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The door creaked open and without even looking, LaVonte knew it was HJ.
"Hi," he said. LaVonte didn't reply.
"Okay then. What's got you in that mood?" HJ said. LaVonte still stayed silent.
"Is this about what I said to Maya?" LaVonte started to shake his head, but sighed instead.
"I'm not… gay, HJ." HJ sat there in silence for a few seconds.
"You first kissed me 42 years ago. You have kissed me every single day since. I lost count of how many times you've told me you loved me. You call me your business partner, your roommate, whatever, out there. But when we're alone, don't you dare pretend you're anything but mine, LaVonte. You're mine."
LaVonte still just sat there, not making eye contact. Finally he just sat back and rested his head against the wall.
"This place is killing me. It's killing me. It's never going to be the next Rome. Any idiot can see that. These idiots do see it. Patty fucking Babcock sees it. And we both know it's never going to happen. So what? We spend all our money on the fucking city council and die here, bankrupt and poor? And you're the only thing keeping me sane here, and now you're different. You're going fucking soft. Softer would be more accurate. You're different, and… I can't lose you. You're the one thing I can't take losing, on top of everything else. And now it feels like you're not the man I fell in- the man I chose as a business partner."
"People change, LaVonte. It happens." LaVonte shook his head.
"We're not people, HJ."
"No. We're eternal, we'll live forever, we'll change more than people ever will."
"Cheerful."
"Yes, actually. We'll change, but we," HJ put his hand on LaVonte's hands, and their eyes met for the first time this whole conversation. "will never change."
"It feels like you want us to change though. Being all… just telling anyone that we're…"
"Dual income male partners?" HJ suggested. LaVonte bit the inside of his cheek so he didn't laugh.
"Shut up," he said.
"Listen, it's not like Maya was going to judge anyways."
"I know, it's just… I'm just… scared. I'm scared, HJ, okay? First it was my dad, and then the 80s, and when it was quote unquote okay you could bet I'm not coming out to Davis Otherman and we're businessmen and now we're in what's apparently the gayest small town in America and I have no fucking excuse and I still can't bring myself to say that I'm- I'm… gay or whatever. And I'm fucking weak for that, and I'm scared you're going to hate me, and it's so dumb that you were literally born in 1892 and are still more comfortable with being gay than I am, and I'm realising that I can't tell people what we are because I don't know, actually."
"Feels a little late to be having a 'what are we' talk," HJ smiled. LaVonte didn't. "But we can be anything you want, LaVonte. Partners, lovers, boyfriends… husbands…"
"We've had this discussion before, HJ."
"I could ask you to marry me every day of my undeath and no matter how many times you told me no, I would keep asking."
"I…" He paused for so long HJ started counting. 12 seconds in he finally said something. "I can't."
"Can't or won't?"
"It's more complicated than that."
"It doesn't matter. Really, LaVonte, it doesn't matter. We can just… call each other business partners. Who cares. I just…"
Two of the most eloquent and persuasive men in the business were quickly figuring out they had run out of words. They sat next to each other in silence for what very well could have been a lifetime. LaVonte finally broke the silence.
"What happened to drinking the blood of Caine and then fighting each other to the death on top of the Golden Gate Bridge?" he said wistfully.
"That wasn't the only thing I promised you."
"I know. Wealth, money, glory, fame. The world."
HJ shook his head. "You wanted those things, LaVonte. I sired you because I never wanted to lose you. Because I wanted to be with you until the end of the world." He smiled sadly. "In a way, I did already marry you."
More radio silence from LaVonte. HJ continued. "What would you do? If we failed? Or, if I failed? Virkus calls the hunt on me and you return to San Francisco a hero, prince of Purpee, the new Rome. Would you just pretend it never happened? Or be sad about your 'business partner'?"
LaVonte looked at him, eyes full of hurt. "Listen to me. There is no world where you go down and I don't go down with you. I love you, HJ. Just because I'm having trouble saying it to anyone but you doesn't mean anything. You're my other half. I can't do this without you. I'm sorry I ran away from you when someone suggested we're…"
"Your dad's dead, LaVonte. He's been dead for years. And you're more successful than he will ever be. The world will remember you. And us. Worthy and Wingstreet Industries. Who cares about the rest? Who cares if we're in love? Who cares if you tell anyone? Because I don't. I just want to know I have you. And I don't know how…"
LaVonte still didn't have an answer. So HJ said, "I just want to promise you something."
LaVonte sighed. "Okay," the hint of a smile playing on his lips, "I'll allow it."
"You will?" LaVonte nodded.
HJ stood up and pulled him to his feet.
Taking LaVonte's hands, he stared into his dark eyes before taking a deep breath. "LaVonte Worthy. I promise to love you, to stay with you, from snorting coke with billionaires to riding Lime scooters in the middle of nowhere. I promise be your partner, nothing less. To share my undeath with you, to exist in eternity forever with you. To be referred to as whatever makes you not hate yourself. Until the money runs out and the world ends, I promise to stick it out. I promise to lie in sunlight every day if it means I get to stay with you. I promise to be the biggest hindrance and help you'll ever have. There is no one in any dimension I would do this with except you."
LaVonte stood there, blinking back the tears that were threatening to spill over. "Jesus, I need to suck it up."
HJ smiled. "It's only me."
"HJ Wingstreet. I promise that you will be the only person I will ever cry in front of. The only person that I will be telling the truth to when I tell them I love them. The only person I would be happy to go bankrupt for. I promise that you will be mine and I will be yours, and that if I don't know what to call you it's only because there aren't any words for how much I care about you yet. I promise to punch you in the face when your ideas are fucking idiotic, and go with you to a food co-op if you're having a mid-life crisis. I promise to kill god with you and die together knowing if there is another life, I will find you."
He kissed him, pressing his lips against HJ's familiar ones and returning to his own little corner of heaven. When they pulled apart, HJ put his hands out.
"Partners?"
"Always."
And they shook on it.