Lauriewas beginning a breathless protest.He wasn’t convincing, though –naked and shivering, clutching at Sasha for support while thesoldier boy threw a blanket around him.Sasha placed a gentle handover his mouth.“No.Shut up.You’ve given this your all.I’d likea bit of you now, okay?”He smiled at the soldier.“I’ll have himback in time to take his bow.”
***
Theclifftop campsite lay in the shelter of a Cornish hedge, one of thehuge barricades formed by two granite drystone walls, turf-toppedand packed with mud, and over the centuries subsumed in greenery.Brambles and blackthorns flourished along it.Ivy-wreathedhawthorns gave shelter to the blackbirds now bidding farewell tothe sun, and the omnipresent magpies hopped and loped about on theturf, competing with the seagulls for any scraps left by thecampers.
Theseagulls cast shadows on the canvas over Laurie’s head.They’d setup their tent beneath a young ash sapling, also rooted in the wall,and the swaying of the leaf-shapes and the spiralling birds gaveLaurie a sense of lost moorings, of drifting between sea and sky.It was beautiful and fearful.“Sasha!”
“What’s wrong?”Sasha left off his slow, tongue-caressingexploration of Laurie’s belly and sat up.“Are youcold?”
Howcould Laurie be cold?Not only had Sasha known how to fix even adraughty old hired tent so that no unwanted tendril of air couldmake its way in, but he’d remembered to pack blankets.He knew howto conjure fire from a handful of twigs and some stones.Evenwithout all this, his lightest touch was fire to Laurie, the richerotic warmth of all their shared days.“No,” Laurie whispered.“I’m fine.I just can’t believe you’re here with me.”
“I am.”
“I felt as if I was floating.”
“Away from me?”
“At first.But then it was like...you were anchoring me andfloating with me at the same time.Like we were bothflying.”
“Are you still on those interesting painkillers?”
“No, just the boring ones now.”Some people could drink and popa few pills at parties for fun.The surfer kids gathered here forthe show could sit around the firepit with a joint and a pint ortwo of cider.Laurie wasn’t one of them and never would be again:he and Sasha had sat among them hand in hand, contentedly sober.Laurie had traded his hospital drugs for the over-the-counter kindas soon as he’d been discharged.“I think it must just beyou.”
Thebreeze ruffled the canvas.The seagulls set up a cascade of mewingcries that opened up a wild infinity of space around them.Sashawatched fern-coloured sunlight come and go on Laurie’s skin.Sashahad been so glad to get him out of the city, glad enough to consentto this crazy one-night gig provided it was wrapped up in aleisurely week touring the county.Provided Sasha did the driving,and he’d presented his pass certificate to Laurie on the nightbefore their departure.It hadn’t been hard: Sasha understoodmachines, and for years had observed the traffic-dance of his city,the choreography behind it.A dozen lessons, taken on the sly whileLaurie was occupied with physio, and there he had been, in chargeof the red Merc whose elegant shape was so incongruous amid theVolkswagen buses in the campsite’s parking field.“I think it mightbe both of us.Feels like that Atlantic wind could pick us up andblow us away to Lyonesse.”
“Where we spend the rest of our lives fucking, and the mermaidssing to us, and we eat...”Laurie cast around his imagination forwhat might sustain them in the magical kingdom.“We eat the goldenapples of the sun.To make us immortal and keep up our strength forthe fucking.”
“We’ll need it, if we’re gonna be immortal.I’ve got some tealeft in the flask and a couple of biscuits, if that would help youout.”
Lauriegrinned sheepishly.Sasha’s kisses had raised his cock, but if hewas planning on doing anything with it...“Yeah.Please.”
“You’ll be okay, you know.Please try and remember you justcame back from the grave.”
“I know.I’m just so used to being able to – well, hit theground running and...”
“Have your tea and see how you feel.”Sasha knelt by him,pulled off his own T-shirt and helped Laurie out of his sweater.That left them both completely naked.They sat in a companionabletangle of limbs, exchanging body heat, passing the cup of the flaskback and forth.“There’s to be no hitting or running for a while.The doc told you that.She said it was okay for you to do this,only you weren’t to exert yourself.”
“My God, I’m under doctor’s orders to get bottomed.”
Sashachoked on a biscuit crumb.Carefully he set the tea cup down.“I’msure she never put it quite like that,” he managed.He ran his handslowly down Laurie’s chest, feeling the sweet shifts of lifebeneath his skin – the acceleration of his heart, the tautening ofnipples, a whirlwind flurry of gooseflesh that followed his touch.“Would it be so awful for you?”
“Oh, Sash.You know when you do that to me I just want to liethere forever.”
“And if you’re on your belly, it won’t hurt your scars somuch.”Sasha dipped his hand down, captured Laurie’s returningerection and lifted it, squeezing.“I don’t know about forever, butif you’re finished your golden apples...”
“We could try.Do we have time?”
A roarrose up from the amphitheatre just across the field.It wasfollowed by bloodcurdling screams.“Teudar’s martyring yoursister.”
“Doing a good job too, from the sound of things.They’ve stillgot the whole Arthurian bit to get through.And everyone from thecamp site’s down there watching, I reckon.”
Sashasmoothed the blanket.Gently he pushed Laurie onto it, helping himroll onto his front.He straddled him and reached for their sharedrucksack.“Are you planning to be noisy, my love?”
“Not so much planning.”Laurie stretched out, muscles quiveringin pleasure.“More like not able to help.The lube should be inthere – I remembered to pack it.Not going to leave all that kindof thing to you any more.”
“My reconstructed hero...You do know you left your wallet onthe table at home, don’t you?”
“Shit.Really?”
