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 Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:59 pm
Moving in to Chris’s place was not as big of a change as Paris had thought.
There would be a period of adjustment, he was sure, once he took the time to move the rest of his things in, but he had spent so much time at Chris’s place while they’d been dating that it had already become a second home to him. Now it would be his primary residence, and though he worried that the change in circumstance would somehow put a strain on their relationship, Paris was determined to squash his paranoia and make this work somehow.
He and Chris were a much more stable couple than all the various flings Paris had had in the past. Sure, they fought about dumb things from time to time, but wasn’t that normal? They were different people who’d lived different lives. He couldn’t expect to keep the peace all the time. So long as they continued to work things out when there were issues, he was fairly confident they could live together with as few problems as one could expect from two stubborn and temperamental teenaged boys.
But there was one thing still bothering Paris, and he decided—once he and Chris and their respective families had consented to their cohabitation—that it was time to discuss his concerns with his boyfriend.
He cornered Chris in his boyfriend’s “office” one afternoon when Chris did not have a ballgame.
“We need to talk,” he said from the doorway. Never a good way to start a conversation, but he didn’t want Chris blowing him off on account of studying or homework or whatever it was he was doing. “Do you have a minute?”
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:08 pm
While Chris would admit asking Paris to live with him had been made rather quickly, he couldn't see it getting out of hand, or hurting them in the long run. It wasn't as though Paris didn't practically live there, anyway.
Granted, he wasn't really expecting all of Paris's glass and ceramic figurines to take up a shelf in the bedroom, but it was one of those sacrifices that needed to be made when living with someone so different from oneself. It wasn't as though anyone else saw his room, and on the rare occasion that someone else would wander in, it's not like it would greatly embarrass him. It just... threw off the dynamic of his room and how he viewed it. Not that he didn't throw clothes and shoes and what have you all over the place to begin with, but he knew he'd have to adjust to the differences when they happened.
His office was more or less going to stay the same, even though he offered the closet as a home for Paris's many shoes. It was half out of consideration for Paris not to break his leg walking down the stairs from the loft in high heels, and half so he could retain some kind of control over his room.
He didn't even realize Paris had come into the office at first, but quickly pulled out one of the ear buds when it became apparent he was being spoken to. The reflection in his computer's monitor helped as well.
"Huh? Uh..." he hesitated, glancing over Paris's expression and the way he positioned himself in the doorway, trying to figure out if he'd done something wrong. Maybe he left a coffee ring on the bathroom counter from that morning...? Or left the oven on? No, it wasn't that... he wasn't usually allowed near the oven to begin with.
"I mean... uh... I've got a project I'm working on..." he attempted with a sheepish smile, desperately trying to avoid a conversation he might not want to participate in. Especially if it started with 'we need to talk'...
"I-I mean... I... guess I have a minute..." he mumbled, trying not to sound nervous as he slowly spun the leather office chair around to face his boyfriend.
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 2:11 pm
If Paris were a more intellectual sort, he might have let Chris off the hook and allowed him to work on his project before cornering him again at some other time, but Chris had agreed to the conversation and so Paris therefore felt no sense of remorse for disturbing him. He remained in the doorway just in case Chris should try to get up and avoid him. It wasn’t that he intended to talk about anything bad, it was just that Chris had the habit of making light of certain things that Paris would never think to make light of.
“It won’t take long,” he reassured him. “It’s just that if I’m going to be living here with you, I want to pay rent.”
He’d been thinking about it quite a lot since he’d started the move, sometimes because he thought it was important and other times because it was better to think about money than it was to think about other things. He’d gotten a lot more out of his relationships with Chris than he likely would have had he been dating someone less financially well off—more than trust and companionship and comfort and sex. He got clothes, and shoes, and good food, and expensive dates that he did his best not to consider the cost of, because he was sure it would easily boggle his mind.
Sometimes he felt guilty—extremely fortunate, to be sure, but also very guilty, especially when he thought about where he’d come from. Paris was not uncomfortable around wealth, but there were times when he thought back and didn’t think he really belonged in it. He liked to work for his due. He liked to earn it. Otherwise he didn’t think he could really call it his.
“I mean, I know your parents take care of everything for you,” Paris continued, doing his best not to sound as if he looked down upon it, “but I don’t really feel right just living here for free. I’m making my own money. I can pay a few hundred a month, or take care of some of the bills.”
He had a strong feeling the apartment cost more than “a few hundred a month,” but he would feel better pitching in where he could afford it instead of living entirely on someone else’s generosity.
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:08 pm
Whatever Chris had been expecting, it hadn't been that. He thought Paris had something to complain about or nag at him for... but to ask to pay for his half of the rent?? It took Chris a few moments to process.
"Uh..." he started rather lamely, trying to remain comfortable in his chair. "You... really don't have to worry about stuff like that, Paris," he tried to insist, although with Paris's stubborn nature, he doubted he would get away with it that easily. If Paris wanted to do something... Paris would do it.
"I mean... My parents don't pay rent on this place..." he admitted, trying not to sound too sheepish in his response. It wasn't that it was anything bad he was admitting... but he did feel a big guilty for not telling Paris the whole truth about his apartment and how he'd come by it.
He shouldn't feel guilty, though! There was nothing for Paris to get mad at him about! At least he didn't think there should be any reason for him to get upset.
"All my parents help me out with is food and the utilities..." he mumbled, lifting a hand to scratch at his chin and then rub his suddenly sweaty palms on the front of his pants. Why did he feel like he was walking into a trap of some kind?
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:23 pm
Paris had absolutely no intention of trapping him—well, no more than temporarily blocking the door—although he did plan on having his way.
“Oh,” he said, with some confusion. He had assumed, of course, that Chris’s parents took care of everything. He didn’t think it was wrong or unfair of him to assume this, nor did he necessarily think it spoke ill of his boyfriend. Chris was just lucky to have exceptionally generous parents, and he worked hard in other areas of his life—school, baseball, knighthood—so Paris thought the preferential treatment was at least earned in some respects.
It wasn’t like Chris went around acting like a pompous a*****e.
“Well, I want to pay some of the utilities, then,” Paris amended. “I’ll call your mom and shout her down if I have to. I wouldn’t really feel like this was my place, too, unless I helped pay for part of it. I should be able to handle the water and electricity and internet.”
He took a couple of steps into the room, most of his previous bullheaded sternness replaced with curiosity. He turned to lean back against Chris’s desk once he’d finished his approach. “Who pays for the apartment?” he wondered. “You’re not on campus. Do you use your scholarship money to cover it?”
If that was the case, it must be a pretty large scholarship. He didn’t imagine rent on a place like this was cheap.
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:37 pm
Oh, Paris should know that if the situation called for it, Chris would totally go around acting like a pompous a*****e. Lucky for the both of them, that kind of situation didn't come up too often.
Chris made a face that looked like a mix between a grimace and an awkward smile when Paris insisted on paying for some of the utilities. "I don't think she'll let you either, Paris... really, it's fine," he tried to convince him, although he knew that it would be more difficult than that to convince Paris LeFay of such nonsense.
"You really don't have to pay for any of it. My parents are fine covering the utilities... or I guess it would be my scholarship money paying for it," he added with a shrug. Or the money he would have spent on school if he hadn't gotten a scholarship... Not that he even needed help paying for tuition, but... it was nice to have an auto-in on the baseball team.
He shifted awkwardly some more, trying to shrug off Paris's questioning. "It's my grandparents' apartment," he mumbled, turning just a bit so he could refresh some pages on the computer. "They own it and are letting me stay here while I'm at DCU... and for however long I need it after that," he added, not thinking it was that big of a deal, anyway. But he tended to feel self-conscious on the topics of money and his parents' jobs from time to time. This time being one of those, apparently.
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 9:47 pm
Paris frowned and made a nice mental reminder to call Momma Gallo ASAP and argue over utilities with her. He was sure if he sweet talked her a little bit and maybe let his voice shake a little with emotion, she might actually come to see things his way.
Never let it be said that Paris wasn’t against manipulating the people who adored him in order to make things fair—or his version of fair. But, really, was it so wrong of him to want to pay some freaking bills around here?
“Oh,” he said again, pondering Chris’s response for a few moments before asking, “but if you’re living here and this is your grandparents’ place, where are they living?”
He had a feeling the answer to that was very simple. He also had a feeling there was something he was missing about this situation. Nothing bad, but definitely something. He got that feeling rather a lot, to be honest, when it came to Chris and money and Chris’s family and… money. Paris supposed he was a bit naïve when it came to things like that. Oh, he knew money made the world go ‘round and things like that, and he knew Chris’s family definitely had some, but he had always assumed that there was a limit to it, and that that limit was likely somewhere in the hundreds of thousands.
Which, admittedly, seemed like quite a lot of money to him.
“I thought your grandparents lived in Boston,” he observed. “Wasn’t that where you were going to spend Thanksgiving before Peter shrank and grew fur? Unless… those are different grandparents. Which ones are we talking about, you mom’s parents or your dad’s parents?”
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:07 pm
"They do live in Boston!" Chris quickly agreed, subconsciously turning his chair back and forth as the delved deeper into information that he didn't often share. It wasn't that it was bad or embarrassing, he just... felt guilty that he was so fortunate and had such a well-off family.
"And it's my dad's parents. My mom's dad still lives in North Carolina at the beach where she was born." But her siblings that lived down there took care of him and everything was fine. They did their best to visit his grandparents, but it was difficult to make it more than a couple times a year with how busy their lives were and how far they lived apart. Sometimes they were visited instead, like on birthdays. But a lot of the time Chris went for months without seeing anyone outside his immediate family. And he had a pretty big extended family.
"I don't think they plan on living here," he tried to further explain. "It's more of... an investment. And it worked out that I needed a place to stay while I went to school. They just own the apartment." So really, it was nothing for Paris to fuss over.
"Please don't call mom," he requested, noting the look of determination on his boyfriend's face. "I know you don't want a charity handout, but really... this isn't anything you should worry about, Paris..."
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:32 pm
“Why shouldn’t I worry about this?” Paris argued. He was frowning, and he crossed his arms over his chest in a manner he’d meant to look stubborn, though it ended up looking more childish and petulant than anything else.
“It makes me uncomfortable having other people pay for my things,” he continued. “It’s okay when it’s just dinner or a movie and a few pieces of clothing, but this is an apartment, Christopher, and it’s probably an expensive one. You can’t expect me to just stay here and not pay anything and be okay with that. I mean, maybe it’s okay for you and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, but it’s not really what I’m used to.”
He was used to more modest surroundings. He was used to a small house with a squeaky front gate. He was used to the heat randomly conking out in the winter, and the AC puttering off on sweltering summer days. He was used to peeling paint and a front yard full of weeds. He was used to keeping track of his dad’s finances and making sure the bills were paid.
Yes, he’d grown comfortable at Chris’s apartment, but it had always been Chris’s apartment. Before now it had been his hideaway, not his home. He liked how open it was. He liked how bright and airy it felt. He liked the modern kitchen and the master bath with its separate shower and tub. He liked everything about it that made it different from home, but now that it had to be his home… well, he had to find some way to make it feel like home instead of it always being “Chris’s apartment.”
“If I had to guess how much this place costs each month, I’d assume it’d be fairly close to what my dad used to pay on his mortgage, if not more than that, and to me that’s a lot of money. If this is going to be my place too, I want to actually feel like it is, otherwise it’s just… you know… temporary…” He hoped it wasn’t. “… and not real…”
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:01 pm
Christopher frowned sadly up at Paris tried to explain himself, feeling a bit like an a** for trying to force him to just accept things as they were. Slowly, Chris pushed himself up from his chair so he could stand in front of Paris as he leaned against the desk. Hands reached up to gently take hold of Paris's shoulders, rubbing at them in what he hoped was a comforting manner.
"I didn't mean to make you feel like this isn't your place, too, Paris," he said softly, bitting at his bottom lip as he tried thinking of something they could do to compromise on the costs of living there. "I want you to live here... but I don't want you to worry about things like money... Hell, you do almost all of the work around here, anyway. Doesn't that make you feel like this is your place?" he wondered, although he wasn't all that proud that Paris was the one cleaning up his s**t and doing his laundry every week.
"Uh... to be honest... I really don't know how much it costs," he said with a small, sheepish grin. The apartment had already been paid for. They didn't have to worry about rent or anything like that... monthly bills was different, of course... but that was covered as well. "If you wanted..." he started, glancing up at the ceiling as he put his thoughts together. "You could... pay for groceries...? You do all the shopping, anyway... Would that be okay?"
He thought it was a better fix than having Paris pay hundreds of dollars a month when he didn't have to.
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Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:50 pm
Paris went from looking down at Chris to staring up at him, slowly uncrossing his arms as Chris took hold of his shoulders to place his hands above Chris’s elbows. He wasn’t trying to be difficult about this, but it was something of an issue for him and he wanted it resolved as soon as possible, preferably in a way that would make him feel comfortable without seeming ungrateful.
He wasn’t sure he liked that Chris wasn’t even aware of how much the apartment was worth. It didn’t sit right with him, and he wondered how much Chris really paid attention to the amount of money he had and spent. That sort thing seemed really dangerous to Paris, who was used to living from one paycheck to another and saving where it was feasible. He hadn't ever had his hands on any money for himself until his mother had gotten a good job in New York and gave him a credit card and sent him cash every month, and then later when he'd gotten a job of his own. Obviously Chris’s family was much better off, but Paris couldn’t tell if Chris’s flippant behavior was because he didn’t think he had to keep track of it or because he really didn’t have to keep track of it—not because his parents did it for him, but because there was just that much there at his disposal.
And that thought scared Paris a little. He wouldn’t know what to do with that sort of money.
“Doing all the work around here feels normal because I always did it before,” he explained. “It doesn’t make me feel like I shouldn’t be paying something. Groceries, yeah, I’ll do those, but can’t I at least handle one of the bills? The electricity or something. I’ll even nag at you when you leave the lights on.”
Paris’s expression was earnest, his eyes entreating, and his voice moderately persuasive. “I’ll agree to that as a compromise if I really can’t pay any rent,” he said.
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:53 am
He knew Paris wasn't trying to make things difficult or awkward or anything like that. Chris knew he should know more about the apartment, but when it wasn't even technically his and he wasn't paying for it... Wow, he really did seem like a pompous, spoiled a*****e, didn't he...? His mommy and daddy paying for everything while he did whatever the hell he wanted.
Chris frowned lightly down at Paris, letting out a small sigh after a few minutes. "Do you really want to pay for it...? Because it really doesn't matter if you do or not..." He would prefer that Paris not pay for anything since he wasn't paying for anything, but he had a feeling that he wasn't going to win this argument.
"...okay..." he sighed again, removing his hands from Paris's shoulders and taking a step back as a sign of surrender. "Okay... I'll... talk to mom about it... She gets all the bills at the house," he added with a small grimace. He wasn't sure what Paris thought of him for not knowing how much was being paid for the apartment, but he was sure it wasn't any fond thoughts.
Just adding more points to how spoiled he was, right...?
"Would that be okay...? Paying the electricity...? I'll just have to make sure everything is always shut off now..." Thankfully he didn't usually have lights turned on, what with how big the main window was. It let in enough light for them to see for most of the day.
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 12:33 pm
“But it does matter,” Paris insisted, “to me.”
If he knew Chris was questioning his thought process, he would have reassured him that it wasn’t anything bad. He might not understand how Chris could live without paying attention to finances, but he also understood that it was probably the way he’d been brought up. Momma Gallo did have the habit of coddling her babies—which Paris typically adored her for, though he had to admit there might be a few areas in which she could do with being a little more firm on them. The only thing Paris thought he could really blame Chris for in all of this was not taking it upon himself to keep track of his money instead of letting his parents do it for him.
But for now Paris let it go. He’d gotten what he’d wanted and they’d reached a compromise. It wasn’t rent, but it was two decent sized bills to partially make up for it. He could live with that. They could always tackle the rest later.
They were going to have to at some point, he was sure, as their relationship continued.
“I’m okay with that,” he agreed, his frown lifting into a small smile. “I’m not trying to be a pain in the a** here. I just want to feel like I’m actually contributing to something.”
He stepped forward to close the distance between them again. This time, instead of grabbing onto Chris’s arms, he threw his arms around Chris’s neck and turned his head up for a kiss. “Thank you…”
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:17 pm
"You're cute..." Chris mumbled under his breath as Paris reached up to put his arms around his neck. He just couldn't fight with him, especially on such a stupid topic as rent. Hands lifted up to rest along Paris's waist for a few moments before sliding down to playfully hold onto the beltloops of the weird kind of fashion-forward one-piece jumper Paris was wearing, pulling him closer before leaning down to meet him with a kiss.
"I never thought you were being a pain in the a**," he denied, relaxing a bit to give Paris more space if he wanted it. "I feel like I'm the one who's the pain in the a**." Chris shrugged lightly, not really knowing what else to do about it, though. He had given his consent for Pais to help with the bills, although it was highly unnecessary. There was really only so much he could say before Paris out-debated him.
He sighed lightly, gently pulling away from his boyfriend to return to his desk chair and refresh his internet pages again. "So..." he started slowly, seeming to not want to bring up another subject of interest. He glanced curiously up at Paris after a few moments and flashed him a lopsided grin. "What's for dinner?"
Well, since Paris was perfectly okay with taking care of things, he was allowed to ask something like that, right??
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Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 11:09 pm
“I do try sometimes, you know,” Paris joked, pressing against Chris as he smiled up at him. “Other times it’s completely natural.”
He lifted a hand to Chris’s hair, ran his fingers through the mahogany strands, and let himself get comfortable standing there in his embrace. That hadn’t gone quite as badly as he’d originally thought. Not that he’d assumed they’d have a major argument about it—it was only bills, after all—but sometimes getting Chris to agree to things was a bit like pulling teeth. Sometimes it took a while to wiggle to yank the acquiescence out of him.
It was usually worth it when he managed it, though.
Paris stole a few more kisses before letting him go, tempted to keep him from his homework even longer—it wasn’t as if he didn’t know a few ways in which to distract him—but if he let Chris get it all done now then they’d have even more time to enjoy themselves later.
With a snort, he rolled his eyes and headed for the door. “Is that really the way to a man’s heart?” he wondered, and fled the room without answering.
Now he was being difficult.
It wasn’t his fault he liked the attention.
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