Rhys nuzzled his body into the bed below him, frowning. His brain was still trying to get in gear, figuring out where he was.

He wasn’t asleep in his college dorm, the bed felt too firm and supportive. He wasn’t in his Impala, that was in the shop. He wasn’t on Mason’s sofa, the cushions were still on the roof.

The roof.

Last night.

Under the lights.

Rhys’s eyes snapped open, looking up at the inactive ceiling fan above him.

He was in Mason’s room.

In Mason’s bed.

He glanced over to see Mason looking him over, a grin on his face.

“Morning, sexy.” Mason looked him up and down. Rhys sighed with relief, his brain finally catching up to the situation. He was meant to be here. And it seemed Mason didn’t regret last night at all.

Rhys looked around at the light seeping in through the purple curtains. He guessed it was some time between six and seven am.

“Still waking up,” Rhys said. He remembered pleasing Mason under the stars, then Mason having an eager go with him. The memory of him fondling his ass was seared into Rhys’s mind. After snuggling for a bit, they’d come down to the bed, lying in each other’s arms. Occasionally kissing, mostly just relaxing with one another. Rhys had felt so safe in Mason’s muscular arms.

“Meow!” Rhys sat up in bed. Socket sat patiently in the doorway, looking at the two men. Rhys translated for her once more. ‘You were trying to seduce my human!’

Mason chuckled, sitting up to look at Socket as well.

“Looks like someone else is happy about last night,” Mason noted.

Rhys was still nervously looking at Socket, feeling guilty for some reason.

Mason must have picked up on his feelings. “What’s wrong. Am I going too fast?” Mason asked.

“Oh, no, not that,” Rhys replied.

“So something else? Was I… was I okay last night? You seemed… satisfied,” Mason said nervously.

“Oh, yes, absolutely!” Rhys affirmed, pushing himself up further into a fully sitting position, moving the pillows behind him to support his back. “It’s just…”

What was niggling away at the back of his mind? As he thought it through, Mason began to absently stroke Rhys’s leg.

“Never mind about me.” Rhys suddenly realized. “How are you doing? I mean, last night you had sex with a man. For the first time. That’s a big milestone. How are you feeling?”

Mason frowned, pausing as his fingers rested at Rhys’s knee. “I mean, I guess I should be more ‘freaked out.’” Mason made air quotes as he said it before moving up to sit level with Rhys. “I’d just never really thought of men as an option. In high school, everyone always assumed I was some kind of alpha male, and I guess I just slipped into that role. But being around you, these past few days… I feel like I can be myself.”

Rhys felt his chest swelling with pride. Not only did he feel less shy around Mason, but he also made him feel more at ease with himself.

“If you have any questions…” Rhys began.

“You’re not regretting last night, are you?” Mason asked.

Rhys almost gasped.

“No, absolutely not,” Rhys said. “I want to make sure you feel all okay about this. I’ve known guys who spiraled after something happening with a guy.”

“I can imagine,” Mason replied. “I mean, I guess that…” Mason frowned. Rhys guessed he was still trying to form his idea. “I’m not used to talking about or dissecting my feelings.”

“That’s okay.” Rhys placed an arm around Mason’s shoulder, straining slightly as he comforted the larger man. Mason snuggled down, resting himself on top of Rhys.

“It feels like I’m using a muscle that I haven’t been paying attention to. Being with you. Like, when I first went to the gym, my legs weren’t actually all that great. So I had to work in a leg day.”

“Oh!” Rhys’s eyes widened in realization. “That’s what ‘don’t skip leg day’ means.”

“Yep,” Mason confirmed. “So, it’s like the romance side of me is legs. We were having all these connections, but I wasn’t realizing it, because I was always trying with women. Trying to exercise a muscle that wasn’t there.”

“You think that — do you not like women at all?” Rhys asked.

“I mean, I didn’t hate my experiences with them,” Mason explained. “But I was just never that into it, never felt like we were in sync.”

Rhys pondered, thinking through his next words carefully. “Have you ever heard of pansexuals?” Rhys asked.

“Is that when you’re so good at cooking with a pan, it’s sexual?” Mason replied. “Because then you’d be an A-plus pansexual.”

Rhys chuckled. “It’s a type of attraction. For most people, they see someone good looking, like…” Rhys wracked his brain for an example besides Mason. Which was difficult, since he was the naked man in the bed next to him.

“Chris Evans,” Mason supplemented.

“Yes. Right. So teenage me sees Chris Evans, sees that hot bod, and goes ‘oh yeah, that’s a hottie’ — going in from the physical.”

“Okay.” Mason was following so far.

“Pansexuals come in from the other way. So they watch Chris Evans standing up to a bully, and they think that’s a great quality, and that’s where their attraction builds from.”

Mason nodded, his eyes widening. “Yeah, that does sound more like me.”

“So you get to know someone. Then you figure out if you’re romantically, then sexually attracted to them. At my old LGBT society, they often referred to it as ‘hearts, not parts,’”

“So that’s why it took me so long to figure out.” Mason’s eyes widened. Rhys could see he was thinking it over. “For years, I thought if I played the part, the rest would follow. That every guy was just pretending to act like a horndog.”

Mason chuckled before lightly punching Rhys on the arm.

“Well, clever you for organizing a ‘getting to know you’ evening,” Mason told him. Rhys found his shoulders tensing up, moving slightly away from Mason. What had been bothering him when he woke up suddenly clicked into place.

“I said last night was a ‘getting to know you’ event, but I think I was trying to set up a date the whole time. And then it worked.” Rhys realized. “God, I was trying to seduce you!” Rhys looked around at Mason aghast.

Mason chuckled. “Yeah, great job!” he enthused.

Rhys moved out of the bed, looking down to see he was just in his underwear.

“I… I lied to you!” Rhys looked at Mason in horror. “I… there were false pretenses! I was all ‘oh, hey, let’s go up here as friends.’ Then barely one drink in, I start prying into your sexual history, then asking leading questions! If I hadn’t asked those questions, then we wouldn’t have done what we did and—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Mason slipped out of bed, also in nothing but his underwear, pulling Rhys into a big hug. Rhys shuddered under Mason’s muscles, breathing in deep. “You absolutely did not make me do anything I didn’t want to, understand?”

Rhys shook his head, Mason still clinging on to him tight.

“You asked a whole lot of questions,” Mason continued. “Specifically, you asked what I wanted. I remember that. That moment, the first time in my life someone just asked me plain what I wanted. I could have said anything. Taylor Swift. A cheesecake. A decent Transformers movie.”

Mason huffed after mentioning the last one. Rhys would have to ask more about that later.

For now, Mason tilted Rhys’s chin gently, so he was looking up into his eyes. Rhys noticed for the first time they were a piercing turquoise. And all their attention was on Rhys.

“And what I wanted last night, one hundred percent, was you,” Mason told him. “I speak plain, and I mean what I say.”

Rhys nodded, knowing this was true. He then frowned, breaking eye contact with Mason. “Last night?”

“Yeah, last night,” Mason replied, concern in his voice.

“You wanted me last night. That’s what you just said,” Rhys clarified. “What about today?”

Mason paused, thinking about it. Rhys sighed, ready for what was coming next. ‘Last night was fun, but…’ ‘It was a one-time thing…’ ‘Last night was magical, but it can’t happen again.’

“Emotionally,” Mason began. “I want you. All the time. But I’m aware that you’ll be leaving in barely a week.”

Rhys nodded, feeling a pang of longing in his chest. Today was Wednesday. The oil pump regulator would come on Monday. What felt like an eternity away before, now felt unreasonably close.

“Some of the greatest songs in the world are the shortest,” Rhys blurted out before looking back up at Mason. “It’s something my grandpa used to say. ‘We Will Rock You’ by Queen. Barely two minutes long. Still one of the best songs of all time. It was also his way of saying that just because something won’t last forever doesn’t mean it can’t be great. Even his steady gigs only lasted a few months at most.”

He smiled, thinking about his grandpa Louie when Rhys was just a young boy. So full of life, so much to share.

He breathed in deep, deciding to share what he could with Mason in the time that they had.

“So this will be our ‘We Will Rock You,’” Rhys said. “It might only be two minutes, but it’ll some of the best damned two minutes ever recorded.”

Mason nodded before looking over at his bed. They were both still hugging in the middle of Mason’s bedroom, Socket inspecting them with her big wide eyes.

They uncoiled in unison, heading back over to Mason’s bed and climbing back under the covers.

“I mean…” Mason began, looking Rhys up and down. “There’s no chance this could be our Bohemian Rhapsody?”

Rhys smiled, thinking through the six-minute-long behemoth of a song.

“I really need to get back home,” Rhys said.

“You’re not even excited about the job waiting for you,” Mason pointed out.

“Oh, I didn’t tell you!” Rhys realized. “My parents, they saw what I did to the outside of your place. They were impressed with all the flowers, what I did with the plants. So they want me to help design the outside of their store,” Rhys explained, beaming.

“Oh wow, you’re really good at that!” Mason enthused. But Rhys could hear the tension in his voice. Rhys wondered what his options would be if his family wasn’t depending on him back home.

“Yeah, yes I am.” Rhys finally answered Mason’s question with confidence. For once he believed the positive words being said about him. “Yeah, I’ll get to do something I didn’t even know I was good at! At the start of the job, anyway.” Rhys wasn’t too sure why he added that last part.

“We’ll need to celebrate,” Mason suggested, jumping out of bed again. This time he went to the end of the room, opening the door to his ensuite. It was the only room Rhys hadn’t seen up until this point. “I have a half hour until I need to start getting ready for work,” he explained.

“Oh gosh, your twelve-hour days.” Even though it wasn’t his responsibility, Rhys still felt guilty sitting around all day while Mason labored away downstairs. “Hey, maybe I could have a look at your books later today,” Rhys suggested. “Would be a nice bit of practice before I help with my parents’ store.”

“Yeah, that does sound great,” Mason replied in earnest before looking at the door to his en suite, agitated. “But we only have half an hour.”

Rhys looked at the en suite door, then back to Mason.

“But you have a second bathroom I can use.” Rhys didn’t see what the problem was.

“Right, now I have to seduce you.” Mason sighed. “Shower sex. You and me. Would you like to do that?” he asked bluntly.

“Oh. Oh, yeah!” Rhys replied. “That would be great.”

He hustled over to the door, Mason chuckling as he went. He thought over the events of last night as he got to the doorframe. If he’d really had been as sex crazed as he imagined, it wouldn’t have taken Mason three times to get him into the bathroom for shower sex.