The Days of Winer and Roses

by Alan wannabe

Denny feels that Alan is not only a liberal in the style of JFK, but also too soft hearted for his own good

The Days of Wine and Roses

(A slash BL fiction of Alan and Denny Crane)

aHHHH,As the poet said...If youth could last and love still breed

then this delights in me might move to come to thee and be thy love.

Come, live with me and I will thee all pleasures prove. I know I know,no one speaks that way but they could if the would!

Denny and Alan spent many warm afternoon on Boston Common before the building at 500 Boylston, the building in which they had spent much time in the firm of Boston Legal, in the offices of Crane, Poole and Schmidt before it had become Change, Poole, and Schmidt. They spent these afternoons lying in the soft grass after they were married, kissing softly, and carresing one another, usually with a bottle of a good old wine and crystal glasses filling them repeatedly, enjoying the fading light, before returning to their Back Bay condominum to spent the evening before the fire looking out on the lights of Boston, cradled in one another's arms. It seemed a golden time, a magical time when all they needed was each other and an occasional visitor from C,P,& S. people. Sometimes Jerry and his wife Katie, who found each other truly at Nimmo Bay when Denny and Alan were linked by the Supreme Court Justice who had come there with Dick Cheney (perhaps his lover?) on vacation. Other times Carl and Shirley would drop in at the end of the day and discuss their day as Alan and Denny used to theirs at the end of the day on Denny's balcony. Jerry and Katie were expecting their first child and Shirley and Carl were talking about adoption. Alan and Denny felt as if their friends were looking at them and questioning,"how about you two?" It made them both very uncomfortable, especially since Alan had refused to enter a sperm bank with Denny and deposit his sperm with Denny, into the same receptacle. He felt he had perhaps been too ridiculous already by consenting to the marriage as much as he had loved and enjoyed it already. Also, his conviction that he would be a 'bad' father still plagued him. And he could feel Denny beginning to experience pangs of his own mortality. He felt proudest of Denny when he had won at some trial that Alan was not sure was winnable, such as the trial he had won for a neighbor after she killed her husband with a shovel when he was determining for her the placement of her vegetables in her annual garden, after she had learned to live without his presence most of their time. Denny seemed to feel instinctively the pain she had had from being left alone so much, then established her own feelings of control and pride in what she felt she did best, when he came home and began removing that confidence from her. Alan felt as if all their friends were staring at them and silently asking, when are Alan and Denny going to get down to the business of taking some responsibility for the continuation of life on the planet. Oh, sure Alan talks a good business proposal for keeping the world on an even keel, green-wise, but for whom is he saving the world? All of a sudden Alan burst out in the relative calm of their living room, saying, "must every married couple contribute to the overpopulation of the planet?" Then all conversation did indeed stop, and even Denny jerked his body toward Alan, suddenly, with a questioning look on his face. "Who said anything about the population, Alan?" Denny asked all of a sudden with a reddening of his face."Nuns and priests don't reproduce, supposedly anyway. Not to speak of the emphasis on reproduction by the Church, to the point of over-reproduction and the rape of the planet by humans," Denny declared to the room, "Some of us just forbear, and support the reproducing portion of society! That's me and you,isn't it, Alan?"

"Of course it is, my love, I just feel sometimes that you and I are being looked as perpetual graduate students, always preparing to become something, yet never finishing up at end of the preparing part."

Shirley looked at Alan with curiosity. "Alan you have obviously taken on perhaps the most difficult task in the world...Helping out a loved one, and never stinting on your duties! We all know and admire you for that and no one envies you your task! Are you sure you are not just feeling that you should be doing more?"

"It doesn't feel like a task, though, Shirley! I feel I am the luckiest man in the world!"

" I wonder if in this is a bit of regret of not being the father of a young man," Jerry queried, knowing how Alan was loathe to become a father.

Denny was beginning to become very morose. "Don't think I don't know what is going on here!" He began to lament, "I have assumed the life control of a very talented lawyer, perhaps the best I have ever seen! And I have become the consumer of all his time and interest and passion! I have, am using him for the poor of Boston and the entire area. and you might say, not even giving him a satisfactory sex life in return, just shaming him by denying him any!" A large tear rolled down Denny's face then. Alan saw his reaction and quickly moved to his side and embraced him with all his might!

"Denny, you have things so mixed up and misunderstood, my luv! I have no life but you. And that is my choice. I have never loved anyone any more nor will I, nor do I regret anything you think I am missing!" Then they were both weeping openly, on each other's shoulders and holding each other so intensely, that all four of the others felt envious of Alan and Denny's intensity and passion.

Carl stood and addressed the others. "Well, I can see we are not needed here. I suggest we leave these people to their own love and company!"

At that Jerry popped loudly and stood also. Katie and Shirley reluctantly stood by their men. All were especially watching Alan. After a while, Katie said quietly to Shirley, "When Alan gets worked up like this he gets so emotional and erect." Shirley agreed silently and studied him. "Did Jerry point this out to you?" Shirley asked Katie.

Katie pinkened a little and laughed slightly. "He had noticed it, especially since Alan and Denny married. He said he has never seen Alan so emotional."

"I guess it has brought out the tenderness in Alan," Shirley observed..

Alan began rubbing Denny's back softtly and erotically, then he brought his full strength and passion into his rubbing process. By then their guests had departed, self-consciously.

"What happened to our guests? Did they all disappear?" Denny questioned.

"Yes, I fear our show of passion made them feel not-needed here. as indeed they were not at the time."Alan opined and stroked Denny's cheek with real affection, kissing him lightly over and over on both sides of his face.

"Were we showing passion?" Denny asked Alan.

"Of course, never you, my luv, but of course I was!"

"Why? What did someone say or do?"

"I felt that one of the assemblage seemed to be questioning our devotion to each other by hinting that we are not reproducing"

"Well, how could we?"

"I suppose that no one really even intimated at that, but I got so piqued at all the indications of reproduction around us with Katie being pregnant and Shirley and Carl talking about adoption, that I began to feel that we were not felt to be doing our duty. Do you understand?"

"I had no such feeling, Alan, did anyone actually say anything?"

"No, of course not, Denny. I suppose I am just over-sensitive to the suggestion, myself. I have made such a point of determining that I do not want to be a father so often, that I felt called upon to defend my lack of a parently bent"

"Hey, if Angelina Jolie has not adopted all the orphans in the world, we could do that as well. You are certainly much better looking than Brad Pitt, anyway!"

"I think that Tom Cruise would dispute that from the way he handled him in "Interview with the Vampire."

Denny almost spit out Tom Cruise's name. "Now I have called you a wierdo, but that kid really IS one!"

"What ever we may think of him, he has many fans, Denny. I wouldn't care to kiss him, that is certain, but Katie Holms just might!"

"Now talk about a marriage for money, and I have never seen anyone criticize either of them for that!"

"Yeah," Alan laughed, "And if Tom had married Brad, I would be willing to bet that at least the Boston gay and lesbian league would have plenty to talk about!"

"And woudn't they be a pretty couple?" Denny questioned, "Even without flamingo costumes!"

"To each his own, and I suppose I could have done without my own smart mouth. These were our friends, Denny, every one of them, and all of them wished us well at our own marriage! I know that they all wished us both well, only!"

"Well, let's hear it for the boy!" Denny burst out laughing. "Don't get my boy down on you or question his love or lifestyle, or he will cut you off at the knees!"

Alan had to laugh, too, at this unique defense of his flailing around to defend what he felt for Denny! He went into another room and pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number with which he was familiar enough to know by heart! Then he ordered two dozen scarlet roses and had them sent to Denny in his office, the next day.. Then, he went back into the living room to cuddle Denny again, Denny was smiling again and laughing to himself thinking about Alan's speech to their friends. "Suddenly, whether I deserve it or not, I feel loved, Alan", he chuckled to himself.

"Good, you really are!" Alan agreed.

"Has this been a long day for you, too?"

"Longer than I have any stomach for myself." chortled Alan. "Do you think we should end it?"

"Fine by me!" Denny smiled, and jerked his head toward their bedroom on the other side of the ceiling.

"My thoughts exactly!" Alan agreed.

So they waddled up the stairs and enjoyed the marital bliss they loved so much!

"Children or not, I never tire of trying to make them!" Denny laughed with pleasure and enjoyment that Alan brought him with every orgasm. Alan laughed, too, heartily and enfolded Denny in his arms as much as was possible due to their disparate sizes.

Denny, the next day was ignoring the increasingly hostile looks he garnered every where he went at Chang, Poole, and Schmidt, while playing games on his computer, when the greeting secretary at reception rang his phone. "You have a delivery, Mr. Crane," her mellifluous voice greeted him on the line.

Denny silently cursed at the interruption of his game, and told her to have the delivery person to be shown to his office. When the young man, knocked at his office door, Denny bade him enter. The delivery person was all but hidden behind two enormous vase of dark red roses. "Is this for my funeral?" Denny groused.

"I'd say some one loves you very much," the hidden boy's voice came from behind the roses.

"And I'll just bet I know who that is!" Denny cried at the top of his lungs. He flung open his office door so that every one who passed could admire Alan's love.

That afternoon, in the Legal Aide building, Alan's phone rang. When he answered it, Denny's voice asked him, "Meet at the Oak Room at 6:00 pm?"

"Best offer I've had all day!"

When Alan walked into their familiar Oak Room, Denny bounded from his stool at the bar, and embraced him in full sight of the entire restaurant. Then he gently raised Alan's chin slightly with his forefinger, and kissed him full on the lips. Denny embraced him tightly and held his head in his hands. Alan, in a few seconds, staggered backward, and then kissed him back. Denny began to hum softly, and continued to hold Alan. "I am not a good time boy,for which the cops said youwere looking when they arrested you in the bathroom" Alan protested. Denny continued to hum, softly, and said meaningfully, "I've never paid for it!"

Alan turned to the audience at the restaurant. and announced: "See? No consideration at all!"

the restaurant staff, bellowed out in return, "Denny Crane doesn't pay for it!" and "Why pay for the cow if you can get the milk for free?" Alan answered them back, "But he married the cow, that is, bought the cow!" He let a beat pass, then announced, 'And the cow loves him like crazy.'" Then he ordered a bottle of the oldest and most precious wine they served there (their sweetest and most mirth producing wine)..

"I don't know where this is coming from, Alan, I am just enjoying it for every thing it is worth. And the implied tribute as well! I don't really remember what so wounded you and me so much last night that you have grown suddenly generous and thoughtful to me. I feel like I am being courted like you do one of your over-pampered ladies. Now I know why you almost always get the girl. Although I doubt you treat them the way you did me last night.."

"Only because you don't have the same parts. I don't think women particularly enjoy having their anal parts explored, as you obviously do!"

"And all for free," Denny exclaimed to all. "You are such a dear boy, Alan".

"He is, you know!" For the first time, Alan noticed that Denny had a crimson rose bud half-opened in his lapel. He stroked the rosebud softly and let his thumb slide down the inside of Denny's coat lapel against his half-erect nipple standing up in his tailored shirt.

"That gratifies me enormously." Alan said softly in his ear.

"Me, too!." Denny crooned back. Alan could feel his own arousal and suggested that they could take the wine and the rest of the excellent meal they had ordered home and enjoy it there while watching the city go to bed. As hopefully they would also do soon.

Denny had the waiter call for his driver and car, and took Alan's arm as they left the restaurant, after picking up their a' la carter dinner, they walked out and entered Denny's very "not-green" monster of an S.U.V. At the side-walk, they switched and Alan took Denny's arm, and all the way back to Denny's condominium, Denny stroked Alan's arm gently and lovingly. Denny leaned over to Alan and whispered to him in his ear "And how are the simple folk doing today?"

Alan sang from Camelot:

:. What do the simple folk do
To help them escape when they\'re blue?
The shepard who is ailing, the milkmaid who is glum
The cobbler who is wailing from nailing his thumb
When they\'re beset and besieged
The folk not noblessly obliged
However do they manage to shed their weary lot?
Oh, what do simple folk do we do not?

Denny, cleared his throat and sang back to him:
"I have been informed by those who know them well
They find relief in quite a clever way
When they\'re sorely pressed, they whistle for a spell
And whistling seems to brighten up their day
And that\'s what simple folk do
So they say!

Alan:
They whistle?
Denny sang again in a full baritone:
So they say!"
They both laughed at each other's efforts at reproducing Camelot!

"Richard Burton you may not be," Alan laughed, "But I am no Julie Andrews either!"

"Or Richard Harris or Vanessa Redgrave either!" Denny croaked. Oh, those were the days!" Do you even remember JFK?"

"Oh, yes, fondly and admiringly. Denny! He was a role model for me! He gave the term liberal a dignity and charity that Rush has forgotten and demeaned!"

"I don't think that Rush Limbaugh ever knew what liberal meant in connection with Jack Kennedy! I can see you viewing him as a role model, you are such a pinko liberal! (in a good way). I honestly believe that if there were a way to save the world you would do your damnedest to do it! And now you have turned 'Hands' into the same!"

"I think that Jerry had that liberal and progressive attitude outlook long before either of us ever met him! Often those afflicted with a unmutable characteristic have more feeling for others who are untraditional themselves." Alan admonished Denny.

"Do you still have the hots for that man?" Denny questioned Alan.

"Never in the way you mean it, luv. Just an empathy and admiration for his efforts to overcome his own demons."

"The other night, you seemed to be hot under the collar against all the friends we had over!"

"It was my own personal failing to be able to tolerate my own unwillingness to add to the world's population.."

"Well," Denny still seemed unable to understand Alan's aversion to adding to the world's population, "It has nothing to do with us, loved-one."

Alan seemed frustrated at his inability to express his own feelings to Denny. "I guess it is me feeling angry at myself for not being willing to share my life with anyone else!"

"And that is unrealistic as well! Look who you have married!"

"That's a weird thing to say; that is exactly what Carl said to me the day we were married. When you usurped his right to dance with Shirley, first, he stood aside and I said to him. "Carl, you really are a good sport." And he replied to me, "I am? Alan have you realized to whom you are married yet?"

Alan could have bitten his tongue off for repeating that to Denny, of all people, Carl would never have said it to Denny, and Alan had spent two entire days trying to take the thought out of Denny's head. Now he had just introduced it again! But the wine seemed to have gone to Denny's head and for all Alan knew, he was himself spinning round in his brain, like an unforgettable refrain. Oh, Alan, he grumbled at himself, is there never any thing I can do for this man that is not like a lyric from a song of Cole Porter? Oh, he told himself, Denny would probably love everything he ever wrote! Unless he had seen Kevin Kline in the title role of Porter's biopic.

"So, even Carl felt sorry for you!" Denny groaned. "What did my doctor say to you that you wouldn't tell me about that one day?"

"If you are determined to rub in everything in one day, he advised me to get out while I still could. That living with Alzheimer's was almost impossible and it could destroy me life and health as well as yours! Is that enough for one day, Denny?"

"No wonder I had to ask you to marry me three times before you accepted me. Why the hell did you?"

"The same reason that I became irrationally upset with our friends yesterday!"

"And that is?"

"Because I didn't think it was anyone's business but our own if we felt bereft in the absence of children! Do you think if I really wanted children or felt that you truly did, I would have wed you? I felt pretty sure that you didn't or you would not have asked me. I thought you wanted a friend who loved you as much as I do and as much as I felt that you do me!" And one who loved you enough to see you through to what ever end may come. As I said today, YOU, just as you are are all I want! You stubborn blind man."

Denny sat on his chair on the balcony and stared long and hard at Alan. "You! Perhaps the best legal mind I have ever known, including me. To hold a failing old man's had until he becomes some one who doesn't even know who you ever were or who he is!"

"Yes, if that is the way you must put it! I love you more than life itself, Denny, and you are the only persons with whom I want to spend and eventually end my life! If that means sharing some pain with you, then so be it! At least we can be together for better or worse for as long as it may last!"

"Have you spoken with Shirley about this?"

"No", said Alan, this is between you and me!"

"Do you think I really want to watch you wither and die with me?"

"Better than to live on without you. And I think she knows and understands that. And maybe is even grateful for it. Do you really think I haven't imagined all the scenarios?"

"You might love again, or go on to speak even more nobly on someone else's behalf?"

"As you said, like it or not, you are the man I love (sounds a bit like Peggy Lee, huh? I seem to be talking in song lyrics lately!"

"It seems that you have been an artist and performer ever since I have known you-" Denny's voice faded away as he considered all they had discussed. Well, if you are that much of a fool, I guess there is nothing I can do to stop you, you romantic fool!"

"I always thought:: [Some day he'll come along, the person I'll love]

"I'm not so big and strong," Denny sang after him!

"But, when you came my way, I did my best to make you stay," Alan sang to him.

"Then one day, I took your hand," Denny sang back.

"And though it sounds absurd, we never stopped saying words!"

"I know I'm gonna leave him one day,"Denny sang back.

["That's not in my song!" ]Alan barked back.

"Maybe Sunday, maybe Monday"

"Maybe be not!" Alan ended the song in Denny's arms, lying back on the bed, and clutching him for dear life!

Denny tumbled onto Alan and ran his fingers through his hair and carassed his cheeks.. "O, Denny,' Alan moaned and touched him and stroked him.

Denny moaned as an echo, and wrapped his legs around Alan' trunk. He reached over and put out the light and simultaneously rubbed Alan's back. They ground themselves into each other, making love sounds and stroking one another, until, each shrugged out of his clothes and rolled each other into the smooth sheets and humped like bunnies, until with a simultaneous grunt, each completed the other.. "I don't know which of us is pregnant now, but that was worthy of at least one offspring!" Denny moaned out, and Alan agreed, hoping that he was not pregnant. He didn't think he would make a good father, but he was certain that he would make even a worse mother!

Alan was so sorry he had brought any of this up...He couldn't believe he had made Denny think that there was any thing he regretted anything about marrying Denny, He sniffed again and felt his eyes began begin to water. "You must be sick to death of me, I seem to dissolve into tears every time we are together!"

Denny again rubbed Alan's back and arm, tenderly. "Your problem is that you want to never make me think of anything that could possibly be wrong or go wrong. In addition to being a liberal, your heart is way, way too soft! Good for those you love, but not so good for you. Like getting mad at my doctor for telling you you should get out when you could. He was just being realistic, dearest!"

"But," Alan protested, "it just seemed to be something that I should be deciding. He seemed to think I knew nothing about the condition, nor could he see how much you meant to me!"

"Well, he knew me well enough to know that I would not be in a homosexual relationship, so he saw nothing for your staying with me! Not that he would have automatically assumed you were homosexual, rather I think most people would take you for a normal man."

"But, Denny, luv, most people are so hung up with what they think a straight friendship between two men is nor do they see that a deep loving relationship can form between two men. Why not just leave that to me to decide. That is what I appreciate so much about Carl and Shirley. They could perceive how we felt, and not only encouraged the marriage, but joined us in the ceremony! I don't think that Carl has ever completely understood, but certainly Shirley has!"

"Well, we both understand and cherish it, so what do we care about what anyone else thinks?"

"Don't ask, don't tell, huh?" Alan said sacastically.

"Even real gay people haven't swallowed that one!"

" I have never understood why real gay people are even concerned with whether the military wants them anyway?"

"Well, where have you seen an organization that is so centered on people of the same sex? What a cruising ground!"

"And even you said that being in the military made your penis feel bigger already!"

"So what do you think about Brad, Alan. Do you think he is not asking nor telling?"

"I have thought of his proclivities so often. He does seem to feel that anything different than he is diminishes him, doesn't he?"

"You just may have a point there, partner!"

The continuance