The Second Train

Harlow and Campbell caught the train with ten minutes to spare. Harlow led Campbell by the hand through train car after train car, until he found one that was mostly empty. There was an older woman asleep on the far side of the cabin, and a young couple about their age looking at their phones. Harlow pulled Campbell into one of the bench seats and tried to sit him on his lap, but Campbell squirmed off.

"I can't sit on your lap in public," he whispered nervously, looking around the train car like a bunny in the forest. Scanning for danger.

"I don't think it's a big deal, Crinkle Bell, but I won't push if this is a red for you. Is it a red? Or is it a yellow?"

Harlow was very well versed on his colors, and he'd been the one to teach Campbell about the notion when they'd first started playing online.

"I dunno... yellow I guess..."

It took Campbell a long time to get used to the safe word system. He knew about it, of course, but using it was a different story. If someone was roleplaying with him at all online, he felt indebted to let them do it their way, even if it made him uncomfortable. But Harlow was very strict about it. And actually, Harlow was kind of sexy when he was strict.

"Well, there are no more stops between here and where we get off," Harlow said, "and I don't think anybody else is going to come down this end of the carriage."

Harlow stood up as he was talking, and he peered around the cabin, trying to figure out what spot was most private.

"How about I sit down on the floor here," he gestured with a smile, "and you can sit on my lap? That way we're not in anyone’s line of sight."

"You're being ridiculous," Campbell sighed. But Harlow's persistence was charming. He just wanted Campbell to be happy, to experience something nice. But this was the first time Campbell had done anything like this in real life: it was already nicer than he could have ever imagined.

Campbell checked his phone. 52 minutes until the train arrived at Harlow's station.

"What if you sat sideways, and you could put your feet up on me?" Harlow asked. "That's a perfectly normal thing, isn't it?"

Campbell couldn't think of a single time when he saw a man put his feet up on another man's lap, but it was the kind of thing a girl would do with her boyfriend. And Campbell was a little petty when it came to gender stereotypes. So he nodded his head.

He turned so his back was to the wall, facing away from the window, and put his feet up on his Daddy's lap. Under his jeans, the thickness of the diaper forced his thighs apart and the position felt a lot more vulnerable than Campbell anticipated. Color crept up to his cheeks.

"You're such a good boy. You know, when you visit, we'll have to do this on my sofa. Except you won't have pants on then, and you'll just have your crinkles all visible and available for," and Harlow did lower his voice progressively during this little fantasy, "Daddy to see and touch and play with however he pleases."

"Haaarlow," Campbell whined, under his breath.

"Ah, ah. Try again."

Campbell pouted and shook his head. No way, absolutely not. But Harlow put a hand over Campbell's thigh and inched it forward, between his legs. He gently brushed his palm over the denim jeans, along his inner thigh, only a few inches from the diaper concealed beneath. Campbell sunk lower into the seat and looked away.

"Try again," Harlow insisted.

Campbell glanced around. At the sleeping woman. He couldn't even see the couple anymore, with how he was sitting. Finally, in a voice that was so quiet it was mostly just mouthing the word, he said: "Daddy..."

"Good boy," Harlow grinned. He reached up and patted the front of Campbell's jeans to reward him, and a slight crinkle echoed between the two men.

"You know, we have to savor these moments," Harlow teased. "It won't be long before this is just the norm for you, after all. At first, maybe you’ll just forget what you're wearing, and when Daddy touches you, you'll blush and remember."

Harlow was so good at the 'from now on' narrative.

"I doubt I will ever forget this feeling," Campbell admitted with a small smile. It was heavenly. His first real diaper. His first real Daddy. It felt like all his dreams had come true.

"Maybe not forget," Harlow said, deciding to rephrase his teasing. "But it'll be normal. Your baseline."

"That... doesn't sound so bad," Campbell blushed.

Harlow knew it was a long trip on the train, and he wanted it to be entertaining; one of Campbell’s biggest fears was 'awkward pauses and silences' and the two didn't have the natural rapport in person just yet to completely stave that off with natural chemistry. So Harlow said:

"Do you wanna play a game? Do you know how to play Fortunately/Unfortunately?"

Campbell shook his head. He'd never heard of it before. Harlow grinned.

"Okay, the rules are really simple! One of us starts by saying fortunately... and then something fortunate. And then the other replies with unfortunately... with something unfortunate and related. And we go back and forth until one of us messes up and then we swap who does which role. It's really simple and really fun."

"Alright... but you'll have to start, because I still don't think I understand." And Campbell had the sneaking suspicion that he would be better at the unfortunately side of things. Not that he was intrinsically pessimistic, but skepticism came naturally to him. Self-doubt. That kind of thing.

"You got it, Crinkle Bell."

Harlow was beginning to really like that as a nickname for his little diapered baby boy; it had a nice ring to it.

"Unfortunately, we can’t play the Alphabet Game because you’d have to sit up," Harlow started.

"Wait, so I'm supposed to do a fortunately now?" Campbell asked. His Daddy nodded.

"Mm... okay... fortunately, this game seems easier?" Campbell said it like a question, wanting to be sure he was playing this game right. Harlow nodded in acknowledgement, but didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to stunt the flow of the game. Instead, he replied with:

"Unfortunately, I’m not sure if it’s easy enough for a baby as little as you are, squirt~"

"Fortunately, I'm a grown up!" Campbell shot back.

"Unfortunately, your attire says otherwise."

Campbell blushed. "Fortunately, I'm capable of a lot of grown up things to offset anything I'm wearing."

"Unfortunately, I haven't seen any examples of that," Harlow teased.

"Fortunately, I can prove it." Campbell swung his legs off his Daddy's lap and leaned forward on the seat. He leaned up to kiss Harlow on the lips, but hesitated at the last second. His eyes flickered around the train car.

The moment of hesitation was all that it took for Harlow to seize the opportunity and flip this one to his own advantage: in Campbell’s hesitation, Harlow leaned closer and kissed himl, instead of allowing the smaller of the pair to take the initiative. And it was a good, firm, wonderful, hot, very Daddy kiss, too.

Possessive.

A possessive kiss.

After it melted away, Harlow smugly smiled and whispered directly into Campbell’s ear:

"Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure your diaper just got a whole lot less dry~"

"F-fortunately... that's not... true..." Campbell managed to mumble, but the kiss had slowed his thoughts to a halt. The game was hard to keep up with, and all he could think about was the pressure on his lips that was no longer there. He had to take a deep breath.

"Unfortunately, I don't think refuting my statement counts as your own statement," Harlow laughed. "I win."

"...fortunately..." No, unfortunately! Campbell shook his head and leaned back again. "Yeah, okay. You won that one. But I think you cheated."

"Feet," Daddy said, patting his thighs. Campbell obeyed, putting his legs back up on Harlow like they were before.

"There’s Daddy’s good boy. Now it’s your turn, and you get to start with an unfortunately."

"Unfortunately, this game seems rigged," Campbell said sourly. The lingering feeling of that kiss was still heavy on his mind.

"Fortunately you look so cute when you’re pouting like that, Crinkle Bell."

Campbell had a truly adorable pout, because his whole face got soft and slightly pink when he did. It was one of the cutest things about him, and one of the things that Harlow had been attracted to from the beginning.

"Unfortunately, that is the worst iteration of my nickname so far," Campbell said, sticking out his tongue.

"Fortunately, you’re going to look even cuter when we get your tongue pierced for Daddy."

The topic had come up a few times when discussing gender stereotypes. Tongue piercings were such a slutty girl thing in movies and lewd stories, and Harlow had suggested (or playfully threatened - was there a difference?) that given the opportunity he’d take Campbell to get his done.

"Unfortunately, needles freak me out," Campbell sighed wistfully. He had wanted to get his ears pierced in high school too, but never built up the courage. There was something freeing about letting someone else make all his decisions, but the fear never quite went away.

"Fortunately, little kids often grow out of those fears."

When Daddy said this one, he made sure that his hand was resting on a part of Campbell’s pants where he could feel the subtle bulge of the diaper. Just a gentle reminder.

Campbell shuffled in place and looked down at Harlow's hand, curled around his thigh. Fortunately, there was a part of Campbell that believed him. Unfortunately, he lost another round of the game. It seemed like, with his Daddy around, it was hard for Campbell to find anything at all unfortunate.

"Next stop, Policy Street Station."

"Oh, that's us!" Harlow nudged Campbell's feet off his lap and grabbed the diaper bag from the seat next to him. Campbell hurried to follow suit, making their way to the sliding doors. Before the train came to a stop, Harlow turned to Campbell and took his hand.

"It's getting late," Harlow said warmly. "I think the only thing we can really do from here is go back to my apartment. So if you'd like to end our date here, I understand. It's been a wonderful day."

Campbell stood frozen for a moment. He hadn't thought about any of that. It was almost dark out, and there was still an hour-long train ride back to his town. But now that he was standing there, at the end of his time with Harlow, he really didn't want it to end. Was that too much? They had only just met each other...

"No wrong answers," Harlow gently reminded Campbell, because he knew full well from their conversations that Campbell often got lost in his own head, trying to figure out what the ‘right answer’ was. Harlow had reassured him time and again that, with him, there weren’t wrong answers. Everything was the right answer.

"Is it weird?" Campbell asked. "I mean... I want to spend more time with you, but... is it weird if..."

Harlow shook his head. "It's not weird. I want to spend more time with you too."

Campbell nodded. Then, if he got to choose... what he really wanted...

"I want to get off at your stop."

Harlow was kissing Campbell when the train came to a stop at the platform; there was nobody else in the vestibule, but Harlow would have kissed Campbell either way. When the creaking, squealing wheels finally piped down and the doors slid open, he took his diapered baby boy by the hand and led him off the train and onto the platform: the platform that Campbell was supposed to have gotten off at in the first place.