#rotelli

(pairing, Rotelli x Professor. You can find it on Ao3 if you want)

The Radio was playing an upbeat, jazzy tune when it all happened. Rotelli and Simon, aka “professor” were fast friends from the moment they met. It was almost like they were tied together somehow. For Rotelli, Professor seemed approachable to him. Sure he was taller than the Sicilian, but there was something in the soft brown eyes behind those glasses that made him seem kind, but there was a certain mischief to him like he could hold a conversation. It also could have been the sweet voice or handsome face or the slight curl of that light brown hair, but Rotelli preferred to call him approachable.

For Professor, he truly couldn't point why he liked Rotelli so much. Maybe it was all the things they had in common, after all, he wouldn't share his grandma's cookies with anyone. Rotelli was a sort of beacon of happiness, difficult to find nowadays. He was nice and had a very good voice that Professor liked.

It just makes sense that the two were each other's chosen dance partner from the moment someone played a record. On one particular day when the Squad was all dancing with each other, having a gay old time, something happened that Rotelli just could not get out of his head.

So, the fellas start laughing and dancing, of course, czechowski is the first down on the dance floor, dragging Tennessee down with him, and then Professor laughs that sweet laugh and says “C’mon Rotelli” and drags his chosen partner down too.

Rotelli didn't put much thought into it, dancing with Professor had become second nature to him, but something was different this time. This time Rotelli’s head seemed far away from dancing. Professor had noticed this and decided to do some grounding. Professor twirls Rotelli, who is caught off guard and trips, immediately being caught my Professor’s hands landing on Rotelli’s waist, right above his hips. Rotelli is looking into those sweet brown eyes now, and he blushes and laughs awkwardly.

“There's that smile!” Says Professor as they continue to dance, and Rotelli laughs again, this time because the Professor’s Bostonian accent made smile sound like “smoil”

“ Professor, it is a smile, not a ‘smoil’” Rotelli says jokingly and this time the Professor laughs

“You gettin’ smart with me Rotelli?”

“No, I am making a joke.”

“Lo stesso lo stesso” retorts the professor in his own Bostonian version of Italian.

All while they're bantering and dancing the Professor’s hands remain firmly on Rotelli’s hips and Rotelli can't seem to get this off his mind, nor can he get the

Professor’s voice or eyes or… pretty much anything off his scraped off of it as well.

Now, of course, Rotelli is a romantic, as much as he dislikes the fact, and he knows what all of this means, also unfortunately.  I mean how could he not know, he's read Oscar Wilde books, he's read the Hobbit, he knows that people fall in love with their buddy's on accident. He figures there's gotta be some way to stop it.

‘Maybe a member of the company can help me out? Think, this is gotta have happened to someone else in Charlie… can't be someone who's been blatant about their dislike of boys who are friends with Dorothy… probably, Stu, he looks at mitch in a way that someone whos in love probably would.’ Rotelli thinks to himself while in bed and he resolves to talk to Stu about his issue later.

--

“Stu I need your help,” says Rotelli when he finally gets a chance to ask Stu about his feelings and emotions issue.

“Uh, sure Rotelli, what do you need?”

“So uh, how do you stop accidentally being in love with your buddy?”

Stu's eyes get wide and scared “why do you think i know anything about being in love with

Anybody??”

“Well, you look at a mitch like you're in love?”

Stu’s head whips around and he whispers “How do you know about that”

“So you do--!”

“Hush!! You haven’t told anyone have you??”

“No? Why would I tell someone when I have the same problem”

Stu sighs in relief “Fine. what do you need help with”

“How do you stop being in love with a boy who  you think is a very nice and a special?”

Stu stares off into the distance for a moment

“Gosh, Rotelli. If I knew how to do that I don’t think I'd be looking at mitch the way I do”

“So we're both fucked, ah?”

“Seems to be we’re fucked, Rotelli” Stu confirms, “so, who do you have eyes for, seeing as its apparently blatant that I've got a thing for mitch”

“I don't a know Stu, it seems mine should be blatant as well. I fell for Professor, glasses and all”

“... yeah now that I think about it it is pretty blatant”

“See! I told you! I mean but how could you not love him! He's a handsome, and funny, and his eyeballs are warm somehow???? He is strong and lovely”

“Gosh don't even get me started on mitch! He's so tall and manly and ugh, don't tell anyone but he is a very good kisser”

“Woah, really”

Stu nods.

That day a friendship was born from being really gay for your friend.

Stu and Rotelli started hanging out more, talking to each other about their respective cute boys. Every time Mitch would whisper huskily into Stu’s ear, Rotelli would hear about it. Every time Professor complimented Rotelli, or cried to him, or held on a little too tight when they danced, Stu was the first to know. It was a comradery that only the gays truly know. It was like when you meet someone and say “I like your hair” and they say “I like yours too” and then makes a gay joke. It was that magical feeling of queer solidarity.

Now, of course, they started hanging out more, and of course, Professor had noticed. To him, he could tell that Rotelli was keeping secrets from him and telling those secrets to Stu. He felt like he’d done something wrong. What’d he do to make it so that Rotelli didn’t trust him with something? I mean he always told Rotelli his secrets… well all except one, but he sure as hell wouldn't be telling anyone that anytime soon. Nobody but him needed to know all the weird feelings he felt for the green-eyed Sicilian boy that may or may not be motivating this jealousy against Stu. He shouldn't even be jealous anyway, it's not like Rotelli belonged to him. It's not like sometimes professor stayed up thinking about him and whenever they were on the front lines he was the first one he worried about.

Ok maybe that second part was true, but the first one wasn't. Rotelli has the right to hang out with whoever he wants. Still, he doesn't wanna keep swallowing, but what's a fella to do?

But the next time they danced, this time dancing was far from Professor’s mind. This time Rotelli noticed that the Professors hold on his hips wasn't as tight as it was, and the professor didn't twirl him or dip him or anything like that. He didn't do anything that took paying attention. Rotelli felt a pang in his chest that he really did not like, and so he resolved to talk to Professor after lights out. Stu told him that American men often had no clue how to handle their emotions and so they bottle them all up till they have no idea what to do with them and try to drink them away, which is not an unfamiliar concept to him.

--

“Professor? Are you awake” Rotelli says quietly to his bunkmate climbing down from the top

“Yeah I am, what's on your mind pal?” answers the professor matching the volume.

“I've,ah… noticed that you have been a little with your head in the sky? I was wondering if you had a something on your mind that you’d want to tell me about”

Professor figured it was pretty much sooner rather than later that he’d have to talk about at least some of his feelings.

“You know how you’ve been hanging around Stu a whole lot?”

Rotelli nods

“Well, I keep gettin’ this feeling like, ya know your keepin’ secrets from me. I was just wondering if I did something wrong…”

Hearing these words out of Professor's mouth made Rotelli feel that pang again, poor guy. “No no not at all, you've never done anything to make me not trust you. It's just… there are some thoughts that I have that I can a only really say to Stu because Stu and I are the same. That's the only way I know how to say it”

Professor sighs and looks up at Rotelli “Are you… sweet on Stu?? I won't tell anyone I promise!” he rushes,

“No no no, I don't like Stu. besides he is interested in someone who is not me.”

“Oh.. well that's good then, you know you can really make a fella jealous keeping secrets like that you know. What's so similar about the two of you anyway”

Rotelli blushes, but it goes unseen in the dark of the cabin, “That is a harder question to answer my friend”

“C’mon, it can't be that bad. Not bad enough that you couldn't tell your best buddy right?”

There's a pause

“What if I told you, hypothetically,” Rotelli says the word with six syllables “that I fell in love with you on accident”

“Well, I’d hypothetically tell you that I would die for you,” Professor says, saying the word with five syllables

Rotelli laughs “and if I hypothetically asked you to kiss me?”

The Professor stares “I’d Hypothetically do it right there on the spot”

“Do it then”

Not a moment passed after Rotelli get that last word out before his mouth was caught by a pair of very soft Bostonian lips, The kiss was long and exciting, something that neither of them had ever felt and that neither one of them wanted to stop feeling. They kept going before they had to stop so they could sleep.

--

Stu and Rotelli meet at their usual spot and the first thing Rotelli says is “Professor is a good kisser”