Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 14:41:11 +0000 (GMT)
From: Mike Arram <mikearram@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Henry in the Outfield 10

This is my fifth gay erotic novella on Nifty.  The four earlier ones
chronicle -- in different ways -- episodes in the same love affair: They
are, in order: 'The Decent Inn' and 'Terry and the Peachers' in the Nifty
archive under the College section; 'The Heart of Oskar Prinz' in
Beginnings, and 'The Chav Prince' in High School.  This, however, is a very
different kind of story.  But different though it is, I have to confess
that I went under to the temptation to include some earlier characters of
whom I am particularly fond.  Nevertheless this is the story of Henry and
Edward, who, as Justin unkindly says, may sound like refugees from Thomas
the Tank Engine, but they aren't.
  The story contains graphic depictions of sex between young males.  If the
reading or possessing of such material as this is illegal in your place of
residence please leave this site immediately and do not proceed further.
If you are under the legal age to read this, please do not do so.


X

Henry was fast asleep in Ed's lap when the Volvo reached Dover for the
night crossing to Antwerp.  Ed woke him up. The car queued for a half hour
before the loading began.  After that, they locked it up and headed for the
upper decks and the cafeteria.  The cannier travellers had already
appropriated the more comfortable seats in the lounges.  Dad had saved some
money by not booking cabins.  'You can't sleep in them, so you might as
well doze in a seat,' he said, a little defensively.
  'Dutch cuisine ... mmm!' said Henry, with something of a grimace.
  'Potatoes and whipped cream. Gorgeous,' Ed grinned.
  'Do I detect a certain degree of criticism in the air?'
  'Oh no, Mr Atwood, perish the thought,' said Ed piously, as Mum tittered.
Ed was thoroughly comfortable with Henry's parents, in ways that he
admitted he never had been with any other adults.  It had been a happy week
when he came down from Scotland and took up residence in the rectory.  He
had slept in the rather poky spare room.  Since the house had been so full,
the two boys had kept to their own beds, confining themselves to oral sex
and masturbation when they were supposed to be in Henry's room gaming.
They spent a lot of time discussing the events in Trewern Great Wood in
1795.
  'What do we know?' Henry eventually summed up.  'Nathaniel and Jed,
already lovers, went into the woods, and only Nathaniel walked out.  He was
suspected of a hand in the affair, but the surgeon and coroner said
otherwise.  Jed's body was unmarked, apparently.  I'd be happy to go along
with the inquest but for two facts.  The first is that Nathaniel ran away
to join the army very soon after, and spent the next two decades getting
very frustrated with the fact that every bullet and bayonet he jumped in
front of missed him.  Sounds like a man guilty of something to me.'
  Ed agreed.
  'The second fact is that Jed won't leave me alone.  He wants to show me
something.  Why? Not a clue.  But he isn't going to give up till I've seen
what it is, and, really, I don't want to see it.'
  'I'm sorry, Henry.  I wish it could be otherwise.  The only strategy that
suggests itself is that we try to convince your Dad, and get him to do some
priest stuff to make sure Jed lies quiet.'
  'My Dad doesn't believe in ghosts.'
  'You what?  He's a priest.  How can he refuse to believe in the
supernatural?'
  'I didn't say he didn't believe in the supernatural.  He believes that
there are unseen forces at work behind visible Creation and not all of them
are nice.  Besides, he's a big Buffy fan; he's got all the DVDs.'
  'So what's the difference?'
  'Well, his theology is that death is a one-way ticket, just like in the
story of Dives and Lazarus.  There's no coming back, not even to warn your
loved ones.'
  'Ha!' said Ed, 'I bet that's a position you won't accept any more.'
  'Damn right,' Henry snorted.  So nothing was said.

After the meal in the cafeteria, Mum and Dad found a corner to settle in,
and the boys went to explore the large ferry, now throbbing as its engines
began to cope with a Channel swell.  They went out on to the deck, but it
was a cold night and heavy spray was sweeping the decks.  They watched the
orange light in the sky above Dover fade behind them as the prow turned up
Channel and ploughed into the swell.  The boat began a gradual rise and
plunge that made Ed feel a bit uncomfortable.
  'Romantic isn't it?' said Henry, in all sincerity.  There was something
deeply symbolic in the way the ship took them out on to the dark breast of
the sea, the blackness closing round them.  His mood was also influenced by
the fact that Jed Scudamore was already separated from him by miles of cold
salt water.
  To Ed's relief Henry decided to go back in.  They staggered a little on
the stairs back down to the lounge as the ship wallowed in a cross sea.
'Don't like this,' complained Ed.  It was an uncomfortable night.  The ship
throbbed and shook, and the sea sent it steadily up and down.
  'Ed, you're green!'  marvelled Henry.
  'Feel terrible,' Ed replied.  And then he was up weaving into the nearby
men's room, Henry following him concernedly.  He threw up into a loo.  He
kneeled gasping over the stainless steel bowl, as Henry stood looking on
compassionately.  Eventually he wiped his mouth and staggered to his feet.
  'Better now?' Henry asked anxiously.
  'A bit.  Seems I'm seasick.'
  'It's a rough night, Ed.'
  'Tell me that you weren't enjoying your revenge for that night in the
King Billy.'
  Henry smiled, 'I may be a little person, but I'm not small-minded.  Here,
blow your nose.'
  But even the roughest night comes to an end.  The sky was lightening into
grey as the ferry surged past the mole of the port of Antwerp and into
suddenly calm water.  The ferry engines roared and then backed the
propellers.  The ship slid gently into its moorings as the tannoys summoned
drivers to their cars and lorries.
  Henry was the navigator.  He had the sort of mind that was good with
maps, so he and Ed pored over the route in the back, while Mum managed the
CD player and when they were bored with her collection of eighties
classics, led them in silly songs.
  After the millionth chorus of 'Roll me Over', Ed turned to Henry and
said, 'Henry, you really do have the most awful singing voice.'
  'Thank you for the honesty, dear Edward.'
  'It's sad,' said Mum.  'He was such a sweet little kid, always humming to
himself as he played with his Lego and Playmobil, but as soon as he tried
to sing nursery rhymes, the ceiling cracked and graves opened.  Horrible.
But we love him, so we try to come to terms with the burst eardrums.'
  Antwerp was difficult to get out of, but soon they were on the
autoroutes, and they crossed the German frontier at ten thirty.  They found
a service station, and had a big breakfast.  'I just love the bratwurst,'
admitted Henry in a whisper, '... not unlike a certain other sausage shaped
thing I like to get my lips round.'
  'Later, hungry Henry' Ed whispered back.
  Dad dozed for a while in the car before they returned to the roads.  By
evening they had made Munich, and found their way to a gasthaus that Dad
had stayed in before.  The rooms were cheap and clean, and the boys had
twin beds, which they pushed together.  They lay together naked and watched
Sky, kissing and stroking, sucking each other and then joining their
crotches and bringing themselves off by mutual friction, the way they
liked.  They washed each other's sweaty and cum-stained bodies in the room
sink.  They were not en suite.  Before they went to sleep Henry and Ed
plotted tomorrow's route.
  'We get to the frontier about midday, autoroute all the way,' Henry said.
  'Then we stop here, at Rechtenstern, for lunch.  Got the guide book?'

They started at seven thirty from Munich and penetrated the foothills of
the Alps.  About eleven they reached the frontier and saw the red, white
and black tricolour of Rothenia flapping over the traffic control point.
They joined the car lanes and swept past the big queue of lorries being
checked by border police.  They were not stopped, and drove on direct to
Rechtenstern, a small industrial city within a horseshoe of the Rothenian
Alps.  The view to the south, where the mountains rose, was sensational.
  'I came here back in 1979, on a school skiing trip,' said Dad.  'It was
still communist ruled in those days of course. I thought the people were
really nice, although I was only fourteen at the time.  But there were
police and soldiers everywhere.  It's all changed now, even the uniforms.
They used to have those big Russian-style peaked caps, but now they all
look like Yanks.'
  'Change of imperial role model, I suppose' Ed said.  'Between the wars,
the Rothenian services copied the British, and before the Great War, the
Prussians.  I got this book of uniforms of the world out of the library
before I left school.  It's pretty informative on who's top nation at any
one time.'
  Rechtenstern was a busy town with lots of new light industry growing up
along the motorway.  'Look, an IKEA!' yelled Henry, 'And an MFI!  It could
be Slough, with proper mountains!'
  'The economy here is changing fast since the country joined the EU,' Mum
chipped in.  'There's quite a mini-boom going on, according to the
Economist.  GNP went up 40% last year and unemployment is way down.
There's a huge amount of inward investment and Strelzen's rivalling Prague
as the tourist destination of choice in Central and Eastern Europe.  Which
reminds me.  Henry and Edward, Strelzen's got a bit of a reputation as a
hard drinking and partying city.  It's supposed to be safe, but there's
parts of it that'll be off limits to you.'
  'We can be trusted, honest,' complained Henry.
  'Henry, no adolescent boy can be trusted.  I state that as established
fact.  So no going to the Wejg.'
  'The what?'
  'Look it up in your book.  You don't go there.'
  The boys shrugged.  They had no plans for dissolute living other than
that which they arranged for themselves under their duvets.
  Lunch at Rechtenstern was a bit of a disappointment.  There was a
McDonalds in the main street, but Mum and Dad got very sniffy about the
boys' preference for cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches.
  'It's all very well for a pair of sixteen year olds,' Mum retorted. 'You
can eat anything and your body will vaporise it into pure energy, but me
and your father, we don't need to collaborate with our bodies' programming
to fall to pieces.'
  The end result was that they had a rather poor offering of schnitzel and
pallid vegetables in a drab café in a side street, that Dad had hopefully
said looked ethnic.  The service seemed to be communist vintage, but at
least it was cheap and the staff spoke a sort of English.
  They didn't stop at Rechtenstern to do tourism.  They needed to be in the
capital by evening, to get the keys to the clergy flat from the warden of
St Edward the Confessor, the Anglican church in Strelzen, which was Dad's
exchange.

'Wow,' marvelled Edward, 'I see what they mean.  This must be the most
beautiful city in the world!'
  The Volvo had had crested the bluffs that overlooked the river valley of
the Starel as it looped lazily down to the Danube, and Strelzen was spread
out below them, red pantiled roofs, gardens, baroque domes, medieval spires
and towers, and elegant limestone bridges.  Dad pulled into a layby for a
look.
  'It's like someone took the choicest pieces of architecture the west had
ever devised and put them all together,' Henry gasped.  'Oh man!  I'm
having an aesthetics overdose!  Quick, someone give me a picture of a
sixties tower block!'
  'Is that the cathedral up there on the hill, with the three tall spires?'
Ed asked.
  Dad laughed, 'Yes, and the abbey of St Waclaw and all sorts of wonderful
medieval houses.  That's the Old City, the Staramesten.  Just past the
suburbs is the quarter of the Sudmesten, where we'll be living, and the
Novomesten, the New City, lies beyond.  Something tells me that you're in
for a very interesting month, boys.'
  'Oh, you bet, Mr Atwood,' said Edward.
  Henry was already hard at work on the city map, and navigated them with
considerable finesse past the outer ring road, and on to the inner city
boulevards.  They got to the central station and then it got harder as they
entered the twisting streets of the eighteenth- century suburb south of the
city walls, the Sudmesten.  But even this could not defeat Henry, and with
a certain panache the Volvo drew up outside the apartment block at
Konigstrasse 122, where there was a parking bay with Apt 6 on it.
  They got out and stretched, and took in the foreign smells of this
ancient and beautiful city, which, since a boulangerie was just down the
road included the smell of fresh bread.  Dad got on his mobile, and they
looked around as they waited for the warden to turn up.  Ed and Henry
looked at each other and gave a little grin, they were desperately excited
and could not wait to be off.  If the warden had been any later, they would
have suggested that they should go and start exploring, but the man's Fiat
pulled in next to them after only twenty minutes.
  Mr Neave was an expatriot and retired businessman who reminded Henry
irresistibly of Dr Mac, although he was a bit younger.  He led them in
through the front doors and into the rickety lift.  The smell in the
hallway was a bit ripe.  The lift deposited them on the third floor, and
they found no 6.  It was a two bedroom apartment, with small lounge,
kitchen and bathroom.  The chaplain, by now resident in Trewern, seemed to
be very much into Orthodox icons, judging by the décor.  Henry and Edward
dumped their bags on the double bed in the second bedroom.  They looked at
each other.  Did Mum and Dad know this was the arrangement?
  They came out of the bedroom as Mr Neave was leaving.
  'Mum,' said Henry, 'Is there anything you haven't told me?'
  'What do you mean dear?'
  'There's only one bed in here.'
  'And that's a problem because ...?'  Mum looked at Dad, and he shrugged.
'Henry, it's time for a little talk with you and Edward.  There's no need
for that scared look either.  There, sit down.  Now, me and your father are
perfectly well aware that you and Edward are more than just friends.  Oh ...
yes, it's been clear for months.  The look when your eyes meet is all the
evidence we need that you're ... doing more than playing computer games
together.  Now you're not going to deny it are you?'
  The boys looked at each other and shook their heads.
  'We thought not.  Now, you are lovable and fine young men and we love you
both ... both you notice.  We trust you to behave sensibly, or as sensibly
as late teens can.  The law allows you to practice your sexuality, and
you've both discovered that you're gay.  So we couldn't stand in your way,
other than to try and separate you.  But we love you too much to do that,
and we couldn't make you unhappy.  So, no more hiding.  We are happy for
you to sleep together and just urge you to try to be safe in the way you
experiment with sex.'
  Ed's mouth was hanging open.  Tears welled up in Henry's eyes.  He went
over to his mother, and kissed and hugged her, and then did the same to his
father.  When he looked around, he found that Ed was in tears too, and
embracing his mum.
  'Mrs Atwood ...' he said, half choking, 'I never believed that there
really were people like you, thank you so much.  I do love Henry, and being
accepted like this, it's ...'  He could not go on.
  Dad wiped his eyes, and grinned in a very Henry-like way, as Ed noticed.
'Now, my dears. We've got that out of the way, and we can get on with our
lives.  So how about dinner on the town?'

Dad made up for the disaster of lunch by finding a really good Rothenian
restaurant for dinner.  The food was a rich stew of beef and mushrooms,
with the local rye bread and vegetables.  They were stuffed at the end of
it.  The waiters were very friendly and obliging.  They returned to the
apartment in the beautiful evening light that lay over the city.  It lit up
the limestone facades pink.
   A distant clanging came from the tramline down the street as a car
rumbled by, but otherwise the city was serene and the air warm.  The boys
felt sleepy and happy, and Ed was walking arm in arm with Mum.  Henry had
no more anxieties in his life.  His beautiful boy friend was loved by his
parents as much as they loved him.  There was no more concealment needed at
home, and they could be themselves.  They had held hands during the meal
and it had felt so good.
  They said goodnight to Mum and Dad and went in to their bedroom.  They
looked at each other, savouring the moment.  Then they purposefully
undressed and lay on their bed, kissing and stroking.  After a while, Ed
broke off and knelt up, looking down on his lover.
  'Henry, I think it's time.'
  'You mean, am I ready for bum sex?  Oh yeah, it's time.  I want you
inside me, Ed.  And I think I may be the one who goes under.  Ever since
that mad moment in my bedroom, I just fantasise all the time about you
pushing into me, and how it'll feel.  But I don't know what to do other
than to lie down and take it.'
  Ed gave a low laugh.  He kissed Henry, lying on the bed in front of him.
'Henry, I did my research on the web, and I went to get a few items from
the chemist before I left Edinburgh.  They're in my bag here.  I got
condoms in case you'd rather we used them.  I know neither of us could
possibly be infected with anything, but you might prefer not to get my crap
on your dick when it's in me.  And I got this bottle of lube, we can't do
it without it.  And you remember how sore the soap made our holes.'
  'Do you want to put a condom on to screw me?'
  'No.  I want to feel your inner skin rubbing against my skin.  It gives
me a hard on just thinking about it.'
  'Then skin on skin it is.  But I'll go to the loo and have a shit now,
and then clean myself out when my hole is still loose.  OK?'
  'OK.  Don't be long.'
  Henry scampered off in his boxers and was back within minutes, looking
coy.  he dropped his underpants and asked, 'What do I do Henry?'
  'We'll do it on all fours and I'll take you from behind, OK?  So kneel
down on that soft bit of carpet, and ... oh, God, you look so sexy, so slim,
and that bum of yours is sensational.'
  Henry grinned back over his shoulder as Ed got behind him.  He took a
tentative few licks at Henry's exposed anus, examining the small crater and
putting a finger to it.  It was still a little slick from the recent wash,
and so when he pushed with his index finger it opened to him and let him in
easily to the first joint.
  'Ooh!  Oh!' cooed Henry, 'That's OK.  Not bad at all.'
  'Good,' smiled Ed, 'but we got a long way to go, little babe.'
  'You called me "little babe".'
  'Sorry.  Is that OK?  It's just that I need special love words for you,
Henry, this don't seem a place and time to be formal.'
  'Little babe is lovely, Ed.  It gives me shivers.'
  Ed got the bottle and oiled his fingers and drizzled the milky lube on to
Henry's crack, and worked it into his anus.  'Now, my little babe, try and
relax your arse.  The stories say you've got to act like you're taking a
crap, so try that.'  Henry strained and Ed pushed.  Two of his fingers were
now deep into his lover.  Ed laughed a little.  You're so hot in there,
Henry, and all soft and nice.  How does it feel?'
  'Full, and not too comfortable, but it's OK.  Ooh, I felt you scissor
your fingers, then.  Is it giving at all?'
 'Like a thick elastic band.'  Ed worked patiently for a while, and when he
pulled out his fingers, Henry's hole didn't close immediately.  'Henry,
I've just got to suck your sweet little nuts while I've got you in this
position, it's just too tempting,' and he began licking and sucking down
from Henry's oily crack, along his perineum to his hanging brown balls.
Henry's cock was soon fully erect, and Ed pulled it back and gave it a wet
and slurping suckle.  Then Ed got back to work on Henry's sphincter, more
forceful now, and ignoring his lover's little yelps and cries.  Henry
arched and grimaced when he finally got three fingers deep into him, and
cried out.
  'Shall I stop?  Is it hurting?'
  'No.  Well, yes.  It is hurting, but don't stop.  Your cock is going to
hurt even more.  Are you ready?'
  Ed knelt directly behind Henry and oiled up his erection.  He fitted the
broad purple head at Henry's entry, a bit dubious as to whether it could
take his size.  But now was not the time to lose confidence.  He knelt up
over Henry's slim back, kissing the shoulder blades below him.  Then he
made a tentative push.  His dick caught briefly and slid up the crack.
  'Try holding it, Ed, while you push.'
  Ed tried again, pressing his cock head into the small pucker of the anus,
and gripping it steady as he pushed again.  It caught, but it was going no
further.  'Relax, Henry,' he urged.  He increased the pressure but felt
only a slight give as his glans squashed into the depression in Henry's
crack.  It was frustrating.  In the end, Ed gave Henry a sharp jab, but his
cock bent and slid off.
  'Patience, Ed.  Try the fingers again.'  So Ed got back behind him and
tried to stretch and loosen Henry further.  After a while the anus stayed
gaping a little when he took his fingers out.  He quickly manoeuvred
himself back into position, braced his cock and pushed.  This time it
engaged and slid in an inch or so.  Henry yelped, but they were connected
at last.
  'You in me, hunk,?' Henry asked, reaching around his bum to feel the
penetration.  He looked back and gave his lover a tight smile.
  'You want more, Henry?'
  'Mmm, but slowly, slowly.'
  Ed began rocking gently with his hips, Henry hissing every time he pushed
forward.  There was little movement for a while, but as Henry got used to
the intrusion Ed slid in a little more, and now they were really connected.
Ed felt a good couple of inches inside Henry now, but it was not yet a
fuck.  Henry remained clamped on him, and there was little give.  If Ed
pushed his cock into Henry it just warped; it was rather more flexible when
erect than he had given it credit for.  Again he rocked his hips and in the
end, Henry's anus surrendered and, as it gave, Ed increased the pressure.
  'Aaah!  Oh!  Jesus.  God.  Fuck!'  cried Henry.
  Ed was panicking, there was no doubt that Henry was in real pain and Ed
began trying to pull out, but Henry clamped on him and swore all the more.
'No don't,' he gasped, 'it's like you're trying to pull me inside out.
You'll just have to ignore it and start fucking me.  Go on.  Christ!  Go
on!  It's got to get better.'
  Dubious, and quite off the idea of anal sex by now, Ed thrust hard.
Henry was down on his elbows, his hands tightly gripped together, muttering
obscenities, his bum still in the air.  He looked back at Ed and Ed was
appalled to see tears streaming down Henry's cheeks.
  'Oh God, Henry, I can't do this.  I'm losing my erection.  Shit.  It's
fallen out.'  Ed sat back on his haunches and Henry slumped flat on the
carpet feeling like a total failure as a lover.
  They sat breathing heavily, the sweat on their bodies making them
chilled.  Disconsolate, they got up and lay together on the bed.  Somehow
Henry was reluctant to take and hold his lover, as if to do so would be to
in some way accuse him of failing in his duty.  Ed was too distraught at
the pain he had caused Henry to know what to say.  Eventually he fumbled
for his hand, squeezed it and said he was sorry.
  'Why, Ed?'
  'I let you down and I hurt you.'
  'No you didn't let me down.  Maybe we're not ready for this sort of sex
yet.  I mean, sex is something you learn, isn't it?  It can't be perfect
first time.  And my bum is small, maybe it's just too small for your dick.
We'll try again some time.  Look, really ... I'm not traumatised or
anything.'
  'But I hurt you so bad, little babe.  It seems that all I do is cause you
pain in your arse.'  Ed turned towards Henry and took him round the waist,
kissing his cheek.
  'It might have been my fault, Ed.  I knew I had to relax my bum hole but
it kept on clenching up.  We will try again, honest.'
  They drifted off, and Henry woke in the middle of the night to find Ed
spooned up round him, his right arm lying across him.  He nestled back into
the warmth and safety of his lover's body, and felt comforted.