A month earlier, before buying the house, Rose waited impatiently in the woods. It was another cold morning yet, this day was different. Today, his fifteen year old boyfriend was turning sixteen. Pine's goin' to love it, Rose tightened his grip around the wrapped gift in his hands. Then, he finally saw the young lad arrive, wearing as always that green old cap of his. Pines waved when he saw him. Rose, letting his emotions take over, started running towards the young boy. "Pines! Happy b'day!" Rose leaned for a kiss but the teen's hand stopped him. Rose rolled his eyes. "I know, your rules. Sorry, I got excited." "I am too," Pines gave him a brief smirk. "Come on, l can't wait to kiss you." They walked along the lake's southern shore, half an hour away from Laketown, on the opposite side of the lake, until a cabin appeared in the middle of the woods. It was worn, broken, and with holes on the roof. Ever since that episode with the bartender, the boys had been using it as their hideout, the only place where they could be a couple. "You didn't have to buy a gift," Pines pointed at the wrapping in his boyfriend's hand as they climbed through the window. "Being with you is gift enough." "Don't be cheesy," Rose followed him inside. "It's just a little something for a certain special someone." "And I'm cheesy?" Pines made a silly smile. "Did you just say I'm special?" "Well, your rules won't let me say I love you `cause it's still too soon... so let's settle for special." Pines scoffed at the insinuation, rolling his eyes with a smile as they entered the cabin. Inside, it was clear the cabin had seen better days: dusty floors, broken plates, and torn curtains that made it look abandoned, even haunted. However, they had taken over a small room on the left wing and had covered it entirely with rugs, carpets, and blankets, decorated with several candles and flashlights, and placed an air mattress that gave it an air of comfort, warmth and coziness. A small, broken, happy lil' corner in a haunted world, Rose thought from the first time he saw it. Just like Pines and me. "Ready to open it?" Rose sat down in the middle of their happy corner. "I know, I know, don't look at me like that, but it's your sweet sixteen, this's special. Okay? So stop complainin' and take it." Pines gave up and, sitting next to him, unwrapped the paper, slowly uncovering what was below. "Is this..." In his hands Pines had a silver chain, carefully linked together; hanging from it was a small transparent sphere with grass, wood, and green inside, like a tiny ecosistem. And, in the middle, there were... "Are those... three 25 cent coins?" Pines asked. "Yeah, 75 cents," Rose nodded, proudly. Pines' eyes shined, his heart melted. "Rose, where did you manage to get this?" "Custom," the boy replied. "That's real silver, and the grass and pieces of wood are actually from this forest, I sent `em." "Real silver, Rose! How much did you spend on this?" "No less than ya deserve." "Rose!" Pines almost let his body fall over the hundreds of carpets on the floor. "But the rules I told you about! We said no incredibly expensive gifts!" "I know, sorry! But it's your birthday and I saw the idea online and... I don't know, I ordered it on an impulse. Do ya like it?" "I do," Pines lifted it up, figuring how to put it on. Then, right in the back of the sphere, in the tiniest letter possible, Pines spotted something. "To the best boyfriend in the world," he read out loud, trying in vain to contain a smile. "I really like it but it looks very expensive, what if someone tries to steal it?" "Don't think about that, just let me help you," Rose moved forward, took the necklace and delicately, put it around his boyfriend's neck. "You look amazing." "Really?" Pines looked around but there were no mirrors around. However, his mind went elsewhere when he felt Rose's hand on his chest, pulling on his clothes. "What are you doing?" "Well," Rose didn't stop. "I bought it thinking how ya'd look with it and nothing else on." Pines playfully pushed him away, both of them giggling. "I'm serious! Birthday boy, birthday suit." Pines didn't reply but he laid still as Rose took off his clothes. Piece by piece, each one revealing more skin. The smoothness of the young lad's torso, not a hint of hair anywhere, his soft, pristine skin, begging to be touched. The thin, barely visible set of hair the lad had on his legs, almost invisible. When Rose took Pines' clothes off, he almost couldn't believe his boyfriend had just turned sixteen. Naked, Pines looked like he hadn't even hit puberty. So, of course, he went down on him. Their lips meeting in their cozy corner, a fiery, warm, secret feeling, raging through their bodies. Rose's hand danced through Pines' leg until it reached the lad's middle, his finger teasing the entrance. Suddenly, the light went dark. Both of them looked at the window, where the sun was coming from, but instead found a thick, heavy, dark cloud forming just outside. Fog. It was unusual for it to form that fast but it was still early morning, the air outside was still cold, and they were in the middle of the forest. A smile appeared on Rose's lips. "I have an idea." Without waiting for an answer, he pulled his boyfriend to his feet and started moving through the old cabin. Pine started to panic when he saw they were headed to the door. "What?" He tried to break free. "Rose, what are you doing?" "Stay quiet," he ordered and, with a kick on the cabin's door, stepped outside, pulling the young lad with him. "Rose!" Pines tried to pull himself free but his boyfriend was more than five years his senior. "Rose! Stop! Are you crazy? I'm naked." "You still have your cap. And so am I!" Rose pointed at himself, shirtless. "Well, sort of." "This isn't funny, what are we... Rose!" "Relax for once, Pines!" Rose closed the door of the cabin behind him. "Look at the fog, no one can see us! I can barely see ya. Sorry, Pines, but I'm tired of always hidin' and doin' it hidden away in some random old cabin in the middle of nowhere. Don't ya want to break free?" "But we agreed on rules, Rose, we said no one..." "We ain't breakin' no rules `cause no one will see us," and just like that, Rose leaned and pushed his pants down, boxers too, leaving him as naked as his boyfriend was. "Even if they tried, they can't see us. Were ya always this uptight?" "We ain't breaking them `cause no one will see us," he opened his arms, the dense clouds really seemed as dense as walls. "Were you always this uptight?" Pines stood in silence, staring at the naked figure of his boyfriend. His hairy chest, the love trail going down from his abs all the way to his long, thick piece of meat. So strong, manly, gruffy and stern. Pines looked at his own body in comparison, smooth, delicate, and his boyhood still seemed cute rather than impressive. "I was once in a three-way," the words came to Pines almost automatically. Rose turned to him, jaw on the floor, eyebrows raised. "It's true! A couple of months ago, it didn't come out great but, I was in one, before I met you, I did it inside a school gym." "At a school gym?" Rose could almost chuckle. "And two guys at once, my God, who're ya and what ya did with Pines?" "I can be bad if I want to," Pines turned his body, flashing his backside. "So... do you promise no one is watching?" Rose almost felt his jaw drop, extending his arms, pointing at the impenetrable fog. "Not a soul," and with that he took a step towards Pines and planted a kiss on his lips, pressing his body against his boyfriend's. The grass underneath his bare feet tickled him, the heavy clouds around him grazed his naked body, strangely wet, it felt like something moved slowly over their skin. They were nude outside, kissing in a flower field yet, the moment felt surprisingly private, a fairy tale, like they were magical creatures out of the fog. And so, Rose pushed Pines, laying the young boy's smooth body over the humid grass. Oh, how beautiful he was, not a hair on him, yellow flowers at his sides. Rose let himself fall between Pine's legs, raising them up in the sky. They had done it many times before, innumerable times, but never outside, never with the grass underneath them, the fog around, and the sky above. Never with the air around them, the world exposed for them to see. Yet, this time it felt special. As Rose looked into Pine's eyes, his dick inside him, he knew, he knew Pines was different from anyone he had been with before. He knew he wanted his dick inside him, forever. "Rose," Pines was looking around them. "Rose, stop, the fog is going away, Rose!" But he didn't stop, in fact, he started going faster, and faster, stronger, he wanted to come inside his boyfriend so bad. "Rose! The fog!" "I don't care," he took Pine's smooth hips and started pushing deeper, deeper, inside him. "Everyone already hates me just because of my father, so... what's the worst that could happen if someone sees us?" "Call the cops?" "I'll deal with `em," he promised, almost breathless, fucking. "Like that bartender." "Wait, wait!" Pines finally put his hand over Rose, stopping his humping. "Don't do that, the bartender thing... don't ever act so reckless again." "Pines, that's the thin'," Rose raised an eyebrow, his dick still inside Pines. "For ya, that didn't feel reckless. For ya, fuckin' here, outside, even with no fog, it doesn't feel stupid. So what if people see us? Two boys fuckin', so what? I swear I'll buy a house right in the middle of town so everyone can hear us fuck. I'm tired of hidin', Pines. Y'are my boyfriend, I don't want to hide ya. No mo' hidin'." Pines rolled his eyes, "I don't like hiding you either but, we are going to piss a lot of people off if we don't," the fog was almost completely gone. "Are you sure about this? This... no more hiding?" "I'm sure," Rose leaned over his naked boyfriend, making sure their chests were pressed together, pinching one of the lad's nipples, his dick still inside him, before whispering in his ear: "75 cents." "75 cents," and they fucked in the flowers, no fog around them.
Another month before, early into the new year, Rose walked anxiously through the streets of Laketown before finally spotting the bar. Instinctively, a smile appeared on his face. He had a date. As he strolled down Laketown's wet streets, Rose hummed a delicate tone. A few people glanced at him, staring for a second longer than what was considered polite. "Ah the Rosewood boy," the bartender greeted him as Rose approached the counter. "Can you order anything now?" "Yeah, 21 an' countin'," he nodded. His birthday had been a few days before. "Whisky on the rocks, please," but instead of looking at the bartender, Rose turned to the clock on the wall. He's late, again. One of the disadvantages of dating someone so young: young boys are always late. Of course, it wasn't always their fault, they just aren't in control of their own time. But the advantages... his energy, his joy of life, his seemingly always hard dick... But that's when Rose noticed several eyes were on him, whispers of his name floating in the air inside the bar. As soon as Rose took a seat at one of the tables, several people got up and left the establishment, leaving the place almost empty. The bartender shot an annoyed glance at Rose and gave him his whiskey. Finally, the doors of the bar opened again. Rose didn't have to look up. Just by the smell, the sound of the steps, he knew. And it was, the young boy he had just met, all smiles with his regular dark green cap on. "Rosewood," the lad greeted him as he passed him by. "Pines," he uttered, before looking back at his drink. And that was it. The lad passed him by and went to the counter, not even looking at him. Of course, underneath they were both dying to fall in the other's arms but... this town is small, we have to be careful. That's one of the rules they agreed upon after getting together during that winter storm at that same bar. The lad had been very insistent about it. "Pines? I don't want to call ya like that all the time," he had complained. "And I don't want ya to call me Rosewood all the time, sounds so... formal." "I know but everyone always calls your family by its last name," Pines had insisted. "So unless you want someone to suspect, we kinda have to, at least in public." "This fuckin' town," Rose rolled his eyes. "People here aren't as open minded like in the city," Pines stared at the floor. "I kiss a guy there, no one cares, I kiss one here and whispers come up faster than fog. Now everyone looks at me weird, even at school." "Yeah, and my ol' man laying off a third of the town doesn't help either," Rose knew well enough the feeling of walking into a room and having everyone stare at you. "I know we don't need extra whispers on us by being seen together but... Can't we just fuck the rules and not care?" "Rules are there for a reason." Rose rolled his eyes at the young lad. "No storming off, always using protection, no saying I love you too soon... man for such a young lad you sure have lots of rules." "The clearer the rules, the easier it is to move forward," Pines replied happily. So, now there was Rose, sitting at a table at the bar, whisky in hand, unable to speak to the fifteen year old he was dating. Pines, away at the counter, couldn't order many of the things at the bar, yet there was orange juice on the menu. "Juice it is," the bartender nodded before making a silly smile. "Want me to add an umbrella to it, maybe some fairy dust?" Rose turned towards the counter, a vein popping in his forehead. "Eh, no thanks," Pines added quickly towards the bartender. "I just hope you aren't implying anything." "Implying?" The bartender almost laughed. "I'm just asking, giving good service, that's my job, little lad, not implying anything, here you go." "Huh," Pines received the juice, ready to ignore it. "Thank you." "And you," the bartender made an exaggerated gesture. "And relax a little, consider yourself lucky I'm even serving you." Pines took the juice and started to walk away, letting it slide. Yet, Rose wasn't like that. His fist was pressing hard against the glass in his hand and he almost broke it but, pretending not to care, before shouting: "Consider yourself lucky I'm even serving you? Sheesh, with comments like that, no wonder this place is empty." The bartender gave him a death stare. "This is none of your business, Rosewood. And if the place is empty it is because of you, scaring all my customers away." "I just came in," Rose defended. "If the cowards chose to leave..." "Not cowards, just nervous your daddy will leave them jobless again." "Sure, blame me," Rose stood up. "That's easier than puttin' your fuckin' mouth in check, Mr. Do-you-want-some-fairy-dust." "What did you say, Rosewood? Are you seriously defending this queer?" The bartender pointed an empty glass towards Pines. "Are you his boyfriend or what?" Rose exhaled, almost disappointed. "Don't blame me," he let out, walking towards the counter. "I told ya to keep your mouth in check," With a sudden move, he took hold of the bartender's shirt, pulling it and dragging the man above the counter, tumbling several glasses, breaking on the floor. Pines shouted, and what few customers remained, stood up but Rose didn't stop, throwing the bartender to the ground. "Rose stop!" Pines shouted. But he didn't listen, his fists were already punching the blood out of the bartender's nose, redecorating the floor. The bartender tried to stand up and punch back but Rose was too heavy, too strong. It wasn't a fight, it was a one-sided violence display. A Rosewood against a punching bag. "Rose! Stop!" Pines moved closer, the lad was shouting. "I said stop!" It took Rose a minute to stand away from the bartender but even as he stood away, the bartender bruised and bleeding, he spitted on him. "There's ya fairy dust." And they both walked out of the bar. Even outside, several people stared at him, at his bloody fists, at the surely large commotion that had just gone down. Next to him, Pines was trembling, his face red, smoke coming out of his ears. "Why did you do that?" The lad asked in almost a whisper. He was boiling inside but keeping it all in. "Eh? Why did you do that?" "Why?" Rose gave him a confused glance, almost offended. "Didn't you see the way he was talking to us?" "Losing your shit isn't the solution," Pines sat down on a bench next to a park, in front of a little café. "Here, calm down." Yet, Rose wasn't calm, his hands still shaped like fists. Pines looked at them and put his hand on top, caressing the older boy's skin. Rose looked at the lad, confused before staring at his eyes. Only then the volcano inside him started to recede. "Sorry, sorry, I just... couldn't let it slide," Rose let out a big breath. "I kinda prefer if he would just outright say he hates us instead of his passive-aggressive bullshit." "I get it, really I do. Don't you think I know what people say about me? Fairy? Queer? Everyone in this town knows me as the fag kid," Pines let his shouders fall. "But that doesn't mean I get to punch them like that. That bar was our meeting point, Rose, and now... I don't think we can go back." "Ya're right, we can't. Ideas for a new place?" Rose looked at the little café in front of them. "What about there? Maple Garden café. A café is better than a bar, right?" "Not there," Pines immediately responded. "That's where me and my best friend meet every Tuesday at." "Best friend?" "Is a she, don't get jealous." "Okay, but so what if you see her there, can't you see me there too?" "I have a rule not to bring different people to the same place." "Of course you have a rule!" Rose raised his hands, the numbness in his knuckles starting to subside. "You have a rule for everything." "What does that mean?" "Nevermind, the last thing I need is a fight with ya, the point is we need to find another dating place," Rose got up, starting to walk around the bench. "Oh! I know a cabin, it's a little far from here, on the south bank o' the lake." "A cabin in the woods?" Pines chuckled. "Man, I know every time we have a date we always do it but is that a meeting point or a place to fuck?" "Why can't it be both?" "Don't tell me you are getting horny." "Fighting always makes me horny," Rose took a step towards the bench, leaning on it, making sure it showed his muscles. "Wanna do some 75 cents?" Pines couldn't help but stare at the tightness of the shirt in Rose, his muscles clearly showing through the fabric. He had to shake his head to get back to Earth. "Just promise you won't do impulsive shit like that again." Rose offered his hand. "I promise." "Okay," Pines took it, standing up. "Let's go and find that cabin." "Date and 75 cents?" "Or we can just 75 cents."
The front door opened with a loud crash, as wide as it would, impacting the wooden wall before being rapidly closed again. Outside, the sky was falling, it almost seemed like night under the thick clouds, thunder breaking high above, and rainfall as thick as crayons pouring all over the town. Inside, things weren't much better: flickering lights, roof leaks, and no signal. He -who had opened the door- grunted in exasperation, hanging his soggy jacket, and walking away from the pond he had created on the entrance, he headed to the bar. "Ah, the Rosewood boy," the bartender greeted him, more out of obligation than pleasure. "Fancy anything?" As soon as the bartender mentioned his family's name, Rose felt the eyes of everyone inside aiming at the back of his neck. Taking a deep breath, he did his best to ignore them. "Nothin' y'are allowed to sell me. I'm less than a month away from my 21st so soon. For now I..." Rose took out his wallet but, due to the storm, all of his bills were soaked. "Glass o' water, please." "Ah," the bartender put the glass he was holding away, gave Rose his water, and walked away from the bar and into one of the tables, suddenly uninterested now that there was no business involved. Rose rolled his eyes and, with a hand on his roaring stomach, he too sat at one of the tables. As soon as he did, however, he felt people glancing at him. Wishing me dead, Rose thought. Rose's dad, Mr. Rosewood had laid off all his employees at Rosewood's Sawmill just to be able to venture into more profitable endeavors, effectively leaving a third of Laketown jobless. Now, of course, everyone hated them. A second roar went through his stomach, the ache actually hurt him this time. So much so that Rose opened his wallet once more and managed to find two coins among all the wet paper. Fifty cents, shit. "Hey," Rose called the bartender. "Got anythin' for fifty cents?" The bartender lazily turned towards him. "Fifty cents? What, your father left you unemployed too?" He chuckled at his own joke. "Doubt it, Rosewood, but feel free to try the vending machine in the back." Rose crunched his teeth, stood up and walked to the back of the bar. The incessant pouring of the rain outside was almost as loud as a drilling machine. The vending machine was at the end of a long hallway, turning a corner, next to some broken payphones. Rose's eyes sparkled when he saw it. He hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning and now, the fuckin' sky decides to fall o'er us! At the machine he spotted some instant ramen, his stomach roared as loud as the thunder outside. Cheap, fillin', perfect. Yet, when he looked at the price his soul sank. 1.25, it said. Rose looked at the fifty cents he had in his palm. "Fuck," he grunted and looked for something cheaper but no, that ramen soup was the cheapest thing in there. "Shit," he walked back along the long hallway, to the tables. "Anyone has... fifty... no, 75 cents?" Out of the seven tables, only three had someone sitting in them: A pair of lumberjacks in one, a woman in another, and in the last one there was a young boy with a dark green cap next to a raven-haired girl, they were drinking peppermint tea and black coffee. "Only 75 cents," he repeated but they all looked back at their tables. "Fuck." Rose tried to unwrinkle, and dry one of his soaked bills but all he managed to do was tear the damn thing in two. Fuckin' perfect. Discretely, Rose walked again to the back and hit the machine in the hopes it dropped something. Nothin', he was about to hit it once more when a tap on his shoulder made him look back. It was the young boy with the green cap, a lad about fifteen years old, smelling like peppermint tea, who was confidently standing next to him. "You're a Rosewood, right?" "Yeah," Rose leaned against the machine. "I'm Pines," the kid said, stretching his hand before showing him three shiny round coins. "Nice to meet you. Said you needed 75 cents?"