No Regrets Ch. 03

"What do you mean?" Mark asked.

"How you covered it up, and never let anyone see the scars. I mean, as unreasonable as it seemed to everyone, it proved that you'd thought a lot about the accident, and it was still affecting you somehow. It hurt that you never told me, or anyone for that matter, but it made me think that there was something that was really bothering you, and maybe one day you'd need to talk about it." Deacon smiled gently. "And I hoped that it'd be me who'd be there when you did." Mark stepped close to Deacon and nodded his head.

"I hoped it'd be you too," Mark said softly, moving closer to kiss Deacon. The kiss started tenderly, but slowly built in intensity, both their tongues fighting for dominance, their hands trying valiantly to be everywhere at once. As Mark tugged up the edge of Deacon's singlet, the shrill cry of the telephone emanated from the house. Deacon growled in frustration and dug his fingers into Mark's waist.

"That phone, that fucking phone," Deacon muttered. "I wish everyone would just leave us the hell alone!"

"So just ignore it," Mark said, kissing Deacon's neck. He stopped and looked at Deacon. "Did you think I was full of crap, with all that 'one soul' shit before?" Deacon smiled widely and shook his head.

"No, I...I understand what you meant," Deacon said. "And I'm glad you thought that too. I just thought I was thinking like that because...well, cause I got fucked, and I thought maybe everyone who gets fucked thinks like that and everyone who does the fucking doesn't." Mark laughed before sinking his teeth into his lover's neck. Deacon groaned and pulled Mark closer against him, grinding their hips together. The phone stopped ringing and Mark took the opportunity to relieve Deacon of his singlet, peeling his own shirt off at the same time. Deacon blindly sought Mark's mouth out with his own and their lips connected roughly, sending electricity through both of their bodies. The only sounds were their heavy breathing and the low splashing of the pool water under their frantic hands, until the chirping of Deacon's cell phone broke through the thick air. Deacon sighed into Mark's mouth and turned his head towards the house.

"It must be important, maybe I should...." Deacon's words dissolved into a breathless gasp as Mark plunged his hand under the water, fought his way into Deacon's sweats and grasped Deacon's aching cock firmly in his hand. The combination of Mark's hand and the water sent waves of pleasure through Deacon, and the piercing ring of the phone was lost to both of them. Mark watched Deacon's eyes squeeze shut, his chest heaving and his lower lip involuntarily trembling, and his own desire grew as well; Mark traced Deacon's face and body with his eyes as he stroked, trying to memorize every bead of sweat, every muscle thrumming with effort. Mark drew his index finger up the underside of Deacon's throbbing penis and rubbed his palm over the sensitive head. Deacon gasped and drew Mark's head towards him, catching his lover's open mouth with his own. Their tongues caressed and probed as Mark increased the speed of his stroking. Quicker than either had been expecting, Deacon's body stiffened as his orgasm hit, his groan muffled by Mark's mouth. Mark pulled back and watched as his lover struggled for breath, then looked down at his hand and laughed. Flushed and still breathing hard, Deacon smirked at him.

"I'm that good, huh?" Mark asked, laughter dancing in his eyes.

"Don't flatter yourself," Deacon snorted. "I was thinking of your mom." Mark narrowed his eyes and smoothed his hands over Deacon's stomach.

"Oooh, that's dangerous territory, man," Mark hissed playfully. "In fact, that might even be...purple nurple worthy!" Mark punctuated his last words by darting his hand up to Deacon's chest and grasping his left nipple firmly between his fingers, twisting it roughly. Deacon winced in pain and pushed Mark away with one hand, the other rubbing his wounded nipple.

"Aah, you total...dick!" Deacon spat at Mark. "You trying to get milk out of me or what? Jesus, I should get free noogey rights for a week for that!" Struggling to contain his laughter, Mark grinned and moved slowly back towards Deacon, his hands held up, palms forward in surrender. Deacon continued to rub his nipple, looking apprehensively at Mark.

"Hey hey," Mark replied. "You know the rules go out the window when you bring up my mom. Besides," Mark placed his hands on Deacon's waist and moved his face forward until Deacon felt Mark's warm breath on his cheek, "having a fight means we get to...make up." Mark brushed his lips against Deacon's lightly, pulling back before the kiss could take hold.

"You call this a fight?" Deacon breathed, his eyes transfixed on Mark's parted mouth, his lips red and kiss-swollen.

"It involved verbal insults and physical violence," Mark argued. "That pretty much constitutes a fight for me." Mark leant in again, and quickly flicked his tongue along Deacon's top lip. "Come on, you really wanna argue against this?" Deacon swallowed hard, his tongue darting out to wet the corner of his mouth. Mark tipped his head to the side and grazed his bottom lip along Deacon's jaw. Deacon shivered and turned his head to catch Mark's mouth with his. Mark pulled back at the last minute and grinned impishly.

"You fucking tease!" Deacon whispered hoarsely. He moved to kiss Mark again, and again Mark eluded the clinch, briefly licking Deacon's earlobe. Deacon growled deep in his throat and grabbed Mark's forearm. "You total fucking tease, would you just..." Deacon broke off and forced Mark's mouth onto his. Mark tried to pull away again, but after a moment gave in and started to kiss Deacon back. The boys kissed deeply until both were out of breath, and Mark broke away first for air. Deacon stared up at Mark and shook his head in disbelief.

"What?" Mark asked about Deacon's expression.

"I just...I've never seen this side of you before," Deacon replied. "I've always seen you as just my friend, I never thought of you in a sexual context."

"Obviously," Mark grinned.

"Yeah, but it's like a whole other layer of you that I get to know," Deacon said eagerly. "I never looked at you like that before, but just now..." A half-smile half-grimace passed across Deacon's face and he shrugged. "You were so...fucking hot just now, I mean the way you were...it really got me going, y'know? I didn't know you could be like that, it was...it was sexy, man." Embarrassed, Mark smiled down at the water and shook his head.

"I'm not...I don't usually do stuff like that," Mark confessed. "I've never been like that before, it just felt...fun." Deacon chuckled and kissed Mark briefly.

"Yeah," Deacon agreed. "This is fun." Deacon smiled widely and kissed Mark again, this time with more enthusiasm.

Their reverie was broken by the sound of a car pulling in off the road. Deacon pulled away from the kiss and looked towards the front of the house, not sure if it had been his driveway. A series of footsteps crunched on gravel, then a shout came from in front of the garage.

"Furst! Allens! You bitches here?" Murmured voices followed the shout, and Mark and Deacon looked at each other in panic, realising the car in the driveway and the voices belonged to their friends. The boys jumped apart just as three people emerged from behind the garage hedge. The first two were guys, one tall, thin and handsome with shoulder length brown hair; the other was shorter and stocky, with dark auburn hair cropped close to his scalp. Trailing behind was a pretty, curvy girl with sandy blonde hair and vivid green eyes. All three walked to the edge of the patio and looked down at Mark and Deacon in the pool.

"See, I told you they'd be here," said tall and thin quietly, brushing his unruly hair out of his eyes and giving a shy wave at Mark and Deacon.

"How you guys doing?" The green-eyed girl asked with a smile. Deacon looked blankly at the girl, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. Fishing his shirt out of the pool filter, Mark looked sideways at Deacon and quickly took over.

"Well, Stella," Mark said. "It's summer, it's vacation and my family is out of state for over a month. I'm just about ready to cry myself a little river." The girl giggled and dipped her bare foot into the water, using her toe to flick water on Mark as he tugged his t-shirt over his head.

"Shut up," Stella said jokingly. "How about you, Deac?" Deacon swallowed and smiled weakly at the girl, his face ashen and eyes wide.

"...Good," he said finally. "Yeah, good." The orange haired boy sat down on a patio chair and sat forward, throwing a slightly puzzled look at Deacon.

"Too superior to answer your phones though, huh?" Carrot top asked, a cheeky grin displaying rows of large white teeth. "Y'know, just when you think you know someone, they go and get new shoes and BAM, everything changes!" Deacon laughed feebly at the joke, his heart still pounding from the near exposure moments before. Stella playfully shoved Carrot top and smiled, her green eyes dancing mischievously.

"Would you give the shoes a rest, Pucky?" She scolded jokingly. She looked down at Deacon. "They're really nice shoes Deac, he's just jealous cause I make him wear boat shoes." Pucky laughed heartily and pointed a finger in the girl's direction.

"Hey, when was the last time you saw a beefy copper top pull off boat shoes with this kind of class, Stel?" Pucky turned to tall and thin and raised his eyebrows. "Jon, back me up here?" Jon grinned bashfully, dimples creasing on both cheeks. Stella rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Jon's opinion doesn't count when it comes to fashion, he's wearing a t-shirt that has a picture of Al Gore on it," Stella laughed. "Anyway, there's no dignified way to answer that Puck - not since Garfield have I even seen a ginger wear boat shoes, let alone pull it off!" They all looked over as Deacon snorted loudly at the crack. Pucky grinned and looked skywards, his arms thrown up in mock relief.

"It lives!" Pucky cried, casting a warm look at Stella as she giggled at him. "We haven't heard from you guys since Friday, thought maybe you'd gone to Vegas without us or something." Deacon chuckled and shook his head.

"After last year's debacle in Florida," Deacon reminded him, "you can guarantee that I wouldn't even go to Wal-Mart with you, let alone Las Vegas!" Mark laughed loudly, both at the insult and in relief, sure that Deacon had recovered from the shock and that no one had seen anything they shouldn't have. "You wanted to use the pool, huh?" Stella put her hands on her hips and clucked her tongue.

"Hey," she said defensively, "maybe we just wanted to hang out!" Jon laughed softly.

"Nice try Stella," Jon said, holding up two tote bags. "You're right Deac, we're here to exploit your pool."

"Not that we don't like you guys," Pucky said quickly. "Taste in shoes aside, you're really not that bad." Deacon laughed and Stella gave Pucky a jocular punch on the arm.

"Enough with the shoes!" she exclaimed.

"Well, go change and come on in," Deacon said, gesturing to the pool. "And Pucky please, no peeing in the pool, it really gets to my mom." Everyone laughed as Pucky gave an exasperated sigh.

"That was one time," he explained. "One time, and it was ten years ago!" He was still defending himself as he, Jon and Stella went inside to change. Mark and Deacon looked at each other, their easy grins belying their tense eye contact. They were both thinking the same thing: 'That was too close.'

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Pucky, Stella and Jon stayed the rest of the day and most of the evening, and the five of them swam, drank beer, ate pizza and watched TV. Mark and Deacon thought they'd done a decent job of acting normal, although all three visitors noticed something a little off with the two best friends. None of them said anything about it, all assuming it was something to do with Marie and Sarah being away. Deacon offered to let the three of them stay the night, but Stella, sensing that the proposition was more out of politeness than a genuine offer, declined for all three of them, and they left just before midnight. Mark and Deacon walked the three out to Jon's car, promising to hang out with them later in the week. The boys waited until the car's taillights disappeared from view, then silently walked back into the house. Mark sat down heavily on the couch, leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Deacon perched on the arm of the opposite sofa and rubbed his hand over his face wearily.

"What a day, huh?" Deacon said, breaking the silence. Mark looked up and grinned.

"Feels like someone hit me in the face with an emotional two by four," Mark replied. Deacon snickered at that and nodded.

"That was some pretty heavy stuff this morning," Deacon mused. "I don't know about you, but I've been too busy worrying my ass off today to even think about it."

"Yeah." Mark chewed his lip thoughtfully. "Think they noticed anything?"

"Hard to tell. They might've thought something was a little strange, but I doubt if they came to the conclusion that we slept together," Deacon said dryly.

"I feel kinda bad about it," Mark confessed. "I love hanging out with those guys, and today was great, but I just really wanted them to leave, y'know?" Deacon nodded. "Not because I didn't want to hang out with them, it's just their timing really sucked. I mean, last night, then this morning was a total emotional roller coaster...I felt totally exposed when they turned up. I just wanted to sit and sort my shit out, I didn't feel like laughing and playing around with them, acting like my head wasn't about to explode."

"And now?" Deacon asked quietly.

"Yeah, well, that's the funny thing," Mark replied with a grin. "With just you around, I don't have any shit to sort out, and I do want to laugh and play around. I think I've spent more time talking in this one weekend than I have in total in the past decade. Feels like we've been taking this whole thing so seriously, when the essence of what we're worrying about is supposed to be fun!"

"And what's the essence of what we're worrying about, exactly?" Deacon asked, his mouth turned up in half grin and an eyebrow raised.

"We've spent more time talking and thinking about the repercussions of our having sex than we have actually doing it," Mark said. He shrugged, a faint smile on his face. "Sex is supposed to be fun, and enjoyable, and make you feel good, not something to worry about."

"And if you add in the fact that, genetically speaking, we're at a time in our physical lives when sex is our primary function, we've spent a biologically disproportionate amount of time talking, instead of fucking," Deacon added. Mark nodded.

"You're right," Mark agreed gravely. "We're out of equilibrium, we're upsetting the natural balance of things." Mark leaned forward, rested his forearms on his knees and clasped his hands together. A slight smile danced in his eyes. "How do we make it right, y'think?" Deacon leaned forward on his perch also and frowned thoughtfully, an expression at odds with his gleaming eyes.

"I guess the most obvious solution would be to stop talking," Deacon suggested. Mark shook his head slowly and stood up, pulling Deacon up with him, their eyes blazing fiercely at each other.

"That's not enough on it's own - that stops the deterioration of the balance, but it doesn't restore it to normality," Mark reasoned as he undid the buttons on Deacon's shirt. "If we're gonna make this right again, we're gonna have to go the extra mile." Mark pushed Deacon's shirt off his shoulders, and moved his hands to Deacon's jeans. Mark undid the top button and slowly pulled the zip down.

"So we need to rectify the imbalance by neutralizing the talking with excessive copulating," Deacon concluded huskily. Deacon slid his hands under Mark's t-shirt and helped him pull it off. Mark nodded and ran his hands down Deacon's bare arms.

"Exactly, Professor Furst," Mark murmured. "So, we can start correcting the discrepancy now...or if you're not feeling up to it..." Mark left the sentence unfinished, searching Deacon's eyes for any sign that his body was still aching from the previous night. Deacon smiled seductively and hooked his fingers into the belt loops on Mark's jeans, using them to pull Mark up against him.

"Shut up and fuck me," Deacon said bluntly before grabbing Mark's head and kissing him forcefully. The pair stumbled into Deacon's bedroom, shucking their pants and underwear along the way. They fell onto the bed in each others arms, engrossed in the kiss. Mark broke off and pushed the hair out of Deacon's eyes.

"Before we do anything," Mark said hesitantly, "there's just a couple of things I need to clarify." Deacon rolled his eyes and grinned.

"Yeah, okay, but hurry up, I could take someone's eye out with this!" Deacon punctuated his remark by grinding his hard cock into Mark's hip. Mark grinned.

"Okay, I'll make it quick - number one - you wanna do this again, right? I mean, you're not too sore, or only doing it cause I want to?" Mark asked, looking straight into Deacon's grey eyes. Deacon smiled warmly and shook his head.

"I'm in on both counts," Deacon replied, kissing Mark softly on the lips. "I feel great, and I want this as much as you do. Number two?" Mark swallowed and wet his lips.

"I...do you want to...swap?" Mark asked quickly.

"You...on the bottom, you mean?" Deacon asked gently. Mark nodded. "Look, I did what I did last night because I wanted to, but I don't want you to feel like you have to. Last night was amazing, and I want us to do it again right now. When and if you're ready to swap, or if I have a problem with this later on, we'll deal with it then, okay?" Deacon kissed Mark again and stared into his eyes. "Okay?"

"Okay," Mark whispered, and kissed Deacon firmly. "On with the festivities, then?"

"Yes please," Deacon laughed, restarting the passionate kiss.

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It was nearly 5am before the two lovers fell into an exhausted sleep, wrapped in each other's arms. Their lovemaking had been long, passionate and intense, but both boys were delighted to discover that it was easy and familiar, like they had been together for years. There had been no talking, no words - anything that they needed to say to one another had been clearly and unmistakably conveyed with their eyes and their bodies.

When they awoke later that morning, the two of them lay next to each other in silence, their hands intertwined. As the sleep cleared from his mind, thoughts ran wildly through Mark's head. Too many thoughts, confused and jumbled and irrational. Mark turned his head and gazed into Deacon's grey eyes. Looking into those eyes, all of Mark's worries fled to the back of his thoughts; and when he gently rolled on top of Deacon, who raised his legs and drew Mark into him, it was like there was nothing on earth except the two of them. Mark could tell that what they had started together would cause heartbreak and suffering further down the line, for them as well and others, but looking down at Deacon's trusting eyes and tasting his trembling lips, Mark suddenly knew that there was nothing he wouldn't go through to keep the beautiful man beneath him.

To be continued...