Cane23

First of all - I love your insightful comments! Second - I was contemplating about relationship between Brad, Lyn and Alexander since the beginning of the story. It came to me that they were living in surrogate family triangle. Each of them entered the friendship looking to rewrite the script they were born into: Brad wanted someone to clap when he walked into the room; Alexander wanted to be more than his lineage, more than what others told him to be and Lyn wanted to be loved without needing to shrink or perform. But here’s the tragedy - they loved one another, but not in the ways each most needed. The connections were misaligned 😉, or maybe just mismatched in timing and emotional readiness. They gave one another just enough to stay, but not enough to heal. The paradox is that they're mirrors and foils at the same time. Each of them wants connection, longs to be seen, loved, and accepted. But their emotional languages don’t translate, and their rhythms clash just slightly too often. So yes - they’re so similar it hurts, and so opposite it breaks them. They could have loved each other better if only they’d been more honest. But maybe that honesty would have shattered them even sooner. It's the classic emotional double-bind - If they had spoken the truth (about love, fear, desire, disappointment) …they might have built something real. But they weren't ready. Their emotional tools were still half-formed, tangled in ego, family wounds, pride, and shame. And then Brad who is…Brad…or, maybe… Brad didn’t move on…he just recreated the triangle in a more manageable form. By marrying Bella and keeping Luke close, Brad recreated the only emotional formation he ever knew - a triangle of admiration, performance, and submission. Instead of Lyn, now he has Luke, who still admires him, but without asking dangerous questions. Alexander was the cool, demanding older figure (surrogate father or older brother), whose approval Brad craved but feared, so now he has Bella, who commands respect, keeps him in line, and gives him a version of that structure. Since the beginning of the story, I'm wondering - why did Brad bring them all back together? Why the reunion of three families - the real one and two surrogate (btw, @LeeSA, I liked your previous comment about Luke being something shiny and new to present )? The answer to our wonderings about Brad may not lie in what he says - but why he has brought everyone back. And @Laura S. Fox hides the answers masterfully!

In my country - pilots and surgeons are known to drink a lot due to stressful job. I know drinking in US is not so affirmative...

Parents should send Trillion to Silvertine Ruins asap! I know he's just a kid but...oh boy, he's definitely Kieran's son!

I remembered that part while reading previous chapter. It was the moment when Luke said they'll beat them in drinking, I thought - oh boy, they'll end up on detoxification. Considering Lyn's high alcohol tolerance and the fact how much surgeons and old money aristocracy drink, Luke and Brad wouldn't have chance! 😂

All of it, plus insecure...and don't forget - enchanted! The moment the poor boy, desperate to be seen, heard the drunken man's oath - “You helped me when I was down, man. That means we’re going to be best friends forever.” - Lyn was done!

He does, just...his sweetness has the sour taste! Well, at least it's honest!

Don't forget sweet between lines...I suppose, next chapter brings the spicy! 😉

SHARP The scene is settled in a dorm, but we could analyze it through the prism of the man locker-room. As usual, there's difference in perception between Alexander and Brad’s behavior and Lyn’s reaction. Alexander and Brad, especially in this scene, are performing a kind of ritualized male closeness - touching, teasing, physical closeness, mock flirtation...these are all normal in certain male peer cultures (e.g., sports teams, frat houses, military), and they're allowed because they're presumed straight. For Lyn, who is closeted and filled with self-doubt, these same behaviors become deeply threatening and sexually charged. Lyn behaves like a gay teenager in the showers, ashamed of his gaze, trying not to stare too long, terrified of getting aroused and being seen. That fear isn't just physical - it’s existential. It’s about not belonging, about being excluded from the relaxed fraternity of straight male camaraderie. Alexander, with his casual arrogance, and Brad, with his open body confidence, move through the space with ease, while Lyn is always calculating how not to be seen as different. That moment where Alexander wipes Brad’s mouth carries a deeply layered power dynamic. It's patronizing, even humiliating in a subtle, performative way. Lyn reads it as erotic, because his gaze is filtered through desire - but there's something more complex: domination under the guise of intimacy. BITTER This scene expertly captures the emotional violence of asymmetrical affection - when friendship to one is quiet agony to the other. The bitterness is quiet, polite, and clean on the outside, but it festers inward, filling Lyn with shame, resentment, and self-erasure. The title “Bitter” doesn’t just name Lyn’s emotional state...it captures the essence of the closet: watching life happen through a glass wall, unable to touch it, while smiling like nothing's wrong. SOUR ...but why does it sound so SWEET? Alexander shows up with ice cream...a childlike, comforting object. He doesn’t come with advice, or hugs, or confessions, he comes with a tactile offering: something cold, playful, absurd. In Lyn’s quiet loneliness, that’s sweetness. This scene is sweet because it’s not trying to be. It doesn’t wrap things up with clarity or healing, but it gives Lyn something even more precious: a quiet, strange, unmistakable sense that he matters. Not loudly or perfectly...but enough. The ice cream is sour; the moment is sweet - that’s what makes it human.

“Horrible? Why did you buy it if you didn’t like it?” Lyn called out after his friend, who was already walking away. Éowyn, do you not love me, or will you not?' J.R.R. Tolkien, LOTR

@CassieQ @BendtedWreath

A tricky question because we are not choosing the best stories but stories that used the theme the best! Most of the authors did exceptional job, both with theme and writing quality! I'll admit - I cheated with one choice. I'm sure there's, at least one story that was more on the topic, but I couldn't resist voting for the choosen one!

I'd like Ironwood Nights! 😜

Or, Arcum Days, maybe? 🤔

WOW, amazing finale of an amazing story! So much material for sequels, spin-offs... I've missed Garran and Thalion on Celebratory banquet - the dynamics of their relationship would be very interesting to see! 😉 Suppose, we'll see them in epilogues... Bravo @mastershakeme!

How did I miss this amazing collage?!

Thank you for this comment. Made me read the story again. Don't know why, probably due to fast reading at the vacation, my first impression was that Henry was victim of domestic violence, and the murder was his desperate move... Nevertheless, after second reading, your explanation has more sense... Murdered for something he had said?! Unsettling indeed!

Go Go Power Rangers! And you wonder @mastershakeme why we think of Thalion being a Diva?!

This one is new for me...I mean the expression, not the 'rogering' per se... Oh, well... 🤪

"It’s not who you loved, but who you were meant to love." I see that you are preparing some more drama for our guys but, at the end, I sense that Max and Sam's relationship, as much as their feelings, is slowly going toward a real brotherhood. Looking backwards now, suppose it was meant to be since the beginning - since Max took Connor place in Sam's life.

This is the moment when readers can see what's actually going on, and it has nothing to do with Ben and Sam... or their feelings! Of course, we can see it, but Roman and Max don't want to see it. So, they invent some more rules as two grownup toddlers, caught in dominance game! Oh, breaking those rules, wrapped in your amazing humor @JJQuinn, and 'just enough' dose of irony, is going to be enormous fun reading! Cannot wait!

This chapter, volleyball scene particularly, has made me think that there is parallel between Lyn's mother and Brad with long-term effect they had on Lyn's psyche. Brad, like Lyn’s mother, represents the kind of emotionally unsafe space that leaves Lyn diminished, not because of direct harm, but because of consistent invalidation through comparison, carelessness, and ambiguity. To heal, Lyn must eventually realize that longing is not love, and that proximity to someone dazzling doesn’t make you more real...it can make you disappear. We can say that Brad’s friendship was never truly good for Lyn, not in terms of Lyn’s emotional health or self-worth. While Brad may offer “friendship,” what Lyn gets is a constant, unspoken reminder that he is “not enough” - not masculine enough, not easygoing enough, not desirable enough. Lyn ends up chasing proximity to Brad in the hope of worth, rather than feeling worthy within the friendship. Then, there's a volleyball scene, that is not about volleyball at all. It’s a quiet war for ownership, desire, and history - played with smiles, sweat, and almost-touches. Everyone's playing a different game: Alexander is winning the real war - effortlessly, amused, and in control; Brad is losing, and lashing out, unable to admit he (maybe) wants Lyn; Lyn is torn, shamed by victory, desperate to manage impressions, caught between longing for Brad and being seen by Alexander and Luke, a pawn, a placeholder, clueless to the currents swirling around him. Brad picks Luke as his partner. It’s a typical move - choosing another “golden boy” with zero explanation, but Lyn doesn’t flinch. He accepts it with quiet grace, as if he’s finally detached from the need for Brad’s validation. Lyn, now paired with Alexander, enters a new kind of dynamic. With Alexander, it’s not just strategy - it’s chemistry. There’s equality, sensual banter, and mutual recognition. Brad becomes the watcher. He sees Lyn thriving without him, and he hates it...even if he doesn’t know why. That reversal exposes something Brad has never admitted to himself - that he depended on Lyn's attention as much as Lyn depended on his (shocking, right? 😱)! There are two very interesting things in the first part of the chapter - at the moment of Lyn and Alexander shared intimacy. And stop thinking about Brad, while you’re poking my ass with your cock. The real genius of the line is that - it’s delivered like a joke, but it isn’t. And Alexander isn’t sarcastic or bitter. He doesn’t make it about Brad. He doesn’t lash out, what Alexander is really doing is issuing an invitation: I know Brad is in your head, but I’m here. You’re close to me, so be here! That’s intimate, vulnerable and that’s a quiet act of love, disguised as a dirty quip. Yes, finally, I think it is love! The second thing is: “You really look good like this,” - this is a pivotal moment. It’s not about Lyn’s appearance, or the sex. It’s about the rare glimpse Alexander catches of Lyn without his armor. This moment plants a seed for a bigger emotional shift - Lyn wants to believe this is just a fling, a post-divorce rebound. But Alexander is looking at him like someone who never really stopped seeing him. This line could become the first crack in the wall Lyn’s spent a decade building. *** So, guys, good to have my laptop finally! 🙂 Needless to say, volleyball scene is my third favorite now! And I'm so glad they won... 💪

I suppose Danny will have to heal somebody to prove he's not 'just' ordinary human! I love the tension and cannot wait next Sunday!

Maybe mother-in-law has such a dangerous weapon in her kitchen?! 🤔

Funny but, no way: Alexander chuckled. “You and your vivid imagination, Lynton. I wouldn’t let others stare at your naked ass, though. As much as shock value has its perks, your nudity is off-limits for anyone else.” And surgeon means it, seriouselly!

I just hope that, till the end of the story, Lyn will be able to see himself through Alexander's eyes! 🤞