The re-enactment had got over with and I can say for the first time watching it, I did not fall asleep. While it was very short, I used to purposely fall sleep through everyone that my parents had forced to go watch, mainly to get back at them for their uncaring attitude towards me. On the bench to my right, Father Bishop sat with a pleased expression upon his face. Numerous times through it, I would lean over and told the aardwolf a physical description of what was happening in the scene. On a rare occasion, he would roll his eyes, but mostly the pastor would let out a feeble laugh or a content nod at the poor improvisions done by the kids. As soon as it ended, the elder hyena stood up and started the applause. Being the bashful fellow that I am, I waited for a couple more to join with Father Bishop before I took my part in the applause. 
	Raymond and the others who took part in the behind-the-scene works came out and merged with the actors in taking a bow. As he was standing up from the bow, Raymond looked at me with his tail thrashing through the air and the most euphoric smile that I have seen. Nevertheless, who could blame him; it had proved to the best day he had in some time.
	Very discreetly, I blew him a kiss. Unsurprisingly, he acted as if he had no knowledge to the passionate gesture as he basked in the applause; his eyes, however, told a conflicting story. The flames of desire were ablaze in the young aardwolf’s eyes, yearning for the physical feel of the real thing and I wanted to give it to him badly. 
	“Jeremy, could you please show me out to my son’s car? It’s the one he drove back when you two were in high school.” The old pastor’s voice brought me back to reality. 
I looked over and Father Bishop trying to seek out my paw. “Sure Father, follow me.” I replied slowly resisting the urge to stay and wait for Raymond. I grabbed ahold of his frail paw and led the aardwolf through the horde of applauders. 
The surprisingly bright lights of the stars shown down upon us as we left the church. As the two of us sat by the car waiting for Raymond to come out and unlock the car, I let my mind wonder and something plagued my thoughts. Was the old aardwolf aware of his son’s sexual attractions?
“Is something bothering you Jeremy? Your breathing just became stress-ridden,” Father Bishop inquired .
The elder’s hearing and perception caught me off guard. I swallowed my worries and turned towards the pastor. “When you said Raymond was the most important reason while you would consider me a part of your family, what did you mean by that?” My tail twitched nevrously as the hyena took a heavy breath.
“Raymond loves you," Father Bishops's eyes were filled with such compassion, but there was also hints of regret and shame which confused cought me off guard. "He told me shortly after you left. At first, I was upset and hoped that it was just a phase or been from the depression he was suffering from at the time. But, I love him too much to ever tell him, even to this day I would not have the heart to let him know. Two years ago something happened to make me reshape my feelings towards his love for you,” Father Bishop sighed and rested his head against his thin paws. I could see how much disgust he had for his darkened past, all of which was exposed through his still, pained face. With my experiences as well as his connection to religion, it did not come off as much as a surprise. It did hurt to hear, but I kept my mouth shut and let Bishop finish his confession. “I went blind the same week I had intended on tell Raymond to get over you. Whether it was a message from God, as I prefer it to believe, or just a pure coincidence; I have come to terms that it doesn’t concern me who my son, or anyone for that matter, falls in love with, no matter the gender or species.”
Knowing the old pastor finally came to terms with his son brough joy to my heart. The bigotry of it all, though, still troubled my mind. Not wanting to pry further into the upset man's mind, I reached out and gave the old pastor a caring hug once he finished relating his dark days. “I won’t tell Raymond anything you just told me.”
One of his paws rubbed the top of his muzzle as he let out a relieved sigh. “Thank you Jeremy. He doesn’t need to know about my bigoted past,” The aardwolf stood up and did his best to dust off his pants. “He doesn't know and shouldn't have to discover it; I'm afraid it would hurt him. Also, you can call me Darius. I don't need my eyes to see that you love Raymond as much as he does you." I could feel myself blush at the pastors final comment.
A few more minutes went by before Raymond came happily bouncing out of the church to join us. “There you two are; you had me worried when I couldn’t find you inside.” 
Raymond’s dad chuckled at the comment. “You of all residents around here should know that I abhor crowds since my eyes lost their use. Now I can understand your apprehension for Jeremy on the other hand, he left once without saying goodbye.”
The moment Father Bishop finished speaking; I found Raymond 's arms wrapped protectively around my waist. I could see concern starting to cloud over his once gleeful face. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on running away from here again," I gave my old friend a quick, yet reassuring kiss. “Father, would you mind if I spend a few nights at your house so me and Ray can catch up on what has been happening?”
“I see no problem with it, as long as it is alright with him,” 
I placed a paw over my mouth to keep from squealing out excitedly. Raymond just grinned as he rubbed my back with one of his paws and fished out his keys with the other.
“Well,” He thought aloud, pretending to ponder the situation. “I guess that will be acceptable. You have to stay in my room though Jeremy,” After helping his father into the back of the car, Raymond looked at me with a seductive grin. “Now, are you going to get into the car or am I going to make you get in.”
“I think you may have to, my legs feel as if they’ve just fell asleep,” I sarcastically replied walking around the car to the passenger door. Barely two steps into the walk and I felt Raymond’s arms encircle my waist and lift me airborne.
He carried me up to the passenger door and set me gently down on the ground. “There you are little coati, free of straining your poor leg,” The aardwolf did his best to mock my voice as he opened the door for me.
I just chuckled and shook my head playfully before I gave him a passionate kiss and sat down in his car.
About half an hour later, we arrived at Father Bishop’s house. It was not two minutes after Darius took his leave and went to bed, that Ray nudged my ribs. “Follow me,” Raymond said leading me down into their basement. Finally, we stopped in a large den-like room with a massive T.V. as well as a beautiful couch. “Here we are the entertainment room.”
I stood shocked gazing at the huge television as Raymond took a set on the couch. “How in the world were you able to afford this?” I muttered taking a set next to the aardwolf who by that time had removed his sweat covered shirt. 
“Well, ever since my dad started receiving money from disability, I’ve been able to put some of my paycheck into the bank and save it up and as you can see this is what I wanted.” Ray explained as he started flipping through the channels. The whole time he was explaining, I couldn't take my eyes off of his well toned body. While he had been muscular back in high school, I was shocked to see that even after all these years he was still able to keep his beautiful body.
By the time I recovered my senses and pulled my eyes away from him, he has stopped on some basketball game. I did my best to act as if I knew what was going on. "Still not into sports, eh?" Ray chuckled, seeing the apparent confusion I had. The hyena pulled me closer to him so I could see what he could see and spent the remainder of the match explaining everything that happened. Even with his explinations of it all, I felt completely ignorant to the concept.
“FUCK!” Ray cursed as he realized the team he had been rooting for at the beginning of the game lost by twelve points. The hyena's paws flew up and planted themselves against his forehead. I had not the least idea how to comfort him so I just wrapped my paws around him and waited for the moment of anger to subside. Of course I couldn't help, but let my paws explore over his chest, tracing over as many individual muscles that I could. Moments later Ray let out a frustrated sigh and looked down at me with a small grin. “Sorry about freaking out. Is there anything you would like to do Jeremy, besides hugging me?”
Before I could reply, a giant yawn escaped from my mouth reminding me how long I had been awake today. I had woke up early in the morning so that I could make it to visit with some of my old friends from high school. “How about we sleep now and tomorrow we shall entertain ourselves and do some catching up. Where is your bedroom located?
The aardwolf pulled a switch and expanded the couch. “Well, we can go and sleep in my bed or we can just stay here. By the way, my room is over there,” He pointed to a door with his head. “Either way, it’s all up to you,” The stronger male offered, as his captivating voice lulled me closer to slumber, aided by his robust, yet smooth paws that stroked my back as he spoke.
“All is fine with me, as long as I am wrapped protectively against you,” I scarcely replied before my eyes shut and my mind became vivid with intimate dreams of Raymond and me.