Making Promises

How’re the cats?” he asked, smiling a little. He did miss Angel Marie. Hell, he missed them all. “Feral,” Benny sniffed. “And horny. Every time one of us walks in, they all start humping our shoes.” “They’re fixed,” Shane mumbled, but the conversation was oddly reassuring. It sounded normal, and like home. “Tell that to the big fuzzy brown one….” “Orlando Bloom?” “Yeah, whatever. Last time I was there that damned animal violated my knitting.” Shane lost a battle with a laugh and then whined because it hurt his ribs. “Violated?” [...] “Let’s just say that wool is no longer virgin,” she quipped dryly, and Shane’s chest shook.

It was like when a midde-aged woman, happily married, found out that her favorite movie star was gay. It broke her heart just a litte to know that there wasn't even a chance in fantasyland for the two of them to ever touch.

'I cannot face you if you think I look at you and see anything less than the man you are. I am not settling for you, I am reaching for you, and there is a difference, and you are that man.'

Accept that there were some things you could not change and some things that you should.

He thought about how sometimes people's greatest sacrifices were the ones they didn't want the world to acknowledge or even to know about. Maybe that's what made them great.

'I can get mad all I want, but they don't mean it. They love me. Sometimes, some creatures, when they get cornered, they forget who loves them and think everybody's the enemy. You don't just leave them alone, cold and afraid, because their instinct takes over and it's wrong. You don't if you give a shit, you know?'

WALL•E—the hapless knight in rusted armor. Except WALL•E had eventually been very important to the object of his affection, hadn’t he?

Just a heart as open as the blue sky. Any evil fucker can shoot an arrow into it and make it rain blood.

you don’t want the cops to show. They’re all assholes, you know that.

He’d been worried. He’d been afraid. And he’d been hurt, and Mikhail almost couldn’t stand it. Not Shane. Not his beautiful lover, who gave his heart and everything else to make Mikhail’s world wonderful. Dammit, he wanted to shout, leave him the hell alone!

Nothing’s beautiful when you’re not safe,” Kimmy said, and they didn’t say much else after that.

yelling, snarling, Russian-bear fight about your fucking job and how much I want you to quit. Be prepared. It will not break us up, and I am not drawing a line in the sand, and I am not going to push you away, but I will be heard, do you understand me?

I love you, big man. I love you so much I can’t believe the world turned before we met. But you and me, we are going to have a big, ugly,

being licked to death by the fearless warriors who had apparently decided he was their god. Deacon had that effect on people.

The little girl in her lap took a drink of mom’s soda and pushed a mop of the brightest red hair out of her face. “I don’t wanna be a knight. I wanna be a princess!

Oh my God… we’re some sort of gay enforcement squad!

you touch him again, and I’ll shove my hand up your ass and use your face as a pooper-scooper, do you hear me?

literally re-made the world around me to keep

can shoot an arrow into it and make it rain blood.

Just a heart as open as the blue sky. Any evil fucker

Bumfuck Nowhere and Left Ass Cheek of Yemen.

In fact, I’m thinking you’re my object lesson for who I don’t want to let into my life.

Between them all, the simplest, most obvious name for the place was Promise House.

God… God… don’t you see, lubime? Don’t you see at all? You are a hero. You’re our hero. You’re Benny’s hero. You’re a hero to every poor kid you’ve ever helped on the streets. You’re my hero. You see weird and awkward? I see wonderful. I… I am damaged, God help me. I am damaged and bitchy and a pain in the ass, and you have

When he came to, groggy from the painkillers and still in pain (oh the fucking injustice!),

do something stupid in traffic, and suddenly they’re seeing me in a pile of twisted metal, wearing my toes as a necklace.

called you fat because I knew other lovers had done so, and it was easy to drive you away. I didn’t believe it. I’ve never believed it. I’ve never even thought it. Everything else I said, it was to push you away. I know you know that—but you need to believe it. I cannot face you if you think I look at you and see anything less than the man you are. I am not settling for you, I am reaching for you, and there is a difference, and you are that man.

Mikhail opened his mouth generously, and that was a first, and Shane fell into that sulky mouth like a bird falls into the sky.

Yes, it’s hard to understand,” Mikhail growled back. “You have this… this magnificent heart, and you just… try to throw it away. How could you do it?

I’m sorry your friend died back when you were a lost child, mal’chik, but I am not sorry it was not you. Of all the fucking awful things I did as a mother, seeing you grown is the one I will not regret.