BLUE SKY by reid
-14-
I'd been staring at the tattoos all night long. It wasn't like I could really help it. Teddy had sprained his right leg in a game, which had pretty much killed off our plans to spend a rare night not on the couch. Instead, we sat there trying to watch some Criterion Collection DVD about two French whores in the 1800s. We'd borrowed the thing from his sister.
After about the fifth or sixth scene in a church basement, I'd started looking for other sources of amusement. Teddy had propped his legs up on the coffee table, giving me a wonderfully arousing view of his left leg. My mouth watered at the sight of the black Kanji lettering, my tongue almost cramping with some weird desire.
"When did you get them?"
At my query, Teddy rotated his leg to look at the tattoos. The muscles in his leg flexed in one divine series of chain reactions. The stretching of his silky soft skin called out to me like a dinner bell.
"Didn't I tell you?"
I shrugged, "I think it's the one thing we've never discussed."
Teddy smiled, "It was my 17th birthday present when I did my senior project. My mom didn't like the idea of me getting tattooed but she liked that I was at least interested in Japanese stuff. She was a little giddy from my project, I think."
I reached out and stroked the tattoos. Teddy squirmed writhed on the couch, the fleetingness of my touch driving him crazy. Goosebumps stood up on his legs as his warm skin passed under my fingertips. When he squirmed, the tattoos flexed with the muscles in his legs.
That turned me on, too. Surprising as it may sound.
"Why do they turn you on so much?" He asked as I forced myself to stop touching his leg.
"I don't know," I groaned, laying across the couch and resting my head in his lap, "Maybe it's that you don't seem like the tattoo type."
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know," I shrugged, looking up at him, "If you had any other kind of tattoo, it would look weird. You're so wholesome and American, after all."
He laughed, "Oh really?"
"It's nice. It shows a certain - pride."
Teddy stroked my cheek, "Well, I had to do something. I have nice legs so I thought that calling attention to them with a unique piece of body art would be fitting."
"Not that kind of pride."
"Ah," He nodded, "Asian pride."
"Basically."
"It's about the only dose of that you'll ever get out of me."
I smiled, "Yeah, I've noticed."
Teddy shifted his legs and cradled my head with his thighs. For a moment, I was distracted by how firm and chiseled they were. He stroked my cheek again and idly ran his fingers through my hair. I could tell he was mulling something over in his head.
"Okay, why should I show more 'Asian pride', Shawn?"
"I didn't say you should do that. I just said I thought it was nice that you showed some."
"I get enough 'Asian pride' from the people I work with, have class with, take classes from, pass on the street, ask directions from, tried to date in the past - actually, you're the only respite I get from it." He said, sounding quite curmudgeonly.
I suddenly felt guilty and sat up next to him on the couch, "I didn't mean to make you feel that way."
He leaned against me, "It's a tattoo. Granted, it looks incredibly hot on me but it's not some deep statement about my ancestors. It's more of an 'arrogance' thing."
"Ah," I laughed, "It's easy to get those two things confused."
"Exactly. So treat them like you would breast implants."
"With pleasure." I murmured amorously, nuzzling the nape of his neck.
Teddy giggled and stroked the back of my head as I licked at his skin. He tasted warm and slightly salty, a hint of Old Spice and soap hanging on his skin. Deftly, I licked my own finger and poked it in his ear, rotating it quickly.
"Wet willie! Wet willie!" I said, Teddy trying to slap my hand away.
"You're so mature." He groused, wiping his ear.
I smiled, "You know I love you, right?"
He looked at me a little weird.
"What?" I asked, wondering if I had something hanging out of my nose.
Teddy smiled, "That's the first time you've said that - unprompted."
"No, it's not!" I said, feeling inwardly ashamed because I knew he was probably right.
Teddy kissed me softly. It wasn't a lustful kiss. Just a nice, loving one. He had begun to make me think that those were better than the other kind. He'd actually begun to make me feel like the soft, non-tongue kisses were better. I kissed him back, enjoying the silkiness of his lips.
"Well, I'll try and do that more often." I said, sounding like a complete bonehead.
"Good," Teddy said, stroking my hair, "I think we're at that point in our relationship where you can say that you love me - without being baited into it."
He was right. Teddy was absolutely right.
I was maturing. At that point, I didn't know just how much.
-15-
There was something really amazing in the way that Teddy worked with the kids.
These were kids that had been treated like they were less than normal for most of their lives. They had been told that things like soccer, swimming, golf, rock climbing, and pretty much anything more than a shitty job sorting mail were beyond their abilities. Yet, when Teddy worked with them, they had a 180 degree turnaround. Some in as little as two days.
He had a gift with them. He had some sort of weird, other worldly ability to connect with them and get the kids to be more than they were told they could be. Every time I watched him working, it was really a sight to behold.
I stood outside the fence that surrounded the soccer field, basking in the sun. As I stood there, I was watching Teddy gather the last of the equipment. One little girl was helping him, stacking the large orange cones and gathering the soccer nets. When he'd packed up the back of the car, Teddy had picked her up and sat her on the open trunk. She kicked her legs back and forth like she didn't have a care in the world.
Enjoying the warm spring sun, I walked back over towards the main building. It was a large, stucco lined series of clinics and classrooms. I'd only been inside a few times but the whole "compound" atmosphere was pretty stifling. How any children, deaf or not, could be expected to learn in such a place was beyond my comprehension.
Steeling myself for the cold gray interior, I walked up the steps and pushed open the heavy doors. After my eyes had adjusted from the sun to the fluorescent lighting, I noticed the smell. The sterile, doctor's office-like smell. I knew that if I was a kid, that smell was like fucking rose water and filet mignon to me.
It was fully air conditioned. That was nice for my hysterical sweat glands.
Taking solace in the cool air, I walked down into the small gym area. Inside the larger room, I heard a group of kids playing basketball. The rubbery thwack of the ball against the floor was the same, but there wasn't anything else. None of the kids were talking or hollering. When I looked through the narrow windows on the doors, I saw them signing to each other. How they ran up and down the court while signing at the same time was very impressive.
The outside doors swung open and Teddy walked in. He was carrying the little girl piggy back-style. After handing her off to one of the teachers, he walked over to me and wrapped his arms around my neck. We'd long ago lost the self-consciousness about kissing in front of anyone, let alone anyone at the school. They didn't seem interested.
Our lips pressed together and I smiled at the warmth of his mouth. Teddy smelled like grass and the outdoors with a hint of sweat. I moved my kisses from his lips to his forehead, enjoying the taste of his skin. Playfully, I dragged my tongue across his eyebrows and felt him shudder a bit.
"You're so evil." He whispered, wiping his face on the sleeve of his T-shirt.
"You know it, hot stuff," I smiled, "You ready to go?"
Teddy nodded, "Yeah. I have a huge grass stain on my ass. Let me go change."
I stepped back as he moved towards the locker room. He turned back to me.
"Come with me."
My eyebrows raised.
"I don't mean like that. I just want to talk to you."
I frowned as I followed him into the locker room, wondering what was so important that it couldn't have waited for the five minutes it took him to change clothes. For a second, I worried that there was some problem but I knew he wouldn't have sucked face in public like that if there was something wrong.
I sat down on one of the wooden benches as Teddy opened his locker. He pulled his T-shirt up and over his head, exposing his upper body to my leering eyes. The back of my throat swelled and I had to turn away, the sight of his bare skin almost irresistible. Instead, I occupied myself looking at the grey concrete floor.
"So what do we need to talk about?"
I didn't watch as Teddy changed into his "regular" soccer shorts and white T-shirt.
"You know I like my job, right?"
"Yeah."
"And you know that my job is important?" He said, his voice taking an odd tone, "I mean, it's important. To me and to other people."
"I've noticed, Teddy."
He took a deep breath, "So if my job needed something from me, you'd understand that it had to be important, right?"
"Yeah."
"Okay," He said, sounding relieved, "Okay, good."
"Is that it?" I dared to allow myself to look at him, relieved that he'd changed his shorts. Now he was occupied with shoes and socks. Reasonably neutral ground compared to the shorts and the bare chest and the whatnot.
"You also know that you're important to me, right?"
"Yes."
"You know that you're important. Like more than my job."
I perked at that. I'd never heard such an explicit display of loyalty from him. I loved Teddy for his dedication to his job and to the kids, but to hear him pledge such fealty had an undeniable appeal.
"Teddy, what are you getting at?"
He looked like he was going to break down and cry for a second. I felt my protective side pang and I wondered what was happening. Maybe his job didn't like the fact that he was so openly with another guy? Maybe the overprotective parents didn't like it? That was probably it. They were going to make him choose between his job and me. Or worse, they were going to take his job because of me.
Teddy shook his head, "It's okay. I was just - I just wanted to make sure you knew that."
I leaned in close, "Are you sure?"
He nodded and smiled. His smile was so reassuring. He leaned in and kissed me on the lips. Just a quick peck.
"Yeah. I just feel like I need to let you know sometimes. That's all."
I sat there and watched him put his shoes on. Something, somewhere, told me that it wasn't that simple. Teddy was usually blissfully free of the tendency to passively dodge the real issue so it seemed quite weird that he'd do it now. The worry came back as I began to wonder what could be that big. Even if it wasn't some problem with his sexuality.
Teddy finished tying his shoes and sat up straight. I kept watching him as he finished taking things from his locker for the weekend. His body language wasn't different or more hurried, but the weird feeling still hung in the air. I didn't like it much.
"Are you tired?" He asked, packing his gym bag.
"Not really, why?"
"You want to go out? I just got paid."
That comforted me a bit. Teddy was such a hermit when it came to his casual time that the only times we went out were Friday nights. It had been a few weeks since we'd last gone out in any real capacity so this was expected.
Comfortable and expected.
Two wonderful feelings that I was ready to worship at that point.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
I can be reached at fear1980@yahoo.com