Western Skies Ch. 05: Snowfall

Western Skies - Chapter 5: Snowfall

Hey! It's been a VERY long time, I know. Please don't hate me!

So much has changed in my life, with many things conspiring to move my focus away from writing...work, a serious horseback riding accident and surgery, self-doubt and struggle with my own sexuality...but I'm back in the saddle (literally) and I know everyone would like to see the second arc of Kaden and Luke's story.

This installment is about their tumultuous winter break. The follow up chapter, "Sacrifice and Solitude," is dropping at the same time. The final chapter (or two?) is/are in progress but will take me some time.

-D.

Notice: This story contains male/male sexual activity between consenting individuals who are over age 18. If this is not something you are looking for, leave now! Always practice safe sex (even if not depicted in this work of fiction).

©2022 Zorse_D

***

Stretching, I let out a muffled moan before swinging my legs out over the edge of the bed, forcing myself into a sitting position while I stared blankly at the timber wall across from me. Matching rustic-style furniture adorned the bedroom, though nothing from the open duffel bag on the floor had as of yet made it into the drawers. I'd come up to the ranch the night before, a thankfully uneventful drive, despite my questionable observation of the speed limit on the highway. It was worth it, though--I finally had Montana plates on my pickup, it was the holiday break, and I was winging me way towards Luke for our first real time away from school.

Our reunion was muted, but his stormy, gray eyes had glinted with anticipation the entire evening after I arrived. From the moment I stepped inside and shook his parents' hands, through dinner and family movie night, we both shared a tense anticipation that was invisible to everyone but us. I barely made it to bed before Luke snuck in thirty seconds later, pouncing on me like a ravenous wolf. My anxiety level was ratcheted up a hundredfold, knowing that his parents were just one floor beneath us, but Luke didn't seem to mind. He had sucked my cock dry with wild abandon, drinking my cum like a man parched from a hundred days in the desert, while I clenched my jaws tight. It took almost all my self-control to fight the urge to make even the smallest of noises, as much as Luke's talented efforts drove me wild.

Yawning, my cock stiffened slightly at the memory of the previous night, then a grin spread across my cheeks. I may have managed to stay quiet, but I had apparently put in a pretty physical effort to face-fuck Luke...enough that my back and hips seemed inordinately sore this morning. My eyes floated over his slumbering form, watching his chest rise and fall gently. We took an absolutely giant risk, in my opinion, when he decided to spend the entire night wrapped up with me, but the jack-and-jill bathroom between Luke's room and the guest room I was in assuaged some of the anxiety. As he had put it the night before, "It doesn't get any easier than this to sneak around to see each other."

Standing to stretch again, I rubbed my left wrist, a habit I'd fallen into since the bone had healed and I didn't have to wear the splint anymore. I slunk into the bathroom and quietly washed my face before numbly dressing myself.

Giving Luke another glance, I decided to take advantage of my early wakeup and mess with him before his alarm went off. I grabbed my heavy coat and slunk down the dark hallway into the empty kitchen, then quietly let myself out the side door.

An immovable stillness rested upon the land. Around me, the rugged Montana landscape appeared to be slumbering like some massive, hibernating creature, swaddled in its protective blanket of fluffy snow. Even the air itself seemed asleep, like the passage of time was frozen in its raw, icy clutches.

Across the yard I trudged, meandering down to the corrals that flanked the barn. A handful of horses sauntered over, poking their long heads through the fence to nuzzle my jacket pockets. "Sorry," I whispered to them, "No treats yet." Smiling, I rubbed the horses for a few minutes, then turned to walk back up to the barn to wait for Luke.

Except for a faint shiver that ran up my spine, I stood motionless, leaning against the doorframe of the barn. My breath rose in spiraling, nebulous clouds while my eyes patiently surveyed the world around me. Occupying most of my line of sight was the looming outline of the large, timber-framed house twenty yards away. A smattering of outbuildings and the occasional stand of pine trees filled in the rest of the area. Silence permeated the frosty air as a vague hint of light loomed over the eastern horizon, silhouetting the towering peaks in a dark majesty. Though it was a sight I'd grown intimately familiar with over the past couple months, I could still gaze forever at the landscape. Even in the twilight of dawn, there was something ethereal about the mountains' mesmerizing beauty.

My attention finally broke from the landscape when a lone figure crept out of the sleeping house and began walking towards the barn. Despite the weeks that had past since I'd first met him, I could still feel my body react viscerally to the sight of Luke. My breathing caught for a millisecond, then deepened, even as my skin flushed in defiance of the cold.

He stopped before me and let his gray-blue eyes bore into my browns for a few seconds longer than was strictly necessary.

"Morning," Luke said softly, his voice hushed and sleepy, laden beneath the weight of the vast, cold wilderness around us. "Merry Christmas, Kaden."

Stifling a yawn, I grinned at him. "Merry Christmas to you too. You still want to do this?"

He returned my grin. "I made it this far, didn't I? No going back to bed now." Luke raised his hands, showing two insulated tumblers he had brought from the house. "Coffee?"

I must've grabbed one of the tumblers with a bit too much enthusiasm, forcing Luke to laugh and roll his eyes. "And here I thought you were the morning person." Ignoring him, I took a long sip of coffee, feeling its liquid warmth spread slowly through my cold limbs. He laughed again, playfully pushing me out of the way and opening the door.

Still half asleep, we led two horses from their stalls and saddled them in relative silence. As I walked my horse outside, I slipped on my knit hat and insulated gloves, then mounted up next to Luke. "Follow me," he muttered. Luke angled his horse towards the nearby mountains and cued it into a brisk walk.

For the next ten minutes, I followed a few paces behind; between the coffee I continued to sip and the jarring walk of the horse, my morning grogginess soon faded away. We cruised quickly down the flat, snow-packed dirt road, but slowed as the road gave way to a rocky trail covered in foot-deep powder. Half a mile later we reached the encroaching pine trees of the foothills and began to wind our way steadily uphill.

After some time, the monotony of the quiet, slow-paced trail ride set in and my mind began to wander in typical Kaden fashion. The past few months seemed to have flown by in a whirlwind of constant activity; the first couple weeks of the school year were cruelly deceptive, free as they were of excessive homework and colored by the thrill of novelty. From learning my way around Bozeman to the butterfly-inducing discovery of Luke, I had been almost overwhelmed with distractions from the moment I set foot in Montana. After homecoming, reality set in almost as fast as the the cold northern winter. An endlessly-growing mountain of homework, coupled by a regular parade of exams, stoked near-constant anxiety in the back of my mind.

Most of football season passed me in a blur as I stood on the sideline with my wrist in a brace. I was able to make it back into pads for the last game of the regular season and the first two games of the playoffs...before our hopes of a state title were dashed in a heartbreaking, close loss.

Thanksgiving break had come and gone, and with it my first trip home since moving to Montana. It was a nice break to get back to the mild Texas weather and see my grandparents. Not one to let my father dominate their post-divorce attempt at coparenting, my mom had made sure to fly back in for the holiday, bringing with her photos of Australia and a promise to fly me out to visit her over my summer break. Then there were old friends to see, familiar horses to ride, and stories to catch up on.

Back at school, December was clouded by regular Montana snowstorms and the stress of two weeks' of endless studying, anxiety, and final exams. Walking out of my last test and into the freedom of winter break was a soothing relief, not least because of the time I planned to spend with Luke.

All in, the semester had gone by with the speed and intensity of a tornado....for which I was secretly grateful. Being constantly busy kept me from ruminating on the nagging secret I carried with me wherever I went. It was a secret that fueled both my passion for life itself and a gnawing disquiet that simmered somewhere in the bowels of my conscious mind.

On the nights I laid awake, tormented by my racing thoughts, it wasn't the stress of essays to write or college plans to make that plagued me the most: it was the unshakeable, terrifying connection I had with Luke.

In the weeks after out first starlit adventure, we'd grown nothing if not closer. The physical bond we'd made was like an invisible, magnetic connection known only to us, communicated silently when we looked at each other across the locker room or sat together at the lunch table. In those moments, under a feigned veil of normalcy, my pupils would dilate, my heart would pound a discordant beat alongside my heavy breathing...and my soul would scream in silent protest at the secret that weighed down upon my shoulders.

Between busy schedules and limited privacy around the dorm, our trysts

became infrequent affairs. Even with Tristan frequently gone from the room he shared with Luke, our paranoia at potential discovery kept us from hooking up as often as we would've liked. We managed another weekend camping trip at Luke's family's ranch before the weather turned too cold, and the occasional night at my dad's house when he was out of town, but for the most part we learned to live with our pent-up frustration.

Despite the constant torture that defined our clandestine relationship, there was something about the invisible tension that made things ten times hotter when we did get together. Living with our secret made everyday interactions a constant source of mild arousal, I discovered; fear of discovery was like an adrenaline shot, and had the incongruous side effect of making things seem more exhilarating than they ever would have otherwise. It didn't make much sense, but I figured I'd enjoy whatever silver lining there was to being different.

Our incessant fear of potential social alienation and familial rejection may have been a source of anxiety, but it made me feel that much closer to Luke, much closer than even sex could bring us. The consequences of discovery were risks we willingly shouldered together, and it was through our faith in one another that we found the strength to carry on with what we had going.

Or, at least that's what I thought.

By unspoken agreement we had stopped talking about "what ifs" and instead found comfort in what was -- in the the moments we shared without worrying about the future. The fire never seemed to dim from Luke's eyes, and his passion in bed never seemed to wane. Across the weeks, we could live in the moments we had and nothing else seemed nearly important enough to matter.

Deep down, I knew that what we had in the moment wouldn't last forever. It couldn't. We were seniors, and the end of the current chapter in our lives was months away and ticking closer by the minute. Maybe it was this repressed acknowledgement of reality that held me back from professing my true feelings to Luke, or him to me. My brief slip near the end of our first week together was as close as I came to sharing my true feelings. After that, I'd resolved to better guard my heart. Whenever either one of us steered the conversation too close to thoughts of the future or acknowledging any deeper feelings, the other found a way to divert the conversation. Whether it was a defense mechanism we both shared, or simply that we were two guys uncomfortable with an honest conversation about our feelings for each other, I'm not sure. Either way, it was easier to focus on the present and avoid potentially painful discussions about the future. The only thing was, no matter how much I didn't want to think about it--

"You're doing it again, Kaden."

"Mhmm?" I looked up, bleary-eyed. Luke was looking over his shoulder at me with a slightly exasperated expression on his angled face.

"You think way too much," he offered with a shrug. "I asked you what you got me for Christmas, but here you are, completely zoned out."

"I got you a cattle prod to shove up your own ass. It's like a dildo but electric, right?" I muttered. "You'll have to find out when we get back. Why would I tell you?"

Luke grinned, his mischievous smile making a reappearance. "I was trying my luck, I thought maybe you were so distracted you'd just tell me."

"Try harder next time, dick," I teased. "But don't tell me your mind doesn't wander when you're out riding."

"Well it does, yeah," he admitted, "but you get wrapped up on a whole other planet when you get to thinking. It's cute, really. Your eyes kind of glisten and you look so serious."

I made a point of rolling my 'glistening' eyes dramatically, which earned me a chuckle from Luke.

"Seriously, though," he added, "what're you thinking about?"

Usually I'd bullshit something in response to a question like that. But if winter break had bought me the time and bandwidth to obsess over the future, surely it was the same for Luke?

" 'Kade?" Luke was staring all the more intently at me, his brow furrowed.

The wind rustled through the surrounding pines as I debated on whether to tell the truth or deflect. After a moment I decided on the truth. Or, at least, part of it.

"Us. How nice is is to be away from school for a bit. And spend more time with you."

Luke was quiet, but I could see apprehension cast a dark shadow on his face; his lips were pressed into a thin line and some fire seemed to depart from his widening eyes. It was as if he knew there was more to my thoughts than I let on, but fortunately, he chose not to push me.

"Yeah. It's a good change of pace." Luke forced a smile that even someone who was half blind could see through. I realized he was panicking, and it wasn't hard for me to guess what he was thinking about. While we had mutually come to terms with the risk of discovery by taking comfort in each other, his latent insecurity was fueled by a fear that I wasn't actually gay...that I was only experimenting, and would end things once "the right girl grabbed me by the dick," as he put it.

Hoping I didn't sound too harsh, I said, "Honestly, Luke. Every time I go off thinking when we're together, it doesn't mean I'm doubting anything."

He looked slightly embarrassed at my read of his body language. "I know, I just worry."

"Well, don't," I said forcefully, before deciding he needed to hear something to lighten up. "Your ass is mine."

The effect was as desired. Luke managed to remain stoic, but every muscle in his face relaxed. "You wanna do it here, or wait till we're back somewhere where you won't freeze your balls off? And I do mean that literally."

I cracked up, and he joined in laughing as we continued our ride up the meandering trail.

***

It must have been the better part of an hour before the frosted trees opened up onto a snow-blanketed meadow near the crest of the foothill we'd been ascending. My breath caught as I gazed to the east. A narrow valley was flanked by the taller mountains of the Madison Range; in the distance, the dazzling golden disc of the sun had just emerged over the rocky peaks. Around us, the world seemed to explode under the warmth of the brilliant light. The snow seemed to glow whiter, and the inky blackness of the pine trees transformed into a deep green. A flutter of movement near the top of a tree some hundred yards away caught my eye, and I watched, transfixed, as a hawk took off into the morning sky and faded into a tiny dot as it climbed higher and higher.

I threw my leg over my horse and slipped off to the ground, eager to stretch my legs.

"Look behind us," Luke muttered, dismounting beside me and nudging my side.

I turned and beheld a world set afire. The angle of the morning sun had bathed the wide expanse before the mountains in a radiant alpenglow. A bright reddish-gold tint tinted the snowy land, and the small mountains to the far west glowed beneath shades of gold and purple. Below, a frozen river snaked across the bottom of the wide valley. Goosebumps erupted on my skin as the view called back to the memory of a dream I had the first week I'd met Luke...a dream in which we had ridden horseback up a mountain and beheld a similar sight. Only, this wasn't quite right. In the dream it was definitely summer, or at least spring. And the view wasn't quite the same; we had been much higher in the dream. I pushed the thought out of my head and instead reflected on what was actually before me.

"It's beautiful," I whispered back, drinking in every detail of the magnificent view.

"Hmm. Yeah, it is."

Something in Luke's voice drew my attention from the landscape. He was looking at me out of the corner of his eye, his attention on something rather closer than the gilded wilderness. Instinctually, I leaned my head towards him. Luke's lips lowered to mine without hesitation. Where our mouths touched burned red-hot through the cold mountain air, and a tingling feeling of warmth raced through my veins. By our standards, it was a soft kiss, free from the aggression and lust that often chronicled our time together. My tongue swirled gently against Luke's, savoring the magnetism of the moment while his hands stroked my lower back with a firm, but gentle, pressure. I returned his embrace, ignoring the awkwardness caused by the bulk of our winter clothing.

Even through my closed eyes, I sensed a sudden darkness interrupt the dazzling light of the sunrise. Pulling back, I looked around and saw that a band of clouds had skirted along the horizon, rudely interrupting the sun's nascent ascent. The fledgling warmth of daylight faded away as quickly as it had come, and I felt Luke shiver against me.

"Well," he said with an air of finality, "At least we got to see a minute of the sunrise. We should probably get back before everyone else is up and around to open presents."

I grunted in agreement and dropped my arm from where it was still wrapped around Luke's waist. As I turned, intending to adjust the cinch on my saddle before remounting, I felt an arm worm back around me and snake towards my crotch. Surprised, I froze as Luke pressed up against me from behind and tickle my right ear with his lips.

"I'm glad we came up here. Thanks for convincing my lazy ass to get up early on Christmas morning." Over my multiple layers of clothing, Luke's gloved hand caressed my cock, squeezing ever so slightly.

Before I even had time to respond, he was gone, mounting up on his horse. I just smiled stupidly at him as he sat looking down on me. The corners of his mouth were twisted up in the haughty, knowing smile that had first drawn me to him. With a sigh, I tightened the cinch on my saddle, mounted up, and made a point of cutting in front of Luke to lead us back down the trail.

***

By the time we'd reached the barn, the sun had climbed a handsbreadth above the horizon and the air seemed to have shaken off the chill of night. The warm, musty air of the barn fell heavily upon us as we led the horses inside. Luke stripped off his heavy jacket and threw it on top of a pile of unopened grain bags. He began to fill grain buckets at a table in the corner of the barn, before pausing to glance at me for a split-second. "Would you mind throwing three flakes in each feeder?" He nodded his head towards a mountain of stacked hay bales before looking back at his work.