Happy Thoughts: Brendon/Cash
So, Brendon and Cash? Still owning me. Still living in a completely and utterly domestic schmoopy place in my head. Still totally my happy place.
So, when Brendon joined Phi Beta Rho, he knew he'd be getting a house full of brothers. He just hadn't known, you know, that he'd be getting a whole bunch of sisters, too. Because after sorority rush is over with, all bans of fraternizing with members of other Greek houses lifted, well.
Well. Let's just say he still remembers the first time he realized that it wasn't just his guys who spent the night in their house.
(There's a story there, involving him and Cassie and an incident that he'd rather forget. It had been the middle of the morning, and Brendon hadn't realized he wasn't alone in the bathroom, until he saw Cassie leaning over one of the sinks, brushing her teeth, and he pretty much couldn't raise his towel fast enough, because, well.
Well, because there were *so many things* wrong in that moment, and on top of all of that, it was Cassie, Jon's Cassie, and yeah.
Not. Good.)
Which is to say, on any given morning he now expects to see Haley sitting at their breakfast table eating a bowl of Lucky Charms, or Cassie doing her hair in the mirror that Beckett attached to the outside of his door last year, the one Jon hasn't taken down yet, or Marie reading a textbook on the couch in the living room, or Keltie practicing pirouettes in the basement in front of the TV.
Of course, it's not just girlfriends.
One night after a function, he sees a girl from his and Cash's Bio lab from the year before leaving Siska's room. She's still wearing a sparkly tank top, glitter smeared over her cheeks and she smiles at Brendon when she sees him. "I know you," she says. "Don't I?"
There are girls he sees once, then never again. Then girls he sees again, and again, and again, like Marie, until it feels like they've always been there, taking up space in the house. Until he knows not to approach them before they've had their coffee, or sugar, or both.
So: this is life in the FBR house, girls kissing their boyfriends goodnight and heading upstairs to bed (or sometimes vice versa, like, for instance, during one of Haley and Cash's designated Guitar Hero tournaments, when Spencer gives up first, calling it a night); random girls waking up there; a house that's filled with a whole lot more than 35 guys.
The thing is: Brendon doesn't even really think about his own routine. Just like it's normal for Haley to show up on their doorstep at least four nights a week, overnight bag over her shoulder, Brendon finds himself at Cash's apartment just as often, his own bag clutched in his hand.
He doesn't think about it at *all* until the night he and Cash challenge Ryan and Keltie in a game of poker, and okay, all of them are pretty competitive, and also protective of their M&Ms, so the game just keeps going, all of them yelling and laughing in turn, and the hours just keep slipping by. Then, suddenly it's 2 a.m., and Keltie's got her head on Ryan's shoulder, Cash is pretty much asleep on the table, and Ryan looks across the table at the two of them and says, "You should go to bed."
And Brendon has a bunk on the sleeping porch, just like all of the rest of the guys, but he's also rooming with Patrick, and he inherited Travis's Oversized Couch Of Awesome, so Brendon taps Cash on the shoulder and says, "Hey, hey, come on. Bedtime."
Cash blinks at him, gaze slightly unfocussed, and says, "I don't-" He yawns. "But I don't have any of my-" Another yawn. "-shit here."
Brendon rolls his eyes, because seriously. He has a toothbrush. He has sleep pants. He does live here after all.
Cash doesn't protest when Brendon encourages him out of the chair, though, and he lets Brendon propel him up the stairs to the third floor, and he can hear Ryland and Suarez playfully arguing over something down the hall, and Jon and Cassie are watching a movie, and Joe is laughing loudly. When he shuts the door to his room, though, the sounds become muffled, and it's just him and Cash.
Cash is leaning back against the door, still blinking sleepily at Brendon, and so Brendon has to kiss him. Just a little bit. They're both tired, though, so it's only a minute or so before Brendon pulls away to go dig in his dresser. He grabs a t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants (a gift from Jon at the Christmas party a few months ago; they’ve got dancing bananas on them) and drops them into Cash's hands.
Cash looks down at them, then looks at the couch, and says, "You sure we'll fit?" And it'll be tight, yes, but the couch is seriously over-sized, and it's not like either of them would be considered tall, not by any means, so.
"Yeah," Brendon says. "We should."
He picks his own shirt and pajama pants up off of the floor, slipping them on while Cash gets changed, and then they're sitting on the couch, side by side, and okay, it's not like they hadn't shared a bed in Cash's dorm room before. Which, okay, was bigger than this, but not by much, and they'd had plenty of room. They just. Have to get close.
So: Brendon lies down, and pats the cushion next to him, until Cash curls up on his side, next to him. Brendon drops a hand over Cash's side, tracing fingers over the lines of Cash's ribs, and Cash gives a sleepy murmur, leaning back a little more heavily against Brendon. Brendon's nose is pressed to the top of Cash's head, and he breathes in once, twice, and then he falls asleep.
*
Cash isn't there when Brendon wakes up, though. He's got a crick in his neck, and the morning sun is too bright for his eyes, but the spot on the couch next to him is still warm, Cash's clothes still in a pile on his floor, so he waits a few minutes for Cash to come back. A few minutes turns into more, though, and finally Brendon gets up to go investigate.
What he finds is this: Cash, sitting in the dining room at a table with Keltie and Marie and Joe, drinking a cup of coffee. He looks up when Brendon comes through the door from the kitchen, grinning. His hair is still a little mussed, like he's been rubbing his fingers through it. Or, you know, he slept on it wrong.
Cash kicks one of the chairs away from the table so that Brendon can join him, and then makes as if to guard his coffee fiercely, before finally allowing Brendon a sip when he turns on the pout.
"Hi," Cash says, after Brendon hands the coffee back.
"Hi," Brendon says.
Across the table from them, Joe makes a gagging noise, but Marie slaps at his arm. Then steals his coffee for herself. Brendon really likes Marie.
"So," Cash says. "When you get your own room? We're buying you a couch that folds out into a bed."
"I know!" Keltie says. "I told Ryan the same thing, but he just laughed at me. Which is why we moved to the sleeping porch."
"Or we could do that next time?" Cash asks.
"Or I could start looking for a couch of my own," Brendon says, reaching over to grab another swallow of Cash's coffee.
"Or we could do that," Cash agrees.
The end.
So, when Brendon joined Phi Beta Rho, he knew he'd be getting a house full of brothers. He just hadn't known, you know, that he'd be getting a whole bunch of sisters, too. Because after sorority rush is over with, all bans of fraternizing with members of other Greek houses lifted, well.
Well. Let's just say he still remembers the first time he realized that it wasn't just his guys who spent the night in their house.
(There's a story there, involving him and Cassie and an incident that he'd rather forget. It had been the middle of the morning, and Brendon hadn't realized he wasn't alone in the bathroom, until he saw Cassie leaning over one of the sinks, brushing her teeth, and he pretty much couldn't raise his towel fast enough, because, well.
Well, because there were *so many things* wrong in that moment, and on top of all of that, it was Cassie, Jon's Cassie, and yeah.
Not. Good.)
Which is to say, on any given morning he now expects to see Haley sitting at their breakfast table eating a bowl of Lucky Charms, or Cassie doing her hair in the mirror that Beckett attached to the outside of his door last year, the one Jon hasn't taken down yet, or Marie reading a textbook on the couch in the living room, or Keltie practicing pirouettes in the basement in front of the TV.
Of course, it's not just girlfriends.
One night after a function, he sees a girl from his and Cash's Bio lab from the year before leaving Siska's room. She's still wearing a sparkly tank top, glitter smeared over her cheeks and she smiles at Brendon when she sees him. "I know you," she says. "Don't I?"
There are girls he sees once, then never again. Then girls he sees again, and again, and again, like Marie, until it feels like they've always been there, taking up space in the house. Until he knows not to approach them before they've had their coffee, or sugar, or both.
So: this is life in the FBR house, girls kissing their boyfriends goodnight and heading upstairs to bed (or sometimes vice versa, like, for instance, during one of Haley and Cash's designated Guitar Hero tournaments, when Spencer gives up first, calling it a night); random girls waking up there; a house that's filled with a whole lot more than 35 guys.
The thing is: Brendon doesn't even really think about his own routine. Just like it's normal for Haley to show up on their doorstep at least four nights a week, overnight bag over her shoulder, Brendon finds himself at Cash's apartment just as often, his own bag clutched in his hand.
He doesn't think about it at *all* until the night he and Cash challenge Ryan and Keltie in a game of poker, and okay, all of them are pretty competitive, and also protective of their M&Ms, so the game just keeps going, all of them yelling and laughing in turn, and the hours just keep slipping by. Then, suddenly it's 2 a.m., and Keltie's got her head on Ryan's shoulder, Cash is pretty much asleep on the table, and Ryan looks across the table at the two of them and says, "You should go to bed."
And Brendon has a bunk on the sleeping porch, just like all of the rest of the guys, but he's also rooming with Patrick, and he inherited Travis's Oversized Couch Of Awesome, so Brendon taps Cash on the shoulder and says, "Hey, hey, come on. Bedtime."
Cash blinks at him, gaze slightly unfocussed, and says, "I don't-" He yawns. "But I don't have any of my-" Another yawn. "-shit here."
Brendon rolls his eyes, because seriously. He has a toothbrush. He has sleep pants. He does live here after all.
Cash doesn't protest when Brendon encourages him out of the chair, though, and he lets Brendon propel him up the stairs to the third floor, and he can hear Ryland and Suarez playfully arguing over something down the hall, and Jon and Cassie are watching a movie, and Joe is laughing loudly. When he shuts the door to his room, though, the sounds become muffled, and it's just him and Cash.
Cash is leaning back against the door, still blinking sleepily at Brendon, and so Brendon has to kiss him. Just a little bit. They're both tired, though, so it's only a minute or so before Brendon pulls away to go dig in his dresser. He grabs a t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants (a gift from Jon at the Christmas party a few months ago; they’ve got dancing bananas on them) and drops them into Cash's hands.
Cash looks down at them, then looks at the couch, and says, "You sure we'll fit?" And it'll be tight, yes, but the couch is seriously over-sized, and it's not like either of them would be considered tall, not by any means, so.
"Yeah," Brendon says. "We should."
He picks his own shirt and pajama pants up off of the floor, slipping them on while Cash gets changed, and then they're sitting on the couch, side by side, and okay, it's not like they hadn't shared a bed in Cash's dorm room before. Which, okay, was bigger than this, but not by much, and they'd had plenty of room. They just. Have to get close.
So: Brendon lies down, and pats the cushion next to him, until Cash curls up on his side, next to him. Brendon drops a hand over Cash's side, tracing fingers over the lines of Cash's ribs, and Cash gives a sleepy murmur, leaning back a little more heavily against Brendon. Brendon's nose is pressed to the top of Cash's head, and he breathes in once, twice, and then he falls asleep.
*
Cash isn't there when Brendon wakes up, though. He's got a crick in his neck, and the morning sun is too bright for his eyes, but the spot on the couch next to him is still warm, Cash's clothes still in a pile on his floor, so he waits a few minutes for Cash to come back. A few minutes turns into more, though, and finally Brendon gets up to go investigate.
What he finds is this: Cash, sitting in the dining room at a table with Keltie and Marie and Joe, drinking a cup of coffee. He looks up when Brendon comes through the door from the kitchen, grinning. His hair is still a little mussed, like he's been rubbing his fingers through it. Or, you know, he slept on it wrong.
Cash kicks one of the chairs away from the table so that Brendon can join him, and then makes as if to guard his coffee fiercely, before finally allowing Brendon a sip when he turns on the pout.
"Hi," Cash says, after Brendon hands the coffee back.
"Hi," Brendon says.
Across the table from them, Joe makes a gagging noise, but Marie slaps at his arm. Then steals his coffee for herself. Brendon really likes Marie.
"So," Cash says. "When you get your own room? We're buying you a couch that folds out into a bed."
"I know!" Keltie says. "I told Ryan the same thing, but he just laughed at me. Which is why we moved to the sleeping porch."
"Or we could do that next time?" Cash asks.
"Or I could start looking for a couch of my own," Brendon says, reaching over to grab another swallow of Cash's coffee.
"Or we could do that," Cash agrees.
The end.