Part IV – Tailgate
by Raven
e'll kill us." Alex made the pronouncement soberly, no
trace of doubt in his husky voice at all.
"Yep. Absolutely." Fox agreed with equal sincerity. Turning to each other, they shared a mischievous smile and shook hands.
"Do it," they chorused, and got to work.
Walter stretched as he got out of the car. It had been a good day, all things considered. Work had only been mildly stressful, the drive home had been almost pleasant, and from the driveway he'd seen the kitchen lights on, had seen Fox and Alex each occupied with a different part of dinner, Fox setting the table, Alex pouring tea.
He simply stood in the driveway for a moment, looking in at the innocent scene of homelife. It was reassuring on a deep level to see Fox put a plate of vegetables on a table, to watch Alex pass him the silverware. Chuckling at himself, Walter started inside, enjoying the warm glow.
A moment later, he had the strong desire to share the heat, preferably on his husbands' backsides. Staring in mute disbelief at the back of the van, Walter didn't even notice that he'd let his briefcase drop to the ground, along with his suitcoat. He didn't flicker an eyelash when Fox and Alex, each assuming an innocent expression, silently joined him.
"Walter? You okay?" Alex, ever the housefrau and damn proud of it, picked up Walter's coat, but left the briefcase. He could care less what happened to bureau papers.
"Yeah, Walt, something wrong?" Fox, who would have cheerfully backed over the coat on his way out in the morning, picked up the briefcase.
"Alex, Fox, would one of you please explain to me what that is doing on the van?" Walter's voice was carefully controlled, a sure sign that blood pressure and temper were both on the rise.
"What? Oh, the new bumper sticker?"
"Yes, Fox. The new bumper sticker." Counting silently to thirty and still never taking his eyes off it, Walter forced himself to continue to wait until he had an explanation before making himself a double-widower.
"Well, Fox and I were at the store today and we saw it, and...well, it made us think of you." Alex offered this with a bald honesty that let Skinner know it was the truth.
"Yeah, we just knew it was perfect as soon as we saw it. We couldn't resist."
Sighing, struggling to phrase things just right and not hurt his lovers, but still longing to release his anger, Walter spoke slowly.
"I'm glad that you thought of me. Honestly, I am. And I'm...flattered that you feel this way. But guys, it's... The others belong there, we each had our say, and I love them, wouldn't take them off for anything. This one..." He trailed off, still trying to think of a gentle way of phrasing his urgent need to rip the sticker off the van.
"You don't like it?" There was just a hint of struggle in Alex's voice, and Walter felt himself threatening to cave. He looked away from Alex's downcast lids, and back at the sticker, imagined parking it in the employee lot at the Hoover, everyone knowing it was his. Resolve came flooding back into place.
"I like that you thought about me, Alex, and that you wanted to do something nice for me. But the message is a little... It's not quite..." Trailing off, Walter bit at his lip. Alex and Fox had both turned slightly away from him, shoulders together, and he could see those same shoulders shaking slightly. Damning himself for being a tower of jello, Walter rubbed a hand across his face, ready to cave.
Approaching his lovers, he turned them to face him, ready with soft comfort sounds, and a promise that if it really meant that much to them, it could stay.
When they turned, Walter got his second shock of the night. They weren't upset. Hazel and green eyes sparkled with mirth and, as he watched, they lost the struggle and began to laugh out loud, tears in their eyes.
"It's not really on, Walter. We just used some tape to hold it there." Alex reassured him, even as he gasped for air.
"C'mon, Walter, we wouldn't cheapen the others with something like that. Give us a little credit." Fox wiped at his eyes, still chortling.
Torn between giving in and laughing with them, and giving in to the annoyance of having been played, Walter's eyebrows drew together, and his mouth settled into a stern line.
Alex, seeing the change, sobered slightly. Reaching up, he put his arms around Walter's neck, cuddling close.
"We weren't trying to be mean, Walter, honest. We were looking at the stickers and making fun of them when we saw this one. It was our way of letting you know we won't put any more stickers on the van, not for real, unless we all choose one together."
Fox followed Alex's example, embracing Walter around the waist, but still resting his head on a broad shoulder.
"Don't be mad, Walt, please? We did do it to show you we know the difference between what's there and just any old bumper sticker. Besides, it was Alex's first practical joke on you, and my idea anyway. C'mon, Walter, please?"
Walter relaxed, shaking his head and sighing.
"I'm not mad. I wouldn't be much of a person if I couldn't take a joke. But, I want that monstrosity off the van, on the double, boys!"
Fox and Alex immediately moved to obey, pulling the few pieces of cellophane tape off easily, and the sticker with it.
"Thank you. That was the first thing. The second thing is the spanking I owe each of you."
Alex looked up, a touch of unease in his lovely eyes. Walter winked and his mouth quirked, though his voice was still stern. Alex grinned, knowing Walter was only playing back, and was not seriously angry. Fox had already known it, and was backing up slowly, hands up in a pacifying gesture.
"Now, Walter..."
"Don't you 'Now, Walter' me! Brats!" With a lunge that made Alex and Fox both jump, Walter grabbed for them, missing by a mile, of course. His husbands ran into the house, with Walter in close pursuit. Walter's coat was thrown over a chair, his briefcase carefully put on the hall table, despite the pretense at panic, and Walter chuckled as he followed them into the bedroom.
They were sitting back on the side of the bed, wearing matching poses and promising grins, and Walter felt his heart skip a beat as his love for them surged. Still, this was no time for flowery words. Approaching sternly, he motioned them to roll over.
Giving in gracefully, they obeyed, and Walter seated himself between them. He bared their bottoms, and then settled them each across a thigh. Their legs were a tangle on the floor, but Alex's rear was on his left, Fox's on his right. Walter's hands stroked lovingly over the bare flesh, feeling the silky skin, the firm muscle, the faint tensing.
"Walter? T-this is play, right?" Alex knew, in his heart, but still needed the extra reassurance.
"Of course, love. Just like the one that made you buy the 'Brat' bumper sticker."
"Cool." It sounded odd coming from Alex, he normally had such an almost quaint speech. Fox blamed it on a certain British gentleman, Alex on never having attended a regular high school. Walter reached back, ruffling the dark hair, and Alex threw him a soft, grateful look over one ivory shoulder.
"Would you get on with it? My ass is getting cold." Fox sounded bored, but Walter knew it was just his way of further reassuring their Rat.
"With pleasure."
Walter spanked Fox's bottom with a great deal of noise and show, but only a touch of sting. A similar spank landed on Alex's pale rump, and then Walter settled in to spanking them both thoroughly. He played with it, slapping with one hand or the other, sometimes with both at the same time, but never doing more than warming the beloved flesh.
Finally, when both men had achieved a matching shade of rose-petal pink, Walter stopped. He rolled them both over, now each sitting on a broad thigh. They cuddled to him, content, until Alex suddenly stiffened.
"Oh shit, the rolls!" Alex rushed downstairs, pulling up his pants as he went.
"It's okay. I turned off the oven before we left the kitchen." Fox mumbled it against Walter's neck, making no move to leave.
"Fox? Something up?" There was a note in Fox's voice, a certain quality that made Walter ask.
"You'd have let it stay. It was personally humiliating for you, but you would have let it stay."
Walter said nothing, only nodded, stroking the hair back from the darkened eyes.
"Cool." He said it with a hint of a smile, face too soft with love for any more. But then, instead of getting up, Fox rolled back over. "Walter, could I have a couple of harder spanks? Please?"
"Sure, babe, but I'd like to know why first."
"Because I never had anybody love me like this my whole life, and I don't ever want to take it for granted. I can't explain it, Walter, but I need it, please?"
"Good enough." Walter drew back, landing a real spank, if a light one. Two more, and Fox sighed. "Enough, babe?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
Walter eased them up, kissing Fox tenderly.
"Hey, I didn't get my kiss!" Alex pouted from the doorway, and Walter quickly remedied that. Then they were heading downstairs, for another quiet, normal evening at home. And never happier.
In the kitchen, Walter looked at the forgotten sticker, lying on the counter where Alex had thrown it. He snickered, then began to laugh.
" It's not a bald head; it's a solar panel for a sex machine. "
THE END.
