[Fic] Bradley/Colin - Am I still in the doghouse?
Written during my exams, which is what I'm gonna blame any and all mistakes and silliness on. I'm also feeling really sick right now :/ so no last minute checking, I'm posting this and then running to my couch XD
Title: Am I still in the doghouse? (aka: Am I still in the doghouse? [yes] [no] please tick appropriate box)
Author: slowdead
Pairing: Bradley/Colin (Merlin RPS)
Rating: R
Genre: AU - fluff
Word count: ~5.200
Disclaimer: Bradley James and Colin Morgan belong to themselves, this never happened and I wrote this without any permission. It's all just in good fun and I don't mean to offend anyone with this, I'm also not making any money by writing these works of fiction! The Cards are made by Andre Jordan and I'm not making any money by using them here. You can find the cards on his blog A beautiful revolution! Please support the artist by buying his cards online or in Urban Outfitters! :)
Summary: Sequel to If I try to kiss you. In which Colin gets sick, Bradley is still a little silly (and more than a little jealous.)
Notes: Less cards in this sequel than in the first fic but I hope you all still like it! :)
Image heavy! If there's anything wrong with the images (if you won't load or something,) just let me know! thx.
Life doesn’t really change when one suddenly finds themselves in a relationship with their roommate’s best friend - well except for the obvious things, Colin thinks.
There’s a lot more kissing and a lot more sex in Colin’s life than there’s -well- ever been. Then there’s the text messages and the cards that have changed slightly, as in they’ve turned a little more R-rated . And also surprisingly (or maybe not,) there’s the romantic streak Colin didn’t even know Bradley had.
It probably takes Colin the most time to get used to those things; the goodbye kisses and the hand holding and one night there’s even roses.
The other parts don’t really take any getting used to.
Colin opens his textbook one day in class to see a card slip out of it. It falls on the floor and the girl sitting next to him picks it up. Colin’s seen her before, she looks really friendly and gave him a pencil once, Colin remembers. She looks at the card before handing it back to Colin with a cocked eyebrow and an amused smirk.
Colin spends the rest of the class flushing all over every time she looks over, which is quite often. Colin suspects she’s noticed the effect she’s gotten on him. Maybe she’s not that nice after all.
Colin tries to get back at Bradley, (he really does,) but as his friends and family have often pointed out to him: he’s sort of missing that cruel streak which is often needed when you want to get back at friends when they pull shitty stunts on you. On top of lacking in the cruelty department Colin is actually pretty sure Bradley wouldn’t even mind him doing something stupid like tape ridiculous cards all over his door; so what would even be the point then?
And so instead Colin finds himself slipping the card he had in mind for the door-taping-prank under Bradley’s pillow right before he leaves one night.
Half an hour later Bradley is standing at his door, stupid grin on his face as he crowds Colin against the wall and kisses him. Colin figures that being the nice guy who can’t prank anyone back is finally paying off.
A couple of days later Bradley has a couple of hours to kill before his afternoon class starts. He heads over to Colin and Joe’s room with some DVDs, and the makings of an excuse to maybe get Colin out of there for some alone time.
“I’m sick.”
Bradley stares at Colin in mild horror.
Colin’s standing in the doorway in baggy sweatpants and a sweater big enough to fit two Colins. His eyes are all puffy, his nose completely red and his voice hoarse. Bradley stares down at Colin’s hand as it clutches the tissue in his hand tighter.
“What do you have?” Bradley asks, unconsciously moving back into the hallway a little.
“Just the flu or something, nothing serious.” Colin sniffs and blows his nose again.
“Is it…” Bradley scrunches his nose, “Contagious?”
“I guess.” Colin says, scratching the back of his neck. “It should be fine if you don’t stand too close though.”
Bradley -now consciously- takes another step back and bites his lip pensively.
Bradley has no experience in dealing with sick people. In fact, the only sick person he’s ever been around is himself. As an only child his mom always took care of him whenever he was sick, she always made sure he had everything he wanted (from chicken soup and video games, to the television brought up to his room.) Whenever his mom was sick she’d stay in her room and his dad would take care of her, and the other way around. Bradley figures they stayed away from him when they were sick to make sure he didn’t catch it.
You see; the other thing about Bradley is that he hates being sick and is (admittedly) probably one of the worst patients anybody could ever have. He huffs and puffs and whines and groans until everybody around is just as miserable as he is. Bradley doesn’t see why his parents should have had nice nights in front of the fireplace while he was all miserable and alone in his bedroom. So he whined and groaned and basically made a great big fuss.
Bradley can -thankfully- count the amount of times he’s been sick his whole life on two hands. (His parents are thankful for this too.)
He stares at Colin’s pale face and asks: “But you’re okay, right?”
“Yeah it’s nothing,” Colin says, shrugging, “I’m used to it, I’ll be fine.”
“Oh. Well in that case I guess I should…” Bradley says, stepping back again.
“You’re not gonna come in?”
“Well, you need your rest, right?” Bradley asks.
“All I’ve been doing today is sleeping,” Colin says, “I wouldn’t mind the company.”
His smile is so hopeful and Bradley just knows it means: please come in and watch some television with me while I cuddle up to you like I usually do. Which Bradley usually doesn’t mind (it’s not like he initiates it either, of course) but now Colin is sick and he looks a little sweaty and quite frankly not like the Colin Bradley enjoys having curled up against himself.
“I have a class later,” Bradley says, best to keep this short and somewhat truthful. With a little luck Colin won’t remember this later. A fever can do that to you, right? “I’ll text you later okay?”
The look on Colin’s face almost makes Bradley change his mind. Almost.
Colin used to be sick quite often as a kid, unlike his brother who was always the ‘strong’ one. It’s not like Colin really minded though, he learned to deal with it and just went through more tissues than the average kid. Since his parents both worked he usually ended up staying home alone when he was sick; but to a young Colin that was actually a very welcome change from the usual crowded state of their house. (He had a pretty massive extended family and they all lived less than ten minutes away, weekends in the Morgan home were -to say the least- busy.) Sick days always gave Colin the chance to catch up on some reading or watching TV.
Sometimes it gets a little lonely though; and quite boring. Colin stares at the cell phone, PSP, MP3player and books he’d put on his nightstand before he’d crawled into bed with a box of tissues the previous night. Before he can decide what to try and entertain himself with first his cell phone starts ringing.
It’s Katie.
Katie does have girlfriends but always prefers to call Colin and tell him about how horrible her date went. She always tells him it’s because he looks really adorable when he’s trying to not let her notice how bored he gets while listening to her. Colin thinks she also secretly likes the fact that he never pushes her to talk about the things she doesn’t want to.
But this time, even after his throat has gone hoarse from talking to her, Colin hopes she’ll stay on the phone just a little longer. He doesn’t feel like saying goodbye just yet.
Colin has no idea he fell asleep until he’s suddenly woken up by Katie flicking his nose.
“Wha-”
“You fell asleep, I got worried so I came over.” She explains, smiling brightly.
Colin sits up and his cell phone falls down from his shoulder in his lap.
“Baby boy,” Katie says, looking at him quite worriedly, “How long has it been since you left this room.”
“I was outside yesterday,” Colin says, “Oh wait, today is Thursday right?”
“Not quite.” Katie frowns.
Maybe those painkillers were a little stronger than he’d expected them to be. Colin guesses that’s what you should expect when you take pills from Joe. He eyes the bottle on his nightstand suspiciously.
“Why are you all alone?”
“Joe went home for the rest of the week.”
“Yeah, but where’s your boyfriend.” Katie has a strange way of saying boyfriend. It always makes Colin scrunch his nose. She says it like it’s a bad thing.
“He has a class,” Colin checks the clock, “In a couple of hours… I don’t think he wanted to stay in and hang out with the sick.”
Katie frowns and sits down next to him on the bed. “Let’s watch House MD!” she says. She gets her bag and gets her DVD box out. Colin wonders for a second if she brought them for them to watch of if she just likes walking around with it.
Colin sends a picture to Bradley’s cell phone during his afternoon class. It’s taken in Colin’s bedroom, Bradley recognizes the burgundy bedcovers.
Bradley grins down at his cell phone screen.
That’s cheating, Bradley replies, I’m gonna want that card when I come over next time. Bradley keeps all the cards Colin’s ever given him. Not that he’s ever told anyone that.
Then come over. Colin replies.
I have a test coming up. Bradley sends him. And then: I can’t study when I’m sick.
You won’t get sick.
Bradley doesn’t know what to reply so he doesn’t reply anything. He goes to Richard’s that evening after his class and ends up helping the older man with unpacking a whole bunch of boxes. Bradley wonders if Richard knows about him and Colin as he buys a card when he leaves.
For a moment he hesitates, fist raised to knock on the door. But he doesn’t. Slips the card under it and goes to his own room to study instead.
It’s funny how sometimes you don’t even realize how much time you spend with someone until suddenly you aren’t spending any time with them anymore.
Bradley sits at his desk and thinks about how he doesn’t really have any hobbies. Sure he enjoys exercise and sports, all different kinds of sports actually, but those are things you need other people for. A team, if you will. Well, you don’t need it, but Bradley definitely prefers it when other people kicking the ball back at him.
Bradley figures that he probably isn’t the only person around without any real hobbies; a lot of people (especially students) don’t even have enough time for silly things like knitting and collecting stamps and… other things that are hobbies. They still go to school after all, and studying takes up a huge chunk of one’s time. Then there are also social obligations like friends and partying. Bradley is sure that there are lots of people who just meet up with their friends for coffee, tea or hot chocolate, (whatever tickles their fancy really,) and just sit there, talking all afternoon.
Bradley can’t really imagine himself and his friends going to a coffee place and just sitting there, aimlessly talking. What does one talk about in a coffee place anyway?
Right now, however, the facts are very simple: Bradley is just sitting there, staring at that gross spot on the wall above Ben’s bed, thinking about hobbies, and he’s quite frankly bored out of his mind. He’s gone to all his classes, he’s done all his mandatory reading and he’s even had an early dinner to try and kill some time. But now that everything that needed to be done is done he has no idea how to fill the rest of this day.
His mind keeps slipping back to Colin too, it’s this annoying buzzing sensation in the back of his mind every time he thinks about watching some DVDs or reading a book.
Maybe now would be a good time to pick up drinking coffee.
And so that’s how Bradley finds himself calling Joe.
When Joe picks up he starts with: “Joseph, want to grab a cup of coffee with me?”
“When did you start drinking coffee?”
“In about half an hour if you can make it that fast.”
“I can’t, actually, I’m back home for a couple of days.” Joe says.
Bradley frowns, “What are you doing home?”
“Colin got sick, and I’d rather not get sick too since I have my big match on Saturday, and I didn’t have any important classes left ‘til the weekend so I thought: hey, why not take advantage of that.”
“Why not take advantage of Colin being sick?”
“No, of not having any more important classes...” Joe says slowly, like he often does. It’s infuriating really.
Bradley sputters, confused, infuriated by Joe’s slow-talking, or probably the realization that Joe is kind of an asshole; which in return makes Bradley one. “Who will take care of Colin then? Doesn’t he need soup?”
It’s silent for a while, when Joe answers he’s speaking even slower. “Colin will take care of himself and get soup in the cafeteria?” Then he adds: “You’ve only just now noticed that I’m not there? I left two days ago.”
Bradley stares at the phone in irritation. “Not everything is about you, Joseph.” He says, and hangs up.
Bradley and Joe used to have these old Nintendo game boys, they each got one for Christmas one year when they were kids. They used to take them everywhere and when everybody was upgrading to those Nintendo DS thingies and all that, Bradley and Joe stayed true to their original forms of entertainment. Last year, however, Bradley dropped his Game Boy down a set of stairs and it didn’t exactly survive, quite understandable. After that Joe was the only one getting weird looks from people whenever he pulled his game boy out and so eventually he just stopped taking it with him (to Bradley’s sadness.)
Bradley is sure Joe still has his Game Boy in his room somewhere. And since 1) Bradley’s bored, 2) Joe’s not even in and 3) he was a complete idiot on the phone earlier, Bradley doesn’t see any harm in going through Joe’s stuff to find it.
Plus this way he can ask Colin if he needs something. Maybe he’s run out of tissues, that’d be pretty bad.
Bradley knocks on the door very softly before poking his head inside the room. Colin’s sound asleep in his bed and so the coast is clear to quickly sneaks inside and go through Joe’s closet. Bradley stands in the middle of the room for a while, checking if Colin has enough water and tissues (which he does,) before tiptoeing to Joe’s half of the room.
Joe has a lot of junk, Bradley is vaguely appalled by the fact that he doesn’t only know what most of it is, but also where, when and how Joe got it. He also finds some of his shirts in there mixed with Joe’s, which is quite possibly even more disturbing. The little hairs on the back of Bradley’s neck stand up and he starts wondering if this was such a good idea after all.
He spots a box labeled stuff and Bradley foolishly figures that a Game Boy is indeed stuff. He should have know better. Inside the box he finds condoms and skin mags. The only thing Bradley can feel is vague relief that he did not know about these.
Bradley looks back at Colin’s sleeping form before carefully taking one of the magazines out. It’s titled Busty ladies and looks rather disgusting. Bradley is strangely intrigued.
“Bradley?” Colin’s voice croaks, “What are you doing?”
Bradley startles, badly. Not only is he sneaking around in his best friend’s closet, but he’s also looking at porn while his boyfriend’s lying in bed with the flu. He obviously starts flailing about the second he hears Colin voice, which results in him catapulting the magazine to the middle of the room.
Colin sits up groggily and looks down at the magazine, (which landed just next to his bed.)
“I was just looking for the Game Boy!” Bradley all but screams.
Colin frowns, keeps staring down at the magazine. “He took it with him.” He groans and lies back down.
“Oh,” Bradley says, staring down at the magazine for a while himself.
Bradley feels the sudden urge to start sulking.
Not only is his afternoon looking a lot duller again, Colin looks absolutely adorable all pouty and with his hair sticking up in every direction. And he can’t believe he just got caught looking at porn, his mother won’t be happy if he ends up becoming a creep in college.
Bradley coughs, trying to break the awkward silence. “How are you feeling, do you need anything?”
“I’m cold,” Colin sighs, hiking the blanket higher up his shoulders.
“Do you want Joe’s blanket?” Bradley asks, not waiting for an answer as he goes to the bed and gets the blanket, checking it for gross spots before turning back around.
“Yeah,” Colin answers, nodding.
Bradley strides half way through the room before coming to a halt. Unsure of what to do now he stands there awkwardly for another couple of minutes before throwing the blanket on Colin. He doesn’t realize how bad that must look before the blanket’s already mid-air.
As expected Colin is not amused.
“For God’s sake Bradley, it’s not leprosy, you know.”
Bradley just stands there, trying his best at an apologetic smile. Colin full on glares at him, (Bradley’s never seen him glare before and feels momentarily shaken,) before pulling the blankets over his head. Bradley tries to apologize for another couple of minutes, but it’s pretty obvious that Colin is ignoring him. Which is just really childish, Bradley thinks.
When Bradley shuts the door behind him he sees Santiago round the corner. This afternoon just keeps getting better and better.
“Hi, Bradley!” Santiago greets him merrily. “I’m here for a sick-visit.”
“Oh, yeah.” Bradley says lamely.
He thinks about telling him Colin’s not in, or that he’s sleeping or just generally too busy to have any visitors. Instead he goes for: “You do know that it’s contagious, right?”
Santiago gives him a funny look, like he’s not sure if Bradley’s joking or not (and the flu really isn’t a laughing matter, Bradley thinks.) Santiago laughs and tells him: “I think I’ll survive.”
Of course you will, Bradley thinks as he watches Santiago knock and go in the room, The only thing missing were freak anti-flu genes.
Bradley might be a little bitter, he might also hate Santiago just a little extra today.
Colin is about to start yelling at Bradley when he looks up and sees it’s actually Santiago standing in his room. He worriedly looks around to see what state it’s in. He thinks the tissues are probably excusable, the mess on his desk probably isn’t -but that’s how his desk always looks, really. Then Colin’s eyes land on the skin mag that’s still lying in the middle of the floor and he scrambles out of the bed.
“You really don’t have to get up for me.” Santiago says.
“Joe is always leaving his stuff on my half of the room.” Colin mumbles, grabbing the magazine and shoving it under Joe’s covers. He looks at Santiago worriedly, but it doesn’t seem like he noticed just what kind of magazine it was.
“Katie told Angel that you’ve been sick, so she made me bring you some stuff.”
Santiago gives him notes from the class he missed, grapes and some comic books he’s been telling Colin to read.
“I figured you wouldn’t have anything better to do than read the comics now anyway,” Santiago grins, “The grapes are from Angel.”
Colin spots a card with a little heart on it hanging from the grapes, he smiles.
Colin feels a little shy under all this attention, it’s really not that bad and Colin feels uncomfortable about people making a fuss over him and even buying him grapes.
“Thanks, that’s really nice.” Colin says, sitting down on the edge of his bed again. Santiago sits down on his desk chair and smiles again.
“Oh, no problem.” He says, “I was wondering why you hadn’t been coming to class, ‘til Angel told me of course.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure that whatever Katie told Angel was an exaggeration though.”
“Katie’s very convincing though.” Santiago laughs.
[…]
It’s not like Bradley’s proud of himself right now or anything. He just sometimes does or says things without really thinking about them. And then sometimes those things turn out really great; like that time Colin came by his room at night and Bradley kissed him and Colin kissed back.
Then other times they turn out not so great and he ends up getting slapped by Maci. Or ignored and glared at by Colin, which is probably worse than the slap.
I’m insufferable when I’m sick. Bradley texts Colin later that night, thinks about adding a sad smiley face or some sort of apology. Colin replies: Yeah ‘cause you’ve been a really dreamy healthy person lately.
Yeah. It’s not like he’s proud of himself right now.
Bradley calls Darren and they go out drinking. Darren might not be a very good friend but he makes all of that up by being the best drinking buddy around. He calls Bradley a pussy whenever he wants to stop drinking and go home, and punches him in the arm whenever he wants to call Colin. That’s really all the friendship Bradley needs right about now.
It’s three in the morning when Colin is woken up by a loud bang on the door.
The banging keeps getting worse until Colin’s steady enough on his feet to go and open the door. He finds Bradley standing in the hallway, wearing sunglasses and a tie around his head.
“What are you doing? Do you know what time it is?” Colin asks softly, rubbing his sleeve covered hand over his face for a while as he stares at Bradley.
“Colin!” Bradley says loudly, making Colin wince.
“Bradley, come inside,” Colin whispers, pulling at Bradley’s arm.
“Answer me this first!” Bradley yells again.
Oh, he’s drunk, Colin finally concludes, grogginess making his brain function just that little bit slower. After that realization something like relief and dread go through Colin’s system before it settles on embarrassment as someone across the hallways opens their door to look what the commotion’s about.
“Is he still here?!” Bradley demands. He’s raising his hand and swaying a little.
“Who?” Colin asks through clenched teeth. He’s learned a long time ago that giving a drunk Bradley what he wants really is the best solution to make him calm down. A drunk Bradley is surprisingly more persistent than a sober one.
“Sanbino.”
Colin blinks. “Santiago?”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
“He’s sleeping?” Colin replies.
This was obviously not the correct answer and Bradley screams in frustration and Colin’s cheeks flush further in embarrassment as more and more people start opening their door to see what’s going on. “I thought we had it good together.” Bradley says to him, taking his hand.
“Come inside, Bradley.” Colin tries again, pulling at Bradley’s hand.
“No! I don’t want to see him in your bed!” Bradley sputters out.
Colin is about to ask him what the hell he’s talking about when Darren comes running towards them. Colin can’t say he’s surprised that Darren had something to do with this. He can, however, say that he’s surprised by the pantsless state of him.
“Oh God,” Colin groans.
“You are,” Darren pants, “The fasted drunk I have ever seen in my life.”
“Well, you wouldn’t let me see Colin!” Bradley says.
“Because you told me not to let you.”
Bradley gasps and shoves Darren out of the way.
Colin has enough, he’s had enough since Bradley started yelling at him earlier. “You either come in,” He says as calmly as possible, “Or go away, okay Bradley? ‘Cause I’m about to pass out here, I have a fever and I can’t just-”
“I’m not going in there if he’s in there!” Bradley yells.
Colin takes that as a no and slams the door in Bradley’s face before locking it.
When Bradley wakes up the next morning it takes about two minutes for his chest to start clenching painfully and all the different ways in which he fucked up to start spinning around in his head. The only appropriate word he can think of is: fuck.
He goes by Richard’s place first and sits there, staring at the card stand dejectedly for a couple of minutes. Richard eventually takes pity on him and gives him a cup of tea. They don’t talk much, Bradley’s not really in the mood for that, and so Richard unpacks boxes and Bradley drinks his tea in silence. Before he leaves he buys a card.
He never gives it to Colin though. He just likes the irony of it.
When things go horrible wrong there are only a couple of places one can return to. And so two hours later Bradley finds himself back home, standing in the kitchen next to his mother, watching water boil.
His mother always asks the worst questions, makes him feel like he can’t even come home every now and then to make soup without having a reason anymore.
“Well is she pretty?” She’d asked when he’d refused to give her an explanation. The joke was on her though.
“He’s a boy.” Bradley had said, smug as her eyes had widened a little.
“Ah,” His mother had smiled, shaking her head as she’d taken his laundry (well, he was there now anyway, might as well get something out of it.)
When he was fifteen his mother had caught him kissing one of the neighbor’s sons. It had been a terribly traumatic experience for all parties involved at the time. His mother had always reassured him that one day they’d be looking back at that moment and laugh. His mother had long since reached that stage, Bradley still hadn’t.
“That’s too bad,” his mother had said right before leaving the kitchen, “Johnny’s been asking for you lately.”
So now his mother knows about Colin, and Bradley is quite pleased about this all, especially after he’d seen the little smile that had tugged at the corner of her lips. Bradley’s sure she’ll like Colin to pieces when he brings him over for a visit.
If Colin will ever let Bradley take him there.
Bradley will just have to make sure Colin forgives him.
And so there Bradley is, staring at the chicken boiling in an oversized pot, and just when he mother walks back in does he remember. He curses, quite lengthy, at the pot and shoves at it halfheartedly, making some of the water spill over the edge.
“What’s gotten in to you?!” His mother says, affronted more by the cursing than anything else Bradley can imagine. She comes over and hits the back of his head.
“This won’t do.” Bradley sighs, “He’s a vegetarian.”
“Oh,” his mother pulls a face, the exact same face Bradley’d pulled when he first heard. Only now he feels more than a little protective over the vegetarian in question so he gives his mother a face in return.
“Well, we could make him some nice tomato soup, honey.” His mother assures him.
“But it needs to be chicken soup.” Bradley sulks.
“Why?”
“I don’t know! That’s what you always gave me when I was sick and I just want him to get better.”
“And he’ll get better with or without the chicken, Bradley.” She looks at him like he’s a little slow. Or probably acting a little pathetic, and he guesses he is.
Bradley’s at least ten centimeter taller than his mother, but he still can’t help but feel worlds better whenever she puts her hand on his head and ruffles his hair. She gives him a warm smile. “You turned out all right, Bradley James, you know that?” She asks, pulling him in for a hug.
“Surprising, isn’t it?” He asks, putting his arms around her.
“Oi.” She says, swatting the back of his head again, “Now let’s get out those veggies shall we?”
Colin wakes up that afternoon with a snoring Bradley pressed up against his back and a pot of soup on his nightstand. A piece of tape is holding up a card. Colin looks back at Bradley and can’t help but smile softly, he hadn’t been expecting this after last night.
Homemade soup (by me), 100% vegetarian it says on the back, and also: Sorry. You can yell at me later.
Colin turns around in Bradley’s embrace and kisses his forehead.
Bradley scrunches his nose and screws his eyes shut even tighter. He tries to deny that he’s awake for a couple of moments longer until he finally asks: “Are you gonna yell?” His voice thick with sleep.
Colin stays silent for a little while, pretends to think about it. “Not if you’ll heat me up some of that soup.”
Bradley slowly opens his eyes and smiles tentatively. “Hi,” He says.
Colin lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.
30 minutes later they’re sitting in Colin’s bed, eating soup.
“You’re so grumpy when you’re sick.” Bradley breaks the silence.
“You’re an asshole when I’m sick.” Colin counters.
Bradley takes Colin’s hand in his and squeezes it.
Bradley takes another sip before saying: “Well, you kicked me out of your room. Twice.”
“You treated me like I had the plague.”
“You glared at me.” Bradley says, “I didn’t even know you could glare.”
Colin’s mouth falls open. “Well, you got drunk and started yelling at one of my neighbors in the middle of the night.”
“That wasn’t because you were sick.” Bradley protests. He doesn’t realize that wasn’t actually a confession he had meant to make until Colin asks: “Then what was that all about?”
“I... No, now I remember, I did get drunk ‘cause I was upset that you were sick. Yeah.” Bradley says slowly.
Colin grins at him, that I don’t believe a word you’re saying but I still think you’re cute grin. Bradley quite likes that grin, except for the not-believing part.
“Tell me.” Colin says.
Bradley thinks about running, but Colin is looking right in his eyes and he’s all warm and comfortable for the first time since Colin got sick. And Bradley has a way with words, he can talk himself out of this for sure.
“I was mad,” Bradley starts, “Because that Santiago guy was here, again, and he’d brought you fruit and I hadn’t gotten you anything yet and he was basically making me look all bad with his stuff and his hair. And then Darren took me out drinking and got all: If that Julio guy would be hitting on my girlfriend when she was all weak and vulnerable I’d bash his head in. And so I told him: It’s not Julio, it’s Sanbino. Uhm, I was already quite drunk by then. And then I told him: Rebecca wouldn’t fall for his charms that easily. ‘Cause you see, I didn’t tell him that I’m dating you, I told him I was dating this girl name Rebecca because I’m pretty sure Darren would need time to get used to me dating a guy and I really needed to go drinking with him that night.”
Bradley knows he’s rambling, and the fact that Colin hasn’t interrupted him yet isn’t such a good sign. He bites his bottom lip and tries to decipher Colin’s look. He looks a little amused. “Rebecca doesn’t exist.” He clarifies. “She’s you. You’re the only one for me.”
“That’s…” Colin starts, “Strange.” He blinks. “So, you’re jealous of Santiago?”
“What? No. Darren said he would be, though I don’t know why! Sure Santiago is really good looking, and you and him get on like a house on fire, and you have all these shared interests like art. And he came to visit you when I was being an asshole and staying away.”
“And he brought me fruit.” Colin adds.
“Yeah.” Bradley says.
“But you’re not jealous.” Colin repeats.
“No, obviously not.”
“Well, if you were, which you’re not.” Colin tells him, “I’d tell you not to worry because Santiago has a girlfriend he’s madly in love with, and we’re just really good mates. I’m already pretty crazy about you.”
Bradley smiles. “That’s pretty good, you should save that speech for when I get jealous later on in life. Though chances of that happening are small.”
Bradley grins and Colin grins back. Bradley kisses his way up Colin’s neck before finding his lips. Colin hums in his mouth and clutches at his hand.
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Title: Am I still in the doghouse? (aka: Am I still in the doghouse? [yes] [no] please tick appropriate box)
Author: slowdead
Pairing: Bradley/Colin (Merlin RPS)
Rating: R
Genre: AU - fluff
Word count: ~5.200
Disclaimer: Bradley James and Colin Morgan belong to themselves, this never happened and I wrote this without any permission. It's all just in good fun and I don't mean to offend anyone with this, I'm also not making any money by writing these works of fiction! The Cards are made by Andre Jordan and I'm not making any money by using them here. You can find the cards on his blog A beautiful revolution! Please support the artist by buying his cards online or in Urban Outfitters! :)
Summary: Sequel to If I try to kiss you. In which Colin gets sick, Bradley is still a little silly (and more than a little jealous.)
Notes: Less cards in this sequel than in the first fic but I hope you all still like it! :)
Image heavy! If there's anything wrong with the images (if you won't load or something,) just let me know! thx.
Life doesn’t really change when one suddenly finds themselves in a relationship with their roommate’s best friend - well except for the obvious things, Colin thinks.
There’s a lot more kissing and a lot more sex in Colin’s life than there’s -well- ever been. Then there’s the text messages and the cards that have changed slightly, as in they’ve turned a little more R-rated . And also surprisingly (or maybe not,) there’s the romantic streak Colin didn’t even know Bradley had.
It probably takes Colin the most time to get used to those things; the goodbye kisses and the hand holding and one night there’s even roses.
The other parts don’t really take any getting used to.
Colin opens his textbook one day in class to see a card slip out of it. It falls on the floor and the girl sitting next to him picks it up. Colin’s seen her before, she looks really friendly and gave him a pencil once, Colin remembers. She looks at the card before handing it back to Colin with a cocked eyebrow and an amused smirk.
Colin spends the rest of the class flushing all over every time she looks over, which is quite often. Colin suspects she’s noticed the effect she’s gotten on him. Maybe she’s not that nice after all.
Colin tries to get back at Bradley, (he really does,) but as his friends and family have often pointed out to him: he’s sort of missing that cruel streak which is often needed when you want to get back at friends when they pull shitty stunts on you. On top of lacking in the cruelty department Colin is actually pretty sure Bradley wouldn’t even mind him doing something stupid like tape ridiculous cards all over his door; so what would even be the point then?
And so instead Colin finds himself slipping the card he had in mind for the door-taping-prank under Bradley’s pillow right before he leaves one night.
Half an hour later Bradley is standing at his door, stupid grin on his face as he crowds Colin against the wall and kisses him. Colin figures that being the nice guy who can’t prank anyone back is finally paying off.
A couple of days later Bradley has a couple of hours to kill before his afternoon class starts. He heads over to Colin and Joe’s room with some DVDs, and the makings of an excuse to maybe get Colin out of there for some alone time.
“I’m sick.”
Bradley stares at Colin in mild horror.
Colin’s standing in the doorway in baggy sweatpants and a sweater big enough to fit two Colins. His eyes are all puffy, his nose completely red and his voice hoarse. Bradley stares down at Colin’s hand as it clutches the tissue in his hand tighter.
“What do you have?” Bradley asks, unconsciously moving back into the hallway a little.
“Just the flu or something, nothing serious.” Colin sniffs and blows his nose again.
“Is it…” Bradley scrunches his nose, “Contagious?”
“I guess.” Colin says, scratching the back of his neck. “It should be fine if you don’t stand too close though.”
Bradley -now consciously- takes another step back and bites his lip pensively.
Bradley has no experience in dealing with sick people. In fact, the only sick person he’s ever been around is himself. As an only child his mom always took care of him whenever he was sick, she always made sure he had everything he wanted (from chicken soup and video games, to the television brought up to his room.) Whenever his mom was sick she’d stay in her room and his dad would take care of her, and the other way around. Bradley figures they stayed away from him when they were sick to make sure he didn’t catch it.
You see; the other thing about Bradley is that he hates being sick and is (admittedly) probably one of the worst patients anybody could ever have. He huffs and puffs and whines and groans until everybody around is just as miserable as he is. Bradley doesn’t see why his parents should have had nice nights in front of the fireplace while he was all miserable and alone in his bedroom. So he whined and groaned and basically made a great big fuss.
Bradley can -thankfully- count the amount of times he’s been sick his whole life on two hands. (His parents are thankful for this too.)
He stares at Colin’s pale face and asks: “But you’re okay, right?”
“Yeah it’s nothing,” Colin says, shrugging, “I’m used to it, I’ll be fine.”
“Oh. Well in that case I guess I should…” Bradley says, stepping back again.
“You’re not gonna come in?”
“Well, you need your rest, right?” Bradley asks.
“All I’ve been doing today is sleeping,” Colin says, “I wouldn’t mind the company.”
His smile is so hopeful and Bradley just knows it means: please come in and watch some television with me while I cuddle up to you like I usually do. Which Bradley usually doesn’t mind (it’s not like he initiates it either, of course) but now Colin is sick and he looks a little sweaty and quite frankly not like the Colin Bradley enjoys having curled up against himself.
“I have a class later,” Bradley says, best to keep this short and somewhat truthful. With a little luck Colin won’t remember this later. A fever can do that to you, right? “I’ll text you later okay?”
The look on Colin’s face almost makes Bradley change his mind. Almost.
Colin used to be sick quite often as a kid, unlike his brother who was always the ‘strong’ one. It’s not like Colin really minded though, he learned to deal with it and just went through more tissues than the average kid. Since his parents both worked he usually ended up staying home alone when he was sick; but to a young Colin that was actually a very welcome change from the usual crowded state of their house. (He had a pretty massive extended family and they all lived less than ten minutes away, weekends in the Morgan home were -to say the least- busy.) Sick days always gave Colin the chance to catch up on some reading or watching TV.
Sometimes it gets a little lonely though; and quite boring. Colin stares at the cell phone, PSP, MP3player and books he’d put on his nightstand before he’d crawled into bed with a box of tissues the previous night. Before he can decide what to try and entertain himself with first his cell phone starts ringing.
It’s Katie.
Katie does have girlfriends but always prefers to call Colin and tell him about how horrible her date went. She always tells him it’s because he looks really adorable when he’s trying to not let her notice how bored he gets while listening to her. Colin thinks she also secretly likes the fact that he never pushes her to talk about the things she doesn’t want to.
But this time, even after his throat has gone hoarse from talking to her, Colin hopes she’ll stay on the phone just a little longer. He doesn’t feel like saying goodbye just yet.
Colin has no idea he fell asleep until he’s suddenly woken up by Katie flicking his nose.
“Wha-”
“You fell asleep, I got worried so I came over.” She explains, smiling brightly.
Colin sits up and his cell phone falls down from his shoulder in his lap.
“Baby boy,” Katie says, looking at him quite worriedly, “How long has it been since you left this room.”
“I was outside yesterday,” Colin says, “Oh wait, today is Thursday right?”
“Not quite.” Katie frowns.
Maybe those painkillers were a little stronger than he’d expected them to be. Colin guesses that’s what you should expect when you take pills from Joe. He eyes the bottle on his nightstand suspiciously.
“Why are you all alone?”
“Joe went home for the rest of the week.”
“Yeah, but where’s your boyfriend.” Katie has a strange way of saying boyfriend. It always makes Colin scrunch his nose. She says it like it’s a bad thing.
“He has a class,” Colin checks the clock, “In a couple of hours… I don’t think he wanted to stay in and hang out with the sick.”
Katie frowns and sits down next to him on the bed. “Let’s watch House MD!” she says. She gets her bag and gets her DVD box out. Colin wonders for a second if she brought them for them to watch of if she just likes walking around with it.
Colin sends a picture to Bradley’s cell phone during his afternoon class. It’s taken in Colin’s bedroom, Bradley recognizes the burgundy bedcovers.
Bradley grins down at his cell phone screen.
That’s cheating, Bradley replies, I’m gonna want that card when I come over next time. Bradley keeps all the cards Colin’s ever given him. Not that he’s ever told anyone that.
Then come over. Colin replies.
I have a test coming up. Bradley sends him. And then: I can’t study when I’m sick.
You won’t get sick.
Bradley doesn’t know what to reply so he doesn’t reply anything. He goes to Richard’s that evening after his class and ends up helping the older man with unpacking a whole bunch of boxes. Bradley wonders if Richard knows about him and Colin as he buys a card when he leaves.
For a moment he hesitates, fist raised to knock on the door. But he doesn’t. Slips the card under it and goes to his own room to study instead.
It’s funny how sometimes you don’t even realize how much time you spend with someone until suddenly you aren’t spending any time with them anymore.
Bradley sits at his desk and thinks about how he doesn’t really have any hobbies. Sure he enjoys exercise and sports, all different kinds of sports actually, but those are things you need other people for. A team, if you will. Well, you don’t need it, but Bradley definitely prefers it when other people kicking the ball back at him.
Bradley figures that he probably isn’t the only person around without any real hobbies; a lot of people (especially students) don’t even have enough time for silly things like knitting and collecting stamps and… other things that are hobbies. They still go to school after all, and studying takes up a huge chunk of one’s time. Then there are also social obligations like friends and partying. Bradley is sure that there are lots of people who just meet up with their friends for coffee, tea or hot chocolate, (whatever tickles their fancy really,) and just sit there, talking all afternoon.
Bradley can’t really imagine himself and his friends going to a coffee place and just sitting there, aimlessly talking. What does one talk about in a coffee place anyway?
Right now, however, the facts are very simple: Bradley is just sitting there, staring at that gross spot on the wall above Ben’s bed, thinking about hobbies, and he’s quite frankly bored out of his mind. He’s gone to all his classes, he’s done all his mandatory reading and he’s even had an early dinner to try and kill some time. But now that everything that needed to be done is done he has no idea how to fill the rest of this day.
His mind keeps slipping back to Colin too, it’s this annoying buzzing sensation in the back of his mind every time he thinks about watching some DVDs or reading a book.
Maybe now would be a good time to pick up drinking coffee.
And so that’s how Bradley finds himself calling Joe.
When Joe picks up he starts with: “Joseph, want to grab a cup of coffee with me?”
“When did you start drinking coffee?”
“In about half an hour if you can make it that fast.”
“I can’t, actually, I’m back home for a couple of days.” Joe says.
Bradley frowns, “What are you doing home?”
“Colin got sick, and I’d rather not get sick too since I have my big match on Saturday, and I didn’t have any important classes left ‘til the weekend so I thought: hey, why not take advantage of that.”
“Why not take advantage of Colin being sick?”
“No, of not having any more important classes...” Joe says slowly, like he often does. It’s infuriating really.
Bradley sputters, confused, infuriated by Joe’s slow-talking, or probably the realization that Joe is kind of an asshole; which in return makes Bradley one. “Who will take care of Colin then? Doesn’t he need soup?”
It’s silent for a while, when Joe answers he’s speaking even slower. “Colin will take care of himself and get soup in the cafeteria?” Then he adds: “You’ve only just now noticed that I’m not there? I left two days ago.”
Bradley stares at the phone in irritation. “Not everything is about you, Joseph.” He says, and hangs up.
Bradley and Joe used to have these old Nintendo game boys, they each got one for Christmas one year when they were kids. They used to take them everywhere and when everybody was upgrading to those Nintendo DS thingies and all that, Bradley and Joe stayed true to their original forms of entertainment. Last year, however, Bradley dropped his Game Boy down a set of stairs and it didn’t exactly survive, quite understandable. After that Joe was the only one getting weird looks from people whenever he pulled his game boy out and so eventually he just stopped taking it with him (to Bradley’s sadness.)
Bradley is sure Joe still has his Game Boy in his room somewhere. And since 1) Bradley’s bored, 2) Joe’s not even in and 3) he was a complete idiot on the phone earlier, Bradley doesn’t see any harm in going through Joe’s stuff to find it.
Plus this way he can ask Colin if he needs something. Maybe he’s run out of tissues, that’d be pretty bad.
Bradley knocks on the door very softly before poking his head inside the room. Colin’s sound asleep in his bed and so the coast is clear to quickly sneaks inside and go through Joe’s closet. Bradley stands in the middle of the room for a while, checking if Colin has enough water and tissues (which he does,) before tiptoeing to Joe’s half of the room.
Joe has a lot of junk, Bradley is vaguely appalled by the fact that he doesn’t only know what most of it is, but also where, when and how Joe got it. He also finds some of his shirts in there mixed with Joe’s, which is quite possibly even more disturbing. The little hairs on the back of Bradley’s neck stand up and he starts wondering if this was such a good idea after all.
He spots a box labeled stuff and Bradley foolishly figures that a Game Boy is indeed stuff. He should have know better. Inside the box he finds condoms and skin mags. The only thing Bradley can feel is vague relief that he did not know about these.
Bradley looks back at Colin’s sleeping form before carefully taking one of the magazines out. It’s titled Busty ladies and looks rather disgusting. Bradley is strangely intrigued.
“Bradley?” Colin’s voice croaks, “What are you doing?”
Bradley startles, badly. Not only is he sneaking around in his best friend’s closet, but he’s also looking at porn while his boyfriend’s lying in bed with the flu. He obviously starts flailing about the second he hears Colin voice, which results in him catapulting the magazine to the middle of the room.
Colin sits up groggily and looks down at the magazine, (which landed just next to his bed.)
“I was just looking for the Game Boy!” Bradley all but screams.
Colin frowns, keeps staring down at the magazine. “He took it with him.” He groans and lies back down.
“Oh,” Bradley says, staring down at the magazine for a while himself.
Bradley feels the sudden urge to start sulking.
Not only is his afternoon looking a lot duller again, Colin looks absolutely adorable all pouty and with his hair sticking up in every direction. And he can’t believe he just got caught looking at porn, his mother won’t be happy if he ends up becoming a creep in college.
Bradley coughs, trying to break the awkward silence. “How are you feeling, do you need anything?”
“I’m cold,” Colin sighs, hiking the blanket higher up his shoulders.
“Do you want Joe’s blanket?” Bradley asks, not waiting for an answer as he goes to the bed and gets the blanket, checking it for gross spots before turning back around.
“Yeah,” Colin answers, nodding.
Bradley strides half way through the room before coming to a halt. Unsure of what to do now he stands there awkwardly for another couple of minutes before throwing the blanket on Colin. He doesn’t realize how bad that must look before the blanket’s already mid-air.
As expected Colin is not amused.
“For God’s sake Bradley, it’s not leprosy, you know.”
Bradley just stands there, trying his best at an apologetic smile. Colin full on glares at him, (Bradley’s never seen him glare before and feels momentarily shaken,) before pulling the blankets over his head. Bradley tries to apologize for another couple of minutes, but it’s pretty obvious that Colin is ignoring him. Which is just really childish, Bradley thinks.
When Bradley shuts the door behind him he sees Santiago round the corner. This afternoon just keeps getting better and better.
“Hi, Bradley!” Santiago greets him merrily. “I’m here for a sick-visit.”
“Oh, yeah.” Bradley says lamely.
He thinks about telling him Colin’s not in, or that he’s sleeping or just generally too busy to have any visitors. Instead he goes for: “You do know that it’s contagious, right?”
Santiago gives him a funny look, like he’s not sure if Bradley’s joking or not (and the flu really isn’t a laughing matter, Bradley thinks.) Santiago laughs and tells him: “I think I’ll survive.”
Of course you will, Bradley thinks as he watches Santiago knock and go in the room, The only thing missing were freak anti-flu genes.
Bradley might be a little bitter, he might also hate Santiago just a little extra today.
Colin is about to start yelling at Bradley when he looks up and sees it’s actually Santiago standing in his room. He worriedly looks around to see what state it’s in. He thinks the tissues are probably excusable, the mess on his desk probably isn’t -but that’s how his desk always looks, really. Then Colin’s eyes land on the skin mag that’s still lying in the middle of the floor and he scrambles out of the bed.
“You really don’t have to get up for me.” Santiago says.
“Joe is always leaving his stuff on my half of the room.” Colin mumbles, grabbing the magazine and shoving it under Joe’s covers. He looks at Santiago worriedly, but it doesn’t seem like he noticed just what kind of magazine it was.
“Katie told Angel that you’ve been sick, so she made me bring you some stuff.”
Santiago gives him notes from the class he missed, grapes and some comic books he’s been telling Colin to read.
“I figured you wouldn’t have anything better to do than read the comics now anyway,” Santiago grins, “The grapes are from Angel.”
Colin spots a card with a little heart on it hanging from the grapes, he smiles.
Colin feels a little shy under all this attention, it’s really not that bad and Colin feels uncomfortable about people making a fuss over him and even buying him grapes.
“Thanks, that’s really nice.” Colin says, sitting down on the edge of his bed again. Santiago sits down on his desk chair and smiles again.
“Oh, no problem.” He says, “I was wondering why you hadn’t been coming to class, ‘til Angel told me of course.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure that whatever Katie told Angel was an exaggeration though.”
“Katie’s very convincing though.” Santiago laughs.
[…]
It’s not like Bradley’s proud of himself right now or anything. He just sometimes does or says things without really thinking about them. And then sometimes those things turn out really great; like that time Colin came by his room at night and Bradley kissed him and Colin kissed back.
Then other times they turn out not so great and he ends up getting slapped by Maci. Or ignored and glared at by Colin, which is probably worse than the slap.
I’m insufferable when I’m sick. Bradley texts Colin later that night, thinks about adding a sad smiley face or some sort of apology. Colin replies: Yeah ‘cause you’ve been a really dreamy healthy person lately.
Yeah. It’s not like he’s proud of himself right now.
Bradley calls Darren and they go out drinking. Darren might not be a very good friend but he makes all of that up by being the best drinking buddy around. He calls Bradley a pussy whenever he wants to stop drinking and go home, and punches him in the arm whenever he wants to call Colin. That’s really all the friendship Bradley needs right about now.
It’s three in the morning when Colin is woken up by a loud bang on the door.
The banging keeps getting worse until Colin’s steady enough on his feet to go and open the door. He finds Bradley standing in the hallway, wearing sunglasses and a tie around his head.
“What are you doing? Do you know what time it is?” Colin asks softly, rubbing his sleeve covered hand over his face for a while as he stares at Bradley.
“Colin!” Bradley says loudly, making Colin wince.
“Bradley, come inside,” Colin whispers, pulling at Bradley’s arm.
“Answer me this first!” Bradley yells again.
Oh, he’s drunk, Colin finally concludes, grogginess making his brain function just that little bit slower. After that realization something like relief and dread go through Colin’s system before it settles on embarrassment as someone across the hallways opens their door to look what the commotion’s about.
“Is he still here?!” Bradley demands. He’s raising his hand and swaying a little.
“Who?” Colin asks through clenched teeth. He’s learned a long time ago that giving a drunk Bradley what he wants really is the best solution to make him calm down. A drunk Bradley is surprisingly more persistent than a sober one.
“Sanbino.”
Colin blinks. “Santiago?”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
“He’s sleeping?” Colin replies.
This was obviously not the correct answer and Bradley screams in frustration and Colin’s cheeks flush further in embarrassment as more and more people start opening their door to see what’s going on. “I thought we had it good together.” Bradley says to him, taking his hand.
“Come inside, Bradley.” Colin tries again, pulling at Bradley’s hand.
“No! I don’t want to see him in your bed!” Bradley sputters out.
Colin is about to ask him what the hell he’s talking about when Darren comes running towards them. Colin can’t say he’s surprised that Darren had something to do with this. He can, however, say that he’s surprised by the pantsless state of him.
“Oh God,” Colin groans.
“You are,” Darren pants, “The fasted drunk I have ever seen in my life.”
“Well, you wouldn’t let me see Colin!” Bradley says.
“Because you told me not to let you.”
Bradley gasps and shoves Darren out of the way.
Colin has enough, he’s had enough since Bradley started yelling at him earlier. “You either come in,” He says as calmly as possible, “Or go away, okay Bradley? ‘Cause I’m about to pass out here, I have a fever and I can’t just-”
“I’m not going in there if he’s in there!” Bradley yells.
Colin takes that as a no and slams the door in Bradley’s face before locking it.
When Bradley wakes up the next morning it takes about two minutes for his chest to start clenching painfully and all the different ways in which he fucked up to start spinning around in his head. The only appropriate word he can think of is: fuck.
He goes by Richard’s place first and sits there, staring at the card stand dejectedly for a couple of minutes. Richard eventually takes pity on him and gives him a cup of tea. They don’t talk much, Bradley’s not really in the mood for that, and so Richard unpacks boxes and Bradley drinks his tea in silence. Before he leaves he buys a card.
He never gives it to Colin though. He just likes the irony of it.
When things go horrible wrong there are only a couple of places one can return to. And so two hours later Bradley finds himself back home, standing in the kitchen next to his mother, watching water boil.
His mother always asks the worst questions, makes him feel like he can’t even come home every now and then to make soup without having a reason anymore.
“Well is she pretty?” She’d asked when he’d refused to give her an explanation. The joke was on her though.
“He’s a boy.” Bradley had said, smug as her eyes had widened a little.
“Ah,” His mother had smiled, shaking her head as she’d taken his laundry (well, he was there now anyway, might as well get something out of it.)
When he was fifteen his mother had caught him kissing one of the neighbor’s sons. It had been a terribly traumatic experience for all parties involved at the time. His mother had always reassured him that one day they’d be looking back at that moment and laugh. His mother had long since reached that stage, Bradley still hadn’t.
“That’s too bad,” his mother had said right before leaving the kitchen, “Johnny’s been asking for you lately.”
So now his mother knows about Colin, and Bradley is quite pleased about this all, especially after he’d seen the little smile that had tugged at the corner of her lips. Bradley’s sure she’ll like Colin to pieces when he brings him over for a visit.
If Colin will ever let Bradley take him there.
Bradley will just have to make sure Colin forgives him.
And so there Bradley is, staring at the chicken boiling in an oversized pot, and just when he mother walks back in does he remember. He curses, quite lengthy, at the pot and shoves at it halfheartedly, making some of the water spill over the edge.
“What’s gotten in to you?!” His mother says, affronted more by the cursing than anything else Bradley can imagine. She comes over and hits the back of his head.
“This won’t do.” Bradley sighs, “He’s a vegetarian.”
“Oh,” his mother pulls a face, the exact same face Bradley’d pulled when he first heard. Only now he feels more than a little protective over the vegetarian in question so he gives his mother a face in return.
“Well, we could make him some nice tomato soup, honey.” His mother assures him.
“But it needs to be chicken soup.” Bradley sulks.
“Why?”
“I don’t know! That’s what you always gave me when I was sick and I just want him to get better.”
“And he’ll get better with or without the chicken, Bradley.” She looks at him like he’s a little slow. Or probably acting a little pathetic, and he guesses he is.
Bradley’s at least ten centimeter taller than his mother, but he still can’t help but feel worlds better whenever she puts her hand on his head and ruffles his hair. She gives him a warm smile. “You turned out all right, Bradley James, you know that?” She asks, pulling him in for a hug.
“Surprising, isn’t it?” He asks, putting his arms around her.
“Oi.” She says, swatting the back of his head again, “Now let’s get out those veggies shall we?”
Colin wakes up that afternoon with a snoring Bradley pressed up against his back and a pot of soup on his nightstand. A piece of tape is holding up a card. Colin looks back at Bradley and can’t help but smile softly, he hadn’t been expecting this after last night.
Homemade soup (by me), 100% vegetarian it says on the back, and also: Sorry. You can yell at me later.
Colin turns around in Bradley’s embrace and kisses his forehead.
Bradley scrunches his nose and screws his eyes shut even tighter. He tries to deny that he’s awake for a couple of moments longer until he finally asks: “Are you gonna yell?” His voice thick with sleep.
Colin stays silent for a little while, pretends to think about it. “Not if you’ll heat me up some of that soup.”
Bradley slowly opens his eyes and smiles tentatively. “Hi,” He says.
Colin lets out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.
30 minutes later they’re sitting in Colin’s bed, eating soup.
“You’re so grumpy when you’re sick.” Bradley breaks the silence.
“You’re an asshole when I’m sick.” Colin counters.
Bradley takes Colin’s hand in his and squeezes it.
Bradley takes another sip before saying: “Well, you kicked me out of your room. Twice.”
“You treated me like I had the plague.”
“You glared at me.” Bradley says, “I didn’t even know you could glare.”
Colin’s mouth falls open. “Well, you got drunk and started yelling at one of my neighbors in the middle of the night.”
“That wasn’t because you were sick.” Bradley protests. He doesn’t realize that wasn’t actually a confession he had meant to make until Colin asks: “Then what was that all about?”
“I... No, now I remember, I did get drunk ‘cause I was upset that you were sick. Yeah.” Bradley says slowly.
Colin grins at him, that I don’t believe a word you’re saying but I still think you’re cute grin. Bradley quite likes that grin, except for the not-believing part.
“Tell me.” Colin says.
Bradley thinks about running, but Colin is looking right in his eyes and he’s all warm and comfortable for the first time since Colin got sick. And Bradley has a way with words, he can talk himself out of this for sure.
“I was mad,” Bradley starts, “Because that Santiago guy was here, again, and he’d brought you fruit and I hadn’t gotten you anything yet and he was basically making me look all bad with his stuff and his hair. And then Darren took me out drinking and got all: If that Julio guy would be hitting on my girlfriend when she was all weak and vulnerable I’d bash his head in. And so I told him: It’s not Julio, it’s Sanbino. Uhm, I was already quite drunk by then. And then I told him: Rebecca wouldn’t fall for his charms that easily. ‘Cause you see, I didn’t tell him that I’m dating you, I told him I was dating this girl name Rebecca because I’m pretty sure Darren would need time to get used to me dating a guy and I really needed to go drinking with him that night.”
Bradley knows he’s rambling, and the fact that Colin hasn’t interrupted him yet isn’t such a good sign. He bites his bottom lip and tries to decipher Colin’s look. He looks a little amused. “Rebecca doesn’t exist.” He clarifies. “She’s you. You’re the only one for me.”
“That’s…” Colin starts, “Strange.” He blinks. “So, you’re jealous of Santiago?”
“What? No. Darren said he would be, though I don’t know why! Sure Santiago is really good looking, and you and him get on like a house on fire, and you have all these shared interests like art. And he came to visit you when I was being an asshole and staying away.”
“And he brought me fruit.” Colin adds.
“Yeah.” Bradley says.
“But you’re not jealous.” Colin repeats.
“No, obviously not.”
“Well, if you were, which you’re not.” Colin tells him, “I’d tell you not to worry because Santiago has a girlfriend he’s madly in love with, and we’re just really good mates. I’m already pretty crazy about you.”
Bradley smiles. “That’s pretty good, you should save that speech for when I get jealous later on in life. Though chances of that happening are small.”
Bradley grins and Colin grins back. Bradley kisses his way up Colin’s neck before finding his lips. Colin hums in his mouth and clutches at his hand.
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