Master Apprentice
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Merry Christmas
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Title: Merry Christmas
Author: KatBear (katbear@cox.net)
Archive: MA
Category: AR
Rating: NC17 for explicit sexual activity
Pairing: Q/O (Quilan Finn/Ben Kennan)
Feedback: Appreciated.
Thanks: To the beta readers who made this a better story (Merry Amelie, Bonny Magret).All mistakes are my own.
Summary: First Christmas for Ben and Qui
Warnings: If male-male sex bothers you, you shouldn't be here.
Spoilers: None, alternate reality set in 21st century Earth in fictional part of the western U.S. (Wyoming)
Notes: 1. The primary setting is not based on any actual specific real location or persons but is a composite of possible geography, town features, transplanted state university, etc. 2. The federal agencies mentioned are real but liberties have been taken with some policies, practices and job duties. 3. This is the eleventh story in the Master's Voice series.
Additional notes are at the end of the story.
Master's Voice
MV 2 - Honeymoon
MV 3 - First Session
MV 4 - Morning Blues
MV 5 - Relocation
MV 6 - Snow Falls
MV 7 - Attentions
MV 8 - Giving Thanks
MV 9 - First Review
MV 10 - Questions
MV 11 - Merry Christmas
Disclaimer:The boys belong to George Lucas, I'm just playing with them.
Sunday 22 Dec
"I surely do appreciate your help today with all that sorting and packing," said Jane. "There'll be a lot of folks happy to get one of those Christmas baskets."
"Actually, it was kind of fun," Ben said, reflecting on how different it felt to be here voluntarily helping people than the 'charity' his parents had forced him to dispense back home in Boston. He took another bite of pot roast, succulent and tasty after its day-long sojourn in the slow cooker. "Reverend Charlie keeps things lively."
"Aye, 'twas nice being adjunct members of the Church of Universal Fellowship," Qui chimed in. "Everyone was really friendly."
"We do have a lot of good people, regulars and others," agreed Jane. "Speaking of people, just wanted to remind you boys that tomorrow Rafa will be out helping deliver the holiday baskets while another group of us are heading down to the VA hospital to visit. We'll be taking food and little gifts for them as won't be able to get home for Christmas. And on Christmas Eve, I've got pies to deliver first thing, then some of the church folks are going to the senior centers for celebrations in the afternoon. I don't know exactly when we'll be back either night, so just in case I've left some dishes in the refrigerator that you can pick from to heat up for dinner."
"Thanks, ma'am," Ben replied. "That will be very handy; there's a chance I may have to work late tomorrow and maybe Tuesday, too. It will depend on what sort of last-minute business we get at the shop."
"How will you be getting home if you miss the last bus?" asked Qui.
Ben pondered a moment. "Um... I suppose I can catch a ride with somebody if it's that late."
"If you need to, you can always call one of us," Rafa said firmly. She looked around as both Qui and Jane nodded in agreement.
"Well, I guess I could do that," Ben said reluctantly. "I don't like putting anybody to that kind of trouble, though."
"It's no trouble." Jane waved her fork in Ben's direction. "We all want to make sure you get home safely."
"Yes, ma'am, I understand." Ben concentrated on snagging a roll to hide his momentary rebellion, then felt foolish for his emotion. He looked up and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll call if I need to."
Qui glanced at the clock on the wall. "We should be leaving soon if we're going to be on time for the rehearsal."
"Still plenty of time, Mr. Finn, so there's no call to think about gobbling down your food." Jane shifted her fork to point at Qui. "Rafa and I will handle the dishes."
It was the ranger's turn for a polite "Yes, ma'am," but he could only keep his grin from breaking out for a few seconds, drawing a laugh from Jane as she shook her head.
*** ***
Sandy Miller was coming out of her office as Qui and Ben walked into the UPA radio program room and shifted course to meet them. "Hey, how are two of my favorite guys tonight?" She gave each of them a hug.
"Doing very well, and 'tis a pleasure to be here," Qui said.
"Glad I could help," added Ben. "I know I haven't been able to come out very often lately, but it's been kind of a problem getting around."
"Don't worry about it, Ben." Sandy patted Ben's arm. "We're just happy you are available this close to Christmas. We're still waiting for a couple of people, but you can go on back to the studio. Using the recordings everybody did for us, we've put together a running order for the stories, but the timing needs to be tightened a little. Hopefully it won't take long to clean up and we can go for a final take."
Both men nodded and headed for the back hallway. When they reached the main recording studio, they split up; Qui joining his fellow readers and Ben taking a seat at the panel in the control booth.
"Hey, how's it going?" Ben asked the man working the sound board.
Armand, the chief sound engineer, glanced up and smiled. "Good to see you back, Ben. It's just the two of us tonight, so I'm going to need you to help me keep the timing straight. Sandy's been tinkering with the format, so the practice session will be more important than usual to get things working right."
"Yes, sir, I understand. Do we have a layout of who's doing what and when?"
"Right here." Armand spread out some sheets of paper.
Sandy and the last storyteller joined the group already in the studio as Armand was just finishing walking Ben through the end page. The men turned their attention to her as everyone settled around the large table and she started speaking.
"First, I want to apologize for making changes in the program at such a late date, and I very much appreciate all of you pitching in to make this work. We had a very strong turnout of volunteers with a lot of different offerings, so we're actually going to be doing two different shows but with similar themes. The general format is the same; each of you came from different countries, so you'll have five minutes to talk a little about Christmas where you grew up and then tell a story, just like you did on the practice tape. The other show will have the same thing but with people who grew up in different parts of the U.S." Sandy passed out packets of papers. "The first page is the order of speakers. I've pulled rank on some of my other folks," she grinned, "and have grabbed the intro and concluding sections just 'cause I like this one so much. For this first dry run, we'll take each of you in order so we can make sure the times are still good. Please take a look at the packet that has your individual script and let me know if you have any questions. We'll do a sound check, then Donata, when you're ready, we'll start with you."
Ben and Armand made a final test of their systems and a sound check for each microphone, then waited for the signal to start. Ben diligently tracked the times as they worked their way through offerings from Italy, France, Russia, Ethiopia and Australia. Qui was the last on the schedule and Ben's anticipation grew with each speaker.
"Hello, my name is Quilan Finn and I grew up in Northern Ireland. Christmas was one of the most important events of the year and we celebrated from Advent to Christmas Eve and then through the Epiphany feast on the 6th of January, which was also known as 'Little Christmas'. Ireland and Northern Ireland are very religious, and because of this Christmas was very much a traditional religious celebration, although this has been changing somewhat."
A smile lingered on Ben's lips as he listened to his secret lover talk about his memories of the holiday: lighting the candle on Christmas Eve, holly decorations, seed cakes and puddings, prayers for the deceased at Midnight Mass, roast goose on Christmas Day, visits around the neighborhood and the final celebration on Twelfth Night.
"In keeping with the traditional spiritual celebration of Christmas in Ireland, and in honor of my dear departed mother, for whom this story epitomized the meaning of this season, I'd like to be telling you the story of Liam, the blind boy who loved Christmas..."
Despite having already heard the story during Qui's practices, Ben actually had a little lump in his throat after Qui's quiet but heartfelt tale of the boy who regained his sight on Christmas Day but realized that there were different kinds of blindness and felt more blessed by gaining spiritual sight than physical sight. Ben heard a sigh from Armand in the seat next to his.
"I'd like to finish by wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year: Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Daoibh."
Ben shook himself as Sandy took over to wrap up the practice session. He put his feelings about Qui in a corner of his mind to think about later as he worked with Armand while Sandy sent her crew on a break. He had to work at keeping his focus on the tasks at hand as they went through the readings twice more, making adjustments, tightening deliveries and timing, until everyone was happy.
"Thanks, everybody, great work," Sandy enthused, shaking hands with each of her readers as they left. Qui lingered a moment until he and Sandy joined Ben and Armand.
"Armand, what do you think?" asked Sandy.
"That last session was good. I think Donata's take is better from the earlier run, but I can splice it all together, no problem. Ben's already got the majority of what I need, so it won't take me long to pull together a master and backup copy. We'll need to make a few minor adjustments on the time, but we can take care of all that with your two pieces in the morning when I polish the final."
"Fantastic. I'll leave you to it then and see you around nine." Sandy turned to Qui and Ben. "Thanks for coming in to help, guys. I really appreciate it."
"Are you sure you don't need any help with finishing up?" asked Ben.
"Naw, it'll only take me a few minutes and it's getting late. Thanks for the offer, but I don't have to get up early tomorrow to work." Armand grinned as he waved off Ben's offer.
"If there's nothing else, then we'll be heading home," Qui said. "It was good seeing everybody again."
In the truck on the way home, Ben brought up a topic that had been running around in the back of his mind during the recording session. "You did a really nice job tonight, Qui. I thought you hadn't been to church in ages, but you sounded like you really still were a believer."
"There are different kinds of belief, Ben," Qui answered softly, keeping his eyes on the road ahead. "I believe in life and the life force in every being, even if I don't necessarily believe in a particular religious dogma. That story tonight... that telling was for my Ma; it was one of her favorites. Christmas meant a lot to her... she was what you'd call a true believer."
"Sounds kind of like my mother. At least I've always assumed she probably is or thinks she is, given the amount of time she spends in church and doing church stuff." Ben sat silently until they were almost home.
"Hey, I meant to ask you about that thing you said after the end of your story. Nalla hun something something. Was that Irish?"
"Aye. To wish a group of people Happy Christmas is Nollaig Shona Daoibh..., or to just one person, Nollaig Shona Duit..." He repeated slowly, "NO-Lihg HO-nuh ghwich."
"Null-ig hun-a dit?"
"Something like that." Qui grinned. "The other part is to wish people a prosperous New Year, and you can combine the whole thing into Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Daoibh, or again if you're just talking to one person, it's Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Duit... that one's pronounced NO-lihg HO-nuh AH-guhs AH-vlee-ihn fwee WAH-shuh ghwich."
Ben tried to wrap his tongue around the syllables, but still couldn't quite get the hang of it even after Qui patiently repeated the sounds very slowly. "Damn, I'd need to work on that; I was never very good at foreign languages. It sure sounds pisser when you say it, though. Did you speak Irish at home when you were growing up?"
"When I was younger, fairly often. Ma and Da liked to speak Irish with their friends, and Ma was a great one for singing in different languages. She had a beautiful voice." He stopped talking as they rolled up the driveway and he backed the truck into the carport next to Rafa's Subaru. After Qui turned off the engine, they sat in the silence for a few moments before he continued their conversation. "Aside from the bits of Spanish I sometimes need for the job, English has been what I've mostly spoken for years. Anyway, after Ma and then Da died, I haven't really been big on speaking Irish or celebrating holidays since I came to the States. Christmas, especially, that was really Ma's big time of the year." Qui paused. "I guess Rafa's not the only one having reasons for being glad Jane asked to keep things down to just a small celebration."
Ben followed Qui inside. It was almost ten-thirty and the house was quiet, so they made their way downstairs and went to bed. It was another hour, however, before Ben finally dropped off to sleep as he lay thinking about not only how little he still really knew about his lover but also his own Christmas memories and how things had changed.
**** ****
Monday and Tuesday (23/24 December)
Ben yawned, then took another sip of coffee. He grimaced as Mattie waltzed into the employee lounge with a bright, cheery smile.
"Hey, grumpyhead," Mattie teased. "Looks like somebody didn't get his beauty sleep last night."
Frank stuck his head in the door. "Never mind him. We all know Ben's never been a morning person." He smiled as he waved a sheet of paper. "Tony's finally got a solid buy on two dirt bikes he's been working since last week - they're already upstairs signing the paperwork. We need to pull these bikes they picked out from the warehouse and get street legal kits put on both of them. The customer wants to pick them up by mid-morning so you'll need to hustle."
"Sure thing, boss," Mattie said. "Come on, Ben, let's get going."
Ben and Mattie fetched two of the Honda dirt bikes, identical except one was bright red and the other blue, part of the new line that Midway had brought in during the summer to complement their larger Harley Davidson machines. They set to work and with Frank's help soon had the street kits installed; by nine-thirty they were well into the final cleaning and mechanical verification.
"Frank, you free?" Karen, head of the support team for parts, accessories and work tickets, stood at the door of the shop bay. "I think you need to handle this customer's request - it sounds like a special job and my people can't figure out how to write it up."
"Sure." Frank pulled a rag from a side pocket of his coveralls and wiped his hands. "Ben, can you and Mattie finish here?"
"Yes, sir, no problem." Ben looked at Mattie, who nodded.
"Okay, I'm going to go check this out." Frank took off his blue Midway coveralls and left them on a workbench before following Karen.
Ben completed the QA check on the red bike while Mattie finished up the blue one. He noticed faces peering down from the second-floor customer lounge; they quickly disappeared and a minute later Dennis Jones, the Midway co-owner, and Tony Carmine, head salesman, led a young couple onto the shop floor.
"How are we coming along, Ben?" Dennis asked.
"Just finishing this one, sir." Ben signed off the QA inspection on his electronic table. "She's ready to go now and it'll just be a few minutes on the other."
"Super, appreciate you guys getting the bikes prepped." Dennis turned to Tony and the customers. "I think you'll find you've made a great buy, folks, and we appreciate your business. I'd like to turn things over to Tony to give you a final run-through. When you're done, we'll get the bikes loaded in the truck out back for the complimentary delivery. You said you were new to this type of bike, so if you have any questions about riding these, Mattie here has several years of experience, or if you have any questions at all later, just give Tony a call and he'll be happy to help." He shook hands with the excited new owners and discreetly backed away.
Ben helped Mattie complete the last few bits of work on the blue bike while Tony began walking his customers through the bike's features, letting them sit on the machines and work the controls. Mattie stationed herself nearby in case she was wanted to answer questions. Ben went to the employee lounge for a cup of coffee, smiling as he listened to Tony's familiar spiel. He had barely taken a sip when the internal phone rang.
"Ben, Frank. Can you join us in Karen's office? You can leave your coveralls on."
"Yes, sir, right away." Ben tossed his coffee into the trash can and hurried through the parts rooms that bordered both the maintenance floor and the work ticket/sales offices. He stopped at Karen's door and was motioned in by Frank to take the last chair. In addition to Karen and one of her people, Oscar, Frank was seated next to two men in their late thirties, one tall and fair with blond hair and the other black with a shaved head.
"Gentlemen, this is Ben Kennan - I've asked him to join us since he would be doing a lot of the work with me. Ben, I don't know if you remember Marcel Laurent and George Tallis? They have a couple of Harleys in for storage," Frank said.
"Yes, sir, the purple Street Glide and the white-over-black Road King, right?"
"Those are the ones. Marcel and George want to pull both bikes out for a trip, but there were several items of deferred maintenance that would need to be taken care of."
"We do apologize for the short notice," said the blond, Marcel. "We thought there'd be plenty of time in March to take care of getting everything up to date like we usually do, but we've had a fantastic offer to run a hot new project in southern California for six months and we have to be there by the end of the week. Both of our apartments have already been sublet, but when we were planning our drive we realized that if we don't take them now our bikes will probably have to stay in storage until we get back. We just couldn't pass up the opportunity for both the job and the chance to ride all winter, so if you can pull this off we'd really appreciate it."
"Let's take another look at what we wrote up when you brought the bikes in." Frank pointed to a large wall monitor on which Karen had pulled up the original work ticket. "First we'd need to get them prepped from storage - we did the oil changes and fuel stabilizer when we put them away, but the Street Glide was overdue for a twenty-five-thousand mile maintenance and needed the damaged tires replaced." Frank looked further down the list. "As for the Road King, it had some significant problems with the exhaust and electrical system. That's an old bike, but we've probably got parts on hand or can get them quickly. As I pointed out before Ben came in, though, there's a fair bit of work there."
"We know it's the holidays and all, but if you can do it, we'll be more than happy to pay double for overtime if that's what's needed," said George. "You've always taken great care of us and we trust you with our Hogs."
"Tell you what, let me discuss it with Ben here if you'll give us a moment." Frank waited for heads to nod before pulling Ben outside the office.
"Okay, you saw that list. There's at least several hours of work there for a couple of people, and that's assuming we don't find anything else wrong. Tony thinks he's got one more customer hooked for a new bike this afternoon and I already promised Mattie she could leave by seven for a family party, so if we have to stay tonight on this new job it's just you and me. These guys have been coming here for almost eight years, so I know they're good for the overtime money, but are you willing to help me take this on?"
Ben didn't hesitate. He knew he owed Frank a lot and this was a no-brainer as far as he was concerned. "Yes, sir, no problem. I can stay as late as it takes."
"Okay, great." Frank smiled as he clapped Ben's shoulder. "Let's get started."
Back in Karen's office, an agreement was quickly worked out that Midway would retrieve both bikes from storage and start on the list of maintenance tasks. Frank would call at six o'clock to let Marcel and George know where things stood, how much still needed to be done, if there were any new problems and if overtime work would be needed.
"We're going to give this our best shot," Frank said as the ticket was being written up for Marcel and George to sign. "But worst case, if we do run into anything we can't resolve, we'll provide a detailed breakdown of what was completed and what still needs to be done so you can at least get the bikes on a trailer by tomorrow for your trip. That way, you can get the rest taken care of when you get to California. Does that work for you?"
George and Marcel looked at each other, then nodded. "That's fair," said Marcel. They shook hands with Frank and thanked him again for helping them out, then Frank and Ben headed back to the maintenance floor.
Tony was perched on a workbench chatting with Mattie. He hopped off when Frank came by. "Hey, nice job getting those two dirt bikes worked up. The customers were really happy and Mattie talked them into buying new gloves and pants, too."
Frank smiled. "All in a day's work. You think you'll have any more sales locked in?"
"I'm pretty sure about the guy coming back this afternoon. They've been in several times; his teenage son was bugging him big-time about a dirt bike and his wife finally just gave up last time they were here, gave him one of those eye rolls and told him if the kid breaks a leg she's not going to be the one taking him to the hospital." Tony grinned, his white teeth flashing. "Got another possible, a young dude who's been by over a half dozen times this month, including twice this last week, looking at a Sportster. If he bites, it's probably going to be a last-minute thing tomorrow."
"Okay, keep me posted. We just had a new job come in that's going to take a while, so if we need to do any workups I'll have to fit those in," Frank replied.
"Can do." Tony flashed another smile and went back toward the front of the store.
Frank gathered his two young mechanics and explained the situation.
"The plan right now is to pull the two bikes out and start working on them. I'll take the Road King and I want you to both start on the Street Glide, since that one should be easier to knock out. If Tony does get a sale, then I want you, Mattie, to switch over to prepping the new bike and Ben will stick with the SG. Any questions?"
"I can probably stay a little later if you need me," said Mattie.
"Appreciate the offer, but if things turn out that bad then Ben and I will stay," Frank replied with a shake of his head. "Family's important, too, and you shouldn't have to miss a family event." He grinned. "I've even got all my shopping done for a change, so staying late's not a problem."
"Me, too," Ben chimed in. "I've got nothing else planned until Christmas Eve itself."
"Alright. Let's get to work."
The team toiled steadily the rest of the day with just a short break for lunch. As Tony had predicted, another dirt bike was sold late that afternoon so Mattie was diverted to prepping the machine to make it ready for the customer to pick up the next morning.
A few minutes before six, Ben was polishing the iridescent purple skin of the Street Glide motorcycle with a soft cloth.
"How's it look?" Frank asked.
"Everything's good, sir. There wasn't all that much wrong with it, mostly maintenance catch-up issues and making sure the wheels were squared away with the new tires. The alley and parking lot were clear so I took her for a test spin; she handles nice and everything checked out on the QA."
"Good." Frank turned to Mattie, who was still working on the dirt bike. "How about yours?"
"Got that late start, but I'd like to have it all done tonight just to be on the safe side, rather than trying to rush things in the morning. I don't think it'll take more than another thirty minutes at most."
"Okay, go ahead and finish, then head home. Ben, come into my office while I call our customer."
Ben settled into the visitor chair and listened while his boss called Marcel's office; from what little Ben could hear it sounded like George joined Marcel on a speakerphone. Frank explained what they had been able to accomplish so far and what they still needed to do.
"So, the bottom line at this point is that the Street Glide is ready for you to pick up tomorrow. On the Road King, the basic maintenance issues are taken care of, but that factory muffler is beyond repair and I'd like to replace it with a slip-on, which should give you better performance. The other big issue is the electrical system - there are some intermittent shorts in several places I couldn't fix individually and I strongly recommend replacing the wiring harness. I'll likely have to do a bit of custom wiring since it is an older bike and I don't have a stock harness on hand for that particular model, but I've got all the parts I need."
Frank listened for a moment. "There'll be two of us working on it, but depending on what problems we run into, it could be anywhere from a couple of hours to most of the night. Based on what I know at this point, I believe we can get this done." He raised an eyebrow and looked at Ben, who nodded, then listened intently again.
"Alright, we'll go ahead and keep working. I'll give you a call about eight in the morning to give you an update, but you'll be able to pick up both bikes tomorrow one way or another." Frank gently placed the handset on the phone, then leaned back in his chair. "Well, Ben, looks like we might have a long evening ahead of us. I'll call my wife to bring us some food. If we get done early enough, I'll get you home; if it runs too late I think it would be better to just go ahead and stay here tonight, if that's alright with you."
"Not a problem, sir. I just need to call my landlady and let her know what's going on, so she doesn't have to worry about including me for dinner."
"Okay, let's take a fifteen-minute break. I'll check on Mattie and then we can get started."
"Yes, sir."
Ben went to the employee lounge and retrieved his cell phone. It turned out that the only person at home was Rafa; he explained his situation and assured her that he would either have a ride home or would be spending the night at the shop.
The next hour was a frustrating grind. The old muffler on the Road King turned out to be cranky and persnickety, not wanting at all to come off. After the first half-hour Ben was tempted to cut the damned thing off after he had barked his knuckles three times, but Frank insisted that it would cause more work in the end if they damaged the pipes while trying to remove it. The minor triumph of finally getting it off cleanly coincided with the arrival of supper, a very welcome respite.
Imelda, Frank's wife, was a pleasant woman with many laugh lines, not afraid to let the encroaching grey show in her short curly hair. She commandeered the table in the employee lounge and set out a tempting meal of a crisp salad, a big dish of lasagna, a crusty loaf of garlic bread and a big jug of iced tea. Ben was glad that she stayed to eat with them because she helped keep the conversation from being absorbed in shop talk by regaling both of them with entertaining stories of the doings in the kindergarten class she taught. After big slices of white cake with chocolate frosting, she wrapped the leftovers and put them in a cooler, saying "I'll leave the extras in case you or Ben get hungry later, dear. The other side of the cooler has egg sandwiches with bacon or ham that you can pop in the microwave if you end up staying the night, and there's clean clothes in the bag."
"You are too good to me," Frank said with a grin as he walked his wife toward the back door.
"And don't you forget it!" A merry laugh rang out as Imelda stopped at the door. "It was nice to meet you, Ben. Don't let this slave driver work you too hard. Sometimes he doesn't know when to stop when he gets involved in a job."
"Yes, ma'am." Ben smiled. "I guess we'll just have to look out for each other 'cause I'm afraid I'm the same way."
Imelda laughed again and shook her head. "Both of you take care."
Frank opened the door and kissed Imelda's cheek. "Love you."
"Love you, too, dear. I'll see you whenever you get home." Imelda went out the door and closed it behind her.
Ben felt a pang inside. It was a common sight, a common everyday sort of thing for a husband and wife to say, but it was an experience denied to him and his lover. He sighed as he turned away; he couldn't even speculate on how long it would be until he could say 'I love you' to Qui in public. Ben buried that thought and went back to work.
*** ***
A bright overhead light made Ben wince as he dragged himself toward wakefulness. He stretched and yawned, wondering for a moment where he was.
"Good morning, Ben," said Frank. "I know it was a long night, but you need to be up and about if you want to get cleaned up and have something to eat before we have to open."
Ben blinked and yawned again. "Yes, sir," he mumbled. He was tired, but it was a good kind of tired. They had worked until almost three in the morning on the recalcitrant motorcycle before finally taming the beast's multiple problems. Ben remembered the tremendous feeling of satisfaction when Frank gave the QA task to him and had quietly nodded when Ben had turned in a clean final report.
"Here's some extra stuff from the stash I keep in my office in case we get snowed in. You can keep it; I've got plenty more." Frank put a towel, washcloth, shaver, toothbrush, a small tube of toothpaste and Midway t-shirt on the table in the employee lounge. "I'll fix breakfast while you clean up. You want bacon or ham?"
"I'll take whatever you don't want, sir. Thanks." When they had finally finished the job, Frank had dug into his supplies in his office closet and offered cots and sleeping bags. Ben had opted for a sleeping bag on the couch in the lounge, so now he crawled out of the bag and rolled it up before heading into the bathroom to clean up. Ben sniffed at the fresh coffee aroma when he came out several minutes later. "Smells good." He pulled the clean shirt on, poured himself a mug and sat down at the table where Frank had set out hot sandwiches on paper plates.
"There were some of both kinds so I gave us one of each," said Frank.
"Thanks, sir." Ben took a bite of egg and bacon on toast. "It's good and so was supper last night. Please thank your wife for me when you get home; I really appreciate her pitching in to feed me, too."
"I will," Frank replied. "Imelda's always willing to jump in and help, even when she doesn't always understand why I get so wrapped up in work sometimes."
"You been together a long time?"
"Oh, yeah, more years than I can count." Frank smiled fondly as he leaned in close to Ben. "A lot of people don't believe there is such a thing, but it really was love at first sight, that soulmate thing, you know. I think just as important, though, is that we're best friends. That's truly important to holding a marriage together after the first big fire goes out." He sat back in his chair and took a bite of his sandwich.
"I think it's possible to have love at first sight, but I hadn't thought about the 'being friends' part." Ben tried not to smile as he thought about how he fell hard for a certain ranger even before he saw him.
"Absolutely important when you think about waking up next to the same person for the next fifty years. Life's not like one of those romantic movies; it can get pretty tough, especially when you're starting out and money's tight or when you have kids." Frank nodded sagely. "You've got to be willing to talk to each other and sort things out even when you don't agree. I'm telling you, Ben, you ever find yourself a girl like mine, you hang onto her and treat her right."
"Thank you, sir, I'll remember that." This time Ben did smile, not so much thinking of his secret lover as pleased that Frank, who was not known around the shop for sharing his personal wisdom, had shared that with him.
If Frank had anything else to add, he held it to himself as Mattie arrived with a box of fresh pastries to add to their breakfast. Marcel and George arrived about eight-thirty, belongings packed into a camper shell on a pickup truck and an empty trailer hitched behind it. They were effusive in their thanks as they revved up their motorcycles and listened to Frank's explanation of all the work that had been done. George let Marcel do most of the talking while they closed out the ticket, paid their bill and helped Ben and Mattie load both bikes on the trailer. It was George, however, who stayed behind a moment to pull Frank and Ben aside.
"Hey, guys, my bike is a fussy SOB to ride, and I suspect he was just as much a pain to work on. I've had him a long time, though, and we've kind of gotten used to each other. I know you took good care of him, and I'd just like to give you a little extra." George pulled out two fifty dollar bills and tried to give them to Frank.
"I wouldn't feel right giving you less than our best effort and you've already paid extra for all the overtime because it ran so late," said Frank with a shake of his head. "You don't owe us anything else, and Midway has a policy against personal tips in the shop."
"I appreciate that, but it's Christmas. I know he'll get his share of overtime hours, but if you won't take it, at least let me give your assistant a little extra." George grinned. "It'll make me feel better about having asked you to do all that work so close to the holiday."
"Well, I wouldn't normally do something like this, but given the circumstances..." Frank glanced at Ben, who was trying to look discreetly invisible. "I did work him pretty hard last night, so I guess it'd be okay just this once."
"Great." George took one of the bills. "Ben, wasn't it? Merry Christmas, and thanks for everything."
Ben took the fifty, waiting a moment for Frank to nod that it was really alright. "Thank you, sir, I really appreciate this." A big grin lit his face as he carefully tucked the bill into an inside pocket.
"Worth every penny," George replied. He shook hands with Frank and Ben before climbing into the cab of the truck.
Back in the employee lounge, Ben took out his unexpected bonus and laid it on the table as Frank poured himself a cup of coffee.
"Thanks for letting George give me this, sir. I do understand it's not normally something you allow."
"Hey, the bike was a bear to fix and it is Christmas, so just enjoy it." Frank smiled. "George may be the quiet half of that pair, but he's smart. By giving you extra money, he knows you'll remember him and be willing to work that much harder for him in the future."
"Oh. I hadn't thought about that, but you're right." Ben glanced down at the portrait of Ulysses S. Grant. "I would have remembered him anyway because his bike was such a pain, but now it'll be a much nicer memory." He grinned as Frank just shook his head.
The rest of the day was relatively quiet for the Midway maintenance crew, although the front side of the store was doing a brisk business with clothing and accessory sales for last-minute gifts. The customer who had purchased a dirt bike the previous afternoon came back to pick it up; Tony and Mattie spent almost an hour with him going over all its features as well as discussing how to ride safely. At lunchtime there was one more sale, a gangly young man who insisted on the black Sportster on the showroom floor rather than an identical model from the warehouse. Ben was still in a good mood from earlier that morning, and didn't mind at all when the new owner hovered at the window of the customer lounge overlooking the maintenance bay while Ben pulled the bike in and made sure everything was in proper working order. For the last part of the afternoon, Mattie and Ben gave the shop a thorough cleanup.
About four o'clock, Frank called his mechanics together. "Okay, I just want to make sure we're all straight on the schedule for the next few weeks. Midway will be closed for Christmas Day and New Year's Day and, of course, on Sundays. Mattie, I've got you off 27 and 28 December, then back here until you have to go to back to school."
"Yes, that sounds right," Mattie said.
"Ben, I've got you off for 26 December, then again for 2, 3 and 4 January."
Ben nodded.
"I'll be here the whole time so we have at least two people in the shop, then I'll be taking off three days during the week of 6 January when both of you will be on duty. Ben will be in charge while I'm out, but I'm not going out of town so you can reach me if anything urgent comes up. Any questions?"
"No, sir," chorused Ben and Mattie. Ben felt a little glow inside at the thought of being in charge, even though he knew they all expected it to be a very quiet time and that Frank was dead serious about calling rather than let something get out of hand.
"Alright, sounds good. I'll be here until we close today; Mattie, if you can stay until five I want to go ahead and send Ben home since he stayed late last night."
"Sure, no problem," Mattie said. "Merry Christmas, Ben. Have a good one."
"Thanks, everybody, see ya in a couple of days." Ben quickly changed out of his coveralls and was able to hurry down the street to catch the first bus.
*** ***
Ben whistled as he walked up the long driveway. He was in a wonderful mood; it got even more wonderful when he saw that a certain battered old pickup was home even earlier than he was. Ben hung his jacket by the front door and stopped in the kitchen to wish a joyous season's greeting to Rafa and Jane before heading downstairs. He patted his pocket where his unexpected bonus was and smiled as he anticipated making his lover the first recipient of his good news.
The door was slightly open when Ben pushed through. "Guess what!" Ben announced cheerfully.
Qui was sitting at the table, his coat in front of him. Spread on the surface of the table were three crumpled pieces of paper inscribed with verses, hearts and bold Xs and Os along with some squashed chocolate kisses. Qui looked up, one eyebrow raised.
"Uh, hey..." Ben stopped. "Um... is that the first time you've seen those?"
"Aye, 'tis." Qui stood up. "I think I need to be cleaning out my pockets more often."
"Look, when you didn't say anything, I stopped because I thought maybe you didn't like me putting notes in -"
Ben's words were swallowed by the lips that descended upon his for a long kiss. He melted into his ranger's warm embrace, holding him tight until Qui finally broke the buss. Ben sighed as he turned his head and rested it against Qui's chest.
"Don't be silly. I like it when you do things like that; I just don't dig around in my coat pockets much so I didn't realize there was anything there. In fact, when I'm on patrol that particular coat often ends up being thrown in back with gear piled on it." Qui rubbed Ben's back. "So don't be fretting."
"Thanks. I still think of you a lot when we're apart, and I just thought it would be nice to let you know."
"'Tis a lovely thought, and I do appreciate it." Qui hugged Ben tight for a moment. "I missed you last night. How did things go? You seemed mighty excited when you came in."
"Oh, yeah, had a hell of a night." Ben dragged Qui over to the couch to sit together while he told his tale of the unexpected repair request, the long battle with the balky bike and how good it had felt to have his boss's confidence. "And look!" Ben dug in his pocket and drew out the fifty-dollar bill. "One of the guys was so happy we got their bikes fixed for their trip he wanted to give us a bonus on top of the overtime. Frank wouldn't take it, but he let me keep this." Ben handed the now-wrinkled bill to Qui. "It's really pisser."
"Well, would you look at that!" Qui admired the fifty, straightening it out before handing it back. "Throw in all those overtime hours and you're rolling in money, boyo." He grinned and poked Ben in the side. "Next thing you know, you'll be putting on fancy-pants airs and walking around with your nose in the air, looking down on us poor peasants."
"Oh, come on, you know I'm way too tight-fisted for that." Ben grinned back. "You're lucky I'm in such a good mood and let you touch it before I stuff it under the mattress."
"Jaysus, if you're not careful you'll be having so many lumps in the bed we won't be able to get any sleep." Qui pulled Ben over for a quick kiss.
"I can think of a much better reason not to be getting any sleep," leered Ben as he returned the favor with a longer kiss.
A brisk knock on the partially open door made Ben reluctantly pull back.
"You guys want dinner tonight?" Rafa asked, a little smile playing around the edges of her lips as she poked her head into the room. "Jane will have things ready in about twenty minutes if you're interested."
Qui looked at Ben thoughtfully. "I suppose that's probably a good idea. Although he is quite a pleasant distraction, I don't think I'm wanting my boy wasting away from hunger just yet."
Ben wrinkled his nose as he and Qui stood up. "Well, YOU need to eat if you have any thoughts of keeping up with me, old man."
"I think we've already established who needs to be worrying about keeping up, boyo." Qui wrapped an arm around Ben's neck, holding him still while he tousled Ben's hair.
"Hey," Ben protested while he squirmed loose. Ben heard Rafa laugh as he finger-combed his hair back into some semblance of order and decided to stick to the high ground. "Just you wait, old man," he said loftily. "One of these days you'll be the one eating my dust."
"I'll have to be keeping my walker ready for that grand occasion," Qui replied with a grin. "But for now, we should be after washing up for dinner, and I think it's your turn to set the table tonight."
*** ***
The evening meal was a casual affair, a chili mac casserole with vegetables on the side. Ben got to recount his adventure at work from the previous night again, and they discussed plans for Christmas Day to sort out when Jane and Rafa would be heading for the church. Jane reminded them that Liz and Linda would be joining them for Christmas dinner; she estimated that they would probably be eating around six o'clock. She just smiled when Qui asked what they were having and would only say that it was something traditional.
Rafa had taken care of the animal boarders in the barn before they ate, so all four of them joined together in the family room after cleanup was finished. Jane had fixed a big pot of cocoa and they took their mugs and a plate of cookies with them to work on their final holiday preparations; Dexy and Delilah were allowed to join them but were shushed off to sit on a blanket in one corner. Rather than using the bigger living room where they had hosted their Thanksgiving guests, everyone pitched in to set up a small tree on a table in the family room and decorate it with strings of popcorn, lights and some old decorations from Jane's collection while music played softly from the stereo. They hung a red blanket over the television with Christmas cards pinned to it and draped tinsel from the fireplace mantel. The final touch was to put their gifts under the tree.
"Goodness, but doesn't that look pretty," Jane said as she sat in her rocker. Both dogs had slipped over to sit near her; Delilah had her head in Jane's lap.
"Aye, 'tis very nice." Qui put an arm around Ben where they sat together on the sofa. "I've spent so many holidays working, alone or at somebody else's house, I'd forgotten how good it feels to do things like this in a place I can call home."
"This used to be one of our favorite times, just being together, enjoying each other's company... when Richard was little he used to love to shake his presents. And goodness, the year we brought the two puppies home we had a devil of a time keeping them quiet." Jane glanced down at the sleepy Rottweilers before looking up at the black-ribboned portraits on the fireplace mantel. "Roger would get his guitar out and we'd sing Christmas songs." She sighed wistfully.
Ben had felt a warm tingle when Qui had talked about having a home here and was savoring his own holiday pleasure snuggled into the side of his lover. It was a wonderful contrast to his less-than-pleasant recent Christmas memories, but when he looked at Rafa he couldn't help but be concerned. She had been very quiet the entire evening; now she was sitting in the big armchair with her head bowed and what looked like a large picture clutched in her arms. Ben stirred and sat up.
"Hey, Rafa, is something wrong?" Ben asked softly.
"I'm sorry... I don't want to spoil things for the rest of you." Rafa stood up and revealed red eyes. "I'll just go up to my room."
Qui was immediately on his feet, gathering her into his arms. "Ah, lass, what's after troubling you? We're your friends... let us help you."
Ben took the picture to keep it from falling, Qui rubbed Rafa's back while she sniffled into his chest and Jane went to fetch a fresh mug of cocoa and tissues. Together they persuaded her to sit on the sofa between Jane and Qui, with Ben perched on the stuffed arm to give them extra room.
Rafa wiped her eyes and nose before taking a sip of the hot chocolate. "Sorry, it's just that Christmas was really important for our family and this is the first Christmas since the fire... and I miss them all so much."
"There's nothing wrong with your feelings. It hasn't been all that long since you lost your family and it's natural to be sad, especially when you have such a powerful reminder as a favorite holiday. In fact, it's one of the Christmas traditions where I grew up to remember the dead and to honor them," Qui said as he gently put an arm around Rafa's shoulder. "If it would help, I can start off with a few words about my parents."
Qui waited a moment as Ben handed back the picture; Rafa looked at it, then slowly nodded. For the next few minutes Qui softly talked about his Ma and Da. His calm lilt seemed to reassure Rafa as she listened to his fond remembrances. Jane took over when Qui was finished and spoke about her husband Roger and her son Richard, the deputy sheriff and Marine whose pictures graced the mantel.
There was a brief silence before Ben spoke. "Well, I've had relatives die, but I wasn't really close to most of them. My father's parents passed on pretty early, and there were Grandmother Lanahan's three husbands... some uncles, too." He thought a moment, his brows furrowed, then his expression cleared up. "I'd like to remember Cousin Sorcha. She wore exotic clothes, had lots of funny stories and was always really nice to the kids at family gatherings. Cousin Sorcha didn't believe in being conventional and stuffy so most of the adults didn't like her much." Ben smiled as he shook his head. "When I was about twelve, she disappeared somewhere in South America, but I bet that wherever she is today she's having fun breaking rules and that's how I'd like to remember her."
The corners of Rafa's lips twitched and her expression briefly brightened before turning somber again. She laid the eight by ten picture flat on her lap, running her fingers across each figure in the posed family group a few times before finally speaking - in the photo Rafa looked about a year younger than her current age.
"That was Papa," Rafa said. The picture under her forefinger was of a heavily muscled man, medium height, who shared the black hair and brown eyes of the others in the group, although his hair was liberally sprinkled with grey. He stood in the middle, his stance proud and solemn. "He was a good man and worked very hard. Papa inherited the ranch from his father; he made many improvements and expected that the boys would follow in his footsteps. He loved all of us... I never had any doubts about that, but Papa was very traditional and I don't think he always understood his children."
"Manuel Junior." Rafa shifted to the young man in his early twenties, almost a duplicate of the older man. "I think Papa must have prayed very hard to get such a perfect son. Manny wanted nothing more than to be just like Papa. The ranch was his life; he was even taking courses at night in business and animal husbandry to find ways to make the ranch better. He and Papa were so serious, always talking about the cattle, the weather, the hay crop, market prices and their plans for the future." There was a hitch in Rafa's voice and she had to stop for a moment.
"This rascal was Santiago." Rafa pointed to a slender young man with a big grin, handsome in a fancy western shirt and slicked back hair. "He was less than a year older than me and we were closer to each other than to Manny. Santiago loved to flirt and the girls loved him; he was always prattling about some new girlfriend. He did his share of work on the ranch, but he was restless and talked about getting out to go places, see new things. For a long time he couldn't make up his mind what he wanted to do. Last spring, though, he started talking to military recruiters and had narrowed his choice down to either the Navy or the Air Force. Papa wasn't happy about it, but he seemed to think that maybe it was a good thing that his younger son was going to get serious about 'growing up'."
A full-blown smile graced Rafa's lips as her fingertips came to rest on the image of a pretty woman, thin with laughing eyes. "Mama," she said softly with a sigh. She continued very quietly. "Mama was the heart of our family. She seemed so quiet, but she was very strong. When something was wrong or you were hurting, Mama always seemed to find a way to make things better. She was the one who taught me that it's okay to have dreams of my own. Papa got angry when I told him that I wanted to go to college; it was one thing for me to do stuff on the ranch when I wasn't helping Mama in the house and it was okay for Santiago to want to go off and have a different life, but after high school girls were supposed to get married and have a family. Mama supported me and I worked very hard in school to get good grades. She was so proud when I won the full scholarship to the university and convinced Papa that I should go since he wouldn't have to pay for it. I think she told him that it would be an excellent place to meet lots of nice boys who would be able to get good-paying jobs." Rafa gave a little laugh. "And there was Celesta, too. We knew a couple down the road who raised Appaloosas and quarter horses; I used to work part-time for them during summers and I fell head over heels for a little black and white filly who was born there. I wanted her badly, but Papa thought it was a waste to spend good money for a 'fancy horse' when a plain one could work just as hard. Mama had been saving money for a long time, a little here, a little there, and she added to what I had saved from baby-sitting and odd jobs. When Cel was six months old we went down and bought her." Rafa shook her head. "Papa was mad and wanted me to take her back, but Mama just stood there while I held Cel and cried. She let him yell and stomp around until he was finished, then she smiled and said 'Manuel, Rafaela has earned this. The horse stays.' I remember that Papa looked so surprised, his mouth hanging half open, when Mama was helping me take Cel to the barn, but he never said anything more after that." Rafa rubbed the glass atop her mother's picture.
"Your mom sounds like quite a woman," Ben ventured in the sudden silence.
"My whole family was wonderful, but Mama... she was very special. She never talked about things like women's rights and most of the time she supported whatever Papa wanted, but she told me she thought I should have the chance for a better future, a chance to make my own choices." She rubbed harder at the glass. "In a way, it's because of Mama that I even have a future." Rafa paused, her lips pursed, then drew in a deep breath. "Cel was sick one night and I stayed with her in the barn. I was walking her around but she kept pulling on her rope and whinnying; she wanted to go outside, so I humored her and we began walking toward the hills. We were almost a mile away when I heard the explosion; I ran back but the house was already in flames. I called the fire department on the phone in the barn, but by the time the fire trucks arrived the house was gone. After the investigation, the officer said it was a faulty gas heater next to the bedrooms and he thought everyone probably died in the initial blast." She closed her eyes. "Cel and I stayed with friends for a while and I found a man to take care of the cattle. I didn't want to go back to the ranch, though; I decided to sell everything and move here so I could go to the university like Mama wanted me to." Rafa opened her eyes and gave a half-smile. "I was lucky enough to find Jane, so here we are."
"No, dear, we were lucky to find you." Jane turned to Rafa and hugged her. After they broke the hug, Jane asked, "Are you alright? Is there anything else we can do for you?"
Rafa smiled and shook her head. "I'm feeling much better. It helped a lot being able to talk about them, but there is one last thing..."
"What is it?" Jane inquired.
"I'd like to put the picture on your mantel and light candles for them, if you don't mind."
"Of course I don't mind." Jane stood up. "Here, let's find a nice spot for them."
Rafa, Qui and Ben stood up also and everyone moved to the fireplace. Jane cleared a space and Rafa placed her family picture in the opening. Rafa had brought a bag of tea candles; she put four in front of the picture and carefully lit them, saying a little prayer for each one. Jane added two candles for her husband and son.
Ben saw Qui hesitate, then take a pair of the small lights and hold them in one hand. Ben touched his lover's arm and smiled up at him when Qui turned his face. Qui smiled back, nodded, then found another open spot on the mantel and lighted both candles.
Jane dimmed the lamps, then with one shared thought they all moved back to the sofa. Rafa was once again in the center between Jane and Qui while Ben settled on the floor between Qui's legs. They sat for several minutes in companionable silence and watched the flames and the twinkling of the lights on the tree.
A new CD clicked on in the multi-disc stereo, a set of instrumental Christmas and religious songs. Ben wasn't sure who started, but soon all four of them were softly singing along. They kept going through several traditional songs of the season: Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Away in a Manger, Emmanuel and Angels We Have Heard on High. The last song was unusual and three of the voices fell silent. Ben felt a hand on his shoulder as a mellow baritone launched into an ancient language.
The last words merged into the silence. Qui cleared his throat. "Sorry, not after being pretentious or anything like that, but Ave Maria was Ma's favorite song. She loved the Latin version and I heard it so many times that's one piece I could probably sing in my sleep."
Ben touched the hand still resting on his shoulder and smiled. "It was beautiful. I liked hearing you sing it."
"Yes, it was very nice," Jane added. A few of the candles guttered as they burned low. "It's all been a good Christmas Eve, and I'm glad we were able to do this together."
"A very nice Christmas Eve," said Rafa softly. "Thank you for everything."
"Glad we could help." Qui nudged Ben. "I'm thinking it's high time for bed now."
"Sounds like a good idea," said Jane briskly as she stood.
Rafa put out all of the candles and tidied them away, while the others did a quick cleanup and Jane put the dogs in the utility room. When they were finished, they paused in the hallway for a last hug before going their separate ways to seek slumber.
*** ***
25 December
"You must have some sort of magic spell, ma'am," Ben said as he began clearing the table after their breakfast of oatmeal, fruit and toast. "I swear you could make anything taste wonderful."
"Don't be silly, young man," Jane said briskly. "Just a matter of knowing what you're doing, especially when you've been doing it as long as I have."
"Yes, ma'am, whatever you say." Ben grinned at Qui, who had started washing dishes. Rafa was nibbling on a section of apple as she put away the remainder of the fruit and smiled also.
It was quick work to finish the cleanup, so within ten minutes they headed for the family room. Jane turned on the radio with the volume dialed low to provide a background of holiday music. Ben and Qui claimed the sofa, Rafa the armchair and Jane her rocker; Dexy and Delilah sat in their corner watching the proceedings with bright eyes.
"Merry Christmas, everybody," Jane said. She waited a moment for the chorus of replies before she continued. "Seeing as how this is our first Christmas together, I'm not sure what sorts of new traditions we might want to start for ourselves. We've got dinner later, of course, but most of the day is pretty open."
Ben warmed a little inside at her words. The word 'traditions' implied family and permanence, things he very much craved, and he was grateful for the measure of happiness he had finally achieved. He smiled at Qui and took his hand; the expression on his lover's face seemed to mirror his own thoughts.
"A big event for me is going to church, but Jane and I already are planning on attending the morning service," said Rafa. "For the rest of the day, I think I would like to keep things simple if that suits everyone."
"That would be fine with me," Qui replied. "I like to be outdoors for a while, so if I can persuade Ben into it we can go out for a bit while you're at church."
"Yeah, sounds good to me. Whatever makes you happy today is pisser," Ben said. He grinned and squeezed Qui's hand, eagerly anticipating some privacy for their exchange of personal gifts.
"Those are all a good start," Jane said. "Tell you what, since you're the youngest, Rafa, would you do the honors and pass out the presents to everyone?"
"Of course, it would be my pleasure." Rafa went to the tree and handed out the colorful boxes. They had agreed to limit their internal gifts to the one they drew in their exchange, but Jane had an additional one and Ben had a very large, heavy box from his sister.
Qui opened his first; it was a knitted sweater from Jane that he insisted on trying on at once. "It's perfect!" he exclaimed. "Long enough not to ride up and just the right color of green so I can wear it with my uniform. Thank you."
Rafa carefully removed the paper from Qui's gift. She sat speechless for a long moment as she ran her fingers along the burnished wood and touched the letters spelling out 'Celesta'. "Oh, my... it's so beautiful." She jumped up and went to hug Qui. "I love it! Thank you so much." Qui murmured a reply as he returned her hug.
The small box was quickly opened by Jane's nimble fingers. She smiled as she unfolded the paper within. "Why Ben, how thoughtful of you." She showed everybody the certificate that Ben had created, offering Jane a choice of an oil change for her truck or forty hours of work in the garden over the course of the summer.
"You can have both if you like," said Ben. "I wasn't sure if you already had somebody that does your maintenance."
"That's right nice of you, son," Jane replied. "I shall have to think about which offer to take you up on." She picked up her other gift, flat and large. "Ah, now I wonder what Liz 'n Linda have got up to this year." She pulled off the red ribbon and shiny silver paper, held it up and laughed. "Linda's been busy, but I bet I know who suggested what to draw." She passed around the picture in its black frame.
Ben had to laugh as well when he looked at the color drawing. The setting was in their barn; Cel was looking out from her stall, neck arched, ears flicked forward and a big saucy grin on her face. There were also four cats: on a bale of hay in front of Cel's stall was a graceful, demure black cat sitting with all four feet tucked under her and a shy smile, a large grey tabby cat sat upright on a railing, tail wrapped neatly around her feet, gazing serenely down on the others with a contented smile on her face, on the floor stood a huge, rangy chocolate-brown tomcat with blue eyes and his mouth partly open as if he were laughing, but his eyes were fixed on the compact ginger tom rubbing against his shoulder whose gray-blue eyes gazed up adoringly at the object of his sinuous affection.
"'Tis lovely," said Qui admiringly. "Linda seems to have quite the knack for drawing."
"She does, indeed. You should see some of the children's books she's done," Jane said as the picture came back around to her. "Her private work is even better, especially when Liz is her 'ghostwriter', so to speak. I shall have to find a place to hang this later."
Ben was still smiling as he turned to his gifts. First he opened Rafa's offering, which turned out to be a packet inside a box. From it he pulled out a sheet of heavy paper; it was his turn to be rendered speechless as he stared at it. Finally he swallowed and managed to speak. "Jesus, Rafa, I don't know what to say." He looked up from the two hundred dollar gift certificate for the university book store. "It's just...I ..." Ben had been about to say he couldn't accept this when Qui poked him in the side; he belatedly remembered his resolution to be more graceful about accepting what others offered and started again. "This is just really pisser." He got up and went to hug Rafa.
"I didn't know textbooks were so expensive until I first started my classes, so I thought this would at least help get you started," Rafa said.
"Yeah, prices are pretty outrageous, so I really appreciate this, believe me. Thank you." Ben hugged her again and went back to his place beside Qui.
Ben looked down at the large box on the floor. It was at least three foot by two and quite hefty. "Hmmm, I wonder what my lovely sister sent." He ripped off the several layers of red and white wrapping, then had to use his pocket knife to cut the duct tape holding the box closed. There was a large manila envelope inside lying atop a leather backpack - in scrawling black letters was an exhortation to 'Open this FIRST'. Ben smiled as he tore open the envelope and spilled out its contents, which were two smaller envelopes marked with a '1' and a '2'.
"Okay, let's try number one first, I guess." Ben shrugged and opened the heavy cream-colored one. Inside was yet another envelope, pale blue, with a piece of paper wrapped around it. As Ben read the page, he shook his head and snorted. He slipped open the blue envelope and pulled out two checks, each for one hundred dollars.
"Grandmother Lanahan's offering," said Ben as he held up the checks. He tried to keep his tone jocular despite the small jab inside at the first check - the date was current but the memo line noted that it was a gift for Christmas a year ago. "She's not ever been anybody's picture of the jolly maternal grandmother, but she is huge on family, the 'blood of my blood and flesh of my flesh' sort of thing and adamant about treating all the grandkids equally. Everybody gets the same check whether they've been bad or good, and it's always a hundred dollars so nobody gets spoiled or snipes at the others. I guess last year's check got returned, so she sent two this year."
"At least she's consistent," said Qui dryly.
"Yes, you're right." Ben glanced at the paper again. "Maureen said Grandmother Lanahan asked her to make sure this got to me. I'll write them both thank-you letters." He made a mental note to himself to ask Maureen why their grandmother had chosen her as the intermediary; he wondered just how much the old woman knew or suspected.
"I think it's nice she made the gesture," Jane said firmly. "She didn't have to try finding a way to send that, but she did."
Ben opened the envelope marked '2'. Inside this one was another letter with a photo of Maureen and a cardboard folder taped shut. The folder was marked 'family picture' and had a sticky note with a rather acerbic comment that told Ben he could open it or burn it - whichever he wanted - Ben set it aside to think about later. He picked up the letter and read through it, unaware of his pursed lips and frown. He read it again.
"Ben, is anything wrong?" Qui asked softly.
"No, it's fine." Ben shook himself and tried to smile. "It's from Maureen. She's happy I'm going back to college and thought I could use a few things to help." Ben did smile this time, directing it to Rafa. "It's a good thing I have all these beautiful women thinking of my welfare." He paused as Rafa blushed a little. "Maureen says she rescued some of my stuff after I left," Ben didn't add 'before my father threw everything out', "and has kept it locked in a trunk. She decided to send along some odds and ends I might want now." Ben fought the conflicting emotions roiling inside him, the painful reminder of his disastrous fight with his father dueling with the undoubtedly sincere good wishes and affection of his sister. The strong arm that wrapped around his shoulder pushed him toward honoring his sister's gift.
"Well, let's see what my dear sister, the aspiring lawyer, thought would be helpful for a geek engineer-in-training," Ben said as he looked gratefully at Qui. He slipped off the couch to kneel next to the box and lift out the backpack. "Jesus, it's a fantastic backpack, but what did she put in this thing? Rocks?"
It was a top-flight pack, big, heavily padded straps, black leather with two main compartments, smaller outer pockets and a padded laptop pocket in the back. Ben looked in the external compartments first, finding them packed with supplies such as pens, mechanical pencils and a calculator. He laughed when one of the items turned out to be a giant bottle of No-Doz. Ben then zipped open the large compartments and pulled out the tightly packed contents.
"Oh, my God!" Ben spread out the books that had revealed themselves. "Oh, my God!" he repeated.
"No wonder the box was so heavy," Qui said. "Are those all textbooks?"
"Yeah, but not just any old books," Ben said as he opened covers and thumbed through pages, smiling at the familiar color-coded handwriting on various pages. "These are MY books from my old classes. Look, here's my Wiley Engineering Handbook, my Pocket Reference, all four volumes of the Mechanical Engineer's Handbook series. She even sent my Engineering Formulas." He picked up one of the thick books and snorted. "I can't count all the hours I spent sweating over these damned things." Ben thought a moment. "Wow, talk about expensive textbooks - there's almost a thousand dollars worth of books here. But all my notes I had put in them, that's just more than money is worth."
"'Twas surely a grand gesture on her part to put all that together for you and sounds like it will be a great help," Qui said as he helped Ben put his gifts back into the large box so they could carry them downstairs.
"She's always been good to me," said Ben with a wry smile. "Probably better than I deserved, considering how much I used to tease her." He stood up. "I'm just glad I've got all of you, too. It's been a great Christmas and I want to thank everyone."
The others stood up and there was a round of hugs while the dogs were allowed to play in the pile of loose paper.
"It's time to get ready for church if we're going to be on time, so Rafa and I need to head upstairs," Jane said. "We'll just pick up things before we go. If you boys want anything to eat before we get back, there's plenty of fixings for sandwiches and such."
"Thanks," said Qui. "Ben and I will clean the room. We'll most likely be out when you get back from church, but we'll make sure to return in plenty of time for dinner."
"That's right kind of you," replied Jane. "We'll see you later, then."
Ben and Qui quickly disposed of the detritus from the gift openings and persuaded the Rottweilers to head back to their baskets in the utility room for a nap. Ben decided he wanted to try to call Maureen, so Qui stayed upstairs to fix a pot of tea while Ben took his new treasures down with him.
Several minutes later, Ben was still sitting on their sofa when Qui came downstairs with a thermal pot, a shaker of sugar and two mugs and spoons.
"Any luck?" Qui asked as he set his burdens down on the table.
Ben came over to join him. "Afraid not. The call just went to voice mail." Ben poured himself some tea and added sweetener. "I'll try again later."
"Ah, well, I'm sure you'll get to talk to her eventually." Qui brought over their gifts from beneath the small potted pine they had set up on his desk as their private Christmas tree. He presented a large box to Ben, about one by two feet, then sat down to sip his own mug of tea.
"Can I shake it first?" Ben teased, prolonging the suspense.
"Aye, I doubt very much you'll be doing any harm to what's in there," Qui replied with a smile.
"Now that's a challenge if I ever heard one." Ben picked up the box and shook it vigorously, but nary a rattle or tinkle emerged. "Okay, let's open this sucker and see what we've got." Ben ripped off the striped paper, then pried open the contents of the box within.
"Oh, this is nice," cooed Ben, as he ran his hand over the glossy emerald green surface of a spanking new motorcycle helmet. "This is a really pisser helmet." Ben tried it on. "A little big, but I can probably adjust the padding to take care of that. I hope I don't crack up the helmet I already have that badly, but this will make a great second helmet to have on hand. Thanks." He looked up and realized that Qui was looking at him oddly. "Uh, that is what you intended, isn't it?" Ben paused, then smiled brightly. "Never mind, I can fix this one up as my main helmet, no problem. And the color will help remind me of you!"
"Actually, I was thinking you might need a second helmet, in case you were wanting to have a passenger when the weather gets nicer," Qui said.
"Hey, that's a brilliant idea!" Ben pulled the helmet off and ran a hand over the gleaming surface again. "I know just where I can store it, too. Maybe Rafa would like to ride or -" Ben stopped short as he glanced at Qui.
Qui was staring down at the floor, slowly rubbing a hand along the seam of his jeans.
"Wait a minute. Did you mean for this to be for you to use?"
"Well, I was thinking maybe it might be nice every now and then." Qui shrugged one shoulder.
"I'm a little confused," Ben said slowly, his brow furrowed. "I thought you made it pretty clear that you don't like to ride motorcycles."
"Aye, 'tis true I don't much care for it..." Qui looked directly at Ben, "but you do."
"Qui..." Ben put the helmet on the table. His throat tightened and his eyes stung as he realized what Qui meant. "Qui... I..." He threw himself at his lover, wrapped his arms around Qui and held him tight. "Oh, God, I love you so much," he mumbled.
Ben eventually unwound himself and stood up. He bit his lip a moment before saying, "Jesus, now I feel so damned selfish about my gift for you."
"Surely it can't be that bad," Qui said gently as he picked up the small box. He unwrapped and opened it, then shook out the black silk boxer shorts that had been rolled up inside the box. Qui raised one eyebrow and quirked his lips in a half-smile. "I have to say 'tis not something I would have thought of."
"I got them because they seemed comfortable," Ben mumbled, "and... um... 'cause I thought you'd look really hot in them."
Qui ran the material through his fingers. "They do feel very nice." He grinned. "Shall I try them on so we can see if they fit?"
"Uh...." Ben felt a blush speeding up the back of his neck and rapidly spreading across his cheeks. "There is something else..." Ben's voice trailed off with a little squeak at the end as he looked anywhere but at Qui.
"Jaysus, what's wrong with you? You look like a kid that got caught copping his first feel in the back of the movie house."
"I would like you to wear the shorts, but, uh... what I really wanted..." Ben's voice dropped almost to a whisper. "I want to give you a blow job. A deep throat blow job."
Qui stared at Ben, his head tilted. "Ben, we've had our hands everywhere, jacked each other off and had our cocks up each other's arse. Why in the bloody hell are ya thinking you need to be asking for that in such a roundabout way?"
"Dammit, you've never asked or seemed interested," Ben scowled. "We had so many other things to explore with each other at first that I didn't really think about oral sex. But then I got to wondering if maybe you didn't like blow jobs; the longer I waited after we started sleeping together, though, the harder it got to try to ask. I was too embarrassed that you'd think I was coming across as a stupid green kid." His blush ratcheted up higher. "I have fooled around with a couple of guys, mostly pretty basic stuff since I really preferred to penetrate, but I've never given anybody a truly deep blow job. You've really got to trust your partner to maintain control and…well… I've just never known anyone I trusted enough before you." He rushed on. "I don't expect you to reciprocate if you don't like to do that sort of thing, but I want to try it and I need to make it really special for you. If you don't want it or don't want me fumbling around, though, I understand and it's okay. All you have to do is say no and I won't bring it up again."
"Ben, we had some incidental contact that first night together, but after that YOU didn't seem to have any desire for oral sex, so I didn't want to push," Qui said. He shook his head. "It's lying I'd be if I said I didn't like that sort of thing - I've not done it with a man, but I've had plenty of other experience with receiving and giving and enjoyed it all. This would be something new for me that I'd dearly like to be trying on you, though." Qui paused as if carefully considering his next words. "I've had companions that loved fellatio, but I've also been in relationships where my partner didn't want any part of it, either because of the 'ick' factor of putting a penis in her mouth, or quite frankly, the size issue. Trying to force people into sex they don't want is a fast way to kill friendships, and even though it is something I'd find pleasurable, I wasn't about to bring it up first, at least not for a good long while."
Ben looked away; although he appreciated Qui's reticence about not going into details, he found that he still felt uncomfortable at this reminder of his lover's previous female friends, on top of being embarrassed at the way he'd gone about his quest. He started to speak, stopped, then went to flop on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Qui followed Ben a moment later and sat down next to him, but said nothing, apparently determined to let Ben take this wherever he needed to go with it but making sure he was there when Ben was ready to move on.
There was a long silence before Ben finally took a deep breath and spoke.
"Sorry, I guess I still have issues about dealing with women you've been with before," Ben said. He turned to look at Qui. "I love your body so there's no 'ick' factor there, and I'd like to see if I can learn to deal with the 'size issue', as you called it. I really do want to do this, Qui. Did I understand right that you're willing to let me try?"
"Aye, eager and willing. We can both learn together if you'd like that, too." Qui grinned as he reached out to gather Ben in. "As long as you don't bite, boyo."
"Pisser!" Ben snuggled close into Qui's side. "I've been reading up on technique," he confided, "and watching some stuff on the 'net, so I hope I don't mess up too badly."
Qui laughed, a rumbling chuckle that filled the room. "By all the saints, I'm thinking that's not something you learn out of a frigging book or movie." He laughed again. "Sorry, no pun intended there." He pulled Ben over into his lap and held him tight, then whispered into his ear. "But if you ever want some ideas for new positions to try, my hot sexy boyo, I've got a copy of the Kama Sutra tucked away that we can translate into some hot man loving."
Ben laughed so hard he almost choked. It took him a couple of attempts to get words out. "You really are a dirty old man at heart, but I love you anyway. Or maybe because of it."
"Given how hard you worked to get into my pants, seems to me you're the dirty young man," leered Qui.
"How about we just work on corrupting each other and spending as much time as possible in bed with our clothes off?" Ben leered back.
"Deal!" Qui reached up for a long kiss that Ben dissolved into.
When he came up for air, Ben sighed. "That was good." He was content to sit quietly in Qui's embrace for several minutes, but eventually stirred. "So, what's next today? Bed?" Ben felt his cock rousing with interest.
"Not trying to put you off, but it's still damned early. 'Tis a beautiful day, so are you up for a little cross-country trip to visit Manus? I haven't been to see him in a while and it's one of the things I like to be doing for Christmas if I can; we could also use a good workout, too. Jane's got a nice dinner planned for later, and we can come down after cleanup for an evening to ourselves."
Ben sat up a bit reluctantly, but Qui had already promised to grant his request and he wanted to make sure Qui had the opportunity to enjoy doing things he liked. "Okay, sounds like a plan."
Qui seemed to know what his young lover was thinking. "Seeing as how neither of us has to go to work tomorrow, it can be a loooong evening all to ourselves," he said with a wink.
"Definitely," said Ben with a snort. He sighed dramatically. "They do say anticipation is the best part, but I'm not sure I believe that."
Qui pushed Ben off and stood them both up. "I think 'they' are very wise." He kissed Ben on the nose. "So shift your arse, boy, and let's get going."
*** ***
"Jesus Christ," Ben gasped. He leaned over, hands on his thighs and sticks dangling as he tried to suck in air. "I don't think... I have the hang... of this... cross-country shit yet."
"Don't worry about it, you really are getting much better." Qui removed his skis and dark goggles, setting them aside before moving behind Ben and rummaging in the small daypack on Ben's back. "That big uphill along the power line right-of-way was a pain in the arse even for me, and I probably should have gone a little slower on that last stretch even if it was a relatively gentle slope."
"That doesn't... help much." Ben took several very deep breaths as he shoved his hood back and pulled his knit cap and sunglasses off.
"Here, let's get that sweat taken care of before it freezes on you." Qui pulled a towel from Ben's pack and began drying exposed wet skin.
Ben straightened and took the towel. "I can do that myself."
"Suit yourself," Qui said with a grin. "How many bruises did you get today?"
"Fuck you," Ben muttered as he finished up behind his ears and wrapped the towel around his neck. The twinge in his hip told him he would definitely have at least one big bruise by tomorrow.
"Tsk, tsk, such language, boyo." Qui walked toward a magnificent oak tree, taking off his gloves and stuffing them in a jacket pocket. "Good day to you, Master Manus," he said softly as he put a hand flat on the broad surface.
Ben had knelt to remove his own skis, but stopped to watch. Qui closed his eyes and stood still; he almost visibly relaxed as the corners of his mouth slowly shifted into a smile. Ben shook his head as he pondered his admiration for Qui's gift for seemingly bonding with nature and his own inability to either fully understand or emulate that skill. "Not yet, but someday," he amended that thought with a voiceless whisper. Ben set his skis and sticks against a tree and waited.
Eventually Qui opened his eyes, patting the rough bark. He glanced over to where his lover was patiently standing. "Ben, would you be wanting to say hello?"
"I didn't think I should disturb you," Ben said. "I do understand that these visits mean a lot to you." He knew Qui's query was dead serious, but he still felt a little silly talking to a tree despite several previous visits.
Qui nodded. "Appreciate that, but Manus likes you and doesn't mind sharing."
"Sharing?" asked Ben dubiously, although he did start walking toward Qui.
"Aye." Qui smiled as Ben tentatively ran his fingers along the tree's face. He spread his arms out. "Master Manus is the shepherd of his little flock; he merely watches over nature's bounty and encourages it along." He stepped behind Ben as the young man moved closer to the old tree.
"Mmhhm." Ben shrugged and tried to think positive thoughts as he continued to stroke the gnarled bark. He thought that perhaps he felt a bit of a warm glow, but in the end he decided that it might just have been the presence of his lover practically breathing down his neck causing the pleasant feeling. Ben gave a final tap and sighed. "It was good to see you again, Manus. Have a nice day." He felt the welcome warmth of Qui's arms enveloping him and leaned back into the hug.
"Ah, Ben, I know you don't really feel it, but I love you for humoring me," Qui whispered softly into Ben's ear.
"You know, now and then I think I can sense a special sort of awareness," Ben replied. He shook his head. "Not like I feel with Myrna, but still... maybe eventually I'll get it sorted out." He felt Qui's arms tighten around him.
"It's kind of like learning Tai Chi; sometimes you just have to keep working at it until a light turns on inside. I'm glad you're sticking with both." Qui leaned down for a quick kiss. "Today, though, I'd like to show you something special." He stepped back and urged Ben to turn away from Manus. "See anything different?" Qui waved an arm around.
Ben looked up into the towering canopy of bare branches above, then slowly turned his head to scan the rest of the clearing. "Well... no leaves on most of the trees, and snow," he said. When Qui just cocked an eyebrow, he sighed and resumed his visual tour. "Hey, all the snow's churned up everywhere, like a herd of elephants has been tramping through here. There's been at least a couple of feet or more of snow to cover up any grass, so why's that?"
"This area has a lot of animals that come through to partake of nature's bounty that Manus oversees, my city-bred boyo." Qui's grin was wide, his eyes sparkling. "There are many types of food: nuts, acorns, fruit, even bark when the grass is gone. You can find quite a feast if you know where to look."
"Even in winter?"
"Aye, even in winter. Here, I'll show you an example." Qui walked around the clearing, glancing up into various trees. "This will do nicely." He shook several branches where round orbs still hung, then picked some up and brought them over.
"These things?" Ben gingerly took a proffered fruit, wrinkled and a not-very-appetizing-looking bronze brown. "Isn't it frozen?"
"Excellent deduction." Qui pulled his knife from its sheath and cut Ben's apple, taking one half and leaving the other with Ben. "Try it," he urged as he bit into his section.
Ben looked dubiously at the exposed flesh; there were a few veins of brown running through it, but on the whole he decided it didn't look bad. He gave a tentative squeeze and raised an eyebrow when he found no mushiness. He glanced at Qui happily munching away, then took a tentative bite.
"Hey, this is good! Kind of like a light but really sweet apple juice." He took another bite and rolled it around in his mouth before swallowing. "Sort of grainy texture... what are those little bits that feel like sugar crystals?"
"Those are what happens when you let apples freeze on the tree," Qui replied. "The freezing and aging concentrate the natural sugars. They're good fodder for animals and birds; you can also make ice cider from frozen apples. You extract the juice, let it ferment six to twelve months and you have a nice little alcoholic drink, sort of like the ice wine they make from frozen grapes. It's very good during the summer."
"Pisser! If they age long enough, do animals get drunk on that stuff?"
"I've heard a few stories along those lines, but never seen it myself." Qui pulled off his pack. "Let's have lunch before we head back."
They set out a ground cloth next to Manus and used him for a back rest while they ate sandwiches and drank hot tea from their thermoses. Ben basked in Qui's obvious contentment as they sat close, conversation dying away as they let the beauty of the day soothe them. They finished their last crunchy delicacy and Ben nestled into Qui's side for a long blissful cuddle, studiously disregarding his rapidly numbing rear.
Qui eventually stirred. "Time to be getting back. We'll be wanting to get cleaned up before dinner, and if your arse feels like mine it's bloody well frozen. The trip back will get us nicely warmed up." He stood and stretched.
"Okay, it will be great to get thawed out again." Ben took the hand offered to him and hauled himself to his feet.
"Let's gather a few more apples, then we'll be off."
Ben nodded and they made quick work of packing several of the frozen treats into their packs. After a few words of farewell for Manus, they strapped on their skis and headed for home.
*** ***
After cleaning their gear and putting everything away in the barn, Qui and Ben then grabbed their packs and went to the back door of the house, stopping briefly to pet the Rottweilers playing in the big back yard. Qui took a deep breath as they stepped into the kitchen. "By all the saints, 'tis surely a divine feast you must be preparing. What could be creating that grand aroma?" He tried to take a peek in the oven but Jane firmly shooed him off.
"That is a surprise for later, so don't be a pest."
"Yes, ma'am." Qui's tone was meek but his eyes sparkled. He turned to catch sight of their visitors sitting at the kitchen table. "Hello, ladies. 'Tis lovely to be seeing you again." He gave quick hugs to Liz and Linda.
"Hi," added Ben as he got in his own hugs. "That was a really pisser drawing you gave Jane. I liked all the cats."
"Thanks," Linda replied. "I enjoyed doing that one. Some of the credit has to go to Liz, though. She helped me sort out the 'characters', so to speak."
"It is very nice," Jane chimed in. "I'm going to put that one up in the family room so I can see it often."
Ben got himself a tall glass of water; he noticed Qui leaning over, talking quietly to Liz. Liz nodded and Qui stood.
"We brought you back some frozen apples if you want to try them, but if you'll be excusing us, Ben and I had a quite a workout out on the skis and I think everybody will be happier if we go down and wash up," Qui said.
"Thanks for the apples; I'll put them away for later, I think. And you needn't worry about rushing, boys," Jane replied. "I don't expect to start setting the table for an hour. Rafa's still out with Cel and things are well in hand for having dinner ready in about an hour and a half."
"Thanks, ma'am, we'll be back up to help with the table." Ben put his empty glass in the sink and followed Qui down to the basement.
"Hey, I'd like to try calling Maureen again if you want to shower first."
"Thanks. I'll save you some hot water."
Ben went into the bedroom, pulled off his boots and socks, grabbed his cell phone from his desk and relaxed on the bed. He plumped up the pillows behind his back as the phone rang at the other end.
"Hey, it's Ben. You got a few minutes to talk?"
"You have good timing; we just got home. Wait a sec while I get comfortable."
Ben hung on while he heard a door close, a few thunks that sounded like shoes being dropped and a whoompf of displaced air as presumably his sister did a familiar bounce onto her bed that Ben could easily picture.
"Much better. So, first things first. Merry Christmas, Ben - I got your present and I love the clock. I've never seen one like it, very unique. It's funny and cute."
"I made it myself from parts I found around the shop. It was fun to make, so I'm glad you like it."
"I do, indeed. I'm going to take it back to school with me and put it in a place of honor." Maureen paused a moment. "Speaking of school, I hope it was alright to send your books. They looked pretty expensive and fairly current for that engineering stuff."
"It was a pisser surprise, and yes, they'll come in really handy, especially with all my notes in there." It was Ben's turn to pause. "I didn't know you had kept any of my stuff, though. I thought Father threw everything out."
"Oh, that. A couple of days after you left, I heard Father and Mother arguing; it sounded like he was going to trash your room. I sneaked in and grabbed some of your things, textbooks, a couple of your favorite shirts, awards, pictures, those crazy socks, your old letterman jacket, stuff like that. Everything's in a locked trunk under my bed. I have to admit that initially I did it for me; I wanted some things to remember you by... and maybe I've been hoping, a little, that someday you could come back and get them."
"That isn't really very likely, is it?"
"If I have to be honest, no. I think there's a possibility that I can get Mother to come around some day, but Father's been really incredibly obnoxious about you and I'm sure there'd be a hellacious row if you showed up." Maureen sighed. "Ben, I know you've mostly been sounding pretty upbeat in our phone conversations these last few months and things seem to be going well for you, but I want to apologize if you'd rather I hadn't sent any family pictures. If you haven't opened them, it's the annual shots, one with just us and the other us with Grandmother Lanahan for the big obligatory Thanksgiving group. I thought I should give you the choice to look at them or not, but if you'd rather not have that sort of thing, just let me know."
"I haven't looked at them, at least not yet... I think if you'd sent something like that six months ago, or maybe even three months ago, I'd have been pretty upset." Ben spoke slowly, carefully considering his words. "Today, though... things have changed a lot. Not just with my job, and having Qui in my life, but I feel like I've been making progress in getting my head together. Qui pushes me to get better and putting my thoughts down in a journal has helped. I know I've still got a long way to go, but there's definitely been improvement in starting to come to terms with what happened with Father."
"Ben, I'm so glad to hear that!" The warmth and sincerity in Maureen's voice came across the phone very clearly. "You know if there's anything I can do to help, you just need to let me know."
"Well, there's still the issue of staying in the closet. Someday I may be ready to deal with that, but not yet. I don't know what Father has said to people back home, but I'm sure he cooked up some story about my disappearance. For now, I'd appreciate it if you'd just go along with that and let me come to terms with things in my own time."
"Of course."
"Sort of in that area, I've got a question. Your package included those two checks from Grandmother Lanahan - you wrote that she asked you to make sure I got them." Ben cleared his throat. "I don't want to sound nosy, but I'm a little nervous about what she knows, or thinks she knows, about me."
"I'm not sure how much help I can really be. I'm pretty certain that Grandmother Lanahan has never really liked Father, and it's definitely gotten much worse since you left - they barely talk to each other now - but I don't know what, if anything, that might have to do with either of us. She's always been quite the master of diplomatic gobbledy-gook and talking around things, so I was very surprised when she grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into her study after Thanksgiving and asked me outright if I knew where you were."
"She did?" Ben raised an eyebrow. "Wow, that is odd, not like her at all. She always seemed to have her own sources of information about what was going on in the family, but I don't remember her ever talking much to any of the grandkids."
"That's what I thought, too. I said 'Yes, ma'am', and waited to see what she was going to do. She asked if you were well, and I said 'Yes, ma'am' again. I didn't offer any other information and she didn't ask any more questions, just nodded. Then Grandmother Lanahan reached into her desk, pulled out those two checks, handed them over and ordered me to make sure you got them."
"That was it? She didn't say anything else at all?"
"No, it was really weird. I had the impression she knew I would do it and that I wouldn't tell anyone else about it, so I guess she figured there was nothing else to discuss and got up and left. Grandmother Lanahan didn't ask about you or if I sent the checks when we were at her house earlier today, so I am clueless about what's going on with her."
"Oh. Well, anyway, it was nice of her to send the checks." Ben shrugged and they spent another ten minutes talking about his other Christmas presents and then catching up on what each other had been doing.
*** ***
"By all the saints, that was a magnificent meal." Qui took a sip of tea. "I haven't had goose in years and that one was truly fantastic. Thank you so much."
"Absolutely amazing." Linda raised her cup. "A toast to our lovely cook."
Ben enthusiastically joined in as they saluted Jane. "It was all wonderful. Thank you for taking such great care of us." He was full of warm food and warm feelings, which were considerably mellowing his anticipation of the impending evening activities, at least for the moment.
There was another round of congratulations and Christmas wishes before they all chipped in to gather up leftovers and take the china to the kitchen. Qui volunteered to do the bulk of the washing, with the rest taking care of drying and putting things away. Jane let the dogs out of their room and gave them their special meal. Afterward everyone gathered again, this time in the family room with mugs of eggnog. A fire was blazing, the tree twinkled and the lights were dimmed. Dexy and Delilah made the rounds for head scritches before settling down near Jane.
"It's been a lovely holiday," said Jane with a sigh.
"Aye, I've enjoyed it a lot," Qui said as he gathered Ben in with a long arm.
"Did you still want to talk about what sorts of arrangements we've made for each other?" Liz asked as she and Linda snuggled in the big armchair, which Rafa had given up in favor of sitting on the other half of the sofa.
"We don't have to do it now if it would spoil the mood for everyone," Qui demurred.
"Arrangements?" Rafa put her mug down on a side table.
Ben shifted even closer to Qui as he realized what the conversation was going to be about. He wasn't particularly eager to dig into this, but was well aware of how important it was. Ben's apprehension was soothed when Qui kissed his cheek, so he smiled back reassuringly.
"Qui had asked us earlier what Linda and I had for plans and documents for taking care of ourselves, especially since we don't have the same sorts of legal protections that married couples have. A lot of it pertains to anybody, though," Liz replied. "And Christmas is about family and loving others and taking care of others, so this is probably as good a time as any other."
"I'd like to hear about that, too," Rafa said. Jane assured them she was also interested, so Liz nodded and started talking.
"Shortly after we joined together, Linda and I started looking into our legal situation. We talked to lawyers, tax accountants and friends who'd been together a long time; we came up with what we felt were five 'must-have documents'. Those are a will, durable power of attorney, health-care proxy, living will and medical release. Once we had settled on an attorney, both Linda and I went through drafts until we were both satisfied that we would be able to protect and care for each other under just about any circumstances."
"I know about wills, but I don't understand what all those others are," Rafa said. "Could you explain about those?"
"Of course," Liz said. "I know Jane already has a family lawyer, but if you would like, I can also put together a list of some good local lawyers. From what I know about your various situations, I doubt if Qui and Ben need one, but in your case, Rafa, I suspect you might also be interested in a tax accountant or a lawyer who handles taxes, so we can give you some names for that as well."
"Oh. My father had a lawyer so I asked him to do the paperwork after my family passed away, but I had been thinking about getting someone here locally." Rafa's expression had turned thoughtful.
"It is something to consider, dear. Liz will steer you straight and help you sort things out," Jane offered. Liz added her assurance of being willing to provide whatever assistance any of them desired. For the next hour, they talked about each of the five advance directive documents and the kinds of circumstances where each would be helpful. Liz and Linda, and even Jane, had examples they had seen or heard of where not having them had caused problems.
"Wow, those are some damned serious issues," Ben said, feeling overwhelmed. "It's really true that I couldn't get in to see Qui in the hospital if something happened to him?"
"I'm afraid so. Same thing with Jane or Rafa," Liz replied. "None of you are immediate family members, so depending on the situation they can keep you from even going into the room, let alone making any medical decisions. Linda and I have health-care proxies and medical releases for each other to get around that."
"And the legal and financial stuff is just as bad," Linda chimed in. "I remember when Liz and I first starting looking into all this - I swear I was so angry about the things you couldn't do because we can't get married I just wanted to find somebody to hit."
"Aye, 'tis difficult when you're different," Qui said softly as he rubbed Ben's arm.
"I think I definitely need to take a look at all of this, too," said Rafa. "My nearest family is in Texas and New York, but I don't really know most of them very well. I'm not sure I'd want any of them making important medical or legal decisions if something happened to me."
"It is a lot to think about," Liz replied. "Tell you what, I'll send all of you some names and you can sort out who you're comfortable dealing with. Several of them will be willing to have an initial chat without charging you and can provide some examples for you to look at."
"Thanks, we appreciate that," Ben said. He looked up at Qui a moment, who smiled at him, then rested his head against his lover. He was still having trouble taking in the full extent of the potential legal problems and what he and Qui needed to start working on.
"Yes, and thanks for taking time to discuss this," Rafa added.
"Ben, are you sure you don't have any other questions? You look awfully worried," Linda said.
"It's pretty grim stuff... and I guess I am still bothered that it means having to tell some stranger about our relationship." Ben sighed and squeezed closer to Qui.
"There is another way to go about this," said Liz. "I didn't really think about it because Linda and I were already mostly out when we started looking into things. There are some web sites where you can download the Wyoming legal forms and check out what sort of information you'll need to provide. Most of the forms will still have to be notarized, but we can find you some notaries in other towns so you wouldn't really need to do anything locally. And if you still have questions after you look at the forms, then you can decide whether or not you want to talk to an actual lawyer. If you wish, I'll email you some site addresses to get started with."
"That would be really pisser. I think I'd much rather do that, at least initially." Ben was suddenly feeling much better about the situation, and his frown changed to a smile. He glanced at Qui for confirmation.
"Aye, that works for me." Qui nodded, then kissed Ben's head. "We can always go back and ask questions later if we need to." He looked at Liz and Linda. "'Tis grand of you to help out, ladies."
"Happy we could help," said Liz.
The conversation shifted to more general topics and the friends chatted while the fire burned low.
*** ***
Ben smiled in anticipation as he finished putting away the last mug. Their guests had departed several minutes earlier; he and Rafa had quickly completed a final cleanup in the kitchen while Qui had vanished downstairs. He glanced at the wall clock as it softly chimed half past the ninth hour, his smile growing as he said good-night to Jane and Rafa.
The door was firmly closed at the base of the stairs. Ben hesitated a moment and drew a deep breath before seizing the knob and moving into the basement.
"What the hell?" Ben stopped short just inside the entrance.
"Just making a little room, boyo." Qui grabbed a floor lamp and moved it over near his desk.
Ben looked around - all the furniture near the fireplace had been shoved back, leaving a large rectangular open area. "Am I going to have to chase you down or wrestle you to get sex?"
"That's always a possibility, but not what I had in mind for tonight." Qui cast a critical glance at the space he had created. "This isn't really big enough for what I want to do, but I can make it work."
"I don't understand."
"Got a little treat for you tonight to help you relax, boyo," said Qui with a big grin. "Why don't you use the bathroom and then make yourself comfortable while I finish getting ready?"
"Well, okay." Ben shrugged, locked the door and decided to leave his shoes in the bedroom, turning down the covers while he was there. He took his time cleaning up. As he brushed his teeth he couldn't help gazing into the mirror as he thought about what else he soon hoped to be doing with his mouth.
The lights had been dimmed when Ben came out and a small fire crackled in the fireplace. He went to the couch and sat near one end with his feet tucked up. Qui was standing in the middle of the floor in sweat pants, t-shirt and bare feet, hands behind his back, eyes closed. He was breathing slowly and waited almost a full minute before opening his eyes. When he brought his hands around in front of him he held what looked like a meter-long section of thick doweling.
"You planning to beat me off with that stick if I bite?" joked Ben. He was growing more curious by the moment as to his lover's intentions.
"Tai Chi teachings include quite a variety of weapons. This is not a stick, young man, but a short staff. I don't claim to have mastered this yet, and the lack of space is a problem, but I think I can give you a decent showing to hold you over until we go to see my sifu for a sword demonstration." Qui gave a half smile. "Think of it as a different version of foreplay before we get started on tearing each other's clothes off."
"Sounds pisser," Ben replied, his mood changing to enthusiastic anticipation. "Especially the tearing-off-clothes part."
"Patience," Qui murmured as he moved near the wall. He laid the staff on the ground and slowly pulled off his t-shirt and tossed it onto the couch, the sweatpants following in short order. Then Qui picked up the staff in both hands and slowly extended his arms above his head to their full length.
"Oh... my... fucking... God," Ben whispered. He swallowed hard as he gazed at the still figure, the lean flesh highlighted by the glow from the fire. Qui wore only the new black silk shorts - which were loose enough to flow but just snug enough as Qui stretched upward to clearly indicate that he dressed to the right. Very clearly. When Qui brought his arms down to his sides, assumed the relaxed starting position and looked into Ben's eyes with just a twitching at the corners of his lips, Ben had to force himself to remember to breathe.
From the first movement as Qui brought the staff up and swept it crossways at the end of his arm, time ceased to exist for Ben, who sat mesmerized by the enchanting routine. Slowly, with almost sensuous grace, his lover flowed across the floor. Despite his disclaimer about his skill level with the weapon, the staff seemed a part of Qui's body as he stepped, thrust, withdrew and shifted to yet another position. Ben's breath caught each time Qui snapped his wrist and twirled his weapon in one hand, and he found himself sitting forward on the edge of the couch. Ben could feel the tension building inside and his cock tingled at the private show. Even with the limited space, Qui made the dance seem flawless as he used the full length of the cleared floor to travel up, down and across; his legs and arms moved precisely, yet with seeming effortlessness in the motions of offense and defense. As he neared the ending sequence, Qui shifted so his last whirling turn brought him directly in front of Ben. A bent-knee thrust to his left, then an outstretched hand to his right, and his final move drew him upright, arms and staff at his sides.
"Whoa." Ben watched as Qui slowly raised the staff and held it straight out toward him. His eyes followed up the length of the staff, up yet again until his gaze locked with blue eyes. Ben's breathing matched the rise and fall of Qui's chest as he held the stare for a long moment. His eyes shifted back down the wooden length held unwaveringly, and he licked his lips as he watched his arm move of its own volition, his hand grasping the end of the staff. Blue-grey eyes met deep blue again as Ben felt himself being pulled up, floating, weightless, helplessly reeled in until he was engulfed in long arms and a torrid kiss.
Reality eventually intruded; the crackling of the fire was in Ben's ears, the smell of clean sweat in his nose, the heat of warmed skin in his arms, the taste of Quilan Finn on his lips and a tantalizing tickle in his lower belly where a generous portion of hot flesh pushed against him.
"That was absolutely wicked pisser," Ben sighed as he rested his head on Qui's chest. "Thank you."
"Glad you enjoyed it, boyo." Qui ran his hands up and down Ben's back as he kissed his way along Ben's forehead toward his ear. "My private Christmas present to you, my love, although I did have a little inspiration from a certain new article of clothing." He slipped his tongue inside Ben's ear.
"Ahhh, God." Ben shivered, a full-body quiver that drew another moan when Qui repeated his wet caress.
"Liking that, are ya?" Qui gently bit down on the edge of Ben's ear, his breath inspiring yet another shiver.
"Yeah... oh, yeah." Ben felt himself being maneuvered backward and went willingly, trusting to the arms that held him to keep him safe. When the back of his legs encountered the edge of the couch he sank down; Qui rolled with him and they ended up stretched out on the fabric surface with Qui on top.
Ben reached down and grabbed Qui's rear. "Now that's nice," he purred as he rubbed silk against taut muscles. "Veeeerrry nice."
"Aye, that's something we can both be agreeing on." Qui pulled Ben's shirt off and began kissing the exposed flesh, working his way down to Ben's belly, his mouth busy while his hands unzipped Ben's jeans. Ben obligingly raised his hips so Qui could pull them off.
Both men uttered sighs of pleasure when Qui stretched out atop Ben again, skin to skin with only two thin layers of underwear between their crotches. As they spent several minutes leisurely exploring with hands and lips, they gradually shifted position until they were lying face to face with Ben on the outer edge of the cushions. "Hey, boyo, I'm starting to get awful horny," Qui whispered in Ben's ear. "Would you be wanting to do something about that?"
"I think that can be arranged." Ben's breathing sped up, a twinge of anxiety warring with the frisson of excitement sweeping through him, emotions that seemed to be centering in his gut. Ben suddenly realized that the reality of his desire coming to fruition now required at least a modicum of logistical planning; he hadn't really considered location in his thoughts and had to stop and think about getting from where he was to where he wanted to be.
"Not getting cold feet, are we?" Ben's face must have revealed his abrupt consternation - Qui's expression showed amusement which he wasn't hiding very well.
"That's not the part you need to worry about being cold." Ben decided to just go with whatever felt right. "Sit up so I can have my wicked way with you." He rolled off the couch and stood.
Qui quickly complied, levering himself into a sitting position with his legs spread. "Oh, sir, please be gentle with this poor delicate boy." Qui feigned a swoon with one hand raised to his forehead and a melodramatic droop.
Ben snorted. "Delicate, my ass," he growled. He swooped in to smother Qui's laugh with a hard kiss. Ben quickly moved lower, kissing his way down Qui's neck, pausing only briefly to suck a nipple into hardness, slithering down his belly. He let his hands rest on Qui's thighs as he dropped to his knees into what he had always perceived to be the 'classic position'.
"Ow!" Ben rubbed a knee that had hit with a solid thunk. "That fucking floor is hard!"
"Yes, wooden floors do tend to be that way," Qui said dryly as he offered Ben a cushion. "When it's my turn, we're moving this to the bed."
"Oh, shut up." Ben glared upward briefly, but took the cushion and put it under his knees. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath; when he opened them, the proximity to Qui's crotch shifted him back to his eager mood. He moved close and nuzzled against the black silk. "Mmmmm," he murmured.
Ben allowed himself the luxury of rubbing his face against the warm material several times and kissed the lump that he could feel starting to grow. He reached with one hand to open the fly in the silk boxers. "Let's see if we can't get a closer look, shall we?" He pulled out the treasure, carefully sliding the cloth down to form a nest around the base of Qui's genitals. He ran a finger up and down the familiar length and sighed. "Nice." Ben glanced up at Qui.
"Whatever you're comfortable with is fine with me, Ben," Qui said with a reassuring smile. He settled a little deeper on the couch and spread his legs a little wider.
Ben nodded. He had thought about how he wanted to do this many times and knew just where to begin. He planted a soft kiss on the end of Qui's penis and ran his tongue slowly around the head several times. The quiet moan he heard from above combined with the sensations on his tongue sent a quiver through him. Ben started to lean in and lick Qui's cock but almost overbalanced; he muttered a brief obscenity at his awkwardness and solved the problem by wrapping one arm around Qui's right thigh and using his free hand to hold his lover's organ.
Ben set to work again once he was comfortably secure. He savored the taste and feel as he ran his tongue up and down the rapidly hardening cock several times. Ben was a bit wary about taking on the large testicles; although the musky scent was turning him on, he wasn't particularly thrilled about the feel of the coarse pubic hair on his lips so for this first time he decided to use his hand to fondle Qui's balls and concentrate on using his mouth elsewhere. He alternated between long sweeping strokes from tip to root and short swirls around the head, each pass sending sparks down his spine to his own very happy cock. When Qui's phallus was fully engorged, he paused and looked up. "Good?" he asked.
"Bloody grand." Qui had his head back and mouth open. "Don't stop now."
With that encouragement, Ben grew more daring. He slipped the tip of his tongue inside the slit in the crown and then gently suckled the head of Qui's cock. The twitching of Qui's hips and another moan assured him Qui was still enjoying his ministrations, so he increased the pressure and depth, slowly bobbing his head up and down. ~ Damn, this is good, ~ Ben thought vaguely, ~ so much better than those other times... so fucking pisser. ~ He went faster, trying to take in more of the long phallus. Ben felt his lungs getting tight and air seemed hard to find - a sudden jerk of Qui's hips disrupted Ben altogether and he had to pull off in a coughing fit.
"Jaysus, you alright?"
"Yeah." Ben coughed again, then pulled in several deep breaths. "Sorry, I think I hit a gag reflex or something. How the hell are you supposed to breathe doing this shit? And don't get me wrong, I love your cock, but I don't think I'm gonna be able to inhale that monster all the way like I hoped to." He turned his head away, feeling very inadequate. "Dammit, I wanted this to be perfect for you," Ben mumbled.
"Breathing is mostly practice, same with the gag reflex. I'm not expecting you to do anything you're not easy with, so don't be worrying about trying to be the next 'Deep Throat' star." Qui ran a hand through Ben's hair. "I'm happy with however much you can manage. You know that, right?"
"Ummhmm." Ben leaned against a handy thigh and sighed. "I was enjoying that a lot, but maybe I bit off more than I could chew trying to do so much for our first time."
"Glad you're liking it, but in this situation I'm thinking I'd appreciate it if you didn't use that particular expression, boyo."
Ben looked up blankly for a moment, then laughed. "Oh, right." Qui's joke lightened his mood considerably. "Can I try it again? No teeth, I promise."
"Of course. You can use your hands, too, until you get the hang of things." Qui pulled Ben close to the couch. "Here, if you lean right in you'll be fine. I'll try to be still, and I won't let you fall."
"That does work better." Ben grinned. "Let's go for it." With the couch and Qui's big paws for support, Ben felt safe and able to concentrate. It only took a few deliberate swipes of his tongue along Qui's hard organ to get back in the mood. This time Ben set more modest aspirations and limited himself to kisses and licks along the shaft and only trying to get the whole head inside his mouth. His efforts were clearly well received if the moans from above were any indication. Ben worked Qui's balls and the base of his cock with both hands as he used his tongue and lips to good effect. He could feel Qui getting closer and sucked harder on the wet crown, a sheen of sweat on Ben's face attesting to the heat building inside him. Qui's hands tightened on Ben's shoulders and his hips shifted; Ben used his arms to try to hold Qui in place and sped up his efforts even more. Finally a shuddering roar signaled Qui's release.
Ben knew what was coming but his early experiments hadn't fully prepared him for the extent of this particular reality. The salty, slightly bitter fluid that spurted into his mouth slid across his tongue as he pulled back, some of it dribbling down his chin and a last surge ending up on his cheek. Qui had flopped backwards on the couch; Ben sat back on his haunches, rolling the semen around from cheek to cheek, trying to catch his breath while deciding if he wanted to swallow or spit.
Qui stirred and slid down off the edge of the couch to face Ben. He wrapped his legs and arms loosely around his lover and leaned forward. "That was pretty damned good for our first time."
Ben tried to mumble a vague reply, still thinking. The decision was taken out of his hands when Qui wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and pulled him forward for a deep kiss, thrusting his tongue into Ben's mouth. Ben hummed in approval and enthusiastically returned the kiss; semen and saliva mixed and passed between them until there was only a faint aftertaste.
"Mmmmm, that was pretty damned good, too," Ben said. He shifted uncomfortably as the bulge in his shorts gave evidence of how much he had enjoyed giving Qui this first blow job.
"Was it what you were hoping for?" Qui traced a finger along Ben's cheek, wiping off some of the errant cum.
"Mostly. I felt kind of bad when I screwed up, but I really enjoyed being able to touch you that way, to give you pleasure. I want to do it again if that works for you." Ben leaned his face into Qui's hand. "But only if you want to, of course."
"Aye, I'm definitely wanting to let you have all the practice you need." Qui grinned as he ran his other hand lightly across Ben's crotch. "Would you fancy a little help with that?"
"If you're up to it, that would be nice."
"I think I could summon up some energy to take proper care of my sexy boyo." Qui stood up and offered a hand to Ben, who was a bit slower getting to his feet. Qui slipped off the black silk boxers and used them to wipe Ben off. "Wouldn't want that drying on you, now would we?" He grinned as he dropped the shorts off in his hamper on their way to the bedroom. "Definitely one of the nicest Christmas presents I've ever gotten."
Ben stretched out on the bed and watched as Qui approached. "You are the best present I've ever had, Christmas or otherwise, Quilan Finn."
One knee on the bed, Qui tilted his head and regarded Ben for a moment. "And you are a true gift from the saints and a happiness I didn't expect." He grinned as he moved onto the bed. "And now let's see if I can express my appreciation for that gift." He grabbed the waistband of Ben's shorts. "First I need to unwrap my present."
Ben grinned back as he let Qui peel his boxer-briefs off and toss them aside, then welcomed Qui into his arms for an interlude of kissing and cuddling. Not too long an interlude, though, his cock staying fully hard and insisting on relief.
"You just relax and let me take care of that, love." Qui kissed Ben's nose, then turned and went directly toward the stiff phallus jutting from Ben's groin.
Even though he could see it coming, the first wet swipe almost had Ben jumping from the delicious shock. Qui had a very talented tongue and was clearly enjoying this new experience. Ben remembered Qui's earlier comment about having a great deal of prior practice with oral sex but quickly buried that thought; he had absolutely no desire to think about with whom that proficiency had been acquired. He gave himself over to the incredible sensations as Qui varied long strokes with an assault on the head of Ben's cock, probing under the edge and dipping into the weeping opening before taking Ben's cock into his mouth for several long pulls. Ben moaned again and again as Qui pushed him almost to the edge and pulled back, repeating the cycle.
"OH! Jesus Christ!" Ben had to fist the sheets to keep from bucking off the bed when Qui dove deep and sucked in first one, then the other hot testicle. Twice more he rolled each ball in his mouth before shifting his attentions back to Ben's cock. Lightning swept through him when Qui engulfed his cock, sucking hard. Ben moaned and his back arched as he crested the peak of ecstasy into sweet oblivion, some small part of his mind wondering at how Qui could take in so much of him when he had only managed to get half of Qui's penis into his own mouth.
"Aaahhhh... that was just totally fucking pisser," Ben murmured. He blinked his eyes and turned his head to find Qui at his side. Ben had to take several deep breaths before he found the strength to reach for Qui and pull him in for a kiss but the mingling of their intimate fluids was well worth the effort. "Fucking pisser," he repeated as he broke the kiss and settled beside his mate.
"Glad you enjoyed it, love, 'cause I surely did," said Qui.
"Oh, yeah, it was fantastic." Ben grinned as he continued, "But I definitely want lots more practice for both of us."
Qui grinned back as he turned off the light, then pulled the covers up and gathered Ben close.
"Nollaig Shona Duit," Qui said.
"Merry Christmas to you, too," said Ben. "I love you."
"Is tú mo ghrá," Qui whispered as they drifted into pleasant dreams.
finis
///////////////
Additonal Notes:
1. To see the story that Quilan tells for the radio show, go here.
2. For clips of Tai Chi short staff routine, see below. Qui would have had to do some modifying since he had less room than what is shown in these clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccejdIysx10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZebyPi1znw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj-eNLlK_9c
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tai+chi+staff+form&aq=1
3. I love you in Irish
Is tú mo ghrá Iss two muh guhraw