Anything Two: Get Through

The Road Home: It Starts With a Comment

It's easy to imagine perfection.

It manifests as highlighted fringe and dark blue eyes, of six feet and an inch of skin and bone; all of his clothes are too big, but only just. It tastes like cigarettes and alcohol, and the bitterness of any drug he can think of. It smells like excessive showers to mask the sweat of a club night or withdrawals from going without for a little too long. It feels like fresh-shaven, occasionally scratchy stubble against his chin, soft hair brushing his bare chest, knobby knees and ankles entangling one another's. It sounds like a song while making dinner, air between every letter of every word in every sentence, whispered sweet-nothings and excited squealing.

Stefon kicked Anderson Cooper out when he realized Seth had been upset. He followed Seth to his room. They talked. Then Stefon made the world melt away. It was different this time. It wasn't friends with benefits after all. All confessions were laid out on the table, drafts and blueprints of the life they both wanted to build together. Then they started their foundation with a label.

Seth caresses Stefon's face with his knuckles and drops his hand to the bed and just admires him in the pale sunshine streaking through the window. He didn't think Stefon would sleep so peacefully so far from home. He also didn't know how his parents would react to his partner, as he had described on the phone, being a man. If he remembers correctly, the last time he had brought a guy home was in college and he's sure they thought he was just experimenting. But they welcomed Stefon with open arms and didn't address it once, even if they wanted to.

Stefon gets along with his family well. He avoids questions he's been avoiding with Seth with practiced ease. When they ask about his family, he skillfully maneuvers around talk of his dad by playing up his own accomplishments with his older brother. Seth had no idea he was in the film industry to any degree, even as a writer, but it explains his knack for editing. When they ask about his mom, he offers an anecdote of his first time drinking--with her, anyway. Stefon finds time to learn a little bit about football with Seth's dad, bake with his mom, who he also indulged in club stories much to her delight, and build a snowman with Seth and his brother. Seth may have put some snow down his shirt to watch him jump around as well. He hadn't expected to get pelted in the face with a snow ball, but it paved the way for the world's greatest snowball fight. Even his parents got in on it while Albert bounced around in the yard. It made him hope Bark could join next year instead of having Amy and Shy, and sometimes Bill, run over to the apartment to feed him.

The image of Stefon holding a mug of cocoa to his face, bundled in a blanket on the couch near the window and glowing in the Christmas lights, makes Seth feel like he's living in a Hallmark movie. A workaholic returns home for the holidays and finds the first bit of relaxation they've had in years and a life partner in the same night. He never thought he'd see the day he would overhear his parents talking about how wonderful his partner is without getting some lecture about being cautious of its ending. He may be forty-one but they're still his parents and the concern will always be there. They dance around the real question on their minds. Is he the one? Because it's only been a few months and honestly, who knows?

They cuddle quietly, content in each other's company, on their last night in New Hampshire. Seth faces the wall while Stefon's arm dangles lazily over his stomach. His back is pressed against Stefon's chest and he soaks up the extra body heat from Stefon's drug-induced blood pressure spike as he reminisces on their vacation.

Christmas morning, Seth awoke to an overly-enthused Stefon, looking forward to what he calls "normal Christmas" and already buzzing from a joint which he was kind enough to open a window for, though the smell clung to him. At least it wasn't a harder drug...yet. Seth had made Stefon promise that he'd keep it quiet if he brought anything more than a little weed. Stefon could be pretty uncensored at the worst of times, with or without the harder stuff.