Dan decided to let him off the hook for the time
being and do some mingling himself. He was approached by a few like-minded
people as soon as he was alone. His interest in Kyle hasn’t gone unnoticed, and
he quickly gathered some useful info, including the fact that Kyle was not only
single at the moment, but also never had an official boyfriend since he came to
university. Interesting.
After a few more conversations and exchanged
e-mails, the meeting started again, and Dan was increasingly taken aback by
Kyle’s sterile attitude. If the guy could become more ‘normal’ by cutting off
two of his fingers, he would probably take the risk. It made Dan wonder, what
hid beneath the surface of his prim and proper attitude, so he stayed behind
when the meeting came to an end.
After exchanging goodbyes with the people he got
to know during the past two hours, he helped Kyle and two other guys fold the
chairs and arrange them back on their respective stacks. But soon, they were
left alone in the empty, room, and the silence became so intense it was giving
Dan goosebumps. He watched Kyle pack the used paper plates and cups into a
trash bag. Kyle's shoulders seemed painfully stiff, and he wouldn't look back.
“Need help?” Dan slowly walked over to the table,
eyeing the skittish club president.
“Oh, you’re still here,” he stated the obvious and
looked back at Dan, clutching at the trash bag. “Nah, I’m good, just need to
make sure the place is tidy before I go.”
Dan joined him anyway, making sure to
‘accidentally’ brush against his arm. He wondered if he could score tonight.
“It’s late, I was thinking I could walk you home, and we could continue our
conversation.”
“Why? Do I look like I’m afraid of the dark?” Kyle
smiled, adjusting his messenger bag.
“No, but I liked chatting to you earlier.” Dan
leaned against the table, brushing over Kyle with his gaze intensely enough for
him to notice.
“In the spirit of equality, how about I walk you
home, huh?” It sounded like a challenge, but Kyle took a step back.
Dan chuckled, glad that he had left his room tidy.
It looked like Kyle couldn’t have guests, so maybe he was staying with his
parents? “Fair enough, though it’s off-campus.”
“I don’t mind a walk, the weather’s nice.” Kyle
shrugged, and they made their way out of the room. “Unless you live in a
creep-tastic forest and you’re actually a serial killer, looking for young gay
meat?”
“Nah.” Dan squeezed Kyle’s arm and gently pulled
him towards the exit. “Though one of my roommates considers creep-tastic his
aesthetic of choice.”
“Oh yeah? How come?” Kyle looked to his hand with
a frown.
Dan led him out into the silent corridor. “You’d
have to see his room. I’m afraid to enter that dump.”
“I’m afraid going into creepy strangers’ rooms is
not my idea of fun. So why’d you move here?”
Dan shrugged, letting go of him so he could lock
the room. “My former college was, well, in a very small city, and I felt rather
unentertained. It just wasn’t my kind of place.”
“Oh really? I come from a smaller town too. Maybe
that’s why I’m so enthusiastic about this club. You wouldn’t get anything like
it back in my crappy high school.” Kyle put the keys back into his pocket, and
they started walking down the corridor.
“That’s why you ran for president?” Dan walked
close to him, making sure they touched once in a while. Kyle was very much his
type, toned but slim, and he was intrigued by all the crazy stuff the guy was
preaching.
Kyle nodded and gave Dan a quick glance. “Yeah, I
study International Relations, and I like being in charge of stuff like this,
but to be honest, it wasn’t much of a campaign. Most people don’t want the
responsibility anyway. Someone could say I treat it too seriously, but I really
think that bit by bit, we can make a change.”
Dan sighed, opening the door for Kyle, as they
left the building. It was peaceful and dark, so at least no one would listen in
on their conversation. “And you think sanitizing people can make that happen?”
“Uhm... ‘sanitizing’?” Kyle frowned. “Did you wait
for me, just to argue? Maybe I’m not as big as you, but I don’t take crap from
people. That’s one thing I learned in high school,” he remarked, dumping the
club garbage into a trashcan.
Dan shrugged. “Yeah, by trying to make people
aspire to the mythical straight, cisgendered norm.”
“You’re so smart, Dan. I think you should run for
president next year.” Kyle rolled his eyes. “It’s not all that simple. It’s not
easy to get people to respect you, if you walk around in your leather
underpants. There has to be a starting point, we’re not animals.”
They crossed the empty street and headed past the
residence halls, towards the border of the campus. The sounds of a guitar and a
soft male voice came from the smoking shelter by one of the buildings. A group
of people were gathered in the shelter, listening in, the red dots of their
cigarettes floating to the rhythm. Dan smiled and breathed in the cool,
fragrant air.
“Animals don’t wear leather and don’t have
fetishes. How more human can one get?” Dan wiggled his eyebrows, but Kyle
looked away.
“When I was in high school, there was another gay
guy I knew of, but the thing was, everyone knew that he was gay. I suppose I
blended in more. One day, I saw this guy being attacked, and I called the
police. The thing is though, how can we keep stuff like this at bay, if we as a
community promote the image of gays as ‘pussy-boys who want to be fucked’ on
their knees, by buff guys in leather?”
Dan snorted. He knew many guys had a very stereotypical
view on sex, but he didn't expect it from someone so young and seemingly
progressive. “I think the question should be: ‘how can we be accepted if we
keep blending in so that no one suspects we’re gay’?”
“You don’t seem to have that problem. All buff and
hot--” Kyle looked to him, but quickly shied away when the words came out of
his mouth. He passed the gate separating the campus from the city street, but
then looked back, waiting for directions.
Dan smiled and let his hand roam over Kyle’s back.
It was more toned than it seemed. “Not so bad yourself.”
Kyle looked away, to a small cafe they were
passing. It was peaceful, with the sounds of conversations all around them,
even though there weren’t many people actually walking down the sidewalk. They
were now walking along a street with numerous shops, many of which were still
open for late-evening customers. “I mean... That’s not the point I wanted to
make.”
“I know, but if acceptance is what you want, you
can’t just try to blend in. It’s a vicious circle.”
“But there are some things people don’t need to
know.” Kyle kept looking back at him, but didn’t shy away from the touch. Dan
nodded.
“Yeah, nobody needs to know whether you’re a top,
or a bottom, but if what you’re doing is more of a lifestyle, then yes, they
should.”
“I wouldn’t want people to see me as some deviant
instead of seeing the person I am - someone with a professional attitude, not
some vulnerable gay boy. It just attracts the wrong kind of attention.” Kyle
shrugged, looking down at the sidewalk.
Dan crooked his head and leaned over him as they
walked. His predatory nature was getting the best of him. “Are you a vulnerable
gay boy?” The goosebumps he evoked on Kyle’s skin made him smile.
A flush crept up Kyle’s neck, and he moved away
from Dan’s hand. “N--no! But I’m starting to think you’re a bit of an asshole.
That’s just my luck, I’m always attracted to assholes. Better to know sooner
than later.” He stopped at the corner of the street and crossed his arms over
his chest, slouching. He seemed a lot more distressed than Dan’s silly line was
worth.
“Why do you think I’m an asshole?” Dan spread his
arms with a slight frown. At least Kyle admitted to liking him.
“Because who asks a question like that? It’s so
offensive!”
“I just used your own words, how can you blame
me?”
Kyle looked up at him slowly, and Dan could not
work out what cogs were turning in that pretty head. “Anyone with self respect
can’t agree to being addressed like that.”
Dan started walking again, but made sure Kyle
followed. “Not in any real-life situation, no. But some people like being
vulnerable when playing.”
Kyle hesitated, but did in fact follow Dan.
“Playing what? Like flirting? I’m really not sure...”
“Flirting, fucking, and so on.” Dan flashed him a
small smile, but was watchful of Kyle’s reaction.
“I don’t know if I’m comfortable with this
topic...” Kyle stared at the pavement again as they passed an abstract
sculpture that reminded Dan of a shoe hitting into someone's butt. How
appropriate.
Dan raised an eyebrow, struck by a sudden
suspicion. “You’re not asexual, are you?”
“No, no! I mean... I am very sexual. I mean,” Kyle
looked up at Dan, “not in the sense that I sleep around, just that... God, I’m
a mess.” He slapped his forehead.
“What then?” Dan put a hand over Kyle’s nape and
squeezed it gently, pulling him into the street he lived in. With the buildings
being a few stories high and only a few lanterns in strategic spots, it wasn’t
well illuminated after dark. “Are you shy? That’s okay,” he assured him, hoping
his roommates were out. He didn’t want Kyle to flee.
“Yes.” Kyle's answer was stern and he took a deep
breath. “I wish I wasn’t, so I hope it doesn’t put you off. I’m really working
on it and... damn, your hand is so hot.”
Dan swallowed, loving how Kyle instinctively
lowered his head at the touch to the back of his neck. He looked around to make
sure no one would see them and leaned down to place a soft kiss on the heated
skin between his fingers. “I don’t mind. We could work on it together, what do
you say?”
“That sounds good, I hadn’t dated in a while.”
Kyle’s breath hitched, but he stayed in place. Dan groaned and pulled him
closer, embracing his shoulders.
“That’s my door over there.” He pointed to the red
brick building where he shared an apartment with a two other guys. “Wanna come
in for a coffee then?”
Kyle looked up at him and slowly put a hand on his
chest. “Let’s take things a bit slower, okay?”
Dan sighed, somewhat disappointed, but he didn’t
want to try to coerce him... or something. “Yeah, sure. What do you have in
mind?”
“We could grab that coffee tomorrow on campus, you
know, get to know each other better. I’m just not the kind of guy who takes a
leap off a cliff.”
“Have you ever tried to?” Dan brushed the back of
his hand over Kyle’s cheek and watched his lips part into an ‘oh’. Too cute.
How old could Kyle even be? Twenty? Nineteen?
“No, I usually take the bike ride along the
countryside road and never manage to get where I want to.”
Dan sighed, pulling him even closer. Did this guy
have some kind of sexual anxiety? He vaguely considered ignoring the attraction
and pursuing someone less timid, but looking into those eyes, it was hard to
refuse them. “Doesn’t that tell you that maybe you need to change your
strategy?”
“Maybe. But I don’t really want to break my neck,
do I?” There was a strange tension in his voice, and Dan wasn’t sure what
exactly Kyle meant.
Slowly, he pushed Kyle against the wall of the
building closest to them and leaned over him. “What gave you that idea?”
“I barely know you, and you seem kinda reckless,”
whispered Kyle, all tense, but he didn’t make a move to squirm away.
Dan nuzzled his ear, breathing in the sweet smell
of shampoo. The shape of Kyle’s body, slim, with broad shoulders and narrow
hips, really made him horny. He’d love to pin him down and make him beg for it.
“Yeah, I’m your cliff.”
Kyle slowly ran his fingers up Dan’s arms, making
his skin tingle. “I don’t usually do these kind of things. I like my spine in
one piece.”
Dan snorted, leaning over him until their noses
were almost touching. He inhaled Kyle’s warm breath, his lips already throbbing
in anticipation. “I promise to deliver you home intact.”
“I can imagine I’d lose something in that sea
beneath the cliff.” Kyle let out a nervous laugh and never took his gaze off
Dan’s chest. But Dan had other plans and tipped his head only to capture Kyle’s
lips in a passionate kiss. The shiver that went all the way down his body made
him lean even closer, framing Kyle’s body from the front as well as he could
with their height difference. His blood went rushing down, making him
lightheaded, and to his glee, it turned out Kyle was just as ‘happy’ with the
closeness. When Dan gently pushed his thigh against Kyle’s crotch, he could
already feel how hard his cock was. He forced himself to tear his mouth away
and looked around, happy that no one spotted them yet. He listened to Kyle’s
ragged breathing and pulled him close.
“Come upstairs?”
“No, I can’t. I really don’t do this kinda thing.
One night stands and stuff. You’re scorching hot, but I...” Kyle slowly slid
out of the embrace and took a step to the side. The ragged breathing, made Dan
already imagine how he would look right after being fucked. Dan suppressed a
groan and scratched his head, hoping his hardening cock wasn’t too obvious in
his jeans. He wasn’t sure if he was angry, or just disappointed by the turn of
events, but that was it for the night.
“Okay.” He nodded, forcing himself to take another
step back.
Kyle gripped onto his messenger bag and swallowed,
fiddling with the strap. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.
Oh shit, not the beaten puppy look! Dan bit his
lip and rested his hands on his belt to keep them in check. “Don’t worry, I was
too persistent.”
Kyle looked up at him. “And I want to go for it,
but... I’m just really not sure if I can jump yet. We’re still up for coffee
tomorrow?” He smiled and took a step back. Something in Dan’s stomach made a
quick backflip.