It's Not That Gay If You Think About
It Part 4
Usually Flambae took the rejection gracefully.
Like Roberts been saying, it was a game between the two, harmless flirting for fun.
But sometimes Flambae got.. Frustrated?
Flambae would ask to take him home. Robert would reject him per usual. They’d banter a bit more and laugh by the end of it while continuing to bug each other. They’ve really become good friends over the years.
But on a few rare occasions, instead of bantering or laughing after the initial rejection, Flambae would storm off or skulk away to sulk. Sometimes even throwing in a snide remark if he was drunk enough
‘You’re not my type anyways’
‘I can get with anyone. I don’t need you. Lucky I even considered it. In fact I’m going to go sleep with someone now.’
‘You’re missing out. You don’t even know!’
One time he just muttered a quiet “Hoe” as he slunk off to sulk alone in a corner, or on Prisms shoulder. Sometimes he really would go find someone else to hit on only to still end up leaving the bar alone.
The comments seemed more defensive rather than aggressive, like he was trying to save whatever was left of his ego. Maybe Robert had rejected him too harshly those times? Or maybe Flambae had just drank too much considering he was usually heavily hung over by the next day.
It didn’t happen often, only a handful of times over the years.
Flambae would brush it off everytime once he was sober enough to remember what happened. Stress from family or work, the guy he had been seeing is being a dick, he’s going through a dry spell. The usual excuses from Flambae.
Flambae didn’t ever apologise directly. He’d give whatever reason had him in a mood that night, then bring Robert lunch or buy him a drink to make it up to him.
Which is improvement seeing as when they first met and were pissing each other off they didn’t acknowledge their wrongs and just continued poking at each other, then act like nothing happened the next time they saw each other.
Flambae has grown over time, so has Robert.
But there was one time that stood out to Robert..
They were at a club for their usual team bonding.
Robert spotted Flambae on the dance floor along with Prism, Sonar and Malevola. He had already had a few drinks, enough to loosen up a bit. He wasn’t a dancer but it’s part of the experience now.
Robert made his way over and started dancing with them. He shimmed with Mal, twirled Alice, boogied with Victor.
He didn’t even have to make his way to Flambae since he was already waiting for his turn.
A pair of warm hands landed on his hips well he was dancing with Victor, and Roberts face lit up at the prospect of their usual game. He was a bit surprised since they have been arguing a lot lately, Flambae had been a bit snippy with him the last little bit, but he was probably just in a mood, nothing too unusual.
He felt Flambaes chest press against his back, so Robert quickly spun around so they were face to face. Robert was greeted with Flambaes drunken mischievous grin.
Flambaes hands only left Roberts hips for a moment to let him turn around before taking back up their place. Robert always loved how warm his hands felt on his achy body. He didn’t like the casual touches at first, the hair ruffles, the casual arm around the shoulder or hand on his lower back. But over time he got used to it, fond of it even.
Flambaes thumbs rubbed along the edge of Roberts hip bones, never straying far down but still feeling incredibly intimate. Robert felt himself flush a bit, having not been touched like that before.
When he couldn’t ignore it anymore he gently grabbed Flambaes wrists, he barely had to apply any pressure before Flambae moved his thumbs to rest near the top of Roberts hips.
They kept bobbing side to side with each other while moving around the dance floor. Flambaes grin got toothy whenever their fronts brushed together, barely touching but still enough to notice, it felt intentional.
Again. It’s whatever.
Robert has jokingly grinded on the girls before when he was drunk enough, and has been grinded on, Flambae is no different, though they never did that.
They eventually separated. Had a few more shots with the team, danced with a few other people.
The team didn’t get wasted every time they went out like they used to, but tonight they were drinking alcohol like it was water.
Robert was dancing in a sea of sweaty bodies. His own body would punish him for it tomorrow, but right now he was too drunk to feel pain.
He felt hands on his hips, and for a moment he thought a stranger had grabbed him and was trying to grind on him. But it just turned out to be Flambae. Robert instantly relaxed, the older man just swayed behind him to the beat of the music, not grinding on him like he originally thought he would.
Sober Robert would know grinding with Flambae would be crossing the line, not to mention a HR violation but those don’t really exist. Sober Robert would see it as leading Flambae on, would agree to keep their playful flirting purely verbal.
But sober Robert isn’t here, drunk Robert is. And drunk Robert is a sassy bitch with a lack of impulse control.
And right now drunk Robert just sees Flambae as a friend he could do probably anything with and they could both laugh it off the next day and continue with their usual routine.
So yes. Drunk Robert curved his back to rub his flat ass against Flambae.
Robert didn’t notice the way Flambae tensed up, it wasn’t long before Flambae was following his lead anyways. They were dirty dancing on the dance floor, Flambaes hands moving from Roberts hips, up his sides, around his waist.
Roberts own hands would move over top of Flambaes, slide up his arms, reach up behind himself to hold onto the older mans shoulder.
Flambae spun them around so they were face to face, but they kept grinding on each other. He didn’t notice how Flambaes face was so close that they were breathing the same air, he was too busy staring into those bright eyes that were glowing yellow. The older mans eyes were like a mood ring, and Roberts come to understand that yellow was good.
He didn’t pay attention to how hard Flambae had gotten until he realised that he was also getting a bit hard. Only then did he gently push Flambaes waist away, but Flambae was reluctant to let go of the shorter man.
Robert chuckled and did his best to speak over the music, leaning in so Flambae can hear him.
“We should stop.”
“Why?”
Flambae called back, looking confused and a bit disappointed
Robert just gestured to the tent Flambae had pitched.
Flambae just got a mischievous grin and pulled Robert closer.
“Come to the bathroom and help me with it.”
“In your dreams.”
Robert leaned back, but Flambae leaned forward to stay close.
“How much longer are you going to tease me for Robert?”
He sounded a bit frustrated, but also longing?
Roberts brain wasn’t able to process the tone right now. He just kept smiling.
“Until you tell me to stop.”
”Whoa, easy there big guy. Still not into kissing dudes but nice try.”
Flambae leans in more. His eyes starting to close, lips getting closer to Roberts. Robert panicked and pushed him away. That sobered him up enough to draw a line, maybe if he was drunker he wouldn’t care about something small like a kiss. But he knows this would be going too far.
This was the part where Flambae laughed.
”Are you seriously still saying that? Even after all that? You’re just going to keep leading me on??”
Flambae’s body got ridged and heated in an unpleasant way. That beautiful yellow in his eyes swirled into a blood orange that Robert had come to associate with anger.
He hadn't laughed..
Robert felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over him, but he was still struggling to sober up the rest of his brain cells. … Why isn’t he laughing?
“Lead you on..?? What are you talking about? Since when has me saying I’m straight been leading you on?”
Flambae stepped forward. Robert tried to step back but couldn’t unless he wanted to ram himself into the dancing strangers that surrounded them.
Flambae leered over him, a mix of emotions in his eyes that was hard for Robert to decipher when his brain was busy fighting the toxins of alcohol.
“You can’t fucking work me up every time then blue ball me with that ‘I’m straight’ bullshit! If you’re so fucking straight then why do you get so excited whenever we do this back and forth! Do you just like fucking with me!?”
Robert went wide eyed and slacked jaw. He was so stunned locked that he couldn’t form an actual sentence. Had he actually been leading Flambae on? He thought they were cool, that this was mutual fun..
Robert could only watched as Flambae pushed his way through the crowd, nearly burning the people he pushed past as he stormed out.
Robert left not long after that. Giving a half assed excuse, just walking out on the rest of the team.
He felt like shit. He wanted Flambae to show up and punch him so thing could go back to normal. He did his best to remind himself that Flambae was probably just having one of his bad days..
But something ugly kept eating at his chest. Thankfully the alcohol helped him sleep.
The next day he was hungover. He wallowed in bed alone, Chase still having Beef. He kept checking the group chat but saw that Flambae hadn’t said anything.
He tried convincing himself that Flambae was probably still asleep or hungover, but metas rarely had as bad hangovers as normal people.
It wasn’t until later that night when Robert finally broke and texted him.
Robert: Can we talk about last night?
…
Minutes passed with no reply.
He debated texting Alice just to make sure Chad got home okay. But he eventually noticed that his message got left on read.
Alright. Fine.
He needs a bit longer to cool off. He’ll just try again tomorrow.
It’s not like Flambae can avoid him forever. They have work on Monday.
The ugly feeling grew in his chest that night as he tried to sleep, scratching at the inside of his rib cage like a beast trying to escape. The only thing able to sooth him and the beast to sleep was Beefs blissful snuggles. Thankfully Chase had dropped him off that morning.
By Sunday, Robert was starting to get annoyed.
Flambae still hooked up with randoms all the time, so why did their little flirting matter?
Even if Robert was into dudes and accepted Flambaes offer, it wasn’t like anything would come from it. Was it that important for Flambae to add Robert to his phones roster?? For him to be added to the fuck buddy list?
He had to go work on the mech suit and go on a patrol to keep himself from stewing. It helped clear his head.
He got home to still no text.
He wanted to clear things up before tomorrow. Robert wrote a text, only to delete it and rewrite it. He kept swinging back and forth between being petty and from being crushed from an overwhelming sense of guilt.
He ended up settling for something somewhat professional.
Robert: I want to apologise for how I have been acting towards you. It was unprofessional and wrong to flirt with you like that and it won’t happen again. Hope we can still be friends. All the best.
That message got left on read too, but that wasn’t Roberts problem. He did his best to right the situation. He’ll probably get punched in the face tomorrow and it will be over with.
But part of him still felt weighed down by the thought that it won’t be that simple to fix this.
Monday came, and Flambae was avoidant, if not a bit petty towards Robert. Robert would be petty back a few times, or ignore Flambae and try to remain professional.
Sometimes though, he’d have a hard time even looking at Flambae without feeling guilty and ashamed at how he acted.
Flambae yelling at Robert about leading him on really struck Robert in the worst way possible and the shame of it stuck.
“Okay.. So I may have messed up a bit with yelling at you the other night.. But uh.. Yeah. Apology accepted or whatever. We can go back to normal now.”
At the end of the day Flambae was waiting for him. Robert was expecting to get jumped in the parking lot when he saw Chad waiting, so he put Beef down so the pooch could watch from a safe distance. But instead Chad was standing there with his arms crossed, avoiding eye contact. The guy looked constipated with how he was fighting his expressions.
“Back to normal as in..?”
Robert stared at him deadpanned. He’d be lying if he said the weight on his shoulders hadn’t lifted a bit, but he still wasn’t letting the fiery hero off the hook that easy.
“Like we can go back to joking around and flirting and stuff. No biggie. Just, maybe we take it easy on the grinding a bit next time.”
Flambae kicked the ground lazily, still avoiding eye contact.
“Yeah.. I don’t think there will be a next time. I don’t really think it’s a good idea to flirt like that anymore. I think I’d like to keep a more professional friendship.”
Robert tilted his head in thought and held his chin. He’s relived that Flambae isn’t going to hold a grudge, but he thinks he’s already crossed the line to fully go back to the way things were. He wouldn’t be able to joke around like that without feeling like he was leading Flambae on anymore.
“Are you co-worker-zoning me right now??”
Flambae looked at Robert with a face of disbelief.
“No, not what I said. We’re still friends, I just think maybe our friendship needs some boundaries.”
Robert quickly shook his head.
“Boundaries?! Bobert I said I was sorry!”
Flambae looked even more taken aback.
“Actually, you didn’t. And boundaries aren’t a bad thing Flambae.”
Robert rolled his eyes and started walking towards his car, Beef trotting along his side.
“Okay well I’m saying it now. I’m sorry. There. Now we go back to normal, non of that boundary bullshit.”
Flambae followed after them.
Robert raised a brow as he made it to his car.
“What do you have against boundaries?”
“No one else on the Z-team has boundaries with you, not even Invisabitch! I don’t want to be the only one getting put on a leash here.”
Flambae stopped beside him, folding his arms again.
“Then maybe I should cut back on the flirty behaviour with everyone.”
Robert sighed and put Beef into his car.
“Okay yeah no. I hate you being ‘professional’ more than I hate when you pretend to deepthroat a twinkie.”
Flambae seemed to be thinking about Roberts answer while Robert headed around to the drivers side of the car and got in.
Robert starts up the car.
“I’m not pretending when I do that.”
“Wh- ROBERT!”
“see you tomorrow Flambae.”
Robert drove off.
Robert went back to acting normal, minus anything that could be considered overly flirty. He wasn’t mad at Flambae like Flambae seemed to think he was, he simply just didn’t think it was fun or appropriate anymore to act that way, if anything he was embarrassed of acting like that now.
It took weeks, maybe months for them to get back to their normal back and forth.
During that time Robert had come to realise that Flambaes feelings were a bit more than being friends or just trying to sleep with Robert. So even when the went back to their normal behaviour he decided to be more mindful of that.
Authors Note: Will probably make this a series on AO3 so I can go into more detail on what happened before they went back to normal in a seperate fic.
