#dexydex

Nursey reaches for his phone, yanking it out of its charger and turning the screen on, the ache in his chest getting more painful when he saw there was nothing there.

He swallowed against the lump in his throat and dropped his phone back off the edge of his bed, pulling his blanket over his head and trying to force himself not to think about Dex, or this whole situation, but it didn’t work, leaving him aching and tired and incredibly sad.

He doesn’t know how long he stays curled there, hidden from the world and suffocating from all the thoughts in his head, before he hears the door open and shut.

“I’m ba-Derek?”

Will.

And suddenly Nursey is crying uncontrollably, and he doesn’t notice when exactly Dex crawls under the blanket with him and starts trying to soothe him, but there he is, holding Nursey like he’s something fragile and precious and-

And somehow that makes Nursey cry even harder, every dark, intrusive thought seeming unimportant and false in Dex’s arms.

When he calms down enough to speak, he tries to tell Dex, trying to hide the pathetic whine in his voice, “I thought you-“

“Well, you thought wrong, Nurse.” Dex interrupts, stroking his thumb through the tears on Nursey’s face. “I’m here, and you’re not getting rid of me anytime soon.”

Ransom and Holster let out scandalized gasps. “Frogs!” Ransom says, standing up and knocking Holster in the nose with his shoulder. He continues, undeterred. “We will get you dates to Winter Screw! It is our job, our sacred duty-”

“Rans-” Holster is holding his nose, head tipped back.

“No Samwell Men’s Hockey Player has gone dateless in over a decade-”

“You guys went stag last year-” Nursey chimes in, eyes flicking between Holster and Ransom.

“A decade! And as we are the captains of this fine team-”

“Ransy, I-”

“Holster, lemme finish my speech, I just-” Ransom glances over at Holster, and notices the thin stream of blood coming from his nose. “Oh shit, dude. What happened?”

Holster glares at him witheringly. “You happened.” He says, still pinching his nose. “Use that future doctor ability to patch me up, asshole.”

Ransom winces, and nods. “Okay.” He starts to herd Holster out of the room, but not before turning back and pointing a finger at each of them in turn. “This isn’t over.”

Dex sighs, slumping in his chair and pulling his laptop closer. He regrets not lying and saying he was taking some girl from one of his classes like his first instinct had been. Because Ransom and Holster? Were terrible at dates. It was practically common knowledge at this point, that of one of them set you up with someone, it was bound to go horribly wrong.

“You know, it’s not too late to take that Erica girl you were talking about with Lardo the other day.” Nurse says, leaning back in his chair and propping up a tattered copy of Leaves of Grass on his knee.

Dex flushes instantly. Because he hadn’t been talking about a girl at all, but instead Nurse himself. And how fucked he was when it came to his stupid goddamn crush on him. Nurse had just walked in on the tail end of his bemoaning to Lardo and believed Dex’s stupid lie.

Nursey grins as Dex goes redder, and waggles his eyebrows. “Or maybe you already have, and you didn’t want to tell anyone, huh Dex? Did you already get her-” Nursey rocks too far back on his chair, and crashes to the floor, limbs sprawling across the linoleum tile. “Fuck.”

Dex leans over, and arches an eyebrow, smug. “That’s the universe telling you to shut the fuck up, Nursey.”

Nursey flips him off, but lets the matter of Winter Screw go.

Dex fools himself into thinking Ransom and Holster have forgotten about getting him a date to Winter Screw. That is, until they bust open his dorm room door an hour before the dance was supposed to start, holding a suit he hadn’t even known had gone missing, and looking much too devious.

Ransom tackles him as he tries to dodge into the bathroom and lock himself in. “Oh, no you don’t.” Holster says, blocking the bathroom door. “We went to all this trouble to find you a date, and you’re going.”

Dex squirms away from Ransom, and flips around to face them. “First of all, why don’t you guys ever knock like civilised human beings. Second of all-”

Holster claps a hand over his mouth. “Stop bitching, Dex, and get in your suit so Ransom can do your hair and make you look pretty.”

Dex glares at him, and licks his palm, making Holster squeal. “Fine. But if my date’s a douche, I’m leaving. Also, why are you even here if Ransom is the one doing all the work?”

Holster shrugs. “Back-up, bro.”

Dex sighs, and begins putting on the suit. He knows with these two, there’s no use in arguing too much. They’ll just find some other motivation to make him go, and last time Chowder had tried to get out of team breakfast to take Caitlyn on a date, they frog-walked him all the way to the dining hall, and called Caitlyn to let her know he wasn’t coming.

An hour later, Dex’s hair was as tame as it ever had been, and he was dressed to the nines. He was pretty sure the shoes were an old pair of Ransom’s, and the hole from the last time he’d worn this particular suit had been patched. Dex tried to thank them, but Ransom waved him off. “S’what captains are for. Got your back, bro.”

So the trio exited Dex’s dorm, Ransom and Holster still dressed in gym shorts and tank tops (“we’ll be fashionably late”), and Dex looking like an awkward eighth grader at their first dance.

“Are you guys gonna tell me who my date is, or do I just have to stand out front of the ballrooms with a sign that says “ginger hockey player looking for mystery stranger” all night?” Dex grumped, hands shoved in his pockets as they walked to the student center.

Holster snorted. “You’ll know.”

Dex frowned, and looked over at him. “How will I-”

Ransom jostled him, bumping their shoulders together. “Dex. You’ll know. We promise.”

Dex stared between them for a few more beats, and then sighed. “Fine.”

They dropped him off in front of the ballrooms, but not before making him promise he’d stay there, because his date was on the way. Dex promised, and folded himself into a corner bench, watching people dressed in shiny cocktail dresses and pressed suits worth more than his car stream by.

“Dex?” He looked up, and saw Nursey walking over.

“Hey.” Dex said, lifting a hand in greeting.

“What’s up?” Nursey collapsed on the bench next to him, and knocked his knee into Dex’s.

Dex shrugged. “Waiting for my date. Ransom and Holster won’t tell me who it is.”

Nursey stared at him for a second, and then held out a hand. “Wanna dance?”

Dex frowned. “Dude, I just said I’m supposed to wait here.”

Nursey rolled his eyes. “I know. But sitting out here all alone is no fun. C’mon, dance with me. I’m sure Rans and Holts made sure your date knew what you looked like.”

Dex stared up at Nursey for a second, and then shrugged again. “Fuck it, this night is already weird enough.”

Nursey dragged him into the throng of dancers. He knew Dex wasn’t a great dancer, and was more inclined to stiff awkwardness than anything resembling actual dancing, so he proceeded to take Dex’s hands and make wild gestures and stupid facial expressions until Dex was laughing so hard that he didn’t notice how no one else was even paying attention to them in the first place.

They stayed that way for the rest of the night, attached at the hip. Every time Dex started making noise about finding his date, Nursey would convince him to dance with him again. They sat out the slow ones, and Dex only wished on the first few that he’d just manned up and asked Nursey to come with him. Because the idea of being pressed up close to Nursey like that gave him the best kind of butterflies, and he found himself wanting.

“Hey, last dance.” Nursey said. The ballrooms were near empty now, the students dispersed to various parties across campus, leaving not even an eighth of the attendees left.

Dex took his hand, and Nursey pulled him close. They were standing at the very edge of the dance floor, and the music was drifting into slow dance material. “Nurse-”

“Dex, it’s fine. What’s a fun night without a slow dance with your best bro?”

The words “best bro” simultaneously made Dex’s heart lift and plummet, because that’s all they were. Bros.

Dex was quiet for a few seconds, dancing slowly in a circle with Nursey. “You know-”

“I want to-” They started at the same time. Nursey nodded at him to continue.

“You know, I hope my date isn’t too mad I ditched them. I mean, Ransom and Holster went to all that trouble and I feel like kind of dick not even trying to find them. Maybe I can shoot them a text-”

“It’s me.”

Dex stopped. “What?”

Nursey looked sheepish. “I, um, I’m your date? They set you up with me?”

Dex’s lips pursed. Oh. “As friends, right. Because we didn’t have dates.” He tried to keep the dejection out of his voice, but he didn’t think he accomplished it very well.

“No, no, Dex.” Nursey’s hand lifted, and cupped his cheeks. “No I, uh, asked them. To set us up. As a secret.”

Dex frowned, tilting away from Nursey’s hand. “Why? As a joke?”

Nursey shook his head. “No.”

Dex continued to frown, forehead creasing in confusion, frustration. “Why?”

Nursey laughed, and shook his head. “C’mon Dex, you’re not this dumb.” Dex glared at him. “Because I like you, stupid.”

Dex’s stomach bottomed out. “Oh.”

Nursey rolled his eyes, but flashed Dex a fond smile. “Yeah, oh. I like you. And I was like, kind of hoping maybe you liked me too?”

Dex bit his lip, rolling the skin between his teeth. “I like you, too.”

Nursey arched an eyebrow, still smiling. “Do you?”

Dex nudged him, but pulled him closer to knock their foreheads together. “Yeah.”

Nursey grinned, blinding. “Cool.” He said, stepping as close as he could to Dex. “Cool.”

The song ended, and they continued to sway for a few more moments, grinning at each other. Finally, Dex stepped back, but reached out and grabbed Nursey’s hand. “C’mon. I think there’s a party at the house, and we have some people to thank.”