Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:54:44 +0000
From: Daniel Self <analternativetomodernliving@hotmail.com>
Subject: Kip

Special thanks to Paul for his time and editing.

This is part one of four parts.  Feedback is always welcome, mail or msn.


This story may be unsuitable for minors and contains content that may be
illegal in some countries.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Kip
---

Kip sat in a window seat of the train staring out at the pulsing wave of
the cables outside as they hopped from one pole to the next, their regular
rhythm reflecting his own contented state of mind.  Just a small change of
focus and he was able to see the reflection of the slim built, blond haired
thirteen year old boy that sat in his seat, ghosted in the double pane that
separated him from the summer mellowed green countryside rushing past
outside.  He never thought of himself as good looking, but this summer in
Spain he had learnt to like what he saw a little more.  Paul had liked it;
Paul had told him time and time again how beautiful he was as they had
played out their passion in the stifling heat of Kip's hotel room, his
first room all to himself on holiday.  He had laughed the first time Paul
had said it, but eventually had realised that it wasn't mere flattery.  It
was how Paul found him, and Kip had started to acknowledge some of the
truth of it.

Since Paul, Kip had started to feel a confidence in himself as a boy who
liked other boys.  He no longer felt guilty as he thought of other boys, of
the cocks he found so attractive, of their body shapes, of their maleness.
It was okay to feel that way, okay because it was okay to be happy in
yourself when you were sharing that happiness with another boy.  Kip hadn't
loved Paul, perhaps he would not have known it if he had, but he had
enjoyed those two weeks and he felt good about it.  Now as the train
clattered through the Cotswold hills, toward the new term at school, his
first in the senior school, the term when he would be fourteen, he looked
forward to seeing his closest friend David again, of relating the
experiences of the holiday and of being able play their private games in
the real privacy of the double room they were to share.  The last two terms
at junior school they had been touching each other, exploring their newly
developing sexual needs and desires, but Paul had opened Kip's eyes to a
whole new world of pleasure and novelty that Kip longed to try with David.
Most of all though, he longed to experience the sexual contact without the
daily guilt and remorse that previously had followed even his own private
masturbation.

The train slowed for the small village station that marked the end of Kip's
journey from Paddington.  He stood up, hoping that the erection that seemed
to be a permanent feature of train travel for him nowadays was not too
visible as he reached to pull down his heavy case from the rack overhead.
He struggled up the corridor and waited by the door as the train came to a
halt.  A final jolt forward, and Kip pressed the large illuminated button
that forced a reluctant sound of exhalation from the carriage door.  It
slid open allowing him to step down to the platform.  To his delight, he
saw David waiting on the platform.

"Rocky!"

Everyone at school called David `Rocky'. His surname was Stone, but he had
been given the name within weeks of starting in the junior school when he
was nine, and the name had stuck.

"Hi Kip!  Good to see you again.  Came to give you a hand with the bag."

Kip was grateful.  He wasn't especially large or strong and the mile walk
to the school from the station would have been a long and tedious series
changing hands and resting.  David though was strong and played enough
rugby to keep himself that way.  The two had been friends more or less
since the day they had started together in junior school.  David had been
very homesick in those early days and Kip had always had the right
distraction or sympathetic ear to ease the pain.  For his part, Kip had
felt small and slightly threatened in the ordered and occasionally harsh
world of an English prep. school, but his friendship with David had enabled
him to gain confidence and feel comfortable amongst the other boys.

The two boys walked back to the school and to Welstead house, David
carrying the bag most of the way and bringing Kip up to date with his hour
or so's experience of being in the senior school, of the house, of their
friends' news and of their room, which David assured Kip was definitely the
best there was for fourth formers and probably one of the best of any of
them, having the benefit of its own wash stand and two large windows as
well as an enormous cast iron radiator that apparently kept the room so hot
that you had to have the windows open even in the middle of winter, or so
he had been reliably informed by Lewis, one of the boys who had been in
there the previous year.  Arriving at the room, David put the bag down and
the two boys gave each other a quick hug, a hug that Kip now found a bit
distant and remote.

"Good to have you back."  David grinned at Kip.

"Yeah, and don't the long trousers look great!" Kip laughed.

The move into long trousers from the shorts of junior school was a small
but welcome compensation for the prospect of once again being juniors at
the bottom of the pile with another four years of slog to make it back to
the top rank.

"Come on - leave your bag, let's go."

The two set of to find their friends of last year and to familiarise
themselves with their new environment.


-


The evening passed very quickly, and the two boys had had to rush to make
it back in time to be changed into pyjamas and washed, ready for bed by
nine thirty.  They had just both settled into bed when one of the house
prefects knocked on the door and came in.

"Hi, everything alright in here?  Found your way around okay?"

The voice was pleasant and the two boys nodded.

"Well, I'm Fisher and I'm on fourth form duty this week, so it'll be me
getting you up in the morning and making sure you're down at night.  Make
sure you are in your own room after nine thirty or that you get permission
from me not to be.  Lights out and all quiet by ten thirty.  Okay?"

"Yes Fisher, thank you," the boys responded in unison.

Both were still in awe of the privilege that seemed to be enjoyed by
prefects in the senior school.  They had seen their house master at supper
but other than that, the whole house seemed to be run by them.  As Fisher
left, he switched off the main light in the room leaving the boys to read
and chat by the cosy light of their bedside lamps.

Under the cover of his quilt, Kip gently handled his cock and balls as he
read his book, and in no time he was hard.  He looked over at David who was
reading his own book.

"I had a great time in Spain."

David put his book down, climbed out of his own bed and came and sat at the
end of Kip's, tucking his knees up to his chest and leaning back against
the wall.

"You're a lucky sod.  I got to spend most of the holiday at my Grandma's
house because she was supposed to be dying - except she didn't, well, not
yet anyway."  David giggled.  He actually liked his grandmother, but four
weeks of the summer holiday in the remotes of Cumbria with just her and his
parents had not been his idea of a great holiday.

"I had a room all to myself this time."  Kip continued full of enthusiasm
and shifting round on the bed to be closer to David.

"I met this boy there from London called Paul and spent most of the holiday
messing about with him."

Kip waited for David to pick up on the innuendo, but he seemed a bit slow
tonight.

"Anyway him and me did some sex things together, only he's done much more
than you and me and showed me some other stuff."

Kip could feel his erection throbbing in anticipation below the duvet.
David was looking at the wall in front of him.  Kip continued

"I thought after lights out we could try some things," he grinned at David
mischievously.

David stood up from Kip's bed and walked back to his own climbing under the
duvet.  He looked at Kip.

"I don't think we should do stuff like that anymore Kip.  That was for
juniors, but I don't think we should do it here."

Kip was surprised at David's lack of enthusiasm, but attributing it to
worries about their new surroundings continued;

"But it'll be even better here.  The prefects always knock before they come
in."

Kip struggled to raise the stakes.

"Paul sucked my cock.  It's really great.  I'll do yours if you like."

Kip looked at David, but there was no trace of a smile or excitement on his
face, on the contrary, Kip felt that he was being regarded with distaste.

"That's homo stuff Kip.  You shouldn't do that.  Not now we're seniors."

Kip was put out and disappointed, but he was not about to give up on either
the hope of at least a shared wank, nor on the new freedom to enjoy it that
Paul had shown him.

"Don't be like that, Rocky.  It was only ten weeks ago that you and me..."
Kip suddenly began to feel slightly vulnerable but continued, "well, you
know.  You used to like it too."

He tried smiling at David, but David remained unresponsive.

"So you don't want to do things together any more?"  The disappointment in
Kip's voice was now obvious.

"No, I don't."  David wouldn't look at Kip as he said it.

"Don't you like it?"

"It's homo Kip.  We're not kids anymore.  Long trousers, remember?  Leave
it. I don't want to talk about it any more," and he picked up his book and
holding it front of his face began reading again.

Kip lay back on his bed and raised his knees under the duvet shielding
himself from David's line of vision.  He was hurting inside, already
starting to feel the new found confidence that the holiday in Spain had
brought him slipping away.  He knew that David was right.  It was homo, but
he didn't mind that.  He liked being homo and David was his best friend.

"Do you mind if I'm homo then?" he asked without attempting to look at
David.

There was no answer.  Kip waited, feeling himself close to tears.  He
raised his voice.

"Well, do you?  Do you mind if I'm homo if I'm not with you?"

"I don't want to share a room with a poof."

David's reply cut through Kip like a blunt knife.  He felt tears on his
cheeks, and struggled to hold back from sobbing and so betraying his hurt.
The room was silent, David apparently engrossed in his book and Kip, his
eyes closed tight trying to remember Paul and think what he would have
said.

There was a knock at the door.  Fisher came in.

"Time for lights out" he said.

He looked at Kip and saw a face that had obviously been crying.

"Okay?" he asked quietly.

He presumed that Kip was homesick, still common enough even with fourth
form boys and didn't want to make a big thing of it and risk embarrassing
Kip.  Kip looked at him and nodded then reached over and switched his light
off.

"Night, Fisher."  David called a little too loudly as he turned off his own
lamp and Fisher left, closing the door.

In the quiet dark, David could hear the strained and irregular breathing of
Kip.  Kip's whispered voice was more a plea than a question:

"Are you still friends Stone?"

David knew the seriousness of the question as Kip had used his surname, but
he said nothing.


-


The next morning, there was an uncomfortable silence between the two boys
as they washed and dressed with the modesty of strangers before setting off
to breakfast.  Kip was relieved when David waited at the door for him to
walk down to breakfast with.  On the way they were joined by an older boy
who seemed to know David.

"Hi Stone" he looked Kip up and down "is this your room mate?"

"Yeah. Kip.  This is Lewis, he was in our room last year."

Kip smiled uneasily, never very confident with new company, and feeling
particularly unsure of himself in the light of his current impasse with
David.

David and Lewis, Kip did not know if that was his surname or his first
name, fell quickly to talking about rugby and Kip found himself on his own
queuing at the kitchen hatch with his tray to collect his cereal, coffee
and orange juice for breakfast. Kip was used to the security of the junior
environment where every boy had his allotted place and looked around the
room uncertainly for a fourth form table with both space and familiar
faces.  Seeing the Wilson twins sat on their own at a table he headed to
join them.  Philip and Paul Wilson had not been in the same house as Kip in
junior school, but they knew each other well enough from class. The pair
had a reputation for being very close to each other and had few friends.
David had always kept clear of them but Kip had always liked them and had
never found them anything but amiable.

"Hi Kip!" the twins spoke together but slightly out of synch giving the
effect of an echo.

"How's your room?"

"It's okay."

Kip responded with little enthusiasm.

"It's got a sink and apparently it's warm in the winter."

"Ours is crap.  It's really tiny, right up in the attic."  Paul spoke and
Philip nodded agreement, his mouth full of cereal. "... and it's supposed
to be freezing in winter" Philip continued as he finished his own mouthful
and Paul began one.  Kip smiled apologetically at the pair, amused at the
way it always seemed as though you were talking to one person, even though
there were two of them.

"Never mind.  You can always come down to ours to warm up."  Kip smiled his
invitation, but suddenly wondered to himself if "ours" was going to be a
very pleasant place to be.

"Where's Stone?" Paul asked.  Kip looked around uneasily.

"I don't know.  Off talking rugby with some fifth former he's met."  There
was an edge to Kip's voice as he finished his cereal and drank the orange
juice.  He got up to go, leaving the coffee which was too hot to finish
quickly.

"Got to get on," he said by way of goodbye to the twins who looked at each
other, jointly aware of Kip's discomfort.

"Bye" "Bye".

Kip felt small and ridiculous as he stood in the main hall trying to
remember the way back to his room and was relieved to see the familiar face
of Fisher.

"Lost?"

Kip nodded.

"Right at the top of the landing there!" Fisher pointed up the stairs with
a gentle smile.

"Thanks Fisher."

Kip took the stairs two at a time anxious for the security of the of his
own possessions and closing the door of his room behind him lay down on his
bed.

"Fuck Stone" he mumbled aloud to himself, "Fuck him."

He was angry and hurt but even as he muttered under his breath, his
principal emotion was fear.  He was, for the first time since his early
days in school, aware of how much he depended on David who had always
involved him in his friendships even though the two, on the face of it, had
little in common, and even when David was not with Kip, he was always there
in the background, a safety net, like having a big brother who would make
sure that he was alright.


-


The morning in class passed quickly enough although Kip sometimes found it
hard to concentrate as his worries about David and himself kept returning
to his thoughts.  He and David had sat within easy speaking distance of
each other in the house dining room at lunchtime but David had done little
more than acknowledge Kip's presence and Kip had busied himself in casual
conversation with a new boy.  Lunch over, Kip considered returning to his
room again, but was interrupted in his thoughts by Steven Matthews, a boy
he knew well as they had been in the same dorm the previous term in junior
school.  The apparently random selection process of the senior school's
admission process had left them in different houses now, but Kip was
pleased to see him.

"Hi Kip!

Steven slapped him on the back, obviously pleased to see him as well.  He
leant up close to him and whispered in his ear.

"Do you want to go to the bogs?"

In Spain, Kip had promised himself that he wouldn't go off to the bogs with
other boys anymore.  He wanted more than just a quick wank and cum now,
and, since Paul, and he had fondly imagined himself and David as an item.
Now though, he was unhappy and not having had an opportunity to see to
himself the previous night, was also in need of sexual relief.  He nodded
assent and followed Steven at a discreet distance to the main school
toilets, a long glass roofed building lined with cubicles on one side and
large individual Victorian urinals each separated by a large white divider
on the other.  The room was empty and the door clunked closed behind them
with a loud echo.  Steven walked to the end cubicle and, after a double
check that the room was empty, Kip followed.

Steven was already sat on the toilet seat and as Kip stood facing him, he
reached for the buckle of Kip's belt and undid it, then unclipped the grey
flannel trousers and pushed them and the regulation white briefs down to
his ankles.  The routine was well practised and as Kip rested his hands on
Steven's shoulders, Steven began to rub Kip's cock.  Kip felt dirty again,
dirty and guilty, but he closed his eyes as Steven fondled his balls and
Kip felt his orgasm approach.  He deftly turned to one side as Steven
continued to wank his cock and grunted as his semen erupted from the tip,
spattering against the cubicle divider.  He smiled at Steven and reaching
down, pulled up his underpants and trousers, refastening the belt.  The
boys swapped places and Kip lowered Steven's trousers revealing his
impressively large cock poking out from a small but dense mass of dark
pubic hair.  Kip grasped it in his hand and began to move his fist up and
down it, stroking around the base of it with his other hand.  Kip wondered
about taking it in his mouth, as Paul had shown him, pushing his tongue
under the foreskin and feeling the contradiction of softness and hardness
on his tongue and the roof of his mouth, but he didn't.  He didn't even
like Steven in a sexual way particularly.  His hair was a light brown
colour and Kip liked black hair, he was fat, and Kip like thinner boys, and
he smelled a bit like didn't wash enough.  Steven twisted around and
panting added his gelatinous contribution to the trail that Kip had left on
the divider.  Steven grinned gratefully at Kip who pulled off a few sheets
from the roll of hard paper that hung on the wall, and wiped the evidence
of their lust from the divider dropping the paper into the toilet bowl and
flushing as Steven adjusted his trousers and left the cubicle.  Kip pushed
the cubicle door closed again, sliding the bolt across and listened to the
hollow sound of Steven's footsteps followed by the clunk of the door as he
left.  Kip sat down again on the toilet and felt hot in his eyes.  He hated
this, hated the brevity, hated the detachment.  Steven and he had not even
exchanged a word, let alone a kiss, it was just sex and Kip had had enough
of it, but every time it drew him back like an addiction.  Pulling his
pants and trousers down again around his ankles, his sat down on the warm
seat to use it for its intended purpose and studied the pattern in the fake
marble floor as it flexed and shifted in the lens of his tears.


-


Two days later Kip got out of bed and headed for the showers on the floor
below.  David seemed to have taken to getting up and dressing whilst Kip
was out of the room each morning.  Kip wondered if he thought that he was
going to make unwelcome advances, but he didn't care anymore.  The two boys
had been very unpleasant to each other the previous evening, both in their
own way trying to justify this failure in their friendship.  David had
become almost evangelical in his determination to save Kip from the dire
predictions that his elder brother had assured him were the inevitable
consequences of being a homo.  Kip had just sat and listened to him,
feeling like he was being punched, eventually telling him that he couldn't
give a fuck about his brother, that he just wanted to be left alone and
that he wished he had never been friends with him.  Angry, he had stormed
out of the room and spent the rest of the evening, with permission, doing
prep. in the Wilson boys' room.

The showers were quiet in the morning, occasionally a senior boy might come
in, but often they were empty, most boys choosing to shower or bath in the
evening when the house was warmer.  Kip took off his pyjamas, leaving them
hanging from one of the numerous hooks rowed above the wired cages that
held the rugby boots and the smooth wooden bench that boys sat on to
change.  He left his neat bundle of clothes on the bench.  The shower
floors were tiled with strange ridged tiles to prevent slipping, and Kip
enjoyed the sensation of them under his bare feet as he paced up and down
waiting for the water to warm up enough to go into the shower proper.  Kip
was so deep in his thoughts and his own unhappiness that he didn't notice
Fisher come in and was startled when he spoke to him.

"Hello Pip."

Kip's face flushed slightly as he stood naked in front of Fisher who was
still in his pyjamas.

"Still waiting for them to get warm?"  Fisher smiled and pulled his
buttoned top off over his head.

"It is Pip isn't it? - I get mixed up with so many new faces and names."

Kip smiled.  There was something very disarming and safe about Fisher's
face and his voice that made Kip feel happy when he spoke to him.  He
grinned at him.

"It's Kip with a K actually," he responded, a little embarrassed to be
correcting a prefect.

"Kip.  That's right, you share with David Stone don't you?"

Kip looked down at the floor, partly a reaction to the mention of David's
name, partly to avert his gaze from Fisher who was now hanging up his
pyjama bottoms.

"Do you get on okay with him?" Fisher asked with a little more interest
that mere casual conversation.

Kip reached his hand under the shower and finding it warm stepped into the
falling water.  Fisher joined him, standing below the next shower head.

"We used to be best friends in Juniors."  Kip said, letting the water flow
over him and trying hard not to look directly at Fisher.

"Used to be?"

Kip didn't answer, but felt the hurt of the last three days welling up
inside him.  Fisher looked down at him and saw a small boy utterly
miserable.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Kip shook his head only out of some repressive instinct to hide his
emotions, but the "Mmmm" that he murmured through the sound of the falling
water had an affirmative plea to it that Fisher recognised.  Fisher left
the shower and dried himself off as Kip continued to wash himself.  Having
put on his uniform he sat on the bench and waited for Kip to come out. He
threw Kip his towel.

"So?" he glanced at Kip but looked away quickly allowing Kip the privacy to
dry himself and get his underpants on.

"He doesn't like me anymore."  Kip felt an almost immediate sense of
relief.  This was the first time he had admitted even to himself that he
and David were no longer friends.

"Any particular reason?"

Kip stood in front of Fisher barefoot and fumbling through clouded vision
with the buttons of his white shirt and fought hard against the sobs that
caused his chest to spasm, but unsuccessfully.  He sat down on the bench
and wept.  Fisher moved next to him and put his arm around him rocking him
gently from side to side.

"Look, you don't have to tell me what's wrong, but you do have to tell me
if you're being bullied.  Do you understand?"

He looked at Kip who nodded feeling in his pocket for a handkerchief.
Fisher pulled a clean one from his own pocket and passed it to the Kip who
blew his nose hard into it trying to blow away the tears.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" Fisher was insistent, squeezing Kip to
him tightly.

"Yes."  Kip's response was clear, and he blew his nose loudly again,
starting to feel better. "Thanks Fisher."

Fisher shook him gently, "So what do you do if you're being bullied?" he
asked in a mock matronly manner with a smile on his face.  Kip
giggled. "Tell you" he replied as Fisher took his arm from around him and
scruffed up his damp hair.

"That's right. Come on, or we're going to be late for breakfast.


-


Kip was feeling much happier as he went towards the maths block for first
period.  Fisher had done nothing but let him know that there was someone
Kip could unburden himself to if he wanted to and for the moment that made
a huge difference.  4W, the form room he was heading for was what they
called his "home form" in senior school.  The one where he had his own desk
and where his fourth year group met for informal exams, tutorials and
various other events that Kip had yet to find out about.  This morning
though, it was just because it was maths for first and second periods with
Mr Kendrick, "Head of Maths" as he had introduced himself in their first
maths class the day before.  It was one of the few classes that he shared
with David, who for most subjects was not in the same sets as Kip.  Kip did
not relish the thought of seeing him, but was less concerned since his talk
with Fisher.  He could hear the loud but controlled chatter of boys waiting
for Mr Kendrick to arrive as he walked up the corridor to the glass
panelled door, and the lull as he opened the door.  He guessed Mr Kendrick
must be very close behind him as the chatter did not immediately start up
again.  Kip walked down the second row to his own desk and sat in his
chair.  Looking up, there was no sign of Mr Kendrick, and Kip felt a hint
of uneasiness at the unusual quiet in the class.

He opened his desk and discovered the reason as various sniggers around the
class rang in his reddening ears.  A large piece of paper was pinned on the
inside of his desk with the word HOMO in capital letters written in the
thick red of a whiteboard marker.  Underneath in smaller lettering the
words Kip and Paul were spelt out with a crudely drawn heart and arrow
between them and below that a picture of an erect penis and balls with
splashes on top, familiar to every schoolboy.  Kip slowly took out his
maths text book and lowered the desk lid, conscious of many of the boys
looking at him, now silent.  He looked across to David's place, knowing
that this could only have come from him.  Knowing that he had told the
whole class about him and Paul.  Kip could not understand how anyone, most
of all David could want to hurt him.  David just grinned at him stupidly
but as he saw Kip's expression his face reddened and he looked down at his
desk.  Kip winced as he bit on the flesh inside his bottom lip.  He tasted
the blood in his mouth, but he would not give anyone the satisfaction of
seeing him cry.


-


Kip did not go back to his room at the end of class in the afternoon.
Instead he went to his home form for a book and went to the main school
toilets, locking himself in the end cubicle alone.  He felt wretched and
struggled to see through his clouded eyes.  Reaching into his pocket he
pulled out the handkerchief Fisher had given him that morning and wiped his
eyes and nose and recalled Fisher's remarks about bullying.  He heard
various coming and goings, but no one seemed to be looking for him and
nobody bothered him in the cubicle.  He thought about how different it was
here from the junior school he had left where every hour of the day was
managed and accounted for and there was seldom the chance to be somewhere
on your own for even a few minutes.  For the first time in years, he wanted
more than anything to go home and be back with his Mum and Dad, but
thinking of the shame of them ever finding out why just sent him into lower
depths and he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

"Kip?"

A gentle tap at the door woke him, followed by a scrabbling in the cubicle
next door to his.  A pair of hands appeared on top of the divider followed
by Fisher's head.

"Oh fuck!  Kip open the door."

Kip looked up at him and reached to the bolt sliding it back.  Fisher
jumped down and came round pushing the door open.  Kip stayed still.

"Oh fuck Kip."

Fisher squatted down beside him, concerned and worried that he might be
physically hurt.

"You silly bugger.  What are you doing in here?"

Kip lost control instantly sobbing his heart out he told Fisher about the
incident in the maths class, and how no one had bullied him but what David
had done had hurt him more than thumping ever could have.

"That is bullying Kip."

Fisher was angry, angry not just with David to whom he taken an immediate
dislike since his first cocky "goodnight" as Kip had been lying in his bed
crying on that first night, but angry that it had taken him so long to
notice that Kip had not been around and so long to find him.

"That is bullying.  Making you feel bad is bullying.  People don't have to
hit you to make it bullying.  Come on, stand up and let's have a look at
you."

Kip stood up feeling pathetic and willingly submitting to Fisher's
instruction.  Fisher reached into his pocket and finding no handkerchief in
it remembered giving to Kip that morning.  Kip was holding it in one of the
hands that hung loosely at his sides.  Fisher took it and wiped Kip' s eyes
and nose.  Fisher had felt very proud to have been given the responsibility
of fourth form prefect for the first week of term, a duty their house
master had discussed with him at length.  Fisher wondered now if he was up
to the task as he felt his own emotions stirring up inside him.

"Come on mate.  We can get through this okay, and I have got some good
news..."

He paused waiting for a reaction from Kip but there was none beyond a long
sniff and his attention.

"You're not sharing a room any more."

Kip looked at him confused.

"Where are they putting me?" he asked fearful of how far the talk of him
and Paul had spread.

"Nobody's putting you anywhere.  Stone asked for a transfer this lunchtime
and he's moving to Blenkin House so he can share with..."  Fisher paused,
he'd forgotten the name "... somebody Chapell?"

Kip looked at him and Fisher was relieved to see a smile return to his face

"You mean Mark Chapell?"

"That's the one, Mark Chapell.  Anyways, he's been granted the transfer so
he gone."

"What already?"

"Uh huh"

Kip stared at Fisher, full of admiration for the prefect who had managed to
cheer him up twice in a day.  "Of course you might have to finish up
sharing with someone else eventually, but for the moment at least you get a
room of your own."

"Thanks Fisher."

 Kip beamed with the smile that had so infatuated Paul in Spain.

"Don't thank me."  Fisher laughed, delighted to have broken in through
Kip's sadness "Thank Stone!"

Kip grinned, "Thanks Stone," he said, and as he and Fisher wandered back to
Welstead together he felt a twinge of regret that he had lost such a
friend.