Coming Out with the Truth

** A note to readers:

This is a fairly long story broken up into chapters, so there is no immediate sex. If that's what you're after then you're better off looking somewhere else.

A word of warning- I am Australian and this piece is set in Australia, so forgive any differences in spelling, word choice or vernacular, or anything else that might seem irregular or slightly unusual. It probably comes down to that. **

CHAPTER 1:

January 2009

Keith:

So there I was, lying on the grass, staring at the sky through the fresh green leaves of the canopy of the massive tree above me. The sky was beautiful and blue and the sun was warm, the grass was soft and lush. All in all, it was one of those late summer days that actually glows.

I'd like to say that I was lying there enjoying it all, but I wasn't. I was seriously considering the possibility that I may have broken my back. I clutched the chunk of wood that had come away in my hand and watched a bird chirruping indignantly in the branches above me.

I'd just decided to lie there for a while and feel sorry for myself when running footsteps startled me. Someone suddenly leaned over me, a silhouette against the sky.

"Are you alright?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure." I answered dumbly. "Just... enjoying the sun." My eyes adjusted and I saw the stranger's face, haloed golden by the sun. Twinkling light hazel eyes, a perfect smile. I felt a tug at my groin and swallowed hard.

The man grabbed my hand and pulled me to stand up. I groaned. I was going to be very bruised.

I stared at the chunk of wood in my other hand and wondered if I shouldn't put it down. The golden stranger broke into another easy smile. A few inches taller than me. Broad. Muscular. Powerful. Who was he and could I have him, please? Never mind that I was heartbroken and on the rebound; he was so utterly

lickable

.

"Nice try." He said. His voice was deep and smooth. "I saw you fall." I blushed then and my dick went back to sleep. Embarrassment was a killer.

"Oh. Right." I said. I couldn't imagine how this must have looked. A new neighbour, moving van barely gone from his driveway, examining his front yard and noticing the beautiful old tree house... and deciding to climb up to it. And said neighbour, a fully grown man, taking a fall from a good five metres or so when one of the chunks of wood nailed to the trunk as a kind of ladder gave entirely and came away in his hand. "I don't normally, you know, climb trees," I said with a wince. That sounded pretty dumb, too. Grae would have been appalled. It was bad enough that sometimes I had to go and do childish things- worse, for him, was when I got caught out.

"You alright?" he asked, eyes sweeping over me. Obviously my embarrassment didn't stretch as far as I'd thought. My dick was getting interested again.

"I think so." I answered slowly.

"You seem a bit dazed. Hit your head?"

"Uh, no. Just landed on my back. I'll be bruised. I'm probably just in shock." I murmured and he laughed softly, eyes twinkling. Oh my god. Sexy and concerned and a laugh like

that

? Never mind that I was coming off as slow; I was just really taken aback by the strength of the longing I felt for him. I wasn't prepared to feel this for

anyone

just yet. I wasn't sleeping yet. I wasn't even eating properly yet. I had only just made it back from heart-shatteringly wretchedly disfunctionally damaged to merely devastatingly heartbroken.

Why did I have to meet him

now?

"Let me help you inside." He offered. "Otherwise I'll just worry about you." I groaned as we walked. My body did not like this. My ribs ached. Muscles I didn't even know I had were sore.

Inside the place was still a mess. The few pieces of furniture I'd taken from our apartment had been haphazardly stowed in the hallway, and boxes had been dumped randomly. Obviously I hadn't made a good selection of moving company. Then again, I guess they didn't really care too much where they put my stuff when there were only three pieces of furniture in total.

"Got a tub?" he asked.

"Huh?" I said blankly, my body heating up at the thought of sitting between his legs in the bath, bubbles moving in little waves around us, his cock hard against my back while his hands... Fuck! What was wrong with me? Yes, he was gorgeous and caring and kind, but I did not get this worked up about total strangers, even if they were the hottest thing I'd ever seen in my whole entire - I groaned inwardly. There I went again. Rebounds were not healthy, I tried to convince myself. Christ, I couldn't even sleep through the night yet and here I was thinking about getting this guy into my bed! I had to stop.

"A hot bath'll do you good before you stiffen up." Oh, I'd be stiffening up alright. That was a given. Just probably not quite how he meant.

"Right." I said vaguely. He looked at me with more concern again.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Keith Draper." I answered.

"Nice to meet you, Keith. I'm John." I smiled at him goofily. Wow. That felt weird. When was the last time I'd smiled? "When's your birthday?" he asked.

"10 September 1982."

"Do you know where you are?"

"What? Why?" I was alarmed by that question. "Don't you live near here? Why are you asking?"

He gave a rueful chuckle. "I dunno. Isn't that what they do on tv if someone's hit their head? Ask them questions?"

"I guess. Does that work?" I wondered. If I had hit my head that might explain some of these feelings, at least.

"I dunno." He said with another slow laugh. "How about I check your head for a bump, anyway? That was a pretty decent fall." I shuddered and nodded. I would have done anything for his fingers against my skin at that moment. He stood in front of me and gently pulled my hair free from its tie so it curled around my shoulders. He ran his fingers through my hair, over my scalp, gently and thoroughly. Shivers ran down the backs of my legs and down my spine. Good lord, I was hard. He was going to notice how badly I was tenting any minute now. Think bad thoughts, I told myself. He's straight. He's married, divorced, got a bunch of ugly kids, he's a player. He's a rapist. A serial killer. Gets off on chewing on toes, or torturing kittens or

something. Anything!

Nothing took the edge off in the slightest.

"No. You seem good to me." John said with a shrug. I looked up the scant few centimetres into his eyes, wanted to lean forward and kiss him. I blinked and moved away quickly, before I could give into temptation.

"Want a drink?" I asked as I moved to the box sitting on the cupboard. "I've got coffee and sugar, but no milk." Being at the bench would give me a precious few minutes to get myself under control. I hoped.

"Sure, no worries. I take it black, anyway. Thanks." I made the coffee, pressed the backs of my fingers briefly against the kettle. The jolt of pain helped lessen my arousal. A fraction.

I didn't have a table and I didn't have any chairs, so we leant against the bench tops and tried to look like we were comfortable.

"So. You're new in town?" John asked.

"Yeah. I had enough money for a deposit on a house, and decided I didn't want to live in the city anymore." It was mostly true. It was more of a lie of omission than an outright lie. "What about you? Local?"

"Yeah, born and bred." He grinned. "My sister lives across the road. I was visiting her when I saw you fall. I've got a place on the other side of town. So why here? Mostly people move to the city, not away from it."

"Had enough." I said with a shrug. "I recently quit my job. And I saw this house and it was perfect."

"So that's what you were doing out front? Just checking out the real estate? Making sure the tree house wasn't even nicer?" We both laughed. "So what do you do?" he asked.

"Oh. I'm a writer."

"What, like books?"

"Not published, no." I blushed. One day. When I actually finished something worth reading. Nothing like an innocent question to draw attention to your failings, though. "I've been working as a journalist since I got out of Uni. At a big newspaper for the last few years. It was challenging sometimes, but it was a good job."

"You quit, though?" he checked.

I nodded and drew a breath. "My ex worked there too."

"Oh. Mixing romance and business." He said with a half smile.

"Mm." We'd tried to keep it pretty separate, and we hadn't made an issue out of it. Most of our colleagues hadn't known. Anyway, it had been a bad idea to start with. Although once we had had mind-blowing sex on the boardroom style meeting table in the conference room...

"Fresh breakup?" He asked gently. Had I been staring into space? Damn. He was going to think I was a real idiot if I kept this up.

"Yeah. And he's already dating someone else and I'm-" I stopped and realised with a thrill that I'd said it. I'd told him I was gay. Not that I wasn't out. I was. It was just that I wasn't sure how John was going to react to that.

I met John's gaze carefully. He didn't look disgusted or upset. He just scratched his chin and looked at me as if reconsidering me. Well never mind. As if someone like him would ever have been interested in me, anyway.

"Feeling better?" John finally asked. "I'd better go." I sighed quietly. Yep. That was it.

"Yeah. Of course." I agreed and rose to see him out.

"See you round, Keith." He said and held out a hand. Civil of him, I thought.

"Yeah." I answered and took his hand. It was warm and rough. We shook, but he held onto my hand for a moment too long. I blinked and met his gaze again. Something there... but what? Interest? Desire? He gave me a final slow smile, then headed down the steps from the veranda. He was halfway to the street when he turned around. I only realised I'd been staring at his arse when he turned, since then I found myself looking at his package. My gaze jerked back to his face. Damn. He had to have noticed that.

"You go have that bath!" he called, grinning, then kept striding, out into the street and across the road.

I went back inside and ran a bath immediately. I was rock hard. I slid into the water and pulled at my nipples, slid my hands down my body and into the hot water. I began to jack myself gently, rubbing my other thumb in circles around the head of my cock. I closed my eyes, pretended it was a warm wet tongue lapping at me, tasting my pre cum. A hot eager mouth taking me up to the hilt, someone else's hands massaging my balls. Someone else's fingers sliding into my crack and running gentle circles around my puckered flesh as they sucked me faster and harder. Someone else's finger pushing inside me as I came hard and fast. John's image and Grae's flashed before my eyes and I groaned and lay back in the water. What the fuck was I doing?

John:

I left Keith's house feeling totally exhilarated. It was a combination of things, I guess. Like him being ok after that fall. Like him being so cute. And being able to run my fingers through his beautiful shiny chocolate hair. And openly gay. I'd started to get hard so quick I'd had to leave. And that handshake... that and the thought of his soft pink lips closing on me, wrapped around my cock, him looking up at me, blue-green eyes coy through his lashes, and I'd had to scramble. I hadn't felt this horny since I was a teenager. I went back to my sister's and had to visit the bathroom. I judiciously applied a little cold water to ensure Little John's behaviour. Then I went back outside to the barbecue.

"Where'd you go?" my sister asked. "You can't leave your own birthday barbecue without telling anyone!"

"Special circumstances." I grinned. "Your new neighbour fell out of a tree."

After the barbecue I went home and washed up, cleaned my house a little and watched some tv.

Still fucking horny.

I went to my room and flicked through an old mag until I found someone who looked a little like Keith. He had hair the same shade, although Keith's ponytail had a little bit more of a curl to the ends of it, would probably curl even more if it was wet. The guy in the pic was a similar build, too. Nicely defined muscles but still lean, narrow hips. Even better, he was giving the camera his best sexy pouty look, while a more muscular guy fucked him. I looked at the pic and began to stroke. God, I needed this so bad. I hadn't gone on the pull for months, maybe a year now. I'd been bored of it, tired of picking up guys for nothing more than average sex.

And then Keith had shown up, with his soft lips and nice hands and gorgeous ponytail and that look in his eye. Dazed, I'm sure, but it made me want to fuck him until he looked like that again, until he couldn't tell me what day of the week it was, let alone his own name. I wanted to fuck him until he screamed and screamed and came with a huge rush of sweet, creamy cum, hot against my hand. Just the thought was enough to make my balls pull up and tighten. I jacked faster and tripped over the edge, coming with a moan and feeling like thunder had torn through me. I was so sated I was weak; I could hardly rouse myself to wipe up before I went to bed.

Keith:

I slept better than I had since Graeme dumped me, but all the same I still woke up early. My back was sore, but not as stiff as I might have thought, given I'd fallen out of a tree the day before and was sleeping on a camping mattress. I got up and put some clothes on and tied my hair back and wondered what to do about my growling stomach. I'd been planning on going shopping yesterday afternoon, but falling out of the tree had put paid to that idea. So far I had coffee and half a cold takeaway pizza. Unrefrigerated. I needed to go shopping, but I didn't want to leave the house. Not yet.

And why bother shopping, I asked myself, when I didn't even have a fridge yet?

I was feeling more sad and sorry for myself than I had for a few days and while I decided to stay at home, I also made the decision not to mope in bed all day but to actually achieve something.

There was no point in moping. I refused to mope.

I got started trying to put boxes in the right rooms, and cleaning. My house was full of empty rooms. The house was far bigger than our apartment had been, and while I'd considered taking all our furniture and leaving Graeme to try and explain to his new little friend why he didn't have any, I'd been unable to touch any of it. I hadn't wanted any of it, in the end. As I unpacked I was glad. None of our furniture would suit my house. He'd liked modern, clean lines. The flimsy modern bookshelves, the glass topped coffee table, those ugly metal lamps- none of them would fit here. I'd only taken three things in the end- my old bookshelves, my desk and a comfy chair that had been in the family. It was old and ugly and Graeme had insisted it stay in the guest room covered with a throw. I had not been going to leave that behind. All the same, I was basically going to have to start from scratch with my house.

At least it would give me something to do.

I cleaned the kitchen cupboards and began to unpack the basic kitchen things I'd bought on the way down, accumulating piles of scrunched up newspaper on the way.

The doorbell rang at lunchtime. My stomach had been growling louder all day and it was getting to the point where I was having trouble ignoring it. I went to the door and found a woman standing there. I wasn't feeling all that friendly towards women but she did look nice.

"Hi, you must be Keith." She said warmly. "John described you."

Ah. "So you're his sister? Sorry, I didn't catch your name." She was smaller and slimmer than John, but shared some of his golden colouring. Her eyes were blue, where his were brown.

"Sarah." She shook my hand with a smile. "Welcome to town!"

"Thanks. You're only about the second person I've met, but so far everyone seems nice," I quipped with a smile. What was this, a record? Two smiles in two days... She laughed.

"Can I come in? I brought you some goodies." She hefted the tea towel covered basket on her arm and I caught a waft of something delicious. My mouth watered.

"Sure. Thanks." I lead her down the hall to the kitchen. "Sorry about the mess." I said. She smiled.

"I have three kids under the age of 6. I could tell you a thing or two about mess."

"Coffee?" I offered. "I don't have any milk, though."

"Oh, just a glass of water would be lovely. It's nice just to get out of the house for a few minutes, I can tell you." I poured water into a mug, since I didn't have any glasses yet and she started unpacking her basket onto the bench. "Now, I've brought you my famous tomato and bean casserole. It's got potato and cheese on top and no meat, just in case you're vegetarian." I assured her I wasn't, which seemed to please her. "And blueberry muffins." My mouth immediately watered and I guess she saw my look because she immediately handed me one.

"So what brings you from the city?" she asked.

"Oh. Change of scene." I answered briefly.

"Anyone coming to join you? Wife, kids? Girlfriend?" I blinked. That was a bit invasive, wasn't it?

"No."I answered, despite how surprised I was to be interrogated like this. Obviously John hadn't told her, but it wasn't a secret and I didn't want to lie about it. "My boyfriend and I recently broke up." Well. That

was

technically a lie, I guess, but can you blame me for wanting to hide how he'd left me?

"Oh." She said and I waited for her to quickly grab her basket and hurry home like John. Before that handshake had confused the hell out of me.

I was half surprised when she put her hand on my arm. "Are you alright?" she asked. I nodded. The real answer was

no.

No, I was not, but that, at least, no one needed to know. "Well, this is a friendly town, beautiful surrounds. It's a good place for a fresh start." I nodded again. "How about a sister?" she asked. I stared at her. "I'm sorry, I know how I sound. It's just that this town loses young people faster than it gains them. And it's a big house so I guess I hoped it might be a family moving in here. And I'm

still

trying to get John married."

"I've got a sister." I answered with a smile, inwardly wondering about John. Maybe he

was

straight... or worse, bi. I was never ever ever ever going to trust a bi guy ever again. Best not to think about it. "She's studying medicine."

"Oh- a doctor! We always need doctors! Make sure she comes to visit." I could see her plan. Get my sister to town, throw her at gorgeous John and charm her so she'd never want to leave, get them married and producing kids and it'd be 10 points for Sarah. I wondered if she and the other women kept score. Too bad this town had never seen anything like my kid sister. They wouldn't know what hit them.

"Have another one." She said suddenly and I realised my first muffin was already entirely gone. I didn't remember eating it.

"Thanks." I said sheepishly. She frowned at me.

"Have you been eating properly?" she asked.

"No." I answered with a weak smile. I couldn't eat much. I hated going to the effort of cooking for myself. It felt so lonely. And if I cooked, I'd end up with a fifty-fifty chance of being totally unable to eat anything anyway. I'd sit at the table and feel so sick I'd have to throw the food away. All I was thinking about was Graeme --

my

Graeme -- telling me he'd been cheating on me. That he was leaving me.

"Oh,

honey

." Sarah said and hugged me. I hadn't expected that but it sure felt good. I'd had precious little physical contact in weeks and I really needed it. I missed it. I hugged her close and fought the instinctive tightening of my throat. "When was the breakup?" she asked me gently.

"About two weeks ago." She gasped.

"But the house-"

"I hopped in my car and drove and ended up here. Saw the house. Went to the real estate office and bought it on the spot."