When Tibur arrived at work the next day, he seemed... different. To begin with, he was late; arriving after Millie had already finished her breakfast in the break room. Rushing in, he grabbed Tristan by the hand.

"I'm not excluding you" he said to Millie as he pulled Tristan to the door, "I need to ask Tristan about relationship stuff."

Before she had time to protest that her point of view was still valid, Tibur clarified; "Intimate relationship stuff."

Millie picked up her coffee and graciously waved them off to talk in private.

"Are you feeling okay?" asked Tristan, "You've got a lot more energy than I would have expected... or has it not happened yet?"

"It happened..." Tibur confessed, his cheeks turning pink at the memory of the previous night.

"And you feel okay?" Tristan asked again, "Was he gentle?"

Tibur covered his face and sank to the floor.

"Careful!" Tristan cautioned, "The tiles are hard! You need to take proper care of your body."

"It's not me you have to worry about..." said Tibur, "I was the one that did it. I... you know... I topped him!"

Tristan couldn't help but burst out laughing. 

"Then what's the matter?" he asked, "Isn't it better that way?"

"It's not funny" said Tibur, "I didn't know what I was doing. Who knows what he thinks of me now? What if I really hurt him? I wasn't ready... Had I known it was going to be the other way round I would have at least done some research."

"Everyone's first time kind of sucks. Don't beat yourself up about it, I'm sure you'll improve with practice."

"About that..." said Tibur.

"Absolutely not" said Tristan, "Not only are you my friend, but Caleb would kill us both. Or, you at least... I don't think he'd kill me, but he'd never let me leave the house again." 

 The satisfied smile on Tristan's lips was unnerving.

"I don't want to fuck you!" said Tibur, "I want you to teach me. Or tell me at least, what I can do the next time... so he can enjoy it as much as I did."

Tristan put a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"For the sake of Michael's asshole" he said, "Let me give you some tips..."

At the Phoenicia, Caleb was cleaning up after the cats as he waited for his mother to arrive. He'd offered to pick her up from the hotel after dropping Tristan at the store, but was informed she needed a lie in after drinking all night with her son-in-law, and would come to meet him whenever she felt like it.

When the doorbell rang, he was surprised to see Michael standing in the elevator.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Just let me in" said Michael, "I want to sit down."

Walking gingerly over to the couch, Caleb eyed him suspiciously.

"Just a water is fine" said Michael, reclining back on the cushions.

Caleb didn't move.

"Is this a social call?" he asked.

"What else would it be? Your husband is friends with my boyfriend, doesn't that make us... oh fuck it, yes. Yes, it's a fucking social call, okay? I don't exactly know all that many gay people. When I have questions there's only you I can ask. You or your husband, I guess..."

"I gave you all the advice I could last time" said Caleb, "if you're failing to satisfy your boyfriend there's nothing I can do about it."

"That was before" Michael explained, "When I thought I'd be in a different position... As you can see, things have gone in another direction."

"Get to the point" said Caleb, rolling his eyes as Michael beleagured the aching of his body with a painful sigh. "There's not much I can tell you from that side of things."

Had Fraser been around he would have forced his brother to field his inappropriate questions instead.

"I've taken some medicine already" said Michael, "And I think I've figured out where's going to feel good. But all my experience was with women... I'm not used to being so mediocre in bed. He didn't scream once when he fucked me. Do you think I did it right?"

"Get out" said Caleb.

Michael raised himself from the couch. "I'll ask Tristan..." he said.

A firm hand sat him back down.

"He's not a woman" said Caleb, "So start from there..."

Before they got back to work in the supermarket, Tristan remembered his promise to Fraser.

"Your brother-in-law?" asked Tibur, "So that's who he was talking about... Sure I'll ask him, but Farang's a pretty chill guy. He probably hasn't thought that much about the future."

When the drinks delivery arrived that afternoon, Tibur joined Farang for a cigarette break. 

"You look stressed" said Tibur, handing him a lighter, "What's on your mind?"

After explaining about his mom and the piling bills at home, Tibur finally asked him about Fraser.

"The angel?" said Farang, "You know him?" 

"My friend's brother" Tibur explained, "I thought you'd given up on dating..."

"It's like this" said Farang, "If an angel appeared out of nowhere... beautiful, mesmerizing... and for some reason they're attracted to something in you that you fail to see yourself, wouldn't you be tempted..? But you know you can't keep them on earth forever... one day they'll have to ascend to where they belong."

"And what if he didn't?" asked Tibur.

Farang smiled sadly.

"Then I'm worried he'll never learn to fly again..."

The response was hard to interpret into English, but Tibur did his best. Fraser was even more confused when he heard it thirdhand.

"What's that supposed to mean?! I'm certainly no angel" he declared, "And I'm sure as hell not flying anywhere without him."

When Caleb came to collect Tristan from work, he was ten minutes late.

"Blame your brother-in-law, Baby" he told his husband, "He showed up demanding I help him fix his confession to Farang. I tried to get away on time, but he assured me you wouldn't mind if I was late. Just tell me if it's bothered you and I'll punish him accordingly."

Tristan kissed his husband on the cheek.

"If you thought I was an angel, would you want me to ascend to the heavens where I belonged?" he asked him.

It wasn't the first time that day he'd heard talk of angels.

"If it was you, Baby" ...I'd more likely break your wings to stop you flying off somewhere... "I'd make a heaven for you on earth."

With Caleb, the cats, and the home they shared, Tristan felt he must be close to that already.

Tibur refused a ride home with them, choosing instead to walk and clear his head a little. However he'd tried to distract himself, thoughts of Michael were never far from his mind. Even after cleaning up the night before, the scent of sex had lingered in their room as they slept. When Tibur woke up, he'd made breakfast for Michael and left it in the refrigerator; letting him sleep as he headed off to work alone.

The whole day he'd waited for his call. It didn't occur to him until after that lunch that Michael had no phone to call him with. He logged into his social media account on the computer in Mr Melik's office, and found Michael's profile; hoping that his tablet hadn't met the same fate as his cellphone.

'I'll stop by when I finish at the store' he'd messaged, 'Let me know if you need me to pick up anything.'

Michael replied with an eggplant emoji.

There was no mistaking it; his boyfriend was certainly no angel.

 As soon as Michael opened the door, his lips were on Tibur's.

"Slow down" said Tibur, putting some space between them, "How are you feeling? Are you sure you don't need me to pick you up anything? I'm sorry I had to leave so early this morning; tomorrow's my off day... we should have waited until tonight."

"Who could have waited?" asked Michael, "Look at you."

Leading him over to the pull-out couch, his mind was on one thing only. Michael had spent the day missing him. Not to the extremes of Caleb; he hadn't thought to go and bug him at work, but he'd been looking forward to his touch from the moment he left.

"Michael..." said Tibur, "We shouldn't get carried away. I don't want to hurt you... maybe we should wait a few days before we try again."

"Fuck that" said Michael, his hand down Tibur's pants, "I think I've got it figured out this time."

Tibur's resolve crumbled the second Michael got to his knees and unzipped his fly. The slowly hardening penis was suddenly enveloped in the wet heat of his boyfriend's eager mouth. Never before had he received such zealous attention.

"Wait" he said, staying Michael's bobbing head.

He grabbed a cushion, dropping it down to the floor for Michael to kneel on.

"Okay" he said, his duty of care fulfilled, "You can continue..."

The limits of his pleasure were reached by the careful ministrations of Michael's tongue. As they moved to horizontal pursuits, Tibur took note of Tristan's advice; using his own in return. He was still a novice, but it didn't seem to matter. Where his fingers failed him, the tentative licks were driving his partner wild with anticipation.

Every crevice and and contour were coated in a trail of Tibur's saliva, plunging his tongue into uncharted territories as he worked to improve his technique. Dissatisfied with his solo satisfaction, Michael turned 180°, allowing the lovers to engage in their practice together. It was fortunate they were both fast learners, neither one prepared to be outdone.

The open and close of the suitcase signaled the next stage of their entanglement, with Tibur dividing his attention between the cock in his mouth and the hole with which his fingers were beginning to become acquainted; and only pausing to scold his lover's violent reactions.

"Stop squirming!" Tibur told him firmly, "I'm trying to focus."

Michael gripped the sheets, his knuckles turning white as his boyfriend worked to appease his impatient body. 

"I'm ready" he told him, riding on a wave of pleasure.

"Not yet" Tibur assured, jamming another digit inside him as his tongue danced across the tip of Michael's weeping member.

Only when his fingers began to glide with ease did Tibur remove them.

"Now" he said with authority, "Now you're ready."

Michael's reddened, tear-stained face stared up at him. Tibur's large, intelligent eyes were laser-focused; tearing open the condom packet and rolling its contents down over the tip as he stood to attention. Turning to face the bed, Michael lifted his hips... he'd waited long enough to try again. The day had felt like a lifetime.

Tibur stroked his lover's back and lifted his face to kiss his lips.

"Are you comfortable?" he asked him gently, angling himself into position.

"Comfortable" said Michael, a sigh escaping his mouth before Tibur's tongue re-entered it. No stone was left unturned, and no body part ignored. As Michael took in Tibur's length, a hand was slid beneath him, the fingertips caressing his chest and every pink part that made Michael cry out in breathless ecstacy.

The rhythm fell in sync, as each shallow thrust was met with Michael's guidance; directed to the hallowed grounds where the peak of pleasure was waiting to be climbed.

"Oh... oh... Fuck! Tibur... there! Fuck...!"

Tibur put a hand to Michael's mouth but the incessant cries kept coming.

"Not so loud!" he told him, "Try to... think of the neighbors!"

"Fuck the neighbors" said Michael, "this feels fucking amazing..!"

As his screams rang out into the night, at least there was no complaint from the room across the way; the occupant of which was the cause of all the noise.

With tireless determintation, Michael reached the mythical peak, the uncontrollable orgasm that awaited him spilling out across the sheets of the pull-out couch. Tibur knew he was close, finishing behind him as quickly and gently as he could.

Their second time was a marked improvement. As they showered off together afterwards, Tibur wrapped his arms around Michael's waist and held him close beneath the running water.

"Do you feel okay?" he asked him, "You look a little hot, do you want to get out and lie down..?"

Michael rested his head on Tibur's shoulder.

"What is it?" asked Tibur, "Does it hurt alot?"

Michael lifted his smiling head and kissed him.

"You're a whole lot sweeter now you've fucked me" he said, "I like it... I was worried it was only me. That I was feeling this alone. I meant what I told you the night I hurled my phone into the marina. I fucking love you."

Tibur couldn't help but smile at his simple confession. He may not have the passionate prose of Farang, but his idiot boyfriend was nothing if not refreshingly honest.

"Get a new phone already" said Tibur.

"But I want you to know how important you are to me!" cried Michael.

"I know" Tibur told him, "And you made your point. But what am I supposed to do when I miss you? When it's the middle of the day and I want to hear your voice? When I want to tell you... I love you..?"

"Well I could always meet you on your lunchbreak" suggested Michael, Tibur's words flying right over his head.

"It isn't the most convenient..." said Tibur, "I often eat with Tristan and Millie. So how else can I tell you I love you?"

The words finally clicked. Michael beamed with joy, kissing his boyfriend until the water from the shower-head ran into his mouth.

"What model should I get?" he asked, "You choose it. Yours is the only number I'll need!"