THE GENTLEMEN'S CLUB Roderick Written by Lady Poetess egiggles at moose-mail.com /~bbp Please do not reproduce on any website without permission. This story has no resemblance to anyone dead or alive. ONE As the unofficial sheriff and peacemaker of this lakeside town of Little Bigby, it was Eric Ouellette's duty to know the presence of every newcomer in town, tourist or paranormal enthusiasts. Even if he weren't aware of any newcomers, he would be when he visited the local diner for his breakfast at eight every morning. He had no problems with newcomers as long as they stayed out of trouble. The legend of the Bigby monster attracted those too cheap to visit Loch Ness, and Little Bigby also had a booming tourist trade because of its clear warm waters that were perfect for fishing. The lake wasn't big, but it was deep had many nooks and crannies that a dinosaur could easily hide in. Once a kid drowned just a few feet away from his parents because the parents couldn't see the kid - reeds, bushes, and thick mud banks all made Lake Bigby a dangerous place for swimming. Eric spent most of his days on his boat patrolling the waters. He didn't believe in the monster, because he hadn't seen one in the ten years he had lived here. He knew the waters here better than anyone, because ten years of navigating every nook and cranny could do that to you. All he knew was that he didn't mind the industry the tourist brought in, as long as they followed the rules. Hence he was in a foul mood as he steered his boat, looking for the newcomer Roderick Mancuso who just arrived this morning and against the advice of the Bornforst who ran the local rental boat business, took a boat to explore Hemlock Creek. Hemlock Creek was the nutcase magnet here - rumors of the Bigby monster being sighted there lured the nutcases there like a lemming stampede, but unfortunately the sharp rocks and turbulent waters also led the nutcases more often than not into trouble. Damn, his new pair of swim trunks itched, and that was another reason for his bad mood. His recent laundry accident - the washing machine caught on fire and along with most of his clothes - had him spending almost all of his meager pay on a new wardrobe, and upon some temporary moment on insanity, he decided to invest on those fancy tiny swim trunks. The ones he ordered were too small, like the one he was wearing, and they made him itch around the balls. Hell, he could barely keep his balls and dick from popping out, and the trunks were riding dangerously low already as they were. There was the boat. He recognized it at once from the name Bornforst gave him - the Santa Bigby (Bornforst always did have crazy delusions of grandeur, for fuck's sake it was just a stupid motorboat). It was empty, a bad sign. Eric stopped his boat beside it and looked around. There was no one he could see, even on. Fucking hell - this was bad. Eric cursed when he saw ripples on the surface of the water. He pulled his shirt off and dived into the dark depths in a smooth plunge. TWO Roddy Mancuso climbed onto the boat, and reached for the towel to dry himself. In his hand was what he came to look for - a small, undistinguished metallic prism shard he had dug from the depths of the lake. The journal that the bumbling explorer Toby Stephens found in the Inca ruin in Tikka Iklutz, Mexico was accurate after all, he thought, pleased. He gave a soft start when someone burst from the calm water. Roddy then noticed the boat beside his - shit. The last thing he needed was a rival fortune hunter. He reached for the dagger he wore in a sheath on the belt around the waist of his swim trunks, only to realize his mistake the moment he placed the blade against the jugular of the man making to climb on board his boat. "You must be Sheriff Ouellette," he said, sheathing his dagger and pulling the man on board. The man only gave a growl and pounced on Roddy. They fell down hard, Roddy pinned under the man's weight, the sheriff's hands pinning down his and the sheriff's knees pressing down Roddy's legs. The prism fell across the boat. Both their eyes followed it. Ouellette moved first, reaching for it, in the process his knees easing slightly on their painful pressure on Roddy's own knees. Roddy took this opportunity to push hard, throwing the sheriff off him. But the sheriff's hand was already halfway there to reaching the prism. In desperation, Roddy made a grab - and his hand pulled hard on the other man's shocking brief trunks. There was a soft tearing sound as they were pulled down the man's buttocks, and Ouellette fell on his stomach hard. He turned just as Roddy threw himself over him. Shocked silence descended as they found themselves face to face. Roddy shook slightly as he found himself looking at the weathered but shockingly attractive face of the sheriff. Never more was he aware of the hard-muscled body beneath him, a sculpted body of perfect musculature that could put a Greek god to shame, and Roddy was keenly aware of his hands pressing down on the most perfect pectorals he seemed to have ever touched, right down to the two hard nipples that burned into his palm like the streak of desire fast taking over his every senses. And from the way their breathings began to take on a rapid, harsh rhythm, Roddy was aware that Eric's dark brown eyes had deepened into pools of hunger. Eric's cock trapped between Roddy's thighs was already fast filling into its impressive length and thickness, and Roddy was intensely aware of his own near nudity, the tumescence in his shorts, and the vulnerable need in his now aching ass to be filled. Roddy lifted his lower body, and Eric, instead of pushing him off, pushed his fingers into the waistband of Roddy's shorts and pulled them down. Roddy urgently reached down and touched the hot, burning erection and cried out in need as the engorged crown pressed urgently against the tight pucker of Roddy's ass. Already the cock was fast moistening with lusty fuck juices, and Roddy pushed down even as Eric thrust upwards with a violent lift of his groin, his buttocks lifting off the floor. Both of them cried out in pleasure even as Eric's cock plunged home to the hilt. The shock of the sudden penetration shook them both so much that Eric just lay there, his hands urgently squeezing and massaging Roddy's pectorals as they both tried to adjust to the feeling of the incredibly tight ass trying to accommodate the cock that was way too large for its usual capacity. Roddy tried desperately to relax his nether muscles, experimentally riding up and down that cock. Soon, Eric urged him with the thrusts of his own hips, until Roddy's ass adjusted to the painful invasion of potent male flesh. Eric, sensing the other man beginning to relax, began to increase the rhythm of his pumping. Roddy threw his head back, his eyes closed, and his mouth wide opened as he breathed loudly, often moaning and crying out as he began to lose control, his speed and rhythm becoming more and more bruising and urgent as he began to climax noisily. Eric smoothly reversed their positions, and Roddy screamed as he convulsed into a powerful climax, his cock spurting his hot juices hard that a large amount actually splattered across Eric's face. More semen splattered on Eric's chin, neck, chest, and lower and Eric balanced himself on his hands and knees. As Roddy lifted his thighs to clasp them high around Eric's torso, right under the man's armpits, Eric began fucking the man in earnest. His cock ravaged Roddy's steaming ass, in deep and hard thrusts, his cock actually becoming thicker and harder with each rapid inward plunge as blood rushed through every thick vein along his shaft and his own come began filling his seminal tubes and urethra - so much that they felt as hard as stone - and then he felt the familiar sensation of come rushing hot and searing along his cock, the tightening of his powerful balls, and the engorged sensation of his cock crown, right before his slit separated forcefully and in a burning sensation, his fiery semen ejaculating in a powerful scorching series of spurts into Roddy's convulsing ass. Roddy arched his back, still caught up in a powerful climax that hadn't stopped since his initial climax, and the carnal glory of being filled with this man's drenching male spunk only heightened his orgasm. He screamed until he was hoarse, and Eric held him tight, even bruising him, as the sheriff gave a loud guttural roar in his own powerful climax. They remained joined that way, breathing hard to the point of hyperventilating, as their orgasms slowly ebbed down. Sweat drenched them both, cooling their overheated bodies, and Eric looked down at the man below him. "My name's Eric," he said in between heavy pants. "You have a nice way of welcoming strangers to town, Eric," Roddy managed to say shakily. Eric laughed, and Roddy joined him. THREE "This is the crystal they say is part of a key used to unlock an ancient spacecraft that was said to have crashed in the bottom of the lake," Roddy said as he passed the prism to Eric. "There are three more components I must find, and they are all hidden around here." "Alien spacecraft? This is not Roswell, Roddy," Eric said, studying the prism he held in one hand as he steered the motorboat with the other. "I don't really believe it, but I found this, didn't I?" Roddy said. "Whatever it is, it must be something that can bring about such incredible tales of space aliens, so I intend to find the other components as well as the space craft." Eric shook his head. In the two days since they had met, he learned that Roddy was what they would call a relic hunter. He traveled around the world looking for legends and treasures. Rich spoiled city kids, Eric thought privately, but he didn't mention it aloud to Roddy. Every night he fucked Roddy, and each night was a repeat or a more powerful encore of the first powerful mating that Eric felt weak in the knees just thinking about it. He didn't understand it - surely the novelty would wane the second time they fucked, right? But if anything, fucking Roddy seemed to become more earth shattering each time. His cock peeked out through his trunks, and Roddy noticed. Eric had taken to wearing shorts over them, because it was embarrassing. His cock was having a hard time already keeping within the confines of those trunks, but when Roddy was around, he became as hard as a rock. Roddy got on his knees, and Eric's hand tightened around the steering wheel even as he urged Roddy with his other hand, letting the prism drop onto the floor. Roddy began sucking him, and Eric moaned. It was a good thing nobody was drowning, because Eric wouldn't have noticed, lost as he was in Roddy's expert skill in fellatio. Sunset wasn't bad, Eric decided, it was all red and orange, but it was much nicer when watched from a hammock at the porch of his lakeside house, enjoying the breeze, his man lazing beside him with one hand down Eric's swim trunks. Eric lay back and let Roddy play with his dick, enjoying the pleasure. Roddy complained playfully that he was sore, and Eric, mindful of the possibility of hurting Roddy too much, vowed to be nice and stay clear of any actually penetration tonight. He just kissed Roddy's forehead as he rubbed the man's hair and laughed softly as Roddy murmured something obscene under his breath. Trying to slow Roddy down, he reluctantly pulled the man's hand out of his trunk and held it to his chest. "I like it when you join me on my trips." "You just want some fun on those long, boring trips round the lake, big guy," Roddy remarked. He tried to free his hand, but Eric was strong. "After the way you behave around, I'm sure the whole town knows that you and I are fucking." "Good. If those guys sniff around you once more, I will personally beat their heads in," Eric growled, remembering darkly the way Roddy seemed to invite flirtations. He could easily imagine having to fend off Roddy's admirers all the time in the future. Roddy, Eric had learned within a day of knowing the man, was the unusual kind of guy who was a mix of nerd and jock. The man knew what seemed like everything there was to know about nature. Roddy told him that he had never attended a school before, his parents home-schooling him until he was seventeen, upon which he applied for college and actually got into Boston. Roddy shifted slightly, nesting his head on comfortable warmth of Eric's chest. "You should be happy that I don't get jealous over them all drooling over that cock of yours." He made his point by cupping his hand over the body part in question with his free hand. Eric laughed as Roddy squeezed playfully, his laugh slowly fading into a groan as Roddy began massaging his aching tumescence. "Okay, a few of them may have seen my dick up close..." "How many?" Roddy demanded to know. Eric pretended to count, only to laugh again when Roddy straddled him and began tickling him with earnest. "How many, damn you?" Roddy cried out in mock outrage. "How many?" "It doesn't matter anymore. It's you and me now, right, for now?" Eric managed to say. Roddy gracefully conceded to that. "You're not my usual type, Eric, but you're okay," he said. "You may be book smart, mister, but don't you think I'm some backward hick," Eric teased him. "I lived in LA once." "What did you do there?" Roddy asked. "Well, I was born here, and I got bored soon enough. I packed up and moved to LA, bounced a few bars, even became a fireman for three years, but then I came back here in the end. LA seems much more exciting - it is - but in the end, I like it here better." "I can see why," Roddy concurred. "The scenery is beautiful, and the peace of it all. Sometimes I think I'd like to stay here for as long as I could." "Why don't you?" Eric asked quickly, maybe too quickly. "So you're the unofficial leader of this town," Roddy just said instead. Eric let Roddy change the subject. If he was honest, he wasn't sure that he wanted to face his feelings for the other man. "I always wanted to modernize this place a little," he told Roddy, "give it a more organized economy, or something. But no one here seems to know what to do." He wondered if he should say what he was thinking. Oh, why not? "Except maybe you." "Yeah, I have connections with the city folks, I have money, and I have the brains." Roddy stretched and lazily stepped down the hammock. "Actually, I'm planning to write after I find this spacecraft. I will not travel for a long, long time." He turned and winked at Eric as he stood at the pier facing the lake. "Be nice to me, Eric, and you may just get your wish and I will want to stay here a lot longer." Eric lifted his upper body and watched in bemused delight as Roddy gracefully slipped off his shorts, not caring if anyone could see his nudity, and dived into the water. "You'll actually consider staying with me a lot longer?" he called out as he ran down the pier. He went down on one knee at the edge of the pier. No Roddy in sight. "Roddy?" he called. "Where are you?" With a laugh that caused Eric to jump a little, Roddy surfaced. One hand reached out and pulled at Eric's trunks, the skimpy material easily allowing the man's cock to spring free. Roddy lifted his body up so that his mouth could close over Roddy's cock, and then he fell back in the water. Roddy, not wanting that delicious suction of his cock to end so soon, laughed and dived in after the man. Roddy began swimming away. "Yeah, I'll stay with you a lot longer," he called back at Eric. "If you can catch me and make me." Eric began to give chase in earnest. FOUR Eric didn't stir when Roddy whispered his name. Perfect. Roddy quietly pulled on his pants and threw his shirt over as he walked towards the door. He paused to pick up shut the door behind him when a knife was pressed against his neck, right under his Adam's apple. "Ah, Lea," Roddy said pleasantly. "You're improving. A year ago I would have heard you sneaking up to me." "I want the journal back," Nicholas Lea said. "Okay. Can I reach it into my bag and take it out first?" Roddy said. "Ha, you think I'm born yesterday. Hand me the bag." Lea took the bag roughly without much ado. Roddy watched as the man walked away, still facing Roddy warily. Lea bent down and rummaged into the bag, and grinned triumphantly as he pulled out the familiar musty old tome wrapped in protective plastic. And Roddy watched, cursing silently to himself, as Lea ran off into the night with the journal. Still, he knew where Lea would go - back to his lover Toby Stephens, to whom he was doggedly loyal to like the most tenacious bulldog. An almost inhuman smile of anticipation playing at his lips, Roddy began to run. Eric awoke when he realized that the bed was empty apart from him. "Roddy?" he called. Receiving no answer, he squinted at the clock beside him, the glowing digits indicating that the time was four twelve am. "Roddy, damn it, where are you?" he called again. "Come back to bed." Cursing softly, he got on his feet and sauntered nude around his house. "Roddy?" No Roddy. For a moment, Eric actually panicked, afraid that Roddy had packed up and gone. Later, he would wonder why he cared so much, but now he could only grab for his pair of jeans and T-shirt before he dashed out of his house. Later, he would also wonder how he knew where to go. At that moment, he just ran with an urgency he didn't understand, not knowing where, just feeling this frantic fear that he might be too late if he didn't hurry. And sure enough, he dashed through a door he dimly recalled as a room in Madeline's inn, just as a shot rang out. He watched, stunned into silence, as Roddy collapsed, his face frozen in an expression of disbelief, as a pool of blood began to spread across his chest. He fell off another man, whom Roddy had been attacking. Eric gaped at the sight of the man Roddy had been attacking - deep red lacerations tore through the man's shirt and flesh, lacerations that could only be caused by sharp claws - perhaps those razor sharp claws now slowly retracting, morphing into the appearance of more humanoid nails as Roddy slowly slipped into unconsciousness. The man who fired his gun held it shakily at Eric. "Who the fuck are you?" "What is he?" Eric whispered as he watched Toby bandaged Lea's chest. Toby Stephens didn't pretend to misunderstand the question. He just nodded at Roddy, who was still unconscious but now tied securely on the bed in the room. "After seeing him attack Lea, I'll hazard a guess that he's not exactly human," he said. "I don't know what to think. Perhaps the space craft really does exist, and Roddy needs to use it to go home." "He's an alien?" Eric said. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't accept it. "But it's not possible." "Yeah, and I'm actually imagining this. Shit, Toby, be gentle," Lea hissed. "Sorry, Nic." Toby apologetically loosened the bandage a little. "Should he be at the hospital?" Eric asked. This he could handle - an injured man. "I can call - " "Nah. This is nothing," Lea told him. "I had worse, like when the Sunn'iahs tortured me in El Turasia - now that was a bad one." "Nonetheless, we have to check and see if there will be any side effects from the injuries," Toby told him. "Oh please," came Roddy's weak voice, "What do you think I am, the predator monster?" But Roddy's cocky voice faltered when he saw the man with Toby and Lea. "Shit," he just whispered. "Oh fuck." "What are you?" Eric asked, forgetting Lea and Toby and walking towards Roddy despite his best judgment. "Your hands, they turn into claws." "Don't ask, Eric," Roddy just said, looking away. He closed his eyes wearily. "Just forget what you saw." "I can't forget, damn you," Eric said in a low, hard voice. "What did you do to me, Roddy?" "Nothing. It's biological. Among my people, we come into heat the moment we meet our mates. We mate only once, and it's a sad, twisted fate, Eric. When one dies, the other will follow within a heartbeat. Somehow in the bonding, we become one in every way that counts. And we can't fight it. I can't. I am compelled to give in to the mating call - with you. A human. Who would've thought?" Roddy studied Eric, his face inscrutable. But Eric somehow knew that the man was hurting, just as he knew how to find Roddy, because Roddy was in danger. "I have never heard of my people mating with anyone outside our species, humanoid or no. That's how you know where to find me, by the way. You just know. Because our minds no longer have any boundaries when it comes to each other's emotions and we just know where to find each other." "Damn," Toby whispered from the background. Eric ignored him. "I need the journal," Roddy continued. "My parents and I crashed here twenty years ago, and I just want to go home. Please, Toby, let me find the ship. If you want to see a fucking spacecraft, go dig up the old useless craft that I came here with in the Andes range. I just want to go home," he whispered. "You shouldn't have attacked Lea," Toby pointed out furiously. "You shouldn't have stolen the journal from me. You could have fucking ask me and I will help you." "I don't trust you," Roddy said simply. "And I should tell you - my strength is returning. In five minutes, I'll break free of these ropes and you'll have to choose. Give me the journal or I'll kill you both. This time you won't catch me unawares." "Shut up, Roddy," Eric said, moving to stand between Roddy and the other two. "I won't let you lay a finger on them." Roddy only scowled and defiantly pulled one hand up, snapping the ropes holding it to the bedpost. Behind Eric, someone loaded a gun - "Stand aside and let me blow a hole through his fucking brain," Lea said. "Shut up, all of you," Toby snapped. He seemed startled when all three pairs of eyes focused on him. "Roddy, I'll give you back the journal. Hell, just take it and get out of this planet, I don't care if I ever see you again. Here!" He flung the journal to Roddy, who caught it with his free hand. "Next year I'll stick to chasing the Holy Grail," he snapped. "And here is the second part of your key," he said, pulling out a circular prism shard from his pocket. "Take it." Roddy caught it and closed his fingers tightly around it. "I... but why?" he finally asked. "I'm Toby Stephens, a respected paranormal researcher, I don't pillage and plunder paranormal evidences, instead I study them or debunk them!" Toby said hotly. "Your attitude is a mockery to my work." "He's British," Lea told Eric. Eric nodded stupidly. "Just tell me, will Nic be okay? Those wounds won't fester?" Toby asked. "No, they won't." Roddy broke free the last of his restrains, but he just lay back on the bed. "Look, can I be left alone with Eric?" "This is our room," Lea pointed out. "Oh come on, Nic," Toby told him. "I'll get you to the clinic." "Tell Dr Jackson that I sent you. He won't dare to turn you away if you say my name," Eric told them absently, his eyes on Roddy. Toby shut the door behind them, and Eric was left alone with Roddy. Eric didn't turn away. Roddy was confused when Eric just sat on the bed beside him and actually touched his cheek, checking to see if there were any bruises or wounds. "So, do you have three eyes, green skin?" Eric asked conversationally. "I'm what you see. The claws are our natural defense mechanism. I can't make any other of my body part longer or bigger if that's what you're thinking." Eric chuckled. "Even now you can crack a joke." "I don't want to cry or rage, may as well I laugh." "But you're not laughing, are you?" Eric asked simply. "No." Roddy wished Eric would stop touching him. It wasn't making this easy. Even now, desire was slowly fanning with each touch and each rub of their body against each other. "You are my mate," he finally said. "And you'll be leaving me," Eric said. "You won't even ask me if I want to come with you?" "You can't survive on my planet. I can breathe your atmosphere just fine, because it has sulfur, and I breathe in sulfur. But my planet - which we call Xerona, the fifth planet from the star called Ceresion (similar to your sun, only around ten times larger in size) in the Alpha Centauri galaxy. Which is a stupid name you humans give our galaxy. We call it Jurecon Xontellis. And what kind of stupid name is the Milky Way anyway?" Eric placed his finger on Roddy's lips, silencing his babbling. "I will always know where you are, like you said. You leave me here, and I will personally lead NASA to your old spacecraft and beg them to restore it. If they can't, I will wait until they either discover a way to travel to your place or die trying to find you." "You won't find me." "But I will try. Because apparently we are mates, and that means we are in a committed relationship, right? I will honor that vow. What is it in your people? To love, cherish, and honor, till death do we part? That's my way, and I will do that, I swear I will." "Then help me find the ship, Eric. Please. I miss my home. I want to go home." Eric looked away. "Okay," he said lifelessly. "If that's what you want." FIVE "It sure looks like something out of TV," Eric said, trying to be jovial as he stepped into what looked like a white room. Roddy didn't laugh. Neither did Eric. They watched as Roddy flipped open a panel and placed his hand over some glowing light - just like in TV - and the ship seemed to come to life. Lights, screens with blinking lights - Eric couldn't absorb it. All he knew was this man whom he was irrevocably bonded to by chemicals, hormones, and other complicated substances - and emotions - he couldn't comprehend would be away in literally another world, another world that couldn't divide them, as he would be keenly aware of the distance between them every living heartbeat of a second. How could he bear it? How could Roddy bear it? Roddy just stood there with his back to Eric, frozen, a beautiful figure in only short swim trunks that revealed every glorious detail of his sculpted body like an untouchable god. Eric wanted to turn away, but he couldn't. Roddy lowered his head, and his shoulders heave - once - before he hooked his thumb into his trunks and pushed them down. When he turned to look at Eric, it was with eyes red and moist with tears. Eric pushed his own trunks down, letting his throbbing cock free. One step, then another, and then he was feeding his erection into the willing tight heat at the junction between Roddy's thighs. Roddy placed his palms, fingers splayed wide, at the wall and his forehead against, a man who seemed defeated and dead inside, and as Eric took him, he let his palm cover Roddy's, each of his fingers between Roddy's, until Roddy tightened his fingers into a fist, holding Eric tight, hand to hand, cock to anus, as they both came in a hard climax that wrung the last of their breath. "I can't leave you," Roddy whispered harshly. "Eric, oh Eric, I can't bear to leave you," he repeated, and he would have fallen onto his knees if Eric hadn't held him. "I can't bear the very idea of not being with you. I hate this, fuck it, I hate this fucking bond between us!" He yelled the last sentence, before laughing brokenly. "No, I don't," he amended. "I could still see the beautiful red mountains of my home, and I want to stay here with you, I..." "No, Roddy, you should go home," Eric whispered. There, he said it. "You spent all your life searching for this way home, and you won't be happy here, even with me. Please go, Roddy. It's probably for the best." Roddy nodded, and buried his head in Eric's shoulder. His tears mingled with the sweat and water on Eric's flesh, but it didn't matter. Eric inhaled the man's scent, trying to savor it one last time, even as he pushed his cock deeper into Roddy's body, his body recoiling at the idea of leaving this man. "Just remember me, okay?" he managed to say through the constriction in his throat and heart. "I love you, you stupid alien." "I hate that word," Roddy said feebly. "But yeah, I'll remember, Eric. I swear it." Eric didn't know how, but he managed to walk away from Roddy. He saw Roddy staring back at him at the doorway of the fucking ship, and he pulled on his trunks, waved shortly, before diving back into the waters, before he lost his nerve and break down and cry. "I'm sorry about Roddy," Toby said. Behind him, Nicholas Lea loaded the last of their bags into the cab that would take them to the airport, where they would fly off to another place that had some paranormal or unexplained phenomena that fascinated Toby. Unlike Lea, who thought Roddy's departure a good riddance indeed (the man's stoic nature amazed Eric, but then again, Lea had probably seen enough strange things in his adventures with Toby), Toby genuinely seemed to feel sorry for Eric. "No, don't be," Eric told him. "For a week, it was pure magic." "He said that you will never mate again," Toby remarked thoughtfully. "You think you will ever...?" "We'll see," Eric said. Not that he believed it, as his interest in living, not just in sex, seemed to have evaporated with Roddy's departure. He went through days by motion, smiling emptily at people, but inside he felt dead and drained. "We always get hot hunks coming here every year," he told Toby just to humor the man. "Maybe I'll find someone soon." What he was aware of was Roddy. He looked into the sky every night, and he stared at the stars, so hard until his eyes ached, at the very spot that he knew Roddy was, too far away for him to reach. So Roddy wasn't human, and Eric was probably under-reacting to the insane adventure he was caught up in this week, but how could he behave otherwise? Roddy seemed so right, so perfect, and now he was gone. Fuck Roddy. Damn him to hell for leaving him like this! As he watched the cab leave, he realized that now he was truly alone. Toby and Lea, whom he could at least share his misery with, were now gone as well. In Little Bigby, surrounded by people he couldn't really relate to anymore, he was finally, utterly alone. He looked up at the sky, trying to ignore the sun's blinding light, until his eyes watered and he had to look away. SIX That night, Eric dreamed that Roddy came home - to him. He dashed through the night, stopping only to pull on a pair of jeans, and by the pier, there Roddy stood, smiling nervously, hands in pockets of his jeans, waiting for Eric. "I couldn't do it. I have to turn back, and come back to you," Roddy said. This was a nice dream, Eric decided. "My home? It has nice mountains and other amazing things you can't imagine. But you are here, Eric, my life and my soul, excuse the corniness, and that makes this my home now," Roddy said. "We'll be good together, Eric. Did I mention that I'm pretty rich? Amazing analytical skills and permutation calculative abilities make me a super killer at the stock markets. I'll live here with you, and you can do your sheriff thing while I sell the Bigby monster trinkets to gullible tourists. How about it, Eric? Please?" Eric had seen the dashing heroes like Fred Astaire do this to the heroines they love in old movies. He tried to emulate them, to gracefully sweep Roddy in his arms and kissed the man while the audience applause wildly like they should. But when he first touched Roddy - shattering this lovely dream to drive him to realize that this was sweet, sweet reality - he became Eric Ouellette again. "Sure," he said, and laughed in relief as he kissed the man. He wanted to be tender, but as the dark voids in their souls now lighten with the reinforced proximity between them, their hunger flared anew, and they were fast tearing at each other clothes. On the pier, Roddy closed his eyes and cried out in relief and bliss as Eric's cock once more filled him to completion. Eric kissed his chin and neck, and as they began moving together, he knew this was the right decision he had made. Their climax was almost unbearable, Roddy's body singing with pleasure that he thought he would explode, and when Eric released his climax into his body, Roddy's body hummed with life - this was right, this was the perfect, most correct thing he had ever done. And, "Welcome home, love," Eric whispered.