sleep."

	"No! You can't make me!" He snarled and sweat was
beginning to bead out on his forehead and his hair was
beginning to stick to his face. The sight of him
looking so raggedly cute made me falter and it was the
opportunity Zac needed. He wrapped his legs around my
waist and pushed me backward and sat ontop of me,
returning the favor and pinning one arm above me and
trapping the other at my side with his leg. I squirmed
and to my surprise, he was remarkably heavy and adept
at keeping me in check.

"Let me up." I whined.

	"No way! Who's the little boy now?"

	"You are, sissy. Now get off me. Don't make me throw
down!" I boasted.

	"Oooh... can you feel the piss running down my leg?" He
said and I shuddered, making him chuckle even more,
"What's wrong? Don't you want a nice authentic
Hansonirific golden shower? Huh?"

	"You're only making me angrier."

	"Said the flea." Zac said and immediately cracked up
at his own joke.

	"I know how to neutralize you."

	"Pfft... yeah, OK."

	I smiled and slid my right hand free and gave the
soft bulge in his shorts a series of long, firm
squeezes and instantaneously, he got hard as a rock
and throbbed against my hand. Zac, always the ham,
crossed his eyes and fell forward like a ton of bricks
on top of me and twitched his legs as if he'd been
mortally wounded. I could feel his erection grind
against my stomach and the friction made me hard as
well.

	"Oh no," I moaned in mock-distress, "I've killed Zac
Hanson."

	I rolled him off me and onto his back and he laid
there, the only sign of life was the vibrating tent in
his shorts. Sniffling dramatically, I caressed his
lifeless cheek and buried my face in his stomach,
making him quiver and giggle softly. I put on my best
"grieving widow" act and held him close to me. He did
a believable job of playing dead and laying motionless
which was a pretty good stretch for him.

	"Why?! Why do they always die so young?!" I wailed
and pushed my forehead against his stomach, making
sure to gasp extra breathily against the exposed skin
of his stomach. He giggled again and squirmed.

	"I guess the world was never meant for one as
beautiful as you, Zac... the rest of us will just have
to carry on... as best we can..." The last of my strength
broke down and I degenerated back into a fit of sobs
and moans, pressing my face into the warm skin of his
stomach and making him squirm and giggle even louder.

	"And what a pity... we were going to get married!" I
sobbed and laid my hands on his stomach, making him
shiver. And suddenly... I was inspired, "But wait... maybe
he isn't dead! Maybe... CPR could bring him back..."

	"Oh god..." I heard Zac whimper under his breath.

	"Oh yes! I must save him! Don't go into the light,
Zac! Here I come!" I cried. I grabbed his face and
sealed my mouth over his. Instead of breathing into
his mouth, I gave him probably the longest, deepest
kiss I'd ever given him. He moaned into my mouth and
his body squirmed on the bed and I pulled off
momentarily before doing it all over again and deep
throating him with my tongue. Then, to my shock, he
let out a deep groan and his body spasmed underneath
me and I felt his hand fly down to the front of his
shorts. His whole body moved and I didn't pull off
until his muscles relaxed and when I finally released
his mouth, he gasped for air.

	"Oh fuck..." He whispered, "Oh my god... that was
amazing..."

	I sat back and looked down at his crotch where a huge
dark wet spot had formed on his shorts and his thighs
were painted with several thick white drops of his
cum. His body shivered and he sank back into the
mattress and wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his
T-shirt and he laid there, panting softly. He looked
up at me and grinned in an unmistakable post orgasm
show of triumph and licked the foamy substance of his
hand slowly. After his fingers were clean of the sweet
liquid, his hand dropped to his side and he closed his
eyes peacefully as I sat next to him, watching his
chest move up and down slowly. He looked so incredibly
peaceful.

	He opened his eyes and gazed at me blissfully, "What
about you?"

	"Huh?" His voice had snapped me out of some alternate
state of being.

	"Well..." He purred, raising his hips up and pulling
off his damp shorts, "We can't have me being the only
one shooting a nutload tonight, can we?"

	All I could do was shake my head as Zac sat up and
pulled off his sweaty T-shirt and crawled over to me,
naked as the day he was born. Except for the watch on
his left hand but in it's own weird way, I found it to
be kind of kinky. He slid over next to me and draped
his leg over my lap and began to nuzzle my neck,
blowing warm air on the sensitive skin. My dick
responded immediately and I gyrated under his leg as
he put his fingers on my chin and turned my face
towards him before kissing me and letting his tongue
slide into my mouth. Once it was safely inside, he
wiggled it and flopped it spastically like a dying
fish and the erotic sensation of it made me moan and
try to stand up. All Zac had to do was apply pressure
with his leg and it kept me sitting on the bed.

	"You never answered my question." He whispered in my
ear.

	"Well... we've never done it standing up."

	Zac smiled and let his leg slide down off me as he
stood up in front of me, his glistening semi-hard dick
displayed proudly against his balls. His scent was so
enticing and I couldn't help myself as I leaned in and
gave one of his nuts a long wet suck in my mouth. Zac
moaned and his legs quivered as his hands rested ontop
of my head and his fingers ran through my hair gently.
I added his other nut to my mouth and rolled them
around against my tongue, feeling the gummy texture
and phenomenal heat that they were exuding. I let his
balls slip from my mouth and slowly took his
stiffening cock into my mouth, sucking the coating of
freshly shot cum from his shaft and from under his
foreskin. It was pretty amazing how quickly he could
re-erect himself and be ready to go again but I guess
it was one of the miracles of youth.

	My lips traveled up and down, feeling the tight skin
pulse against them as I used my tongue to coat them
with a fresh layer of my warm saliva. His dick
throbbed and I could taste several drops of his thin
precum dribble out onto my tongue and yet again, it
was amazing how even after shooting a huge load, Zac
could still pump out precum in anticipation. My eyes
traveled up his body and admired the streams of sweat
dribbing from his face and down his neck, down his
chest between his nipples on it's way over his stomach
and down into his blond pubic bush. His cheeks were
flushed and his head had fallen back and his mouth was
slightly open in a, at that point at least, silent
moan of passion. My hands slid down his legs and I
could feel his calf muscles tighten and his balls
began to pull up but he pushed off and pulled his dick
out of my mouth.

	I looked up at him questioningly and he made eye
contact with me and I saw the same burning lust in his
eyes that I'd seen so many times. His body shook
slightly as his hands slid down under my armpits and
stood me up on shaky legs. He ran his hands up under
my shirt and pulled it up and off me, tossing it
casually over his shoulder as his hands went back down
to the waistband of my shorts. In a few short seconds,
I was naked. Zac looked at me and stood so close I
could feel the heat coming off his skin and I could
feel the warmth from his lips on mine.

	"What's wrong?" I said softly.

	"We're gonna fuck standing up, like you said." He
punctuated it with a long, hard kiss and my cock
throbbed in spite of itself at the dirty talk.

Something about hearing such a gorgeous young man talk
with such potty-mouthed impunity managed to get me
even harder than before. He took my hand and we walked
into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror as
he kissed me one more time, rubbing his hot, wet torso
against mine. He licked my cheek and turned around and
grabbed the edge of the counter with both hands and
spread his legs apart. My head felt lighter than air
but I wasn't about to pass out and ruin the
stupifyingly erotic nature of the situation. As I
placed my hands on his wide hips, I noticed Zac
looking in the mirror at himself and saw his hard cock
bounce and slap against the cold tile of the
countertop.

	Deliberately moving slowly, my lips pressed against
the moist flesh of his neck and I could feel the
muscles flexing with desire as my kisses found their
way downward. His shoulders were glistening with sweat
under the glare of the lights and I kissed my way
across the broad expanse of his shoulderblades,
feeling the silky wisps of hair on the back of his
neck stand up when I blew my warm breath on him. My
hands slid up his waists and I felt his ribs standing
out under the rubbery heat and my left hand crept
around to his chest and felt his heart pounding under
the skin. He took a long gasping breath and his head
fell back when my lips moved down the center of his
back, rubbing the line of fuzz that lead down to the
small of his back. His leg quivered and I licked my
way back up and I planted several hot wet kisses on
his neck, making him moan and stiffen.

	"Fuck me," He wheezed, "It's time... I need it..."

	I smiled and winked at him in the mirror and grasped
his asscheeks and pulled them apart, letting the heat
from my body rush over his crack. The muscles of his
ass flexed in my hands and created an incredible
feeling of power... like a mustang. Zac's strapping,
mid-west, cornfed body was a true work of art as it
tensed in my hands and as my cock began to press
against his hole, I could see his hands tighten on the
edge of the counter. His knuckles began to turn white
as his hole felt tighter than ever and he groaned
softly as he pushed back, his asscheeks feeling
tighter in their upright state. I kissed his neck and
in my haze, glanced upward and looked at Zac's face in
the mirror. It was the same face I'd seen on TV and in
magazines but it was almost completely different in
his sweat covered, lust drenched state. His cheeks
were red and he was biting his lower lip, his eyes
were clenched shut and his nostrils were flared and
just the sight of it made me hornier beyond all
recourse.

	A massive shudder passed through his body into mine
as his hole relaxed and my cock began to slide in with
almost astounding ease. He bucked his ass back at me
and cried out as I slid deeply inside him and I heard
a squeak as his feet slid against the floor and his
legs quaked. I wrapped my arms around his waist and
stroked him in slow fondles and as I did so, I could
feel the veins and bulges in his dick squirm and
wiggle in my hand. His hips were moving back and forth
in a fluid motion as his cock rubbed in and out of my
hand and by the throbs of his prick, something told me
we were getting close to zero barrier. And then he
shocked me with yet more of his kinkiness when he
turned on the water faucet and began to rub cold water
over his chest, splashing us both with it and rubbing
it on his face. My mind cycled back to Fatal
Attraction where Glenn Close and Michael Douglas were
having sex in the kitchen sink and she did the same
thing.

	Zac reached back and rubbed a handful of the icy
water on my dick as it pistoned in and out, shocking
me and adding another few ounces of blood to my
already rock hard erection. He let his head fall to
the side and he kissed me with his cold, wet lips,
cooling my hot cheek as he grabbed the counter again
and rocked his ass back at me. The muscles in his arms
stood out and flexed under the skin and soon. the
marvelously familiar muscular shuddering in his ass
began. My arms tightened around his waist and my hand
sped up on his cock. Zac moaned and pressed his body
rigidly against mine in the steamy sexual heat of the
bathroom and his hands slid off the counter and he
pressed them against the wall.

	"Let's cum together..." He gasped.

	I shut my eyes tightly and buried my face in his neck
as my cock swelled and the first few hot gushes of my
cum shoot up his ass like a firehose. I was a little
surprised at the incredible volume of cum that filled
him... so surprised that I didn't notice the hot load
Zac was spraying onto the counter, and in the midst of
my lust, I smiled at how funny the white streaks
looked against the dark blue Formica. Zac's chest
heaved and he moaned one last time as the orgasm began
to dissipate while I was careful to remove myself from
his body while there was enough cum to lubricate the
removal. His arm muscles relaxed and he pressed weakly
against the wall and his thighs rested against the
edge of the counter. His body shivered several times
and he stood on tiptoes, not putting any weight on his
lower body to stop from feeling the darker side of
anal sex. My hands held his hips firmly and I kissed
his neck slowly, recovering from my own orgasm and
doing my best to make sure he didn't hurt himself.

	"Whew, that was pretty cool." He laughed, and
swallowed hard.

	"Mmmhmm." I murmured and stepped back from him,
admiring his post-coital sexual posture.

	His cum had begun to dribble down his leg and had
mixed with mine that had rolled down the tight cheeks
of his ass. I knelt down and began to kiss his
muscular calves, licking the cum off and enjoying the
mixture of our collective work. His skin tasted so
warm and moist as I kissed his legs, he shook again
and his legs shook so much I almost got worried.
Placing my hand on his knee to steady him, I looked up
and looked down at me over his shoulder.

	"You OK?" I asked, rubbing his thigh.

	"Oh yeah..." He smiled and I stood up, "You're gonna
have to carry me."

	"Well, that's no problem."

	I scooped him up in my arms and carried him movie
star-style back into the bedroom and set him down on
the cool sheets of the bed. He spread out and stuck
his tongue out like a dog as I stroked his forehead,
mopping the sweat with a piece of toilet paper. He
looked so flushed and overheated that I got up, went
into the bathroom, and soaked a washcloth in cold
water and brought it back to the bed and gently mopped
his forehead with it. When I did it, he gazed up at me
with an odd look on his face.

	"What?" I asked him.

	"I have a question."

	"Hmm?" I said and laid down next to him.

	"Do you ever wonder how much love one person can give
another?"

	"Sometimes."

	"I wonder that everyday. I wonder how much more I
could love you and it always keeps getting more and
more..." He trailed off and rolled over on his side.

	I blushed, "Well... you're not the only one."

	I slid over and kissed him and pulled the covers up
over us like we did every night before we went to
sleep. I turned off the lights and after a few minutes
of laying there in silence, I felt Zac open his eyes.

	"Are you tired?"

	"No, not really. Are you?"

	"Nope." He chirped and rubbed his fingertips over the
bare skin of my forearm.

	"We already had sex. What more can we do?"

	"We can talk." He cooed dreamily.

	"Oh a dream come true." I said, laying the sarcasm on
thick.

	"Shut up. Let's talk about... cows!" Zac said and
started giggling.

	"Hey!" I said and held his face in my hands, "Do NOT
get hyper! This isn't the time!"

	"I can't help it..." He said between fits of laughter,
"I'm a hyper boy..."

	"Oh great..." I muttered and rolled onto my stomach.

	"Hey Reid... let's talk about... cheese!" He said and
laughed.

	"You're an odd young man."

	"I know! I can't help it! I'm full of life!" He
practically was rolling off the bed with laughter.

	"You need to go to rehab."

	"Why? Got some coke? I need a hit!"

	"Ugh..." I groaned.

"Hey... you look pretty dope..." And Zac was on me, trying
to snort my shoulder.

I couldn't help laughing as I pushed him off me and he
came back, trying to make out with me looking exactly
like some hideous alien trying to suck my face off.
Angling my face away, I reached down tickled his warm
nutsack and he pulled away, whimpering. We both
cracked up and started laughing and deep down; I
enjoyed Zac when he was hyper. He was so much more
alive than most of the other people I'd met in my
life.

"Oh man... I'm high on life..." He giggled and kicked his
legs.

"It's better than other stuff."

"I'm high on life and anal sex." He said and began
laughing at himself.

"Ummm... okay."

"Uh oh..."

"What?" I tensed up; not eager to know what was wrong
in the state he was in.

"I think you loosened something up back there..."

"Please don't..."

"But Reid, if I hold it in, I might suffer
gastro-intestinal damage." He whined and he was
immediately impressed with himself for such high brow
vocabulary.

I waited a few seconds, "Is it still there?"

"No, I guess not. You got lucky."

"Zac, have you ever noticed we spent a lot of time
talking about farting?"

"Well, hey... if you want to reap the benefits of my
talented ass, you have to deal with the other side of
it too," He crawled over on top of me, "And trust me,
if you would just open your mind, you would see how
talented the other side is. I mean, think of the third
world countries that could eat for a week because of
it?"

I didn't know what to say. I was utterly repulsed, and
I gagged softly in the darkness. Zac started laughing
again.

"Luv you." He said and puckered his lips. It was like
a drug, no matter how gross he was; I couldn't help
but kiss him.

We both laughed in between kisses and after a while,
we just held each other. His body felt so warm and
wonderful pressed up against me... it felt so complete.
So right. The feeling of his arms around me and
holding me protectively was a new and unusual, but
highly welcome sensation. Zac was opening up so many
doors in my soul and the part of me that my parents
had tortured and tormented was trying to slam them but
a part of me that had grown and only gotten bigger
since I'd met Zac was getting it's foot in the door
and keeping it open. When Zac and I had first been
together it was merely keeping the door from closing
all the way but now it was forcing the door back open
and holding it open wide and allowing even more of
these feelings to enter me. Feeling loved and feeling
needed... feeling happiness and love for another person...
all those feelings were finally cultivating inside me.


Instead of occurring gradually over the years with
nurturing from my parents, it was all happening at
once and it was a little scary. Scary but beautiful at
the same time.

=Crisis...=

	"Zac... I'm sorry." I pleaded through the bathroom
door.

"Fuck you!" He yelled, and I could hear the pain in
his voice.

"I just needed to know. I'm sorry if I hurt your
feelings or offended you. Please come out..."

"Fuck OFF!" He threw something at the door that I
assumed was his shoe.

"Please... forgive me." My hands shook against the door.

"Zac... please. You know I trust you. Don't be like
this."

"You TRUST me?!" He screamed through the door, "How
the fuck do you trust me but you ask if I slept with
Jake?!"

"It wasn't anything you did. I just... someone suggested
it and I couldn't help but wonder."

"How could you wonder?" He sobbed, kicking the door a
few more times, "How could you wonder about that?!"

"Zac, I'm so sorry. So sorry..." I laid my forehead
against the wall by the door.

He didn't say anything else for a few minutes and from
outside, I could hear him crying and it wasn't anger
or furious sobbing I heard but the sniffling and
whimpering of an injured crying. Suddenly, my heart
raced and my worry factor went off the charts as I
listened against the door.

"Zac... what happened? Are you OK?"

"No! I'm not fucking OK... first, you ask if I cheated
on you and now my goddamn fucking foot is fucking
bleeding..."

"Zac... let me in. Please."

There were a few minutes of silence before the lock in
the doorknob turned and a sense of relief washed over
me. Sliding into the bathroom, I saw Zac sitting
against the wall holding his left foot where a
bloodstain was spreading from his big toe. When I
first put my hand on his shoulder, he tensed up and
tried to pull away, but after a few seconds, he
untensed and began to sob as I pulled out the first
aid kit and treated his hurt toe. But it wasn't the
toe I was worried about. Because of my stupid
insecurities, I had insulted Zac and sent him into a
rage of pain. His eyes were red and he sniffled as I
finished bandaging him and sat back.

"Zac, I didn't mean to insult you..."

"Reid, you didn't insult me," His voice was much
softer but still angst-ridden, "How could you ever
think that I'd cheat on you? What have I ever done to
make you think that?"

"Time for a confession here." I sighed and rubbed my
hands together and leaned back against the wall
opposite Zac. He wiped his eyes and looked at me and I
could tell he was measuring me, trying to reconcile
that my feelings were still the same and my moment of
stupidity was just a freak occurrence that he wouldn't
have to worry about. He let his leg slide down and the
Band-Aid on his toe brushed my arm.

"I told you about my dad and all the shit he did."

"Yeah. Don't talk about it again."

"Well... my first boyfriend, this was when I was about
17... he and I were together and for a while, I thought
he was the one and it felt like love to me. We spent
almost all our time together and I really trusted him
and devoted myself fully to him and just really gave
everything I had. But at the end of my junior year in
high school, I found out that he was selling himself.
During our time together, he had sold himself to
teachers, other students, businessmen and police
officers who needed quick relief... hundreds... maybe
thousands of guys. So that's why I still have this
really deep seeded thing about being cheated on."

"Reid..."

"No, let me finish... he hurt me really bad. And that's
why I asked you..."

"Reid... I can't be with you anymore..."

"What? No, please... Zac..."

"You'll never trust me... so I'm just going to leave...
Bye, Reid."

"No... please don't leave me..."

"Sorry, Reid... I'm leaving now..."

No... Zac...

	My breath caught in my throat as I sat bolt upright
in bed and gasped for air. My face was drenched with
sweat and I struggled to get my bearings in the
darkness and in the midst, I fell off the bed and
nearly whacked my head on the desk. Zac was awake in
an instant and hugged me from behind, lifting me up
and pulling me onto the bed in the blackness. As he
helped me up, he whispered soothingly in my ear and
did his best to assist me in his still half sleep. My
body collapsed back on the bed and my system finally
got upright and Zac laid down next to me and kissed my
neck and forehead.

	"It's OK... it's OK..." He kept saying.

	"Zac..." I gasped, "I need to ask you something."

	"What is it?" He yawned, rubbing his eyes.

	"You and Jake are just friends, right?"

	He leaned over and switched on the bedside lamp,
stinging my eyes, "As in are we just friends and not
humping?"

	"Yeah... please don't be mad. It's just that I have
this thing about being cheated on and it's really
important so I'm sorry if it offends you but I had to
ask. Just don't leave, OK? I trust you and I just
needed to--"

	Zac silenced me by leaning in and kissing me softly
on the lips. He sat back and stroked my cheek, "Reid...
Jake is only my friend. He and I are not and have
never engaged in any sexual activity. Regardless of
what anyone else may say about it, he and I are only
friends and he and I will never be any more than
friends. OK?"

	"OK..." I looked down at my hands, feeling about an
inch tall, "I'm sorry, Zac."

	"Don't be sorry. Just trust me, OK? You're the only
one." He smiled and kissed me again.

	"I trust you."

	"Did someone hurt you? Is that why you have a 'trust
thing'?" He said and stroked my knee.

	"Yeah... it was a bad thing that happened."

	"Reid, you're going through a process where all these
bad things that happened are working their way out of
your body. And I'm here to help you deal with it and
I'm willing to deal with any questions or any weird
shit that happens as a part of it. I'm not going
anywhere and I'm not going to leave you," He said and
I was shocked at the maturity in his words.

	"I trust you, Zac."

	"Good," He spread his legs and slid up in front of
me, "And when you deal with all of it, I'm going to be
there."

	"OK..." I said, feeling the warm rush through my body.

	"Because... you're my honey bunny." He said and
babykissed my chin.

I rested my forehead against his and we sat there,
enjoying the shared body heat. After kissing him, I
reached down and pulled up his hand and looked at his
watch: 8:25am. We kissed again and he rested his arms
around my shoulders and held me securely. Eventually,
he laid back and pulled me with him and we just laid
there and kissed for a while. No sex or handjobs or
humping... just kissing and taking security in each
other's company. He rubbed his leg slowly up and down
against my leg and walked his fingers across my back
slowly.

"If you need to lean on me, Reid... you can. I'm pretty
strong." He said softly.

"I know you are Zac. I just need to learn how to lean
on someone else. I've been doing it by myself for so
long I've taught myself to feel like I don't need
anyone's help. To just accept being alone."

Zac closed his eyes and I could feel him tense.

"Damn him." He hissed softly.

"Don't worry about my dad. Fuck him, remember?"

"Yeah," Zac relaxed and smiled slightly, "Yeah, it
might be harder for me to let go of it than you."

"I just need to get past this last little thing he
taught me. To not be alone."

"Well, you're not alone anymore, Reid. You have me."
He reached down and squeezed my hand.

"I know." I said.

And I kissed him again. And again. And again.

=All visitors are to remain in the visitor's center.
Clearance to visit individual dormitories and sectors
can be given after proper request. Guards and
assistance agents are available at all times should
any conflict arise.=

	Agt. Anderson stepped out of the shuttle and gave
Angie a large berth as the tall young woman stepped
out of the car. She was carrying a steel briefcase
under her right arm and God help anyone who tried to
take them from her. They could put her best employee
in some prison in the tropics but they sure as hell
weren't going to take away the simple comforts she was
bringing to him. After stepping out of the car, Angie
adjusted her silk skirt and when Agt. Anderson went to
take her by the arm, she pulled it away.

	"You do that again, Col. Klink, and you get belted in
the face. Understand?" She barked.

	"Yes, ma'am." Agt. Anderson said and stepped away.

	Angie walked forward and looked up at the cloudy sky
on her way into the visitor's center. How the hell can
it be so hot and still be so damn unpleasant? She
thought to herself. Well, you can't expect anything
more from a world in which something like this would
be allowed to happen. After pushing the door open and
walking in, Angie smirked as she saw many of the
guards and staff members look at her as she walked up
to the desk. She was used to it. She was used to being
looked at and checked out. That was why she liked
Reid... he never ogled her and made her feel like some
freakish piece of meat that "could possibly be sexy if
she weren't so tall."

	The clerk behind the desk looked up at her approach,
"Name?"

	"Angelita Nicoro."

	"Name of resident, their date of birth, room number,
sector PIN ID code, and sector head." The clerk said,
looking back to his keyboard.

"Reid Lewis Cameron. October 30th, 1980, Room 33A.
#0023907 Sector DD-22A. Keri Barton." Angie said,
reeling the information off from memory.

"I'll need to look in the suitcase."

"Uh huh... you ready to pull back a stump?" She said
pleasantly.

"Ma'am... it's the rules. I have to inspect it."

"How's this... you bend over and I shove this phone
straight up your ass?"

"Ma'am... It's the rules."

"Tell you what. Since I'm in a good mood, I'll let you
look all up in this motherfucker." She handed the
suitcase to the clerk and looked at her Rolex, "But
the thing is, you have to do it in thirty seconds or
I'll make you a woman. Ready... go!"

The clerk searched the suitcase hurriedly, looking
through the posters and sheets of paper, and nearly
threw it back at her in his rush. Angie smiled
pleasantly and closed it back up.

"There. That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Sector head Barton--"

"Is waiting in the next room, ma'am. I've been here
before. Go back to your job."

Angie shook her head as she walked through the lobby
and through the doors into the next room where Keri
was sitting. When she saw Angie she looked up and
squinted.

"Hello Angie." She said, standing up.

"Hello Keri."

"You're looking nice. I like your shoes." Keri said
and smiled congenially.

"Thank you," Angie said, cocking her head to one side,
"Have you lost weight? You look much less... stout."

"Is that right?" Keri said, the elaborate kindness
leaving her voice.

"Yeah. It's important for us tall girls to not get too
chunky," Angie said in a matter-of-fact tone, "It's
good to see you doing your part finally. Did they stop
shipping in double dutch chocolate ice cream?"

Keri didn't say anything and took a deep breath,
barely managing to control her temper.

"Well, I'm sorry that I don't have the connections in
the Latin American underworld to get my stomach
stapled in some dingy tavern next to the cockfights."
She said and the smile came back to her face.

"I think I've figured it out!"

"Oh have you?"

"Yeah... you're not getting laid! All these beautiful,
sincere young men surround you... yet, you can't get
screwed to save your life. Or do you take advantage of
the 'denial cases'?"

"OK..." Keri thought for a moment, "You win this round."

Angie smiled and brushed the hair off her forehead.

"Reid's in there. You know the way."

"Thanks, Keri."

Angie walked down the hallway and up the ramp and
through the black door into the cavernous visitor's
center. She shook her head at the gray facelessness of
it... but then she smiled.

"Hey Cameron!" She shouted.

=A taste of the outside...=

	When the unmistakable sound of her voice rifled
through the room, something in me felt at ease. I
smiled and stood up and saw her. She looked different
from the last time I'd seen her. She looked more
feminine. She was wearing a nice silk skirt with a
rose pattern, a red shirt, and the ugliest pair of
slingback shoes I'd ever seen in my life. She stopped
a few feet in front of me as I looked in horror at her
shoes.

	"What the hell, Angie?! You couldn't wear nicer shoes
to see me?"

	"Shut up, Reid." She said and smiled.

	We hugged and I felt the instant comfort of a
familiar person against me. One thing about her that I
always appreciated was that she always smelled good.
Even when we were working underground in 128-degree
heat under some rock formation in Kenya, she smelled
like freesia and honeysuckle. She stepped back from me
and looked me over skeptically.

	"You look good. Do they treat you OK here?" She asked
as we sat down.

	"They treat me fine, Angie. You don't need to
mentally kickbox with Keri."

	"Hey, she does it right back to me!"

	"Is that those USAF diplomatic skills they teach
you?"

	"Hey... I came all the way here to visit you and all I
get is abuse. Thanks a lot."

	"Oh, I'm sorry," I said sheepishly, "How is
everything back in heteroland?"

	"It's going all right. How caught up are you?"

	"I was up on everything right before the election."

	"Oh..." She rolled her eyes, "Well, George W. Bush
tampered with Ralph Nader's airline arrangements so
Nader was late to the debate. But thankfully, everyone
was smart enough to see through it and re-elect Nader.
He also tried to get the whole compound system
abolished again but the heavy balance of republicans
in congress shouted it down. Vice President Ventura is
reportedly working on a mandate or bill or something
that is supposedly going to call for psychiatric
reviews to determine which gay guys are indeed safe to
live back in society. So that's pretty good."

	"It sure is. Any word on how long it'll take?"

	She shook her head, "I really don't know. It was only
theory when I left and I don't think much has
changed."

	"Oh... well, at least it's developing as a concept," I
sighed, "Anyone new come out of the closet?"

	"Oh my yes. Apparently, two of the Backstreet Boys
were having secret affairs with two of the guys from
O-Town. That's the only one I can think of. There have
been several symbolic comings out. Tim Robbins, Susan
Sarandon, Kurt Russel, and Goldie Hawn all claimed to
be gay and that was pretty funny."

	"Well, they are right here with us so it's doing a
lot of good." I said and rolled my eyes.

	"Yeah, it is isn't it?" She laughed. She had a very
infectious laugh.

	"Any other non-gay related news in the biz?"

	"Well... the biggest thing is gay related, actually."

	"What is it?"

	"Apparently, Reid... you're becoming something of a
celebrity. There's going to be an article in Esquire
about 'The Talented Mr. Cameron' or something like
that. You have quite a following in the gay community
as well. Everyone has been asking me about you and
your father was nearly beaten to death in the parking
lot of his office."

	"That's too bad." I said without much conviction.

	"GQ has said they plan to contact you about an
interview." She began laughing again.

	"What's so funny?"

	"Nothing. GLAAD also announced that you and Zac are
their 'couple of the year'." She said and began
laughing again.

	"Yeah. Ha ha ha ha... skanky Reid finally finds
happiness. Sounds like comedy to me."

	"Oh Reid... where is he anyway? I want to meet him."
She said and my stomach tensed up.

	"Angie, do you promise to behave?"

	"Of course."

	"Don't embarrass him. And he's probably gonna touch
you a lot. He's very touchy feely."

	"What the hell is he doing with you, then?" She said
and I glared at her.

	"Sorry." She said.

	"Wait here and I'll get him."

	She sat down at one of the tables at the end of the
row as I went through the swinging doors and into the
dark connecting hallway. My hands shook a little when
I walked into the hallway outside the visitor's center
and then something odd happened. Zac was sitting in
his usual aloof way in a chair against the wall but as
soon as I saw him, my knees felt week. I got a weird
fluttery feeling in my stomach when I looked at him
and to be quite honest, it was scary. My head felt so
light that I had to lean against the wall until my
head wasn't so weightless feeling and my feet could be
trusted to walk again with a reasonable amount of
security. Zac was busy poking at the bruise on his
knee and, yet again, it brought a smile to my face as
I walked over to him.

	"You ready?" I asked.

	He looked up at me and smiled, "Yup. Where is she?"

	"She's in there. Come on." I said and after about two
steps, I felt Zac leap onto my back and wrap his arms
around me.

	My legs buckled momentarily but oddly enough, Zac
jumping on my back and nearly making me collapse gave
me a funny feeling of security. Zac was my security
blanket. A longhaired, hyper, adolescent security
blanket... but that's irony for you, in some form or
another. All my life was spent trying to make things
as boring and unimaginative as possible but the one
person that brought me happiness was Zac Hanson. The
whole thing made me think of an essay I read once
about irony in it's most pure form is entirely
perverted. They obviously knew what they were talking
about.

	Carrying Zac wasn't the easiest job in the world but
I managed to get us both into the visitor's center.
Zac jumped down and introduced himself to Angie,
making the required comment about her height and doing
his trademark "handshake into the wrist grip" that I'd
grown so accustomed to. He wasn't immediately
intimidated by her which put her at ease, I think.

	"So... this is Zac." She said, leaning back and looking
at him. Zac did a cute little "arms over his head
pirouette".

	"Yeah, that's him." I said.

	"He's bigger than I thought he'd be."

	"Feel free to talk directly to him."

	"Let's sit down." She said and we sat down. I was
more worried about what she'd say to Zac than the
other way around.

	"Well... Seventeen Magazine was right. You two are a
cute couple."

	"Thanks. Of course I'm doing all the work." Zac said.

	"I believe it. Reid kinda lets himself go, huh?"

	"God, yes. He goes a week without combing his hair."
Zac said and I made a sour face.

	"Back when we worked together, we called him 'Skanky
McTrash' because he always looked like he was getting
back from an all night rave. Has he told you about the
nursing home thing?"

	"Okay! That's enough conversation!" I said, trying to
avert the situation.

	"No no no!" Zac said, grinning, "I want to hear about
this nursing home thing."

	"You ain't gonna." I said.

	"Sure, he is." Angie said, "What happened was the
crew that I run was contracted to do some work at this
nursing home. So we get there and we start to work on
cleaning out this little stretch of land and after
about ten minutes, we hear these police sirens. So
these officers get here and they start hassling Reid
and playing the whole 'come with us sir' thing. They
question Reid and he says he's working there and then
they come talk to me and I assure them that Reid is
just working."

	"Why did the police come?" Zac asked, preparing for
the punchline.

	"Well, it appears that Reid had set off a chain of
hysteria in the old people at the place. They had
started freaking out that some 'seedy looking young
man' was on the grounds and they were going to be
robbed and killed!" She could barely finish because
she was laughing so hard.

	"Is that all?" Zac asked, laughing right along with
her.

	"No. What happened was that all these old people had
swallowed their wedding rings and valuables to keep
them away from Reid in case he broke in. So this
nursing home tried to sue me for the ex-lax and stuff
that they had to buy and the hospital treatment that
some of these old people needed! But they were
ill-equipped to handle it and they needed a cleaning
crew to come in and remove the stains that had gotten
everywhere..."

	Angie and Zac were soon howling with laughter as I
sat there and bit my lip, nodding slightly, "Yeah
yeah... real funny. A bunch of old people had to go to
the hospital and walked around with shit hanging out
of their asses. Let's laugh it up. Haw haw haw."

	"Reid... you gotta admit it's kinda funny..." Zac panted.

	"Yeah. The halls were flowing with 80 year old
diarrhea because of you." Angie said and they broke up
again.

	"Uh huh... anyway!"

	Angie wiped her eyes and laughed again a few times
before plunking the briefcase on the table, "I brought
you some comforts from home, Reid."

	All was forgiven as I opened the briefcase and looked
inside. The first things I noticed were the assorted
movie posters. She had managed to bring me the box
office art for The Blair Witch Project, Summer of Sam,
and American Pie, three movies which I specifically
praised the posters for. Zac took the American Pie
poster and ran his fingers over the pictured bare
torso, shivering as he stroked the nipples until I
elbowed him gently. Angie laughed and stacked the
posters next to the box. The next thing out was a
really nice picture of Mt. Rainier, the main mountain
in Washington State and the place where I'd worked
several times. She'd also brought me a stack of
notebook paper and when I opened them and saw the
print, my heart ached.

	"How did you get these?" I asked her.

	"They sent them to me. They had to do it secretly so
your dad wouldn't find out."

	"I'll read them later." I said and set them under the
posters.

	"Are you OK?" Zac asked and tenderly rubbed my arm.

	"Yeah... I'm fine. We'll talk about it later." I said
and Angie smiled reassuringly.

	My attention turned back to the long white box on the
bottom of the briefcase and when I pulled it out,
Angie smiled lewdly. I had no idea what it was until I
opened the box and looked inside, and instantly I felt
my face turn a deep shade of red. Angie began laughing
and I fumbled for words. Zac grabbed the box and
looked inside, and he too began laughing.

	She had brought me a vibrator.

	"Angie..." I said with an edge.

	"That's just in case Zac gets bored with you."

	"That ain't gonna happen... but we're gonna try it out
anyway." Zac said, admiring the light pink surface and
ridged texture of the apparatus, looking at it like it
was the Holy Grail.

	"Stop looking at it like that!" I whined and stuffed
it under the posters.

	Zac pouted as we gathered up the stuff and stood up
from the table.

	"Well, Reid. I'm glad you're happy." She said.

	"I'm glad you came to see me, Angie."

	She smiled and hugged me one more time before turning
to Zac, "Nice to meet you. You take care of Reid."

	"Will do." Zac said.

	She leaned in close, "If you ever need to bring him
down, tickle him right under his belly button."

	"OK, that's enough! Bye Angie!" I said, giving her a
joking push towards the doors.

	We walked out of the swinging doors of the visitor's
center and onto the platform. Zac looked up at the sky
and held out his hand to feel for raindrops and the
air was unusually humid, and it made me a little
uncomfortable to be out in it. The sky was gray and
the air was hot and oppressive. Zac wasted no time in
pulling off his shirt and draping it over his shoulder
as Angie gave a sharp look to an agent who tried to
hurry her along. After one more hug for both of us,
she kissed me on the cheek and winked before stepping
into the shuttle and speeding away. We both stood
there for a few seconds as I shifted the stuff she'd
brought me from one arm to the other and mopped my
forehead with the other hand and took a deep breath in
the stifling tropical air.

	Zac laid his head on my shoulder and we stood there
for a few seconds. I felt drops of sweat sliding down
the center of my back under my shirt as the humidity
bore down on me. I looked at Zac and he smiled
affably, and I looked out at the vast expanse of
greenery and hills out past the platform, but as much
as I wanted to have some great revelation, it just
wasn't happening. Maybe it was the heat, or the
humidity, or the weather, or whatever it was... my mind
drew a blank. But it was OK and as I draped my arm
around Zac's bare shoulders, a genuine smile found
it's way onto my face. Not even the cold sweat
draining into my asscrack could make me uncomfortable
and for the first time, memories of my parents didn't
invade the moment and it was a liberating sensation.

	The weather was becoming a little too clammy and if
we didn't move, Zac and I would be plastered together
like two melted chocolate Easter bunnies. We stumbled
back towards the doors into the visitor's center and
for one of the first times, I leaned on Zac. My body
relied on his for strength and to my surprise, he was
quite comforting. He was my security blanket, after
all.

=News...=

	It was still just as amazing. Everytime that Zac and
I had sex, it was always just as exciting and
mind-blowing, as it was the first time we were
together. Being surprised about it was a little lame
sounding but all my life, I'd heard about how if
you're in love that every time would be just like the
first time. Being the cynic that I'd been brought up
to be, of course I doubted it and always assumed that
after the first time, it would only go downhill and
the orgasms would get less and less intense. And sorry
to say, my two prior relationships had done very
little to prove that wrong. But my relationship with
Zac, in a lot of ways, in no little part was about
proving all my prior experiences in human relations
wrong.

	Zac shifted under me and I felt the warm mound of his
ass rub against my crotch, creating an amazingly
pleasant sensation. He murmured softly and snuggled
back against me and in the dim light provided by the
desk lamp, his hair looked dark and shapeless. I ran
my fingers through it and pulled it back behind his
neck and held in a ponytail, exposing the side of his
face against the sheet. No words were needed as my
fingers traced patterns over his bare back and left
small white imprints before the blood flowed back into
the cells. I pressed my palm against the muscles of
his shoulderblades and massaged him firmly and he
shifted under my hand and moaned softly. I let go of
the ponytail and dropped the hair across his upper
back and it made a soft thump in the silent room.

	It felt so peaceful. Something about the situation
felt so good as I pulled the sheet down his body and
off him completely, revealing the naked backside of
his body. My eyes slowly traveled down from his back
to the curved mound of his ass to the strong, thick
muscles of his thighs. I reached out and gently
caressed the warm skin, rubbing his lower back and
bringing the palm of my hand over and onto his ass,
squeezing one cheek then the other, fondling my way
further down. I pressed my fingers into his thighs and
he rolled onto his side slightly and lifted his left
leg up, giving me more room. My fingers stroked slowly
onto the soft flesh of his inner thigh and just barely
using my fingertips to caress his skin. Zac shivered
and under my hand, I could feel goosebumps standing up
on his leg. Using a slow, gentle petting technique
that I knew drove him crazy, I brought my fingers down
to the smooth skin behind his knee and stroked the
skin at a snail's pace.

	He gasped as I used my sexual proficiency to enhance
the moment as I slid over next to him and kissed the
back of his neck gently. I paid special attention to
the exact millimeter of skin under my lips and took
delicate care in making sure it was of the least
possible pressure. Zac whimpered and kicked the bed
with his right leg, giving me exactly the response I
was hoping for. His hand gripped the side of the bed
and I went in for the kill, just barely touching the
back of his neck with the tip of my tongue. It was all
he could stand and he jerked and sat up.

	Just as I was about to lean in and kiss him, the
buzzer on the door went off. Zac groaned and laid back
covering himself with the sheet as I pulled myself out
of bed and wrapped a towel around my waist and pulled
the door open. It was Keri... again.

	"Wow... déjà vu." She said with a smirk.

	"Yeah, very funny. I didn't have time to dress up."

	"Well, its déjà vu in a couple ways. You and your
charming towel motif, and then when we did something
very similar a few months ago."

	"What are you talking about?" I sighed.

	"Can I come in?"

	"Sure. We're only trying to bask in the afterglow." I
said and waved her inside.

	She walked in and leaned against the dresser and I
noticed she had a manila envelope in her hand.

	"I have some news for you guys. Particularly you,
Zac."

	"Huh?" Zac said, suddenly interested as he rolled
over on his stomach, just narrowly keeping his bare
ass under the sheet.

	"Apparently, your brother Taylor has come out of the
closet."

	"Wow..." I said, surprised that all the rumors and
fantasies were actually true, "So he's gay? Wow."

	"Yeah. He called the retrieval service on his own and
to his credit, he didn't seem all that scared." She
said, opening the envelope.

	"What does that have to do with us?" Zac asked
cagily.

	"He said he'd sign the confession document if he was
brought here. It was on the condition that he'd be
brought to the same sector as you, Zac." She took out
the blue piece of carbon paper and handed it to me,
"Zac already knows that stuff. You probably do too but
that's just to refresh your memory."

	"So what do we need to do?" I asked, looking at the
paper.

	"I need to have both your approvals on it. His mother
made a special call to me personally saying that if
you two didn't agree to it, she would use her status
as Taylor's guardian to claim he wasn't in his right
mind when he made the call. It's really up to you
guys. Taylor said very clearly that he wasn't happy
and if this is the only way he can be himself, then
it's what he has to do."

	"So his happiness is in our hands?" I asked,
impressed with her spin doctoring skills.

	Keri shrugged, "That all depends."

	"How long do we have to consider it?"

	"You have an hour. In sixty minutes, his mother will
lose her guardianship rights." She said and I felt so
bad for the whole Hanson family.

	"Let's bring him in." Zac said and he was smiling.

	"You sure?" Keri asked, "You don't want to think
about it?"

	"I'm cool with it if you are, Reid?" He said and
looked at me.

	"Sure. I mean, why not live out every gay Hanson
fan's dream? Let him in, Keri."

	She smiled and rubbed her hands together, "Thank you.
Both of you."

	"Where is he going to be staying?" Zac asked, the
concern returning to his voice.

	"Well... that depends on how welcome you want him to
feel."

	"A guilt trip! Very nice, Barton." I said and she
looked at me with an overstated look of offense.

	"I'm not guilt tripping you guys. I'm just saying
that he's going to feel more comfortable if he spends
his first few days with someone he knows."

	"Someone like his little brother?" I asked and
couldn't keep the exhaustion out of my voice.

	"Oh man," Zac groaned, "Reid, if you thought my feet
stank..."

	"Well, he'll be here for the wedding. Are you going
to bring in an extra bed?" I asked, rubbing my
forehead and getting increasingly unable to conquer
the anticipation in my voice.

	"That's the thing, Reid. We're short on beds right
now. What I thought was that he could share--"

	"You're kidding me!" I interrupted and clenched my
fists, trying to stop the shaking.

	"I don't think he's gonna try anything Reid. Or maybe
he will. You guys can deal with it." She said and
headed for the door.

	"Thanks, Keri."

	"So the answer is yes?" She was smiling.

	"Yeah... the answer is yes." I shook my head.

	"Great, I'll go call them and let them know."

	I shut the door and lurched back to the bed,
overwhelmed by the recent developments and after a few
seconds, I looked over at Zac. I wasn't exactly sure
what I expected from him. Would he be excited, happy,
sad, angry, resentful... or would he be mad at me for
agreeing to it? When I looked over at him and we made
eye contact, a smile slowly found it's way onto his
face and he began to laugh. He grabbed my shoulders.

	"Reid... you're mine. Remember that when he takes his
shirt off."

	"Oh Jesus... I'm gonna have a Hanson on either side of
me." I couldn't help but smile at the thought.

	"Every gay Hanson fan's dream, right?" He leaned in
and kissed me.

	"Thank you." He whispered.

	"For what?"

	"For letting my doofy older brother be himself
finally."

	"My pleasure."

	"You're gonna get along really well with him. After
he gets used to it here and gets settled, we'll have a
good time."

	All I could do was sigh. And smile slightly for
Devon.

=To Be Continued...=