A Reunion of Lips

XXX

His arm was kinda sore. Heh, that makes it sound like he was doing something. Nah, Mitch was just slightly achy because of the physical therapy session he'd just had with Sarah. He was stuck back in the sling for now, considering how he'd just stretched his arm and done some light weight lifting exercises, but he wasn't too disappointed about it. He could always ask Scott for another shoulder massage without seeming too needy for Scott's attention if he was wearing the sling.

Oh, please. As if Scott didn't know how clingy Mitch could be.

As if Scott wasn't clingy, too.

They were currently sitting at a high table on the balcony outside the ballroom, eating dinner. Scott had proudly declared that he had—with Avi's help and supervision—made their meal: a chicken piccata pasta that had Mitch groaning and giving an enthusiastic thumbs up at the first bite.

Scott had claimed that the romantic dinner was to celebrate how much he loved Mitch and was thankful for his help and support while he had been writing the billion-and-a-half executive orders, which he had finally signed into effect earlier that day. But Mitch did his best to match every compliment Scott gave him with one of his own. It took a minute, but the shy smile and slight blush were exactly what Mitch was hoping for.

Mitch was waiting to see which one of them caved and blew out the tall candle in the middle of the little table. He could tell Scott had thought of it too, because both of them kept occasionally glancing at it, then smirking slightly and glancing at the other to make sure they hadn't been caught.

Mitch was kinda disappointed that he couldn't hold Scott's hand across the table between bites with his arm in a sling, but they made up for it by having their ankles hooked together under the table.

Kirstie would definitely be fake-gagging over how adorable they were if she was here. But she wasn't here, because this was their special dinner, just for the two of them.

"Hey Scott, Mitch—do you have a second?"

Mitch chuckled and turned towards Esther, standing in the doorway with a tablet. Duty calls.

"Oh, sorry. Do you want me to come back later?"

Scott waved off her concern. "No, it's okay. What's up?"

Esther stepped closer to the table and tapped the screen of her tablet so it wouldn't turn off. "You wanted to know about how people were taking all of the orders—"

Scott perked up and Mitch grinned at his hopeful expression. "Is it going well?"

"Well, yes..." Esther hesitated and Mitch watched as a cautious, pale eyebrow rose.

"Was that supposed to be reassuring?" Mitch asked.

Esther bit her lip and tried not to smile. "I guess? Okay, so—it's going fine. Conservative assholes are whining about it, but almost everything else I've heard from the country has been good. People are happy that things are going back to how they were. Scott, you have several thousand thank you emails already."

"...do you want me to go through them right now?"

"No! No, that's not what I'm going for, I promise."

Mitch was slightly concerned by the apologetic glance Esther threw his way.

"So then what's the issue?" Scott looked nervous.

Esther started talking really fast. "Okay, so you know how we never addressed those rumors about you proposing to Kirstie like two years ago? Apparently people took that really seriously and, um, well—someone from the hospital is getting fired, 'cause someone broke patient confidentiality and may have started a bit of a discussion amongst the public—"

"Esther. What. Happened?" Mitch cut in.

"They think that Scott is cheating on Kirstie with Mitch and everyone is fighting over who the king is actually engaged to—"

Scott was laughing across the table, but Mitch was frozen, staring at Esther in shock.

"What?"

Esther held out the tablet to show him an article titled, "Mitchell or Kirstin? What Has the King Been Hiding?"

Esther was trying to explain the absolute showdown that was the country taking sides over who Scott was with, but Mitch wasn't really listening as he scrolled down the article quickly and flipped through the other open tabs with similar titles.

"—Starbucks is already trying to capitalize on it with signature drinks for Mitch and Kirstie. Apparently it's like a nation-wide poll to see who's more popular, aka sells more—"

Scott probably couldn't even hear Esther over his laughter and tears.

"—and I mean, it's completely up to you guys, but I would really suggest announcing something before people trying to stalk Mitch or Kirstie or something—"

Mitch's mouth was hanging open at her while Scott seemed entirely unconcerned as he wiped tears off his face and caught his breath.

"Yeah, yeah. We can talk about it, Esther. Thank you for that, oh my god."

Mitch was still staring open-mouthed at Scott and Esther as she apologetically patted his cheek and left them to their dinner.

Scott turned his elated grin to Mitch. "Well I suppose if we plan on getting married, we have to actually announce our engagement at some point or no one will show up."

"We—they—married soon?"

Scott's crinkly eyes were making a grand re-entrance. Oh, Mitch had missed that sight so much.

"Yes, married soon. What did you think you were agreeing to when I proposed?"

Mitch stared down at his ring. They hadn't discussed any plans for actually getting married. The concept of marriage was still just that: a distant, really nice concept. "I wanna get married. Holy shit—we're gonna tell people and then get married. For real. We're—we're actually doing this now. Oh my god, Scott!"

Okay, when Cleo had mentioned the heart-eyes thing, Mitch hadn't known what she was talking about. Now, drowning in the blue of Scott's excitement, he knew exactly what she had meant.

"How about we figure out the details of announcing it tomorrow, and just enjoy tonight? You look like you need to process a bit before your head explodes."

Mitch was trying to blink back tears. "O—okay. Oh my god, I love you."

"I love you too, Mitch."

Scott slid his seat over so he was sitting right next to Mitch instead of across the table, food practically forgotten. His hand came up to cup Mitch's jaw and pull him into a soft kiss, really just them breathing each other's air and gently leaning into the embrace.

Scott pulled back just enough so Mitch could blink his eyes open and press his forehead against Scott's.

"My father is gonna be so pissed when he finds out."

Mitch clung to Scott as best he could with his free hand and tried not to fall off his chair with laughter as the tears spilled down their faces.