Hank nearly turned around about three times on his way up to Eric’s office. He’d chosen to arrive around lunchtime again, just in case it turned into a massive argument. He didn’t want everyone in the office to hear Eric yelling — especially if the argument got personal. Neither of them deserved to have their private business eavesdropped on by Eric’s coworkers.

But he almost just gave up and went home, because what if he’d screwed things up completely? Eric had given no indication that he wanted to hear from or see Hank again. He’d just told Hank to get out, without giving him a chance to explain.

It could have just been that Eric was upset, and surprised in the moment, and couldn’t handle it right then. But it could also mean that Eric couldn’t deal with Hank ever again, that he was shutting the door on them and never wanted to see him at all.

It was a terrifying thought. Hank wanted to give this a try. He cared about Eric; he wanted to see him, go to movies with him, get that soft, smiling look on his face again.

He wanted to be with the first person who’d given him butterflies, someone he was so drawn to he couldn’t stop putting his hands on him even when he was angry, someone he got comfortable with within the first five minutes of knowing him — so comfortable he didn’t even realize it.

For the sake of that, he had to see Eric. He had to try. Then he could at least tell himself that he’d given it his all.

Eric’s office door was closed when Hank walked up. He knocked, then took a step back, shoving his hands into his pockets.

It was opened just a moment later. Eric looked … he looked good, really good as always, his dark hair styled and wearing a dark blue suit.

“Hank?” Eric sounded surprised to see him, but not … not angry. That was a good surprise.

“Hey.” Hank tried to keep his voice soft, to show that he wasn’t there to verbally duke it out. “Can you talk for a minute?”

“Sure.” Eric held the office door open for him, then closed it behind him once Hank had entered.

Eric walked over to his desk, shuffling some papers. “You can sit down, if you want.”

“No, um, this’ll be quick.” Hank took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

Eric looked up, startled, eyes wide. “What?”

“I’m sorry. You were right. I used you, I manipulated you — well, I hadn’t done it yet, exactly, but I was planning on it. And that was wrong of me. I was going to take advantage of our connection, and our relationship, and I can’t excuse that.

“I’m not asking you to just forgive me right away. I know that I’ll have to earn back your trust. But I talked to my family — my grandfather, he’s the head of things, where he goes everyone else goes — and I’ve convinced him to sell to you.”

It hadn’t been easy. Grandpa had been ornery, to put it lightly. But Hank had been determined. It was time for the family to stop living in the past. They had to move forward. They were stagnating in that trailer park, sitting in rusting tin cans. Something had to change. And the money they would get for the land would take care of all of them — they were lucky, it wouldn’t leave them destitute. Their land was valuable, and they knew it. That put them in a position to bargain for a really good deal.

Eric actually gaped at him, mouth open and everything. “You’re — you’re serious? This isn’t some — you’re not joking?”

Hank shook his head. “I get why you might not believe me. But I realized — fuck, I messed shit up last night. I was awful. I screwed up. And then when you called me on it, I got rude.

“I spoke to the guys, and Luke pointed out that not only had I messed up with you, but it was time for my family to move on. That they were clinging too hard to the park. To the past. And that I had a lot of family issues that I was taking out on you, instead of addressing them directly.”

Hank tried for a smile, but it felt weak. “I guess you could say I’m an immature asshole.”

Eric gave him a small, tentative smile in return. “No more than I am. I should’ve … I should’ve told you what you meant to me. I should have made it clear to you that you could come to me about your family, that I would put what was right, and what was important to you, above my job.”

“You love your job, and you deserve this promotion,” Hank said. “Now you can have it.”

Eric shook his head, his smile widening. “No, I think you’ll find that — while I still might get the promotion — the trailer park is off limits.”

“What?” How? When? What had Eric done?

Eric picked up the papers that he was shuffling and passed them to Hank. “I did some research, and learned that your trailer park is actually part of the breeding grounds for a rare bird.”

“You mean those annoying black and orange ones that shit on our roofs every spring?” Hank asked.

“I’m guessing so,” Eric said, pointing to the page that had the picture of the bird on it. “I contacted the national parks department, and got them to declare the trailer park a protected area, along with the forested area the park is next to. Your trailer park is fine; it’s been there for ages, and the trailers don’t dig into the soil or anything, so they’re not affecting the wildlife too much. But it can’t be developed.”

“And your bosses aren’t going to be angry about this?”

“Well, they’ll bitch and moan, but there’s nothing that they can do, and they can’t trace it back to me having tipped off the parks department. I might have, uh, made it sound in the report I sent them like the trailer park had been protected for years already, and that it was an oversight on our company’s part to have not found that out before.”

Eric looked a bit sheepish to admit that he’d flat-out lied to his employers, but Hank felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. “You … you did that? For me?”

Eric nodded. “My mom told me the other day … that my dad had once told her that he would give up his career for her. I had no idea.

“And I think I should’ve listened to her more when she said that, because at the time, I was a little busy reeling from finding ut that there was more to my dad than I’d ever suspected, and so I just kind of thought of it as permission to go after you.

“But what she was trying to tell me was that my life needed balance. And that the people in my life needed to know that I would put them before my work, no matter how important to me my work was. They need to know that they’re going to be the priority in my life.

“And I want …” Eric took a deep breath. He looked kind of terrified, and Hank wanted to just scoop Eric up into his arms and hold him until that look went away. “I want you to be a priority in my life. I’ve never felt about anyone the way that I feel about you. You make me feel young and stupid again, but in a good way. Like I’m finally starting to understand all of those love songs.

“Maybe I end up having to wait for a promotion. Who knows? But I’m okay with waiting. I’m making you my priority because I’m tired of being lonely, and you make me — you make me stupidly happy. Even with the arguing. I’ve never connected with someone as easily and quickly as I did with you in the bar that first night. And I want to keep having that.”

Hank felt like his chest was going to burst with the warmth he could feel pressing up inside of him from all sides.

“I want that too,” he assured Eric, daring to take a step closer. “I needed to stand up to my family, and I needed to admit how I felt about you. I never got what Luke and all the others were always saying about that warm feeling, I never got why they were always so all over each other, I never understood what I was missing out on.

“Now I do, because I can’t stop myself from wanting you even when we’re yelling at each other. And being with you makes me feel vulnerable and open, but also relaxed. I trusted you enough to tell you about my family on our second meeting and honestly, you’re the more trustworthy person here.

“I don’t think you have any reason to apologize, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to make it up to you for how I was behaving, and planning to behave, because you’re — you’re special. I knew it the moment I saw you, and I should’ve been focusing on that instead of all the rest of this bullshit.”

Eric’s smile grew until it was blinding. “Does this mean we can — you want to give us another shot?”

Hank took another step forward, putting Eric almost within arm’s reach. “Yes. Nobody’s ever — what you just did for my family, I don’t think you even know—”

“Well, no, what you just did for me, convincing your family, that, that’s huge and I—”

Hank reached out, hesitating before his hand could take Eric’s. Eric closed the gap, stepping forward and looping his arms around Hank’s shoulders.

“How about,” Hank said, “we just agree that we’re equally in love with one another.”

Eric’s eyes went wide again, and Hank realized what he’d said. “I … sorry, was that jumping the gun a little?”

Eric tilted his head to the side, thinking for a moment. “No,” he said at last. “No, I think that was a pretty apt description.”

Hank couldn’t help himself.

He kissed him.