Although the sun had already risen beyond the horizon, the steel grey blanketed sky blocked the warm light, allowing night to effectively linger and morning to be delayed.  Drizzled raindrops bounced on top of the green forest canopy, which sheltered the ground below that it barely became wet.  The lake was an exception and the rain fell freely onto its surface causing a natural melody to be heard by any nearby creature.  But only two beings were in distance of its symphony and they were somewhat distracted.

The two boys sheltered within the lakeside cave filled it with breathless moans. For almost three years the boys had helped each other achieve release. Their touches were not shared every time that they had met, but the number of times that pleasure was sought had gradually increased, especially over the past few months. Willow's eyes were sheltered between his lashes as his mind was lost to the feelings. Their harden members were squeezed together between their hands, their fingers partially intertwined as they moved up and down in unison. His forehead was nestled against Slate's thick neck, trickles of his sweat trailing down from his temple before following the lines of Slate's collarbone and chiselled chest. After a few more minutes, Willow cried out and Slate echoed his sentiment, their mixed seed coating their stomachs.

After a few moments catching his breath, Willow was the first to rise from their loose embrace. He lightly laughed before taking a cloth rag and ran to the lake to soak it in water. Seeing his slender back and the soft curve of his bottom as he bounced happily out of the cave, Slate felt his member stir again. He swore a curse word from another language beneath his breath as he grabbed his trousers and began to slip them on. "Here," Willow touched his shoulder, handing him the damp rag. He took it quietly, pretending not to see Willow's wandering eyes. "You're still hard."

"Don't worry about it," Slate said softly. He wiped himself down before he finished dressing.

"But if you want some help..."

"I said it's fine!" Slate snapped, immediately regretting it on seeing Willow's hurt look. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. "Sorry, there's just been.. some things happening back home.. I didn't mean..."

"It's okay," Willow replied, but didn't meet his eyes.

Slate sighed, bitterly. "I should leave first."

"Oh? Not going to finish the game?" Willow chuckled awkwardly, indicating their abandoned game of Othello.

Slate returned his smile. "Nah, you know I will only beat you!"

"Really?" Willow, still in all his naked glory placed a hand on his hip and lifted up his head haughtily, resembling a ghost of his forgotten past. "Come back tonight and I will prove you wrong!" Frozen by his own memory for a moment, it took Slate time to respond, but even then he just laughed softly and agreed.

****

Willow was absently scratching the wood in his hand with the tip of his blade, a leaf formed of a spiral beginning to form upon its surface. But his eyes did not see what his hands were creating, for they were blinded in memory of that morning as his ears were filled with the raised voice of his friend. The other boy had not once spoken to him that way before and even though he had recognised some times in the past where his friend was not entirely himself due to other things happening in his life, he had never let it spoil their time together. Willow's carving ceased and with a sigh, he let his head fall onto his work and his lap. It was becoming more frustrating that he could not share more of Slate's life; the boy was unable to enter deeper into the forest due to restrictions in their time and he could not bear the enclosed feeling of the earth when he entered Slate's world too far.

Fern glanced over from where she was weaving baskets and observed her brother for a moment. A smug knowing look appeared upon her face. Ah had Spring come for her brother at last? Despite now being nineteen, the girl had not yet left her parents home for various reasons, but even if she had, she saw no reason not to continue interfering in her younger siblings lives.

"Ah, little brother, what's wrong? Is it a girl?"

"A girl? What do you mean?" Willow snapped out of his trance and turned to look at his sister.

"Well it's not surprising if you found someone special, you are of that age now. I noticed that even our little brother, Corn has started to notice girls, maybe he even has one he likes." Fern smugly shared this information, proud that she was privy to these things and able to tell those who were not.

"Sister, I wasn't thinking about a girl," he told her, truthfully.

"Really? But with all those girls that are about you all of the time, I would have thought you would have noticed one stand out above the rest, one who you wished to spend time with." Fern doubted his words, she knew what she had seen!

"And what would I do with that girl?" Willow said half-teasingly, half serious.

"Talk, laugh, walk together, sit together..."

"You are a girl. Aren't I doing those sorts of things with you?"

"Oh no, that's disgusting! I am your sister! I mean for you to like a girl in the way that dad likes mum!" Dumb little brother, she thought.

Willow thought about it for a moment before tilting his head and said; "I am confused. What does that mean? How would I know if I liked a girl in that way?"

Fern shook her head in awe and pity over her naive, innocent brother. "Well, you want to be with her all of the time. You want to make her happy and want her to care for you too. You want her to look at you and you want to do things that feel nice together."

"Feel nice? Like swimming?" Her twisted glance expressed how weird she thought her brother was.

"Like touching. You want to touch them and want them to touch you," although she said this frankly, a blush was rising through her cheeks. Willow froze for a moment as the words sank in and stirred around in his mind. "Ah, so there is someone like that!"

Willow lightly shook his head. There was no girl he liked in that way. He glanced slyly at his sister. "Is there anyone that you like in that way?" He asked.

"No," she replied shortly. "The boys in this village are too immature and wouldn't understand even if a girl was too be improper and throw themselves at them!" She rose from beside him to return to her weaving. Willow hid his mirth, he got the impression that she was not talking about him. The smile fell from his face as he thought instead about Slate. Did he have someone special waiting for him in his village? Someone who he wanted to spend time with?  He should ask later.

****

Willow skipped his evening meal so that he might arrive at the cave earlier. Clearly Slate had not yet arrived, leaving Willow to continue wallowing in his own thoughts. He tried to distract himself by studying the game that they had left unfinished earlier, but his thoughts wandered too quickly and he simply stared at it without seeing it.

"I'm sure that could count as cheating," Slate drawled, his arms crossed about his chest.  Willow jumped, startled, before turning to face him.  His eyes settled on the curved shapes of his muscular arms, his throat suddenly feeling dry.

Willow let loose a slight giggle, releasing the tension he suddenly felt.  "I'm not cheating," he said, as if his pride was suffering.

Slate returned his laughter and sat down at the other side of the board.  "Whose turn was it?"

"Yours I think," Willow replied.  He watched as Slate examined the board for a few moments.  They were still using the chalk lined board and shaded pebbles.  They had had to redraw it several times and most of the pebbles were not the originals.  Willow's winning count could probably be counted using his fingers, but he still challenged his friend from time to time. Slate made his move, but noticed that Willow was already distracted.

"What's wrong?" I'm being asked that a lot today, Willow thought.

"Nothing," he replied and made the move he had planned before he had become lost in his own thoughts. "But are you alright.. after this morning?"

Slate sighed. "Seriously, I'm fine. I'm sorry that I yelled at you."

"Yelled at me?" Willow hadn't actually been thinking about that anymore, but that had happened, hadn't it. "Ah, no that wasn't what I meant...er..." Willow did stop to think about how to phrase his words, but in the end they poured out of him in a mad rush. "Is there some girl you like and maybe want to marry? I mean you got hard right after.. and if you were thinking about her... well my sister said that when you like someone you think about them, want to see and touch them and maybe spending time with me... I'm in your way aren't I! I should let you go back to her if that's the case..." his thoughts a blur of information, Slate had not yet digested half of it when Willow made his way to leave. He quickly grabbed the slender boy's wrist to prevent him.

"Wait, let me get this straight, you think I was hard because of some girl?" Slate asked.

Willow agreed with a nod. "My sister said that we are of that age now where we pay attention to the girls we like. Not that I do, I never even thought of the girls in the village that way, but I thought maybe you did."

Slate pulled Willow down to kneel beside him, removed the cloth bandage binding his eyes and said clearly; "there is no girl like that back home. I swear it."

"But why...?"

The grey skinned boy gritted his very white teeth for a second, his eyes closed as if internally preparing himself for something. "Willow, it's you."

"What's me?"

"It's you. I wasn't thinking if a girl, I was thinking about you!" Seeing the confused look still upon the other boys face, he elaborated. "I like.. I like touching you, Willow. But what we do isn't enough anymore and I don't want to hurt you, so I tried to let it go, but..." For some reason he held back on what he really wanted to say. What if Willow rejected his confession? He wouldn't be able to bear it.  He felt instead that the boy would understand more about chasing the moments of pleasure, especially as it was him that usually initiated them.

"Hurt me? I don't understand."

"Your parents maybe spoke to you about adults coming together at night and maybe producing children?" Slate asked, carefully. His grandfather had tried to give him that talk, obviously not knowing that his grandkid knew about the birds and the bees before even he was born! But he didn't know how the forest people prepared their children, if at all! Fortunately, Willow nodded.

"Something about sticking the boy part into the girl part, it sounded horrible, so I didn't listen very much," Willow admitted, with a slight shudder.

Slate chuckled. That sounded just like his Willow. "The problem is, I want to stick mine into you," he whispered.

Willow froze for a moment, trying to figure out how that would work before laughing it off; "You can't do that, I don't have girl parts, it won't work."

"I know, but there is still an opening down there. I would put it in there."

After a slight pause, Willow asked; "Is that really possible?" Slate nodded, but didn't dare look Willow in the eye. "And it would feel good for you?"

"And for you, but it would probably hurt you the first time as well," Slate confessed. Willow thought about it for a moment, his curious nature finally getting the better of him.

"Well, then, let's do it."