#combtaire

Thanks so much for the prompt!!

Sorry- have to stay late again x

Grantaire couldn’t help feeling hurt. With their split schedules and Combeferre interning at the hospital and feeling as though he couldn’t say no whenever they needed an extra hand, it had been almost a week since he had seen his boyfriend. Even with his night owl tendencies, there was no feasible way for Grantaire to stay up until four am every night just to see his boyfriend, especially when he’d have to be up at seven himself. 

Their date routine currently consisted of half awake stolen hello and goodbye kisses and texting memes to each other on their breaks, and being a romantic, he was beginning to feel emotionally starved. Still, there was no point agonizing about it now, he’d save that feeling for when he needed to paint something really angsty.

Early in the morning, long after Grantaire had fallen asleep, he woke up with a sudden start. A crash had come from the kitchen, followed by a familiar voice cursing. Grantaire rubbed his eyes and looked at his phone. Three in the morning, of fucking course- He thought rubbing his eyes and making his way into the kitchen. 

He had expected to see Combeferre standing in his scrubs with a broom in hand, but he hadn’t expected to see their island bench covered in one of their good sheets. Two plates had been set aside for a gourmet meal of whatever fast food in a brown paper bag had still been open when Combeferre had left work, and a bottle of red wine and one glass were in the middle of two candles,the second glass, he assumed was what had shattered him awake.

“You aren’t supposed to be up yet. I had a whole dramatic setup planned.” Combeferre sighed setting the dustpan on the counter. “It was going to be very romantic- watch your feet.” “Where’d you get wine at this hour?” Grantaire asked stepping around to the other side of the island counter where there was no danger of stepping in glass.

“I had a feeling I’d have to give you some bad news again, so I ran out to grab some on my first break in the afternoon.”

“You didn’t have to do that.” 

“Yeah well, I’ve missed you. Hope you don’t mind the early wake up call.”

It is more than okay I am hyped for this!!

“Alrighty.” Grantaire, said placing his pen down with a sigh and a smile. “It’s done.”

An hour ago he had sat himself down on the couch where Combeferre was relaxing with a Ron Currie novel and spread his legs out over Combeferre’s lap, sketching furiously with the simple explanation he was working on his next tattoo design. Combeferre had been more than happy with the silent company and the warmth of Grantaire’s legs over his was just an added bonus.

“May I see?” He asked, marking his place and putting the book down. 

As slowly and dramatically as he turned around the paper, so did his smile grow into a self satisfied smirk. Combeferre’s eyes widened.

“You did this... For what?”

“Why not?” Grantaire replied, and it was evident he was struggling to hide his laughter. 

“Why?” Combeferre stared at the sketch and rubbed his temples.

Grantaire couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst into a fit of immature laughter as though he’d just gotten away with sneaking finger bunny ears behind somebody’s head in a picture. 

“Why not?” He repeated through his laughter. “It’s your face on mothmans body!”

“Yeah.” Combeferre shook his head. “I can see that very clearly.”

“I’m sorry,” Grantaire said his laughter dying down. “But I’m not sorry.”

This time it was Combeferre’s turn to smirk. 

“Don’t say sorry to me, I’m not the one that’s going to have that permanently on my body.”

“It’s going to be my favourite piece.”

“You’re not seriously going to get that as a tattoo?” Combeferre asked mortified, he’d been assuming he had been joking. Nevertheless, you could never underestimate Grantaire’s dedication to a bit.

“What’s not to love?” Grantaire asked turning the paper back around to himself and looking at it proudly. “It’s got all my favourite things, mothman, you...”

“Well, as long as you’re okay with my face on your body, I’ll grant you freedom to use it.”

"Hey, so you weren't here yesterday," Grantaire says, hoping that he comes off sounding just casually concerned about a friend, and not like he has a stupid crush on one of his regulars and can't even go a day without seeing him. "Everything alright?"

Combeferre smiles at him. "Everything's fine," he tells him. "I do this thing sometimes where I hole myself up in my room because I need to think. I was trying to figure something out yesterday, it took me the whole day."

"Oh," Grantaire says. "What was it about? Is it personal? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to tell me, I mean I know I'm just y'know, the person you chat with when you come in to browse for books and you probably don't want to share too many details of your life with me because ha, I might be out to steal your identity or some shit-"

"Grantaire," Combeferre interrupts him, grinning. "You're ranting."

"Shit, fuck, sorry." He can feel his cheeks heat up, and god, he's fucking stupid when he has a crush. He wants to go back to before he realised he had a crush on Combeferre. He was better then.

"I have a crush on someone," Combeferre tells him, and Grantaire's heart stops for a few moments.

"Yeah?" he croaks out, because Combeferre is obviously waiting for a reaction.

"I think he likes me back," Combeferre tells him, voice quiet. "I was brainstorming about how to proceed yesterday, and by the time I came up with an idea and saw the time, it was already too late to go walk him home from work."

Grantaire stops breathing. 

"I like you, Grantaire," Combeferre says, smiling shyly at him. "Would you like to go on a date with me?"

Combeferre's always been comforted by the names on either side of his wrist. He's always been a little bit different even since he was young, a little more mature than most kids, a little more boring, and he isn't sure that he's changed much since then, and before he reached 18, he's always had some doubts about having a soulmate, someone out there who is just right for him, so when he hits his birthday and finds not one, but two names, he's secretly so glad, because wow, will you look at that! Two people in this world who could grow to love him the way he is.