Here be Dragons 6: Control
This is a story based on fantasies created by Anne McCaffrey. It is fiction and no reference to any person living or dead is intended nor to any of the characters in McCaffrey's novels. I have used only the concepts created by McCaffrey and I apologise if it impinges on her copyright. It is by way of tribute rather than imitation and is a measure of the enjoyment I have received from her novels over many years. It may contain descriptions of gay sexuality (b/b and M/b).
Here Be Dragons 6
CONTROL
“OK, just what the hell is going on here?” ...................................
Will’s father burst into the room.
“Gerald!” Will’s mother exclaimed.
Oh shit! Will.
Much more than shit, Will! Daniel.
Will’s father stopped at the look his wife gave him, scanning the room, and seeing the two boys and Daniel’s mother.
“Oops! Sorry Jen, I didn’t realise you were here,” he looked a little shamefaced.
“That’s all very well, but what is your problem?” his wife asked.
“Um....” he recovered, “Can I first ask why you are here, Jen?”
“Maureen asked me to come over, to discuss the boys.”
“Oh!” he looked a little puzzled. “What about the boys?”
Maureen looked at him. “You haven’t wondered about them recently?”
“Well, yes I have. But that is not why I was annoyed.”
“Oh? Well why were you?”
“It’s Will.”
“What about Will?” Maureen sounded a little defensive.
“How he got me out of bed this morning.”
“Oh?”
“Will, just what did you do?” Will’s father looked directly at him.
Will wasn’t quite sure where or how to look. He wasn’t sure what his father was asking, and he didn’t know if anything he said would be the right answer. More importantly, he was worried that it might be the wrong answer to the wrong question! He looked at Daniel who shrugged slightly. Gerald Harp noticed the slight interchange between the boys. When Will didn’t respond he spoke again.
“I’m not sure what is going on. Will called out that I had to get up and I guess I fobbed him off. Then....” he paused, trying to collect his thoughts. He went on, “Then I had this overwhelming compulsion to get out of bed. Whatever it was I couldn’t resist it!”
Damn! both boys simultaneously – which caused a muffled giggle from the both.
“Are you two choking? Or something?” Will’s father barked, sort of!
“Or something!” Will replied.
“Well?”
“Well what, Dad?” Will couldn’t look directly at his father.
“Well, what did you do to me?”
“Why do you think I did ‘something’ to you Dad?”
Will’s father looked hopelessly at his wife.
“Something is going on that I don’t seem to be tall enough to stop,” he growled. “Maureen do you suppose it is possible to enlighten me as to why Jen is here; why the four of you are sitting here together; and why the boys look like cats that choked after they got the canaries?”
Will’s mother smiled at him. Thinking about it, it was quite funny, even though the situation was so very serious.
“Do sit down, Gerald,” she said. “The boys do have something to tell you and its important that you don’t burst your boiler when you hear it.”
“What are you talking about,” just holding off from actually shouting. He sat down and glared around him. “Please.... Please tell me for God’s sake!”
“Dad,” Will spoke up. “I’m sorry, but I did sort of order you to get up!”
“What! How?”
“Gerald, do pipe down and listen,” his wife said.
“Gerald,” Jen interrupted, “This is not easy – not for us or for them, and I’m not sure I’ve fully appreciated it yet. But you do need to let them explain.”
“OK, OK,’ he conceded. “Will, Daniel, someone, please, please explain it.”
Will looked at Daniel, who looked at his mother. She gave him a tiny smile of encouragement.
“Mr Harp, Will and I have two things to tell you. Well, three, perhaps.” He hesitated, working up his courage.
“Yes?” Gerald obviously wasn’t happy.
“Well, the first thing is that Will and I are gay and that we love each other.” It came out in a garbled sort of rush.
“Oh, that, well I knew that.” Gerald still didn’t look comfortable.
He knew? Will.
Hell! – wonder how? Daniel.
“Uh!” Daniel looked flustered. “Well, the second thing is that we can talk to other without speaking.”
“I sort of knew that as well,” said Gerald.
Oh God! both boys simultaneously.
“Umm......,” now Daniel really was flustered.
“Daniel, for heaven’s sake get on with it! What is your third thing?” Gerald looked less uncomfortable.
“Well, I...., we....” he stuttered, getting a glare from Will’s father.
“Umm, well we can read other peoples minds, and.....” his voice tailed off into silence.
“And....?”
“And we seem...” a whisper, “We seem to be able to control them sometimes.”
“I thought that might be the case.” Gerald stopped and thought for a moment. “I’ve known how you boys felt about each other for some weeks now.”
“You did?” Maureen sounded startled, “How?” Will and Daniel nodded – they would like that answered too.
“Oh, it wasn’t difficult,” he grinned wryly. “I’ve merely observed how they look at each other and how considerate they are of each other. It wasn’t hard to work out.” He smiled at the boys and then at their mothers.
“The communication thing is not too hard to work out either.” Everyone looked a little puzzled, although Maureen gave a slight nod of understanding.
“Over the last few weeks they seem to have developed an understanding of each other and of knowing what the other is thinking without actually speaking. Not uncommon between people who are very, very close. Best example is twins, especially identical twins.” He smiled at the boys. “I sort of figured you had at least a very strong empathy. I didn’t realise it was full telepathy, though.”
“And the control, Dad?” Will whispered, moving closer to Daniel. Daniel put his arm around Will’s shoulder, squeezing slightly to show his support.
“You don’t think that I didn’t realise we seemed to be watching more episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, even though I can’t stand it?”
Will gave a small giggle.
His father went on. “I don ’t think I fully realised it until I started to think about some events of the last couple of weeks. Do you realise, Maureen, how many times we have had Will’s favourite dishes in the last week or so?” He looked at his wife. Daniel’s mother hurriedly smothered a giggle.
“No, I didn’t,” she said, “But I knew something was up. Will and I discussed it this morning before Daniel arrived.”
“Yes, well, I’m afraid I didn’t really appreciate the import of it until this morning,” Will’s father said. “And then when that imperative hit me – forcing me to get out of bed, I knew. I just knew!” The irritated expression returned to his face. Will wondered what was coming next – he’d never seen his father like this before.
Daniel? he thought plaintively.
I don’t know Will. What’s he going to do?
I don’t know.........
The boys looked at Will’s father who was watching them very carefully.
“You’re doing it now, aren’t you?” he asked them. They nodded. He continued, “How often have you tried to control someone?”
“Not very often,” Daniel said, jumping in before Will could say anything. Let me handle this, Will. “I’ve tried to prompt Mum a couple of times,” glancing sideways at his mother. She smiled at him. “And as you said, Will has tried it a bit on you and Mrs Harp, but not a full-on command. Well, not until this morning. And then,” he hurried on, “Only because Mrs Harp said she wanted you out of bed immediately, and you didn’t want to get up. That really is the first time....” his voice subsided into a whisper.
“That’s right Dad. I... I’m very sorry...” Will spoke very quietly, trying to look penitent.
“No you’re not Will!” His father glared at him, and then slowly a smile spread across his face. “Don’t think I’m mad at you, kids! Although it is a bit startling to realise that someone else is controlling you.”
The boys looked at each other and moved closer together. A look of relief passed over Will’s face, prompting Daniel to quietly chuckle at his friend.
Gerald Harp looked at them seriously. “Boys, I don’t know what we are going to do about this,” emphasising the ‘we’. “But I do know that we are going to have to do something to protect you.”
“Protect us Dad?” Will looked surprised.
“Yes, protect you.”
“But why, Mr Harp? Surely we can protect ourselves,” Daniel interjected. “Or at least we will be able to once we get the hang of this thing.”
“Oh, I have no doubt you could, Daniel. That’s the problem.”
“What do you mean, Gerald?” his wife asked.
“If they do find themselves in a position where they really have to do something to protect themselves and their actions become known, what will happen then?” he looked unhappy. “You know, if you guys inadvertently out yourselves – that is a real possibility because of the way you look at each other, or touch each other – and you get picked on or even threatened with violence.” He looked at them trying to reinforce the seriousness he felt.
“Um, actually, Dad, something like that has already happened,” Will said.
“Oh? What? Where?” All three adults looked worried.
“There was a guy in the park the other evening who must have seen us hugging each other. It was....” Will broke off as Daniel looked at him.
Let me, Will. Daniel looked at the three adults and then, trying very hard to concentrate his thoughts, he projected an image of his memories of the incident into their minds. All three suddenly sat bolt upright and horror showed on their faces. Daniel eased the projection and they calmed down.
“You saw that?” he asked.
They nodded.
“What did you do?” Will’s father asked.
“We ran away.”
“You didn’t try to exercise any control?”
“No. Well, actually, we didn’t realise we could exercise some control at that time.”
“Now that you know you can, do you think you would have acted differently?” he looked keenly at Daniel and then Will, in turn.
“I think so,” Daniel answered hesitantly.
“What do you think you would have done?”
“I think I would have tried to change his thoughts to something much more pleasant, and, well, I guess, just try to deflect them away from us.” Daniel looked at Will who nodded at him.
“Good answer Daniel. Is that how you feel Will?”
“Yes Dad.”
Whew!
Yeah!
“So tell me boys, what is it like, and how do you control it.” Gerald looked from one to the other.
You handle it Daniel.
“Well, Sir, I don’t know if I can really explain it,” Daniel shyly smiled at him. “It’s really a matter of just concentrating on what the other is feeling – or thinking. And we can actually prevent the other getting anything from us.”
“Oh? That’s interesting.”
“To a point,” said Will with a wry smile. “Daniel’s been able to get into my mind even when I try to block him...”
“Only because you really didn’t try to stop me though,” Daniel dug his friend in his ribs. “I don’t know how we do it, or how it even started. Suddenly we were just able to sense what the other was thinking, and then how he was feeling, and then we found we could, well, sort of talk... You know, without actually saying anything.”
“Well, no! I don’t really!” Gerald gave a short laugh. The two women joined him with a little giggle, smiling at the boys.
“With other people – ummm... Well, I’m sorry, but, well... it is too easy. I suppose that’s because they don’t know how to block us out.”
“Yes, I can imagine that would be the case.”
“Do you think I can interrupt this?” Will’s mother butted in. “You two guys need breakfast, and so do Robbie and Genny – and they’ve been hanging in the door for the last 10 minutes. And I’m sure Jen and Daniel wouldn’t mind a hot drink.” She got up and walked towards the kitchen, gathering up her younger children as she went.
The other four followed her, Will going to help his mother. They sat at the kitchen table with Robbie and Genny. Looking at Will and then Daniel and then turning to her father Genny asked.
“Are Will and Daniel gay Dad?”
“Yes they are, love.” Both boys blushed.
“What’s gay?” asked Robbie.
Before his father could answer, probably to brush off, or delay the question, Will spoke up.
“It means that we prefer making friends with other boys rather than with girls, Robbie.”
“So do I – so am I gay too?”
“Not necessarily. When you get to our age you might want to be really friendly with a girl. It’s just that we would rather be really friendly with each other than with girls.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No I guess not, here.....” Will projected a thought into Robbie’s mind. Robbie started, and then his eyes widened. A look of incredulity passed over his face.
“Oh! Oh, I see,” he smiled. “Um... is it like how I love teddy?”
“I guess,” said Will with a broad smile. The adults chuckled. Daniel blushed and passed a thought to Will who spluttered.
“What was that?” Gerald asked his older son.
“I’d rather not say, Dad.” Will giggled and blushed.
“Ah, something to do with odd behaviour with a particular toy bear?” His father winked at him. Will spluttered again.
“I think you kids sometimes forget that we were your age once, too!” The two women looked at him wryly, and both laughed.
“Might be too much information there, Mr Harp.” Daniel broke into a loud laugh.
Daniel, what are you on about?
Didn’t your teddy have a hole in the seam around its butt?
Will blushed, and then giggled out loud. Oh! Yes, well……….
“Let’s get back to the point, shall we?” Gerald sounded serious again. “How do we ensure that you guys are protected?”
“You have something in particular in mind, don’t you Gerald?” Daniel’s mother sounded concerned.
“Yes, I do Jenny.” He hesitated. Will and Daniel looked at each other and then suddenly their eyes widened.
“Dad, do you really think the government would want to take us away?” asked Will, his voice sounding a little tremulous.
Gerald leant forward and put his arm around his son’s shoulders and gently hugged him.
“I don’t think there could be any doubt about that, Will. I think both you and Daniel are in a very vulnerable position should your ability ever be revealed. I think that they would want to take you away from us so that they could exploit your abilities and would probably subject you to endless trials and experiments to try to ascertain how you do it.”
“But surely, Mr Harp, we will be able to protect ourselves and prevent them doing that?” Daniel looked at Gerald.
“I don’t know if you could do it every time – what happens if they knock you out with an anaesthetic and then separate you so that you can’t support each other?”
“But we know we can contact each other over distances,” Will interrupted.
“But you don’t know what can be used to shield you from communicating with each other – and you can bet your last holey sock that that is what they will try to find out first – and that they will keep you sedated until they do know what it is. After all, if they can find a way to prevent you communicating with each other, then they will have probably have found a way to shield themselves from you.”
“Oh, yes – I see,” said Daniel. “its really like the way Anne McCaffery described the skull caps worn by some of her characters in ‘Pegasus in Flight” isn’t it?”
Daniel nodded. Their mothers looked puzzled. Gerald smiled and nodded.
Daniel looked at his mother. “Mum, you always reckon I spend too much time reading those novels, but ‘Pegasus in Flight’ is about people with extra abilities – like telepathy and telekinesis – and some of the characters wear special caps to prevent the telepaths reading their thoughts.”
“Oh,” Jenny still looked a little puzzled. “I’ll take your word for it Daniel. Don’t forget I’m just a humble lawyer!”
Gerald guffawed. “Humble! Well, that’s a new one Jenny – don’t think I’ve ever heard a lawyer describe himself – oops! herself – as humble before.”
She smiled at him. Turning to Will’s mother she said “Gerald is right, though, Maureen. I think we do have to try to get some sort of thing or scheme in place to help the boys protect themselves. Trouble is, I really don’t know how to set about it, and not even what form it should take.” She paused, thinking. “You’ll note though, that I said ‘help’ them.”
“I noticed that,” Gerald said.
“So did I,” said Maureen. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” looking at the boys, “I think there is little we can do other than advise them as to what to look for, and the morals and ethics of what they might have to do. They are the ones that are going to have to develop the mechanics of how they protect themselves.”
“But they’re very young,” Maureen interjected.
“Mum!” Will.
“But you are Will – what do you know about the adult world and how nasty it can be.”
“Maureen,” Gerald interrupted. “They are the ones with the abilities. We only know they exist – we have no idea of how it works and what they might be able to achieve.” He turned to look at Daniel and Will.
“Guys, its really your call. What do you think?”
“Mr Harp, you are all right – at least about some of it.” Daniel appeared to be struggling for the right words. “I’m sorry if this doesn’t come out right, but none of you have this ability so if we don’t yet know what we can do, how can you? Mrs Harp is right – we don’t really know much about the adult world – yet! But we have seen at least one example of how nasty it can be. And Mum is quite right – we will need help, particularly for what she calls the moral and ethical bits. How would it be, Mum, if I sat in court with you and told you what a witness was really thinking while you were questioning him?”
“Oh, no!” Jenny looked horrified. Her expression changed to a wry grin, “It would, of course be highly unethical – but very, very useful!” She gave a short laugh. “But you are quite right Daniel, I couldn’t allow that to happen. That wasn’t the sort of example I thought about, but it is a good one.”
“What were you thinking about Mum?”
“Well, the example you gave earlier, about how you or Will might protect each other if the other were put into some danger – for example if you were attacked by some homophobic group. You could take a number of different actions: you might try to deflect their attention to something, or someone else; you might place a command to go away into their minds; you might make them attack each other; you might make them kill each other, or themselves; or you might apply some ability that we don’t even know about yet. Each of these actions has a moral and ethical implication. Do you see?”
“Oh, yes, Mum, we see. That’s why Will said he was so scared of it.”
“Do you see, Will?”
“Yes, he does Mum!” Daniel spoke before Will could reply. He looked at his mother with a firm look in his eye.
“What? Oh, yes, of course he does,” she smiled wryly. “It is hard to remember that both of you are thinking in unison!”
“So Daniel, Will, where do we go from here?” asked Gerald, coming back into the conversation.
“Dad, we’re not sure. We’d like to think about it – can we go up to my room for a while? This has been pretty intense.” Will sounded tired.
“Of course, boys. You go up and relax. We’ll give some thought to it down here too.”
Daniel and Will stood up, looked at each other, smiled at the others around the table, and made their way out of the room and up the stairs to Will’s room.
Oh, Lord! Will thought, Was that really as difficult as I felt it was?
I feel washed out, Daniel replied. He leaned in against Will and put his arms about his friend. Let’s lay down on your bed, I really do feel rooted after all that.
Will giggled. You shouldn’t feel rooted, Daniel, we haven’t ever done that!
We will!
When?
Dunno! But we will. God, Will, I feel so scared about all this. If you weren’t with me…..
If I wasn’t with you we probably wouldn’t know about this ability.
Good point. Daniel looked at his friend. His eyes had a glint of tears, and Will impulsively put his arms around him and squeezed.
Daniel, I do love you. Don’t be upset – I’m going to be here with you all the time. He chuckled. After all, we are only a thought away!
Chump! Daniel smiled at him. I wonder what we really can do. I mean, I know we can think to each other – we can read each other’s thoughts and we can place images and thoughts in each other’s minds. And we know we can control others – well to a limited extent, at least. But I wonder if we can do anything else – you know, like telekinesis? He looked at Will and suddenly gave an evil grin and, still looking at his friend, seemed to concentrate very hard on something. Will felt Daniel’s presence stirring in his mind, and then felt a sexual stimulus as Daniel directed some erotic images and thoughts at him. He giggled, and then suddenly grimaced and clasped at his groin.
What did you just do, Daniel?
Why? Daniel grinned.
I just felt something tweak my dick!
What? Like this? Daniel grinned broadly as Will flinched and put his hand over his genitals.
Daniel, what DID you do?
Well, I’m not exactly sure – I’m not sure that I tweaked your dick telekinetically or whether I just put the thought in your mind that your dick was being tweaked. Like this….
Daniel projected some thoughts into Will’s mind and watched his friend’s face carefully as understanding flowed over it. He felt a sudden tweak on his penis and smiled at his friend.
Yeah, Will. Just like that. Shit, now you’re making me hard.
Will laughed at him. Do you think it is just suggestion, or are we really making it happen. He leaned forward and gently kissed Daniel’s lips.
I don’t know Will. Daniel pressed his lips firmly against Will’s, and then backing away looked around the room, and then, staring at a nerf ball on Will’s bedside table, his face took on a blank expression. Picking something up from his mind, Will too, looked at the ball and then drew a sharp breath as the ball slowly rose from the table.
Fuck me Daniel! You’re doing it.
Daniel laughed at his friend’s outburst, and promptly lost his concentration, and the ball fell back on to the table, bouncing onto the floor.
You try it Will.
How?
Like this, placing a thought into Will’s head.
Ah! I see. Will concentrated on the ball and both boys held their breath while it slowly lifted off the floor and moved back to its place on the table. As it settled in place both boys sighed simultaneously as the let out their breath and gasped as they drew in fresh air.
Will gasped as he suddenly felt as though a giant hand grasped his penis and testicles, and then laughing out loud he made Daniel gasp as he reciprocated on his friend. Both boys started to giggle hysterically manipulating their telekinetic holds on each other.
Daniel! Will gasped, Please stop that – I’m going to cum if you don’t. He relaxed his grip on Daniel who giggled, gave a final tweak to Will and dropped his grip too.
Daniel, where is this going to go? Will sounded scared again.
I don’t know Will. I think we need to talk to the folks about this. But first I really need to feel you close to me. C’mon cuddle up. He leant sideways into his friend, putting his arm over Will’s shoulders.
Oh yes! Will leaned into Daniel’s hug, putting his cheek against Daniel’s. Nuzzling Daniel’s cheek he put his other hand around Daniel’s head and turned it towards him so that he could kiss him. Putting his lips against Daniel’s he slipped his tongue between them and pressed it against his teeth. Daniel opened his mouth letting Will’s tongue slip in. Humming slightly the two boys hugged themselves more tightly together and then simultaneously applied some telekinetic pressure to each other’s genitals. As they felt themselves becoming increasingly aroused the pressure tightened and their tongue action became more agitated.
Finally breaking apart and taking a deep breath, they looked at each other and giggled.
“Daniel, do you want to get off?”
“I’d love to Will, but I think we better tell the folks about this.”
They got up from the bed, and holding hands walked back downstairs into the family room. Robby and Genny were quietly playing on the floor and the three adults were sitting at the table talking. Robby looked up, and seeing Will and Daniel holding hands giggled.
“Have you and Daniel been kissing, Will?”
Will blushed a little. “Yes, Robby, we have.”
“Yuk!” Robby made a face.
Will looked at him, looked at Daniel while a thought was exchanged and then applying some telekinetic pressure, caused Robby to erupt in giggles as he tried to escape the invisible hands which seemed to be tickling him.
The adults looked up from the table, their jaws dropping as they watched the little boy writhing around as though he were being tickled.
“Will, are you doing that?” Gerald looked astonished.
“Yes, Dad. That’s what we came down to tell you.”
All three adults suddenly jumped as they felt invisible lips suddenly kiss their cheeks.
Gerald looked at the women, looked at the boys, and then looking back at his wife and Daniel’s mother said, “Well I guess that answers one of the questions we had. So, now, where the hell do we go?”
Copyright© 2004 ilb3000.
If you wish to reproduce part or all of this story please contact the author at ilb3000@hotmail.com for permission. All credits should be retained in any reproduction.