A/N: I feel like I'm getting more into my element. Let me know what you think!

Chapter Sixteen

"What do you mean 'we're having a gathering tonight'?" Haden asked incredulously, his eyes narrowed as they focused on Alex as the man pulled his shirt over his head. "Or do you conveniently forget how it went down last time?"

"I didn't forget anything. This time will be better than last time-"

"So you say!"

Alex laughed and moved to lay across the bed next to his boyfriend who had yet to shower. Kissing his mouth, he moved his way down his jaw to nuzzle his shoulder. "So I know," he eventually said. "Last time you were in a strange place with people you didn't know."

"And this time is different?"

"Yeah, you're in a place you know intimately," he caught the younger man's eye and winked. "With a few folks on your side. Look, I know everything didn't go smoothly but I really want you to know these guys. They're like my family. Only I actually enjoy their company."

Haden was silent for a moment before sighing. He really did not want to try and make nice with a bunch of uppity assholes today, or any other for that matter. But Alex… Well, Alex asked him for very little and had stated clearly it was important to him. Rubbing a hand over his face in annoyance, he silently admitted to himself that their relationship could not only be about what he wanted. Besides, what he wanted was for Alex to be happy so didn't the two go hand in hand?

"Fine," he finally said but not without a scowl down at the man. "But first you tell me who that blond kid was talking about when he said someone might start shit."

"He said that to you?"

"Not in so many words. He was offering his friendship and letting me know he was down with me being there," he shrugged. "It was a nice thought, I guess. He just creeped me out a bit. Nobody just wants to be your friend. At least, not unless they want something."

Alex was surprised how closely his boyfriend's words matched what Jessie had told him when he'd went to his boss's house seeking guidance. Trying to put the man at ease, he said, "My friend's aren't like that. And Lakken's a generally friendly person and it does get weird. But I promise you he doesn't want anything other than friendship. And as for the other, don't worry about who said what. They've been put in their place and will answer to me is they say anything out of the way."

Haden frowned. "I can handle myself and anyone else who wants to come at me. Stop trying to turn me into a bitch and just let me know who it was so I can keep an eye out for them."

The older man sighed and bit Haden for annoying him but quickly laved it with his tongue.

"Stop trying to distract me," he said, shoving the tattoo artist away and standing up. Heading to the bathroom, he turned around, one hand holding his privates, the other pointing at Alex, "We aren't finished here."

Alex licked his dry lips as he stared at his boyfriend's lithe form and then lower to where the man held himself with modesty. "I agree," he growled out. "Get your ass back in bed."

Haden blinked and stared at Alex or, more specifically, the erection that was tenting the man's loose jeans then down at his own body before a smirk broke out on his face. Feeling rather full of himself for causing such a reaction, he ran his free hand down his chest and dropped his testicles with the other. Instead gripping his own cock which was quickly lengthening and stroking it slowly. "Thought we had to…" he ran his free hand down to fondle his balls. "… Get ready for your guests."

Thoroughly pleased with the wonton way the man was acting, Alex leaned back against his pillow, kicking off his shoes as he did so before spreading his legs and rubbing his palm over his own erection. "Our guests, sweetheart. Now forget about them. Come here." Alex blinked, had that really been his voice? So needy and low? Fuck he wanted this man!

Haden smirked and crawled up the bed to straddle him. Catching Alex's mouth in a kiss, he rocked his erection against Alex's even as he man's hands gripped his ass and pushed him harder against his body.

"Hell yea, Haden," Alex grunted, humping up into the man's cock- something that became very difficult to do indeed when Haden pulled away and stood up. Breathing hard and body flushed he made his way to the bathroom. Alex stared after him, body on fire and mouth dropped open in offence. Where the fuck was the man going? "Where the hell are you doing?"

Haden turned around with a low chuckle that Alex would swear was the sound of pure evil. "I'm making sure we have plenty of time to serve our guests," he said with a smile and a wink before heading into the shower but not without wiggling his ass for Alex's benefit.

Alex stared after him, torn between storming in the bathroom and growling at his boyfriend and laying there and waiting for his body to relax. He got to do neither one when the doorbell rung. Sighing, he moved to tug his shoes on and headed downstairs, his cock leading the way.

"Hey, figured you could use some… help?" Jessie said as soon as Alex jerked the door open, his eyes immediately dropping to Alex's erection before a smirk slid over the handsome man's face. "Busy?"

"Yeah, busy trying to figure out just how I want to torture that mean little fucker I call a boyfriend," he sulked and waved Jessie inside.

Jessie chuckled, "Already learning how to get over on you, huh? That shit goes both ways, you know."

"As in me deny him sex?" Even Alex snorted at that one. "I think you and I both know I don't have the self control to quit once I get worked up."

"Then what has you holding back now?"

"The knowledge that Haden is not as cruel as he seems right now and will eventually give me some relief… God, I hope he aint mean," he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"You could always jack off."

The man snorted, looking at his boss as if he were offended the man would suggest such a thing. "When I have that upstairs? No thank you."

Jessie just laughed. "Wow. Okay… Now back to the reason I came here in the first place. You told me you'd call me with what to bring but you never did and your phone keeps going to voicemail. So tell me so I can get outta here and go fight soccer moms for junk food."

"Oh," he frowned as he went into the kitchen to grab the list and brought it back to the living room where the brunette was waiting. "And here I thought you were here for something more interesting, like maybe putting me at ease by telling me that punk your boyfriend calls a friend had moved back to where the hell ever his girlfriend is."

"Unfortunately, no. He's staying with us until he finds a place- Don't start with the mouth. It's out house and Jauq and Lakken outvote me," he said with a shrug.

"You tell Lakken what I said?"

"Yeah, he apologized and told Ronnie to look elsewhere. Guy didn't seem to happy about that and actually got mad and left once they got home but he came back later so I don't know," he shrugged and gestured to the list.

Alex informed him of the items he was responsible for before seeing the man out and heading to the stairs where he caught Haden coming down. Trapping the man against the wall, he gave him a deep, probing kiss. "You can be mean as hell when you want to be, you know… What are you… Oh, hell yeah," he groaned when Haden dropped to his knees and took Alex's pants with him.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Alex held Haden's hand as they leaned against the railing that lined the sizable deck that covered a third of the man's yard. A yard, Haden mused, that was quite sizable considering the house's location which was so close to downtown. Good thing too, considering all of Alex's friends that currently occupied the space, some of which were playing a friendly game of horse shoes as Alex's boss worked on marking the out-of-bound line for the volleyball net.

"Weren't ya'll playing that last time?" he asked as he nodded his head towards the net.

Alex glanced over and nodded. "You can thank Lakken for that. He refuses to quit until 'the razorblade boys lose'," he said, giving emphasis to the man's words with a softer voice.

"I so do not sound like that," Lakken said from the picnic table where he was currently dropping off several pizzas. "And we are going to win this time. After all, we have Haden and his brother now. So boo yah!" he said playfully, sticking his tongue out at the pair.

Haden couldn't help it - he laughed.

And Alex stared like a love sick puppy before pulling the man into a kiss which was awkwardly returned as Haden glanced around, a flush covering his face.

Lakken beamed. It was so sweet seeing the couple actually getting along and more, Alex actually not being a whore or dating his best friend. Yep, good times! Seeing his own razorblade boy waving to him, he stole a slice of pizza and headed over to the man, bearing gifts.

"You two coming up for air anytime soon?"

Haden stiffened at the sound of Kit's voice and pulled away, face bright red as he stared down at his brother- and then up at his brother's date. He frowned when Renita's older brother Nate reached out a fist to bump his knuckles.

"We cool, man?" the tall black guy asked.

"Depends on you. Don't hurt my brother," he said in a low voice that gave the man clear warning before raising his own hand to give the man what he wanted.

Nate looked around at the group of men and slung an arm around Kit's shoulders. "Nah, I ain't fittin to hurt my new boo. Long as we can keep it on the down low then we're cool."

Haden scowled. "What the fuck do you mean="

"Nate's not out yet, Haden," Kit explained, cuddling into the much taller man's side. "He's waiting until he can move out of Renita's so he doesn't have to worry about listening to any shit about it." He bit his lip and looked back and forth from Haden to Nate as if trying to tell him something.

It took older brother a moment to get it and he stiffened right up when he did. "Is this why you suddenly have so much confidence? Why you're so quick to convince me to move in with Alex? How long have you two been together? Five fucking minutes?"

"Slow your roll there, big brother," Nate said, giving Haden his full attention. "You got something to say to Kit then you take that shit inside where people can't hear. Don't embarrass by boy."

Haden's faced flushed red and his mouth twisted even as his body tensed - a sure sign to Alex that the man was about to go the fuck off on the guy for, as far as Alex was concerned, absolutely nothing. Pulling Haden to his side, Alex reached out a hand to the man. "I'm Alex. I belong to this one," he pointed over his shoulder to Haden."

The black guy laughed. "Yeah, I heard. Looks like you got your hands full there, playa."

Alex leaned back into the shorter man behind him and was slightly surprised when Haden's arms slip around his waist. "You have no idea. We're about to eat if ya'll want to head over to the picnic table. Volleyball after that so try not to eat too much."

"That's whats up," Nate said, tugging Kit over to the table after him.

Kit smiled in thanks to Alex and followed.

Alex heard a sigh just below his ear and turned to his boyfriend. "Mad?"

"No. Thanks," he said, shifting from food to foot. "I was about to act stupid in front of your guests. Thanks for stopping me."

"Our guests and you're welcome, sweetheart," he murmured, leaning in to give him another quick kiss before leading the man over to grab their plates.

-.-

"Come on, people! Defense!" Lakken hollered and jumped for a ball, hitting it with his fist and sending it way out of bounds. This seemed to happen over and over again, the other team serving it directly to him.

Haden fought with himself over whether it would be rude or not to help the man out by covering him, but after the fourth point in a row was given to 'the Razorblade Boys', he gave in and swooped over beside the man to send the ball flying back over the net to land squarely at Kane's feet.

Lakken stared for a moment before he did something totally unexpected - squealing and jumping up and down. "Oh, yeah!" he said, doing a little booty dance.

Haden just stared at the man. One would have thought he'd scored the point, the way he was acting. Hell, he'd expected the small man to be annoyed he'd covered him but didn't seem to be the case as the blonde came over and high fived him which had him shaking his head. What was he? Five?

Nate served then, directly to Kane and began a heated volley before Las managed to get it over the net.

The game went on until they were finally tied 13-13. Haden came up to serve and sent it right over to Canvas- who, infuriately, was more worried about his phone than the game as the ball caught him right in the forehead before touching the ground.

"What the fuck?"

Haden just grinned. "14-13."

Canvas glowered and put his phone away.

Even Las laughed at that. "Better focus, babe."

"I'm always focused on you, Las," the blonde winked.

Haden took advantage and sent it to him again.

"Doesn't work twice!" Canvas said, grunting when he spiked it over the net - and straight into Kit's face.

Alex sighed and immediately headed across the net, just knowing his boyfriend was going to be pissed. He was surprised, however, to see Lakken helping the kid up and Haden still in the servers position. He frowned and glanced at his boyfriend. "You alright?"

"Uh… yeah. Should I not be?" he wanted to know.

"Kit just got a shot to the face."

"So?"

Alex scowled at the man's tone. "So usually whoever did that would need to fear for their life."

"We're playing a rough game. Shit happens. Not like blondie over there did it on purpose."

Alex nodded and moved back to his side.

The game ended 14-16. Lakken's scream of joy made it clear who won even as he rushed to Haden then Nate, "You two are officially on my team whenever we play!" He did another little happy dance that had both men laughing and Jessie groaning.

"Baby, what did we say about dancing outside the bedroom?"

Lakken just giggled and shimmied before heading over to his partner.

"That dude is crazy, man," Nate said, shaking his head.

"Agreed," Haden said, watching the little guy walk away with an amused grin on his face.

Kit came up then but Nate quickly sent him to grab something to drink. Turning to Haden, he looked down at him, "I know you don't like this but I aint like those busters down dirty South. I just finished up mechanic classes at Auto Tech and I'm getting the hell outta there. I aint in to no drugs anymore and…" he rubbed a hand over his low cut hair. "Fuck, man. I been trying not to like men since I was a kid. Usually a fuck here and there will do but when Renita started bringing that little white boy over to chill… I can't help it, man. I'm into him, hard."

Haden listened. He still wasn't happy but at this point it was admittedly more because he didn't like the thought of Kit with anyone so much as this dude or any other. Knowing the guy was waiting for an answer, he finally spoke. "I don't have anything to do with what Kit does. If he wants you then be with him." He met the guy's gaze then, "But I meant it when I said you hurt him and I hurt you. I will."

Nate had seen white boy throw down and knew dude was serious. "Alright then." Clapping Haden on the back, he headed over to his man.

"Damn you can sound menacing when you want to," Alex said in an amused tone when he approached his boyfriend. Throwing his arm over the man's shoulders, he hugged him to his side. "Any other excuses as to why you can't move in now?"

"I could name a few."

"Such as?"

"You'd never get out of bed?"

"Why's that?"

"Because all I can think about it molesting you," his ears flushed a bit as he said it but his eyes stayed on his boyfriend's.

Alex gave the man a toothy smile and leaned in close. "I can live with that.