Maveric Cattle Company

There are scenes of unprotected sex depicted in his story. In all cases it was between the two main characters, who are in a committed, monogamous relationship and were tested. If you aren't in the same kind of relationship, then you should always protect yourself and wear a condom.

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Darrin glanced at the blond young man he was helping with yet another homework assignment. Zach had developed a habit of visiting him frequently and seemed to have become quite comfortable. Usually the visits were just a few minutes, and Darrin didn't mind them. But today was different. Zach seemed more high-strung than usual as they looked over the nutrition equations that he was trying to solve. The longer they worked, the more irritated Darrin became with Zach's inability to focus. Darrin's frustration was compounded by the fact that the work was somewhat of a struggle for him too, since nutrition wasn't his area of specialization. As they'd worked, horizontal surfaces in Darrin's office had become more and more buried with paper as Zach jumped back and forth between different notes.

"What about this? If the protein's at this level wouldn't the TDN be higher?" asked Zach.

"Not necessarily," replied Darrin, "It could be that you need more . . ."

The technical discussion continued for quite some time. Zach moved beside Darrin as they worked through problem after problem. At some point Darrin realized that Zach understood how to do the work now, he was just getting Darrin to finish his homework.

Leaning back Darrin smiled at him. "I think you've got it, Zach. You can finish the rest of these."

Zach looked a little sheepish, "Yeah, I think I can. Thanks for the help Dr. Anderson."

"No problem, Zach. You know you can stop by anytime," Darrin paused for a moment and then continued, "How's everything else going?"

"Oh," said Zach, "Ok, I guess."

"Anything I can help with?"

"No. My roommate moved out when I told him I was gay. He said he wasn't rooming with a fag. We were friends in high school . . . "

"Sorry, Zach. Some people just don't get it. Maybe he will reconsider," said Darrin with genuine concern.

"Maybe, but I don't think so. He's the Baptist minister's son."

"Oh," said Darrin thinking it probably was a lost cause, "Well, it's his problem. You didn't do anything wrong."

"He was cute . . ."

"Zach, if he wasn't interested then he wasn't. You can't try to convert someone. It doesn't work that way," said Darrin.

"I know, Dr. Anderson. I just have all these feelings, about a lot of things. And I don't know how to deal with them," said Zach softly.

"Well, talk to your friends. Join the Gay-Straight Alliance if you haven't already. You need to talk to someone to help you sort out your feelings. But it's easier when you aren't guessing about the sexuality of the other person. "

Darrin noticed Zach looked a little flushed and he seemed to be moving closer. Darrin wasn't certain what was going on.

"Zach?" said Darrin, "I think we're done, unless there's something else."

"Yes, sir," said Zach, but didn't move. Darrin started to wonder what was going on. It wasn't like Zach was going to try anything physical because he was very small, shorter than Mitch, and very slender. He definitely fell into the category of twink. But his proximity was starting to bother Darrin. They were close enough that Darrin was starting to feel claustrophobic.

"You know, I've never done anything with a guy. Nothing," said Zach softly.

"Zach, I think you need to—"

Zach moved suddenly and grabbed Darrin's face. Darting in, he kissed Darrin hard. Darrin was so shocked that he froze as the kiss continued for several seconds. Zach broke the kiss and saw the look of disbelief on Darrin face.

"Oh my god, oh my god, I'm so sorry. Oh god. I just . . . holy fuck," stammered Zach. Turning he grabbed his book bag and shoved everything inside and ran out the door.

Darrin was sitting staring at the doorway Zach had just fled through. He was unable to put thought to action, his shock leaving him numb. Gradually he regained his senses and realized they had worked long past sunset. Moving on autopilot he gathered his things and left.

Driving home, Darrin considered what he should do. He knew Mitch would be very upset, and probably jealous. He wondered if just this once it wouldn't be better to not tell Mitch everything. He had almost convinced himself of the wisdom of keeping it to himself by the time he got home.

Mitch looked up as Darrin walked through the door and did not like the look on his face. But he'd had a bad day, everything he touched had gone wrong, so he hoped he was just reading way too much into his expression. With a sigh, he tried to pull himself out of the funk he was in and greet his husband.

"Hey Darrin, how was your day?"

"Oh, what? Oh, it was fine, just fine."

"Something wrong, spill it," said Mitch with a frown.

"Damn it," whispered Darrin as the tension that was starting to recede recoiled into something ten times worse. "Yeah, I had a weird deal with a student."

"What'd ya mean 'weird deal'?" asked Mitch, his jaw tightening.

"He kissed me," said Darrin softly.

Mitch's response was immediate and explosive; his body shook at the thought of someone else kissing his husband. Turning to Darrin with fury blazing from his eyes he shouted, "Was it good? Is he cute? You ready to do a little chicken hawk'n?"

Darrin looked at Mitch with shock on his face. He'd known Mitch would be upset, but this was far worse than anything he'd anticipated.

"No, No! It wasn't anything like that. He just kissed me. He's just a little blond twink," Darrin tried to explain.

"A twink! You've fallen for a twink! So all that crap you've been feeding me about me being sexy was bullshit then!" yelled Mitch.

"No! I haven't fallen for anyone else. You know I love your body! Jeez, Mitch! You're over-reacting!" said Darrin.

"Over-reacting huh! So what'd you do when he kissed you? Did you resist? Did you punch him? What did you fuck'n do other than enjoy your little blond haired twink?"

Darrin started to answer, but words failed him. Staring at the floor he tried to replay the incident in his mind, but couldn't. What had he done? Why didn't he push Zach away? Was it his fault?

Mitch watched Darrin, taking his introspection as guilt. Consumed with anger he stomped out of the house, slamming the door behind him. Darrin ran to the door, thinking he would follow Mitch and try to explain. Instead he stood and watched as Mitch disappeared inside of the guesthouse. He again contemplated going after him, but decided that he couldn't reason with Mitch right now. He needed to clear his own thoughts before he could deal with Mitch's anger.

Walking back into the living room he saw Josh in the shadows of his doorway. "Go to bed, Josh. Everything will be fine. I just need to talk to Mitch."

"You kissed a student?" said Josh with a tone of disbelief.

"No. A student kissed me, and took me by surprise."

"Oh," said Josh, turning he quietly shut his door.

Darrin heard the click of Josh's door as it latched and then walked to his bedroom. He fell across the bed and lay with his face buried in Mitch's pillow. He lay unmoving through the night, breathing the smell of his lover, never able to fall asleep. As the morning light began to illuminate the room he crawled out of their bed. Without turning on a light, he turned on the shower and stepped in without undressing. As the cold water soaked his clothes, Darrin desperately wondered what he was going to do.

Less than 100 yards away the other half of the couple was also stirring from his sleepless night. Mitch knew he had over-reacted. But for one of the few times in his life he felt less than confident about himself. How could he compete with a little blond twink for god's sake. He was about as opposite of that as it was possible to be. His black hair was even starting to show a few gray threads. He wasn't going to lose Darrin without a fight though. If he needed to change himself to keep Darrin happy, then he would. There wasn't much he could do to change his appearance, but there was one thing he could do if Darrin liked bare skin.

Mitch climbed out of bed and got a pair of cattle clippers they'd left in the house a few weeks before. Striping, he looked down at his hair coated chest, which he'd always been proud of, and sighed. Steeling himself, he flipped on the clippers and quickly ran them up his chest, leaving a wide swath of denuded skin. As the hair drifted off the clippers, he considered his body. Maybe this would be enough, he sure hoped so.

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Darrin left without seeing Mitch. Fortunately, he had a busy day so he didn't have a lot of time to think about the previous night. He had almost made it through work when he looked up from an unexpected knock on his door.

"Zach?"

"Ah, yeah. Sorry."

Darrin took a deep breath, not condemning the young man but determined to get him to understand the problem he had created. "What can I do for you, Zach?" said Darrin.

"I needed to tell you I'm so sorry about yesterday. I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am," said Zach.

Darrin sighed, wondering why all this crap became his to deal with, "It's ok, Zach. I know you're working through a lot of stuff, but I'm not your solution. Ok?"

"I know. I'm not sure why I did it. I'm embarrassed and hope I haven't ruined our friendship," said Zach quietly.

"No, of course not. But you can't do that again, ever. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir. I won't. I swear," said Zach as he stared at the floor.

"Alright, then we're good."

"I hope I didn't cause any trouble for you at home. I really just got wrapped up in the moment."

"Ah, well let's just say you owe my husband an apology. But we'll be fine," said Darrin quietly, hoping he was telling the truth. Darrin thought back on last night and their fight. He still wasn't sure what to do, but he knew he had to do something. After a few minutes of contemplation he, realized that Zach was still standing at his door.

"Was there something else, Zach?" asked Darrin patiently.

"Ahhh, yeah. Is it still ok if I come to the prom?"

The sudden change in topic threw Darrin for a second, but he quickly realized what Zach was talking about. Slowly letting out his breath, he wondered if it was smart to let Zach too close to Mitch. He decided that Mitch would eventually understand what happened. But if he told Zach he couldn't attend the prom, probably the second time he'd heard that same statement, he would be crushed.

"Of course you can, Zach. Everyone's welcome," said Darrin with conviction.

"Great!" said Zach as a smile broke across his face, "I was really looking forward to it. I think it will be fun. I know a lot of my friends are coming too! Thank you so much!"

Darrin's smile froze, wondering now what kind of monster he and Mitch were creating with this prom for Josh.

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A little later Darrin was trying to wrap up things for the day when Emma appeared at his door. She looked positively bubbly and to his surprise immediately started talking about the prom.

"You know, Darrin. I think you may have quite a crowd at this little get together. I ran into the advisor for the GLBT center on campus and they said the students were getting really excited about going. Apparently a lot of them never went to their high school prom and this is going to be their chance to do it all over again."

"Oh no," said Darrin with a chuckle, "Mitch and I were afraid no one would show up. Apparently we're going to have the opposite problem. Crap! What're we going to do?"

"And that's why I'm here!" said Dr. Ruck with a charming smile. Immediately she started outlining a battle plan that would have made MacArthur envious. She soon had plans for preventing the punch from being spiked, keeping everyone chaste and providing bathrooms for the crowd, just to name a few. Darrin eventually stopped trying to contribute and just wrote notes. Her ideas were great and he couldn't really improve on them. As the conversation wound down it seemed that she had covered everything. Finally Emma stopped and looked at Darrin.

"How is the prep at the ranch going?"

"Well, it was going ok . . ." said Darrin.

"Oh? What happened?"

Darrin paused, not sure he wanted to share something this personal and worried about the ramifications for tenure if it became general knowledge that a student had kissed him. Finally he decided this particular bit information he couldn't share, even with Dr. Ruck.

"Just a family disagreement. Nothing that we can't deal with," said Darrin slowly.

Emma looked intently at Darrin and then shrugged, "Alright."

Darrin nodded, sure the woman had worked out some of the problem on her own, or it was possible that the campus gossip chain was working full bore. He didn't want to withhold information from her, but he felt that he had to protect Mitch and himself from any possible problem. He watched as she left his office without another word, hoping he hadn't just offended his biggest ally in the department. Sighing, he gathered up his paperwork and got ready to head home and deal with Mitch.

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Josh had worried about Darrin and Mitch all day. He'd never seen Mitch blow up like that, and he was confused about why Darrin had let the student kiss him. He'd heard everything that was said last night, and he was worried. He went through the day dazed, wondering if there was anything he could do to help. He'd been largely mute through lunch and was ready to go home. He moved down the hallway without noticing who was around him, stopping in front of his locker. While he was putting homework in his book bag, Josh felt a presence behind him. Turning he found Tony leering at him. Josh looked around for any of Tony's cronies, not sure what was happening. Tony had largely lost his cadre of football players with the scene Ross created, but he was still playing the part of the football player stud and made other peoples lives miserable.

"Get lost, Tony. I don't need your shit today," replied Josh.

"What's wrong Joshie? You gotta get home to fuck your two dads?"

Josh hit Tony like an enraged bull, catching him by the throat and pinning him to the wall. Tony's eyes bugged out as he grabbed Josh's arm and felt unbendable muscle and sinew that months of hard physical labor had built. In spite of Tony's weight advantage, Josh had him immobilized and helpless. Leaning in with a look of rage, Josh moved within inches of Tony's reddening face.

"Trash talk me all you want. But don't you ever talk about Darrin and Mitch again. Do you hear me! Never! Or so help me God . . ."

Josh's anger crested as all the things Tony had done crashed down on him. He suddenly wanted give this troublemaker back some of the pain he'd delivered. Josh saw Tony's eyes bulge as he pulled back his fist, his arm muscles coiled to deliver a devastating blow to Tony's face. Josh's focus was broken when he felt a cool touch on his arm. Looking back he saw Ross watching them.

"He's not worth it."

Josh's jaw dropped as he looked at Ross. The younger man was gently resting his hand on Josh's arm. As the two looked at each other, Josh could feel a deep sadness in Ross' dark brown eyes.

"Don't hit him, Josh. He isn't worth the trouble it would cause you," said Ross quietly. Looking around, a slight smile showed up on his face. "Besides, his buds have already deserted him."

Josh considered Ross for a second and then turned back to Tony. "Don't fuck with me again, Barra. And if you ever do anything to hurt Darrin and Mitch, I'll come down on you like a tall pine!"

Josh released the linebacker and watched him slide down the wall into a heap. Turning back to Ross he nodded. "Thanks. You're right. He wasn't worth it." Josh smiled broadly and threw one arm over his shoulder as they headed toward the door.

"So, have you heard about the alternative prom at the ranch?" Josh asked with a smile.

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Josh walked into the silent house, wondering where everyone was. He quietly opened the fridge and pulled out a can of pop. Cracking the top, he headed toward his room, worried about the guys. As he walked across the living room he heard,

"Josh? You home?"

Josh stopped, of course recognizing Mitch's voice. "Yeah. You . . .ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mitch said, and paused, "Ah, Josh. Can you help me for a minute?"

"Sure, you know I'll help if I can. What do you need?"

"Could you come into the bedroom?" asked Mitch.

"I guess so."

Josh dropped his bag at his door and headed to the guy's room. Walking through the door, he saw Mitch standing in the bathroom without a shirt. Josh admired Mitch's muscular torso for a moment, but something seemed wrong.

"What's up, Mitch?" asked Josh.

Mitch turned to look at him, and Josh gasped. "Oh my god! You've shaved, everything."

"Yes, but I can't do my back. Can you shave it for me?" Mitch looked at him hopefully, holding the shaving cream and a razor.

Josh's mouth moved, but he was unable to speak. Finally he blurted out, "Why the fuck did you shave everything?" Josh had another thought and his eyes bugged at Mitch. "Did you shave . . . everything!" asked Josh. Immediately he started to stammer, "Never mind, I don't want to know. But why'd you do this? Were you that mad at Darrin?"

"So you heard last night's argument?" asked Mitch with a sad look on his face.

"It was hard not to," said Josh quietly.

"I'm sorry, Josh. You shouldn't of heard that," said Mitch with a slight scowl, "To answer your question, I'm doing whatever it takes to keep my husband. If he likes young guys, well, I thought maybe he's like me smooth."

"Shit. You really think so? I dunno," said Josh as his eye's scrutinized Mitch's chest.

"Josh, will you do it? I did the rest of it myself. But I can't reach my back," asked Mitch.

"Yeah, I guess so. But then I'm going to the movies or something. Cause I don't want to be here when Darrin gets home."

Josh took the equipment Mitch handed to him and looked at Mitch's back. He quickly realized that it wouldn't take much, there are only a few small patches of hair. Moving quickly, he lathered the spots and made short work of scraping them smooth and wiping Mitch's back. Once finished, Josh sat everything down on the counter and stepped back to survey his work.

"I think I got everything. There wasn't a whole lot that needed shaved."

"Thanks. I appreciate it. Don't worry, I won't ask you to do that again," said Mitch.

"It's ok, I'm just not sure . . . well I'm just worried is all," said Josh.

"It'll be fine," Mitch walked over and fished a couple of $20 bills from his wallet and handed them to Josh, "Here's something for supper and whatever else you need." Mitch paused and looked a little sheepish, "And Josh, thanks. I appreciate the help. I know it was kinda odd to ask you to do it. But there wasn't anyone else around."

Josh laughed as he took the money, "Don't worry about it. I hope you guys get things worked out soon. I hate it when you're fighting." Josh smiled and companionably slapped Mitch on the shoulder, "Hey, at least you didn't ask me to shave your butt!"

Mitch turned red and laughed along with Josh, thinking that it was a good thing that Josh didn't know that he had considered asking him to do that too. But good sense had kicked in.

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Darrin arrived to a dark house. Cringing at the thought that Mitch was still mad at him, he looked at the guesthouse, but it was dark too. Sighing deeply he trudged into the house, ready to spend a night alone. Turning the corner, he was shocked to see the table covered with a white tablecloth and lit with candles. His eyes traveled from the table to the man standing behind it. Mitch was wearing a skintight white shirt that accentuated his muscles beautifully. His jeans were dark blue new Wranglers that were starched and did a great job of highlighting his substantial package. His husband looked amazing, but there was something wrong. Darrin was trying to puzzle out the problem when Mitch held up his hand.