That Thing With The Air
by Speranza
"That thing with the air." Ray stood beside the swimming pool, the blanket wrapped around his shoulders, shivering in the cold night air. "Show me again how it works."
Fraser opened his mouth to speak: he wanted to point out that he'd already pulled Ray from the water, and untied him, and found him a blanket, and called for backup. By all reasonable standards, Ray had already been most effectively rescued.
Ray's took a step forward, his face and voice blurry in the dim light. "Show me again how it works."
Fraser's chest tightened. "Do you mean—buddy-breathing?"
Ray was very close now, and he looked exhausted, and haggard, and brave. "Yeah. That." Ray raised his chin and said, again: "Show me that."
Water dripped from his elbows as Fraser raised his hands to Ray's cold, beard-stubbled face. "Well," he said, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible, "the goal is to make a tight seal. Force air into the lungs."
"Show me," Ray said quietly.
Fraser leaned forward, pressed his mouth tightly to Ray's, and, forming a tight seal, blew. When he pulled back to look at Ray's face, he found that Ray's eyes were closed. "Ray?"
"Show me again," Ray said, not opening his eyes.
Fraser hesitated for a moment, and then leaned in again. Formed the seal, lips pressed tight again lips, and blew his breath into Ray's mouth.
This time, when he pulled back, he was shaking too, and he wasn't even cold.
Ray still hadn't opened his eyes. "Try again."
There was a flutter in his rib cage, like the beating wings of a trapped bird. "What part of this isn't clear to you?"
Ray did open his eyes, then; they seemed paler than usual, like they'd been diluted by the water. "What?"
"The goal is to make a tight seal and force air into the lungs," Fraser repeated, feeling strangled. "What part of that don't you—"
Ray took Fraser's wrist and moved his hand. Beneath the cold, soaked denim, Fraser could feel Ray's erection, warm and hardening rapidly with every beat of Ray's heart.
"This." Ray's pale blue eyes mesmerized him. "This is what I don't understand. You want to explain this to me?"
"Well..." The word was already out of Fraser's mouth before it occurred to him that Ray didn't really need or want an explanation. He gently rubbed his palm against Ray's erection, elated and terrified at the way the warm flesh responded to his hand. "I—" he managed to stammer. "I could demonstrate..."
Ray moaned and closed his eyes again. "You do that. Demonstrate. I'm a kinesthetic learner."
Fraser leaned forward to touch his mouth to Ray's again, then stopped, frowning. "Ray, did you just say—"
Ray's cold, water-wrinkled hand was abruptly at the back of his head, yanking him forward and pulling their mouths together. And this time—well, perhaps the seal wasn't so perfect, but the feel of Ray's tongue in his mouth was uncommonly delightful. Blindly, he struggled to jerk Ray's zipper down, fought to keep standing as Ray's arms came around him and threatened to knock them both off balance. And then the zipper was down and Fraser was fumbling past the cold cotton of Ray's soaked underwear to the surging flesh underneath, the cold skin of Ray's abdomen only making the erection in his hand seem hotter and more alive.
He closed his fist and began to stroke. Ray moaned into his mouth. He felt one cold hand cup the back of his neck, another sliding underneath his tunic to grope him. And then he was jerking Ray roughly, and through the thundering noise of his own beating heart and pulsing blood he realized that he was still blowing breath into Ray's mouth with every pant and gasp, and that Ray was trying to hold the seal and give him his air right back.
Ray made a soft, choking sound and spurted fluid into his hand. Fraser instinctively wrapped his free arm around Ray's waist and pulled him closer, holding him while he shuddered and gasped out his orgasm.
In buddy breathing, a gasp meant the victim was breathing on his own. It was the sign to break apart, to take your lips away.
Instead, Fraser cupped Ray's stubbled cheek and kissed him for a very long time.
"Kinesthetic learning," Ray murmured, when Fraser finally broke the kiss, "means, like, that you learn through—"
"—action. Showing. Show me, " Fraser said.
The End