My Husband

Chapter 13

Max was torn. Truly torn with by Tul's confession. Half of him now wanted to declare his love openly to the world and damn the consequences. He knew Tul had the strength to face whatever fate had in store for them. The other half, the reasonable half, said he had to honour his partner. The love he had for him meant supporting him in everything.

Tul had forgotten they were a team. This time, he was not a "rat". There was no one forcing him out into the open, he would be walking out proudly, with his partner, friend - lover there by his side. He would never be alone again from this day again. Max didn't understand how could he make Tul see this. He was slowly going crazy from thinking about it, so he did what he always did, dropped it until later and hoped later came.

They had decided to do the new project. It was different than TWM, a BL murder mystery, called Manner of Death. Max read the script first while Tul read the book.

"Ohhh, Max," he cooed, "There's going to be some interesting changes in this!" He gave a seductive look at him. They were on the couch together, Tul's leg's were currently draped across Max's thigh's, and Max, so far hadn't read anything particularly steamy or bad in the script.

Max dropped the script down to his legs, and stretched, revealing a lightly toned stomach. Max had dropped a lot of muscle over the past months, preferring to keep his natural body rather than the bulked up one he had while filming the TWM series. "I haven't seen anything yet except a kiss."

Tul laughed, "I'm not surprised. Half of this novel isn't fit for TV. Are you going to read it?"

"Am now," Max growled. "These female writers have better imaginations than we do!"

Tul screamed with laughter as Max found the ticklish spots behind his knees. "Max! Stop that! But you're right... Do you remember back when they made us watch those Japanese AV's to 'learn male kissing techniques'?"

Max snorted with laughter. "They were so bad! I just about died from embarrassment when you asked doesn't everyone, regardless of sex, kiss the same?"

"Fuck, Max, that's the truth." Tul sighed. "Gender doesn't matter. A kiss is a kiss, it's who the person is that makes it hotter than fucking hell." He pulled his legs off of Max's lap and tugged his head close. Whispering, "The day you stop getting hard when I do this," and he gave a deep kiss, flicking his tongue across full, soft lips then plunging deep inside to lightly dance with his tongue. "That's the day I know our love has ended."

Tul stood up, patted Max's groin which, indeed, had begun to get partially hard, picked up the book and said, "I'm distracted here. I'll finish reading in the bedroom, Max."

"Fuck you, Tul." groaned Max. Laughter floated back towards him, but only laughter.

Rumours had already started to float in the industry about their new project. No title, no announcement of when, but the fact that Max and Tul were doing a brand new series was big news for the fans, both locally and internationally.

Reporters and fans started combing through every small detail they could find and started noticing small changes. They realized that in the SMS postings of both men, where they used to have the occasional girl in there, now there was none for weeks and weeks. The only female pictures were of family or colleagues. It was all trips, food and family and adverts. Tul had started his own small business. 

They had become less touchy with other people, and if one or the other was affectionate with someone else, the one watching wore a strange look. They tried to hide it, but fans, especially diehard fans caught all the small movements... Max was very bad at keeping his hands to himself.

But you couldn't blame it all on Max. No, Tul had his moments, as well. They tended to slip out at the very worst possible time, in the biggest events such as the Kazz awards surrounded by a lot of actors and actresses they hadn't seen in a while.

Tul's insecurities always came flooding back during these times. Max never fully understood how such a handsome, smart and intelligent man could be so full of self doubt. Why didn't he trust his love?

Max knew the situation had to change and it had to change for the better or the doubts that was building between the two of them was going to destroy them. This was not going to be good for the new series and their relationship would not survive. He needed Tul. 

Tul was the love of his life. Max would leave the industry, leave everything behind to be with him. Why couldn't Tul understand that? Why was talking to Tul like going to the dentist?

They started production of Manner of Death. At the table read, Max held Tul's knee and wouldn't let go. Tul firmly held on to the script and laughed and joked with the other cast and crew members. He nodded and joked around, barely paying attention to Max. Tul's acting face was on. Max sighed often to himself.

That night, in the hotel room Max finally broke through the tough shell Tul had wrapped himself in. It was like he hadn't seen his wildcat Tul for weeks. The sex that night was fucking amazing and in the afterglow, he held his man and Tul cried. Max felt the salt of his tears in the deep scratches that marked his body.

After Tul cried it out, Max asked quietly, "Ready to talk to me?"

Tul sighed, and nodded, "I've been a fool, Max. A fucking fool. I read what's written about us on the internet. I let it get to me. So many people already know we are together. They write about it, they have fan cafe's, make up stories..." Tul snuggled closer into Max's warmth. "Why do they do that? Why can't they just leave us alone?"

Max stroked Tul's hair. "Sweets, I think you're looking at this the wrong way. To them, it's not an invasion of privacy. They're not camping on our doorstep. They don't call us at 3 a.m. to see if we are together." He dropped a kiss on the top of Tul's head. "They're only talking about what we've shown them. So let them talk."

He continued, lulling Tul to sleep, "It's their way of saying thank you, really. Thank you for being such a couple of good looking guys who kiss and we really want you to be a real life couple... " Max wasn't sure when Tul fell asleep but still holding him tightly, he hoped desperately this time, Tul faced his fear directly.