#smallestj

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.