Previously
Daryl
You wake up earlier than usual and lay watching Glenn sleep. There was a disagreement yesterday and you've both been quiet since then. It won't last long but meanwhile there is silence and no touching. You spend some time thinking about your past and being in love for the first time in your life. With a man.
Your brother Merle is nine years old when you're born. You learn later that in between there were a couple of miscarriages and a sister who died of crib death. Your parents have never been shy drinkers but after you start school they take it up more seriously and eventually drink themselves to an early grave via the no passing zone on the highway two miles from home. It's not always true that drunks walk away from accidents because they're relaxed. A head-on collision with a semi ruins their chances.
Merle is in the Army but he comes home for the funerals. You're 16 and can live by yourself so there's no need for him to stick around after. You've basically been on your own since Merle enlisted anyway. You haven't seen him for two years and you can tell he's changed, not for the better.
You're about nine the first time you consciously rub your dick just because it feels good. It started before that but that's when you become aware of it. It gets stiff but it's dry and hurts after awhile if you don't use something to slick it up. Eventually you start self-lubricating and that's pretty cool. Sliding pre-come around the head and up and down the shaft takes the experience to a whole new level. And your cock is getting bigger and sticking up so it slaps your belly.
The first time you come you think something might be broken inside but everything still works so you proceed to beat off as often as possible. Until you hear it's bad for you so you try to cut back and then you start waking up with your underwear sticky. That doesn't make sense. If it's going to happen anyway, you might as well participate and enjoy it.
Merle comes home on leave when you're 14 and you pee in the woods while hunting. "Jesus Christ, is that thing still growing," he says. "It's big as mine already."
Years later you're proud of being well endowed but right now you're embarrassed. You're already aware of size from changing clothes at school. Not that any of you stare at each other but it's a locker room and everyone is checking each other while trying not to look. You're bigger than everyone but Jack and that's probably because he's a year older from being held back in third grade.
Merle gives you some advice. "With a weapon like that at your disposal, don't go riding bareback 'less you want to be fathering little bastards all over the county."
You don't want that so you always use a condom.
You lose your virginity at 15 to Betty Jo Page who is a year older and notorious for giving a guy his first fuck and first blowjob and then moving on to the next one. No exceptions. Except you. She comes back for seconds just before she graduates and leaves town. There's a third encounter two years later when you run into her by accident. She's getting married in a few weeks and wants it one more time. You never see her again.
Merle comes home soon after on a dishonorable discharge. The Army will put up with a lot, and provide the appropriate disciplinary action, in order to have big mean guys available as fodder should the need arise. But there are limits to what they can allow and Merle finally exceeds them. Merle sees no need for higher education. In his case no higher than junior year when he dropped out and never bothered to get a GED.
You quit college and you and Merle live together amiably. You hunt, fish, trap. There's other work sometimes, mostly temporary jobs to make extra money. There are women available over the years. Not hundreds, you aren't going for any records, but probably a couple of dozen. You discover that you don't much like kissing until years later with Glenn. A certain amount is necessary to get a girl into bed but it feels more intimate than fucking and while you like the women you fuck well enough, you don't want to be intimate and you don't want to share your feelings and you don't want commitment. Even later with Glenn you don't share easily but it doesn't matter because you often seem to know what the other is thinking.
Time passes faster than you realize. Except your prison term. That goes pretty fucking slow so you have plenty of time to think about how you got there. You take the weight for your actions and also for the fact that you let yourself be influenced by Merle. Sure, he's older and bigger and tougher but you're not a candy ass yourself and you went along with everything. It's the beginning of drawing away from Merle. You're more careful after that but in the end it doesn't matter because a few years later the dead start walking and that's a development that brings you and Merle close again. For a couple of months anyway.
Now Merle is gone and you're in love with a man.
Glenn's skin is tanned gold and his almond-shaped eyes tilt. He's Eastern not Western.
You're in love with an Asian man.
Your own pale skin has weathered over the years and there are some lines from rough living and squinting into the sun. You're 13 years older than Glenn and will hit 40 in a few years although you don't feel it.
You're in love with a younger Asian man.
Are there any more adjectives you can add to the description?
Glenn stretches and yawns, opens his eyes and asks, "You're not still pissed, are you? Because I'd like to get laid sometime soon."
There's the missing piece. You're in love with a mouthy young Asian man.
And you're happy about it so you kiss him and tell him you aren't mad anymore. You want to get laid, too.
Glenn
We don't fight much but there's the occasional difference of opinion. And we don't act like a couple of flaming queens of course. We just ignore each other for awhile. I take the opportunity to think about my past and being in love for the first time in my life. With a man.
My parents came to the U.S. before I was born. Legally! Although I guess no one is checking green cards anymore. I had the usual Korean-American childhood with my parents trying to keep Korean tradition alive in the face of rampant American excess. I tended toward the excess. Except sexually. I think I was a little behind with puberty. First kiss at 16. Hole-punched the v-card after senior prom. I didn't tell my parents about that American tradition. There was another girl at college but I didn't want to get serious about anyone yet. And then I got into some trouble. And debt. And more trouble. And I might have had to go crawling back to my parents except for the ZA. I would rather have gone to my parents than have something so terrible happen but that wasn't an option and now everyone has to deal with it the best we can. I was lucky to meet up with Dale and the others. And even luckier when the Dixons joined us although I didn't think so at the time.
But Merle is gone, at least for now, and I've acquired my third partner. A Scots redneck with a racist brother from whom he learned a lot of bad habits. The Dixons are violent men but Daryl isn't cruel like Merle. They grew up in a small poor community where education wasn't a priority. But it's not just their environment, it's their heritage. Their bloodthirsty warrior ancestors painted themselves blue and ran around the bogs naked with spears, scaring the professional Roman soldiers who were hoping to conquer them and build another road that led to Rome. Daryl naked with a spear ... I'm a little turned on right now. Maybe a lot. He's got a blue button down shirt with the sleeves cut off. He looks good in blue.
He's older, too, not a huge difference but 13 years is enough that we're both aware of it. It never bothered me and I don't think it bothers Daryl either. There are more important things to worry about like food and not dying. And having sex. Which we haven't for three days. I admit that's not a long time but we've gotten used to a certain frequency and I miss it. And him. So I'm lying here pretending to be asleep and I know he's watching me and because I'm the more flexible one, I'm going to make the first move. Also because the argument was my fault. And I love him. Did I mention that?
Daryl
You're glad it's all right again between you and Glenn but sorry it happened in the morning when you have limited time. Then you notice it's not getting lighter. You check outside and see the sky gray and overcast. Lightning flashes and thunder follows. Other tent flaps open and you wave to each other. The camp is battened down and you're all staying inside for now. You turn back to Glenn as a steady downpour starts. A few minutes later you're moving together in rhythm with the falling rain. You'll speed up soon enough but for now it's slow and easy.
Glenn
Daryl is on his stomach and I'm straddling his hips, kneading his shoulders and back. He's strong but he doesn't have those ugly bunched masses that bodybuilders get. I prefer the lean muscles moving under my hands. I remember something I was thinking of earlier.
"We should make spears. Hit a geek at the knees and drop him then angle the point through the eye to reach the brain. It would be more efficient than bashing away with baseball bats."
Daryl looks back approvingly. "Good idea. How'd you come up with that?"
I lay flat on top of him and hook my chin over his shoulder. "Actually, I was thinking of you and blue paint and bogs."
A/N: NR was in 'The Notorious Bettie Page' so I used that title to explain Daryl's first time. He also played Jack in 'Sand' so that's the name of the only boy whose junk is as big as Daryl's.