Work Text:
Well, you drive me crazy half the time
The other half I’m only trying
To let you know that what I feel is true
And I’m only me when I’m with you
Patrick flopped down on the bed in the former honeymoon suit of the motel that had become David’s closet. The two of them had been here for hours . Patrick had insisted on David cleaning out his closet before they even attempted to move any of it to their house because while David did have a whole room there for his clothes, Patrick really doubted that David even still wore half the stuff in here.
His husband finally spoke up from the corner he was in sorting all his button up shirts. Patrick glanced at what was supposedly the keep pile and was shocked to see literally all the shirts David has sorted through minus maybe one. “You know, you don’t have to be here. I can do this on my own, if you want to go back to the apartment.”
Patrick laughed and just looked at himself in the mirror that was on the ceiling above the bed, “Can I? Because I’m afraid if I leave you here the only thing in our house will be your clothes.”
David froze. His forehead creased between his brows and he crossed his arms. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Patrick pointed to the stack of clothes in front of David and answered, “You don’t even wear button-ups, and yet you’re keeping all of those? I can only imagine how many unworn sweaters we are keeping.” He tried to keep a straight face, but a smile was on his lips. David knew Patrick didn’t actually care about the clothes, all he cared about was David being happy, and if that included a whole room of sweaters, so be it.
David smiled at the ground and thought for a second. “You know why I have so many of these,” he gestured around to the shirts that had boxed him in, “at the beginning they felt safe. When we lost everything and my world kind of shattered, these shirts oddly enough kind of provided structure. Sure, they are patterned and expensive looking but they aren’t super special, they blend in a little bit. That is what I wanted to do when I got here, I knew my family was different and would stand out so I wanted to minimize the damage.”
He looked up to Patrick who was sitting on the edge of the bed now. David could tell that Patrick was on the verge of saying something utterly cheesy about how David would stand out to him not matter what he was wearing. He wasn’t about to let that happen though, he needd to get through the rest of his piece so he just flashed his husband a smile and looked back to the clothes around him.
David started twisting his engagement rings, “As I became more comfortable in this town and with everything changing, I liked wearing sweaters more because they just felt more me. It didn’t feel like I was pretending anymore and I could wear something that literally showed or said what I was feeling. It was a way of me opening up before I knew how to with words. If the old button ups were a shield or some kind of armor then my sweaters became a kind of warm blanket or hug--I don’t really know where this is going anymore, I’ve never really talked about this...”
David stopped talking as Patrick got up from the bed and looked at him with sad but proud eyes before holding out a hand to help him over the pile of shirts. When he was safely across the mountain, Patrick grabbed his face and kissed him softly. When he pulled back he was smiling at David, “I love you David, and all your sweaters.”
David felt his face heat up. Even after almost 3 years together it still got to him when Patrick would point out just how well he knew David. “I know, that’s why those shirts are all in the pile to get rid of. I don’t need to pretend or hide anymore because I have you and I’m not planning on letting go of you anytime soon.”