The door to Hard Boiled’s apartment opened just long enough to let two stallions enter. The first kicked the door shut, just as the second passed through to lock it behind them. The place was in its usual state - messily unkempt where no pony but Hard Boiled himself could find a thing.

“Finally, the week’s over.” Hard Boiled grumbled, throwing his hat and coat onto a chair by the tiny excuse for a kitchen. “The one time we don’t have some dead pony to find a killer for, Iris Jade has us helping out some other department.”

“More like every other department.” sighed Juniper. He put his own bomber jacket and hat on the edge of the couch and stretched, feeling the slight pop and ache of joints that didn’t get enough movement that day. “At least we have the weekend now, I spent too long listening to her chew out somepony over the phone while stuck with Narcotics. Wonder how Sykes does it.”

“Probably imagines her as meat during dinner.” Hardy yawned. “Hey, help me outta my gun harness?”

“As long as you do mine. I call dibs on first shower.”

Hard Boiled turned around, letting his shirt and tie loosen as his partner worked on untangling the straps from his torso.The lingering warmth where Juniper’s hoof pressed against his back remained, and as he turned around to return the favour the reality of their rather...intimate situation hit him.
Undoing the clasps and loosening the straps was like muscle memory for them both, after so many years of using them. And here Hardy was, facing Juniper’s back, helping him dress down...and noticing how close he was to him. A shoulder strap got stuck, and holding it with one hoof he leaned forward to get a better grip with his jaw - and breathed in Juniper’s scent. It was familiar, comforting, and right now after such a long day...a bit of a turn on.

“You seem tense, Juni.” Hard Boiled took his time slipping off the remaining strap as his harness dropped to the floor. He wrapped a foreleg around the green stallion, resting his chin on his shoulder, and ran a hoof down his partner’s back. “How about you let me take care of you? Relax, take a load off.”

“Take care of me, how?” Juniper turns his head to look at his partner slyly out of the corner of his eye. “Because I know you’re a shit masseuse.”

“Guess I’ll just have to do a good job, then.” Hardy took his head off the other’s shoulder, rubbing with both hooves down the length of his back. Juniper hummed his appreciation, if not for the tension being released then certainly for the moments of squeezing when Hardy reached his haunches. “Mmm, yeah. Real tense indeed.”

“Two can play at that game, kid. My turn.” He turned around on the spot, putting a hoof under his partner’s chin to pull in for a smooch or three. Their lips met slowly at first, nothing but a mere peck, soft and tender. They would build up to more in time. Juniper closed his eyes and leaned into the kiss. Wrapping his forelegs around Hardy like a grey pillow, running his hooves up and down the other’s back - he didn’t mind the slight dampness.

“Did I tell you how great you smell right now? It’s kinda…hot.” He paused long enough to growl the last words in Hardy’s ear.

“Was gonna tell you the same thing.” Hardy returns the full-bodied snuggle, pressing himself belly to belly against Juniper. “Not bad for not bathing all day.”

The two pairs of roaming hooves start out small before going further and further from where they started. Running through manes, down the back to the dock, circling cutie marks, feeling the contours of the chest. Somehow, one of them fell on the floor.

As the pair’s wandering hooves brought pinpricks of pleasure, an eager warmth rose in each of them, driving their actions. Hardy’s tongue licked at Juniper’s lips, pleading entrance. He accepted, and the two wet muscles danced and tasted each other as they shared breath. Juniper mumbled out Hardy’s name between breaths, occasionally breaking to nip and suckle at his neck - a particularly sensitive spot for the grey stallion. The heat between them began to grow as their actions become more frantic, more lustful.

Hardy broke off first, pressing their foreheads together. He stared into those dusky grey eyes, framed by the messy titanium green mane. Eyes only for him. “I really want you right now, Juni.” he whispers.

“I want you too Hardy,” The stallion under him put his hooves around Hardy’s sides, grinding his hips forward until the soft flesh between them touched. The cool sensation turned to arousal as their stallionhoods peeked out. Juniper winked. “How about we play a game? We’ve been pent up all week, so what’s a little more? Loser’s the one who taps out first.”

“And loser bottoms tonight? What’s the game?”

Juniper smirks, reaching down a hoof to slowly trail the length of both their growing members. The sensation makes their hearts race in anticipation. “Don’t cum. But take it slow. Don’t wanna empty yourself on the first shot.”

“I’ve been waiting for this all day.” Hardy grins, sliding his half-flaccid length against Juniper’s - rapidly becoming less so. “Ready to squeal like a little filly?”

“I am if you are. Turn around.”

Juniper was finding it hard to focus. He could feel Hardy's face in his groin - and by all accounts he seemed to be enjoying it. The tender caress of his partner's lips brushed his sack, his stiff member being idly toyed with as the feather-light feeling of Hardy's breathing tickled his skin.

Add to that the grey pony's cute moans and the occasional nuzzle and trailing tongue higher up his shaft had given him quite the aroused reaction. Whenever Hardy teased him just right, every clench within his groin brought another drop of pre out, smeared quickly by his wandering hoof.

"Step up your game, Detective Shores…" Hard Boiled rumbled sensually, raising his groin up so that the sight of the stallion's mottled shaft dangled just out of reach. He swayed his hips slowly. Juniper tried to concentrate on the goal, just like the academy taught. The heavy equipment moving back and forth, conjured imagines from his worm's eye view of how it would eventually look as Juniper's own balls would be smacking into them, hilting himself with every thrust. Hardy squealing out his name, begging for him to finish inside, to fill him up and push him over the edge…

'Okay, maybe now's not a good time to focus on the finish…' Juniper's eyes screwed shut to wipe his mind of the images.

A single bead of fluid wiped itself on Juniper's nose, breaking his thoughts. Hardy's voice followed with a mischievous tone. "I've got you stiff as a pole and I'm only still half hard. If you wanted to get plowed that badly I-ohhh, f-fuck Juniper…"

Hard Boiled's taunt was cut short by the warm, wet embrace of Juniper's mouth enveloping his cock all at once, a pair of forelegs grabbing the tops of his thighs and pulling down - Juniper's lips soon met the base of his crotch as he felt his tip just breach the moist ring of Juniper's throat with the vibration of a satisfied hum.

Juniper, on the other hoof, allowed himself a small smirk - as one could with half a foot of stallion flesh in his muzzle. He felt it throb and pulse as blood flowed into the member, stiffening. With a wet slurp the stallion unsheathed Hardy's cock from his maw, breathing in.

…an action he immediately began to regret. Slightly.

The combined musk and scent of Hardy's arousal, Juniper's spit, the taste of his partner's precum on his tongue - it was all rather…intoxicating.

'Take it slow, pace yourself…' Juniper thought to himself as he fought to suppress his own arousal. As experienced as he was, he could stand to let Hardy take the top spot a bit more often…he just didn't want to. Not this time.

With one hoof massaging Hardy's flanks, Juniper closed his and slipped the tip of the dick into his mouth and used his tongue - tracing shapes, painting wide strokes across the flat tip. His remaining hoof cradled his partner's balls, occasionally rubbing slow, deep strokes down the perineum.

Hard Boiled was never the most emotional of ponies. But what Juniper was doing to him, making him feel…well, he blamed the combined forces of their slow work week and the fact that Juniper was just so damn sexy right now.

He could feel his knees begin to wobble under his partner's oral assault.

Endurance was the name of the game, but he wouldn't have Juniper biting the pillow if he took his time. It was to first to surrender - and he was pretty sure Juniper was too stubborn to surrender on his own…just like him.

And yet, here he was, face-to-groin with his partner on his apartment floor each doing their best to make the other cum, slowly. And he was loving it.

Hard Boiled lowered himself to the elbows on Juniper's muscular thighs and trailed his tongue up, a hoof following behind to stroke the throbbing shaft. It meant lowering himself deeper into his partner's maw, but that would be an acceptable risk. With the care of a sexually frustrated pony with a popsicle, he put his lips around the hot length of stallion meat and began bobbing his head.

Immediately he could feel Juniper splurt out another dribble of pre - the too-salty taste was never his thing, but he was too horny to care. The other stallion's muzzle contracting up his cock with a swallow in response was contributing to that.

A grunt that sounded more like a moan escaped Hardy's lips. He was getting close - and the twitching leg and slow rocking hips of Juniper below him meant he was, too. .

Which means neither stallion was still willing to hold back.

Author's Note

An idea that struck me much more recently, and one I've gotten some good feedback from. Also, my first time trying out branching paths.

If you think Hardy should win, go here.

If you think Juniper should win, go here.