J requested this. Or something like it. And I think I may have screwed it up some but um, I tried. I’m pretty sure this look prompted the request Er…yeah.

Now that he stood outside Zach’s door, Chris felt a bit stupid.

His hair was too long and unkempt and his straggly beard was snowy white. And maybe, yeah, he wasn’t caring much about his appearance these days. Maybe he was a bit depressed and in perhaps a mid-life crisis. He was past forty and had nothing really to show for it. No current SO, no really hot career. He was just…doing okay. And that was starting to get to him.

He’d been sitting around his house drinking a beer and looking at old shots of his friends and loved ones he hadn’t looked at in a while. He’d come across a few pictures of Zach with an old boyfriend. He’d been with a guy that would be called a “bear”. A hairy, masculine-looking beefy guy. It had only been a brief thing, true. But he also came across a picture of Zach himself looking like that. Hairy with a fully, bushy beard. Was that what Zach liked?

Sure Zach’s last serious boyfriend wasn’t anything like that but…   

Okay, clearly Chris had too many beers.

But he was here now and he was committed.

Or should be committed, maybe. That was probably it.

He rang the bell.

He could hope that Zach wasn’t there. That would be ideal, actually. He could just turn around, and slink back home like the hairy beast he was. Sure, the paps would snap more pictures to post about how he no longer looked like a hot babe, as if he ever did, but he’d deal with it.  Yeah, definitely too many beers.

What he did not want to happen would be, whatever twink Zach was currently seeing, opening the door. And of course, Christopher, you idiot. He liked twinks not bears. Not hairy beasts like him.

The door was yanked open, like Chris had been leaning on the buzzer and Zach was annoyed.

Oh.

Chris dropped his hand from the buzzer.

“What the hell…”

Zach stopped talking and merely stared at Chris.

Zach, for his part, was clean-shaven. Every hair was picture perfect. He looked…well…fucking gorgeous. Like he could have any guy on the planet, why would he want Bigfoot.

“Are you in there buddy?” Zach asked with pronounced amusement.

Chris pursed his lips. “Funny. I came for a haircut and a shave. Can I come in or what?”

Zach stepped back and held the door open. “You reek.”

“I had a few beers.”

“I can tell.”

It was a few hours later. Chris had several cups of coffee. Zach had cut his hair.

“Hey, I could finally put it in a man-bun. Thought you liked those,” Chris protested. “Miles—”

“Do not say that name or I throw you out,” Zach said, sternly.    

Chris clamped his mouth shut.

Zach finished shaving off the bushy white beard, leaving Chris clean shaven. Hair was still pretty gray, though.  A family thing.

“So, what was with this whole look?”

“Thought you might like it.”

“Oh?”

“You know I’m doing that movie with the pool guy. I’m thinking he should have that look, you know?”

Zach nodded. “Well, guess you’ll have to start all over again, huh?” He stared at Chris with that intense way he had. “What’s really going on, Pine?”

Chris looked into his coffee but it did not, alas, have all the answers to the world’s problems. Or even his, if it came to that.

“I miss you. I miss you like crazy. And I’m…lonely, Zach.”

Zach opened his arms and Chris got up from his chair and stepped into those big, strong muscular arms.

And for now, it was better. Much.