It should be quite obvious that I do not own any people or places in this fanfic. :P This is my first for "A Separate Peace" since reading it for English and I forgot some things, so don't mind if there's a wrong line/fact in here. I tried... Anyway:

It was summer here at school and Finny and I were on the Devon, staying adrift behind the leafy trees on the river's edge to keep from view. There weren't supposed to be any canoes out today, but Finny had a great obsession to go canoeing, and so canoeing we went.

"Want to play a game, Gene?"

I looked on the other side of the small boat, lips still red and squinting to just barely be able to see the dark outline of him. I could still tell he was grinning at me just by the way he pronounced my name. It sounded the same still, but somehow just… not.

I dropped my hand over the roughed wooden edge, just letting the tips of my fingers skim the water. We were just drifting around, not intending to go anywhere and just be together. "Like what?" I asked.

Finny picked up his paddles and motioned toward mine. "Race me."

I looked over at my set and kept my hands where they were, peeking up at him after and making a slight face. "That's not a game. That's just a race."

Finny shifted on his bench impatiently, arms itching for a challenge. "Does it matter?" he countered, audibly hoping it didn't. "We could make it two-to-one. Then it'll be a game."

I quickly came up with another excuse. "We're in the same canoe. I don't want to risk taking another."

The other boy waved it away. "We'll row in opposite directions. Come on. It'll be fun, trust me."

Trust him. At those words, my ineffective method of procrastination stopped dead, the blond boy glowing with happiness across from me.

Feeling defeated, but not too dejected, I pulled my hand back over the edge and wiped them on my shorts, wrapping them around the sturdy handles of my paddles afterward. I let Finny know I was a hopeless case at winning.

"Nonsense," he deemed my claims before I had finished. "Ready?"

He pointedly ignored my answer of "Not really."

"On three," he continued, his gaze making it know upon my skin that he was checking if I was planning to purposely throw the race. He started counting when I tightened my fingers around the smoothly carved, but still splintering, wood; setting my feet in the most competitive stance I could muster.

"One…"

I felt my heart skip a beat, nervously tripping out blood to my limbs in hope to make them work at their very best.

"Two…"

Finny looked perfectly relaxed before me, watching me prepare myself rather than getting himself ready.

"Three!"

"Damn it all!" I cursed.

Even with my opposing force, the tiny boat shot away from the riverside, venturing out further into the crystalline waters behind Finny's back.

The winning boy stilled his paddles after just one stroke. "Well, done just give up on me, Gene," Finny encouraged as I relaxed my stance.

I loosened my grip on my handles as well; secretly relieved it was a landslide victory. I don't know what would've happened if I actually came close to beating him. "I'm not giving up. You won and it's over."

It was then Finny gave me that mischievous little grin, his head tilting curiously to the side as he watched me.

"Is the competition ever really over, Gene?" he asked, peeping under his lashes to see my eyes. They were hidden from his view because I blushed and bashfully turned away when I got what he was referring to. "There will always be something to win."

I didn't take my gaze from the curved wooden floor, wishing to whatever God there was to make Finny oblivious of the affects he wore on me. "Win?" I repeated tentatively, the syllable faltering into near silence so I could inhale a too far delayed breath.

Finny nodded, getting up carefully to lean over to my half of the boat. He kept his body balanced in a way that allowed him to do this without throwing us headfirst into the Devon's cool waters.

"Yes. Win." His light eyes were dilated and almost predatory as he said this, his fingers firmly clamped on the bench that made up the center of the canoe. "But first there must be competition. A fight if you will."

The way he looked at me practically liquidized the oxygen on its way to my lungs, slowly choking me the more I tried to breathe. "A fight…" His words echoed hugely in my head.

"You want to… here in the canoe?" I questioned unbelievingly, the thought alone sending pricks of heat tingling over my neck. "But there's no space."

Calculatingly, the other boy considered their surroundings, backing off a bit when he saw the truth in my words. "You may be right," he admitted, "but:"

His sly grin came tugging back on his lips.

"We have all of Devon practically to ourselves and it's the weekend; no one will care where we are."

I couldn't resist smiling back as I felt us gliding smoothly toward the riverside and Finny's lean arms shifting as he rowed us. "But, will they care what we're doing is the real question," I posed suggestively knowing how it would drive Finny crazy with want. I made full of the fact he couldn't pounce on me without tossing us over.

All Finny did was give me a smirk, a face that made me chuckle with malicious glee. Feeling the tensions slipping away into the warm summer air, I teasingly played footsie with him until we actually set them on land once again.

Like the perfect gentleman he was, he offered me his arm when stepping over the edge, and I held his hand and let him haul me into his arms, getting dragged along in his sweeping impulses like I usually do. I was about to complain how girly he made me look when he pressed his lips against mine, silencing me as his arms fell around to clutch my waist.

The words immediately died on my lips as if Finny were licking them away one by one and swallowing them. I made an embarrassing whimpering noise in the back of my throat before I slid my arms around his neck and let my eyes fall shut, pulling him closer and kissing him deeper. After a few moments we broke apart, walking along into the trees at the riverside and innocently grabbing at one another. It was one of those moments when I could be part of Finny's world where nothing else was real and no one could touch us. I learned to tolerate just feeling and not really thinking when I spend weekends with him.

Fashionably astray of the path, we stopped to kiss again, the electricity exploding from my fingertips where they met the light flesh of the other boy and pressed, creating morphing dots of shadow with the summer sun. I felt a gentle pushing on my hips when my breath quickened: Finny was trying to lay me on the grass.

I denied and rounded on him when he slipped his thumbs in my belt loops. "Hey," I chided, obviously uncommitted as I ended up bending my knees anyway to kneel alongside him. Finny kept tugging me down until green blades tickled my ears. "You cheat- there's no pulling on clothes …"

I gasped when Finny draped his body over me, his thigh easily parting mine as he kissed delicately down my neck. I wondered to myself whether he could hear me breathing as easily as I could. I hope he couldn't.

He chuckled at me, perfect lips suctioning my skin lightly and the sweet sound driving me insane. "It's not my fault you're letting me win; you're hardly fighting me off…"

At those words, I pulled his face level with mine, tilting my head up to kiss him harder than I ever had and roll my hips tantalizingly against his. That shut him up quick minus the moan I muffled with my mouth.

While he was distracted I pushed him over my side subtly and climbed on, pressing his strong back into the grass and throwing my leg over to lean dominatingly over his body.

In the steadiest voice I could muster, I smugly opposed the seldom non-victor. "I win."

This moment in time was sweeter than sugar itself.

Once his eyes cleared and he understood what I'd done, Finny ran the palm of his hands up my thighs starting from the knees, eventually sliding them under my shirt and grabbing my waist. Even through the material of my shorts the small touch made my flesh break out into goose bumps. He stared me in the eye as he stretched his thumbs to mess with the button of my shorts.

"What is it that you've won then, Gene?" he questioned me softly, making complete use now of both his hands to unbutton and remove the khaki obstructions.

I smiled down at him, blushing just a bit without pulling away. "You, I'm hoping," I hummed back, hissing with pleasure when Finny zipped my bottoms open to softly touch and caress me. I grew visibly harder at the sensation and the other boy grinned mischievously up at me, tightening his grip.

"That's nonsense," he murmured, shaking his head and afterward motioning for me to take off my shoes.

"Why is that?" I asked, pulling off my tennis shoes easily and tossing them a few feet away as Finny returned to aid the removal of my pants. I had already pulled his dark grey, perfect fitting trousers down past his thighs to rest around his calves and was rid of my own before he responded.

He said it as if it were obvious, the sentence breaking in two parts as I swirled my tongue around his index and middle fingers, coating them completely with spit. "Because one can't win what one all… already has, Gene."

I cursed a short moment later when the pressure of his digits breached me, my insides clutching the intrusions tightly where they were fully welcome and craved. I wanted to feel Finny pushing into me already, but did away with that thought knowing he would never risk hurting me so recklessly.

I moaned his name as he scissored, gently widening and stretching me open. I wanted badly to lean down and devour his lips, but the angle wouldn't work. I ended up biting my lip until blood threatened to appear, my hips shifting minutely as I gathered the most pleasure I could from Finny's fingers.

I could practically feel his stare on my mouth as I called him. "Phineas…" It was only times like these when I used his actual name: a real name for real matters. "Phineas please …"

With his erection pulsing against my thigh he finally gave in, removing his slickened hand and breathing hard as I hovered over him. "Yes," he encouraged when I just began to press down over him. His head fell back and his body pulled tight once I was actually sliding down, his cock immediately gripped by my hot slick walls. "Yes yes yes…" he groaned with abandon.

I stopped once I couldn't go anymore, letting my body adjust and accommodate the sudden invasion of him. "You're so beautiful beneath me here," I murmured when I could bring myself to speak. My bangs hid my eyes from the intense light of the New England sun as we waited.

Finny pointedly rolled his hips against mine, forcing even more of himself up into me and causing me to cry out with the agonizing delight. My eyes fluttered shut again before he could quip, "You would too, now won't you?"

He let out a low, broken groan as I brought myself up, only to drop my weight back down at a small measured pace.

Smiling maliciously, I remained still in his lap feeling empowered and complete having Finny so close.

"Oh god, please do it again!" he begged wantonly when he couldn't stand it anymore. My body still twitched occasionally around him and it made the blond shudder with delight.

I moved especially sluggish this time knowing Finny would do nearly anything to get me to go faster. I leaned down to kiss him as my hips came back down over his length, my breath heavy with pent-up longing. "Try not to move," I challenged him teasingly, ducking my head to nip sensually at his frantic pulse. "I feel lazy, never having to do work," I whispered. "Don't touch anything."

Finny's voice chuckled above me, breathless and broken. His fingers moved off me and into the grass beneath us, his fingers respecting my wishes and curling to grasp great tufts of green blades into his hands. He used it for leverage as I began again to ascend then fall, just a tad bit quicker than before and moaning onto his neck.

Finny was gasping for breath when I picked up speed again, at the same time sliding my hands up under his shirt to rub his erect nipples. My lips were parted and lonely as I brought my mouth up to his; moving over his jaw which was set with the sheer force of will it took just to remain dormant and not thrust up into me.

I rewarded him by increasing my pace yet again.

My dark hair had stuck to Finny's skin sheen with sweat as my breath sent his golden strands fluttering in gentle waves. I could feel the heat beginning to uncoil inside me and from the way Finny's breath came in heaving gasps, I could tell he was upon the verge of breaking too.

I sat up to look down at him, my weight rising and falling quickly in his lap. My bangs moved oppositely of my body, flying up when I crashed down and the like. "You really need to, don't you?" I inquired, groaning with the pain of my neglected arousal, but also groaning with the pleasure nonetheless. I wasn't cruel enough to steal myself from the other boy, and in result had remained untouched.

Finny forced his eyes to lock with mine, resisting the urge for them to fall shut and vowed all he needed was to have his way me- just for a bit and not lie there unable to move and unable to touch. He looked ready to break when I brought myself down on him even harder, my thighs working with my pale skin flushed.

Incapable of resisting any longer, I reached to finally take myself up, the tension driving me mad. "Do it now," I panted his permission, eager to have Finny take over everything and I reap the benefit. "Please."

At first, he just gazed at me a couple seconds, amazed and spurred on by the depth of my lewd beauty prior to latching his hands around my hips, bringing me to lie in the grass under his searing body. He grinned down at me with devilish relief before swinging my calves over his shoulders, changing the angle to spike into my channel and collide with that spot I'd been purposely avoiding on his very first try.

"Phin-e-as!" I cried out raggedly, throwing my head back to come hard over my chest and hand.

Finny orgasmed milli-seconds later, his seed ripped from his core by my death grip. "Yes, that's it, Gene," he encouraged, watching me fall apart as thrust me through it. "Just let it go," he continued roughly, holding me close as I writhed and rasped on the ground. "Let it all out."

I felt him filling me up inside, sticky white and hot, but I couldn't say I'd ever felt better or closer to Finny than those few minutes we spent then just floating on our high; simply existing together, heart beat slowing and breathing.

The other boy leered down at me with his teeth bared impishly until I grabbed him down for a kiss that melted the blond to mold against me- a strategic distraction while he withdrew from my heat.

I missed his presence instantly.

"I love you," I whispered, remembering the first time Finny proclaimed he did too, right before we parted for vacation freshmen year. Those two weeks were agony without him and I returned to Devon weakened by the lack of sleep I suffered wondering if he'd change his mind. Those worries were pointless, however. Finny returned with no fingernails, having bitten them all down to the quick fretting whether I'd even have him.

The nerve of that boy to think I wouldn't.

I sighed with content as his breath traveled up to tickle my ear. "I love you more," it exhaled quietly, the words swirling down in my ear to numb my mind of any doubt.

I smiled incredulously to myself. This boy makes a challenge of everything.

"I want to go for a swim," I mumbled after a few blissful minutes of just lying in each other's arms and kissing. I dislodged myself from his grasp, smirking dryly at him as I got up. He watched me shamelessly while I replaced my bottoms. "You never know," I started, faking consideration, "I just might race you seriously."

Finny's brow arched. "And if I win that too…" he began hopefully, picking himself up from the grass to retrieve his clothes, "will it have the same outcome?"

I turned away toward the river and began striding a clear path to its crystal waters, hiding my tell-tale blush. "Maybe," I answered before breaking into a run, leaving Finny behind to chase after me.

We drifted the canoe out to the middle of the river; the sun now bleeding orange caused a beautiful sparkling upon the water's surface.

It was this mesmerizing water into which Finny dove after he balanced, poised as a bird about to take flight, on the tip of the small boat.

I knew better than to move and try to pull him back. My whole being was tensed until he jumped and submerged himself under, his head eventually bobbing up beside me, drenched and overjoyed as it gasped for breath.

I laughed once I knew he was okay, still shaky thinking of all the wrong ways that could've turned out. "I can't believe you did that!" I raved afterward. "Didn't you think about falling and hurting yourself?" I went on. "What if I wasn't paying attention and had moved before you could tell me stop? Finny, you could've broken something, maybe even drowned!"

That was when the real shock of what just happened started to settle over me and I started to really freak out. "Good god, Finny! You could've died. I could've lost you. You could've-"

He cut off my panicking with a simple soft kiss, the tip of his tongue traveling my mouth slow and warm. He stopped when I started leaning toward him, the little boat tipping ominously in the water, causing me to jump back to a point of better balance.

He chuckled at my wide-eyed expression. "Listen," he said sternly. "I trust you, Gene. If I were to get hurt, I'd rather it be your fault than anyone else's."

I still didn't want him risking his life so recklessly around me. "But, you can't just-!"

"How about that race now?" he interrupted again, holding the edge of the canoe with a hand and patiently waiting for an answer.

I just stared at him unbelievingly, leaning over toward him and pulling him closer to my face. "You're absolutely loony, and I love you for it," I told him before molding my lips over his and laughing, scared senseless when Finny pushed down on the boat edge so I splashed into the water.

He thrashed playfully when I tried to pull him down with me, leaving me to dive for his foot to drag him under the water. Beneath the surface, the sunlight stained our wet world golden as he spun against the friction of the water to find me floating beside him.

I grinned happily as he advanced toward me, my eyes easily closing as he slipped his arms around my waist and brought his lips over mine.

The End!

~*This right here is dedicated to my awesome international pen-pal and editor, Phoenix Grayson at .net/u/2002054/ for if one gets curious...*~