Shade’s shadow had strewn itself throughout the interior of the car as it sped down through the lone, nearly country road. The sun’s radiance, brilliant and exotic, spliced through the thick trees overhead and made static the corona of the sun as it burst through the moon roof. Diligently viewing the road, Seiko kept at a conservative speed, very loose and relaxed. Nailo, however, felt totally out of place. He had never been out into the world beyond his home city, and the new scenery was a trip from Russia to Jamaica.
Seiko tried to ease his mate’s uneasy senses with a gentle touch, hand on hand, on the arm rest between their seats. Sharing a quick glance, he sent a visual massage to help return the homely feel they usually traded off and never lost. Nailo spoke out for the first time in nearly half-an-hour, voice scratchy and unsure.
“So…this girl…Ebony…you and her have some…uhh…’history’?” In all honesty, he truly knew nothing about Seiko’s life before it had happened with him. The past had always been a shady topic for him, if for no other reason than because of his own depressing youth.
Seiko caught the uneasy comment and gripped it tight by the balls. “Yeah. High school sweet-hearts, believe it or not.” In a singular moment, Nailo felt the icy breath of a horrid doubt nearing his shoulders.
“Say…umm…what…!?” The childish excitement of the statement made Seiko’s laugh smile.
“Let’s just say she was my wake up call…and oddly enough, she supported me through it all.”
Nailo’s curiosity now met an all-time high. All his uneasy tendencies burned away under the friction of the tires on the coarse road. “So you’re telling me you faked your ‘straightness’ in high school?” Seiko made a quick nod. “Damn…I couldn’t imagine hiding like that…I’d lose it.”
“Well, to be honest, I wasn’t hiding, per-say. She was everything I thought I wanted in a lover, and I simply overlooked the whole gender boundary.”
“Wow…that’s definitely not something I would’ve ever tried…” Seiko’s face took on an oddly grim texture.
“It wasn’t me experimenting or anything…I really did think I was in love with her. I just didn’t realize I was lying to her and myself the whole time and that what I really loved about her was her personality.”
“Personality…right…” Nailo’s tone took on the role of a superficial judge, skeptical of any such idea as relationship based on personality.
“Don’t give me that…” The heat in the cab jumped, unnatural tension running high and conflicting personas locking horns. The AC killed the discomfort almost instantly. “You really are a flame...” More laughter and Nailo’s head found a comfortable spot on the shoulder of a handsome pilot.
A minute pause passed by in a ten-second stretch of time, and the flame again decided to cut the silence down. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been out of the city before.”
“Really?” The comment caught Seiko by surprise…and disbelief.
“Yup…the closest I’ve ever gotten to the country is the so called ‘suburbia’ half of the city.”
“You’ve been missing out if all you’ve ever had for a backdrop are crumbling stone and glass.” Another pause passed by.
“That was really corny, Seiko.” Laughs prevailed again.
“Maybe we should spend the night out here…you know…’have a good time’…” Nailo’s delighted smile took on a devilish tone. A prolonged glance toward each other and thoughts already began to rush.
Attention repaid to the road, the dusty “off-ramp” caught the corner of the pilot’s eye. “Here were are.” The turn in came sharply, the car nearly skipping past the dirt cross-road. Before the final destination, a column of trees and foreign vegetation played guard over the property. Melancholy willows dominated the region, emitting a pleasant undertone through their sacrifice of glee. Chopped up between heavy bark, the barely manageable figure of a house finally showed itself. It was a lonely little place, but full of the TLC usually found in a grandmother’s home. The building brought cheer to Seiko’s face, whereas Nailo stared with wide eyes.
The car putt itself out beside a rain-and-dirt stained mini-van, a jungle within as seen through its windows. Both of them sat still for a brief moment, another piece of time wasted in silence. Nailo still had his head on Seiko’s shoulder.
“You feel all right about doing this? I won’t make you go in.” he meant the comment in all sincerity.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Smiles molested their faces again, and the two shifted in the car for a brief, but profoundly passionate, kiss.
Exiting the car with choreographed precision, they walked up the porch stairs and faced each other, yet again, as if their faces lacked the ability to separate at all. Seiko pulled an antique wooden screen away from an antique wooden door, and clapped hard on an antique wooden knocker, listening to the scurry of feet on the other side on an antique wooden floor.
“Alright now. One more thing before we go in. We need to play a bit ‘G’ rated while we’re here, okay, Nailo?” The comment puzzled him immensely.
“Why the he-” he was cut off instantly by the creak of an opening door and the squeal of a small child.
“DADDY!”
Seiko curled down instantly and lifted the young pup into the air. “Hey! What’ve you been up to?”
“Nuttin’.”
“Is Mommy here?” The boy piercingly darted his eyes to the stranger behind “Daddy.” He suddenly grew very quiet and shy.
“Yeah. One minute.”
The whole lot of them walked into a beautifully built home resembling the kinds of homes in old southern country films about the 1800’s. Hardwood floor panels felt cold to the touch, wallpaper of random red flowers gave the room a unique visual scent, and amazingly crafted china filled an array of curio cabinets. To offset the antique nature of the home, children’s toys piled sky-high in the living room they stood in, and a random driving video game was on the TV. Developing the atmosphere of the country again were lace curtains distorting the yellow shadows on the walls. Every miniscule detail made Nailo drool.
Seiko led him to the love seat at the far back of the room and offered the seat a bit late as his rump already accepted the spot gladly. The young boy ran back into the room hastily and rejoined his mind with the rotten egg of a video game he had been playing before the interruption. Following not too far behind was a fairly young girl, wearing a somewhat-above-mid-thigh skirt and extremely baggy blouse. Her style of attire contrasted the house in compare to the child’s jeans and white T-shirt, full of grass stains.
With arms opened wide, Seiko arose and embraced the young woman. “Ah…Ebony…I haven’t seen you for so long!” She returned the warm favor.
“Hey, hun. I missed you! And who is this you brought along?” Nailo looked up from the couch with blood flowing through his cheeks.
“That would be Nailo.” Ebony and Seiko shared the same type of glance that had been shared with Nailo countless times before.
“Finally met someone, huh? Oh wow! I’m so happy for you guys!”
She took a seat on the larger sofa perpendicular to the love seat, next to her son. Seiko took the obvious seat beside his little flame. Mr. Flame felt completely lost in an endless of confusion, and stared with an unnatural blankness toward the TV in order to avoid the social encounters he would normally embrace.
“Not so easy around the women, huh?” Ebony said with a giggle.
“Oh no, no…it’s not that…it’s just…umm…”
“I haven’t told him anything much about our little history, Eb. Care to share?” Nailo became the cute little laughable kid he might have once been, if not but for a moment in time.
“Well…this whole ‘daddy’ thing has me a bit lost.” He smiled in Ebony’s direction, trying with all his might to hold back the blush.
“Eb” took the honor of telling the tale. “Seiko and I were high school hubbies for the longest time.”
“That much he told me.” The comment was sarcastically biting.
Seiko took on the next chapter of the tale. “We met in the Drama Club, of all places. That used to be one of our common passions. It probably still is one of hers.”
“Maybe…!” More smiling.
“Anyway, I guess I could say that was my big ‘denial’ period and instinct told me to grab at the one girl I felt most comfortable with. Obviously, Eb and I had a lot in common, so I stole after her.” More uneasy glances blended into uneasy silence.
“The deal is, we lasted for three long years and I had always known something was special about him. I can’t say I didn’t expect it either.”
“Our relationship hit a rough spot, and for some odd reason…” he trailed off and whispered “sex,” the continued, “…seemed like the universal solvent.”
Nailo felt the need to pop in a word or two. “So you’re really his daddy?”
“Sure am.” Seiko admitted it with pride.
The flame soon whispered, “Does he know?”
“Yup. He’s alright with it and all. He has enough of his dad in him to be more mature than most 6 year olds.” Ebony gave an affirming gesture toward Nailo, simply to try and calm his still active nerves.
On a completely random interval, the pup tossed his game aside and hopped right into Seiko’s lap. “Daddy!” He cried aloud again, Daddy rearing forward from the impact.
“Chase, I wan’t you to say hi to daddy’s new friend.”
“Hi.” The boy said, in a quiet and innocent voice. He was more shy than his father.
“Hey there, Chase. I’m Nailo.” The two shook hands and the kid hopped from one lap to the other. It was Nailo’s turn to rear forward. “UUF!”
The room blew up in homely laughter. Ebony lifted the child from Nailo’s now-sore lap and Seiko nuzzled against Nailo, laying an arm around him. Mr. Flame seemed oddly uncomfortable with it.
“No worries. He's a big boy. There’s nothing wrong with you two showing affection around here. He’ll make the same reaction whether it’s girls and boys or you two.”
“YUCK!” the child shouted playfully. Homely laughter again bred butterflies in all of their stomachs.
“How’ve you been doing in school, anyway? Your mom tells me you’re nothing but trouble in there!”
“Nah-uh!”
“Mmhm…so when the teacher tells you to glue you butt to the seat, you were only listening to directions, right?” Ebony said with tormenting sarcasm.
“MOM!” Homely laughter became some infectious disease and again the room was plagued with it.
“Hey Mr. Nailo…wanna see me beat the game? It’s real cool!” He was proud of his abilities and was desperate to show them off.
“Chase, come on now. You play that enough.”
“But Mom, I’ll do it really quick! I wanna show-”
“Chase I said n-”
“It’s alright, I don’t mind. Really I don’t.” Nailo stopped with his outcast tone and became one with the family.
“Yeah! You’re gunna love it!” As the pup went on to his gaming, the adults went back to their conversation unnoticed. Nailo found himself comfortable as ever in breaking the silence he so often demolished.
“That’s really neat that the both of you are still such tight friends. Usually things don’t work out that way for people.” His tone shifted to one of complete admiration.
Seiko responded. “You’re right. If I were her I would’ve beaten me dead by now.”
“Nah…I will admit, I was pissed at you for a while, but no one can stay mad at someone as nice as you for long.”
“Oh good lord…again with the ‘nice guy’ thing.” Seiko had obviously heard the spiel many times before.
“God…he has such an inferiority complex.”
Nailo corroborated. “I know…God forbid he admit he’s as great a find as he knows he is.” The lover boys tossed playful glances of anger, giggled and tapped foreheads.
“Are you guys going to stay here for the night or did you just come to show off your new boyfriend?” More sarcastic glares.
“Actually, we were going to camp out in the woods tonight. Nailo here hasn’t been out of the city in his life until today.”
“My God, you have to be kidding me! You don’t know what you’re missing!”
“So everyone tells me…”
“I figure we’ll just lay out by the beach near the river. You can see that stars really well there.”
Ebony took her turn at biting remarks. “Does he know what stars are?” Homely laughter from every pore and oraface.
Chase soon broke in, moreover speaking to himself than the group. “WHOA! Did you just see what I did! Man, tell me you saw that!”
“If you guys intend to get settled wherever you’re both going, you’d better get started now. Night comes by really early anymore.”
“Alright, then. Thanks for having us over!”
“Thanks for coming over!” Seiko and Ebony shared a tight embrace, paralleled only by the embrace Nailo traded with her as well.
“It was great meeting you!”
“And you too, there, boy! Chase! Get over here and hug your Daddies goodbye.”
The ornery little boy hopped up immediately and flew into his dad’s arms. The two hugged bear-tight, and then the same was shared with “daddy number 2.”
“See you later, boys!”
Walking out of the welcoming house was almost a depressing event, but at the same time a certain satisfaction pulsed through their veins. Nailo, in particular, was amazingly cheery, being that his life had always been lacking of the powerful family bond. It was the mouthwatering cheesecake he’d always lusted for at the bakery window…or the hot young blood sitting next to him in the car.
“You ready to feel a session of mother nature?” The joke was almost no joke at all. Nailo nodded and leaned his head again on his loving little pillow and drifted into mesclum as Seiko drove them to a place unknown.
* * *
Illuminated by the melancholy evanescence of a pale blue moon, Seiko’s already pale coat lit the waters of the lake around him. Along with Nailo in his tired arms, he and his lover sat in the cool surf, which curled around their naked bodies and caressed them tenderly. The forest in which they resided was unnaturally quiet, not a gull squawking or small mammal scurrying. On every off beat, the plop of fresh water could be heard in the distance, most likely the noise made by alert fish with little better to do than change environments for seconds at a time. The wind was barely alive, and the volume of the cricket’s chirping seemed muffled and mute. Regardless, the shore was serene and inviting as ever, the perfect exposure for the foreign Nailo.
Seiko’s hands coveted their mate’s palms, tying their finger tightly together in an unbreakable bond. Neither had a care in the world, and their home city could rot in its own filth while they would live in utopia forever. Nailo found his position oddly comfortable, worthy of the butterflies trying to escape his stomach. He sat just in front of his mate, relaxed and leaning into his chest. Seiko’s legs caged him in on either side, and the bold arms coming over his shoulders and firm hands laced with his seemed to hold him in an esteem unfamiliar until this point.
Although each of them had some underlying issue that was drowning and begging to surface, their mouths remained sealed and all vocal ensemble was suppressed. The everlasting moment was far too good to spoil with some trivial comment. Nailo in particular wanted more than ever to speak with him. Something, some past-time uncertain, held him back.
Seiko moved, for the first time in the history of this event, and kissed the far-back side of his mate’s neck. On impulse, the young flame allowed his eyes to drift quietly shut, and loosened every muscle in his body just that little bit more. Grazing his soft and powerful hands along his partner’s side, Seiko continued his incessant sweet kissing, nearly licking the edge of Nailo’s finely grooved mouth as he tilted his love’s head up and to the side, tasting his delicious flavor.
The process continued for some time; they were much too tired to move the rest their muscles. Relaxation had caused them to suffer atrophy. Tired sweetness overtook the night, and their loving drew in and out with the whoosh of the tide, and the tide was high.