4

The circle of the earth sat on four pillars over the deep, or Chaos, or so the thought was eons ago by those ancient goat herders. Some would argue three would have been better, more stable in its triangulation, but there is something about the equitable unit of four. But then again what about the simplest group: two? Pure, a one on one relationship, and for some, divine.

For Dean, Simon, Levi and Ricky four worked just fine. Uncomplicated, satisfying, flexible, an arrangement that fell into place, ironically out of chaos, or is it Chaos, with a capital 'C'? There was nothing special about this arrangement, not to the four of them. It just was. It was a convenient relationship devoid of all the trappings, the dating rituals, and the adornments of commitment.

It started in college, although none of the four realized it at the time. Dean and Simon were in Industrial Design together and found themselves often agreeing on the influences they liked to reference in their studio work. Within a short time they found other similarities, sexual, the things that drove their desires and they were soon sleeping together. But they were young, looking to explore life to its fullest and they agreed to date others, to maintain their friendship over any attempt at something more, to feel forced to conform to convention as Dean would express it whenever the chance to do so arose.

Then came Levi, tall, skinny, devilishly handsome with his long dark hair and the silver jewelry he wore on his wrists, rings on his fingers and even the ear rings, three in each ear, some simple rings, others devils and monsters hanging from long thin chains so they were not concealed by his hair. He was an art major, frighteningly talented, his paintings full of human lusts, images of desire, pleasure, and of course, pain. Dean and Simon had gone to a gallery opening on campus and the two of them were lured in by Levi's work. They found themselves staring at each piece till the surrounding world fell into some abyss.

It was Simon who boldly asked Levi out, never one to shy away from seeking what he wanted. They dated for a while but both were restless, looking for the next adventure and soon Levi fell from sight, and Simon was seeing someone else and Dean was dating an English major and talking about marriage, settling down, having a 'normal life'. It didn't surprise Simon for he always thought Dean protested too much about conventions.

Ricky manifested himself in their junior year, moved in next door to Dean and soon he was a part of their little group of friends. He had transferred to the college, saying he wanted to change up his studies in pharmacology, bringing into his studies course work that would let him work in a laboratory doing research instead of being a pharmacist or some lab technician in a doctor's office. He had been in a relationship but Bryan, the guy he was dating wasn't as serious and soon he found himself alone. Simon and he messed around frequently, whenever the two of them were not seeing someone else, but they were too flippant about their sex to take what they did have serious, to understand the relationship that existed between them. Although they grew closer as friends, their intimacies ceased during Simon's last semester in college.

Dean and Simon graduated in the spring of 2012 and they found themselves taking jobs with different companies, but both in Atlanta. Dean was hopeful of Matt coming to Atlanta when he finished at the end of the spring semester but something happened back on campus, someone else captured Matt's eye and Dean found himself single once again. Ricky finished the spring of 2013 and he found a job with a pharmaceutical research company in Atlanta and he was soon living close to Simon and the three of them were hanging out like they had in college. Ricky never admitted to either Simon or Dean how the last year of college had been such a disaster and he missed them so much he had focused on Atlanta for a job.

All during the summer they found themselves going out together and at different times, one, two or all three of them hooking up with someone, but each one was short lived, none of the guys they met could capture their hearts fully. Each hook up, each date afterward was frustratingly a mess. The guy with a library of self help books, none of which seemed to do any good, or the ones who liked to party, all the time, seven days a week, and there were the ones who wanted someone to take them in like some stray animal and others, some who were really nice, but not wanting anything serious, who wanted to date different guys. For Dean, Simon and Ricky they found out they didn't know what they wanted, or that is what they told themselves as they went from one night club to the next, or left some private party as the sun was coming up wondering where the fuck their car was parked.

It was early August, still hot and humid, the air so still there was no relief from the heat even as the earth rotated them toward darkness, and the three of them headed out for a gallery opening, one which Ricky had heard about from a co-worker. They were going to attend the opening and afterward go for a late dinner at a restaurant they all loved but knew on Friday night would be impossible to get in until late. The gallery opening was busy, but not overly crowded and they moved along the walls and the freestanding partitions looking at the work on display. It was Simon who first noticed the familiar paintings, a group of six on display along a side wall near the rear and he called Dean over.

"Is this Levi's work, you think?" Simon asked Dean.

"I don't know but it looks like his style, what does the card say?" Dean replied.

Ricky suddenly appeared and stood next to Simon.

"That is the work I wanted to see. Did you know the artist was back at A____ when we were?" Ricky said, excited to see the work he had heard about earlier.

"Really...would his name be Levi by chance?" Simon asked Ricky.

"Yeah it would" a voice said and they turned to see Levi standing behind them smiling. He hugged Dean and Simon, who introduced him to Ricky.

A couple of hours later Dean, Simon and Ricky were in the restaurant. They sat in alignment down the bar, each with a drink sitting in front of them, waiting on Levi to get away and join them for dinner. It was nearly an hour later when Levi finally made it, apologizing for being later than he had imagined.

They got a table at the front by one of the main windows and the four of them talked about college, how Levi had been around just prior to Ricky coming on the scene. They laughed and reminisced about the good times, joked about the bad and toward the end of the night, their plates taken away and one last drink sitting in front of each of them, they talked about how each one's life was not as they had it planned, the fantasy of a life with someone failing to materialize and it was Levi who leaned back and looked around the table, capturing each one's eye before he spoke.

"You know I've come to think of it as over rated" Levi said in all seriousness.

"You mean a commitment to another guy, like marriage?" Ricky asked.

"Yeah... I mean...well, what do we want these relationships for?" Levi responded.

"To always have someone there?" Simon said.

"But don't you have each other. You've been together since arriving in Atlanta" Levi said as he leaned forward.

"We do, but we all want something more...intimate" Dean replied.

"Really? Is that it? More intimacy, or is it just the fucking sex, the body on body contact?" Levi asked and he saw Simon smile, knowingly.

"But that is not the same?" Ricky added.

"Isn't it?" Simon added and he looked at Levi, then over to Dean.

"So the only the thing missing is the sex and if we just added that to our friendship we'd be content? Is that what you're saying?" Ricky asked.

"Something like that...but who's ever completely content in their life, even among the married? Look at how people cheat on each other." Levi replied then he looked at his watch. "Shit, they're closing. You guys want to come over to my place? I've got a liquor cabinet and we can hang out as long as you want. My place is only a few blocks away."

The others looked at each other seeing who was up for going and each one nodded yes.

"Let's pay and head on to your place" Dean said as each one pulled their wallets out.

Levi lived in a small house, the neighborhood not yet revitalized, and so the rent wasn't too high for him. The house had only two bedrooms and Levi had one set up as a studio. They sat around the small living room, talking about college, the guys they had met, the move to the city and how things seemed to be happening to them in some chaotic way, never as planned.

The subject of sex came up again, closing the room in tight around them, the way they spoke of their desires. How it started none of them could say, but they all agreed it was Ricky and Levi who were naked first, the two of them on the floor, Ricky on his stomach and Levi over him, his long lean body undulating on top as he pumped his cock into Ricky's hole, fucking him, slowly, making Ricky moan as he pushed his ass up to receive each downward push.

Dean and Simon had their pants open, cocks in hand, watching Levi sink his cock into Ricky, long slow movements, the glistening cock pulled out then pushed back in over and over. Dean kept his eyes on Levi and Ricky as he reached out for Simon, groping for his cock, wanting to stroke it, to feel it slide through his fist. Simon removed his hand and let Dean take him. He lay back and let the sensation of Dean's hand overcome him and his cock throbbed, flexed hard with Dean's touch. Simon looked over at Dean, saw the intense look on his face as he watched Levi move on top of Ricky, and he leaned over and ran his lips, then his tongue, over Dean's ear and down his neck.

"Let's take off our clothes" Simon whispered in Dean's ear. Dean just nodded as he let go of Simon and leaned forward pulling his shirt over his head.

When Dean and Simon were naked, hands roaming over each other bodies they stood at Levi and Ricky's head watching them fuck. Levi looked up as he drove his cock into Ricky, his hips slapping against Ricky's ass.

"Let Ricky roll over" Simon said as he and Dean stroked each other's cock.

Ricky on his back and his legs held tightly to Levi's chest as he felt Levi drive his cock back into him, sinking all the way in. Simon dropped to his knees and rubbed his cock over Ricky's face, smeared the clear lube over his lips.

"Suck me, Ricky" he said and pushed forward through Ricky's open lips feeling the wet slick warmth envelop his cock. Simon worked his hips back and forth, pumping his cock into Ricky's mouth as Levi fucked his ass. Dean eased down behind Simon and hugged their bodies together feeling the heat of their bodies trapped between them. He felt Simon movements, every swing of his hips as they pushed back pressing against his cock, then the release as Simon drove forward sinking his cock back into Ricky.

Dean looked over Simon's shoulder at the prone body of Ricky, they way it was responding to the fuck, his stomach moving up and down with his breathing and his cock hard and leaking. Dean looked at Levi's long lean body, holding Ricky's legs against it as he drove his cock into Ricky.

"Damn, that's hot" Dean whispered as he ran his hands up Simon's stomach and chest, up to his neck where he let his fingers wrap around the long lean neck, his fingers feeling the blood pumping furiously through the artery. He brought his fingers along Simon's jaw and held his chin, pulling his head around and back so he could kiss Simon as he ground his cock into Simon's ass.

"Simon, sit on the sofa" Levi said breaking Simon and Dean out of their daze. They saw Levi was already pulled free of Ricky and standing up. Dean pulled pack and let Simon move to the sofa.

"Ricky" Levi said and Ricky got up and went to Simon, climbed up over his lap pushing his upper body back against the sofa as he moved over Simon's cock. Ricky soon had Simon buried in his ass, riding it, moving up and down. Levi went over to Dean, kissed him gently on the mouth.

"I want to see you and Simon fuck Ricky...together" Levi said with his lips grazing over Dean's their faces so close together. Dean smiled wickedly and moved to Ricky and Simon. He put his hand on Ricky's shoulder stopping his fuck and pushed him forward tight up against Simon. Dean and Levi could see Simon's cock sunk up in Ricky's hole and Dean pushed his own erection down to it, rubbed the leaking head over the exposed shaft and around the tight lips of Ricky's hole. Ricky leaned over more as he brought one hand back and touched Dean's thigh, encouraging him onward and Dean pressed his cock against Simon's cock and pushed along its slick shaft against Ricky's hole. The tight ring resisted and Dean pushed harder till the head of his cock breached the tight opening and Ricky cried out, his body shivering with the penetration.

Simon held still as he felt Dean push along his cock, Ricky's hole suddenly so tight, squeezing his cock making it flex up thicker, harder, and he struggled not to move until Dean was buried all the way in.

"Fuck" Simon uttered as Dean finally had all of his cock pushed in next to his own. Ricky had his eyes closed, his head thrown back, mouth open and his body glistened with sweat, his skin hot and slick and he actually rocked his hips up and back down, working his ass on their cocks.

Levi came up beside them and took Ricky by the back of the neck turning his face toward him.

"Take it Ricky...take their fuck" Levi said and he kissed Ricky hard on the mouth. Dean began to move his hips, slowly at first but gradually increasing his pace, working his cock along the side of Simon's through the tight ring of Ricky's opening. Simon held still as long as he could before he began to pump his hips as much as he could until Dean and his cocks worked in unison, pulling back and then pushing back in, deeply into Ricky's hole and Ricky moaned and shivered with every inward thrust.

They were too worked up, their desires inflamed, and Dean and Simon fucked as hard as they could in the tight confines of Ricky's ass, the double penetration still tight, till they couldn't hold back any longer. Simon came first, and he pumped his load deep into Ricky. Dean felt it, the sudden slickness of it and he worked his cock through it till he too came adding his own load.

Dean pulled slowly out and Ricky eased up, his own cock still hard, drool trailing down in a long thin strand. Ricky looked over at Levi, lust in his eyes and he watched Levi rise up and turn on the sofa getting on his knees looking back at him.

"Come on Ricky...fuck me" Levi demanded and Ricky moved to him with a vengeance, kicking Levi's legs apart and moving up to his ass quickly. "Shove it in...come on fuck me hard" Levi exclaimed and Ricky put his slick hard cock to Levi's hole and shoved inward, all the way and Levi cried out pushing his ass back to take all of Ricky's fuck, every inch.

Dean and Simon, both sated, their cocks gone flaccid, watched Ricky's fuck, the way he drove his cock into Levi, pounding his ass. They watched as Ricky took Levi by his long hair, pulling his head back, and then Levi's entire body moved back as Ricky drove forward. Ricky fucked at a furious pace, and the sound of his hips slapping up against Levi's ass filled the room.

"Oh FUCK...I'm coming" Ricky exclaimed and he slammed his hips forward in short hard thrusts as he pumped his load into Levi. When Ricky pulled out, Levi turned and sat down, leaning back against the arm of the sofa. He took his hard cock in hand and stroked it furiously, his hand sliding up and down the slick wet shaft noisily. Ricky moved down on his knees and hovered over the head. Levi only had to stroke his cock for a brief time before he felt the cum surge through him and he pumped his hips upward, short little fuck motions as his cock flared up thicker, harder and Ricky held his open mouth over it.

"OH" Levi cried out as he pumped out his load, thick wads of cum shooting from his cock into Ricky's open mouth until the cum just dribbled down the head and over his hand and Ricky pushed his hand away and sank his mouth over the slimy cock.

It was nearly noon before they stirred, the four of them crowded on Levi's bed, their naked bodies tangled together. Slowly each one woke, rubbed the sleep from their eyes and tried to move. It was Dean who was sniggering first, then Ricky, until all four of them were giggling and wrestling around on the bed.

It would be after two before they finally got up and dressed to go get the food each one was desperately craving.