All I could say was 'Thank God it's Sunday'. Even at nine a.m. I was exhausted and not in the mood for anything except sleeping even later.
Hugo got up and went into the kitchen and made sounds and scents that let me know he was completely in control of our life at the moment.
It was obvious when he got back in bed a little while later. I could tell because he smelled like an amalgam of poached eggs, fried green peppers & onions, oatmeal with cinnamon, freshly made toast, coffee, and male pheromones. Oh, God, did that man turn me on, even when I was not looking at him, just smelling him would do it.
He snuggled up with me and kissed my neck and back just above the buttocks, making the trip from my head to my tail in record time. I laughed and spread my legs displaying my hard penis. Hugo nibbled at the hair that grew all around my penis and licked my testicles in their tidy little sack. His tongue burrowed down into my buttocks to my asshole, and he spent a delightful time tongue fucking me.
Just as I was getting used to the idea that we would be spending a little fun time at the start of our Sunday, he poked his head up from under the sheet and said in his best grunts, "BREAKFAST!!!..."
"What?"
And with that Hugo bound out of bed and took off for the kitchen without a stitch of clothes to conceal that beautiful deep complexion, amply accented with black body hair in curls and ringlets. The man is an animal- a thoroughbred! And I was immensely horny left with nothing now but Hugo's invitation to BREAKFAST(?!)!
"HUGO! You asshole...." I called after him, knowing that I didn't have the pleasure of insulting him upon being dumped after I was prepared to be ravaged by him...
I got up with only ten percent of the energy he had displayed and stumbled, penis pointing the way, into the kitchen.
When I arrived, he was seated naked as a jay bird serving himself big dollops of breakfast abundance. As I neared the breakfast booth, he reached out and grabbed my penis...
"Owww!" I protested in no pain at all...
At which point Hugo leaned over still seated and put his mouth, newly warmed with coffee, around my male member. Oh, how I wished Hugo could hear and understand me. I had a torrent of playful rants, raves, and insults ready for that scalawag, sexy teaser, and thief of my heart.
But I had to settle for rapping him gently about his head and shoulders with my knuckles until he let go of my penis...
I bent over and put my face six inches from his and mouthed the word, "Asshole!"
Hugo just bellowed with laughter. He thought he was Mister Mischief the way he had taunted me and left me drooling for him.
I grabbed a pad from those we kept in large numbers scattered in every conceivable nook in our world: "You think you're so clever... Just WHO do you think MIGHT get a "headache" the next time you want to suck on my dick????"
He read it and laughed again...
Reaching over he wrote, "Why don't you have some breakfast before it gets cold?"
"OHHHHH! YOU!!!" I scribbled back...
While we were having breakfast, our conversation turned to the boys at the hospital.
I passed the pad I'd written on over to Hugo, "Thank God that Gilmer got to Nicky last night when he did. I can't even allow myself to contemplate what he said was happening to Nicky when he got there."
"Yeah. And you gotta give credit to that nurse who was alert enough to notice what was happening to Nicky and then call Gilmer to tell him he'd better get there fast," Hugo observed...
After I read what he'd said, Hugo wrote some more, "In all the months before Jilder had his operation he never reached a point where his breathing was as bad as Nicky's... I think Nicky was already dying when the paramedics brought him from home."
"The boys father must have cared something about him to call an ambulance," I said, "but he must have been so drunk he couldn't do anything else. Did you notice how ashamed Nicky was when his parents or his dad came up?" I said.
"Yeah... You can tell Nicky wants to hide the disaster that is his dad. But, I'd bet that he loves that guy too, or at least wants to give the impression that things are not so bad... Kids are very sensitive and loyal to their parents, even to the bitter end, and in this case, until death almost parted them," Hugo commented back.
"Which brings me to something I want to ask you about," I wrote next. "Has it occurred to you that Nicky has another problem, now that the surgery is over? Where's he going to go to recover? I mean, it sure doesn't look like he has anyone at home who can look after him..." I observed to Hugo.
Hugo wrote: "Yeah. I thought about that too, Kevin..." and he paused before going on: "I wondered whether you would consider taking care of TWO recovering kids?" Then he looked right into my eyes and held me there without blinking.
I was speechless.
Then Hugo looked down and kept writing: "Before you yell and throw the pad at me, let me say that I would help when I'm home from work, giving you time off. And you yourself said that we've got three empty bedrooms upstairs, along with the den. Each bedroom has its own bathroom, and they even have little balconies... I think it might be a great thing for both of the boys..."
Hugo didn't give me time to reply but jumped right back in writing: "Now YOU might go insane, but I think we can take turns with the work.. What do you think? Can we handle it together? Should we try?" Hugo asked.
I finished reading the whole thing and then dropped the pad, "OMG, Hugo," I wrote... "That's a whole lot more than I've considered."
After thinking for a moment I wrote: "But you might be right, though... It doesn't look like Nick has anywhere to go."
"Could we do it?" I wrote and then looked directly into Hugo's eyes.
I had even more to say: "I mean can we care for both of them at the same time? And, remember, I don't know ANYTHING about raising kids, Hugo... I know I love them both, and I even like the idea of us all together if the boys get along... But THIS scares me, Hugo..." When I finished, I passed the pad over to Hugo.
"Oh, it isn't so hard raising boys if they listen to you, and I trained Jilder to listen by whacking him on the butt occasionally... and I'd do it to Nicky too if he crossed me," Hugo said...
"You'd know when to do that?" I questioned.
"You bet!@" Hugo answered in a flash, leaving little doubt that he knew.
"They're like puppies that you have to house train. Sometime you have to swat them on the butt with a newspaper to get their attention... But, REALLY, Kevin, I can't see either of those guys having the energy to cross us for a long time, and Jilder, for what it's worth, is very easy to manage. No butt whacking will be needed there. I'd bet money that Nicky is easy going too. It's funny, but a severe illness-- like these guys have-- shapes a child and endows them with humility beyond their years..." Hugo said.
I was impressed with Hugo's insights. I wanted to trust him-- and basically I did-- but I knew I was still worried that I'd fail at the most important task I'd be undertaking in my whole life... helping to raise these boys.
I thought for a moment. We sat there in silence, each waiting for the other to take the next step, but this was one step that we had to take together.
Hugo looked at me and wrote, "I want them both to live here with us. You?"
I wrote, "I do too."
He smiled at me and kissed me and drew a big circle around our last two lines. Our decision was made.
"We'll have to make our offer to Nicky as soon as we see him; so that he can be making his decisions and talk about his options when he speaks with his father or Dr. Gilmer." I wrote.
"Ok," Hugo answered. And he drew two long lines across the paper indicating that this issue was closed. And I agreed.
Talking about the boys reordered our priorities for the morning (And for our entire lives.), and we agreed that we would pull on our clothes as quickly as possible and get over to the hospital asap. Neither of us had shaved, and both of us looked like we'd pulled an all-nighter.... well, actually, we had.
The elevator creaked open its door on the 7th floor, earning Hugo's curses every time he rode in the thing.
I opened the ward door for Hugo who went in first but turned immediately to catch me and put his arm around my waist. We walked together back to find our boys.
Nicky's bed came up first, where we stopped and walked up quietly beside him. He was lying on his back-- really his only option now with that surgically implanted steel bar in him. He was awake staring up at the ceiling looking at nothing and seeming a bit lonely.
"Hi, Nicky," I said in a quiet voice so as not to startle him, and I reached over and squeezed his hand. "Oh, Hi," Nicky said, not moving any part of his head or body. He seemed to recognize my voice, and he had a little energy to speak.
We walked over closer and bent over to look down at him and smile. I wiped his forehead with my hand, moving a few stray strands of that curly, bright red hair. We were rewarded with a nice smile in return.
Nicky was not ready to run a marathon for sure, but he WAS breathing on his own and his color was good. And he seemed to display a social inclination not there yesterday, albeit considerably more modest than he'll probably display in a few days.
"How do you feel this morning," I asked.
"Much better than last night... Yuk! I just wanted to throw up then. It was awful," Nicky recollected.
"I'm really glad to hear you're feeling better now, but then, we told you that you'd start feeling better right after the surgery."
I kept on talking: "You will take a little more time to recover fully. Then your metal retainer bar will not be removed until you've grown a bit and are not in danger of loosing space for your lungs or heart-- like in maybe 2 years?"
Nicky seemed to be quite mature, and he understood what I was telling him. He took it very soberly and seemed happy to be out of danger.
"Will you guys be with me while I'm recovering?" Nicky asked.
"You bet we will, that is, if you want us around. It's up to you, Nicky." I said.
"Jilder came to see me over here this morning. We talked a little while and Jilder told me not to worry about the pain, that the nurse would give me some pills to take care of it. I was sure glad for that, because I am really sore all around my chest. My right side under my arms, especially, hurts bad," Nicky told us.
"I can understand why it might, Nick. Last night Hugo and I watched your whole operation, and Dr. Gilmer had some difficulty getting the retainer to slide into your ribcage. He had to work really hard on that side to get it in. So maybe you'll be a little sensitive there for a while," I explained.
"I wanna say thank you to you guys for staying with me for my operation," Nicky said.
"Oh, Nicky, we wouldn't have let you go through that alone," I said, "And when it's time for you to think about going home, I want to talk with you about your options.
"We heard from the nurse that maybe you might not have such a perfect place to go to, while you are recovering from surgery. So,I just want you to know that WE WANT YOU TO COME HOME WITH US.... If you need a place and want to come..."
"Of course, we want you to do whatever you feel is best, but we also want you to know that we have an extra bedroom upstairs across from Jilder's room where you would be welcome for as long as you might need to live there."
"We could take care of you until you decided you needed to do something different. Maybe you have some family who can help you, maybe not, but- -AGAIN--Nicky": (And I looked him in the eyes and spoke to him with the most sincerity I could mobilize.) "Nicky we would be privileged to have you come to live with the three of us, and join our family-- that is, if you could stand it..." I smiled to give him a little time to think.
Tears started to form in Nick's eyes, but he choked them back by inhaling the congestion that clogged his sinuses, and he said, "I might have to take you up on the offer. I'm not sure how my dad is doing. He might not be able to help me when I need a lot of care after this operation, 'cause he's been sick too."
I reached over and took Nicky by the shoulders and leaned down to hug him without requiring him to move. "We thought about that, Nick. We will be with you the whole way while you decide what you need to do. You are a pretty grown-up young man, but you still need the help our family can give, and we love you, Nicky. We want to help you," I said.
The tears just couldn't be suppressed any longer, and they flowed amid great sobs. I put one hand behind his head and the other to his nose with a monstrous wad of Kleenex tissues and said, "Blow."
He did, yet he kept on crying with even deeper sadness than had poured out already. This boy was a bottomless vessel of grief and sadness.
Hugo leaned down and grasped Nicky this time, and rocked him gently in his embrace. I held Nick's hand, and together the three of us became one while Nick cried and cried.
In a moment the tears began to subside. However, Hugo didn't let Nick go. Hugo held him still longer sharing the protection and love that he conveyed through the touch of his large body.
I went on speaking, this time for Hugo, "You know Hugo can't talk, but he and I wrote notes to each other this morning for a long time, and he told me that he loves you too, and he wants me to ask you to be with us. Nicky, Hugo wants you to come home with us-- if you want to," I said.
"Thank you," Nicky said. "Thank you both," through the tears, "and thank Jilder too." After a moment Nicky added, "Oh, do you think Jilder will want me to come?"
"Well," I said, "to be truthful, Nick, we didn't consult Jilder. Not that he isn't important, his life is, but this decision and invitation is for us adults to make. It's the house where we share our love with everybody who lives there: Jilder and you are equal."
I hadn't finished, "But I'll tell you, Jilder was very, very worried about you last night, and I would be surprised if he wasn't eager to bring you home to our new house where we can heal together...when he comes home..."
Jilder's never lived in our new house before; so you two would be coming to live in a new house together at the same time... like brothers, Nicky..."
"Okay." Nicky said. "I gotta talk to the doctor too to see what he thinks; then I'll let you know, if that's okay with you guys..."
"Sure, Nicky," I said.
"There's no rush at all. Jilder won't be able to come home until next weekend. And you might have to stay in the hospital a while longer, or maybe Dr. Gilmer will let both of you guys go home together. Wouldn't THAT be a trip?" I went on.
Hugo stood up and looked at me with questioning in his eyes. I wrote on the pad I carried. "He's ok now."
Hugo looked over at Nicky and smiled then bent over again and kissed him on the forehead, just as he usually did Jilder.
I said, "I guess we better go over and visit with Jilder too. Maybe we can get them to move you guys into beds next to each other. Would that be okay with you? Or maybe you would rather have the peace and quiet of being over here away from Jilder?" I asked Nicky.
"I better stay right here for now, until I talk to Jilder about coming to be in his house," Nicky said.
"You mean in OUR house, Nicky" No one of us will own our house, it's the place each of us calls home. There's no contest to see who runs the place. It would be YOUR home just as much as it is Jilder's home or my home or Hugo's home. It's OUR home." I tried to explain, but I had no idea how all that would go over with Nicky. We'll just have to see...
"Okay," Nicky said with a smile.
"Then we'll be back in a few minutes," I said.
And I squeezed his hand, gave him a kiss on the forehead too, and we left for Jilder's bed.
Jilder was engrossed in his Ghost Centurions game and didn't see us when we walked up. After a moment, he noticed we were there, and he stopped and said, "Hi Hugo, Kevin, how are you guys doin?"
It was pleasant to see Jilder thinking more about his game than about his medical condition, something that indicated he was closer by a bit to leaving the hospital than I had considered before.
Hugo went over, sat on the bed, and put his arm around Jilder. Jilder set his PSP down on his lap and gave Hugo a big hug... "I didn't see you leave last night. Where did you go after you went running out behind Nicky and Dr. Gilmer?" Jilder asked.
"We went to be with Nicky while he got his operation, like we did for you when you had yours. We didn't leave the hospital until nearly two a.m.," I said.
"Wow! Yeah? I was surprised to see that Nicky'd got his operation already when I went to see him this morning. He was asleep; so I didn't bother him. I waited until after he woke up, but that was late..."
"How was he doing when you spoke with him," I asked.
"He was able to talk, but he was really tired, and he didn't talk much. He asked me if I knew when you guys were gonna come, and I said I didn't know for sure, but I knew you'd be here today sometime." Jilder replied.
"Did he say anything about his dad or anybody else coming to see him?" I asked.
"Nope." Jilder replied. "He just said he wanted to see you guys..."
"Well, Jilder, we need to speak with you about lots of things, some of it involves both you and Nicky.
"First, though, you need to know that Hugo and I have made some plans about where he and I are going to be living after you get out of the hospital. You remember that I just got out of the hospital myself; so I'll have to be at home resting for a couple months. Then you'll need to have somebody around too, when Hugo can't be with you after you get out of here; so Hugo and I decided that we are going to move in together and bring you along."
That was a lot to digest, but Jilder would understand, I hoped. "If we're all living together, we'll all get what we need: you and I get company while were recovering, and Hugo and I get to be together a lot like boyfriends want to be, and you will still have your home with Hugo, just like before, except that I'll be joining your family. We'll all be together..." I said.
I knew that I was being long-winded, but I didn't want Jilder to feel like I was pushing him out of his home with Hugo, and I wanted him to know that I wanted to be with him while he recovered from his surgery.
"That sounds cool. Where are we going to live?" Jilder asked.
"We'll be living in a 5 bedroom townhouse out near Escondido where you'll have your own room and bathroom and little balcony. And we'll have a small backyard and side yard where we could have a dog if you want. And when it's time for you to go back to school, there's a very nice new public school nearby."
Jilder turned his head and looked Hugo in the eye and asked out loud," is Kevin right?"
"Yup!" Hugo said with a smile.
"Alllright! Oh, man, this is cool. And maybe later I can get a bike?" Jilder was already considering the possibilities.
"Well, if Hugo thinks you would be responsible with riding one, we can talk about that, I think..."
"Oh, cool, man, yeah!" Jilder held his hands out to Hugo and they went through that male hand-slapping routine followed by poking at each other's fists with a weird little hand-shake... Apparently Jilder didn't need any persuasion to get on board with our new program.
"I'm glad you don't mind joining Hugo and me setting up a new home together. But there's also something really important that I haven't told you about yet. You need to hold on to your hat, Jilder," I said
"Whadaya mean?" Jilder said, with just a touch of that signature suspicion that surfaces in him occasionally.
I started by saying, "Well, it concerns Nicky."
Jilder looked at me and said, "Are we going to let Nicky come to live with us?"
Good grief, how DOES that kid do it. Last time it was boyfriends this time he knows what I'm going to say before I say it...
"Well, Jilder, it's looking pretty grim for Nicky. He almost died last night, and there wasn't even anybody to be with him," I told Jilder in complete candidness.
"Oh, that's really sad," Jilder said.
"Yeah. Pretty sad, that's what Hugo and I thought too; so after we discussed it, we decided that we wanted Nicky to come to live with us in our new house if his dad couldn't care for him now.
"We thought he seems like a nice kid, and he and you would have a lot in common working on your conditions over the next two or three years, until after your retainers come out. We just told Nicky that we wanted him to come to live with us, but the first thing he wanted to know was whether it was okay with you. He respects your wishes a lot, Jilder," I told Jilder, leaving him alone with the idea.
"Humm." Jilder didn't say a word. He just looked in the direction of Nicky's bed and shook his head.
Hugo had been watching Jilder and me talk, but he began to want to be a part; so he got up and went to get a pad and pen from the nurse's station. While he was there he wrote a few notes with the nurse.
When he returned from the nurse's station, Hugo wrote me a note. "Did you explain to Jilder about Nicky?"
"Yep!" I wrote quickly. "I told Jilder that Nicky hasn't said he will come to live with us yet, but that he asked whether it would be alright with Jilder if he did come."
I continued writing for Hugo, "I told Jilder that we explained to Nicky that we were on our way to tell Jilder right then..."
Hugo took the pad and wrote to me, "So Jilder knows that Nicky cares what he thinks about our invitation to live with us."
"Confusing? ( I tried to write clearly for Hugo, but it was just clumsy...) Nicky wants Jilder to be okay with the idea before he (Nicky) tells us he'll come to live with us. That's really considerate of Nicky, I think," I explained to Hugo in a sort of detailed way.
Hugo and I were in conversation writing on the pad and passing it back and forth; so our attention to Jilder lapsed a bit. The next thing I noticed Jilder was walking barefoot toward Nicky's bed.
"Well, there goes `something?' " I wrote to Hugo.
"Yep! I sure hope Jilder agrees," Hugo wrote back.
The nurse walked up, smiled, and asked "Have you gentlemen visited with Nicky today?"
I answered, "Yep. We stopped for a little while on the way in to see Jilder."
"That boy sure wanted to see you. He asked me at least three times whether you two had come today. He didn't want to miss you when you came to visit Jilder, that was for sure...," she said.
"Has Nicky's father or anyone come to see him today," I asked.
"No. At least not since six a.m. this morning when I came on," the nurse said.
"Oh," I said, allowing my voice to drop in tone as I exclaimed, indicating my disappointment for Nicky.
"I doubt that there will be anyone to see Nicky. That's why he was so eager for your visit. He sees that the two of you care about him, and right now he is desperate for a kind person to be with him while he is going thought this pain. He doesn't want to be alone-- anything but being by himself," the nurse confided.
Just as we were speaking confidentially, up walked Jilder with a bit of a spring in his step. "You guys need to go see Nicky. He wants to talk to you," Jilder said.
"Oh, really?" I replied.
With that I grabbed Hugo by the hand and pulled him with me. I nodded my head in Nicky's direction. Hugo grabbed his pad and pen and came walking along with me.
In just a moment we both arrived at Nicky's bed. Hugo was on the right side of Nicky's bed, and I was on the left. Nicky reached up to each of us to get a hand, and when he had them he said, "Hugo, Kevin, I want to come to live with you guys... and Jilder too-- if the offer is still good."
"Still good?" I exclaimed... "We'll NEVER take back that offer, Nicky, NEVER." And I smiled, "I'm so happy you want to come."
Hugo wrote on his pad, "Nicky I love you and want you to come to live with us..." And Nicky took the pen and wrote, "I want to live with you too. When can I come?" When Hugo read what Nicky wrote; he smiled and grunted "NOW!"
By this time Jilder was standing at the foot of Nicky's bed, and he reached over the end of the bed and grabbed Nicky's foot. "And I bet we can have a dog--maybe TWO, too if we play our cards right," Jilder told Nicky...
"Alllright!" Nicky said.
And there we were.
Our little family, all of us together for the very first time. Every one of us was lame or hurt in one way or another, certainly not perfect, but each of us knew that we were loved by all the others. And so our little disabilities and defects--AND EVEN THE BIG ONES-- didn't matter quite so much.
And then I thought, "Now, God, what am I supposed to do?"
Immediately another thought occurred to me and I said, "I want all of you to know that I love each and every one of you very, very much"-- and I wrote that down for Hugo. And everything was perfect.