Yeah, it's Rod/Jimmy slash. I dunno. It just happened.

They tried to be friends. Three amigos, compadres, through thick and thin. But things change and so do people.

Rod came to her for comfort when his mom died. Lucy and her mother helped him through his grief, through the funeral, patching things up with Dad. They lost touch during junior year, though, when she fell in with the Habitat for Humanity crowd.

Jimmy's life hit the skids. Tried for drugs, sent to jail, falling in with the wrong people. Three marriages and three divorces. His parents gave up on him and kicked him out, only pulling him back into their lives when Dad died.

The last time the three of them were all together was Valentine's Day of senior year, when they met Lucy's latest boyfriend. Last they'd heard, she was going to marry him and move to New York. So of course Rod was surprised to find the announcement in the paper. Kevin who? And what happened to New York?

Jimmy ran into her after his latest run-in with the law, barely able to look her in the eyes. She was removed from that jury, thank God, but it was seeing her face for the first time in years that drove him to finally get his life together.

His path to a new and better him led him right back to Rod, who'd just been honorably discharged from the army after nearly losing a leg. He walked with a limp now, his hair was just starting to grow back and there was no sign of his famous mustache. But he was still Rod, and Jimmy had never been happier to see him. They moved into an apartment together in the city, above a Chinese restaurant. Smelling chow mein all the time was a small price to pay for cheap rent, two bedrooms and a free parking spot.

"Funny how things work out, isn't it?" Rod ventured one night as he cleared away the dishes. Veggie burgers, salad and apple pie; Jimmy wondered how he ever got by in the army refusing to eat meat. "I mean, after high school..."

"I know." Jimmy smiled a little. "Remember how dumb we were back then? Me with my purple hair and you shaving, just to get a girl?" He sighed. "I still miss her, though. She was the first girl I ever...you know. Liked that way."

"Wasn't for me, but she sure was cute," Rod said. "Her family was pretty cool, too, for...y'know. Church folks."

"They were." Jimmy ran a hand through his hair. "Remember when we followed her dad around for a week for that school project?"

"And we got caught up with her grandparents in that whole thing with their dog." Rod snorted. "And that Kenny guy, Lucy thought she didn't deserve him so we had to get her to go for it." He looked up from the dish he was scrubbing. "Too bad they didn't last. They were cute together."

"Yeah." Jimmy smiled. "So...um. Any other girls in your life since then?"

"Oh, tons! None of 'em lasted more than a week, but, y'know. That's life. How 'bout you?" Jimmy's face grew hot.

"...not as many as you," he muttered. "Actually, after Lucy, I...kinda didn't date much. Or even at all. I was too busy being stupid." Also, after Lucy no other girl had caught his interest and when he was seventeen, he started wondering if he liked girls at all. But Rod didn't need to-

"You're gay, aren't you?"

-know that.

"What?"

"I can tell. All those years in the army, I'd get kind of a vibe about some of the other dudes," Rod explained. "Either they don't like women or they talk about 'em all the time to compensate..." A pause. "And I'd be that."

"You..." Jimmy wasn't sure he'd heard correctly. "So, you and I, all this time..."

"I know, right? Took me a while to figure out that's why I kept picking up girls," Rod said, finishing the dishes and joining Jimmy on the couch. "I guess Lucy ruined other girls for me!"

"Heh, maybe. She was one of a kind." Right now Lucy was the last thing on his mind, not with Rod sitting so close. His body heat, the scent of his aftershave lotion...was his hair always that blonde? His teeth always so perfectly white?

Could Lucy have known all along? Is that why she drifted away from us?

And then Rod was kissing him, and everything fell into place. Jimmy eagerly fell against his friend, losing himself in the moment.

He hoped Rod never let his mustache grow back again.