fic: epilogue [zach in the city]
Title: Epilogue [Zach in the City]
Fandom: ST RPF
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Zach/Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Word Count: 3K
Summary: And two years later, this is where they are. (AO3) (The whole thing at AO3)
"I don't think I can handle this," Zach says the moment his hand lands on the door handle. "I -- I don't --"
"Mr. Quinto, you have to get out of the car," his driver calls over the lowered partition.
"Okay, thanks, could you give us just one goddamn second?" Jesse snaps.
One of the ushers outside opens the car door for him and waits for the car to empty. Zach looks out and then looks back at Jesse. Jesse keeps his face as calm and placid and understanding as possible, but he knows what's coming and, frankly, he's not surprised.
"I'm not ready, I can't do this," Zach breathes.
"Then you're not ready, that's fine," Jesse replies. "Want me to head back home?"
"What, no, you should still come I just." Zach bites his lip hard and stares at the floor of the limo. When Jesse takes his hand and rubs it between his own two, Zach looks up with those pleading eyes that are really unnecessary right now -- no, they're never necessary, like Zach still doesn't know that Jesse only has to see a hint of the question before jumping in front of a (literal or metaphorical) train.
"I've seen you naked, in your winter wardrobe, without eyebrows, with more eyebrows than any six people should have --" He sighs and adds, "Seen you happy, sad -- oh my God, seen you holding your best friend's placenta --"
Zach laughs and buries his face in Jesse's shoulder, and Jesse is kind of sure he's about to start weeping or laughing hysterically. Frankly, he might join in if the usher and driver judge them any louder.
"I'd pet your hair but I know how many people's lives were lost in its creation," Jesse whispers near Zach's ear.
"It's okay, you --"
"Mr. Quinto," his driver repeats, because Jesse's snarl isn't really a fearsome thing, apparently.
"Fine fine fine," Zach sighs. He slides out of the car and extends his arm behind him. Jesse takes hold of his hand for a moment and then lets go. "Let's go find Chris and KBell."
"Why does she have to be only half our height," Jesse says as he climbs out. "It's impossible finding her anywhere."
"There she is," Zach says, and then grins at Jesse. "Tiny blonde thing constantly in motion. Can't miss her."
Jesse follows as Zach weaves through the premiere crowd. Zach rushes up behind Kristen, wrapping his arms around her body and lifting her a foot in the air as her shrieks kill every living thing in a two-mile radius of the theater. "Zach, stop it, oh my God you have no idea how gross I feel right now!"
"Fuck, you're not knocked up again, are you?" he asks as he puts her back down and kneels in front of her stomach. "Can you hear me --"
"No I'm not," she snaps as she bats him away. "And don't you even think that where my lifetime sperm supplier can hear you -- hi Jesse!"
"I walked into the wrong part of that conversation," Jesse says as he leans in and kisses her cheek. "Hey, big momma, I love your dress."
"Thank you!" she coos as she kisses his cheek. "First thing I've put on that doesn't make me feel like a whale."
"You're the tiniest, cutest whale ever," Zach assures her, and she seems to think for a while about how complimentary that actually is. Zach interrupts to ask, "Now where is Piney Pine?"
"He was off looking for you, actually," she muses as she looks around to no avail because even with heels on, her eyes are roughly at neck level to everyone in her immediate radius. "I think he said something about the coke line in the men's bathroom."
"Chris should know better," Jesse says. "Zach is the coke line of every party."
"Friends like you?" Zach says with a motion of his hand. "Are the reason I needed a career where I'm surrounded by sycophants."
"You love us," Kristen assures him. "Some of us carnally."
Zach snorts and his hand travels to the small of Jesse's back, and it freezes there once the rest of him remembers the whole 'touching a male non-cast-member in public' thing, that little helpful PR guideline they were supposed to eradicate tonight. Jesse pats his arm and lowers it back to Zach's side.
"How's the baby, baby?" Zach asks her without missing a beat. "Jesse just broke our pact of never mentioning your rush delivery at that pool party ever again. One ritual murder coming up."
"Zach, you touched my ladyparts and your hands didn't turn to ash. It's okay, and you need to start getting over this survivor's guilt," she says soothingly. "And Nicki is fine -- a pain in the ass, but I think that means she's fine."
"You're not freaking out over being away from her," Jesse remarks.
"Oh, I'm freaking out," she laughs, "But Chris is more freaked out, so I'm less freaked out. Someone has to be the strong paternal figure in our house."
"Yeah, Chris lost that fight before it even happened," Jesse laughs.
"Chris can be so tough," Zach protests. "When J.J. pays him to be."
"I cannot wait to see my baby ride a whale," Kristen says excitedly.
"Which baby?" Jesse asks.
"Oh, I mean, my baby, not my baby baby. My main man. My top cat. My -- slang? Anyone?"
"No, I get it," Jesse says. "We're going to see these bitches ride some whales. I can keep saying it but it doesn't stop being -- what is the word I'm looking for --"
"Shut up it was awesome," Zach sulks.
Chris suddenly appears behind Kristen, puts his hands on her shoulders and kisses her cheek. "Baby's fine."
"No shit, genius, you'd think your sister didn't have three of her own," Kristen laughs. "You're so cute."
"You're so mean, God, no wonder you were --"
"Oh, don't make that joke," Zach interrupts. "That's bad taste, even for you."
"Wow," Jesse realizes, because Chris was actually going there, was going to bring up the ex-fiance, which: dear god no.
"Wow," Kristen agrees, because Zach didn't follow him into that horrible place.
"Zach," Chris begins. "I think -- we just found the line. We've discovered that line you won't cross into bad taste!" Chris looks to everyone else excitedly and says, "I wonder what else is on the other side! Maybe the striped beanies are there? Someone else has to remember the striped beanies!"
"You've got some fucking balls saying anything about me and my beanies because do I have to remind you of those two years and your four white t-shirts?"
"Oh God, our baby has half that genetic make up," Kristen whines as she leans against Jesse, Chris and Zach lost in their bickering foreplay now. "She'll hate being clean and she'll go to Berkeley and be -- she'll be that girl with dreds who carries her girlfriend's hookah from class to class and --"
"Shh, it's okay," Jesse says as he embraces Kristen tightly. "She has godparents for a reason."
"But one of them is Zach," she whines.
"And: fuck you both," Zach says over his shoulder.
They stand there together and blow kisses at Zach, who rolls his eyes and puts his arm around Chris.
"We don't need them, never have," Zach says to Chris.
"Yeah, seriously," Chris replies. "She can try and tie me down with as many kids as she wants --"
"Oh hell no," Kristen replies, and Jesse keeps a hold on her as she tries to thrash and get to Chris. "You did not just --"
"Guys," a voice says, and they all turn to see J.J. with his eyebrows up. "Can we take a half-time break from happy families and get to promoting our movie or what?"
"Go, go," Jesse urges Zach. "Papa needs a new 30-in-one pulsating shower head."
"Aren't they amazing?" Kristen asks Jesse. "It takes the sting away from Chris traveling and gives me a whole new kind of --"
"Fucking Jesus, fine, we'll be right back," Chris sighs as he drags Zach over to the sidelines where the photographers are. Jesse and Kristen watch them and keep their arms around each other, and exchange a glance and a laugh when they catch the other's lingering look.
"So is Zach --"
"No, he -- last minute, he decided not to," Jesse says as he averts his eyes.
"Honey, I'm sorry," she says as she rubs his back.
"So am I," Jesse says, and he -- he's so upset, so quietly fucking angry that he might lose control of his inner monologue and poor Kristen would have to listen to it all over again, as if she hadn't been there already when the drama of he and Zach had unfolded and, so he stupidly thought, wrapped up nicely.
"Know what," she says. "I'm going to become a dude, and then Chris and Zach will have to come out about their long-term monogamous homosexual relationships together."
"You just don't want to have any more of his babies," Jesse laughs.
"Don't tell him, don't ever tell him," Kristen says, her voice suddenly quiet, "But I'd have like, a million of them -- no one else's, though, just his."
"What if Zach wanted one?"
"Well, if we have a million, I'm sure you and Zach could rent one off us," she laughs. "Just the one, though."
"We'll see once your uterus recovers if we want something from the Bell-Pine breeding farm."
"That sounds like such a horrible good idea once Chris's career tanks," Kristen considers. "I just like the name, really. Bell-Pine."
"You sap," Jesse says, wrapping both arms around her to give her a hug.
"Ugh, I know," Kristen laughs, and both of them look over to where Chris and Zach have their arms around each other, laughing and trying to brighten their canned answers with their gleaming smiles. "I'm a sap for that douchemonster."
"I know you are," Jesse says as his arm tightens around her shoulders. She's so good, really, to let him latch on like this. "Everyone knows it."
"Now as for your douchemonster --" she begins.
"You know, I wish I knew," Jesse replies. "I mean. I told him when we got back together: either this ends with us being public, or it just ends. And we fell right back into things, and we fucking love each other, and now I have to leave."
"Jesse --"
He looks down at her face pressed against his shoulder, all concern and sympathy. She tightens her arms around his ribs a little and he has to look away.
"He just needs --"
"More time, I know, but." He scratches at his jaw and says, "Just because I have no ego doesn't mean I don't have any pride. Does that make sense?"
"Not even a little, baby," she says.
He thinks for a moment and finally says, "I want to be wanted. I put a price on being with me and he's not willing to pay, and I'm not willing to wait another year, so. Yeah." He sighs and says, "I'll give his brother my ticket on the press tour and he can go hit on Karl's countrymen."
And now he's done that thing where he's completely ruined all hope of a normal conversation, so he presses a kiss to Kristen's forehead and adds, "I'm sorry, this isn't the place."
Just then, Chris walks over and says to Jesse, "Excuse me, the international press would like to ogle my wife's dress -- may I?"
"Hey, buddy, try asking the wife." Kristen stands up straight, exercising all of her five-feet-and-four-inches on heels as she shoves Chris in the shoulder and adds, "And your wife says she's busy here."
"Great, honey," Chris grins, and he clasps her hand and leads her away. She grasps onto Jesse's sleeve but lets go before her other arm is dislocated.
Zach looks over his shoulder and their eyes meet. Jesse thinks Zach looks sad and breaks the stare by taking out his phone to read his texts.
He really should have seen the chickening out coming sooner, mostly because Zach had spent the past five months building the night of the Trek premiere into The Night Everything Would Change -- and why should things change? Everything was fine.
Except for the part where he could feel that they were five minutes away from a confidentiality agreement, and Zach actually buying the house behind his own and moving Jesse into it so that joke about secret neighbor-husbands would become true, and all this other ridiculous shit Zach would concoct just to avoid being with him in any significant way.
And he was completely right. They'd break up and just as he'd move on, Zach would decide it was time to risk becoming even more famous by telling everyone on the planet who couldn't have guessed that he was gay and they should look at his reasonably-famous-in-his-own-right boyfriend --
Zach was coming over.
Zach was taking his hand and pulling him towards the E! circle where Chris and Kristen were still chatting.
"What are you doing?" Jesse asks.
"Still ready to be my guy in front of all the media outlets of the civilized world?" Zach asks, grinning a little but Jesse can see the beads of sweat breaking out at his hairline that he quickly wipes away with his free hand. "So?"
"Are you?"
"Can't let the Bell-Pine collective have all the fun, can we?" Zach laughs.
"Okay, hold on," Jesse says as he digs his heels into the red carpet. "I need something real, not just you and Chris thinking our relationship is a real hoot on premiere night."
"Something real?" Zach asks and -- things are changing. It's his hands, both of them, Zach is holding in his own; his personal space Zach is invading, their bodies that are slowly turning towards the rows of now yelling photographers and desperately shrieking fans. "We're going to go over there and just be ourselves with our best friends -- I'll be myself, probably for the first time in my life." Zach pauses, brings Jesse's hands together, and actually fucking kisses his knuckles before he lowers them a little and says, "Please be there with me."
"Finally! Well done!" Karl says as he walks by and drops a spine-shattering slap on Zach's back on his way to an interview of his own.
"Oh my God, if you don't say yes and take care of me always I'm going to have to hire a full-time nurse because Karl just broke me," Zach moans as he drops Jesse's hands and tries to feel his back again.
"Excuse me, do these hands look like they ever have or ever will do any nursing?"
"Come on," Zach laughs as he tugs on Jesse's hands.
Jesse goes. Goes with him, not away, towards the ring of photographers and interviewers whose cameras all point to their clasped hands.
"So. Whales," Zach says to Chris and Kristen, who are beaming so stupidly that Jesse wonders whether they look that dumb of their own volition or are just reflecting himself back at him.
"It's a movie about whales," Chris agrees. "And the 80s."
"Oh my God, we have to get J.J. to do an I Love the 80s Trek edition!" Zach says excitedly.
"Jesus Christ," Kristen laughs, and she leans forward in front of Zach to catch Jesse's attention. "You're in it now, buddy. Let me know if your foot pops when he kisses you."
"Ooh, should we try it?" Zach asks. "I feel so reckless."
"Don't be gross," Jesse says, but as soon as Zach faces forward and engages an interviewer, Jesse kisses his cheek and goes back to breathing deeply and trying not to lose his fucking mind at having everything he needs and everyone he wants.
*
ZacharyQuinto the whole family together: ma, me, joe, erica/mrs. joe, joe 1&2, pine&kris, our nikita, and introducing… http://tweetphoto.com/184937509
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto …in the role of my husband in the state of california as of 12:35 pm pdt, mr. @jessetyler. http://tweetphoto.com/184938432
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto me and pine and space dads @therealnimoy @williamshatner welcoming @jessetyler into the family. ll&p http://tweetphoto.com/184939233
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto me+the cmu/btd boys: @coreymoosa @nealdodson and BOMER, who threatens to out-handsome me @ my wedding. http://tweetphoto.com/189355188
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto .@ericstonestreet singing our first song. we are blushing, not drunk. (not very.) @johnthecho however… http://tweetphoto.com/193842000
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto brb married. napping. married. feel 5000 miles above the earth, not 5.
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
jessetyler Woke up on honeymoon flight to find @ZacharyQuinto had tweet some wedding pics. Go see! Then yell at him for not watching me sleep.
about 5 hours ago via Echofon
jessetyler For the record, I'm a creeper and am watching him drool right now. Yay marriage!
about 5 hours ago via Echofon
ericstonestreet @jessetyler bunny, you are THE CUTEST. everyone at MF says it was gorgeous and congrats and love. enjoy the honeymoon!!
about 5 hours ago via UberTwitter
JohnTheCho @ZacharyQuinto @jessetyler Your wedding gave me food poisoning. Was it the shrimp or your gushy love?
about 5 hours ago via Echofon
jessetyler @JohnTheCho Us. We also spoil if we're in the sun too long. Okay, I do, not my swarthy one.
about 5 hours ago via Echofon
jessetyler @ericstonestreet Look for postcards! Do you want obscene or safe-for-the-kids?
about 5 hours ago via Echofon
ericstonestreet @jessetyler want all the postcards. STOP TWEETING!!!! BE MARRIED!!!
about 4 hours ago via UberTwitter
TheRealNimoy Just got back with billy from the wedding of @zacharyquinto and @jessetyler. mazal tov !! LLAP always, boys.
about 4 hours ago via web
WilliamShatner I love weddings. All the best to @ZacharyQuinto and @jessetyler. Look for the dramatization in my upcoming graphic novel. MBB.
about 4 hours ago via web
TheRealNimoy @williamshatner you wouldn't!! !!
about 4 hours ago via web
TheRealNimoy @williamshatner You would. Call me !!
about 4 hours ago via web
IMKristenBell nicki's godpapas got married today and i won a bet with pine b/c hell didn't freeze over. look for his gold bikini pics in maxim.
about 4 hours ago via web
IMKristenBell @jessetyler ps: you looked so handsome!! pine wants a beard now. don't give him ur secrets. my skin is sensitive. nicki misses you.
about 4 hours ago via web
JohnTheCho Dr. McUrban was at the wedding, too. Watch him eat this cake in 40 seconds. http://www.twitvid.com/FC45N
about 3 hours ago via Echofon
coreymoosa The book of love is long and boring, but @ZacharyQuinto and @jessetyler make it fun.
about 2 hours ago via web
ZacharyQuinto @coreymoosa your beard is so wise.
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
coreymoosa @ZacharyQuinto That was me, all me. Ok, 5% beard, 95% me.
about 1 hour ago via web
ZacharyQuinto @coreymoosa but you're 98% beard. too many numbers. you are very beard. the beardest.
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto thanks for the well-wishes, planet twitter. woke up. still married. very lotr, this ring on my finger. jtf just laughed super loud.
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto i think this is the part where we look on the wing and see @williamshatner but we're too scared to find out. more drinks. more laughing.yes.
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
jessetyler No web on this connection flight! Does this mean I have to talk to my husband? Help! #convoswithzq #wtfmarried #seriously #howdoyouusethese
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto #shut up jesse
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto twitter fail. sorry. honeymoon starts now.
about 45 minutes ago via Echofon
JohnTheCho FINALLY.
about 35 minutes ago via Echofon
IMKristenBell RT @JohnTheCho FINALLY.
about 30 minutes ago via web
ericstonestreet RT @IMKristenBell RT @JohnTheCho FINALLY.
about 15 minutes ago via UberTwitter
jessetyler We get it, you hate people in love! We don't need any of you!
about 7 minutes ago via Echofon
TheRealNimoy @jessetyler all you need is love. LLAP.
about 4 minutes ago via web
ZacharyQuinto PHONES. OFF. food for thought. RT @TheRealNimoy @jessetyler all you need is love. LLAP.
about 2 minutes ago via Echofon
The movie they're promoting is Star Trek XII: Actually, Rebooting 'The Voyage Home' Would Be Totally Awesome, N'est-ce Pas? And Spock Doesn't Have to Die First!
Thank you for sticking around. <3
Fandom: ST RPF
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Zach/Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Word Count: 3K
Summary: And two years later, this is where they are. (AO3) (The whole thing at AO3)
"I don't think I can handle this," Zach says the moment his hand lands on the door handle. "I -- I don't --"
"Mr. Quinto, you have to get out of the car," his driver calls over the lowered partition.
"Okay, thanks, could you give us just one goddamn second?" Jesse snaps.
One of the ushers outside opens the car door for him and waits for the car to empty. Zach looks out and then looks back at Jesse. Jesse keeps his face as calm and placid and understanding as possible, but he knows what's coming and, frankly, he's not surprised.
"I'm not ready, I can't do this," Zach breathes.
"Then you're not ready, that's fine," Jesse replies. "Want me to head back home?"
"What, no, you should still come I just." Zach bites his lip hard and stares at the floor of the limo. When Jesse takes his hand and rubs it between his own two, Zach looks up with those pleading eyes that are really unnecessary right now -- no, they're never necessary, like Zach still doesn't know that Jesse only has to see a hint of the question before jumping in front of a (literal or metaphorical) train.
"I've seen you naked, in your winter wardrobe, without eyebrows, with more eyebrows than any six people should have --" He sighs and adds, "Seen you happy, sad -- oh my God, seen you holding your best friend's placenta --"
Zach laughs and buries his face in Jesse's shoulder, and Jesse is kind of sure he's about to start weeping or laughing hysterically. Frankly, he might join in if the usher and driver judge them any louder.
"I'd pet your hair but I know how many people's lives were lost in its creation," Jesse whispers near Zach's ear.
"It's okay, you --"
"Mr. Quinto," his driver repeats, because Jesse's snarl isn't really a fearsome thing, apparently.
"Fine fine fine," Zach sighs. He slides out of the car and extends his arm behind him. Jesse takes hold of his hand for a moment and then lets go. "Let's go find Chris and KBell."
"Why does she have to be only half our height," Jesse says as he climbs out. "It's impossible finding her anywhere."
"There she is," Zach says, and then grins at Jesse. "Tiny blonde thing constantly in motion. Can't miss her."
Jesse follows as Zach weaves through the premiere crowd. Zach rushes up behind Kristen, wrapping his arms around her body and lifting her a foot in the air as her shrieks kill every living thing in a two-mile radius of the theater. "Zach, stop it, oh my God you have no idea how gross I feel right now!"
"Fuck, you're not knocked up again, are you?" he asks as he puts her back down and kneels in front of her stomach. "Can you hear me --"
"No I'm not," she snaps as she bats him away. "And don't you even think that where my lifetime sperm supplier can hear you -- hi Jesse!"
"I walked into the wrong part of that conversation," Jesse says as he leans in and kisses her cheek. "Hey, big momma, I love your dress."
"Thank you!" she coos as she kisses his cheek. "First thing I've put on that doesn't make me feel like a whale."
"You're the tiniest, cutest whale ever," Zach assures her, and she seems to think for a while about how complimentary that actually is. Zach interrupts to ask, "Now where is Piney Pine?"
"He was off looking for you, actually," she muses as she looks around to no avail because even with heels on, her eyes are roughly at neck level to everyone in her immediate radius. "I think he said something about the coke line in the men's bathroom."
"Chris should know better," Jesse says. "Zach is the coke line of every party."
"Friends like you?" Zach says with a motion of his hand. "Are the reason I needed a career where I'm surrounded by sycophants."
"You love us," Kristen assures him. "Some of us carnally."
Zach snorts and his hand travels to the small of Jesse's back, and it freezes there once the rest of him remembers the whole 'touching a male non-cast-member in public' thing, that little helpful PR guideline they were supposed to eradicate tonight. Jesse pats his arm and lowers it back to Zach's side.
"How's the baby, baby?" Zach asks her without missing a beat. "Jesse just broke our pact of never mentioning your rush delivery at that pool party ever again. One ritual murder coming up."
"Zach, you touched my ladyparts and your hands didn't turn to ash. It's okay, and you need to start getting over this survivor's guilt," she says soothingly. "And Nicki is fine -- a pain in the ass, but I think that means she's fine."
"You're not freaking out over being away from her," Jesse remarks.
"Oh, I'm freaking out," she laughs, "But Chris is more freaked out, so I'm less freaked out. Someone has to be the strong paternal figure in our house."
"Yeah, Chris lost that fight before it even happened," Jesse laughs.
"Chris can be so tough," Zach protests. "When J.J. pays him to be."
"I cannot wait to see my baby ride a whale," Kristen says excitedly.
"Which baby?" Jesse asks.
"Oh, I mean, my baby, not my baby baby. My main man. My top cat. My -- slang? Anyone?"
"No, I get it," Jesse says. "We're going to see these bitches ride some whales. I can keep saying it but it doesn't stop being -- what is the word I'm looking for --"
"Shut up it was awesome," Zach sulks.
Chris suddenly appears behind Kristen, puts his hands on her shoulders and kisses her cheek. "Baby's fine."
"No shit, genius, you'd think your sister didn't have three of her own," Kristen laughs. "You're so cute."
"You're so mean, God, no wonder you were --"
"Oh, don't make that joke," Zach interrupts. "That's bad taste, even for you."
"Wow," Jesse realizes, because Chris was actually going there, was going to bring up the ex-fiance, which: dear god no.
"Wow," Kristen agrees, because Zach didn't follow him into that horrible place.
"Zach," Chris begins. "I think -- we just found the line. We've discovered that line you won't cross into bad taste!" Chris looks to everyone else excitedly and says, "I wonder what else is on the other side! Maybe the striped beanies are there? Someone else has to remember the striped beanies!"
"You've got some fucking balls saying anything about me and my beanies because do I have to remind you of those two years and your four white t-shirts?"
"Oh God, our baby has half that genetic make up," Kristen whines as she leans against Jesse, Chris and Zach lost in their bickering foreplay now. "She'll hate being clean and she'll go to Berkeley and be -- she'll be that girl with dreds who carries her girlfriend's hookah from class to class and --"
"Shh, it's okay," Jesse says as he embraces Kristen tightly. "She has godparents for a reason."
"But one of them is Zach," she whines.
"And: fuck you both," Zach says over his shoulder.
They stand there together and blow kisses at Zach, who rolls his eyes and puts his arm around Chris.
"We don't need them, never have," Zach says to Chris.
"Yeah, seriously," Chris replies. "She can try and tie me down with as many kids as she wants --"
"Oh hell no," Kristen replies, and Jesse keeps a hold on her as she tries to thrash and get to Chris. "You did not just --"
"Guys," a voice says, and they all turn to see J.J. with his eyebrows up. "Can we take a half-time break from happy families and get to promoting our movie or what?"
"Go, go," Jesse urges Zach. "Papa needs a new 30-in-one pulsating shower head."
"Aren't they amazing?" Kristen asks Jesse. "It takes the sting away from Chris traveling and gives me a whole new kind of --"
"Fucking Jesus, fine, we'll be right back," Chris sighs as he drags Zach over to the sidelines where the photographers are. Jesse and Kristen watch them and keep their arms around each other, and exchange a glance and a laugh when they catch the other's lingering look.
"So is Zach --"
"No, he -- last minute, he decided not to," Jesse says as he averts his eyes.
"Honey, I'm sorry," she says as she rubs his back.
"So am I," Jesse says, and he -- he's so upset, so quietly fucking angry that he might lose control of his inner monologue and poor Kristen would have to listen to it all over again, as if she hadn't been there already when the drama of he and Zach had unfolded and, so he stupidly thought, wrapped up nicely.
"Know what," she says. "I'm going to become a dude, and then Chris and Zach will have to come out about their long-term monogamous homosexual relationships together."
"You just don't want to have any more of his babies," Jesse laughs.
"Don't tell him, don't ever tell him," Kristen says, her voice suddenly quiet, "But I'd have like, a million of them -- no one else's, though, just his."
"What if Zach wanted one?"
"Well, if we have a million, I'm sure you and Zach could rent one off us," she laughs. "Just the one, though."
"We'll see once your uterus recovers if we want something from the Bell-Pine breeding farm."
"That sounds like such a horrible good idea once Chris's career tanks," Kristen considers. "I just like the name, really. Bell-Pine."
"You sap," Jesse says, wrapping both arms around her to give her a hug.
"Ugh, I know," Kristen laughs, and both of them look over to where Chris and Zach have their arms around each other, laughing and trying to brighten their canned answers with their gleaming smiles. "I'm a sap for that douchemonster."
"I know you are," Jesse says as his arm tightens around her shoulders. She's so good, really, to let him latch on like this. "Everyone knows it."
"Now as for your douchemonster --" she begins.
"You know, I wish I knew," Jesse replies. "I mean. I told him when we got back together: either this ends with us being public, or it just ends. And we fell right back into things, and we fucking love each other, and now I have to leave."
"Jesse --"
He looks down at her face pressed against his shoulder, all concern and sympathy. She tightens her arms around his ribs a little and he has to look away.
"He just needs --"
"More time, I know, but." He scratches at his jaw and says, "Just because I have no ego doesn't mean I don't have any pride. Does that make sense?"
"Not even a little, baby," she says.
He thinks for a moment and finally says, "I want to be wanted. I put a price on being with me and he's not willing to pay, and I'm not willing to wait another year, so. Yeah." He sighs and says, "I'll give his brother my ticket on the press tour and he can go hit on Karl's countrymen."
And now he's done that thing where he's completely ruined all hope of a normal conversation, so he presses a kiss to Kristen's forehead and adds, "I'm sorry, this isn't the place."
Just then, Chris walks over and says to Jesse, "Excuse me, the international press would like to ogle my wife's dress -- may I?"
"Hey, buddy, try asking the wife." Kristen stands up straight, exercising all of her five-feet-and-four-inches on heels as she shoves Chris in the shoulder and adds, "And your wife says she's busy here."
"Great, honey," Chris grins, and he clasps her hand and leads her away. She grasps onto Jesse's sleeve but lets go before her other arm is dislocated.
Zach looks over his shoulder and their eyes meet. Jesse thinks Zach looks sad and breaks the stare by taking out his phone to read his texts.
He really should have seen the chickening out coming sooner, mostly because Zach had spent the past five months building the night of the Trek premiere into The Night Everything Would Change -- and why should things change? Everything was fine.
Except for the part where he could feel that they were five minutes away from a confidentiality agreement, and Zach actually buying the house behind his own and moving Jesse into it so that joke about secret neighbor-husbands would become true, and all this other ridiculous shit Zach would concoct just to avoid being with him in any significant way.
And he was completely right. They'd break up and just as he'd move on, Zach would decide it was time to risk becoming even more famous by telling everyone on the planet who couldn't have guessed that he was gay and they should look at his reasonably-famous-in-his-own-right boyfriend --
Zach was coming over.
Zach was taking his hand and pulling him towards the E! circle where Chris and Kristen were still chatting.
"What are you doing?" Jesse asks.
"Still ready to be my guy in front of all the media outlets of the civilized world?" Zach asks, grinning a little but Jesse can see the beads of sweat breaking out at his hairline that he quickly wipes away with his free hand. "So?"
"Are you?"
"Can't let the Bell-Pine collective have all the fun, can we?" Zach laughs.
"Okay, hold on," Jesse says as he digs his heels into the red carpet. "I need something real, not just you and Chris thinking our relationship is a real hoot on premiere night."
"Something real?" Zach asks and -- things are changing. It's his hands, both of them, Zach is holding in his own; his personal space Zach is invading, their bodies that are slowly turning towards the rows of now yelling photographers and desperately shrieking fans. "We're going to go over there and just be ourselves with our best friends -- I'll be myself, probably for the first time in my life." Zach pauses, brings Jesse's hands together, and actually fucking kisses his knuckles before he lowers them a little and says, "Please be there with me."
"Finally! Well done!" Karl says as he walks by and drops a spine-shattering slap on Zach's back on his way to an interview of his own.
"Oh my God, if you don't say yes and take care of me always I'm going to have to hire a full-time nurse because Karl just broke me," Zach moans as he drops Jesse's hands and tries to feel his back again.
"Excuse me, do these hands look like they ever have or ever will do any nursing?"
"Come on," Zach laughs as he tugs on Jesse's hands.
Jesse goes. Goes with him, not away, towards the ring of photographers and interviewers whose cameras all point to their clasped hands.
"So. Whales," Zach says to Chris and Kristen, who are beaming so stupidly that Jesse wonders whether they look that dumb of their own volition or are just reflecting himself back at him.
"It's a movie about whales," Chris agrees. "And the 80s."
"Oh my God, we have to get J.J. to do an I Love the 80s Trek edition!" Zach says excitedly.
"Jesus Christ," Kristen laughs, and she leans forward in front of Zach to catch Jesse's attention. "You're in it now, buddy. Let me know if your foot pops when he kisses you."
"Ooh, should we try it?" Zach asks. "I feel so reckless."
"Don't be gross," Jesse says, but as soon as Zach faces forward and engages an interviewer, Jesse kisses his cheek and goes back to breathing deeply and trying not to lose his fucking mind at having everything he needs and everyone he wants.
*
ZacharyQuinto the whole family together: ma, me, joe, erica/mrs. joe, joe 1&2, pine&kris, our nikita, and introducing… http://tweetphoto.com/184937509
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto …in the role of my husband in the state of california as of 12:35 pm pdt, mr. @jessetyler. http://tweetphoto.com/184938432
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto me and pine and space dads @therealnimoy @williamshatner welcoming @jessetyler into the family. ll&p http://tweetphoto.com/184939233
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto me+the cmu/btd boys: @coreymoosa @nealdodson and BOMER, who threatens to out-handsome me @ my wedding. http://tweetphoto.com/189355188
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto .@ericstonestreet singing our first song. we are blushing, not drunk. (not very.) @johnthecho however… http://tweetphoto.com/193842000
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto brb married. napping. married. feel 5000 miles above the earth, not 5.
about 6 hours ago via Echofon
jessetyler Woke up on honeymoon flight to find @ZacharyQuinto had tweet some wedding pics. Go see! Then yell at him for not watching me sleep.
about 5 hours ago via Echofon
jessetyler For the record, I'm a creeper and am watching him drool right now. Yay marriage!
about 5 hours ago via Echofon
ericstonestreet @jessetyler bunny, you are THE CUTEST. everyone at MF says it was gorgeous and congrats and love. enjoy the honeymoon!!
about 5 hours ago via UberTwitter
JohnTheCho @ZacharyQuinto @jessetyler Your wedding gave me food poisoning. Was it the shrimp or your gushy love?
about 5 hours ago via Echofon
jessetyler @JohnTheCho Us. We also spoil if we're in the sun too long. Okay, I do, not my swarthy one.
about 5 hours ago via Echofon
jessetyler @ericstonestreet Look for postcards! Do you want obscene or safe-for-the-kids?
about 5 hours ago via Echofon
ericstonestreet @jessetyler want all the postcards. STOP TWEETING!!!! BE MARRIED!!!
about 4 hours ago via UberTwitter
TheRealNimoy Just got back with billy from the wedding of @zacharyquinto and @jessetyler. mazal tov !! LLAP always, boys.
about 4 hours ago via web
WilliamShatner I love weddings. All the best to @ZacharyQuinto and @jessetyler. Look for the dramatization in my upcoming graphic novel. MBB.
about 4 hours ago via web
TheRealNimoy @williamshatner you wouldn't!! !!
about 4 hours ago via web
TheRealNimoy @williamshatner You would. Call me !!
about 4 hours ago via web
IMKristenBell nicki's godpapas got married today and i won a bet with pine b/c hell didn't freeze over. look for his gold bikini pics in maxim.
about 4 hours ago via web
IMKristenBell @jessetyler ps: you looked so handsome!! pine wants a beard now. don't give him ur secrets. my skin is sensitive. nicki misses you.
about 4 hours ago via web
JohnTheCho Dr. McUrban was at the wedding, too. Watch him eat this cake in 40 seconds. http://www.twitvid.com/FC45N
about 3 hours ago via Echofon
coreymoosa The book of love is long and boring, but @ZacharyQuinto and @jessetyler make it fun.
about 2 hours ago via web
ZacharyQuinto @coreymoosa your beard is so wise.
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
coreymoosa @ZacharyQuinto That was me, all me. Ok, 5% beard, 95% me.
about 1 hour ago via web
ZacharyQuinto @coreymoosa but you're 98% beard. too many numbers. you are very beard. the beardest.
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto thanks for the well-wishes, planet twitter. woke up. still married. very lotr, this ring on my finger. jtf just laughed super loud.
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto i think this is the part where we look on the wing and see @williamshatner but we're too scared to find out. more drinks. more laughing.yes.
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
jessetyler No web on this connection flight! Does this mean I have to talk to my husband? Help! #convoswithzq #wtfmarried #seriously #howdoyouusethese
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto #shut up jesse
about 1 hour ago via Echofon
ZacharyQuinto twitter fail. sorry. honeymoon starts now.
about 45 minutes ago via Echofon
JohnTheCho FINALLY.
about 35 minutes ago via Echofon
IMKristenBell RT @JohnTheCho FINALLY.
about 30 minutes ago via web
ericstonestreet RT @IMKristenBell RT @JohnTheCho FINALLY.
about 15 minutes ago via UberTwitter
jessetyler We get it, you hate people in love! We don't need any of you!
about 7 minutes ago via Echofon
TheRealNimoy @jessetyler all you need is love. LLAP.
about 4 minutes ago via web
ZacharyQuinto PHONES. OFF. food for thought. RT @TheRealNimoy @jessetyler all you need is love. LLAP.
about 2 minutes ago via Echofon
The movie they're promoting is Star Trek XII: Actually, Rebooting 'The Voyage Home' Would Be Totally Awesome, N'est-ce Pas? And Spock Doesn't Have to Die First!
Thank you for sticking around. <3