just_muse_me 31.2. Warmth
Just as he had promised Pogue, Reid had everything ready.
Tequila, of course, and some beer for when they wanted to wind down for that. Salt and limes, obviously, the limes cut to proper slices and packed up right in an ice-box. Food, snacks mostly, but some more substantial stuff, too, because dinner or not, drinking alone could get tricky, and it was supposed to be fun and relaxing, after all. Also, 'soft' camping supplies. Fire-setting and all that. Blankets, and so on.
And tucked away, other stores, too. In case things got out of hand, or in case some things had to be curbed for somebody... etc. It was damned all over the place stuff, after all, body shots.
But fun.
They got it all stacked in the back of the hummer, all right and proper.
And then he had no more reason to delay - he gave Tyler another hug and settled for a time to get picked up - first - and braced himself for the conversation with his parents.
That... wasn't fun.
At the end, he had to force the words out against his mother's typical, iron-will firm "quiet, now, Reid," to ask about the sedatives.
"You do not know what you are talking about. You do not know what you are doing." She never raised her voice unless he was halfway across the house; her tone was cracking like a whip at him, anyway.
He glared, hands gripping the opposite arms, hunched tight in, his food untouched. "No. But nobody does, okay? And I'm not letting anybody try something that might work alone," his was almost a snarl, except for he could, not at his mother, "and if this will help, I have to ask!"
He almost missed the small nod from his father - it was possibly the single good thing about the whole conversation - as his mother's voice hardened even more, somehow. "You will now be excused. Go to your room, Reid."
"Fine." He jerked his chin up, though it didn't go very far, under her steeled eyes. "I'm going out later, though."
"You are not."
"Meredith."
"I am." Quietly, almost sulking as he did rise and clear his place at the table in tense motions. "Tyler'll pick me up."
And so he did.
Reid started with telling him whether to drive to when they'd collected the other two, and then just didn't stop talking. About anything and everything and absurd and sharp, always sharp humor. Even if when Caleb joined them at his spot on the backseat besides Pogue, Reid did at least try to keep the suggestiveness out of it. It wasn't Caleb's fault, and he already had it hard enough.
Talking or not, he could practically feel the rising tension radiating from the back seat. At least for a bit; then he could feel Pogue's eyes on him, frowning, concerned; he talked even more.
Enough that Caleb's new-found tolerance for his blabber wore thin. Possibly. There was still laughter, at least a little, in his voice when he muttered, "Reid, do you ever actually shut up?"
Or maybe it was holding Pogue's attention that was adding to his irritation.
The younger blond's chin tucked in at the rebuke, anyway; the older gave out something like a stifled laugh (yeah, not like Pogue hadn't asked the same thing, now and again, and he knew the answer), but instead of giving any of them a chance to say that, interjected, "never mind. Where are we going?"
It was Tyler who answered with the location, a usually-cool pond (not too far into a clearing, the trees keeping it in shadow for most of the day) at one of the properties.
"See? I promised you water where we could chill out the heat," Reid quipped (ish) at Pogue. "Plus, much bramble is why the hummer, or you'd have been allowed the bike." It was a good location. Toning down the temptation for Pogue to naff off with Caleb...
... had occurred to Reid. But they did all like it there, too. And he did.
The older blond quipped back, and Reid answered, and they were talking again, anyway.
Still, when they got there and started to unload the car - now the conversation being more general, and he did manage to keep it not strained, even if partly because they were working to pacify him or something - he got out one of the bottles of tequila and raised it to his lips, swallowing once, twice, deeply, before lowering it to meet three pairs of eyes a little wide and worried - though only Caleb's seemed actually surprised, and Reid winced a bit with that. Not because of what he'd done - the fire spreading through him, burning its way through his veins, was totally worth it, just at this moment - but because, yes, he knew the oldest boy's associations with drinking too much too fast. Or all the time.
Never mind.
It was Tyler who cleared his throat. "Hey, aren't you going to wait for us? I mean, we're all supposed to do shots, right?"
"Right. I'm... okay." And his voice sounded a bit more so, too. He capped the bottle and grabbed at the next thing. "So. Fire, or it's too hot for that? There are marshmallows, too and shit."
"We're not eating shit, Reid."
"No? Well, that's good to hear."
It dissolved into smaller squabbles-banter-jokes as they did set up the site, sprawling for a bit, each getting a shot first on his own, straight, to get at least the first awkwardness of who-whom done with.
Well, okay, that didn't work.
Then it was Reid again who took the initiative. "So... you said you haven't done this for a while, right?" At Caleb. "Let's review." His eyes glinted in the faint light at Tyler, getting a suddenly brighter smile in return. "I'll demonstrate."
He grabbed the salt and a slice of lime and moved over to the youngest boy, grinning a little, fingers rising to slip a little under the t-shirt sleeve. "Here good?"
"Mm-hmm."
And so Reid did, talking out the steps, eyes flicking at Caleb, but mostly focused in what he was doing, the hand lying against the small of Tyler's back feeling the quiver that went through him as his tongue darted out to lick the salt from the sweat-tasting, familiar skin. Noting the way Caleb's lips were half-parted, hell, everybody's were, and this was just...
Mmph.
But it didn't seem that bad, with the familiar, sharp tang of tequila-salt-and-lime on his tongue, the alcohol coursing through him.
Not even the dark way that Caleb's eyes gleamed when he fully looked at him. "I think I can do that." He looked at Pogue, in turn, who seemed to freeze for a moment, but nodded.
The hitching in the blond's breathing could be heard even over the crackling of the fire, when the full lips closed over his skin.
Reid bumped his head briefly against Tyler's shoulder, squeezed his arm, and moved, then. "Now, something you probably have actually forgotten." Oh, he was going to be so fucking drunk. And he didn't mind. "You thought the harder part is sucking salt off somebody else's skin, hmm?" Yes, he knew the look he got because of that; he didn't care. "But actually? It's much more difficult to be on the receiving end. Let me demonstrate."
"Reid..." Pogue's voice was uncertain, and he flashed him a look of, I'm not taking this anywhere.
"You sure?"
"Pick the spot." Reid wasn't going to push that much as to hit on an actually overly-sensitive spot by chance; presumably, Caleb knew his own body well enough to make a reasonable choice.
The blond didn't expect that when his tongue brushed over skin, one of the large hands would come up to tangle in his hair. "You okay?" Voice rough with the burning of the shot.
"Yeah, I... think so."
"And now you're warned."
"Hey, when's it my turn?" Bless you, Ty.
It eased for a bit, then, making the rounds between themselves, the alcohol doing its magic of relaxing them, almost despite themselves - and definitely despite the rising tide of desire that they were really taking a chance with.
It was when Reid hitched up Pogue's shirt slightly and took his turn from the side of his waist, just above the hip, making the blond gasp, that Caleb lost it.
He made a small strangled noise and scrambled up, away from the fire, his steps only going a little way before the sound of them changed to indicate he was over the rubble by the lake's edge, where they stopped.
Pogue had tensed; this close, he didn't even need to be pressed against him to know. "This was... probably not a good idea after all." Barely audibly.
"Mmm... maybe." Reid straightened up and looked at him, frowning slightly. "Or it will be okay. You good?"
Pointed look back. Yeah, he knew he couldn't be good when Caleb was upset, and Reid quirked his eyebrows up at him in return. That hadn't been what he'd been asking. Pogue sighed. "All things considering, I can handle it."
"Good. Tyler?"
Shrug. Firelight reflecting in concerned eyes of so familiar blue. He knew the exact hue they would be, right now.
Reid nodded in return, squeezed Pogue's shoulder and stepped away. A small hesitation; maybe a minute or two had passed since Caleb walked away.
He stepped behind him quietly; advantages to being the lightest of them all, or something like that. In the cool over the water's edge, he could almost feel the warmth of the oldest boy's body before he touched him.
Which he did. He walked right up until his chest was pressed against Caleb's back and his arms wrapped around him, carefully, but decisively. It was the tallest boy's turn to stiffen, breath, already heavy, catching slightly.
"It's all right. I do this all the time, remember?"
"Yeah. Do you do the rest..."
"All the time? Well... now and again. It's hot, isn't it?"
"Yes." Sharp.
"But that's the thrill of it, okay? We do that, and we stop at it. Well, those who want to. Choice, thrill, and booze." Beat. "You should've seen how Kate's face could get sometimes when I was doing that to Pogue... I know it's a lot. It's nothing wrong with you, okay? It's all right."
Caleb shook his head and looked at him over his shoulder. "You're unbelievable, you know that?" But with the reminder of normalcy, the big warm hand came up to cover one of Reid's arms across his chest.
"I'm rather counting on it, you know?"
"I... don't..."
"Know what to do?"
"I guess."
"Come." And when Caleb was pliant, he'd tug him back to the fire, sitting with him on one of the blankets, and hugging him.
He also tugged Pogue's arm when they passed by him, the gesture as much a come as if he'd spoken.
The blond hesitated for a moment, then his eyes narrowed, and he nodded. Waited for them to settle - and then came and hugged the both of them from behind.
Caleb stiffened again, but didn't move to pull away; Reid was too busy to look across the fire and meet Tyler's eyes on them, tilting his head a bit; the youngest boy didn't even think about it, scrambling over. Reid let go of Caleb with one arm to sneak it around Tyler's waist.
"I'm not sure..."
"It's just hugs, okay? Snuggling, if you will, although I'm not sure we should advertise this. But..."
"Reid does it all the time." And then Pogue and Tyler paused, and laughed, realizing that they'd kind-of unisoned it.
"We're all together, okay? Doesn't mean you have to go all the way in any way. Doesn't mean you have to stay isolated. You're one of us. This... this is us, too."
"Hmpf." It took Caleb a bit, but then he slowly exhaled. And... relaxed a little, leaning slightly against Pogue's shoulder, Reid's chest. Closer.
"There, that's it."
They stood... well, sat, like that for a while, not talking, none of them reaching for any more drinking or food or anything, watching the small fire slowly burning itself out as they'd done a hundred times around camps they'd set up, except, never quite like this, tangled up, breathing easing down in a way from the sharp moments of earlier, the heat between them settling, changing. Deepening, in a way, but it was less of a problem to resist. Less of a problem for conscious decisions and choices to matter, as well as physical desires.
"You have to go through that to get to this... don't you."
It wasn't a question, more of a statement.
"Mm-hmm."
It wasn't Reid who answered. But, after some more time, his head rolled back against Pogue's shoulder. "Tyler? Take us home?"
"... all?"
"Yeah."
"Wh--"
"Whatever. My place."
"Your mom?"
"She'll deal with it." Quietly. "I think it'd be a relief for dad to see us all not getting into trouble, too. And you can call your houses and... yeah."
"Okay."
"Okay." A beat. "Just bank the fire, we'll come over tomorrow to clean up." And he would, too. It wasn't right to leave litter around. And he didn't want to delay getting back to a full snuggle long enough for doing it now.
He cranked up the A/C in his room so that they wouldn't boil under the sheet, all four of them together; but he talked down any suggestion of not crashing all in the same bed. They hadn't done that since they were kids, had they? This seemed like a good time.
Only holding. No funky business. Showing each other that they could do this. Showing Caleb that it was okay to do this, and they could do it without anybody pushing anything.
And that each and every one of them, Caleb included, was indeed very much wanted and loved. It was something Reid himself learned over and over again, and he knew how important it was, after all.
Together. They could handle anything.
Muse: Reid Garwin
Fandom: The Covenant
Word count: 2300+
A/N: Pogue is lieutenantwitch, Caleb is stillnothim, Tyler is their_babyboy, all used with permission, read-through approval, and love. RP-based, dated summer after the boys' senior year at Spenser.
Tequila, of course, and some beer for when they wanted to wind down for that. Salt and limes, obviously, the limes cut to proper slices and packed up right in an ice-box. Food, snacks mostly, but some more substantial stuff, too, because dinner or not, drinking alone could get tricky, and it was supposed to be fun and relaxing, after all. Also, 'soft' camping supplies. Fire-setting and all that. Blankets, and so on.
And tucked away, other stores, too. In case things got out of hand, or in case some things had to be curbed for somebody... etc. It was damned all over the place stuff, after all, body shots.
But fun.
They got it all stacked in the back of the hummer, all right and proper.
And then he had no more reason to delay - he gave Tyler another hug and settled for a time to get picked up - first - and braced himself for the conversation with his parents.
That... wasn't fun.
At the end, he had to force the words out against his mother's typical, iron-will firm "quiet, now, Reid," to ask about the sedatives.
"You do not know what you are talking about. You do not know what you are doing." She never raised her voice unless he was halfway across the house; her tone was cracking like a whip at him, anyway.
He glared, hands gripping the opposite arms, hunched tight in, his food untouched. "No. But nobody does, okay? And I'm not letting anybody try something that might work alone," his was almost a snarl, except for he could, not at his mother, "and if this will help, I have to ask!"
He almost missed the small nod from his father - it was possibly the single good thing about the whole conversation - as his mother's voice hardened even more, somehow. "You will now be excused. Go to your room, Reid."
"Fine." He jerked his chin up, though it didn't go very far, under her steeled eyes. "I'm going out later, though."
"You are not."
"Meredith."
"I am." Quietly, almost sulking as he did rise and clear his place at the table in tense motions. "Tyler'll pick me up."
And so he did.
Reid started with telling him whether to drive to when they'd collected the other two, and then just didn't stop talking. About anything and everything and absurd and sharp, always sharp humor. Even if when Caleb joined them at his spot on the backseat besides Pogue, Reid did at least try to keep the suggestiveness out of it. It wasn't Caleb's fault, and he already had it hard enough.
Talking or not, he could practically feel the rising tension radiating from the back seat. At least for a bit; then he could feel Pogue's eyes on him, frowning, concerned; he talked even more.
Enough that Caleb's new-found tolerance for his blabber wore thin. Possibly. There was still laughter, at least a little, in his voice when he muttered, "Reid, do you ever actually shut up?"
Or maybe it was holding Pogue's attention that was adding to his irritation.
The younger blond's chin tucked in at the rebuke, anyway; the older gave out something like a stifled laugh (yeah, not like Pogue hadn't asked the same thing, now and again, and he knew the answer), but instead of giving any of them a chance to say that, interjected, "never mind. Where are we going?"
It was Tyler who answered with the location, a usually-cool pond (not too far into a clearing, the trees keeping it in shadow for most of the day) at one of the properties.
"See? I promised you water where we could chill out the heat," Reid quipped (ish) at Pogue. "Plus, much bramble is why the hummer, or you'd have been allowed the bike." It was a good location. Toning down the temptation for Pogue to naff off with Caleb...
... had occurred to Reid. But they did all like it there, too. And he did.
The older blond quipped back, and Reid answered, and they were talking again, anyway.
Still, when they got there and started to unload the car - now the conversation being more general, and he did manage to keep it not strained, even if partly because they were working to pacify him or something - he got out one of the bottles of tequila and raised it to his lips, swallowing once, twice, deeply, before lowering it to meet three pairs of eyes a little wide and worried - though only Caleb's seemed actually surprised, and Reid winced a bit with that. Not because of what he'd done - the fire spreading through him, burning its way through his veins, was totally worth it, just at this moment - but because, yes, he knew the oldest boy's associations with drinking too much too fast. Or all the time.
Never mind.
It was Tyler who cleared his throat. "Hey, aren't you going to wait for us? I mean, we're all supposed to do shots, right?"
"Right. I'm... okay." And his voice sounded a bit more so, too. He capped the bottle and grabbed at the next thing. "So. Fire, or it's too hot for that? There are marshmallows, too and shit."
"We're not eating shit, Reid."
"No? Well, that's good to hear."
It dissolved into smaller squabbles-banter-jokes as they did set up the site, sprawling for a bit, each getting a shot first on his own, straight, to get at least the first awkwardness of who-whom done with.
Well, okay, that didn't work.
Then it was Reid again who took the initiative. "So... you said you haven't done this for a while, right?" At Caleb. "Let's review." His eyes glinted in the faint light at Tyler, getting a suddenly brighter smile in return. "I'll demonstrate."
He grabbed the salt and a slice of lime and moved over to the youngest boy, grinning a little, fingers rising to slip a little under the t-shirt sleeve. "Here good?"
"Mm-hmm."
And so Reid did, talking out the steps, eyes flicking at Caleb, but mostly focused in what he was doing, the hand lying against the small of Tyler's back feeling the quiver that went through him as his tongue darted out to lick the salt from the sweat-tasting, familiar skin. Noting the way Caleb's lips were half-parted, hell, everybody's were, and this was just...
Mmph.
But it didn't seem that bad, with the familiar, sharp tang of tequila-salt-and-lime on his tongue, the alcohol coursing through him.
Not even the dark way that Caleb's eyes gleamed when he fully looked at him. "I think I can do that." He looked at Pogue, in turn, who seemed to freeze for a moment, but nodded.
The hitching in the blond's breathing could be heard even over the crackling of the fire, when the full lips closed over his skin.
Reid bumped his head briefly against Tyler's shoulder, squeezed his arm, and moved, then. "Now, something you probably have actually forgotten." Oh, he was going to be so fucking drunk. And he didn't mind. "You thought the harder part is sucking salt off somebody else's skin, hmm?" Yes, he knew the look he got because of that; he didn't care. "But actually? It's much more difficult to be on the receiving end. Let me demonstrate."
"Reid..." Pogue's voice was uncertain, and he flashed him a look of, I'm not taking this anywhere.
"You sure?"
"Pick the spot." Reid wasn't going to push that much as to hit on an actually overly-sensitive spot by chance; presumably, Caleb knew his own body well enough to make a reasonable choice.
The blond didn't expect that when his tongue brushed over skin, one of the large hands would come up to tangle in his hair. "You okay?" Voice rough with the burning of the shot.
"Yeah, I... think so."
"And now you're warned."
"Hey, when's it my turn?" Bless you, Ty.
It eased for a bit, then, making the rounds between themselves, the alcohol doing its magic of relaxing them, almost despite themselves - and definitely despite the rising tide of desire that they were really taking a chance with.
It was when Reid hitched up Pogue's shirt slightly and took his turn from the side of his waist, just above the hip, making the blond gasp, that Caleb lost it.
He made a small strangled noise and scrambled up, away from the fire, his steps only going a little way before the sound of them changed to indicate he was over the rubble by the lake's edge, where they stopped.
Pogue had tensed; this close, he didn't even need to be pressed against him to know. "This was... probably not a good idea after all." Barely audibly.
"Mmm... maybe." Reid straightened up and looked at him, frowning slightly. "Or it will be okay. You good?"
Pointed look back. Yeah, he knew he couldn't be good when Caleb was upset, and Reid quirked his eyebrows up at him in return. That hadn't been what he'd been asking. Pogue sighed. "All things considering, I can handle it."
"Good. Tyler?"
Shrug. Firelight reflecting in concerned eyes of so familiar blue. He knew the exact hue they would be, right now.
Reid nodded in return, squeezed Pogue's shoulder and stepped away. A small hesitation; maybe a minute or two had passed since Caleb walked away.
He stepped behind him quietly; advantages to being the lightest of them all, or something like that. In the cool over the water's edge, he could almost feel the warmth of the oldest boy's body before he touched him.
Which he did. He walked right up until his chest was pressed against Caleb's back and his arms wrapped around him, carefully, but decisively. It was the tallest boy's turn to stiffen, breath, already heavy, catching slightly.
"It's all right. I do this all the time, remember?"
"Yeah. Do you do the rest..."
"All the time? Well... now and again. It's hot, isn't it?"
"Yes." Sharp.
"But that's the thrill of it, okay? We do that, and we stop at it. Well, those who want to. Choice, thrill, and booze." Beat. "You should've seen how Kate's face could get sometimes when I was doing that to Pogue... I know it's a lot. It's nothing wrong with you, okay? It's all right."
Caleb shook his head and looked at him over his shoulder. "You're unbelievable, you know that?" But with the reminder of normalcy, the big warm hand came up to cover one of Reid's arms across his chest.
"I'm rather counting on it, you know?"
"I... don't..."
"Know what to do?"
"I guess."
"Come." And when Caleb was pliant, he'd tug him back to the fire, sitting with him on one of the blankets, and hugging him.
He also tugged Pogue's arm when they passed by him, the gesture as much a come as if he'd spoken.
The blond hesitated for a moment, then his eyes narrowed, and he nodded. Waited for them to settle - and then came and hugged the both of them from behind.
Caleb stiffened again, but didn't move to pull away; Reid was too busy to look across the fire and meet Tyler's eyes on them, tilting his head a bit; the youngest boy didn't even think about it, scrambling over. Reid let go of Caleb with one arm to sneak it around Tyler's waist.
"I'm not sure..."
"It's just hugs, okay? Snuggling, if you will, although I'm not sure we should advertise this. But..."
"Reid does it all the time." And then Pogue and Tyler paused, and laughed, realizing that they'd kind-of unisoned it.
"We're all together, okay? Doesn't mean you have to go all the way in any way. Doesn't mean you have to stay isolated. You're one of us. This... this is us, too."
"Hmpf." It took Caleb a bit, but then he slowly exhaled. And... relaxed a little, leaning slightly against Pogue's shoulder, Reid's chest. Closer.
"There, that's it."
They stood... well, sat, like that for a while, not talking, none of them reaching for any more drinking or food or anything, watching the small fire slowly burning itself out as they'd done a hundred times around camps they'd set up, except, never quite like this, tangled up, breathing easing down in a way from the sharp moments of earlier, the heat between them settling, changing. Deepening, in a way, but it was less of a problem to resist. Less of a problem for conscious decisions and choices to matter, as well as physical desires.
"You have to go through that to get to this... don't you."
It wasn't a question, more of a statement.
"Mm-hmm."
It wasn't Reid who answered. But, after some more time, his head rolled back against Pogue's shoulder. "Tyler? Take us home?"
"... all?"
"Yeah."
"Wh--"
"Whatever. My place."
"Your mom?"
"She'll deal with it." Quietly. "I think it'd be a relief for dad to see us all not getting into trouble, too. And you can call your houses and... yeah."
"Okay."
"Okay." A beat. "Just bank the fire, we'll come over tomorrow to clean up." And he would, too. It wasn't right to leave litter around. And he didn't want to delay getting back to a full snuggle long enough for doing it now.
He cranked up the A/C in his room so that they wouldn't boil under the sheet, all four of them together; but he talked down any suggestion of not crashing all in the same bed. They hadn't done that since they were kids, had they? This seemed like a good time.
Only holding. No funky business. Showing each other that they could do this. Showing Caleb that it was okay to do this, and they could do it without anybody pushing anything.
And that each and every one of them, Caleb included, was indeed very much wanted and loved. It was something Reid himself learned over and over again, and he knew how important it was, after all.
Together. They could handle anything.
Muse: Reid Garwin
Fandom: The Covenant
Word count: 2300+
A/N: Pogue is lieutenantwitch, Caleb is stillnothim, Tyler is their_babyboy, all used with permission, read-through approval, and love. RP-based, dated summer after the boys' senior year at Spenser.