Nate smirked and started to lower himself. Bailey screwed his eyes shut and panted, hands flying to Nate's hips. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

Once Nate was fully seated, his weight resting on Bailey's thighs, he paused to run his hands up and down Bailey's chest, giving them both a minute to adjust. The stretch was good. Bailey was smaller in pretty much every sense, but he was enough to make Nate's breath catch in his throat and his rim twinge and ache. He groaned when it clenched as he lifted back up a couple of inches.

Bailey clung, fingers digging into Nate's hips, as he was ridden at a steady pace. Their thighs clapped together. Sweat gathered on Nate's skin. Bailey opened his gorgeous eyes and stared down at where they were joined, then let out a strangled moan and squeezed them shut again.

"Hey, c'mon, darling," Nate coaxed breathlessly. Riding like this was a lot of work, Christ Almighty. "Let me see those eyes."

Bailey bit his lip. "Can't."

Nate let out a surprised laugh, stuttering in his rhythm. "Why not?"

"I'll cum," Bailey snapped.

"Yeah?" Nate slowed into a filthy grind to give him a breather. He needed to catch his breath, as well. His chest was starting to burn from the exertion he was unaccustomed to. Apparently, he needed to work on his cardio more.

Bailey opened his eyes now that he was not on the precipice of coming too quickly and gazed up. "You're so sexy," he moaned, running his hands up Nate's torso. Then, in a lovely display of core strength, he surged up to wrap his arms around Nate's shoulders and draw him into a kiss.

Nate whimpered against his lips because of the change in angle. He tried to fuck himself on it because that felt good enough to make an urgent pleasure bloom in his navel.

"That feel good?" Bailey asked, ducking to kiss Nate's neck.

Nate tilted his chin up and panted at the ceiling, "Yeah, feels so good. Fuck, Bay."

Bailey leaned back a little, putting one hand behind him on the mattress and lifting his knees to brace his feet flat. Then with his other hand on Nate's hip to steady him, he began fucking up. Nate wrapped one arm around Bailey's shoulders for balance and grabbed his cock with the other.

"Fuck, I'm close," he managed to encourage before devolving into mindless little grunts, punctuating the force of Bailey driving up into him.

"You gonna cum on my cock?" Bailey gritted out, teeth clenched as his whole body worked to meet Nate's. That was all it took. Nate nodded, twisting his fist around himself, and came all over Bailey's stomach.

Before he managed to gain his bearings, Bailey surged up to put one hand on his shoulder and the other around the back of his head. Then Nate found himself lying on his back while Bailey hammered into him, face flushed and eyes bright. Nate parted his legs and wrapped his arms around him.

"Yeah, come on," he panted. Bailey whined and shoved his face against Nate's neck. He came in another couple of thrusts, fists buried in the quilt and dragging it across the bed. He was silent, just like he'd been at the bar, parted lips smushed up against Nate's skin. Nate stroked his back and stared up at the pretty blue lights glowing along the ceiling, smiling as he struggled to catch his breath.

Eventually, Bailey rolled off and flopped to the side, panting and shining with sweat.

"Ugh," he wheezed, "You broke me."

Nate laughed and propped up on an elbow to reach over and slide the condom off for him, definitely not enjoying the way the touch made Bailey wince. Or maybe he liked it a little – a lot. He placed it very neatly on top of the wrapper, then slid them to the edge of the bed to be dealt with later.

"I seriously don't think my heart rate is ever going to come back down," Bailey whined, dragging one of his arms up to rest it over his eyes.

"Used to being a pillow princess?" Nate teased. Bailey grumbled and kicked at him, but Nate just laughed again and snuggled closer, leaning down to press his lips to the thundering pulse beneath his jaw. Bailey sighed and tilted his head back, so Nate closed his lips around the skin and sucked. That drew a sound out of Bailey like he was dying and he shoved Nate's forehead away.

Nate snickered at his scandalized expression. Bailey chose to take the high road and ignore him. He shuffled to pick up the condom and toss it in his little wastebin by the door. He rooted in his sex drawer for some wipes, tossed one to Nate, then cleaned himself off. Nate kinda felt like he needed a shower, all covered in sweat and slick with lube between his legs, but he made do with the wipe.

He watched Bailey grab the pretzels and Nutella before flopping back against his pillows. Nate remained by the edge of the bed, trying hard not to feel awkward. Bailey didn't look awkward at all, happily digging a pretzel into the jar of chocolate and stuffing it into his mouth. His thoughts drifted to the things they talked about after sex the last time.

Now was probably not the right time to bring that up. He was still a little high and Bailey was obviously blazing. Then again, maybe it was the perfect time. The other night, Bailey was comfortable enough to bring it up because they'd just had sex, and he was high. Plus, otherwise, Nate might never say anything at all. Because when he was completely sober, the thought of asking Bailey if he could dominate him felt like an abhorrent overstep.

It didn't matter that Bailey admitted to liking that. Or that he'd asked Nate to be rougher. Or that their relationship had shifted. All of Bailey's blood that was already on his knuckles, that damned dream that played over and over, and the newfound memory of Bailey spitting blood in his face and telling him to mind his own business, together made it feel like an impossible ask.

But right now, feeling languid from both the pot and the orgasm, he thought maybe it was not so bad. If anything, it fell in line with their previous games of cat and mouse. And he could just ask Bailey about experimenting with that kind of thing—for a friend style—just to feel him out first.

Bailey lounged at the head of the bed, blissfully unaware, munching on pretzels like he was being paid to do so.

"Hey," Nate asked before he could lose his nerve, "That stuff you told me about. The...um...masochism and stuff. How did you get into that?"

Bailey chewed the pretzel he had just stuffed into his mouth and pinned Nate with an assessing gaze. He swallowed and said, "Dunno exactly. I was always kind of interested in that, from the first time I realized it was a thing. Then I told Tanner about it." He huffed, lifting a hand to wave it around like he was shooing away a fly. "And after that, I found some people at college who actually knew what the hell they were doing and helped me be safer about it."

Nate grit his teeth at the thought of Tanner not being safe with Bailey.

"Why?" Bailey's arm flopped back down to the mattress. "Are you interested?"

"I guess, yeah." Nate rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, yes. I went home and looked it up and stuff after you told me about it."

"Really?" Bailey grinned, his eyes twinkled with a bit of that curiosity that Nate enjoyed so much, like he was a bit surprised and intrigued. "Do you want to try being dominant or submissive?"

Nate's mind stumbled and his thoughts got all tangled up. A submissive? He had not once even considered himself in that role. Which should probably answer the question right away, but maybe he should have thought about himself like that. What did it say about him that it had only occurred to him to place himself in the dominant role. Was it only because he had been juxtaposing himself to Bailey in all of his imagined scenarios? Was it because he was a controlling asshole at heart?

"I've got a couple people I could call who are good dominants that could show you the ropes if you wanted to experiment a bit," Bailey offered, setting his snacks aside and looking around lazily for his phone. His eyes dropped to his lap. Like the rest of him, it was still bare, which was apparently surprising because his eyebrows lifted, and he immediately switched gears to roll to the side of the bed and paw around on the floor for his discarded boxers.

"No, I'm...I don't think I would be comfortable being submissive," Nate said, then winced. "I mean maybe, I guess I don't really know. I just haven't thought about that."

"You think you're more dominant," Bailey nodded like that was just fine, then unlocked his phone and froze in place. "I...uh...I mean, I guess I know some subs...other subs..."

His brain seemed to have faltered as well. Nate was making a big mess of this. He should just fucking asked instead of pussyfooting around.

"Well, you are a sub," he pointed out. Which still wasn't asking. He wanted to smack himself in the face.

"Oh." Bailey was still staring at his phone, "You want to dominate me."

Then he laughed.

Nate's face was in flames. Bailey glanced at him and immediately sobered, which meant Nate had to look either angry or extremely pitiful. He tried to rearrange his expression into something more neutral, but just ended up putting a hand over his eyes to hide his humiliation.

"No, don't...I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing at you." The mattress bounced as Bailey scooted toward him. "I really wasn't. I'm just high and that's just so unexpected."

"Is it really so unexpected?" Nate asked, letting Bailey pry his hand away from his eyes. He was smiling gently, not like he was upset or teasing or anything. If he was uncomfortable, he would have probably started clamming up and acting like a bitch no matter how high he was or how hard Nate made him come. Maybe this was not so bad.

"Honestly," Bailey murmured, voice dropping in pitch. "No."

Nate picked at the quilt with his fingers, then reached across the bed to stick his hand into the bag of pretzels and grab a few. The crinkle of the plastic bag was deafening in the silence between them. But Bailey seemed to be seriously considering, so Nate gave him the space to do so.

After a while, he nodded to himself. "We'd have to talk a lot of stuff over first."

"I know," Nate bobbed his head. "I've been reading up on it, so I'm not a complete noob."

Bailey's expression took on a tone of exasperated fondness, like he found Nate unbearably cute and hated it—which would be on brand for him. His eyes softened and his brows drew down, while at the same time his lips curved up. "You've been doing research?"

"Of course," Nate looked down at the pretzels in his hand. He'd gotten them mostly to give his hands something to do, but he did not really want to eat them. So, he held one out toward Bailey's face. Bailey eyed it for a moment, then leaned forward and took it between his teeth. Nate liked that.

"I know that we probably shouldn't talk about it while high, through."

Bailey hummed as he chewed and swallowed the pretzel. "That is correct."

Nate shuffled until he was laying against the pillows again, belatedly realized that he was still fully nude, then shrugged it off and continued feeding Bailey. Between munching on the bites of pretzels he kept taking directly from Nate's fingers with his mouth, Bailey poked and prodded about Nate's research spiral. And Nate's furious blush the entire time was worth Bailey's giggling and the gleam in his eye that had nothing to do with the pot they smoked.

That could have definitely gone better, but Nate commended himself for bringing up the topic at all and found himself giggling along with Bailey because his sense of relief was so strong. Hopefully, actually exploring kink with Bailey would go more smoothly than asking about it. And, hopefully, once he got his fixation on it and Bailey out of his system a bit, his brain would calm down some. Hopefully.