"It's the pride that makes you feel that you belong."

[beautifulday]

Who: Sasha Stanford, Justin Campbell, Mark Campbell, Sam Campbell and Alexis Harrington
What: Pride & shit
Where: Sydney, Australia
When: Backdated: Sydney Mardi Gras

Sasha had expected life to get crazy beyond belief lately but he could never have anticipated ending a night with Justin — dressed as a shirtless sparkly rainbow angel complete with wings and a halo — flanked by two 6’4” drag queens singing the the popular Aussie power ballad, You’re the Voice at the top of his lungs in the middle of Sydney. There weren’t a lot of scenarios Justin would forget lyrics but being blind drunk on fuck only knows what mix of cocktails and running on adrenaline and very little sleep was one of them. At least he nailed the chorus with the help of his friendly queens doing their bit for the greater good and making sure one of the Junior Gay Icons, as Justin had been dubbed that night, got home without ending up Mardi Gras roadkill.

“Oh, honey, are you sure we can’t call you a taxi? I don’t want to end up on the dirty end of a lawsuit for not making that fabulously hot daddy lawyer has his first-born delivered home safely. I’m still not convinced you two aren’t twelve years old. Such a baby face.” Miss Excess-Success patted Sasha’s cheek but took a quick sidestep when Justin abruptly cut himself off singing with a heave.

( Sasha quickly took over, looping his arm around Justin’s waist to free-up the ladies to go back to the party... )

LOG, COMPLETE

"Even when it's not your home, I smell the blood of an Australian."

[beautifulday]

Who: Sasha Stanford and Alexis Harrington
What: Overdue heart-to-heart
Where: Waterfront Campbell home, Sydney
When: After this

Despite the fact Sasha knew he would never escape the 'Loving having a little bit of Austalia in him' jokes, Sasha was never going to get used to the Aussie heat. He had made a few trips Down Under with Justin since they started dating and the things he loved most about Sydney were Nana and Granddad Campbell's ducted airconditioning and pool. He woke up in a ball of sweat and discovered Justin had rolled over into Sasha's back in his sleep and pushed all the bedcovers on top of him. Justin was a sweaty mess himself and he was a snorer when he was drunk.

Checking his phone, Sasha found he'd probably only been asleep for a little over an hour. He shoved the covers onto the floor at the end of the bed and carefully leaned over Justin to make sure he hadn't thrown up in the bucket again but it was thankfully empty. Sasha laid back down again but sleep evaded him in the heat and lingering jetlag from the trip over. Not to mention the fact he was usually a light sleep and Justin's snoring (though not terrible) made it difficult to tap back into sleepiness again. He went to the bathroom and when he was washing his hands, realised the headache he had earlier when Justin was an absolute drunken mess was coming back, now in that sharp spear of ache behind one eyeball which wouldn't end well if he didn't take his preventative migraine medication now.

Which he dropped at the front door downstairs when Justin showered the foyer's tiles with more puke when they got back from the city earlier. He already had to take a dose when they were at the nightclub after the parade because the loud music and strobe lights threatened a migraine and it had been too early to fold on the night. Despite the fact a drunk Justin stressed him out, he had a good time. The parade was out of this world and he had friends cousins from back in the US who sent him texts saying they saw him and Justin on the live stream of the parade, telling him how cool they thought it was that Justin had the ace pride flag tied around his hips. Sasha had to admit that part meant a lot to him too. He didn't mind that people wondered how Justin - someone that oozed sex appeal - could be engaged to an ace person but sometimes fielding those questions was exhausting. There were only so many ways you could explain being asexual wasn't celibacy, nor did it mean a hate of sex. Some aces were sex-repulsed but he wasn't one of them. He just didn't want to explain what ace-flux or grey-ace meant all the time, or the fact you could be both gay and ace, and why.

"Shit," he cussed softly, realising he had to go downstairs. He turned the tap on low so he could splash some cold water on his face and went out to find a tank top to pull on over his purple silk boxer shorts. Or, more accurately, they were Justin's. Sasha was a cotton guy, to match his usual preference of living in jeans, snapbacks, and t-shirts. The only clean tank top he could find was Justin's limited edition black Footloose one that celebrated the show's 800th performance. That was a perk of being gay, there was no issue in sharing each other's clothes. His hair was sticking up all over the place because he laid down on it while it was still wet after a shower to wash away the vomit. Curly hair was a pain in the freckle, as Justin's Aussie family would say. He grabbed Justin's phone and propped it up beside the lamp on his side of the bed with the camera pointing on his supine form on the bed, bringing up what was basically a baby monitor app. They used it sometimes when Justin was in a really bad way to keep any eye on him while he slept. Considering he drank his weight in cocktails at the party, this definitely constituted.

Once he reached the bottom of the stairs and headed around the corner into the open-planned living room, he jumped and put a hand over his mouth before he shrieked in fright when someone was sitting on the chaise end of the modular sofa. Alexis was sitting reading a book in the soft light of the standard lamp. "Oh my god, I'm so glad I peed before I came down or I would've just totally embarrassed myself."