Almost Straight

"-Do you ever think about jerking another guy off?" Nick said. He figured he might as well say what was on his mind. There was too much bullshit in the world already.

Richie was safe, they'd known each other a long time, but it was still one of those conversations he felt he had to pick his way through and play by ear. Kind of watch where he was stepping. The hell of it was once he had an idea he just had to go with it and see what happened.

There was squat on TV and he thought if you don't ask you'll never know.

Richie didn't say anything but it didn't matter because Nick had been giving it a lot of thought.

"-You know what I mean? Like you'd be in charge. You could do it fast or slow.. You could drive somebody nuts."

"I don't like it slow," Richie said and Nick looked at him with interest.

"Slow's better," he assured him.

Richie glanced over and shook his head before he turned back to the TV.

"I like it fast... Fast as I can."

Nick thought about it, tried to imagine Richie beating off, saw him doing it so fast his hand was a blur.

"I don't know. I like it slow, you know?"

Richie didn't answer but Nick didn't mind. It was a start.

Shark was on TV but Nick's thoughts were miles away. He couldn't remember when he'd first started wondering what it would be like to take another guy in hand. The idea just seemed to come into his head one day. He guessed that maybe a lot of guys thought about it at some time or other. It was just that maybe not so many of them did anything about it.

"So what do you think about when you do it?" he asked next. His mind had given him a picture of Richie and himself giving each other a hand job and an idea like that just wouldn't go away of it's own accord.

Richie sighed and scratched his head. He said, "-Shit, I don't know."

They looked at each other and grinned. Nick didn't think Richie was embarassed, it seemed more like it just wasn't something he was used to talking about.

"-Fucking?" he suggested. "Blow jobs? Britney? Princess Leia?"

"Fucking, I guess," Richie said.

"-You guess? Don't you know?"

"-Princess Leia?"

"Whatever," Nick said. "They're all fair game."

Richie started to laugh and Nick joined him. Laughing about every damn thing was a guy thing, he knew that. If something touched a nerve or things started to look as if they might be getting too serious it was better to laugh it off. It was universal. Make a joke and save face. It was bullshit, though.

A commercial break came on TV and they sat and watched it.

Nick thought things were progressing as well as he could have hoped. It was kind of a touchy subject. Of all the guys he knew he thought Richie was probably the only one who would talk about it openly. As to where it might lead, he thought he still had a ways to go to find that out.

"There's a woman down the street," Richie said then, "I saw her coming out of the store one time, nipples sticking way out here..." He put his hands in front of his chest and extended his fingers to show what he meant. "I could have reached out and pinched them there and then."

"Sucked on them," Nick said, and saw Richie gently shake his head at the memory.

"Unbelieveable."

"See, that's the sort of thing I like," Nick told him. "When you see something you're not expecting, like when you cop a surprise look down the front of a woman's blouse. It pays to keep your eyes open, you know?"

Richie said he couldn't argue with that and when he turned away to look at the TV Nick stole a look at the bulge in his jeans. They were crashed out on the old couch in Richie's living room. It didn't take just a second to glance down.

Just looking at his bulge made him want to put his hand there and feel it. His head was full of ideas about how good it would be just to reach down there and give Richie a friendly squeeze.

"So do you think about her when you stroke?" he asked. "The woman with the nipples?"

"Well, I did that day," Richie said.

"I saw this woman with a kid in a pushchair bend right down to pick up something the kid had dropped. I mean you could see everything," Nick told him. "-Great big pair of tits, just hanging there."

Richie grinned but said nothing and Nick thought he'd take a chance and try to steer the conversation more the way he wanted it to go.

"I saw a stroke film one time, this guy had the biggest cock I ever saw... -I was more interested in his cock than the girl he was fucking."

As soon as it was out of his mouth it felt like the biggest, most revealing statement he'd ever made. You just didn't say things like that to other guys as a rule. There was a sort of line, things you could say and things you couldn't.

It felt as if a lot of things hung on Richie's response. It was like putting his cards on the table and taking a chance.

Richie said, "-Fuck off..." like he didn't believe it or it made him uncomfortable. It was hard to tell which, but at least he grinned when he said it.

"-Seriously," Nick said it, deciding it couldn't hurt any more than what he'd said already. It felt as if he'd put his neck on the line and might as well push on. "I would have beat him off, just for the crack, to see what was it like, you know?"

He thought he couldn't say it much plainer than that. It was hell of a thing to get an idea like he'd had and have it sitting in his mind all the time. Hard to ignore and almost impossible not to keep thinking about once it was there.

Silence followed his words. It was only Shark on TV who had anything to say.

"-It's just stroking, like a hand job," Nick said. "I don't think it's such a big deal. Doesn't matter who does it. The end result's the same."

Richie shook his head and didn't say anything but Nick was starting to feel better about the way things were going. He felt he'd accomplished something just getting this far. It wasn't your typical guy conversation but he was getting a buzz from it.

He stole another glance at the front of Richie's jeans. His bulge looked inviting the way it creased the material, like it was just waiting for a hand to feel it.

"You never wondered about it?" Nick asked. It felt as if he was getting close now, like if he said the right words some interesting things might start to happen.

"-Just... fuck off," Richie said, but the way he smiled when he said it gave Nick hope. It wasn't a green light but it wasn't a red one either.

Nick started to think of the two of them alone there, consenting adults, two cocks. It felt like a good deal and he could see it happening. He'd fantasised about it happening. They were both well beyond eighteen. He didn't see the harm.

"I'm just curious to see what it would be like," he admitted. "-Nothing too weird. Just a straight hand job, just for the experience, you know?" He tried to keep his voice casual but he was coming close to it now and he could feel his heart beating.

Richie was looking at him but he wasn't saying anything. It didn't seem to matter. He thought he could feel something starting to happen.

He could see them doing it, his fantasy becoming a reality, the two of them beating each other off just for the hell of it. Weird but exciting. At that moment he didn't even care if Richie did him or not.

Shark was in a courtroom, just a blur at the edge of his vision. It sounded like voices in another room.

"-Look, I'll do you now... if you want," Nick said to show he was serious. He felt his heart move up into his throat. There was no more time for bullshit.

Richie wasn't smiling anymore. His face was a mask, unreadable. The light was off and the room had slowly been getting darker. Now the light from the TV flashed in his eyes.

Nick felt himself smile. He didn't want to, his face did it on its own. Nerves, and the guy thing that said you had to smile when things got serious.

He didn't know if he'd said enough to talk Richie around or if he'd said too much but there was no going back.

"It doesn't have to mean anything," he continued. "Just a stroke, is all. Nobody would ever know. I don't think there'd be any harm in it. It would just be a kick, don't you think?"

He could hear Richie breathing but he still wouldn't say anything.

Nick could feel the same stupid smile on his face. It wouldn't seem to go away. Maybe it was like a dog wagging its tail to show it really meant no harm.

"It doesn't have to mean anything. We'd still be straight." He thought about it and added for a joke, "-Almost straight, anyway."

He found himself looking at Richie's bulge again. He knew Richie was still watching him and now he suspected he wasn't suddenly going to whip down his jeans and say go for it. Real life was hardly ever like a fantasy but if he was going to make it happen...

He stopped talking. There didn't seem to be anything else to say. He reached out his left hand and settled it on Richie's bulge, gave it a little friendly squeeze, just like he'd imagined. It filled his hand as he closed his fingers around it. His heart was somewhere up in his throat and he could hear Richie breathing fast and evenly.

Nick swallowed, heard it click in his throat. He squeezed Richie again. He could feel the full, meaty package. It felt even better than he'd imagined just to get that far. He felt his own cock start to get hard.

He could feel Richie watching him, feel his eyes, as he began to fondle him through his jeans.

It took longer than he thought it would before Richie started to respond. It was slow but satisfying, maybe more exciting than anything Nick had ever felt before. He'd been thinking about it a long time and now he was finally doing it.

Richie's denims were old and thin and faded. Not too much material in the way. He felt him getting hard before he saw it showing, but it was even better when he could see it filling out. His shape became more substantial, there was more to touch and explore. It gradually got harder and started to feel more business like. It was pointing down to the left. Every now and then it strained a little and got a little bigger.

Nick had to use both hands to open Richie's jeans. The brass button was stiff and Richie didn't seem inclined to help him. He was sitting back on the couch now, just sitting there and letting it happen. Impossible to know what he was thinking but that was okay with Nick. His hands shook as he ran Richie's zipper down and opened the front of his jeans wide. Richie's cock started to come up inside his briefs and met Nick's hand half way. It fit like a dream as he curled his fingers round it. Came up even harder making a big tent in Richie's briefs. Seemed like the only thing to do then was take it all the way out.

He eased back the front of Richie's briefs, had to stretch them so his cock could spring free, and then it was there in the flesh pointing straight up in the air.

"Oh fuck..." Nick breathed. It was better than any of his fantasies. He could see Richie's thick, purple head bulging as he took hold of him and stroked him experimentally.

Nick's own cock was aching like a bastard and he opened his own jeans one handed, wanted to see the two of them ready for action.

He took himself out, one hand for himself, one for Richie. He didn't know if he'd have the co-ordination to bring the two of them off together, that would have been some trick, but he let himself alone. Let it stick up in the breeze. The way he was feeling he might even cum without touching it.

Richie was finally starting to look as if it was all getting close to being too much for him. His fingers were curled round the edge of the couch, squeezing hard and making big dents in the cushions. His mouth was open where he was breathing so hard.

Nick started to stroke him. Richie'd said he liked it fast so he deliberately started slow, like a tease. He felt it strain and he watched the head appear as the foreskin pulled back, watched it disappear when he stroked the other way. He could smell hot cock.

"You bastard.." Richie gasped. "-Do it faster.."

He was pushed back into the couch. He grimaced as Nick gave him a couple more slow ones but his mouth dropped open and the veins stood out in his neck when Nick started going faster.

His hips started to pump. His face made all kinds of expressions. He groaned and then he started to cum.

Nick felt Richie's cock spasm, felt it thicken and strain in his moving hand, and then a gush of cum spurted out. It happened suddenly. There was a lot of it. It went high on Richie's T-shirt. Richie went stiff all over and gasped and Nick kept stroking him fast. He spurted again, another full load of cum. He groaned like it hurt.

Nick kept stroking him and some more came out under less pressure and then Nick had to stop and grab for his own cock. What he wanted was for Richie to grab it too but he didn't and he was too close to cumming to worry about it.

He started stroking himself but it was like playing catch-up, he was already cumming anyway. His cum seemed to explode out of him. The most intense climax he'd ever had. It went everywhere, made hell of a mess.

Shark had finished by the time they'd cleaned up. They laughed about the mess they'd made, how they'd never seen so much cum. It was laughter to hide behind, a little uneasy, a little forced. More male bullshit, Nick thought. They didn't look at each other too much as they each went about it.

Nick channel surfed while Richie went upstairs. His mind gave him an image of two guys showering together and two guys getting into bed naked. He looked at the TV but he didn't really see it. The hell of it was with having thoughts like that, once he had the idea, he just had to go with it and see what happened. He got up quickly and tossed the remote onto the couch. He could hear the shower running and wanted to get up there before Richie was through.