Heaven Help Us

Prince Jepha

A couple days later, I walked into Rain and Dante’s. “Hey, anybody home?”

“Daddy!” I heard, amongst a few shouts of “Andy!” from little kids.

Jepharee ran out from the living room, trailed by Arthur, Bronx, Xavier, Alice, Leia, Lily Stage (Trisha and Bryan Stage’s daughter), Nick Good (Matt and his wife’s son), J.C. Toro, and some of the other kids.

Raven and Asher stood in the doorway of the living room. “Hey, Andy.” Raven smiled as the kids crowded around me. Jeph jumped up to hug me and looked down at the other kids as I put him on my shoulders to keep him held up longer and higher.

“Alright, peasants!” He grinned down at his friends. “This here is the king! He won’t be around for very long so we’re just gonna pretend he died, okay?” He looked down at me. “You’re not really dead, though, just for play.”

He turned back to his friends, one hand holding mine, the other pointing at the other kids. “Who’s the queen?” Leia asked.

“My mommy, duh.” Jeph said in an obvious tone.

“Then you’re a prince, Jepha!” Alice grinned.

“Oh, good. I like being the prince. But we need another prince. Who wants to be my brother?”

“I do!” Bronx raised his hand.

“Well then, welcome, my brother!” Jeph grinned at Bronx. “And who wants to be the princesses?”

“Alice’ll be a princess!” Leia volunteered the other girl.

“And a great one, at that!” Jeph nodded. Alice blushed furiously and stuffed her hands in her dress pockets. “And Arthur will be the other princess.”

Arthur also blushed and tugged at his hair, his eyes fixed meaningfully on the ground and frowning a little.

Jeph leaned down to secretly hi-five Bronx.

“That makes you the knights!”

I could tell they’d played this game before. I watched with amusement as all of this went on.

Xavier, Nick, J.C., and the other boys  knelt down and looked at Jeph. “Yes, Prince Jepha.”

“Prince Bronx?” Jeph asked.

“Yes, brother?” Bronx asked, looking at Jeph.

“Knight the peasants.”

“I shall, brother.” Bronx agreed, his curls bouncing a little as he nodded. “Peasants, do you wish to uphold the Code of the Knights? And be a Knight of Old?”

“I do, Prince Bronx.” The other boys said together.

“Then by the power of King Andy the Valiant, I, Prince Bronx the Brave,”

Jepha jumped in for a moment, “and I, Prince Jepharee the Great,”

“Knight you all, vanquishers of evil and rescuers of damsels who are in distress.”

"The rest of the girls can be damsels in distress." Jeph nodded.

They all cheered and I set Jeph down so that he could run off with his friends to play the game. “Have fun tonight, Daddy! Take good care of Mommy!” He yelled over his shoulder.

“Yeah, have fun King Andy, and take care of Queen Rain!” The other kids yelled.

I smiled at them. “You have my word, knights, princes, princesses, and damsels. Now go have fun!”

“Are you guys not going to the party tonight?” I asked Raven and Asher after the kids had run off.

“No, we volunteered to stay home this year and watch the kids. The party is mostly for finding new dates, anyways. Well, except for the people who already have established relationships, but sometimes that doesn’t stop them…”

“Shut up, Ash.” Raven elbowed his boyfriend.

“Andy, is that you I hear being crowned king?” Dante asked, coming through the kitchen doorway, followed closely by Rain.

Dante had on his best black jeans and Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt, makeup done carefully.

“Looking to impress someone, D?” I asked, grinning a little.

“Maybe. Get your ass in the car, Andy, and stop asking questions.” He laughed.

Rain winked at me and linked her arm in mine. She was wearing tight black jeans and a barely loose black t-shirt with an old necklace that I recognized to be one of my old ones.

I smiled to myself and got into the car. Tonight was going to be good.

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