Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 09:20:18 +0100 From: Drew Hunt Subject: The Ties That Bind 3 Disclaimer - The following story contains scenes of incest and homosexuality. If you do not like reading about such things, then a quick press of the back button on your Internet browser may be a good move. If you shouldn't be reading this story due to your being too young, or it being illegal to access such things in your community, then you should leave too. The following story is fiction; it takes place in a fictional town in Lancashire in the north of England. Any resemblance to real persons or places is purely coincidental. This story is copyright. It is assigned to the Nifty Archives under the terms of their submission agreement and it may not be posted to any other website without the prior written consent of the author. As previously stated this story is incestuous in nature, with a few more surprises along the way. Whilst the story does contain some descriptions of sexual activity, the overwhelming emphasis in this story is about love and commitment. I hope you enjoy it. A big hug goes to John for his editorial assistance. Please drop me a line at drew.hunt@blueyonder.co.uk and let me know what you think. Chapter 3 Two weeks had passed at Foster's glass works with no news of redundancies. Danny, along with his fellow workmates began to breathe a little more easily. Wednesday morning saw Danny walking into the section of the factory where he normally worked. His foreman, a rather oily little man in his mid fifties told Danny that there was a meeting starting in ten minutes in the staff canteen, and Danny's presence was requested. Danny's insides immediately turned to water. He made a dash for the toilets, getting there just in time to project his breakfast cereal into the pan. Danny began to shiver. His job wasn't much. It didn't provide a very large wage packet at the end of the working week, but it gave Danny a sense of pride and of dignity too. Danny had managed, despite all the odds to find himself gainful employment. He felt that because of his job, he was able to hold his head up high when he walked down the street. Few of his neighbours in his block of bed-sitters had ever known what it was to have a job. Danny cleaned himself up as best he could, and made his way to the canteen. As expected the axe fell. The personnel lady had tried to sugar coat the pill, but it still tasted rather bitter. Danny was handed a months wages in lieu of notice, had his hand shaken, and then he was shown the door. Danny was in a fog; he couldn't remember anything of his bus ride back to the run down Council estate, which he called home. Seeing an off licence that was open for business, he pushed open the door, and picked up a couple of bottles of cheap Vodka, and plonked them down on the counter. The disinterested Woman behind the till couldn't have cared less that Danny was under-age. He handed over the cash, she put the bottles in a carrier bag, and handed him his change. Danny was no drinker. He'd seen too many of the so-called 'care-workers' at the Children's homes in an inebriated condition as they assaulted him, to want to drink himself. Danny just wanted, needed to forget for a while. He had to anaesthetise himself from the cruel realities of the outside world. Unscrewing the cap FROM one of the bottles, he took a long swig of the burning liquid right there out on the street corner. He slowly made his way back to his cold and unwelcoming bed-sitter. Collapsing in one of the two mismatched armchairs, he slowly but steadily drank himself into what he hoped was oblivion. * * * * * "Has anyone seen Danny today?" Chris asked as he prepared to start the Wednesday night practice at the rugby club. His brother Scott looked on with pride as his elder sibling confidently gathered his teammates around him. The other players were used to seeing Scott attend their practices and matches. Many of them treated him like a younger brother. "No sorry skip, but did you know that Foster's let go a load of it's worker's this morning?" Glen a hulking second rower in his early twenties spoke up. "Ah no I didn't." Chris admitted. Chris began to worry about little Danny. He'd always been the first to arrive at practice, and one of the last to leave. Chris was almost certain that Danny had a very large crush on him, Although Chris felt flattered by the attention, he never lead the youth on. Trying to push his growing worries to one side, he got on with the practice. The team were about to enter the first round of a local knock-out competition, and Chris wanted his troops to be as prepared as possible to face Boroughton Rovers, a team from the other side of the county. The rovers would provide a stiff test for Chris's team, and he wanted his men to be psyched up for the encounter. The practice proceeded as usual, though Chris could have done with Danny's running skills on the field that night. Despite his best efforts, Chris's mind kept going back to Danny's face in the changing room that afternoon when he'd told Chris of his fears about his probable unemployment. Chris decided that he and Scott would make a detour on their way home to check up on Danny. Things must have been bad for Danny not to show up at practice Chris mused. "Okay gang, we might as well call it quits." Chris said as he ran off the field into the changing rooms. He'd ended the practice about 15 minutes early, but his mind just wasn't on the job. A few of the other players had wondered to themselves what had been eating at Chris. Normally he was such a focused team leader, spurring on his men to ever-greater achievements, but they witnessed a rather lackadaisical performance from their skipper that night. Scott was also worried. He rather liked Danny. Although a year ahead of him at school, Danny was one of the few people who took note of Scott, and who didn't make fun of him because of his stuttering. The two usually managed to find somewhere quiet to sit during the lunch break, when they'd discuss the state of the Lancashire County Cricket team, as well as rugby of course. Scott could relax in Danny's company, and he usually found that his words flowed fairly smoothly. Scott also felt a little sorry for the slightly older boy, as he didn't seem to get much of a packed lunch from the children's home. Scott would always give him one of his sandwiches, and he'd make sure his mum had put in an extra apple or banana into his lunchbox too, so he could give one to Danny. Scott no longer needed to sneak looks at all the hunky rugby players as they showered and changed that night. He had the hunkiest one all to himself. Once the last member of the team had departed, Scott and Chris went round the room double-checking to ensure no one had left any valuables behind. Chris picked up his duffle bag, which contained his dirty kit, then he locked up the changing room, throwing his bag into the car boot. Unbeknown to Chris, Scott had frequently sneaked Chris's dirty kit out of the laundry basket and taken it into the bathroom to model himself in it in front of the mirror. He'd even wanked himself off in Chris's shorts a number of times too; Scott had passed on this rather sensitive bit of information to Chris earlier that week. As 'punishment' for being so sly, Chris made Scott suck him off as Chris stood there in full rugby kit. Scott thought he'd died and gone to heaven. Chris pointed his aging though still reliable Datsun in the direction of Danny's place. Chris had a list of all the team players addresses, though he rarely had to go and visit them. Danny had only moved into his bed-sitter a few months earlier, because once Danny reached seventeen, the care system had washed their hands of him. "Oh God, how can anyone live in such a place?" Scott asked as he and Chris began to climb the six flights of stairs to Danny's bed-sitter. The lift of course was out of order. That was nothing new. The smell of stale urine was rather pungent, but it got a little less oppressive the higher they climbed. The walls of the stairwell were none too prettily decorated with spray painted graffiti. Other smells of a more exotic and illegal nature were also in evidence. The whole depressing scene was accompanied by the thump-thump of a heavy metal track being played at a loud volume. "Bloody hell what a place." Chris said as they waited outside Danny's door to be admitted. Chris had to bang on the door several times, he and Scott were about to leave when they heard a bolt being drawn back, to reveal a very dishevelled Danny peaking round the door. "Oh hi." Danny slurred. "God Danny what have you been up to?" Chris asked. "Trying to forget." Danny replied, laughing at his own weak joke. "Let us in will you?" Chris asked. "Sure, why not." Danny closed the door again to release the security chain. He then flung the door wide open. "Welcome to my humble abode." Danny said waving his arm across the shabby, though surprisingly clean interior. The movement of his arm caused him to lose his balance however, and he fell drunkenly against the wall. "Jesus Danny." Chris said moving to prevent the younger man from falling over. In Danny's sozzled state, he misinterpreted Chris's actions, and Danny flung his arms around his skipper, laying a large wet tongue filled kiss right on a surprised Chris's lips. "Oh God skip, I've wanted to do that for months." Danny said with an accompanying hick-up. "Danny your drunk." Chris said. "I know, I'd never have the bottle to do it if I were sober. Chris I love you, I've always loved you ever since the first time I laid my eyes on your gorgeous body." Danny moved in for a second smooch, but Chris put his hand over Danny's mouth and turned Danny's face to the side. "Spoil sport." Danny said, hiccupping again. Danny then spotted Scott who had up to this point looked rather bemusedly on the whole scene. "Scottie! Oh the second most studliest Blake, Oh I am a lucky lad tonight." "Come on Danny let's get you sat down and get some black coffee into you." Chris said trying to manoeuvre the uncooperative scrum half into one of the armchairs. Scott came to his big brother's assistance, and they moved Danny into a chair. "Sorry there's no coffee." Danny said laughing. "Can't stand the stuff." "Okay, we'll have to think of something else then." Chris was starting to get a bit annoyed at Danny's uncooperative attitude. "Lion, can I have a word with you for a minute?" Scott said pointing to the still open hallway door. Ever since that first night, the affectionate terms of endearment of Lion and Cub had seemed to stick. They used it when they were alone, Chris was a bit surprised that Scott had used it in front of Danny, though it seemed unlikely that he'd remember this, or anything else from this encounter once he'd sobered up. "Okay Cub." Chris said leading the way outside again. "Listen, we can't leave him in this hell hole in his condition. He could choke on his own vomit or something." "Where will we take him then?" "Home with us of course." "Cub, are you sure?" "Totally. Look Lion I'm the one who's supposed to have the warm, caring humane type things covered in our relationship. So I'm asserting them now." "Your serious aren't you." "Do you honestly want to leave him here?" Chris thought for a moment. He shook his head. "Cub, I wouldn't leave a dog in this place." "Good, so we'll gather some of his stuff together and take him home with us." "Okay, you're the boss." "Yes Lion for once I am." Chris gave the back of Scott's neck an affectionate squeeze. The two men re-entered the bed-sitter. Chris took inventory of the scene. Danny was now unconsciously snoring away slumped in the green armchair. The other chair, which was covered in a red diamond pattern, had a three quarters empty bottle of vodka in it, as well as an unopened bottle too. Chris's gaze also took in the bare and peeling whitewashed walls, the clean though threadbare carpet, a small sink stood in one corner, with a dirty cereal bowl and mug still in the bowl. An open box of cornflakes stood on a tiny worktop, and next to this was a dual ringed Baby Belling cooker. The kitchen area also had a tiny freezer, whose growling motor could just be discerned above the heavy metal music, which thankfully was somewhat muted on this side of the building. Along the opposite wall was Danny's neatly made bed, the bedspread, like the carpet was clean, but threadbare. Danny had even neatly folded a pair of jeans over the back of a wooden chair, which stood next to the bed and must have acted as Danny's bedside table. A small chest of drawers, an unmatched wardrobe plus a portable TV on a rickety card table completed the drab interior, which comprised Danny's world. Chris's heart went out to the young man snoring softly in the chair. Secretly he was glad that Scott had insisted on taking Danny home with them, because Chris doubted that he could have left the youth in this place. Scott was busy putting underpants, socks, a clean T Shirt, jumper and the folded pair of jeans into a carrier bag. Going through the only other door in the room, Scott emerged carrying Danny's toothbrush and safety razor. "I can't find a pair of pyjamas Lion." "Well perhaps he doesn't wear them." "Oh goodie, I'll be sharing a bed with two naked hunky rugby players. I'll be the envy of half the gay men in Lancashire tonight." Scott giggled. "Do you want him to share our bed too?" "Lion he can't sleep by himself, it isn't safe given the amount he's drunk." Scott said pointing at the Vodka bottles. "I think we should take it in turns to stay awake tonight and make sure nothing bad happens to him." "Okay Cub, you're the one with the caring end of things sorted." "Absolutely. I think I've got everything he'll need for a couple of days." "A couple of days?" Chris asked in surprise. "Well you never know." Scott added 'our luck' under his breath. "Okay, so how are we going to get sleeping beauty over there down into the car?" Chris asked. "You'll have to carry him I reckon." "What down six flights of stairs?" "Aww, isn't my big bad brave Lion up to it then?" "Just shut up and get the door keys, so we at least leave this flea pit secure." They made their way down the stairs, as quickly as Danny's dead weight would permit. Scott had the duty of opening and closing the doors. As Chris cradled the unconscious youth in his arms, he began to realise how much he truly cared for, and would relish the prospect of continuing to protect, the precious and vulnerable soul lying peacefully in his arms. Chris wasn't quite sure how he would achieve his desires; he certainly didn't want to upset Scott by verbalising his feelings. "I think I better sit next to him Lion. I don't want him to fall over or anything." Scott said once Danny had been belted into the back seat. "Okay Cub." It only took about ten minutes to drive to the Blake house. Danny had started waking up, so he was able to assist somewhat in getting himself up the stairs. "Danny, do you want to use the toilet?" Chris asked. "Yeah I think I should. Chris?" "Yeah Danny?" "Erm could you like hold me up as I pee?" "Sure mate." Chris got Danny into the bathroom, whilst Scott had to explain to Penny why they had brought a drunken youth home with them. Once Scott had described Danny's living arrangements, and the fact that he was an orphan, and he'd just lost his job, Penny was more than happy for Danny to stay for as long as he wanted. Scott smiled inwardly at her words. "I better go and help Chris undress him, he'll have to sleep with us tonight." "Urm, Scott?" Penny asked tentatively. "Does Danny know that he'll be sleeping with two gay men? I mean normally it shouldn't matter, but some people might object." "Oh I don't think Danny will mind." Scott smiled to himself again. "Yes okay Scott, thanks for filling me in about Danny. Look make sure you have a jug of water by the bed, he'll need to drink lots of it to re-hydrate his system, and have a bucket close by too, you probably won't have time to get him to the bathroom if he starts feeling sick." "Oh yeah, good idea." "And take that bottle of aspirin upstairs as well, but don't let Danny see the pills, in his condition he won't be able to remember if he's taken some, and we don't want him to take too many." Penny didn't add that Danny might have suicidal tendencies. "Okay mum thanks." Meanwhile in the bathroom, Chris had Danny sat on the toilet. Danny wasn't coordinated enough to pull down his own trousers, so Chris had to do it for him. Chris couldn't help but admire Danny's equipment as it emerged from its cotton covering. Chris decided to be 'helpful' and push Danny's dick downwards, so it pointed into the pan. 'Just to prevent him from peeing on the toilet seat of course' Chris tried to convince himself. "Okay Danny, open the floodgates." "Huh?" "Piss Danny, start peeing." "Oh right thanks." Danny let go a real stream of water. Despite the situation, Chris found the noise of another man urinating rather erotic, and his dick began to plump up. "Okay Danny, I think we ought to try and get you in the bath, you do smell a bit my friend." "Yeah, I do don't I." Danny said trying to rise from the toilet, but he almost fell over. "No mate just sit there till I've run the water, then Scott and I will help you bathe." "Thanks Chris, you're being very kind." Scott entered the room. "How's it going?" "I think we ought to bath him. He smells a bit don't you think?" "Yeah it's the alcohol coming out of his pores. Best not make the water too hot, otherwise it'll make him sweat." "Okay, I'll run the water, and you make sure he doesn't fall over." Danny just sat on the toilet; he made a rather pathetic figure sitting there with his trousers and underpants spread around his ankles. Though Danny was feeling no pain, he sat there with a lazy smile on his face as he watched his gorgeous rugby captain bend over as he filled the tub. "Lion don't forget to put in some foam bath too." Scott instructed. To Danny Scott asked, "Danny do you think you could drink some water for me?" "I'll try Scott." "Good, because it'll help you in the morning if you can." Scott reached over to the sink, and filled a tooth mug from the tap, handing it over to Danny he said, "Drink as much of it as you can." "Thanks," Danny dribbled a bit of it onto his jumper, but he managed to swallow most of it. "Good boy." Scott encouraged. "Okay folks, let's get this show on the road." Chris said, once he'd shut off the water. Scott undressed Danny's top half, he couldn't help admiring Danny's muscular chest and arms. He certainly wasn't as built as his Lion, but he was still rather hunky. Scott then knelt on the floor and removed Danny's shoes and socks, and then he pulled off his trousers and underpants. He folded the clothes and put them on the vanity unit. Then with Chris's assistance, he guided Danny into the waiting tub. "Oh this is nice." Danny said with a stupid grin on his face. Danny began to splash his hands around in the water. "Have you got any quack-quacks for me to play with?" Scott laughed. "No Danny, sorry we haven't. Oh boy are we going to be able to tease you when you sober up." Chris chuckled at the thought too. "I always wondered what it would be like to have a toy duck in the bath with me. They never had any in the children's home." Danny said sadly. "Come on Cub, we better get him out of here." Chris said once Danny had received a thorough washing. Scott had particularly enjoyed lathering up Danny's short spiky hair. He thought that a good conditioner would really soften it wonderfully. "Okay Lion, I'll let the water out, then you can stand behind him and lift him out." Once this had been accomplished, Scott and Chris spent a little more time than was strictly necessary in drying Danny's body. "Danny, do you think you can drink some more water for me my friend?" "I'll try Scottie." Scott hated being called that normally, but it was kind of cute when Danny said it, so he didn't mind overmuch. Before he drank the water, Scott put a couple of aspirins into his mouth. "They might help to reduce the headache that you're going to get in the morning." Scott told him. Danny managed about half a mug of water, before he told Scott that he'd had enough. "Okay, let's get you into bed then." Chris guided a still very wobbly Danny into their bedroom. "Cub, can you look after him for a bit whilst I take a shower?" Chris asked once Danny had been set down in the middle of their bed. "Yeah of course Lion, no problem." Scott gazed down at his slightly older friend. He began to stroke Danny's hair. Scott started to examine his feelings for Danny. 'Yes', there was certainly a sexual attraction there, but Scott felt something much deeper too. Scott had always been such a caring person; his heart went out to the troubled young man sleeping before him. During their frequent lunchtime discussions at school, Danny had let slip a little of his life in the Children's home. Danny told an incredulous Scott that in such places you had to be tough in order to survive. Scott knew that if he'd been in Danny's position, he wouldn't have made it. Danny said the main reason why he'd begun playing rugby and working out was to build up his strength so he could defend himself against the bigger boys in the home. Scott continued to look down on the now peacefully sleeping form. "We'll look after you Danny, please don't worry. We're your family now. Lion and I won't let anymore bad things happen to you. We'll protect you, we'll wrap you in our love and keep you safe." Scott ran his hand over Danny's cheek; he bent down and kissed the lightly snoring Danny on his forehead. Chris had witnessed this touching scene, and it warmed his heart to see his brother say such kind and tender things to someone whom Chris too had pretty strong feelings for. Chris gave a slight cough. "Do you want to use the bathroom now Cub?" "Oh sorry, yeah thanks." Scott was brought out of his musings by Chris's words. "He's sleeping peacefully now, but if he needs it there's a bucket down here at my side of the bed, if he wakes, try and encourage him to drink some water." "Don't worry Cub, I'll look after him." Scott got up and gave his big brother a kiss on the lips as he passed. "Lion, we've made the right decision to bring him here. He really will need an awful lot of looking after." "I know sweet one. We'll do it together." Scott went into the bathroom and took his own shower. * * * * * * "Jesus, where am I? God my head hurts!" Danny croaked when he awoke the next morning. "Chris? What are you doing here?" "Good morning Danny, have you got a hang over?" "Bloody have. Oh shit I want to be sick!" Chris quickly reached over and put the bucket under Danny's chin. "Thanks, I feel a bit better now." Danny said once he'd offloaded some of his stomach contents. "But why are you here?" "Take a look around Danny." Chris said softly, not wanting to add to Danny's headache. "You're not in you're own bed, you're in mine." He didn't add that the bed housed Scott too. "Erm how, why?" Then memories of the previous evenings events began to slowly filter back to him. He remembered embracing Chris; he also recalled his declaration of love to him as well. "Oh shit, I think I made a bit of a fool of myself last night didn't I?" Danny then retched into the bucket once more. "It's alright Danny. Trust me my friend it's alright." "But skip I, I, oh hell, did I really tell you that I loved you?" Chris's face broke out into a wide grin. "Yeah and how." "Oh I want to die." "Well Danny, if Scott and I hadn't found you last night you just might have gotten your wish, but truly Danny, it's okay I'm so glad we found you in time. Please you must believe me." "But skip I made a total fool of myself." "Danny, it doesn't matter, honestly it doesn't." "Thank you, you're very kind. What time is it?" "A little after ten o-clock in the morning." "Shit I should be at work!" Then reality struck and Danny began to cry at the memory of being made redundant. Chris knew what had brought on Danny's tears. He took the bucket from Danny's grasp and placed it on the floor. He then wrapped his arms around the sobbing teenager. Danny rested his head on Chris's broad shoulder. Chris stroked the distressed man's hair. "Danny it's alright. Just let it all go. You're among friends now, Scott and I love you very much, just let all the bad things out." Danny did precisely that. He cried his heart out to the slightly older man. He cried for all the nights he'd gone to bed alone, he cried for the lost dreams of finding someone to love him. He cried for all the pain both emotional and physical that he'd suffered in the children's homes. Danny also cried because this was the first time that someone truly kind and strong had offered him a shoulder to cry on. Danny must have poured out his long pent up pain for a full ten minutes. Eventually the tears subsided. "Okay, now give your nose a good blow." Chris said handing him a couple of Kleenex. "Thanks skip." "Listen, Scott said there was some Alka-Seltzer in the bathroom cabinet. I'll make you up a glass of it, okay?" "Thanks Chris." Chris then got out of bed and padded to the bathroom taking Danny's sick bucket with him. He was still totally naked. It startled Danny that he'd been held in Chris's loving embrace, and he'd not even noticed that Chris had been naked. Of course Danny had seen his skipper without his clothes on many times before. Chris soon came back with a glass full of frothing liquid. "Try and drink it all down." Danny consumed the mixture, and promptly burped. "Sorry." "That's quite alright. That stuff should help your upset tummy as well." Chris got back into the bed and pulled an unresisting Danny back onto his chest. Danny tried to position himself so his erection wasn't pressing on Chris, but Chris felt it nonetheless. Chris resumed stroking Danny's hair. Neither of them said anything for the next ten minutes or so. Danny, despite his pounding head had never felt such an overwhelming sense of peace and security before. He snuggled into Chris's broad chest; he even felt brave enough to put an arm around him. "Comfy?" Chris asked breaking the silence. "Yeah very." Danny thrilled at the vibrations in Chris's chest as the larger man spoke. Chris bent his head forward and kissed the top of Danny's head. Danny thought he'd died and gone to heaven. The feelings of safety and security just kept building and building. However, so did the pressure on Danny's bladder. Danny had resisted his urge to pee for as long as he could, but the pressure became too painful. "Sorry got to go and pee." Danny got up and ran to the bathroom. He hoped Chris hadn't seen his pee-woody. Alone in the bed, Chris began to review the events of the previous night. He and Scott had taken it in turns to sit up and watch over the unconscious seventeen-year-old. Chris had agreed to take the morning off work, Scott had a couple of classes that he had to attend at the sixth-form college, but he said he could miss his final lecture of the day as they were only due to review some previously covered material. So Chris had rung up the Benefits Agency to arrange the morning off work, 'to deal with a family emergency'. Just before Scott left that morning, he asked Chris to go onto the landing so they could have a talk. Penny was on the early shift that week, so she'd already left the house. "Lion, I want Danny to stay with us." "Well I'm sure he will for a day or two, but then he'll need to get back to his own place I guess." "No Lion, I want him to come and live here. I'm sure once mum knows where he's living, she'll agree with me. In fact she said he could stay for as long as he wanted to" "That's quite a big step Cub. Danny might not want to come live here." "Surely he can't want to stay in that hell hole?" "No, it may not be much, but it's his." "He could make this place his too surely?" "Cub think for a minute. Would Danny feel comfortable living here? You heard what he thinks about me. If you loved someone totally, but saw them being intimate with someone else, wouldn't that make life rather unpleasant for you?" "Yeah I guess so. Lion, I think I could grow to love him too. Maybe not quite as much as I love you, but pretty damn close, and I think he feels something for me." "All this is very complicated Cub. You can't just decide on something like this overnight." "Yeah I know, but..." "Look, we'll talk about it more tonight. I'll see if Eric and Larry are free, we can go and discuss it with them." "Yeah, I guess your right. I just can't stand the idea of him going back to that place alone. I don't think I could sleep at night knowing he was there." "Well he's lived there for a few months." "Yeah, look I'll have to go now. Give Eric and Larry a ring then." "Okay, see you at lunchtime." Scott gave Chris a brief kiss on the lips, and then he went downstairs grabbing a banana before he left the house. Chris went back into the bedroom and laid himself down next to a still sleeping Danny. "Oh God, life is just so complicated." He said to himself. * * * * * "You want to do what?" Larry asked once Chris and Scott had gotten themselves sat down in Larry and Eric's flat. Chris had just asked Larry's opinion on how to go about forming a three-way relationship. "Bloody hell Chris, first you fall in love with your brother, and now you want to add a third person to the mix. Are you trying to send your fathers into an early grave?" "Sorry dad Larry, but it's very important to Scott and me." "Yes Chris we can see it is." Eric said. "You know such arrangements are fraught with pitfalls at every stage." "Yeah that's why we came to see you two. We thought you might help guide us round some of them." Scott put in. "Well neither of us has ever been involved in such a thing. We used to have a third person share our bed occasionally, but when the whole AIDS thing blew up, we decided it was safer to stay monogamous. But we weren't in love with anyone who shared our bed. It was made clear from the start that it was just sex." "Yeah sorry to land this on you. I seem to make a habit of dropping bombshells don't I?" "Too right. I don't think Dr Spock's book 'On Parenting' can help us here Eric." Larry said shaking his head. "We don't have a copy anyway." Eric pointed out. "I'm glad we saved our money then." "He's from Yorkshire originally, their all 'careful with their brass' over there." Eric said. This caused the group to laugh. "Look seriously. Are you sure you want to do this?" Larry asked. "Yes very." Chris said. He told them all about Danny, and how they felt about him. "Please make sure you are doing this for the right reasons." Eric said. "Chris I know you always think things out before you act, that's one of your major strengths. Please don't do this because you feel sad for Danny, because if you are, in the long run you'll end up hurting him very badly, and you would probably lose him as a friend too." "I know dad Eric. I couldn't hurt Danny, he's too precious to me, and to Scott too." The four of them spent a couple of hours going through many of the possible problems that could arise if they embarked on such an unusual relationship. It seemed that jealousy and a sense of being left out of the loop were the main things to watch out for. "Now this is critical. Danny must love, or be prepared to work at being in love with you too Scott. From what you've said, he's already in love with you Chris, it's vital he doesn't enter the relationship thinking he can just have you Chris, he has to share you with Scott, Oh bloody hell I'm not cut out for this." Larry said throwing his hands up in the air. "It's alright dear," Eric said coming over to his frustrated partner. "It's almost time for your medication." The two burst out laughing, Chris and Scott soon joining them. "Okay dads, we better get back home. We left mum looking after Danny. She's probably feeding him up as we speak. We better rescue him before he explodes from eating all her cooking." "Okay boys. Listen you can bring Danny round here anytime you want for a chat." "Thanks dads." Scott said. Even he had got into the habit of calling Larry and Eric dad. This pleased the older couple no end. "Oh we might have a third son soon." Eric said once 'their' boys had left. "Yeah, but I can't help worrying that it'll all end in tears." "Our Chris has his head screwed on pretty well. He'll deal with it." "I guess you're right." * * * * * To be continued.