—

As Driver knelt on the floor of Grace’s small apartment putting together a bed frame for a stranger, he was reminded of Irene and how he met her by coming back to her apartment carrying her groceries for her. He glanced around the apartment hoping to get some insight into the stranger’s life. He had his mattress on the floor which makes sense, he was putting together his bed frame after all. There wasn’t much on the walls just a few science posters. There was a picture on a shelf of a much younger Grace smiling among a group of people in lab coats. “And today I was teaching them about Kepler’s laws…” Driver glanced up and realized that Grace had been talking for the past 10 minutes and he hadn’t been listening. He did that a lot, zoning out and getting really fixated on what he was doing. He never did great in school because of it and teachers would always scold him and tell him to pay attention. “Sorry I’m rambling you’re clearly not interested” Ryland said suddenly. “You’re fine, I’m just focused” Driver said in a quick attempt to fix whatever rejection the teacher may have been feeling. “Oh you’re like me then. When I have a good research topic I just won’t stop working on it for hours and then bam it’s nighttime and I haven’t eaten anything but chips!” Grace seemed excited to be around someone else so dedicated to their work. Driver simply nodded along as he finished assembling the bed frame. “All done.” Driver gestured at the completed bed frame. “You want help moving it?” He asked with a small tilt of his head. “I think I’ve got it but could you move my mattress out of the way? That’s where I want it to go.” Grace’s request was easy so Driver quickly obliged. Driver leaned against the wall as Grace set up his bed and he was staring off into the distance until he heard Grace speak up, “I really owe you one… could I take you out to lunch sometime?” Driver looked surprised at the offer but a smile slowly crept across his face and he accepted with a simple nod of his head. 

—

After Grace had taken Driver to a lunch that Driver insisted he pay for because of Grace’s teacher’s salary the ball started rolling and they’d become closer. When Grace’s bike broke Driver came over and fixed it, when Driver had a shoot Grace came by and watched. Well once and  never again. It gave Grace so much anxiety watching Driver whip around in a car so for now he settled for wishing him good luck before he left. When those good luck statements turned into cheek kisses? Neither could remember. Summer flew by and soon enough Grace was back to work, but he stopped by the garage on the way home every day to grade papers while Driver worked. Grace and Driver weren’t dating, they didn’t know that they were but it wasn’t much more than a nice friendship. Grace appreciated this since he was so used to men pursuing him for sex the second after he showed any interest in them. So Grace was content being able to show his affection for someone who doesn’t expect anything more. Driver was still closed off no matter how much he trusted Grace. He didn’t want this pure man to be stained by him. Grace was as close as one could get to an angel on Earth in Driver’s opinion. Bright, kind, and loving, good with kids and patient with Driver’s silence. So Driver kept everything hidden in an effort to keep Grace safe. He even stopped being a getaway driver for a bit in an attempt to keep Grace out of that life. That was until Standard came back and Driver realized that Benicio was in danger.

—

God dammit. Driver had gotten himself into some shit. Sure he’d lost romantic feelings for Irene the moment Standard came back into the picture but that didn’t mean he didn’t care a ton about the family. He loved Benicio and as soon as he realized that he’d somehow been involved in Standard’s debt his protective streak flared up. His hands were truly, honestly, dirty. He’d killed two gunmen, he’d forced a bullet down Cook’s throat, and he had stolen money in his car. Shit his life was so fucking shitty. But that didn’t matter right now, he had his angel waiting for him at home. He went up to his apartment to watch a movie with Grace- no he’d told him to call him Ryland. When got to his floor Ryland was already waiting for him outside his place. They went inside and got settled in for their movie night. Ryland had been scared that this was where their relationship took a turn, going back to Driver’s place at night to do something that’s frequently background noise for sex wasn’t his brightest idea. He didn’t want to have to explain that Driver wouldn’t get anything out of their relationship except emotional support, he didn’t want to lose someone else to the fact that he got squeamish when sex came up, and he didn’t want to do it just to please again. He was setting himself up for failure at this point. So he was pleasantly surprised when they watched the entirety of Inception with Driver’s hand gently massaging his thigh and never going higher. He was even more surprised when Driver offered to take him home. He didn’t want him to stay the night? It was weird but honestly it was Ryland’s ideal. 

—