Matt & Topher

Swinging for the Fences

"Can this semester just be over? Please? I'm ready. I don't even care if I pass my honors or not at this point, I'm just fucking done." Matt was so fucking tempted to smother himself with the god-awful couch pillow in Colby's unit.

"First of all, you do care if you pass your honors defense or not," Colby said from the kitchen. "Though I'm wondering what, exactly, you're going to defend considering it's a screen play, but maybe defense is figurative instead of literal." He waited until Matt was at least looking at him before shrugging. "What do I know? Someone mentioned honors last year and I'm pretty sure I broke out in hives."

Matt scrambled around on the cushions so he could lean on the back of the couch and comfortably look into the townhouse unit's improbably tiny kitchen. "You could have done honors?"

"Theoretically anybody could honors, but some of us have more sense than God gave a turkey."

Turkeys were fucking idiots. Matt's upbringing had been rural enough that there had been a yearly parade of deer and turkeys through the backyard, and the turkeys were goddamn stupid.

"That's just rude," Matt said. "You comparing me to a turkey."

"Shoe fits and all that." Colby turned around, wooden spoon in one hand. "But seriously? You're going to do fine. Considering that you turned the damn thing in this morning, what exactly are you stressing about? It's out of your hands at this point." He went back to his pan.

"I know." He didn't whine. He absolutely didn't whine. "That's probably why I'm obsessing over it."

"Therapy is a beautiful thing, Matthew."

He let his head hang and looked at the industrial tile found in most if not all the buildings on campus. Therapy. Combating that feeling of water rising in his head. Lessening the chances of having panic attacks on a public street.

"After," Matt said, and then paused to clear his throat. "After we find somewhere to settle in...in New York. The city. New York City."

From the sound of it, Colby had dropped the wooden spoon either on the stovetop or in the sink. He turned again. "You know what you're doing after graduation?"

"Sorta. We've — we've talked about it." They'd talked about it once. On a blow up mattress in Tate Stanton's living room. "There's a plan but there's not a Plan."

"What's the plan?"

He waited for the water to rise in his head and, when it didn't, heaved the tiniest sigh of relief.

"We're going to travel. Toph's favorite animal is the puffin, and they live off the coast of Maine, and that's where we're going to start. He's never seen Niagara Falls, either, so that's on the list of places to hit. And then when we get done seeing what we're going to see, we'll pick up the cats and pack everything up and move to New York City. That's where we're going to give things a go."

For one of the few times in Matt's life and his history with Colby, Colby's expression was unreadable. And he had no idea what that meant.

"Well," Colby finally said, "you can't have Queens because there's no way in hell Liam and I can successfully play Keeping Up with the Stantons in Manhattan."

Matt straightened from where he'd been draped over the back of the couch. "He got in?"

"He got in." He grinned. "William McRiley got into Columbia Law School. I don't know who was more excited the other day when he found out, him or the rest of us."

"Murphy has to be out of his mind proud," Matt said.

"Yeah. Uh..."

His eyebrows rose.

"I — I might have gotten into the CIA. The — "

"Culinary Institute of America," Matt finished for him. "Colb." He was grinning, he knew that much. "The CIA. You are going to make the most badass pot roast when you get out of there."

"It's gonna be tough for a little while. The commute from Grand Central is something like two hours one way, but I'd rather have an apartment in the city with someone familiar than have to go back to a dorm room again. I've gotten kinda used to seeing Liam's non-smiling face on a regular basis."

This was mildly more familiar territory. "It's a step. Living with someone. Without anyone else around."

Colby held up a hand, turned off his burner, and then gestured for Matt to continue.

"That's....that's really all I got."

"Wow. You are a wealth of knowledge." Colby crossed his arms over his chest. "You take your partner on a date yet?"

"Ah...this weekend. We're going this weekend." There were absolutely no plans for this weekend, but shit, Matt could improvise like a champ.

"Where you going?"

"That's a little — we haven't decided yet." He forced himself to hold Colby's stare, and Jesus Christ where had he learned that?

"You ain't asked him."

"It's — it's — no, okay. No, I haven't." Matt scrubbed his hands over his face. "Maybe I can surprise him."

"Yeah."

Matt rested his chin on the back of his hands. "Colb?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm proud of your plan, buddy. You are gonna kick ass and take names down there, and I can't wait to see what you can come up with. You tell your mom yet?"

Colby shook his head.

"Her and Caitie are going to be so excited for you. Shit, my parents are gonna be excited for you."

"I haven't told them yet." He shuffled his feet. "I'm not sure how Caitie's going to take it. This is going to be the furthest that we're ever going to be separated, and she's going to go to college in the fall and Mom's going to be alone and...it just feels like a lot. All at once."

Matt readjusted his legs so he was sitting more or less on his ass on the couch, his upper body still twisted. "Your mom is the strongest woman I know, and I grew up in a house full of strong women." He let that sit there for a moment, out loud and tangible. "Sometimes I don't have a whole lotta faith in me, but the people I always have faith in, regardless of what the world decides to throw at them, is the Holburn family." The and Toph was unspoken but very much there.

"Like a lodestone draws north," Colby murmured.

"Just like that."

There was a scuffle outside, and seconds later Toph and Liam fell through the door.

"You made tacos?" Liam said, once he had his shoes off.

"Hello to you, too." Colby turned his burner on again.

"Smells great, Holburn." Toph squeezed Matt's forearm on his way by.

Matt let his arms drape down the back of the couch. "Columbia, huh?"

Colby didn't turn again. Liam froze like a deer in the headlights, and Toph whipped around to stare at him rather accusingly, if Matt's guess was right.

"You heard?"

"I did," Liam said. "I got in."

"You son of a bitch," Toph muttered, taking two quick steps and, for half a second, Matt wasn't sure if Toph was going to hug him or take a swing at him. Toph hugged him, though Matt wished he had a camera handy because Liam's expression was priceless.

"You're next, okay? Law school or Julliard," Liam said when they broke apart.

Toph would thrive at either place.

"We've got some sights to see first," Toph said. "Matty and I are going to see if we can hit every state in the lower 48 before we set up in New York City."

"I already told him they can't have Queens," Colby said loudly.

"You're moving to Queens?"

"Colby got accepted to the CIA. We're going to live in Queens."

Toph more or less fell onto the end of the couch Matt wasn't occupying. "Holy shit."

"You alright back there?" Matt looked over his shoulder.

"Yes."

"Grab some plates, kids," Colby called. "Taco up."


Matt breathed out slowly and did his best to ignore how body-hot and tight Toph was around him. It was a tall order, and he shifted enough to dig his heels into the mattress. The pillow behind him moved, and his shoulders touched the cool surface of the wall. He smoothed his hands up and down the outsides of Toph's bare thighs to help him relax.

"I'm ready," Toph said.

"Great." He sat up completely, laced his fingers with Toph's, and helped him ease back until he was flat on the bed, his thighs hithed up around Matt's hips. "Still good."

"Yes."

"Safe word?"

"Puffin. Green," he added, already guessing Matt's next question.

Matt kissed along Toph's jaw to his ear. "Hands above your head."

Toph arched up and back, curling his fingers into the bunched-up comforter at the foot of the bed.

"If they move, I stop moving," Matt whispered.

"Oh, fuck."

"Good?"

His answer was a wordless whine.

Matt settled himself up on his knees, one hand flat on Toph's chest and the other under him in the curve of his lower back. "Goddamn you look good like this."

Toph sucked his lower lip between his teeth, fingers twisted in the comforter as Matt started to move, slow and steady.

"You look good all the time, but, fuck, Barnaby," Matt murmured.

"Your mouth," he said, like the words had been punched out of him. "Jesus."

Toph's eyes were wide and focused directly on Matt's. Matt stretched out and kissed him like he was a drowning man and Toph was air.