We’d spent the rest of the day relaxing pool side. It was a great way to get Owen’s mind off of things. I knew we’d have to eventually get him some professional help, because these nightmares weren’t just going to disappear, and he hasn’t actually dealt with his trauma yet, but for today, this is what he needed. I was planning to talk to him about paying for him to see a therapist eventually, when he’s ready to see one. I never intentionally flaunted my wealth in his face, but I was always willing to help him financially whenever he needed the help. I knew our insurance through work would cover some of the cost, but I wasn’t sure Owen could afford to pay the other portion. Anyway, I digress.

Owen seemed to have relaxed a lot, and that made me happy. And now that he’s calmed down, I’d really like to talk to him about what brought him to my house in the first place yesterday. Especially with the two culprits here to talk to as well. I’d like to know what the hell was going through their heads to make them think what they did was okay to do with someone as shy and reserved as Owen is. Granted, we’ve been working on making him less shy about certain things, what they did was beyond not okay.

“Hey Owen, come here a minute.” I called out to him. He pulled himself out of the water and plopped his dripping wet body right on top of me in the poolside lounge chair.

“What’s up Papà?” He smiled at me.

“Can we talk about the reason you came to my house in the first place yesterday, please?” I asked, in a low enough voice that Roy and Vinny wouldn’t be able to hear me on the other side of the pool.

Owen blushed as he recalled the situation, “Oh… right. I’d almost forgotten about that after all the nightmare crap…” He told me, which made me feel a little bad for reminding him about it.

“I’m sorry. I’m just a little peeved about that particular thing. I love them dearly, but I’m curious as to what exactly happened.” I told him.

“Well, I’ll just start from the beginning so I don’t forget anything. Yesterday, I went to their apartment so they could help me plan a surprise anniversary type of date, not that I wanted to ruin the surprise but I already did that earlier when I was mad. Anyway, we finished planning the whole date, and decided to hang out a little longer. We were watching a movie, they were sitting on either side of me, and I ended up dosing off before the end of the movie. At first when I woke up, I could feel the Roy’s arm was draped over my shoulder but I didn’t think anything of it, because I thought maybe we’d all ended up dozing off. But then I realized the weight in my lap wasn’t just Vincent’s head, he was leaning across my lap. At the same time I realized Vincent was laying on me, I heard Roy moaning, then I processed the other noises… I was kind of too scared to open my eyes at that point… But what’s worse is that hearing all that turned me on… and I don’t know why, because watching the oral stuff in porn has never done anything for me before. I kind of freaked out that what they were doing was a turn on, and I jumped up, knocking Vincent to the floor, and just ran out of their apartment, and came straight here.” Owen explained.

“Alright. Well, let’s talk about that a little. I want you to feel safe being able to express yourself with me. Let’s explore the possibilities of maybe why it affected you. Do you find them attractive?” I was genuine about wanting Owen to understand what his body was feeling. He wasn’t some naïve kid who needed to be babied through sex ed., but with me as his only… voluntary… sexual experience, I figured he might need the freedom to explore his feelings a bit, and I am okay with that.

“I mean, yeah sure. Conventionally speaking, they’re both very handsome men, in their own ways.” Owen answered.

“Okay, well. How about sexually or romantically? Mind you, I’m only asking this to help you understand what you were feelings, so please don’t feel guilty answering that if its yes.” I urged.

“Like, have I ever pictured sleeping with them? Not really.”

“Not just that, sweety. When you hug either of them, do you feel the urge to hug them just a bit longer? When you share passing touches, does it excite you, or send butterflies to your stomach? And like now, with them both half naked right here, do you find yourself staring at their bodies a little too long?” I was hoping I didn’t come across as if I thought he didn’t understand anything. All the while, I had been slowly tracing my fingers across his body sensually.

“Oh… I never really put thought into any of that to be honest.” He said, then looked as if he were thinking about it a bit more. “I can’t say much for the hugs. But, thinking about it, I guess when either one of them touches me, it kind of does give me weird butterflies. Like, when Roy had his arm draped over my shoulders, it made me feel a weird sense of happiness. Kind of like the feeling I get when you touch me, like you are right now.” He told me.

“Alright. And that’s okay. I mean, your feelings are valid. You’ve only ever had me as a partner, you’re bound to be curious. Would you like to consider exploring having an open relationship? Or would you prefer we talk to them and get their side of things first, and figure it out from there?” I was trying to be understanding for him, and I had hoped he understood that.

“Um…I mean… an open relationship… I don’t really know if I would be okay with that, not with just anyone, anyway. Maybe we should start with talking to them about yesterday and figure it out from there.” He answered. Something about the way he said that told me that there was a specific someone… or two specific someone’s who would be the only people he would be okay with exploring any type of open relationship with.

“Okay, Mio Tesoro. Well, I’ll leave it up to you when you’re ready to talk to them. And we’ve already discussed what happened after you got to my house, and why you reacted the way you did. But about this morning. I want to apologize for being so secretive, and for avoiding answering your questions. I wish I would have used my brain a little more and realized that our relationship, and you, are far more important to me than keeping someone else’s secrets. I was only trying to give him my professional curtesy of his privacy. Though, I understand that given the circumstances at hand, it was not something that looked like a professional interaction. I’m sorry I made you feel any sort of doubt in me, and in us.” I told Owen truthfully.

“It’s okay Markus. I was acting a little emotional this morning. I’m also sorry for lashing out without speaking to you about what was going on. But, even though I already knew Dominic, seeing him here yesterday when I was in distress just really was bad timing. I’ve taken the time to think about it a bit, and Roy talked me down a bit too. I’m not so mad about it anymore. I am upset about the way you avoided answering me about that, but I’m not mad about the situation itself anymore.” Owen said, finally laying his head down on my chest, nuzzled just under my chin.

“Thank you for talking all of this out with me before making any rash decisions. I won’t lie… this morning I was for sure you were going to break up with me, I was a little scared about that all day, even after you came here to talk, I wasn’t sure after all that fighting, if you still wanted to be with me.”

“I was really mad at you this morning. I didn’t want to shout something at you that I knew I would regret, which is partially why I kept trying to kick you out. You told me I had an attitude when I was mad that you were refusing to answer anything about why another guy was half-naked in your house, then you called me immature while continuing to NOT answer me, which only just made me even more mad. And then you called something I was clearly upset about an insignificant problem. In that moment, I think if Roy hadn’t come over to yell at me, I probably would have broken up with you. I was shaking with anger at you. And you were acting like me being upset didn’t matter to you. It really hurt my feelings that you were acting like that.” Owen expressed, starting to get a little emotional, but not in an over-reaction type of way.

I hugged Owen tight in my arms, feeling really stupid for the way I was acting this morning. I wish I could go back to that moment and pound some sense into my head to make me see how I was making Owen feel.

“Owen, I’m sorry I couldn’t see how upset I was making you this morning. As your partner, I should have been a little more attentive and understanding to your feelings about the situation. I mean, I was there in the first place because you were having sudden night terrors and needed comforting. I’m pretty mad at myself for how I stupidly handled that situation.” I told him.

“Alright you two, you’ve talked long enough, time to get back in the water already!” Vincent interrupted us, “We can all talk about that touchy subject later… for now it’s fun time!” I gave Owen another tight squeeze, before letting him go.

A part of me really wanted to give Vincent and Roy a taste of their own medicine for what they did to Owen, but I wasn’t sure if Owen would actually be okay with that. So instead, I would settle for picking on them in a different, less sexual manner.

“Hey Vinny, why don’t you come here a second. I need to have a word with you.” I told him. He cautiously moseyed his way to me as Owen got up. I stood up and met Vincent half way, that way we were closer to the deep end of the pool. He eyed me suspiciously.

“I’m not sure I want to get any closer to you.” He said, keeping a decent two feet distance between up.

“Awe, come on Vinny, don’t be like that. I won’t bite.” I told him, giving him a devilish grin that said otherwise.

“I don’t believe you for one second.”

“Yeah you look mighty suspicious, Old Man.” Roy chimed in.

I shot him a quick glance, “You’re better watch it, boy. You’re next.” I threatened with an equally devious smirk.

I didn’t give Vinny enough time to question what I meant, as I picked him up with swift ease, and chucked him into the deep end of the pool.

“Markus! You ass!” Vinny shouted at me as he splashed around.

“Hey, that was a little uncalled for. You can’t just –” Roy started, but made the mistake of coming within arm’s reach of me. I had to use a different tactic this time, because Roy is build more like me, so he wouldn’t be easy to just pick up and toss. Instead, I went for a full on tackle going into the water with him.

“What the hell was that for?!” Roy shouted at me as I smiled proudly. It was the least I could do in this moment, for Owen.

“That was for fucking around ON TOP OF OWEN while he was sleeping. You dumbasses. You’re both lucky that’s all I did.” I retorted, swimming my way to the shallow end of the pool just as Owen walked into the water. He was laughing happily at their expense, which was all I needed to hear.

“My knight in wet swim suit armor.” Owen pretended to swoon as he giggled.

“Anything for you, my sweet.” I gave him a happy smile, and yanked him into me for a deep kiss.

When I managed to look over at Roy and Vinny again, they both looked sufficiently embarrassed and regretful. Good. They should be. I was content now. I smirked in their direction, but otherwise completely moved on passed the subject. We continued to enjoy the rest of the evening goofing off and having fun. Eventually, we decided it was time for sustenance and found ourselves inside working together to make dinner.