*****

"We could go to the movies. They have air-conditioning. Much better than your creaky fan." Benny took a long, loud slurp off his blue raspberry popsicle and wiggled weakly but restlessly on Pike's bed. His undershirt had ridden up to reveal his pale stomach.

Pike's grape popsicle tasted thick and almost cloyingly sweet, but its cool wetness felt wonderful against his lips, tongue, and throat. "Hey, that fan oscillates, so don't insult my gear."

"A fan is your 'gear'?"

"I bought it and fix it myself."

"That explains a lot."

"Oh, shut up." Pike smacked Benny's arm, then smacked it again when his friend just gave him an insolent grin. "You like that?"

"Don't knock it till you try it."

"I'm knocking *you*, and I haven't--" Bad place. Pike tried to return to the original topic. "Yeah, we could go to the movies, but we've seen them all already. Multiple times. I'll start doing my film student impression again just to keep myself interested."

When Benny convulsed with laughter, his sweaty black hair brushed against Pike's neck. "Oh God, I thought you were speaking in tongues. Even the two syllable words didn't sound like English. Where'd you pick up that shit?"

"There are these things called 'books'--"

"Oh, fuck you." But Benny smiled. "You could just sleep there if you wanted."

"Yeah, but we'd have to stand up and get dressed to go there."

They sighed and continued to suck on their popsicles. They'd shucked off most of their clothing trying for relief from the heavy, oppressive heat, leaving Pike only in his boxers and Benny in his boxers and a sleeveless undershirt.

Benny propped himself up on his arm so he could look Pike in the face. "That really cuts down on our recreational choices."

"No kidding!"

"I mean, it's too hot to even *smoke*."

"Never thought I'd hear something like that from you. Where's your stoner patriotism?"

"It melted." Benny's popsicle followed suit, melting off the stick and landing on Pike's chest. He giggled at the squeak that accompanied the drop. "Don't be such a baby. That should feel good."

"It's fucking cold, and the fan keeps hitting it... Wait a minute, what are you doing?"

Benny's fingers tried to grab the rapidly melting ice. "If I don't get this, I'll have to get up for another one."

Cold stickiness ran all over Pike's skin, giving way only to the heat of Benny's fingers as they fruitlessly chased their target. They usually skidded, but sometimes they dragged, sticking, to Pike's chest. Every time the noisy oscillating fan turned to them, the chilled air struck his wet skin with a shock. Pike shivered.

It had to be the heat making him feel so itchy. This was his best friend.

"This isn't working," Benny said, then applied his mouth and tongue.

Pike whimpered. It was so *hot*. He watched that tongue reach the blue ice and roll it into the waiting mouth. Those blue lips should have struck him as funny, should have broken through the surprising surge of whatever it was he felt, but they only increased the fascination. Benny had retrieved the remnants of his popsicle, but he kept on licking, lapping at the sticky fluid left on Pike's skin. One flick teased his nipple and surprised a moan out of him.

When Benny glanced up at the sound, his eyes looked dark and hungry. //Insane. He's insane, I'm insane, this is insane. It's the heat, it's our age, it's boredom,// Pike thought. The words, "Go home, Ben," trembled inside him but refused to pass his lips. Even through his confusion, he knew that Benny was waiting for him. No or yes. Go home, or please feel free to feast on me. The strength of his urge to take door number two stunned him.

Words failed him. Wide eyed, he just kept sucking on his popsicle and watching this person he'd thought he knew. He watched as the hunger gave way to horror and embarrassment, and he couldn't stand to see that look on Ben's face. Pike sucked the last of his ices into his mouth and put the purple-tinged stick on the folding table nearby, then placed his hand over Benny's sweat-damp hair and pushed him down close until their mouths met. He felt smooth, hard teeth brush his lips in a smile.

It should have been unpleasant to have Benny draped on him, adding more heat and sweat to his. They stuck together in places, parting only with effort and a wet sound.

It didn't matter; it only made him more aware of his body and how it strained to be part of Benny's. They devoured one another in as much of a frenzy as the heat would allow. Benny's cool mouth was everywhere, on his mouth, his hard nipples, the taut skin over his belly, over his cock trying to nudge its way free of his boxers.

This couldn't be happening. He had to be maxing out on the heat, tripping his ass off. Terror, exhilaration, and pleasure threatened to burn out whatever synapses he hadn't already nailed on his own. He thought of the ugly taunts he'd faced at school sometimes as the jocks had come at him in a group to stomp him down. "Benny..."

Ben looked up again, and he seemed to glow in a way that had nothing to do with the sheen of sweat on his pale skin. He affectionately ran his thumb over the jagged scar in Pike's left eyebrow. "Trust me, Pike?"

//I did that. I'm making him look like this.// And Pike thought of over a hundred wild drunken nights, wandering with Benny till he passed out, confident that Benny wouldn't leave him and they would get home somehow. "Yeah."

"You'll love this, I promise."

Blue lips closed over the tip of Pike's cock, and he shrieked. Not all of the popsicle had melted. Then Benny slid his mouth all the way down on it and started to suck, bobbing his head, making small sounds. It suggested technique, experience. As much as Pike could think at the moment, he decided to wonder later, when he didn't have coolness and heat and wetness, with the occasional shock of a tiny bit of ice, reducing him to mindless whimpering. He couldn't think anymore, only feel. Too soon he felt himself coming and tried to stop himself from bucking too forcefully. His whole body arched at the intensity of his orgasm. He expected Benny to pull away, but his friend didn't, greedily taking it all.

Pike felt limp, utterly drained, but if his body had become the equivalent of a wet noodle, it was a very happy wet noodle. Benny rubbed his way up before coming to a halt and nuzzling at the long neck bared to him. "Good?" Benny asked.

"Uhn."

"That sounds yes-like."

"What about you?"

"You don't have to--"

Pike had already reached into Benny's boxers and started to stroke, remembering what *he* liked. It felt odd to be touching someone else's cock, but the skin felt so velvety. It quivered in his hand and felt even hotter than the rest of Benny's skin. Then it stiffened further as Benny came hard.

Benny hid his face in Pike's neck and muttered, "That was embarrassingly fast."

Pike felt a rush of affection, even more than he would have thought possible. It cut through all the "What do we do now?" thoughts. He was still Pike; this was still Benny. They were just... closer now.

"It's kind of flattering to me, really," Pike said.

"Yeah?"

"Oh hell, you're young. Excitable."

"Sure."

"That means you'll be able to go again in no time."

Benny looked up and asked, "Again?" If Pike hadn't already been completely melted, the smile that came out would have done it. "I like the sound of that."

~end~