KISS: In The Band

Ch 17: Always Fighting (Bruce)

"Bruce! Did you feed Iggy today? Because I can't remember if I did or not and I don't want to feed him twice!" Eric shouted from the bedroom.

I grinned, running a brush through my hair and straightening my tie. "Uh, no I haven't today! That's your job, I told you that!" I called back. "Dammit. Fine you scaly little bastard, you get to be fat today," Eric grumbled, before leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom. "You excited for your date tonight?" he teased. 

"Of course I am. I love Lisa, and I love spending time with her. That's why I'm looking forward to you getting married and moving out so I can get an apartment with her. What is it, two weeks?" He nodded, beaming, and started to bounce up and down on his toes like he always did when he was excited. "Yeah! Oh man I'm so excited. Like ooh I'm really getting married! To Carrie Stevens! The best woman in the world!" he said cheerfully.

Laughing, I ruffled his hair affectionately. "You deserve it, and I'm very excited for you. Now I'm going to get out of here before I end up late and make my girlfriend mad. I'll catch you later." "Bye Bruce! Have fun!" he said, giving me a parting wave and switching Iggy to his other shoulder. 

Despite my best efforts, Lisa was waiting for me at the curb outside her apartment, giving me a smile and a kiss as she slid into the passenger seat. "You're late." "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, there was an issue with my roommate's iguana." She burst into laughter, shaking her head. "Of course there was. Aw I love Eric, he's great." "He really is." 

We took our seats in the restaurant, putting in an order for a steak to share and starting on some salads. She took a sip of wine, looking over my shoulder at a family seated behind us, a baby crying in a high chair. "Ugh, I could not imagine wanting to bring a child to a place like this," she said with a frown. I nodded in agreement. "I know, honestly. That's a part of the reason I don't want kids."

She sat back, looking at me in surprise. "You don't want kids?" I looked back at her, equally surprised. "Well...no. I really don't want kids. I never have. I thought we talked about this, didn't we?" "No, we haven't talked about this!" she said. I frowned, running a hand through my hair. "Really? I could've sworn...like way back, when I first told you I was asexual."

She shook her head, rolling her eyes. "Come on, Bruce, that's not something you can just spring on me three years into a relationship! You need to be upfront about that!" "Lisa I wasn't trying to hide that from you! I thought you knew, I'm sorry! I-I mean...are kids something you want?" I asked hesitantly, terrified she'd say yes. "No, they're not. I'm not upset about that. I just don't like you not being honest with me." 

"Lisa I wasn't trying to not be honest with you, I promise! I honestly thought you knew how I felt about kids, I'm sorry if that wasn't clear to you!" I protested. She shook her head, scowling slightly. "Well I'd really appreciate if you would just tell me how you feel about things as big as wanting kids in the future. Anything else you haven't told me I should know about?" she snapped.

I sighed, giving her a flat look. "No. Because I haven't been trying to hide secrets from you." 

The rest of the date was just basically completely ruined and we just awkwardly shared dinner, not even ordering dessert. I just dropped her off at her house, muttering a goodnight which she barely returned, storming inside her apartment without even a parting kiss. Perfect,

I walked into my own apartment, letting out a long sigh, shutting the door behind me before making a beeline for the fridge, grabbing a beer. Eric looked up from teaching Baxter another trick, giving me a concerned look. "How was your date?" he asked after a pause. I sighed again, staring into the depths of the fridge. "Uh...not great," I said quietly. "Oh. Sorry to hear that. What happened?"

I snapped out of it, closing the door to the fridge and taking a long sip of beer. "Well...we were talking and Lisa was talking about kids and I said I really, really don't want kids. So we had a bit of an argument about that."

"Oh. That sucks." I nodded, sitting on the couch and staring up at the ceiling, taking another sip of beer. "Yeah. It does." "What happened though? You guys didn't like fight fight, did you?" "What, like throw hands?" I teased, grinning in spite of myself. "No, obviously not that. I mean you guys didn't like have a yelling match or anything, right?"

I shook my head, waving my hand dismissively. "No, no, nothing like that. There was just a baby at the restaurant and she said she couldn't imagine bringing kids to a place like this. I agreed and said that was one of the reasons I didn't want kids. She asked me to explain what I meant by that and I told her that I didn't want kids because that was just never something that interested or appealed to me. I had thought we had talked about this but I guess not. She got kind of mad I hadn't told her this before because it's not fair to her, which I agree, but it had never come up before and I could've sworn I talked about it when I first told her I was asexual."

"Oh. Damn yeah I can see why she's mad. Does she like really want kids? Because if so you guys should probably like...talk about that." I nodded, closing my eyes. "I know, I know. But she doesn't really want kids. It was more of a trust thing. She got mad at me for not telling her and I got mad at her for assuming I wasn't telling her on purpose. But I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Why don't you want kids? Like maybe if you explain yourself she'll calm down a bit and all that," he said, and I just sighed. "I just...they're a lot. They're a whole lot. And I don't want that extra pressure and stress on me. I've already struggled enough, I don't need to add more to my plate. I'm happy just being with Lisa. What about you though? You and Carrie plan on having kids?"

Eric grinned, shrugging. "I want to. She wants to. So probably. I think it'd be fun to be a dad!" "You'd be a fun dad," I mumbled, taking another sip of beer and feeling my phone buzz. I looked at the text, heart melting. "Aw. She apologized," I said, half to myself, sending her a text saying it wasn't her fault and she had a point and I was sorry and loved her more.

"That's good!"