#rhss16

Paper Faces On Parade

Come One Come All To The Masquerade Ball!

December 25th, 1946

Once again it is that time of the year. Time for the annual New Year's Eve fundraising ball at The Grand Rooster Theater And Opera House. The theme of this year’s ball is ‘Masquerade’. Come dressed to the nines, ballgowns and tuxes and masks, for a night of mystery and intrigue. Tickets are $20.00 each, all funds go to the theater. Can you find your friends amongst the faces of paper and lace?

Mica read the announcement in the paper on Christmas morning. She went to the ball every year, having been a lover of the theater since she was a little girl, her father an actor himself. The Grand Rooster Theater And Opera House had been where she had seen her first play, and she was a proud supporter of the establishment.

The theme of the year sounded exciting, romantic even. The mystery and excitement of meeting people, having no idea who they were, fleeting romances and such. She was excited to say the least.

Blaine read the same paper on Christmas evening, sighing at the announcement. His family were friends with the family that owned the theater, so he went to the annual ball every year. That fact alone was a cause of dread for Blaine.

Normally he wouldn’t mind a party, a chance to get out, dress up, and have a good time. But a Ball was a different story, primarily for the reason that he had never learned how to dance. Which meant he was resigned to standing to the side like a wallflower the whole night. He was not looking forward to it to say the least.

Over the next several days before New Year's, Mica busied herself with finding a gown for the occasion. She was able to find a lovely dress, a pale blue color with small darker blue butterflies stitched into the elegant flowing fabric. Her mask was a similar color with butterfly wings coming off of one side. She looked fantastic if she did say so herself.

Blaine managed to find something for the Ball just in time, after procrastinating for far too long. He wore a simple black shirt and pair of pants, with a dark red and black paisley vest, and a black cape. His mast was black on one side, with a red swirling pattern, and the other side was red with a black swirling pattern. Blaine thought he didn’t look half bad for his last minute choice in clothing.

The night of the Ball came and as soon as the sun fell people of all sorts with costumes of all kinds started flocking to the theater. Inside there was a band playing on one of the ballroom’s balconies, with one of the well known opera singers occasionally gracing them with a song.. There was a large spread of food and drinks to be had, and of course dancing in spades.

Mica entered the building looking around in wonder at the grand hall and the elaborate decorations that covered every wall and pillar in the room. All around her there were people dancing and laughing and having a grand time. The energy of the room was infectious and the costumes were gorgeous.

She wandered the hall, looking to see if she recognised anyone, speaking to anyone who’s costume or mask caught her attention. She danced with strange men and women, spinning around the room to the lively music, a smile permanently plastered onto her face.

Blaine arrived to the party and was instantly impressed when he walked inside. The decorations gave the room a sort of life it was usually void of. It seemed as though people were coming out of the woodwork, figuratively swinging from the rafters. He wondered if there would be literal swinging from the rafters by the end of the night.

He made his way through the crowd, stopping to chat with a few people here and there. The music was lively and upbeat, the kind that made you feel tingly all over. It made him wish he could dance, the floor looked so alive with the moving bodies in a variety of bright colors and materials. He was sure he had never seen this many feathers in his life.

But still he ended up in his usual spot, against the wall with a drink in his hand. He sipped it quietly as he people-watched. Most didn’t pay him much mind, too engrossed in the party around them to notice the single person who wasn’t in the crowd.

There was one person though who kept locking eyes with him, thought only for a moment each time. His eyes followed her as she flitted around the dance floor. The pale blue of her dress a stark contrast to her dark skin. She looked like some sort of fairy with all the butterflies on her dress and Blaine found her breathtaking.

There was one man, Mica noticed, standing off to the side nursing a drink. Her eyes kept going back to him. He seemed happy, but she wondered why he wasn’t joining in with the festivities. Her fixation on him could also be in part to the fact that he was quite handsome. His dark clothes made his blond hair and hazel eyes stand out. Mica was certainly captivated.

She was going to talk to him, she decided, because why not? It was a masquerade, a time for mystery and daring. She weaved her way through the crowd, grabbing a drink on her way to him.

Blaine was surprised when the fairy woman made her way over to him through the crowd. He stood a bit straighter as she reached him, smoothing out his waistcoat and trying his best to look presentable.

“What’s keeping you over here all by yourself blondie?” She asked teasingly, leaning back against the wall next to him. “Mind if I keep you company?”

Blaine’s brain froze up for a moment before he was able to re-engage his mouth. “You’re more then welcome to, though I wouldn’t dare try and keep you from the fun Ms. Fairy,” he told her with a smile, trying to be smooth, but probably just succeeding in sounding awkward.

Much to his relief though she started quietly laughing. She nodded her head saying, “You’re definitely not keeping me from the fun. Would you maybe like to dance?” She asked him with a bright smile and tilt of her head.

The strange man in the corner, who Mica had dubbed ‘Blondie’ seemed to stiffen a bit when she asked him to dance. Maybe he thought it was improper for a woman to ask a man to dance and if so she could just walk away, nothing lost.

“Well….I would,” Blondie started slowly. “But...Well I never learned how to dance.”

It took all of Mica’s strength not to start laughing there and then. Not because she thought it was funny that he didn’t know how to dance, but the way he acted about it was cute. He grew a blush on his face as she held back her laughter.

‘This is so embarrassing,’ Blaine thought to himself as the beautiful woman next to him tried desperately not to laugh at him. Surely she thought he was pathetic and was about to walk away without another word.

“I could teach you how to dance,” she said after getting her laughter under control. Blaine was surprised she was even still speaking to him, let alone offering to teach him to dance. He was hesitant, he had nearly broken the foot of the last person who tried to teach him how to dance and he definitely did not wish to repeat the experience, especially with a woman as beautiful and delicate as she was.

Mica smiled at him before taking his hand and starting to pull him onto the dance floor. “Don’t worry about it so much,” she told him over her shoulder when they reached a large enough break in the crowd for them to stand.

She pulled him close, taking his right hand with her left and placing his left hand on her shoulder. She rested her right hand on him. It was a little awkward considering how short she was, but the two of them made do.

“Stand on my feet,” she told him seriously, and Blaine almost broke away from her completely in astonishment.

“I don’t want to hurt you Ms. Fairy,” he told her. “I’m so much bigger than you, I’ll break your feet.”

“Not your whole foot Blondie,” Mica corrected herself. “Just the front of your feet covering the front of mine, you’ll rest your weight on your heels.”

He was still uncertain but slowly complied. It felt even more awkward, and Blaine felt as thought he was forced to bend his knees.

“Eyes up and look at me,” Mica instructed the other, before beginning to move, “And 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3.” She moved gracefully around the room as he followed her steps. The two of them danced together, smiling, laughing and making small talk well into the evening. The whole ordeal was far more fun then Blaine had ever thought it would be.

Then the announcement came from the balcony that it was nearly midnight. It was time for the countdown. The two stopped dancing, looking up to the balcony as everyone prepared for the count down to the New Year.

The two smiled at each other, softly. The countdown began.

10.

9.

8.

7.

6.

5.

4.

Mica reached up and pulled on Blaine’s collar bringing him down to her eye level.

3.

Blaine reached a hand up to rest on Mica’s cheek.

2.

1.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!” Came the shout from around the room as Mica and Blaine's lips met in a gentle kiss. As the two parted and the festivities continued around them they knew it wasn’t just going to be one night of dancing.

“Think I could persuade you to give me another dance lesson, Ms. Fairy?” Blaine asked the other with a small laugh.

Behind the Scenes

Geoff stepped out of the limousine and onto the plush red carpet; his black leather shoes shined to almost-mirror quality, the immaculate folds of his jet-black trousers falling to the perfectly-tailored length, smoothing his matching single-breasted jacket over them as he stood up tall. He checked his cufflinks on his freshly pressed ivory-white shirt and straightened his signature black bow tie. He should have been in his element.

He was not.

Luckily, it didn’t show on his face, as he twisted his moustache into place and ran a hand over his slicked-back hair. His heavy-lidded blue-grey eyes the only thing giving away his apprehension as they darted over the crowd.

Ryan wasn’t here yet.

He relaxed a little and made his way past the strobe lights of camera flashes with barely a smirk and a wink for them, ignoring their requests of “Mr Ramsey, over here!” and “smile for the insert-shitty-news-rag-here.” He made a beeline for the champagne and vaguely wondered if he was eccentric enough to demand a whiskey on the red carpet. Probably not the best night to test that. Things would be tense enough as it was. He snatched up a champagne flute and downed the meagre amount in one gulp, glancing around to see if anyone had noticed, but they were too busy fussing over some blonde starlet’s choice of backless sequinned gown. Although Geoff had to admit, he did look stunning in it. He set down his empty glass and took another, topping it up with the contents from a third before stalking away from the drinks table, with slightly more nerve to face the crowds. They were here for him after all.

Yeah, just keep telling yourself that.

He had every intention to, in fact. It was his film. Motherfucking Geoff Lazer Ramsey directed a goddamned film. It was his idea, his story, he’d written most of the screenplay, admittedly he’d needed a little help adapting it, but otherwise, at its core, it was almost entirely his work. He should be proud. It was a shitfight, but it was over and it turned out fine and he was proud. He was also nervous. Incredibly nervous.

His thoughts again drifted to Ryan.

He took a sip of champagne that was probably a little too long to be considered appropriate, but again, it went unnoticed. Ok, so actors generally get more recognition than their directors, that’s not unusual. Especially when they’re A-listers and you’re barely a blip on the radar. Too distant and alienated to be a Hollywood darling, not rich or mysterious enough to be considered an eccentric genius. There was plenty of drama surrounding him though; controversial enough because of its content, the film had a legacy of its own already, and its reception tonight could make or break him. He had to fight the urge to rub his hands over his face. Granted, that was easier holding a champagne flute. Instead, he took another long sip, straightened up and stepped into the crowd of reporters with a welcoming grin on his face.

“Mr Ramsey!” The first of the cries for attention went out and Geoff spun nearly a full 360 degrees to locate the source: a young brunette woman with her hair pulled fiercely back into a bun and some trash TV channel microphone with a bright pink logo emblazoned on the side.

“Care to say a few words about the alleged fallout between yourself and Ryan Haywood?”

Geoff instinctively rolled his eyes. Of course… it was always about him.

He reminded himself of the diplomatic answer he’d been rehearsing just for this moment… and probably several more over the course of the night.

“It’s not unusual for people with such, uh, such different and strong personalities to …lock horns on issues of direction.” Perfect. Diplomatic, not too passionate or involved, no hint at what was actually going on. “So while things occasionally got heated, uh, on set, Ryan and I still have a healthy and professional respect for one another and maybe we’ll even work together at some point in the future. Who knows?” Geoff gave her a winning smile, keeping his emotions under strict lock-down.

Barely batting an eyelid, she added, “So how do you respond to the allegations that you physically assaulted him during filming? That you resorted to measures that some would describe as psychological torture in your direction?”

“Oh come on. That’s bullshit.” So much for those emotions being on lockdown.

As soon as he said it he could visualise the headlines, the click-bait titled articles: Ramsey lashes out over allegations of physical violence on set.

He sighed and fought the urge to pull at his hair, carefully considering his next words.

A loud growl from an engine started a rolling murmur through the reporters and everyone turned to the entrance, craning their necks or shifting to find a better position to see, silently scoping out their plan of attack, all the while pretending to continue to give a shit about who they were currently talking to, when all they really wanted was to drop everything to run to interview the man who’d just arrived.

Ryan fucking Haywood.

Asshole always liked to make an entrance.

The reporter Geoff had been talking to didn’t even bother excusing herself, just muttered a quick “thank you for your time,” as she hurried off to join the throngs already positioning themselves to compete for Ryan’s attention.

Geoff went back to the drinks table to top up his glass and hung back to watch the show.

Ryan arrived in style. He always did. It was a little quirk of his. This time he pulled up in a slick black and green supercar of some kind with an engine that could be heard even over all the music and chatter and commotion of the premiere. When Ryan got out of the car it was from the driver’s seat. He threw the keys to the valet, who was caught entirely off-guard, assuming her job was just waving through limousines and not that she would be parking any actual cars that evening. Still, she seemed more than happy to slide behind the wheel of Ryan’s car, and even happier when he slipped her what was probably an excessively generous tip.

Even Geoff had to admit Ryan looked good. Really good. He didn’t often get dressed up, and during filming he’d been getting around in a T-shirt and jeans when he wasn’t in costume.

Not that he was really ‘dressed up’ tonight; he was wearing a fitted, plain black T-shirt paired with a simple black blazer over matching suit pants and black polished boots. He pushed waves of sandy hair back off his face, a few days’ worth of stubble softening the harshness of his all-black outfit, the ginger tinge in his beard accentuating the impossibly clear blue of his eyes.

“No date tonight?” One of the reporters yelled out from the crowd.

Geoff hadn’t even noticed. Ryan sometimes was accompanied by a pretty young thing, Geoff had assumed his publicist was responsible, but tonight his lack of escort made Geoff feel a little bit proud.

Ryan laughed easily, “No, but you never know who I might go home with.”

He gave them a wink and Geoff could’ve sworn he saw half a dozen people swoon.

Geoff rolled his eyes and turned away.

It’s good publicity. Better than you could’ve paid for.

Their public fallout had generated a sensation among the media. They never could resist drama, second to casting Ryan Haywood as lead; it had been the best thing to happen to his story since he wrote it.

Behind him, Ryan started an easy conversation with a reporter; Geoff heard him laugh and couldn’t help but eavesdrop.

“No! Geoff is a pleasure to work with… mostly… well sometimes.” Ryan laughed again. “We had our differences.”

Geoff stole a glance over his shoulder. There was that smile again, the one that made Geoff’s knees a little weak every time.

The reporter pressed on, “there have been allegations of physical abuse…”

Geoff turned away again, slinking out of earshot, and took another long sip of his drink. He didn’t want to hear how Ryan responded to that, how he might escalate it.

“Geoff!” A young reporter with bright green eyes, shaggy blonde hair and a distinctly English accent flagged him down excitedly. “Sorry,” he instantly bit his tongue, “Mr Ramsey, I have some questions if you don’t mind.”

The lad was wearing an ill-fitting suit that somehow made him look remarkably charming and Geoff took an instant shine to him.

“You can call me Geoff,” he took a civilised sip of champagne this time, “what can I do for ya, kid?”

The reporter seemed a little flustered, “Uh, my name’s Gavin, I’m with…”

Geoff would’ve liked to have said he paid attention, but he was a little mesmerised by the animated way the reporter was going on, he couldn’t have remembered the paper or show or whoever he was interviewing him for if he’d tried. He’d probably regret that later.

“…so I guess my first question is: How does it feel to be walking your first red carpet as a director? I mean, is it different than as a writer? Especially since for this one you’re both?”

The kid seemed really flustered, Geoff felt a little sorry for him, giving him a warm, relaxed smile.

“It’s not really any different. Especially with Mr Bigshot over there hogging all the attention,” he jerked his thumb in Ryan’s direction, where he was effortlessly dealing with a circus of reporters and the public crowds, alternately answering questions, signing things and posing for photos.

Geoff winced, he needed to stop shifting the focus away from himself, “I mean, I’m mostly here for the free booze…” He laughed, not sure how truthful he was being, “But no, it is great to see everyone that’s turned up, and …uh… I hope they can get something meaningful out of the film.”

Gavin hardly glanced in Ryan’s direction, continuing with his line of questions as if Geoff was the only other person in the world. Maybe the kid was more professional than he’d given him credit for.

“So you’re film, Behind the Lines… It’s rumoured to be quite controversial. Just, in your own words, what was the inspiration for the story?”

Geoff huffed a laugh, immediately dismissing his previous thought, ok maybe professional, but definitely not experienced, that was a rookie question at best. Still, he seemed nice and he’d learn; Geoff cut him some slack.

“Well, it’s semi-biographical. You learn a lot as a journalist in the military… as you can imagine, it’s not really champagne and canapés. There are some amazing stories out there and we don’t get to hear about them because they’re not the stories that play well on the nightly news. They’re not the stories that add to the tally on our scoreboard… but they’re stories of courage and bravery and people going through hell and sometimes not coming back.” Geoff cleared his throat, feeling a wave of emotions wash over him, fire burning in his chest with the same passion that started him writing the script for the film… “And they need to be told.”

He’d wanted to do the story justice, to make sure it was told in exactly the right way, because it was the story of his friends and colleagues and enemies and allies who no longer had a voice to tell it. It was the same passion that had driven him in directing the film, the same intensity he’d tried to convey through his actors…

* * *

“Cut!” Geoff yelled, rubbing both hands over his face. “In fact, take five, I need a minute here.”

Ryan started to skulk away, but Geoff put an arm out to stop him, “Not you.”

The way he’d said it, almost growled it, made some of the crew uncomfortable enough to wander out of earshot over to the snack table. Geoff noted others keeping a close eye on the action.

Strangely, it intrigued Ryan. He was used to directors letting him do pretty much his own thing these days, especially ones as fresh as Geoff Ramsey. Ryan was experienced and respected enough in the industry that directors often asked him for advice, so to have a relative rookie stand up to him like this was almost refreshing in a way. He saw it as a challenge.

“You got some tips for me, boss?” Ryan expertly managed to sound simultaneously cajoling and impudent and it made Geoff’s blood boil.

Geoff had had his fair share of asshole actors and producers try to walk over him already and he was having none of it. He’d worked hard to get where he was and this story was far too important to him to let an A-lister with an ego to stroke get to him, even if it was Ryan.

“You’ve uh… you’ve never been in the military have you, kid?”

Kid? Now Ryan’s attention was well and truly piqued; he wasn’t young by Hollywood standards, it’d been years since anyone even jokingly called him kid.

“Can’t say I have,” he confessed. “Seen a fair few films about it though.” His words dripped condescension.

Geoff wanted to slap him. Ryan Haywood had been a starring actor in several “war films”, but despite hiring consultants – seemingly expressly to have their opinions ignored – none had been remotely accurate in their portrayal. It was mostly action movie bullshit. A glamorized version of the “success stories” of war.

Geoff promised himself his would be different.

“You need to be taken down a peg, Haywood.”

Ryan raised an eyebrow in defiance, “oh yeah, you think so?”

Geoff shook his head, “You’re playing him too cocky. This kid would’ve been scared shitless; I know, I was there. I want you to experience just a little bit of what he would’ve gone through so you get a better idea…”

“I’ve done stuff like this before...”

“And that’s why I expect more from you.”

“Ouch.” Ryan deadpanned.

“I don’t think you’re understanding me.” Geoff got up in his face, recalling his drill sergeant using a similar intimidation tactic to break in new recruits.

“Ok. Make me understand then. I want to understand.”

* * *

Geoff shook off the memories, reminding himself to stay present.

“So your film really pushes the boundaries in terms of content…” The reporter continued, “Do you think people will be put off, especially after hearing about your somewhat unconventional motivation tactics?”

“Not at all,” Geoff jumped in defensively, “I think that’s something that’s been overblown in the media… I did what I thought was necessary to get the performance the film needed from its actors. It’s hardly revolutionary for a director to find ways to help actors get into character.”

* * *

Geoff had originally thought Ryan was challenging him, but it turned out he was genuinely eager to learn and to get into character. Geoff told him stories, talked him through the emotions, the justifications they had to make to themselves to just exist in that kind of environment. Ryan took it all on board willingly. Granted, it wasn’t an easy thing to do. Geoff left out no details, he was graphic and visceral and Ryan was attentive, asking questions, taking notes.

Still, his performance was critical and Geoff needed him to truly understand…

“Again!”

“Again?” Ryan was hitting the edge of exhaustion.

Ryan was right where Geoff wanted him, so close to the right mindset, but too defiant and stubborn to realise it.

“Yep, you heard me,” Geoff insisted.

Ryan was not well-known as a method actor; he’d always been very private about his motivations and it was something that irked Geoff – he liked to know what his actors were up to, where they were drawing their inspiration, where their heads were at going into a scene. Geoff had been pushing him hard.

The scene demanded Ryan kneel on concrete, nearly naked with his hands tied above his head. After several hours of filming, take after take, his knees were raw, he was visibly sweating from the lights, his muscles were straining from the position; if you looked closely you could see his veins bulging beneath his skin. It was a physically and emotionally demanding scene, critical to the film. It would be the make-or-break moment. Ryan was close to losing it. But it was so close to perfect.

“Surely we have something we can use?” Ryan pleaded, a bead of sweat breaking on his forehead and rolling down his face into his eye. He blinked it away and Geoff noticed he’d started trembling.

“Not even close,” Geoff waved dismissively, “Again.”

“Geoff!” Ryan’s voice cracked. He swallowed hard. “Please?”

Geoff glared at him and raised an eyebrow, “Work through it Haywood.”

Ryan’s head fell in defeat, actual tears collecting at the corners of his eyes.

“Again.”

“No! I need a break. Let me down. Now.” Ryan snapped.

Bingo.

The crew began to move to let him down, fetch him food, water, clothes, whatever he needed, but Geoff held up a hand to stop them.

“No,” Geoff said simply, “Again.”

“What? No! This is fucked up Geoff, I need a break –”

The crew wasn’t sure what to do, glancing between the two of them, but hesitating.

“Again!” Geoff repeated.

Ryan’s eyes were rimmed red, stress and tears building, he was visibly shaking now, whether from rage or exertion, holding himself in position for so long, it didn’t matter; this was exactly the performance Geoff needed. Exactly the desperation.

“You’re done when I say we’re done.”

Ryan swallowed, holding back the tears and channelling his emotions into his performance.

Just once more…

* * *

“In an interview with Ryan Haywood, he said he was forced to endure ‘hours of physical torture… and isolation’, designed to mimic torture conditions…”

Geoff cut him off before he could say any more “-And that was all with consultation. We both wanted a genuine reaction and Ryan’s a professional who made it very clear he was happy to go along with my suggestions.”

“Does that really excuse your actions though? Especially for the sake of a film designed to expose the hypocrisy…”

Geoff stopped paying attention. It felt like he had been punched in the gut. He never wanted it to come out like this.

There was so much he couldn’t say… If only they knew…

* * *

“And cut! Good job everyone; I think we have what we need.”

The crew immediately attended Ryan, who very quietly snuck back to his dressing room. The look on his face wasn’t unfamiliar to Geoff and he felt an acute pang of guilt.

Geoff waited until the set was relatively clear and crept back to Ryan’s dressing room, knocking softly at the door.

A voice that sounded far too small to belong to Ryan answered, “yeah?”

“Ryan? It’s me.” Geoff cracked open the door, “I just wanted to check you were ok…”

Ryan was sitting in the middle of the floor, his knees drawn up to his chest, a blanket draped over is shoulders, forearms wrapped around his shins, with his ear resting on his knee, a vacant, faraway expression on his still tear-streaked face. How much of that was genuine or from his performance Geoff couldn’t tell.

Geoff instinctively went to him, putting one arm around him, and pulling him in close. Understanding the need to feel reassuring human contact after such an ordeal, even if it was only a recreation. Ryan leaned into him, and Geoff could feel him trembling. He felt sick.

They had been dating since Geoff cast him in the role. They’d clicked instantly. No one knew. It might have been seen as a conflict of interest and they didn’t want it getting out just yet. Ryan had a reputation to protect and Geoff was still an up and comer, he wanted to make it on his own merits, not just because he was Ryan Haywood’s boyfriend.

But seeing Ryan like this, Geoff needed to be close to him.

They loved each other, but the situation was delicate, fragile, something to be handled with care.

“I am so sorry buddy. I never want to put anyone through that again. I was a jerk.”

“No… it’s ok, sometimes I need it… I know how important this is to you,” Ryan mused, “I want it to be perfect.”

“Buddy, it was perfect,” Geoff reassured him, squeezing him in a little tighter, “thank you.”

“I love you, Geoff.”

“I love you too, Ryan.”

* * *

The reporter pressed on with his questions and Geoff felt a pit open in his stomach.

“…And how do you respond to the allegations of physical abuse?”

Geoff had been terrified this was coming…

* * *

“I love that you give a damn, Geoff,” Ryan mumbled, his lips still pressed against Geoff’s own. “I’m sorry I caused a scene… again.”

Geoff kissed him back, still calming down after his outburst.

Geoff had called a break after Ryan stormed off mid-take. Knowing each other so intimately off-screen had led to some more passionate outbursts on set and Geoff was now acutely aware that the crew suspected something else was going on. Geoff had been careful not to push him so hard, but there were still moments where he would get carried away. Like now. Geoff hadn’t been able to keep his cool with Ryan any longer and exploded at him about being unprofessional, petulant, childish… he couldn’t remember the specifics of what he’d said, but there was no doubt he was being hugely hypocritical… After Ryan stormed off, Geoff had chased after him, finding him behind an unused set, pacing the way he would when something was bothering him and he couldn’t say.

Now, Geoff could feel him unable to hold back his cheeky grin, the same one he flashed when he was deliberately trying to rile Geoff up on set.

“You asshole,” Geoff pushed him back against the wall and kissed him harder.

Ryan kept trying to talk between breaths, “I’ll try to do better, ‘kay?”

“Shut up, Ryan, you’re doing great.” Geoff just kept trying to kiss him.

“I think someone’s coming – ” Ryan, startled, broke away from the kiss but Geoff still had his hand pressed against Ryan’s chest.

The grip who’d come around the corner was confronted with a very scared looking Ryan and a still disgruntled Geoff pinning him against the wall. The grip immediately turned on her heel and scurried away.

“Shit,” Geoff muttered, “That’s not gonna look good…”

* * *

Geoff couldn’t think of anything to say. He was on the defence again, feeling like he’d been backed into a corner.

“What kind of bullshit picture is being painted here?”

Gavin wasn’t even slightly taken aback by Geoff’s sudden outburst, instead pushing forward with his questions, “Your film takes a tough stance on torture, does your condoning it for a genuine performance really justify its use?”

Geoff was hyper focused now, the priority to defend the film almost forgotten in the moment; all he could think was to defend his relationship with Ryan. “Everything that happened with Ryan, he consented to.”

“Or is he just scared to speak up?” Gavin continued, checking notes on his phone, “Crew members alleged you would take him aside, alone, and that they were worried for his safety. An anonymous source from the set alleged Haywood was wary to keep an eye on you at all times.”

That sly motherfucker. He wasn’t a rookie at all, he was a manipulator. He’d already gotten under Geoff’s skin. Everything about him was fake, planted to make him feel comfortable before springing the hard questions to get a reaction out of him. The guy was a goddamned pro.

“So what’s really going on between you and Ryan Haywood?”

Geoff was quietly seething now, defensive, irritated, a little drunk. All those emotions he was trying to keep in check bubbling away just beneath the surface.

“None of your goddamned business.”

He wanted to hit him, but he at least had the sense to keep that under control. Instead he downed the remainder of his glass, planted it on a nearby table and walked away; noticing Ryan breaking free from the crowd and heading towards the entrance to the reception hall as the premiere was about to get underway. Geoff intercepted him, grabbing him by the wrist as he stormed past, hurriedly pulling him towards the bathrooms inside without a word.

A flurry of reporters rushed after them, rapid-fire camera flashes and questions following them, a mass of confusion and concern; the unsuspecting security personnel getting rushed by the wave of press as Geoff and Ryan pushed past them to the relative privacy of the rear bathrooms.

Geoff dragged Ryan inside and locked the door behind him.

“Geoff? What the hell?” Ryan looked flustered, his hair tousled, cheeks tinted pink with embarrassment at being swept away.

A heavy knock on the door, followed by the rattling of the door handle made them both jump.

“Everything ok in there?” A deep voice boomed from outside, “Do you need assistance?”

Geoff exhaled into his hands, rubbing his face. Ryan glared at him sceptically.

“Everything’s fine,” Ryan replied confidently, “just need a moment of privacy. Thank you.”

Ryan narrowed his eyes at Geoff, “care to explain?”

Geoff pulled at his hair and drew a deep breath.

“I can’t do this anymore, Ryan.”

“What are you talking about? Are you ok?” Ryan was genuinely concerned; his eyes scanning Geoff’s face for what might be bothering him so much… He had his suspicions.

“I’m sick of always being the bad guy… What did you say to them, Ryan? What did you tell them about us?”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“They’re all going on about torture! Saying I abused you, I hit you…” He could hear the quaver in his voice.

Ryan bit his lip and looked around nervously. “Look, Geoff… I’m sorry! They kept setting it up, saying that they had heard rumours from the set. I tried to make it like a joke, but it came out all wrong. I tried to stick with our story as much as I could, but they backed me into a corner and I had to run with it. I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry. I fucked up.”

“I didn’t want it to be like this…”

“Geoff, it’s the press, they’re always gonna blow stuff like this up.” Ryan was calm and reasonable, used to dealing with the media, “It won’t last forever; it’s good publicity for the film and soon, they’re all going to forget about it anyway. It’ll be ok…”

“It’s not ok Ryan. They’re right, I shouldn’t have treated you like that,” Geoff’s voice cracked, “I don’t deserve you.”

Ryan could tell Geoff had managed to work himself into a state. He tried to steer him towards the sinks, but Geoff was starting to pace again.

“Geoff, stop,” Ryan put his hands on Geoff’s shoulders, giving them a reassuring squeeze, “it’s over. It’s all done. I’m fine, you’re fine. We’re here to celebrate. You’ve done a great job. Really.”

Geoff shook his head, “It’s not even about the film anymore… I just don’t want to pretend anymore, Ryan. Take that how you will.”

“How am I supposed to take it? Are you –” Ryan’s brow furrowed – “do you want to end it?”

Ryan’s hands slid off Geoff’s shoulders and hung limply by his sides, almost helplessly.

Geoff scratched at his head, looking around, anywhere but Ryan’s face, “No! …I don’t know… I just… I don’t want things to be like this anymore. I want to come clean.” Geoff paced a little, still avoiding eye contact. Had he looked up, he would’ve seen Ryan’s eyes shimmering. “I want to be allowed to love you. I hate pretending like we’re fighting. I hate that it doesn’t seem to bother you at all.”

“Geoff, please… you don’t really think it doesn’t bother me?” Ryan sniffed, “I’m an actor! It’s literally my job to pretend. It doesn’t mean I like it, I just roll with it. I never wanted it to be like this either…”

He put a hand on Geoff’s arm again, trying to make him look him in the face. Geoff took a deep breath and tentatively looked up at him.

“But you know what? Things don’t have to be like this. We don’t have to keep hiding this from people. We can work something out. It’s not a big deal,” Ryan smiled gently.

It took a moment for it to sink in. “Wait, what? I thought… That’s something you’d be ok with?”

Ryan huffed a laugh, “Of course!”

“You’re not worried about your reputation?”

“Geoff, really? I thought you were… You’re not worried about your reputation?”

“What reputation? Dude, I love you. I don’t care what anyone thinks about it. I’ve just had enough of this bullshit drama. I just… I never wanted to hurt you. I want to be able to explain…”

“Hey, you don’t have to explain anything. I can handle this one.”

Geoff took a minute to compose himself, nodding, trying to calm his nerves, wiping the tears away before they could start properly. He felt like he needed another drink.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you...”

“Aww, Geoff. That’s really sweet. I love you too, you old softie.”

Geoff laughed, “Yeah, alright, that’s not a reputation I want…”

“Geoff. Shut up,” Ryan pulled him into a kiss.

Relief washed over him as he melted into it, forgetting where they were, the act they were supposed to be keeping up and he just let himself get lost in the moment. This is what he wanted.

“Wanna blow this place?” Geoff murmured, only just pulling away from the kiss.

Ryan pulled away a little breathless, “what about the film?”

Geoff smirked, “The story’s been told, that’s all I wanted. It’s out there now.”

Ryan nodded, “If you’re sure.”

“I am,” Geoff kissed him again.

* * *

Geoff woke tangled in the bedsheets of Ryan’s king-sized bed. He’d slept better than he had in a long time. Without disturbing Ryan, who was still sleeping beside him, Geoff grabbed his pants off the floor, fished his phone from the pocket and started to check for news of the films reception. Instead, he stumbled across an article:

What happened in the bathroom?

Writer-Director Geoff Ramsey was seen leaving the red carpet premiere of his debut film Behind the Lines, with lead actor Ryan Haywood last night in a bizarre move that left people scratching their heads. It was a tense moment on the red carpet when Ramsey abruptly ended an interview and dragged Haywood into the bathroom in front of journalists and onlookers. There were fears for the star’s safety as allegations of physical violence and abuse between the pair had surrounded the film during production. However, it seems the two got rather cosy in there, emerging some time later in good spirits; they were snapped holding hands before skipping the screening entirely. Ramsey left with Haywood, who earlier that evening commented “you never know who I might go home with.” We never would have guessed! So it seems assumptions about the pair’s relationship on set were wildly misplaced. Despite the disappearance of the men of the hour, the film was well-received by audiences and critics alike, with Haywood’s performance being praised as award-worthy. Both Ramsey and Haywood declined to be interviewed, leaving everyone wondering: what happened in the bathroom? And does Hollywood have a new power couple?

Geoff smiled, turned off his phone and rolled back over to put his head on Ryan’s shoulder. Ryan stirred and softly kissed the top of Geoff’s head, pulling him in closer.

“I take it the premiere went well?” Ryan murmured, still sleepy.

“You know what? Doesn’t matter.”

Ryan smiled, eyes still closed, “Well, you seem happy this morning.”

Flores A Amoris Lingua - Flowers Have A Language Of Love

(Author's Note: Thank you to Ali-Th3-Ch3shir3-Kat and their fic ‘If lost please return to:’ for the inspiration for this fic.)

Ryan had been at the flower shop from the first day Michael had started working there. He had showed him the ropes, trained him on what flowers were best for what occasion, how to best put together arrangements, and a lot about what flowers ment.

To say Ryan was fluent in flora was an understatement. The man spoke flower better than he did English most of the time. So to see him wearing something with flowers on it, aside from some God awful Hawaiian shirts he wore in the summer, that didn’t have a personal meaning, was unheard of.

So when Ryan showed up for work one day wearing beautifully crafted collar, with golden daffodils and red tulips embossed into the black leather, and a camellia buckle holding it all together, Michael knew instantly it meant something. But Michael was far from as good at reading flowers as Ryan, so he didn’t know what, and it was kind of bugging him.

Normally he wouldn’t pay much attention to if Ryan wore something with flowers or not, except for the aforementioned eyesores, but this was different. Not only was it obviously custom made, it was also very prominent. Like Ryan was trying to use the collar to send a message, even if it was one most couldn’t understand.

Despite Michael’s limited knowledge he knew one thing, red tulips were used as a declaration of love. Was he trying to say he loved someone? Had someone given it to him as a gift? Michael didn’t know, and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, it pissed him off.

When he had first started working at the flower shop Michael had had a sort of school boy crush on Ryan; what with the older man's sandy hair, deep blue eyes, and open and friendly personality. But that’s all that Michael had thought it was, just a crush that in the months following had seemed to fade away.

But when Michael thought of the possibility of someone else confessing their love to Ryan, or of Ryan loving someone else, it stirred him up inside. It made him sad and angry in equal measure, an aching in his chest every time the thought popped up in his head. He couldn’t really deny his crush on the other any longer, not when every time he saw that damn collar, the urge to punch something rose up inside him.

So Michal set about his research. The internet helped a lot, but at the same time gave a lot of mixed messages. So many flowers had multiple meanings, it was hard to pick out which one Ryans collar was trying to say.

He started with the other flower on the collar itself, the daffodil. There were a couple of possible meanings for that. One meaning was ‘unrequited love’ which would fit if Ryan was trying to tell someone that he love them. On the other hand another meaning was ‘you’re the only one’ or ‘the sun is always shining when I’m with you’. That one would make perfect sense if someone had gifted him the collar as a confession. The one Michael really didn’t get was the buckle, the camilia. For the most par it meant ‘admiration’ and ‘perfection’. He supposed it would be appropriate if it were a gift, but at the same time he was sure there were flowers out there that could have said it better. But then he found it, and it all clicked into place. He found a sight that gave another meaning for camellias, ‘a gift given to a man’ .

With that knowledge it was undoubtable, someone had given Ryan that collar. Some one had confessed their love to him, and considering the fact that he was wearing the collar, Ryan had accepted their feelings, and more than likely even returned them. That thought alone left Michael laying awake that night with a heavy weight in his chest and tears stinging at his eyes.

Seeing Ryan and his damn collar the next few days was hard. It was a constant in his mind, always in the back of his mind torturing him. He had to know who had done it, who it was that had stolen Ryan's heart. For purely noble reasons, such as making sure they were going to treat him right, and totally not to try and undermine and sabotage their relationship.

They both had the next Saturday off, and thush Michael began to hatch a plan. Michael had been looking for someone to try and get the co-op campaign achievement in Gears of War 4, and considering that Ryan was as equally a big fan of the series as him, it was the perfect excuse to have him over.

Michael brought it up to him rather casually towards the end of the work day Thursday, and at the assurance of snacks and plenty of diet coke, Ryan agreed. Even if he wasn’t sure how he was going to go about asking him about the collar, he still had gotten the man to agree to come over to his apartment, which was a step in the right direction.

Saturday rolled around before he knew it, and Ryan showed up at Michael's place at the bright and early hour of half past 10, wearing of course his ever present collar.. He had even brought some too greasy fast food breakfast which the two scarfed down as they set up the game.

As the day passed on, junk food eaten and game played, Michael seemed to forget completely about the collar and the real secret reason for inviting Ryan over. That was until about 6, when the two decided to to take a break from playing to order some dinner.

As Ryan perused his extensive collection of delivery menus, Michel could not stop staring at the collar. He managed to distract himself long enough to actually order the food, before going back to join Ryan on the couch. Working up his nerves Michael finally asks.

“So uh,” He begins slowly, rubbing at the back of his neck, “I’ve been meaning to ask for a while now but I’m curious, who’s the collar from?”

“Huh?” Ryan asks dumbly, having been distracted by his phone for a moment. “Oh! The collar,” He says, finally catching up to what the other had asked him, “No one got it for me. I had it made for myself.”

“Really?” Michael asked, confused and at the same time almost relieved. This meant he still had a chance, at least somewhat. “But I thought camellias were...oh fuck what did the sight say, uh….gifts for men or something?” He asked still unsure.

Ryan chuckled and smiled at the other, “Yeah, they do. It’s supposed to be a pink camellia, which means ‘longing for you’, but sadly the only buckle I could find was silver.”

Michael nodded in understanding. So if it wasn’t a gift, then that meant that it must be a message, a silent declaration of love. “So then you’re using it as a message right?” He asked him, trying to make sure he wasn’t completely off.

“Yup,” Ryan replied simply.

“So you’re trying to tell someone you love them?” Michael asked again.

“Yup,” Came the simple response once again.

“So who is it?” Michael questioned, bracing himself for the sting of hearing the name of who ever it was that had stolen Ryan's heart.

“You,” Ryan said, smiling softly at the other, eyes slightly glazed over with affection.

“Oh, ok,” Michael said absently, a pre-canned answer he had prepared to avoid saying something stupid. That was before Ryans response really sunk in. When it did Michael spun on the other, eyes wide, blinking owlishly as he pointed dumbly to himself, as if asking if he had heard right.

Ryan simply nodded his head, the same glassy look in his eyes. Michael turned and looked at the wall, still looking dumbstruck. After a moment he finally opened his mouth saying, “Well….that went better than I expected it to.”

Ryan laughed softly, and awkwardly rubbed at his neck, “Well I mean, I get it if you don’t feel the same, was kind of why I tried the subtle route.”

“No no no!” Michael jumped to assure the other, “I do, I do feel the same it’s just….man I’ve been so worried these last few weeks that someone had given that collar to you and that you were dating someone else. I thought I had completely missed my chance.”

Before long the two both dissolved into laughter, leaning on each other as the humor of the situation overtook them both. “Well, I’m glad that it’s all worked out for us now,” Ryan said, resting his forehead against the others.

“So am I,” Said Michael with a smile, reaching up a hand to rest against the other's cheek, “Would it be too soon if I kissed you?”

“Not at all,” Ryan responded, leaning in and kissing the other, slow and soft. The two continued kissing, breaking rarely for breath. They probably would have spend the rest of the night kissing in the same position had there not been a knock at the door.

When Michael answered it, there was some young kid, probably barely old enough to even have a job, standing there with there order. “Uh, meat lovers pizza and an order of breadsticks?” He asked, taken aback by the irritated look on the older man's face.

Michael payed the kid, giving him a $20 tip, both because he was feeling generous and because he wanted him to get out of there faster. Setting the food on the table, he turned back to Ryan. “So,” He began, “We could eat….or we could go back to what we were doing before?”

Before he knew it, Ryan was pulling him by the waist into the taller man's arms. “Well, I’ve always been a fan of the idea of dessert before dinner,” Ryan said with a smirk, leaning down to start kissing the other again.

A few weeks later, Ryan came into work wearing a different collar. This one was similar to the other in style and crafting. This time thought, it was covered in red chrysanthemum, forget-me-nots, daisies and orange blossoms, all held together with a buckle in the shape of a single full rose blossom.

The collar was once again sending a message, but this time it was very clear to Michael. This collar meant that Ryan was in love, and that he was loved in return.

(The meaning of the flowers according to thelanguageofflowers.com.

First Collar: Camellia - Admiration, Perfection, Good Luck, Gift Given To A Man | Camellia (Pink)  - Longing For You | Daffodil - Regard, Unrequited Love, You’re The Only One, The Sun Is Always Shining When I’m With You | Tulip (Red) - Believe Me, Declaration Of Love

It was bizarre how difficult it was.

Because it both was, and wasn’t, a pain.

And that was all down to, in the grand scheme of things, they had to be slightly sadistic to even consider this as their job, their life, what they wanted to do and who they wanted to be. It was a contradicting monster that led them all to where they were now - stuck in an abandoned warehouse with only a handful of tatty seats scattered about the place and a half broken mini fridge that was almost all alcohol and hardly anything of substance.

They’d hit the ground running but were fast losing balance, it wasn’t easy to establish yourself in the ins and outs of crime in Los Santos, not when there were already so many well established gangs that couldn’t afford anyone running into their turf, taking their pickings and leaving them to claw back the slippery slope that was respect.

It was dangerous business. You didn’t want to be in anyone’s pockets because once you were in there, you wouldn’t get back out.

The Funhaus Crew, unfortunately, were in a fair few people’s pockets as of late.

Or rather, they should be, but refused to compensate a rat race full of other gangs that felt more than a little fragile over having a new crew rush in on their jobs, full of enthusiasm and an almost psychotic passion for what they did. Fuck, they weren’t even doing it well, but it was something about their drive that was making the other’s uncomfortable.

Though the crew would argue that, currently, they were the most uncomfortable.

Especially considering James was laid out on the couch clutching at his bleeding arm, though it was leaking a lot more sluggishly than before it was still causing him agony all the same. Adam was sat in front of the beaten up sofa, legs aching from running so fast for so long and the unforgiving concrete floor, bruised to the nines and trying to ignore it in favour of comforting the other, which essentially boiled down to them both bitching about the situation and leaving Matt to do the actual nursing. If it wasn’t for him, half of them would walk around with bullet wounds, bruises and cut up skin hoping that if they complained enough they’d disappear out of thin air.

One thing was for sure, they weren’t getting any kind of revenge in the state they were in. Not quite yet.

More and more of their acquisition of illegal goods, theft, and the odd elimination task were being absolutely ruined by another gang turning up to either steal the inevitable pay or teach them a lesson, and they weren’t exactly ever equipped to go head to head with them and win. It was only their headstrong attitude keeping them together these days but even that was fading fast.

 “Every fucking time-” James spat, shifting to try and get comfy and failing miserably. He wasn’t sure if it was the bitterness of the situation making him suffer more, but this particular bullet wound was giving him serious grief, to the point where he hung his uninjured arm down if only to squeeze Adam’s bloodied hand to distract himself. Adam ignored his own aching and sore knuckles to let James indulge in the small comfort whilst Matt did his best to clean the damage up.

 “We can’t keep letting this happen,” Matt mumbled softly, addressing the fact that he was sick of seeing what may as well be his family hurt all the time, whereas Lawrence went for a more materialistic view of it all.

 “We’re never going to get anywhere if this keeps happening. It’s like running up against a fucking avalanche of douchebags.”

Elyse sniggered a little, but the sound was hollow and not half as amused as she felt. She let herself slide down against the wall to settle on the floor, exhausted and bruised like most of the others. They were genuinely lucky to be alive this time, and though they were pissed off it had also left that all too familiar fire burning in their stomachs - nothing but an addiction they couldn’t quit even if they knew it was eating them inside out.

As much as they wanted to do this by themselves, as a family, they knew that their only real option if they wanted to stay in the race and better yet, stay breathing, was to find help, someone that’d see their potential and offer their hand out without stripping them of the few achievements they’d earned as a unit. They knew they had merits but when other groups were out there, established, connected, kitted out with both the materials and the drive they also shared, it was useless to even try unless by some stroke of luck they made one score that was colossal enough to turn heads.

And honestly, with the amount of time it was going to take to lick these wounds they’d have better luck returning to the normality of living on the straight and narrow.

They spent the night in that warehouse, their buzz of the fight dying down as the early hours crawled in and they shared out whatever booze was knocking around the place, not caring if they were caught in such a state, if anything it’d only serve to bolster them even more, letting the gravity of their journey, or lack of it, weigh on them all individually and as a unit.

James was already feeling a lot better after Matt had managed to pry the bullet out of his arm and close it as best he could, sharing the couch as he always did with Adam by his side, not too subtly running his fingers up and down the side of Adam’s neck, the rest of his arm resting across the other’s back. It was innocent, for the most part, just another reminder that they were still in one piece and not blown up and scattered over half the city. Out of all of them, Matt and Adam were the ones to get most wound up about injuries and mishaps, knowing their dumb luck wouldn’t hold out for as long as they needed, leading to the others offering those small bits of physical affection a little more often to the pair if only to reassure them in their stunted ways. That was the other’s explanation, frankly James simply just loved Adam to fucking pieces.

The day that man passed up the chance to shower Adam in affection was the day hell froze over if all of them were being honest.

As the night dragged on, their insanely potent drive seemed to return. They were no longer licking their wounds, rather laughing the whole thing off and lazily contemplating what their next goal would be once everyone was back on their game. Not knowing they’d wake up that morning to an offer they couldn’t refuse, not knowing that their name was going to grow tenfold over just a month. No, as they all napped, uncomfortable, aching and cold, but somewhat content, they had no idea that the Hunters were working on tracking, finding, and offering them the hand they really needed.

Bruce all but shit his pants when he saw Geoff and Jack creeping through the near broken doors of the warehouse that morning, many of the other Hunters following suit. You couldn’t blame him, not when they were all geared up to the nines. James admitted to himself, silently, that aside from panicking like all hell he was a little bit proud they saw them as a threat enough to come armed...though he’d prefer not to get another bullet hole anytime soon, especially after the way Adam all but blocked James from view, like he was preparing to take a shot for him right off the bat. James filed that knowledge away for later, if there’d even be a ‘later’.

In the end, it was Gavin’s slurred, accent-laced rambling that let their shoulders relax and their few weapons to be lowered to negotiate. Honestly, he could have been telling them they were going to look like colanders once they were done and they wouldn’t have had a clue, it was mainly Jack’s apologetic look that solidified that they weren’t there to blow their brains out. Or at least, not for a while.

The following month was a blur.

Not because it was forgettable, but because it was hectic. If anything, that month was burned into their memories for the rest of their lives, defining their work, making them razor sharp and part of an even bigger family that was becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Neither group was the best at what they did. They had their talents, but there was someone out there that was faster, more accurate, had more flair. But one thing they all had was guts and that was what made them terrifying.

They’d get beaten, stabbed, shot and kidnapped and still be back the following month with a glint in their eye that near enough doomed whoever decided to fuck with them or their patchwork family.

Soon enough, they’d bought out fancy and modern apartments to crash in instead of warehouses that were rotting from the inside out, had first dibs on the best of the worst jobs, trading drugs and dead men for cash and finding themselves never in want of anything. They’d got what they wanted, all of them, after years of trying and failing and having salt rubbed into the wounds. Perhaps it was stupid how persistent they’d been, how close to being put six feet under they were, but if life was going to continue how it was as of late, well.

When Gavin was growing up, he had always dreamed of being a superhero. He’s definitely not the only one, what kind of child wouldn’t want superpowers? His daydreams during boring classes had been full with thoughts of the pranks he could pull with the power of invisibility or the fun he could have flying through the air with giant wings.

He could honestly say, however, that none of his daydreams had been modeled after a ladybug.

Granted, beyond his costume, there was nothing particularly ‘ladybug’ about his abilities. He’d always been fairly flexible, but never able to do the sort of stunts and acrobatics that he could perform on a whim now. He’d also become pretty handy with a yo-yo.

And then there was Tikki. The little bugger had scared the shit out of him the first time they met. In Gavin’s defense, she looked like a combination of a mouse and a ladybug and no one should react casually upon meeting something like that on a normal day.

Granted, with Gavin’s life recently, he wasn’t one to talk about ‘normal’ anymore.

“Is class over yet?” Tikki whispered in his ear. Gavin quickly shoved her back in the hood of his sweatshirt, feigning a scratch to his head when Ray looked over at his movement.

Gavin had explained to her before how he obviously couldn’t speak to her around other people for fear of being seen as a crazy lunatic, but that didn’t stop her from bugging him when lectures began to drag on. For the first time in a while, Gavin returned his eyes to the power point in the front of the room and found it just the same: still showing useless information that he couldn’t give a shit about.

“I’m so bored,” Michael whispered from Gavin’s left. His half-ass attempt at taking notes had now devolved to form several doodles of dicks and various sketches. Gavin reached over with his own pen and added some pubic hair to one of them.

“You guys must definitely not be getting enough dick if you’ve resorted to creating some of your own.” Ray added. He’d, at some point, pulled his DS from his backpack and wasn’t even bothering to hide it under the desk. Really, with all of the students filling the lecture hall, it wasn’t likely the professor would even notice. “At least add some veinage, I’ve taught you guys better than this.”

“Give me your pen, Gav, I need to get some blue going.” Gavin forfeited his pen, giving up on notes himself, and watched as Michael added some squiggly blue lines to the black-ink dicks.

“Some quality peni, boy.”

“Don’t you ever say ‘peni’ in my presence again.”

In the row in front of them, a boy with vibrant green hair turned around.

“Penile denial.” He said with a shit-eating grin.

“Fuck off, Jeremy!”

“Good one Lil’ J!” Gavin laughed.

Around them, students began to load their backpacks, ignorant of the professor’s protests. Checking his watch, Gavin could see that there were still five minutes left in class; however, the students and their shuffling had spoken. Michael’s hand landed on his shoulder, getting him a prompting shove.

“God, let’s get the fuck of here.” Gavin followed along, but not without a look back at Jeremy; he, sadly, seemed to be taking his time. He trundled up up the lecture room’s steps, careful not to lose his friends in the crowd.

“But Michael, you don’t have to be so rough.”

“Yeah, that’s my job!” A voice yelled, just as a hand slapped Gavin’s ass. His squeak of surprise was lost in everyone’s laughter.

Geoff was laughing playfully as Gavin turned around to bat at him. Jack, always found close to the mustached fiend, was looking on in fond exasperation. Beside him was Ryan.

Lovely Ryan.

“And thus, History of Film comes to a close with the annual smacking of Gavin’s ass.” He said.

“Ryan is just salty cause Geoff touches the butt before he can.” Ray said. Any more commentary was lost as more students began to push around them, corralling them towards the lecture room door. The six of them reconvened in the hallway, happily making life harder for the other students attempting to get by them on their way to classes.

“Do you guys want to get lunch?” Geoff asked. “I wanna get lunch, I’m starving.”

“As much as I would love to see you stuff your face with chicken tenders,” Michael teased, “Ray and I have a class in ten minutes.”

“Skip it.”

“Attendance points.” Ray and Michael said together.

“Man fuck attendance points.”

“You’re just saying that because it’s the only reason you have a B in stats.” Jack jumped in.

“Fuck off, Jack.” Geoff said, offended, “I plan on earning all of those points back with our project next week.”

“Oh, Gavin,” Ryan spoke, gathering his full attention. The others carried on in the background. “Speaking of projects, Jeremy mentioned you had a new thing for editing that you might need me on?”

God, Gavin loved brilliant Jeremy.

“Yeah!” He said, “We need to make a video for Editing that we can add graphics to! We thought we could have you be a reporter and find some bullshit and act like it’s news.”

“Broadcast style! Not really part of my established skill set, but I’m sure I can make it work.”

“You always make it work, Rye-bread.” Gavin said with a smile.

“Ryan!” Geoff interrupted, taking hold of Ryan’s arm. “Food! Now! I’m starving!” He began to walk away, pulling Ryan behind him.

“Shoot me a message about it!” Ryan yelled over his shoulder.

“I’ll set up a GroupMe!” Gavin watched the trio go, Jack trailing behind.

“‘Ya know,” Ray said, leaning into Gavin and still not looking up from his DS, “they have Tinder for those kind of things. No need to defile GroupMe if you wanna make a sex tape with Ryan.”

Gavin couldn’t help but sputter nonsense.

“Don’t give us that shit, Gav,” Michael said, slinging an arm over his shoulders to lead him out of the building. “We know you, okay?”

“You definitely have the hots for Ryan,” Ray said, never looking away from his DS screen, “We can’t even blame you. The way he rolls around with his squad, it’s like they’re the hot cast of a dumb teen show that everyone’s gonna drool over.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong,” Michael said, “but could you imagine Geoff’s mustache anywhere on Teen Wolf?”

“Derek with a handlebar mustache.” Gavin giggled.

“Oh, God, don’t even go there.”

“Don’t you two have a class to get to?”

“Don’t fucking remind me.” Michael said, grabbing Ray’s arm, “Enjoy the rest of your class-free day you piece of shit.” Gavin laughed at their misfortune as they walked away.

He, however, was far from alone.

Noticing the lack of people, Tikki poked her head out once more.

“Your friends are really silly.” She giggled. Gavin looked around, but it looked like the majority of students had fled the area already.

“Not as silly as you, you little bugger.” He said, cupping his hands around his ladybug-like friend. He couldn’t resist smooshing her against his face, but she was well-used to it by now.

“Do you have any homework due tomorrow?” She asked. He thought for a moment.

“You know, I don’t think I do.”

“Early patrol then!” She jumped out of his hands, “Early patrol!”

Gavin laughed. “Let me just drop my stuff off back at my room, I wouldn’t want to haul my backpack around all night.” He’d done that once, when an emergency had sprung while he was on campus. Never again.

-

Gavin loved being Ladybug. It was really amazing how much a little bug that could possess a ring could change his life. Yes, the skin-tight red suit took a little while to get used to, but it definitely made his ass look good.

Patrol, while boring in theory, was made much more interesting as he flipped from building to building. Nothing like a little bit of parkour to spice up the day after classes. He typically stuck towards campus, enjoying the numerous statues and fountains that were around for him to jump on.

Also, it was typically where he met up with his partner in crime. Well, partner in heroism? Partner.

And speak of the devil, Gavin saw a black figure appear on the roof ahead of him.

“My dear ladybug,” Chat Noir said with a graceful bow, “you’re looking as lovely as ever this evening.”

“Oh, stop it,” Gavin giggled, “We both know that you’re anything but suave.”

“There are a lot of complimentary words included in ‘anything’.” Chat said with a laugh.

And wasn’t that true. Gavin could, and had, spent many a boring night admiring his partner’s muscled body through his black suit. Whoever Chat was beneath the mask, he was slightly taller than Gavin with a mess of blond hair. Gavin had to figure out, however, if his eyes were green or if his mask just made them look that way.

“No akuma sightings tonight?”

“Nope, no, uh-akuma that I’ve seen.”

“Chat, you say that word almost every night and you still messed it up.”

“Shut up, you always say it wrong anyway.”

“What? No I don’t.”

“Akuma.”

“Akooma.”

“See, you have no right to tease me about my stumbles.”

“I have all the rights, thank you very much. I’m british, you just fail at talking.”

And so their conversation devolved.

Honestly, Gavin really enjoyed Chat Noir’s company. The two of them were always careful to avoid information about their private lives, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t become good friends. Yeah, Michael and Ray were great but they didn’t know about Gavin’s nightly activity. He and Chat shared this same secret, and that made them close in an entirely different way. The way they could spend the entire night of patrolling just bantering back and forth about various topics always made up for whatever stresses had occurred that day. Time always flew by when he was watching the campus with Chat, and that case proved true again tonight.

With a shared goodbye, Chat and Ladybug parted ways. By mutual agreement, they did not watch each other close enough to track what direction they went in.

Gavin gave one last look at the moon, now high in the sky, before taking off.

That is, until, he noticed a lone student making their way across the sidewalk below. A familiar student. Gavin stopped in his tracks, a smile on his face.

While Gavin didn’t have a watch on him, he knew it was definitely passed midnight. Poor Jeremy looked tired and, judging by where he was walking from, Gavin guessed he’d been working in the library for most of that evening.

Then Gavin frowned. He didn’t like the thought of Jeremy walking across campus alone this late at night.

Good thing he was a hero with a well-known passion for good deeds.

“Excuse me!” Gavin yelled from his roof top. Below, Jeremy jumped, startled at the sudden noise. He looked around for a few moments, confused. Gavin giggled.

“Up here, silly!” He yelled again. Jeremy’s eyes found him this time.

“Oh!” He exclaimed, “Ladybug!”

“What are you doing out so late, you pleb?”

“Well, this is a college campus. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but college students don’t tend to get a lot of sleep.” Gavin laughed at that, jumping down from the building to get closer to his friend.

“You shouldn’t be walking alone though!” He said, “You never know what could happen.”

“What do you suppose I do then? I gotta get home somehow.”

“How about- well. What if I walked you home?” Jeremy blinked at him, surprised.

“Walked me home?”

“Yeah! You never know when another akuma could show up, I need to make sure that you get home safely.” To Gavin’s relief, Jeremy smiled at him.

“Well, I guess I can’t argue if it’s your job to protect little old me.”

“So little.” Gavin smirked, taking a chance to reach over and pat the other man’s head.

“Hey, I’m not that little!” Jeremy whined, swatting Gavin’s hand away. “Besides, I could bench-press like four of you.” Gavin laughed, sensing nothing but cheeky fun behind the slap.

“I mean, you don’t need to convince me if you’d like to try.” Jeremy laughed, beginning to walk again.

“I can’t wait to tell my friends that Ladybug called me a pleb, offered to walk me home and then said I could bench press him.”

“Will they believe you?”

“I don’t know, I have this one friend,” Gavin swore Jeremy’s eyes had flicked towards him, but dismissed it, “he’s always telling these weird stories and making up these outrageous questions. I’m sure he’ll believe me.”

“Well,” Gavin laughed, a bit awkwardly, “he sounds nice.”

Jeremy was talking about him. He was talking about Gavin to Ladybug, who was also Gavin. It was like finally getting insight as to what your friends said behind your back. And it was a nice thing.

“So, um, what do you study here?” Gavin changed the subject, and Jeremy’s eyes lit up.

The rest of the walk was spent as Jeremy told him about his film major and some of the projects he had worked on recently. Of course, Gavin already knew most of these stories: he was usually Jeremy’s partner for them. But it was interesting to hear that Jeremy took enough pride in their work to spout about it to a stranger.

They parted ways when Jeremy pointed out that they had reached his residence hall. Gavin once more climbed to a rooftop to resume his path back to his own room.

Of course, only after he’d watched Jeremy walk safely through the dorm’s doors.

-

Gavin never thought that he’d thank his editing class for much, but it did offer him some wonderful opportunities. The first was that the computer next to him was often occupied by Jeremy, who often kept him entertained during boring classes with jokes and funny websites. The second was that it gave him an excuse to recruit and, thus hangout with, theatre majors.

Theatre majors like Ryan.

Who was currently sitting alone at a table in the coffee shop, staring at his phone, because Jeremy hadn’t arrived yet.

It wasn’t like Ryan intimated him. Well, anymore. When he had first met Ryan he had gone out of his way to avoid speaking to the other man. He was handsome and tall and an incredible actor. Gavin couldn’t figure out how to talk to him so he just didn’t talk to him at all.

And then it turned out that Ryan was probably the sweetest person he had ever met. And that’s probably when the crush started. Now what Gavin says to him actually matters, and he’s been told on numerous occasions that he doesn’t always say the right things. Not saying anything, however, probably wasn’t going to cut it.

“Hi Ryan!” He chirped, taking a seat beside Ryan, “No Jeremy yet?”

“Not yet,” Ryan smiled at him, immediately putting his phone away. What a gentleman. “But I think he just had a class. I’m sure he’s on his way.”

“I heard he was up late last night, so he’s dragging for sure.” Shit, there was no reason for Gavin to know that. Ladybug knew that.

“I’ve had a few late nights myself this week,” Ryan laughed, “Lots of, uh, projects and stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Yeah, stuff. Theatre stuff, you wouldn’t understand.” Ryan said, jokingly waving his hand.

“Sure.” Gavin drawled, putting his backpack on his lap so he could dig out his laptop. Upon unzipping it, however, he was almost shocked when he saw Tikki curled up in an inside pocket. She was munching on an orange he had left in there for her, giving him the stink eye for disturbing her lunch time. He could have sworn that she was in his sweatshirt again.

“Everything okay?” Shit, Ryan must have noticed the look on his face.

“Yeah! Yeah, all’s good.” Gavin quickly pulled out his laptop, “I just realized I left my notebook in my room.”

“Hey guys!” Gavin turned around to see Jeremy jogging up to the table, “Sorry I’m late, Lance would not stop talking.”

“Really, for a tenured professor, I think the guy just really loves to hear himself speak.” Ryan said, as Jeremy took a seat. He sniffed and made a face.

“Does it smell like oranges in here?”

“Orange you glad it does?” Ryan chimed.

“Rye-bread, no,” Gavin said, squeezing his backpack to his chest, quickly loosening when he heard Tikki’s indignant squeak. He zipped his backpack up, hoping to conceal the scent. “You can’t just use ancient jokes like that.”

“Rye not?”

“Boo.” Jeremy laughed.

“Okay, okay.” Ryan said, “Jokes aside, we need to come up with a plan for this project. You guys said it had to be news related?”

“Yeah!” Gavin said, “Basically we’re just gonna throw a shit ton of graphics on top of it, but we need to act like it’s real news report or something.”

“Hm, has there been any news on campus recently?” Ryan asked.

“Well,” Jeremy started, “We could report on Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

Gavin froze.

“Wha- why do you want to report on them?” Ryan saved him.

“Well, all of their fights typically happen around campus.” Jeremy’s eyes flickered between the two of them. “They’re probably even students, I mean, they look like they’re our age.”

Gavin didn’t know how to respond, but he very much did not want to make a video about himself.

“I think that’s an interesting idea, Jeremy,” Ryan said, “but don’t you think it’s a little predictable?”

Lovely Ryan, saving the day.

“It’d be cool to make a video about, but won’t your professor jump on you for originality?”

“Yeah!” Gavin found his voice again, “Plus, Ladybug and Chat Noir always clean up after the fights with their magic stuff, so we don’t really have any background wreckage we could use.”

Jeremy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Okay, those are some good points.” He conceded, “It would be cool to do, but could you imagine trying to film during one of their fights?”

“I wouldn’t know whether to fear more for me or for the camera.” Ryan laughed.

“Definitely the camera, Ryan!” Gavin said, “Those things are expensive.”

The three of them got to work, brainstorming several ideas and planning out how they could film all of them. When they finally settled on an idea, a schedule was formed. They would meet again that Saturday evening to start the filming.

-

The weekend came.

Jeremy showed up at the meeting spot ten minutes early.

When Gavin and Ryan were five minutes late, he didn’t question it.

When they were ten minutes late, he started to fidget nervously.

When they were twenty minutes late, he called both of them.

Neither of them answered.

As Jeremy stood there, alone, a black moth landed on his shoulder.

When Gavin and Ryan finally showed up, 40 minutes late, Jeremy was gone.

-

Gavin hadn’t meant to run late, really. It wasn’t his fault that some poor possessed person had attempted to bring down the math building right before they were supposed to meet for their project, but it left him anxious. Chat Noir was a little off his game as well and the entire fight ended up dragging on much longer than it should have.

As soon as the akuma had been released, the tiny moth purified in Gavin’s yoyo, the two heroes split up with barely a ‘goodbye’ to each other. Gavin was too stressed out to question Chat’s unusually graceful exit.

He’d transformed back to his normal clothes as quickly as he could before practically sprinting to their meeting spot. To his surprise, Ryan was just arriving as well.

“Hey!” Ryan gasped, catching his breath, “Sorry, I totally lost track of time, I was doing a- a project.”

“Same! I was um, helping Michael with this one thing.” Gavin winced at his own words, “Have you seen Jeremy?”

“No,” Ryan said, sadly, and pulled out his phone, “I have a missed call, I’ll try calling him back.” Gavin pulled out his phone as well, seeing that Jeremy had tried calling him too. It was silent for a few moments as Ryan’s phone rang.

“He’s not answering.”

“Oh, I hope he’s not mad,” Gavin frowned, “I feel really bad.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Their wallowing, however, was interrupted.

By an explosion.

Gavin gapped as, several blocks away, smoke began rising into the sky.

“I should probably go.” He started, walking away.

“Yeah, we should get to a safe spot.” Ryan said, walking in the opposite direction.

As soon as they both had their backs to each other, they sprinted off.

-

Gavin quickly found a secluded spot to transform into Ladybug before making his way towards the explosion. Did there really have to be two attacks in one day? He just wanted to get the project done. And he felt like an absolute piece of shit, standing up Jeremy like that. And Ryan hadn’t been there either, wasn’t that a horrible coincidence? He hoped that Jeremy didn’t think they were trying to pull a prank on him or anything.

Gavin came to a stop, having followed the smoke to an open park that marked the center of the campus. It looked like the park’s fountain had been blown up somehow.

He was getting really tired of things getting blown up.

In the center of the destruction, hard to make out through all the smoke, stood a figure. Gavin hoped that this was the akuma victim they were looking for and not a poor civilian caught in the rubble.

He thought he could make out the silhouette of the cowboy hat.

Beside Gavin, Chat Noir finally made his appearance.

“Didn’t we just finish up a fight, like five minutes ago?” He said.

“Yeah,” Gavin said, a bit grumpily, “a hero’s work is never done I’m afraid.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

The figure in the smoke began to walk forward. As he grew more visible, Gavin could see he’d been right about the cowboy hat. The young man was wearing a purple blazer over an orange shirt, quite a gaudy combination. A pair of sunglasses covered his eyes and what looked to be a sniper rifle angled from his hands.

Gavin really hoped it wasn’t an actual sniper rifle, that’d be a new one out of all the akuma they’d faced so far.

The man raised the rifle towards them and fired a shot; however, instead of a quick bullet, an orange flare shot out of the barrel. The two heroes were quick to to jump out of the way.

And it was a good thing they had: the moment the flare touched the ground, it exploded, leaving a large hole where they had been standing.

“It’s a sniper rifle that shoots flares… but the flares are actually grenades.” Chat said.

“I’d say that they’re running out of creativity but that’s really kind of badass.”

“Hello, heroes!” The figure yelled. The voice sounded familiar, “Come to meet your end?”

And that was when Gavin recognized him: the voice, the build, the face behind the sunglasses.

“Jeremy?” Two voices yelled. Ladybug and Chat Noir shared a surprised look. Gavin swallowed. Chat knew Jeremy, too? This couldn’t end well.

“The name’s Rimmy Tim, motherfuckers.” Jeremy yelled, pointing his rifle again. “And it’s time to get rimmed!”

“What.” Chat deadpanned, before quickly moving out of the gun’s sight once more.

“They just keep getting weirder and weirder I’m afraid.” Gavin said, hopping onto a nearby statue and pulling out his yoyo. “The akuma is probably in the gun, right? We need to get it away from him!”

“I’m open to suggestions!” Chat yelled, dodging Jeremy’s fire.

Gavin took a moment to survey their surroundings. The entirety of the park was covered in smoke, making it hard to see. Perhaps, however, they could use that to their advantage.

He quickly jumped over to Chat, grabbing his shoulder to pull him down and whisper in his ear.

“Distract him, I have an idea.” And Chat, lovely Chat, simply nodded. Gavin really appreciated the trust.

He quickly darted away as Chat began yelling at Jeremy, successfully drawing attention away from the red hero. He took the opportunity to make his way through the smoke around the remains of the fountain. Gavin really wished he had Chat’s night vision right now, but he sadly had to make due.

Reaching the opposite side of the fountain from Chat, Gavin faced a dilemma. The water from the wreckage had leaked everywhere. Surely Jeremy would hear him coming if he made a splash?

Gavin was happy he’d gone instead of Chat. True to his persona, Chat hated water.

“Any ideas Tikki?” He whispered. Though the little gal was secreted away inside his ring, he knew she was aware of what was going on. Through the mask, little mounds pinged in his vision, creating a clear path to Jeremy.

Not wasting any time, Gavin jumped on pieces of rubble he’d been shown, careful to make his landings soft so as not to disturb the water. Before he knew it, he was close enough.

Gavin quickly swung his yoyo around, loosening it enough to reach between his spot and Jeremy, who was still distracted by Chat’s taunts.

The yoyo successfully circled around the barrel of the rifle and he gave it a sharp tug, pulling it from Jeremy’s hands to Gavin’s.

“Leave Jeremy alone you filthy moth!” Gavin cried, breaking the rifle over his knee.

But nothing happened.

“Um…” He mumbled. Shit.

“Well,” Jeremy said, his attention now on Gavin, “that was rude of you.”

Now that Gavin was closer to Jeremy, he saw what he had missed before. The sunglasses that Jeremy was wearing had a purple tint to him.

“Really,” Gavin said, “why the sunglasses?” He was careful not to look at Chat, who was carefully creeping up behind Jeremy’s back.

“Gotta look fashionable somehow, am I right?” Jeremy laughed, taking a step towards Gavin. Chat reached Jeremy first, however, and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Wha-,” Jeremy spun around. His surprise was foiled by the fist that punched him in the face and shattered the sunglasses.

“Chat!” Gavin yelled as Jeremy fell to ground, “Why’d you punch him?”

“I’m so sorry,” Chat shook out his fist, “I panicked.”

Gavin looked to Jeremy right as his odd transformation wore off, leaving behind the Jeremy that Gavin knew and loved. The sunglasses, or what remained of them, lied on the ground beside him. Gavin quickly snatched up the moth that flew out of the glass with his yoyo.

“Not again, you,” he said. After a moment, the now purified moth flew was released and flew away.

“Ugh, my head,” Jeremy groaned. Gavin and Chat kneeled down beside him.

“Hey J-, um,” Gavin started, “Uh, how are you feeling?”

“I can’t believe Ryan punched me.” Jeremy said, rubbing his face. And Gavin and Chat froze.

“What?” Gavin said. Jeremy looked at him.

“And I can’t believe you let him Gavin!” Jeremy laughed, “You guys are so mean to me.”

Gavin and Ryan made shocked eye contact over their friend’s head.

“Wait, wait, you guys didn’t know?” They stayed silent. “Ladybug’s british! And uses the same fucked up words that Gavin does!” Gavin felt his face heat up. “And Ryan’s,” Jeremy waved his arms a bit, “He’s Ryan! How did you not recognize him? You literally saw each other as both identities almost everyday!”

“We were busy!” Ryan yelled. Beneath his mask, his face was flushed pink with embarrassment. Jeremy started laughing.

“I can’t believe you two.”

Gavin smiled fondly at Jeremy. Okay, he had made some good points. He looked once more at Ryan, this time with a smile gracing both of their lips.

“Okay,” Ryan said, “Revelations aside, I think we need to get you an ice pack. We can talk about all this later, you’ve had a traumatic day.”

Together, Gavin and Ryan slung Jeremy’s arms over their shoulders. As they walked away, the wreckage left behind magically reverted back to its original state.

Jeremy was totally thrilled to start working at Achievement Hunter. It was terrifying, but exciting. He'd be moving across the country and working with people he'd previously idolised. It was a change of pace. A huge one.

 He found an apartment in Austin and packed everything he intended on taking with him. His first day was nerve wracking and mildly terrifying, but he was okay. He got through it.

 Everyone was nice. Everyone was cool. He was glad to be working there, and he felt... welcome.

 It was weird to him that everyone seemed so vaguely normal, too. He knew, of course, that they played characters when they filmed let's plays, but it was so weird to see them... out of those characters.

 Cool, exciting, but weird.

 Gavin seemed happiest to meet him, but he wasn't sure exactly why. It could've been because Jeremy was cool, sure. It also could've been because Jeremy starting work meant Gavin didn't have to build things in Minecraft anymore. Hell, it could've been both.

 He decided that it was probably both, and tried his best not to think too deeply into the fact that Gavin might actually think he was cool.

 Work continued to go well, too. He sort of found his place in Achievement Hunter and stuck to it -- it felt good to have a place at work. He felt like he belonged.

 Gavin was sort of clingy with him, which felt weird. Really weird. Before he'd been hired, Gavin was probably his favorite Achievement Hunter -- and that felt even weirder now that he was sort of becoming friends with Gavin. Sort of. Really, he was becoming friends (or at least acquaintances) with everybody, but interacting with Gavin felt the weirdest.

 After enough gay jokes at his own expense, it was an eventuality that someone would pull Jeremy aside. He expected it to be Geoff asking him not to do it anymore or something.

 Instead, it was Gavin.

 "Are you actually, er..." Gavin had caught him in a hallway on the way back into the office. "You know..."

 "No," Jeremy said, and Gavin looked a little upset before he added, "I don't know what you mean. Clarify."

 Gavin's face lit up again, and he said, "gay."

 "Oh," Jeremy blinked, then nodded. "Yeah, sorta."

 "Sorta?"

 "Bisexual counts, I guess. Right?"

 Gavin nodded and smiled a little wider. "Sort of, yeah. You're halfway there."

 Jeremy laughed and nodded back at him. After a momentary silence, he asked, "does it bother you? The jokes, I mean."

 "No," Gavin said, turning back towards the office. "I just wanted to ask."

 Jeremy wondered if he knew exactly how mysterious he was. He was sure Gavin had to have known. He followed him back to the office, settling back into his desk to wonder just what Gavin meant by all that. Why'd he need to know if Jeremy was really gay? Why'd he have to ask in private?

 Jeremy didn't want to be presumptuous.

 He was, however, kind of hopeful for what it could mean.

 The subject dropped for a while. Long enough that Jeremy figured Gavin had forgotten about the conversation they'd had in the hallway right outside the office.

 He assumed it was long forgotten until Gavin pulled him aside again.

 "Have you got a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend? Or whatever?"

 Jeremy blinked at him, folded his arms across his chest and said, "that depends on why you're asking, I guess." He tried his best to make his voice sound like he wasnt screaming on the inside.

 "Does it?" Gavin laughed, leaning against the wall next to him and mimicking Jeremy's pose, arms folded. "I would think the answer would be the same no matter what, wouldn't it?"

 "That's true."

 "So?"

 "No," Jeremy said, and for a moment Gavin looked confused, as if he hadn't just directly answered the question. "I'm single," he added for clarification.

 "Do you want to not be?"

 "Gavin."

 "Genuine question," Gavin smiled at him -- that dumb, charming smile -- and said, "I'm askin' you if you want to, like... Go out or something sometime."

 "Maybe," Jeremy said, feeling like his knees were going to go weak at any second. "Or, well... Yeah. Sure. We can go out."

 Clearly, he was extremely decisive and his mind wouldn't easily be changed. Gavin wasn't phased by that, though -- he just grinned and patted Jeremy on the shoulder. "We should plan something."

 Jeremy nodded and they both returned to the office as if nothing had happened, settling back into their desks and going right back to work mode.

 Gavin had asked him out on a date.

 He was having a hard time processing it fully, but he had at least partially processed it. He'd processed it enough to understand why Gavin pressed a sticky note with a phone number written on it to his screen before leaving for the day.

 Jeremy didn't want to seem desperate.

 At the same time, he worked with Gavin. He'd see Gavin every day whether he texted him or not. So, he took the sticky note home with him and texted Gavin after he'd gotten comfortable at home.

 "Hey," was all he sent. Then, he felt stupid, so he sent, "it's Jeremy."

 "I figured," Gavin sent back, and Jeremy was sure he could feel the judgement coming through the text on his phone screen. Probably.

 "You wanna go out for dinner Friday night or something?" Jeremy decided not to dwell on dumb things he may or may not have said.

 "Yeah," Gavin said, and then he added, "I'd love to. Where?"

 Jeremy picked a place, one that he'd been to before. One of the only restaurants in Austin he'd been to, really. He did know that it was the best restaurant he'd been to in Austin, but that was about all he knew.

 He tended to stick to fast food or chain restaurants. In fact, he'd actually chosen the only restaurant he'd been to in town that wasn't part of a chain.

 "You can pick the place next time."

 When Friday rolled around, Jeremy was more stressed out than he'd been on his first day of work. He was bouncing off the walls and ready to leave by 3, despite work not ending until 5 and his dinner plans with Gavin not being until 7.

 He could hardly focus on work, but nobody really said anything about it. He assumed that everyone had just accepted that he'd be distracted all day since he had dinner plans. A date, or whatever.

 Jeremy met Gavin at the restaurant, and they sat down together at a booth and ordered food. It didn't go unnoticed that Gavin was sort of... picky. He wanted mostly sweet things, avoiding the savory and most certainly avoiding any meat. He wound up ordering some salad full of fruit.

 Jeremy didn't even know that was on the menu in the first place.

 He also didn't know that Gavin didn't eat meat.

 "Isn't that basically dessert?"

 "No," Gavin said, certainly not leaving it up to interpretation. "Salad with fruit is different from fruit salad. It's got lettuce, see?"

 "Gavin," Jeremy said, suppressing a laugh, "having lettuce in something doesn't make it a salad. My burger has lettuce."

 "Don't take it out of context," Gavin said, slightly too loud for restaurant conversation. Jeremy didn't mind. "This is fruit and lettuce in a bowl, and it's got mushrooms and nuts and--"

 "It kind of just sounds like fruit salad."

 Gavin frowned and shook his head. "You're impossible." The frown broke quickly though, and Jeremy was thankful that he didn't seem actually mad.

 Gavin was just smiling at him from across the dinner table at a semi-nice restaurant. How surreal.

 "So, you..."

 "I'm vegetarian but I don't care what you eat," Gavin said quickly, shrugging and taking another bite of his fruit-salad-slash-salad-with-fruit.

 "I didn't know that about you."

 "Weird, Geoff said you were some crazy super-fan before you started working with us." Jeremy froze for a second, until Gavin laughed at him and Jeremy realized that his date was essentially just fucking wtih him. "Kidding. Don't flip."

 Jeremy let out a sigh of relief, and Gavin laughed at him again. Then, Jeremy felt Gavin's feet on his own. Stepping on him, gently kicking his feet.

 Gavin was playing footsies with him.

 Like a damn middle schooler.

 Jeremy was willing to play, though. They kicked at one another's feet until their server returned, at which point Gavin was startled and smashed his knee on the table. Every dish on the table did a little half-inch hop, and both Gavin and Jeremy were thoroughly embarrassed afterward.

 The embarrassment was sort of a good thing, though. It gave them something to giggle about when the server left.

 Jeremy, at this point, didn't even know what to feel. He felt like at any moment he'd be waking up and he'd be back in Boston.

 He did subtly pinch himself, just to make sure. He didn't wake up from it, so maybe... Maybe he could trust this to be real.

 Gavin finished his entire bowl of vegetation, and Jeremy came close to finishing the plate full of fries that was left after he finished his burger. They considered dessert, but ultimately decided they were finished.

 Jeremy asked their server to bring a single bill when their dishes were cleared, and then came the real argument.

 "I'll pay," Gavin said when the server walked away.

 "No," Jeremy said, "it's my treat."

 Gavin shook his head. "I'm paying, really."

 "No, I'll pay. For real."

 Gavin fell silent, frowning with his arms folded over his chest.

 The moment the server arrived with the bill, he snatched the bill and held tight to the receipt.

 "You're not paying if you don't have the receipt."

 In the interest of not making a scene out of fighting over the receipt, Jeremy conceded.

 "Okay. You can pay."

 Gavin smiled, satisfied that he would be allowed to spend money, and offered his card to the server.

 On their way out of the restaurant, Gavin reached for Jeremy's hand. Their fingers laced together, and Jeremy gave Gavin's hand a squeeze as they left the building and made their way to Jeremy's car.

 "Thanks for taking me out," Gavin said as they sat.

 "You can't say that," Jeremy laughed. "You paid."

 "You drove, so..."

 "Fine. You're welcome," Jeremy said, looking over at Gavin and smiling.

 Everything felt like it froze for a moment as they looked at one another. Jeremy wasn't sure if he should lean in or not as Gavin just stared back at him.

 Was he supposed to make the first move?

 Was he supposed to wait?

 He couldn't tell. It kind of terrified him.

 "Do you want to take me home?" Gavin asked softly, but he didn't lose his smile. That had to mean it wasn't a bad thing that he was asking to be taken home.

 Probably.

 "Yeah," Jeremy said quickly, starting the car and starting to drive off.

 The ride home was quiet, but not in an uncomfortable way. Jeremy snuck peeks at Gavin at every stop light, and Gavin always had a huge smile on his face.

 When they arrived at Gavin's apartment, Gavin stayed still for a moment.

 Then, he asked, "do you want to come in?"

 Jeremy gaped at him for a moment, about to ask if he was serious. It was, after all, only their first date. He couldn't imagine that Gavin would actually want to invite him in after the first date.

 When Gavin looked over at him, he laughed, then said, "not like that. You know, just to... to hang out? Play video games?"

 Jeremy shook the stupid look off his face, then nodded. "Sure. Yeah. Sorry."

 Gavin laughed at him again and got out of the car, leading Jeremy into the building and up to a small apartment.

 Jeremy didn't totally know why he was surprised, but he was. The place was... well-decorated. Gavin had never struck him as the type to spend actual time on decorating his apartment, though.

 "This place looks nice," Jeremy said. "Where'd you get stuff like this?"

 Gavin shrugged, inviting Jeremy inside and shutting the door behind them. "I just kind of gather things."

 "I didn't think of you as the type."

 Gavin laughed at him. "I'm full of surprises, huh?" He moved to stand in front of Jeremy, getting his arms around Jeremy's neck.

 The physical contact was what finally made all of this feel real for Jeremy. He was actually holding Gavin. In his arms. In real life.

 "You are," Jeremy said, feeling like he was going to choke on his words. "Wow."

 Gavin laughed again, putting a hand on the back of Jeremy's head and leaning down slightly, closing his eyes.

 Jeremy realized what Gavin was going for and closed the rest of the distance between them, kissing him gently, doing his best to make the first impression good.

 When Gavin pulled away, his big smile came back.

 "Now that we've got that out of the way, you want to play a game or something?"

 Jeremy laughed and couldn't do anything else but nod. He felt like he was going to fall apart if he tried to say words, so he just sat down on the couch with Gavin and took the controller that was offered.

 When he was finally able to speak, he said, "I'm glad we went out."

 -

 Dating Gavin didn't really cease to be interesting.

 Or weird, or strange, or odd...

 Jeremy didn't think too far into anything, really.

 Gavin would ask dumb questions and Jeremy would laugh at him, along with everyone else they worked with. Jeremy, like everyone else as far as he knew, assumed Gavin was just playing dumb with a lot of things. To be funny or whatever.

 The closer he got with Gavin, the more he realized Gavin wasn't truly playing.

 Sometimes after work, Gavin would repeat a question he'd been laughed at for during filming, and Jeremy would answer as genuinely as he could. He had to wonder if Gavin was trying to get another laugh out of him, but never asked.

 It was months before Gavin said anything about why, exactly, he asked so many dumb questions.

 "Sorry," he said quietly, sitting comfortably in the passenger seat of Jeremy's car after work. "I ask too many questions."

 Jeremy glanced over at him, raising an eyebrow. "No you don't," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "What makes you think that?"

 "Everyone laughs."

 "Everyone laughs because you ask dumb questions!" Jeremy laughed, then felt guilty. As soon as he laughed, Gavin had fallen silent. "Not dumb questions, really..."

 "No, they're dumb. I know they're dumb!" Gavin folded his arms over his chest, pouting at Jeremy.

 "Okay. That's fair. But it's not a big deal."

 "It feels like it is." Gavin sighed, turning to stare out the window.

 "Why do you ask so many questions, then?"

 "I want to know things."

 "Weird things?"

 "Could I tell you something?" Gavin posed the question as Jeremy pulled up in front of his apartment building. "You can come in and stuff. We should talk."

 Jeremy nodded and parked his car in the spot reserved for Gavin's apartment number and got out, following Gavin.

 Once they were in Gavin's apartment, Gavin sat him down on the couch and said, "Keep an open mind."

 Then, Gavin took a deep breath.

 "I'm a nymph."

 Jeremy blinked at him. Stared. Tilted his head. Tried to make sense of what Gavin just said. Nymph, like nympho? Of course. That had to be it.

 "There are better ways to bring up sex," he said, reaching out to take Gavin's hand. "Like, if you want to have a talk about our relationship..."

 "No," Gavin said, face turning red. "No, I'm not talking about sex! I'm talking about the bloody woodland creature you hear myths about! You know? Dryads or whatever?"

 "But those are myths," Jeremy said, raising an eyebrow.

 "Yeah, but they're not! I'm telling you they're not."

 "That's..."

 "It sounds crazy."

 "Yeah."

 Gavin sighed and sat down next to Jeremy, pointing to a potted tree in the corner of his living room. "That's mine."

 "It's in your house, yes."

 "No! I mean thats my tree, you moron. The tree I came from."

 "Gavin..." Jeremy looked over at him, taking in the expression on his face, and how ridiculous a claim this was.

 "I know I sound like a lunatic..."

 "I believe you," Jeremy said finally, kissing Gavin on the forehead. "It sounds crazy, but I believe you."

 Gavin was some sort of strange fae creature, and that was okay with Jeremy. He did some weird things, didn't understand a lot of things around human interaction, and sometimes asked the dumbest questions.

 Still, Jeremy was happy with him. No matter how ridiculous Gavin could be sometimes, and no matter what crazy shenenigans his fae boyfriend caused, Jeremy was in love.

Jeremy had a great lunch. It was his cheat day for his diet so he’d splurged quite happily, and he walked back into Stage Five with a good amount of swagger in his step. His mood quickly plummeted, however, as soon as he made it back into the Achievement Hunter office. Geoff was standing beside Gavin’s desk bouncing from leg to leg in excitement with a look in his eyes that meant nothing good for any of them. He had a little clear plastic baggy in his hand, waving it over top of Gavin’s red bull, while Gavin tried his best to ignore him.

They ignored Jeremy as he made his way over to his desk to set his stuff down.

“I’ll give you two hundred bucks if you try it,” he heard Geoff say and looked up to watch.

Gavin shook his head.  “No way.”

“Two hundred and fifty!”

“Nooo,” he repeated.

“I’ll do it,” Jeremy chimed in before he had even thought about it. Luckily, Geoff didn’t even turn to look at him.

“You don’t even know what it is!” Micheal yelled, while at the same time Geoff screamed, “I wanna see Gavin do it.”

Gavin rolled his eyes, clicking away with his mouse.

“Just do it, Gavers. You know he’s not going to quit until you do,” Michael told him, still staring intently at his own screen.

“Micoo,” Gavin whined.

“Five hundred!” Geoff screamed. “Five hundred goddamn dollars, come on Gavy.”

“Ohhhh,” Michael and Jeremy harmonized, as the tips of Gavin’s ears turned red.  

“What is it?” Ryan finally asked, pulling his headphones off and standing up from his desk. Jeremy nodded, glad he didn't have to be the one to ask.

“Boner pill,” Michael chirped, happily.

“Um,” Ryan started.

“It’s some sort of fertility stuff that one of Griffon’s friends gave her,” Michael explained, watching Geoff wave the baggy in front of Gavin in increasingly exaggerated motions. “Supposed to make you horny as fuck.”

“Ew,” Jeremy muttered, while Ryan just graced them all with a flat, disgusted stare.

“A thousand dollars!” Geoff finally screamed, and Gavin stilled.  

“Come on, Gavers,” Micheal jumped in.  “A thousand well-earned dollars, content, and it probably doesn’t even work.” Gavin turned to glare at him, but it didn’t diminish Geoff’s huge crooked smile.

“Do it you little bitch or the next coffee you drink will literally have my shit in it,” Geoff said.

“Fine!” Gavin screamed, pushing his chair back from the desk and standing up.  “God dammit, Geoffrey!”

Michael and Jeremy leapt up from their desks, crowding around Gavin - Michael already pulling out his phone to record - as Geoff cheerfully poured the powder into Gavin’s red bull.  

“I want no part of this,” Ryan muttered, sitting back in his chair and shoving his headphones back over his head.

Gavin eyed the red bull, his throat already rebelling against what was about to happen, bringing it up to his mouth for multiple false starts, before pulling it away in disgust.

“Just do it,” Geoff groaned.

“It’s gonna taste just awful.”

“JUST DRINK IT, DAMMIT!” Michael finally screamed, losing his patience.

Gavin winced before he finally started chugging the Red Bull.

“Chugg, chugg, chugg,” Jeremy chanted, while Geoff cheered.

The three of them stared at Gavin intently after he slammed the empty can back on the table.  He smacked his lips a few times, his face contemplative.

“Well?” Geoff nearly screamed, his voice breaking halfway through the word.

Gavin smiled, his eyes wide and bright. “Didn’t even taste it!” he replied cheerfully. The three of them groaned in sync - Geoff screaming, ‘Dammit’ loud enough to make Ryan jump at his desk-, as Gavin held out his hand.

“My money, Geoffrey!”

Geoff groaned.  “Fine, I’ll hit up the ATM after work!”  

Gavin pouted. "You better!" He sat back down at his desk and resumed editing the let’s play he had been halfway through when Geoff had started pestering him while ignoring the other guys who were still watching him intently.

Jeremy followed his lead, sitting down and starting his computer up, but Michael stayed, still filming, while Geoff hovered around him in anticipation.  

Minutes passed, Gavin fully ignoring them, before Geoff’s patience finally broke.

“Well?”

Gavin sighed and looked up at him. “Well, what?”

“Do you feel any different?”

Gavin shrugged. “Not really.”

“Fuck!” Geoff screamed, marching away and out of the room.  

Michael sighed, lowering his phone. “I thought we’d get some sweet content out of that,” he muttered, before following Geoff out the door, with a muttered declaration that he needed a beer.

“Bunch of perverts,” Jeremy snickered.

“You were over there too,” Ryan chimed in from the other side of the room.

Jeremy shrugged. “Well, you know,” but Ryan could see the blush dusting the tops of his cheeks. They quickly returned to their separate projects, the event nearly forgotten.

A few minutes later, Gavin began squirming in his seat.  Jeremy’s eyes quickly glanced over to take in the flush that covered Gavin’s cheeks and ran across the tips of his jawline and down his neck.  He squirmed once more, his lip bit in feigned concentration, before bringing one leg up to cross across the other. His fingers stumbled across the keyboard in frazzled bursts, and his clicks against his mouse where frustratingly loud.  

Gavin turned his head, his eyes widening in panic as he caught Jeremy staring at him.  

Jeremy stared at him, wide-eyed, as his brain slowly started to catch up to what he was seeing.

Gavin whimpered, realizing he was caught, and flailed into a chaotic mess as he tried to stand up and escape the room at the same time.  “Bathroom!” he nearly shouted, stumbling out the room, ignoring the curious glances from the other two employees.

“Do you think-” Jeremy started to say but stopped when Ryan stood up abruptly and quickly followed after Gavin.

For a moment he thought about going and getting Michael and Geoff. They would love to tease the brit, but Jeremy had seen the look on Gavin's face, and more importantly, the one on Ryan’s.

It was the worst kept secret in RoosterTeeth that Ryan and Gavin had been fooling around for some time. Nothing official, of course, and they both denied it stringently, but it was hard to ignore the ways their ruffled looks when they would both return to the office at the same time, or the eyewitness accounts of Gavin arriving or leaving in the passenger seat of Ryan’s car. Jeremy, of course, had had it confirmed for himself when he walked into the streaming room looking for Mica and found the Brit sprawled across Ryan’s lap.

They had both stared up at Jeremy with wide eyes that he was sure had matched his own. Before he could even start to apologize and back out, however, Ryan had given a smirk with his kiss swollen lips, and said, “In or out?”

He was out the door and halfway down the hall before he heard Gavin’s squawk of protest from the door he’d left slightly open. He kept marching, however, straight out of Stage Five and to his car, planning on going on an early lunch, because if he met another soul there was no way he could stop from making a fool of himself.

It wasn’t until the next day when he had to contend with dual looks of disappointment from the couple that he started to think that maybe Ryan’s teasing had been more than just that.

Jeremy sat still in his seat, alone in the office, weighing his options. Gavin didn't look like he was getting ready to throw up, which is the only thing Jeremy thought would come of this mess. In fact, it looked like the powder was, well — that it was working. He tapped his fingers on his desk, stared at a screen that he didn't see before letting out a deep breath.

In a flurry of movement, he stood up and took off towards the nearest bathroom.

Luckily, he met no one on the way out the side door as he was practically jogging, and he didn’t want to have to explain why.  He quickly punched his code in, pushing himself inside before he could second-guess it, and shut the door behind him.  

He wasn’t prepared for what he saw.  Ryan had Gavin pinned against the long wall of the handicapped stall, his back to Jeremy, but his head was tilted enough to give him a great view of Gavin’s face.  Gavin’s cheeks were flushed, his pupil’s blown out, and he was gripping the back of Ryan’s shirt so tightly Jeremy the tips of his fingers were bright red. The brit’s eyes met Jeremy’s suddenly, and he let out a low whine.

Ryan’s head spun around, but when he saw it was Jeremy, he smirked.  One single eyebrow was raised, as he repeated the same phrase from a week ago, “In or out?”

Jeremy took a deep breath and reached behind him to lock the door.

Gavin let out another whine, but it was cut off halfway through when Ryan swallowed it up when he pulled the smaller man into a kiss.

Jeremy leaned against the door, his face burning red as he watched the two of them make out against the stall wall.  When Gavin’s legs flew up to wrap around Ryan’s waist, and Ryan’s hands landed on his ass he wondered if maybe the two of them had forgotten he was here. If he was honest with himself, though, he knew he'd be happy just to watch. Gavin was thrusting against Ryan wildly, moaning and whining whenever Ryan pulled back to catch his breath, before muffling them once more with his lips.

Finally, Ryan was able to pull himself far enough away from the absolute tempting picture that was Gavin at that moment to look Jeremy’s way. “Sorry about that, Jeremy,” he chuckled, though he didn’t sound sorry at all.

He motioned his head towards Gavin, and Jeremy felt his feet moving him closer to the couple.  

Gavin’s eyes met his again. “Lil’ J,” he whined, and his name said in that voice, through Gavin’s spit covered lips went straight to his groin. “Need you,” he whined again, reaching his hand out towards Jeremy.

Chuckling, Ryan thrust up against Gavin, making him moan. “That stuff really did a number on you didn’t it, Gav? I’ve never seen you so worked up.” He turned towards Jeremy, keeping their eyes locked while he thrust against Gavin once more. “I think I’ll need some help settling him down. What’d you say, Jeremy?” He thrust up once more, and Gavin slammed the back of his head against the stall door, closing his eyes and letting out a long moan. “You wanna help me out?”

Jeremy swallowed. “Oh god, yes.”

The grin Ryan gave him had Jeremy wanting to adjust himself. Before he had a chance, however, the older man was stepping away from Gavin, letting his legs fall to the floor as he collapsed against the wall, and wrapping an arm around Jeremy’s waist. He thought for a second that Ryan was going to kiss him, but instead, he nearly stumbled as he was moved in front of Gavin.

Jeremy sucked in a breath, looking down at the sight in front of him. There was no other way to describe it: Gavin looked wrecked.  His Achievement Hunter shirt was halfway up his chest showing off his lithe stomach and the hairy patch of skin that led happily down into his unbuttoned and half unzipped jeans that were bulging out around Gavin’s obvious arousal.

For a moment, Jeremy had the slightly hysterical thought of wondering what his past self, the one who spent his nights bingeing on Achievement Hunter videos and writing raps about people who he could only dream of meeting, would think if he could show him what he was looking at right now.  He didn’t have long to think about it, however, before Ryan’s hand wrapped around his head, and Gavin’s fingers grasped the front of his shirt, both of them pushing and pulling him forward, closing the gap. There was a still moment, where he could feel Gavin’s breath against his lips and see up close how large his blacked out pupils were, and he froze.

“Lil J,” Gavin whispered, with a whine at the edge of his voice, and that was enough for Jeremy.

He cupped the side of Gavin’s face and slammed their lips together. They kissed and kissed, Jeremy swiping his tongue around inside Gavin’s mouth, tasting him and devouring him.  He didn’t think he’d ever been this turned on - this far gone - in his life, but he didn’t care.

Gavin dug his fingers through Jeremy’s hair, holding him tightly, before he thrust his hips up, rubbing their erections together. Jeremy gasped, and shuddered, holding still as Gavin did it again and again.  It was too much.

Groaning, Jeremy lifted Gavin’s legs up and wrapped the long, thin legs around his stocky frame and started pounding him against the wall. The zipper of his jeans rubbed roughly against his cock, but he didn’t slow down, greedily swallowing every moan Gavin let free.

“Shh,” whispered Ryan in his ear, and he could hear the grin he was sporting as he wrapped himself around Jeremy. “Slow down there, guys, before you both end up ending this far too soon.”

At that, Jeremy finally stilled his hips, biting his lip at the whine Gavin let out.

“Oh, Rye, you don’t know how good he feels. He’s so strong,” Gavin moaned, sliding his hands down from Jeremy’s shoulders to his biceps, squeezing them. “He’s just holding me here, it’s so hot.”

Jeremy hid his face into Gavin’s neck, panting as he tried to hold back a moan of his own.

“I know, Gav,” Ryan chuckled, his hot breath still on the back of Jeremy’s neck, “but I know you want him inside of you right?”

Jeremy didn’t fight back the groan this time, nipping lightly on Gavin’s throat, before thrusting against him once more when the brit whined out a low, “Yes, please.” He was still struggling with the need to pull away from Gavin and the need to keep doing exactly what he was doing, when Ryan finally moved his head away to face him, and straight into a kiss.

This time, it was his mouth being devoured. Ryan’s tongue was so large and quick inside his mouth, and it had his whole body on fire.  When Ryan finally pulled back, Jeremy had to slowly let Gavin down since his knees were suddenly weak.

“I was feeling left out,” Ryan teased, caressing Jeremy’s cheek with his thumb.  

“Please,” Gavin whined and they both whipped their heads around to look at him. “I need you in me, Lil’ J, please.”

Things moved quickly after that.  Jeremy quickly slid his jeans low enough on his thighs to free himself, groaning as he squeezed himself at the base, knowing he was harder than he could ever remember being in his life. Ryan fumbled around in his back pockets pulling out two separate foil packets and handing them over, before pulling Gavin into another kiss while slowly dragging him to the floor.

It was a testament to how far gone Gavin was that he didn’t complain about how unhygienic it was, Jeremy mused while he worked the condom on and ripped open the lube packet with his teeth. He finally went down on his knees, leaning behind Gavin, who was currently chest to chest with Ryan.  The older man had one wrapped around Gavin’s waist, the brits tight jeans pulled down to his knees, while the other was already sliding slowly in and out of Gavin’s hole.

Jeremy shivered.  Between the sight in front of him, and the wicked smirk Ryan was giving him, not to mention the nearly pained sounds Gavin was letting out, he was starting to feel a bit light headed.

“Have you done this before?” Ryan asked him suddenly, his voice husky, and Jeremy wondered exactly what he meant. Had sex with a coworker? Had a threesome? Had a threesome on a bathroom floor with his coworker and his boyfriend while one of them was under the influence of an unknown substance?

He saw Ryan nod towards the lube that was coating Jeremy’s fingers, and then towards where he was slowly sliding a dry finger in and out of his boyfriend and he finally understood.

“Y-yeah,” he said, nodding frantically.

“Good. That’s good, Jeremy. Now, you’ve got to be slow with him, no matter how much he rushes you,” Ryan instructed, his voice calm and his knowing eyes steady on Jeremy as though he didn’t have his boyfriend whining and begging into the hollow of his throat.  

Jeremy nodded, and slowly slid a slicked up finger in beside Ryan’s. He was shaking a bit, he couldn’t help it, but his nerves were settled a bit by the feeling of Gavin’s tightness, and the friction of Ryan’s thick digit rubbing beside him.

“Good job,” Ryan said, and Jeremy finally looked up to meet his eyes.  The older blonde was smiling at him, flushed and his lips parted. He was obviously affected as much as Jeremy was, not just by the sounds Gavin was making, but it also seemed the brit was rubbing his hand frantically over the tent in Ryan’s jeans.

It was that image that finally silenced the last of Jeremy’s nerves. Yes, these two men had been unattainable heroes to him for a long time, but they were still just human. And for some reason they wanted him just as much as he wanted them.

He slid another finger inside Gavin.  Wriggling his fingers around, he wrapped them around Ryan’s lone finger, coating it in lube and helping stretch the tight hole even further enough to thrust all three fingers inside over and over again. He never broke Ryan’s gaze, however, and he got to enjoy the double treat of hearing Gavin’s howl and seeing Ryan bite his lip to hold back making any sounds of his own.

Jeremy, truly, had to be the luckiest son of a bitch in the world.

“That should do it, I think,” Ryan told him, his voice still somehow steady and calm even though he looked like a wreck.  

“Please, please, Lil’ J, put it in me,” Gavin whined, and Jeremy had already removed his fingers was slicking himself up.

“Oh, yeah, you want me to put it in you, Gav?” Jeremy asked, his voice rough and thick. As soon as the words left his lips he was embarrassed by them but when Gavin moaned and thrust his ass against him his self-consciousness evaporated.

While Jeremy lined himself up against Gavin’s entrance, he watched as Ryan’s hands moved down to grasp each of Gavin’s cheeks. He kneaded them once, twice, then spread them slowly, giving Jeremy a perfect view.

“Holy shit.”

Ryan chuckled, and Jeremy stared up at him in awe. He had the sudden urge to spill his soul to him.  He wanted to tell him how the first time he’d ever thought he was gay was when he jerked off listening to Ryan’s voice. That once he’d accepted his sexuality he’d had fantasies like this about one or the both of them.  That this was the happiest moment of his life.

Instead, he reached his hand forward, grasping the back of Ryan’s head and pulling him into a kiss over Gavin’s shoulder, while the brit whined in between them.  Jeremy finally pulled back, taking a moment to admire the heat in Ryan’s eyes and the flush on his cheeks, before he moved his hands down to grip Gavin’s hips in one hand and slowly pushed the head of his cock inside the tight heat.

Gavin’s loud moans had Jeremy wondering for a second about the thickness of the bathroom walls, but then he was fully inside Gavin and he couldn’t think about anything else at all. There could be a line forming outside around the block and at the moment he couldn't care less.

“God damn,” Jeremy panted, pulling out slightly before thrusting in again. “God dammit, Gav, you feel so good.”

“He does, doesn't he?” Ryan mused, from where he was sucking a hickey into Gavin’s throat, though his eyes were watching Jeremy. “He’s wanted you for forever, y’know?” he said, grinning when Gavin whined out his name. “He talks about it all the time. I’ve been trying to get him to let me ask you, but-”

Ryan was cut off when Gavin’s hand slipped down into his jeans and started frantically stroking him.

“I want you in me too, Rye,” Gavin groaned. “I wanna suck it. Please.”

“Fuck,” Ryan groaned, and Jeremy concurred.  

Jeremy slowed his thrusts down, as he watched Ryan carefully scoot backward on his knees, only sliding his jeans down low enough to free his erection from its confines. He had barely stroked himself once before Gavin was bending down and taking him in his mouth.

“Fuck,” Jeremy groaned and blushed when Ryan’s eyes snapped up to look at him. Jeremy began thrusting again, but they were still slow, shallow thrusts, mindful of Gavin’s infamous gag reflex.  He didn’t mind, however, as the sight alone of Gavin eagerly sucking on the head of Ryan’s cock, while his nimble fingers stroked up and down the rest was going to push him over the edge soon enough. He reached one of his hands down to stroke Gavin in time with his thrusts and was rewarded with the sound of him letting out a muffled moan.

Ryan’s hand was gripped in Gavin’s hair, bobbing his head back and forth on just the head of his cock. He looked so intent, whispering words of encouragement and instructions in that deep, husky voice of his.  Just watching them, Jeremy started to understand a little about what their dynamic must be like when they’re alone.  

The image of Gavin blindfolded on his knees in front of Ryan, while the older man stroked his cheek lovingly flashed before Jeremy’s eyes and he was gone.

“Fuck, I’m gonna come,” he groaned.  

Ryan immediately pulled Gavin off him, giving Jeremy the chance to thrust into Gavin without holding back. The smaller man’s un-muffled pleas and groans only grew louder as Jeremy followed through and spilled inside him.

Jeremy only took a second to catch his breath before he lifted Gavin up, holding him tightly against him as he resumed stroking him roughly and thrusting into him.  Ryan sat back on his haunches, watching them both with heat filled eyes stroking himself in time to match Jeremy’s hand.

“You look so gorgeous like that, Gav,” Ryan groaned, meeting Jeremy’s eyes. “You both do.”

That seemed to be too much for Gavin and he let out a cry and spilled himself on the bathroom floor, and with only a grunt, Ryan followed after him.

While they both caught their breaths, Jeremy nipped and licked at Gavin’s neck, trying to soak up every moment he had left to be pressed up against the other man.

“Oh, Jeremy,” Gavin sighed, rolling his head to the side to give Jeremy better access. “That was so lovely. You were so lovely.”

Jeremy blushed, and reached up to kiss just under Gavin’s ear, and was treated to another heartfelt sigh.

“It was pretty great,” Ryan said, and when Jeremy lifted his eyes to meet his he saw that his lips were quirked into a smile. “I bet the next time will be even better.”

His heart leaped into Jeremy’s throat, and when Gavin turned his head to look at him, whispering, “There will be a next time, won’t there, Lil’ J?” Jeremy breathed in so suddenly he choked on it. He coughed it out before nodding dumbly, and Gavin beamed at him.

“Good,” Ryan said and went about tucking himself back into his jeans and checking himself over for stains. “Hopefully, Gavin won’t have to fake getting affected by an aphrodisiac again just to convince you.”

Jeremy froze, staring down at the sheepish look on Gavin’s face, before shaking his head, and laughing. Of course.  

Gavin smiled at him before he turned his attention back to Ryan. “Really, Rye? Aphrodisiac?”

“That’s the right word,” Ryan huffed, reaching forward to help straighten Gavin out, as well.

“I know, I’m just shocked you said it right on the first try."

Jeremy chuckled to himself as he listened to them bicker back and forth, holding Gavin tightly against and soaking up the contact for as long as he could.  The words, ‘Next time,’ floated around in his head and he hid his face into the crook of Gavin’s neck and smiled.