A Ticklish Thriller (Revised) - 21. The Greatest Gift pt. 1

As the afternoon progressed, Lance continued to stick to his older brothers like glue. None of them said anything discouraging as they accepted the loving and affectionate attention he gave them. At one point, Mikey looked at the clock, then smiled as he lightly stroked his younger brother's hair. He also leaned to the left to kiss his mate's soft lips. He playfully tickled Lance's exposed armpit and said, "Hey, baby bro."

Lance giggled, squirmed, and let go of the older brunet's waist. "Yeheah, Mihihikey?"

"Do you still want to make dinner, or would you rather we order something?" Mikey asked. He lowered his head and softly kissed Lance's cheek. His sock-clad toes scrunched, his soles wrinkled because his feet arched, and his body wriggled from side to side. His giggles blended with his brother's when Lance slipped his hand under the hem of his shirt and twisted his index finger in his navel. "Nohohot myhyhy behehelly buhuhutton," he squealed.

"I'm not sure yet," Lance smiled. He kissed Mikey's cheek and blew a raspberry on his neck.

"Don't worry about dinner. Adam, Jai, and I have it covered," Dakota said. He shook his head and giggled at his giggly mate and playful little brother.

"Lancer, you and Mikey are just too damn adorable," Adam stated. He chuckled and hugged Dakota.

"What did I do to deserve the hug, Ad?" Dakota asked as he returned the affectionate gesture.

"You're my awesome big brother and the perfect match for our Mikey," Adam said, giggling. He stood on his toes and kissed his raven-haired brother. He gasped and squeaked when Dakota wrapped his arms around his waist and lifted him off the floor in a bear hug.

Jai smiled at his future husband and brothers as he walked around, snapping pictures of everyone's antics and capturing the immense joy they all felt because they were together and loved one another. Mikey and Lance shared a look, then moving as one unit, they tackled their older brother and tickled his sides, armpits, and the back of his thighs and knees. He shrieked, kicked, and thrashed around on the hardwood floor, trying to dislodge the giggling ticklers. He wore a bright smile and panted when the tickling ceased, and he was given a double-sided bear hug and a kiss on each cheek.

Adam giggled as he approached the trio on the floor. He knelt down, kissed his mate and baby brother, then scooped Mikey into his arms and said, "I'm borrowing my baby brother for a little bit."

Jai and Lance smiled, nodded, then headed into the kitchen to get some egg nog.

Mikey giggled as he wrapped his arms around his brother's neck. He squealed and kicked his legs when Dakota walked up, kissed his nose, and tickled the balls of his sock-clad feet and his arches.

"I promise to bring your angel boy back in one piece," Adam said with a chuckle. He kissed Dakota's cheek, then turned his head, kissed Mikey's cheek, and carried his brother upstairs to his and Jai's room.

Dakota sat on the sofa, and for the first time, he noticed a photo album on the bottom shelf of the side table. Being the curious guy he was, the half-Cherokee picked it up and started flipping through the pages. The Knight boys returned from the kitchen, carrying glasses of egg nog.

"I haven't looked through this album in a while," Lance said. He handed Dakota one of the glasses, then he and Jai sat on either side of their eldest brother.

Jai smiled and pointed at one of the pictures. "That's from the grand opening of Barefoot," he said.

Dakota giggled and said, "Mikey looks sooo adorable dressed in his elf costume."

"He's still adorable and dresses in the same costume to read Christmas stories to the kids at the library," Lance said after sipping his nog. "Hey, that reminds me, are we still going with Mikey to the library tomorrow to read to the kids?"

Dakota looked at his youngest brother, smiled, and said, "Yeah, and Adam said I could be Santa."

Jai's eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. "How the fuck did you manage that miracle," he asked, "Ad's always been Santa. He loves it."

Dakota giggled and said, "We had a tickle fight that I barely won." His statement garnered a healthy round of amused laughter from himself and his brothers.

Lance grinned, "how'd you win," he asked.

Dakota chuckled, grabbed his youngest brother in a choke hold, and lightly noogied him. "I kept my feet away from him."

The men's attention returned to the photo album. Suddenly, Lance gasped and reached over to place his hand on the page about to be flipped. "Kota, stop," he said before bending his head down to get a better look at the photo. His eyes darted between the picture and his raven-haired brother.

"What's up, Kid Bro," Jai asked. He glanced at Dakota while he and the slightly older male shrugged their shoulders.

"Dude! These people look like they could be your parents, Kota," Lance excitedly said.

Dakota gasped when he took a closer look at the photo. "Little Bro," he said, "those are my parents, with Mikey," he sniffed as Jai and Lance reached over to wipe the tears from their brother's cheeks. Dakota smiled and kissed the slightly younger brunets. "Thanks, my sweet brothers," he softly said. "I wonder why Mikey's never mentioned that he met them."

Jai turned his head, looked at the alter, snapped his fingers, then nudged Lance and motioned toward the pictures behind the urns. The brothers smiled and nodded their heads.

"What's up, bros," Dakota asked. He was intrigued by the younger male's silent communication and their understanding of whatever they noticed.

Dakota giggled when Jai climbed across his lap, then squeezed in between him and Lance so he was sitting beside his brother. He shook his head and chuckled while the younger guys giggled, laughed, squirmed, and squealed as they swapped tickles back and forth to decide who'd answer his query.

Finally, Lance backed into the arm of the sofa with his palms facing his older brothers. He continued to giggle boyishly as his ankles were grasped by Dakota, his midsection was lifted by Jai, and he was pulled onto their laps. "Mikey has many talents. However, the ability to realize who a person is in their youth and when they're older in pictures isn't one of them." He and Jai cracked up laughing because of the confused look on Dakota's face.

Jai continued the explanation from where Lance stopped. He pointed at the youthful pictures of Dakota's parents. "If Mikey didn't see photos of your parents as they looked when they passed away, and has only seen their younger photos, then he wouldn't have connected them as the same people he posed with."

Dakota smacked himself in the forehead with the palm of his hand and grinned. "That makes sense," he paused and gasped, "I just had a flashback to a conversation I had with my parents just before their deaths."

Lance and Jai looked at each other, then stared at Dakota, and in unison asked, "What was it about?"

"They told me about meeting this amazingly adorable youthful male librarian. Dad said he and Mom overheard the young man telling the head librarian that he'd love to find someone of Native American heritage or a person knowledgeable enough about the culture and the struggles to come and talk with the middle and high school kids about life for them in America's past and present. Mom said that she and Dad were so impressed that they approached the young man and told him who they were and that they'd be over the moon if he accepted their participation. They never mentioned the guy's name, but they did say they were almost bowled over by the sheer force of the love from the hug they got when he became excited about their offer to help."

Tears streamed down the three young men's cheeks as they sat side by side, wrapped in each other's arms, letting the love and brotherhood they felt flow through them.

Upstairs, Mikey squealed when Adam tossed him on the bed, and his body bounced on the king-sized mattress. He screeched, thrashed about, pounded his sock-clad feet against the bed, and laughed hysterically when his brother charged at the bed, jumped on top of him, and started tickling his sides, stomach, pit hollows, and hips. "Don't forget, Ad, you promised to bring me back in one piece," he said when the tickling ceased and regained his power of speech.

Adam smiled lovingly at his brother as memories of their youth played in his head. He cuddled up to Mikey, got comfortable, and wrapped his arms around him. "You know you loved it, baby brother," he said before kissing his brother's forehead.

Older and younger brothers sighed and enjoyed being together, just themselves. The opportunity for them to be alone was an infrequent occurrence, one they silently vowed to remedy in the future.

"I love you, Adam," Mikey said after kissing the older brunet's neck. He grinned, lightly stroked his fingers across his brother's lower stomach, and twisted his index finger in the deep innie belly button's crevice.

Adam squeezed his eyes shut. He boyishly giggled and squirmed as his toes scrunched inside the white athletic ankle socks. "Ihihi lohohove yoohoohoo tohoohoo, Mihihikeeheey." The twenty-five-year-old grinned and acted childishly by continuously poking Mikey's arm and saying, "Hey, Mikey, guess what. Hey! Hey! I got something to tell ya, Mikey. G-guess what I gotta tell ya."

Mikey laughed so hard over his brother's antics that he could hardly breathe or verbally respond. His arms wrapped around his stomach, and he curled in the fetal position as his body quaked and shook. It had been years since he'd seen Adam this excited about something, and even though he knew it was an act, it brought back amazingly heartwarming memories of his protective sibling. Finally, Mikey found the ability to form words. "Okay, what's up, ya big kid?" he asked.

Downstairs, Lance and Jai were still sharing their loving trip down memory lane with Dakota sitting between them. Suddenly, they heard Mikey's excited squeal, and the Knight brothers chuckled as they shook their heads.

"What was that about," Dakota asked as he kept his eyes glued to the staircase, waiting for an excited couple of brothers to come barreling into the room.

Jai clasped Dakota's shoulder and grinned. "Before Mikey gets down here," he said as Lance giggled. "Be brutally honest about how you feel about Adam and me."

Dakota's head turned side to side as he looked into the younger male's eyes. "What do you..."

"Holy Shit!" Mikey squealed as he ran down the stairs and jumped onto his brother's and mate's laps. "Jai, you and Ad are moving next door?" He was so happy and excited that he couldn't stop giggling and squirming like a little boy seeing Santa.

Lance fell back against the arm of the sofa and cackled as he pointed at Dakota's wide-eyed expression and Mikey's jubilation.

Adam calmly walked into the room and joined his future husband and siblings. He giggled, then said, "I think I know how Mikey feels about the move, but what about you, Kota?"

"You think, fuck, I think they could hear my angel boy's excitement in China," Dakota said before dissolving into boyish giggles. He kissed Mikey, then Lance, Jai, and Adam before continuing. "I think it's amazing that my new brothers are gonna live beside us. It'll give Mikey more time to be with you guys, and I'll have the opportunity to really get to know my bros," he paused. "Who's gonna live in the penthouse above the bookstore?"

Lance grinned and pumped his fist in the air. "I'm gonna talk to Will after Christmas and see if he's willing to live there with me. Oh, yeah, it's gonna be party central up in there." Lance tried but failed to escape his older brother's unified tickle attack.

"No party central, little brother," Mikey said.

"Yeah, the dads and mom would kick our asses," Jai offered.

"All five of our adorable asses," Adam stated with a chuckle.

Before anything else could be said, Mikey's phone rang. He reached across Lance, then squirmed and giggled when his younger brother tickled his exposed armpit. "Hehehello, Mihihikey speeheeaking," he said between the giggles.

"Mikey, it's Mom," Pam said.

Mikey put the call on speaker. "Hey, Mama, you're on speaker and have an audience of all your boys," he said.

"Hi, Mom," Adam, Jai, Lance, and Dakota hollered in unison at the phone.

Pam giggled and responded, "Hey, boys. I can't talk long because your dads and I are in the middle of something."

The five young men looked at each other, then at the cell phone, "everything okay," they asked.

"It will be," Pam responded. "Mikey, can you and Kota come to Judge McCormick's chambers at the courthouse tomorrow? You won't be expected until after you've read to the kids at the library."

Mikey and Dakota, in one voice, said, "We'll be there."

Pam sighed, then said, "Oh, your brothers should come also. The entire family will be there."

"What's this about, Mom?" Adam asked.

"Can't tell you right now, son," Pam said. "I'll see you boys tomorrow. Your dads and I love all you boys, more than you'll ever know."

"We love you guys, too," the guys said before they ended the call.