Flash Fic Friday

**One last time with Travis and Noah. A little follow up. Enjoy!**

I glanced over at Travis as we worked, keeping an eye on him. He’d been strangely quiet for the last few hours, and he kept touching the ring on his left hand. Even though he hadn’t taken it off since I’d put it on his finger Christmas Eve, he hadn’t gotten used to it in the past week and a half. Or maybe it was something more than that. Maybe he was having second thoughts. I knew he loved me to the depths of his soul, had for a long time, but that didn’t mean he was ready for this step, right?

Okay, I knew that was foolish. From all the conversations we had, Travis had been ready to marry me for years. He was just waiting for me to get to that place. I finally got there a couple of months ago, but I wanted to make a spectacle of it, wanted to replace the bad memories of last Christmas Eve with much better ones. The best ones.

But he was quiet in a way he never was, and he kept pausing to fiddle with his ring, and I couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Sweetheart?” I kept my voice soft because he was lost in thought, and holding the crystal star from the top of the tree, and I didn’t want to startle him. But he looked up immediately, question in those beautiful blue eyes. “You having second thoughts?”

His brow creased in confusion, and I fought to keep the smile off my face. Instead, I pointedly glanced down at his hands, where his right fingers were fiddling with that ring again. Even though I knew that wasn’t the case, I’d deliberately asked it so he’d get cranky and share what was really going on in his head. After half a lifetime together, even though we’d spent most of that as friend, I knew my man, and I knew the quickest way to get to the heart of things.

It took him a second to catch my meaning, but as soon as he did, he dropped his hands and scowled hard at me. “No. Don’t be stupid. Of course I’m not having second thoughts. What kind of fucking question is that?”

I tucked the garland I was holding away in the box and stepped closer, reaching out. Travis immediately put the star down and pulled me into his arms. I settled in with a sigh. We fit so well together, and it always felt exactly right to be snuggled in his arms. He squeezed me tightly, kissed the side of my head, then smacked my shoulder as he let me go.

“What the hell, Noah?”

I laughed a little then, and bumped him with my hip. “You’re quiet. Keep messing with your ring. I have to wonder.”

He looked me straight in the eye. “No you don’t. Not ever. Right?”

I grinned then. As soon as we were done, I was going to bend that man over the couch and take him hard. “Right. So. What’s up?”

Travis stilled for a moment, then shrugged, and went back to unwrapping the lights from the tree. “I hate undecorating. It’s depressing.”

“Undecorating?” I snorted out a laugh.

“Shut up.” He cracked a tiny smile as he wound the lights carefully around his arm so they wouldn’t tangle up in storage. “Just, you know. Christmas decorating, having you here with me. I’ve wanted that for so long. So taking it all down…kinda sad.”

I didn’t bother to point out that he was being sappy. I liked it when he got that way. “Yeah. True. Except we’re going to have a lifetime of Christmases. So taking it down is fine, right? Because we’re just going to put it all up again in a eleven months. Over and over again. For the next fifty years.”

Travis’s eyes went dark, love and lust making his pupils dilate. “Only fifty?”

I shrugged one shoulder. “After that, our grandkids will do it for us.”

It had been exactly the right thing to say. Travis’s gaze was so filled with love I nearly dropped to my knees. And then, while I was down there, I’d drag him close and blow him. He knew exactly what I was thinking, because he always did, and his expression turned wicked.

“I love you, baby,” he said with a soft voice. And then it turned as filthy as his gaze. “Last one in the bedroom gets to bottom.”

I took off, knowing he was trailing behind. As usual, we were right there in sync, both of us wanting opposite roles. We very rarely, if ever, had an issue where that was concerned.

As soon as he crossed the threshold, I grabbed him, pulled him into me and lifted up so I could kiss him breathless. When we pulled apart, he panted breathlessly against my lips, pupils blown and dick pressing hard into my abdomen. “I love you too. Forever and always. Strip and get on the bed.”

He laughed and did as I asked, and I grinned as I got naked too. I had no doubt we’d have this for the rest of our lives.