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Summer in Virginia is always hot. It’s the kind of stifling, humid summer where your shirt sticks to your back and the air doesn’t seem to move. The evenings stay warm long after the sun has dropped and there is a languorous stretch of semi-darkness on the edge of dusk - Nyx and Helios locked in struggle as she pulls the stars across the sky.
A bead of sweat rolls down George’s face and collects in a pool forming in the hollow between his collarbones. There is condensation forming on the large glass of water beside him as the ice melts rapidly - the day giving way to an equally suffocating night. He sits on the balcony of a large, hotel suite in Alexandria’s Old Town; having been asked to return to his home state by his family and not wanting to spend any longer there than is needed.
A birthday, his brother’s in fact, Lawrence inviting him with reassurances that his parents would be glad to see him - strained relationships aside.
George had snorted down the phone.
“Bring Ben, I’m sure once they meet him they’ll get over their whole weird thing about you being gay.” Lawrence said, placating.
“If I remember correctly Mother told me that I was not to darken her doorstep again.”
“I know…” George could hear the sigh in his brother’s voice. “But Ben is wonderful and he’s been so good for you - surely once she sees that…”
George smiled a little ruefully. “I’ll come for you, Larry. Only for you. The instant any of them make Ben or I uncomfortable we’re out.”
“You ready, George?”
He feels a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“Not really.” George turns to his partner of three years. A handsome young man with brilliant blue eyes and soft blond hair that always seems to flop over his forehead. Not for the first time in their relationship, he wonders how he managed to obtain such a beautiful man and he smiles up at Ben, taking his hand and pressing it to his lips.
“We can always leave.” Ben cups George’s face and gazes down at him, those elegant fingers cool on his heated skin. “Just promise me you’ll keep your temper, no matter what backwards nonsense your mother spouts.”
“I can only promise to try, Benjamin.” George leans into the touch, closing his eyes for a moment and feeling rather tired.
“That’ll do. At least I know Larry likes me.”
George huffs a half laugh. “He adores you.”
“Good. Now let’s get this over with.”
Lawrence’s birthday is a restrained affair on the grounds of the sprawling family estate. George’s childhood home looms large and foreboding behind them as they mingle with a handful of Lawrence’s close friends and their immediate family.
George’s mother treats Ben with mild, undisguised disdain; making unkind comments to an uncle about the age gap. Ben has to place a soothing hand on George’s arm to restrain him and his temper - it works for a little while, until she asks why he dared show his face here again .
“I invited him, Mother. He is my brother and Ben is his partner. This is my birthday and I will invite whoever I damn well please.” Lawrence snaps, having heard enough. He looks at George with pity and mouths sorry.
George shrugs. “Ben, shall we take a walk around the grounds?” He asks, taking Ben by the arm and leading him from the gathered crowd.
Ben nods.
Their stroll takes them to the banks of the Pontomac, summer’s languid heat clinging to their skin as Ben turns to George - the full moon hanging low and bright behind him, its silver light reflecting off the water in a straight line that seems to stretch on endlessly.
“I’m sorry you had to deal with her,” George says, taking Ben’s hands.
Ben steps into his space and captures that almost ever-present frown in a soft kiss. “She’s stuck in her ways. I’m sorry you had to grow up with her.”
“Now you know why I don’t come home often.”
“I had an inkling.” Ben squeezes George’s large, work-roughened hands. “Do you wanna get out of here?” And George nods.
Summer in Virginia is always hot. It’s the kind of stifling, humid summer where your shirt sticks to your back and the air doesn’t seem to move. And that night, in that hotel room in Old Town, when Ben strips George of sweat-slick linen and kisses him until neither of them can breathe, the Virginian heat is replaced with heady-hot desperation and desire.