Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:49:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: D H <dhthewriter@yahoo.com>
Subject: Homefront Chapter 12 and Epilogue

This is the final installment of Homefront.  I hope that you all have
enjoyed the story, and as always, feel free to send me an email with any
questions or comments.  The address is dhthewriter@yahoo.com.  Also, to
read this and other stories that I've written, as well as get advance
notice/information about future stories/works, join my yahoo group on
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dhthewriter.

The usual disclaimer applies, and happy reading!!!

David :)

Homefront
Chapter 12

	It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Eudora.  Sure, it was hot as
the blazes of hell, as a local might have said, but it was beautiful none
the less.  At Seth and Jenny's house, the women were already up and moving
around, albeit slowly.  On the night before Jenny's wedding, after the
rehearsal dinner, Becky, Janelle, and Linda had brought her and some other
ladies back to their house for a party that would have made most of the
guys blush.  The stripper arrived at eleven or so and given a show that
made Jenny wish that Seth was there, for his oral abilities more than
anything else.  At 11:55, the ladies let her call him one last time before
midnight.

	At his party, Seth was drunk off his ass and laughing as the
stripper that Jimmy and Ron had hired for him was trying her best to get a
bigger tip from Matt, who had already told her that he was very happily
married to the man of his dreams.  He'd already given her a C-Note, but she
wanted more, it seemed.  Their conversation ended with sweet `I Love You's'
at exactly 11:59 by the watches on the Moms' wrists.

	The next morning, they all woke up in a haze.  The women were
drinking coffee in the kitchen as Linda and Becky both told stories about
losing their virginity in that house.  "May many more virgins be deflowered
here then," Janelle, still a little drunk, said as they toasted tapped the
rims of their coffee mugs together.  Jenny woke up in her pajamas, waddling
down the stairs and into the kitchen as the moms sat there.

	"Y'all.  I thought about it last night, and I'm not sure that I
want to walk down the aisle by myself," Jenny told them as she relished the
fact that she could sit there in the tank-top that she'd worn to bed along
with a pair of Seth's boxers.

	"OK.  Your dad's not coming, he said," Janelle said.

	"Oh trust me.  I don't want him here," Jenny told the woman who'd
given her birth.  With a smile, she continued.  "I'm thinking about asking
Nick, even though he's already my Gentleman of Honor."

	"Awww..." Janelle thought she would start crying but Becky and
Linda, who were sitting on either side of her, instinctively put their
hands on her shoulders.  "Y'all.  Thank you so much," she said, looking
between the ladies who had become better friends to her than anyone had
been since Patrice passed away.

	At Ron and Linda's, Ron had been awake for a little while, sipping
coffee when Matt rolled from the bed on the third floor and fumbled his way
to the kitchen.  "I have a weird feeling about something," he said as he
took a juice from the fridge, shaking it as he walked toward the table to
sit with his dad.

	"Did some lady make me give her a motorboat last night?" Matt asked
as Ron smiled.

	"Son," Ron said to him, "it was just as weird for me to watch!"

	"Damn..." Matt shook his head as Ron laughed.

	It wasn't long before Matt's absence in the bed woke Nick as well.
He took his morning piss and then started to walk from the room when his
phone began to ring.  He answered it, hoping that the caller wouldn't yell
at him as his head was pounding.

	"I need a favor," Jenny said.

	"What's that?"

	"I've changed my mind about something, and only you can help."

	"Uh oh..." Nick smiled.

	"No.  Nick... I want you to walk me down the aisle," she told him.

	Nick, beaming with pride, sat on the side of the bed for a second
as they talked.  He accepted her request, promising to try his best not to
fall over on the way.

	"If you do, Nicholas, I'll kick your ass right in the chapel,"
Jenny smiled.

	"Yes ma'am," Nick said.

	Their conversation came to an end a moment later, and Nick made his
way downstairs in a pair of gym shorts that Matt had left over there at
some point in the past.  "Baby.  I'm gonna have to give you head in a
little while," Matt said as he rounded the corner.

	"Not that I'm opposed to that, but why?" Nick asked after Ron
stopped laughing.  Matt told him the story as Nick wondered where he'd been
while it was going on.  He fixed himself a cup of coffee and then sat at
the table, telling Matt and Ron about Jenny's phone call the moment before.

	At around ten, the ladies went out to get their hair done for the
morning at around the same time that Jimmy and Seth were getting to the
other house, joking about having to walk over since they were still drunk.
They arrived to find Matt and Nick working on breakfast together, having
showered already and taken care of a couple of other, personal things,
before dressing in gym shorts and t-shirts and returning downstairs.  At
eleven, as the girls were returning to the house after finish their things,
the guys went to get ready.  Given the number of bathrooms at the Harper
abode, each guy had their own room.  Matt and Nick went upstairs to get
dressed, to what had been Matt's room for so long.

	"So I did something," Matt said as they walked into the room
together.

	"Oh no... what?" Nick grinned at him.  "Was that that we just did
in the shower a preliminary `I'm sorry' for something?"

	"No..." Matt answered, a grin on his face.  "That was just because
you were so damn hot that I couldn't control myself."

	"OK.  Good," Nick told him as he walked into his old closet and
opened a door, pulling from inside a huge suit bag and setting it on the
bed.  He turned to Nick and smiled, presenting it to him in what he called
`The Barker's Beauty Pose'.  Nick walked over, having a feeling that he
knew what it was, but not saying anything until he opened it and saw it.
"Matt.  Seriously.  You can't keep spending money on me like this."

	"I promise I won't... all the time," Matt told him, "but Nick.  You
have been so good to me, not just in the last few weeks, but since we met.
If Pa were still here, he'd have bought it for you himself."

	"Matt.  I love you," Nick said.  "And I really love the uniform.
In fact, I think I'm gonna wear it today."

	"Good," Matt said.

	"But you have to stop spending a ton of money on me," Nick smiled.
"While it is nice, from time to time, to be spoiled a little bit, I don't
want people thinking that I'm with you for the money.  And sometimes, I
want to do the spoiling.  Like the trip, I wanted to give that to you.
Call me selfish, but I didn't want that to be our trip.  I wanted it to be
your trip, a trip that I was able to give to you."

	"I know, Nick," Matt told him, "and I don't think I go too
overboard.  A uniform isn't that expensive."

	"Not for you, but it would have taken me months to pay that off,"
Nick told him.

	"So I have an idea," Matt said as he wrapped his arms across Nick's
shoulders.

	"What's that?"

	"Why don't we have a weekend each month where I can spoil you, and
then a weekend each month where you can spoil me?  The rest of the time,
we'll go about our business like normal," Matt told him.

	"I can handle that," Nick told him, understanding that it was as
much a compromise for Matt as it was for him.

	"K..." Matt smiled.  "So put on the uniform, and I'm gonna go put
on the tuxedo."

	"You know that these things don't often leave room for the
imagination," Nick told him.

	"Why do you think I bought it?" Matt winked as he walked into the
closet to get his things.  Nick just shook his head as he pulled it from
the bag.

	Within just a few minutes, they were both dressed and headed
downstairs.  At around the same time, at Seth and Jenny's, a man dressed in
all black was coming up to the back door of the house, as he'd been
instructed to do.  Knocking, Linda was the first down and went to answer
it.  She invited the man in and told him that they were still getting ready
upstairs.

	It wasn't long before Seth and the guys were leaving the house, on
their way to the Wedding Chapel that had been constructed on the campus of
Parsons University.  As they were arriving, Jenny was walking down the
grand staircase in her dress, the train dragging down the steps as all the
women on both sides of the family were standing there, admiring her for all
her grace and beauty.  As they walked outside, Janelle and Jenny climbed
into the car that Matt had ordered for the day as his gift to Seth and
Jenny.  The other women climbed into their own cars and headed, behind the
limo to the chapel.

	They arrived to find that all the guests were already there,
waiting on the show to start.  The guys were standing at the back door to
the chapel, waiting in those final moments before the show started.  Linda
volunteered, as the ladies stood outside, to go in and tell the guys that
they'd arrived.  As they'd already decided, Seth crooked his arm and
escorted her to a seat on the front row.  She was his Othermom, his
godmother, and a woman in whom he had immense respect.  After she was
seated, he took his place in front of the altar, with the Episcopal
Minister who was officiating the ceremony.

	A moment later, Matt took his `Othermom' on his arm and escorted
her down the aisle to the front row, where she would sit beside her best
friend, her sister, through the ceremony that would, no doubt, make them
both cry.  He took his place beside Seth just a moment before the Dads
escorted Janelle down the aisle.  That part was Linda and Becky's idea, and
as they made sure that she was seated on the front row opposite them, they
sat next to their wives, ready for the show.

	Nick walked outside to find Jenny standing in front of the chapel
wearing a long, cream-colored dress.  When she saw him, she cried, for he
was wearing a formal uniform.  He smiled, for that was his sister getting
married that day.  She'd always been more than a cousin to him, and, in
that moment, it shined through.

	"You look beautiful," Nick told her as he kissed her cheek.

	"And you look so handsome," she said as she wrapped her arm around
his neck.  "You know.  The two of us are quite lucky."

	"I know," Nick smiled, knowing that she was referring to Seth and
Matt in that moment.

	"So let's go see our husbands," Jenny smiled a second before Nick
crooked his arm and she took hold of it.  Together, they walked up the
couple of steps to the door of the chapel.  As they'd agreed, Nick gently
knocked on the outer door one time, and the usher standing on the other
side signaled the organist that the bride was ready.

	The usher then closed the door to the chapel itself and opened the
door to let Jenny and Nick come inside.  He helped her pull in the train
before closing the sturdy wooden door.  He then walked to the inner door
and, with another usher working the door opposite him, turned the knob and
then slowly opened the door.  For both of them, time seemed to stop as
Sherice, at Seth and Jenny's request, began singing "Ave Maria" in the
style of Schubert.

	Those in the room stood as Jenny walked inside, her hair done
around a tiara with no veil in front of her face.  Janelle started to cry,
wishing that her sister were there to share that moment with her.  Patrice
would have been so proud of the man that Nick had become, all on his own.
She would have loved Matt, and she would have adored hanging out with Becky
and Linda.

	Linda and Becky both looked to Seth and Matt, who looked so gallant
standing there, looking how `Granddaddy' and `Pa' might have looked at the
latter's wedding.  Of course, they would have adored Jenny, for she would
have been able to keep up with two, self-professed perverted old men.

	A moment later, as Matt stood in his place, Seth walked to the
bottom of the altar.  With a very proud smile on his face, he took Jenny's
arm from Nick and the two, together, walked up the couple of steps to the
altar as Nick took his place beside her, as her `Man of Honor'.

	For a half hour, the Episcopal service continued as Matt and Nick
stole glances at one another.  At a point in service, Sherice performed
Christina Aguilera's "The Right Man" at Jenny's request.  Matt was almost
brought to tears as he looked at Nick to find that, indeed, he'd found the
right man, that man who was meant for him, to make him happy on more than
just a physical level.

	Before Matt knew it, the pastor was asking the couple to stand from
their benches and face one another.  "Ladies and Gentlemen," the old man
said as Matt looked directly at Nick, who was looking directly back at him.
"I present for the first time, Mr. Seth and Mrs. Jennifer Bentley.  Seth,
you may now kiss your bride."

	Seth wasted no time and dipping her and kissing her, quite proudly,
on the lips.  There were only a couple of dry eyes in the place as the kiss
seemed to stop time for everyone there.  Matt was holding back tears, while
Nick reached up and wiped his from his eyes.  Matt smiled a little bit as
he realized that his man was acting the same way he had at their wedding in
Canada a few weeks earlier.  When he realized that Matt was watching him,
Nick smiled and gave him a look.  It was as if, in that moment, Nick told
him that he better not say anything about the emotional response.  When
Seth was finished, the two stood in front of the crowd.  Jenny had this
look on her face, telling all the people there that they then knew why she
was marrying him: his oral prowess.

	Arm in arm, the two walked from the chapel out the door.  Matt and
Nick followed a moment later, just before the parents walked from where
they'd been sitting, again with the Dads escorting Janelle from the
opulently decorated building on campus.  The pastor invited everyone in
attendance to the reception, which was being held on the Grove, a ten-acre
area on campus that, during football season, was filled with people that
had come from far and wide to cheer on the Patriots of Parsons University.

	One could tell the people that were and weren't attached the
university in some way, though, for all those that were chose to walk to
the reception, rather than drive.  Nick and Matt were among those who
walked, slowly sauntering past buildings old and new, past landscaping that
was amazingly vibrant in its shade and life.  Dr. Bishop, having been asked
to photograph the day's event, was close behind them, watching as the pair
walked in perfect step with one another.  Nick was shorter than Matt by a
few inches, but they both had a very masculine air about them.  At one
point, he noticed them talking about something.  Both guys were smiling, as
he could tell from their profile.  He noticed something in both of them,
though.

	There was a way that they looked at each other.  It was respectful,
filled with the emotions of both of their entire lives.  They made each
other laugh, heartily on one occasion that he noticed.  If he was anything
like his grandfather, Dr. Bishop knew Matt to be a good guy, a Liberal by
Mississippi standards, who would do what he could to help a serviceman out.
He knew Nick well enough to say that he tackled any task with a degree of
professionalism that most students couldn't imagine, even some of the
veterans with whom he worked each semester.  The fact that their love was
as obvious as it was surprised him a little, but at the same time, it
warmed his heart.  Of course, it pleased him any time one of his vets was
able to return home from the service and find someone to whom they could
completely give themselves.

	As the party continued, Dr. Bishop snapped as many pictures of all
of the guests as he could.  At one point, though, he took a break to enjoy
some of the food that had been brought in for the occasion, choosing to sit
temporarily at a nice sized table where Nick was sitting by himself.  Matt
wasn't far off, but he was talking to some older people that Nick had
earlier been introduced to but whose names he couldn't remember for the
life of him.

	"This seat taken?" he asked Nick.

	"No sir," Nick said as he prepared himself to stand.  Dr. Bishop
told him not to get up as he sat down next to him.

	"So I noticed that you and Matt were walking together," Dr. Bishop
started as he took a sip of the tea that he'd fixed for himself in the
crystal glass provided by the caterer.

	"Yes sir," Nick smiled.

	"So are y'all together?"

	"Shouldn't you not be asking and me not be telling?" Nick
responded.

	"DADT doesn't apply to either of us anymore," Dr. Bishop told him.
"You've been discharged, and I've been long retired from the Navy."

	"You're..." Nick inquired.

	"Yes, and partnered to the same person for nearly two decades,"
Dr. Bishop smiled.  "He's still in the navy, though.  Just got a few more
months before his own retirement comes through."

	"Congratulations," Nick smiled.

	"I should be saying that to you," Dr. Bishop noted by returning
Nick's gesture.  "I noticed the rings."

	"Yeah..."

	"So when?"

	"A few weeks ago, after graduation, we went to Toronto.  Got
married on the observation deck of the CN tower as it was rotating the view
of Toronto," Nick told him.

	"Sounds very romantic," Dr. Bishop smiled.

	"It was," Nick smiled as he looked over to find Matt chatting with
someone.  "How much would you charge me to do some pictures of me and Matt,
for Linda?"

	"Nothing," Dr. Bishop smiled.

	"Dr. Bishop..." Nick started to protest.

	"Seriously.  When I got out of the Navy, I came back to Eudora.
I'd gone to school at Parsons, thanks in part to Mr. Landry.  He helped pay
for my graduate school, and wouldn't accept any money in return.  He even
helped me get the job that I've got now, so with that being said, I owe the
family... your family... that much at least."

	"OK..." Nick responded.  "But you realize that this means that I'm
gonna owe you something."

	"Nick.  Graduate with the best GPA that you can, and that will be
considered payment in full."

	"My goal is a 4.0," Nick told him.

	"Good.  Keep that in mind!" Dr. Bishop said as he finished the
refreshing glass of Southern house wine and returned to his prescribed
duties.

	A while later, Matt got back to the table and sat in the same seat
that Dr. Bishop had been in for a little bit.  Nick told him about the
picture sitting, informing him that it was going to happen on one of the
weekends when Nick was spoiling Matt.  Matt agreed, telling him that he'd
had to come up with something good for his first weekend, something that
would top that.  They laughed and joked until after the cake was cut,
which, by itself made them laugh to no end as Seth and Jenny both smashed
cake into each other's faces.

	After that cake, though, it came time to partake in the odd family
tradition wherein the Best Man chose the song that the couple first danced
to.  Matt walked over to the DJ's stand, on the edge of the huge `dance
floor' that had been constructed just for the event.

	"So I have known the groom," Matt started, "since we were in the
womb together.  Our parents even used to joke that Seth, whose birthday is
only a few days after mine, couldn't let me be out of the womb too long
without him.  Since those amazing March days in the mid-80s, though, he and
I have been through a lot together.  There have been some really good
times, and there have been some where we've had to lean on each other more
than we were able to be leaned on.  Seth," Matt said, raising his glass of
champagne, "you are my brother, despite the fact that we're not related by
blood, and I am honored to be here, with you, today.  Jenny, only a woman
of your caliber, of your gaul, of your beauty, could make him settle, and
I'm sure that there are some in the world who wanted you to get a sainthood
for that!"  The crowd laughed as Seth, jokingly, extended his middle
finger.  No one could see, it, though.  "Othermom.  Seth just shot me the
bird."

	"DID NOT!"

	"DID TOO!" Matt smiled as their moment of childishness came to an
end.  "But anyway, Jenny, welcome, officially, to the familia.  I speak for
all of us when we say that we, like Seth, fell in love with you the first
time we met you."  She blew him a kiss which he accepted with a smile.
"So, it's at the point in this little soiree where we're all gonna stand
back and watch the couple dance together for the first time as Mr. and Mrs.
It's been a tradition in our families since our maternal grandfathers got
married that the best man chooses the first song that the couple dances
too.  When I got married a few weeks ago, Seth surprised me by picking a
really sweet song, and so that kinda turned up the heat for me.  But I did
it, I found a song that will keep me out of trouble with Jen but that is
also a really pretty song to boot.  It's by Mariah Carey, and it's called
"There for me"."

	The DJ immediately began to play the song as Seth and Jenny assumed
the position for their first dance as a married couple.  Matt stood there
for a second, long enough to hand the microphone back to the DJ and thank
him.  He then walked over to where Nick was standing and put his arms
across his broad, muscular shoulders.  Nick responded, as they stood there
and happily watched them, by putting his arms around Matt's waist.

	Before the party was over, they slipped away to where the limo was
parked and began decorating its darkly tinted windows.  The driver joked as
they debated whether to write `Just Married' on the back window or if they
should do something funnier.  In the end, they opted for the regular thing,
since most people probably wouldn't understand the dark humor behind
something else.  They did, however, get some unlubricated condoms and blow
them up like balloons, attaching them to the antenna on the front of the
car with the assistance of the driver, who'd seen so much done to his car
that it was unbelievable.

	"What did y'all do?" Jenny asked as they came back down.

	"You'll find out!" Matt told her, a naughty grin on both of their
faces.

	"Trust us..." Nick added.

	"Oh God!" she said as someone else came up to tell her just how
beautiful a bride she was.

	As the party came to an end, Nick and Matt had taken the
responsibility of making sure that everyone had plenty of birdseed to throw
at the couple as they climbed into the waiting car.  After they were gone,
everyone else left campus, with Matt and Nick headed to the condo that they
shared.  It had been a long day, and both of them were tired from having
been out in the sun all day.  With that, they took a quick shower,
together, and dressed in some cool clothes.

	Nick walked into the living room as Matt was sitting on the sofa,
his computer sitting in his lap.  "So what should we order for dinner?"
Matt asked.

	"I'm in the mood for some Italian," Nick said as he grabbed the
remote and turned on some movie.

	"Me too, but we're so talking about two different things," Matt
joked.

	"You're always in the mood for my spaghetti," Nick said as Matt
snickered.  "So what are you ordering?"

	"Alfredo for you," Matt smiled, "and some meatball marinara over
linguine for me."

	"Sounds good," Nick said as he looked at Matt.  "I love you, Matt."

	"I love you, too," Matt smiled.  "What prompted that?"

	"Do I have to have a reason to tell you that I love you?" Nick
joked.

	"I'm just playing with you, Nick," Matt smiled as he finished the
order.  He closed his computer back and placed it on the coffee table.

	The previous year, for them, had been filled with ups and downs.
As Matt snuggled up against Nick, whose feet were resting on their coffee
table, they realized that life hadn't been as bad as either of them had
thought.  Matt was able to talk about his grandfather without getting
upset; Nick could acknowledge his past, even celebrate it, without it
making him physically ill.  In so many ways, the chance encounter fourteen
months earlier had changed who they were.  They were stronger because of
the other; they were more confident because of the other; they had lives
that, while forged by the fire around them, were beautifully sweet,
cosmically correct... perpetually, perfect.

-=-=-  -=-=-  -=-=-  -=-=-  -=-=-

Homefront
Epilogue

	For almost a century and a half, the Saturday after Thanksgiving
has been reserved for the annual football game between the Patriots of
Parsons University and the Wildcats of East Mississippi University.  It
was, by far, the biggest game of the season, and, in even numbered years,
Patriots fans would come home, to Eudora, from all over the world to see
the game.

	Like everything in that town, though, there was a party before and
a party after the fact.  Whether winning or losing, Pats fans would don
their crimson and blue and celebrate just because they could; Parsons had,
after all, never lost a party.  Matthew Harper and Nicholas Russo were no
exceptions to that rule.  On the morning of the game, 2038, they woke up at
their mid-sized, four bedroom, three bath house at around 5 in the morning.
They showered, dressed as everyone else would be dressed, in khaki pants, a
nice shirt, and shoes that were both comfortable but nice.  After packing
things into their car, they drove onto the campus of Parsons University,
parking beside what, twenty five years after it was last used for that
purpose, was still called `The Old Law School'.

	From the back of the SUV that Nick drove, Matt pulled two large
canopies that would cover their spots on The Grove, a ten-acre tree-lined
part of `God's Country' where the most up-scale pre-game festivities in the
country would be taking place.  Nick grabbed some collapsible chairs,
fitting three in each hand, and the duo walked to the two plots on the
grove that they'd coerced two of their goddaughters, Nicole and Mary, into
camping at the night before.  The two freshmen, still asleep in tents that
had been hastily put up the night before, were among so many that had
stayed on campus that night to make sure that the next morning, their
families had places to spend the morning before the game.

	"Wake up!" Nick said as Matt smiled and they set their things on
the edge of the plots cordoned off by yellow `caution' tape that their
older brother and his best friend had thought would be funny to put around
their plots when they were claimed on Thursday night.

	"Girls!" Matt called just before they heard rustling coming from
both of the tents.

	Mary was the first to emerge from the tent.  Like her mother,
Jenny, she was short, but she had long blond hair in the same shade as what
her father's had been at that age.  Nicole, on the other hand, took a
second.  As Mary yawned and hugged `The Otherdads', there was some rustling
in the second tent.  It was obvious that the other of the twins wasn't in
there alone.  She emerged first, managing to get them to turn as the man
with whom she'd spent the evening left the tent.  She was tall, like her
father, and had his smile, but she had her mother's jet black hair and
dark, alluring eyes.

	"HEY!" Matt said as he turned to see who the guy was.  "I'm Matt,
Nicole's godfather," he said to the tall, lanky, rock-star looking kind of
guy with a tattoo on his neck.

	"Hi.  Roger," he said as he tried to scoot away without having to
give too many details about who he was or what it was that he was doing
there.

	"Nice to meet you.  Are you a student here?"

	"Um..." he looked at Nicole, who was mortified, "No.  I go to EMU."

	"What's your major?" Matt inquired as Mary and Nick tried to keep
from laughing.

	"Um... Music," the guy said.

	"Ah!  Nice!" Matt said as he looked at Nicole.

	"Rog... Just go," she told him.

	"OK..." he said as he quickly made down the path known as `The Walk
of Champions'.

	"Uncle Matt!" Nicole said.

	"Sweets," he smiled as he put his hands on her shoulders.  "Better
me than your dad."

	"OK.  I'll give you that!" she conceded.

	"OK," Nick said as he gave them each a fifty dollar bill and the
keys to his truck.  "Y'all go get some coffee and go get cleaned up."

	"Thank you, Uncle Nick," the girls said as they hugged him tightly.

	"This is why you're our favorite uncle," Nicole joked with Matt.

	"I'm gonna remember that in a few weeks when Christmas comes
around!" Matt said as the girls grabbed their backpacks and rolled up their
sleeping bags.  Taking their things with them, they said quick goodbyes as
they ran to where Nick's vehicle was parked.

	Before anything else could be done, they had to get the tents down,
which they were able to do, and replace with the red and blue canopies,
quickly.  They pulled the chairs from their bags and set them up around the
perimeter before taking down the caution tape and sitting there for a
moment to enjoy the chilly, still dark, morning air.

	Matt could remember, as a child, sitting on the Grove with the
family and their friends.  It was a great time when `the big people' would
sit and talk.  He and Seth would often sit on the ground and figure out
some game to play as they struggled to comply with their mothers'
instructions that they not mess up their clothes.  As adults, they had a
great time just talking and hanging out with other Parsons fans on those
amazing Saturday mornings.  He could remember the feelings he felt as an
alum, on his first Groving weekend after graduation.  Even though he was
from Eudora and he'd been around the university his entire life, it still
felt different to be there and not be either a student or a future one.

	Nick didn't have the fortune of growing up in that town, but by
that time, most of his life had been spent there.  He was there because of
Matt, mostly, but it was also the school from which he'd gotten his BS in
Sociology and his PhD in the same subject with a concentration on family
structures in societies.  His Masters degree he earned technically from the
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, but he'd taken all of the courses
online.  He and Becky were close, and she'd waited until he got hooded
before accepting her retirement and a part-time instructorship, teaching
introductory classes only.

	Together, they'd shared a million memories of that place.  Nick
could remember his first grooving experience and how Ron and Linda were
introducing him as Matt's friend.  The next year, they were proudly showing
off their son-in-law.  Both of them could recall Seth and Jenny's wedding
and reception, but even more powerful memories of their second wedding and
ensuing reception after Mississippi's gay marriage ban was struck down by
the Supreme Court were also on their mind.

	At around seven, their peaceful remembrance of bygone times was
broken with the arrival of the rest of the Bentley clan.  Seth was carrying
two folding tables as Jenny carried a couple of trays of food.  Their
youngest, Rebecca Janelle, or RJ, as she was called, was carrying a couple
of plastic bags that had drinks inside.

	As with Matt and Nick, time had been kinder to them than some.
Matt was still tall and skinny, but his brown hair had started to turn
grey.  Nick's hair was still black, but it wasn't as thick and luxurious as
it had once been.  Both guys still ran three or four times a week, so they
were in decent shape.  Seth still had a head full of blond hair, just like
his mother, and the smile that had plunged a million ladies into his bed
still worked its magic on one woman every day.  Jenny's hair was still
black, but there was a little bit of gray in some places.  She blamed it
not on her children, but on Seth.  Her personality had changed little,
though.  She was still a fiery lass who wouldn't take shit off anyone, but
she still had the kindest soul.

	As they reached the spot, Nick took one of the tables from Seth
while Matt took the trays from Jenny.  RJ, still half asleep but cleaned up
and dressed appropriately for the day in a nice pair of dress pants and a
blouse, sat in the chair Matt had set up for himself and yawned.  Her brown
hair, hair that everybody joked that she got from her uncle Matt, was
pulled back into a ponytail.

	"Shit!" Jenny said as the guys finished setting up the table.  "RJ!
Run to the car and get the tablecloths out."

	"Mama..." she whined.

	"Mama..." Jenny mocked her as she looked at Matt and Nick.  "Don't
laugh!"

	"Yes ma'am," they said in tandem as Seth just stood there, quietly
working, and shaking his head.

	"So which one of my girls had somebody with them when y'all got
here?" Jenny asked.

	"Nicole," Nick answered.

	"Was he hot?" Jenny asked her cousin.

	"Matt?" Nick grimaced.

	"She could do better," Matt said as Seth turned.

	"If I didn't have this head of beautiful blond hair, it would be
grey because of them!" Seth joked as RJ walked back up.

	"Dad," she said.  "Don't lie.  Everybody knows you wash away that
grey."  Matt and Nick tried not to laugh as Jenny smiled.

	"You're causing the most, little girl," he smiled as she handed her
mother the red and blue table clothes.  Matt took one from her, and Nick
took the other, each spreading them out over the tables.  Jenny and Seth
then took it upon themselves to begin setting up the food, leaving it
covered for the moment.  The drinks that RJ had been carrying were placed
on the opposite end.

	"You didn't happen to get my phone did you?" Jenny asked RJ.

	"No ma'am," she said.

	"OK.  No worries," she said as she reached for her keys.  Nick
handed her his phone, though, which was never more than a few feet away
from him.

	She called their other daughter, who was still at the house, and
asked her to bring a couple of other things that she'd left.  The phone
argument that ensued between them was heated, and when Jenny got off the
phone, she looked as though she were about to cry.  "My mom would be
laughing right now," she said she tried to shake off the icy relationship
with her third daughter, Iana, named after her favorite singer, still, in
the whole world.

	Of their five children, Kyle was the oldest, at 21.  Mary and
Nicole followed him, at 19.  Then Iana was seventeen, complete with all the
trappings of a senior in high school, and RJ was 14 and already giving them
problems with boys.  All of them, though, had healthy physical drives.
Kyle was gay, and, like his father before him, used his years at Parsons to
bag as many people as possible.  Mary and Nicole had started the trend for
the girls, losing their virginity in ninth grade.  Seth was hoping for one
girl that was a prude, but RJ's rapid growth in the chest area was
shattering his dreams.  He and Jenny both understood that they couldn't
stop their daughters or Kyle from having sex, but they made sure that they
understood, early, the value of protection.  On more than one occasion,
he'd told them that they better not bring a grandbaby into his house before
he turned sixty.  Kyle, jokingly, told him not to worry about getting one
by him.

	Kyle wasn't the only boy in the mix, though, as his best friend was
a key fixture in their combined worlds.  His name was Daniel Patric Harper,
or Danny, as he was called.  At 21, he'd given his fathers some headaches,
but they were still beyond proud of him and what he'd accomplished in life.
When they decided that they wanted a family, they considered adopting, but
Jenny, upon learning of the news, came up with another plan.  Since they
thought that she couldn't have children, she offered up some of her eggs.
They would be fertilized by Matt and then placed into a surrogate.  Matt
wouldn't go along with the idea until Seth gave his approval.  Matt knew
that he wanted to have children, to carry on his family's name, and so he
didn't want his best friend, his brother, to feel left out.

	They took the necessary steps to get the eggs fertilized but then
put them in stasis until a suitable host could be found.  When they did
find her, the impregnation took place right away, and she found herself
carrying the guys' child, a child that was genetically related to both of
them.  About two months later, Jenny and Seth found out that around the
same time Jessica was getting knocked up by a turkey baster, that Jenny was
with child.  All three of them babied both ladies for the term of their
gestation.

	Jessica was the first to go into labor, in December of 2017.  Just
three days before Christmas, Nick and Matt's lives were forever changed
with the arrival of their 9 lb, 10 oz, 22-inch-long baby boy.  Jessica,
having served as a surrogate for several other couples, asked to hold him
once before the necessary legal arrangements were put into place.

	Of course, the grandparents were all there, all five of them, as
were the godparents, Seth and Jenny, who was so swollen and bloated that
she could barely move.  Janelle said that he looked like Nick had looked,
with a head full of black hair and dark, dark eyes.  Ron joked, at the
baby's first diaper change, that he could tell that he was related to Matt.

	Less than two weeks later, though, Danny was given a built in best
friend when Kyle Andrew Bentley graced the world with his presence.  Over
the years, all the parents and grandparents had some tough questions to
answer, but they did so in such a way that actually made the boys, who had
both decided at the age of five that they wanted to play football for
Parsons, honor their heritage.  It was because of Matt and Nick that Kyle
was never forced to live inside a closet, and it was because of Seth and
Jenny that Danny, who was straight as a board, had people from whom he
could ask questions when he didn't understand something that his Dads
couldn't explain.

	Despite the fact that they made the best team-within-a-team, and
that they were the absolute best of friends, they were as different as
night and day.  Danny was a quarterback with an amazing arm; Kyle, on the
other hand, was a wide receiver who, in four years of playing for Parsons,
had run more yards and scored more touchdowns than anyone living could
remember.  Danny was quieter than Kyle was, just as Matt had always been
quieter than Seth.  Danny had always preferred to have one woman at a time,
compared to Kyle, who was all about getting laid as often as possible by as
many people as he could find.  Being that he was a rather athletically
good-looking guy, though, that wasn't really very hard.  They were both
political science majors, but while Kyle was preparing himself for Law
School, Danny was hoping to find his dream job working behind the scenes on
political campaigns.  Both were passionate in their opinions about the
events of the day, such as the American military presence in post-Communist
China and the issue about whether the American Public Health Service should
be expanded.  Where Danny took the more typically liberal viewpoint, Kyle
was rather conservative in his views of how things should be handled.  They
were still the other's wing-men though, and wouldn't have ever let anyone
do anything to the other, again just as Matt and Seth had been with each
other.

	The parents were proud of all the kids for what they had or were
going to accomplish, but the grandparents would tell anyone who would
listen the kids' life stories, making them out to be gods among men.  When
the five of them got to the Grove at around nine that morning, it was
obvious that the dads had been dipping into the sauce already.  Janelle had
joined them in a toast to the game and the day, but she wasn't in trouble
with the Moms, who were dressed nicely, just like everyone else, but
wearing crystal pins that displayed the numbers 12 and 67, Danny and Kyle's
numbers respectively.  Janelle, who, despite her status as an alumna of
EMU, had become a fan of Parsons first because of her daughter and nephew
and then because of her grandchildren, who were two of the most impressive
players in the team's history.

	They'd brought with them some more food and some coffee, but the
dads had also managed to sneak in two two-liter diet coke bottles that had
been premixed that morning with whiskey.  It was the whole `sampling for
consistency' thing that had gotten the two men, in their late 70s by that
point, in trouble.

	By ten, the twins had gotten back and Iana had arrived to join
them.  Nick gave Iana and RJ a fifty dollar bill just to make things even
between the sisters and all so that Seth and Jenny wouldn't see.  Not to be
outdone, the grandparents each gave the girls some more money before Seth
and Jenny realized just how much they'd racked up in a couple of hours.

	At eleven, two more people came to their little pre-game party.
The first was Amaia, a Latin goddess with long, luxurious black hair and
huge tits that drove her on-and-off boyfriend, Danny, insane.  Born in
Brazil, she was multi-lingual, speaking Portuguese first and then English,
Spanish, and Italian.  She wasn't the first or only girl that he'd ever
been with, but he'd been ruined by her when they met during their junior
year.  Kyle knew that they would end up together, for they were a perfect
match, but Danny wasn't quite sure of it yet.  With her, though, was Jason,
a nerdy sort-of guy with a head of hair clipped closely to his head and
medium brown skin.  He and Kyle had met a few months earlier, and despite
Kyle's self-imposed title of man-slut, Jason had managed to help him settle
down a little bit.  They were friends, above all else, that got together
every now again for a romp in the sheets that satisfied them both on more
than just the physical level.  The parents and grandparents liked them
both, though, for they seemed to be perfect compliments for their boys.

	By that time, the Grove was already filled with people.  Parents of
the other football players had an open invitation to stop by and join them
for a drink and light noshing, as did so many other people.  At noon, Becky
and Linda gave up and let their husbands break open the "Diet Cokes".  For
all the adults, they filled blue and red Dixie cups.  Iana and RJ asked for
some, and even though Dan had afforded that to Seth and Matt decades
earlier, `Big Daddy' and `JimJim' weren't going to tempt fate, as they'd
already gone above and beyond what their predecessors had done for their
sons.

	A little while later, Sherice, Matt's choir-mate and still close
friend by virtue of the fact that her son, up to college, had always played
football with Danny and Kyle, came up.  "So I was reading online," she
started, "on some football rumors site that there is talk that the Heisman
might make its way to a Parsons player."

	"Are you serious?" Matt asked, knowing the gravity of what that
trophy was.

	"Uh huh," she said as Matt began beaming with pride.  She reached
up and hugged him as Nick walked over, sensing that Matt might need a
moment for some reason.  It was a good thing, though, and as Matt told him
what Sherice had said, Nick too beamed with pride.  They decided not to say
anything, though, as they didn't want to tempt fate all too much.  If he
did win, it would mean that all those years of his hard work would more
than pay off.

	In just a few minutes, a couple of hours before the game was to
start, the team left the Student Union and walked through the Grove and
Circle on their way to the Stadium.  There were cheers from everyone, but
Danny and Kyle seemed to notice that their families were cheering louder
than anyone else.  After the team passed, everyone but the Dads, Jimmy and
Ron, went to the Circle for several other pre-game traditions.  Jimmy and
Ron had volunteered to stay behind and watch the game on a small, solar
powered TV that they'd brought with them.  It was commonly known among them
that they were staying behind to drink, though.

	After they got finished in front of the Lyceum, the whole crowd
moved toward Barth Stadium.  For decades, Linda and Ron, along with Becky
and Jimmy, had purchased a box from which to watch the games in comfort and
luxury.  They had that year, and the whole group had used it, but for that
game, Nick had managed to get a cache of tickets for the Faculty section so
that they could be among the masses watching the game.  Their shakers
ready, they walked onto the stadium and found their seats.  Amaia and Jason
were with them for that game, as the other games they'd come to were with
the family in their box as well.

	They found their seats just before the first of several game day
traditions started, the presentation of the Egg Trophy.  For longer than
anyone there could remember, a member of the Parsons family, the people
that had founded the university in 1848, walked onto the field with the
starting quarterbacks from each team.  A fourth person, usually an alum,
carried the huge trophy that, for the previous three seasons, had been
housed in Barth Stadium as a perk of Parsons' consecutive victories.  Danny
had started each of those games, even his freshman year, when the QB who
was supposed to start got injured in the game against Alabama the previous
week.  He was the first Freshman to start the Egg Bowl for Parsons and he
was the only QB in the match-up's history to start all four.

	Some words were said by someone before the Quarterback for EMU
turned to a rather small section of people dressed in Maroon who began
banging drumsticks against cowbells.  In kind, the Parsons fans made a
uniform sound in their direction that would have reminded anyone of a feral
cat or something.  The next part of the tradition was known as the `Hotty
Toddy'.  Usually, it was started by someone famous with ties to the
University, but Danny, whom everyone in that place knew by both face and
reputation was handed the mic and his face put onto the megatron that was
on one end of the field.

	Matt and Seth looked at each other, proudly remembering how their
grandfathers, in their first trip to the Square on a Thursday night before
the game, had made them do the cheer for anyone that would listen.  They
could remember people being impressed by it, but they just thought it was
cool because it was the only time they got to say a dirty word without
getting in trouble.

	"ARE YOU READY?!" Danny called into the microphone, starting up the
cheer that had drive many a Parsons team to victory.

	"HELL YES!  DAMN RIGHT!  HOTTY TODDY GOSH ALMIGHTY!  WHO THE HELL
ARE WE? HEY!  FLIM FLAM BIM BAM, PARSONS BY DAMN!" everyone in the place
cried, almost deafeningly as a sea of crimson and blue shakers put `the
pussies from the east', with their pitiful little cowbells in their place.

	The game started with Parsons electing to first receive the ball.
Danny completed a pass to Kyle, who set the tone for the game by breaking
through EMU's defensive line and easily scoring a TD in the first minute of
the game.  By halftime, Parsons' defense had only allowed them to score
once, but EMU, playing poorly during the first half, had allowed three
touchdowns already.  All of the extra points were secured, making the score
21 to 7 as the guys went off the field.

	After a great half-time show by the band, the guys returned to the
field, where both teams began to play like they were losing but wanted to
win.  EMU had stepped up its game, and Parsons had responded in kind.  They
staved off the score, holding it at 21 and 7 until the last quarter.
Somehow, Parsons' defense had allowed them to score two more touchdowns at
the opening of the final term of the game.

	In the final moments of the game, as EMU fans were cheering to
their own perceived victory and Parsons fans were letting their boys on the
field know that they were with them all the way, Danny went back on the
field to take control of things.  He exhausted their final time out to
introduce a new play: "Kyle likes the pile".  Everyone on the team laughed,
for they all knew that Kyle was gay.  It didn't matter, though, as times
had begun to change and Kyle was one of the leaders on the team and an
amazing player.

	A moment later, Seth and Matt looked at each other.  They, along
with Nick and Jenny, recognized the play that was being formed on the
field.  Coach Cox, a former Auburn star who had accepted the Head Coach
position at Parsons a few years earlier, trusted Danny enough on the field
to let him do what he wanted to do in what was, more than likely, the final
play of the game.

	"I'm really glad my son likes to be piled on by guys!" Seth said as
he and Matt laughed.

	On the field, where no one could hear, Kyle took his position and
began taunting the EMU guys.  It was all a part of the play in which he
would use their own fears of a `football-playing-fag' against them.  "I'm
gonna fuck all y'all tonight, and all of y'all have to decide who's gonna
be first."  As they'd planned, it somehow made it down the line, and the
EMU team, cocky that it was going to win the game, robbing Danny of his
fourth victory and the possibility of the Heisman, changed their position.
In all but a couple of plays, Danny had passed to Kyle, and they assumed
that he was going to do it again.  When he was comfortable a few seconds
later that the team's center had his back and that EMU's defense was
focused on Kyle, Danny called the play.  He faked the pass as Kyle took the
on-field pile up, leaving him wide open after the center took out the only
person covering Danny.  With a certain wind behind him, pushing him, Danny
ran as fast as he could, crossing the line just a millisecond before the
buzzer sounded, ending the game.

	For Matt and Nick, Seth and Jenny, time stopped.  Linda, Becky, and
Janelle were all crying.  The girls were cheering as loudly as any other
Parsons fans, Amaia and Jason included.  On the Grove, the Dads, along with
some other people that had crowded around as they screamed and cried the
Pats onto victory were beyond elated.

	Like all the other fans, they went onto the field a moment later as
Danny proudly held up the Egg Trophy for all to see.  It was staying in
what Parsons fans considered to be its rightful home for another year.
Matt and Nick made their way through the crowd to where Danny was kissing
Amaia much as they kissed each other.  When he saw the two guys, though,
Danny left her for a moment and went over to them.  Matt was Dad, and Nick
was Pop, but to him, they were both his life.  Growing up, he'd faced
ridicule from other, crueler kids who made fun of the fact that he had two
dads, but Danny had always told anyone who dared tread on his world that he
was lucky to have two dads that loved him as much as Matt and Nick did.
He'd been interviewed on TV several times, and he'd credited them for
helping him to become that most awesome man that he was.

      Matt looked at Nick, who was beaming with pride as Danny walked over
to join some other fans.  For three decades, they had had so many amazing
moments, and that one, with their baby leading his team to victory, was one
of the best.  Danny wouldn't have ever had the chance to be there, though,
if it hadn't been for that single night at Blind Jim's, when Seth and Jenny
left them to their devices as they went off to consummate their
relationship once more.  They wouldn't have been there if it weren't for
Corey and Patrice, for Dan, for families that loved them unconditionally
and accepted them for who, and what they were.  With those things in mind,
Matt leaned over and kissed his man passionately.  Despite the fact that he
still had more money than any other single person in town, Matt was a
simple teacher, having devoted his life to sharing his passion for music
and language to generations of students.  Nick had worked his ass off to
have been named `Professor of the Year' for the previous two years.
Together, they were a force that could be stopped by no man, no entity, no
thing on God's green Earth.  Together, they'd raised their son to be a
champion, a hero among those and so many more people, a role model for
little kids who would, like `Pa' and `Granddaddy', like the Moms, like Matt
and Seth, Jenny and Nick, and like Danny and Kyle, grow up living the
mantra that "there was but one university, and it... is Parsons."