Jude's eyes fluttered open. He could tell immediately that Connor was already up, the bed had that empty feeling it always had when he was in it alone. He noticed there was a note tucked into his hand. He opened it. Making you breakfast. And since you're so good at math, here's one for you: I love you x 100,000,000,000,000. He smiled and rested on his back, smelled pancakes cooking downstairs. He smiled and rolled his head off his pillow, catching a whiff of Connor pheromones in the process and stopping a moment to inhale them.
He got up and walked downstairs and into the kitchen. Soft warm light was flooding in the window, and he saw Connor carefully measuring out batter on the griddle, his face hovering just inches from the heated surface. Connor paused for a moment. "Morning babe. I think this might be first time I smelled you before I heard or saw you." He turned and smiled.
Jude smiled languidly at him. "Yeah, well my bed now smells like you, which means I can never let Lena wash the sheets again." He shuffled over to his beloved and intertwined with him.
"It's kinda hard to make pancakes this way," Connor protested feebly.
"You'll figure it out." Jude held him tightly. "Do people have magnetic fields?"
Connor was doing his best to precision flip pancakes within a tangle of Jude. "You and me do, cakes. Maybe that's why we can't stay apart for very long, it violates some sort of conservation of energy rule."
Jude was nuzzling his neck with his nose. "Well I don't want to break any laws of physics. The last thing we need is Einstein and Newton mad at us."
Connor's body shook with a silent laugh. "I think my clinginess has completely rubbed off on you. You're picking up all of my bad habits."
Jude kissed him right under the ear. "Well, if you're a bad habit, I'm not breaking it. I don't wanna be cured. After we eat, can we just go back to bed? I had to wake up without you and I think we need to do it over."
***
Taylor, Jude, Connor and Sophia walked through the Galleria complex in that order, with Jude and Connor holding hands in the middle and Taylor to the left of Jude and Sophia to the right of Connor.
"Interesting how you get different looks from people," Sophia said to Connor. "Some of them seem to be really happy to see you hold hands with Jude, others look disgusted."
"I don't really notice it anymore," Connor said to her. "I love Jude and there's nothing wrong with me holding his hand. If other people don't like it, that's about them, not us."
She nodded. "It's really nice seeing you being all loving with each other. Boys aren't usually like that."
"Well, boys can be loving to each other, and wear nail polish, and girls can be smart and tough and go out without makeup. None of those things have to be one way or another. That's one of the first things I learned from Jude."
Jude looked at Taylor. "You hungry? I'm starving. I think I already worked off breakfast."
"In less than a block of walking?" Taylor asked, raising her eyebrows.
Jude leaned in to whisper. "There might have been some making out with Connor after breakfast."
She grinned. "Yeah, order for me, will you? Hey Sophia, run to the bathroom with me?"
"Sure," she gave Connor a pat on the back. She and Sophia veered off.
"What is it with girls always going to be the bathroom together?" Jude asked.
"I dunno. Maybe we should try it. Especially since, you know, you wanted to stare at my thingy longer."
Jude play-smacked him. "Like you wouldn't stare at mine."
"I'm just really curious about the whole uncircumcised thing and if it feels different. Is that why you were so close to shooting when we made out?"
Jude shrugged. "I don't think so. If you felt what I was feeling when you were doing that nipple thing with me you probably would have been ready to cream too. I don't think it was specific to being uncut."
Connor nodded but said nothing as they were up to the counter.
***
"What do you think?" Taylor said to Sophia. "We can do this, right?"
"Oh yeah, I've shot both guns and rifles. What about you?"
"You could say I'm a better shot than my Dad."
Sophia giggled. "I heard about that. Poor Connor."
"So," Taylor said, "Let's do this?"
Sophia nodded.
***
"We're thinking about roller skating," Jude said to Taylor, as he munched on french fries.
"Actually, Sophia and I want to go shopping, and we don't want you boys to get super-bored with that, so why don't you skate with your man crush and we'll shop, and meet you back here at 3PM?"
"Okay," Jude said.
"Anyone want dessert?" Sophia asked.
"I think," Taylor said, "Jude already has his dessert."
Jude grinned. "Com'er, dessert," he said to Connor, who leaned in to kiss him.
"No calories," Jude said to Taylor. "In fact, it burns them off." He looked at Connor. "Is it possible to spoon and skate at the same time?"
Connor laughed. "We can try it, babe."
***
"It's almost three o'clock," Taylor said. "We need to head back to the food court and collect the lovebirds. Let's see...layout?"
"Check," Sophia said.
"Sweep plan?"
Sophia nodded. "Got it."
"Then let's get the boys and kick some ass."
***
"How was skating?" Sophia asked.
"Apparently, spoon skating is not only a thing, we had a lot of other people doing it," Jude said. "How was shopping? Where's the bags?" he frowned at her. "You didn't just window shop did you? I've never gotten how girls can spend hours buying nothing." He looked at Sophia's reaction. Then he looked at Taylor. "Okay...what's going on? I can tell when Taylor is...up to something."
Taylor grinned. "Maybe." She stopped. "As it turns out, we weren't shopping at all. We were here, practicing."
And that's when Jude realized they had stopped in front of the Laser Tag Arena.
"We're getting those cute boy butts of yours onto a beach in Mexico!"
Jude gave her a confused look. Then he looked up where she was pointing, at the sign which read, "Laser tag competition today 3:30pm! Win a trip for four to Ensenada!"
***
"You only have twelve shots per round," Taylor said. "We scanned our fingerprints when we came in, if you get tagged, you can no longer fire any weapon. There are more rounds hidden in the layout, Sophia's on ammo recon, so if you run out try to find her. If any of the enemy players lose their guns, you can also take them. We'll be up against three other teams, red, yellow and green. We're blue. We'll go in by twos, Sophia and I will echelon left and Jude, Connor, you cover our rear flank. The red team entrance is the first we'll come to. When three of the teams are eliminated the match ends. Got it boys?"
Jude and Connor nodded.
"Then let's get some." Taylor raised her laser gun and stood near the blue entrance. "Sophia, you're on point."
"Greetings!" the announcer said. "Our championship match starts, NOW!!!"
The door unlatched and Taylor pushed it open, sweeping to the left with her gun. Sophia followed, sweeping right as she entered. Jude and Connor trailed. The arena was dimly lit and pumped full of dry ice, so it was foggy and difficult to see. Taylor got to the first intersection, fired and hit the wall. Behind her, Sophia fired in the other direction. "Two down," she said. "Both reds."
"Watch that back flank boys, green will be coming that way."
Sophia bent down and retrieved the first ammo cache. She gave one round each to Jude and Connor.
"Thanks," Connor said, and grunted as Jude pushed him aside and fired.
"Nice shot," Taylor said. "That's one green down. Ready?" she said to Sophia. Sophia nodded.
Taylor sprinted down the next hallway, did a somersault and fired twice. Sophia hugged the wall then crouched low to the ground. She rolled and fired.
"That's a yellow!" she whispered.
"Those other two were reds," Taylor said, as Connor came up behind her. "That's one team down."
Connor gave her an impressed look. "I'm glad you two are on our side."
"We need to split up."
Connor tapped Jude. "Hey, I have an idea. Pheromones."
Jude smiled. "We're heading for the center."
The fog was thickest in the center area, and Jude and Connor hit the deck, crawling on their bellies under the fog. Jude saw a pair of legs, rolled and fired. Nearby, Connor did the same. Jude mentally kept track: four reds, two yellows, one green. He dropped his face low to the ground and inhaled through his nose, his vomeronasal organ activated and even though he couldn't see a thing, he knew exactly where Connor was.
Taylor was jogging down the corridor into the yellow sector, Sophia following. Sophia stopped at a cache. They'd been fired at several times without being hit. One of the greens turned from around the corner on the right. Sophia jumped up, back-flipped and hit him dead in the chest. Taylor nailed another yellow one of the on the left. She fist-bumped Sophia and turned towards the center area. "One green and one yellow down."
"We got two yellows," Jude said, then moved quickly so his voice wouldn't give away his position. He sniffed the air and slid on his side towards the center of the room. There were just two greens and one yellow left. Far down one of the corridors he could just make out the yellow. He popped up, fired, and rolled. Connor saw the green and fired, missed. He crawled on his hands and knees. The green started firing blindly, popping off a number of rounds. He stopped and Connor heard a thud. His enemy had also hit the ground. He twisted himself around and stopped to take in a deep breath. He rolled ten feet to the left, turned about thirty degrees and rolled some more.
Jude heard firing down one of the corridors and heard two pairs of feet moving. He sniffed one direction, then another, and fired.
"And that's game over, folks! Team Blue is the winner of the trip to Ensenada!"
***
"Interesting strategy," Taylor said to Jude. "But how did you know you weren't going to accidentally shoot Connor?"
Connor gave her a knowing smile. "Because the Judicorn tracks his mate by scent."
"Connor pheromones," Jude said to her, with a nod.
"I've never figured scents into my operations before," Taylor said. "This gives me a lot to think about."
The four of them entered the Fosters house. Stef and Lena were in the kitchen. "Hey," Stef said. "Awww," she continued, as Connor and Jude hugged her from opposite sides. "What did Mariana call this one, a Jonnor sandwich?"
"How was the Galleria?" Lena asked.
"Just another day in the office," Taylor said dryly.
Lena looked at her quizzically and Jude got an envelope out of his back pocket. "Moms, we were wondering if you'd like to chaperone us on this trip to Ensenada that we won?"
***
"You're quiet tonight," Jude said to Connor, as he walked barefoot out of the bathroom.
"Sorry, was I supposed to follow you in there?" Connor grinned at him as Jude sat on the edge of the bed.
"Too late," Jude said, sighing a bit as Connor rubbed his back. "That was a lot of skating, walking and running. My feet are sore."
"Give 'em here," Connor said. Jude laid on his back as Connor rubbed his feet. "That help, cakes?"
"Feels wonderful. Anyway, what's on your mind?"
"Just thinking about stuff, is all." Connor's fingers probed around for tension in Jude's feet and toes.
"I really don't like seeing your mind work that hard," Jude said. "The last time that happened you invented a girlfriend in your scheming to get pinky time with me."
Connor smiled. "This is sort of like a Daria problem, but on a much higher level."
Jude sat up and looked at him. "Higher level Daria problem? What sort of special hell is that?"
Connor laughed. "I'm just worried about how young we are, bae. I want to be with you forever. We need to grow old together and chase each other in wheelchairs."
Jude grinned. "Probably rocket-powered wheelchairs, by then. And why do you think this is your problem to solve? I'm pretty sure I'm the brains of this ship."
Connor play-smacked him. "I just wanna work on building us out, babe. We need to make something that'll stand for decades, no matter what happens. And I think we start by knowing each other better than we've ever known anyone else. You never told me the story about how your mom died, why don't we start there?"
He and Jude laid back on the bed together, he took Jude's hand, and Jude began his story.