Kieren leaned towards Rick in the soft light and flicked his lighter, holding the flame to the end of the cigarette in Rick's mouth. It glowed to life and Kieren pulled his hands away, stashing the lighter back in his pocket. The orange ember added another layer to the orange, reds and yellows that danced across Rick's face from the candlelight. This was how Kieren thought of Rick, a bloom of bright colours, he spent hours trying to capture the essence of it with paint. Rick drew in a lungful of smoke and then blew it out, Kieren watched Rick's supple lips as they caressed and released the paper stick.
"There'll be plenty of this at college I spose..." Rick said, wiggling the bottle of White Lightning as he lifted it to his lips.

"'Spose so..." Kieren shrugged. Rick offered the bottle to him and he took it. Kieren swallowed a mouthful of the god-awful stuff and felt better.

"I'll miss this when I go away," Kieren commented. He loved these nights with Rick, it was the most at ease he ever felt.

"Don't talk about that now," Rick said, "there's plenty more time before you go." But Kieren could see that Rick didn't really believe that, they both knew it was only a few more weeks until Kieren had to leave. Better make the most of it. Kieren went to Rick. He pulled the cigarette from Rick's mouth before straddling his best mate. He looked into Rick's eyes, the person who knew him best and Rick looked back, eyes full of emotion. God he loved Rick, should he say it? Better not, there'd be a better moment than this some other time.

"Ren..." Kieren didn't need to hear it, he silenced Rick by pressing his mouth to Rick's. Rick responded instantly their mouths moving against each other, tongues sliding over one another, the intensity building until Rick needed to pull away. Kieren watched Rick who was breathy from the kiss. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to Rick's face, trailing kisses along his jaw, down his neck.

Ren's mouth on him felt so good and it was a struggle for Rick not to return Ren's kisses. But he stayed strong, not wanting to make this any harder than it already was. He would let Ren have this, it would be his only goodbye, but he couldn't risk letting himself go, his resolve to leave was only so strong.

Kieren was used to Rick's unresponsiveness. Rick was still coming to terms with being gay and Kieren understood that it was hard for him. Kieren himself had always known he was like this, but it was a recent revelation for Rick and Kieren respected him enough not to push him into anything he wasn't comfortable with. There were times when Rick could let go and enjoy the physical side of their relationship, but just as often he would tense up over it, and this seemed to be one of those times. Kieren drew his mouth away from Rick's skin and looked into Rick's eyes. He wanted Rick to know that this didn't matter to him, that being close to Rick was enough for now.

Why did Ren have to look at him like that right now? The decision was made, he was heading off for basic training in the morning, it was what his father wanted, and in a way, it was what he wanted too. Ren was leaving anyway, starting a new life without him, he'd be ok and Rick needed to move on with his life too. But he knew this would hurt for a while and hurting Ren was the last thing he wanted to do, so he'd make this a clean break and it would be easier for Ren to move on. God, the way Ren looked at him, with those big brown eyes, it was impossible not to be affected by the adoration he saw there. Sometimes it felt as though Ren could see into his very soul and so he pushed all thoughts of leaving away and focused on the here and now, the alcohol helped Rick convince himself that this was just another night with Ren…