Chapter 19

Dean

They were bloodthirsty, but easily distracted, so the killing spree stopped once they charged into snack time. Once Joel was full, though, he started looking around and frowned at his flat bubbles that were on their last legs. "Oh, I need more."

No.

"But we've got to play games and figure out something fun for dinner." The snack would hold him over for a while but it wouldn't last forever. "We've got all those new games, and now that we're full and had a nap, I think it's the best time to pick out one."

With everyone in a good mood, I couldn't think of a better time.

"Can we have noodles?" Joel leaned over the side of the tub in an attempt to look around the door, but he almost gave himself a concussion. "I didn't fall. I was careful."

Bullshit.

Tate was shaking but he managed not to laugh out loud. "My lap caught him. Don't worry."

They were both ridiculous. "That was very helpful."

Joel was almost giggling but aimed wide eyes at me instead. "Thank you for worrying about me. I like being special."

For fuck's sake.

"That doesn't work when you're giggling." Well, it kind of did and he knew it based on the twinkle in his eyes. "Come on. Toys back in the bag and then we'll find something fun to wear. Do you want pajamas or real clothes?"

For some reason Tate was snickering again and looked like he was a kid with a secret. Joel was watching him with an odd expression on his face, but he didn't stay focused on Tate's giggles for long. "Jammies."

That might've made Tate laugh even more, but it was hard to tell. Focusing on Joel shouldn't have been easier since he was naked and piling up bathtub toys, but it was, so I didn't worry about Tate. "Good job. How about your spaceship ones or your superhero ones?"

He complained about having to wear clothes, but he had a hoard of pajamas. He also liked all his endless jammies and spent the last of his cleanup time bouncing his head side to side. "Astronaut or hero?"

That took more thought than I thought it should've, but by the time his toys were put away and the water was draining, he'd figured it out. "Both."

As I tried to decide if he was fucking with me, Tate managed to stop laughing long enough to grab Joel's towel to help him out of the tub. "How about the top of the superheroes and the bottom of the space ones?"

Oh.

Joel's giggles said he was fucking with me in a fun new way, but his eager nod said his silly side liked the idea. "Yes. The rocket will push the hero higher and higher."

"Not too high." I could just see him jumping off the couch and ending up with a broken arm. "You can't play games if you get hurt."

Adult or innocent.

Joel wasn't worried. He gave me an adorably sweet smile as Tate wrapped him up in the towel and then leaned close to kiss my cheek. "You take good care of me."

Brat.

Tate started coughing which made Joel glare at him. "You're tattling."

Yep.

"Sorry." Tate lifted one shoulder. "You're so cute when you do that. I can't help myself."

Sighing dramatically, Joel pouted. "Aww, you can't use that against me. It's not fair."

Shit.

Tate had done the same thing to him that Joel had tried to do to me, so I found myself glaring at both of them. "You both have learned some very bad habits over the past couple of years."

It was definitely the neighbors' fault.

They both immediately started shaking their heads, and Tate frowned. "No, we're just really sweet and you like that about us."

Some of the more colorful dirty words my grandfather had always used fired through my head, but I managed not to let them escape. "You need to work on making that more believable."

My dryly delivered retort had Joel giggling. "Jammie time."

Yes, or he'd end up getting a lecture, and Tate must've realized he was in the line of fire too because he wrapped Joel up in a big hug and lifted him off the ground. "Let's escape before he starts fussing at us."

Tate was definitely where Joel was getting a lot of his bad habits from. But he was right. They were kind of cute, so I didn't point that out as I picked up the snack box and followed them out of the bathroom.

Giggles were already coming from Joel's bedroom, so I took a second to put the box in the kitchen and grabbed the cage I'd washed off earlier. I wasn't sure if Joel was in the right headspace for it, but he wasn't hard, so I was going to take advantage of it.

I'd picked the one that looked the easiest to actually get on him and lubed the inside like Derek had said to, but I was going to keep my fingers crossed that it was as straightforward to get on as he'd said. Derek had made it sound incredibly easy, but looking at the toy in my hand, it felt like I was replacing one of the parts in the back of the toilet instead.

"It's just a 3D penis puzzle. It's not hard. Literally any idiot can lock up a dick." The instructions were simple. It would keep him soft and looking cute, which were really Joel's only goals for the scene. It would give Tate a sense of control that he'd never had. They were both going to love it and then I could figure out if I'd love it or not.

I was still on the edge when I thought about it logically, but as long as I kept reason out and just focused on Joel's excitement, everything got much simpler.

"Literally any idiot can do this." Whispering to myself one last time as I headed into Joel's bedroom, I pushed away my worries as I saw Joel lying on the bed, naked as a jaybird and giggling as he watched Tate sort through his top drawer.

"I have little ones and cute ones and Superman ones and even a pair with that string that goes up your butt." Joel's giggles subsided as he frowned. "I don't know why women complain about those. They're not uncomfortable."

"What women do you know who complain about their underwear to you?" Tate turned his head and frowned at Joel. "I'm not sure they should be telling you stuff like that."

Joel shrugged. "Everyone tells me weird stuff. That's just about clothes, so I thought it was boring."

Somehow I had a feeling the girl who'd been talking about her ass floss hadn't just been complaining about how it felt.

"She wants to have sex with you." Tate decided not to be subtle about that and it had Joel's eyes going wide. "Honestly. I'm like ninety percent sure that conversation was supposed to be teasing you or flirting with you."

Joel seemed gobsmacked. "Why would someone do that?"

Had he bought G-string underwear just to be able to see what it was like because some girl's flirting had gone incredibly off track?

"People are so weird. I hardly knew her when she said that." Sitting up, he frowned and cocked his head. "I think I'd only had like three classes with her at that point."

Ah.

Tate managed not to smile and commiserated with our perplexed sub really well. "Well, that sounds confusing. But you've got us to help with that kind of stuff now."

Joel was still confused about the girl, but he jumped onto the new topic train because it was obviously easier. "Yes, and I'm very glad about that. Oh, if you're here to help with the confusing stuff, will you handle that guy in my math class that keeps asking me if I like food?"

Huh?

Heading in while he was still distracted by people who seemed to be flirting with him, I sat down beside Joel and hoped he'd stay focused on Tate. To make sure, I stayed as still as I could and kept my gaze on Tate, and it seemed to work because Joel sighed and shook his head. "He eats a lot."

Tate gave up trying not to laugh. "Has he been asking you what you think about Thai food and Italian food? Stuff like that?"

"Yes." Joel's bright smile said he thought Tate was amazing. "He likes all kinds of foods, but he was very frustrated when I said I didn't like sushi and that I couldn't understand why Pad Thai had peanuts in it."

Tate's shoulders shook, but he managed to just do a slow exhale instead of laughing again. "He was feeling you out to see what kind of date to ask you on or hoping that if he hinted, then you'd ask him."

Joel's head cocked to the side and he frowned. "Really? I just thought he was hungry all the time and couldn't decide what to eat. Why…no, never mind. I won't understand."

I had a feeling he'd been about to ask why the guy would want to date him or just why hadn't the guy asked him out, but either way, I could understand why he'd given up. But his frown somehow looked sad and he sighed. "People need to just say what they're thinking."

"What would you have said if he'd asked you for dinner?" Tate's question had Joel flopping back on the bed and staring up at the ceiling to think.

I had a feeling the moment was perfect and wouldn't get any better, so I shifted closer and took Joel's, thankfully still soft, cock in my hands. As his head came up and he looked down at what I was doing, I decided to keep pushing the conversation to hopefully keep him soft while I worked his balls in the opening.

"I think we're both just curious about how the conversation would've gone. What would you have said to the food guy?" My question had Joel blinking but his brain seemed to reengage as I worked his second testicle through the opening.

One through first.

Then the other.

A soft penis stretches more than I think.

Joel liked pain, so worst-case scenario was that he'd orgasm before I could get the damned thing on.

"I…wow…um, I probably would've said yes because it's polite and then would've gotten confused after that." Joel took a breath and let it out slowly as his gaze got even more intense, but he didn't safeword or even ask questions. "Most guys jump from asking out to eat to other stuff really fast."

Spreading his legs wider, he mumbled something about it being amazing under his breath, but his brain kept going on what he would've done about the food guy. "I…I think if you guys had explained what I was but we hadn't been doing all this, I'd have probably told him I was demi and needed to get to know him first."

As Tate and I nodded, I worked at getting the rest of the sleeve where his penis slid into in place. Joel was looking at it like it was the most insane thing he'd ever seen, but his brain hadn't left the other conversation behind just yet. "I don't think he's the type to pick out a cage for me or to spank me, though. I think…I think he's another sub?"

With my newfound knowledge, I had to agree with him. "The Dom to sub ratio at school has gotten slightly fucked this last year, and…and I think someone needs to do a bit of outreach. Like those missionary people who try to save your soul…but the BDSM kind."

Tate laughed but nodded. "Subs asking other subs out because they're sweet and they can feel a connection doesn't really help."

"He…he might not even know he's a sub." Licking his lips, Joel nearly folded himself in half bending over to look at his new toy.

One that didn't seem to be pinching him or hurting him in any way.

Fucking hell that was stressful.

"I wonder if he wants his own cock cage?" Joel's words trailed off softer as he slowly moved his hand over and poked the smooth restraint. "Oh wow. I bet all the subs on campus want this."

Oh.

"We're going to go over the conversational rules about sex toys later, but for now, don't startle people by bringing it up." Tate seemed to realize how badly that could go, but Joel just nodded distractedly as he studied his penis.

"But I'm so cute." Joel's voice held just a bit too much awe in it for me to be comfortable.

"You have to ask us before you can show it to anyone else." I didn't think I should've had to say that, but when Joel looked up and pouted, I glanced over to Tate for backup.

When I just flung my hand toward him and glared, he chuckled but did his best to fix the situation. "We read situations better than you do. We're not saying you can't show it off, but we're going to help you decide who to talk about it with and who it makes sense to show it to."

Scrunching his face up, Joel looked like he was mentally debating if he was going to pout or not. He finally settled on not, and sighed. "Fine, but give me an example."

Okay.

Tate looked to me and raised an eyebrow. The Dom equivalent of you got us into this mess . Fine. "There are several subs in the building who are open-minded enough and curious enough that they'd be comfortable talking about it and probably ending up in a Show and Tell kind of situation."

Joel perked up and he actually looked away from his cage for more than five seconds, so I knew I was on the right track. "We just all need to be on the same page with it, but I'm not telling you no or never."

That wouldn't be reasonable at all.

But what else would be a low-stress compromise?

"And at some point, we need to go back and show Derek how it looks." Nodding toward Joel's packaged dick, I gave a half shrug. "He's going to want to see how adorable your cutie looks."

That sentence was still weird, but it was worth it because it got a sappy smile from Joel. "You like it?"

"Yes." Leaning over, I kissed his cheek. "It's really small this way and it makes it…I don't know, I guess very unobtrusive?"

I wasn't sure if that was the right word but it made Joel look down at his lap curiously. "That's a good way to see it too."

Maybe?

While I was mentally debating that, Tate chuckled again and finally walked over to the bed. "It's very cute and I'm glad you like it."

Me too.

"But now we have to decide if you're going to wear pajamas or just stay naked so you can show off your cutie." Tate glanced between the two of us. "I'm flexible, but I was promised playtime."

"I can play and be naked." Somehow Joel managed to say that while looking utterly innocent, and it just got more confusing as he looked down at his lap. "How are you doing? Do you want to be a tiny rocket ship?"

I should've thought the cage plan through just a bit more.