Rating: PG-13
Original Date of Completion: June 2002
Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is fiction from my demented little mind, so please don't sue me. I mean no offense to anyone with comments that appear in this story.
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Kris' POV
I'm having a hard time believing it's real. Never in my life did I think that I'd be driving to my place, where my wife and children were, holding onto Kirk's hand, and constantly smiling over at him like a goof. But you know what? I kinda like it. No, actually, I really like it. I can't believe now that it took me so long to realize. I am so in love with him, more than I could've ever imagined. I couldn't help but think about everything that this meant, all the changes that would happen. And I'm not going to lie to you, I get nervous about everything. But the second I look into his eyes, all my fears are calmed. I'm in love with him, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make this work.
As I pull onto my street, I feel Kirk's hand start to sweat. I look over at him and see nervousness stretched across his face. I squeeze his hand reassuringly, and he smiles lightly at me. But the nervousness continues to hold court. When I pull into my driveway, I turn in my seat to face him and grab both of his hands in mine.
"What's wrong?" I ask, tilting my head to the side.
"I'm nervous about seeing Julie. I mean, you haven't even told her yet," He replies quietly.
"Kirk, it's okay. Julie knew long before I did, I'm sure she's been expecting it,"
"But what if she hates me?"
When he spoke those words, my heart got a slight twinge. He sounded so scared, like a lost little boy. And as I stared into his eyes, it was obvious that he was really concerned. I don't blame him at all, I'm concerned too. Julie may have been great about everything yesterday, but today could be a different story. If I were in her shoes, I don't know how I'd react. But I like to think I know her pretty well. And judging from our conversation yesterday, she wouldn't have a problem. But Kirk hadn't been there, so he had every reason in the world to be nervous. From his perspective, he was stealing her husband. Though really, Julie had given me to him. I lean across the seat and plant a soft kiss on his lips. I feel him start to smile as I pull away. I reach out and ruffle his hair, then pat him on the leg.
"She could never hate you, Kirk. No one could," I speak sweetly, secretly waiting for his smartass comeback.
"Thanks," He returns, a bright smile playing on his lips. "You're lying, but thanks anyway,"
Before I get a chance to reply, he hops out of my car and leans up against it. I step out, and walk around to him. I can still see the nervousness in his eyes. It becomes apparent in that very moment that I'm going to have to result to drastic measures to kill his nervousness. Lucky for me, the drastic measures are something I'm starting to enjoy.
I cautiously put my hands on his waist, and stare into his eyes. I feel my heartbeat increase as he leans in to kiss me. For only a second, I think how this is the first kiss he's initiated. But those thoughts don't last long, as the feelings from the kiss begin to take over. Everything about this kiss is so perfect, I can't even describe it. To sound corny, it's like we're lifted out of time. I'm aware of nothing but Kirk, and the way it feels to have his lips on mine. Eventually though, our euphoria is broken with the loud clearing of someone's throat. We break the kiss immediately, and turn around to face a smiling Julie. Both of us blush, and drop our eyes to the driveway.
"What am I, your mothers?" She laughs, brushing a piece of hair out of her face. "You're kind of old to be blushing when someone catches you kissing,"
"Um...we...uh," I try to explain.
"Uh huh, I'm sure," She mocks, rolling her eyes. "Now if you're done giving our neighbors a show, there's someone inside to see you,"
She continued to giggle as she turned and walked back up to the house. I looked at Kirk questioningly, and he just shrugged his shoulders and smiled. I reciprocated with a shrug of my own, and grabbed his hand. We smiled goofily at each other, and hand in hand walked toward the house.
When we approached the door, Kirk immediately dropped my hand and jumped behind me. I turn back to look at him as I step into the house. As I look into the dining room, I see the reason Kirk jumped back in such a hurry. At the table sat his brother, Shawn, coloring next to Kennedy. I glance back at Kirk and again see the nervousness in his eyes I had just vanquished. I try to smile at him, but he's staring straight past me at Shawn. I put my hand on his shoulder and squeeze it gently. He looks at me briefly and smiles, before walking into the dining room.
"I know you like younger girls, but come on dude," Kirk laughed as he approached Shawn.
"Well what can I say, she's the only one that'll talk to me knowing that I'm related to you," Shawn shot back, getting to his feet.
The two of them hugged in the manly, bear hug, brotherly way. They looked so much like old frat buddies, it was really hilarious. When they separated, Shawn gave me a quick hug before dropping back down into his chair. I walked around him and snatched Kennedy into my arms. She giggled and squirmed in my grasp, but I was able to plant a big, sloppy kiss on her cheek before I was forced to set her down. She immediately wiped my kiss off and went running up to Kirk. He grabbed her up in mid-run and she kissed him on the cheek. She's not even a teenager yet, and already my daughter loved another man more than me. Eh, I didn't blame her in this case. I loved him too.
"So what brings you here Shawnie?" I ask, leaning against the kitchen doorframe.
"My season is done. Just thought I'd shoot down and spend a couple days with my big bro before I head off to Spain for the rest of the summer," He explained, resting his feet on the chair next to him. Julie walked into the room and slapped him on the back of the head, giving us all a good chuckle.
"Get your feet off my chairs, boy," She ordered, grabbing Kennedy from Kirk's arms and walking with her into the living room.
Julie had yet to make eye contact with me or Kirk since the driveway incident. And as stupid as it may be, that worried me. I didn't want there to be a problem. I don't know if I could handle it if she didn't support me in this situation. Just the thought of that made me uneasy. This was going to be hard enough for me as it is. It would only get worse if I had to deal with knowing that Julie hated me. I was hoping I could talk to her as soon as I'd got home. But Shawn being here certainly threw an unexpected detour into that plan. It was just going to have to be a detour I worked around, because there was no way I couldn't tell Julie. Especially after what she'd seen in the driveway.
"So where are you staying?" Kirk asked hesitantly. It was blatantly obvious when he asked that he already knew the answer that was coming.
"Your couch, dumbass. Where else would I stay? You actually think I'd pay money to sleep in a hotel here? Nigga please,"
Kirk and I groaned loudly, and rolled our eyes at him. "Shawn, you're white. And Canadian. Your saying nigga please is about as believable as someone saying Drapes could score on a breakaway," Kirk spoke, his hands resting on Shawn's shoulders.
"Hey!" I objected, punching him in the arm.
He looked over at me with a mocking grin on his face. I glared at him and hit him in the arm again.
"I'd like to see you score on a breakaway," I spoke huffily, folding my arms across my chest.
"Aw, poor Krissy Wissy," Shawn giggled, standing up and cracking his back.
As he stood next to Kirk, I was slightly amazed at the family resemblance. I guess I never paid attention, but they really do look a lot alike. They're far from identical. But there's no denying they're related. There's also no denying Kirk is the hotter of the two. He's got that rugged, manly thing working for him. Shawn's kinda, pretty boyish, I guess. Wait a minute. Did I just compare two guys? Geez, maybe I WAS always gay. That really seemed to come natural to me. Talk about a day of revelations. Wow.
"I hate you both. Get out of my house," I commanded jokingly, pointing toward the door.
"Actually, we probably should get going," Shawn said, looking at Kirk. "I've been here all day, I'm sure Julie wants me out of her hair,"
"Understatement of a lifetime," Julie joked as she reentered the room.
Shawn stuck his tongue out at her, then extended his arms for a hug. She hugged him and said that she was kidding, and how great it was to see him again. Shawn acknowledged with a "Sure, that's what they all say", then pulled away from her. He hugged me briefly, only long enough to pat each other on the back really. Once we separated, he clapped Kirk on the shoulder and pointed toward the door. Kirk glanced over and jerked his head toward the living room. It took me a second to catch on, but eventually the lightbulb lit up.
"Oh yeah, I gotta show Kirk something upstairs really quick," I lied, walking toward the living room.
Kirk followed closely behind me as I ascended the stairs. I walked into Keenan's room with him practically on my heels. The second we were both in the room, it was like my body was possessed. I shut the door quietly, then pushed Kirk up against it. Passion surged through my body, and I drove my lips onto his. He returned my kisses with fervor. I couldn't explain what came over me. I just needed to kiss him. And from the feelings I got, he felt the same way. When the kiss separated minutes later, we were almost breathless. I reached out and caressed his cheek, then planted another soft kiss on his lips.
"I love you, Kirk," I spoke brightly, staring deeply into his eyes.
He closed his eyes briefly, but the smile never left his face. When he opened his eyes, he stared straight at me, and grabbed my hand.
"I love you too, Kris,"
This was the first time we'd said it in that way, so we capped it off with another long kiss. When we separated this time, we giggled, then opened the door. As the door swung open, I noticed Julie standing there, and immediately felt my face get red. She snorted a quick laugh and rolled her eyes at me.
"You're really pathetic Kris. Kirk isn't even blushing anymore," She laughed, slapping me playfully on the chest.
When she said that, Kirk's face turned pink and he turned his head away from her. She rolled her eyes again and let out an overly dramatic sigh.
"Oh boy. I'm gonna get really annoyed with you two, I have a feeling,"
Neither one of us could reply. We both blushed again, but this time we were able to laugh about it. Julie giggled and shook her head at us as she leaned against the doorframe. This was a pretty amusing scene. It really put me at ease to have the two of them standing next to each other and laughing. It may've only been a few hours since all of this had started, but every possible nightmare had run through my head. That's probably why I sucked so bad at practice. But to have them here like this, it really cleared those thoughts from my mind. I wiped at the tears forming in my eyes, and slapped Kirk on the shoulder.
"I think you can go now," I laughed, still wiping at my eyes.
Kirk grunted and nodded his head before turning toward the stairs. As he walked away, Julie grabbed his shoulder. Her laughter had completely ceased. My world froze with just a glimpse at her eyes.
"Before you go, can I talk to you?"
Horror spread over Kirk's face instantly. He looked at me pleadingly, almost begging for help. I could offer him none, since I didn't really know what Julie had planned. She's quite unpredictable, in case you couldn't already pick up on that. I smiled reassurance to him, and nodded my head lightly. A smile twitched at his lips, but never appeared. He scratched at his beard, which is an obvious Kirk sign of nervousness. He stared at Julie, and smiled as best he could.
"Uh, sure," He replied, stepping into Keenan's room.
Julie smiled at me then followed Kirk into the room. She shut the door behind her, and instantly I got nervous. 'Everything will be fine.' I told myself, walking off toward the stairs. But I didn't buy it. I walked back to the bedroom and leaned against the door, trying futilely to hear anything. I could hear nothing but muffled voices, Julie's in particular. She sure seemed to be talking a lot, which probably wasn't a good thing. I felt pretty ridiculous, eavesdropping on an extremely important conversation for the two of them, but I had to know what they were saying. This was a very delicate situation. Either one of them could say something wrong, and everything would be shot. I'd be left with nothing. I was sacrificing a lot to be with Kirk; it scared me to death that one little thing could end that. Julie held all the power. If she decided against it, I knew Kirk would step away. That's just the type of person he is. But I had faith that she wouldn't do that. I knew deep down that she wanted me happy. And I knew, now, that Kirk was the one who could give me that.
When I heard footsteps in the room, I scampered away from the door. I made my way back downstairs into the living room, where Shawn sat cursing at the Playstation. I pushed him over on the couch and snagged up the second controller. He made easy work of me on NHL 2k. I kept glancing upstairs, causing me to be scored on each time. Julie and Kirk seemed to be up there for an excruciatingly long time. In all reality, it was probably less than 20 minutes. But to me, it seemed like forever. Shawn kept asking me what was wrong, but each time I answered with nothing. It's not as if I could really tell him the truth. I had just found out Kirk was gay a day before; something told me Shawn didn't know. And even if he did, I'm not sure this was a situation I was exactly comfortable with explaining. Especially to Shawn, whose liable to have some smartass remark, and piss me off.
Eventually, I heard the door open up, and saw the two of them step from the room. They hugged tightly, and it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. They walked down the stairs giggling about something, making me smile bigger than ever before. Shawn looked at me and cocked an eyebrow in question, but thankfully never asked. We walked over toward them, and Shawn threw his arm around Kirk's shoulders.
"So good looking, ready to go?" Shawn asked
Julie and I burst into laugher from the look on Kirk's face. He stared silently at Shawn then shook his head.
"Never, ever call me that again as long as you live." Kirk ordered, shrugging Shawn's arm from his shoulders.
"But why Kirkie? You know you're beautiful," Julie teased, pinching Kirk's cheeks. "Right Kris?"
The sheer shock from her statement caused me to blush. Kirk's eyes widened in horror as he saw the pink come to my cheeks. Again, Julie rolled her eyes at us. Kirk glanced over at Shawn, who was staring at me and giggling.
"He blushed, how adorable," Shawn laughed. "You can't ask him that though Jules, Ozzie will get jealous Kris is checking out other guys,"
Julie laughed and shook her head. "My bad, I totally forgot about that,"
"You both suck," I avowed, walking toward the kitchen.
I wanted to get out of there before I blushed again, and Shawn started to get smart. He may be sort of stupid, but he'd catch on eventually that any time something was mentioned with me and Kirk, one of us blushed. I busied myself with the dishes as they continued to chat. I heard the front door open, and both Maltby boys yell "Later, Kris," I replied with "Get the hell out already" which got Julie to shriek "Kris!" All of us laughed, then I heard the front door shut. I continued to put away the dishes while I waited for Julie. I'm sure the time had come. It was time for "the conversation." A conversation I'm sure neither one of us expected when we said "I do."
It took another 10 minutes or so before she entered the kitchen. She walked in quietly and took a seat on the counter. I looked up at her and smiled, and she brushed the hair from my forehead. She placed a soft kiss on my forehead, which made my heart drop. Something I'm sure most would take as sweet made me incredibly sad. I don't really know why. She must've noticed, because she reached out and ran her hand softly down my cheek.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I lied, smiling at her.
She raised her eyebrows at me, and that simple thing was enough to make me lower my head. It's ridiculous sometimes the power she has over people.
"It's nothing, Julie, really," I said again, leaning back against the counter.
She sighed and smiled at me. "Okay, I'll let it go. But Kris, we really do have to talk about this,"
"I know," I replied quietly, staring down at the floor.
We're silent for a good five minutes, which for me and Julie is insane. She stares at me the entire time, but I continue to look at the floor. The whole idea of this conversation is suddenly making me uncomfortable. I can't stand hurting people I love, and that's just what I was doing here, whether she let on or not. But now, the thought of not being with Kirk caused my stomach to do somersaults. On the same hand, the thought of hurting Julie did the same thing. This wasn't a fun situation. But I'd made my decision. And once I really thought about it, I knew. There was really no other decision for me to make. I went with the one I loved more. I just hated that Julie had to be hurt because of it.
"Kris," She said softly, breaking the silence. "I know that this hurts you. And I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt me. But we'll never get anywhere if we don't talk about it,"
"I know. But it's hard, Julie. I don't want to hurt you," I spoke quietly, still staring at the floor.
I heard her breathe her exasperated sigh, and jump off the counter. She stepped in front of me and took my face in her hands. I lifted my eyes to look at her, feeling the tears welling up. The look in her eyes was soft, yet stern. Again, she brushed the hair from my forehead.
"I know, Kris. But you don't need to worry about me, I'll be fine. You know how strong I am,"
Julie..."
"Shh," She interrupted, putting her hand in my face. "Kris, I want you to be happy. We were happy, granted. But I know you love him more than me. And I'd be a gigantic bitch if I didn't let you have that. And we both know I'm only a little bitch," She finished, chuckling lightly at the end.
I collapsed in a fit of laughter and pulled her into a hug. This was one of the things that made her so great. No matter what the problem, she can put you at ease with it. And even make jokes about it, which are somehow never inappropriate. I really did love her. And while I had to hurt her, I'm glad she'd still be there for me. I know there is no way I could do this without her. More than anyone, Julie is my best friend.
When we separated, we both wiped tears of laughter from our eyes. I leaned down and placed a soft kiss on her cheek.
"I love you, Julie,"
She smiled and ran her hands down my cheeks. She leaned up and kissed my forehead with an extremely loud smooch. She giggled, and I FINALLY got to be the one to roll my eyes at her.
"I know," She giggled. "I love you, too,"
As usual with our conversations, it ended that quickly. She walked out into the dining room, and I stayed standing in the kitchen. Something tells me that this whole situation is going to add a completely new dynamic to my relationship with Julie. She'd already started to make fun of us, and it had only been a day. I'm glad she was so comfortable with everything. There was still going to be hardship with this, some I didn't even want to think of. But my biggest fear had been cured. Not like I couldn't before, but I could say it now and not get the nervous butterflies in my stomach; I was in love with Kirk Maltby. And I was going to be with him, love him like he should be loved, regardless of what anyone thought. The one person that mattered was behind us. If anyone has a problem, well, they can kiss my ass. I'm in love, and there's nothing anyone can do it about.
TBC
© 2002 Triple X
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