Chapter Text
His name was Nigel.
The one that had been around more often than the others.
Nigel was like a name from an old story. Adam imagined a British man on an African safari for some reason when he heard the name Nigel.
Nigel was not that kind of Nigel though.
He was a new kind of Nigel.
The kind with a prison tattoo on the side of his neck gone all blown out into the surrounding skin. It looked like total mush now. When Adam asked what it was supposed to be, Nigel had said, “Why you so curious about it boy? Never seen a naked woman before?”
“Is it supposed to be a naked woman?” Adam had asked in utter and total shock. It looked like a sideways dolphin or a snake with a belly button. Adam even tilted his head to look at it and then he’d smiled up at Nigel.
“What are you, a fucking virgin?” Nigel had coughed out between exhales of cigarette smoke.
“Uh, yes.” Adam had said. It was important to be honest with adults. Especially authority figures. Which Nigel, was. Adam felt proud to have realized it despite no one having explained it. He had clocked Nigel as someone-in-charge before he'd even heard anyone call him “Boss.”
“Is that what naked women are supposed to look like or was your tattoo artist just not very good?” Adam was skeptical.
Nigel had laughed in his face. Then abruptly stopped.
“He was half blind. What's your deal anyways? You've really never seen a naked woman?” Nigel asked.
Maybe he'd been teasing but Adam answered solemnly anyways.
“No sir.” Adam said.
Nigel’s lips had curled up. “Why's that? Never watch fucking porn?”
Adam had been stunned. No one had ever talked to him directly about porn. He smiled and felt heat touch his cheeks. He shook his head. No.
Nigel had a strange face. It was very…. angular. But broad too. Big. Nigel was a big person. It showed even in his face. When Nigel heard something that truly surprised him it would turn aside, face away, but his eyes would look at Adam and there would be an upturn of lips. A smile. A surprised one. And it would give little wrinkles around Nigel’s eyes. That meant it was an undeniably positive response if they bunched somewhere between a 30 degree and a 45 degree angle.
Adam was very observant about reactions because he was trying his best to better understand them. And Nigel was the first adult who had shown so much direct attention to him.
So Adam considered Nigel to be patient zero. The angles by which his eyes crinkled mattered a lot too. Adam was growing such a talent for distinguishing Nigel's moods based off of those wrinkles around his eyes.
Too much or too little could mean danger.
Nigel’s eyes got too squinty when Adam wouldn't cooperate the way he wanted. But today, Adam couldn't see his eyes because he wore sunglasses. Expensive designer ones that did not match the cheap ugly Walmart swim trunks Nigel was in.
Mom had bought him and Nigel matching pairs that morning. Adam had nearly cried when Nigel had howled with laughter at the sight of Adam in the ugly things. The tag scratched his lower back so uncomfortably that Adam hadn't even been able to speak on the walk down from the hotel to the beach.
His switch was the only thing that could distract him from the social horrors combined with the horrible, itching, undeniable, awful, itchy itchy itchy tag and the weird mesh and-
“Put the fucking cock blocker down, Adam, Christ, it’s the fucking beach,” Nigel said.
Adam picked his head eyes up but left his head bent low over his screen. He had to hunch to keep the sun from beating down too hard. The sun obscured the screen with a sharp glare if Adam didn’t use his own shadow to bring relief to it.
“Cock blocker?” Adam asked Nigel. “Are you referring to my-”
“Referring to the crappy piece of plastic crap shit you waste your whole life on?” He interrupted Adam. So he did mean the switch.
Adam thought that many craps and shits was excessive. But Nigel wasn’t even looking at him.
He was on his phone.
“You're on your phone.” Adam said automatically.
“I'm taking care of business. Not trying to get pussy.” Nigel said boredly.
Adam recoiled a bit. What did… getting pussy have to do with any of this?
“What? I don't understand what you mean.”
“There's some college girls who have been looking at you,” Nigel said. He jerked his head to the side, again, not even seeming to look up.
Adam looked around at where Nigel was indicating.
He saw women. Lots of them. But at first he didn't see who Nigel was referring to- until a pair of eyes caught his and then quickly looked away. And then back again. A girl in a bikini with a book on her lap and sand stuck to her elbows and arms was staring at Adam.
Adam looked away fast.
Adam looked at Nigel.
Nigel was one of Adam’s favorite places to rest his eyes on. But only, and this was important, if Nigel wasn't looking at him. Nigel was wearing a shirt even though they were at the beach and most men were shirtless. Including Adam. He'd been a little worried about going shirtless with Nigel nearby because it was difficult not to obsessively criticize his own body if he could see all of what he lacked stacked in layers of muscle on Nigel's body.
Not that Adam always felt self conscious about being small. But manliness was important to Nigel, and apparently having big muscles was a big part of being a man. Nigel had tried to get Adam into weight lifting.
That had not gone over well. Adam had been allowed after a meltdown, to just watch Nigel work out instead of have to join. Maybe Nigel considered him a lost cause in manliness.
That made Adam sad when he worried about it. But Nigel hadn't been bringing it up so much recently anyways. He carried lots of heavy things for Adam, and lots of not so heavy things too, like his backpack when he picked him up from school and took him to the horrible, awful, loud, smelly nightclub he owned. Adam always enjoyed seeing the way Nigel's muscles flexed even with the slightest things he did, like carrying Adam's bag, or opening doors, or-
Right now he was resting on one elbow in the sand. So the muscle was bunching to support himself. Adam imagined the muscles on Nigel’s torso might be flexed too but Adam couldn't see them because the older man was covered up.
Adam wondered if Nigel was wearing a shirt to hide the scars that covered his body. Adam had seen them a few times. When Nigel was working out shirtless, or those embarrassing moments when Adam would come out at night to get a glass of water and find Nigel had the same idea, but for vodka from the freezer. There was a great big slash across Nigel that fascinated Adam.
He was staring at Nigel thoughtfully when the man laughed.
“She wants it,” Nigel said.
“Who wants what?” Adam asked.
“The girl.” Nigel said.
“What girl?” Adam asked. His brain was frozen up a bit.
Nigel finally dropped his phone down to his lap and picked his head up to look at Adam. “are you being fucking difficult on purpose?” Nigel snapped.
Adam looked away. Fast. Embarrassed to have been caught staring. “No sir,” he said.
Nigel chuffed at Adam like a tiger playing with its food. “Call me sir like that some more and I'll put you to work. Now cut the shit, and go talk to that girl before she realizes you're a weird little nerd and not the mysterious lover of her dreams. If you're quick about it and don't talk too much she’ll probably give you a tug in the shower stalls.”
Adam had no idea how Nigel could even interpret all this while he scrolled on his phone. Adam's hands curled tight and helpless around his switch. His thumbs sweated badly on the round white joysticks.
Nigel tipped his sunglasses down.
Now Adam could see the angle of the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and they were…
Actually not helpful at all in categorizing Nigel's mood or meaning. He looked both amused but also maybe annoyed.
And the tag was sticking into Adam’s backside and the hot sand was spilling onto the neon beach towel he was sitting on. The sand was getting perilously close to Adam's feet. His limbs were stiff from sitting and the tag the tag the tag itch itch-
“Adam,” Nigel said his name. Deep voice. Raspy edges. Accent. Adam came back to center a bit.
“I don't want to get tugged in the shower by a girl.” He said.
“I don't mean literally tugged, I mean she’d-”
“I know what you meant! I'm not stupid!” Adam burst out. Face red and ears hot. Why was talking to Nigel so impossible? How could he make him feel so dumb and so… much other stuff at the same time.
He expected to get yelled back at. Nigel didn't really like when people challenged him.
But Nigel just barked out a laugh. He wasn't sitting on a towel. He was stretched out on the sand itself.
“Look kid, I know you're not retarded-”
Adam flinched badly.
Nigel continued without a care, “-just sometimes you're a little clueless about this shit. That's all. I’m trying to help.”
Help.
Yeah. Nigel was helping. That was all.
And Adam had yelled at him for it.
Guiltily, Adam looked down at his switch and then back up at Nigel’s jaw. Then back down again.
“You don't want my help?” Nigel wheedled, grinning a bit for a second.
“I do.” Adam said in complete embarrassment. He liked Nigel.
“Then…” Nigel spread a big paw of a hand out towards the girl who was still glancing over. “Go.”
But Adam didn't want that kind of help.He shook his head. His chestnut curls spun with his head a bit.
“I would rather just sit by you and play Stardew Valley please.” He whispered.
Nigel’s eyes tracked the bounce of his curls and the way his blue eyes looked up and then back down. And then the older man sucked his teeth and huffed.
“You've got about ten minutes and then I'm kicking you the fuck away, and no big puppy dog eyes, because your mom is going to be back.”
Mom was off getting drinks from a nearby cabana bar and the line was long. She'd been gone already for nearly twenty as it was.
“So what if mom is back-”
Nigel lost patience again. “So I want to rub tanning oil on her tits.”
Adam made a grossed out sound and suddenly kicked his legs out. Sand flipped up onto his calf and his knee. The tag was itching, Nigel was talking about his mom and being mean, and now there was sand on him.
His eyes began to sting.
One, two, three.
One, two, three.
Adam knew if he cried in front of Nigel it could make things worse. Bringing Adam on this trip had been a last minute add on because his sitter, Harlan, had come down with the flu.
Adam had overheard Nigel talking to his mom that morning, something about “he's seventeen why the fuck does he a need a babysitter? He takes care of the house as it is. He’s more housewife than boy at this point.”
“Nigel!” Mom had laughed but not defended Adam enough. Adam didn't think any of that was very fair. He had to take more responsibility around the house ever since his dad died and his mom started making money doing illegal things. She didn't do the dishes, or wash the sheets, or dust the cabinets, or feed the fish, or fold the laundry, or cook the food. Adam did. Well. Not so much cooking. He liked what he liked, and didn't bother trying to learn what his mom liked because she mostly seemed to eat takeout or expensive dinners depending on what boyfriend she was with.
(She bragged to her friends she was eating lots of lobster with Nigel. But really, they just ate a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese takeout when they were at the house.)
“You don't like sand?” Nigel asked, bringing Adam back to present once again with his rough voice.
Adam began to laugh. Which surprised the hell out of Nigel who had been watching Adam get stiff and twitchy staring down at the sand on his leg.
“Something funny?” Nigel asked.
“Yes. What you said reminded me of a quote. It’s from Attack of the Clones.” Adam said. “When Anakin Skywalker is-”
“Hey boys!” Mom interrupted Adam before he could launch into that line of thought.
She had two drinks. One for her, and one for Nigel.
“Oh I'm sorry baby, I forgot to get you something.” She said to Adam as she sat down between him and Nigel, already curling svelte and vixen like to Nigel's side. Her eyes were glassy, and her speech was slow.
And Nigel, for his part, was digging in his horrible neon swim trunks that matched Adam’s and pulling his money clip out. He peeled off some bills and flung them at Adam, folded up.
They were damp.
From sweat, since Nigel hadn't been in the water. Damp from sweat trapped between his trunks and the heat of his thighs. He'd thrown a fifty and a twenty at Adam.
“Go get a drink. For you and your friend.” Nigel said, jerking his head as if to mean the girl.
Adam was stunned. He didn't want to get up and go anywhere. He especially didn't want to go and get a drink for himself and a woman he didn't know. Did Nigel mean an alcoholic drink? Why had he given him so much money? How was Adam supposed to buy an alcoholic drink without an ID?
But then Nigel’s big leg swung over, over his mom’s bent legs, and Nigel kicked Adam’s calf. The sand stirred on Adam's legs.
“Go.” He ordered.
Adam shot up, clutching his switch to his chest and the damp bills in his other hand.
He did not, as Nigel had directed, go towards the girl giving him eye contact.
That seemed like the worst direction to move in.
Aimlessly, and anxiously, Adam plodded off in the sand, counting in his head to try and stay calm about all of this.
Then he saw the cabana bar that his mom had been lined up outside of for nearly twenty minutes. They would probably sell Adam a soda. Or maybe water if they didn't have soda. That could eat up the next twenty minutes at least, and maybe, oh, maybe Adam could find a way to get a seat at one of the stools in the shade at the square bar and while away the rest of the afternoon in the shade playing his game.
He breathed through his mouth so he wouldn't have to smell the sunblock on the woman’s back in front of him.
Adam played Stardew Valley while he waited in line. It wasn't so bad doing it standing up. It was much better than thinking about Nigel rubbing tanning oil on his mom. Gross.
Enough time passed that eventually Adam found his way to the front of the line. This was the part he dreaded a bit.
He paused his game, took a deep breath, was about to ask if they had rootbeer-
When someone bumped right into him.
Adam looked up. “Excuse me,” he said softly.
It was a man. Blonde, tall, shirtless, and very tan and very-
Muscular,
Adam thought, staring in shock at lats and delts and pecs.
“Sorry, I'm totally using you to cut in line. But I'll buy you a shot to pay you back. Silver or gold tequila?” The man laughed, eyes as blue as Adam's were. Except they were many shades icier.
“Uh…” Adam couldn't comprehend the question. What did gold and silver have to do with tequila and-
The man saw the way Adam was looking at him. And maybe that was the problem. Adam wasn't good at hiding his attention.
“On second thought, you look like something sweeter than just shots.” The man said. His arm came around Adam's naked shoulders. Adam was shocked to be touched so casually. The guy spoke to the bartender next, “Paloma for me. And a tequila sunrise for my friend.”
A minute or so later, Adam’s chest was crushed to the high top bar and sipping the sweetest thing he'd ever had in his life. He should have said no thank you, or politely moved away and got back in line, but it was all happening rather quickly.
“So sweet…” Adam whispered.
“That's the grenadine that's so sweet. You never had one before?”
Adam blushed. ‘You never had one’ was not grammatically correct. But he'd learned from Nigel not to be 'annoying’ about such things.
“No.” Adam admitted, biting back his correction.
“You want another one?”
“What is your name, please?” Adam asked instead of answering. He felt light headed. Happy. He’d drank that all really fast.
“I’m Alex,” the guy said.
Adam lit up.
Alex was the name of his boyfriend in Stardew Valley!
Real life Alex didn't look like Stardew Valley Alex. But that was alright, because Alex in Stardew Valley didn't look like Nigel, and Nigel was the one that Adam really wished was his boyfriend. This Alex looked neither like Adam’s Stardew Valley boyfriend, nor the older man he wished was his boyfriend in real life, but he was very good looking all the same.
“You know I really came over here to talk to you, not get a drink. What’s your name cutie?” Alex whispered in his ear. At the same time he signaled for the bar tender with a hundred dollar bill. No line needed, for that price.
Adam looked up at the man and smiled shyly. The blush on his face was racing right down to his chest. It was weird that Alex had made up an excuse to talk to him when he could have just said hello.
“My name is Adam.”
“I want to introduce you to someone. You mind?” He asked, waving over Adam’s head simultaneously at someone else. Then his eyes dropped back down to Adam.
“Sorry if this is direct…” the guy- Alex- said. His hand fell onto Adam’s shoulder.
“Being direct is better than being indirect.” Adam said automatically, confused by the tone he'd heard.
“Well, haha, okay then. Have you ever taken two at the same time?”
Adam blinked.
“Have I ever taken two of what at the same time?” He asked, just as Alex’s friend arrived, and a new drink was pushed in front of him.
All of Nigel's money remained unspent and folded up in Adam's swim-short pockets.
Nigel was tweaking Veronica's nipples through her bikini. She had nice enough tits. But her nipples were fucking great.
He wasn't worried about getting caught in public. There wasn't a single person with a sex drive and a fuck buddy on this beach who wouldn't be using the excuse of public half nudity and the expectation of lotion application to not get themselves off if they could.
He closed his eyes the moment her hand grazed him over his shorts. Her eyes were brown. When he closed his eyes, he saw blue eyes.
The right kind of blue. Nice, warm, pretty, ocean blue.
Veronica guided Nigel’s hand between her own legs. She was high as a kite. Would be for the next couple of hours.
The sounds coming from were getting a bit distracting. His eyes closed. He usually didn't mind the sound. He liked hearing feedback. But right now he wanted some fucking quiet so he could listen to the wind, and the waves, and the gulls while getting a dry rub not listen to-
“Uhhhh uhh uh uh-”
Nigel’s eyes opened. Veronica would need to shut the fuck up just a little bit. Jesus Christ.
He whispered to her to be quiet or else others would hear them.
And then he closed his eyes and tried to will his mind back to the good stuff. Sea salt air, sun beating down, blue eyes a man could get lost in.
Lovely blue eyes. That's all he usually allowed himself to think about. Nothing else. He wasn't gay. He didn't like dick.
He just liked those eyes.
Would love to see them focused up on him while Adam knelt and deep throated his cock.
Not gay. Nah. Adam could pass as a girl.
That wasn't true, though. Adam was petite, but he wasn't a girl. He didn't have tits.
But Adam did have the prettiest fucking nipples Nigel had ever see in his entire goddamn life. And Nigel had seen a lot. But there was something about how small, and pink, and pebbly they got in the breeze that had him fucking stiff in his shorts while he'd been watching Adam play his little farming game.
The sunglasses had helped Nigel with his cover. Adam hadn't even realized Nigel was staring.
It had frankly pissed Nigel off. Made his teeth gnash. His spine straighten and his dick throb watching Adam lick his sun chapped lips while his cute little nipples got stiff from the slightest cool breeze on the hot day.
So he'd been maybe a little harsh on the boy. So what. He deserved it. No. Maybe not. He needed it though, definitely. He needed a strong male figure in his life. Someone to teach him how to be a man, how to be independent, confident-
Bent over. With his wet, pink, sweet tongue licking all over the tip of Nigel's cock like a tease. A difficult, sweet little sensual sphinx in the sand making Nigel answer the riddle of why he was so turned on.
Nigel’s fantasy drifted as pleasure mounted right in the open.
He imagined Adam crawling in the sand. Maybe army crawling. Adam could be playful. Fuck it. For a fantasy at least. Nigel liked that. Adam crawling up in the sand, pink cute nipples on his flat boy’s chest- the peaks rubbing and catching gritty grains of sand while he crawled between Nigel's legs.
Nigel imagined pushing his own cock down a little if he could manage it. If it wasn't so hard it hurt and insisted on standing up like a flag pole. He could maybe palm his thick cock down one leg of his swim trunks.
The swim trunks were baggy, and short. The new trend. His fully erect dick could peek out past the fabric if he angled his leg to allow the fabric to slip.
That's all Adam would need, Nigel imagined. Just the tip out. That's all Nigel wanted really. Was that too much to fucking ask with all the money he'd spent on the boy? Fuck. He liked buying him things. He'd buy him a new Nintendo piece of crap just to apologize for being rude today.
Nigel’s breath came out short.
He imagined Adam’s little kitten tongue poking out and licking just the very tip of his cock head.
Just the tip, baby, he'd tell Adam.
How many times had he said that in his life and it had been a complete lie? But he'd be still, for Adam. At first.
Lick, lick, lave, lick lick- he imagined Adam with just the smallest licks on his big cock, just the barest touch, pink nipples rubbing the sand and big wide eyes fixated up on Nigel. Good boy...
Nigel imagined doing it right here. In front of everyone. Not moving a single muscle and just letting Adam lick the tip of his penis like a lollipop or a popsicle.
So wrong. His breath grew short and his heart sped up imagining Adam’s tongue wrapping around the tip of his dick. Nigel wanted Adam to lay down on his belly in the sand and worship the tip and drink down all of Nigel's cum.
“Should we just go back to the room and fuck really quick?” Veronica breathed in his ear.
That killed the fantasy pretty fucking fast.
“No.” He said.
He opened his eyes and lolled his head to the side. Besides hot bodies in bikinis and seagulls eating potato chips and sandwich crusts, he failed to see anything that caught his attention.
Until he leaned his neck back. And saw Adam.
Adam with the pretty pink nipples and the gorgeous eyes and face, and the hot lithe body- getting rubbed up on by not one but two men at the bar. Too far off to yell out to.
What the fuck was this?
Adam was leaned shyly to the counter with his battered game boy or what the fuck ever it was and a couple of drained drinks in front of him. Two men, each a head at minimum taller than Adam, stood on either side of him.
Each man had a hand on him.
Nigel could see Adam in profile. Two men’s hands circling and feeling him up, back and ass both. Adam was smiling and blushing more realistically than a $1,000 whore up at the blonde douchebag closest to him.
Nigel stared a good long few seconds, brain trying to catch up to the reality of the innocent as freshly-fallen-snow boy clearly enjoying the attention he was getting from two men with hairless bodies and douchey fucking haircuts.
He saw one of the men squeeze Adam’s ass.
Adam jolted against the grease stained bar counter. He looked upset quite suddenly. Like he was trying to jam himself into the bar top to escape the hand rubbing his cheek over his shorts-
“Piece of fucking shit-” Nigel snarled out as he watched the strangers big middle finger try and literally finger Adam’s ass through the shorts.
The man laughed when Adam appeared to yelp.
Nigel couldn't hear any of it at this distance. He heard Veronica though, annoyed he was getting up and leaving her high ass on the ground.
Nigel jolted up too fast.
Sand stuck to the sweat on the back of his thighs. Veronica said his name, sharp and fucked up on ket and liquor, but Nigel didn't care. She'd be fine for five fucking minutes.
Adam was still at the bar. Still holding the switch. Still red in the face. One man had a hand at his waist. The other that had already touched his ass looked happy with himself for it.
Nigel’s dick was still hard enough to make the front of the ugly trunks pull wrong.
Fine. Let the whole fucking beach look while he beat the shit out of two gloryhole cocksuckers for touching Adam. His Adam.
Let him out of my sight for ten minutes and this shit happens, Nigel thought.
One of the men, the blonde one, caught sight of Nigel before he even got there. His eyes dipped down to Nigel’s tacky swim shorts and then looked back at Adam in his matching set. And back again at Nigel, piecing together the fact that the dangerous looking man was coming right towards them. Nigel watched the nervous realization hit the man that a confrontation was arriving.
Maybe the prick expected the conversational kind of confrontation though. Too bad Nigel wasn't in the talking mood.
“Uh, hey,” the guy said as Nigel closed in. His friend turned too. And so did Adam.
Nigel caught sight of Adam's wide, confused blue eyes looking up at him. Then Adam's face broke in to soft relief.
"Hiiii," he said in his sweet voice. "I'm glad you're here. I had a lot to drink and I think I'm-"
Nigel interrupted Adam to get in the biggest guy's face.
"You gave liquor to my fucking son? You booze him up so you could touch him?" Nigel asked. He didn't actually care about underage drinking. And Adam was no son of his. He just needed that exact combination of words spoken loudly enough to give himself public permission to start a fight without getting the cops called immediately.
"Son?" Adam giggled. Drunk. Or getting there. Clearly.
"Sir, I swear I had no idea-"
That's all prick number one was able to get out in his own defense. His friend was smarter and started running.