19

A week later, Gary and Winston lounge around Gary's living room, faint noises of music coming from Liam's room. Gary's mom is out, working, and they're ostensibly looking after Liam in the meantime, however it's kind of difficult considering that Liam won't acknowledged they exist. They've taken to just leaving sandwiches outside his door when he's not paying them attention.

So far, he's still alive.

"Should we give Liam another sandwich?" Winston mutters as a new episode of the sci-fi political drama they're watching starts up. They're binging it again because the new season had a lot of Revelations™ and now they need to re-watch to be in awe of all the expert foreshadowing.

Gary scoffs, "The kid will probably riot if we give him more food."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Gary smiles and raises his voice, "Liam, do you want food?!" Then he whispers to Winston, "Wait for it."

Two seconds later, Liam's door slams open right into the living room and he pokes his head out, already scowling fiercely. "I'm busy!" he growls, glaring at them viciously. He quickly pulls his head back in and loudly slams the door shut. Then he opens it again and bellows, "I can make my own food, I'm not a kid!" The door is then once more slammed.

To be clear, Liam is fourteen.

Totally a kid.

Winston giggles into his hand while Gary outright laughs, not even bothering to hide it. There's harsh stomping heard from Liam's room, and then the music is turned up significantly, until it basically overpowers the TV. This finally makes Gary scowl, and he heads to Liam's room. He knocks on the door and when there's no response, he loudly yells to be heard over the music; "Liam, turn the noise down! You're disturbing the neighbors!"

After a second, it's spitefully turned the absolute tiniest bit down. Gary scowls and kicks the door, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting on the return to the couch. He flops down on it, tilting sideways after a moment and resting his head on Winston's thighs. Winston doesn't wait for a second, sliding his hands into the red hair and rubbing Gary's scalp.

Gary exhales softly, closing his eyes. "You can press play," he murmurs quietly, turning his face toward Winston's stomach.

Winston raises an eyebrow, "You sure? You don't wanna watch?"

"No," Gary mutters, stubbornly staying still. Winston continues to draw his fingers through Gary's hair, playing with the strands and tying the longer ones into knots. Then he can't untie a few of them and he surreptitiously frowns, switching to rubbing Gary's head so he doesn't notice anything.

Winston presses play on the TV remote. The show starts up again, and he leans against the backrest, his hands growing still on Gary's head. His breathing is steady, and so is Gary's, and whole minutes drip away from them.

When the episode ends and Gary still hasn't turned back to watch the TV, Winston draws in a huge breath. He looks down at Gary and draws his fingers through the red strands—seemingly black in the room's darkness—and after a moment, he says, "I want you to meet Jason."

Gary's eyes open, and he turns onto his back, looking right up at Winston. "So soon?" he asks, furrowing his eyebrows and waving a hand in the air between them as he adds, "Haven't you guys only been dating for like two weeks?"

Winston pulls on Gary's hair until Gary winces and pats Winston's arm in surrender. Winston stops pulling but he sticks his tongue out at Gary and Gary in turn rolls his eyes. Finally, Winston says, "I want you to meet now because it's early," says Winston, unable to keep looking at Gary for some reason. He tilts his head back onto the backrest and sinks deeper into the pink couch, exhaling softly and says at a low volume, "You're my best friend. If you're gonna hate each other, I wanna know now." (Before—well. Before.)

Gary laughs, and Winston snaps his neck forward, looking down again. Winston's eyes are wide—he can't help it—and among his snickers, Gary announces, "I'm not gonna hate him, dude."

"But you might," Winston insists, trying to make Gary understand the seriousness with his eyes. It's not going very well, but if he averts eye-contact now, he'll lose. Winston adds, "You might not click. Jason might secretly be an asshole. He might have massive skeletons in his closet and what if you accidentally discover them and then he swears revenge on you so you have to run for your life while trying to tip off the police, but actually he's got a hit out on you and hitmen keep almost killing you and—"

"Winston." Gary gazes up at him calmly, lips ticking up into an amused smile. "You're rambling," he points out, grabbing Winston's waving hand out of the air and squeezing it. Winston freezes and Gary's smile grows, and he tugs on the hand, putting his other hand on the couch and pushing himself up until he's sitting. Rearranged so he's sitting beside Winston with his legs crossed, Gary pats his shoulder.

"Jason is a good guy," Gary says. Winston stares at his now empty lap and draws his hand over the couch's cushion. He hums, but tellingly doesn't say anything. Finally, Gary is the one who points out, "Dude, I've seen Jason. He's not an ass to anybody, ever. I've literally seen the guy catch a spider in his hands and release it in the wilds."

Winston pulls on his mouth. It almost feels like a smile, but that'd be stupid because he's kind of panicking right now.

Gary adds, "I'm not going to hate him. And he's not secretly a serial killer or something." Gary laughs.

"You never know. It's the quiet ones you gotta look out for," mutters Winston, at this point only sticking to his point out of stubbornness because of course, he's lost already. Jason is amazing, and Gary is amazing and for two amazing people to dislike each other? Unthinkable.

(And yet still... Winston can't quite shake the worry. Because if Gary actually ends up disliking Jason when he gets to know him, if Jason dislikes Gary... what is Winston going to do? He can't...)

Gary interrupts his thoughts, continuing the conversation Winston got briefly distracted from. "Dude, Jason is hardly quiet," Gary says.

Winston shrugs, "I know but—"

"No buts." Gary shakes his head and scoots over, settling beside Winston on the couch, and then he tilts until he's resting his head on Winston's shoulder. Automatically, Winston raises and curls his arm around Gary and Gary in turn continues to slide down until he's finally resting on Winston's chest. "You're panicking because you like me," Gary wiggles his eyebrows which Winston can barely see from this angle but he recognizes that voice, and he scowls when Gary adds, "You like me and you don't wanna lose me because you loooove me."

Winston blows air into Gary's ear.

"What the fuck, dude?!" Gary tosses himself off Winston and practically runs to the other side of the couch—which is only about a meter—and rubs his ears viciously while glaring at Winston.

Winston laughs, shoulders flexing. "You deserved it," he says between his snickers.

Gary gasps, offended, and insists, "I am an angel." When Winston doesn't immediately agree, Gary crosses his arms over his chest and pouts, slumping into the couch. "Play the next episode," he mutters sullenly, glaring at Winston out of the corner of his eyes.

Winston hides his smile behind a hand, moving to obey without a word.