Hello again! I hope recovery is still treating you well, I know you said about prompts being a way to have Something To Do but it's still just a little awe-inspiring seeing how much writing you've been capable of immediately post-surgery lol. I have one last kyric request I wanted to sneak in - something that's a bit of a flash forward into their future, maybe when Kyle's around 40 or so himself, please? Just to see what you think they might be getting up to. :)
thank you, i really appreciate the kindness <3 also this was such a crazy thought experiment, the second I realized that, if Kyle is 40, that makes Eric almost 60!!!
my prompts are currently closed but my ask box is always open for chatting, headcanons etc. :)
It was kind of funny, Kyle thought, how at some point, their age difference went from causing eyebrow raises and "daddy" comments among his friends, to mildly scandalous to straight people to pretty much acceptable all around.
He had left thirty behind earlier this year, gracefully having shed his twunkdom over the past ten plus years. People still thought he was younger than he actually was (or maybe they were being polite), but to Kyle himself, it was very obvious that he had aged. He was fine with it; it wasn't a big deal. He kept fit and healthy and had always dutifully used sunscreen, so he was aging gracefully.
Eric was now 55, and somehow, even to Kyle himself, 40 and 55 seemed closer than 25 and 40 had. Time truly was relative.
Eric, too, was aging well, the same way he had back when Kyle had met him. His hair and beard were now streaked with more gray, and like Kyle, he had gained some additional wrinkles. Yoga was still doing its part for him, even if his shoulder was bothering more than it had fifteen years ago. His long MHL career was catching up to him now, and sometimes, Kyle found himself cursing hockey for the damage it had done to his boyfriend's body.
They still lived in New York; the Kingfisher, still going strong, was like a second home to Kyle. Some nights, it felt like it was his first home. He had stepped back over the last five years, had handed over management duties to younger co-workers who had an easier time staying up every night and didn't have hearing loss from working in hospitality just yet.
Kip had given it up over ten years ago now, finally able to accept Scott's generosity once they'd had their baby boy.
Children had never been something either of them had a desire to have, but fate had still supplied them with one: Eric's niece Livy, who had shown up on their doorstep one rainy night, fifteen and scared out of her mind after being kicked out by her parents for being transgender. It had been a wild ride, raising a teenager, and it would be a lie to say it hadn't put a strain on their relationship at times.
But now, Livy was twenty-one, studying Mechanical Engineering, healthy and happy. She still came by for lunch on Sundays, and it never felt as stiff and unpleasant as it had with Kyle's own family.
Kyle's father had passed away from a heart attack seven years ago, and his mother, unable to live her life without him, dependant 'til death do them part, had followed him last year. It had brought up a heap of complicated feelings inside Kyle, as had meeting his estranged brothers at the funerals.
The inheritance, though, had been a slight band-aid for the pain his family had caused him. He'd used part of it to buy Livy a small apartment.
Eric and Kyle still traveled multiple times a year. Eric took photos every time, and his work now sold for prices that were adequate to the quality, in Kyle's opinion. The MHL star turned artist, an art magazine's favorite.
Once a year, they went on a cruise - yes, that kind of cruise. Not that they needed to spice anything up; there was still plenty of fun to have together. But they had found that, on occasion, playing with others kept the longing for each other stronger.
It was a good life they'd built together, their unconventional little family.
