Sun Kissed ✓

thirteen

NIGHT fell swiftly around them, hiding them under an endless black sky and painting the outlines of their faces, their throats, their hands in silver light. In awe, Austin watched Tanner as he floated on his back along the water; the muscles in his shoulders and back rippling underneath the water, his chest and face exposed to the cool of the dark and his throat extending wonderfully into underneath his chin, his head thrown back as he watched the stars, occasionally pointing to ones he hadn't previously noticed dangling in the dark like gems in a dress.

The stars really were brighter out here— there were more of them, too— and Austin's chest felt a little lighter, his lungs a little cleaner, and his breath a little sharper whenever he felt the air through his inhales and exhales. He didn't know what time it was and he was pretty sure that he preferred not knowing, floating through the water in a timeless night seemed like a better fate than admitting it was getting darker and it was getting later and they would have to head home soon.

As if reading his mind, Tanner murmured, "Five minutes. Just five more."

"Okay," Austin murmured back.

With a silver grin stretching suddenly onto his lips, Tanner gulped and held a breath of air, tossing himself head-first into the water and re-emerging gracefully on the opposite side that he'd gone down in, much closer to Austin than Austin expected. When he laughed, his voice was as clear as a cloudless sky and he pushed back the locks of wet— and consequently, dark— hair that stuck to his forehead.

His fingertips were puffy and his skin was flushed when he held Austin's face, knocking their foreheads gently together and blinking the last of the water droplets from his eyelashes. He smiled when they kissed and Austin's heart leapt wildly from his chest up into his throat until he could muster the strength and stability to swallow it back down again.

Inches from each other, forehead to forehead, nose to nose, Tanner's thumbs caressing his cheekbones, he whispered, "We should go."

Kissing him once more, Tanner's right hand brushed away the damp tousles of hair that clung to Austin's bronze skin, now a soft blue under the moonlight, and nodded. "I'll drive you home."

Fortunately for them, Tanner had pulled aside a part-time college worker who was a friend of his brother's and had asked her to leave some towels out for them before she locked everything up.

Pushing himself out of the pool, he spun around to hold his hands out for Austin and pulled him out of the pool, wrapping the soft, white towel tight around his shoulders and pulling off the towel draping loosely over his own shoulders to rub Austin's hair dry, laughing that melodic laugh when the latter tried (and failed) to swat him away.

"We should sit here for a little while, let ourselves dry off more before we head back," Tanner said. "Make sure your feet are dry or you'll slip trying to climb the fence."

For no longer than a few minutes, Austin observed Tanner, his towel now wrapped around his waist for both coverage and to dry off, wringing out his soaking swimming shorts and waving them wildly. Under the moonlight, he was still bathed in silver, but the blue of his eyes never faltered, never shifted, never faded.

With that boyish smile, he dropped his towel and raised his eyebrows suggestively, laughing loudly when Austin blushed terribly and shook his head, a flustered smile falling onto his lips. "Get dressed, idiot," he said, daring himself to glance again.

Winking, Tanner obliged, slipping his feet through his swimming shorts, now only slightly damp, and pulling them back up, unwrapping the towel from around his waist and catching it before it fell to the ground.

When they had dried off and collected their things, Austin stepped down onto the ground after climbing the fence and watched Tanner leap slightly, elegantly back onto the grass, opening and closing his outstretched palm until Austin grabbed hold of it.

One of the white towels was thrown over his shoulder. "What are you doing with that?" Austin asked. "Didn't your brother's friend say to leave them by the shed?"

Unworried, he shrugged. "No problem. We'll drive by before work tomorrow morning and drop it back off."

"We?" Austin echoed.

"I thought I'd pick you up tomorrow," he said, pulling Austin closer towards him and dropping their hands; instead, draping his arm protectively around the latter's shoulders, "and we would go together. What do you think? We'd have to stop by pretty early but—"

"I'd go anywhere you asked me to go," Austin interrupted, wrapping his arm around Tanner's waist as they sauntered beside the hills.

Without a word, Tanner kissed his temple and pulled him just noticeably closer. They didn't speak again until they found themselves in front of the club and in the gravel parking lot, slipping past the tall, white gates that blocked the entrance from the outsiders and stumbling onto the sidewalk.

Laughing, Austin nudged into the boy who had eagerly taken hold of him again after they'd both slipped through the small gap between the gate and the wall. "You had this planned the whole time," he said, pinching Tanner's hip

"What do you mean?" He replied, a distinct innocence flooding his voice, beaming with great humour and jumping a little at the pinch.

"You knew that we'd be staying late," Austin said. "The gates to the grounds are locked so you purposely parked your car down the street when we followed your parents up. Don't they ask any questions?"

"If they ask about my business," he said, "then it becomes their business. More importantly, they know it becomes their problem. I never caught and I always come home so I don't think they have any complaints."

By the time they were back in the car, the roads were quiet and the night was languid; its almost-ending tasted sweet on Austin's tongue. Before he could ask, Tanner, with merely a glance in his direction, caught him pondering.

"What's on your mind?" He inquired, driving with one hand and reaching for Austin's hand with the other.

He swallowed. "We can do this again, can't we? Me and you?"

A soft smile graced his lips and something flickered in his eyes. He squeezed Austin's hand and Austin squeezed back and it was then that he decided that Tanner was as good without words as he was with them.

"Thanks," he whispered, feeling a little bashful for having asked.

Their drive was uneventful, but sweet. In the same breath, Austin cherished every second that he could gaze at Tanner and dreaded the passing of every second because it meant that they were getting closer and closer to home and then the night would end and nothing would be left of it but for a star, twinkling bright in a sky full of memories.

NOTE

Only two chapters left after this! Thanks so much for reading and I hope that you enjoyed :')

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NEXT UPDATE

Friday. 27. August. 2021.