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If he didn't know it to be paper, he would have thought his table to be covered with an odd looking tablecloth. At the first glance, it appeared mostly white. Upon closer inspection, the cover revealed its intricate patterns in at least three different colors, meanders of inscriptions going on and on, seemingly without a beginning nor an end. The reality was much more daunting, though. The entirety of the paper were notes. Handwritten notes. In his semi-readable, rushed handwriting. He sighed and laid his head atop his hands on the tabletop.
His consciousness started to slowly drift away, but a knock on the door brought Karol back to Earth. He blinked twice, the table in front of him slowly coming back into focus. An ocean of notes scattered across it almost made his head swim again.
Another, stronger knock. Karol put his palms on the table and rose to his feet, the chair scraping the worn down panels. The noise made him wince a bit. As his feet shuffled across the floor, there came yet another knock. He reached to turn the key.
Behind the entry door to his apartment stood his friend in his black hoodie and gray sweatpants. A mild impatience colored his otherwise stoic, handsome features. He blinked once the door opened.
"I've thought you died," Arkadiusz said flatly and brushed past Karol, something in his hands clinking as he did.
Karol looked down at what he assumed was a bag filled with beer and snacks. The man jiggled it, as if in confirmation. "What, you've thought I'm gonna come empty-handed?"
Karol shook his head. "No, if anything I would be surprised if you didn't bring anything."
Arkadiusz smiled at that, the goodie bag secured on the kitchen counter. As he started unpacking it, he took a quick look at the table Karol had been hunched over for the last couple of hours. Only then did it occur to the man that maybe it would be a good idea to clean it.
"Shit, sorry."
"No need," his friend replied and redirected his gaze onto the snacks again. "I guess you've been busy?"
Karol's palm slid across his face, as if the movement could wipe all the fatigue away. "You have no idea ."
Arek made a noncommittal grunt in response, and that marked the end of their conversation. Karol quickly swept the sheets away from the small table, order of the pages rather important but not something he felt like caring about in the moment; It was a problem for future Karol. The present moment Karol didn't give a flying fuck about them. He couldn't be bothered even if he wanted to, all of his mental strength already sucked out.
Their plan for tonight was very simple – to go out and grab some drinks. Then it turned out the state of Karol's bank account was less than desirable, so he humbly asked if they could drink at his place; He wanted to get wasted, not go bankrupt. At least his flat was dry (which couldn't be said about the outside world the last time he checked) and had beat saber and a few other games within its walls. Karol wasn't entirely sure if he had it in him to play tonight, but it was an option if they felt up to it.
His friend didn't comment on the change of plans, neither did he mind bringing in tonight's supplies. Karol was immensely grateful for that and they both knew he will pay back with a nice dinner next time. It'd been like that for a while now. He liked this little, unspoken rule.
With papers stashed away, they could sit down and start their little hang out. It took Arek one beer to start prodding, which for him seemed like a reasonably long time. "What's up with all this?" He pointed at the stack in the corner with his chin.
Karol sighed. "I have an exam in two weeks."
Arek raised an eyebrow. "Don't you have an iPad to take notes or something?"
"It broke down," he briefly remembered the glitchy screen of his beloved, all-purpose tablet, before it turned off for good. "The repair would cost the same or more than a new one, and I can't really afford either ."
"And a used one?" Karol shook his head. "Ouch. This sucks. But hand written notes? What are you, a grandpa?"
He took a swig. "Listen, I was desperate . Anyway," and another one. "Long story short, I am stuck with a ton of notes I am yet to understand and learn from."
A small, pathetic sound escaped his mouth. Not really a whimper nor a sob, but something with a similar emotional baggage attached. "And kids at schools are mean."
Arkadiusz looked at him quizzically. "Since when do you work with kids?"
"Since I started the traineeship this month." He grabbed the bag of Lays and opened it, gingerly taking out a fistful of green onion flavored chips. "I don't mind difficult children or even the lazy ones, but those little devils from 6A haunt me in my dreams."
His friend laughed at that, Karol's misery apparently amusing. He was saying the truth, though. Those kids were evil incarnate. " Wow , and you want to be a teacher with this attitude?"
"You won't be laughing when I spray them with holy water and they all start sizzling like crisp bacon." Now he was joking, obviously, as he would never do it to a child. The idea was tempting, though.
Arkadiusz nearly choked on his beer, but managed to evade the sad fate of a dead man. "I would love to see that, tell you what."
Karol smiled at the vision of him filming the aftermath of exorcizing the sixth grader demons, only to send it to his friend as a proof.
"On a more serious note though," he looked back at the table, his eyes focused on nothing in particular. "I'm tired , Arek."
The man scanned him briefly. "I can see that."
"The bills are piling up, I'm drowning in work and my landlord wants to renovate the bathroom next week." Karol opened another bottle and took a sip. "And that means there will be strangers coming in and out for at least a week straight. Mostly when I'm home, mind you."
"I mean, you get a better bathroom out of it."
"I'd rather have peace and quiet," he helped himself to more chips.
For a moment, Karol thought that was the end of the conversation. Arkadiusz didn't look like he had anything to add, casually sipping on his beer in silence. Karol didn't mind that. In all honesty, what else was there to say? He felt worn down and needed to bitch about it to a trusted someone, and he did. There was little (if anything at all) to be done with his situation – he had zero control over his landlord and his decisions, the children at school were outside any and all influence, and his prof set the date at the very beginning of the semester. No matter at what angle he looked at his current situation, it seemed his hands were tied.
"You know," Arek's voice brought Karol's attention back to the present moment. "I think you need to destress."
Karol scoffed. "Tell me something I don't know .”
"I mean it," he took a sip and put the now-empty bottle aside. "Your brain needs a hard reset."
Arkadiusz turned in his seat, his arms propped at the tabletop as he leaned over it. "And as much as I like and appreciate alcohol, casual drinking won't do."
Karol furrowed his brows and rested the beer bottle against his lips. "I don't think I want to get absolutely hammered, I need to be alive tomorrow."
His friend snorted. "There are other ways to relax, you know."
"Like what?" He put the drink down, or whatever had remained of it anyway. "And before you say anything, please remember I'm pretty broke."
The man hummed. "You could go for a run. Like a really long, coughing-up-blood one."
Karol winced at the idea. "True, but I don't think I have enough hours in the day for that." It was true; He barely had enough time to get everything done from his day-to-day tasks list. If he wanted to completely wear himself down like that, he would have to give up on sleep or lesson prep-up. It sounded less than ideal, frankly.
Arek seemed to be thinking for a moment, his chin now resting atop of his palm. "Sex is free."
It was Karol's turn to snort. "Good one."
"What?" Arkadiusz raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm being serious."
"Not to shit on your ideas man," he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. "But in case you forgot, I'm not seeing anyone right now."
Not that he wanted it to be like that, mind you. It was just that his current workload and earnings successfully raised the difficulty level of finding someone.
The man rolled his eyes. " In case you forgot ," he parroted, the jab very obvious. "Hook-ups exist."
Karol sank in his seat a little. "I don't know." His hands suddenly felt restless, so he grabbed the nearest bottle and opened it. "I don't think it's as easy as you make it out to be."
Arkadiusz groaned, throwing his head back in apparent frustration. "Not with this attitude."
" Hey —"
"Listen," a strand of hair escaped the bun and placed itself neatly across the man's face. "If you're so uptight about random one-night stands, there's always a friend option."
Arkadiusz picked a bottle from the remaining stash and took a sip. Karol, in the meantime, tried to make out the meaning behind his friend's words.
The man quickly caught up on his confusion. He rolled his eyes, again. "Ever heard of friends with benefits before?"
The exasperated tone didn't put him off. "Yeah, but who would even agree to that?"
Arkadiusz raised an eyebrow from behind his bottle, and gave him a pointed look. It took Karol a moment to realize what his friend was implying; He responded with a wide-eyed, a tad incredulous look of his own. "Are you real right now?"
The man put his drink on the table. "You don't have to take me on that. I am simply giving you an option."
Karol shifted in his seat, the air around him suddenly hot and nearly suffocating. He wasn't opposed to the idea. In fact, he would very much like to get laid. But the idea of his best friend giving him a hand like that sounded... weird. As if it breached some unspoken rule. He took a solid swig to gain a few precious seconds, so he could have a chance to collect his thoughts.
"What if it ruins... this?" He finally asked, although cautiously, his hand gesturing at the space between himself and his friend.
Arek seemed completely unbothered. "The key is to not get attached. Easy as that."
Karol didn't feel convinced. His worries remained unspoken though, his expression stern. Arkadiusz must have noticed the internal struggle, because he reached across the table and moved Karol's face slightly up by his chin. The eye contact felt a bit too intense for his liking but he didn't look away.
"You worry too much, my liege."
Karol smiled at the nickname. It gave this new, awkward situation a soothing sense of familiarity. "Maybe."
"See? Attaboy." The man patted his cheek and returned to his side of the table.
They finished their respective drinks in silence, the action weirdly anxiety-inducing... No, scratch that. It was more of an anticipation . It felt almost scary, how eager Karol suddenly became. He knew he couldn't blame everything on the alcohol, either. They didn't drink that much to begin with.
"Hey."
Karol looked up from his (now empty) bottle, his friend holding one of the last few remaining ones in his hand. "Wanna share?"
He didn't notice they went through (almost) the entire stash, however humble it might have been. He nodded, the gesture quickly followed by a characteristic psst sound.
Usually, if they did decide to share a drink or food, it would be one of them taking a little for himself and then passing the container to the other in that silent, yet comfortable, back-and-forth manner.
Tonight was different.
Arkadiusz took a big swig from the bottle, which seemed fairly normal, and then stood up and walked around the table to where Karol sat. Before a thought to maybe to do something even crossed his mind, his friend cupped his face and kissed him, the alcohol washing down Karol's throat as he did. The kiss ended as abruptly as it started, the man pulling out and idly studying Karol's features for signs of protest. He found none. He smiled.
Arek did it again. Then again. He continued to share the drink like that until there was nothing left. But even then, the kisses didn't stop. They gradually became deeper and longer, their tongues getting involved somewhere along the way as well.
Arkadiusz pulled out and straightened his back. "You good?" His voice got huskier, and all Karol could muster was a sharp nod.
The man glanced around. "How about we change the setting?"
He made a good point; Karol's neck started to ache, and probably Arek's didn't feel much better from hunching over him.
He got up from his chair and immediately found himself in the other man's arms; One hand creeped onto the nape of his neck, pulling closer, while the other rested on the small of Karol's back, keeping him in place. He couldn't complain at this turn of events. Frankly, he enjoyed the fact his friend took the initiative like this. He embraced him and let himself be guided to wherever his friend deemed suitable.
The choice landed on the nearby sofa bed. Before they plopped down, Karol got asked if he had any lube around. He swiftly fetched it from one of the drawers in a small nightstand. That earned him an amusing smile. "What?"
"Always ready to go, huh?" The man put the small tube aside, yet within arms reach, and got himself comfortable on the bed with his back resting on the backrest.
The little jab didn't deter Karol's spirit. He knew better than to let stupid comments like that get to him, especially when they came from his friend. "Har-har."
His flat tone got rewarded with a snort, quickly followed by a rhythmic pat on the covers in between Arek's legs. He understood the cue and promptly situated himself in front of the guy, his back leaning against his chest.
He didn't have to wait long for him to resume where they left off, Arek's mouth now focused on the crook of Karol's neck instead of his mouth. The man's hands roamed freely underneath his T-shirt and across his chest, nails scraping the skin with enough force to let themselves be known but not enough to leave more permanent traces. Karol grew increasingly antsy and his hands lacked ideas on what to do with themselves, so one ended up clutching the sheets while the other wandered off into the hair of his friend, the messy bun of his ruined for good. The man didn't seem to care about that.
If anything, he appeared a tiny bit amused and appreciative of Karol's reactions. " Relax ," he cooed in a deep, low voice, and something within Karol's guts tied itself into a knot. "Where's the fun if you come in five minutes?"
Karol huffed, offended. "I will not .”
"Promise?" The sweet tone caused a new knot to form in his guts, albeit for different reasons.
Arkadiusz didn't wait for an answer, the palm of one of his hands trailing down and palming at Karol's bulge instead. He inhaled sharply.
His friend seemed to welcome the resolve and so, as if pushing the limits further, he painstakingly slowly lowered his pants. With his dick now fully exposed, the reality of the situation appeared to wash over Karol – he was making out and about to have sex with his friend. His quite hot, but still a bit of a jerk, friend.
He wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. Not that it mattered now; The guy in question squeezed clear liquid onto his hand and proceeded to jack Karol off.
The movements were slow but precise, steadily picking up speed. Arek's free hand cupped firmly at Karol's jaw and turned it to the side, the angle anything but comfortable. Their kiss was sloppy, lots of saliva dropping onto Karol's shoulder over time, but neither of them cared. At some point Arek's hand wandered off once more, this time deciding to pinch his nipples.
The whimper that escaped Karol's mouth felt undignifying. He bit down on his lower lip to stop the other noises that threatened to come out.
"Don't hold back," his friend coaxed. "Let all the sounds out, enjoy yourself."
Easier said than done, Karol thought. Arek didn't have an ex who preferred their partners to be quiet, like he did. The guy probably didn't have to live in a flat with paper-thin walls for his reformative years, like he did, either.
Still, he took a shaky breath and exhaled slowly. "I will try— AH !" He got pinched again.
When Karol looked over his shoulder, Arkadiusz was smirking, visibly content with himself.
" Asshole ."
The man snorted. "Speaking of which," He stopped stroking Karol's dick, and instead moved his hand further down, as low as he could reach. He looked at him with one eyebrow raised, the question nearly audible.
He suddenly felt dizzy. It didn't stop his head from nodding, though, which only made the matter more confusing to him.
Before he could think of anything coherent to say, his friend practically whispered to his ear. "Stomach or back?"
Karol didn't quite catch the meaning behind the words, but arbitrarily chose the first option. In an instant he got pushed down, his face now pressed onto the sheets with the bottom half of his body kept slightly up.
Oh .
A sound of the cap opening and of the lube being squeezed out. Not long after that, a feeling of something cold on his ass, quickly followed by a finger prodding at his entrance. He involuntarily whimpered again.
The man basically purred into his ear as he pushed one of his fingers inside. "Relax, Karol ."
Whether it was because of the touch or the words spoken he couldn't tell, but the fact remained nevertheless; Karol moaned, the sound loud and clear, and unbecoming.
Arkadiusz paid him no mind, skillfully working his finger inside of him and aptly warming him up for another. Karol hid as much of his face in the sheets as he physically could, his hands clutching the material like a lifeline. He groaned into the mattress as his friend slid the second finger inside, and continued to produce stifled, indecorous sounds as the man worked on the third.
Whenever Arkadiusz bent over him, be it to bite down on his skin or drag his nails on Karol's chest, his long hair tickled the tender skin on Karol's back and even on his face. The sensation was not unpleasant, but it certainly didn't help; He felt as if he was about to lose it any minute now.
Karol tried his best to not come too soon, but when he felt a sharp jab to his painfully erect cock, his body reacted on its own; He cum with a loud cry, the sound only partially dampened by the bedsheets. He could feel the sperm on his stomach, most of it probably landing on the sheets beneath his torso anyway, but he didn't feel inclined to care about that right now. As he felt fingers sliding out of him, he tried propping himself, his head still hazy. Needless to say he failed, his friend snickering in the back.
"If I knew a little flick to the dick is all you needed to come, I wouldn't have bothered with giving my hand a workout." Arkadiusz sounded amused. Karol didn't have to see his face to know he was grinning smugly, the expression almost hearable in the man's tone.
"Dickhead," his voice came out a bit hoarse. He cleared his throat as he finally found his balance and managed to stand up.
He turned around. His friend trailed off to the kitchen and turned on the sink. Karol approached him as the guy was grabbing some of the paper towel to dry his hands. "That was unfair ."
Arkadiusz snorted, a confident smile of mischief on display. "As I said, you could have mentioned you just need a jab or two."
" Fuck off ." There was no malice in his tone, nor did he feel angry at his friend. He knew the man. He knew what to expect from him most of the time. Half the time. At least sometimes.
A fond little smile crept onto Karol's face as he watched Arek gather his hair up to put it back into a bun or a ponytail. His eyes took in the view, idly wandering over the man's body, and then involuntarily sliding downwards—
“And what are you gonna do about that?" Karol pointed with his chin at the guy's bulge.
Arek shrugged. He didn't appear too bothered, though Karol doubted he truly didn't care.
An idea popped into his mind. "I could help you with that."
Arkadiusz raised an eyebrow. "Can you now?"
"It's only fair I return the favor," he said, although he felt a bit hot in the ears as he did. The fact he just had sex with his friend, and was now suggesting it himself, still felt surreal.
The man hummed. "If you insist."
Karol sighed and closed his eyes. He weighed his options. The sofa bed sounded somewhat enticing, but something in his head was telling him Arek didn't necessarily fancy it for himself.
He looked at his friend. "Do you want to sit down or prefer standing up?"
The guy seemed to be pleasantly interested with where Karol was going. "Standing, please."
Karol walked over to him. "Alright." He kneeled down in front of him, the cold floor not the most comfortable surface, but it was what it was.
As he was untying Arek's sweatpants and pulling them down, the man spoke. "Aww, look at you, so eager to go down on your knees for me."
There was something in his words that stung or, at the very least, was supposed to. In a sense, it did. But the stab Karol got didn't exactly feel... unpleasant. The implications behind Arkadiusz's words weren't nice , they were meant to demean him. Yet, Karol proceeded to stroke his friend cock and lick at the shaft, the words ringing faintly in his ears, something in his gut stirring in a new, funny way.
Arkadiusz put both his hands in Karol's hair, not necessarily encouraging him but keeping his head in place.
Karol moved slowly on purpose, deliberately avoiding taking the entirety of his friend's into his mouth. He didn't get to play around like that for long though, as the previously idle hands clenched on his head, pulling at his hair. The pain didn't put him off but it became obvious Arkadiusz wasn't the type you want to tease, lest you wish to anger him.
He rolled his eyes and took the whole length, close-to-nonexistent gag reflex certainly a perk. His head bobbed back and forth, just as his hand worked quicker. Guttural noises his friend kept making told Karol he was getting close. He pondered briefly if he should take the load into his mouth or pull out at the last second, when Arkadiusz yanked at his hair. Karol let his cock out, a thick string of saliva still connecting his mouth with it. He looked up at the man with a puzzled look. Did he somehow do something wrong and pissed his friend?
The grip on Karol's hair loosened, Arkadiusz loudly breathing out before speaking. "You know, I have a better idea."
Karol furrowed his eyebrows. "Okay?"
One of Arek's hands slid over to his chin and gently, yet decisively, pointed it upwards. The guy bent over slightly, too, for good measure.
The smile Arkadiusz gave him sent a surging spark through his spine and straight to his dick. Karol gulped.
"How do you feel about round two?”