Page 52 of Speak in Fever
Rath flushes across his cheekbones. “I’m good.”
“Yeah, Rath finds his own hookups. Unlike you.”
“Hey!”
The easy humor helps break some of the tension, and Rath finds himself smiling for the first time all evening. His eyes flick involuntarily to Percy, who's been unusually quiet through this entire conversation. Their captain is watching him with an expression Rath can't quite read—something warm and proud and maybe a little concerned.
His secret is out, at least partially, and the world hasn't ended. His teammates still accept him, still have his back, still treat him like family.
As the conversation gradually shifts back to other topics—tomorrow's travel schedule, upcoming games, Torres's ongoing war with the hotel's breakfast buffet—Rath finds himself stealing glances at Percy. His captain has been unusually quiet since Rath's revelation, but not in a bad way. More thoughtful than withdrawn.
Later, when the team finally calls it a night and starts dispersing back to the hotel, Percy falls into step beside Rath as they walk through Salt Lake City's downtown streets.
They end up back at the hotel and they’re barely in the door when Percy has a hand on his hip, guiding him back against the wall next to the bathroom. Rath lets himself be pressed into the plaster, Percy a long line of heat all along his front, and he inhales sharply when he looks up and Percy is looking down at him with dark, heated eyes.
“Hey,” Rath says, hooking his thumbs in the belt loops of Percy’s jeans.
“Am I the first guy you’ve been with?” Percy asks, obnoxiously perceptive as always.
Percy has a hand against his hip, holding him steady against the wall, and another cupping his jaw, keeping his head right where he wants it, and Rath feels trapped in the best way possible. He thinks he could probably bring Percy closer with hisgrip on his jeans if he wanted, pull him forward until he’s flush against Rath’s front, but for the moment he keeps the distance between them as Percy leans forward and huffs out a breath against his mouth.
“Is that like an ego thing or something?” Rath asks him, raising an eyebrow, trying to remain steadfast even as Percy’s thumb snakes underneath his shirt to rub circles at his hipbone. “You get off on the idea of being first or something?”
“That’s not a ‘no’, Platts,” Percy brushes their noses together.
Rath huffs out a laugh, and this time he does pull Percy closer. “Yeah, you’re my first, Cap. Does that get you hot?”
Percy groans and kisses him finally, soft and slow and filthy, licking his way into his mouth like he’s been thinking about it all evening. It feels so good having Percy against him like this, and the thought that it’s Percy doing this, Percy that he gets to have, is still so new and amazing that he gets a little lightheaded just from kissing him.
He feels Percy’s grip on his hips tighten, and he has the wild thought that Percy could lift him up, right here in the hotel hallway, and press him against the wall with all of his weight. Rath imagines wrapping his legs around Percy’s waist, feeling the heat of him between them, and he moans into Percy’s mouth as he presses forward, eager and wanting.
Percy pulls back just enough to say, “I want to do everything with you.”
Rath feels his heart flip in his chest. He wants that desperately. “Yeah?”
“Have you ever been fingered?”
A flush of heat rushes through Rath, from his head to his toes, and he feels hot all over in an instant. He licks his lips and Percy leans forward to nip at his neck with his teeth.
“No,” he manages to say, around the rush of noise in his ears. He swallows. Percy is mouthing at his jaw and he can’t think.
“Would you want to try?” Percy asks, and he pulls back enough to look at him.
Rath can’t speak. He nods, face hot, and then Percy is pulling back, guiding him toward the bed with a hand on his, and Rath realizes, slightly shocked,Oh, he means right now. He’s not sure where else he thought they were headed, but his nervousness is dwarfed by the surge of desire that floods through him when Percy turns and starts helping him remove his shirt.
Things are a lot different than the rush of last time. There’s not as much alcohol in his system, and he’s not running on the adrenaline of finding out Percy wants him to. He knows now that Percy wants him, and even if that’s a revelation that will never stop astounding him, it’s not quite as shocking as it was before.
Different isn’t bad though. It feels more intimate like this, with Percy carefully undressing him and helping him onto the bed to get settled. Percy gets a bottle of lube from his bathroom bag, and settles on the bed between Rath’s knees, still fully dressed and his expression dark.
The nerves start to set in once Percy has three fingers slicked up and one prodding gently at his hole. It feels– kind of weird, unfamiliar, and his hard-on from making out with Percy has started to flag a little. Percy smoothes one hand down his thigh.
“Just relax,” he says gently, “try not to tense up.”
As soon as Rath manages to consciously relax he feels that finger start to slide in. He breathes in and out once, slowly, and Percy croons a quietthat’s it, good boywhen he doesn’t even clench around it. The first finger slides all the way in and Percy pauses, doesn’t move, gives him time to adjust. Rath wiggles his hips a little, bears down on the intrusion, and it’s– odd. Not good, not yet, not the way people make it sound.
“Is it okay?” Percy asks. He must see it on Rath’s face, in the way his cock is only half-hard now against his hip, that he’s not really enjoying it much. Rath shrugs.
“It’s okay,” he says, “doesn’t hurt.”
