Last Dance

“Last dance,” Tony calls. He throws on something a little slower, and couples begin pairing off. Tony even gets up and embraces a slim, muscular man with the look of a dancer. Couples swirl past Leon, oblivious to the fact that he’s walking away alone.

He casts a furtive glance around the room before heading out. He’s not sure what he’d do if he saw Rain; he’s simultaneously relieved and disappointed when he doesn’t.

A larger crowd is beginning to gather near the fire pit. Dimly, he recalls something about sparklers at midnight, and some sort of green drink the hippies are handing out. He checks his watch: nearly twenty minutes to kill, and he’s not wild about spending it where he might run into Diego.

In the shadows, away from the fire, there’s a boy off by himself leaning against a picnic table. He’s sipping from a red Solo cup and staring somewhat vaguely at the gathering crowd. Something must strike him funny, because he suddenly giggles out of nowhere.

Howard, Leon suddenly remembers, and has a flashback to the kitchen assistant kneeling in front of a leather daddy in the pantry.

He approaches.

“Hey,” he says. “Howard, right?”

The boy startles as if brought out of a trance. “Uh, wha…” He shakes his head vigorously. “Uh. Leon?”

“Yeah.” He perches against the table, close enough to smell sweat and frying oil. “You catch my act earlier?”

“Oh, uh. Yeah. You were great.” He grins. “You still got it, Leon.”

Leon flashes his flirtiest smile. “Damn right I do.” He shifts, lets his shoulder slip behind Howard’s, and the boy seems to melt into him. “If you want,” he murmurs, and brings his other hand up to run his fingertip down the side of the boy’s neck and chest. Touches his waist. “I could give you a private show.”

Howard is wearing bright turquoise shorts… eye-jangling, but the thin material leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination as his cock goes from noticeable to rock-hard. His face and neck are scarlet, but he reaches for Leon’s hand and twines their fingers together. “Yeah,” he breathes, then glances nervously around. “Not here, though.”

For once, Leon doesn’t mind going somewhere private. There are too many eyes that he no longer wants to see him.

They move into the trees until the firelight fades away. No sooner are they in darkness than Howard spins, throws his arms around Leon, and pulls him in for a kiss.

For a moment, Leon feels himself stiffen. Aside from a few quick pecks with Chain, he hasn’t kissed anyone all night. Howard’s mouth is wet and hot, his tongue moving like a bludgeon, and his breath is nearly antiseptic. Leon can’t help wondering what exactly the boy has been drinking.

“Please… please fuck me,” Howard says as he breaks off.

There’s a note in his voice. Need. Desperation. It reaches in and touches something in Leon. Mutely, he nods.

Howard is meek and pliant as Leon gently turns him to face a tree. The boy’s body vibrates with a constant, fine quiver, and Leon runs his hands over his back, trying to soothe him. Squeezes his hips, his thighs, slips his hands under his shirt to massage his skin.

“You like this,” he says, though he’s not entirely sure who he’s saying it to. “You want me.”

The boy whimpers. “Yes. Yes, I want you. Please.”

He doesn’t have lube. He’ll have to improvise. “Take your shorts off,” he says, and watches, bemused, as Howard nearly falls over in his rush to strip. He opens his mouth to tell the boy to bend forward, but he’s already bracing against the tree. Eager. So he puts two fingers in his mouth, instead.

Then he pushes them into Howard.

The boy nearly leaps out of his skin. “Shh,” Leon says. He puts his other hand between Howard’s shoulder blades and presses, tender but firm. Curls his fingers inside him, feeling for the rough patch of skin over the prostate.

Howard wails aloud when he finds it, a long keening cry, almost like a sung note. “Please,” he gasps, and his voice breaks. “I want you. Just – just take me. Fuck me.” He cuts off with a strangled sob.

In the back of his mind, Leon is aware that he isn’t really who Howard wants to be fucked by. But he ignores it, because it’s the same part of his mind that’s aware Howard isn’t who he really wants to be fucking.

He leans over the boy, lets him feel the heat of his body. Softly kisses the back of his neck. Withdraws his fingers. “Shh,” he whispers again. He unzips as quickly as he can.

It’s difficult to be gentle as he pushes his cock in with nothing but spit to aid him, but he does his best. He meets tight resistance for a moment, then suddenly something gives and he buries himself in Howard’s ass.

The scream that rips from the boy’s throat seems to shake the treetops. Leon freezes; surely it’s his imagination, but he would swear there’s a break in the low rumble of conversation that reaches them from the fire pit.

“Please,” Howard begs, and his voice is choking on tears. “Don’t stop. Please.” He begins chanting, trancelike, a low litany of “Please, please, please, please…”

Leon grabs Howard’s hips and thrusts. Once, twice. He grimaces; the angle is all wrong. Taking a step back, he pulls the boy’s hips to him. “Like this.” And he thrusts again.

This time he knows he’s in the right spot. Howard goes utterly silent while his hands scrabble at the tree, holding on for dear life. His back, his shoulders, his ass begin to quake. Leon keeps up a steady rhythm, slow backstrokes, confident instrokes.

“Ohhhhh,” begins the low moan. The promise of orgasm, silver and shaking, dances along the edge of the sound. “Oh, myyyyyy…” He’s gasping, panting, ragged and rough.

Instinctively, Leon reaches one hand around Howard’s thigh and cups his balls. He gives a single gentle squeeze.

“GOOOOOOD!”

The cum shoots so hard it misses Leon’s hand and arm entirely, and from the splattering noises it’s possible it might be painting the tree. Howard’s knees wobble and give out, and only Leon grabbing his hips keeps him from sliding to the ground.

Wow, Leon thinks. This kid was beyond backed up.

He hasn’t come yet, but he’s not actually certain he will. His attention begins wandering, back to the fire pit. Back to the porch. For the sake of appearances he thrusts a few more times, then does his best approximation of his own orgasmic groan, bucking his hips a couple times.

Somehow he doubts Howard even notices.

Howard seems to move in slow motion as he adjusts his shirt and pulls his shorts up. Leon half-turns to give him some semblance of privacy, taking his time as he wipes himself with a handkerchief from his pocket and tucks everything back in.

When he turns around, Howard’s face is streaked with tears, snot streaming from his nose. He reaches for Leon, and gives him a soft, chaste kiss.

Something breaks in Leon, and a rush of tenderness mixed with guilt and hope and despair washes over him. On an impulse, he wraps the boy in his arms, crushing him hard to his chest.

“Enjoy life,” he murmurs into Howard’s hair, the words rising out of him unbidden and unstoppable. “It goes by faster than you’ll know.”