"I'm sorry," Carlos said pitifully. Kendall smiled a little and took the flowers, inhaling their aroma and looking up at his fiancé. Ex-fiance?
"It's not fair when you show up all cute and shit, giving me flowers," he said smartly.
"I don't like when you're mad at me. And I don't like when you break up with me, either."
"I wouldn't consider it a breakup."
Carlos was silent, just looking like a kicked puppy.
"Is that Logan's shirt?" Kendall asked.
"Yeah. Mine was bloody."
"What's he wearing?"
"James' shirt."
"What's James wearing?"
"Nothing."
Kendall laughed a little and pulled Carlos in by the front of the shirt.
"Do you really not love me anymore?" Carlos asked as he followed Kendall to the kitchen to put the roses in a vase of water.
"I don't love the Carlos I saw an hour ago," Kendall said softly, turning to the sad Carlos, who stood a safe ten feet away. "I don't ever want to see that again."
"What was I like?"
"Like some demon or something… Your pupils were huge and red was around them. Your whole mouth was like- shark teeth. And there was that man's blood- everywhere. Logan had you up against the wall by your throat and you were just biting and clawing at him. You didn't even care when you were pinned up with a knife in your stomach."
"I'd hate that me, too. And I'm sorry, honey… That wasn't me."
"I know…"
"And it won't happen again."
"Promise?"
"Swear."
Kendall smiled a little and opened his arms for a hug. Carlos happily walked into it, glad to be in his fiance's arms again.
"I'm thinking red."
"Huh?"
"Like roses. Red and white. For the wedding colors."
Carlos looked up, eyes glowing.
"Red goes with your eyes," he said dreamily.
Kendall smiled and kissed Carlos' nose.
"You are a mess," Logan laughed as he stepped forward to tie Carlos' sample tie at the tuxedo shop.
"I never learned how to do it- my Mommy always did it for me," Carlos laughed.
"It's alright- James is eighty-two years old and he still barely knows how to tie his shoes. He still does the rabbit ear trick," Logan giggled, looking up in the mirror to see James and Kendall at the other end of the room in pinned up tuxes, running around with their hands clasped like guns in front of them.
"All these years and you still love him. I hope Kenny's like that," Carlos smiled.
"I don't have much of a choice- he is so sweet and sexy and just pure lovable. Trust me- you have no worries about Kendall," Logan assured, pulling the tie tight and stepping back to look at the pinned jacket Carlos wore.
"What was yours and James' wedding like?" Carlos asked, turning to the mirror.
"We got married at a courthouse, James in his leather jacket and I in jeans and a t-shirt," Logan said sentimentally.
"What? No way, Logie, that's not romantic!"
"James had said we were married since our first year together- he just wanted it official. It was not a big deal," Logan shrugged.
"We should have a double wedding!"
"NO!" Logan and Kendall said simultaneously. James turned serious as they approached, looking confused.
"What did I miss?" he asked Logan. "What are you 'NO!'-ing about?"
"Nothing," Logan said sternly, giving a look to Carlos to make it clear not to mention it again.
"I just wanted to get a white tux," Carlos lied.
"I don't think it would go good with your spicy skin tone," James said unsurely.
"That's why I said no," Logan said.
"Can I wear my leather?" James asked excitedly.
"Awe MAN!" Carlos said excitedly.
"No," Kendall said sternly. "You're the best man- you won't be in a leather jacket looking like, well, like a '50's hoodlum."
"But I am one of those," James pouted.
The seamstress came back and Logan had to get up on the platform to get a jacket pinned together.
"God dammit, James, I don't even know what I'm supposed to get," Kendall grumbled as he and James looked down at the shining display of wedding rings for men, which were mostly just normal round metal rings of silver or gold, some with little diamonds in them.
"Logie got me one with rubies so I could use it for sun protection," James said with a shrug.
"Are we supposed to match?" Kendall asked.
"Me 'n Logie do."
Kendall opened his mouth to speak, but a peppy young girl came up to them on the other side of the counter.
"Can I help you?"
"Um… I'm here to get my fiancé a ring," Kendall said.
"The women's rings are-"
"I'm gay," Kendall said boredly.
"Oh! Well congrats, you two!" she said to Kendall and James.
"Thank you so much!" James said with equal enthusiasm from where he leaned on the counter. Kendall elbowed him.
"It isn't him. He's my best man."
"I'm his mom."
The girl looked confused, but then smiled again.
"The ruby rings are very popular for our vampire community," she said, gesturing to a selection on ruby encrusted rings on one section in the case, having noticed their fangs.
"Oh. Didn't see those," Kendall said as he leaned in to look, James' head beside his casually. To anyone else, the closeness of the two and the way their arms touched would make them think that they were a couple, but the two never really thought much about it and even Logan didn't notice it anymore.
"That's cool," James admired, pointing to one that had FOREVER written with rubies in fancy cursive.
"No way," Kendall said before the girl could get it out. "Too expensive."
"So? I'm paying."
"I have to pay you back, though," Kendall sang. "And besides, Los would lose all those rubies."
"So you want one with minimal rubies?" the girl asked.
"But then if they do get lost he'll burn," James said.
"True…"
"Well how about something like this?" James asked, holding out his hand to show his own ring, which, like Logan's, was silver with tiny rubies spread around it. "I'd take it off, but it's stuck. Been stuck for about fifty years now."
Kendall laughed a little and he and the girl looked at it.
"We could make something like that and maybe make it a little different," she offered Kendall.
"Less rubies."
"Less?"
"Let's say… Five."
"Really? This one's got ten," James said warily.
"He doesn't need ten rubies, James, he just needs one. But I know a few will fall out or something, so it needs to have just enough. One silver and one gold. With 'forever' on the inside," Kendall said as the girl started writing on a pad of paper.
"Awe- that's cute," James melted.
"Most vampires get something like 'eternal love' or 'forever', you know, cause they have forever," she said. "I think it's cute."
"Which one's yours?" James asked Kendall.
"I dunno- think Los'll like gold or silver better?"
"Silver would look better with his skin and gold would look good on yours," James answered. "You know he digs silver better anyway."
"Yeah, he does," Kendall nodded.
James nodded and looked back down at the rings.
"I might tell Logie to get me a new ring. This one's missing a coupla rubies," he said.
"We can use the stones from your original and set it in something else," the girl said as she wrote.
"Eh- I don't think he'd go for it."
"He would and you know it," Kendall said, knowing James had Logan on a diamond-studded leash.
"I don't want him to get me a new one," James said. "We're paying for a lot- and don't get me wrong, it's fine to pay for your wedding- but I'll wait till it's less stressful."
The girl took out a ring of rings and Kendall tried a few on as they spoke.
"Wonder how Logie and Los are doing," James said. Logan and Carlos were out shopping for flowers and decorations and renting tables and things. Carlos did want Kendall there as usual, but when he heard that he was going to find rings, he was okay with some Carlos-Logan-alone-time.
"Oh, you know Los. He probably already changed the wedding colors on me even though we bought everything in red, and he got a new tux in white and dyed his hair blonde and Logan's telling him not to, but who can resist my Los?"
James laughed at this and shook his head.
"I just hate to have all the flowers roses, you know, but there're no other red flowers," Carlos said as he and Logan looked through plastic flowers in a flower shop as James and Kendall were at the ring store.
"Roses, my friend, are the flower of love," Logan said, holding a rose with fake water droplets on its petals. "I give my Jamie a rose when I anger him and do you know what I get in return?"
"Okay, stop there," Carlos laughed.
"I was going to say forgiveness," Logan giggled.
"YOU make JAMES mad?" Carlos asked, sifting through flowers.
"Oh yes, all of the time. Such as when I get jealous of girls who flirt with him."
"Or Kendall."
"Yes," Logan laughed. "Or when I get an attitude with him- he hates it when I 'get snippy with him'."
"Yeah, I hate that, too," Carlos nodded. "When I say something and Kendall just like yells at me. I hate that."
"What do you think of this?" Logan asked, holding up a dark red daisy.
"Too tacky."
Logan shrugged and put it back. Carlos watched him look through the flowers, noting that if Carlos didn't know it, he would never guess that Logan was gay. He stood like a man, he walked like a man, he talked like a man. Only if you saw him look at James would you know that he was gay. Carlos had seen girls all over Logan before, and James.
"Do you ever wish you weren't gay?" he asked. Logan looked at him, confused.
"Do you?"
"Sometimes. When people stare at me and Kenny in public, and when kids ask their moms why two men are kissing and when my dad looks at me like I'm just a little bit less of his son," Carlos said sadly. "But then I just think… What if I never fell for Kendall? I would be alone. I love him too much to ever even consider going back."
"I was born in the late 1800's and was a teenager in the early 1900's. I never told a soul about my homosexuality- it was very frowned upon. Perhaps if I did tell and perhaps if I wasn't a Mitchell and so high up in Weston, I would have even been hanged or stoned," Logan sighed. "I was alone for a long time, unable to be myself. Then I found my James and he showed me that it is okay to love a man. I would not trade him for anything. I think that all of that suffering was worth it."
"But you fell for that one chick. Your maker."
"I suspect she compelled me to love her," Logan said. "Either way, I love my life now."
Carlos picked up a little bunch of pale pink flowers and inspected them.
"Think it'd be okay to have these in there? To mix it up a little?"
"Excellent idea," Logan nodded. Carlos perked up and tossed them in the basket.
"Leave it to me to make things uncomfortable, but thanks for being my best man," Carlos said as Logan's fingers ran every-so-lightly over petals as he inspected them.
"I understand that you would rather have had my husband in my place, but I am happy to do it," Logan said.
"Well, I love you just as much as I do James. We're just a different KIND of friends, you know? Like, with James I can screw around, but with you we have deep talks that James or Kenny wouldn't sit still long enough for," Carlos said. "And I know James wouldn't be standing here looking through flowers with me, he'd be running off doing something goofy, and I would probably join him and we'd get nothing done."
"He is a very silly person, but can be serious when needed," Logan said.
"And I love screwing around with him, but I think for a wedding I need you as a best man and Kenny needs him. Cause Kenny gets stressed about money and shit, and he needs someone to loosen him up. And I would be too all over the place to get anything done if you weren't here to water me down. So it all worked out."
"I enjoy it," Logan shrugged. "I never had a wedding to plan for, and I don't mind, but I think that I like going to shops for napkins and looking through artificial flowers and yes, having deep-set conversations with you that I'm not sure James would want to talk about."
"It all worked out."
"I suppose it did."
I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and watched Big Time Christmas somewhere in there (I just watched it this morning, cause I just now had the time!). Did anyone get anything cool? Besides this awesome second-to-last chapter of Bloodlust?
P.S. I just realized that this story didn't turn out at all like the Halloween Special version of it, and that it kinda sucks, so thanks for all your support and love and reviews and I hope you loved it anyway!