#ravieddie

Eddie learned a whole lot from Josh in a very short period of time, both about himself and the queer community at large. Also about Josh. Josh is apparently dating some fire captain who treats him like a prince and takes him on vacations and surprises him with little things here and there, and Josh reciprocates but also plays up his appreciation with fluttered eyelashes and sexual favors that he was going to provide anyway because the guy--according to him--is so hot that Josh would fuck him even if he came with a million red flags. He just wouldn't also be falling in love with him. Probably.

Good for him.

So Eddie is a little buzzed and leaning against his fridge, letting the metal cool his forehead as he looks down at his text thread with Ravi. Ravi had asked if he wanted to go on a hike in a couple days.

Eddie texts back.

Buy me lunch after and we got a deal.

Ravi asks if he wants pizza or something healthier like poke or smoothie bowls or whatever.

Eddie bites his lip, caught between wanting to say he's fine with whatever, because that's the polite thing to do, and picking something.

Pizza 😘

He hears the telltale signs of Chris trying to sneakily watch some streamer, even though Eddie confiscates his headphones at night, and sighs.

"Excuse me, sir, my ears aren't that old yet!" he calls.

"Sorry, Dad!" Chris calls back.

Eddie pokes his head into the room and gets into a glaring contest with him until they cross their eyes at each other. "Go to bed, make me look like a responsible father," he begs.

"I'm not supposed to lie," Chris says primly, setting his phone on the nightstand.

Eddie jokingly circles his fists like an old school gentleman boxer but swoops in and kisses his son on the forehead instead, being extra loud about it because nothing is worse to a teenage boy than a forehead kiss from Dad, even when no one's around to tease him about it.

"Gross," Chris declares, but he grins. "Good night, Dad."

"'Night, kiddo," he says, closing the door behind him on the way out. He waits a few seconds to make sure the phone isn't coming back out before he starts getting ready for bed.

--

The hike is nice. Really, it's a walk uphill. But it's nice. Eddie finally asks Ravi about the paying for everything thing.

"I don't have any dependents except a cat, and I have a second source of income," Ravi reminds him. "So I've got the money, I don't mind using it on people."

"Is it people or just me, though?" Eddie asks, and Ravi suddenly finds the view extra interesting. "Is it a charity case situation or--"

"No," Ravi says quickly, shaking his head. "Hell no."

Eddie sits on a rock and pops open his water bottle, taking a long drink. "So you're into me?"

Ravi looks at the sky now and then at Eddie. He laughs like he's about to play it off, turn it into a joke, but Eddie knows he doesn't look like he's joking.

"I think I'm more, uh, complicated than I thought," Eddie says, feeling his face get hot. "About how I feel about people. It's one of those things where you assume everyone's like you or that something about you is a little broken or different. So I thought, 'Yeah, maybe some people are just fine without being with someone, but I should do it anyway because that's the thing you're supposed to do. Especially with a kid involved.'"

Ravi sits next to him slowly. "Okay," he says, clearly not sure where Eddie's going with this.

"I don't go and pick people up because I don't want to, and I don't really get when people are flirting with me most of the time because I don't really flirt on purpose," he says. "I have to, like, know someone. Care about them. Does that sound crazy?"

"No," Ravi says, smiling and shaking his head as he looks over at him. "No, it doesn't. I've got a couple friends like that. Or kind of like that, I guess. And it's okay, you don't have to be into me. That's not going to make me stop hanging out with you."

Eddie blinks, realizing he probably forgot a really crucial point. "No, I'm saying I am into you, I just didn't figure it out because I'm really bad at figuring it out."

Ravi's eyebrows raise. "Oh!"

"Holy shit, I suck at this," Eddie groans, wishing he'd kept his ballcap on so he could pull it over his eyes.

"Nah, you're just not used to it," Ravi says, and Eddie snorts softly. "Okay, yeah, you do. But it's okay. I kind of like that you do."

Eddie smiles and glances at him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Ravi looks over at him, and he smiles. He's so pretty when he smiles. He's pretty all the time, but especially when he smiles.

So Eddie leans over and kisses him. It's not perfect, he almost unbalances himself on the rock, and Ravi's face is a little turned away from his. But then he saves Eddie by holding his jaw and kissing back, and it's kind of great.

"So I guess you will be my sugar daddy," Eddie teases, then regrets it. "It's not because of that. And you don't--"

"Dude, chill out," Ravi says, laughing and leaning in to press his forehead to Eddie's. "I'll pay for shit when I want to pay for shit because I want to, alright? And you don't owe me anything."

Eddie nods and hesitates before kissing him again. "Yeah, alright. But maybe let me do some shit for you once in a while."

Ravi grins, easy and lazy and pretty. "You can do whatever you want."

--

It's not transactional or anything, but Eddie does thank Ravi whenever his card comes out or his phone taps against something to pay, which isn't every time. It's just most of the time. And when it's just them, Eddie will put his knees on either side of Ravi's thighs and lean in close and thank him again before he kisses him.

It builds from there. Ravi tells Chimney they both need a week off, Eddie has Chris stay with Pepa, and he's suddenly being taken to New York just because he'd mentioned he never saw it outside of a layover once from overseas.

There, Eddie stretches out on a bed in a hotel and looks over his shoulder at Ravi, who's looking at him like he's an entire meal.

"Nice room," Eddie comments, stretching some more, letting his knees spread. He's still damp from showering after they arrived in the room, and there's a towel across his ass.

Ravi's hand slides up Eddie's inner thigh, pushing the towel up and up until the cool air of the room is hitting his ass. "I'm glad you like it."

Eddie slides back a little, pushing his ass into Ravi's hand. "Th-thank you."

"You notice how they thought you were going to be covering it?" Ravi asks, pulling the towel off and spreading his hands over Eddie's ass, spreading him open a little and making him gasp. "That happens a lot. You get the bill, you get asked for a card for the tab, the room."

His face burns, and he tucks his cheek against his shoulder. "'S because I'm older."

"Probably," Ravi agrees, kissing his lower back. "But you don't mind, right?"

Eddie shakes his head and chokes out, "N-no."

Ravi kisses his tailbone, and Eddie spreads his knees a little more. "No...."

He swallows, gulping in a lungful of air as he arches back against his mouth. "No, Daddy."

Ravi swears and licks him, pressing a sucking kiss against his rim, and Eddie grabs his own hair in his hands and pushes back against him.

When Ravi fucks him on the bed, they're facing the window, and Eddie realizes the room's got a great view. It's looking down 5th, and he can see the edge of the Empire State Building as Ravi drives into him. He grinds back against him and starts to straighten up. When Ravi pulls out, Eddie turns and pushes him onto his back, sinking back down on his cock with a groan.

"Let me do some of the work," he teases, rocking against his pelvis and gasping at the stretch. "You did all this for me, I think you earned it, Daddy."

Ravi covers his eyes with his arm and chokes out a laugh before he grabs Eddie's hips and licks his lips, watching Eddie start to ride him. "Go ahead, baby."

And it goes from being kind of a joke to really not being one as Eddie rides his cock until Ravi's gripping his hips and fucking into him in short, hard thrusts. He doesn't waste any time after he cums, sitting up and kissing Eddie as he jerks himself off over Ravi's stomach.

"Christ," Eddie pants against his shoulder.

"Don't tell anyone," Ravi says, cradling Eddie's face in his hands and kissing him. "But it's my birthday tomorrow, so that's why we're actually here."

Eddie grins and nuzzles their noses together. "Yeah, I know. I've got, like, five birthday cards in my bag for you. And I bought us tickets to go see a play on Friday, that's why I said we needed to move dinner."

"Can't believe you lied to me about a late telehealth appointment." Ravi kisses him and smiles. "Tickets to a play sounds expensive."

"Wasn't cheap," Eddie agrees.

Ravi kisses him again, grabbing his ass and biting his lip as he smiles. "Trying to out-daddy me?"

Eddie laughs and wraps his arms around his neck. "Shut up."

"Seriously, I need to know if you're coming for my--"

Which is to say that Ravi turns into an idiot. He turns into the guy who tries too hard to be normal, so he's acting like a dumbass.

He's at Eddie's place, because he needed help setting up a new laptop for Chris. He didn't want to track what Chris was doing, he just wanted to keep him from accessing some apps and sites.

"There goes my porn collection," Chris says, and Eddie's head whips around so fast Ravi swears he can hear the air move. "I'm joking, Dad."

Eddie starts muttering furiously in Spanish while Chris snickers at him and Ravi tries not to laugh.

"Don't pretend you didn't have a stash at that age," Ravi says in a low tone.

"Yeah, and then he showed up a few years later," Eddie hisses, nodding toward his son. "Lock it down, Rav."

Ravi hands over the newly parental controlled laptop, and Chris thanks him happily before taking it to go video chat with his cousins.

"Thank you," Eddie says, digging his fingertips into his eyes and rubbing. "His old one up and died on us, and he needs it for school."

"All good," Ravi says, smiling when Eddie shoots him a grateful look before flopping down on the couch next to him. His knees are as far apart as they can get, so one of them is pressing against the side of Ravi's thigh. "You okay? You seem kinda--I dunno."

"Just dealing with some stuff," Eddie says vaguely. "The new therapist is, uh, helping. Well, mostly with the PTSD stuff. But the other stuff, too. It's helping. I think. I don't know. How do you know when it's helping?"

"You look at who you were a year ago or a month ago, and if you think that guy needs help, then you're probably doing better than you were."

Eddie smiles and nudges his leg with his knee. "I blew up my life a year ago, so this is better."

"Good," Ravi says, and he really means it. "I'm glad hanging out with me is an improvement over...all that."

"Shut up," Eddie says, nudging him again. He turns his head so his cheek is pressing against the couch and he's looking at Ravi, who's looking at him. "I think hanging out with you is one of the best parts of coming back here."

Ravi feels like his stomach is in his chest and his heart is in his throat. It's a mess. His brain is just gone. As his mom would say, he's left his brain at home.

It's the only explanation for why he'd lean over and kiss Eddie. It hits him fast that he's just done something really stupid and goes to jump to his feet, but a hand encircles his forearm, and he looks back at Eddie just as another hand comes up to cradle his jaw.

Eddie's kissing him.

They're sober and it's still daylight outside and Eddie's kissing him. He breaks the kiss, and Eddie's eyes are slow to open, and then he's leaning in again and pressing Ravi back against the arm of the couch.

He's got a knee against Eddie's hip, and Eddie's got an arm around him and keeps kissing him like he wants to be kissing him and has wanted to be kissing him. He's getting hard. They both are. Ravi feels like a teenager again making out on his lab partner's couch, his head swimming as he just tries to keep up.

A car alarm goes off outside, and they spring apart.

"I should go," Ravi says, and Eddie nods from where he's sitting on the couch. Ravi pokes his head into the other room and tells Chris goodbye. And then he leaves.

They have work a couple days later, and it's profoundly awkward. Except he doesn't think anyone else notices. It's only awkward for Ravi by the standard of how he and Eddie normally interact with each other. There's no glances shared over the heads of their coworkers, Eddie doesn't put a hand on Ravi's wrist or back or arm to get his attention, Ravi doesn't stand right up against him while he shows him a video on his phone.

Instead, there's awkwardness. Or tension. Ravi can't tell which one it is until he ducks into the laundry room, since no one else has any reason to be in there. A minute later, the door opens, and Eddie's there with his back against the door. And then Eddie's crossing the space between them and pressing Ravi against the dryer that never fully dries anything.

They're kissing again, and Ravi wants to strip them both out of their clothes and hold onto Eddie while he rides him. Or is ridden by him. He's not picky, especially not with an ass like Eddie's. They're at work, though, so the best he can hope for is making out.

Except Eddie is grinding against him and kissing along his jaw, and Ravi's not usually this sensitive, but this has been a powder keg with a match hovering over it for a while.

"Want you," Eddie says against his skin, his hand gripping Ravi's ass and pulling their hips flush together.

"W-we can't do that here," Ravi protests, even as he arches against Eddie and curls his fingers in the hair at the crown of his head.

Eddie raises his head from Ravi's neck, his eyes sparkling and his lips curving into a smile. "What about my place?"

"We're here for, like, nine and a half more hours," Ravi points out with a laugh, biting his lip when Eddie keeps grinding slowly against him. "You really want to do this first thing in the morning?"

"Mm, I like morning sex," Eddie says, pressing a gentle kiss to Ravi's mouth. "You can see everything. I wanna see you."

Ravi laughs again, because this is insane. "Are you serious?"

"Don't I feel serious?" he teases with a pointed grind.

He presses a firm hand to Eddie's chest as he bites back a moan. "Okay, yeah, but that's not helping right now."

Eddie backs off, hands raised, and he's still smiling. "Okay, fair enough."

Ravi huffs out a laugh, slumping against the dryer. "This is a really bad idea."

"I'm full of bad ideas."

"So I've heard." Ravi hooks a thumb in his waistband and tries to will his dick to calm down, realizes he's going to need to take a cold shower like a teenager. "There are way less stupid ways to dip your toes in the dude pond, you know."

Eddie raises his eyebrows. "People don't actually say that, do they? But also, I know, alright? I just--I really like you, and I keep thinking about you and about kissing you and then I thought about some other stuff and had to lock myself in my bathroom while I dealt with that. Am I being crazy? Like, there's something here, right?"

Ravi weighs his options, figures it's time for him to finally do an ethically questionable thing. Yeah, he'd defied the US military, but that was for the team. This is for him.

The 118 A-shift really is the worst influence.

"Yeah," he says, trailing his fingers over the buttons of Eddie's shirt. "Yeah, there's something here."

He pulls Eddie into another kiss before gently pushing him away and leaving the laundry room.

In the morning, after he's stopped at home and showered and changed, he knocks on Eddie's door, and Eddie pulls him inside with a hand on the back of his neck. They kiss on the way to his bedroom, and Ravi lets Eddie push him down the bed. When they get each other naked, Eddie spends a long time looking at him and running his hands all over, and Ravi smiles when Eddie catches his eye and flushes pink.

"I've never done this before," Eddie admits, and it's charming as hell.

"Yeah, I kind of figured," Ravi says, laughing. "It's fine. Just--here."

He rolls Eddie onto his back and presses their bodies together, and Ravi slides his fingers between Eddie's, lightly pinning him to the bed as he grinds against him. Eddie pants against his mouth and jaw and tells him he feels good, and he's so pretty when he cums that Ravi wishes he had a picture of it.

It doesn't take much for Ravi to get off from there--he feels like he's been on the edge of it for about three months now. Eddie gropes around, grabs a shirt, and wipes them down. Then he pulls Ravi into his arms and wraps a leg around him.

"Why?" Ravi asks. "What got you to--why?"

"My kid teased me about having a crush on you, and my shrink asked if I had 'romantic inclinations' toward you. I dunno. I just like you," he says, and Ravi raises his head to kiss him. "I don't do casual real well, believe it or not. Or at all, actually."

Ravi smiles, brushing their noses together. "I can work with not casual."

Eddie smiles, kisses Ravi quick and sweet. "Let me take you dancing, then."

"You can dance?"