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"description": "After a chance encounter at a bar called Fate, Eric Thompson is left with doubts and guilt about decisions that have led him to his current situation. Meanwhile, his brother Milo struggles to reconcile his feelings after wallowing in his despair for years. Can these two troubled German shepherds help each other heal, and find their way back to each other's arms?\n[center]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]\nOn this auspicious day, when I bring Eric and Milo back to the Internet, I find myself thinking, of all things, of the words of the Prophet of Truth from Halo 2. \"There are those who said this day would never come. What have they to say now?\"\n\nIt took a fair amount of blood, sweat, and tears, but I'm delighted to be able to share this story with you at long last, and I hope you all enjoy it. n_n\n",
"description_bbcode_parsed": "After a chance encounter at a bar called Fate, Eric Thompson is left with doubts and guilt about decisions that have led him to his current situation. Meanwhile, his brother Milo struggles to reconcile his feelings after wallowing in his despair for years. Can these two troubled German shepherds help each other heal, and find their way back to each other's arms?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On this auspicious day, when I bring Eric and Milo back to the Internet, I find myself thinking, of all things, of the words of the Prophet of Truth from Halo 2. "There are those who said this day would never come. What have they to say now?"
It took a fair amount of blood, sweat, and tears, but I'm delighted to be able to share this story with you at long last, and I hope you all enjoy it. n_n
",
"writing": "[center][u]Life in the Pack: Reunion and Rehabilitation[/u]\nBy Green[/center]\n\n\nEric Thompson swallowed, feeling sweat soaking into the fur at his temples, as he stared across his boss' office at the short, slender, and very, very pissed-looking mouse who glared right back at him with revenge in her eyes. The German shepherd had been called in to the Fate nightclub by his boss, Mike, to be introduced to a new hire before his shift. When he'd realized that the new bouncer was Gela Taylor, Eric's heart had skipped a beat, and then started racing so hard that it was like time slowed down - or at least the next several seconds sure [i]felt[/i] like they took about four years. \n \"You've gotta be fucking kidding me...\" Gela repeated, more quietly, as she shook her head. Eric's employer peered around the muscular dog's shoulder with a dubious expression on his face.\n \"You two... [i]know[/i] each other, I take it,\" the human asked, perhaps unnecessarily. \n \"Oh, sure, Mike, me and Eric here go [i]way[/i] back,\" Gela replied, acidly. Eric swallowed the urge to whimper with fear. She knew his biggest secret, and had no reason whatsoever to keep it, as well as several [i]very[/i] good reasons to hate him. \n \"It's just that the last time I laid eyes on him, he was fucking [i]my boyfriend![/i]\" she continued, as Eric's ears slowly lowered to his scalp in shame. This was it. Gela was going to spill the proverbial beans, and his boss would know that Eric used to fuck his own brother. But the furious mouse just crossed her arms over her chest, her leather jacket creaking quietly, and glared at him some more. \n\nWhile Eric wondered why she was waiting to drop the other shoe, and whether he could get fired just for being a pervert, Mike paled and his eyes widened with dismay. \n \"Oh, applesauce...\" he muttered to himself, before raising his voice. \"This is [i]totally[/i] going to be a problem, isn't it?\" \n \"I, uh, I guess that, that...\" Eric stammered uselessly, his mind paralyzed by fear and guilt. \n \"Hmmm...\" Gela said, working her lip between her teeth as she continued staring daggers at Eric, before finally sighing and uncrossing her arms. \n \"You know what, no, this isn't going to be a problem,\" she sighed, \"I really need this job, so I'm going to be the bigger person and [i]not[/i] put your ass in the hospital. The front door is on the opposite side of the building to the bar, after all...\" Her voice was tense, and she sounded like she was half trying to convince [i]herself[/i]. With the slightest glance in Mike's direction, Eric swallowed again and hesitantly extended his right hand, somewhat afraid she was going to flip him over her shoulder, or break his wrist, or some other martial arts nonsense. Mike had said he'd seen her kicking the asses of men twice her size at that tournament, after all, it's why he wanted to give her the gig in the first place... \n\nThe muscular male sighed, he couldn't just stand here in terror, he had to make some kind of goodwill gesture!\n \"Truce?\" Eric offered, and for a long, heavy moment, Gela just stared at his hand like an alien unfamiliar with the gesture. Then, she stepped forward, reached out, and took his hand, shaking it firmly... and then holding on tight as the unassuming mouse suddenly snapped her leg out so fast it blurred, driving her foot up between Eric's legs to strike him right in the balls, hard enough to make him see stars, and nothing else. A pain unlike any other cascaded over his entire body, burying him alive. Eric let out a sharp yowl of agony and slumped to the ground, writhing in pain and clutching his aching 'nads. Gela put her hands on her hips and looked down at the groaning male. \n \"[i]Truce[/i],\" she said, pointedly, \"starting right [i]now[/i].\" \n \"[i]Gaaaaah, fuck...[/i]\" Eric moaned, eloquently. It was the best he could do under the circumstances. Standing up straight again, Gela calmly regarded Mike, who had been horrified into inaction, standing frozen off to the side with a grimace of sympathy on his face. \n \"Right, then I'm gonna go put on that club logo T-shirt and then get started,\" she said, matter-of-factly, nodding down the hall. Without another word, she walked right past the target of her vengeance and out of the office. \n\nLooking distinctly frustrated, Mike turned towards Eric and knelt down. \n \"You gonna be okay, big guy?\" he asked, gingerly. \n \"J-just give me a couple minutes,\" Eric managed, as his legs still felt like jelly. At least he hadn't puked... \n \"Alright... you, uh, you want me to call the cops or something, help you press charges?\" the human continued. Eric wasn't doing great, it was true, and the memory of that embarrassing yelp he'd let out was still ringing in his ears, but he pulled one hand away from his poor, battered balls to wave Mike off. \n \"No, no cops, no charges,\" he insisted, \"I... I k-kinda had that one coming.\" Mike didn't seem convinced, glancing back the way Gela had left. \n \"You're [i]really[/i] gonna just... shrug that off?\" he asked, dubiously. Eric looked up at him and scowled as best he could. \n \"Does it [i]look[/i] like I'm shrugging that off?\" he growled, \"But... she could do a lot worse to me.\" He paused to grimace before he finished the thought. \"I was younger, I was s-stupider... and I [i]did [/i]fuck her boyfriend, after all... If she l-leaves it here, I'm okay.\" Mike sighed dubiously.\n \"Well, if you say so, man...\" He patted Eric on the shoulder in a slightly awkward manner and got up to go see to his club, reluctantly leaving the larger male on the floor. Eric let out another soft groan as he massaged his testicles through his pants, but as miserable as he was, it wasn't even the kick that was running endlessly through his mind, it was the same question, over and over: Why the hell [i]hadn't[/i] Gela mentioned that her ex-boyfriend was also Eric's little brother? \n\nA short time later, Mike wandered back to the office, just as Eric was feeling more like himself. Seeing the canine sitting up, Mike extended a hand to help him to his feet. He tried to downplay the effort he put in to lift the larger male. \n \"There you go, Eric, much better,\" he said, hesitating before continuing, \"I... should probably fire her for something like this, shouldn't I?\" He didn't sound thrilled about the idea. Eric, who had had plenty of time to think about it, let out a heavy sigh. \n \"Listen... I'll say two things. First, for whatever else I'd say about her, Angela Taylor is better at her word than I am. If she says truce after, uh, getting [i]that[/i] out of her system, I believe her.\" Eric winced slightly, mentally reliving the kick that had floored him for more than a minute.\n \"Second... having seen her skills up close and, uh... [i]personal[/i]... I can tell you she's more than qualified to handle trouble around here.\" Mike snorted in surprised amusement.\n \"I guess that's true...\" he muttered, rubbing his chin, \"Okay, but if there's any trouble at all between you two, we're gonna have a problem, I'm serious.\" \n \"Right, yeah,\" Eric agreed, hoping he could live up to that, \"I hear you.\" As Mike went off to see to one of the other facets of running a club, Eric headed back downstairs towards his station at the bar. His nuts still ached, but he still felt like he'd gotten off easy. What a way to start his shift... \n\nThe night may have begun with Eric leaning against a bag of ice he'd positioned beneath the bar, but things improved once he got in the groove of things (and once the ache finally wore off, of course). It wasn't a very busy night, but that was okay, as it made it easier for Eric to keep all the orders straight, and it left him with time to think about all the questions that were suddenly flying around in his head. Mainly, he thought about Milo's surprisingly emotional request to return to fooling around with each other. For Eric, it wasn't a question of desire. Oh, he wanted it, alright, he wanted it so bad that he could [i]taste[/i] it, but the last time they'd been together had wrecked Milo's life and a good relationship. Could they really go back to the way it was? Of course, that conversation being immediately followed by Milo's ex showing up out of nowhere and kicking Eric in the junk had almost felt like the most aggressive omen Eric had ever heard of. Yet at the same time, he still felt weirdly grateful that Gela hadn't outed them as brothers with benefits, so maybe the omen wasn't as hostile as it seemed...\n\nThe handsome shepherd was drawn out of his reverie by the sound of raised voices, which was rarely a good sign. Glancing across the room, it didn't take long for him to spot Gela standing defiantly, hands on hips, in front of a large, muscular horse (perhaps unnecessary descriptors, as [i]most[/i] horses are, in fact, fairly swole) who looked way madder at her than she looked at him. Standing just behind Gela, looking pissed but intimidated, were a pair of women holding hands and glaring at the horse. \n \"...I don't see 'no girls allowed' anywhere on the sign outside, buddy,\" she was saying, loudly enough for Eric to hear, \"You can't just give gay women shit for hanging out in a gay club!\" The horse let out a huff as only his species could, and looked around the room exaggeratedly - which allowed Eric to see that the front of his sleeveless shirt was emblazoned with the phrase 'RESPECT THE ALPHA', which pretty much told Eric everything he needed to know about the man.\n \"Oh God, really?\" he muttered, cringing. As an actual canid, he hated that whole 'live like an alpha male' nonsense the humans had made up a few years ago, as it had very, very, [i]very[/i] little to do with the way an actual alpha worked, either in morphic tribes or in feral packs. \n \"I know, right?\" murmured a skinny fox boy in a skirt that Eric hadn't noticed leaning against the bar, making him jump slightly, \"And I heard horse herds are anarchy, man, they don't even [i]choose[/i] leaders!\" Eric tried to work out what it was about the playful tod that reminded him of Milo, but the large horse was drawing his attention again.\n\n \"Is this a [i]joke?[/i]\" he asked, loudly, gesturing at the mouse in front of him, \"is someone here yankin' my goddamn chain? You send [i]her[/i] to deal with [i]this?![/i]\" He was gesturing incredulously up and down along his torso, emphasizing the bulging muscles under his shirt and on his arms. \n \"You need to lower your damned voice and calm the hell down, [i]right now[/i],\" Gela said, lifting her arms and crossing them over her chest. But Eric got the distinct impression that the 'alpha male's' ego had been wounded by such a small woman being the bouncer sent after him, and this only ticked him off further. \n \"Or what? Get out of here, you tiny piece of shit, or I'll - I'll flatten you with my dick!\" he laughed. He reached out and grabbed Gela's shoulder, clearly intending to just shove her aside and walk past to get back to bothering the nice couple behind her. What happened instead is that the mouse reached up with both hands, grabbed hold of his wrist, and threw herself to the side to put more force into it as she twisted his wrist backwards, [i]hard[/i]. \n\nThe horse bellowed out a pained neigh that drew every eye in the place that wasn't already looking, and with his arm upside down, preventing him from bending his elbow, he was suddenly locked in place with Gela behind him. \n \"[i]What did I tell you?![/i]\" she yelled, adjusting her stance. She drove out a foot and caught the horse behind the knee, knocking out his legs and bringing him down to his knees. \n \"Keep your voice down...\" she growled, and then, letting go of his arm, she hopped around in front of him, and pivoted in a semicircle that ended with a roundhouse kick to the side of his face. As the horse fell to all fours, groaning and holding his face, Gela bent down and leaned in close to finish making her point. \n \"...And [i]keep your hands off[/i]. Do you understand?\" He raised his other hand in a defensive posture, cringing away from her.\n \"Y-yeah, okay, you w-win!\" he insisted, fear in his voice, \"I'm g-going, I'm going!\" The club didn't exactly break out into applause as the guy stumbled to his feet and made a beeline for the door, but a few people who'd been near the large, sexist jackass actually cheered quietly. Eric smirked and went back to polishing glasses (something he didn't really need to do, but that people enjoyed seeing bartenders doing). Seemed like Gela was just as good at the job as he'd thought she'd be. Plus, he hadn't had to be the demonstration dummy this time!\n\nThings quieted back down quickly (so to speak; there was still loud dance music playing and people having a good time, of course) and Eric focused on the job. He'd thought the skinny crossdressing fox was about to ask him for his number when another fox, taller and brawnier, showed up and the slender one practically leaped into his arms. Watching a muscular man kissing a smaller, more effeminate male in a skirt made Eric feel a distant pang of envy, and his mind helpfully conjured up the thought of Milo whispering 'that could be us, but you playing' in his ear. Hmmm... Milo was clearly into the idea too, he'd been the one asking, but that also reminded Eric of the [i]last[/i] time Milo had asked him for sex, 'one last time, for old time's sake'. But as much as Eric struggled with the problem, he couldn't deny that there had been something... [i]missing[/i] in his life since he'd stopped fooling around with his brother, something that hadn't quite been there with the exes he'd dated since then. Even thinking about it now, he longed to hold the smaller dog in his arms, to rub his back and churr to him, to bask in the ego boost of how his mere presence made Milo feel safer. But there was always another customer, another order, to draw Eric back to the present before he could really make much sense out of these conflicting feelings. And so, he mixed and poured drinks, he uncapped beers, and he sent word to the kitchen in the back about rare food orders. There was a lot to do, of course, Eric just wished that he could focus entirely on his job or on Milo, rather than his thoughts endlessly wandering back and forth. \n\nNormally, Eric would put on the charm as he worked, get just a little flirty with the customers, in hopes of inspiring nicer tips. But tonight, he felt stiff and awkward, off his game. His smiles didn't quite reach his eyes, and he kept feeling like he was either being too subtle or too forward, but nothing in between. Eric's heart just wasn't in it, and he couldn't even hold it against himself. Still, he didn't let it stop him from getting the rest of the job done, and he was pretty pleased with the way he kept up with the orders despite the way he kept spacing out and thinking about what he hesitated to describe as his relationship problems. Towards the end of his shift, the troubled male was pulled away from weighing the pros and cons of incest by a customer that made him do a double-take. For just a second there, he'd thought the short, slender German shepherd at the bar was Milo... and he'd felt his heart-rate speed up at the sight of him. Thankfully, he had something to focus on instead of that reaction!\n \"What'll it be?\" he asked, with a practiced smoothness. Not-Milo smiled at him warmly and looked him up and down approvingly.\n \"Hmmm... how about you give me a slow, comfortable screw against the wall?\" The shorter dog asked with a playful smirk, his tail wagging merrily. \n\nEric was rather taken aback, blushing despite himself at the other canid's bold words, even going so far as to imagine himself taking this handsome shepherd from behind in the alley behind the club while the stranger moaned and pushed back against his thrusts... or maybe he was just letting his memories influence the scene. But he was able to push the enticing scene out of his mind because a 'Slow Comfortable Screw' was a drink he was familiar with, and 'Against the Wall' just meant topping it with Galliano. On the other hand, the guy [i]was[/i] touching Eric's hand where he leaned against the bar in an overly forward way... The taller male hadn't been with anyone in quite a while, and he'd be lying if he said he didn't feel, in the back of his mind, the mad temptation to abandon his responsibilities and go make out with this twink in a closet or something. On the other hand, his balls were still kinda sore, and even someone as non-confrontational as Mike would probably get pissed if Eric left the bar unmanned for any length of time, so he swatted that thought out of his mind.\n \"...Okay, so there are two versions of that order,\" he said, with a carefully neutral tone, \"One of them comes with vodka, gin, orange juice, and Southern Comfort, with Galliano on top, and hopefully doesn't leave you regretting it in the morning.\" He gently but smoothly slid his hand away from the other shepherd's. \"The other... isn't offered in this establishment.\" \n\nBlushing, the slender male frowned, leaning back from the bar and visibly trying not to look embarrassed, despite the red cheeks and the lowered ears. It actually reminded Eric even more of his brother, which in turn made the stranger seem even cuter, oddly enough. \n \"H-hey, I was just being friendly,\" Not-Milo said, defensively, \"You don't have to be all snotty!\" \n \"Is there a problem here?\" Both men turned to see Gela standing there, hands on hips, with, if anything, a slightly confused expression on her face. No one in the club had missed her handing that horse his ass earlier, so seeing the deceptively small mouse was making the stranger even tenser. \n \"N-no, no problems,\" the shorter dog assured her, \"I was just ordering a drink, and this guy's being an asshole about it.\" Gela's eyes flicked over to Eric wordlessly, simply waiting for him to fill the silence with the answer to the obvious, if unspoken question. \n \"He ordered a Slow Comfortable Screw, and I was confirming the cocktail's ingredients,\" Eric said, neutrally, continuing \"while politely explaining that if he expected anything [i]more[/i], the only tips I get on the job go in that jar behind the counter.\" He needlessly indicated it with his thumb, but Gela kept staring at him. Now she [i]definitely[/i] seemed confused. \n\nAfter a moment, Gela blinked and recovered. \n \"Right... Well, you, get the man his drink, and [i]you[/i], don't raise your voice to the staff,\" she said, glancing between them, before leaning in closer to the shorter German shepherd and adding, in a hushed tone, \"And don't raise your [i]tail[/i] to the staff either, go find someone who doesn't work here!\" Eric managed to stifle the snicker, but he couldn't help but grin as he prepared the drink. Topping it off with the Galliano to make it 'Against the Wall', Eric handed over the drink, and the embarrassed shepherd wordlessly paid for it and hurried off, suddenly very interested in the floor in front of his feet. The satisfied rodent had turned to watch him go, and now Eric was [i]very[/i] surprised to hear her chuckle to herself as she shook her head. Turning back to her co-worker/technical assault victim, Gela smirked.\n \"Hate to break it to you, Thompson, but I think your club's developed a reputation!\" she said, clearly quite amused by this - for about two seconds, at which point she froze in the middle of opening her mouth to say something else, took a longer look at Eric, and then just stood up straight, her smile vanishing back into that unreadably flat expression. It seemed almost practiced, and Eric distantly wondered if she used it to keep opponents from reading her in martial arts fights. Then he even more distantly wondered if kicking a dude in the dick was against the rules. \n \"...Right, well. Get back to work, and, uh, continue not fucking any twinks on the job...\" Gela said. Once again, the mouse leaned in closer to deliver the finisher in a lowered voice. \n \"...No matter [i]how[/i] much they look like your little brother.\" \n\nEric felt his heart start racing and he inhaled sharply in sudden anxiety, a German shepherd lowering his ears at that bar for the second time in five minutes. He instantly looked left and right, searching for prying ears, but no one else was even close to the bar, they were alone. [i]Knowing[/i] Gela knew the truth about them, could choose to reveal Eric's deepest secret at her leisure, had been paralyzing. Now, to have her acknowledge this [i]out loud[/i], while he was at work, suddenly made it feel even [i]more[/i] real, more dangerous. She seemed to frown at his reaction while he struggled to say something, [i]anything[/i], but Eric was still reeling from the sudden spike of fear, and Gela averted her eyes from his face, turning and walking away without another word. The anxious male realized he'd been holding his breath and let it out, leaning against the bar for a moment and relaxing - but just a little, since he still felt like he'd just been reminded that Gela was essentially walking around with a little remote control whose only button read 'Completely Destroy Eric Thompson's Life'. Taking a deep breath, the muscular dog poured himself a shot of whiskey. He wasn't normally a 'drink on the job' guy any more than he was a 'fuck strangers on the job' guy, but that had been some serious panic, and he needed to steady himself.\n\nFrom there, Eric's shift was pretty uneventful. The customers were only interested in food or drinks, and Gela didn't deliver any more veiled threats. Well, not to Eric, anyway... He took a break at one point to have himself a meal, compliments of the kitchen staff. Somehow, his problems didn't seem so bad while he was eating a steak sandwich with fries. His thoughts [i]did[/i] keep turning back to his brother, and the choice hanging over Eric's head of whether or not to get back together with him. The more he thought about Milo, though, the less worried Eric felt about that decision, interestingly.\n\nAt the end of the shift, as the last customers strolled out, leaning heavily on each other and giggling drunkenly, as the janitors came out to tidy the place up, Eric took a quick inventory of what they had behind the bar for the next shift. Strolling over to the employee break room, he glanced inside to see if anyone was around. He was usually alone by the time he finished checking all those taps and bottles, but today he found Gela Taylor sat at a table, scrolling determinedly through her phone. He hesitated for a moment, thinking he should flee, but then the shepherd took a deep breath and steeled himself. He couldn't be afraid of her forever, not if they were going to be co-workers, so he needed to try and extend an olive branch. Walking up behind her (but not within testicle-attack distance), he cleared his throat so as not to startle her when he spoke.\n \"Hey, uh, one for the road before I close out the bar?\" he offered. Gela turned and looked over her shoulder, glaring at him.\n \"Thompson...\" she sighed, but Eric raised both hands in a placating gesture before she could continue.\n \"Look... I get that you're not gonna invite me over for Christmas or anything, but I wanted to thank you for not... you know.\" He looked over his shoulder at these last words, suddenly worried about being overheard. \n\nBut Gela's expression didn't soften.\n \"Don't count yourself saved just yet,\" she warned, \"Maybe I just didn't wanna be the bitch that got the bartender fired because her old boyfriend decided one day he'd rather...\" She suddenly trailed off, closing her eyes and pausing to take a deep breath before she opened them again. \n \"Well... In any case, I'm not actually in a position to have anybody over for [i]anything[/i] right now, so...\" She shook her head and turned back to her phone, and Eric suddenly realized he recognized the app on her phone, as it was one of the places that he and Milo had tried to find a roommate. Given that the mouse seemed to be looking at a picture of a building, though, Eric took her previous comment to indicate she was looking for a place to live. Feeling strangely uncomfortable about the parallel between their lives, Eric turned and started to leave, but... thinking about Milo had brought up something in him that he'd managed to forget underneath all that fear. That a huge chunk of the terrible weight Eric had carried since everything went to Hell was because of how bad he felt [i]for[/i] Gela. \n '[i]No! Don't do it, you idiot! You'll be killed!'[/i] came the panicked thought immediately, but whether it was blind fear or the angel on his shoulder, the determined shepherd chose to ignore it. \n \"Listen, Gela...\" he started, but she whirled around and pointed a finger in his face. \n \"Nope! No no no!\" she interrupted, \"That is my nickname, that is what my [i]friends[/i] call me, and in case the kick earlier didn't make things clear, we are [i]nowhere near that[/i] right now.\" She flinched slightly, as if she hadn't meant to add those last two words. Nevertheless, she finished \"We are co-workers, so you call me [i]Taylor[/i].\" \n\nEric supposed he should have seen this coming after she'd been calling him 'Thompson' all night, but so be it, she wasn't [i]his[/i] ex...\n \"Taylor, then,\" he said, resisting the urge to make a dismissive gesture as he pushed through, \"I just wanted to say... We both messed up... Milo and I.\" He would later swear that every single muscle in Gela's entire body tensed up at the sound of Milo's name, and her eyes narrowed until her black pupils seemed to fill them entirely, but she said nothing.\n \"With everything that happened, I never got the chance to say it to you,\" Eric continued, \"So... I'm sorry, Angela. It was wrong of me to be part of that, and it was unfair to you. You deserved a [i]lot[/i] better... and I'm pretty confident if Milo was here, he would say the same thing.\" He wasn't one to push his luck, so having said his piece, he turned to leave. He'd only taken a couple of steps, though, before Gela called back to him.\n \"Hey! Tell Milo that if he's got his own apology, he should man up and tell me himself!\" she said, a defiant tone in her voice, \"Because otherwise, I've got a spare boot with [i]his[/i] name on it!\" As she spoke those words, she lifted her foot out in a mimed kick for helpful illustrative purposes. Eric swallowed nervously and nodded, and when Gela looked back to her phone, the German shepherd retrieved his jacket and hastily beat a retreat from the room. \n\nEric had felt an unusual relief as he walked from the club to his car, breathing deep of the cool night air as if he'd been stuck inside for days. He'd been so stressed about everything on his mind when he got to work, but after all that time fixating on Milo's question, he felt much calmer about it. He'd finally managed to get over that initial feeling like their lives would be completely destroyed if he made the wrong decision, and he was trying very hard not to think of it as being because Gela now had the ability to do that no matter [i]what[/i] Eric decided with Milo. It [i]was[/i] still a big decision, though, so it was no surprise that he was distracted enough that he was surprised when he found himself on their street. He'd apparently made a large chunk of the journey while lost in thought, driving on 'autopilot'. At least he was home, and it [i]felt[/i] like it took half the usual time. \n\nA distinct wave of weariness struck Eric as he walked into their apartment. Shrugging off his jacket and stepping out of his shoes, Eric yawned as he walked over to a chair and pulled off his socks so he could scruff his footpads against the carpet. He'd been on his feet for hours, so it felt quite good. The muscular male knew he was sleepy when he caught himself panting like a happy domestic, so as much as he was enjoying sitting down, he forced himself back to his feet and headed down his hallway. Glancing down at his feet, Eric sighed. He had been pretty confident he could come to a decision over the course of the shift, but it was like every time he started closing in on confidently making a decision - in either direction - he was suddenly overwhelmed with self-doubt, second-guessing himself back to uncertainty. The brooding shepherd tried not to worry about it now, deciding he would sleep on it, so he could come at it refreshed and talk it over with Milo in the morning. Speaking of which, Eric noticed that the door to Milo's room was halfway open even though the lights were out, which was unusual. Was Milo still awake? Could they talk now? Did poor tired Eric even want to? But when he glanced through the doorway (because how could he [i]not[/i] glance through the doorway?), a perfectly-placed beam of moonlight coming in the window revealed that Milo was sound asleep in his bed. The covers were all the way down to his waist, revealing his somewhat scrawny bare chest, and even in the hallway, Eric was struck by the thought that his brother looked cold. \n\nAfter standing in the door for a while, Eric sighed again, trying to resist the urge to intervene, because he just wanted to go to bed and sleep like the dead, but then he saw Milo pull his arms up to his chest, and the older male Knew he just couldn't leave him like that. Grumbling, he walked over to his own room, opened the door, and tossed his socks inside, then returned to his brother's room, fully intending to just slip in, pull the covers up without disturbing Milo, and slip out. But when he padded silently across the floor, Eric found himself hesitating as he looked down at his brother in the bed. Milo was fast asleep, a peaceful expression across his face, and Eric was struck by how rare it was these days to see Milo looking totally relaxed. Eric took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh as his eyes traced the contours of the younger shepherd's handsome face, and it was then that Eric realized exactly how tired he was. \n\nHe had been [i]so close[/i] to convincing himself that the right thing to do, the sensible thing to do, the safe thing to do, was for Eric and Milo to leave things the way they were, to be brothers and nothing but brothers. But... looking at Milo's face, all calm and relaxed and totally at ease, made Eric acutely aware of the walls he'd put up to separate himself from a simple truth, the walls he relied on in order to convince himself that he could live like this with Milo like everything was normal. To convince himself that the last thing he wanted was to climb into that bed and hold Milo in his arms. It reminded him how tired he was of keeping those walls up, and he shuddered silently as he just... let go. Eric had intended to be in Milo's room no longer than a few seconds, but suddenly, the idea of walking ten more steps to get to his own bed seemed entirely untenable. \n\nFinally making his move, Eric reached down and laid one hand on the bed, moving as if in slow motion to keep the mattress from creaking as he lifted the covers, lay down behind Milo, and pulled the blankets up to both of their necks, finally accomplishing what he'd come in there to do in the process. That being done, he reached out, slipped his arms around Milo, and gently tugged the younger male back against him. Milo stirred in his sleep, but as Eric's chest pressed against his back, as those muscular arms slipped around his chest to hold him snugly, the smaller shepherd relaxed again.\n \"[i]Eric[/i]...\" Milo sighed quietly, without waking, as a small smile appeared on his lips. Shuddering at having elicited that reaction from the other dog, Eric grinned and hugged his brother close, breathing deep of his scent. It had been so long since he'd held Milo, and yet even asleep, they still felt like a perfect fit. As he felt the weight of sleep tugging him down, down, down, Eric leaned in close to whisper in his brother's ear, knowing Milo wouldn't hear him and they'd have to have a conversation tomorrow, but wanting to give an answer to the question anyway while he was so certain of himself... of them.\n \"Yes...\"\n\n[center]* * *[/center]\n\nMilo found that he felt extremely content as he woke up, gradually rising to consciousness, his body surrounded by warmth. He was so comfortable, in fact, that he was all set to let himself drift back off to sleep, responsibilities be damned. Maybe he could still get back into that dream where he was cuddling with a femboy and a tomboy at the same time... But then he shifted ever-so-slightly, and that was all he needed to realize there was someone spooned up against him in his real, actual bed. His eyes flew open and he whimpered in fear, his heart suddenly racing, but it didn't take long before the panicked male realized he was surrounded by the scent of his big brother. The slender German shepherd sighed in instant relief and relaxed, looking over his shoulder and confirming Eric's sleeping face. He was relieved it wasn't a home invader, sure, but this did unleash many, many questions to run freely through his mind. What the hell was Eric doing in his bed? Did they have sex last night? Why couldn't he remember? His brain immediately conjured up a fantasy of Eric offering up a specialty he'd come up with at work and the two of them getting so drunk that they'd succumbed to passion... But no, that didn't make a [i]lick[/i] of sense, Milo's stomach felt fine, and that would [i]not[/i] be the case if he'd... what, woken up when Eric got home from his shift and gotten blackout drunk in the wee hours of the morning? Of course, dismissing that exciting thought meant he was once again faced with the same question as before: what the [i]hell[/i] was Eric doing here? \n\nMilo wasn't sure how to go about investigating, as Eric's arms were both limply wrapped around the younger male, and... well, he kinda liked it. It had been so long since he'd just laid there while someone held him, and a not-very-small part of Milo wanted to just snuggle back against Eric and go back to sleep, hadn't he invited him to start fooling around again anyway? But as much as he liked the fantasy of skipping right to cuddling, he knew there were some things they needed to talk about before they could even think about crossing that line. He reluctantly leaned forward, escaping Eric's grasp, and sat up. Pushing the covers back revealed that Eric was still fully clothed, and Milo had mixed feelings about that. \n \"Hey,\" he said, his voice husky and dry from sleep. Eric, traditionally a heavy sleeper, didn't budge an inch. Milo frowned, letting out a huff. He was going crazy wondering, he needed to know... but he couldn't help but think, as he looked upon Eric's handsome face all relaxed and peaceful like that, that he might have different priorities if his big brother hadn't worn his shirt to bed. Pushing the image of Eric's toned chest out of his mind (reluctantly), Milo reached over and grabbed his brother's shoulder. \n \"Hey!\" he repeated, \"Come on, Eric, what gives?\" This time, the larger male stirred, groaning quietly as his eyes tiredly fluttered open. When they locked on his brother (which took a few seconds under the circumstances), Eric frowned.\n \"Milo? What...\" He trailed off as he blinked, comprehension replacing confusion in his eyes. \"Oh right... I did that, didn't I...\"\n\nLeaning back into a kneeling position, Milo crossed his arms over his chest and did his very best to give Eric a grumpy look, but having only been awake for about eleven seconds longer, he didn't think he was doing a very good job... not that Eric could tell through the haze of awakening. \n \"Yeah, you [i]did[/i],\" Milo observed, \"so why'd I wake up with you spooning me?\" He hesitated for a moment, his ears struggling to remain upright. \"...Not that it wasn't nice,\" he finally admitted, blushing. Grinning but letting that one pass, Eric swallowed, trying to put his thoughts in order. \n \"Okay, look...\" he said, rubbing the bridge of his muzzle, \"I'm gonna be real with you: it was three in the morning and I had just gotten back from a long shift that [i]started[/i] with me getting kicked in the balls.\" Milo flinched sympathetically, but said nothing as Eric continued.\n \"I was dead on my feet, and then I saw you sleeping there, and... God, Milo, I remembered how it used to feel between us, how much I liked the, uh, you know... [i]intimacy[/i] that we had, and I... couldn't [i]not[/i] do it.\" \n\nNormally, Milo would tease him for being embarrassed to say 'intimacy', since so few things flustered Eric, but in this particular case, he was too busy blushing his whiskers off and covering his mouth from strong, sudden Feels to comment on it.\n \"...Not do [i]what?[/i]\" the younger male replied, with a return of the worry that something more had happened than spooning. Eric had been concerning himself with yawning and stretching, and when he saw the look of concern on his brother's face, Eric gave him a Look that was almost worthy of Anne's, or G- Well, anyway, he looked unimpressed. \n \"Not like [i]that[/i], you pervert, I just needed to, like, to hold you, to cuddle you!\" he insisted, blushing a little himself, \"I... I've missed you too, Milo! A lot more than I've been letting on.\" \n\nMilo was not proud of the fact that the moment Eric said that, he felt his backside clench down reflexively, as if anticipating the presence of Eric's hard cock. But he had more important things to worry about than his damnably subby instincts, because his heart was racing like [i]crazy[/i] from hearing that little confirmation, and he wanted absolutely nothing in the universe more than to let that whimper of joy escape, grab onto his brother, and French him like there was no tomorrow. He wanted it, Eric wanted it, it should have been no problem at all, and yet... Milo was afraid. He'd only realized (okay, more like [i]admitted[/i]) that this was even something he wanted last night, and now here was Eric, cuddling with him and telling him he wanted it too, and Milo was afraid they were rushing into things without thinking them through. Or rather, he was so afraid that they [i]might[/i] be rushing into things, that he was suddenly second-guessing every thought he had on the subject. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened the [i]last[/i] time they'd rushed into sex without thinking it through... \n\nAverting his eyes and toying with the leather cuff on his left wrist, Milo took a deep breath, feeling overwhelmed. It did not escape his notice that in the past, Eric had helped him calm down from moments like this by holding him in his arms... his big, inviting arms... Catching himself staring at his brother's biceps, Milo closed his eyes entirely. \n \"Oh man, Eric, I - I...\" he stammered, torn between how very badly he wanted it and how afraid he was of being hurt again. He silently cursed his tail for hiding nervously between his legs. Frowning sympathetically, Eric started to raise his arms. \n \"Let me -\" but he tensed up, visibly hesitating, his arms dropping back down as he tried again. \n \"We could -\" though once again, the larger male seemed to second-guess himself. It seemed Milo wasn't the only one feeling conflicted.\n \"Well...\" Eric finally said, trailing off lamely as he stared down at Milo's sheets. \n\nThis did not exactly help Milo's anxiety, was Eric less sure of himself than it appeared? But if he'd been sure enough to climb into Milo's bed and snuggle with him...\n \"Uh, hey, things feel tense,\" Eric observed, speaking slightly more quickly than usual, \"and neither of us are braining at full strength right now, sooooo, how about I go make us breakfast?\" He pushed off the covers, and started to get out of bed, but when he'd reached a sitting position, Milo surprised himself by suddenly leaning forward and hugging his big brother tight. Eric was almost as surprised, but he slowly hugged Milo back, as the younger shepherd's tail raised up from between his legs and began wagging. He wanted to try again.\n \"I was happy to hear you say that,\" Milo whispered, \"I j-just...\" He trailed off again, hesitant to push, to try for it, his mind swimming with what-ifs. As they leaned back from each other, Eric gave Milo a calm, confident smile. It helped.\n \"It's okay that it's complicated,\" he said, gently, \"One step at a time. Breakfast, right?\" He started to reach up, and Milo felt like Eric was about to pet his cheek, something he often did when comforting his brother, but once again, Eric's arm hitched and remained at his side. \n \"Y-yeah. Breakfast,\" Milo replied, nodding slowly, \"I guess that'll take a while, so, uh, I'm gonna hit the shower first.\" The brothers Thompson reluctantly separated, and Eric headed off towards the kitchen while Milo went to grab his towel. \n\nAs soon as he'd closed and locked the bathroom door behind himself, Milo allowed himself to whimper. He just rubbed his arms for a bit, trying to sort through his thoughts, figure out if the doubts were valid or if he was just afraid. Or did the fact that there were doubts [i]at all[/i] mean it was a bad idea? Sighing and regarding his dishevelled self in the mirror, Milo focused on taking slow, deep breaths to help steady his nerves. A lot of his problem was just panic from being confronted with it unexpectedly, he knew that, but it was so hard to sort through the rest, to figure out what was a good point and what was just... trauma. He focused on bathing himself to take his mind off the problem, and for the first time in several years, Milo took extra-thorough measures to clean his rump inside and out, the way he used to when anticipating getting railed by his big brother. Not that he thought they'd decide to get back together, of course, or expected anything sexy to happen, but... Maybe just in case. \n\nAfterwards, standing under the hot water made Milo feel a lot better in and of itself, feeling it streaming all over him, running through his saturated pelt and weighing his fur and hair down pleasantly. All of this with Eric had dredged up things he'd thought he'd succeeded in burying so far down, the light would never reach them. And yet, here he was, lingering in the shower like he could just wash away an old feeling with soap and a loofah. The thing about [i]shame[/i], though, is that it lingers, and it clings, and it doesn't like to let go. Ultimately, Milo decided he'd just have to be satisfied with feeling nice and clean again, and stepped out before he used up all the hot water and made Eric grumpy with him. \n\nOf course, a sopping wet morphic can't really make do with one towel, so Milo stepped into the dryer booth next to the shower and, like most people, just sort of spaced out while he stood there in the whirring air, catching himself idly daydreaming about Eric slipping into the booth with him while Milo was all naked and vulnerable and fluffy. Not that it wasn't a hot train of thought, just a bit complicated right now. His tail, wagging behind him as best it could while being buffeted by jets of air, didn't seem to mind how complicated it was. \n\nAfter slipping across the hall to his room wrapped in a towel, Milo proceeded to overthink what he was going to wear, before finally grabbing a simple pair of shorts and a graphic tee for the band Silencer. After adding a ring to one finger and putting the leather cuff with the built-in wristwatch back onto his left forearm, the slender shepherd took a deep breath and headed out to the kitchen, trying to look casual. He was slightly taken aback, however, when he found Eric wearing a pair of sweatpants, an apron, and seemingly nothing else, padding about on the tile floor of the kitchen barefoot and working on something on the stove. Milo's eyes traced the muscles in his big brother's back, his gaze almost as hungry as his stomach, before he called out to get the other dog's attention over the sound of the stove. \n \"Hey!\" he called as Eric glanced over his shoulder.\n \"Ah! Great timing, just about got it,\" the elder sibling replied, turning back to his frying. Walking over to him, Milo waited until he'd gotten Eric's attention again before gesturing up and down the larger male's mostly unclothed form. \n \"What gives? What happened to the bartender outfit?\" he asked. Eric gave him a Look. \n \"Man, those are my [i]work clothes[/i],\" he replied, dismissively, \"just because I fell asleep in them doesn't mean I love repping the job at home! I just wanted to be comfortable, and I haven't even had a shower yet so I didn't want to put on anything nice, okay?\" Milo grinned and crossed his arms as he leaned against the island in the middle of the kitchen. \n \"Oh, the sweatpants and no socks I get,\" he reassured his brother, \"the no-shirt apron look, not so much, you look like something out of one of those beefcake calendars for sad older women.\" Eric laughed and shrugged. \n \"I didn't feel like putting a shirt on,\" he said, plainly, \"But I also didn't feel like cleaning spattered grease out of my fur.\" \n\nMilo nodded, turning towards the table as Eric started turning burners down. He'd been about to say something else, but the thought was lost as Eric beat him to the punch.\n \"Speaking of, I haven't seen you wear that shirt in a while,\" he said, as he gently moved fried eggs and bacon and hashbrowns and other delicious things onto plates. Milo frowned as he looked down and saw the Silencer logo, and then he remembered. \n \"What? ...Oh.\" After overthinking what outfit would be right for kicking things off with Eric again (or possibly hiding in his room and eating his feelings, after deciding never to go back, not that he'd admit that) Milo had just grabbed a T-shirt at random, but now he realized he should have had a touch more care. \n \"Yeah, uh... Silencer was Gela's favourite band,\" he said, softly, spreading out the material to take a better look at the upside-down image. \"She actually bought me this shirt at that concert we went to together... Anyway, it just... reminds me of her, that's all.\" Milo suddenly realized his ears had lowered at some point, and he silently cursed them.\n\nEric frowned at that, though Milo didn't catch it, as he was suddenly studying his own socks. The shirt reminded him rather a [i]lot[/i] of Gela, actually, bringing back to mind so many happy and carefree times, making the shame of what he had done twist in his gut even more harshly than it had before. \n '[i]No... no!' [/i]he thought to himself, feeling it coming, [i]'No, I am [/i]not[i] going to...[/i]'\nFor his part, Eric had been staring at the stovetop without seeing it, and with a deep breath, he looked up. \n \"...Hey, uh, that reminds me, Milo,\" he said, trying and failing utterly to sound casual about it, \"some stuff happened at work last night, and I've really gotta talk to you about...\" The larger shepherd trailed off as he looked up and found Milo leaning against the entrance to the kitchen, pressing his forearm to his eyes, [i]almost[/i] masking the fact that the fur beneath them was glistening. His own ears dropping in sympathy, Eric inhaled sharply at the sight of his brother so distraught, and almost visibly swallowed his attempt to bring up Gela. \n \"Oh - oh Milo, c'mere,\" he said, hurriedly switching off the burners and ditching the slightly greasy apron before he walked over to the younger male and gathered him into his arms. Milo tensed up, feeling humiliated to be seen crying over this, and he was tempted to blow up at Eric and storm off... but he just didn't have the strength right now. \n\nMilo's muscles relaxed as he turned towards Eric and passively let his brother pull him into a close embrace. Milo closed his eyes, and found that right now, he wasn't seeing a thousand torturous memories of Gela. Right now, he could focus on being held by his big brother, on how comforting it felt to be encircled by those strong, supportive arms, on how deep down, where he was loath to admit it, Milo kinda liked the scent of Eric's musk, which stood out more than usual because he hadn't showered yet. \n \"Eric...\" he whispered, struggling hard to find the words to express himself - or indeed any words at all, at the moment. Fortunately, it seemed he didn't need them. \n \"It's okay, I've got you,\" Eric murmured to him, rubbing his back. After a few moments, Eric relaxed his grip slightly, leaning back and looking at Milo, giving him a look as he opened his eyes that was entirely sympathetic, lacking in the judgement the younger male had feared. \n \"Hey... hey, come on,\" Eric said, gesturing to the table and gently easing Milo over to it, \"Get something in your system, it will help, I promise.\" Sniffing, still feeling embarrassed to be caught in such a vulnerable moment, Milo nodded and sat down as Eric returned to the other side of the kitchen and eased everything onto plates for them. \n\nAt first, Milo just thanked Eric for the food and started eating, focusing on breakfast rather than trying to talk. It was admittedly fairly delicious, Eric clearly knew his way around a frying pan. When the smaller dog glanced up, he caught his brother watching him with a concerned expression. Looking back down at his eggs, Milo sighed silently, knowing he needed to explain.\n \"I... I'm sorry, Eric, I just... I thought my feelings for Gela would fade over time, but they haven't,\" he started, \"And - and lately I've been afraid that it's just going to go on hurting this bad forever, that I... I [i]ruined my life[/i], that it's just [i]not[/i] going to get better.\" He reached up and ran a hand through his hair nervously, his ears staying down after he pressed them that way.\n \"And [i]now[/i], I want to get back with you, uh... oh, fuck it - I want to be with you [i]so fucking bad![/i]\" Milo continued, delivering those last words through clenched teeth, \"But I've got this voice that keeps popping up and asking 'what if it happens again?' and I'm - and I'm so afraid that things could somehow get even [i]worse[/i], and that hurt would stay that way too!\" \n\nBy this point, Milo was hugging his arms tight to his chest and very slightly rocking back and forth on top of his chair, behaviour he was oblivious to, his thoughts focused on the storm inside him (and, occasionally, the bacon). Eric leaned forward in his own seat, reaching out towards Milo... but once again, something made him hesitate and stop. \n \"Oh Milo...\" he whispered, \"I - I think I understand...\" Eric paused for a moment as if considering something.\n \"...I'm scared too,\" he finally admitted. \n \"You? What do [i]you[/i] have to be scared of?\" Milo asked, incredulously, \"You [i]never[/i] doubt yourself like this!\" He gestured to himself as he said 'this', and the older male shrugged. \n \"Well, not like that, no, I'm not worried I'm gonna wreck my life if we fuck...\" After a moment, Eric rubbed at the back of his neck self-consciously.\n \"Well, maybe a little...\" he muttered, glancing off to the side. Milo followed his gaze, but all he could see was the discarded bartender's shirt hanging over the couch, and he wondered if his brother was thinking about work. \n\nTurning back to Milo, Eric sighed. \n \"My problem is that... look, Milo, you're, uh... kind of [i]suggestible[/i],\" he said, gently, \"And I keep thinking about how the last time I agreed to sleep with you, you're the one who ended up paying the price. So now... even though I want this too, I'm - I'm afraid to push for anything, in case it turns out it's not really what you want, and you're just doing it because your big brother wanted it!\" He looked away and started rubbing his forehead. Milo frowned at that. \n \"But I'm the one who started it last night!\" he protested, feeling that wasn't quite fair of Eric. \n \"Yeah,\" agreed the larger male, \"but right now, I don't know how you'd feel if you [i]finished[/i] it.\" Feeling a bit put off, Milo let out a huff and stared down at his plate. \n \"Great, I'm so messed up that [i]other people[/i] can't make sense of what to do,\" he muttered. \n \"I didn't mean it like [i]that[/i], Milo...\" Eric said, wincing, \"I just mean, sure, last night you kissed me out of nowhere, but in the space of twelve hours you went from wanting to try again to shaking at the thought that it might have happened. How can I think you're sure of what you want between those two?\" \n\nMilo whimpered quietly. It was such a reasonable point, but it made him feel even more unstable than he already did. \n \"I - I'm sorry...\" he whispered. He looked up as Eric reached across the table and put his hand on top of Milo's, triggering the younger shepherd's heart to start racing again. Why couldn't he just trust this feeling?\n \"It's okay,\" Eric assured him, \"There's no time limit on this, we don't need to figure this out right this instant if it's complicated and confusing, we can work through this.\" He gave his brother's hand a reassuring squeeze, and Milo found that it helped. So did the handsome smile Eric sent his way, if he was being honest. \n \"Thank you...\" Milo murmured, grinning back and pretending he wasn't blushing. After a few moments of silence, one of them brought up a new sci-fi series, and the two shepherds finished off their breakfast while talking about something much less stressful for the two of them. \n\nAfter the two of them polished off their plates, and Milo thanked his brother profusely for the delicious breakfast, Eric headed off to go take a shower, and Milo retreated to his room. He allowed himself to briefly fantasize about Eric's naked body under the hot, streaming water, but the anxiety threatened to return, so he sighed and flopped himself down on his bed. He found that he wished that Eric [i]would[/i] take charge, that his big brother would just storm into Milo's room, pin the smaller male to his bed, and... Oh, but that wasn't fair to Eric, he really [i]did[/i] have a point about not forcing things... Milo let out a canine whine and covered his face. Fooling around with Eric was supposed to [i]relieve[/i] stress, not [i]cause[/i] it! He had a feeling like he wasn't seeing the forest for the trees, like he was overthinking everything, going in spiralling circles, and normally when he was stuck in a loop like that, he would go and talk to someone for advice, or just bounce ideas off of someone. Milo growled softly at that, frustrated by the simple truth that the only person he could talk to about the idea of resuming his sexual relationship with his own brother was Eric himself! \n\nReleasing his face, Milo suddenly sat up, that last thought running through his mind again. \n \"Unless...\" he muttered aloud. Perhaps that truth wasn't so simple after all. He got his phone out, chewing his lower lip uncertainly, and then just sat there, staring down at the screen as it showed his sister Anne's contact listing. Anne was the only other person who knew all about Eric and Milo's past dalliances, and had even joined in on occasion. Milo [i]still[/i] shivered when he thought about that threesome they'd had on his birthday one year... But while Anne was extremely good at both doling out actually useful advice and helping her little brother calm down when he was agitated, she was also way too enthusiastic about her brothers fucking, as she was [i]convinced[/i] (for some insane reason) that Eric and Milo were secretly in love, and the way she used to tease them both about it had always driven both of the males up the wall. Eric, in particular, had gone so far as to specifically discourage the idea of telling Anne they were considering fooling around again, as she would surely never let them hear the end of it. ...But on the other hand, Milo had a sneaking suspicion from experience that he was just going to [i]keep[/i] thinking in circles and stressing out until something interrupted the spiral, and he didn't see many other options. \n\nClosing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, Milo mentally asked Eric to forgive him. Then, his heartrate already increasing, he pushed the call button. There were a few rings which took either four seconds or four hundred million years, it was hard to tell, but then the call connected.\n \"Hey Milo, what's up?\" came Anne's voice, sounding calm and pleasant. \n \"Hey Annie, just wanted to reach out, say hi,\" he replied, trying [i]very[/i] hard to sound casual. \n \"Oh yeah?\" she asked, her voice even.\n \"Sure, I thought I'd just, uh, check in, see how you're doing!\" Milo could [i]hear[/i] her eyes narrow in response.\n \"Uh-huh,\" Anne replied, dubiously, \"And yet, you're talking in your 'I'm stressed to the max and I need advice' voice.\" Milo blinked, blushing and lowering his ears at how effortless that had seemed. \n \"Wh- goddammit, Annie...\" he muttered, \"You're not even [i]here[/i], how do you [i]do[/i] that?!\" \n \"It's not my fault if I can read you like a book, even over the phone,\" giggled Anne, before her tone softened, \"C'mon, little brother, what's bothering you?\"\n\nMilo was hesitant for a million reasons, but it helped a little when he closed his eyes and imagined Anne sitting in front of him. \n \"Well... don't make too big a deal out of this, but, um, Eric and I were sort of... talking about, uh, s-starting to fool around together again,\" he said, every little bit of his face flushed with embarrassment. Milo had been expecting his sister to tease him, but what came over the line was a plasticky WHACK sound instead of Anne's voice. \n \"Annie? Annie, are you there?\" he asked, frowning. The slender male had just enough time to wonder if the connection had been broken somehow before he had to pull the phone away from his head, as a sudden scream of excitement came through the speaker. Despite himself, Milo couldn't help but smile a little; he was pretty sure that when he told her they were thinking about starting things up again, she'd dropped her phone in shock and delight. \n\nMilo pulled his phone in close again as he heard the scrabbling sounds of the other phone being picked up.\n \"Sorry about that,\" Anne said, cheerfully, \"Butterfingers!\" She started to say something else, but then stopped herself. The 'why' answered itself a moment later as Milo heard the sound of Anne's boyfriend's voice in the background. Sean sounded cautious, of all things.\n \"Hey, babe...\" he said, gently, \"Everything... okay?\" \n \"Better than okay,\" she assured him, \"Sorry about that, hon.\" \n \"Okie-dokie...\" said Sean, though even through the phone and at a distance, Milo got the distinct impression that the border collie was not entirely reassured. \n \"...Alright, [i]dish[/i],\" Anne said, presumably once Sean was out of earshot, \"How long have you been talking about this?! When I was there on Saturday, you said nothing had changed!\"\n \"Well, that's the thing!\" Milo replied, \"Nothing [i]has[/i] changed, not really, we've just been talking about it since yesterday. And, uh, it's complicated. That's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about...\" \n \"Oh?\" Milo reached up and rubbed at the back of his neck, distantly wondering if he was ever going to stop blushing again. \n \"Well...\" he started, hesitantly, \"It's like, I feel like I want Eric back, like I really, [i]really[/i] want Eric back, but every time I think about it, there's all this doubt and fear that come with it, and I can't tell which parts are valid and which aren't.\" He sighed and rubbed his forehead. \n \"I... I kissed him yesterday,\" he blurted out, before Anne could speak, \"Part of me feels like I shouldn't have, but another part feels like that's just because of...\" Another sigh, another pause. \"I've just... cut myself off from so many things that made me happy since the incident. I haven't really made any new friends at college, because I've been scared to risk ruining something [i]else[/i]. And even with Eric right in front of me, and at least not [i]seeming[/i] opposed to the idea of starting over... I don't know, Annie, what if I'm just trying to reach back for the last time I was happy, and it doesn't even [i]work[/i] because too much has changed?\"\n\nMilo let out a shuddery breath, feeling like a weight had lifted from his chest. He opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling of his room. It looked exactly the same as it had the last time he'd looked at it (notwithstanding the spider in the corner). Finding something oddly comforting in that consistency, Milo was about to say something when Anne beat him to the punch. \n \"I'll bet you feel better after saying all that, huh?\" she said quietly. \n \"Uh-huh,\" Milo admitted sheepishly. \n \"I think you might feel even [i]better[/i] if you said it to [i]Eric,[/i]\" the elder shepherd replied, fairly pointedly. Despite himself, Milo whimpered. \n \"I - I told him [i]some[/i] of it...\" he said, more defensively than he'd like. \n \"That's good,\" she said earnestly, \"it's important to listen to your heart, but open communication helps more than anything else in a relationship.\" Milo nodded at first. \n \"Right,\" he agreed, before another interpretation of her words occurred to him. \"...Wait, what?\" The troubled male's left eyelid twitched of its own accord, as if it already knew what Anne was about to say.\n \"By the way, have you told Eric that you're in love with him yet?\" she asked, calmly, casually, and as evenly as can be. \n\nMilo groaned out loud, somehow absolutely certain that his sister was smiling a certain smile, the one she'd only ever shown to him while she was shipping her older and younger brothers together romantically like a pair of characters from her beloved animes. \n \"C'mon, Annie, I told you, nothing really changed!\" he protested, \"We're not a [i]couple[/i], we're just talking about casual sex! Brothers with benefits! And I - I'm [i]not[/i] in love with Eric!\" The grumpy shepherd suddenly noticed that his heart was racing again, and frowned even harder, silently insisting to himself that he was just agitated. \n \"[i]Right[/i],\" Anne replied, in a tone of voice she'd carefully cultivated over the years for just such conversations, maddeningly managing to convey both 'I know more than you do' and 'just you wait and see' at the same time. \"Just like you weren't bi, you were 'straight with an exception'.\" The younger dog gasped out loud in surprise, but couldn't help but grin a little at his sister's audacity.\n \"You bitch!\" he laughed, without much fire behind it, \"Don't you use my coming-out story against me!\" \n \"Just like you weren't a [i]big, subby bottom[/i], you just had a sensitive prostate, right Milo?\" she said, as if he hadn't spoken. \n \"That's not fair!\" he groaned, hiding his face as if she could see him, \"I [i]do[/i] have a sensitive prostate!\"\n\nAnne giggled to herself for a moment, before lowering her voice and replying \"I know, sweetie, I have fond memories of getting you off with one finger under your tail...\" Her voice raised, switching to a less teasey tone, as Milo felt himself reflexively clench again. \"My [i]point[/i] is that you can keep those walls up and say whatever you want about how you feel, but the worst person you could fool with a falsehood is yourself.\" The youngest Thompson swallowed, feeling strangely anxious for reasons he wasn't at all interested in delving into right now. \n \"That... sounds like good advice, but Annie, w-we are [i]not[/i] in love, I swear!\" he insisted, \"I mean, Eric's p-pretty open with his feelings, and [i]he's[/i] never said he's, uh, in love with me!\" \n \"Oh yeah? What [i]did[/i] he say when you told him some things?\" she asked, undeterred. \n \"W-well, he said he wants it too, but he's afraid of pushing for it because I'm all confused and he's not sure if it's what I really want,\" Milo explained, \"He, uh... did say it might be better to not try again, after what happened last time...\" He was not encouraged when Anne giggled again. \n \"There, you see?\" she said, happily, \"What says 'I love you' more than 'I'll let you go if that's better for you'? Honestly, Milo-chan, you're such a [i]tsundere[/i].\"\n\nWhile Anne tittered to herself about her weeb nonsense (Eric's term), Milo closed his eyes again and swallowed a heavy sigh. He also resisted the urge to continue protesting her shipping, suspecting it would only encourage Anne to ship them even harder. Her dedication was almost flattering, in a weird way... \n \"Annie, please...\" he said, quietly. He knew she had a weakness to a sad tone in his voice. \n \"Okay, [i]okay[/i], but I'm totally going to say 'I told you so' when you two confess your feelings,\" the playful bitch replied, \"Besides, it's just... not as much fun to tease you if I can't see you blushing adorably or squirming on the spot.\" \n \"Oh, of course,\" Milo agreed, rolling his eyes. \n \"Listen, little brother,\" Anne said, in a slightly more serious tone, \"You're trying to figure out if this is what you want, if you're ready for this, right? Well, 'ready' isn't always something you can recognize until you're in the middle of it. [i]Particularly[/i] with emotional readiness. But if you trust the people you're with, and I certainly hope that's the case, all you should have to do is say stop, and everything stops.\" \n \"That... makes sense, I think,\" said Milo, nodding slowly. \n \"And as for the confusion surrounding your feelings, fear and doubt can be [i]louder[/i] than your other emotions, but that doesn't mean they're [i]stronger[/i] than those other emotions. If you can find a way to calm yourself down a little, your heart won't lead you wrong.\" \n\n \"Thanks, Annie, I think that helps,\" Milo said, distantly wondering if she'd taken that from a yaoi plotline, \"I'm glad I have you to talk to about this stuff.\" \n \"You're welcome, anytime,\" Anne said without hesitation, \"Apparently I'm good at that.\" \n \"...What do you mean?\" Milo asked, his ears lifting curiously. \n \"Oh, not to gossip, but, ah, let's just say that if I had a nickel for every time this month a guy has admitted to me he's starting up a relationship with his brother, I'd have ten cents. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice...\" \n \"Wait, [i]what?![/i]\" Milo asked, blinking, sitting up on his bed in surprise, \"Who was that?!\"\n \"Sorry, it's a secret,\" Anne teased, \"Unless you'd be okay with me telling people about you and Eric?\"\n \"Okay, okay, forget I asked...\" \n \"Smart choice. Oh, and Milo?\"\n \"Yeah?\"\n \"If you and Eric really [i]do[/i] get back together again, I just want you to know... I'd like you to film it for me since I won't be able to be there.\" Milo smiled, but managed not to laugh, not daring to encourage her.\n \"...I'm hanging up now, Annie.\"\n \"Alright,\" she laughed, \"Bye, little brother, I love you!\" \n \"Bye, love you too!\" \n\nHanging up the phone, and of course feeling like he'd completed a great task, Milo laid back down and sighed, relaxing a little as he started to ponder his sister's words. Well, [i]some of[/i] his sister's words. Telling Eric more about his fears was a good idea, after all, and while he could have done without the romantic accusations, he had to admit, her comment that readiness isn't always something you recognize had given him something to think about. Before he could delve into that any deeper, though, Eric, fresh out of the shower, leaned around the corner of Milo's doorframe, his fur shiny and clean, clad in nothing at all but a towel. Milo inhaled sharply upon seeing so much of his brother's muscular body, and he found that he instantly imagined Eric strolling over to Milo's bed and dropping his towel so that he could take the younger male in both arms and kiss him... Milo swallowed even as he felt his butt clenching yet again, acutely feeling how long it had been since he'd gotten laid. \n \"Hey Milo?\" called Eric, holding up his phone with the hand that wasn't holding his towel in place, \"Why do I have a text from Anne that's just a bunch of A's?\" \n \"Oh God...\" Milo groaned, burying his face in his hands... but still smiling underneath. \n\nEric tilted his head to the side, clearly not missing the self-consciousness in Milo's body language.\n \"Wait, she didn't get it out of you, did she?\" Eric asked, \"That we're thinking about - you know.\" Milo averted his eyes and chose his words very carefully to avoid incriminating himself.\n \"You can't prove that...\" he murmured, as if it were true and he were embarrassed about it.\n \"[i]Milooooo[/i], now we'll never hear the end of it!\" the taller, nakeder shepherd groaned, before sighing and contining \"Ah, I figured it was coming anyway, I fuckin' swear that woman's [i]telepathic[/i] sometimes...\" Milo nodded gratefully and swallowed again as his eyes were drawn back to Eric's abs, wondering how Eric would react if Milo [i]took[/i] the towel from him. While the slender male was helplessly fantasizing, Eric glanced at the kitschy Felix the Cat clock on Milo's wall. \n \"Hey, don't you have class today?\" Eric asked, as Milo idly wondered if it still counted as navel-gazing if it was someone else's navel. It took a moment for the words to sink in. \n \"Oh! [i]Shit[/i], you're right...\" Milo said, tensing up for a moment as he looked at the clock and panicked for a split-second over being late. And then... He closed his eyes and shook his head, centring himself. \n \"...Eh, they're just reviewing the stuff they already taught today, and I'm kinda [i]dealing[/i] with some stuff,\" he said, opening his eyes to see a small smile on Eric's lips that suggested he was pleased Milo was staying home. The younger male couldn't help but shyly smirk back.\n \"Plus, it's college,\" he added thoughtfully, \"if I miss a day, nobody gives a shit.\" \n\nEric nodded at that, then glanced down at the phone still in his hand (because he had no pockets, of course).\n \"Well, I'm gonna go put some pants on and decide if I should play dumb with Anne or not,\" he mused, \"You stay here and, uh, I don't know, keep being cute.\" \n \"I'm not 'cute',\" Milo lied, defensively. \n \"Sure you're not,\" Eric agreed, with a smile much less earnest than his tone. He chuckled to himself, turned around, and headed back to his room. \n \"Quit checking out my ass,\" he called cheerfully, as Milo checked out his ass. \n \"You don't know me,\" Milo called back, unable to keep the smile out of his voice.\n '[i]Huh, I feel less tense about Eric[/i],' Milo thought to himself, '[i]Is this why you're supposed to imagine the audience naked if you're stressed about public speaking?[/i]' He didn't have an answer for that, so he grabbed his tablet from the corner table where it had been charging, and thought he'd get some drawing time in, since he was skipping class and all. \n\nAlone in his room, Milo began to draw, starting up with scribbles and random doodles to get warmed up, nothing particularly profound. He drew a cartoony kiwi bird sitting on a football, after seeing a fun fact on his timeline the previous day about how oddly large their eggs are compared to their bodies. He distantly wondered if that applied to the morphics too, and winced at the idea. Clearing the nonsense he'd filled the canvas with, Milo stretched out and settled back against his pillow, getting comfy before deciding, based on his (cough) recent chance to study the subject (cough cough), that he would practice his anatomy, specifically the male form. He'd put on headphones (which for a dog were mounted on top of the headband) to listen to some nice, calm classical music in the background, 'nothing exciting enough to distract me' as he liked to put it. He was serenely humming along, sketching a figure from behind, leaning way forward onto one leg while the other was rigidly straight behind him. Milo liked it because it would let him practice drawing both bent and straight muscles at weird angles. And also because it showed off the rump very nicely. \n\nAs he drew, Milo thought about the last time he'd seen Eric in a towel; he'd been dancing lewdly while his phone blared 'Hot Stuff' behind him, and Milo had found it both hilarious [i]and[/i] arousing. He smiled as he remembered Eric finally pulling off the towel and whipping it around Milo's shoulders, pulling the skinny shepherd into his arms for a kiss. That, in turn, reminded Milo of the first time they'd kissed, and how hard his heart had been beating. He'd been so nervous when they were first getting together, but Eric moved slow and made sure Milo was comfortable with stuff before he tried things, even if he [i]was[/i] teasing him playfully the entire time. God, he [i]still[/i] blushed when he thought about the way Eric used to whisper to him right before he came... Almost every canine is secretly into being called a Good Boy or Girl, and Milo was no exception. \n '[i]Thaaaaat's it, little brother, just let go and shoot your load allllll over yourself like a [/i][i]good boy[/i]...' Eric's voice whispered in his mind, making Milo whimper out loud and focus on something less exciting, like cuddling. He always felt so [i]safe[/i] when Eric was holding him, as if for a few moments, none of his problems could touch him. \n\nHe didn't notice, but for the first time in a while, Milo was smiling softly as he drew, as that last thought had reminded him of this morning. Aside from that initial fright, it had felt kinda nice to be held like that again. Maybe he should have gone back to sleep after all... The serene male thought he'd made the arms look particularly inviting, probably because of his train of thoughts, so he kept going, thinking about the way Eric was always there for Milo when he was down, always willing to offer an ear to listen to his brother's problems - or, on occasion, offer a mouth to distract Milo from his frustrations with a blowjob. Milo was pretty sure Eric had always really enjoyed sucking his dick, but in keeping with the Bro Code, he hadn't commented on it. Eric wasn't the one who enjoyed being teased, after all. Suddenly blushing, Milo amended that last thought to insist that [i]he[/i] wasn't into being teased either, but otherwise he still felt tons better than he had for most of the last month. \n\nAs he continued detailing the muscular figure, adding the vague stylings of fur now, Milo found himself looking over the last few minutes, and how calm he'd been thinking about his past with Eric, in stark contrast to the fear that gripped his heart when he tried to think about the future. It was reminding him of the good old days, when being with Eric had made Milo feel warm and good, and (slightly) less prone to fretting over stuff. Which lead, as it often does, to a further revelation, as the skinny male blinked to himself.\n \"...Wait. Is [i]that[/i] why I've felt this way this whole time?\" He muttered out loud, \"I've been talking about getting back with Eric, but I've been all fixated on the Incident, not on the parts that [i]didn't[/i] make me want to die!\" A moment later, Milo sighed, his ears lowering as he mulled over his thoughts. He squirmed where he lay, and idly fussed at the leather cuff on his left arm. After a short time, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath to centre himself, sitting up slightly more and returning his attention to his tablet, where he'd been detailing the tail. He'd barely drawn a couple of lines, however, before something occurred to him. Without even thinking about it, he'd drawn a dog's tail on the body he was drawing, not too skinny, not too fluffy. Zooming back out to take a look at the full sketch again, Milo's ears raised back up in surprise. \n \"It's Eric!\" he gasped, shocked. \n\nIt was true, the image he'd been drawing wasn't just a muscular male figure, it was clearly a German shepherd, and it seemed to be a [i]specific[/i] German shepherd. While he was drawing, lost in thought, Milo hadn't even slowed down to consider what species to make the figure, much less the shape of his ears and tail, and the outlines of his fur patterns. \n '[i]How did I not notice?![/i]' he thought to himself, '[i]I was even thinking about Eric while I drew it![/i]' Milo had assumed he'd tended to draw shepherd dogs in his doodles because that's what he was most familiar with. Indeed, it took up the majority of his folder, the rest being a grab bag of society: cats, mice, bovines, horses, otters, mice. \n '[i]I should get some practice drawing birds[/i],' he thought, distantly, before catching that thought and frowning. \n '[i]Okay, yes, but that's hardly the point right now![/i]' he retorted to himself. It looked like he'd been drawing his big brother over and over, without consciously realizing it, for months now. Holding his tablet in his right hand, Milo absently lifted his left hand to his chest and held it there for a moment as he ran this information around in his mind. How had he been so oblivious for so long? \n\nSetting the tablet aside, Milo stood up and began pacing back and forth across his room. He worked his lip between his teeth and frowned, pondering. \n \"Every time I've thought about getting back with Eric, I've been terrified something as bad as the Incident is going to happen, I haven't spent any time thinking about the [i]important[/i] part!\" he exposited to himself. The slender male rubbed his chin as he continued. \"Being with Eric makes me feel better about myself, and we used to fool around [i]all the time[/i] without anything catastrophic happening!\" After a moment, a thoughtful look came over his face. \"Though we really [i]do[/i] need to get better about locking doors...\" Picking the tablet back up and looking at the drawing on it, Milo smiled softly, his tail wagging behind him. \n \"I was so afraid that I lost sight of the most important detail of all... Eric makes me happy.\" \n\nHe wasn't one hundred percent convinced he was ready, or that moving forward with Eric was the right decision... but now he had a bit of clarity to show him that it [i]felt[/i] right. Besides, Anne had told him that he might feel that way, and he was pretty confident that Eric would back off the moment Milo stopped feeling comfortable about something, like Anne had suggested the right person would. As his heart began to beat faster, Milo let out an excited giggle, then grinned self-consciously about it. He couldn't [i]wait[/i] to tell Eric! The main thing that seemed to be holding Eric back, at least to Milo's eye, was Milo's own hesitation and uncertainty. Surely if he was more gung-ho about it, Eric would be only [i]too[/i] happy to give Milo a nice, brotherly dicking. The lewd shepherd shivered pleasantly as he thought about it, but forced himself to calm down. First thing to do was to [i]find[/i] Eric. Given the size of their place, he was pretty confident he was up to the challenge. \n\nSure enough, no sooner had Milo stepped into the hallway than he heard Eric's muffled voice coming from his bedroom; the door had been left partially open. The eager dog's ears perked up at the sound, and his tail began to wag just a little faster in anticipation. Milo headed over and was all set to push the door all the way open and address his brother until he heard Eric speak up again, more clearly this time.\n \"I don't know,\" he said, buried frustration obvious in his voice, \"I've sat down and spent time trying to work through it, trying to think my way around it, but it's like I'm going [i]crazy[/i] or something, Anne, I just keep thinking in circles.\" That caused Milo's ears to stand all the way up in surprise. \n '[i]Since when does [/i]Eric[i] call Annie for advice?[/i]' the younger male thought, frowning slightly, '[i]I thought he was the one who had his shit together...[/i]' Without thinking, he nosily leaned around the corner to take a look. Fortunately, Eric was sitting on his bed with his back towards the door, one hand holding up the phone as the other toyed with the sheet in uncharacteristic nervousness. Remembering he was supposed to be snooping, Milo quickly leaned back out into the hallway and silently pressed himself against the wall next to the open door. \n \"You can say [i]that[/i] again,\" Eric sighed, \"It's like, everything inside me tells me that this is right, that this is what I want, and Milo's [i]told[/i] me it's what he wants, too, so I feel like I should reassure him, comfort him, tell him the world won't end just because we fuck again... But every time I try, I just think of - of that fucking night, and how my judgement was so clouded by the way I [i]felt[/i] that I fucked a guy with a girlfriend... I'm just afraid that my judgement could be off again, and I wouldn't even feel the difference!\"\n\nMilo's ears had lowered again in concentration, working his brother's words through his mind. He'd been [i]so sure[/i] Eric's doubts were because of Milo's own, he hadn't realized how deeply his former (and future?) lover's worries went. \n \"Oh, yes, very helpful,\" Eric murmured, with a tired, sarcastic tone that suggested he was rubbing his forehead with his free hand, \"Thanks a bundle, Anne.\" A moment passed, and then Eric sighed again.\n \"Well, what do you [i]want[/i] me to say?\" he asked, frustrated, \"Hearing that 'worrying about making a mistake is the first step to avoiding one' doesn't help me if I still [i]don't know[/i] if this is a mistake!\" In the hallway, Milo had to swallow a whimper. Had Eric made special efforts to hide this side of himself from Milo? Because he didn't want him to worry? ...Or had Milo simply been too absorbed in his own pain to even [i]notice[/i] his brother's problems? The thought made him feel like a bit of a bad person, especially given that he was eavesdropping on this conversation in the first place! \n\nSuddenly rather chagrined, the slender shepherd leaned away from the wall, feeling like he should stop being so nosy and leave his brother to his private conversation with their middle sister. But he found himself lingering again when Eric broke the silence.\n \"Sorry, it's just... really hard for me to talk about this stuff,\" he said, quietly, \"It's... frightening, to be so sure I know what the right thing to do is... and to doubt it anyway because it's coming from [i]me[/i].\" Milo bit his lip, wanting more than anything else to go and comfort Eric - no matter [i]how[/i] strange that sounded in his head - but paralyzed from acting by the knowledge that he shouldn't have been listening in. He swallowed a whimper and turned away, walking out to the living room and sitting down on the couch, not seeing any of the things he passed on the way as he pondered his big brother. Milo wasn't used to seeing that level of vulnerability in Eric; he'd almost sounded scared. Milo found that he wasn't surprised, somehow, that if there was anyone Eric trusted for advice on these things, it was Anne. Eric had a much lower tolerance level for Anne's particular shenanigans, though, so she'd probably had to promise to hold off on explicitly comparing Eric and Milo to gay Japanese porn comics. Which meant, now that Milo thought about it, that she was probably trying to slip subtler messages in when he wouldn't notice. \n\nSighing yet again, it being a fairly sigh-worthy day, Milo looked down at his lap, and was halfway surprised to discover his tablet still in his hand. \n \"Oh yeah,\" he murmured absently, and set it down next to him on the couch. He was more concerned with thoughts of his big brother, and how he could help assuage Eric's fears. Eric putting on a brave front for Milo's sake didn't sit well with Milo, and he liked the idea of the two of them helping to support each other. After a moment's reflection, he smiled. It had been some time since they'd come together like [i]that[/i] instead of in other, less wholesome ways. \n\nMilo sat on the couch, thinking through how he felt and what he'd heard, more or less just waiting for Eric to emerge on his own. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait very long before the older shepherd stepped out of his room and headed out to the living room... just as Milo remembered the tablet full of suspiciously familiar male figures. Trying not to panic, he hastily reached over and shoved it to the side, under one of the decorative pillows, though Eric didn't seem to notice. From the look on his face, he hadn't found his call with Anne to be quite as helpful as Milo had. He was staring off into the middle distance as he walked, hands in his pockets, seeming all broody and dejected. Milo was kind of into it, frankly. \n \"Uh, hey,\" Milo said, trying to keep it casual. This didn't seem to help, as Eric started slightly, turning towards the couch, seeming earnestly surprised to see Milo there. \n \"Oh!\" he said, before frowning ever-so-slightly and adding \"How long have you been there?\" He seemed slightly concerned, and a self-conscious Milo realized that the larger male was afraid of having been overheard. \n \"Er, not long, just got here,\" he lied, avoiding Eric's gaze as he did so, \"You okay?\"\n \"Oh, sure, I'm alright, no worries,\" Eric lied back, \"Don't mind me, I was just, uh, thinking about the roommate situation. But, um, while I've got you here, something happened at work that I wanted to talk to you about...\" \n\nEric walked around the coffee table and went to the couch, clearly intending to sit down next to Milo and have a heart-to-heart. Milo was genuinely interested in whatever Eric had to tell him... but then the muscular shepherd happened to pick the spot with the decorative pillow on it to sit down. Not wanting to have to replace an expensive bit of tech, Milo threw discretion clean out the window.\n \"[i]Watch out![/i]\" he said, reaching out a hand to stop Eric from crushing the tablet.\n \"Oh, sorry!\" the elder male said, looking behind him. He brushed the pillow aside, and before Milo could stop him, he reached down and took hold of the tablet.\n \"What's this?\" he asked curiously.\n \"Oh, uh...\" Milo stammered, beginning to blush. He struggled to keep his ears upright, but already felt them lowering as Eric took in the view of the suspiciously familiar figure Milo had drawn just earlier. \n\nSince this particular hunk was facing away from the viewer, Eric just smiled politely while Milo sweated. \n \"Hey, this is really nice,\" Eric said, leaning forward on the couch, really studying the image in his hands, \"Is this timestamp accurate? Did you really just start this like an hour ago? Damn, son...\" He looked over at Milo, who smiled shyly. \n \"You've never shown me your sketches before,\" Eric mused, \"I've only seen finished products. Now I kinda feel stupid for never asking... Makes it seem like I wasn't taking interest in your stuff. And that definitely isn't true, I love your work, little man!\" As he spoke, he began to scroll, and Milo's heart skipped a beat, which was a strange sensation so soon after being filled with pride from Eric's words. \n \"Wow, you've got a real sense of anatomy, lot of good-looking dudes in here,\" Eric observed, pinch-zooming to examine one shepherd's rump. \"Heh, this one has a nice ass.\" \n \"Y-yeah, you know, it's super important to get the butt right, hehe...\" Milo said, rubbing at the back of his neck nervously. \n \"I'm just wondering, how long does it take you to...\" Eric trailed off as he scrolled again, tilting his head to the side and regarding a bust drawing, a figure depicted only from the chest up. \n \"Wait... is this one [i]me?[/i]\" he asked quietly. Milo looked around, but sadly, there wasn't a convenient fire for him to die in rather than have this conversation.\n\n \"Umm, well, see...\" Milo started, already close to hyperventilating, \"I've been th-thinking about you a lot today, all that s-stuff we'd been talking about, you know?\" Eric glanced over at him again before regarding the screen.\n \"Milo, only that [i]first[/i] one was timestamped an hour ago,\" he said, dashing Milo's hope that he hadn't noticed, \"[i]This[/i] one was from back on the third. Wait a second...\" As he spoke, he scrolled again, back to that first one. \n \"Is this one me too, then?\" he asked, looking even more carefully at the sketches than before. \"Milo, there's a [i]bunch[/i] of shepherds in here...\" He gave his little brother a Look, demanding an explanation without a word. Milo was already falling all over himself to provide one, of course, shaking his hands placatingly.\n \"I-i-it's not what it looks like!\" he insisted, \"I d-didn't do it [i]on purpose[/i], I just meant to be drawing dudes, and uh, it just kept coming out... as you.\" Eric glanced back and forth between the tablet and his brother, smirking slightly.\n \"So... you've been drawing me... over and over again... for months... completely subconsciously?\" he asked, raising one eyebrow. Milo whimpered, feeling like his blush would be bright enough to light up the room if the power went out. \n \"Y-yeah, that's about the long and short of it...\" Milo muttered, quoting their father Alexander. \n \"How long has this been happening?\" Eric asked, scrolling again, \"I mean, this one is wearing a Santa hat!\" \n\nMilo sighed and rubbed his forehead. \n \"I - I don't know, I only just realized it earlier, after I finished drawing that first one,\" he admitted, \"I didn't even realize I drew so many dogs, let alone that they were you!\" He looked up, surprised, as Eric chuckled.\n \"You know, Milo, it kinda feels like there's some subtle symbolism here, but I can't seem to put my finger on it...\" The younger male felt a shudder of relief run down his spine as he relaxed a little. He couldn't express in words how much weight came off his shoulders when he heard that Eric wasn't mad or creeped out. \n \"I guess you've been, uh... on my mind longer than I realized,\" Milo admitted quietly, studying the shag rug on the floor far more intently than he had when Eric brought the thing home from somebody's yard sale. \n \"Heh, probably explains why I was so certain last night...\" he mused, thinking about that kiss. He started slightly as he felt his brother's touch, Eric gently turning Milo's chin so they were facing each other. \n \"And, ah... how are you feeling about [i]today?[/i]\" Eric asked, \"Because if you don't mind my saying so, you sound a lot less stressed than you did earlier... at least outside of getting busted making all those drawings of me.\" Milo chuckled softly. Why was he so nervous, dammit? This was [i]Eric[/i], but he felt like he was on a blind d- on second thought, maybe he should just concentrate on what to say.\n\n \"Well, I'd been doing some thinking, actually,\" he said, bashfully, forcing himself to maintain eye contact, \"And I admit realizing the, uh, [i]theme[/i] to my art had a hand in it... But I'm feeling a lot more certain now. I [i]do[/i] want to go back to, you know, fooling around with you. And, uh, Eric?\" The older male was smiling softly, seeming totally calm and serene, but after what he'd overheard in the hallway, Milo couldn't help but wonder if Eric was hiding anything from Milo to protect him. He'd been planning to address that anyway, but he'd need to be careful not to tip his hand and admit he'd been eavesdropping...\n \"I wanted to say... you were right, earlier, when you said that I tend to let other people, uh... set the tone, or take the lead,\" he said, gesturing too much in his anxiety, \"But even if I am, er, [i]suggestible[/i], it's still [i]my[/i] decision.\" Milo was feeling more confident about this, and Eric was rolling his shoulders without a word, his ears upright, but rigidly so. Milo allowed himself a small smile, as he was pretty decent at reading his older siblings back. The shoulder roll was a dead giveaway that Milo had said something unexpected that Eric was chewing on thoughtfully, hence the silence.\n\nEncouraged, Milo pointed back and forth between them. \"Like, you and me, there's nothing we've done together that I didn't agree to before we started, and those were all my decisions to make, right?\"\n \"Yeah...\" agreed Eric, slowly, as if he thought this was somehow a trap.\n \"Well, I was thinking about what we said last night, and I figure the incident was my decision too, even if you should have said no. We were [i]both[/i] at fault, and that's on both of us, it's... it's not on [i]either[/i] of us to shoulder all the blame.\" He stopped short of adding 'not even to protect the other guy'. \n\nEric looked... actually, his face was quite blank and unreadable, but Milo hoped that just meant he was seriously thinking this over instead of just hearing the words. \n \"We're gonna need to support each other, to do better and make sure nothing like that ever happens again,\" Milo added, barely resisting the urge to emphasize the words 'each other'. The elder shepherd was already nodding, and he gave Milo a more natural smile than before, extending his hand like he wanted to shake. \n \"Yeah, that sounds good,\" Eric said, \"I can definitely agree to that.\" Grinning in relief, his anxiety fading, Milo reached out to return the gesture - only for Eric to grab him by the forearm and pull him into the larger male's embrace. Milo couldn't help but giggle excitedly, his tail wagging behind him; something about this moment, this hug, felt like a wax seal going on an agreement, like [i]this[/i] was the moment things between Eric and Milo once again took an unbrotherly turn. Self-conscious about the sound, Milo tried to contain his giggles... but found it hopeless when Eric suddenly began chuckling along with him. It was a warm, delightful moment, and not just because it was [i]so good[/i] for Milo to feel Eric rubbing his back again...\n\nAn unhelpful part of Milo's mind gestured to the warm, relieved feelings Milo was experiencing in Eric's arms, and suggested that they sure didn't [i]seem[/i] like they were just about sex. The slender shepherd, in turn, exiled that thought to the very back of his mind. Eric was his brother, after all, and Milo did love him, and, well... after falling so hard and so far the first time, was it [i]really[/i] so bad if he wanted an emotional safety net, and not just a fuckbuddy? For a long time, Milo had been focusing on not falling again, but maybe it would help if he focused more on staying standing instead... something that felt so, [i]so[/i] much easier when Eric was at his side.\n\nAfter just... holding each other for a long, close time, the Thompsons leaned back so they could see each other's faces. Milo shivered at the warm, familiar look Eric was giving him. \n \"So,\" said the muscular male, \"how should we start?\" He'd leaned forward to grab Milo, so it was apparent that his tail was wagging just as eagerly as his brother's. Milo, for his part, hadn't been expecting to have the ball in his court, he'd sort of figured once they'd both decided they were ready, Eric would just sort of... sweep him up into his arms, carry him off to a bed, and have his wicked way with the younger canine. \n \"Oh, well, uh...\" he stammered bashfully, his tail faltering in its rhythm as he tried to find the words. This was new. In their old trysts, Eric had been content to let Milo leave things as vague as asking if he'd like to fool around. Eric had tended to take charge, suggest positions or activities himself, and Milo had almost always been happy to go along with it. So he hadn't been expecting his brother to ask him for specifics. Eric [i]did[/i] love to make him blush, though, so this wasn't exactly a surprise, either. \n \"We could, uh... keep holding each other for a while, this is pretty nice...\" Milo said, completely chickening out from what he really wanted to say. He didn't even try to stop his ears from lowering in embarrassment. Eric chuckled, but there was no mockery in the sound, and his smile remained warm and inviting. \n \"Yeah, this is nice, we could do this for a while, maybe throw in a little kissing if we're ready for it...\" Eric replied, as calm and as casual as you like. \"I mean, we don't [i]have[/i] to jump right back into sex just because we've straightened things out between us.\" As he spoke, one of his hands came forward and he caressed Milo's cheek with a gentleness that made the younger male whimper softly. God, he had missed this...\n \"Sure,\" agreed Milo, playing along, \"we're mature adults, not slaves to our desires, we could take it slow, make sure we're both comfortable, spend some time easing back into it...\" \n\nApproximately seven-point-three seconds later, the door to Eric's bedroom suddenly banged open, swinging hard into the rubber stopper on the wall that had come with the apartment. The brothers Thompson stumbled through the doorway, all entwined limbs and wagging tails. They were kissing deeply, hungrily, and [i]desperately[/i], as if they'd been in withdrawal for sloppy make-outs. Their movements were uncertain and ungainly - primarily because Eric was walking backwards and Milo refused to break off the kiss to look towards anything except his lover's face - but somehow they'd made it. Milo had always secretly loved doing it in Eric's room, because the entire room carried a scent trace from his brother, so every breath was tinged with that enticingly masculine musk. Of course, right now, he'd get that [i]anywhere[/i]; being in a needy shepherd's arms meant that Milo was breathing Eric's fresh arousal pheromones with every inhalation, and he [i]loved[/i] it. He passively allowed Eric to rotate them, not giving it a second thought, which meant he was caught completely off-guard when Eric shoved Milo backwards so his lower legs bumped against the bed, neatly toppling the surprised art student onto his back atop the mattress - and quickly finding Eric on all fours atop [i]him[/i]. Milo shuddered from the tips of his ears to the end of his tail as Eric immediately growled possessively over him. \n \"Oh! ...Oh, shit, that was hot...\" Milo admitted, swallowing nervously. Was this what getting swept off your feet meant?\n\nThe younger male yelped, distracted from his unrelated question as his lover bent down and began to lay kisses along Milo's sensitive neck.\n \"A-ah! Oh - oh [i]God[/i], Eric...\" Milo gasped and sighed, reaching up and running his fingers through his brother's hair, \"I've m-missed this so fucking much... [i]Nnngh[/i]... and I need this so fucking bad[i]...[/i]\" Naturally, Eric responded by licking his cheek. Milo inhaled sharply as he suddenly felt one of Eric's hands slipping under his shirt and exploring his chest. \n \"Mmm, yesssss...\" the slender dog moaned softly. Eric chuckled.\n \"Little touch-starved, are we?\" he teased playfully, his tail wagging above them. \n \"Oh, you have [i]no idea[/i]...\" sighed Milo, who shuddered as his lover gave him belly rubs. Milo lifted his arms and passively allowed Eric to peel his shirt off, then arched his back and gasped as Eric bent down and began to kiss and lick at one of his nipples. \n \"Oh - oh! Th-that's new, I think...\" Milo stammered, his legs squirming and twitching with each teasing lick to the sensitive flesh he normally ignored. \n \"Fuck, d-don't stop... [i]ah![/i]\" He yelped as Eric gave his nub a love bite, but made no effort to push him away. \n\nIt was at this point that Eric touched Milo's crotch through his pants for the first time, and Milo swallowed a whimper of anticipation. He moaned when Eric gave his cock and balls a gentle squeeze, his pulse already racing. The younger male shivered, feeling his penis beginning to harden against his brother's hand. \n \"I love how responsive you are... I always have...\" Eric murmured, running his hand along Milo's side, \"God, you're so lithe, too... don't get me wrong, I like a chick with a little meat on her bones, but I like my guys skinny.\" \n \"Agree to d-disagree,\" Milo replied, trying to sound casual, \"I prefer my guys [i]swole[/i].\" He couldn't help but grin as his gaze shamelessly dropped to Eric's chest, as if he could see straight through the shirt. Taking the 'subtle' hint, Eric leaned back into a kneeling position, grabbed his shirt by the hem, and pulled it up and off, tossing it to the side, where it may as well have fallen into the Shadow Realm for all the attention the brothers paid to it. \n\nMilo, for his part, was drinking in the view of his brother's muscular chest, admiring both the size and the tone. Reaching up, he began to trace the tattoo on Eric's shoulder and arm, a traditional Canine design, with the tip of a finger. Eric hadn't had it when last they'd been intimate.\n \"I can finally tell you how hot this is, the way it curls around your biceps like that, goddamn...\" Milo chuckled, upgrading to a full-on laugh as Eric flexed for him, winking and miming a kiss. \n \"You tease!\" he said, fanning himself with a hand like an old-timey southern woman complaining about The Vapours. \n \"You say that like that's [i]new[/i] information,\" Eric replied immediately, and bent in to kiss him. Milo closed his eyes, lowered his ears, and melted into the larger male's embrace. \n\nTheir lips met, and both canids shuddered as they held each other close. Milo ran his fingers through the short fur on Eric's chest, and Eric groped and squeezed his little brother's soft, pert ass. Milo moaned softly into the kiss, at least as best he could while his tongue was busy getting curled up with Eric's. His brother's hands were so big, so strong, compared to his own, but they were so gentle, so delicate, when they were fondling Milo's rump. Shuddering hard, he pushed his ass against the larger male's hands, loving every second of it. They just lingered there, enjoying being in each other's arms, until Eric once again squeezed Milo's package through his shorts, making it obvious he was at half-mast by now. \n \"[i]Oh God![/i]\" he gasped, breaking off the kiss. Eric churred to him quietly.\n \"You [i]really[/i] need this, don't you?\" Eric teased, \"You love it when your big brother plays with you...\" His fingers were lightly stroking back and forth along Milo's hardening penis, and Milo swallowed a whimper of pleasure as it throbbed inside his boxers at Eric's touch. \n \"[i]Hnnngh[/i], yes, [i]yes![/i]\" Milo cried out shamelessly, reflexively humping against his lover's hand, \"Oh f-fuck, I need it so bad, Eric, I - I've been so depressed that I haven't even [i]come[/i] in a few days...\" Eric leaned in and nibbled at one of Milo's ears, making the younger male's toes curl up. \n \"You want me to take care of that for you?\" Eric whispered, sensually. Milo immediately nodded desperately, his desire for the elder shepherd at an all-time high. \n \"Ohhhh, [i]yes[/i]...\" Milo groaned, posing his ears in a submissive posture, \"I thought you'd n-never ask...\" \n\nEric chuckled softly and then moved down the bed, setting Milo's heart to racing. It wasn't until he met his brother's gaze, and Eric immediately unfastened Milo's shorts, that Milo realized his lover wanted to make sure he was watching. The elder shepherd grinned, winked, and unnecessarily slowly unzipped his little brother's fly. Milo self-consciously lifted his hips off the bed to help Eric pull his shorts down, taking his boxers with them. Eric's attention finally flitted away from Milo's face when the nervous male's cock and balls came into view. Grinning, Eric moved in closer, continuing to shove Milo's shorts down as he leaned in and made Milo yelp by nuzzling his cold, wet nose against the base of Milo's cock. Eric closed his eyes and breathed in deep, filling his nostrils with Milo's private scent, and [i]both[/i] males shuddered with need. Eric churred softly.\n \"Ohhh, Milo, I've missed this... missed you...\" he whispered, before he began to lick playfully at his brother's scrotum, as if bathing the wrinkled skin in his saliva. Milo couldn't help but stare at the erotic show, and when their gazes inevitably met again, Eric winked and dragged his tongue from the base of Milo's cock all the way to his tip, making it throb hard, twitching up and flopping back down on top of Eric's muzzle. Milo squirmed, desperately trying to suppress high-pitched noises of pleasure as his brother teased his fingers through his pubic fur, kissed and licked at his sac, and continued shamelessly basking in Milo's musk the whole time. Canine lovers were, as a general rule, very fond of each other's scents, and Eric and Milo were no exceptions.\n\nAs Milo got harder and harder, his prick fattening and lengthening from Eric's venerations, the slender male managed to coordinate his shaking feet enough to push the shorts off his ankles, freeing him from the tyranny of clothing - well, there was still the cuff on his arm, and the socks on his feet, but with a handsome male worshipping his junk, Milo found he didn't much care. His dick lifted away from Eric's muzzle, finally proudly pointing into the air, and Eric responded by taking Milo's balls into his mouth. Milo threw back his head, his hair flicking back dramatically. He felt so vulnerable that he was trembling from head to toe, but he knew beyond the faintest shadow of a doubt that Eric would not hurt him. \n \"Oh - oh God...\" he whimpered, as Eric's wide, flat tongue ran along the underside of his sac, hugging the contours of the two sensitive orbs within. Milo felt one of Eric's hands sliding up the back of his leg and squeezing a naked buttock with the kind of affection that only prolonged separation can inspire in a person. Understandably, at the moment, Milo's attention was firmly fixed on watching his brother playing with his junk, which meant he did not at all notice when the hand fondling his ass slid over, and only caught on when Eric began teasing the tip of one finger at Milo's back door. \n\nIt was a move Milo had quietly loved in the past, when Eric would lightly brush a finger in a circle around the edges of Milo's anus, making the younger shepherd clench down in anticipation of more involved play. This time, though, Milo gasped in a different kind of way, and scuttled backwards on the bed, his balls slipping out of Eric's mouth as a surprised look appeared on his brother's face. Eric raised his ears in surprise and curiosity as a deeply flushed Milo sat up on the bed, his own ears lowered apologetically. \n \"Hey Milo,\" Eric said, neutrally, \"What's up?\" \n \"S-sorry, I'm okay,\" Milo replied, gesturing vaguely and nervously, \"It's just that, um... I haven't been with anyone, um, else since the last time with you, s-so...\" \n \"...So your sweet ass is five years out of practice?\" Eric offered, smiling. Milo snorted in amusement, then tried to give him a stern Look, but failed because the stubborn boner killed the effect. \n \"Okay, fine, [i]yeah[/i], that's basically it,\" Milo said, his ears rising in amusement when he wasn't paying attention, \"So be gentle, okay?\" He chuckled to himself and averted his eyes. \n \"I'm probably not gonna last too long anyway, been a while...\"\n\nMilo looked up again when the silence stretched on [i]just[/i] enough that he suddenly wondered if Eric was disappointed or something, but when he looked up, Eric had a delighted grin on his face.\n \"Well, little brother,\" Eric said, cheerily, \"it just so happens that I have a solution to [i]both[/i] of those problems... if you'd like me to help you out.\" Milo's prick throbbed hard and his rump clenched down simultaneously, but he managed to play it calm. \n \"...[i]Yes[/i], one hundred percent,\" he replied, \"...but can I take your pants off first? I'm aching to see you...\" Eric, who had been sporting an impressive tent for a while, grinned at this and pushed himself up to a sitting position. \n \"By all means, be my guest...\" he said, gesturing grandiosely to his pants - more specifically, the part that was stretched out by his hard-on. \n\nHe'd returned to the sweatpants he'd been wearing before he showered, though he'd accompanied them with a shirt afterwards (before it was discarded in the heat of passion, anyway). Naturally, this meant Eric's rigid dick was creating a [i]terrific[/i] bulge that Milo struggled to take his eyes off of, now that he'd become aware of it. Giving in to his desire, he crawled across the bed, his own erection swaying beneath him, knelt down just beside Eric, and reached out with grabby hands for his brother's waist. The smaller shepherd giggled to himself as he tugged on the drawstrings of his lover's pants, untying the simple knot and loosening the waistband immediately. Swallowing, Milo hooked his fingers around that waistband, tugging downwards and [i]immediately[/i] realizing that Eric wasn't wearing any underwear. Pausing, he glanced up with a smirk.\n \"Going commando? That's not like the Eric I knew...\" Reaching down and scratching at the back of Milo's neck, Eric grinned back. \n \"I had a sneaking suspicion they'd just get in the way today...\" \n\nMilo went back to disrobing his lover, tugging the waistband out to make sure it didn't hook behind Eric's boner before he pulled it down. Milo shivered the instant Eric's cock came into view, swallowing to ease his suddenly dry mouth. It had been so long, but he remembered every detail. He managed to (barely) resist the immediate urge to do what Eric had done and indulge in his brother's musk, instead merely leaning in and planting a kiss on the underside of Eric's shaft with a pleasant [i]mwah[/i]. \n \"I've missed you,\" he said playfully to the older shepherd's malehood, which throbbed in response and drooled out a little pre-come. Milo had intended to leave it at that, but acting on impulse, he leaned in and dragged his tongue along his brother's penis, licking up the pre. Eric sighed with pleasure and his dick pulsed again as Milo licked it, rewarding him with more pre just as he reached the tip, spilled directly onto his tongue. Milo shuddered happily, savouring the taste as Eric chuckled and winked at him.\n \"Looks like it missed you too.\" \n\nOnce Milo had (reluctantly) leaned away from Eric's crotch and finished tugging his pants down and off, dropping them off the side of the bed and instantly forgetting about them, he swallowed again and looked at Eric with an oddly bashful expression on his face. \n \"So, um, you said you could help me?\" Milo reminded his lover, almost as curious as he was aroused. \n \"Sure can,\" Eric agreed, making a rotating gesture, \"All you gotta do is turn around, get on all fours... and raise your tail for me.\" Of course he was looking Milo dead in the eye as he said that last part, surely Eric couldn't miss the blush or the secretly-loves-it smile. His heart racing, Milo got up on his knees and gathered his courage. \n\nWith a deep breath to steady himself, Milo pitched forward and caught himself with his hands. After taking one more glance over his shoulder at his brother to confirm the warm, supportive look on Eric's face, Milo lifted his tail and flagged it high in the air. It was only once Eric moved forward and reached out to grope Milo's rump with both hands that Milo suddenly realized. \n \"Hey... [i]how[/i] did you say you were gonna help me, again?\" he said, frowning. \n \"Your fur smells [i]very[/i] clean, Milo...\" Eric said, as if he hadn't heard that, \"You know, back in the day, when you would shower extra-thoroughly, it usually meant you'd... cleaned yourself out, too. I don't suppose you...\" \n \"Eric!\" protested Milo, somehow managing to blush even harder than he already was, \"Don't ask me [i]that![/i]\" \n \"Oh, [i]that's[/i] a yes...\" Eric chuckled, \"Exactly what I wanted to hear!\" \n \"I thought you weren't gonna fuck me yet...\" muttered Milo, pouting adorably. \n \"I'm not, it's something I only got to try after we br- uh, after we stopped fooling around,\" the elder male replied, carefully, \"See, I was dating this girl, and she was [i]way[/i] into - well, let me just show you...\" Milo was going to press the issue and ask again, but before he could utter a sound, Eric suddenly leaned in close and dragged his tongue across Milo's anus, and the younger male tensed up all over, gasped, and let out a surprised cry that was [i]embarrassingly[/i] close to a squeak. \n\nWhen Eric licked him again, and a third time, it became clear that he wasn't just being provocative or trying to make Milo make cute noises. \n \"[i]Eric![/i]\" Milo cried out, squirming as that tongue kept teasing at his back door, \"Wh-what are you doing?!\" The elder male leaned away from his brother's butt to grin shamelessly.\n \"Isn't it obvious?\" Eric teased, \"I'm rimming my little brother.\" When Milo tried to crawl forward on the bed, the larger dog's grip on his rump tightened possessively, and Eric held him in place. As soon as he'd finished answering, Eric returned to his licking, and Milo couldn't help but shudder, feeling himself clench every time that broad, wet canine tongue teased across the tight pucker beneath his tail. \n \"Oh... oh man...\" Milo mumbled to himself, whimpering at the unfamiliar sensations before looking back again. \n \"C'mon, Eric, this - this feels weird!\" he protested, squirming ineffectually. Somehow, he couldn't quite bring himself to properly struggle against his brother, any more than he could stop his entrance from reflexively clenching from those teasing licks. \n \"See, that's what I thought at first too,\" Eric said enthusiastically, pausing between licks, \"But Ca- actually, I probably [i]shouldn't[/i] tell you which ex it was - [i]this girl[/i] really opened my eyes, the way she liked to make out with my ass... Trust me on this one, Milo, just give it a chance.\" \n\nMilo whimpered as he shuddered again. \n \"But - but isn't it gross or something?\" he whined, as his hands gripped the sheets tighter and tighter. Distantly, he imagined Anne chuckling at that, instinctively suspecting that she'd be shaking her head and saying something along the lines of 'Oh, that's such a [i]tsundere[/i] thing to say, little brother.' Eric shook his head and let go of Milo's butt with one hand just long enough to gesture dismissively.\n \"Nah, not if you do this good a job at cleaning yourself,\" Eric replied, \"Now [i]relax[/i], would you? I know you, you're gonna love it if you just give it a chance!\" \n\nDespite his instincts telling him that he should be ashamed and embarrassed, Milo chose to trust his lover, and settled for just embarrassed. He began taking deep breaths, trying to calm himself - but not [i]too[/i] obviously, trying to be quiet about it so Eric wouldn't get to be smug. At first he just felt silly doing it, but the tension actually started to ease, and as his muscles relaxed, Milo felt like there was something strangely familiar about his brother's dalliances. He closed his eyes, concentrating on those quick, teasing brushes against his sensitive flesh. The trembling male whimpered out loud, his tail twitching as the feelings ran through his body. Suddenly, he made the connection: it was the same teasing, circular motion that Eric liked to tease Milo with when they were kissing. In this case, he was just barely brushing the outer edge of Milo's anus to - to make him squirm and whimper and moan from the powerful sensations, just like this! Which lead, of course to the realization that when he stopped thinking about how self-conscious he was from getting rimmed... this actually felt really, really good. \n\nShuddering from head to toe, Milo moaned aloud before he could catch himself.\n \"Oh God...\" he whispered, suddenly conflicted, \"This... this really [i]does[/i] feel nice...\" Eric chuckled good-naturedly. \n \"What'd I tell you?\" he teased, \"That's what I've been waiting to hear! Now that you're more comfortable...\" With that, he began to lick more directly at Milo's back door, and Milo inhaled sharply. Eric began to draw more complex patterns with the tip of his tongue, spiralling towards the centre and then back out, or just straight lapping at his brother's entrance. But every once in a while, Eric would lightly press directly against Milo's anus, and the younger shepherd knew, deep down, that he was still being teased, that it was only a matter of time before that tongue pushed inside him... and whether he tried to deny it to himself or not, he wanted it so bad it made him groan with need. \n\nWith every twitch of Eric's tongue, Milo relaxed more and more, sighing quietly as he felt an impressive amount of tension leaving his shoulders. The more he let go of the scandalous idea of what was happening, the more the pleasurable reality of how it felt made him love it.\n \"Mmmm... Eric...\" he sighed, shuddering hard and letting his head hang down. He'd been intending to close his eyes and focus entirely on his rump, but he caught sight of his own prick, and the strand of thin, clear fluid hanging down from his tip almost all the way to the sheets.\n \"M-man, I'm pre-ing so much,\" he murmured, swallowing unconsciously as he stared at himself, distantly wondering what it would taste like. Eric didn't pull away from Milo's butt to answer this time, but he'd clearly heard the younger male, as one of his hands finally released a buttock in order to slide down and take a firm hold of Milo's cock, which immediately throbbed at his touch. Milo bit his lip to swallow a whimper as those hot fingers curled around his tool, rubbing playfully at the sensitive spots under the edge of his glans. It was hard to tell, but he could swear the precome was flowing just a little bit more prodigiously... \n\nEric began to stroke his brother's dick, sliding his hand up and down Milo's straining shaft. The slender shepherd moaned softly, acutely feeling how long it had been since another person touched him like that.\n \"Oh - oh [i]fuck...[/i]\" Milo breathed, \"That's s-so good...\" Eric suddenly stopped, and when he leaned to the side, Milo knew from the very sound of his lover's voice that there was a smug grin plastered all over his face. \n \"So good?\" Eric repeated, delighted, \"So good? Does this mean you're admitting I was right, and that you love the hell out of this after all?\" Milo let out a canine whine, even as his brother's teasing words sent a pleasant shiver down his spine. Stupid subby instincts! \n \"F-fine, you win, you win,\" Milo replied, blushing, \"Getting my ass licked is awesome, you read me like a book, you're the Bottom Whisperer, is that what you wanted to hear?\" The larger shepherd reached up and tapped one finger against his chin thoughtfully, even as his other hand continued to slowly stroke Milo's dick.\n \"Hmmm... I was [i]kinda[/i] hoping for something like 'You were right, I never should have doubted you, big brother, I'm your naughty little bitch', but you're out of practice, and I [i]really[/i] want to get back to playing with you, so... [i]Good boy[/i].\" No sooner were those last two words out of his mouth than so was his tongue, which pressed directly against Milo's anus, rapidly increasing the pressure until the tip of that flat, flexible tongue pushed through the tight ring of muscle and into Milo's backside. \n\n \"[i]Gnaaaaaaah![/i]\" Milo gasped, arching his back, his ears briefly shooting straight up. He'd had fingers up his ass, and he'd had a dick up his ass, but even though it was smaller, there was just something [i]different[/i] about it being a tongue. It twisted and wiggled inside him, running along his inner walls and teasing the nerves there. Milo felt as much as heard Eric chuckling behind him, and found himself smiling despite the embarrassment. He'd had some severe complaints lined up about Eric's teasing 'suggestion', but they faded away very quickly. It was hard to focus on the self-consciousness with his brother seeking out all the sensitive spots inside him and teasing against them. As if punctuating that thought, Eric brushed against one such spot, and the resulting unexpected pulse of pleasure made Milo bark out an '[i]Ah![/i]' as his cock throbbed, no doubt making even more of a mess of the sheets. Milo instinctively pushed back, seeking more, but he was distracted from Eric's play under his tail (incredibly) as he felt a sudden twinge in his right arm. He realized that his arms were starting to feel sore, maybe from how long he'd been tensing them earlier. While he was contemplating them, Eric discovered another sensitive spot, and Milo shuddered hard, his prick once again following suit. He let his arms give out, lowering his upper body to the bed, but leaving his rump sticking up so Eric could keep playing with it. The trembling shepherd shivered hard enough to send a ripple through his fur, and moaned softly from the ecstasy his brother was bringing him.\n\nOnce again, the elder male leaned back, chuckling. \n \"That's it, face down, ass up, [i]good boy[/i],\" he teased, petting Milo's buttock softly, \"Oop, careful there, that was close!\" Once again, Milo looked back to protest being called a good boy, like he was Eric's pet, and once again, his indignance evaporated as he saw that his tail had betrayed him, wagging [i]very[/i] energetically and telegraphing the secret shiver those words had instilled in Milo, not to mention almost hitting Eric in the face (hence the dodge he'd just performed). Milo had been enjoying his brother's oral ministrations so much, he hadn't even felt his tail... in fact, as Eric's tongue slipped back into his rump, Milo felt his tail begin to wag even harder, and he realized it had been doing so ever since Eric had pushed inside for the first time. He half-laugh-half-groaned to himself and covered his eyes with his hands in embarrassment. \n \"Stupid tail... couldn't be more obvious...\" he grumbled. Eric clearly couldn't resist pausing again.\n \"That's not true,\" he helpfully interjected, \"your tail could be posting about this online.\" Imagining excited tweets from his own tail about how awesome getting your ass licked turned out to be, Milo snickered quietly, as the thought was so ridiculous even [i]he[/i] couldn't seriously fret about it. \n \"I'm gonna let that one slide,\" Milo replied, poorly hiding his grin, \"but only because you're, uh, doing the thing.\" Eric gave his brother's dick a squeeze in response, and Milo pushed his face into the sheets and moaned. \n\nThey continued like that for a while, Milo squirming and whimpering and shivering with pleasure while Eric masterfully worked his tongue in and out his lover's sensitive rump, expertly seeking out Milo's weak spots while Milo's tail helpfully telegraphed when he found them, even if the slender shepherd managed to contain his moans. The younger male was in a haze of lust, helpless against the rising tide of pleasure. It wasn't quite like anything he'd ever experienced before, and it sent tingles up and down his spine that were positively [i]electrical[/i]. Milo lost track of time while he was losing himself to Eric's tongue, it could have been hours or even just a few minutes that he just lay there, writhing in embarrassing ecstasy. He only spoke up again once he was struggling against the end, straining to resist the climax that was building inside him. Even as lust-drunk as he was, Milo felt like he hadn't held out as long as he'd prefer, being as out of practice as he was. He was embarrassed to even acknowledge it, but he felt like Eric would want to know.\n \"Oh - oh God, Eric, I'm - [i]hnngh![/i] - I'm getting close, [i]fuuuuuuck[/i]...\" he panted, his entire body trembling, his aching cock straining for release, drooling pre-come like it was going out of fashion. Eric growled into his little brother's butt, and redoubled his efforts. His hand stroked up and down the younger male's lightly pulsing shaft, his tongue seemingly tracing some eldritch rune of pleasure deep beneath Milo's tail. \n\nMilo was openly panting now, letting his tongue loll out of his mouth as shudder after shudder ran through his body, leaving behind tingles of pleasure that seemed to fill his entire being. He'd entirely forgotten about being embarrassed, as only the release that he could feel racing towards him seemed to matter in the slightest right now. With every twitch of that tongue inside him, every squeeze and stroke along his cock, Eric was working his body like a fine-tuned machine. \n \"That's s-so fucking good, [i]haah[/i], d-d-don't stop,\" the younger male gasped, feeling himself tensing up all over. This was gonna be a [i]good[/i] one... \"Oh God, I'm g-gonna... I... [i]Eriiiiic![/i]\" Milo cried out his lover's name and then moaned shamelessly as Eric expertly coaxed that orgasm out of him, pleasure filling his universe. The slender shepherd's steel-hard prick began to throb and spasm in his big brother's hand, spurting long, gooey volleys of hot, fresh canine jism, without a care in the world as to where they were [i]going[/i]. It wasn't his bed anyway... When the initial moan ended, Milo began to whimper and mewl his way through the bursts of ecstasy that filled his body with every spasm. Milo kinda hated the high-pitched noises he made when he came... but he knew that Eric loved hearing them, found them a turn-on, so Milo resisted the urge to bury his face against the bed to muffle his cries. His rump had begun to clench down on his brother's tongue in time with his pleasures, so Eric had turned to focusing on stroking Milo's throbbing cock. \n\nHaving been denying himself for several days before this, Milo's climax almost felt like it was going to be endless, like he was just going to nut and nut and nut until the end of time. But alas, such a thing was not to be, and eventually, when the spasms tapered off, when Eric had wrung every last drop of pleasure out of him, Milo gave a tremendous shudder that ran through every inch of his body and finished in his still-clenched toes, and then he slumped to the right with a satisfied groan and flopped down to the bed, exhausted. \n \"Damn, little brother, you really [i]did[/i] need that, huh?\" Eric murmured. Milo laughed weakly, not even lifting his head from the comforter to take in the mess. \n \"Mmmm... God, it's s-so much [i]better[/i] when it's another p-person...\" he mumbled, \"I'm st-still shivering...\" He closed his eyes, basking in his afterglow, his tail wagging tiredly, so he felt more than saw Eric sit down just next to him. The larger male began petting his prone sibling, slowly running his hand along Milo's side. \n \"Just breathe, Milo,\" Eric murmured, \"I'm glad it was good for you.\" After a moment, he churred to the younger shepherd, and Milo smiled at the intimacy he felt with his brother... not to mention the warm euphoria left over from his orgasm. \n\nHe was so comfortable that he nearly nodded off, but just before he passed out, Milo blinked himself awake when his lover spoke up again. \n \"So, what'd you think?\" Eric asked, his own tail wagging. Milo cringed and looked away.\n \"D-don't make me [i]describe[/i] it!\" he protested, struggling not to sound pleading, \"It's embarrassing enough just [i]being[/i] that helpless against butt stuff...\" Eric chuckled, managing to make it not sound mocking.\n \"C'mon, Milo, you know I'm happy for you, right?\" he said, patting the younger male on the tush, \"I wasn't making fun of you, I just knew you were gonna love rimming because I knew you're a dog who... can appreciate the benefits of having something under his tail.\" Milo snickered at that phrasing.\n \"Alright, alright,\" the slender shepherd relented, \"it, uh... it was weird at first, but [i]God[/i], it's so much better than being fingered, s-so much warmer and more flexible...\" A thoughtful look came over his face. \n \"Though with m-my dick pointing straight down, and you jerking me with your hand backwards, it kinda felt like, ah, I was being milked,\" Milo joked, self-consciously. Eric perked right up.\n \"Ah, yes!\" he replied, \"and you were a [i]very[/i] good producer, you made a lot of milk indeed...\" Milo giggled to himself and took a deep breath, bracing himself for finally checking the mess he'd made of the bed. At least until Eric leaned over and finally revealed his other hand... which was still cupping a handful of creamy, glistening German shepherd semen. Milo shivered, imagining himself obliviously ejaculating into his lover's hand. His eyes darted between the come and his big brother's playful eyes. \n \"...So why don't you be a [i]good boy[/i] and clean up all this milk you spilled?\" Eric teased, \"It's warm and fresh, straight from the tap...\" \n\nMilo resisted the sudden urge to lick his lips, but he couldn't help his ears going back down. Slowly, self-consciously climbing up to all fours, Milo leaned over and gave the semen a sniff, the strong scent of his own jism making him feel lewd and perverse, but in a kinky, fun way. This wasn't the first time Eric had presented Milo with a handful of come, and very, very few things made Milo feel as subby as cleaning up his own mess... Plus, deep down, where he'd never admit it, not even to himself, Milo secretly longed to be a Good Boy for his big brother, so he'd probably be doing this even if it [i]wasn't[/i] an embarrassing turn-on. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, feeling his cheeks trying to blush even through the flush of arousal and exertion, Milo bent in and dipped his tongue experimentally in the warm, gooey sperm, feeling a shudder of submissiveness running down his spine, all the way to the tip of his tail. The flavour wasn't unfamiliar to the smaller male, who occasionally sampled his own supply, but even though it was his own seed, the fact that it was all over Eric's hand made this feel [i]much[/i] kinkier than Milo tasting his own cream after touching himself. Focusing on the moment, the slender shepherd began to lap at the come with his wide, flat tongue, feeling it coating the inside of his mouth as he swallowed the first mouthful and returned to licking his big brother's hand clean. \n \"Thaaaaat's it, just lick it alllll up,\" Eric cooed, playfully, [i]clearly[/i] enjoying this, \"Good boy, Milo, [i]good boy[/i].\" Milo shuddered even harder, and then felt extremely self-conscious about responding so strongly to his lover's words. \n \"Sh-shut up...\" Milo murmured, unconvincingly, hiding a small smile, \"I almost nutted all over your bed, this is the least I can do...\" Eric grinned and said one word.\n \"Tail.\" The younger shepherd flinched; he could already feel how hard his tail was wagging. \n \"Dammit...\" he groaned, as Eric chuckled good-naturedly. Milo felt Eric's hand on top of his head, petting him and ruffling his hair like Milo was a beloved domestic. \n \"You're not a very good liar, but that doesn't mean you're not a good dog,\" he teased. \n\nSighing exaggeratedly, Milo leaned back in and resumed cleaning up Eric's hand, licking again and again, gathering up the come and shivering from kinky excitement each time he swallowed a mouthful of creamy goodness. Somehow, this part always made Milo feel more like a pervert than the fact that the guy who made him nut was his own brother. It was hard to focus on things like shame, though, when he was so enthusiastically bathing his lover's palm with his tongue, and while Eric was giving him scritches between his ears. It was kind of a shame they could only do this right after Milo came, it would be a real turn-on if he weren't so spent... Soon enough, Milo had lapped up all the jism, making Eric chuckle by checking between his fingers, and the younger male sighed contentedly as he swallowed the last mouthful of seed. \n \"There we go, good boy!\" Eric said, encouragingly, \"Now give us a kiss...\" Grinning at that, Milo was only too happy to sit up straight so he could make out with his brother. He shuddered at the very idea of how strongly his mouth must taste of come right now, but Eric didn't seem to mind at all as their tongues entwined and wrestled together. \n\nWhen they leaned apart, Eric churred to Milo.\n \"I [i]love[/i] making you come,\" the elder shepherd whispered, his voice sensually soft, \"the way you [i]lose[/i] yourself to it, the way you stop getting caught up in being embarrassed about stuff and just focus on the moment... Goddamn, that's [i]so[/i] hot...\" Milo bit his lip as Eric softly caressed his cheek, experiencing some strangely mixed feelings about this level of intimacy. \n \"E-Eric, I...\" he stammered, feeling strangely put on the spot, before his attention was drawn entirely away from this moment by the sensation of Eric's cock brushing against his upper thigh. Glancing down, Milo saw that his brother's dick was still rock-hard, its tip glistening with pre. \n \"You didn't come yet?\" he asked, surprised, \"Wait, I thought you'd be jerking it while you rimmed me, or whatever?\" To the smaller dog's surprise, Eric blushed and frowned slightly.\n \"How would I have been jacking off?\" Eric asked, \"You could [i]feel[/i] both of my hands right up until I went to catch your jizz.\" He gave the younger male a devious smile. \"Keep in mind, little brother, I never mastered your, ah, your technique of coming without direct stimulation.\" Milo turned a pleasing shade of red, what felt like all over his body. \n \"Wh- N-no, I didn't [i]invent[/i] - I mean it's not a [i]technique[/i], and - it's n-not like I'm the [i]first guy[/i] t-to...\" he babbled, embarrassed. Recognizing that he was babbling, Milo stopped himself and took a deep breath, trying to listen to the part of his mind that recognized that Eric was just being playful, and he did not need to defend himself... Which meant he could turn the focus back to his brother's hard cock instead! Swallowing, he gathered his courage. \n \"Well... I haven't done this in a while,\" Milo acknowledged, \"but... I used to love making [i]you[/i] come, too, and if you don't mind, I'm gonna return the favour!\"\n\nActing boldly, Milo immediately moved down the bed, his eyes locked on Eric's rigid prick. When he reached it, he immediately leaned in and began to kiss and sniff at it, the same way Eric had played with him earlier.\n \"Milo, I - [i]ohhh[/i], do that again...\" Eric sighed, shivering as Milo playfully licked the very tip of his cock, silently savouring the flavour of Eric's pre-come. A voice in the back of Milo's mind accused him of only 'returning the favour' to avoid emotional intimacy with Eric, but Milo chose to ignore it and focus on the hard dick in his hands instead. He touched his nose to the base of his brother's erection and inhaled deeply, just like Eric... though admittedly, [i]this[/i] part was more about Milo shivering at the scent of Eric's strong, masculine musk and reeling from his pheromones than it was about returning the gesture from earlier. He knew Eric had lingered on his balls, but Milo couldn't help himself from licking his brother's shaft with wide drags of his flat, wet tongue. It had been so long since he'd tasted Eric's cock, and Milo was surprised at how badly he wanted it, wanted to taste every part of it... how much he longed to skip the foreplay and just start sucking that beautiful prick! When Milo finally gave in to his desires and took his lover's dick into his muzzle, Eric moaned softly... and so did Milo, shuddering hard as he ran his tongue along that proud length, savouring the flavour. \n '[i]There, you see?[/i]' he thought to himself, petulantly, '[i]I can't be emotionally intimate by talking about my feelings right now, my mouth is full.[/i]'\n\nMilo closed his eyes and shuddered pleasantly from the sensation of Eric's dick filling his muzzle, and the taste of his lover's sweat. As he licked and suckled, Milo felt his brother's cock throbbing hard against his tongue, tasted a hint of that pre-come flavour once again. He felt his own penis give a twitch, a half-hearted attempt to get hard again. Frankly, Milo could have just sat there and stayed like this for a while, with his mouth full of cock and his nostrils full of musk, but he didn't want to give Eric blue balls. With a soft moan, and a loud slurp, the younger male began bobbing his head along his lover's shaft. \n \"Oh - oh [i]fuuuuuuuck[/i]....\" Eric breathed, \"that's it... j-just watch the t-teeth...\" Milo felt a shudder run through the elder male's body. It was gratifying, but he felt a bit sheepish about being so eager to get his brother's dick in his mouth that he forgot to mind his teeth. It felt like such a rookie move... Milo adjusted his suckling so that it was his lips rubbing against Eric's prick instead, sending Eric as apologetic a glance as he could without actually stopping. Once his thoughts had started down the 'rookie move' path, though, he realized that his movements were still a bit jerky and awkward, and he [i]swore[/i] it never used to take him this long to find a smooth rhythm! He let out a quiet canine whine of frustration as he continued to lick and suck, suddenly feeling like he was being graded by invisible judges. \n\nMilo glanced up as he felt a hand tap him on the head.\n \"Hey,\" Eric said, simply. Feeling a quiet reluctance he refused to contemplate, Milo let the tasty cock slip out of his mouth and sat up straight. \n \"W-was I doing it wrong?\" he guessed, ears low, \"I'm sorry...\" \n \"No, no, you're doing fine,\" Eric assured him, \"...except for the part where you're suddenly all tense and stressed out. You okay?\" Milo turned and looked at Eric's rigid prick, shiny with his saliva, because somehow, staring at it was [i]less[/i] embarrassing than making eye contact.\n \"I feel like I'm messing it up,\" Milo admitted, quietly, \"I used to be way better at this...\" He looked back up and met his brother's gaze when he felt Eric's hand on his cheek, gently caressing him. It was nice...\n \"You're not doing it wrong, you're just out of practice, dude, cut yourself some slack,\" Eric said, just as gently, \"You told me yourself you haven't been with anyone in years, so just relax, don't stress about it, and it'll all come back to you eventually.\" He grinned a little wider. \"Even if it takes a few tries, hehe...\" The younger shepherd couldn't help but chuckle softly at his brother shamelessly volunteering for more blowjobs. \n \"So selfless,\" Milo teased, and Eric laughed, a casual, relaxed sound that made Milo's smile widen too. \n \"What can I say?\" the larger male replied, faux-earnestly, \"I'm a giver.\" \n\nOnce they'd finished giggling together like schoolboys, Milo took a deep breath to steady himself. He reminded himself that it was oral sex, not an oral exam, and he didn't need to fret about it. Then, as he bent back down, the slender shepherd glanced up towards his lover's face again.\n \"Thanks,\" he murmured, \"I kinda... needed to hear that.\" Eric smiled back in a way that gave Milo a weird little flutter, but he tried not to think about it. The younger male bent down, took a sniff of his lover's scrotum to get another hit of those pheromones, and then moved back up to take Eric's glistening manhood into his eager muzzle. This time, instead of worrying about his performance, Milo focused on the experience of having a dick in his mouth, and wanting to taste and play with it. He ran his tongue along Eric's shaft and felt it throbbing against his lips like it was glad to be back. \n '[i]God, he tastes good... I wonder if that's his soap or what...[/i]' Milo thought, distantly, as he sighed contentedly, his tail starting to wag once again, unnoticed. When the shorter dog started bobbing his head again, he was [i]much[/i] more relaxed. Before, underneath all his intentions, Milo had felt like he needed to [i]prove[/i] himself, to show that five years off hadn't ruined all his skills as a lover. Now, Milo had let go of such worrying to focus on the moment, so all he wanted was to suck his big brother's cock and show Eric exactly how much he appreciated having his eyes opened on the subject of getting rimmed. \n\nMilo focused all of his attention on licking and suckling on Eric's hard prick, seeking out his sensitive spots and shuddering with barely-hidden pleasure when he was rewarded with his brother's tasty pre. Milo's eyes fluttered open as he felt a hand come to rest on top of his head. \n \"That's it, thaaaat's it...\" Eric murmured, petting Milo while he continued his venerations, \"Isn't that b-better? [i]Mmmm[/i], don't stop...\" The younger male moaned softly around his mouthful of cock, and a grinning Eric underlined the point.\n \"Who's a good boy?\" he teased, as Milo silently blushed, his tail wagging even harder. The slender male reached up to take Eric's balls in hand, intending to gently massage them while he sucked Eric's dick. But no sooner had his fingers touched his brother's sac before Eric tensed up and inhaled sharply.\n \"[i]Ah![/i] C-careful...\" the elder shepherd said, unexpectedly self-consciously. Leaning back, Milo frowned, concerned.\n \"What's the matter?\" he asked, pausing to wipe away a string of saliva that bridged the corner of his mouth with the tip of his brother's erection. \"Are these sore, Eric?\" Milo very gingerly poked at his lover's testicles, and Eric shifted on the bed uneasily. \n \"Yeah, it's... it's a long story,\" Eric sighed, \"Can we, you know, g-get into it later? We're kinda in the middle of s-something...\" Milo smirked at that and nodded understandingly. He wouldn't want to interrupt a blowjob to tell a story either.\n \"Suresure,\" Milo replied, casually, \"I gotcha.\" He then bent down again to make that gotcha literal and not just supportive, and took his brother's cock back into his mouth, making it nice and comfy and welcome. \n\nBy now, Eric was panting the way Milo had been earlier, his muscles twitching and tensing at random as the slender male continued his fine work. Milo particularly enjoyed the way that Eric was rolling his hips, like he was way more into it this time. Settling himself down and making himself comfier, the younger shepherd closed his eyes and focused his attention on his mouth, on relentlessly pleasuring every inch of his lover's hard prick. As the moments passed, muscle memory came back to him. Yes, this was the dick that he once loved to serve. Milo remembered its curves, its structure, how it felt just barely reaching for the end of his muzzle. It was strangely nostalgic, and it made Milo all the more dedicated to getting his brother off. He eventually noticed that his tail was wagging so hard, the slender male could feel his hips rocking slightly from side to side. \n\nEric finally brought the lusty shepherd out of his trance with a particularly loud moan. \n \"Oh... oh, fuck, M-Milo, I'm right there, I'm g-gonna come...\" Eric panted, shivering from head to toe. Seeing his lover writhing on the brink of ecstasy because of him, Milo whimpered with desire, every part of his being longing to bring Eric the same bliss he'd experienced earlier. It was like he'd been given a shot of adrenaline; Milo felt energized, and he stopped being playful or fancy with his licking and suckling, instead focusing entirely on getting his big brother off. Both of Eric's hands made their way to Milo's head, gripping tightly as if the muscular canine were holding on for dear life. \n \"God, y-yes, don't stop,\" Eric panted, \"Oh [i]fuuuuuck[/i], it's gonna b-be a g-good one...\" Milo moaned around the dick in his mouth in response. He couldn't pull back if he wanted to, but then, both of the Thompson brothers preferred to swallow, and frankly, at this point, Milo wanted to taste his lover's come so bad, he would have fought to keep Eric in his mouth. A voice in the back of his mind wondered who in the world would be fighting to prevent Milo from swallowing Eric's load, but Milo totally ignored it, maintaining his focus on his brother's impending orgasm. \n\nMilo swirled his tongue around Eric's sensitive tip, sucking in his cheeks to rub and press along the rigid, straining shaft. The larger male gasped, tensing up all over.\n \"Oh - oh [i]God[/i], M-Milo, I...\" But coherent communication became possible as Eric threw back his head and let out a long, wordless moan as his orgasm overwhelmed him. Milo shivered with indecent glee as his big brother's hard dick began to throb and spasm against his lips, and he let out a shameless moan of his own as it began painting his tongue with long, flavourful lines of Eric's seed, hot and fresh, straight from his balls. To Milo's lust-addled mind, it felt like a proper reward for a job well done. The muscular shepherd grunted and groaned as he came, totally overwhelmed by the pleasure, his fingers shaking atop Milo's head. For his part, Milo had subtly pushed back about halfway up Eric's shaft to make sure the ropes of come fell onto his tongue instead of shooting down his throat, where he couldn't taste them, and he was using one hand to stroke the back half of his lover's throbbing cock, to bring Eric as much pleasure as he could stand (and coax more flavourful semen out of him). Milo greedily swallowed again and again, shuddering with shameless pleasure as he felt his brother's jism running down his throat. \n '[i]Eric might be better at it than me,[/i]' Milo thought to himself distantly, '[i]but [/i]God[i], I love sucking cock...[/i]\" \n\nEric's climax lasted longer than Milo had expected, which suited him just fine, but eventually, the fun came to an end, Eric finished emptying his balls into his little brother's eager mouth, and the exhausted male slumped back against the head of the bed. Milo took a moment to just savour the feeling of Eric's cock in his muzzle, since he was afraid he might not get another chance. Then he sat up straight (reluctantly setting his brother's penis free in the process), rolled the last of the semen around in his mouth like he was pretentiously tasting wine, and swallowed it. Feeling pretty pleased with himself, Milo moved over so he could lie down next to Eric, snuggling up against the larger male, who seemed at the moment to be still in a bit of a daze from how hard he'd nutted. Milo chuckled to himself at the look on Eric's face, but said nothing, choosing to instead just enjoy the moment and let his lover pull himself back together at his own pace. \n\nMilo lay on his side, so he could snuggle up closer to his brother, though this did have the unintended side effect of once again leaving his treacherous tail free to expose how happy he was about things, no matter how embarrassing it was... such as when Eric (seemingly automatically) moved his arm to embrace Milo back, and left his hand planted on the younger dog's butt, right next to a tail which began wagging faster. After a warm, blissful few minutes, during which Milo almost nodded off using Eric's shoulder as a pillow, Eric finally broke the silence.\n \"Thanks for that, little brother,\" he said, softly, before chuckling and adding \"Wow...\" \n \"You're welcome,\" Milo replied, beaming with pride, before he leaned in and kissed Eric. The two naked shepherds just held each other close while their tongues danced and entwined. Milo shivered pleasantly as he imagined that Eric could probably still taste a hint of his own seed on Milo's tongue and cheeks. When they broke the kiss off, as if he'd read Milo's mind, Eric chuckled softly.\n \"What?\" Milo asked, cocking one ear to the side curiously.\n \"Oh, I was just kinda surprised when you spoke, is all,\" Eric replied, reaching up and surprising his brother by running his hand through Milo's hair and petting the back of his head in the process. \"I was half-expecting you to snowball me or something.\" Milo laughed at this and laid his head back down against his lover's toned shoulder. \n \"Find your own,\" he teased, \"I called dibs.\" \n\nGiving Milo's soft ass a squeeze, Eric growled playfully. \n \"Mmm, don't tempt me,\" he replied, teasing the tip of one finger against Milo's anus. Milo clenched down instinctively, and knew his brother would have felt it. \"I've got [i]plans[/i] for this sweet ass.\" Embarrassed but aroused, Milo pushed back against Eric's hand and lowered his ears. He bit his lip as he felt Eric's finger increase the pressure against his anus... and then back off completely, letting go of Milo's tush. \n \"...But not right now,\" Eric said, cheerily, \"I just came, after all.\" \n \"Bastard!\" Milo groaned in frustration. \n \"Good things come to those who wait,\" Eric replied, in the same cheery tone of voice, \"Or I guess in this case, a good dicking.\" Still irked, keenly feeling how long it had been since he'd been fucked, Milo frowned, looking cuter than he realized. \n \"Man, just shut up and kiss me...\" he grumbled, and Eric laughed and eagerly obliged him. \n\nThis time, when they broke off the kiss, Eric sat up and grabbed a bottle of water from his bedside drawers. He took a big swig and let out a particularly satisfied sigh, before offering it to Milo, who gratefully whet his whistle. Normally, Milo never would have shared a bottle with another person, but he found that right now, he wanted to get out of this bed and stop touching this man even [i]less[/i]. Eric was fussing with his hands, clearly working through something in his mind. \n \"Listen, Milo...\" the larger shepherd finally said, \"I need to tell you, and you deserve to know.\" This caused the younger male's ears to perk all the way up, and Milo finally stopped lounging on the bed to sit up and pay closer attention. With another, less satisfied sigh, Eric made eye contact with his brother before continuing.\n \"The new bouncer at Fate turned out to be Gela Taylor,\" he said, plainly, \"She's my new co-worker.\" \n\nMilo leaned back as if physically struck, a look of dismay spreading across his face.\n \"[i]What?![/i]\" he asked, his ears lowering unhappily, \"What did you say? What did she - wait, what the [i]fuck[/i], Eric! We've been together [i]all day[/i], and you're only mentioning this [i]now?![/i] You couldn't have said something over breakfast, or - or before we started fooling around?\" Somehow, Milo felt even more vulnerable than he already did just from being naked. Eric flinched, but held up both hands in a placating gesture. \n \"I've been [i]trying[/i] to tell you all day,\" Eric replied, \"but things just kept getting in the way! You'd get all sad, and I'd be afraid the news would crush you, or worse, you'd look really [i]happy[/i] for once, and I didn't want to ruin that for you...\" He coughed and averted his gaze.\n \"I was actually going to tell you when I came out to the living room,\" he said, \"I was talking about your art to help you relax, brace for the news. But, uh, that art turned out to be nekkid pictures of me, and then you said you wanted us to get back into each other's pants, and, well...\" Milo's ire had drained away at the look on Eric's face when he talked about not wanting to ruin Milo's happiness. And he did remember how quickly they'd succumbed to their desires and fallen into each other's arms...\n \"Well... okay, fine. That... that sounds kinda reasonable,\" he conceded. \n\nSuddenly, another thought that had been delayed by Milo's initial panic arrived at its destination, and he whimpered quietly as something occurred to him.\n \"H-hey, what did she say when she saw you?\" he asked, nervously, \"Did she, uh, tell everybody? Did you get fired? Oh, God, Eric, are we - are we [i]outed?![/i]\" Milo felt a sudden strong impulse to lunge over to his pants and retrieve his phone, to see if there were a bunch of missed messages from the rest of his family demanding to know if he'd really raised his tail for his own brother. But the paralyzing fear of that thought kept him frozen in place, unable to act. Eric scootched closer and put his arm around Milo supportively. \n \"[i]Breathe[/i], Milo,\" he reminded his sibling softly, and then: \"It's alright, she, ah, she didn't say anything about it. W-well, Mike knows that I fucked Gela's ex, but he doesn't know the, you know, the [i]rest[/i] of it.\" Milo suddenly slumped down a little, letting out a canine whine from the relief he felt at knowing his status as a brotherfucker remained a secret. He hadn't even realized he'd tensed up...\n \"So, um, what is it, then, blackmail or something?\" Milo asked, quietly. \n \"She said she's willing to be a 'reasonable adult' and coexist at Fate,\" Eric replied, \"but we're not exactly pals. She, uh, did kick me in the balls pretty hard, though.\" Milo winced sympathetically, suddenly understanding his lover's tenderness earlier. \n \"Oh dear... I guess I've probably got one coming too,\" he muttered, \"Or maybe she's just gonna break my neck...\" \n\nMilo sighed, rubbing the spot between his eyes. Eric squeezed his shoulder.\n \"Hey, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Gela before we got into this,\" the elder shepherd said, \"To be honest, it was hard to say, 'cause we're just getting back into this,\" he gestured between them to emphasize the word 'this', \"and I didn't want you to see her showing up as, like, an omen or something.\" \n \"It's... not great timing,\" Milo admitted, \"kinda trying not to freak out... Oh, God, Eric, I tell you I want to start messing around again, and like an hour later you run into Gela?!\" He let out a whimper and reached up to hold his own head. \n \"How am I [i]supposed[/i] to interpret that?!\" he asked, \"I'm happy for five seconds and something comes along to slap it out of my hands!\" \n \"I was worried too,\" Eric admitted, \"At least until she almost broke that dude's arm to make a point.\" Milo's head snapped up and he regarded his brother with alarm. \n \"What?!\" he asked, dismayed, \"Oh God!\" Eric's eyes widened as he finished thinking that through. \n \"No, no!\" the older male said hastily, \"What I mean is, she could have [i]absolutely[/i] beat me black and blue, but all she did was give me one kick in the 'nads, so she's holding back, it's a good sign!\" \n \"Sounds more like 'impending doom' than 'a good sign',\" Milo muttered, lifting his feet up to the bed and hugging his knees to his chest.\n \"It's not that bad, man,\" Eric said, letting go of the shoulder to rub Milo's back, \"I think Gela actually laughed at something I said, and that was only the first night! Well, she kinda snickered, anyway... Oh, that reminds me, she, uh, she wants to talk to you.\" \n\nThe slender shepherd was not proud of the fact that he actually gasped out loud. \n \"[i]What?![/i]\" Milo repeated, more shrilly than the first time, \"Wait, like [i]today?[/i] She's not [i]here[/i], is she?!\" Despite how recently he'd been out in the living room, Milo couldn't help but imagine the mouse that haunted his thoughts sitting on their couch. Eric's ears were slowly but steadily lowering. The unhappy look on his face made it clear that he wasn't sure how to help his brother, and it was eating at him. \n \"No, Milo, of [i]course[/i] not,\" he said, a little more forcefully, \"You're freaking out, you need to -\" But a trembling Milo wasn't listening, rocking slightly in his seat, lost in the worst-case-scenarios suddenly playing out his mind.\n '[i]Oh God, I'll be lucky if she just murders me![/i]' he thought, panicking hard, '[i]I - I need to stop things with Eric right now, before we have sex, it's just not [/i]safe![i] The universe itself must be conspiring against the two of us being together because of what happened! God, it's not fair![/i]' Immediately, his libido responded to the idea with the emotional equivalent of turning your face to the sky and yelling NOOOOOOOOOO, but... something was wrong. There was an itch in his mind, something he couldn't quite put his finger on, but which refused to be ignored... What was bothering him so much about that last... Oh.\n\nMilo closed his eyes, and forced himself to take another one of those deep breaths Eric had been talking about earlier. \n \"That... makes no sense...\" he whispered to himself. \n \"Pardon?\" Eric asked, but Milo hadn't been talking to him. He'd been realizing how carried away he'd gotten, to feel so convinced, even for just a second, that he was being punished for - what, for wanting to fuck his own brother? No, karma didn't make any sense at all here, because Eric had [i]also[/i] fucked his brother, and he was doing just fine! Milo just... couldn't think about Gela for any length of time without feeling that all-consuming guilt, that regret, so any time she came up, he started to panic, and it lead to thoughts about being persecuted by the universe, as if it didn't have anything better to do than punish him for being a pervert. He needed to change the way he felt about Gela, get rid of that blinding fear of those painful feelings... but how could he change them? Milo grimaced and whimpered, his ears lowering as doubt crept back in and another part of himself raised the counter-argument: He had [i]hurt[/i] her, [i]betrayed[/i] her, those feelings were [i]valid![/i] And then, amidst all this confusion, there was a strange moment of silence, and Milo let out of the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.\n\nEric remained right next to the introspective Milo, his arm around the other male's narrow shoulders, holding his lover against his side supportively. Distantly appreciating that support, Milo thought about those painful feelings, and the thing that anchored them down: the look on Gela's face when she'd caught him with Eric. It was true, the guilt, the regret, they [i]were[/i] valid. But... there was more to it than that, wasn't there? More he hadn't seen while he couldn't bear to look. He thought about Eric's suggestion that she wanted to hear from him... that however indirectly, Gela was reaching out to Milo. \n '[i]...It's only true as long as that's how that story [/i]ends,' he thought, his heart beating a little faster, '[i]As long as that's the last thing I did or said to her, that's the first thing I think about when I think of her. But if I... if I continue the story, if I reach back out to her, maybe I can change the last page to something else.[/i]'\n\nMilo sighed and rested his head on Eric's shoulder for a long, quiet moment. The larger male was so warm, and his embrace made Milo feel so supported, so secure, that the younger shepherd had fallen asleep using his brother as a pillow on more than one occasion. Milo wished he could bottle that feeling... \n \"Oh, Eric...\" he murmured, finally breaking the silence, \"I've spent years being afraid of... of what it meant for me to be, uh...\" Unnoticed, his hands began kneading the air, as if he were literally groping for the words to express himself. \"...to be pulled away from the things I want like this, and of how it was tearing me apart.\" Eric turned to look at him, his ears rotating in Milo's direction, giving him his full attention without saying a word.\n \"I've been, uh... letting myself really think about what happened with Gela, finally, and I think my problem was that I didn't lean on [i]either[/i] of you in the aftermath like I should have,\" Milo continued, quietly, \"I just... let myself fall apart, because I didn't know how to do anything else.\" He looked down, finding it difficult to say these words, and Eric immediately began rubbing his back again. \n \"Now... I want to be better than that,\" he said, softly, \"I want to be stronger. And part of that means... means accepting what I did and moving forward. And part of [i]that[/i] means saying I'm sorry.\"\n\nWhen Milo dared to look up, Eric looked impressed, but somewhat confused.\n \"That was really nice, Milo,\" he said, \"But where'd that come from?\" The slender male shrugged self-consciously and sighed, looking down at his naked feet for a moment. \n \"Been building up for a [i]while[/i], I think,\" he replied, daring . Eric nodded, and then averted his gaze, giving Milo the sudden impression that he was trying to appear casual. \n \"So, uh, you wanna grab a shower and give her a call or something, then?\" he asked, calmly. Suddenly, Milo had an epiphany: Eric was proud of Milo's sudden breakthrough, but trying to hide disappointment from... oh, right. Milo had just given him [i]entirely[/i] the wrong impression of the next five minutes, hadn't he? \n \"Well... maybe later,\" the younger dog replied, grinning self-consciously, \"I was thinking first, maybe you could, you know... bend me over the bed and m-make me yours?\" \n\nEric's face lit up with a smile that was anything but feigned as he laughed happily, his tail starting to wag. \n \"Gotta say, that sounds like a lot more fun for both of us,\" he chuckled, \"But are you sure? This isn't gonna be eating at you until you...\" But Milo was already shaking his head.\n \"No, I think the part that was eating at me was not admitting it needed to be done, eh?\" he replied, softly. \n \"Sure, I get you,\" Eric said, nodding. Milo turned directly towards him with a grin, his tail wagging now too. \n \"Not [i]yet[/i] you don't...\" he murmured playfully, as he moved in still closer, \"Mmmm, kiss me, big brother...\" The larger male immediately reached out to embrace his lover again, and Milo churred as one of Eric's hands went straight to his ass.\n \"God, yes...\" Eric whispered, squeezing that buttock as he leaned in for another taboo smooch. Milo's eyes fluttered closed as their lips met, and he sighed through his nostrils with a relief as strong as if tongue-wrestling his muscular sibling was the air he needed to live. Five years had not changed one thing: every time the Thompson brothers kissed, Milo couldn't help but marvel at the idea that something that felt so very, very [i]right[/i] could possibly be wrong. \n\nAs their tongues coiled and embraced, Milo shamelessly felt up Eric's chest, shivering with perverse glee as his slender fingers traced the older male's muscles. When they broke off the kiss, Eric touched the side of his muzzle against Milo's, nuzzling at him and remaining close and intimate. \n \"Goddamn, you smell so good...\" Eric whispered, mirroring some of Milo's own thoughts from earlier, \"I want you, Milo...\" He leaned in and kissed the other dog right where his neck met his shoulders, and Milo tilted back his head and gasped, but to be honest, it had more to do with the fact that at the same moment, Eric's other hand slipped down and took hold of his brother's flaccid penis. It had been some time now since Milo's orgasm, so his cock immediately began to respond to those strong fingers kneading and massaging it, growing longer and harder. \n \"Mmmph...\" Milo shuddered against his lover, lowering his ears and letting Eric freely play with his tool. For his part, Eric moved his other hand from Milo's rump to his shoulder, and Milo felt the larger male begin tilting him back down to the bed. Just as excited for what was to come as Eric, the slender shepherd put up no resistance and went along with it. \n\nKissing his brother again, Eric eased Milo down to the bed, and Milo was struck with excitement, not for the first time, as the larger male got comfortable on top of him, leaning on his elbows so he could avoid squishing Milo as he continued to kiss and play with him. There was just something that Milo found thrilling about his studly big brother hovering over him like he was protecting Milo from the rest of the world... or like Eric just wanted him all to himself. That idea was underlined by the particularly open and shameless way that Eric was running his eyes up and down Milo's slender frame, drinking in every detail. It made Milo feel wanted in a way that filled him with such joy that he whimpered quietly. \n \"You know, Milo,\" Eric murmured, his voice a low rumble, \"I always thought it was just a meme, but I can't help but notice... that you're looking awfully submissive and breedable tonight.\" Milo blinked, surprised, and then gave Eric a withering Look even as he turned beet red. \n \"I changed my mind,\" he lied, rolling onto his side and moving as if to get off the bed, \"No way.\" Exactly as Milo expected, Eric called his bluff, moving to stop him.\n \"Come on, Milo,\" he laughed, \"You know you love it.\" \n \"Nuh-uh,\" the younger male insisted eloquently, \"Can't prove it.\" He then frowned slightly as Eric tapped him on the shoulder and pointed just behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Milo just caught sight of his - \n \"Oh, goddammit!\" Milo exclaimed, laughing despite himself, \"Stupid tail! Must you tell him [i]everything?![/i]\" A pause. \"...I said it out loud that time, didn't I?\" \n\nSomehow, Milo found a way to blush at 105% as Eric chuckled at that, though admittedly, most of his self-consciousness was because of how strongly a small part ('[i]A very small part![/i]') of himself had thrilled at Eric's little compliment. He'd always thought that was a stupid meme, too, but as soon as it was [i]Eric[/i] saying the words, about [i]him[/i]... Milo decided he'd rather think about anything else, and decided to focus on the moment instead. Reaching out, he interrupted Eric's amusement by grabbing his cock, which was at about a quarter-mast. As Eric grunted in surprise, Milo gave it a squeeze, as if to say [i]remember me from just earlier?[/i] To his delight, it pulsed against his fingers as if in recognition. He began to stroke it, causing Eric's dangling balls to sway pleasingly. \n \"[i]Mmmmfff[/i]...\" Eric shuddered at his little brother's touch, and returned to fondling Milo as their lips sought each other out. Milo moaned softly as Eric's tongue pushed into his mouth, but that's mostly because he was overthinking the erotic symbolism of it. He continued rubbing his lover's dick, but it was only a few seconds before Eric moved decisively, lowering his hips towards Milo's, pressing their hardening pricks together, and grinding them against each other.\n\n \"Oh - oh God!\" Milo gasped, leaning back, but before he could utter another sound, his lover had hungrily recaptured his lips and closed his hand around both of their hard-ons. Eric rubbed and stroked their cocks together, and Milo shuddered helplessly, [i]immensely[/i] turned-on by the feeling of his brother's dick getting longer and harder against his own stiffening tool. Eric rolled them onto their sides so he could reach out with his now free hand and grope Milo's ass. Milo was only surprised it hadn't happened sooner, frankly. The two shepherds rolled their hips, rubbing their increasingly eager cocks against each other in a sensual dance fuelled by masculine urges and growing desire. When Eric slipped his fingertip out to tease Milo under the tail, just lightly brushing the pad of his finger across the younger male's anus, Milo clenched down hard, acutely anticipating what was coming next. Eric teased him a few more times with sudden, light brushes against his entrance, and each time, Milo tensed up and clenched down. \n \"[i]Hnnnngh[/i]... Jesus, Eric, you're killing me,\" he groaned in protest, \"God... I - I need to get fucked [i]so bad[/i]...\" Eric growled attractively with need, as Milo hoped he would. The older male always had loved it when Milo admitted his submissive desires...\n\nSure enough, this time, Eric's forefinger pressed directly against the tight ring of muscle beneath Milo's tail and stayed there, beginning to rub and massage the little rosebud. If he hadn't been moaning with pleasure, Milo might have laughed; he was torn between the desire to hump forward and grind his prick against Eric's, and the desire to push backwards and give Eric's finger easier access to his ass, to try and get it inside him. Between all this stimulation, he was kinda lacking in what he was giving Eric, to be honest, but Eric was clearly [i]plenty[/i] stimulated by making his little brother squirm with pleasure. \n\nThanks to the rimming Milo had received earlier, it was easier for Eric to slip his fingertip into the slender shepherd's backside, even without lube. That particular detail made Milo quietly uneasy, but he trusted that Eric would never try to actually fuck him dry without at least running it past Milo first. Which, of course, meant that the teasing digit was quite effectively driving Milo crazy, rubbing playfully at Milo's entrance, sending tingles of pleasure all over, and occasionally dipping juuuuuuust past his ring to make him whimper with the desire to feel nice and full under the tail. \n \"There we go, nice and hard,\" observed Eric, giving their dicks a squeeze, \"and I can always tell when you're ready to go when you stop trying to hide the cutest noises.\" Embarrassed, but kind of into it, Milo pouted. \n \"Man, just shut up and get the lube...\" he grumbled, but he felt it wasn't very effective given that he was involuntarily clenching down on Eric's finger at the time. \n\nEric laughed and let go of their cocks, then gave Milo's rump a playful swat with his now-free hand. Milo yelped adorably (much to his chagrin) and clenched down even harder on his lover's finger. When Eric pulled his other hand away and sat up, Milo lowered his ears and whimpered before he could catch himself. On the other hand, he'd been holding onto his struggling tail since that last playful jab from Eric, so at least he'd caught [i]that[/i].\n '[i]Sometimes, being a dog is really embarrassing...[/i]' he thought, sheepishly. \n\nA few moments later, his embarrassment fading, Milo sat up and released his tail, which immediately began wagging madly once again. The slender male watched from the bed as Eric strolled across his room and retrieved a small jar of petroleum jelly from a shelf. Despite himself, Milo couldn't help but stare at his brother's cock, which was once again at its full pride. He'd reminded himself of its taste, but now he [i]longed[/i] to feel it deep inside him, making itself at home under his tail. It didn't much help when Eric, clearly having noticed, stopped a few feet from the bed to take some jelly on his fingers and begin slowly stroking his prick to get it nice and lubed up, running his hand up and down the shaft and leaving the sensitive flesh gleaming in the light. The younger shepherd whimpered with desire as he watched Eric's dick throb at his own touch, drooling a strand of pre-come down to the carpet. Milo licked his lips before he could catch himself, and covered his face when Eric chuckled. \n \"Sh-shut up! It wasn't about that!\" he lied, \"I - I just need some ch-chapstick or something...\" Eric chuckled again, still slowly stroking his meat. \n \"Hmmm... press X to doubt,\" the larger canine said, with a playful smirk. \"You know, you don't need to be embarrassed, Milo... I mean, I think it's pretty cute when you get like this, but I don't want you to be uncomfortable just because it gets me going.\" \n\nMilo peeked between two of his fingers.\n \"Wait, really?\" he asked, cautiously, \"This isn't just the set-up to a trap or a punchline that'll make me even more embarrassed?\" Eric chuckled and finally let go of his beautiful, rigid cock. The muscular male walked up to the bed, running his eyes back and forth along Milo's naked, blushing form, and his smile grew. \n \"Of course,\" he said, \"I'm not saying that as your big brother, I'm saying that as your lo- as the guy you're about to knock boots with. Just relax and enjoy yourself, the only embarrassment you should feel is the kind you're totally into, no matter what you say.\" Milo giggled at the bluntness of that, despite himself. Eric smiled a little wider and winked charmingly at him.\n \"Just remember, there is absolutely [i]nothing[/i] to be ashamed of about being really, really eager to have sex with me,\" Eric said, not even trying to hide his amusement, \"I'm pretty awesome, after all...\" He raised and flexed his arms impressively to underline this last statement.\n\nMilo rolled his eyes, but he was smirking as he did so, and he'd uncovered his face. He let his ears lower submissively again as Eric sat down next to him. Milo was still on his side, and to his surprise, Eric just took hold of his brother's knee with his dry hand and lifted it as his other hand was dipping back into the jar. Milo whimpered self-consciously as Eric blatantly stared at his lover's anus, as if he hadn't gotten very familiar with it indeed just earlier. Of course, that whimper came at the same time as a shudder of taboo pleasure running down his spine, so it was an even balance. Milo was [i]just[/i] about to whine from impatience when Eric moved. He was good at gauging that kind of thing. When his brother's fingers prodded at his entrance, Milo sucked in a quivery breath, gripping handfuls of the sheets beneath him. At first, the larger male just rubbed at the tight rosebud, getting it slick with jelly, and Milo whimpered with pleasure from this simple touch. Man, it really [i]had[/i] been a while...\n\nBefore long at all, Eric began pushing against Milo's anus, and as that thick finger pressed past the tight ring and slid into his rump. Milo arched his back and moaned, clenching down on the finger within him, acutely aware of it. As it began sliding back and forth, as Eric spread the lube within him, Milo struggled not to squirm, not to let on how that wiggling digit was sending tingles of pleasure spreading out within him. As Eric brushed a particularly sensitive spot, Milo bit his lip and tensed up, squeezing down hard again. \n \"Relax, Milo, breathe,\" Eric murmured, \"You're tight enough as it is, if you overthink this and get all nervous, I won't even be able to put it in.\" \n \"[i]Noooooooo[/i]...\" groaned the younger male, before he could stop himself, at the very [i]idea[/i] of being denied his prize after all this build-up. Milo sheepishly looked up at Eric, but the older shepherd's expression hadn't changed at all.\n \"Mood,\" Eric said simply, and Milo smirked at that. \n\nMilo [i]was[/i] very tight, so Eric kept fingering him for a while. That, added to the rimming he'd received, was making Milo feel increasingly confident about this. \n \"That's better,\" Eric said, \"nice and relaxed and calm.\" Milo sighed contentedly, closing his eyes and focusing on the sensations of that strong, calloused digit sliding in and out of his rump, pushing back slightly against the gentle thrusts. \n \"Mmmmm...\" the slender male murmured, shivering yet again. His prick throbbed hard, and when he opened his eyes, Milo saw that it was drooling pre onto the sheets. He reached down and took hold of his dick, but he'd barely begun to stroke it before Eric pulled his hand free of Milo's backside, and then used his other hand to slap Milo's wrist.\n \"H-hey!\" Milo protested, \"What the hell?\" Eric grinned down at him as he wiped his finger off on a tissue he'd grabbed from - from [i]wherever[/i], that didn't matter to Milo right now. \n \"Don't you dare touch that before we get started,\" Eric warned the younger male, with just a hint of playful in his tone, \"I've been looking forward to fucking an orgasm out of you the way [i]you've[/i] been looking forward to me, balls-deep under your tail.\" \n\nMilo couldn't help but avert his gaze from Eric's shamefully blunt, yet deeply inflaming words. They boldly telegraphed Eric's intention to make Milo come from bottoming again like in the old days, which was both deeply arousing and embarrassing - though not nearly as embarrassing as Eric's casual read on Milo's desires. The fact that it was an entirely [i]accurate[/i] read didn't change how mortifying it was to hear out loud! Milo picked at a seam on his cuff, staring at it far too intensely for his interest to be genuine. Naturally, Eric just reached out and touched his butt again. \n \"So...\" he murmured, his voice low and sensual again, \"How do you want it, little brother?\" His other hand was holding his erection, just in case Milo needed a hint. Clenching down hard, hoping Eric couldn't see, Milo, still steadfastly avoiding meeting Eric's gaze, rolled onto all fours, facing away from his sibling. Then, taking a deep breath to calm his racing heart, Milo raised his tail and spread his knees further apart, issuing an [i]unmistakable[/i] invitation to the other male to have his wicked way with the slender shepherd. \n\nBlushing, thinking he could [i]feel[/i] Eric staring at his anus, Milo tried to sound enticing and not nervous. \n \"How about we s-start simple, go with doggy-style?\" he asked, as he slowly, manually waved his tail from side to side, using the limb to put on a playful show rather than tell the world Milo was happy. He felt Eric touch his hip and inhaled sharply.\n '[i]Oh God, yes, this is it![/i]' he thought, thrilled with excitement. Naturally, Eric's hand suddenly shoved him, hard, and Milo flopped back over onto his side with a confused, yet adorable yelp. Not wasting any time, Eric grabbed one of Milo's arms and kept him moving, rolling the younger male onto his back. Before Milo could settle himself enough to say anything at all, Eric was suddenly above him again, grinning down at his lover, his rigid cock hanging down, pointing at Milo like a promise. \n \"Tell me, Milo,\" Eric said, looking directly into his eyes with such focus that Milo found he couldn't look away, \"Did you suggest doggy-style because you really want to do doggy-style your first time back... or did you suggest doggy-style because you [i]really[/i] want to do it face-to-face, but you're super self-conscious about me watching your face while I fuck you?\" Milo made a horrified noise, and his ears whipping down against his scalp so fast they audibly slapped against him. \n \"Oh my God, how do you [i]do[/i] that?!\" Milo groaned, laughing, \"Do you and Annie have, like, psychic powers because you're older, or something?\" Eric reached down and planted an affectionate kiss on Milo's nose. \n \"No... we just have history with you,\" the dominant male replied, grinning, \"And [i]I[/i] know what your face looks like when we do it, little brother. You look like you're in heaven.\" Milo groaned in embarrassment/enjoyment and covered his face with his hands again. Undaunted in the slightest, Eric planted another kiss on Milo's cheek, where the fingers failed to cover. \n \"Missionary it is, then!\" Eric declared cheerily, his tail wagging madly.\n\nMilo felt the bed shift and knew without even uncovering his face that Eric was leaning back up into a kneeling position. He felt a gentle nudge against the inside of his thigh. \n \"Come on, now, be a [i]good boy[/i] and spread 'em!\" Eric said, audibly smiling. Uncovering his face, Milo gave his lover a wry grin even as he blushed, and spread his legs further apart, inviting his studly sibling between them. To make it easier for Eric to get inside, he lifted his legs slightly and rolled his hips back, changing the angle of his entrance. Taking his beautiful cock in hand, Eric adjusted his position, shifting about on the bed while Milo listened to his heart pounding in his ears. To his chagrin, Milo actually gasped the first time Eric touched the tip of his cock to his little brother's anus. \n \"Don't tense up, now...\" Eric reminded him, and Milo forced his muscles to stay relaxed despite his nervousness. The [i]last[/i] thing he wanted was for it to hurt more than it should have... Eric gave an experimental nudge, then began to rub his crown up and down against Milo's back door, something that had consistently made Milo [i]crazy[/i] with anticipation and desire back in the day. Turned out it still worked. The slender male squirmed and writhed on the bed, aching to feel that hard dick inside him, suddenly aware of every second of the five years that had passed since he'd gotten fucked. With Eric holding his hip like that, he couldn't even push against it!\n \"[i]Hnnngh[/i]... Eric, p-please...\" he whimpered, desperate. Milo was seconds away from outright begging for it (mostly because he knew it would work on Eric) when Eric made his move. Milo wasn't the only one who needed this, after all...\n\nEric pushed forward, the head of his manhood pressing harder against Milo's anus, and for a few moments it put up a good fight, but between Eric's tongue, his finger, and the lube, the stubborn rosebud quickly surrendered. Milo arched his back, crying out in both pain and pleasure as the head of his big brother's rigid prick slipped into his rump. It was definitely more uncomfortable than Milo remembered it, and the whimpering shepherd was grateful Eric had had the forethought to 'exercise the muscle' first. Eric held still for a moment, reaching up to gently caress Milo's cheek. \n \"You alright?\" he asked, softly. \n \"Uh-huh,\" Milo replied, his voice a little strained, \"I j-just need a minute...\" \n \"Take your time, get used to it again,\" Eric encouraged him, \"Just don't forget to breathe.\" Being very careful to hold his hips still, the larger male bent forward and licked the side of his lover's muzzle reassuringly, then kissed him. It was a surprisingly un-hungry kiss, considering what they were up to, but then the point was to try and distract Milo from the discomfort. It wasn't easy, as his ass had responded to the uninvited guest by clenching down hard, and he needed to wait for the pain to ease a little before he could relax those muscles.\n\nEric was reminding Milo with every movement, every touch, of something he'd almost forgotten in the last five years; for as buff as he was, the elder canine was capable of being very gentle and very tender. Breaking off the kiss, Eric nuzzled against Milo's cheek and smiled at him again. \n \"How you holding up?\" he asked, unhurriedly. \n \"Better, I think,\" Milo replied. A ridiculous thought popped into his head out of nowhere, and he smirked and snickered to himself. \n \"What was that?\" Eric asked, cocking one ear to the side curiously, his own smile already growing. \n \"Oh, uh, it's nothing,\" Milo said, \"I just, uh... Well, I just imagined Annie with Sean, just out somewhere, when Annie suddenly whirls around dramatically like she's s-sensed a great disturbance in the Force or something.\" Eric made it as far as saying 'Oh, you mean when I' before he broke down into giggles. \n \"Shit, I love that,\" the larger male laughed, \"all holding out her hand, like 'I sense an energy that I have not sensed in a long, long time...'\" \n \"Wait, was [i]that[/i] your Alec Guinness?\" Milo asked, dubiously. Eric frowned at that and responded by nudging his hips forward and making Milo yelp, because Eric was a mature adult who could handle criticism. Unseen by both brothers across the room, Milo's phone was just peeking out of his pants pocket, and as they laughed about this exchange, the number of unread messages awaiting Milo's attention changed from 6 to 7. \n\nWhen they'd giggled themselves out, Eric regarded his lover just slightly more seriously.\n \"I'm gonna keep going, okay?\" he asked. Taking another deep breath, Milo nodded, focusing on not tensing up as his brother began pushing forward again, as that handsome prick continued to slide into his tight ass, inch by inch. Milo squirmed and shuddered as it nudged and shoved against his sensitive spots on its way into his rump. \n \"You're doing well,\" said Eric, his voice slightly tense, \"Almost hilted...\" \n \"God, it's - it's been so long...\" Milo moaned, \"I can feel my ass s-stretching...\" Milo had anticipated this part, because he'd had this thought every time he'd had sex with Eric: why did it feel [i]so much bigger[/i] than it looked? But he managed to persevere, without stopping Eric even once because it hurt, and soon enough, Milo felt Eric's balls nuzzling against his buttocks as every single centimetre of his big brother's hard prick was buried within him, all the way to the base. \n\nMilo tried to hold it in, but the impulse remained for several seconds, and he was helpless to resist moaning with pleasure. God, he was so full of dick... Even as he was savouring the sensation he'd missed for five years, Milo suddenly noticed that of all things, his [i]feet[/i] hurt, incongruously. The trembling shepherd realized that while Eric had been sliding home, Milo's toes had curled up hard and stayed that way until they started to ache. He'd have smirked at himself if he weren't still shivering from feeling so full, but he did manage to unclench his feet at least, so he could focus on the more pleasant sensations of the moment. \n \"Oh - oh Eric,\" he whimpered, incoherent from the pleasure, \"God...\" Eric shrugged casually.\n \"Well, it's not a title I'd choose for [i]myself[/i], but I guess you can call me that if you wish,\" he deadpanned, his tail wagging merrily. \n \"Wh- oh, you fuck,\" Milo laughed, giving him a light bop on the arm. Eric leaned down to hungrily capture his lips, and Milo was only too happy to let him. As they kissed, Milo clenched his rump experimentally, shivering at the sensation of his inner walls squeezing against the hard cock inside him. He felt Eric shivering, too, and the elder male growled with desire into the kiss, a low rumbling that Milo found a major turn-on. Milo [i]also[/i] appreciated that every time Eric moved, his dick shifted and moved inside Milo's rear, pressing against sensitive spots at random. The younger male felt his own cock throb, drooling pre-come into his fur, and he churred into the kiss to show his brother how much he was enjoying himself. \n\nSoon enough, Eric leaned back and regarded Milo calmly.\n \"I'm gonna start moving for real,\" he said. Milo nodded eagerly.\n \"Okay, g-go for it,\" he replied, feeling his tail trying to wag underneath him. Milo swallowed a moan as Eric pulled back, his cock smoothly sliding free until only the tip remained inside. The slender canine shivered, trying to remember if he'd felt this sensitive the last time he'd taken it, and deciding he could think about it later as Eric pushed forward again, his thick, eager prick sliding more easily than before into his little brother's tight, welcoming ass. Eric groaned softly as he hilted himself a second time, but as tempting as it must have been to just stay buried to the balls in Milo's soft, squeezable rump, he immediately did an about-face, working up his sexual momentum. Milo reached up and held onto Eric with trembling arms, gasping and whimpering as Eric drove himself home again, and again, and again, getting smoother, finding his rhythm. Soon, the younger shepherd allowed himself to moan with ecstasy as his hunky lover started really fucking him. \n\nThe slender male had forgotten all about the muffled slapping sound of their bodies meeting when they had sex, but as he began hearing it again, Milo realized he had missed it (along with every [i]other[/i] aspect of this experience).\n \"Oh - oh fuck, Eric, I - I needed this s-[i]so much![/i]\" he managed to blurt out. He thought he felt his brother shudder against him, and wondered distantly if that was because of what Milo had said, or how tight he was. Starting to pant with exertion, Eric leaned down and licked his lover's cheek, then nipped him on the shoulder. Milo gasped, clenching down hard enough to momentarily slow his brother's thrusting, though the moment his ass relaxed, he felt Eric smoothly pick up his former pace. \n \"That's it, Milo... Thaaat's it...\" Eric murmured, \"You're - [i]Hnnngh! - [/i]You're taking it s-so well...\" Milo yelped cutely as Eric thrust home once with more gusto than usual. \n \"Mmmm... you know, I needed yo-[i]this[/i] too...\" Eric said, softly. Milo frowned slightly, one ear twitching.\n \"What was th-[i]mmph[/i]...\" The question was forgotten as Eric abruptly kissed him again, and Milo found himself much more concerned with the pleasure he was feeling than the bullet Eric had dodged. \n\nAs Eric slid home again and again, beginning to pick up the pace, Milo lifted his legs, wrapping them loosely around his brother's waist. Eric churred to him in response, grinning ferally.\n \"I always l-loved it when you did that...\" he huffed, changing the angle of his thrusts slightly. \n \"I always loved d-doing it...\" Milo replied, before letting out a muffled cry of pleasure as Eric's hard-on jabbed at Milo's sensitive prostate. \"[i]Mmmffff[/i]... God, yes, that's s-so good...\" As if doing it on purpose, Eric immediately did it [i]again[/i], and this time Milo couldn't help but moan out loud. \n \"[i]Hnngh[/i], d-don't stop,\" the slender shepherd whimpered, \"Fuck me, big brother, [i]fuck me![/i]\" \n\nMilo had said it because reminding himself of their relation in the midst of sex emphasized how kinky and taboo it was, something that tended to slip his mind because of how natural and right sex with Eric felt, and something that [i]really[/i] turned Milo's crank. Eric's too, from the look of it, as the larger male let out a growl of need and started moving faster again. Milo bit his lip and closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling of that hard prick moving inside him, picturing it twitching and pulsing as it pumped in and out of his tight ass, drooling pre-come and smearing it all over Milo's inner walls like it was laying claim to the younger male's rump. Ooooh, [i]there[/i] was a thought that made Milo tingle... Barely resisting the urge to cry out 'make me yours', he moaned and began to roll his hips, pushing back against Eric's thrusts, wanting to feel him as deep as possible. \n \"[i]Mmmfff[/i], harder,\" Milo panted, \"Harder!\" He yelped as Eric gave his ass a quick swat without adjusting his thrusts. \n \"D-don't push it, it'll hurt,\" Eric warned, \"Work your - [i]uhn![/i] - your way back up to it...\" Even in his haze of lust, Milo thought that sounded wise, so he just pouted instead of begging. \n \"Fine, okay, th-this is pretty good too...\" he muttered, still feeling his tail trying to wag despite the dog lying on it. \n\nMilo leaned back against the pillows to get comfortable, whimpering as Eric nudged his prostate again. The younger shepherd found that sex helped him clear his mind, forget his troubles. It was hard to think about [i]anything[/i] other than the delicious friction of that rigid cock sliding back and forth under his tail, after all. Milo felt his own dick throb, and reached down to take a hold of it, stroking the aching, needy flesh. He felt it throb again, felt hot pre-come oozing down the backs of his fingers, and sighed contentedly. \n \"Mmmm...\" He squirmed and shuddered, his entire body awash with pleasure, at least until Eric adjusted his position. He reached down and took hold of Milo's free hand, then moved it back out to the side and leaned on it, before Eric lifted his other hand, grabbed the hand Milo was using to fiddle the proverbial ferret, and pried it away from his needy cock. \n \"W-wait, no!\" Milo protested, but Eric was both larger and stronger than he was, [i]and[/i] almost directly on top of him, so in no time at all, Eric was pinning both of Milo's wrists against the bed, positioning his own arms as if he were about to do push-ups on top of his lover. \n \"There, that's better,\" Eric said cheerily. Milo squirmed and frowned up at the other male. \n \"What?! No it isn't!\" he protested, \"You c-can't just give me D [i]this[/i] good without letting me c-come! I - I - I'm not into that orgasm denial stuff!\" \n\nEric leaned down and licked his brother's cheek again, playfully. \n \"Now, now, Milo, I can't very well fuck you to a hands-free nut if you've got your hand on your tool, now can I?\" he asked, even more playfully. Then he grinned a truly perverted grin, and Milo shivered with excitement. \n \"I never said I wasn't letting you come,\" he clarified, \"I'm [i]making[/i] you come.\" To emphasize his point, he sheathed himself in the younger shepherd's rear again, harder than usual, earning a yelp when he slid home, his balls slapping audibly against Milo's soft buns.\n \"B-but that's so [i]embarrassing[/i]...\" Milo whined, desperately ignoring the part of himself that always loved it when Eric did this. Naturally, that was when Eric played dirty, making his voice all low and sexy again, playing directly to Milo's weaknesses. \n \"Come on, little brother,\" Eric teased, \"You wanna be a Good Boy for me and cream all over yourself, don't you?\" \n \"[i]Hnngh[/i]...\" Milo groaned, clenching down hard again, \"[i]Fuuuuuck[/i], that's s-so not fair...\" Eric chuckled, then regarded Milo with that dominant smile again. \n \"Is it really s-so embarrassing if you're d-doing it because your big brother [i]wants[/i] you to?\" he asked, maddeningly reasonably, and he emphasized both of the words in 'big brother' with two more of those stronger thrusts. Milo cried out with pleasure, seeing stars and feeling pre soaking into his fur from that. \n\nMilo squirmed and writhed on the bed, trying petulantly to free his hands, but Eric was leaning his weight onto his arms, and he was bigger than Milo to begin with, so those skinny arms weren't going anywhere. It felt a little strange to be trying to free his arms from Eric's grasp while his legs were still wrapped around the man's waist, but he was going with the flow. That wasn't the part he was focusing on, anyway, that honour belonging to the part where he suddenly felt considerably more vulnerable and exposed than he already did from having a dick up his ass... and it was an [i]immense[/i] turn-on. He whimpered and shivered from the way he felt entirely at his big brother's mercy.\n '[i]Nooooo...[/i]' whined Milo's inner canine, '[i]I'm not into being dominated, I come from a proud line of noble warriors[/i]...' It was this same inner voice that had given Milo such grief over being a bottom, or being bisexual at all, for that matter, so he was trying to ignore it. Eric leaned down and helped with that task by sniffing at the side of Milo's neck. \n\nMilo was expecting Eric to tease him somehow, say he smelled like a twink or something, but instead the elder shepherd began to lick that same spot on Milo's neck, just about where it met his shoulder. Milo moaned with pleasure from several different sources, but at the moment, the one he was focusing on was the way Eric dragged that wide, flat tongue against the short fur on the side of Milo's neck. \n \"Mmmmnngh...\" the younger male managed, shivering again. Eric churred softly to Milo, whispering to him in a low tone. \n \"I'm so very glad... that you're [i]mine[/i] again.\" Milo's eyes widened and he gasped as conflicting emotions filled his being. A part of him was immediately, shamelessly, and enthusiastically on board with the idea of being Eric's, and another part of him felt fear and dismay at the very [i]words[/i]. Before the slender male could even begin to sort through these thoughts, much less give voice to them, Eric bent down still further (hilting himself in his brother in the process and holding there for a moment) and bit down hard on Milo's neck, on the very spot he'd been licking. \n\nMilo arched his back and cried out. Morphic dogs didn't have a pain-for-pleasure response during sex like cats did, so his shoulder hurt, but at the same time, it was so dominant and possessive and [i]primal[/i] of Eric to do that, that Milo felt a strange surge of pleasure spreading through his body from the bite.\n \"Oh - oh God, [i]yessssssssss[/i],\" The trembling shepherd moaned, keeping his ears flat against his head. They'd been conflicting feelings before, but right now, he was suddenly [i]so [/i]into this, into Eric making him his... Milo distantly wondered why he wasn't holding his lover tightly, gripping Eric's back tight enough to leave claw marks... and it took him several blissful seconds before he could remember that his hands were pinned to the bed. Letting out his breath as a long, drawn-out whimper/sigh, Milo let himself go limp, slumping down in erotic surrender to his lover, his big brother.\n\nAfter a few seconds or a few aeons, it felt like both, Eric released his mouth and leaned back. Milo took it as a good sign that there wasn't blood dripping from his lip, though this [i]did[/i] briefly distract him with the mental image of Eric as a vampire, which he found unexpectedly attractive. \n \"Looks okay, that's g-good,\" Eric murmured softly, \"Thought I g-got carried away there...\" \n \"I'm okay,\" Milo said immediately, not wanting to stop, \"It's just kinda sore... and I, uh...\" \n '[i]No, don't say it you fool![/i]' protested his inner canine.\n \"...I kinda liked it,\" Milo admitted with a shy grin. Eric chuckled at that and beamed from ear to ear, to use the human phrase (though of course [i]Eric's[/i] ears were directly on top of his head, and his mouth came nowhere close). \n \"Yeah?\" the older male asked, his ears perking up, his tail wagging, \"...Me too.\" He leaned down again and licked at the bite mark a few times. Milo tensed up for a moment, but found that the sensation helped soothe the ache... which in turn helped him focus on his rump instead of his neck again. \n\nWhen Eric moved back this time, he adjusted his knees on the bed before pulling his hips back, withdrawing his thick cock from Milo's tight ass once again, but far, far slower than he'd been thrusting before, drawing it out to make Milo super aware of it. The head of his prick kept rubbing against sensitive spots, and Milo was shuddering and whimpering, his legs twitching and tensing as random spikes of pleasure teased out from his rump into the nerves around them. \n '[i]I don't care how good it feels, I won't do the kicky-leg thing![/i]' the trembling dog silently vowed to himself. At that moment, Eric reversed direction, his dick effortlessly sliding back into his little brother's needy ass. As he felt himself spreading within once again, felt that beautiful cock filling him up, snug against his walls, Milo moaned shamelessly... and tightened the grip his legs had on Eric's waist, just in case.\n\nMilo was careful not to tighten his legs [i]too[/i] much, of course, leaving Eric's hips room to work, and so the older male got back to quick, smooth thrusting, rocking Milo back and forth each time the muscular shepherd's scrotum nuzzled against his lover's butt. After a few minutes, Milo moaned, \n \"[i]Hnnngh[/i], yes...\" Milo whimpered, letting his tongue hang out so he could pant, \"Fuck me... [i]fuck meeeee[/i]...\" His hands twitched pointlessly. If anything, Eric's grip on his wrists had gotten even tighter as the taller dog had gotten more and more aroused. Now he was driving himself home again and again, grunting each time he was fully sheathed in Milo's rear, and he showed no signs of stopping, though his fur did have an attractive sheen of sweat to it now. \n \"Oh, [i]Milo[/i]...\" he panted, \"Goddamn, th-this is so good...\" Milo couldn't disagree, and he wasn't just pushing back against Eric's thrusts anymore, he was clenching his legs slightly every time Eric drove himself forward, as if his feet were helping push Eric as deep as he could go. For Milo, the physical pleasure of it all was being deliciously combined with a feeling he couldn't quite put his finger on that was like... like scratching an itch he'd been forced to ignore, or... correcting a mistake, maybe. The closer they got to the immense release that was rapidly approaching, the more powerfully Milo felt this anonymous sensation.\n\nThe shepherds lost themselves in frantic, desperate lovema- [i]copulation[/i], Milo's focus narrowing until it was like his entire universe consisted of himself and the studly male having his wicked way with him. The slender dog panted and shuddered and yelped as thrust after thrust drove deep inside his rump, sending taboo pleasure surging down his nerves. Eventually, Milo felt his big brother's hard prick nudge his prostate particularly hard, and he moaned shamelessly, his own cock throbbing hard, demanding attention as it drooled pre into his fur. Whimpering with need, aching for release, Milo squirmed again, but was no more successful in freeing his hands.\n \"P-please, Eric, l-let go, I'm close, a-a-and I need to come, s-so fuckin' bad...\" he whimpered, his cheeks flushed with both exertion and embarrassment. \n \"I'm... I'm getting close t-too,\" panted Eric, before a smile slowly spread across his face. \n \"So if you wanna g-get off,\" Eric continued, \"You'd b-better ask nicely, little brother...\" \n\nHe then bent down and whispered into Milo's ear, and the younger male yelped in embarrassed dismay. \n \"What?! I c-can't say [i]that![/i]\" protested Milo, \"Eric, oh m-my God!\" Eric, who had wasted no time in leaning back up and continuing to thrust, grinned at his lover.\n \"Offer only s-stands until I n-nut,\" he teased, warningly, \"You don't w-want to be l-left high and dry, do you?\" Milo groaned and continued to squirm. \n \"You can't d-do that, I'll get b-blue balls!\" The younger male complained. \n \"Now, now, M-Milo, you need to come, d-don't you?\" Eric said, his voice as close to 'sensual' as he could get it while breathing this hard, \"You want to b-be a [i]good boy[/i] for your big b-brother, don't you?\" \n \"[i]Noooooo[/i]...\" Milo moaned, shuddering and closing his eyes, but in truth, this was not a denial. It was a protest, as Milo still could not refute that dismaying certainty that deep down, he [i]did[/i] want to be a good boy for his big brother. What Eric had asked him to say was cask-strength embarrassing, but as he hovered near the edge of release, unable to quite reach, Milo could feel his resistance crumbling. \n\nIt wasn't just that Milo needed to come; it was that this was the first time he'd had sex with Eric in a long time, that he couldn't believe how good, how [i]right[/i] it felt for them to be together like this, and he really, really wanted his brother to [i]make[/i] him come. Finishing himself off afterwards would be so disappointing he didn't even want to think about it. \n \"Oh God... I c-can't believe I'm doing th-this...\" he groaned.\nOpening his eyes with a whimper, struggling not to admit to himself that he was getting off on it just as much as Eric was, Milo lowered his ears submissively and regarded his lover with an adorable pout, such as can only be accomplished by canines who have mastered Puppy Dog Eyes. \n \"P-please, I need to come s-so bad, and I...\" He hesitated, struggling to maintain eye contact. \"...I want you to f-fuck it out of me! [i]Hnnngh[/i]... B-breed me, big brother, [i]breed me![/i]\" Milo could [i]feel[/i] a shudder run through his lover's muscular body when he shamelessly begged Eric to come inside him. A deep, sexy growl of desire echoed across the room.\n \"...G-good boy, little brother,\" came the murmur, \"[i]Good boy[/i]...\"\n\nMilo's cheeks burned, his canine instincts warring it out with the submissive nature he'd denied for so long, but his attention focused on the way Eric's eyes widened and his grin grew bigger until all his sharpest teeth were being shown off. Clearly invigorated by Milo's plaintive begging, Eric leaned down lower, his thrusts changing, becoming faster, shallower, the larger male only pulling back until his cock was halfway out before pushing it back into his brother's needy ass. Milo didn't realize that Eric was checking his angle until he'd found it; suddenly, that hard dick was pressing against Milo's prostate on [i]every[/i] thrust, and Milo was seeing stars. The slender shepherd had been so sure that Eric would be out of practice, wouldn't be able to make him come hands-free this very first time... He found he couldn't work up much disappointment over being wrong. \n\nEric's hard, thrusting cock rammed into Milo's rear again and again, a lewd slapping noise ringing out each time the muscular male bottomed out, each time the crown of his prick nudged Milo's P-spot. For his part, Milo was just hanging on for the ride and mumbling lewdly to himself.\n \"God, yes... fuck me... [i]fuck me[/i]... Oh shit, th-that's so good...\" Milo shuddered hard and moaned before adding \"Mmmm, d-don't ever stop...\" \nEric picked up the pace even more, sheathing and unsheathing himself in Milo's ass rapidly, causing Milo's toes to curl up behind Eric, who growled again with such primal desire that for a second there, Milo expected to receive a bite on the other side of his neck, to even it out. \n \"[i]Hnnngh[/i]... I'm s-so close... I'm g-gonna come...\" Milo moaned, writhing with pleasure. \n \"[i]Do it[/i],\" Eric hissed, his hot breath tickling Milo's whiskers, \"come for me, little brother, give m-me every last drop, sh-show me how much you m-missed me!\" The slender male sensed that Eric was also approaching the brink, but any thought of outlasting him went out the window when the elder shepherd drew back all the way to the tip, one more time, and then [i]slammed[/i] himself home in Milo's tight rump. That last strike against his prostate tipped Milo over the edge into orgasm, and with a passionate cry, he arched his back off the bed and came, [i]hard[/i]. \n \"Oh, [i]big brotherrrr!\"[/i]\n\nMilo's entire body was overcome with an explosion of embarrassing pleasure, his prick beginning to throb and spasm of its own volition, spurting long, glistening strands of Milo's thick, gooey cream all over his stomach and chest as he yelped and mewled with ecstasy. Eric continued to maintain his shallow thrusts for a few moments more, but with the way Milo's rump was now squeezing and massaging his tool in time with the younger dog's release, Eric only lasted a few seconds longer than his sibling. Groaning, Eric hilted himself one final time, burying himself as deep into his little brother's ass as he could before he followed Milo into climax. Even through his own pleasures, Milo noticed as his lover's hard cock began to pulse inside him, moaning particularly loudly as he felt the intense warmth of Eric's semen spreading deep inside him, imagining that thick cock painting his bowels with copious shepherd jism, marking Milo as Eric's, [i]claiming[/i] him. This, of course, tweaked Milo's pleasures even higher, and his legs tightened around his brother's waist, making it impossible for Eric to pull out, even if it [i]hadn't[/i] been[i] [/i]the last thing in the universe he currently wanted. \n\nMilo had closed his eyes shortly after he started climaxing; he'd been unable to see anything anyway, as he was coming so hard all he could see were stars, as if the earlier display had been a cheeky preview of the constellation of pleasure he was in for. When his ecstasy finally burned itself through, Milo slumped down to the bed with a sigh, his entire body tingling, his dick still giving the occasional spasm and drooling a little more creamy goodness into his pelt.\n \"[i]Hnnnh[/i]... [i]Hnnnh[/i]... Oh - oh my [i]God[/i], Eric...\" he panted, still feeling lightheaded. When his eyes cleared, he saw... his big brother smiling down at him, evidently having finished emptying his balls into Milo's tight rump. Eric was just gazing down at Milo's face, having been studying the smaller male as he writhed in orgasm. When their eyes met, Eric winked at the slender, slightly glazed shepherd. \n \"[i]Good boy[/i], little brother,\" Eric whispered to him, his tail wagging tiredly behind him, \"Now you're [i]really[/i] mine...\" To his chagrin, Milo whimpered pleasantly. Eric made a show of lifting his hands away from Milo's wrists, freeing his lover, and then bent down to kiss Milo, slowly but deeply. Their tongues coiled and entwined in a dance that was no less passionate for being less energetic than the last one. \n\nReaching up to wrap his arms around Eric's shoulders, Milo eagerly kissed his brother, his ears kept low. He was content to just lie here, focusing on the warm feeling of his afterglow, on Eric's comforting presence above him, and on the slowly-deflating cock still buried in his rear. All felt well in Milo's universe for the first time in years, and he distantly knew it was probably just the immense satisfaction from getting laid again after all this time, but he'd still take it as long as he could. Speaking of which, when the kiss finally ended, Eric leaned up into a kneeling position, put a hand on Milo's hip, and gently pulled his dick back out with a grunt. The younger Thompson yelped, shuddering hard as he felt his brother's seed begin slowly leaking out of his back door. He'd been hoping to savour that particular sensation a little longer... He almost whined about it, but was distracted when Eric began leaning [i]way[/i] down, and not towards Milo's face. \n \"W-wait, what...\" he started to ask, but Eric just gently shushed him, told him to relax, and leaned down to give some of the come on Milo's stomach a lick. \n \"Mmmm, tasty...\" the elder shepherd churred playfully, before adding \"Don't give me that look, you're the one who told me to 'find my own', so I'm calling dibs!\" He bent back down, and this time, didn't stop licking after just once. \n\n \"Ah! [i]Ohhh[/i], Eric...\" Milo moaned, shivering as his brother's warm, wet tongue eagerly lapped at the seed he'd spilled. Eric wasn't even [i]trying[/i] to hide the way his tail was wagging over this perverse act, and the slender male distantly admired his brother's confidence. Grinning self-consciously, Milo put a whine in his voice he didn't actually feel. \n \"Nooo, don't, that's embarrassing...\" the younger shepherd complained, putting in a token effort of protest to save face. Looking up from his cleaning, Eric gave his lover a Look that suggested he knew just how much Milo was actually enjoying this. \n \"No cuddling until we aren't smearing jizz into our fur while we do it,\" the muscular male replied, faux-sternly. Milo laughed softly. Cuddling was his favourite part of afterglow, and Eric knew it. \n \"Well, when you put it [i]that[/i] way...\" Milo muttered, as if his tail wasn't trying to wag beneath him, and Eric snickered to himself as he continued licking up his little brother's still-warm cream. \n\nEric was playfully thorough and meticulous, and soon Milo's chest and abs were jism-free. He still felt the evidence that he had been claimed by his big brother inside of him, of course, but Milo low-key loved that feeling, so this did not bother him. The skinny dog was not enormously surprised when the first thing Eric did afterwards was move back up, roll onto his side, and pull Milo into his arms without a word. They didn't kiss this time, they just snuggled against each other. Milo got the immediate and distinct feeling that Eric had missed this [i]exactly[/i] as much as he had. Closing his eyes, the younger shepherd nuzzled against his lover's pecs, breathing deep of his natural scent. It was only a few seconds later that Milo realized Eric was doing the same thing to his hair. \n \"Thank you...\" Milo whispered, vague enough to encompass it all. He let his tail wag as hard as it wanted to. \n \"Thank [i]you[/i],\" Eric countered, an enormously contented smile on his face. \n\nAfter a moment or two, Eric rolled onto his back, taking Milo with him, leaving the slender male lying atop him. The elder shepherd immediately began scratching his lover behind the ears, and Milo whimpered appreciatively. \n \"So... now that you're mine...\" Eric said, making Milo blush but also giggle to himself. \n \"[i]Eriiiic![/i]\" Milo half-laugh-half-whined, \"You can't keep [i]saying[/i] that...\" \n \"...I should probably get you a nice collar, put something embarrassing on the tag,\" Eric continued cheerily, as if Milo hadn't spoken, \"Hmm, 'Eric's Bitch' seems too obvious...\" Despite his best efforts, Milo couldn't help but imagine Eric's strong, confident hands sliding a tight collar around his neck like he was a beloved domestic. He felt a submissive shiver run down his spine and elected to ignore that. \n \"Maybe something more general, like 'Butt Slut'...\" Eric teased, a faux-thoughtful tone to his voice as he squeezed one of Milo's soft, perky buttocks.\n \"You know,\" Milo said tiredly, \"I [i]do[/i] need to be able to go outside eventually...\"\n \"Ohh, you're no fun,\" the taller male laughed, \"It's not like you [i]couldn't[/i] go outside with a collar, it's just that everyone would know that you're a secret pervert!\" Milo let out a loud huff and snuggled down against Eric's fuzzy chest even closer. \n \"Man, If you hadn't just made me come so hard I saw stars...\" he grumbled, entirely at odds with his wagging tail. \n \"No kidding?\" Eric asked, suddenly forgetting the playful teasing tone, \"Shit, that's awesome, Milo!\" Grinning, he churred to the smaller male, leaning in to lick affectionately at his face. The squirming shepherd laughed and tried to turn away, but Eric's arms had moved up to hug Milo under the armpits, and there was no escape. \n\nWhen the playfully unrelenting licking (and the accompanying delighted/embarrassed laughter) finally ceased, Eric reached out to smooth down Milo's mussed up facial fur. \n \"I've, uh, I've [i]really[/i] missed this,\" Eric murmured, more softly than before, \"Holding you, kissing you, making you blush, making you [i]mine[/i]... Thank you for suggesting this, little brother.\" A part of Milo wanted to recoil at this, suddenly anxious about how affectionately and intimately Eric was talking... like they were a [i]couple[/i] or something. But Milo still felt so warm and safe and comfortable, and Eric was petting the back of his head now, and the panicked thought floated out of the periphery of his awareness, so the sleepy male could continue to enjoy this closeness with his lover. Resting his head against Eric's chest, listening to his strong heart beating, Milo yawned and then smiled. \n \"Maybe... maybe being yours isn't so bad...\" he mumbled. Eric blinked at the directness of the statement and tilted his head to the side, regarding Milo curiously.\n \"What was that?\" he asked, gently, \"Milo?\" Closing his eyes, just for a moment, Milo muttered something entirely incoherent, and then felt himself slipping away. He felt so safe and content in his big brother's arms, it didn't even occur to him to resist. \n\n[center]* * *[/center]\n\nMilo's eyes fluttered open, and he stirred awake. Realizing he was lying on the bed instead of his big brother, the slender male feared Eric had left him. The bleary-eyed shepherd murbled to himself wordlessly as he sat halfway up, to discover that Eric lay next to him, stretched out, arms crossed behind his head, having apparently carefully transferred Milo down to the mattress at some point. When Milo stirred, Eric opened his eyes, and the larger canine smiled happily. Milo stretched and yawned, then grinned back. \n \"You were so cute, I wanted to let you sleep,\" Eric said, chuckling. Milo made a face.\n \"Thanks, I think...\" As a thought occurred to the skinny shepherd, he bent over the side of the bed and reached for his discarded pants, reacting with no surprise at all when Eric took advantage of the moment to reach over and caress his little brother's soft butt. Sitting back down, having retrieved his phone, Milo took a deep breath, steeling himself for an important task. Seeing the phone in his hand, Eric chuckled again, picking up his own phone from the bed beside him and waggling it for emphasis. \n \"Oh, I guess Anne really [i]did[/i] sense a disturbance in the Force, or something, you're gonna have a half dozen or so messages from her.\" At first, Milo snickered at that, but it didn't last long, and for a moment, he just gazed at the phone in his hand without unlocking it. \n \"...I think I have someone else to message first,\" he murmured, quietly. After a few seconds, Eric's expression softened sympathetically, his ears drooping just a little, and as he lay his own phone back down next to him, he reached out with his other hand and rested it on Milo's shoulder, giving it a firm, supportive squeeze. Eric nodded to his brother, who understood perfectly. Some things don't need to be said out loud. \n\nAnd so, with one brother searching for the words to reach out, and the other ready to support him, whatever may come, the Thompsons looked forward to the future with more hope than before. Milo had allowed himself to face his problems, and he had started his rehabilitation in his brother's arms. With their reunion complete, it felt like something wrong had been set right in the universe, and now, at long last, Eric and Milo could support each other through some proper healing... sexual and otherwise.\n",
"writing_bbcode_parsed": "Life in the Pack: Reunion and Rehabilitation
By Green
Eric Thompson swallowed, feeling sweat soaking into the fur at his temples, as he stared across his boss' office at the short, slender, and very, very pissed-looking mouse who glared right back at him with revenge in her eyes. The German shepherd had been called in to the Fate nightclub by his boss, Mike, to be introduced to a new hire before his shift. When he'd realized that the new bouncer was Gela Taylor, Eric's heart had skipped a beat, and then started racing so hard that it was like time slowed down - or at least the next several seconds sure felt like they took about four years.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me..." Gela repeated, more quietly, as she shook her head. Eric's employer peered around the muscular dog's shoulder with a dubious expression on his face.
"You two... know each other, I take it," the human asked, perhaps unnecessarily.
"Oh, sure, Mike, me and Eric here go way back," Gela replied, acidly. Eric swallowed the urge to whimper with fear. She knew his biggest secret, and had no reason whatsoever to keep it, as well as several very good reasons to hate him.
"It's just that the last time I laid eyes on him, he was fucking my boyfriend!" she continued, as Eric's ears slowly lowered to his scalp in shame. This was it. Gela was going to spill the proverbial beans, and his boss would know that Eric used to fuck his own brother. But the furious mouse just crossed her arms over her chest, her leather jacket creaking quietly, and glared at him some more.
While Eric wondered why she was waiting to drop the other shoe, and whether he could get fired just for being a pervert, Mike paled and his eyes widened with dismay.
"Oh, applesauce..." he muttered to himself, before raising his voice. "This is totally going to be a problem, isn't it?"
"I, uh, I guess that, that..." Eric stammered uselessly, his mind paralyzed by fear and guilt.
"Hmmm..." Gela said, working her lip between her teeth as she continued staring daggers at Eric, before finally sighing and uncrossing her arms.
"You know what, no, this isn't going to be a problem," she sighed, "I really need this job, so I'm going to be the bigger person and not put your ass in the hospital. The front door is on the opposite side of the building to the bar, after all..." Her voice was tense, and she sounded like she was half trying to convince herself. With the slightest glance in Mike's direction, Eric swallowed again and hesitantly extended his right hand, somewhat afraid she was going to flip him over her shoulder, or break his wrist, or some other martial arts nonsense. Mike had said he'd seen her kicking the asses of men twice her size at that tournament, after all, it's why he wanted to give her the gig in the first place...
The muscular male sighed, he couldn't just stand here in terror, he had to make some kind of goodwill gesture!
"Truce?" Eric offered, and for a long, heavy moment, Gela just stared at his hand like an alien unfamiliar with the gesture. Then, she stepped forward, reached out, and took his hand, shaking it firmly... and then holding on tight as the unassuming mouse suddenly snapped her leg out so fast it blurred, driving her foot up between Eric's legs to strike him right in the balls, hard enough to make him see stars, and nothing else. A pain unlike any other cascaded over his entire body, burying him alive. Eric let out a sharp yowl of agony and slumped to the ground, writhing in pain and clutching his aching 'nads. Gela put her hands on her hips and looked down at the groaning male.
"Truce," she said, pointedly, "starting right now."
"Gaaaaah, fuck..." Eric moaned, eloquently. It was the best he could do under the circumstances. Standing up straight again, Gela calmly regarded Mike, who had been horrified into inaction, standing frozen off to the side with a grimace of sympathy on his face.
"Right, then I'm gonna go put on that club logo T-shirt and then get started," she said, matter-of-factly, nodding down the hall. Without another word, she walked right past the target of her vengeance and out of the office.
Looking distinctly frustrated, Mike turned towards Eric and knelt down.
"You gonna be okay, big guy?" he asked, gingerly.
"J-just give me a couple minutes," Eric managed, as his legs still felt like jelly. At least he hadn't puked...
"Alright... you, uh, you want me to call the cops or something, help you press charges?" the human continued. Eric wasn't doing great, it was true, and the memory of that embarrassing yelp he'd let out was still ringing in his ears, but he pulled one hand away from his poor, battered balls to wave Mike off.
"No, no cops, no charges," he insisted, "I... I k-kinda had that one coming." Mike didn't seem convinced, glancing back the way Gela had left.
"You're really gonna just... shrug that off?" he asked, dubiously. Eric looked up at him and scowled as best he could.
"Does it look like I'm shrugging that off?" he growled, "But... she could do a lot worse to me." He paused to grimace before he finished the thought. "I was younger, I was s-stupider... and I did fuck her boyfriend, after all... If she l-leaves it here, I'm okay." Mike sighed dubiously.
"Well, if you say so, man..." He patted Eric on the shoulder in a slightly awkward manner and got up to go see to his club, reluctantly leaving the larger male on the floor. Eric let out another soft groan as he massaged his testicles through his pants, but as miserable as he was, it wasn't even the kick that was running endlessly through his mind, it was the same question, over and over: Why the hell hadn't Gela mentioned that her ex-boyfriend was also Eric's little brother?
A short time later, Mike wandered back to the office, just as Eric was feeling more like himself. Seeing the canine sitting up, Mike extended a hand to help him to his feet. He tried to downplay the effort he put in to lift the larger male.
"There you go, Eric, much better," he said, hesitating before continuing, "I... should probably fire her for something like this, shouldn't I?" He didn't sound thrilled about the idea. Eric, who had had plenty of time to think about it, let out a heavy sigh.
"Listen... I'll say two things. First, for whatever else I'd say about her, Angela Taylor is better at her word than I am. If she says truce after, uh, getting that out of her system, I believe her." Eric winced slightly, mentally reliving the kick that had floored him for more than a minute.
"Second... having seen her skills up close and, uh... personal... I can tell you she's more than qualified to handle trouble around here." Mike snorted in surprised amusement.
"I guess that's true..." he muttered, rubbing his chin, "Okay, but if there's any trouble at all between you two, we're gonna have a problem, I'm serious."
"Right, yeah," Eric agreed, hoping he could live up to that, "I hear you." As Mike went off to see to one of the other facets of running a club, Eric headed back downstairs towards his station at the bar. His nuts still ached, but he still felt like he'd gotten off easy. What a way to start his shift...
The night may have begun with Eric leaning against a bag of ice he'd positioned beneath the bar, but things improved once he got in the groove of things (and once the ache finally wore off, of course). It wasn't a very busy night, but that was okay, as it made it easier for Eric to keep all the orders straight, and it left him with time to think about all the questions that were suddenly flying around in his head. Mainly, he thought about Milo's surprisingly emotional request to return to fooling around with each other. For Eric, it wasn't a question of desire. Oh, he wanted it, alright, he wanted it so bad that he could taste it, but the last time they'd been together had wrecked Milo's life and a good relationship. Could they really go back to the way it was? Of course, that conversation being immediately followed by Milo's ex showing up out of nowhere and kicking Eric in the junk had almost felt like the most aggressive omen Eric had ever heard of. Yet at the same time, he still felt weirdly grateful that Gela hadn't outed them as brothers with benefits, so maybe the omen wasn't as hostile as it seemed...
The handsome shepherd was drawn out of his reverie by the sound of raised voices, which was rarely a good sign. Glancing across the room, it didn't take long for him to spot Gela standing defiantly, hands on hips, in front of a large, muscular horse (perhaps unnecessary descriptors, as most horses are, in fact, fairly swole) who looked way madder at her than she looked at him. Standing just behind Gela, looking pissed but intimidated, were a pair of women holding hands and glaring at the horse.
"...I don't see 'no girls allowed' anywhere on the sign outside, buddy," she was saying, loudly enough for Eric to hear, "You can't just give gay women shit for hanging out in a gay club!" The horse let out a huff as only his species could, and looked around the room exaggeratedly - which allowed Eric to see that the front of his sleeveless shirt was emblazoned with the phrase 'RESPECT THE ALPHA', which pretty much told Eric everything he needed to know about the man.
"Oh God, really?" he muttered, cringing. As an actual canid, he hated that whole 'live like an alpha male' nonsense the humans had made up a few years ago, as it had very, very, very little to do with the way an actual alpha worked, either in morphic tribes or in feral packs.
"I know, right?" murmured a skinny fox boy in a skirt that Eric hadn't noticed leaning against the bar, making him jump slightly, "And I heard horse herds are anarchy, man, they don't even choose leaders!" Eric tried to work out what it was about the playful tod that reminded him of Milo, but the large horse was drawing his attention again.
"Is this a joke?" he asked, loudly, gesturing at the mouse in front of him, "is someone here yankin' my goddamn chain? You send her to deal with this?!" He was gesturing incredulously up and down along his torso, emphasizing the bulging muscles under his shirt and on his arms.
"You need to lower your damned voice and calm the hell down, right now," Gela said, lifting her arms and crossing them over her chest. But Eric got the distinct impression that the 'alpha male's' ego had been wounded by such a small woman being the bouncer sent after him, and this only ticked him off further.
"Or what? Get out of here, you tiny piece of shit, or I'll - I'll flatten you with my dick!" he laughed. He reached out and grabbed Gela's shoulder, clearly intending to just shove her aside and walk past to get back to bothering the nice couple behind her. What happened instead is that the mouse reached up with both hands, grabbed hold of his wrist, and threw herself to the side to put more force into it as she twisted his wrist backwards, hard.
The horse bellowed out a pained neigh that drew every eye in the place that wasn't already looking, and with his arm upside down, preventing him from bending his elbow, he was suddenly locked in place with Gela behind him.
"What did I tell you?!" she yelled, adjusting her stance. She drove out a foot and caught the horse behind the knee, knocking out his legs and bringing him down to his knees.
"Keep your voice down..." she growled, and then, letting go of his arm, she hopped around in front of him, and pivoted in a semicircle that ended with a roundhouse kick to the side of his face. As the horse fell to all fours, groaning and holding his face, Gela bent down and leaned in close to finish making her point.
"...And keep your hands off. Do you understand?" He raised his other hand in a defensive posture, cringing away from her.
"Y-yeah, okay, you w-win!" he insisted, fear in his voice, "I'm g-going, I'm going!" The club didn't exactly break out into applause as the guy stumbled to his feet and made a beeline for the door, but a few people who'd been near the large, sexist jackass actually cheered quietly. Eric smirked and went back to polishing glasses (something he didn't really need to do, but that people enjoyed seeing bartenders doing). Seemed like Gela was just as good at the job as he'd thought she'd be. Plus, he hadn't had to be the demonstration dummy this time!
Things quieted back down quickly (so to speak; there was still loud dance music playing and people having a good time, of course) and Eric focused on the job. He'd thought the skinny crossdressing fox was about to ask him for his number when another fox, taller and brawnier, showed up and the slender one practically leaped into his arms. Watching a muscular man kissing a smaller, more effeminate male in a skirt made Eric feel a distant pang of envy, and his mind helpfully conjured up the thought of Milo whispering 'that could be us, but you playing' in his ear. Hmmm... Milo was clearly into the idea too, he'd been the one asking, but that also reminded Eric of the last time Milo had asked him for sex, 'one last time, for old time's sake'. But as much as Eric struggled with the problem, he couldn't deny that there had been something... missing in his life since he'd stopped fooling around with his brother, something that hadn't quite been there with the exes he'd dated since then. Even thinking about it now, he longed to hold the smaller dog in his arms, to rub his back and churr to him, to bask in the ego boost of how his mere presence made Milo feel safer. But there was always another customer, another order, to draw Eric back to the present before he could really make much sense out of these conflicting feelings. And so, he mixed and poured drinks, he uncapped beers, and he sent word to the kitchen in the back about rare food orders. There was a lot to do, of course, Eric just wished that he could focus entirely on his job or on Milo, rather than his thoughts endlessly wandering back and forth.
Normally, Eric would put on the charm as he worked, get just a little flirty with the customers, in hopes of inspiring nicer tips. But tonight, he felt stiff and awkward, off his game. His smiles didn't quite reach his eyes, and he kept feeling like he was either being too subtle or too forward, but nothing in between. Eric's heart just wasn't in it, and he couldn't even hold it against himself. Still, he didn't let it stop him from getting the rest of the job done, and he was pretty pleased with the way he kept up with the orders despite the way he kept spacing out and thinking about what he hesitated to describe as his relationship problems. Towards the end of his shift, the troubled male was pulled away from weighing the pros and cons of incest by a customer that made him do a double-take. For just a second there, he'd thought the short, slender German shepherd at the bar was Milo... and he'd felt his heart-rate speed up at the sight of him. Thankfully, he had something to focus on instead of that reaction!
"What'll it be?" he asked, with a practiced smoothness. Not-Milo smiled at him warmly and looked him up and down approvingly.
"Hmmm... how about you give me a slow, comfortable screw against the wall?" The shorter dog asked with a playful smirk, his tail wagging merrily.
Eric was rather taken aback, blushing despite himself at the other canid's bold words, even going so far as to imagine himself taking this handsome shepherd from behind in the alley behind the club while the stranger moaned and pushed back against his thrusts... or maybe he was just letting his memories influence the scene. But he was able to push the enticing scene out of his mind because a 'Slow Comfortable Screw' was a drink he was familiar with, and 'Against the Wall' just meant topping it with Galliano. On the other hand, the guy was touching Eric's hand where he leaned against the bar in an overly forward way... The taller male hadn't been with anyone in quite a while, and he'd be lying if he said he didn't feel, in the back of his mind, the mad temptation to abandon his responsibilities and go make out with this twink in a closet or something. On the other hand, his balls were still kinda sore, and even someone as non-confrontational as Mike would probably get pissed if Eric left the bar unmanned for any length of time, so he swatted that thought out of his mind.
"...Okay, so there are two versions of that order," he said, with a carefully neutral tone, "One of them comes with vodka, gin, orange juice, and Southern Comfort, with Galliano on top, and hopefully doesn't leave you regretting it in the morning." He gently but smoothly slid his hand away from the other shepherd's. "The other... isn't offered in this establishment."
Blushing, the slender male frowned, leaning back from the bar and visibly trying not to look embarrassed, despite the red cheeks and the lowered ears. It actually reminded Eric even more of his brother, which in turn made the stranger seem even cuter, oddly enough.
"H-hey, I was just being friendly," Not-Milo said, defensively, "You don't have to be all snotty!"
"Is there a problem here?" Both men turned to see Gela standing there, hands on hips, with, if anything, a slightly confused expression on her face. No one in the club had missed her handing that horse his ass earlier, so seeing the deceptively small mouse was making the stranger even tenser.
"N-no, no problems," the shorter dog assured her, "I was just ordering a drink, and this guy's being an asshole about it." Gela's eyes flicked over to Eric wordlessly, simply waiting for him to fill the silence with the answer to the obvious, if unspoken question.
"He ordered a Slow Comfortable Screw, and I was confirming the cocktail's ingredients," Eric said, neutrally, continuing "while politely explaining that if he expected anything more, the only tips I get on the job go in that jar behind the counter." He needlessly indicated it with his thumb, but Gela kept staring at him. Now she definitely seemed confused.
After a moment, Gela blinked and recovered.
"Right... Well, you, get the man his drink, and you, don't raise your voice to the staff," she said, glancing between them, before leaning in closer to the shorter German shepherd and adding, in a hushed tone, "And don't raise your tail to the staff either, go find someone who doesn't work here!" Eric managed to stifle the snicker, but he couldn't help but grin as he prepared the drink. Topping it off with the Galliano to make it 'Against the Wall', Eric handed over the drink, and the embarrassed shepherd wordlessly paid for it and hurried off, suddenly very interested in the floor in front of his feet. The satisfied rodent had turned to watch him go, and now Eric was very surprised to hear her chuckle to herself as she shook her head. Turning back to her co-worker/technical assault victim, Gela smirked.
"Hate to break it to you, Thompson, but I think your club's developed a reputation!" she said, clearly quite amused by this - for about two seconds, at which point she froze in the middle of opening her mouth to say something else, took a longer look at Eric, and then just stood up straight, her smile vanishing back into that unreadably flat expression. It seemed almost practiced, and Eric distantly wondered if she used it to keep opponents from reading her in martial arts fights. Then he even more distantly wondered if kicking a dude in the dick was against the rules.
"...Right, well. Get back to work, and, uh, continue not fucking any twinks on the job..." Gela said. Once again, the mouse leaned in closer to deliver the finisher in a lowered voice.
"...No matter how much they look like your little brother."
Eric felt his heart start racing and he inhaled sharply in sudden anxiety, a German shepherd lowering his ears at that bar for the second time in five minutes. He instantly looked left and right, searching for prying ears, but no one else was even close to the bar, they were alone. Knowing Gela knew the truth about them, could choose to reveal Eric's deepest secret at her leisure, had been paralyzing. Now, to have her acknowledge this out loud, while he was at work, suddenly made it feel even more real, more dangerous. She seemed to frown at his reaction while he struggled to say something, anything, but Eric was still reeling from the sudden spike of fear, and Gela averted her eyes from his face, turning and walking away without another word. The anxious male realized he'd been holding his breath and let it out, leaning against the bar for a moment and relaxing - but just a little, since he still felt like he'd just been reminded that Gela was essentially walking around with a little remote control whose only button read 'Completely Destroy Eric Thompson's Life'. Taking a deep breath, the muscular dog poured himself a shot of whiskey. He wasn't normally a 'drink on the job' guy any more than he was a 'fuck strangers on the job' guy, but that had been some serious panic, and he needed to steady himself.
From there, Eric's shift was pretty uneventful. The customers were only interested in food or drinks, and Gela didn't deliver any more veiled threats. Well, not to Eric, anyway... He took a break at one point to have himself a meal, compliments of the kitchen staff. Somehow, his problems didn't seem so bad while he was eating a steak sandwich with fries. His thoughts did keep turning back to his brother, and the choice hanging over Eric's head of whether or not to get back together with him. The more he thought about Milo, though, the less worried Eric felt about that decision, interestingly.
At the end of the shift, as the last customers strolled out, leaning heavily on each other and giggling drunkenly, as the janitors came out to tidy the place up, Eric took a quick inventory of what they had behind the bar for the next shift. Strolling over to the employee break room, he glanced inside to see if anyone was around. He was usually alone by the time he finished checking all those taps and bottles, but today he found Gela Taylor sat at a table, scrolling determinedly through her phone. He hesitated for a moment, thinking he should flee, but then the shepherd took a deep breath and steeled himself. He couldn't be afraid of her forever, not if they were going to be co-workers, so he needed to try and extend an olive branch. Walking up behind her (but not within testicle-attack distance), he cleared his throat so as not to startle her when he spoke.
"Hey, uh, one for the road before I close out the bar?" he offered. Gela turned and looked over her shoulder, glaring at him.
"Thompson..." she sighed, but Eric raised both hands in a placating gesture before she could continue.
"Look... I get that you're not gonna invite me over for Christmas or anything, but I wanted to thank you for not... you know." He looked over his shoulder at these last words, suddenly worried about being overheard.
But Gela's expression didn't soften.
"Don't count yourself saved just yet," she warned, "Maybe I just didn't wanna be the bitch that got the bartender fired because her old boyfriend decided one day he'd rather..." She suddenly trailed off, closing her eyes and pausing to take a deep breath before she opened them again.
"Well... In any case, I'm not actually in a position to have anybody over for anything right now, so..." She shook her head and turned back to her phone, and Eric suddenly realized he recognized the app on her phone, as it was one of the places that he and Milo had tried to find a roommate. Given that the mouse seemed to be looking at a picture of a building, though, Eric took her previous comment to indicate she was looking for a place to live. Feeling strangely uncomfortable about the parallel between their lives, Eric turned and started to leave, but... thinking about Milo had brought up something in him that he'd managed to forget underneath all that fear. That a huge chunk of the terrible weight Eric had carried since everything went to Hell was because of how bad he felt for Gela.
'No! Don't do it, you idiot! You'll be killed!' came the panicked thought immediately, but whether it was blind fear or the angel on his shoulder, the determined shepherd chose to ignore it.
"Listen, Gela..." he started, but she whirled around and pointed a finger in his face.
"Nope! No no no!" she interrupted, "That is my nickname, that is what my friends call me, and in case the kick earlier didn't make things clear, we are nowhere near that right now." She flinched slightly, as if she hadn't meant to add those last two words. Nevertheless, she finished "We are co-workers, so you call me Taylor."
Eric supposed he should have seen this coming after she'd been calling him 'Thompson' all night, but so be it, she wasn't his ex...
"Taylor, then," he said, resisting the urge to make a dismissive gesture as he pushed through, "I just wanted to say... We both messed up... Milo and I." He would later swear that every single muscle in Gela's entire body tensed up at the sound of Milo's name, and her eyes narrowed until her black pupils seemed to fill them entirely, but she said nothing.
"With everything that happened, I never got the chance to say it to you," Eric continued, "So... I'm sorry, Angela. It was wrong of me to be part of that, and it was unfair to you. You deserved a lot better... and I'm pretty confident if Milo was here, he would say the same thing." He wasn't one to push his luck, so having said his piece, he turned to leave. He'd only taken a couple of steps, though, before Gela called back to him.
"Hey! Tell Milo that if he's got his own apology, he should man up and tell me himself!" she said, a defiant tone in her voice, "Because otherwise, I've got a spare boot with his name on it!" As she spoke those words, she lifted her foot out in a mimed kick for helpful illustrative purposes. Eric swallowed nervously and nodded, and when Gela looked back to her phone, the German shepherd retrieved his jacket and hastily beat a retreat from the room.
Eric had felt an unusual relief as he walked from the club to his car, breathing deep of the cool night air as if he'd been stuck inside for days. He'd been so stressed about everything on his mind when he got to work, but after all that time fixating on Milo's question, he felt much calmer about it. He'd finally managed to get over that initial feeling like their lives would be completely destroyed if he made the wrong decision, and he was trying very hard not to think of it as being because Gela now had the ability to do that no matter what Eric decided with Milo. It was still a big decision, though, so it was no surprise that he was distracted enough that he was surprised when he found himself on their street. He'd apparently made a large chunk of the journey while lost in thought, driving on 'autopilot'. At least he was home, and it felt like it took half the usual time.
A distinct wave of weariness struck Eric as he walked into their apartment. Shrugging off his jacket and stepping out of his shoes, Eric yawned as he walked over to a chair and pulled off his socks so he could scruff his footpads against the carpet. He'd been on his feet for hours, so it felt quite good. The muscular male knew he was sleepy when he caught himself panting like a happy domestic, so as much as he was enjoying sitting down, he forced himself back to his feet and headed down his hallway. Glancing down at his feet, Eric sighed. He had been pretty confident he could come to a decision over the course of the shift, but it was like every time he started closing in on confidently making a decision - in either direction - he was suddenly overwhelmed with self-doubt, second-guessing himself back to uncertainty. The brooding shepherd tried not to worry about it now, deciding he would sleep on it, so he could come at it refreshed and talk it over with Milo in the morning. Speaking of which, Eric noticed that the door to Milo's room was halfway open even though the lights were out, which was unusual. Was Milo still awake? Could they talk now? Did poor tired Eric even want to? But when he glanced through the doorway (because how could he not glance through the doorway?), a perfectly-placed beam of moonlight coming in the window revealed that Milo was sound asleep in his bed. The covers were all the way down to his waist, revealing his somewhat scrawny bare chest, and even in the hallway, Eric was struck by the thought that his brother looked cold.
After standing in the door for a while, Eric sighed again, trying to resist the urge to intervene, because he just wanted to go to bed and sleep like the dead, but then he saw Milo pull his arms up to his chest, and the older male Knew he just couldn't leave him like that. Grumbling, he walked over to his own room, opened the door, and tossed his socks inside, then returned to his brother's room, fully intending to just slip in, pull the covers up without disturbing Milo, and slip out. But when he padded silently across the floor, Eric found himself hesitating as he looked down at his brother in the bed. Milo was fast asleep, a peaceful expression across his face, and Eric was struck by how rare it was these days to see Milo looking totally relaxed. Eric took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh as his eyes traced the contours of the younger shepherd's handsome face, and it was then that Eric realized exactly how tired he was.
He had been so close to convincing himself that the right thing to do, the sensible thing to do, the safe thing to do, was for Eric and Milo to leave things the way they were, to be brothers and nothing but brothers. But... looking at Milo's face, all calm and relaxed and totally at ease, made Eric acutely aware of the walls he'd put up to separate himself from a simple truth, the walls he relied on in order to convince himself that he could live like this with Milo like everything was normal. To convince himself that the last thing he wanted was to climb into that bed and hold Milo in his arms. It reminded him how tired he was of keeping those walls up, and he shuddered silently as he just... let go. Eric had intended to be in Milo's room no longer than a few seconds, but suddenly, the idea of walking ten more steps to get to his own bed seemed entirely untenable.
Finally making his move, Eric reached down and laid one hand on the bed, moving as if in slow motion to keep the mattress from creaking as he lifted the covers, lay down behind Milo, and pulled the blankets up to both of their necks, finally accomplishing what he'd come in there to do in the process. That being done, he reached out, slipped his arms around Milo, and gently tugged the younger male back against him. Milo stirred in his sleep, but as Eric's chest pressed against his back, as those muscular arms slipped around his chest to hold him snugly, the smaller shepherd relaxed again.
"Eric..." Milo sighed quietly, without waking, as a small smile appeared on his lips. Shuddering at having elicited that reaction from the other dog, Eric grinned and hugged his brother close, breathing deep of his scent. It had been so long since he'd held Milo, and yet even asleep, they still felt like a perfect fit. As he felt the weight of sleep tugging him down, down, down, Eric leaned in close to whisper in his brother's ear, knowing Milo wouldn't hear him and they'd have to have a conversation tomorrow, but wanting to give an answer to the question anyway while he was so certain of himself... of them.
"Yes..."
* * *
Milo found that he felt extremely content as he woke up, gradually rising to consciousness, his body surrounded by warmth. He was so comfortable, in fact, that he was all set to let himself drift back off to sleep, responsibilities be damned. Maybe he could still get back into that dream where he was cuddling with a femboy and a tomboy at the same time... But then he shifted ever-so-slightly, and that was all he needed to realize there was someone spooned up against him in his real, actual bed. His eyes flew open and he whimpered in fear, his heart suddenly racing, but it didn't take long before the panicked male realized he was surrounded by the scent of his big brother. The slender German shepherd sighed in instant relief and relaxed, looking over his shoulder and confirming Eric's sleeping face. He was relieved it wasn't a home invader, sure, but this did unleash many, many questions to run freely through his mind. What the hell was Eric doing in his bed? Did they have sex last night? Why couldn't he remember? His brain immediately conjured up a fantasy of Eric offering up a specialty he'd come up with at work and the two of them getting so drunk that they'd succumbed to passion... But no, that didn't make a lick of sense, Milo's stomach felt fine, and that would not be the case if he'd... what, woken up when Eric got home from his shift and gotten blackout drunk in the wee hours of the morning? Of course, dismissing that exciting thought meant he was once again faced with the same question as before: what the hell was Eric doing here?
Milo wasn't sure how to go about investigating, as Eric's arms were both limply wrapped around the younger male, and... well, he kinda liked it. It had been so long since he'd just laid there while someone held him, and a not-very-small part of Milo wanted to just snuggle back against Eric and go back to sleep, hadn't he invited him to start fooling around again anyway? But as much as he liked the fantasy of skipping right to cuddling, he knew there were some things they needed to talk about before they could even think about crossing that line. He reluctantly leaned forward, escaping Eric's grasp, and sat up. Pushing the covers back revealed that Eric was still fully clothed, and Milo had mixed feelings about that.
"Hey," he said, his voice husky and dry from sleep. Eric, traditionally a heavy sleeper, didn't budge an inch. Milo frowned, letting out a huff. He was going crazy wondering, he needed to know... but he couldn't help but think, as he looked upon Eric's handsome face all relaxed and peaceful like that, that he might have different priorities if his big brother hadn't worn his shirt to bed. Pushing the image of Eric's toned chest out of his mind (reluctantly), Milo reached over and grabbed his brother's shoulder.
"Hey!" he repeated, "Come on, Eric, what gives?" This time, the larger male stirred, groaning quietly as his eyes tiredly fluttered open. When they locked on his brother (which took a few seconds under the circumstances), Eric frowned.
"Milo? What..." He trailed off as he blinked, comprehension replacing confusion in his eyes. "Oh right... I did that, didn't I..."
Leaning back into a kneeling position, Milo crossed his arms over his chest and did his very best to give Eric a grumpy look, but having only been awake for about eleven seconds longer, he didn't think he was doing a very good job... not that Eric could tell through the haze of awakening.
"Yeah, you did," Milo observed, "so why'd I wake up with you spooning me?" He hesitated for a moment, his ears struggling to remain upright. "...Not that it wasn't nice," he finally admitted, blushing. Grinning but letting that one pass, Eric swallowed, trying to put his thoughts in order.
"Okay, look..." he said, rubbing the bridge of his muzzle, "I'm gonna be real with you: it was three in the morning and I had just gotten back from a long shift that started with me getting kicked in the balls." Milo flinched sympathetically, but said nothing as Eric continued.
"I was dead on my feet, and then I saw you sleeping there, and... God, Milo, I remembered how it used to feel between us, how much I liked the, uh, you know... intimacy that we had, and I... couldn't not do it."
Normally, Milo would tease him for being embarrassed to say 'intimacy', since so few things flustered Eric, but in this particular case, he was too busy blushing his whiskers off and covering his mouth from strong, sudden Feels to comment on it.
"...Not do what?" the younger male replied, with a return of the worry that something more had happened than spooning. Eric had been concerning himself with yawning and stretching, and when he saw the look of concern on his brother's face, Eric gave him a Look that was almost worthy of Anne's, or G- Well, anyway, he looked unimpressed.
"Not like that, you pervert, I just needed to, like, to hold you, to cuddle you!" he insisted, blushing a little himself, "I... I've missed you too, Milo! A lot more than I've been letting on."
Milo was not proud of the fact that the moment Eric said that, he felt his backside clench down reflexively, as if anticipating the presence of Eric's hard cock. But he had more important things to worry about than his damnably subby instincts, because his heart was racing like crazy from hearing that little confirmation, and he wanted absolutely nothing in the universe more than to let that whimper of joy escape, grab onto his brother, and French him like there was no tomorrow. He wanted it, Eric wanted it, it should have been no problem at all, and yet... Milo was afraid. He'd only realized (okay, more like admitted) that this was even something he wanted last night, and now here was Eric, cuddling with him and telling him he wanted it too, and Milo was afraid they were rushing into things without thinking them through. Or rather, he was so afraid that they might be rushing into things, that he was suddenly second-guessing every thought he had on the subject. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened the last time they'd rushed into sex without thinking it through...
Averting his eyes and toying with the leather cuff on his left wrist, Milo took a deep breath, feeling overwhelmed. It did not escape his notice that in the past, Eric had helped him calm down from moments like this by holding him in his arms... his big, inviting arms... Catching himself staring at his brother's biceps, Milo closed his eyes entirely.
"Oh man, Eric, I - I..." he stammered, torn between how very badly he wanted it and how afraid he was of being hurt again. He silently cursed his tail for hiding nervously between his legs. Frowning sympathetically, Eric started to raise his arms.
"Let me -" but he tensed up, visibly hesitating, his arms dropping back down as he tried again.
"We could -" though once again, the larger male seemed to second-guess himself. It seemed Milo wasn't the only one feeling conflicted.
"Well..." Eric finally said, trailing off lamely as he stared down at Milo's sheets.
This did not exactly help Milo's anxiety, was Eric less sure of himself than it appeared? But if he'd been sure enough to climb into Milo's bed and snuggle with him...
"Uh, hey, things feel tense," Eric observed, speaking slightly more quickly than usual, "and neither of us are braining at full strength right now, sooooo, how about I go make us breakfast?" He pushed off the covers, and started to get out of bed, but when he'd reached a sitting position, Milo surprised himself by suddenly leaning forward and hugging his big brother tight. Eric was almost as surprised, but he slowly hugged Milo back, as the younger shepherd's tail raised up from between his legs and began wagging. He wanted to try again.
"I was happy to hear you say that," Milo whispered, "I j-just..." He trailed off again, hesitant to push, to try for it, his mind swimming with what-ifs. As they leaned back from each other, Eric gave Milo a calm, confident smile. It helped.
"It's okay that it's complicated," he said, gently, "One step at a time. Breakfast, right?" He started to reach up, and Milo felt like Eric was about to pet his cheek, something he often did when comforting his brother, but once again, Eric's arm hitched and remained at his side.
"Y-yeah. Breakfast," Milo replied, nodding slowly, "I guess that'll take a while, so, uh, I'm gonna hit the shower first." The brothers Thompson reluctantly separated, and Eric headed off towards the kitchen while Milo went to grab his towel.
As soon as he'd closed and locked the bathroom door behind himself, Milo allowed himself to whimper. He just rubbed his arms for a bit, trying to sort through his thoughts, figure out if the doubts were valid or if he was just afraid. Or did the fact that there were doubts at all mean it was a bad idea? Sighing and regarding his dishevelled self in the mirror, Milo focused on taking slow, deep breaths to help steady his nerves. A lot of his problem was just panic from being confronted with it unexpectedly, he knew that, but it was so hard to sort through the rest, to figure out what was a good point and what was just... trauma. He focused on bathing himself to take his mind off the problem, and for the first time in several years, Milo took extra-thorough measures to clean his rump inside and out, the way he used to when anticipating getting railed by his big brother. Not that he thought they'd decide to get back together, of course, or expected anything sexy to happen, but... Maybe just in case.
Afterwards, standing under the hot water made Milo feel a lot better in and of itself, feeling it streaming all over him, running through his saturated pelt and weighing his fur and hair down pleasantly. All of this with Eric had dredged up things he'd thought he'd succeeded in burying so far down, the light would never reach them. And yet, here he was, lingering in the shower like he could just wash away an old feeling with soap and a loofah. The thing about shame, though, is that it lingers, and it clings, and it doesn't like to let go. Ultimately, Milo decided he'd just have to be satisfied with feeling nice and clean again, and stepped out before he used up all the hot water and made Eric grumpy with him.
Of course, a sopping wet morphic can't really make do with one towel, so Milo stepped into the dryer booth next to the shower and, like most people, just sort of spaced out while he stood there in the whirring air, catching himself idly daydreaming about Eric slipping into the booth with him while Milo was all naked and vulnerable and fluffy. Not that it wasn't a hot train of thought, just a bit complicated right now. His tail, wagging behind him as best it could while being buffeted by jets of air, didn't seem to mind how complicated it was.
After slipping across the hall to his room wrapped in a towel, Milo proceeded to overthink what he was going to wear, before finally grabbing a simple pair of shorts and a graphic tee for the band Silencer. After adding a ring to one finger and putting the leather cuff with the built-in wristwatch back onto his left forearm, the slender shepherd took a deep breath and headed out to the kitchen, trying to look casual. He was slightly taken aback, however, when he found Eric wearing a pair of sweatpants, an apron, and seemingly nothing else, padding about on the tile floor of the kitchen barefoot and working on something on the stove. Milo's eyes traced the muscles in his big brother's back, his gaze almost as hungry as his stomach, before he called out to get the other dog's attention over the sound of the stove.
"Hey!" he called as Eric glanced over his shoulder.
"Ah! Great timing, just about got it," the elder sibling replied, turning back to his frying. Walking over to him, Milo waited until he'd gotten Eric's attention again before gesturing up and down the larger male's mostly unclothed form.
"What gives? What happened to the bartender outfit?" he asked. Eric gave him a Look.
"Man, those are my work clothes," he replied, dismissively, "just because I fell asleep in them doesn't mean I love repping the job at home! I just wanted to be comfortable, and I haven't even had a shower yet so I didn't want to put on anything nice, okay?" Milo grinned and crossed his arms as he leaned against the island in the middle of the kitchen.
"Oh, the sweatpants and no socks I get," he reassured his brother, "the no-shirt apron look, not so much, you look like something out of one of those beefcake calendars for sad older women." Eric laughed and shrugged.
"I didn't feel like putting a shirt on," he said, plainly, "But I also didn't feel like cleaning spattered grease out of my fur."
Milo nodded, turning towards the table as Eric started turning burners down. He'd been about to say something else, but the thought was lost as Eric beat him to the punch.
"Speaking of, I haven't seen you wear that shirt in a while," he said, as he gently moved fried eggs and bacon and hashbrowns and other delicious things onto plates. Milo frowned as he looked down and saw the Silencer logo, and then he remembered.
"What? ...Oh." After overthinking what outfit would be right for kicking things off with Eric again (or possibly hiding in his room and eating his feelings, after deciding never to go back, not that he'd admit that) Milo had just grabbed a T-shirt at random, but now he realized he should have had a touch more care.
"Yeah, uh... Silencer was Gela's favourite band," he said, softly, spreading out the material to take a better look at the upside-down image. "She actually bought me this shirt at that concert we went to together... Anyway, it just... reminds me of her, that's all." Milo suddenly realized his ears had lowered at some point, and he silently cursed them.
Eric frowned at that, though Milo didn't catch it, as he was suddenly studying his own socks. The shirt reminded him rather a lot of Gela, actually, bringing back to mind so many happy and carefree times, making the shame of what he had done twist in his gut even more harshly than it had before.
'No... no!' he thought to himself, feeling it coming, 'No, I am not going to...'
For his part, Eric had been staring at the stovetop without seeing it, and with a deep breath, he looked up.
"...Hey, uh, that reminds me, Milo," he said, trying and failing utterly to sound casual about it, "some stuff happened at work last night, and I've really gotta talk to you about..." The larger shepherd trailed off as he looked up and found Milo leaning against the entrance to the kitchen, pressing his forearm to his eyes, almost masking the fact that the fur beneath them was glistening. His own ears dropping in sympathy, Eric inhaled sharply at the sight of his brother so distraught, and almost visibly swallowed his attempt to bring up Gela.
"Oh - oh Milo, c'mere," he said, hurriedly switching off the burners and ditching the slightly greasy apron before he walked over to the younger male and gathered him into his arms. Milo tensed up, feeling humiliated to be seen crying over this, and he was tempted to blow up at Eric and storm off... but he just didn't have the strength right now.
Milo's muscles relaxed as he turned towards Eric and passively let his brother pull him into a close embrace. Milo closed his eyes, and found that right now, he wasn't seeing a thousand torturous memories of Gela. Right now, he could focus on being held by his big brother, on how comforting it felt to be encircled by those strong, supportive arms, on how deep down, where he was loath to admit it, Milo kinda liked the scent of Eric's musk, which stood out more than usual because he hadn't showered yet.
"Eric..." he whispered, struggling hard to find the words to express himself - or indeed any words at all, at the moment. Fortunately, it seemed he didn't need them.
"It's okay, I've got you," Eric murmured to him, rubbing his back. After a few moments, Eric relaxed his grip slightly, leaning back and looking at Milo, giving him a look as he opened his eyes that was entirely sympathetic, lacking in the judgement the younger male had feared.
"Hey... hey, come on," Eric said, gesturing to the table and gently easing Milo over to it, "Get something in your system, it will help, I promise." Sniffing, still feeling embarrassed to be caught in such a vulnerable moment, Milo nodded and sat down as Eric returned to the other side of the kitchen and eased everything onto plates for them.
At first, Milo just thanked Eric for the food and started eating, focusing on breakfast rather than trying to talk. It was admittedly fairly delicious, Eric clearly knew his way around a frying pan. When the smaller dog glanced up, he caught his brother watching him with a concerned expression. Looking back down at his eggs, Milo sighed silently, knowing he needed to explain.
"I... I'm sorry, Eric, I just... I thought my feelings for Gela would fade over time, but they haven't," he started, "And - and lately I've been afraid that it's just going to go on hurting this bad forever, that I... I ruined my life, that it's just not going to get better." He reached up and ran a hand through his hair nervously, his ears staying down after he pressed them that way.
"And now, I want to get back with you, uh... oh, fuck it - I want to be with you so fucking bad!" Milo continued, delivering those last words through clenched teeth, "But I've got this voice that keeps popping up and asking 'what if it happens again?' and I'm - and I'm so afraid that things could somehow get even worse, and that hurt would stay that way too!"
By this point, Milo was hugging his arms tight to his chest and very slightly rocking back and forth on top of his chair, behaviour he was oblivious to, his thoughts focused on the storm inside him (and, occasionally, the bacon). Eric leaned forward in his own seat, reaching out towards Milo... but once again, something made him hesitate and stop.
"Oh Milo..." he whispered, "I - I think I understand..." Eric paused for a moment as if considering something.
"...I'm scared too," he finally admitted.
"You? What do you have to be scared of?" Milo asked, incredulously, "You never doubt yourself like this!" He gestured to himself as he said 'this', and the older male shrugged.
"Well, not like that, no, I'm not worried I'm gonna wreck my life if we fuck..." After a moment, Eric rubbed at the back of his neck self-consciously.
"Well, maybe a little..." he muttered, glancing off to the side. Milo followed his gaze, but all he could see was the discarded bartender's shirt hanging over the couch, and he wondered if his brother was thinking about work.
Turning back to Milo, Eric sighed.
"My problem is that... look, Milo, you're, uh... kind of suggestible," he said, gently, "And I keep thinking about how the last time I agreed to sleep with you, you're the one who ended up paying the price. So now... even though I want this too, I'm - I'm afraid to push for anything, in case it turns out it's not really what you want, and you're just doing it because your big brother wanted it!" He looked away and started rubbing his forehead. Milo frowned at that.
"But I'm the one who started it last night!" he protested, feeling that wasn't quite fair of Eric.
"Yeah," agreed the larger male, "but right now, I don't know how you'd feel if you finished it." Feeling a bit put off, Milo let out a huff and stared down at his plate.
"Great, I'm so messed up that other people can't make sense of what to do," he muttered.
"I didn't mean it like that, Milo..." Eric said, wincing, "I just mean, sure, last night you kissed me out of nowhere, but in the space of twelve hours you went from wanting to try again to shaking at the thought that it might have happened. How can I think you're sure of what you want between those two?"
Milo whimpered quietly. It was such a reasonable point, but it made him feel even more unstable than he already did.
"I - I'm sorry..." he whispered. He looked up as Eric reached across the table and put his hand on top of Milo's, triggering the younger shepherd's heart to start racing again. Why couldn't he just trust this feeling?
"It's okay," Eric assured him, "There's no time limit on this, we don't need to figure this out right this instant if it's complicated and confusing, we can work through this." He gave his brother's hand a reassuring squeeze, and Milo found that it helped. So did the handsome smile Eric sent his way, if he was being honest.
"Thank you..." Milo murmured, grinning back and pretending he wasn't blushing. After a few moments of silence, one of them brought up a new sci-fi series, and the two shepherds finished off their breakfast while talking about something much less stressful for the two of them.
After the two of them polished off their plates, and Milo thanked his brother profusely for the delicious breakfast, Eric headed off to go take a shower, and Milo retreated to his room. He allowed himself to briefly fantasize about Eric's naked body under the hot, streaming water, but the anxiety threatened to return, so he sighed and flopped himself down on his bed. He found that he wished that Eric would take charge, that his big brother would just storm into Milo's room, pin the smaller male to his bed, and... Oh, but that wasn't fair to Eric, he really did have a point about not forcing things... Milo let out a canine whine and covered his face. Fooling around with Eric was supposed to relieve stress, not cause it! He had a feeling like he wasn't seeing the forest for the trees, like he was overthinking everything, going in spiralling circles, and normally when he was stuck in a loop like that, he would go and talk to someone for advice, or just bounce ideas off of someone. Milo growled softly at that, frustrated by the simple truth that the only person he could talk to about the idea of resuming his sexual relationship with his own brother was Eric himself!
Releasing his face, Milo suddenly sat up, that last thought running through his mind again.
"Unless..." he muttered aloud. Perhaps that truth wasn't so simple after all. He got his phone out, chewing his lower lip uncertainly, and then just sat there, staring down at the screen as it showed his sister Anne's contact listing. Anne was the only other person who knew all about Eric and Milo's past dalliances, and had even joined in on occasion. Milo still shivered when he thought about that threesome they'd had on his birthday one year... But while Anne was extremely good at both doling out actually useful advice and helping her little brother calm down when he was agitated, she was also way too enthusiastic about her brothers fucking, as she was convinced (for some insane reason) that Eric and Milo were secretly in love, and the way she used to tease them both about it had always driven both of the males up the wall. Eric, in particular, had gone so far as to specifically discourage the idea of telling Anne they were considering fooling around again, as she would surely never let them hear the end of it. ...But on the other hand, Milo had a sneaking suspicion from experience that he was just going to keep thinking in circles and stressing out until something interrupted the spiral, and he didn't see many other options.
Closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath, Milo mentally asked Eric to forgive him. Then, his heartrate already increasing, he pushed the call button. There were a few rings which took either four seconds or four hundred million years, it was hard to tell, but then the call connected.
"Hey Milo, what's up?" came Anne's voice, sounding calm and pleasant.
"Hey Annie, just wanted to reach out, say hi," he replied, trying very hard to sound casual.
"Oh yeah?" she asked, her voice even.
"Sure, I thought I'd just, uh, check in, see how you're doing!" Milo could hear her eyes narrow in response.
"Uh-huh," Anne replied, dubiously, "And yet, you're talking in your 'I'm stressed to the max and I need advice' voice." Milo blinked, blushing and lowering his ears at how effortless that had seemed.
"Wh- goddammit, Annie..." he muttered, "You're not even here, how do you do that?!"
"It's not my fault if I can read you like a book, even over the phone," giggled Anne, before her tone softened, "C'mon, little brother, what's bothering you?"
Milo was hesitant for a million reasons, but it helped a little when he closed his eyes and imagined Anne sitting in front of him.
"Well... don't make too big a deal out of this, but, um, Eric and I were sort of... talking about, uh, s-starting to fool around together again," he said, every little bit of his face flushed with embarrassment. Milo had been expecting his sister to tease him, but what came over the line was a plasticky WHACK sound instead of Anne's voice.
"Annie? Annie, are you there?" he asked, frowning. The slender male had just enough time to wonder if the connection had been broken somehow before he had to pull the phone away from his head, as a sudden scream of excitement came through the speaker. Despite himself, Milo couldn't help but smile a little; he was pretty sure that when he told her they were thinking about starting things up again, she'd dropped her phone in shock and delight.
Milo pulled his phone in close again as he heard the scrabbling sounds of the other phone being picked up.
"Sorry about that," Anne said, cheerfully, "Butterfingers!" She started to say something else, but then stopped herself. The 'why' answered itself a moment later as Milo heard the sound of Anne's boyfriend's voice in the background. Sean sounded cautious, of all things.
"Hey, babe..." he said, gently, "Everything... okay?"
"Better than okay," she assured him, "Sorry about that, hon."
"Okie-dokie..." said Sean, though even through the phone and at a distance, Milo got the distinct impression that the border collie was not entirely reassured.
"...Alright, dish," Anne said, presumably once Sean was out of earshot, "How long have you been talking about this?! When I was there on Saturday, you said nothing had changed!"
"Well, that's the thing!" Milo replied, "Nothing has changed, not really, we've just been talking about it since yesterday. And, uh, it's complicated. That's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about..."
"Oh?" Milo reached up and rubbed at the back of his neck, distantly wondering if he was ever going to stop blushing again.
"Well..." he started, hesitantly, "It's like, I feel like I want Eric back, like I really, really want Eric back, but every time I think about it, there's all this doubt and fear that come with it, and I can't tell which parts are valid and which aren't." He sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"I... I kissed him yesterday," he blurted out, before Anne could speak, "Part of me feels like I shouldn't have, but another part feels like that's just because of..." Another sigh, another pause. "I've just... cut myself off from so many things that made me happy since the incident. I haven't really made any new friends at college, because I've been scared to risk ruining something else. And even with Eric right in front of me, and at least not seeming opposed to the idea of starting over... I don't know, Annie, what if I'm just trying to reach back for the last time I was happy, and it doesn't even work because too much has changed?"
Milo let out a shuddery breath, feeling like a weight had lifted from his chest. He opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling of his room. It looked exactly the same as it had the last time he'd looked at it (notwithstanding the spider in the corner). Finding something oddly comforting in that consistency, Milo was about to say something when Anne beat him to the punch.
"I'll bet you feel better after saying all that, huh?" she said quietly.
"Uh-huh," Milo admitted sheepishly.
"I think you might feel even better if you said it to Eric," the elder shepherd replied, fairly pointedly. Despite himself, Milo whimpered.
"I - I told him some of it..." he said, more defensively than he'd like.
"That's good," she said earnestly, "it's important to listen to your heart, but open communication helps more than anything else in a relationship." Milo nodded at first.
"Right," he agreed, before another interpretation of her words occurred to him. "...Wait, what?" The troubled male's left eyelid twitched of its own accord, as if it already knew what Anne was about to say.
"By the way, have you told Eric that you're in love with him yet?" she asked, calmly, casually, and as evenly as can be.
Milo groaned out loud, somehow absolutely certain that his sister was smiling a certain smile, the one she'd only ever shown to him while she was shipping her older and younger brothers together romantically like a pair of characters from her beloved animes.
"C'mon, Annie, I told you, nothing really changed!" he protested, "We're not a couple, we're just talking about casual sex! Brothers with benefits! And I - I'm not in love with Eric!" The grumpy shepherd suddenly noticed that his heart was racing again, and frowned even harder, silently insisting to himself that he was just agitated.
"Right," Anne replied, in a tone of voice she'd carefully cultivated over the years for just such conversations, maddeningly managing to convey both 'I know more than you do' and 'just you wait and see' at the same time. "Just like you weren't bi, you were 'straight with an exception'." The younger dog gasped out loud in surprise, but couldn't help but grin a little at his sister's audacity.
"You bitch!" he laughed, without much fire behind it, "Don't you use my coming-out story against me!"
"Just like you weren't a big, subby bottom, you just had a sensitive prostate, right Milo?" she said, as if he hadn't spoken.
"That's not fair!" he groaned, hiding his face as if she could see him, "I do have a sensitive prostate!"
Anne giggled to herself for a moment, before lowering her voice and replying "I know, sweetie, I have fond memories of getting you off with one finger under your tail..." Her voice raised, switching to a less teasey tone, as Milo felt himself reflexively clench again. "My point is that you can keep those walls up and say whatever you want about how you feel, but the worst person you could fool with a falsehood is yourself." The youngest Thompson swallowed, feeling strangely anxious for reasons he wasn't at all interested in delving into right now.
"That... sounds like good advice, but Annie, w-we are not in love, I swear!" he insisted, "I mean, Eric's p-pretty open with his feelings, and he's never said he's, uh, in love with me!"
"Oh yeah? What did he say when you told him some things?" she asked, undeterred.
"W-well, he said he wants it too, but he's afraid of pushing for it because I'm all confused and he's not sure if it's what I really want," Milo explained, "He, uh... did say it might be better to not try again, after what happened last time..." He was not encouraged when Anne giggled again.
"There, you see?" she said, happily, "What says 'I love you' more than 'I'll let you go if that's better for you'? Honestly, Milo-chan, you're such a tsundere."
While Anne tittered to herself about her weeb nonsense (Eric's term), Milo closed his eyes again and swallowed a heavy sigh. He also resisted the urge to continue protesting her shipping, suspecting it would only encourage Anne to ship them even harder. Her dedication was almost flattering, in a weird way...
"Annie, please..." he said, quietly. He knew she had a weakness to a sad tone in his voice.
"Okay, okay, but I'm totally going to say 'I told you so' when you two confess your feelings," the playful bitch replied, "Besides, it's just... not as much fun to tease you if I can't see you blushing adorably or squirming on the spot."
"Oh, of course," Milo agreed, rolling his eyes.
"Listen, little brother," Anne said, in a slightly more serious tone, "You're trying to figure out if this is what you want, if you're ready for this, right? Well, 'ready' isn't always something you can recognize until you're in the middle of it. Particularly with emotional readiness. But if you trust the people you're with, and I certainly hope that's the case, all you should have to do is say stop, and everything stops."
"That... makes sense, I think," said Milo, nodding slowly.
"And as for the confusion surrounding your feelings, fear and doubt can be louder than your other emotions, but that doesn't mean they're stronger than those other emotions. If you can find a way to calm yourself down a little, your heart won't lead you wrong."
"Thanks, Annie, I think that helps," Milo said, distantly wondering if she'd taken that from a yaoi plotline, "I'm glad I have you to talk to about this stuff."
"You're welcome, anytime," Anne said without hesitation, "Apparently I'm good at that."
"...What do you mean?" Milo asked, his ears lifting curiously.
"Oh, not to gossip, but, ah, let's just say that if I had a nickel for every time this month a guy has admitted to me he's starting up a relationship with his brother, I'd have ten cents. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice..."
"Wait, what?!" Milo asked, blinking, sitting up on his bed in surprise, "Who was that?!"
"Sorry, it's a secret," Anne teased, "Unless you'd be okay with me telling people about you and Eric?"
"Okay, okay, forget I asked..."
"Smart choice. Oh, and Milo?"
"Yeah?"
"If you and Eric really do get back together again, I just want you to know... I'd like you to film it for me since I won't be able to be there." Milo smiled, but managed not to laugh, not daring to encourage her.
"...I'm hanging up now, Annie."
"Alright," she laughed, "Bye, little brother, I love you!"
"Bye, love you too!"
Hanging up the phone, and of course feeling like he'd completed a great task, Milo laid back down and sighed, relaxing a little as he started to ponder his sister's words. Well, some of his sister's words. Telling Eric more about his fears was a good idea, after all, and while he could have done without the romantic accusations, he had to admit, her comment that readiness isn't always something you recognize had given him something to think about. Before he could delve into that any deeper, though, Eric, fresh out of the shower, leaned around the corner of Milo's doorframe, his fur shiny and clean, clad in nothing at all but a towel. Milo inhaled sharply upon seeing so much of his brother's muscular body, and he found that he instantly imagined Eric strolling over to Milo's bed and dropping his towel so that he could take the younger male in both arms and kiss him... Milo swallowed even as he felt his butt clenching yet again, acutely feeling how long it had been since he'd gotten laid.
"Hey Milo?" called Eric, holding up his phone with the hand that wasn't holding his towel in place, "Why do I have a text from Anne that's just a bunch of A's?"
"Oh God..." Milo groaned, burying his face in his hands... but still smiling underneath.
Eric tilted his head to the side, clearly not missing the self-consciousness in Milo's body language.
"Wait, she didn't get it out of you, did she?" Eric asked, "That we're thinking about - you know." Milo averted his eyes and chose his words very carefully to avoid incriminating himself.
"You can't prove that..." he murmured, as if it were true and he were embarrassed about it.
"Milooooo, now we'll never hear the end of it!" the taller, nakeder shepherd groaned, before sighing and contining "Ah, I figured it was coming anyway, I fuckin' swear that woman's telepathic sometimes..." Milo nodded gratefully and swallowed again as his eyes were drawn back to Eric's abs, wondering how Eric would react if Milo took the towel from him. While the slender male was helplessly fantasizing, Eric glanced at the kitschy Felix the Cat clock on Milo's wall.
"Hey, don't you have class today?" Eric asked, as Milo idly wondered if it still counted as navel-gazing if it was someone else's navel. It took a moment for the words to sink in.
"Oh! Shit, you're right..." Milo said, tensing up for a moment as he looked at the clock and panicked for a split-second over being late. And then... He closed his eyes and shook his head, centring himself.
"...Eh, they're just reviewing the stuff they already taught today, and I'm kinda dealing with some stuff," he said, opening his eyes to see a small smile on Eric's lips that suggested he was pleased Milo was staying home. The younger male couldn't help but shyly smirk back.
"Plus, it's college," he added thoughtfully, "if I miss a day, nobody gives a shit."
Eric nodded at that, then glanced down at the phone still in his hand (because he had no pockets, of course).
"Well, I'm gonna go put some pants on and decide if I should play dumb with Anne or not," he mused, "You stay here and, uh, I don't know, keep being cute."
"I'm not 'cute'," Milo lied, defensively.
"Sure you're not," Eric agreed, with a smile much less earnest than his tone. He chuckled to himself, turned around, and headed back to his room.
"Quit checking out my ass," he called cheerfully, as Milo checked out his ass.
"You don't know me," Milo called back, unable to keep the smile out of his voice.
'Huh, I feel less tense about Eric,' Milo thought to himself, 'Is this why you're supposed to imagine the audience naked if you're stressed about public speaking?' He didn't have an answer for that, so he grabbed his tablet from the corner table where it had been charging, and thought he'd get some drawing time in, since he was skipping class and all.
Alone in his room, Milo began to draw, starting up with scribbles and random doodles to get warmed up, nothing particularly profound. He drew a cartoony kiwi bird sitting on a football, after seeing a fun fact on his timeline the previous day about how oddly large their eggs are compared to their bodies. He distantly wondered if that applied to the morphics too, and winced at the idea. Clearing the nonsense he'd filled the canvas with, Milo stretched out and settled back against his pillow, getting comfy before deciding, based on his (cough) recent chance to study the subject (cough cough), that he would practice his anatomy, specifically the male form. He'd put on headphones (which for a dog were mounted on top of the headband) to listen to some nice, calm classical music in the background, 'nothing exciting enough to distract me' as he liked to put it. He was serenely humming along, sketching a figure from behind, leaning way forward onto one leg while the other was rigidly straight behind him. Milo liked it because it would let him practice drawing both bent and straight muscles at weird angles. And also because it showed off the rump very nicely.
As he drew, Milo thought about the last time he'd seen Eric in a towel; he'd been dancing lewdly while his phone blared 'Hot Stuff' behind him, and Milo had found it both hilarious and arousing. He smiled as he remembered Eric finally pulling off the towel and whipping it around Milo's shoulders, pulling the skinny shepherd into his arms for a kiss. That, in turn, reminded Milo of the first time they'd kissed, and how hard his heart had been beating. He'd been so nervous when they were first getting together, but Eric moved slow and made sure Milo was comfortable with stuff before he tried things, even if he was teasing him playfully the entire time. God, he still blushed when he thought about the way Eric used to whisper to him right before he came... Almost every canine is secretly into being called a Good Boy or Girl, and Milo was no exception.
'Thaaaaat's it, little brother, just let go and shoot your load allllll over yourself like a good boy...' Eric's voice whispered in his mind, making Milo whimper out loud and focus on something less exciting, like cuddling. He always felt so safe when Eric was holding him, as if for a few moments, none of his problems could touch him.
He didn't notice, but for the first time in a while, Milo was smiling softly as he drew, as that last thought had reminded him of this morning. Aside from that initial fright, it had felt kinda nice to be held like that again. Maybe he should have gone back to sleep after all... The serene male thought he'd made the arms look particularly inviting, probably because of his train of thoughts, so he kept going, thinking about the way Eric was always there for Milo when he was down, always willing to offer an ear to listen to his brother's problems - or, on occasion, offer a mouth to distract Milo from his frustrations with a blowjob. Milo was pretty sure Eric had always really enjoyed sucking his dick, but in keeping with the Bro Code, he hadn't commented on it. Eric wasn't the one who enjoyed being teased, after all. Suddenly blushing, Milo amended that last thought to insist that he wasn't into being teased either, but otherwise he still felt tons better than he had for most of the last month.
As he continued detailing the muscular figure, adding the vague stylings of fur now, Milo found himself looking over the last few minutes, and how calm he'd been thinking about his past with Eric, in stark contrast to the fear that gripped his heart when he tried to think about the future. It was reminding him of the good old days, when being with Eric had made Milo feel warm and good, and (slightly) less prone to fretting over stuff. Which lead, as it often does, to a further revelation, as the skinny male blinked to himself.
"...Wait. Is that why I've felt this way this whole time?" He muttered out loud, "I've been talking about getting back with Eric, but I've been all fixated on the Incident, not on the parts that didn't make me want to die!" A moment later, Milo sighed, his ears lowering as he mulled over his thoughts. He squirmed where he lay, and idly fussed at the leather cuff on his left arm. After a short time, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath to centre himself, sitting up slightly more and returning his attention to his tablet, where he'd been detailing the tail. He'd barely drawn a couple of lines, however, before something occurred to him. Without even thinking about it, he'd drawn a dog's tail on the body he was drawing, not too skinny, not too fluffy. Zooming back out to take a look at the full sketch again, Milo's ears raised back up in surprise.
"It's Eric!" he gasped, shocked.
It was true, the image he'd been drawing wasn't just a muscular male figure, it was clearly a German shepherd, and it seemed to be a specific German shepherd. While he was drawing, lost in thought, Milo hadn't even slowed down to consider what species to make the figure, much less the shape of his ears and tail, and the outlines of his fur patterns.
'How did I not notice?!' he thought to himself, 'I was even thinking about Eric while I drew it!' Milo had assumed he'd tended to draw shepherd dogs in his doodles because that's what he was most familiar with. Indeed, it took up the majority of his folder, the rest being a grab bag of society: cats, mice, bovines, horses, otters, mice.
'I should get some practice drawing birds,' he thought, distantly, before catching that thought and frowning.
'Okay, yes, but that's hardly the point right now!' he retorted to himself. It looked like he'd been drawing his big brother over and over, without consciously realizing it, for months now. Holding his tablet in his right hand, Milo absently lifted his left hand to his chest and held it there for a moment as he ran this information around in his mind. How had he been so oblivious for so long?
Setting the tablet aside, Milo stood up and began pacing back and forth across his room. He worked his lip between his teeth and frowned, pondering.
"Every time I've thought about getting back with Eric, I've been terrified something as bad as the Incident is going to happen, I haven't spent any time thinking about the important part!" he exposited to himself. The slender male rubbed his chin as he continued. "Being with Eric makes me feel better about myself, and we used to fool around all the time without anything catastrophic happening!" After a moment, a thoughtful look came over his face. "Though we really do need to get better about locking doors..." Picking the tablet back up and looking at the drawing on it, Milo smiled softly, his tail wagging behind him.
"I was so afraid that I lost sight of the most important detail of all... Eric makes me happy."
He wasn't one hundred percent convinced he was ready, or that moving forward with Eric was the right decision... but now he had a bit of clarity to show him that it felt right. Besides, Anne had told him that he might feel that way, and he was pretty confident that Eric would back off the moment Milo stopped feeling comfortable about something, like Anne had suggested the right person would. As his heart began to beat faster, Milo let out an excited giggle, then grinned self-consciously about it. He couldn't wait to tell Eric! The main thing that seemed to be holding Eric back, at least to Milo's eye, was Milo's own hesitation and uncertainty. Surely if he was more gung-ho about it, Eric would be only too happy to give Milo a nice, brotherly dicking. The lewd shepherd shivered pleasantly as he thought about it, but forced himself to calm down. First thing to do was to find Eric. Given the size of their place, he was pretty confident he was up to the challenge.
Sure enough, no sooner had Milo stepped into the hallway than he heard Eric's muffled voice coming from his bedroom; the door had been left partially open. The eager dog's ears perked up at the sound, and his tail began to wag just a little faster in anticipation. Milo headed over and was all set to push the door all the way open and address his brother until he heard Eric speak up again, more clearly this time.
"I don't know," he said, buried frustration obvious in his voice, "I've sat down and spent time trying to work through it, trying to think my way around it, but it's like I'm going crazy or something, Anne, I just keep thinking in circles." That caused Milo's ears to stand all the way up in surprise.
'Since when does Eric call Annie for advice?' the younger male thought, frowning slightly, 'I thought he was the one who had his shit together...' Without thinking, he nosily leaned around the corner to take a look. Fortunately, Eric was sitting on his bed with his back towards the door, one hand holding up the phone as the other toyed with the sheet in uncharacteristic nervousness. Remembering he was supposed to be snooping, Milo quickly leaned back out into the hallway and silently pressed himself against the wall next to the open door.
"You can say that again," Eric sighed, "It's like, everything inside me tells me that this is right, that this is what I want, and Milo's told me it's what he wants, too, so I feel like I should reassure him, comfort him, tell him the world won't end just because we fuck again... But every time I try, I just think of - of that fucking night, and how my judgement was so clouded by the way I felt that I fucked a guy with a girlfriend... I'm just afraid that my judgement could be off again, and I wouldn't even feel the difference!"
Milo's ears had lowered again in concentration, working his brother's words through his mind. He'd been so sure Eric's doubts were because of Milo's own, he hadn't realized how deeply his former (and future?) lover's worries went.
"Oh, yes, very helpful," Eric murmured, with a tired, sarcastic tone that suggested he was rubbing his forehead with his free hand, "Thanks a bundle, Anne." A moment passed, and then Eric sighed again.
"Well, what do you want me to say?" he asked, frustrated, "Hearing that 'worrying about making a mistake is the first step to avoiding one' doesn't help me if I still don't know if this is a mistake!" In the hallway, Milo had to swallow a whimper. Had Eric made special efforts to hide this side of himself from Milo? Because he didn't want him to worry? ...Or had Milo simply been too absorbed in his own pain to even notice his brother's problems? The thought made him feel like a bit of a bad person, especially given that he was eavesdropping on this conversation in the first place!
Suddenly rather chagrined, the slender shepherd leaned away from the wall, feeling like he should stop being so nosy and leave his brother to his private conversation with their middle sister. But he found himself lingering again when Eric broke the silence.
"Sorry, it's just... really hard for me to talk about this stuff," he said, quietly, "It's... frightening, to be so sure I know what the right thing to do is... and to doubt it anyway because it's coming from me." Milo bit his lip, wanting more than anything else to go and comfort Eric - no matter how strange that sounded in his head - but paralyzed from acting by the knowledge that he shouldn't have been listening in. He swallowed a whimper and turned away, walking out to the living room and sitting down on the couch, not seeing any of the things he passed on the way as he pondered his big brother. Milo wasn't used to seeing that level of vulnerability in Eric; he'd almost sounded scared. Milo found that he wasn't surprised, somehow, that if there was anyone Eric trusted for advice on these things, it was Anne. Eric had a much lower tolerance level for Anne's particular shenanigans, though, so she'd probably had to promise to hold off on explicitly comparing Eric and Milo to gay Japanese porn comics. Which meant, now that Milo thought about it, that she was probably trying to slip subtler messages in when he wouldn't notice.
Sighing yet again, it being a fairly sigh-worthy day, Milo looked down at his lap, and was halfway surprised to discover his tablet still in his hand.
"Oh yeah," he murmured absently, and set it down next to him on the couch. He was more concerned with thoughts of his big brother, and how he could help assuage Eric's fears. Eric putting on a brave front for Milo's sake didn't sit well with Milo, and he liked the idea of the two of them helping to support each other. After a moment's reflection, he smiled. It had been some time since they'd come together like that instead of in other, less wholesome ways.
Milo sat on the couch, thinking through how he felt and what he'd heard, more or less just waiting for Eric to emerge on his own. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait very long before the older shepherd stepped out of his room and headed out to the living room... just as Milo remembered the tablet full of suspiciously familiar male figures. Trying not to panic, he hastily reached over and shoved it to the side, under one of the decorative pillows, though Eric didn't seem to notice. From the look on his face, he hadn't found his call with Anne to be quite as helpful as Milo had. He was staring off into the middle distance as he walked, hands in his pockets, seeming all broody and dejected. Milo was kind of into it, frankly.
"Uh, hey," Milo said, trying to keep it casual. This didn't seem to help, as Eric started slightly, turning towards the couch, seeming earnestly surprised to see Milo there.
"Oh!" he said, before frowning ever-so-slightly and adding "How long have you been there?" He seemed slightly concerned, and a self-conscious Milo realized that the larger male was afraid of having been overheard.
"Er, not long, just got here," he lied, avoiding Eric's gaze as he did so, "You okay?"
"Oh, sure, I'm alright, no worries," Eric lied back, "Don't mind me, I was just, uh, thinking about the roommate situation. But, um, while I've got you here, something happened at work that I wanted to talk to you about..."
Eric walked around the coffee table and went to the couch, clearly intending to sit down next to Milo and have a heart-to-heart. Milo was genuinely interested in whatever Eric had to tell him... but then the muscular shepherd happened to pick the spot with the decorative pillow on it to sit down. Not wanting to have to replace an expensive bit of tech, Milo threw discretion clean out the window.
"Watch out!" he said, reaching out a hand to stop Eric from crushing the tablet.
"Oh, sorry!" the elder male said, looking behind him. He brushed the pillow aside, and before Milo could stop him, he reached down and took hold of the tablet.
"What's this?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, uh..." Milo stammered, beginning to blush. He struggled to keep his ears upright, but already felt them lowering as Eric took in the view of the suspiciously familiar figure Milo had drawn just earlier.
Since this particular hunk was facing away from the viewer, Eric just smiled politely while Milo sweated.
"Hey, this is really nice," Eric said, leaning forward on the couch, really studying the image in his hands, "Is this timestamp accurate? Did you really just start this like an hour ago? Damn, son..." He looked over at Milo, who smiled shyly.
"You've never shown me your sketches before," Eric mused, "I've only seen finished products. Now I kinda feel stupid for never asking... Makes it seem like I wasn't taking interest in your stuff. And that definitely isn't true, I love your work, little man!" As he spoke, he began to scroll, and Milo's heart skipped a beat, which was a strange sensation so soon after being filled with pride from Eric's words.
"Wow, you've got a real sense of anatomy, lot of good-looking dudes in here," Eric observed, pinch-zooming to examine one shepherd's rump. "Heh, this one has a nice ass."
"Y-yeah, you know, it's super important to get the butt right, hehe..." Milo said, rubbing at the back of his neck nervously.
"I'm just wondering, how long does it take you to..." Eric trailed off as he scrolled again, tilting his head to the side and regarding a bust drawing, a figure depicted only from the chest up.
"Wait... is this one me?" he asked quietly. Milo looked around, but sadly, there wasn't a convenient fire for him to die in rather than have this conversation.
"Umm, well, see..." Milo started, already close to hyperventilating, "I've been th-thinking about you a lot today, all that s-stuff we'd been talking about, you know?" Eric glanced over at him again before regarding the screen.
"Milo, only that first one was timestamped an hour ago," he said, dashing Milo's hope that he hadn't noticed, "This one was from back on the third. Wait a second..." As he spoke, he scrolled again, back to that first one.
"Is this one me too, then?" he asked, looking even more carefully at the sketches than before. "Milo, there's a bunch of shepherds in here..." He gave his little brother a Look, demanding an explanation without a word. Milo was already falling all over himself to provide one, of course, shaking his hands placatingly.
"I-i-it's not what it looks like!" he insisted, "I d-didn't do it on purpose, I just meant to be drawing dudes, and uh, it just kept coming out... as you." Eric glanced back and forth between the tablet and his brother, smirking slightly.
"So... you've been drawing me... over and over again... for months... completely subconsciously?" he asked, raising one eyebrow. Milo whimpered, feeling like his blush would be bright enough to light up the room if the power went out.
"Y-yeah, that's about the long and short of it..." Milo muttered, quoting their father Alexander.
"How long has this been happening?" Eric asked, scrolling again, "I mean, this one is wearing a Santa hat!"
Milo sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"I - I don't know, I only just realized it earlier, after I finished drawing that first one," he admitted, "I didn't even realize I drew so many dogs, let alone that they were you!" He looked up, surprised, as Eric chuckled.
"You know, Milo, it kinda feels like there's some subtle symbolism here, but I can't seem to put my finger on it..." The younger male felt a shudder of relief run down his spine as he relaxed a little. He couldn't express in words how much weight came off his shoulders when he heard that Eric wasn't mad or creeped out.
"I guess you've been, uh... on my mind longer than I realized," Milo admitted quietly, studying the shag rug on the floor far more intently than he had when Eric brought the thing home from somebody's yard sale.
"Heh, probably explains why I was so certain last night..." he mused, thinking about that kiss. He started slightly as he felt his brother's touch, Eric gently turning Milo's chin so they were facing each other.
"And, ah... how are you feeling about today?" Eric asked, "Because if you don't mind my saying so, you sound a lot less stressed than you did earlier... at least outside of getting busted making all those drawings of me." Milo chuckled softly. Why was he so nervous, dammit? This was Eric, but he felt like he was on a blind d- on second thought, maybe he should just concentrate on what to say.
"Well, I'd been doing some thinking, actually," he said, bashfully, forcing himself to maintain eye contact, "And I admit realizing the, uh, theme to my art had a hand in it... But I'm feeling a lot more certain now. I do want to go back to, you know, fooling around with you. And, uh, Eric?" The older male was smiling softly, seeming totally calm and serene, but after what he'd overheard in the hallway, Milo couldn't help but wonder if Eric was hiding anything from Milo to protect him. He'd been planning to address that anyway, but he'd need to be careful not to tip his hand and admit he'd been eavesdropping...
"I wanted to say... you were right, earlier, when you said that I tend to let other people, uh... set the tone, or take the lead," he said, gesturing too much in his anxiety, "But even if I am, er, suggestible, it's still my decision." Milo was feeling more confident about this, and Eric was rolling his shoulders without a word, his ears upright, but rigidly so. Milo allowed himself a small smile, as he was pretty decent at reading his older siblings back. The shoulder roll was a dead giveaway that Milo had said something unexpected that Eric was chewing on thoughtfully, hence the silence.
Encouraged, Milo pointed back and forth between them. "Like, you and me, there's nothing we've done together that I didn't agree to before we started, and those were all my decisions to make, right?"
"Yeah..." agreed Eric, slowly, as if he thought this was somehow a trap.
"Well, I was thinking about what we said last night, and I figure the incident was my decision too, even if you should have said no. We were both at fault, and that's on both of us, it's... it's not on either of us to shoulder all the blame." He stopped short of adding 'not even to protect the other guy'.
Eric looked... actually, his face was quite blank and unreadable, but Milo hoped that just meant he was seriously thinking this over instead of just hearing the words.
"We're gonna need to support each other, to do better and make sure nothing like that ever happens again," Milo added, barely resisting the urge to emphasize the words 'each other'. The elder shepherd was already nodding, and he gave Milo a more natural smile than before, extending his hand like he wanted to shake.
"Yeah, that sounds good," Eric said, "I can definitely agree to that." Grinning in relief, his anxiety fading, Milo reached out to return the gesture - only for Eric to grab him by the forearm and pull him into the larger male's embrace. Milo couldn't help but giggle excitedly, his tail wagging behind him; something about this moment, this hug, felt like a wax seal going on an agreement, like this was the moment things between Eric and Milo once again took an unbrotherly turn. Self-conscious about the sound, Milo tried to contain his giggles... but found it hopeless when Eric suddenly began chuckling along with him. It was a warm, delightful moment, and not just because it was so good for Milo to feel Eric rubbing his back again...
An unhelpful part of Milo's mind gestured to the warm, relieved feelings Milo was experiencing in Eric's arms, and suggested that they sure didn't seem like they were just about sex. The slender shepherd, in turn, exiled that thought to the very back of his mind. Eric was his brother, after all, and Milo did love him, and, well... after falling so hard and so far the first time, was it really so bad if he wanted an emotional safety net, and not just a fuckbuddy? For a long time, Milo had been focusing on not falling again, but maybe it would help if he focused more on staying standing instead... something that felt so, so much easier when Eric was at his side.
After just... holding each other for a long, close time, the Thompsons leaned back so they could see each other's faces. Milo shivered at the warm, familiar look Eric was giving him.
"So," said the muscular male, "how should we start?" He'd leaned forward to grab Milo, so it was apparent that his tail was wagging just as eagerly as his brother's. Milo, for his part, hadn't been expecting to have the ball in his court, he'd sort of figured once they'd both decided they were ready, Eric would just sort of... sweep him up into his arms, carry him off to a bed, and have his wicked way with the younger canine.
"Oh, well, uh..." he stammered bashfully, his tail faltering in its rhythm as he tried to find the words. This was new. In their old trysts, Eric had been content to let Milo leave things as vague as asking if he'd like to fool around. Eric had tended to take charge, suggest positions or activities himself, and Milo had almost always been happy to go along with it. So he hadn't been expecting his brother to ask him for specifics. Eric did love to make him blush, though, so this wasn't exactly a surprise, either.
"We could, uh... keep holding each other for a while, this is pretty nice..." Milo said, completely chickening out from what he really wanted to say. He didn't even try to stop his ears from lowering in embarrassment. Eric chuckled, but there was no mockery in the sound, and his smile remained warm and inviting.
"Yeah, this is nice, we could do this for a while, maybe throw in a little kissing if we're ready for it..." Eric replied, as calm and as casual as you like. "I mean, we don't have to jump right back into sex just because we've straightened things out between us." As he spoke, one of his hands came forward and he caressed Milo's cheek with a gentleness that made the younger male whimper softly. God, he had missed this...
"Sure," agreed Milo, playing along, "we're mature adults, not slaves to our desires, we could take it slow, make sure we're both comfortable, spend some time easing back into it..."
Approximately seven-point-three seconds later, the door to Eric's bedroom suddenly banged open, swinging hard into the rubber stopper on the wall that had come with the apartment. The brothers Thompson stumbled through the doorway, all entwined limbs and wagging tails. They were kissing deeply, hungrily, and desperately, as if they'd been in withdrawal for sloppy make-outs. Their movements were uncertain and ungainly - primarily because Eric was walking backwards and Milo refused to break off the kiss to look towards anything except his lover's face - but somehow they'd made it. Milo had always secretly loved doing it in Eric's room, because the entire room carried a scent trace from his brother, so every breath was tinged with that enticingly masculine musk. Of course, right now, he'd get that anywhere; being in a needy shepherd's arms meant that Milo was breathing Eric's fresh arousal pheromones with every inhalation, and he loved it. He passively allowed Eric to rotate them, not giving it a second thought, which meant he was caught completely off-guard when Eric shoved Milo backwards so his lower legs bumped against the bed, neatly toppling the surprised art student onto his back atop the mattress - and quickly finding Eric on all fours atop him. Milo shuddered from the tips of his ears to the end of his tail as Eric immediately growled possessively over him.
"Oh! ...Oh, shit, that was hot..." Milo admitted, swallowing nervously. Was this what getting swept off your feet meant?
The younger male yelped, distracted from his unrelated question as his lover bent down and began to lay kisses along Milo's sensitive neck.
"A-ah! Oh - oh God, Eric..." Milo gasped and sighed, reaching up and running his fingers through his brother's hair, "I've m-missed this so fucking much... Nnngh... and I need this so fucking bad..." Naturally, Eric responded by licking his cheek. Milo inhaled sharply as he suddenly felt one of Eric's hands slipping under his shirt and exploring his chest.
"Mmm, yesssss..." the slender dog moaned softly. Eric chuckled.
"Little touch-starved, are we?" he teased playfully, his tail wagging above them.
"Oh, you have no idea..." sighed Milo, who shuddered as his lover gave him belly rubs. Milo lifted his arms and passively allowed Eric to peel his shirt off, then arched his back and gasped as Eric bent down and began to kiss and lick at one of his nipples.
"Oh - oh! Th-that's new, I think..." Milo stammered, his legs squirming and twitching with each teasing lick to the sensitive flesh he normally ignored.
"Fuck, d-don't stop... ah!" He yelped as Eric gave his nub a love bite, but made no effort to push him away.
It was at this point that Eric touched Milo's crotch through his pants for the first time, and Milo swallowed a whimper of anticipation. He moaned when Eric gave his cock and balls a gentle squeeze, his pulse already racing. The younger male shivered, feeling his penis beginning to harden against his brother's hand.
"I love how responsive you are... I always have..." Eric murmured, running his hand along Milo's side, "God, you're so lithe, too... don't get me wrong, I like a chick with a little meat on her bones, but I like my guys skinny."
"Agree to d-disagree," Milo replied, trying to sound casual, "I prefer my guys swole." He couldn't help but grin as his gaze shamelessly dropped to Eric's chest, as if he could see straight through the shirt. Taking the 'subtle' hint, Eric leaned back into a kneeling position, grabbed his shirt by the hem, and pulled it up and off, tossing it to the side, where it may as well have fallen into the Shadow Realm for all the attention the brothers paid to it.
Milo, for his part, was drinking in the view of his brother's muscular chest, admiring both the size and the tone. Reaching up, he began to trace the tattoo on Eric's shoulder and arm, a traditional Canine design, with the tip of a finger. Eric hadn't had it when last they'd been intimate.
"I can finally tell you how hot this is, the way it curls around your biceps like that, goddamn..." Milo chuckled, upgrading to a full-on laugh as Eric flexed for him, winking and miming a kiss.
"You tease!" he said, fanning himself with a hand like an old-timey southern woman complaining about The Vapours.
"You say that like that's new information," Eric replied immediately, and bent in to kiss him. Milo closed his eyes, lowered his ears, and melted into the larger male's embrace.
Their lips met, and both canids shuddered as they held each other close. Milo ran his fingers through the short fur on Eric's chest, and Eric groped and squeezed his little brother's soft, pert ass. Milo moaned softly into the kiss, at least as best he could while his tongue was busy getting curled up with Eric's. His brother's hands were so big, so strong, compared to his own, but they were so gentle, so delicate, when they were fondling Milo's rump. Shuddering hard, he pushed his ass against the larger male's hands, loving every second of it. They just lingered there, enjoying being in each other's arms, until Eric once again squeezed Milo's package through his shorts, making it obvious he was at half-mast by now.
"Oh God!" he gasped, breaking off the kiss. Eric churred to him quietly.
"You really need this, don't you?" Eric teased, "You love it when your big brother plays with you..." His fingers were lightly stroking back and forth along Milo's hardening penis, and Milo swallowed a whimper of pleasure as it throbbed inside his boxers at Eric's touch.
"Hnnngh, yes, yes!" Milo cried out shamelessly, reflexively humping against his lover's hand, "Oh f-fuck, I need it so bad, Eric, I - I've been so depressed that I haven't even come in a few days..." Eric leaned in and nibbled at one of Milo's ears, making the younger male's toes curl up.
"You want me to take care of that for you?" Eric whispered, sensually. Milo immediately nodded desperately, his desire for the elder shepherd at an all-time high.
"Ohhhh, yes..." Milo groaned, posing his ears in a submissive posture, "I thought you'd n-never ask..."
Eric chuckled softly and then moved down the bed, setting Milo's heart to racing. It wasn't until he met his brother's gaze, and Eric immediately unfastened Milo's shorts, that Milo realized his lover wanted to make sure he was watching. The elder shepherd grinned, winked, and unnecessarily slowly unzipped his little brother's fly. Milo self-consciously lifted his hips off the bed to help Eric pull his shorts down, taking his boxers with them. Eric's attention finally flitted away from Milo's face when the nervous male's cock and balls came into view. Grinning, Eric moved in closer, continuing to shove Milo's shorts down as he leaned in and made Milo yelp by nuzzling his cold, wet nose against the base of Milo's cock. Eric closed his eyes and breathed in deep, filling his nostrils with Milo's private scent, and both males shuddered with need. Eric churred softly.
"Ohhh, Milo, I've missed this... missed you..." he whispered, before he began to lick playfully at his brother's scrotum, as if bathing the wrinkled skin in his saliva. Milo couldn't help but stare at the erotic show, and when their gazes inevitably met again, Eric winked and dragged his tongue from the base of Milo's cock all the way to his tip, making it throb hard, twitching up and flopping back down on top of Eric's muzzle. Milo squirmed, desperately trying to suppress high-pitched noises of pleasure as his brother teased his fingers through his pubic fur, kissed and licked at his sac, and continued shamelessly basking in Milo's musk the whole time. Canine lovers were, as a general rule, very fond of each other's scents, and Eric and Milo were no exceptions.
As Milo got harder and harder, his prick fattening and lengthening from Eric's venerations, the slender male managed to coordinate his shaking feet enough to push the shorts off his ankles, freeing him from the tyranny of clothing - well, there was still the cuff on his arm, and the socks on his feet, but with a handsome male worshipping his junk, Milo found he didn't much care. His dick lifted away from Eric's muzzle, finally proudly pointing into the air, and Eric responded by taking Milo's balls into his mouth. Milo threw back his head, his hair flicking back dramatically. He felt so vulnerable that he was trembling from head to toe, but he knew beyond the faintest shadow of a doubt that Eric would not hurt him.
"Oh - oh God..." he whimpered, as Eric's wide, flat tongue ran along the underside of his sac, hugging the contours of the two sensitive orbs within. Milo felt one of Eric's hands sliding up the back of his leg and squeezing a naked buttock with the kind of affection that only prolonged separation can inspire in a person. Understandably, at the moment, Milo's attention was firmly fixed on watching his brother playing with his junk, which meant he did not at all notice when the hand fondling his ass slid over, and only caught on when Eric began teasing the tip of one finger at Milo's back door.
It was a move Milo had quietly loved in the past, when Eric would lightly brush a finger in a circle around the edges of Milo's anus, making the younger shepherd clench down in anticipation of more involved play. This time, though, Milo gasped in a different kind of way, and scuttled backwards on the bed, his balls slipping out of Eric's mouth as a surprised look appeared on his brother's face. Eric raised his ears in surprise and curiosity as a deeply flushed Milo sat up on the bed, his own ears lowered apologetically.
"Hey Milo," Eric said, neutrally, "What's up?"
"S-sorry, I'm okay," Milo replied, gesturing vaguely and nervously, "It's just that, um... I haven't been with anyone, um, else since the last time with you, s-so..."
"...So your sweet ass is five years out of practice?" Eric offered, smiling. Milo snorted in amusement, then tried to give him a stern Look, but failed because the stubborn boner killed the effect.
"Okay, fine, yeah, that's basically it," Milo said, his ears rising in amusement when he wasn't paying attention, "So be gentle, okay?" He chuckled to himself and averted his eyes.
"I'm probably not gonna last too long anyway, been a while..."
Milo looked up again when the silence stretched on just enough that he suddenly wondered if Eric was disappointed or something, but when he looked up, Eric had a delighted grin on his face.
"Well, little brother," Eric said, cheerily, "it just so happens that I have a solution to both of those problems... if you'd like me to help you out." Milo's prick throbbed hard and his rump clenched down simultaneously, but he managed to play it calm.
"...Yes, one hundred percent," he replied, "...but can I take your pants off first? I'm aching to see you..." Eric, who had been sporting an impressive tent for a while, grinned at this and pushed himself up to a sitting position.
"By all means, be my guest..." he said, gesturing grandiosely to his pants - more specifically, the part that was stretched out by his hard-on.
He'd returned to the sweatpants he'd been wearing before he showered, though he'd accompanied them with a shirt afterwards (before it was discarded in the heat of passion, anyway). Naturally, this meant Eric's rigid dick was creating a terrific bulge that Milo struggled to take his eyes off of, now that he'd become aware of it. Giving in to his desire, he crawled across the bed, his own erection swaying beneath him, knelt down just beside Eric, and reached out with grabby hands for his brother's waist. The smaller shepherd giggled to himself as he tugged on the drawstrings of his lover's pants, untying the simple knot and loosening the waistband immediately. Swallowing, Milo hooked his fingers around that waistband, tugging downwards and immediately realizing that Eric wasn't wearing any underwear. Pausing, he glanced up with a smirk.
"Going commando? That's not like the Eric I knew..." Reaching down and scratching at the back of Milo's neck, Eric grinned back.
"I had a sneaking suspicion they'd just get in the way today..."
Milo went back to disrobing his lover, tugging the waistband out to make sure it didn't hook behind Eric's boner before he pulled it down. Milo shivered the instant Eric's cock came into view, swallowing to ease his suddenly dry mouth. It had been so long, but he remembered every detail. He managed to (barely) resist the immediate urge to do what Eric had done and indulge in his brother's musk, instead merely leaning in and planting a kiss on the underside of Eric's shaft with a pleasant mwah.
"I've missed you," he said playfully to the older shepherd's malehood, which throbbed in response and drooled out a little pre-come. Milo had intended to leave it at that, but acting on impulse, he leaned in and dragged his tongue along his brother's penis, licking up the pre. Eric sighed with pleasure and his dick pulsed again as Milo licked it, rewarding him with more pre just as he reached the tip, spilled directly onto his tongue. Milo shuddered happily, savouring the taste as Eric chuckled and winked at him.
"Looks like it missed you too."
Once Milo had (reluctantly) leaned away from Eric's crotch and finished tugging his pants down and off, dropping them off the side of the bed and instantly forgetting about them, he swallowed again and looked at Eric with an oddly bashful expression on his face.
"So, um, you said you could help me?" Milo reminded his lover, almost as curious as he was aroused.
"Sure can," Eric agreed, making a rotating gesture, "All you gotta do is turn around, get on all fours... and raise your tail for me." Of course he was looking Milo dead in the eye as he said that last part, surely Eric couldn't miss the blush or the secretly-loves-it smile. His heart racing, Milo got up on his knees and gathered his courage.
With a deep breath to steady himself, Milo pitched forward and caught himself with his hands. After taking one more glance over his shoulder at his brother to confirm the warm, supportive look on Eric's face, Milo lifted his tail and flagged it high in the air. It was only once Eric moved forward and reached out to grope Milo's rump with both hands that Milo suddenly realized.
"Hey... how did you say you were gonna help me, again?" he said, frowning.
"Your fur smells very clean, Milo..." Eric said, as if he hadn't heard that, "You know, back in the day, when you would shower extra-thoroughly, it usually meant you'd... cleaned yourself out, too. I don't suppose you..."
"Eric!" protested Milo, somehow managing to blush even harder than he already was, "Don't ask me that!"
"Oh, that's a yes..." Eric chuckled, "Exactly what I wanted to hear!"
"I thought you weren't gonna fuck me yet..." muttered Milo, pouting adorably.
"I'm not, it's something I only got to try after we br- uh, after we stopped fooling around," the elder male replied, carefully, "See, I was dating this girl, and she was way into - well, let me just show you..." Milo was going to press the issue and ask again, but before he could utter a sound, Eric suddenly leaned in close and dragged his tongue across Milo's anus, and the younger male tensed up all over, gasped, and let out a surprised cry that was embarrassingly close to a squeak.
When Eric licked him again, and a third time, it became clear that he wasn't just being provocative or trying to make Milo make cute noises.
"Eric!" Milo cried out, squirming as that tongue kept teasing at his back door, "Wh-what are you doing?!" The elder male leaned away from his brother's butt to grin shamelessly.
"Isn't it obvious?" Eric teased, "I'm rimming my little brother." When Milo tried to crawl forward on the bed, the larger dog's grip on his rump tightened possessively, and Eric held him in place. As soon as he'd finished answering, Eric returned to his licking, and Milo couldn't help but shudder, feeling himself clench every time that broad, wet canine tongue teased across the tight pucker beneath his tail.
"Oh... oh man..." Milo mumbled to himself, whimpering at the unfamiliar sensations before looking back again.
"C'mon, Eric, this - this feels weird!" he protested, squirming ineffectually. Somehow, he couldn't quite bring himself to properly struggle against his brother, any more than he could stop his entrance from reflexively clenching from those teasing licks.
"See, that's what I thought at first too," Eric said enthusiastically, pausing between licks, "But Ca- actually, I probably shouldn't tell you which ex it was - this girl really opened my eyes, the way she liked to make out with my ass... Trust me on this one, Milo, just give it a chance."
Milo whimpered as he shuddered again.
"But - but isn't it gross or something?" he whined, as his hands gripped the sheets tighter and tighter. Distantly, he imagined Anne chuckling at that, instinctively suspecting that she'd be shaking her head and saying something along the lines of 'Oh, that's such a tsundere thing to say, little brother.' Eric shook his head and let go of Milo's butt with one hand just long enough to gesture dismissively.
"Nah, not if you do this good a job at cleaning yourself," Eric replied, "Now relax, would you? I know you, you're gonna love it if you just give it a chance!"
Despite his instincts telling him that he should be ashamed and embarrassed, Milo chose to trust his lover, and settled for just embarrassed. He began taking deep breaths, trying to calm himself - but not too obviously, trying to be quiet about it so Eric wouldn't get to be smug. At first he just felt silly doing it, but the tension actually started to ease, and as his muscles relaxed, Milo felt like there was something strangely familiar about his brother's dalliances. He closed his eyes, concentrating on those quick, teasing brushes against his sensitive flesh. The trembling male whimpered out loud, his tail twitching as the feelings ran through his body. Suddenly, he made the connection: it was the same teasing, circular motion that Eric liked to tease Milo with when they were kissing. In this case, he was just barely brushing the outer edge of Milo's anus to - to make him squirm and whimper and moan from the powerful sensations, just like this! Which lead, of course to the realization that when he stopped thinking about how self-conscious he was from getting rimmed... this actually felt really, really good.
Shuddering from head to toe, Milo moaned aloud before he could catch himself.
"Oh God..." he whispered, suddenly conflicted, "This... this really does feel nice..." Eric chuckled good-naturedly.
"What'd I tell you?" he teased, "That's what I've been waiting to hear! Now that you're more comfortable..." With that, he began to lick more directly at Milo's back door, and Milo inhaled sharply. Eric began to draw more complex patterns with the tip of his tongue, spiralling towards the centre and then back out, or just straight lapping at his brother's entrance. But every once in a while, Eric would lightly press directly against Milo's anus, and the younger shepherd knew, deep down, that he was still being teased, that it was only a matter of time before that tongue pushed inside him... and whether he tried to deny it to himself or not, he wanted it so bad it made him groan with need.
With every twitch of Eric's tongue, Milo relaxed more and more, sighing quietly as he felt an impressive amount of tension leaving his shoulders. The more he let go of the scandalous idea of what was happening, the more the pleasurable reality of how it felt made him love it.
"Mmmm... Eric..." he sighed, shuddering hard and letting his head hang down. He'd been intending to close his eyes and focus entirely on his rump, but he caught sight of his own prick, and the strand of thin, clear fluid hanging down from his tip almost all the way to the sheets.
"M-man, I'm pre-ing so much," he murmured, swallowing unconsciously as he stared at himself, distantly wondering what it would taste like. Eric didn't pull away from Milo's butt to answer this time, but he'd clearly heard the younger male, as one of his hands finally released a buttock in order to slide down and take a firm hold of Milo's cock, which immediately throbbed at his touch. Milo bit his lip to swallow a whimper as those hot fingers curled around his tool, rubbing playfully at the sensitive spots under the edge of his glans. It was hard to tell, but he could swear the precome was flowing just a little bit more prodigiously...
Eric began to stroke his brother's dick, sliding his hand up and down Milo's straining shaft. The slender shepherd moaned softly, acutely feeling how long it had been since another person touched him like that.
"Oh - oh fuck..." Milo breathed, "That's s-so good..." Eric suddenly stopped, and when he leaned to the side, Milo knew from the very sound of his lover's voice that there was a smug grin plastered all over his face.
"So good?" Eric repeated, delighted, "So good? Does this mean you're admitting I was right, and that you love the hell out of this after all?" Milo let out a canine whine, even as his brother's teasing words sent a pleasant shiver down his spine. Stupid subby instincts!
"F-fine, you win, you win," Milo replied, blushing, "Getting my ass licked is awesome, you read me like a book, you're the Bottom Whisperer, is that what you wanted to hear?" The larger shepherd reached up and tapped one finger against his chin thoughtfully, even as his other hand continued to slowly stroke Milo's dick.
"Hmmm... I was kinda hoping for something like 'You were right, I never should have doubted you, big brother, I'm your naughty little bitch', but you're out of practice, and I really want to get back to playing with you, so... Good boy." No sooner were those last two words out of his mouth than so was his tongue, which pressed directly against Milo's anus, rapidly increasing the pressure until the tip of that flat, flexible tongue pushed through the tight ring of muscle and into Milo's backside.
"Gnaaaaaaah!" Milo gasped, arching his back, his ears briefly shooting straight up. He'd had fingers up his ass, and he'd had a dick up his ass, but even though it was smaller, there was just something different about it being a tongue. It twisted and wiggled inside him, running along his inner walls and teasing the nerves there. Milo felt as much as heard Eric chuckling behind him, and found himself smiling despite the embarrassment. He'd had some severe complaints lined up about Eric's teasing 'suggestion', but they faded away very quickly. It was hard to focus on the self-consciousness with his brother seeking out all the sensitive spots inside him and teasing against them. As if punctuating that thought, Eric brushed against one such spot, and the resulting unexpected pulse of pleasure made Milo bark out an 'Ah!' as his cock throbbed, no doubt making even more of a mess of the sheets. Milo instinctively pushed back, seeking more, but he was distracted from Eric's play under his tail (incredibly) as he felt a sudden twinge in his right arm. He realized that his arms were starting to feel sore, maybe from how long he'd been tensing them earlier. While he was contemplating them, Eric discovered another sensitive spot, and Milo shuddered hard, his prick once again following suit. He let his arms give out, lowering his upper body to the bed, but leaving his rump sticking up so Eric could keep playing with it. The trembling shepherd shivered hard enough to send a ripple through his fur, and moaned softly from the ecstasy his brother was bringing him.
Once again, the elder male leaned back, chuckling.
"That's it, face down, ass up, good boy," he teased, petting Milo's buttock softly, "Oop, careful there, that was close!" Once again, Milo looked back to protest being called a good boy, like he was Eric's pet, and once again, his indignance evaporated as he saw that his tail had betrayed him, wagging very energetically and telegraphing the secret shiver those words had instilled in Milo, not to mention almost hitting Eric in the face (hence the dodge he'd just performed). Milo had been enjoying his brother's oral ministrations so much, he hadn't even felt his tail... in fact, as Eric's tongue slipped back into his rump, Milo felt his tail begin to wag even harder, and he realized it had been doing so ever since Eric had pushed inside for the first time. He half-laugh-half-groaned to himself and covered his eyes with his hands in embarrassment.
"Stupid tail... couldn't be more obvious..." he grumbled. Eric clearly couldn't resist pausing again.
"That's not true," he helpfully interjected, "your tail could be posting about this online." Imagining excited tweets from his own tail about how awesome getting your ass licked turned out to be, Milo snickered quietly, as the thought was so ridiculous even he couldn't seriously fret about it.
"I'm gonna let that one slide," Milo replied, poorly hiding his grin, "but only because you're, uh, doing the thing." Eric gave his brother's dick a squeeze in response, and Milo pushed his face into the sheets and moaned.
They continued like that for a while, Milo squirming and whimpering and shivering with pleasure while Eric masterfully worked his tongue in and out his lover's sensitive rump, expertly seeking out Milo's weak spots while Milo's tail helpfully telegraphed when he found them, even if the slender shepherd managed to contain his moans. The younger male was in a haze of lust, helpless against the rising tide of pleasure. It wasn't quite like anything he'd ever experienced before, and it sent tingles up and down his spine that were positively electrical. Milo lost track of time while he was losing himself to Eric's tongue, it could have been hours or even just a few minutes that he just lay there, writhing in embarrassing ecstasy. He only spoke up again once he was struggling against the end, straining to resist the climax that was building inside him. Even as lust-drunk as he was, Milo felt like he hadn't held out as long as he'd prefer, being as out of practice as he was. He was embarrassed to even acknowledge it, but he felt like Eric would want to know.
"Oh - oh God, Eric, I'm - hnngh! - I'm getting close, fuuuuuuck..." he panted, his entire body trembling, his aching cock straining for release, drooling pre-come like it was going out of fashion. Eric growled into his little brother's butt, and redoubled his efforts. His hand stroked up and down the younger male's lightly pulsing shaft, his tongue seemingly tracing some eldritch rune of pleasure deep beneath Milo's tail.
Milo was openly panting now, letting his tongue loll out of his mouth as shudder after shudder ran through his body, leaving behind tingles of pleasure that seemed to fill his entire being. He'd entirely forgotten about being embarrassed, as only the release that he could feel racing towards him seemed to matter in the slightest right now. With every twitch of that tongue inside him, every squeeze and stroke along his cock, Eric was working his body like a fine-tuned machine.
"That's s-so fucking good, haah, d-d-don't stop," the younger male gasped, feeling himself tensing up all over. This was gonna be a good one... "Oh God, I'm g-gonna... I... Eriiiiic!" Milo cried out his lover's name and then moaned shamelessly as Eric expertly coaxed that orgasm out of him, pleasure filling his universe. The slender shepherd's steel-hard prick began to throb and spasm in his big brother's hand, spurting long, gooey volleys of hot, fresh canine jism, without a care in the world as to where they were going. It wasn't his bed anyway... When the initial moan ended, Milo began to whimper and mewl his way through the bursts of ecstasy that filled his body with every spasm. Milo kinda hated the high-pitched noises he made when he came... but he knew that Eric loved hearing them, found them a turn-on, so Milo resisted the urge to bury his face against the bed to muffle his cries. His rump had begun to clench down on his brother's tongue in time with his pleasures, so Eric had turned to focusing on stroking Milo's throbbing cock.
Having been denying himself for several days before this, Milo's climax almost felt like it was going to be endless, like he was just going to nut and nut and nut until the end of time. But alas, such a thing was not to be, and eventually, when the spasms tapered off, when Eric had wrung every last drop of pleasure out of him, Milo gave a tremendous shudder that ran through every inch of his body and finished in his still-clenched toes, and then he slumped to the right with a satisfied groan and flopped down to the bed, exhausted.
"Damn, little brother, you really did need that, huh?" Eric murmured. Milo laughed weakly, not even lifting his head from the comforter to take in the mess.
"Mmmm... God, it's s-so much better when it's another p-person..." he mumbled, "I'm st-still shivering..." He closed his eyes, basking in his afterglow, his tail wagging tiredly, so he felt more than saw Eric sit down just next to him. The larger male began petting his prone sibling, slowly running his hand along Milo's side.
"Just breathe, Milo," Eric murmured, "I'm glad it was good for you." After a moment, he churred to the younger shepherd, and Milo smiled at the intimacy he felt with his brother... not to mention the warm euphoria left over from his orgasm.
He was so comfortable that he nearly nodded off, but just before he passed out, Milo blinked himself awake when his lover spoke up again.
"So, what'd you think?" Eric asked, his own tail wagging. Milo cringed and looked away.
"D-don't make me describe it!" he protested, struggling not to sound pleading, "It's embarrassing enough just being that helpless against butt stuff..." Eric chuckled, managing to make it not sound mocking.
"C'mon, Milo, you know I'm happy for you, right?" he said, patting the younger male on the tush, "I wasn't making fun of you, I just knew you were gonna love rimming because I knew you're a dog who... can appreciate the benefits of having something under his tail." Milo snickered at that phrasing.
"Alright, alright," the slender shepherd relented, "it, uh... it was weird at first, but God, it's so much better than being fingered, s-so much warmer and more flexible..." A thoughtful look came over his face.
"Though with m-my dick pointing straight down, and you jerking me with your hand backwards, it kinda felt like, ah, I was being milked," Milo joked, self-consciously. Eric perked right up.
"Ah, yes!" he replied, "and you were a very good producer, you made a lot of milk indeed..." Milo giggled to himself and took a deep breath, bracing himself for finally checking the mess he'd made of the bed. At least until Eric leaned over and finally revealed his other hand... which was still cupping a handful of creamy, glistening German shepherd semen. Milo shivered, imagining himself obliviously ejaculating into his lover's hand. His eyes darted between the come and his big brother's playful eyes.
"...So why don't you be a good boy and clean up all this milk you spilled?" Eric teased, "It's warm and fresh, straight from the tap..."
Milo resisted the sudden urge to lick his lips, but he couldn't help his ears going back down. Slowly, self-consciously climbing up to all fours, Milo leaned over and gave the semen a sniff, the strong scent of his own jism making him feel lewd and perverse, but in a kinky, fun way. This wasn't the first time Eric had presented Milo with a handful of come, and very, very few things made Milo feel as subby as cleaning up his own mess... Plus, deep down, where he'd never admit it, not even to himself, Milo secretly longed to be a Good Boy for his big brother, so he'd probably be doing this even if it wasn't an embarrassing turn-on. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, feeling his cheeks trying to blush even through the flush of arousal and exertion, Milo bent in and dipped his tongue experimentally in the warm, gooey sperm, feeling a shudder of submissiveness running down his spine, all the way to the tip of his tail. The flavour wasn't unfamiliar to the smaller male, who occasionally sampled his own supply, but even though it was his own seed, the fact that it was all over Eric's hand made this feel much kinkier than Milo tasting his own cream after touching himself. Focusing on the moment, the slender shepherd began to lap at the come with his wide, flat tongue, feeling it coating the inside of his mouth as he swallowed the first mouthful and returned to licking his big brother's hand clean.
"Thaaaaat's it, just lick it alllll up," Eric cooed, playfully, clearly enjoying this, "Good boy, Milo, good boy." Milo shuddered even harder, and then felt extremely self-conscious about responding so strongly to his lover's words.
"Sh-shut up..." Milo murmured, unconvincingly, hiding a small smile, "I almost nutted all over your bed, this is the least I can do..." Eric grinned and said one word.
"Tail." The younger shepherd flinched; he could already feel how hard his tail was wagging.
"Dammit..." he groaned, as Eric chuckled good-naturedly. Milo felt Eric's hand on top of his head, petting him and ruffling his hair like Milo was a beloved domestic.
"You're not a very good liar, but that doesn't mean you're not a good dog," he teased.
Sighing exaggeratedly, Milo leaned back in and resumed cleaning up Eric's hand, licking again and again, gathering up the come and shivering from kinky excitement each time he swallowed a mouthful of creamy goodness. Somehow, this part always made Milo feel more like a pervert than the fact that the guy who made him nut was his own brother. It was hard to focus on things like shame, though, when he was so enthusiastically bathing his lover's palm with his tongue, and while Eric was giving him scritches between his ears. It was kind of a shame they could only do this right after Milo came, it would be a real turn-on if he weren't so spent... Soon enough, Milo had lapped up all the jism, making Eric chuckle by checking between his fingers, and the younger male sighed contentedly as he swallowed the last mouthful of seed.
"There we go, good boy!" Eric said, encouragingly, "Now give us a kiss..." Grinning at that, Milo was only too happy to sit up straight so he could make out with his brother. He shuddered at the very idea of how strongly his mouth must taste of come right now, but Eric didn't seem to mind at all as their tongues entwined and wrestled together.
When they leaned apart, Eric churred to Milo.
"I love making you come," the elder shepherd whispered, his voice sensually soft, "the way you lose yourself to it, the way you stop getting caught up in being embarrassed about stuff and just focus on the moment... Goddamn, that's so hot..." Milo bit his lip as Eric softly caressed his cheek, experiencing some strangely mixed feelings about this level of intimacy.
"E-Eric, I..." he stammered, feeling strangely put on the spot, before his attention was drawn entirely away from this moment by the sensation of Eric's cock brushing against his upper thigh. Glancing down, Milo saw that his brother's dick was still rock-hard, its tip glistening with pre.
"You didn't come yet?" he asked, surprised, "Wait, I thought you'd be jerking it while you rimmed me, or whatever?" To the smaller dog's surprise, Eric blushed and frowned slightly.
"How would I have been jacking off?" Eric asked, "You could feel both of my hands right up until I went to catch your jizz." He gave the younger male a devious smile. "Keep in mind, little brother, I never mastered your, ah, your technique of coming without direct stimulation." Milo turned a pleasing shade of red, what felt like all over his body.
"Wh- N-no, I didn't invent - I mean it's not a technique, and - it's n-not like I'm the first guy t-to..." he babbled, embarrassed. Recognizing that he was babbling, Milo stopped himself and took a deep breath, trying to listen to the part of his mind that recognized that Eric was just being playful, and he did not need to defend himself... Which meant he could turn the focus back to his brother's hard cock instead! Swallowing, he gathered his courage.
"Well... I haven't done this in a while," Milo acknowledged, "but... I used to love making you come, too, and if you don't mind, I'm gonna return the favour!"
Acting boldly, Milo immediately moved down the bed, his eyes locked on Eric's rigid prick. When he reached it, he immediately leaned in and began to kiss and sniff at it, the same way Eric had played with him earlier.
"Milo, I - ohhh, do that again..." Eric sighed, shivering as Milo playfully licked the very tip of his cock, silently savouring the flavour of Eric's pre-come. A voice in the back of Milo's mind accused him of only 'returning the favour' to avoid emotional intimacy with Eric, but Milo chose to ignore it and focus on the hard dick in his hands instead. He touched his nose to the base of his brother's erection and inhaled deeply, just like Eric... though admittedly, this part was more about Milo shivering at the scent of Eric's strong, masculine musk and reeling from his pheromones than it was about returning the gesture from earlier. He knew Eric had lingered on his balls, but Milo couldn't help himself from licking his brother's shaft with wide drags of his flat, wet tongue. It had been so long since he'd tasted Eric's cock, and Milo was surprised at how badly he wanted it, wanted to taste every part of it... how much he longed to skip the foreplay and just start sucking that beautiful prick! When Milo finally gave in to his desires and took his lover's dick into his muzzle, Eric moaned softly... and so did Milo, shuddering hard as he ran his tongue along that proud length, savouring the flavour.
'There, you see?' he thought to himself, petulantly, 'I can't be emotionally intimate by talking about my feelings right now, my mouth is full.'
Milo closed his eyes and shuddered pleasantly from the sensation of Eric's dick filling his muzzle, and the taste of his lover's sweat. As he licked and suckled, Milo felt his brother's cock throbbing hard against his tongue, tasted a hint of that pre-come flavour once again. He felt his own penis give a twitch, a half-hearted attempt to get hard again. Frankly, Milo could have just sat there and stayed like this for a while, with his mouth full of cock and his nostrils full of musk, but he didn't want to give Eric blue balls. With a soft moan, and a loud slurp, the younger male began bobbing his head along his lover's shaft.
"Oh - oh fuuuuuuuck...." Eric breathed, "that's it... j-just watch the t-teeth..." Milo felt a shudder run through the elder male's body. It was gratifying, but he felt a bit sheepish about being so eager to get his brother's dick in his mouth that he forgot to mind his teeth. It felt like such a rookie move... Milo adjusted his suckling so that it was his lips rubbing against Eric's prick instead, sending Eric as apologetic a glance as he could without actually stopping. Once his thoughts had started down the 'rookie move' path, though, he realized that his movements were still a bit jerky and awkward, and he swore it never used to take him this long to find a smooth rhythm! He let out a quiet canine whine of frustration as he continued to lick and suck, suddenly feeling like he was being graded by invisible judges.
Milo glanced up as he felt a hand tap him on the head.
"Hey," Eric said, simply. Feeling a quiet reluctance he refused to contemplate, Milo let the tasty cock slip out of his mouth and sat up straight.
"W-was I doing it wrong?" he guessed, ears low, "I'm sorry..."
"No, no, you're doing fine," Eric assured him, "...except for the part where you're suddenly all tense and stressed out. You okay?" Milo turned and looked at Eric's rigid prick, shiny with his saliva, because somehow, staring at it was less embarrassing than making eye contact.
"I feel like I'm messing it up," Milo admitted, quietly, "I used to be way better at this..." He looked back up and met his brother's gaze when he felt Eric's hand on his cheek, gently caressing him. It was nice...
"You're not doing it wrong, you're just out of practice, dude, cut yourself some slack," Eric said, just as gently, "You told me yourself you haven't been with anyone in years, so just relax, don't stress about it, and it'll all come back to you eventually." He grinned a little wider. "Even if it takes a few tries, hehe..." The younger shepherd couldn't help but chuckle softly at his brother shamelessly volunteering for more blowjobs.
"So selfless," Milo teased, and Eric laughed, a casual, relaxed sound that made Milo's smile widen too.
"What can I say?" the larger male replied, faux-earnestly, "I'm a giver."
Once they'd finished giggling together like schoolboys, Milo took a deep breath to steady himself. He reminded himself that it was oral sex, not an oral exam, and he didn't need to fret about it. Then, as he bent back down, the slender shepherd glanced up towards his lover's face again.
"Thanks," he murmured, "I kinda... needed to hear that." Eric smiled back in a way that gave Milo a weird little flutter, but he tried not to think about it. The younger male bent down, took a sniff of his lover's scrotum to get another hit of those pheromones, and then moved back up to take Eric's glistening manhood into his eager muzzle. This time, instead of worrying about his performance, Milo focused on the experience of having a dick in his mouth, and wanting to taste and play with it. He ran his tongue along Eric's shaft and felt it throbbing against his lips like it was glad to be back.
'God, he tastes good... I wonder if that's his soap or what...' Milo thought, distantly, as he sighed contentedly, his tail starting to wag once again, unnoticed. When the shorter dog started bobbing his head again, he was much more relaxed. Before, underneath all his intentions, Milo had felt like he needed to prove himself, to show that five years off hadn't ruined all his skills as a lover. Now, Milo had let go of such worrying to focus on the moment, so all he wanted was to suck his big brother's cock and show Eric exactly how much he appreciated having his eyes opened on the subject of getting rimmed.
Milo focused all of his attention on licking and suckling on Eric's hard prick, seeking out his sensitive spots and shuddering with barely-hidden pleasure when he was rewarded with his brother's tasty pre. Milo's eyes fluttered open as he felt a hand come to rest on top of his head.
"That's it, thaaaat's it..." Eric murmured, petting Milo while he continued his venerations, "Isn't that b-better? Mmmm, don't stop..." The younger male moaned softly around his mouthful of cock, and a grinning Eric underlined the point.
"Who's a good boy?" he teased, as Milo silently blushed, his tail wagging even harder. The slender male reached up to take Eric's balls in hand, intending to gently massage them while he sucked Eric's dick. But no sooner had his fingers touched his brother's sac before Eric tensed up and inhaled sharply.
"Ah! C-careful..." the elder shepherd said, unexpectedly self-consciously. Leaning back, Milo frowned, concerned.
"What's the matter?" he asked, pausing to wipe away a string of saliva that bridged the corner of his mouth with the tip of his brother's erection. "Are these sore, Eric?" Milo very gingerly poked at his lover's testicles, and Eric shifted on the bed uneasily.
"Yeah, it's... it's a long story," Eric sighed, "Can we, you know, g-get into it later? We're kinda in the middle of s-something..." Milo smirked at that and nodded understandingly. He wouldn't want to interrupt a blowjob to tell a story either.
"Suresure," Milo replied, casually, "I gotcha." He then bent down again to make that gotcha literal and not just supportive, and took his brother's cock back into his mouth, making it nice and comfy and welcome.
By now, Eric was panting the way Milo had been earlier, his muscles twitching and tensing at random as the slender male continued his fine work. Milo particularly enjoyed the way that Eric was rolling his hips, like he was way more into it this time. Settling himself down and making himself comfier, the younger shepherd closed his eyes and focused his attention on his mouth, on relentlessly pleasuring every inch of his lover's hard prick. As the moments passed, muscle memory came back to him. Yes, this was the dick that he once loved to serve. Milo remembered its curves, its structure, how it felt just barely reaching for the end of his muzzle. It was strangely nostalgic, and it made Milo all the more dedicated to getting his brother off. He eventually noticed that his tail was wagging so hard, the slender male could feel his hips rocking slightly from side to side.
Eric finally brought the lusty shepherd out of his trance with a particularly loud moan.
"Oh... oh, fuck, M-Milo, I'm right there, I'm g-gonna come..." Eric panted, shivering from head to toe. Seeing his lover writhing on the brink of ecstasy because of him, Milo whimpered with desire, every part of his being longing to bring Eric the same bliss he'd experienced earlier. It was like he'd been given a shot of adrenaline; Milo felt energized, and he stopped being playful or fancy with his licking and suckling, instead focusing entirely on getting his big brother off. Both of Eric's hands made their way to Milo's head, gripping tightly as if the muscular canine were holding on for dear life.
"God, y-yes, don't stop," Eric panted, "Oh fuuuuuck, it's gonna b-be a g-good one..." Milo moaned around the dick in his mouth in response. He couldn't pull back if he wanted to, but then, both of the Thompson brothers preferred to swallow, and frankly, at this point, Milo wanted to taste his lover's come so bad, he would have fought to keep Eric in his mouth. A voice in the back of his mind wondered who in the world would be fighting to prevent Milo from swallowing Eric's load, but Milo totally ignored it, maintaining his focus on his brother's impending orgasm.
Milo swirled his tongue around Eric's sensitive tip, sucking in his cheeks to rub and press along the rigid, straining shaft. The larger male gasped, tensing up all over.
"Oh - oh God, M-Milo, I..." But coherent communication became possible as Eric threw back his head and let out a long, wordless moan as his orgasm overwhelmed him. Milo shivered with indecent glee as his big brother's hard dick began to throb and spasm against his lips, and he let out a shameless moan of his own as it began painting his tongue with long, flavourful lines of Eric's seed, hot and fresh, straight from his balls. To Milo's lust-addled mind, it felt like a proper reward for a job well done. The muscular shepherd grunted and groaned as he came, totally overwhelmed by the pleasure, his fingers shaking atop Milo's head. For his part, Milo had subtly pushed back about halfway up Eric's shaft to make sure the ropes of come fell onto his tongue instead of shooting down his throat, where he couldn't taste them, and he was using one hand to stroke the back half of his lover's throbbing cock, to bring Eric as much pleasure as he could stand (and coax more flavourful semen out of him). Milo greedily swallowed again and again, shuddering with shameless pleasure as he felt his brother's jism running down his throat.
'Eric might be better at it than me,' Milo thought to himself distantly, 'but God, I love sucking cock..."
Eric's climax lasted longer than Milo had expected, which suited him just fine, but eventually, the fun came to an end, Eric finished emptying his balls into his little brother's eager mouth, and the exhausted male slumped back against the head of the bed. Milo took a moment to just savour the feeling of Eric's cock in his muzzle, since he was afraid he might not get another chance. Then he sat up straight (reluctantly setting his brother's penis free in the process), rolled the last of the semen around in his mouth like he was pretentiously tasting wine, and swallowed it. Feeling pretty pleased with himself, Milo moved over so he could lie down next to Eric, snuggling up against the larger male, who seemed at the moment to be still in a bit of a daze from how hard he'd nutted. Milo chuckled to himself at the look on Eric's face, but said nothing, choosing to instead just enjoy the moment and let his lover pull himself back together at his own pace.
Milo lay on his side, so he could snuggle up closer to his brother, though this did have the unintended side effect of once again leaving his treacherous tail free to expose how happy he was about things, no matter how embarrassing it was... such as when Eric (seemingly automatically) moved his arm to embrace Milo back, and left his hand planted on the younger dog's butt, right next to a tail which began wagging faster. After a warm, blissful few minutes, during which Milo almost nodded off using Eric's shoulder as a pillow, Eric finally broke the silence.
"Thanks for that, little brother," he said, softly, before chuckling and adding "Wow..."
"You're welcome," Milo replied, beaming with pride, before he leaned in and kissed Eric. The two naked shepherds just held each other close while their tongues danced and entwined. Milo shivered pleasantly as he imagined that Eric could probably still taste a hint of his own seed on Milo's tongue and cheeks. When they broke the kiss off, as if he'd read Milo's mind, Eric chuckled softly.
"What?" Milo asked, cocking one ear to the side curiously.
"Oh, I was just kinda surprised when you spoke, is all," Eric replied, reaching up and surprising his brother by running his hand through Milo's hair and petting the back of his head in the process. "I was half-expecting you to snowball me or something." Milo laughed at this and laid his head back down against his lover's toned shoulder.
"Find your own," he teased, "I called dibs."
Giving Milo's soft ass a squeeze, Eric growled playfully.
"Mmm, don't tempt me," he replied, teasing the tip of one finger against Milo's anus. Milo clenched down instinctively, and knew his brother would have felt it. "I've got plans for this sweet ass." Embarrassed but aroused, Milo pushed back against Eric's hand and lowered his ears. He bit his lip as he felt Eric's finger increase the pressure against his anus... and then back off completely, letting go of Milo's tush.
"...But not right now," Eric said, cheerily, "I just came, after all."
"Bastard!" Milo groaned in frustration.
"Good things come to those who wait," Eric replied, in the same cheery tone of voice, "Or I guess in this case, a good dicking." Still irked, keenly feeling how long it had been since he'd been fucked, Milo frowned, looking cuter than he realized.
"Man, just shut up and kiss me..." he grumbled, and Eric laughed and eagerly obliged him.
This time, when they broke off the kiss, Eric sat up and grabbed a bottle of water from his bedside drawers. He took a big swig and let out a particularly satisfied sigh, before offering it to Milo, who gratefully whet his whistle. Normally, Milo never would have shared a bottle with another person, but he found that right now, he wanted to get out of this bed and stop touching this man even less. Eric was fussing with his hands, clearly working through something in his mind.
"Listen, Milo..." the larger shepherd finally said, "I need to tell you, and you deserve to know." This caused the younger male's ears to perk all the way up, and Milo finally stopped lounging on the bed to sit up and pay closer attention. With another, less satisfied sigh, Eric made eye contact with his brother before continuing.
"The new bouncer at Fate turned out to be Gela Taylor," he said, plainly, "She's my new co-worker."
Milo leaned back as if physically struck, a look of dismay spreading across his face.
"What?!" he asked, his ears lowering unhappily, "What did you say? What did she - wait, what the fuck, Eric! We've been together all day, and you're only mentioning this now?! You couldn't have said something over breakfast, or - or before we started fooling around?" Somehow, Milo felt even more vulnerable than he already did just from being naked. Eric flinched, but held up both hands in a placating gesture.
"I've been trying to tell you all day," Eric replied, "but things just kept getting in the way! You'd get all sad, and I'd be afraid the news would crush you, or worse, you'd look really happy for once, and I didn't want to ruin that for you..." He coughed and averted his gaze.
"I was actually going to tell you when I came out to the living room," he said, "I was talking about your art to help you relax, brace for the news. But, uh, that art turned out to be nekkid pictures of me, and then you said you wanted us to get back into each other's pants, and, well..." Milo's ire had drained away at the look on Eric's face when he talked about not wanting to ruin Milo's happiness. And he did remember how quickly they'd succumbed to their desires and fallen into each other's arms...
"Well... okay, fine. That... that sounds kinda reasonable," he conceded.
Suddenly, another thought that had been delayed by Milo's initial panic arrived at its destination, and he whimpered quietly as something occurred to him.
"H-hey, what did she say when she saw you?" he asked, nervously, "Did she, uh, tell everybody? Did you get fired? Oh, God, Eric, are we - are we outed?!" Milo felt a sudden strong impulse to lunge over to his pants and retrieve his phone, to see if there were a bunch of missed messages from the rest of his family demanding to know if he'd really raised his tail for his own brother. But the paralyzing fear of that thought kept him frozen in place, unable to act. Eric scootched closer and put his arm around Milo supportively.
"Breathe, Milo," he reminded his sibling softly, and then: "It's alright, she, ah, she didn't say anything about it. W-well, Mike knows that I fucked Gela's ex, but he doesn't know the, you know, the rest of it." Milo suddenly slumped down a little, letting out a canine whine from the relief he felt at knowing his status as a brotherfucker remained a secret. He hadn't even realized he'd tensed up...
"So, um, what is it, then, blackmail or something?" Milo asked, quietly.
"She said she's willing to be a 'reasonable adult' and coexist at Fate," Eric replied, "but we're not exactly pals. She, uh, did kick me in the balls pretty hard, though." Milo winced sympathetically, suddenly understanding his lover's tenderness earlier.
"Oh dear... I guess I've probably got one coming too," he muttered, "Or maybe she's just gonna break my neck..."
Milo sighed, rubbing the spot between his eyes. Eric squeezed his shoulder.
"Hey, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Gela before we got into this," the elder shepherd said, "To be honest, it was hard to say, 'cause we're just getting back into this," he gestured between them to emphasize the word 'this', "and I didn't want you to see her showing up as, like, an omen or something."
"It's... not great timing," Milo admitted, "kinda trying not to freak out... Oh, God, Eric, I tell you I want to start messing around again, and like an hour later you run into Gela?!" He let out a whimper and reached up to hold his own head.
"How am I supposed to interpret that?!" he asked, "I'm happy for five seconds and something comes along to slap it out of my hands!"
"I was worried too," Eric admitted, "At least until she almost broke that dude's arm to make a point." Milo's head snapped up and he regarded his brother with alarm.
"What?!" he asked, dismayed, "Oh God!" Eric's eyes widened as he finished thinking that through.
"No, no!" the older male said hastily, "What I mean is, she could have absolutely beat me black and blue, but all she did was give me one kick in the 'nads, so she's holding back, it's a good sign!"
"Sounds more like 'impending doom' than 'a good sign'," Milo muttered, lifting his feet up to the bed and hugging his knees to his chest.
"It's not that bad, man," Eric said, letting go of the shoulder to rub Milo's back, "I think Gela actually laughed at something I said, and that was only the first night! Well, she kinda snickered, anyway... Oh, that reminds me, she, uh, she wants to talk to you."
The slender shepherd was not proud of the fact that he actually gasped out loud.
"What?!" Milo repeated, more shrilly than the first time, "Wait, like today? She's not here, is she?!" Despite how recently he'd been out in the living room, Milo couldn't help but imagine the mouse that haunted his thoughts sitting on their couch. Eric's ears were slowly but steadily lowering. The unhappy look on his face made it clear that he wasn't sure how to help his brother, and it was eating at him.
"No, Milo, of course not," he said, a little more forcefully, "You're freaking out, you need to -" But a trembling Milo wasn't listening, rocking slightly in his seat, lost in the worst-case-scenarios suddenly playing out his mind.
'Oh God, I'll be lucky if she just murders me!' he thought, panicking hard, 'I - I need to stop things with Eric right now, before we have sex, it's just not safe! The universe itself must be conspiring against the two of us being together because of what happened! God, it's not fair!' Immediately, his libido responded to the idea with the emotional equivalent of turning your face to the sky and yelling NOOOOOOOOOO, but... something was wrong. There was an itch in his mind, something he couldn't quite put his finger on, but which refused to be ignored... What was bothering him so much about that last... Oh.
Milo closed his eyes, and forced himself to take another one of those deep breaths Eric had been talking about earlier.
"That... makes no sense..." he whispered to himself.
"Pardon?" Eric asked, but Milo hadn't been talking to him. He'd been realizing how carried away he'd gotten, to feel so convinced, even for just a second, that he was being punished for - what, for wanting to fuck his own brother? No, karma didn't make any sense at all here, because Eric had also fucked his brother, and he was doing just fine! Milo just... couldn't think about Gela for any length of time without feeling that all-consuming guilt, that regret, so any time she came up, he started to panic, and it lead to thoughts about being persecuted by the universe, as if it didn't have anything better to do than punish him for being a pervert. He needed to change the way he felt about Gela, get rid of that blinding fear of those painful feelings... but how could he change them? Milo grimaced and whimpered, his ears lowering as doubt crept back in and another part of himself raised the counter-argument: He had hurt her, betrayed her, those feelings were valid! And then, amidst all this confusion, there was a strange moment of silence, and Milo let out of the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
Eric remained right next to the introspective Milo, his arm around the other male's narrow shoulders, holding his lover against his side supportively. Distantly appreciating that support, Milo thought about those painful feelings, and the thing that anchored them down: the look on Gela's face when she'd caught him with Eric. It was true, the guilt, the regret, they were valid. But... there was more to it than that, wasn't there? More he hadn't seen while he couldn't bear to look. He thought about Eric's suggestion that she wanted to hear from him... that however indirectly, Gela was reaching out to Milo.
'...It's only true as long as that's how that story ends,' he thought, his heart beating a little faster, 'As long as that's the last thing I did or said to her, that's the first thing I think about when I think of her. But if I... if I continue the story, if I reach back out to her, maybe I can change the last page to something else.'
Milo sighed and rested his head on Eric's shoulder for a long, quiet moment. The larger male was so warm, and his embrace made Milo feel so supported, so secure, that the younger shepherd had fallen asleep using his brother as a pillow on more than one occasion. Milo wished he could bottle that feeling...
"Oh, Eric..." he murmured, finally breaking the silence, "I've spent years being afraid of... of what it meant for me to be, uh..." Unnoticed, his hands began kneading the air, as if he were literally groping for the words to express himself. "...to be pulled away from the things I want like this, and of how it was tearing me apart." Eric turned to look at him, his ears rotating in Milo's direction, giving him his full attention without saying a word.
"I've been, uh... letting myself really think about what happened with Gela, finally, and I think my problem was that I didn't lean on either of you in the aftermath like I should have," Milo continued, quietly, "I just... let myself fall apart, because I didn't know how to do anything else." He looked down, finding it difficult to say these words, and Eric immediately began rubbing his back again.
"Now... I want to be better than that," he said, softly, "I want to be stronger. And part of that means... means accepting what I did and moving forward. And part of that means saying I'm sorry."
When Milo dared to look up, Eric looked impressed, but somewhat confused.
"That was really nice, Milo," he said, "But where'd that come from?" The slender male shrugged self-consciously and sighed, looking down at his naked feet for a moment.
"Been building up for a while, I think," he replied, daring . Eric nodded, and then averted his gaze, giving Milo the sudden impression that he was trying to appear casual.
"So, uh, you wanna grab a shower and give her a call or something, then?" he asked, calmly. Suddenly, Milo had an epiphany: Eric was proud of Milo's sudden breakthrough, but trying to hide disappointment from... oh, right. Milo had just given him entirely the wrong impression of the next five minutes, hadn't he?
"Well... maybe later," the younger dog replied, grinning self-consciously, "I was thinking first, maybe you could, you know... bend me over the bed and m-make me yours?"
Eric's face lit up with a smile that was anything but feigned as he laughed happily, his tail starting to wag.
"Gotta say, that sounds like a lot more fun for both of us," he chuckled, "But are you sure? This isn't gonna be eating at you until you..." But Milo was already shaking his head.
"No, I think the part that was eating at me was not admitting it needed to be done, eh?" he replied, softly.
"Sure, I get you," Eric said, nodding. Milo turned directly towards him with a grin, his tail wagging now too.
"Not yet you don't..." he murmured playfully, as he moved in still closer, "Mmmm, kiss me, big brother..." The larger male immediately reached out to embrace his lover again, and Milo churred as one of Eric's hands went straight to his ass.
"God, yes..." Eric whispered, squeezing that buttock as he leaned in for another taboo smooch. Milo's eyes fluttered closed as their lips met, and he sighed through his nostrils with a relief as strong as if tongue-wrestling his muscular sibling was the air he needed to live. Five years had not changed one thing: every time the Thompson brothers kissed, Milo couldn't help but marvel at the idea that something that felt so very, very right could possibly be wrong.
As their tongues coiled and embraced, Milo shamelessly felt up Eric's chest, shivering with perverse glee as his slender fingers traced the older male's muscles. When they broke off the kiss, Eric touched the side of his muzzle against Milo's, nuzzling at him and remaining close and intimate.
"Goddamn, you smell so good..." Eric whispered, mirroring some of Milo's own thoughts from earlier, "I want you, Milo..." He leaned in and kissed the other dog right where his neck met his shoulders, and Milo tilted back his head and gasped, but to be honest, it had more to do with the fact that at the same moment, Eric's other hand slipped down and took hold of his brother's flaccid penis. It had been some time now since Milo's orgasm, so his cock immediately began to respond to those strong fingers kneading and massaging it, growing longer and harder.
"Mmmph..." Milo shuddered against his lover, lowering his ears and letting Eric freely play with his tool. For his part, Eric moved his other hand from Milo's rump to his shoulder, and Milo felt the larger male begin tilting him back down to the bed. Just as excited for what was to come as Eric, the slender shepherd put up no resistance and went along with it.
Kissing his brother again, Eric eased Milo down to the bed, and Milo was struck with excitement, not for the first time, as the larger male got comfortable on top of him, leaning on his elbows so he could avoid squishing Milo as he continued to kiss and play with him. There was just something that Milo found thrilling about his studly big brother hovering over him like he was protecting Milo from the rest of the world... or like Eric just wanted him all to himself. That idea was underlined by the particularly open and shameless way that Eric was running his eyes up and down Milo's slender frame, drinking in every detail. It made Milo feel wanted in a way that filled him with such joy that he whimpered quietly.
"You know, Milo," Eric murmured, his voice a low rumble, "I always thought it was just a meme, but I can't help but notice... that you're looking awfully submissive and breedable tonight." Milo blinked, surprised, and then gave Eric a withering Look even as he turned beet red.
"I changed my mind," he lied, rolling onto his side and moving as if to get off the bed, "No way." Exactly as Milo expected, Eric called his bluff, moving to stop him.
"Come on, Milo," he laughed, "You know you love it."
"Nuh-uh," the younger male insisted eloquently, "Can't prove it." He then frowned slightly as Eric tapped him on the shoulder and pointed just behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Milo just caught sight of his -
"Oh, goddammit!" Milo exclaimed, laughing despite himself, "Stupid tail! Must you tell him everything?!" A pause. "...I said it out loud that time, didn't I?"
Somehow, Milo found a way to blush at 105% as Eric chuckled at that, though admittedly, most of his self-consciousness was because of how strongly a small part ('A very small part!') of himself had thrilled at Eric's little compliment. He'd always thought that was a stupid meme, too, but as soon as it was Eric saying the words, about him... Milo decided he'd rather think about anything else, and decided to focus on the moment instead. Reaching out, he interrupted Eric's amusement by grabbing his cock, which was at about a quarter-mast. As Eric grunted in surprise, Milo gave it a squeeze, as if to say remember me from just earlier? To his delight, it pulsed against his fingers as if in recognition. He began to stroke it, causing Eric's dangling balls to sway pleasingly.
"Mmmmfff..." Eric shuddered at his little brother's touch, and returned to fondling Milo as their lips sought each other out. Milo moaned softly as Eric's tongue pushed into his mouth, but that's mostly because he was overthinking the erotic symbolism of it. He continued rubbing his lover's dick, but it was only a few seconds before Eric moved decisively, lowering his hips towards Milo's, pressing their hardening pricks together, and grinding them against each other.
"Oh - oh God!" Milo gasped, leaning back, but before he could utter another sound, his lover had hungrily recaptured his lips and closed his hand around both of their hard-ons. Eric rubbed and stroked their cocks together, and Milo shuddered helplessly, immensely turned-on by the feeling of his brother's dick getting longer and harder against his own stiffening tool. Eric rolled them onto their sides so he could reach out with his now free hand and grope Milo's ass. Milo was only surprised it hadn't happened sooner, frankly. The two shepherds rolled their hips, rubbing their increasingly eager cocks against each other in a sensual dance fuelled by masculine urges and growing desire. When Eric slipped his fingertip out to tease Milo under the tail, just lightly brushing the pad of his finger across the younger male's anus, Milo clenched down hard, acutely anticipating what was coming next. Eric teased him a few more times with sudden, light brushes against his entrance, and each time, Milo tensed up and clenched down.
"Hnnnngh... Jesus, Eric, you're killing me," he groaned in protest, "God... I - I need to get fucked so bad..." Eric growled attractively with need, as Milo hoped he would. The older male always had loved it when Milo admitted his submissive desires...
Sure enough, this time, Eric's forefinger pressed directly against the tight ring of muscle beneath Milo's tail and stayed there, beginning to rub and massage the little rosebud. If he hadn't been moaning with pleasure, Milo might have laughed; he was torn between the desire to hump forward and grind his prick against Eric's, and the desire to push backwards and give Eric's finger easier access to his ass, to try and get it inside him. Between all this stimulation, he was kinda lacking in what he was giving Eric, to be honest, but Eric was clearly plenty stimulated by making his little brother squirm with pleasure.
Thanks to the rimming Milo had received earlier, it was easier for Eric to slip his fingertip into the slender shepherd's backside, even without lube. That particular detail made Milo quietly uneasy, but he trusted that Eric would never try to actually fuck him dry without at least running it past Milo first. Which, of course, meant that the teasing digit was quite effectively driving Milo crazy, rubbing playfully at Milo's entrance, sending tingles of pleasure all over, and occasionally dipping juuuuuuust past his ring to make him whimper with the desire to feel nice and full under the tail.
"There we go, nice and hard," observed Eric, giving their dicks a squeeze, "and I can always tell when you're ready to go when you stop trying to hide the cutest noises." Embarrassed, but kind of into it, Milo pouted.
"Man, just shut up and get the lube..." he grumbled, but he felt it wasn't very effective given that he was involuntarily clenching down on Eric's finger at the time.
Eric laughed and let go of their cocks, then gave Milo's rump a playful swat with his now-free hand. Milo yelped adorably (much to his chagrin) and clenched down even harder on his lover's finger. When Eric pulled his other hand away and sat up, Milo lowered his ears and whimpered before he could catch himself. On the other hand, he'd been holding onto his struggling tail since that last playful jab from Eric, so at least he'd caught that.
'Sometimes, being a dog is really embarrassing...' he thought, sheepishly.
A few moments later, his embarrassment fading, Milo sat up and released his tail, which immediately began wagging madly once again. The slender male watched from the bed as Eric strolled across his room and retrieved a small jar of petroleum jelly from a shelf. Despite himself, Milo couldn't help but stare at his brother's cock, which was once again at its full pride. He'd reminded himself of its taste, but now he longed to feel it deep inside him, making itself at home under his tail. It didn't much help when Eric, clearly having noticed, stopped a few feet from the bed to take some jelly on his fingers and begin slowly stroking his prick to get it nice and lubed up, running his hand up and down the shaft and leaving the sensitive flesh gleaming in the light. The younger shepherd whimpered with desire as he watched Eric's dick throb at his own touch, drooling a strand of pre-come down to the carpet. Milo licked his lips before he could catch himself, and covered his face when Eric chuckled.
"Sh-shut up! It wasn't about that!" he lied, "I - I just need some ch-chapstick or something..." Eric chuckled again, still slowly stroking his meat.
"Hmmm... press X to doubt," the larger canine said, with a playful smirk. "You know, you don't need to be embarrassed, Milo... I mean, I think it's pretty cute when you get like this, but I don't want you to be uncomfortable just because it gets me going."
Milo peeked between two of his fingers.
"Wait, really?" he asked, cautiously, "This isn't just the set-up to a trap or a punchline that'll make me even more embarrassed?" Eric chuckled and finally let go of his beautiful, rigid cock. The muscular male walked up to the bed, running his eyes back and forth along Milo's naked, blushing form, and his smile grew.
"Of course," he said, "I'm not saying that as your big brother, I'm saying that as your lo- as the guy you're about to knock boots with. Just relax and enjoy yourself, the only embarrassment you should feel is the kind you're totally into, no matter what you say." Milo giggled at the bluntness of that, despite himself. Eric smiled a little wider and winked charmingly at him.
"Just remember, there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of about being really, really eager to have sex with me," Eric said, not even trying to hide his amusement, "I'm pretty awesome, after all..." He raised and flexed his arms impressively to underline this last statement.
Milo rolled his eyes, but he was smirking as he did so, and he'd uncovered his face. He let his ears lower submissively again as Eric sat down next to him. Milo was still on his side, and to his surprise, Eric just took hold of his brother's knee with his dry hand and lifted it as his other hand was dipping back into the jar. Milo whimpered self-consciously as Eric blatantly stared at his lover's anus, as if he hadn't gotten very familiar with it indeed just earlier. Of course, that whimper came at the same time as a shudder of taboo pleasure running down his spine, so it was an even balance. Milo was just about to whine from impatience when Eric moved. He was good at gauging that kind of thing. When his brother's fingers prodded at his entrance, Milo sucked in a quivery breath, gripping handfuls of the sheets beneath him. At first, the larger male just rubbed at the tight rosebud, getting it slick with jelly, and Milo whimpered with pleasure from this simple touch. Man, it really had been a while...
Before long at all, Eric began pushing against Milo's anus, and as that thick finger pressed past the tight ring and slid into his rump. Milo arched his back and moaned, clenching down on the finger within him, acutely aware of it. As it began sliding back and forth, as Eric spread the lube within him, Milo struggled not to squirm, not to let on how that wiggling digit was sending tingles of pleasure spreading out within him. As Eric brushed a particularly sensitive spot, Milo bit his lip and tensed up, squeezing down hard again.
"Relax, Milo, breathe," Eric murmured, "You're tight enough as it is, if you overthink this and get all nervous, I won't even be able to put it in."
"Noooooooo..." groaned the younger male, before he could stop himself, at the very idea of being denied his prize after all this build-up. Milo sheepishly looked up at Eric, but the older shepherd's expression hadn't changed at all.
"Mood," Eric said simply, and Milo smirked at that.
Milo was very tight, so Eric kept fingering him for a while. That, added to the rimming he'd received, was making Milo feel increasingly confident about this.
"That's better," Eric said, "nice and relaxed and calm." Milo sighed contentedly, closing his eyes and focusing on the sensations of that strong, calloused digit sliding in and out of his rump, pushing back slightly against the gentle thrusts.
"Mmmmm..." the slender male murmured, shivering yet again. His prick throbbed hard, and when he opened his eyes, Milo saw that it was drooling pre onto the sheets. He reached down and took hold of his dick, but he'd barely begun to stroke it before Eric pulled his hand free of Milo's backside, and then used his other hand to slap Milo's wrist.
"H-hey!" Milo protested, "What the hell?" Eric grinned down at him as he wiped his finger off on a tissue he'd grabbed from - from wherever, that didn't matter to Milo right now.
"Don't you dare touch that before we get started," Eric warned the younger male, with just a hint of playful in his tone, "I've been looking forward to fucking an orgasm out of you the way you've been looking forward to me, balls-deep under your tail."
Milo couldn't help but avert his gaze from Eric's shamefully blunt, yet deeply inflaming words. They boldly telegraphed Eric's intention to make Milo come from bottoming again like in the old days, which was both deeply arousing and embarrassing - though not nearly as embarrassing as Eric's casual read on Milo's desires. The fact that it was an entirely accurate read didn't change how mortifying it was to hear out loud! Milo picked at a seam on his cuff, staring at it far too intensely for his interest to be genuine. Naturally, Eric just reached out and touched his butt again.
"So..." he murmured, his voice low and sensual again, "How do you want it, little brother?" His other hand was holding his erection, just in case Milo needed a hint. Clenching down hard, hoping Eric couldn't see, Milo, still steadfastly avoiding meeting Eric's gaze, rolled onto all fours, facing away from his sibling. Then, taking a deep breath to calm his racing heart, Milo raised his tail and spread his knees further apart, issuing an unmistakable invitation to the other male to have his wicked way with the slender shepherd.
Blushing, thinking he could feel Eric staring at his anus, Milo tried to sound enticing and not nervous.
"How about we s-start simple, go with doggy-style?" he asked, as he slowly, manually waved his tail from side to side, using the limb to put on a playful show rather than tell the world Milo was happy. He felt Eric touch his hip and inhaled sharply.
'Oh God, yes, this is it!' he thought, thrilled with excitement. Naturally, Eric's hand suddenly shoved him, hard, and Milo flopped back over onto his side with a confused, yet adorable yelp. Not wasting any time, Eric grabbed one of Milo's arms and kept him moving, rolling the younger male onto his back. Before Milo could settle himself enough to say anything at all, Eric was suddenly above him again, grinning down at his lover, his rigid cock hanging down, pointing at Milo like a promise.
"Tell me, Milo," Eric said, looking directly into his eyes with such focus that Milo found he couldn't look away, "Did you suggest doggy-style because you really want to do doggy-style your first time back... or did you suggest doggy-style because you really want to do it face-to-face, but you're super self-conscious about me watching your face while I fuck you?" Milo made a horrified noise, and his ears whipping down against his scalp so fast they audibly slapped against him.
"Oh my God, how do you do that?!" Milo groaned, laughing, "Do you and Annie have, like, psychic powers because you're older, or something?" Eric reached down and planted an affectionate kiss on Milo's nose.
"No... we just have history with you," the dominant male replied, grinning, "And I know what your face looks like when we do it, little brother. You look like you're in heaven." Milo groaned in embarrassment/enjoyment and covered his face with his hands again. Undaunted in the slightest, Eric planted another kiss on Milo's cheek, where the fingers failed to cover.
"Missionary it is, then!" Eric declared cheerily, his tail wagging madly.
Milo felt the bed shift and knew without even uncovering his face that Eric was leaning back up into a kneeling position. He felt a gentle nudge against the inside of his thigh.
"Come on, now, be a good boy and spread 'em!" Eric said, audibly smiling. Uncovering his face, Milo gave his lover a wry grin even as he blushed, and spread his legs further apart, inviting his studly sibling between them. To make it easier for Eric to get inside, he lifted his legs slightly and rolled his hips back, changing the angle of his entrance. Taking his beautiful cock in hand, Eric adjusted his position, shifting about on the bed while Milo listened to his heart pounding in his ears. To his chagrin, Milo actually gasped the first time Eric touched the tip of his cock to his little brother's anus.
"Don't tense up, now..." Eric reminded him, and Milo forced his muscles to stay relaxed despite his nervousness. The last thing he wanted was for it to hurt more than it should have... Eric gave an experimental nudge, then began to rub his crown up and down against Milo's back door, something that had consistently made Milo crazy with anticipation and desire back in the day. Turned out it still worked. The slender male squirmed and writhed on the bed, aching to feel that hard dick inside him, suddenly aware of every second of the five years that had passed since he'd gotten fucked. With Eric holding his hip like that, he couldn't even push against it!
"Hnnngh... Eric, p-please..." he whimpered, desperate. Milo was seconds away from outright begging for it (mostly because he knew it would work on Eric) when Eric made his move. Milo wasn't the only one who needed this, after all...
Eric pushed forward, the head of his manhood pressing harder against Milo's anus, and for a few moments it put up a good fight, but between Eric's tongue, his finger, and the lube, the stubborn rosebud quickly surrendered. Milo arched his back, crying out in both pain and pleasure as the head of his big brother's rigid prick slipped into his rump. It was definitely more uncomfortable than Milo remembered it, and the whimpering shepherd was grateful Eric had had the forethought to 'exercise the muscle' first. Eric held still for a moment, reaching up to gently caress Milo's cheek.
"You alright?" he asked, softly.
"Uh-huh," Milo replied, his voice a little strained, "I j-just need a minute..."
"Take your time, get used to it again," Eric encouraged him, "Just don't forget to breathe." Being very careful to hold his hips still, the larger male bent forward and licked the side of his lover's muzzle reassuringly, then kissed him. It was a surprisingly un-hungry kiss, considering what they were up to, but then the point was to try and distract Milo from the discomfort. It wasn't easy, as his ass had responded to the uninvited guest by clenching down hard, and he needed to wait for the pain to ease a little before he could relax those muscles.
Eric was reminding Milo with every movement, every touch, of something he'd almost forgotten in the last five years; for as buff as he was, the elder canine was capable of being very gentle and very tender. Breaking off the kiss, Eric nuzzled against Milo's cheek and smiled at him again.
"How you holding up?" he asked, unhurriedly.
"Better, I think," Milo replied. A ridiculous thought popped into his head out of nowhere, and he smirked and snickered to himself.
"What was that?" Eric asked, cocking one ear to the side curiously, his own smile already growing.
"Oh, uh, it's nothing," Milo said, "I just, uh... Well, I just imagined Annie with Sean, just out somewhere, when Annie suddenly whirls around dramatically like she's s-sensed a great disturbance in the Force or something." Eric made it as far as saying 'Oh, you mean when I' before he broke down into giggles.
"Shit, I love that," the larger male laughed, "all holding out her hand, like 'I sense an energy that I have not sensed in a long, long time...'"
"Wait, was that your Alec Guinness?" Milo asked, dubiously. Eric frowned at that and responded by nudging his hips forward and making Milo yelp, because Eric was a mature adult who could handle criticism. Unseen by both brothers across the room, Milo's phone was just peeking out of his pants pocket, and as they laughed about this exchange, the number of unread messages awaiting Milo's attention changed from 6 to 7.
When they'd giggled themselves out, Eric regarded his lover just slightly more seriously.
"I'm gonna keep going, okay?" he asked. Taking another deep breath, Milo nodded, focusing on not tensing up as his brother began pushing forward again, as that handsome prick continued to slide into his tight ass, inch by inch. Milo squirmed and shuddered as it nudged and shoved against his sensitive spots on its way into his rump.
"You're doing well," said Eric, his voice slightly tense, "Almost hilted..."
"God, it's - it's been so long..." Milo moaned, "I can feel my ass s-stretching..." Milo had anticipated this part, because he'd had this thought every time he'd had sex with Eric: why did it feel so much bigger than it looked? But he managed to persevere, without stopping Eric even once because it hurt, and soon enough, Milo felt Eric's balls nuzzling against his buttocks as every single centimetre of his big brother's hard prick was buried within him, all the way to the base.
Milo tried to hold it in, but the impulse remained for several seconds, and he was helpless to resist moaning with pleasure. God, he was so full of dick... Even as he was savouring the sensation he'd missed for five years, Milo suddenly noticed that of all things, his feet hurt, incongruously. The trembling shepherd realized that while Eric had been sliding home, Milo's toes had curled up hard and stayed that way until they started to ache. He'd have smirked at himself if he weren't still shivering from feeling so full, but he did manage to unclench his feet at least, so he could focus on the more pleasant sensations of the moment.
"Oh - oh Eric," he whimpered, incoherent from the pleasure, "God..." Eric shrugged casually.
"Well, it's not a title I'd choose for myself, but I guess you can call me that if you wish," he deadpanned, his tail wagging merrily.
"Wh- oh, you fuck," Milo laughed, giving him a light bop on the arm. Eric leaned down to hungrily capture his lips, and Milo was only too happy to let him. As they kissed, Milo clenched his rump experimentally, shivering at the sensation of his inner walls squeezing against the hard cock inside him. He felt Eric shivering, too, and the elder male growled with desire into the kiss, a low rumbling that Milo found a major turn-on. Milo also appreciated that every time Eric moved, his dick shifted and moved inside Milo's rear, pressing against sensitive spots at random. The younger male felt his own cock throb, drooling pre-come into his fur, and he churred into the kiss to show his brother how much he was enjoying himself.
Soon enough, Eric leaned back and regarded Milo calmly.
"I'm gonna start moving for real," he said. Milo nodded eagerly.
"Okay, g-go for it," he replied, feeling his tail trying to wag underneath him. Milo swallowed a moan as Eric pulled back, his cock smoothly sliding free until only the tip remained inside. The slender canine shivered, trying to remember if he'd felt this sensitive the last time he'd taken it, and deciding he could think about it later as Eric pushed forward again, his thick, eager prick sliding more easily than before into his little brother's tight, welcoming ass. Eric groaned softly as he hilted himself a second time, but as tempting as it must have been to just stay buried to the balls in Milo's soft, squeezable rump, he immediately did an about-face, working up his sexual momentum. Milo reached up and held onto Eric with trembling arms, gasping and whimpering as Eric drove himself home again, and again, and again, getting smoother, finding his rhythm. Soon, the younger shepherd allowed himself to moan with ecstasy as his hunky lover started really fucking him.
The slender male had forgotten all about the muffled slapping sound of their bodies meeting when they had sex, but as he began hearing it again, Milo realized he had missed it (along with every other aspect of this experience).
"Oh - oh fuck, Eric, I - I needed this s-so much!" he managed to blurt out. He thought he felt his brother shudder against him, and wondered distantly if that was because of what Milo had said, or how tight he was. Starting to pant with exertion, Eric leaned down and licked his lover's cheek, then nipped him on the shoulder. Milo gasped, clenching down hard enough to momentarily slow his brother's thrusting, though the moment his ass relaxed, he felt Eric smoothly pick up his former pace.
"That's it, Milo... Thaaat's it..." Eric murmured, "You're - Hnnngh! - You're taking it s-so well..." Milo yelped cutely as Eric thrust home once with more gusto than usual.
"Mmmm... you know, I needed yo-this too..." Eric said, softly. Milo frowned slightly, one ear twitching.
"What was th-mmph..." The question was forgotten as Eric abruptly kissed him again, and Milo found himself much more concerned with the pleasure he was feeling than the bullet Eric had dodged.
As Eric slid home again and again, beginning to pick up the pace, Milo lifted his legs, wrapping them loosely around his brother's waist. Eric churred to him in response, grinning ferally.
"I always l-loved it when you did that..." he huffed, changing the angle of his thrusts slightly.
"I always loved d-doing it..." Milo replied, before letting out a muffled cry of pleasure as Eric's hard-on jabbed at Milo's sensitive prostate. "Mmmffff... God, yes, that's s-so good..." As if doing it on purpose, Eric immediately did it again, and this time Milo couldn't help but moan out loud.
"Hnngh, d-don't stop," the slender shepherd whimpered, "Fuck me, big brother, fuck me!"
Milo had said it because reminding himself of their relation in the midst of sex emphasized how kinky and taboo it was, something that tended to slip his mind because of how natural and right sex with Eric felt, and something that really turned Milo's crank. Eric's too, from the look of it, as the larger male let out a growl of need and started moving faster again. Milo bit his lip and closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling of that hard prick moving inside him, picturing it twitching and pulsing as it pumped in and out of his tight ass, drooling pre-come and smearing it all over Milo's inner walls like it was laying claim to the younger male's rump. Ooooh, there was a thought that made Milo tingle... Barely resisting the urge to cry out 'make me yours', he moaned and began to roll his hips, pushing back against Eric's thrusts, wanting to feel him as deep as possible.
"Mmmfff, harder," Milo panted, "Harder!" He yelped as Eric gave his ass a quick swat without adjusting his thrusts.
"D-don't push it, it'll hurt," Eric warned, "Work your - uhn! - your way back up to it..." Even in his haze of lust, Milo thought that sounded wise, so he just pouted instead of begging.
"Fine, okay, th-this is pretty good too..." he muttered, still feeling his tail trying to wag despite the dog lying on it.
Milo leaned back against the pillows to get comfortable, whimpering as Eric nudged his prostate again. The younger shepherd found that sex helped him clear his mind, forget his troubles. It was hard to think about anything other than the delicious friction of that rigid cock sliding back and forth under his tail, after all. Milo felt his own dick throb, and reached down to take a hold of it, stroking the aching, needy flesh. He felt it throb again, felt hot pre-come oozing down the backs of his fingers, and sighed contentedly.
"Mmmm..." He squirmed and shuddered, his entire body awash with pleasure, at least until Eric adjusted his position. He reached down and took hold of Milo's free hand, then moved it back out to the side and leaned on it, before Eric lifted his other hand, grabbed the hand Milo was using to fiddle the proverbial ferret, and pried it away from his needy cock.
"W-wait, no!" Milo protested, but Eric was both larger and stronger than he was, and almost directly on top of him, so in no time at all, Eric was pinning both of Milo's wrists against the bed, positioning his own arms as if he were about to do push-ups on top of his lover.
"There, that's better," Eric said cheerily. Milo squirmed and frowned up at the other male.
"What?! No it isn't!" he protested, "You c-can't just give me D this good without letting me c-come! I - I - I'm not into that orgasm denial stuff!"
Eric leaned down and licked his brother's cheek again, playfully.
"Now, now, Milo, I can't very well fuck you to a hands-free nut if you've got your hand on your tool, now can I?" he asked, even more playfully. Then he grinned a truly perverted grin, and Milo shivered with excitement.
"I never said I wasn't letting you come," he clarified, "I'm making you come." To emphasize his point, he sheathed himself in the younger shepherd's rear again, harder than usual, earning a yelp when he slid home, his balls slapping audibly against Milo's soft buns.
"B-but that's so embarrassing..." Milo whined, desperately ignoring the part of himself that always loved it when Eric did this. Naturally, that was when Eric played dirty, making his voice all low and sexy again, playing directly to Milo's weaknesses.
"Come on, little brother," Eric teased, "You wanna be a Good Boy for me and cream all over yourself, don't you?"
"Hnngh..." Milo groaned, clenching down hard again, "Fuuuuuck, that's s-so not fair..." Eric chuckled, then regarded Milo with that dominant smile again.
"Is it really s-so embarrassing if you're d-doing it because your big brother wants you to?" he asked, maddeningly reasonably, and he emphasized both of the words in 'big brother' with two more of those stronger thrusts. Milo cried out with pleasure, seeing stars and feeling pre soaking into his fur from that.
Milo squirmed and writhed on the bed, trying petulantly to free his hands, but Eric was leaning his weight onto his arms, and he was bigger than Milo to begin with, so those skinny arms weren't going anywhere. It felt a little strange to be trying to free his arms from Eric's grasp while his legs were still wrapped around the man's waist, but he was going with the flow. That wasn't the part he was focusing on, anyway, that honour belonging to the part where he suddenly felt considerably more vulnerable and exposed than he already did from having a dick up his ass... and it was an immense turn-on. He whimpered and shivered from the way he felt entirely at his big brother's mercy.
'Nooooo...' whined Milo's inner canine, 'I'm not into being dominated, I come from a proud line of noble warriors...' It was this same inner voice that had given Milo such grief over being a bottom, or being bisexual at all, for that matter, so he was trying to ignore it. Eric leaned down and helped with that task by sniffing at the side of Milo's neck.
Milo was expecting Eric to tease him somehow, say he smelled like a twink or something, but instead the elder shepherd began to lick that same spot on Milo's neck, just about where it met his shoulder. Milo moaned with pleasure from several different sources, but at the moment, the one he was focusing on was the way Eric dragged that wide, flat tongue against the short fur on the side of Milo's neck.
"Mmmmnngh..." the younger male managed, shivering again. Eric churred softly to Milo, whispering to him in a low tone.
"I'm so very glad... that you're mine again." Milo's eyes widened and he gasped as conflicting emotions filled his being. A part of him was immediately, shamelessly, and enthusiastically on board with the idea of being Eric's, and another part of him felt fear and dismay at the very words. Before the slender male could even begin to sort through these thoughts, much less give voice to them, Eric bent down still further (hilting himself in his brother in the process and holding there for a moment) and bit down hard on Milo's neck, on the very spot he'd been licking.
Milo arched his back and cried out. Morphic dogs didn't have a pain-for-pleasure response during sex like cats did, so his shoulder hurt, but at the same time, it was so dominant and possessive and primal of Eric to do that, that Milo felt a strange surge of pleasure spreading through his body from the bite.
"Oh - oh God, yessssssssss," The trembling shepherd moaned, keeping his ears flat against his head. They'd been conflicting feelings before, but right now, he was suddenly so into this, into Eric making him his... Milo distantly wondered why he wasn't holding his lover tightly, gripping Eric's back tight enough to leave claw marks... and it took him several blissful seconds before he could remember that his hands were pinned to the bed. Letting out his breath as a long, drawn-out whimper/sigh, Milo let himself go limp, slumping down in erotic surrender to his lover, his big brother.
After a few seconds or a few aeons, it felt like both, Eric released his mouth and leaned back. Milo took it as a good sign that there wasn't blood dripping from his lip, though this did briefly distract him with the mental image of Eric as a vampire, which he found unexpectedly attractive.
"Looks okay, that's g-good," Eric murmured softly, "Thought I g-got carried away there..."
"I'm okay," Milo said immediately, not wanting to stop, "It's just kinda sore... and I, uh..."
'No, don't say it you fool!' protested his inner canine.
"...I kinda liked it," Milo admitted with a shy grin. Eric chuckled at that and beamed from ear to ear, to use the human phrase (though of course Eric's ears were directly on top of his head, and his mouth came nowhere close).
"Yeah?" the older male asked, his ears perking up, his tail wagging, "...Me too." He leaned down again and licked at the bite mark a few times. Milo tensed up for a moment, but found that the sensation helped soothe the ache... which in turn helped him focus on his rump instead of his neck again.
When Eric moved back this time, he adjusted his knees on the bed before pulling his hips back, withdrawing his thick cock from Milo's tight ass once again, but far, far slower than he'd been thrusting before, drawing it out to make Milo super aware of it. The head of his prick kept rubbing against sensitive spots, and Milo was shuddering and whimpering, his legs twitching and tensing as random spikes of pleasure teased out from his rump into the nerves around them.
'I don't care how good it feels, I won't do the kicky-leg thing!' the trembling dog silently vowed to himself. At that moment, Eric reversed direction, his dick effortlessly sliding back into his little brother's needy ass. As he felt himself spreading within once again, felt that beautiful cock filling him up, snug against his walls, Milo moaned shamelessly... and tightened the grip his legs had on Eric's waist, just in case.
Milo was careful not to tighten his legs too much, of course, leaving Eric's hips room to work, and so the older male got back to quick, smooth thrusting, rocking Milo back and forth each time the muscular shepherd's scrotum nuzzled against his lover's butt. After a few minutes, Milo moaned,
"Hnnngh, yes..." Milo whimpered, letting his tongue hang out so he could pant, "Fuck me... fuck meeeee..." His hands twitched pointlessly. If anything, Eric's grip on his wrists had gotten even tighter as the taller dog had gotten more and more aroused. Now he was driving himself home again and again, grunting each time he was fully sheathed in Milo's rear, and he showed no signs of stopping, though his fur did have an attractive sheen of sweat to it now.
"Oh, Milo..." he panted, "Goddamn, th-this is so good..." Milo couldn't disagree, and he wasn't just pushing back against Eric's thrusts anymore, he was clenching his legs slightly every time Eric drove himself forward, as if his feet were helping push Eric as deep as he could go. For Milo, the physical pleasure of it all was being deliciously combined with a feeling he couldn't quite put his finger on that was like... like scratching an itch he'd been forced to ignore, or... correcting a mistake, maybe. The closer they got to the immense release that was rapidly approaching, the more powerfully Milo felt this anonymous sensation.
The shepherds lost themselves in frantic, desperate lovema- copulation, Milo's focus narrowing until it was like his entire universe consisted of himself and the studly male having his wicked way with him. The slender dog panted and shuddered and yelped as thrust after thrust drove deep inside his rump, sending taboo pleasure surging down his nerves. Eventually, Milo felt his big brother's hard prick nudge his prostate particularly hard, and he moaned shamelessly, his own cock throbbing hard, demanding attention as it drooled pre into his fur. Whimpering with need, aching for release, Milo squirmed again, but was no more successful in freeing his hands.
"P-please, Eric, l-let go, I'm close, a-a-and I need to come, s-so fuckin' bad..." he whimpered, his cheeks flushed with both exertion and embarrassment.
"I'm... I'm getting close t-too," panted Eric, before a smile slowly spread across his face.
"So if you wanna g-get off," Eric continued, "You'd b-better ask nicely, little brother..."
He then bent down and whispered into Milo's ear, and the younger male yelped in embarrassed dismay.
"What?! I c-can't say that!" protested Milo, "Eric, oh m-my God!" Eric, who had wasted no time in leaning back up and continuing to thrust, grinned at his lover.
"Offer only s-stands until I n-nut," he teased, warningly, "You don't w-want to be l-left high and dry, do you?" Milo groaned and continued to squirm.
"You can't d-do that, I'll get b-blue balls!" The younger male complained.
"Now, now, M-Milo, you need to come, d-don't you?" Eric said, his voice as close to 'sensual' as he could get it while breathing this hard, "You want to b-be a good boy for your big b-brother, don't you?"
"Noooooo..." Milo moaned, shuddering and closing his eyes, but in truth, this was not a denial. It was a protest, as Milo still could not refute that dismaying certainty that deep down, he did want to be a good boy for his big brother. What Eric had asked him to say was cask-strength embarrassing, but as he hovered near the edge of release, unable to quite reach, Milo could feel his resistance crumbling.
It wasn't just that Milo needed to come; it was that this was the first time he'd had sex with Eric in a long time, that he couldn't believe how good, how right it felt for them to be together like this, and he really, really wanted his brother to make him come. Finishing himself off afterwards would be so disappointing he didn't even want to think about it.
"Oh God... I c-can't believe I'm doing th-this..." he groaned.
Opening his eyes with a whimper, struggling not to admit to himself that he was getting off on it just as much as Eric was, Milo lowered his ears submissively and regarded his lover with an adorable pout, such as can only be accomplished by canines who have mastered Puppy Dog Eyes.
"P-please, I need to come s-so bad, and I..." He hesitated, struggling to maintain eye contact. "...I want you to f-fuck it out of me! Hnnngh... B-breed me, big brother, breed me!" Milo could feel a shudder run through his lover's muscular body when he shamelessly begged Eric to come inside him. A deep, sexy growl of desire echoed across the room.
"...G-good boy, little brother," came the murmur, "Good boy..."
Milo's cheeks burned, his canine instincts warring it out with the submissive nature he'd denied for so long, but his attention focused on the way Eric's eyes widened and his grin grew bigger until all his sharpest teeth were being shown off. Clearly invigorated by Milo's plaintive begging, Eric leaned down lower, his thrusts changing, becoming faster, shallower, the larger male only pulling back until his cock was halfway out before pushing it back into his brother's needy ass. Milo didn't realize that Eric was checking his angle until he'd found it; suddenly, that hard dick was pressing against Milo's prostate on every thrust, and Milo was seeing stars. The slender shepherd had been so sure that Eric would be out of practice, wouldn't be able to make him come hands-free this very first time... He found he couldn't work up much disappointment over being wrong.
Eric's hard, thrusting cock rammed into Milo's rear again and again, a lewd slapping noise ringing out each time the muscular male bottomed out, each time the crown of his prick nudged Milo's P-spot. For his part, Milo was just hanging on for the ride and mumbling lewdly to himself.
"God, yes... fuck me... fuck me... Oh shit, th-that's so good..." Milo shuddered hard and moaned before adding "Mmmm, d-don't ever stop..."
Eric picked up the pace even more, sheathing and unsheathing himself in Milo's ass rapidly, causing Milo's toes to curl up behind Eric, who growled again with such primal desire that for a second there, Milo expected to receive a bite on the other side of his neck, to even it out.
"Hnnngh... I'm s-so close... I'm g-gonna come..." Milo moaned, writhing with pleasure.
"Do it," Eric hissed, his hot breath tickling Milo's whiskers, "come for me, little brother, give m-me every last drop, sh-show me how much you m-missed me!" The slender male sensed that Eric was also approaching the brink, but any thought of outlasting him went out the window when the elder shepherd drew back all the way to the tip, one more time, and then slammed himself home in Milo's tight rump. That last strike against his prostate tipped Milo over the edge into orgasm, and with a passionate cry, he arched his back off the bed and came, hard.
"Oh, big brotherrrr!"
Milo's entire body was overcome with an explosion of embarrassing pleasure, his prick beginning to throb and spasm of its own volition, spurting long, glistening strands of Milo's thick, gooey cream all over his stomach and chest as he yelped and mewled with ecstasy. Eric continued to maintain his shallow thrusts for a few moments more, but with the way Milo's rump was now squeezing and massaging his tool in time with the younger dog's release, Eric only lasted a few seconds longer than his sibling. Groaning, Eric hilted himself one final time, burying himself as deep into his little brother's ass as he could before he followed Milo into climax. Even through his own pleasures, Milo noticed as his lover's hard cock began to pulse inside him, moaning particularly loudly as he felt the intense warmth of Eric's semen spreading deep inside him, imagining that thick cock painting his bowels with copious shepherd jism, marking Milo as Eric's, claiming him. This, of course, tweaked Milo's pleasures even higher, and his legs tightened around his brother's waist, making it impossible for Eric to pull out, even if it hadn't been the last thing in the universe he currently wanted.
Milo had closed his eyes shortly after he started climaxing; he'd been unable to see anything anyway, as he was coming so hard all he could see were stars, as if the earlier display had been a cheeky preview of the constellation of pleasure he was in for. When his ecstasy finally burned itself through, Milo slumped down to the bed with a sigh, his entire body tingling, his dick still giving the occasional spasm and drooling a little more creamy goodness into his pelt.
"Hnnnh... Hnnnh... Oh - oh my God, Eric..." he panted, still feeling lightheaded. When his eyes cleared, he saw... his big brother smiling down at him, evidently having finished emptying his balls into Milo's tight rump. Eric was just gazing down at Milo's face, having been studying the smaller male as he writhed in orgasm. When their eyes met, Eric winked at the slender, slightly glazed shepherd.
"Good boy, little brother," Eric whispered to him, his tail wagging tiredly behind him, "Now you're really mine..." To his chagrin, Milo whimpered pleasantly. Eric made a show of lifting his hands away from Milo's wrists, freeing his lover, and then bent down to kiss Milo, slowly but deeply. Their tongues coiled and entwined in a dance that was no less passionate for being less energetic than the last one.
Reaching up to wrap his arms around Eric's shoulders, Milo eagerly kissed his brother, his ears kept low. He was content to just lie here, focusing on the warm feeling of his afterglow, on Eric's comforting presence above him, and on the slowly-deflating cock still buried in his rear. All felt well in Milo's universe for the first time in years, and he distantly knew it was probably just the immense satisfaction from getting laid again after all this time, but he'd still take it as long as he could. Speaking of which, when the kiss finally ended, Eric leaned up into a kneeling position, put a hand on Milo's hip, and gently pulled his dick back out with a grunt. The younger Thompson yelped, shuddering hard as he felt his brother's seed begin slowly leaking out of his back door. He'd been hoping to savour that particular sensation a little longer... He almost whined about it, but was distracted when Eric began leaning way down, and not towards Milo's face.
"W-wait, what..." he started to ask, but Eric just gently shushed him, told him to relax, and leaned down to give some of the come on Milo's stomach a lick.
"Mmmm, tasty..." the elder shepherd churred playfully, before adding "Don't give me that look, you're the one who told me to 'find my own', so I'm calling dibs!" He bent back down, and this time, didn't stop licking after just once.
"Ah! Ohhh, Eric..." Milo moaned, shivering as his brother's warm, wet tongue eagerly lapped at the seed he'd spilled. Eric wasn't even trying to hide the way his tail was wagging over this perverse act, and the slender male distantly admired his brother's confidence. Grinning self-consciously, Milo put a whine in his voice he didn't actually feel.
"Nooo, don't, that's embarrassing..." the younger shepherd complained, putting in a token effort of protest to save face. Looking up from his cleaning, Eric gave his lover a Look that suggested he knew just how much Milo was actually enjoying this.
"No cuddling until we aren't smearing jizz into our fur while we do it," the muscular male replied, faux-sternly. Milo laughed softly. Cuddling was his favourite part of afterglow, and Eric knew it.
"Well, when you put it that way..." Milo muttered, as if his tail wasn't trying to wag beneath him, and Eric snickered to himself as he continued licking up his little brother's still-warm cream.
Eric was playfully thorough and meticulous, and soon Milo's chest and abs were jism-free. He still felt the evidence that he had been claimed by his big brother inside of him, of course, but Milo low-key loved that feeling, so this did not bother him. The skinny dog was not enormously surprised when the first thing Eric did afterwards was move back up, roll onto his side, and pull Milo into his arms without a word. They didn't kiss this time, they just snuggled against each other. Milo got the immediate and distinct feeling that Eric had missed this exactly as much as he had. Closing his eyes, the younger shepherd nuzzled against his lover's pecs, breathing deep of his natural scent. It was only a few seconds later that Milo realized Eric was doing the same thing to his hair.
"Thank you..." Milo whispered, vague enough to encompass it all. He let his tail wag as hard as it wanted to.
"Thank you," Eric countered, an enormously contented smile on his face.
After a moment or two, Eric rolled onto his back, taking Milo with him, leaving the slender male lying atop him. The elder shepherd immediately began scratching his lover behind the ears, and Milo whimpered appreciatively.
"So... now that you're mine..." Eric said, making Milo blush but also giggle to himself.
"Eriiiic!" Milo half-laugh-half-whined, "You can't keep saying that..."
"...I should probably get you a nice collar, put something embarrassing on the tag," Eric continued cheerily, as if Milo hadn't spoken, "Hmm, 'Eric's Bitch' seems too obvious..." Despite his best efforts, Milo couldn't help but imagine Eric's strong, confident hands sliding a tight collar around his neck like he was a beloved domestic. He felt a submissive shiver run down his spine and elected to ignore that.
"Maybe something more general, like 'Butt Slut'..." Eric teased, a faux-thoughtful tone to his voice as he squeezed one of Milo's soft, perky buttocks.
"You know," Milo said tiredly, "I do need to be able to go outside eventually..."
"Ohh, you're no fun," the taller male laughed, "It's not like you couldn't go outside with a collar, it's just that everyone would know that you're a secret pervert!" Milo let out a loud huff and snuggled down against Eric's fuzzy chest even closer.
"Man, If you hadn't just made me come so hard I saw stars..." he grumbled, entirely at odds with his wagging tail.
"No kidding?" Eric asked, suddenly forgetting the playful teasing tone, "Shit, that's awesome, Milo!" Grinning, he churred to the smaller male, leaning in to lick affectionately at his face. The squirming shepherd laughed and tried to turn away, but Eric's arms had moved up to hug Milo under the armpits, and there was no escape.
When the playfully unrelenting licking (and the accompanying delighted/embarrassed laughter) finally ceased, Eric reached out to smooth down Milo's mussed up facial fur.
"I've, uh, I've really missed this," Eric murmured, more softly than before, "Holding you, kissing you, making you blush, making you mine... Thank you for suggesting this, little brother." A part of Milo wanted to recoil at this, suddenly anxious about how affectionately and intimately Eric was talking... like they were a couple or something. But Milo still felt so warm and safe and comfortable, and Eric was petting the back of his head now, and the panicked thought floated out of the periphery of his awareness, so the sleepy male could continue to enjoy this closeness with his lover. Resting his head against Eric's chest, listening to his strong heart beating, Milo yawned and then smiled.
"Maybe... maybe being yours isn't so bad..." he mumbled. Eric blinked at the directness of the statement and tilted his head to the side, regarding Milo curiously.
"What was that?" he asked, gently, "Milo?" Closing his eyes, just for a moment, Milo muttered something entirely incoherent, and then felt himself slipping away. He felt so safe and content in his big brother's arms, it didn't even occur to him to resist.
* * *
Milo's eyes fluttered open, and he stirred awake. Realizing he was lying on the bed instead of his big brother, the slender male feared Eric had left him. The bleary-eyed shepherd murbled to himself wordlessly as he sat halfway up, to discover that Eric lay next to him, stretched out, arms crossed behind his head, having apparently carefully transferred Milo down to the mattress at some point. When Milo stirred, Eric opened his eyes, and the larger canine smiled happily. Milo stretched and yawned, then grinned back.
"You were so cute, I wanted to let you sleep," Eric said, chuckling. Milo made a face.
"Thanks, I think..." As a thought occurred to the skinny shepherd, he bent over the side of the bed and reached for his discarded pants, reacting with no surprise at all when Eric took advantage of the moment to reach over and caress his little brother's soft butt. Sitting back down, having retrieved his phone, Milo took a deep breath, steeling himself for an important task. Seeing the phone in his hand, Eric chuckled again, picking up his own phone from the bed beside him and waggling it for emphasis.
"Oh, I guess Anne really did sense a disturbance in the Force, or something, you're gonna have a half dozen or so messages from her." At first, Milo snickered at that, but it didn't last long, and for a moment, he just gazed at the phone in his hand without unlocking it.
"...I think I have someone else to message first," he murmured, quietly. After a few seconds, Eric's expression softened sympathetically, his ears drooping just a little, and as he lay his own phone back down next to him, he reached out with his other hand and rested it on Milo's shoulder, giving it a firm, supportive squeeze. Eric nodded to his brother, who understood perfectly. Some things don't need to be said out loud.
And so, with one brother searching for the words to reach out, and the other ready to support him, whatever may come, the Thompsons looked forward to the future with more hope than before. Milo had allowed himself to face his problems, and he had started his rehabilitation in his brother's arms. With their reunion complete, it felt like something wrong had been set right in the universe, and now, at long last, Eric and Milo could support each other through some proper healing... sexual and otherwise.
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