It had been raining for almost two days and puddles rippled across the tarmac-covered roads and paved streets of the quiet, suburban area in which Daniel Jones had made his home following the demise of Savage Garden. Not even one in the afternoon, it was already pitch black, making it seem as though night had forgotten it was supposed to be day and had descended early. It had already been a long day for the guitarist-turned-producer and he was looking forward to reaching his home, locking the world out and collapsing in front of the nearest heater with a source of alcohol and copious amounts of expensive chocolate. If he never had to attend another studio session in his life, then Daniel believed he would die a very happy man.
And yet he couldn't bring himself to be entirely bad-tempered. He might have had a bad morning, but his planned comforts for the afternoon would cheer him up - as would his plans for that evening. At seven o'clock - although it would probably be closer to eight, he thought with a wry grin - he was meant to be having dinner with Darren Hayes, his former vocalist, former best friend and occasional lover.
They hadn't seen one another in almost a year. Work commitments had kept them apart once they'd finished Savage Garden, not to mention the fact that one lived in their native Australia whilst the other resided in America... But now Darren was back in Australia for a while and willing to meet with Daniel to discuss the few contentious issues that had kept them apart besides the trivialities of work and distance. That was part of the reason why Daniel had taken the afternoon off work - so that he could prepare himself mentally for the excuses that he knew Darren would offer as explanation for his thoughtlessness in announcing the demise of Savage Garden to the media before telling Daniel that he was going to do so.
It wasn't that Daniel objected to the media... and therefore the legions of loyal fans which the duo had amassed during their time together... knowing that Savage Garden were no longer a functioning part of the music industry. How could he object when he'd known about it all along? When he'd been the one to bring the band to its conclusion? What Daniel had strongly objected to was the way in which Darren had set about announcing it. Despite wanting to think better of his former ally, Daniel couldn't shake the thought that Darren was using the garnered publicity as a spring board to promote his solo work from...
Unable to prevent the scowl from darkening his face, Daniel did his utmost to push such thoughts aside. He could retrieve them later, when he was sitting opposite Darren over the traditional spaghetti Bolognese that they always ate when they got together for dinner. As his mind conjured up the familiar image of Darren with spaghetti sauce all over his face, Daniel's scowl tempered down into an affectionate smile.
He still couldn't believe how much he missed the irritating, obtusely gregarious Diva.
Turning his car into the crescent in which he'd made his home, Daniel caught sight of a flash of something yellow. Peering through the sweeping motion of his windscreen wipers, he could make out the figure of someone wearing a hooded yellow raincoat who was jumping energetically into the deep puddles that consumed the pavement with their cold, shivery moisture. Driving past, Daniel concluded that the someone had to be a lunatic. Too big to be a boy, whoever it was didn't have the excuse of immaturity - unless they were a raving loon. "And who else *but* a lunatic'd be jumping in puddles during this sort of storm?" Daniel concluded with a small smile. It was, he knew, a good thing that the crescent was a quiet area otherwise the lunatic might have found themselves in severe trouble with either traffic or concerned individuals rushing to protect them from themselves.
Daniel's garage had been turned into a home-studio some months earlier, so he parked on the driveway, reluctantly stepping out into the driving rain. Pulling his briefcase over his head in an attempt to stave off some of the rain, he made a frantic dash for the front door. Grappling with his keys for a few, desperate moments, he finally managed to get the door open and scurried inside. Turning to push the front door shut, he caught another flash of yellow at the end of his drive and realised that the lunatic was still splashing happily in the puddles. He smiled to himself, vaguely amused at the thought of puddle jumping, then slammed the door quickly as the sky went white with a flash of lightning.
Ten minutes later, Daniel was wrapped in his fluffy green bathrobe and throwing his sodden clothes into the dryer. Just as he finished setting the timer, just as his mind was wandering onto thoughts of melt-in-the-mouth Belgian chocolate, the doorbell rang, shrilly. "The loon's been run over and the driver wants to use my phone..." He thought idly as he sauntered back through the house towards the front door. He wasn't unduly alarmed for he knew that he was wrong... had he been right, then he would have heard the squeal of brakes and the crashing of a body hitting either the vehicle or the road.
Opening the front door, he found himself staring at the lunatic in the yellow raincoat, dripping water all over his doorstep. The hood was pulled low over the lunatic's face and, even when the lightning flashed, Daniel couldn't tell who it was beneath the dripping plastic. He debated for a silent moment as to whether he should be concerned or not, yet when there was a sharp explosion of thunder directly overhead, he reacted instinctively and pulled the lunatic inside.
'Fuck'sake! What're you doing out there?' He demanded harshly, letting go of the lunatic's sleeve and shaking his hand to rid it of the excess moisture.
The lunatic didn't answer. He simply looked around the hallway for a moment or two, before turning to face Daniel. Slowly, he pulled the hood that covered his face and head back until, finally, Daniel recognised his visitor. Dark blond hair fell wetly onto the man's forehead and a pleased grin spread across his face as he looked up, slightly, into Daniel's widened eyes. A drop of water slipped off the end of his nose, onto his full pink lips where it was licked off by the tip of his tongue as he returned Daniel's amazed gaze.
'Darren!'
'Hey, you.'
'What're you doing here?'
'I had nothing to do.'
'But you're supposed to be working! Promoting yourself...'
Darren flapped an impatient hand through the air. 'Got bored.' He said. 'Had Leonie cancel my schedule for the rest of the day. I needed a break. And as we're meant to be having dinner later on, I thought I'd come pay you a visit.'
'Still, there's a storm out there - don't you *know* what lightning storms can do to...' Daniel started on a responsibility lecture, then stopped as he realised that Darren had tucked his hands beneath his armpits and was struggling to control his chattering teeth. Daniel's heart leapt in sympathy. 'Christ, you must be frozen!'
'Like you wouldn't *believe*!'
'I'll go get some towels. Strip out of those wet clothes.'
As Daniel moved past him, however, Darren grabbed him round the waist and hugged him tightly. To begin with, Daniel tried to push him aside, intent on fetching some towels and stopping Darren from freezing to a cold, wet death in the hallway, but as soon as he felt the familiar weight and shape of the body snuggling into his own, he reciprocated. With one hand, he pressed Darren's face into the crook of his neck whilst the other stroked his back as he clung to Daniel's left side.
'It's so *boring* without you...' Darren murmured into Daniel's throat, moving his hips instinctively and automatically against Daniel's towelling robe.
'Well, I'm glad you're here.' Daniel moved his head and bent his neck so that he was able to place a kiss upon Darren's wet ear. 'Now quit humping my leg, like some horny puppy, would you?'
Darren sprang back, covering his mouth with his hands as he giggled in childish delight. His eyes were gleefully bright at having been found out in his mischief and a distinct grin showed through the fingers in front of his lips.
Darren's giggles still sounding in his ears, Daniel hurried off to fetch some towels from the airing cupboard. When he returned to the hallway, however, Darren hadn't moved. Impatiently, Daniel narrowed his eyes. 'Darren! I said to take those wet clothes off! You'll die of pneumonia!'
'I want you to take them off.'
'This isn't a game, Darren.'
Darren wouldn't budge. He simply smiled at Daniel and rocked, slowly, on his planted fisherman's-wader-covered feet.
Cursing to himself, Daniel dropped the towels on the floor just in front of Darren and grabbed hold of the zipper on the yellow raincoat, yanking it down in jerky movements as the teeth snagged and temporarily caught. The raincoat opened reluctantly, revealing smooth, tanned skin and a spattering of light brown hair upon the chest that Daniel was gradually revealing. Slowly comprehending, he glanced up to find Darren regarding him from brightly shining eyes above a small, pleased smile.
'You little...'
'Like my tan?' Darren asked. 'Leonie thought I should cultivate one. Said everyone's tired of my paler than death look...'
Daniel stared, admiring the bare chest and abdomen before him. His mind was filled with images of Darren dancing along the street to his house, wearing nothing but the yellow raincoat and the matching waders. 'You're not *totally* naked under there... are you?'
'What do you think?' Darren demanded, arching an eyebrow and grinning mischievously.
'Oh God, you *are*...'
'Come on! Unwrap me!' Darren demanded through another burst of giggles. He bounced on the balls of his feet in barely suppressed excitement. 'I'm *freezing* to death here!'
'Right. Sorry.' Reaching forwards, Daniel took hold of the zipper again and pulled it open, parting the raincoat before him and revealing the muscular, lightly haired thighs and the familiarly half-erect cock. He pushed the raincoat from Darren's shoulders, watching as it fell to the carpet, then lifted his eyes to stare hungrily at the man before him, taking in the lines and curves of a body he hadn't seen in months.
'Finish the job, Dan.' Darren said quietly. 'I'm pretty sure I look fucking ridiculous in nothing but these boots!'
He was right, Daniel thought. The sight of Darren wearing nothing but bright yellow waders was totally comical...
... and incredibly stimulating.
He was so hard that it was almost painful and he was intensely grateful that he was wearing nothing but his bathrobe. The mere thought of jeans pressing against his erection was enough to make Daniel feel nauseous. Crouching down, he took one of Darren's legs at a time and eased each boot from his feet. Water ran out of them as he tilted them slightly to get them over the arches and toes - reminding him to use the towels. He started at Darren's shoulders, wrapping him in the warm towel and rubbing vigorously. Throwing the wet towel to one side, he picked up another to use on Darren's sodden hair, gently towelling it until it stood in untidy little spikes away from his head. The third towel completed Daniel's task by drying Darren's legs and the last one served as a makeshift robe, being tucked securely about his waist.
Daniel eyed him with a small smile. 'Better?'
'Yeah.'
Holding him close, Daniel looked into his eyes. 'Welcome back.' He said and kissed the moist, sweet lips before pulling back slightly. He smiled as he realised that Darren's eyes were closed, perhaps to savour the moment of their kiss. Dipping his head once more, Daniel kissed him again, harder, inwardly grinning as Darren returned the caress, his hands sliding into his hair and pulling their mouths tighter together. His hands wandering instinctively, Daniel's palms curved around Darren's arse through the towel and squeezed gently, making him whimper. His lips, Daniel thought, tasted like rain: cold and foggy... As he broke the kiss and breathed in a deep lungful of air, he changed his mind: it was almost as though the rain's damp mist had permeated every fibre of Darren. His skin was still damp and cold as Daniel tugged the towel away and threw it to one side, not caring where it landed.
It wasn't hard for Darren to undress Daniel; a simple pull on the bathrobe's towelling belt at his waist resulted in his being as naked as his lover. Darren giggled as, sliding his hands firmly and frantically across his body, Daniel slowly backed him into the lounge room and then towards the couch. As Darren cautiously settled on the cool leather surface of the expensive piece of furniture that Daniel had once spent three hours lecturing him about, his partner nuzzled into his neck, nibbling contentedly on his ear whilst his fingers raked through the storm-tousled hair. Finding Daniel's ear close to his mouth, Darren took advantage of the opportunity and whispered into it. 'Suck me?'
'Impatient, aren't you?'
'Mm-hmm.'
Laughing softly, Daniel made his way down Darren's chest, his tongue trailing languidly across the warm, soft flesh there. It rose and fell in deep breaths, music to Daniel's mind, making him wonder if the movement and sound it made could, somehow, be incorporated into an actual track. He paused for a moment, lips caressing the heated flesh as he listened to the breath-song, feeling Darren's gentle hands stroke through his hair. He wasn't *that* impatient, Daniel knew. Darren lived for moments like this: moments of tranquillity amidst the passion that consumed them so completely whenever they were intimately together.
A bright flash of lightning disturbed their peace, both jumping slightly, startled by the brilliance that sparked through the room. As well as startling them, the lightning succeeded in destroying the electrics, plunging the room into darkness. Daniel went to rise, intending to go and hunt out the fuse box and fix the problem there and then, but Darren's hands on his head stopped him.
'It'll be okay.' He whispered, the darkness surrounding them seeming more suited to murmured words instead of spoken ones. 'It's just the storm.'
Silently, Daniel settled back down, continuing to trace his lips down Darren's body, heading for his solidly damp cock. He wasn't in any particular rush - knew that Darren wasn't likely to leave until they were both exhausted and satiated - and in the now almost continuous flashes of lightning, he caught glimpses of his lover's expression. Darren's eyes were closed, his tongue just peeking through his slightly parted lips as he groaned, the soft sounds drowned out by the rumbling thunder overhead.
Shifting his body further down the couch, Daniel's cheek brushed against Darren's cock, but he ignored it, kissing his way down the prone man's left leg. At the bony ankle joint, he moved across to the right leg and kissed his way back up towards Darren's crotch where he ran his tongue across the taut scrotum, suckling at the warm skin there as Darren's hands gripped at his head now with a desperate need, his fingertips pressing almost painfully into Daniel's flesh.
Relenting, Daniel abandoned Darren's scrotum, sliding his weeping cock between his smooth lips and sucking gently on its swollen head. He pushed at Darren's legs, hooking one over the low back of the couch so that he could wriggle closer, take more of the scalding hot cock into his mouth. As Darren's urge to reach climax grew, he pushed Daniel's head lower, silently pleading with him to take him in as far as he could, to swallow down on him, to use the muscles of his throat to make him explode.
The lightning and thunder barely registering in his brain, Daniel worked Darren expertly. He paused for a few seconds, releasing the rigid cock in order to suck three fingers into his mouth, then returned his mouth where Darren's hands were determined it should be. His fingers tickled their way down beneath Darren's scrotum, across the perineum, towards the spot marked 'X' on Daniel's mental treasure map of the other man's body. It took a little effort, but Daniel managed to work his first finger into Darren's body, making his spine stiffen with excitement as he was breached. Daniel deliberately wriggled his digit, making Darren jerk around inside his mouth and whimper desperately.
Realising that he were close to coming, Daniel immediately backed off. Abandoning Darren's cock and anus completely, he scrambled up the couch towards the cushions that supported his partner's neck. Darren's hands slid sensuously up his thighs as he brought his erect cock towards his waiting mouth. Another flash of brilliant lightning illuminated the room as Darren reached out with his tongue and licked along Daniel's thick shaft. By the time the next flash came, Darren had drawn most of the shaft into his mouth, the intrusion of the solid flesh failing to remove his lust filled smile from his face. Daniel continued to gain only glimpses of Darren suckling on his cock, but he could feel every lick and nibble and sucking motion as he worked his way around and then down the shaft. Hips moving, Daniel helped Darren to take in as much as he could, his fingers stroking through his hair, gently encouraging the eager, sucking mouth whilst urging him on with softly murmured words: 'Jeezus... oh... *fuck*... Christ... *God*... Dar... *God*...'
Daniel knew that Darren's arse was tight and that a fiesta of bliss waited there for him, but the sucking and lapping, mingling with the sweet, lightning-viewed images of his angelic face taking in his throbbing, swollen cock were too much... "Fuck'sake..." he thought absently, "I can fuck him later..." All that Daniel wanted at that moment was to feed him a month's worth of come and watch him try to swallow it all. He sped up the movements of his hips, increasing his fucking of Darren's mouth, but was disappointed when - having sensed his change of mind - Darren stopped suckling and released him from his mouth.
'Oh no, you don't!' He said, sounding bemused. 'I've been waiting *months* for you to fuck me and you're going to do just that!'
Losing a wonderful blowjob and the chance to come all over Darren's face was hard... yet Daniel was being offered an equally good treat. Without hesitation, without grumbling at Darren about how he was spoiling all his fun, he hurried back down to rest between his lover's parted legs. Using his hands to lift Darren's thighs from the couch, he burrowed down into the humid heat that surrounded his crotch and gently touched his tongue to the puckered opening into his body. "Even here tastes like rain..." He thought vaguely as he started to explore with his tongue, pushing it deeper and deeper into Darren's body. When he'd gone as far as he were able to, Daniel stopped. Ignoring Darren's feebly muttered protests, he rose and positioned himself over his prone, shivering body, his cock pressing firmly at the relaxed opening. Leaning down, he kissed Darren, feeling arms slide around his torso as the other man suckled on his tongue, craving more of his own taste.
As he pushed into Darren's body, lightnings blazed once more, until it seemed to Daniel that all the electricity in the air was coursing through his cock at that moment in time. He felt the familiar stiffening of Darren's body beneath him as he pushed forwards, and he knew that even though Darren was undoubtedly ready for him, his saliva acting as a primitive source of lubricant, it would still be slow... which suited them both. Every half centimetre that Daniel's cock gained within Darren, caused a tremor to cascade through his tautened body, reducing him temporarily to a shivering, whimpering mass of emotion.
Finally fully in, Daniel lay still to allow Darren to grow used to the invading appendage. He kissed him tenderly, running the fingers of one hand across Darren's damp cheek whilst waiting for him to relax and signal that he were ready to be fucked.
It took a full five minutes before Daniel was able to actually obey the commands of his body and start thrusting in and out of Darren's body. He moved slowly at first, giving them both time to revel in the experience, but the grumbling thunder spurred them on, pushing them faster, and Daniel found it hard to maintain the loving kisses under the steady rocking motions of their hips. He preferred to kiss Darren as they made love, enjoying the cushiony soft lips against his own, the feel of his hesitant tongue probing behind his teeth... but this wasn't making love, he knew. It was sex. Pure and simple need that drove them relentlessly on. The need within him was too great and the warm, tight hole that he was in gave his cock no reason to slow its pace any.
He raised his upper body, balancing on his straightened arms, looking down into Darren's shimmering eyes as he quickened their pace. Faster and harder, he pushed into the grip of Darren's muscles, watching him intently. Darren's eyes stayed bright and alert, seemingly conscious of every thrust as a unique moment in time and groaning at each entry, sighing with each near-withdrawal.
Daniel expressed himself less eloquently: 'Oh... *fuck*... *fuck*... *God*... oh....'
Unable to support his weight on his arms any longer, Daniel dropped down onto his elbows, resting his head in the crook of Darren's neck, continuing to thrust deeply. As he did so, his taut abdomen brushed and rubbed sweetly over Darren's rigid, sobbing cock, causing high-pitched whimpers to sound in his ear. Instinctively, Daniel sped up, racing to arrive at the same moment as the near-incoherent Darren. Thunder crashed overhead continuously, spurring Daniel on, making him feel as though his entire life was just his cock sliding in and out of Darren's hot body.
As Darren touched orgasm, Daniel lifted his head to watch his face. He loved watching Darren come because the alertness never quite left his eyes. Daniel wasn't as lucky: as he came, his eyes lost focus, every part of his mind more concerned with taking in the sensations as he shot silently and repeatedly into Darren's guts. He couldn't tell the lightning from the bursting sensations in his mind as his body grew stiff and he quivered and quaked in his desire to get as far into Darren's body as he possibly could... In between spurts, Darren's happy face swam back into view, his smile that of the righteously mischievous. His body spent, Daniel collapsed down into Darren's tender embrace, feeling him shuddering below him as the last of his own orgasm flowed through his body...
They lay still for a long while, bodies recovering slowly, listening to one another breathe. As Daniel pulled himself out of Darren's arms, he reached for the throw that decorated the back of his couch, pulling it down across their shivery bodies, cocooning them both into its soft, fleecy warmth. Matching his breath to Daniel's, Darren wriggled round until he lay on his side in front of him, his lover's body spooning his own comfortably.
Daniel knew that they still needed to talk: to iron out their differences before Darren had to return to his self-promotion and his Californian home... but it could wait for a while. For the time being he was content to keep things as they were between them - cosy and affectionately warm. A lazy smile touched his mouth as he heard Darren's breath slide into sleep. Cuddling closer into his warmth, his arm protective and loving around his waist, Daniel sought the same oblivion, knowing that certain other things would wait for later.
For now, he just wanted to relish being with Darren once more.
Before it was too late and he was gone from Daniel's life again.