Author's Notes: Thanks to Nos4a2no9 for the beta!

"Did you see how short Sally's skirt was at school today? I swear, when I walked behind her up the stairs, I could see her panties!"

Benton made a non-committal sound. He didn't really share Mark's recent obsession with girls. In fact, he was more interested in Mark himself, to the point of squirming away from him when they wrestled, so that Mark wouldn't feel the embarrassing thing that happened to him whenever his hips were pressed against Mark.

They were sitting on a stack of old carpets in the shed on the back of the Arnatsiaq's property. It was great fun to play in--full of odds and ends such as broken sledding gear, mice nests, and a dusty armchair with the springs sticking out on the bottom.

Mark continued on the subject of panties. Benton had mostly tuned him out, and so he almost missed it when Mark said, "You know, maybe we need to practise."

Huh? "Practise what?"

"Um, you know," Mark said, making a vague gesture. "So you know what to do when you get a girl."

"How do you mean? Practise how?" Benton asked, intrigued despite himself.

"We could do it on each other." Mark shot a glance at Benton to see how he would take this, then added quickly, "It doesn't really count, of course, but we get practise."

Benton pulled up his legs against his chest to hide his excitement. Considering what Mark was talking about, it (an erection, he told himself) wasn't necessarily inappropriate, but still, he felt a little exposed.

"So, you want to?" Mark said. He sounded casual, but there was a challenging glint in his eyes now.

That was something they'd been playing for far longer, and neither Benton nor Mark had ever said no. One time it had ended with Mark's tongue frozen to the railing in front of his house (his mother had had to pour warm water on it to get it loose), and another time Benton had crashed through the roof of the MacMurchy's pig shed, spraining his ankle and narrowly avoiding being trampled by their famously bad-tempered boar.

"All right," Benton said quickly, so Mark wouldn't think he was going to chicken out.

"You want to do me first?" Mark said, and Benton wondered what exactly he was supposed to do. But then Mark was unbuttoning his trousers, and Benton saw with a shock that he was hard, too. Benton's hand reached out to squeeze Mark's penis, almost by itself, and Benton watched in fascination as Mark's whole body jumped. Benton felt some of his confidence return. He knew how to do this on himself, so why not on Mark?

Boldly, he reached into Mark's underwear and touched him more thoroughly, feeling the pulse beat in his own erection in sympathy.

"You want to do it with your mouth?" Mark asked breathlessly.

"With my mouth?"

"Yeah, I read in a magazine that girls do it with their mouth." Mark looked very pleased at his superior knowledge.

"What magazine was that?" Benton asked suspiciously. There were plenty of magazines in his grandparents' library, and he couldn't imagine reading such a thing in any of them.

"I'll show you later, just, please." Mark jerked his hips upward so that his erection moved in Benton's hand. Benton squeezed again, and felt a glow of satisfaction at hearing Mark beg like that. He went down on his knees and brought his face closer.

Mark smelled of...well, he smelled unwashed and sweaty, and now Benton's nose was closer to the mold-smelling carpets as well, but somehow Benton still felt as if he was ready to burst with excitement. Mark's penis was directly in front of him. It was red and swollen and a little wet at the tip.

Benton licked at it. Mark tasted kind of unwashed, too, but he made a sound like the whining of an eager dog, and Benton licked again, then opened his mouth and sucked on the top part. Mark grabbed his hair and pushed, and Benton gagged and pulled off, struggling not to throw up.

"Hey!" he said in protest.

"Sorry," Mark said, panting.

Benton held Mark's hands down, so he couldn't grab him again, and cautiously started to suck, being careful not to go too deep. Then he did some more licking. It was a little awkward when Benton couldn't use his hands, but Mark certainly seemed to appreciate it, his erection growing even more hard in Benton's mouth. Mark was breathing hard now. Then he made a strangled sound, and his hips jerked upward.

Something warm and slimy filled Benton's mouth. Semen, his mind corrected him even as he tried to figure out what to do with it. Some of it got down in his throat, and he choked and coughed, spitting it out. But it was too late--somehow the stuff had gotten up into his nose. It felt like warm snot. Benton blew his nose, desperate to get rid of it.

Mark lay back against the wall, looking kind of dazed. His trousers were still undone, and Benton tried not to grin. Mark saw him not do it, and sat up to zip his trousers.

Benton spit again, trying to get rid of the bitter taste in his mouth. It struck him that he wasn't sure how this was meant to help him practise for being with a girl. Girls, after all, did not have penises. They had vaginas--he knew this from anatomy books. But maybe it was Mark who was practising at being sucked.

"You okay?" Mark asked, and Benton nodded. His erection, which had wilted during all the coughing, came back at once at the thought of Mark doing the same to him.

"So, guess it's my turn," said Mark, not about to be outdone.

Benton felt unexpectedly shy, but resolutely unbuttoned his trousers. Mark took a deep breath, as if he was going to dive into the river, and brought his head down. Benton gasped with pleasure at the first wet touch of his mouth, but then Mark's teeth grazed him painfully, and Benton froze in a kind of terrified arousal, trying to stay perfectly still to avoid the teeth.

Mark's mouth went sloppily down, and up, and down again. Benton looked down at Mark's head in his lap, and then he couldn't help it: it felt so good he had to come, had to cry out and arch his back. He might also have kicked out with his foot, because there was something toppling over and falling on top of them, pelting them with hard little objects. Benton hunkered down, his whole body still twitching helplessly with pleasure.

Mark lifted his head, wiping at his wet chin with his dirty sleeve. "What is that?"

"Dog food, I think." Benton shook himself to get rid of the little pellets, shoving aside the cardboard box. The air was full of stale-smelling dust, and he sneezed violently. He hastily buttoned up again, glancing at Mark.

"Hey, you want to go for a swim?" Apparently, Mark's next step was to pretend that nothing out of the ordinary had happened, and Benton went along with it, somewhat relieved.

"All right." Mark was filthy with dust, and had what was probably cobwebs in his hair, but Benton was none the better himself.

As they washed off in the river, Benton sneaked a sideways look at Mark's naked body. So now he knew what sex was like. It really was kind of embarrassing and messy.

Then why, he wondered, did he want to do it again at the earliest possible opportunity?