Hayday

"Hey, you want your water bottles?" Walter yells up at the other boys in the hayloft, because he has no intention of climbing up the ladder just to ask and have to climb back down.

"No," comes the first response, voice faint. That would be Dakota, his fellow freshman - or, he guesses, sophomore now. He can imagine that Koda is still splayed out on the ground, looking like a dead starfish.

"Yes, and bring Koda's too," the other voice is Auggie, rising junior and Walter's crush, though he still hasn't been brave enough to admit it to anyone except Quinn and Roscoe.

"I don't want it," Koda moans.

"It's too hot up here for you not to be drinking water," he can hear Auggie say sternly. Quickly, he shoves the three bottles into a bucket and slings it over his arm to scurry up the ladder. Roscoe, his accountability partner, had just pulled out after they'd unloaded and stacked the bales on his trailer, and that means they have roughly half an hour until he rolls back in with the next load.

Walter has discovered that hay season is a whole lot of 'hurry up and wait'. Hurry up and get the hay cut, then wait until it's dry before you bale it. But once it's baled, hurry up and get it in the barn while the weather's good. It's hot, hard work, but it still beats going home to his parents. Working on the farm over the summer means he gets to stay in the dorm.

Reaching the other two boys, he hands Auggie his bottle and rests Koda's on his forehead. His friend just mumbles something rude, prompting Auggie to crouch down and look him in the eyes. "You can sit up and drink some water, or I can swat you and then you can sit on a sore bottom and drink some water."

Auggie's Top voice never fails to send Walter's stomach to his knees, even when it isn't directed at him, and he hides what he is sure is a bright red face behind getting a long drink. He needs to get a grip. Auggie just broke up with his boyfriend at the end of the school year, about a month ago, and he still seems more sad about it than ready to move on - so does Nath, for that matter, which is made all the more awkward by the fact that their former RA is also staying in the dorm for the summer.

"You're not my top, August," Koda says, in his brattiest tone.

"You know that won't stop me, Dakota," the older boy promises. "One."

Walter has to turn around and look in the other direction. He wishes he could figure out how to like Auggie less. Everyone else is still certain that he and Nath will work their stuff out and get back together - he'd only admitted to his crush to his best friend and to his AP when they'd asked why he was the only one who wasn't suffering from secondhand sadness at the breakup.

"You don't have to count, Auggie," Koda whines behind him. "Jeez. I can tell when I'm thirsty, thank you."

"I don't care if you're thirsty, you're sweating just as much as we are and you need to hydrate. Two."

It's not that Walter can't also see that Auggie and Nath love each other - he can. It's that he has spend more than a couple of sleepless nights sitting out behind the dorm, watching the horses graze, listening to Auggie bemoan all the reasons they won't work long term. Top of the list: Nath is a top and Auggie is a switch who feels like his needs aren't getting met, and Nath is leaving for law school, and he's going to be an hour away and busier than ever.

"Three." There's a scuffle, and the sound of a hand popping off of jeans, a dozen or so hard swats that draw yelps from Koda. "You ready to drink that water, or you need more?"

"Fine, I'll drink it!"

Two more pops, earning a muffled whine from Koda.

"What about you, Walter? You have a problem with water?"

"Uh, no," he turns back around to hold up his half-empty bottle as proof. "I'm thirsty. I promise."

Auggie grins at him, and hands a pouting Koda his bottle. Everything is peaceful for a few minutes as they gulp water and hope in vain for a breeze to come through and help cool the loft - and maybe their sweaty selves. In the heat of the afternoon, it's easy to lean back against the stacked bales and drift off.

Suddenly, Koda sits up, his excited, "Hey, do you guys see that?" snapping both Auggie and Walter from their respective dozes.

"See what?" Walter leans down to look over the edge of the loft, up and down the aisle, and out the door, looking for whatever has Koda so suddenly engaged.

"Not down there, up there." he points, drawing their attention to a thick, knotted rope that's been tucked up on top of a rafter, about halfway between their side of the loft and the loft across the aisle.

"It's a rope?" Walter says, confused.

"No, it's not, it's a swing," Koda corrects him, glee in his voice. "My pops had one just like it in his barn."

"I don't think so, it's not nearly long enough," Walter tries to calculate how long it would be, unwound, only to have Koda shake his head.

"Not to swing on the ground, my friend. To swing across. All we have to do is get it down from that beam, and we could swing it across to the other side."

That gets Auggie's attention, and he sits up, looking at what they're looking at. "Absolutely not," he says firmly. "It's clearly been put up so naughty brats can't do exactly that. It would be totally unsafe."

"If they didn't want us to use it, they'd have taken it down all the way," Koda argues.

"Dakota Atkinson-" Auggie's phone rings, interrupting him, and he frowns at them, holding up a finger while he answers. "Yeah? Oh, okay. Where are the keys? Yeah, I'll be there in just a few."

Hanging up, he levers himself to his feet. "Noah wants me to grab the other truck and trailer, he says there's a storm rolling in and we need to move faster. You two stay here, but be ready to start having trucks here double time." He makes it all the way to the ladder and out of sight, and then his head pops back up. "And stay off that rope. I mean it." His fierce Look makes Koda scowl but when it turns it on Walter, he can't help but nod furiously.

They've barely heard the other truck start and pull out, gravel crunching under the wheels, when Koda's on his feet, leaning out across the aisle.

"What are you doing?" Walter hisses, looking around like a Top is going to crawl out of the hay stacks any second.

"Getting that rope, obviously. Here, hold my other arm," Walter considers refusing. but as his friend leans precariously out into the open, he darts forward and grabs him by his free arm before he pitches over the side. Koda does something with a thinner rope at the end of the beam just barely within reach, and then suddenly the rope is free. "A quick release knot, just like I thought. Pull me back in."

Walter does, and the other boy reels in the rope until he has the giant knot hanging in the air just in front of him, and then he hands it to Walter. "Here, hold this."

"Koda, I don't think this is a good idea," he glances over the edge at the concrete floor some fourteen or more feet below them. Behind him, Koda is dragging some hay over. He places two bales on the bottom and a third on the top and climbs on top of it, taking the rope back from Walter.

"Don't be silly. You think my pops would have let us grandkids play on one of these if they were dangerous?" Koda is dismissive, already putting the rope between his legs and sitting his weight down on the big knotted 'seat'. Before Walter can say or do anything else, he takes a step off of his makeshift hay-stool and then he's soaring across the space, whooping with delight. Just when he reaches the end of the arc, over the other loft, he jumps neatly to the ground and snatches the catch rope out of the air before it can swing back.

By the time Walter's heart starts beating again, Koda's created an identical set of hay steps on the other side, and climbs onto it to swing back over. But Walter hasn't moved, so he flies right into him, knocking them both to the ground - Koda is laughing like a goon, and somehow still catches the end of the rope, pulling the swing back up to them. "Man, this is awesome! More fun than I've had in ages. Walter, you've got to try it."

It looks fun. But… "Auggie said not to," he says quietly, biting his lip.

"Auggie's a spoilsport," Koda rolls his eyes. "You just saw me do it twice - and I was okay, right? It's fine, Walter. I'm sure it was just put up by some overprotective top. Or, you know what, maybe it was in the way of the hay trucks one time, and nobody has bothered to get it down yet!"

He hesitates, looking across the aisle. Koda has a point - it had been effortlessly easy for him. And if they weren't meant to use it, someone would have removed it entirely…right?

"Live a little, Walter. You'll regret missing out if you don't try it. Here, I'll walk you through it." Koda scrambles up onto the bales again, gathering up the rope. Walter follows, steps slow, but he doesn't want to miss out. "Okay, so you want to sit here," Koda shows him, "nice and tight up against the rope. And hold here," he shows Walter a spot slightly above his head. "You might be tempted to wrap your legs around the extra rope, but don't. You need to be able to jump down at the other end, right? Right after you feel the jerk of the rope hitting the end of the swing. Watch me again."

For the third time, Koda steps off and goes soaring across, and Walter can, indeed, see how he lets go just after a little hitch in the smooth flow of the rope. "Okay, your turn. Catch!" The other boy swings the rope back, hard, and Walter just manages to catch it.

On auto-pilot, he pulls it up like Koda had done and climbs up onto the bales, then he hesitates. He doesn't want to get a reputation as a goody-two-shoes; his classmates had understood when he was underage, and following stricter rules than they were, but most of them have gotten out of the habit of inviting him into big mischief after the first couple of instigators got extra swats for 'being a bad influence'. Now that he's 18, he wants to make sure they see him as an equal again.

He steps up to the rope, straddles it, and closes his eyes.

"Yeah, Walter! Who-hoooo! Just step off! C'mon, you can do it! You're the ma-"

Eyes still closed, he faintly registers Koda's shouts of encouragement stopping abruptly, but he's already stepped off into nothingness. Forget his toes - his stomach leaves his body, but halfway through the arc he finds his voice, letting out an excited whoop of his own just as he feels the aforementioned jerk on the rope and lets go, landing hard on the wood floor. He opens his eyes just in time to grab the catch rope before it slithers over the edge.

"That was amazing!" he breathes, spinning around, but immediately he freezes, letting the rope slide through numb fingers.

The farm manager is standing there, with a silent and wide-eyed Koda at his side. And Noah does Not look pleased. Walter's stomach disappears for a totally different reason than before as the man points a finger at the spot right in front of him, not saying a word. Walter drags himself over, mind racing.

"Noah, we-" he says at the same time as Koda blurts, "It was-"

"I don't want to hear another word out of either one of you," the farm manager growls. "Of all the stupid, foolish, reckless…" he shakes his head and sits down on the stack of three hay bales, yanking Koda between his knees. "Don't move," he tells Walter, meeting his eyes briefly. The flinty look there brings startled tears to Walter's eyes, though he doesn't let them fall.

Noah makes short work of the button and zipper on Koda's jeans and then yanks them and his boxers to his knees before tipping him over his knee. Walter watches in rapt helplessness as the farm manager's big, calloused hand falls hard and fast. He doesn't speak, but the intensity of the hiding he's delivering and the speed with which Koda's butt turns pink. and then red, speaks for him. The other rising sophomore manages to stay still and silent, his body stiff, until Noah turns his attention to turning his sit-spots and upper thighs the same deep pink, just a few spanks shy of a true red. Then he starts to yelp and kick, and by the time Noah stops at crimson - nearly a perfect Spanktone 156 - he's gasping wetly, with tears on his face.

With the same brutal efficiency, Koda's lifted off of Noah's lap and stood back next to Walter, a short cry escaping him as Noah yanks his pants back up. The only thing the man says is, "Hands on your head, Dakota." The other bottom tearfully complies, lacing his hands on top of his black crew cut. Then Noah's pulling Walter between his knees, and his fingers are on the button of his jeans. As he makes quick work of divesting Walter of his own layers, he says, "I'm disappointed to find you caught up in this, Walter. I thought you had more sense."

As a result, Walter's tears spill before he's even upended. And he has nothing of Koda's stoicism and stubbornness - he's wiggling and yelping from the first shockingly hard swat (he cannot believe that is just Noah's hand!). Not that it changes anything - the man delivers the exact same unrelenting spanking to Walter's bare bottom as he had to Koda's. It's a totally different experience than any spanking he's gotten this year: just fast, hard, lighting an immediate burn that just gets worse. By the time he stops, Walter is wailing and trying desperately to kick his way off of Noah's lap.

The farm manager sets him on his feet, and holds him steady just long enough for him to stop swaying before reaching down and roughly yanking his briefs and jeans back up. The feeling of the fabric sliding roughly across his bottom is enough to reopen the floodgates, and he wipes furiously at his face to no avail.

"Go to my office and wait for me," Noah says sternly, and they nearly trip over themselves in their rush to comply.

They don't speak as they hurry across the parking lot to the little building that houses offices and a classroom, or as they move through the silent building to the farm manager's office. Once they're standing in front of his big wooden desk, they're still silent for several moments. Koda's rubbing at his rear furiously, and Walter is trying to stop the tears, but each time he manages to do so, he moves and the denim of his jeans reignites the fire Noah had set, making his eyes leak again.

That and, he's never seen Noah quite like that, and he's having trouble catching his breath.

"Shit," Koda mutters, "I did not expect that, he's real mad, huh?" he gives up on trying to rub any relief into his butt and turns to Walter. "Do you think he's going to use his strap on top of - oh, woah, buddy you gotta breathe."

The sound of rushing in his ears makes Koda hard to hear, and he can barely feel the other boy's hands on his shoulders as he's turned towards him. He is breathing, he thinks vaguely, but with the way his brain has gone fuzzy, he thinks it might not be working.

"Walter! Don't pass out on me - what can I do? Noah, he's, I don't know," Koda sounds like he's panicking. "What do we do?"

"Let me have him," big, warm hands replace Koda's. Safe hands, he thinks, but are they safe? Mad is not safe. "Give us a little space, Koda, grab me a water from the fridge over there. Get one for yourself too."

Walter is enveloped in a sturdy embrace, and the familiar scent of the essential oils that Harley likes to use on the wool dryer balls he throws into their household's laundry. "Breathe with me, kiddo. In, two, three four. Hold, two, three, four. Out through your mouth, all the way. And in…" Noah counts steadily until Walter is breathing the count reliably on his own, and then rubs his hand up and down his back for another minute before gently pushing him away and putting a hand under his chin.

"I haven't seen one of those in a couple months," he observes. "What's the matter, kiddo?"

"You-you're m-mad," he stutters, feeling his eyes welling again with traitorous tears.

"No, sweet boy, I'm not." Walter tries to shove away, angry himself at the lie, but Noah's arms catch him and tug him close again. "Hey, listen to me, kiddo. I won't lie to you, I'm not happy right now, but I'm not mad. We don't spank when we're mad, remember?"

"D-didn't hu-ug u-us," Walter hiccups, accusingly. Noah's spanked him a few times, for farm mischief or when Harley or Kellyn were feeling too submissive to do it, and it wasn't like that. And he always ended with a hug.

"No, I didn't," Noah sighs, making Walter meet his eyes. "I'm sorry. I should have explained, and not just sent you in here, because I know how much routine means to you. I didn't hug you because we aren't done, not by a long shot. That was a really naughty and foolish thing the two of you did, and we're going to make sure it never happens again. But if you need a hug, you can have one. You too, brat."

He lifts an arm for Koda to duck under even as Walter plasters himself to his chest. "You can always ask for a hug if you need one, kiddo. Communication, remember?" Squeezing them tight, he holds for a minute before gently pushing them both away. As he takes a deep breath, the stern Top face from earlier returns. "Alright. I'm not mad, boys, but I am seriously unhappy with the choices you made today. Here's what is going to happen. I have to go help get the last of the hay stacked before the rain starts, so the rest of our discussion is going to have to wait until I'm finished. The two of you are going to sit in corners on your hot, burning bottoms and think about the choices you made while I'm gone."

Heads hanging, neither one of them has an argument to make, not with that tone of voice. Walter watches, completely baffled, as Noah walks towards the door, where he'd apparently dropped an armful of…something as he rushed in to calm Walter's panic attack. He picks up two white, corded squares and takes them over to the furthest corner from the door, where he plugs one in and sets it on the high, rungless stool already occupying the corner.

The stools, Walter is familiar with. Noah is far from the only Top at RBU to prefer to sit the freshly spanked on their aching bottoms in the corner instead of allowing them to stand. The white, plastic-y square he doesn't recognize. When he risks a glance at Koda, his friend shrugs, looking just as confused.

"Dakota," the farm manager calls firmly. Koda drags himself over, and then even more reluctantly pushes his pants and underwear back down when directed. Noah lifts him onto the stool, which is high enough that his feet won't touch the floor (nobody's do, even the tallest people), forcing him to keep all of his weight squarely on his bottom. Before going to the next corner, Noah reaches down and flicks a switch on the cord.

Then he heads to the other corner that is visible from the desk but not from the window, and repeats the process. Walter doesn't bother to wait until he's called, instead trudging over as soon as he can force his feet to move, which earns him a quiet, "Good boy," before Noah relieves him of his own pants and underwear and lifts him onto his own corner stool, ruffling his hair briefly before he flips the switch and steps back.

"I know that many young tops are fans of those newfangled 'punishment mats'," Noah says from somewhere behind them, "but I find a hot seat to be a much more effective way to keep a naughty boy's attention where I want it and encourage them to think about how they earned their hot bottom. I'm going back to finish the hay, but I called Harley to come keep an eye on you. If you need something before I get back, he'll be here."

Walter understands what he's really saying is: if there is an emergency, or: if you need to safeword. Despite the way his bottom is stinging and he's still confused about what he's sitting on, it makes him feel safe and he's able to take a deep breath, and then another.

"If you move or give him any trouble, he'll deal with it. And I promise you, you don't want the reminder spanking he'll give you before he puts you right back on your stools, because I am going to tell him if he has to spank you, to use a paddle. The two of you are going to sit right there until I get back, do you understand?"

They both murmur their 'yes, sir's', because there is no other acceptable response to the situation they've created for themselves. and then it's quiet.

Empty, sad silence is filled only with an occasional sniffle from both boys. Wiping his eyes again, Walter shifts, trying to find a comfortable way to sit, despite knowing it's futile. It's weird, though, because normally, even sitting on a mean corner stool, the pain from a spanking will start to fade as long as there is no new layers getting added. The burn Noah had imparted in the hay loft had been slowly dissipating, replaced with just prickly sting while they stood in front of his desk. Now, though, that string seems to be ramping up again, a burn reignited. He wiggles and kicks his feet, whining a little.

He can hear Koda breathing unsteadily behind him, and he he tries to rock forward to escape the heat, but that only presses his thighs into the white plastic under his bare cheeks, and he can only hold that for a moment before he sinks back. Meanwhile, the heat just builds and builds. Desperate to understand, he reaches down and feels at the edges of the plastic square - puzzled to realize there is actual heat there under his fingers, not just the heat of his spanking. That's when he connects the dots - Noah has them sitting on heating pads! He gasps out loud, and shoves his hands under his bottom, letting his palms take the heat instead of his burning cheeks.