#ipkp writes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KENT PARSON!!!

Here it is! The last chapter! Read, enjoy, please comment.

So, I wrote this fic almost a year ago. Which means I've been writing this last chapter for almost a year.

It should be ready to post very, very soon. I'm sure you can guess exactly when I'm gonna post it.

Either way, read it as a refresher. Or read it as a first timer.

Anyway, here is a preview of the shenanigans that's about to take place in the last chapter.

So, I was gonna post this fic on his birthday, but it took wayyy longer to code than I realized.

ANYWAY.

Here it is!

Enjoy!

"Hey, Kenny," Jack said as soon as he answered the video call.

Kent smiled at the sight of Jack and brought the box he had grabbed from his front door in view. "Look what I just got."

"Oh, what is that?"

Kent scoffed and turned the box around, zooming in on the sender. "I thought we weren't getting each other anything, Zimms," he said fondly. Which was a lie because had also already sent something to Jack. It was supposed to get there tomorrow. He should have paid for the expedited shipping.

"I'd feel bad if I didn't know you had sent something too," Jack said. He waited for Kent to adjust his camera so he could see more of Kent's face. "Besides. It's our first Valentine's day since we got back together. It felt wrong to not send you something."

"It would've been better if you were here instead," Kent said sadly. But he understood. They'd see each other in a few days when Jack's team headed East.

"I wish I was there too," Jack lamented. "So. Are you going to open it?"

Kent shook his head. "No. I'll wait until tomorrow," he said.

"You can open it now. I wrapped most of it so you won't see it. I just want to see one of the cards in it. I put it right on the top of everything."

"One card?" Kent asked. "Why did you need to give me more than one card?"

"Because I wanted to. Now, open it," Jack said.

"Bossy," Kent said. He grabbed his keys and was careful to cut the tape. He didn't want to damage anything in the box. He opened it up and felt his cheeks warm when he saw how carefully everything was wrapped and put into the box. He saw a small card on top. "This is what you wanted me to see?"

"Guy's daughter had a box full of them for her classmates. I saw that one and thought of you. She was very kind to let me have it. As long as I gave it to you."

Kent laughed. It was a valentine with a cat on the front holding a heart surrounded by text that said "You're my purrfect Valentine." He opened it up and saw Jack had written a short note in it, and also put a lollipop into the candy holding slot. "Cute," he said after he was sure his voice worked after getting a little choked up.

"The cat looks like Kit," Jack said excitedly. "The message on the front was good too."

Kent Parson was a little different compared to his brothers. Kent would say he was different because they were so much older than he was. Different generations and whatnot. It wasn't a lie. His brother closest in age was ten years older than him. By the time Kent was starting preschool, his oldest brother had already graduated high school.

But he learned a lot from them. Mostly his love of sports as his brothers were standouts in different sports from basketball to football to baseball to tennis and much, much more. And his competitiveness. Even though he was the youngest of five boys, they never let him get anything easy.

Kent would often say that instilling that competitive spirit in him early was how he got to where he was today.

The Parson boys were so similar that they would often receive comments that they were clones of each other.

Except Kent.

Because while the four older Parson boys were all brown hair, brown eyed boys, Kent came back from the hospital with blonde hair and gray-ish eyes. If Kent didn't look exactly like his older brothers when they were born, everyone would have wondered if they had brought the wrong baby home by accident.

Still, he was the baby, and, according to the four older Parson boys, mom and dad's favorite. Which the Parson parents would vehemently disagree with. It wasn't like it hurt the boys' feelings to say that. They were old and mature enough to know that Kent was the baby. Smart from a young age. And, honestly, way cuter than the older four were as a baby.

They would call him their mom's golden boy, mostly because of the blonde hair because they had no idea where in the punnett square of their family the blonde hair and blue, green, hazel, gray eyes came from.

And they called him the golden child, even though Kent hated it because he hated being different from his family. He did not like standing out.

After spending most of the afternoon lounging by the pool in the Vegas heat, Jack and Kent had little energy to do much else but sit on the couch and watch some baseball while eating their dinner.

It was Jack's turn to wash the dishes so he stood from the couch with a groan as he gathered their plates to clean up. "I've been thinking about the Coyotes," he said offhandedly.

"Of Arizona?" Kent asked as he watched the Arizona Diamondbacks score another run.

"Yeah," Jack replied. "I know we're cutting it close to the start of free agency, but maybe I should add one more team to my list?"

Kent stood up to join Jack in the kitchen. "But why Arizona?" Kent asked. That was not even on Jack's top five of his list of teams he wanted to sign with.

"It's in the same conference, but not the same division as the Aces. It's closer to you."

While they were making long distance work, they both knew that they did want to be closer together. "Technically Utah's closer?" Though Kent wasn't completely sure.

"Yes. But I didn't get a sign from the universe to tell me that the Coyotes needed to be an option."

"A sign from the universe?" Kent asked slowly. "What... what kind of sign?"

Jack shrugged as he turned on the faucet to start washing the few dishes that had piled up in the sink throughout the day. "Nothing big. Just a coyote crossed my path on my run this morning."

"A... a coyote crossed your path?"

"Yeah," Jack replied.

"A coyote crossed your path when you were on your morning run in my neighborhood," he said slowly and calmly, for further clarification.

"Yes."

"Jack. What the hell?" he yelled, his calm tone gone. "I have to report it!"

"What? To who? Why?"

"Jack! There are kids in the neighborhood. Kit could've been outside!"

"Kenny. You have a powerpoint that you show everyone about the importance of keeping Kit and all cats inside. And, besides, Kit hates the outside."

"That's not the point! I have to call security and let them know!"

Jack let Kent continue to freak out. He still didn't really understand Kent's rules of living in the desert. "So. It wasn't a sign?" Jack asked as he set the clean dishes on the drying rack.

"It is. Yes. Maybe. But you are not going to be a Coyote."

"Why not?"