Afflicted to the Core, page 28
part #3 of Wielder World Series
It was a relief to be home. A relief to be inside with his friends, nobody poking at him, and nobody trying to kill him. He toed off his shoes by the door and hung his jacket up in the closet.
"You do realize," August said to Kyle as they followed him inside, "what this means, bro?"
"Totally. Dude. We can't fuck this up."
Reggie looked up at the serious tone that didn't quite balance with Kyle's flippant words. He gave his two---lovers? boyfriends?---a shy smile.
August clapped Kyle on the shoulder. "We won't. We'll keep each other in line, too, yeah?"
Kyle smirked, all seriousness gone. "Hell, yeah."
Reggie shook his head, amused and nervous. His hands felt like dead weights, or grabby paws, he wasn't sure which, as he stood in his living room, wishing he could touch them both and stop worrying. He'd been away from home for a few days, and his ficus looked a little sad. Focusing on the plant, he slipped a cup under his faucet, mind flipping through other things he'd need to do. The milk would need tossing.
"Everything okay?" August asked.
He nearly jumped out of his skin, having allowed himself to sink into the busy day-to-day mundanity of keeping up his home. "Oh, yeah. All's well."
"Okay," Kyle said, sidling up to Reggie, slipping right inside his personal space. Not that Reggie minded. He let his shoulder bump the younger man's. "How are you feeling? Really?"
August rummaged through his cupboards.
"Do you need something?" Reggie asked. Their odd behavior---not really all that odd, considering---set him on edge, and he forced himself to not fall into overly attentive host mode.
"Coffee? Oh!" August pulled out a bottle of whiskey that Reggie didn't think he'd drank from in at least two years. "Coffee and alcohol, this is exactly what we need."
"So, we can be wired and sloppy?" Kyle asked, but went in and grabbed some mugs from the cupboard anyway.
"Don't think straight coffee is going to be sufficient," August said, fussing around with the coffee maker.
"I could, like help, since it is my house." Reggie couldn't stop his grin.
"No." August pointed at him. "You don't get to help. You get to relax and let us take care of you."
"Because---" Kyle said, then stopped, shrugging, as if 'because' was all the answer that was needed.
Reggie stood in the empty space between the dining area and the living room and just watched the two futz around. They danced, in and out, one moving for one thing, then another, both shifting around so they could get by easily. A sense of 'this is okay' settled into Reggie.
He could trust them.
"Honestly. I'm doing shitty." It shocked him to hear his own voice, a kind of wheezy gasp. He cleared his throat. If he was going to say it, he should just say it. "So shitty. I...My Corruption is...and my job...Well, I feel like, well...." Wow. He was really failing. Maybe this was all too much too soon. August was watching him, face a stoic mask, while Kyle looked pained. "I feel like the universe is dishing me a load of horse shit."
Reggie flopped into a dining table chair---he felt like such a whiner---then bolted upright at the realm of pain across his back, his face tight, his eyes squeezed shut. Maybe, maybe if he just sat there with his eyes closed, they would go away and forget his rambling.
"Why don't you show us?" August asked, sitting next to him, taking his right hand and slowly uncurling Reggie's fingers that he hadn't even noticed had clawed up into a fist. The man was big and strong, but he touched Reggie with such gentleness, he almost wanted to crumble right then. Let his tense self-control release and fall into a million pieces at their feet, and see what happened when they put all the pieces back together. He didn't deserve them.
"It worries you what we'll think, but you know in your heart we'll think no differently about you," August said. "You---you, Reggie---will not be a lesser man in our eyes."
Reggie froze. Kyle nodded his agreement, then grabbed the coffee pot, pouring black coffee into mugs that already contained a shot of Jim Beam. August settled his hand on Reggie's shoulder, touch light as a feather.
"Intellectually...I think I should know that," Reggie said. Part of him wanted to deliver a warning: run far away, issues abound here. Issues, as dangerous as monsters.
There was silence for a while that twisted Reggie into a need to fidget until he realized it wasn't all that awkward. "Thanks, guys. I feel like such a wimp. Sorry, I'm...overreacting."
"Fuck that!" Kyle said, setting a mug of juiced up coffee before him. "You are not overreacting. Don't dismiss yourself like that."
"Well, look at all that's happened to you.... you're taking it great."
"Well, I'm not that torn up about being dead. I had some friends, but my family washed their hands of me already. They won't care. Sure, I'm sad about that, but considering---I was in an oubliette, Reg. They never visited me. And I was being tested on, would be solid dead by now if you hadn't risked your safety and ass on me. Now, I've a new life, one I can live without bad guys chasing my tail, and I've got you two. Honestly, I'm sitting pretty."
Reggie appreciated Kyle's assurance. August flashed his pleased grin, showing off the apples of his cheeks, and raised his mug so they could all tap together in cheers. The Core, and all that entailed, could probably still follow Kyle, especially if they knew of his connection to Reggie and August. But now was not the time.
"Reggie," August said, "you know your sister will do what she can so you can keep your job. And the board likes you---"
"They liked me before they found out I was a skell Wielder."
"But you're not skell, bro." August breathed, eyes closed in some internal struggle that Reggie guessed involved stifling his frustration. Reggie understood the need. "Not at all, and you help people to not be skell. You are what will help fix this world, Reggie. Don't tear yourself down."
He took Reggie's hand in his and held it tight, locking eyes with his. "You can get through this. Lean on us if you need to."
Deep in his gut, Reggie knew he didn't want to hold them back. Didn't want to trap them in some obligation because of their good natures. He pressed his lips together, staring at August's warm brown eyes.
"Okay," August said, making some internal decision. "Drink your whiskey coffee and let's go."
"Go where?" Kyle asked, taking a drink of his mug and wincing at the sharp bite of alcohol. "Shit, August, how much liquor you put in here?"
"What, too much for you, Kyle?" August grinned.
Kyle narrowed his eyes and drank down the hot liquid as if it was a challenge. August did the same. No wince from the bar owner. Reggie looked warily at his own cup.
"Come on, we drank ours," Kyle said.
"Don't give in to peer pressure, kids," Reggie lectured.
"Don't give me that, Professor, sir. Times-a-wasting. Drink."
Reggie rolled his eyes and did as Kyle commanded, earning a shocked snort from August. When he was done---no flinch at the alcohol, he had braced himself---he licked his lips. "A little coffee with my Jim?"
August grinned. "To celebrate," he said. "We're all still alive."
Reggie laughed, a full rolling thunder tinged with bitterness that slowly burned away. He swallowed it. "Yeah. We are." He reached out to either side and the two other men leaned towards him in an awkward fumble of a hug. And although August was very soft-pawed about his hold, Reggie still felt like he was barely holding himself together. He could feel the touch to his hard skin. Noticed the unyielding shift of flesh. Not really painful, just wrong.
Then Kyle leaned in, pressed his lips against Reggie's neck. Reggie froze solid, even more so than he already held himself. "Kyle," he warned.
"Reggie. I want you...to be with you...I don't care about your Corruption." Kyle stood, holding his hand out for Reggie to take.
Reggie glanced at August, who lifted his chin, urging Reggie to go for it.
With a steeling breath, Reggie grabbed Kyle's hand and let the younger man pull him to his feet and tuck against his body.
"This is good, yeah?" Kyle asked, tilting his head, his delight revealed in the crinkle of his eyes.
"No complaints." Reggie felt his cheeks heat, a sudden shyness overwhelming him. Because this was good, and as in tune as he was with the other men, they all wanted more.
Kyle wrapped himself around Reggie---slowly, so slowly---and resumed the exploration of Reggie's flesh with his lips, straying from tasting Reggie's neck to his mouth.
A breath, and then Reggie gave in, pressed his lips into Kyle's. What started as something light and exploratory got dashed away the minute Kyle inhaled sharply, shakily, letting out a quiet breathy sound that punched want right through Reggie's gut. He'd never felt like this, never had this desire nailed right through him before. Kyle began walking backward, leading Reggie down the hall towards the bedroom. Hands grabbed at Reggie's arms, his shoulders---August, behind him---holding him firm, guiding him.
Reggie and Kyle were feasting on each other's mouths and lips, tongues slickly stroking. Reggie felt the heat of Kyle's mouth, used that as his focus, ignored the dread and worry that threatened to send him screeching out the back door into the neighborhood, racing away from this uncertain future.
The feel of August pressing gently against Reggie's back reminded him that this was real, this was happening. The bigger man lipped along the back of Reggie's neck, not pressing in like Kyle had, but held himself close enough to share body heat.
They were in the bedroom now. Before them awaited his queen-sized bed. Either the golden treasure at the end of the rainbow or a pit of tar.
Reggie pulled away. "I don't think---" He couldn't think. His blood had traveled to places farther south. But a shy dread still curled itself up in his belly, threatening to smother his pleasure.
August whispered in Reggie's ear. "Reg, this is always going to be a problem," he said. "You will pull away because of some sense of shame about your Corruption. It's part of you, and we, well you should know by now... we love you." Kyle nodded his agreement. "So, show us. We'll keep the lights low. We can take it slow. But show us. Because if you cannot trust us with this, well, I feel like we won't last. And with you two, I want this to last. Even the snot-nosed pup. I'm quite attached to both of you. And I want to see you and touch you and taste you. I want to feel every inch of you and not have you flinch away. If you're hurting, let us soothe that. Please, just talk to us. Be here with us, fully, don't hold back. And if there's no sex, never any sex---" Kyle whined, "---that's okay, too. But we need you to trust us." August ended with a squeeze to Reggie's hand.
Reggie coughed. "Lights off then?"
Kyle skipped to the light switch and flipped it, setting the room into not quite darkness as the daylight still seeped in through the curtains. Even that amount of shadow was quickly killed once Kyle turned on the bedside reading lamp. "We should see it...so we can understand."
Reggie was uncertain. It was poisonous, this feeling of uncertainty. Really, he told himself. Get it over with! August stroked his cheek. With questing fingers, he gripped the hem of Reggie's shirt, poised to pull it up.
Reggie slapped his hand against his belly, pressing the shirt against his abs. "Okay...It's bad. Really bad. You've been warned."
"We understand you think that," August began.
"No..." His pulse pounded in his ears. Everything felt hot. "Before, it was thick skin, rubbery almost. Now...It's hard. And there's more of it."
"Does it hurt?" Kyle asked.
Yes. But hopefully not for forever. "A little. At the borders of the new skin and the normal skin...it pulls. It feels odd. Like I've got plaster strapped to my torso. I feel like I'm being crushed." All the air pressed out of me. Making me two-dimensional.
"Off with it." August raised the hem of Reggie's shirt. Reggie gasped, could feel his heartbeat ramping up. He whimpered, and August's sad 'it's for your own good' expression ratcheted up his heart rate more.
Reggie really wasn't ready for this, but he couldn't delay any longer. He raised his arms, feeling the pull of his skin tugging along his waist. The shirt slid off.
Dual gazes roamed over his torso, filled with equal portions of pity and horror that couldn't be shuttered away by tact. The Corruption spread over his entire chest, destroying most of his patch of chest hair, and dipped below his waistline, climbed above one collarbone and down over that shoulder. Where before it was easily compared to lizard skin, now it was more like that of an armadillo, hard and bumpy, like an armored dinosaur.
Kyle touched him, grazing his fingers over the rough acreage of Reggie's back. Reggie straightened, pulling his shoulders back, feeling like he'd been called to attention for their inspection. Feather brushes of fingertips ghosted over his flesh.
"Can you feel me, touching you?" Kyle asked.
"Yeah, but it's dulled, as if you were touching me through a sweatshirt."
In addition to his loss of chest hair, one of his nipples had vanished under a layer of hard skin, the other still peeking through a whirl of bumps. He'd never had a thing about having his nipples played with, so he guessed that loss was more to his partner's detriment.
Kyle rapped his side with his knuckles. A slightly hollow thumping noise whispered from his torso. "That's so weird," Kyle said. "How's that feel?"
Goosebumps shivered over his arms. "Like someone, hmm, rapping on your head? Hard, but it doesn't hurt. Not a big deal."
Kyle spun Reggie around, and now August's big hands ghosted over Reggie's back. Reggie squawked as August's lips pressed into his armored hide. His skin warmed at the contact. A few more kisses and August's tongue flicked over his shoulder. Kyle's eyes widened, gaze over Reggie's shoulder as he watched August. Reggie wanted to sink into it but struggled to stay present and aware.
Kyle dragged his hands along Reggie's sides, shifting under his arms where he found real skin again. Reggie squirmed.
"Ooh, you ticklish?" Kyle asked. Reggie nodded. Then the damned tease leaned forward and wrapped his lips around Reggie's one remaining nipple.
And oh damn, if that wasn't more sensitive. Tingles radiated from his nipple. Not arousing per se, but he felt it all over.
"Ahh, that's way more sensitive than it was." Reggie found himself chuckling self-consciously. "Didn't do much for me before."
"Good now?" Kyle said, happy as a kid with a cherry-flavored lollipop.
Reggie laughed, this time nothing self-conscious about it. Seeing Kyle happy, not afraid of his creepy body, did amazing things to dash away Reggie's shyness. "Yeah."
Warmth sparked in Reggie's chest. These were the men who'd weathered out the twisted mess they'd been trapped in with Mara Murda, who'd never strayed from his side through these last few days of rescues, Taint trap, and breaking and entering several houses. Kyle had spent months waiting for him, and who knows how long August had actively been waiting in the wings. August and Kyle had looked upon the destruction, the ruin of his body, and instead of stepping back and offering apologies, they'd kissed him reverently. They were not disgusted, and that was the sexiest thing.
Unable to hold back, he ran his hands through Kyle's hair and pulled him in with an urgent but gentle tug. August's arms tightened around Reggie's middle as Reggie stole a kiss from Kyle. Just a quick peck. "Do you mind?" he asked, knowing the answer. The feeling of Kyle's warmth before him, August's warmth behind, gave him a cocooned serenity and a boost in courage.
"You think we mind having you pressed between us?" August clarified, his voice pitched low in a seductive purr that had Reggie shuddering, his cock twitching in the shelter of their bodies.
"No, not in the least," Reggie said, choking on a moan as Kyle pressed his body flush against his own, the younger man making his own pleased noise.
"Okay. Okay. Off. Off." Kyle pawed at Reggie's pants. "Can we just be naked now?"
"Up to Reggie," August said, licking a stripe along Reggie's neck, sending shivers down his back.
"Hey, you guys got more clothes on than I do." Reggie tugged at Kyle's shirt, swiftly pulling it up and over his head and arms. August hmmed in appreciation. Kyle beamed at them, striking a pose to showcase his pecs and tight abs. Then they both turned on August and tore at his button-down, flipping the buttons through the holes with eager fingers. Kyle laughed, delightfully loud and breathlessly long. The shirt fell to the floor, revealing August's every angle and plane. Reggie had to swallow while Kyle's laugh turned into a high gasp. August danced his pecs, flexing his arms as he shucked off his trousers and pulled Kyle hard against him.
"God damn," moaned Kyle, "Shit. August."
August nodded silently, leaning back to roam his heated gaze over Kyle, then Reggie. Reggie felt hot and dizzy. Ready for whatever it was that would happen.
Mostly.
"How do you feel?" August asked, reaching out and pulling Reggie into their sexy little huddle.
"I am fine. Are we done with the petting zoo exercise yet?"
"Do you feel less weirded out by us seeing it?" Kyle asked, his cheek pressed to Reggie's in a tender gesture.
"Not really, but it's done." It was uncomfortable, but he'd get over that with time.
"Well," August said trailing fingers over Reggie's side. "It's done, and we still like what we see." He moved around Reggie to join Kyle, movements overly slow as if leading a tai chi exercise.
"Can we ditch the jeans?" August asked, then quirked an eyebrow at Kyle, giving him a suggestive nod at his crotch.
"Right. Jeans. Yeah." Kyle scrambled for his own fly until the gears apparently caught in his brain. He slowed down, flipping the button with a flick of his thumb, then sliding down the zipper tooth by tooth, hips jutted forward, in a sexy striptease, until his jeans waited in a crumpled pile on the floor.
"I can't flex," Kyle said, attempting to tighten his own pecs. "I may be a bender, but I'm not a deliciously sculpted one like you." He ran his hands over August's chest. "You are quite the prize, August." Kyle licked across his chest from nipple to nipple.
