Posting a very old story because it doesn't appear to exist on the forum. If you like it, the author's site is no longer online, but some of the pages are still archived on the Way Back Machine.
Hidden Rose Garden
Danny's face flushed with anger as he said three words I hadn't heard since I was a little girl.
"He started it!"
Back then it had been my brother's voice, whining in protest as Sister Virginia led him down the hall by the arm. Now it was the voice of a grad school student who, though younger than me, was certainly old enough to know better. My friend Amira and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.
I'd been so pleased when Amira and Sean accepted my offer to stay at our place for a couple of weeks while they hunted for an apartment. I'd been so sure Danny and Sean would become fast friends. After all, they had so much in common. They'd both grown up in the inner city, in working-class families. Both were athletic and street-smart; book-smart too, in a math-and-science kind of way. Both, however, also shared numerous other traits, including a fierce competitive streak.
The two hellions had been at each other's throats nearly from the start. Sean, who was only an inch and a half taller than Danny's five-eleven, had offered to retrieve a jar for me from the highest kitchen shelf. "Let me get that," he'd said offhandedly. "You might as well enjoy having a tall person around the house." Danny had snorted derisively. Things had gone downhill from there.
Over the past week and a half, subtle jibes had escalated to insults and overt hostility. Danny used his home turf advantage, giving Sean directions to the grocery store that took him twenty miles out of his way. The black-haired Sean earnestly claimed to have learned in his freshman anthropology class that red hair was a sign of inbreeding. Danny claimed to have biblical knowledge of Sean's mother. Sean demurred in a way that impugned Danny's heterosexuality. And so on, until events culminated in a nasty shoving match in the living room, during which the coffee table's glass top was smashed to bits.
We separated them and they stood there panting, scowling at each other across the room. Sean's lip was cracked and bleeding. Broken glass had lodged painfully in Danny's palm.
"Don't you dare move," I warned Danny as I ran to fetch first-aid supplies. When I returned, Amira was lecturing them both. "I have had it up to here with you two! Especially you, Sean. You're a guest in Danny's house. You should have more respect for your hosts. I'm embarrassed to death by your behavior!" Danny smirked.
Even as I bandaged Danny's hand, I protested. "No, Amira, Danny's deliberately gone out of his way to provoke Sean. I don't know what's with these two. I think they both need a serious attitude adjustment, if you know what I mean."
"Oh, I know exactly what you mean," Amira agreed vehemently.
Danny and Sean glanced nervously at each other, then looked quickly away. Each struggled to appear more nonchalant than the other.
"So...uh...how 'bout those Mets, huh?" Danny joked sheepishly. Sean snorted. The two unmistakably straight men looked uncomfortable lined up next to each other on Danny's bed. Amira and I feasted our eyes on the fidgeting miscreants. And why shouldn't we? I mean, come on! Here were two athletic young men in their early twenties, stripped to the waist, and tied by their wrists and ankles to a big old brass bed. Danny was wearing faded jeans and Sean had on army fatigues. Both men were barefoot and beautiful. There they lay, stretched out side by side, awaiting their joint punishment. Sean on the left, Danny on the right. It was almost too good to be true.
With a dramatic flourish Amira picked up the egg timer and held it where Sean and Danny could see. She turned the dial slowly: five minutes...ten...fifteen... She glanced at me and I motioned to her to keep going. As the dial passed the twenty-minute mark both men protested. "Hey! Come on, let's not go crazy here!" Twenty-five... They shut up abruptly as indignation gave way to fear. At thirty, I heard Danny whisper, "Ohmigod." Thirty-five... Sean closed his eyes tightly and bit his lip. At forty I signaled Amira to stop. She set the timer on the dresser where they couldn't see it, but they could hear it ticking loudly.
Then the tickling began. Amira and I didn't need fancy implements. No feathers, no electric toothbrushes, just good old-fashioned fingernails, tapered red ovals from hell. We started slowly, running the backs of our nails up and down their sides and across their bellies. They gasped and tensed their muscles. Neither of the two males wanted to be the first to break down. This made punishing them together more amusing. The strain on both their faces was evident as they struggled to contain themselves.
They didn't hold out long. A mere two minutes into their punishment both men were giggling uncontrollably, twisting and straining against their bonds. Amira and I exchanged a furtive glance. Her eyes glittered. The combined mirth of the two men poured over us in a delightful deluge. We were bathed in laughter.
At first we each tickled our respective partners individually. After about ten minutes, we gave them a one-minute break, and then double-teamed each man in turn. We attacked Danny first. I started on his sides, lightly scratching my nails over the soft white skin just above his hipbones, then upward across his ribcage. He squirmed frantically, as if my fingers were burning him. Amira gripped Danny's foot tightly in one hand and tormented it with the other, scraping vigorously up and down his soles, more lightly at the base of his toes. My fingers continued their inexorable journey upward until they landed in the dark tufts of hair under his arms. Danny shrieked as if he'd been electrocuted.
The atmosphere in the room changed. Danny's laughter grew increasingly pained, and soon he went deadly quiet, convulsing in agonized silence. His face was flushed, his head thrashing from side to side, his eyes screwed shut. Tears spilled down the sides of his face. We tickled him in long, relentless waves, occasionally letting up lest he pass out. During the lulls Danny begged between gasps for breath. "Please," he panted, his mind too shattered to produce any other word. His belly heaved in and out. "Please...please..."
Sean looked on in horror, knowing he was next.
"Lift up." I scrunched up a pillow and shoved it under Danny's pelvis so that his bottom was raised nice and high, and Amira followed suit with Sean. The two "boys", as we had taken to calling them, were still bound to the bed. They'd been flipped over, and their pants were bunched up around their thighs. Four muscular white buttocks were thrust upward, waiting to be reddened. Danny and Sean stared straight ahead, avoiding each other's eyes. Each was still determined to outdo the other's stoicism.
No lecture, no warm-up. Just a silent nod to signal that the hairbrushing was to begin. Almost immediately the room was filled with the sharp, rhythmic clapping of wood against flesh. I didn't hold back, and it didn't sound as if Amira was holding back, either. Again and again I cracked the brush against Danny's upturned bottom cheeks, determined to get my message through loud and clear. "Fighting...is not... acceptable!" I reminded him. He grunted into the mattress and twitched in discomfort. On the other side of the bed I heard a gasp escape from Sean's clenched teeth. White flesh quivered and became pink.
"You're a very...very...naughty...naughty...boy!" I heard Amira say at one point. Most of the time we remained silent; the only sounds were the repeated gunshot cracks of two brushes against two burning, blameworthy behinds. Danny's narrow hips began to wriggle and he exhaled loudly with each blow. I saw him duck his head way down, trying to bite the pillow to muffle his cries. Failing that, he ground his face into the sheet. His efforts to maintain some semblance of dignity in front of Sean grew increasingly useless. The backs of his ears were red, which told me he was crying.
"It hurts, doesn't it!" I said, making it harder for him. "Believe me, your little ass is gonna be smoking by the time I'm through with you, young man!" With grim determination, I continued my rapid-fire assault. Danny was going to be one very sorry little boy when I was finished.
Halfway through, Amira and I switched sides. We'd decided beforehand that it would be more humiliating for them that way--punished by "outsiders". As I approached Sean I could see he had been crying.
The switch seemed to shock our young reprobates. Sean began to whimper almost immediately when I started in on him. Hearing this, Danny apparently decided it was okay to let go. Soon both boys were sniffling and ooching and ouching with abandon. Amira and I looked knowingly at each other and continued. The breakdown had begun. No longer were Sean and Danny two macho men competing for the status of alpha male. No, they were rapidly transforming into two naughty, teary-eyed little boys with red-hot bottoms. This was when the education began for real. Each blistering smack now fell on an already well-smacked heinie, driving the point home again and again. Sniffles became long, hiccupy wails. Wriggles became violent spasms. Lightly toasted became flame-broiled.
It took far too long to get the desired result from our stubborn brat-boys, but with dogged persistence we eventually we reached their breaking point. It seemed to happen to both of them at once. Almost in unison Danny and Sean began to howl and beg.
"Owwwwww! Okay, okay, I pro--OUCH! I promise--"
"No more...please! AAHHH-huh! Ahh-hooowww!"
"I'll be good! I swear--OWW-owwww!"
"I'll never fight--AAHH-jeeeziss!--I'll never fight again! Uunnghh!"
On my signal, Amira and I finished up with a series of quick, bristle-side smacks, just to add a little "hot pepper" to the finale. Our efforts were rewarded with surprised-sounding yelps from the boys. They hadn't expected this. The black bristles left prickly-fiery dots on their skin that must have stung like the devil.
At last we untied their wrists and ankles, but instructed them not the leave the bed. "Here's some lotion. If you want it, you can use it, but you have to put it on each other."
Grudgingly Danny accepted the tube of salve. Wrinkling his nose, he squeezed a blob of it onto Sean's blazing red behind. He began rubbing it in with a rough slap that made Sean wince. "Hey! Do it nice," I warned, brandishing the hairbrush threateningly. Danny sighed and obeyed, then lay back down on his stomach. As Sean reluctantly prepared to reciprocate, Danny muttered, "Try not to enjoy it too much." Sean retorted, "Yeah, you love it, you f--kin'--" and uttered a homophobic slur. Danny sat up and swore at Sean in a way that suggested an Oedipal family relationship. In a heartbeat they were at it again, rolling around on the bed, fists flailing. They fell onto the floor and overturned a lamp. The bulb shattered. Amira screamed, "You little shits better stop that right now, do you hear me? RIGHT NOW!"
Five minutes later Amira and I were sitting on opposite sides of the bed, each staring down at an obdurate male bottom, each wielding a well-warmed hairbrush for the second time that day. Once again the room was filled with the sounds of naughty boys getting their due. I sighed. My arm was getting tired.
"Shake hands," I ordered. Thoroughly cowed, Danny and Sean obeyed. "Now hug each other." The two men were too exhausted and well-punished to protest. All traces of their former hostility had vanished from their tear-streaked faces, replaced with penitance. They embraced without incident: no grimaces, no sarcastic remarks, no shoving.
"What do you say?" I prodded. Danny lowered his eyes and said softly but sincerely, "I'm sorry, man. I acted like an asshole." Sean offered a similarly concise apology.
"Now kiss and make up," Amira commanded. The two men stared at us open-mouthed. I nodded my confirmation. It would be a good lesson in humility for each swaggering cock-of-the-walk to plant a nice, big wet one on the other. "On the lips," I added. "And make it good."
Sean and Danny blushed furiously. They were mortified, but they had no choice but to comply. A direct order was a direct order. They looked at each other and laughed wrily. "What were you saying about those Mets?" Sean asked.
"Stop stalling. Go on, you heard me." Amira tapped her foot impatiently. The two men leaned awkwardly toward each other. When their lips met, Amira told them to stay that way until further notice. "Put your arms around each other." I saw their shoulders shake with laughter as they did so. "And stop that giggling! There's nothing humorous about this," Amira snapped. When I looked over at her, I could see she was fighting hard not to laugh. Their exaggerated discomfiture was amusing, but I had to admit the sight was also rather sexy.
When Amira finally relented, Danny and Sean separated, breathing a sigh of relief and wiping their mouths with their hands.
"Are you two going to play nice now?" I asked. They nodded.
"Well, all right, then. You can go watch TV. I rented 'Enter the Dragon'." They both raised their eyebrows in surprised guy-approval before dashing off to the family room to watch Bruce Lee crunch people's bones. When I looked in on them later, they were lying on the floor, drinking beer and sharing a bowl of microwave popcorn. Danny lay on his stomach. Sean lay on his side. I smiled at the sight of the empty sofa and recliner.
At some point during all that embarrassing tickling and spanking and making up, Danny and Sean seemed to have overcome their aversion to each other and formed a lasting bond. I suppose that's the kind of shared experience that, like combat, makes a friendship stick. Each knew the other's deepest secret; each had seen the other at his worst, heard his cries of mirth and pain.
And, of course, now they had a common enemy against whom to conspire: me and Amira.
It was the last night Amira and Sean were to stay with us. They'd found an apartment not far from Amira's new job, and would move in tomorrow. Danny and Sean surprised us with a gourmet dinner they'd prepared with a little help from the local caterer.
After dinner, Danny took me aside and said he had something to tell me that I wasn't going to like. He looked uncomfortable.
"It's your friend Amira. I know she's your friend, and all, but she...well...she made a pass at me this morning. I talked to Sean about it, and he says she does that all the time. If you confront her about it, she'll just deny it, or accuse you of the same thing."
I gasped in horror and disbelief. "You're kidding me! Why, that--" Incensed, I stomped into the kitchen where Amira and Sean were drinking coffee. Danny followed me.
"Where the hell do you get off trying to hit on Danny right under my own roof?" I demanded.
Amira reared up and did her cobra-neck dance. "Excuse me? Sean just told me how you tried to get down his pants today! I can't believe you would do that!"
"Me! What are you talking about? You're the one who's been hitting on Danny!"
"Oh, don't try to put ME on the defensive. I thought you were my friend!"
"Oh, please, don't make me laugh! Some friend you turned out to be! First you try to hit on Danny, and then you accuse me to cover it up! Skank!"
"Cow!"
"Whore!"
Amira gasped as if she'd been struck. Uh-oh, I thought warily as she moved toward me. She was tougher than me, the type of girl who had been in fistfights as a teenager, while I'd been the type to run away and live to fight another day. But I stood my ground, and when she shoved my chest I reached out and yanked her hair, pulling her back with me.
"Girls, girls!" Danny and Sean pried us apart. "Fighting is not acceptable," Danny reminded me slyly.
"That's right," Sean chimed in. "Remember what you two did to us for fighting? Now you turn around and do the exact same thing you busted our butts for! That's not fair, is it?"
We had to admit it. We weren't practicing what we'd preached.
Danny continued. "I think what you two need is a little taste of your own medicine! I mean, you ladies really put us through the wringer last Friday. Don't you think it's only fair for me and Sean to give you a little glimpse of what that was like? I mean, you're not exactly setting a good example for us!" He had us there. We'd be hypocrites if we begged off now. Amira and I both nodded grimly.
As Danny and Sean led us up the stairs I saw them grin at each other as if they shared an amusing secret. I knew then that Amira had never made a pass at Danny. And, obviously, I knew I'd never made advances toward Sean. The two brat-boys had set us up, knowing we both had jealous natures. They'd planned this from the very beginning.
I looked at the excited smile on Danny's face, and decided to keep my mouth shut. After all, I thought, every dog has his day.
Hidden Rose Garden
BOYS WILL BE BOYS (FF/MM)
by Rose BlushPart 1 - Busted
Danny's face flushed with anger as he said three words I hadn't heard since I was a little girl.
"He started it!"
Back then it had been my brother's voice, whining in protest as Sister Virginia led him down the hall by the arm. Now it was the voice of a grad school student who, though younger than me, was certainly old enough to know better. My friend Amira and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.
I'd been so pleased when Amira and Sean accepted my offer to stay at our place for a couple of weeks while they hunted for an apartment. I'd been so sure Danny and Sean would become fast friends. After all, they had so much in common. They'd both grown up in the inner city, in working-class families. Both were athletic and street-smart; book-smart too, in a math-and-science kind of way. Both, however, also shared numerous other traits, including a fierce competitive streak.
The two hellions had been at each other's throats nearly from the start. Sean, who was only an inch and a half taller than Danny's five-eleven, had offered to retrieve a jar for me from the highest kitchen shelf. "Let me get that," he'd said offhandedly. "You might as well enjoy having a tall person around the house." Danny had snorted derisively. Things had gone downhill from there.
Over the past week and a half, subtle jibes had escalated to insults and overt hostility. Danny used his home turf advantage, giving Sean directions to the grocery store that took him twenty miles out of his way. The black-haired Sean earnestly claimed to have learned in his freshman anthropology class that red hair was a sign of inbreeding. Danny claimed to have biblical knowledge of Sean's mother. Sean demurred in a way that impugned Danny's heterosexuality. And so on, until events culminated in a nasty shoving match in the living room, during which the coffee table's glass top was smashed to bits.
We separated them and they stood there panting, scowling at each other across the room. Sean's lip was cracked and bleeding. Broken glass had lodged painfully in Danny's palm.
"Don't you dare move," I warned Danny as I ran to fetch first-aid supplies. When I returned, Amira was lecturing them both. "I have had it up to here with you two! Especially you, Sean. You're a guest in Danny's house. You should have more respect for your hosts. I'm embarrassed to death by your behavior!" Danny smirked.
Even as I bandaged Danny's hand, I protested. "No, Amira, Danny's deliberately gone out of his way to provoke Sean. I don't know what's with these two. I think they both need a serious attitude adjustment, if you know what I mean."
"Oh, I know exactly what you mean," Amira agreed vehemently.
Danny and Sean glanced nervously at each other, then looked quickly away. Each struggled to appear more nonchalant than the other.
Part 2 - Tickled
"So...uh...how 'bout those Mets, huh?" Danny joked sheepishly. Sean snorted. The two unmistakably straight men looked uncomfortable lined up next to each other on Danny's bed. Amira and I feasted our eyes on the fidgeting miscreants. And why shouldn't we? I mean, come on! Here were two athletic young men in their early twenties, stripped to the waist, and tied by their wrists and ankles to a big old brass bed. Danny was wearing faded jeans and Sean had on army fatigues. Both men were barefoot and beautiful. There they lay, stretched out side by side, awaiting their joint punishment. Sean on the left, Danny on the right. It was almost too good to be true.
With a dramatic flourish Amira picked up the egg timer and held it where Sean and Danny could see. She turned the dial slowly: five minutes...ten...fifteen... She glanced at me and I motioned to her to keep going. As the dial passed the twenty-minute mark both men protested. "Hey! Come on, let's not go crazy here!" Twenty-five... They shut up abruptly as indignation gave way to fear. At thirty, I heard Danny whisper, "Ohmigod." Thirty-five... Sean closed his eyes tightly and bit his lip. At forty I signaled Amira to stop. She set the timer on the dresser where they couldn't see it, but they could hear it ticking loudly.
Then the tickling began. Amira and I didn't need fancy implements. No feathers, no electric toothbrushes, just good old-fashioned fingernails, tapered red ovals from hell. We started slowly, running the backs of our nails up and down their sides and across their bellies. They gasped and tensed their muscles. Neither of the two males wanted to be the first to break down. This made punishing them together more amusing. The strain on both their faces was evident as they struggled to contain themselves.
They didn't hold out long. A mere two minutes into their punishment both men were giggling uncontrollably, twisting and straining against their bonds. Amira and I exchanged a furtive glance. Her eyes glittered. The combined mirth of the two men poured over us in a delightful deluge. We were bathed in laughter.
At first we each tickled our respective partners individually. After about ten minutes, we gave them a one-minute break, and then double-teamed each man in turn. We attacked Danny first. I started on his sides, lightly scratching my nails over the soft white skin just above his hipbones, then upward across his ribcage. He squirmed frantically, as if my fingers were burning him. Amira gripped Danny's foot tightly in one hand and tormented it with the other, scraping vigorously up and down his soles, more lightly at the base of his toes. My fingers continued their inexorable journey upward until they landed in the dark tufts of hair under his arms. Danny shrieked as if he'd been electrocuted.
The atmosphere in the room changed. Danny's laughter grew increasingly pained, and soon he went deadly quiet, convulsing in agonized silence. His face was flushed, his head thrashing from side to side, his eyes screwed shut. Tears spilled down the sides of his face. We tickled him in long, relentless waves, occasionally letting up lest he pass out. During the lulls Danny begged between gasps for breath. "Please," he panted, his mind too shattered to produce any other word. His belly heaved in and out. "Please...please..."
Sean looked on in horror, knowing he was next.
Part 3 - Spanked
"Lift up." I scrunched up a pillow and shoved it under Danny's pelvis so that his bottom was raised nice and high, and Amira followed suit with Sean. The two "boys", as we had taken to calling them, were still bound to the bed. They'd been flipped over, and their pants were bunched up around their thighs. Four muscular white buttocks were thrust upward, waiting to be reddened. Danny and Sean stared straight ahead, avoiding each other's eyes. Each was still determined to outdo the other's stoicism.
No lecture, no warm-up. Just a silent nod to signal that the hairbrushing was to begin. Almost immediately the room was filled with the sharp, rhythmic clapping of wood against flesh. I didn't hold back, and it didn't sound as if Amira was holding back, either. Again and again I cracked the brush against Danny's upturned bottom cheeks, determined to get my message through loud and clear. "Fighting...is not... acceptable!" I reminded him. He grunted into the mattress and twitched in discomfort. On the other side of the bed I heard a gasp escape from Sean's clenched teeth. White flesh quivered and became pink.
"You're a very...very...naughty...naughty...boy!" I heard Amira say at one point. Most of the time we remained silent; the only sounds were the repeated gunshot cracks of two brushes against two burning, blameworthy behinds. Danny's narrow hips began to wriggle and he exhaled loudly with each blow. I saw him duck his head way down, trying to bite the pillow to muffle his cries. Failing that, he ground his face into the sheet. His efforts to maintain some semblance of dignity in front of Sean grew increasingly useless. The backs of his ears were red, which told me he was crying.
"It hurts, doesn't it!" I said, making it harder for him. "Believe me, your little ass is gonna be smoking by the time I'm through with you, young man!" With grim determination, I continued my rapid-fire assault. Danny was going to be one very sorry little boy when I was finished.
Halfway through, Amira and I switched sides. We'd decided beforehand that it would be more humiliating for them that way--punished by "outsiders". As I approached Sean I could see he had been crying.
The switch seemed to shock our young reprobates. Sean began to whimper almost immediately when I started in on him. Hearing this, Danny apparently decided it was okay to let go. Soon both boys were sniffling and ooching and ouching with abandon. Amira and I looked knowingly at each other and continued. The breakdown had begun. No longer were Sean and Danny two macho men competing for the status of alpha male. No, they were rapidly transforming into two naughty, teary-eyed little boys with red-hot bottoms. This was when the education began for real. Each blistering smack now fell on an already well-smacked heinie, driving the point home again and again. Sniffles became long, hiccupy wails. Wriggles became violent spasms. Lightly toasted became flame-broiled.
It took far too long to get the desired result from our stubborn brat-boys, but with dogged persistence we eventually we reached their breaking point. It seemed to happen to both of them at once. Almost in unison Danny and Sean began to howl and beg.
"Owwwwww! Okay, okay, I pro--OUCH! I promise--"
"No more...please! AAHHH-huh! Ahh-hooowww!"
"I'll be good! I swear--OWW-owwww!"
"I'll never fight--AAHH-jeeeziss!--I'll never fight again! Uunnghh!"
On my signal, Amira and I finished up with a series of quick, bristle-side smacks, just to add a little "hot pepper" to the finale. Our efforts were rewarded with surprised-sounding yelps from the boys. They hadn't expected this. The black bristles left prickly-fiery dots on their skin that must have stung like the devil.
At last we untied their wrists and ankles, but instructed them not the leave the bed. "Here's some lotion. If you want it, you can use it, but you have to put it on each other."
Grudgingly Danny accepted the tube of salve. Wrinkling his nose, he squeezed a blob of it onto Sean's blazing red behind. He began rubbing it in with a rough slap that made Sean wince. "Hey! Do it nice," I warned, brandishing the hairbrush threateningly. Danny sighed and obeyed, then lay back down on his stomach. As Sean reluctantly prepared to reciprocate, Danny muttered, "Try not to enjoy it too much." Sean retorted, "Yeah, you love it, you f--kin'--" and uttered a homophobic slur. Danny sat up and swore at Sean in a way that suggested an Oedipal family relationship. In a heartbeat they were at it again, rolling around on the bed, fists flailing. They fell onto the floor and overturned a lamp. The bulb shattered. Amira screamed, "You little shits better stop that right now, do you hear me? RIGHT NOW!"
Five minutes later Amira and I were sitting on opposite sides of the bed, each staring down at an obdurate male bottom, each wielding a well-warmed hairbrush for the second time that day. Once again the room was filled with the sounds of naughty boys getting their due. I sighed. My arm was getting tired.
Part 4 - Forgiven
"Shake hands," I ordered. Thoroughly cowed, Danny and Sean obeyed. "Now hug each other." The two men were too exhausted and well-punished to protest. All traces of their former hostility had vanished from their tear-streaked faces, replaced with penitance. They embraced without incident: no grimaces, no sarcastic remarks, no shoving.
"What do you say?" I prodded. Danny lowered his eyes and said softly but sincerely, "I'm sorry, man. I acted like an asshole." Sean offered a similarly concise apology.
"Now kiss and make up," Amira commanded. The two men stared at us open-mouthed. I nodded my confirmation. It would be a good lesson in humility for each swaggering cock-of-the-walk to plant a nice, big wet one on the other. "On the lips," I added. "And make it good."
Sean and Danny blushed furiously. They were mortified, but they had no choice but to comply. A direct order was a direct order. They looked at each other and laughed wrily. "What were you saying about those Mets?" Sean asked.
"Stop stalling. Go on, you heard me." Amira tapped her foot impatiently. The two men leaned awkwardly toward each other. When their lips met, Amira told them to stay that way until further notice. "Put your arms around each other." I saw their shoulders shake with laughter as they did so. "And stop that giggling! There's nothing humorous about this," Amira snapped. When I looked over at her, I could see she was fighting hard not to laugh. Their exaggerated discomfiture was amusing, but I had to admit the sight was also rather sexy.
When Amira finally relented, Danny and Sean separated, breathing a sigh of relief and wiping their mouths with their hands.
"Are you two going to play nice now?" I asked. They nodded.
"Well, all right, then. You can go watch TV. I rented 'Enter the Dragon'." They both raised their eyebrows in surprised guy-approval before dashing off to the family room to watch Bruce Lee crunch people's bones. When I looked in on them later, they were lying on the floor, drinking beer and sharing a bowl of microwave popcorn. Danny lay on his stomach. Sean lay on his side. I smiled at the sight of the empty sofa and recliner.
At some point during all that embarrassing tickling and spanking and making up, Danny and Sean seemed to have overcome their aversion to each other and formed a lasting bond. I suppose that's the kind of shared experience that, like combat, makes a friendship stick. Each knew the other's deepest secret; each had seen the other at his worst, heard his cries of mirth and pain.
And, of course, now they had a common enemy against whom to conspire: me and Amira.
Part 5 - Avenged
It was the last night Amira and Sean were to stay with us. They'd found an apartment not far from Amira's new job, and would move in tomorrow. Danny and Sean surprised us with a gourmet dinner they'd prepared with a little help from the local caterer.
After dinner, Danny took me aside and said he had something to tell me that I wasn't going to like. He looked uncomfortable.
"It's your friend Amira. I know she's your friend, and all, but she...well...she made a pass at me this morning. I talked to Sean about it, and he says she does that all the time. If you confront her about it, she'll just deny it, or accuse you of the same thing."
I gasped in horror and disbelief. "You're kidding me! Why, that--" Incensed, I stomped into the kitchen where Amira and Sean were drinking coffee. Danny followed me.
"Where the hell do you get off trying to hit on Danny right under my own roof?" I demanded.
Amira reared up and did her cobra-neck dance. "Excuse me? Sean just told me how you tried to get down his pants today! I can't believe you would do that!"
"Me! What are you talking about? You're the one who's been hitting on Danny!"
"Oh, don't try to put ME on the defensive. I thought you were my friend!"
"Oh, please, don't make me laugh! Some friend you turned out to be! First you try to hit on Danny, and then you accuse me to cover it up! Skank!"
"Cow!"
"Whore!"
Amira gasped as if she'd been struck. Uh-oh, I thought warily as she moved toward me. She was tougher than me, the type of girl who had been in fistfights as a teenager, while I'd been the type to run away and live to fight another day. But I stood my ground, and when she shoved my chest I reached out and yanked her hair, pulling her back with me.
"Girls, girls!" Danny and Sean pried us apart. "Fighting is not acceptable," Danny reminded me slyly.
"That's right," Sean chimed in. "Remember what you two did to us for fighting? Now you turn around and do the exact same thing you busted our butts for! That's not fair, is it?"
We had to admit it. We weren't practicing what we'd preached.
Danny continued. "I think what you two need is a little taste of your own medicine! I mean, you ladies really put us through the wringer last Friday. Don't you think it's only fair for me and Sean to give you a little glimpse of what that was like? I mean, you're not exactly setting a good example for us!" He had us there. We'd be hypocrites if we begged off now. Amira and I both nodded grimly.
As Danny and Sean led us up the stairs I saw them grin at each other as if they shared an amusing secret. I knew then that Amira had never made a pass at Danny. And, obviously, I knew I'd never made advances toward Sean. The two brat-boys had set us up, knowing we both had jealous natures. They'd planned this from the very beginning.
I looked at the excited smile on Danny's face, and decided to keep my mouth shut. After all, I thought, every dog has his day.
