Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2011 20:48:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: D H <dhthewriter@yahoo.com>
Subject: Homefront - Chapter 10

Hey guys and gals!  Sorry that this took so long to post!  I hope y'all
enjoy it, though!  My email is dhthewriter@yahoo.com and the yahoo group is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dhthewriter.  Join for faster postings of
chapters and advances of future stories!

Usual disclaimer applies!

David :)

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


Homefront
Chapter 10

	The semester came to an end, and Nick found himself with a 4.0, as
he'd worked hard for.  Dr. Bishop was proud; the parents were all proud;
Janelle was proud and reminded him of how Patrice would have felt.  Perhaps
most importantly, though, Nick was proud of what he'd accomplished.  Matt's
grades were another story.

	He'd gotten the expected `A' in both Concert Singers and the
Spanish class that he was taking, but the `Independent Study' for which
he'd registered to prepare for Senior Concert still hadn't reported two
days after the semester came to a close.  Matt called three times a day for
a few days to find out, but no one could give him any information.  He
couldn't discuss it with anyone except for Nick, and he was worried that
complaining too much about it was weighing on his nerves.  Eventually,
though, Dr. Brady called him back and explained a few things.

	Apparently, there were a few of the professors that were very
highly impressed with his performance and wanted to pass him without
question.  There were a couple from whom Matt had avoided taking classes
that called themselves `purists' and wanted to instantly fail him.  There
were a few, like Dr. Brady, who were straddling the fence.  Yes, he'd
broken a couple of rules about the performance, but it was the best
performance he'd ever given.  They found themselves unable to overlook the
fact that his voice was more powerful than it had ever been, like he was
singing from not just his body, but also his soul.

	The "compromise" was that each of the eleven professors present at
the performance would give Matt a total of ten points.  Five would be given
for the technical merit of the performance.  Three would be for the `other
components' of the performance, and the other two would be at the
discretion of the professor.  All ten professors gave him five points for
the technical merit of the performance.  Five of them gave him five more
points, while the others gave him one or two.  In the end, he had just
higher than eighty points, which equaled a `B', which meant that he'd
passed.  Matt was happy with it, for it meant that he would graduate on
time, provided that he passed the five classes he had to take in the
Spring.

	The next thing on their agenda was Christmas.  On Nick's side,
Christmas hadn't been a big deal since 2000, when Nick and Patrice came to
Mississippi to visit with the family for a couple of weeks.  That year,
though, Nick was home from the Corps, and Janelle wanted to pick up with
some traditions that had been placed on the back burner.  With that being
said, she was planning a lavish, very Italian Christmas celebration that
included a huge Christmas Eve meal to which she invited everyone from "The
Eudora Gang" to Jackson to celebrate.

	Before they could get to that point, though, life in Eudora was
filled with things going on.  Nick had agreed to work for Ron for a few
weeks, until the new semester started, so that he would have some cash in
his pocket.  He ended up working harder and longer than any of the other
college students that Ron had temporarily hired.  To that end, Ron had
already decided after a couple of days that there was going to be a bonus
involved on the last paycheck he received before school started back.

	For Matt, there were more issues with the house.  The buyers had
made the offer in September, but twice already, their financing had fallen
through.  They'd secured other financing, only to have it fall through as
well.  On the week before Christmas, Matt had told the real estate agent to
relay to them a message, that he was backing out of the sale.  The agent
tried to warn him that he'd still have to pay the commission on the sale,
but Matt wasn't hearing it.  He called his father and then Jimmy to warn
them of the possible lawsuit.  Both men said that they would take care of
it, and by the end of business, Matt had a written notice cancelling the
contract that he'd signed with the agent, absolving him of any financial
responsibility in the sale.  He still didn't want the house to be in his
name, but he couldn't sell it to someone who could possibly lose it to the
bank and have it put on the auction block.

	Since Nick was working and Jenny had to go to Tupelo to take care
of a few things for work, Matt and Seth got together for lunch on the 19th,
less than a week before Christmas.

	"So are you still gonna sell it?" Seth asked as they sat at Old
Venice, a swank little pizza place on the Square.

	"Yeah.  I've got to," Matt said as he put a piece of pizza into his
mouth.  "You should buy it."

	"Unlike you," Seth smiled, "I can't afford two mortgages.  I can
barely afford one right now, with the economy such as it is."

	"Then sell the condo," Matt smiled.

	"I have a feeling that you're about to make an unbelievable offer
on that house," Seth smiled.  "But don't."

	"Just hear me out," Matt thought on the fly.  "Talk to Jenny.
Y'all make me an offer on the house.  We'll make an agreement on terms, and
I'll hold the mortgage."

	Seth thought about it again.  He didn't want anyone to think that
he was taking advantage of Matt and his powerful checkbook, but he knew
he'd be doing something for Matt that was more valuable than the wood and
nails that had constructed the house.  "I'll talk to Jenny."

	"OK..." Matt said as their conversation moved to another place.

	That night, Matt and Nick were invited over for dinner, where Jenny
and Matt discussed the proposed transaction.  Jenny knew what they could
afford, and she couldn't bear to let herself go over that amount.  "Have
you ever been inside?" Matt asked at one point.

	"No, actually," Jenny said as Matt stood from the sofa and grabbed
his keys.

	"We'll be right back," Matt told Seth and Nick as he and Jenny left
the condo and went out to Matt's car.  They drove a couple of blocks to the
house, and pulled around to the back.

	Matt took her inside, and she looked around the place as if she
were inspecting it for the bank where she worked.  When she was finished,
she winked at Matt and told him that she'd talk to Seth.  Talk, that night
after Matt and Nick left, they did, and they determined that they'd have to
make a really, really low ball offer.

	"But," Seth said.  "We could sell the condo and the building I've
got downtown.  That would cover most of the price of the house."

	"The building that you've got downtown would bring a nice penny,"
Jenny noted.  "Seth.  Let's do it."

	"OK.  I'll talk to Matt in the morning," he smiled.  "Now come
here, future-wifey.  I want some love."

	"Yessir," she smiled as they went about their nightly routine.

	The next morning, Seth had very little to do at work, getting
caught up on paperwork early in the day.  At around ten, since he wasn't
doing anything else, he went to his dad's office just across the Square
from his.  The two talked about Matt's offer, as well as the deal that they
were hoping to make with Matt on the house.  Jimmy grabbed his phone and
called Ron.  Since the latter managed the property, he would know what it
was worth.  Jimmy and Seth were both surprised to learn of the value of the
property.  Ron suggested that Seth offer Matt an equal trade, the house for
the building, since their values were within a couple hundred dollars of
each other.  That would also, as Jimmy put it, make paperwork a whole lot
easier.  Seth excused himself for a moment to call Jenny and explain the
offer; Jenny told him to make it happen.  With that, Seth called Matt and
asked him to come to Jimmy's office, which he was happy to do.

	In a half hour, Matt arrived at Jimmy's office and sat down with
Seth and his father to discuss things.  Jimmy knew that Matt would gladly
give Seth the property, but he knew that Seth didn't want him to do that.
To that end, he mediated a deal between them in which Seth would sell Matt
the building and his condo, both of which were valued at about $75,000 more
than the house.  Matt was OK with it; Seth was fine, so Jimmy had his
secretary start drawing up the papers.  He made sure, several times, that
that's what they wanted to do, getting smartass comments from each of them
in the process.

	By the end of the day, the papers were filed with the Chancery
Court to swap ownership of the properties, and at the beginning of the next
week, Seth and Jenny found themselves the owners of the property, and what
had taken months for the agent to complete only took Matt a few days.
Janelle, upon finding out of the news, changed her Christmas plans and
decided that it was time to invade Seth and Jenny's house in Eudora.  With
that in mind, Matt got the movers on the 23rd, and Consuela came to clean
on the morning of the 24th.  Janelle arrived in the early afternoon with
tons of food, starting to mess up the kitchen before anyone else got there.
Becky joined her about three that afternoon, putting on an apron.  The dads
arrived just before Matt and Nick, with Seth and Jenny getting there at
around the time that dark was upon them.

	The last one was Linda, who, by six o'clock, wasn't anywhere to be
found.  Ron was starting to worry; Matt was almost beside himself.  They
called her service, but she hadn't checked in with them all afternoon.  At
around 6:30, though, she pulled into the driveway and walked up to the back
door of the house.  Walking onto the porch, she went into the kitchen to
find everyone standing there.  Becky looked at her best friend and knew why
she'd been late.  Ron and Matt had an idea, but they'd not entertained the
thought until the moment she walked through the door.  With a couple of
gift bags in her hand, she walked over to Seth and Jenny and handed them
each something before hugging Jenny and then the man that she'd always
considered her second son.

	"Isn't this supposed to be a party?!" she asked, getting a smartass
comment from Becky, who was working on one of the sauces for the Feast of
Seven Fishes.

	As she and Matt were setting the table in the dining room, Matt
looked at her.  "This is the first time, isn't it?"

	"Yeah..." she answered.

	"Are you OK with the deal?" Matt continued.

	"Better than I was with the last one," Linda smiled.  "To be
honest, I abhorred the last one, but it was your house to sell.  I like
Jenny, though, and I think that this will help you and me both in the long
run to overcome some things."

	"You went to Pa's grave, didn't you?"

	"Yeah," Linda smiled.  "Sometimes a girl just needs her daddy."

	"It so goes the same for gay guys and their grandfathers," Matt
smiled.

	"So do you think that you could get Nick to come over to the house
for breakfast in the morning?"

	"I think I can do that," Matt responded as they both smiled.
"Why?"

	"He's a part of the family," Linda told him, "and we got him a
gift."

	"OK," Matt told her.  "You and Dad should go to church with us
tonight."

	"You're going to church?" she asked.

	"I am," Matt answered.  "Janelle asked me to go with them."

	"OK," Linda smiled.  "I'll talk to your dad."

	"You know they're Catholic, though, right?"

	"Please..." Linda joked.  "We're Catholic Light!"  Matt giggled a
little bit.

	The whole group sat to eat a little while later, gorging themselves
on seven different kinds of pescal excellence, mostly prepared by Janelle
herself.  After dinner, Ron and Linda, along with Becky and Jimmy,
presented Janelle with their gifts to her.  After dinner, they complained
about having eaten too much until around 10:30, when they started to get
ready for church.  Almost in a caravan, the whole group piled into cars and
went to St. John the Divine, Eudora's Catholic church.

	Nick and Matt sat next together during the service, until it came
time for communion, when Nick rose with Jenny and Janelle to take the
sacrament together.  Matt watched as Nick knelt down in front of the priest
and received the body of Christ in accordance with his faith.  Matt had,
long before, stopped believing in anything, but seeing Nick kneeling before
his God was a moving experience.

	After the service came to a close and the priest wished them a
happy Christmas, they all left.  In the parking lot, Janelle hugged them
all before she, Jenny, and Seth went back to the condo, where Seth and
Jenny were planning to stay until the end of the month, when Matt would
take over ownership and, more likely than not, move himself in.  Linda and
Ron wished Nick a Merry Christmas before they, themselves, left with Becky
and Jimmy on their ways to their homes.

	"So what's your plans for the morning?" Matt asked.

	Nick shrugged.  "Janelle's gonna be busy with Seth and Jenny until
lunch.  You're gonna be busy with your parents until then, too.  I guess
I'll just sleep in," Nick smiled.

	Matt cocked his head.  "Nick.  I'm not letting you spend Christmas
by yourself.  Come to my house."

	"I'm not going to intrude on your family time."

	"My parents," Matt smiled as they stood there in the cold,
"consider you family.  They'd be offended if you didn't spend it with us."

	"They'd be offended?" Nick smiled.

	"So I wanna spend Christmas with you.  Is that such a crime?" Matt
asked, smiling as Nick put his hands on his shoulders.

	"I haven't spent Christmas with anyone since 2001.  Corey went home
every year until last year," Nick told him.  Before he could continue, Matt
leaned into him, kissing him on the lips, gently.  Nick pulled away,
though, placing his forehead on Matt's.

	"Come home with me..." Matt whispered as the wind enveloped them in
a coolness, sending shivers all over both of their bodies.

	"Matt.  I will be at your house before breakfast.  I promise," Nick
looked him in the eye.  "And you know I don't often make promises, but when
I do, I make sure I keep them."

	"Are you OK?" Matt asked.

	"Yeah.  I just want to make sure that your present is perfect,"
Nick smiled.

	"Liar," Matt smiled back.

	"Love you, Matt," Nick smiled.

	"Te amo, Papi," Matt countered as Ron and Linda stopped beside
them.

	"You coming with us?" Ron asked.

	"Yeah," Matt answered.  "See you in the AM," he told Nick with a
kiss on the lip and turned to climb into the back seat of his Mom's car.

	"He OK?" Linda asked.

	"He says that he's not coming over tonight because he wants to make
sure that my present is perfect," Matt said as Nick climbed into his car,
starting it and letting it warm for a second as he sat there.

	The holiday was bound to be strange.  It had already been `odd' in
his mind, but the first year without Corey was a lot to deal with.  He
didn't want to burden Matt with it anymore.  He did love Matt, but there
were some things that he didn't approach with him, and that was one of
them.  He didn't quite feel like going home, so he decided just to drive
around for a little while.  In some of the more affluent neighborhoods, the
lights were still on, and he enjoyed just admiring someone else's work as
much as he did when he was little and his mother would take him out to the
`country' to look at Christmas lights.

	Just after two, he walked into the quiet solitude of his apartment.
He was happy to be there, to have a home, for so few people actually did.
He was happy to have good friends who accepted him for who he was, again
because there were some people in the world spending that holiday
completely alone.  He had a great boyfriend, the greatest in his mind, and
it was almost as if his family had adopted him, bringing him into their
fold.  It was those thoughts that helped him, on that holiday, to remember
both his mother and Corey fondly.

	He took off his clothes and lay on the bed for a little while,
setting the alarm clock and the alarm on his phone to wake him in just
three hours time, at 5:30, so that he had time to shower, dress, and get to
Matt's house in time for the Harper family breakfast.  His dreams were
weird that night, but they weren't disturbing.  At 5:30, he found himself
waking, though.  The world was still in complete darkness, but like every
other morning, he threw the covers from his body and walked into the
bathroom to get ready.

	He left a few minutes later and dressed in a nice pair of jeans and
a long-sleeve t-shirt.  He had a heavy Carhartt jacket that he'd purchased
a few weeks earlier that he put onto his body before walking out of the
apartment.  Because it was a holiday, the parking lot was empty.  For
weeks, though, there'd been so little activity in the complex, he wondered
if he were the only resident other than a Chinese guy that had stayed over
the holiday.  He stopped at Wal-Mart for a couple of things that he wanted
to contribute to the meal before heading over to Harper home.

	He arrived to find that Linda and Ron had only recently gotten out
of bed.  They joked with him about being there a full six hours before Matt
would probably get out of bed.  Nick smiled as Linda fixed him a cup of
coffee, joking that he'd wake him up in a little while.  Ron snickered,
about to make a joke before Linda stopped him.  Nick chuckled, assuming
that he knew what Ron was about to say.

	"So did you get registered for classes and such?" Ron asked as
Linda joined him.

	"Yes sir.  I'm taking Spanish, which Matt is happy about, and a
couple of core classes, then I'm taking another sociology class with
Becky," Nick explained.

	"Nice," Ron said as Matt came into the kitchen, yawning and wiping
his eyes.  His hair was a mess, but there was a smile on his face.  He was
wearing no shirt and the gym shorts he'd worn downstairs left little to the
imagination.  The cutest part of the ensemble, though, were the Santa Claus
slippers that were on his feet.  In what was an uncharacteristic thing for
him, he grabbed Nick's coffee cup and took a sip.  "We do have more mugs,"
Ron pointed out as Matt put it back on the table in front of Nick.

	"It's OK.  I trust him," Nick smiled at Ron.

	"And knowing what I know about how gay guys do it..." Ron started
as Nick laughed and Matt shook his head.

	"RONALD!" Linda slapped him on the arm.  "Don't embarrass the
boys!"

	"Yes ma'am," he said as Matt and Nick snickered.

	"So I'm gonna get breakfast started," Linda said after they'd all
sat there for a bit and talked.

	"What do you want me to do?" Nick inquired.

	"You could start on some bacon if you wanted to," she said as Nick
walked over to the fridge and grabbed a few things.

	"Hey Matt, help me with a couple of things downstairs," Ron said.

	"Let me run put a shirt on," Matt told him as he climbed from his
seat and slipped out of the room and up the stairs.  When he returned,
Linda was giving Ron instructions on what to do with what they were
bringing up.

	"Yes ma'am," he said as he motioned for Matt to follow him.

	"OK..." she said as Ron and Matt walked downstairs to the basement.

	"I'm gonna warn you," Ron told Matt as they got down there.
"You're mother went a little insane on the gift getting this year."

	"She does every year," Matt reminded him.

	"No.  She spent more money this year that she has your entire
life," Ron said as they got to the place in the basement where they'd been
storing the gifts.  They always kept a few upstairs for decoration, but the
amount of gifts she'd bought that year would have created a pile bigger
than the tree that was standing in front of the window that normally
overlooked the lake.

	"Holy shit," Matt said.

	"Hence the warning..." Ron told him as he started piling Matt up
with gifts wrapped in red and blue paper.

	It took each of them five trips to get everything upstairs.  By the
time they did, Nick was just finishing up with the bacon and starting on
gravy that would be served over biscuits that Linda had popped into the
oven.

	"Mom..." Matt came into the kitchen.

	"Yes dear?" she asked.

	"Making up for lost time?" he joked as he grabbed the jug of juice
that Nick had brought and fixed himself some in a small glass.

	"I have two years of Christmases to give you gifts for.  Don't take
my fun away!" she smiled.

	"Yes ma'am," Matt told her as he set the cup on the island and went
upstairs to get the gifts that he'd bought for the three of them.

	By the time he got down, breakfast was almost ready.  There were
eggs and bacon to go alone with biscuits and gravy.  Linda had scored some
fresh honey and some jam that was made from locally grown berries the
previous summer.  They put out the juice for Matt, and Nick had made
another, fresh pot of coffee.  In a moment, the four of them sat at the
table and started serving themselves from the dishes on the table.  As Nick
split open a biscuit and began to drown it in gravy, he listened to how
Matt and his parents were carrying on.  It did his heart good to see such
things.  It made him feel like he actually was starting to belong some
place, like he was a part of a family again.  The fact that he was brought
into the mix further drove home the fact that these people cared about him
for him.  It was an amazing feeling that he didn't feel from too many
people in too many times.

	When they'd finished with breakfast, Linda told him not to lift a
finger, that it was Matt and Ron's job to clean up after breakfast.  As Ron
and Matt argued about who would take what task, Linda and Nick went into
the living room.  Nick sat on the loveseat while Linda began to put the
gifts into piles.  Nick noticed the first box for him, then the second.  By
the time Ron and Matt were finished, there were at least ten boxes for him,
wrapped in blue and red paper with various bows and such.  He had more
things that Matt did, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
The gifts didn't stop coming, though, as Linda enlisted Ron's help in
divvying up the things that she'd spent two months purchasing for all of
them.

	On Matt's pile of gifts was the one from Nick.  Nick took one of
his gifts as Matt took his.  He began to carefully unwrap the paper as Matt
ripped his open and opened the box.  "So this is what happened to the
picture," Matt said as Nick smiled.

	"I won't lie to you again," Nick promised as Linda and Ron looked
at each other.

	"It's OK," Matt said as he handed the box to his mother, who just
smiled.

	"Two of my three favorite men," she said as she sat on the couch
next to Ron.

	Nick finished opening the first of his gifts to find that Ron and
Linda's first gift to him was a year's membership to a local gym.  He'd
mentioned something in passing about wishing that he could afford to pay
membership up for a year, but he didn't think that they'd get him that as a
gift.  He continued opening gifts to find a Parsons University ball cap, as
well as a gift certificate to "The Locker Room" a sporting goods store just
off the Square.  In other boxes, there were small trinkets, also attached
to gift cards for various stores around town, as well as cards to places
like Abercrombie and Fitch and American Eagle, stores that he'd have to go
to Memphis or Jackson to patronize.

	The last box that he opened was from Matt, and while he thought he
knew what it might be, he wasn't sure.  Carefully, he pulled back the paper
and opened the box.  Like his parents, there was a gift to which he'd
attached a gift card.

	"I'm gonna stop saying what I want," Nick turned to Matt as he
pulled the iPod from the box and removed the $100 iTunes card.

	"I'm sorry that it's not as awesome as your gift to me," Matt
smiled.  Looking in his eyes, Nick could tell that Matt was moved by the
framed picture of him and his grandfather.  To his knowledge, it was the
only picture of the two of them that had been so carefully preserved.

	"Please.  It's amazing," Nick responded as Linda motioned for Ron
to get the last gift out of the office.  Ron stood from the sofa and walked
upstairs to the room from which they both `worked' from home.  He brought
down two manila envelopes, handing them to the guys.

	"Guys," Nick started.  "This is too much."

	"I agree," Matt said as they looked at each other.

	"Just shut up and have a good time," Linda told them as Nick
thought about how it would be nice to spend New Years Even in New York
City.  The fact that their hotel was right off Times Square was another
amazing thing.  They wouldn't have to go far to be right in all the action.

	Of course, since they'd be there for several days, it would give
Nick to share something intimate and special with Matt.  He'd be able to
give him a part of his world, the world in which he'd grown up.  It meant
that he would be opening himself up to a whole host of things, but it was
Matt.  Matt was worth it.

	That afternoon, they went to church again, but this time, it was to
St. Peter's, the church that Matt technically was a member of but that he'd
not entered in some time.  Nick learned that afternoon that any baptized
individual could take communion in the Episcopal Church, so it was an
almost religious experience when he and Matt were able to stand next to
each other and receive the sacrament.  The rector smiled and joked with
Nick, telling him that it was obvious that he was a full-flavored Catholic
before offering the blessing.

	The next day, as Jenny and Seth returned to work, Matt and Nick
went to Memphis to spend some of their gift certificates.  They had lunch
there before returning to Eudora to spend to spend the rest of their
certificates and cards in the shops on the Square.  They got back to Nick's
place just after five o'clock, loaded under with things that they'd
purchased.  In all, Nick spent more money than he ever had in one day in
his entire life.  The newness of all those things, though, almost
symbolized the new chapter in his life that was unfolding.

	On the morning of the 29th, Seth took off work just long enough to
drive them to the airport in Memphis.  The whole time, he joked with them
about not being able to go with them, but he knew, from both of them, that
it was going to be a trip that would either make them or break them, as a
couple.

	It only took a couple of hours for them to get there, and when they
did, Matt saw a side of Nick that was different.  In New York, he'd always
heard that one either had to eat or be eaten.  Nick not only knew this, but
he embraced it.  From an argument with the cabbie over the fare from the
airport to the hotel to the fact that the room wasn't right once they were
there.  It was sexy to hear him not settling for anything.

	As they settled into their second room of the day, Nick explained
that it wasn't that he was trying to be rude; he just wanted everything to
be perfect for Matt.  Matt just smiled and told him that it was just nice
to be there with him.  He drove home the fact by putting his arms around
Nick's shoulders and gently kissing his lips.

	"I could take you right now," Nick smiled as they stood there.

	"I can tell," Matt smiled.

	"I'm not going to, though," Nick smiled.  "Not right now, anyway."

	"What do you have planned for me?" Matt grinned.

	"I wanna take you to Brooklyn," Nick told him.  "I made a couple of
phone calls before we came up, and I got in touch with a lady that lives in
my old building still."

	"Really?"

	"Yep," Nick smiled.  "You mind if we go over there?"

	"Not at all, man.  You've seen where I grew up.  It's only fair,"
Matt smiled.

	They took a shower and changed clothes before heading out of the
hotel room.  They hailed a cab that took them over the bridge and into the
neighborhood where Nick had spent his most formative years.  On the
surface, it hadn't changed a lot, but there were new faces all around.
When they got to the building, the cabbie let them out and Nick looked
around.

	"Right down there is where I bought my first pack of smokes," he
fondly remembered.  "Of course, I also got my first blow job in the
bathroom at the place," he smiled.

	"Nice..." Matt smiled.  "What was his name?"

	"Henry Johnson," Nick smiled as they walked up a couple of steps to
the door.  Nick looked at the directory for a moment, pressing the button
next to one of the names.

	"Yes?" the lady said as she came onto the intercom.

	"Ms. Mancini," Nick smiled.  "I left my key upstairs again."

	"NICKY!" she screamed.  "I'll be right down!"

	There was a buzzing sound on the door.  Nick grabbed it and held it
open for a second as Matt walked into the small corridor that was the
building's lobby.  A moment later, they heard someone running down the
stairs.

	"Nicky..." the short, portly, Italian lady said as she reached up
to put her arms around Nick's bent neck.  She kissed him on the cheek as
tears ran down her pudgy face.  "Nicky!  It is so good to see you..." she
told him.

	"It's good to see you too, Ms. Mancini," Nick told her as Matt
stood beside the mailboxes, smiling.

	"And you must be Matt," Ms. Mancini said as she walked over,
greeting him as she had Nick a moment before.

	"Yes ma'am," Matt hugged her.

	"Nick.  I'm going to fix your favorite for supper," she said.
"Matt.  Do you eat pasta?"

	"I eat everything, ma'am," Matt smiled.

	"Good!" she said as she wrapped her arm in Nick's and guided them
upstairs to her apartment on the third floor of the building.

	She had them sit at the kitchen table as she went to work preparing
what she remembered to be Nick's favorite pasta dish.  When it was ready,
she filled two plates with the gooey, cheesy goodness that she called
"Italian Mac-n-Cheese".  When they finished their first plates, she
refilled them, pleased with both guys' appetites.  Her daughter, Amelia,
got home from work at around 6:30, surprised to see the first guy on whom
she'd ever had a crush sitting there in her mother's kitchen.  Growing up,
she'd almost been like a little sister to him.  They'd lost touch with each
other after he left, but that moment did so much for his soul.  Before
long, the small apartment was filled with people, all there to see Nick.
His being there was like a band-aid that helped close the wound that 9/11
had opened for that building.  People who had moved away but who were still
in the city came out to see the man that Nick had become.  There were
tears, hugs, smiles, stories, memories, a million things that made Matt
know that when they left, Nick would be a different person.  They were
complimenting his body and his choice in men, all while making fun of the
fact that Nick had lost his accent.

	At the end of the evening, Amelia was going to meet some friends in
the city.  With that, she asked if they wanted to share a cab.  Nick and
Matt agreed, as Matt thought that he could probably use a few more minutes
with the connection to his past.  As they were dropped off at the hotel,
Matt pulled out the money to pay the fare, refusing to let either Nick or
Amelia pay for any of it.  She thanked him with a kiss on the cheek and
made a joke about how Nick needed to be sure to pay him back later.  With a
wink and a hug, she and Nick said their goodbyes.

	Returning to the room, Nick entered first.  When Matt got in,
though, and shut the door, Nick shoved him against the door and began
passionately kissing him.  "I'm about to do you like you've never been done
before," he warned Matt as he lifted him just far enough away from the door
to remove his coat.  Matt was wearing a button down shirt that Nick pulled
from the inside of his pants before ripping it open, causing buttons to
fly.  Nick took the t-shirt beneath it by either side of the `v' around his
neck and ripped it from top to bottom before bathing Matt's chest with
kisses.

	A moment later, as Matt was beginning to lose himself in the
moment, Nick lifted him up and carried him to the bed as he continued to
kiss Matt all over.  There was nothing gentle, a moment later, about the
way that Matt threw him onto the bed before taking off his clothes and
joining him seconds later.  In the throngs of the moment, Nick felt alive,
more alive than he'd felt in a long time.  He loved Matt, with all his
heart, and, in that moment, he was giving himself, of body, completely to
this man.  There was nothing quiet about that moment; there was nothing
clean.  There was nothing but raw emotions playing between both of them as
their physical contact brought them one step closer to singular bliss.

	When it came to the end, Matt and Nick were both sweating.  They
were both tired.  They were both smiling as Nick fell down beside him on
the bed.  He was sore, but in such a good way.

	"I feel like a virgin on her wedding night," Nick said as they lay
beside each other.

	Matt smiled.  "That was hot," he went on.

	"I can think of only two more things to do tonight."

	"What's that?" Matt turned his head to look at Nick.

	"Shower and sleep," Nick smiled.

	"Yeah..." Matt said as they groaned but climbed from the bed and
went into a shower.

	They returned to the room, dry, and climbed into bed next to each
other.  The next morning, they woke and dressed quickly, walking out into
the snowy skies, into the cities where dreams were made and broken.  They
did some shopping; they did some sight seeing; Nick took Matt to Ground
Zero, where they both laid a flower in memory of a woman that Matt only
knew from stories and in the memories of other people.  Nick was never one
to publicly display his affection, but he had been what Matt needed the
night of the Ball, and Matt knew that it was time to return the favor.  As
tourists walked by, snapping pictures, Matt scooted in even closer to him,
taking Nick's arm and putting it over his shoulder.  He then put his arm
around his back, squeezing for a moment, to let Nick know that he wasn't
alone.

	"My mom would have loved you," Nick turned and looked at him.  "She
would have looked you in the eye, though, and said `If you fuck with my
Nicky, I'm gonna screw your world up'."

	"And if my dad had been there, he would have said `And that's why
we gave Nick an industrial sized bottle of lube when he moved into his
apartment.  Speaking of, you need a refill yet, Nick?'."

	"Your parents really are amazing," Nick smiled.

	"I like `em," Matt looked at him.  "And they like you, too.  A
lot."

	"I want a new picture for the desktop of my computer," Nick said.

	"OK..." Matt said as Nick pulled his camera from his pocket.
Holding it up, he took a picture of Matt, smiling and wearing his Freshman
cap, as worn and tattered as it was.

	"My man," Nick said as he turned it off and put the camera back
into his jacket pocket.

	They went to FAO Schwartz and a gourmet candy shop in the city.
Matt spent a ton of money at the Virgin Megastore, and the two went to a
show.  On New Year's Eve, they piddled around the city for a while before
returning early to the hotel.  Times Square was already crowded, and by the
time they showered, ate, and got back downstairs, there was barely enough
room to move around.  People were looking at them as they were dressed to
the nines.  Nick was in his dress uniform, and Matt was wearing a simple
black tuxedo.  At midnight, they joined everyone else in the countdown of
the final moments of 2008.  As 2009 was declared open, streamers and
balloons, tons of glitter and glitz.  Nick took him and turned him around
after a moment, and, like every other coupled person in New York, the
boyfriends kissed passionately.  A moment later, Matt got a text from Seth,
saying that he and Jenny had seen them on TV for a split second.

	Nick watched the way that Matt handled things and all the people
around him.  Whether in Mississippi or New York, Matt was Matt, and that
was a great thing, a wonderful thing, a beautiful thing.  In that moment,
Nick realized what it meant to truly love another human being.  He'd told
Matt that he loved him, and he did, but the use of that word, that simple,
unassuming word, was justified right then as Nick realized that, while he'd
loved Corey, it was different.  There were still lines that separated them,
that always would separate them.  With Matt, though, there were no
inhibitions.  Matt had seen him at his best and at his worst, and he still
loved him, immensely.

	They went into the hotel around one, as soon as they were able to
get through the crowd of people and back upstairs.  They had a glass of
champagne to toast the New Year and then climbed into bed.  Nick slept like
a baby that night, dreaming sweetly as Matt was cuddled into him.  He woke
up early the next morning, though, in time to shower and watch a little bit
of the local news before waking Matt.

	"Matt," Nick sweetly whispered into his ear.  "Wake up, sweets."

	"Huh?" Matt groggily inquired.

	With a smile on his face, Nick responded.  "Come on.  It's time to
go home..."