71: Midnight Picnic

This chapter contains sexual content. NSFW 18+ readers please.

Inho peered out of the rain-spattered window. There were no streetlamps here, but he could see trees and shapes that looked like boats in the dark. “Where are we?”

“A picnic spot.”

“What?”

Stephen got out of the car and was fussing with something in the backseat, so Inho got out and joined him. It was cold, but it had stopped raining.

Stephen emerged with a large basket and a blanket tucked under his arm.

“What’s happening?”

“I got tired of the car, let’s go sit by the water.”

Dumbfounded, Inho followed him down a slight grassy incline. They were absolutely alone in a park that ran alongside a body of water he didn’t recognize. Sailboats bobbed and swayed where they were tied at a small dock. The low sounds of rope creaking filled the night straining at their moorings after the night’s rain.

Stephen shook out a large square blanket and gestured for Inho to sit on it, before stepping out of his own shoes and settling on top of his stockinged feet. This was surreal. Inho joined him and found that the blanket was lined with plastic to protect them from the sodden lawn.

Pulling a long cozy flannel blanket from the basket, Stephen wrapped Inho up warmly, before pulling another across his lap. Tiny tealight candles in glass jars followed the blankets out, and Stephen deftly lit them and placed them like flickering fireflies in the grass around them.

Inho’s focus on the little flames’ dance was interrupted by Stephen handing him a mug of hot chocolate from a steaming thermos.

“Stephen seriously, what is all this?”

“I knew we were going to fight. I didn’t want it to be your only memory of today. Macaron?”

He proffered a box of the same expensive macarons he’s sent Inho at the restaurant after their first date. Inho pursed his lips and plucked a green one from the box, popping it whole in his mouth. It was pistachio.

“You haven’t been out of the house much lately. There’s a thing here, seasonal depression, people get really down from the constant rains. And, I know you like doing whimsical things outdoors. Remember the pool?”

Inho smiled despite himself.

Stephen shifted to sit against him and tweaked their blankets to cover them both. He set their hot chocolates aside and rested his head on Inho’s shoulder, “I really am sorry. The Chris thing I can’t do anything about, but the rest was shit.”

“It’s okay,” Inho mumbled, “It was just...a mess. You couldn’t have known it would happen like that.” His chest squeezed and his eyes prickled. He’d been super harsh in the car, while Stephen had all this sitting in the back.

A big part of him couldn’t let it go though. Even with the apology, this fight had, in a way, refreshed the pain of his breakup with Jamie. How he didn’t feel like he fit with Stephen, how he felt inferior around him, and inadequate. At the very least, he and Jamie had had trust, but with Stephen…

He was just so full of doubt. And, the doubt was painful, because it was shouting to leave all this, to leave the person that would make a midnight picnic in the rain just so he wouldn't have a single day tainted with bad memories.

Inho’s whole life he’d never felt like anyone’s priority, not his depressed mother, not his long-distance father, not Jamie. But, right now he did. When he stopped to think about it, he felt like the center of Stephen’s world. And, when Stephen nuzzled his face against Inho’s shoulder, then lifted his chin for a kiss, Inho stopped thinking at all.

It started slow – slow and sweet. Stephen kissed him gently and lightly, the type of slow intense connection that convey feelings in a way that words can’t. Stephen’s hands cupped his face, and Inho rested his cheeks in his palms, shutting his eyes, and letting out a sigh of suppressed emotion.

Stephen kissed him harder, his hand drifting back to tangle in Inho’s hair. Faster now and a little bit frantic, Inho’s pulse increased exponentially and he struggled to keep up.

Inho wished so hard to forget everything that had happened between them so far. He just wanted to be happy and together. Stephen’s was mouth ravenous on his and he pulled hard on Inho’s hair. Inho’s breath caught, then gasped out of him. This was what Inho needed. For his body to match the chaotic feelings inside. He wanted to focus on the moment and empty his mind completely.

He sank his teeth into Stephen’s lower lip. Hard enough to bruise, maybe hard enough to draw blood. Stephen yelped and tried to draw back. Inho ground his teeth deeper for an instant before letting go.

Stephen stared at him, candlelight flickering in his eyes, making them shiny and feverish, “You okay?”

Inho placed his hands flat on Stephen’s chest, fingers spread wide on his muscular pecs and pushed him down hard, then mounted his lap. Stephen lay still, blinking up at him, trying to get a read on his mood. But, Inho didn’t know his own mood, he felt reckless and destructive. He wanted to be distracted. Slipping his fingers between Stephen’s monogrammed buttons, he lay his cold hand briefly on Stephen’s skin, before wrenching his wrist back with a jerk, ripping the shirt open.

“Wait! That’s expensive!”

Inho ignored Stephen as he bent lips and teeth to Stephen’s chest. The fingers of one hand dug into Stephen’s obliques, gripping his hard waist mercilessly. The other rubbed the front of Stephen’s pants. Stephen writhed below him, shocked at the rough treatment but turned on nonetheless.

Inho gave Stephen’s nipple a final caress with his tongue and nipped it hard before sliding down between his legs.

“Inho, we’re outside,” Stephen gasped.

“No. Really?” Inho kissed the front of his boxers. He was hard of course, and there was a small damp spot where his pre-cum had leaked through the cotton. Inho placed his tongue there, letting his saliva soak through as he teased Stephen’s tip, tasting him.

“Please. We should go home if–”

Inho bit him. Only lightly – wrapping his jaw around Stephen’s shaft, gripping it through the fabric. Stephen grabbed him by the hair and ripped his face away. Neck arched painfully, Inho gazed up at him with a feral expression, raising a hand only to wipe saliva where it ran down his chin.

“I think I see what you’re after,” Stephen told him a sly grin starting to spread across his face, “Let’s go to the car shall we?”