"Sunday afternoon there's something special. It's just like another world."

[nickthewarbler]

Who: Nick Hinton-Matheson and Jeff Hinton-Matheson
What: Catching up
Where: Bella Vita Galleries, Manhattan
When: Sunday afternoon

It was easy for Nick to get lost in his art, and today was no exception. He had come to the gallery on the day he was supposed to be at home to be here to give one of his commission pieces to the client, and they had been over the moon. Nick always preferred to hand his work over in person rather than through an employee, especially when the client was paying as much as this guy had because his great grandparents had been Italian and wanted Nick to paint an original piece from a childhood photograph he had. It had been one of his favourite jobs, and he was sad to see it go, but when the guy promised he would wholeheartedly be back for more, that made it all worth it.

But he had gotten distracted then and made the mistake of going into his studio for a little while. That had been hours ago, and he only thought to even check the time when he stared to feel sleepy. He grabbed his phone to check the screen and it told him it was after five. "Shit, crap!" he cursed in surprise and was just getting up off his stool from in front of his easel when Jeff came into the studio. "Shit, babe, I'm really sorry. I just got wrapped up and lost track of time. I should have been home hours ago!"

Comments

[warble_on_jeff]

"We're not going to fall out," Jeff assured Nick. "It's a disagreement, baby, not the end of the world. And I fucking love you, no matter what we agree or disagree on. This doesn't have to cause any problems for us. Maybe we can come back and visit it at another time when we both think we might be ready to have another baby, but we're adults, Nicky. We can handle disagreeing, and Nat doesn't ever need to know we disagreed at all on this. I don't want that, either, babe. I mean, I've lost count over the years of how many times you and I were trying to have some private time, whether it was sex, or just cuddling and talking, and Nat woke up from a bad dream or something, and that was just the end of that. I've never been good at thinking on a practical level. You know that about me. I always think of all the happy awesome stuff. I know that makes it hard on you sometimes when I'm all excited and you have no choice but to be the voice of reason in it all. I just... I remember all that hard stuff from when Nat was a baby, but it was worth it to me then, and I know that when and if we do have another kid, we'll put in the effort the same way, and it'll be awesome all over again. But... But you're right. That doesn't mean that now's the right time."

Jeff couldn't argue with Nick's reasoning. They had fought tooth and nail for this little life they'd built for themselves, and this was the first time that they were truly comfortable. Nick's job was fantastic, Natalia was older and would soon be going to school, and usually, she went to bed at night and slept all night, leaving her daddies to get their much needed time together, too. This would change all of their lives, including hers, and Jeff knew that those things needed to be well taken into consideration before anything could be done that would shake them up. "Okay," Jeff replied, quietly but firmly. "Now's not the time. It isn't you're right. I really was all caught up in the cutesie side of it, and that wasn't really fair. I love you, babe. I love you, and whatever we do we need to do together, and we need to both be in it 100%. Just like when we got married, when we had Nat, when we opened the gallery. All of that stuff has worked out perfectly for us, because we've both been ready and sure." He leaned close, cupping Nick's cheek with one hand before he kissed him softly. "I love you, you know. and I do listen to you, as much as it sometimes seems like I don't." Sighing, he shook his head just a little. "Sometimes I wonder how you manage to put up with me, Nicky," he said lightly, kissing his husband's cheek. "I know I drive you crazy sometimes. I'm glad you still love me." It was a light, teasing comment, but there was some truth behind it. Jeff knew that he could be frustrating to Nick, and very often was. But they just somehow managed to work together in a way that was really special, and that Jeff couldn't imagine working with anyone else. "I feel like I could sleep for a week," he admitted, rubbing his tired eyes. He'd known the conversation was going to hit Deep and Meaningful levels, but it had gone above and beyond that, too. And that in and of itself could be tiring as fuck sometimes, when they weren't agreeing or finding common ground.

[nickthewarbler]

"If we both think we might be ready to have another baby," Nick had to correct. It wasn't a matter of when for him, it was a matter of if. He just couldn't be sure he would actually get to that point sooner or later. It was a pretty intense realisation for him because he had thought for a long time when he was younger that he would just end up with a big family one day. But now he was actually living his life and trying to get all their ducks in a row, he was honest and truly wondering how the hell his parents managed it. Of course, Nick was pretty much working two jobs when you considered the times his commissions had to take, because people paid the money for that time. They got married and had a baby pretty young too, so it had been a constant awareness of needing to keep everything in order to make things work and focusing on keeping them working or it could have all fallen apart. "And I'm not even going to lie. We don't have sex near half as much as I wished we did. We never really sort of had that honeymoon phase of our relationship. I was looking forward to more time alone with you when Nat went to school."

His forehead creased a little as he watched Jeff, listening to him talk. "Are you getting cold feet about your job or something? I thought you were looking forward to working? Sorry, this has just all come out of the blue a little. I mean, to you, it probably doesn't seem like it if it's been on your mind for awhile, but it has for me, and I'm just trying to understand it. I just don't want to rush on our lives anymore or it will all pass us by and we'll never get a chance to enjoy it. And I'm tired. I really am. I feel like I haven't stopped in a very long time. I feel like I need a vacation or something. Anything. Even my fingers hurt from all the art lately. Pray to god I'm not contracting early onset arthritis or something. But seriously, how long as it been since we had sex? I can't even remember. That's embarrassing." He stretched his muscles in his back, stretching up to loosen them. "I'm going to treat myself to a bath tonight."

[warble_on_jeff]

Jeff nodded. "If," he repeated, realizing as he spoke that this was something that he would need to get used to... the idea that Nick really may not ever want another child. Their family might be as big as it was going to get, and that was something that he really needed to work on accepting, because Natalia was going to school soon, whether he was ready or not, and his life really was going to change. That might not be for the worst, though. In fact, as Nick spoke, it hit him, too, just how little time they'd spent together since Nat had been born. Granted, there was nothing in the world they would've taken for the experience of being fathers, and the joy that Nat brought into their lives every single day. But their alone time had fallen by the wayside pretty often in exchange for all the time consuming things that came with being fathers. "I can definitely vouch for not enough sex," Jeff agreed, watching his husband quietly. "In fact, I was kind of hoping for some more of that myself. I even talked to my supervisor about getting the same day off every week so that he and Nick could try and plan some more quiet down time while Nat was at school. All of this was new for them at this point, and he really didn't want to rush through any more of their lives and miss the parts they already had.

"No," he said with a shake of his head. "No, it's not that I'm nervous about the job, or working or anything. I'm sure that my job's going to be great. It's an amazing cause, and I'm honored for the chance to work there. It's just... It's the whole baby thing... I want that again one day. I do understand what you're saying though. I do. We're just getting to a point where we can slow down a little and enjoy everything we worked so hard for together... And Nat's happy, healthy, safe... All the things that we hoped and prayed she would be." He paused, listening to Nick, and nodded. "We could do with a vacation. And more sex for sure." He paused, taking a long look at his husband. "What say you wait until I tuck Nat into bed tonight, and let me have that bath with you?" It really had been far, far too long since they'd really gotten their romance on, and they needed it before it was too late and they were one of those couples who slept in separate rooms or something awful like that. Their relationship and their daughter were the most important things in their lives. And there was only so much for most important before something got bumped by something else. And when Nick put it that way, it didn't seem like the end of the world not to have another kid right now anyway.