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- 11/18/2018
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Staying in the moment - 1. Chapter 1
“Your turn is coming and then we will see!” Brandon’s cheerful voice had sounded so taunting and had irritated him so bad he was determined to see this through as he waited his turn. The challenge still rang in his ears and set his face in a determined half glare. “Yeah, you’ll see alright,” Andy muttered under his breath as he set the butt of his assault rifle to his shoulder. Everyone else had taken their turns for some impromptu target practice, prompted by Brandon’s trash talking. He made sure Andy went last, mostly to continue taunting him after he’d missed the day before during a training exercise. Taking careful aim, he looked past the barrel of the rifle to his targets. He pulled the trigger three times with the accompanying loud pops. An instant later and a couple hundred yards away a row of silhouetted practice targets all received a bullet hole within the center ring. There was a sound of chuckling as Andy stood up and turned to regard the others, setting his weapon back over his shoulder. “Any other smart mouthed dicks here wanna say I can’t hit my target now,” he asked with his casual drawl and that charming smug half-smirk on his lips.
The chuckling turned into muffled laughter as the other members of Andy’s unit in the 2nd Marine Regiment clapped him on his back before moving off to get ready for for chow time. Brandon stood there grinning at him, waiting for the others to break up before he stepped closer and said in a low voice, “I was only kidding…”
Andy’s green eyes sparkled in the afternoon sun. “You said I couldn’t do it. Pretty sure you can shut the fuck up now.” The two of them chortled as they fell into step together heading back to their barracks to change.
They were only a few yards into their walk when his teammate broke into laughter again. He turned his brilliant blue eyes to Andy and said, “I love it when you strut.”
Andy stopped and looked into those blue eyes and said, “I’m not strutting, Brandon.”
“Oh, yes you are,” he chuckled as he resumed his trek across the secured area and into their concrete shelter which was the only private area the two of them had.
“They said we got a week before heading back out,” Andy said as he started stripping off his helmet and then the rest of his gear before setting his rifle in its place next to his cot, running his hand over his short clipped blonde hair.
“Yeah, a whole week without any enemy contact,” Brandon confirmed. “What’re we gonna do with all that spare time?” The last was said as his lifted his gaze up to look into Andy’s green eyes with a telling grin.
Andy blushed and looked away with a smirk. “I dunno… I could think of a couple things.”
“Would be nice to spend a little time together,” Brandon grinned. “As long as we’re not on duty.”
Andy chuckled. “You’re not worried about the others finding out?” He grunted as he leaned down to start removing his boots and socks. His feet were soaking wet from sweating all day on duty and all he wanted was for his feet to feel clean. But bending over was still a chore since the bullet would he took near his left hip a couple months ago.
“Andy,” he sighed, stepping over and knelt down in front of him, taking Andy’s feet and pulling the boots and socks off for him. “We’re not living in the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ era anymore. And all our guys like you. We’re all a team out here and no one’s gonna care if you and I are getting it on. We’re two red-blooded American boys barely past twenty-one. We got nothing waiting for us back home so we may as well take what we find out here, right?”
Andy smirked a little as Brandon took it upon himself to finish changing his socks and getting his boots back on as they talked. It was a altruistic act that made his heart skip a beat. “You know, I’ve only ever done this with one other guy before.”
Brandon shrugged. “Until three months ago when we were in that hotel room in Japan, I’d never had sex with a guy in my entire life. Doesn’t matter. We both wanted it. We did it. We wanna keep doing it. So, if you gotta problem with it, Jarhead, better say something now.”
Andy leaned back against the wall, staring down at Brandon. He couldn’t deny how captivated he was with him and how much of a rush it was to feel their bodies together those few nights they had. “Only thing I’m worried about is if we start treating each other differently. I’m gonna want to protect you.”
Brandon sighed and lifted himself off the ground and sat on the cot next to his friend. “You’re still thinking about what happened to Tim.”
He stared down at his bare feet as his smile faltered. “Yeah.” There wasn’t many days he didn’t think about the good friend he’d made while training before they deployed to their present location in Afghanistan. The reality of his death was still hard to bare sometimes.
Brandon shrugged. “All the more reason not to hold back. It could be any of us next time. We might as well live our lives the way we want, right?”
Andy wrestled with his uncertainty and his guilt as his head turned to stare into Brandon’s eyes. He couldn’t deny everything that had been said was true. He just wished they weren’t thousands of miles away, in the middle of a war zone where anything could happen in a split second. He’d lost one love because he couldn’t face up to it. He wasn’t sure if he could stand to lose another. “So, I strut, huh?”
Brandon laughed and reached over to grab Andy’s hand and squeeze it. “Yeah, you did. But you have a sexy strut. Probably has something to do with knowing what your ass looks like under your uniform.”
Andy’s charming smirk lifted one side of his lips as they stared into each others’ eyes. “How sexy is it, exactly?”
Brandon leaned in closer, letting their lips meet in a kiss that started off innocently until Andy’s hand found the back of Brandon’s neck and their mouths opened letting their passion take hold of their senses. Brandon sighed as he felt Andy’s body through his uniform. Weeks of playing subtle word games together after their first time together had been annoying him and he knew he could get a rise out of Andy if he questioned his marksmanship. Finally getting to have that passionate man he discovered in his arms again was worth losing. A few more precious moments lingered before they broke the kiss. Brandon grinned. He might have lost the bet, but he got what he’d wanted. “So?”
“I had no idea I was that sexy to you,” Andy said in a more relaxed tone now. Brandon could tell he was more accepting of their growing relationship because he hadn’t let go of him yet.
“Maybe later tonight after dinner, I can show you just how sexy I think you are.” He added another small kiss to Andy’s chin to emphasize his point.
“Just… out of curiosity,” Andy wasn’t sure exactly how to word his question but he wanted to know, “if we both make it home in one piece, are we just gonna go our separate ways?”
Brandon leaned back a little, looking at him before getting up and going across the small room to pull out a fresh pair of socks. Going back down on his knees to pull them onto Andy’s feet. “I guess that depends on if you meant what you said our first few nights together.”
Andy regarded him with his bright green eyes and smirked a little, remembering how good those nights had been. “When I told you I loved you? Yeah, I meant it. Still do.”
Brandon shrugged dismissively as he reached for Andy’s boots and put them on his feet. “Then I say we go for it. I know you’re more than just a friend to me. Right now, I think we should just stay in the moment and not think too far ahead. Once we both make it out alive, then we can go from there. Deal?”
Andy relaxed and gave in, finally. Allowing his heart to not think beyond where he is and what he’s doing. This entire war on terror was taxing on his mind at times, not to mention his body. But if he could find just a little happiness while he was here then he could make it through and get back home. “Sounds good.”
“Thank God,” he said in an overly dramatic voice. “I’ve been starving since we got in here and I wanna go eat.” He finished lacing up Andy’s boots and stood up. “Let’s go.”
He grunted a little as he stood up. With a little smile and a more relaxed heart, Andy followed Brandon to the mess hall. Despite some lingering guilt, of a love he abandoned, he hoped tonight wouldn’t be the only night they’d get to spend together. But for now, he was fine with taking things day by day.
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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