After forcing himself to answer Will’s ever so innocent offer with “we should really probably just sleep” and then trying to ignore what almost seemed like disappointment on the other man’s pretty face, the rest of Kyle’s late night/early morning was restless, to say the least.

He did manage to stay there frozen in place next to where Will continued to lay close to him until well past nine am though. However, at that point, Kyle no longer could ignore his need to relieve himself, as well as his hunger, and a few other factors that made it difficult for him to remain there next to where Will still slept soundly next to him.

Knowing he would most likely wake his companion, who was still quite happily wrapped around Kyle’s own body, the younger of them took a deep breath, and decided to just get it over with. He then attempted to try to disentangle himself as well as push himself up from the floor of the tent in one clean, quick motion before having to head outside and take care of a few pressing matters.

Feeling the combination of his heat source as well as his pillow leave his side and then the tent, Will rolled onto his back with a yawn before again opening those deep, dark, yet now sleep-filled eyes. He sighed softly as he noted the absence of his companion, but soon rubbed away the sleep and pushed himself to leave the tent as well.

Outside, Will moved to join Kyle several feet off where he more than awkwardly was tending nature’s call himself. With no shame, as Will probably was not even aware of such a concept, he pulled himself loose from his animal skin pants and began to do the same.

The activity had already been made more than difficult by the state Kyle had awoken in that morning, but when Will joined him, it only made it that much more of a problem for him. He was about to speak up to try to explain a thing like privacy, doubting that Will would have any concept of that one either, but his voice caught once Will had pulled himself free of what clothing he ever even wore during the warmer months.

Against his own will, Kyle couldn’t help moving his eyes downward just to assure himself, once and for all that his extremely feminine companion was indeed a male. He swallowed hard at the sight confirming that Will definitely fit the most technical, anatomical definition of a male. Kyle then forced his eyes away, and back to his own troubled attempt at relieving himself in his current state, and considering his current company standing right there next to him.

Though, with that childlike innocence, Will smiled down at Kyle upon noting the difficulty the younger man was having with such a mundane task. Will easily finished relieving himself as he turned slightly to where Kyle was still struggling.

“Easier when not hard” Will smiled over at him.

Kyle blushed deeply as he made some attempt to turn away, muttering under his breath, “yeah thanks, I know that” he shook his head in disbelief, then added, “but I’m eighteen, I’m hard twenty-three hours a day” he grumbled.

“Want help?” Will offered with the same annoyingly sweet tone.

“I don’t even wanna know what exactly you’re offering to help with right now” Kyle stated with even more disbelief as he attempted to keep his back to where Will still stood close by.

“I can make hardness go away. Feels good” he stated with another smile that in no way fit the actual offer he was making.

Kyle just let out another sound of disbelief as Will so easily confirmed what it was he was offering to help with after all. Another ragged breath as Kyle tried to force some words in response to someone with literally no self-censoring or inhibitions of any kind when it came to sex, let alone sex with a member of his own gender. And that particular activity was something Kyle had obviously never even seriously considered; at least not until his recent life situation had taken such a dramatic turn, anyway.

Finally finding words, though offering them with a bit of harshness brought on by his own discomfort right then, Kyle responded, “you wanna help? Go make us some breakfast. Help like that” he told him with a bit of a bite to his tone.

Will let out the slightest sigh again, but offered no argument, before shrugging and moving back toward the tent to fulfill the one of Kyle’s needs that the younger man seemed to be at least a bit more open to.

----------------------------------------

After several more long days, and even longer nights, the two still had not located the ship or any survivors there on that new planet. That night they were just finishing a late supper when Kyle angrily closed the computerized map of this planet he had been updating on a nightly basis. Will looked up from his own meal at the sound of Kyle angrily tossing the small computer onto their bags with a frustrated sigh.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Which problem now?”

“The same problem since we got here: No damn ship yet. It’s been over a week” Kyle complained as he also seemed to have lost interest in his meal then too.

“Big planet to search” Will stated with his own slight sadness as he finished the last few bites of his own food.

“Yeah well, I tried being patient once, but it took too long” Kyle responded wryly, which did actually garner a small laugh from the older man as he moved to take a seat on the fallen tree Kyle was already sitting upon. “Did you actually laugh? You actually got a joke? You must be getting better at English” Kyle added more quietly, his analytical nature never truly buried, despite all his other frustrations.

“I learn fast” Will offered with another smile as he wrapped his arms around himself, the nighttime temperatures getting slightly colder as September approached.

“Yeah, I bet” Kyle began, then glanced over, easily noting how much more girlish Will looked as he sat there wrapping his own arms around that tiny waist, Kyle then found what little sense of chivalry he had somehow kicking in right then, “you want my extra jacket?”

“Jacket?” Will asked as he turned those impossibly dark eyes up to Kyle as he stood.

“I take back everything I just said about you and English” Kyle shook his head, but did allow a tiny smile as he moved to retrieve the offered item.

“I know English, not clothes” Will returned as his only meager defense.

Kyle couldn’t help another smile as Will took the jacket, looked at it questioningly for a moment, then figured out the mechanics of such a thing before sliding into it. “For a second there, I thought I’d have to dress you, and, well, awkward” Kyle even allowed a slightly playful sarcasm just then.

“Why awkward?” Will asked looking up once again after finally getting the jacket into place.

Kyle allowed another nervous laugh, “well you have been pretty open about wanting to help me ‘finish,’ not to mention the constant cuddling.”

“Why is that awkward?” Will asked with genuine curiosity.

Another nervous laugh as Kyle averted his eyes before speaking, “well, you are sleeping with one of my friends, but then again...” he shook his head as he didn’t even want to get into the semantics of that, considering he and Ian did indeed share the same lover for several months. He then tried another answer, “it’s mainly awkward cause I’m not gay.”

“What’s gay?” Will asked, seeming to honestly thirst for every answer he could get from one of the only humans he had ever had the opportunity to be around after nearly twenty years alone.

Kyle shook his head down at the other man once again, not sure why he didn’t see that question coming, “gay is when you...well, when you only wanna be with men, that way.”

“Be with? What way?” Will pressed.

Kyle took another deep breath as he sat back down, wondering if this would be easier to explain telepathically after all, but he attempted to continue nonetheless, “gay people are people who are sexu--- who are only attra----” another breath, remembering who he was dealing with, “it means you’re gay if you only wanna ‘finish’ with someone whose the same sex as you.”

Will seemed to ponder the words for a long moment, “but Ian liked finishing with me and Lili both...what’s the word for him?”

Kyle looked down with another uncomfortable chuckle, having walked into that one, “Ian’s a bit trickier to explain, I think.”

Will furrowed his brow, obviously still quite lost by whatever it was Kyle was truly trying to explain to him after all, “you say you’re not...’gay?’” he offered the word as a question, “so that means you don’t want to finish...‘be with’ me, because I am male, like you?”

“Now you’re starting to get it” Kyle replied with another small smile.

“You seemed like you wanted to though, many times” he stated as he pointedly looked down toward Kyle’s waist.

“What? Because I’ve gotten hard when you’ve....cuddled with me....or made certain offers?” Kyle asked defensively.

“Hardness means you want to finish, right?” Will continued to try and understand why Kyle’s body and his words seemed to be not agreeing with one another.

Kyle felt himself blushing again at being expected to defend his entire sexual identity right then, “Will, that just happens sometimes” was his only defense, weak though it was.

“So, you would rather be hard, and uncomfortable, and not happy, and not finished, than, being with another male, like that?” Will returned with a look of confusion, making the entire opinion seem nonsensical when put into words.

“I just...” Kyle shook his head again, at a loss for words right then.

“Seems strange” Will stated a moment later.

“And welcome to a world where being straight is the strange option” Kyle stated, more to himself.

“Feeling that, it feels good, with a male or a female, so why would you not want to feel it with either, whenever you can?” Will asked him simply.

“I didn’t realize you had been with a lot of females” Kyle scoffed as he attempted to turn the tables on the older man, if only to get the pressure off of himself right then.

“Have you been with a lot of males?” Will asked with a raised brow.

Kyle was definitely caught by that one as he stood again, looking away to try and come to terms with the fact that he actually seemed to be losing an argument with someone who barely spoke the language. Then again, if his theories about the e-children were right, Will was just as much of a genius as himself, if not more so, considering his age; and that thought irked Kyle more than a bit as well.

“So, what you’re really saying is that you’re bi, like Ian?” Kyle grumbled, still not turning back to look at the younger man.

“Bi?” Will asked the obvious question.

“It means you wanna be with both, males and females” Kyle retorted, his frustration obvious in his tone. “Even though you’ve never even been with a girl” he added under his breath.

“And you say you only wanna be with girls, even though you’ve never even been with a boy” Will returned as he too looked away and went about cleaning up after their meal in silence at last.