Happy Endings

"It's a long time to wait.." Simon said quietly. He was sitting on the edge of Liam's bed, spending time in a room that had long been private and foreign to him. "You're going to have to expect Kit to move on."

"I know." Liam had his legs tucked beneath his arms in a rare display of weakness. "I'm going to have to be okay with that. I need to be alone for a while, though. I cannot handle a new relationship now.. and I can't do that to Kit."

"I know," Simon agreed. "I'm not saying you and Kit ought to be together."

"You know... I've just been so.. overbearing to you? Without even meaning to, but I have been, and I don't want... I think I would fall right back into that, and be overbearing again I need to learn how to love without doing that. I need to..." Liam's voice shook violently and a tear dribbled down his cheek. "I don't think I gave myself the time to recover after mom went away.. I'm not passed that... I don't know if I ever will be.. It just hurts.. so bad."

"You're not alone.. You've never been alone." Simon pulled Liam's head up and hugged him gently.

"I don't know who I am without her- I'm broken, a destructive shell of who I'm.. s-supposed to be." Liam sobbed softly into Simon's shoulder. "I spent so long blaming myself that I don't know who to blame if I don't blame me."

"It's nobody's fault." Simon rubbed Liam's hair. "Sometimes things happen, and there isn't a reason or a solution... you just have to keep going... You just have to keep moving, you have to keep the faith, or you'll fall apart."

"I've fallen."

"You have to keep hope.. we have to keep hope alive together, and we can move forward together. Over this past year we've been caught.. stuck in a rut, together we can get out of it."

"I don't know know how to get you out of this... I don't know how to be strong for you anymore," Liam sobbed softly.

"When you don't know how to be strong for me, I'll be strong for you."

Liam and Simon remained together in the bedroom until the sky began to tinge with pink and the cold evening air wafted the scent of lavender through the window. Liam cried, the first tears in a while but not the last tears Simon had ever seen from him, but not the last. Liam cried to Simon several more times on the path to recovery. For once it was the only thing that seemed to make it feel better. One of the few things that could make him feel whole again. Loss, the loss of a parent changes a person. They can feel better, they can think they've grown, and it can all fall apart again.

Simon left the house that night. As he walked down the dimly lit sidewalk under the wrought iron lamps, he felt his own tears prick his eyes and scar down his cheeks. Simon had taken a few weeks to himself, a few weeks with Liam, and a few weeks to let his feeling blossom. Still he was certain he knew what he wanted.

Simon was slightly younger when his mother started drinking, so it affected him differently. Both boys had a fear of love, but Liam was old enough to blame himself for love falling apart and was frightened of it; Simon watched it disappear and was desperate to have it back as often as possible. Simon was indecisive in love because he thought that if he grew too comfortable with one person their love would dissolve like ashes scattered in the wind and be out of reach.

The concrete jungle that surrounded the apartment building Simon walked up to reminded him of the field his own model home was located in, but he supposed that motif was part of him as much as the loss of his mother.

Simon walked up to an old looking brown door and knocked. He was tired of moving from person to person. Simon was going to find love, and he was going to hold onto it like a child to a balloon and never let it drift away.

"Simon?" Asher's kind face popped into view. Written in his eyes was the pain of neglect and poverty on the rich, but on his mouth was a smile. A smile of joy that one found rarely in their life. A smile Asher gave Simon often. Some things never fade.

"I love you." Simon stated plainly. It was true, and had been for a while, he'd just been too foolish to notice it.

"Simon?" Asher's eyes narrowed. His face showed skepticism but the pain of neglect dilated in his eyes.

"You said to take a moment and think about how I feel, and I thought about it, and I still love you. I want you to be a call away for the rest of my life, always there. I never want to be without you again."

"A-are you sure?" Asher paused, and his voice came out in a small whisper.

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life."

"Can I.. Can I kiss you?" Asher asked, and Simon nodded, with cheeks sprinkled with pink. Asher grabbed him and pulled him deep into a kiss.

The kiss was gentle, light, a brush of lips together in a whirlwind of emotions. Asher was gentle, gentle as a dandelion seed in the spring.

"We should... we should go inside." Asher took Simon's hand in his and led him into the small apartment. Once the door was closed, Asher kissed Simon again, backing the boy against the door to stabilize them. Asher took Simon's face in his hand, and let his fingers brush over the boy's soft skin. "It feels so good to finally hold you.." Asher whispered in between heavy breaths.

The air between them grew hot and full of friction. Asher pressed himself closer to Simon deepening the intensity of the kiss. It was hard for him not to take advantage, take control, be rough, but what he had with Simon was different from anything he'd ever had before. As much as he wanted to move fast, he knew it would be better to move slowly.

"This is amazing," Simon said in between kisses. His arms were wrapped up around Asher's neck as he kissed him gentle as a ghost. Asher's lips were smooth and pink with pressure. He tasted slightly like mint and Simon found himself pulling Asher in for another kiss.

Out of breath, the boys allowed their foreheads to touch. In the dim light Asher's blonde hair hung from his head casting beautiful shadows across his strong defined face. Simon had never been that close to him before. He saw freckles dusted across his nose and a slight cleft in his chin under his strong cheekbones. Asher's eyes shined with desire, temporarily cleansed from neglect, blue as the night sky they drew Simon in deeper confirming to him that what he felt must be love.

"So..What does this mean?" Asher's face flooded with anticipation.

"I think... I mean I want us to be together." Simon answered thoughtfully. Asher's face broke into a pure smile, his dimples deepening and he closed the distance between their lips in another quick kiss.

"I love you too." Asher said between kisses. "It's not fair that you got to say it first." His voice was breathy as he kissed between phrases. "I was the one who loved you first." Asher cupped Simon's face as if he was holding the most precious thing in the world. Simon lifted up and kissed him again, as if making up for all the kisses they'd missed along the way.

"Maybe." Simon grinned in response, taking Asher's chin in his hand. "I'll just have to make it up to you."

"Don't tempt me," Asher chuckled, and shook Simon's hands off his face so he could take them in his own. "You have no idea how much I love you." Asher wrapped his arms around Simon in a hug. Simon hugged back, and they shuffled slightly and fell over the back of the couch. Asher landed with Simon pinned underneath him in a fit of laughter. The vulnerability of the position caused the boys to stop and Simon looked up at Asher before reaching up to kiss him again. Asher squeezed him one last time, then rolled off him onto the floor. "You know I never would have thought this year would have gone like this?"

"Me neither... I don't think I'll ever have another year with higher highs or lower lows."

"Maybe that's okay," Asher mused. "We get to fall into a routine together.. grow trust.. grow our lives. We get to fall into a beautiful amazing stagnancy..."

"I hope so."

"I know so," Asher promised, and placed a final chaste kiss on Simon's cheek.

Asher and Simon dated from that point forward, remaining together through both of their college experiences. After Simon graduated from high school, Liam moved away. He needed to be himself who he was without worrying about someone else, and Simon was alright with that. At first he'd thought Liam's journey was over and Asher's had just begun. Like Asher was fire and Liam was a cooled volcanic rock, now he thought knew that'd been wrong.

Liam was never the cheerful child he was before his life shattered to the ground, but he was better, stronger, realer. He was a person who had dealt with loss, and that remains a scar visible on a person's face as it will always be on their heart. He was all he could be, and more than he ever thought.

Little by little he became whole again. There were less tears, less fears, and more years. Liam grew, he changed. He applied to a trade school, became a mechanic, and moved out his grandparents damn house. He was a self made man, and finally happy again.

Simon left the little brown house later too. Once he found himself staring at the model home among the barren land with a tinge of sadness in his heart. Simon wasn't sure what he ought to think of the house he'd spent his school years in, that time was painful and still unique enough to feel special in the depths of Simon's mind. Asher stood at his side, as he always would, and took his hand. He let Simon stare at the house as long as he wanted, then drove him off to the home they'd own together.

Simon and Asher saw monetary struggles from the beginning of their relationship. They worked together, different jobs and saving measures, and saved up. Asher was also able to get a little bit of money from his mother to help them cover their loans. Simon wanted to go to law school though, and he wouldn't allow Asher to have a hand in that. Simon passed law school well and got a job in law office in the city. He worked in family law, helping children stay together after being taken from their parents and throughout the foster system.

Asher went to medical school. He became a therapist himself, applying the processes he learned while being a victim. He helped children of abuses and families that seemed like they were falling apart. He made sure that no child in his control would have to struggle as he did. Kit remained at his mother's house, swearing it had improved. Once he could he moved in with Simon, and the two boys tackled the world together. Kit became a teacher, an art teacher to be exact.

It's hard to tell as things are happening who the heroes and villains are. Sometimes life is just messy and there aren't any. Shea and Garrett were together in Garrett's first same same-sex relationship. It was a path of discovery they struggled through, Shea a victim of bullying for his sexuality made sure Garrett would never feel shame. Garrett went D1 with football. He won several games and wound up being drafted for the NFL. Shea opened up his own restaurant and lived in an apartment above it for many years.

Simon and Liam reconciled their relationship leaving it better than ever. Perhaps things had to get rough for a while for them to get better. Perhaps not. Still things were better than they'd ever been.

Simon Matthews never felt bullied again. Never felt pushed down, picked on, or made a laughing stock. He'd learned to defend himself. He'd grown from a timid child to a strong adult. He was satisfied and overjoyed. There were several reasons for that, and Simon was fully aware of them. He had a wonderful best friend who cared for him, a brother who he could tell anything, and a devoted husband. He found there was little he couldn't do if he put his mind to it. He found he was more capable than he ever would have given himself credit for.

Most of all, Simon Matthews was never ever alone.