Marriage and You

Part 9 : Hell bent

"Nong Mew, you know I don't like repeating myself, but for your sake, okay, I'll do it."

He looked up at that, catching the smirk playing across his mentor's lips. To be honest, seeing it here, now, up-close instead of just through the screen of either his laptop or his cellphone made it twice as disconcerting, if he was going to be honest about it. Partly because he had a feeling the older man knew what he could be thinking even before he could say so out loud. One of the reasons why he dreaded these sessions, really, apart from the obvious. Talking normally wasn't so hard, especially not for him, but since joining this program and then marrying Gulf as a result, he learned that there were things about his personal life that he'd rather keep private if he could get away with it.

Well, part of that reason was Gulf and his husband's preference to get their shit in order amongst themselves. And how could he not share the sentiment when he knew it was better that way? To try and fix what should be straightened out between the two of them without involving someone else? To be fair, it wasn't so different from his own views either, at least when it came to their relationship, but knowing that theirs wasn't typically what could be considered normal allowed him to at least make an exception. Still, it wasn't to say he could be so welcoming even when he knew he had to be.

Take these sessions with their mentors for one; Mew knew he had to be open-minded, but he couldn't always be that person. He knew P'Ter meant well, hell, they all did, but sometimes, it was just so hard to get his message across without feeling like he was giving so much away. And it wasn't like he was trying to be secretive about the things P'Ter had been drilling him about for hours on end - getting into the program and marrying a total stranger weren't the only downside of his supposedly spontaneous decision, apparently, it also meant allowing so-called professionals like P'Ter the opportunity to nose about his affairs without even feeling guilty about it - but he had this notion (and frankly, he knew his husband did too) that this marriage was theirs to protect, not P'Ter's or any of their mentors to begin with, and talking about how he and Gulf were doing to make things work was between them and them alone. But again, he had to consider the fact that he couldn't be that way and expect these people not to come at him and Gulf on every side because obviously, they have all the right to.

They could, and they would if they had to. It was their job, after all.

"Your plans for today. I'm guessing you have some, right? Come on, we don't have all day. I need you to walk me through it so we'll know how you would handle the rest if things don't go as planned." P'Ter said as he tapped his fingers on the tabletop, the action was distracting as it was annoying.

He sighed. Truth be told, he'd rather not talk about his other plans for his and Gulf's one week anniversary that wasn't entirely what was written on their itinerary for today, but obviously, he couldn't do that either.

"Well, I'm just planning on taking him out to dinner," he said, shrugging his shoulders, hoping his attempt at nonchalance would be noticed. He'd much rather the older man think he wasn't stressing about tonight lest he would be bombarded with more questions he was certain he wasn't ready to answer yet. "You know, the usual. Maybe catch a movie if he's still up for it later, but otherwise, yeah, just dinner." he added.

P'Ter leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. Mew's eyes followed the action but did his best to keep his comments to himself.

"And sex?" P'Ter asked, catching Mew off-guard once again. He didn't want to roll his eyes in answer, but given it was the only thing he could do now to let the older man know he was mildly irritated by the question, he rolled his eyes anyway. "Come on, you told me you guys are making progress. Kissing and touching seems easier now as you said, so, what's stopping you from going all the way? Is it you?"