Time After Time

Almost Happy

Mitch opened his eyes and ran a hand through his hair, which he’d washed the night before. He turned around to face the warmth that lay behind him and smiled at the sleeping blonde man. He reached out his right hand and gently ran his fingers over Scott’s cheek. So gorgeous, he thought as he gazed at his boyfriend. His smile grew with every second that passed, unable to contain his happiness. He was so lucky. He watched the other man for a while longer before the need to see Scott’s beautiful blue eyes became too much and he softly pressed his lips against the baritone’s in an attempt to awaken him. Scott stirred slightly and kissed Mitch back. His eyelids fluttered open, revealing those blue pools that Mitch could drown in, and he wrapped his arms around the brunette.

“Good morning,” he smiled, as their lips separated.  He was still drowsy from sleep.

“Good morning,” Mitch giggled in response, pressing another quick kiss to the other man’s lips.

“You keep kissing me like that, and we’ll never get out of this bed again,” Scott joked.

“I’m fine with that,” the countertenor grinned, snuggling closer to the blonde. Scott held the smaller man close to his chest, allowing Mitch to hear the sound of his boyfriend’s heartbeat.

“We’ve got so much to do today though,” the older man sighed, running a hand through the brunette’s hair. Mitch sighed deeply, but then looked up at Scott and smiled.

“All the more reason to stay in bed.”

“Well, we can’t eat if we don’t get the kitchen cleared,” Scott explained, pressing his lips to the countertenor’s forehead. Mitch bit his lip to stop himself from arguing – he really didn’t want to be talking about food.

“Yeah,” he awkwardly agreed, nodding slightly. Scott moved his arms away from his boyfriend, rolled over onto his back and then sat up before stretching. Mitch watched the older man with a small smirk.

“Like what you see?” Scott grinned.

“Definitely,” Mitch said, his smirk growing wider as he blushed slightly.

“I’m going to take a shower, which gives you another twenty minutes of sleep - but I want you to be ready by the time I come back, okay?” Scott told him, pulling the covers from his body and climbing out of the bed. They’d slept in Mitch’s room, which was still littered with the brunette’s belongings. After almost tripping over the suitcase, Scott left the room to collect some clothes from his closet before heading to the shower.

Mitch rolled over onto his back and let out a deep breath. He tried to shut out his thoughts, but, once again, the doubt began to tiptoe back into the corners of his mind. What if Scott was pretending? What if Mitch was dreaming again? Running his hands over his face, Mitch let out a shaky breath. He hated his mind most of the time. No, fuck that. He hated his brain all of the time. He always doubted himself, and always doubted other people’s reasons for communicating with him. All of those hurtful words that his exes had spat at him had damaged him. They’d scarred him in a place that no one could see and there was no medicine he could find for his suffering – except Scott. And now he was lucky enough to possibly have the blonde man. Losing the baritone was out of the question, which meant Mitch would have to do everything in his power to keep the other man interested. He had to improve his singing, he had to try to put out enough without putting out too much, and he definitely couldn’t eat too much. Staying skinny was crucial.  He had to improve so that Scott wouldn’t leave him like the rest, because he wasn’t sure he would be able to cope without Scott. He wasn’t sure if he could stay alive without Scott. His thoughts continued on for a while longer, until the sound of the shower shutting off snatched him away. He wiped away the tears that he hadn’t realized he’d cried and sat up. He grabbed some clothes – some black jeans with a black and white t-shirt – and quickly pulled them on before making a grab for some shoes. After putting those on, he waited for his boyfriend to leave the bathroom and tried to stop his brain from running away with itself again. He wandered out into the living room and smiled when he saw Wyatt curled up, sound asleep on the couch. He had started to gently pet the Sphynx cat when Scott finally emerged from the bathroom.

“Damn, girl, you look good,” Mitch said as he skimmed his eyes over Scott’s body.

“I could say the same about you,” Scott grinned as he walked over. When he reached the younger man, he wrapped his arms around him and pressed a quick kiss to his lips, “You ready to go get coffee?”

“Almost, I need to fix my hair,” Mitch smiled as Scott stepped away to allow Mitch to head to the bathroom. He was genuinely grateful to be heading out to get coffee – he hadn’t been out to a shop with anyone else for a week, and he knew he’d need the coffee with the day he had ahead of him. They had to clear up the kitchen and Mitch’s bedroom, as well as possibly moving their belongings around to make it easier for them to share one of their bedrooms. “Hey, is the Superfruit episode ready yet?” he called out as he covered his hair in styling product.

“No! When would I have had time to get that done?” Scott laughed. He liked Scott’s laugh. Mitch let out a quiet giggle as he positioned his hair. Looks like he’d have to add editing the latest episode of their show to their large list of things they had to do. He really was going to need that coffee. Finally, deeming his hair to be suitably styled, he left the room and rejoined his boyfriend as they left and made their way to Starbucks.