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A Sweet Piece

by Riley Cannon


Inspired by HT100 Challenge #65 - Hidden, and from an idea of Mav's.

~A Sweet Piece~

"Psst." Chris' hand brushed against Toby's thigh as they stood in line for count.

An eye on Mineo, Toby leaned in to whisper against his ear. "What?"

Chris just smiled. "You'll see."

Mystified but nonetheless intrigued, Toby stayed close, crazily tempted to lick or bite Chris' ear for a moment. A stronger incentive, however, was to not get thrown in the Hole, not when there was a nice long night stretching out before them.

Mineo passed on by and they stepped back into their pod, the rest of Oz shut out as the door slammed shut behind them. And that was nuts too because anyone could look in and watch them, even lights out only brought an illusion of privacy. Toby had expected that to matter more and he couldn't claim to be entirely comfortable with it, but two weeks of being locked in here with Chris had made it amazingly easy to shed his inhibitions. Oz was like that. That had been his earliest and most long lasting lesson here, that the most unlikely experiences and actions could become second nature in no time flat. Loving Chris was by far the best development that way. True, there might be a bruise or two on his ass, but in this instance he had loved every moment of it.

He stepped up behind Chris at the sink and ran a hand along his back, feeling the flex of muscle through the thin cotton of a wifebeater. Chris arched into that touch and Toby bent closer, lips brushing the nape of his neck. Chris pressed against him for a second before turning to face him, hands running along Toby's sides to grasp his hips and pull him closer, their groins rubbing together.

"So, Beech," he drawled, flavoring it with a wink, "is that a roll of Lifesavers in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"

Toby smiled, blinked, and tilted his head as he tried to puzzle out that comment. "What?"

Chris rubbed his hip, long fingers trailing over the front pocket. "Reach in and see."

Well, he'd played along this far... Toby reached in and drew out about the last thing he would have expected: a hard roll of WintOGreen Lifesavers. Face scrunched up, he asked, "Where'd that come from?" Because he was pretty certain the candy hadn't been there ten minutes ago. "Did you put it there?" He did have ample cause to know just how quick and nimble those fingers could be.

Confirmation sparkling in dark blue eyes, Chris' hands massaged the small of his back. "Remembered you saying they were your favorites. I thought about getting you an Almond Joy -- you know, 'cause sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't, but..." He let it trail off, looking pleased with himself and not the least bit impressed by Toby's grumpy huff.

"Well, thank you." He had almost forgotten them talking about that a few nights ago. Somehow food had come up, probably because with the lockdown in place the cafeteria output had become even more monotonous than usual. Chris had mentioned his favorite candy had been Atomic Fireballs, and Toby confessed his favorite hard candy used to be WintOGreen Lifesavers. The conversation had degenerated wonderfully from that point and he'd never imagined Chris would have filed away such a tiny detail like that. "I don't have any Atomic Fireballs for you, though," he said, feeling bad about that.

The feeling lasted about twenty seconds, just long enough for those skilled fingers to trace his spine and stroke the back of his neck. "Toby," Chris was close, his gaze sharp and hot, "you are an Atomic Fireball. Don't sweat it."

He nodded, acutely aware of there hardly being any space between their bodies, and of how incredibly easy it would be to lean in just a minute fraction more and capture that seductive mouth in a deep, wet kiss. He could see that same awareness burning in his lover's eyes, and it felt like they were frozen in time there, both of them so badly wanting the freedom to just ... touch. Touch, and not have to fear being dragged away from each other.

Mineo's fist hitting the door, his voice barking at them to break it up, was almost a relief. Almost.

Chests heaving as if they had both just run a marathon, they stepped away from each other, bodies helpless to entirely avoid brushing together as they moved in the confined space.

"Aren't you gonna have one?" Chris said, composure apparently recovered as he stretched out on his bunk.

"Later, when it's dark," Toby said, settling into the chair with his book.

"Why?"

It was his turn to pull up a Mona Lisa smile. "You'll see." And he could barely wait to see real sparks fly between them.

~*~*~ "So ... it's dark now," Chris whispered as Toby dropped to the floor and slid in beside him.

"Yes it is." He tore open the candy wrapper at last and plucked one mint off the roll. "Do you know what happens when you bite a WintOGreen Lifesaver?"

"No. What?"

He smiled in the dark, shifting around until they were situated just right, lips mere millimeters apart. "Watch," he said, one hand cupped around the back of Chris' head as he popped the mint in his mouth, crunching down hard with his teeth. He pulled Chris to him, sweet blue sparks dancing between their lips as they kissed.

Laughing, Chris drew back to look at him. "Wow. Guess we got some real chemistry going here, huh?"

"That we do." Toby kissed him again, sharing the cool freshness of the mint. "Did you ever doubt it?"

"Nah." Fingers tickling along Toby's ribs, Chris asked, "Why's it do that?"

"Well, it's called triboluminescence, actually," Toby tangled their feet together, rubbing one of his own across Chris' ankle. "When you bite down hard like that, electrons in the sugar crystals break loose and nitrogenmolecules rush to that spot, and--" He had to stop right then because warm lips and an agile tongue had rushed in to shut him up. "Don't you want an answer?" he asked as they came up for air.

"Nope." Chris hiked up his t-shirt and caressed bare skin. "Want more of this," he added and went in for another kiss.

Yes -- Toby sighed, fingers digging into short, dark hair as the kiss got hotter and deeper -- this was the reaction that mattered, this absolute cause and effect of lips touching and setting them both on fire. Their secret formula, results impossible to duplicate with anyone else.

"And you know what?" he said, as they shifted around, more skin exposed to eager touches.

"What?" Chris groaned as Toby's mouth grazed along his throat.

"I already had a lifesaver, Chris. I have for a long time now," he said and watched him absorb that, accept it and nod.

"Me too, Toby," he said, making a vow of it with another kiss.

~end~

Info on the phenomenon described was found here: why do wintOgreen lifesavers spark
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