“Eli?” Ben ventured, stepping over a pile of discarded, dirty clothes as he made his way from the doorway into the small living room of his boyfriend’s apartment. He hadn’t quite remembered it being so dirty the last time he had been here, but then again Eli had known he was coming over that time and he had remembered to toss his dirty undies in the hamper and discard the week-old pizza leftovers.
Ben picked his way, a little disgustedly, through the mess of the apartment, hoping to find a seat on the couch. It was his birthday; he and Eli had made plans and he’d been looking forward to them all week. “Eli? Are you ready yet?” he asked a little louder this time and he heard from the bedroom an echoing shriek as Eli realized he was there.
“BEEEEN!” he wailed, dashing out of his little bedroom. “Ben, /what/ are you doing in here? I tol’ you not to come up unless I say its okay! It’s a /mess/ in here!” he whined, kicking at a pile of shirts. Ben lifted an eyebrow at him, hardly hearing his little outburst as he concentrated on the fact that Eli was only wearing a lacy black thong.
“BEN!” Eli whined again and Ben looked up at his face, smiling appreciatively. “Sorry. I know. I know you told me not to come up, but Eli, we’re going to be late. You said you’d be ready at 5:30; it’s nearly six. We’re supposed to be there for six-fifteen, remember? I’ve been waiting for nearly twenty minutes down there. I called, too, but you didn’t pick up.”
Eli made a face at him, wrinkling his nose up. “My phone got disconnected; I didn’t pay the bill ‘cause I had to pay my car insurance and my car’s more important than my phone is, anyways,” Eli said matter-of-factly.
Ben sighed, watching the younger man move about the living room to pick up his laundry. Ben stood and stepped towards him, taking the laundry from him; Eli snagged it back quickly, hiding his dirty underwear.
“Can you /please/ go get dressed, Eli? We really do need to get going,” he reminded him. Eli huffed and dropped the laundry on the floor once more as he dashed back to his bedroom to dress. Ben tidied a little as he waited – nearly another ten minutes – before Eli emerged still only in his undies.
“Beeeen?” he whined. “Can we jus’ stay in tonight? Or go out clubbing or something? Do we hafta go to dinner? I don’t wannnnna,” he whined. He had no desire to meet up with Ben’s parents again so soon, and especially not for some stupid celebration for a holiday he couldn’t even remember.
Ben frowned. “But Eli, we’ve had these plans for almost two weeks. My parents really want to see you again.” His parents had some family thing planned to celebrate and to introduce Eli to Daniel. They’d been planning it for a while and Ben didn’t want to disappoint them.
“But Ben, I don’t have anything nice to wear like you do,” Eli whined, making a face at Ben’s suit jacket and dress shirt on jeans. “You look /good/. I’m gonna look ridiculous, Ben and your mother prolly thinks I’m an idiot from the last time, Ben. I jus’ don’t wanna go!”
Ben sighed softly. “Eli. Just be yourself. My mother certainly does not think anything of the sort,” he assured him. “Can you /please/ hurry up? It’s past six; we’re going to be late.”
Eli pouted, disappointed that his whining hadn’t worked. It worked on /everybody/ but it never worked on Ben! He huffed and gave him one last imploring look, to which Ben motioned for him to move it along, before he ran back to his bedroom.
When he finally emerged, he was wearing skin-tight jeans and his purple DIVA shirt. Ben brushed his hair back and kissed his forehead gently, glad to see he was dressed at least, but unsure if he’d want to wear something like that to a more formal place.
He said as much and Eli sniffled and forced a few tears. “I knew it! You’re ashamed of me, aren’t you? You want me to dress like you and be just like you and you practically /run my life!/” he shouted, turning away from him over-dramatically.
Ben sighed. “Eli, I just thought maybe you’d want to wear something a little more…”
“Appropriate? You think I’m inappropriate, don’t you? You wish you were dating some doctor or something, someone who dressed in nice clothes all the time. Don’t you?”
Ben shook his head. “Eli, it’s a formal dinner, that’s all I’m saying. I’m not ashamed of you; I wouldn’t be bringing you if I was, now would I? If you want to wear that, I’m not going to /force/ you to change. If you’re satisfied with this outfit, then let’s go,” he practically pleaded.
Eli tugged on sneakers as Ben toed into his own shoes and led him out to his car, just glad to finally be getting out of there. He was a little surprised Eli hadn’t wished him a happy birthday yet, but he was sure he must have had something planned. Maybe a card or something, a love letter. That’d be cute.
Eli fiddled with the radio station until he found a station he liked. “Ben, what’s today?” he asked him. “I know its Monday, but what’s the /date/?” he asked. Ben smiled a bit. “Its June 24th, Eli,” he said softly.
“Huh,” Eli nodded. “There’s a holiday today, Ben?” he asked. “It was on the news this morning.” Ben thought for a moment. “In Quebec. It’s St. Jean-Baptiste Day. Falls the same day every year.”
Eli made a face at him. “Your family’s super weird, Ben,” he told him, tracing the outline of the window. “Do you guys celebrate all stupid Canadian holidays?” he asked. Ben laughed, shaking his head. “No, Eli. We celebrate all the normal ones, not the obscure ones.”
Eli didn’t want to sound stupid but he wanted to point out that this /wasn’t/ a normal Canadian holiday. Why were they going out to a fancy place to celebrate it? They weren’t even /French/. Well, not to Eli’s knowledge; it’s not like he cared to delve into Ben’s family tree all too much. But he kept quiet because he knew Ben would laugh at him again for asking. Maybe he could ask Jack why they celebrated it.
As they pulled up to the restaurant, Eli made a face. “Ben? Sure we can’t celebrate somewhere else?” he offered one last time. Ben grinned at him, wondering if lacy black underwear had anything to do with Eli’s celebration. He certainly hoped so, though he was going to make Eli come home with him if that was the case and not the other way around.
“Sorry, Eli. Maybe later,” he said and Eli made a face at him. What? Maybe they’d celebrate this stupid French holiday /elsewhere/ too? No, that’s not what he meant! He sighed and dragged his feet as he got out of the car.
Ben caught his hand and tugged him towards the building. “Oh, Ben! This place is super expensive,” Eli whined. “I can’t, Ben. I don’t have enough for a place like this! I’m tryin’ to save up to pay my phone bill, remember?” he reminded him. Ben grinned at him, shaking his head.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it, okay? This is a family tradition; my parents /always/ take us here and they /always/ pay.” Eli made a face at him. /Why/ was this a family tradition!? Why did they take them here year after year to celebrate some obscure man with expensive foods? He was so lost.
“Besides, I’d cover you anyways if they didn’t since I asked you out this time,” he teased.
Eli nodded a little bit. “Okay, Ben,” he agreed finally, following him into the restaurant. Ben asked the host where the Stone table was and she directed them there, asking for a drink order on the way. When they got to the table, Alice hopped up almost immediately and collected first Ben and then Eli into a hug. Jack followed suit and tousled Eli’s hair as Eli looked out nervously at the table of people he didn’t know.
“Happy birthday, baby,” Alice whispered, hugging him again and giving him a happy kiss. Eli looked up at Ben, frowning. He leaned into him as Ben introduced his brother as he tugged Eli down into the seat beside him. Eli refused to release his hand and he let Ben order whatever for him when the waitress came, too nervous to speak much.
Daniel seemed standoffish and blunt. He commented almost immediately about Eli’s clothes, asking was he the Sparkle Fairy and if so, could he get a helping with dinner? Ben’s brow furrowed at his younger brother but Dan only laughed and kept up with his teasing. Eli looked to Ben sadly and Ben squeezed his hand.
“I needa pee,” Eli whispered to him at one point early in the evening and Ben trailed him to the bathroom.
“Ben! I look like a fucking moron! And your brother hates me!” he wailed once in the safety of the men’s room. “Why did you let me go out in this stupid shirt?” he accused him. “And these /pants/! I look like a slut! I look like a fucking faggy slut, Ben and you look so nice and and your mom’s wearing a /dress/, Ben! A dress! I look like a hustler, like I should be dancin’ in a club, not eatin’ chicken parmesan or whatever it is you ordered me in a fancy restaurant! Ben!”
Ben leaned back against the sink and let Eli rail on. “And Ben! Ben! Look at my /hair/! It didn’t cooperate, it /never/ cooperates when I want it to! I can’t believe you let me out in public like this! In public, Ben! I look like a twelve-year-old hustler. Ben!”
Ben pushed off the counter and stopped him mid-stride, kissing his nose. “Are you done?” he asked him calmly and Eli’s brow furrowed up and he pouted. Ben slipped his suit jacket off and helped Eli into it. It was too big for him but it was warm and smelled like Ben and it made him look as if he had been aiming for some sort of casual, gay rock-star look.
Eli snuggled into Ben’s arms and took a shaky breath. “Thanks, Ben,” he whined. “I gotta ask your dad something,” he told him, letting Ben kiss him briefly before he tugged him back out to the table. They fell easily back into the conversation, Dan and his mother and him speaking of family things while Eli spoke with Jack.
“So, today’s St. Jean-Baptiste Day?” he asked, leaning close to hear Jack’s answer. The man shrugged a little bit. “Uh, yeah? Big holiday in Quebec and in France, I guess,” he said with a nod. “It’s the feast day of John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin,” he said; his kids had gone to Catholic school. He knew enough about these sorts of things.
It made a /little/ more sense to Eli now. So it was a religious holiday. But Ben never seemed overly religious…well, then again they hadn’t been together too long. And they didn’t see much of each other during the daytime anyways, so what did he know about Ben’s Sunday habits?
“Do you guys come here every year?” he asked. Jack nodded. “Yeah, every year since Ben graduated high school. It sorta became a tradition, I guess,” he said. “Big accomplishments – graduations, birthdays, anniversaries sometimes. We like to celebrate at a nice place like this; we know the food’s good and the people are wonderful.” Eli nodded a little bit. Well, that made more sense than John the Baptist. Really, who cared about him? He wasn’t /Jesus/ or anything. But he didn’t want to offend Jack, so he didn’t ask.
The conversations somewhat mellowed when dinner arrived and they ate mostly in silence, enjoying the food and the company. Daniel made a few further snide remarks but Eli ignored them, not wanting Ben’s parents to think he was rude. He /did/ drink, though, not enough to get drunk but enough to get a little buzzed. He didn’t want a repeat of his first meeting with them so soon, but he did like the bubbly.
Daniel proposed a toast after dinner and Eli shot his wine glass up in the air. “Me first!” he declared, wanting them to know he fully supported their stupid family tradition.
“Happy St. Jean-Baptiste Day,” he started, grinning at Ben. “May he live forever in the annals of time and may he always be remembered as Jesus’ most favourite cousin,” he said with a nod, tipping his glass back for a drink. Ben chuckled softly at his toast, shaking his head. What was with him and this holiday?
Daniel lifted his glass next and toasted family and health, to which his mother smiled appreciatively. Jack toasted Ben.
“To Benjamin. We’re so proud of you, for everything you’ve accomplished and all that you’ve found,” he said, motioning to Eli. Eli blushed; he could drink to that. He lifted his glass to take a drink. “Happy birthday, Ben,” Jack finished and Eli choked on his wine and spat it back out, spluttering.
Alice looked at him with some concern and Jack reached across and thumped his back. Eli looked from his parents to his brother and then to Ben and whispered:
“Oh my God, Ben! /Today/ is your birthday?”
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