CHAPTER THIRTEEN
RESURRECTION
Devon stood in the middle of the room, his arms clutched nervously across his body. He eyed the mummification table, not knowing its purpose but visibly not trusting the straps he saw draped across the worn wood surface.
As Mina stepped into the room, the static charge returned. Even from several paces away, Mina could see Devon’s pupils dilate and his chest expand and contract in quick succession.
“Ok, this has been a super fun game, and you’re obviously enjoying playing dress up with wolf god in there, but we should probably go find the group, right?
Get out of here before we’re turned into human sacrifices or consumed by beetles?
I’ve seen that movie, and I don’t think Brendan Frazier is going to come rescue us, so… ”
Again, Devon was pointedly avoiding looking at Mina. Glancing between his shoes, the table, the fire at the far end of the room. Anywhere but at the god-like human walking slowly toward him.
Mina didn’t say a word. He let Devon ring out his own nervousness like a soaked rag.
He stared into his classmate’s eyes. There was fear.
But there was also want. Desperate, shame-drenched want.
There was an unspoken desire to drop his authoritative facade.
His pretense of lording over everyone so that he could maybe make himself feel less powerless.
Less invisible. Mina could sense that he wanted to put an end to the show and be truly seen for the first time.
Mina saw him for what he was. Hungry. Ready for release.
Ready for someone to give him permission to drop all of it and bare his most vulnerable self.
Mina reached out a hand and pressed the tip of his index finger to Devon’s bottom lip. The other boy stood about four inches taller than Mina, at least six feet.
Devon blinked slowly, his mouth opening slightly. Mina ran his finger around the soft, dry lips.
Devon stared at Mina, eyes tracking down to his mouth. Mina stepped forward, closing the space between them to almost nothing. Devon’s breath washed hot and irregular over Mina’s face. He pressed a hand to the side of Devon’s cheek, flushed under his fingers.
“It’s ok,” Mina said. “You can let go. I’ve got you.”
Slowly, the tension in Devon’s shoulders start to unknot. His eyes grew heavier and his breath steady.
“We’ve both been denying ourselves our whole lives,” Mina said, his voice breathy, barely above a whisper. “We’ve been bowing to a god neither of us has seen. Never felt. Never really believed in.”
Devon stiffened, readying a defense at the back of his throat.
“Don’t. You and I are on a journey. There’s no going back. Only forward. I may be further along than you, but I can show you the way. I can show you the true meaning of worship.”
With that, Mina closed the remaining centimeters between them, pressing his open mouth onto Devon’s.
Before Mina could pry his tongue between the other boy’s lips, he felt Devon’s mouth open with a trembling sigh that filled Mina’s like a warm breath of night air.
Devon pulled away slightly, sucking on Mina’s lower lip before throwing both of his hands around his shoulders and pulling their bodies together.
Devon kissed Mina deep and hard, pitiful, hungry sounds accompanying every thrust of his tongue as his hands pulled and squeezed over every millimeter of Mina’s bare body, sliding over the oiled surfaces like his life depended on finding the perfect handhold to bear him up.
Devon was resurrecting himself, climbing out of the dark tomb of his repressed desires, desperate not to fall back in.
Desperate for this moment to be real. Terrified that it wasn’t.
Mina could sense and feel and taste it all.
Devon’s hands slid down the slope of Mina’s back, cresting the soft hills of his backside over his shendyt. Devon’s moans became prayers that quaked through his body, spread through his consciousness like a raging fever.
Please don’t be a dream; please don’t leave me to face this alone, flooded Mina’s mind.
Real, Mina pushed back. Real, real, real. God is here, in this place, and we are worshipping together.
You? “Mina…” Devon moaned into the boy-god’s mouth.
Us, Mina answered.
“I want…I want…”
“Yes.” Mina pulled himself away, a wet sound filling the room. “You want. And you’ll have.”
Devon shuddered, hands on Mina’s thighs, clinging to hope. Desperate, aching hope.
“But first,” Mina said. “This godawful uniform…” he grinned, “just doesn’t fit the vibe of this place.
” He reached up, with a hand on each side of Devon’s open collar, and pulled with all of his strength, ripping the shirt down the middle and exposing Devon’s chest and stomach.
The other boy gasped, immediately throwing his hands up over his body.
His classmate was darkly tanned but only minimally toned, despite his thick arms. His chest was full and his middle soft. Mina reached forward and pulled Devon’s arms down.
“I’m not as hot as you. Not even close.”
Slowly, Mina reached up, gripping Devon by the throat and pulling him close.
“Do not say that.”
“Wha…” Devon choked. “I just meant…”
Mina squeezed. “I’ve learned a lot in my time here, Devon. And this was the first thing I learned. Your body is a temple. Every time you speak that way about it, you remove a stone. Only so many stones can be removed before the whole thing comes down.”
“But just look at you. And look at me. You’re gorgeous. I’m...”
Mina’s heart ached as his mind flooded with Devon’s own hatred of himself.
How uncomfortable he felt in his own skin.
Mina reached out to Devon’s wrist and took it in his hand, thumbing the smoothness of it.
There was a reason the temple had called out to Devon.
Some scars sit under the skin. Mina and Devon had been standing at the edge of the same precipice, hating themselves, neither noticing the other. Mina’s eyes burned.
“You are flawless, Devon. Your body is a gift. And I’ll teach you how to treat it the way it deserves to be treated.”
Mina pulled Devon to the edge of the room by the fire, where the large, floor-length oval of polished silver stood on its easel.
Mina stood between Devon and the mirror, blocking his view, as he slowly began to remove the rest of Devon’s clothes.
Mina could feel Devon stealing glances over Mina’s shoulder to see his backside.
Could feel him lusting after the flesh of Mina’s back and thighs that glistened in the firelight.
When Devon was finally fully naked, Mina stepped aside, giving him a full and unobstructed view of his own body.
Devon shuddered and immediately wrapped one arm across his stomach and the other covering his genitals. “Yeah, I don’t like this at all. Nope. I’d rather look at you. Can we go back to the original situation, please?”
Mina walked casually to the fireplace mantle, pulled the flail from where he’d placed it earlier, and stepped behind Devon. And then he struck, hard but not too hard, across Devon’s round, tan bottom.
“Ow, Jesus!” squealed Devon, spinning around and grabbing his ass. “What was that for?”
Mina stepped forward. “Turn around and keep your arms at your side. I want you to look at yourself. I want you to find the things you like and admire them. Then I want you to find the things you don’t like and look at them until you do.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” said Devon, still rubbing his tender skin.
Mina raised the flail above his head, and Devon spun on his heels. “Ok, ok, geez.”
Devon looked at himself, his eyes searching his own face, pointedly avoiding his body.
“Explore,” Mina said. “Wander. Linger. Let all of your bullshit go and just let yourself see yourself for the first time.”
Devon sighed loudly and let his eyes fall to his body. He squirmed uncomfortably as his eyes moved from his broad chest to the small, soft curves of his tummy. He looked down the length of his legs, dusted in short dark fur and ending with his feet, long toes squirming against the stone.
Minutes went by. As they did, Devon began to relax.
He cocked his head, lingering on his chest. He reached a hand up and rubbed up and down the modest curve of his pec muscle.
So much of their world had been about making less of themselves.
Putting to death every sinful thought. But this was Devon’s chance for his own awakening.
His resurrection. Devon ran down the length of his torso to his belly.
He ran small circles over it, the beginning of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
Mina noticed that Devon’s cock had begun to twitch, though Devon himself hadn’t seemed to notice.
Soon, both of Devon’s hands had left his side as he ran them across his body.
His smile softened. His eyelids grew heavier.
His breath hitched, and a soft moan escaped his lips.
Devon stepped closer to the mirror, wanting to see himself more clearly.
A tear pushed itself from the corner of his eye and smeared down his cheek.
“God, I feel like such a girl,” he said.
Mina forgave him for the ignorant comment. Devon was a newly recovering asshole.
“I’ve hated this body for so long. Hated what it looks like and everything it wants.
Hated everything it represents. Everything they always tell us it represents, anyway.
Sin. Shame. Denial. And now I just feel sad.
It’s like I’ve had this best friend next to me my whole life who’s done nothing but love me while all I’ve done is hate him. ”
Devon was finding the shattered pieces of himself. Collecting them. Turning them over in his hands and admiring them for the first time. And now Mina would help him piece them back together.