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Lt. Dan dragged himself back on the boat, grunting with the effort but smiling. Forrest tried not to stare at the way the water streamed off his rippling, sunburned arms and back. The words fell right out of his mouth without thinking. "I want a body like yours, Lt Dan."
This made the legless veteran pause mid hair toss and scoff. "Why in the hell would you want that?"
Forrest couldn't speak past that Class Dunce feeling. Maybe it was one of those things you weren't supposed to say, but it was said and he didn't regret it. It was nice to get compliments, and even nicer to give them. He shrugged. "So strong…."
Lt Dan stared at him a second, brown eyes glittering in the evening sun, chest still heaving from the exertion of climbing aboard after a long swim. Forrest became uncomfortable under the stare, unsure of what it meant. Was Lt Dan angry at him? Annoyed by his stupidity? Laughing at him?
Lt Dan finally blinked and sighed, shaking his head. "Be careful what you wish for, Gump. It might come true in an unexpected way."
"Yes, sir." Forrest said quickly. It was a fine point to make, after all. God might hit them both with lightning and swap their bodies or something. He meant to reorganize his thinking promptly, but the notion of body swap was too intriguing. "But us swapping bodies…that wouldn't be so bad, I think."
Lt Dan barked with laughter. "No. I suppose it would not. I'd make better use of those legs than you would."
"You would?"
"Hell yeah. I'd let 'em get some sun, for one thing."
Forrest looked down at his pants and guffawed. Wearing shorts to work? It had simply never occurred to him. Lt Dan had a dare in his eye, plain as day. Forrest hesitated, then opened his fly and dropped trou right there on the shrimpin' boat. His boxers fluttered in the breeze and he felt bashful but… free. It was exhilarating.
Lt Dan cackled and applauded. "There you go! Catch some sun on those beanstalks."
Forrest folded his pants neatly and put them in a chair. He startled when he felt something brush the side of his thigh. Lt Dan had wheeled over and stuck his inner forearm to Forrest's knee. "You want this shade, at least."
"I do?"
"It's what I'd make 'em look like. Your feet, too. A pale body is a body taken for granted."
Forrest understood now. He guffawed again and stretched out in his hammock to soak in the last rays of the day. Starting tomorrow, he was going to sunbathe all day every day and stop taking his body for granted.
*
Dan well and truly bit off more than he could chew this time. The hell had he been thinking to goad Forrest into this? It had been three days since Forrest stopped wearing pants. He now wore what he called his old ping pong uniform. It was a pair of soft material short shorts, and they looked good. Too good. Especially now that he was sun kissed from head to toe. Literally.
Dan was overwhelmed with jealousy and arousal at uneven turns. Forrest would go onto his tiptoes for a rope or something and Dan would brood about how he once had glorious calves too, but then Forrest would crouch over a tangled net, thigh muscles bunching those tiny shorts even higher and Dan would have to turn away.
Sometimes, Forrest caught him looking. Sometimes, Dan wondered if Forrest did actually get it and only played stupid. Plenty of guys did when it came to this. But out here alone with him in the sun and sea, Dan had nothing but time to play this out as slow as Gump wanted to go.
*
Forrest couldn't sleep. It always started with thoughts about Jenny. Always. But, while wondering what she was doing, and yearning to tell her what he was doing, his thoughts always got snagged on Lt Dan. What would he tell Jenny? That he lived on a shrimpin' boat with his war buddy and they lived and worked half naked just cuz they could. And it was fun to live half naked, showing off what God gave him. That's how Lt Dan put it, and Forrest had liked the way he said it; sounded serious but happy, sneaky, and a little proud, even. Felt good to make Lt Dan proud, and whenever Forrest made him smile the whole day just got even better….
Sudden light from the cabin snapped Forrest out of a dream. Lt Dan was still up, too. He rolled out of the hammock and went inside. The cabin was such a small living space, the empty wheelchair took up most of it. Lt Dan was on the cot, looking at a magazine which he covered up when Forrest came in.
"Can't sleep either, Lt Dan?"
"I'm busy in here, Forrest," he snapped.
Forrest was caught off guard by the rudeness and balked. "Oh. Sorry. I'll go."
"Wait." Lt Dan sounded apologetic and tired. "It's fine. Stay. Let's… talk."
Forrest accepted the invitation happily and went to sit down.
"Not there," Dan barked when Forrest touched the chair. His only other choice was the cot. Lt Dan shuffled over to make room. Forrest settled into warm sheets and realized the night was much cooler than he had realized.
"What are we talking about?"
Lt Dan was quiet for a moment, and then spoke in that slow clear way chalked full of patience. "I don't know…" He shrugged his shoulders. "What's on your mind? Why can't you sleep?"
Forrest hardly knew where to begin. He shifted and heard paper crinkle. He was sitting on something buried in the sheets between them. He pulled it out. "Your magazine. I bent it a li–" his voice cut off.
It was a dirty magazine, but not naked women. Men. Forrest was stunned speechless. He stared and stared, mind racing. It made a lot of sense that a magazine like this would exist. But what didn't make sense was how he went this long never hearing about it. He'd seen his first Playboy laying on a bench in the football locker room, and they had been all over the place in the army. But there had never been a single one like this.
Men posing in their underwear or not wearing anything at all, flexing the kind of muscles that made something ache behind Forrest's ribs.
"...You alright, Gump?'
He gulped and made the mistake of glancing at Lt Dan. He had that look on his face again, the one Forrest had trouble deciphering. Was this some kind of prank? A joke? Was he supposed to laugh? He could barely breathe. He nodded.
Lt Dan's shoulders relaxed, his chest swelled. "Now you know…. Are we going to be okay?"
Forrest pulled a face. "You n me? Yeah!"
Lt Dan laughed with relief. Forrest's eyes drifted back to the magazine in his hands, because his fingers were turning the page. There was an article taking up half the space but the rest was a little spread showing a fully naked man in the act of rubbing himself.
"You like it?"
Forrest nodded.
Lt Dan exhaled slowly and took the magazine. "I was wondering if you would. I'm glad you do."
"Where did you get that?"
"Back in New York. It's an old issue, but it gets the job done."
Forrest could see his blush spread down his own chest and that was when he realized he was wearing one piece of clothing and Lt Dan wasn't wearing anything beneath the sheet. His hands shook as he cock filled out.
"I don't want to corrupt you, Forrest. If this isn't anything you've thought about before–"
"I thought about it before."
"Is that right? …When? And don't lie to me."
Forrest put his hands on his knees and considered running out of here, but this was a boat, and the water was too dark to swim. He found the words he needed. "At our New York new years eve party. When you yelled at that girl. That night I had a dream. You were in it."
"Ah," he was back to using that calm, even tone, "And what was I doing in the dream?"
Forrest widened his eyes and tilted his head, conveying it as best he could without words or hand gestures. Lt Dan chuckled and touched Forrest's burning neck, grazed his jawline with a thumb. "That was the first time you dreamed of a man?"
Forrest gave a non discernable head movement that could have been a nod or a shake or even a shrug. Lt Dan exhaled. "I see. Maybe it was the first time it was a man you knew? A friend?"
This made him blush fiercely. Lt Dan surged toward him and their lips met. He wriggled out of the sheet and into Forrest's lap caging him with his pale, naked thighs as the kiss deepened. Forrest clutched him, his hands sliding past the tan line on his hips to the lily white skin below. Lt Dan shivered and moaned. Forrest spread each hand wide over Lt. Dan's bare buttocks and bucked his hips forward, chasing the teasing pressure and friction. He was hard. He could not only feel but see that Lt. Dan was hard, too.
Lt Dan stopped the kiss abruptly. "Did I have legs?"
"Hnnh?"
"In the dream. Did I have legs?"
"I… don't recall," Forrest whispered shakily.
"Was I on my knees, or what? Did I have knees?"
Forrest wrapped his arms low around his back and held him close. He looked deep in his eyes, shared his breath. "We were just like this, and you tasted like chocolates."
Lt Dan's expression shifted from yearning to delight. "Chocolates, huh?"
"Better than cigarettes."
"Why is that the sweetest fucking–c'mere." Lt. Dan kissed him hard enough to recline him.
Forrest landed on his back on the cot and lost his breath. Lt. Dan kissed him deeply but then parted from him with a wet smack of lips and sat up. He was straddling Forrest, looking down at him through his mussed long hair which was free of its usual bandana. He looked like a wild thing, half feral and hungry. Forrest had the thought that if he had himself a camera, he could take a snapshot of Lt. Dan at that moment and the magazine would probably want to give him a million dollars for it or something like that, but it wouldn't be for sale.
Lt. Dan wasted no time pulling the elastic waist of Forrest's shorts down and putting their hard dicks against one another before circling them both in his strong, calloused fingers. Forrest got dizzy, rolling his head back on the cot as his vision blackened around the edges…
*
Dan felt desired. Since losing his legs, he had only been with prostitutes, both male and female, who only did the bare minimum in the performances category. Forrest, though, looked at Dan like he was a feast and he wasn't afraid to touch his thighs, all the way down to the stumps and back up. Forrest had amazing hands, so broad and calloused from shrimp net ropes. And he was loud.
The night passed with chuckles and whispers, kisses and gentle directions, gasps and swears. It ended with skinny dipping at dawn to rinse off.
Dan floated on his back and watched the sun turn the sky pink. He felt good. He was glad to be alive, legs or no legs.
Forrest was the first to climb back into the boat. Dan pulled himself up the ladder and onto the railing. Forrest brought his chair closer but in a rush of something Dan would rather not over analyze, he waved it off and opened his arms with motions for Gump to come in closer.
"Not the chair. You can carry me back to bed."
Forrest did not hesitate to obey the order though his surprise was plain as day in his face. Dan was surprised, too. He had refused to be carried or coddled or helped in any way even once since that was all the nurses did to him back in the hospital. But just now, the idea of Forrest getting him back to that cot as quickly and efficiently as possible did not feel like pity.
His strong arms scooping him up bridal style and holding him securely against his naked, soaked chest did not make him feel like an invalid.
Forrest laid him on the cot and tossed him a towel for his hair and then they got back into their clothes. Then Dan made space and patted the thin mattress. "Double up, Forrest."
"The sun is rising, Lt. Dan."
"I know that, but we hardly slept at all. We can still get a couple hours of sleep. Come on."
Forrest got into bed. Dan snuggled up against his side because there was hardly any space. He smiled when Forrest's strong arm settled heavily and securely around his shoulders. He could hear a steady, strong heartbeat under his ear.
They caught some shut eye together in the cot, smiling in their sleep.