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“Don’t you find it a tad odd that you always choose to play as my character’s boyfriend?” Gavin asks Michael while they’re cleaning up their gaming area, putting back controllers and removing empty bottles and Subway wrappers.
And Michael just stops. He completely fucking freezes in his tracks. The controller in his hands clatters to the floor and he rounds in on the man beside him.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
His mouth is dry and his hands are clammy and why is he so anxious all of a sudden? What is Gavin even talking about, this fucking idiot?
“You know. I choose Ellis and you choose Nick. And it always happens. You had to have noticed by now, Michael.” Gavin cocks his head and he looks like a fucking moron. But also genuinely confused. What. The. Fuck?
“Nickolas is not your character’s boyfriend. What are you…what are you talking about?” He scrunches his eyebrows and stares at the Englishman beside him, “Ellis isn’t even gay, you dumbshit. Didn’t you play The Passing?”
Gavin shakes his head, “Ah. No. No I haven’t. But, you know, he doesn’t need to be gay to be dating Nick.”
“Uhh. Yes. Yes he does,” Michael says quickly, mocking Gavin’s tone, his voice rising.
“No. Michael, no. They’re boyfriends.” Gavin nods and then shrugs. “I thought you knew that and that’s why…” his voice trails off and he waves a hand in the general direction of an Xbox.
“They’re goddamn videogame characters. They’re not boyfriends. Why…why would I want to play as your fucking boyfriend.” Michael’s face is red from rage. Red from Gavin being so fucking stupid. Red from embarrassment? No. Fuck him. This is fucking stupid. Not embarrassing.
“Are you saying that videogame characters cannot have boyfriends? Because I think that’s racist Michael.” Gavin leans over and picks up the controller that Michael dropped, moving it from hand to hand before standing.
“It’s not racist you dumbshit. They aren’t boyfriends.” Michael huffs out. This is a fucking zombie shooter, they aren’t fucking boyfriends. They aren’t anything.
“Yes they are. Everyone who plays this game knows that. Everyone.”
“Uh. No they aren’t”
“Yes they are.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you so fucking insistent on this shit?” Michael glares at the grinning man beside him.
Gavin licks his lips and just shrugs. “It doesn’t matter much anymore, does it?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore? It didn’t matter in the first place! It’s you fucking hallucinating and acting like a goddamn teenage girl.”
“My point, you donut, has been completely and utterly shot. It doesn’t matter. I thought you’d been picking Nick to, you know, try to tell me something.”
And then Michael gets it. It hits him like a fucking semi truck straight to the forehead. That’s it. He’s done. He quits. Fucking ragequits this whole situation. Nope. Nope. Nope.
But before he gets a chance to act on that, to fucking babble nonsensical expletives and leave the fucking room, something clicks in his head.
Wait. Hold up. Hold the goddamn phone and wait five fucking seconds while the operator switches the call over.
“I picked Nick first today. I picked my character first.” He’s confused and upset and he doesn’t even know why anymore. He should be used to Gavin not being able to speak English and not making fucking sense.
“It doesn’t matter, Michael.” Gavin is flushed and inching his way towards the door. He looks even more wimpy and skinny and stupid when he’s embarrassed and Michael doesn’t know whether to yell at this dumbass or hug him because, holy shit what is even going on anymore?
“No. No.” Michael grabs him by the shirt collar and stares him down, tilting his head up slightly to catch him right in the eye. “No. You are not fucking leaving.”
He pulls Gavin closer until they’re close enough to feel each other’s breath on their skin. Until its close enough to be awkward. Until Michael regrets this whole fucking situation.
“You thought…me picking Nick…was my fucking way of telling you I liked you?” Michael’s voice is practically a whisper and he doesn’t even know why he’s whispering because he doesn’t fucking care if anyone hears them. He isn’t gay and he doesn’t fucking want Gavin.
And Gavin’s just staring straight ahead, his face expressionless. And it’s pissing Michael off. Say something, you prick.
“And today…you chose Ellis…because?” Michael’s trying to keep his voice even and trying not to think about why Gavin chose Ellis. Gavin is Gavin. He’s an idiot who can’t speak English, who ruins the fucking day, who never texts back, and who pisses him off to no end. And he’s Michael’s friend. His best fucking friend. Fucking dumbass.
And Gavin just smirks.
“Because you’re my boy, Michael.”
And Michael wasn’t expecting the kiss, or maybe he was. But it’s soft and sweet and not what he would have guessed Gavin kissed like, or felt like or tasted like. And why is he thinking about how Gavin tastes and why is he okay with this and why is he kissing back? But it feels right. It feels so right, like he’s finally kissing the person he’d been looking for his whole life.
Maybe he does want Gavin.
Fuck.
“I’m not gay,” Michael murmurs when their lips finally separate. When he finally lets go.
“Neither are Nick and Ellis. They’re just in love.” Gavin says simply.
“So…you’ve been playing as Ellis to try to get me to understand that you like me…?”
“Oh. No. Ellis is my favorite character, I’ve just been fucking with you. Ayoo!” Gavin laughs and Michael gives his shoulder a harsh punch.
Michael’s heart starts racing, and he’s nearing another rage “You stupid fuck. What was the point of all this, you dick!?”
“Because I do adore you, Michael. I told you. You’re my boy.” Gavin nuzzles Michael’s head and presses a kiss against his cheek. “We don’t have to be gay to be boyfriends.”
“Is this your way of asking me out?”
“Is it working?”
“Fine, asshole. I’ll be your not-gay boyfriend.”
“Fucking finally.” A voice exclaims from the door behind them, and Michael wants to fucking jump out a window, fucking hell. Geoff gives the two men a thumbs up, “I just won 50 bucks. Fucking took you two long enough.”
Michael’s about to go off on another shouting spree when Gavin cups Michael’s chin with his hand and pulls his head up for a kiss.
“You’re my boy, love.”
Yeah, maybe he could get used to this.