Hi there! Bear in mind that it is, first and foremost, a STORY. The characters are imperfect, and not necessarily the best role models for what might constitute good behavior in any similar real life situations. Allowing their story to provoke thought on best ethical practices is encouraged, but blindly presuming that the answers that fit the characters are the answers that would fit any real life circumstance is just setting yourself (and probably others) up for catastrophic, painful failures. *Don't do that.*

Chapters will probably come a bit slower, we're up to Chapter 13 in the roleplay itself so there's still plenty of buffer material, but each chapter requires a lot of post-production editing and I'm a bit light on time for awhile. Worry not, though, we're nowhere near finished!

My friend always lights up when I relay your feedback to him, it's definitely one of the highlights of our conversations! Please, give us more, it helps us get into the zone and motivates us to continue working together on the story! (ursaminor@online.ee) Also, consider your hosts here at Nifty with occasional financial feedback. Were it not for them, this site would not exist, and I'm quite sure that there are many stiflers of free speech out there who would prefer it didn't. Make sure Nifty's coffers are well armed against any potential attack.

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RECAP: Gary's best friend, Mike, has come up for a visit with his preteen son Tommy for a working vacation. Mike is just arriving home from his remote office, unaware that his son and his best friend have spent the afternoon engaged in wild and passionate intergenerational sex play...

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Tom swiveled the door open and Mike stepped in, carrying a plastic bag with all the Thai food and a drink kit. He offered me a nod and a smile in greeting, unable to really do more as Tom ran in for a hug. "Hey, Kiddo, nice to see you too!" As he wrapped his hand around his boy, the food bag swaying with him, he returned his attention to me. "I hope you two had a good time today while I was out?"

 

"Catching up was a challenge, but I think we hit all the important notes," I quipped, carefully keeping eye contact with Mike so that I could keep his attention away from whatever Tom's reaction to that innuendo might be. I waited until my old friend put the food down before giving him a humungous hug. "It's been too long, Mike. It's wonderful to see you."

 

"Far too long, old friend," Mike admitted. "I'm glad to see you too." Tom, apparently feeling left out, wrapped himself around us on the outside. Mike chuckled and exclaimed, "Three way hug!"

 

I freely and happily looped my left arm away from Mike long enough to include the boy in my display of affection, squeezing tightly. Tom was the first to eject himself as well, digging through the food bag for his meal.

 

"So now I get to ask you all the boring grownup stuff that Tom here wasn't likely to be interested in providing," I proclaimed to Mike, taking a dig at the boy's name insecurity that I'm pretty sure went completely unnoticed in his quest for sustenance. "Y'know, how the trip was, how it feels to see the old home town, that sort of thing."

 

"Well, the trip here was pretty uneventful," Mike replied. "We left yesterday afternoon and stayed at some rat-trap in Oregon when it got too dark to drive."

 

I rolled my eyes. "You could stay at the Hilton and call it a rat trap, Mike. All that tells me is that you didn't like the view."

 

Mike shrugged. "To be fair, I didn't even see the view. Conked out immediately and woke up before sunrise so I could make it here in time to drop Tommy off." I shifted my eyes to glance over at the boy and, sure enough, he winced at his name, which only caused me to widen my grin.

 

"I haven't really gotten to see much of the home town, honestly," Mike continued. "They still do Monday morning donuts in the office, which was a nice surprise." With a ruffle of Tom's hair, he added, "My customized mug with Tom's cute little infant face was still in the cupboard, too."

 

Of course Tom was in food mode, I don't think he even registered his dad's affection or our conversation topic. Still such a kid in some ways. I set up my own plate and nabbed some regular utensils, as I've never been a fan of the plastic ones that you get from restaurants. "Well I hope you get some time off to explore a bit over the next few days," I implored, probably sounding more than a bit like a neglected spouse.  

 

"I will, don't worry," Mike replied. He gestured towards the boy inhaling his food. "Thanks for watching him while I was out, by the way. I hope you both had a good time."

 

"We entertained ourselves," I replied mirthfully, giving Tom a playful smirk as I scooped up the first bite of my Payang curry. Once I navigated it down my gullet, I added, "Yeah, I showed him around, we watched a movie, and he spent some time upstairs, presumably trying to marry his phone." I took a sip of my drink. "Well at least you got to see the old home office. See anyone you used to work with?"

 

"Yeah, plenty of familiar faces. Some I was happier to see than others." Mike chuckled a bit, and it left me wondering if perhaps Claudette Stephens was still working there. She'd had a desperate need for his cock that she was not afraid to make obvious to anyone paying attention, including people the poor guy was dating over the years. "So what movie did y'all watch?"

 

Oh. Right. That question. I glanced at Tom for a moment, who was seemingly hanging on my words, waiting to follow my lead. I appreciated that instinct, and decided that this was a good moment to demonstrate the wonderful concept of staying truthful while dodging the question. "Oh, I've got a thousand movies this boy needs to be exposed to, thanks to you keeping him down in the uncultured sweatbox of Silicon Valley for six years. Only thing he told me you showed him that was halfway decent was Princess Bride."

 

Mike, sure enough, took a defensive posture that completely threw off the track of his question. "First of all, for the last time, Piedmont is not Silicon Valley. And come on, I've tried to share as many good movies with him as I can! I still have a big list of stuff we haven't had the chance to watch yet."

 

"Mmhmm, I know, work keeps you busy," I said pointedly.

 

I looked over to see what Tom thought of this little exchange. He seemed genuinely amused, but decided to jump in to save his dad from dealing with my usual `you work too much' sermon. "Yeah Dad, you've shown me some cool movies. And some real stinkers. You have terrible taste in anime!" Tom giggled at his own wit.

 

Since my own taste in anime was not likely to be considered competitive, I moved the conversation in another direction. "So, is this a 'guys' visit? Cause I'd love to show him Good Boys tonight, and you too, but I don't want to give your lovely wife another reason to want my head." Taking a bite of my Payang curry, I found myself equally enjoying and suffering through the spice level, fanning my mouth a bit with one hand.

 

"Yep, it's definitely a guys' visit," Mike confirmed, our perhaps unoriginal shorthand for a `what happens in Vegas stays away from his wife's ears' situation. "What his mom doesn't know won't hurt her, right? She's already pretty upset about everything going on and I hope she's using this time to cool off..."

 

I shook my head disdainfully. "Tom gave me the basic story," I acknowledged. "I swear, people never seem to understand that whenever you have a problem with something, karma is just gonna throw that problem right in your face. It's uncanny."

 

I considered how many times that had seemed eerily true in my life. I had never been a fan of marijuana, finding it a mentally dampening substance with very little value unless one was suffering chronic pain, and I insisted that people who chose to use it recreationally were deluded. So of course my very first underage boyfriend turned out to be a juvenile reefer addict. He and I had had many a disagreement over his choice to use it, with me insisting that nothing good could possibly come of it for him.

 

It will likely come as no surprise to anyone that when marijuana wound up being legalized in Washington a scant number of years later, and he graduated with a degree in botany that scored him a lucrative position in a dispensary, he proceeded to sing very long, very loud choruses of `I told you so' into my face. I had to give his fiancée oral sex tips for him as punishment. I never did find out what offense she had committed that required her to take them.

 

Turning my attention back to the present, I sipped my drink and cut to the chase with Mike. "So what are you going to do? Even if Marky's parents come around, you know she's going to be as tightly wound as ever."

 

Mike glanced at his son, and I knew I was going to get an overly diplomatic answer. He was somewhat paranoid about acknowledging her imperfections in front of Tom, to a degree that I found a bit silly. "I'm not sure yet. This too shall pass." he said, nonchalantly, retreating into his pad thai. Knowing me well enough to know I'd press further, it was he who then shifted gears. "I have no objections to Good Boys, but I'm not sure if I can join you all tonight. I think I have to work a bit after dinner."

 

I sighed, following his gaze to Tom and accepting surrender for the moment. It was just too much of an uphill battle, and I knew in the end he wasn't going to have a real action plan yet anyway. "Well, I certainly hope I do get to spend some time with you during this trip. Tom here is very good company, but I'm sure that you're in just as much need of some cool down time. It's not good to bury yourself in your work and forget that there's family and friends out here for you."

 

"Aw man," Mike lamented, "you know I'm not purposely burying myself in my work." No, I knew it was worse than that. I knew that Mike loved his work, in a way that even his closest friends and family would never be able to fully compete with. And y'know? If it made him happy I wouldn't push it so much. But in the end he was always just as miserable as everyone else about the sacrifices he was placing on the altar of corporate duty, and to date I had not found a way to really drive home the truth that trying to fully invest in both simply wasn't a feasible option. "I just couldn't get this time off and have to finish up some project work. I'd love to hang out with you and my favorite boy." He smiled at Tom and winked conspicuously, and I mused privately about whether Mike's divided attention was the reason Tom sought the love of other adult men. "And on that note, I really should go and do a bit of work. Mind if I work in your room Tommy, while you all watch a movie or whatever?"

 

Tom rolled his eyes, at first I assumed for reasons of knowing his dad's habits as well as I did. But as he punctuated his father's title, I realized he was actually just sore about the dumb name thing. "Sure Dad, it's cool. Just don't make a mess in there please."

 

Mike stood up after putting the lid on his food, and put the leftovers in the fridge for later. "Hey Gary, you have any tea or anything with a bit of caffeine?"

 

I gestured to the second drawer, under the silverware. "I've got peppermint and cinnamon in there, either should do the trick." Leaning forward towards Tom, I whispered, "Go open the glider cage real quick," with a conspiratorial grin on my face.

 

Tom threw me a grin to match my own, and ran up the stairs to comply. Mike, meanwhile, found the tea and started steeping it in hot water from my water cooler. Once he noticed that Tom was out of the room, he let loose the pretense of a carefree workaholic and asked with a serious expression, "How's Tommy holding up? It's been a bit rough these last few days."

 

I was not surprised by the change in demeanor. "Too early to tell," I stated simply, marveling at how many different levels that statement would seem to be true on. "He obviously misses his friend, and he's still sorting out exactly how much, if you know what I mean. But his mind was definitely taken off of it for the last few hours." Another truism on multiple levels.

 

"I'm glad to hear that man," Mike said, clapping my shoulder. "I knew you two would get along. He needs more of you in his life."

 

"Heh, well, who knows? Maybe his mother will decide he needs the best possible mentor of gayness and have him come up here every summer." I tried to deliver the suggestion with a straight face, I really did, but I started to crack up with laughter before I could even get the word 'summer' out. Shiela would probably leave Tom to fend for himself in the zombie apocalypse before even consulting me on the boy's care, let alone entrusting me with it.

 

Mike joined me in laughter as he stirred his tea. "Yeah, not so sure that's how that will work. She thinks we're staying at a hotel." He gestured to my computer with the cup. "Weren't you going to get Good Boys ready to watch, by the way? I bet he'll want to watch it as soon as he's back."

 

I waved a hand dismissively. "He can wait five minutes, Mike. Those little pauses in life are when most of the good conversations happen anyway, you know that."

 

"Fine, fair enough, make my boy wait! Speaking of him, he's been up there for a while... I'm going to go check on him and see if I can nab that room now." As Mike sipped his tea and started towards the stairs, Tom came bounding down and just barely avoided bumping the tea in collision. "Hey, watch where you're going, buddy! This could probably burn you or me right now."

 

"Sorry dad," Tom replied, trying to keep the mischievous glint out of his tone and only moderately succeeding. "I was just trying to get back down before the movie starts."

 

I laughed at the interaction, shaking my head. "Like father, like son," I mused, not for the first time finding my heart warm at their similarities. "Anyway, if you do get a chance to sneak down, Mike, you know you're welcome to. We'll catch you up." I waved my hand forward, gesturing Tom back to `our' couch. "C'mon, scamp, get cozy and let me set it up."

 

Mike headed upstairs, work and tea in hand. Tom looked over at me from the couch as he plopped down on it, all grins and giggles. "I wonder if our glider friends will surprise him."

 

"If we're lucky, not for a little bit," I said with a smirk. "These things work best when there's a lull, makes the surprise bigger. Did they notice right away that the cage door was open?"

 

"No, they were being pretty lazy," Tom replied. With a glance to my crotch, he added, "I think we tired them out earlier."

 

I snickered, shaking my head at the reference. "Yeah, well, you're incorrigible," I accused, setting up the movie for viewing. I grabbed my cell phone on the way, curious to see if Kyle had sent me any new texts. Sure enough, he sent a meme of Leonardo DiCaprio holding out a champagne glass with the caption, `You naughty naughty boy' underneath. I texted back a smiley face with a tongue sticking out as I settled in next to Tom.

 

This time, of course, we were a little less sensual, although I did pick a movie with some pretty sexually charged shenanigans. The opening scene contains three boys talking eagerly about their future prospects in middle school. When one announces that all middle schoolers get handjobs, I looked impishly over to see Tommy's reaction, only to find that the youngster was already fast asleep, leaning into me. With a broad smile and a small chuckle, I wrapped my arm around the boy for a good cuddle.

 

Ten minutes later my phone buzzed again, but it wasn't Kyle. It was Mike. A picture of the upstairs bed was attached, with my sugar gliders relaxing on it. As I grinned, I noticed the triple dot indicator, which let me know he was typing something else.

 

Of course, I assumed the little devils got him, so I wasn't about to wait for his complaint in order to gloat. I jumped in with a text of, "did they scare ya?"

 

His reply obviously didn't bother to edit out what he'd typed before I slipped in. "I met your little glider friends. Cute. I guess that explains what my son was doing up here all that time. I noticed you have some uh, implements on the bed posts... have you been getting frisky in the bed my son will be sleeping in? I hope you changed the sheets, at least!"

 

Whoops! Sure enough, the ropes I had used to bind his son's arms to the bed just hours earlier were still very much visible in the picture he'd sent. Of course, lies of misimplication were so habitual for me that my response came almost before I fully thought about it. "Perv! I bought the twine for the gliders. Though I hope he doesn't sleep nude because they do eat little worms, hahaha"

 

Mike replied, "Perv, huh! Well what is the twine doing tied to the bedposts? I didn't know you were into that kinda stuff... have you been holding out on me?"

 

That's the trouble with best friends - they know your tricks. "Alright, fine, caught me," I texted. "It was just one very unexpected but amazing experience. No worries about the sheets, though, we don't let protein go to waste in this house. ;)"

 

Especially delicious preteen protein. Heh, preteen protein, say that five times fast.

 

"Hah, okay okay. Why in the guest room though? Was this last night or something?" Mike pressed, the texts coming back pretty quickly.

 

"Because the twine really is for the gliders," I answered easily. "Gotta play it where it lands, bud." Other people might be more nervous about how inquisitive Mike was being in an area of potential incrimination, but I knew it was just his nature to poke the bear. Plus I was amused with myself regarding the fact that I still hadn't technically lied yet.

 

"Okay okay, just curious," he texted. "I wonder if Tommy noticed when he was up here earlier. Should I take them down?"

 

"You can if you want," I texted back. "Kinda the irony of that kinda thing, though: either he already knows the possibilities, in which case taking it down means nothing, or he won't suspect it, in which taking it down means nothing. Right?" I knew which one it was, of course, but I wasn't telling.

 

"Well he's a pretty curious kid. If he noticed them, he'd probably ask about them. :) Not to say he doesn't know what it's all about... who knows what the kid gets up to online."

 

"Or with Marky," I replied. Or with me, of course.

 

"Well I think we know at least some of what he gets up to with Marky," Mike answered, and it was around this point that I was starting to become annoyed that the conversation was still taking place over texts. At a certain point, can't he just admit that he's not working anymore? "he's a pretty lucky boy. That kid is cute. ;) "

 

"He is indeed! I saw a picture. Funny enough I got a commission today for a slightly older version of him." I hesitated for a moment, because I knew what the net observation I would normally make would be, and it wasn't really something I wanted to highlight given the events of the day. I decided, however, that it would simply be too suspicious if I left the observation unexpressed. "Tom's cuter, though."

 

"Tommy is pretty cute," Mike admitted, "but you know me and blondes, haha. Are you all watching that movie down there? I've lost interest in this work stuff."

 

Much as I'd just been wishing for that acknowledgement, I didn't expect it to actually happen. "We were," I replied. "Now I'm watching it and he's snoring."

 

"Awww. I want pictures," he wrote. "I'm coming down. Should I put these sugar gliders back in the cage?"

 

"Nah. They're used to having the run of the house. Just so you know, we were hoping they'd scare you."

 

Mike's footsteps were heard on the stairs as soon as I sent that, and his reply came verbally, in a soft whisper to prevent from waking Tom up. "I guess you all underestimated what it takes to scare me, eh? Some cute fluffy pets won't do the trick!" He eagerly snapped a few shots at a few different angles of his cute boy cuddled up on my lap, sleeping soundly, his mouth open a little bit. I obligingly provided the occasional bunny ears or goofy face. "I love my boy so much," he said. "You wouldn't believe all the pictures I have of him from over the years."

 

"I love him too," I said easily, uncertain myself exactly how much. "It's sucked not having him around for six years."

 

Mike smiled serenely at me, and the two of us just sort of basqued in Tom's figuratively and literally unconscious charisma. As is wont to happen, the gods of comedic timing decided to throw one of the more lewd scenes from the movie to coincide with the silence between us. In the scene, the three boys, in an attempt to learn how to kiss, typed in 'porn' and a lewd skit came up on their laptop. The skit was not shown, but the three boys reacted all grossed out and slammed the laptop shut. Jacob Tremblay's character commented demurely, "They didn't even kiss." To which one of the others replie, "Yeah... not on the mouth, anyway."

 

Mike chuckled, "Hah, I really do need to watch this movie sometime. I'm surprised Tommy fell asleep with this kinda action. We should probably get him to bed."

 

"Yeah, let's get him upstairs," I agreed.  

 

Mike leaned over the couch and picked up his curled up boy, blanket and all. Tom stirred a bit, groggily opening his eyes, then closing them again. "Huhmh, Im-not-tired" the half-asleep boy said, as Mike started to carry him slowly across the room and up the stairs. I couldn't help but chuckle at the contrast between his bleary-eyed protest and the reality of it, following along automatically as they headed up the stairs. Since the corridor was more of a single file thing, I simply took the shortcut through my room and the bathroom to enter Tom's room from the other side.

 

Mike gently placed his boy down on the bed (the twine conspicuously missing now), then lifted his son up a bit and gently pulled off the purple shirt. Tossing that on the ground, he leaned down and slid the boy's shorts off, leaving him in his cute little red briefs again. As I watched him cover his son with the blanked and chastely kiss him goodnight on the cheek, I marveled that I had never actually gotten a chance to undress the kid earlier, except of course for those briefs. "Goodnight sweet boy," he said. Tom, for his part, made a cute whimper, stlil half asleep, and replied, "g'night-dad-i-love-you." It seemed like a routine the two of them had been through many times before.

 

I couldn't help but offer my own kiss to Tom's other cheek before following Mike out of the room, heading downstairs. Again, the surreal need to make a lewd comment about a preteen boy to keep up the pretense of NOT having slept with him presented itself. "Bike briefs? When did boys decide they wanted to extend the underoos phase into the tween years?"

 

Mike's voice was lilting with pride as he stepped quietly down the stairs. "I think that boy knows just how cute he is. He has normal boxers too, but he always seems to wear briefs when he wants something from me... I think he plans it."

 

I raised an eyebrow at that particular piece of intelligence. I began to wonder how much of what Tom and I had going on this afternoon had been preplanned by the little imp. After all, he did have a chance to change into those briefs upstairs earlier, and he was the one to suggest porno as the genre. Did he play me that whole time?

 

I shrugged. It was an academic question at best, since I certainly had no objection to being played in that way. "So what do you suppose he wanted from you today?" I asked curiously.  

 

"Hah, good question. I didn't get any requests other than thai food from him. Maybe he forgot his Uncle Gary would spoil him, cute briefs or not?" Mike chuckled, and so did I, for spoil him I most definitely had. "Maybe he gets a kick of showing off and wanted to show off to you? I hope he wasn't any trouble for you today. He wasn't in the best mood when we got here. You definitely seemed to cheer him up."

 

"Well I started by feeding him, of course," I remarked, a mild rebuke. "I know you were in a rush to get to the office, but you'd be amazed what five minutes at a McDonald's can do for a kid's morale."

 

"Hey, I kept offering to pull over for food," Mike protested. "He wasn't interested. He's pretty upset with everything right now and isn't exactly thrilled to be so far away from Marky."

 

"Better than being next door to him and still not being able to see him," I suggested philosophically. "If it were me, that'd be the deeper cut." I reached the couch and, after pausing the movie (again, the gods of comedic timing shone down on me, as the freeze frame was on Jacob Tremblay pulling back from kissing what his character believed to be a 'CPR doll', complete with a small trail of cum between the doll's synthetic lips and his own), took a seat. "Getting the story out was what really did it, I think. Plus hearing about my own troubles with your blushing bride and sexuality." Holding up a hand, I added, "Don't worry, I didn't go into too much detail about why it was an issue for her."

 

"It's all good," Mike responded, but I could tell there was a little relief at my discretion. "I'm glad you had that talk with him. His mom is great, but not the most open-minded person sometimes. He knows that." Mike reached out to touch me affectionately, "And you know... I've missed you too."

 

With a sigh at Mike's touch, I couldn't help but ponder what amazing virtuous act I must've done to get this lucky this many times in one week. Plus father and son on the same day? The heavens must be laughing. "I've always been here," I said simply, returning the touch far more easily than I had in times past. "I should be mad at you for not coming up sooner, given how easily it apparently is to get the office up here to accommodate you."

 

Mike lamented, "The office is the easy part. The wife and kid is the harder one. You know I'd like to visit more."

 

"Yes, I know," I sighed, my tone undoubtedly betraying that such observations were a mixed comfort at best. But I wasn't about to waste a moment now that my friend was here. "Speaking of blonds, though, I have six years of things I could never tell you over the internet to catch up with you on. Remember Linda's son Kyle, that adorable little blond boy who was about Tommy's age when you left?"

 

"Oh, yeah, I do!" Mike replied, excited. "He was really cute. Don't tell me you... you have been holding out on me!"

 

I held up my hands in mock surrender, an admission that I quite definitely had. "Hey, I trust you with my life, but the internet has ears everywhere. Anyway yeah, we've been banging it out pretty much since you left." I admittedly enjoyed torturing Mike with every lurid detail, knowing that he lived vicariously through me when it came to his boylover tendencies. "My God, that kid is insatiable. Hasn't even been a day and he's already whining about how blue balled he's gonna be without me for the next ten days or however long you're staying. And mind you, I'm not even his only lover."

 

"Woohoo, buddy!" Mike cheered, giving me a somewhat surreal high five as though we were high school freshmen whispering under the bleachers. "You've been getting a lot more action than I have, that's for sure!"

 

I accepted the high five easily enough, but I shrugged, not quite as enthusiastic. Even when I was a high school freshman, I was always looking for something more substantive. "It's nice enough, but all the action in the world isn't as satisfying as bringing a kid like Tom into the world. Not to mention the love you have with Shiela, as unknowingly polygamous as it is. I'm as jealous of you as you are of me, believe me."

 

Mike chuckled, then said jokingly, "Yeah, well, if you ever want to share a boy with me... just let me know."

 

"He'd be up for that," I said with a wide grin. "He specifically referenced you as 'hot' when I told him who was coming." Well, alright, technically he had said that his mother thought Mike was hot, but I knew Kyle well enough to know that his mother could say the sky was blue and he'd talk my ear off for five minutes about how it was actually a reflection on the ocean or something. His silence on her opinion of Mike spoke volumes.

 

As often happens between best friends, the conversation was flowing so easily that the next words came out of my mouth before I really considered the potential tactical risks of where it might steer the conversation. "Of course, he also gave me shit about Tommy being his potential replacement." 

 

Mike raised an eyebrow, his expression suddenly plaintive. Slowly and deliberately, he asked, "Would he be, if given the opportunity?"

 

My mouth dropped open.