They hung around a while talking to the family and met Tony's two brothers - one older, one younger than him. ("Danny's more of a brother than these two ever were.") Mid-afternoon, Tony took them out for a walk around the town - it didn't take long, it wasn't a big place - even smaller than Westpoint.

He showed then where Daniel used to live, showed them the school, the river and other favourite places. They saw a few of his school-mates about but nobody much wanted to know - apparently he'd been pissing everybody off, so he didn't really have any friends left.

Tony was delighted to hear that Daniel had found some friends to play music with.

"About time too. He needs to play, he's a born guitarist. Danny only ever used to play for his gran and me. He played and I sang for him, it was fun, but he needs to be with a group. So, who sings?"

When they returned they had dinner with all the Duncans, including their grandparents, then the three went back to the motel for the night.

Tuesday, Tony was at the door before the others were even out of bed. They spent the day driving around and exploring the district.

Wednesday morning, they came up the hill and collected Tony and his parents, and they drove into the city. A quick look around there, lunch at a Burger King, ("Not as good as Billy's"), then they went out to the airport to catch the plane home - a flight to Wellington connecting there with the flight home to Westpoint in the same little plane that they'd started in.

Tony was amused at the sight of Westpoint's tiny airport, but Jonathan told him to shut the fuck up. "This is our home-town here, Boy."

Jonathan drove them home to the Adelphi Hotel where they were greeted by the grandparents. (Yes, they had a spare room now.) Then Justin and Billy took an extremely anxious Tony up to their room, while Jonathan drove across town to collect Daniel and Toddy.

Toddy had been kept fully posted on their progress and he was waiting excitedly with a totally unaware Daniel. Back at the hotel, Jonathan took Daniel and Toddy upstairs to his and Justin's room.

They stood outside the door, Jonathan and Toddy grinning from ear to ear, Daniel wondering what the hell was going on. Then Jonathan knocked and called out "You decent in here?" He opened the door and walked in.

Daniel followed him in and saw Justin and Billy sitting on the end of the bed, grinning at him. "Hey Guys, where have you been?" He looked around the room and glanced at the other figure there - sitting nervously on the wide window sill.

He looked back at Toddy behind him, then froze. Daniel slowly turned around and had another look at the boy who was now rising from his window seat.

Tony rushed to him, but Toddy caught him before he hit the floor. He held him up and Tony wrapped his arms around him and took him from Toddy. He swung the limp form around and laid him down on the now empty bed.

Tony stood back looking down at him, but Toddy, full of concern now for what they'd done to him, sat beside Daniel, slapping his face. "Daniel. Daniel! Come on, Guitar Man, wake up."

Daniel opened his eyes and smiled up at Toddy, then he sat upright and looked again.

He sprung up from the bed and flung his arms around him. The pair of them stood there, swaying as they embraced, crying over each other’s shoulders and whispering each other's names over and over again.

"Righto, you lot," said Billy herding the other three out the door. "Bit of privacy needed here."

Justin, Jonathan and Billy went down to the kitchen to find something to eat. Toddy stayed out in the hallway and he sat down on the floor, looking at the door and waiting. Several long minutes later, the door opened and Daniel looked out. He grinned at Toddy rising up from the carpet.

"Toddy. Come in here. Come and meet my Tony. I can't believe it, Tones is here. Jonathan went up and got him. Jonathan, Justin and Billy, they all flew up there, frightened the life out of him and then brought him back. You knew, didn't you? You rotten bugger, you knew and you didn't tell me."

"I knew. It was, sort-of, my idea, but it was Jonathan who decided to do it and he said not to tell you in case he didn't come, plus we wanted to surprise you. Hey Tony."

"Surprise me? You nearly killed me, you rotten buggers. Tones this is Toddy. Actually," he slipped an arm around Toddy and planted a quick kiss on his lips. "This is my Toddy, I'm gay Tones."

"I didn't know years ago, but I know now. Why didn't you tell me? Bloody idiot yourself."

"I didn't know either. I didn't know - well, until Toddy came along. But I've always known that I love you, Tones."

They trooped down to the kitchen so that Tony could eat. As he was getting himself a sandwich, Daniel asked, "What the hell happened to you Tones?"

"I mean - well look at you, Man. You're fat. You're bloody huge, what happened?"

"Ah, shut up, Danny. I'm going to do something about it - diet and exercise. I've just been overdoing the comfort food thing, trying to replace you with food or something."

"Well, it's working. A couple more months and you'll be twice the size you were."

"Yeah, you're going to fix it. Starting tomorrow we're going to start running, and we'll run until you're back in shape. Your proper shape I mean."

"No you won't. We start tomorrow. I want to see you in a routine before you go home."

Justin and Billy went for a walk downtown. Jonathan drove the others across town to the bottom of Romney Street. He and Toddy left them and went over to the Todd's house, Daniel took Tony in to meet his family.

Tom was non-committal, just stood, shook his hand, said hello and went back to his evening paper. Nita, however, was delighted to see him. She welcomed him enthusiastically, thanked him for coming and said that she’d been worried about Daniel.

John was pissed and he let everyone know it. "Just what we need. More bloody strangers coming in here and filling up our house. Why don't we just put up a sign and start a bloody hotel?"

"John," said Nita. "That's enough of that. You can apologize to Tony and then go to your room."

He jumped up from the computer. "I'll go to my room then but I'm not apologizing to anybody. Why don't you just bugger off? We don't want you here." He ran out and slammed the door.

Nita grimaced. "I'm sorry about that, boys. I'll deal with him shortly. Don't take any notice of John, Tony - we do want you here. We're delighted to have you here. I don't know where you're going to sleep though. I suppose it'll have to be the couch in the living room. It doesn't fold out into a bed, but it's fairly long. You should be all right there."

"Tony doesn't have to sleep on the couch, Aunty. He can come and sleep in my bed, with me, like he's done a thousand times. I never thought that that was ever going to happen again."

"I don't know, Daniel. Will there be enough room? It's only a single bed and you two are not little boys anymore."

"It's not a problem," Tony said. "Really. I've already got a room - at the Adelphi Hotel. The Reynolds said that I can stay there, and for free too."

Daniel protested. "No! You're not staying at the Adelphi. That's all the way across town - you came here to be with me. Maybe I could come and stay at the Adelphi too. Do you think they'd have me?"

Nita's brother, George Barnes, who lived alone, next door, was sitting quietly in the corner by the fire. He stood up. "There's no need for anyone to go and stay at the hotel. I've got three spare bedrooms right next door. Tony can sleep over there. Daniel too if he wants.

"Cool," Daniel beamed. "We'll do that then. Thanks George. We'll both sleep over at George's place."

"No! You're not!" John burst back through the door. "You've got your own bed, in my room - in our room. That's where you belong, not next door."

Everyone, even Tom, looked at him amazed. Daniel said, "But I thought you didn't like me being there?"

"Well I do. I've gotten used to it and I like having you there." His voice trailed off, embarrassed now at his outburst, and that he'd been listening at the door.

"Thanks, John. I'm getting to like sharing with you too, but Tones is only going to be here for a short time so I want to spend all the time I can with him."

"Well, okay then - just for a short time. But you just remember that you belong over here."

Daniel took Tony over to Toddy's house where he was introduced to the family. Mavis also told him that she was pleased that he'd come because she was getting worried about Daniel too.

They took his bag from Jonathan's car and went over to check out the room in George's house. He had prepared a bed for them in the room at the rear of the house right next to the back door. It was a king-size bed which filled most of the floor area in the small room.

"You two should be fine in here. This used to be my room when I was a boy. This is the key to the back door - don't lose it. You can come and go as you please, just keep the noise down, and I'm not feeding you - you go over to Nita's for that. Hope you like it here boys. Make yourselves at home."

The rest of the evening was spent watching TV with the Peters. When Nita finally rose and said that she was going to bed, Daniel turned the TV off and said that they would too. They went out and over next door, quietly sneaking into their room.

Daniel quickly stripped to his boxers and climbed into the bed where he lay looking at Tony. He'd only removed his sneakers and was sitting quietly on the foot of the bed.

Tony looked around at him with a sad little smile. He stood up and turned out the light before stripping off and getting into the bed, carefully lying as far away from Daniel as possible in the enormous bed.

"Don't talk crap - this is me. I know when something's wrong with you. What's the matter?"

"I'm not tired at all. I'm still so excited that you're here." He moved across, cuddled around Tony's back, put an arm around him and squeezed tight. "Aren't you glad to be here?"

"Of course I'm glad to be here." But he squirmed uncomfortably and tried to push his arm away. "Come on, Danny. Give me some room. Go to sleep."

"Dammit Tony - you're doing it again. Why won't you talk to me?" He moved back over in the bed. "Don't you like me anymore? Is that what's wrong?"

Tony turned over to face him but was still careful not to touch him physically. "We shouldn't be here, not like this. It's not right. I should've stayed at the hotel."

"You should not. This is exactly where we should be. Why would you think that it's not?"

"Because it isn't. Like Nita said, we're not little boys anymore. We're growing up, Danny, and everything's different now."

"Yes, we're growing up, but why is anything different? I'm still me, you're still you, I still love you - heaps."

"I love you too, Danny. But you've got a boyfriend now, that changes everything. Toddy is the one who should be here with you, not me."

"No. You are the one who should be here. This is where you belong, and where I belong - where we've always been - together."

"But it's not the same, Danny. We're not the same people we were. We're both gay and there is Toddy. I'm fat and ugly and he is beautiful. Do you love him Danny?"

"Yes I love Toddy. Yes he's beautiful. He's nice to look at, he's got a great body and he's a warm, loving person. I do love him, but I love you too. How could I not? You are my Tones. I didn't even know how much I loved you until I lost you and now you're back."

"You love me like a brother, but not like you love Toddy. But that is how I love you - not like a brother, not any more. Maybe I never did. I'm IN love with you Danny. Hopelessly, totally in love with you and that's why we shouldn't be here. It's not right; you belong to Toddy now, not me."

"Tones, oh Tones! I've been IN love with you for years. I don't belong to Toddy. If I belong to anybody, then I belong to you. I can't live without you Tones. I just can't."

Daniel kissed him on the lips - a long, hungry kiss on the lips. Then he grinned widely. "We could."

Tony kissed him back, even longer, even hungrier. Then he sobbed and he cried, "Oh Danny, I love you so much."

Daniel kissed him - angel kisses all around his face. "I love you, my funny little fat boy. I love you totally."

They welded together again in another long, loving embrace. Their bodies pressed up hard and harder as they both tried to embrace totally. Each could feel the other's excitement as their hard young cocks pressed against the other's legs. But, for now, they were content to go no further than that.

They lay cuddled together, planting soft kisses and whispering words of love until Tony drifted off to sleep. Daniel lay delightedly studying his face in the moonlight and, despite claiming to be not sleepy, soon followed him.

Daniel woke once in the night and felt a moment of fear on finding himself alone. He reached out in panic, then smiled again when his hands found Tony's sleeping form. Sliding across, he spooned around him and went back to sleep. About ninety minutes later, Tony did exactly the same thing.

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Westpoint Tales

by Kiwi

Entangled Tales - 40 - Daniel & Tony