My Darling Lies Over the Ocean (YouTubers AU)

2. Sometimes your partner just needs you to listen.

Tyler glances down at the menu again, only passively listening to the redhead as he talks about the kids giving him a "Happy Cruise" poster on his last day at school before this trip. There seems like nothing on this menu that isn't saturated with oil and fats. Tyler flips the page over to the dietary restrictions page, frowning at the limited choices.

"I'll have to bring it home when we get back," Evan says, looking through his phone to find the picture he had taken of the poster. "It was so cute and they even sang a surprise song for me after lunch. Mrs. Mary was able to get -"

Evan's face turns immediately sour at Tyler, who is not paying the slightest bit of attention to him, the top of his head the only thing visible to Evan's hazel eyes. Placing his phone on the table a bit harder than he meant jolts Tyler out of a decision between the baked vegetable platter and the steamed vegetable platter.

"Ty, have you been listening to me at all?" Evan asks, his arms fiercely crossed.

"Yeah," Tyler replies, his mind racing to recall any part of his husband's last few sentences. It would have most likely been about the school kids at this time of day. It is one of the few things that Evan always would to talk about. His kindergarten class, his pineapple allergy or the newest episode of "How Much Do You Love Me?"

Tyler shutters at the thought of having to listen to another one hour recap of that horrible reality show. Thank god it is on the last few episodes before the finale.

"You were talking about the kids," Tyler offers, feeling fairly confident. Regardless, his face is perfectly unreadable, even to the man who has fallen asleep next to him for years.

Evan widens his eyes in pleasant surprise. "Ok, so you were listening to me," he says, his thin mouth breaking into a sweet smile. "This cruise is working already."

Tyler smiles back, relief in his heart, and takes the phone that Evan is pushing into his thin hand. The screen shows ten smiling children, some with missing teeth and all their small hands holding up a large sign that has "Have a Happy Cruise, Mr. Evan. We Love You!" with a huge amount of stickers and scribbles all over it.

He hands back the phone to the redhead, his blue eyes meeting the hazel in another warm smile. Tyler sometimes forgets how much he missed moments like this, where he and Evan are able to understand each other. "Those kids really love you," Tyler says, his tone soft as he reaches over and rubs the side of Evan's left arm. "You really should bring that banner home with you when we get back."

Evan's smile fades at the last words. Apparently Tyler really wasn't listening at all.  Shaking his head he looks back at his own menu, he decides it's best not to say anything else. At least Tyler is trying more than he usually did. That's a start.

The conversation is minimal for a while between the two of them, with the largest amount of noise being the chewing of food and the clicking of utensils on plates. The soft music of the restaurant creates a comfortable silence, both lost inside their own heads. Tyler wishes that he had just gotten something off the regular menu, as the steamed vegetable platter was clearly a mistake. The food in front of him looks pale and almost sickly. His blue eyes look almost lustily at Evan's turkey and rice, his mind working out the best way to grab a bite off of his plate.

Throwing caution to the wind, Tyler aims his fork at a lingering bite of meat closest to him on the plate, but Evan pulls the dinner closer to himself before Tyler can grab it.

"Sharing is for listeners only," Evan smirks, taking another bite of his meal. Tyler grumbles and he goes back to his pitiful veggies, his face at this point nothing but a frown line.

With dessert it's another story, and learning from his vegetable screw up, Tyler happily munches on a rich Baked Alaska with a scoop of vanilla ice cream hanging dangerously off the side of the plate. Evan has his eyes focused on a large lump of cream puffs, his knife and fork held up like a surgeon as he breaks them apart, searching the filling inside.

"What in the world are you even doing?" Tyler hisses at him, noticing that a few people at neighboring tables are also watching Evan's dissection with puzzled faces.

"I'm making sure that there's no pineapple in the filling," Evan replies calmly. "Can never be too careful with my allergy."

Tyler groans and leans over so that Evan can hear him clearer. "There's no pineapples in any the food you ordered, and even if there was you only get an occasional patch of hives. It's not like your face will explode."

Putting down his knife and fork, Evan glares back at Tyler. "I don't want to get sick on this cruise, and pineapple is used in a lot more foods than you realize. Remember when you bought that salsa from the grocery store? I was itchy for a week."

"The salsa from the grocery store called Mango Pineapple salsa?" Tyler snaps back. "It's not my fault that of all people, a kindergarten teacher, didn't read what was in the jar before he started digging in."

Evan opens up his mouth to say something harsh about how Tyler should have told him about the jar of salsa instead of just assuming that he would know what was in the fridge, but thinks better of it. That's why they are here on this cruise in the first place. Their communication is horrible. Evan grumbles as he breaks apart another creampuff, exploration now the only thing on his mind.

Tyler orders coffee after desserts while Evan heads to the restroom to wash up, his fingers still sticky with the insides of cream puffs. Perhaps Tyler had made a valid point about breaking open every one of the pastries being overkill.

Thinking deeply at the sink, the loud flush of the toilet snaps Evan back to the present. As the stall door opens, he see a slender man with blue eyes and dark brown hair smile as he walks to the sink right next to him. Evan attempts a small smile as well. He wonders why this man is on the cruise, but quickly scolds himself for being nosy.

"Enjoying the cruise so far?" Cry asks the younger man, scrubbing his hands in the gleaming sink.

"Yeah," Evan answers quietly, "It's been okay. Just a little nervous about what seminars are best to go to. There are so many and my husband just keeps shrugging his shoulders whenever I ask which ones he thinks are best."

Cry smiles kindly at Evan as he places a few more drops of soap on his hands and begins to rinse again. "Your spouse isn't much of a talker, huh?"

The redheaded man chuckles as he shakes his head no. "I swear he maybe says two words every few minutes. I thought it was kinda cute when we were dating, ya know? Like in a masculine, mysterious kinda way. But now? God, I might as well be talking to myself."

"My husband can be the same way, especially when his pretty eyes are glued to his phone. It's like I'm talking to a brick wall, with thumbs."

"Yes!" Evan nearly cries, overly excited to finally hear someone agree with him. "I swear I can never get him to listen to me. What do I have to do to get him to maintain a bit of eye contact? I swear the only time he actually looks at me, and really sees me, is during sex, and-"

Evan snaps his mouth shut, cheeks turning a furious red as he realizes what he just said. Though horrible embarrassed, Evan forces his hazel eyes to connect with the blue ones, and they both laugh, the blush washing from his cheeks.

"Sorry," Evan offers shyly. "I'm oversharing a bit."

"It's no problem," Cry smiles gently, using a wet hand to push the dark bangs away from his face. He grabs a handful of paper towels, offering some to Evan, who graciously accepts.

"Just give him time," Cry assures, tossing the wet paper and heading to the bathroom door. "He can only hide from his feelings for so long. And worse case if, uh, what's your husband's name?"

"Tyler."

"Worse case, if Tyler gets to be too irritating, you can always just knock him overboard. That's my back up plan if Ken starts texting during the workshops." With a push of his hand against the wooden exit, Cry holds the door open for Evan, and they separate to find their waiting spouses.