I'll Be Your Drill, Soldier!

by Crystal Rose

  They were fifty feet away from Grabowski when others who had already finished their run began to shout encouragement at Patrick. Even King and Connelly were shouting at them.

  They made it to Grabowski, who yelled. “Done.”

  Patrick was huffing even worse as he jogged off the track. The other three were right behind him but looked back at Grabowski.

  “15:12.”

  They cheered and thumped Patrick on the back.

  After the last man finished Grabowski walked around congratulating each of them. When he got to Brendon he stayed longer.

  Ryan couldn't hear what was being said but he saw Phillip shake Murray's hand. He noticed tears welling up in Brendon's eyes. He would ask about it once they got back to the barracks.

  Back in the barracks all four men were gathering their stuff for a shower.

  “What did Grabowski want?” Kenneth asked.

  “He shook my hand and said he was proud of me,” Brendon whispered and then held out his hand. In his palm was a silver coin.

  Getting a coin from someone like Drill Sergeant Grabowski was a huge honor. It meant even more because Brendon had given up his goal of a perfect PT test to make sure Patrick finished the race.

  ***

  They were woken at three the next morning. Ryan wasn't surprised when they were ordered into BDUs. Their BCT was almost over. In six days they would all be heading to their individual schools. They would no longer be together and Ryan was extremely sad about that. Kenneth. Patrick. Brendon. They were all his best friends. They were men who had taken everything BCT had thrown at them and come back for more. He was pretty certain that while high school friends were easily forgotten those three men would forever remain his driving force.

  They were in formation and marched to a clear, open field. Once there they were ordered into an ‘open ranks’ formation.

  Drill Sergeant Grabowski cleared his throat. “Eight weeks ago you came into this not knowing what to expect. You were all different people and acted like such. Over these last eight weeks I had the privilege to watch you all grow and become a working machine. This is one of my best classes. I have been honored to be with each one of you.”

  Ryan glanced down the line. Patrick was biting his lips to keep from crying. Brendon actually was crying and Kenneth kept blinking like he wanted to cry, but not in front of them.

  “Now you men are United States Soldiers,” Phillip said, his voice strong and proud. “Repeat after me!”

  All of them stood a little taller.

  As I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death! I will fear no Evil!”

  “As I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death! I will Fear no evil!”

  Phillip's face grew hard. “For I am the baddest motherfucker in this valley!”

  They repeated it at a dull roar.

  “HOOOAH!” Phillip yelled.

  “HOOOOAH!” It was the first time they had been allowed to use the term. Each man was nearly giddy that the Drill Sergeant demanded they say it. It meant in his eyes they were soldiers.

  Ryan on the other hand was crying like Brendon. All those weeks had changed him. Suddenly it wasn't all about him. It was about the guys who he served with. The guys who he cried, bled and sweated with. This was what it was all about.

  Grabowski, King and Connelly had done their jobs and done them well. They had broken each of them and remade them into men who would gladly die for each other. It seemed odd to Ryan to think of the Drill Sergeants as anything but evil bastards who wanted nothing more than to kill them in their sleep. Now he thought of them as men who built character and team mates.

  Grabowski was standing in front of Ryan. “Congratulations, Private First Class Gracin,” he said, in his soft oh-so-sexy voice. He held his hand out and Ryan took it. He could feel the plastic tag slide into his hand. As he walked away he smiled one more time at Ryan. King and Connelly both congratulated Ryan and moved down the row with Grabowski.

  “Congratulations, Private Smith.”

  Ryan was crying. He didn't care who saw. They had made it. They were Soldiers. Together. Even stoic Patrick was crying.

  After the ceremony they were sent back to the barracks to clean and pack their bags. Three days after, he was about to get the shock of his life during ‘Family Day’.

  ***

  The day was beautiful. Ryan knew that each man was excited to see girlfriends, parents or siblings. It saddened Ryan some that no one came for him. He had called home and told his parents he was graduating, but they claimed they didn't have time to come and watch it. So, unlike his friends, Ryan would be back at the barracks. Thankfully he wasn't the only one.

  Drill Sergeant King came in smiling more than normal. Following him was a four-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl.

  Ryan smiled. At one point he would have sworn that King was just a machine assembled at Drill Sergeant School but seeing him with his children made the man seem….human.

  The Drill Sergeant laughed at something his daughter said.

  “Privates, I know it's hard to imagine that anyone ever willingly had kids with Drill Sergeant King,” Connelly said.

  “Hims MY daddy,” the boy said, grinning wildly.

  Jamie King stood off to the side. Ryan thought she was really pretty.

  They had been in the formation for a while now. Parents and family members were mingling alongside each other, not saying much of anything, just grinning at their loved ones.

  “DADDY!!” came the loud cry of a dark-haired little girl. Ryan figured she was Connelly's daughter, even though she didn't look one bit like him. That's when it hit him. The little girl was the spitting image of….

  “Smidge!” Phillip said, wrapping his daughter into his arms.

  Ryan must have swayed or something because Patrick whispered 'steady' to him as he watched the two in front of him embrace. He noticed a pretty, petite, dark-haired woman standing at the side smiling at the two. He wanted to seriously cry. Then he wanted to beat the living shit out of Grabowski. What was it with him and finding the wrong freaking men every single fucking time?

  ***

  Ryan didn't feel like going to the ‘Davis Club’ with the others who didn't have family show up. Instead he went back into the barracks. It had been nearly eight hours since he saw Phillip and his family together. He was still fucking miserable. Kenneth, Brendon and Patrick had almost stayed with him until he threatened to kick their asses. He wasn't a fucking girl, for God sakes. He was thankful that Graduation was tomorrow. He couldn't stand the thought of seeing Phillip again.

  The man, who had kissed the hell out of him, fucked with him and in general made his life unbearable was fucking married with a kid.

  He noticed the Drill Sergeant's office door was open but didn't go in. Instead he just went back to his stripped bed.

  He lay down on the bed that had been Patrick's and thought about his life. He didn't hear the heavy footsteps that stopped just outside his door.

  ***

  Phillip stood just outside Ryan's door. He smiled to himself thinking of the first time he had seen Ryan. He had decided to run over to reception and see what the new recruits looked like.

  Bob had laughed about Ryan, calling the blond a little ‘twink’. Phillip agreed, but Ryan was easily the best-looking twink he had ever seen. Even if he was a four-eyes.

  Ryan had run off the bus with his hair flying. Phillip remembered how his breath had caught. He had never seen a more beautiful man in his entire life. Right then and there he prayed that Ryan would be assigned to anyone but him.

  When he noticed that Ryan had been assigned to his platoon he wanted to kill someone-- or bend the young recruit over the couch in the office and fuck him senseless. Ryan nearly made his military bearing a complete sham. It had been over since Phillip had seen how beautiful Ryan's green eyes were. They were so clear and so youthful that it almost hurt Phillip to look at him.

  King and Connelly had teased him unmercifully about his
'crush' on the raw recruit. He had to make sure that it wasn't found out by the other recruits.

  That would have been a very bad thing but it didn't stop him from kissing Ryan when he noticed him in the ‘Davis Club’ - a place where he shouldn't have been but had followed the four in like a guard dog.

  The whole set-up during the combative came from Connelly. That fucking bastard. Once Ryan's body touched his, Phillip had been a complete mess. After that it was less about teaching and more about rubbing against that hard body.

  To say that he had taken advantage of his position above Ryan was a gross understatement.

  “Freckles,” he said.

  He watched as Ryan surged to his feet. After eight weeks of hearing his voice Phillip knew that it was a conditioned response. “At ease,” he said quietly.

  “Drill Sergeant Grabowski.” Ryan greeted him, his tone a bit icier than normal.

  “PFC Gracin,” Phillip replied. “Why didn't you go out with your friends?”

  “I didn't feel like going to the Club, Drill Sergeant.”

  Phillip thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “Come to my office.” He about-faced and walked into the office, not paying attention to whether Ryan was on his way in or not. He wanted to be alone with the kid. He wanted to be able to look at him without disguising his looks, but most of all he wanted to be able to have the moment alone with Ryan that he had wanted since the first time he saw him.

  Ryan entered behind him. His face was hard to read.

  For Phillip it was hard to grasp. Ryan's face had always been so easy to read he almost felt bad for the kid. He followed Ryan's gaze and saw it was resting on a picture of Katie. “My daughter,” he said, smiling. “My ex brought her up today because after tomorrow I have a week off.” He watched as Ryan's demeanor changed rapidly. “She's with my mom right now. I drew babysitting duty tonight.”

  “Ex?”

  “Yes, Gracin. I'm a dick but I wouldn't fuck around on a spouse.” Phillip kept his tone light. He sat behind the desk and motioned for Ryan to sit down.

  Phillip could practically feel the tension melt off Ryan.

  They sat in uncomfortable silence before Ryan broke it up.

  “How long have you been in?” he asked carefully.

  Phillip knew that it had to kill Ryan to be so informal with him. After he had graduated from Basic he had been the same way. Suddenly instead of being the FNG (fucking new guy) he was the ‘been there, done that’ guy. His Drill sat down and drank a beer with him even though he wasn't old enough. The whole time Phillip figured he was just one fuck-up away from the smoking of his life.

  “I joined when I was seventeen. Graduated early from high school and followed my father's footsteps,” Phillip said proudly. “That was nine years ago.” Anywhere else in the world he and Ryan would have been peers, but not so much in the Army.

  Surprise was all over Ryan's face. Phillip knew how that went too. Something about Drills always made them think of the old hard-nosed veterans that his dad hung around with, not some young guy that had already seen way too much of the world.

  “Surprised?” he asked.

  Ryan seemed to think about it for a second. “Yeah, I guess so, Drill Sergeant.”

  Phillip laughed then. “How about we knock the Drill Sergeant stuff off for the moment?” He laughed again when Ryan paled and looked nervous. “It's just us and you're practically out of here anyway.”

  They lapsed into the same silence as before. Phillip had never had this hard of a time with anyone he was attracted to before. He knew he should just let the kid go back to his room and forget him but somehow forgetting Ryan Gracin was going to be a lot harder than he thought.

  “Um, I should go back to my room. I have to…” Ryan rose and turned.

  Phillip waited all of one second before he too rose and was around his desk. He caught the back of Ryan's uniform and turned him around. “Fuck it,” he growled before slamming his lips down on Ryan's.

  Something about kissing Ryan brought out the madman in him. He couldn't stop kissing him if his life depended on it. His tongue demanded entry and Ryan was all too willing to give it to him. He was surely going to hell if he didn't stop this.

  It didn't surprise Phillip one bit when Ryan didn't. Instead he just slammed the door shut with his foot, never breaking the kiss.

  He pushed Ryan against the door and let his hands wander down the blonds’ sides. He pulled his lips away from a mouth that should be absolutely illegal. His mouth wandered from those lips to the nicely-carved cheekbones, to the long, graceful neck that disappeared beneath his BDU top.

  He paused only for a second. “If you don't want this, now would be a good time to say so.”

  For a moment Phillip thought Ryan was going to leave. Ryan's hand settled on the door for a moment-- and then turned the lock on the door.

  A soft click was heard and then a deep growl. Phillip grabbed the smaller man closer to him, crushing their bodies tightly together. That was all the affirmation he needed.

  He lowered his lips again and pulled Ryan over to the couch, then paused as if he were thinking about something. Phillip smiled wickedly. He eyed the pull-up bar on the opposite side of the office. Oh yeah, he had plans, but that would wait.

  He sat down on the couch and pulled Ryan with him. For now he wanted to kiss Ryan. He wanted to kiss him for every single time the kid had made him hard - for every single time when the need to kiss Ryan became almost too overpowering to stop himself from doing so.

  He was ravishing Ryan's lips, nibbling outright, biting them when Ryan would try to take over the kiss. One hand reached up and cupped the back of Ryan's neck, angling it so he was the one in control. He nearly dropped Ryan when the other man's hands slid up and down on his chest. He had wanted to feel those hands forever. It had been hell having Ryan rubbing against him during the class but he wouldn't have changed it. Nope, because it was a way he could feel Ryan's hands.

  His other hand was busy on its own. He was trying to unbutton the top and get it off Ryan. He didn't want anything to be in his way and he HAD to touch Ryan right the fuck now. “Fucking top,” he snarled against Ryan's lips. Buttons began to fly. He finally got the thing off Ryan and then pulled away enough to take the brown t-shirt off. Finally he was touching alabaster skin.

  With Ryan across his lap he could tease and taste everything he wanted. His lips grazed one little nipple and Ryan moaned. His tongue caressed it until it was pebble-hard. His breath was hot against Ryan's cool skin. “You are so fucking hot, Gracin. I thought about doing this to you all the fucking time.” He breathed out, trailing hot kisses across Ryan's chest until he could give the other nipple the same treatment.

  Ryan was mumbling things Phillip couldn't understand. He laughed huskily as he went to work on the belt and pant bottoms. His tongue traced a path back up to Ryan's throat. He wasn't giving the man time to think about what Ryan wanted to do to him. He just kept up the proverbial mind-fuck on. His mouth and hands never stopped moving, never once stopped in their exploration. One hand left Ryan's neck and the other slid confidently over his rapidly-filling cock. When he finally got the pants unbuttoned he pushed Ryan to his feet. With skillful hands he pushed the bottoms and his briefs from his body. They pooled around his boots. Ryan bent at the waist and tried to pull the boots off but his hands were shaking so badly that he was making a mess of it.

  Phillip pushed Ryan's hands away and finished it himself. He grinned wolfishly when Ryan was standing there in absolutely nothing.

  “You're overdressed,” Ryan said. They were the first words he had uttered. Phillip liked how breathy and low the other man's voice was. Phillip's cock throbbed unmercifully.

  The push-up bar was six feet off the ground. Phillip grinned evilly at it. He watched as Ryan turned and looked at it. “Not ready for it,” Phillip said dismissively. “What we are going to do is play a little game.”

  He nearly howled with laughter when Ryan blinked owlishly at him
. “Shh, it's a fun game.” He rose and led Ryan over to the bar. “See this bar?” When Ryan nodded Phillip continued. “You're going to grab this bar. Hold on with every ounce of control you have. If your hands leave it at any time I'll stop.” He did laugh when Ryan swallowed hard.

  Phillip watched as Ryan's shaky hands reached up and grabbed the bar.

  “Got a good hold?” Phillip asked; his voice was rough, gravelly. “Don't fucking let go.”

  ***

  Ryan watched as his Drill Sergeant sank to his knees. It was quite possibly the hottest thing he had ever seen in his life - Phillip in full uniform sinking to his knees. Yeah, Ryan could die now and be a happy man. At least he thought that until the hot mouth that had given him many a wet dream drew the tip of his penis into it. His fingers flexed on the cool, steel bar.

  A pair of large hands reached around and cupped his ass. Then that fucking mouth began to slowly descend down his aching cock. The hands flexed, kneading his ass until Ryan wanted to cry. Both hands left and Ryan could still feel them on him.

  He glanced down and saw Phillip fumbling in his pocket. He was vaguely surprised to see him pull out a tube of lube. “Fucking boy scout,” Ryan mumbled. Then he couldn't talk at all.

  Phillip chuckled huskily around his cock sending vibrations of pleasure shooting through every nerve in Ryan's body. The dark-haired man slowly and tortuously slid his mouth up and down the length of Ryan's dick, swirling his tongue around different spots so slowly that Ryan wanted to growl.

  Ryan hadn't felt this horny since he was in high school. His hips began to move forward but a strong arm caught them and the mouth left.

  “Didn't you get the memo, Gracin? I'm in charge here,” Phillip said smokily. “No moving, nothing.” The hands that had left his ass came back.

  Ryan could feel the wetness on them. One hand parted the cheeks and the other slid between, rubbing against his tight hole. Ryan could count on one hand how many times he bottomed but he knew that this time would probably be the best. He moaned low in his throat as one long finger circled him. Then finally that mouth settled back down on his cock. As Phillip slid his mouth lower a finger sank into him.