Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Benji's pattern tie is yanked by Ethan, he coughs and gags, “Ethan–”

“You’re an idiot”, Ethan shoves him to the wall, causing the other man to yelp. There’s a pause between the two, Benji breathing heavily, “I– I just wanted to make sure you were safe…”

A strong hand grips his jaw, the other loosening his grip on the tie. The world dissolves as Ethan surges forward to kiss Benji. 

He returns the kiss, the two melting into each other's touch.

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Andy twirls the small dandelion he picked in between his fingers. The sky is a clear blue, but deep like the ocean. Clouds momentarily block the sun from time to time, but him and Gary barely notice.

The teens sit in a large field of grass. It’s one of their favorite spots to relax. Just the two of them.

Their laughter dies down from a joke Gary told a long time ago. The beauty of nature enveloping Andy's heart. Or, it could be the beauty of his friend that makes him avoid eye contact.

Gary wipes happy tears forming in his eyes and laughs once more, turning to Andy with a grin, “I love you, Andy”

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“How are you holding up?”, there’s a shy knock on the doorway to the living room. Ed groans in annoyance, the ice pack he was given slipping off with a smack to the ground.

“My head fucking huuuurtssss”

Shaun holds back a snicker at Eds dramatics. He walks over to the couch where Ed lays snuggled up in his blanket. He places a small kiss on his head, “Rest up, I’ll go by the shop and get some medicine”

Ed goes a bright red, “Psht. Gay…”

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“It’s raining…”, Nicholas sighs. He sits at the dining room table, his warm cup of tea being a stark contrast from the cold outside.

“Aw bummer”, his husband pouts as he looks out the window. Danny walks over and wraps his big arms around Nicholas’s shoulders. He smooches Nicholas on the cheek, “But it’s good fer the garden yea?”

He smiles slightly at Danny's optimism, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him into a big kiss. As he lets go, his husband has a flustered grin, “A–Also means we got the whole day tah ourselves!”

Nicholas blushes with an embarrassed snicker, “I suppose so”

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Bonk. Graeme hits his head on the small trailer shower, “Gah!! See I told you it wouldn’t work”. 

Clive mumbles a sorry, hugging his partner's waist. “S’pose it’s a little tiny for two blokes…”, he pouts, unmoving. He’s already decided.

There’s tight shuffling, Graeme blushing as he turns on the shower. He looks to Clive with a shy pout, Clive only grinning back.

Suddenly cold water hits them both.

“FUCKIN HELL”

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“What’s this?”

Elton looks at the tiny box in his hands, it has a tiny plastic blue bow on it. Gus sits in the driver's seat next to him in the van, a casual smile on his face, “Just a little something”

He shrugs, his smile getting widen, “No big deal. Why dontcha open it?”

Elton slowly opens the box, inside is a frame. In the frame is a picture of him, Astrid, and Gus. His expression softens as he takes out the frame fully to hold it up. 

A small warm smile soon turning into tears, “I love it”

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Rolling down the sidewalk is a black pen, it only rolls a few inches but it rolls enough to get the attention of two people. One person being the man who dropped it, late for work. And the other being his friend, walking alongside him with a cig in hand.

“Shit, lemme get tha–”

The two both lean down at the same time, bumping their foreheads together like a bowling ball hits a pin! Ouch! Strike!

They both laugh it off, rubbing their own heads. Ed eventually picking up the pen, holding it out, “You gotta get a better pen ya know. This one leaks”

Shauns skinny cold hands brush Eds. The touch lingers as he takes his pen, soft warm hands…

“Thanks, Ed”

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“Balls out we need to raw dog this my man”

Shaun doesn’t even know how to respond to that, looking over to Ed as he takes out random ingredients from the shelves. It only then hits him, “Ed!! Ed we need to follow the recipe–”

He’s lightly shoved away from the pot on the stove, his friend snickering, “Nah man, I’ve got this”

“Ed–”, Shaun starts to laugh with him as the two fight for ingredients. Flour pours into the pot with cracked eggs following, the two cackling hysterically. This is not going to be an edible breakfast.

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“Gary, you’ve got to improve your posture around the hips”

Steven walks around Gary like a shark, creaky floorboards tracking his movements. He places his hands on Garys hips as he raises their direction towards the ceiling.

“There we go! Downward dog!”, Steven smiles proudly at his friend. 

“I think I’ve lost the blood flow to my head, mate–”

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The banging of fists on the janitor's closet falls on deaf ears. At least they have a tiny lightbulb. But no keys in sight. Yeah they’re locked in.

Gary turns to the shy blonde girl in the corner of the closet and laughs at the whole situation, “Looks like we might be stuck here for a while. Gives us time tah know each other then!”

He holds out a bandaged hand, blue eyes covered by his sunglasses, “Gary King. You’re O-man’s sister yeah?”

She frowns in annoyance, shaking his hand firmly, “Sam”

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The shift of weight on the bed stirs Peter awake, the soft blanket shifted to the side as Oliver gets up.

Peter grumbles, turning to the side to watch Oliver get dressed, his hair swept all over the place. “Nice ass, Ollie”, Peter snickers with his soft smile that melts Oliver's heart.

Oliver blushes, pulling up his pants, “Peter please have some composure”

“Where are you off to so soon? It’s too–”, he yawns, “...early”

“It’s 5 in the morning, I’ve got to meet with a client”

He pauses, seeing his partner's disappointed pout. With a small sigh, Oliver walks over and places a kiss on Peters cheek, “I’ll be back for lunch, get back to sleep love”

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“And that one's the uh.. Big dipper!”

“The big dipper is over there”, Andy's blank nudges Gary. The group of blanks and their leader lay down on the grass and look up at the stars.

“Course course I was just testing you lot”, Gary smiles goofily, “Right then. Where do you come from? Where’s the network at, I mean?”

There’s a silence as they all wonder. The stars give no obvious answers. Night air whisps through Gary's blonde messy hair as he sits up, “...We best get moving yeah?”

“One moment”. He looks to Andy as he speaks up.

“I’m trying to find it”

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“Just relax…”

Clive presses into Graeme's shoulder blades and the blonde man mumbles into the bedsheets of the small camper bed.

“What was that?”, Clive snickers with a faint blush. Graeme turns his head to the side, his face a shade of red, “Where did you learn this…?”

“Youtube!”

“Wait– actually?”

He nods with a goofy grin, “Pretty good huh?”

Graeme doesn’t respond, just nodding shyly and putting his face back into the blanket.

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The floor of the station had been washed only moments ago, this is made obvious by the squeaky shoes on the floor.

Danny interlocks his fingers with Nicholas, a shy mesmerized look on his face. “Now take a step back”, Nicholas whispers in his ear, he blushes as they both move back.

It’s just the two of them in the station, with the record player Danny brought playing something from his mothers collection. But he can’t focus on the music when the love of his life is leading him into a slow waltz.

His steps are clumsy to keep up with Nicholas, stumbling and having to clutch onto his partner's waist. Danny snickers without thought when he sees the red blush going all the way to Nicholas’s ears.

The steps become slower, faces pressing so close they can hear the other breathing. Danny takes the lead into a soft kiss, resting both his hands on his partner's waist. Nicholas stops waltzing and leans into the kiss. His strong hands grab the back of Danny's head with desperation.

The record stops.

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The sounds of angry footsteps blend together, passing by with shadows shown through the dusty windows. Sam holds her brother close. She knows he isn’t exactly her brother. Just a clone of him. A blank.

Despite this, she hugs him and waits for the angry mob to leave. Oliver shyly hugs her back, not used to affection. She can see right into his head, literally, the blue hollow half of his head making her wince. It looks terrifying.

“Are they gone?”

“Yeah. I think so”

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The moon shines down through the small window in the corner of the living room. Also known as Ed’s room. But Shaun joins him today, unable to sleep. This is what happens when you watch a scary movie in the middle of the night.

He would never admit this to anyone but, he wanted to be scared. Ed doesn’t usually like to share his bed, also known as the couch. Therefore, sleepovers usually consist of both being blackout drunk and laying around the floor.

Tonight was different. 

As fall creeps into the verge of winter, cold breeze making it through the cracks in the walls, the two huddle on the couch under a warm blanket.

Shaun can’t recall the last time they did something like this without Ed making a snarky comment about this being “so gay”. 

So what if it’s a little gay. So what if he takes comfort in hearing Eds heartbeat. The way his mates chest rises and falls slowly, shaking when he lets out a content snore.

So what.