You Are My Sunshine ~ Jeffmads

Chapter Fourteen

"Thomas! Hurry, love, we're going to be late," James called out, glancing down at his watch nervously. He chewed his bottom lip, letting out a sigh.

He grabbed his keys and wallet from the kitchen counter and made his way to the front door, where Thomas was not waiting for him. Of course. He huffed in annoyance, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently.

"Thomas!" He called again, sounding much more agitated this time. When his boyfriend didn't reply get again, James groaned loudly, but went to go find him anyway. "I swear to god if he's in there taking mirror selfies to post on instagram..I will murder him..."

But when James pushed open the door to Thomas' bedroom, that isn't what he found at all. Instead, his boyfriend was knee deep in clothing, his chest rising and falling rapidly with panic as he continued pulling more and more items out of his closet. He didn't seem to be satisfied with anything, because everything he found was added to the pile at his feet. When he looked up at James, the small man could clearly tell that Thomas had tears in his eyes.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked gently, carefully easing himself onto the bed and smiling softly up at Thomas. "Why aren't you dressed yet?"

"Because all my clothes are slut clothes!" He cried out, dropping his arms to his side and giving James a helpless look. "And I look like a- a whore! I don't want to look like a whore in front of your parents!"

He let out a choked sob and buried his head in his hands. He seemed incredibly panicked about all of this, and James was beginning to wonder if this whole meet-up had been a bad idea.

"Don't say that, Tommy. Here, here- c'mere," James soothed, holding out his arms for his love. Thomas immediately threw himself down onto James, wrapping his arms around the other man's neck and burying his face in his chest. "You don't look like a whore. You aren't a whore, and I don't think you're slutty at all. You're beautiful, my love, absolutely beautiful. So why don't we just pick out something nice for you to wear, and then we can head on our way?"

Thomas nodded meekly, before seeming to realize something and groaning, the sound slightly muffled due to the fact that his face was pressed up against his boyfriend's chest.

"But I don't have anything to wear," He protested weakly. James shook his head.

"Nonsense!" He exclaimed, gently pushing Thomas off of him and standing up. "Here, let me-"

James walked over to the pile of clothes and rummaged around, pulling out a dark wine colored collared shirt. He folded it over his arm, before going deeper into the closet and grabbing ripped black skinny jeans. Lastly, he looked for shoes, but came up empty handed in that department.

Where were Thomas' dress shoes? Did he not have any? Sighing in frustration, James checked another time. Well, shit. He knew that Thomas couldn't just wear his, they were two completely different shoe sizes, and they'd probably be painfully small or enormous on him.

"Baby, where are all your shoes?" James grumbled, continuing to dig around the closet. At last he found..something?

He pulled out a pair of tall, black heels, turning and raising a questioning eyebrow at Thomas. The tall man let out a squeak of embarrassment and fell back onto the bed, covering his face in shame.

"I'm sorry," He groaned. "Those are from forever ago.."

"Why don't you try 'em on?" James asked, going over to the bed and setting the clothing down. "They'll look amazing with this outfit."

Looking unsure, Thomas uncovered his face and sat up, glancing down at the clothing. James gave him an encouraging smile, and Thomas sighed, stripping out of the clothes he was wearing to pull on the others.

Thomas sighed and closed his eyes, before pulling on the tight jeans, wiggling his hips to get them on all the way. He reached for the shirt next, slipping it on and doing up the buttons. He rolled his sleeves up neatly to his elbow, before turning down to look at the shoes and grimacing.

Here goes nothing...

The tall man plopped back down onto the bed, slipping on the heels and letting his feet adjust to them for a moment before carefully standing back up.

"Ta-da?" He said in a questioning voice, gracefully walking to the center of the room and turning back to James with his hands on his hips. "Is this okay? Probably not- I can change! I bet I look too sexual- I can make any outfit look like that, I'm telling you. It's these damned hips, they're too wide and curved. It makes everything I wear look super slutty."

"Holy /shit/, Thomas," James breathed, not paying attention to Thomas' nervous rant about his hips. "You look..wow. You look gorgeous, my love."

Thomas cocked his head, a rather unsure expression on his face.

"Well, if you say so," He mumbled, scratching the back of his neck nervously. He really wasn't prepared for this, not at all. This whole thing with his outfit had only made him more nervous, and all Thomas wanted to do right now was dive under the covers with a bowl of mac n cheese and find something mindless to watch on Netflix. But he knew this was something he /had/ to do. Besides, he'd have to go back to Charlottesville- where his parents and siblings lived- and introduce them to James eventually, right? Surely that visit would be more painful than this one.

"Let's go then," He added, giving James a nervous smile and taking his hand.

The smaller man nodded, standing on his toes to kiss Thomas' cheek, before intertwining their fingers and tugging him out the door.

~♡~

In what felt like a very short time, James and Thomas pulled up to a large brick house, with white trim and a lovely flower garden in the front yard.

Thomas gulped, sending a panicked look towards James as he unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out of the car. James did the same, joining Thomas in front of their vehicle and taking his hand. He interlaced their fingers, rubbing his thumb soothingly over the back of Thomas' hand.

"Everything is going to be fine, love. They'll adore you," The shorter man said reassuringly, leading Thomas up onto the porch. He rapped on the door, then stepped back, waiting.

A brief scuffle was heard from inside, before a girl with a head full of red curls threw the door open. Thomas instantly recognized her as the librarian he'd been slightly rude to, and judging from the look on her face, she recognized him too.

For a moment, they just stood and stared at each other- Thomas' face considerably more pale than it'd been just a few moments ago.

Then Dolley turned around, calling "Mom, Dad! James and his boyfriend are here!" into the house. She reached out a grabbed James' arm, tugging the two inside.