130. fic: see the sun break through (part 1/2).
see the sun break through.
the social network. ot4 with established chris/eduardo. nc-17. 13800 words.
dustin walks in on chris/eduardo and it leads to realizations of feelings and ot4. set post-settlement.
notes: this fic is a belated birthday gift to daisysusan. sorry it wasn’t finished in time but here, have an extra 11000 words of fic than expected. :D much thanks have to go to vlieger, torakowalski, and laliandra who all encouraged me and read over this fic. seriously, it wouldn’t have been completed without you all. ♥
the title and cut texts are from patrick wolf's 'this weather' which is off his album wind in the wires as is the song 'tristan'.
also available on ao3.
hold back the years, hold back the hours.
Dustin didn’t notice them at first, humming and singing along with the Patrick Wolf album that Chris had recommended him. Well okay, he hadn’t so much recommended it to Dustin as much as Dustin had overheard him discussing the album with one of the programmers during lunch break one day.
Mark honestly hadn’t needed to smirk quite so much at him when Dustin had gone to his desk to look up the CD immediately afterwards. And okay, Dustin had to admit he did not like it at first listen but it’d grown on him considerably since then.
‘Tristan’ was fucking catchy, damn it.
So, Dustin was too busy singing along with Patrick-“My name is Tristan and I am alive”-to hear the two of them as he climbed up the stairs towards Chris’s bedroom.
He opened the door, pulling the earbuds from his ears and wrapping the cord around his iPod as he called out, “Hey Chris, I just used the spare key. Mark said you called in sick and I wanted to check-” He looked up to see Chris and Eduardo together-together as in having s-e-x sex together-in Chris’s bed. “Oh, holy shit.”
“Shit, Dustin!” Chris yelled, quickly sitting up from between Eduardo’s thighs and leaning over to frantically grab for the sheets tangled at the foot of the bed. “Oh my god, what are you doing here?”
Dustin dropped his iPod in shock and let out a little squeal as he covered his eyes with his fingers. “I’m sorry!” he cried out, turning away. “Mark said-he said you were sick and you never miss work even when you do have a fever. I just wanted to see if you needed anything. But um, I guess you just called in because Eduardo’s in town.”
He cursed his ears for narrowing in on the sound of Chris and Eduardo’s rustling movements, Chris whispering a soft apology and Eduardo’s murmured reply. There was a sound of a soft, wet kiss and Dustin couldn’t help but turn a bit to peek through his fingers, watching as Chris gently ran the backs of his knuckles along Eduardo’s cheek in a sweet caress before pressing his lips quickly against Eduardo’s.
They were still naked with a sheet pooled in their laps but Dustin could see the stretch of one of Eduardo’s slim, tan thighs, the sharp edge of his hipbone. He saw a bruise forming in the shape of Eduardo’s mouth on the curve of Chris’s collarbone.
The two of them kept kissing as if they’d forgotten that Dustin was still in the room and Dustin couldn’t help but watch them. His eyes traced the lines of their upper bodies, pressed together as they kissed softly, before trailing lower. His gaze locked on Chris’s long, pale fingers where they were on Eduardo’s side, a lovingly possessive hold, his thumb rubbing circles on Eduardo’s skin. Then Chris shifted and Dustin could see sunlight glinting off the palest of blond hair trailing down beneath his belly button and the slightest hint of his cock in the shadows of the sheet.
Dustin gulped painfully, feeling his Adam’s apple bob heavily in his neck. His mouth went dry.
It was so unfair really, Dustin thought. How good the two of them looked together. Eduardo, all Brazilian with that warm tone to his skin, his ridiculously long legs, and holy shit, where did those shoulders and arms come from anyway? And Chris whose hair looked like spun gold and whose skin seemed to glow next to Eduardo’s.
So fucking unfair, Dustin repeated in his mind. He always looked pasty or burnt to a crisp when in sunlight.
At least that’s what Mark had said when Dustin had dragged him forcibly out of the office to attend the office picnic outside in a nearby park and Dustin had ended up the only one with a sunburn since Mark refused to leave his spot on under a tree. (Luckily Chris always kept a bottle of aloe vera gel at hand just for Dustin. And Mark, when he could be actually coerced into the sun.)
And really, Dustin couldn’t help but think, Mark was one to fucking talk about Dustin’s paleness.
After all, Dustin had definitely seen him with his nose and shoulders peeling before, looking so adorably grumpy when he couldn’t help but stop typing in order to scratch.
Eduardo didn’t have that problem himself. Dustin knew from the one time he had driven down to Miami during summer break and had gone with Wardo to the beach.
He’d somehow managed to tan through the SPF 50 sunblock that he’d had Dustin rub onto his back for him. And Chris just got more freckles that made Dustin want to draw constellations onto his skin.
Dustin watched as Chris and Eduardo kissed in the light streaming on the bed through the open blinds, the two of them in their own world-seemingly forgetting Dustin’s presence in the room-until Eduardo happened to slowly blink open his eyes and noticed Dustin still standing there, blatantly turned once again in their direction, his hands dropped down by his sides.
“Fuck, Dustin!” Eduardo shouted in surprise.
Dustin yelped, startled, and spun around so quickly he tripped over his dropped iPod and almost fell over. Yet he still couldn’t help but watch from the corner of his eye as Eduardo almost fell off Chris’s ridiculously large, California king-sized bed-Dustin had been making fun of it since the day he picked it out in the store-in his hurry to get further beneath the covers.
“Shit,” Chris gasped-and really, there was a lot of cursing going on today, Dustin thought-as he reached over to grab his pajama bottoms from the floor beside the bed and tugged them on under the sheets before handing Eduardo his black boxer-briefs from where they’d been tossed at the foot of the bed.
“Dustin, really,” he finally said, sighing a bit, sounding more exasperated than annoyed. Or angry even.
It was remarkably difficult to get Chris angry, Dustin knew. Dustin had personally seen it happen only a few times. Once, at Harvard, when Dustin had been waiting outside for one of Chris’s lectures to let out and a bunch of guys had started hassling him. Another time a few years later, when they’d been walking together in San Francisco on a rare weekend away from Palo Alto and Facebook and they’d somehow run into a WBC rally.
The terrifying thing about Chris when he was angry wasn’t that he shouted and grew red which rarely happened. But rather his words became pointed and his eyes narrowed.
Dustin hadn’t been able to imagine anything worse than that. At least until he first heard Chris shouting.
He knew he would always remember that day-the first time he heard Chris properly raise his voice in anger-when Chris had flown out for the weekend to visit the Facebook offices just after the share dilution-smashed laptop fiasco. He’d marched into Mark’s office where Dustin had also been, looking over some new design ideas together, and just glared at them for the longest moment.
“I don’t even-” Chris had started, his voice louder than Dustin had ever really heard before, outside of Halo nights and Shark Week watching parties. He’d swallowed hard and taken a deep breath, his voice a lot lower then. “I already used up all my yelling with Eduardo but just, what the fuck were you all thinking, god damn it.” He was definitely yelling again by the end of that sentence.
He’d walked out of the room immediately afterward. Chris hadn’t shouted at them again, calm and controlled and too busy setting out to accomplish as much work as he could before he had to return to Cambridge. He also hadn’t mentioned Eduardo again even though Dustin knew that they talked and texted whilst Chris was in California.
They definitely had talked and spent a lot of time together back at Harvard. Dustin grew used to the sound of Eduardo’s voice in the background of his weekly-alright, daily and sometimes even more that because he missed Chris which Dustin was game enough to admit-phone calls to Chris.
Eduardo became a taboo topic though after the one time Dustin mentioned Eduardo to Mark, in passing while babbling on about phone conversation he’d had with Chris, and he saw Mark’s expression change for a split second.
It was early in the morning and Dustin had just arrived at the building, going straight to Mark’s office-where it was obvious that Mark had not gone back to his small one-bedroom apartment in the time since Dustin had left the night before-to find him wired in as usual. He’d collapsed mournfully on Mark’s couch, sipping at his takeaway coffee, and started talking about the previous night and his phone call with Chris.
That wasn’t anything new really. Back at Harvard, Dustin used to climb onto Mark’s bed-when Eduardo wasn’t in it already-and chatter away about his day. It was nice, speaking to someone out loud even if Mark never really acknowledged what Dustin was saying to him or even indicated that he was listening at all.
At least he hadn’t, not until Dustin started talking about Chris-which well he did a lot, Dustin realized, although that was completely understandable in his own not-so humble opinion; Chris was across the fucking country and Dustin missed him damn it, never mind that most of what he’d talked to Mark about at Harvard had also been Chris - happened to mention Eduardo being with Chris when he’d called.
Mark wasn’t even supposed to be listening to him but Dustin caught that quicksilver expression on his face. It was a mix of anger and hurt and resolve. Regret.
Dustin didn’t know that one expression could hold so many emotions-at least outside of Disney films and Eduardo. He couldn’t help but think of Mark back at Harvard, so standoffish and refusing any contact yet allowing Wardo to touch him, welcoming it even, although he always made sure to grumble a bit first.
The way he used to track Eduardo’s presence in the room and sometimes insisted that Wardo stay over and sleep in his bed after a late night studying or just hanging out in the Kirkland suite. Mark always said he was planning on staying up coding anyway but Dustin remembered checking in on the room once or twice to see the two of them curled up together in the tiny twin bed.
No one ever talked about it then and Dustin definitely wouldn’t now but Dustin couldn’t help but think what was reflected in Mark’s eyes then and in the office that morning was love. That Mark had been and probably still was in love with Wardo.
He wondered if Mark even realized that about himself.
Probably not.
Still Dustin didn’t mention Eduardo in his one-sided conversations to Mark again, careful now that he knew Mark actually sometimes listened to him through his headphones. And Chris continued to not mention who he was spending time with back at Harvard even though he had to know that Dustin knew. Eduardo never called Dustin or offered to speak, to say hello or goodbye, when Chris was about to sign off for the evening, day, or whenever Dustin happened to be calling. Dustin never asked about him.
At least not until the week before Eduardo’s birthday when Chris flew out for another weekend visit, catching up with work for Facebook-and invariably to check up on Dustin and Mark.
Dustin had gone to pick him up from the airport and Chris just smiled brightly him when he’d come down the escalator into baggage claim and seen him waiting there.
“How’s everything going?” he asked. Dustin sighed happily when Chris wrapped him in his arms and hugged tight.
Chris’s expression softened as Dustin rubbed his cheek against Chris’s soft, cotton shirt before continuing. “How’re you? Is everything alright? Mark handling everything okay?”
Eduardo’s letter of intent to sue had arrived earlier that week.
“Mark’s... Mark,” Dustin replied after a long pause.
Chris sighed as he finally pulled away and shouldered his carry-on again, gesturing away Dustin’s offer to help. “Let’s go then,” he said.
He’d sounded so exhausted then, Dustin thought as Chris followed him out to his car. Although Dustin hadn’t seen Eduardo in months but he felt it safe to assume, they were all so fucking tired.
Dustin drove them straight to the office. There was a lot of work to be done.
Hours later, Chris was still steadily working in his office, sorting through paperwork and press statements whilst listening to what Dustin assumed to be an audiobook of a text for class. Dustin watched him for a few minutes through the glass walls, ignoring Mark’s mocking gaze at his back until he went back to coding.
Really, Mark had no business mocking Dustin about his attachment to Chris-which he had been doing ever since the day his not-listening cover was blown-considering that while Chris (and Eduardo) were back at Harvard, Dustin was usually the only one around Mark while he was drunk. And although Dustin made sure not to mention Eduardo first, Mark, with a few drinks in him, was not so reticent.
Dustin had heard everything under the sun about Eduardo: how he was so stupid sometimes and didn’t listen, how ridiculous his hair was, how he cared too fucking much, how nice and soft his hands were when they’d guided him to bed or given him a massage, how his eyes were too big and brown.
The list could go on for days.
Just as Dustin decided to go into Chris’s office and drag him out of the building, Chris’s phone rang and he hurriedly picked it up. Dustin couldn’t hear what was said but he could read the first word off of Chris’s grinning lips. Wardo.
He waited until the phone conversation was over to enter the office.
Chris smiled up at him from his seat and Dustin asked about Eduardo.
When Dustin dropped Chris off at the airport at the end of his stay, he pulled Chris in for a tight hug, crushing his ribs for a second.
He didn’t think Chris minded by the way he was hugging back.
Just as Chris was about to get in the security line, Dustin pulled him back a bit and handed him a card. “Um, can you give this to Wardo for me please? It’s for his birthday.”
“Of course,” Chris said.
Eduardo called him the next day.
The three of them were friends. Sure, it wasn’t as close of a friendship as it could’ve been but Dustin and Eduardo exchanged emails and the occasional funny link of video often enough. Dustin had even gone back to Harvard to see them both graduate.
Dustin shook his head. That was beside the point and he was rapidly losing his train of thought-like usual, Mark would probably say.
The point was Chris rarely became angry, yes. Still, Dustin couldn’t help but think, it probably wasn’t normal to just laugh away a friend who interrupted you and your... boyfriend, Dustin felt it safe to assume, fucking and then forgot to actually leave the room.
“Oh, um,” Dustin mumbled, his back turned to the bed by that point. “I probably should’ve left the room then, shouldn’t I? That’s probably the polite, correct response. Not that they ever taught about this type of situation in school and I definitely didn’t think I’d ever have to learn it really. I mean, you hear all about socks on doors and shit at college but nothing like this ever happened to us at Harvard and shit, I’m sorry. Crap, should I have left just now too? Really I was just worried that Chris would be passed out or something. And-”
And yes, Dustin may have had a tendency to ramble when anxious.
“So wow, this is awkward,” he finally managed to say, a bit more calm after a couple deep breaths.
“You could say that, yes,” Dustin heard Eduardo say. “You can turn around now, Dustin,” he added after a small pause. “We’re both decent.”
Dustin licked his suddenly dry lips, wishing desperately for a glass of water, when he turned to see Eduardo standing next to the bed, his hand on Chris’s bare shoulder, wearing just a pair of the black, cotton sleep pants he preferred. He’d always seemed to like wearing them back at Harvard at least.
Eduardo just smiled at him, walked a few steps closer, and pulled him into a tight hug. “I’ve missed you, Dustin,” he whispered throatily into his ear. “I haven’t had anyone to watch Meerkat Manor with since you went away.”
“Me too,” Dustin replied. “I mean, I missed you too. It’s been a long time.” He pressed his face into the curve of Eduardo’s neck and wrapped his arms around his back. He smelled of sweat and sex and something spicy. Dustin couldn’t help take a deep breath of it in.
Then he realized just what he was doing and froze in Eduardo’s arms. He peeked over Eduardo’s shoulders to see Chris just smiling indulgently at the two of them.
Dustin reluctantly pulled away from Eduardo and backed up. “So well, I can see why Chris called in sick now since you’re here for a visit. I’ll leave you two to it then. Maybe call later and we can hang out or something?”
He went to leave the room but Chris called him back. “Wait, Dustin, why don’t you just wait for us downstairs? We’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Are you sure? I mean, I’d completely understand if you two wanted to-” He made a vague gesture that he hoped got across ‘get back to the extremely hot and what looked to be very athletic sexing’ but in less offensive terms.
But really, who knew that Eduardo could bend like that? Dustin felt a bit deprived and then blushed because he probably wasn’t supposed to be thinking that about his friend who was dating his other friend.
Eduardo laughed at his gesticulations, just like he’d always done. “Just wait for us, please,” he told him.
So Dustin went downstairs. He’d been by Chris’s house numerous times. In fact, he practically lived here more than he did in his own house. He walked into the spacious living room with the large flatscreen against the wall, a collection of video game consoles neatly arranged below it, including Dustin’s own Wii.
There were numerous pictures on the mantle from over the years. Some were from Chris’s childhood and several were from Harvard. There were even a couple photos from graduation, one with Dustin, Eduardo, and Chris and another with Chris, Eduardo, and Chris’s parents who both had an arm around Eduardo as well as their son.
Looking at all the photos now, Dustin couldn’t help but wonder how the hell he missed the fact that the two of them were dating. Then again, there were numerous photos that included Dustin and Mark as well. With lots of hugs and kisses on cheeks. Dustin was an affectionate person, after all.
Dustin’s personal favorite was a picture of the four of them-Mark, Eduardo, Chris, and Dustin all together as it should be-taken in the Kirkland suite before Facemash and Facebook and everything else that followed. Billy had taken the picture after a late-night Star Wars marathon when Dustin, Chris, and Eduardo were all passed out in a pile on the couch, Mark sitting next to them with his headphones on and his laptop balanced on Chris’s legs in his lap.
He looked at the photo for a moment before sighing and heading to the kitchen. He was feeling a bit hungry and Chris always stocked his favorite snacks. Dustin grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper from the fridge, next to Chris’s Odwalla, and a packet of jelly beans from the pantry.
“I want to see you eat at least a piece of fruit with that,” he heard Chris tell him as he and Eduardo joined him in the kitchen.
They weren’t holding hands but they were walking near enough to each other that the backs of their hands brushed together.
They were completely at ease with each other and now that Dustin knew about them, at the very least, seemed to be willing to be open about it.
Eduardo pressed close against Dustin as he passed by to get to the coffee machine, his hand grazing the small of Dustin’s back for just a second.
“So,” Dustin started hesitantly, a little while later, watching as Eduardo added a dash of milk and stirred in a teaspoon of sugar into one of the mugs, just the way Chris liked to take his coffee, Dustin knew. “How long has this been going on then? And how long are you in town for, Wardo?”
Dustin watched as Chris walked up behind Eduardo and went up on tiptoe to press a kiss against his shoulder in thanks before grabbing the mug and stepping away.
“We hooked up once a few months after you first introduced us,” Chris said.
Dustin’s mouth fell open. “That long?” God, Dustin and Chris had pretty much spent all their spare time together then. He didn’t even know when that could’ve happened. Eduardo had seemed pretty enamored with Mark at the time as well, although Mark had never seemed to notice it.
“No, no,” Chris said hurriedly. “That was just once. Um, we were both pretty drunk and you and Mark were both out on dates that night. Oh, um, I think you were at least.”
Eduardo coughed, Dustin suspected to cover up a laugh although he didn’t understand what was funny exactly at the moment.
“We didn’t do anything after that though,” Eduardo continued for Chris. “Not until a couple months back at Harvard after... all of what happened. And um, I’m not just here for a visit.”
Dustin literally felt as if his heart skipped a beat. “You aren’t?” Chris and Eduardo both grinned, flashing their perfect teeth.
And that’s how Dustin learned of Eduardo moving across the country and living with Chris.
Eduardo laughed a bit, so fucking happy in a way that Dustin hadn’t seen in ages, not since before Facemash at least, and ruffled Chris’s hair-growing so long now that his fringe fell into his eyes, Mark had been making hippie jokes since it started although really, they both had stared a bit when Chris swished it to the side when a flick of his head or a swipe of his fingers-with his long fingers.
Dustin hurriedly gulped down some Dr. Pepper as he watched them. Eduardo had always had sinfully nice hands.
He remembered when Eduardo would massage his tense neck and scalp when Dustin would collapse against him on the couch, moaning about class or most likely, Mark. It was always so nice and sometimes Wardo would hum or sing softly in Portuguese as he read a book and lightly stroked Dustin’s hair, telling him he loved the color and feel of it because Eduardo had always been like that. Not afraid to offer a compliment that others wouldn’t.
Fortunately, Mark hadn’t been able to always keep Eduardo’s miracle hands to himself, Dustin thought to himself, remembering how he always felt better with Eduardo’s touch.
And then he thought, oh god, Mark.
It’s not that Dustin didn’t wish Chris and Eduardo all the best, really, Dustin considered later as he flashed his pass to get back to the Facebook offices and headed straight for the break room on the top floor.
He certainly wasn’t hoping that they would break up or anything like that at all. In fact, he couldn’t think of two other people deserving of happiness than Chris and Eduardo.
But he couldn’t help but think of Mark’s face that time Dustin mentioned Eduardo’s name in his office, the way he looked during the depositions, and how even after the settlement with Eduardo was finalized, he didn’t looked relieved so much as ill.
Back at Harvard, pretty much from the day Dustin introduced Eduardo to Mark and saw his eyes fucking light up, Dustin had imagined Eduardo and Mark growing old together. Mark, the crotchety, old man on the street and Eduardo baking cookies and offering lemonade to everyone.
And Chris? Dustin thought. Chris was so serious so Dustin had always imagined him with someone ridiculously funny, who could make him laugh so hard he fell off the couch or snorted beer out his nose. Someone who’d watch all those fucking scary Shark Week shows with him and was willing to listen to his music even when he didn’t understand what the hell the lyrics meant.
Also, someone with red hair because blond and red worked well together, Dustin knew.
It’s strange though, how things change.
Chris and Eduardo looked happy together. They seemed fucking perfect together, actually. As if they didn’t need Mark or someone-just-like-Dustin-so-it-may-as-well-be-him.
It could’ve been him. Dustin wouldn’t have minded at all. He’d wished for it even.
He wouldn’t mind being with Eduardo too either. Or Mark for that matter. And he didn’t think Eduardo, Chris, or Mark would mind too much either, thinking back not just to Eduardo and Mark and their endless circles around each other back at Harvard but earlier with Eduardo’s sweaty, sex interrupted, all pheromone’d up to smell like the fucking hottest thing ever hug. The way Chris hugged Dustin so tight and didn’t even mind that he’d walked in on him and Wardo. How Mark never really minded when the three of them had touched him even when he nearly bit the hand off anyone else who tried. The way Mark, like in that picture in the living room, didn’t mind when Chris propped his feet in his lap, just moved his laptop.
In fact, the best, reasonable solution seemed to be the four of them together, in Dustin’s slightly-hysterical opinion.
Dustin felt as if his head was about to explode.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he heard a few minutes later.
Dustin turned his head to the side to see Mark standing next to him, leaning against the counter.
“My head hurt,” he explained. “Too many thoughts, it was about to explode. Seriously, explode!”
“So you decided to stick it in the refrigerator instead?”
“It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do,” Dustin exclaimed. “Besides, what are you even doing here? I thought Janey had you holed up in your office all day with paperwork or something.”
“Yes well,” Mark scowled. “She refused to bring me another Red Bull so move aside or hand me one, will you?”
Dustin reluctantly pulled away from the soothing coolness of the fridge and grabbed a Red Bull for Mark. He followed after him as he marched back into his office-glaring at Janey as he passed her, shaking the can in defiance at her, to which she just smirked-and sat down at his desk again.
He ignored Dustin sitting in front of him in one of the ridiculously uncomfortable chairs Mark had chosen for his office but they’d played this game numerous times before. And Mark, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, never won.
Dustin started tapping a random beat which quickly turned into Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’-because Mark hated that song a hilarious amount and yet couldn’t help but always get it stuck in his head whenever he heard it-onto Mark’s desk.
This went on for a few minutes until Mark finally sighed and made a great show of reluctantly tugging off his headphones and dropping them on his desk before turning to face Dustin. “What is it, then?”
“I went to-” Dustin cut himself off, not sure how to tell Mark. Finally he just blurted out, “Chris isn’t sick. I mean, I know he called in sick but I went over there and he isn’t. Sick, that is. He, um, he’s with-”
He trailed off again but Mark just continued for him. “He’s with Wardo now, right.”
That pinched and vaguely pained expression was back on his face. Dustin resisted the urge to stroke his curls and murmur, “There, there.”
Instead, Dustin almost choked on just air. “You know?”
“Chris isn’t near as subtle as he likes to think he is sometimes,” Mark said, easily enough. “I’m surprised you didn’t know.” When Dustin just continued gaping at him, he continued speaking grudgingly. “I-they seem happy. Not that I know much about their... relationship. But I mean, it’s good that they’re happy.”
Dustin could tell Mark’s fists were clenched together in the pocket of his hoodie. He grabbed a quick sip of Mark’s Red Bull before telling him, “Wardo’s moved in with Chris.”
Mark nearly knocked over the can, fumbling with it to keep it from spilling on his keyboard. “He did?” he finally asked, voice flat. It didn’t fool Dustin though. He had a mental rolodex of all of Mark’s vocal tones and facial expressions and knew what they meant. He was definitely not uninterested.
In fact, he was rather desperate to know.
Dustin decided that to tease him along would be cruel. “Yeah, he told me today. He and Chris have been together years now. God, that’s weird. I never thought it’d be them-” He cut himself off awkwardly.
“Yeah,” Mark said stiffly, ignoring that last statement. “Years.”
Dustin stood up from the chair and walked around Mark’s desk. He sat on the corner nearest Mark and put a hand on his shoulder, rubbing gently.
Mark sighed and stroked Dustin’s thigh once in response. Dustin smiled a little to himself. He was damned proud of getting Mark out of his I-don’t-want-to-be-touched-anymore-because-I-am-a-scared-little-turtle shell.
“So, Chris and Eduardo said we should come over tonight.”
Dustin almost fell off the desk as Mark jerked in surprise again. “What?” Mark asked. “Really?” he blushed slightly at his own reaction and Dustin couldn’t help but press a loud, smacking kiss over the red tinge on the cheek facing him.
“Yeah, Eduardo wanted to know how you were and everything. He wants to catch up with you. I think he’s missed you a lot. I mean, I know he has. So Chris said that you and I should go over tonight and we’ll marathon Star Wars or Lord of the Rings together like old times.”
“I-I have a lot of work to do,” Mark said after a long minute. “So yeah, I can’t.”
“You’re lying to me, Mark Zuckerberg. Don’t think I don’t know it. Janey already told me you’re so bored that you’ve actually started replying to event invites yourself. How many people have you not-so-subtly insulted via email today?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“El-oh-el,” Dustin said. “Seriously, that’s so funny I can’t even laugh.”
Mark snapped his headphones back over his head mulishly but Dustin just climbed off his desk and jumped onto the couch, head against one of the arm rests and feet extended towards the other like always.
“So I’m going to tell you about what I saw this morning when I walked into Chris’s bedroom unknowingly since you apparently felt no need to tell me about him and Eduardo and we’re obviously talking about Eduardo again now. Without you having to drink half of my very fine Patrón first.”
He couldn’t help but smirk a bit when he saw Mark’s knuckles turn white and his breath start to hitch a bit.
Dustin pulled Mark out of his office at five PM-amidst many grumbled protests and the shocked stares of their peons, or as Chris told him he needed to call them, colleagues-and drove the two of them to Chris’s house.
And Eduardo’s house, Dustin reminded himself. Chris and Eduardo’s house.
part two
the social network. ot4 with established chris/eduardo. nc-17. 13800 words.
dustin walks in on chris/eduardo and it leads to realizations of feelings and ot4. set post-settlement.
notes: this fic is a belated birthday gift to daisysusan. sorry it wasn’t finished in time but here, have an extra 11000 words of fic than expected. :D much thanks have to go to vlieger, torakowalski, and laliandra who all encouraged me and read over this fic. seriously, it wouldn’t have been completed without you all. ♥
the title and cut texts are from patrick wolf's 'this weather' which is off his album wind in the wires as is the song 'tristan'.
also available on ao3.
hold back the years, hold back the hours.
Dustin didn’t notice them at first, humming and singing along with the Patrick Wolf album that Chris had recommended him. Well okay, he hadn’t so much recommended it to Dustin as much as Dustin had overheard him discussing the album with one of the programmers during lunch break one day.
Mark honestly hadn’t needed to smirk quite so much at him when Dustin had gone to his desk to look up the CD immediately afterwards. And okay, Dustin had to admit he did not like it at first listen but it’d grown on him considerably since then.
‘Tristan’ was fucking catchy, damn it.
So, Dustin was too busy singing along with Patrick-“My name is Tristan and I am alive”-to hear the two of them as he climbed up the stairs towards Chris’s bedroom.
He opened the door, pulling the earbuds from his ears and wrapping the cord around his iPod as he called out, “Hey Chris, I just used the spare key. Mark said you called in sick and I wanted to check-” He looked up to see Chris and Eduardo together-together as in having s-e-x sex together-in Chris’s bed. “Oh, holy shit.”
“Shit, Dustin!” Chris yelled, quickly sitting up from between Eduardo’s thighs and leaning over to frantically grab for the sheets tangled at the foot of the bed. “Oh my god, what are you doing here?”
Dustin dropped his iPod in shock and let out a little squeal as he covered his eyes with his fingers. “I’m sorry!” he cried out, turning away. “Mark said-he said you were sick and you never miss work even when you do have a fever. I just wanted to see if you needed anything. But um, I guess you just called in because Eduardo’s in town.”
He cursed his ears for narrowing in on the sound of Chris and Eduardo’s rustling movements, Chris whispering a soft apology and Eduardo’s murmured reply. There was a sound of a soft, wet kiss and Dustin couldn’t help but turn a bit to peek through his fingers, watching as Chris gently ran the backs of his knuckles along Eduardo’s cheek in a sweet caress before pressing his lips quickly against Eduardo’s.
They were still naked with a sheet pooled in their laps but Dustin could see the stretch of one of Eduardo’s slim, tan thighs, the sharp edge of his hipbone. He saw a bruise forming in the shape of Eduardo’s mouth on the curve of Chris’s collarbone.
The two of them kept kissing as if they’d forgotten that Dustin was still in the room and Dustin couldn’t help but watch them. His eyes traced the lines of their upper bodies, pressed together as they kissed softly, before trailing lower. His gaze locked on Chris’s long, pale fingers where they were on Eduardo’s side, a lovingly possessive hold, his thumb rubbing circles on Eduardo’s skin. Then Chris shifted and Dustin could see sunlight glinting off the palest of blond hair trailing down beneath his belly button and the slightest hint of his cock in the shadows of the sheet.
Dustin gulped painfully, feeling his Adam’s apple bob heavily in his neck. His mouth went dry.
It was so unfair really, Dustin thought. How good the two of them looked together. Eduardo, all Brazilian with that warm tone to his skin, his ridiculously long legs, and holy shit, where did those shoulders and arms come from anyway? And Chris whose hair looked like spun gold and whose skin seemed to glow next to Eduardo’s.
So fucking unfair, Dustin repeated in his mind. He always looked pasty or burnt to a crisp when in sunlight.
At least that’s what Mark had said when Dustin had dragged him forcibly out of the office to attend the office picnic outside in a nearby park and Dustin had ended up the only one with a sunburn since Mark refused to leave his spot on under a tree. (Luckily Chris always kept a bottle of aloe vera gel at hand just for Dustin. And Mark, when he could be actually coerced into the sun.)
And really, Dustin couldn’t help but think, Mark was one to fucking talk about Dustin’s paleness.
After all, Dustin had definitely seen him with his nose and shoulders peeling before, looking so adorably grumpy when he couldn’t help but stop typing in order to scratch.
Eduardo didn’t have that problem himself. Dustin knew from the one time he had driven down to Miami during summer break and had gone with Wardo to the beach.
He’d somehow managed to tan through the SPF 50 sunblock that he’d had Dustin rub onto his back for him. And Chris just got more freckles that made Dustin want to draw constellations onto his skin.
Dustin watched as Chris and Eduardo kissed in the light streaming on the bed through the open blinds, the two of them in their own world-seemingly forgetting Dustin’s presence in the room-until Eduardo happened to slowly blink open his eyes and noticed Dustin still standing there, blatantly turned once again in their direction, his hands dropped down by his sides.
“Fuck, Dustin!” Eduardo shouted in surprise.
Dustin yelped, startled, and spun around so quickly he tripped over his dropped iPod and almost fell over. Yet he still couldn’t help but watch from the corner of his eye as Eduardo almost fell off Chris’s ridiculously large, California king-sized bed-Dustin had been making fun of it since the day he picked it out in the store-in his hurry to get further beneath the covers.
“Shit,” Chris gasped-and really, there was a lot of cursing going on today, Dustin thought-as he reached over to grab his pajama bottoms from the floor beside the bed and tugged them on under the sheets before handing Eduardo his black boxer-briefs from where they’d been tossed at the foot of the bed.
“Dustin, really,” he finally said, sighing a bit, sounding more exasperated than annoyed. Or angry even.
It was remarkably difficult to get Chris angry, Dustin knew. Dustin had personally seen it happen only a few times. Once, at Harvard, when Dustin had been waiting outside for one of Chris’s lectures to let out and a bunch of guys had started hassling him. Another time a few years later, when they’d been walking together in San Francisco on a rare weekend away from Palo Alto and Facebook and they’d somehow run into a WBC rally.
The terrifying thing about Chris when he was angry wasn’t that he shouted and grew red which rarely happened. But rather his words became pointed and his eyes narrowed.
Dustin hadn’t been able to imagine anything worse than that. At least until he first heard Chris shouting.
He knew he would always remember that day-the first time he heard Chris properly raise his voice in anger-when Chris had flown out for the weekend to visit the Facebook offices just after the share dilution-smashed laptop fiasco. He’d marched into Mark’s office where Dustin had also been, looking over some new design ideas together, and just glared at them for the longest moment.
“I don’t even-” Chris had started, his voice louder than Dustin had ever really heard before, outside of Halo nights and Shark Week watching parties. He’d swallowed hard and taken a deep breath, his voice a lot lower then. “I already used up all my yelling with Eduardo but just, what the fuck were you all thinking, god damn it.” He was definitely yelling again by the end of that sentence.
He’d walked out of the room immediately afterward. Chris hadn’t shouted at them again, calm and controlled and too busy setting out to accomplish as much work as he could before he had to return to Cambridge. He also hadn’t mentioned Eduardo again even though Dustin knew that they talked and texted whilst Chris was in California.
They definitely had talked and spent a lot of time together back at Harvard. Dustin grew used to the sound of Eduardo’s voice in the background of his weekly-alright, daily and sometimes even more that because he missed Chris which Dustin was game enough to admit-phone calls to Chris.
Eduardo became a taboo topic though after the one time Dustin mentioned Eduardo to Mark, in passing while babbling on about phone conversation he’d had with Chris, and he saw Mark’s expression change for a split second.
It was early in the morning and Dustin had just arrived at the building, going straight to Mark’s office-where it was obvious that Mark had not gone back to his small one-bedroom apartment in the time since Dustin had left the night before-to find him wired in as usual. He’d collapsed mournfully on Mark’s couch, sipping at his takeaway coffee, and started talking about the previous night and his phone call with Chris.
That wasn’t anything new really. Back at Harvard, Dustin used to climb onto Mark’s bed-when Eduardo wasn’t in it already-and chatter away about his day. It was nice, speaking to someone out loud even if Mark never really acknowledged what Dustin was saying to him or even indicated that he was listening at all.
At least he hadn’t, not until Dustin started talking about Chris-which well he did a lot, Dustin realized, although that was completely understandable in his own not-so humble opinion; Chris was across the fucking country and Dustin missed him damn it, never mind that most of what he’d talked to Mark about at Harvard had also been Chris - happened to mention Eduardo being with Chris when he’d called.
Mark wasn’t even supposed to be listening to him but Dustin caught that quicksilver expression on his face. It was a mix of anger and hurt and resolve. Regret.
Dustin didn’t know that one expression could hold so many emotions-at least outside of Disney films and Eduardo. He couldn’t help but think of Mark back at Harvard, so standoffish and refusing any contact yet allowing Wardo to touch him, welcoming it even, although he always made sure to grumble a bit first.
The way he used to track Eduardo’s presence in the room and sometimes insisted that Wardo stay over and sleep in his bed after a late night studying or just hanging out in the Kirkland suite. Mark always said he was planning on staying up coding anyway but Dustin remembered checking in on the room once or twice to see the two of them curled up together in the tiny twin bed.
No one ever talked about it then and Dustin definitely wouldn’t now but Dustin couldn’t help but think what was reflected in Mark’s eyes then and in the office that morning was love. That Mark had been and probably still was in love with Wardo.
He wondered if Mark even realized that about himself.
Probably not.
Still Dustin didn’t mention Eduardo in his one-sided conversations to Mark again, careful now that he knew Mark actually sometimes listened to him through his headphones. And Chris continued to not mention who he was spending time with back at Harvard even though he had to know that Dustin knew. Eduardo never called Dustin or offered to speak, to say hello or goodbye, when Chris was about to sign off for the evening, day, or whenever Dustin happened to be calling. Dustin never asked about him.
At least not until the week before Eduardo’s birthday when Chris flew out for another weekend visit, catching up with work for Facebook-and invariably to check up on Dustin and Mark.
Dustin had gone to pick him up from the airport and Chris just smiled brightly him when he’d come down the escalator into baggage claim and seen him waiting there.
“How’s everything going?” he asked. Dustin sighed happily when Chris wrapped him in his arms and hugged tight.
Chris’s expression softened as Dustin rubbed his cheek against Chris’s soft, cotton shirt before continuing. “How’re you? Is everything alright? Mark handling everything okay?”
Eduardo’s letter of intent to sue had arrived earlier that week.
“Mark’s... Mark,” Dustin replied after a long pause.
Chris sighed as he finally pulled away and shouldered his carry-on again, gesturing away Dustin’s offer to help. “Let’s go then,” he said.
He’d sounded so exhausted then, Dustin thought as Chris followed him out to his car. Although Dustin hadn’t seen Eduardo in months but he felt it safe to assume, they were all so fucking tired.
Dustin drove them straight to the office. There was a lot of work to be done.
Hours later, Chris was still steadily working in his office, sorting through paperwork and press statements whilst listening to what Dustin assumed to be an audiobook of a text for class. Dustin watched him for a few minutes through the glass walls, ignoring Mark’s mocking gaze at his back until he went back to coding.
Really, Mark had no business mocking Dustin about his attachment to Chris-which he had been doing ever since the day his not-listening cover was blown-considering that while Chris (and Eduardo) were back at Harvard, Dustin was usually the only one around Mark while he was drunk. And although Dustin made sure not to mention Eduardo first, Mark, with a few drinks in him, was not so reticent.
Dustin had heard everything under the sun about Eduardo: how he was so stupid sometimes and didn’t listen, how ridiculous his hair was, how he cared too fucking much, how nice and soft his hands were when they’d guided him to bed or given him a massage, how his eyes were too big and brown.
The list could go on for days.
Just as Dustin decided to go into Chris’s office and drag him out of the building, Chris’s phone rang and he hurriedly picked it up. Dustin couldn’t hear what was said but he could read the first word off of Chris’s grinning lips. Wardo.
He waited until the phone conversation was over to enter the office.
Chris smiled up at him from his seat and Dustin asked about Eduardo.
When Dustin dropped Chris off at the airport at the end of his stay, he pulled Chris in for a tight hug, crushing his ribs for a second.
He didn’t think Chris minded by the way he was hugging back.
Just as Chris was about to get in the security line, Dustin pulled him back a bit and handed him a card. “Um, can you give this to Wardo for me please? It’s for his birthday.”
“Of course,” Chris said.
Eduardo called him the next day.
The three of them were friends. Sure, it wasn’t as close of a friendship as it could’ve been but Dustin and Eduardo exchanged emails and the occasional funny link of video often enough. Dustin had even gone back to Harvard to see them both graduate.
Dustin shook his head. That was beside the point and he was rapidly losing his train of thought-like usual, Mark would probably say.
The point was Chris rarely became angry, yes. Still, Dustin couldn’t help but think, it probably wasn’t normal to just laugh away a friend who interrupted you and your... boyfriend, Dustin felt it safe to assume, fucking and then forgot to actually leave the room.
“Oh, um,” Dustin mumbled, his back turned to the bed by that point. “I probably should’ve left the room then, shouldn’t I? That’s probably the polite, correct response. Not that they ever taught about this type of situation in school and I definitely didn’t think I’d ever have to learn it really. I mean, you hear all about socks on doors and shit at college but nothing like this ever happened to us at Harvard and shit, I’m sorry. Crap, should I have left just now too? Really I was just worried that Chris would be passed out or something. And-”
And yes, Dustin may have had a tendency to ramble when anxious.
“So wow, this is awkward,” he finally managed to say, a bit more calm after a couple deep breaths.
“You could say that, yes,” Dustin heard Eduardo say. “You can turn around now, Dustin,” he added after a small pause. “We’re both decent.”
Dustin licked his suddenly dry lips, wishing desperately for a glass of water, when he turned to see Eduardo standing next to the bed, his hand on Chris’s bare shoulder, wearing just a pair of the black, cotton sleep pants he preferred. He’d always seemed to like wearing them back at Harvard at least.
Eduardo just smiled at him, walked a few steps closer, and pulled him into a tight hug. “I’ve missed you, Dustin,” he whispered throatily into his ear. “I haven’t had anyone to watch Meerkat Manor with since you went away.”
“Me too,” Dustin replied. “I mean, I missed you too. It’s been a long time.” He pressed his face into the curve of Eduardo’s neck and wrapped his arms around his back. He smelled of sweat and sex and something spicy. Dustin couldn’t help take a deep breath of it in.
Then he realized just what he was doing and froze in Eduardo’s arms. He peeked over Eduardo’s shoulders to see Chris just smiling indulgently at the two of them.
Dustin reluctantly pulled away from Eduardo and backed up. “So well, I can see why Chris called in sick now since you’re here for a visit. I’ll leave you two to it then. Maybe call later and we can hang out or something?”
He went to leave the room but Chris called him back. “Wait, Dustin, why don’t you just wait for us downstairs? We’ll be down in a few minutes.”
“Are you sure? I mean, I’d completely understand if you two wanted to-” He made a vague gesture that he hoped got across ‘get back to the extremely hot and what looked to be very athletic sexing’ but in less offensive terms.
But really, who knew that Eduardo could bend like that? Dustin felt a bit deprived and then blushed because he probably wasn’t supposed to be thinking that about his friend who was dating his other friend.
Eduardo laughed at his gesticulations, just like he’d always done. “Just wait for us, please,” he told him.
So Dustin went downstairs. He’d been by Chris’s house numerous times. In fact, he practically lived here more than he did in his own house. He walked into the spacious living room with the large flatscreen against the wall, a collection of video game consoles neatly arranged below it, including Dustin’s own Wii.
There were numerous pictures on the mantle from over the years. Some were from Chris’s childhood and several were from Harvard. There were even a couple photos from graduation, one with Dustin, Eduardo, and Chris and another with Chris, Eduardo, and Chris’s parents who both had an arm around Eduardo as well as their son.
Looking at all the photos now, Dustin couldn’t help but wonder how the hell he missed the fact that the two of them were dating. Then again, there were numerous photos that included Dustin and Mark as well. With lots of hugs and kisses on cheeks. Dustin was an affectionate person, after all.
Dustin’s personal favorite was a picture of the four of them-Mark, Eduardo, Chris, and Dustin all together as it should be-taken in the Kirkland suite before Facemash and Facebook and everything else that followed. Billy had taken the picture after a late-night Star Wars marathon when Dustin, Chris, and Eduardo were all passed out in a pile on the couch, Mark sitting next to them with his headphones on and his laptop balanced on Chris’s legs in his lap.
He looked at the photo for a moment before sighing and heading to the kitchen. He was feeling a bit hungry and Chris always stocked his favorite snacks. Dustin grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper from the fridge, next to Chris’s Odwalla, and a packet of jelly beans from the pantry.
“I want to see you eat at least a piece of fruit with that,” he heard Chris tell him as he and Eduardo joined him in the kitchen.
They weren’t holding hands but they were walking near enough to each other that the backs of their hands brushed together.
They were completely at ease with each other and now that Dustin knew about them, at the very least, seemed to be willing to be open about it.
Eduardo pressed close against Dustin as he passed by to get to the coffee machine, his hand grazing the small of Dustin’s back for just a second.
“So,” Dustin started hesitantly, a little while later, watching as Eduardo added a dash of milk and stirred in a teaspoon of sugar into one of the mugs, just the way Chris liked to take his coffee, Dustin knew. “How long has this been going on then? And how long are you in town for, Wardo?”
Dustin watched as Chris walked up behind Eduardo and went up on tiptoe to press a kiss against his shoulder in thanks before grabbing the mug and stepping away.
“We hooked up once a few months after you first introduced us,” Chris said.
Dustin’s mouth fell open. “That long?” God, Dustin and Chris had pretty much spent all their spare time together then. He didn’t even know when that could’ve happened. Eduardo had seemed pretty enamored with Mark at the time as well, although Mark had never seemed to notice it.
“No, no,” Chris said hurriedly. “That was just once. Um, we were both pretty drunk and you and Mark were both out on dates that night. Oh, um, I think you were at least.”
Eduardo coughed, Dustin suspected to cover up a laugh although he didn’t understand what was funny exactly at the moment.
“We didn’t do anything after that though,” Eduardo continued for Chris. “Not until a couple months back at Harvard after... all of what happened. And um, I’m not just here for a visit.”
Dustin literally felt as if his heart skipped a beat. “You aren’t?” Chris and Eduardo both grinned, flashing their perfect teeth.
And that’s how Dustin learned of Eduardo moving across the country and living with Chris.
Eduardo laughed a bit, so fucking happy in a way that Dustin hadn’t seen in ages, not since before Facemash at least, and ruffled Chris’s hair-growing so long now that his fringe fell into his eyes, Mark had been making hippie jokes since it started although really, they both had stared a bit when Chris swished it to the side when a flick of his head or a swipe of his fingers-with his long fingers.
Dustin hurriedly gulped down some Dr. Pepper as he watched them. Eduardo had always had sinfully nice hands.
He remembered when Eduardo would massage his tense neck and scalp when Dustin would collapse against him on the couch, moaning about class or most likely, Mark. It was always so nice and sometimes Wardo would hum or sing softly in Portuguese as he read a book and lightly stroked Dustin’s hair, telling him he loved the color and feel of it because Eduardo had always been like that. Not afraid to offer a compliment that others wouldn’t.
Fortunately, Mark hadn’t been able to always keep Eduardo’s miracle hands to himself, Dustin thought to himself, remembering how he always felt better with Eduardo’s touch.
And then he thought, oh god, Mark.
It’s not that Dustin didn’t wish Chris and Eduardo all the best, really, Dustin considered later as he flashed his pass to get back to the Facebook offices and headed straight for the break room on the top floor.
He certainly wasn’t hoping that they would break up or anything like that at all. In fact, he couldn’t think of two other people deserving of happiness than Chris and Eduardo.
But he couldn’t help but think of Mark’s face that time Dustin mentioned Eduardo’s name in his office, the way he looked during the depositions, and how even after the settlement with Eduardo was finalized, he didn’t looked relieved so much as ill.
Back at Harvard, pretty much from the day Dustin introduced Eduardo to Mark and saw his eyes fucking light up, Dustin had imagined Eduardo and Mark growing old together. Mark, the crotchety, old man on the street and Eduardo baking cookies and offering lemonade to everyone.
And Chris? Dustin thought. Chris was so serious so Dustin had always imagined him with someone ridiculously funny, who could make him laugh so hard he fell off the couch or snorted beer out his nose. Someone who’d watch all those fucking scary Shark Week shows with him and was willing to listen to his music even when he didn’t understand what the hell the lyrics meant.
Also, someone with red hair because blond and red worked well together, Dustin knew.
It’s strange though, how things change.
Chris and Eduardo looked happy together. They seemed fucking perfect together, actually. As if they didn’t need Mark or someone-just-like-Dustin-so-it-may-as-well-be-him.
It could’ve been him. Dustin wouldn’t have minded at all. He’d wished for it even.
He wouldn’t mind being with Eduardo too either. Or Mark for that matter. And he didn’t think Eduardo, Chris, or Mark would mind too much either, thinking back not just to Eduardo and Mark and their endless circles around each other back at Harvard but earlier with Eduardo’s sweaty, sex interrupted, all pheromone’d up to smell like the fucking hottest thing ever hug. The way Chris hugged Dustin so tight and didn’t even mind that he’d walked in on him and Wardo. How Mark never really minded when the three of them had touched him even when he nearly bit the hand off anyone else who tried. The way Mark, like in that picture in the living room, didn’t mind when Chris propped his feet in his lap, just moved his laptop.
In fact, the best, reasonable solution seemed to be the four of them together, in Dustin’s slightly-hysterical opinion.
Dustin felt as if his head was about to explode.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he heard a few minutes later.
Dustin turned his head to the side to see Mark standing next to him, leaning against the counter.
“My head hurt,” he explained. “Too many thoughts, it was about to explode. Seriously, explode!”
“So you decided to stick it in the refrigerator instead?”
“It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do,” Dustin exclaimed. “Besides, what are you even doing here? I thought Janey had you holed up in your office all day with paperwork or something.”
“Yes well,” Mark scowled. “She refused to bring me another Red Bull so move aside or hand me one, will you?”
Dustin reluctantly pulled away from the soothing coolness of the fridge and grabbed a Red Bull for Mark. He followed after him as he marched back into his office-glaring at Janey as he passed her, shaking the can in defiance at her, to which she just smirked-and sat down at his desk again.
He ignored Dustin sitting in front of him in one of the ridiculously uncomfortable chairs Mark had chosen for his office but they’d played this game numerous times before. And Mark, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, never won.
Dustin started tapping a random beat which quickly turned into Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’-because Mark hated that song a hilarious amount and yet couldn’t help but always get it stuck in his head whenever he heard it-onto Mark’s desk.
This went on for a few minutes until Mark finally sighed and made a great show of reluctantly tugging off his headphones and dropping them on his desk before turning to face Dustin. “What is it, then?”
“I went to-” Dustin cut himself off, not sure how to tell Mark. Finally he just blurted out, “Chris isn’t sick. I mean, I know he called in sick but I went over there and he isn’t. Sick, that is. He, um, he’s with-”
He trailed off again but Mark just continued for him. “He’s with Wardo now, right.”
That pinched and vaguely pained expression was back on his face. Dustin resisted the urge to stroke his curls and murmur, “There, there.”
Instead, Dustin almost choked on just air. “You know?”
“Chris isn’t near as subtle as he likes to think he is sometimes,” Mark said, easily enough. “I’m surprised you didn’t know.” When Dustin just continued gaping at him, he continued speaking grudgingly. “I-they seem happy. Not that I know much about their... relationship. But I mean, it’s good that they’re happy.”
Dustin could tell Mark’s fists were clenched together in the pocket of his hoodie. He grabbed a quick sip of Mark’s Red Bull before telling him, “Wardo’s moved in with Chris.”
Mark nearly knocked over the can, fumbling with it to keep it from spilling on his keyboard. “He did?” he finally asked, voice flat. It didn’t fool Dustin though. He had a mental rolodex of all of Mark’s vocal tones and facial expressions and knew what they meant. He was definitely not uninterested.
In fact, he was rather desperate to know.
Dustin decided that to tease him along would be cruel. “Yeah, he told me today. He and Chris have been together years now. God, that’s weird. I never thought it’d be them-” He cut himself off awkwardly.
“Yeah,” Mark said stiffly, ignoring that last statement. “Years.”
Dustin stood up from the chair and walked around Mark’s desk. He sat on the corner nearest Mark and put a hand on his shoulder, rubbing gently.
Mark sighed and stroked Dustin’s thigh once in response. Dustin smiled a little to himself. He was damned proud of getting Mark out of his I-don’t-want-to-be-touched-anymore-because-I-am-a-scared-little-turtle shell.
“So, Chris and Eduardo said we should come over tonight.”
Dustin almost fell off the desk as Mark jerked in surprise again. “What?” Mark asked. “Really?” he blushed slightly at his own reaction and Dustin couldn’t help but press a loud, smacking kiss over the red tinge on the cheek facing him.
“Yeah, Eduardo wanted to know how you were and everything. He wants to catch up with you. I think he’s missed you a lot. I mean, I know he has. So Chris said that you and I should go over tonight and we’ll marathon Star Wars or Lord of the Rings together like old times.”
“I-I have a lot of work to do,” Mark said after a long minute. “So yeah, I can’t.”
“You’re lying to me, Mark Zuckerberg. Don’t think I don’t know it. Janey already told me you’re so bored that you’ve actually started replying to event invites yourself. How many people have you not-so-subtly insulted via email today?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“El-oh-el,” Dustin said. “Seriously, that’s so funny I can’t even laugh.”
Mark snapped his headphones back over his head mulishly but Dustin just climbed off his desk and jumped onto the couch, head against one of the arm rests and feet extended towards the other like always.
“So I’m going to tell you about what I saw this morning when I walked into Chris’s bedroom unknowingly since you apparently felt no need to tell me about him and Eduardo and we’re obviously talking about Eduardo again now. Without you having to drink half of my very fine Patrón first.”
He couldn’t help but smirk a bit when he saw Mark’s knuckles turn white and his breath start to hitch a bit.
Dustin pulled Mark out of his office at five PM-amidst many grumbled protests and the shocked stares of their peons, or as Chris told him he needed to call them, colleagues-and drove the two of them to Chris’s house.
And Eduardo’s house, Dustin reminded himself. Chris and Eduardo’s house.
part two