We were a pretty weary group of devil dogs trudging off that transport back at home base. We made our way back to the quarters. Riley hadn't been assigned any yet, but mine were pretty spacious as such things went. He didn't say anything when I told him he could crash at my place. He just nodded.

Some of the guys were going to see if they could track down some beer or Jack Daniels for an impromptu 'we all made it back' celebration, but I begged off. So did Riley. The others nodded and didn't ask why, and went off, arms over each other's shoulders, while Riley and I walked inches apart, carefully not touching.

I went in, dumped my pack on the floor, and hit the head. As I pissed, I checked out my equipment. Whatever the salve stuff was that the village leader guy had given me was pretty impressive stuff. It was almost completely healed. You could still make out the scars on the top and bottom, where the black stone needle had gone through.

As I was washing my hands, I looked at myself in the mirror. What the fuck was I doing? I wanted him more than I'd ever wanted anyone. I'd told him that in the boat, and he not only hadn't decked me, he'd said 'OK'. And he'd come back to my quarters like it was the most natural thing in the world. On the other hand, he hadn't exactly said he was ready to get down and dirty with me. Not by a long shot.

I splashed water on my face. I was gonna have to play this by ear. Whatever he wanted was gonna have to be OK. I was gonna have to deal with it. I was pretty sure I could do that. At least I could tonight.

When I came out, drying off my face with the towel, Riley was lying in the rack, well, it was a real bed. Married guys sometimes got assigned to these rooms. He looked up at me. Fuck, he was staring at me.

He whispered, "I've dreamed about being with you, ya know."

"Yeah?" I could hear the undercurrent of hope in my own voice.

"I don't mean I ever fantasized about it. I mean I had dreams, real dreams about it."

I nodded, trying hard not to be wearing a shit-eating grin. "When?"

He hesitated. "They started pretty soon after you joined the Initiative."

"You were pretty quiet about that. I never noticed anything."

"It scared the fuck out of me." He turned his head away like he really was scared, or ashamed.

I sighed. "So, you've never been with a guy?"

He shook his head and then slowly looked up at me. "You?"

I looked down at the floor and nodded.

"A lot?"

I hesitated and then nodded again. He looked at me hard, and I kinda felt myself blushing.

He scooted up and sat with his back to the wall. He looked at me and sighed, patting the bed. I knew better than to crowd him, so I sat at the far end, one foot safely on the floor, and looked over at him.

"Look." Riley hesitated, thinking hard. He spoke softly, barely above a whisper. I knew I was about to hear something he'd never told anyone before. "I always thought that what I had to do was find one girl, *one* girl that I was attracted to, and that would be the end of it..."

"End of what, Ri?" I was totally confused.

"Just let me say this, OK?"

I nodded, answering softly, "'K."

"I found her."

"Buffy?"

He nodded. "And like you were always saying, she was awesome." He flashed me one of those patented Riley Finn grins, but with just a touch of sadness behind it. "And I really thought that she was it. She was the one. The one girl in all the world that I could love."

"I know you loved her, Ri. I could see it." It had torn me up inside. But I could see it, clear as day.

He nodded. "But it wasn't enough. She wasn't enough, or I wasn't enough. In the end, I'd make love to her and it would just feel wrong. I'd have to get up in the middle of the night, leave her bed and go ..."

"... see your friendly neighbourhood vampire."

He nodded, not proud. He gave me kind of a sad chuckle. "You wanna hear something *really* pathetic?"

I didn't respond, figuring that it was one of those rhetorical questions. I always had a soft spot for questions that didn't actually require me to talk.

"When she caught me with that vamp, my first reaction was relief."

"Huh?"

"Because I was with a girl vamp at the time."

"Oh." Then it hit me, "Oh! Ya mean ... ?" I shook my head. Call me dense, but I was lost. "Huh?"

"I had started to ask for guy vamps. But that girl vamp was the only one available that night."

"Shit, Ri." I didn't know what to say to him. All I knew was that I didn't wanna fuck this up by saying something moronic. Luckily, Riley knew me well enough not to expect me to say a lot.

He heaved a deep sad sigh. "Pretty stupid, huh?"

"Yeah, but I'd say that about the whole vampire thing."

He nodded and smiled. "Good point."

"So let me get this straight, Buffy is the *only* girl you've ever been that attracted to?"

"Basically, yeah."

"But, she's not the only thing you've ever been attracted to?"

His turn for the big "Huh?" Then he got it. "Shit no, Gray, I'm not attracted to vamps."

"So ... guys, then?"

Riley looked at me for a moment and then nodded, once.

"But you've never done anything about it?"

He shook his head, quickly, once. I gave him a grin. "It's not as scary as you're making it, Ri. It can be kinda ... nice."

I put a hand on his outstretched leg. On the calf, because that was fairly safe. He looked at it, and went rigid, and not in the good way. Well, maybe in the good way, too, but mainly in the bad way. I pulled my hand away.

He looked up at me, sort of searching my face. He leaned over and put his hand on my shoulder, and moved it slowly till it was behind my neck. He pulled me in.

I didn't resist.

I was expecting him to be a bit tentative, and he was. For about half a second. Then his mouth opened wide.

***********

When he broke the kiss, he leaned back, letting his hand slide across my shoulder and down my arm, coming to rest just below my bicep.

"Wow." I whispered.

"Wow." He repeated, with just the hint of a smile on his face.

We sat there staring at each other for a minute. I looked down at his bulge. I grinned at him "Yup, you like guys."

"Or one guy." His eyes twinkled. I almost shivered at that.

"Or one guy." I repeated. I liked that. I didn't believe it, but I liked it. He looked at me kind of questioningly, and I nodded. He reached down and felt me. He kind of pulled back when he found my hard-on.

"Go on, it's OK."

He nodded and let his hand find it again. "You still ... injured?"

I gave him an evil grin. "Maybe you should check it out for me."

He sort of smiled back and nodded. He reached over with his left hand and unzipped my trousers, and pulled them open. He reached in and pulled it out. He found the scars.

"It really wasn't a nightmare then?"

"I wouldn't go that far. But yeah, it really happened."

He was still holding it, and I was quickly rock hard. "You're teasing me, Ri." I warned him, mock annoyed. He sat back up and let go.

"It's OK." I smiled at him, and caressed his cheek with the back of my hand. He was breathing kinda hard. "You're scared of this, aren't you? Scared of getting fucked, right?"

He hesitated and then nodded.

I ran my hand slowly behind his neck and massaged it gently. I waited till he met my eyes again. "Don't sweat it, everybody's scared at first. I know I was. But it can feel kinda nice." I gave him a bit of a sheepish smile. "Shit, it can feel really amazing. Anyway, I don't think we're gonna be doing any fucking tonight. I don't have the ... stuff. OK?"

I figured I could take my time with that, because I knew that if he was afraid of it, he'd been thinking about it. And if he'd been thinking about it, he'd want to try it ... at some point. I could wait for that. I could wait for that easy. Well, not easy, but I could wait.

He nodded. And looked a little relieved. I took a hold of his shoulders with both hands, near his neck. "Listen to me, Ri. We're never gonna do anything you don't wanna do, ever. Got that?" I couldn't believe those words were coming out of my mouth, even as I said them. But I knew I meant them. Totally meant them. Maybe the stray dog really was gone, or maybe he was alive and kicking, just running around somewhere in the jungles of Belize.

He nodded, and gave me a hint of a smile.

"But I won't do ya for trade." I had to make that crystal clear, but I tried to soften it with a smile.

He looked totally lost. I sighed. I had hoped I wouldn't have to explain that one. I ran a hand across his chest. "I won't ... I mean, I can't be the guy who sucks you off and lets you fuck me and that's it."

Riley laughed. I was fucking pouring my guts out and he was laughing at me. He reached out and pulled me into a hug. A pretty fierce one. I hugged him back, and buried my head between his neck and shoulder.

"I know that! You're a Marine, man. I had that part figured out." Boy, did Riley have a lot to learn about Marines. I wasn't totally sure I wanted him to learn a lot about other Marines, though.

I stifled a chuckle and I started to kiss his neck. He arched his head back, exposing his throat. I ran my tongue across it. I could feel his whole body quiver, which really did it for me. I moved up and kissed him, he opened his mouth even as his hands moved down and found the hem of my T-shirt. I sat up and let him pull my T-shirt off. He ran his hands over my chest. He was gentler that I had fantasized about. Less sure of himself, almost tentative.

I drew in a sharp intake of breath as he ran his hands over my nipples. I sat there above him and let him explore. My heart was racing. I couldn't resist, I tensed my pecs a bit. That elicited a "Nice." His voice was low, it came out almost a purr.

I looked down at him, I leaned over and kissed him again, pulling his bottom lip out and sucked on it. While I was kissing him, habit took over and I reached around and pushed his arms to the mattress, pinning him down. He started to resist, but then just gave in.

I pulled my head back, and looked down at him, I must have had the biggest grin on my face till I saw the look of thinly masked terror on his face.

He was staring up at me, eyes wide open.

"Ri?"

"Yeah?" His voice was hoarse, almost cracking.

Dude was way too scared. Something was up. I bit my lower lip, trying to figure this out. It hit me. "Ri, what happened in the dream? The one with you and me?" One thing Belize had taught me was to take dreams seriously.

His face went blank. He started to pull his hands away. I could feel I was losing him. I held him down on the mattress. "Just tell me, OK?" I was pleading, almost begging.

He swallowed hard. He looked up at me. He blinked once. "You ... " He looked up at me with real fear in his eyes.

Suddenly, pinning him down like that was a lot less sexy. I let go of his arms. I rolled off of him, and lay on my side next to him, reaching over and just letting my hand rest on his chest, feeling his heart race, knowing that at least part of that was fear and not him being turned on.

"You gotta tell me, Ri." I was working hard to keep a reassuring tone in my voice.

He looked over at me and swallowed hard. Besides the fear, there was embarrassment, maybe shame, in his eyes. "It was in one of the holding cells in the Initiative." He closed his eyes. "You pretty much just took me, man. You pinned me down and just fucked the shit out of me."

I pulled my hand off him and rolled over on my back and stared at the ceiling. My wild sex fantasy was his nightmare. "Shit!" I whispered. "You were face down, right?"

"Yeah."

"... and I kept calling you 'tough guy'?"

He got up on one elbow, "Yeah! How'd you know?"

"Same dream." I looked over at him. He was thinking about that.

He swallowed hard. "That's why I lost it when I saw you at the park ..."

I nodded. Yeah. I was pretty sure I'd had that dream the night before I brought the doc to Riley, too. "It was just a dream, Ri."

"Yeah, sorry about going all postal on you in the park. But after the dream, and then seeing you ... "

I nodded. "Got it. You freaked." Not surprising, given what all else was going on. I didn't know how to explain the dream to him. Because I definitely had wanted to do him like that.

It hit me. "Listen! Did I have a name in the dream? Was I 'Graham'?"

"It was definitely you, man." Like he wasn't gonna let me get away with that.

"Yeah, I know it was me. But was my name 'Graham'?"

He got a funny look on his face. He shook his head. "No. Weird. You were 'Dog'. I just thought it was, ya know 'Devil Dog', ya know, a Marine. But it wasn't. It was your name. Hey! Forrest called you that, called you 'Dog', there by the cenote."

I nodded my head. "You gotta understand something. OK, maybe not understand it, because I really don't. But you gotta believe me. The dog is gone. He's not me anymore, or I'm not him. Or something."

"But he was you?"

I nodded.

Riley seemed to understand, or he was willing to play along, "So, where'd the dog go?"

I chuckled, "He's running around in the jungle down in Belize."

Riley started to chuckle. "This conversation is actually making sense to me, and *that* is giving me the wiggins."

I chuckled back. "Life on the Hellmouth, Ri." There was a silence. I didn't know what to say. I guess I don't know what to say a lot of the time.

"Uh, Graham..."

"Yeah?"

"That dream, with you. It scared the shit out of me, but I kinda got off on it."

I reached over and ran my finger tips along his cheek. I nodded. "Yeah, I know. I was there, too, remember?"

He was staring hard at me. His jaw clenched under my fingers as he swallowed hard. I couldn't tell him I didn't wanna fuck him, cause I did. I mean, I really really did. I ran the back of my hand gently over his cheek.

"Does it help to know that I really want you to fuck me, too?"

He blinked. His jaw unclenched. His whole body untensed as a small smile crept over his face. He nodded. "Yeah, that helps."

I leaned over and kissed him again. The tension that had been in his shoulders before was gone. My hands moved down to his T-shirt and I pulled at it, pulling it up. I pulled away from his mouth just long enough to get it off. I tossed it on the floor, and just grinned at him as I ran my hand across his chest, slowly, just drinking in the feel of him, the warmth, the muscle under the layer of skin. "Nice," I whispered, not knowing a word that really expressed the emotion of finally getting to really touch something I'd dreamed of and fantasized about probably hundreds of times, and finding the reality of it infinitely better. I leaned over and ran my tongue across his chest, savouring the slightly salty taste of unshowered Riley.

He moaned. I felt his heart speed up a bit. His hand moved slowly down my chest to my stomach. He ran his hand across my abs slowly, back and forth. I suddenly flashed on the number of times he had patted me on the stomach after a work out or just passing in the hall at Lowell House. I had to grin. I had definitely gotten off on it when he had done that. It had never occurred to me that he had gotten off on that too, till now. Riley really knew how to play his cards close to his chest.

He was staring at my stomach as he gently caressed it. I tensed the abs. "Yeah!" he whispered, and leaned over and ran his tongue along the tightened muscles. I fell back onto the pillow and let out a long tense sigh, my left hand on his shoulder, not gripping him, just letting it lie there.

His hand found my bulge. He continued to tongue my stomach as he ran his hand very slowly and gently over my hardened cock.

"Ri..." I begged. It came out barely a whisper. He reached down and found my cock. He sort of stared at it as he ran his fingers along it. I sucked in air. I had to resist the urge to grab his head and shove his mouth onto it. Instead I let my hand find his neck and give him a reassuring squeeze, and then ran my hand through his hair.

He leaned in and kissed the underside of my cock. I felt it stiffen, almost painfully. He ran his tongue along the underside up to the head. He seemed to be spending a lot of time licking the shaft, and then I realized that he was licking, kissing, almost worshipping the scars from that night by the cenote, which seemed like months ago, but was really the night before.

I looked down. He was staring at the scars, like he couldn't take his eyes off of them. I tousled his hair. He looked up at me, eyes serious, like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.

"I still can't believe you ... did this." He was almost ashamed.

"Me neither." I gave him a smile. "I'm not planning on making a habit of it, OK?"

That got a chuckle out of him. "Gray, I ..." He gently ran his hand across my stomach. I shivered.

I was starting to get impatient here. "Uh, can we talk later, Ri?"

He gave me this grin and still looking up at me, licked the underside of my shaft from root to tip. It was warm, and wet. My shoulders tensed as he ran his tongue around the base of my cockhead. I groaned his name. He was being really tentative. First time. Not sure what to do exactly. I reached down and pulled his hand to my cock. "Hold the base." I suggested hoarsely. He wrapped his thumb and forefinger around the base and squeezed, as he ran his tongue over the cockhead.

Pretty sure I moaned before I whispered, "Go on, man, take it in your mouth." He opened his mouth and pressed it down. He gagged as it hit the back of his throat. He pulled off, but went right back on. I whispered "Good boy!" but then kinda hoped he didn't hear that. He found a rhythm, and began moving his head up and down, as his tongue flicked and then ran itself around the cockhead each time his head came down.

OK, it definitely wasn't the most technically expert blow job I had ever gotten. But I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Because it was him.

I was feeling his shoulders, his left hand was running gently over my chest, making my skin tingle as he touched it. I gave a sharp intake of breath as he ran his fingertips over my left nipple. He must have been paying attention, because he did it again, and then to the other nipple. I was squirming. I opened my eyes and found myself looking straight into his eyes as he took my cock all the way down. He was looking at me, trying to figure out what I liked, how he could do it so it would please me, wanting to see me enjoy it.

It was that look that made me come right then and there. I tried to warn him, but all that came out of my mouth was a muffled "Ri!"

He pulled his mouth off just in time and watched transfixed as I came. My whole body tensed so tightly that I was afraid I was gonna pull a tendon. I could feel his hand on my abs, his fingers exploring them as they got tensed tight.

He massaged my come into my stomach as I tried to breathe. Every muscle in my body went lax. Then I felt his tongue licking my shrinking cock clean. I looked down at him and he started to chuckle. Not the reaction I usually hoped for. I reached down and ran my hand through his hair.

He glanced up at me for a second, before kissing the scar on the underside of my cock. Then his eyes locked onto mine. "Chan-yat." he whispered, his eyes twinkling.

I completely lost it. Pretty sure that was the first time in my life I ever laughed after getting a blow job.

I pulled him up. He was a big guy, but I was pretty strong and it felt good to be able to move him around, and it felt amazing that he would let me. I could feel his hard-on against my leg. I just held onto him as I laughed. As I calmed down, I found he had been sort of rubbing my leg.

"My turn." I announced.

I rolled over, pinning him beneath me. "Wanna get your cock sucked, Ri?"

"Fuck yeah!" he whispered. Eager newbie. I was determined to give him the most mind-blowing blow-job a man had ever received.

I moved down, palming his chest with my left hand as I spread open his fatigues with my right, pulling out his hard-on. I cupped the balls and slowly ran my tongue around his cockhead, and then down and back up the length of his shaft. I felt his heart speed up through my left hand, and Riley stiffened. In the good way. He put his hands gingerly on my shoulders. I was surprised by the tentativeness of his grip. I moved my mouth off of his cock for a second, turned my head and kissed his forearm, just to let him know I liked his hands there, and then returned my attention to the task at hand.

His hands were exploring my shoulders and neck. He wasn't trying to control me, or use his hands to tell me what to do, he just wanted to touch me. There was no battle going on here, no fight for dominance. Not in him or in me.

I started off slow, lowering my head onto his shaft, twisting slightly as I went down, easing and opening my throat, so I could take it all the way down, using my tongue to tease the underside of the cock, feeling the heat of it. I picked up speed very slowly, still keeping my left hand on his chest, palming it, feeling it, checking for his reaction to what I was doing. I could feel him fighting for control, and losing. As I stopped on an upstroke, and gave his cockhead a thorough tongue-massage, he groaned almost like he was in pain and his hands slid off my shoulders.

When I looked up, there were tears in his eyes. I let his cock flop onto his stomach. "You OK, Ri?"

"Shit, yeah." He whispered. "I didn't know, I just didn't know..." His voice trailed off.

"Yeah, I know." I remembered exactly how completely amazing it had felt the first time I had done it with a guy. I smoothed his chest with my hand and smiled at him. "Thanks." I whispered. I was grateful to whatever gods that I got to be Riley's first guy. I bent back over and took him all the way down my throat, I could feel him groan with pleasure throughout his entire body.

"Gray! Gray! I'm gonna..." He reached down and tried to pull my head away. I pushed his hand away, and then reached under him and took a hold of his ass and pulled him up into me, and felt his cock convulse and explode down my throat. I could feel the muscles in his ass tense tightly as he came. Riley let out a series of groans, almost whimpers as I continued to suck him dry.

When I let his cock slip out of my mouth and I looked up at him, he was staring at me, eyes wide open.

"Holy shit!" he murmured.

I wiped my mouth with my forearm and grinned at him. I crawled atop him, and kissed him lightly. "Was that OK?" I asked, all innocent-like.

He put his arms around me and hugged me to him. Enough of an answer for me.

Usually at this point, I would have gotten up and gotten dressed and taken off, or told the guy that I had to get up early the next morning -- the big hint that it was time for him to leave. But I didn't want to move, I didn't want to leave, I didn't want to let go of him. Ever. I dunno. It wasn't like we'd just had sex, although we had. Pretty mind-blowing sex, for me anyway. I hoped for him. It was more like we had tried one thing, and we still had maybe three thousand other things to try before the question of whether we were done with each other would come up.

And I wasn't sure the question would come up, even then.

I slid off of him, nestling on his shoulder, his arm behind my neck. Then came the best part about having sex with another guy. We both just fell asleep.

*****
Part 12: Game Time

I dreamt of him. But not in that holding cell in the Initiative. It was on a rocky stretch of beach north of San Diego, where I used to go while I was stationed at Pendleton, when I wanted to be by myself. I'd never taken anyone there. The two of us were just sitting on this deserted beach, watching the sun set. Sitting next to each other, shoulders barely touching. The sky was the colour of blood.

My blood.

He looked over at me and grinned, "Game time."

I nodded. We stood up and faced the crowd.

The two of us were in that Mayan city in Belize, in the courtyard where we had burned the demon bodies. The tropical sun was beating down on us. The air was so humid that moving through it was almost like swimming. We weren't in a ruin.

The plaza was paved in stone. The temples were painted in bright colours. It was a living vibrant city. The edges of the ball court were filled with thousands of spectators, the roofs of the surrounding buildings were crowded with people, cheering. Riley and I -- or Hunahpu and I -- were playing ball. Sort of like basketball, but without the dribbling. We were trying to make the shot through the stone hoop, which was affixed sideways to the temple wall.

We were playing hard, sweating hard, but grinning at each other. It was really hard to put the ball through the hoop, and we both kept missing, but the crowd would erupt into cheers if the ball even came close to the stone hoop.

Finally, Riley knocked the ball up, with his knee, as though he were playing soccer, and it bounced high off the temple wall at an odd angle and hit the edge of the opening in the stone hoop and stopped, and then slowly rolled through.

The crowd jumped to their feet, the sound of the cheering was overwhelming, deafening. I stood there hands on hips, grinning at him, staring at him, sweat-covered in the humid jungle heat, naked, except for a loincloth and a red and white cloth tied around his head, like a sweatband.

He had won.

We had won.

I looked down at the ball. The outer wrapping had come undone as it had scraped the edge of the stone hoop. You could just make out the eyes of the demon preacher staring blankly from the torn-open cloth.

The crowd was still cheering, stamping their feet and chanting "Hunahpu! Xbalanke! Hunahpu! Xbalanke!" Over and over in a 'one, two, THREE!' rhythm. He came over to me and put an arm across my shoulder, and raised the other in victory. I put an arm across his lower back, and led him off the ball court. The crowd was still chanting as people stepped back to let us through. We looked up and saw Forrest sitting on the highest part of the temple, wearing a brightly-coloured robe made of bird feathers, grinning at us proudly. He nodded at us, imperiously, like he was giving us permission ...

I awoke suddenly with a grin on my face, and a rock-hard cock. I wasn't sure what that dream meant As I opened my eyes, I found myself looking right into his open eyes.

"Nice shot." I whispered.

"Thanks." He replied, eyes twinkling. I reached over and ran my hand through his hair, and then along his shoulder and down his arm. His muscles were tensed and slightly damp with sweat, as though he had just come off a basketball game. I leaned in and found his lips.

He grabbed my shoulders and eagerly, or desperately, pulled me in, crooking his forearm behind my neck as I ground my mouth down on his. I rolled slightly on top of him, and his other hand roughly explored my back, and down to my ass.

I had one leg between his, and I could feel his erection pressing against my stomach as we kissed. I lifted my pelvis slightly, and pressed my own erection against his stomach, and then squirmed, so the two were trapped between us, touching. He started to buck a little, so that our cocks were being rubbed between stomachs.

"Christ! I need you, Riley." I was begging. For the first time, I was begging.

There was bit of a groan in reply. Then a whispered, "You got me."

His back arched, pressing his body hard against mine, as I took his earlobe between my lips, and teasingly pulled at it. He was smoothing my shoulders as he let me play with his ear.

"Gray?" He whispered hoarsely. "You wanna...?" He stopped.

I leaned up, and ran my hand along his jaw line, and met his eyes. "You want me to?"

He gave the slightest hesitation and then nodded. I still had my hand on his jaw. It didn't clench, he didn't tense up. In fact, he relaxed slightly. I leaned back down and brushed my lips against his, and then moved down, and needed to taste him, needed to lick the sweat off his chest. He arched his back and moaned loudly as my tongue found his left nipple. He tried to whisper my name, but couldn't as I discovered just how sensitive he was there.

His hands were gripping my shoulders. I reached over to the bedside table, opened the drawer and pulled out a bottle of the slick stuff. I opened it one-handed, up-ended it and squeezed a healthy dollop into my hand. Putting the bottle down, I rolled half off of him, and watching for the reaction on his face, let my hand find its way between his legs. I lifted his leg. He took a hold of his own calf, and held it up for me. He was staring at me, a little scared and a lot excited as I spread some of the lube on the opening of his ass, and then slowly worked my index finger inside him. He held his breath and tightened up.

"Relax." I murmured. He nodded at me, and started breathing again. As I worked two fingers into him, he leaned up and over. I met his mouth with mine. He wrapped his hand around the back of my head, as his tongue felt my teeth, and then licked the underside of my tongue. I had three fingers inside him now, slowly moving in and out, the index finger finding his prostate, and gently massaging it, making him shiver.

His head fell back down and he groaned, staring at the ceiling, still gripping his own calf. He reached down with his free hand and began to play with himself very slowly in time to my fingers inside him.

"OK?" I asked. He looked over at me, swallowed, and nodded.

"You sure?" I asked again.

He nodded slightly. I grinned at him. I pulled my hand out and reached over to the bedside table drawer, and pulled out a condom, and with practiced ease, opened the foil packet with one hand and teeth, and rolled it on. I opened the bottle of lube with one hand, as the other hand continued to gently massage his shoulder.

As he watched me, a sly grin came over his face. "Hey! I thought you said you didn't have the stuff to do this?"

I grinned back, "I lied."

He chuckled, and reached up and put out his hand. I squeezed some lube into it. He reached down and slowly, teasingly, lubed up my cock, spreading his legs as he did. He scooted down a bit, raising his legs, and pulled on my cock underhanded.

The other hand ran itself across my chest. I moaned. I got up on my knees, and positioned myself between his legs.

I was gonna do this nice and easy. OK, I never ever did this nice and easy, but I figured this one time we could do this nice and easy. Maybe later we could do it nice and rough.

I met his eyes as I slowly pushed myself inside of him, watching for his reaction. He tightened up as my cockhead entered. I stopped, and waited. He relaxed his body and looked back up at me and nodded.

I pushed in, slowly, a half an inch at a time, letting him get used to it. He got the look on his face, like he needed to take a shit. I knew that one. I flashed him a knowing smile and stopped pushing in. He ran his hands over my chest, and then shoulders and arms. He stared at my body like he hadn't seen it a hundred times in the barracks or the showers or the training ring. His touch was electric. I got goosebumps, which really surprised me. That had never happened before.

His hands held my sides for just a second. His jaw tightened for a second and then he ran his hands down to my waist and slowly but forcefully pulled me into him.

I'm pretty sure I moaned.

I leaned over slightly, hands on either side of his chest, and began moving in and out of him. I watched him carefully, he seemed to be taking it OK. Shit, he seemed to be taking it really well.

My right hand moved across his chest, and he let out a soft moan, which was almost too much for me. I was still staring at his face. He had closed his eyes and leaned his head back, almost strained, jaw clenched, but a bit of a smile on his lips. A moan from somewhere back in his throat came out, little more than a whisper, but with an intensity that I'd never heard before. It sounded at first like a long low groan, but as I listened it became clear that he was trying to say my name, trying to say 'Gray'.

His hands were gripping my thighs, and I could feel his grip tighten slightly as I moved forward into him. I could hear him matching his breathing to the rhythm of my thrusts. I had been wanting this for so long, practically since the first day I had seen him. I had never even fantasized that he would be, that he could be this into it. I looked at his face and knew I was never gonna make it last if I kept staring at him. I closed my eyes. I tried to block out the rest of the world, and just feel this.

I leaned forward a bit more, pushing his leg closer to his chest, opening him up a bit more, just so I could drive in a little deeper, feel a little more of him, because I wanted to be all the way inside him. All the way. I pushed as deep inside him as I could with each stroke, and the deeper I went, the more of him I wanted. It just seemed like it had been so long. I had wanted him so long. Like I had never wanted anybody else.

I let go and my body was just crashing into his, driving in, wanting to take all of him. To lose myself in him. I arched my neck back and felt nothing but him beneath me, and around me, enveloping me. and. all. I. wanted. was. him.

"Graham ... Graham ... Graham! ... *Graham*!" Riley's voice came through, as he gripped my waist tightly, trying to slow me down.

I opened my eyes and looked at him. There was serious concern and pain on his face.

I realized I had been fucking him hard. Really hard. I stopped,

"Easy, OK? Go easy on me. First timer here." He was caressing my waist gently as he spoke.

I slowly pulled out, letting his leg slide back to the mattress.

"Shit, Ri." I got out between pantings, "Shit. I'm really sorry, man." Fuck! the dog was back. I had promised myself this wouldn't happen. I couldn't look into his eyes. I bent my head down, almost touching his chest with the top of my head. Fighting back tears, I whispered, "I'm sorry ... I'm sorry, Ri, I'm sorry. I just ..."

He lifted my head up so I was looking right into his eyes, and imitated the Colonel's gruff voice, "I don't wanna hear any excuses from you, soldier!"

That got a bit of an embarrassed smile out of me.

He ran his hands over my face gently, and then through my hair. He smiled up at me. "Just give me a little time to get used to it before you go that hard. OK?"

"OK." I nodded, chastened. Relieved

Still holding my head in his hands, he ran his thumbs slowly, gently across my cheeks. "You're really beautiful when you're fucking, you know that?"

"Yeah?" My grin spread from ear to ear.

"Oh, yeah." He gave a little nod, and letting go of my head, ran his hands slowly down my sides to my waist. I was rock hard again by the time his hands got there. He looked at me and whispered in that mock gruff voice, "So, is that all ya got? Or are ya gonna fuck me some more, Marine?"

I don't think I had ever heard anyone say anything that ... sexy ... to me before in my life. I shivered, even as I grinned down at him. By way of an answer, I pulled his left leg back up on my shoulder, and slowly eased myself back inside him. I needed to take it slow. He needed me to take it slow. Slow enough to let him get used to it again, feeling him relax as he let me back in. Feeling his hands on my chest, warm, I started back in on him, but this time, I managed to lean down and kiss him as I began gently pushing into him again. His hands ran up and down my sides.

I reached down, and took a hold of his cock, and ran it though my fist as I thrust into him. He gave out a long low moan. He closed his eyes and arched his back.

He was close.

I held my breath and watched him. He held onto my shoulders tightly. My cock got squeezed hard as his muscles contracted, his fingers dug into my shoulders. I let go, feeling myself come even as I felt his cock get impossibly hard, and saw the stream of his come arc upwards.

His face, jaw unclenched, eyes squeezed shut, mouth half opened, was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. I knelt there, letting my cock slip out of him, just staring down at him.

Just grateful.

I reached down with my right hand and ran my palm over his chest, feeling the heat, the light coating of sweat, letting it rest over his heart, feeling it pounding, but starting to slow down, feeling the tension in his pecs, and then feeling the muscle start to relax, watching every muscle in his body relax, and watching his face slowly get taken over by a slight smile. A content smile.

I leaned down and kissed him very gently, very briefly, and then rolled over and lay beside him, my body pressed against his, and tried to remember how to breathe. As I lay there on my back, trying to catch my breath, he rolled over, and put his head on my chest. I put an arm across his shoulders, and whispered, "You OK, Ri?"

It took him a second to form an answer. The longest second in my life.

"Fuck, yeah," he whispered back. I ran my hand in small circles on his shoulder, just wanting to let him now I was still there, still with him.

"Ri?" Still a whisper.

"Yeah?" Just barely a whisper, he was just barely awake.

"Anything you want. You know that, right?"

He slowly moved his arm across me and gave me the slightest of hugs, and then lay still, breathing regularly. I smiled and closed my eyes.

I fell asleep, and no dreams came.

=============================

Epilogue: Military Base HQ. Somewhere in Southern California.
Date: 6 Venus, 11 Mak [that is, the 8th day of the 14th month of the 7th year in the 19th 20-year 'decade' of the 12th 400-year 'century' since the fourth creation of the world.]
(12 December, 2000)

I stood at attention in the Colonel's office.

"At ease, Miller."

I went to parade rest, hands behind my back, eyes front.

"Hellova job you did down there."

"Thank you, sir."

The Colonel got up and closed the door.

"How is Finn holding up?"

"Good, sir."

"I want you to listen to me carefully, Miller."

"Yes, sir." Uh oh, fecal matter was about to strike the ventilating unit. I was feeling a surge of adrenaline, which I had to work hard not to let show. If the Colonel thought he was gonna get rid of Riley now that I had gotten him safely back inside, he was in for a fight.

"It is probably very important for you NOT to tell me what's going on here."

I didn't answer. Pretty easy for me to follow orders not to say much.

"But the chief or shaman or whatever he was in that village in Belize told me I couldn't split the two of you up."

I was working hard at pretending not to understand, keeping a stone face, keeping eyes forward.

"He said something about the two of you being twins, and needing to be together, some sort of fighting unit, the way he explained it. That make any sense to you, Miller?

"Uh, yes, sir."

He nodded. "He gave me a lot of mumbo-jumbo about blood and sacrifices and ... something about monkeys. Mainly, he told me that I had to look out for the two of you, or else he would ... 'send me dreams'."

I had to stifle a smile. "Yes, sir. He talks like that."

"The upshot was, he told me that together the two of you could defeat, well, his phrase was 'the Lords of Death'."

"Yes, sir. Finn and I work well together."

"I saw that in Belize." He nodded, apparently satisfied. I relaxed a little.

The Colonel continued, "Look, we've got a mission here, Miller. And the mission comes first, is that clear?"

"Perfectly clear, sir."

"The only question I gotta ask is: Will keeping the two of you together help get the job done?"

"Yes, sir. I believe it will, sir."

"Good enough." He hesitated before he spoke again, "Miller, you got any idea why he kept calling you two 'Bow-Hunter' and 'Little Jaguar'?"

"They're names from an old Mayan story, sir." I wasn't sure how I knew that. But I was sure I had it right.

He smiled a little from the corner of mouth. He nodded again, and made like we had an inside joke going. "OK, from now on, your code name is 'Hunter' and Finn's is "Jaguar'."

"No, sir."

His response was immediate and gruff. "Beg pardon, Miller?" The Colonel didn't like to be contradicted, but I couldn't let this one pass.

"I'm pretty sure I'm 'little Jaguar', sir. Riley's the 'Hunter'."

He stared at me for a moment, trying to figure out if I was jerking his chain, and then he nodded, and made a change to the paper on his clipboard. There was a full minute of dead silence. I could tell the Colonel was struggling with something. He looked me over carefully.

"Miller?" he asked quietly but deadly serious.

"Yes, sir?" I replied, equally softly, my eyes darting to his for the first time.

"I can only protect the two of you if you two protect me."

"Understood, sir." I nodded. "Not a problem, sir." I shifted my weight nervously, before finding parade rest again. I got it: He wasn't going to ask, but we had better damned sure not tell.

"So, I am not going to have occasion to discuss certain issues with you or Finn. Ever." It was not a question.

"Sir, no, sir."

"OK. You got a three-day pass, Miller, starting now."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

"You earned it. Dismissed." He saluted.

I saluted back, pretty damned snappily. I turned, perfectly regulation and headed out. As my hand touched the door knob, he added, real casual-like, "By the way, if you happen to see Finn, tell him he's got a three-day pass as well."

"Yes, sir!" I worked hard at not grinning at him.

*****

Moral of the story: When asked, you should always donate blood.

End notes:
1. 'chan yat' really means that. It is a common classic Maya honourific for kings (who were making the blood sacrifice -- hole, string, paper and all -- to Lord Chak to bring the rains)
2. I try not to give non-canonical characters names, to keep myself honest. But, just so you know, the Belizan cop is 'Constable Benson Fraser'. I think he has cousins up here in Canada. < g >
3. I can't help it. I think that 'Into the Woods' had a sappily happy ending, with the two boys riding off together in search of adventure. I was grinning like a fool at the end of the ep. Never take the slash-goggles off, comrades!
4. The Mayan villagers in this story were probably refugees from Army oppression in Guatemala, hence their use of Quiche Maya terms rather than Yucatec Maya, as well as their fear of soldiers.