Chapter Two - Dragons and Freeze Tag

Half an hour later, all the guests are there, and Nick and Jeff have been thrown outside with all thirteen seven year olds.

Nick looks around from his seat on the edge of the porch next to Jeff. "Well, this isn't that hard. They don't look like they need much incentive." He points out; referring to the screaming and running they were doing all by themselves.

Jeff nods. "Yeah. For now. I keep expecting them to all come running to us complaining of boredom and asking for cake."

Nick laughs. "Well, I guess we better enjoy it while it lasts." He stands up and looks down at Jeff. "Do you want a soda?"

Jeff smiles and nods. He usually didn't like it when Nick did things for him, but he figured it was nice to let someone else be the gentleman for a while. And it was his house.

As soon as Nick retreats back into the kitchen, Katie comes running up to Jeff. "Jeffy! Jeffy! Jeffy! Come play with us, come play!" she jumps up and down, already grabbing his hand and pulling him up.

Jeff laughs, unable to resist the little girl's enthusiasm. "What am I playing?"

"We're gonna play princesses, and the boys are the princes, and you're the big scary dragon that tries to eat us!" she explains, leading him over to a tree and dropping his hand. "You're the evil dragon that hides the princesses, and the princes are gonna save us, k?"

Jeff laughs. "Ok." Then, after Katie runs back to her friends, he starts roaring like a dinosaur, making claws with his hands.

"Eeeee!" the girls scream, and run away.

Jeff chases the girls twice around the tree, before the little blonde one shouts "Help! Help!" and all the boys, who had been looking around for long sticks to use as swords, come charging at Jeff, making war cries and yelling at him.

Jeff turns away from the girls, and roars at the boys, blocking their path to their 'princesses'. "ROAR!" he yells, and the boys all come closer. Some charge at him and some weave around his waving arms to get to the damsels in distress. Jeff reaches out with both arms and grabs one of the tallest boys, swinging him around playfully.

The boy shouts and struggles to get free, and one of his friends runs at Jeff from behind and pokes him in the back with his stick.

Jeff makes a strangled sound, and lets the boy down, who crawls away. Jeff falls to the ground slowly, making a big show of dying, letting a few more boys come over and poke him with their sticks.

Finally, Jeff stops making pained dinosaur noises, and lies limp.

When the 'princes' are satisfied, they all yell victoriously, and the 'princesses' all make a show of thanking them, hugging and kissing their cheeks (which the boys promptly rub off viciously).

Jeff opens one eye to see if they are gone, and when he sees they left, he opens both and sits up. He looks around, and catches sight of Nick sitting on the porch, watching him with a bemused smile on his face. Jeff blushes and stands up, making his way over to Nick, relieved when the kids run past him, seemingly forgetting their little adventure a few minutes ago.

"Thanks." Jeff greets, and takes his soda, opening it.

Nick gives him a look, and Jeff rolls his eyes. "What? Your little sister literally dragged me over there and made me be a dragon for their little game. Don't judge me."

Nick laughs and quickly dips down, kissing Jeff's cheek. "I think it was adorable. You make an outstanding dragon."

Jeff laughs, ignoring his blush. "Why thank you. Maybe next time you can join me." He kids, and Nick shakes his head, laughing.

When they finish their sodas, Nick puts them in the recycle, and comes out to find his sister yelling at Terri, with all the others watching them, and Jeff walking quickly towards the group.

Nick quickly makes his way over to them, getting there at the same time as Jeff. "What happened?"

"Terri pushed me in the dirt." Katie whines, and Terri jumps in angrily.

"No I didn't! I was running away from Andy! You got in my way!"

Jeff holds up his hands. "Ok, ok, calm down! Katie, Terri didn't mean to push you, it was an accident. Now, Terri, can you apologize to Katie?"

"But it was an accident!" Terri complains, and Nick kneels down to her eye level.

"Even if it was an accident, you still need to say sorry. It's the nice thing to do."

Terri sighs. "Sorry."

Katie looks at Nick and Jeff, and Jeff stage whispers "Say 'I forgive you'."

Katie looks back at Terri. "I forgive you." she repeats, and Terri smiles. "Let's play a different game. This is getting boring."

Jeff looks at Nick. "How about tag?"

"That's boring!" a sandy-haired boy sighs over dramatically.

Nick perks up excitedly. "What about freeze tag?" he asks animatedly, making all the kids 'ooh' and 'ahh'.

While Jeff marvels as how well his boyfriend is with kids, one of them asks "What's that?"

Nick explains the rules, and Katie tells him she has to be the It first, because it is her birthday. Nick grins mischievously and starts to count. "Five, four…"

All the kids scream and run away, and Katie pulls at Jeff's hand, needing to be held back before the time is up.

"… One, GO!" he yells, and Jeff lets her go. The girls all scream and run, while a few of the boys try to get away be climbing the tree.

Jeff and Nick laugh and go back to the porch together.

They talk and watch the game, stopping it every so once in a while to appoint a new tagger.