Part of the Stories series. Like shorts, these are generally done by
request and have some personification of the requester in the story.
Unlike shorts, these are longer (6k+ words) and move descriptive and
world building.
Grayson angled the phone low, abs tight, jaw loose. One quick smirk, one shutter click. He was a natural at this, but he checked the selfie anyways. Had to make sure it was on point, after all. Oh yeah, this would do. Sweat already beading under the collarbone from the warm-up, lighting catching the ridges he had worked months to carve. Chest and abs smooth and catching the light just right? He smiled and hit post to his story with a half second of smug satisfaction.
“What's the point of looking this good if you don’t post it, right?”
He muttered, already feeling his bro rolling his eyes. Grayson didn't bother to look, just tossed the phone into his duffel. The fashion moment was over and today? It would be no different than any other day with them at the gym. He and Kevin were going to war the only way they knew how sets, reps, blood and sweat. It was their language, one that many other men knew all to well. As if sensing the thought, Kevin walked in like he always did: solid, unbothered, already rolling his shoulders loose, the faint smell of chalk and coffee trailing him. He clocked the empty racks, the speed bag swaying from someone else’s last burst, the mirror streaked with old cleaner lines. He pointed at Grayson’s phone sticking out of the bag.
“Another thirst trap?” Kevin said, deadpan.
“Community service” Grayson replied. “I give back to the community that gave me so much.”
Kevin grunted like that was funny enough. “We good?”
Grayson tapped the gym clock. “As always.”
They didn’t discuss the plan, they never did or had too. When you got this close, trained this hard together, became brother by way of sweat and pain at the gym? The routine was second nature, already known and already started. Warm-ups, big lifts (bigger grunts), accessories, conditioning, then more. They started with the basics, jump rope. Kevin’s rope clipped the floor in a steady wap-wap-wap that matched his breathing. A little to loud at times, sometimes on purpose with a "yeah I'm doing better than you" smile totally not aimed at anyone. Grayson bounced lighter, quicker, eyes half closed, counting sets in his head. Pretending not to care what Kevin was doing. Despite the unspoken competition, it would soon fall into perfect rhythm. Five minutes in, sweat was already painting their backs. Just how they liked it.
Phone alarm, time to move on.
Boxing work next, but more drill than duel. They floated into stance and kept it there, gloves whispering instead of barking. No headhunting to harm; even when a fist rose toward the cheek or temple it was a pulled touch. They tapped and retract, a metronome check, not a shot meant to land heavy. Bodies did the real talking. Hooks skimmed the ribs, shovel shots kissed the mid core, uppercuts rose clean and stopped a hair short of ruin. Kevin’s shoulders rolled like gears, load, unload, reset, his forearms a pair of steady machines that knew the dance. Grayson’s hips snapped like he was dancing with a mean partner, feet stitching angles on the mat: step, slip, turn, feed the line, take it back. Sweat drew bright lines down their backs, dotted their brows, down their chest, beaded at the lip of the glove cuffs until every feint was signed with a fleck of salt. They smelled like crap, but in a way, that just added to the experience. The air in front of them took a beating, but the point wasn’t damage, it was rhythm, control, a work out. Pulled jabs to the forehead to keep the eyes honest, thudding but mindful hooks to the body to keep the lungs respectful, a chest-level check hook that tapped and taught in the same breath. Burn pooled in their biceps and triceps, lactic acid setting a slow fire from wrist to shoulder; they welcomed it, leaned into it, let it teach them. They worked in loops: touch the guard, dig the belly, roll the counter, answer with a pair that landed heavy enough to count and soft enough to continue.....
Phone alarm again, time to move on.
“Bench?” Kevin said, sweat clinging to chest hair that Grayson found and caught himself staring at.
“Bench!” Grayson echoed, trying to get his mind off things.
They loaded the bar like old enemies stacking arguments. There were quarter plates, then forty-fives, then more, all snapped tight so nothing wandered. Chalk dust turned their hands ghost-white; veins started to stand even before the first rep. Kevin went first. He unracked with a tight back and full breath, lowered on a five count until the bar hovered a knuckle above his sternum, paused, then drove it up like a jack lifting a truck. And yes the idea of benching a truck had crossed their minds, they just were that insane yet.... yet. Each rep was the same: slow move, dead still pause, hard ass press. By rep eight his triceps burned like hell, pecs ballooned, but damn did he feel good. He racked it with a hard clank, elbows flaring wide, chest flushed and pumped, skin tight over everything he had built.
Grayson slid in while Kevin stripped a five, then changed his mind and put it back—“earn it.” Oh it was on. Feet planted, shoulder blades dug into the pad, Grayson was fired off and ready to go, so he took the handoff. The first descent was a hair quick; the bar path wobbled, corrected, then rode the groove. He pressed to lockout, elbows soft at the top to keep tension. By rep six his pecs swelled into the shirt, sleeves biting his biceps; by rep nine his forearms looked like cables. Kevin’s hands hovered over the bar, not touching, just there.
They pyramid-loaded and marched sets: 8–6–4, back to 8 with a drop, then a nasty back-off set to near failure where the pump turned from pleasant to feral. Between sets they shook out their arms, rolled shoulders, slapped triceps to wake them up. There was no quitters here, only victory and the pump. The bench became a furnace: bar bending a whisper, plates kissing the sleeves, sweat beading on the leather. Their competition was cordial and stupidm adding a plate they didn’t need, stealing an extra rep they shouldn’t... and it always flirted with too much. But hey, that was the point. The pump swelled their chests until the fabric complained; veins tracked across forearms like roadmaps studied by bro-science.
“Last rep was shaky,” Kevin said, more playful mocking than anything else.
“Like your self-confidence when I post a better pump,” Grayson shot back.
Middle fingers and laughs were exchanged.
Phone alarm again, and again and again. Each time, it was time to move on. By the end of the day, Grayson retrieved his phone. The mirror across from them showed two men wrecked in the way that makes you feel alive. He lifted the camera, caught both of them in frame, he snapped the shot. The caption?
Iron sharpens iron. Best kind of bad ideas. #share
So do two men do AFTER they destroy themselves at the gym? Chill and get drunk of course, duh! Or at least they did, which is why they wound up back at Grayson's place. Grayson’s place, after about thirty minutes of them being there, smelled like victory and pizza grease. The low TV murmuring, window cracked to let the night in, two pairs of shoes kicked sideways by the door, all of that just added to the "vibe". They claimed the couch like a trench, legs sprawled, thighs touching sometimes without either of them shifting away. The kind of quiet that happens after you’ve already said everything that matters with a barbell and a bell. It was bro chill time and they both knew it. Grayson keeps the beers flowing from the fridge like he’s trying to be a good host and a bad influence at the same time. At the moment, he was very much succeeding at both.
“Another?” ... like he didn't already know the answer.
Kevin didn't bother with words. He just took it, twisted the cap off with that thick-wristed, done-this-a-thousand-times turn, and downs it. Then naturally, grabs another. More laughs, more bullshit. They watch some highlight reel, fighters they both pretend not to study, and offer commentary that’s half jokes, half scouting report.
“Hands too high,” Kevin says.
“Footwork too cute,” Grayson counters.
“Cute gets you winded.”
“Cute gets you paid.”
About ten (or many more) beers in, Grayson pops his bottle, then drags the back of his hand across his mouth and sits forward. The living room light catches the fingerprints still faint across his midsection from earlier rounds. He tugs his shirt up to scratch at his ribs and, oops totally my mistake, and keeps going. Shirt off, totally super by accident he would claim, and of course flexing his abs like a liar Grayson know he is. He checks the TV reflection because he’s not above admiring his own work.
Kevin rolls his eyes. “Seriously....”
Grayson doesn’t stop flexing. “What ever are you talking about?”
With a sigh that’s ninety percent amusement, and ten percent here we go again, Kevin peels his own shirt off and lets it fall wherever. He plants his feet, tightens his core, and hits a slow side chest flex that makes the couch creak under the shift. He’s not as cut, not supposed to be. He’s dense, weight-room strong, life strong. The kind of muscle you don’t spot under bad lighting until it’s bowling you backwards and throwing you around like the bitch you are.
“Happy?”
Kevin asks, still holding the pose like a statue who just remembered how to smirk.
“Ecstatic”
Grayson says, trying not to laugh... and trying not to admire. He shakes it off, quickly enough while he hits a three-quarter turn, arms up, then pivots into a front lat spread that would look ridiculous if his back wasn’t muscle on top of muscle on top of muscle.
“Symmetry check?”
“How about a go fuck yourself check?” Kevin says, deadpan. “Your body is fine, face could use work.”
Grayson barks a laugh that tips his beer, after all its how guys do thing. If your bro insutls you, that means he likes you, and your doing good. They run through two more poses purely to see who could make the other roll their eyes the most, of course another competition. Who was the most muscular, they had to find out because you have to. A few more poses then a “classic” biceps shot where Grayson overdoes it and Kevin undersells it and somehow both land perfectly in character. More laughs, more beer. Then the moment breaks the way those moments do: the joke’s spent, the point made, the friendship easy again.
They flop back into the sofa like they fell from high up, while bottle caps glitter on the table like cheap medals. The TV keeps talking to itself; a crowd roars for somebody else’s fight. Outside, a siren wails and fades. Inside, the air conditioner hums and the fridge knocks once, water line settling. Grayson thumbs another bottle open and offers it sideways without looking. Kevin takes it, clinks, drinks. They don’t bother with coasters, don’t bother with words. The room holds the day for them: chalk dust in the seams of their hands, the good ache running from sternum to hip, the kind of fatigue that feels like a prize. Grayson shifts, shoulder into Kevin’s for balance, then reclines deeper, beer resting on his stomach.
He’s a little woozy, they both are, but they doesn’t care.
Grayson lets his head sink into the cushion, beer balanced on the rise of his stomach. He kinda wanted to close his eyes, pass out, but not yet. The TV washed the room in blue, filling it with the now low sounds of post fight commentary on for background sound than real intent. Kevin’s breathing evens out as well, it was slow, heavy, the kind that says good day, done well. Grayson smiles without moving his mouth. Good day indeed. But then, like it was always there forever but never dare addressed, a thought. Another, then another and... before Grayson can consider things properly, as if he could mostly drunk, he slides over, planting his knuckles in Kevin's body, just under the sternum. Nothing serious, nothing hard (yet), more like a testing press. He feels the wall there, it was like sleeping granite under skin. Grayson huffs a tiny laugh.
Then another thought.... fuck it.
He draws his fist back a hand’s length and sets one in gently. A straight shot. Thunk. Not mean. Not a dare. Just a hello. Kevin doesn’t flinch, doesn't even give a grunt. The only change noticeable, is the breath that leaves, then returns like a machine or computer resetting. In the way, that feels like permission. Right? Grayson doesn't waste time. Left to the obliques, thud. Right under the ribs, thunk. Center line, almost covered by all that wonderful body here. Bam! Two in rhythm, pop, pop. His knuckles find the spots they always find, and Kevin’s body answers by tightening a click, then another, automatic, like an old machine that just knows what to do. He scoots closer on the cushions, plants one knee for leverage, and starts a steady cadence. Half power, all precision. He works high to low and back again, careful not to chase anything but the rhythm. The sound in the apartment is a soft drumline against muscle, the TV crowd roaring for someone else while Grayson practices the quiet craft of hitting what can take it.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
He times shots to Kevin’s breathing, on the exhale as if to teach the body to take it empty, on the inhale to make the lungs earn their space. Every third, he pauses just long enough to feel the warmth under his knuckles, the iron knitting itself tighter beneath. How good muscle and feel after they been punched...
Kevin shifts a little, not away but into the line of fire, like his body remembers the drill more than his mind. Or maybe Kevin want's this just as bad as Grayson does. Kevin shifts again, forearms moving to the sides, elbows drifting wide in that familiar dare. Even out, his abs are plate up. It’s the same language they’ve spoken for years: I’m here. Give me work. Grayson, naturally contuines to oblige. A left shovel into the meat above the hip, whump. A right hook to mirror it, whump. Two straights stacked on the solar plexus that bounce back like he’s testing metal armor not flesh. He keeps going, keeps hitting, fueled by that stubborn brand of affection only idiots and fighters understand. Maybe something else, but mostly that.
Kevin answers with a deeper pull of air, chest expanding (damn that meat and hair!) core tightening until the ridges stand like guard rails. Grayson measures out ten count flurries and five count breaks, almost like a bartender to his friend’s resilience. By the third flurry, his knuckles hum and his shoulder feels the good burn. By the fifth, Kevin’s stomach wears a faint map, knuckle marks, slightly bruising, and a bit of red. It was hot, something Grayson would never say out loud. Instead he changes angles, leaning over Kevin to drop a body uppercut dead center. It lands with a dunk, that he feels in his wrist. Kevin’s jaw tightens; a breath jets out sharp. He doesn’t move. If anything, he flexes harder, as if to say, You’ll need better than that.
“Show-off,” Grayson says, annoyed, fond, and a little bit more.
Grayson ratchets down the power a notch but speeds the tempo, working a four shot ladder: low left, low right, high left, high right, reset. The couch squeaks under their shifting weight. The apartment’s thin walls hold the sound like a secret. Grayson continues the pattern, another forced breath... then another. It's low but its there. He plants again and paints another series down the centerline. One, two, three, four, thumb, thud, bam, crack, each placed like a craftsman taps a finishing nail. He ends with a palm press, not a punch, holding heat and pressure over the spot he worked the most. He feels Kevin’s heartbeat under his hand, steady as a drum in a tunnel.
So far, so really really good.
But is he done? Oh hell no... you don't get this very often, and Grayson was damned if he wouldn't use it for all it's worth. Grayson next moved Kevin’s wrists up and planted them over his head on the couch cushion, lacing fingers through fingers for a second to make the point. The stretch pulls Kevin’s torso long, hair across his stomach catching the TV’s blue light. The wall is there, thick, braced, daring him. Begging him.
“Hold,” Grayson murmurs, and Kevin’s body answers by tightening like a cable.
He starts again, not testing anymore, no he was throwing now. A straight down the middle. Thunk. A heavier shovel into the left shelf of muscle. Whump. He shifts his knee for leverage and snaps another into the right, knuckles landing square, wrist true. Kevin takes them like a pro, breath out, breath in, core locking under the impact until the couch frame hums... but still very much out cold. Grayson builds a beat—one-two… three-four… a mean little fifth for punctuation. The sound changes when he digs deeper; the thud gets rounder, the rebound slower. Kevin’s mouth opens once, just a flicker. No words. Just air leaving fast. Then it happens, the first low sound. Not a break, a bleed. A moan pressed through gritted teeth, more vibration than voice. Grayson freezes a heartbeat, grin creeping up without permission.
“There we go,” he whispers.
Stopping only a moment to adjust his sweats, before his next shot lands just below the sternum, clean as a signature.Kevin’s reply is another moan, longer, swallowed. His elbows twitch like instinct wants them back down, protecting the core. But that won't happen here, drunken sleep has him pinned in perfect form, stretched and stubborn. Grayson adjusts the angle and starts chasing that sound, not sloppy, not cruel, just calibrated. With purpose. He wants more, and he will get it. He halves the space between shots. He ups the force a notch.
Left hook ribs, thud.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Right hand centerline, dunk.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmm
Hard left digging hit into the meat above the hip, whump.
Gaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
The system continues, reset, then repeat. Each hit stacks on the last until the moans come in counterpoint to his fists, breathier, rougher, marking time. Making music. Grayson laughs under his breath. The smile is all teeth. Will this be the day? The one he finally tips the fortress? He leans in, chest nearly brushing Kevin’s as he drives a tight four piece right down the pipe, the third shot held a fraction longer to sink the message. Kevin’s stomach hardens against him and the moan breaks higher, sharper, like a bell struck off it's center.
“C’mon,” Grayson coaxes, cadence climbing. “Give.”
Low left body blow, meaty. Low right to the side under the ribs but before the liver. Mid left and mid right eating to the hairy center of Kevin's stomach. Top center, forcing more and more air out to bring it all home. A pause, then drops back to the bottom and runs it again. Kevin’s jaw sets, veins stringing across his neck; every breath is a fight to stay square. The moans ride the rhythm now, punctuating the end of each series. Grayson hears them and feeds off them, because that’s who they are... each other’s bad ideas, each other’s engine. Grayson then loads a body uppercut and buries it in the solar plexus. Boom. Kevin’s whole frame jolts, it shakes. A raw sound gutters out of him, half moan, half laugh, all strangled in the middle. Like fireworks, Grayson wants more, and answers with his best work. Six crisp straights, elbows tight, weight rolling through his hips, every knuckle landing flush on the same stubborn target. The sofa springs complain. The room narrows to breath, impact, breath. Kevin’s moans stack closer together, frayed at the edges, but he won’t fold, even out his body refuses to give. He pulls his abs tighter, somehow, stretching the hair flat, daring the next one.
“Almost,” Grayson says, sweat beading his brow in the TV light. “Almost.”
Grayson was to into the punches, to into the beating, to into working the main of musky body hair and muscle in front of him to remember just how it happened. One blink it was the sofa, next it’s the bedroom. Sheet rucked down, window cracked, city hush outside. Just enough air flow to keep them breathing, but not enough to get rid of the sweat and smell. In other words, perfect. Kevin was on his back, the good little pain pig, arms still pinned overhead, wrists resting on the pillow. Grayson kneels alongside, breathing hard, sweat cooling. But all would not remain still. It couldn't. He tests the new terrain with a straight down the center abs. From this angle, shoulder over fist elbow stacked, the shot lands vertical and deep. Thunk. The mattress eats some of the return, so the sound goes round and hollow, like a drum with a hand pressed to it. Kevin exhales a compressed hhn, the kind that tightens the whole wall of muscle in one ripple. He, Grayson, shifts a half space toward Kevin’s hip and drops a diagonal cross into the high right ab, shoulder to opposite oblique. Thud-slap. Skin answers first, then the deeper thump arrives. Kevin’s answer is a clipped tch, teeth barely parting, breath cutting across the back of his tongue. Grayson lowers his base and carves a hook up from the hip, his knuckles sneaking under the rib line and driving forward. Whump. It’s a thick sound, cushioned by the bed and the angle, and it pulls a low nnngh out of Kevin’s chest, like a baritone clearing his throat.
Grayson doesn't bother to hide how it makes his sweats feel anymore. This was way to much a long time in the making, and way to much to enjoy.
Palm to the sheet for balance, Grayson twists a corkscrew straight into the upper abs, turning his fist at the last inch. Tok. Sharper, more focused, like rapping the same spot twice in one motion. Kevin’s reply is a soft ah, that tapers into a satisfied hum as his core plates up even tighter. Still somehow working, still somehow managing to resist.... good. He re-squares and goes for the double tap down Main Street, two quick but hard ones to the solar plexus with no wind-up. Pop-pop. The rhythm forces a staggered ff—ff from Kevin’s lungs, breath released in two neat stutters. The eyes stay closed; the jaw sets; the stomach lifts to meet the next one. Bro wants it bad, wants it more. Grayson slides higher on the bed and digs a left hook across the top row, fist brushing chest hair before biting into muscle. Thup. It draws a half laugh, half groan heh—nn, like Kevin’s body can’t decide which column to file it under. Pain? Pleasure? Both?
Fuck it keep going....
He plants a knee beside Kevin’s hip and fires a short body uppercut straight up. Then another, then another. The springs answer this time, a metallic bunk under the meat of the booms, the whole bed agreeing with the strike. Kevin’s sound is pure old-school, oof. Angle change again: Grayson lines his shoulder with Kevin’s left oblique and paints a hook that skims over hair and bites the sidewall. Whuff. Air moves with it. Kevin’s response is a drawn mmm, long and even, the kind of note a man holds when he’s bracing and strangely pleased about it. He tries a spearing straight while sliding backward, a punch that lands as he’s already retreating. Tup. It’s lighter, but it surprises the breath into a quick hah, and the abs flash hard under the strike, reflex ahead of thought. Back to the right side: Grayson angles his fist flat and drives a knuckle line just above the navel. Thm. A muted, padded sound, as if the bed swallowed half the consonant. Kevin gives him a gravelly uhh that sits low, satisfied, unbothered. Grayson leans over and drops a downward hammer straight, elbow high, fist vertical. Thunk. Deeper, almost wooden. Kevin’s chest rises against the restraint of his raised arms, and a short oh slips out before he seals it with a grin he doesn’t open his eyes to show. Another blow, same kind. Kevin answers in counterpoint: hn—nn—ah—mm. Not pain—music. The sort of involuntary chorus that tells a man he’s found the beat.
He softens the power and plays with tempo, three quick taps and a held fourth that sinks an inch and stays. Tap-tap-tap—thud. The held contact coaxes a steady mmm that vibrates under his palm, turning the bed into a quiet resonator. He finishes the set with a traveling hook series, walking the fist from hip to sternum in three overlapping arcs. Whuff—whuff—whuff. Each overlaps, each beautiful overlap, echos over the last, so the sounds braid together. So fucking hot. Grayson repeats, wanting to hear it again. Kevin’s answer unspools into layered notes—nn—ah—hh, breaths and grunts that never fail to please.
Grayson swings a leg over and settles his weight across Kevin’s hips, knees planted in the mattress, toes digging for purchase. He squares his shoulders, sets his jaw, and starts working like the body beneath him is a bag hung just for him. Ok, time for the school of hard knocks now.
First volley, tight, powerful as hell straights down the center of Kevin's hairy tempting body. Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud. Kevin’s breath answers in neat pushes: ff—ff—ff—ff. His abs lift to meet each shot, stone under skin, no give except the kind that springs back stronger. Grayson angles left and carves a powerful unforgiving hook into the sidewall... whump. The bed springs murmur a metallic protest, and Kevin lets a low nnngh ride out of his chest, both (and finally) pain and pleasure released. Right hand diagonal, shoulder to opposite oblique. Thud-slap. Air moves with it; Kevin answers with a clipped tch, jaw squared, ribs flaring once before settling. He crowds closer and rolls a four beat (his favorite set) low left, low right, mid left, mid right. Whuff, whuff, thud, thud. Kevin’s sounds stack to match: hn—ah—mm—oh, each note clean, contained, almost approving. A body uppercut from short distance, knuckles driving up through the stern line, boom. The mattress catches the echo; Kevin gives a another classic oof, then inhales deep, the wall finally failing to brace tighter. Grayson sees it, and knows it. He corkscrews a straight and leaves the twist in at impact, tok. It draws a surprised hah out of Kevin, breath flashing between teeth, eyes still closed, mouth smirking but pain is all there.
Sweat starts to run, to flow. It moves down Grayson’s throat, across his chest, beading at the edge of his collarbone before dripping onto Kevin’s stomach in cool commas. The drops dot the dark hair, then smear under the next punch. He digs both hands in sequence, left hook above the hip, right hook to mirror,
whump—whump. Kevin answers with a rumbling mmm, long and even, the kind of note that vibrates under Grayson’s wrists. The kind that does something down there. Grayson shifts his base and fires a six count, no wind-up, all snap: pop-pop—pop-pop—pop-pop. Kevin’s lungs answer in syncopation: ff—ff, ff—ff, ff—ff, breath cut into tidy pieces, control having slipped away. He rides the rhythm harder now, sweat flicking from his forearms, jaw set. A hammer-fist straight, elbow high: thunk. Kevin’s head tips back into the pillow, a short oh sliding out before he locks it down again. Grayson leans, puts his shoulder behind the next series, and sinks the fists in. He drives them deep and holds the last inch like he’s pinning a paper to a board or muscle to the bed. Thud—thud—thud—thud—THUD. Kevin’s reply climbs a register—nn—uh—ah—hh, cracking, louder, but still the resonance of a drum that likes being played. He walks the hooks up the torso in overlapping arcs. Whuff—whuff—whuff, hair flattening, muscle bunching, rebound faded. Kevin steadies into a gravelly uhh—uhh—uhh, every tone getting louder, every tone also weaker. Grayson pushes the pace, this is it, the last ten, best ten. He stamps them in like it's his own high paying job. Bboom. boom. boom. boom. boom. Kevin’s core plates just gives and pays him back with that low, satisfied mmm that says the fortress down. Grayson sags forward on locked arms, chest heaving, sweat pattering onto that unmoved wall that is no longer a wall.
It's done, the wall was cracked, the fort broken into. Still out cold, the abs wall could no longer take the hits, and Grayson knew it. So, naturally, Grayson bears down and turns the dial past sensible. Past anything he would lay on a heavy bag when someone was watching. Hips roll, elbows tight, fists firing like pistons that forgot how to slow. A rafter-deep straight,
THUD. Kevin exhales a painful
ff, the wall no longer rising to meet it. Double deep blows to the left shelf, knuckles burying to the last inch then a inch more,
whump—WHUMP. Diagonal right, shoulder to opposite oblique, sunk and held:
thud-slap. The air in Kevin’s lungs slips out long as a clipped
tch, then draws back in, but not as much as it should. A short body uppercut, all power no mercy.
BOOM. Kevin’s mouth opens, then closes, almost like there is nothing left to give. But yet... he wants to give more. Grayson snarls a grin without teeth.
“Any other man,” he thinks, and buries a last center-mass straight that lands like a mallet. THUNK.
Kevin’s head tips back; a warm oh slips out... damn that one actually hit hard. The sound, not the hit....
“Bastard,” he says, smiling.
Grayson's hands open, no longer a fist, not longer a tool for pain. No they open, they roam, they explore.
He starts broad, palms flattening over the plane of Kevin’s chest, smoothing the hair with slow passes until it lies in dark tracks beneath his fingers.The grain answers him, coarse at first touch, then soft as he presses, heat rising from underneath like a banked forge. There’s a density to it all, a hardness earned the old way; when he settles the heel of his hand by the sternum, he feels not just a heartbeat but the steady push of breath, the bellows work of a body that knows labor, pain, sacrifice and still power. He cups one pec and tests it lightly, fingers spread, thumb tracing the line where muscle lifts from ribs. It’s firm, heat pushing back into his palm. The hair there has its own map: sparser near the inner edge, thicker toward the outer shelf. He combs through with his knuckles and the bristle scrapes him in a way that makes him grin, it's all to real, to unpolished, to damn good.
Fuck.....
He leans down. Lips to skin. Salt first, clean and bright, with a whisper of soap that couldn’t quite win against the day. He breathes in that mix, sweat and warmth and the faintest musk earned from the gym, making it all so right. He plants a soft kiss high on the chest, another lower, then lingers at a nipple, just warmth and breath, the gentlest circle, a flick that pulls a pebble trail of gooseflesh across the hair. Kevin answers with a low, pleased mm, the kind of sound that doesn’t move a single inch of him and still says everything.
Fucking fuck...
Grayson trails to the sternum and follows the seam down, nosing through the thicker thatch where the hair gathers. It brushes his mouth in little sparks. He maps the terrain with his lips: each ab ridge a stone in a riverbed, slick with salt, hard under a living spring. He kisses the left block, then the right, tasting the brine of sweat at the edges where the fascia stands out. His tongue traces the central groove in a slow lane toward the navel; the hair flattens in a dark swirl, and when he plants a kiss just above it, the whole sheet of muscle tightens on reflex—quiet, perfect answer. He pauses to take it in. The look of it, all of it. The broad and built, hair shining where sweat has lacquered it. The feel, the heat, the pressure, the pushback of muscle that refuses to be anything but present. The smell, the such warm skin and that right kind of musky: gym-earned, sun-dried, human. He breathes it like oxygen.
Seriously fucking hell...
His hands travel again, thumbs skating along the obliques where the lines braid like rope, fingers fitting the V as if it were made for a grip. HIS grip. He presses with the pads of his fingers and feels the hardness tighten, the heat rise, so damn alive under every inch he claims. He returns to the chest and rolls each delt under his palm, reading the striations like braille. He lifts an arm a notch; the lat flares without showmanship, just substance, and the triceps band under his hand thrums taut as a bowstring. He stops for just a moment, taking a snap shot in his head, wanting to remember this (for purely science reasons) later on.
“Magnificent,” he whispers, finally able to speak rather than just think fuck every other thought.
He hooks his thumbs into the waistband and eases it down an inch, then another, revealing the lines of a very nice pair of underwear, white fabric against much darker hair. The contrast makes the rest look even larger, stronger, more finished. Absolutely hot as hell and most definitely worth every sin that was about to be committed.
“Damn,”
Grayson says, thinks? He doesn't know anymore, his brain to over delighted, a little reverent maybe, but definitely greedy for more. Unbothered, and not stopped at all, his hands tug more, reveal just a bit more....
He shifts to move—
—and jolts awake.
What? Huh? WTF?
Grayson finds himself back in the living room. Same couch. Same blue TV glow. Same bottle sweating in his hand, not even five minutes old. Kevin’s beside him, not a bruise in sight, giving Grayson the dumbest look in the world. Probably because Grayson looks like the dumbest person in the world right now.
“What?” Kevin says, flat as a board.
Grayson blinks once, twice, clears his throat. “Uh....Nothing.”
Kevin rolls his eyes, reaches past him, and cracks another beer. Grayson takes his own bottle like a lifeline and lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
Of course this was just a dream.... but damn.... what a dream.
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