***Hell yeah my titles suck. Oh well. This is what happens when Sita Bethel has to work for 10 hours straight. She writes very random things (and apparently, she also speaks in the third person). Setting is loosely based on the castle in Muskogee they use for Ren Faire. My friend and I actually had a crazy dude with a straitjacket (but with black hair) follow us around during half the maze because when he asked if we'd be his friends and take him home with us we said of course we would! We also made Jason Voorhees giggle. Yes. Giggle. My friend snuck behind him while I distracted him and then we double hugged him. I'm pretty sure we could pull the same stunt on Melvin and live to tell about it.***

The mock castle stood on a fifteen acre plot. In the summer it and the stage-village surrounding it served as the grounds for the Renaissance festival; however, in autumn, it became a haunted castle, and that's when Ryou loved it. Normally shy, the year before Ryou gathered the courage to volunteer as one of the cos-players that haunted the castle and frightened the patrons. He'd done well enough to be invited back the following year.

Ryou selected a pair of tight, black leather pants and a blood-stained, dirt-crusted straitjacket as his costume. He'd left his hair unbrushed for three days to leave it in tangles, but still washing it to keep it from getting greasy. The unkempt, white locks hung over his face and almost down to his hips. He didn't need make-up to look pale, his friends already called him vanilla (both for his white skin and because he insisted on playing all his pc rpg's without mods or cheat codes at least twice before he added anything). Though he didn't wear cream make up to look pale, he did have his friend Mai use her eye-shadow kit to brush purple circles beneath his eyes, and to line them in thick, black liner.

"Hey, Ryou. Glad to see you back again this year." Another man walked into the changing room. He was dressed as a scarecrow. Not the lovable Wizard of Oz type. This scarecrow carried a scythe and wore a tattered trench coat. Half his clothes looked rusted from dried blood, the other half blackened as if the stuffy doll a village attempted to burn in effigy rose out of the fire to take vengeance.

"Mariku, how did you get your hair to spike like that?"

"Pffft, easy. It's getting it to stay down that's the trick."

"Your costume is awesome. You should be out in the corn maze dressed like that."

Mariku scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, probably, but I requested to be in the castle again this year."

Ryou couldn't help the smile on his face. "Yeah?"

Mariku flashed a wolfish grin at Ryou. "I had more fun last year than I had in a while. I was hoping you'd be back. You take your horror very seriously."

"I try," Ryou muttered. Currently, he tried not to blush. He'd spent a month after the previous Halloween convincing himself that he didn't have that much of a crush on the tanned blonde, and he'd managed to believe it – until Mariku walked through the door five minutes prior. The crush was back with all the vengeance of a slasher villain in a sequel. Ryou showed Mariku the straitjacket. "Could you help me into this? I can't buckle the back once I'm wearing it."

"Sure." Mariku stepped closer to assist. As he tugged the belts and secured them, he asked. "Is this . . . a real straitjacket?"

Ryou chuckled. "Yeah, but don't mention it because I don't want anyone to tell me to take it off for safety reasons. And speaking of—" Ryou glanced back at his horror-house partner. "If the building does catch on fire, you'll be sure to rescue me, right?"

Mariku gestured to his burnt pant leg. "Of course. I hate fire." He smirked and then lifted Ryou off his feet, holding him bridal style.

"Hey!" Ryou shouted, his stomach doing a cartwheel with the movement.

Mariku hefted Ryou in the air twice before setting him back down to his feet. "Yup. It'll be a piece of cake to carry you out if I need to."

Ryou shook his head to ensure his hair hung in front of his face. "Or you could, you know, just unbuckle the jacket."

"While the building burns down? No, we'll do it my way."

Ryou shrugged, doing his best to look mentally-disturbed. "I'm at your mercy, then."

"Poor you." Mariku brandished his scythe, also getting into character. "I have no mercy."

They grinned at each other, a pair of maniacs, and then Mariku lead the way to their station. Paint, cardboard, and props such as chains and manacles transformed the castle's hallways into a dungeon maze. Between guests, Mariku and Ryou picked up on the conversations they'd had the year before. Horror movies, video games, who'd win in a death match – Buffalo Bill or Pogo the Clown. The conversation flowed as smooth and easy as fake blood down a cardboard wall.

"I hear footsteps," Ryou whispered.

Mariku nodded. "Set them up, and I'll send them screaming."

Ryou winked as he hid behind an upright coffin. Three girls walked by, huddled together for warmth since their three costumes didn't contain enough fabric to properly clothe even one of them. Ryou stepped behind them. They didn't notice. Two played with cellphones and the third blew large bubbles with a wad a pink gum.

"Selfie!" The left-most girl shouted, holding up her phone.

Ryou almost laughed out loud, but he managed to simply grin as he stood behind them, making sure he'd be in the photo. When the girl, dressed as snow-white – though she wasn't half as white as Ryou – checked her phone, she shrieked and spun around.

Ryou smiled. "Hi."

"Hi," the middle girl, Little Red Riding Hood, said.

"Will you be my friends?" he asked. He asked them all that. The girls usually said yes and the guys told Ryou to go fuck himself.

"S-sure." Snow White turned to leave with her friends.

Ryou followed them.

"Ha, ha, real funny." The third girl frowned.

"We're friends." Ryou smiled. "Are we going home now?"

The third girl rolled her eyes. "Let's go, guys."

As they turned to leave, Mariku jumped out beside them, screaming and scythe swinging. They shrieked and ran as fast as their heels could carry them. Ryou and Mariku laughed as soon as they disappeared.

"Go post that on facebook, bitches." Mariku leaned his scythe against his shoulder.

"That never gets old."

They glanced around, saw no one and heard no footsteps, and then leaned against the coffin in order to continue their conversation.

"So . . ." Mariku only side-glanced at Ryou. "You weren't at the after party last year."

Ryou shrugged, looking at his feet. "At hate big parties. I always end up standing in a corner with a drink and feeling really awkward."

"Well . . . I could stand in the corner with you while you felt really awkward."

Ryou laughed. "At least then I'd have someone to complain to about how I didn't like large parties."

"Or . . ." Mariku flashed Ryou a mischievous grin. "We could ditch the party together and do something else."

Ryou hoped enough hair covered his face to hide his cheeks. They felt awfully hot. "Like what?"

Mariku shrugged. The scythe moving with his shoulders. "I don't know. What would you like to do?"

Ryou kept his gaze on the floor. "Whatever. I don't have to be anywhere tomorrow, so I got all night."

"We should think of something. The castle will close down in ten minutes. I doubt anyone else is even in here except maybe a few towards the end of the maze."

Ryou's mind raced as he tried to think of something that would seem fun, but also fell into that gray area of could-be-a-date-or-could-not-be-a-date. He was pretty sure Mariku had been flirting with him all night, and he was pretty sure Mariku was trying to ask him out, but that never meant anything. Having to say something, but not knowing what to say, Ryou joked, "We should just stay here with all the plastic corpses and cobwebs."

Mariku leaned a little closer, his grin wide and excited. "You want to? The top balcony has a rope ladder we could use to sneak out of here without having to unlock any of the doors."

Ryou looked up at Mariku. "I was just joking."

"You shouldn't joke around me. I'm crazy enough to do those things." He leaned closer. His breath smelt like cinnamon breath mints, and for some reason that made Ryou smile – perhaps because he wanted to be kissed. Mariku drew closer still. "Hey Ryou?"

"Y-yeah?"

"Haven't you always wanted to have sex in a coffin?"

Ryou started giggling. It went against the cool and composed act he'd been going for throughout the night, but Mariku's question had caught him off guard. "Who hasn't?"

Mariku tapped the coffin beside them with the blade of his scythe. Ryou stopped laughing; he stared at Mariku. Without thinking, Ryou closed his eyes, leaned forward, and pressed his lips against Mariku's mouth. The scythe clattered to the floor, and Mariku used both his hands to grab Ryou's shoulders. Ryou wanted to reach out, but couldn't because of his straitjacket. It both frustrated him not to move his arms, and thrilled him. Which gave him an idea.

Ryou broke their kiss. "Can I leave the straitjacket on?"

Mariku licked his lips and nodded with an eager look on his face. He grabbed the coffin and set it down on the floor. The inside was cheap, red velvet. The outside was black-painted boards. It obviously wasn't a real coffin, but it was close enough.

A chime rang through the overhead speakers, announcing that it was time for the employees only party in the town square, but Mariku and Ryou ignored the sound. Mariku grabbed Ryou and laid him down inside the coffin, straddling on top of him and bending down to kiss him again.

The thin layer of velvet didn't provide much padding, and no matter how Ryou shifted, he couldn't get comfortable. Mariku seemed to have the same problem. He kept shifting, and his knees kept banging against the sides.

"Would it help if I slid up?" Ryou offered.

"Maybe." Mariku helped pull Ryou a little higher.

Ryou enjoyed the feeling of Mariku's thick, wide lips, and the way Mariku's tongue never stayed still, but after a few minutes pain stabbed the base of Ryou's neck because of the way it was angled. "Ow, my neck. This isn't working."

"Dammit," Mariku growled. "Looks so easy in the movies." He crawled out of the coffin and helped Ryou back to his feet.

They surveyed their little area of dungeon. Mariku stared at the floor and scowled. "On the ground is out."

"Yeah. Looks pretty gross." Ryou gestured with his chin. "What about that torture table?"

"The one covered in fake blood and plastic organs?"

Ryou shrugged. "Still looks cleaner than the floor."

"Fuck it. Let's just do this."

He pushed Ryou against a support pillar. He combed Ryou's hair out of his face and then licked Ryou's bottom lip. Ryou struggled against the sleeves trapping his arms, but he couldn't move at all. In frustration, Ryou bit Mariku's bottom lip, pulling and tugging it with his teeth, wanting to be active in some way to compensate for his bound-up hands.

Mariku moaned at the bites, closing his eyes and thrusting out his bottom lip so that Ryou had more area to nibble. The scarecrow threw off his trench coat and tossed it into the coffin. Ryou moved down to Mariku's throat, trailing kisses up the side of Mariku's neck and sucking on his earlobe. Ryou felt Mariku shiver once Ryou reached his ear, so Ryou covered Mariku's outer ear with hot, languid kisses, and when he reached the top, he slipped his tongue into the center and swirled along Mariku's inner ear.

Mariku moaned and dug his fingers hard into Ryou's shoulders. As Ryou worked on his ear, Mariku removed the flannel shirt he wore, and then the blood stained tank-top beneath it. Ryou snaked his mouth down, throat, collar bone, chest. He flicked his tongue across Mariku's left nipple, swirling in circles, and biting before flicking again. Ryou listened to Mariku's heavy breathing and the occasional moan.

He crouched on the ground and tried to remove Mariku's belt, but with only his teeth he couldn't manage. Mariku helped, tossing the belt on the growing clothes pile in the coffin and dropping his pants around his ankles.

"Holy shit," Ryou muttered at the erection that slipped out of Mariku's boxers. He didn't mean to speak out loud.

Mariku squirmed a bit. "Uh, yeah. I can bottom if you want. I don't mind either way."

Ryou looked up, blinking. "What? No, no. I'm not complaining." Ryou chuckled a bit. "Just a little surprised, that's all. I'm used to guys acting like they're big, but . . ."

Mariku chuckled with Ryou. "Yeah, you never hear me boasting about holding my liquor or winning fights either."

Ryou smiled. "I think it'd be fun to get drunk with you. We could watch cheesy B slashers and pick them apart."

Shadows covered Mariku's face in the mock-dungeon. He nodded down at Ryou. "Get my number before you go home, and we can make that happen."

Ryou scrapped his bottom lip with his teeth, excited that he'd been asked out for a second date already. Not that having sex in a haunted house was a real date – on second thought . . . yes it was. It was an awesome date. Ryou couldn't think of a way he'd rather spend the weekend before Halloween.

He used his lips to nudge Mariku's erection away from his boxers and pulled as much as he could into his mouth. His legs cramped from crouching, and his jaw ached from trying not to scrape his teeth against Mariku's swollen head. Ryou kept bobbing his head back and forth. Each time he pulled back, he coated his tongue with saliva and used it to paint Mariku's cock with spit until his lips slid up and down without much friction.

Mariku held the back of Ryou's head and guided himself in and out of Ryou's mouth in time with Ryou's own movements. His moans haunted the hallways.

"Oh shit!" Mariku gave a few hard thrusts that sent him slamming into the back of Ryou's throat.

Ryou felt himself hard-pressed against the leather of his pants. Something about giving a blow job always turned Ryou on more than any other kind of foreplay. Ryou pulled back, swirling his tongue against Mariku's swollen tip. He looked up. "I think you're ready."

Mariku gave Ryou a seductive growl, helping Ryou to his feet. He tried to wiggle his pants off, but his shoes made him teeter.

Ryou chuckled. "Take off your shoes."

"No way. Not on this floor."

He managed to squirm out of his pants and boxers without removing his shoes, but not without looking ridiculous as his erection wagged from side to side and his abs rippled as he kept balanced on one foot. Ryou laughed the entire time.

Mariku didn't mind being laughed at. He dug his trench coat out from the pile and used it to cover a corner of the torture table. He lifted Ryou into the air and set him down on the jacket, kissing the nape of Ryou's neck as he asked. "What are you laughing at?"

Ryou's laughter simmered to a quiet chuckle once Mariku's cold lips and hot tongue touched pale skin. "They way your giant cock danced around as you hopped on one foot."

"Well. I gotta show you I'm not boring like other guys."

"Definitely not." Ryou gave him a hazy, lidded gaze. "Are you going to fuck me now?"

Mariku lifted up Ryou's left leg, kissing his knee and down his calf as he untied Ryou's shoe. "Such a dirty mouth."

Ryou offered his right leg once Marik removed the left shoe. "Well, look at what I've been doing with it."

Mariku grinned. "I was. I couldn't take my eyes off you." With that, he ripped Ryou's zipper down and tore the pants away from Ryou's skinny, white legs. He licked his lips when he saw the red thong clutching at Ryou's erection. "Those make you look like a slut." He said it as a compliment, not an insult.

"Those pants are too tight for normal underwear."

"I like them. Red looks good on you."

"Yes, but I think white will look better on you."

He grinned again, fishing through his coat pockets until he pulled out a small bottle.

"You are oddly well prepared," Ryou noticed, staring at the two ounce bottle of silicon-based Gun Oil.

"I was really, really hoping I'd see you again this year."

Ryou snorted. "What if I'd shot you down? I'm usually not this casual about taking off my pants."

Mariku traced a finger up and down Ryou's erection through the red satin of his thong. "Yeah? What made me the exception to the rule?"

"You had me at coffin."

"Too bad we're not in the coffin."

Ryou clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "We'll just have to put it on our bucket list."

"I like how you think." Mariku covered his fingers with clear gel and shifted Ryou's thong to the side as he started smearing lube against Ryou's asshole.

Ryou shivered at the cold sensation. "I haven't bottomed in forever. I usually won't unless I really like the person."

Mariku kissed Ryou as he slid a finger inside him. He kept his mouth close as he asked. "Does that mean you really like me?"

Ryou turned away, shy. "I guess it does."

"Good." He kissed Ryou again, adding a second finger. He pushed his fingers in deep, reaching for Ryou's prostate as he stretched him.

Ryou moaned, so aroused that he didn't protest even when Mariku added a third and then forth finger. Mariku kissed Ryou the entire time he prepped, and teased Ryou's erection through the fabric of his underwear. Sweat soaked through Ryou's straitjacket, but he refused to asked Mariku to take it off. Something about the utter lack of control was too enticing to ruin it for a little ventilation.

Still sucking on Ryou's lips, Mariku dug back into his coat pockets. This time he withdrew a shiny square of foil wrapping. Ryou winced when he saw the condom.

"Sorry." Mariku shrugged, sheepish and guilty looking. "They're a rule with me."

"Me too. I still hate them." Ryou gave Mariku a little laugh. "Mine aren't Magnum XL's, though. Good thing you brought your own."

Mariku looked flustered as he opened the package, rolled the latex tube over his erection, and added more lube. "I didn't know better when I was younger. I'd bust out of the regular ones, and even the Magnums."

Ryou laughed a little harder. "BDP's man."

Without warning, Mariku stripped Ryou's thong away from his body and hoisted him back into the air. Ryou gasped as Mariku carried him back to the support pillar. Mariku used Ryou's body weight to help him push inside Ryou's body.

"Fuck!" Ryou shouted, adjusting to both the sensation of Mariku inside him and of balancing against the wall with his hands bound up in the straitjacket.

"Is, is it good?" Mariku asked, a little nervous.

Ryou grunted, nodding his head. He couldn't speak at the moment; he was lost in a haze of desire and fulfillment. "More." He managed to whisper after a moment.

Mariku exhaled and began to shift his hips front to back. He and Ryou exchanged moans as their bodies shifted together and apart. The manacles hanging near Ryou's head clanged with each thrust creating a rhythmic sound as they moved.

Ryou's eyes swept across the room. In the dim hall lit only with mock torches, the dungeon looked real. The scenery excited Ryou, but not nearly as much as feeling Mariku pushing inside him. He wrapped his legs around Mariku's waist and bit into his neck.

"Oh my God! Ryou!" Mariku moaned as Ryou sucked between bites.

In the back of his mind, Ryou knew he should tone it down, that the bruises and hickies would embarrass Mariku the next day and take forever to heal, but each time Mariku slammed his hips forward, Ryou found himself biting harder. Mariku shifted in order to keep Ryou pressed against the pillar while having a free hand in which to stroke his lover. Mariku's hand was light and quick on Ryou's shaft. Ryou's moans changed to screams as the combined feeling of rough thrusts and gentle strokes made his body shudder.

"Mar-Mari-Mariku-ooh—" Ryou called out seconds before his orgasm rendered him speechless.

"Yes Ryou! Yes Ryou! Yes. Shit-shit. God, yes!"

Ryou rested his head in the crook of Mariku's neck. Mariku waited until his breathing slowed, and then he pulled out and set Ryou down in the coffin so that his feet didn't touch the floor. He kissed Ryou three, brief times and then turned back to his coat, searching his magical pockets yet a third time. This time he took out a travel packet of tissue, hand sanitizer, and a zip-lock bag.

"Like I said, oddly well prepared," Ryou teased as Mariku cleaned him up. Although, in truth, he was delighted and impressed that Mariku had planned so well and seemed so fussy when it came to hygiene.

After he cleaned them up, he shoved the used tissue and condom in the zip-lock bag and stuck it back in his pocket. "I suppose you want out now."

Ryou turned his back towards Mariku. "Yes, please. It was fun, but shit I'm hot."

Marik swept Ryou's hair off of his shoulder and kissed the nape of his neck as he unbuckled the straitjacket.

"Ahhh," Ryou moaned at the unexpected feeling. As soon as he could use his hands again, he grabbed the back of Mariku's head so he could kiss him while feeling his hair. Ryou blinked as he ran his fingers deeper into Mariku's hair. "You're not wearing any product."

Mariku shook his head. "No, like I said, the trick is making it look normal."

"I like your hair like this. You should wear it natural more often."

Mariku blushed, or maybe it was just the flush of post-orgasm. "Really?"

Ryou continued to tease the yellow flames of hair. "Yes. It's sexy."

"Then maybe when I'm around you I'll leave it like this."

Ryou smiled, letting go of Mariku so they could dress. "Then I'm hanging around all the time so you never straighten your hair."

Mariku toyed with his hair, as if trying to feel what Ryou felt. "I could live with that."

Dressed, Ryou went over to Mariku's magical trench coat and searched through pockets until he found his cell phone.

Mariku winked. "I promise, there are no pictures of naked girls on my phone."

Ryou rolled his eyes. "It wouldn't be the first time I had that problem with a boyfriend, but I'm just putting my number in your address book."

"Good, I don't want to wait a year to see you again."

Ryou bit his bottom lip again, slipping the phone back into its pocket. "So . . . how prepared were you really? Did you bring more than the one condom?"

"Uh . . ." Mariku scratched the back of his head. "No, I didn't really think it'd go that far. I only brought the one just so I wouldn't be caught without it."

Ryou giggled. "That's okay. I have three. Want to go back to my place?"