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*

“Kevin, he’s awake.”

“Huh? Is he okay?”

“Yeah. Well, I think so. He can’t speak.”

“Guess that means he’s not the guy from yesterday.”

“No! It’s not that. He got really upset when he found he couldn’t speak, so maybe he lost his voice.”

“I see. So what do you know about him?”

Joe pondered this for a moment. “His name is Nick, and he comes from under the sea.”

Kevin looked at him sceptically. “You know how ridiculous that sounds, right?”

“Yes, but I knew he was telling the truth. He looked so earnest. I can’t quite believe it myself, but I can’t disagree with him. He, at least, thinks he comes from there.”

“Right. How old is he?”

“He looks about eighteen, but his eyes are telling me he’s younger... I don’t know.”

“Seems like you don’t know that much about him.”

“Shut up. I’ll learn. It’s kinda hard to communicate without words, you know. You should try it some time.”

“Certainly,” Kevin replied dryly. “Maybe you should go and check on him again.”

“Yeah, good idea.”

“Wait a minute.”

Joe looked at Kevin inquiringly.

“It’s already obvious that you really like this guy, and to be honest, I think you’ll fall in love with him. I don’t have a problem with that, but I don’t know if Mom had her heart set on grandchildren from you. This isn’t coming out right. Just... whatever happens, make it worth it, okay? Be careful.”

Joe nodded slowly, trying to take it in and understand, before leaving Kevin alone and jogging back to the guest room to see Nick. Being polite, he knocked first, although it wasn’t like Nick would have said anything affirming Joe could come inside. Nick appeared to be exactly as Joe had left him, though perhaps with more colour to his cheeks.

“Hey, you okay?”

Nick nodded, smiling and unable to tear his eyes from Joe. He realised it was probably making him feel uncomfortable, and so tried to tone down the smile a little bit.

“Um, do you want to shower or anything?”

Nick looked at him questioningly.

“Y’know, wash yourself? There’s still sand in your hair.”

Sure enough, when Nick reached to comb his fingers through his hair, he could feel the grains of sand getting caught under his fingernails. He nodded.

“Right this way, then,” he said, beckoning for Nick to follow him.

Confidently, Nick threw back the covers and swung his legs over the side of the bed before realising that he had never walked before. How hard could it be? Something about humans that he had paid close attention to was the way they used their legs. Walking seemed to be a simple matter of placing one leg in front of the other repeatedly. Easy. No problem.

Except it was easier said than done. He just about managed to stand up, shaking slightly, but it was a start. However, when it actually came to moving, he immediately lost his balance and plummeted to the ground.

“Whoa!” Joe exclaimed, rushing over to help him. “I guess you’re still uncoordinated from the incident. Let me help you.”

Grateful, Nick allowed Joe to wrap an arm around his back and pull him into a standing position. In return, he wrapped an arm around Joe’s shoulder for support, doing his best to copy Joe’s movements as he walked forwards. It hurt the skin on his feet, but he supposed that after doing enough walking, the feeling would pass. Assisted by Joe, it wasn’t too difficult to walk to the bathroom, and Nick was confident that he could at least stand up by himself now.

“Right, this is the bathroom where you shower, pee, jerk off...”

Nick looked at him questioningly.

“Y’know...”

He lowered his free hand to his crotch and flicked his fist a bit, and Kevin just had to pick that moment to poke his head out of his bedroom door before quickly retreating back inside. At least Nick’s eyes had widened in understanding, so his embarrassment wasn’t completely wasted. He led Nick into the bathroom and let go of him so he could turn on the shower to a suitable temperature.

“So, you can just get in there, and there’s some shampoo and conditioner. There are the clean towels...”

With slight scepticism, Nick staggered over to the shower and began to climb in.

“Hey, you can’t go in there with clothes on. Kind of defeats the object.”

This made sense, Nick thought, and shamelessly removed the T-shirt and pants he was wearing, letting them crumple into a pile on the floor.

“Whoa,” Joe said, wide-eyed and staring at Nick who had just stripped right in front of him. He covered his eyes and turned away. “I’ll be going now. Have fun!”

Before he could make to leave, Nick grabbed his arm, gesturing to the shower and shrugging.

“What, have you never showered before?” Joe asked, taken aback when Nick shook his head. “Oh.” He swallowed. “You, um, want me to come in there with you?”

No, no, no, that was not what he had intended to say. Kevin was right: he was creepy. Surely only a creep would offer to do that. Nick probably only wanted further information, and Joe had practically invited himself to molest him in the shower.

Nick grinned and nodded enthusiastically. Looks like that had been exactly what he wanted. He stepped into the admittedly large cubicle and then looked at Joe expectantly, confused when he made no effort to remove his clothes as he stepped forward. Weren’t you supposed to be naked in a shower? He shot Joe a questioning look, gesturing at his clothes and then the shower head. Joe shrugged before ambling out of his clothes self-consciously. He refused to make eye-contact with Nick as he climbed into the shower and shut the door behind him.

While Joe tried to focus his vision on a spot just behind Nick’s shoulder, Nick’s eyes were roaming all over him with no shame. It made goose pimples tingle all over his skin, but he didn’t tell Nick to stop. Nick ran a hand down Joe’s chest just to see what his skin felt like and watch him shiver, but made no further attempt to touch him; it seemed that he was quite uncomfortable.

“Get your hair wet,” Joe said quietly, stepping back slightly so that Nick could stand more fully under the spray of water. While he did, Joe grabbed the nearest shampoo bottle and squeezed some of the contents onto his hand. When Nick’s hair was sufficiently soaked, he beckoned for him to bend down a little so that he could work the shampoo into his hair, scratching at the scalp and trying to cover as much as possible.

“Close your eyes,” he said when he had finished, guiding Nick back under the water. He could almost see the grains of sand washing out with the soap, and ran his fingers through Nick’s hair to get the rest out.

Eventually, Nick stepped out from under the water, and Joe decided that since he was here he might as well wash his own hair as well. Re-wetting his hair, he took the shampoo bottle from before and lathered some of its contents into his hair. He was surprised when Nick’s hands joined his, and eventually let him take over, enjoying the relaxing feeling.

After they both used conditioner, Joe shut off the shower because he did not want to wash his body right now with Nick, because then things really would get awkward. He figured they were clean enough from the water and shampoo, anyway. He was the first to get out of the shower, grabbing two towels and throwing one to Nick, before using the other one to cover up his embarrassing hard-on, which Nick had probably already seen in its entirety. Come to think of it, Nick had been hard as well-

But that was not the right thing to be thinking about right now, because he’d only actually really met the boy less than an hour ago, even though it felt like longer, and Joe didn’t really want to rush into anything. Okay, he did, but he didn’t think it was the right decision. He towelled himself off quickly, noticing Nick watching him and then copying, before announcing that he was going to get them some more clothes, seeing as the earlier discarded ones were now too damp to wear.

He hurried into his bedroom and tried to compose himself somewhat before changing into some clean clothes and grabbing some boxers, jeans and a white V-neck for Nick and taking them into the bathroom.

“I’ll be just outside,” he said, leaving Nick alone in the bathroom.

Well. This had certainly been a morning to remember. He had found a person washed up on the beach and then had his first ever sexual encounter, even if maybe it wasn’t supposed to have been like that. If all that had happened this morning, what else would have happened by the end of the day?

*

When it came to meal times, Nick was initially pleased to discover that he recognised one of the instruments placed next to his plate; humans used it to straighten out their hair, didn’t they? He was slightly disappointed when Joe and Kevin stared at him, bewildered, as he tried to use it: it turned out the instrument was used for stabbing food and carrying it to your mouth. Oh well. At least he had learnt something. At least now maybe they could more confidently believe that he wasn’t from around here.

The day blurred past quite quickly, Nick thought, but he discovered many new things. He finally got to watch the box with moving pictures, learning it was called a television. And then Joe showed him the box that played music, which Nick was fascinated by. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was listening to, but it sounded amazing. His brain was too full of new discoveries to take in much when Kevin attempted to introduce him to the computer, but it was definitely something he would want to look at later. Nick liked Kevin. He was funny and serious and tried to make sure Nick didn’t feel too alienated, which he was grateful for, because he really didn’t have a clue what anything was and was still trying to find his feet (quite literally).

Nick was falling asleep on Joe’s shoulder before Kevin suggested that they all went to bed. Bed sounded good: all soft and nice and warm... He found himself yawning as Joe helped him up and led him up the stairs. It was a lot easier to go down them than it was to go up them, Nick thought tiredly, but smiled because Joe’s arm was around him. He wondered if Joe would come and sleep with him, but maybe it wasn’t the done thing. After his shower, he had reflected that maybe he was supposed to shower alone, for if two people were to shower together, surely there would have been two shower heads. But hey, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do in a shower, never having used one before, and Joe didn’t protest too much.

Nick was disappointed but not entirely surprised when Joe fetched him some pyjamas and informed him that he would be in his own room if Nick needed him. He also told him that tomorrow they would be going to a place called a mall to buy Nick some of his own clothes. He wasn’t exactly sure what a mall was, but it sounded exciting. It also meant that he would be able to ride in one of those moving boxes, which Kevin had explained to him was called a car.

“Anyway, it will be a big day, so you’d better rest up,” Joe finished, lingering in Nick’s doorway.

Nick smiled and nodded, waiting for Joe to do something.

“So, um, good night.”

Awkwardly, he leaned forward and put his arms around Nick in a hug. Eager to return the gesture, Nick pulled Joe closer to him and inhaled his scent, loosening his grip when Joe stepped backwards. He smiled, mouthing good night, and closed the door behind Joe as he left. After changing into his pyjamas and climbing into bed, Nick slept soundly and happily all through the night.

Joe, on the other hand, could still feel Nick’s arms burning him as he burrowed under the covers of his bed. It had been like that all day; Nick would absent-mindedly put a hand on his knee or lean against him or even just look at him, and then Joe would feel the burn. He’d been fighting an internal hard-on all day, and now seemed like a good time to do something about it.

Groaning slightly, he reached a hand under the waistband of his pants to circle his already hardening length. As he stroked, images of Nick came into his head, and he embraced them freely. It wasn’t taking much, which was embarrassing in itself, but he was close to the edge when he heard a faint knocking on his door.

“C-come in,” he forced out, trying to keep his voice level.

The door was pushed open, and Nick ambled inside, looking lost.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said.

“You can talk?” Joe said in disbelief.

“I could talk all along,” Nick replied, smiling seductively. “Anyway, looks like you’re having a little problem there.”

Guiltily, Joe realised it must have been pretty obvious what he had been doing. Nick approached him slowly, bending over him to whisper into his ear.

“I can help you with that.”

The breath caught in Joe’s throat, and he was helpless as Nick pulled back the covers and replaced Joe’s hand with his own.

“The walls are so thin,” Nick mused, pumping his fist up and down, alternating the speed. “I could hear you from my room. You sounded pretty worked up.”

Joe let out a moan, thrusting his hips upwards to Nick’s hand.

“Sssh! You don’t want Kevin to hear, do you?”

Joe shook his head, covering his mouth with one hand and pulling at his hair with the other. This was so amazing, Nick looming above him, whispering to him, making him feel like this. Hand slick with pre-come, his movements quickened as he brought Joe closer and closer to the edge. With his free hand, he removed Joe’s from his hair and held it, before leaning in to kiss him-

Joe finished off with a rough fist, feeling guilty that thinking of Nick had given him the best orgasm he’d ever achieved. He almost wished that Nick had come into his room and ‘helped’ him, but as far as Joe knew, Nick was sleeping innocently a few doors down. He hoped he wouldn’t be awkward around Nick the next day.

*

“Nick! We can’t go in there!” Joe insisted as Nick headed towards Victoria’s Secret.

Nick shot him a confused look. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable place to go, seeming busy with customers, but a hot flush was rising to Joe’s cheek as he gripped Nick’s arm and steered him away.

“That shop sells women’s underwear. Y’know... for girls.”

Nick raised an eyebrow, but let himself be led away. Up until now, the day had been very successful. He had been reasonably apprehensive about everything, seeing a new place and so many people and the fact that Joe was spending so much money on him. They had some sort of currency under the sea, so he knew how things worked, and felt guilty that Joe was spending so much. However, he later assured Nick that he came from a rich family, and Nick having his own clothes and stuff was important. Secretly, Joe wanted Nick to stay for a long time. The way he saw it, it seemed like Nick had come from nowhere and had no place to go, no knowledge of the human world and no voice for the time being. He had little choice but to stay with Joe, who would look after him so well and love him and take care of him... Realising that he sounded like a child arguing with his mother about why he should be allowed to get a dog, he ended this trail of thought.

Nick had been fascinated by the car, not even put off by Joe’s less than perfect driving skills. Maybe he wouldn’t have been as bad if Nick hadn’t kept playing with the indicators or flicking through radio stations or rolling the windows up and down or touching Joe’s thigh randomly. That had been distracting. But the day had been a success. He’d bought Nick seven full outfits and then other accessories such as scarves and sunglasses. He also had pyjamas, a toothbrush, shaving razors (was he even old enough to shave yet?), socks, underwear and several pairs of shoes. That seemed like most of the essentials. He had considered buying Nick a phone as well, but the only people he seemed to know were Kevin and Joe, so there wasn’t that much point. It would have been difficult for Nick to learn how to use a phone anyway, and Joe wasn’t considering letting Nick out of his sight any time soon.

“You wanna grab some food?” Joe asked, spotting the food court.

Nick nodded. It was two o’clock in the afternoon, so there weren’t too many queues.

“What would you like?”

Nick shrugged, not knowing. He didn’t know what he liked, but was sure that Joe would pick something for him.

“Okay then. We’ll just get a table and you can look after the bags while I find food.”

Smiling at Joe endearingly, he followed him to a free table, placing the bags he was carrying at his feet and watching Joe walk awkwardly to a food stall. He reflected on the day so far, excited to have some of his own possessions and ecstatic to be spending all this time alone with Joe. He’d learned new things today, such as what was acceptable behaviour in public, good prices for certain items, and not to go up to random people and interact with them, especially if they didn’t look friendly. Nick didn’t want to interact with anyone but Joe, but at least now he didn’t feel pressured to talk to strangers.

He pouted, wanting Joe to come back. It felt like he was taking ages, even if it hadn’t been that long and he was placing his order. As he moved his eyes from Joe, he noticed a girl approaching him and pointedly looked away.

“Hey, I’m Selena. What’s your name?”

Figuring that these words were directed at him, he turned to look at the girl, startled. He couldn’t reply; he couldn’t speak. What could he do? He wasn’t supposed to talk to people.

“The silent type, eh? Okay. Well, I saw you sitting here all alone and thought I’d keep you company. Y’know, you’re pretty cute. We should totally go out.”

Bewildered, Nick looked around for Joe, seeing him picking up the tray of food.

“Hey, are you ignoring me? You can’t do that! Won’t you at least look at me if I’m talking to you? Or even tell me if you want me to back off, though you probably wouldn’t.” She smiled to herself amusedly.

He smiled apologetically, relieved when he saw Joe walking to him looking quite affronted at seeing Selena.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, sounding distrustful and placing his tray on the table.

“Oh. It’s you,” Selena replied, looking slightly disgusted. This upset Nick; how could anyone speak to Joe in that way? “Is he with you?” she asked, gesturing at Nick.

“Yeah, he is.”

“So he must be your boyfriend. Everyone at college knows you’re gay, and now you’ve proven it.”

“He’s not-”

“Oh, don’t bother. This must be why he wouldn’t speak to me.”

“He can’t speak.”

“Hmm, it figures. Any normal person would stay away.”

Feeling crushed, Joe bowed his head in shame, sad that he hadn’t even been able to defend Nick. As for Nick, he didn’t care so much if that bitch insulted him, but if she upset Joe like that, she had to go. He stood up and glared at her, implying that she should leave now. She looked at him incredulously before he jabbed his finger away from the table.

“Fine, fine, whatever. You’re not even that hot,” she said with an undertone of disappointment.

He felt satisfied as she walked away, and turned to see Joe gazing at him in awe. He sat back down.

“That was amazing, Nick. And- and that bit when she said you weren’t hot? She was totally wrong,” he gushed. “Um, anyway, I didn’t know if you wanted dips so I got you some ketchup and brown sauce and a little packet of mayonnaise...”

Nick thought this was very sweet of him, and reached over the table to stroke Joe’s cheek affectionately. He had wanted to maybe kiss him, but then remembered that kissing didn’t usually happen in public. Maybe he could do it later. Joe blushed and turned his head away once Nick’s hand had left his face, smiling like a teenager with a crush. Actually, wasn’t he a teenager with a crush?

The rest of the meal passed in a comfortable silence laced with hidden glances and flushed cheeks, and to Joe, it felt more and more like a date as it went on. But it was still early, about half past two, and Joe wasn’t ready to go home next; he wanted some more time alone with Nick.

“So, um, would you like to go see a movie or something?”

Nick raised his eyebrows in question.

“Oh, right. Movie. It’s kinda like television, but really big.” He gestured with his hands to illustrate the size and Nick nodded doubtfully. “You’ll love it,” Joe assured him. “I think we should see a comedy. Anyway, let’s take these bags back to the car.”

They stood up, gathering their bags, and Nick wished they each had a hand free so they could join them.

*

Today had been a good day, Kevin thought as he stretched out on the couch. He’d finally had some peace and quiet and was able to really get into his book, pausing every now and then to text Danielle. He rarely got to be home alone, as Joe would always be pestering him about something or other. It didn’t bother him that much, he supposed, as Joe didn’t have many friends in school and Kevin had always been more of a loner, but he liked hanging out with Joe, helping him with his homework, basically being a big brother. Random outbursts of what Joe liked to call humour could be a bit over-powering at times, but he was used to it by now.

But Joe was out with Nick today, and Mom was still on holiday with her friends in Niagara Falls, so Kevin had the house to himself. He had watched whatever he wanted on TV, messed around on the internet, tried to beat Joe’s high score on Guitar Hero and made a selection of sandwiches, just in case. Okay, so he could have probably done all of this with company, but it had been refreshing to do it alone.

Back to Joe and Nick: there was definitely something going on between them, Kevin thought. He liked Nick, he really did, but couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something fishy about him. Whatever it was, he had Joe absolutely enchanted, and it was nice for Kevin to see his brother so happy. He and Nick just clicked.

He was startled out of his blissful reading by a knocking at the door. This was strange. He wasn’t expecting anyone, and their house was pretty isolated, so it wasn’t likely to be a salesman... Still, he left his book and made his way to the front door, pulling it back to reveal his mother looking rather flustered, but happy to see him.

“Mom! What are you doing back so soon?” he said, leaning in for a hug before helping her to take her suitcase inside.

“You wouldn’t believe it. Out of all of us, I was the only one not to get food poisoning, so everyone wanted to go home early, seeing as we’d done everything we’d wanted to. We caught an earlier flight.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow. You should have called. I’d have come to pick you up.”

“Phone battery completely died, and I had no cash for a pay phone, so I just got a taxi outside the airport. It was okay, I’m fine. Where’s Joe?”

“Oh, um, he’s... out. With a friend,” Kevin offered, rather unhelpfully.

“Hmm, a friend. What’s her name?”

“Uh... You should come and sit down for a bit. A lot of things need explaining.”

Denise got the feeling she didn’t want to hear this, but followed Kevin to the living room nonetheless.

“At least the house seems tidy,” she commented. “I’m glad you boys haven’t been throwing any crazy parties.”

“Nope, no parties for us...”

“So, you were going to explain something?” she reminded him as they sat down.

“Oh, yeah. Well, Joe is out shopping with his... friend, Nick, who we met yesterday. The day before, he, um, went out on his boat and there was a storm and he nearly drowned, and he thinks someone saved him.”

“Good gracious! Is he all right?”

“Yeah, you could say that. But anyway, yesterday, Nick washed up on the beach, naked and passed out, so we took him home and waited for him to wake up, and he can’t speak, but he and Joe have really taken to each other.”

Kevin was too busy trying to explain everything as fast as he could to notice that the expression on his mother’s face had turned into one of pure horror.

“I see... So how old is this Nick?”

“Joe reckons he’s probably sixteen or eighteen. He hasn’t been able to tell us himself.”

“And he washed up on the beach?”

“Yeah. Pretty weird, huh? I don’t know where he came from, but he has nowhere to go. I think they’ll be back soon. Joe texted me at about three o’clock to tell me they were seeing a movie. It’s five o’clock now, so they should be back any minute. Would you like a drink?”

“Yes please.”

Thinking he had done a good job, Kevin trotted off to the kitchen to make coffee.

Description
*

“Kevin, he’s awake.”

“Huh? Is he okay?”

“Yeah. Well, I think so. He can’t speak.”

“Guess that means he’s not the guy from yesterday.”

“No! It’s not that. He got really upset when he found he couldn’t speak, so maybe he lost his voice.”

“I see. So what do you know about him?”

Joe pondered this for a moment. “His name is Nick, and he comes from under the sea.”

Kevin looked at him sceptically. “You know how ridiculous that sounds, right?”

“Yes, but I knew he was telling the truth. He looked so earnest. I can’t quite believe it myself, but I can’t disagree with him. He, at least, thinks he comes from there.”

“Right. How old is he?”

“He looks about eighteen, but his eyes are telling me he’s younger... I don’t know.”

“Seems like you don’t know that much about him.”

“Shut up. I’ll learn. It’s kinda hard to communicate without words, you know. You should try it some time.”

“Certainly,” Kevin replied dryly. “Maybe you should go and check on him again.”

“Yeah, good idea.”

“Wait a minute.”

Joe looked at Kevin inquiringly.

“It’s already obvious that you really like this guy, and to be honest, I think you’ll fall in love with him. I don’t have a problem with that, but I don’t know if Mom had her heart set on grandchildren from you. This isn’t coming out right. Just... whatever happens, make it worth it, okay? Be careful.”

Joe nodded slowly, trying to take it in and understand, before leaving Kevin alone and jogging back to the guest room to see Nick. Being polite, he knocked first, although it wasn’t like Nick would have said anything affirming Joe could come inside. Nick appeared to be exactly as Joe had left him, though perhaps with more colour to his cheeks.

“Hey, you okay?”

Nick nodded, smiling and unable to tear his eyes from Joe. He realised it was probably making him feel uncomfortable, and so tried to tone down the smile a little bit.

“Um, do you want to shower or anything?”

Nick looked at him questioningly.

“Y’know, wash yourself? There’s still sand in your hair.”

Sure enough, when Nick reached to comb his fingers through his hair, he could feel the grains of sand getting caught under his fingernails. He nodded.

“Right this way, then,” he said, beckoning for Nick to follow him.

Confidently, Nick threw back the covers and swung his legs over the side of the bed before realising that he had never walked before. How hard could it be? Something about humans that he had paid close attention to was the way they used their legs. Walking seemed to be a simple matter of placing one leg in front of the other repeatedly. Easy. No problem.

Except it was easier said than done. He just about managed to stand up, shaking slightly, but it was a start. However, when it actually came to moving, he immediately lost his balance and plummeted to the ground.

“Whoa!” Joe exclaimed, rushing over to help him. “I guess you’re still uncoordinated from the incident. Let me help you.”

Grateful, Nick allowed Joe to wrap an arm around his back and pull him into a standing position. In return, he wrapped an arm around Joe’s shoulder for support, doing his best to copy Joe’s movements as he walked forwards. It hurt the skin on his feet, but he supposed that after doing enough walking, the feeling would pass. Assisted by Joe, it wasn’t too difficult to walk to the bathroom, and Nick was confident that he could at least stand up by himself now.

“Right, this is the bathroom where you shower, pee, jerk off...”

Nick looked at him questioningly.

“Y’know...”

He lowered his free hand to his crotch and flicked his fist a bit, and Kevin just had to pick that moment to poke his head out of his bedroom door before quickly retreating back inside. At least Nick’s eyes had widened in understanding, so his embarrassment wasn’t completely wasted. He led Nick into the bathroom and let go of him so he could turn on the shower to a suitable temperature.

“So, you can just get in there, and there’s some shampoo and conditioner. There are the clean towels...”

With slight scepticism, Nick staggered over to the shower and began to climb in.

“Hey, you can’t go in there with clothes on. Kind of defeats the object.”

This made sense, Nick thought, and shamelessly removed the T-shirt and pants he was wearing, letting them crumple into a pile on the floor.

“Whoa,” Joe said, wide-eyed and staring at Nick who had just stripped right in front of him. He covered his eyes and turned away. “I’ll be going now. Have fun!”

Before he could make to leave, Nick grabbed his arm, gesturing to the shower and shrugging.

“What, have you never showered before?” Joe asked, taken aback when Nick shook his head. “Oh.” He swallowed. “You, um, want me to come in there with you?”

No, no, no, that was not what he had intended to say. Kevin was right: he was creepy. Surely only a creep would offer to do that. Nick probably only wanted further information, and Joe had practically invited himself to molest him in the shower.

Nick grinned and nodded enthusiastically. Looks like that had been exactly what he wanted. He stepped into the admittedly large cubicle and then looked at Joe expectantly, confused when he made no effort to remove his clothes as he stepped forward. Weren’t you supposed to be naked in a shower? He shot Joe a questioning look, gesturing at his clothes and then the shower head. Joe shrugged before ambling out of his clothes self-consciously. He refused to make eye-contact with Nick as he climbed into the shower and shut the door behind him.

While Joe tried to focus his vision on a spot just behind Nick’s shoulder, Nick’s eyes were roaming all over him with no shame. It made goose pimples tingle all over his skin, but he didn’t tell Nick to stop. Nick ran a hand down Joe’s chest just to see what his skin felt like and watch him shiver, but made no further attempt to touch him; it seemed that he was quite uncomfortable.

“Get your hair wet,” Joe said quietly, stepping back slightly so that Nick could stand more fully under the spray of water. While he did, Joe grabbed the nearest shampoo bottle and squeezed some of the contents onto his hand. When Nick’s hair was sufficiently soaked, he beckoned for him to bend down a little so that he could work the shampoo into his hair, scratching at the scalp and trying to cover as much as possible.

“Close your eyes,” he said when he had finished, guiding Nick back under the water. He could almost see the grains of sand washing out with the soap, and ran his fingers through Nick’s hair to get the rest out.

Eventually, Nick stepped out from under the water, and Joe decided that since he was here he might as well wash his own hair as well. Re-wetting his hair, he took the shampoo bottle from before and lathered some of its contents into his hair. He was surprised when Nick’s hands joined his, and eventually let him take over, enjoying the relaxing feeling.

After they both used conditioner, Joe shut off the shower because he did not want to wash his body right now with Nick, because then things really would get awkward. He figured they were clean enough from the water and shampoo, anyway. He was the first to get out of the shower, grabbing two towels and throwing one to Nick, before using the other one to cover up his embarrassing hard-on, which Nick had probably already seen in its entirety. Come to think of it, Nick had been hard as well-

But that was not the right thing to be thinking about right now, because he’d only actually really met the boy less than an hour ago, even though it felt like longer, and Joe didn’t really want to rush into anything. Okay, he did, but he didn’t think it was the right decision. He towelled himself off quickly, noticing Nick watching him and then copying, before announcing that he was going to get them some more clothes, seeing as the earlier discarded ones were now too damp to wear.

He hurried into his bedroom and tried to compose himself somewhat before changing into some clean clothes and grabbing some boxers, jeans and a white V-neck for Nick and taking them into the bathroom.

“I’ll be just outside,” he said, leaving Nick alone in the bathroom.

Well. This had certainly been a morning to remember. He had found a person washed up on the beach and then had his first ever sexual encounter, even if maybe it wasn’t supposed to have been like that. If all that had happened this morning, what else would have happened by the end of the day?

*

When it came to meal times, Nick was initially pleased to discover that he recognised one of the instruments placed next to his plate; humans used it to straighten out their hair, didn’t they? He was slightly disappointed when Joe and Kevin stared at him, bewildered, as he tried to use it: it turned out the instrument was used for stabbing food and carrying it to your mouth. Oh well. At least he had learnt something. At least now maybe they could more confidently believe that he wasn’t from around here.

The day blurred past quite quickly, Nick thought, but he discovered many new things. He finally got to watch the box with moving pictures, learning it was called a television. And then Joe showed him the box that played music, which Nick was fascinated by. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was listening to, but it sounded amazing. His brain was too full of new discoveries to take in much when Kevin attempted to introduce him to the computer, but it was definitely something he would want to look at later. Nick liked Kevin. He was funny and serious and tried to make sure Nick didn’t feel too alienated, which he was grateful for, because he really didn’t have a clue what anything was and was still trying to find his feet (quite literally).

Nick was falling asleep on Joe’s shoulder before Kevin suggested that they all went to bed. Bed sounded good: all soft and nice and warm... He found himself yawning as Joe helped him up and led him up the stairs. It was a lot easier to go down them than it was to go up them, Nick thought tiredly, but smiled because Joe’s arm was around him. He wondered if Joe would come and sleep with him, but maybe it wasn’t the done thing. After his shower, he had reflected that maybe he was supposed to shower alone, for if two people were to shower together, surely there would have been two shower heads. But hey, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do in a shower, never having used one before, and Joe didn’t protest too much.

Nick was disappointed but not entirely surprised when Joe fetched him some pyjamas and informed him that he would be in his own room if Nick needed him. He also told him that tomorrow they would be going to a place called a mall to buy Nick some of his own clothes. He wasn’t exactly sure what a mall was, but it sounded exciting. It also meant that he would be able to ride in one of those moving boxes, which Kevin had explained to him was called a car.

“Anyway, it will be a big day, so you’d better rest up,” Joe finished, lingering in Nick’s doorway.

Nick smiled and nodded, waiting for Joe to do something.

“So, um, good night.”

Awkwardly, he leaned forward and put his arms around Nick in a hug. Eager to return the gesture, Nick pulled Joe closer to him and inhaled his scent, loosening his grip when Joe stepped backwards. He smiled, mouthing good night, and closed the door behind Joe as he left. After changing into his pyjamas and climbing into bed, Nick slept soundly and happily all through the night.

Joe, on the other hand, could still feel Nick’s arms burning him as he burrowed under the covers of his bed. It had been like that all day; Nick would absent-mindedly put a hand on his knee or lean against him or even just look at him, and then Joe would feel the burn. He’d been fighting an internal hard-on all day, and now seemed like a good time to do something about it.

Groaning slightly, he reached a hand under the waistband of his pants to circle his already hardening length. As he stroked, images of Nick came into his head, and he embraced them freely. It wasn’t taking much, which was embarrassing in itself, but he was close to the edge when he heard a faint knocking on his door.

“C-come in,” he forced out, trying to keep his voice level.

The door was pushed open, and Nick ambled inside, looking lost.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said.

“You can talk?” Joe said in disbelief.

“I could talk all along,” Nick replied, smiling seductively. “Anyway, looks like you’re having a little problem there.”

Guiltily, Joe realised it must have been pretty obvious what he had been doing. Nick approached him slowly, bending over him to whisper into his ear.

“I can help you with that.”

The breath caught in Joe’s throat, and he was helpless as Nick pulled back the covers and replaced Joe’s hand with his own.

“The walls are so thin,” Nick mused, pumping his fist up and down, alternating the speed. “I could hear you from my room. You sounded pretty worked up.”

Joe let out a moan, thrusting his hips upwards to Nick’s hand.

“Sssh! You don’t want Kevin to hear, do you?”

Joe shook his head, covering his mouth with one hand and pulling at his hair with the other. This was so amazing, Nick looming above him, whispering to him, making him feel like this. Hand slick with pre-come, his movements quickened as he brought Joe closer and closer to the edge. With his free hand, he removed Joe’s from his hair and held it, before leaning in to kiss him-

Joe finished off with a rough fist, feeling guilty that thinking of Nick had given him the best orgasm he’d ever achieved. He almost wished that Nick had come into his room and ‘helped’ him, but as far as Joe knew, Nick was sleeping innocently a few doors down. He hoped he wouldn’t be awkward around Nick the next day.

*

“Nick! We can’t go in there!” Joe insisted as Nick headed towards Victoria’s Secret.

Nick shot him a confused look. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable place to go, seeming busy with customers, but a hot flush was rising to Joe’s cheek as he gripped Nick’s arm and steered him away.

“That shop sells women’s underwear. Y’know... for girls.”

Nick raised an eyebrow, but let himself be led away. Up until now, the day had been very successful. He had been reasonably apprehensive about everything, seeing a new place and so many people and the fact that Joe was spending so much money on him. They had some sort of currency under the sea, so he knew how things worked, and felt guilty that Joe was spending so much. However, he later assured Nick that he came from a rich family, and Nick having his own clothes and stuff was important. Secretly, Joe wanted Nick to stay for a long time. The way he saw it, it seemed like Nick had come from nowhere and had no place to go, no knowledge of the human world and no voice for the time being. He had little choice but to stay with Joe, who would look after him so well and love him and take care of him... Realising that he sounded like a child arguing with his mother about why he should be allowed to get a dog, he ended this trail of thought.

Nick had been fascinated by the car, not even put off by Joe’s less than perfect driving skills. Maybe he wouldn’t have been as bad if Nick hadn’t kept playing with the indicators or flicking through radio stations or rolling the windows up and down or touching Joe’s thigh randomly. That had been distracting. But the day had been a success. He’d bought Nick seven full outfits and then other accessories such as scarves and sunglasses. He also had pyjamas, a toothbrush, shaving razors (was he even old enough to shave yet?), socks, underwear and several pairs of shoes. That seemed like most of the essentials. He had considered buying Nick a phone as well, but the only people he seemed to know were Kevin and Joe, so there wasn’t that much point. It would have been difficult for Nick to learn how to use a phone anyway, and Joe wasn’t considering letting Nick out of his sight any time soon.

“You wanna grab some food?” Joe asked, spotting the food court.

Nick nodded. It was two o’clock in the afternoon, so there weren’t too many queues.

“What would you like?”

Nick shrugged, not knowing. He didn’t know what he liked, but was sure that Joe would pick something for him.

“Okay then. We’ll just get a table and you can look after the bags while I find food.”

Smiling at Joe endearingly, he followed him to a free table, placing the bags he was carrying at his feet and watching Joe walk awkwardly to a food stall. He reflected on the day so far, excited to have some of his own possessions and ecstatic to be spending all this time alone with Joe. He’d learned new things today, such as what was acceptable behaviour in public, good prices for certain items, and not to go up to random people and interact with them, especially if they didn’t look friendly. Nick didn’t want to interact with anyone but Joe, but at least now he didn’t feel pressured to talk to strangers.

He pouted, wanting Joe to come back. It felt like he was taking ages, even if it hadn’t been that long and he was placing his order. As he moved his eyes from Joe, he noticed a girl approaching him and pointedly looked away.

“Hey, I’m Selena. What’s your name?”

Figuring that these words were directed at him, he turned to look at the girl, startled. He couldn’t reply; he couldn’t speak. What could he do? He wasn’t supposed to talk to people.

“The silent type, eh? Okay. Well, I saw you sitting here all alone and thought I’d keep you company. Y’know, you’re pretty cute. We should totally go out.”

Bewildered, Nick looked around for Joe, seeing him picking up the tray of food.

“Hey, are you ignoring me? You can’t do that! Won’t you at least look at me if I’m talking to you? Or even tell me if you want me to back off, though you probably wouldn’t.” She smiled to herself amusedly.

He smiled apologetically, relieved when he saw Joe walking to him looking quite affronted at seeing Selena.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, sounding distrustful and placing his tray on the table.

“Oh. It’s you,” Selena replied, looking slightly disgusted. This upset Nick; how could anyone speak to Joe in that way? “Is he with you?” she asked, gesturing at Nick.

“Yeah, he is.”

“So he must be your boyfriend. Everyone at college knows you’re gay, and now you’ve proven it.”

“He’s not-”

“Oh, don’t bother. This must be why he wouldn’t speak to me.”

“He can’t speak.”

“Hmm, it figures. Any normal person would stay away.”

Feeling crushed, Joe bowed his head in shame, sad that he hadn’t even been able to defend Nick. As for Nick, he didn’t care so much if that bitch insulted him, but if she upset Joe like that, she had to go. He stood up and glared at her, implying that she should leave now. She looked at him incredulously before he jabbed his finger away from the table.

“Fine, fine, whatever. You’re not even that hot,” she said with an undertone of disappointment.

He felt satisfied as she walked away, and turned to see Joe gazing at him in awe. He sat back down.

“That was amazing, Nick. And- and that bit when she said you weren’t hot? She was totally wrong,” he gushed. “Um, anyway, I didn’t know if you wanted dips so I got you some ketchup and brown sauce and a little packet of mayonnaise...”

Nick thought this was very sweet of him, and reached over the table to stroke Joe’s cheek affectionately. He had wanted to maybe kiss him, but then remembered that kissing didn’t usually happen in public. Maybe he could do it later. Joe blushed and turned his head away once Nick’s hand had left his face, smiling like a teenager with a crush. Actually, wasn’t he a teenager with a crush?

The rest of the meal passed in a comfortable silence laced with hidden glances and flushed cheeks, and to Joe, it felt more and more like a date as it went on. But it was still early, about half past two, and Joe wasn’t ready to go home next; he wanted some more time alone with Nick.

“So, um, would you like to go see a movie or something?”

Nick raised his eyebrows in question.

“Oh, right. Movie. It’s kinda like television, but really big.” He gestured with his hands to illustrate the size and Nick nodded doubtfully. “You’ll love it,” Joe assured him. “I think we should see a comedy. Anyway, let’s take these bags back to the car.”

They stood up, gathering their bags, and Nick wished they each had a hand free so they could join them.

*

Today had been a good day, Kevin thought as he stretched out on the couch. He’d finally had some peace and quiet and was able to really get into his book, pausing every now and then to text Danielle. He rarely got to be home alone, as Joe would always be pestering him about something or other. It didn’t bother him that much, he supposed, as Joe didn’t have many friends in school and Kevin had always been more of a loner, but he liked hanging out with Joe, helping him with his homework, basically being a big brother. Random outbursts of what Joe liked to call humour could be a bit over-powering at times, but he was used to it by now.

But Joe was out with Nick today, and Mom was still on holiday with her friends in Niagara Falls, so Kevin had the house to himself. He had watched whatever he wanted on TV, messed around on the internet, tried to beat Joe’s high score on Guitar Hero and made a selection of sandwiches, just in case. Okay, so he could have probably done all of this with company, but it had been refreshing to do it alone.

Back to Joe and Nick: there was definitely something going on between them, Kevin thought. He liked Nick, he really did, but couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something fishy about him. Whatever it was, he had Joe absolutely enchanted, and it was nice for Kevin to see his brother so happy. He and Nick just clicked.

He was startled out of his blissful reading by a knocking at the door. This was strange. He wasn’t expecting anyone, and their house was pretty isolated, so it wasn’t likely to be a salesman... Still, he left his book and made his way to the front door, pulling it back to reveal his mother looking rather flustered, but happy to see him.

“Mom! What are you doing back so soon?” he said, leaning in for a hug before helping her to take her suitcase inside.

“You wouldn’t believe it. Out of all of us, I was the only one not to get food poisoning, so everyone wanted to go home early, seeing as we’d done everything we’d wanted to. We caught an earlier flight.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow. You should have called. I’d have come to pick you up.”

“Phone battery completely died, and I had no cash for a pay phone, so I just got a taxi outside the airport. It was okay, I’m fine. Where’s Joe?”

“Oh, um, he’s... out. With a friend,” Kevin offered, rather unhelpfully.

“Hmm, a friend. What’s her name?”

“Uh... You should come and sit down for a bit. A lot of things need explaining.”

Denise got the feeling she didn’t want to hear this, but followed Kevin to the living room nonetheless.

“At least the house seems tidy,” she commented. “I’m glad you boys haven’t been throwing any crazy parties.”

“Nope, no parties for us...”

“So, you were going to explain something?” she reminded him as they sat down.

“Oh, yeah. Well, Joe is out shopping with his... friend, Nick, who we met yesterday. The day before, he, um, went out on his boat and there was a storm and he nearly drowned, and he thinks someone saved him.”

“Good gracious! Is he all right?”

“Yeah, you could say that. But anyway, yesterday, Nick washed up on the beach, naked and passed out, so we took him home and waited for him to wake up, and he can’t speak, but he and Joe have really taken to each other.”

Kevin was too busy trying to explain everything as fast as he could to notice that the expression on his mother’s face had turned into one of pure horror.

“I see... So how old is this Nick?”

“Joe reckons he’s probably sixteen or eighteen. He hasn’t been able to tell us himself.”

“And he washed up on the beach?”

“Yeah. Pretty weird, huh? I don’t know where he came from, but he has nowhere to go. I think they’ll be back soon. Joe texted me at about three o’clock to tell me they were seeing a movie. It’s five o’clock now, so they should be back any minute. Would you like a drink?”

“Yes please.”

Thinking he had done a good job, Kevin trotted off to the kitchen to make coffee.