Us Together
A/N: This is a semi-sequel to Us. I'm really incensed about gay marriage now being illegal even though it was legal for a while there, so this is my way of fighting back in one of the best ways I can think of, let Randy have at it with Justin-like fervor!
"Hey Gale, how're you feeling today?" I had just entered my best friend's hospital room where he'd been for a couple weeks now. Even though I had been away from New York and my life there for all that time, seeing him getting better and better with each passing day was worth it ten times over.
"A hell of a lot better now that I'm not in that damn ICU. I swear, the nurses there only hover over you because they can grope you during checks." Gale grinned, back to his normal old self despite the bandages still around his head and his arm in a sling.
"And who could blame them when they've got a patient like you?" I laughed as I took a seat next to his bed and dropped my coat and newspaper on the floor.
"Any good news? I've been asking for a paper for the past week but no one seems to want to help a damaged guy out here." Gale's words took my thoughts back to what had them completely occupied before the brief relief when I first entered his room.
"Well, Obama is going to be our next president." I sounded stupid even to myself as I not so discreetly kicked the paper under my chair.
"That's good, at least we don't have to endure four more years of an old bastard of a hypocrite who thinks a white trash bimbo is ready for the white house. It also helps that we won't be under a president who thinks all gays have something inherently wrong with them." I had to smile at Gale's words, knowing that even though he was straight his heart was right there alongside us queers fighting for our rights.
"But that's all old news, how about you tell me what's really bugging you so we can bypass all the bullshit of dancing around it." Gale sat himself up in bed and I couldn't help but let out a sigh as I reached over to help him prop his pillows up. Eight years of knowing each other and I couldn't keep anything secret from the guy.
"Proposition eight passed," was all I had to say for understanding to click in his hazel eyes and anger spark up.
"What the fuck?" he demanded, as eloquent as ever.
"That is exactly what I yelled out in the middle of a diner filled with people. They were all looking at me like I had lost it." I tried to make it sound humorous but it came out kind of flat.
"What is wrong with those people? They decide to overturn the law practically right after it was made? Can they do that?" Gale was showing one of his rarely seen truly pissed off attitude. Last time I'd seen him this mad was when he thought my boyfriend was abusing me.
"Apparently they can. Prop eight passed with a vote of 52% to 48, three more percent and it wouldn't have passed." I sighed out as I rested my chin on the edge of his bed, knowing that it really was no use getting all riled over but still not being able to help it much.
"How are you taking it?" Gale looked down at me with a tender concern I'd only ever seen directed at me.
"About as well as I really can when I'm being told that just because I fuck men it means I don't get the rights of men who fuck women." I smiled a bit wryly.
"It's so not right." Gale huffed out as he flumped back onto his pillows and looked out his window into the early morning sunlight. As I looked at him with the golden rays sparkling off his white bandages I couldn't help but feel what Justin must have felt every time he watched Brian overcome an obstacle only to keep fighting.
"Were you and Simon planning on…?" Gale turned back to me, eyes suddenly as serious as ever as my senses were immediately on alert, making me sit back up in my chair.
Gale and I had been close for ever and he'd been there when I first met my boyfriend. Even though he was my straight best friend, I could tell that every time Simon was brought up he seemed to tense up almost imperceptibly. Many people had speculated on the possibility of him being gay, if not in general then just for me (I have no idea who the wackos are who thought of the word Randysexual), and it was times like these when we hit touchy subjects like me being with another man that I sometimes wondered if they were right. But I never wanted to get my hopes up only to get dashed so I always squelched them down and moved on.
"No, we weren't. I don't think I really see myself ending up with him in the end anyways." I said carefully, taking note of the light in his eyes when I said that. "The reason why I'm upset over this is that they're saying that gay love means less than straight love. I mean, love is love right? So why the hell do they have to say that love between two guys is nasty and unnatural but love between a man and woman is acceptable? What the hell is the difference? And why can't we love and show our commitment? We're people here too you know!"
"Randy, sweetie, calm down." Gale reached for me with his good arm as I started hyperventilating a bit from not drawing any breath during that.
"I just don't understand it." I shook my head a bit sadly, feeling like maybe the straights really did win this one, that maybe us sad little queers would have to resign ourselves to oppression forever.
"Hey, Rand, look at me." Gale had his hand gently resting on the side of my neck and when I looked up I realized I had tears swimming in my eyes. Damn Justin, he's rubbed off on me, the little prick. "Don't give up, you hear me? Never give up on what you believe in and what you want, the only way anything is ever going to be achieved in this fucked up world we live in is if we fight for it. So don't stop fighting, cause if you do how the hell do you think things are going to get better?" he rubbed away a tear traveling down my cheek with his thumb.
"But we've fought so hard already and this is what we have to show for it. No one's even sure what's going to happen to the couples who got married while it was legal to. How am I supposed to keep fighting when this happens?" I demanded, feeling anger at my helplessness bubble up inside me.
"Why, you do what every great queer does. You get your smoking hot allegedly straight ex-co-star to help you." Gale smirked in a way so like Brian Kinney that it felt like we were on the set of QAF again.
"Shut up, you know what that would do to your reputation as a straight actor." I swatted playfully at his hand until his words actually sank in. "Wait, allegedly?" my head snapped up to stare at him. Could this really be true or was he just joking?
"What? You haven't heard about me being Randysexual?" Gale actually sniggered a little at the word.
"Asshole." I rolled my eyes, he really had me going there for a moment.
Gale pulled me towards him with the hand he had on my neck and I hesitatingly let myself be led. When he closed his eyes and gently placed a loving kiss to my lips I let go of all my worries for the moment and let my caged fantasies out for a breather.
"You know I'll always stand by you Randy, no matter what. It's always going to be the two of us together." Gale assured me as he pulled away.
As I sat back in my chair with a slightly dazed look in my eyes and a definitely dazed mind one word seemed to resound in my head over and over again.
Always.
A/N: Keep in mind people that this is a work of fiction and that Randy and Gale are in no way together in real life. Although a girl can definitely dream right? ;)
