Accident

            “Lee! Lee, look what I found!” Keiran shouted, racing off the path and up out of the forest. A picnic table stood alone against a backdrop of blue sky, white clouds floating lazily. Keir moved to the edge of the cliff—some thirty feet up—and looked out over the lake below.

            “Lee, its so beautiful up here! Come look. I can see the cottage from up here!”

            Lee laughed softly at his lover’s excitement. The last time they had been here had been a family affair and Lee hadn’t had time to bring Keir up here. He set their picnic things on the table and moved to join the younger man at the edge, tugging him back a step, protectively. Keir snuggled close, not noticing the gesture.

            “It is lovely, Keiran,” he agreed. It was a perfect day—blue skies, rolling waves, just warm enough. “But its dangerous up here. Maybe after we eat, we’ll go down and swim for a bit, okay? Chester would probably like to go in the water.”

            Keir nodded eagerly, excited at the prospect of bringing the dog down to the lake, and he squirmed out of his lover’s arms. “Okay, Lee!” he saluted. Lee stood at the edge a moment longer, but when Keir called him, he started back towards him, ready to eat.

            Keir practically bounced through lunch, eating everything Lee had given him as quickly as it was put on his plate. He helped himself to seconds. When Lee told him to slow down because the food wasn’t going anywhere, Keir pouted, chastised, but ate no slower.

            “Can I jump off the cliff, Lee?” Keiran asked from the edge of the picnic table bench. Lee stood to clean up their dishes.

            “No. Its too high, bunny rabbit. You’ll get hurt,” Lee said, in a tone that Keiran knew all-too-well—Lee would not accept any arguments.

            “I used to do it at home, Lee. I did! When we went to my granddad’s cottage, all of us would jump off the docks or the cliffs into the water. And we never got hurt, Lee! Not once!”

            Lee looked at him and Keir’s smile faded. “We’ve got docks down there, Keir. And a slide. Feel free to jump off those,” he said, shaking his head. Keir watched him as he tidied up and murmured, just loud enough for Lee to hear: “you’re being stupid, Lee.” He chose to ignore it.

            Keir was patient for a few moments, until Lee finally told him that he could put his bathing suit on. The younger man yipped and took off for the path, not waiting for Lee.

            By the time the older man had made his way down and found his own suit, Keir was already in the lake, climbing up onto the dock. Lee hurried to join him, not wanting Keir to have all the fun. Their Irish Setter, Chester, was already playing along the shore, trying to follow Keir up onto the dock. Lee found him a stick and tossed it out, wading into the water alongside the dock.

            “Lee! Lee, look! Look Lee!” Keiran shouted, and when Lee finally looked up at him, Keir launched himself into the water off the dock, somersaulting in. When he surfaced, he splashed Lee playfully. “Oh, you brat! I’ll get you for that!”

            Keir shrieked, swimming away. Lee chased after him.

            After a while, Lee simply began to swim leisurely. Chester had tired himself out chasing his stick down and Keir was getting sick of diving off the dock. He had experimented new techniques for the better part of the last twenty or so minutes and was sick of the lack of height he had to work with.

            He swam away, towards the shore, and Lee, thinking he was going for a book or something, didn’t stop him.

            Keiran headed straight for the cliff. Lee wouldn’t even be able to be mad at him once he saw how awesome a dive he made! Maybe he’d even join him! It seemed to take forever to get there, but he made it. He surveyed the water beneath him—it was a far drop, but not too much higher than he remembered jumping from as a child.

            He caught sight of Lee and his stomach did a little flip of uneasiness, but he pushed it aside. He waved and shouted to catch his lover’s attention.

“LEE! Lee, look at me! I’m gonna DIVE!” he shrieked. From that height, he couldn’t see the look of fear on his older lover’s face, couldn’t know that Lee’s heart had dropped into his stomach, couldn’t hear the shout to ‘get down from there NOW!’ that the wind carried away.

            He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, and when he opened them he saw Lee swimming towards the cliff-bottom.

            And then he jumped.

            Lee knew before he hit the water that Keir had jumped wrong. He had started in a dive but halfway through curled up in a cannonball. He heard the shriek as he hit the water and Lee was on the shore, running, before the man had surfaced.

            When Lee reached him, Keir was beyond hysterics. The right side of his face was scraped up and bleeding, from his forehead to his chin where it had met with rocks on the lake bottom. But Lee was more concerned with the blood that was swirling around them as he tugged Keir towards the shore.

            “Keiran, what else hurts? What’s bleeding?” he asked. Keiran clung to him, arms around his neck so that Lee was practically carrying him out of the lake. He was sobbing and apologizing and cursing in equal measure, and Lee carefully helped him settle on the shore. Keir crumpled, sobbing into the sand.

            Lee knelt beside him, looking him over to make sure nothing was hurt. Besides his face, there were bruises forming on his chest and side, but Lee quickly became concerned with his left leg. “Shit. Keiran,” he cursed under his breath, and he tried to soothe his lover when he turned to look at it and ended up retching beside himself.

            “Crap. I need to get some stuff, Keiran, okay? Stay here, babe. I’ll be right back.” Keir, trying to be brave, nodded, and Lee took off for the cottage. Chester followed him, barking, and he ordered the dog back. When he had found the first aid kit and a blanket and returned, Chester was lying beside Keir, licking his face, and Keiran was crying into his fur.

            Lee settled beside him again. Keir turned to look up at him, his face pale, and Lee wrapped the blanket around his shaking form. He murmured nothings to him as he went to work on the leg. The cut was jagged and ugly, running from his knee to mid-calf, and it was still bleeding. Keir screamed minimally when Lee cleaned it, and the dog whimpered as his owner pulled his curly fur nearly out, but he didn’t move.

            “Keir, we’re going to have to go to the hospital,” he said as he wound a bandage around it to staunch the bleeding. “Do you think you can walk?”

            Keir looked at him imploringly. “Lee, Lee, you’re a doctor. You c-can do it, can’t you? Lee, I can’t walk, it hurts and I’m cold and I want you to fix it!” Lee smoothed his hair back, noting the fear, and he leaned down to kiss his forehead.

            “No, bunny rabbit. I don’t have enough here to do it myself. It’s deep and there could be stuff in it. I don’t know what you cut it on. You’ll need a tetanus shot and stitches. I can’t do that here. We’ll go in the car, I’ll turn the heat on for you, come on, baby,” he soothed.

            Keir didn’t help much. As soon as any pressure was put on his leg, he’d start sobbing again or he’d go limp or crumple against Lee, so that eventually he simply scooped him up in his arms and carried him back up to the car. He got him settled in the passenger seat, took Chester and the first aid kit inside, and returned with another blanket for his lover. Keir cried the whole way to the hospital, which was nearly a half hour drive.

           

            By the time they had arrived, Keir was almost in hysterics again, although he was tired out and his sobbing was more or less just for show. Lee pulled rank on one of the ER doctors and had Keir admitted right away. They gave him a tetanus shot, cleaned out his leg—bits of glass and sand—and stitched him up, all amidst his crying.

            By the time they had finished with him and released him, Keir was tired out. He leaned heavily on Lee as they headed out to the car and he curled up in his seat, pale and shaking still as he cuddled into the blanket. He kept murmuring that he was sorry and he had been stupid and he should have listened, but Lee only told him to hush, they’d deal with that later.                        

            Chester met them at the cottage door and Lee ushered Keir into bed. He was met with minimal complaints and his lover was asleep in no time. Lee busied himself with tidying.

…

            The next couple of days, Lee forced Keir to take it slow and he was only allowed out as far as the porch. He stopped apologizing, thinking Lee was simply going to forget about it. His leg was healing nicely, though he knew he’d have an ugly scar, and his face had scabbed, making him look like some sort of burn victim or something, but he knew it would heal.

              

It was three days before Lee called him into the little living space of the cottage. Keir limped in, looking at Lee questioningly. When he saw the paddle, his stomach jumped, and he tried to back out. Lee crossed the living room in a few steps and pulled him into the room, shutting the door behind him.

“I think you know why I’m about to paddle you, Keiran,” Lee started. Keiran pouted, tears threatening.

“Because you’re stupid. And you hate me!” he exclaimed and Lee caught his hand, keeping him in place before Keir hit him. “Enough. Why am I going to paddle you, Keiran?” he asked.

Keir shook his hand loose. “Because you hate me. And I’m stupid.”

Lee turned him and swatted his butt, hard. Keir twisted back. Lee waited.

Keiran gave in. “’Cause I did something stupid and dangerous, Lee. ‘Cause I jumped off the cliff when you had told me I couldn’t, ‘cause it was dangerous and it was too high for jumping and I didn’t mean to get hurt, Lee! You can’t punish me for getting hurt!”

Lee tugged him between his legs, pinning him there. Keir looked at him with a frown, hands on Lee’s shoulders. “I’m punishing you because you put yourself in a dangerous situation after I explicitly told you that you were not allowed to jump, Keir. You did something stupid and dangerous, and you disobeyed me. That’s why I’m punishing you. Do you understand?”

Keir sniffled, nodding, and he didn’t wait for Lee to tell him to take his pants down or position himself against the wall. Lee spread his lover’s legs a little, made sure his hands were on the wall, supporting him in that position, and moved behind him, paddle in hand.

“Don’t move, Keiran. If you try and stop me, it’ll last longer. You’re allowed to cry.” He ran his hand over the small of his back and over his butt and then let the first swat fall with the paddle. Keir jumped, but he knew better than to move. Like with a caning, moving tended to make it hurt more—Lee would not only increase the number of swats, but jumping around made the instrument fall on places best left unblemished.

Keir was whimpering by the fifth swat, and crying softly by the eighth. When the tenth landed, his breath hitched and he lifted one hand away from the wall to cover his mouth. “No more, Lee, no more, please,” he whined, but Lee continued. By the time Lee reached the end—fifteen swats—Keir’s butt was red and he was crying freely. Lee turned him into his arms, but Keir pushed away.

“I’m sorry, Lee. Never again, I promise. I won’t ever, I’m sorry.” Lee tugged him back onto the couch with him, and Keir fought him for a while but Lee was stronger and he pinned him against himself, running soothing circles up his back and over his shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Lee,” he murmured into his chest. Lee kissed the top of his head. “It’s over now, bunny rabbit. You’re not going to do that again. Sh, I’ve got you,” he purred. Keir nodded, letting Lee soothe him for a while, but when he had had enough, he squirmed out of his arms and away, hissing when his butt touched the couch.

“Ow! Look, Lee. Look what you did,” he said, indignant, and he turned to show his still-reddened butt to his older lover. Lee leaned closer and kissed his tailbone, tracing his spine.

“Look what you made me do, Keiran.”