Yes, I decided to give you all a treat today - a second chapter! Enjoy...

Ends and Beginnings : Part IX

Jeff handed the keys over to Luke with no qualms; he knew that his cousin, his boyfriend, and the four former Warblers that were going to live in the house would respect it and take good care of his property. He left the three of them to it just as Seth finally managed to get through to Skylar back at Dalton. He had told Jeff that he would tell the other three that they had managed to find them somewhere to live at a good rent in a great location, but leave it at that; he would let Jeff tell them everything else himself when he saw them in six days time.

As Jeff made his way down the steps to the street, intending to head back to his own new place next door, he suddenly found himself being grabbed simultaneously from both sides, as Flint and Ethan pulled him into a tight group hug on the sidewalk. "Oh my God, Jeff! It is absolutely beautiful and perfect! It is all that we could have hoped for and more, and worth so much more than the rent that you are going to be charging us. You really should be taking more money from us," exclaimed Ethan.

"As I already explained to you guys, I am not interested in the money. All that I want is to help out my friends, and see that you all have somewhere nice and safe to live in the city. New York is expensive, and if I have the means to let all of you live in relative comfort for next to nothing, then I am going to do so. It is my duty as a Warbler."

"Well I'm certainly not going to argue with you over the rent if that is what you want to charge," said Flint. "I just want you to know, blondie, that I am eternally grateful to you for this gesture, and I will make it up to you somehow in a gesture that you cannot possibly refuse. I think that taking you and Nick out to dinner one night in a top restaurant would be a good start, and I will be paying. I've got a good job lined up, and this place is just the icing on the cake."

"Well, if you insist, then I will not turn you down, but you don't have to. I just want everyone to be happy," replied Jeff with a smile.

"Well I am! Home, job and girl all sorted; living with a good roommate with my best buddy right upstairs. All I need to do now is find someone for Ethan, and everything will be sorted." Ethan said nothing as Flint finished, just looked distant and distracted. Jeff excused himself, deciding on a whim to go and check up on Elliott, Beats and the boys.

Flint and Ethan followed him in, heading back into their own apartment, grinning at the happy noises coming from the place upstairs. Once they were back inside with the door closed, Flint spoke out. "Ethan, you are ok about living here with me? I just ask as I get the impression that there is something bothering you, and you aren't as happy as you might be. Is it something that I have said or done? Look, I know that I am not Drew, but if there is something bothering you, you can talk to me about it…"

Ethan sighed, then turned to face Flint. "No, Flint, you've not done or said anything, not really. It's just that there is something else going on inside of me, and it has been building up recently. It isn't something that I have ever shared with anyone, even Drew. It just starts to build up and eat away at me sometimes, and it makes me a bit down. It will pass, trust me."

"If Wes was still around, he would tell you that isn't a healthy situation; that if you have an issue, then you should talk it out with somebody. Look, if you ever want to share anything with me, I will keep it to myself. Whenever you are ready, I will be here, and I will listen and not judge. You're a good friend, and I hope that if I can help you in anyway, you will let me."

Ethan sighed, knowing that Flint was right. On the spur of the moment, he made a decision. "I suppose that now we are going to be living together, just the two of us, then maybe I should speak up - but it has to be in the strictest of confidence, okay? Just between us…"

"Of course," said Flint. "I know the bro code; whatever you tell me goes no further, although you know as well as I do that I cannot stop angels listening in."

Ethan chuckled, and moved to sit on the couch, signalling to Flint to sit next to him. "That is very true, but I haven't felt any draughts recently, so we seem to be Wes free at the moment. Ok, so I guess what I want to say is that you don't need to try and find somebody for me. I am happy as I am, and if we are being totally honest… You remember when Beats admitted that he was pansexual; well I am pretty certain that I am the exact opposite. I have been thinking back, and it all makes sense. I guess what I am saying is that I am asexual. I don't have any need or desire for a girl. I am sure that I am straight, more or less, but I just have no need or urge for sex or intimacy with anyone. Never have, even back at Dalton when everyone's hormones were raging…"

Flint looked at him, then smiled. "Oh, okay, well that's cool. I mean, as long as you are happy, then it doesn't matter to me what you feel you are. I can actually totally understand why you might feel that way. I used to think that sex was way too much hassle, with my mother and all, plus there was the fact that all those urges kept taking my mind off my work!"

"Now, I don't want anyone else to know, at least not yet. People will probably work it out for themselves eventually. I mean, I do love all of my friends, but that is as far as love goes with me. Platonic, unthreatening, nice. My parents would never understand, and every so often I will get a call, or an invite, wanting me to meet someone's daughter. They want grandchildren eventually, I guess. An heir to the family business. Well, they should have had more kids of their own if that was what they wanted, because they will not be getting them through me, unless I adopt. Maybe I will do that, one day…"

"Well, if you do, then I can promise here and now that you can count on me and the other guys for support. Until then, anytime that you need to talk, I will be here; and when and if you decide to tell the others, then I will be right there at your side."

Ethan smiled across at Flint, glad that he had finally taken the step to admit the truth about himself to someone. He had been struggling with it silently since his Dalton days. It was easy then just to say that work and the environment they were in made it too difficult for him to try and find a girlfriend; then he had resorted to telling people sadly that his parents had someone in mind for him, and that she was a lovely girl, and he felt obligated to honour his folks by at least seeing where the relationship went. The others had not understood why he took that position, but they had accepted it. Then he had taken the decision to go to school abroad, and that had been marvellous; he told everyone that he had a girl back in the States, and everyone at Cambridge had accepted it. At least they had until that fateful day when Drew had been visiting and had begun to talk about Lucy, and how lucky he was. When he had then stated that his mission now was to find him a girlfriend too, people had treated him strangely after that, wondering why he had made up the tale about the girl at home…

He wasn't actually too sure how Drew would react if he had been the person he had told. He would not have the same kind of understanding as Flint had he surmised, and would dismiss it as just him being shy and introverted. He had come close to telling him on several occasions, but it was all academic now in any case. Drew was not talking to him for some reason, and although he told himself that his best friend must have been struggling with the pressure of his own finals at Oxford, Ethan was more and more certain that their bro bond had snapped, overstretched by the distance of the Atlantic Ocean. Then again, he wasn't quite sure that the severing of ties was voluntary from the English end. There was something about Lucy that just got all his hackles up, and he was sure that Wes had felt it too when she had come across with Drew for Sebastian's re-wedding.

He had to respect Drew's choice though, however wrong he thought it to be himself. Interfering in matters of the heart was the surest way to lose his friend for good. He was grateful for his growing bond to Flint, someone whose own best bud was drawing away, although he was luckier than himself; his best friend was only going to be upstairs. He would not let himself get as close to Flint as he had been to Drew though. One day, he would get down on one knee and propose to Izzy, and then he too would vanish into the joys of coupledom. That was life though; now that college was over, his friends would inevitably start to drift apart as their lives spun them off in different trajectories. He wondered how long he could stay here, in the West Village, close to Nick and Jeff at least, and he realised with pleasure that Jeff's answer would be to stay as long as he wanted. Maybe that would not be an altogether terrible thing.

Upstairs, Jeff had found Elliott smiling broadly as his boyfriend, his brother and his boyfriend had explored their new home. As Josh had put it, his current place would fit into this one several times over; the place was a palace in comparison. Every room had brought gasps of joy, and he did not need to face the issues he had anticipated about the bedroom allocations either. Josh and Scott had immediately fallen for the two bedrooms at the back, the bathroom arrangement making them smile. They both knew that only one of the rooms would be used regularly, but at least Scott's parents could think they were sleeping apart, although they all knew that they weren't idiots and would grasp the truth anyway. As for Beats, he had virtually danced around the room he would soon be sharing with Elliott fulltime, at first at least. However, as they sat their on the bed, leaving the two younger men to make their own plans across the hall, Elliott noticed that Beats seemed distracted.

"So, what's up? You've become very quiet all of a sudden. Do you not like the place, or is it…" Elliott stopped short, not wishing to express his secret fears.

Beats realised that, and immediately grabbed his hand. "Oh, Ell, it isn't what you are thinking. I love you so very much, and that will never change! It's just that this is such a big step, moving in together. It is something that I once thought would never, ever happen to me. However, it has, and I am just a little overcome by it all. I just feel so happy at the moment; I feel as if I could burst! I want to shout and sing at the top of my voice! I love you, Elliott Gilbert. It's been a tough few months for us, but we've got there, and I've even got used to my glasses now."

"I for one love your glasses," said Elliott in a low, seductive tone. "They make you look even hotter, my sexy Preppy Boy…"

"And that reminds me that I will have to head back to Princeton soon, because Flint and I need to get ready for our penultimate show tonight," sighed Beats. "You know, when I started the act, I was so ashamed of what I was doing; felt that I had sunk almost as low as I could go. It caused me to fight with Flint, but we all know how that turned out in the end. I still can hardly believe that Flint Wilson, the food, quiet Jewish boy of the Warblers agreed to become a stripper in a gay bar. And I will tell you something else - I think that he is going to miss doing it more than me!"

"It is funny how stuff in life turns out… Of course, that was what first drew my attention to you, Nate; that big fight that the two of you had that Christmas Day."

"And it was that attraction that proceed to lead to fight number two with Flint! I guess whatever we do in life, we will just need to keep him in the loop. He will always have a very special spot in my heart."

"I know that, and that is perfectly alright by me. He is your best bud after all; your long term partner in crime."

"Yeah, but you Ell are my best friend. You are the one that I want to spend every day of the rest of my life with. I think that you and I are going to be very happy here, for a very long time…"

Elliott leaned over and kissed Beats on the lips, a kiss that was at once reciprocated. It was cut short by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps and two younger voices chattering away with excitement. There was a knock at the door, and after a quick glance at Beats, Elliott said "You can come in now Josh, but it had better be good!"

The door swung open to reveal a grinning Josh, followed by a slightly more sheepish Scott. "See, I told you that we weren't going to be interrupting anything. Beats and my brother might well be hopelessly in love, but that doesn't mean that they are up to stuff if they're in the bedroom together with the door closed, just as we weren't doing anything when Jeff appeared. He said to say that he is heading back to his new place now, and that Nick had brought some cookies and stuff over from Bushwick yesterday if we all wanted to join them for a cup of coffee or a juice…"

"Let me guess. You two want to go and eat?" said Elliott.

"I heard on the grapevine that Nick's cookies are to die for, so based on that alone, yes," replied Josh.

"Well, I don't see any reason why we can't. We have the keys, we've all sorted out rooms and are happy, so now it is just going to be a case of deciding exactly when we move in," said Beats. "For me, that will probably be at the same time as Flint and Ethan move, just to save on expenses - and I'm guessing that won't be until the start of next month."

"Well I am fully intending to tell my dear landlord where she can stick her apartment as soon as I can. I used to like her, but since Valentine's she has morphed into a total bitch, so I just want out ASAP. I don't have that much to bring, and so I will probably move in next week sometime," said Elliott.

"Let me know what day, and I will come over and help," said Beats with a grin.

"Josh will no doubt want to be here sooner rather than later too," continued Elliott. "However, I think that we should wait until school is finally out before he moves in so he has time to get used to the place. As for Scott…"

"That will all depend on my mom and dad," came his reply. "I mean, they know that it is going to happen, but not when as of yet. Even then, there is no guarantee that they will let me move in with my boyfriend. They might say I'm too young to do that."

"I can't honestly see why they would object," said Elliott. "I will speak to them and give them the big sell; good neighbourhood, close to school, with adult supervision. Trust me, I think that it will all be more than okay with them."

"I hope so," said Scott, taking Josh's hand. "because the whole set up here is just perfect."

Whilst Jeff had been walking from house to house, enjoying the thanks of his friends, Nick had been coping with his three visitors alone. He had of course given them the full guided tour, and had smiled at the looks on the faces of Sam, Brittany and Santana. He had stood with Sam and watched with a grin as Santana and Brittany had tried out a few dance moves on the sprung floor. They had both refused to join in, despite the protests of Brittany in the main. They all had to agree that the set up had to be perfect for Mike, whose dancing couldn't help but improve all the more on such a surface. There was a lot of jealousy in their eyes though when they saw the bedrooms and the luxurious nature of the en-suite bathrooms. The view across the city from the top floor studios were also deemed breathtaking. Then Nick escorted them all down to the kitchen, where Santana stood in silence and just gazed for a minute, then started to mumble about Martha Stewart.

Nick ignored the comments, and made them drinks, bringing out a box of cookies. "I know that I am so lucky to have all of this. If I hadn't decided to go for it with Jeff; if I hadn't realised at the last minute just how much he meant to me, then who knows where I would be now. Jeff was so determined at first that he wasn't going to take anything from Gordon, and if I hadn't made some valid points, and if he had never seen that studio, then he would have told Grace that her efforts were in vain, and to hand it all over to the government."

"And then so many people would have been left in a mess!" remarked Sam. "I admit that I am jealous, because you have managed to swerve the problems of the 'L' train in one swoop. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am grateful to Blaine for leaving us our place, but now it is a liability in some ways. It leaves us rooted in Bushwick, and when the day comes when the train does stop…"

"It will not be fun," agreed Santana. "I guess that we could sell, but Rachel would see that as being disloyal to the memory of Klaine, even if the two of them came and told her that it wasn't, and that we could sell!"

"Yeah, she can be so full on…" pondered Sam. "The thing is, she will be less affected than the rest of us, because she can always ask for a town car."

"That is assuming that she is still appearing in Funny Girl," remarked Nick. "After all, there is no guarantee that the show will still be running, and even if it is, she might have moved on to another role by then, and they might not be quite so generous…"

"I shall remind her of that point," said Santana. "It might just persuade her to consider the future a little more carefully…"

Before anyone could say anymore, they heard the sound of the door opening upstairs, and then the sound of feet as the others started to come and join them. Ethan and Flint were the first to appear, carrying Artie between them, Mike and Kitty following on behind, the former carrying his friend's chair. Not long after than, everyone was assembled around the table, tucking into Nick's cookies, and ready to celebrate the fact that they all had found a new home, and could look forward to a future where they lived close together, as a circle of friends became a community in its own right.