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- God, you don't know how much I wish the day could go longer than twenty-four hours," Michael sighed, glancing at Tennant, who was lounging on the couch.
- Why are you talking like that? - Michael probes the ground. David knows the trick, but he has no energy for resentment or anger.
Like all the hours before, the two men sit in front of their computers and grimace at each other. It's already like a tradition; after the filming of "Staging," the two men continue to call each other for a long time. Each man explains these calling rituals in his own way. David, for example, just hates change so much, and Michael just hates arguing with David so much. So they're just sitting around in Discord, doing nothing.
- I mean, just imagine a day lasting, like, seventy-two hours! That's an unimaginable amount of possibilities. - David spreads his arms out like a child, trying to show how many goddamn possibilities he can realise.
- Bollocks," Michael hissed, rolling his eyes up to the ceiling and licking his curly hair back from his skull.
- No, it isn't! - David protests, furrowing his brow.
- And what, may I ask, "possibilities"-Michael puts the last word in inverted commas, twitching his fingers somewhat sharply-"would you like to realise, David? - The idea of a day lasting nearly a hundred hours doesn't please Michael in the slightest.
- You're right, it's a stupid idea," David gives up faster than Michael expected. To be more precise, the man had already prepared himself for a long and painful argument, and Tennant was sure to be upset about it.
- You're quick," Michael grinned.
- What are you talking about? - David said dryly, glancing at his friend. He didn't look irritated, but there was an acrid weariness in the wrinkles on his forehead.
- I gave up quickly," Michael explained, "You're usually very... very vigorous in your defence of your position," David arched an unemotional eyebrow.
- Oh, you wanted an argument? With the shouting and the name-calling and the silly nicknames? - David is already openly mocking Michael, frowning slightly, Tennant bites the tip of his tongue, showing it off to Michael.
- It's more like an uncommonly tedious philosophical heresy," Michael chuckled, covering his mouth with his palm.
- Then I suggest we settle on forty-eight hours," David leaned back against the soft cushion and continued to stare at the ceiling as if nothing had happened.
- Why does the day have to go longer, David? - Michael persisted. David had started it, so why not continue? They haven't come up with a better idea for a better conversation in the last hour anyway.
- Well," David stretched and clucked his tongue twice before answering. - There's only so much you can do in that amount of time!
- Oh, don't pour it on, let's be honest, David, why on earth would you want to increase the hours in days? - Michael doesn't intend to listen to philosophy, which from David's mouth will be a thousand times more boring than the most tedious lecture.
- I wanted to come to your place for the weekend," David suddenly changed the subject, glancing sidelong at his friend.
- Don't change the subject, you bastard," Michael threatened, pointing his finger at the computer screen.
- No, I need more hours in the day to come to you, don't you see? - Now it was David's turn to poke his finger at the screen.
- Nonsense, you're filming now," Michael snorted, rolling his eyes up to the ceiling.
- I don't care," David said, almost laughing.
- But what will Georgia and the crew say when they realise that their beloved David has gone to the back of the world for what? - Michael spreads his arms to the sides and shakes his head casually. David often behaves abruptly, sometimes even stupidly, sometimes he needs to be reminded of that.
- For your sake! - David exclaims, as if it's the most obvious thing possible.
- And when do you plan to fly in? - Michael inquires for some reason. Of course, Tennant jokes, as he always does, his friend sometimes needs to blow off steam and appear unconventional, so he's willing to play along.
- Oh, so you're okay with
that? - David perks up in a flash. The man even jumped up from the couch and pulled the computer closer.
- Sure, sure, sure, fly out tomorrow," Michael smiled good-naturedly. I was curious about my friend, who had started running around the room looking for his passport.
- I know where your house is," Tennant began to write something quickly on a piece of paper, Michael didn't even try to look at the contents of the note that David was so carefully drawing out.
The doorbell rang and Michael lazily headed for the door. The man didn't even bother to look through the peephole. He should have.
- God, David! - Michael clutched his chest and rubbed his eyes a few notches. Even though it was midday, he decided to take a nap. His last hope was for a very realistic dream.
- Thank Heaven, I thought I was lost," David laughed loudly, stepping into the hallway without asking.
- I didn't think you'd actually come! - Michael unceremoniously spread his arms out to the sides. He knew he couldn't get away from David, and the hands that had touched Tennant inadvertently felt warm. Two things Michael knew for sure - this was the real David-Heaven-His-Podery-Tennant, and it was he, Michael Sheen, who was to blame for his presence here.
- What an unusual way to greet him," David laughed, imitating Michael and spreading his arms out to the sides.
- Shit," Michael wheezed.
- Did you really think I was kidding! - David is ready to cry and laugh, the situation is very comical if you think about it, and each of the two of them feels guilty. Michael for letting it happen and David for letting it happen.
- Well," Michael said, trying not to meet David's eyes, "did you cut your hair?
- You never could translate a subject," David chuckled. Michael's kitchen was an unbelievable mess, a clear sign of his best friend's laziness.
- You've never had a surprise meeting like this before," Michael said angrily.
- Your place isn't tidy," David rose from his chair and began to pick up the sparse candy wrappers from the floor.
- Why did you come here? - Michael asked dryly. Of course, how had he never thought to ask?
Tennant freezes for a moment, but at the same moment he picks up another wrapper from the floor. Michael can't see his face, and without it, it's hard to know what's on David's mind. The man is a good actor, you can't take that away from him.
- Why? Just to see a friend, - David turns to face Michael and stares at the familiar features of his face - will he believe him?
- You know I don't like lies," Michael replied dryly, folding his arms across his chest.
- And I don't like rubbish, surprising, isn't it? - Tennant laughs.
- David?
- Michael?
- Why are you here? - This kind of game is beginning to tire Michael, he feels tense and awkward. It's like a tradition or a rule, an irrevocable constant or a theorem that can't be disproved or it will collapse like a house of cards.
And now he feels uncertain and stiff - David obviously feels the same way.
- Michael," David looks pleadingly at him.
- What?" Michael frowns.
David smiles, but his face goes all frowny. Cardboard. Tennant takes a deep breath, sits down next to him in the chair as he had been sitting a moment before, picks up the glass of white wine and drinks it all in one gulp. Michael couldn't find a glass to pour the wine into, but you have to admit, they don't care about beauty and frills right now.
- I miss the past," to a stranger it would seem that David was perfectly calm and poised. The man was sitting in a chair, the way people usually sit after a long taxi ride:one leg on the seat, the other dangling from side to side. David always sits like that, it's completely his style and completely contrary to the condition he's hiding from Michael for some reason.
- Michael is ready to listen to the most unbearable philosophical heresy David can come up with. At the same time, the man pours more wine into David's glass.
- I also feel like I've lost my mind," David stares at the glass of wine for a few seconds, as if it were about to tap-dance. But a minute passes, another.
Disappointed with the glass, David quickly drinks the portion poured for him.
- I think this whole thing is a very strange semblance of life," David meets Michael's eyes, and Shin suddenly realises that Tennant has black eyes. They're almost purple.
- Are you sleeping okay? - Michael asks worriedly.
- I'm not sure," David rubbed his eyes and shook his head ambiguously.
- Why do you feel like you're going crazy? - Michael clarifies. Anxiety makes the body stiffen. An incomprehensible feeling of dread and lostness takes hold.
- Because I love someone very much," David says hoarsely.
- Have you told Georgia that? - Michael asks frantically.
- What does Georgia have to do with anything? - David asked dryly.
- I thought it was about her, am I wrong? - Tennant's remarks confused Michael completely.
- No, you're wrong," David smiled. It was a strange smile. So good-natured, friendly, without a shadow of judgement, hatred or shyness. Those beautiful brown eyes are only found in naive little children. Tennant is far from a child, but there is more naivety and kindness in him than others might realise.
David averts his eyes. This is so stupid. You come to someone who doesn't even want to see you, say something you don't even understand, and now you expect them to understand you.
- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come," David rises from his seat and walks like a ghost towards the exit. Quietly, so that not a single floorboard creaked, so as not to disturb and interfere with Sheena's life. He's not a child anymore, he's had five of them himself. He'll be fine. It's okay. It's not the first time.
Sheen doesn't notice his fingers clinging to his friend's shoulder. David's dim eyes don't mean anything good. But what do they mean?
David only brought a sports bag over his shoulder - half the space is taken up by documents and computer chargers. The trip was spontaneous.
- Why did you come, David," Michael looks pleadingly at his friend. He's thin, with grown-out strands, almost-black eyes, and familiar wrinkles on his face. Why did he come?
- He wanted to see a friend," Tennant smiled. A crooked smile slid across his lips, his pupils almost covering the iris of his eyes.
- We call each other almost every day," Michael rebuked him for lying.
- You're a little prettier in person," Tennant grinned, putting a hand on Sheena's shoulder.
- That's a stupid excuse," Michael ignored the touch. He realised that it didn't disgust him. On the contrary, he needed that unpretentious touch. Warm hands with a ring on his ring finger, kind big eyes with a thin iris and a black core. In that awkward silence and David's presence.
- You get it, don't you? - David laughs quietly.
- What do you mean? - Michael clarifies.
- It doesn't matter," Tennant rubs Michael's head, then touches his lips to his friend's puffy cheeks in a casual way.
- Is it going to be all right? - Michael asked naively, not noticing the kiss on his cheek.
- I guess so," David said hoarsely, his eyes bright with a smile.
Michael stared into the mirror, touching his cheek with his fingertips, hoping so hard that this wasn't just another dream.
David looked so sincerely, his eyes glowing with a warm light, a hopeful glow somewhere in his soul, but it was too late for Michael to realise it.
Before going to bed, Michael read a text that had long been lost in the mountains of stuff.
Painfully familiar, simple, in some places ridiculous, with a lot of blunders, but still favourite.
Native.
Those lines had saved him during the height of the pandemic, a lot of things were incomprehensible, unfamiliar, ridiculous.
And yet now he remembered that time with a smile. He and David were closer then than ever "before" or "after". Of course, we can't forget about "Good Omens", but in the distant 2020 they both just needed each other's support. And they found it. As naive as it was irreplaceable and important.
The sudden ringing of the front doorbell.
- Don't you think it's becoming a tradition? - Michael laughed, pouring wine into David's glass. This time it's a tart red.
- I think it's a good tradition," David chuckled. Sipping three quarters of the alcohol from the glass.
- How was the commercial shoot? - Michael asked. It was idyll between him and David again. He wasn't in his dress shirt and his best trousers - his pyjama trousers and stretched T-shirt covered with ketchup were far from the image he was describing.
- The usual," Tennant said in a casual tone. - I thought it would be a good idea to come to your place," he continued after a while, "You have to let your brain relax," David finished. He took another drink and drank it all down.
The pleasant yellowish light in the living room wrapped the men in a pleasant gloom, it was already dark outside the window, David was sleeping at Michael's tonight.
- You look better than you did last time," Michael remarked, glancing at David's face. No bruises.
- Yeah, I've decided to get back on track," David smiled, and then the small dimples around his mouth became visible.
- That's good," David smiled, and immediately the dimples around his mouth became visible. "That's good," he said, even though they were comfortable now, they still couldn't talk about what had happened about two months ago. That kiss of David's had obviously meant more than something abstract and philosophical.
The silence was wrapped in a shroud. Time stretched slowly, but each of the two friends could not begin to speak.
Each of the two of them was afraid to cross the line that had once been drawn between them. This path is uncharted, no one can say exactly where it leads, but that's what makes it curious.
Their hearts are racing and neither of them can stop looking.
Examining familiar facial features, looking into hair, eyes, fingers, wrinkles, ears.
So unceremoniously, and yet it's only stares for now. They have not yet done the irreversible. Not yet transcended.
- Michael? - David moves closer, his hand close to Michael's fingers. He's waiting.
- Hmm? - If they listened hard enough, each of them could hear the heartbeat of the man across from them. Almost in unison, in a frantic rhythm, with fear and hope.
- You're my best mate, you know, it's ridiculous. No, honestly, it's ridiculous. Why is David saying this - they both know that Michael is David's best friend and vice versa.
- I want to try it," Michael pitches forward. Sheena's hot lips collide with the thin strip of Tennant's lips. David's hands go numb, but the man remembers digging into Michael's back with his trembling fingers. For a moment, David responds.
Michael pulls David against him, pressing his friend's body as close as he can and exploring David's lips deeper and deeper. The stubble prickles, but Michael is sure David is thinking the same thing.
The burning in his lower abdomen makes him feel crazy. Like they're twenty again. Like there really is a future for this stupid, ridiculous endeavour.
Eye to eye, Tennant's fingers on Sheena's shoulders. Confusion. Like they weren't too old for this.
- Nice try," David smiled, licking Michael's newly kissed lips with the tip of his tongue.
Michael pulled David against him. There's no sexual innuendo in this, the man just wants to snuggle tighter against the friend he's just kissed. Close, close, he can hear the heartbeat of the man next to him, the way he breathes and the way he smells. He absorbs these sensations, strange, wild, unbridled, but so desirable and loved to the very end.
As if he and David had never been uncomfortable with each other, as if they could always sit like this on Michael's living room floor and cover each other's hands and fingers with weightless kisses. Like they were naive, kind children.
Of course, they're not children anymore, but they're too kind and naive for old people.
David sighs deeply in his sleep and Michael snores quite loudly, and yet, lying on Michael's bed, they snuggle close together.
David throws his leg over Michael's side, Michael stabs David's neck with his beard. Everything is fair, everything is just right.
Perhaps in the morning the two men will be quite taken aback by this close contact, perhaps they will say warm words of love to each other over breakfast, perhaps they will even exchange kisses on the lips and cheeks and, quite possibly, they will go back to sleep.
Just for an hour, because Michael loves to sleep after a hearty breakfast.
And David loves Michael, so it's only fair.