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Ram and Bheem – who at this point was still known to Ram as “Ahktar” – sat beneath a khair tree. It was spring now, so the tree was awash in white, the sticky flowers occasionally floating to the ground after a breeze. They’d been camping in the forests outside Delhi several times now, and today they had, on a whim, decided to go out again. Both men appreciated the reprieve from the city.
They had only known one another for a month, but their friendship developed dizzyingly fast. Neither of them realized it, but they had seen each other every day for the last two weeks. Sometimes just in passing; but even when they both had independent duties, one would always make the effort to say hello to the other, whether it be Ram dropping by the mechanic’s shop or Bheem visiting Ram’s house for a quick chat before heading home.
But of course, there were the longer days they’d spend together as well, when they’d walk about the whole city talking, or when they would escape it altogether – like tonight.
They had designated a usual spot, by the tree in question. They would hike around the area, forage, swim, and relax together before returning to their base to sleep. Bheem had rather enthusiastically built a modest shelter for them out of the forest; the first time out, Ram had brought a tarp to cover them in case it rained, Bheem had laughed and gestured it away.
“No need to buy such things,” Bheem had said before setting to work weaving palm fronds together. He taught Ram how to braid the leaves on top of one another to create a nearly-air tight seal, and by nightfall that first day they’d built a proper roof held up by a decently sturdy structure of logs.
Ram had never done this kind of campsite building before and he’d rather enjoyed himself, using only the tools of nature to create shelter, and he was impressed with ‘Ahktar’ and his many skills.
This being perhaps the fourth or fifth time they’d been out, their shelter was practically immovable, they’d dug out a small ditch beneath it and filled it with soft grass, the only thing missing were walls otherwise it could have been a proper hut.
Today they had left later than usual, so the sun was hanging low in the sky. What’s more, a bundle of clouds was forming in the west that made Bheem realize it would rain tonight. “Perhaps we should make a fire,” he said, “So we can have dinner… I’m hungry.” He used his hunger as an excuse to cook sooner as opposed to the rain. If Ram knew it would rain he might suggest that they go back into town. Bheem would much rather spend a night out in the forest in the rain with Rama than back in Delhi, alone.
Ram smiled and nodded, “Let’s get to work then.” His mind was not on the clouds at all, rather, he had been thinking about ‘Ahktar.’ The man had a magical way of pulling Ram, even if just for a moment, away from his thoughts of duty. Even Babai had noticed, several times now he’d spared a joke about Ahktar and Ram’s inability to be separated for too long a time.
Ram wasn’t fooling himself as to why he was so attached to Ahktar as he was, but he did his best to ignore the feelings that had grown so quickly, out of respect for their friendship. He played off those feelings as well; attributing them to the fact that Ahktar was the first person to show him such genuine affection in a long time. The only person to touch him, tenderly, for the first time since he’d left home.
The two men went into the forest to find kindling. These moments reminded Bheem of his own home. They started out looking separately, but it didn’t take them very long before they were walking together again, chattering and collecting sticks and dry shrubbery.
“Do you have anyone waiting at home, Ahktar?” Ram brought up, trying to be casual about it. He knew Ahktar was in Delhi for work, he made more money here than he did in his village, which he would send payments back to every so often. Or at least, that was the story that Bheem had told him; he’d hated lying to the man, but it was for his protection. He did not lie, however, when he answered.
“No, no…” he said, somewhat wistfully. Bheem had avoided pairing up until this point – and it was not for his tribe’s lack of trying. He was their prized protector, and had stayed single for too long, according to his elders. But he had never found someone in his mingling with other tribes that caught his attention beyond … a dalliance or two.
Certainly no one who had caught his attention like the man he was sharing his time with now. It did not take Bheem very long at all to develop a crush on Ram. But he held himself back – Ram probably didn’t share his views on courtship, that same-sex partnerships were quite fine, normal even. It turned out a lot of Indians living in the cities didn’t (though Bheem wondered how many of them were pretending). Apparently there was risk attached to male pairing as well, with the Britishers negative attitude towards anything pleasurable or decent.
Bheem sighed, considering all this.
“No one?” Ram asked incredulously. Bheem hummed in the negative.
“I see,” Ram said, “You’re one of those then. Hmm… lady-killer.”
Bheem turned, crossing his eyebrows at the terminology. He wasn’t in the habit of killing anyone! Ram saw his confusion and laughed.
“Sorry, it’s an English expression,” Ram said, “It means you’re a heartbreaker. All the girls love you but you don’t notice, or maybe they’re not good enough for you…”
Bheem frowned further, understanding Ram’s meaning. It was similar to the criticism he faced from the elders at home.
“Maybe the problem isn’t that no one’s good enough for me,” Bheem said, turning forward to look through the brush again, “But that the people I like don’t like me in return.” Ram noticed that where he had said girls, Bheem pointedly said people.
“Ha!” Ram laughed, loud, “Who wouldn’t like you?”
Bheem found himself blushing, turning to look at the other man again, who was smiling brightly at him. You wouldn’t like me, he thought to respond, but looking at that smile… he wasn’t sure.
“It’s happened before,” he said, shyly.
Ram found Ahktar so endearing in the moment that his chest hurt. “Excuse me,” Ram said, his tone softening, “But I find that hard to believe.”
Bheem shrugged.
“Well… if you have no one at home, do you like anyone here?”
Bheem didn’t respond, just took his bundle of sticks and brushed past Ram, back to their campsite. “This is enough,” he said, pretending he hadn’t heard, ready to distract himself from his feelings with dinner.
After eating, the two men joked around the fire for a time, but it wasn’t long until a clap of thunder hit. Ram practically jumped out of his seat, which made Bheem giggle.
“I didn’t know it would rain,” Ram said, “Damn, our fire!”
Seconds after the first roll of thunder, a flash of lightning came… and then the rain itself.
Ram quickly pulled out his umbrella, thinking how convenient it was he packed it. He opened it, but wasn’t sure where to go; perhaps he ought to give it to Ahktar.
“Over the flames, anna,” Bheem instructed, and Ram followed; it was an absurd picture, the two men starting to get drenched while Ram covered the fire. Ram had to laugh.
“What do we do?” Ram said.
“Our shelter is more than sufficient,” Bheem replied.
So far though, only one of them ever slept in it at a time; usually Ram, as Bheem preferred sleeping under the open sky as often as he could. It might be… a little cozy, for two fully-grown men. Bheem was wondering if he subconsciously had designed it that way. It was too dark, even with the flickering flames, for Bheem to have caught Ram’s blush at his suggestion.
“After you, Ram–” Bheem caught himself saying the man’s name too late, “--Anna.”
Ram nodded, handing the umbrella off to the other to dive into the shelter, frowning at how the cloth of his shirt and pants stuck uncomfortably to him. Bheem–who was wearing all white–followed, and as he crawled into the shelter there was no way to keep their knees from touching. Ram tried to stop his eyes roaming, but it was futile: the white kurta adorning Ahktar was drenched, and his skin was visible through the cloth in all the places it stuck to him. The water tripping down the side of his face reminded Ram too much of sweat, he watched as one droplet fell down his neck and into the hair on his chest. He shivered.
“Are you cold?”
Ram wasn’t, but he couldn’t rightly say that he shivered because of their proximity.
“Yeah, I got pretty wet just now…”
“It’s best if you take your clothes off,” Bheem said, “The moisture will just keep you cold.”
Ram’s eyes shot open. Had Ahktar… just told him … to take his clothes off? Clearly the man had been serious about it, because he was casually taking off his own now. Ahktar stripped his shirt and pants, balling them up to put them in the corner of the shelter where they wouldn’t soak all the grass. He was left in nothing but his undergarments, and Ram was frozen.
Bheem finally caught Ram’s expression, he had forgotten that folks in the city weren’t as used to going bare – suddenly he was embarrassed, too, and he pulled his knees up to hug them, trying to hide himself. It was in vain. The position only made his arms flex more, and showed off his strong calves too. Bheem swallowed and resigned himself: he was already like this, so he might as well justify it. Anyway, he really was worried about Ram catching a cold.
“I’m sorry, but you really should,” Bheem softly suggested, “You’ll get sick if you shiver all night.”
Ram looked away, but did as he was told, unbuttoning his shirt slowly and taking it off. The pants took a bit more time. But Ahktar seemed so comfortable doing it, and they were both men, so really what was the problem?
(The problem, of course, was that Ahktar wasn’t just any man.)
The pants came off. And there they were, in the cramped shelter, almost every part of them exposed. Ram mirrored Ahktar’s position, tucking himself into a corner as far away from the other as possible. Wound up tight as they were, only then did their knees not touch. Ram’s eyes flicked over to Bheem. Their fire had long died so there wasn’t much in the way of light, save for a flash of lightning every so often. When the lightning did flash, it lit Ahktar’s musculature up so mesmerizingly – he looked like a god. Ram shivered again.
Bheem laughed; adaptable as he was, it didn’t take him long to adjust to a situation, no matter how uncomfortable. “Still cold? Come here,” he relaxed his posture, stretching his legs out, and gestured for Ram to sit beside him. Ram’s eyes opened wide again, like a deer’s. Bheem laughed again. “Listen, there’s no use in being embarrassed. We’re stuck this way so you better come here and warm up,” Bheem’s voice was good-natured, playfully stern.
Ram couldn’t believe what was happening. Even so he relaxed his posture too and went to sit beside Bheem. He folded his arms across his chest as their legs touched, thinking that might be it – but here Ahktar went, throwing an arm over Ram’s shoulder and pulling him close.
“Relax,” Bheem said, “I won’t bite.”
Too bad, was Ram’s first thought, and he blushed at the lewd places his mind was going. Bheem was so warm. But he couldn’t quite relax. Bheem noticed, and felt bad – he should have told Ram about the rain so they could go home.
“I’m sorry, I hope … um,” Bheem wasn’t sure what to say, “Um, this kind of thing is normal, where I come from.” Bheem had been referring to using body heat for warmth, when camping out in the forest in the rain. He’d done it many times in his life. Ram didn’t catch his meaning, and quite immediately his mind jumped instead to the idea of two men cuddling. That was also normal where Bheem came from, but the miscommunication stood.
“I…” Ram was bright red, and he closed his eyes. “I’ve never…”
“Just relax.”
Ahktar’s tone, his warmth, the comfort of his arm around him… Ram did relax, finally. After all, he’d fantasized about this very thing previously. Might as well enjoy it. Eyes closed, he sank into Ahktar’s side, and they lounged peacefully. Ram still wasn’t sure that the other man wasn’t trying to seduce him. Bheem was also not sure he wasn’t.
If I am, Bheem thought, Hopefully it’s working.
Daringly, Bheem adjusted his arm, wrapping it around Ram’s waist instead. Ram was still in a full-body flush, taking deep breaths to try and control his blood from flowing to certain regions (and failing, he was semi-hard already), and control himself from turning to nestle completely in the other.
It was a flash of lightning and a large roar of thunder that would get Ram to do so, in the end. The sound startled him so that he turned, wrapping his arm around Bheem, burying his face against his shoulder. Bheem laughed, he’d jumped too, but not quite so much. His other arm came around to properly hug Ram against him.
“Scared of thunder?”
“No,” Ram played off his tendency to jump at loud, sudden noises casually, “It just startled me, is all.”
“Right.”
Only then did Ram realize their position, the intimacy of it all. And with his concentration broken, his blood flowed. As he tried to adjust himself away from Ahktar… his erection ended up brushing against his leg. The pair froze.
“S…sorry,” Ram said.
Bheem was stunned. In his wildest dreams, he wouldn’t have thought Ram…
“It’s okay,” he said, wishing hard that Ram would look up into his eyes, instead of casting them away.
Ram turned his body so he was no longer pressed up against him. The impression of where Ram had been was still warm on Bheem’s leg. His own blood began to flow.
“Wait,” he murmured, taking a hold of Ram’s hip, “You don’t… have to go…”
Ram stopped breathing then. Only the rain was heard between them. Slowly he opened his eyes, to see Ahktar’s. He had an expression Ram had never seen before – usually he had some kind of lightness about him, but this… was all hunger.
Bheem’s hand slid up Ram’s side, the warm palm sending shooting stars through Ram’s body. It continued up, around his chest, and around Ram’s neck. Ram closed his eyes again, shivering at the touch.
“Rama,” no longer Anna, Ram found himself liberated by the syllables of his name from the other’s mouth. “Can I…” Bheem didn’t finish the question. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask.
Ram answered him by pressing forward to kiss him, inhaling as their lips touched once, then again.
Ram pulled back after, eyes wide open, searching for Bheem’s. Bheem stared back at him, stunned at the man’s actions; he thought he’d been alone in his feelings. Apparently not.
Bheem’s hand came around the back of Ram’s head as he pulled him in, wanting his turn at tasting Ram’s lips, he was too caught off guard the first time. Their mouths collided, quite quickly Ram’s tongue flicked out to catch Bheem’s, the feeling of it speeding up his heart tenfold. Blood rushed as they kissed and kissed, deeper and deeper. It was as if a dam had been breached, a torrent of feelings flooding out as they moaned softly into mouths.
They didn’t speak, they couldn’t. All the time they had wasted up until this moment had been spent talking. It was time for something more. Ram’s mouth went for his neck and chest then, Bheem blushing and groaning.
“Rama…” he said, but was stifled at Ram’s tongue around his nipple; was this really happening? Ram really liked men, too?
Ram, for his part, wasn’t actually sure about the depths of his sexuality; all he knew for certain was that ‘Ahktar’ lit some kind of fire in him that no one else ever had. He was hopeless when it came to him.
Bheem’s blush deepened as Ram’s hands ran up and down his torso, over the ridges of his abdomen and around his hips. Bheem was growing jealous, he wanted a taste of Ram too. Grunting, he pulled Ram by the hair, causing the man to cry out. He pulled him up towards his mouth, kissing him roughly again.
Then, he grabbed Ram’s wrists, trying to flip him over; Ram resisted him, a little bit of a battle was making his heart beat even harder. Years of serving in the police and trying to get an edge for a promotion had made him competitive; something about the adrenaline of the situation and the blood filling his cock spurred him on.
Bheem, however, was the stronger of the two; though Ram was clever with his fighting, when Bheem maneuvered all his strength it didn’t take much for Ram to be flipped over on his back, like he was now.
Bheem growled, biting Ram’s neck, grinding against him. Ram was dizzy at the sensation of the other’s cock against him, taking note of the girth, the length. It would destroy him, wouldn’t it?
He tried to push against Bheem again to have the upper hand, but Bheem’s grip held him down against the grass forcefully by the wrists. This time Bheem’s mouth went for Ram’s chest, then lower, and lower, unwrapping his undergarments, leaving him naked beneath him.
“Beautiful,” Bheem said, “I knew you were beautiful.” He nosed against Ram’s perfectly hard cock, the soft skin on his face filling him with a new hunger. He mouthed the side of him, just making the skin moist with his lips and tongue for now, Ram’s squirming making Bheem himself harden completely. His body was filled with desire for something other than Ram’s dick, though. “Roll over, Rama…”
Ram wasn’t sure when he’d become the submissive here, but he did as he was told. He also wasn’t sure what to expect but as soon as he felt Bheem’s hands spreading his ass open, he became embarrassed, entire body deepening into a blush.
“Ahktar,” he choked out, “What are you doing…”
Ram was about to object but before he could, Bheem’s tongue was on his ass, a sensation he’d never felt in his life, making him shiver and collapse slightly into the grass. It felt so good. Precum dripped out of Ram as Bheem mouthed and tongued at his entrance, stretching him open with grunts and groans. Ram was surprised; was this the same Ahktar who looked at him so sweetly, with his big doe eyes? Who laughed and bobbled his head enthusiastically and adorably? Now face-first in him, pulling his hair, pushing him down, controlling him?
Ram had fantasized about being the one to take Ahktar, thinking about how sweet he’d look beneath him, blushing as Ram came inside him. But it seemed the man had other plans.
“You taste so sweet,” Bheem murmured against his ass, his beard tickling Ram, “I want to be inside you.”
“Ahktar,” Ram said, voice shaking.
Bheem flipped Ram onto his back again, crawling over him. There was something animalistic in his gaze that Ram found intimidating, but his cock twitched with precum again. He had never allowed anyone to have the upper hand over him. Looking into Bheem’s eyes, he swallowed thickly– there was something exciting about giving himself up entirely to someone else’s whims, especially his ‘Ahktar’, who had proven himself to be every bit as sweet as he was dominating, in this moment.
“I’m sorry,” Bheem said, “I’m going too quickly…”
It was just that one small soft apology reminding Ram that he was safe.
“It’s okay,” Ram said, growing more and more comfortable with the sense of vulnerability (something only Bheem could manage to get him to do). “But let me feel you, too…”
Ram’s hands went for Bheem, who was still wearing his underwear at this point. A shiver ran through his spine as he felt Bheem’s cock through the fabric, he was hard as a rock, and damn, so big. Was Ram going to be able to take it? The idea of Bheem stretching him and coming inside him was becoming more tantalizing by the second.
“ Rama,” Bheem spoke his name in a satisfied breath, hitching his hips to grind slightly against Ram’s hands, “I’ve wanted you so badly…”
“I’m yours,” he replied.
Bheem was breathing heavily. They kissed again, softer this time, no longer as rushed as they had been in the beginning. Bheem stripped his underwear off, leaving his bare cock in Ram’s hand. He groaned at the sensation, Ram’s hands were so beautiful, he’d often stared at them and wondered how they’d feel around him like this. But it wasn’t enough. Groaning again, he flipped Ram back over to grind against him. And then back down, to rim him further, spitting and preparing him as much as he could given the lack of other tools, but it didn’t matter – they were both impatient, they both needed each other –
Bheem pushed in after some time, and Ram grunted. He’d felt worse pain in his life than this. And at the end of this pain was a very sharp and specific pleasure. Bheem thrust into him again, again. Precum leaking from him made every thrust smoother. He wouldn’t last long, what with how tight Ram was and how badly he’d wanted him these past weeks. His breathing became more labored. his heart pounded against his chest. Ram’s body underneath his shifted erotically, and the man – who wasn’t quite as vocal as Bheem – let out a soft groan that pushed Bheem over the edge.
He huffed, hips jerking as he came inside him, pressing him down into the grass.
“Ahk…tar…” his lover mewled. After several long moments he pulled out, eyes still watering from the strength of his orgasm. Ram still was on his knees, ass in the air… what a sight to behold. Ahktar sat back, pulling Ram with him so that he was in his lap now. He kissed his neck, hands going for Ram’s hips and thighs.
“You feel so good,” Bheem said, “Now your turn…”
Ram squirmed a little when Bheem’s hand wrapped around his cock, stroking him gently.
“You’re so good, Rama,” he whispered, and the man in his arms shivered delightfully.
“You took me so well,” he said, teasing the tip of the other’s dick gently, “Did you like it?”
“Mm-hmm,” Ram sighed sweetly.
“You’ll come for me now?” Bheem said, speeding up his pace, breath hot on his neck.
“Yes,” Ram sighed again, “Ahktar…”
“Good,” Bheem said, “Good boy…”
Ram moaned as he came, leaking over Bheem’s hand.
They stayed like that for a while, soaking in each other’s heat, minds at peace finally. Neither was sure what would become of them now, what with their shared-but-opposite goals and the secrets they still held from one another. But at least for one night, they could reprieve themselves from their duties and remember what it was like to feel perfect bliss, as the rain hissed against glowing embers.