Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:41:29 +0000
From: Douglas DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: Aiden II  Chapter 3

Welcome back for another chapter in the life of Young Master Aiden. In this
chapter Aiden runs the gamut from being a grumpy little imp to flying kites
to being picked for a special job at school. Through it all, a few dark
clouds start to gather on the horizon.

Please give to the Nifty Archive to help support these stories.

This story is mine. Use it with my permission only. Please note that there
are sexual situations between minor boys.

CHAPTER 3
FATHERS, DADS, SONS, AND BROTHERS

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

Troy and Sue herded their two sons, Chase and Logan, along with their
friends, Hatcher and Darnell, into their SUV. Troy wasn't surprised to see
Chase and Hatcher, the two older boys, take the backseat. He knew that
tweens prized their privacy, especially where parents were concerned. He
had a strong suspicion about what the two boys would be doing in the far
back of the SUV as soon as they hit the highway.

Troy was certain that Chase had masturbated in the backseat of their car on
a previous trip home from Mayfield. He suspected he may have done so two
other times on shorter trips. He had meant to have a talk with his son
about being appropriate, or at least very careful, while sitting in a back
seat, but he kept putting off the talk.

Chase grinned at Hatcher as the twelve-year-olds fastened their seatbelts;
he could see that his friend had followed directions. One lesson Chase had
learned the first time he jerked off in the backseat was to have his zipper
open before he got into the car. Doing so prevented awkward positions and
unwanted noises while trying to unzip. Chase knew that what he and Hatcher
had planned would be daring and dangerous. It already had him so turned on
that his boner was pushing his boxer shorts up through his open zipper.

Logan turned around and gave the two boys a grin of his own. Chase had told
him and Darnell what he and Hatcher would be doing and warned them not to
stare back at them once they started.

"I wish I could sit in back with you," Logan had pouted as the four boys
gathered up their stuff from the basement. "I want to watch."

Chase shook his head, but decided to toss his little brother a carrot to
keep him in line. "If you do what I tell you, the first good chance we get
I'll do to you what you did to me last night."

Logan's pouty look changed into a gigantic grin. "For real? Pinky swear?"

"Pinky swear," Chase agreed and the brothers locked pinkies, sealing the
promise.

"Pinky swear what?" Darnell asked.

"Just a brother thing," Chase told him. "Logan can tell you after we get
home."

Chase and Hatcher headed to the basement bathroom, stood side-by-side, and
peed into the urinal. After shaking themselves off, they didn't bother to
zip up. They had not put their belts on. Now they just had to make it to
the SUV without an adult noticing their open zippers. They tried their best
to keep their pants from opening wide.

By the time the two tweens settled in the backseat, they were both rock
hard. If they thought they could get away with it, they agreed they would
masturbate each other, but they knew they were more likely to do
themselves.

It turned out they didn't do anything. Instead, they learned what was meant
by blue balls. Right before starting up the SUV, Troy exited the
vehicle. "I think I left my shaving kit in the house," he told Sue.

He dashed up the stairs and into the house. "Forget something?" Phil asked
his older brother.

"Nope. I told Sue I forgot my shaving kit, because I wanted a reason to go
past the two older boys and tell them something, which I will do on the way
back." He told him what he suspected the two boys were up to.

"Hey, Troy, it's a good thing you came back," Larry said as he came down
the stairway carrying a shaving kit. "You left your shaving kit on the
bathroom counter."

That had Troy and Phil roaring with laughter instantly, and Larry joined in
as soon as he learned what the joke was. "I guess this kind of shit will
only happen more often as we get older," Troy said between fits of
laughter.

"It's always good to get into practice, bro. You are the oldest Miller
brother, after all." Phil eyed his brother and said, "I take it, you're not
going to cut the boys any slack this trip."

"They've had plenty of opportunities to get off. I can't let them do it
with the two younger boys sitting in front of them or with Sue in the front
seat. If it was just me and those two, I'd make like Sergeant Schultz and
pretend I knew nothing," he replied, referring to the old "Hogan's Heroes"
TV series.

After Larry handed him his shaving kit, Troy said good-bye again to his
brothers and returned to the SUV. He opened the side door and handed the
shaving kit to Chase, who was surprised his dad opened that door—he'd
been expecting him to either to go back to the driver's seat or open the
back hatch. He and Hatcher had already taken advantage of Troy being gone
and Sue being on her cell phone to unbutton their shorts and open them
wide.

"Put this in the back for me, please," he said quietly. He looked down at
the laps of the Chase and Hatcher. He had to admit that Chase's bulge in
his boxer shorts and the exposed head of Hatcher's boner peeking out of his
boxers was erotic. "And I'd like you and Hatcher to close up your pants and
keep them closed," he said quietly.

"Oh, man." Chase was more put out about having to zip up than he was about
being caught—at least for the moment. As soon as he closed up it hit him
what had just happened and was certain he was going to be in totally big
trouble. Troy knew the time had come to have the talk he should have had
weeks ago.

Chase and Hatcher both thought about playing pocket pool, jerking
themselves off through their pants pocket, but being caught by Troy had
ruined the mood for the boys, even though they still had jolts of sexual
thoughts zap through their adolescent brains.

During the almost three-hour drive to Seattle, Troy and Hatcher sulked and
napped. Logan and Darnell watched a movie on the screen in front of them,
which the older boys ignored, and played a video game together. They
enjoyed the ride back to Seattle much more than the older boys. Logan
couldn't help but wonder if the sudden turn of events meant Chase wasn't
going to jerk him off. He was determined to find out as soon as he could.

Troy dropped Hatcher off at his house and then made the short drive
home. Darnell's father would be picking his son up the next day. Darnell
would be spending the night with Logan. Logan was happy because he would
have a friend in bed with him, while Chase would be sleeping alone. It was
almost always the other way around.

The family unpacked the SUV and then headed for Luigi's Pizza where they
were regular customers. Sue had stated emphatically that she was tired and
in no mood to cook. Nobody thought it necessary to argue the point. After
they returned from dinner, Logan and Darnell went downstairs to the rec
room and Troy invited Chase into his den.

"I'm in ginormous trouble, huh?" Chase asked his dad as he sauntered to the
leather couch situated next to the wall in front of the desk.

"Actually, you're not," Troy assured his son.

"I'm not?" The very surprised twelve-year-old plopped down on the couch and
his dad sat next to him.

"You and Hatcher were just being very horny boys caught in the vice grip of
puberty. That said, even very horny boys need rules."

Troy went on to tell Chase what he suspected him of doing at least three
times while riding alone in the backseat. He told him that it would be best
if there wasn't a repeat, but if he was so horny he simply had to do
something, he needed to be discreet about it. "Which means you don't do it
with your brother being able to watch, and you don't do it with your mother
in the car."

"So, if it's just you and me then it's okay?"

"Only if I don't know you're doing it. I know you masturbated once coming
home from Mayfield and I am pretty certain you did it two other times in
the back of the SUV, which is the only reason you'd sit in the third seat
instead of the middle one or even in front when you and me are riding
alone." Troy repeated the rules once again and then asked Chase of he had
any questions.

"So, it's cool as long as you don't have a clue about me doing it, right?"

"Not really, but there isn't much I can say if I don't know what's going
on." What Troy didn't tell Chase was that even if he knew Chase might be
masturbating he probably wouldn't say anything as long as his son was
discreet.

"How did you know Hatcher and I were gonna do it today?"

"You guys were not subtle in any way. The only reason your mother didn't
catch on is that she was never a boy, but even she would have figured it
out a few miles down the road. Obviously, you guys getting caught with your
pants open and sporting obvious erections erased any doubt."

"You know I did it once and you thought I did it two other times, right?"

"Right."

"Well, coming home from Mayfield was the first time I ever tried it in the
back of the car." Chase got up off of the couch and gave his father a sly
grin that Troy knew could only mean trouble. "I must be getting better
then, because I did it five other times." The twelve-year-old ran out of
the room giggling loudly, leaving his father sitting on the couch shaking
his head with a knowing grin on his face.

That night Chase finally took care of his unruly boy cock, jerking off
twice. The first time he fantasized about him and Hatcher jerking off
together in the backseat—the second time it was about him fucking
Hatcher in Aiden's basement while Aiden and Logan watched. Both cums were
powerful and badly needed.

Troy knew he had to keep his eyes on his very sexual pubescent son. He also
knew he had to let him sow his boy oats when he had his friends over. There
was no question Chase and Hatcher were bed buddies, if not boyfriends, at
least in the pubescent boy sense. But it never occurred to him that his
naïve little nine-year-old would be doing more than sleeping with
Darnell.

Troy never imagined that if he walked into Logan's bedroom twenty-minutes
after tucking him and Darnell into bed, he would have found them naked on
top of the covers jerking off each other's little erections. Chase had
always been the aggressive boy and Logan the shy one, especially if a
sexual topic was discussed. What Troy didn't know, was that Logan had
discovered a new toy that was part of his body and had fallen in love with
it.

<Keegan Miller>

Keegan awoke with a splitting headache. He didn't know what time it was,
but it had to be early in the morning since it was still dark out. Fucking
beer chasers, he thought. He should have stuck to beer or better yet gone
out and looked for some weed. He sometimes woke up disoriented after
getting stoned, but he never woke up with a hangover.

Natalie was sleeping soundly next to him. He didn't remember going to bed,
but it wasn't the first time in the just over three weeks he'd been staying
with her that they'd passed out drunk in bed or somewhere else in the
apartment. This was their fourth weekend together. They were both naked and
Keegan wondered if they'd had sex. He rolled onto his left side, draped his
right arm around Natalie's smooth body, and fell back to sleep.

When Keegan awoke again, it was light out. His head still ached and he was
still woozy. Natalie was no longer in the bed, so with a long moan he rose
from the bed and stumbled into the bathroom to pee.

After draining himself he lurched out into the living room of the apartment
and saw Natalie sitting on the couch. He sat next to her. Drake, her
teenage nephew, was passed out on the overstuffed chair. Keegan thought the
twenty-six-year-old woman was quite gorgeous. She was definitely in the
above average range in looks, although she was slightly overweight. He
couldn't believe that she was the one who started hitting on him. After
all, he was over forty. But, he did know how to turn on the charm, an act
that eventually grew old since there was really no substance behind that
charm.

But, she had told him more than once that he was better in bed than any man
she'd ever slept with.  He was also learning that Natalie was a bit of a
nymphomaniac.

Natalie's sister had asked her to watch her fourteen-year-old nephew for
the weekend. Keegan ended up getting drunk with both Natalie and her
nephew.

He had met Natalie in the lounge car of Amtrak's "Coast Starlight" after
the train left Oxnard. He was traveling on the train ticket his father gave
him so he could get to Seattle to find his son. He was still pissed at his
father for giving him just a ticket to Seattle and some meal money—he'd
been hoping for enough money for him to live on for a while.

The kid is my dad's fucking grandson, for God's sake, Keegan thought. He
could have given me some cash to live on, the stingy bastard. The asshole
just wanted me to get out of his hair so he and his fucking husband
wouldn't have to deal with me.

Natalie had been in Oxnard visiting some friends and was returning home to
Seattle. They had hit it off in the dining car and after dinner he ended up
in her sleeping car roomette making love to her on the narrowest bed
imaginable. No matter, it worked for sex, but he went back to his coach to
catch some sleep.

While Keegan was essentially an asshole and a loser, he could be extremely
charming and Natalie wasn't the first woman to fall for his charm. Keegan
found Natalie to be good in bed, a girl who liked to party, and someone
with a job that paid well. Natalie was impressed that he was heading to
Seattle to find his long-lost son and take him under his wing.

It was Friday when they arrived in Seattle. He suggested that he and
Natalie party over the weekend. He would start looking for his son on
Monday; after all, he knew where the boy and his mother lived.

He had told Natalie that his whole reason for traveling was to find his son
so he could get involved with him. He would either get involved with the
boy's mother and if that didn't work invoke his rights as his father and
get custody. After all, what judge would want a boy that young sleeping on
a couch in an apartment while his mother drank and had sex with numerous
men. He wouldn't be surprised if one of the low-lifes she hung out with had
tried to molest the boy. He hated her and her so-called boyfriends just
thinking about it.

And then there was Drake, who said he had turned fourteen less than a month
ago. Drake hadn't heard from his father in years. He seemed to be a good
kid.

Keegan was surprised that Natalie brought out the booze and let Drake
drink, but he was cool with it. He got drunk with his father numerous times
when he was that age. He thought that Drake, who was a youngish looking
fourteen, was kind of sexy looking, in a cute boy sort of way.

"I was getting drunk when I was thirteen, I mean fourteen, so it won't hurt
him," she rationalized.

"Make up your mind," Keegan said. "Was it thirteen or fourteen?"

"Well, I started when I was twelve, but got really serious about it at
thirteen, which means I was drinking at fourteen, too."

"Whatever." Keegan had gotten into drinking seriously by the time he was
ten.

Keegan remembered the quarters game ending the night before and he and
Natalie, naked on the couch, kissing and making out. He remembered sucking
her ample breasts and fingering her pussy while her teen nephew sat naked
on the overstuffed chair masturbating until he shot some clear cum on his
belly and into his light sprinkling of pubic hair. Before everything went
black, he noticed the boy getting hard again and wanking himself one more
time, stopping at times to chug from his bottle of beer.

Natalie broke the silence. "I can't believe we were making out in front of
Drake last night."

"We were shit-faced," Keegan said. "At least we didn't fuck in front of
him."

Drake stirred on the chair. "Are you guys talking about me?" he mumbled. "I
don't feel too good."

"You drank a lot last night, especially for a fourteen-year-old," Keegan
said.

"I'm thirteen."

"Drake!" Natalie yelled. She looked over at Keegan. "Sorry, Keegan. Drake
and I thought you'd be more willing to party with us if we said he was a
year older."

Keegan couldn't help but laugh, even though it hurt his head. Drake
reminded him more and more of himself when he was thirteen.

"I wanted to get in bed with you guys," Drake said. "I remember saying I
wanted to see which one of you kissed the best. But I guess I passed out or
something."

Keegan rose from the couch. "I don't know about you guys, but I gotta eat
something." He padded into the kitchen, filled a bowl with corn flakes, and
poured milk over the cereal.

"I won't ever feel like eating again," Drake moaned. The teen closed his
eyes, and faded away to sleep.

"That looks like a good idea," Keegan said as sat back on the couch and ate
his cereal. "I could use a nap."

"We need to kind of slow down on the partying," Natalie said. "I can't
remember partying this hard this much since I was going to school. For an
old guy you can really down the booze."

"Lots of practice. I've been doing it since I was like ten or eleven. When
did numb nuts over there start boozing?"

"He got drunk the first time on his thirteenth birthday."

"Did you help him out?"

"I had him and three of his buddies here. Me and my friend Carla kept them
from getting in too much trouble. Mark made out with Carla and Chris made
out with me a little bit. They were both thirteen. Drake made out with
Brent—I think he was twelve."

"You guys never changed partners?"

"Not once we picked one. It was all kinda wide open while we played strip
quarters. We were all pretty drunk. Other than some kissing and feeling up,
nothing serious happened with me and the boys—I mean those boys were,
like, seriously bad kissers."

"I think Drake might have fucked Brent. I know Drake and Brent were making
out hot and heavy. Drake says he isn't gay, though, that they were just
drunk and having a good time."

"So much for keeping kids out of trouble," Keegan chuckled. "About our
partying, we've been good on weekdays since we got to work," Keegan told
her. "And everybody's got to party on weekends." Natalie had procured a
temporary job for Keegan at the warehouse where she worked as an assistant
to the manager. Keegan finished his cereal and stood up.

"When are you going to go looking for your kid?" Natalie asked.

"You have a kid?" Drake grunted as he woke up suddenly.

"Go back to sleep," Keegan barked.

"How can I sleep with you guys talking all the time?"

"What's the answer to my question?" Natalie asked.

"Damn, quit getting on my case. You got me working a job and we get busy on
weekends. When am I gonna find the time to go back to looking?" Keegan had
spent a day searching for Aiden. He went to the apartment where he last saw
his son and his mother, but somebody else was living in the apartment. He
looked for the manager, but he wasn't in his apartment, so he left to find
himself some lunch and never went back.

"You only work four days a week, you're done by five every day you work,
and nobody is forcing you to get drunk every weekend, or half the working
nights for that matter.  Are you sure you even have a son?" Natalie was
getting weary of Keegan's tiresome act and was prepared to ask him to move
out.

"Fuck, woman, you don't know what it's like." For his part, Keegan knew he
was overstaying his welcome. It was something he did with whomever he lived
with.

"I know you've been living here for almost a month and you haven't paid me
any rent yet."

"You know I don't get paid until Monday." He took two steps toward the
bedroom and then stopped and faced Natalie. "I told you more than once him
and his mom moved from the apartment, okay? I'll go looking my own way."

"You might try going back and talking to the manager and see if he knows
where they moved to. Or, you could talk to that lawyer brother you claim to
have."

"How would he know I even had a son?" Keegan asked. "I never told him, so
who's going to tell him?"

"Didn't you tell your wife about your brother?"

"She wasn't my wife and fuck if I know what I told her. Shit, I need to go
lie down." He walked into the bedroom.

"He is one weird dude," Drake said as he eased out of the overstuffed
chair. "I'm feeling better, I guess. I'm gonna go pee and eat."

"You might want to put some clothes on while you're at it."

"I will when you do," Drake sassed as he went into the bathroom and
peed. He didn't bother shutting the door.

Keegan, Drake, and Natalie didn't get dressed all day, except when Keegan
met the pizza delivery guy down in the lobby, and then he wore only a pair
of sweats and flip-flops. They watched television, played cards, and, after
the pizza arrived drank beer. They didn't drink to the extent of the night
before because nobody wanted to get dressed to buy more beer and whiskey.

Keegan fucked Natalie on the bed that night. Drake wanted to watch, but
Keegan told Drake there was no way he was going to fuck his aunt while her
thirteen-year-old nephew watched.  Drake ended up sitting on the floor
outside of the bedroom, guzzling beer and jerking off twice while he
listened to the sounds of sex in his aunt's bedroom. Drake finally crawled
to the couch, but passed out on the floor before he could lift himself onto
it.

Drake was picked up at noon by his mother, who waited outside for
him. Drake did a decent job of hiding his hangover, but his mother had her
suspicions—she knew her sister very well and she did not like or trust
Keegan. Later, Keegan and Natalie went to the apartment where he had stayed
with his son and the boy's mother. Natalie insisted they go to talk with
the manager.

"Oh, she died a year ago," the manager told them after they found him. "Got
hit by a car running across the street right in front of the apartment."

Keegan looked genuinely shocked.

"Are you sure it was her? Kammie Barnes?"

 "Yep, it was her. You must have known her pretty good."

"We were married for a while," Keegan lied. "She had a little boy?"

"Yeah. Cute little bugger. Total towhead. I can't remember his name...Allen
or something like that.  Pretty well behaved for a boy that age, but he
could be a hellion at times."

"Do you know what happened to him?"

"All I know is CPS picked him up."

Natalie thanked the manager for his time and they walked back to her
car. "I guess that takes care of me finding...um...Allen," Keegan grumbled.

"Nice that you can finally give him a name," Natalie remarked
sarcastically. "What are you going to do now?"

They got into the car and Natalie started it up. "I'm gonna get drunk,"
Keegan finally answered.

"That won't find the boy."

"Staying sober won't do it either."

"Maybe it's time to visit that lawyer brother of yours who might or might
not exist."

"How would he even know Allen existed?"

"If you weren't so dumb, you'd know that a mom getting welfare and medical
aid has to fill out all kinds of information. I wouldn't be surprised if
somewhere along the line you gave her his name—provided he's real of
course."

"Fuck you and your `is he real' business."

"You got work tomorrow. How about you stay sober tonight and I'll take you
to see him tomorrow after work. Then we'll go out to dinner and do some
drinking together."

"Hey," Keegan blurted out, "tomorrow is Labor Day."

"Not where we work, it isn't. Where we work we celebrate Labor Day by
laboring."

"But Troy's a government worker. He gets the day off."

"I'm thrilled for him," Natalie sassed.

"You can be a real bitch sometimes, but you're really not a bad broad."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Keegan sat back in the seat and thought about his older brother, Troy. The
last time he'd seen his brother was when he'd moved back in with Kammie and
met his son. He didn't like Troy, whom he saw as a pretentious piece of
shit. But, he wanted his son. Especially now that the boy's mother was
dead, he should be able to get full custody. He wondered if Allen was in an
orphanage or in foster care. He had to find out where the boy was and get
custody. After all, there was no way he could be a worse dad than his
father had been.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3

Aiden awoke with a start. He was sleeping between his dads with Horace
resting at the foot of the bed. He could see that it was light out. At
first he was afraid that his dads had forgotten to set the alarm, but a
glance at the clock told him he had beat the alarm by almost an hour. That
made him angry—he wanted all of the sleep he could get. He scooted
closer to Larry and closed his eyes, but his brain wouldn't stop
turning. The presence of his dads on either side bothered him. He wished he
were in his own bed with nobody touching him, but that meant moving up to
his room. If he got out of bed, he thought, he might as well just stay
awake, which he didn't want to do. What he wanted was more sleep.

He stared up at the ceiling wishing he had another hour to sleep, knowing
he would now only be able to sleep for just—he looked at the clock—45
minutes. He turned toward Phil, trying unsuccessfully not to bump
him. Aiden always enjoyed sleeping with his dads, but this morning it was a
pain. He turned back toward Larry, but that didn't help.

He thought about what they had planned for the next two days, but that made
his head spin even more. He turned over once again, thinking he might as
well get up. The clock said twenty-eight minutes to go for the alarm. He
rolled over again, facing Larry, furious that his dads wouldn't let him get
even a few more minutes of sleep. Those were his last thoughts until he
heard the alarm go off. The soothing notes of Mozart building on the alarm
made him angry that he hadn't been able to go back to sleep long enough.

His internal morning drama had him getting out of bed in a grumpy mood,
which he knew was stupid since he and his dads had a great two days planned
over Sunday and Labor Day Monday.

Aiden crawled out from under the covers and made his way between Larry and
Phil to the end of the bed, knocking Horace on the floor in the
process. Seeing his precious stuffed donkey fall on the floor made him even
grumpier. He picked up the donkey and started out of the bedroom, saying
nothing to his dads.

"Good morning, sunshine," Larry called after him.

"What's good about it?" Aiden grumped.

"So far, everything except for one grumpy ten-year-old," Phil said.

Aiden ignored him and went up the stairs to his own bedroom, where he set
Horace carefully on the bed. "I'm sorry for knocking you on the floor," he
told the big stuffed animal. "It was an accident." He stripped off his
underpants and marched across the hall into his bathroom, pissed in the
toilet and set the shower, upset because his dads were in good moods and he
wasn't.

Downstairs, Phil and Larry got out of bed. "Who stuck a cactus up his ass?"
Larry asked.

"If I knew how the preadolescent mind worked, I'd be a rich man," Phil
replied.

"If we knew how Aiden's preadolescent mind worked, we might end up with a
bit of an idea how his adolescent mind will be functioning all too soon."

"If we figured that out, we'd be absolute miracle workers."

"Well, something is going to change really quickly or there will be a
sudden change in today's plans."

"Time for plan C?" Phil grinned.

"You got it."

Neither one of them knew what Plan C was going to be, except it meant they
would be calling Aiden on his shit.

Twenty minutes later everybody except Horace congregated in the living
room. Horace would spend the remainder of the weekend happily sitting on
his shelf.

"I'm hungry," Aiden grumped.

"We're ready to head for the Mayfield Café to meet everybody else," Phil
told him.

"I don't want to eat with everybody else."

"Fine, you won't have to. Since I lost the coin flip, I'll be staying home
with you while your daddy goes out on the ocean with your friends."

Aiden gave Phil a look of incredulity. "You mean, I can't go to the ocean
and fly kites?"

Phi's eyes seemed to bore a hole right though the ten-year-old. "Not if
you're going to behave like a spoiled little asshole." In their
relationship as Aiden's dads, Phil was the one who played the bad cop in
the rare instances one was needed.

Aiden glared at Phil, his mind working out his options. He could now throw
a major temper tantrum, which he really wanted to do. He also knew, from
past experience, it would end any chance he had of kite flying at the ocean
with his dads and with his friends. Larry and Phil had been very consistent
in their disciplining of their new son; they weren't about to take any
bullshit from Aiden and he knew it.

"I didn't sleep good," Aiden mumbled, a sign that he was about to raise the
white flag of surrender.

"Fine, take a nap on the drive out. But don't take your problems out on
your daddy and me, and don't take them out on your friends or their
parents, because if you do..."

"...I know, if I do we'll turn around and go home," Aiden said evenly. He
knew that to be true, because it had happened before.

"You're a quick learner," Larry said. He surprised Aiden by ruffling his
always unruly hair. That was his sign that he was no longer in gigantic
trouble. "Now, grab your overnight bag and let's get going. We have people
to meet and there's fun to be had."

As Aiden led the way down the stairs to the garage, Larry turned to
Phil. "Coin flip? What coin flip?"

Phil answered with a sly smile.

While still not in a great mood, Aiden felt better after he arrived at the
Mayfield Café with his dads. Gordy, Miles, and Mason were there along
with Gordy's parents. The parents sat at one table while the boys had a
table of their own contingent on their behaving. None of the parents felt
behavior would be a problem, but they felt duty bound to mention it.

After breakfast they would load into Phil and Larry's Honda Odyssey and the
Lansing's car for the trip to Long Beach, on Washington's Pacific
coast. The mini-van was loaded with kites and other accoutrements for a
beach trip. Miles's parents were already at the beach with their older son,
John, and his friend Bryce and his parents. The group would be staying
overnight at a motel situated near the beach where they had reserved rooms
for Sunday night.

The talk at the boys' table was about how great Aiden's party had been,
whether Sammy had done anything with Brittany Jordan in the basement,
soccer, and, of course, kite flying on the beach. They also discussed the
big piece of news Miles shared, and that was the phone call he'd received
from Linda Blowers after he got home from Aiden's party.

"She was gushing all over me," Miles complained. "She wouldn't shut up."

"Now you can't say anything about me and Autumn," Aiden told him.

"I guess. Those girls are like, out of control. There's nothing you can do
about them."

Aiden and Mason ended up in Aiden's car while Miles rode with Gordy. Mason
was vibrating with anticipation as the car headed east on Highway 12. "I've
never been to the ocean before and flying kites is going to be so much
fun. Can we run in the surf and build sand castles?" He talked non-stop
until Aiden, much to the relief of his dads, politely suggested he cool it
for a while.

It ended up being a grand day for everybody. By the time they arrived at
the beach Aiden was totally over his funk. He couldn't figure out why he'd
been in a bad mood when he got up, and decided not to dwell on it.

Larry, Phil, and Gordy's parents brought a half-dozen kites between
them. Miles's parents had brought two kites as well. The boys ran up and
down the beach, flying kites, getting their feet wet in the cold ocean
water, building sand castles, and screaming and laughing in their young boy
voices. In between it all they found time to eat from the picnic lunches
the parents had brought. Later, they had dinner at a restaurant near the
motel where they'd reserved a small banquet room.

After dinner the boys spent time with their families. Mason picked Larry
and Phil to be his family. He and Aiden played catch with Larry and Phil
until it started getting too dark. As they headed for their motel, Aiden
said he wanted to take a walk with his daddy, which left Phil to entertain
Mason.

Larry listened to Aiden chatter as they walked barefoot along the
beach. Larry was surprised when Aiden went quiet for a bit and then reached
out and placed his little hand in his.

Father and son walked quietly hand-in-hand for about ten minutes. Aiden
finally broke the silence. "I'm sorry I was bad this morning. I was mad
about waking up before the alarm and about other stuff. It wasn't because
of you and dad."

"What kind of other stuff?" Larry asked.

"Nothing." Aiden didn't want to say that the "other stuff" was the presence
of his dads keeping him from falling back to sleep. Sleeping with his dads
had always made him feel relaxed; he had always fallen right to sleep when
he slept with them—until last night. "It was just stuff in my head."

"You're more than forgiven, son. I'm happy that you managed to get your act
together. It looks like you had a good time, today."

"I had a great time," Aiden told his daddy. They walked in silence a while
longer before Larry turned them around. Aiden kept hold of his daddy's
hand, not feeling at all self-conscious about it.

Once again, Aiden broke the silence. "Daddy, I want to tell you something,
but I'm afraid you'll get mad."

Larry could feel Aiden's hand tense. "Try me. The worst that could happen
is I lift you up and toss you fully clothed into the ocean."  He felt the
hand relax again.

"I didn't like it when dad said I was an asshole." Once again Larry felt
the boy's hand tense up in his as if he were anticipating a negative reply.

"As I recall, he didn't exactly call you an asshole, he said you were
behaving like one."

"But still—it's not right. He shouldn't say that."

"You and your dad are uncle and nephew by blood, which means you share some
of the same genes, which means you both sometimes blurt things out that you
regret later."

"It's not right. I never call anybody an asshole."

"Not that I've heard, but..." He stopped when, even in the dark, he could
see an impish smile spread across his son's face.

"Nope, I call them a fucktard," he giggled. Aiden's use of the word
"fucktard" reminded Larry that he needed have a chat with Aiden on the
subject of that word. Now wasn't the appropriate time, but the chat would
have to come soon. While he wasn't going to try to cure Aiden of his use of
expletives, he wanted Aiden to take fucktard out of his vocabulary.

Aiden dropped Larry's hand and took off down the dark beach, with his dad
hot on his heels. Larry caught up to Aiden and lifted the laughing boy off
of the ground. "Okay, I'm furious," Larry said, "Into the ocean you go."

"Noooooooooooo," Aiden shrieked as his dad carried him in the direction of
the crashing surf. "I'll never say fucktard ever again, I promise," he
screamed out between fits of laughter.

"You'll never say it again as in ever again, or just for the rest of the
night?"

"How about the rest of the week?" he squealed as he wiggled to get free of
his dad's strong grip, laughing out of control. "Or the rest of the
month—I promise!" he snorted.

Larry set his son down on his feet, his own laughter mixing with
Aiden's. "You are getting pretty heavy, boy."

"I knew you weren't gonna throw me into the ocean," Aiden laughed.

"Oh you did, did you?" Larry made a grab for him and the boy yelped as he
deftly stepped out of the way. "And why was that?"

"Because you'd have to get all wet fishing me out."

Daddy and son then continued their walk back to the motel, silence once
again falling over them. This time it was Larry who broke the silence. The
subject became serious once again. "Now that you've talked to me about your
problem, you need to bring it up with your dad."

"Will he yell at me?"

"You know the answer to that as well as I do."

Aiden did know the answer. He knew that his dads treated him with love and
fairness. He knew they weren't perfect, but that he could trust them to do
the right things. "Yeah, I know the answer," Aiden said quietly.

When they got back to the motel they were greeted by Phil, who had been
sitting in the lobby. "Mason is sound asleep, so go into the room quietly."
Larry and Aiden nodded and started for the room. Phil put his arm gently on
Aiden's right shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. Larry kept walking,
knowing what was going to ensue between dad and son; Phil had already told
him his intentions before Aiden went to bed.

"I'm sorry for what I said this morning," Phil said. "It wasn't right. I
don't want to be the kind of dad who says things like that. I might curse a
bit, but I will do everything I can to never even make you think I've
called you a bad name. I feel very badly about what I said, and I sincerely
apologize."

"I'm sorry for how I acted this morning," Aiden replied. "It wasn't right
either."

"Are we okay then?"

"I love you, dad. And I love daddy. I don't know why I was mad this
morning."

You were mad this morning because you're approaching puberty, Phil thought
as he reached out and ruffled Aiden's mop of hair. "Let's get to bed. We
have some more kites to fly tomorrow."

Aiden reached out and took his dad's hand and held it all the way back to
their room.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4

The next morning Larry woke Aiden and Mason up from a sound sleep. Their
king-size bed was so big it was like each boy had a bed to himself. While
he was getting up much earlier than Aiden wanted, he knew it would be
another fun day. Mason had been asleep by eight and Aiden hadn't been far
behind him.

The boys mumbled and grumbled as half-awake boys will, shedding their
underwear and heading to the bathroom. Neither boy was self-conscious about
being naked in front of Larry and Phil—it certainly wasn't the first
time. They showered together, but kept it chaste, not an easy thing to do
when being naked with Mason.

Larry and Phil showered separately and had at least their boxers on when in
front of the boys. The group met in the motel restaurant for
breakfast. After breakfast everyone except for Miles' parents checked out
of their rooms. They were soon back on the beach flying kites, wading,
building sand castles, doing all of the fun things they had done the day
before.

The fun ended around four. The Gomez family, along with Bryce and Mason,
would be staying one more night, which is why their room was available for
showering. Aiden showered with Miles. Except for some giggly crotch
squeezing and ass grabbing they stayed on task and washed quickly.

By five they were seated for dinner. By six-thirty everybody except the
Gomez family was on the road, heading for home. Larry and Phil rode by
themselves while Aiden rode with the Lansing family. He and Gordy played
video games, checked out the scenery, and giggled at the corny jokes
Gordy's dad told.

The Lansings dropped the boys off at Brody's house. Aiden and Gordy would
be spending the night with Brody. The week before, Mr. Holtz, the Mayfield
School District's elementary school counselor had called Aiden, Gordy, and
their friend Brody, asking them if they wanted to volunteer to be school
guides for new students. All three boys readily agreed. Mr. Holtz then
talked to their parents, telling them they would need to report to Lakeview
School at eight-thirty Tuesday morning.

The sleepover had been planned before Aiden and Gordy knew about being
picked as school guides. The parents of each boy had made plans for the
night to relax after the beach trip. Even though everybody would have to
get up early, the boys were happy to still be able to stay at Rusty's
house. Rusty's mother would make sure they were up on time and fed before
dropping them off at the school.

"Mr. Holtz said they picked only six guides for our school," Aiden said as
the boys chatted with Brody's parents. "Three boys and three girls. And I
get to do it with my best friend, Gordy."

The three boys slept in Brody's room; Brody was in his bed while Gordy and
Aiden each slept in his own sleeping bag. Aiden fell asleep feeling happy
about what a great weekend he'd had with great friends. He was ready to
learn about being a guide the next day and for school to start on
Wednesday.

A year ago, Aiden had just moved to Mayfield and was new to the school. It
didn't take him long to get into trouble with Mrs. Finstuen, the
principal. Now, a year later, he was in fifth grade, the top grade at the
school, and had been picked for a prestigious job. School hadn't even
started yet, and fifth grade was already bringing new adventures.

Brody was beyond happy that his parents allowed him invite his friends to
sleep over. "It's only because of the school guide program in the morning,"
Brody's mother told him, taking some of the wind out of his sails. Still,
he figured that having Gordy and Aiden, two of the coolest boys in the
fifth grade, at his house was a good start.


<Troy Miller>

Troy answered the front doorbell. He wasn't surprised to see Keegan
standing at the door. After his talk with his father Troy been expecting
his younger brother. He wondered who the young woman standing next to him
was.

"Hello, Keegan, this is a surprise," he lied.

"Don't bullshit me, Troy. I know dad called you and told you I was coming
up here."

"What do you want Keegan?" Troy asked in a serious tone of voice.

"You know the answer to that—I want Allen."

Next: Responsibilities

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Douglas