Bash was up in a moment, returning shortly with a glass of water and two towels, one warm and damp, one dry. He rolled Adonis onto his back, spread the dry towel over the mess of cum on his quilt, and used the wet towel to wipe Adonis clean slowly.
His touch, so aggressive only moments ago, was now infinitely tender. He kissed each blushing mark from the spankings and slaps, the little red welts from his teeth and his fingers, and teased Adonis’s already mussed hair.
“You’refucking perfect,” he said finally, folding the wet towel and putting it aside.
Adonis stared up at Bash, suddenly overcome by Bash’s handsomeness, his tenderness, his dominance. Everyone contained multitudes, he thought, and he was glad that he’d had the chance to see some of Bash’s multitudes. And he wasn’t scared by the fact that he’d let Bash see so many of his own multitudes.
He trusted Bash with all these sides of him.
And, he couldn’t deny it, he wanted to trust Bash with all of himself.
He held out his arms, and Bash lay beside him, nestling into his arms and resting his head on Adonis’s chest. They both avoided the towel, and Bash pulled a soft blanket over them both. He gently stroked his fingers up and down Adonis’s torso beneath the blanket, his touch featherlight, while Adonis played with Bash’s hair.
They said nothing while they lay there, though as far as Adonis was concerned, they were saying plenty. What are words when compared to the intimacy of lying together in the blissful silence after sex?
“You leave soon, don’t you?” Bash whispered.
“For the Olympics?” Adonis said, after a moment. At first, he thought that Bash meant leaving his apartment.
Bash murmured his agreement, his eyes closed as he nuzzled closer into Adonis.
“Yes. In three days. We’ll have to prepare before the opening ceremony.”
“I wish I could be there to support you,” Bash whispered.
Adonis was silent for a long moment before saying, “I do, too.”
Those words held weight, he knew. You wouldn’t want a random hookup to be there to support you at the Olympics. Youwouldwant someone there if they meant more to you. Like a boyfriend.
But “boyfriend” was a word they had religiously avoided, a word that they had refused to speak or discuss. Their arrangement had no place for terms like boyfriend. There was a clear expiration date for their arrangement, though they hadn’t explicitly discussed it. Graduation would come in just a few short months, and then Bash would be off to the Pacific Northwest and Adonis…well, he’d go wherever he could get into a law school. He’d sent off applications to every school he could think of. He felt like he was most likely to get into Bellford’s law school. As an undergraduate there, he didn’t have an official advantage over other applicants, but it certainly didn’t hurt.
“I thought I might be able to make it work,” Bash continued sleepily. “I could fly into the Netherlands, maybe see my family, and then go down to Milano.”
“Have you ever been to Milan?”
“I have. It is very beautiful. You will love it, I think.”
“I think I will, too. It would be more fun if you were there.”
Bash wrapped his arm around Adonis. “I agree. Maybe we could go someday.”
It was a casual comment, and Bash’s eyes were still closed, but Adonis felt the importance of the words. Could they ever go to Milan together? Maybe. Maybe there was a future in which they stayed in contact, in which they still saw each other, and were the sort of friends who planned trips to Europe together. Planned trips to Europe and…did what? Fucked their way through the Grand Tour? Remained chaste in hostels in the Alps? What would that look like?
“Maybe we could,” he whispered. “I think I would like that.”
“I would, too.”
Bash seemed close to falling asleep, and Adonis knew that if he let himself stay in that bed much longer, he would, too. That was one of their cardinal rules: not sleep in the same bed.
“I think I should probably head back to my apartment,” he said, though it was the last thing he wanted to do.
“Blijf bij mij,” Bash whispered, so quietly Adonis couldn’t fully hear him. It was Dutch, anyway, so he didn’t know what Bash meant.
“Hm?”
“You’re probably right,” Bash said, sitting up and rubbing his sleepy eyes. He smiled at Adonis, and Adonis smiled back at him. Oh, how he wanted to stay. He wanted to stay and never leave.
“I’ll see you again before I leave, right?”
