Screwups (13 page)

But in other ways it was lacking. Danny had known that he’d be starting his sorcerer over from scratch, but he hadn’t been prepared for just how powerless he’d be. He had one spell. One. And it proved to be useless. No attack spells were available at his level, so he’d chosen Identify. Alas, nothing needed to be identified.

Eva’s thief character turned out to be pretty useless too. There were strict rules about taking people’s possessions—probably a good thing—so a thief was only allowed to steal certain items, and the rules for what could or could not be taken and
when
it could be taken were so confusing Eva just didn’t bother. She kept asking if she could check for traps, but if there were any, she never found them. Paul was doing his best to stay on the sidelines, but he got smacked in the eye with a magic missile—a bean bag—and killed. When he was told he’d have to wait until they found someone to resurrect him, he went back to the picnic tables that represented the inn and hung out there for the rest of the afternoon, reading a
Forgotten Realms
novel.

Jake, on the other hand, appeared to be having a blast. Perhaps Danny shouldn’t have been surprised, but role-playing game or not, The Shire was largely a game for athletes. There was an enormous amount of walking, hiking, running, even climbing… and then there was fighting. Everything seemed to revolve around boffer combat, even for those classes that supposedly weren’t fighting classes. Because everyone was fair game for being
attacked
by boffer swords, whether they carried one or not.

As a sorcerer, Danny was allowed to carry a moderate-sized boffer weapon, but he was pathetic. The guys he fought against had clearly been doing this for ages, and they had no trouble at all deflecting his blows and bypassing his feeble attempts to defend himself. Both fights he got into ended in less than a minute.

But even with his lack of experience, Jake was a killing machine. He whirled that blade like it was an extension of his arm. The marshals had to rein him in when he got too enthusiastic, but he never actually hurt anybody—no more than any of the other warriors did, anyway. Getting whacked upside the head with a boffer sword hurt, no matter how safe the marshals insisted they were. But the experienced fighters laughed their wounds off and accepted Jake as one of their own.

He seemed tireless as the day progressed, running around and hooting like a maniac. During one of his fights, he executed a dramatic somersault which elicited cheers, catcalls, and a round of applause—he appeared to have forgotten that he was wearing Karl’s kilt. Or maybe he knew perfectly well what he was doing. Danny wouldn’t put it past him. Jake seemed to be developing an exhibitionist streak. Technically, that violated Tara and Eva’s rules of kilt flashing, but Danny doubted anyone would complain. That somersault was probably the highlight of several gamers’ days. Certainly Danny enjoyed it. And he enjoyed seeing Jake laughing and playing like a big, excited puppy.

The kilt flash also reminded Danny of how nice it would be to get back to the dorm. Unfortunately, it wasn’t logistically possible to do that quickly. Eva’s car was back at Karl’s house, which meant they were forced to hang around the park at the end of the event, helping with cleanup. They didn’t mind helping out—although Paul grumbled privately to Danny about how tired he was—but they were definitely exhausted by the time they piled into Karl’s car.

“The others want to meet up at Denny’s for a late dinner,” Karl informed them. “Is that okay?”

Danny really just wanted to go home, but Eva pointed out, “The dining hall will be closed by the time we get back.”

“All right,” Danny said.

The trip to Denny’s with the Griffinmyre household and some of the others who were part of their shire might normally have been a lot of fun. But even Jake was starting to wind down, and Paul had more or less turned into a whiny two-year-old. By the time they got back to the house and got on the road, it was almost eleven. Eva had to do all the driving because she was the only one who knew how to drive a standard. Danny was worried about her nodding off at the wheel, but she insisted she was fine, and none of them wanted to stay another night.

Once they were on the road, Eva said, “Well, that was fun.” She didn’t sound completely convinced.

“I hated it,” Paul muttered from the front passenger seat.

Danny was lying on the back car seat with his head in Jake’s lap again. The darkness partially obscured the fact that Jake was running his fingers through his hair and had his other hand inside Danny’s shirt, resting against the skin of his abdomen. He would have been content to just drift off to sleep like that, but he felt obligated to participate in the conversation, if for nothing else than to keep Eva awake. “It was okay. Maybe if I get up to a higher level as a sorcerer, my spells will be more useful.”

“I hated it,” Paul said again. “If I wanted to get pummeled by jocks, I would have stayed in high school.”

Danny had to admit he kind of felt the same way. The game was completely dominated by the fighters. And unlike table D&D, where anyone could eventually become a kick-ass warrior by building up his or her stats, someone like Paul would never be able to excel as a fighter in The Shires, because he’d never have the physical prowess necessary.

“I thought it was awesome!” Jake said.

“That’s because you were good at it,” Eva pointed out. “
Really
good at it. And you totally rocked that kilt.”

“Kilts are great. I need to get one.”

Danny smiled at the thought. “We’ll see what we can do.”

They pulled into the dorm parking lot around 1:00 a.m. and dropped their bags off in their rooms. But Eva couldn’t leave her car there overnight without getting towed, and it wasn’t safe for a young woman to walk alone on campus at night, so they all rode with her to A Lot. Then they had to walk fifteen minutes back to the dorm, freezing their asses off the whole way. By the time Danny and Jake were finally alone in their room, Danny said, “I know I promised, as soon as we got back….”

“I’m too fucking tired to do anything,” Jake said.

“Me too.”

“Will you sleep with me, though?”

Danny considered it. The beds were pretty small, but if they spooned, they might be able to pull it off. “Okay. But try not to spooge all over me.”

Jake smirked at him and reached out to pull him close. He wrapped his arms around Danny, making him feel at once warm and safe and protected. “I’ll try,” Jake said. Then he lowered his face and kissed Danny full on the mouth.

It was nice, but Danny ended up interrupting it with a yawn. “Sorry. Warrior needs sleep, badly.”

They managed to fit into Jake’s bed, with Jake practically wrapped around Danny’s naked body, his hard cock firmly wedged between Danny’s ass cheeks. Danny wasn’t sure how they’d be able to sleep like that, but they were both so exhausted sleep overcame them quickly.

J
AKE
WOKE
with his erection wedged between Danny’s thighs. Overall, he considered that a pretty nice way to wake up. Danny was asleep, but he figured it would be acceptable to caress his shoulder and side, and maybe even his smooth ass a bit, under the circumstances. Of course, the moment he started touching him, Danny said, his eyes still closed, “Hmm. I wonder who could be fondling my butt?”

“I have no idea,” Jake said. “That’s pretty ballsy. Maybe you should report him to the RA.”

“Nah. I think I’ll just fuck his brains out.”

Danny rolled backward into Jake’s arms and they kissed, but any plans for hot sex were interrupted by a knock on the door and Paul’s voice grumbling, “Are you guys awake? Eva told me I had to get you for breakfast.”

Jake looked over at his clock and discovered it was actually pretty late. The dining hall would stop serving breakfast soon. Danny sighed and said, “I guess I am kind of hungry.”

“All right, but right after we eat, we’re coming back here so I can lose my virginity.”

Neither bothered showering for breakfast, since hardly anybody in their group of friends did. Even Eva and Holly looked disheveled as most of the wing gathered in the lounge for the trek to the dining hall. Paul looked half dead. If anybody had early morning classes this Monday, they appeared to be skipping them.

They ate together at one of the long tables and even though Danny sat right beside Jake on the bench, neither of them seemed inclined to speak. They just listened to their friends’ grumbling about being awake and banter about how their holidays went. Eva told Holly and Wallace about The Shires, with Paul injecting a sour note about how his eye puffed up when someone tried to put it out with a bean bag.

Abruptly, Danny set his second cup of coffee on his tray and said, “I’ve got stuff to do back at the dorm.” He glanced down at Jake and asked, “Are you coming?”

“Sure,” Jake replied and quickly gathered up his tray to follow Danny to the tray return. Then they walked down the hill together, not really knowing what to say about the fact that they were going to be fucking soon, until they neared the dorm. At that point, Danny announced, “I’m going to take a shower.”

“I probably should too.”

“Okay.”

Back in the room, Jake watched out of the corner of his eye while Danny stripped out of his clothes. He’d seen Danny naked more times than he could count by now, not only in the mornings and just before bed, but whenever Danny came back from class and insisted on changing into the shorts he wore around the dorm. But today it felt much more erotically charged. Danny wrapped his towel around his waist, grabbed a bottle of castile soap, and then stood there, waiting for Jake to finish stripping and get his own towel. Then they walked to the bathroom together.

They had the place to themselves, at least for the moment. Danny stepped up to one of the two shower stalls, set the castile soap on the shelf, and reached in to turn the shower on. While the water was heating up, he removed his towel and Jake saw that he was already erect. It was the first time Jake had seen his dick in that state, at least close enough to get a good look. Jerking off across the room wasn’t at all the same.

Danny’s hard cock was beautiful. Like the rest of his body, it was perfectly proportioned, satiny smooth—at least, to all appearances—and golden. It was also uncut. That part Jake had known about. He’d seen it soft and thought the foreskin gave it a nice, sleek shape. But now the foreskin had slipped back so that the tip of Danny’s glans protruded just a bit, and it glistened with precome.

Danny was watching him closely, as if trying to gauge his reaction. The expression on his face wasn’t lecherous or teasing, merely attentive. It was if he were presenting himself for inspection and waiting to see if he passed muster.

He certainly did.

Jake’s own erection was straining against his towel, and he felt obligated to reveal it, though Danny had certainly seen it hard several times now. But fair was fair. Jake licked his lips nervously, glancing at the closed door for a second before pulling his towel off.

Danny looked him over and nodded appreciatively. “Two showers or one?”

It wasn’t really possible for Jake’s cock to grow more erect than it already was, but it sure as hell tried. It almost hurt. “What if somebody comes in?”

“We’ll keep the curtain closed and be quiet.” Danny looked up at him through his tousled bangs and his mouth quirked up in a mischievous smile. “Unless you’re not interested in how I feel when I’m all soapy.”

Oh God.
“I’m interested.”

Danny stepped under the spray and looked back to see if Jake was following. Jake hung up his towel and pulled the curtain closed. The damned thing didn’t want to close tightly, but he managed to block as much of the gap as possible before stepping under the shower.

Danny poured a small amount of the liquid soap into his hand and rubbed it between his palms. Then he moved closer and wrapped his arms around Jake’s middle, pressing their naked stomachs and crotches together while he ran his soap-covered hands up and down Jake’s back and ass. The feel of his hands sliding along Jake’s skin was amazing, but it paled in comparison to what Jake was feeling up front. He’d pressed himself against Danny’s naked ass a couple of nights in a row, and that had been amazing, but this was the first time they were dick to dick, and both hard. Jake felt Danny’s erection pressed between their abdomens, sliding along the length of Jake’s cock. But it wasn’t enough. He needed to
feel
it, to
touch
it.

“Can I touch you with my hands?” he asked breathlessly.

“You already
are
touching me.” That was true enough. Jake had his arms around Danny’s shoulders and was caressing his back, just as Danny was caressing his. But that wasn’t what he meant.

“I mean, can I touch your dick?”

Danny laughed. “Oh yeah. Touch anything you like.”

“Can I
lick
anything I like?”

“Please.”

So he did. He started by pawing at Danny’s cock in a way that probably wasn’t all that erotic for Danny, but at least he got to thoroughly explore what another guy’s cock felt like. It was kind of weird, how hard it was. He should have known that, since he had one of his own, but the sensations were coming in differently than they did when he jerked off—all through his hands. Was this how
his
dick would feel to another person? Probably, except for the foreskin. That was strange, but he loved the feel of it, the smoothness of the wet skin over the hard shaft. And he loved rubbing it between his fingers, especially when he accidentally stumbled across the spot on the underside of Danny’s cock that made him moan involuntarily, his eyelids fluttering closed. Jake tried it again. Danny moaned again.

This is awesome!

But he needed a kiss. He wanted to taste Danny’s mouth so badly his whole body was quivering at the thought of it. He lifted his hands to Danny’s shoulders and held him there, as if afraid Danny might try to duck away. But when Jake leaned down, Danny raised his face and met Jake’s lips, returning the kiss without hesitation. Jake explored Danny’s mouth and he opened himself to Danny’s tongue, which still tasted faintly of coffee.