It had been an awful day. Carl stumbled through the door into the dorm room he shared with his best friend and partner in wizardry with one hand covering his eyes, trying to rub away the killer headache making itself at home in his temples. Somewhere in the place was some kind of painkiller- but where?
"What's wrong?" Tom's concerned voice sounded unnaturally loud.
"Headache from hell," Carl grunted. He peered blearily into the medicine cabinet. Where were those damn painkillers?
"Hey, you go sit down or something. I'll take care of that." Tom rose from his bed and gave Carl a gentle shove out of the bathroom. "What happened to you, anyway? You don't usually stress out so easily."
"The better question would be, what didn't happen?" Carl crashed onto his bed, facedown. "A test I forgot to study for, Darcy stalking me all day, and don't forget the unassisted repair job on the worldgate."
"What? Why didn't you call me?" Tom sat beside him on the bed and offered a couple pills and a glass of water. Carl sat up with a grimace and knocked the painkillers back.
"Couldn't- there was no time. It was an emergency call from someone who wanted to transit. The gate went unstable- had to untangle a major mess, then reweave the strings without even a cat to help. You know what that does to a person?"
"Yeah, man- it's no wonder you're so wiped out. Lay back down, now-" Tom put a hand on his shoulder and pushed. Carl went down without complaint. "Damn, youre tense," Tom said. "Bet that's a big part of your headache." He started rubbing.
"Mmm." Carl wiggled into a more comfortable position. Tom smiled and took that as an invitation to continue. He ran both hands over the tense shoulders lightly, then started working on the stubborn knots. He slipped into a pleasant, almost dreamlike state. This was nice. This was very nice, in fact.
Tom slid his hands up under Carl's shirt. There, much better- now he could feel where the knots were with ease. Carl sighed, then struggled upright. Tom jerked back, feeling slightly guilty. "What-"
"Just wanted to get this out of the way," Carl responded, as he peeled out of his shirt. Tom swallowed against the sudden dryness in his throat.
"Okay," he said. Carl laid back down and Tom resumed his rubbing. Now this was more like it. He could almost believe that this was one of his most secret dreams coming true, dreams which did not end with a mere backrub. He worked the knots out of his friend's back slowly and thoroughly, hearing but not really noticing the occasional sighs and moans of relief. He didn't want this to ever end, didn't want to have to take his hands from Carl's smooth warm skin, didn't want to have to go back to pretending Carl was just his best friend... his hands slid up and down, no longer rubbing knots out, just exploring. It felt so good... Without really thinking about it, he bent over and kissed the spot right between Carl's shoulderblades. Mmm.
A slightly salty taste roused him back to reality. Tom froze in absolute horror. Surely he hadn't...? But there was no denying it- he'd gone and done just what he would have in a dream, kissing and licking on that inviting back, while his hands wandered- shit. He stiffened and pulled away. Carl made a noise of protest.
"Um... sorry," Tom choked out, around his embarassment. Oh, hell- now he'd really gone and done it!
Carl rolled onto his side, facing Tom. "Why'd you stop?" he asked, reaching up to trace his fingers lightly down Tom's cheek.
"Sorry, I wasn't thinking- I didn't- I mean-" Tom still was immersed in his embarassment, too deeply to notice the way Carl was looking at him.
Carl chuckled softly. "You idiot, I'm not mad!" His fingers drifted through Tom's hair.
"I'm sor- wait a minute. You're not mad?" Tom's eyes widened as he finally realized what he'd heard.
"Not unless you really mean to stop what you were doing..." A slow smile spread across Carl's face. Then his hand pulled Tom towards him with a gentle, inexorable pressure. Tom gazed helplessly into Carl's smiling eyes, and then their lips met, sending an explosion of fire through his veins.
"Ohhh..." Tom couldn't believe this was happening. "If this is a dream, I hope I never wake up." His hands found new territory to explore on the front of Carl's chest.
"Not a dream," Carl murmured, as he nibbled his way along Tom's neck. "C'mere, you-" and he pulled Tom the rest of the way onto the bed.
"Wait-" Tom protested, then struggled out of his shirt. Then he was back in Carl's arms, skin sliding across skin, lips meeting with frantic passion, hands clutching and stroking and tearing at remaining clothing...
Then there was no clothing left, nothing to seperate them from each other. Tom cried out, a hoarse sound of disbelieving joy, when he felt Carl press up against him with a hunger matching his own. Then he attacked his friend's groin frantically with lips and tongue, eager to learn every detail, free at last to do as he pleased. Carl groaned.
"Tom... ahhh! Tom, up here... I want-"
Hands pulled at Tom, and he followed their guidance, moving so he knelt over Carl- he gasped and arched his back with pleasure when he felt Carl's lips on him. He resumed his own frantic licking and sucking, pushed over the edge of sanity by the combined sensations of sucking and being sucked. Then there was no coherent thought left, only an ever-expanding wave of pleasure that left the two of them spent and sticky and satiated. Tom collapsed on top of Carl, retaining enough rationality to wipe his mouth off before kissing the nearest part of Tom he could reach- which happened to be an inner thigh.
"Thank you," he murmured.
"Hmm... thank you," Carl responded. "I feel much better now..."
Tom smiled, then drifted off to sleep, content in the aftermath of a dream come true.