100 Years
15

"I wish I'd met you when I was 15," Luke said, pressing his side closer still to Noah's.

"Oh, yeah? Why's that?" Though Noah knew the answer, he wanted to hear Luke say it. The sentimental and sweet things Luke always managed to come up with broke and healed Noah's heart all at once, ten times over.

"Just..." Luke turned his head to look at Noah, barely able to see his defined face in the darkness, despite the gentle lights the shops emitted. "We could've had so much more time together, you know? Years."

"We've been together for over two years now, Luke," Noah replied, smiling and pressing the side of his forehead to Luke's. It was nearly ten o'clock and they still hadn't returned from their date, but Noah liked it that way. He liked to spend time with Luke late at night, looking at the stars, holding hands and sitting close together, like they were now.

"Yeah, I know but—sometimes I dream about what it would have been like if I'd met you back then," Luke said. He pulled his hand away from Noah's, displeased with how his hand felt bare and cold without Noah's, and rubbed his cheeks in frustration with both hands. "Back when I was just starting to realize I was gay... If I'd had someone there..."

Annoyed at Luke for breaking their hands apart, Noah pressed his palm on Luke's thigh, wishing that the denim material preventing him from feeling Luke's skin would just disappear. Noah sighed and said, "Well, I mean, Luke, I wouldn't have been much help. I was seriously in the closet then. I still lived with my dad."

"Well, we still could have experimented a bit!" Luke said, defending his desire to have known the 15-year-old Noah.

Noah laughed, saying, "Yeah, we would have had a great science project!"

Luke nudged Noah's side, smiling. "You know what I meant."

Suddenly, Noah's face became very still and he straightened himself against the back of the bench, lessening greatly the amount of contact between him and his blond lover.

"What?" Luke asked, concerned.

"Is that what you did when you were 15?" Noah asked, his eyes stern and voice worried.

"What do you mean?"

"Did you experiment when you were 15? I mean, with boys?"

Luke was grossly flattered by the jealous and upset look on Noah's face.

"Yeah... Well, no. I wanted to, but I didn't. I just felt it." Noticing that Noah did not seem at all satisfied with this answer, Luke straightened his own back against the bench, and asked, "What about you, Noah Mayer? Did you experiment with the boys?"

"God, no!" Noah responded. "My dad would've killed me!" He gave Luke an awkward smile.

Uncomfortable with the mention of Noah's dad, Luke asked cautiously but with a wide smile, "Did you ever want to? You know, was their a super cute boy running around the fort?"

Luke moved to tickle Noah, who laughed gently and responded, "I guess so."

Luke pulled away, wide-eyed. "What?"

Noah's smile fell away as he said, "Michael. When I was 15, there was a guy named Michael at one of my high schools. We went to see the three dollar movies together all the time. He was the first guy I ever felt, you know... That way about. He left the fort after a month and I never saw him again."

Suddenly it was Luke's face that showed jealousy. "And you experimented with him?"

"No! Not at all. I just felt it," Noah said, quoting his boyfriend's earlier statement.

Giving Noah one last good stare, Luke turned to examine the dark street in front of their bench, and smiled, pressing himself against Noah once again. "Three dollar movies?" Luke asked, laughing. Noah relaxed, glad for the change in subject.

"Yeah, everything's cheaper in the forts," Noah explained, wrapping his arm around Luke's shoulders.

"Well, then, if we'd known each other when we were 15, we could have gone to see a lot of those," Luke said, grinning wildly as he continued, "We could have made out all the time in the dark, late at night..."

Noah laughed, and said, "The matinée was the three dollar one. Night movies were five bucks."

"Well, then, that's way to expensive; we'd have to sneak into the night movies," Luke said, his grin still wide as he played with the bottom of Noah's gray button-up top. "We could have fooled around in the dark a little, you know... Found ourselves."

The couple laughed freely and wrestled lovingly on the bench, mindless of the few late night shoppers who wandered by. Caught in the moment, they confessed the sorts of desires they would have had for each other if they had first met when they were 15 years old.

"I would stayed the night at your house and kissed you while you slept," Noah said, looking up at the man now situated on his lap.

Luke bit his lip. "I would have only been pretending to be asleep, and I would have kissed you back."

"I would have laid on top of you and asked if I was scaring you." Daring, Noah, thought Luke. He opted not to ask Noah if this was an experience he had actually had.

"I'd tell you 'no', and I'd hold you really tight," Luke said, pecking Noah's lips twice. When Noah leaned in for more, Luke pushed him back and asked, "Then what would you do, Noah?"

His eyes never leaving Luke's encouraging brown ones, Noah said softly, "I'd take off your shirt... And you would take off mine?" Luke nodded, and Noah continued, "I'd be excited to see your chest. I would be breathe hard and kiss your neck."

Luke allowed Noah to kiss him once, and then, his voice very low, he asked for more. "What then, Noah?"

"Luke..." Noah looked away to hide his embarrassment, but even in the darkness, Luke could see the pink in Noah's cheeks. When his blue eyes finally looked up, shining brightly despite the late hour's darkness, Luke couldn't contain himself.

"I'd rub myself against you," Luke said, placing his hands on either side of Noah's face. "I'd kiss you. I'd take off everything, leave you naked. I'd touch you and take your hand and make you touch me." His voice caught, his heart beating fast. He reached for Noah's hand and squeezed it. "I'd make you fuck me," he finally said in a shaky voice.

Noah's heavy breaths turned into a groan, and he pulled Luke's face to his. Their mouths met harshly, their lips wet and eager. Luke overpowered Noah, his thighs pressing in on the blue-eyed man's sides. They could feel each other's excitement, and paid no mind to the threat of possible bystanders showing up. Luke, even after these two years, secretly rejoiced in Noah's willingness to touch him so much in public. He explored Noah's mouth deeper, wanting all he could get.

As they kissed, Luke pretended to be 15 years old again, kissing a boy for the very first time, shy and awkward and excited and red in the cheeks with love, and, unknown to Luke, Noah was pretending the very same thing.

That night, they had sex like it was their first time. They touched curiously, their hands slipping and catching awkwardly on the curves of each others' bodies, their breath hitching over and over, and they confessed their love deeply as they climaxed. It was soft, and hard, and hot, and beautifully new—wonderful, fantastic, brilliant, perfect.