Connor reached over and turned the water off. He towelled himself dry and then realized that he had forgotten to bring clothes with him. He wrapped the towel firmly around his waist and went back into the main part of the room. He had just plopped his suitcase onto the futon when Jude walked into the room.

"Oh," Jude said, turning red and staring at Connor's torso. "I thought you would have been … Sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. It's your room. I should have remembered to bring clothes into the bathroom with me."

"Uhm. Mikey and I can't decide between tomato soup or mushroom soup for supper. He wanted to know what you wanted."

"Mushroom."

"That's what I thought. I'll see you downstairs." Jude stepped around, but Connor stopped him.

"Is Mikey okay?"

"Like you weren't listening in the hall."

There was no point in denying it. "After I got in the shower."

Jude shrugged. "It's hard to explain it to him. But after we put his pyjamas on, we talked about how getting mad doesn't solve anything and how it's better to just ask us questions, since we're never going to be mad at him for being confused and needing to know more. He asked if he could bad nose bop us if we're being bad at answering questions and I said that he could."

"Nose bop?" Connor asked. "What's that?"

Jude turned to face him. "He hasn't nose bopped you? Marley started it, I think and now they both do it to everyone."

"But what is it?"

Jude crossed the floor to stand in front of Connor. "There are two kinds of nose bops."

"This is getting complicated."

"A bad nose bop, like when someone is being bad at answering questions, is like this." Jude raised his hand and tapped Connor on the end of the nose with his index and middle fingers.

"That's not so bad."

"It could definitely be worse."

"So what's the good nose bop, if that's the bad one?"

"Like this."

Jude leant down into Connor's personal space and, for a moment, Connor was utterly convinced that Jude was going to kiss him, and Connor was tilting his head up to kiss him back. But then the tip of Jude's nose deliberately caressed the tip of Connor's nose, and Connor's racing heart felt like it dropped in his chest. Jude wasn't going to kiss him. Jude was just demonstrating.

"That's … pretty good," Connor managed, cursing the fact that he actually sounded breathless. What did I just say? Get it together!

"Yeah. So he'll bad nose bop us if we do anything wrong." Jude was walking away from him, unaffected. It really was all in Connor's head. "I'll see you downstairs."

"See you downstairs."

Connor dressed as quickly as he could in old jeans and a t-shirt, and then he bounded down the stairs. Mikey was sitting on the kitchen counter, holding a bright green spatula.

"Father's letting me flip the grilled cheeses!" he announced to Connor, who knew that he'd been forgiven.

"How are they looking?"

"Perfect!"

Connor peered into the pan. The edges of the grilled cheese was burnt. "It looks perfect."

"I want to be a chef when I grow up."

"I think you'll make a great chef," Connor told him. The grilled cheese was starting to smoke. "Can I offer some advice though?"

"I guess so."

"I think it's time for that one to come out."

"I think you're right!"

Jude held out a plate and Mikey slid the sandwich onto it. Then, Jude dropped the next sandwich into the pan.

"How many grilled cheese are you going to eat?" Jude asked him.

"Just one, thanks."

"Okay," Jude said, and made one more sandwich.

Dinner was a quiet affair. They ate in front of the TV this time. Mikey picked out a movie for them to watch. It was a new Disney one. Mikey and Jude knew all of the words to the songs and Connor felt a little left out, because he couldn't sing along with them. He did enjoy watching them singing duets to one another, particularly when Jude ended up singing in the role of the animal sidekick with a high pitched squeaky voice because, for Mikey's amusement, Jude would try to imitate the voice. He watched the father and son laughing and carrying on. Watching them, it didn't make sense that Jude had tried to kill himself a few days ago. It just didn't. He knew that a lot had built up in Jude's life recently, but that happened to a lot of people, and they didn't try to kill themselves. But Connor would never make the argument that Jude was running at full capacity either. Even now, Jude was somehow lesser than. He wasn't the same person that he had always been.

When the movie was over, Connor asked, "Do you have any homework to do tonight?"

"I have to read a chapter of my book." Mikey tapped his feet together. "But I don't want to."

"Go and grab it," Connor told him. "You don't get out of doing homework."

"Father?"

"Sorry. Homework has to be done, whether we like it or not."

"Darn," Mikey complained.

"Want to read down here or go upstairs?" Jude asked.

"Down here! Be right back!" Mikey bounced from his spot between the two of them and clambered up the stairs.

When he was gone, Jude turned to Connor. "You know, I was thinking and … you might be staying here a while."

Connor nodded. "As long as you need me. However long that takes."

"Thanks. But, what I meant was that you're, uhm, welcome to put your things in the closet and dresser. You don't need to live out of a suitcase."

"Thanks," Connor replied. "Maybe I'll do that tonight."

Jude wouldn't look at him. "I just … I remember how much you hate having wrinkles in your clothes. Suitcases are good for wrinkling."

"Yeah," Connor agreed, caught up in the idea of having his clothes hanging next to Jude's again. "They are."

"I've got my book!" Mikey yelled, announcing his presence far before his reappearance. He nestled himself back between his parents, spreading his book across his lap.

Connor and Jude both leant toward him, getting caught on every word that Mikey read. They knew he found reading difficult. The only time that either of them had ever seen their son become shy was when he had to read aloud in front of people. Therefore, when Mikey read, he had their full and complete attention. It seemed to help, though Mikey was constantly looking up at them for support when it came to this word or that.

"That was a good story," Jude said when Mikey had finished. "Did you like it?"

But Mikey shook his head. "Chameleons are gross. Like frogs."

Connor laughed. "I think they're cute."

"Puppies are cute!"

"Red puppies?" Jude guessed.

"Yup!"

Connor laughed again. "You know, asking me for something when Father says no isn't going to work, right?"

"Father didn't say no," Mikey replied. "Father said that we should wait and see what Christmas looks like."

"Then why did you ask me for a puppy?"

"Because two puppies are better than one puppy," Mikey said. Although he didn't actually vocalize the word 'duh', Connor felt it keenly.

Jude mussed Mikey's hair. "Come on, Mr. Manipulator. It's bed time."

"Piggy back?" Mikey asked hopefully.

"Come on."

Mikey climbed onto Jude's back and they began the journey up to the second level of the house. Connor trailed behind them, just enjoying listening to Mikey ask what a manipulator was and to Jude's explanation. Jude deposited Mikey in front of the bathroom sink and very critically watched how much toothpaste was applied to the toothbrush. Mikey scrubbed his teeth, especially his loose one, very carefully at first, and then he sort of lost interest.

Speaking around both the toothbrush and the foam, he asked, "Dad, why did you fall in love with Father?"

Connor met Jude's eyes. Why? It seemed a ridiculous question. Everything about him was a reason for Connor to fall in love with him. But, with a parent's intuition, he knew that Mikey's next question would be about why he fell out of love with Jude, because in Mikey's world, everything was simple. If two people loved one another, then they would be together. They would stay in the same house, with their son, and be married until the end of their days, like they had both always planned. Well, perhaps not always. They had no idea, when they were thirteen and just starting their relationship, that their first love would end up being the person they married and had a family with, because it just didn't happen like that. Not in the real world. It was a thing of fairy tales and Jude and Connor were not delusional. They knew they weren't a storybook's definition of prince charming or a knight in shining armour. This was real life, not a fairy tale, and they were divorcing and one of them might find love again, and while Connor wanted to list all of the things he found amazing about Jude, he couldn't, because those things were all still true, and he couldn't admit that. Not to Mikey or Jude.

"I fell in love with Father because he was the right person to fall in love with."

Mikey opened his mouth to respond, but Jude spoke over him. "Rinse and spit."

Mikey followed orders and then he gestured Connor down to his level. Connor crouched and Mikey gave him a bad nose bop.

"That's not an answer."

"I know, and I'm sorry. But it's what I've got."

Mikey rolled his eyes. "Father, why did you fall in love with Dad?"

Jude didn't respond right away. Instead, he steered Mikey from the bathroom and into his little single bed, tucking his son into it. Finally, he answered, "Because falling in love with him would lead me to you."

"If it didn't, would you have still loved him?"

Jude didn't hesitate. "Yes. But you're not the reason we're separated."

"I believe you," Mikey said.

"Good." Jude kissed Mikey's forehead. "Goodnight, Mikey. I love you."

"I love you too, Father."

Mikey repeated the sentiments with Connor, and then they left him to his bed, leaving his bedroom door ajar. They paused in the hallway.

"I'd like to start putting my clothes away, if that's all right," Connor said.

Jude looked shy as he asked, "Would you like company?"

It was amazing to Connor that he would mind asking that, after they had spent nearly moment of the past several days together; after they were both well aware that the only reason Connor was in the house at all was to be there for Jude. "I'd love your company, Jude."

They shut the bedroom door behind them, to keep from disturbing Mikey. Jude plugged his iPod into his bedside speaker and turned the music down low, although Connor immediately recognized the tune as one of Jude's favourites. He hauled his suitcase up onto the futon and then opened his closet doors. His things had always hung on the left hand side, and there was still a space there. Connor pushed a few of Jude's things to the side to make a little more room, and then he saw it, leaning against the back wall of the closet.

"Oh," Connor managed.

Jude didn't have to move to know what he was talking about. Connor could hear the shame in Jude's voice when he said, "I was really angry when you left."

Angry enough to smash the glass on their wedding portrait, probably scarring the picture beneath it. Connor couldn't tell. He couldn't even make out their faces beneath the glass cracks, although every detail of that photo, of that day, were etched completely into Connor's mind. He couldn't have forgotten if he had wanted.

"That's … fair," he eventually said to Jude.

"Not really," Jude replied. "I keep thinking about replacing the glass, but what would be the point?"

What would be the point indeed?

"It's not like I'd ever have a reason to put it back up in the living room," Jude whispered.

"Hanging it in the living room was a pain," Connor grumbled in remembrance. "It almost caused me more anxiety than the actual wedding."

Behind him, Jude let out an awkward laugh. "Not even adopting Mikey gave you more anxiety than our wedding. You were so worried about something going wrong."

"I wanted it to be perfect," Connor said.

"It was perfect."

Connor looked over his shoulder at Jude, "The moment I saw you, everything became perfect."

(-.-)

Connor clenched his hands together. His palms were getting sweaty. But he couldn't wipe them on the pants of his suit. But he couldn't meet Jude at the altar and have sweaty palms.

"Calm down." His mother. She kissed his cheek. "Everything's fine."

"It's just as it should be," Adam said.

Connor, strangely, took more comfort in his father's assurances than his mother's. Adam had been oddly active in the wedding planning, as if by focusing on the details, he could forget the fact that his son was marrying a man. Adam had evolved to the point where Connor no longer felt as if his own father was rejecting him, but Adam had not yet reached to point where Connor could say that he felt fully accepted by the man either.

"It looks okay, then?" Connor asked.

He had done a quick walk around of the venue before everyone had arrived and it had looked excellent then. It was the middle of August, and he and Jude were having an outdoor wedding in a public garden. They had arranged the seating in a circle around a highly decorated gazebo so that he and Jude could have two aisles. Stef and Lena would begin walking Jude down one while Connor's parents would begin walking Connor down the other at the same time. They would meet in the middle.

"It's just as you wanted it," Adam assured him.

"I'm so excited! Oh, Connor, there's the cue!"

Connor felt his heart begin to race. The cue. Jude. He was only moments away from 'I do' and a gold wedding band and Connor couldn't think of another time that he'd been so impatient to have something happen. He wanted Jude; he wanted his husband.

They were walking and Connor lost the ability to breathe. Every single part of him seemed to be crying out for Jude, and then he caught sight of his fiancé; his twenty-three minutes away from being husband. The moment that Connor locked eyes with Jude, everything disappeared. The music could have died, the guests could have spontaneously combusted, and everything Connor had worried about could have happened, and he wouldn't have noticed. Jude brought peace to his soul; Jude gave him everything. They met in the centre of the gazebo, in front of Donald, Jude's biological father. The man had gotten ordained just so that he could perform the ceremony.

For a brief moment in time, parents stood with their children. For Stef and Lena, they were giving away their youngest. For Connor's parents, they were giving away their only. But then they looked at their new son-in-law's, who, after so many years already, had been indoctrinated as simply 'sons'. It was not a loss. The two sets of parents joined their children's hands together. No words of advice needed to be said; no quip needed to be made. This was how it was always meant to be.

They left Jude and Connor alone with Donald, but Connor was barely aware. Jude's hand was warm in his own.

"You are my best friend. You are the love of my life. I want to experience every adventure that life has to offer with you. We've known each other since we were thirteen years old and I've been able to see you go from the most incredible boy I'd ever met to the most incredible man I've ever met. I can wait to wake up next to you, twenty years from now, and still have you be mine. I love you, entire, Connor Stevens."

Connor was crying. He almost forgot his vows. He almost just stuttered out 'I love you' and then grabbed Jude into a kiss. But when he opened his mouth, his carefully prepared words flowed from him. "You steal my covers and drink all of the cranberry juice. You call me in the middle of the day to tell me you love me. At Christmas time, you always fill my shoes with tinsel. Sometimes, I don't know what to do with you, except to keep you with me, always. I can't believe that I got lucky enough to marry my best friend and I can't wait for the years ahead of us. I love you, entire, Jude Adams-Foster."

"Jude, do you take Connor to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do."

"Connor, do you take Jude to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do."

"And now, the rings," Donald prompted.

As they took turns sliding rings onto each other's left ring fingers, Connor was glad to see that Jude's hands were shaking along with his.

"With the power vested in me, I now declared you married. You may now kiss your husband!"

Connor kissed Jude like he was air and Jude kissed him back just as fiercely. This was his husband. His forever. His happily ever after. This was Jude Adams-Foster-Stevens. Connor found himself smiling. Because Jude.

"I love you," Connor whispered, settling back onto his flat feet. He hadn't even realized that he had risen onto his tip toes.

"I love you too," Jude whispered back, resting his forehead against Connor's. "Shall we, Mr. Adams-Foster-Stevens?"

"We shall."

Connor gripped Jude's hand tightly as they walked back down one of the aisles to the applause of their family and friends. They found themselves tucked inside a small building, signing legal documents that bound them together in the eyes of the law. The process took a lot less time than Connor thought that it would and, before he knew it, he and Jude were headed off to meet their families for the wedding pictures.

"The moment these pictures are taken, I'm taking my shoes off," Jude announced. "My toes are getting pinched."

"Your poor toes," Connor lamented with them. "However will you make it?"

"It's not my fault my feet are so big!" Jude laughed. "But you know what they say about big feet."

"Well, clearly whatever they say is wrong!"

Jude snorted. "No teasing me!"

"You're my husband. I can tease you all I want for the rest of my life!"

Jude's eyes widened. "Clearly, I did not think this marriage thing through."

Connor swatted at Jude's butt. "Quiet. You love me."

"So much," Jude assured him. "So, so much."

They arrived in front of the array of rose bushes that they had agreed upon for the photos, taking the ones with their family first. The photographer was a thorough one, positioning everyone multiple ways and taking pictures of multiple different arrangements of people. Connor shouldn't have been surprised that the Adams-Fosters clan could be combined in so many different ways, but he was surprised that the Adams-Fosters clan could be combined in so many different ways. Finally, the family was dismissed to join cocktail hour and it was just Jude's and Connor's pictures with each other left to be taken.

"Let's take our shoes off for this one," Connor proposed.

"Really?" Jude raised his eyebrows. "You've been such a perfectionist about this …"

"No one's going to see. Come on." Connor stripped off his dress shoes and socks and Jude happily followed suit.

Jude let out a contented sigh as his bare feet sunk into the cool grass. "This. I like this."

"I'm glad, now come here."

Connor reached out and grabbed Jude around the waist, and Jude spun around to face him. It was this moment, where the roses stood out brightly and the sun was beaming down on them, that would become Jude's and Connor's favourite official wedding portrait. That moment, right before they kissed in front of the photographer because they had honestly forgotten that she was there. The rest of the photos, though they came out perfectly, just weren't that one. Connor honestly felt like that moment captured the spirit of the day before it and the spirit of the reception after it.

The reception, which they had spent barefoot and laughing, and had eventually been joined in their shoeless-ness by the rest of the guests. The reception, where Jude had shoved cake into his face, just to kiss the icing off. The reception, where, near the end, Jude had dragged him off to a grove behind the reception tent and kissed him so senseless that Connor's knees had nearly given out and he was barely held up by the tree was leaning so heavily against.

"We can't here," Connor mumbled.

"We're not," Jude muttered, their lips catching with every word. "But I just need you."

Connor understood that completely and he lost himself inside of the embrace of Jude's arms. He didn't think about the remaining guests, partying just steps away. He didn't even think of later that night, when he and Jude would spend their first night as newlyweds in their bed, before flying out on their honeymoon in the morning. The only thing that Connor thought of in that moment, was that exact moment. It was the heat of Jude's skin and the way his skin felt and the way that Connor's mind kept repeating 'husband, husband, husband'.

Jude Adams-Foster-Stevens was his forever, and this was hardly the beginning.

(-.-)

"I remember all of that," Jude said. "Of course I do."

"It seems like it was so long ago."

"It was. Eleven years this year."

Not that they had been together for their anniversary. Connor swallowed his words. This conversation would lead them nowhere. He put his best efforts into ignoring the smashed glass and putting his clothes away. He didn't have much to put away so it didn't really take that long.

"I'm not tired," Jude said as soon as Connor had put his suitcase away. "Are you?"

"No."

"Do you have work you need to do?"

Yes. "Not at all."

"We could go back downstairs and watch a movie," Jude suggested. "Not a kids movie though."

"Deal," Connor agreed. "Is popcorn involved?"

"I like how you think."

"Come on, then." Connor offered his hand to Jude. The moment after, he realized that Jude probably wouldn't take it. But Jude surprised the both of them by placing his hand in Connor's.

"Come on," Jude echoed, and that was that.

Don't forget to send me playlist ideas if you have them! This week's song is: Postcards by James Blunt (reader recommended).

So, on tumblr I'm: we are all of legend now (with dashes between every word). If you want to find my replies to anon reviews, add backslash tagged backslash anon dash replies. If you want to see anything I post about Hand In My Pocket, to my tumblr URL add backslash tagged backslash hand dash in dash my dash pocket. Punctuation is spelled out due to Fanfiction's restrictions. If you're having any trouble accessing the tumblr content please send me a pm and I can format it for you in a different way.

~TLL~