Luca and the Long Hard Summer

Luca awoke to giggles, snorts and cold feet. The tent was in full daylight and the mattress beneath him was rhythmically shaking. Odd.

He dragged himself upright and soon discovered the reason. He'd been lying on Thomas, who was curled in an odd position in the corner of the tent with his eyes full of guilty mirth, laughing.

"Lucky's in loooove," came a smug giggle from behind him. Nim. Fuck. He'd really been star-fishing on top of Thomas since dawn. Well, that was mortifying.

"Morning Lucky," Thomas drawled. Were his cheeks slightly flushed, or was that just his imagination? "Awake now?" he raised a sassy eyebrow.

Luca stretched as casually as he could, ending the stretch with his middle fingers extended in front and behind. One bird for Thomas, and one for Nim.

"Probably not," he replied. That's it. Casual. Just a normal morning after a normal night. Everything was normal - except for that bit in the middle where him and his best friend had sneaked off into the dunes to have a tug and ended up kissing and sleeping with their unsatisfied desperate bits smooshed together. At least he wasn't hard now. He might have died from embarrassment.

He noticed Thomas had the sleeping bag pooled in his lap though. Not that he was interested. Just curious.

"You all awake in there?" he heard his mum call out. "Breakfast is nearly ready."

"I'm awake!" Nim cried, and flung her blankets off. She climbed into the door of the caravan like it was a race. His sister loved breakfast. She'd have it for every meal if she could. Except dessert. Breakfast came a close second to dessert.

The annex was quiet for a second, only accompanied by second hand sounds from the caravan. Thomas fixed him with an odd expression.

"We going in?" he asked in his best awkward-casual tone. Thomas glanced down at the blanket in his lap and pressed his lips together, his face definitely going a bit redder beneath the tangled mop of black hair.

"Just a sec," he replied, and when Luca didn't turn away, he just reached below the blanket and fumbled for a bit with a grimace on his face. Luca suddenly realised what he was doing, and turned away to give him some privacy. "Pass me that jumper?" he nodded towards the corner at his long sweater, and Luca held it out without looking backwards. He felt like an idiot. He felt the jumper being pulled from his hand and heard Thomas pulling it over his head, scraping against the side of the tent. Then he heard the stumbling of his friend getting up out of the covers.

Finally he stood in front of Luca and held his arms out as if to say here I am. "How's it look?" he asked. Luca took him in. His eyes were puffy from sleep, his hair was a nest of black brambles and his legs still had sand clinging to them from the night before. He was beautiful. The jumper was a mess though. But that wasn't what he meant. And he definitely wasn't beautiful. He didn't know where that thought had come from.

Luca made a show of inspecting his appearance. If he was sporting morning wood, it wasn't visible through the long, baggy jumper.

"The jumper's rubbish, but it does the job," he replied, and Thomas let out a sigh of relief.

"Breakfast with 'the mums' then," he concluded.

Luca nodded. "Breakfast with the mums."

"And then we should plan."

Luca cocked his head in query. Thomas readjusted himself none too discretely.

"We need to find a place better than the dunes," he said finally. "If you're still interested."

"I'm still interested," Luca replied, even before Thomas had finished talking. He blushed. Now it sounded like he was interested in Thomas. "I've been slowly going crazy ever since we got here," he tried to save it, with marginal success.

"Toilets are out, dunes are out," Thomas started listing off places.

"Ocean is out," Luca added.

"Jesus, the ocean?" Thomas looked at him, impressed, and Luca shrugged.

"Told you it's been driving me crazy."

"Hang on, that time you were making that weird face, and you said you had a cramp..."

Luca blushed hotly. "You swam over to me a minute too early."

"So you were trying to-"

"Yep," Luca chewed on his lip in embarrassment.

"But you didn't -"

"Nope." He sighed. "Like I said, another minute more though..."

Thomas looked thoughtful, and amused.

"Sorry Lucky," the apology was probably insincere, but not unwelcome.

"No worries," Luca replied easily. "You didn't know." A thought occurred to him. "Besides, there's probably been times where I've interrupted you too."

"You mean, other than last night?" Thomas smirked ruefully. Luca tried his best not to think about last night, about Thomas' furtive hand movements underneath the cover in the silver light of pre-dawn. He definitely did not want to think about the way Thomas' face had looked as it had screwed up in pleasure in the dunes, or how it had felt to sleep tangled in his arms with their bodies pressed together from shoulders to hips. Luca felt his groin swell to half mast despite himself. He coughed.

"Never mind -" he started to say, but Thomas talked at the same time.

"Just one other time. Nothing big." Luca looked up at him in curiosity, and Thomas obviously took that to mean he needed the rest of the story. "That time I left the beach early to go to the toilet, but you found me in the tent."

"When everyone else was swimming."

"Yeah," Thomas dragged a sheepish hand through his nest of hair.

"I thought you looked put out when I came in. I thought you said you were getting dressed."

"I was. But I thought I'd get at least a few minutes to sort myself out as well."

Luca snorted, and Thomas looked at him in confusion.

"I was thinking the same thing," he said, by way of explanation. "I thought you were at the loos, and that you'd head back to the beach afterwards - which would leave the tent empty..."

Thomas laughed. "The tent was double-booked," he grinned at Luca. "But seriously, we need to find a place before I start poking holes in my pants."

"And before I have to be committed to a loony bin," Luca added.

"I'd miss you," Thomas joked.

"You'd miss cheating off of me in physics."

"I'd miss that too."

Luca snorted and gave him a jab with his elbow before heading to the caravan. As he reached the door, he looked back over his shoulder at Thomas.

"You coming?" he asked, and from the semi-darkness of the annex, he thought he heard a muffled 'I wish', before Thomas came trudging out of the dark, shrouded in his huge jumper.

"Come on, let's get come breakfast then."

Luca opened the door and they both went in.

"Nim tells me you and Thom watched the sunrise this morning," his mum said as she scraped some jam over her toast. Luca almost choked on his nutrigrain. Thankfully Thomas saved him.

"Yeah," he replied. "We were up to use the toilet anyway, so we thought we'd give it a look." That was Thomas. Shit at physics, but a fabulous liar.

"That would explain all the sand at the door then," his ma prodded him in the shoulder, in a teasing way that also let him know that she expected him to clean that up later. It was a speciality of hers.

His mum brushed Ma off and spoke through a mouthful of toast. "What a great idea. Must have been beautiful."

Beautiful. Luca nodded, trying not to think of Thomas in the dunes with his head thrown back against the sand making noises he blushed to remember.

"It was pretty nice," Thomas took the lead again. "A bit breezy though," he added, and Luca took a quick sip of his tea to keep from coughing. A 'bit breezy' indeed. "There were a few more people about than you'd think there'd be, that early."

"The early birds get the hot showers," his ma replied sagely. "Any plans for today?"

"Thom and I thought we might go for a hike," Luca replied before he'd really thought about it. He saw Thom throw him a sceptical glance out of the corner of his eye. He was more a sprinter than a hiker, but there was a glint in his eye as he got in on the game.

"Yeah, around the point maybe, or maybe up Mt Cardinal," he played along. "Get away from the crowds for a bit."

Luca grinned. "Really soak in the atmosphere."

"That sounds like fun!" his mum replied, and for a horrified second Luca thought he'd played it up too much - made it too appealing.

"Make sure to take plenty of water, and sunscreen," his ma added, and he silently thanked god for her. Ma was definitely not the hiking type, and if Mum got it in her head to come along, he was sure Ma would just remind her about her sciatica. She was practical like that. A buzz-kill sometimes, but practical. He loved that about her today.

"Can I come?" Nim asked around a spoonful of coco-pops. Luca's heart sank in his chest until his ma piped up again.

"Let's give the boys the day to themselves, shall we?" she suggested. "I was thinking we might go into the town and have a look in the op shops."

His mum piped up. "That sounds like fun, Nim. We might find some treasures!"

Nim looked less excited, but as soon as she realised there was a slight chance of ice-cream, she softened up.

"Will you go up the mountain, or to the point, do you think?" his ma asked pointedly. For safety purposes.

Luca looked at Thomas. He honestly had no idea which would be a better option for solitude, but he could almost guarantee that Thomas would not feel like climbing a mountain today. He was a schemer, not a plodder.

"The point?" he suggested, and when Thomas' face relaxed in relief, he knew he'd guessed correctly.

"Sounds good to me," he said. "We might even make it to the next beach over. I heard there may be shops there or something."

"Make sure to take some lunch with you, just in case," he mum insisted. "The bread's still out. I can make you some sandwiches if you like."

"That'd be great Mrs M," Thomas replied.

"Call me Marilyn, Thom," she replied. "Or we'll wonder which one you're talking to."

"We'd better pack a few things then," Luca interrupted, and drank the milk from the bottom of his bowl.

"Right!" Thom shoved his toast into his mouth and followed him out of the caravan and back into the relative darkness of the annex.

"You fucking legend," Thomas whispered as soon as he zipped up the door, and Luca turned to face him. "I could just-" and in the next moment, Thomas had trapped his face between his hands, and was kissing him firmly on the lips. Luca's mind went blank as Thomas broke the kiss and turned to root through his bag for clothes.

Had that really just happened? Had Thomas had kissed him again? That was twice now. Once could be an accident, but twice... It was getting to be a habit.

Luca licked his lips, as if he could taste the lingering pressure stored there in his memory. In his pyjama bottoms, he was now definitely sporting a semi. It was the anticipation, he told himself. This kiss had nothing to do with it. Besides, it was just a friendly kiss of excitement between two friends. Nothing more than that. Luca rubbed his bottom lip with his thumb, wondering why it was still tingling.

"You going to stand there all day?" he heard Thomas' rebuke, and frantically got to the task of finding some suitable hiking clothes. And something baggy enough to hide his condition.

It was less than half an hour before they left, striking out along the trail with a back pack full of food, water and emergency first aid kit - courtesy of Ma.

Luca's arousal had fizzled, but he could feel the anticipation pooling in his belly. Somewhere on this walk, they would find a spot, and he would finally get to the release he'd been unintentionally teasing himself with for the past three weeks. They'd decided on waiting until they were just past the point. That way, they would be well away from the camp, and well away from other tourists. He could see the point looming in the distance. It was almost enough to tempt him to run. As it was, he was striding ahead of Thomas. Longer legs were good that way.

"You're really gunning for it, hey?" Thomas panted behind him. "Or do you just love hiking that much?"

Luca laughed a bit breathlessly. "You can't tell me you're not looking forward to this as much as I am," he said.

"Point. That, and if my balls get any bigger they'll explode and kill us all," Thomas grinned.

"So we're really doing this, then?" Luca confirmed. "We're really walking all the way into the bush for a wank, and then walking all the way back?" It sounded ridiculous out aloud. It was ridiculous.

"If you're anywhere near as eager for it as I am, we won't have to walk back. It'll be like opening up the throttle on a jet pack - we'll just point our asses towards home and let her rip."

Luca snorted. "I shouldn't have packed so much food then. It's not good to fly on a full stomach."

Thomas sniggered in between laboured breathing. Really, he'd kill the field in a 100m relay, but he was pants at anything to do with endurance.

"You ever gone this long without before?" he huffed. Luca started at the unexpected question. Thomas was being remarkably open today. For him, anyway. And Luca definitely wasn't blushing. His cheeks were just red from the exercise. Shaking off his stupor, he thought hard for a moment.

"Not really," he answered truthfully. "Even when I broke both my arms I still found a way."

"Oh yeah," Thomas looked thoughtful. "I almost forgot you did that. Your dad ever let you ride the AG bike again?"

Back to normal ground again. Luca was both relieved and disappointed. Mostly relieved though. Yes. Definitely relieved.

"He would have, but Ma put the foot down." Luca had fond memories of exploring the mountain trails on his dad's farm bike. Well, up until the point he nose-dived into the ground coming down a hill and flipped the thing. His dad was of the impression that every boy should break a bone at some point in their life. His ma was the one who foot the bill for the hospital visit though, so they differed violently on that opinion. His mum had just tried to keep the peace between her current spouse and her former spouse, all the while force feeding him soup, regardless of the fact that he had broken arms, and not a cold. Families were fun sometimes.

"Rough luck, Lucky."

Luca shrugged. "Not really. It's coming into busy season for him anyway, so the bike won't be free for a while." He stepped over a bundle of roots sunk into the rocky trail and noted the point getting closer. His stomach fluttered and his cock thickened a little in his trousers. Great. Now he was getting turned on by landscapes. This was a new low. Luca huffed and tried to distract himself by asking the first question that came to mind. "How about you? What's the longest you've been?"

Fuck. Not that question.

Thomas threw his arms wide, gesturing to his geared-up, labouring body.

"This. Right now," he answered dramatically. "Every second I hold back from jizzing my pants is another second added to my personal best record!" His eyes were twinkling, but Luca could see the tension around them. All or nothing then.

"And what was your previous personal best?" he prodded, mentally rearranging his definition of 'normal-conversations-with-Thomas' to now include sexual escapades. It was probably fine.

"When Grandma came to visit and I had to sleep in the lounge room for a week," Thomas replied easily.

"Are you telling me you didn't shower for a week?" Luca mimed a look of disgust at him, and Thomas shoved his shoulder playfully, hard enough to make him have to jump to avoid tripping a root. He made a fake, revenge lunge at him, but Thomas skipped away easily with a grin.

"She had her old lady soaps in there, and her loofah. Not even a chance of scoring a goal when you're surrounded by things that remind you of naked, wet, Grandma."

"Fair point," Luca concurred, although... "You didn't just think of closing your eyes?"

Thomas stopped dead on the track and blinked as the realisation dawned on him. "Well," he said. "Fuck me! Apparently I was an idiot at 14."

"Exactly 14?" Luca asked sceptically, and Thomas shrugged and continued walking.

"Young enough to be stupid, anyway."

"I have it on good authority that can happen at any age," Luca joked, and was rewarded with a huff of laughter.

Luka felt another twinge of arousal spike through his gut as his mind finally registered that Thomas had said 'fuck me'. He hadn't said it in the way his mind insisted on replaying it, but apparently his body didn't care for truth when it was this desperate to be sated.

"Does that point look further away to you?" Thomas broke his chain of thought, and Luca looked back to see him shifting his pack uncomfortably, and rearranging his baggy jumper. His cheeks were flushed and he was breathing hard, but Luca couldn't tell if it was from the hike, or because he was as desperately horny as he'd been last night in the toilet block. He wondered if Thomas' blush went all the way down. Thomas looked up and met his gaze with hooded eyes, his tongue peeking out to wet his lips.

Desperately horny, it was. Luca shifted his weight as he felt his erection fill out completely, squashing itself painfully against the front of his khakis. Maybe they could cut their journey short?

He looked towards the point. Thomas was right. It looked further away than before. Maybe it was because he was now hard enough to joust with, but all of a sudden, the point looked so far away it may as well have been unattainable. But a few hundred meters ahead, just off the path, there was a group of large rocks.

Luca pointed at the cluster of rocks and raised an eyebrow at Thomas. "Do those rocks look like a point to you? Because they look like a point to me."

Thomas' black eyes lit up with arousal. "They certainly look pretty pointy," he confirmed as his breath quickened. "I think we should check them out."

Luca grinned, feeling his cheeks heat up. "I concur. I think we need a closer look at those rocks."

Thomas didn't run the last few hundred meters - mainly because it was hard to run when your pants had their own bowsprit - but he definitely power walked faster than he'd thought he was capable of. They were there in a few minutes, and started to climb the side of the massive sloping rock to reach the cluster of boulders at the top. Lust fuelled Luca on past the point where he would normally have played it cautious, but finally, they found their way to a secluded niche on the other side of the boulders. It was open on one side to the rise of the hill which was only a slight drop from their position, but shielded from the walking path at least.

Thomas dumped his pack and Luca followed. It was obvious now, even through the baggy jumper, that Thomas' pants were well and truly stretched to their limit. He saw Thomas' looking out at the stretch of open bushland with concern.

"You think this is private enough?" he asked, and Luca could tell from his expression that he desperately wanted to hear him say yes. But maybe it was like his grandma's soap.

"Maybe you should try closing your eyes," he suggested.

"But who will keep a lookout?" Thomas seemed nervous now, but he was palming the front of his trousers as he spoke. Nervous, but horny as fuck. Luca's cock twitched in his pants, demanding his urgent attention. But there was something he had to find out first.

Heart in his throat, half sure he was making some terrible mistake, Luca stepped forward until his breath mingled with Thomas'. He had to know. He had to be sure. So he whispered: "I think you should close your eyes anyway," right before he leaned in and kissed him.

Thomas' lips were still underneath his, and for a second, Luca thought he had seriously fucked up. How could he have misread the entire situation so badly? He wasn't even like that. What the fuck was he doing kissing Thomas?

But then, Thomas kissed him back, and all rational thought disappeared. Lips latched onto his, clumsy but hungry as they breathed him in. This was it. He was kissing his best friend. He was kissing Thomas. It felt nothing at all like he'd imagined.