He nodded in agreement — certainly fiction required a lot of imagination and the seeking of muse. Winny had sparked plenty of that in him.

As for the young man's sweet desire to see Natty's name on a book he'd written, the writer replied; "unfortunately it doesn't work like that. I —"

And then Winny slid his arms around him and nestled into his rugged chest. Natty's heart leapt and he had a sudden, surprising flood of feelings as he rested one arm awkwardly about the other's slender shoulders. "I hope so", he replied, voice strangely quiet, as the lively forest rustled around them. "Thank you for... hoping that for me."

  

---

Winston smiled up at the other as the Nattys arm rested around his shoulders. He felt a curious, fluttery feeling inside that he couldn't decipher. "You're welcome," he said as the other man thanked him. Winny felt an urge to... do something and he found his eyes briefly landing on the older mans lips. Realizing where his mind had gone, Winston felt uncharacteristically bashful and he blushed.

"Maybe we need to find a publisher that enjoys publishing unknown people? Or diamonds in the rough?" Winny was sure that people like that had to exist.

---

  

---

Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

Natty felt it too, as Winny parted from him and gazed up into his eyes. The younger man looked for a moment shy, which Natty found... extremely adorable.

Inside, he wilted with guilt.

And Winny said "we". As if this were some combined quest. "You're very sweet", he said quietly, moved. And then, before he could help himself; "so sweet, in fact, that if you were a lady I would ask your father's permission to court you. Not that such permission would be granted, of course." Even if Winny had been a girl, they were worlds apart in status.

  

---

Winny merely smiled as he was called sweet. Though what Natty said next did take him by surprise. "Would you kiss me if I was a lady?" Winston couldn't resist asking. He was almost always without a filter but even he was at least vaguely aware that this was not a thing he should be asking. Not of another man.

---

  

---

Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

A question that made his heart swell and sink all at once. Only recently, after a long decade since his wife's death, had the widowed bachelor at last opened his eyes to the charms of others. But he hadn't expected to find such charm in a young man.

But what a young man...

Rarely had he met someone so... androgynous. A male as fair as this must surely be an exception to all rules.

Ah, internally Natty writhed with a growing self-loathing.

And yet his hand rose, and with long curled fingers he gently traced the edge of Winny's narrow jawline, green eyes moving over flawless skin, full lips, and those mis-matched eyes that had sprung unbidden into his mind more than once. He shook his head lightly — but somehow that was not to say no.

  

---

Where Natty felt a growing self-loathing, Winny felt rather the opposite. He felt a sense of curiosity and wonder at this new feeling he had never experienced so strongly before. There had been vague crushes on men before. Not enough for him to have cement knowledge that he was of a certain proclivity but enough for him to realize in the back of his mind where his preferences seemed to lay.

And like most new things he came across in his explorations, he wanted to embrace it fully. Though at the same time he was not so naive to not know the risks in that nor the way society viewed such things. He knew he would not be able to tell just anyone about this nor could he even dare to kiss this man in public. So he was grateful for the deep cover of the forest they had now.

It was hard to care about such things (even if Winny were the type to do so) when Natty was standing there before him. His hand rising and tracing the edge of Winnys jawline, making the younger mans eyes close briefly as he relished the touch. It felt like electric sparks lay in the wake of Nattys fingers. He opened them to peer up at the other as Nattys own eyes seemed to be moving over his face.

Natty was shaking his head no.. but a feeling was there. And Winston had always been one to read more into the aura and feelings a person gave off. Leaning up, he first shyly pecked Natty on the lips. He had pulled back only briefly before he was pressing his lips against Nattys again, this time more passionately. He had never kissed anyone before. Was he doing this right?

---

  

---

Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

And all of a sudden it just didn't matter.

While sometimes those eyes of Winny's seemed to have the power to add more thoughts to Natty's already crowded mind, one after the other, right now he was having the opposite effect. Each concern just slipped out of his skull like paper swept from a table, one after another.

As Winny looked from one eye to the other, reading him like a book — and stealing so timidly the lightest kiss. Dumbfounded, Natty could only blink.

And then they were lost in one another — Natty swept the slender young man into his arms, closing his eyes and meeting him in a kiss of sultry assuredness, and oh-so-much meaning.

  

---

Winston could only gasp a little as he found himself swept up into the others arms. It felt rather like a dream as Winstons brain went hazy. His fingers tangled up into the tendrils of Nattys hair that settled at the nape of the others neck.

He didn't want to stop. But he also needed to breathe eventually.

He didn't pull away when their lips fully parted and he looked up at the other, starry-eyed. He could not even find words to speak.

---

  

---

Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

Natty was submerged in the feel of him. He hadn't had this kind of experience with someone for... well, an unthinkably long time. And as they kissed, the Groundskeeper's arms around Winny's narrow figure and the younger one's fingers running through his hair, gender didn't matter in the least.

Until it did.

After a blissfully long time, they broke apart to the sound of a sparrows in the oak trees. Natty's arms moved from around him like a blanket slipping from a chair, slow and heavy. "I'm... I'm sorry", he whispered hoarsely.

For what he did not know. For succumbing to a criminal act? Or for hating himself for doing it?

  

---

Winston felt a little bereft as the others arms left his form. "Don't be sorry, why should you be?" Winston asked. He wasn't really sure what Natty was apologizing for. "I was the one that kissed you." Did Natty regret it? He hoped not. Winston didn't personally feel like they had done anything wrong even if the whole of society disagreed.

---

  

---

Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

Natty felt troubled, but inarticulately so. He had liked the kiss.... he had very much liked the kiss. The feel of Winny's soft lips on his lingered in the mind as if it were the culmination of some dream he'd been having for years. And yet...

"For a writer, I seem to be truly incapable of putting my thoughts and feelings into words..."

  

---

"Writers block," Winston teased lightly before gently tracing one of his fingers down the others right arm. "Don't think about words then and just feel... Is kissing me again something you want to do?" He very much wanted to kiss Natty again, he liked how it made him feel like he was melting.

---

  

---

Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

"Just feel..." he repeated the advice, as if letting it settle in his skull.

Natty was older, bigger, and potentially more experienced in this area of physicality — but here he looked to Winny like a guide, and took his advice like a hungry man accepting food. He wanted to know how to escape his worries and commit himself to this magical moment. And Winny was telling him how.

Hands moving to cup the young man's slender cheeks, Natty bowed to kiss him again. There was that magic.

  

---

Winny waited to see what Natty would choose to do. He nestled into the others touch as Natty cupped his cheeks, similar to an affectionate cat.

And then Nattys lips were on his own again. His arms wrapped around the others waist, wanting closeness as he got wrapped up in the others kiss.

---

  

---

Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.

Just feel... just feel...

The dark strands of Winny's hair were like silk through his fingers. His clothes felt soft — good-quality fabric &mdash beneath Natty's touch, his hand at the other's waist. And his lips... they were indistinguishable from a woman's in Natty's opinion, soft and full, with no graze of stubble around him, Winny was simply his very own phenomenon. Somewhere in the churning depths of his mind, Natty wondered if this was not so much homosexuality as Winnysexuality.

Instinctively, his lips parted. The kiss deepened. Then the older man grew cautious and concerned, and drew back a little; but this time did not step back from the embrace. "What do we do now", he asked his young guide quietly.

  

---

A tiny gasp escaped Winny as the others lips parted and the kiss deepened. He didn't pull away though, simply enjoying the feel and sensations that came with being so well and thoroughly kissed.

Winny couldn't help an impish smile of mischief from crossing his lips as Natty asked what they do now. "I suppose this is one of those things that we figure out as we go. It's an entirely new sort of adventure for me," he admitted freely. "But I like it."

---

  

---

Winny has heterochromia. His right eye is blue and his left eye is green.