As he always was at 4pm on school days, Kalen was laying across James's bed. He was taking up most of the room this time, arms stretched wide, so James was sitting at his futon where Tyler would usually be, thankful his friend had plans with his parents that afternoon so he didn't need to share the space.

James's parents were also absent, though their son honestly had no clue what they were doing. Rescently, they had been going out more, as they had before Ace fell sick. James suspected it was because he was occupied enough with Kalen and Tyler that they didn't worry about him feeling lonely being home alone.

The triplets visit had occurred about two weeks prior, and since then, they had been going out of their way to visit James during the school day. They'd come visit with him and Tyler in the car some mornings— which still put Tyler at unease— and would join them at lunch some days. James liked these days, since it meant he got to sit with Kalen, though the younger Bradford seemed particularly irritable about his older brothers who tended to talk about him like he wasn't there. They had even spent an afternoon at James's house with him and Kalen, which had been surprising, but not completely unpleasant.

And they didn't just speak to him in person. Throughout the day he got various texts from all three of the triplets—though Michael mostly— and Joe had even called him one night to discuss Kalen's wearabouts, though they had ended up discussing the newest action movie in theaters by the end of the conversation.

This was actually a common occurrence, discussing things other than Kalen with the triplets, and when James thought about it he realized he probably only spent about forty percent of this time with the boys discussing their younger brother.

James's phone buzzed on his text book, and he directed his gaze to the device, reading the most recent text from Michael about whether or not Kalen seemed more tightly strung around him as well lately.

As if sensing the context of the message, Kalen asked, "is that my brother?" In a tone that was less than pleased.

Because of this, James opted not to respond and instead joined his boyfriend on his bed, crawling over him rather than trying to find a comfortable position curled up in the small space not already occupied by Kalen's limbs.

"It was, wasn't it?" Kalen blinked up at him, golden eyes slightly narrowed.

"Does that bother you?" James inquired, though he felt he didn't need to. Clearly, it bothered him. "Why?"

"So you're just... all like friends now?" Kalen grumbled, turning his face away. "Are you all just gonna get together and talk about me?"

"We don't always talk about you," James protested, and Kalen shot him a displeased look out of the corner of his eye. With a heavy sigh, James lowered down until his chin was pressed onto Kalen's chest. "You know, I kinda like that they like me so much. You've said it yourself, they don't like anyone, but they happen to get along with me, and as your boyfriend, even if they don't know about it, that makes me happy".

Slowly, Kalen turned his face up towards him again. He didn't exactly look pleased, but it seemed like he understood. James wanted to let him know he understood as well.

"I know they frustrate you".

"They treat me like a child," Kalen added.

"Yeah," James agreed, brushing one of his hands down Kalen's side slowly. "But I don't".

Golden eyes widened a bit, and then Kalen's lips were pulling into a small smile. The second the words, "prove it," were out his lips, James was surging forward to connect their mouths.

So far in their relationship, they had kissed— a lot— but anything beyond that had been smoothly adverted by both of them. A week ago, when Kalen had taken to straddling James's lap and allowing his lips to roam his neck freely, James had carefully detangled the two of them once he felt himself harden and his thoughts began to roam. Two days ago, when James had rolled on top of Kalen and kissed him for long enough that Kalen lips were red and his hips were subconsciously grinding up against James's, the black haired boy had laughed easily and pressed a gentle hand into James chest to put some distance between the two of them.

But neither of them were stopping now.

Not when James licked hotly into Kalen's mouth before bringing his lips to suck and nip at the smooth colum of his boyfriend's neck, and not when Kalen tugged of his shirt, and then James's with desperate fingers. Not when James's thumbs guided Kalen's shorts and briefs down his legs, his fingers trailing down his smooth skin in their wake, and not when Kalen gasped and curled his fingers in James's hair, holding his face against his neck as is legs slid around James's waist. Between them, Kalen's free hand slid down to fumble with the button of James's shorts, pulling down the zipper without hesitation once he succeeded.

When a warm hand moved under his waistband to grip him firmly, James lifted his head from Kalen's neck, briefly aware of the trail of dark red hickies he had left on the other boy's neck— oops— to peer down between them. The sight of Kalen's pale fingers wrapped around his cock had his breath coming out in shallow gasps.

"Kalen, I- fuck," James groaned, pressing his hips forward into Kalen's hand when the other boy's fingers teasingly ran over his balls.

Thoughtfully, Kalen hummed and repeated the motion before bringing his hand to his cock again, rubbing his palm gently over the head before gripping him firmly again. "Do you have lube?"

With a soft grunt, James stretched his body forward, arm outstretched until his fingers were able to curl around the handle of his night stand. As he yanked the door through it and began to let his hand blindly search, Kalen's soft lips came to suck on his jaw. Groaning, James finally found the bottle and grabbed it, not bothering to shut the door before he was returning to Kalen, kissing his lips.

After a minute of this there was a tug at the bottle in his hand, and James pulled back, shaking his head as he pushed himself up to sit on his knees. Golden eyes blinked up at him in confusion as James took a minute to appreciate the sight beneath him before lathering his own fingers with the contents of the clear bottle. Only then did he pass it to Kalen.

Instead of immediately putting it to use, which Kalen had seemed so what to do just moments before, Kalen raised his eyebrows as James hesitated.

"What?" He whispered, not seeming to feel any kind of shame lying there completely exposed. It made James's cock throb, which Kalen, who still held a tight grip on him, must have felt because he gave him a small squeeze in response.

"Can I... are you okay if I..." James trailed off, not quite sure how to politely ask someone for permission to finger them. Luckily, Kalen seemed to understand, because his eyes widened.

"Oh," he breathed. "Yeah. Please".

Finally, James dropped his hand, but he didn't immediately put it where he wanted to. Instead, he allowed his slick fingers to ghost up and down Kalen's thigh, slipping closer and closer. "Have you ever done this before?"

"Yeah," Kalen breathed, seeming to forget about jerking James off entirely as both of his hands came to tangle in the bed sheets. James didn't mind. He'd prefer all of Kalen's focus to be on what his fingers were about to be doing anyways.

With a soft hum, James let his thumb come to slide between Kalen's cheeks, gently pressing into the boy's entrance but applying no pressure. The body beneath him jerked, and Kalen's breath caught. When James brought his eyes back to the boy's face, he found Kalen staring at the ceiling, dazed.

Smiling, James drew his hand back for a moment, and then pressed the tip of his pointer finger into him. Once again Kalen jerked, only this time he made a soft sound of pleasure along with it. Very slowly, to tease as much as to prevent any discomfort, James pressed his finger the rest of the way in.

There was a pause in which Kalen's breath caught and James waited to see if the next sound out of him was one of pain or one of enjoyment, and then Kalen moaned shortly and attempted to rock his hips back into James's hand as if he could push him any deeper. The action had their slick cock heads grazing over one another, and this time Kalen arched slightly, his mouth falling open.

Feeling more confident, James gave a few pumps of his finger before pressing at the rim with a second one.

It didn't go in as easily as the first, and Kalen allowed a soft whimper to slip past his lips, but it didn't take long for him to adjust. All it took was a few thrusts in which James pressed different places, the final one landing home on his prostate, and the pain seemed to be a distant memory in Kalen's mind. With a grin, James assaulted the spot again, not pulling back but instead rubbing his fingertips back and forth over the nerves until Kalen was withering beneath him.

"You look so good like this," James observed, leaning to look down at his boyfriend's face. Golden eyes popped open, and an arm was thrown around the back of James's neck to pull his face down close enough for Kalen to kiss.

Once again, their erections sloppily glided over one another, and Kalen gasped into his mouth at the new sensation.

Fuck.

A few more thrusts of his fingers into Kalen had him completely relaxing beneath him, and at that James began to move in earnest, grinding his hips down against Kalen's as his fingers pushed in and out of the other boy, connecting with his prostate each time.

Beneath him, Kalen had gone speechless. There mouths still hovered over one another, but kissing was clearly impossible with both of them so focused on the sensation in their lower halves.

At some point, Kalen began to shake, his thighs quaking in either side of James's hips, prompting James to grind harder against him, ignoring the ache in his wrist as he began to shake it, vibrating his fingers against his boyfriend's prostate quickly.

With that, Kalen's body fought to arch against James's weight, and from his lips came the breathless exilhation of the word, "fuck" as he came apart beneath them, his hips jerking roughly agaisnt James's. It didn't take James long to follow in suit, seeing as Kalen's face while he came was by far the most erotic sight James had ever seen, and it pushed him over the edge with the other boy.

Slowly, James withdrew his fingers from inside of Kalen, wiping them off on his sheets— they most definitely needed to be washed now— before finding Kalen's hand, still tangled in his bedding, and linking their fingers together. Beneath him, Kalen continued to pant, and James pressed an affectionate kiss to the other boy's temple before shifting his body down enough to rest his head on Kalen's chest, relaxing his entire body into the warmpth beneath him.

"God," Kalen breathed.

"Too heavy?" James inquired, willing to move but not exactly thrilled about it.

"You're fine," Kalen assured, and the next thing James knew, a hand was soothingly pushing through his hair. "I can't believe you just got me off".

"Ha," James managed weakly.

"No, I'm serious," Kalen said, and James lifted his head and placed his chin back on his chest, laying exactly how he had been about fifteen minutes before. "My whole life I've been preparing to be single. I never thought that someday someone would... would do that to me".

With a sigh, James brushed Kalen's sweaty bangs back with his free hand. "Kalen, you're amazing. There are plenary of people out there who would love to be in my position right now".

"Sure," Kalen agreed with a nod of his head, not breaking eye contact. "But none of them would be. It doesn't really sound very appealing to me if it's someone else". This made James smile, and Kalen returned the gesture easily. "Thank you".

"No need to thank me," James assured. "I enjoyed myself plenty as well". His eyes roamed from Kalen's face down his neck, finding the four dark marks he had left there. "Also, you might not want to thank me until you look in a mirror".

***

James was unsurprised and slightly nervous when the Bradford triplets showed up at his house the next morning. It was a Saturday, and early enough that James's parents were still asleep— they often slept in on their days off.

It was a good thing, James determined, since the second he opened the door Daniel Bradford was pushing past him to get into the house. "We need to talk to you," he grumbled, and James shot a look at the other two boys waiting on his porch and gestured for them to come inside.

He was prepared for this. Or, at least, that's what Kalen said to him the night before over the cell phone. His boyfriend had returned home after a brief nap prior to their tristing and had unsuccessfully snuck up to his bedroom without his brothers seeing his neck. After being lectured for what Kalen claimed to be forever, he had called James to tell him that his brothers were probably going to be stopping by sometime soon, and they should probably come up with a lie to make it seem like he hadn't been at James house.

The three Bradford triplets took a seat on James's couch, and he moved to sit in the solitary chair, trying to ignore the six piercing blue eyes on him. "So what's up?" James prompted, clasping his hands together on his lap to avoid them noticing them sweating.

"You said Kalen came to your house after school yesterday," Daniel began, leaning forward eagerly. Kalen said this would probably be their first question.

"Yeah," James confirmed with practiced calmness.

Joe and Daniel shared a look between one another, their similar faces holding the exact same expression. Mike on the other hand continued to look ahead at him blankly.

"What time did he leave?" Michael asked, and James eyebrows raised.

This question also wasn't surprising— Kalen knew his brothers well— but the fact that Michael was the one asking caught him off guard. Typically, it was Joe and Daniel that were obsessed with their youngest brothers whereabouts. Mike usually just participated because his brothers did.

"Uh—" the surprise made James hesitate and he hoped they just thought he was thinking. "He left after about an hour, around four. Much earlier than usual".

Immediately, Daniel's eyes flashed, and James wondered what he had said wrong. Him and Kalen had gone over this.

"Why didn't you tell one of us?" Daniel demanded, and James felt his eyes widened.

They hadn't rehearsed this part.

"Um... well, he said he was going straight home... did he not?" He inquired, sounding like an idiot in his own ears and hoping they didn't know him well enough to pick up on his lies.

"He didn't," Michael said calmly, reaching out to grab Daniel's shoulder and push him back against the couch.

Joe spoke next, sounding incredibly put out. "James, had Kalen.... I don't know, mentioned and boys he may be interested in recently?"

"No".

"I'm still pissed that he didn't text us-" Daniel cut in and Michael rolled his eyes. Surprisingly, it was Joe who defended him.

"Kalen's given James no reason not to trust him before man. It's not his fault that he was expecting him to be telling the truth. Just..." Joe's eyes moved to James then. "In the future, could you text us when he's leaving your house? We want to prevent what happened last night from happening again".

James nodded, and then asked, "You don't know where he went?"

Three heads shook. No.

"And he won't tell you?"

Another shake, and then Joe said, "we know he was with someone though. There are... marks on his neck".

James tried to look surprised, even though on the inside he felt much pride. He left those. They were his. Something of his was on Kalen.

"He just... he needs to be more careful," Mike said under his breath, and his brothers nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, but he's not thinking about it like that," Joe responded, seeming to forget they James was listening and had no context. "He's thinking that it doesn't matter if he gets asked questions because he wants a reason to tell him".

"Tell who?" James interrupted before wondering if this was something he shouldn't show interest in in front of the brothers.

They all seemed surprised by the question, and James was just about to panic when Joe asked, "you mean he hasn't talked to you about this yet?"

Wordlessly, James shook his head.

"We're worried that Kalen is going to tell our father about his sexuality," Michael explained, and James's eyes widened. He opened his mouth to tell them how horrible of an idea that was, but Mike cut him off. "We know".

"We think he thinks that because he told us, who were always against it, and we were okay with it that he can tell our father, whose always been against it as well, and get the same result," Joe explained. "I can guarantee you, he won't feel that way".

James didn't respond, thinking so many different things. Kalen, their afternoon together the day before, Mr. Bradford, the triplets harassing that gay couple in the hallway, and lastly, his own father, and the consequences he feared he would face for his sons actions.