Disclaimer: For entertainment only.

Benny & Ray 56 Benny & Ray Dee Gilles Rated PG

As soon as the door to their apartment shut, Benny launched himself at Ray, pushing him back against the door, and kissing him wildly. He removed Ray's cap and tossed it to the floor. Unbuttoned Ray's coat and slithered him out of it. The coat joined the cap on the floor.

Pearson, who had been napping in the kitchen on top of a heating vent, came to investigate at the sound of the small scuffle. Seeing it was Ben, she yipped and threw herself at him like every other female Ben knew. She rested her paws in the small of his back, snuffling, her keen nose no doubt picking up a blend of exotic smells from the southern continent that were clinging to Ben these hours later.

As Ben kissed, nuzzled and fondled Ray, Ray dimly thought about the picture that the three of them would present if anybody was there to watch- some kind of weird two man/one dog mnage a trios frottage thing. Why was this his life? He thought crazily.

Pearson began to snuffle Ray too, and tried to insert herself between the two amorous men. "Alright, alright!" Ray called. "One at a time!"

"Me first, Ray?"

"Mmmmm, yeah," Ray said, rubbing Ben's already-cock. "Let's get you to bed, babe. We've got two weeks of lost time to make up for!"

Leaving Pearson in the dust, they peeled off articles of clothing, leaving a trail of material from the front door to the bedroom floor.

Ray turned on the lamp on the night stand on Ben's side. He removed his last articles of clothing, pants and underwear, in one fell swoop after toeing off his shoes. By the time he turned around, Ben was 100% naked. And nice and hard.

Ben's skin was as dark as Ray had ever seen it- from sixteen days of strong tropical sunshine- but for his pelvis, which was as pale as ever. Ray almost wished Ben was immodest enough to have laid out nude, so he'd have that deep tan all over. Thinking of Benny lying out in the open, on a beach, naked for the world to see was an arousing thought. He reached out to him.

The two of them tumbled happily into bed together, and rubbed their hardness against one another. Ben soon came out on top.

Ray leered through the kissing and rubbing. "Horny, aren't you?" he said.

"Mmmm," Ben agreed, humping Ray's thigh. "I didn't masturbate the entire time. It's a little difficult when you have to share a small bedroom with two other men."

"You must be ready to explode. Poor thing," Ray said. "Let's take the edge off a little. You feel like topping, lover?"

"I beg you."

Ray's thigh was slimy from Ben's pre-ejaculate. "No need to beg. Anything you need. Get the Eros, and lube me up, babe. Go slow; it's been a while since I've been the catcher."

And Ben did just that, gently easing the slick lubricant, and then his big hard-on into Ray. God, Benny felt so hard and long.

He began to thrust into Ray shortly after, bucking wildly. "Oh, oh, oh. Ray! I'm not gonna last!" Ben said, gritting his teeth. "I think I've been suffering from vasocongestion--

"What?" Ray asked distractedly.

Ben was pumping like a sports car piston. "Blue! Uh! Balls!" Ben was already beginning to lose rhythm.

"Oh. Oh!....let it go, lover. It's okay. Let it go."

Ben abruptly orgasmed with a protracted animalistic grunt. He collapsed on top of Ray, panting. "Sor-ey," he said.

"It's okay, babe. Catch your breath." Ray rubbed Ben's back soothingly while Ben returned to earth. Ben gently pulled out of Ray. They lay quietly together for several minutes, enjoying the feel of one another's body, getting reacquainted with feel of the other's skin.

"Most guys do it in the shower, Benny, if you can't get privacy," Ray commented, chuckling.

"I'll remember that next time, Ray," Ben said. "Now, what would you like, lover? My hand or my mouth?"

"Your mouth, Benny. Dear sweet Lord, put your mouth on me."

The two men kissed for several minutes, Benny fondling Ray, stroking the organ with the heel of his palm. Then he crawled down Ray's body, smiling, and took Ray's tasty cock into his mouth. "Mmmmm," Benny moaned around the mouthful. "Mmmm. Mmmm." He bobbed his head up and down, taking it all in.

VVVVVV

The two exhausted lovers lay together in the dark.

Ben quietly told Ray about his trip. He recounted nearly every detail to Ray, save for a few moments on a beach at sundown with Hugh.

Ben told Ray how much he missed him terribly. How he wanted to return to South America one day to do more home-building, but not without Ray. Never again would he be without his Ray for so long.

"Ray," Ben whispered into the cool of the brick-walled bedroom. "Do you think we can have a house of our own one day? Wherever you want to live. I'll build it for you."

"You'd do that for me?"

"You know I would. I want a little house. Someplace where Pearson can have a back yard with grass to run around on."

"Someplace we can raise our babies?" Ray asked hopefully.

"Yes, Ray. Someplace we can raise our babies," Ben whispered.

Ray smiled.

Ben wrapped his arms around Ray, and just inhaled him. This is what he missed. Ray's scent, the feel of his wiry body. Ben nuzzled in the crook of Ray's neck.

Ray chuckled, "What are you doin'?"

"Smelling you." Ben inhaled deeply.

Ray knew Ben well enough that no additional questions were necessarily. He patiently waited while Ben snuffled. Ben finally settled on Ray's chest once he was satisfied.

"Hey," Ray finally said. "I have a present for you."

"But we exchanged Christmas gifts before I left."

Ray gently disengaged from Ben, and pulled out a small white box wrapped in a silver bow. "Well, consider this a `welcome back' gift, then. Just open it, will ya?"

Ben sat up, curiosity piqued, and hurriedly but carefully removed the white glossy wrapping and slipped off the bow. Inside was a CD jewel box. And within that was a CD on which Ray had carefully written in his long sprawling cursive, Benny and Ray.

Ben looked a question at him.

Ray shrugged actually looking embarrassed. "I burned you a CD. It's got all kinds of mushy love songs on it. It's kinda hokey."

"Ray. You're sweet," Ben said.

"Yeah, yeah. What else was I supposed to do while you were gone?"

On the inside of the jewel box, Ray had placed a picture of the two of them. It was the photo they jokingly referred to as their "wedding photo". Elaine had taken it. Ben and Ray sat on Ray's desk, and Ray had a hand on Ben's shoulder. They sat, Ray's chest to Ben's back. Ben cradled his Stetson in his hand.

Ray had written the names of the songs on the back. The handwriting started out level, but "slid down hill" by several degrees by the time Ray go to the end of the line.

"It's perfect, Ray." Ben said. He leaned down and kissed his love.

"Wanna listen to it?

Ben nodded, and Ray took it from him and loaded the CD into the small CD player on Ray's night stand. "How Deep is Your Love?" started to play. Ray reached for him.

Ben and Ray fitted their bodies together, and settled in. "I missed our bed, Ray."

"And I missed you in it." Ray gazed at him, gently tracing the outline of his lips. "Ben?" Ray gently asked. Ray used the name `Ben' so rarely that it always made Ben sit up and take notice. "I'm sorry for the way I acted that last day. It was stupid. I'm an idiot. It's just that I can't help myself sometimes. I get so afraid that one day you'll wake up and wonder what the hell you're doing with somebody like me, and you'll...leave, because--

"Ray!" Ben cried. "No!"

"Because you'll realize you're too good for me," Ray finished. "You can have anybody--

"Ray, Ray, Ray" Ben said. "Shut up! Just...shut up. "

"Benny!" Ray said, mock-surprised. "You never tell people to `shut up'!"

"Well, I'm telling you, Ray. Shut up." And he silenced him with a kiss. The kiss went on and on.

Ben felt himself on the rise again. And so did Ray. Ray positioned their bodies so that he could reach down and stroke his lover's hardness, and Benny did the same while they continued to neck.

Ben finally broke the kiss and began to thrust into Ray's fist frantically. Ray gathered some of the slick from the tip of Ben's penis and spread it around. Ben moaned. Ray paused long enough to apply a little Eros to his right palm. He pushed Benny to his back, crouching over him, and began to stroke Benny off in earnest. Ben assisted by wrapping his hands around Ray's and guiding the rhythm.

Ray thought this was the hottest thing he had ever seen. Ben, flat on his back, thighs splayed, helping Ray stroke him, selfishly taking his own pleasure, overcome. Overwhelmed.

Ray went rock-hard at the sight of him.

Ben was panting, the thinnest of sheens of sweat breaking through the skin, glowing in the dim lamp light of their bedroom. This was when Ben was at his most male. Just a man taking pleasure. Just like any other man. Ray could almost come just by watching him.

"God, you're so hot, Benny," Ray murmured.

"You make me hot, Ray. Ummmm. Ohhh. Make me come, babe. Makemecome-makemecome-makemecome!"

It was too much for Ray. A little more Eros applied to his own cock, and Ray was soon inside Benny, back where he belonged, doing his best to deliver his very best fuck.

He had pushed Ben's knees to his chest. And then went to town, thrusting like a madman. Ben stared up at him helplessly. He was unable to speak for a long moment until he finally caught his breath and wailed with satisfaction.

Ray rolled his hips in circles, successively, and reversed, rolling the other way. Ben moaned. Ray shifted his angle to push his cock in deeper, and kept his pace slow, deep, and hard.

Then he switched to fast and hard for a few minutes to bring Ben to the edge. Then he slowed the pace down again, long-dicking slowly. He increased the pace a little more next, and but kept it hard, snapping his hips. The tip of Ben's cock was dripping.

They both moaned. Ray stopped long enough to pull out, put Ben on his knees, and re-enter him in one forceful stroke. He resumed the fuck without mercy.

"AHHH! Oh yeah. Yeah! Yeah? Yeah! Uh. I! I! I!" Ben babbled. "Oh? Oh! Uh-oh! Ummh. Ummh." Ben said. Ray had no idea what was going on in Benny's head at times like these.

Ray could feel Benny's body coiling tightly, tightly, tightly. This was going to be a loud one, he thought. He wouldn't be able to look the neighbors in the eye for a few days. Fine. Let them hear it. Let them know that it was he, Ray Vecchio, turning this man inside out.

Ben Fraser was the man everybody wanted. And he only came for Ray Vecchio.

Ray kept him on the edge for several more minutes. Alternating fast and slow. Fast. Slow. A bead of sweat had appeared on Ben's upper lip.

Ray put Ben on his back again and re-entered him. Ray tingled with pleasure down to his toes, re-entering Benny. He needed to come. Right now. "Ready, Benny?"

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!"

They raced to the finish line.

He felt the low rumbling in Ben's chest first. Before the keening began. Ray thrust forward and clamped a hand to Ben's mouth. It only helped a little. Ben's nostrils flared like a racing thoroughbred as he inhaled through his nose only. His eyes rolled to the back of his head.

Ben's orgasm and spasms triggered Ray's. Ray was louder than Benny when he came. "Awww, Benny-bene-bene! Ahhhhhhh. Ahhhhh. Ah. Ti amo, Benito- ti amo ti amo."

"Oh God, Ray," Ben said, struggling for breath, coming down from his high. "Oh God," he said with undisguised wonder.

VVVVVV

2 a.m. Ben was still awake, flat on his back. In the silence of the night, he had time to think of the beach of Esmereldas, the kiss, and Hugh.

Ben shot a guilty glance at Ray, as though Ray could read his thoughts in his sleep. But his lover was resting comfortably. Ray began to twitch, dreaming something.

Ben sighed. In the privacy of the dark, the silence, the solitude, he mind roamed back to that kiss. That kiss. God. It had been good. Ben was surprised that he could be aroused by another. He had felt himself growing hard as Hugh kissed him with surprising passion. Had Hugh had pulled Ben into his embrace fully, he would have felt Ben's growing erection.

It was true what Hugh said about the two of them being compatible. They believed in the same things, enjoyed the same activities. Hugh understood him and knew who he was-one of the few people who had done so. Had he met Hugh before Ray, they would have most certainly been lovers. But that's not how his life had happened.

What a cruel trick of Mother Nature, Ben thought, making him desire two people at once. But he meant what he had told Hugh; He would never be unfaithful to Ray. He remembered how it hurt when he had found out about Ray and Tommy DeBenedetto. Ben would never put Ray through that kind of searing, hopeless pain.

Ben didn't want to be attracted to Hugh; he wished he could hate him. But that was not possible either.

He wondered if he should confess what had happened to Ray, if it would make him feel better or worse. Ben decided to talk to Valerie.

No.

Valerie was gone. She was dead. He wouldn't hear her voice again, nor look into her eyes, so much like Ray's, nor see her warm inviting smile. She'd never tell him another story about Ray as a kid. They'd never again listen to Bach together.

Ben felt a tsunami of grief wash over him.

He glanced at Ray again. Sound asleep. Untroubled. So Ben let his private tears fall.

Ben cried all his tears out, quietly, and used a hand to snortle his dripping nose.

There was no one to talk to about this Hugh situation. He couldn't talk to Val, nor Ray, nor Hugh about this. He thought of Fran briefly, but he didn't know if he entirely trusted her to keep his confidence.

He thought of telling Maria, or perhaps Elaine. Both women loved him and Ray, and would be understanding. But he thought Elaine might be a little more objective, more cool-headed about things. Maria could be a ball of fire just like Ray.

Ben's stomach rumbled. He and Ray had only soup and crackers for supper, having risen after making love for the second time. The light meal was proving not to be enough for Ben.

He quietly got up and went to forage through the kitchen. There wasn't much food. It looked like Ray had not gone grocery shopping since Ben left for South America. Ray wasn't eating much these days. In fact, Ben had finished his soup for him at dinner.

Ben had been surprised at Ray's appearance when he first saw him walking toward him at the airport. Perhaps it was because he saw him every day and hadn't noticed so much before, but Ray had lost quite a bit of weight this winter. And he didn't have much to spare as it was. Intellectually, he knew that Ray had been losing a little for several months now, but to see the cumulative effect of it was shocking.

He made a mental note to ask Ray how he was feeling in the morning, and to inquire about him making an appointment with Dr. Bernardino for a physical. He should set a good example and schedule one for himself as well. Ray was more likely to go if he went too.

Ben found the ingredients for a ham and Swiss sandwich. He grabbed the near-full carton of milk from the fridge, smelled it, and dumped the entire contents down the drain, rinsing the sink of the spoiled white fluid. He poured himself a glass of tap water, and sat down to wolf his sandwich, in the dark. The bread was a bit stale, but he was so hungry, he didn't mind.

Pearson had awakened and came to investigate the smell of salty ham wafting through the air. Ben tore off a corner of his sandwich and fed it to her. She wolfed it down quickly, and looked at him with pleading eyes, so much like Dief that it made Ben smile. He gave her the last few bites, and drank his water.

Satisfied, Ben went back to bed. He glanced at the glowing clock-radio. 02:24 hours. He was due at the Consulate in five hours.

Ben wished he had the foresight to take today off as well. There were no doubt hundreds of e-mails, messages, and other little details requiring his attention today. He wasn't sure if he was up for it just yet. Plus he started classes again tonight. It was going to be a long day.

Ray had moved to the center of the bed in Ben's brief absence. He had placed his head on Ben's pillow. Upon his return to bed, Ben had simply twined their limbs together, settling Ray onto him. Ray felt hot. He was going to be complaining of fever as soon as he awakened.

Ben closed his eyes, listening to Ray's rising and falling breath, and soon drifted into slumber.

FINIS

BENNY & RAY'S "MIX TAPE" by Raymond Vecchio

1. "How Deep is Your Love?" The Bee Gees 2. "The Story of My Life" Neil Diamond 3. "Silly Love Songs" Paul McCartney 4. "My Love" Paul McCartney 5. "You've Got a Friend" James Taylor 6. "You're My Best Friend" Queen 7. "Endless Love" Lionel Richie