Page 99 of Damian & Jun, Episodes 13-16
Jun busted out laughing. “Yes, please.”
Richard folded Jun in against his chest and pressed a kiss to his hair. “You’re ready. Make him fight for it.”
“I plan to.” Jun blushed and ducked his head, looking up once. Richard was smiling. He nodded towards the door.
Time to go.
Jun let himself out and strolled through the grass towards the fences.
The woods smelled fresh and earthy. There was a tinge of cool in the air still but the day was going to be warm. Jun left his flannel unbuttoned as he walked. No point in running yet, not until he knew he was being chased. The birds were singing. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, feeling the breeze, almost shy in its intermittentness. How long had it been since he’d taken a walk alone? Years? Never?
Probably never. It still wasn’t safe, but Richard spent a fortune on having the Estate be a free place for The Residency to be themselves without bodyguards constantly following them. The very real threat of retaliation meant that they were still with security whenever they left one of their residences. The St. Elmo complex was heavily monitored, despite being open in certain areas to the public. Jun could safely go from the Parsonage to the Church and back, but there were cameras everywhere. Cedric ran a tight ship. He had several people working for him now, including Jamal. After his injuries protecting Jun, he’d asked to be transferred, at least until he felt completely like himself again. Cedric had been glad to have him. Everyone else who’d been injured was already back and fully healed.
Weight slipped from Jun’s shoulders. He shook out his body and laughed. Spun around in a circle. Did a dance in the old leaves on the forest floor. Free. Free to play. Free to be ridiculous. Free to be less than perfect. He dropped down on the trail and spread his arms and legs, moving them in the loam.
Jun. Just Jun. If he ever made a folksy, single person album, maybe that’s what he would call it. Just Jun. And then keep it in a vault somewhere until he was eighty. He laughed. The sun trickled in from overhead through tree needles and green leaves just starting to get tinged with yellow and orange. He jumped up and looked down at the brown forest angel he’d left behind. Now he wanted to make more.
He jogged a few strides ahead and lay down to make a second one, and then did it again, making a third one. He ran back to the first one just to look at all three angels going down the path. Music floated through his head. He sang to himself and the trees:
Boy in the box
The one you forgot
Now he’s a sprite on the path
A sigh unabashed
Making love to the sun
Taking joy in the run
Jun grinned and wrapped his arms around himself. Maybe he could make it to the waterfall before Damian found him. He took off jogging in the direction of the northern part of the creek, where it dropped from the higher hills into the mini gorge the first time.
Damian
Damian watched Jun windmill his arms in the leaves and dirt with the huge grin on his face and had to cover his own mouth to keep from laughing with him. This was supposed to be a hunt. Big scary predator after his prey, and yet Damian had no desire to scare his wolfling. How could he? When had he last seen Jun smile like that? Look so free?
He kept close to the tree beside which he was hiding and kept his chuckle behind his teeth as Jun made a second and third forest angel, and then he had to bite his fist as Jun spun about, letting his arms fly out and sang to himself, adding new words to a song Damian knew by heart. It had never sounded like that before.
Jun took off jogging and Damian gave him a head start, then moved after him at an easy pace. He hung back on the long stretches and stepped behind trees whenever the trail doubled on itself. Jun got far ahead, but never so far that Damian couldn’t find him again. His boy wasn’t hiding. Near the gorge, Jun left the trail and Damian had to approach more carefully, crouching down in the brush and moving only with the wind. He could have been less careful. Jun was being absolutely oblivious. He’d tossed off his flannel, his shirt, and his shoes and socks and was shucking his jeans as Damian army crawled his way past a log and caught sight of him again. There was a pool of water about four feet deep at the base of the falls and Jun was just above it. He dropped his jeans over a low branch with the rest of his clothes and crouched down, working his way over the rocks down to the water on his hands and knees.
Gods, his boy was teasing him without even knowing he was there. All that beautiful naked skin in the morning light. Jun’s muscles were warm and flexed as he moved, his leg stretching out, his back rippling with lean dancer muscle as he bent and twisted to make it down to the water.
Then he slid in, shivering and yelping.
Damian muffled his groan. He had to get closer.
Carefully, he worked his way down the hill until he was downstream of the pool and then crept along until he was close. Depending on how this went, he might be getting wet. If he had to run, his pants would drag him down with their weight. He took the time to undress and stow his clothes. In nothing but his cotton jockstrap, a wide armband with secured slots for supplies like plastic syringes prefilled with lube for quick application, and bracelet he crawled out on all fours to a rock looking down on the water just above Jun and waited, crouched on his hands and knees.
Jun was stretched out in the water, drifting in the pool, head back, face turned towards the sun, eyes closed. Whenever he reached the edge, he’d push himself with his foot or his hand back towards the middle. Mist from the waterfall above drifting through the air above. The birds that had gone somewhat quiet as Damian approached came back. Damian lowered himself to his stomach and let his arm hang down. For a long time, he just watched, enjoying his boy, enjoying the fresh air, the sound of the water falling, all of it.
Jun’s eyes opened and zeroed in on Damian’s hand. They widened and traveled up Damian’s arm to his face.
“Fuck!” Jun flipped over in the water and splashed towards the bank.
Damian laughed. There was no quick way to get from where he was to where Jun was scrambling out of the water, but why would he, anyway. Jun was putting on too much of a show, his glistening ass up in the air as he crawled on his hands and knees up the rocks.
Jun made it to the tree line and grabbed his shoes. Good. At least his feet would be protected. Damian rushed back for his own. He shoved his feet into his sneakers and left his clothes. Jun was running north and turning east. Damian followed. It was easy to find him, the sound of running was muffled but Jun wasn’t quiet. Damian set a pace behind him.
