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“I strongly urge you to vote positive on whether or not the use of illegal drugs ought to be treated as a health crisis and not of criminal justice. I have outlined the effects that it has on a disproportionate amount of POC, I have illustrated how many times we have gotten tough on crime and it has failed, and I dismantled all of my opponent's arguments with facts more than philosophical debate on how much humanity relies on the idea of being allowed to do whatever we want. I have proven that it is not about letting human’s do whatever they want it is a matter of fixing a system that has proven that it fails time and time again. People need help when they get addicted to drugs, they don’t need to fill up our jail cells while rapists walk away free and they certainly should not be demonized. I once again implore you to vote affirmative the future of our youth depends on your sound judgment. Thank you.” With a bow, Picard sat down and resisted the urge to look over at his rival instead busying himself with looking through his flow chart as they waited for the judges to dismiss them. The first judge looked up and said “very good you may go now we’ll have your results up soon.” Nodding stiffly Picard and his partner, Beverly left the room following after Quill and his partner, Data. Once out of earshot of the judges Quill casually placed Picard in a headlock and said “Johnny you did not play fair, where on earth did you get that extra piece of information? It was nowhere online.” Picard growled and pushed him away, not at all happy with Beverly and Data looking on in amusement as he stated: “I have inside connections, not my fault you're father went into the space field, my father is helping people as a politician, securing funding for your father’s research.” Quill rolled his eyes “that is so cheating, how can I win if you get access to information before me?”As they reached the cafeteria and sat down at a table together Picard looked over and smiled teasingly “you’re the great Quill you know everything.” Quill tossed a fry at Picard and laughed as he ducked when Picard flicked one back. “Just because I have a very good memory and an IQ higher than yours does not mean you can cheat I will get you back for this.” Picard rolled his eyes and ate one of his fries as Data said: “Quill it is interesting that you two go to such different schools, are your parents not friends?” Quill leaned back and placed his arms behind his neck and said: “oh yeah the best of friends, they were seriously pushing for me and Johnny over there to be just as close as them, too bad for them we hate each other.”Picard snorted and said, “hated each other, we can now be around each other and joke, a vast improvement from when you insisted on going to a private science school instead of going with me to the superior private business school simply because I wouldn’t bend to your whims.”Quill glared at Picard and said while leaning forward “make no mistake Picard it’s still hate, I just love teasing you too much to not tolerate your presence.” Picard moved to punch him when Beverly said: “wow the results are already up, I was expecting at least another hour.”All four got up and Picard wiped imaginary dust off his suit at the same time as Quill but both stopped when they caught the other doing the same thing. Picard glared at Quill and turned to Beverly and said: “well thankfully we were the last for our section so we didn’t have to wait on anyone else, let’s go see the results.” Together they walked to the board and Quill, being the taller of them took a picture of the results with his phone since getting to the board was nigh impossible. Wanting to piss Picard off Quill deftly slid his phone into his pocket and said “let’s go back to the table, shall we? Depending on the results we wouldn’t want anyone to see the poor french boy cry.” Only a warning hand on his shoulder kept him from leaping on top of Quill and breaking his stupid perfect smile and once they were sat down at the table, Picard subtly smacked the back of Quill’s head making Quill drop his phone on the table and turn around in anger at his life long rival.
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Picards' eyes were alight with mirth as Beverly and Data joined in and Quill realized his heart was beating quickly. Looking away he said, “idiot, this phone has the results on it now stop being a child so we can see who won.” Eagerly everyone leaned over to look at the picture, Picard whooping and taking Beverly in his arms to swing her shouting “we won, hah another debate I beat you in Q.” Quill was holding a pencil and tapping it, a nervous tick he had and it snapped as he threw his phone on the table and glared at Picard “Well since we are bringing back nicknames mon capitan, why don’t we see who the actual victory of a fist fight would be.” Picard blushed, setting Beverly on the ground, surprised on how easily he had fallen back on childhood nicknames. Quill was looking away, huffing but Picard was kicking himself for bringing up bad memories, Quill put his phone away and as they boarded their separate buses, Quill never once took a jab at him, he just got on the bus with Data and said goodbye to them both. Their team was going back home, while their’s was going out to Applebees to celebrate more points securing them a spot in the finals no matter how next months debate went. Sitting at the table their coach, Mr. Kirk, congratulated his team for getting to the finals and casually kissed his spouse, Mr. Spock as he exclaimed how excited he was to go to finals. A couple of the guys jokingly told the two how PDA on field trips wasn’t allowed and in response to this Mr. Kirk just kissed Mr. Spock again making him blush and move around uncomfortably as they all laughed at their coaches shenanigans. Well, Mr. Spock was more of their data gatherer, not a coach but he still came along since his and Kirk’s daughter. Talia, was debating and he wanted to support her as much as he could. That generally included lecturing Mr. Kirk on eating too many sweets and always bringing snacks along and candy to keep spirits and energy up during the long long wait. They got done eating and left for the school, most everyone had a car. Being sixteen had its advantages and since he and Beverly lived so close, he figured he would break the law and take her and Corey home. After dropping the two off, smiling as they both waved him goodnight before going into their respective houses, Picard parked his car and went inside the house, eager to tell his dad the good news of getting to the finals. His dad was awake, going over some documents and looked at the clock tiredly as Picard said animatedly “Dad I got into finals, you should have seen Quills face he was so disappointed, he better bring his end game next time, I want to face him in the finals. Oh and Mr. Kirk and Spock took us to Applebees, it was a lot of fun and Corey, Beverly, and I were joking and it was just a really good night.”His dad got up and said “congratulations my boy, top honor student, perfect attendance, a sport, and you do community service on the weekends and now you will win the finals. I am so proud of who I have raised.” Picard inwardly frowned, he wasn’t happy that he had had fun, no he only cared about Picard being just as good if not better then him, oh and his relationship to Quill. He rolled his eye’s as his dad continued “you and Quill could definitely make a strong duo if you so chose you used to get along so well as children, I don’t see why you can’t again.” Picard looked away and began to walk up the steps “because he was the one who left without a goodbye.” His dad frowned, not that Picard could see it and looked up at his retreating son’s figure, he wished he knew how to help. Suddenly an idea struck him and he immediately phoned his old friend, Quince, and told him his plan.
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The year flew by with Picard winning first place with Beverly and Quill winning second place with Data and before they knew it, the year was over. Beverly and Corey had gotten together over the year and waved Picard goodbye as they got into Beverly’s dad’s car to go on their annual summer vacation. This year it was Africa, to hand out much-needed vaccines to the people and her mom and Corey were going to be taking photos of the wildlife. Picard waved goodbye as they walked away and widened his eyes in surprise as his dad pulled up in an RV camper, Quill’s dad sitting in the passenger seat talking animatedly to his old friend, he watched in fascination as they laughed and playfully punched each other but stopped looking when he felt a hand smack the back of his head and a bord sounding voice say “I swear they’re just like kids, do you know why our lame dads have an RV together?” Picard looked over to Quill and said: “maybe they’re going to bury you for science, my dad does know how to hide a body.” Quill punched him lightly on the arm and said: “Piss off Picard seriously what’s their deal?” Picard punched back and shrugged, letting himself sink into an old familiarity from years past as he said: “I don’t know, probably some lame science expedition they want us to go on together with them.”Quill smiled at Picard and said while poking his forehead “Science is never boring, you used to know that Mr. Space Captain.”Picard rubbed his forehead and glared with a blush on his face as he said: “that was before I realized how much space could take away from us.”Quill looked away, both remembering how their mom’s both astronauts, had died on a space mission. They both grieved in different ways, Picard gave up on science because he refused to help what he blamed took his mom away, Quill threw himself into science so he could make sure what happened to their mom’s never happened again. They were broken out of their memory as their dads clapped them on the shoulders and said: “We already have your stuff in the truck are you ready to come on an adventure?”Picard and Quill looked at each other and back at there dad’s and said in unison “do we have a choice?”Laughing as they pushed their sons into the camper the two replied in unison “nope not a chance.” They hit the road, Picard’s dad informing them that they were going to visit every state and look at what they are famous for. Quill and Picard were thrilled, something fun that didn’t involve school finally, both sharing knowing looks knowing how pushy their fathers were at them achieving greatness. Quill ruined it however by saying “Sounds like the perfect vacation to bad you had to come along.” This lead to a fist fight that Mr. Carlson had to break up and to teach them to get along they were designated shared sleeping quarters that they had to spend at least one nonsleeping hour in bonding or they would turn the vacation into a science one. Both agreed to the terms, sure that they could spend at least an hour in their presence. The first two days both had to stay on the RV while their dad’s explored due to both being stuck in bed, the reason? To many bruises and would make people question them. So now because of their fighting they had to spend even more than simply an hour. It was during this time that they called a truce. They could last at least an hour if it meant not dealing with each other for a full two days. The bruises had faded to an acceptable color to their fathers so they were allowed to go out and have some fun. They left their dad’s and went exploring, each state they got a little closer and hardly noticed their dad’s eyeing each other. An hour turned into a day and when they reached only their third state the dads heard crying in the room and smiled sadly at one another, reaching out and grasping hands in a consoling manner. Picard told Quill how much he resented him for still pursuing the thing that took their mom’s away. Quill told Picard he just wanted to make sure it never happened again to anyone else’s parents and that it hurt when Picard didn’t come with. They started fighting, crying and taking their anger out on each other and this time the dad’s let it happen. They were healing and that was all that mattered and the next day they were back to being forced to stay on the bus but neither seemed to mind as they smiled at each other through swollen lips and closed eyes. It took longer for those wounds to heal but once they did they were already in their sixth state. Wyoming was beautiful and as their two dads explored the fauna Picard and Quill were quickly making up for lost time. Picard looked at Quill as he sat on his branch waiting for the single. With a nod of the head, Picard and Quill rained pinecones down onto their parents laughing maniacally like children and weren’t at all apologetic when their dad’s yelled up at them to stop being so foolish. Stupid pranks continued as did jabs and light-hearted teasing and by the time they reached the 49th state both boys were blushing and acting awkward around each other.
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Quill knew what he was feeling, he had been feeling it since they were kid’s but as far as he knew Picard and Beverly were an item, he didn’t know about Corey. Picard meanwhile was having a crisis, he was not gay, he wasn’t, not that there was anything wrong with it but he never felt this way with any other guy only with Quill, and when he looked over and caught Quill staring they both blushed and looked away and Picard could deny it no longer. The fiftieth state was Oregon and oddly enough the two dad’s decided to stay in the camper and told the two to go have fun. Quill and Picard were nervous now, no parents and being alone with their crushes? Who would act as a barrier? They were unceremoniously kicked out and told not to come back until sunset so Quill and Picard explored. They got some food at a nice cafe and explored Portland, talking to each other about what they wanted to see and where they wanted to go. They took turns identifying the different flowers and as it got later on in the day they stopped and sat on the southern coast watching the waves lap gently and sipping from a coke. Picard pulled his legs up to his chest as Quill leaned back on his hands, legs stretched out and said: “you know, I think this is the best summer I have had in a long time Q.” Quill looked over at Picard, disappointed to see he wasn’t looking at him and said while looking back at the water “I agree definitely the best summer vacation every mon capitan.” Picard looked at Quill briefly before looking away when he caught Quill’s eye and breathed deeply as he stared up at the sky. He needed to tell Quill, even if Quill rejected him he didn’t want to go into this newfound friendship on a lie. Quill thought the same thing because they both said: “So I have something to tell you.” Their eyes widened and Quill gave a nervous chuckle as he said: “you go first.” Picard looked into Quill’s eyes and prepared to go where he hadn’t ever explored before and said while blushing “let’s say it together.” Quill raised an eyebrow but agreed and on a count of three they both said: “I love you.” Quill’s mouth dropped open as did Picard’s but quickly it passed as Quill lifted Picard up and swung him and said as he set him down “I swear I thought you were with Beverly why on Earth do you like me?”Picard laughed and said, “Beverly is with another one of our friend’s Corey and shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Quill pulled Picard into a tight hug and said: “no no more questioning we spent way too long getting here and I am never letting you go.” Picard rolled his eyes affectionately at his now boyfriend and pulled away from him, giving Quill a chase kiss least he thinks he was being rejected. Quill kissed back and hummed in pleasure until he heard his dad yell “hey you two lovebirds it’s time to head home.” Picard parted from Quill and looked up at his dad, smiling as he saw both dad’s smiling down at them. Picard looked over at Quill and said “want to race to the RV? First one there has to come up with an excuse to get them to leave us alone for the rest of the trip.”Quill laughed and said “alright but you asked for it.” He pushed Picard to the ground and began running, laughing his head off past the two dads. Picard just sat there glaring and his dad yelled down “well are you just going to let him win?” Picard jumped up and sprinted towards his friend and boyfriend and began to laugh too, finally, things were right and he could move on. Up above as the two boys ran with their fathers walking leisurely behind them two stars shone in the darkening sky.