A Leap of Faith

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

[OOC note - this picks up immediately after 'Warren's Birthday Party'. Possible content warning - after all, this is the big boy's 20th... *grin*]

Josh pads slowly up the stairs, holding Warren's hand. It's such a simple thing, but he feels like he could never get tired of it. Warren's hand is warm and soft, and he rubs his thumb against Josh's hand when he's bored...

They make a short stop in Josh and Bobby's bedroom, to pick up the gift. Fortunately, Sulky is nowhere to be found. Between Bobby and John, the two of them had enough emotional baggage to fill a 747's cargo bay. He and Warren got off light in comparison. At least, I think. His mind drifts back to their psychic link on their first 'date'. Not that I remember anything distinctly, but...

"Mmm. Looks like Bobby's off pouting somewhere." Josh grabs the present. It's wrapped in shiny silver paper, with a blue ribbon. He closes the door with a clunk, and they walk down the hall toward Warren's room.

I hope you like it. One of the hardest things about finding a good gift was that the two of them had been only going out for a couple weeks. Add the fact that the two of them had seen into the depths of each other's mind on the first date made things even more confusing. Their relationship was still young - but they knew much more about each other than the average couple.

Eventually, Josh had thought back to that first night. Warren had found his necklace - the one with the x-charm - to be a bit of a turn-on. He had wandered the mall for hours, but had finally found the perfect gift. A black leather necklace, with a silver charm on it. The charm was the Chinese character for 'wind', something Josh found particularly fitting. On the back, in tiny letters he had engraved 'with love, Josh'.

I'm most worried about that last part. He meant it, with all his heart. But some people tossed it around more casually than others. What would Warren say?

[Warren Worthington III]

Warren follows Josh upstairs, enjoying the sense of anticipation. It's a novelty for him; he hasn't looked forward this much to getting a birthday gift since he was twelve. Heck, he hasn't enjoyed a birthday this much since then at all, and he's only been back an hour or so. If someone had told him a month ago that he'd be this giddy with excitement over turning 20, he'd have laughed them off.

Of course, a month ago he wasn't dating Josh, and the notion that one person can become so indispensible to his enjoyment of life would be frightening if it weren't for how it really really isn't. It seemed like such a simple, natural thing when they started that Warren has trouble wrapping his brain around how important it’s become to him… hell, they’ve only been dating a couple of weeks, and he spent most of one of them on the road, but it feels like much, much longer.

Sometimes he feels like a completely different person, and can't begin to understand how he ever tolerated being the person he used to be. He considers saying that, then decides it would make him sound too much like a pathetic yutz. He settles for giving Josh’s hand a quick, affectionate squeeze as he follows, first into Josh’s room to pick up a package and then into Warren’s.

He’s a little embarrassed by the state of his room… it’s not as messy as Bobby’s half of Josh’s, (granted, Warren has airlifted refugees out of storm-destroyed houses that weren’t that messy), but he likes to keep it neat. Unfortunately he’d been too busy making arrangements for the trip before he left to do much cleaning. He grins sheepishly and sweeps some dirty laundry underneath his unmade bed with one of his wings.

Josh is watching him expectantly, waiting for him to unwrap his gift, and that makes him emotional all over again... it’s not the gift, it’s the fact that Josh actually cared enough to pick one out, cares enough to want to see him open it, cares whether he likes it. It’s a little thing, but it makes the room blur a little as he tears up. (And his wings make the little unconscious quiver they make when he’s pleased, though he doesn’t notice that.) Warren’s done a lot of the “big things” over the six months, and is only now beginning to realize that the little things, done right, can be just as important.

He unties the ribbon, then unwraps the package, careful not to tear the paper, smoothing it out on his desk before opening the box to reveal a black leather collar. He blinks, puzzled at first, then remembers Josh’s collar at the rave and grins even more broadly, blushing a little. " Hah! So now we can match, eh? " He wonders if it has the same effect on Josh that it had on him, and blushes a little more.

Then he notices that the charm isn’t the “X” Josh’s had, but a Chinese ideogram. Warren’s been studying Japanese, though he’s still at the pleased-to-meet-you-where's-the-bathroom stage, but Chinese is a mystery to him. " It’s beautiful, J… thank you. What does it mean? "

Looking at it more carefully he notices an engraving on the back: “with love, Josh”... which sends him past misty-eyed all the way into outright teary. " I’m… I’m overwhelmed, Josh. It’s… I don’t know what to say. " You could say you love him back, moron!, he thinks to himself, but to his annoyance he finds the words stick in his throat. Instead, he holds out the collar with both hands as he sniffles, wiping his eyes reflexively with a flick of a wingtip, inviting Josh to put it on him.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh watches as Warren opens his birthday present, and then as he makes the connection and begins to smile. The last couple weeks had been amazing, to say the least. Things would seem somehow… incomplete, without Warren. In fact, Jake had been astonished at how fast his telepathic range had increased recently. Josh had implied he was dedicated, but the real reason was being able to talk with Warren while he was away. He was quickly approaching the New York City limits, when focusing his powers along a single direction, instead of in a sphere. Warren frequently was there for business.

“It’s the symbol for ‘wind’. I thought that was appropriate.” He smiles a little, feeling pleased at Warren’s reaction. And then Warren turns the small charm over, spotting the engraving, making Josh’s stomach flop over as well.

While he wasn’t sure what he was hoping for in terms of a reaction - a profound profession of love being a possible option, of course - Warren’s glimmering eyes and sniffle show exactly how he feels as he holds out the necklace to Josh. With a bit of a sniffle himself, Josh catches the small loop of leather in a telekinetic grip and guides it around the other boy’s neck. He slides both hands around behind Warren and finishes with the clasp, keeping his arms around Warren’s neck.

“You look perfect. Happy Birthday, Warr. I hope it’s been a good one.” He smiles, and kisses Warren softly.

With the gift-giving over (and Josh knew that it wouldn’t take very long…) and it being around 9 at night, one very important question begins to surface in Josh’s mind. Was this…. it? Y’know. Bobby’s earlier accusal (though that really wasn’t quite the word…) floats through his mind, and he shoves it away. We’re not… I’m not… like that. Whatever Bobby said, it was Warren’s 20th birthday. As much as Josh wasn’t sure whether it was quite the time for “The Sex”, as the event somehow took on capital letters in his mind, he wanted to show Warren how much affection and love he had for him.

Hesitantly, he deepens the kiss, and the first two buttons of Warren’s collared shirt spring open, as if on their own. He breaks the kiss, and stares into the other’s eyes. A hand in back drifts lower, snaking its way firmly onto Warren’s ass. God, you’re so hot. I must be the luckiest guy ever. Josh shoots him a feral glance and resists telekinetically pinning him to the bed and climbing on top. Instead, he traces his other hand softly across Warren’s lips, then begins nibbling on the upper one.

[Warren Worthington III]

> "Happy Birthday, Warr. I hope it’s been a good one. "

<The best one ever.>, he replies quietly. He’d have said it out loud, but Josh is putting his lips to far better use. Besides, with telepathy he might pick up more of the sentiment behind the thought, which Warren wishes he were better able to put into words, because it really has been. <The best year ever.> Which would be true, he realizes, even if it had competition. Heck, if he gets to factor in the last month, it’s even been a pretty good couple of decades on average.

His wings curl gently around Josh’s back, simultaneously caressing him from the back of his neck to his ankles. Warren is almost as proud of being able to do that as he is of being able to fly, though he knows it’s nothing compared to what Josh’s TK is capable of, and takes a moment to revoke every complaint he ever made about how sensitive his wings inner membranes are, now that he understands what they’re actually for.

Without thinking about it, he tilts his head from side to side a little… not enough to break the kiss, but enough to feel Josh’s hands move against the nape and the sides of his newly collared neck, reveling in the way that simple touch sets his heartbeat pounding. (He wonders, idly, if Josh can hear it. He can certainly hear Josh’s, but he can do that from across a crowded room, so it’s hardly a fair indication. It still surprises him, in moments of intimacy like this, that their heartbeats don’t actually synchronize… somehow it just seems like they ought to. On the other hand, he’s developed a real appreciation for asynchronous syncopated rhythms in the last couple of weeks.)

Josh seems distracted for a moment, and Warren wonders what he’s thinking about. Then the kiss deepens, and he feels a faint ripple along his own TK aura as the buttons on his shirt pop open, and he begins to suspect. The look in Josh’s eyes as he breaks the kiss, and Josh’s hand on his ass, turns that suspicion into a certainty, and he’s suddenly very glad he changed into more easily-accessible clothes, and an excited shudder travels through his body and wings. He reaches out to catch one of Josh’s fingers in his teeth as they trace across his lips, swirling his tongue suggestively around the tip of it before letting it go.

<Undressing me with your mind, are you? Well, what you don’t know is I’ve been practicing your TK lessons… two can play at that game.> He grins into the kiss and closes his eyes, concentrating on feeling his telekinetic aura… or, well, not telekinetic, exactly, since his maximum range appears to be about two inches from the surface of his body, but right now nothing in the least bit interesting is significantly further away than that.

For all his bragging, Warren isn’t actually very good at using his TK on anything other than his own body and things he’s carrying… moving things relative to himself, instead of along with himself, is extremely difficult. But not impossible, he’s discovered. He can’t move heavy things, or move anything quickly… when he tries, it just falls right through his TK field… but if he’s slow and careful about it he can move objects weighing a few pounds or so.

And he very much doubts anything Josh is wearing weighs more than that.

It takes an awfully long time, or at least seems to, but eventually Warren manages to unbuckle Josh’s belt and thread it out through his pants’ beltloops. Towards the end, he even manages to divert enough of his attention from it to return the kiss more than distractedly. Flushed with success he attempts to hurl the belt nonchalantly across the room, then scowls good-naturedly as it slips through his aura and onto the floor. <Whoops… forgot about that.> His thoughts don’t seem embarrassed at all, though… in fact, his smug feeling of triumph is as obvious from the tenor of his thoughts as his ever-growing excitement.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Boytouching beyond this point. You have been warned.


> <The best one ever.>

The words are simple enough, but the very raw emotion behind it swells Josh with similar feelings, and furthers his resolve to show Warren just how deep his own feelings run.

His entire body shudders as it is caressed front head to toe by Warren’s wings. Oooooh.

Josh smiles a little as Warren reacts to his telekinetic stripping, but after a moment he feels tentative tugs on his belt, and is astonished to see his belt being undone and slipping slowly out of the loops. As it exits Warren’s short-range field, it drops loosely to the ground.

<I didn’t know that you’d been practicing without me!> He can tell Warren is supremely pleased with himself, and rightly so - his powers really were the opposite of Josh’s own - they naturally worked on himself best. <You deserve a reward for your hard work…> Josh presses his lips to Warren’s, but harder this time, with more passion. He jabs his tongue into the other's mouth, and as they kiss, Warren’s belt goes flinging off across the bedroom, landing in a heap of clothing. He lets go momentarily, and Warren’s poncho drifts lightly into the air, and is hurled against a wall. I knew there was a reason for all those Danger Room sessions...

With that, Josh latches back on, as if trying to map the contours of the other's body. He nuzzles into his neck, his growing erection pressing insistently into Warren's pelvis. The buttons of his shirt undo themselves effortlessly under the touch of his mind, and he shrugs the outer layer off, leaving the t-shirt. Josh drags a hand across Warren’s naked chest, letting out a little sigh.

<You drive me crazy, you know that? Walking around the Institute with only a pair of jeans and some sandals on. Can't stop thinking about you. And someone might try to steal you away from me...> The two of them stumble backward, hands dodging, lips dueling, and bump into the edge of his bed. Josh gives Warren a little shove, but pivots, so he lands on bottom, avoiding pinning Warren’s wings underneath him. He runs a hand along the length of one, familiar with the sensitive spots by now.

[Warren Worthington III]

(( OOC: and yet more boytouching. Caveat lector.))

> <I didn't know that you'd been practicing without me!>

"Well, I'd rather be mfflle?" The rest of the sentence is lost to Josh's passionate kiss.

Not that Warren is complaining... actually, a second or two into the kiss he's completely forgotten he'd intended to say anything, that fact going into the big pile of Things Not Worth Paying Attention To Right Now, along with whether or not the building is on fire, the continued survival of the human race, and really everything that isn't directly related to the way Josh's tongue twines around his and the way his clothes go flying through the air of their own volition.

When Josh's shirt goes flying to join them, Warren is surprised for a moment, wondering if his TK has suddenly turned into something more powerful and uncontrollable. (There is precedent, after all.) He's somewhat reassured, not to mention turned on, by the realization that Josh is telekinetically stripping off his own clothes, which is briefly in competition for hottest thing ever, but ultimately loses out to the hardening bulge in Josh's jeans shoving against the hardening bulge in his own.

> <You drive me crazy, you know that? Walking around the Institute with only a pair of jeans and some sandals on. Can't stop thinking about you. And someone might try to steal you away from me...>

He wants to say something clever and witty about his having to do something to stay in Josh's head, lacking the ability to visit there himself from hundreds of miles away... or perhaps something reassuring about how nothing short of outright mind control could "steal him away" (which, in retrospect, is maybe not so reassuring, given that mind control is a not-implausible part of his new life).

But before he can work out how to string the words together Josh has somehow flipped them both onto the bed and is stroking that spot, just over the juncture point of his pinfeathers, and suddenly talking doesn't seem like such a great idea after all… besides which, he’s too busy moaning and shuddering.

Habit takes over then, a wingtip slipping under the waistband of Josh's now-unbelted pants to slide the boy's shirt irresistibly up, teasingly brushing his chest with the feathered muscles as he works his way over it and ultimately yanking it over his head, leaving it hanging around Josh’s shoulder rather than give Josh any incentive whatsoever to remove the attached hand from the other wing.

Then, using his free wing for balance, he lets his own hands glide gently along the sides of Josh’s bare torso, firmly enough to excite without tickling, until they end up resting lightly on either side of the boy’s waist, with just the tips of his fingers barely tucked under the waistband of Josh’s pants and the elastic of his underwear.

He stops there, resisting for the moment the impulse to move further, because just looking at Josh, bare-chested and flushed and disheveled underneath him on his mattress, is more rewarding than he’d imagined possible.

"You have no idea how lovely you are, do you?" It feels strange to be talking again. <Here… look. > His free wing curls gently under Josh’s head… not that it makes a difference, really, but telepathic contact always feels easier when he does that. Though they’ve never recaptured the profound and intimate harmony of that mind-touch at the rave, the exercise of trying has left Warren relatively skilled at communicating over Josh’s telepathic link. He uses that skill now, dropping the habitual barriers around his thoughts to allow Josh to see and feel what he does as he looks over Josh’s half-naked body.

<See?>

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

[OOC - Please check your innocence at the door.]



The touch of Warren’s wings on his bare chest makes Josh shiver in pleasure. His shirt, almost forgotten, is hanging stupidly from his shoulder. Reluctantly, he lets go of Warren to allow it to drop to the floor, and kicks off his sandals at the same time. And then, Warren’s fingers slide into his pants, between skin and elastic. Just barely making contact, yet driving him absolutely crazy. Josh begins to breathe a little harder, his blood pumping a little faster. Don’t stop, please. Ever.

>"You have no idea how lovely you are, do you?" <Here… look.>

Josh has to say, he’s never thought of himself as ‘lovely’, in any sense of the word. Everyone has those little things about themselves that drive them crazy. But, suddenly curious, he places a hand on each side of Warren’s head, and relaxes a little, expanding his presence outward, just like how he’s learned.

With a rush, his vision changes, rippling before him. Suddenly he’s seeing himself. The Josh-part of him critiques himself - he lacks definition, there’s that red spot that appeared near his hairline this morning, he looks breathless and exerted. But he’s viewing himself through Warren’s perceptions. For one thing, everything is somehow much sharper. And… he can hear his own heartbeat? Transfixed, he’s utterly still for a moment, just listening. And somehow, inextricably linked with what Warren sees are feelings of affection, lust, hope, arousal, and… love. And it’s this, more than anything, that enflames Josh and breaks him out of his near-trance - that they connect on something so much deeper than the physical.

Josh pulls Warren fully on top of him, his lips searching for Warren’s. As they connect, he reaches out fully with his powers, blowing through his own mental barriers to fully link their minds together. It’s nearly as exhilarating as the very first time, back at the rave. Vaguely, he fiddles with the drawstring of Warren’s pants. Damn it, you piece of… With a cock of his head, they rip neatly in half along the seams, the two pieces sliding down each leg to puddle on the floor.

He blushes slightly, feeling a little silly through their mental connection, but forges on. <Want you. Only you.> Warren is left only in a pair of silk boxers. Josh eagerly rubs fingertips along the length of Warren’s cock through the sheer material, feeling its hardness. He catches the strong echo of pleasure off of their link and hopes it’s even stronger firsthand.

With more confidence, he slides a hand in under the waistband for more. Is this really happening? He caresses Warren’s mind lightly with his own, careful not to overwhelm the other's senses.

[Warren Worthington III]

(OOC: Content warning: Rampant pantlessness! Panting rampantness! Boyparts! Touching! Things my mother wouldn’t approve of! Things she might not even recognize! Flee! Flee now if you value your very soul!! Oh, and also some telepathic cuteness.)

At first, Warren isn’t sure if his attempt to share his perceptions worked… not being a telepath himself he can’t really tell. But he doesn’t have to be a telepath to read Josh’s physical responses, and the way Josh looks at him, pulls him down onto the bed, kisses him… there’s no misreading that.

It feels like he’s drowning, gasping for air around Josh’s mouth, his adrenalin-pumped body making demands for oxygen that his suddenly shallow breathing can’t satisfy. A moment later it feels like his ribcage is going to explode, not just from the pounding of his heart and the burning in his lungs, but from the irresistible force building up in his chest that he doesn’t even have a word for.

And then all at once he does, and a part of his mind – or is that his mind? – seems to cluck its tongue at him: Foolish boy, to have taken so long to learn the meaning of such a simple word. Well… better late than never.

<Love you,>, he sends joyfully, incredulously, with all the force of his own sudden realization and the shattering of mental barriers that comes with it, and meets Josh’s questing mind halfway and the world drops away leaving nothing but their two minds intermingling.

It’s a lot like the first time, back at the rave… but then again, it’s not like that at all, because it’s not a surprise this time (well, it is, but the idea of it isn’t… he/they have been trying to recapture this feeling for the last two weeks, and the preparation seems to matter). The first time he’d missed the trees for the forest, overwhelmed by the wealth of detail and texture and feeling. This time it’s more like looking at individual museum exhibits, focusing attention on one thing at a time.

Except even that isn’t right, because time drops away as well. Partly that’s a question of speed, where interactions that would take days when titrated through eyes and ears and throats and language are completed in seconds between their two minds. But it’s more than just speed… sequentiality itself becomes optional when minds capable of massively parallel processing suddenly stop being gated by a frustratingly linear sensory system. It’s like there’s a dozen of each of them walking through their museums, pointing out different exhibits, simultaneously but somehow without overlapping.

Josh is showing him his parents, his first crush, the experience of levitating his own body for the first time, much more… and at the same time Warren is showing Josh his own childhood, the first growth of his wings and his attempts to remove them, the moment just before he broke out of his father’s lab and the moment just after deciding not to let him fall, his first groupie.

It’s like spending months together talking about their lives, complete with audiovisual aids and profound empathy… and yet it flashes by in no more than a second of real time before they are brought back into their bodies, which are operating quasi-independently on their own timetable, following impulses far, far older than telepathy, memory, even consciousness. And all at once they’re back on Warren’s bed and there’s no interruption, the results of their mental fusion slowly filtering into memory while their here-and-now is fully absorbed with each other, fumbling with drawstrings and tearing fabric and groping through cloth, and the touching of their bodies is, in its own way, as profound a connection as the touching of their minds.

It’s almost a pity, he thinks, with some fraction of his attention still capable of abstract thought… that business with the pants would have been unbelievably sexy if it hadn’t been so utterly overshadowed by their moment of mental linkage. Still, it was – and that last fraction of mind is shattered as Josh’s hand slides under the waistband of his boxers, and Josh’s mind caresses his own, and the closest thing to speech he’s capable of is a surprisingly high-pitched " Ohhhh…" that lasts for a very long time.

He relaxes indulgently into the petting for a while, letting Josh do the work, before the desire to give as good as he’s getting brings his focus to parts of Josh’s body other than his hand.

Warren catches Josh’s gaze with his own and smiles teasingly (it isn’t one of his stock smiles, but the echo of it in Josh’s face and mind makes him want to add it to his list, for use only with Josh). "Now, that’s hardly fair, is it? Suddenly you’re overdressed for the party… and turnabout is fair play, after all…"

With that he slips his hands out from under the waistband of Josh’s jeans and underwear and replaces them with his wingtips, managing to work them down along his ass to the back of his thighs, just above the knee, before they’ve taken up all the available slack. Then he flexes them, and the teasing smile becomes a predatory grin as Josh’s remaining clothes rip and burst in a dozen places. "…and besides, we did come up here so I could unwrap my present, right?"

The sight of Josh sprawled naked and flushed and excited beneath him is almost overpowering, and he struggles to keep his balance as his knees start to tremble. He slips off the side of the bed, kneeling on the floor as he pulls Josh’s hips to the edge of the mattress with both hands, brushes wings back up Josh’s sides and gently pins his shoulders to the bed with them. The last shards of fabric slip off the now-bare legs onto the floor as Warren starts nibbling Josh’s inner thigh, working his way up from the back of the kneecaps.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

(strong content advisory, kiddos.)


<Love you>

Simple words, but they mean the world to Josh. As their minds link completely - for the very first time - he feels as if his heart will literally burst, but for the moment the two of them have shed their physical connections and are existing only mentally, as one.

The quick-view of their lives is amazing, except it’s not quick at all. He (except right now, where he stops and where Warren starts is not at all clear) literally feels as if they’d just spent days, even weeks talking together about everything and anything.

<I love you, too. With all my heart.> It’s totally unnecessary to coach his feelings into mental speech at this point, but Josh does anyway, if only for emphasis. Warren knows. Knows more about him than anyone at the Institute now, Cerebro included - which should be absolutely terrifying. The idea of someone else having access to his deep, dark secrets should be frightening to the extreme, but in fact it’s the complete opposite. Josh feels unburdened, as one only rarely does in life.

A glimpse of a small Warren, trying to remove his own wings, flashes through his mental eye. His heart clenches and he tries to reach out to hug the other. Frustratingly, his mental being is disconnected from his physical senses in this form. Instead, he caresses Warren mentally, entwining their essences.

As he does so, something seems to solidify between them, and with a hazy ripple his physical vision returns. His hands are tugging on Warren’s boxers impatiently. He blushes slightly, but carries on. Y’know, that telepathy stuff is amazing, but there’s something satisfying about physical touch. He slips off Warren’s only remaining covering, leaving him totally naked.

<You’re beautiful, Warren.> He takes a moment to try to memorize his almost unearthly form. After a moment, the urge becomes too great, and his hands slide across Warren’s hips, tracing around his cock. He rubs a ball between his thumb and forefinger, and then closes a hand around Warren’s dick, pumping it a little.

> "…and besides, we did come up here so I could unwrap my present, right?"

Josh smiles at that, capturing Warren in a kiss. After a few moments, wings begin to slide into the back of his pants. Whoa. It tickles a little, but before he realizes it, his pants have literally burst to shreds. I should probably stop thinking of your wings as delicate, hon.

This is the first time Josh has been totally naked in front of Warren - showers don’t count. At least, no shower they’ve ever taken had Warren looking at him with those eyes. He’d expected to be a little shy, but there’s nothing but love, and want, staring back at him. In a puppylike way, to boot. That look makes me melt, Warren.

“Ooh.” He moans a little, shivering, as Warren begins making his way up his leg. Josh lets him continue for a few minutes, but a thought strikes him, and he draws Warren up on top of him with a gentle arm, kissing him the entire way.

“This is your birthday present, babe, not mine. You shouldn’t be having to do all the work…” With this, he rolls over, trapping Warren beneath him. He grins ferally and begins to rub the length of his body along Warren’s. It amazes him how their hips seem to fit together just right. He traces a hand down the other’s chest, rubbing a circle around a hard nipple. Josh nibbles a little on an ear as he rubs himself against Warren insistently.

After a bit of that, he brushes a kiss across Warren’s lips and rolls back onto his knees.

“Aah, so I was thinking about asking someone for some pointers, but wasn’t sure who would know…” That, and I would probably die from embarrassment. He bites his lip, a little unsure. Nevertheless, he spreads Warren’s legs open and takes his cock in hand. “Tell me if I’m not doing it right, okay?” He scratches a hand through the hair down there and tentatively swirls his tongue across the head, gauging Warren’s reaction. Emboldened, he carefully takes Warren’s cock into his mouth, letting his tongue dart across the surface of it. Hey, this isn’t that complicated. Oh, fuck. One of his teeth grazes the sensitive skin on the head of Warren’s cock.

<Sorry.> He conveys embarrassment through their mental bond, but humor as well.

[Warren Worthington III]

(( OOC: Content advisory, you know the drill. ))

> I should probably stop thinking of your wings as delicate, hon.

Warren can’t tell anymore whether Josh is trying to communicate with him or if he’s picking up on Josh’s internal mental monologue or merely imagining Josh’s voice… and right this moment it doesn’t matter, because that sort of thing only matters when there’s distance between them and Warren’s primary goal right now is to reduce that distance to zero, or better yet some large negative number.

Well, yes, he tries to ‘think out loud’, his vocal apparatus occupied with more interesting tasks. I’ve been trying to point that out for a while now… they’re sensitive, but they’re just about the strongest muscles I’ve got. He demonstrates by using them to forcibly spread Josh’s legs apart – not that he puts up much resistance, granted.

> " This is your birthday present, babe, not mine. You shouldn’t be having to do all the work… "

Warren luxuriates in the feeling of being lifted like that by someone he trusts implicitly. And to think he used to feel self-conscious about being such a lightweight! He laughs. " I’d hardly call making you shudder like that ‘work,’ love. Pure play. But…" He gives an overdramatic mock-sigh and adds in an over-the-top long-suffering voice vaguely reminiscent of Marvin the Paranoid Android: "…very well, if you insist, I suppose I can just lie back and let you have your wicked way with me…" He grins and waggles his eyebrows playfully as Josh rolls on top of him and adds: "But I’ll get back at you for it when December rolls around, just you wait…"

He doesn’t say anything for a while after that, other than the occasional contented murmur as he moves underneath Josh, letting the other boy set the pace. He wraps his wings around Josh, not wanting any part of his lover’s body to go untouched if he can help it, a gentle embrace that conforms to Josh’s contours without inhibiting his movements as they wriggle together.

At first Warren’s attention is focused entirely on anticipating Josh’s movements, keeping their bodies touching and their rhythms synchronized. After a while it becomes more like a dance or a mirror exercise, where his body seems to respond on its own without his having to think about it, his mind suffused by a pleasant haze. He has no idea how long they stay like that, exploring each other’s textures and tastes and rhythms. Minutes, certainly… hours, possibly. It doesn’t matter; they have all the time in the world, and he can’t imagine anything he’d rather be doing with it.

On the other hand, when Josh slides back and spreads Warren’s legs apart more intently, he’s more than ready to move on… in fact, he’s more aroused than he can ever remember being. He trembles uncontrollably at the touch of Josh’s hand on his cock, then laughs in sheer delight at Josh’s heart-stoppingly adorable lip-biting frown of concentration.

> " so I was thinking about asking someone for some pointers, but wasn’t sure who would know…” "

The image of Josh wandering around the Institute asking for blowjob lessons is almost funny enough to distract Warren from the way Josh’s tongue slides around him, warm and moist and firm and eager and wonderful. "ohhh…" He considers giving more articulate feedback, but Josh seems to be doing just fine without it. It occurs to Warren as Josh takes his cock fully into his mouth that there are advantages to being small-framed… Josh’s gag reflex is practically not an issue at all. He chuckles contentedly at that.

Warren jerks back instinctively when Josh’s teeth scrape, then regrets it instantly when he feels Josh’s embarrassment over it. He wants to say something encouraging or reassuring to let Josh know it really isn’t a big deal. Warren is no virgin, but he realizes with a burst of something warm and bright and kind that he’s never made love before tonight, and that transcends all issues of skill and experience. And when he feels the awareness of that echo off of Josh’s mind like some kind of amorous echolocation he realizes he doesn’t have to say anything… Josh already knows.

So he slumps back onto the bed, at once excited and relaxed, his wings draped bonelessly over the mattress. His hips rock gently at first, then grow more frantic as his cock slides ever-more-insistently between Josh’s lips, and he revels in both the sheer physical pleasure of it and in the joy of watching Josh’s face as he moves, in the knowledge that Josh is enjoying this almost as much as he is.

Which suggests an idea. He closes his eyes, rummaging around in his mind until he finds their mental link (a process that gets easier all the time) and concentrates on sharing, back along that link, every slick thrust and playful lick and electric spike of pleasure and the mounting pressure to climax he’s delaying for as long as he can. There, he thinks, amusement and triumph and love and sex all chasing their way around the first coherent sentence he’s put together in quite some time, If you’re going to do the work, you ought to get the benefits, right?

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

(content advisory.)


The moment that Warren realizes - despite his decidedly solid sexual experience - that this is the first time he’s ever made love is one of the few moments in Josh’s life that he will always remember with crystal clarity. He feels a huge swell of emotion as he picks up on the thought, and redirects it towards Warren, allowing it to rebound off his mind, and bounce between the two of them, like an echo. It doesn’t disappear, so much as slowly fade away. As he does so, he momentarily withdraws Warren’s cock from his mouth, and presses a line of kisses to the joining of Warren’s leg and pelvis, briefly sliding their hands together.

After a moment, he returns his attention to Warren’s cock. Which is highly deserving of attention - at least in Josh’s estimate. It’s just about perfect in every way. As he takes it back into his mouth, he runs a finger along the shaft of it, sucking at it with careful strokes. As a few minutes pass, he feels Warren’s hip movements become more pronounced. Josh slides a hand up each of the Warren’s legs, to rest on tanned thighs, in order to help synchronize their movements.

After a moment, he feels a silky caress in the Warren-place of his mind - and a spike of intense satisfaction. Suddenly, his mind is flooded with what could only be the output of Warren’s somatosensory system - seeing as each jolt of intense pleasure corresponds to a lick, a swipe, a touch.

> If you’re going to do the work, you ought to get the benefits, right?

Josh gasps as he feels the sensations roll across his brain. It’s almost too much to handle, and he stops for a second, allowing himself to process everything.

He wants me to… Josh had pretty much figured, while planning everything for the birthday party, that this would be a likely outcome of the evening. He’s been terrified all day - in fact, Bobby had asked him why he kept staring off into space during the preparations. He’d made up some lame excuse or another, but the fact was that he’d never had sex with anyone before - and he wanted everything to be absolutely perfect for Warren.

With this, though, it suddenly becomes clear to him that Warren was just as interested - if not more - in Josh having an unforgettable experience as in his own pleasure. Which is pretty much the sweetest - and hottest - thing ever.

<You have no idea how much I love you right now.> His heart is overflowing with passion, and he strokes Warren’s cock, taking it in again. Josh lets it slide between his lips, trying to focus on refining his technique. It’s highly distracting, what with the feedback from Warren’s sensory systems. However, he quickly figures out what movements bring about the most intense physical pleasure.

It’s not long now - not for either of us. Warren is moaning under his ministrations, and Josh can feel himself teetering on the edge. He lets go of Warren’s cock and slides up on top of him. As he begins to devour Warren’s mouth, he rocks with his hips, lunging downward.

“Oooohhhh…” He lets out a moan, gasping, as waves of pleasure cascade across him. The effect is enhanced by his link to Warren’s mind, and more intense than he could ever have imagined. As they orgasm together, he sucks on a spot on Warren’s neck, worrying the flesh beneath his lips. Josh’s joy soars between them, cocooning the two of them together in a safe blanket. The experience is like nothing he’s felt before - ever.

Finally, their sounds quiet, leaving only heavy breathing. Josh smiles and nuzzles his face into Warren’s neck, gently stroking the other’s collarbone. He rubs a foot against Warren's leg teasingly.

Tired, but content, Josh's mind nestles up against Warren's much the way their bodies do. He slides off Warren and cuddles up against his side. "I think... I could just lay here forever. Mm."

[Warren Worthington III]

(( OOC: Contentment advisory... ))

> " I think... I could just lay here forever. Mm. "

Warren nods dazedly as his breathing slowly returns to normal. He reaches out with a hand to gently brush a sweat-soaked lock of hair off of Josh’s forehead and kisses him lightly between the eyes, enjoying the slightly salt tang on his lips, the smell of them together, the soothing sound of Josh’s heart and lungs slowly reestablishing their old rhythm. "That… sounds like a great idea." He smiles.

So that’s what sex is supposed to be like, he thinks idly. I had no idea. I thought I did, but… I just had no idea. It had been amazing, not just better than he’d ever imagined possible but utterly different, as if he’d been drinking evaporated milk for months thinking it was ice cream. Looking back on all the frenzied coupling (and tripling, and on occasion quadrupling) he’d done in the last year when he might have been doing this instead would make him feel like kicking himself for an idiot if he weren’t so completely, blissfully in tune with himself and with Josh and with… well, everything.

Part of that, he knows, was the astonishing level of intimacy that Josh’s telepathic abilities made possible… but that doesn’t explain this, this bubble of perfect contentment he’s floating in. Always, before, he’d wanted to move on as soon as the act was over: that-was-nice-thanks-see-you-around-bye! Now... well, Josh had said it. He could lay here forever, as long as Josh stayed nestled up against him like this. No need to go anywhere else or do anything else or be anything else, because nothing anywhere could be as good as being himself, doing this, now, here. Not euphoria – at least, not anything like the artificial kind – but a sense of profound well-being, of being himself inside his body and knowing that every part of that is a Good Thing, cherished by the person he cares for most in the world.

So this is love, he thinks, turning his head to look Josh in the eyes, feeling tears of joy welling from his own, soaking the pillow. Neat. I think I’ll keep it.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> So this is love.

The overheard thought drifts softly through Josh's mind as Warren appears to turn it over in his own. After a moment, tears begin to well up in Warren's eyes. Josh brushes them away with his thumb, and leans his head in closer. At the moment, what he wanted most was to minimize the space between them. His own eyes are glimmering a little in reaction to Warren.

"Thank you, Warren. There's nowhere else in the world I would rather be right now... and I really mean it." He tightens his grip around Warren's chest briefly, hugging him closer. The intimacy they share together seems, in retrospect, to be a huge hole he'd not even known was in his life. It's the kind of thing you don't realize the importance of until you have it. Being able to to just lay there, feeling, knowing, how much Warren cared for him was everything to him. He slowly rubs a fingertip across Warren's neck.

After some time, he shifts a little, wanting to bring up a lingering question, but uncertain of the response. I don't want to ruin this moment... After a long pause he speaks up.

"Um. So, this means that we're... y'know." He tries not to show how much the answer means to him. "Exclusive, right?" Josh attempts to keep his emotions from flowing across their link, but that's one thing that has become increasingly difficult as their connection to each other deepens.

[Warren Worthington III]

(( OOC warning: schmoopiness ahead! ))

> " Um. So, this means that we're... y'know, exclusive, right? "

The question yanks Warren back into the here-and-now from the misty heights he’d been woolgathering in, and his reaction to it is complicated.

They’ve been “exclusive” in the sense Josh means since the rave… at least, Warren’s been, and he’s pretty sure this was Josh’s first time at all. Which has been great… Warren hasn’t wanted to be with anybody else. And even if he had felt the urge, knowing how it would hurt Josh’s feelings would have been enough to keep him from following through.

And he has no desire to change that. Not that he’d object to an open relationship, if Josh were OK with it, but he knows Josh isn’t OK with it (though he might agree to keep Warren happy, which would be even worse), and it’s not that important. Maybe in a year, or ten, or a hundred, he might have explored the potentials of this new kind of intimacy fully enough to start looking to expand its boundaries, but for now he’s not only content, he’s happier than he ever thought he could be.

But… “So this means we’re exclusive”… the wording gets to him. It sounds like a contract, like Josh thinks a blowjob is some kind of payment for exclusive rights to Warren’s body.

Except he knows that isn’t what Josh meant at all… he’s been in Josh’s mind enough to know that sort of thinking isn’t in the boy’s vocabulary. Possessiveness, sure, and jealousy, and territoriality – Warren’s been around the block enough to know everyone has a touch of that in their makeup – but he’s never seen that kind of desire for ownership anywhere in Josh’s mind..

And the way Josh seems to pull away from Warren’s mind as he asks the question doesn’t help… he can’t help but think of it as a threat of withdrawal, even though (again) he knows better. He has a strong inkling of how important the question is to Josh, how much he wants them to be a “couple” in the traditional sense – well, as traditional as the two of them can get, anyway – and he suspects Josh just doesn’t want to pressure him.

It should be simple… after all, he wants the same things himself. But it isn’t simple. It’s like he’s being asked to strap himself back onto that operating platform, and when he realizes that Warren also realizes where at least part of all of this business is coming from, but none of that really changes how he feels.

No, this doesn’t mean that at all!, he thinks, and promptly discards the thought. It’s true enough, literally speaking… they were exclusive as far as he was concerned before tonight, and would have stayed that way whether Josh had had sex with him or not. But it’s not what he wants to say… he doesn’t want to throw the question back in Josh’s face, doesn’t want to start an argument over something that’s mostly in his own head, anyway.

Finally, what resolves the dilemma is Josh’s face… not just the hope and need and fear showing on his expression, but the face itself, lying inches away from his on the same pillow, and how natural that seems. And the words don’t matter, suddenly… he takes a deep breath and lets the anger drain away and replies to the thing itself.

"I love you, Josh. Not just “more than I’ve ever loved anybody else”… I never even dreamed I could feel like this about anyone, and have them feel the same, and..." he chokes up for a second, squints hard to clear the tears from his eyes, and tries again. "I want to wake up every morning to see you there, right there, looking at me like that. Nothing else, noone else. Just you. Always." The tears are flowing freely now, obscuring his vision, and he doesn’t care. He reaches up to gently stroke Josh’s cheek, to feel with his fingers what he can no longer see with his eyes, and smiles.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh watches Warren react to his question, not realizing he’s telegraphing most of his emotions onto his face. He tries to hold back his own feelings through their psionic link so as not to influence him, but it’s virtually impossible - and so he receives both thoughts and emotions from Warren.

It’s… complicated. He’s never been particularly good at sorting out complex emotions via telepathy. Warren’s feelings for him are blatantly clear, of course. Since they locked minds earlier, he’s felt love, arousal, fondness, sex - you name it - all mixing around between the two of them. He concentrates for a moment on a tenuous thread… There’s maybe a tiny bit of fear there. Fear of commitment, maybe?

Josh supposes that’s where he was taking this whole thing - commitment. Warren had been a bit of a playboy before they’d met, and the two of them hadn’t made any promises, to be sure. I shouldn’t have made a big deal out of this, though.

Frankly, he could barely imagine life without Warren at this point, something that should probably scare the crap out of him. And it did, a little. The idea that someone could hurt Warren - or kill him! - made him queasy. It was a little scary, as well, that he could love someone that much. Maybe it was silly, but when he wakes up in the morning - every morning - his heart gives a little jump the first time he thinks of Warren. I hope that never goes away... Suddenly he wants to say exactly that, but he holds his tongue, waiting for a response. Oh, what did I do?

> "I love you, Josh. Not just “more than I’ve ever loved anybody else”… I never even dreamed I could feel like this about anyone, and have them feel the same, and..." [...] "I want to wake up every morning to see you there, right there, looking at me like that. Nothing else, noone else. Just you. Always."

“Oh, Warren. I love you too, so much. So much. I’ve never…” He chokes a little on his words. “I’ve never known that love could be like this.” Josh dabs at Warren’s eyes with the corner of the pillowcase, and plants a soft kiss on his lips, snaking an arm down his back, to rest at his hip.

Josh lays there, arms wrapped around Warren, head on his shoulder, feet tangled in the sheet. <You mean so much to me…>