Derek Nurse (yochill) wrote in valloic, @ 2020-12-31 22:32:00 |
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Of course, Nursey was terrible at upholding promises to himself. And he’d had a hand in making the drinks. So it really wasn’t any surprise he’d lost count of his champagne jello shots and death in the afternoon cocktails. He’d at least avoided the tub juice. He was pretty sure he’d avoided the tub juice.
Was he in the tub? His shirt was damp.
Nursey was not in the tub. He stood in the kitchen, blinking down at his shirt which had a giant red splotch on it. Someone had dumped their drink on him and been very apologetic. He was starting to remember now. He grabbed a kitchen towel from off the stove and held it to his chest.
“Oh no...that...is probably going to stain.” He wasn’t talking about his shirt. He held the towel up and whined at the transferred tub juice that had turned half the yellow towel burgundy. “Shit. Bits is gonna get the disappointed face. Uhhhhh, maybe I can…”
Nursey opened drawers at random and eventually found one with enough room to jam the towel inside and close the drawer. “There. Day. Saved.”
Dex wasn’t really sure what he’d expected when somebody nudged him and pointed him vaguely in the direction of the kitchen of the Haus. The floor was sticky already, as seemed to be the norm for Haus parties and Dex had just double and triple checked that the door to the basement was locked. The people here might not have all been college frat bros but he did not trust his chances of somebody not blowing chunks in his room if he left it up to fate.
He’d decided to stay somewhat sober that night because he wanted to make sure that somebody was - Jack wasn’t a huge drinker but it was also his and Bitty’s first New Years as a married couple and there was no hope for Shitty from the beginning so somebody had to be a) responsible(ish, he’d had a jello shot or two and was pleasantly buzzed) and b) on Nursey Patrol. Sure, he’d said he didn’t need it but Dex didn’t believe that for a second and he found him frowning sadly at a stained towel in the kitchen, letting a slightly fond smile creep on his face that he quickly wiped off as he walked over to him.
“I… don’t think that’s gonna make Bitty any less disappointed about the towel,” he pointed out. “Although he might not guess it’s you if you ditch the shirt before he sees, I guess?”
Dex’s voice made Nursey spin around a little too fast and the world spun with him. He couldn’t possibly have looked more guilty, the way he stretched his arms along the countertop and blocked access to the drawer with the evidence of his crime. But once the dizzy spell passed him by, he reached for the hem of his shirt.
“You….make a really good point, Poindexter.” Proving that he was a bit of a himbo when he was drunk, Nursey whipped off his henley and shoved that into the same drawer with the towel. The drawer didn’t close wouldn’t close very well though. He had to hipcheck it before he could turn a self-satisfied smile back to Dex.
“Now you’re the only witness so don’t rat out your fellow d-man, okay?” He tried to put a finger to his mouth in a shush motion but almost poked himself in the eye instead.
Oh. Oh, now Nursey was half naked and as much as Dex had seen everything before it was still distracting - that was until he put the shirt in the drawer with the towel and Dex just stared at him for a moment. "Ah, yes," he deadpanned. "How will Bitty ever know who committed the heinous crime of ruining one of his nicest towels when the culprits shirt is also in the same drawer?" He suppressed a smirk as he placed a hand on his shoulder to move him out of the way of the drawer, taking both of the offending items out.
"My fellow d-man is trying to rat himself out," he handed him the shirt and opened the cupboard, grabbing a box of stain remover that he started to work into the towel, tossing it aside to be washed later. He didn't feel like listening to the machine going while he slept tonight. "Nurse, you need to drink a glass of water or something that doesn't have a high alcohol volume," he smirked.
Nursey’s face fell. Dex had made another very good point. But then he was already moving Nursey out of the way and seemingly to help. Nursey took the shirt handed back to him and frowned down at it. Frankly, he’d rather buy a new one than wash stain treat this one. He grimaced and tucked part of the shirt into his back pocket so the rest dangled from his jeans.
“Listen, I was never meant for a life of crime. I’m a wordsmith. A lover of language. A….uhhhh...a victim of circumstance.” His mouth did feel parched though. And he quietly enjoyed that Dex cared enough to suggest he drink some water. He opened up the fridge and stuck his head inside to look for a gatorade though, because he was a contrary shit sometimes. “Are you having fun?”
Dex really wished that Nursey had just put the gross shirt back on but no, he had no such look. He rolled his eyes when he went looking for something in the fridge instead of just getting water like he'd suggested, absolutely ready to knock it out of his hands if he emerged with something alcoholic. He was already bad enough as it was.
"A victim of circumstance," he snorted. "No, you're absolutely a criminal now. Worst of the worst if you make Bitty do the sad face," he joked, picking up the towel and squinting at it to see if anything had happened yet. He wasn't exactly fully sober himself, just… somewhat more aware of everything than Nursey right now. "I thought you said we wouldn't need Nursey Patrol this year?" He couldn't say he minded too much, though - not that he'd ever admit it out loud for fears the chirping would be never ending but it was a New Year in a completely new place. Maybe it wasn't so bad, being stuck with him. Being able to still play on his line.
Surrounded by really hot people that were all kinds of different literary or movie characters that were probably Nurse's type.
“Hashtag Rude,” Nursey said without an ounce of irony. “Someone dumped a drink on me. You should be more sympathetic, Dexy.” He came up out of the fridge with a blue gatorade and a leftover box of pizza which he plopped down onto the kitchen island. Belatedly, he realized they weren’t alone. People were coming and going in the kitchen, grabbing snacks off the table or digging through the ice chests around it.
He should’ve probably felt self-conscious about being shirtless but of all Nursey’s anxieties, his body wasn’t really one of them. Feeling like a burden though, that was a different story.
“Anyway, look at me. I’m still upright. I haven’t climbed up to the roof.” He cracked the top on his gatorade and took a swig. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t wanna do.
Hashtag rude. Dex momentarily wanted to punch him just for saying that but instead he grabbed a slice of the pizza and sniffed it, checking that it hadn’t gone bad. He simply had to trust that this was today’s pizza (or yesterday’s) and Bitty wouldn’t allow dodgy food in the house so he took a bite, leaning against the island and tilting his head in Nursey’s direction.
“You haven’t climbed up to the roof yet,” he corrected. Maybe on another day or in another world he would have trusted that but it wasn’t Samwell, here. If Nursey ended up on the roof or somehow through a waypoint and into the forest he could actually, literally die and he didn’t want that at all so he just shrugged. “I mean, it’s either hang out with you or hang out with the couples, right? It’s gonna be midnight sooner or later,” he glanced around the room. “I don’t really want to be in the room of everybody making out when it happens. Plus, I’m worried one of the super-people might have a chance of beating Lardo at beer pong and I don’t know if the Haus can handle that.”
Nursey felt like he saw a flash of something fiery in Dex’s eyes and it spiked his heart rate. A fight might’ve been a step up over listening to Dex talk about how spending time with him was the only alternative to being in a room with people who wanted to kiss each other. He took another drink of gatorade before setting the bottle aside and leaning against the island to claim a piece of cold pizza.
There were undoubtedly better snacks on the other side of the room. Hopefully Bitty didn’t wander in for more than one reason now.
“Damn, Poindexter. You sure know how to make a guy feel appreciated,” he mumbled cheerfully around a mouthful of pizza. “Sounds like you want me to climb up to the roof just to give you a distraction. But I’ll save for if we do end up with a Lards emergency. Yeesh, can you imagine?”
Dex internally winced a little at that. “I didn’t mean-” he cut himself off, taking a sip of the can he was holding instead with a slight frown. He didn’t know why his automatic response was always defensiveness around Nursey but he didn’t really know how else to be, especially when it was New Years and there was kind of someone in the room he wanted to kiss, even if he hadn’t fully admitted it to himself yet.
He readily took the other option of talking, huffing softly. “If there’s a Lards emergency I don’t wanna think about what’s gonna happen. I’ll probably climb up to the roof with you,” he paused. “Do you even remember how you got up there the first time?”
The world spun a little, but Nursey just sprawled more fully against the island. He’d lost track of the conversation for a split second - his sober brain would’ve had a field day dissecting what Dex did mean - but thankfully his drunk brain just really liked cold pizza and Dex saying he’d escape to the roof with him. He flashed a bright grin and took another bite. This time he acted like he was having a serious think about it before answering.
“I think I floated. Like a cool ass cloud.” He tossed his pizza crust back into the box like an animal. Cold pizza crust was the worst. He smirked and said more seriously, “Or scrambled up there like a raccoon. I had scratches on my arms and rips in my jeans. What I really don’t remember is how I got down that first time?”
“We had to borrow the ladder from the LAX bros,” Dex remembered. “I think you climbed yourself down, with like- a bunch of us standing at the bottom ready to catch you if you fell, which in hindsight would have just ended with half of the hockey team broken,” he shrugged one shoulder with a little smirk. “Then again, I was kinda wasted too and I don’t really remember,” he watched him throw the crust back into the box and ate his purely out of spite even though it really was the worst part of a cold pizza. Chewy, too.
“Don’t you have someone to spend New Year’s with?” He’d been here for a while. He’d done the theatre thing, probably made a ton of friends. “I guess it’s… late New Years, though. Or early New Years? I don’t know how time works anymore.”
Nursey was way too drunk to know what the hell Dex was talking about as far as early or late New Years but he did laugh at the mental image of them all standing around watching him come down a ladder. There was probably commentary. He wished he remembered literally anything about that night besides what he’d been told.
“El oh El,” he said, snatching another piece of pizza in honor of sobering up. And having something distracting to do with his hands. “I have you, duh.” Realizing how that sounded, Nursey suddenly looked caught out. The pizza dangled forgotten from his hand. He quickly tried to lean harder towards the chill end of the spectrum, propping his arm on the island and gesturing lazily towards the kitchen door and the loud party beyond it. “And the dozens of people in the haus. Some of them are even single. I can wingman you.” He blindly took a bite and shrugged. “If you’re down about being single.”
“Did you seriously just say ‘el oh el’? I feel like that’s a fine. I feel like that should be a fine,” he grumbled, intending on shooting a message to the group chat just to see how the others felt about that when Nursey said that he had him. His heart jumped as he looked up at him and then fell when Nursey saved the situation, covering it all up with a snort as he turned to grab one of the many other treats laying about the kitchen, mostly decimated by now. “I’m not down about being single,” he lied, shrugging a shoulder. “It’s not the most fun thing in the world, but. I kinda knew I didn’t stand a chance when everybody else on the team was hotter than me, even Shitty with his ‘tache that shouldn’t work on anybody outside of a 70s porno.”
Nursey lifted a challenging eyebrow. If Dex tried to fine him for personality quirks, he was going to find himself the focus of a fine war. Nursey had plenty of mental lists about Dex - things that annoyed him, things that amused him, things that annoyed him that they amused him. It would get ugly. And probably more uncomfortable for Nursey, now that he thought about it. He lifted a hand and scratched at the side of his nose.
“Ooh, are you fishing for compliments?” He grinned and tossed his second pizza crust into the box. “Don’t be dumb. While you are the whitest white boy to ever white…” Nursey slung an arm around Dex’s shoulders and pulled him towards the kitchen door. They really needed to get back with the rest of the partygoers or Nursey was going to embarrass himself. “...You’re also a six-two hockey player with broad shoulders and pretty eyes. I’m reasonably certain you’ll have no problem hooking up if you just smile like...twice.”
“Is it fishing for compliments to point out that like, literal Captain America is here? Which I’m still not really used to, for the record,” he pointed out, jerking a little in shock when Nursey’s arm ended up slung over his shoulder. “I didn’t know you made a habit of staring into my eyes, Nurse,” he deadpanned, not willing to admit to himself that the arm around him felt nice - nice enough that he placed a hand on Nursey’s upper back just under the guise of steadying them both. No other reason.
“Regardless, most people are like- drunk as fuck and I’m not. I don’t need a lecture from Shitty to know that’d be fucked up,” he shrugged but he allowed himself to be pulled back to the party, squinting a little at the sudden darkness compared to the kitchen lights. “How long is it ‘til midnight, anyway? My phone’s dead as fuck.”
Nursey didn’t have a good counter to being called out about the eyes comment. And he was entirely too drunk to come up with one on the fly. He just shrugged and made a face that said let me live, Poindexter. Or at least, he thought it did.
“Iiiii...have no idea what time it is.” He suddenly really really didn’t want to know. Dex had a good point about consent, of course, and people doing stupid shit while drunk. Hadn’t he just been worried about that same thing? Nursey felt his anxiety levels spike. A panic attack would be a very, very unwelcome thing right about now. He abruptly flailed away from Dex to pat all his pockets in search of his phone, needing the distraction.
“You know…,” he hummed, as his search came up empty. “...Time is a construct. Let’s just...go to the backyard and wait for the screaming to start.”
Nursey shot him a look that he was sure might have been intended as- sexy? Or disappointed? He wasn’t actually sure what he was going for, but Dex just raised an eyebrow in response to that and rolled his shoulders back, nodding a little. “We can head out back,” maybe it was a good idea for Nursey to sober up a bit or… something. He felt a little bad for dragging him from the party but if Nursey wanted to be with him he wasn’t exactly going to complain too much - which made a change, but. Apparently Dex’s mind was all kinds of fucked right now.
He took Nursey’s wrist gently, leading the two of them through the crowds and out the back door into the cool night air where everything was suddenly way too quiet. “You feeling okay?”
It was getting harder for Nursey to hold onto the thread. Maybe the last few drinks were catching up with him. All he could focus on was Dex holding his wrist and the beat of the music inside the house. Suddenly they were outside and it was a little too December to be without a shirt. Thankfully, growing up in New York gave him a thick skin. Think enough not to freak out and run back inside anyway.
“I’m…chill, Dexy,” he said, smirking a little at the pun. He felt a little dizzy though, so he moved towards the porch railing. “Are you feeling okay?” The noise inside was starting to ramp up. Midnight was close.
"Ugh," he rolled his eyes but there was a smile creeping at the corners of his mouth that he couldn't really deny as he shrugged off his jacket, throwing it over his head. Drunk people got colder fast and were in more danger of getting sick, right? He could definitely handle the cold.
He glanced to the door at the noise and then to the sky, wondering when the fireworks would start. "Why do people always say New Year, New Me?" He asked eventually, desperate to change the subject from his brain deciding that thinking about kissing him was the way to go here.
“Oh shit, what--” Nursey stopped a step away from the railing, his hands quickly raised to pull the jacket off his head. It wasn’t like the first time Dex had done something considerate but it still startled Nursey into silent blinking for a moment. The question didn’t help. He frowned and stuck an arm into one of the jacket sleeves.
“Is that your way of telling me you’re not okay, Poindexter?” He slipped an arm into the other sleeve and tried not to be too obvious about how all his drunk senses were warmed in more ways than one. The way he tripped closer, smiling and curious, holding the lapels of Dex’s jacket close to his face probably gave him away. “I think people just...need hope. We need to believe that anything can happen, we can change, the world can change, things will get better…”
The countdown started inside and Nursey realized he was closer to Dex than he meant to get.
It was so… straight out of a Hallmark movie that Dex snorted softly, not managing to put his usual vitriol behind his response to him because he sort of hoped that it was true, in some respects. He was very much a pessimist when it came to this kind of thing but Vallo had always felt different - home didn’t matter here, after all. Not in the way that it did when he had to deal with consequences from his family.
“That’s so cheesy,” he informed him, breath misting in front of him in the cold night air. Nursey looked good in his jacket and he only just realised how nose-to-nose they suddenly were, swallowing hard when he heard the start of the countdown and stared right back at him, resting his hand on his upper arm. “D’you think it’ll get better?” he asked eventually, much quieter than before.
Nursey narrowed his eyes at that’s so cheesy but the effect was ruined by the smirk at the corner of his mouth. It felt like maybe he wasn’t imagining this moment. Dex gave him his jacket. Dex was touching his arm. They hadn’t devolved into a real fight in...days? Weeks?
“I’m…”
“Five, Four...”
“...starting to think it might,” Nursey murmured.
At two, he decided to be brave and lean in, leaving the last few inches for Dex to cross or flee from. Maybe he’d push him away. Maybe he’d just laugh and put a hand over his dumb face. God, maybe that would be better--
Nursey’s thought process was cut off by the porch railing giving way under his hand and him falling to the loud cheering and banging coming from inside the house.
Dex couldn’t be imagining this. Nursey was definitely leaning in, right? He swallowed when he heard the countdown to one and leant in himself but when he did, there was nothing in the Nursey shaped space that he had been occupying just a second before Dex had closed his eyes and there was an accompanying crack as the porch railing gave away, mostly blending in to the sudden sound of fireworks exploding above them.
He opened his eyes with a frown and saw the rotting railing suddenly gone - Shit, I fixed that didn’t I he thought as he stared down at Nursey on the lawn, hopping down next to him with wide eyes once his brain caught up. “Shit- Nurse, are you okay? Did you hit your head?” he gently touched through his hair and over the back of his neck, squinting at his hands in the dark to check for blood. “Please don’t tell me you broke something again?” his attempt at joke-annoyed was overshadowed by the genuine worry because he was drunk and prone to breaking things, if their second year had been anything to go by.
It wasn’t like Nursey was shocked. This was his lot in life to fall on his face. Or ass as the case may be. At least this time he didn’t say “yo” as he tumbled through the broken railing and landing in the grass with wood under him. He groaned but then Dex’s hands were on him, tender and worried, and Nursey thought well, this wasn’t so bad. This could have gone much worse, after all.
He was absolutely reading into things but it was chill.
(It was absolutely not chill. Nursey was embarrassed to a degree that he hadn’t felt since his early private school days.)
“I’ve broken my pride, Billiam.” He wiggled away until he was laying flat on the ground and threw an arm over his face dramatically. He was definitely getting grass stains on Dex’s jacket. Damn it. “Just leave me here to die. I promise I won’t haunt you. Much.”
Dex’s face turned instantly grumpy at the nickname and he rolled his eyes, standing up and brushing off his knees. Whatever the moment was had been pretty much destroyed by the whole… Nursey nearly breaking his neck deal that had just happened and Dex picked up a section of the broken rail, squinting at it. “Gonna need to get some wood to fix that. This is one of those things that I had fixed back when I was staying here,” he grumbled, glancing down at him.
“...I’m gonna get you some water or something,” he stated simply because his cheeks were red from the knowledge that they’d been about to kiss and he desperately needed an escape and a moment from that and Nursey could probably do with sobering up some now, right? He let him lay in the grass as he headed inside to grab said water and contemplate his life choices at the same time.