Work Text:
February 11th, 2026
Matt writes a plan down on the whiteboard. It’s not for a show at the Rivoli though, it’s for Valentine’s Day. He wants to make their first one together extra special. Many parts of this plan have been tinkered with, but he thinks he’s finally gotten it down. A big breakfast, a movie marathon, and dinner at a fancy restaurant! When they get home, Matt’ll give him plenty of gifts!
He hears Jay come downstairs, and he quickly erases the whiteboard. Jay slumps down on the couch, clearly upset by something. Matt tries to cheer him up with kisses and hugs, but it only helps a little bit. He notices that he’s holding his phone.
“Bird, is it the bank again? I’ve told-“
“No. My dad died.”
“I’m so sorry Jay.” Matt gives Jay a big bear hug, which he gladly reciprocates.
“The funeral’s on the 14th, and they want me to go.”
Matt feels betrayed, even though Jay didn’t do anything. He wants to blame Jay’s mom for this, but that doesn’t really make sense. It was probably just the only time that could’ve worked for Jay’s family. No, it’s because Jay’s mom is evil! No, she was never evil, you just didn’t like her.
“You probably had a plan, and I was looking forward to that. Maybe we can do it the day after?”
“Sure, Bird.”
An idea suddenly pops into Matt’s head.
“Can I go with you?”
“Can’t handle a few hours without me? You know I’m not gonna leave!”
“Of course I can! I just think this is really important! Our first funeral together!”
“Fine. But don’t complain when my mom’s there.”
Jay gives him a kiss, and goes to play on the piano. It’s some Mario song. Those always cheer Jay up when he’s feeling down. Matt’s mind gets to work, figuring out how he’s gonna adapt the plan. It all depends on what time the funeral is. One thought leads to another, and all of a sudden he has a Rivoli plan. He excitedly writes it down on the whiteboard.
“The funeral plan! We fake our deaths, and create a fake funeral! Nirvanna the Band, together in death-“
“What if I just pretend to die?”
“Oh yeah, sure. I’ll hold a funeral for you, and then you’ll burst out of the coffin! Everyone will be amazed, and that’ll get us a show at the Rivoli!”
“Sounds great!”
Jay practices being dead. He’s scarily good at it, he’s even got the limp limbs down. Matt’s “something is wrong with Jay” alarms start ringing off in his head. He tries to ignore them as he practices his lines, but they won’t stop. He satiates them by checking Jay’s pulse, which is beating steadily. The alarms shut off, and Matt continues on with the plan.
Mart almost convinces the funeral home staff that Jay is dead, but Jay ruins it all by sneezing. Matt tries to pivot the plan by saying that he’s a wizard that can bring people back. They promptly get kicked out of the funeral home. Jay hopes that it doesn’t happen for real next time.
—
Mid morning, February 12th
Jay gets another call during practice. He suddenly becomes serious when he talks. Must be a phone call from his mom. Matt’s witnessed this hundreds of times, but he never stops being unnerved by it. In fact, he sort of hates it.
Jay ends the phone call, and relaxes. His smile comes back and his limbs relax. Even his hair puffs back up into that perfect swoop. He’s back to being himself, that beautiful man that can play the piano perfectly.
“What did they say?” he asks when Jay sits back down.
“Funeral’s at 1pm, but we should probably go early so we aren’t late. It’s in Hamilton.”
“Why there?”
“My dad grew up there.”
“Cool, anyway how early should we go?”
“10 am?”
“Alright!”
They go back to practicing. Later, he sees Jay with a map of Canada, drawing a line from Toronto to Hamilton. Matt tells him he’s getting it all wrong, and together they plan out the perfect route.
Matt likes doing things like this with Jay. They’ve been doing a lot of those recently. Matt’s been teaching Jay how to cook, and Jay’s been cleaning by himself. He feels like they’ve finally settled into their shared lives, and he couldn’t be more happy.
He writes down a list of things he’ll need for their breakfast. It’s on a little pad of paper that he keeps upstairs. Jay sneaks a look at it, and Matt tries to hide it. Then he realizes he’s hiding a fucking grocery list, and they both laugh. Matt decides he’ll take Jay along.
Later, when Jay isn’t in their room, he searches up fancy restaurants in Hamilton. He finds one he thinks Jay would like. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the glint of a camera. He pays Jared no mind, because he knows that he won’t tell Jay anything.
—
Afternoon of February 13th
Matt buys almost every breakfast related item one could get. He has to put the cinnamon rolls back, because Jay points out that they have peanuts. Only one of the cinnamon roll brands at this store doesn’t have any, and it’s the brand that Matt hates. He’s hated it since he was a kid, though he’s not sure why. A memory, lost to time.
Oh well, maybe they’ll taste good. He looks around for Jay, who’s gone missing. He sighs, and starts to look around the store, and luckily doesn’t have to look far. Jay’s staring at all the candies, and one has caught his eye. Chocolate coins, big ones too. Matt checks the ingredients, and there’s nothing that could harm Jay in them.
He gets a memory while they walk to checkout. A week after they started living together, Matt had left cookies out on the table. Jay had eaten one without checking the label, and he had an allergic reaction. From that day forward, Matt always hid his stuff with peanuts where Jay could never find them.
He still has nightmares of Jay dying in his arms due to one.
On the bus home, Jay digs into the chocolate coins. He savors them at first, nibbling at the sides. But he gives into his instincts, and starts gobbling them up. He leaves one for Matt, and it tastes pretty good. Jared and Luca look pissed off that they didn’t get one.
—
Early morning of February 14th
Matt fails to hit the alarm before it fully goes off. Not that it matters, since Jay can sleep through anything. He’d probably even sleep through nuclear war. Matt uses his nose to play around in Jay’s soft hair for a bit, and he starts to get sleepy again.
Maybe he can stay here with Jay a little longer. He brings Jay closer to him, and wraps his arms around him. Matt finds Jay’s hand, and holds it, feeling his fingers. Jay’s hands are the most important part of him. Without them, he couldn’t play the piano or lovingly touch and hold Matt. He takes such good care of them too. They’re so smooth and soft.
Matt feels his eyes close. He’s so warm, and Jay’s so warm, and their bed is so comfy, and it’s still 5am. He’ll just sleep for like 5 minutes. Ok, maybe 10 instead. Maybe 20. He kisses Jay’s neck and shoulders, and drifts off to sleep. He dreams of kissing Jay on the beach like in From Here to Eternity. He hasn’t even seen that movie! His muscles glisten in the sunlight, and Jay’s perfect and beautiful and-
TEMPORARY. SECRETARY.
Matt and Jay jolt up and scramble to turn off the horrible song. It’s 9 am, which means they only have an hour to prepare. They rush through getting dressed. Jay has trouble getting his tie on, so Matt helps him. He can’t help but stare lovingly at Jay. He’s just so handsome in a suit, and it’s so rare that he’s in one.
“Pretty Bird.” Matt says while holding Jay’s face. “Always so perfect, just-“
“Save it for later Matt!”
“Oh, yeah.”
They rush downstairs, and Matt takes a detour to the kitchen. He looks for something simple for breakfast, and finds some microwaveable breakfast burritos. Better than nothing, he supposes. Matt rushes out to the RV with Jay. They argue over who’s gonna drive, before Jared takes the wheel instead.
“I can drive just fine!” Jay says.
“You’ll get lost.”
“I was doing just fine last year!”
“That’s because you never left Toronto!”
That shuts Jay up, and he sits on the piano, playing whatever comes to his mind. Matt watches the burritos in the microwave. They don’t look very appetizing, but it’s better than nothing. He puts them on plates, and tries to make it look presentable. He gives up quickly, and just gives one to Jay.
They take a few bites, but it tastes terrible. They spit it out into the garbage.
“How old is this?!”
Matt checks the box.
“It expired in April of last year.”
“We really gotta clean the freezer out.”
Jay gets back to music, while Matt looks for the GameCube they have in here. He finds it, but it’s broken. Someone took out all the parts! Oh, that was probably him last year. He looks for the time machine, and finds it smashed to pieces. Some of them are the insides of their GameCube.
“Goddamnit Matthew.” he whispers to himself.
He sits on the piano stool with Jay, and puts his arm around him. Jay rests his head on Matt’s shoulder. It’s not long before they kiss. Matt can still taste the burrito, but he just ignores it. It’s not the worst taste that one of Jay’s kisses have had, after all.
“You’re the most beautiful Bird in the world. None are as pretty as you.” Matt says when they pull away.
“Really? What about peacocks?”
“They try, but they’ll never be as gorgeous as you!” Matt gives him a little kiss on the nose. “You’re the most beautiful thing in the universe!”
“No I’m not.”
Matt looks confused, but Jay just smiles.
“You are!” Jay holds Matt’s face. “Every part of you is perfect! And every single bit of you is just for me!” Matt feels warm and fuzzy when he says that.
“That’s right. Nobody else can have me but you.”
This continues back and forth for a while, culminating in them lying on the floor together. Matt’s shirtless and Jay is lying on him after plenty of kisses and cuddles. Matt ticks off “love each other” in his checklist for today. The plan is going relatively well. It would’ve been perfect if not for the breakfast burritos.
“I love you.” Jay whispers into Matt’s chest. He rests his head on Matt’s pecs and falls asleep. Matt feels the rise and fall of his chest as he breathes.
“You can never get enough sleep huh, Jaybird.”
Matt feels himself getting tired as well, and he drifts off into slumber. He doesn’t even mind that he’s sleeping on the hard RV floor. Jay is here and happy and that’s all that matters. He’s about to fully doze off when the RV suddenly stops.
“Already?!”
“Yep. Time flies when you love each other.” Jared says. Luca giggles a bit.
With a lot of effort, Matt’s able to wake Jay up. They try their best to look presentable again (or at least Jay does) and head out. Jared and Luca follow them with their cameras. Matt already has an excuse cooking up in his brain for them.
The funeral place looks like any other. Drab and grey and boring, the perfect place to house a dead body for hours at a time. The first thing Matt sees when he heads inside is a painting of death. It’s the classic depiction of it, the grim reaper. He’s looking over a dying man. It kind of vaguely looks like Ben Affleck.
They get to the spot where the funeral’s supposed to be held. It’s a nice looking church, and there’s a large table where a coffin’s supposed to be. The only other person in the room is a woman. Jay excitedly runs up to her and gives her a big hug.
“Rachel!!”
“Hi Jay! I see you’ve brought Matt.”
“He wanted to come.”
“He can’t go anywhere without me at this point! We're best friends!!”
“You two are completely inseparable.” she says with a laugh. “I’m going to the bathroom. Be right back!”
The moment she leaves the room, Matt turns to Jay.
“She doesn’t know?!”
“No. None of my family do.”
“Is it because they’re homophobic?”
“Nah, the thought just never crossed my mind.”
“What thought?” Rachel says.
Jay turns around, and just decides to tell her.
“Oh, that I’m in love with Matt and that we’ve been in a relationship for several months.”
“That’s cool.”
“Yeah. Anyway, wanna catch up?”
The three of them sit down on a pew, and tell stories. Rachel’s most interested in the time travel story, and how their love bloomed from it. She’s amazed that her brother could even become famous on his own. Eventually, other people start arriving. A bunch of Jay’s relatives that he’s only seen a few times. Rachel gets up to talk with some.
Suddenly, Jay’s taken away from him. An old man drags him to meet some other old people. They’re talking about how handsome Jay is now. The last time any of them saw him, he was just a baby. But now, he’s a handsome man with greys in his hair. They ask him when he’s gonna get a wife and children. They ask him stupid question after question.
He’s overwhelmed, and he can barely answer any of the questions. Matt gets up, and manages to take him away. He walks Jay into the hallway, and he gently applies pressure to his chest. His heart is beating so fast, but it calms down quickly.
“Feeling better?”
“Much better.” He hugs Matt tight. “I don’t wanna go back there.”
“Stay here with me. Until the funeral happens.”
They sit and wait for Jay’s mom to arrive. They don’t have to wait that long. She’s confused as to why they’re sitting on the floor, but otherwise just ignores them. The two head inside, and listen to the funeral proceedings. This is the second funeral Matt’s been to.
The first one was when he was a child, before he met Jay. He doesn’t remember it very well, in fact he only remembers someone yelling at him. He probably did something wrong that day. Probably knocked over the casket or something. Or maybe he was just way too annoying.
One by one, the entire room gets up to talk about Jay’s dad. Matt doesn’t really have any experience with him. Jay doesn’t talk about him that much, and he was never around at his home. He’s only seen him in person once, when he watched as he left to go to college. He had the same long nose Jay had, but otherwise didn’t really look like him.
It’s Jay’s turn.
“You gonna be ok?” Matt whispers.
“I think so.”
Jay’s speech is a little half hearted and cheesy. It’s mostly about how he’s happy that his dad and mom created him. Without him, the world would be a little less music filled. He then improvises on the church organ. It sounds so wonderful, and Jay’s happy to be playing for an audience for once. Maybe if they get a church organ they’ll get a show at the Rivoli…
The music stops, and Jay sits back down. Matt wishes that he could give him a big beautiful kiss after that wonderful performance, but it must wait until later. He is content to just be here with him, and Jay feels the same. He wonders how much longer this is gonna take.
When everyone’s done with their stupid speeches, they’re directed outside. There’s a graveyard here, and it’s where they’re gonna bury Jay’s dad. It’s a cold cloudy day, and maybe it’ll even rain. But it does not, and instead the clouds just hang above them.
The burial is thankfully shorter than all the speeches. Everyone quickly disperses when the coffin is lowered into the ground. Jay walks up to stare at it, and is joined by Rachel. They speak for a bit before saying goodbye.
“Today’s been a day for sure.” Jay says as they walk back to the RV. “I can’t wait to go home.”
“Bird, is it ok if we stay in Hamilton for a bit?”
“Why?”
“I… booked a reservation at a restaurant here.”
“You really wanted that romantic dinner, huh.”
“Yeah… sorry”
“Don’t be. I wanted one too!”
They spend the rest of the day exploring Hamilton. Neither of them have ever been there before. It’s a fine place, but Matt doesn’t think it’s as good as Toronto. They have a wonderful dinner at the restaurant Matt picked out for them. It’s a Japanese restaurant, and Matt decides to order the spiciest ramen. He can’t handle it at all, and he ends up drinking both his and Jay’s waters. Jay doesn't mind that much, but he does get a new cup afterwards.
On the ride home, they lie on the bottom bunk together. They give each other plenty of hugs and kisses. At home, Matt gives Jay chocolates, and they eat them together while watching movies. It’s the perfect way to end the day, because they’re together.