And I Think I'm Ready To Let You Get Under My Skin-- Part 3
And I Think I'm Ready To Let You Get Under My Skin
Title: And I Think I'm Ready To Let You Get Under My Skin
Author:
faultylights
Series: Star Trek reboot RPS
Characters/Pairings: Zachary Quinto/Chris Pine, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin
Rating: R
Word-count: 21,890
Warnings Some swearing, slash (of course)
Disclaimer: This is complete fiction, I don't own any of them! Also, borrowing the lyrics from Kimbra's song Two Way Street for the title, but I don't own that, either!
Summary: Zach's been working as a dessert chef at Urban's Catering with some of his best friends for years, but when they land a recurring gig catering the set of a t.v show, he meets the charming up and coming actor, Chris Pine. While Zach doesn't immediately welcome the new attention, he soon sees the sweeter side of Chris. That doesn't mean he regrets smashing a cupcake in his face. Cause he totally doesn't.
Author’s notes: A BIG, HUGE thank to everyone who helped on this fic. That includes my good friend and awesome beta,
mina_rox and my amazing sister (who isn't on LJ) who took time to go over this with me even though she's crazy busy. My amazingly talented Artist,
cannedebonbon, who managed to capture the character's playfulness perfectly. And my superb Fanmixer,
leighblack, who made a fabulous mix that really fits the characters and storyline so well. I couldn't have hoped for better, you guys all rock! Thank you!
PART 3
Over the next few days, Zach barely saw Chris at all. When he appeared for lunch, he looked nervous. He was all quiet voices and shy glances with Zach, never sticking around for more than a few minutes. It was such a contrast to the last time Zach had seen him that it threw him off. Zach wanted to ask him about the cupcake, about the whole damn night, if he was really being honest. Why Chris had done it and what it had meant, but the questions died in his throat and he found himself swallowing them down each time Chris awkwardly smiled a smile that looked more like a grimace and said, ‘See you later.’
By the end of the week, it had gotten worse. Chris didn’t bother smiling at Zach, or even speaking to him for that matter. Zach tried to joke with him, but the joke fell flat when Chris turned his eyes on him, an expression that Zach couldn’t quite place in his eyes.
“I don’t get it…” Zach told Zoe on Thursday that week. “We were actually getting to be friends, and then suddenly he gets all moody and weird.”
“Did you do anything to upset him?” Zoe asked.
“I don’t think so.” Zach racked his brain for possible reasons Chris would all of a sudden change and then said, “Maybe he decided to take the movie offer! The last time we really talked he said he had a meeting with his manager!”
“Why would it matter if he did take the offer?”
“Maybe he figured he doesn’t want to get close to anyone if he’s going to be leaving soon.”
“That logic is stupid. No one would do that, certainly not Chris.”
“It’s the kind of thing I would do,” Zach said uncertainly.
“Yes, but you have issues,” Zoe said patiently.
“I do have issues,” Zach agreed with a sigh.
“Maybe he’s just having a rough week?”
“Maybe…but wouldn’t he be acting like this to everyone, then? I saw him talking with someone else yesterday and he seemed normal.”
“That’s true,” Zoe said and then frowned. “Zach, I don’t know what to tell you. I have no clue what’s wrong with him. Just try talking to him. Invite him out for coffee, see what’s on his mind.”
“But…”
“Zach. Don’t screw yourself over by not doing this. There’s already the whole world to do that for you. Don’t work against yourself, here,” Zoe said seriously and then kissed his cheek lightly, squeezing his shoulder.
“Thanks, Zoe.”
“No problem. But I’m serious, Zach.” Zoe looked stern. “By the way, Karl wanted to know why you didn’t answer when he tried to call your cell earlier today.”
“Huh? I haven’t gotten a call all day, when did he try?” Zach pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“He didn’t say,” Zoe said, peering over his shoulder at his phone.
“It’s off.” Zach sighed. “Its been randomly shutting itself off and I can’t figure out why.”
“Well, that explains it, then.”
“Can you tell Karl I’m sorry?”
“Sure, but if I were you, I’d expect a lecture sometime soon. He was ranting about ‘What if I needed something urgent for the café’?”
“Greeeat. Just what I need.” Zach sighed and Zoe smiled at him before turning to leave.
“Consider yourself warned!” Zoe called over her shoulder.
~*~
It was already Wednesday, with just a little over two weeks before the big wedding cake was due, when Zach finally saw Chris again. He had been sitting in the food tent, waiting for the lunch rush to come when Chris came in, got his food, ignoring Zach the entire time, and then went to sit down.
Zach watched him intently for a long while, not knowing how to fix things, or if they were even fixable. What if he had somehow, completely and irrevocably, screwed up everything?
“Hello?” There was suddenly a rather big something blocking his line of sight to Chris. Zach looked up to see the jerk that had bothered him the very first day of work.
Zach just stared at him, too surprised to really move or say anything, and too fixated on trying to remember the guy’s name. Justin?
“Are you going to do your job or just sit there and stare at Chris all day?” Justin asked and Zach felt himself go red in the face. He didn’t think Chris could hear from where he was sitting, but the idea still bothered him.
He was just about to tell the guy off when he caught the look on Chris’ face. He was sitting at his table, passively watching Zach and Justin, not seeming to care at all, and then something inside Zach just shut down.
He spooned the garlic-roasted potatoes and forked a piece of herb-encrusted chicken onto Justin’s plate, and Justin went away without another word. Chris continued to watch him for a moment, giving him one last look before he got up and walked out of the tent.
Zach felt as though he’d been punched in the stomach and barely even noticed when Zoe came up beside him.
“Zach? You ok?”
“I’m…Yeah, fine, I’m just tired. Mind if I take a break?” Zach asked and he could tell Zoe didn’t buy it, but she nodded anyway and Zach walked out of the tent, wondering where he could go to sit alone for a while.
A few minutes later Zach was laying uncomfortably on one of the back seats in the van, his legs hanging off the end. He tried shifting, pulling his legs up under himself and leaning against the window, but he couldn’t settle the jittering feeling in his muscles. They twinged to move, but he knew that as soon as he would start, they would give out on him. He was tired and confused and just wanted to fall asleep for a long while and forget everything. Forget how to bake, forget the set, and forget Zoe and Karl, and especially Chris.
“Zach?” Karl jolted him awake.
He blearily looked around at Karl, confused about where he was for a long moment before remembering crawling into the van.
“How long have I been asleep?” Zach yawned, stretching his arms and legs, which, yeah, looking back on it, maybe falling asleep on a seat in the van was a bad idea for a guy his size.
“Zoe said you left the tent about three hours ago and haven’t been back, so I came to look for you.” Karl sat on the edge of the seat next to Zach. “Are you ok, Zach?”
“Yeah,” Zach said quickly, “I’m just-“
“Tired. Yeah, that’s what Zoe said you told her,” Karl grumbled.
“I am,” Zach snapped, not able to keep the defensive tone out of his voice, but instantly felt bad at the surprised look on Karl’s face. He sighed and softened his voice, “You’ve been working us all really hard lately.”
“I know, but it’ll be better in the long run, right? Plus, I really don’t think that’s the reason for all your moping lately. Look, I’m not going to dwell on it, but you know you can talk to us, right? You’re family to me,” Karl said and then he was standing up, stepping out of the van, shrugging and saying, “I don’t like seeing you this upset.”
Zach was quiet as Karl shrugged again and then walked away. The man was rarely that plain spoken or outgoing about his affection for Zach and Zoe, and even though Zach knew that Karl felt as though they were both family, it was always surprising when he actually showed it.
Once Karl was gone, Zach stretched and got out of the van, already feeling a little better, if only marginally. He was just about to round the corner of the door, on his way back inside, when he connected sharply with Chris who was coming outside.
Chris backed up a little, giving Zach room to go through first, barely looking at him, but Zach just stood there looking at Chris. He had dark circles under his eyes, and when he finally glanced at Zach to see why he wasn’t moving, he looked pained.
“Chris-” Zach started but Chris only moved his hand into a curt motion for Zach to go on through. Zach nodded, swallowing what felt like led in the pit of his stomach. He knew he had to say something, in case it would be the only chance he got.
“Ok. But…I’m sorry. If I did anything…I’m sorry,” Zach rushed the words out and then began to walk forward, his eyes down, until Chris’ arm was suddenly blocking his way. He looked up to see Chris’ eyes narrowed, his whole body tense.
“If you did anything?” Chris let out a mirthless laugh. “You didn’t do anything.”
“Then what’s going on? Chris, I don’t get it, so can you just tell me what happened?” Zach stared at him, confused, until Chris pushed past him on his way to the makeup trailer.
He had no clue what was going on.
~*~
The next couple of days went by slowly and dully, blending together in a blur where Zach would unexpectedly find that he had somehow lost hours of time without realizing they had gone by. If Zach had thought things with Chris were off before, they were downright horrible now. Most days, Chris managed to avoid Zach all together and when Zach did catch a glimpse of him, it was just that-a glimpse.
It wasn’t until the weekend, when they didn’t have to cater for the set, that Zoe sidled up next to Zach as he was getting in some much needed practice on etching for the wedding cake that was due the upcoming Friday.
“How’s the cake coming?”
“Not bad. I just need another day or two of practice and then I’ll be ready for the real thing.”
“That seems like a lot of work for one order,” Zoe glanced at him as he leaned down even more, his nose a couple of inches from the sugar coating as he worked on a particularly detailed portion of the design.
“It is a lot of work, but if this couple likes it, they’ll spread word to their friends who could possibly order something in the future,” Zach said, but Zoe huffed as she got up and walked over to the refrigerator.
“You’re starting to sound a lot like Karl,” she said as she started pouring herself a glass of orange juice.
Zach let out a soft chuckle, “As much as I hate to admit it…sometimes Karl knows what he’s talking about.”
Zach looked over at Zoe, who had gone still and silent as she looked inside a small Tupperware container. Zach’s stomach instantly twisted and he wanted to storm over to her and pull it away from her hands. But as it was, he just sat still, waiting for her inevitable question.
“Zach, what’s this?” Zoe asked and Zach had to count to three to prevent himself from answering too quickly, too knowingly.
“What’s what?”
Zoe brought the container over to him, leaning her hip against the counter, an intent and questioning look on her face.
“Oh, just a cupcake I was going to eat, but didn’t get around to,” Zach said and then made himself go back to his etching.
“Hmm, well, it’s probably been in here a while. I should just pitch it.” Zoe started toward the trash bin, but in an instant Zach had grabbed her sleeve and snatched the container from her hand. “Zach, what-?”
“Sorry, I…I still want it. It’s still good.”
“I knew you were faking!” Zoe said, but Zach could tell she wasn’t really into gloating. “Zach, what’s going on? Why is this in here?”
“I…Chris gave it to me. I don’t know why I kept it.” Zach shrugged honestly and watched as Zoe’s gaze softened momentarily before hardening.
“I see,” was all she said.
“Zoe, it was just…it wasn’t anything. It was just a little joke or something; it’s not a big thing. It’s not a thing at all, actually, it’s just-“
“No, Zach, it’s ok, I didn’t think it was,” Zoe said calmly, but Zach still wasn’t completely convinced that she understood. Yet she was smiling her usual warm smile at him and sitting down again to finish her orange juice, so Zach went ahead and let it go. After all, the bigger deal he made of trying to convince her that it was ‘nothing,’ the more apparent it would be that it really was something.
~*~
With the cake’s deadline getting ever closer, Zach worked furiously and tirelessly through the weekend prepping for set, keeping Urban’s Café stocked with baked goods, and perfecting his recipe for the actual wedding cake. For being so busy, Zach was actually surprised at how calm and collected he felt. So it wasn’t really a surprise that when Tuesday rolled around, everything finally blew up.
The day had started out normal enough. He woke up early to bake the day’s worth of the café’s goods, dodging Anton’s attempts to make the brownies more “interesting.” After he had finished the last few batches, Karl had pulled him and Zoe together to go over the day’s plan while they ate breakfast. Then came the rush of prep and transportation of the set’s lunch. It was all so normal.
By the time he was setting up, Zach was feeling tired and harassed as Karl barked out orders. He had been extra grumpy the past few days and Zach tried to write it off to the fact that the deadline for a client who had been particularly and astoundingly annoying the last few days was coming up. Except even if Zach knew the reason why Karl was being a grouch, it was still hard for him to take all the grunts and shouts that Karl was dishing out.
“Zach, this is the wrong dressing. I sent you a text saying that today’s salad was supposed to be paired with the raspberry wine vinegrette!”
“Really? I didn’t get one…” Zach looked at his phone and saw that he indeed hadn’t gotten a text from Karl. Karl checked his own phone to make sure he had sent one and then thrust it in Zach’s face to prove he had.
“You really need a new phone or something if it’s going to be unreliable, Zach. Our reputation might depend on it,” Karl said and Zach nodded and ducked out of the tent before he could continue. He had had about enough for one day.
As he walked out the door to the back lot where the van was parked, Zach heard some raised voices. He didn’t think much of it until he came around the corner and saw Zoe and Chris with equally annoyed and fierce looks on their faces.
“Just because you’re some big-shot actor doesn’t mean you get to toy around with people, ok?” Zoe bit out and Chris let out a bark of laughter.
“Big shot-have you even seen this show? It’s not exactly high-quality.”
“Just shut up and either man up or stay away from Zach. He doesn’t need you jerking him around like this.”
“Jerking him-jerking him around? What the hell are you talking about?” Chris shook his head as if he couldn’t even believe what he was hearing and there was a shaky, almost manic, laugh to his voice.
“The cupcake! You gave him a cupcake with a fucking heart drawn into it and then you treat him like…like you’re too good for him while you’re here on set!”
“I’m not! I was trying to give him space, he-”
“Zoe, stop.” Zach stepped forward, putting a hand on her shoulder, causing both Chris and Zoe to startle, neither of them having realized they weren’t alone. Zach concentrated on Zoe, not letting himself even glance at Chris. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Zoe, but I don’t need you to.”
“Zach, is that what you think? Is that why-” Chris started, but Zach spoke over him, raising his gaze to look Chris in the eyes as he did.
“-And I’m better off without the drama, anyhow,” he said firmly. Zoe wrapped her arm around Zach’s waist, then, and led him away, leaving Chris standing there in the middle of the parking lot.
They moved back inside, well out of sight of Chris. Zoe didn’t say anything, but led him silently away to a part of the set that was secluded and empty where Zach let himself slump against a wall, knees pulled up to his chest and his head buried. Zoe just sat beside him, her arm around his shoulder.
After the confrontation, Zoe put her foot down and told Karl that if he didn’t let Zach go home and take the rest of the day off, she was going to quit. Karl eyed her for a long moment, judging her face and stance to see if she was bluffing.
“Fine, he can go home,” Karl finally said and Zoe got both herself and Zach in the van to drop him off back at the shop.
Zach stayed there, curled up on the futon, watching TV for the next two days.
~*~
“Zach…I know you’re in full-on moping mode, but we need more cupcakes,” Zoe said on Thursday morning, “and the wedding cake’s due tomorrow night.”
“I’ll make more in a few minutes.”
“That’s what you said an hour ago.” Zoe walked up next to the futon where Zach was sitting, wrapped in a blanket. She watched him for a moment and then snatched the blanket off of him and flicked his ear.
“Ow!” Zach whimpered, his hand instantly going up to rub his stinging ear.
“You need to get up. You need to bake. You need to get out of this funk. Right now.” Zoe grabbed his arm and tugged with all her might. Zach would’ve laughed, if it were under a different circumstance, at someone as tiny as Zoe trying to pull someone like Zach to his feet by pure force.
Once Zach had relented and stood up, Zoe clapped her hands together and pointed toward the kitchen. “Go. I need to go do a few deliveries. Karl’s gone to give a presentation to a potential client. He should be back in an hour or so.”
“Ok,” Zach said sullenly.
“When was the last time you washed? Maybe you should jump in the shower before you bake anything. I don’t want your stench on the goods.” Zoe wrinkled her nose.
“You’re not very nice,” Zach muttered on his way to the kitchen.
“I was extremely nice for two whole days. You were too busy being depressed to notice,” Zoe said and then she was off.
Zach stood in the kitchen for a moment, almost in a daze, before heading toward the shower. It had been two days, afterall.
After his shower, Zach went straight to the kitchen. His head felt clearer and his hands itched to bake. He began to unpack all the ingredients for a couple different desserts, determined to bake until he could no longer feel his arms.
He started off with a new recipe-a yogurt mousse with apricot compote that would be served in a white chocolate cup. He hadn’t made it before and was in the middle of re-reading the next batch of notes he had written after finishing the mousse when he heard Anton’s voice, harsh and a little annoyed, coming from the storefront.
“Anton? Everything ok up there?” Zach called. Anton’s voice instantly reduced into a hushed, but determined, sound muffled by the door to the front. Zach sighed, put down his notes and went to see what was going on. He trusted Anton. Mostly. But if someone was giving him a lot of trouble out front, Zach wasn’t going to let him face it alone if he could otherwise help it.
When Zach pushed the door open, the first thing he saw was Chris standing on the customer side of the counter. Anton was leaning forward, his hands splayed across the counter, an annoyed look on his face.
“You might as well go home. You’re not going to see him, I have very strict orders, you know.”
It was then that Chris noticed him standing, frozen in the doorway. Anton followed his line of sight and cursed when he saw Zach.
“You just ruined my badass routine, you know that, right, Zach?” Anton pouted.
“Sorry, Anton.” Zach trained his eyes on Anton, trying to ignore the fact that Chris was staring at him.
“Zach…” Chris began and Zach slowly, slowly let his eyes travel to the other man. “Can we just talk for a minute? You can time it and everything, I promise.”
Zach looked around the room. The café wasn’t particularly crowded, but the people there were staring. Zach wondered how many of them recognized Chris from TV or how many of them had simply tuned into the prior argument that Anton and Chris had been having.
“I…ok,” Zach said and pointedly ignored Anton’s stern look. “Back here.”
Zach walked back toward the kitchen, not bothering to hold the door for Chris, and went straight into making the apricot compote. He felt Chris’ eyes on him for a moment as he sliced the apricots. Finally, Chris pulled up a stool a few feet away from where Zach stood, but didn’t speak right away.
“You’re wasting your minute,” Zach said stiffly.
“Zach, I think this was all a big misunderstanding,” Chris said, spurred on by Zach’s comment. “I mean, I’m not sure, because I can never really tell what you’re thinking, but I just don’t see how things could’ve changed like this if it wasn’t a misunderstanding.”
“Things change like this all the time.”
“Like what? I thought we were…friends, at least. Then everything switched so fast, we were acting like we hated each other, Zach!”
“Well, maybe -”
“I never hated you. I was disappointed and, I don’t know, felt rejected.” Zach looked up then, noticing a slight blush on Chris.
“Wait…What?” Zach asked, setting his knife down and finally looking fully at Chris. Chris watched him for a moment as if studying him.
“Did you…did you honestly not get it?” Chris asked, almost chuckling. Zach shrugged and looked back down at his apricots when Chris stood up and crossed the few steps until he was right beside Zach. His hand coming up slowly to remove the knife from Zach’s hand. “I thought I was being obvious. I don’t give just anyone cupcakes with hearts.”
“Well, it’s not like that exactly screamed ‘I’m interested in you romantically,’” Zach kept his eyes trained on the apricots.
“But the coffee and the text didn’t clue you in?” Chris asked incredulously.
“What text?” Zach asked and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, his brain seemed to click on and suddenly everything made sense.
“The text I sent you after we had coffee that night,” Chris said, laughing, but then his expression sobered as he registered the look on Zach’s face. “Wait, did you not get it?”
“No, my phone’s been acting really weird lately,” Zach said, not meeting Chris’ eyes. “What did it say?”
“Well, I…I just said that I had fun and that we should go to dinner sometime.” When Zach finally looked back at him again, Chris’s lips were twisted into a small smile as he carefully closed the space between them and kissed Zach. He tensed at first, surprised and wound up after being so stressed the last few weeks, but as Chris moved his lips slowly and nipped at his lower lip, Zach breathed out and kissed back.
“Your minute ended almost five minutes ag- aghh!”
Chris pulled away from Zach hurriedly as Anton stood in the doorway glaring at them. Zach couldn’t be sure as Chris ducked his head, but he looked like he was blushing faintly.
“Can you really not do that somewhere else? I’m pretty sure it isn’t sanitary,” Anton grumbled before going back out front.
Zach stood there for a moment, his arm still loosely wrapped around Chris’ waist from just a moment ago, not quite sure what to say or how to proceed. He slowly unwrapped his arm from Chris and began to pick up his knife to start back on his compote.
“So…you were, what, just ignoring me because you thought I rejected you?” Zach asked, not looking at Chris.
“Partly. I mean, after we had coffee, you didn’t respond to my text all weekend. Then on Monday, you barely acknowledged anything. I thought you were trying to get a point across and I took the message.”
“I wasn’t. I…I dunno, I’m not exactly used to this sort of thing, I don’t know how to act and it all just…confused me,” Zach finished lamely and Chris laughed.
“I guess that makes two of us. So, just to be clear, I like you, Zach. You’re funny and modest, and I feel good when I’m around you,” Chris said, taking a step forward before adding, “You’re decent to look at, too.”
Zach snorted, “Gee, thanks.”
“I mean every word of it.” Chris smiled, bringing his hand up to his heart.
“Shut up,” Zach said before Chris invaded his space again, kissing him more roughly this time before pulling back and just looking at Zach for a moment.
“Listen, you’re obviously busy and have stuff to do right now, but I’d still like that dinner sometime. Is tomorrow ok?”
“I can’t,” Zach said and Chris’s expression turned hurt. “I want to, don’t get me wrong, but the wedding cake is due by tomorrow night. I’m basically going to be working on it all night tonight and up until the last minute tomorrow.”
“Oh,” Chris looked thoughtful for a moment, “how about the day after?”
“Saturday night?” Zach asked and Chris nodded. “Yeah, I can do Saturday night.”
“Then Saturday it is,” Chris grinned and backed away toward the door slowly and Zach watched him, a smile curling his lips, until Chris closed the door behind him.
Zach was thankful that he had practiced making the cake and etching the fondant so much the past weeks until his hands practically did it on their own, because his mind was far away the entire night. And even though he was exhausted the next afternoon after finally finishing the cake, he had a smile on his face and a beautiful cake.
~*~
Even though he was constantly busy, it seemed to take forever until Saturday night. Yet, finally Saturday night saw Zach already dressed, some nice dark jeans paired with a black button down shirt, and pacing in the kitchen where Zoe was trying to work an hour ahead of schedule.
“Zach, you’re driving me nuts pacing like that.” Zoe put her arm out just in time to block Zach as he was walking by.
“Sorry,” Zach muttered and decided to start a cake to ease his mind.
“What’s got you so nervous, anyway?” Zoe asked, and as she looked at him, understanding seemed to dawn on her. “You’re dressed up! You have a date!”
“Yep,” Zach replied, rolling up the sleeves on his button-down.
“With who?” Zoe sounded accusatory. After all, she was usually the first one to hear about these things.
“Chris, actually.”
“Chris?”
“Yeah. The other day we realized that everything was pretty much a huge misunderstanding. So we talked and figured everything out.”
“When was this? I had strict orders for everyone to keep him away from you!”
“It was just the other night while Anton and I were running the shop-”
“Anton.” Zoe scowled and looked toward the front of the shop.
“It’s ok,” Zach went over and patted Zoe’s shoulder, “everything’s ok now.”
“That might be true, but I’m still gonna kick Anton’s ass.”
“What about Anton’s ass?” Karl came strolling down the stairs, just hearing the end of Zoe’s sentence.
“Anton shirked his duty. But I guess it’s all ok, cause Zach and Chris are going on a date tonight,” Zoe said, still sounding a little bitter, and Karl nodded.
“Yeah, Anton mentioned that this morning.”
“What?! He didn’t tell me, that little brat.” Zoe had apparently had enough, because she got up and marched purposefully toward the front of the shop. A moment later, they heard Zoe’s raised voice.
“Poor kid,” Karl said and Zach nodded. Karl then turned his attention to Zach, “So, you have a date tonight?”
“Yeah. We worked things out, so we’re going to dinner.”
“Good. Zach, I’m really glad. Anyone can tell he likes you a ton.”
“Apparently everyone but me.”
“It doesn’t matter, does it? You’re both happy now, right?” Karl smiled. He was being unusually good-natured and wise at the moment and it was starting to freak Zach out. Just then, Zoe’s voice rose even higher and there was a crash in the front. Karl frowned and walked toward the door, shouting, “Whatever you just broke, I’m taking triple out of your salary! Plus tax!”
Zach laughed to himself as he went to switch on the radio and continued mixing his cake batter. The station was playing some pop song that Zach had never heard before, but it soon had him humming along and swaying as he mixed. About halfway through, he knew the lyrics to the chorus and was singing along until he was full out dancing and singing. He couldn’t help it, pop songs were damn catchy.
He just finished singing along with the last part of the song when he heard someone applauding behind him. Zach whipped around and saw Chris standing in the doorway, dressed in a pair of good jeans and a nice grey sweater.
“You’ve got a pretty decent voice, you know?” Chris said, stepping into the room further, and Zach blushed and turned back around, grabbing a pan and pouring the batter inside.
“Don’t lie. Zoe says my voice is even worse than that guy on American Idol who sang Lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground.”
“That guy was hilarious, though!”
“No, Chris, he really wasn’t.” Zach tried to keep a straight face at the look of pure glee on Chris’ face, but wasn’t really successful.
“Ah, well. You definitely dance better than him, anyways.” Chris smiled and leaned against the counter as Zach shoved the cake into the oven before running out front to tell Zoe to make sure to take it out of the oven when the timer went off.
“Ready?” Zach asked.
~*~
The evening went well. They walked to a nice, but casual, restaurant nearby and were joking and talking almost constantly as they ate and drank a bottle of wine until Zach felt tingly and warm.
“Do you want to go somewhere? See a movie or something?” Chris asked and Zach nodded.
“You know, I never really got to watch Valley Girl that one time in your trailer since I fell asleep…”
“I like the way you think, Quinto,” Chris grinned.
“My place isn’t too far from here and there’s a video store right nearby.”
Within twenty minutes Zach was unlocking his apartment door, his stomach turning in anticipation with Chris standing so close that Zach could catch whiffs of his cologne. His apartment never really quite felt like home and he almost never spent the night in it, but it was clean and spacious and equipped for movie watching, so there they were.
Zach let Chris in and watched as he strolled through the living room and kitchen. After he had walked around a bit and taken everything in, Chris came back, slowly stepping up to Zach until he was less than a foot away. Zach, feeling shy with his stomach fluttering, let his gaze drift away from Chris, glancing back up at Chris’ face as he silently took the movie from Zach’s hand. Chris leaned forward, bringing his lips close, but not close enough, before pulling away and leaving Zach feeling as though all his blood was rushing to his head.
Chris went over to the T.V. and put the DVD in before motioning toward the sofa. Zach nodded and went to sit down with him. Chris sat close, but not too close and the movie was half over by the time Zach realized he had no clue what was going on in it because he had been so concentrated on Chris sitting next to him, close, but not close enough. His whole body seemed hyper-aware of Chris and any little motion he made.
Just about then, Chris caught him looking and smiled almost bashfully before turning back to the movie. Zach looked at the screen then, trying to concentrate, when Chris took his hand, still staring at the screen. And that seemed to be all that Zach needed. Something inside him switched and he found himself shifting until he was closer, until he was face to face with Chris, until he was kissing Chris gently.
Chris sighed into the kiss and that spurred Zach on even more. He nudged Chris until he got the point and shifted his body to face him so that Zach could straddle his legs. He leaned into Chris, into the kiss, until Chris deepened it, swiping his tongue against Zach’s as he grasped Zach’s thighs and pulled him up to his lap. Zach gasped at the contact and moaned when Chris ran his hands up Zach’s thighs to his torso, teasingly running his fingers underneath Zach’s shirt.
Zach was getting hard quickly as Chris moved onto his neck, sucking and licking the spot just below his ear. Just as he let out a small moan, Chris chuckled against his skin. Zach was already breathing heavily, but he shifted his hips until he was right on top of Chris and could feel him, hard, against himself. He moved experimentally, rolling his hips just slightly and felt Chris shiver and then start biting and sucking at his collarbone, pulling his shirt collar aside to reach.
Zach rolled his hips again, more deliberately this time, grinding himself against Chris and was rewarded with a low moan.
“You’re going to miss the movie,” Chris said thickly, “Again.”
“I know. I think it’s maybe worth it.” Zach shifted to a new angle, grinding his hips down. “Don’t you?”
“Fuck, yes.” Chris groaned and then skirted his hands beneath Zach’s shirt before deciding to just unbutton it and push it off Zach’s shoulders. Zach lifted Chris’ sweater over his head before leaning forward, forcing Chris to lay back and then climbing on top of him. He slotted his hips, leaning with one leg between Chris’. Zach stared at Chris, breathing heavily, his bare chest rising and falling irregularly. He swiped a thumb over one of Chris’ nipples, feeling it go taut as he did so, and then leaned down and sucked it into his mouth. As he licked and sucked, he rolled the other nipple between his fingers and Chris moaned and squirmed below him, bucking his hips up into Zach.
Chris reached between them and began to unbuckle Zach’s belt. Zach impatiently shimmied off his pants and boxers before going to work on Chris’, helping him shuck them off. Chris pushed Zach back, falling on top of him, holding him down as he kissed his neck, trailing down slowly, so slowly, to his chest and then to his stomach.
Chris stopped, hovering over Zach’s cock and looked up toward Zach, who whimpered softly. Chris smiled before lowering his head and mouthing Zach’s cock. Zach gasped and bucked up into Chris’ mouth, starting to apologize, but before the word “sorry” fully left his mouth, Chris bit lightly at Zach, making him groan. Chris lifted his head, kissing Zach as he wrapped his hand around his cock, stroking up and down until Zach couldn’t take it anymore. He pushed Chris’s hands away before quickly lining their bodies up so that he could fit both of their cocks together in his hand and started stroking and rolling his hips. Chris groaned and let his head fall onto Zach’s shoulder.
Pretty soon, Zach could feel that familiar sensation in the pit of his stomach building and could tell Chris felt the same by his ragged breathes and jerking hips. Zach renewed his enthusiasm and rhythm, determined to watch Chris fall apart, to hear what he sounded like. He didn’t have to wait long before Chris came, moaning, letting himself momentarily fall forward into Zach before bringing his own hand into the mix and pumping Zach until he came. They both fell into the sofa, limbs shifting and nudging until they found a comfortable position.
“One day we’ll finish this movie, I swear.” Chris said, looking at the paused screen.
“One day,” Zach agreed.
“And maybe one day you can teach me how to make a cake.” Chris hummed pleasantly against the skin of Zach’s chest.
“Maybe. If you promise not to ruin it,” Zach mumbled and then chuckled as Chris made an indignant noise.
They were both quiet for a bit and Zach reveled in the moment. Took the time to categorize the weight and feel of Chris’ body half on top of his. The slight scent of cologne under sweat and cum and the tickle of Chris’ breathe as he inhaled and exhaled on Zach’s chest. The feeling he had of overwhelming happiness and warmth that he had never really felt with anyone except for Zoe, Karl, and occasionally Anton.
“Hey Chris?” Zach said quietly, but Chris didn’t answer. He was already asleep. “Never mind, you sleep. I’ll tell you some other time,” he said quietly.
Zach smiled to himself in the darkness, realizing this was the first time in months he was spending the night in his own apartment.
The next week on set, Zach barely had a moment to himself. Chris was constantly ignoring his makeup calls, much to the staff’s annoyance. Instead, he seemed plastered to Zach’s side. More than once Zach had barely saved a tray of brownies from being smashed in his own face as he practically ran into Chris who was standing directly behind him. And more than once he was pushed into a costume closet and kissed senseless. In fact, that was where Zach was at the moment. One of Chris’ hands was pressed against the wall near Zach’s head, as the other was preoccupied with the belt loops on Zach’s jeans.
“Aren’t you supposed to be, you know, working right now?” Zach asked as Chris trailed his lips across Zach’s jaw.
“Probably.”
“You don’t seem at all upset about missing work.”
“That’s because I much prefer your company to my future career.” Chris’ hand dipped underneath Zach’s shirt, making Zach shiver slightly as Chris went back to kissing him.
“You’re going to get fired. If you get fired, we won’t be able to do this anymore, you know.”
“It doesn’t matter if I get fired.”
“Really? Cause if my cash inflow was suddenly cut off, I think it’d matter to me.”
“No, I mean,” Chris paused, leaned back a little so that he could see Zach’s face without crossing his eyes, “obviously it’d matter, but…it might not.”
Zach laughed, “You’re not making any sense at all.”
“Ok, so maybe it doesn’t make sense to you right now. I’ll probably be able to clarify later this afternoon.” Chris leaned into Zach, again.
“Is something happening? Should I be worried or anything?” Zach asked, ducking out of Chris’ reach.
“No, everything’s fine. I just don’t want to jinx myself or anything.” Zach nodded. He could understand that Chris didn’t want to jinx himself on anything. It seemed like something in Chris’ life was about to shift and Chris was worried about it. First he had auditioned for that movie role, and then just a couple weeks ago, the day after they had coffee together, he’d had what he said was an important meeting with his manager. Now he was being careful about not jinxing himself. “So, let’s get back to what we were doing before you started freaking out about my job, shall we?”
Chris tightened his grip on Zach’s belt loops and pulled Zach flush against him. Zach groaned, feeling every inch of Chris against him and was just leaning forward to kiss him when the closet door opened and Chris and Zach both jumped away from each other.
“Do you guys always have to be doing this, now? There is such a thing as a bedroom and a bed and locked doors. Use them,” Karl snarled as he slammed the door behind him.
Zach chuckled as Chris let his head fall to Zach’s shoulder, laughing, but jolted upright again when the door reopened.
“And I in no way mean that you should do this anywhere in my apartment, shop, or storefront. I mean it, Zach. I will know if you do,” Karl said dangerously and Zach somehow believed him. “Also, They’ve been looking for Chris out there for 20 minutes.”
When Karl left the second time, Chris erupted into laughter. “Do you think he’ll set up video cameras around the shop to make sure we don’t do anything there?”
“Honestly? I wouldn’t put it past him,” Zach said, pushing Chris toward the door. “You need to go not get fired now.”
“Fiiiine,” Chris drew the word out as he finally let Zach push him.
~*~
Later that afternoon, Zach was sitting at the catering table, waiting for the lunch crowd to come in. Zoe and Karl were back at the shop, preparing a catering order for later that night, leaving Zach alone. He’d gotten used to these kinds of afternoons alone. It was kind of nice to have reign over the table, and since the set staffers were mostly nice and patient, he normally didn’t have a problem handling the rush by himself. Today seemed to be an exception, however. After the first few early people, who included Chris who had come in early to make plans to hang out later that night, it got to be much busier. Zach had an actual line and was trying to get people through it as quickly as he could. It was working fairly well, though he’d gotten to know many of the set hands and would chat amiably as he served them.
“The service gets slower and slower each day.” Zach heard Justin’s voice travel from his spot just down the line. He tried to concentrate on spooning out the shrimp and chicken dumpling splashed with sriracha and sesame soy sauce to the woman in front of him who smiled apologetically for Justin’s rudeness. Zach looked up to meet Justin’s gaze, holding it even as Justin opened his mouth to say his next insult. “The food isn’t even that good.”
As Zach tried harder to block Justin from his mind, he noticed Chris across the room. His frame was rigid as he stared toward Justin. Zach could feel the situation escalating as the tension in the room heightened. The set hands around Justin began to shrink away from him, a couple even got out of line, but no one spoke up.
As Justin neared the front of the line, Zach saw Chris rise. Zach tried to remain neutral as Justin stepped right in front of him and smirked as he nodded toward the food. “If I called a food inspector, would this shit even pass?”
“Justin, c’mon,” a redheaded man that Zach had seen talking to Zoe countless times said, annoyed. Zach was thankful, just those two words seemed to boost him up a little.
“Would you like dumplings or the pad thai?” Zach asked calmly.
“I’d like you to wear a hairnet,” Justin sneered. “While you’re at it, how about you make some food that’s actually edible. I should really talk to whoever was stupid enough to hire you and make sure you never get another job in town.”
Zach looked down at the food, blushing and shaking from anger at the insults, but not wanting to say anything. What if Justin could actually get Urban’s Catering fired? What if he could ruin Karl’s spotless reputation in one phone call? Zach hated letting someone taunt him and insult him, but he couldn’t stand the thought of letting Karl down.
“Our pad thai is vegetarian, so if you don’t eat meat, it’s a good option. Would you like to try a sample?” Zach said, completely swallowing his pride.
“Did you not hear me or are you just a stupid? I said I want you fired. You seem pretty useless but maybe, just maybe, you’ll be good enough for some fast food place.”
Zach breathed in, ignoring the gasps of surprise and murmuring after Justin’s comment, trying hard to control his anger, but the next thing he knew, Chris was tapping on Justin’s shoulder, his face contorted in anger.
“How about you move along, Justin,” Chris bit out the words.
“I haven’t gotten my lunch, yet, Pine.” Justin smiled, clearly amused at how upset Chris was. “I was just telling the help here that they should-”
“Don’t you fucking call them ‘help’ or I swear-”
“You swear what, exactly?” Justin interrupted, narrowing his eyes and Chris just stared at him for a moment, a confused look on his face.
“Why do you think you can treat people like this, anyway? What makes you think you’re so much better than someone else? What makes you think that any one of these people in line deserves to be spoken to like this. Why do you have this stupid personal vendetta against Zach? He’s never done anything and you’re such an asshole to him,” Chris said, looking honestly astonished and perplexed.
“What do you care, Pine. Just go back to your little role here and keep your head down. Maybe you’ll amount to something one day.”
“See? My point, right there! You think everyone’s so beneath you, that you’re some big shot actor. It’s sad, because the reality?” Chris leaned against the table, smiling slightly as he ran a hand through his short hair, “The sad reality is that you’re just some jerk on a crappy television show.”
“Chris-” Zach said quietly as a warning. Justin’s face was red with anger as he took an intimidating step closer to Chris. Zach held his breath, feeling like maybe he should go grab one of the set security guards to break this thing up before it got out of hand.
“Really, Pine? You’re on the same ‘low-grade’ show.”
Chris chuckled, stood up straight and took a step closer until he was almost nose-to-nose with Justin. “Not anymore. Just turned in my resignation before lunch. I got an offer for a couple movies.” Chris turned his head to Zach quickly, “I was gonna tell you the news tonight.”
“That’s great, Chris!” Zach smiled, feeling a rush of happy and warmth towards Chris.
“So, you get a role in what’s probably going to be a shit movie and suddenly you’re a big shot?”
“No, you still don’t get it. I’m just a normal person with a job. I’m nice to people and that’s why they like me. I’m saying that you should really try being nicer, stop being an asshole to every person you meet.”
Zach looked at everyone standing around them. They stood silently, some of them staring at Chris, looking thankful. Some looking on smugly at Justin, clearly happy he’d been cut down to size. Then Zach’s gaze landed on Justin himself who stood pale in front of everyone. Zach actually felt bad for him.
“Alright, who hasn’t gotten their lunch, yet?” Zach asked timidly, trying to move things along. Sure enough, everyone seemed to snap out of it and Zach started moving through the line again as Chris took Justin aside.
~*~
Hours later, back at the shop, Zach was manning the front of the café, making a peppermint mocha for a customer, when Chris came in from the back.
“Hey, you’re up here for once! I thought Karl basically had you chained in the back and forced you to make an endless supply of cupcakes.”
“That’s not too far from the truth, actually,” Zach smiled, “anyway, Anton’s supposed to get here soon so I can work on a new recipe.”
“Oh? And you’ll need taste-testers for this new experimental sweet, won’t you?”
“I guess that could be a perk of having you around. You can be the one to taste everything so I won’t get fat.” Zach nodded knowledgably.
“Hey, it’d totally help me out if I ever needed to gain weight for a role,” Chris chuckled.
“Yep. And wouldn’t that be awesome advertising. I can see it on our storefront right now… Your chubby face plastered all over so that people would come to the café that helped Chris Pine get fat.”
“Shut up. It’s an awesome idea. Karl would totally be behind it.”
“I’d be behind what?” Karl asked as he and Zoe came up behind Chris suddenly, causing Chris to spin around hurriedly.
“Ah, nothing. Zach and I are just joking around.”
Karl narrowed his eyes. “Well, joke around with you out from behind the counter. People are gonna start to think you work here.”
“I practically do,” Chris muttered, but obeyed Karl.
“Yeah, you’re even in our opening day photo,” Zoe piped in, pointing toward a big-framed newspaper article behind Zach.
“What? When did that get put up?” Zach asked as he and Chris both moved toward it, astounded.
“Zach. It’s been there since the first week we opened,” Zoe said, her eyebrows rose into her hairline.
“You really aren’t up in the storefront very often, are you?” Chris laughed.
“Apparently less than I originally thought,” Zach said. He and Chris were standing close together, bumping shoulders to look at the newspaper. The heading read simply, “New Urban’s Café Opens.” Zach read the article quickly, impressed by the fact that the reporter hadn’t made Chris the sole focus. Though she definitely mentioned him and his works, she made sure to highlight Karl, Zach, and Zoe and the catering business they ran.
And then Zach looked at the photos. Most of them were of the storefront, one of a line of customers with Anton smiling at the customer directly in front of him, but the last one was by far Zach’s favorite. It was the group photo they’d taken directly after Chris and he had the flour fight. Anton, Zoe, and Karl all looked normal, smiling and holding various baked goods. It was Zach and Chris in the middle of everyone else, Zach in the middle of smashing a cupcake into Chris’ face, his smile wide as Chris’ hands were mid-way to his face.
“This is amazing,” Chris said and Zoe pointed to the wall behind the glass cases where all the baked goods were. Chris and Zach made their way over to find a couple more framed photos that looked to be from the same day.
“The reporter sent these over after the article came out. She thought we might like them,” Zoe explained. Zach glanced at each of them, but his eyes settled on the one that must’ve come directly after the shot used for the article. In the photo, everyone was looking toward Zach and Chris with varying degrees of amusement written on their faces. Chris had wiped off some of the cupcake and was looking at Zach as though he was the best thing in the world. And Zach was looking back, a similar expression on his face.
Chris watched him for a moment longer, a smile curling his lips, and Zach stopped, looked away to keep his mind steady. Chris was looking at him with a softness in his eyes, like he was sharing a secret with Zach and Zach, all at once, felt the gaze Chris placed upon him to be private and warm. Chris nudged Zach’s shoulder and Zach looked over, already smiling.
“It’s a really good picture,” Chris said as he softly took Zach’s hand at his side.
“It is,” Zach agreed.
Title: And I Think I'm Ready To Let You Get Under My Skin
Author:
faultylights
Series: Star Trek reboot RPS
Characters/Pairings: Zachary Quinto/Chris Pine, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin
Rating: R
Word-count: 21,890
Warnings Some swearing, slash (of course)
Disclaimer: This is complete fiction, I don't own any of them! Also, borrowing the lyrics from Kimbra's song Two Way Street for the title, but I don't own that, either!
Summary: Zach's been working as a dessert chef at Urban's Catering with some of his best friends for years, but when they land a recurring gig catering the set of a t.v show, he meets the charming up and coming actor, Chris Pine. While Zach doesn't immediately welcome the new attention, he soon sees the sweeter side of Chris. That doesn't mean he regrets smashing a cupcake in his face. Cause he totally doesn't.
Author’s notes: A BIG, HUGE thank to everyone who helped on this fic. That includes my good friend and awesome beta,
mina_rox and my amazing sister (who isn't on LJ) who took time to go over this with me even though she's crazy busy. My amazingly talented Artist,
cannedebonbon, who managed to capture the character's playfulness perfectly. And my superb Fanmixer,
leighblack, who made a fabulous mix that really fits the characters and storyline so well. I couldn't have hoped for better, you guys all rock! Thank you!
PART 3
Over the next few days, Zach barely saw Chris at all. When he appeared for lunch, he looked nervous. He was all quiet voices and shy glances with Zach, never sticking around for more than a few minutes. It was such a contrast to the last time Zach had seen him that it threw him off. Zach wanted to ask him about the cupcake, about the whole damn night, if he was really being honest. Why Chris had done it and what it had meant, but the questions died in his throat and he found himself swallowing them down each time Chris awkwardly smiled a smile that looked more like a grimace and said, ‘See you later.’
By the end of the week, it had gotten worse. Chris didn’t bother smiling at Zach, or even speaking to him for that matter. Zach tried to joke with him, but the joke fell flat when Chris turned his eyes on him, an expression that Zach couldn’t quite place in his eyes.
“I don’t get it…” Zach told Zoe on Thursday that week. “We were actually getting to be friends, and then suddenly he gets all moody and weird.”
“Did you do anything to upset him?” Zoe asked.
“I don’t think so.” Zach racked his brain for possible reasons Chris would all of a sudden change and then said, “Maybe he decided to take the movie offer! The last time we really talked he said he had a meeting with his manager!”
“Why would it matter if he did take the offer?”
“Maybe he figured he doesn’t want to get close to anyone if he’s going to be leaving soon.”
“That logic is stupid. No one would do that, certainly not Chris.”
“It’s the kind of thing I would do,” Zach said uncertainly.
“Yes, but you have issues,” Zoe said patiently.
“I do have issues,” Zach agreed with a sigh.
“Maybe he’s just having a rough week?”
“Maybe…but wouldn’t he be acting like this to everyone, then? I saw him talking with someone else yesterday and he seemed normal.”
“That’s true,” Zoe said and then frowned. “Zach, I don’t know what to tell you. I have no clue what’s wrong with him. Just try talking to him. Invite him out for coffee, see what’s on his mind.”
“But…”
“Zach. Don’t screw yourself over by not doing this. There’s already the whole world to do that for you. Don’t work against yourself, here,” Zoe said seriously and then kissed his cheek lightly, squeezing his shoulder.
“Thanks, Zoe.”
“No problem. But I’m serious, Zach.” Zoe looked stern. “By the way, Karl wanted to know why you didn’t answer when he tried to call your cell earlier today.”
“Huh? I haven’t gotten a call all day, when did he try?” Zach pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“He didn’t say,” Zoe said, peering over his shoulder at his phone.
“It’s off.” Zach sighed. “Its been randomly shutting itself off and I can’t figure out why.”
“Well, that explains it, then.”
“Can you tell Karl I’m sorry?”
“Sure, but if I were you, I’d expect a lecture sometime soon. He was ranting about ‘What if I needed something urgent for the café’?”
“Greeeat. Just what I need.” Zach sighed and Zoe smiled at him before turning to leave.
“Consider yourself warned!” Zoe called over her shoulder.
~*~
It was already Wednesday, with just a little over two weeks before the big wedding cake was due, when Zach finally saw Chris again. He had been sitting in the food tent, waiting for the lunch rush to come when Chris came in, got his food, ignoring Zach the entire time, and then went to sit down.
Zach watched him intently for a long while, not knowing how to fix things, or if they were even fixable. What if he had somehow, completely and irrevocably, screwed up everything?
“Hello?” There was suddenly a rather big something blocking his line of sight to Chris. Zach looked up to see the jerk that had bothered him the very first day of work.
Zach just stared at him, too surprised to really move or say anything, and too fixated on trying to remember the guy’s name. Justin?
“Are you going to do your job or just sit there and stare at Chris all day?” Justin asked and Zach felt himself go red in the face. He didn’t think Chris could hear from where he was sitting, but the idea still bothered him.
He was just about to tell the guy off when he caught the look on Chris’ face. He was sitting at his table, passively watching Zach and Justin, not seeming to care at all, and then something inside Zach just shut down.
He spooned the garlic-roasted potatoes and forked a piece of herb-encrusted chicken onto Justin’s plate, and Justin went away without another word. Chris continued to watch him for a moment, giving him one last look before he got up and walked out of the tent.
Zach felt as though he’d been punched in the stomach and barely even noticed when Zoe came up beside him.
“Zach? You ok?”
“I’m…Yeah, fine, I’m just tired. Mind if I take a break?” Zach asked and he could tell Zoe didn’t buy it, but she nodded anyway and Zach walked out of the tent, wondering where he could go to sit alone for a while.
A few minutes later Zach was laying uncomfortably on one of the back seats in the van, his legs hanging off the end. He tried shifting, pulling his legs up under himself and leaning against the window, but he couldn’t settle the jittering feeling in his muscles. They twinged to move, but he knew that as soon as he would start, they would give out on him. He was tired and confused and just wanted to fall asleep for a long while and forget everything. Forget how to bake, forget the set, and forget Zoe and Karl, and especially Chris.
“Zach?” Karl jolted him awake.
He blearily looked around at Karl, confused about where he was for a long moment before remembering crawling into the van.
“How long have I been asleep?” Zach yawned, stretching his arms and legs, which, yeah, looking back on it, maybe falling asleep on a seat in the van was a bad idea for a guy his size.
“Zoe said you left the tent about three hours ago and haven’t been back, so I came to look for you.” Karl sat on the edge of the seat next to Zach. “Are you ok, Zach?”
“Yeah,” Zach said quickly, “I’m just-“
“Tired. Yeah, that’s what Zoe said you told her,” Karl grumbled.
“I am,” Zach snapped, not able to keep the defensive tone out of his voice, but instantly felt bad at the surprised look on Karl’s face. He sighed and softened his voice, “You’ve been working us all really hard lately.”
“I know, but it’ll be better in the long run, right? Plus, I really don’t think that’s the reason for all your moping lately. Look, I’m not going to dwell on it, but you know you can talk to us, right? You’re family to me,” Karl said and then he was standing up, stepping out of the van, shrugging and saying, “I don’t like seeing you this upset.”
Zach was quiet as Karl shrugged again and then walked away. The man was rarely that plain spoken or outgoing about his affection for Zach and Zoe, and even though Zach knew that Karl felt as though they were both family, it was always surprising when he actually showed it.
Once Karl was gone, Zach stretched and got out of the van, already feeling a little better, if only marginally. He was just about to round the corner of the door, on his way back inside, when he connected sharply with Chris who was coming outside.
Chris backed up a little, giving Zach room to go through first, barely looking at him, but Zach just stood there looking at Chris. He had dark circles under his eyes, and when he finally glanced at Zach to see why he wasn’t moving, he looked pained.
“Chris-” Zach started but Chris only moved his hand into a curt motion for Zach to go on through. Zach nodded, swallowing what felt like led in the pit of his stomach. He knew he had to say something, in case it would be the only chance he got.
“Ok. But…I’m sorry. If I did anything…I’m sorry,” Zach rushed the words out and then began to walk forward, his eyes down, until Chris’ arm was suddenly blocking his way. He looked up to see Chris’ eyes narrowed, his whole body tense.
“If you did anything?” Chris let out a mirthless laugh. “You didn’t do anything.”
“Then what’s going on? Chris, I don’t get it, so can you just tell me what happened?” Zach stared at him, confused, until Chris pushed past him on his way to the makeup trailer.
He had no clue what was going on.
~*~
The next couple of days went by slowly and dully, blending together in a blur where Zach would unexpectedly find that he had somehow lost hours of time without realizing they had gone by. If Zach had thought things with Chris were off before, they were downright horrible now. Most days, Chris managed to avoid Zach all together and when Zach did catch a glimpse of him, it was just that-a glimpse.
It wasn’t until the weekend, when they didn’t have to cater for the set, that Zoe sidled up next to Zach as he was getting in some much needed practice on etching for the wedding cake that was due the upcoming Friday.
“How’s the cake coming?”
“Not bad. I just need another day or two of practice and then I’ll be ready for the real thing.”
“That seems like a lot of work for one order,” Zoe glanced at him as he leaned down even more, his nose a couple of inches from the sugar coating as he worked on a particularly detailed portion of the design.
“It is a lot of work, but if this couple likes it, they’ll spread word to their friends who could possibly order something in the future,” Zach said, but Zoe huffed as she got up and walked over to the refrigerator.
“You’re starting to sound a lot like Karl,” she said as she started pouring herself a glass of orange juice.
Zach let out a soft chuckle, “As much as I hate to admit it…sometimes Karl knows what he’s talking about.”
Zach looked over at Zoe, who had gone still and silent as she looked inside a small Tupperware container. Zach’s stomach instantly twisted and he wanted to storm over to her and pull it away from her hands. But as it was, he just sat still, waiting for her inevitable question.
“Zach, what’s this?” Zoe asked and Zach had to count to three to prevent himself from answering too quickly, too knowingly.
“What’s what?”
Zoe brought the container over to him, leaning her hip against the counter, an intent and questioning look on her face.
“Oh, just a cupcake I was going to eat, but didn’t get around to,” Zach said and then made himself go back to his etching.
“Hmm, well, it’s probably been in here a while. I should just pitch it.” Zoe started toward the trash bin, but in an instant Zach had grabbed her sleeve and snatched the container from her hand. “Zach, what-?”
“Sorry, I…I still want it. It’s still good.”
“I knew you were faking!” Zoe said, but Zach could tell she wasn’t really into gloating. “Zach, what’s going on? Why is this in here?”
“I…Chris gave it to me. I don’t know why I kept it.” Zach shrugged honestly and watched as Zoe’s gaze softened momentarily before hardening.
“I see,” was all she said.
“Zoe, it was just…it wasn’t anything. It was just a little joke or something; it’s not a big thing. It’s not a thing at all, actually, it’s just-“
“No, Zach, it’s ok, I didn’t think it was,” Zoe said calmly, but Zach still wasn’t completely convinced that she understood. Yet she was smiling her usual warm smile at him and sitting down again to finish her orange juice, so Zach went ahead and let it go. After all, the bigger deal he made of trying to convince her that it was ‘nothing,’ the more apparent it would be that it really was something.
~*~
With the cake’s deadline getting ever closer, Zach worked furiously and tirelessly through the weekend prepping for set, keeping Urban’s Café stocked with baked goods, and perfecting his recipe for the actual wedding cake. For being so busy, Zach was actually surprised at how calm and collected he felt. So it wasn’t really a surprise that when Tuesday rolled around, everything finally blew up.
The day had started out normal enough. He woke up early to bake the day’s worth of the café’s goods, dodging Anton’s attempts to make the brownies more “interesting.” After he had finished the last few batches, Karl had pulled him and Zoe together to go over the day’s plan while they ate breakfast. Then came the rush of prep and transportation of the set’s lunch. It was all so normal.
By the time he was setting up, Zach was feeling tired and harassed as Karl barked out orders. He had been extra grumpy the past few days and Zach tried to write it off to the fact that the deadline for a client who had been particularly and astoundingly annoying the last few days was coming up. Except even if Zach knew the reason why Karl was being a grouch, it was still hard for him to take all the grunts and shouts that Karl was dishing out.
“Zach, this is the wrong dressing. I sent you a text saying that today’s salad was supposed to be paired with the raspberry wine vinegrette!”
“Really? I didn’t get one…” Zach looked at his phone and saw that he indeed hadn’t gotten a text from Karl. Karl checked his own phone to make sure he had sent one and then thrust it in Zach’s face to prove he had.
“You really need a new phone or something if it’s going to be unreliable, Zach. Our reputation might depend on it,” Karl said and Zach nodded and ducked out of the tent before he could continue. He had had about enough for one day.
As he walked out the door to the back lot where the van was parked, Zach heard some raised voices. He didn’t think much of it until he came around the corner and saw Zoe and Chris with equally annoyed and fierce looks on their faces.
“Just because you’re some big-shot actor doesn’t mean you get to toy around with people, ok?” Zoe bit out and Chris let out a bark of laughter.
“Big shot-have you even seen this show? It’s not exactly high-quality.”
“Just shut up and either man up or stay away from Zach. He doesn’t need you jerking him around like this.”
“Jerking him-jerking him around? What the hell are you talking about?” Chris shook his head as if he couldn’t even believe what he was hearing and there was a shaky, almost manic, laugh to his voice.
“The cupcake! You gave him a cupcake with a fucking heart drawn into it and then you treat him like…like you’re too good for him while you’re here on set!”
“I’m not! I was trying to give him space, he-”
“Zoe, stop.” Zach stepped forward, putting a hand on her shoulder, causing both Chris and Zoe to startle, neither of them having realized they weren’t alone. Zach concentrated on Zoe, not letting himself even glance at Chris. “I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Zoe, but I don’t need you to.”
“Zach, is that what you think? Is that why-” Chris started, but Zach spoke over him, raising his gaze to look Chris in the eyes as he did.
“-And I’m better off without the drama, anyhow,” he said firmly. Zoe wrapped her arm around Zach’s waist, then, and led him away, leaving Chris standing there in the middle of the parking lot.
They moved back inside, well out of sight of Chris. Zoe didn’t say anything, but led him silently away to a part of the set that was secluded and empty where Zach let himself slump against a wall, knees pulled up to his chest and his head buried. Zoe just sat beside him, her arm around his shoulder.
After the confrontation, Zoe put her foot down and told Karl that if he didn’t let Zach go home and take the rest of the day off, she was going to quit. Karl eyed her for a long moment, judging her face and stance to see if she was bluffing.
“Fine, he can go home,” Karl finally said and Zoe got both herself and Zach in the van to drop him off back at the shop.
Zach stayed there, curled up on the futon, watching TV for the next two days.
~*~
“Zach…I know you’re in full-on moping mode, but we need more cupcakes,” Zoe said on Thursday morning, “and the wedding cake’s due tomorrow night.”
“I’ll make more in a few minutes.”
“That’s what you said an hour ago.” Zoe walked up next to the futon where Zach was sitting, wrapped in a blanket. She watched him for a moment and then snatched the blanket off of him and flicked his ear.
“Ow!” Zach whimpered, his hand instantly going up to rub his stinging ear.
“You need to get up. You need to bake. You need to get out of this funk. Right now.” Zoe grabbed his arm and tugged with all her might. Zach would’ve laughed, if it were under a different circumstance, at someone as tiny as Zoe trying to pull someone like Zach to his feet by pure force.
Once Zach had relented and stood up, Zoe clapped her hands together and pointed toward the kitchen. “Go. I need to go do a few deliveries. Karl’s gone to give a presentation to a potential client. He should be back in an hour or so.”
“Ok,” Zach said sullenly.
“When was the last time you washed? Maybe you should jump in the shower before you bake anything. I don’t want your stench on the goods.” Zoe wrinkled her nose.
“You’re not very nice,” Zach muttered on his way to the kitchen.
“I was extremely nice for two whole days. You were too busy being depressed to notice,” Zoe said and then she was off.
Zach stood in the kitchen for a moment, almost in a daze, before heading toward the shower. It had been two days, afterall.
After his shower, Zach went straight to the kitchen. His head felt clearer and his hands itched to bake. He began to unpack all the ingredients for a couple different desserts, determined to bake until he could no longer feel his arms.
He started off with a new recipe-a yogurt mousse with apricot compote that would be served in a white chocolate cup. He hadn’t made it before and was in the middle of re-reading the next batch of notes he had written after finishing the mousse when he heard Anton’s voice, harsh and a little annoyed, coming from the storefront.
“Anton? Everything ok up there?” Zach called. Anton’s voice instantly reduced into a hushed, but determined, sound muffled by the door to the front. Zach sighed, put down his notes and went to see what was going on. He trusted Anton. Mostly. But if someone was giving him a lot of trouble out front, Zach wasn’t going to let him face it alone if he could otherwise help it.
When Zach pushed the door open, the first thing he saw was Chris standing on the customer side of the counter. Anton was leaning forward, his hands splayed across the counter, an annoyed look on his face.
“You might as well go home. You’re not going to see him, I have very strict orders, you know.”
It was then that Chris noticed him standing, frozen in the doorway. Anton followed his line of sight and cursed when he saw Zach.
“You just ruined my badass routine, you know that, right, Zach?” Anton pouted.
“Sorry, Anton.” Zach trained his eyes on Anton, trying to ignore the fact that Chris was staring at him.
“Zach…” Chris began and Zach slowly, slowly let his eyes travel to the other man. “Can we just talk for a minute? You can time it and everything, I promise.”
Zach looked around the room. The café wasn’t particularly crowded, but the people there were staring. Zach wondered how many of them recognized Chris from TV or how many of them had simply tuned into the prior argument that Anton and Chris had been having.
“I…ok,” Zach said and pointedly ignored Anton’s stern look. “Back here.”
Zach walked back toward the kitchen, not bothering to hold the door for Chris, and went straight into making the apricot compote. He felt Chris’ eyes on him for a moment as he sliced the apricots. Finally, Chris pulled up a stool a few feet away from where Zach stood, but didn’t speak right away.
“You’re wasting your minute,” Zach said stiffly.
“Zach, I think this was all a big misunderstanding,” Chris said, spurred on by Zach’s comment. “I mean, I’m not sure, because I can never really tell what you’re thinking, but I just don’t see how things could’ve changed like this if it wasn’t a misunderstanding.”
“Things change like this all the time.”
“Like what? I thought we were…friends, at least. Then everything switched so fast, we were acting like we hated each other, Zach!”
“Well, maybe -”
“I never hated you. I was disappointed and, I don’t know, felt rejected.” Zach looked up then, noticing a slight blush on Chris.
“Wait…What?” Zach asked, setting his knife down and finally looking fully at Chris. Chris watched him for a moment as if studying him.
“Did you…did you honestly not get it?” Chris asked, almost chuckling. Zach shrugged and looked back down at his apricots when Chris stood up and crossed the few steps until he was right beside Zach. His hand coming up slowly to remove the knife from Zach’s hand. “I thought I was being obvious. I don’t give just anyone cupcakes with hearts.”
“Well, it’s not like that exactly screamed ‘I’m interested in you romantically,’” Zach kept his eyes trained on the apricots.
“But the coffee and the text didn’t clue you in?” Chris asked incredulously.
“What text?” Zach asked and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, his brain seemed to click on and suddenly everything made sense.
“The text I sent you after we had coffee that night,” Chris said, laughing, but then his expression sobered as he registered the look on Zach’s face. “Wait, did you not get it?”
“No, my phone’s been acting really weird lately,” Zach said, not meeting Chris’ eyes. “What did it say?”
“Well, I…I just said that I had fun and that we should go to dinner sometime.” When Zach finally looked back at him again, Chris’s lips were twisted into a small smile as he carefully closed the space between them and kissed Zach. He tensed at first, surprised and wound up after being so stressed the last few weeks, but as Chris moved his lips slowly and nipped at his lower lip, Zach breathed out and kissed back.
“Your minute ended almost five minutes ag- aghh!”
Chris pulled away from Zach hurriedly as Anton stood in the doorway glaring at them. Zach couldn’t be sure as Chris ducked his head, but he looked like he was blushing faintly.
“Can you really not do that somewhere else? I’m pretty sure it isn’t sanitary,” Anton grumbled before going back out front.
Zach stood there for a moment, his arm still loosely wrapped around Chris’ waist from just a moment ago, not quite sure what to say or how to proceed. He slowly unwrapped his arm from Chris and began to pick up his knife to start back on his compote.
“So…you were, what, just ignoring me because you thought I rejected you?” Zach asked, not looking at Chris.
“Partly. I mean, after we had coffee, you didn’t respond to my text all weekend. Then on Monday, you barely acknowledged anything. I thought you were trying to get a point across and I took the message.”
“I wasn’t. I…I dunno, I’m not exactly used to this sort of thing, I don’t know how to act and it all just…confused me,” Zach finished lamely and Chris laughed.
“I guess that makes two of us. So, just to be clear, I like you, Zach. You’re funny and modest, and I feel good when I’m around you,” Chris said, taking a step forward before adding, “You’re decent to look at, too.”
Zach snorted, “Gee, thanks.”
“I mean every word of it.” Chris smiled, bringing his hand up to his heart.
“Shut up,” Zach said before Chris invaded his space again, kissing him more roughly this time before pulling back and just looking at Zach for a moment.
“Listen, you’re obviously busy and have stuff to do right now, but I’d still like that dinner sometime. Is tomorrow ok?”
“I can’t,” Zach said and Chris’s expression turned hurt. “I want to, don’t get me wrong, but the wedding cake is due by tomorrow night. I’m basically going to be working on it all night tonight and up until the last minute tomorrow.”
“Oh,” Chris looked thoughtful for a moment, “how about the day after?”
“Saturday night?” Zach asked and Chris nodded. “Yeah, I can do Saturday night.”
“Then Saturday it is,” Chris grinned and backed away toward the door slowly and Zach watched him, a smile curling his lips, until Chris closed the door behind him.
Zach was thankful that he had practiced making the cake and etching the fondant so much the past weeks until his hands practically did it on their own, because his mind was far away the entire night. And even though he was exhausted the next afternoon after finally finishing the cake, he had a smile on his face and a beautiful cake.
~*~
Even though he was constantly busy, it seemed to take forever until Saturday night. Yet, finally Saturday night saw Zach already dressed, some nice dark jeans paired with a black button down shirt, and pacing in the kitchen where Zoe was trying to work an hour ahead of schedule.
“Zach, you’re driving me nuts pacing like that.” Zoe put her arm out just in time to block Zach as he was walking by.
“Sorry,” Zach muttered and decided to start a cake to ease his mind.
“What’s got you so nervous, anyway?” Zoe asked, and as she looked at him, understanding seemed to dawn on her. “You’re dressed up! You have a date!”
“Yep,” Zach replied, rolling up the sleeves on his button-down.
“With who?” Zoe sounded accusatory. After all, she was usually the first one to hear about these things.
“Chris, actually.”
“Chris?”
“Yeah. The other day we realized that everything was pretty much a huge misunderstanding. So we talked and figured everything out.”
“When was this? I had strict orders for everyone to keep him away from you!”
“It was just the other night while Anton and I were running the shop-”
“Anton.” Zoe scowled and looked toward the front of the shop.
“It’s ok,” Zach went over and patted Zoe’s shoulder, “everything’s ok now.”
“That might be true, but I’m still gonna kick Anton’s ass.”
“What about Anton’s ass?” Karl came strolling down the stairs, just hearing the end of Zoe’s sentence.
“Anton shirked his duty. But I guess it’s all ok, cause Zach and Chris are going on a date tonight,” Zoe said, still sounding a little bitter, and Karl nodded.
“Yeah, Anton mentioned that this morning.”
“What?! He didn’t tell me, that little brat.” Zoe had apparently had enough, because she got up and marched purposefully toward the front of the shop. A moment later, they heard Zoe’s raised voice.
“Poor kid,” Karl said and Zach nodded. Karl then turned his attention to Zach, “So, you have a date tonight?”
“Yeah. We worked things out, so we’re going to dinner.”
“Good. Zach, I’m really glad. Anyone can tell he likes you a ton.”
“Apparently everyone but me.”
“It doesn’t matter, does it? You’re both happy now, right?” Karl smiled. He was being unusually good-natured and wise at the moment and it was starting to freak Zach out. Just then, Zoe’s voice rose even higher and there was a crash in the front. Karl frowned and walked toward the door, shouting, “Whatever you just broke, I’m taking triple out of your salary! Plus tax!”
Zach laughed to himself as he went to switch on the radio and continued mixing his cake batter. The station was playing some pop song that Zach had never heard before, but it soon had him humming along and swaying as he mixed. About halfway through, he knew the lyrics to the chorus and was singing along until he was full out dancing and singing. He couldn’t help it, pop songs were damn catchy.
He just finished singing along with the last part of the song when he heard someone applauding behind him. Zach whipped around and saw Chris standing in the doorway, dressed in a pair of good jeans and a nice grey sweater.
“You’ve got a pretty decent voice, you know?” Chris said, stepping into the room further, and Zach blushed and turned back around, grabbing a pan and pouring the batter inside.
“Don’t lie. Zoe says my voice is even worse than that guy on American Idol who sang Lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground.”
“That guy was hilarious, though!”
“No, Chris, he really wasn’t.” Zach tried to keep a straight face at the look of pure glee on Chris’ face, but wasn’t really successful.
“Ah, well. You definitely dance better than him, anyways.” Chris smiled and leaned against the counter as Zach shoved the cake into the oven before running out front to tell Zoe to make sure to take it out of the oven when the timer went off.
“Ready?” Zach asked.
~*~
The evening went well. They walked to a nice, but casual, restaurant nearby and were joking and talking almost constantly as they ate and drank a bottle of wine until Zach felt tingly and warm.
“Do you want to go somewhere? See a movie or something?” Chris asked and Zach nodded.
“You know, I never really got to watch Valley Girl that one time in your trailer since I fell asleep…”
“I like the way you think, Quinto,” Chris grinned.
“My place isn’t too far from here and there’s a video store right nearby.”
Within twenty minutes Zach was unlocking his apartment door, his stomach turning in anticipation with Chris standing so close that Zach could catch whiffs of his cologne. His apartment never really quite felt like home and he almost never spent the night in it, but it was clean and spacious and equipped for movie watching, so there they were.
Zach let Chris in and watched as he strolled through the living room and kitchen. After he had walked around a bit and taken everything in, Chris came back, slowly stepping up to Zach until he was less than a foot away. Zach, feeling shy with his stomach fluttering, let his gaze drift away from Chris, glancing back up at Chris’ face as he silently took the movie from Zach’s hand. Chris leaned forward, bringing his lips close, but not close enough, before pulling away and leaving Zach feeling as though all his blood was rushing to his head.
Chris went over to the T.V. and put the DVD in before motioning toward the sofa. Zach nodded and went to sit down with him. Chris sat close, but not too close and the movie was half over by the time Zach realized he had no clue what was going on in it because he had been so concentrated on Chris sitting next to him, close, but not close enough. His whole body seemed hyper-aware of Chris and any little motion he made.
Just about then, Chris caught him looking and smiled almost bashfully before turning back to the movie. Zach looked at the screen then, trying to concentrate, when Chris took his hand, still staring at the screen. And that seemed to be all that Zach needed. Something inside him switched and he found himself shifting until he was closer, until he was face to face with Chris, until he was kissing Chris gently.
Chris sighed into the kiss and that spurred Zach on even more. He nudged Chris until he got the point and shifted his body to face him so that Zach could straddle his legs. He leaned into Chris, into the kiss, until Chris deepened it, swiping his tongue against Zach’s as he grasped Zach’s thighs and pulled him up to his lap. Zach gasped at the contact and moaned when Chris ran his hands up Zach’s thighs to his torso, teasingly running his fingers underneath Zach’s shirt.
Zach was getting hard quickly as Chris moved onto his neck, sucking and licking the spot just below his ear. Just as he let out a small moan, Chris chuckled against his skin. Zach was already breathing heavily, but he shifted his hips until he was right on top of Chris and could feel him, hard, against himself. He moved experimentally, rolling his hips just slightly and felt Chris shiver and then start biting and sucking at his collarbone, pulling his shirt collar aside to reach.
Zach rolled his hips again, more deliberately this time, grinding himself against Chris and was rewarded with a low moan.
“You’re going to miss the movie,” Chris said thickly, “Again.”
“I know. I think it’s maybe worth it.” Zach shifted to a new angle, grinding his hips down. “Don’t you?”
“Fuck, yes.” Chris groaned and then skirted his hands beneath Zach’s shirt before deciding to just unbutton it and push it off Zach’s shoulders. Zach lifted Chris’ sweater over his head before leaning forward, forcing Chris to lay back and then climbing on top of him. He slotted his hips, leaning with one leg between Chris’. Zach stared at Chris, breathing heavily, his bare chest rising and falling irregularly. He swiped a thumb over one of Chris’ nipples, feeling it go taut as he did so, and then leaned down and sucked it into his mouth. As he licked and sucked, he rolled the other nipple between his fingers and Chris moaned and squirmed below him, bucking his hips up into Zach.
Chris reached between them and began to unbuckle Zach’s belt. Zach impatiently shimmied off his pants and boxers before going to work on Chris’, helping him shuck them off. Chris pushed Zach back, falling on top of him, holding him down as he kissed his neck, trailing down slowly, so slowly, to his chest and then to his stomach.
Chris stopped, hovering over Zach’s cock and looked up toward Zach, who whimpered softly. Chris smiled before lowering his head and mouthing Zach’s cock. Zach gasped and bucked up into Chris’ mouth, starting to apologize, but before the word “sorry” fully left his mouth, Chris bit lightly at Zach, making him groan. Chris lifted his head, kissing Zach as he wrapped his hand around his cock, stroking up and down until Zach couldn’t take it anymore. He pushed Chris’s hands away before quickly lining their bodies up so that he could fit both of their cocks together in his hand and started stroking and rolling his hips. Chris groaned and let his head fall onto Zach’s shoulder.
Pretty soon, Zach could feel that familiar sensation in the pit of his stomach building and could tell Chris felt the same by his ragged breathes and jerking hips. Zach renewed his enthusiasm and rhythm, determined to watch Chris fall apart, to hear what he sounded like. He didn’t have to wait long before Chris came, moaning, letting himself momentarily fall forward into Zach before bringing his own hand into the mix and pumping Zach until he came. They both fell into the sofa, limbs shifting and nudging until they found a comfortable position.
“One day we’ll finish this movie, I swear.” Chris said, looking at the paused screen.
“One day,” Zach agreed.
“And maybe one day you can teach me how to make a cake.” Chris hummed pleasantly against the skin of Zach’s chest.
“Maybe. If you promise not to ruin it,” Zach mumbled and then chuckled as Chris made an indignant noise.
They were both quiet for a bit and Zach reveled in the moment. Took the time to categorize the weight and feel of Chris’ body half on top of his. The slight scent of cologne under sweat and cum and the tickle of Chris’ breathe as he inhaled and exhaled on Zach’s chest. The feeling he had of overwhelming happiness and warmth that he had never really felt with anyone except for Zoe, Karl, and occasionally Anton.
“Hey Chris?” Zach said quietly, but Chris didn’t answer. He was already asleep. “Never mind, you sleep. I’ll tell you some other time,” he said quietly.
Zach smiled to himself in the darkness, realizing this was the first time in months he was spending the night in his own apartment.
The next week on set, Zach barely had a moment to himself. Chris was constantly ignoring his makeup calls, much to the staff’s annoyance. Instead, he seemed plastered to Zach’s side. More than once Zach had barely saved a tray of brownies from being smashed in his own face as he practically ran into Chris who was standing directly behind him. And more than once he was pushed into a costume closet and kissed senseless. In fact, that was where Zach was at the moment. One of Chris’ hands was pressed against the wall near Zach’s head, as the other was preoccupied with the belt loops on Zach’s jeans.
“Aren’t you supposed to be, you know, working right now?” Zach asked as Chris trailed his lips across Zach’s jaw.
“Probably.”
“You don’t seem at all upset about missing work.”
“That’s because I much prefer your company to my future career.” Chris’ hand dipped underneath Zach’s shirt, making Zach shiver slightly as Chris went back to kissing him.
“You’re going to get fired. If you get fired, we won’t be able to do this anymore, you know.”
“It doesn’t matter if I get fired.”
“Really? Cause if my cash inflow was suddenly cut off, I think it’d matter to me.”
“No, I mean,” Chris paused, leaned back a little so that he could see Zach’s face without crossing his eyes, “obviously it’d matter, but…it might not.”
Zach laughed, “You’re not making any sense at all.”
“Ok, so maybe it doesn’t make sense to you right now. I’ll probably be able to clarify later this afternoon.” Chris leaned into Zach, again.
“Is something happening? Should I be worried or anything?” Zach asked, ducking out of Chris’ reach.
“No, everything’s fine. I just don’t want to jinx myself or anything.” Zach nodded. He could understand that Chris didn’t want to jinx himself on anything. It seemed like something in Chris’ life was about to shift and Chris was worried about it. First he had auditioned for that movie role, and then just a couple weeks ago, the day after they had coffee together, he’d had what he said was an important meeting with his manager. Now he was being careful about not jinxing himself. “So, let’s get back to what we were doing before you started freaking out about my job, shall we?”
Chris tightened his grip on Zach’s belt loops and pulled Zach flush against him. Zach groaned, feeling every inch of Chris against him and was just leaning forward to kiss him when the closet door opened and Chris and Zach both jumped away from each other.
“Do you guys always have to be doing this, now? There is such a thing as a bedroom and a bed and locked doors. Use them,” Karl snarled as he slammed the door behind him.
Zach chuckled as Chris let his head fall to Zach’s shoulder, laughing, but jolted upright again when the door reopened.
“And I in no way mean that you should do this anywhere in my apartment, shop, or storefront. I mean it, Zach. I will know if you do,” Karl said dangerously and Zach somehow believed him. “Also, They’ve been looking for Chris out there for 20 minutes.”
When Karl left the second time, Chris erupted into laughter. “Do you think he’ll set up video cameras around the shop to make sure we don’t do anything there?”
“Honestly? I wouldn’t put it past him,” Zach said, pushing Chris toward the door. “You need to go not get fired now.”
“Fiiiine,” Chris drew the word out as he finally let Zach push him.
~*~
Later that afternoon, Zach was sitting at the catering table, waiting for the lunch crowd to come in. Zoe and Karl were back at the shop, preparing a catering order for later that night, leaving Zach alone. He’d gotten used to these kinds of afternoons alone. It was kind of nice to have reign over the table, and since the set staffers were mostly nice and patient, he normally didn’t have a problem handling the rush by himself. Today seemed to be an exception, however. After the first few early people, who included Chris who had come in early to make plans to hang out later that night, it got to be much busier. Zach had an actual line and was trying to get people through it as quickly as he could. It was working fairly well, though he’d gotten to know many of the set hands and would chat amiably as he served them.
“The service gets slower and slower each day.” Zach heard Justin’s voice travel from his spot just down the line. He tried to concentrate on spooning out the shrimp and chicken dumpling splashed with sriracha and sesame soy sauce to the woman in front of him who smiled apologetically for Justin’s rudeness. Zach looked up to meet Justin’s gaze, holding it even as Justin opened his mouth to say his next insult. “The food isn’t even that good.”
As Zach tried harder to block Justin from his mind, he noticed Chris across the room. His frame was rigid as he stared toward Justin. Zach could feel the situation escalating as the tension in the room heightened. The set hands around Justin began to shrink away from him, a couple even got out of line, but no one spoke up.
As Justin neared the front of the line, Zach saw Chris rise. Zach tried to remain neutral as Justin stepped right in front of him and smirked as he nodded toward the food. “If I called a food inspector, would this shit even pass?”
“Justin, c’mon,” a redheaded man that Zach had seen talking to Zoe countless times said, annoyed. Zach was thankful, just those two words seemed to boost him up a little.
“Would you like dumplings or the pad thai?” Zach asked calmly.
“I’d like you to wear a hairnet,” Justin sneered. “While you’re at it, how about you make some food that’s actually edible. I should really talk to whoever was stupid enough to hire you and make sure you never get another job in town.”
Zach looked down at the food, blushing and shaking from anger at the insults, but not wanting to say anything. What if Justin could actually get Urban’s Catering fired? What if he could ruin Karl’s spotless reputation in one phone call? Zach hated letting someone taunt him and insult him, but he couldn’t stand the thought of letting Karl down.
“Our pad thai is vegetarian, so if you don’t eat meat, it’s a good option. Would you like to try a sample?” Zach said, completely swallowing his pride.
“Did you not hear me or are you just a stupid? I said I want you fired. You seem pretty useless but maybe, just maybe, you’ll be good enough for some fast food place.”
Zach breathed in, ignoring the gasps of surprise and murmuring after Justin’s comment, trying hard to control his anger, but the next thing he knew, Chris was tapping on Justin’s shoulder, his face contorted in anger.
“How about you move along, Justin,” Chris bit out the words.
“I haven’t gotten my lunch, yet, Pine.” Justin smiled, clearly amused at how upset Chris was. “I was just telling the help here that they should-”
“Don’t you fucking call them ‘help’ or I swear-”
“You swear what, exactly?” Justin interrupted, narrowing his eyes and Chris just stared at him for a moment, a confused look on his face.
“Why do you think you can treat people like this, anyway? What makes you think you’re so much better than someone else? What makes you think that any one of these people in line deserves to be spoken to like this. Why do you have this stupid personal vendetta against Zach? He’s never done anything and you’re such an asshole to him,” Chris said, looking honestly astonished and perplexed.
“What do you care, Pine. Just go back to your little role here and keep your head down. Maybe you’ll amount to something one day.”
“See? My point, right there! You think everyone’s so beneath you, that you’re some big shot actor. It’s sad, because the reality?” Chris leaned against the table, smiling slightly as he ran a hand through his short hair, “The sad reality is that you’re just some jerk on a crappy television show.”
“Chris-” Zach said quietly as a warning. Justin’s face was red with anger as he took an intimidating step closer to Chris. Zach held his breath, feeling like maybe he should go grab one of the set security guards to break this thing up before it got out of hand.
“Really, Pine? You’re on the same ‘low-grade’ show.”
Chris chuckled, stood up straight and took a step closer until he was almost nose-to-nose with Justin. “Not anymore. Just turned in my resignation before lunch. I got an offer for a couple movies.” Chris turned his head to Zach quickly, “I was gonna tell you the news tonight.”
“That’s great, Chris!” Zach smiled, feeling a rush of happy and warmth towards Chris.
“So, you get a role in what’s probably going to be a shit movie and suddenly you’re a big shot?”
“No, you still don’t get it. I’m just a normal person with a job. I’m nice to people and that’s why they like me. I’m saying that you should really try being nicer, stop being an asshole to every person you meet.”
Zach looked at everyone standing around them. They stood silently, some of them staring at Chris, looking thankful. Some looking on smugly at Justin, clearly happy he’d been cut down to size. Then Zach’s gaze landed on Justin himself who stood pale in front of everyone. Zach actually felt bad for him.
“Alright, who hasn’t gotten their lunch, yet?” Zach asked timidly, trying to move things along. Sure enough, everyone seemed to snap out of it and Zach started moving through the line again as Chris took Justin aside.
~*~
Hours later, back at the shop, Zach was manning the front of the café, making a peppermint mocha for a customer, when Chris came in from the back.
“Hey, you’re up here for once! I thought Karl basically had you chained in the back and forced you to make an endless supply of cupcakes.”
“That’s not too far from the truth, actually,” Zach smiled, “anyway, Anton’s supposed to get here soon so I can work on a new recipe.”
“Oh? And you’ll need taste-testers for this new experimental sweet, won’t you?”
“I guess that could be a perk of having you around. You can be the one to taste everything so I won’t get fat.” Zach nodded knowledgably.
“Hey, it’d totally help me out if I ever needed to gain weight for a role,” Chris chuckled.
“Yep. And wouldn’t that be awesome advertising. I can see it on our storefront right now… Your chubby face plastered all over so that people would come to the café that helped Chris Pine get fat.”
“Shut up. It’s an awesome idea. Karl would totally be behind it.”
“I’d be behind what?” Karl asked as he and Zoe came up behind Chris suddenly, causing Chris to spin around hurriedly.
“Ah, nothing. Zach and I are just joking around.”
Karl narrowed his eyes. “Well, joke around with you out from behind the counter. People are gonna start to think you work here.”
“I practically do,” Chris muttered, but obeyed Karl.
“Yeah, you’re even in our opening day photo,” Zoe piped in, pointing toward a big-framed newspaper article behind Zach.
“What? When did that get put up?” Zach asked as he and Chris both moved toward it, astounded.
“Zach. It’s been there since the first week we opened,” Zoe said, her eyebrows rose into her hairline.
“You really aren’t up in the storefront very often, are you?” Chris laughed.
“Apparently less than I originally thought,” Zach said. He and Chris were standing close together, bumping shoulders to look at the newspaper. The heading read simply, “New Urban’s Café Opens.” Zach read the article quickly, impressed by the fact that the reporter hadn’t made Chris the sole focus. Though she definitely mentioned him and his works, she made sure to highlight Karl, Zach, and Zoe and the catering business they ran.
And then Zach looked at the photos. Most of them were of the storefront, one of a line of customers with Anton smiling at the customer directly in front of him, but the last one was by far Zach’s favorite. It was the group photo they’d taken directly after Chris and he had the flour fight. Anton, Zoe, and Karl all looked normal, smiling and holding various baked goods. It was Zach and Chris in the middle of everyone else, Zach in the middle of smashing a cupcake into Chris’ face, his smile wide as Chris’ hands were mid-way to his face.
“This is amazing,” Chris said and Zoe pointed to the wall behind the glass cases where all the baked goods were. Chris and Zach made their way over to find a couple more framed photos that looked to be from the same day.
“The reporter sent these over after the article came out. She thought we might like them,” Zoe explained. Zach glanced at each of them, but his eyes settled on the one that must’ve come directly after the shot used for the article. In the photo, everyone was looking toward Zach and Chris with varying degrees of amusement written on their faces. Chris had wiped off some of the cupcake and was looking at Zach as though he was the best thing in the world. And Zach was looking back, a similar expression on his face.
Chris watched him for a moment longer, a smile curling his lips, and Zach stopped, looked away to keep his mind steady. Chris was looking at him with a softness in his eyes, like he was sharing a secret with Zach and Zach, all at once, felt the gaze Chris placed upon him to be private and warm. Chris nudged Zach’s shoulder and Zach looked over, already smiling.
“It’s a really good picture,” Chris said as he softly took Zach’s hand at his side.
“It is,” Zach agreed.