Danny

Thank you to all who have reviewed or rated!

Avernion: Too right. I don't usually switch POVs in a story, so I totally forgot about a line break. Thx. I went back and fixed. And I'm so glad you like Maria! To me one of the big topics in this story is mothers. I think Maria is the type who is everybody's mother.

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By the time he got home that night, Danny was exhausted. He dragged himself through the door, tossing his sweater onto the rack and his backpack on the floor under it.

Something smelled good.

Oh, no, please no. Ashli hadn't ordered out, had he? Danny really wasn't in the mood for dinner. He just wanted to sleep.

Stepping into the hall, something crunched under his feet. He looked down. Roses. Oh, Holy, no!

“Ash!” he called.

“Hey.” Ashli popped into the hall, pasting one of those smiles on his face that were so obviously fake. “I didn't hear you come in.”

“Roses?”

“Look, before we get into anything else,” Ashli leaned against the wall casually, as though it were a casual moment and he could just do that. It didn't help. Danny could see the stress lines all up and down Ashli's body. “I just want you to know ... to know that I know I fucked up,” he said.

“All right.”

“I didn't mean to do what I did.”

“I know you didn't. If I hadn't slipped in some water on the floor, it probably wouldn't have happened like it did.”

“But I never should have laid a hand on you.”

Danny nodded.

“Do you forgive me?”

“Tell me you didn't cook and I'll forgive you.”

Ashli laughed. “I promise I didn't cook.”

“Thank you for ... going to this trouble.”

“Like you aren't worth it.”

Danny blushed. “I ... uh ... so what's for dinner?”

“I'm really not sure.” Stooping down, he grabbed a few of the roses which had been tossed onto the hallway floor and handed them to Danny, which made Danny smile. Good. “There's someone here.”

“It's not my mother, is it?” Walking into the other room, Danny turned the corner and came face to face with Josh, who had just tasted the Alfredo sauce. “Who are you?”

Josh took a step backward.

“He's an old friend of mine, someone I want you to meet,” Ashli said. “Let me get you a beer and why don't you sit down.”

“I just want to go to sleep. Please, Ash, you two stay up and catch up and all that.” Danny turned toward the bedroom.

Josh leaned against the counter on the opposite end of the kitchen and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Josh and I talk all the time. I brought him here to meet you.”

“May I speak to you in private?”

“I know you don't want to meet someone tonight, but I think this is important.”

“I don't not want to, Ash. I can't. I don't have the energy for whatever it is you're planning. Could we do this in private?”

“I'll leave,” Josh all but whispered.

Looking him straight in the eye, Danny told him, “I wish you would.”

“I'll talk to you tomorrow, all right?” Ashli added.

Nodding, Josh scurried out of the kitchen by the other door and left.

“Well,” Danny murmured thoughtfully, staring after him. “Scared little rabbit, isn't he?”

“I knew you'd like him.”

“Like him?”

“Do you want have dinner with me here or should we set up a picnic in the bedroom so you can just fall asleep when the moment takes you?”

“I ...” Touched, Danny tried to make sense of it in his head, but his back hurt a lot and the pain was taking over most of his higher order functions. Ashli waited patiently. “Let me take a shower? Then perhaps we will set up on the bed?” He got a nod and a very pretty smile in response to that suggestion. “Umm, could I also trouble you for some medicine?”

“Is it very bad?”

“It isn't good. Hurts a lot.”

“What kind sort of painkiller do you want?” Walking over to the red cabinet in the very corner of the kitchen where he and Danny kept the heavy duty stuff, he opened it and rummaged through the bottles inside. “Tylenol, ibuprofen, or something stronger?”

“Just some ibuprofen. Two.”

“Lightweight.” Taking out the medicine and then stopping at the fridge for a glass of water, Ashli presented them. “Go take your shower. I'll have everything ready when you get out. I really do want to talk.”

“Ash ...”

“What?”

Danny stared for a moment. His pretty, pretty Ashli. How could he even contemplate giving this up? “You haven't even kissed me hello yet.”

Ashli pecked his cheek and then shooed him into the bathroom. While Danny showered, he made up a tray and brought it to the bedroom, laid out a cloth over the duvet, and poured two glasses of wine. Danny rarely drank, but tonight he'd really want it. Then Ashli dug through the top drawer of Danny's dresser, searching for his silk pajamas. These were the really nice ones that made him look downright lickable, but also felt heavenly on, or so Danny said.

Ashli had fantasies about licking Danny's feet while he wore these.

He put them in the bathroom on the sink.

By the time Danny emerged, his hair braided and pinned up, Ashli already had his own joggers on that he used for sleeping and was halfway through his glass of wine.

“Hi.”

“I love the way you look in those.”

The black silk top was embroidered with a wide collar that left most of his shoulders bare and it ended just above his navel. The pants, also black silk hugged his hips with a wide cummerbund, falling in a straight line to his ankles where ties, finished in glass beads, hugged the leg holes of the pants to his ankles. It looked even better when he was wearing his toe-rings, but he didn't have them on right now.

Ashli was fairly sure the pajamas were originally made for a girl, but he couldn't have cared less and he knew Danny didn't either. Danny very much valued function over form.

Crossing to Danny's side of the bed, Ashli helped him ensconce himself in the pillows as comfortably as possible and then handed him his glass of wine. “This will help,” he said. “You'll feel sleepy from the red wine and it won't hurt so much.”

Nodding, Danny took a swallow of wine before asking, “Thank you for fixing the door so quickly.”

“Of course.”

“Can I still be angry with you, just a little, even if I've forgiven you?”

“I think until you're not in pain anymore, it'd be kind of unreasonable for me to ask you not to be.” Playing with one of the throw pillows scattered around the head of the bed, he said, “I'm so, so, sorry,” unable to raise his head and look Danny in the eye.

“I know. I know you are. I know you didn't mean it.” Leaning close, Danny kissed Ashli's cheek, trying to force him to look up. Waiting until he did. “I love you. But we still need to talk.”

“You're not leaving me.”

“What?”

“So, get that idea right out of your head. I know that things are going wrong. I know it, but I won't let you get away.”

“I'm not running away.”

“I didn't say that.”

Danny frowned. “It's not just this, Ash. We're not ... there's something wrong.”

“What is it?”

“I don't know.”

“Do you want something to eat?” Without waiting for an answer, Ashli served up two plates of ravioli with Alfredo sauce. “Josh said he was making sweet potato ravioli. I have no idea what that is.”

“It sounds wonderful.” Danny tasted a bit of it and frowned. “It is wonderful.”

“Then why the sour face?”

“Who is he? Why do you want me to meet someone so subby? Are you thinking that ... I have no idea what you're thinking.”

“I'm thinking that sometimes two people can be very much in love and still not be enough for one another.”

“Is he your lover?”

“No, oh no. He's my ex, actually, from a long time ago.” Ashli dug around in his food, smashing it and cutting it up with his fork. “I wouldn't let him meet you at first. You see, he and I both want the same thing in a man and I was afraid he'd try to take you from me.”

Taking a sip of his wine, Danny thought about that. “He likes pain too?”

“Not exactly. He's more into being humiliated in public places. He's never met someone willing to take him all the way down the rabbit hole, just like I hadn't.”

“If you were afraid he'd try to steal me then, why are you introducing us now?”

“Because I think he has what you need.”

“I thought you said that I'm not allowed to leave you.”

Ashli finally set aside his uneaten ravioli and took his wine glass in both hands instead. Sitting crosslegged, he stared over the rim at Danny, composing each sentence carefully. “No, you're not allowed to leave. I can't let you. I won't let you. You're like no one else I've ever met and I doubt there are a lot of people like you in the world. The care you take with me, measuring every action and reaction, ensuring my safety even while you give me what I want so badly, is definitely a unique quality. Even if I were to find someone else who wanted to give me pain, I doubt he would take as good of care of me as you do.”

“Then, why Josh?”

“Because I'm not enough and you're not enough to make this work. I think Josh – look you and me, we're really guy-y. Josh isn't so much. I think he could get the two of us to open up and talk.”

Putting aside his own dinner, half eaten, Danny let Ashli refill his wine. “I'm just not sure what you're suggesting we do.”

“I want him to be our lover.”

“What!”

“He'd be a moderating influence.”

“You want me to cheat on you?” Danny blinked, not sure if he was awake enough for this conversation.

“No, not at all. I want him to be with us. Both of us. A threesome.”

“That's not natural.” Danny took a big sip of wine. “People are naturally monogamous.”

“No they're not. Come on, you're Mormon and you believe that?”

Danny‘s eyes narrowed dangerously. “That was low. I think my brother is a reprehensible cad and so do you. Remember what you said when I told you he was getting married to his second wife? You called him a son of a bitch. I agreed with you, frankly. And now you want this?”

“I called him an SOB because she was fifteen.”

“And this is different how, exactly?”

“Josh is twenty-eight, for one. He knows exactly what he's getting into.”

Danny swirled his wine, watching the legs crawl back down into the glass. “Does he really? When he walks in on me and you, me whipping the backs of your thighs while you scream, does he really know that is what he's getting? Does he want that?”

“I want that.”

Danny smiled. “You want me to whip you or him to walk in on it?” He yawned, then took another sip of wine. He wanted to finish it before going to sleep. He liked to finish his plate.

Ashli took Danny's glass away.

“Hey!”

“You're about to fall asleep.” He kissed Danny's forehead and then tucked him in. “How about both?”

“Are we still talking about the same thing?”

“Yes.”

“Mmmm.” Danny yawned again and his eyes closed. “I just ...”

“Yes?”

“If this isn't working with two people, why will it work with three?”

“What have we got to lose?”

Danny nodded, falling asleep even as he did so. Getting up, Ashli put the dishes in the sink before shutting up the house, turning out the lights, and coming to bed himself. It would work. It would. And Josh, whom he'd always loved, would get what he needed too. It was perfect.

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