The ten upper floors of the Tower had two units on each floor, and were serviced by two elevators that didn't stop on the lower floors. The lower floors each contained four units, with two elevators that only went to the twentieth floor. The elevator to the Eyrie had a special keyed button that could stop it at the thirtieth floor. And that floor Joe had held out on selling. It had remained empty for the last six years. One day he told Dave about the two units, and they got into the elevator and descended to look through them. Dave had wondered what the keyed button in the elevator was for, now he knew.

"You should sell one of these to Johnny and Tim. They both love the Eyrie so much. Tim would live on the terrace if he were allowed to." Dave said as they finished touring them.

"Come, let me show you something." Joe stepped back out into the shared foyer, and walked to the opposite end from the elevator. He inserted a key in the lock and opened it, then flipped a light switch as Dave peered in. It was a stair well.

"I assumed that this was a utility room."

Joe grabbed Dave's hand and pulled him up the stairs. He opened one of the two doors on the landing, pulling Dave after him. They were standing on the west side of the Eyrie. The lap pool was in front of them.

"When the door at the bottom is opened a bell chimes inside to let us know that someone is coming up here. That way they can't surprise us."

Dave turned and looked at the other door.

"Where does that door go?"

"Open it and see for yourself."

Dave walked over and opened it. He heard a musical chime. He peered into the foyer of the Eyrie. He turned and looked at Joe.

"I wondered why this door was locked."

"And you never asked. Dave you're one of the most uncurious people I've ever met."

"I'm curious alright. I just figured that I would find out in time."

Joe pulled him up against his chest and kissed the side of his neck. "You continually fascinate me; you're my many faceted gem."

Dave relaxed against him enjoying the attention. Joe's touch never failed to excite him. He turned in Joe's arms and administered kisses to his neck and face. Joe lifted Dave's face and brushed his lips over his closed eye lids and then his lips. Dave parted his lips inviting Joe's tongue to come in and wrestle. Joe ground his hardness against Dave's. He was ready to back Dave up against the wall, pull down his pants and have his way with him when Dave broke the kiss and continued with his earlier idea. "Does Johnny know about those two units?" he asked.

Joe sighed and thought to himself, 'Later, I'll tie him up if I have to.... and maybe gag him.' He answered, "I don't think anyone knows except the real estate agent that handled the sale of the lower units. She thought I was crazy holding out on selling them."

"No, I think you did the smart thing. With access to the Eyrie, you want someone living down there that is part of your life."

"Like Johnny and Tim?" Joe asked as though it was his own idea.

"That's a brilliant idea," Dave said, going along with it.

"I was thinking that it would be a nice little nuptial gift."

"Oh, I like that idea." Dave grinned knowing just what Joe was doing.

"You're so cute when you get excited."

"I'm forty two. And too old to be cute."

Joe bugged his eyes at Dave and whirled his hand in the air with two fingers together as though he were holding a cigarette between them.

"Well, ya are, Dave, ya are. Especially with those cute little dimples in your cheeks when you smile."

"Geez, would you stop with the Betty Davis routine. You're too big and macho to pull it off. Let's go back down. I want to see the view from each unit."

"You don't like my Betty Davis routine?"

"No, it's too realistic, especially the way you bug out your eyes."

"Do my eyes really bug out like hers did?"

"Joe, there is no way your eyes could bug out. They are way too small."

"Like little piggy eyes?"

Dave rolled his eyes in disgust. "Yeah, like little piggy eyes."

He tromped back down the stairs and into the foyer. The door slammed shut behind him. He paid no attention to the fact that Joe hadn't followed. Both units were standing open so he strolled into the one facing south first. He opened the sliding glass door and stepped out onto the deck. He gazed out over the city's downtown a few block away. This view would be best at night with all the lights. He strolled back in and noted that the kitchen was on the west end and the bedrooms were on the east end. 'One could watch the sunset while peeling potatoes for dinner' he thought.

He walked across to the other unit. Other than the beautiful view of the mountains in the distance the unit was basically the same; kitchen west, bedrooms east.

He realized that Joe hadn't come back down with him. He tried opening the door to the stair and realized he was locked in. He went to the elevators and punched the buttons. This floor was turned off. He couldn't call the elevator with the buttons. He stood in a quandary for a moment. 'Ah, the intercom.' He stepped into the southern unit and pushed the intercom button and a voice answered "Yes? This is Robert, may I help you?"

"Robert, this is Dave Gates. I've locked myself on the thirtieth floor. Can you send the elevator up here?"

"There's a thirtieth floor? Oh. There is. Yes, Sir, right away. The elevator's on the way"

Dave strode back out to the foyer. He could hear the soft whine as the elevator ascended. A moment later it opened and he entered it and descended to the ground floor. He got off, thanked Robert and got into the one to the Eyrie. When he stepped out he called out to Joe and got no answer. He walked over to the door that opened into the stairwell. It was locked. He went outside and around to the other door which he found wedged open. He peered down the stairs and there, as he'd suspected, sat Joe facing the door at the bottom, obviously waiting for him to start pounding on the other side of it. Dave flipped the light switch throwing the stairwell into darkness. Joe yelled. A moment later the light came back on. Dave flipped it back off. It came back on. "Leave the light on so I can get out of here," Joe yelled.

Dave flipped it back off.

"Ow."

Dave flipped the light back on. "Are you alright?"

"Yes. I just stubbed my toe. My little pig eyes don't see well in total darkness."

"Oh. Well, try your bugging Betty Davis eyes then."

He flipped the light back off.

"Dave, I'm going to get you," Joe yelled.

"Yeah? And what cha gonna do when you get me." Dave yelled back and then high-tailed it into the Eyrie.

"I'm going to rip your clothes off and have my way with you." Joe yelled in a menacing voice as he emerged from the stairwell. Dave was long gone. Joe went looking for him.

"Dave, where are you?" he called as he entered the foyer.

"I'm hiding." Dave yelled back.

"Do you know what I'm going to do when I find you?"

"I'm hiding in the bed room."

Joe opened the bedroom door. Dave lay in the middle of bed, naked with a roaring hardon. Joe stopped and looked at him and then stuck one hand into a front pocket and sauntered over to the bed. "Hello there. It appears that you're waiting for someone," he said, his English accent worse than Cary Grant's. "Now who could that be? Surely not me. Not dressed the way you are."

"Joe Paolini. If you don't stop with the movie star impressions, you are going to be sorry. I may be smaller than you, but I'm faster and probably just as strong. Don't test my patience."

"Oh, I like a strong forceful man." Joe was now doing a Mae West.

"So do I, Joe, so stop playing around and get serious."

Joe dropped the impressions as he recalled that Dave had been locked out of the stairwell on the floor below.

"By the way how did you get back up here? The door was locked, the electricity is off on that floor, there is no telephone, and access to the thirtieth floor is shut off in the elevators. So, Mr. Houdini, how did you get out?"

"The intercom system to the front desk for the entire building is on its own power system. I called Robert on the desk and asked him to send up the elevator. Apparently he can bypass the shut off at the front desk."

"Damn, foiled again."

"I knew you were just sitting there waiting for me to pound on the door so you could taunt me. Ha! I showed you."

Joe had stripped off all his clothes and advanced menacingly toward the bed. "Now it is my turn to show you."

He started at the foot and slithered up Dave's body stopping to kiss various and sundry parts, like insteps, ankles, behind his knees, inner thighs, belly, nipples and throat. Dave lay there gasping at each touch, barely breathing as he watched Joe like a mouse mesmerized by a snake. Joe reached Dave's mouth which he covered with his own

"Oh, I think I like this," Dave whispered as Joe pulled back to get some air.

"I'm glad that I didn't have to tie you up and gag you."

Dave wondered what he was talking about.

"So how do you think we should handle this gift giving?" Joe asked, handing Dave a cup of coffee.

Dave sipped his coffee and chewed on his lower lip as he thought. "Joe, how did you come to be so much wealthier than your siblings?"

"Good story. On my sixteenth birthday my grandfather made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He said that on my 21stbirthday he would give me my inheritance of $100,000.00. Or he would invest it for me and at least triple it by the time I was thirty. I let him invest it. He made the same offer to my brother and older sister; they both took the money on their 21stbirthdays It'll be interesting to see what Eve does on her birthday this year.

"In fourteen years Granddad turned my money into almost a million bucks. I took the initial hundred thousand and let him reinvest the rest for five years. He tripled it. I made really good profit on it. I borrowed the money from him to build the Tower. I repaid him in two years with interest. Granddad financed the office tower downtown that I designed and I'm building myself. It was already one third sold out before we had barely raised the steel frame."

"Your granddad likes to make money, huh?"

"It's his passion."

"Maybe we should let him play with some of the Way Fortune. Do you think he would like that?"

"He'd be in hog's heaven."

"Where do you come up with expressions like that?"

Joe laughed. "Pretty good for a city boy, huh? I had a buddy in college who was doing his thesis on American colloquial expressions. That was one of the more memorable ones. I can just see a big ol' hog wallowing in a huge mud puddle with little winged piglets floating around on clouds playing on harps. Anyway, back to Tim and Johnny. Why don't we invite them up and show them the two units? That way we can get a reading on whether they like them or not and which one they like the best if they do."

A roaring fire burned in the fireplace in the living room of the Eyrie where the two Paolini brothers each sat on a sofa with their lovers lying with their heads on their laps. They had just finished dinner, and were relaxing as they waited for it to settle before having coffee and desert.

"Tim wants us to get married. What do you guys think about that?" Johnny asked out of the blue.

"Johnny, this is private," Tim interupted him. "Why are your dragging Dave and Joe into our argument?"

"Tim, this isn't an argument, it's a discussion and I would just like to get some other view points. Marriage between two men is a foreign idea to me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I don't see the need for a ceremony." Johnny ran his fingers through Tim's short hair. The fingers of his other hand had undone one button of Tim's shirt and were inside raking little circles in his chest hair. Dave sat up and moved up next to Joe, who instinctively put his arm around Dave's shoulders.

Tim closed his eyes savoring Johnny's touch. He looked up at Johnny and then turned to the others. "Alright, let's have a forum on Gay marriage. Dave you're looking like you have something to say."

"I hadn't really thought about this until I over heard Pete and Jason the other day. I think that the only advantage that I can see in having a ceremony, whether it's called marriage or commitment, is if it strengthens the bonds between the two. I don't see any legal advantages to it. With a living trust, and a joint tenancy like Bill and I had, and that Joe and I have just completed, we have the same or more security than a lot of straight couples. You know that in many states unless the wife's name is on the common property when the husband dies, the children and even his siblings can take it away from her. Just because they are married doesn't automatically make it hers."

"Okay, but what about visitation rights if one of us is like unconscious in the hospital? Tim asked. "A wife has the rights to make all decisions concerning her husband. I wouldn't even be allowed in the room with Johnny unless his parents okayed it."

"So get the legal paperwork done to give you those rights." Dave retorted.

Joe squeezed Dave's shoulder to get his attention. "Have we done that, Babe?" he asked.

"Clyde has been asked to draw up all the legal papers. He should have them ready in a couple of days."

"How come I didn't know about this?"

"Joe, please, you know you work from daylight to dusk most days. I've semi-retired since Sue took over running the bookstore. I have time to take care of it all. Besides it's mostly for your benefit."

Joe's response was to hug Dave, kiss him on the cheek and whispered that he loved him.

"I don't see anything attractive about the institute of marriage except for what it could do for our children if we had any. And I don't think either of us is going to be getting pregnant," Johnny said

"I don't see why we have to follow in the footsteps of straights. I think there would be a lot less objection from them if we called our unions something else. Marriage carries so many images that really have nothing to do with us," Dave said

"What do you mean? Are you saying that we are inferior? What if only Whites were allowed to marry and Blacks could only have a civil ceremony?" Tim asked, sitting up and planting his feet on the floor.

"What I am trying to say is, I think that as we push for equal rights, we're losing valuable distinctions as we blend into the mainstream of society. We're making ourselves into imitations of those who shun us. There is a big misconception of what is acceptance and what is erasure," Dave said.

"You're right," Joe agreed. He sat forward on the sofa. He lost his sedate air as he got into the subject, waving his hands and punctuating the air with his finger. "A lot of the straight world imitates us. Look at just facial hair alone. It was gays back in the seventies that started the chin strap beard, heteros followed. And then more recently the Van Dyke. Originally it was a gay thing, now everybody has one. And body piercing. It started out with nipple rings in the gay world now it's again everybody piercing everything. And clothing need not be mentioned, does it? Gays have always set the styles for men and women."

"So you are saying we shouldn't blend in, and become homogenous with the straight world?" Tim asked. He was getting agitated so he stood up and strode over to warm his rear in front of the fire.

"I'm saying that we should push for equal rights, but still keep our identity," Dave said, sitting back and pulling Joe's arm from the back of the sofa to drape it over his shoulders again.

"I'm sorry; I don't see what the distinction is. It will still be two people of the same sex," Tim said, while briskly rubbing his butt to cool the back of his pants.

"Think about it. It's difficult telling who's gay and who's not with hetero men buying dressier clothes, taking more care in how they look. And now that we have such shows as "Queer Eye" the line is being blurred even more," Dave said. He settled in more against Joe who wrapped his other arm around him.

"I still don't get it. In the past we tried to hide by looking and acting straight. So the tables are turning. So what?" Johnny asked.

"So we don't have to hide anymore. We can pretty much just be ourselves," Joe piped up.

"Well, I for one will never adopt a 'gay' life style. I just don't approve of being a flamer. I guess you could say I'm as prejudiced as any straight when it comes to nelly acting guys," Johnny stated, raising an arm and limply flipping his wrist.

He had sprawled out on the sofa, both arms over the back, his butt on the front edge of the cushion and his legs stretched out under the coffee table. Tim walked over and straddled him, kneeling with a leg on each side of Johnny's hips. He leaned forward supporting his weight on the sofa back.

"Yeah, I agree. I have no use for a flat chested lady with a big cock. Give me a man who is all man."

He lowered his face and gently brushed his lips over Johnny's. Joe and Dave watched feeling like an old couple with these two newly coupled men.

Dave started chuckling. Soon it turned into a belly laugh. Joe stared at him waiting for him to share whatever was so amusing.

Tim raised his head and looked at him. "What? Are you being amused at my kissing Johnny?" Johnny sat up straight. Tim moved to sit beside him.

Dave just shook his head as he continued to laugh. Eventually he got control of himself and settled down.

"Look at the four of us. No one would ever think of identifying us as gay. Hell, we look and act straighter than most straight men. And I am sitting here saying we should keep our identity. Our identity is no different than anyone else's. We are so blended in that we are indistinguishable.

"I used to play the devil's advocate in college debates. It's still so easy for me to fall into that, that I still do it. I was reading all of that in a gay paper in the bookstore a while back. We are obviously not part of the group that feels that way. I think most of the gay men in this country are the same as us. We already are blended in. It's just the fringe groups that live in the big cities that are feeling that they are losing their identity."

"Well, I feel better knowing you're not completely full of baloney," Tim said. "Now, if you'll excuse me I need to finish what you interrupted." He turned back to Johnny's lips.

The two other men sat for a moment watching.

"Looks like fun, want to try it?" Joe whispered in Dave's ear.

Dave grinned. "Done that. And you know it's fun. Let's go get the desert and coffee, and leave those two to themselves for a few minutes."

"Oh man! I don't think there is anything as good as your English Trifle, Dave." Tim said. He was sprawled out next to Johnny. "I think I could have eaten the whole bowlful all by my self."

Johnny grinned at him.

"I'm sure you could if you were given the chance. Damn, I've never seen anyone put away as much food as you can."

"Hey. I'm a growing boy," Tim protested.

"Well, you're going to start growing out instead of up if you don' watch it."

Joe stood up and stretched. Dave followed suit.

"If everyone is ready, Dave and I want to show you two something."

"What is it?"

"Follow us and you'll see."

Joe and Dave turned and walked into the foyer. Johnny and Tim scrambled to follow them. Joe unlocked the inconspicuous door at the far end, stepped through and headed down the stairs. Dave brought up the tail as they followed.

"Man, I didn't know you guys had a basement. This is cool."

Joe opened the door leading into the foyer for the two units. He turned to Johnny and Tim. "Look around and pick the one you like the best."

"What do you mean?"

"What I just said. Which unit do you like the best?"

"I knew they'd both agree on the one facing the mountains," Dave said as he snuggled into the bed next to Joe's naked body.

Joe wrapped his arms around him and pulled him closer. Dave wiggled his butt and Joe thrust against him.

"And what made you so sure?"

"Oh, it's just a man thing."

"Yeah? How so?"

"Think about it. Which one do you like better?"

"I've always been partial to the mountain view."

"And why is that?"

"Well... it's probably just a man-thing," Joe grinned.

Dave chuckled as he turned in Joe's arms to look at him. The moment Dave gazed into his eyes he lost his train of thought as he floated in the golden flecks.

"What?" Joe said. His voice little more than a whisper.

"I love you, Joe. I don't ever remember being as happy as I've been since I met you."

Joe pushed back a bit to look at Dave.

"Are you telling me that you weren't happy with Bill? If I had thought that for a moment, I would have made a play for you years ago."

"No, Joe, I was happy then. It's just that we loved each other. We weren't really in love. You understand what I'm saying? We were just partners in life. We were very comfortable with each other. We were satisfied. I look at your mom and dad, and it's obvious that they are so in love with each other that it affects everyone around them. You know, when I first met them I felt envious of what they have, but I don't feel that way anymore because that is what we have, too."

"I know. I just wasn't sure that you realized it."

"How could I not realize it? You look at me and I feel so loved, so secure in your heart that I could just.... I don't know, fly, soar, leap over buildings."

Joe pulled him into a tight hug.

"You'll always be my Mr. Kent." he whispered in Dave's ear.

Dave thought about it for a moment. And then whispered back.

"Well, no matter what, you just won't ever be a Miss Lane." and then as an after thought, "Maybe a Jimmy, but never a Lois."

Joe started tickling him. "I'll show you a Jimmy."

In between howls and giggles, Dave gasped out, "Alright, alright, you can be Lois. Just stop tickling me."

"You'll pay for that! Mister Smart-aleck Superman who can leap over buildings." He tickled him some more. Dave finally got his arms around Joe's where he couldn't tickle any more and then the game turned serious and they got lost in each other's kiss.

"So you didn't say anything to them about it being a gift to them." Dave commented as he cleaned Joe off after they'd both covered his chest in love juice.

"I think it might be fun to let them dream about it a bit, first. And since it looks like Tim is going to get his way with a ceremony, maybe that would be a good time to give them the deed to it."

"Yeah, that would be so cool," Dave agreed. He tossed the cloth toward the bathroom door and snuggled up against his mate. "I've been thinking about the rest of the equation.... that Christian organization to save marriage...... How do they figure that a same sex couple getting married, if it were allowed to be legal, is going to harm their straight marriage?"

Joe shrugged and yawned. "It's probably a case of not thinking for themselves. It's just easier to accept a preacher's word."

"I just don't understand them," Dave muttered just before his breathing evened out into sleep.