Caleb Danvers

Caleb's head thudded back against the leather of the seat of his Mustang. He'd still not touched the soda he'd packed when he started; didn't feel like it. Possibly yet, although he wasn't sure. It was energy, yes, but it was also a stimulant, and right now, ( he wasn't sure if it wouldn't push him over the edge. )

... next time somebody asks if my boyfriend's underwear is as minimalistic as his swimwear, I start throwing punches.

Pogue sprawls until he takes up the whole bed, Reid snuggles into the nearest body, and Tyler curls up and doesn't stir for the night.

A/N: Companion piece to this. Set in the Pile o' Puppies 'verse. Written to an inspiration for a while and this picture prompt.

Fundraisers. They had all grown up with those, even though the people who mattered knew that the old Ipswich families did the bulk of their charity away from the public eye, quiet and very efficient. However, there were all kinds. For some people, the chance to mingle in certain manners was the way to stir their public conscience. Caleb knew the necessity of that. Also he didn't share quite the level of distaste he knew Pogue had for them. They were social functions learned as soon as he could be taught, it was almost reflexive.

Besides, it was a Tyler gig. No way were they going to fail in showing up to support him. Secondary factors like it being at school and such, it being at home generally, so everybody knew them and expected them to do things - they just didn't register the same way. One of them was doing something, they were all helping, however they could.

Caleb looked in to check how Pogue was doing, paused a moment at the door. Monkey suit or not, the damned thing looked stunning on the blond. (Of course, everything did, to, and so did nothing, but it was still... spectacular. Endearing, too, paired up with the fact that Pogue was not enjoying it too much.) Then he wrinkled his nose at the long fair strands getting slicked back, carefully and unnecessarily. He let it happen, anyway, because it took him a moment to step nearer and point out, softly so as not to startle him and close, because he didn't want not to be so, "you don't have to do that." The rich, slightly chapped lips stretched into a smile even before their eyes met in the mirror. "With the gel, I mean."

Pogue chuckled. "It falls out and gets in my face otherwise." Caleb knew that part; it was why the bandana while he was working, and why lips and fingers had even more reasons to taste the suntanned skin and blond hair in intimate moments. And now he couldn't help but reach to touch, nothing more than brushing down the suit coat smoother, first. Then his hands rose to caress over Pogue's shoulders, which wasn't quite like half an embrace, but it wasn't not, either - and his husband's eyes reflected that.

My husband. Made Caleb step closer, reach further down, cover his hands, and it felt like a single motion continued when Pogue twined their fingers together, lead their arms around his waist, moved back to meet him. When they moved, when they touched like that, it felt like anything was disjointed, short, stunted, not-right - this was how it should be. And it is.

Pogue was likely feeling it, too, as his head rolled slightly back against his shoulder and he remarked quietly, "we don't absolutely have to go..."

Which was true. Nobody could make them do anything that they did not want to do. But... "We promised Tyler we would," Caleb reminded gently, turning his head slightly to kiss his temple and then grimacing: the taste of hair gel hadn't improved significantly since the boys first discovered it in their early teens. Pogue's face fell slightly, and he added, "we don't have to stay that long. A couple hours, then we can come home."

Now that seemed good to hear, judging by the slight motion closer into the embrace, the easing of the face, the corners of the closed eyes. The slightly breathless tone to the next words. "Come home. W... I like the sound of that." We have a home. Our home. Yes, they'd had it for years... and it was still different.

Caleb raised their hands a little, shifted his hold. The feel of metal on metal was different from either skin on skin or metal on skin, a tiny little jolt, if one was paying sufficient attention. It felt still new, it looked still new... and yet, like the so many ways they fit together, so did the sight of their wedding bands touching. Infinity. Yours. Always. His eyes crept up to look at Pogue's face, and were met by the hazel ones, full to overflowing with the same love, lost and content with only each other.

He was tugging Pogue around because kissing over his shoulder didn't seem enough, didn't seem just for the moment; lips met lips, but that wasn't all of it: bodies melted against each other, and a warmth settled around him, deep down, bright and amazing. Caleb's head swam, time went away - it had that habit.

... an indeterminate time later, Pogue's voice nudged him out of that. "You sure we have to go?" The blond never whined, but there was definitely a quality to the tone that hinted at it. Which made it all the more teasing, and Caleb lips tugged into an appreciative smile without really moving away.

"Mm-hmm." No, neither of them wanted to move away. And yet they were going to... well. They would return to this in... "two hours."

"Two hours," Pogue repeated, and smiled, too, Caleb could see it in his eyes before another kiss closed them; and it was sweet and gentle, too. "I'll hold you to that."

"You'd better." Softly, and then he took a tiny step back. So he could look at his face again. Fingers moving down along the collar, the shoulders of the suit, the tie.

"I think that works better if you're actually looking at what you're straightening up..."

Caleb smiled again. "That's alright. You always get everything perfect the first try." Oh yes, he did say that because it was true and it would give that gleam to Pogue's eyes. Just so.

This applies to this journal and letsdropin; the Pogue relevant is lieutenantwitch and Chase is broken_circles. Tyler is their_babyboy. Ginny is lilginnygirl.

Girls YAY (This name is subject to change): Currently default 'verse. Pogue and Kate split up around spring break of their senior year in high school; Caleb and Sarah's relationship persevered. Chase and Ginny had both meetings, dating during high school senior year, and later towards the end of junior year at Brown, the additional meeting during which Ginny gets pregnant. Isabel is born. Reid goes to medical school; meets Alya there. A year later, Chase goes to the same medical school, and they end up roommates. Pogue, in Ipswich, opens up his garage; Irene (shecan_fix_that) starts working there; eventually they date. Tyler goes to a graduate degree in something literary, then returns to teach at Spenser. Dates a guy for about three years; then that guy just... leaves. After that, Beatrice (Bea) reappears in his life.
Who with whom? Well, in this 'verse, Caleb and Pogue never have sex. Reid and Pogue do; as well as (unless playing with another Tyler) Reid and Tyler.

As in all 'verses, when any of the boys are dating (and/or married), the rest of the boys, no touchee. Chase being occasionally an exception to that, until he gets the hang of it.

Divergence: This is a branch from the above 'verse. When Isabel is born, Chse does something incredibly stupid (to himself) in front of Ginny and Caleb; in the aftershock (and watch), Caleb does something also stupid, together with Chase. Then he was even more of an idiot about it. In the end, even though there were no repeat offenses, Sarah decides that there were things that not even Caleb Danvers is worth putting up with, and ends it. Caleb takes months to recover from that, in the meanwhile the boys making acquaintance with Dee (ihasataser), who slowly develops a crush on him that'll last years. Caleb, on the other hand, decides to act on the other love he betrayed with Chase; however, Pogue is at the time (first semester of senior year at Harvard) very settled in being single and not up to being in a relationship. That alone freaks Caleb out, and then the second blow of being rejected, washes over him, the backlash upsetting Pogue in turn. For a while, the boys are upset enough to almost seem to be falling apart (Chase blaming himself for it, too, oops); however, they do pull together, by degrees starting to cope with the upset and owing to Tyler's idea for a get-away. Then the events follow the ones in girls YAY 'verse, minus Sarah, until about a month after Pogue and Irene hook up. There's weird kissing and pot, and in the end, out of one couple and two singles, Pogue, Irene, Caleb, and Dee emerge as a more-or-less foursome.
And the world doesn't even end.

Pile o' puppies: Pogue and Kate split up around spring break of their senior year in high school. Caleb and Sarah break up sometime during freshman year at Harvard. Somewhat later, when they're back at home, Caleb walks in on Reid and Pogue; shortly after that, Pogue-and-Caleb begins. Reid and Tyler fool around the way they often do. Reid and Caleb figure out their differences, mostly by Reid crawling into Caleb's lap and kissing him, a bit out of the blue for the older boy. Second semester of senior year at Harvard, Tyler walks in on them kissing a lot and kind of runs away; Pogue decides it's the perfect time to return the walking-in on Caleb. Foursome ensues. Later, Caleb and Pogue are more and more couply; Tyler and Reid go to grad school together/very close. Eventually steadying - but not as a couple, but a threesome with a girl. Which proves surprisingly stable.

Cliffs of Insanity: Pogue and Kate split up around spring break of their senior year in high school. Caleb and Sarah break up sometime during freshman year at Harvard. Caleb and Pogue hook up. ... and then Kate changes her mind, about their junior year at Harvard. Grows up, comes back to Pogue. Caleb steps back, after about two years together with Pogue. Not very happy. They graduate; Pogue and Kate return to Ipswich; Caleb, Reid, and Tyler scatter around grad schools (kind of; Reid and Tyler actually go to the same one). ... Caleb running into Chase. No, they don't have a smack-down trying to kill each other; Chase has had his first run-in with Ginny and is changed, somewhat. Caleb's free-falling, in a way. Things go through getting stoned together and ... more. Until they're basically dating. Oops. The rocky relationship evens out some when they adopt one of Chase's patients, Mary; or maybe it's also due to the fact that Caleb is Caleb and he doesn't commit halfway.
Things are always on the edge, in this 'verse. There can be, and is, happiness, but the danger of things tipping over the cliff and spinning away into destruction or insanity is always there.