Fic: la gare du nord 2/4 (Deadliest Catch RPS, Jake A./Josh H., NC17)
Title: la gare du nord
Fandom: Deadliest Catch
Pairing: Jake A./Josh H.
Rating: NC17
Summary: Josh came back to work for his father because fishing is in his blood. All he wanted was to earn the respect of his dad and his crew, and to make a permanent place for himself on the Cornelia Marie. Love was the last thing he was looking for, which is exactly when it usually finds you.
A/N: Written for rpf_big_bang. Many thanks to cinderlily and duckduck for the beta and handholding. Cover by the fantastic and multi-talented cinderlily.
"So anyway, they're playing The Gorge next week and Dustin's van has room for one more. You in?"
"When is it?" Josh asked, leaning a little further across the table to hear over the bar noise. It was the first chance he'd had to see any of his friends in weeks; between publicity shoots and events and filming After the Catch, he'd barely been in town all summer, let alone had time to get together with anybody.
Before Josh decided to try fishing again he had a whole life in Seattle. He still did, sort of, but now it wasn't just a couple months out of the winter that he spent away from his friends and his place and the rest of his life. Now he had to bail on stuff during the summer too, because he was traveling to some event or being dragged to some development pitch with his old man. So far companies had tried to sell his father on endorsing some pretty wild stuff, and he'd heard that Sig was already working on some deal that would put his face on boxes of frozen fish. Which was pretty funny, he had to admit, but it was kind of strange, too.
They were all still fishermen, they all still had the same worries and goals as any other guy out on the Bering Sea, but somehow the show had gotten all tied up in it until it just seemed like the cameras were never off. A lot of them didn't even seem to notice anymore, but Josh was still having some trouble adjusting. Mostly he missed having a life, missed the stuff he used to do without even thinking about cameras or where he was supposed to be when. He spent two years trying to be somebody other than Phil Harris' kid, and even though he'd gone back to fishing in the end, there were things about his life in those two years he'd managed to hold onto. Like friends who listened to the same music he did and didn't care that he was into guys. Friends he could be himself around, who made him feel like he wasn't some kind of freak just because he wasn't exactly like his brothers.
"A week from tomorrow," Brandon answered, squinting at Josh in the low bar light. "Don't tell me, you've got another fan club meeting."
"It's part of the job," Josh said for what felt like the millionth time. It was true, but that didn't make it any less lame. "There's a thing in Anchorage."
"Bummer." Brandon lifted his drink and drained half the glass, watching Josh over the rim the entire time. When he set it back down again he grinned and leaned closer. "Your boy gonna be there?"
"Who?" Josh said, frowning at the look on Brandon's face.
"Give me a break, man. I've seen the show, I know what the 'new guy' you keep mentioning looks like. Totally your type."
"I haven't mentioned anybody," Josh said, but he could feel the heat creeping into his cheeks and he knew if the room was lit better the whole place would see his ears turning crimson.
"Right. So you weren't wondering what his story was when you got home in February. Just like you didn't keep bringing up how he showed up at your last little fan club meeting."
Josh rolled his eyes, but it wasn't like he could deny it. He hadn't realized at the time he was saying any of that stuff out loud, but if Brandon knew Jake was the new guy Josh kept mentioning, he must have heard it from Josh. "He's not my boy. Anyway, he probably won't even be there. It's all the way up in Anchorage."
"So why are you going? Your old man has to give you a break every once in awhile, right?"
The truth was that Josh could skip the event if he wanted to. Phil would roll his eyes and Jake would give him shit about his 'commitment to the job' or whatever, but in the end they wouldn't make him go. There were plenty of events where one of the guys didn't show up, and nobody held it against them. So it would be easy enough to blow it off this time and hang out with his friends like a normal person for awhile, just forget about the show and the cameras and who might or might not show up this time. Josh shook his head anyway, picking up his beer and glancing over at Brandon. "The show already bought the plane tickets, I can't back out."
"Suit yourself, man," Brandon said, but he was smirking again. "I just hope he shows."
~
Jake was one of the last guys to check in at the hotel. That was what the girl behind the desk said, anyway, when she wasn't giggling like he was some kind of rock star. Granted, they probably didn't get a whole lot of actual stars in Anchorage, but it still seemed a little dumb to him, especially when she'd already had a chance to see the rest of the guys up close and personal. He took his key and headed for his room without bothering to ask who his roommate was. He hadn't stayed in the hotel the last time he showed up at one of these; that one was in Seattle, so he'd just driven down from his folks' house and headed right back to Anacortes when it was over. He knew better than to think he'd have a room to himself, but it didn't matter to him who he shared with. If he could pick he knew exactly who it would be, but there was no way Josh wasn't sharing with his brother.
He let himself into the room and dropped his stuff on the bed that wasn't already messed up. So his roommate had gotten in the night before; most of them probably had, because a lot of them were traveling from out of state, which meant commercial flights and a lot of hanging around waiting for something to happen. Jake caught a ride on a seaplane that happened to be heading his way, and he counted himself lucky at the time that the pilot wasn't flying into Anchorage until the day of the event.
He pocketed the room key and headed back downstairs, following the noise until he found the room with all the cameras and the show logo plastered all over the place. There were already people he didn't recognize wandering around the lobby, but he managed to avoid getting stopped by any over-enthusiastic fans on his way into the room. It was smaller than the last one, but still big enough for a decent-sized crowd. Jake spotted the Northwestern crew right away, but instead of heading for the table he scanned the rest of the place until he found what he was looking for.
Josh had his back to the door, face sort of half turned toward Jake while he talked to someone standing behind him. For once he wasn't wearing a hat, and even from the front of the room Jake could see a few metal earrings. He could see why Josh wore a hat so much, too; his ears stuck out a lot, and from this angle it sort of looked like they came to a point at the top. Already he was imagining tracing the tips of Josh's ears with his finger -- better yet, with his tongue -- and when his cock twitched he laughed and shook his head.
Before he got on the plane to fly to Anchorage he'd known he was fucked, but until he walked into the room and saw Josh again, at least he could still deny it. Not that lying to himself counted for much, and there was nobody else around in Bristol for him to lie to. Here he was surrounded by people, though, and if Jake didn't want to answer a bunch of questions he should probably stop staring at the back of Josh's head. As soon as he thought it he looked over at his own crew to find Edgar already waving him over, and he swallowed a rush of something like guilt and headed across the room.
"About time you showed up," Edgar said, clapping Jake on the back and drawing him into the crowd gathered around the table. Jake grinned and shook hands with Norm and then Nick, but he couldn't stop himself from stealing another look across the room at the crew of the Cornelia Marie. When he did he found Josh watching him, and he couldn't be sure from this distance, but it looked to him like the tips of Josh's ears went pink as soon as Jake caught him looking. He grinned and turned back to his own crew, pretending to listen to whatever Edgar was saying while he started working on a plan to get Josh alone.
~
It was more or less a tradition that when they did one of these things out of town, everybody went out drinking after. Not that these guys needed an excuse to drink -- half the events they did in Seattle ended at a bar somewhere -- but when they were on the road, there really wasn't anything else to do.
Well, Josh could think of other ways to spend his time, but none of them would go over too big with this crowd. A few of them might get him killed, at least if he was anybody other than Phil Harris' son. His last name might be enough to protect him from actual physical harm, but he couldn't guarantee the same for anybody who might get mixed up with him. Which was exactly the reason he hadn't spent the whole day staring at Jake from across the room, and the reason he definitely wasn't staring at him now.
Not that he could stare at Jake right now without being totally obvious, because Jake was sitting right next to him. Every time he picked up his drink his elbow brushed Josh's arm, and every time he leaned forward to catch the thread of conversation their knees brushed together under the table. Josh was pretty sure he wasn't doing it on purpose. There were a lot of guys packed around the table, so chances were it was more a matter of space than Jake trying to flirt.
Jake moved a lot, though, and an hour into the conversation Josh wasn't sure how much more he could take.
He still wasn't sure how they'd ended up next to each other. He hadn't really been expecting Jake to show up at all; he'd made a big deal out of trying to impress Sig, sure, but showing up at an event in Seattle was a lot easier than showing up in Anchorage. Except that it turned out Jake had traveled further for the last one, because according to him, he spent his summers in Alaska too. Part of them, at least, according to what Jake was telling a couple of the guys from the Maverick.
"Isn't your uncle pissed?"
"Nah," Jake answered, leaning forward and right on cue there was his knee, pressing into Josh's thigh. Like he didn't even know he was doing it. Josh was pretty sure that wasn't true, but he wasn't about to turn around and ask. He'd barely looked at Jake since he pulled up a chair and squeezed in between Josh and Corey, partly because he didn't want anyone to think he was looking, and partly because he was afraid he'd find out that he was wrong and Jake was as clueless as he was acting.
Jake was still talking, something about the uncertain future of the salmon industry, and he sure as hell didn't sound clueless when he was talking about fishing. He was still green when it came to crab, sure, but it was clear that he'd been working the salmon boats for a long time. He had it in his blood like everybody else in the room, and the worst part about it was that it just made Josh want him more.
Jake's elbow brushed his arm as he hoisted his second beer, draining the glass and wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. Josh pulled his arm back as far as he could without being obvious, but all it did was ensure that Jake's entire forearm brushed against him as he set the empty glass back down on the table. Someone -- Scottie, Josh was pretty sure -- called for another round, and Josh bit back a groan at the thought of sitting through another hour of Jake just breathing next to him, invading his personal space like it was no big deal.
"I'm out," he said, the words coming out of his mouth before he even realized he was thinking them. His chair scraped the floor as he pushed back from the table, pushing Jake's knee off his thigh in the process. And it was pretty damn pathetic that he hated to lose even that little bit of contact, which was how he knew he'd made the right call.
"Lightweight," his brother said, smirking up at Josh and any other time Josh would have made a crack about how Jake was too young to be drinking anyway. That would get him thrown out of the bar, though, and the last thing Josh wanted to do right now was go back to his room with a pissed off little brother. What he wanted he wasn't going to get, so the next best thing was going back to the room alone.
"Whatever, man, I'm beat," he said instead. "Anyway, we've got an early flight tomorrow."
As soon as he said it he regretted it, because reminding his brother that they had to get up at the crack of dawn might convince him to call it a night too. But Jake just laughed and reached for the beer somebody pushed toward him. "Dude, it's early. Relax."
A couple of the other guys joined in, telling him to stop being a pussy and sit back down. Josh ignored the teasing and the laughter, stopping long enough to clap his father on the shoulder and wave to the rest of the captains. He didn't let himself look to see if anyone was watching him go; Jake Anderson hadn't said a word when he stood up, so there was no reason to think he might be watching Josh walk away.
Josh told himself he wasn't disappointed as he headed out of the hotel bar and across the lobby. For a few seconds he considered changing direction and heading out of the hotel altogether, out into the too-bright warmth of a summer evening in Anchorage. There was a store down the street where he could pick up some more smokes; he wasn't out, but it would kill a little time. Or he could head into the city and see if he could find a place a little more his style, maybe a club where people didn't look too close at your face when they asked if they could buy you a drink. But this was Alaska, and people recognized the guys from the show here. More than even in Seattle, and he'd been a lot more careful at home since the show started too. So even if he did find someplace to unwind without any cameras around, there was always the chance that someone would recognize him and his face would end up on Youtube before he even left town.
Josh sighed and crossed to the elevators, resigning himself to a boring night alone with nobody for company except the lousy hotel cable. It felt like forever before an elevator arrived, but he finally made it back to his room and slid his key into the lock. He flipped the light on and kicked his shoes off, then reached for his t-shirt and tugged it over his head. It hit the bed without a sound, and he reached for the button on his jeans. His plan was a long, hot shower, the kind he usually reserved for the first day back after crab season. The idea was to make it as hot as he could stand, then turn it up a little more, until he wasn't thinking about anything but the sting of the water on his skin.
He was unbuttoning his jeans when a knock on the door broke the silence, and he frowned as he buttoned his jeans again and crossed the room. His brother wouldn't bother knocking, and Josh couldn't think of anybody else who might come looking for him. Then again, the hotel had been full of fans just a couple hours ago, and it was possible one of them spotted him in the lobby and followed him upstairs. Only it wasn't an overeager fan on the other side of the door, and Josh felt his heart skip a beat when he opened it to find Jake standing in front of him.
"Hey," he said before he could stop himself. If Jake was here for the reason Josh thought -- hoped -- he was, there was no reason for talking. He could just grab the front of Jake's shirt and pull him forward, plant a kiss on those lips and keep his eyes open the whole time just to see if Jake would close his. He glanced down the hall, half expecting to see some of the other guys hanging around, but Jake was alone. Josh's heart pounded against his ribcage, heat rising up his chest as Jake took a step forward, then another until Josh could feel the air shift as Jake leaned in.
"You gonna let me in or what?" he asked, the words warming Josh's cheek and making his throat go dry. He swallowed once, then again before he gave up on answering altogether and just stepped aside to let Jake inside.
~
Jake was pretty sure no one noticed him leaving the bar just after Josh. Nobody called after him to find out where he was going, anyway, so when he reached the restrooms he just kept on walking until he found himself in the lobby. Josh had a decent head start, but Jake figured it couldn't be too hard to find him. They were all staying on the same floor, anyway, and if he took the stairs two at a time he might even catch up with him before Josh got back to his room.
When he reached their floor he found the hallway empty, but there was a door swinging shut about halfway down, and Jake assumed Josh was behind it. It was worth a shot, anyway, and if it turned out to be one of the other guys...well, Jake would think of an excuse when the door opened. He knocked hard and then took a step backwards, hands in his pockets while he waited for the door to open again. When it did he found Josh staring back at him, mouth open and his eyes kind of wide, like he was surprised to find Jake standing there. He'd already stripped down to his jeans, which was handy, because it saved Jake the trouble of getting him out of his clothes.
"Hey," Josh said, blinking at him like maybe he thought he was imagining Jake standing there. It was cute, but if he stood here much longer someone was going to spot them, so Jake took a step forward, then another one. "You gonna let me in or what?"
For a second Josh hesitated and Jake thought he might say no, that this was a bad idea or maybe that Jake had the wrong idea altogether. But a second later he stepped aside and let Jake brush past him, letting the door close behind him and sliding the chain into place before he turned to look at Jake again. Josh was taller than him, but Jake didn't let that stop him from pushing Josh backwards, pressing his back against the door and sliding a hand around the back of Josh's neck. Josh tilted his head as he leaned down to meet Jake, breathing in hard when Jake pushed his tongue past Josh's teeth to taste stale cigarette smoke and cheap beer.
He'd been wondering since the last time they saw each other how this would go, and when Josh's hands landed on his shoulders, fingers moving hesitantly like he wasn't sure what to do with them, Jake had his answer. Josh was going with shy, as it turned out, but Jake could work with that. In fact, now that he was kissing Josh, he couldn't remember why he'd ever thought anything could be hotter than Josh pressed up against a wall, leaning hard into Jake and flexing long fingers against Jake's shirt while Jake's hands slid down his chest to unbutton his jeans. Josh was murmuring something against his mouth, soft at first but as soon as Jake's hand slid inside his jeans he flattened his hands against Jake's shoulders and pushed until Jake looked up at him.
"Isn't...isn't somebody going to notice you bailed early?"
"Even if they do, they'll be so drunk by the end of the night they won't remember in the morning."
Josh sucked in a harsh breath as Jake's hand started moving, hips thrusting in time with Jake's fingers and even that was hot. Jake took his time, pressing just hard enough to make Josh's chest flush but not hard enough to end things before they even started. He slid his free hand into Josh's hair, gripping at the back of his neck and tugging him forward again. Josh leaned in to meet him, breath hot against Jake's mouth to brush their lips together. "What about your brother?"
For a second he was sure he'd blown it, because Josh's hand clamped down on the wrist that was still working in and out of his jeans. But they were still so close they were breathing the same air, and Jake could feel the words against his skin when Josh answered. "He can take a hint."
Jake wasn't sure what that meant; maybe Josh's brother knew they were up here together, or maybe they had some sort of system Jake didn't know about. He didn't care, either, because Josh's hands were moving again, pulling Jake's shirt off and tossing it...somewhere before he pushed Jake backwards. When his legs collided with the edge of the bed Jake sat down hard, bouncing a little on the mattress before he caught his balance. He grinned up at Josh and reached out to hook a finger through one of Josh's belt loops, then he tugged hard. Josh had a second to register what was happening before he lost his balance, one knee hitting the mattress and sending him sprawling onto his back.
"Asshole," Josh said, but he didn't look all that pissed. In fact, he was already reaching for his jeans, lifting his hips off the bed long enough to push them down before he kicked them onto the floor. And okay, not so shy after all, Jake thought, but he could work with that too. He could definitely work with that, he thought, grinning as he planted one hand on either side of Josh's shoulders and leaned in to kiss him again.
A hook-up was a hook-up, and this one wasn't really any different, but Jake had to admit he liked kissing Josh. He liked the way their mouths fit together, liked the brush of Josh's beard against his skin and the way his hands slid down Jake's back to settle against his ass. As soon as he thought it Josh's grip tightened, pulling Jake flush and rocking up hard against him. Jake was still wearing his jeans, but now he wished he'd taken the time to pull them off. He could feel the heat radiating off Josh, could feel his cock hard against Jake's thigh every time he thrust up, and he knew how much better it could be. But stopping long enough to take off the rest of his clothes meant he had to stop kissing Josh, and he really liked kissing Josh.
There were plenty of other places on Josh to kiss, too, like the underside of his chin and the pale skin along his neck. Jake kissed his weirdly shaped ear right at the base, tongue flicking out to surprise a little gasp out of him. He grinned and moved lower, teeth grazing Josh's skin as he worked his way down Josh's chest. He had a lot of ink; that Chinese shit or whatever on his arms, and a thick black design across his back. His chest was bare, though, and Jake liked running his fingers over all that pale skin, tracing Josh's ribs and then down to the sharp angle of his hipbones.
Josh arched up into his touch, his legs parting even further in the process. Jake took the invitation, settling between them and palming Josh's cock while he opened his mouth against Josh's stomach. He felt Josh shudder under him, grinned against his skin and let his hand slide between Josh's legs, pressing against the thin skin behind his balls. "Fuck," Josh hissed through gritted teeth. His fingers were clenched around the bedspread on either side of him, hips moving in a frantic rhythm. Jake pulled his hand away long enough to slide a finger into his mouth, gaze locked on Josh while he got it as wet as he could. The whole time Josh was watching, eyes sort of glazed over and chest flushed, and he looked even hotter like this than Jake had imagined.
It was almost a shame to give up the view, but Josh wasn't going to wait forever. Neither of them could, and Jake's own neglected cock twitched in his jeans as he watched Josh watching him. Finally he pulled his hand away from his mouth and leaned over, balancing his weight on one elbow as he swallowed Josh's cock and pressed one spit-slick finger inside him. Josh moaned and spread his legs even wider, one hand sliding into Jake's hair and the other still gripping the bedspread like it was the only thing keeping him on the bed.
When Jake thought about how this thing between them might play out, he hadn't expected a whole lot in the way of privacy. Mostly he'd pictured the two of them pressed up against a wall somewhere, maybe in a bathroom or an unlocked closet somewhere. A hotel room had never figured into things, and he definitely hadn't expected the luxury of stretching out on a bed and taking his time. So he hadn't showed up prepared to fuck Josh, but he was pretty sure now that Josh would have let him. He might even have a condom in his stuff somewhere, but Jake didn't stop to ask. He couldn't, because he was too busy matching Josh's thrusts with his mouth, finger working in and out of him a little deeper with each stroke.
He could tell how close Josh was when his fingers tightened in Jake's hair, so Jake pulled his mouth away from Josh's cock to suck at the crease just below his hip bone. He worked Josh's cock with his free hand, fist moving fast in time with the frantic thrusts of Josh's hips. Josh tensed, arching up into Jake's hand and tightening around the finger still buried inside him as he came on Jake's fingers and his stomach. Jake grinned and eased his finger out, wiping his other hand on the bedspread before he crawled over Josh to press their lips together again.
An arm slid around his shoulders, long fingers splayed across his back as they kissed. Jake could hear Josh's harsh breathing, feel warm puffs of air on his cheek and the chest rising and falling heavily under him. Josh was kissing him back like he might never get another chance, his whole body arching up to meet the lazy thrusts of Jake's hips. Jake pulled back just far enough to look down at him, and when he found Josh staring up at him he felt a weird tightening in his chest. "You don't have any rubbers, do you?"
Josh shook his head against the comforter, and he looked even sorrier about it than Jake. "I wasn't exactly planning on this."
"Yeah, me neither." It wasn't exactly the truth, but it was close enough. Josh laughed, anyway, so Jake grinned and leaned in to kiss him again. Josh's hand slid into his hair, his other hand landing on Jake's hip and when Jake felt himself rolling backwards he didn't put up a fight. Somehow he ended up on his back without ever breaking the kiss, and the hand that had been resting on his hip slid down to pull one of Jake's legs over Josh's waist. Jake moaned against Josh's mouth and thrust up hard against him, but he couldn't get the friction he wanted while he was still wearing his jeans. He made a frustrated noise against Josh's mouth and pushed a hand between them, fumbling with the button of his jeans until Josh took the hint and sat up long enough to help him.
Together they wrestled his jeans down as far as his knees, but when Jake realized he was still wearing his sneakers he paused long enough to kick them off. It wasn't as easy as he was expecting while his legs were trapped by denim, though, and after a few seconds of frustration and a lot of laughing on Josh's part, Josh slid off the bed to pull Jake's shoes off. His socks were next, and Jake lifted himself up on his elbows to watch Josh kneeling on the floor in front of him, grinning as he reached for Jake's jeans and tugged until they hit the floor.
When he was finished Josh ran his hands up Jake's legs from his ankles to his thighs, muscles flexing under all those tattoos as he pushed himself off the floor and crawled over Jake again. "You always need this much help getting undressed?" Josh asked, grinning at Jake close up now.
"Shut up." Jake hooked a hand behind Josh's neck and pulled him down for another kiss, lips parting to let Josh's tongue slide past his teeth. A hand slid between them and wrapped around his cock, and Jake was glad Josh's tongue was in his mouth so he wouldn't cry from the relief of Josh finally touching him. He rocked up into Josh's grip, the hand not gripping Josh's hair flexing against his shoulder as he tried to pull Josh even closer. He was breathing hard and he knew he wasn't going to last, but he couldn't make himself care. Not when Josh was pressing kisses down the length of his throat, murmuring encouragement and twisting his grip on Jake's cock with each downward stroke.
Jake was right at the edge when he heard a new sound, a rattling that made his whole body tense up. "Josh," he whispered, but it sounded more like a prayer than a warning, and all it got him was another kiss pressed against his shoulder. He reached down and gripped the hand that was working his cock, then he said Josh again, a little louder this time. "There's somebody at the door."
Instantly Josh tensed and looked up, turning his head to stare at the door for a second. The key rattled one more time in the lock and then turned, but whoever was on the other side -- Josh's brother, Jake figured -- hit the chain and let out a muffled curse. The door closed, but Josh stayed frozen above him for another second. When no one knocked he turned back to Jake, letting go of his cock to lace their fingers together and lift Jake's hands over his head. "Like I said, he can take a hint."
So the chain was the signal, which meant Josh had kicked his brother out of his room before. He wondered if Josh's brother knew who he was in here with. He wondered who else Josh had brought back to his room; pictured Josh doing this with somebody else and wanted to ask who, but at the same time he wasn't sure he wanted a face to go with the image. He was saved the trouble of deciding when Josh kissed him, slow this time like he was trying to memorize it. Jake wanted to wrap his arms around Josh and pull him closer, to rock up against him until he finally found enough friction to bring him over the edge. Josh's hips were moving, but his pace was way too slow to get Jake what he needed and unless he wanted to put up a fight, Jake didn't have much choice but to let him take his time.
He could hear voices out in the hall, talking too loud in that way people did when they'd been drinking. The rest of the guys were stumbling back from the bar, headed for their rooms to crash so they could wake up with a headache and head for the airport. Jake still didn't know who his roommate was, and if Josh's brother was going to crash somewhere else...but he wasn't spending the whole night with Josh. That was way too big a risk, no matter how much he liked the thought of waking up and doing this all over again.
He thought he heard one of the Hillstrands laugh out in the hall, and it hit him how weird it was to be straining up against Josh's grip when the rest of the guys were just on the other side of the door. Josh's hands slid down his arms and he pictured how they'd look to anyone who happened to open the door right now. Jake half expected to hear the chain rattle again, but the only sound in the room was his own harsh breath and his pulse pounding against his eardrums. Then Josh's mouth left his to open against his neck, and Jake heard the sound of his own voice. And Jesus, he was begging, but he couldn't stop himself from saying fuck and please over and over as Josh finally slid a hand between them again.
Josh's grip was rough this time, hard and fast and Jake still strained for more. Josh sucked hard on the side of his neck, and Jake pressed up into that sensation too, and when Josh's tongue slid over his skin he let out a moan and came. It was sudden and messy and not even close to everything he wanted from Josh, but it was what he was going to get. He wasn't sure how long he laid there, eyes closed and listening to the sound of his own breathing while Josh kissed his way across Jake's shoulders and back up the other side of his neck. When Josh reached his chin Jake turned into the kiss, eyes still closed but somehow their mouths connected anyway. He knew he couldn't stay much longer; the voices in the hall had died down now, and soon it would be safe to risk letting himself out of Josh's room without being spotted. But he should probably wait a little while, he reasoned as an arm slid around his waist to pull him close. A few more minutes wouldn't hurt; maybe he'd just wait until Josh fell asleep, and then he wouldn't even have to say goodbye.
~
"Where do you think you're going?"
Josh froze with his keys in hand, three feet from the back door and freedom. There were a few different ways he could play this: he could pretend he didn't know what day it was, that he'd made plans and he couldn't break them now, so they'd just have to watch without him for once. He could tell the truth, which was that the last thing in the world he wanted to do tonight was watch the Northwestern's new greenhorn learn the ropes on his father's TV while his sisters all made catcalls every time he showed up on screen. They all thought he was cute, and Josh wasn't going to disagree. He wasn't going to mention just how well he knew Jake, either, but that didn't mean he wanted to sit there while they talked about his eyes or his smile or his ass.
He wasn't about to say all that out loud either, though, so in the end he went with the first excuse he thought they might buy. "We're out of Coke."
"Taken care of," one of his sisters said as she brushed past him, paper bag full of six-packs in hand. Before Josh could think fast enough to get out of there she pulled a fifth of Captain Morgan out of the bag too, setting it on the counter next to the Cokes. "I got you covered, little brother."
"Thanks," Josh said, forcing a grin so she wouldn't start yelling at him for being ungrateful. "What do I owe you?"
"Forget it," she answered. "We know how much Dad pays you."
Josh scowled as they laughed, but he pushed past them into the kitchen and poured himself a drink anyway. There was no way he was getting out of this now, at least not without a lot of pissed off women bitching at his voicemail for the next week. So he took a deep breath and a swallow of Captain and Coke -- heavy on the Captain -- and he let his sisters drag him into the family room.
Before he was on the show, Josh looked forward to Tuesday nights at his dad's house. Most of his sisters usually showed up, and in a lot of ways it was like having a family reunion every week. His sisters all had a great time teasing Jake about how he was going to put Phil in the hospital any day now, and it was easy for Josh to laugh along with them when he wasn't the one at the center of all the attention.
Once he started showing up on the TV alongside his brother, he looked forward to Tuesday nights a lot less. They were almost at the end of the season by now, but knowing he only had a couple more weeks to get through didn't make sitting through an hour of torture with his sisters any easier. Part of it was the usual stuff; his sisters had taken to calling him and his brother 'Princess', and they seemed to think Jake and Josh thought they could get away with whatever they wanted just because Phil was the captain. Which wasn't even true, though once he saw himself on TV, Josh couldn't deny that that was how it looked sometimes. Phil did let them get away with a lot, but he always had, and until now Josh had never thought anything of it. Now that he'd seen himself talking about Phil's gold card and arguing with him about how he ran the boat...well, he was thinking a lot more these days, anyway.
It was bad enough watching the show when it was just him, but once Opis started and Jake Anderson was on the TV every Tuesday night, he had to listen to his sisters salivating over him like they'd never seen a guy before. It meant a whole hour of Jake's dopey smile and his big blue eyes and that laugh...Jesus, that laugh. Now that Josh had heard it close up he wasn't sure he could sit still and watch like nothing had happened. Like he didn't know what Jake's hands felt like on him, like he wasn't thinking about the way Jake kissed or the high, almost painful sound he made right before he came.
At least he'd made that noise the one time Josh had made him come. If he'd stuck around there might have been a second time to compare it with, but Josh knew why he didn't. There was a way bigger chance of them getting caught if Jake never went back to his room at all; even if nobody saw him sneak out of Josh's room in the morning, he had a roommate who'd wonder where he'd been all night. So he didn't have a choice, but that didn't make it any easier for Josh to keep his mouth shut when Jake got out of bed and pulled his clothes back on.
He'd been drifting right on the edge of sleep when Jake got up, moving slow so he wouldn't make any noise as he pulled his clothes back on. Josh watched him get dressed, back to the bed and shoulders flexing as he pulled on and buttoned his jeans. It was tempting to say something, to tell him it was cool and he didn't have to sneak out. But telling Jake he wasn't going to make a big deal out of it was the same as making a big deal out of it, so instead Josh stayed where he was and pretended he wasn't watching Jake leave.
So it was a one-time thing. Josh knew going into it that they weren't going to start dating or anything; Jake wasn't going to show up at his door or meet his family -- not like that, anyway -- and he sure as hell wasn't going to call. It was just opportunity, and even if it never happened again it had been worth the risk. At least he knew what it was like to kiss Jake now, and that meant he could stop wondering and get on with his life.
"Hurry up, you're missing it," one of his sisters said, dragging him down onto the couch next to her and nearly spilling his drink.
"Ooh, there's the other Jake. He's a cutie."
"Yeah, and he's single, too. Hey, when are you guys going to introduce us?"
One of their sisters smacked Jake in the arm as she said it, and Josh watched as he rolled his eyes. He glanced over his shoulder, gaze landing on Josh just for a second before he turned to their sisters. "Not that I'd wish any of you on the guy, but it wouldn't do you any good anyway. I heard he has a girlfriend."
It shouldn't have surprised Josh to hear those words come out of his brother's mouth. He should have expected it, really, because that was how these things went. Jake was a fisherman; Josh had heard enough about him to know he'd been fishing salmon practically since he could walk, which meant openly dating a guy was probably out of the question in his family. So he had a girlfriend, maybe to keep his folks happy, or maybe he really liked her, and he just hooked up with other people when he had the chance. Either way, it didn't make any difference to Josh, and he knew better than to react in a room full of his sisters.
"Where'd you hear that?" he said anyway, regretting it as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He hadn't meant to say them at all; he'd been telling himself not to ask when his mouth opened all on its own and the question just spilled right out. And judging by the look Jake shot him, it sounded just as bad as Josh thought.
"I heard Edgar saying something to Nick about Jake's girl getting jealous about all the attention he'll be getting." Jake was looking at the TV again, watching Keith bitch about something without really listening to whatever he was saying. "There were a lot more girls than usual at their table last week."
"What's the matter, Jakey, you mad that you're not the only pretty young thing for the girls to make eyes at anymore?" one of their sisters said, and Josh was grateful enough for the change of subject that he didn't bother pointing out that he was sitting right here. They'd just tell him he didn't count anyway, and he didn't really want to remind them of why right now. Instead he let Jake argue with them about whether or not the new Jake was moving in on his territory, and he stared at the TV and told himself it didn't matter if Jake was dating some girl.
~
Jake took a lot of shit for the video game thing. A lot, and he couldn't even blame the guys on his crew, because if it had been one of them showing up in some game about crab fishing, Jake would have laid it on just as thick. The worst part was that the game hadn't even come out yet, and as soon as it did they'd all get a look at it and then it would start all over again. And it wasn't like Jake wanted to fly to L.A. and spend a whole week reading a bunch of stupid dialogue in some sound studio, but the rest of the crew was doing it, and Jake knew better than to refuse.
So he said okay when the producer called to tell him about it, and a few days later he got a plane ticket and a schedule in the mail. This trip didn't interfere with salmon season, at least, which meant he didn't have to feel guilty about ditching his uncle again. It meant spending the last three weeks of the season on the boat with the rest of the crew, though, and it got a little harder to laugh it off every time one of them referred to him as "Hollywood" or "the celebrity".
It wasn't like he'd asked for any of this. All he'd wanted was a job on a crab fishing boat; it wasn't his fault his career break came with all this other stuff. Mostly he didn't mind it all that much, but the guys he'd known for years were treating him differently all of a sudden, and he wasn't crazy about that. By the time the season ended he was just glad to get a break from his crew, and he found himself almost looking forward to L.A. just because he'd be around other guys who knew what it was like.
Then there was the whole Josh thing. He'd been trying not to think about it, mostly because it was a distraction he didn't need while he was working. There was a reason he didn't get into anything serious with anybody, and it was only partly because most of his family wouldn't understand. He'd worked the boats long enough to see that the guys with girls back home spent a lot more time moping around about how much they missed their families than the single guys, and letting yourself get distracted by what was waiting for you back home was a good way to get yourself killed. It was even more complicated with Josh because he fished too, and that meant they were around a whole bunch of guys all the time who would have a big problem with the idea of the two of them.
Knowing all that didn't stop him from thinking about the way Josh laughed when Jake pushed him onto the mattress and climbed over him, though, or the way he arched up into Jake's hands. Hell, even smoking reminded him of kissing Josh, and if he was going to get half-hard just from lighting a cigarette he was going to have to think about quitting. He couldn't shake the memory of the look in Josh's eyes when Jake pushed a finger inside him, and he knew he wasn't going to stop thinking about it until he got a chance to fuck Josh for real. So it wasn't going to be a one-time thing after all, at least not if Jake could help it, and he was sort of surprised that the thought didn't bother him more.
So he was looking forward to getting out of Alaska and away from his old crew for awhile, but mostly he was hoping that when he got to L.A., Josh would be there. Only he'd been in town almost an entire day, and the only people he'd seen so far were the crew of the Northwestern and some producers whose names he couldn't remember.
Once he actually saw the script they expected him to read, he wished he'd had a decent excuse to skip the video game altogether. It was still nice to see the guys and all, but the stuff they'd written for him...well, it was pretty dumb. Most of it was just random stuff about fishing and the weather, but somebody from the show must have heard about his 'girlfriend', because there were some lines in there about juggling girls in his cabin. Like that would ever happen on a crab boat, even if he really did have a girl to cheat on. Sig and Edgar thought it was hilarious, of course, and now instead of getting teased about being famous, he was getting teased about a girlfriend who didn't even exist.
The only person who didn't have much to say about it was Matt, and mostly he just didn't have much to say to Jake at all. They'd been roommates at the only Meet and Greet he'd attended so far, but they hadn't exactly bonded or anything. They'd barely spoken at all, because Matt had already crashed by the time Jake got back to the room, and he left to catch an early flight back to Seattle not long after Jake woke up. Not that Matt ever had much to say to him, when he wasn't calling him lazy and riding him to pull his head out and move faster. When he wasn't trying to make Jake look bad he was busy trying to make himself look good, which seemed like a waste of time to Jake, because Matt and Edgar had been friends forever. Sure, Sig threatened to fire Matt every time he did something wrong, but he was the laziest guy on board and he still had a job, so Jake was pretty sure it was never going to happen.
"That's a wrap, guys," the producer said, and Jake let out a deep breath and slid off the stool in the recording studio. The whole operation was like something out of a movie, and Jake hoped they weren't planning to make a whole lot of these games, because none of this was his idea of a good time.
He followed Sig out of the studio to a waiting room with overstuffed furniture that probably cost more than his parents' entire house. Edgar, Nick and Matt were there, sprawled on the couches and looking like they'd already started getting used to living this way.
"So how're the salmon treating you?" Edgar asked when Jake sat down next to him, clapping him on the shoulder and nearly knocking him off balance.
"About the same as the cod are treating you, I guess," Jake answered, grinning when Sig laughed. "So is anybody else here or what?"
"Just us this week," Edgar said, stamping out his cigarette against a huge glass ashtray sitting on one of the end tables.
"Why, you sick of your own crew already?" Matt asked, and something about the way he smirked at Jake made him tense.
"No," Jake answered. He didn't bother pointing out that everybody had friends on other crews; he didn't feel like arguing with Matt, for one thing, and if he brought up other crews they'd just keep hassling him until he told them who he'd been hoping to see. It wasn't even that he was hoping to see Josh; he wouldn't have minded, but even if he was here there was no telling whether they'd get a chance for a conversation, let alone a repeat of what happened the last time they saw each other. "I was just wondering."
"Careful, we'll start to think you're not happy to see us," Matt said. And yeah, that was definitely a dig, only Jake wasn't sure what he was getting at. He opened his mouth to answer, but before he said anything that would make it worse Nick interrupted.
"Leave the kid alone. If I were him I wouldn't want to hang out with a bunch of old married guys all week either."
Edgar and Sid both laughed at that, and Jake forced what he hoped was a convincing smile. Then Sig stood up, groaning a little as he stretched. "Yeah, well, I don't like any of you much right now. All of you shut up and let's go get something to eat."
Jake followed the rest of them out of the studio and toward the car the show provided for the week. If the rest of the crews were here they'd all be going out to some bar to spend the whole night drinking and telling the same stories over and over, and Jake might get a chance to talk to Josh, at least. Instead he was in for four long days of listening to Sig and Edgar trade insults back and forth, and the next time he'd see Josh would be back in Dutch Harbor.
Part One Part Three
Fandom: Deadliest Catch
Pairing: Jake A./Josh H.
Rating: NC17
Summary: Josh came back to work for his father because fishing is in his blood. All he wanted was to earn the respect of his dad and his crew, and to make a permanent place for himself on the Cornelia Marie. Love was the last thing he was looking for, which is exactly when it usually finds you.
A/N: Written for rpf_big_bang. Many thanks to cinderlily and duckduck for the beta and handholding. Cover by the fantastic and multi-talented cinderlily.
"So anyway, they're playing The Gorge next week and Dustin's van has room for one more. You in?"
"When is it?" Josh asked, leaning a little further across the table to hear over the bar noise. It was the first chance he'd had to see any of his friends in weeks; between publicity shoots and events and filming After the Catch, he'd barely been in town all summer, let alone had time to get together with anybody.
Before Josh decided to try fishing again he had a whole life in Seattle. He still did, sort of, but now it wasn't just a couple months out of the winter that he spent away from his friends and his place and the rest of his life. Now he had to bail on stuff during the summer too, because he was traveling to some event or being dragged to some development pitch with his old man. So far companies had tried to sell his father on endorsing some pretty wild stuff, and he'd heard that Sig was already working on some deal that would put his face on boxes of frozen fish. Which was pretty funny, he had to admit, but it was kind of strange, too.
They were all still fishermen, they all still had the same worries and goals as any other guy out on the Bering Sea, but somehow the show had gotten all tied up in it until it just seemed like the cameras were never off. A lot of them didn't even seem to notice anymore, but Josh was still having some trouble adjusting. Mostly he missed having a life, missed the stuff he used to do without even thinking about cameras or where he was supposed to be when. He spent two years trying to be somebody other than Phil Harris' kid, and even though he'd gone back to fishing in the end, there were things about his life in those two years he'd managed to hold onto. Like friends who listened to the same music he did and didn't care that he was into guys. Friends he could be himself around, who made him feel like he wasn't some kind of freak just because he wasn't exactly like his brothers.
"A week from tomorrow," Brandon answered, squinting at Josh in the low bar light. "Don't tell me, you've got another fan club meeting."
"It's part of the job," Josh said for what felt like the millionth time. It was true, but that didn't make it any less lame. "There's a thing in Anchorage."
"Bummer." Brandon lifted his drink and drained half the glass, watching Josh over the rim the entire time. When he set it back down again he grinned and leaned closer. "Your boy gonna be there?"
"Who?" Josh said, frowning at the look on Brandon's face.
"Give me a break, man. I've seen the show, I know what the 'new guy' you keep mentioning looks like. Totally your type."
"I haven't mentioned anybody," Josh said, but he could feel the heat creeping into his cheeks and he knew if the room was lit better the whole place would see his ears turning crimson.
"Right. So you weren't wondering what his story was when you got home in February. Just like you didn't keep bringing up how he showed up at your last little fan club meeting."
Josh rolled his eyes, but it wasn't like he could deny it. He hadn't realized at the time he was saying any of that stuff out loud, but if Brandon knew Jake was the new guy Josh kept mentioning, he must have heard it from Josh. "He's not my boy. Anyway, he probably won't even be there. It's all the way up in Anchorage."
"So why are you going? Your old man has to give you a break every once in awhile, right?"
The truth was that Josh could skip the event if he wanted to. Phil would roll his eyes and Jake would give him shit about his 'commitment to the job' or whatever, but in the end they wouldn't make him go. There were plenty of events where one of the guys didn't show up, and nobody held it against them. So it would be easy enough to blow it off this time and hang out with his friends like a normal person for awhile, just forget about the show and the cameras and who might or might not show up this time. Josh shook his head anyway, picking up his beer and glancing over at Brandon. "The show already bought the plane tickets, I can't back out."
"Suit yourself, man," Brandon said, but he was smirking again. "I just hope he shows."
~
Jake was one of the last guys to check in at the hotel. That was what the girl behind the desk said, anyway, when she wasn't giggling like he was some kind of rock star. Granted, they probably didn't get a whole lot of actual stars in Anchorage, but it still seemed a little dumb to him, especially when she'd already had a chance to see the rest of the guys up close and personal. He took his key and headed for his room without bothering to ask who his roommate was. He hadn't stayed in the hotel the last time he showed up at one of these; that one was in Seattle, so he'd just driven down from his folks' house and headed right back to Anacortes when it was over. He knew better than to think he'd have a room to himself, but it didn't matter to him who he shared with. If he could pick he knew exactly who it would be, but there was no way Josh wasn't sharing with his brother.
He let himself into the room and dropped his stuff on the bed that wasn't already messed up. So his roommate had gotten in the night before; most of them probably had, because a lot of them were traveling from out of state, which meant commercial flights and a lot of hanging around waiting for something to happen. Jake caught a ride on a seaplane that happened to be heading his way, and he counted himself lucky at the time that the pilot wasn't flying into Anchorage until the day of the event.
He pocketed the room key and headed back downstairs, following the noise until he found the room with all the cameras and the show logo plastered all over the place. There were already people he didn't recognize wandering around the lobby, but he managed to avoid getting stopped by any over-enthusiastic fans on his way into the room. It was smaller than the last one, but still big enough for a decent-sized crowd. Jake spotted the Northwestern crew right away, but instead of heading for the table he scanned the rest of the place until he found what he was looking for.
Josh had his back to the door, face sort of half turned toward Jake while he talked to someone standing behind him. For once he wasn't wearing a hat, and even from the front of the room Jake could see a few metal earrings. He could see why Josh wore a hat so much, too; his ears stuck out a lot, and from this angle it sort of looked like they came to a point at the top. Already he was imagining tracing the tips of Josh's ears with his finger -- better yet, with his tongue -- and when his cock twitched he laughed and shook his head.
Before he got on the plane to fly to Anchorage he'd known he was fucked, but until he walked into the room and saw Josh again, at least he could still deny it. Not that lying to himself counted for much, and there was nobody else around in Bristol for him to lie to. Here he was surrounded by people, though, and if Jake didn't want to answer a bunch of questions he should probably stop staring at the back of Josh's head. As soon as he thought it he looked over at his own crew to find Edgar already waving him over, and he swallowed a rush of something like guilt and headed across the room.
"About time you showed up," Edgar said, clapping Jake on the back and drawing him into the crowd gathered around the table. Jake grinned and shook hands with Norm and then Nick, but he couldn't stop himself from stealing another look across the room at the crew of the Cornelia Marie. When he did he found Josh watching him, and he couldn't be sure from this distance, but it looked to him like the tips of Josh's ears went pink as soon as Jake caught him looking. He grinned and turned back to his own crew, pretending to listen to whatever Edgar was saying while he started working on a plan to get Josh alone.
~
It was more or less a tradition that when they did one of these things out of town, everybody went out drinking after. Not that these guys needed an excuse to drink -- half the events they did in Seattle ended at a bar somewhere -- but when they were on the road, there really wasn't anything else to do.
Well, Josh could think of other ways to spend his time, but none of them would go over too big with this crowd. A few of them might get him killed, at least if he was anybody other than Phil Harris' son. His last name might be enough to protect him from actual physical harm, but he couldn't guarantee the same for anybody who might get mixed up with him. Which was exactly the reason he hadn't spent the whole day staring at Jake from across the room, and the reason he definitely wasn't staring at him now.
Not that he could stare at Jake right now without being totally obvious, because Jake was sitting right next to him. Every time he picked up his drink his elbow brushed Josh's arm, and every time he leaned forward to catch the thread of conversation their knees brushed together under the table. Josh was pretty sure he wasn't doing it on purpose. There were a lot of guys packed around the table, so chances were it was more a matter of space than Jake trying to flirt.
Jake moved a lot, though, and an hour into the conversation Josh wasn't sure how much more he could take.
He still wasn't sure how they'd ended up next to each other. He hadn't really been expecting Jake to show up at all; he'd made a big deal out of trying to impress Sig, sure, but showing up at an event in Seattle was a lot easier than showing up in Anchorage. Except that it turned out Jake had traveled further for the last one, because according to him, he spent his summers in Alaska too. Part of them, at least, according to what Jake was telling a couple of the guys from the Maverick.
"Isn't your uncle pissed?"
"Nah," Jake answered, leaning forward and right on cue there was his knee, pressing into Josh's thigh. Like he didn't even know he was doing it. Josh was pretty sure that wasn't true, but he wasn't about to turn around and ask. He'd barely looked at Jake since he pulled up a chair and squeezed in between Josh and Corey, partly because he didn't want anyone to think he was looking, and partly because he was afraid he'd find out that he was wrong and Jake was as clueless as he was acting.
Jake was still talking, something about the uncertain future of the salmon industry, and he sure as hell didn't sound clueless when he was talking about fishing. He was still green when it came to crab, sure, but it was clear that he'd been working the salmon boats for a long time. He had it in his blood like everybody else in the room, and the worst part about it was that it just made Josh want him more.
Jake's elbow brushed his arm as he hoisted his second beer, draining the glass and wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. Josh pulled his arm back as far as he could without being obvious, but all it did was ensure that Jake's entire forearm brushed against him as he set the empty glass back down on the table. Someone -- Scottie, Josh was pretty sure -- called for another round, and Josh bit back a groan at the thought of sitting through another hour of Jake just breathing next to him, invading his personal space like it was no big deal.
"I'm out," he said, the words coming out of his mouth before he even realized he was thinking them. His chair scraped the floor as he pushed back from the table, pushing Jake's knee off his thigh in the process. And it was pretty damn pathetic that he hated to lose even that little bit of contact, which was how he knew he'd made the right call.
"Lightweight," his brother said, smirking up at Josh and any other time Josh would have made a crack about how Jake was too young to be drinking anyway. That would get him thrown out of the bar, though, and the last thing Josh wanted to do right now was go back to his room with a pissed off little brother. What he wanted he wasn't going to get, so the next best thing was going back to the room alone.
"Whatever, man, I'm beat," he said instead. "Anyway, we've got an early flight tomorrow."
As soon as he said it he regretted it, because reminding his brother that they had to get up at the crack of dawn might convince him to call it a night too. But Jake just laughed and reached for the beer somebody pushed toward him. "Dude, it's early. Relax."
A couple of the other guys joined in, telling him to stop being a pussy and sit back down. Josh ignored the teasing and the laughter, stopping long enough to clap his father on the shoulder and wave to the rest of the captains. He didn't let himself look to see if anyone was watching him go; Jake Anderson hadn't said a word when he stood up, so there was no reason to think he might be watching Josh walk away.
Josh told himself he wasn't disappointed as he headed out of the hotel bar and across the lobby. For a few seconds he considered changing direction and heading out of the hotel altogether, out into the too-bright warmth of a summer evening in Anchorage. There was a store down the street where he could pick up some more smokes; he wasn't out, but it would kill a little time. Or he could head into the city and see if he could find a place a little more his style, maybe a club where people didn't look too close at your face when they asked if they could buy you a drink. But this was Alaska, and people recognized the guys from the show here. More than even in Seattle, and he'd been a lot more careful at home since the show started too. So even if he did find someplace to unwind without any cameras around, there was always the chance that someone would recognize him and his face would end up on Youtube before he even left town.
Josh sighed and crossed to the elevators, resigning himself to a boring night alone with nobody for company except the lousy hotel cable. It felt like forever before an elevator arrived, but he finally made it back to his room and slid his key into the lock. He flipped the light on and kicked his shoes off, then reached for his t-shirt and tugged it over his head. It hit the bed without a sound, and he reached for the button on his jeans. His plan was a long, hot shower, the kind he usually reserved for the first day back after crab season. The idea was to make it as hot as he could stand, then turn it up a little more, until he wasn't thinking about anything but the sting of the water on his skin.
He was unbuttoning his jeans when a knock on the door broke the silence, and he frowned as he buttoned his jeans again and crossed the room. His brother wouldn't bother knocking, and Josh couldn't think of anybody else who might come looking for him. Then again, the hotel had been full of fans just a couple hours ago, and it was possible one of them spotted him in the lobby and followed him upstairs. Only it wasn't an overeager fan on the other side of the door, and Josh felt his heart skip a beat when he opened it to find Jake standing in front of him.
"Hey," he said before he could stop himself. If Jake was here for the reason Josh thought -- hoped -- he was, there was no reason for talking. He could just grab the front of Jake's shirt and pull him forward, plant a kiss on those lips and keep his eyes open the whole time just to see if Jake would close his. He glanced down the hall, half expecting to see some of the other guys hanging around, but Jake was alone. Josh's heart pounded against his ribcage, heat rising up his chest as Jake took a step forward, then another until Josh could feel the air shift as Jake leaned in.
"You gonna let me in or what?" he asked, the words warming Josh's cheek and making his throat go dry. He swallowed once, then again before he gave up on answering altogether and just stepped aside to let Jake inside.
~
Jake was pretty sure no one noticed him leaving the bar just after Josh. Nobody called after him to find out where he was going, anyway, so when he reached the restrooms he just kept on walking until he found himself in the lobby. Josh had a decent head start, but Jake figured it couldn't be too hard to find him. They were all staying on the same floor, anyway, and if he took the stairs two at a time he might even catch up with him before Josh got back to his room.
When he reached their floor he found the hallway empty, but there was a door swinging shut about halfway down, and Jake assumed Josh was behind it. It was worth a shot, anyway, and if it turned out to be one of the other guys...well, Jake would think of an excuse when the door opened. He knocked hard and then took a step backwards, hands in his pockets while he waited for the door to open again. When it did he found Josh staring back at him, mouth open and his eyes kind of wide, like he was surprised to find Jake standing there. He'd already stripped down to his jeans, which was handy, because it saved Jake the trouble of getting him out of his clothes.
"Hey," Josh said, blinking at him like maybe he thought he was imagining Jake standing there. It was cute, but if he stood here much longer someone was going to spot them, so Jake took a step forward, then another one. "You gonna let me in or what?"
For a second Josh hesitated and Jake thought he might say no, that this was a bad idea or maybe that Jake had the wrong idea altogether. But a second later he stepped aside and let Jake brush past him, letting the door close behind him and sliding the chain into place before he turned to look at Jake again. Josh was taller than him, but Jake didn't let that stop him from pushing Josh backwards, pressing his back against the door and sliding a hand around the back of Josh's neck. Josh tilted his head as he leaned down to meet Jake, breathing in hard when Jake pushed his tongue past Josh's teeth to taste stale cigarette smoke and cheap beer.
He'd been wondering since the last time they saw each other how this would go, and when Josh's hands landed on his shoulders, fingers moving hesitantly like he wasn't sure what to do with them, Jake had his answer. Josh was going with shy, as it turned out, but Jake could work with that. In fact, now that he was kissing Josh, he couldn't remember why he'd ever thought anything could be hotter than Josh pressed up against a wall, leaning hard into Jake and flexing long fingers against Jake's shirt while Jake's hands slid down his chest to unbutton his jeans. Josh was murmuring something against his mouth, soft at first but as soon as Jake's hand slid inside his jeans he flattened his hands against Jake's shoulders and pushed until Jake looked up at him.
"Isn't...isn't somebody going to notice you bailed early?"
"Even if they do, they'll be so drunk by the end of the night they won't remember in the morning."
Josh sucked in a harsh breath as Jake's hand started moving, hips thrusting in time with Jake's fingers and even that was hot. Jake took his time, pressing just hard enough to make Josh's chest flush but not hard enough to end things before they even started. He slid his free hand into Josh's hair, gripping at the back of his neck and tugging him forward again. Josh leaned in to meet him, breath hot against Jake's mouth to brush their lips together. "What about your brother?"
For a second he was sure he'd blown it, because Josh's hand clamped down on the wrist that was still working in and out of his jeans. But they were still so close they were breathing the same air, and Jake could feel the words against his skin when Josh answered. "He can take a hint."
Jake wasn't sure what that meant; maybe Josh's brother knew they were up here together, or maybe they had some sort of system Jake didn't know about. He didn't care, either, because Josh's hands were moving again, pulling Jake's shirt off and tossing it...somewhere before he pushed Jake backwards. When his legs collided with the edge of the bed Jake sat down hard, bouncing a little on the mattress before he caught his balance. He grinned up at Josh and reached out to hook a finger through one of Josh's belt loops, then he tugged hard. Josh had a second to register what was happening before he lost his balance, one knee hitting the mattress and sending him sprawling onto his back.
"Asshole," Josh said, but he didn't look all that pissed. In fact, he was already reaching for his jeans, lifting his hips off the bed long enough to push them down before he kicked them onto the floor. And okay, not so shy after all, Jake thought, but he could work with that too. He could definitely work with that, he thought, grinning as he planted one hand on either side of Josh's shoulders and leaned in to kiss him again.
A hook-up was a hook-up, and this one wasn't really any different, but Jake had to admit he liked kissing Josh. He liked the way their mouths fit together, liked the brush of Josh's beard against his skin and the way his hands slid down Jake's back to settle against his ass. As soon as he thought it Josh's grip tightened, pulling Jake flush and rocking up hard against him. Jake was still wearing his jeans, but now he wished he'd taken the time to pull them off. He could feel the heat radiating off Josh, could feel his cock hard against Jake's thigh every time he thrust up, and he knew how much better it could be. But stopping long enough to take off the rest of his clothes meant he had to stop kissing Josh, and he really liked kissing Josh.
There were plenty of other places on Josh to kiss, too, like the underside of his chin and the pale skin along his neck. Jake kissed his weirdly shaped ear right at the base, tongue flicking out to surprise a little gasp out of him. He grinned and moved lower, teeth grazing Josh's skin as he worked his way down Josh's chest. He had a lot of ink; that Chinese shit or whatever on his arms, and a thick black design across his back. His chest was bare, though, and Jake liked running his fingers over all that pale skin, tracing Josh's ribs and then down to the sharp angle of his hipbones.
Josh arched up into his touch, his legs parting even further in the process. Jake took the invitation, settling between them and palming Josh's cock while he opened his mouth against Josh's stomach. He felt Josh shudder under him, grinned against his skin and let his hand slide between Josh's legs, pressing against the thin skin behind his balls. "Fuck," Josh hissed through gritted teeth. His fingers were clenched around the bedspread on either side of him, hips moving in a frantic rhythm. Jake pulled his hand away long enough to slide a finger into his mouth, gaze locked on Josh while he got it as wet as he could. The whole time Josh was watching, eyes sort of glazed over and chest flushed, and he looked even hotter like this than Jake had imagined.
It was almost a shame to give up the view, but Josh wasn't going to wait forever. Neither of them could, and Jake's own neglected cock twitched in his jeans as he watched Josh watching him. Finally he pulled his hand away from his mouth and leaned over, balancing his weight on one elbow as he swallowed Josh's cock and pressed one spit-slick finger inside him. Josh moaned and spread his legs even wider, one hand sliding into Jake's hair and the other still gripping the bedspread like it was the only thing keeping him on the bed.
When Jake thought about how this thing between them might play out, he hadn't expected a whole lot in the way of privacy. Mostly he'd pictured the two of them pressed up against a wall somewhere, maybe in a bathroom or an unlocked closet somewhere. A hotel room had never figured into things, and he definitely hadn't expected the luxury of stretching out on a bed and taking his time. So he hadn't showed up prepared to fuck Josh, but he was pretty sure now that Josh would have let him. He might even have a condom in his stuff somewhere, but Jake didn't stop to ask. He couldn't, because he was too busy matching Josh's thrusts with his mouth, finger working in and out of him a little deeper with each stroke.
He could tell how close Josh was when his fingers tightened in Jake's hair, so Jake pulled his mouth away from Josh's cock to suck at the crease just below his hip bone. He worked Josh's cock with his free hand, fist moving fast in time with the frantic thrusts of Josh's hips. Josh tensed, arching up into Jake's hand and tightening around the finger still buried inside him as he came on Jake's fingers and his stomach. Jake grinned and eased his finger out, wiping his other hand on the bedspread before he crawled over Josh to press their lips together again.
An arm slid around his shoulders, long fingers splayed across his back as they kissed. Jake could hear Josh's harsh breathing, feel warm puffs of air on his cheek and the chest rising and falling heavily under him. Josh was kissing him back like he might never get another chance, his whole body arching up to meet the lazy thrusts of Jake's hips. Jake pulled back just far enough to look down at him, and when he found Josh staring up at him he felt a weird tightening in his chest. "You don't have any rubbers, do you?"
Josh shook his head against the comforter, and he looked even sorrier about it than Jake. "I wasn't exactly planning on this."
"Yeah, me neither." It wasn't exactly the truth, but it was close enough. Josh laughed, anyway, so Jake grinned and leaned in to kiss him again. Josh's hand slid into his hair, his other hand landing on Jake's hip and when Jake felt himself rolling backwards he didn't put up a fight. Somehow he ended up on his back without ever breaking the kiss, and the hand that had been resting on his hip slid down to pull one of Jake's legs over Josh's waist. Jake moaned against Josh's mouth and thrust up hard against him, but he couldn't get the friction he wanted while he was still wearing his jeans. He made a frustrated noise against Josh's mouth and pushed a hand between them, fumbling with the button of his jeans until Josh took the hint and sat up long enough to help him.
Together they wrestled his jeans down as far as his knees, but when Jake realized he was still wearing his sneakers he paused long enough to kick them off. It wasn't as easy as he was expecting while his legs were trapped by denim, though, and after a few seconds of frustration and a lot of laughing on Josh's part, Josh slid off the bed to pull Jake's shoes off. His socks were next, and Jake lifted himself up on his elbows to watch Josh kneeling on the floor in front of him, grinning as he reached for Jake's jeans and tugged until they hit the floor.
When he was finished Josh ran his hands up Jake's legs from his ankles to his thighs, muscles flexing under all those tattoos as he pushed himself off the floor and crawled over Jake again. "You always need this much help getting undressed?" Josh asked, grinning at Jake close up now.
"Shut up." Jake hooked a hand behind Josh's neck and pulled him down for another kiss, lips parting to let Josh's tongue slide past his teeth. A hand slid between them and wrapped around his cock, and Jake was glad Josh's tongue was in his mouth so he wouldn't cry from the relief of Josh finally touching him. He rocked up into Josh's grip, the hand not gripping Josh's hair flexing against his shoulder as he tried to pull Josh even closer. He was breathing hard and he knew he wasn't going to last, but he couldn't make himself care. Not when Josh was pressing kisses down the length of his throat, murmuring encouragement and twisting his grip on Jake's cock with each downward stroke.
Jake was right at the edge when he heard a new sound, a rattling that made his whole body tense up. "Josh," he whispered, but it sounded more like a prayer than a warning, and all it got him was another kiss pressed against his shoulder. He reached down and gripped the hand that was working his cock, then he said Josh again, a little louder this time. "There's somebody at the door."
Instantly Josh tensed and looked up, turning his head to stare at the door for a second. The key rattled one more time in the lock and then turned, but whoever was on the other side -- Josh's brother, Jake figured -- hit the chain and let out a muffled curse. The door closed, but Josh stayed frozen above him for another second. When no one knocked he turned back to Jake, letting go of his cock to lace their fingers together and lift Jake's hands over his head. "Like I said, he can take a hint."
So the chain was the signal, which meant Josh had kicked his brother out of his room before. He wondered if Josh's brother knew who he was in here with. He wondered who else Josh had brought back to his room; pictured Josh doing this with somebody else and wanted to ask who, but at the same time he wasn't sure he wanted a face to go with the image. He was saved the trouble of deciding when Josh kissed him, slow this time like he was trying to memorize it. Jake wanted to wrap his arms around Josh and pull him closer, to rock up against him until he finally found enough friction to bring him over the edge. Josh's hips were moving, but his pace was way too slow to get Jake what he needed and unless he wanted to put up a fight, Jake didn't have much choice but to let him take his time.
He could hear voices out in the hall, talking too loud in that way people did when they'd been drinking. The rest of the guys were stumbling back from the bar, headed for their rooms to crash so they could wake up with a headache and head for the airport. Jake still didn't know who his roommate was, and if Josh's brother was going to crash somewhere else...but he wasn't spending the whole night with Josh. That was way too big a risk, no matter how much he liked the thought of waking up and doing this all over again.
He thought he heard one of the Hillstrands laugh out in the hall, and it hit him how weird it was to be straining up against Josh's grip when the rest of the guys were just on the other side of the door. Josh's hands slid down his arms and he pictured how they'd look to anyone who happened to open the door right now. Jake half expected to hear the chain rattle again, but the only sound in the room was his own harsh breath and his pulse pounding against his eardrums. Then Josh's mouth left his to open against his neck, and Jake heard the sound of his own voice. And Jesus, he was begging, but he couldn't stop himself from saying fuck and please over and over as Josh finally slid a hand between them again.
Josh's grip was rough this time, hard and fast and Jake still strained for more. Josh sucked hard on the side of his neck, and Jake pressed up into that sensation too, and when Josh's tongue slid over his skin he let out a moan and came. It was sudden and messy and not even close to everything he wanted from Josh, but it was what he was going to get. He wasn't sure how long he laid there, eyes closed and listening to the sound of his own breathing while Josh kissed his way across Jake's shoulders and back up the other side of his neck. When Josh reached his chin Jake turned into the kiss, eyes still closed but somehow their mouths connected anyway. He knew he couldn't stay much longer; the voices in the hall had died down now, and soon it would be safe to risk letting himself out of Josh's room without being spotted. But he should probably wait a little while, he reasoned as an arm slid around his waist to pull him close. A few more minutes wouldn't hurt; maybe he'd just wait until Josh fell asleep, and then he wouldn't even have to say goodbye.
~
"Where do you think you're going?"
Josh froze with his keys in hand, three feet from the back door and freedom. There were a few different ways he could play this: he could pretend he didn't know what day it was, that he'd made plans and he couldn't break them now, so they'd just have to watch without him for once. He could tell the truth, which was that the last thing in the world he wanted to do tonight was watch the Northwestern's new greenhorn learn the ropes on his father's TV while his sisters all made catcalls every time he showed up on screen. They all thought he was cute, and Josh wasn't going to disagree. He wasn't going to mention just how well he knew Jake, either, but that didn't mean he wanted to sit there while they talked about his eyes or his smile or his ass.
He wasn't about to say all that out loud either, though, so in the end he went with the first excuse he thought they might buy. "We're out of Coke."
"Taken care of," one of his sisters said as she brushed past him, paper bag full of six-packs in hand. Before Josh could think fast enough to get out of there she pulled a fifth of Captain Morgan out of the bag too, setting it on the counter next to the Cokes. "I got you covered, little brother."
"Thanks," Josh said, forcing a grin so she wouldn't start yelling at him for being ungrateful. "What do I owe you?"
"Forget it," she answered. "We know how much Dad pays you."
Josh scowled as they laughed, but he pushed past them into the kitchen and poured himself a drink anyway. There was no way he was getting out of this now, at least not without a lot of pissed off women bitching at his voicemail for the next week. So he took a deep breath and a swallow of Captain and Coke -- heavy on the Captain -- and he let his sisters drag him into the family room.
Before he was on the show, Josh looked forward to Tuesday nights at his dad's house. Most of his sisters usually showed up, and in a lot of ways it was like having a family reunion every week. His sisters all had a great time teasing Jake about how he was going to put Phil in the hospital any day now, and it was easy for Josh to laugh along with them when he wasn't the one at the center of all the attention.
Once he started showing up on the TV alongside his brother, he looked forward to Tuesday nights a lot less. They were almost at the end of the season by now, but knowing he only had a couple more weeks to get through didn't make sitting through an hour of torture with his sisters any easier. Part of it was the usual stuff; his sisters had taken to calling him and his brother 'Princess', and they seemed to think Jake and Josh thought they could get away with whatever they wanted just because Phil was the captain. Which wasn't even true, though once he saw himself on TV, Josh couldn't deny that that was how it looked sometimes. Phil did let them get away with a lot, but he always had, and until now Josh had never thought anything of it. Now that he'd seen himself talking about Phil's gold card and arguing with him about how he ran the boat...well, he was thinking a lot more these days, anyway.
It was bad enough watching the show when it was just him, but once Opis started and Jake Anderson was on the TV every Tuesday night, he had to listen to his sisters salivating over him like they'd never seen a guy before. It meant a whole hour of Jake's dopey smile and his big blue eyes and that laugh...Jesus, that laugh. Now that Josh had heard it close up he wasn't sure he could sit still and watch like nothing had happened. Like he didn't know what Jake's hands felt like on him, like he wasn't thinking about the way Jake kissed or the high, almost painful sound he made right before he came.
At least he'd made that noise the one time Josh had made him come. If he'd stuck around there might have been a second time to compare it with, but Josh knew why he didn't. There was a way bigger chance of them getting caught if Jake never went back to his room at all; even if nobody saw him sneak out of Josh's room in the morning, he had a roommate who'd wonder where he'd been all night. So he didn't have a choice, but that didn't make it any easier for Josh to keep his mouth shut when Jake got out of bed and pulled his clothes back on.
He'd been drifting right on the edge of sleep when Jake got up, moving slow so he wouldn't make any noise as he pulled his clothes back on. Josh watched him get dressed, back to the bed and shoulders flexing as he pulled on and buttoned his jeans. It was tempting to say something, to tell him it was cool and he didn't have to sneak out. But telling Jake he wasn't going to make a big deal out of it was the same as making a big deal out of it, so instead Josh stayed where he was and pretended he wasn't watching Jake leave.
So it was a one-time thing. Josh knew going into it that they weren't going to start dating or anything; Jake wasn't going to show up at his door or meet his family -- not like that, anyway -- and he sure as hell wasn't going to call. It was just opportunity, and even if it never happened again it had been worth the risk. At least he knew what it was like to kiss Jake now, and that meant he could stop wondering and get on with his life.
"Hurry up, you're missing it," one of his sisters said, dragging him down onto the couch next to her and nearly spilling his drink.
"Ooh, there's the other Jake. He's a cutie."
"Yeah, and he's single, too. Hey, when are you guys going to introduce us?"
One of their sisters smacked Jake in the arm as she said it, and Josh watched as he rolled his eyes. He glanced over his shoulder, gaze landing on Josh just for a second before he turned to their sisters. "Not that I'd wish any of you on the guy, but it wouldn't do you any good anyway. I heard he has a girlfriend."
It shouldn't have surprised Josh to hear those words come out of his brother's mouth. He should have expected it, really, because that was how these things went. Jake was a fisherman; Josh had heard enough about him to know he'd been fishing salmon practically since he could walk, which meant openly dating a guy was probably out of the question in his family. So he had a girlfriend, maybe to keep his folks happy, or maybe he really liked her, and he just hooked up with other people when he had the chance. Either way, it didn't make any difference to Josh, and he knew better than to react in a room full of his sisters.
"Where'd you hear that?" he said anyway, regretting it as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He hadn't meant to say them at all; he'd been telling himself not to ask when his mouth opened all on its own and the question just spilled right out. And judging by the look Jake shot him, it sounded just as bad as Josh thought.
"I heard Edgar saying something to Nick about Jake's girl getting jealous about all the attention he'll be getting." Jake was looking at the TV again, watching Keith bitch about something without really listening to whatever he was saying. "There were a lot more girls than usual at their table last week."
"What's the matter, Jakey, you mad that you're not the only pretty young thing for the girls to make eyes at anymore?" one of their sisters said, and Josh was grateful enough for the change of subject that he didn't bother pointing out that he was sitting right here. They'd just tell him he didn't count anyway, and he didn't really want to remind them of why right now. Instead he let Jake argue with them about whether or not the new Jake was moving in on his territory, and he stared at the TV and told himself it didn't matter if Jake was dating some girl.
~
Jake took a lot of shit for the video game thing. A lot, and he couldn't even blame the guys on his crew, because if it had been one of them showing up in some game about crab fishing, Jake would have laid it on just as thick. The worst part was that the game hadn't even come out yet, and as soon as it did they'd all get a look at it and then it would start all over again. And it wasn't like Jake wanted to fly to L.A. and spend a whole week reading a bunch of stupid dialogue in some sound studio, but the rest of the crew was doing it, and Jake knew better than to refuse.
So he said okay when the producer called to tell him about it, and a few days later he got a plane ticket and a schedule in the mail. This trip didn't interfere with salmon season, at least, which meant he didn't have to feel guilty about ditching his uncle again. It meant spending the last three weeks of the season on the boat with the rest of the crew, though, and it got a little harder to laugh it off every time one of them referred to him as "Hollywood" or "the celebrity".
It wasn't like he'd asked for any of this. All he'd wanted was a job on a crab fishing boat; it wasn't his fault his career break came with all this other stuff. Mostly he didn't mind it all that much, but the guys he'd known for years were treating him differently all of a sudden, and he wasn't crazy about that. By the time the season ended he was just glad to get a break from his crew, and he found himself almost looking forward to L.A. just because he'd be around other guys who knew what it was like.
Then there was the whole Josh thing. He'd been trying not to think about it, mostly because it was a distraction he didn't need while he was working. There was a reason he didn't get into anything serious with anybody, and it was only partly because most of his family wouldn't understand. He'd worked the boats long enough to see that the guys with girls back home spent a lot more time moping around about how much they missed their families than the single guys, and letting yourself get distracted by what was waiting for you back home was a good way to get yourself killed. It was even more complicated with Josh because he fished too, and that meant they were around a whole bunch of guys all the time who would have a big problem with the idea of the two of them.
Knowing all that didn't stop him from thinking about the way Josh laughed when Jake pushed him onto the mattress and climbed over him, though, or the way he arched up into Jake's hands. Hell, even smoking reminded him of kissing Josh, and if he was going to get half-hard just from lighting a cigarette he was going to have to think about quitting. He couldn't shake the memory of the look in Josh's eyes when Jake pushed a finger inside him, and he knew he wasn't going to stop thinking about it until he got a chance to fuck Josh for real. So it wasn't going to be a one-time thing after all, at least not if Jake could help it, and he was sort of surprised that the thought didn't bother him more.
So he was looking forward to getting out of Alaska and away from his old crew for awhile, but mostly he was hoping that when he got to L.A., Josh would be there. Only he'd been in town almost an entire day, and the only people he'd seen so far were the crew of the Northwestern and some producers whose names he couldn't remember.
Once he actually saw the script they expected him to read, he wished he'd had a decent excuse to skip the video game altogether. It was still nice to see the guys and all, but the stuff they'd written for him...well, it was pretty dumb. Most of it was just random stuff about fishing and the weather, but somebody from the show must have heard about his 'girlfriend', because there were some lines in there about juggling girls in his cabin. Like that would ever happen on a crab boat, even if he really did have a girl to cheat on. Sig and Edgar thought it was hilarious, of course, and now instead of getting teased about being famous, he was getting teased about a girlfriend who didn't even exist.
The only person who didn't have much to say about it was Matt, and mostly he just didn't have much to say to Jake at all. They'd been roommates at the only Meet and Greet he'd attended so far, but they hadn't exactly bonded or anything. They'd barely spoken at all, because Matt had already crashed by the time Jake got back to the room, and he left to catch an early flight back to Seattle not long after Jake woke up. Not that Matt ever had much to say to him, when he wasn't calling him lazy and riding him to pull his head out and move faster. When he wasn't trying to make Jake look bad he was busy trying to make himself look good, which seemed like a waste of time to Jake, because Matt and Edgar had been friends forever. Sure, Sig threatened to fire Matt every time he did something wrong, but he was the laziest guy on board and he still had a job, so Jake was pretty sure it was never going to happen.
"That's a wrap, guys," the producer said, and Jake let out a deep breath and slid off the stool in the recording studio. The whole operation was like something out of a movie, and Jake hoped they weren't planning to make a whole lot of these games, because none of this was his idea of a good time.
He followed Sig out of the studio to a waiting room with overstuffed furniture that probably cost more than his parents' entire house. Edgar, Nick and Matt were there, sprawled on the couches and looking like they'd already started getting used to living this way.
"So how're the salmon treating you?" Edgar asked when Jake sat down next to him, clapping him on the shoulder and nearly knocking him off balance.
"About the same as the cod are treating you, I guess," Jake answered, grinning when Sig laughed. "So is anybody else here or what?"
"Just us this week," Edgar said, stamping out his cigarette against a huge glass ashtray sitting on one of the end tables.
"Why, you sick of your own crew already?" Matt asked, and something about the way he smirked at Jake made him tense.
"No," Jake answered. He didn't bother pointing out that everybody had friends on other crews; he didn't feel like arguing with Matt, for one thing, and if he brought up other crews they'd just keep hassling him until he told them who he'd been hoping to see. It wasn't even that he was hoping to see Josh; he wouldn't have minded, but even if he was here there was no telling whether they'd get a chance for a conversation, let alone a repeat of what happened the last time they saw each other. "I was just wondering."
"Careful, we'll start to think you're not happy to see us," Matt said. And yeah, that was definitely a dig, only Jake wasn't sure what he was getting at. He opened his mouth to answer, but before he said anything that would make it worse Nick interrupted.
"Leave the kid alone. If I were him I wouldn't want to hang out with a bunch of old married guys all week either."
Edgar and Sid both laughed at that, and Jake forced what he hoped was a convincing smile. Then Sig stood up, groaning a little as he stretched. "Yeah, well, I don't like any of you much right now. All of you shut up and let's go get something to eat."
Jake followed the rest of them out of the studio and toward the car the show provided for the week. If the rest of the crews were here they'd all be going out to some bar to spend the whole night drinking and telling the same stories over and over, and Jake might get a chance to talk to Josh, at least. Instead he was in for four long days of listening to Sig and Edgar trade insults back and forth, and the next time he'd see Josh would be back in Dutch Harbor.
Part One Part Three