It was the summer of '05 and my college roommate and I were taking a backpacking tour of Europe. We'd underbudgeted and blown half of our savings on our first stop. For our money, we'd only really seen the inside of our hotel room and a couple of pubs in London. The night we left for mainland Europe was the last night we'd spent in a private room.

It was exactly the sort of plan Kyle would come up with. He was a stringy sort of guy with short dark hair and an incapacity to grow a beard--which, like most of his endeavors--never stopped him from trying.

His family had money, though, and when he proposed the trip, I knew he'd be able to bail us out when it went horribly wrong. Of course, I didn't anticipate any surprises that money couldn't cover.

We were nearing the third week of our trip and had well and truly exhausted our hotel money. Coming back through France towards Berlin after our trip through Iberia, we'd resorted to staying in hostels when we were lucky and sleeping upright on overnight trains most of the time.

What that meant for Kyle, who had never had a roommate other than me in his life, got no privacy. It was a real issue for him. We were in the company of at least four other strangers every night we were in Europe. It started to get to him.

One night, while passing through the eastern edge of France, we were lucky enough to score cheap tickets in a sleeping compartment on an overnight train. There were four bunks in our little cell but, stop after stop, hour after hour, no one came to claim the other two. Around midnight--and three beers later, Kyle and I decided we'd really scored and would have the place to ourselves. So, we stretched out.

"I'm going to be honest with you," Kyle said, finishing his can and setting it down with the other empties. "I'm super horny."

I nearly snorted out my beer.

Choking it down, I said, "Well, I heard the German girls are supposed to be freaky."

It was big talk. For all our plans for carousal on the plane ride over, neither Kyle nor I had really even attempted the locals. The truth of the matter was, the language barrier was proving to be much more of an issue than either of us had anticipated.

"When was the last time you masturbated?" Kyle said, with as much suddenness.

I could feel my face going hot. Whether it was from the questioning or the alcohol, I wasn't sure.

"Chicago," I said. "In the dorm. Like a normal person."

Kyle was quiet for a moment. He didn't take my bait. The train hit a rut and the car seemed to lurch to the side, reminding us that we were in motion.

"For me, it was in the UK," he said. "In the shower."

"Gross," I said. "I used that after you."

I jokingly tossed an empty at him and he swatted it away.

"Honestly, this is the most privacy I've had since then," Kyle said. "It's getting to me, man."

"Are you asking me if you can rub one out in our sleeper car?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"No. It's fine," he said, quickly, reaching for another beer. "I'm just being honest."

It occurred to me that in the few weeks since Kyle and I had been away together, we'd seen more of each other than we'd ever had before. In all those weeks of staying in hostels and sleeping on public busses, we were lucky if there were only four strangers with eyes on us all the time. Now, with just the two of us in this car for the night, it really was like being alone.

"I mean, if you gotta do it you gotta do it," I said. "Just cover yourself up or something."

I allowed a twinge of a smile into my voice so he could play it off as a joke. But he didn't. Just as quickly as he'd played it off, Kyles's expression lit up.

"Really?"

"I don't mind."

Kyle laid back and threw the thin white sheet over his body. I looked away as I heard him wriggle his pants down. Before long, I could see the faint glow from his phone and hear the gentle sounds of a woman feigning an orgasm.

I hadn't expected him to get to work so fast. Now, I didn't know what to do with myself. I scrolled my phone, idly, looking for something to distract me. I cracked into another beer.

Before long, predictably, the sounds of Kyle's porn had gotten my dick up, too. It really had been a long time.

Almost without thinking about it, I reached a hand down inside my pants and began tugging at my balls, feeling my cock lengthen. I looked over at Kyle's bunk. He was turned away from me, facing the wall, but I could see his arm working furiously.

I let my dick flop out of my sweatpants and stroked along its length, listening to the porn and watching Kyle for signs that he would turn around. Soon, I began to close my eyes, imagining the tight curves of the Spanish women we'd seen in the bars.

"Oh, hello," Kyle said.

I opened my eyes. Kyle had rolled onto his back. I could see his hand still slowly tent-poling his blanket, but now he was watching me. I didn't stop.

"Whatever," I said. "This was your idea in the first place."

Kyle threw off his blanket and sat up. His cock was long and tangled at the base with black, wiry hair.

"Well, if you're out, I'm coming out, too," he said. "It's hot in there."

"Coming out, huh?" I said.

"You're the one staring at my dick," he said.

I looked away. I kept jerking off. I could hear the sounds of Kyle going too. He turned up the volume on the lesbian porn he was watching. I tried to focus on that, but my eyes kept drifting back to him.

"Do you want to just--" he said, gesturing.

I got up and crossed the swaying train car to sit next to Kyle in his bunk. He propped his phone up on the tray table and we watched, stroking our cocks slowly as a redhead grinded her pussy into the legs of a big breasted brunette.

I pushed my pants farther down around my legs so that I could spread them and touch my balls. After a moment, Kyle mirrored me and our legs touched. He glanced over at me, shrugged, and went on.

The longer we stroked our cocks, the warmer it seemed to get in the car until the window had begun to steam at the edges. Before long, we had kicked our pants off completely. Then, removed our shirts. We were shoulder to shoulder naked when the porno ended.

"Check this out," Kyle said.

He took his phone into his hand again and scrolled around. Then he passed it back to me. My stroking hand slowed down--then sped right back up--as I realized what I was looking at.

"Damn," I said. "That's Lex?"

The photo was taken from the neck down, but Lex's shocking red curls were visible as they brushed against pink nipples that capped generous breasts. Lex had been Kyle's girlfriend for much of college, a quiet, nerdy Chem major who broke up with him after she'd caught him smoking marijuana for the third time after she'd asked him to quit.

"Go on," he said.

Kyle relaxed into the bunk, watching my reactions as he continued to work slowly on his cock.

The next photo had Lex in a bra and panties with the bra peeled down. The next showed her pussy, plump and wet.

It felt wrong to look through her photos, but I was horny and Lex was hot.

"Wait," Kyle said. "Don't--"

Too late, I'd swiped into a well-framed shot of Kyle holding his dick in one hand. It seemed to tower over the camera. He snatched the phone back.

"If I wanted to see your dick pics, I have a better view here," I said.

"True," Kyle admitted.

He placed the phone back down displaying Lex splayed out on a dorm bed, her ass high in the air.

Soon, I could tell he was getting close to finishing. He'd stopped tapping the phone to keep it from turning off and was laying with his head back, mouth opening and closing.

After a while, I could feel my attention wandering, my eyes trailing from empty space to the naked body pumping furiously beside me.

"I like watching you," I murmured.

His eyes flicked up to mine and then down to my cock. He didn't look away.

I felt an urge to kiss him then, to touch his cock. It was a strange feeling, one that I'd never felt towards him or any man before. The suddenness of what we were doing, the awareness of other travelers on the other side of the thin train walls, was getting to me. I felt my cock growing hot, ready to blow.

"I'm almost there," I muttered.

I felt him pick up the pace as I spoke, watched as his hips writhed on the bunk.

"I want to see," he whispered.

When I came, it shot up and over my chest to spray my shoulder. It came out in thick ropes, the unspent semen from weeks abroad.

"Nice," he said.

"Sorry. Did it get on you?"

"No," he laughed. Kyle was still jerking determinedly at his cock. I watched him, though the thrill of it had faded with the passing of my orgasm.

He was still going.

"Do you need help?" I joked.

"I mean..."

"What?"

My cum had dried on my chest and that urge was returning, the thrill was burning in my belly.

"Do you want me to?"

My heart was thumping in my chest. Kyle shrugged and gestured towards himself with his head. Unsure, I let my hand drift towards his cock.

"Fuck it," I said, finally. I took Kyle's cock out of his hand. He didn't stop me. It felt good in my hand. Long and warm, a gentle curve along the middle. He leaned back and let me stroke him faster and faster, his hips grinding into the bunk.

"This isn't weird?" I said, knowing it was too late for that.

He only shook his head and closed his eyes. When he came, his semen was hot on my hands.

Afterwards, I didn't know what to say to him. The feeling in my belly had burned itself out and now I was sticky with cum. I dried my hand on a towel from my luggage and moved back to my side of the car.

He smiled weakly. "Thanks."

"Yeah, you owe me one," I said.