#dunquerke

Peter: *helps George onto the counter*

Modern Dunkirk: Collins&Farrier - Coffee Shop + Single Parent + Police AU

Rating: PG-13 for language

Summary: you and Fionn pine over eachother for far too long and are reaping no benefits until Fionn finally snaps.

Requested: yes!!

//

It was 2:37 a.m. and you had been trying to sleep for hours now. You'd tossed and turned, adjusted your blankets, and flipped your pillows to the cool side so often that there was no longer any sides left to offer cool relief to your face. You reached for your phone blindly, wrapping your fingers around the familiar shape and squinting as the light bore shamelessly into your eyes. You sat up, beginning to scroll through your notifications.

There was nothing from Fionn. Usually, Fionn messaged you at least a few times a day. Since the morning after Harry's party, all you'd received was dead, heavy silence.

You couldn't help but wonder what you had done to deserve the silent treatment. You weren't the one that had confessed you wanted more than a friendship and then acted like it never happened. You didn't know what you could possibly text to bridge the widening gap between you. Not knowing what came over you, all your inhibitions suddenly fled your body, and you pressed the familiar call button that was next to Fionn's name in his contact.

The phone rang agonizingly slow, the tone seeming to mock you before suddenly the line connected and you felt your breath catch in your throat when Fionn's voice wafted from your phone speakers to your ears. "Heyy, YN, 'm s' glad ya called- thought you weren't goin' t' talk to me for a long time, because of what I said the other night- when I said I wanted to make love to ya-" He was drunk. You didn't know why you heart sank at the realization you weren't going to be able to have a normal conversation. You figured it had something to do with the fact that over the time you'd spent not talking to Fionn, you'd had time to reflect and realize that you probably (definitely) liked your friend as more than a friend. The phone was snatched away from Fionn before you had a chance to say anything at all, now Harry's voice filled the void, straining to talk over the loud background noises, country music and loud talking, the sound of shuffling feet and glasses clinking all at once like a chaotic symphony. "Hi, love," "Hey, Harry, you guys partying hard?" You were teasing but part of you was a little tender at not being invited out like you normally were. "He dragged us out to some shit country bar, and now he's drunk off his ass. He's been miserable, YN, the only thing he's consumed since he dropped you off at home is vodka-" "Excuse me, I've been doing shots, Har, don't make me sound effeminate," you could hear Fionn yelling in the background and some fumbling over the phone, Harry scolding Fionn and refusing to let him embarrass himself on the phone. Harry said something else about how alcohol had no tie to how masculine anyone was, and you had to smile at your friend, glad he was there to look after your friend- well, friend and crush, and love interest, you figured.

"He's out here makin' a fool 'f 'himself, says 'e can't go home 'cause everything there reminds 'im of ya," You sighed. "Why won't he just tell me how he feels, or at least what he's thinking, then? Until now I had no idea he even remembered hitting on me drunk at that party, or if he really felt that way," Harry paused, you could hear him telling Fionn to get off of something or other before he got hurt and you could only imagine the shenanigans that he was getting into. Maybe he was flirting with other girls just like he'd flirted with you. You tried to banish the thought because even thinking about Fionn hitting on other girls when you were just starting to think of him as more than a friend made you queasy. "Love, he's crying again, do you want to talk to him? I can't get him to come down from the table and the bartenders here are getting rather annoyed with him," you agreed quietly, and heard a brief moment with no voices, before Fionns voice flooded your senses. "Harry says I've got to get down, I don't want to get down- I just want to be high," with that your friend giggled and you hated to have to be the voice of reason that would shut down his drunken fun. You could hear in his voice that he had indeed been crying at least a little bit and you hated the thought of your best friend crying on your account. "Are you okay, Finn?" He replied quickly with no inhibitions:

"I like it when you call me Finn, makes me feel special, I like it when you call me love, too, you only call me nice names like that when we're drunk, though," he spoke into the phone, you could hear Harry coaxing him to do something in the background. "Alright, love, just listen to Harry and let him get you home safe, okay?" He whined your name and you could nearly see him throwing his head back, always one for the dramatics. "But I want to sleep with you again, my bed feels like shit without you, that's why I'm out s' late, I can't sleep anymore, and I look like a damn lightweight out 'ere b'cause I can't eat and I can't talk t' ye because I'm too nervous around you when 'm sober nowadays," his long, run-on sentence had you feeling slightly jarred, yet warm at the same time. "Finn, you don't mean that you're just drunk, let Harry get you a snack when you get home and you'll sleep like a baby-" "No, YN, you're not listenin' t' me! I fucking love you, YN, and I can't even talk t' you anymore because I can't keep secrets from you and all I do is mope around and I'm only happy after I've had some shots and I can stop pretending not to be in love with you-"

You could hear his voice growing slightly frantic and you rushed to calm him down in a soothing voice. "Finn, can you please tell me this when you're sober, I think I like you but-" "Ya think? YN I just told ye that I'm in goddamn love with ye- and ya can't even tell me ye flat out like me?" The line went completely dead before you could even get a syllable out of your mouth, the monotone noise haunting your ears.

Unable to sleep, Fionn raced through your mind faster than ever before, his broken voice, his drunken giggles, his confession of being in love with you and his heartbroken tone after you tried to tell him how you felt. You tried and tried to send him a text that would convey how you felt but nothing you typed felt good enough so you settled for texting Harry, who you correctly assumed was with Fionn still. You asked how he was and Harry replied that your mutual friend would be fine besides a hangover and bruised pride. You got up the nerve to ask if Harry believed Fionn's feelings were genuine, or if he was just allowing the alcohol to create an illusion. Harry replied that he thought you should trust your feelings, and that things really couldn't get much worse then they were now. Harry then reported that Fionn had now locked himself in Harry's bathroom to cry. The two of you agreed over text to call it a night and you found yourself finally falling asleep as the sun was coming up. When you finally awoke it was mid-day and you only had a few texts, thankfully among those in your inbox sat one from Harry, as well as one from Fionn. +Fionn: so I guess we should probably talk about whatever this is before I get alcohol poisoning +Harry: TALK TO HIM!!!!!!! HE LIKES YOU!!!!!!!! JUST TELL HIM HOW YOU FEEL!!!!!!!! GOOD LUCK!!!!

You responded an eye rolling emoji to Harry's, knowing it was definitely the easier of the two messages to answer. You then shuffled around your phone to text Finn back. You created and deleted multiple drafts before finally sending one. +YN: yeah that might be good, the doctors will not view your drinking habits as kindly as a bartender... +Fionn: sorry for hanging up on you last night all of a sudden I guess I'm just turning into more and more of a messy drunk, as you say +YN: it's okay, are you free today? We could talk over hangover food? +Fionn: that sounds amazing, I'll be over with drive thru food if you want to get take-out delivered to yours?? +YN: I'll see you soon then, drive safe!!! +Fionn: anything for you, see you soon YN You'd thought you were ready for Fionn to walk through your door, you'd never cared how you looked in front of Fionn before and you couldn't fathom why all of a sudden you would care even slightly more now. You put on a cute pair of sweats and made yourself look as though you'd slept soundly though the previous night even though both you and Fionn knew neither of you had. Fionn had had a key to your apartment for as long as you'd had one, he almost contemplated moving in with you but had decided against it at the time. Now thinking back on it you wondered if he'd had feelings for you way back then. You shouldn't have jumped in surprise when your door gently swung open with the rustling of plastic bags, you were used to Fionn coming in this way, it happened at least once a week when Fionn wasn't out working on some project. Fionn noticed and cringed slightly, but pretended he didn't, looking down to take off his shoes while trying to balance the weight of the plastic shopping bags on his arms. "Oh, here, let me help, I can grab some-"

You hopped up quickly from the couch and over the back of it to get to Fionn. The second your hand touched his arm, you both suddenly stopped what you were doing for just a millisecond, distracted by the obvious feelings you both got from being in contact, a product of the long time apart paired with the tension between you. The pause wasn't long, just long enough for Fionn's voice to halt in the middle of his sentence. "Oh no I've got-" He trailed off. You both looked up at each other from what you were doing, and Fionn hung his head, lifting up one arm with the least amount of groceries and using his hand to comb back his hair firmly. He continued to talk, your arms falling limply at your sides. "I've really fucked things up, 'aven't I?" He exhaled heavily and you were quick to insist that he hadn't, but you knew your voice sounded weak and you weren't even sure of your own words. You didn't believe Fionn had ruined everything, but you knew things couldn't go back to being just the way they were before and for a moment that terrified you before you reminded yourself that you wanted things to change. Fionn had made you aware of your feelings for him unknowingly, and now you had to find the courage to tell him. "No, I mean things are different now- we're being all weird, trying to act like I didn't tell you that I loved you last night drunk over the phone, and that a few nights before I didn't hit on you, fuck, YN, I'm sorry-" You tried to catch a break in his words to speak your mind but Fionn shook his head desperately. "No, YN, please let me say this while I have the nerve. I know you don't feel the same way, I just got a little sore over it for some reason and you know me, I can't keep anything in for shit with you- especially not when I'm drunk. You have every right not to want to be friends anymore, you don't have to have me over and I can give you back my key and-" "Finn, shut up," you couldn't help but see him for a moment the way that you did before any of the events leading to this moment had even begun. You saw your friend looking tired and defeated and you hated it. You didn't know how to possibly make it better instantly so you just hugged him, your arms wrapping around his neck. The two of you were no strangers to this position and it felt more natural than anything else between the two of you in the last few days. "Love, just stop for a minuet, okay," you spoke softly Fionn was terrified that this was some kind of goodbye. Within a second, all of the bags were on the floor and Fionn's arms were wrapped around you. "You only call me that when-" He started to speak but you only hugged him tighter, it was effective in getting him to halt his seemingly constant stream of words. "Finn, I've been wanting to call you love when we were both sober for longer than I even knew. I'm not mad, I don't want you to leave," "But last night-" "Fuck last night, I would have told you how I felt, I was just scared it was the drinks talking again but I talked to Harry and I thought about it and damn it, Finn, I think I love you," Fionn had never, ever thought he'd hear those beautiful words fall from your mouth, at least not directed at him. He felt as though he was in some sort of fever dream and even if he was, he'd rather sleep forever than ever leave this moment. Now things were moving at lightning speed and neither of you seemed to care.

"Finn, I don't want you to give me the key back, I want you to stay as long as you can because I've missed you like crazy," And with that Fionn released you slightly from his grip, his hands hanging on your hips, your own remaining around his neck. "Can I kiss you? Is it too soon, you can say n-" and with that you brought your hands to either sides of his face and you kissed him. It took him no time at all to respond and neither of you pulled away until you were in need of air with butterflies in your stomachs and your lips feeling purely electric.

"I love you, YN, I have for such a long time, told Harry that last night while I was cryin' like a baby, he told me I'd better tell you that, I'm so fuckin' glad I did," "Me too, my love," And that was that. The two of you broke apart and began to set up your evening as always, but this time it felt better than ever. Little did either of you know, Harry figured this had happened and was doing a victory lap around his apartment at his success as matchmaker.