Chosen One, 68

When You’re Around People Who Care about You, You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Say What You Want

Ao3 Link

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“You guys want a bath?” Isaac asked, as he walked into the dorms with Peter, Spencer and Skip. “I’m kind of freezing.”

Class had just ended, and Isaac could now say confidently that he knew how to tell when magic had been used in the area he was in. Which was going to be always as long as he was in the academy, but still. He liked Juno’s class; Diana had been right, he was suited for Dark magic. Or at least he always seemed to take to it easier than Shadow and Light magic.

“Well, if Isaac’s cold, you know it’s cold,” Spencer said. He’d waited for them outside of the classroom, claiming the dorm room was boring.

“Isaac just wants to get naked,” Skip accused.

“I always want to get naked, I don’t have to go the baths to do that,” Isaac said, rolling his shoulders. He’d been freezing cold all day—it was the coldest day of winter so far—and he’d felt funny since his first class with Yancy this morning. Like something was crawling under his skin. The Pillars had been buzzing all day too, which when he’d asked Lee had suggested was because he was tired. “I’m just cold.”

Peter nudged Isaac’s leg with his cane. “If we’re having a bath I’m going to want clean clothes to put on. Go get me some so I don’t have to climb the stairs for no reason.”

“Got it,” Isaac said.

“Smallclothes too.”

“We’ll see. What about you guys?”

Skip shrugged. “I guess I could use a bath.”

“I’ll come upstairs with you,” Spencer said. “I want a change of clothes too.”

Isaac could get them, but Spencer probably wanted to talk to him, so he nodded. “Meet you two downstairs? Be naked when I get there.”

“We will, but you’d better not be,” Peter warned.

“I’m going to be,” Isaac told him. “No reason to haul clothes all the way down there and all the way back up.”

“Thought you were cold.”

Isaac kissed him. “Love you.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Love you too, you lucky piece of shit.”

Isaac stepped back and politely waited for Spencer and Skip to stop saying goodbye with quiet kisses and gentle touches. “You know, they don’t insult each other. You could be more like that.”

Peter whacked Isaac with his cane. “Get me some clothes.”

Laughing, Isaac headed for the stairs, Spencer catching up with him on the way. “How was your day?” Isaac asked as they took the first step.

“Fine. My literature class was cancelled so I ended up sitting in the room for along time. That’s why I came to wait for you guys.” Spencer smiled. “I probably should have gone to the library and done some work. But there are only so many weeks ahead I can work.”

“Hm,” Isaac said, bumping shoulders with him. “Ever occur to you that you could have done my work?”

“That,” Spencer said, bumping back, “would be cheating. Which is a form of dishonesty. Which I’m trying to avoid these days.”

“Yeah, but it would be me being dishonest,” Isaac pointed out.

“Aren’t you three weeks ahead in Lee’s class?”

“Yes…but I have four other classes.”

“You’re ahead in those too.”

Isaac blushed. He hadn’t realized anyone but Peter knew that. “I worry that if I don’t get ahead I’ll fall behind. I did that in history last term and I never caught up.” Doing so badly in the class was one thing, but knowing that it was partly, if not entirely, his fault was another.

“Right.” Spencer nodded. “I’d help you.”

“I know you would. But you have your own classes.”

Spencer shrugged. “I’d still help you.”

“You don’t owe me anything, Spencer.”

“Yes, I do. But even if I didn’t, I’d still help you.”

Isaac looked down at his feet, smiling at them. “I know. I’d help you too.”

“I know.” Spencer cleared his throat. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Isaac said, pretending that he didn’t know this was why Spencer had come with him.

They climbed a few more stairs in silence before Spencer said anything. “Skip doesn’t like sex. He doesn’t, uh, want to have it with me. Or anyone.”

“Yeah,” Isaac said, nodding. He knew that. “How do you guys handle that?” He couldn’t imagine having a relationship without sex. But then again, he and Skip were friends and they didn’t have sex either.

“We kiss a lot. Uh. We masturbate together, or do each other, he likes that.” That was the most Isaac had ever done with Skip as well. Spencer was bright red with embarrassment, but he pushed through. “I do too. Obviously. But, we talked about it and, uh, he said that if I ever wanted to do more than that, he didn’t want to but, well he said he would but I know he wouldn’t really want to, but he likes watching, he likes watching me and I know he’s watched you sometimes, and so he said that if I ever wanted to have sex with someone he wouldn’t mind if I asked you.”

Spencer couldn’t make eye contact, watching the stairs go by. Isaac took his hand. “So…the question is can we have sex?”

Spencer nodded wordlessly.

“Of course we can,” Isaac said, squeezing. “Whenever you want. We can do it in the shower if you want.”

“No, that’s okay,” Spencer squeaked. “In the room would be best. For the first time at least. I can barely bring myself to touch myself in the shower. But…sometime. Not right now.”

“Sure,” Isaac said, chuckling. Spencer’s shyness continued to be cute. They reached the top of the stairs. “Whenever you want.”

“It doesn’t bother you, does it?” Spencer asked.

“What doesn’t?”

“That I’m sort of…I don’t know. Using you for sexual gratification?”

Isaac held in a laugh, kissing Spencer on the cheek. “No. We’re friends. It’s not like you’re going to stop being friends with me if I don’t suck your dick.”

Spencer shook his head. “I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t do that.”

“So it’s fine. Just so you know, Peter will probably watch too.”

“Th-that’s fine. It’ll help me work my way up to showing up to your next orgy.”

“Really?” Isaac asked, grinning. He was hoping to have another of those in the next few weeks. “That’s a big step.”

“Skip and I were thinking we’d come to the next one and maybe just…watch? If that’s not weird.”

“Go ahead. I know a few people who like having an audience.” Wanting to watch people have sex was really not that weird. Isaac wasn’t sure he could think of anything weird enough that he wouldn’t let someone do it.

“Good.” Spencer looked so relieved. Isaac wondered how long he’d been wanting to say all this. “Okay. Thanks, Isaac.”

“No problem. You know you don’t need to be nervous with me.”

“I know.” Spencer let out a quiet laugh as they got to the room. Isaac opened the door. “It took me a while to work up to this. I was, uh. Well, aside from the usual nervousness, I had to reconcile asking you this with the knowledge that you’ve had sex with my brother too.”

Isaac grinned, wishing he didn’t get annoyed with himself for that. “If it makes you feel better, I like you better than I liked him.” He went into the room, reaching for the Pillars when he realized someone was there, but it was just Jacob. “Hey, I didn’t know you were coming today.”

Jacob nodded, standing from Isaac’s bed. Baker jumped down, running over to sit in front of Isaac. “Yeah. I, well, I wanted to see you, I guess.”

“You’re allowed to do that,” Isaac said, scratching Baker behind the ears. “Would you like some ear scratches too?”

“Sounds nice,” Jacob admitted, hand in a pocket. He looked at Spencer. “It, uh, sounded like I might have been interrupting? I can come back?”

Spencer smiled at him, went over to his clothes chest. Isaac could tell he was embarrassed. “You’re not.”

“It sounded like…”

“We were talking about the future,” Isaac assured him, standing and kissing Jacob. “You aren’t putting us out. We were going to go have a bath, do you want to come?”

“Are you saying I smell bad?” Jacob asked, hand lingering on Isaac’s elbow.

“I’m saying come have a bath with us. Peter and Skip are waiting.” Isaac didn’t want to make Jacob let go, so he wiggled a hand at Peter’s chest, using Dark to pull out a shirt and some pants. He tried not to wince when the Pillars all started to hum at him, setting his teeth on edge and making his arm sting. He was more tired than he realized.

“Well, okay,” Jacob said, nodding. He glanced at the bed, where Isaac saw a bag. “Um. There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

“You need to stay here?” Isaac asked, shutting the chest. Spencer had gotten his clothes too. “Did something happen?”

“No, no, nothing like that. Nothing bad. It’s just, it’s so cold out and where I live they only have so much food and firewood and there are a lot of kids there so it seems like they shouldn’t waste it on me when I figure maybe you wouldn’t mind if I slept here for a night or two or…”

Isaac smiled, pulled Jacob into a hug. “You can stay as long as you want. Spencer, you don’t mind, right?” He wasn’t only asking about Jacob sleeping here, which Spencer would know.

“N-no,” Spencer said behind Isaac. “It’s not a problem. We like Jacob.”

“See?” Isaac asked, looking at Jacob. “You’re a nice guy, you know that?” He stepped back and started to strip out of his clothes.

“Not really, I’m very…what are you doing?”

“Can’t wear my clothes in the bath.”

“The bath is four floors down from here?”

Isaac smiled, stepping out of his pants. “I remember that, actually.”

“Isaac’s trying to convince the whole dorm to be clothing optional,” Spencer explained, and for all his shyness he wasn’t shy about looking at Isaac. “Leading by example.”

“That sounds like my chosen one,” Jacob admitted, smiling. “I’m going to keep my clothes on until we get there, though.”

“That’s okay, so is Spencer.”

“Actually…” Spencer was fiddling with the tie on his collar. “I guess it can’t hurt if I leave my shirt here, right?”

“I don’t see who it would hurt,” Isaac agreed, holding Jacob’s hand.

And Spencer, nodding, shyly took off his shirt and set it on his clothes chest. And then, with a second’s more hesitation, he undid his pants too. “That’s all,” he said. “I’m not brave enough to walk through the dorm naked yet.”

“Okay. This is plenty of bravery,” Isaac said, reaching out and taking his hand, floating Peter’s clothes behind him. “Let’s go.”

“Now I feel overdressed,” Jacob muttered as they walked. “But I stand by my clothed convictions. Remaining clothed kind of runs in my family. Except for my brother Robin. He’s a born nudist.”

“Everyone’s a born nudist, technically,” Spencer said.

“Well. Yes. But that’s not the point.”

Isaac smiled to himself. “Oh hey, Spencer, Jacob might be able to help you with your dilemma. I had sex with his brother too.”

“Is this just something that you do?” Spencer asked. “Just sleep with people’s brothers?”

Isaac smiled, squeezed both of their hands. “There was no sleeping. I’ve slept with you two, though.”

“Note how he doesn’t answer the question,” Jacob muttered.

“Don’t suppose Robin plans to visit anytime soon?”

“I’m pretty sure he’s across an ocean at the moment, so my guess is no.”

“Damn,” Isaac sighed. “Oh well, you can keep getting most of your family’s allotment of sex, then.”

“A burden I think I can shoulder.”

“Was it awkward for you?” Spencer asked as they went down the stairs. “Knowing that?”

Jacob shrugged. “A tiny bit, but like. It happened while I was there. I even helped for part of it. Then I had sex with my brother’s boyfriend after, so. It was more about getting even with Iggy than anything else.”

Isaac wondered when Ignatius was coming back. He’d gone off on that errand of his ages ago but Isaac had no idea if he was coming back soon or not.

“Hm,” Spencer said, clearly thinking. “I’ll work through it. It’s not like I don’t want to.”

“It’s just a bit weird putting your dick somewhere where your brother’s dick has also been,” Jacob agreed. “I guess you get used to it, though?”

Spencer nodded, and the three of them made their way into the baths, passing a few other guys along the way, and Isaac was impressed that Spencer didn’t try to hide. In the change room, they had to wait for Jacob to undress. Spencer just took his smallclothes off and put them in the basket with Skip’s clothes, and Isaac got a basket for Peter. “See?” Isaac said. “See how much time we’d have saved doing this in the room?”

“It would have taken the same amount of time, just in a different room,” Jacob muttered. “It always takes me a long time to undress, I’m wearing several knives.”

“Hm,” Isaac said, thoughtful. “They’re going to start teaching us how to make stuff disappear in Shadow soon.”

“The boys of the world will never be safe,” Spencer teased.

“I’m just saying, you might all wake up one day and find your smallclothes…disappeared,” Isaac warned. “As a first step.” He wouldn’t actually do that. It would make too many people uncomfortable. But it was a fun idea, just enforcing nudity on everyone. Something to jerk off to sometime.

“If I’d known I was asking to stay in such a dangerous place, I’d have gone somewhere else,” Jacob muttered, finally getting out of his clothes.

“You knew you were asking to stay with Isaac,” Spencer said.

“Point.”

They headed into the baths, found Peter and Skip sitting on the bench, talking. “There they are,” Peter said. “I’d worried you decided to do something less clean than bathing.”

Isaac smiled, kissed the top of Peter’s head before he sat down. “Always a possibility,” he admitted. “Look who I found. He’s going to stay with us for a while.”

“Hey, Jacob,” Peter said, waving. “An ally in trying to get Isaac to wear clothes sometimes.”

“I…quite like the way Isaac looks when he’s not wearing clothes, though,” Jacob admitted, looking nervous.

“Nevermind, you can’t stay with us,” Peter sighed.

“Baker already said I could.”

“Damn dog. I’m wearing your smallclothes up to the room since Isaac didn’t bring me any.”

Spencer and Skip were quietly talking, smiling at each other and at Isaac in turns. Isaac smiled back.

They stayed in the baths much longer than it really took for them to get clean, but the point of communal bathing wasn’t to get clean, it was to get closer together. And Isaac felt like that, at least, they were accomplishing.

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