Trifecta: Ty's Birthday, part two

[frogs_of_war]

Today, when I talked to my mom about what to get my dad for Christmas, she said she and my brother had talked about how prefect my gifts always were (that I really thought about what people would want). This had stressed me out and made me second guess my gifts to them. I spent almost no money on either one (but lots of thought and time). I wrapped their gifts with special care. I hope they like them.


Title: Trifecta
Chapter: Ty's Birthday, part two
Status: WIP
Genre: Romance, Triple Slash, businessmen, jobs, friends, working
Length: 1.4 k
Summary: Ty talks about private things in public

Ty stretched out in the aisle seat. He couldn’t get comfortable. He hated the getting there of any vacation, but planes, for all their cramped seats really were the fastest way. Maybe next year they could go to Victoria BC. That was faster by car if one counted all the time spent in an airport.

He closed his eyes and settled down. The lights around the flight attendants’ station shone pink though his eyelids. Why couldn’t he be one of those people who could sleep anywhere?

But one night without sleep wasn’t going to kill him.

Even if tomorrow was his birthday.

Damien stretched and stood up. So he wasn’t asleep either. “Excuse me.”

Ty moved his legs. Damien headed for the bathroom. Someone slipped out of a seat closer to it and got there ahead of him. Damien chatted with a woman bouncing a baby on her hip. After Damien took his turn, he held the sleeping child while the mother took a turn.

Kenneth leaned close. “He looks so sweet holding a baby.”

He did. “Without us, he might someday have a family of his own.”

And if not for Kenneth’s wonderful gift, Ty might be broaching the subject of kids with Kenneth right now.

But Damien was more than worth the absence.

He passed the baby back and then stood for a moment talking to the mother and stroking the baby’s hair.

Ty’s chest ached. He hadn’t wanted child right away, but a life without them… forcing Damien into a life without them…

Damien came back and sat down. Kenneth asked about the child and Damien explained how the mother came to be traveling with just the baby and how the kid woke whenever she sat down or tried to lay the baby down. But she had help at the end of her flight, so she could sleep tomorrow away if she needed to.

Then they all tried to sleep again.

The couple across the aisle and a row behind started talking about an illness in the family. Ty didn’t want to hear about cancer right now.

He got up. He didn’t really need the bathroom, but it was a good excuse to stretch his legs. The mother was still there. The baby was even cuter up close. Ty stepped away. He had kids too much on his mind already.

When he got back to his seat, Damien gestured him in to the window seat. Ty leaned forward and whispered. “I won’t fit.”

Damien grinned. “Kenneth and I found a way.”

The way was Ty in the window seat. Kenneth leaning against him and Damien with his back against the wall and his legs across both their laps. This was nice and cozy.

Kenneth pulled a blanket over them. Even better.

Damien shifted a bit then snuggled closer. He was quiet, but not asleep. Ty petted his hair. “Something on your mind?”

Damien bit his lip. Kenneth kissed Ty’s arm. “Something on yours?”

They had to know how distracted he’d been. “Flannigan asked me not to tell.”

Kenneth rubbed Ty’s arm. “Then don’t.”

“But I…” Ty owed it to his men to be honest and he couldn’t tell his part without the bit about Flannigan. “I think I have to.”

Damien rubbed his cheek against Ty’s chest. “We’ll be here for you, when you’re ready.”

What was it about being in a dimly lit room surrounded by sleeping and sleepy people that made one want to bear their soul? Now he was going to be the person talking about private things in public. “Chloe… No. Flannigan and I have always joked that we’d start a family at the same time. In two years, Chloe will have paid maternity leave and her sister will be able to watch the baby once she goes back to work. Even before I met Kenneth. Even before Chloe got this job. It was just a joke, but I thought maybe… Our kids would be raise together, be as good of friends as we are.”

Ty sighed. “Or hate each other’s guts, I guess. Together anyway.”

“But,” Damien prompted.

“But their birth control failed. Not too terribly surprising with the failure rate over five years.” Flannigan brought that up every time they’d spoken. “They’ve been together for three times that.”

Kenneth rubbed Damien’s leg. “What did she decide to do?”

This part of the story wasn’t his. But in a way it was. “Chloe researched her options, of course. She’s young and healthy, right? Everything should be fine when they have a kid they planned.”

“But?”

“But her doctor sounded surprised that she’d managed to get pregnant at all. Something to do her girl parts.” Ty had zoned out for that part of the conversation. Flannigan’s pain and fear was more important than the details.

“So even if we had kids, which doesn’t seem likely now,” Ty rubbed Damien’s back, “their kid will be years older than ours.”

“Did you want kids,” Damien bit his lip. “Or did you want another link to your friend?”

Both. Ty sighed. “I know I’m not grown up yet. I’m not ready to be a parent, but I want… I want to be to someone what Aunt Millie was to me. And kids are cute and loud and independent and needy. And if I died without anyone ever calling me Papa, I’ll have missed something.”

Kenneth rubbed his eyes. “Maybe we can just be the best uncles ever.”

But that wasn’t what Kenneth wanted.

“They won’t be able to have more kids?”

Ty sighed. “I don’t know, but Flannigan’s been acting like it’s a death sentence. I’m trying to empathize, but I keep seeing what I’m losing. Crazy, right? No one was ever going to let the three of us raise a kid and I’m not giving either of you up. I made peace with that months ago.”

Damien touched Ty’s lips. “It’s okay to say you’re hurting.”

“But I shouldn’t be. This isn’t even about me.”

“Everything’s personal when it’s happening to someone you care about.” Kenneth pressed Ty’s fingers to his lips.

Ty really had the best men.

“Two years would have been perfect. The kid would be out of school before Kenneth retires. The business would be big enough to hire another person or two. But then I met you, Damien, and all that went out the window.”

Damien pressed Ty’s other hand against his side. “No need to make any decisions now. We could wait a few years and adopt a five year old. Or even siblings. Someone the same age as Chloe and Flannigan’s kid. Past the diaper, crying stage.”

He nodded towards the mother still standing under the lights.

Ty snorted. Oops. The people around them where trying to sleep.

A flight attendant pushed a cart down the aisle. He stopped and spoke in low tones to passengers. He had extra pillows and blankets and bottles of water.

He stopped by Ty’s row and passed over a large cupcake with a LED candle on top. “We are flying over midnight. Happy birthday.”

That was what Damien and Kenneth were conspiring about. Ty thanked the flight attendant and he moved on.

Kenneth leaned close. “I was pretty sure you won’t be asleep.”

Kenneth knew him so well.

Ty opened the container and turned the candle off. “I think I’ll save it for morning.”

He’d already brushed his teeth.

Damien kissed Ty. “Know what else we’re getting you?”

Ty couldn’t begin to guess. Until Damien put his hand on the front of Ty’s pants. “The restroom isn’t really big enough for three, but if it was just a quickie…”

Ty glanced at Kenneth. He generally wasn’t a bathroom sex kind of guy, but he grinned. “Happy Birthday.”

This was really going to be Ty’s best birthday yet.