Broken Toys

Chapter 15

Billy sighed and shifted, not quite awake yet. There was a line of warmth across his back that was quite nice and he shifted again and smiled.

A puff of warmth against his face and the line of warmth shifted downward. Very nice.

Moist heat on his cheek, whisper soft and then gone.

Faint sounds, perhaps movement, and then a soft jangle of metal against metal and the swoosh of heavy fabric being pushed aside.

Pale light suddenly pressed against his eyelids.

"Wakey, wakey." Warm breath in his ear. Shiver and sigh.

A deep breath, pause, open eyes slowly...

A pale form by the window, backlit by predawn gray, wearing only boxers, hair mussed from sleep.

"Casey?"

"You're awake." Happy, the slight form hopped over, crutches abandoned on the floor.

"Mmmmmmm," Billy replied, feeling pretty articulate for being up before the sun. He could feel Zeke behind him, still drawing soothing patterns over his back.

"Smooth talker," Zeke murmured teasingly in his ear.

"Yeah?" Billy turned over, pressing Zeke back against the pillows. Casey stood over them and laughed.

"You're gonna miss a gorgeous sunrise," he warned them before snatching up one of the blankets and hopping away with it. He cocooned himself in the blanket and sat down in front of the wall of glass to wait for the sun. His camera was carefully placed nearby.

"Got something gorgeous to look at already," Zeke replied, tangling his legs with Billy's and twisting so their positions were reversed.

"Yeah?" Billy asked seductively, trying not to ruin it by laughing.

"Except the hair," Zeke assured him. "But the backside more than makes up for that."

"What's wrong with my hair?" Billy demanded, pretending to be outraged.

"Nothing that a decent haircut couldn't fix," Zeke assured him, leaning down to nip at Billy's shoulder.

"Ow. What are you...? Mpfh..." Billy protested as Zeke's sharp teeth left a trail of sensation towards his neck and up to his ear. "Oh."

Zeke lifted his head a moment, smiling down at Billy before shifting to direct his attention, and mouth, to Billy's other side.

Turning his head, Billy whimpered and his hands tightened on Zeke's back, urging him to continue just what he was doing.

A sudden flash of memory hit him and Billy froze.

Zeke felt the change and stopped immediately, rising up to meet Billy's eyes.

"You ok?"

Billy thought about it carefully for a moment, poking and prodding at the memory to see if it was still painful. He was surprised to discover it was not; in fact it was good.

He and Joey loved to spend lazy Sunday mornings in bed together, just exploring each other's bodies, delighting in new discoveries of sensitive spots. Lying here now, with Zeke heavy against him in the drowsy pre-dawn, Billy felt a little like he had with Joey. It had been so long. He was so afraid he'd lost this forever.

"It's ok," Zeke whispered, kissing Billy's eyelids. "I'm not trying to take anyone's place."

Billy didn't answer with words, instead, he found other ways to share his feelings.

Casey smiled as the first bit of sunlight broke the gray. The soft sounds from the bed were like music to welcome in the day.

Taking up his camera, he struggled to his feet and stepped into the familiar world inside the viewfinder. He captured the fragile new dawn, documenting it's emergence until he could no longer resist the beauty in the room itself.

He moved quietly, hypnotized by the pale bodies moving together. The sunlight painted them pale gold, but bathed him in silver, keeping him apart, an observer to render them immortal.

The camera caught the beauty and framed it, preserving it, moving between the exquisite and the dawn until the sun had emerged and the film and the bodies were spent.

Moving quietly, Casey found the offerings in Zeke's suitcase and his own and carried them to the bed. Taking a seat on the edge, he placed the items on the pillow and quickly switched new film for old.

Reaching out slowly, Zeke took one of the items and looked at Billy for acceptance or refusal.

Billy studied Casey and Zeke for a long minute before accepting.

The camera was ready, and froze that moment of purity when the two boys merged.

The second roll of film was almost complete when motion, which had grown increasingly frantic and demanding, stopped and muscles went bowstring taut.

Now.

The penultimate image: that of total surrender and trust.

More soft sounds and slow movements and then, the final image, the one that blurred just a bit in the viewfinder as Casey's eyes teared..

Tangled perfection reaching out to him in supplication...

Join us.

Casey laid the camera aside carefully and obeyed. He slid into the warmth, accepted the love and completed the circle.

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