Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 17:23:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: D H <dhthewriter@yahoo.com>
Subject: Homefront - Chapter 3

Again, thanks to everyone for the comments and messages.  Feel free to
continue to write me on dhthewriter@yahoo.com, and join the yahoo group for
faster postings and such.  The address is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dhthewriter.  Thanks!

Also, the usual disclaimer applies.

David :)

Homefront
Chapter 3

	As Matt went to bed that night, he got a text message from Nick.
After exchanging a few, Nick asked Matt for a favor.  He wanted to go for a
morning run, but he didn't want to go alone.  Matt warned that he'd never
really been known to hit the streets but that he could use the exercise.
The two agreed to meet at Jenny's place around ten, and by the time Matt's
head was hitting the pillow, he knew the route around which he would take
this man.  When he got up around nine, he got dressed and left Seth's place
to meet Nick at Jenny's.  By the time he got there, the two were off.

	Given the proximity that Jenny lived to the campus of Parsons
University, Matt had decided that it would be a cool thing to show him
around.  From the moment they crossed onto campus, as Matt had suspected
from something he'd said the previous evening, he fell in love with the
place.  They ran first past The Grove.  Matt and Jenny had both told him
about how, during football season, people don't tailgate, they grove.
Where people dress however they desire for tailgating at other schools, at
Parsons, there is a dress code.  One always dresses nicely for groving.
Guys sport their slacks and nice shirts; girls can usually be found in
dresses or skirts with nice tops.  The cuisine, as Nick had heard it,
wasn't just whatever could be thrown on the barbecue in the parking lot; it
was a big to-do where people would bring exquisitely prepared dishes and
decanters of sweet tea.  Of course, while alcohol was expressly forbidden
on the campus, no one bothered to check anyone's glass or cup for
compliance with the law.

	Of course, as they ran around, Nick found himself checking out
neither the guy with him nor the guys that were strolling through campus.
Nick was fascinated by the buildings: their structure, their shape, how
they worked with the meticulous landscaping all around.  From Grove Road,
they turned onto Student Union Drive, and, at next intersection, turned
down Patriot Drive.  Just in front of Guyton Hall, both men had to stop.
It was still the morning time, but the temperature had already reached its
high.  Both men said something about how they should have brought a bottle
of water or something as they walked to Fraternity Row and headed back
toward the entrance to campus that they'd used.

	Matt was out of breath by that point, and Nick's left leg was a
little on fire, as he'd not been running in some time.  He usually used an
elliptical at the gym for cardio before lifting weights like nobody's
business.  As they walked down Fraternity Row, Matt pointed out a few
buildings.  Oddly enough, his only real boyfriend had been a member of
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, whose house was right on the street.  He pointed out
the Higginbotham Language Center, where his minor was housed before, having
pointed out the Nutt Music Building, where his major was housed as they
entered campus.

	"And this building," Matt smiled, "is Parsons Hall.  It's where
Admissions, Financial Aid, the Bursar, and Veterans Affairs is housed."

	"Are you trying to say something?" Nick smiled, trying to walk
through the pain in his leg.

	"Once your discharge goes through..." Matt grinned as he motioned
for Nick to turn down a street to once side of the huge administrative
complex.

	After a few more quick turns, they were standing in front of the
Lyceum.  Nick looked up at the daunting structure.  He and Matt both walked
back a little bit so that he could take in the huge, antebellum building
with its red brick exterior and the white, classical columns that spoke to
the style of a very bygone era.  If no other building on campus had
attracted his attention, that one had.

	"Wow," Nick expressed as he took it all in.

	"I can count back seven generations, on my mom's side, of people
who have walked through those doors as students.  My mother's
great-great-great grandfather was one of the very first students at the
University."

	"Really?" Nick inquired as Matt shook his head.  "It's why, in my
family, there is the mantra: there is but one University, and Parsons is
its name."

	"Nice," Nick noted.  "My mother and aunt went to EMU..."

	"Shhh!" Matt smiled.

	"What?"

	"That's not a polite thing to say in these parts!" Matt smiled.

	"Maybe I need some punishment later," Nick winked.

	"Don't tease me like that!"

	"Like what?" Nick said as he lifted the bottom part of his t-shirt.
While most people would have assumed that it was to wipe the sweat from his
brow, Matt knew that it was only to tease him just a tad bit more.

	The two walked back to Jenny's apartment, where the two joked for a
bit before Matt left to go back to Seth's and Nick went into what Jenny
jokingly called `his room' to take a shower.  Afterwards, the two of them
met and went to lunch before spending the afternoon hanging out.  On
Wednesday, they went out to Dan's lake house, just because Nick had said
something about not having fished since he was a kid.  They did more joking
than anything, and consumed, together, a six pack of beer.  It was a fun
day, and, after having dinner with Seth and Jenny, they nicely parted ways.

	The next morning, Nick, having run out of clean clothes,
reluctantly left Eudora.  There was a lot on his mind, from the past clear
through to the future.  He couldn't help but think what his life might have
been like had his mother survived, or had Corey made it home with him.  He
thought about how he hated Jackson, for reasons that he would never, ever
explain to his aunt or cousin, who both lauded their hometown.  Perhaps it
was because he'd had no choice either the first or the second time he
called the place `home.'

	Then there was Matt.  He was an intriguing man, on so many levels.
While he didn't know that Matt was, personally, wealthy, he knew that Matt
came from a fabulously well-to-do situation.  His grandfather had been a
Marine turned attorney turned real estate mogul; his mom was a doctor; and
his father managed companies that, as far as he knew, family owned.  He was
so amazingly sexy, and he didn't seem to know either.  He dressed modestly,
as far as he'd seen, and drove a car that his grandfather had owned.  He
liked to commune with nature in the truest Southern sense of the word, but
he could go out and drink with the best of them.  He was classy and witty;
he was smart, but he didn't throw it in everyone's face.  He was sexy as
hell, but he didn't realize that Nick saw in him more than he'd ever seen
in any other living creature, including Corey.

	As that little thing crossed his mind, he realized that he'd come a
long way in the last few days.  May was mostly as the other months since
his return had been: bad.  It had culminated though, in this nice man and
his family welcoming him into their home and making him feel like he was an
important person.  Him.  Nicholas Dante Russo was a man who, to them at
least, was a superstar.  Then, unknowingly doing something wonderful for
him, Matt worked to find things that he wanted to do, things that made him
the center of attention.  Frankly, it felt good.  He hadn't felt really
good in a long time, and he wanted to relish that moment.

	He liked the way Matt smiled and that he didn't miss a beat when it
came to comebacks.  He blushed a lot, though, which was cute.  And, for a
top, he had a very... very... doable butt.  It was obvious from the way
that he and Seth interacted that Matt was a kid at heart, but at the same
time, he was a man who, in everything he did, seemed to be soothing a heart
that, at 24, was already among the hardest, most cynical ones.  Nick always
hated that he'd become like that, but he had only the War in Iraq to blame.
There were times since he got home that he'd wished that he'd not been one
of the lucky ones, one of the ones who'd made it back to the land of the
Pilgrims' Pride.  He couldn't count how many times he'd resolved to end his
own life only to have something, or someone, step in and make him
momentarily realize that life could still be worth living.  Matt, in his
opinion, was one of those people, those things that made him feel better in
the world.

	As he returned to his home in Ridgeland, he found, on the bed that
his aunt had made in his absence, a stack of mail.  There were mostly bills
that he needed to pay, but the most important thing among that stack was a
letter from the Department of Defense.  It was a thick envelope whose
contents, though unread, made him forget completely about everything else
in the world.  Nervously, he opened it up, for he knew that one of two
things was going to happen.  Either he was going to be recalled to active
duty, with the possibility of being sent again to Iraq, or he was going to
get a discharge.

	There was a letter in there, as was there a copy of a couple of
forms.  Looking down through them, he realized that his commanding officers
had obviously thought more highly of his service than he had, as it was
determined through all their findings that he was to be honorably
discharged.  He read that as a thank you from all of those people directly
to him for the services that he'd performed on more than one occasion.

	"Shit..." he quietly expressed as he realized that he'd have full
VA benefits if he wanted them, including continuing medical care and
educational benefits.

	Sitting on the edge of his bed, it was as if a weight had been
lifted off him.  One of the things he'd most worried about was that they
would brand him a coward and make him return to clear his name.  He knew it
was a long shot, given the physical and emotional scars that he would
forever bare, but still, in his mind, it was possible.  At the same time, a
part of him was officially in the past.  A very big, important piece of his
personal history was no longer an active part.  He didn't know, right then,
if he was going to miss the service of his country, but he did realize that
only he could make his life what he wanted it to be.  That letter, in a
sense, was also a new beginning, a chance for him to define, outside of the
military, the man that he wanted to be.

	As he sat there, his aunt got home from work, calling through the
house for him after realizing that he'd returned to Jackson.

	"In here, Janelle," Nick said as she came down the hallway to his
room.

	"Are you OK?" she asked.  He looked up and smiled.

	"I've got to figure something out," he cryptically responded.

	"OK.  Anything I can help with?" she asked, expecting a negative
response, but not immediately getting one.  Nick had become quite reserved
like that.

	"I've got to decide what I want to do with my life," Nick told her
as she sat beside him.  He handed her the papers, papers that she quickly
grabbed and began skimming.

	"Nicky..." she said.  "When your Mom died, I thought about how you
were going to get through.  About how I was going to get through it.  Your
joining the Marines was not a part of that picture, but I did learn
something very important about you that day that we got into it so bad."

	"What's that?"

	"That you are the kind of person who settle for nothing else than
exactly what you want in life.  Maybe you need to be reminded of it, but
that's one of the things that I admire most about you in this world,
Nicholas Dante."

	"Yes ma'am," Nick said as he reached over and hugged his aunt.

	"Now," she said with a tear on her face, "it's time to celebrate!
Go call your cousin and tell her to bring her ass down here after work,
that I'm cooking dinner."

	"Yes ma'am," Nick smiled as she stood and walked from the room, a
sense of relief on her face as well.

	Jenny broke a standing dinner date with Seth that evening for her
mother's cooking, leaving Jackson rather late and arriving in Eudora even
later.  She called Seth as soon as she got home, though, as he'd requested,
and explained what had happened.  Seth, fully awake, called Matt, who was
still wide awake, and told him the good news.

	"So I heard a rumor..." Matt smiled as he sat in his room, at his
computer, while talking to Nick on the phone.

	"You did?  What rumor was that?"

	"That this beautiful man got some news today..." Matt smiled.

	"Do you Yahoo!?" Nick asked.

	"Yeah.  Promise you won't laugh at the name?"

	"As long as you don't laugh at mine," Nick said as he booted up his
laptop and sat on his bed.

	"OK..." Matt said as he logged in.  "What is it?"

	"MRNBTTM6969," Nick smiled, spelling it out.

	"OK.  That's not as bad as this," Matt said as he sent a message to
Nick.

	"Choirboy86?" Nick asked.

	"Yeah..." Matt noted.  "Cam?"

	"Of course," Nick said as he sent Matt an invitation.  Nick quickly
accepted as Matt invited himself to view Nick's.  After they were both
connected to each other on the internet, they hung up the phone.  With a
smile, Matt leaned up and began typing.

	`This is so much better than the porn I was watching...' he wrote
out before leaning back in his chair and smiling a little bit.

	`I know.  I am fucking amazing like that!' Nick fired back as he
watched Matt smiling on his end of the cyber world.

	`So what's the news?' Matt went on as Nick held up one finger,
asking Matt to hold on as he climbed off the bed to grab the papers that
were lying on his desk.  When he returned, he showed Matt the return
address on the envelope, which Made Matt sit up a little bit in his chair.
`And...' he typed out onto the screen.  Nick held up another finger and
pulled the folded papers from the enveloping finding a particular page and
holding its bottom corner in the window.  `And?!?!?!' Matt typed out.  With
a grin on his face like when he got his first bike, Nick moved the paper to
show Matt the discharge type.  `Yay!!!!' he typed out, following it with a
huge chat grin, as well as a huge real grin on the screen.  `I should get
you a congratulations gift.  What do you want?'

	`To have sex with Ian Scott,' Nick smiled.

	`God you're so gay!' Matt went on.  `Of course, it's not like I
wouldn't do him either.'

	`So a three way with Ian Scott is the plan then?' Nick asked.

	`Sure,' Matt smiled.  `Congratulations for real.'

	`Thank you,' Nick went on smiling.  `So you were watching porn?'

	`I was,' Matt grinned evilly.  `It was awesome, too... this muscle
guy was getting pounded.  It was HAWT!'

	`Nice...'

	`You're seriously sexier than he was, though,' Matt added.  Nick
smiled from ear to ear, unlike he'd smiled in a very, very long time.  `I
mean.  That smile alone is doing wonders for my... um... mood...'

	`I should so make you prove it,' Nick noted before, right on the
camera, he removed the t-shirt he'd been wearing all day and just sat
there.  Matt smiled just a moment before standing from the chair on which
he sat.  Nick's eyes bugged a little bit when he saw it.  A million lustful
thoughts ran through his mind as Matt turned to his side and then back to
the front before sitting in the chair.

	`Did I leave you speechless?' Matt inquired.

	Nick returned to his keyboard.  `So I'm not a size queen or
anything...but...'

	`So you like?'

	`Let's just say that I could figure out how to use it,' Nick
smiled.  `Do I get an ass shot?'

	`OK... but only cause it's you!' Matt stood again and turned
around.  `You OK over there?'

	Nick gave him a thumbs-up and smiled.  `Damn...  So I'm gonna count
that as my gift.'

	`Hell no,' Matt shook his head.

	`Seriously,' Nick continued, `I'm gonna have a really good time in
a little while.'

	Matt reached up and took off the t-shirt he'd been wearing and sat
back in his chair, casually putting his hands behind his head, lacing his
fingers together just on top of his dark brown hair.  He sat there for a
second, smiling, and taunting Nick as he'd done a couple of days before.

	`Dude... you're getting even aren't you?'

	Matt smiled and leaned up in the chair, typing out that he was as
he looked at the keyboard.  `Turn about's fair trade, though,' he typed out
afterwards, returning to his comfortable position.

	`I would, but I need to... um... make myself presentable down
there,' Nick mentioned.

	`Uh huh...' Matt leaned back up to type.  `Would you be saying that
if you were in my room right now?'

	`No... well... maybe...' Nick responded in three lines of text on
the chat window.

	`Bullshit.  You'd've been naked before I was,' Matt told him.

	`Bet not!' Nick sat back.

	`Trust me, you would have,' Matt went on.  He moved back in the
chair once again.  His left hand went behind his head while his right one
went out of view.  Nick said that he would return in a second, and when he
did, he dressed as he was on the day of his birth, in absolutely nothing.
Matt was equally as impressed with him, but while it wasn't as long, it had
girth.

	`So now we're even,' Nick said a second later.

	`I guess so,' Matt smiled.  `I can only imagine, though, what would
be going on if you were here.'

	`I think that we'd both be in the buff, and I'd be admiring you as
the awesome man you are.'

	`Admiring?'

	`Admiring, worshiping, adoring, etc...' Nick smiled.

	`Yeah... worshiping... I like that...' Matt returned the smile.

	For the next little while, they put on a show together.  While Matt
was going slowly on his end, Nick was getting into it.  At around the same
time, they each reached their own conclusions.  For whatever reason, for
each of them, it was bigger than normal.  Relieved and still a little
excited from their moment together, they quickly cleaned themselves off
before returning to the conversation.  Being that it was almost two in the
morning, though, it didn't last long.

	The next morning, Nick went to a doctor's appointment at nine and
then an appointment with his counselor at noon.  Both went well, and Nick
returned home.  The next day, while his aunt was gone somewhere with
Charles, Nick woke up and went to work in her yard.  By the time she got
home, he was sweaty and she was surprised at the trouble that Nick had gone
to, making sure that the yard was neat and that the flower beds were all
taken care of.  Seth and Jenny came down on Sunday for dinner, but while
Matt was invited to come, he'd already made plans to go someplace with his
father.

	That night, though, like every other since the Thursday before,
Matt and Nick got on Yahoo Messenger after everyone else had gone to bed
for a little bit of time together.  On Monday, though, Nick found the high
that he'd been on for several days beginning to deteriorate.  He'd talked
to Matt a couple of times that day, but during their cam-meeting that
evening, Matt could tell that something was on his mind, other than the
usual.  Nick tried to smile, telling him not to worry, but Matt couldn't
help himself.

	At around midnight, Matt asked him to hold on for a moment while he
stood and, in the background, put on some clothes.  He packed a bag, which
confused Nick a little bit, but he didn't say anything.

	`OK.  So I'm gonna be down there in a couple of hours.'

	`MATT!  NO!  I'm not gonna let you drive two hours down here...'

	`Let me?  How are you gonna stop me?' Matt asked honestly.

	`Matt.  Seriously.  Don't do this,' Nick said.

	`Nick.  You're a friend, and it's obvious that something's wrong.
I'm not gonna just stay up here and let you go through whatever alone.
Seriously...'

	Nick turned off the camera, but sent a message that he was still
there.  `Matt.  If you knew more about me, you wouldn't be making that
offer.'

	`Bullshit,' Matt sent back.  Nick could see the seriousness in his
face.  `If you knew more about me, you wouldn't have said that.'  Matt
smiled.

	`Matt.  Where are we going with this?' Nick asked.

	`I don't know about you, but I'm about to go to Jackson,' Matt told
him.

	`No.  This.  The Yahoo convos,' Nick asked him.

	`I don't know, honestly.  I haven't really thought about it.  I've
just enjoyed chatting with you, getting to know you a little bit better,'
Matt continued.  `And then there's the other things...'

	`Yeah.  That's not bad,' Nick told him.

	`So give me your address,' Matt insisted a second later.

	`914 Crabapple Cir, Ridgeland,' Nick reluctantly put into the
window a few minutes later.

	`OK.  I'm gonna leave the parents a note and then I'll call you
when I get to Ridgeland.  Cool?'

	`I guess... You can call me before, though, if you'd like,' Nick
put in the window being shared between them.

	`Alright.  I'll call when I get to the interstate,' Matt told him.
`TTYS'

	`k...' Nick responded as the two ended their chat conversation.

	Matt indeed called him when he got to the interstate, though it was
obvious from Nick's tone, from his almost avoidance of any substantive
conversation.  When he got to Ridgeland, he pulled off the interstate, and
Nick began giving him directions back to the house that Jenny had grown up
in.  When he got there, he pulled by the garage door where Nick's car was
housed, leaving Janelle plenty of room to pull her car out the next
morning.  Nick was there, waiting on him as he climbed from the Caddy.
Before Matt could even shut the door, Nick had wrapped his arms around him,
quietly giving the wonderful man before him a thank you for not being
willing to let him fester, in his emotions, alone.
	They walked into the house through the garage and then into the
kitchen.  Nick grabbed them a couple of sodas from the fridge before
guiding Matt down the hallway to his bedroom.  It was a modest room,
painted in blue with a double bed right in the middle of the wall opposite
the door.  Walking inside, Matt felt as though he knew the place already,
having seen it every night for the previous few.  After taking a quick piss
in Nick's bathroom, Matt returned and sat next to Nick on the bed.

	"So what's going on in your head?" Matt asked, turning to face him
after a moment.

	"A lot of stuff," Nick answered honestly, finding himself unable to
look at Matt, who was looking at him with only concern in his eyes, his
countenance, his entire self.  "Matt.  I appreciate that you drove all the
way down..."

	"Like I said, you're a friend," Matt put his hands on Nick's leg.
"A very hot friend, but a friend, none the less."  Nick looked away for a
moment as he sat there, a moment before letting his upper body fall back
onto the pillow.

	"Can I be honest?" Nick wanted to know.

	"No.  Lie to me," Matt smiled.

	"OK.  A Lie.  Hmm..." Nick started.  Matt smiled and playfully
swatted his thigh with the back of his hand.  "Matt.  Last week was amazing
for me, and I want to thank you."

	"I didn't do nothing..." Matt started.

	"You helped me forget about some things for a few days.  Well, not
forget, but not think about constantly," Nick told him.

	"Like what?" Matt asked.  It was the million dollar question right
then, and Nick had no idea about whether or not he was going to be able to
answer it.

	"My mom, for one.  Corey..." Nick answered.

	"OK..."

	Nick very basically told him about both people, the two people who
had left him well before their times.  He spoke about how Linda reminded
him so much of Patrice, his mother, and how he never thought he would find
someone as amazing as Corey had been.  As he spoke of Corey, Matt lay down
on the bed beside him and continued to listen to Nick as he cuddled up with
him.  At sunrise, they were still talking about things, and both of them
were beginning to realize that things needed to happen before they either
could or should go any further with the other.

	When Janelle woke, she found a note next to the coffee pot that
Nick had written her the night before.  "Coffee's ready to turn on, and
Matt is here."  She smiled as she pushed the button and then walked to her
room.  Hearing quiet coming from Nick's room, she quietly pushed open the
door to find both men in his bed, beneath the covers, having fallen asleep
a little while before.

	At ten, as she was sitting in her office, working away, Jenny
called her to check on Nick, assuming that he was asleep still and not
wanting to disturb him.  Janelle, not wanting to gossip, really, told her
about what she'd seen that morning.  Jenny immediately said that she had to
go, to call Seth.  Janelle warned her, though, not to jump to conclusions,
that it was very possible that nothing happened, that they just wanted to
cuddle.

	"Yeah... right... like Seth and I just cuddle!" Jenny said as she
laughed, hanging up the phone and moment later and dialing Seth's number at
work.

	"Seth Bentley," he answered.

	"GUESS WHO IS IN JACKSON!" she immediately told him.

	"Um... Nick..."

	"AND!"

	"Your Mom," Seth smiled.

	"AND!"

	"Who?" Seth asked.

	"A certain gay man..."

	"HOLY..." Seth started before realizing that he was at work and
couldn't complete that thought aloud.  "Are you serious?"

	"I am.  I just talked to Mom, and apparently, he went down there
some time in the night," she explained.

	"I'm proud for them," Seth said, not knowing anything about what
was going on.

	"I know.  OK.  Gotta go back to work," she said.  "I love you, and
I will see you tonight."

	"Love you, too," Seth said as they hung up their phones, both
realizing that it was the first time the L-word was shared between them.
They both smiled, realizing that they meant it.

	In Jackson, though, Matt was stirring.  He opened his eyes to find
himself awake next to Nick, who was peacefully sleeping.  Carefully, he
climbed from the bed and walked into the bathroom for a second, returning
to find that Nick had rolled over and was hanging on to the pillow that
he'd been using.  As he climbed back in, with the intention of cuddling up
and going back to sleep, Matt inadvertently stirred Nick a little too much,
bringing him from the land of slumber.

	"Morning," Nick said.

	"To you, too," Matt said as he lifted the covers.  "How did you
sleep?"

	"Better than I have in a long time, thanks to you," Nick mentioned
as he made room for Matt to return to the spot next to him.

	"Good," Matt snuggled himself into Nick.

	"So I had a dream last night," Nick told him.

	"Good one?"

	"Yeah.  It wasn't too bad," Nick smiled and kissed the back of
Matt's neck.

	"Good..." Matt smiled.

	"So thank you for the talk last night."

	"It was nothing," Matt told him.

	"Yeah... it was..." Nick said.  Matt turned around.  In Nick's
eyes, even though he was still, basically, asleep, he saw a certain
resolution that he'd never experienced from him before but that he
recognized.  All the power, the confidence, the strength that he could
muster were there, coming through those beautiful brown eyes.

	"You would have done it for me," Matt noted.

	"Yeah.  I would have," Nick smiled.

	"So no worries..." Matt said as Nick leaned in and kissed him.
When he pulled away for a moment, Matt smiled.  "Um... You can't just
stop..." he managed to say before Nick went on with his kissing.  Matt,
while still lying on his left side, allowed his right hand to go beneath
the edge of the t-shirt that Nick had worn the night before.  He enjoyed
the way the tips of his fingers felt against the smooth skin on the sides
of Nick's muscular body.

	Before he knew it, though, Nick was pushing him onto his back and
straddling his body.  Nick stopped kissing and lifted himself for a moment,
long enough to remove his shirt and to help Matt take his off.  As Matt was
lowered back onto his back, Nick leaned down and started kissing him again.
In a moment, though, he moved from his kisses to Matt's neck and then his
lightly furry chest.  The closer that he got to Matt's belly button, Nick
put his hands under the edge of the blue boxers he'd worn to bed that
night.  With each kiss from his belly button down his happy trail to the
promised land, Nick pulled down the shorts, gradually exposing Matt to him
as neither of them imagined would happen for a while.
	When he reached the base, Nick planted small, light kisses along
each inch until the boxers were gone.  He kissed the head before wrapping
his hands around it and placing it, both gently and forcefully in a
combination that most guy guys had never been able to muster.

	"Oh God!" Matt tried to scream only to find himself barely letting
out a whisper.  It felt so good, better than any other experience of that
kind that he'd had.  True to Jenny's advice on the night they first met,
Nick was amazingly gifted when it came to that one particular thing.

	Over the next few minutes, Nick didn't seem to stop.  His
movements, his breaths, his strokes were even and consistent.  He was
working at a good speed, and even though Matt was bigger than any guy he'd
ever been with, Nick seemed to have no problems with it.  As he got closer
and closer to the point of no return, he found himself debating about where
to put his hands.  He was already holding onto the sheets for dear life,
and as much as he wanted to put his hands on the back of Nick's head, with
its hair still cut to regulation standards, he didn't.

	"Nick..." Matt started to warn, as Nick ignored him.  "Nick!" he
continued as Nick did.  "Oh!  Nick!" Matt said as he could no longer hold
off the orgasm that Nick had induced.  Nick backed off him just far enough,
though, so that he could savor the flavor, the texture of every single drop
of what had previously been inside Matt's body.  He felt Matt shiver a few
times, knowing that he was, for the moment, spent, and all the while
walking on the wild side as he didn't let a single drop of what he later
termed `goodness' escape from his mouth.

	"So how's that for a `thank you'," Nick smiled as he moved back to
where he'd been lying before, next to Matt.  Matt could do nothing but
stare at the ceiling for a moment.  His mind was completely devoid of
thought, of perspective, as he enjoyed the minute or two after when he was
at one with everything in the universe.  "Did you enjoy it?"

	"Enjoy it?" Matt asked, turning his head to where Nick was leaning
on his elbow.  "Enjoy doesn't even... doesn't even begin to describe it,"
he smiled from ear to ear.  He turned a second later and faced Nick.  "Give
me a few minutes, and I'll have energy enough to..."

	"Who said you were gonna get any more than that?" Nick joked as
Matt pushed him, gently causing him to fall to his back.  Matt climbed on
top of him, straddling Nick with his naked body.

	"Wouldn't you like it if I were a bottom?" Matt teased him as he
slowly moved himself.

	"Right now, yes," Nick smiled.  "But I understand that you're a
top, and I won't push the matter until you're ready."

	"Oh yeah?" Matt said as he climbed off and took off the briefs that
Nick was wearing.

	Nick, almost playfully, tried to take them from Matt, but Matt
pulled them away, throwing them across the room.  He returned to his
position, their naked bodies touching in a way that felt so good by itself.
"Matt... you're gonna cause a problem," he warned.

	"Good," Matt said as they both realized that Nick's erect member
was between his legs.  The motions, the touch, it all sent sensations that
made Nick want it more and Matt want it again.

	"Matt.  Seriously.  I don't want you to think that I did what I did
to get this..."

	"Shut up, Nick," Matt said as he leaned over and kissed him.

	"Yes sir," he said during the next breath.

	"Do you have any protection?" Matt inquired.

	"Yeah.  Bathroom."

	"Hurry," Matt climbed off him and lay on his back in the middle of
the bed.

	"Yes sir," Nick smiled as he climbed and ran in.

	"You have the greatest ass," Matt said.

	"Thank you," Nick said as he grabbed not just the condom but also
some lube.

	When he returned, Matt had his knees crooked, waiting on Nick to
return.  Nick opened the condom with his teeth and threw the wrapper on the
ground before unrolling over him.  He squeezed out some lube onto his
finger tips and wiped it around himself before repeating the process and
rubbing it on Matt's ass.

	"You sure?" he asked as he put his middle finger inside Matt.

	"Nick..." Matt looked at him, wincing a little from pleasure as he
found `the spot' with his finger.

	"OK... I'm shutting up," Nick told him, putting in a second finger
in preparation.  In a moment, though, he removed his fingers only to
replace it with that which made him a man.  He slowly inserted himself,
stopping after a second so that Matt could get used to the presence.  When
he was in as deep as he could go, he slowly pulled himself out.  The
process took a moment, but eventually, he slowly started picking up speed.
Whereas Matt's legs had been on his shoulders at first, Nick took his
ankles and held his legs open, widely.  As he pounded Matt as best he
could, he enjoyed everything about the encounter.  Matt was moaning a
little every time the sound of their flesh coming in contact echoed against
his relatively bare walls.

	As Matt looked up at one point, Nick was sweating.  Every muscle of
his body seemed to be contracting as he concentrated on the job at hand.
Getting especially caught up in the contraction and flexion of his abs,
Matt felt himself getting closer and closer to a successful end to round
two.  "Harder!" he screamed as his body began to feel so much unlike any
other orgasm he'd ever had.  "FUCK!" he screamed, at full volume as his ass
clenched around Nick, and he shot the second, equally as powerful, orgasm
from his loin.

	Nick stopped for a second as Matt finished his orgasm, but when it
was over, he pounded a few more times until the head of the condom was
filled with everything good about that moment.

	As Nick pulled out, his chest heaving, he sat down on his haunches
as he released Matt's legs and then rubbed his thighs.  He looked deeply
into Matt's eyes as Matt looked into his.  "One word?" he asked.

	"Huh?"

	"One word?  How are you, in one word?"

	"Honestly?"

	"Yeah?"

	"Liberated," Matt told him.  "You?"

	"Living," Nick told him.  "Matt.  I haven't really lived in a long
time.  This has sort of reminded me that I'm still here, if that makes any
sense."

	"It does... more than you know," Matt smiled at him.

	The two of them took a shower a few minutes later, joking as they
kissed and standing there, together, until all the hot water in the house
was gone.  As they climbed out, continuing to smile at each other, Matt
looked at him.  "Is there any place around here that has crinkle cut
fries?"

	"Why?" Nick smiled.

	"I'm hungry now," Matt winked at him.

	"Sex does that to you?"

	"GOOD sex does that to me," Matt said as he kissed Nick on the
lips.

	Being that Matt had to return to Eudora, they took two cars to a
small diner not too far from Nick's house.  They ate and talked for a bit
before, almost reluctantly, parting ways.  On the drive up, Seth was
getting off work and walking home.  He called Matt for details only to get,
officially, that Nick needed a friend.  Seth knew, though, that something
had happened; he could hear it in Matt's voice.  He didn't sound the same,
but better.  Jenny heard the same thing in Nick's, though, as they talked.
Both of them, longing for better times in their best friends' lives, hoped
that the feeling wasn't just temporary.