Forever (Kevin/Joe)
Kevin and Joe, ages 6 and 4
Joe’s giggles are Kevin’s favorite sound, so he does everything he can to make him laugh. He sets him in a laundry basket with a few giant pillows as padding and pretends he’s talking into a walkie-talkie, telling some imaginary flight crew that they’re ready for take-off. Joe hangs on to the side of the basket, hunching forward, and Kevin makes several amateur sounds that he thinks sound vaguely like an airplane taking off, and starts pushing the basket with all his strength across the carpet.
Joe turns a pout in his direction, begging him to go faster, and then they’re sliding into the kitchen and the speed picks up so fast that Kevin can’t quite catch his footing, so the two of them go slip-sliding across the floor and at some point, Kevin completely loses his balance and falls with a thump to the floor, and the laundry basket keeps flying, until with a bang, it sends a squealing Joe against a cabinet. They both get a time-out for being careless since they could have gotten hurt. But, Joe sits in his corner giggling, and Kevin can’t help join in.
Kevin and Joe, ages 7 and 5
Kevin tugs Joe out into the front yard, a bucket of chalk swinging from his free hand. They pause in the center of the driveway, looking with admiration up at the freshly-installed garage door. It’s clean and white. It’s a perfect canvas. It only takes them a few minutes to get started, sketching out an expansive scene. Joe draws a picture of Kevin, because he likes the way his curls look, and they’re easy to draw as spirals around his head - and he always thought he would look better with Easter egg-blue hair. Kevin draws their whole family, especially Nick, since he just learned to walk and could now stand up in the picture with the rest of the family; it was always too hard to draw their mother holding him.
It’s a beautiful picture, full of everything that makes children perfect to have around. Of course, considering the amount of money their parents spent buying this new door, they aren’t exactly excited to see it.
Kevin, Joe and Nick, ages 8, 6 and 3
The boys are playing cops-and-robbers. Joe is the robber - he always is. He’s best at it. Kevin is the cop because he has a hat from an old Halloween costume. Nick is the victim. He whines about this role every time they play, but his brothers reason with him that he’s the youngest and promise him he’ll get to be the cop next time. (They’re always lying.)
Joe takes one of Nick’s stuffed animals hostage - his favorite teddy bear, the one he carries around with him all the time and tells his brother that he has to call the cops so he can get him back. Nick does, begrudgingly, because playing the helpless one is very boring. He picks up their old phone with the curly cord and dials 911. He sniffles as he tells Officer Kevin that someone stole his teddy bear. He hangs up when he realizes the questions he’s being asked are way too involved and whines to his brothers (who he has to make a point to locate) that he doesn’t want to play anymore.
A few minutes later, the doorbell rings. Their mom answers it, is puzzled to find a police officer standing there, asking if anything was wrong, that a call was received from this number, and Denise realizes with horror what happened, and Joe snickers that Nick is going to jail, and Nick promptly bursts into tears at the thought, begging the police officer not to take him to jail, that he didn’t mean to call the police.
The officer just chuckles, tells him to be more careful around telephones and leaves. Nick is put off cops-and-robbers for life.
Kevin and Joe, ages 9 and 7
Their mother is sidetracked talking to a neighbor, and Nick sticks close to her side while Kevin and Joe wait impatiently in the car to go to Chuck E. Cheese’s. They decide to amuse themselves by looking through their mother’s purse, and end up playfully throwing money around the car, pretending they’re rolling in it to the tune of whatever song is playing on the radio in the running car.
They get bored quickly. They hop out of the car, closing the doors behind them, and wander over to their mother to beg her to go because they want pizza and they want to play in the ball pit. Denise laughs indulgently and bids goodbye to her friend, ushering her children toward the car since they’re so excited to go. It’s only when she gets there that she realizes that her keys are locked in the car.
It’s almost funny that the police officer that comes to get her doors open is the same one from the first time. It’s definitely funny (to Nick at least) that now his big brothers are the ones crying that they don’t want to go to jail.
Kevin, Joe and Nick, ages 11, 9 and 6
It’s the first day of school, and Nick’s brothers are called to the nurse’s office where they find their little brother just getting over tears. His knees are scraped up, and his clothes are dirty, and he’s rubbing a tiny fist against his eye. He runs for them as soon as they’re in the room, pressing his face against Kevin’s shirt, and Kevin just rubs his back, frowning at the nurse, who explains that some of the boys on the playground got a little rough when they were playing at recess.
Nick says they made fun of him for singing so loudly. Joe smiles softly at him and ruffles his curls so that Nick will look over at him from where he’s hiding in Kevin’s arms. He tells him to sing as loud as he can.
Kevin and Joe, ages 13 and 11
Joe appears in the doorway of their bedroom, frowning slightly at his brother, who has his Walkman playing loudly, headphones blocking out the sounds in the room. He’s tapping his pencil against his notebook, peering through his glasses with an annoyed grimace at the equations he needs to solve for the algebra class he somehow tested into a few grades early.
Kevin looks up when his bed dips down, and he tugs his headphones off so he can talk to Joe. The music is still playing loudly when Joe asks if Kevin’s not going to hang out with him anymore because he’s in middle school now. Kevin laughs softly, pulling him close for a hug, and promises him that he never has to worry about that.
Kevin, Joe and Nick, ages 15, 13 and 10
Kevin and Joe are seated in a pew near the front of the church, playing cards. Their father is in a meeting with several other ministers about something or other that would somehow affect the church. Nick is with the children’s choir on the small stage, singing his heart out with the rest of them. His brothers take a break from their game of speed (which Joe was totally winning) to listen to his solo, smiling when he waves at them, even in the middle of belting out his song.
Joe murmurs something the terrifying question of whether or not Nick’s dreams will really come true like he deserves. Kevin reaches over and touches his hand, smiling softly at him, and promises him that Nick’s dreams were meant to come true.
Kevin, Joe and Nick, ages 16, 14 and 11
Nick is laughing gleefully in the front seat, because he never gets to be in the front seat, because it’s always Joe’s spot, but now Joe isn’t in the car, and Kevin is driving with that determined expression on his face - somewhere between annoyance and hurt and a need for payback. So right now, they’re chasing Joe, who’s on a bike coasting down the curb. He looks back every once in a while, sticking his tongue out, because he thinks it’s just a game, which it is, but it’s also Kevin trying to feel better about being abandoned by him for a girl for the afternoon.
So when Kevin veers over slightly, Joe doesn’t expect it, and his bike slices sideways against the curb, and he hits the ground hard. The car jerks to a stop a second later, and Kevin throws it into park, jumping out to make sure his little brother is okay. While they sit in the emergency room waiting for Joe to get the cast put on his arm, Kevin cries harder than Joe does.
Kevin, Joe and Nick, ages 17, 15 and 12
Joe does a giddy little dance, his arm hooked around Nick’s neck, and he looks over at Kevin like maybe he can make the little bugs taking flight in his stomach stay still, but really, they’re all equally as nervous. It’s their first time performing like this. It’s their first time onstage together with a real audience, and they’re so excited but so scared as well.
In a few moments though, they’re running on the stage, and yeah, the audience has no idea who they are, but they’re polite enough to give them a chance, and in a few ways, they get them dancing more than they expected to, and when they run backstage, Kevin and Joe share a hug that lasts a little too long, but Joe’s knees are weak, so he’s okay with that, and Nick’s laughing, and it’s all so perfect because they never expected to be here.
Kevin and Joe, 18 and 16
The family wakes early, and Kevin bounces out of his bunk toward them in the hopes that they’ll recognize what today is, that he’ll have a special breakfast waiting for him and his brothers will greet him with hugs. Instead, he gets guilty looks from his parents and is told they’re going to IHOP. He tries not to feel sullen as he sits with a candle in the middle of his Belgian waffle that they all forgot his most important birthday yet.
But, things are better later, as they’re crawling back into their beds and his parents promised him that they’re going to buy his presents later, that Joe makes the day worth it. He slips into Kevin’s arms, pressing a kiss to his cheek, and whispers that he loves him. It makes it the best birthday he’s ever had.
Kevin, Joe and Nick, 19, 17 and 14
Nick comments far too casually that he feels rather left out of the time his brothers spend together, so they make a point to do something fun with him, and a tradition of arena wiffle ball starts as a result. One of them is always on a team with Nick, and even though it’s only the three of them, it’s fun and competitive, and they almost always end up yelling at each other or wrestling to claim the title of champion.
Nick tries not to smile to himself when his brothers meet for a surprising kiss and almost laughs out loud at the way they both blush like school girls and separate from each other. He catches them later in their hotel room, sitting side-by-side on the bed, their hands lighting on each other’s hips and necks and faces, sharing short timid kisses, and he decides that he doesn’t need to be around them all the time.
Kevin and Joe, 21 and 19
Joe is the only one Kevin will drink with, and it only ever happens on special occasions, like New Years Eve. He goes rather incognito into a liquor store to buy a bottle of champagne, and the two of them hole up in Kevin’s hotel room for a while, sipping it out of plastic wine glasses that he found at the dollar store months ago. (He likes that they’re easy to pack.)
The two of them cuddle up on the couch, and Joe’s head falls against Kevin’s shoulder as he giggles at something he said and nuzzles his nose into his neck. Kevin likes the way Joe’s fingers look like a spider’s legs curling around the stem of the glass, the way the liquid inside it fizzes and bubbles as he swings his arm demonstratively but never spills.
They go to bed when they finish the bottle and Joe’s empty glass is hanging upside-down from his hand because he’s fallen asleep with his head on Kevin’s shoulder, his legs dangling across his lap. Kevin doesn’t mind carrying him to the bed. He also doesn’t mind the headache he has the next morning or the way Joe whines that he feels sick. It never keeps them from doing it again.
Kevin and Joe, 21 and 20
Joe had three months on Kevin as far as birthdays went. So, for those three months, Joe liked that he was able to say they were only a year apart in age. Turning twenty was so far his favorite birthday. Maybe that’s because Kevin meets him in his room at midnight and locks the door behind him. He has a cupcake with one candle in it, and Joe blows it out, knowing he really doesn’t even need it, but he eats it anyway because it’s chocolate and because Kevin brought it for him. He decides it’s the best cupcake ever.
It goes with this being the best birthday ever. And, when his shirt comes off and Kevin’s shirt comes off, and Kevin is pressing kisses along his shoulder, his arms tight around his waist, Joe knows that things might change now that he’s not a teenager anymore. And, it’s okay. He knows it’s okay. He’s ready for things to be different with Kevin, and he knows it means they’re going to be even closer, and he loves him, so that’s a good thing too.
After it stops hurting so much, and it does hurt, for a long time, but it’s really okay because Kevin’s mouth is continuously pushed against his own, and for a long time, they stay still, just kissing. Joe likes that his hands curl perfectly over Kevin’s shoulders and that Kevin’s thumbs are dipping into his hips. He likes how he feels inside of him, even if it’s sort of uncomfortable at the same time. Then, Joe hooks his leg up around Kevin’s hip, gasping softly at the way the simple move changes the feeling, and Kevin gives this surprised little moan and nuzzles his nose against his neck, rocking his hips slowly.
They end up wrapped around each other. Joe’s arms are tight around his neck, his cheek against his hair as he pants his name, his thighs pressed tight against his hips. Kevin’s holding him close around the waist, pushing his mouth up against his neck in something that might resemble a kiss if he could think about it long enough to give the action a name.
Joe whines softly, squeezing his eyes closed and biting his lip, his fingernails biting into Kevin’s back, and he thinks, as he tips his head back and lets the heat of his orgasm wash over him, that this was the moment he’d been waiting for his whole life. It’s taken him two decades, but he finally feels like he knows where he is and what he’s doing there.
He keeps his eyes shut, his head falling back against the mattress as Kevin lets go inside of him, gasping softly near his ear, chanting his name in a whisper. He opens them when his brother smoothes a breathless kiss against his cheek, petting his hair lightly, and they share a smile and a soft kiss. Joe likes how Kevin’s lips just seem to fit against his, and he knows it’s because they’re brothers, but that doesn’t change the way his hand lights against Kevin’s cheek.
Kevin asks him how it feels to be twenty. Joe tells him it’s like being raced across a tile floor in a laundry basket.