RotW&AotS Issue #2

The following is a work of fiction. All names, characters and incident's herein are fictional, resemblances to actual persons alive or dead are purely coincidental.

All characters are the creation of the author.

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The Shadows Over Hammer Head Cove

Four

For the first time since summer break began it was Hinata who had woken up first. His grunting and groaning followed by complaints and the occasional swear word tossed out like a child with tourettes forced Takeru to turn his face from the wall. Through bleary squinting eyes Takeru lifted his head from his pillow and watched as his brother stuffed items of clothing into his black Hurley backpack. He reached across to his bedside table and grabbed the glass of water - taking a sip before speaking to his brother.

“What are you doing?”

“Have you forgotten?” Hinata threw an unwashed t-shirt at Takeru’s head. “Ma and me are off to see Gramma for the weekend. You could’ve come too if you weren’t pretending to have a job.”

Takeru threw off his covers and hauled his legs over the side of the bed - wiping the sleep from his eyes and yawning wide: “Bring back cake.” His grandmother made the best sponge - sweet and light with just a hint of vanilla - frosted with buttercream and sprinkled with coconut. “Bring back lots of cake.”

He padded down the stairs wearing only a pair of black Calvin Klein boxer briefs, and sat at the kitchen table where his mother gave him his favourite Legend of Zelda mug, half filled with filter coffee, two slices of toast and a pot raspberry jam. He spooned in the honey into the coffee himself and added a little milk from the small blue and white jug on the table before taking his first bite of the tart fruity toast.

“You’re up late. Aren’t you working today?” she asked while spooning porridge from a pot on the stove into a bowl and placing it on the table for him. The woman was a whirr of activity - busy preparing the the house in readiness for her departure and putting little yellow sticky notes on practically everything in the kitchen.

“Not today. I’ll be there all weekend so I have today and Monday off.” Lying came easy when it meant that he could be pester free for the summer.

“You’re going to be on your own this weekend.”

“Huh?”

“I said, you’re going to be on your own this weekend. Hinata and I will be at your Gramma’s and your father is taking the opportunity to stay and work at the Observatory. Something about a new star or comet or galaxy… I don’t know he was very excited when he was talking about it and you know what it’s like trying to keep up with him when gets like that.”

“That’s very cool. If he’s discovered something new do you think he’ll name it after me?”

“I’m not sure that’s quite how it works honey.” she said ruffling his short black hair before scurrying into the hallway and shouting up the stairs. “Hinata! Hurry it up. The ferry leaves in an hour and you’ve still to have breakfast!”

Some indecipherable grumble came from the boys bedroom as Takeru bit into his toast.

Once the family had departed, Takeru walked the house in his underwear - enjoying the rare peace and quiet it afforded him. His mother had left a note of all the contact numbers he would need - his father would call the house every morning and return if the need arose. He had a list of the dinners that were prepared for him and waiting in the fridge. Old Mrs Mako would be looking after the noodle stand for a couple of days and if she required help - Takeru was to jump at her beck and call. He slumped into the sofa and switched on the television - the remote in his left hand - the right springing down and into his boxer shorts - the comfort that came with holding his soft cock and balls in hand was akin to a child with its blankee - he had no intention of doing anything with them - he just liked to hold them and know that they were there. He flipped stations from Soap Opera’s to magazine programs, a religious show seemingly broadcast from the deep south spread doom and gloom and the end of all times but could promise you salvation and your very own plot of cloud in heaven for a monthly donation of fifty dollars. Eventually he settled on an anime that he occasionally dipped in and out of - reluctant Magical Boys and a green wombat from outer space - Takeru’s left hand joined his right inside his black Calvin’s. He sat there giggling at the meta narrative of the spoof anime - while fiddling with his smooth balls and wondering if he could have been a Magical Boy charged with saving the earth.

Takeru arrived at the meadow a little after noon. He jumped from his skateboard and flipped it up into his waiting hand – carrying it under his arm as he walked toward Toby who sat leaning on the painted railing at the meadows edge.

“You came!” said Toby with a warm wide smile etched across his face.

“Of course I came.” Takeru sat next to the boy on the rail and flipped the peak of his Halpin Hope Surf Camp cap to the back of his head. “You thought maybe I wouldn't?”

Toby blushed a little – his pale cheeks flushing a hot pink. “I would not have blamed you if you chosche not to. Conschidering…”

In the full light of day Toby looked even whiter than he had the last time Takeru had seen him - his skin clear but pale like powdered sugar. Toby was still the odd looking and oddly attractive boy Takeru clearly remembered fighting with two nights ago but there was nothing of the menace he had felt when the boy was an unknown force in the long grass. There was also nothing of the anger and hatred in Takeru that had led to the violent outburst when he had laid into the boy with his fists.

“I'm sorry again... about the er...” Takeru pointed to Toby's lip.

Toby waved his hand: “Do not apologische. I was in the wrong.”

“Maybe but that's not an excuse for losing it like I did.” Takeru looked down at his knuckles. “Anyway... I said we'd hang out and we will.”

Toby smiled: “Yesch.” He kicked his large bare feet on the ground. “I have looked forward to it very much.”

“And you're wearing clothes today too,” Takeru motioned to the too small creased green t-shirt that exposed a sliver Toby’s taut hairless stomach and the khaki shorts that cut off above his knees. “You don't own sneakers though I guess?”

Toby looked at his feet embarrassed. “Not that fit. No.”

“That's OK man. Must be hard to find fashionable footwear for boats that size huh?”

“Boatsch?” Toby looked confused. “I do not have a boat?”

Takeru laughed: “Sorry. Your feet I mean. It’s another way of saying feet.”

“Boatsch?” Toby let the word dangle from his lips he as looked at his feet and wriggled his toes. “I like that. It isch… funny.”

With raised eyebrow and curled lip Takeru was genuinely intrigued by his new friend. “Do you wanna go for a milkshake?”

“Yesch. A milkschake schounds nische.”

“Got quite the thing with your S’s there huh? Makesh you shound like Jamesh Bond.” said Takeru doing his best Sean Connery impression.

Toby blushed again. He’s never been particularly aware that his voice was different to those of the people that he had seen on TV shows or in films. To him, his voice was the same as everybody else’s. The others in Hammerhead Cove all sounded similar - the ones who looked like he did anyway…

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. It’s cool. You know who James Bond is right? The spy?”

“Schpy?”

“From the films? The first guy that played him did the same to his S’s that you do. It was kinda sexy.” Takeru stood from the railing and motioned for Toby to follow him as they descended the slight hill and walked into Halpin Hope.

“So about my T-shirt?”

“Yesch… again. I’m sch…”

“Dude!” said Takeru as he stopped walking and interrupted. “You’ve gotta stop apologising. You did what you did and I did what I did so we’re square.”

“Schquare?” asked Toby with a tilted head.

“Even. We’re all balanced out. No one owes anyone anything.”

“OK.”

“But the shirt man?” Takeru started walking towards the town again with Toby by his side: “Why did you take it?”

“It isch like I schaid. I liked the schmell.”

Takeru slipped into a surreptitious grin: “You know what that smell is though right?” He told Hinata that there would be someone out there who appreciated his odour.

“Yesch.” answered Toby blushing for the third time that afternoon.

“Is that why you were jerking it in the field with my shirt on your face? You like the smell cos it makes you horny. No judgements man! Sincerely! I’ve square danced with the devil to less than the smell of someone else’s jizz.”

“Dasnched with the Devil? Jizz?”

“Yeah man! Danced with the Devil… Flogged the dolphin, Whakin’ the Kraken!” Takeru put his hand in front of his crotch and shook his fist acting out the motion. “Jerking it! Man! First Doyler and now you! Does no one appreciate poetry any more?”

“You mean maschturbating.”

“Yeah man! Making the bald man cry! My current favourite is accepting the taco handshake but if I’m honest it changes daily. And Jizz is just splooge… you know cum.”

“I know cum!” said an emphatic Toby a little too loudly.

Takeru laughed loudly: “You’re a queer biscuit buddy.”

“Queer… biscuit?”

“Odd.”

“Oh…” Toby’s face fell and he looked ashamed with eyes cast down.

“Oh no not like that!” Takeru blurted out quickly and stopping again - his hands reaching out and up to his eye level - grabbing Toby’s shoulders. “In the way that you don’t seem to know much about stuff like that. I’m sorry man. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“It isch OK.” Toby looked in to Takeru’s eyes and forced a smile. “We are pretty scheltered in Hammerhead. Espechially in the home I am from.”

“Yeah.” Takeru’s arms dropped to his side and he continued walking with Toby. “You said you’re in a Boy’s Home?”

“It isch more like a schcool really. Boysch without fathersch go there.”

“Just boys? No girls?”

“No. Juscht boysch.”

“Dude! Sounds like paradise to me.” said Takeru with a smile.

As the two boys entered the town they drew the furtive glances of the town’s residents who passed them. Takeru was almost oblivious to the looks and the stares - Toby however was acutely aware that he was drawing the attention of the people that they passed. It was mostly the older folks - those who had lived in Halpin Hope since the town's inception in the mid sixties - the people who, despite the growing size of the township, could put a name to the majority of residents that they would run into on a day to day basis. The looks weren’t unfriendly or intended to intimidate but they did leave Toby with a sense of exposure - as if he were the last boy alive and everyone was looking at him with a sense of curiosity.

When they had reached the town square Toby was near overwhelmed by the amount of people who were going about their daily lives. The dog walkers and post lunch sightseers, the tourists taking photos and the families struggling to keep everyone moving at the same pace. This was as many people as Toby had ever seen gathered in any one place at any one time - except in the films that he would watch alone on the old television set in the common room at the school. The palpable throng of life that he could feel made him a little dizzy - his long limbs tensed up as he walked and he felt himself straighten his back involuntarily. He pulled at his too short t-shirt - straightening the creased gray cotton and trying to cover the two or three inches of exposed stomach it showed.

“Come on.” said Takeru with a hint of comfort in his voice as if picking up on the boys anxiety.

Takeru led Toby through the door of Pappa John’s Groceries and Shake Shack to the ringing of the brass bell as they entered. The old man at the counter - dressed in yet another tie-dyed t-shirt with his long gray hair tied back was counting out the change from his till for an elderly woman carrying a brown paper bag in one arm. He waved her off with a trademark smile, that could be mistaken for goofy when the intention was warm, as the two boys sat on the stools at the wooden counter.

“Pappa John I’d like you to meet my new friend Tobias. Though he prefers Toby.” said Takeru introducing the boy to the old man while helping himself to a red liquorice straw from the jar marked ‘Free from Friends’ on the counter.

John looked over the boy - almost hesitant at first - then broke into a broad smile and stretched out a meaty hand across the counter: “Nice to meet you young Toby.”

Toby took the old man’s hand in his and shook it firmly: “You too schir.”

“I think we can drop the formalities. Just John will be fine. You’re not from around here are you Toby.” It wasn’t a question. It was statement of fact - and Toby picked up a hint of recognition in the old man’s brown eyes as they looked into his.

“He’s from Hammerhead. I met him walking just outside of town the other day.” Takeru spared John the details of how they had met - of stumbling upon the masturbating boy in the long grass at the meadows - of punching him - of his stolen t-shirt or that Toby had been watching him. “Brought him in for one of your famous milkshakes. What do you fancy?”

Toby looked at the chalkboard on the wall behind the counter - the list seemingly endless and filled with flavours that he’d never heard off. Rather than embarrass himself with something that he might mispronounce or dislike he opted for plain milk chocolate.

“And can I please have a Mutiny?” He turned to Toby and whispered conspiratorially: “You have to try some of mine - It’s vanilla, cherry and coconut with just a little bit of dark chocolate and black treacle. One of the best ones on the menu.”

“Say Taki.” John said already filling two stainless steel jugs with ice cream and milk. “I took in a delivery just there but my old back here gave out a little with the weight of the boxes. Don’t suppose you’d be a hero and unpack them into the fridges in the cellar for me?”

“Sure. You wanna help?” Takeru asked Toby.

“Might not be enough room down there for the two of you.” John interrupted. “You do that while I make your shakes. It’ll give me a moment or two to get to know your new friend here. By the time you’re done your shakes’ll be ready.”

Takeru jumped from the stool and dived behind the counter - disappearing behind the bamboo curtain while Pappa John poured the syrups into the stainless steel jugs. He threw in crushed cherries and vanilla pods with coconut shavings into one and thick brown chocolate sauce into the other.

“So you’re from Hammerhead Cove?” The jugs went under two separate whisks and whirred as loud as passing freight trains as John hit the switches.

“Yesch. I’ve never been to this schide of the island before.”

John switched off the blenders - detached the whisks and threw them into the sink. He lifted both jugs and placed them on the counter next to a couple of fresh clean stemmed pint glasses and with a hard edged stare looked directly into Toby’s wide watery eyes. “I know what you are.”

Toby’s heart beat hard in his chest.

Pappa John let the pregnant pause sit as he had held Toby’s gaze. He then nodded toward the beaded curtain: “That boy down there putting my stock away… he might not. He might not think that you’re any different to any other kid. But I know.” John broke his contact with the boys eyes and went back to the milkshakes - he emptied half of the chocolate shake into the glass before adding more sauce. He didn’t look at the boy sitting on the stool across from him - his eyes were focused on the task of pouring the perfect shake. “You know what that is? Up on the wall behind my head?” he asked as he added the rest of the mixture from the stainless steel jug.

The boy’s eyes looked up at the small fibreglass fishboard hanging from the wall - the image of a lion-headed-turtle painted in black on the boards surface. Toby gulped audibly and nodded - his fingers turned to ice. He couldn’t believe he didn’t notice it when he sat down - when he looked at the menu board on that same wall. If he’d have had hairs on his body, other than the ones on his head, they would have stood on end at the sight of it. “Yesch sir. I’ve er… I’ve scheen it before.”

John finished pouring the chocolate milkshake - added some chocolate powder to the top of the glass and popped in a clear dark tinted straw. He pushed it across the counter towards the boy: “Good. Then you know what it means.” He held the boy’s gaze for a few frozen seconds - allowing the cold weight that hung in the air to send a shiver through Toby’s body that did not go unnoticed: “You know what I am?”

Toby nodded - his eyes turned back on the image painted on the surfboard behind the counter - his heart beating fast and hard in his chest - desperately fighting the urge to run from the store and from Halpin Hope and to not stop running until he was under the covers of his bed in Hammerhead Cove. “Yesch schir.”

“The thing is young Toby... I’m a live and let live kinda guy... You’ll find no quarrel from me if you keep to yourself.” He poured some cherry syrup into the bottom of Takeru’s glass followed by a small squeeze of dark chocolate sauce and then added the thick pink mixture from the jug. “That boy down there you’ve got those big eyes of yours on… This town… All the folks in it...” He poured in some more syrup - stirred the contents with a long metal spoon and then topped it off with the rest of the mixture. “They’re mine.”

Toby nodded as the old man layered on some crushed cherries and a light sprinkle of shredded coconut to the top of the glass before throwing in a pink straw. “One or two of wanna come across and do a little sightseeing… maybe make a friend… fine. I start seeing more than that and we have a problem. Do you understand?”

The boy nodded again - his eyes still fixed on the surfboard behind the bar. He knew it couldn’t be true - that it was only a painted image - a stencil in black - but he could swear that the lion-headed turtle had turned its face toward him.

“You have anything to do with last Summer? At Pāpa'i Beach?”

Toby immediately knew what the old man was talking about. He remembered that night so vividly. Dreamed about it - had nightmares, sleeping and waking, about it - the ethereal wailing sounds that had filled his ears: like nothing he had heard before or since - the colours that streaked the sky as if the heavens themselves had ripped open and were bleeding onto the world: colours previously unknown to any who had seen them - that formless shape that rose from the bay: towering above all else as it writhed in desperate divine almost sexual agony… the death that followed it… that poor boy on the beach… the one from Halpin Hope that Toby’s people had chosen… he had seen it all.

“I wasch there. But I schwear I had nothing to do with it.” Toby’s wet eyes were somehow larger and pleading - on the verge of spilling tears down his cheeks and across the counter...

“It’s OK. You’re a youngin’... I believe you.” Pappa John’s face softened and he smiled at the boy before motioning to the chocolate milkshake in front of him. “Have a drink. It’s damn fine even ifI do say so myself.”

Toby lowered his wide lips to the straw and hesitantly drew in the cold drink. It was good. He’d never tasted milk before. Or ice cream. Or chocolate quite so sweet. He looked up at Pappa John surprised.

“It’s good right?”

The boy nodded as he continued to hesitantly slurp up the contents of the glass.

“You keep an eye on your behaviour here. You treat Taki like he treats you… and you and me… we ain’t got a problem. Hell… I’ll even comp you the occasional shake. You make a step in the wrong direction however… even the smallest steps out of line… and you’ll be spinning like they were in Ya’ Dich-Gho. You understand?”

Toby had heard the stories - Ya’ Dich-Gho, Pa’q Bahla, Y'ha-nthlei… countless others over the years laid to waste by Pappa John’s kind. He nodded solemnly.

As if on cue Takeru stepped through the curtain with a rustling of the bamboo: “Do you want me to do anything with the boxes? I’ve broken them down and stacked them against the wall in the cellar but I can put them out if you want.”

“That’s OK little brother, you’ve done more than enough. My old lady uses them for storing all her home-made cola’s in so they’re fine where they are.” said John as Takeru took a seat on the stool next to Toby and wrapped his lips around the pink straw. “You’ve earned yourself a free shake for the two of you today.”

“Thanks man!” Takeru dove into the shake a took a long deep suck from the straw. “So what were you two talking about while I was doing all your grunt work?”

Pappa John laughed deep and hard: “Just two men shootin’ the shit over a shake. Weren’t we Toby?.”

The boy from Hammerhead Cove nodded.

After leaving Pappa John’s the boy’s walked along the esplanade - passing the arcade with it’s tinny music and flashing lights - passing the skate park that was empty except for two kids each sitting on their boards and sharing a joint - a handful of boys were playing a pickup game in the fenced off basketball court across from Tam O’ Shanter’s pub and they stopped to watch for a few minutes. Toby felt odd in the size 14 flip-flops that Pappa John had given him - he was very aware of the slapping sound as the foam soles snapped from his big bare feet to the side walk - the old man had reasoned that there wasn’t much call for them and they just took up room. Takeru wondered how the old man ever made any money if he kept giving away his stock. On walking past the Cool Vibes Cafe and the Ship to Shore Diner on the beach front Takeru felt his stomach grumble as the smell of freshly fried doughnuts wafted by.

“So how come you guys from Hammerhead don’t come to this side of the Island so often?” asked Takeru.

“We have been aschked to keep to Hammerhead Cove by the elders?”

“Elders?” Takeru laughed. “That’s a bit Lord of the Rings isn’t it?”

Toby smiled - finally a reference that he understood. “It isch not quite Rivendell but it isch old and set in itsch waysch. The Order makesch moscht of the rulesch and we follow them.”

“The Order? Way to sound ominous there Toby.”

“It isch just the name for our church leadersch.”

As the afternoon wore on into early evening the two boys walked along the beach passing the row of five recently built Hampton's style houses that the Island’s richer and more regular tourists had built for themselves. Takeru’s mother had welcomed the beach houses as gentrification while his father argued that they were at odds with the more rustic feel of the rest of the town. Every two or three hundred metres they reached a new one - all with decking - all with mock beach front charm. The owners parked their BMW’s and their Lamborghini's alongside their houses - risking the cars paint jobs in the sea air. As the island’s roads were too narrow - and there had been too many accidents in the past - few of the owners used their vehicles beyond driving from the ferry at the harbour to their houses. Like those houses - they were just for show.

“What time do you need to be back tonight?” asked Takeru as they reached the last house on the beach and climbed the grassy bank towards the road.

“I schould be back for bed check in the morning. But I have not been there scho regularly. I do not think it will matter too much if I schtay a little longer.” answered Toby - still half thinking about Pappa John and the conversation that they had in his shop. “Thisch time of year we are almoscht free to do pretty much asch we pleasche.”

“I said it before and I’ll say it again. Your school sounds like Dude’s Paradise.”

Toby wasn’t so sure. He wouldn’t admit it out loud - not even to Takeru who knew no one at the school or in Hammerhead Cove - but he hated it there. He hated it in that school and he hated it in that dying town.

“You should come to mine for dinner. Ma always makes enough to feed the five thousand anyway. It’s wafuu tonight! Do you like curry?”

“I have never had curry.”

“OK then you’re definitely coming. Man, my ma’s curries are the best you’ll ever have. Sincerely.”

***

Walking through the house from room to room while Takeru reheated the curry and boiled the rice in the kitchen, Toby was amazed by the level of comfort that was provided. Not that his shared room at his school was straw beds and paint peeling walls. There was pride in their homes in Hammerhead Cove, pride in cleanliness and order - but it was the sparseness that made the difference - the lack of things beyond that which was needed. He liked the warm ochre paint on the walls and the prints of Japanese wood carvings that Takeru’s mother had loved - the lush leafy green plants that were seemingly strategically placed around the house and the rows upon rows of books that lined the walls of almost every room.

Takeru dished out the curry as Toby took a seat at the dining room table - the smell; so alien - filling his nostrils and exciting his senses.

“I hope you like chicken.” said Takeru sitting at the table.

“We mostly eat fisch.” came the reply as Toby looked down at the steaming hot plate. The thick brown curry sauce glistening next to mound of puffy white rice. “This looksch amazsching though.”

The boys ate with Toby delighting at the flavours - although he would admit that it was perhaps a little too hot for his taste he cleaned his plate and would have gladly eaten more. They talked through the meal about Takeru’s school and his friends - his complete lack of desire to do anything once school had finished and how well he got on with his brother.

With the plates sitting soaking in the sink Takeru went upstairs for a shower - leaving Toby in front of the television in the living room. He flicked channels from cartoons to nature documentaries and quiz shows to news programs. He left it sitting on an old black and white film when he put the remote down on the coffee table and got up to look through the book cases. Toby - with tilted head - looked at the spines along the rows and rows of books. Books on Astrophysics and Cosmology - biographies of scientists and philosophers - histories of countries Toby had never heard of. His head was spinning with the thought of all the knowledge contained in this room alone. He had read books - but they seemed far different than the ones sitting in front of him now. He turned when he heard Takeru's footsteps coming down the stairs - the soft pad of the boys bare feet on the carpet.

Takeru was only wearing a pair of blue basketball shorts that left Toby with a nervous tremble in his stomach. He liked looking at the boy - had done since he’d first seen him in that meadow on the first week of the summer holidays. His deep tanned skin - strong lean torso with emergent pecs and hard flat stomach. He liked looking at Takeru’s biceps - at the muscles that were visible even when the boy wasn’t tensed. He liked looking at his smooth legs and perfectly proportioned feet. To Toby - Takeru represented a version of the male form that he had only ever seen from the television.

Takeru took a seat on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table - wriggling his toes as he crossed his legs.

“You wanna play some Lurking Terror?”

“Lurking Terror?” asked Toby taking a seat next to the shirtless boy.

“Yeah.” Takeru reached over the side of the couch and picked up the controller for his PlayStation. He hit start and flipped the television over to the the HDMI reception. “It’s a horror shooter that you can play online. You can play it yourself through the story mode or you can play with a bunch of people from all over the world. If you play the online game you get set up against other people and you need to go through a different area of the map killing them and avoiding the monsters that some others play as. You can’t kill the monsters. Nothing can kill the monsters.”

“Schounds complicated.”

Takeru showed the boy the fundamentals and created a character for him to play that Toby designed: A Private Investigator class character with black hair who was made to look like Takeru. The resemblance made him smile and only confirmed something that the younger boy had already known: that Toby liked him.

The game loaded and set them up in the portion of the map set in a creepy old mansion. The first try - Toby lasted a full sixty six seconds before he was blasted in the gut with a shotgun by a Paladin class female character. The camera tilted and pulled away - leaving his avatar to slowly bleed out on the mansions wooden floorboards - while others ran over his pale bloody corpse. Toby curled his lip and sneered at the sight. The second time he lasted a little longer - wounding another Private Investigator but getting pulled into a room by several hands made of shadow in the process. His character was flung against a white padded wall - and screaming, proceeded to tear his eyes from their sockets as the monster approached from off screen. Despite himself Toby found that he enjoyed the game - that he had quickly gotten to grips with the mechanics and scored a few kills in the process helped immeasurably. By the game’s end he had placed fourteenth out of the eighteen players online and was visibly pleased with the result - that big broad grin stretched wide across his face.

“You see. You can do this.” said Takeru lightly punching Toby on the shoulder.

They played a few more rounds each, taking turns for each fifteen minute game - Takeru routinely placing second or third and winning one outright - while Toby climbed the leader board with each session. After two hours Toby was a top five player and very happy with the progress he’d made.

When Toby suggested that he should leave, Takeru asked him to stay. He told the boy that he didn’t want to spend the night alone in the house and that he was welcome to sleep in his brother’s bed - providing that he shower before and after use. It didn’t take Toby long to decide that more than anything in that moment staying with Takeru was what he wanted too.

Being more used to the cold showers at his school - it took him a little while to adjust the temperature to one that he was more comfortable with. The warm water running over his wiry naked body soothed any concerns he may have had but didn’t voice about spending the night at Takeru’s. The ginger fragrance of the body wash and the subtle pine of the shampoo seemed like a luxury compared to the withered unscented white bar of soap that did both body and hair in his wash room at the school. The privacy was also a stark contrast - Toby couldn’t remember the last time he showered without there being three or four other boys with him. Not that he minded that so much - he’d take a secret pleasure in casting furtive glances at their pale wet bodies - watching, from the corners of his eyes, as rivulets of water ran down the hard lines of their lean young frames. It would always leave him aroused him in a way that he would have to hide until he could steal a moment alone.

It was while trying to snatch one of those moments that he first saw Takeru in the meadow just outside of Halpin Hope. Watching him walk shirtless through the thigh high golden tipped grass, Toby was struck by the boy’s beauty. How short he was compared to himself - the deep tan that covered his muscular young torso - his almond shaped eyes and button nose. Toby watched the boy and then looked around as if to make sure that he was alone before diving into the grass. Moving quietly was second nature to him - since he had learned to walk - he had learned to walk silently. Walking through the school while his fellow pupils slept - sneaking through corridors until he would reach the shared common room and sitting inches from the television with the volume down low he would watch the shows that were forbidden to them; reruns of sitcoms, talk-shows, game shows and movies. By the time he had turned thirteen Toby knew more about the world, from the things he had learned from late night television, than anyone else in Hammerhead Cove.

As he rinsed his body under the shower Toby thought about the first time he had seen Takeru - how, hidden among the blades of grass, he had watched the boy masturbate and with something akin to awe he had quietly become besotted by the boy. Toby looked down to his now swollen nine inch member and screwed his eyes tight - willing it to disappear. When it didn’t shrivel on command he gave it a gentle tug - running his fingers along the rigid length. He turned and let the warm water wash against his back - releasing his boy hood from his grip and instead running his fingers through his short dark hair. Propriety would demand that he not do that which came natural to all boys of seventeen - not in someone else’s bathroom anyway.

Walking into Takeru’s bedroom wearing a pair of Takeru’s black cotton shorts - Toby smiled as his friend played around on his laptop.

“I thought we could watch a film on Netflix before going to sleep.” said Takeru as he scrolled through the options. “Do you want to see anything in particular?”

“I do not mind.” said Toby as he sat on the edge of Hinata’s bed watching Takeru.

“What kind of films do you like?”

Toby thought seriously for a moment - his eyes looking up towards the ceiling: “I like filmsch where the good guysch win in the end.”

Takeru smiled at that while looking at the long limbed lean teenager as he lay back on the bed. He turned back to the screen and scrolled through his options some more before finding something that he knew would be a sure fire winner: “Have you ever seen E.T?”

“No.” Toby looked at the images flickering across the screen.

“Then it’s winner winner chicken dinner!” He flipped the laptop to full screen, hit play and got into his own bed.

Transfixed by the story that unfolded on the screen Toby remained silent throughout the whole movie - excepting the occasional laugh or sharp intake of breath. He looked across to Takeru and smiled with quiet wonder as the alien’s powers became known and the repercussions for Elliot. As E.T. lay in the hospital bed pale and dying Toby began to cry - his heart hurt and his cheeks were strewn with tears. Drawn by the soft sound of sobbing Takeru looked over the room to his friend who had then sat up on the bed - cross legged and leaning towards the screen. Feeling the need to reassure the weeping boy he leant over the side of his bed and whispered: “It’s alright Toby. It’ll be alright. Keep watching.”

By the end of the film - the bittersweet finale had worked it’s magic and Toby’s face had relaxed into a smile. “That wasch brilliant!” he beamed looking across to Takeru who lay back in his bed smiling.

“You liked that then?” asked Takeru yawning and turning on his side to face the boy across from him.

“I loved it. But what happened next?” Toby thought for a second. “If E.T. isch alwaysch in Elliot’sch heart doesch that mean that he’ll never see him again for real? I do not undeschtand why he did not schtay ”

“It’s just a movie. A good movie but still a movie.” Takeru yawned again and closed his eyes.

“Yesch but even if E.T. hasch gone home schurely he would want to come back and schee his friend at schome point.” Toby paused for a moment in contemplation before looking towards Takeru: “I would want to schtay with my friend.” But Takeru had fallen asleep - softly breathing through his slightly parted lips. “Takeru?”

Toby lay on his side and looked at the boy sleeping across the room and in hushed tones whispered: “I would want to schtay with you.”

To be continued