Archive of Our Own

I.

October 2025

The first time it happened, Dennis was braced over the door of the back office, hands roving over the attending doctor’s back, his tongue down Dennis’s throat.

That was the thing. Dr Robby’s tongue. Dennis used to measure his life by one line—there was before he left Broken Bow, Nebraska, and then there was after he left Broken Bow, Nebraska. Now, his life could be cut neatly in half if he counted the time before and after he met Dr Robby’s tongue. Intimately.

It dragged along the sensitive roof of his mouth before Dr Robby shifted his head just a little and then his tongue was being sucked and Dennis was groaning—

“Wait.”

“No,” Dennis said, chasing the snapping string of spit between them to Dr Robby’s beard to lick from his chin to his lips. Dr Robby sighed and fell into the kiss again, as if he couldn’t help it, and Dennis crowed internally at his victory. 

“Hey! Why’s this thing locked?”

Bangs at the door pulled them apart, and they stared at each other with wide eyes. Dr Robby’s face was entirely red. 

He cleared his throat. “Occupied.”

“Last I checked, this wasn’t a bathroom.” Despite the grumbling, footsteps could be heard slowly drifting away. Dennis relaxed and then squirmed at the heated wetness between his legs. His lips tingled, slightly numb. 

“We shouldn’t be here,” Robby whispered.

“They won’t come in though,” Dennis argued. “I’m… really close.”

Dr Robby dropped his head in his hands, looking at him over his fingers with a dark gaze and raised eyebrows. It wasn’t the first time they’d done this, but it was the first time either of them mentioned… finishing. Dr Robby sighed. “We can’t fuck,” he said, and then kneeled.

“Oh,” was punched out of Dennis’s chest at the sight. His clit literally zinged as Dr Robby put two big hands on his thighs and spread his legs apart. “Uh…”

“You won’t need to take it off.”

The vibrating tenor of Dr Robby’s voice, emanating from his chest, filtered into the air in front of his crotch, sending the hairs of his mound up with a shiver. Slow as a dream, Dr Robby turned his head and pressed a small kiss to the cloth at the side of his inner thigh, lifting it over his shoulder.

Dennis sighed shakily, grasping at Dr Robby’s hair to give his hand something to do. The other quickly covered his mouth.

Heat pooled in him as Dr Robby kissed closer and closer to that hot, wet spot. He knew his scrubs were soaked through by now. If Dr Robby was surprised by that, he didn’t show. He just pressed his nose to the inseam and inhaled deeply.

“Fuck…”

Dennis died a little at the first brush of tongue.

It was muted, heavy, a facsimile impression of warmth and then gone again. Through two layers of cloth, his tongue dug into the plush give beneath, navigating the geography of his pussy through flesh and feel rather than sight, Dr Robby’s eyes were closed, his eyebrows pinched together tightly, as if in concentration; the way they would be if he were memorizing… and imagining.

Even obstruction by cloth did nothing to hinder Dennis’s looming high. His hips shifted forward without his input, bumping his cock against the crown of Dr Robby’s nose and accidentally pushing his head away. “Ah—fuck, sorry.”

Dr Robby finally opened his eyes. His hand came up and lifted the glasses off his bridge, easily reaching with a long arm to place it on Dennis’s nose instead. The world became stretched and blurred, the edge of everything turned red and green and yellow, and Dennis released his teeth from his lip. “Sorry. Again.”

“It’s okay,” Dr Robby said, head turned low in exactly the way he would if Dennis had made a spelling mistake in his chart. The untouched Just do better next time that usually followed was left off, sinking into Dennis’s belly. “You’re good. I’ll hold you down.”

And then he did. Pressing his wide fingers around Dennis’s hips, forcing his ass flush against the door—fuck, they were still at the door—and making Dennis even dizzier. He didn’t know what to say when Dr Robby wordlessly sank back into it as if it were another trauma to fix, intense concentration palpable around him, and licked a stripe from Dennis’s hole to clit.

Without even having seen it.

He thought he made a noise unintelligible in any human language.

Dr Robby held his restless hips down and took any anger he might have against Dennis for pulling at his hair out on his pussy. Dennis ground however much he could as Dr Robby licked and sucked, the muted pleasure mounting with no end in sight. He felt crazy. It was too hot in the room. He wanted more. He was going to cum.

“I’m going to cum,” he warned Dr Robby for the third time. He probably looked cross-eyed, he thought.

The attending seemed mildly annoyed yet amused now, working his tongue against the dick that was pressing through Dennis’s pants. He looked so good between Dennis’s legs, he wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to scream or hump his face forever.

Dr Robby pulled back after a bit. Dennis couldn’t help it, he whined—he was there, right there at the edge, he could feel the sparkers in his belly sizzle. “Come on… Dr Robby?”

His look was unreadable, unhelped by the liquification through the lenses. “You’ll cum now,” he said.

“Okay,” said Dennis pleasantly. “Sure, yeah. Please.” He pushed forward. “Come on.”

Dr Robby huffed a laugh—how nice—before sucking his dick into his mouth—oh yeah, this was the hardest his clit’s ever been—and then his teeth dragged over it—surprisingly sharp even through layers—and then—and then he was biting—

Dennis’s eyes rolled back and not even Dr Robby’s hands could stop it, he thrust forward and his leg encircled Dr Robby’s neck as he shook. Bright stars flooded his sight when everything that had been winding up in him very suddenly melted. It shifted his world off-course and took him by surprise, a gasping electrocution of the body.

“Oh fuck. Oh fuck, oh fuck, help—shhhhitfffuucck. Uhhhh….”

He didn’t know orgasms could feel so good.

Overhead lights were too white when he opened his eyes again, crowded in by Dr Robby, who was standing up now. His fingers were rolling Dennis’s dick, relentlessly, and only then did Dennis realize how much his scrubs were sticking to him—they were so wet they left little to the imagination. “Ah… Dr Robby…?” His rubbing kind of hurt, burned a little against the harsh fabric, stimulated more than he could handle. He kept jolting and twitching from aftershocks and it hurt. “Too much, ah, it’s too much—”

Dr Robby just stared down at him. Then he pinched.

“Ah—oh—oh shit! I’m gonna—” He must have been getting too loud, because a wide hand slapped over his mouth, grinding into his jaw enough to shut him up. A second orgasm — or perhaps just the first one pulled back up — washed over him, making him tremble apart under Dr Robby’s observation, letting out a muffled whine. His bones were liquid by now.

The rubbing gentled to slow and soft massaging which felt quite soothing up until Dr Robby’s knuckle brushed his pitifully overstimulated cock. He hissed and Dr Robby let go, grabbing his waist instead to steady him.

“That wasn’t very nice,” said Dennis when he caught his breath.

“I just made you cum twice.” Dr Robby raised his eyebrows. He repossessed his glasses, sending Dennis blinking. 

Pleasure is a dangerous drug, the church-piano playing boy in him whispered.

Too good not to pass up, retorted the deviant in him.

Dennis bit his lip. “Hm. Oh.” He blinked, fluttering his eyelashes without meaning to. His brain was still turning on. “Thank you…”

Dr Robby smiled and adjusted himself through his pants. He looked like he was in physical pain. “Why don’t you drop those by the scrubs exchange, I’m sure Santos is waiting for you in the parking lot.”

“But—” Dennis hadn’t looked away from his cock once.

“No. You’ll do as I say,” said Robby.

That made Dennis want to protest more. “People might call me a bloodhound but I’m not a dog, Dr Robby.”

Dr Robby tilted his head. “Aren’t you? Go fetch, puppy.”

He left. Dennis told his crotch, “Don’t you dare find that hot.” But it was too late. He’d felt it the moment he added to the mess in his pants.

II.

December 2025

Let it be stated for the record that it was not Dennis’s idea to host a farewell med students party. Nor was it Victoria’s, even, and she was the other med student.

It was Santos.

She was having the time of her life, dancing around their apartment, fixing a CRASH poster up next to where she’d already hung the HUCKLEBERRY one. Each poster featured doodles of unfortunate artistic skill, allegedly illustrations of each person the nicknames were meant for, courtesy of Santos herself. Bottles of alcohol crowded their two person dining table.

“Shouldn’t we have food?” he yelled over the loud SOAD song.

“Uh,” she said. “Could you make some nachos, please?”

He sighed and rolled his eyes.

She was just like Dennis’s brothers sometimes. It took an hour, but Dennis finished a nacho spread with dip on the side, and emptied a few chips bags into bowls. “I didn’t ask for this,” Dennis repeated. “Just to make that clear.”

“Loud and clear, Huckleberry!” She was taping balloons to the walls.

The door bell rang, and then the flood came. SOAD changed to The Strokes to—at the arrival of the ER cowboys and cowgirls (Abbot, Dana, Collins, and Robby all wore matching hats)—the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Victoria was roaring drunk and flirting ceaselessly with both Mateo and Kim, Santos and Garcia had disappeared, no nachos had survived the onslaught of Samira, Jack, and Dana, and Dennis had snatched Dr Robby away into his room.

“What’s this?” He took the hat and put it on. “Why’d you do this?”

“Jack’s idea. Something for the med students, he said.” He gruffed, the way Robby always did when embarrassed. “Huckleberry of you.”

“Yeah?” He looked over his shoulder. “Should see me in chaps.”

“Chaps?” said Robby.

Dennis chuckled, drawn in by the flush in Robby’s face. “You’re such a city slicker.” He kissed him, soft and wet, reaching up to gently stroke his coarse beard. “Can’t even make fun of you.”

“Taking advantage of the fact that you’re free of me to let me know your true opinions, huh?”

“I’m not free of you. I’m not free of anything,” said Dennis. He grinned crookedly. “I saved up money and bought that Kentucky bourbon for today, even though I told Santos not to do this.”

Robby looked surprised for a second, then the lines of his face relaxed, as if touched. “That was ages ago.”

Dennis shrugged. “I’d say it was a bit of a memorable day,” made Robby laugh a little sadly. His chest rumbled under Dennis’s hands.

“Not that part.”

He hummed—he disagreed, but they didn’t necessarily need to unpack that. “Nice of you to see me off.” Still playing with his beard, running the hairs beneath his nails, breathing the same air as him. He was a little tipsy, a little easier with his words, and it seemed Robby was relaxed too. “Gonna let me say thank you?”

Robby’s shoulders fell under Dennis’s hands and he sat at the corner of Dennis’s bed. “I have a choice?”

“Yeah,” Dennis mouthed at Robby’s knee, “So choose carefully.”

Robby let his legs fall apart to make space for Dennis. “I guess I’d better see what’s on offer.”

He hissed when Dennis palmed him through his jeans, nuzzling into that warmth contentedly. A small chirp left his lips—a noise sober him would never have let loose.

“You always get horny when you get drunk, kid?”

“I’m not drunk yet,” he said and looked up, mouth moving against Robby’s erection. “I always get horny when I’m with you. Get wet, all the time.”

“All the time?” Raised eyebrows.

Dennis reached for the zipper and pulled. “Always. I’ve become numb to the ER, to whatever fluid’s next that’ll fall on me, to the smell and the noise… but you—you just touch me and I—” He rubbed his face forward. “I just imagine this. Your hand in my hair. Your sweat… your neck… fuck, is this turning you on?”

Robby soothed him with a scratch of his scalp with stubby nails. “Keep going, baby.”

“That,” he said. Almost angrily. “That too—you keep… surprising me. Puppy, baby, kid, it makes me want to... I could call you things too, you know.”

“Call me things?”

“It’s not funny!” He shoved his fingers through the gap, feeling the pulsing heat of Robby’s cock through his briefs. It shot up his palm to his head. “Woah. I just got dizzy.”

Robby shifted. “Maybe we shouldn’t—”

“Shut up.” He blushed. “I—Sorry, don’t, I got—I just took my T shot yesterday, I’m really fucking horny right now, and if you don’t let me suck this dick I’ll die. So.”

“Well. I wouldn’t want you to die,” said Robby.

“Thank you.”

He kissed it reverently. “You smell so good,” he complained before inhaling. Sweat, skin, dollar store bodywash. Let his lips drag from the bottom to the top of the tip, which peaked out over the band. It was red and weeping gently, poor thing. Dennis sucked it into his mouth, letting the drool that’d accumulated drench it.

Robby groaned, letting his hand fall to Dennis’s face, as if to hold still in that way. When he looked up, Robby was staring back at him, dark brown eyes gleaming, lids lowering.

There was a loud cheer from the living room.

“Anyone could walk in at any time,” Robby said, a little worried.

Dennis hummed, rubbing his tongue under the head.

“But you like that, don’t you?”

He tilted his head and blinked.

“Don’t act innocent, kid.” Robby nodded. “I can feel you on my foot.”

Dennis rolled his hips. There was Robby’s foot under him, lodged between his legs. He wasn’t sure which one of them had sorted that out, but whoever did was a genius.

Robby was laughing. “You forgot everything I just said, didn’t you?”

He popped off Robby’s cock. “Too much talking,” he said, putting the hat to the side. “Spit in my mouth.”

That made him hesitate. Dennis let his jaw hang ajar, only raising an eyebrow. Robby took his face in both hands, leaned forward, and spit gently. The warm saliva slipped onto his tongue, the texture of it mixing with his own, causing a shiver to climb up his spine.

With a loud slurp, Dennis descended Robby’s length. The man cursed and tightened his grip, pulling his scalp. The rest of the world disappeared as Dennis focused on the musk and taste of him. When his nose finally reached the thatch of curly hair at the bottom, he breathed through his nose and tried to blink away the reflexive water in his eyes.

“Fucking shit—kid—”

He looked up, a tear spilled over and hit his cheek, and a broken groan came from Robby once he understood. 

Fingers wrapped around him, ear to nape, interlocked. The raw strength and pressure was a high of its own. Slowly at first, Robby dragged him up, inch by inch out of his throat. They both moaned. Then, with his hands still locked together around Dennis’s head, pushed him down.

Dennis could feel his throat make space for it, could feel his lungs squeeze. Little spots danced in his vision as Robby did it again, and again, and again. His voice took on an edge Dennis had never heard before: “Yeah, take it…  you’re doing it so well… just like that, angel.”

That one had him shifting against Robby’s foot.

The sweat was one part dizziness, one part the back and forth, and one part Robby’s filthy narration. His voice was crackling with lust, swinging between a filthy, sharp handling to cooed praise. Both set Dennis on fire until Robby suddenly held him down, an iron bar, nothing Dennis could do to throw him off. The panic fluttered in his chest and he swallowed around Robby, which caused the man to groan and lift his hips off the bed. He thrust inside a few times before pulling out and letting his cum mark Dennis’s eyelashes, nose, mouth, and cheek. It dribbled down his chin and drops fell past his lip into his mouth.

Their panting filled the room.

The sheets rustled as Robby moved. “Shit, kid, look at you…” A thumb picked up a trail and snuck the cum into his mouth. The thumb hooked over his teeth, grabbing his jaw and pulling him forward. “Fuckin’ asking for it.”

Dennis cleaned with his tongue as much as he could reach and swallowed, considering the salty tang. His clit was beating a tattoo against Robby’s leg. “For what?” he said, but it came out as a hoarse sound, his voice was shot. He cleared it but it didn’t sound much better the second time, had to whisper, “for what?”

By then it was clear in the look in Robby’s eyes exactly what he’d meant and Dennis had to swallow, lick his lips again, reach up and kiss him. Robby stopped him, though, and Dennis made an offended noise.

“You have cum on your face, kid. And what about your hat?”

“What hat?” Dennis croaked. Robby reached behind Dennis and shoved the cowboy hat on his head. “Oh—ha, ha.”

His deadpan voice cracked over the vowels, making Robby chuckle. 

“It’s my party, you can’t laugh at me at my own party,” he said, resting his elbows on the bed. 

“You made that up just now.”

“It’s my party, I make the rules.” He grinned, getting closer and closer.

“Spoken like the youngest sibli—”

Once he got in range, he let the hat fall. In one swooping motion he pressed his face against Robby’s, spreading the cum from beard to eyebrow.

“Dennis!” He scolded, but it was too late, Dennis was out of grabbing range and laughing on the floor.

III.

April 2026

“Can I come over?” The words tripped over each other out of his lips.

Robby’s sleepy voice cut through the background hum of the call. “Wuh? Who—Dennis…? It’s… okay, it’s ten p.m. but what the hell, kid?”

“It’s okay if not—”

A sigh. “No, no, that’s not what I meant. Yeah. You can come over. When?”

“Uh.” He rocked on his heel, watching his breath in the air. “Now? I’m outside?”

“You're killin’ me here, kid.”

“Please.”

“Come up—I’ll let Joe know.”

The doorman, Joe, welcomed him when Dennis passed through, and soon he was on the sixth floor, shuffling on his feet until the lock clicked and the door opened to reveal Robby.

In a short, small t-shirt, and low slung gray sweatpants. Nice.

“Hey,” said Dennis, very obviously staring.

“Jesus, did you lose your jacket? It’s snowing,” Robby said incredulously. “I know it’s April, but that’s the state of our world.”

His sleep scratched voice was deeper than usual, but no less soft. The hush of gravel beneath a rolling wheel.

“Uh.” He looked down at himself and shrugged. “What’s wrong with this?”

Robby dragged a hand down his face and then pulled him in by the neck, shaking his head. “One day you and Jake will learn.”

He was cold. But this was his only jacket.

“I wanted to tell you something.” He kicked his shoes off, one of them falling short and missing the rack. Robby kneeled to put it in place. “I saw it and I wanted to tell Trinity but she’s at Trivia Night—”

“Santos goes to Trivia Night?” Robby asked, amused.

“Shit. Don’t tell her I said that, she’ll kill me. You’ll never be able to identify the body.”

“I won’t tell anyone. Why don’t you sit down, I’ll make you some coffee.”

“Oh no, thank you, I had a Redbull.”

Robby raised his eyebrows and Dennis flushed. “It was a… chug of triumph.”

He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. His shirt pulled tight. There was a faded 1995 logo on it from some sort of country club. Dennis hadn’t even been born in 1995.

“I just—I passed all my exams. The last one was uploaded tonight. I got an A. I mean, there’s still some stuff I have to present, but that was what I need to graduate. I’m—I’m graduating Pittsburgh Medical School.” 

It was the first time he said those words aloud. They felt monumental, the sequence of them absurd to his perception of reality. Everything about it made no sense at all, but it filled him with a thrill that was so raw he was sure people on the street could feel it.

A shadow of confusion shifted over Robby’s expression.

Dennis stared at the hole in his sock. “You helped me study, sometimes, so I thought… I wanted to tell you… I just—”

“Dennis.” A hand grasped his shoulder, thumb warm and rough against his ice cold collarbone. “I’m not acting surprised because this is exactly what I expected of you. You are a frighteningly quick learner, respond well to urgent situations, you think fast, you’re intelligent, brilliant — there’s no world to me where you don’t succeed. You’re already an amazing doctor, kid.”

He thought he could brave the April snow bare as the day he was born, if Robby just squeezed him like that, looked at him like that, spoke to and about him like that—like he was proud. Like Dennis was believed in.

“I think you’re the first person that’s ever said that to me.”

Robby’s eyebrows pulled tight, his thumbs rubbing and warming up Dennis’s cheeks now. “That’s not right. That’s not right at all. Shouldn't be.”

“I—I’m not mad that it’s you,” he said. “Kinda nice, actually.” They kissed and Dennis made a face. “Stinks.”

“I brushed my teeth.”

“How long did you sleep? Don’t tell me you went to bed at eight.”

“I’m not a young and spry med school graduate like you, kid.” Robby scratched his belly. Dennis was endeared, dearly. “I’m nearly sixty, you know.”

Dennis followed him to the bedroom. “Now you’re just exaggerating.”

“Nope. My bones know.” Robby looked over his shoulder. “You want something.”

He crossed his ankles, putting one forearm on the doorjam. Tried to look natural. “C… Celebration sex?”

It was so embarrassing. He felt painfully sober, watching the way Robby’s eyes crinkled with amusement, beholden to the crook of his finger that pulled him forward. His lower stomach rolled with anticipation, his dick already throbbing at the sight of Robby’s biceps dusted with hair—fuck, he was easy.

“That what you come here for?” he whispered.

“I only thought of it when I saw your sweatpants,” Dennis defended, realizing afterwards he was worsening his case. “Actually, uh—nevermind. I’ll go home.”

“Don’t be stupid. It’s snowing. Take off your hoodie and get in here.”

Dennis shimmied out of his jacket eagerly, but hesitated at the button of his denim jeans. His face flushed as he remembered. “I really didn’t come here for sex, I swear,” he forewarned. Robby raised his eyebrows, and they only continued rising until they no longer could as Dennis pulled his pants down.

Blood pounded in his ears as Robby’s jaw fell slightly. He looked completely awake now, the last vestiges of sleep shoved away for a new, alarming development. His finger reached beneath the waistband and stretched it before letting go. It snapped against Dennis’s skin in the silent room.

Dennis hurried to explain at Robby’s look. “If I’m on my period. I just wear it so I can leave a pad on at night.”

“Pretty, sweetie, lacey ones?” asked Robby.

He blushed profusely. “When you’ve worn through all your boxers with blood, then you can judge me for wearing some nice panties now that I can afford it.”

A long arm wrapped around his entire waist and pulled until Dennis was on top of Robby in bed.

“I’m not making fun,” Robby whispered. His pupils were very dilated up close, the warm brown of them sunken into black pits in the middle.

Dennis rubbed his cold nose against his armpit, luxuriating in the sweaty musk of it. “It’s okay if you do. I can take it.”

Robby hummed. “I think you need someone to be nice to you.”

Dennis didn’t care about the breath anymore. Or the sleepy crust in the crook of Robby’s eye. “I want you,” he said, and then licked along Robby’s chin and lips and nose and forehead. “Will you fuck me? Please?”

His eyes closed.

“It’s all I’ve been thinking about,” continued Dennis, watching Robby’s irises beneath his thin lids. Feeling the rise of his belly beneath him with each inhale. “You inside me. I deserve it, don’t you think? It would feel so good. I try to imagine how many of my fingers—”

“Jesus Christ—”

“How many of my fingers are enough, I tried three last night—”

Robby made a wounded noise.

“But then I remembered—how much thicker your fingers are, wider, longer, stronger… and then I got really mad that you weren’t there and I didn’t cum.”

He huffed a laugh. “That’s so cute.”

“I’m very serious,” Dennis said, sitting up now. His stretched old shirt fell over one shoulder and Robby’s eyes flew there before Dennis even realized it. “You’re already hard.”

He moved his hips back, feeling the hot arousal against his bare thigh, biting his lip.

“Baby.” Robby grasped Dennis’s thighs, big hands covering the not unsubstantial meat of them, but did nothing to stop him. He squeezed his eyes for a moment and then looked up at Dennis with this glassy expression, half-gutted and half-wanting it. “Your application is on my desk right now,” he said. “We can’t—”

Dennis had known long ago that something was wrong with him—inherently or otherwise. There was just an oddness inside. That little deviant rolled happily at the implication. Part of him was afraid, part of him was always afraid, but damn if fear didn’t turn him on, too.

“Guess you’ll just have to watch then.”

Bereft, Robby’s hands lingered in the air where they had been before Dennis pulled away. The attending stared as Dennis crawled to the other end of the bed and spread his legs, the wet spot of his underwear peeking beneath the hem of his shirt.

“Wait. Dennis,” said Robby. “Dennis.”

“What?” said Dennis, fingers already under his waistband. “Not baby, not sweetheart? Not even puppy?”

His Adam's apple bobbed in the light as he swallowed.

“You know… I might deserve it, but do you?” asked Dennis. His fingers easily fell back into habit, gentle strokes down his folds and up to the tip of his dick. “I don’t know. I—oh—really think you’re, uh, not understanding.”

Robby’s voice was scraped raw and shot with a lust that made Dennis’s head spin. “What is it I’m not understanding? Tell me.”

He had warmed up now, rubbing at the spot beneath the very crown of his cock with a single-minded ambition belying habit of masturbation. His eyelids sank, gaze set on the visible tent in Robby’s pants. 

“I’m good. I’ve been good. I do everything you tell me,” said Dennis. “As if I’m a dog. And—and you don’t even have the decency to—fuck—fuck—fuck me for it? Seriously? Fine. Fine. You can watch and not touch. It’s what you want.”

“Dennis…” Robby’s chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. He hadn’t blinked in minutes.

“Don’t talk. Just look.” Dennis bit his lip and pulled his panty to the side. 

A surprised grunt came from across the mattress. The notion echoed in him.

He was wetter than he had expected. Strings of thick precum drooped from his light curls to the fabric. His clit was a red, angry thing demanding attention, dark and slick with a few drops of blood against his skin.  It felt filthy to watch it unfurl. His cock visibly throbbed. Cheeks inflamed with a sudden embarrassment, Dennis fumbled to regain control, and looked at Robby instead.

Robby looked hungry.

His eyes widened into something animalesque. Pupils blown until there was no brown to be seen, focused honed down to every breath and move that Dennis made. Maybe he didn’t even realize it, but his head had tilted: his ears perked, his maw ajar, revealing just the sharp ends of his teeth. Saliva was a rapidly gathering pearl at the corner of his mouth.

It was Dennis’s turn to start breathing hard. He suddenly felt pinned by a weight on top of him, even though he’d been the one to move away. He didn’t think he could go any farther. That meant being hunted—a chase he wasn’t sure either of them would leave unscathed.

“Uh,” he said dumbly. His tongue was dead weight. He could feel the air around his dick. Mercifully, he shut up and touched himself again, sighing into the familiar sensation as he lounged back on one elbow. He didn’t need to look at himself to see what he was doing. No, he watched Robby instead.

Watched the way Robby’s shoulder tensed when he pinched the slick-sounding folds between two knuckles. Or how Robby’s hand clenched into a fist and unclenched when Dennis reached up under his shirt to scratch harshly against a nipple. Robby kept jolting just a little each time Dennis cried out in surprise—once when he accidentally bit down on his tongue, hard, and the ensuing sting and burn made his head fuzzy, again when he dragged his nails up his inner thigh with more strength than he’d meant to, leaving furiously scorching marks, and again when his knuckles bumped against the sensitive skin of his entrance—his walls were swollen and burdened, eagerly alert for any stimulation at the door.

He took it as encouragement to sink two fingers in—easy—and the swiftness of it had both of them cursing. Dennis kicked Robby’s hand away. “You don’t get to touch yourself.” It was the first time he’d spoken in a while. His voice was hoarse and deeper than usual.

Instead of arguing, Robby swallowed. Left his hand at the side. Dennis involuntarily squeezed around his fingers.

He crooked them, exhaling at the spike in pleasure, his spine arching a little helplessly. “Oh fuck. Yeah…”

The sound of his fingers and his panting was all that could be heard next. His mind was full of cotton, mouth draped perpetually open, the sting of drool at his chin he couldn’t care less to wipe away. Sparks of bright hot suns and stars shot up his spine again and again. His eyes stared up at the ceiling. “Why won’t you fuck me? What did I do?” Dennis was babbling, “What do I have to do? Just… please.”

He only noticed then that Robby had approached. A heavy hand clasped around his knee, spreading his legs apart even more as Robby kneeled between his thighs. His face was unreadable except for the pure want in them. He looked overwhelmed in the best way possible, short of breath and red with exhilaration. 

“Come on, angel,” he whispered. Dennis shook his head. “Come on, you can do it.”

“No, I need—I need you,” said Dennis. He’d be ashamed about it later, but he’d genuinely whined it and couldn’t afford to care in the moment.

Soothingly. “Okay. Okay.”

His hand came down to stop Dennis, who muffled a frustrated sob. With eager but gentle touch, Robby lined up his finger with Dennis’s, and swiftly re-entered.

They both groaned together. They stared down at where their fingers disappeared inside him.

Like the click of a lock, something shifted. Dennis lit on fire. The winding pull in his stomach very suddenly dropped lower.

“Ah?” Curl, out— like he was teaching Dennis how to do it properly. “Ah—” and in again. Robby nodded at his frown. “Oh ffffuck—” then it only took three more strokes, guiding just like that, “Ah, ah, ah shit, oh God, Robby—?”

And he was hosing Robby down.

He nearly leapt off the bed, convulsing, his legs shaking, squirt spraying all over Robby from head to thigh—fucking gushing and Robby just kept fucking fingerbanging him through it, taking control of his limp hand to do it for the both of them. His vision painted white, and when he came to, he couldn’t even tell what he was looking at.

“Oh, my God. Oh my God—what the fuck.” Dennis panted. Blinking wide-eyed at the liquid dribbling down Robby’s temple to his beard. His faded shirt was darkened with spray. Robby licked his lips. “That. Has literally never—that—did I just?”

“You did good.” Robby spoke low and soft. Pulled taut. “Good boy, Dennis.”

“Good—” He felt taken apart and emptied and then filled entirely with cottonballs. “What?”

Robby knelt, then, and a serpent of fear coiled around Dennis’s spine. The hairs of his beard, even while damp, poked his sensitive skin. His lips were warm against Dennis’s hot, still thrumming cock, leaving a lingering, sucking, kiss. 

“Ahwuehthefuck,” yelped Dennis, pleasure-pain punching his head back, kicking his leg against Robby’s.

A tongue followed, flat and heavy against his pussy. It licked the wetness, the sweat and the cum, and stuck his curls up like a cowlick.

Dennis trembled, jerking away from the intense overstimulation, clutching his thighs to Robby’s ears. “Uhn—R-Robby I’m on my period—ugh, stop that!”

Only when Dennis said it did Robby pull back. Not too far, still between his legs, wearing a devastating weight to his eyes. He ran a thumb down his beard and rolled his neck and inhaled deeply.

“I will be right back,” Robby said, as if this were any other normal occasion, and left for the bathroom.

At the click of the lock Dennis scratched his stubble and grinned widely. “Holy… shit. Fuck yeah,” was only heard by the walls and felt in the vibrations of Robby’s very, very cold shower water.

IV.

September 2026

“I’m sorry I missed your first day back.”

Robby held him close with one arm, lips bent low to murmur in his ear. The faint tickle of his whiskers, the smell of bitter bourbon and men’s cologne, in addition to the straying hand at Dennis’s lower back made him flush.

“It’s good to see you again. Honestly, I didn’t even expect you to come here,” said Dennis, shrugging to the gallery. Robby laughed, not letting go but patting his shoulder a little, the weight of it a permanent fixture.

He shook his head, the sad tint of his humor twisting his mouth. “I almost didn’t. I wouldn’t have, if I hadn’t promised Jack and Dana. And, you know, Dr Collins…”

They both looked over their shoulder to the woman in the black dress. She looked radiant, her skin glowing in the light, with a gentle yet solemn smile on her face as she listened to someone else speak.

“She—she feels guilty. A lot. But it’s really my fault. I told her to go home that day.” Robby blinked, rubbing his beard. “Told her to turn off her phone. It wasn’t her fault.”

“Probably not so easy to think of it that way,” Dennis said. He felt for Dr Collins. She’d taken a break immediately during his rotation for health purposes, and by the time she’d returned to complete her residency he’d been long gone. But he’d seen what a great doctor she was, fiercely intelligent and a force of nature. He lowered his voice. “She would have been a real help. I think she knows that.”

Robby sighed, then grimaced through a smile on his face as a passerby in a suit smiled and nodded. “She’s moved on to Presby. I just hope she… you know. Does well, despite what I’ve done.”

There was history there, Dennis knew. He kept that to himself.

“If she’s here today, she’s plenty capable.” Dennis stole a piece of fruit off the table. “And not everything is your fault, Dr Robby.”

Robby furrowed his brows. “Doctor—?”

“Huckleberry! What the hell are you doing?” Trinity fell against them, her cheek flushed and hair down her shoulder. She wore a green dress that livened her eyes even more. “They’re about to hand out the awards… oh. Oh. Dr. Robby.”

“Dr. Santos.” Robby nodded. Then, to Dennis, a little closer: “Look the other way when I’m on stage, will you?”

“Not a chance,” he hissed through a smile.

An hour of speeches, names, and moments of silences later, the families and survivors of the Pittfest casualties mingled with the doctors. A few of his own patients managed to recognize Dennis — including the IO victim, to his embarrassment — and they stopped by to speak to him. The fact that he’d made an impact on them enough to remember, especially during such a chaotic and horrible time, hit some oddly soft spot in his chest. It echoed with the pain and the fear, but also reminded him why he chose emergency medicine. In a brief moment of respite he noticed Robby wasn’t doing all that much better.

He had that look about him—the mad eyes a cow would always give Dennis before suddenly taking off and triggering a stampede. He and Dalia, their shepherd dog, were a well-oiled machine at rallying them back at the farm. She had passed away while he’d been in Omaha for college. Eyes wide, face red, the corner of his mouth slipping, Robby looked moments away from bolting.

“Dr Robinavitch.” Dennis wrapped an arm around Robby’s inner elbow and Robby followed like a pet. “There’s a family that would like to speak to you.”

“Thank you all,” Robby nodded at the circle that had formed around him, hot on Dennis’s heels, his breath chasing Dennis’s nape.

The museum was quite large. Two halls down and to the right, Dennis had noticed an employee leave the storage closet after they’d cleaned up a spill earlier in the day. The door swung open without complaint and Robby eagerly shuffled into the dimlit, cramped room. There were cleaning supplies stacked on the surrounding shelves and a bucket and mop, which Dennis fixed behind two shelves and the knob to ensure no one entered.

Robby was breathing hard.

“You okay?” Dennis asked, not sure if he should touch.

The other man sighed and ran a hand down his weary face. His facade had fallen the moment they were alone, a rare gift—in Dennis’s opinion—that he was allowed to see this side of Robby at all. He reached forward and tugged at Dennis, hand sprawled over the entirety of the back of his head, ducking to tuck his face into Dennis’s neck and exhaling. His body sagged as if finally letting go of the rigidness of the day, the obligation to perform, just breathing in the scent of his skin and holding him close.

Dennis easily carried the weight of him, situated between his bent legs, and tried not to shiver at the feeling of Robby’s breath fanning over sensitive places. They stood that way for a while until Dennis struggled to keep his eyes open. He could fall asleep standing right there, soothed as he inhaled Robby’s sweat, soap, and cologne.

“I don’t want this stupid award.”

Dennis hummed, trying to wake up. “What do you want to do?”

“I wish I didn’t have it in the first place,” admitted Robby. “Six people died in my care. So many more on the way—so many on site. Why do we celebrate?”

“Because people lived.” Dennis pulled back and grabbed Robby’s face. The man let him carry the heaviness of his head in his palms, squeezing at Dennis’s waist as if restless. “Our jobs aren’t to stop people from dying. It’s to give people a chance at living. We managed to do something… fucking amazing. Over a hundred GSW survivors got to go back to their homes. Their lives. Everything wasn’t perfect, of course. Some people lost their husbands, brothers, mothers, daughters, best friends. They were all hurt and they’ll live with that hurt. But they’ll live.”

Robby nodded and nodded and nodded and shook his head.

“At one point, that wasn’t a certainty,” Dennis continued. “I could die tomorrow and there could be nothing anyone could do about it—”

“Don’t say that,” Robby interrupted sharply.

Dennis stroked his thumb under Robby’s eye. “I’m serious. Anything can happen. We all just depend on each other for a miracle, or luck, or faith. God doesn’t wave a finger and fix us. God gave us other humans, empathy, the capacity to care and heal. It’s all up in the air and all we can do is our best and when we do our best it should be celebrated.”

Robby shut his eyes and opened them to look at Dennis with a bright gleam in them. “Theology, huh?”

“It’s a science.”

“You make it into an art.”

He flushed, hesitating now, letting his hand fall to Robby’s chest. “Life… isn’t always easy. A lot of things confuse me. God… doesn’t. It’s the easiest I’ve come to understand anything. It took time, but in the end it’s quite simple.”

“I don’t think,” Robby cleared his throat. “I don’t think I believe. I believe in my grandmother. I believe in medicine.”

“I know, I know.”

“I believe in you,” Robby added softly.

His breath hitched.

Robby was slanted against the wall, leaving them nose-to-nose. Dennis shifted the angle of his face and kissed him slow on the chin, then cheek, then nose. When Robby stopped holding his breath Dennis kissed him on the mouth. Bourbon, meat, and the taste of Robby’s toothpaste flooded Dennis’s tastebuds and he only belatedly realized the groan had come from Robby and not him.

Hands squeezed his ass and momentarily lifted him off the floor to reverse their positions. “I missed this,” Robby said, before making Dennis’s mind go blank with his tongue. “Missed you.”

“Mmmf—could’ve called—”

“You were busy.”

Lips smacked together, the sound of their spit noisy. Robby was already pulling Dennis’s shirt out of his waistband. “Bad excuse.”

“Who gave you this suit anyway? Where the hell’d you get off walking around wearing this?”

Changing the subject, Dennis noted.

“What’s wrong with it? Ah—” Robby bit down on his collarbone. “It’s a suit. I borrowed it from Trin.”

Robby pulled back to give him a once-over, except then he did it three more times. “You look good. I couldn’t keep my hands off you.”

Blood flew to Dennis’s cheeks. “Says you.”

“Oh?”

“Like you don’t know how good you look,” Dennis said. “What are you doing?”

“I’m undressing you,” Robby explained like he was dumb, pulling Dennis’s tie out from under his collar. “Turn around.”

“Why?”

“Dennis, if you don’t—”

He crossed his arms over his now unbuttoned shirt and raised a brow. “Are you going to finish that sentence?”

The side of Robby’s mouth lifted in a mean smile. He tilted his head as if entertained. Or perhaps preparing to take a chunk of Dennis’s flesh.

“Angel.”

The condescension was palpable. So was the throb in Dennis’s dick.

Laughing: “I don’t think you want the entire reception to hear you get spanked right now.”

Dennis turned around. His tie was balled up and shoved in his mouth. Another slipped around his eyes, downing everything in a sea of black—that was Robby's, thicker and wider. When Robby’s hands turned their attention to Dennis's belt he felt his heart rate spike with genuine fear. Would Robby really spank him? And if so, would he use a hand or a belt? Which one did Dennis want? His gut turned with adrenaline, breath coming out in hot pants around silky fabric. He was getting wetter by the second.

There was a silence, as if Robby knew what he was thinking and let him stew in it. As if he just stood back and took in the picture Dennis made. Chest and hands braced against the door, cheek turned and mouth open, sweat dripping down his flushed temple, the sizzle of his ears and the loud bobbing of his nervous throat, with his hips in Robby’s hands, back arched and squirming like he’d take anything. 

He would take anything, probably. He always made do with what he could get.

The belt was cool around his wrists, pressing the inner veins against each other. It tightened enough to be a little uncomfortable. He could feel a cold sweat pool at the dip of his back. The strain in his shoulders wasn’t painful, but enough of a reminder to not lose his balance. Like the dull twinge that came after praying in one spot too long. Something in him wanted to reach out to Robby, seek out reassurance, unable to see or speak, but he held his tongue beneath the tie and waited.

Eventually, “Good boy,” arrived, accompanied with a satisfied grunt. The praise spread from Dennis’s scalp to his curling toes. It felt earned.

He bent more in askance and relaxed his head against the door, relieved when hands found their place at his hips again. This was okay. If Robby was touching him, everything was okay. 

Pants and boxers shoved down, the band of them biting into his thighs cruelly. Fingers groped the meat there, then at the junction between ass and thigh. “Fuck,” came Robby’s voice as he rubbed up and down. He could probably see Dennis’s twitching cock, the pearly wetness over burnt pink flesh, the string of pussy drool dipping to the floor. 

It felt like being put on display. He wanted to curl in and shy away as much as he wanted to yell at Robby to get on with it already. Somehow not being able to see Robby’s expression made it all the more deviant. Like Dennis could pretend they were just strangers, imagine Robby was just using him. Maybe he was, what else could you call this?

Thick fingers stroked his stomach, his happy trail, and hipbone in circles. “You’re gonna have to be quiet today, baby boy.” That was a new one—it made something twist in his belly, stole away the air in the room. “Think you can manage that?”

He let his head fall low and remained silent.

“Perfect.” Hair grazed the skin over his scapula before lips pressed a small kiss there, placement feeling almost intentional. “You’re perfect. Stay still.”

Then he felt Robby’s cock slip against the back of his thigh, leaving a streak of wetness. Dennis’s mind raced as a hand—almost disgustingly expedient and methodical about it—gathered the precum all over his pussy and spread it to his inner thighs. His pulse kicked into overdrive and he gasped in realization. “Robby—” except he was muffled, he’d forgotten, it came out sounding stupid.

“Shh, quiet now.”

Dennis was unable to swallow the broken moan that ran through him at the feeling of Robby’s dick sliding between his thigh. Nor was Robby. He sounded worshipful, absolutely besotted with the feeling as much as Dennis was, hot and silky slipperiness rendering the both of them out of control.

He shifted back with each slide in, the head of Robby’s cock bumping the bottom of his in a way that made Dennis dizzy even while blindfolded. It was hard without his hands free to brace his weight and Robby realized that, soon guiding him into moving the way they would both benefit. It was noisier than expected, a squelching wet sound followed by the smack of skin, until Robby was pressed against Dennis’s back, groaning under his breath with every thrust, weight pressing Dennis down.

“You feel so fucking good,” his voice tickled the skin behind his ears. “You feel like heaven, kid. If I could do this forever, oh… I would. I’d keep you chained to my bed and turn you over whenever I needed it. Needed this. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, puppy?”

Jesus Christ. Dennis shook his head, sweat flying everywhere.

“No? You don’t want to be used, really? You want to pretend at dignity, when you’ve been begging for my cock the whole day? Fuck—the whole year. I’d have to be, shit, blind not to see you giving me eyes since that first day, kid.”

The humiliation made his ears ring, thighs tightening. Robby hissed when he clenched his dick between them. He was right, Dennis did want it—it was just a stupid fantasy that got him off when he was alone in his bedroom. It was Robby knowing it that caught him offguard, that made him instinctively deny. Suddenly exposed and vulnerable in a way that went beyond the physical restraints. Robby had seen through his meat and bones to his filthy innards. He was entirely, mind and body, at Robby’s mercy. Fucking spanking him wouldn’t have dug as deep.

Something pulled out the tie in his mouth. He’d become used to it by then, and the sudden, unexpected looseness of his jaw had overflowing spit dribbling past his lip and chin. “Shit,” he said, heat consuming in his belly, “Oh shit.”

“Come on now.” Wrapping his fingers around Dennis’s throat, Robby pulled him up and flush against his chest, arms squeezed between them. “Say you don’t want it.”

This angle had Robby’s dick rubbing back and forth against Dennis’s, pushing and pulling its hot flesh. His entrance throbbed to be touched. 

“H-how,” his voice cracked down the middle. “How would you even—ngh—do it when you can’t even fuck me now?” 

“Don’t need to. I can make you cum one-handed.”

Dennis scoffed. He wasn’t sure what was coming out of his mouth next, but he didn’t expect the bird-like squawk, nor the resounding throb of his abused clit.

“What—”

Robby brought his hand down again, making Dennis jolt and bring his thighs together. His other hand yanked his leg up and open. “Wha—Rob—what the fuck! Jesus! I can’t—”

His forearm under Dennis’s knee, Robby reached impossibly to wrap a hand over Dennis’s loud mouth. “Ah ah ah,” Robby scolded, stroking Dennis’s pulsating cock with his fingers. Dennis sobbed into his hand, sweat on his lips tasting of salt and sex.

“Robby… Fuck.”

A gentle kiss to his ear. “You can take it.”

“Wait—” Each slap against him felt earthshaking. He could see nothing, not the trajectory of Robby’s hand, not the tense brace of his body, not the bounce of his clit afterwards. It sounded wet. He couldn’t tell when it would land, when it would hurt, and when the burning pain would vibrate itself into a pleasure that had Dennis feeling out of his mind. “Ah—ah shit, fuck, wait Robby, Robby, I’m gonna pee…”

Neither of them expected him to say that.

Robby stilled.

Dennis hiccuped.

“I… um.”

“Are you sure?” asked Robby. He sounded out of breath.

Dennis shook his head. Everything was strange. Off-kilter. “I don’t know. It feels funny—but I drank a bit…”

“It’s okay, baby.” With one last stroke of his belly, he felt Robby stretch behind him. There was the shuffle of fabric shifting and then something falling in front of him. “You can, if you want. I’m going to keep going.”

What?

“What?” asked Dennis.

Robby returned to stroking him, hole to cock with a casualness that didn't match his voice. “Go ahead and pee if you need to. I put my blazer down.”

He spluttered.

“Bla—your tailored suit blazer is on the floor?” asked Dennis. “Robby, there has to be a limit to chivalry.”

“I really don’t agree.”

“Stop smiling!”

“I’m not smiling. You’re blindfolded.”

“I can hear y—ooohh, fuck Robby.” He squirmed at the sudden slap. It was softer than the others, warming up again, and Robby didn’t let him shift away. “I really think I might, please—oh no—it’s coming.”

“I’ll just get it dry cleaned.”

Somehow, that was what made Dennis’s cheeks flush even harder. “You’re insane, that poor—hah—don’t be crazy. Robby…”

He nosed at Dennis’s temple. “I want to see you. I want to see your face when it happens. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, boy. All puppies do it.”

Dennis groaned, the words hooking deep in his stomach and sinking, and it was like a dam had let go with the next strike—a stream of something was coming out, soaking Robby’s expensive designer blazer. He didn’t feel like he was peeing, exactly, nor did he feel like he was cumming. It felt both good and bad. It didn’t last long.

Robby was kissing him all over, turning him in his arms, the cloth of his pants tangled around his ankles. “Good. Good puppy, well done, my baby boy…” He sounded proud, alive. Dennis had no idea where his lips were and belatedly kissed whatever touched his face. “You’re so perfect.”

“I feel weird,” said Dennis. Everything felt muted and far away, like he was floating. “Um… Robby? Can I see you?”

The tie around his eyes swiftly disappeared. His head pounded and suddenly he was glad the light was dim, because it would have stabbed into his brain otherwise. When his vision came into focus he found Robby looking down at him in something like awe. He felt immediately calmed, seeing Robby’s face. 

“You did so good.” Robby’s hands cradled him. “You’re perfect, perfect, you listen so well… It’s okay, sweetie. No more, I promise.”

Dennis watched with tired eyes as Robby dressed him. First he used a handkerchief from his pocket to dry Dennis’s inner thigh and crotch. Then he recovered the belt around Dennis’s wrists, slipping it back into the loops before pulling up his boxers and pants together. His shirt was re-buttoned, his own discarded blazer returned to his shoulders. “You’re so pretty,” Dennis told him as Robby dressed himself. Robby full-face blushed at that. “What?”

Robby shook his head. “You don’t know how gorgeous you look right now. Just… absurd to hear it from your lips, when you look like that.” His hands squeezed the pink indented lines around Dennis’s wrists and the skin warmed with rushing blood.

His eyes widened. “Fuck. Did I seriously just—?”

“No, for the most part,” said Robby, chuckling. “I’m kind of disappointed.”

“So that was—” Dennis turned to look, but a hand on his chin stopped and guided him back forward. “What do you mean, disappointed? Oh my God. You didn’t even cum, did you?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m an old man, I’ll live. Besides, seeing you freak out over some pee… that was cute. I can revisit it later.”

“You—you’re depraved,” said Dennis. A true kindred spirit to his deviancy, an inside voice piped up. “Jesus Christ, you wanted me to pee on your clothes!”

“Think they’ll have started the search parties by now?” He was casually clicking his cufflinks on.

That successfully distracted Dennis. He paled. “Oh shit—how long have we been in here?” It felt like hours had passed. Trinity will kill him.

“Not more than half an hour,” said Robby, checking his watch. He sighed and picked up his blazer. It was black, only visibly wet when placed in the light. “I do not want to go back out there.”

Dennis shook his head. “Understatement. Jesus. I think I might fall.”

Robby hooked an arm around his shoulder. “I’ll call you a cab.”

“Trinity—”

“I’ll call one for her, too, whenever she goes home. You’ll be going to my apartment. I still have to show my face around here.” The night’s obligations had returned and, with it, so did Robby’s facades. “Make yourself at home. For me, please.”

It was late when Robby arrived. Dennis dozed under the covers, still awake despite the day’s activities rendering him exhausted, and met Robby’s kiss with a sleepy sigh.

He pulled back and looked at Dennis, his head haloed by the light from the hallway. “I went to visit Leah’s grave.”

“I would have come with you.”

“It’s okay. I just wanted to do it. Jake was still out there. He said he wasn’t mad at me anymore. That he was talking to his therapist about it.”

Dennis rose, leaning on an elbow. “That’s… that’s amazing, Robby.”

“...Think I’m getting better at this balance thing?”

“Definitely.”

V.

October 2026

Pittsburgh at night was very different from Broken Bow.

By midnight, Broken Bow was silent as sleep. Even the farm animals were quiet. The crickets turned mute, the roads empty of life for miles. You had to navigate by sight rather than sound. The stars lit up the path that needed to be followed, the shadow in the peripheral a fox or a coyote stalking after you.

In Pittsburgh, there were 24-hour diners, the hum of distance factories, the shlush of car tires speeding down a highway. No matter how late it got it was never silent. Quiet as a whisper, the wind carried the sound of the city to Dennis’s ears, a backdrop to the shuffling of fabric.

“First time I see you wearing a jacket.”

Dennis looked over his shoulder at Robby, smiling. “‘S it too cold for you?”

“Nah, it’s just hot in the Pitt. A good old street team night has always been the solution…” Robby pointed at his own jacket. 1997 STREET TEAM. “Since it was founded.”

He laughed nervously, trying not to think too hard about that number. “That’s really cool. I was going to ask why you had a different design. This is kind of the warmest jacket I own, I’m never leaving the street team again if I can help it.”

“You didn’t give it back when you finished your rotation, did you?”

“I didn’t think I could keep it. Someone else might have needed it.”

Robby shook his head and looked at him in wonder. “You are a piece of work, Whitaker.”

“Hey—” Dennis’s rebuttal was interrupted by a scream.

“Get away from her!”

“Don’t get close—I’ll—I’ll—”

“What the fuck, where’d he get that?!”

“Stop—go away!”

Within moments, Dennis and Robby ran to the rest of the team who had been speaking to someone near the underpass. “What’s going on?” Robby barked. Everyone turned to him immediately, deferring to his authority out of habit.

It was pretty clear what was going on, though. A drop off went wrong—a patient shakily pointing a boxcutter at Mateo, Kiara behind him, while Princess attempted to defuse from the side. Robby, big man that he was, did not help the situation. The patient’s eyes widened with fear and he slashed the air, making everyone in the vicinity wince.

“Put the blade down,” Robby said gently. Controlled. His hands in the air. “Please, we’re not here to hurt you.”

“Then leave—I know you want to rat me out, I’m not going to jail!” said the man. “Narcan this, drug awareness that, all you doctors are the same—smiling one moment and calling the feds next!”

“We would never do that,” said Kiara, genuine offense in her voice. “We’re here to help you get resources, not remove them from you.”

“He wants us to leave, then we should leave,” Mateo said.

They moved back, and Dennis got a clear line of sight of the man, and the man of him.

“Albert?”

“Denny?”

The boxcutter clattered to the floor and Princess grabbed it immediately. Albert showed no reaction other than to continue staring at Dennis.

“Whitaker, you know him?” asked Mateo.

Dennis pursed his lips, nodded, then smiled. He pushed past Robby and Albert hugged him back, ruffling his hair and clapping him on the back.

“What the hell!” He chortled loudly. “You with them, runt?! What are you doing here? Thought you was headed back to Nebraska?”

They separated. “I decided to stay. Finish school. Get my degree. It’s so good to see you, seriously.”

A hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed, pulling him away.

“What’s going on, Dennis?” Robby looked between him and Albert. “Albert, right? How do you know my resident?”

His stomach fell through his legs.

Shit. These were his coworkers. They’d just seen him hug his old friend. Now they were going to have questions. Of course they were going to have questions.

“Denny and I go way back, we were bench buddies back in ‘21. Imagine my face when this short, drenched little rat—”

“Now wait a second—”

“Comes up to me in the rain, me, talkin’ bout being lost and shit, his first night in Pittsburgh, askin’ if he could sleep by my bench. ‘Not on your bench, I would hate to impose, just next to it!’”

The blood rushing in Dennis’s ears was louder than Albert’s laugh. He wasn’t embarrassed, exactly. He never had been. But it was one thing to tell someone, and another to helplessly watch someone else tell it. He sounded pathetic even to himself.

“I wouldn’t tell it like that,” he just said, trying to steer the subject elsewhere. “Where have you been since I saw you? I looked for you, you know.”

Albert shook his head, frowning. “They cleared the camp. Made just standing around illegal. It’s fuckin’ bullshit.”

“Jesus.” Dennis’s chest panged, thinking of all the people he knew that needed those. There was no point asking about shelters—those were always full. “I’m sorry.”

Albert’s fingers reached and pulled Dennis’s ear.

“Ow! Hey!”

“I’m always telling you to quit it with the apologizin’, ain’t I?”

“Fine—I’m not sorry. I’m not sorry. And fuck you, too.”

Albert let go. “Good. Now tell me what the hell a dumbass like you is doin’ with folk like these.”

Dennis rolled his eyes. “I’m a doctor now. We just come out to places at night to give out kits and meds.”

“Little Denny all grown up, eh? Where you been sleeping?”

He could feel the heaviness of everyone’s gaze on him as he muttered, “I got a roommate.”

“Good shit, runt, good for you. You sure they’re not gonna call the cops?”

“I’m sure.” He looked at his coworkers and winced at the visible pity. “They’re good people. You let them do what they need to, okay?”

“Fine. And hey, catch me at the spot on Thursdays. You better buy me breakfast.”

Dennis grinned. “As long as you promise not to tell me that stupid story about the governor again.”

“What?” asked Princess.

“I saw the governor with his pants down in Point State,” Albert started, and Dennis groaned loudly, feigning stomping away. In reality, he would have run if he could. Inhaling was hard, the Pittsburgh sky was too cramped and the skyline was too busy and there were not enough stars—and everything made noise, everything—

“Shh, just breathe.”

A large hand sprawled over his back.

“Shit, shit, shit.”

“It’s okay.” Robby moved his hand in circles. “It’s alright, just breathe.”

Dennis pulled away. They were on the other side of the underpass. Dirty river water shloshed against the rocks. “I’m fine. Fuck, that wasn’t supposed to happen. No one was supposed to know.”

“And why’s that?”

He didn’t know what to say. That he could have lost his job? That it was just another sacrifice in a list of sacrifices he’d made to get this far? That he didn’t want it to change how people thought of him? Too late. He could already see the gears turning behind Kiara’s eyes, the glint of shock in Princess’s, the confusion in Mateo’s.

The disappointment in Robby’s.

He wiped at his face when footsteps approached.

“That’s it for tonight,” Kiara said. “We’ve all had a rough time, so why don’t we go home and get some rest, hm?” She was looking at Dennis. In that way. ‘I’m going to help you’ way. He liked Kiara a lot, respected her, he didn’t even try to meet her eyes.

“I’m outta here too, kid. Can’t stay where you been found.” Albert turned serious. “You remember all the shit I teach you?”

“Like I’d forget,” said Dennis. “Saved me too many times.”

With one last clap of a hand on his shoulder, Albert meandered off in the opposite direction from where Princess, Mateo, and Kiara were headed to their parked cars. The goodbyes were short. It was cold.

Fingers wrapped around the back of his neck. “Come on.” 

Robby marched them to his car. He opened the passenger side door and guided Dennis in as if he were fragile. The slam of the door made him jump. Robby entered the other side, turning up the heat. Leaning back.

They sat there until Dennis broke.

“I didn’t have money then.”

“You took loans out,” said Robby.

“Of course I did.” He scoffed. “Wasn’t good enough for a scholarship, was I? Too risky to give one away to some no-name from nowhere.”

Robby inhaled sharply. “Don’t talk like that. You’re brilliant.”

“No one wants to hire a homeless guy who’s also in school. I wasn’t lazy. I wasn’t.”

“I know.”

“I kept getting fired ‘cause I’d stay awake all night working and go to class in the day and fall asleep in the middle of lecture and then I’d be late for my next shift.” Dennis looked out the window, facing away, unable to bear witness to Robby’s expressions as he said it. “Or I’d fall asleep in the middle of my shift. Nothing worked.”

“Your friend—”

“Albert.”

“Albert—he said… your first night in Pittsburgh.”

“I’m the first one in my family to go to college.” His mouth tasted of ash. “Omaha was already testing them. The first time they called, I was in my second year at school.”

“Jesus.”

The restrained anger in Robby’s voice made Dennis smile.

“I was just… between places,” he said. “Between everything.”

“And now you’re a doctor.”

Dennis turned.

Robby leaned over the center console, wrapping a hand around Dennis’s head and pulling him close. “You’re amazing. You know that?”

“I slept in the eighth floor psychiatric ward for months. Stole sandwiches from the patient meal bin. Still think I’m amazing?”

His exhale was shaky against Dennis’s cheek. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

They kissed softly, the gentlest thing Dennis had ever felt. It lingered. “Please,” Dennis prayed.

“Baby, you just—”

“I don’t care.”

Dennis grasped the hand holding his face and licked up the palm before dragging it down his chest, stomach, to the heat between his legs. He looked up. “Please.”

A groan punched out of Robby.

Hands shot up his shirt, stroking his ribs and pressing on his belly. Robby dragged his tongue over Dennis’s. “You’re so fucking brilliant. I don’t know how anyone could miss it.” Their jackets were thrown against the backseat and Dennis was lifted over the center onto Robby’s lap.

“Oh—”

The seat suddenly fell, leaning Robby back. Dennis sat on top of him, squeezed by the walls and the wheel, panting into Robby’s mouth. There was no more sense to the kissing—they sucked and nipped at whatever was there.

“You’re never going through that again,” panted Robby. “You made it.”

Dennis shook his head.

“You pulled yourself out of the hardest situation possible. Now I’m going to take care of you.”

Something in his chest cracked open. Dennis shoved his face in the crook of Robby’s sweaty neck and just breathed. His hand clenched around Robby’s bicep, tightening and loosening. He’d never wanted to want it, but the pipe dream of being taken care of was folded up, finger-stained, and ear-marked—a fantasy he visited often.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m the least ridiculous person ever,” said Robby, which was just a lie. “What’s this?”

He tapped it against Dennis’s chest. Dennis pulled off his shirt and the icy cross slapped under his belly button.

“My rosary.”

Robby licked his lips and looked all over him, hands on his waist.

“I’ve been wearing it under my scrubs. It feels… good. Heavy. It’s long, so sometimes it touches my waist. Gives me a — a thrill. Knowing it's there, knowing it turns me on, knowing no one else knows. Except for you, now.”

“Except for me,” Robby repeated, whispering. “I’m going to lose my mind.”

“Don’t. You kind of need that.”

Robby pulled him up closer to his face, licked along its vertical length, and then pressed the cross to Dennis’s lips. He kissed it softly, neither of them breaking eye contact, and then shivered as Robby dragged it down his throat, his collar bone, his chest, and his stomach.

“I like this on you,” Robby said.

“Uh-huh… I can see that…”

He let Robby pull it off, bending his neck. 

“Move down.”

Dennis obeyed and immediately moaned. Robby had adjusted his legs so his thigh was right up against where Dennis could grind. The sound of denim rubbing against Robby’s cargo pants was loud in the car. He bit his lip, struggling to keep his eyes focused.

“Think you can cum like that?”

Dennis shook his head. “Please.”

“I think you can,” said Robby. “You can, sweetheart. I know you can. Just like that.”

The hands returned to his hips to guide him. His clumsy humping turned into sensual rolls, a drag and grind that soon was not dry at all. His boxers had definitely soaked through. Robby could probably feel his pussy lips spread with each press, the give of it, imagine how slippery it felt inside. Probably guess exactly how wet he was.

He let Robby guide him, the windows of the car turning foggy with their hot breaths. Watching the way Robby’s stomach flexed when Dennis’s thigh pressed against his dick. The way his broad shoulders stretched as he situated an arm behind his head. The mounting pleasure was a note in the back of Dennis’s mind. He was more occupied with lifting Robby’s t-shirt all the way and licking at his armpit.

Robby cursed. “Greedy little boy.”

The taste of sweat and faded deodorant mixed on his tongue. The sway of his hips turned erratic, his moans lilting higher than before. He kissed and sucked under Robby’s arm, gut speeding towards orgasm the more he inhaled his heady scent. It made his head spin. When his tongue got tired he let his face fall in it, nuzzling into the wet mess he’d created, just letting it loll out of his mouth.

Robby scratched his scalp. “Good puppy.”

Dennis huffed.

“Aww. Frustrated?”

“Fuck you.”

“That’s not very nice.”

“F—Ah!—k you.”

“This is how I’m treated after I let you make a mess on my cargos?”

The embarrassment was a pulse in his clit. “Fuck off.”

“Articulate of you.”

No longer within reach of any capacity to care, Dennis let a whine loose. It sounded pathetic, muffled against Robby’s hairy skin, a creature desperate for the torture to end. “Please… please, sir.”

Robby’s hands stilled.

Dennis sniffed. “Oh God…”

He whispered. “That’s enough now. Look up, angel, look at me… good boy. So sweet, aren’t you?” Dennis blinked at him through wet lashes. “Just the sweetest thing. I’ll give you what you need.”

Between them, Dennis’s jeans unzipped and his boxers shoved down his hips as far as they would go. That wide hand snuck in, practiced and sure, and a cold, textured metal kissed up against his cock.

It slid through his slick easily, making Dennis grunt, the suddenness of a muted sensation turning tangible, heightened, until he was humping forward, mouth open in silent awe.

“Yeah, pretty boy, you like that? That’s your cross you’re riding.”

His orgasm threw him under. Waves of feverish shivers wracked his body. He felt possessed by pleasure, as if he’d sipped ambrosia and felt the strain of mortality ease away for a split second. Godly. His spine arched, lightning shooting up the knobs and every hair on his body rising in unison.

The aftershocks were rapid and pulsating through his bloodstream. “Uh—uh, ah, ah, ha, ngh… oh God.”

He registered then, the way Robby was looking up at him, his hand over his mouth. Something glinted around his fingers. It was Dennis’s rosary. Robby was inhaling the scent of his cum-drenched cross.

“Jesus,” Dennis exhaled.

“What did you say before?” asked Robby. “You called me something.”

Dennis paused, trying to recall. “What… oh. It bothered you?”

Robby shook his head.

“Sir.” Dennis’s chest struggled to contain his heart as Robby breathed in, visibly entranced. “You like it… me calling you sir.”

Robby’s voice was grave. “You should see what you look like when you say it.”

“You should see what you look like all the time,” said Dennis. “Nevermind, that was bad. You just made me cum my brains out. Stop sniffing that.”

Robby held it away from his reaching hands. “It smells good.”

“No it doesn’t,” said Dennis.

“I’ll give it back.”

“This is outrageous.”

Robby kissed him and Dennis forgot all about the rosary until minutes later, when they were back in their seats and Robby was driving one handed, the other on his nape. “You can give it back to me after you cum on it.”

It felt ridiculous that saying that out loud — after everything they’d done — made his ears burn. 

“You’d like that?” asked Robby.

Dennis nodded. 

“Do you pray with it?”

Fuck. “Yes.”

A contemplative silence. Dennis fidgeted with the zip of his jacket.

“I’ll do whatever you want. If you ask.”

They had pulled into Dennis’s parking lot. 

“Can…” He swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. “Can you please, um, cum on it, sir, before you give it back to me?”

“Yes,” said Robby. He sounded like he'd been slapped up the head. “Yes I can.”

VI.

November 2026

“Holy shit, Huckleberry! You’re better than Robby!”

He tried to keep the gun aimed properly as Jake shook his shoulders and shoved him. Loud helicopter noises, comms, and grenades were emanating from the speaker of the TV. The controller kept slipping from how sweaty his hand was.

“It’s beginner's luck.” Robby gruffed, momentarily watching from the side with his arms crossed over his chest. Dennis was distracted by the fabric straining around his shoulders before Jake suddenly leapt forward and gestured wildly at the screen.

“Get that guy, get that guy! YES! Woooh!” Jake moved his pointed index to Robby. “You see him? He would've been like ‘what guy, Jake, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’”

“I’m sure he’s not that bad,” said Dennis. “I probably do have beginner's luck.”

“Nah man, this is raw talent. Wait. What if we got you to go pro? What other games do you play? The e-sports scene is going crazy right now with Marvel Rivals…”

“I don’t play any video games, really.”

Jake’s face fell. “What?”

Robby started laughing from where he turned to finish packing Jake’s dinner to-go. “He can’t imagine a world without video games.”

“This is serious, dude. You gotta play something, right? What about your phone — you have mobile games right? Right?”

Dennis brought the pause menu on the screen. “Um, there were a few weeks where I kind of devoted my life to Candy Crush. It really got in the way of school though, so I deleted it.”

The devastation on Jake’s face made him both want to die and maybe also laugh with Robby, who had only gotten louder.

“I’m gonna get you a steam account.” Jake patted his shoulder. “And blow your mind.”

Robby walked in, handing off the bag of takeout boxes. “Hey, that's my best resident. I need him focused.”

“Living without games is not living at all,” said Jake, looking sage and wise. “See ya, Huckleberry. Robby.”

“Ask your mother if she took my starter, I can’t find it.”

“Ask her yourself!” The door shut.

“Where’d he even hear that name?” Dennis despaired, placing the controller on the coffee table as Robby chuckled and sat beside him. He leaned into Robby’s side when he put an arm over Dennis. “I’m going to kill Trinity.”

“Honestly, your best bet is Dana… she knows everything and has a soft spot for Jake,” said Robby. “Are you still cold? What made you forget your umbrella?”

Dennis flushed. “I actually didn’t realize it was raining until I was outside. By then I already told you I was on my way. And no, it’s fine now, thanks for the clothes.”

“No worries.” Robby’s gaze was a physical drag over his body.

He cleared his throat. “Jake is a good kid.”

Robby’s face split into a proud smile. “Yeah. The best kid. He drops by like that sometimes and demands I cook something. Usually Fridays. I’m sorry, I told him I’d have you over tonight, he didn’t tell me he’d be coming too.”

Stop it, he told himself. It was extremely inappropriate to be jealous of your boss’s step-kid. Your boss who you are fucking. Sure, he calls you kid, too, but that’s in a different way. Don’t be a weirdo.

“It’s okay. I’m glad I met him. Just kind of surprised he even knows I exist, really.”

Robby shifted. “About that…”

“What is it?”

“Ah, shit. Can we…” Robby rubbed his beard. “Re-do  the last ten seconds? This was supposed to happen over dinner.”

“What was supposed to happen over dinner?” Dennis couldn’t get a read on him.

“I bought candles. Fuckin’… pumpkin apple… white pine… shit.”

Dennis was very confused. “Uh… Cool. Those sound nice?”

“I didn’t know what you liked.”

“I, um, don’t know much about candles. Sorry.”

“Yeah, neither do I.”

They sat there, and Dennis watched Robby fidget with his glasses. Cleaning them before putting them back on his face. Struggling to, in fact. Rubbing his palms over his knees.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m going to have a heart attack, I think.” At Dennis’s wide eyes, he added quickly: “Not literally. I’m joking.”

Dennis frowned. “Have you taken your hypertension medication today?”

Robby started laughing and wouldn’t stop.

Now he was getting nervous. “Okay. It’s okay,” he told Robby, who was holding his stomach. “I’m sure the candles are great. I mean, they sound delicious. Not that I want to eat them. I just mean, they probably smell amazing, which is generally what you want candles to do. You know? And if you want, I can go with you next time to help you pick out the best candles. Though, like I said, I don’t know much about candles. That doesn’t sound like a real word anymore. Candles, candles, candles.”

They sat in a heap after they were done laughing, catching their breaths. Robby was red in the face, his chest heaving under Dennis’s head, their limbs sprawled all over the couch. “What’s the matter with you, huh?” asked Dennis, playing with Robby’s beard.

Robby sighed. “You. It’s you.”

Dennis froze. 

His stomach dropped to his feet. 

This was it. This was Robby drawing the line in the ground. He was going to let Dennis down gently, tell him that their professional relationship needed them not to cross boundaries. He asked Dennis over because he wasn’t a jerk that would do it over the phone. He didn’t let Jake stay for dinner because he wanted to be able to save Dennis his dignity.

“Oh,” was all he could say.

His limbs went numb as he rose to his knees, staring down at Robby. He couldn’t make himself move even though he was sure Robby wanted him to. He wanted to stay right there, on top of the other man, for as long as he was allowed. As long as he could stretch the moments.

“I don’t… I don’t know how much longer I can do this.” Robby’s eyes fluttered. He looked beautiful, even while rejecting Dennis. “It’s been a year of—of torture.”

That hurt. Physically in his chest and jaw, it ached. Dennis didn’t know what to say. Sorry? I thought you enjoyed it? I thought we had fun? It all sounded juvenile. He’d known this day was coming, but as time passed and the other shoe still didn’t drop, his stupid heart had filled up with hope he had been afraid to look too closely at. Now that was returning to bite his ass. He thought he’d be okay. He’d be able to handle it; he’d keep his expectations low. Right now, he felt the farthest thing from okay.

“I didn't know you felt…” 

He couldn't even make himself say it.

“From the moment you helped me in Peds,” Robby shook his head. “I’ve just been… falling.”

“I’m sorry.”

Robby inhaled, his eyes suddenly glassy. “Is that your answer?”

Dennis felt disjointed. He pulled away, off. It didn’t make sense. But it was what he’d expected, so what was the problem? Why did it feel like he was missing something? And why was Robby—

Why was Robby upset?

“I don’t know. I didn’t mean to hurt you. You know,” his throat felt like broken glass. “I wouldn't have continued hurting you if you told me before that you didn’t want it.”

“But I did want it. That’s the issue—I couldn’t do anything but want it.”

“But you want to stop,” said Dennis. His voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “You want it to end.”

Robby covered his face, massaging the inner corners of his eyes. “I want too much. Shit. I always do.”

“I’m sorry if I upset you.” He wasn’t sure what about this had made Robby emotional—what had he said or done wrong? He could torture himself over it later. He could feel the walls press in on him. “I need to go. I have to… go. Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Robby spoke softly, as if he was apologizing to a spooked deer. “Keep the—”

“Okay.”

“This was supposed to happen over dinner,” Robby said again. “It wasn’t supposed to go like this.”

Robby remained kind, even now. Dennis could feel his heart tear in two and struggled not to clutch at his chest. “I know.”

Outside Robby’s apartment building. Dennis sat on the curb and stared into nothing. The wind snagged every tear out of his eyes. He didn't bother removing them.

A handkerchief hovered near his head. He followed the hand holding it to Joe’s face, peering down at Dennis with sympathy.

“It’s cold out here, Dennis.”

He took the offered cloth and shoved his face in it. He didn’t realize how cold it was, he could hardly feel anything.

“Thank you, Joe. I’m okay.”

Joe held his hands behind his back and stared at the distance in solidarity. “I don’t think you are.”

Dennis laughed. It sounded hollow and stupid, so he quickly stopped. “I don’t blame you for thinking that.”

Suddenly, his phone rang. 

Ain’t nobody

Loves me better

Makes me happy

Makes me—

It read Sir. He would have to change that, soon. Just looking at it made his teeth ache and heart twist.

“Hey.” Joe looked at him curiously as Dennis answered the phone. “Did you want—uh, your shirt back?”

Regretting it already.

“No. Um.” Robby’s voice sounded wobbly on the other end. “I just remembered something I wanted to say. If that’s okay.”

Dennis closed his eyes. He wished he could reinforce his ribs with iron walls, protecting the softness inside from whatever was coming next. He just had to be a fucking masochist. “Yeah.”

“I wanted to tell you. I’ve never met anyone like you. The last year has been… amazing. You saved my life in more ways than you can count. And I know you can’t say it back, and I’m a selfish piece of shit for saying it and ruining this for you more, but I can’t hold it back anymore. I need to say it. I love you. I love you. I love you so much. I wake up thinking about you. I wish you were always with me so I’d never have to miss you. And I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable, but that’s just how I feel—”

“Robby.”

Dennis didn’t even sound like himself. 

“I’m sorry—”

“Robby, shut the fuck up. I’m coming upstairs, and you’re going to light your fucking candles by the time I get there.”

“...Okay.”

The line clicked. Joe lent a hand and Dennis got to his feet. He silently smiled and held the door open for Dennis.

Upstairs, it was warm again. The door was ajar when Dennis approached. Robby sat awkwardly at the dinner table, fumbling with his hands and his beard and his hair and his glasses. This stupid man. This stupid, stupid man.

Dinner was set. Every candle in the vicinity was lit.

“You left your jacket,” Robby realized. His eyes were red.

Dennis locked the door and sat across from him. “Forget the fucking jacket. Do it the way you wanted to, from the beginning.”

Robby hesitated.

He grabbed Robby’s hand on the tablecloth and squeezed. “Please. Michael.”

The older man went pink. He collected himself, holding Dennis’s hand too. “I… I told Jake about us.”

That wasn’t what Dennis had expected him to start with.

“I—he’s not my son, he doesn’t, you know, call me dad or anything. But he’s my kid. I take care of him. He barges into my house and eats my food and sleeps in his bedroom here. From the moment that I realized I wanted something long-term with you, I knew I couldn't rush into it. He’s not going anywhere. And if you’re in my future, I wanted to be sure he was okay with it first.”

The emotional whiplash was turning Dennis inside out. He felt raw, honored. He didn’t know what to say, so he just stared.

“I told him about you. Little by little. How you take care of your patients. How you like action movies. How you’re literally half my age.”

He laughed a bit and Dennis covered his mouth with his free hand.

“Yesterday I called him. I wanted to tell him that I… that I was going to ask you. He interrupted me before I could even get to it. He said, ‘Robby, is this about your Huckleberry again?’ And I told him not to call you that, and I’m pretty sure he rolled his eyes and then just told me to ‘go ask him out already, you old fart.’”

Dennis snorted. 

“I told him I was going to do it tonight. He told me to go buy some candles. That it’s romantic.”

“I’m really feeling the romance,” said Dennis.

“And then you both showed up on my doorstep together.” Robby sighed with a defeated laugh. “He’s really protective… but I’m pretty sure he just wanted to check I wasn’t creeping on you or anything.”

“You do creep on me.”

“I’m already regretting letting you two meet.”

“You can’t take any of it back.”

“I won’t. Can I ask… why did you come back?”

Dennis lay his forehead on Robby’s knuckles and shook, laughing. “For such an intelligent doctor, you can be so… a year of torture, Robby, really? What was I supposed to think?”

“What—you didn’t think I—”

“Of course I did. Of course I did. I’m your resident. I’m twenty-eight. I’m poor as shit and I definitely can’t offer the experience that other people can. That your previous partners clearly had. Why would you ever choose me? I know now that you don’t care about those things, but it’s not as if we were actually talking about it. Every time we got a little closer to the edge, I was afraid you’d pull away to make up for it. You have a complex about it, you know.”

Robby blinked.

“Dr-I-deserve-nothing-good-Robinavitch.” Dennis kissed one finger, then another. “I was afraid you’d let it apply here, too. I was ready to fight you for it, to be honest, but you really… you really took me off-guard in here. It hurt to think that you’d just carried on out of pity or something. Worse, if you felt like you were forced…”

“That’s—that’s so far from the truth, it honestly didn’t even register to me that you’d think it,” said Robby. “I’m the one taking advantage of you. I’m sorry I gave you that impression. You did nothing wrong—you—oh fuck, oh… I’m an asshole.”

“You’re an asshole and you said you love me. Is that still true?” asked Dennis.

“I believe in loving you more than I’ve believed in anything,” Robby said. Then, “It’s ridiculous how much you blush at that, you know, I don’t even get this reaction when I call you angel.”

“It’s different. I wanted to hear you say it for so long—didn’t let myself even think of it as possible. And now it’s happening. It feels like a dream.”

“The candles probably don’t help with that, huh?”

“For the record, I love you too.”

Robby inhaled.

“Just for the record?”

“Only for the record.”

“Then what should I tell Jake?”

“That he can debrief with me while he teaches me whatever marble rivals are.”

“Marvel, baby. It’s Marvel. The cinematic universe.”

“I’m going to pretend you spoke English just now. Can I kiss you or are we seriously going to have to have dinner beforehand—’Cause I know I said do it the way you wanted to, but I don’t think I can wait a minute longer.”

“I think I’ve made you wait long enough.”

He rounded the table and bent to kiss Robby, luxuriating in the graze of his beard against his cold skin. Robby pulled back.

“You know what Marvel is.”

“Oh my God. Yes, I do, I was messing with you. Please. Bedroom now.”

“Aren’t you hun—okay, okay! Okay.”

Dennis prowled after the older man, watching the shifting muscles of his back as Robby stripped on the way. Admired the pudgy hips, the wide shoulders, the numerous scars and moles littered everywhere. Mine, something—probably the deviant—in Dennis preened. He wanted to crow about it to the whole world. Dr. Michael Robinavitch, attending at PTMC, allergic to treenuts, connoisseur to Dad Rock, avid watcher of The Great British Bake Off, occasional foster parent to shelter kittens, was his.

He crowded Robby onto the bed, letting him pry Dennis’s pants down while he dug his nails in from Robby’s collarbone to his hips. 

“You know,” he said between kitten licks to Robby’s nipple. “You never actually asked me.”

“Mmf.” Robby shifted, shimmying his pants down. “Dennis Whitaker will you be mine?”

He bit down, making Robby curse. “Focus.”

“Okay. Dennis Whitaker, I want us to be exclusive, what do you think?”

Dennis reached up and stopped right before their lips could touch. They considered each other. “Say it properly,” he whispered.

Robby took a shuddering breath. His face reddened.

“Baby. I love you.” His arms wrapped around Dennis and snuck under his t-shirt, sneaking up his back and causing him to shiver. “I love you so much. I’ve wanted you. I can’t stop thinking about you.”

A kiss at Dennis’s shoulder, then collarbone, then a nip at his slight Adam’s apple.

“I can’t imagine doing anything without you,” muttered into his jaw. “I want to be the one to give you what you deserve,” whispered by his ear. “I wanna put a baby in you,” mouthed against his lips.

Dennis grunted like he’d been struck, lust rolling over him in rapid waves. “Oh, fuck.”

“Come on, baby boy. What do you want?”

He’d always been the runt, the fourth, the last with the least options. He’d always taken what he could get. He met life on life’s conditions. It was time to change that.

“I want you to take care of me,” he admitted haltingly. “I want to take care of you. I want us to be well. Be good. Do good. I want the world to leave us alone. I want to be alone with you, all the time. I want you to touch me. I want—I want to be worth something.”

“You’re worth everything,” said Robby. “You already are, you always were.”

“Sir,” he breathed against Robby and they were gone.

Robby grabbed him by the hair, all but devouring his mouth as he squeezed an asscheek and dragged him up. Dennis groaned at the sting of his scalp, feeling the funny edge of pain throb and fuel the pleasure. He pressed up against Robby’s front, Robby leaning back against the pillow, and keened as their cocks touched.

Then he did it again, and again, and again. Each collision punched an “Uh, uh, uh,” out of his open mouth. He had to hold onto Robby’s shoulder to balance as he peered below, watching the tips of their dicks meet and separate in messy strings of precum. “Oh God.”

“Doing so good, angel. Feels so good,” said Robby. He sounded unhinged. “Rub your dick on mine, there’s a good boy.”

“Robby…”

“I know, baby, I know.”

Dennis let his head fall onto Robby’s shoulder and he was rewarded with a kiss at the junction of his neck and collarbone. He let his hip fall down, hard, and dragged up and down the length of Robby.

They groaned in unison. Robby bit him, the pain sparking something at the bottom of Dennis’s spine, urging him to go faster and harder—until his moans were indistinguishable from his pants, until Robby was barely holding it together enough for his stream of whispers to land.

“Just like that—so wet for me, just for me, all mine—I’m going to suck your cock, I’m gonna eat you out until you cry—”

Dennis nodded. “Please. Please—”

“I’m not going to let you cum until I tell you. Until you can’t take it anymore. Until you need to cum so bad you’d do anything.” Robby’s voice was a low growl against his ear. “Make you do all sorts of things. And then maybe I won’t let you cum after all.”

The hairs on his arms rose and the next shift back was too quick, too slippery, too messy—Dennis ground too low at the same moment that Robby raised his hips and then there they were, the head of his cock inside Dennis, who felt the throb in every eyelash and nailbed.

“Nnghh oh—”

“Oh my G—holy shit.”

“—Shit. Shit, baby boy, oh shit, speak to me.”

Dennis gagged uncontrollably, feeling it in his skull. “You’re… big,” he whispered. Everything down there hurt.

“I’m so sorry angel, let me pull—”

“No!”

Robby floundered his hands around Dennis’s waist, hissing when Dennis squeezed around him. “But…”

He took a shaky breath. “That hurt. Fuck, that really hurt.” Tears of pain were spilling over his waterline.

Robby watched them roll down his cheeks, transfixed.

“I’ve been waiting for it to hurt, sir,” Dennis gritted out.

Both of them could feel Robby’s cock twitch inside him. Skin to skin, their sweat and breath mixed, Dennis waited for the sharpness of the pain to subside. Robby stroked his cock to distract him. Once the dull throb was good—better than good, even—Dennis sank down more and more, bit by bit, until Robby’s dick hit his cervix and he couldn’t lower himself any longer.

Dennis shifted to an easier position, letting a hand linger at his happy trail, looking past the beads of his rosary. He’d seen his stomach swell as Robby entered him.

“I wish I could take all of you,” he said morosely.

“We’d be seated at the Pitt waiting room in minutes.”

Dennis snorted. “They’d make us skip the line.”

“And then I’d have some real explaining to do,” said Robby, kissing him. Dennis sighed into it, pleased by stretch, by the familiarity of Robby’s tongue. “You alright?”

In response, Dennis experimentally raised his hips, and then slowly let himself sink back down. They moaned into each other’s mouths as Dennis wrapped his arms around Robby’s neck and picked up the pace. Robby’s fingers nearly met each other around his waist, the man guiding him with a curse.

“Where—shit—the hell’d you learn this, puppy?”

Dennis laughed. “You’ve never gone riding before, have you?”

Robby’s eyes glossed over a little. “I’d pay money to see that.”

“Don’t have too.” Dennis reached back, put his hands on Robby’s thighs, and held on as he let his hips do the work. His rosary momentarily hung in the air before falling against his stomach each time. Robby stared at where he entered Dennis again and again, physically trapped by the sight. It made an endearing image.

The angle had Robby’s cock grinding up against the spongey, sensitive spot inside him that made him drool. He felt so big inside Dennis that he couldn’t entirely catch his breath, couldn’t bite back the moans. Sweat glued his bangs to his face, his lips red and raw from two sets of teeth. Eventually, they were both too sweaty—Dennis’s hand slipped and he fell before he could stop it with the muscle of his thighs. Robby’s cock speared into him.

Dennis whimpered.

“Fuck, angel, are you okay?”

He nodded, still whimpering, couldn’t control it—just kept leaking past his shut tight lips. “U-uh-huh—ghnnh… oh God, you’re all the way inside me.”

He could feel it in his gums.

Carving a space inside him. Making itself at home. Shoving down the blocked doors.

“We have to stop—you’re hurt—”

“No. I like it, please—”

“I know you want to continue but, Dennis, this isn’t meant to be painful.”

“Even if I really, really want it to? Robby, look at me.” Robby looked up. “I’m not bleeding, and I don’t feel my cervix hurting. It’s the stretch. I love the fucking stretch, please, Robby, it’s good. I want—I want more.”

Robby stilled, then shook his head. “You’re insane. And incredible.” With a pop in his knee, Robby spun them around. Dennis’s head hit the pillow and Robby’s cock jolted inside him, causing them both to yelp. “Made for me.”

“What—limited, ah, edition?” asked Dennis, distracted by the shiny spinning Magen David hanging in front of him.

“One of a—” He pulled out and thrust back inside. The Magen David slapped against Dennis's cheek. It was wet with sweat. “—fucking kind.”

Every slam inside, Robby rubbed and pinched at Dennis’s cock, adding to the slippery mess that substituted as lubricant. Dennis was fuck-drunk, staring up at invisible stars and waiting for that trainwreck of an orgasm in his near future. He could no longer produce any sound except for a whiny, low-pitch, ah, ah, ah— with a voice so scraped of any resemblance he’d thought for a second someone else was making that noise.

It was the fifth time that broke him. The fifth time that the Magen David hit his face, nicking his skin with its sharp edge, Dennis opened his mouth in the right direction and moments later sunk his teeth into the gaps of it.

“Uh—?” Robby pulled short, unable to go as far as before.

He tongued it to the side, sucking the metal and Robby’s sweat. “Why’d you stop?”

Robby stared down at him and experimentally thrust inside. When he pulled back, he couldn’t pull out entirely, the length of the necklace stretching taut and digging into the skin of his neck in warning. He gave into the new sandbox, hesitantly at first, then enthusiastically, unable to remove his gaze from where the Magen David grew spit-soaked between Dennis’s bunny-buck teeth.

Dennis smirked, swallowing a moan as Robby slammed in particularly hard. Who was the dog now? The arrogance must have been plain to see on his face, because Robby reached and twisted his nipple.

“Fuck you,” he grunted around the Star.

Robby laughed at him.

Dennis pulled his leg from Robby’s grasp, tying them both around Robby’s waist and tightening them. Shrinking the sandbox even more. Robby could pull out even less, like this. Just little strokes back and forth. Like a dog to a couch.

That inner voice piped up again. You got him to be the dog, but you downgraded to furniture? A real victory, that.

He growled and pulled Robby down by the hair and kissed him, trading the Star between their tongues. Robby shivered under his touch. Everything tasted metallic—maybe his tongue had been scratched. They kissed with blood and sweat and saliva and the Star of David and Dennis’s rosary was loud and his skin had turned red where it had been slapped by the weight of his cross what must be a hundred times—

A hand squeezed his ass, and, unexpectedly, a finger pressed against the furl of his asshole. It didn’t try to enter. Just shoved against the skin there, increasing pressure until Dennis was shouting and, for the second time in his life, squirting.

“Oh fffffucking fuck, ah, n—oh my God, uuhngff—”

Robby rode him through it, working with the modicum of space left over after his legs had tightened further, the front of his torso wet with more than sweat now. Dennis turned loose-limbed after, energy sapped, but not enough that he would let Robby leave.

“C’mon, doc. Cum in me.”

Robby groaned, squeezing his eyes. “Baby—”

Dennis let the Star fall out of his mouth, grabbing the necklace instead and forcing Robby closer. “In me in me in me in me in me, coward—cum in me in me in me—”

The other man slammed into him—hard—and he gasped, twitching and overstimulated. “Brat,” growled Robby. Four fingers hooked over Dennis’s tongue and held his jaw. Made him shut the fuck up and take it. “I’ll make you a father if you’re that fucking desperate.”

Dennis struggled not to gag, unwilling to give Robby the satisfaction. Instead he squeezed around him and Robby thrust in once, twice, three more times with a ragged groan and shiver. Dennis observed and recorded every shift in expression and sound to his memory to comb over later.

He whined at the electric friction when Robby eased out, the cum dribbling out in thick blobs after. A hand stilled his squirming legs and held his thighs open, two fingers easily inserting themselves into his stretched open hole.

“Shit,” Dennis said, pushing at Robby’s chest. 

Robby looked up from his examination and scrutinized him. “I thought you liked pain.”

He couldn’t help the way his hips rolled to meet Robby’s hand. “Nghh…”

He was ignored. “There seems to be no bleeding or tearing. I don’t want you to walk right now, but I do want you to pee. I’ll carry you to the bathroom.”

“What the fuck—why are you—you’re such a doctor,” said Dennis. “And I don’t need to be carried I can piss on my own thank you very much.” He swung his legs off the bed and slowly slid to the floor. “Help me up, will you?”

Robby snickered a little—but only a little, so Dennis didn't hold it against him.

He let Robby get an arm around his chest and walked forward. “Just help. You’ll blow out your back trying to carry me. I gained weight since I started eating regularly.”

The arm on his chest tightened momentarily and then, before he could blink, he was off the ground.

“I just said—”

“I used my knees.”

“Your knees are bad, too, Robby,” Dennis reminded, exasperated, but they had already reached the bathroom. Robby set him down. “Thank you, anyway. That was nice.”

The corners of Robby’s eyes crinkled further, crow feet extending into his hairline. “I’ll do it whenever you want. Every time, if you want.”

Dennis blinked. “Why?” 

“I want to take care of you, too.” Robby kissed his forehead. “I’ll go change the sheets. Shout for me when you're done.”