Picture Perfect

Author's Note:  Thanks to tweedygal for the beta

* * * * *

Valentine’s Day 2014 was supposed to be the most romantic day of the century, maybe of all time. People waxed poetically about the perfection of the number 02/14/2014. Many ignored the zeroes altogether and took to referring to the day as two-fourteen two-fourteen. Since advertising campaigns took time to plan and execute, Brian had been hearing about the “Valentine’s Day to end all Valentine’s Day” for months before most people began talking about it. He’d been forced to sit through more pitches involving hearts, flowers, and “I love you’s” than he could count. Brian had done his best to desentimentalize them, to bring a sexy edge to the campaigns, but even he was only so successful in holding back the tide of romance. At one point he’d come dangerously close to terminating one of Kinnetik’s more lucrative contracts over the client’s insistence on an ad so sweet and sappy it made Brian’s teeth ache.

So Brian felt completely justified in losing it a bit when Debbie brought the date up at Thanksgiving dinner. A fucking month before Brian’s most aggressive campaigns would begin running. Only Debbie could manage to beat the stores in promoting what Brian had taken to referring to as Cupid’s Revenge.

“Have any of you starting making your plans for Valentine’s Day? It’s supposed to be the most romantic day ever.” Debbie beamed at everyone seated at the table.

As usual everyone began speaking at once. Brian decided he had two choices – bang his head on the table to drown out the noise or find a way to shut them up. Since he tried to avoid unnecessary pain, he went for the second option. “Justin and I are getting married.”

The silence was immediate. Even Justin’s mouth hung open in shock. “We are?” he finally asked.

“Oh yes, we are.”

Brian had overestimated his ability to derail the conversation. Soon questions were being shouted from all corners of the table. Loudest of all, he could hear Emmett wailing about how he was booked solid, and couldn’t they have given him some “fucking notice. I can’t pull a wedding out of my ass, you know.”

A sharp whistle shut them all up again. “I have it all planned,” Brian said calmly. “We will have an intimate candlelit ceremony. Daphne and Mikey will do the honors of standing up for us. Justin and I will be wearing matching Vera Wangs.”

At that point Justin snorted, and he thought Ted might have been choking. Ben shook his head while Emmett mused, “You know, she might be doing tuxes these days.”

“Justin will wear a crown of Golden Gardenias.” Brian continued as though he hadn’t been interrupted. “Gus can walk me down the aisle and Debbie and Jennifer will escort Justin. Ted, you’ll sing, won’t you?”

“Of course, Brian,” Ted managed to answer as he struggled not to laugh.

“Excellent, you can sing Wind Beneath My Wings when Justin comes down the aisle and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face when I do.” Everyone was laughing except for Debbie who glared at him, but Brian kept going. “J.R., you can be the flower girl.” She nodded happily. “Let’s see, the professor can do a reading. I’m thinking How Do I Love Thee, but I’m open for suggestions. And Lindsay, we will need a wedding portrait for over the fireplace. I think that covers everything.” Brian leaned back in his chair and smiled.

Debbie sighed and stood up, slowly making her way to stand in front of Brian. “If I thought for one second, just one second, you were serious about making an honest man out of my Sunshine,” she reached over and patted Justin on the head, “I’d be there with bells on. Fucking bells, right here.” Debbie gave her breasts a squeeze for emphasis as her voice rose.

“Deb, be careful where you’re pointing those things.” Brian shrank back and tried to hide behind Justin, but Justin had already collapsed in hysterical laughter, red-faced and wheezing.

“Kinney, I’d move your eyes back up if I were you. Those beauties are all mine,” Carl shouted from the other end of the table.

“Are you saying you don’t believe my intentions are pure and honorable?” Brian asked, happily shifting his gaze from Debbie’s chest.

Before Debbie could respond, Michael interrupted. “Brian, stop encouraging her. And Ma, leave Brian alone. You know he and Justin are as married as Ben and I.”

“Oh really,” Debbie shifted her attention to her son. “Was there a wedding I somehow missed? Because if there was, a lot of people are going to be very sorry.”

Michael cleared his throat and looked pointedly at the ring on Brian’s left hand. The rings had been the subject of much speculation when they began wearing them six months after Justin came back from New York. Neither of them had offered an explanation, mostly because there wasn’t one. Brian had run across the box one morning when looking for one of his ties and had thought “why the hell not?” He put his ring on and left the open box by the coffeepot for Justin to find. Justin had been wearing his ring when Brian got home that night, and that had been enough for them.

Debbie picked up Brian’s hand and examined it critically. “It’s a beautiful ring, Brian. And it does stand for commitment. It warms my heart more than you know to see you boys wear these, to see you publicly admit your commitment to each other. But a marriage is more than a piece of jewelry. It’s a chance for two people to declare their love in front of their friends and family. It’s a time for them to make promises to each other and to have those promises blessed by those who witness it. That’s what I’m waiting for. And no one, not even you,” Debbie pointed her finger at Brian, “gets to mock that.”

Silence reigned again as everyone shifted uncomfortably under Debbie’s glare. Finally she sniffed dramatically and wiped her eyes. “Now who wants some fucking pie?”

Debbie waited until Brian had taken his first bite of pumpkin pie before speaking again. “The wind beneath my fucking wings,” Debbie snorted and shook her head. “Really Brian, who did you think you were kidding? It’s more like When I Think About You I Touch Myself.” She smiled in satisfaction as Brian spit his pie out while laughing.

* * * * *


 

A few weeks later over breakfast at the diner, Michael told Brian he and Ben were planning to spend Valentine’s Day in Tibet.

“Of course, because nothing says romance like enforced celibacy.” Brian raised his eyebrow at Michael.

“Despite what we once thought, it’s not always about sex.”

“Says someone who isn’t getting any. Don’t tell me the mighty professor is falling down on the job.”

“Ben and I are having plenty of sex, thank you very much, and I have the hickeys to prove it.” Michael blushed just a little. “We just thought it would be a good chance to share something special, something that will bring us closer.”

Brian resisted the urge to make gagging noises. “Ben’s still doing all right, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, Ben’s great. That’s why we’re going. We’ve been talking about it for a while, and it was always something we thought we’d do as a last trip. One last hurrah before, well you know. When we first got together, we didn’t know how much time we would have, and we were always waiting for the end. But Ben’s healthy, and he could stay that way for a long time, so why wait?” Michael smiled and shrugged.

There were a lot of things Brian wanted to say about Michael growing up, and how sometimes he just couldn’t help being proud of Michael. But those things had been said before, and Brian was not going to let himself be dragged into sentiment if it even remotely involved Valentine’s Day. So instead he gave Michael a long suffering sigh, “Fine, take your little trip. Maybe when Justin and I are enjoying our first dance to You Are So Beautiful To Me, we’ll spare a thought for you and the professor sitting cross-legged on a hard floor and eating cold rice.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Will you stop with the wedding thing? You’re going to get my mom all riled up again.”

“I don’t know why no one is taking this seriously.” Brian feigned hurt.

“Because like I said, you and Justin are already married, no matter what you call it.”

“Your mother would beg to differ as she has already done quite eloquently, I might add.”

“That was just Ma being Ma.” Michael waved a hand dismissively. “You know as well as I do that for queers getting married is less about a ceremony and more about paperwork. There’s living wills, next of kin, survivorship. . .” Michael continued to list legal documents.

Brian finally cut in, “And your point would be?”

“My point is that I bet you and Justin have all that in order and have for years.” Michael leaned onto the table and waited for a response.

Brian ducked his head and called for the check. He stuck his tongue out at Michael’s smug look, but didn’t bother denying it. Michael had witnessed his signature on several of those documents and knew just how long they had been in effect.

* * * * *
 

“I wish the roads had been plowed in time for us to drive out to the house. A fire would have been nice tonight.” Justin moved closer to Brian under the duvet.

“There’s nothing like February in the Pitts,” Brian answered sarcastically.

“Daphne can’t wait to go on the cruise Dan booked for them. After forgetting the last two Valentine’s Days, she said he managed to make up for it this year.”

“Nobody wants to go to our wedding,” Brian sighed dramatically.

“Brian,” Justin laughed, “I don’t want to go to our wedding. Will you let it go already?”

“Oh come on, tell me you aren’t even a little bit tempted.”

“Not in the slightest.” Justin turned back from the nightstand where he had pulled out a joint. He lit it and took a hit before passing it to Brian. “There are a lot of things I will do for you, Brian. But putting on a dress and wearing flowers in my hair so you can make a statement about commercialized holidays and heterosexual rituals that uphold antiquated notions of love is not one of them.”

“OK, forget the dresses. We’ll put you in all white, and I’ll wear all black.”

“The answer’s still no. Why can’t we do what we do every Valentine’s Day?”

“We don’t do anything on Valentine’s Day. Well, we fuck, but that has nothing to do with the occasion.” Brian took a deep drag off the joint and watched the smoke float up to the ceiling.

“Exactly. We’ve never acknowledged Valentine’s Day before so why start now?” Justin took the joint back. “Do you how absurd it is that we’re even having this conversation? I mean no one thought we’d last a month let alone long enough to be talking about Valentine’s Day 2014. If my father were dead, he’d be spinning in his grave.”

“My mom too,” Brian laughed. “All those dire predictions of how we were doomed to a lifetime of misery and a one way ticket to hell, and here we are happier than any of them.”

“And having better sex.”

“That goes without saying. See? We really do need to do something to commemorate this momentous occasion if only to stick it to all the fuckers who think they’re better than us.”

“Fine, but come up with something that doesn’t humiliate us in the process.” Justin gave the joint back, and they didn’t talk while they finished it.

“I got it!” Brian announced. He would later blame his idea on the truly spectacular high he was experiencing, but that didn’t explain actually going through with it.

* * * * *

On Valentine’s Day 2014, packages were hand-delivered to the following people: Joan Kinney, Craig Taylor, Chris Hobbs, Jim Stockwell, and Ethan Gold. Each package contained five 8x10 color photographs.

Justin on his knees with just the head of Brian’s dick in his mouth. Brian’s eyes are closed and his hands are fisted in Justin’s hair.

Brian winking at the camera as his tongue reaches the swell of Justin’s ass.

Justin lying with his legs spread wide and back and his back arched as Brian fucks him with a large red dildo while sucking him off.

Justin’s mouth closing around the joint Brian holds in his teeth as they jerk each other off.

Brian fucking Justin from behind with Justin bent over the back of the couch.

No card had been included. Brian and Justin had debated adding captions to the pictures as well as a variety of messages that essentially translated to “Fuck You.” But in the end they decided the pictures spoke for themselves.

All the pictures they sent were posed shots. They wanted pictures that were shocking, dirty and in-your-face. But they also let the camera run on a timer in the bedroom for a few nights in the hopes of catching a few good candid shoots. They’d made their own porn before so the camera wasn’t a distraction.

Almost all the shots were wasted. They got pictures of random knees and elbows, large expanses of empty bed. But there were a few exceptions.

Justin resting his head on Brian’s hip, his hand cradling Brian’s softening cock just after he’d blown him.

The brush of Brian’s lip against the back of Justin’s neck as he entered him from behind.

Brian stretched out over Justin, their hands tightly clasped and pressed into the pillow above Justin’s head.

An odd close up of Brian with his head thrown back while Justin is licking his neck.

Justin sleeping, curled onto his side. Brian is stroking his hair and watching him. He is wearing a smile only Justin has ever seen.

These pictures they keep for themselves, tucked away where no one else will ever see them. There are also three pictures that catch them kissing. They show nothing but their faces and in one, Brian’s hand against Justin’s cheek. Justin frames and places them on the mantle.

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