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NICK

Maybe it should have been a little strange, the two of them walking back hand in hand. They’d never done that before, even with all the touches they shared over the years. Yet as Nick walked beside Matt, their hands clasped together as they gazed up at the twinkling sky, he realized there was nothing strange about it at all.

If he allowed himself, he would even say it felt as though they were exactly where they were supposed to be, exactly as they were meant to be.

“So, how do you think the team will react?” Matt asked.

Nick glanced between them, smiling. “About us?”

Because there was an us, and Matt was sure there would always be an us.

“Yeah.”

“Ricardo will snort and probably say something about how they should have known. Sean will be confused as hell because he thought it was one way, and now we’ve changed the script on him. Aidan will probably point out and shout dramatically that he knew it. Then proceed to ask if we need any pointers about how to have sex before Sean finds some way to shut him up,” Nick recited without hesitation.

“It’s disturbing how accurate that is,” Matt said with a light laugh.

“I’d like to think after so long, I know them pretty well.”

Matt’s smile went soft. “What do you think Clint would have said?”

Nick squeezed Matt’s hand, remembering the hurt of their fallen brother all too well. It wasn’t the sharp, all-consuming pain they’d suffered. Maybe the ache would never disappear, but he could finally think of Clint and smile.

“I think he’d be proud of us. He’d get that secret smile of his and nod before asking us what took so long,” Nick said softly.

“Sounds like him. If there’s an afterlife, I hope he’s happy with what we’ve all done with ourselves,” Matt said.

“Yeah, and if anyone deserves a nice, cushy afterlife, it’d be him.”

“He’d probably also slip me some lube.”

“No condoms, huh?”

“He’d trust you the same way I would with that.”

Nick glanced at him. “You...really don’t have a problem with that?”

“Going bareback? Eh,” Matt answered with a shrug.

Nick laughed. “No, I mean, you talk as though you’re the one who’s going to end up on the receiving end. Ignoring everything about how a straight guy being comfortable with gay stuff is strange enough. It’s even weirder to think you automatically assume you’ll be the bottom and have no issue.”

Matt looked at him. “Do you bottom?”

“No,” then he thought about it. “I haven’t. But for you? Yeah, I would.”

Matt hummed. “Good to know. We’ll have to see how that goes one day.”

“Just like that?” Nick asked, knowing the answer already.

Matt chuckled. “It’s what you’re most comfortable with, and really? What do I care? If that’s what you’re into, that’s what you’re into. I don’t think I’m that picky about it. I don’tfeelthat picky about it. To me, it’s just...you and me.”

“You and me,” Nick repeated, growing to love the phrase.

“And if that means you doing the fucking, then so be it. Hell, if you’re as good at that as you are at blowjobs, I’m not going to complain.”

His cheeks burned, but Nick laughed anyway. “I’m not even going to try to say if I am.”

Matt stopped as they approached the front door of Dakota House. He wrapped his hands around Nick’s waist and pulled him close. His dark eyes caught the moonlight overhead and positively burned with intensity.