The first morning out, Benny arose, stretched, filled his lungs with the air of the mountains, and spelled out the words he had learned the night before.
Jack arose and went for Benny's mouth with his own before remembering that Benny was a guy; he pulled off Benny's shirt and held him from behind around the stomach.
Benny looked off into the forest and thought of the mountains. The words were all there.
Jack reached down with his free hand and made Benny come. Benny sat down and said "Whew."
Jack cooked a fine breakfast of meats, eggs and bread. He watched Benny eat. He watched Benny's stomach eating and breathing. Benny stopped and put on his shirt. After breakfast Jack took it off again and pulled him close. He played with Benny's shoulders and then suddenly stripped him of his pants and socks. Benny looked odd to Jack naked. Jack pushed Benny's shoulders down and walked a few feet off. He walked in a circle around him. Benny had no expression; he only had one when something surprised him. Jack took some rope and tied Benny's hands to a branch above him. He stood in front of Benny, then untied him. Then he dressed him.
They walked for about four hours and came to a lake. There were fish in the lake and plenty of plants. They fished. Benny watched Jack fish. He watched Jack take a fish off the hook and conk it. Benny caught a fish. Jack took it and conked it. They fried up the fish with some plants from the lake; Benny tried to remember where he'd tasted that before. Surely not at another lake.
The lake receded into the distance behind them. The first time Benny, in front, turned around to look at it, Jack grabbed him and took off his backpack and shirt. He gave him back his backpack and kept the shirt. They walked for three more hours.
At sunset they fell asleep. By morning the down was soggy in spots with Jack's come. Benny felt some, moved away and wiped his flank with his hand. Jack put his arms around Benny and laid his head on Benny's chest for ten minutes. Then he kissed Benny on the mouth for ten minutes. Benny didn't react for the first thirty seconds, then began kissing back. After three minutes Jack had had enough but knew that Benny would be disappointed if they stopped now. He knew that Benny was completely happy now, was really speaking.
Benny was really speaking.
They dressed, cooked breakfast, laughed about some things for the first time since leaving. Jack led the way. They walked fifteen miles that day.
That night they made a fire and sat by it for a bit, but mostly moved about camp.
Benny thought about the trees.
Jack thought about the trees. Benny was beautiful.
Three days later they'd gone eighty miles all told. Jack was a bit more tired than Benny and Benny tried taking Jack's clothes off and playing with him and Jack was happy about that, though uncomfortable generally.
When they got back to "civilization," as one or the other called it to the annoyance of both, they did a lot of comforting things.
Over the next few years they took several more trips together, each time living a bit differently, in different ways. Things changed around some but nothing really became anything else.