The Foster Dad

by Christopher X Sullivan

  “I’m here for my glasses!” Alex yelled up at her. “The green ones.”

  “I remember you,” she said.

  “I remember you, too,” Alex said shyly.

  “Head back to Trish and she’ll make sure they fit right.”

  “Come on Mark, let’s go back!” Alex tugged on Mark’s hand and forced him to follow.

  What am I? The checkbook?

  I paid for the glasses and filled out the paperwork. I noticed that the name still said ‘Alex Sullivan’ and that made me smile. If only.

  I could hear Alex giggling all the way from the front lobby. The kid was happy. So what if he picked the weird glasses... I’d been a weird kid, too. Maybe it was better to have Mark encourage his weirdness instead of giving in to my conservative upbringing which made me feel the need to fit in.

  Here I was trying to force Alex to feel differently.... After all I had gone through trying to fight conformity and to be myself... and I was subconsciously pushing the same on this kid? Grow up, Chris. Don’t be a hypocrite.

  That realization was the beginning of my resolve to be less judgemental and fearful around Alex—I didn’t want him to grow up as I had.

  The giggling grew louder as I walked back to the fitting table. The woman adjusted the glasses and kept asking Alex to stop shaking his head, but he couldn’t do it. He was so excited and full of energy that his legs kicked and his head turned from side-to-side. Alex still hasn’t grown out of that excited reaction. Mark has something similar, where he holds his arms in front of his body and shakes, but that’s only when he’s really excited and when he’s trying to act goofy. He doesn’t get that excited in public (because he has an image to maintain), but around me he’s a real cornball.

  Alex looked at his reflection, then grinned at Mark, then looked at the lady, then looked back at himself. Then he giggled again.

  I squatted behind the two of them.

  “Hey Chris!” Alex said. “Look at my glasses.”

  “Looking sharp,” I said.

  “Looking good!” he said back, then giggled again.

  “Can you see better?” I asked.

  He grinned and looked around the room. “It moves weird!” he said. “It’s like... it’s moving when I don’t move my head.” He wiggled his eyes back and forth without turning his head, then he blinked rapidly and clutched his temples.

  “Your eyes are going to adjust,” the lady said. “Soon you’ll be seeing just as clear as everyone else.”

  Me being my know-it-all self, I wanted to correct the lady because Alex had an astigmatism in both eyes so he wouldn’t ever see as clearly as the rest of us. But I let the lie slide.

  “You look good,” Mark said. “And they fit just right on your face.”

  “Yeah!”

  The woman was in a cheery mood as well. “If you boys need an adjustment or anything, come back at any time.”

  We left the fitting area. Dr. Stenco was in between patients so he came out and saw us. “Look at that handsome young man,” he said. Alex glowed. The secretary echoed how handsome and smart Alex looked.

  “I like my glasses,” Alex proclaimed, his hands bunched in fists and his mouth wide with a grin.

  “Calm down, buddy,” I said. Mark gave me a shushing motion.

  We walked out of the building. Mark opened the glass door and I walked out in front of them. The sunlight was bright, almost blinding.

  Alex walked out of the darkness with his hands held in front of him like he wasn’t sure if he was going to walk into something or fall down. He looked down at his feet and walked as stiff as a zombie. He seemed both surprised and scared, like he was going to fall over.

  “How do you like them?” I asked. Seeing him walk stiffly like that had me grinning like a lunatic. “Let’s head to the car.”

  “Everything’s far away,” Alex complained. He looked up at the sky and squinted. Then he held his hands in front of his body, just to make sure he didn’t walk into anything.

  “How ya doin, buddy?” Mark asked, walking up on his other side and grinning just as widely as me.

  Alex was so damn cute.

  The kid looked over his glasses at Mark, then looked up and down the sidewalk.

  “Let’s go!” I said suddenly. “Time for ice cream.”

  Alex giggled.

  “Hold my hand,” I commanded. “We’ll help you walk.” Alex gripped our hands and we swung him between us like how he wanted. He giggled and laughed. When we got to the car and set him on the ground, he returned to walking like a zombie with his hands in front of his body and looking down at his feet.

  I was so proud of him! I couldn’t stop myself from grinning and glowing on the inside. This felt like a milestone, even more than when we moved Alex into our apartment. The move-in had been like a family milestone... or like a fostering milestone... but this was a life milestone. We were part of Alex’s life milestones.

  I buckled him in the backseat. “Do you like being able to see?” I quipped.

  “Yeah,” he whispered, looking at me through those green plastic glasses. Mark had picked out a green shirt for him to wear that day so everything matched.

  I kissed him on the cheek and told him I loved him.

  “Love you, too,” he said.

  Then it was time to settle into the passenger seat and pause my silly grinning. Mark pulled out onto the street, then gripped my hand. We shared a quick smile before he turned his attention back to the traffic. I glanced back at Alex and he was blinking out the side window and touching his glasses.

  Life milestone, I thought. Just me, Mark and Alex... living our lives together.

  He Who Does The Fucking

  WE TOOK ALEX TO SOME of his favorite places, like the ice cream parlor near the beach. He occasionally touched his glasses and I had to remind him not to touch the clear part or he would get finger smudges on it. He nodded with the seriousness of a soldier taking orders from high command.

  We built a sandcastle, chased a couple seagulls, and then got hot dogs at the stand. I ate a salad because the stand wasn’t a trustworthy place when it came to the preservatives in the hot dogs, much less the bread. That was a disaster waiting to happen.

  We washed up in the apartment, then settled in to watch TV. I still wasn’t okay with letting Alex watch television all the time—you could turn on a repeat of his favorite cartoon and his eyes would be sucked to it like you wouldn’t believe. It was kind of scary, actually. We had a Netflix subscription and that’s all I let him watch because advertisements to children went against my conscience. There would be no brainwashing of any kids in my household! Fuck the Disney Channel!

  The kid got tired earlier than normal. Mark and I sat on either side of him on the couch as he fell asleep with his new glasses pressing into his face.

  I kissed Mark and grinned, just to show him how much I would always treasure the memories we made taking Alex to his appointment—our first as his guardians. “I love you,” I whispered.

  “Love you more.”

  “I think I love Alex more than I love you.”

  “It’s new. It’ll wear off in a few weeks.”

  We kissed again.

  “I wish we could live today over and over. It was perfect.”

  “A perfect day,” Mark agreed.

  “Let’s watch something else. I’ve seen this episode like four times.”

  “I’ve seen it four times in one day.”

  “That’s an exaggeration,” I scoffed.

  “Not really.”

  We changed to a PG-13 movie and turned the volume down.

  “I love him so much, too,” Mark whispered. He hadn’t been watching the movie, but was instead watching Alex sleep.

  “What happened to having him sleep on his own?”

  “Fuck that,” Mark said. “He’s fine here for a few minutes. You and I can cuddle all night.”

  “We’re going to do more than cuddle,” I said.

  “Ohh... somebody’s rea
dy to s-e-x it up...” He chuckled while nibbling on my shoulder.

  “As if...” I grabbed my crotch and mouthed the words: “I’m so horny right now.”

  “What?” he asked. “You? On a Friday?”

  I whispered in his ear. “Are you going to tease me or do you want to get fucked?”

  “Shit, you’re serious.”

  “Watch your language.”

  “The kid’s asleep.” He stared into my face. “You really want to... do it? We’ll have to be quiet.”

  “You’re the loud one.”

  He shoved me, then reached across our bodies and gripped my crotch. “Shit, you’re locked and loaded.”

  “Let’s put Alex to bed.”

  “We haven’t fucked in weeks,” he whispered.

  “Language,” I said. “That’s just what we need... Val to check up on us and Alex swears at her.”

  We kissed again. I reclined into the couch and watched the movie.

  “Dude,” he whispered urgently. “You’re killing me. Are we doing it or not?”

  “I didn’t think—”

  “Alex! Time for bed,” Mark commanded.

  Alex twitched, then turned against my body and fell back asleep.

  “Just carry him,” I said.

  “He’s old enough to do it on his own.”

  “Just carry him.”

  Mark grabbed Alex under the armpits and helped him to his feet. “Time for bed, buddy. You did good today.”

  “I’m not tired,” he complained.

  “You have your jammies on and you brushed your teeth and we took a bath. That means it’s bedtime.”

  He tried to wipe his eyes, but he hit his glasses.

  “I’ll take those.”

  Mark and Alex walked hand-in-hand down to the bedrooms. I lay back against the couch and gripped my cock through my pants. I really was so horny. I rarely initiated sex, so Mark was right to be skeptical that I would go through with it. I hadn’t really wanted to top him since meeting Alex a few months ago. I guess that was negligence. He fucked me a few times since Alex moved in, but I wasn’t comfortable fucking down the hall from a kid. The night we brought Alex home was the one exception.

  Yet here I was... ready to be the aggressor.

  Mark walked down the hallway several minutes later. “The kid is sleeping.” He stood, looming over me. “You promised...”

  “I promised nothing.”

  He tackled me and started necking. We made out like that for a few minutes. “You always get wound up by doing this family shit.”

  “It’s not family shit,” I protested.

  “I know.” He snuffled against my neck, his warm breath raising goosebumps. “But this stuff always gets you in the mood. I could tell when you were smiling all day.”

  “I smile most days,” I said.

  “Not like that.” We kissed again. “Let’s move to the bedroom.”

  “Maybe we should get a hotel room or something. I’m not comfortable—”

  “Get up,” he growled. He slapped my butt after pulling me off the couch. Then he chased me into the bedroom and we got naked.

  “Quiet,” I said.

  “You’re normally as quiet as a mouse. Maybe I should do the fucking. When you’re the top, you get commanding.”

  I slapped his butt, turned him sideways and forced him onto the mattress so his naked ass was up in the air. “You like it that way.”

  “I do,” he chuckled. “Let me get ready.”

  “Don’t take too long.”

  “You can use the dildo on me, if you wanna warm me up.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “That’s what I said, isn’t it?”

  “You never like loosening me.”

  “Just do your douche, get out here and let me make love to you. Or do you really want to kill the mood?”

  “Sorry,” he whispered urgently. “Sorry, sorry, sorry.”

  Mark practically skipped from our room to the bathroom. He closed the door as he cleaned himself and I got the bedroom stuff ready, including touching the dildo. We’d been together for a couple years and I still wasn’t comfortable touching his sex toys, seeing as they made me want to gag on most nights—but this was a special day. I wanted to make him happy and he was for sure going to remember the occasion.

  He walked out of the bathroom excited and ready to fuck. I slapped the dildo in my palm like it was a cane and I was the disciplinarian.

  “You’re gonna be quiet tonight,” I threatened. “Or else.”

  “Or else you’ll fuck me harder?” He laughed. “Didn’t think that through, did you?”

  “Shhh,” I said with a laugh. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

  “Hurt me all you want. My ass is yours.” He jumped on the mattress, flying through the air and crashing into the sheets so that the furniture groaned.

  “Shhhh.”

  He grinned over his shoulder and flexed his ass. “Do your worst, Master.”

  “I hate when you do that.”

  “Not according to your smut.”

  “Quit trying to embarrass me.” I slapped the dildo across his ass and teased it over his hole. Then I lubed everything generously.

  “Maybe you’ll go without a condom tonight?”

  “Fat chance.”

  “I’ll show you something fat.” He twisted so I could see his hard cock. “Go, babe. I’m yours tonight.”

  I eased the dildo past his tight pucker, then swiftly rammed it deep. “You’re mine every night,” I stressed. As if he could have forgotten. That hard dildo thrust was going to be the least of his worries when I was done with him.

  Soon, I was onto the kissing and touching, which Mark liked but wasn’t as big of a fan as I was. He was often so eager to be fucked that his impatience would win out and he’d try to force me into the desired position.

  “Slowly,” I said. “Take it slow...”

  “Fuck you,” he whispered. “You’re a fucking tease. Get in there and fuck me.”

  “Fuck you like you like it, or like how I like it?”

  “Do whatever you want, just fucking do it already!” He lifted his legs and opened his hole for me.

  “One more time with the dildo.”

  He growled, ripped the dildo from my hands and tossed it across the room so it slammed against the wall.

  “Shhh,” I said, raising my eyebrows and thrill ran through me from our secretiveness.

  “It’s your fault!” He grabbed my face (with his slobbery, sexed hands) and pulled me into a deep kiss. “Go. I need to get off.”

  I slid into him and gave a couple hard fucks. “Is that all I am to you?”

  “Shut up with all the mushy crap. Just do it.”

  I stopped, then slowly eased my way out.

  “None of that!”

  “What?”

  He begged. I didn’t listen. He was so cute when he begged and it kept me hard to see him like that, and to know that I and I alone brought him that kind of pleasure.

  “Let me get a good rhythm. We’ll go fast,” I promised. “We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

  “God yessss...”

  I stopped my pistoning and grinned at him, like an imp daring him to complain about the pace. He glared at me while trying to fuck himself on my stick.

  “I hate when you get like this,” he complained.

  I shoved into him, hard. “As if.” We kissed and I had to slide out of him to get the right amount of passion—I always loved kissing more than fucking. And I loved touching his body, stroking his firm muscles. He loved my sensuous ministrations, even if he claimed otherwise and begged me to get back to the main event. Whatever, I knew he liked it my way.

  That night, I was the king taken to the heights of power. I had my family built with a man who loved me, and I was loving him in return.

  Life was perfect.

  Then the door handle clicked and the hinges sighed.

  Alex.

  Shit.
<
br />   Lights on. I always need the lights on when I fuck him. I need to see him.

  Alex can see us.

  I’m butt naked.

  Alex will see my butt.

  Holy fuck, I’m fucking Mark.

  Alex will see me fucking Mark.

  My body acted on autopilot as it jumped onto Mark’s body and my hands pulled the sheets over my naked ass.

  Shit. Alex is here. I’m naked.

  I was fucking Mark.

  Our sweaty bodies felt strange, whereas just a minute before they’d felt natural and beautiful.

  Naked. Sweaty. Fuck. We were having sex. Like animals.

  “Chris?” Alex asked sleepily.

  I pulled off Mark’s sweaty chest, his eyes flared and mine must have been bugging out of my skull. It’s your fault, Mark seemed to be saying with his body language.

  How is this my fault! I glared back.

  “Hey buddy,” I said as I flipped under the sheets and looked over the bed at him. His eyes were at just the right height to see over the mattress (when on his tip toes).

  “I can’t sleep.”

  No fucking shit! We probably woke you up. Holy fuck. Just go back to bed, please?

  “What’s the problem? Nightmares again?”

  “I wanna sleep with you guys.”

  Sigh.

  I picked up the kid and placed him between me and Mark. Mark arranged the bed so the sex stuff was hidden in the bedside table, except for the dildo, which had been thrown across the room.

  Alex cuddled between us, like he did those first few days after he moved in. “We’ve gotta get you back in your own bed,” Mark said gently. “Big guys sleep in their own bed.”

  “But you guys sleep together.”

  Hellspawn! We are not having the birds and the bees conversation.

  “Chris is my husband. We’re like two daddies—”

  Not the right line of defense!

  “And... uh.” Mark saw my glare and stalled out. “I love him very much.”

  “I love you very much, too,” Alex said wistfully. He cuddled against Mark and tried to slip under the sheets.

  “Hey buddy,” I interrupted. “Why don’t we sleep under the blanket?” He accepted my diversion and we tucked the kid under one of the lightweight blankets I used when I was home alone and missing Mark.