Sex.
"I've given you everything I have, Vince, and I think it's about time you start paying me back right now." Eric barely recognizes the need, anger and pain in his own voice. It's not like him to be this guy, but then again, he'd always been someone entirely different with Vince.
"E, c'mon, I don't want to fight with you anymore," Vince pleads. He hates when anyone is mad at him, but it's especially hard when that person is Eric. He's still seething in the aftermath of a terrible argument over their night out. There had been girls crawling all over the superstar, and Eric's jealous streak was a mile wide. He was good at playing the part in public, fending off the advances of the less beautiful best friend while watching his boyfriend flirt and dance with all the pretty girls looking for a night with a celebrity. He's usually content to let Vince take the lead when they're in public, but when they are behind closed doors and Vince allows the facade to fall away, it's Eric who has total control. "I said I was sorry. What was I supposed to do? She was drunk and she lunged at me. I couldn't push her away. You know how that would look."
Eric knows exactly how that would look. In fact, he's sat in countless meetings while lawyers, business managers, agents, publicists and anyone else with a stake in Vince's career has explained in detail how it would look for Vince and Eric to be honest about their relationship. Hell, he's even agreed with them for the most part. The business part of him got why it was important to keep it out of the public eye. But the part of him that was in love with Vince found it really hard to keep his mouth shut when some skank had her hand shoved halfway down his boyfriend's pants.
"I just don't want you to kiss anyone that's not me," Eric says finally as he sits on the edge of his bed. They're still doing the separate bedrooms thing, not that either one of them sleeps alone these days. They usually stay in Vince's room because it's bigger, but on the nights when they fight and Eric refuses to go upstairs, Vince seeks him out here. "Vince, do you know what it's like? Imagine a Playboy bunny with her hands all over me. Imagine watching that, knowing what kind of guy I was up until a year ago. I hate seeing them with you. It's too hard."
Vince knows what it's like to watch Eric with the roaming of delicate hands splayed over his chest. He knows what it's like to watch as E crane his head just so to deepen a kiss and to hear him bite back a sharp hiss of pleasure when a girl finds that spot right behind his ear. He knows what it's like to hear Eric crying out in the throes of the moment from the next room. He knows what it's like to hate all that. "Anything you want, E," he finally allows, knowing that he really would give Eric anything. Vince had been his hook, line and sinker from the moment E decided that he wanted Vince.
Eric is sure that he could give into the anger, make the sex dark and dirty like it always was after they fought. Or he can break the pattern tonight and give into the fact that, yeah, his boyfriend is hot and beautiful and women want him, but he is still E's. They can make love leisurely in the home they sharedwithout worrying about fans or cameras or industry people finding out. Just thinking about it makes him exhausted.
"I mean it, Vince, I've given you everything."
Vince kneels next to the bed and rests his cheek against E's thigh. "I know you have."
Eric's fingers tangle in Vince's curls. It still doesn't feel like his everything is enough. Vince turns his head slightly and presses a kiss on Eric's bare skin, just below the hem of his plaid boxers. It's tender and brings tears to Eric's eye. The moment is so tender, so intimate. If Hollywood could only see his boy now, they'd understand why Eric gives Vince everything. They would know that the beautiful movie star had been already been paying Eric back for years.
"C'mon, Vin," Eric announces as he stands up, reaching for Vince's hand. "Let's go to bed." They both know there will be no sleeping any time soon. Vince looks down at E's bed for a moment before darting his gray eyes back up at him. Eric shakes his head and nods toward the hallway. "In your room."
"Our room," Vince corrects pointedly. "From now on, I think, our room."
