Dr. Kinmon, Mr. Higgs' old friend, had a nice, neat, orderly office with several green plants growing by the two windows. After Higgs and he shook hands and finished the old ritual "It's been a long time," "How's the wife," and arguing that their kids were driving them more nuts that the other, Dr. Kinmon waited for us to tell him what our visit was about.

"Arron.. You remember when we spent days studying the pictures of the Egyptian hieroglyphics in the library?"

"Of course I do. You know I still dabble in them. Why do you ask?"

Mr. Higgs looked at me and nodded, so I pulled out the large colored sketches I had two of my best drawers draw up for me the day before and handed the six by eight inch symbols to the doctor.

"What on Earth?" he said, looking intensely at the first two. "Where did you get these.. beautiful glyphs?"

"That's going to take some explaining, Arron. Just don't worry about where we got them from just yet. Tim, tell him what each one stands for."

"What? Oh, sorry," I said, pulling my attention away from the fascinating streams in the doctor's head. "The first one is... bend, the second is... release, the third one I haven't found a word to describe what it does yet, but I could show you later. Uhm the fourth... the fourth... Wait a sec, I just have to try that one again.."

"What are you doing?" the doctor asked as I concentrated on my right arm.

"Oh yeah," I said after my arm tensed up. "It means go stiff or something like that. It's like a group symbol, but doesn't have the regular... er... pointy thing on the left middle side."

"Wil, is this some kind of joke?" Doctor Kinmon asked.

"No, Arron. We're very serious. Look at them. Have you ever seen anything like them before?"

"Well, not in such detail, but yes."

"What? Where?" I said, scanning his mind frantically.

"First you tell me where these came from. I take it you drew these?" he asked me.

"Where's the manuscript with the symbols now?" I queried after I found the old parchment which the doctor had managed to obtain for his own collection.

"What? How did you know <something> <something>..." he said after his mind had instantly recalled the location of the document when I asked.

(I hadn't commanded him to think of it. It's just a natural thing the mind does. When someone asks a question, you automatically look up the answer in your mind and then evaluate whether or not to answer the question based on the answer itself.)

I had walked behind his desk to a life size picture of the old document and was studying it before realizing the doctor was getting rather angry and was telling Higgs if he didn't get some straight answers that we would have to leave.

"Mr. Higgs, look at this. I can't believe it.... Doctor Kinmon, do you have any idea what this says?"

"No, and you couldn't possibly know either. Wil, I'm sorry, but this has gone far enough. I'm much too busy to... What is it?" Doctor Kinmon asked when my face went white with shock.

"I.. I just... Oh my God.." I said, feeling weak in the knees.

"Tim," Higgs said softly as he led me to a chair and had me sit down. "What's the matter? Did you read it and it do something to you?"

"No.. I mean, yeah, I read it. Part of it. It can't hurt anyone just by reading it, but I almost tried to do what it said as I read.. Oh my God. I could have killed everyone here."

"What?" the Doctor said as Higgs stiffened from my statement. "How? Don't tell me you believe in this... witchcraft!"

"Tim, you better show him now," Mr. Higgs said putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Show me what? Your hocus pocus? Wil, this had gone way too far. I really want you.. to.. <gasp>"

"Doctor, the symbols you see flying around inside his head are real. They control the mind and some parts of the body, mostly anything using the nervous system. Telepaths can send these symbols to other people's minds, and can change what a person thinks, does, or feels. Every person seems to have a different pattern of symbols, and I really need someone's help to understand how they all work. I'm not going to use them to hurt anyone. I just need to be able to protect myself from someone else using them against me.

"Mr. Higgs thought you might be able to arrange setting up a special group of students or teachers that could help me figure them out. I can't promise much, but I can promise this. I won't harm anyone, and you probably would never have a chance to see them again without my help.

"I'm going to stop sharing what I see with you now, okay? It's making me tired," I said as I closed the link.

"You okay?" Mr. Higgs asked me when I shut my eyes and held my head.

"I will be. I just haven't done that kind of... link before. I think I better lay down, though."

"Arron, are YOU okay," Mr. Higgs asked his friend who hadn't moved.

"What? Oh. Just give me a minute, Wil. It's still sinking in."

Mr. Higgs sighed after a moment, then walked back over to the picture on the wall.

"Tim, what exactly does this thing do?" he asked after studying it.

"Well, part of it is something like... uhm, remember when Joey and I were working on that seeking blanket? We made it into a pulse, like a radar pulse, remember?"

"Yes, yes. Go on."

"Well, it uses that kind of... delivery... I never thought about adding commands to the pulse like that.. Oh well, anyway.. the pulse is like a telepathic death ray. I'm not sure what all it does, but after you said that about stopping people's hearts the other day, I kind of worked out what symbols would do that. Seven lines down. From the fifth symbol on the left to the second on the next line. That's them. What the others do I don't know. I'm sure they just make it more.. deadly."

"You mean, if you had.. transmitted these symbols, the two of us would have had heart attacks?" Doctor Kinmon asked.

"Not just you, but.. I don't know how far I could send them. But the last time Joey and I measure our range, we could reach about four and a half miles with our pulse. And that was about a year ago."

"Good lord. That would have killed everyone on campus," Doctor Kinmon said, sitting down in his chair, hard.

"Arron, maybe you should get rid of this thing," Higgs suggested, turning his back on it.

"I wouldn't bother," I said, not looking at them.

"What?" Doctor Kinmon gasped.

"Why not?" Higgs asked.

"Who ever wrote that was just showing off. No one would bother ever using it. Building up a pulse like that would have taken too much time and energy. There's a lot simpler ways to kill everyone around you. And like I said, I never thought about using a pulse to carry commands before. There might be other things I could learn from it. Like how to stop it, or do the opposite to someone having a real heart attack."

"Shit, Wil. He's talking like it's an everyday thing," the doctor said to Higgs. Then to me he said, "I'm not sure if it would be safe to help you with this. What if you make some kind of mistake and everyone involved dies? What if someone else takes what we learn and uses it for their own purposes. Perhaps in this case the best thing would be to... live in ignorance?"

"Arron, I don't pretend to know what Tim has gone through to reach this point, but I believe that he does need our help in working this out. I can vouch that he would never abuse what he learns. And he made a very good point to me the other day. If he can see them, then so can others. And that scares the shit out of me too."

"Hey! Principals aren't supposed to cuss!" I said sitting up grinning.

"Hush, Tim," Higgs said with a small grin of his own. "If you tell anyone, I'll make sure you get tardies for every one of those classes you've skipped."

"Yikes! That's something like a year of detentions. Uhm, what did you say Mr. Higgs? Scared the poop out of you?"

"But how does that justify risking the lives of everyone involved?" the doctor insisted.

"Doctor Kinmon, there's no risk of anyone dying because.. well... Can I just show you what I have in mind? It's just the Einstein linking, Mr. Higgs. Nothing more."

"Wil?"

"It's safe, Arron. Tim and a few others have used this a lot without anyone ever getting hurt."

"Well, no one but me, but all I do is get tired. And the more I do it, the less tired I get."

"All right," the doctor said.

"Go ahead," Mr. Higgs said when I looked at him with a questioning look.

"Right. Just listen to me count backwards and think it as I say it.. Ready? Three... two... one... Linked."

Mr. Higgs got a kick out of finally experiencing the link which he had helped develop. Well, actually it was Joey who came up with the idea, but we would have never made it that far without Mr. Higgs' help. And since he was so familiar with the concepts, Mr. Higgs picked up how to share his knowledge really easily, so I used his mind's storehouse of knowledge to demonstrate to the doctor how the Einstein link worked.

When I found the Doctor relatively at ease with the process, I said "Okay, that's enough for now. I'm pooped," and closed the links.

I laid down on the freshly vacuumed carpet floor and closed my eyes to rest, and didn't really listen as Mr. Higgs and Doctor Kinmon talked.

"Tim," Mr. Higgs said, gently shaking me awake. "Doctor Kinmon needs to ask you a few questions, then it will be time to go home."

"Huh? Oh.. Okay.." I said, realizing I had slept longer than I thought. "Why didn't you wake me sooner?"

"You didn't look like you wanted to be woke up," Mr. Higgs simply said.

"Oh. What're the questions, Doc?" I said, plopping down in a chair.

"First of all, I'm not clear on what you wish to accomplish, and what you need from me."

"Oh.. Uhm... What do I want to accomplish is.. I guess to understand how the symbols work. I mean, I've spent weeks studying them, looking for some kind of pattern in other people's minds. But there are so many streams of them, I can't sort them out."

"But what of the symbols you've drawn? And you could read the ones from the parchment.."

"The ones I've drawn are telepathic command type of symbols. I can learn them easy just by sending them. But the ones in the mind.. They're different, yet the same. It's hard to explain. They look just like the telepathic ones, and by themselves I think they work the same. When they're in a steam together, they act differently."

"I see... You're experiencing a standard problem with uniquely written languages. You wish to understand how and why different groupings of symbols perform different functions than they do separately."

"Well, kind of, yeah. But there is so much more to it. I think all I really need is about twelve people to enter a link with me.."

"TWELVE!" Higgs exclaimed. "Tim, you slept for nearly an hour after only having two people in the link with you for ten minutes. How do you expect to link to twelve people if you can't even handle two?"

"I wouldn't be able to right away. I'd first start with just one person, then add more one at a time when I'm strong enough. I really don't think it would take that long to get up to twelve, but I've never tried having that many people in any link before. I don't know.. I was also thinking we might get someone just to work on making it more... uhm.. efficient."

"That's very possible," the doctor said while thinking. "There are two separate projects currently being worked on here which deal with increasing communication throughput without additional transmission lines. There may be aspects to what they are doing that can be adapted to your own unique.. er, communication system. I believe Professor Goldstein wouldn't mind working on something like this..."

"Arron, don't forget the other things before getting lost in the idea," Higgs said.

"Yes.. All right. Let's get down to more specifics. That is, how much time you want to spend on it a day, where would you do it, what would the university get out of it..."

"Get out of it?" I said. "I don't know what the university would get out of this. I mean, this isn't something that can be published or made public, you know?"

"I understand that. In fact, I understand probably even more than you do. However, the school does not have the resources to simply provide you with the means without getting something in return. No, the information you wish to gather will not be suitable for anyone but for yourself and should be kept to yourself at all times. But you have an incredible resource that would be invaluable in helping others' research."

"Others' research?" I echoed, not liking how that sounded.

"Yes. Such as allowing others to use your.. link? To further their own research. If it works, that is."

"Uhm, I don't think.."

"In exchange for your services, you would have your own research facilities, some office space, the option to employ students as research assistants, an allotment of funds for the project, and most likely have your choice of the staff to help you in your research if you help them in theirs."

I let out a big breath of air, then said, "Okay, I guess that sounds fair. But if the other research takes too much of my time to where I'm not getting my own stuff done..."

"Then we will have to find another arrangement. I understand that. Oh, and before we go any further, Wil mentioned something about you bringing two... friends with you? May I ask why?"

"You could say just in case I need more memory. I can like force myself to remember things, but I can only force so much in a day without hurting myself or forgetting other stuff that I need. So I use other people to keep things I don't need right away, but will still need to remember later. Sort of like a briefcase.

"And I can store stuff in other people's minds without them ever knowing it is there or ever finding it. I'm not sure why, but I can store as much as I want as fast as I want in other people's long term memory, but not in my own. I always have to store it in my short term, then wait... uhm... something like five or six hours before I can really use it. It takes that long for it to get stored in my long term memory. My mom and dad are like that too. I think it has to do with being telepaths."

"Why not just use people already here?" Higgs asked.

"Because.. Once I store something in someone else's memory, it stays there. The only thing I can do then is hide it by burying it. But after about a year, it gets pretty hard for anyone to find something I stored in their head anyway, so its just easier to let it get buried by itself. I'd rather have someone who I can trust and keep an eye on just so I can protect them and myself from others getting a hold of them."

"Wil, how can you just allow three students leave on something like this? I wouldn't think the school board would allow it."

"They don't have much choice if the parents wish to provide their kid with a tutor to continue their education while they are away. We haven't arranged anything yet since the job of monitoring their progress would have to fall on your shoulders, Arron."

"I was afraid you would say something like that. I'm willing to do it for one, maybe two. But three? I realize I wouldn't be doing the tutoring, but still..."

"You wouldn't have to "monitor" me," I said carefully. "I mean, I'll be seventeen in two weeks, so I don't even have to go to school. I can just quit, then go back..."

"Absolutely not," Higgs said. "You are not quitting my school while I'm principal. Knowing you, you'll find something else to get caught up in and never get your high school degree."

"And look at what you would miss," the doctor added. "You're a junior I take it? I always felt my junior year of high school was one of the best years of my life. Don't throw these years away, son. You never get a second chance if you skip them the first time."

"But... I'm not really a teenager anymore, am I," I said somberly. "I've had four days at being a junior in high school.. Half of them I was doing things other than school stuff. And then... well, like the other day. Someone tried to tell me a dirty joke, and all I could do was stare at them because I thought they were serious. I mean, I've seen and done things that.... <sigh> I just don't fit in there anymore."

"Trust me, Tim. You still fit in," Higgs said.

"Maybe from the outside, but... Things the others talk about, think about, plan to do with themselves all seem so... immature, I guess. Or even stupid. Like John's dying to ask this one girl if she'd go to the sock hop with him, but she always goes with this other dude and he doesn't want to interfere. I found out yesterday that that dude was her cousin who was just going with her because no one ever asks her. It's so stupid, its funny. I don't understand why he doesn't just ask her anyway. It just seems so... stupid."

"That's because you have more confidence that John does. That isn't surprising considering what you can do."

"But that's just it. They all seem so... small... I don't mean small like I'm above them. Just... helpless, I guess. They don't understand how vulnerable they are. I kept telling people they shouldn't draw attention to themselves and stuff like that because I'm afraid for them. So many of them could end up someone's pet. A few of them already have been for a while."

"You're still not quitting school," Higgs said. "You are going to graduate with the rest of your class, and that is final. You know you'll be in summer school this summer anyway, so if you just use some of that memory forcing thing every weekend on yourself.."

"Hey, wait a minute. I just realized something," I said looking at the two men with narrow eyes. "What about the 17 credit hours of college classes I took last semester? Can't that count for something?"

They looked at each other, then Higgs said, "Perhaps.. What classes were they?"

"English Composition, Micro Economics, American History, College Chemistry, and College Algebra. I only got Bs in them, but I was kind of busy with... other stuff, you know?"

"You made Bs? In all those?" Higgs said surprised. "You technically haven't even finished your sophomore year of high school yet!"

"Well? Can I help it if high school is useless? I mean, in college they start out like you don't know shit, then as long as you do the homework, you can pass the tests. So can I get credit for them somehow?"

"You know Wil," Doctor Kinmon said with a smirk. "This is the first time I've ever heard it working the other way."

"The other way?" I asked.

"We have classes at our high school that are college level courses, Tim. College Composition, College Chemistry, and College Calculus are all good as college credits. I'm not sure how we'll do it, but.. Yes, I'm sure we can get you credit for the classes you took. You may have to take a few tests to prove you have the skills, however."

"That's cool. Uhm, so what about Eric and James?" I asked the doctor.

"Why two?" he said with a frown.

"Uhm... Well... Mr. Higgs, Eric would kill me if he knew I told you this. I mean, I'm breaking my promise already, and I really..."

"Spill it Tim. We have to get going soon, and I'm not going to promise I won't act on something if I feel I must," Higgs said sternly.

I told him about James' situation, and explained that I had already checked on his dad and found he just needed some time to adjust. So taking James with me would give them both some space to reconsider their differences, then I promised to make sure things either worked out right or to hand it over to the authorities. It took some doing, but I managed to get their consent if the parents agreed.

Before we left, the doctor explained that while many of the researchers kept a cot in their labs to sleep on, there were no facilities such as showers, laundry, or kitchens available for us to use. In other words, we also had to find a place to stay.

So on the drive back, I started adding up some of the expenses this endeavor would require. Tutors for Eric and James, clothes for James (his dad had gotten drunk and burned all of James' clothes that were at his house), housing, food... I was glad that my dad had given me my own Gold Master Card with no credit limit for Christmas. I was seriously thinking about buying my own place down there so I wouldn't have to worry about landlords and such, and surely they would take a gold card...

Even though I was tired, as soon as Higgs and I had finished all the details we could do at school after-hours, I went to Eric's house to talk to his parents about letting him go.

I was surprised to find that Eric's mom already knew and understood what I was able to do, and had accepted what Suzi, Eric and I had done together last summer. Apparently she had always known about her husband's true sexual preference, and that was what had attracted her to him the most. She also knew before our time at summer camp that her son had also been leaning that way, having recognized the same look in his eyes as she had seen so many times in her husband's.

As I had hoped they would, Eric and his dad had grown very close, especially when Eric's friends at his old school made his homosexuality a living hell. Eric and "Spanky" never once touched each other sexually, but he and his dad frequently talked about gay life, and once in a while Eric would insist on comparing his equipment to his dad's.

I thought it was funny how both his sisters and his parents had each individually seen Eric and James have sex in one way or another, yet Eric believed that they all thought that James was just a friend and wasn't even bi, let alone gay.

In fact, his younger sister had a crush on James up until she saw James and Eric 69ing. Afterwards, however, she just plain out desired him, and every so often she frigged her twelve year old twat thinking about how badly she wanted James to notice her lusty glances at him. She was truly her mother's daughter I guess.

So it came as somewhat as a shock to Eric when his dad didn't want Eric to go simply because he didn't want Eric and James having sex every time they turned around. But once the shock wore off, Eric ended up letting it slip that James and he had sex ever time they turned around anyway, including every night in his bed.

That took a while for Eric to explain, and it just so happened that James rang the doorbell a few minutes after telling them about James' borrowing his clothes for school. It was at that point where I explained the deal to Eric and James about straightening things out with James' father once we got back, and then found myself not only having to talk Eric's parents into it, but James as well, especially since what James wanted and what Eric's parents wanted were not anywhere near the same thing.

All I got out of either party was, "I'll think about it," and when I saw I wasn't going to get any other kind of answer that night, I explained I would be going back down the next day to look for someplace to live and wanted James to go with me. Alone.

"Why can't I come?" Eric asked.

"Because then you two would always be trying to start something, and that's not what we're going there for," I said. Then I thought to him, "And besides. You need to work on your parents, and this makes it look like I'm following their wishes by keeping you two from having a lot of sex. Trust me, 'kay?"

Eric nodded, then whispered something into the frowning James' ear.

"What did Eric say to you?" I asked James when we got in my car.

"He said to save him some," he said without thinking.

"Some of wha.. Ohhh," I said when James gave me a exasperated look.

"You're kind of weird," James suddenly said about ten minutes later.

"I am?"

"Yeah. You could get any guy you wanted to fuck and suck, but you don't. You're weird. If I could do the stuff... We're going to the mall? What for?"

"Clothes. For you. And if I promise you won't feel any pain, how about getting that ear pierced like you've been wanting to. Eric nearly lost it when he found out I had my ear pierced."

"How come you don't wear an earring then?" James said after looking at my bare lobes.

"Because I.. Well, I guess it just doesn't appeal to me that's all. So how about it. I'll even let you get some sexy underwear from the adults only store.."

"DEAL!" James said instantly. "I know exactly what Eric would love too. I hope they got cherry flavored.."

"Heh. If they don't, they're nuts," I said before feeling his excitement fade and his unhappy mood return.

"James, what's eating you? If you don't want to go, then just say," I said putting the car in park and shutting off the engine.

"Huh? No, I wanna go. I just.. I don't want to come back, that's all."

"I swear, James. I'll make sure things work out for you one way or the other. If nothing else, I'll make sure you get adopted by someone who won't reject you being gay. But that isn't really all that's bugging you is it?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Come on, James. I know you're holding something else back."

"Hey! I thought you said it was rude to read other's thoughts when.."

"I'm not reading your mind. I can just.. feel you holding something back. Something you're afraid of.. Something.. about me?"

James stared at his shoes with a frown on his face, breathing through his mouth instead of his nose for some reason. After seven or eight evenly spaced breaths, he took a deep one and said, "Eric's mine. You can't have him."

"Huh?"

He looked up at my surprised face and boldly said, "He's all I got, and I'm not letting him go, got it? I won't let you take him from me."

He was shaking a little from his short yet intense emotional release, but as he waited for my response he started to get scared too.

So I looked him in the eyes to form an empathic connection and said, "I'm not going to take anyone away from anyone, especially not Eric from you. Yes, I love him, but he's more like a little brother than a lover. I thought you understood that I'm not interested in having Eric as a boyfriend. Even Eric knows that. Trust me, James. I only want to help you, not hurt you."

"Oh. Uhm, are we going shopping or not?" he said frowning and getting out of the car.

James was a strange kid. After we got in the store, he kept switching between being friendly and being distant with me. He knew what he liked and didn't like, and could be extremely stubborn about it, but yet he also avoided confrontations of any kind. I noticed his dark mood after I had helped pick out some jeans and it made me realize that while he hadn't liked the jeans at all, he hadn't had the guts to say so. So after dragging his real opinion about the jeans out of him, we returned them, then I didn't even attempt to help him pick anything else out.

He was a pretty happy kid after that, and I guess started to enjoy his company. I even let him talk me into going to the adult store to look around before getting his ear pierced. He wanted to have something to keep his mind occupied while they did the piercing, but conceded that we wouldn't buy anything until after his ear was pierced.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite customer!" the shop owner exclaimed when we went in. "You had me pretty scared there, bud. Where ya been for the past nine months, huh? I almost had to sell off the place in June after you stopped comin' in."

"Sorry, Georgie-o. I didn't have any control over it. I'm gonna be down at Southeastern State for a while, but I'll be back in a few months. I promise."

"Well, just make sure you to give me a ring if you need anything. I'll ship it right down to ya. So.. Whatcha lookin' for today. More toys? Or are ya finally gonna try something out of the B&D section?"

After spending a few minutes chatting with Georgie, I suddenly felt James become very interested in something. As I made my way to the section of the store where I could feel he was, I almost walked into two bikers wearing leather and studs, the larger one toying with a whip.

"Watch it, fucker," the large man said to me as I apologized and went around. "Come on, bitch. We got some other shoppin' to do."

The other one didn't reply, just turned towards me and allowed the bigger one to lead the way. It was at that moment I realized the smaller and long- haired biker was another guy. I mean, until he turned around and I saw his flat chest peeking out of the leather vest, I had thought it was a girl hanging on him like that, not a guy.

The pair of bikers never seemed to notice my stare as they walked away, and I nearly jumped when James said next to me, "Man, that was the coolest thing I have ever seen."

James got his ear pierced without any hesitation after that, and I was surprised that he asked me to help him pick out the earring. After he made it clear he didn't want a preppy looking one, he actually went with my choice of the less fancy ones. Like I said. Weird kid.

After grabbing something to eat before spending nearly an hour in the adult store, we finally left the mall to go home.

"James, when did you first realize you were gay?" I asked suddenly about half way to the south mansion.

"Why? What's it to you?"

"I'm just curious, that's all. Eric never really thought about it until I called him a fag once. I just wondered when you figured it out."

"Oh. When I was nine, I saw these three guys in the woods fucking. Every day after school they went there to do it, and after about two weeks of watching them, one of them saw me and asked if I wanted to join them. I didn't that day, but after a couple of days, I went back. They made me admit I was gay and that I wanted to suck their dicks. After that, I sucked all three of them off every day after school until that summer."

"What happened then?"

"One of the guys wanted to fuck me, and tried to force it in me. It hurt too much. I never went back to the woods after that. But when I was thirteen I wished I had let him do it and would check the woods once in a while to see if they came back. They never did, but now I'm glad they didn't. Otherwise Eric wouldn't have been the one to take my cherry. Can we do that when we get to your place?"

"Uhm, James... Don't take this the wrong way, but.. I don't want to do that kind of stuff with you. I just want us to be friends, okay?"

Feeling that his feelings were hurt, I added, "Hey, you're taking it the wrong way."

"But.. Why don't you like me? Eric and I both think you're really sexy, and you must think Eric is sexy too cause he is. So why not me?"

"Just because I have screwed around with Eric doesn't mean I'm attracted to his body like that. And I'm not. I'm attracted to who he is, not how he looks. So to answer your question, I'm not attracted to you because I don't know you well enough to be attracted to you. I'm physically attracted by girls. I just sometimes find a guy who is special enough to want to make love to. You understand? I'm bi, not gay."

"Then can I stay with Eric tonight and you just pick me up in the morning?" he said rather suddenly.

"Hey. There are other things to enjoy in life than sex, you know. Give me a chance, James. We'll have fun tonight, just you wait and see."

James was really impressed with my not so humble abode. I never heard someone make so many wows in an hour. Everything wowed him. Even the can opener. I swear that kid must have lived in a cardboard box most of his life.

Video games, however, was something he was very familiar with. The little shit even beat me at my favorite game. But we still had a good time playing video games, eating pizza, and right before bed time, I gave in and we did a little mud wrestling. Or should I say he had a mud bath, I just kind stood in the middle and watched him slip around a lot.

Okay, so the kid was growing on me. He was really appreciative for everything we did, and by the time I had finished showing him how to wrestle in the mud, I simply asked him if he was ready to shower and go to bed, then lead him to my shower and started undressing him.

"Tim? Why you being so nice to me?"

"Uhm, I guess at first it was because you were Eric's boyfriend. But now.. Well, you're a pretty fun guy when you're not trying to suck everyone off. If you promise not to let yourself lose control, maybe we can have a little fun in the shower. But not in the bed, understand?"

"Okay. So, can I?" he said, indicating he wanted to undress me.

James actually did all right in the shower with me. He had a hardon the whole time and couldn't keep his eyes off me, but he didn't once try to start something, even though it was sort of open that he could a little.

When we crawled into my bed, he said, "If I don't try to suck you or anything, would you let me feel the muscles all over your body? I'll go fucking crazy if I don't get to."

"I guess that will be okay. You like guys with muscles?"

"Oh yeah. I love 'em. I want to be like those bikers we saw today."

"Which one? The butch, or the bitch?" I asked jokingly.

He hesitated as he felt my left arm, then said rather embarrassed like, "The bitch."

"Shit, James. You serious? Why?"

"Cause.. I do, that's all. I wanna have a big strong guy hold me and protect me. My dad... He's such a wimp. And I'm a wimp too. I'll never grow muscles like you. So I'm going to be some guy's bitch."

He paused to kiss my left breast, then said, "Some big <kiss> strong <kiss> powerful guy <kiss> who won't let anyone touch me <kiss> but him."

James' hands were exploring my arms and lower stomach while he continued to give my chest gentle suckling kisses. I would have stopped him if the kisses were in any way lusty or driven, but they were sensual, almost loving kisses, something I hadn't expected from James. He was aroused all right. But he wasn't letting it push him into doing something he knew I wouldn't allow.

"Tim?" James said, bringing my attention back to reality after I had accidentally slipped into a contented trance from his kisses. "Will you be my butch for just tonight? All I want is for you to hold me, and let me kiss you like I've been doing. I just want to feel... protected."

I knew he wasn't committed to limit himself to just kisses, and I could feel he was really turned on by my body and his actions, but stupid me thought he wouldn't do anything unless I asked him to.

So in short my answer was, "Come 'ere, bitch."

He anxiously crawled up on top of me, and laid his stomach over my semi hard dick as he returned to his loving of my chest. I was starting to fall asleep again when he asked, "Can I try your legs?"

I hesitated, then grunted a yes, and found his hands rubbing my legs quite soothing. After a while, I forgot where I was and who was doing it. So when his lips crossed over the line from my thigh to my lower waist, I wasn't really thinking about how my cock was hardening from his sloppy kisses.

I don't know when his hand took my tool in its grasp. All I remember was enjoying the hand slowly masturbate me while the lips started kissing my balls. I was half asleep in a dream like state, and I thought James really was a bitch, a bitch of the female kind. So when his tongue finally licked the side of my shaft, I must have gave him an approving sign for soon he was slobbering it down, then took the head of it in his mouth.

He worshiped my cock, but never got so energetic that he made me shoot. Right before he quit, he gave the head of my dick a kiss, then crawled up our bodies until his hard dick laid next to my softening one.

Still dreaming, I laid my arm across her back and gave the top of her head a small kiss before rolling us on our sides and fitting her smaller body within the curve of my own. She fell asleep with my protective arm over her naked rather flat chest, feeling happy and safe by someone who cared for her.