Vin and Kurt

"How was your Christmas?" Kurt asked over a cup of coffee the morning after the holiday.

"You know?" Vin began merrily. "For my first holiday without my family, it was nice."

"Yeah?" Kurt said, happily pleased that his boyfriend was being so positive about his situation. "So you had a nice Christmas with your friends? Good." He smiled into his phone at Vin, knowing he couldn't see him, but he genuinely was happy for him. "I'm glad."

"Me too. They made a beautiful dinner and we listened to Christmas music and just talked the entire time. The couple that I had dinner with had another guy there that I've never met, Brady."

"Brady?" Kurt asked for clarification. His cousin sauntered in sleepily to pour herself a cup of coffee and it distracted him for a second. He nodded his head to her and mouthed 'good morning' before she shuffled her feet back out of the kitchen with a steaming cup clutched in her hands. Clearly Kurt's cousin was not a morning person.

"Yeah. He's this young thing in college. His boyfriend is overseas and he had no where to go for Christmas either. He's really kind of adorable," Vin chuckled. "Boundless energy and all that. One of those people who's always happy." He paused. "Oh-to-be-young I guess."

"Aww," Kurt cooed. "That's sweet. Looks like you had yourself a big gay Christmas." Kurt smiled again.

"Is there any other kind?" Vin laughed. "Anyway, I'm having lunch with him today."

Kurt's eyebrows went up. "A date?"

"No," Vin said with a breathy laugh. "It's just lunch."

"Mm-hmm." Kurt was trying not to laugh again. He was happy that they could be playful about this and not have it be awkward that they were opening talking about dating other people while still dating each other.

They chatted for a few minutes longer before Kurt had to go. He promise his cousin's daughters he'd take them shopping with Carol and Rachel and he had to start getting ready.

Vin and Brady

"Cob salad, please," Brady ordered. "You have the most beautiful eyes," he gushed at the waitress, leaning in a little and openly staring with wide-eyed pleasure into her eyes. "I can't tell if they're blue or green."

The waitress beamed and the compliment obviously made her day and she glowed. "Thank you, Sweetie. That's so nice of you." The waitress was middle aged with seemingly perfect hair and over done make-up, but Brady was right. The waitress' eyes were beautiful. She left after that and Vin smiled into his water before taking a sip and rolling his eyes.

"What?" Brady asked. He grinned, showing all of his teeth. The corners of his eyes crinkled, making his baby face even more adorable.

"You compliment everyone."

"I prefer to be nice. You never know what a kind word will do for someone."

Vin pondered that thought for a second and decided to store that piece of information in his head. It was good advice and he thought that maybe it would be better implemented than thought of. "My boyfriend has eyes like hers," he said absently, but picturing Kurt's eyes in his head.

"Oh yeah?" Brady leaned forward, putting his chin in his hand, obviously interested in what Vin was saying. "I love that color. It's gorgeous."

"Mm, it is. Blue-green. You can never tell what color they are. Some days, depending on what he's wearing, they look like diamonds." Vin pulled out his phone. "Here. This is him." He flicked through a couple of photos and stopped on one of Kurt's smiling.

"He's beautiful."

"He is." Vin smiled with pride.

Brady appraised Vin's expression to gage what would be appropriate to ask. "My boyfriend has eyes like yours." He pulled out a photo from his wallet. It was of a man in a military uniform.

"Wow! Navy? That's, um… I mean- isn't a significant other in the military a commitment?"

"It is and he's definitely something else." He chuckled a little and sipped his water.

"I take it he's not a friend of Dorothy?"

"Oh no!" Brady laughed. "I mean, he'll prance around in his underwear at the bars, but away from pride week or gay bars, he's as straight as they come. Well, as straight as one can be while giving oral to another man."

"Is it hard being with someone not open?"

Brady looked matter of fact and corrected Vin. "Oh, he's open. He hugs me in public and takes me out like another other couple would. He's just not a stereotype."

Vin was taken aback. Being out of the closet was still something new to him and learning about others that are open was a new and interesting topic to him. "And no one cares?"

"Nope. His family is cool with it and on the ship he keeps it to himself mostly. His crew mates know and everything, but since he's really REALLY good at what he does and doesn't hit on any of them, they care more that he's tough as nails and could probably kick the shit out of anyone, three men at a time than they do about his sexuality."

"How did they find out? Did he just tell them or…?

"He brought me to one of their Navel Ball Banquets. I swear, I'd never been more attracted to a man in a uniform than I was on that cruise ship and seeing a room full of them." He laughed and pretended to fan himself. "Some people asked if I was his brother and he said that I was his partner." He laughed again at a memory. "One guy had the balls to ask 'partner in what?' God, I wanted to curl up and laugh right then and there because Jackson looked him right in the eyes and said 'Bed. He's my boyfriend.' Sure enough, word spread like wildfire and by the end of the night, everyone knew and some people weren't okay with it, but the captain set them straight because he had a son that was gay or something. I never got the full story on that."

"Wow. That took some guts to do that."

Brady looked proud. "It did. But that's Jackson though. Fearless. Sometimes he gets this look in his eyes that's like 'Go ahead. Challenge me. I dare you.' People get so scared when he looks at them like that. I don't think I've ever seen anyone try to pick a fight with him. Ever."

"Not even you?" Vin asked playfully.

Brady responded with a 'bitch-please' expression. "Well, I'm the exception. I came into his life and that poor man didn't have a chance."

"Ah,' Vin nodded. "Spoiled brat. I get it."

Brady laughed, putting his hand to his chest. Vin noticed that his eyes glistened when he laughed, making him look even younger than he already appeared. He had a beautiful quality to him that Kurt had. Vin was slowly noticing that both he and Kurt had a lot of the same qualities. "Of course! No one says no to me. Well, not that anyone wants to say no to me."

"Why's that?"

"Because I'm adorable… and awesome."

"Oh, and full of yourself too."

"A little, but really it's just me being honest with myself." Brady's confidence wasn't coming off as arrogant or cocky to Vin. Instead, it was more comical and, as Brady put it, adorable.

When the laughter subsided, Vin went back to asking about Brady's boyfriend, Jackson. He was fascinating to Vin. "So, is he the only homosexual on the ship?"

"No. I think he said there are three total, himself included. There's a couple other guys on the ship that he screws around with, but it's just physical really. One of them is another soldier like him, and the other, I believe, works as one of the chefs."

"Wait… screws around with? He sleeps with other men?"

"Sure." Brady said it like it was no big deal and it hadn't bothered him in the least. "I always send him off with a box of condoms and tell him that if he comes home with anything other than home sickness, he can find a new pretty young thing to wait for him to come home."

"You're okay with this?"

"Of course!" He scrunched his eyes together like he was really saying 'Duh.' Brady got the impression that this was a concept unheard of to Vin so he elaborated. "We're separated from each other for months at a time. We're still faithful to each other where it matters. I don't fall for other people. He doesn't give his heart away to anyone, but me, God, and country." He paused. "It's just sex."

"Wow." Vin thought of Kurt and their current agreement.

"We've been together for so long that it hardly matters. When he retires we'll both settle down and we'll commit to just each other, but for now, this works just as well."

"I don't know if Kurt and I could ever openly agree to that. Especially after my past. I mean, I'm surprised that he even suggested we date other people."

Brady narrowed his eyes, curiously. "Are you really surprised?"

The question begged a string of thoughts that Vin had previously though of to be expelled. "Well, yes and no. I'm surprised because he's a monogamous type and he was so grossed out by my past that at first I thought this was some sort of test."

"And now?"

"Now I think someone else had caught his attention and he's confused for the moment."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it'd be so strange and out of character for him to suggest something like an open relationship. There must be someone giving him attention that makes him question our validity."

"And you're okay with this? You two don't seem so open about everything."

"There's nothing I can do about someone else having feelings for him, if I'm right, but I'm not worried. He and I have gone through too much to end like that. I'm sure he just needs some time and he'll some around. It's not that he keeps secrets really. He just internalizes them first and thinks about things then discusses the, afterwards with me. He's just like that." Vin shrugged. He didn't seem too bothered by his own thoughts. Mainly because nothing was going wrong in their relationship at the moment he Kurt wasn't acting suspicious.

"So you can date?"

Vin nodded.

"But no sex?"

Vin nodded again.

"Is that what this is? A date?"

Vin laughed and if Brady wasn't mistaken, Vin blushed a little too. He was always a sucker for bashful men in their thirties. Older men were his fancy. Even his current boyfriend, Jackson, was thirty-five. "You're what? Nineteen?"

"Twenty-one. My birthday was two weeks ago. You didn't answer my question. Is this a date?"

"I'm eleven years older than you."

"Jackson is thirty-five. What can I say?" He smiled playfully and shrugged. "I like older men. I sort of lied about my age when I was sixteen and Jackson and I have been together since then. He almost died when he saw my real license when I was seventeen."

"So he was thirty when you two got together?"

"Uh-huh." Brady seemed very happy talking about this.

"What did he do when he found out your real age?"

"Well, he had a lot of questions because he thought I lied to him. The only thing I lied about really was my age, but still, I can see how he was freaked out. I was emancipated when I was fifteen and got my GED when I was sixteen. I wasn't homeless exactly, but I more or less lived out of my car when I met Jackson. He thought I was twenty-one at first because we met at a bar. Guess he didn't know how many minors get into gay bars with fake Ids that look nothing like the owner. When he found out, he freaked because he was in the military already and thought he was committing a crime. He wasn't. Age of consent was sixteen. Worst thing that could happen would be people thinking he was a cradle robber or a pervert, which wasn't a good thing either way, but because I wasn't in school, we decided that if people asked, we'd lie about my age to others and say that I just looked young for my age."

Vin was clearly interested in everything Brady was saying and was hanging onto everything he said. "He didn't question being with you?"

"Oh, of course he did! I lied to him and, like I said, he thought he committed a crime. But, well, as I said earlier, no one wants to say no to me." He smiled. "Jackson loves me and when he really thought about it, keeping a secret for one year was better than us being apart forever."

"Then what happened?"

"He got all serious and said that if he and I were going to be together then things were going to be a certain way. He explained everything to his parents and, while they weren't completely okay with the truth, they loved their son and trusted him and agreed to support his decision. They still saw me as a kid and his mother insisted I move in. So I did. I lived with them and worked full time at a clothing store nearby. I helped them pay bills and stuff and they were really sweet to me. They treated me like I was their own kid. They were better parents to me than my own." He looked off thoughtfully and paused. "Then Jackson insisted I needed to work towards something greater because he wanted me to want more for myself." Brady chuckled. "I swear, that man is the biggest motivator. I don't know where I'd be without him. Probably still living out of my car. Anyway, I moved to Vermont when I got accepted into college and I've been here every since."

"Why weren't you with his parents at Christmas instead?"

"They flew out to California to spend Christmas with their relatives and I could have gone, but I didn't want anyone else to pay for the plain ticket. They've done enough for me as it is. I couldn't afford to take the time off of work. I'm a full time student and I also work full time. Jackson offered to pay for my schooling too, but I refused. I told him I'd pay for it somehow and like everything else in my life, I figured it out. It aggravated him because he always wants to help, but the fact that I've done all this on my own makes both him and I very proud of me."

Vin looked at Brady like he was a different kind of human altogether. He was blown away by what Brady had gone through in his life. He shook his head minutely with wide eyes, still hanging on his unspoken words.

"So!" Brady quickly changed the subject and became perky again. "About our date."

Vin snapped back into reality and laughed, leaning back in his chair. "This is lunch. It's not a date."

"Then why don't we have dinner tonight and make it a date?"

Vin blushed. He felt flattered that someone as young and adorable as Brady was flirting with him. "I don't know. You're so young. I'm flattered. Really."

"You're cute when you blush. I love grown men who get flustered." Their food came and Brady complemented the waitress once more. "And I also do not take no for a final answer."