Simon's eyes fluttered open. He didn't recognize that chair. Did he? He lifted his head for a better look. Where was he? He tried to sit up, but his muscles wouldn't cooperate, so he looked to the other side and saw...Bram. Amused, smiling, wonderful Bram, who had obviously been watching him sleep.

And his breath caught.

And the memories flooded in.

And he felt his skin turn bright red, even as he smiled.

"Come here," Bram said softly, tugging Simon against him.

Simon settled against Bram, his head cradled on Bram's shoulder, his arm draped over Bram's chest.

They lay like that for several long, silent minutes, happy and content in each other's company.

Then Bram hissed as Simon trailed fingers across the suddenly sensitive skin on his stomach.

And Simon's breathing sped up as Bram's hand caressed his arm, his shoulder, his neck, then twined fingers into his hair.

Simon looked at Bram, resting his chin on Bram's chest. "What is this?" he asked softly in wonder.

"Love?" suggested Bram.

Simon rose above Bram, looking down at him, desire in his eyes. "I like it," he whispered.

Bram rose up to meet him. "So do I," he whispered back. He captured Simon's lips with his own and pulled him down as the flames consumed them once more.


When Bram awoke, Simon was clinging to him, spooned against his back, an arm draped over his side. It was the most delicious feeling...well, maybe not the most delicious – they had experienced a lot of feelings during the night – but it was certainly one of the best. He kissed Simon's fingers, loving that they were there together, that they would soon be together every night for the rest of their lives. After tonight, it would be a hardship to be apart until after the wedding, but they would survive. Somehow.

Bram gently turned over, not wanting to disturb Simon. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping. Bram pushed Simon's hair out of his face and caressed his cheek. He didn't know why or how they had been brought together, but he was sure glad they had been. He loved Simon so much, he didn't know if he would ever be able to describe it. He lay there for several minutes, just loving being so close to Simon, wishing it would never have to end. Unfortunately, nature has a way of interrupting, so Bram gently lifted Simon's arm to ease out from under it. He didn't want Simon to wake up, but he really had to use the bathroom. As he inched backward, Simon stirred. His eyes fluttered open, and he smiled a super-sexy sleepy smile and said, "Hi." Bram nearly melted right there on the spot. Instead, he pecked Simon's lips with a quick kiss and said, "Don't go away. I'll be right back."

He used the bathroom, giving his teeth a quick brushing before he returned to the bed. Simon was sitting up by then and looking oh, so wonderful, with his sleepy-eyed face and his true Bram-put-it-there bed-head hair, not his usual hair that only looked like he'd just gotten up. Bram sat on the bed next to him and leaned in to kiss him. Simon gave him a closed-mouth kiss and looked uncomfortable. "Something wrong?" Bram asked.

"Umm, no," Simon told him. "I just need to use the bathroom, too," he blushed.

Bram chuckled. "So, use it."

"Um...well..." he looked around, and his eyes spotted his clothes on the other side of the room.

Bram laughed out loud. "Really?! What we did last night, and you want clothes just to go to the bathroom?" He laughed all the way across the room, where he pulled a pair of plaid boxer shorts from a duffel bag sitting on top of the long dresser. He tossed them to Simon.

"Where'd you get these?" Simon asked, shuffling them on underneath the covers.

"I had your mom pack you a few things."

Simon blushed. "My mom?"

"The other choices were your sister or your dad."

Simon stood and stretched.

Bram's mouth went dry.

"I guess mom was the best choice, then. I don't want Nora pawing through my underwear. And dad would've forgotten it altogether."

"Yeah," Bram squeaked.

Simon looked at him, then laughed. He walked over and whispered hotly in Bram's ear, "Now you know how I feel most of the time when I look at you." He kissed Bram beneath his ear, grabbed his toothbrush from his duffel bag, then ducked into the bathroom. When he came back out, Bram was sitting on a hastily made up bed, also clad in boxer shorts. He joined Bram on the bed, not really knowing what to do. Should he snuggle? Hold hands? Not touch him at all?

Bram took care of it by pulling Simon to his side and wrapping an arm around him.

Simon rested his head on Bram's shoulder. "What do we do now?" he asked.

"Do you mean right now, as in 'what time is it and when do we eat?' Or 'what are our more long-term plans?'"

"Both, I guess."

"Well, it's," Bram leaned over to get the watch he'd rescued when he'd tidied up, "four-seventeen in the morning. If you're hungry, we could go to Waffle House. It's about all that'll be open right now."

"Are you hungry?"

"Not at the moment."

"Me, neither. But maybe soon."

"OK, we'll iron out some long-term stuff, then scavenge for waffles."

"Sounds good."

"I'm guessing, from what you said yesterday, that you would prefer not to have a long engagement?"

"What'd I say?"

"That you wouldn't have to ask if you could move to New York because we'd be married. I'm assuming you mean you want to move there before this coming semester?"

Simon nodded. "Yeah. I really want to go, but was afraid to ask you because it might be too stressful for you to be in med school and have me there."

Bram sighed. "Simon, promise me you'll never be afraid to ask me anything ever again. OK? The truth is, I wanted you to come to New York with me this semester because it's actually too stressful for me to have you so far away. Since you've already graduated, and don't have a job yet..."

Simon looked up at Bram. "Sounds like you were too afraid to ask me, too." He smiled.

"Maybe," Bram sheepishly admitted. "But I've felt like you've been holding back on me since we got back together, and I didn't want to push you to do something you didn't want to do because it might push you farther away from me."

Simon started to protest.

"Hush. I know why you were feeling that way. And I get it. I will be sorry for the rest of my days for ever making you feel that way."

"Just don't ever leave me, and I promise I won't feel that way again." Simon smiled up at him.

Bram kissed him. He couldn't help it. "I promise I won't leave you."

Simon sat up and faced Bram. "So we're getting married before school starts?" He took Bram's hand and played with his fingers.

Bram nodded.

"Are we supposed to pick a date or something? Isn't that how it works?"

Bram shrugged. "I don't know anything about planning weddings. Do you?"

Simon shook his head. "Guess we should ask the moms?"

"Unless you just want to go to City Hall or wherever it is you can get married without all the fancy ceremony stuff."

"I wouldn't mind, but I don't think our moms or Leah would forgive us," Simon told him.

"Good point."

"You got a place to live in New York?"

"I've been living in dorms, so I guess we should leave early enough to look for an apartment. Or go up there once or twice over the summer."

"Yeah. I'm partial to not sleeping on the streets."

Bram chuckled. "Me, too."

"Do we need to keep our cars?"

"We won't really need them in the city. I mean, it'd be nice to have one, but it's expensive to park them, and the traffic is bad, so public transportation is really the best way to go. But I imagine we'll want them when we're home, so..."

"How about this? We sell one of them to Leah and keep the other one in your mom's garage for us to use when we visit? Between my sister and parents, there isn't room for another car at my place, and Leah needs to replace that clunker she drives."

"Sounds good to me."

"So, we'll let Leah and the moms handle all the wedding stuff. We'll look for a place to live and sell one of the cars. Anything else?"

"Just one," Bram said shyly, looking at their entwined fingers.

"What's that?"

"Our names."

"What do you mean?"

"After we're married, I want to make Greenfeld my middle name, and have Spier be my new last name."

Simon was speechless.

"I mean, traditionally, the girl takes the guy's name, but, obviously, neither of us is a girl, and there's not really a tradition for what to do when two guys get married. But I want us to feel like a real family, with the same last names and everything, so, if it's OK, I'd like to be a Spier, too."

"Are you sure? We could always have the same name, but just hyphenate our names together?"

Bram shook his head. "No. If you want to hyphenate, we can definitely talk about it, but I just don't like the way it sounds. I really just want to be Bram Spier. If that's OK with you?"

"I mean, sure. Umm. Yeah." Simon scrubbed at his eyes. "I'd love it, truthfully." He kissed Bram's fingers. "But why?"

"Well, don't get upset or anything, OK? Just hear me out."

"OK."

"It has to do with our break up."

Simon squeezed Bram's fingers, but his facial expression didn't change.

"Hey! Those are my fingers, there!" Bram twisted his hand away from Simon's. Then he captured Simon's hands in his own. "Just listen," he implored quietly. "You'll like this. I promise."

Simon nodded.

"My folks wanted us to break up because they got married as high school sweethearts. Their love didn't last, and they were angry and bitter with each other for a long, long time. They didn't want that for us. At first, I understood their logic. I was tired with classes, worrying about being apart from you, wondering when we'd be together again. So when they presented their logic to me, in my weakened mental state, I had no defense. I could think of no logical reason to rebut their arguments, and I ended up feeling like I had no choice but to go along with it. I did get them to limit it to just one year, though." Bram smiled. "I figured I could handle anything for a year." He looked at Simon. "Please don't ever let me agree to anything like that again."

Simon smiled tightly and nodded.

"So we lasted a year apart. Barely, but we did survive. And surprisingly, you were willing to take me back. Simon, it's been one of the best years of my life. I know we were apart for most of it, but what made it all worthwhile was knowing I could call you whenever I wanted to, that you could call me. That when I came home, you would be here. I started wondering how could you be so steadfastly in love with me, even after I broke your heart like I did? So I watched and realized that you love me the way your parents love each other. Then one day I remembered something you'd told me in your very first email: your parents were high school sweethearts, too. And they're still together. And still very much in love.

"That's what I want. I want what the Spiers have. And what the Spiers have is my heart; his name is Simon. So, I want to be a Spier, too."

Simon fought his tears, determined not to cry, as tempting as it was. He sniffled as he smiled and told Bram, "I'm OK with it on one condition."

"What's that?" Bram asked cautiously.

"You have to tell my parents."

Bram laughed and scooted closer to Simon. "That's dirty pool, Spier."

"Nah. That's just how the game is played, Spier-to-be." Simon smiled. "You want to be a part of the family, you get all that comes with it."

Bram caressed Simon's cheek. "I'll take it," he said softly, his thumb lightly rubbing Simon's lips.

Simon inhaled sharply. He wrapped an arm around Bram's waist to pull him even closer.

Bram's skin quivered at Simon's touch. He leaned in and pressed a light kiss on Simon's lips, then pulled back.

Simon repeated the gesture, gently pecking Bram's lips, then deciding once wasn't enough, so he did it again. And again. He pressed Bram back into the pillows and looked down into his fiancé's eyes. Their gaze said everything each needed to know without either saying a word. Bram pulled Simon down for a deeper, longer kiss, and they expressed their love for each other as gently and sweetly as it had been passionate and enflamed earlier.