Ross leaned back on his haunches and arched his back, stretching himself out. "He came with a bunch of his buddies to one of our games," he winced as his back popped. For a moment, he just lay there, enjoying the feeling in his tight muscles, but then hopped back on his feet in a flash. "Had seats just to the left of the bench. Once I spied him I spent every minute back there right up against the chainlink hopin' to catch his eye."

Junior watched Ross' arm muscles move as he pounded the tent stakes in. He'd read that for a long time it was illegal for athletes to use chemical means to enhance their physical attributes, but Junior was sure glad that had ended. He almost envied his dad; Ross was gorgeous. Black hair, blue eyes, the amazing body of a pro athlete, and he seemed like a real cool guy so far. If he wasn't with his dad and Junior wasn't with Sam, he'd go to bed with him in a heartbeat.

"You shoulda seen the guys in the pit laughing at me, all doe-eyed. When your dad finally noticed and gave me a wink I broke out with the biggest smile on my face. Got one of the aides to get a message to him, and after the game I pissed some bitchy ESPN reporter off big-time when I blew by her to go see if he was waiting by the door I'd told him to." Ross pounded another stake in, and Junior had to make himself stop staring and pound his own stakes down.

Ross wasn't helping his concentration. "Man, it's hot," he muttered to himself, and Junior's heart skipped a few beats as Ross peeled his t-shirt, already on the verge of exploding, off. The sweat glistened on Ross' skin in the dim light of the evening, and precum was leaking freely from Junior's hard-as-a-rock member.

Apparently not noticing Junior's adulating stare or burgeoning erection, Ross continued with the story. "Anyway, I'll spare you the details of what went on that night, heh," he chortled a little to himself. "We have a hard time getting together what with my road schedule and all, but when we get together..." he looked up at Junior smiling, expecting the frown from a young guy that said, "eew. Old people sex." Instead, Junior was just staring at him, and not in the eyes. He was used to it...not many guys are two hundred and twenty pounds with just six percent bodyfat. His taunt foiled, Ross ended his story before Junior got embarrassed. "Let's just say it's hot."

Suddenly feeling a bit self conscious, Junior just laughed and said, "I bet." He couldn't help but wonder what it was like to fuck this behemoth of muscle. "Your guys' locker room must be flyin' with spunk."

Ross chuckled. "Nah, kiddo, no fucking for us."

"Really? Man, if I was one of your towelboys or somethin' I'd have a real hard time not poppin' a boner everytime I walked in there."

"Lemme show ya somethin', kid." Ross pulled the front of his shorts down, exposing a sweaty, groin, completely smooth but for the tiniest lump of flesh poking out where most other guys would have a dick.

"Whoah," Junior peered. "I knew you guys all had your balls out, but..."

Ross pulled his shorts back up. "Sort of a team tradition. Goes back to the beginning of the sport - end of your rookie year they take it off."

"Doesn't that bother you? I mean, balls are one thing, but..." his voice just trailed off.

"Hell, kiddo, I've been on the andro program since I was twelve. 'fore they took it off it was the size of my thumb, anyway. Hell, I've never even had a boner."

"Really?" Junior was incredulous. "Wow." He sure liked his dick - nice, thick, and veiny. No team initiation thing is worth that, he thought to himself.

They heard Jack Senior's booming laughter coming faintly through the trees for a moment. "Your dad must be on his way back soon," Ross commented to no one in particular. The two each picked up a set of tent poles are started twisting them together. "So you into blitzball?" Ross asked. "Your buddy sure is." Into blitzball was a massive understatement when it came to Sam. He was on their college team, and the sport was pretty much his whole life. When Sam had heard he was invited along on the camping trip Junior had made it a point not to mention who Ross was, knowing that as soon as Sam saw him his head would explode: Ross was one of the players on his favorite team. He even had a poster of him up on his bedroom wall, even if it was one of about thirty. Whenever they fooled around, Junior made sure to face the other way...it just felt too weird to be fucking Sam with his father's lover staring out at him from the poster.

Ross had been cool about Sam's hero worship, though, and after getting kicked in the leg a few times Sam had finally stopped gushing. "It's kind of hard not to follow it when you're with Sam," Junior answered, a bit sheepish, "but until him I never really paid much attention to it, honestly. Sam, though...let's just say I'm glad there are only twenty teams in the league, you know?"

"Total geek, huh?" Ross smiled. "Yeah, so am I. Lucky for me your dad puts up with it." The two of them laughed a little.

"So...I mean, does it bother you? That you can't really, um, fuck anybody?"

"Eh...not really," Ross answered. "It bothered your dad more than me."

"Yeah," Junior's voice took a downturn. "I dunno. I guess that's just what worries me about Sam."

"How so?"

"Well...I really like screwin' around with him. I guess...I guess it just worries me that when he gets nutted he's not gonna want to anymore, you know?"

Ross took a deep breath. "Well...that's just kinda the thing 'bout datin' a blitz player, I guess. A real Hobson' choice."

Junior relaxed a little, and realized his shirt was about soaked through with sweat. "Man, it IS hot today." He'd wanted to pull his shirt off earlier, but next to Ross he felt a little...inadequate. Having the wet fabric sticking to him had overcome his nervousness at this point, and he pulled his shirt off, too. The breeze felt good against his skin, and with some relief he felt his boner soften.

For his part, Ross was having a hard time not finding Junior attractive himself. He looked just like Jack - the straw-blond hair, grey eyes, crooked nose...he looked just like his dad had at that age.

The two of them slid the tent poles through the loops in the tent, and tucked the pole ends into the corners, forcing them to bow upward and raise the tent. The two stood back and surveyed their work. "Looks good. Time for a beer," Ross proclaimed, and the two of them got the coolers and a bunch of camp chairs out of the back of the truck.

A few hundred yards away, Jack Sr. and Sam were busy collecting dry sticks and branches. "So how's the season going?" Jack tried to strike up a conversation. He'd only met Sam briefly in the past, but it was clear that he and his boy were really attached to each other.

"We're doin' okay, 10 and three so far. I'd do better if I could do the androgen programs," Sam was modest. Even without the strength or size of some of his teammates, he was still one of the best players on the team, and the only power forward in the college league that wasn't chemically enhanced. He was in the running for league MVP, and was already being scouted by pro teams.

Jack was taken aback a bit. "You're not on the androgens?" he asked, surprised. Sam was huge for a twenty-year old, at least two hundred pounds and the kid was only about five foot six. "I wouldn't have guessed. You're almost as big as Ross is."

"I know. I gotta work real hard to keep up with everybody else, but man, I'd be so much better if I could get my balls pricked." A prerequisite to the extreme muscle-building programs that strength athletes went through was the destruction or removal of their gonads. Natural testosterone interfered with the process, and going through the program without having been castrated could cause dangerous chemical imbalances. "I turn twenty-one in a month, though. That's gonna be my birthday present to myself."

"So, I gotta ask," Sam smiled sheepishly. "How is he, umm...you know, in bed?" Jack let out a hearty, loud belly laugh. Sam was taken aback, not expecting it. "What?"

"Ross and I...well, our relationship isn't all that sexual...exactly."

"Really? Man, a guy like that...I mean, Jack - Jack Junior - I wouldn't ever cheat on him or anything, but if I was with Ross Harrow...man." Sam's brain shut down just thinking about it.

"He's real smitten with you, you know," Jack changed the subject.

"Yeah, and me with him. I...just..." Sam sighed, unsure how to put it.

"What?"

"Well...it just worries me, that, you know, once my nuts are gone..." Sam paused to figure out how he was gonna say it. "Sometimes I just worry that he's only with me for the sex, and once I'm not having it anymore, he's not gonna want me. I mean, my last two boyfriends said they couldn't compete with the sport and dumped my ass." Sam laughed to himself. "I dunno if he's gonna want to put up with all that without getting much nookie. 'course, I guess you know what that's like now, dating Ross."

Jack laughed a little. "Yeah, it's hard sometimes, but we manage." He stopped to think a moment, then kept on. "It's funny; after my wife died I always expected I'd remarry, but I wasn't expecting it to be to a man. Much less a famous pro athlete, heh," he chortled. "And yeah, sometimes I really want to go out and fuck somebody, but...well...I guess I'm in love."

And there was the kicker, the thing Sam was never really sure about. Did Junior love him for him or just for his body, for his cock? Sam lay awake some nights thinking about it, but never could figure it all out.

"Well, that's enough firewood, I think," Jack remarked. "Let's get on back."

Jack Sr. and Sam got back to camp to find the others sitting around drinking. Murray and Randall had already gotten back with enough stones for the firepit, and Ross was regaling them with the tale of some championship game. Sam and Jack got to buildling a cone out of the sticks so it would light easy once they were ready to. "So here I am, within arms' reach of the goal zone, buried beneath about five guys, wondering how I'm gonna get out, right?" Ross continued.

"This is the '56 game, right?" Sam piped up, excitedly, already having figured out what game it had been just from that sentence. "Against the Loonies?"

"Yeah. You couldn't see this on the cameras, but I ended up having to headbutt Sanders. Guy passes right out, yah? So he goes limp, and all his teammates feel it. They figure the whistle's been blown, so all stand up off him looking at each other to see if play's been stopped. Well, I roll right out from under him and barely manage to touch the ball to the zone. You should have seen the look on their faces when they realized there were only two minutes to go in the game and I just put us up by three points. Priceless."

"Sam, are you gonna help with this or just stare at my fiancee?" Sam was just staring at Ross, piece of wood in hand. Jack thumped him in the back of the head.

"Oh, sorry, Mr. Turner," Sam apologized, and slowly went back to building the woodpile, absentmindedly listening to the rest of the story.

"Hey, toss us a coupla beers, Jack," Murray spoke up. Murray was Jack's younger brother, a career cop, who had come along with his longtime partner, Randall. They'd met in jail, of all places - Randall had been something of a delinquent when he was younger, and they'd struck up a relationship in the pen. Once he got out, Murray'd had Randall move in with him, and they'd been together ever since.

Murray was a man of few words - one of those men who only spoke when he needed to, which only made gave his voice that much more gravitas when he did. He was a little taller than Jack Senior, and the two were built similarly, with the same blonde hair and crooked nose as his brother and nephew. He caught the beers Jack tossed him and leaned back in his chair, taking a big gulp.

"You gonna share that beer or are both for you?" Randall asked, a little annoyed. Junior had never known what to make of Randall; he didn't see him or his uncle that much. He'd been taller than Randall since he was fourteen; the guy was barely over five foot tall, and slender, bearing the mark of an ex-con: all his hair had been permanently removed, even his eyebrows. Sam always thought it made him look kind of like an alien, but the tattoos all over him dispelled that notion pretty quickly.

Murray begrudingly tossed him the other beer. Randall popped it open and it sprayed foam all over him Murray. "Aw, hell," Randall cussed, standing up to shake the foam off him.

"Dolt," Murray joshed him. Their shirts were both pretty soaked.

"Aw, man, now my shorts are gonna smell like beer all night," Randall bitched.

"So take 'em off," Murray said. "Not like you got anything to hide under there."

Randall dropped his shorts and pulled them off, standing there only in his hiking boots. Junior knew Randall had been in jail, and therefore not been allowed to keep his genitals, but had never actually seen him nude before. His eyes traced the intricate tattoo lines up and down Randall's slender frame, unbroken when they ran through his smooth groin and down between his legs.

Sam hadn't picked up on Randall's lack of eyebrows or connected that with jail time, so posed a stupid question. "Wow. What happened to your penis?" he asked, point-blank.

"Huh?" Randall was taken aback. It wasn't something he usually had to explain... "They do it to you in Juvie. Keeps the kids from fucking each other silly."

"You were in jail?" Sam was incredulous. Murray snickered.

"Since I was twelve. I had a problem with authority."

"Until he met me, anyway," Murray interjected with a smile.

"'course they probably shouldn't have, in my case," Randall snickered. "Hell, if I'd a dick to play with I wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble."

"You get into plenty of trouble without it," Murray pointed out.

"Yeah, true." Randall started poking through his bag, looking for another pair of shorts, but they were buried way deep in he and Murray's stuff. "Aw, screw it," he said, plunking himself back down in his chair without bothering to put any more clothing on.

"What say we spark this mess, eh?" Jack suggested.

A few hours later the six of them lay around the fire, paired up into couples, watching the flames, bellies stuffed on hot dogs, chips, and beer. They'd spent the early evening skinny dipping down by the lake, and nobody had bothered putting their clothes back on.

Ross sat up on a log, Jack Senior on the ground between his legs, leaning back against Ross' rippled abdomen. Jack was hardly a small man but was still dwarfed by Ross, who had his thick arms around Jack's shoulders, his hands slowly rubbing Jack's fuzzy chest, brushing a nipple every once in awhile, making Jack's cock twitch. Randall and Murray sat on one of the blankets, Randall with his legs out and wide open. Sam had a hard time keeping his eyes away from Murray - not because he found him all that attractive, but that smooth groin just kept grabbing his attention.

Sam and Junior had a log of their own, nursing their beers. Junior wanted to sneak off into the woods and fool around, but figured that would have to wait until later. For the moment he was content to nuzzle with Sam and make idle chitchat with his family and friends. He lay his head over on Sam's shoulder, and Sam put his arm up around him. Junior could feel his bicep pressing into the back of his neck, the massive muscle firm, hard...he popped a boner, but if anybody noticed, nobody said anything.

This was nice...just laying here. Junior looked at his dad and Ross, with those content little smiles on their faces, and smiled too. He really liked Ross. He hoped everything worked out for them. His dad had been pretty lonely since his mom had died, and it had showed. "Wonder if I'll have that kinda relationship someday," he thought, looking at the two of them. "I sure hope so." He looked up at Sam and pecked him on the mouth. Sam just smiled and kissed him back, the day's stubble on his cheeks rubbing against Junior's face like sandpaper.

Jack Senior watched them across the fire, through the flickering orange tongues of flame. He was glad to see his boy with someone good for him. "The way they look at each other..." he thought to himself. Just like he used to with his wife.

He craned his head up, pushing his noggin back against Ross's smooth pecs, staring up at his lover's face as framed by the night sky. The light from the flames danced across his face, gently illuminating his lips, his cheekbones. This wasn't a feeling he ever expected to have again after Diane died. "I must be the luckiest guy in the world," he thought to himself, unconsciously muttering it aloud.

Ross looked down at him and kissed him on the forehead. "You're not the only one, baby." The two of them giggled a bit, like little kids first discovering how nice it felt to touch each other, to be held. "You want to make your announcement?" Ross asked him quietly.

"Yeah. Guess it's about time," Jack smiled. He stood up and stretched. "Okay guys, I've got an announcement to make." Everybody looked up at him.

Jack stood to Ross's side and the two held hands. "Ross asked to marry him, and I said yes."

Murray, Randall, and the kids all clapped. "Congratulations, guys," Randall offered. "I always knew you'd bag yourself a good one," he winked at Ross, who laughed. This came as no surprise to any of them, but they were still really happy for Jack and Ross.

"Neither of us was interested in a big formal thing, so we technically did it yesterday down at the county courthouse," Jack continued. "But, well...this is gonna be our real ceremony." He paused a moment. "Ross?"

"You sure you're okay with this?" Ross asked. Jack just nodded.

Sam and Junior had no idea what was going on until Ross pulled some things out of one of their bags. Randall recognized one of them - he'd used one just it like many, many times. "Jack? What's with the castrator?" he asked. Jack was only in his late thirties; usually men didn't have themselves castrated until their mid-forties.

"This...this is gonna be the symbol of my committment. We've talked about it for awhile, and well...I figure it's time. I just wanted you guys to be here for this." He gave Junior a wink.

Ross was down on one knee, putting the tool around Jack's sac. He pulled Jack's balls down through the hoop and got his hand on the trigger. Jack got hard as a rock from the feeling of Ross's hand on his nuts, thick and veiny like his brother and sons'. "I love ya, buddy," Jack stroked his head.

"I love you, too, Jack." Ross pulled the trigger, and with a light splat, his testicles fell to the ground, tightly sealed inside Jack's scrotum, the spot where it used to hang from his cock sealed shut.

Ross put the castrator down and picked up another tool with the team logo on it. "What's that?" Murray asked.

"Well, I'm not really supposed to take team property home, hehe," Ross chortled, "but this is our official team penectomizer." Jack's comment about he and Ross not having a very sexual relationship suddenly became clear to Sam. He knew guys who had been on the andro as young as Ross had usually didn't have much of a sex drive, and some guys lost theirs once they started. He wondered if he would.

Junior watched Ross put the tool over his dad's cock. His own boner had come out to say hello as well; the purple mushroom at the end of his dick flushed. He reached over and grabbed Sam's, never taking his eyes off his dad, and wrapped his fingers around Sam's dick, which was as hard as his was. Randall's boner lay flat on his belly. He glanced over at the kids... "Yeah, them too..." he thought to himself. Something about nutting a guy...he'd not known a cop on the force that didn't get a boner castrating another man. He sure did.

Sam was intensely envious of Jack Senior, slipping his cock inside the same spot that all the members of the team had...getting to participate in something only they had. He wanted it to cut his dick off, too...not because he particularly wanted his penis removed, but because...because Ross had, and Francisco Vasquez and all the other players on the team had. He wanted to share in that, to have that in common with his heroes.

"Here we go," Ross announced. He looked up at Jack. "You ready, hubby?" Jack winked and nodded. Ross pulled the trigger. Jack winced, more out of the expectation of feeling something than any actual pain, and Ross lowered the tool, leaving only a little fleshy bump where Jack's cock had been.

Junior stared at his father's groin. He'd seen his dad naked plenty of times since he was a kid, and seeing him without the big veiny tool or plump balls that had produced him was, well, odd. It seemed so weird...sure Murray was all smooth down there, but they did that to him, and Ross...well, it was a sports thing. Why would his dad do it, though? Wasn't having himself castrated enough? He just couldn't imagine not having his...

He caught the look in his dad's eyes, staring down at Ross as his now-husband fished his dad's dick back out of the machine. He seemed...content. Happy. Junior may not have understood it, but if it made his dad happy he'd be supportive and all.

Ross grabbed Jack's balls from the ground and stood up, Jack's cock in his other hand, and kissed his new husband deeply. "Hear, hear!" Randall shouted, and clapped. The other joined in, giving a good hooting, happy for the newlyweds.

When they finished sucking face, he gave Jack his genitals back. Jack looked down, staring at his severed cock and balls sitting in his hands. "Here's to a new life," he said, and tossed them in the fire.

Junior awoke in the middle of the night to find himself alone in the tent he'd shared with Sam. He poked his head out the tent, wondering where his lover had gone, and saw him out by the fire, watching the coals die down.

"Hey," he greeted Sam quietly.

"Hey." Sam sounded oddly depressed.

"Pretty crazy evening, huh?"

"Yeah." Sam never took his eyes off the coals, the dim light shining off his skin, sweaty from the heat, shiny from being stretched over his muscles.

Junior sat down next to him and put his arm around Sam's shoulders. "Do you love me, Jack?" Sam never called him Junior.

"Well, um," Junior was surprised by the question. "Uhh..." He'd never really thought about it before, really.

Sam stood up, throwing Junior's arm off him. "What, you don't know?" Sam turned to face him.

Junior stared straight ahead as Sam turned, the sight before him keeping his brain from comprehending the question. Sam's cock and balls were gone...just that little lump remained. Junior looked down to see the castration and penectomy tools glinting in the firelight.

"Did...did you use those...on yourself?" Junior asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I did," Sam whispered, his eyes getting wet. "Now I don't have to wait for the parents' permission..." How could Jack be asking him that, of all things. "But that doesn't matter, Jack. Do...do you love me?"

Junior didn't know what to think. Did he really love Sam, love him like his dad loved Ross, had loved his mother? How was he supposed to even know something like that? His head was spinning; he was so confused...he knew Sam wanted him to say yes, was waiting for him to say yes, but...

"Augh!" Sam moaned, and stomped back to their tent without another word.

Junior sat watching the fire. He'd just been expecting a pleasant weekend, not his dad's marriage, and certainly not this. What was he supposed to say, anyway?

He heard footsteps behind him, and turned to see Murray's approach. "Hey," Murray greeted him, his voice low.

"Hey," Junior answered back.

"Was somebody else just out here? Thought I heard a shout," Murray asked, looking around.

"Oh. Sam and I..." Junior just sighed.

Murray looked down at him, recognizing that look on Junior's face. He sat down next to his nephew, and watched the fire with him for a minute. "You know earlier, when we were all just lying around, Randall and I were watching the two of you," Murray said, the firelight dancing in his eyes. "The kid wears his emotions on his sleeve."

"Yeah," Junior sighed again. They sat in silence for a moment. "Murray...how do you know if...if you're really in love? I mean REALLY in love, not just way into somebody?"

"Wow, talk about eternal questions," Murray smiled a bit, but Junior clearly wasn't in the kind of mood that just needs some cheering up.

"I mean, you and Uncle Randy...how did you know?"

Murray took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Well, kiddo...I don't think anybody really knows, at first. Me and your uncle, well, hell...I gave him more trouble than any of the other guards, back in the joint. Wasn't until one of the other guys said something that I realized there was something there.

"I guess..." he continued, "let me put it this way. I can't imagine myself being with anybody else. I mean, sure, I might look at some other guy, but when I look at your uncle, I don't just see his face, or his uniform or whatever. Mostly...I just see the one person I want to be around, more than any other. The person I want to make happier than anybody else in the world."

Junior didn't say anything. "That help?" Murray asked.

"I dunno," Junior muttered.

Murray stood up and put his hand on Junior's back. "Well kiddo, if you did, you wouldn't be human." He turned and went back into the tent.

Junior just sat a moment, thinking. The light from the coals glinted off the castrator, still lying on the blanket where Ross had left it.

A few minutes later, he crawled back into the tent. Sam was pretending to sleep. "Sam?" Junior asked. Sam didn't move. "Sam...will you marry me?"

Sam turned over, his eyes still wet. "Huh?"

"I...I do love you." Junior lay down on his back next to Sam and clasped hands. Sam felt something squishy in Junior's hand...something familiar. "Samuel Justin Kelly, will you marry me?" Junior repeated.

Sam realized what Junior had handed him, blinked the tears out of his eyes, and got up on one elbow. "Y...yes. Yes. Oh, god, yes!" He fell atop Junior, releasing all his pent-up frustration in one long, deep kiss that seemed to go on, forever.