YARDWORK   BY PHOENIX E

God, but it was a great day to be alive!  The sun was shining; it was a perfect, warm, sultry summer day.  Not too hot - just right.  Jack was nice and relaxed and damned comfortable, stretched out in a lounge chair on the deck, basking in the warmth, cool drink close to hand.  The view from where he was sitting was pretty spectacular as well.  Great scenery.  Positively breathtaking.

Perfect.  Oh yeah.

Jack took another drink from the frosted glass in his hand, his eyes roaming appreciatively over the naked, sweat-glistening chest of the man enthusiastically pushing the lawnmower around on his back lawn.  Jack couldn't help wondering why it was he'd always hated yard work.  Couldn't for the life of him think of the reason.

He sure didn't hate it now.  Hell no.  He could watch Danny do it for hours.

It warmed his heart, along with a few other areas, to see how much the boy seemed to be enjoying himself.  Strange the things that made Danny happy.  Who knew getting to mow a lawn would send him into paroxysms of joy? Well, if cutting the grass made him want to turn cartwheels of delight he should be positively creaming his jeans when it came time to shovelling snow.

Jack was just as determined not to deprive Daniel of any opportunity to enjoy himself in that respect either.

Damned unselfish of him, he realized.  Just the kinda guy he was.  Always thinking of his fellow man.  Especially this particular fellow man, who was looking especially gorgeous at the moment, all hot, flushed, sweaty, excited…

Settle down, Jack!  We don't want to distract - ah - deprive the boy of his enjoyment.  At least not until he's finished mowing and raking.

Daniel looked up, saw the man on the deck leering appreciatively at him, grinned and mouthed the words, 'How are the knees'?  Jack was getting very good at lip reading.  Danny was never one to let something as trivial as the deafening noise of a lawnmower defeat his urge to constantly communicate.

There really was only one sure way to get Danny to shut up but he was a little far away for it at the moment.

Jack shrugged, affecting his best long-suffering expression in response to the kind concern for his comfort rendered by his considerate and extremely hard-working partner.  Who was in the process of turning around in order to continue pushing the mower back down the lawn, thereby affording Jack ample opportunity to make the entirely accurate observation Daniel was every bit as tasty going as coming.

Oh momma, better not think about the 'coming' part.  There's still a little less than half the lawn left to go.  The lawn is gonna look slightly peculiar if you pull him off it now.  All that energy.  Damn!

I wonder how he feels about washing windows?

Jack unashamedly sucked at his drink and salivated, experiencing not the slightest twinge of guilt happily sitting doing nothing but sipping and leering while Daniel toiled and sweated under the sun.  In fact the whole business with his knees was a little 'only partly true' fiction the pair of them had tacitly agreed upon as an 'all the time fact' for the purposes of excusing Jack from participating in an activity neither one of them wanted him having any part of.

Daniel really, honestly wanted to be doing what he was doing.  All by himself.  He'd practically pinned Jack to the wall with his fierce determination to get Jack to agree to letting him take over a chore Jack used to put at least as much energy into trying to avoid doing as actually doing it.  Although he'd been a little surprised at being practically begged for the privilege, Jack had wisely decided not to look a gift Daniel in the mouth and had tried not to look too gleeful as he'd sighed, rolled his eyes and said, 'oh, okay, if it's what you REALLY want…'

Knock yourself out, kid!

Funny how things get changed by the way you look at them.  Mowing the lawn was mowing the lawn. Whoop de do.  So what? To him, it was a huge, honkin' waste of time.  To Daniel, it was a freakin' religious experience.

Go figure.

Still, given the sort of life his lover had probably had up to this point, Jack found he could see a way to understand why Daniel might get more out of - mowing - than he did.  It probably wasn't the sort of thing he'd exactly had much opportunity to experience.  No doubt there hadn't been too many lawns in Daniel's life. Or anything else of the whole, settled, domestic package the activity was part and parcel of.

Maybe it wasn't so much the mowing getting Danny all cranked as what it meant to him.  The meaning of life stuff he was always finding everywhere he looked in even the most mundane of circumstances.   Danny could make something meaningful out of a bowl of soggy cereal.  Beat the hell outta him why Danny felt he needed to, but if it made him happy, more power to him.

So maybe it was more about meaning than mowing.   Maybe that was why he got so much of a kick out of watching Daniel get a kick out of doing it.

Maybe it also meant the more Daniel liked doing it for whatever reason he liked doing it, the more he would keep wanting to do it.  Which meant Daniel would just have to keep sticking around in order to be able to keep on doing it.

Which was more than fine with him.

Of course, Jack sincerely hoped there were other inducements knocking about the ole homestead Daniel would be consider equally meaningful reasons to hang around for.  One of which had bad knees, it was true, but only sometimes.

Daniel had reached the end of the yard, had turned around and was coming back up toward him again. Only one more strip of wild, primordial green to cut down to size and the lawn could be pronounced acceptable and therefore less objectionable to the neighbours.  Jack raised his glass in salute to newly trimmed green carpet beneath him, sending it his fervent wishes for its continued good health and growth.  While making a mental note to put a little fertilizer on the patch down in the corner looking a little bare.  Hell, while he was at it, he'd do the whole thing.  He definitely wanted the grass to grow.  Long and quick. Whatever it took to make it so.  He had to make sure Danny had plenty to do to keep him happy.

Until the snow started falling.

Jack sighed contentedly as he sipped his drink and drank his fill of his unobstructed vision of a hot, sweaty, happy Daniel. Damn, damn and damn, but the boy was looking fine!  Jack began to feel the familiar stirrings of the funny feeling he would always get, especially during moments like this, while watching Daniel without him realizing he was doing it.  It was a familiar feeling, and yet it still always surprised him with how good it made him feel every single time it happened.  The tingly, giddy sensation in the pit of his stomach kinda spontaneously bubbling up, making him feel like his gut was full of helium and laughing gas.  The tingling would pick up speed, moving up, wrapping around his heart, making it beat faster.  Then his throat would get funny, go all dry, kinda close up and before he knew it, the glow was spreading to his head and he was feeling like someone had punched him right between the eyes.  But in a good way.  The intoxicating light headedness would start him thinking, thinking about...things, a lot of things not having a lot to do with looking any more and a whole lot more to do with touching.  A LOT of touching - feeling the glistening chest, running his tongue across that flat stomach, rubbing, rubbing parts with other parts, getting both hands on that ass, squeezing it tight…

And then things would definitely start happening in an area having nothing to do with his head whatsoever not unlike what was happening right now.

Good golly miss molly, there's a fire down below.

Maybe the raking could wait.   Oh yeah, it could wait.  Daniel had definitely earned a bit of a rest.  Not that he was actually going to get one, mind.

Holy crap, and didn't the boy have an impeccable sense of timing!  Having disposed of the last strip of green Daniel turned off the mower, conveniently sparing Jack the necessity of having to raise his voice or his ass out of his comfortable chair for jumping up and down on the deck in order to get Danny's attention.

Daniel was just too good to him.  Well, he could be considerate too!

"Daniel," Jack began in his 'just thinking about what's best for you' voice as he pressed his cold glass to his now slightly fevered brow, "you're starting to look a little red there.  Did you put on sun block like I told you before going out in the sun like that?"

"Uh…yeah," Daniel paused in the middle of winding the extension cord back up, trying to look over his shoulder and down his back in an attempt to visually check himself out to verify the information he had just received.  "Are you sure? I don't see anything…"

"Trust me, Daniel, you definitely need more sun block."

"Uh huh," Daniel hesitated, looking up at Jack, a slightly puzzled expression on his face, the extension cord hanging from his hand.  "What about the - "

"Leave it," Jack replied, a little too hastily.  "You can put it away after.  Not like it's going anywhere.  I think it's much more important to make sure you don't get a sunburn, don't you?  Wouldn't want that, now would we, Daniel?"

Daniel shook his head slowly, a small smile starting to play with his lips.  "No Jack, we sure wouldn't.  And the sun block would be…"

"In the house."

"In…. the house.  Of course it would." Daniel grinned.  "I'll just go get it, then, shall I?"

Daniel took a few steps toward the deck, then stopped, his brow furrowing, his hand coming up in the familiar gesture denoting he had just thought of something.  "Of course, if sunburn in the only concern here I could just put my shirt back on and then I could finish putting the mower away and raking up the clippings.  I know how much you hate a job half done."

Think you're funny, don't you, Dannyboy?  Playing with the old man, are we?  You are sooo going to pay!

"For crying out loud just get in the damned house!"  Jack growled.  "Do you have to argue about everything?"

"Not everything," Daniel chuckled, narrowly avoiding the pillow Jack chucked at him as he darted up the stairs and past him, toward the sliding glass doors giving into the house, "just the things I figure will get you going."

"Which would be everything!"  Jack's tone was cross but his eyes were anything but.  Daniel pushed open the door and paused on the threshold before passing through, looking invitingly over his shoulder at the man who was already starting to come up off the chair he wouldn't have budged from for anything five minutes earlier.

"I'm gonna need some help with my back.  Whaddya say, Jack, wanna rub it in?"

"You better run for your life, boy, 'cause I hate to break it to you, but there's really nothing wrong with my knees!"

"Jack!" Daniel countered, pretending to be shocked.  "I'm appalled!"  He grinned impudently at Jack and ducked quickly into the house.

"When I catch you, yer gonna be whistling Dixie!" Jack hooted as he hurtled after him, right on his heels.

Daniel might be younger and faster, but damn, he was motivated!

And of course he had to take into consideration the very real possibility Daniel wanted to get caught.

Crap.  All that careful considering and he'd completely forgotten to take into account Daniel was not only younger and faster than he was, but also a hell of a lot smarter.  Ambushed, for crying out loud!

Jack had no sooner stepped into the house when he found himself tackled, knocked off his feet, pinned to the floor, set upon and now he was being kissed within an inch of his life.  Not exactly the way he’d pictured it going down but he was flexible.

And speaking of going down...

Ohhhhh God...Danny...

Slightly later, still lying on the floor, now as hot and sweaty as the man tightly clasped to his chest, Jack exhaled a contented sigh.    Maybe being on top had been the original plan, but Daniel’s inspirational asides were, as ever, extremely inspirational.  As was Daniel.

“Anything else you want me to do for you, Jack?”  Daniel said suddenly, in a very low, very suggestive tone.   “Wash your windows?  Paint your fence?  Polish your tools?”

“Just give me a minute, here,” Jack sighed again.  “Then the whole place is yours.  Do with it what you will.”

“I promise I’ll do a good job, “ Daniel raised his head, licking his lips, looking at him with large, black eyes of desire.  If he was as lucky as he hoped he’d be, Daniel was going to be the death of him.

“Just so long as you’re not just after me for my lawn.”

“Oh no,” Daniel murmured as he nuzzled Jack’s neck.  “Not just the lawn.  Much more than that.”

“Oh?”  Jack gasped, feeling his eyes starting to roll back into his head.

“Didn’t you know?”  Daniel’s seeking lips were a velvet caress upon his skin.  “I’ve got designs on the garage.”

“Well, just so you know, I come with it.  Package deal.”

“That’s what I was hoping.”

Oh yeah, Daniel could mow his lawn any time he pleased.

FINIS

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