a bit past midday on a lazy sunday, alex gets a text from his little brother: mom and dad at barbecue. come over. he knew what it meant: super mario bros time. truly, he could think of better ways to waste time, but they mostly involved booze, debauchery and the nighttime. he could engage in those in the evening; spending the afternoon with ethan didn't sound like the worst of plans. they had a good rapport, after they grew out of the roughhousing and wall-punching phase.
bring luke, a third message came in after he sent a simple k. oh, that made sense. truth be told, ethan didn't have that many friends, so he didn't mind sharing his best friend for a bit. something about luke always seemed to balance out their dynamic, anyway. he gave a soft edge to alex's teasing. their hang-outs were always, in the jargon of his dorky baby bro, epic.
when he called up luke, though, their conversation took a new path. it grew a pit in his stomach, and a tent in his boxers. they get to his parents' house, and both the pit and his boner are throbbing. he takes a minute getting out of his car, lets his friend lead the way, which he decides he'll do in the whole thing.
luke gives a big bro hug and a shuffle of ethan's hair; asks how long's been since they last saw each other, calls alex a dick for not inviting over more, and chats up the kid. he and alex go all the way back to the first week of high school; ethan's basically his little brother. they follow each other on twitter, they're sharing memes on insta, liking each other's stories. he couldn't pinpoint exactly when the little snotty kid got a new perspective in his eyes, but he'd been thinking about it for a while now.
he puts the beer in the bridge, teases alex about his time in the car, and soon they're heading into the living room. compliments the new gaming set-up, letting the kid rant about it for a bit; exchanges knowing glances with alex, the anticipation firing him up. but he's commando, so he snatches a pillow over to his lap and forces himself to calm down and lock-in. don't fumble the pretty boy.
after a good forty five minutes of gaming (he wishes he could say he lost to soft up ethan's ego — the kid's just a fuck deal better than him), he gives alex a subtle little nod, eyes then setting on the other brother's face. and what a fuckable face.
"pause it, i'll go check on the beer." showtime, baby...
luke nudges the other's knee with his own, lips curling up all sweet when their eyes meet. "hey, i've been... i've been meaning to ask — i mean, i asked alex, but he said he didn't know, um..." he splay his hand on his own knees, letting just his little finger wander and touch ethan's much paler leg. there's an underlying anxiety to his tone, sure, but he definitely plays it up. it's endearing, he's come to realize. call him cocky, call him r4pey pervy — he knows he'll be tapping that ass in ten minutes max.
"you're, y'know, you're pretty cute, so i wanted to, like, check - you don't really talk about it, but... do you, like, have a girlfriend, or-" his smile opens wide, showing perfect whites, head tilting like he's embarrassed to say it. "you know, a boyfriend, or...?" his hand is urging to splay across the other's thigh, squeeze the flesh 'till it's red, and reach up those shorts... but he waits. he trying to be sweet about it. he likes the kid for real, and he's a good kid. he'll be a good boy.
