Sea Change

Sea Change, Pt 25

I wish to retain all rights to this story. However, I am delighted to grant permission to any person to publish this story as long as there is no charge to the reader and as long as no changes are made to the story.

Copyright 2005. All Rights Reserved.

SEA CHANGE

CHAPTER 26 — Closing a Circle

Dad called that morning when he found out that we were back from the ranch. “I’m going to take the afternoon off so we can look for a car for you. I’ll pick up Colin at Tommy’s and I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. You and Daniel be ready.”

I used my cane to get out to the car when Dad honked. Colin moved from the front seat to the back, with Tommy, so that I could get in more easily. Daniel climbed into the back next to Colin. And while Dad and I talked about what dealerships to check out, I noticed that it was very quiet in the back. When I glanced back over the seat, Colin was staring pointedly away from Daniel, who gave me a helpless smile.

At the first car lot, Colin and Tommy immediately headed for new cars; hot cars. Daniel wasn’t always comfortable around Dad, though I had tried to convince him that Dad liked him. And so Daniel drifted off, looking at pickups.

“Did you have a good time at the beach and at the ranch?” Dad asked as we checked out an older Regal.

“Yeah, Dad,” I told him. “It was really good.”

“You’ve forgiven Daniel?”

“Oh, sure,” I said, peeking into the window of a beat up Pinto.

“We can afford better than that Pinto,” Dad said with a chuckle and nudged me on to the next car. “Colin says you want to take him camping at the beach next weekend.”

“Yeah,” I said, bypassing a station wagon. “Somehow, it doesn’t seem fair that I had a good time at the beach with Daniel, while Colin hasn’t had much fun this summer because he has been too busy taking care of me.”

“Colin hasn’t complained.”

I glanced back at Dad. “None of you have, but I know you would have liked a vacation this summer. The thing is, I can’t afford to take you all on vacation. But I can take Colin camping.”

“Oh, I’ll take a few days of vacation sometime, with your mom. But are you sure you’re up to camping with your knee like it is?”

“I owe it to Colin,” I said. “I want to take him.”

“How about if your mom and I pay for a room for you two… maybe a couple of nights on the beach.”

“You can’t afford to do that,” I said. “And I want to take care of it to thank Colin.”

Dad patted my back as I looked inside a Bronco. “You don’t know what we can afford,” he said. “Remember? We didn’t take a vacation this year. We have some money. Besides, maybe your mom and I want to thank Colin, too.”

“We have money for a room at the beach and a car and sending me off to college?

He squeezed my shoulder. “Your granddad is helping with college and we can afford the rest. Why don’t you phone when we get home and make reservations? When does Daniel go back?”

“He’s not sure. By the weekend maybe.”

“The beach is always booked up on weekends. Why don’t you play it safe and make reservations for Sunday. You guys can spend a couple of days before he has to be back. His coach wants to start going over plays with him a couple of days before they start up practices. You can come back Tuesday or Wednesday.”

I nodded gratefully. “OK. Thanks.” We had stopped by a Bronco that looked almost new. Dad opened the driver side door. “Dad,” I asked, surprised. “Is this in our price range?”

He smiled. “Let’s see how it runs.”

Dad, my little sister, and I were the only ones who talked much at supper. We were all excited about the Bronco. Colin was sullen. Mom hadn’t been friendly since she found out I was gay, and she wasn’t thrilled to have Daniel in the house with me. And Daniel was feeling the chill.

After supper, I pulled both Daniel and Colin into our bedroom. Daniel sat down on my bed and Colin sat on his. And I stood between them. “Colin,” I said. “You need to ease up on Daniel. I want you guys to be friends again.”

“Why,” he asked, glaring at Daniel. “I don’t need to be his friend. Look,” he said, standing up as if he was going to leave. “First of all, he treated you like shit, and second, I know you’re gay, that doesn’t mean I have to like having your boyfriend here, OK?”

Daniel took a deep breath. “I don’t blame you for how you feel. And I’m not in the rush that Sean is to get your forgiveness because, well, I think I’d feel the same way. But I promise, Colin. I’m not ever going to let that happen again. I’ll take care of Sean.”

“I’ve been taking care of Sean just fine,” Colin shot back.

I put an arm over Colin’s shoulder. “You have,” I said quietly. “I told you that I’m going to always be grateful. “But maybe I can take care of myself now. And maybe I want to take care of you some, and Daniel, too.” I hugged his neck. “That’s what brothers, and friends, do.”

I rested my forehead on Colin’s. “No one has ever had a brother like you. Just because Daniel and I are going to be together doesn’t mean that you and me are going to lose anything. I want us to be closer than ever.”

“Colin,” Daniel said quietly from where he sat. “I don’t have a brother, and Sean can tell you, I’ve told him plenty of times how much I envy him for having you as his brother. Since I’m going to be around for a while, would you consider teaching me how to be a brother… to you?”

Colin was quiet a moment, and then stepped out from under my arm and headed for the door. “I’ve got to think,” he said.

When the door closed, Daniel shrugged, helplessly. “Man, everybody hates my guts now because of what happened. And now,” he said looking up at me, “Colin’s jealous of me.”

“Really?” I said, surprised.

“Well, yeah,” Daniel answered. “At least you’re taking him to the beach. Maybe that’ll help things.”

“Well thanks for caring,” I said, sitting down beside him on the bed.

“Of course I care,” Daniel said. “And not just because he’s your brother. I like Colin.”

“How do you feel about Ryan?” I asked, patting his leg.

“You mean am I still OK with us seeing him tonight?”

“Yeah. I didn’t know how you felt about it after last night.”

“Well Ryan’s not Aaron,” he said. “And you know I like ol’ Ry.” Then he chuckled. “Sorta silly, huh? Ry’s the one I should really be jealous of, but I’m not. Ry’s different.”

I wasn’t sure just what Daniel thought was different and I didn’t want to pursue it. I just patted his leg again, grateful that we could still see Ry.

After Mom and Dad were in bed, I found Colin watching TV. “Daniel and I are going out for a while,” I told him. “We’ll be back later.”

Colin nodded without taking his eyes from the TV. I knew he assumed we were going to go parking somewhere, and I didn’t tell him otherwise. Daniel was going to be around from now on; Colin needed to learn to deal with that.

Shortly before midnight, Daniel and I drove quietly away in Daniel’s jeep. My knee wasn’t up yet to driving my new secondhand Bronco.

We parked across the street from Ry’s house and tiptoed through their side yard to the back door into the den. Daniel and I wore only singlets, running shorts, and shoes, though no one would believe we were out running if they discovered us. Not the way I hobbled, leaning on Daniel’s shoulder.

When I tapped lightly at the door, it almost flew open. Ryan stood there in just a terrycloth robe. Then he leapt into my arms, wrapping his legs around my waist and his arms over my shoulders. His mouth was instantly on mine and he kissed me hard.

I caught him by the butt and staggered.

Daniel stabilized me with a hand to my back. “Whoa, Ry!” Daniel hissed. “Remember his knee, and his ribs.”

“Oh,” Ry said, leaning back, his eyes full of concern.

“It’s OK,” I said, smiling. He was a small guy, and I was damned happy to see him too. I gave him a reassuring smile.

He hugged me hard and I could feel his erection through his robe as it rubbed against my belly.

Daniel came alongside and I leaned on his shoulder as I carried Ry in to the room. He still clung to my front, his mouth hungrily at mine.

The house was quiet, and dark, except for light from a bathroom off the hall. We stopped in the middle of the room. “I need you to stand up,” I said.

Clinging to my shoulders, he unwrapped his legs from around my waist and stood, leaning against me, in my arms. And he felt so good there, pressing against my hardening cock with his belly.

I pushed the robe back from his shoulders and it fell to the floor. Ry was naked, and his hard cock, which always looked big on a guy his size, jutted upward between us. I held him in my arms, and he clung to me. His mouth opened to mine and I plunged in with my tongue. He whimpered and his fingers dug into my back.

His butt felt good in my hands, small, smooth, soft. I clutched it, pulling him even closer.

And then I felt Dan’s hand on my back, gently rubbing. He kissed behind my ear and then I felt him push my pants down. He knelt as he pulled off my shoes, and then my pants from around my ankles.

Ryan felt my nakedness and reached between us to clasp our cocks together.

Daniel kissed my butt, then stood back up, and from behind, lifted my shirt. Ry let him lift it over my shoulders, and then Ry and I, completely naked, embraced skin on skin. Daniel gave my butt an encouraging pat, and stepped back.

Ryan drew me down to the floor. I grabbed a pillow from the couch for his butt and slid it under him. Then Ry, as flexible as ever, laid his knees out to either side, almost flat on the floor.

I lay down on him, and his eyes rolled as my cock and balls settled onto his. We ground together and kissed as Ryan hugged me tightly in his arms. Daniel reached between our legs, stroking, caressing. He lubed Ry’s butt with spit and then rubbed my butt as I lifted my hips and entered Ryan.

With my knee like it was, I couldn’t enfold his body with mine the way that I liked to, but I was long enough and we were both flexible enough that I could move in him and still press our bodies stomach to stomach, chest to chest. As I pumped from my hips I kept my belly taut and used it to rub on his cock.

Our embrace tightened and he dug the back of his heels into my butt. We moved in a tight, writhing unity. Our mouths exploring, sweat lubricating our bodies. And he was so tight, so hot inside. I felt his tightness over the length of my cock, not just at his entrance, and I pushed to go deeper.

I felt another hand on my back, on my butt, and realized that Daniel had lain down beside us. He watched us and stroked my back, while I concentrated on Ry, who demanded my attention anyway.

I thrust forward with my hips, and he moved his bottom in circles, grinding his cock up against my belly. Our movements melded and our hips synchronized in one large, circular motion. I broke from our long kiss and held my cheek against his to catch my breath. Ryan whimpered in my ear.

And then he tightened on me, arms, legs, everywhere; whimpering, clutching, arching, pressing hard against my belly, and I felt his cum squirt between our stomachs. His butt clutched as he climaxed and I pushed deeper into him and began coming even before he finished.

Not that we actually finished. We only quit moving a moment, with me deep inside him.

“Oh, damn,” I whispered.

“I missed you,” Ryan said with a deep sigh. “I missed this.”

“You better just climb on, Daniel,” I said. “I don’t think we’re stopping.” And then I kissed Ry again. He ran his fingers into my hair, and I moved my hips slowly, not letting myself go soft. And Daniel climbed on.

Or more exactly, he planted a knee on either side of mine and holding his cock as he leaned forward, he entered me. And once more in my lovemaking life, I was in a sandwich. This one, though, was the very best of sandwiches because I was between two people whom I loved. “Oh, damn, this is good,” I said as Daniel ground himself down into me, pushing me farther into Ryan.

Daniel came, and then I did, and we unstacked slowly.

“I gotta take a leak,” Ryan said. “I’ll be right back.”

While he was gone, Daniel and I faced each other on our sides. I stroked his side while he tweaked my nipple. “Thanks,” I said.

“My pleasure,” he said with a wink.

I put my hand behind his waist and pulled him to me. It was the first time all day we’d been free to really kiss, to embrace.

We brushed lips and stroked hair. I told him how much I loved him and he told me. And then we realized that Ry was kneeling behind me. I looked back over my shoulder at him.

He smiled sadly and rubbed my butt. “Don’t forget, I love you, too,” he said. And then he stopped rubbing my butt and lifted his hand. “What’s that?” he asked, and turned on a nearby table lamp. Then he knelt beside us again and bent over our butts.

Since I was lying on my right side and Daniel lay on his left, it meant that Ryan could see the outlines of the hands that we’d drawn. So we explained the story behind them.

The story ended when I took Daniel into my arms and gave him a long kiss. I looked deep into his eyes. “He belongs to me, Ry,” I said, not taking my eyes from Daniel’s. “We’re going to hang around together for the rest of our lives.”

Ry was quiet.

Daniel frowned past me and I looked back over my shoulder. Ry had sat back on his haunches and tears streamed down his face.

“Ry?” I asked, sitting up. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, and I put my arm over his shoulder. “What is it, Ry?”

He glanced at Daniel, then put his hand on my chest and rested his forehead into my neck.

“I love you, too, Sean. I want to hang around with you guys all my life, too.”

I looked to Daniel for his reaction, but his eyes were on Ryan, and his eyes looked very, very tender.

“Come here, Ry,” he said softly and reached for Ryan. “Lie down between us.”

He lay Ryan down on his back, and the two of us lay down beside him, one on either side, and we rubbed his belly and stroked his hair.

“I’ll love you too, Dan,” he said, earnestly looking up into Daniel’s face. “I’ll love you just like I love Sean.”

Dan smiled, tolerantly. “Oh, really?”

“Please,” Ryan said looking from Daniel to me, and then back. “I want to be with you guys. Draw hands on my butt, too. And when I go to UT, I’ll move in with you. We’ll all be together. Please,” he said quietly, and then added even more quietly, “I don’t have anybody else.”

That’s when Daniel surprised me, and I realized for the first time that his interest in psychiatry might be motivated by more than intellectual interest. Daniel had compassion. Tears formed in his eyes as he looked down into Ryan’s face. He stroked his hair and kissed Ryan’s forehead.

“I told Sean,” he said, “how you’ve always been my favorite cousin. I told him we always liked each other, long before we both fell in love with his sorry ass.”

He smiled and I started to point out that “sorry ass” was a recent addition, but the moment was delicate, and I simply watched.

He stroked Ry’s hair slowly, lovingly. His own blond hair hung down over Ry, and his youthful features contrasted with Ryan’s delicate lips, nose, eyes… Daniel looked almost like a beautiful Prince Charming, bending to kiss a lovely princess, or, young prince.

Tears still rolled down the side of Ryan’s face, but he had quieted, watching Daniel’s eyes.

“We can adopt you,” Daniel said quietly. “You’ll belong to us. And, if you let me, Ry,” he said softly, “I’ll fall in love with you, too, just like Sean has. It would be so… easy.” He kissed Ryan gently on the lips and lingered there. “I think I already have,” he whispered with a gentle smile, and then kissed Ryan again, and Ryan’s body moved almost imperceptibly to his. He wrapped his arms under Ry, and Ryan wrapped his arms over Daniel.

And suddenly, their kiss grew warm and alive, full of gratitude and compassion and passion. And there was in that kiss, both the beginning of love, and a commitment to it. The kiss was a pledge of sorts; a pledge that closed our circle.

And it never crossed my mind to be jealous or feel left out; what was happening between them was partly because Daniel loved me. And it was natural. Compassion might be part of who Daniel was, loving Ry was part of who I was; loving Ry… adopting him, like Daniel said, was an act of our union.

It could never happen with someone like Aaron. But with Ry, it was perfect.

Even as they kissed, Daniel moved over him, and lay his body down on Ryan’s. The pledge implied by the kiss would be consummated.

Their kiss became grinding; their hips circling and thrusting together. I lay beside them and watched, knowing I should be there, but knowing I should let this happen between them.

Ryan lifted his knees to either side, and like Daniel had done for us before, I spit in my hand and lubed Ryan for him. Then Daniel entered him, pushing in slowly. He wrapped his arms over Ryan’s head, completely covering Ry’s smaller body with his own, cradling him, moving in and out slowly with his hips. Ry’s knees pulled up and he wrapped his legs around Daniel’s hips.

They never stopped kissing, and they moved together, Ryan’s hands clutching Daniel’s strong back. I grew hard again as I watched, not simply because their bodies were beautiful and moved so erotically, but because I loved them.

I kissed each of them on the shoulder, and then Daniel lifted his arm and draped it over my shoulders, drawing me in. Ry freed his arm and looped it behind my back. And I ran one arm behind Ryan’s head, for him to rest on, and rubbed Daniel’s back with my other.

They pulled me into their embrace and I pressed my body to their sides, my erection to the side of Ryan’s hip, and I moved with them. Our three mouths met and we kissed back and forth.

We moved that way until Daniel came and slowed. He ended with a long kiss for Ryan, and then one for me. He pulled out and moved to the side and I moved over Ry. No one said a word, but that was the way it was supposed to be. Though I had already come twice, Ryan belonged to me too, and I wanted to reclaim him, to say I loved him too; to enter him, to hold him in my arms, to wrap his body in mine, and to mix my sperm with Daniel’s; to make Ryan, both of ours.

We kept our three-way embrace, Daniel pressed against our sides. It took a while, but when I came, I pressed my body flat on Ryan’s, pressing his cock with my belly. And he arched under me, coming for the second time with me and the consummation was now complete.

The kissing slowed. I slipped out, and we rested, Daniel and I covering Ryan with our bodies. He sighed and we slept.

I am by nature, a romantic. And I would wonder later if I read more in to our lovemaking, our words, and our caresses that night than was really there. But I don’t think so. Neither did Daniel or Ryan, whenever we later spoke of it.

As Daniel and I walked away that night, my arm over his shoulder, we walked silently. And when we reached the jeep, he helped me in. I clutched his arm before he could turn away, and pulled him into an embrace.

“I love you more now,” I whispered, “than I ever have before.”

He grabbed me up in his arms and held me tight. For a long time, he clutched me to himself and it felt so good, our chests swelling together with our breathing. What had just happened took nothing away from us; it must take nothing away from us.

I kissed him, and he kissed back, pushing me back in the seat. We lowered my seatback and he moved over me. And though we had each made love already, we kissed and we embraced, entwining arms and legs, just Daniel and me, there in the dark, with the door of the jeep open.

We didn’t need to come again. We didn’t even undress. We just needed it to be the two of us, alone, affirming.

It was almost sunrise when we came home, and even then it was hard to release Dan to sleep in the living room when I had to go back to my bedroom.

It was after noon when we each awoke. We said hardly a word until we were alone in the garage after lunch. Daniel hugged me, sleepily and we held each other tight, very tight; the sides of our faces pressed hard against each other.

“I love you so much!” he said.

I buried my mouth in his neck and hugged him even harder. “We can’t lose who we are,” I whispered.

‘We won’t,” he said. “But this is good; what we’re doing for Ry. It’s not like he has it that great at home and now he’s about to go to school, all the way over on the east coast. I was even thinking…”

“What?” I asked.

“Well, it wouldn’t be the same as what you and I did; it wouldn’t mean the same thing. But we could do like he asked, and draw our handprints on him. It could mean a lot to him before he has to leave. It could mean a lot when he’s out there all by himself. He’ll know he has us.”

I smiled. “I thought about that too.”

“We, you and me, can do something else,” Daniel said. “We can still get matching tattoos, or come up with rings or something.”

“I’ve already thought of something,” I told him. “But it will take some explaining, and maybe we need to wait until we get together this fall. It’s OK to do the hands with Ry.”

Ryan was quiet that night, when he let us in. We moved slowly into an embrace and the three of us kissed silently.

“Ry,” I whispered.

“Yeah?”

“We brought markers.”

His head jerked up, and in the dim light, I could see a huge smile spread across his face as he looked from me to Daniel and back.

“Take off your robe and lie down,” I told him.

Though he was short, Ry was perfectly proportioned, and in the dim light of one table lamp, we admired his body lying at our feet as we stripped. And when we knelt beside him and traced our hands on his firm little butt, we felt him up; his butt, his slender legs, between his legs, his back. And the whole while, we whispered teases and the mood stayed light and happy.

Daniel and I had worked it out earlier and knew what we needed to do and wanted to say. The hands would be placed differently with three than with two. Dan and I had checked it out. So Daniel traced my right hand on Ry’s left butt cheek, fingers down, fanning into his crack. And I traced his left on Ry’s right butt cheek.

Each of our hands looked huge on his small butt. And despite all the lovemaking of the previous days I grew hard. So did Daniel. “You’ve got a fine ass, Ry,” I observed.

He wiggled it for us.

When we finished, we placed our hands over their outlines on his butt.

“We adopt you, Ryan Edwards,” Daniel said, “into our fellowship and love.”

“We claim you,” I said, “as our friend, our brother, and our lover for as long as you live.”

“You belong to us, Ryan,” Daniel said. “Even if you grow up, go straight, and get married, you will always belong to us.”

“And we’ll belong to you,” I said. “For as long as we live. We’ll be your brothers, your friends, and your lovers.

Ryan turned over, his semi-erect cock pointing out toward his left hip, and he studied our faces for sincerity.

“We mean it,” Daniel said.

“Ry,” I pointed out, “this is like what Daniel and I did at the beach when we claimed each other for life. We’re being serious.”

Ry sat up and putting an arm each of our necks, he pulled our faces to his. “Even if you didn’t mean it,” he said, quietly. “I would mean it.” Then he squeezed our necks hard.

“If you do,” Daniel said, “Then you have to draw your hand on our butts, and claim us the same way.”

Ryan nodded.

“And,” Daniel said, “you have to seal the deal. We sorta took care of our end of that… no joke intended… last night. Now it’s your turn. After we draw your hand on our butt and you claim us, you have to claim us with your body as well. You have to do the deed.”

Ryan looked like he didn’t understand. “You have to fuck each of us,” I whispered.

He laughed out loud and we both shushed him.

“Cool,” Ryan said.

“Well, you do us first;’ we’ll take turns,” Daniel said, and swatted the side of Ryan’s butt before lying down onto his stomach.

The skin of Daniel’s butt looked snow white under the tan of Ryan’s hand. The outline of my hand still showed fairly well, but we needed to redraw it anyway. “Different butt cheeks with the three of us,” I explained to Ry. “You’ll see when we’re done and stand up together.” So I positioned my hand to trace the outline on Daniel’s butt for the second time; this time, my left on Daniel’s right butt cheek, and this time Ryan did the tracing.

Then Ry placed his right hand on Daniel’s left butt cheek. As I positioned his fingers just right, I couldn’t resist stroking between Daniel’s legs. When I did, he spread them. And when he spread them, the flush of his perineum, thick with an erection, and the softness of his balls, resting on the carpet, drew my fingers.

Ryan grew hard.

“He’s getting ready,” I said in a stage whisper to Daniel.

With a grin, I kissed Ry and wrapped my hand around his erection. His soft skin was hot; he was ready to top.

But first, I needed to finish outlining his hand.

We had drawn mine with the thumb right at the top of Daniel’s crack. Now I drew Ryan’s with the outline of our opposing thumbs almost touching. My hand pretty well covered Daniel’s butt, but the fit was still better than it had been on Ry’s little one. Ryan’s hand was noticeably smaller and his long fingers were trickier to trace.

“I’m not getting my butt tattooed this way,” I told them both.

Daniel chuckled.

“But,” I said, “if we ever wanted to do just the outline across the top, where our thumbs meet, it’d make a pretty line, almost like the bottom edge of a saddle or fancy belt.”

Ry started stroking himself.

“Slow down, Ry,” I said. “You’ll get to bang him soon enough.”

Ry looked up at me, smiled, and gave another stroke.

I hurried, but did a good job.

When I was done, his erection curved up from his lap as hard and long as I’d ever seen him. We’d brought lube with us, and I spread some now into Daniel’s crack and around the rim of his hole while Ry knelt up behind him and lubed his cock.

For a little guy, Ry was hung and my own cock grew rock hard as I watched him move up on Daniel, straddling his legs.

“First you’ve got to claim him,” I reminded Ryan. “But only if you mean it, like we did.”

Ry leaned forward to lay his hand on Daniel’s butt, and then did his best to repeat our words. “Daniel Reese, I claim you as my friend, my lover, and my brother…” and then his voice grew thick and soft. “For as long as we live.”

Then, leaning on one hand, he guided his cock with the other, probing until he found Daniel’s opening and slid slowly in.

Daniel tensed, until Ry was all the way in. Then Ry settled down on him, reaching under Daniel’s shoulders to grab on, squeezing Daniel’s legs between his, and he began to pump his hips in long, slow thrusts.

They would have looked hot anyway, but the twin palm prints on Ry’s butt, as well as the ones on Daniel, made them strangely hotter, and drew my eye to the movements of Ry’s butt and leg muscles; and to their mating.

Despite the lovemaking of the night before, I was so hard I ached. And though I wanted Ry to enjoy himself, I couldn’t help lubing his crack while he moved. Then I did the best I could to kneel on one knee and support myself on my hands as I lowered myself onto Ry, working my cock into his crack, finding his hole, pressing in until my crown popped through. Then I pushed in until his warmth enveloped me and I pressed my loins to his firm little ass. I pressed even harder, driving him down into Daniel.

Then, kissing the top of his head, I lifted my hips enough to leave him room, and I let Ry do all the work, moving back and forth in Daniel; back and forth on me.

He came first. He plunged deep into Daniel and held it as his climax started. When I felt his butt clenching, I plunged deeply into him, and Ry cried out, not in pain, but in ecstasy. Daniel shushed him, but I was close to coming myself, and at the height of Ry’s orgasm, I pulled back and plunged into him again. He whimpered and squeezed hard on my cock. I pulled back and plunged again, and we both arched back in pleasure as my orgasm exploded out of me.

“This is going to look so weird if this doesn’t wash off before school starts,” I said as Daniel traced Ry’s left hand on my right butt cheek. They had already traced Daniel’s right hand on my left butt cheek.

“I’m not ever going to wash these off,” Ryan said.

“You will if you want to make any friends at boarding school,” I told him.

Ryan was quiet.

“You do want to go to that school, right?” I asked.

“I’d rather go to Trinity with you.”

“Humph,” Daniel said. “I thought you wanted to come to UT. You guys already leaving me out?”

“No way,” I said, reaching back to rub his leg.

“No way,” Ryan echoed, and then I heard a kiss.

I felt the tip of the marker again on my butt.

“He’s got a great ass, doesn’t he?” Daniel asked.

“It’s beautiful,” Ry answered.

“Hey, Sean,” Daniel said.

“Yeah?”

“He’s like, really, really hard again.”

When they finished his hand, Ry leaned forward over me, just as he had over Daniel. He placed his hand on its outline, and then I felt his cock rest on my butt as he leaned far forward to speak softly in my ear. “I love you, Sean, so much. Oh, I love Daniel too,” he quickly added for all of our sakes. “I just want to say that even if we hadn’t done this, I would still follow you wherever you went… even if you didn’t want me to. But this is… this is wonderful.”

He collapsed onto me, wrapping his arms under the front of my neck in a hug, and then he kissed the back of my neck.

I wasn’t sure what to say, but Daniel came to the rescue. “Now you know, Ry,” I heard him say, leaning close beside us. “We’ll always be glad to see you. You belong to us now. And you and me, Ry… we’re going to love each other, too.”

I felt dampness on the back of my neck, and wondered if Ry had tears.

“Now say the words,” Daniel whispered.

Without rising up off me, Ryan placed his hand once again on my butt. And with his mouth close behind my ear, he spoke softly. “I claim you, Sean Sullivan, with all… my… heart… to be my friend, my lover, and my brother for as long as we live.”

He backed a few inches down my body, grabbing my shoulders, and lifted his hips. Daniel guided him in. He felt thick inside me. And the weight of his body felt good on my back. I decided that whenever Ry wanted to top, this might be the best fit, especially the way his cock pressed down inside on my prostate.

Daniel, like me, couldn’t resist mounting Ry’s hot little butt as it pumped away on me; the force of their combined thrusting as Ry’s loins slapped my butt and his balls bounced at the back of mine felt damned good inside. I grew thick again.

When they finished, they relaxed on me, the three of us still conjoined.

“I like this,” Ryan purred. “I like being between you guys.”

“Join the crowd,” I told him.

“Let’s sleep like this all night,” Ry said, snuggling on to me with a sigh.

“No, I don’t think so,” I said. “I can just imagine your grandmother finding us like this.” I started to push up, but their weight held me down and I didn’t force it.

“But when I go to UT,” Ry said, “and move in with you guys, we’ll sleep like this every night.”

“I could handle that,” Daniel said.

“Oh sure, you’re not the one on the bottom,” I said, pushing up again, and this time, they rolled off me.

Let me see your butts,” Ryan said. “Stand side by side.”

So Daniel and I stood side by side, our backs to Ry, and cupped each other’s butt cheek, right where we had drawn our handprints.

Ryan walked around us to check it out and stopped in front facing us with a huge grin. “This is perfect!” he said, extending his hands toward our hips.

So the three of us drew together, six hands on six butt cheeks, each of us with a hand on the other two. And in the middle, our chests and hips pressed together and our noses almost touched… well Ryan’s almost touched our collarbones.

“See!” Ryan whispered, looking up at us triumphantly. “You need me to close the circle.”

Chuckling, Daniel pulled us more tightly together. “He’s got a point,” Dan said.

“I’m right,” Ryan said. “So we all get tattooed together. My hand and Daniel’s on your butt, Sean…… and you and me on Daniel…… and you two on me. It’s perfect.”

“It’s crazy,” I said. “No way am I getting hand prints tattooed all over my butt. Maybe just the top outline, like I said.”

There was a noise in the hall and we all froze. The hallway bathroom door closed. Daniel and I dove behind the couch while Ryan pulled on his robe, then lay on the couch.

We heard the toilet flush and the door open. Then we heard Austin’s voice. “What are you doing out here?” he asked.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Ryan said. “I’ll be back in a while.”

“I thought I heard the TV. You watching something?”

“No. I turned it off. I’m going to bed soon.”

“OK,” Austin said, drowsily, and we heard him pad away.

Daniel and I quickly dressed. Not that it would be that big a deal for Austin to find us. He’d want in on it though, and that would spoil things.

Despite the teasing, we all meant what we said. To two eighteen year-olds and one fifteen year-old, it was deeply felt and we would always remember it.

“Don’t let Austin see your butt,” I warned.

“You guys coming back tomorrow night?” Ryan asked. “We’ve got one more night before my parents come back.”

I looked questioningly at Daniel. He grinned and stepping beside Ryan, grabbed a handful of butt. “My last night before heading back,” he said. “Sure.”

Ry smiled happily and grabbed Daniel’s butt as well. “We’re butt brothers now.”

“Yep,” Daniel agreed. “Butt brothers.”

“Guys!” I said. “You’re going to smudge your handprints.”

“Hell,” Daniel said, “if we haven’t smudged them by now, they aren’t smudgeable.

As he saw us back out the door, Ry whispered, “Don’t wash your butts!”

I suppressed my laughter as we returned to the jeep. “Can you imagine what a neighbor would think of that phrase, if they overheard it in the night?”

“Don’t wash your butts?” Daniel asked with a grin.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe,” Daniel said, “that should be the motto of our butt brotherhood.”

I slept until noon, and the house was quiet when I awoke. I slipped on shorts and went from room to room. No one was there except for Daniel who was sleeping on his stomach on the living room couch.

Slipping my shorts back off, I climbed under the covers and lay down on him, his briefs-covered butt under my crotch. I wrapped one arm around his chest and the other over his shoulder and pressed my lips to the side of his neck.

“Little Seanny wants to know if Little Danny can come out and play.”

“No,” Daniel growled into his pillow. “Little Danny’s all worn out and I told him he could sleep in this morning.” He wiggled his butt for a better fit under me. “Besides, your dad said no messing around in the house.”

I kissed his check. “But little Seanny just wanted to cuddle.”

“Hmmph,” Daniel said.

“That’s OK,” I said. “Little Seanny’s found a comfortable spot.” Relaxing on Daniel, I nuzzled the back of his hair. “I’m not horny,” I mumbled. “I just wish we could sleep in the same bed.”

The phone rang.

“Shit,” I grumbled. “Tell Little Danny to get it.”

I stumbled to the phone, trying to pull on shorts and hop at the same time (If Sean can’t get up or down steps at the ranch, is he capable of pulling on shorts and moving, especially hopping, at the same time???). It was Dad. “I wanted to take you shopping to get some clothes for college school,” he said. “But I really can’t take another afternoon off. Your mom says that you and Colin have gotten too old and she’s not comfortable trying to help you buy clothes anymore.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. What that really meant was that Mom wasn’t comfortable buying me clothes any more, at least with Daniel around.

“That’s OK, Dad,” I said. “I don’t need clothes.”

“Yeah, you do. And I talked to Jim down at the Men’s store. He’s going to let you run up a tab. I want you to go this afternoon.”

“What am I supposed to get?” I asked.

“Put Daniel on the line. I’ll give him my shopping list.”

“Why Daniel?”

“Because I trust him to make you get the things you need,” Dad answered.

When Daniel came back from the phone with a smile on his face, I warned him. “Don’t think you’re going to dress me like your preppy friends in Houston.”

“I thought,” he said, “that we’d concentrate on underwear.”

I showered first, and lay on my bed in briefs reading when Daniel came from the shower. He asked if I’d ever shown Ryan the pictures the three of us took together nude, posing.

“No,” I answered.

“You still have them, right?”

“Of course.”

“Let’s take them over tonight.”

“You sure?” I asked. “We’d really be up shit creek if we got caught with those.”

“Let’s take ‘em. We won’t get caught and Ryan deserves to see them. Besides,” he said smiling, “it will help get us all in the mood.”

“As if any of us ever need any help!” I guffawed.

“Tonight, I want in the middle,” Daniel said. “I want to make love to Ry like you do. Man, you guys are so tight, belly to belly, you couldn’t get a slip of paper between you.”

“What if the pictures put me in the mood, too?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “What if I want to do you, belly to belly?”

“Maybe,” he said, grinning, “we’ll both do you.”

I ignored his comment. I’d been thinking of the pictures. “Let me show you what I did,” I told him while taking out my wallet. “I don’t have any credit cards, right? So I keep pictures… look… “ I said, as I began thumbing through them. “I’ve got the last two class pictures you sent me. I have one of Aaron… one of Stef… one of Jorge… one of Peter, and one of Alan, and I actually know which is which… one of Colin… one of Ryan… one of my family… one of me, in case someone wants one… and…” I came to the last one. “One of us.”

I had taken one of the pictures that Ryan took of Daniel and me, nude, and trimmed it to wallet size. The shot was from chest up and from the side. Daniel sat behind me, his arm looped over my shoulder and across my collarbone. Our faces were side by side.

The lighting had been good, and Ryan had caught us between laughs. Our expressions were attentive and smiles danced at the edges of our mouths. Our bare skin, his chest to my back, and our eyes looking into the camera made for a striking and sensuous photo. Especially since the photo looked like it might be in a bedroom.

“Cool,” he said, as I removed it from the wallet and handed it to him. “I liked this one, too. You cut it to fit the wallet?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Someday, I want to borrow the negative to make an enlargement.”

“You know,” Daniel said, “now that our parents know anyway, we could even hang one of these up in our rooms.”

“Well not in our dorm rooms,” I said. “At least not if we have straight roommates.”

Daniel studied the picture. “This could convince them to go gay,” he said with a wink. “But there’s one other picture sorta like this, only with Ry in it. I like it, and it’d definitely turn guys gay. Let me find it and we can try to trim it to wallet size too.”

I retrieved the photos while he dressed and we sat side by side on the bed to go through them. We found the one he was talking about. In it, Daniel was sitting, butt between my legs, my chest pressed to his back. Ryan had aimed the camera from our sides and slightly downward at us, and set the timer. Then he leaned back against our shoulders, facing the camera himself, and I looped my arm across his chest.

He had tried the shot twice and one had come out remarkably well. The three of us were expressionless, but that only made it all the more sexy. The bottom of the frame came almost to our waists and the skin of our bare torsos looked soft in the subdued light.

With only a little trimming, we got it to wallet size. “This one,” I said, “stays tucked away deep inside my wallet.”

“But someday,” Daniel said, “When he’s over eighteen, we’ll enlarge and frame this one too; especially if he actually does move in with us for a while.”

That night, Daniel and I sat on either side of Ryan on the couch as he looked through the pictures. And when his cock rose from the folds of his robe, I slid from the couch and knelt over his lap.

I licked up the sides of his cock, like a big ice cream cone, and sucked gently on the crown. When he and Daniel began to kiss, I pulled off Daniel’s shoes and removed his pants. Then I sucked him while I stroked Ry.

I went back and forth from one beautiful cock to the other while they kissed. When I had them both good and wet, Daniel pushed off Ryan’s robe, laid Ryan back on the couch, lifted his legs out to the side, and entered him.

Daniel hadn’t taken his singlet off, and the red shirt over the top of his bare, hand-printed bottom, was sexy as hell.

Knowing that with Ry, it worked better with a flat pillow under his bottom, I worked one under as they kissed and embraced. They began to move, awkwardly at first, until they found what worked for them, and then they hit a rhythm and held each other in a tight ball, cheek pressed to cheek as Daniel thrust.

I watched all the muscles of Daniel’s back and legs flex with his movements. I looked between his legs to see where he was moving in and out of Ry. And then I stripped, stroking myself behind them as I watched Daniel’s butt move.

Kneeling between Daniel’s legs, I lubed him before pushing in. Daniel paused until I was in all the way, and then let me do the driving as I bent over them, and pressed Daniel between Ry and me. “You wanted a sandwich,” I reminded. “Dinner is served.”

Ry brought us sodas as we rested afterward. And we looked at the photos again, complimenting Ryan on his talent with the camera. I showed him the one I carried in my wallet. “You took this one,” I said. “And it was my all-time favorite photo.”

“Was?” he asked.

“This one might be now,” I said, pulling out the one Daniel and I had trimmed earlier that day.

His eyes lit up. He looked from me to Daniel, threw an arm around each of our necks and squeezed.

The pictures helped with the mood, and we wanted to make love one last time before we parted, Daniel for home the next day, Ry off to school soon.

We spooned, on our sides, Ry in me and Daniel in him; the three of us spooned like silverware in a drawer; except that we moved.

We fell asleep that way when we finished, and none of us realized how late it had gotten until we heard the coffee brewing in the kitchen. “Mamma R,” Daniel whispered, reaching across Ryan to shake me.

There was an instant scramble as we dressed, gathered up the photos, and Ryan let us out the back door. We pressed his smaller body between ours in a final embrace. Daniel was in front, and Ry gave him a lingering kiss. Then he turned between us and hugged me tightly while I kissed the top of his head.

When he looked up at me, his face was wet. We kissed and held each other tightly. It was hard to leave, but we had to. I gently undid Ryan’s arms from around my neck and gave his cheek a final kiss. “Don’t wash your butt,” I whispered.

Ryan smiled and wiped his eyes.

Dad was in the kitchen when we got home, and looked at his watch, then back at us. “I appreciate,” he said, “that you leave the house for some things.” He held up his hand, as if to ward off something Daniel or I might say. “I’m just sorry you have to do that, but thanks.”

Colin was anxious to get to the beach that morning and had everything packed in the Bronco before I even got out of bed. He wanted to rush us, but I resisted. I wanted to take my time saying bye to Daniel.

“I’m sorry that Colin’s rushing things,” I said as Daniel packed his bag in our room.

“It’s OK,” he said, zipping up his bag. “Can you blame him? No vacation all summer and now his big brother is taking him to the beach. I’ll get out of your way, and then maybe he won’t be as mad at me next time I see him.”

“I’ll work on that,” I said. I hated the fact that Daniel was leaving. “You want to drive somewhere and park?” I offered.

“Are you kidding?” he asked, laughing. “I’ve never had so many orgasms in one week in my life, not even when we were on the bike tour. I’ll be satisfied for weeks.”

I cocked an eyebrow.

“Well at least until tomorrow,” he said with a grin.

He shut the door to the bedroom, and we hugged. “Soon,” I said. “A couple of weekends and then we’ll see each other again… Beloved.”

Daniel hugged me tightly. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

We kissed and it was so hard to think about him leaving.

But Daniel patted my butt and stepped back from me. He smiled. “Don’t wash your butt,” he said.

As usual, emails are appreciated at btomandback@hotmail.com