brand gartner (branner) wrote in hotelcali, @ 2016-03-14 19:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | brand gartner, joel cappadocia |
Who: Brand & Joel
What: Finally starting to get their shit sort of together
Where: Takraw Clubhouse
When: Backdated to Thursday Feb 18th
Rating: They probably use swear words
Joel was in his room, pacing. He was fighting with his corkboard again. It had four or five keywords, each written on an index card and tacked to it in different spots of the corkboard. He had a handful of darts that he walked around the room with while he paced, occasionally throwing one for one of the index cards as he tried to decide which would be the best option for the plot of his next fiction book. Or series. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to do another series. A series would keep him trapped in the same ‘world’ or work for a handful of years. As much as he enjoyed the world he had created for the series that was ending now, he wasn’t sure he wanted to subject himself to another similar situation.
Joel had basically been pacing about the room, occasionally sitting down to do a few searches related to each plot idea, for almost two hours. He was starting to wonder if he should go for a run or go to the gym. He had already been there this morning, but maybe another stop would help clear some of the cobwebs from his brain again. He finished throwing the last three darts in his hand and started toward his bureau to grab some workout clothes to change into. On his way over, his stomach growled and reminded him that he hadn’t actually eaten anything since he had returned from the gym earlier in the day.
With a change of plans, Joel left the gym clothes on the bed and head for his bedroom door. He made his way into the kitchen and started rummaging, looking for something he wanted to make or cook, he wasn’t entirely sure which he preferred at the moment and his brain wasn’t helping since it was still stuck thinking about plot ideas.
The front door opened a minute later and a dog burst in with a bark as Brand followed behind with her leash. “You gotta slow down,” he chided her as he shut the door behind him and knelt down to undo the clasp. Takraw barked again once she was freed and Brand had a chance to ruffle her fur before she peeled off for the kitchen. That's when he noticed Joel (Kraw clearly hoped she was going to be fed again) and it kind of made him tense up as he moved to stand.
Being around Joel lately was both a little easier and a little harder in different ways. It was mostly harder because Brand had to make a conscious effort not to look sad in Joel’s presence, and it stressed him out worrying if his face was slipping or not. On top of that, they were still in limbo and the text conversation they'd had the week before only made things more murky and complicated. Brand was back to feeling kind of hopeful and he was mad at himself for it because it was only going to end badly. It was exhausting in general to be around Joel, which completely sucked because that's not the way things were supposed to be around your best friend.
“Hey,” Brand greeted, forcing a small smile as he pressed the button to pull the leash back into the handle he was holding. He brought his attention back down to the dog and added, “C’mon, you literally just ate before I took you out.”
Joel – accidentally! – knocked a slice of deli pickle off of the counter next to him and was too late when he went to reach for it since the dog barreled in and made it there before he had even finished putting the knife down. “Now your dad’s gonna yell at me,” he sighed. He looked over his shoulder when Brand appeared. “Hey,” He said, trying his best not to instantly feel awkward. He turned back to the pickle and tomato he was slicing for the sandwich he was attempting to build. “Want a sandwich?” He asked.
Brand groaned out a sigh as he watched Takraw slobber all over the floor, but he didn't bother scolding either of them any further. He set the leash down on the edge of the dining room table and looked over at Joel when he offered some food.
“Uh, sure.” Brand was hungry and had been planning to eat when he got home anyway. “Thanks.” He made a point to smile again and moved around the island to wash his hands at the sink in the corner. The whole time the water was running he racked his brain for a conversation starter, since he couldn't very well retreat to his room while Joel was making a sandwich.
As he dried his hands he leaned against the patch of counter next to the stove and finally settled on the brilliant, “What’re you up to?” A moment later he added, “‘Sides eating.”
Joel nodded and made sure to cut enough for two sandwiches. He piled both high with different kinds of lunchmeat, cheese, spinach (Joel really hated lettuce on sandwiches), pickles and all that jazz. He made Brand’s sandwich just slightly different than his own since he knew what to leave out and what to add that wasn’t on his own sandwich. He shrugged while he was focused on sandwich duty. “Was trying to work, couldn’t get anything done. I was gonna go back to the gym but,” he shrugged again. “Stomach growled and I realized I haven’t eaten since my workout this morning.” He said as he cut each sandwich in half and then started wrapping things and cleaning up after his mess.
Brand crossed his arms and watched as Joel worked, keeping his eyes on the sandwich action and avoiding Joel's face. He considered offering to help, but it would have been close quarters. So he kept his distance. "Working on the new book or stuff for this one?" he asked.
“New book,” Joel answered. He had sandwiches to focus on. He loaded up the rewrapped lunch meat and fixings in one arm and went to the fridge. “Still haven’t decided on plot, though,” He said. “So I’m kind of stalled there. I blame the beard. Clearly my brain can’t figure out what area of routine we’re in while it’s still there.” He said with a smirk as he stowed
the items in the fridge.
Brand smiled just a tiny bit. “I don't know how you can focus on it anyway, with everything going on.” He added quickly to clarify, “With the other book coming out.” He certainly wasn't going to presume other stuff was occupying Joel’s mind. But anyway: “When can you shave?”
Joel shrugged. “Thinking about everything going on with the book release leads to mental overload if I focus on it for too long,” He said. “It’s nice to disappear into other worlds where I’m not the one who’s got problems to solve...provided I can figure out another world to disappear into, I guess,” He shrugged again. “No idea on the shaving,” He added as he closed the fridge and went to grab a couple of plates for their sandwiches. He handed Brand’s to him first before he went rummaging again for a bag of chips to dump a few handfuls of them on his plate.
“I guess that makes sense,” Brand said before taking the plate and thanking Joel. He put it down on the island and went to the fridge to pull out a couple of beers, figuring Joel would want one too. “I heard you hitting the dart board lately so I guess I should've figured.” After opening both bottles on the magnet on the fridge door, he handed one over to Joel. “Come up with anything you think you might wanna get into?”
Joel grabbed a couple of napkins for each of them. “Thanks,” he said when Brand handed over the beer. “Living room?” He asked as he pulled his plate from the counter and started walking that way. “I have a couple of extremely vague ideas I’ve been playing around with. Nothing I’ve been able to really nail down into something usable yet,” He took a drink from his beer as he sat down and then put the beer on a coaster on the coffee table to he could dig into his sandwich as his stomach grumbled. “How was the park?” He wasn’t exactly sure if that’s where Brand and the dog had been, but, eh, it was a question to ask, right?
Brand had been planning on escaping to his room, but now he was stuck. He couldn't exactly beg off now. So he followed Joel into the living room and sat down with a couch cushion's amount of space between them. Takraw had followed and Brand nudged her away from the coffee table with his foot. He nodded as Joel explained about his book, trying to think about what to ask next (why was talking so hard now??) and luckily Joel gave him an out.
"Crowded," he said before taking a drink from his beer. "Everyone must've stayed in because of the rain yesterday so now they all came out again. There was another dog there that looked like Kraw and they ran around together for a bit. That dog was a girl too." He glanced down at the dog, who was staring at up at him. "Kraw's way prettier."
Joel looked at the dog, who tilted her head when she looked his way as if asking if he was gonna drop anything else. Joel was immediately tempted to do so at the risk of being scolded. Nothing on his sandwich was detrimental to dogs since he didn’t like onions on his sandwiches. “Awww,” He said to her. “Did you make puppy friends?” He asked before he tossed a chip into his mouth. One accidentally dropped chip for the dog to take advantage of wouldn’t really hurt, would it? Really? Joel tried to let his mind keep wandering on stupid shit like that so that he didn’t focus on the fact that Brand sat farther away from him than he normally would have. “How crazy do you think she’s gonna be getting used to Ali’s dog being around and sharing the backyard?”
“She likes trying to herd dogs at the park so I bet she's gonna do it to Blitz,” Brand said, eyeing Joel’s plate warily. He'd been having a lot of trouble figuring out what Joel was thinking lately, but he was pretty sure what was going through the guy’s mind now. “Don't,” he warned, nodding toward the chips. “I don't want her to beg all the time.”
“Be interesting to see how a cop dog handles that,” Joel mused with a smirk. He tossed another chip in his mouth and lifted his sandwich half. His eyebrows arched and he looked over toward Brand, facial expression the picture of innocence. “What?” He asked just before he took a large bite from his sandwich. He glanced at the dog as he put the sandwich piece back down on the plate in his lap.
“You know ‘what’,” Brand rolled his eyes. He took another quick sip of his beer and then took a bite of his sandwich. It was good, of course, since Joel knew the way he liked them made. “Aren't cop dogs good at being submissive? Maybe she--he?” He couldn't remember if Blitz was a girl dog or a boy dog. “Maybe it'll listen if Kraw’s dominant enough.” He shrugged before taking another bite. He didn't really know how that kind of stuff worked even though the instructor had gone over it a bit in the dog training classes.
Joel shrugged. “I guess so? I mean, to their owners slash partners? Are they considered partners? Do you think it has a badge? I wonder if she could teach it to pull out its badge and toss on some sunglasses when it’s stopping someone while sniffing things at the airport. Or wherever,” Joel got a little lost on that tangent between bites of his sandwich. “Anyway, they’re submissive to their handler and trainer, basically, right? Unless given certain commands? Does it work at the park? The herding?” Joel was usually too busy observing the different dog owners and their mannerisms in an attempt to figure out if he could use them while writing, whenever he did happen to go with Brand and the dog to the park.
Congrats to Joel, because he actually managed to get Brand snickering a little at the idea of a dog having a police badge. Brand swallowed down another bite of his sandwich before saying, “Sometimes. Depends on the dogs. But I also try to stop her when she does it ‘cause it's not really good dog park behavior.”
Joel tried not to focus too much on the fact that he had made Brand laugh even though it was kind of a relief to hear since it hadn’t exactly happened around each other all that much. “Do other sheep dogs try to herd her?” That sounded wrong. He wanted to say so but he didn’t, he just kept eating his sandwich and trying not to have staring contests with Takraw whenever he ate a potato chip. He didn’t really know what was going to happen once they were done their sandwiches but figured it was likely Brand would disappear into his room, which he supposed would leave him free to get changed and go to the gym again. It was still a bummer to think about.
“She doesn't really let herself be herded, that I've seen,” Brand said, looking down at Kraw as he chewed. Better to look at her than Joel. Brand was definitely planning on making himself scarce after he finished eating, even though this conversation was going reasonably well. It was going to be hard to keep it up once the food was gone. It was hard keeping it up even now, when Brand kept thinking back to those texts they'd sent each other the week before. More stuff just hanging around, confusing, unresolved, and unlikely to be brought up again by Joel. Maybe they needed to get drunk together sometime. Maybe that would help them talk to each other. Probably a bad idea though, considering what happened the last time they got really drunk together.
Joel looked down at his plate. He picked his beer up for a couple of gulps of it and then went back to the second half of sandwich. “We should get her a flock of BB8’s and see what kind of chaos it causes,” He mused.
Brand smiled a little bit (but hey, at least it was genuine) before taking a sip from his beer. “That'd make for some cute pictures.”
Joel caught that out of the corner of his eye. It was at least something. “I think you’re biased enough that you’d think any picture of her is cute,” He pointed out with a smirk. He slowly finished off the last of his sandwich and about half his beer. It was down to his chips after that and he took his time with those, though he didn’t drop any for the dog. He figured with half the beer and the food in his gut, by the time he changed and made his way over to the gym, he would feel alright running through his usual routine…for the second time that day.
“Well, yeah,” Brand readily agreed. “She is the prettiest dog in the world.” The conversation slowed after that, so Brand focused trying to eat as quickly as possible without making it obvious that he was doing so.
Joel finished his food and wiped his mouth and hands off. He pulled himself from the couch and carried his plate and half-finished beer to the kitchen so he could put the plate in the dishwasher. He dumped the rest of the beer since he wasn’t going to finish it and tossed the bottle into the recycles can. He tossed his napkin into the trash and then went and washed his hands finally. “I’m heading to the gym to try and clear the plot cobwebs,” He said, hesitating before he made his way to his room so he could change and head out, trying his best not to seem too hasty about it.
It was weird to be filled with relief once Joel got up, but there it was. Brand just continued eating as Joel took care of stuff in the kitchen and only turned to look at him when he spoke. “Thanks for lunch,” Brand said. Once Joel was out of sight, Brand noticeably felt himself relax and slump against the back cushion of the couch. He looked down at the dog, who tilted her head at him. Brand shook his head and after a moment, sat up again to quickly finish off the sandwich. Then he cleaned up and took his beer into his room before Joel had a chance to re-emerge from his own.
Joel spent a long time at the gym. His normal routine would have taken him somewhere around two hours. Since it was his second round of the day, he had been a bit slower and had gone just a little bit lighter on the weights. He had tacked on another extra hour, clocked on a stationary bike while he randomly jotted down potential writing notes in a tiny notebook, though there weren’t as many to jot down as he normally had while exercising since Joel was highly distracted by the other stuff going on in his life, namely the stuff with Brand and the book release and all that. By the time he was finished at the gym, Joel was still frustrated. Only now he felt extra worn out. And hungry. He was hungry again. That last part probably wouldn’t have been surprising to anyone, really. When he was just a few blocks from home, he called for Chinese takeout and ordered enough for the rest of the house, doing his best to remember what Keegan ordered whenever they ordered in and she was home.
Joel figured by the time he was done with his shower and changing, the food would be there. Just in case, he left enough cash on the table by the door so that Keegan or Brand could pay if he was still in the shower. It didn’t seem like Keegan was home. The dog came out to inspect for intruders and sniffed at Joel’s legs as he gave her head a few pets and headed first toward his room. “It’s just me,” He called out for Brand. “I ordered food. There’s money by the door in case I’m not out of the shower in time,” He added even though he was well aware that Brand would have figured it out. Joel dropped his gym bag, kicked off his sneakers and peeled off his socks. He turned to hear for the hall with the intention of heading to the bathroom he shared with Brand to get a shower but stopped in his own doorway and looked at Brand’s mostly closed door (open enough for the dog to make it in and out) for a long moment. He started to overthink everything going on with Brand again, which was annoying because overthinking it was making everything more difficult. All of this was much easier when alcohol was involved.
Joel couldn’t decide if that was the kind of thought he should have taken as a warning or not but before he could overthink that thought as well, he took the few steps to Brand’s door and knocked on it. This time, much like the last time he had done it, he didn’t quite wait for a reply. Instead he pushed the door open and stepped inside the threshold. He opened his mouth as he took a breath to speak but his jaw just hung there suspended for a moment, somewhat like it had when he had gone grocery shopping with Keegan.
Brand had been working since Joel was out. He edited some pictures he'd taken earlier that day and planned out future posts for his different social media accounts. He was in the middle of saving some drafts for the blog when Joel called out about the food. Brand had called back in acknowledgment, so he was surprised to hear the knock at his door not too long after.
“Yeah?” He spun around in his desk chair and furrowed his brow when he saw Joel standing there like that. “What's wrong?”
Joel hesitated again. He let out a frustrated grunt and, just before his feet moved again, he muttered a barely audible, “Fuckit.” Then he crossed the room in a few quick strides to where Brand was sitting at his desk, grabbed him by the sides of his face and kissed him rather than clumsily fail to speak like a coherent human being like last time.
Brand didn't have enough time to process what was about to happen before it happened, and then it was happening and he still didn't fully understand it. His eyebrows flew way up and he was kind of stuck in place for a second, but some part of his brain knew the proper response to Joel kissing him was to kiss back. So he parted his lips and leaned in, but it wasn't long before he finally started thinking and he leaned back again. The desk chair leaned back with him.
"Wait...what's this mean?" Brand asked with a dubious frown as he lifted his hands to pull Joel's away by his wrists. Yeah, Brand was gonna make Joel use his words, even though his heart was beating a little crazy and he felt kinda dizzy and he really just wanted to lean in and keep kissing him. But Brand needed to know what was going on, for sure.
Well, shit. Joel really didn’t want to fuck up another conversation between them. Hadn’t he already done that enough? Couldn’t Brand let him skate on it just this once? Apparently not. “It means I have feelings for you and I’m trying not to fuck up another conversation by putting my foot in my mouth,” He blurted.
Brand’s stomach did a weird flippy-floppy thing, which wasn't really a feeling he was super familiar with. “Oh,” he said stupidly, blinking at Joel.
Joel wasn’t completely sure how to interpret that so he took it as an invitation to go back to the kissing because it seemed like it was the best course of action to take at the moment.
Brand leaned back in and didn't pull away this time, even though they still had a lot to talk about. Like, a lot to talk about. But...they could talk later? Brand had to trust that Joel wasn't just doing this lightly and Brand wasn't opening himself up for more pain and disappointment. Joel wouldn't fuck around with him like that again, even if this did feel way too good to be true. Plus Brand always thought Joel smelled really good after he came back from the gym, so. Brand moved his hands into Joel's hair and pulled him closer by the back of his head, which couldn't have been super comfortable considering Brand was still sitting down and Joel was leaning over. Brand wasn't really paying attention to that, though.
Definitely not the most comfortable position to be in for this, yeah. Worse yet was the fact that the dog nearly took his leg right out from under him when she went running (and barking) for the door when the bell rang for the food delivery, which left Joel wobbling to regain his balance so he didn’t just go crashing to the floor.
"Jesus," Brand said, pulling back as he reflexively moved one of his hands to Joel's arm to steady him. It took him a moment to figure out why the doorbell rang. Oh yeah, food. On one hand this was bad because they had to stop kissing, but on the other hand maybe this would give them a reason to get that talking thing out of the way.
Joel managed to regain his footing with a somewhat frustrated sigh. He pulled himself upright as the doorbell rang again and the dog went on howling again at the door. “Sorry,” He muttered as he turned on much steadier feet and went jogging out of the room and toward the door. He grabbed the money from the table and held Takraw by the collar as he opened the door to hand the money over in exchange for the food. When the door was shut without the dog escaping, he let go of her collar and carried the bag of food toward the kitchen while his stomach grumbled in anticipation of being fed.
Brand stared after him as he left the room, and then just sat there for a few seconds as his brain finally got a chance to catch up to everything going on. Holy shit? Holy shit. Yeah, they really needed to talk. Well, they needed to talk for at least a couple of months now.
Once Brand heard Joel shut the front door, he finally got up out of his chair and headed to the kitchen. "What'd you order?" he asked, glancing at Takraw as she tried to watch the delivery person from the front window.
Joel set the bag down on the counter and started to unload it. “Chinese,” He said. “I ordered on my way home. Wasn’t sure if Keegan was here, so I tried to remember what she usually orders too,” he shrugged. “But I guess she can yell at me later if I got it wrong,” Not that she would, but still.
"It's Chinese," Brand shrugged, pulling a couple of plates down from the cabinet. "Everything's good." At least everything in the American version of Chinese take-out was, anyway. He set the plates down next to where Joel was setting out the containers and started opening them up. "I think she's at one of her training classes," he said, setting aside one of the containers of rice. He tried to focus on the food and not on being next to Joel, who had just been kissing him a minute earlier.
“True,” Joel was good at focusing on food, especially in a post-gym capacity. He could handle food focus for now even though his mind was wandering more than usual. He finished grabbing the last container and then set the bag in the sink to toss trash into. “Then again, I think the only thing Juls ever orders from Chinese is sweet and sour chicken and she still refuses to actually eat it with the sauce,” He smirked of his sister’s fear of expanding her Chinese food palate as he found the container with the beef lo mein he had ordered and started dumping some onto one of the plates.
Brand snickered a little as he pulled a couple of egg rolls out of another container. "It's like, she may as well just go to KFC. Your sister's weird," he said, and not for the first time. He piled up some fried rice and General Tso's before taking the lo mein container from Joel to add a little of that as well.
Once Brand's plate was full (or full for him, because that wasn't even close to full compared to Joel's portions) he set it down on the island and asked, "D'you want beer or...?" Something else? Maybe something stronger? Would that help? Brand thought it would help himself, at least. He couldn’t believe they were about to calmly sit down and have a meal after what just happened in his room.
Joel just smirked at Brand’s comment about his sister. He was busy loading his plate with bits of pretty much everything. He could believe they were about to calmly sit down to a meal after that, but it was Joel. He could sit down to a meal after a lot of things most people would balk at. He shook his head. “Water,” Always water with Chinese food. Well, okay, sometimes soda. Beer just didn’t quite taste right with it.
The old standby, then. Okay. Brand nodded and got a water for Joel but a beer for himself. He handed the water over and then took his plate and drink to the dining room table. That seemed better suited for a conversation. Also the dog would beg less.
“Thanks,” Joel said as he took the glass. He grabbed a few napkins, his plate and a fork, then followed Brand to the dining room table and settled into his regular seat. Once he was settled and preparing to dig into his lo mein first, he finally spoke again. “Okay,” He said with a light, resigned sigh. “Where do you want to start?” He asked, twirling up a forkful of noodles and extra pieces before he lifted his fork for a large bite.
Brand’s shoulders slumped a little in relief as he chewed on a bite of eggroll. Honestly, he was worried Joel was going to fight him on this, so Brand was glad he started. He furrowed his brow in thought as he chewed and then said, “Are we…” before changing his mind and saying, “What happens now?”
Joel half sighed and let a small smirk along his lips. "You're not going to like it when I say I'm not exactly sure, are you?" He asked.
Brand frowned. "No," he shook his head and reached for his beer. "As long as we actually talk about it to try and figure it out."
Joel finished chewing a mouthful of food and wiped of his mouth with a napkin – if he was just allowed to shave, less stuff would get stuck in his face, damnit!). “In fairness, I think a lot of whatever happens now is probably up to you, in light of the competing factors of your parents and my upcoming blast of publicity,” Right?
m
Brand arched his eyebrows, not expecting the ball to be in his court since it had been in Joel’s for so long. But it wasn't as though he needed time to think about this or anything. “I want to do this,” he said, sitting up a little straighter in his chair. “However my parents react, I'll figure it out. But I wanna do this with you.” He furrowed his brow because he wasn't sure what Joel wanted or felt beyond what he’d just said in the bedroom. It still seemed too good to be true, so Brand remained dubious. “I mean, as long as you want to do it too.”
Joel nodded, since his mouth was full at the moment. What? The guy could eat, okay? “Yeah,” He added once he had swallowed enough of his food. “But how do you want to go about it?” He asked. “Are we supposed to pretend it’s not happening, I mean? For them?” He picked his water up and took a drink from it to wash everything down.
This time Brand’s eyebrows only arched up in the middle of his forehead and he smiled just a tiny bit. It took him a moment before he remembered he had questions to answer. “Um. Could we? For now? Maybe just...just tell a few people, that we trust, until I'm ready?” He frowned again in concern even though they'd kinda already talked about this over text. “Would you be okay with that?”
Joel shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t mind, if that’s how you want to do it,” He said. It was kind of a bummer that it was necessary, but he had already said all those things about not really wanting to be the reason his parents disowned him, soooooo.
Brand nodded. It felt weird to be discussing something like this over Chinese food, like it was nothing, but he couldn't exactly complain for a wide variety of reasons. They were talking, which was what he'd been looking for. It was just that he was feeling a few too many emotions at the moment to pay much attention to his own food. “Okay. But if you start to mind, or if it starts affecting things with your book stuff...for whatever reason, you'll tell me, right? I want you to tell me.”
Joel doubted his own abilities to speak up about something like that in the future. He mulled it over as he ate another bite of his food. He nodded. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll try,” Sometimes he knew his limits. He likely wasn’t going to push Brand to force his hand on telling his parents something like this. On account of the stuff about not wanting to drive a wedge between Brand and his parents. He knew it was a weird thing to hold onto, but he also knew that a lot of what Brand said in his text was talk and that Brand would feel like shit if something like that happened. Which would suck, obviously, and Joel knew that, since he’d already lost one of his parents and he imagined losing them both at the same time was much worse.
Brand nodded again before taking a quick sip from his beer bottle. As he set it back down on the table, he asked, "Are you going to tell your family? It's okay if you wanna." Brand didn't think Joel's mom, at least, would go blabbing to his own family. She knew what Brand's parents were like.
“Yeah, most likely,” Joel wasn’t all that hesitant at all to answer the question. “When I talk to them next,” he shrugged his shoulders. “I doubt mom would say anything your parents. Juls and Bec wouldn’t either, so,” he shrugged again as he picked up his water glass and looked over at Brand. “You sure that’s okay?” It was kind of unfair that he’d get to tell his family and Brand didn't.
Well, the difference was that Joel was someone who enjoyed sharing things with his family in the first place, while Brand was not. Even when it came to stuff they didn't morally object to. Anyway, the idea that Joel was so easily willing to tell his family about this was kind of exciting and made it feel a little more real. “Yeah, course it's okay,” Brand said, smiling a little. “I’d want you to.” He took a bite of another egg roll and after swallowing continued, “And we’d have to tell Keegan obviously. And I'd like to tell Spencer.” He paused with a frown. “I kinda already told her what was going on. I needed someone to talk to about it. I hope that's okay. I knew she wouldn't go telling people.”
Joel grinned a little since it was nice to see Brand actually smiling around him and not looking like a kicked puppy or faking a smile or something along those lines. He nodded about telling Keegan and wondered if she’d be relieved or more irritated than when he tagged along to her grocery shopping trip. He hadn’t realized how bad her work day that she had been coming off of had been until later on, on Wednesday afternoon when he had seen some of the news articles while browsing for random ideas to kick start his brain or to incorporate somewhere. He looked down at his plate and took his time twirling up another forkful of his lo mein. “Ahh…yeah,” he shrugged. “That’s fine,” He nodded and then scrunched his nose a bit. “I may have mentioned a few things to Clare about it while we were in Cabo…” He confessed and maybe…maybe, okay?...flushed a shade of pink or two in the cheeks before he stuffed his mouth full of food.
Brand’s eyebrows arched up in surprise, and they hiked up even more when Joel started turning colors. “You're blushing,” he said, twisting his mouth up in an amused smirk. “Wow.”
Joel tried not to flush any further as she chewed and swallowed his food. “Too much hot mustard,” He made a feeble attempt to excuse as he washed his food down with some water. “I feel it’s also important to note that…I dunno what your feelings on the matter are, but…” he looked over at Brand and with the most serious expression he could muster said, “At no point are we going to put things up my Butt.”
Brand was in the middle of taking a sip from his beer bottle, so he ended up nearly choking on it as he let out a burst of surprised laughter. “Jesus Christ,” he sputtered, picking up a napkin to clean up what he'd spilled. He snickered as he looked at Joel. “Noted.”
Joel cracked a grin at Brand’s reaction and then nodded. “Good. Glad that’s settled,” his lips broke into a crooked little smirk.
Brand smiled back a little stupidly as he balled up the napkin and set it down on the table. It was nice smiling in Joel’s direction again. He looked down at his plate and pulled in a long breath before saying, “I don't want you to do anything you don't wanna do. I just want to note that too, like in general.” He picked up the other half of the eggroll and gave Joel another small smile.
Joel nodded. “Noted,” he said around a mouthful of food with a little half salute. “And ditto,” He added. Not that he could think of what that might entail at the moment but he figured it would be a decent thing to reciprocate.
Brand chuckled and smiled a little wider before finishing off the eggroll. He washed it down with another drink of beer and arched his eyebrows a little. “So, like...am I the only guy you've…?”
“Yeah,” Joel was not going to blush. Joel was not going to blush. He was going to eat his food. He glanced over at Brand. “Is that okay?” He hadn’t actually considered this amidst all of his worst-case scenario thoughts.
"Yeah!" Brand assured him quickly with a few nods. "Of course it's okay. It's actually...I mean, it's kinda hot actually," he admitted, "but, uh, I figured that was the case anyway. Just wasn't sure."
Joel blushed at that one, and mentally cursed his apparent bashfulness on this subject. This had never been an issue for him before. “I’ll take this advantage in my favor for however long it lasts,” He decided with a smirk and a chuckle.
Brand snickered quietly. "You're blushing, like a lot," he observed with a eye-crinkly smile. He couldn't remember ever really seeing Joel like this when it came to things like sex and relationships. Brand hoped this was a good thing, or at least a neutral thing. Anything but a bad thing.
Joel balled up one of his napkins and tossed it at Brand. “Well don’t call attention to it, geeeez!” He sighed, mostly joking...except for the fact that Brand’s comment made his ears a bit more pink. Evil.
Brand laughed and lifted his hand to bat the napkin away before it had a chance to hit his face. The dog went right after it. "Wow, look at your ears," he snickered, staying alert in preparation for any other objects that could be thrown his way. "D'you, like, have a crush on me or something?"
The second tossed object was a mushroom slice, aimed right for Brand’s nose. “Not for long if you keep picking on me!” He was obviously joking, and very maturely so. A piece of shrimp toast would be next on the lobbing list, Joel was discreetly tearing it off in preparation.
Brand missed the mushroom and it hit him square in the nose. Despite his continued laughter, he managed to catch it before it fell in his lap, and tossed it in his mouth right after. "That's so cute," he grinned as he chewed. "Fucking adorable."
Annnnnnd shrimp toast sailing across the table. Well, a piece of it went sailing across the table at Brand and the other half of it went into Joel’s mouth. “Har har,” He smirked.
It landed on the floor next to Brand and the dog made a beeline for it. Brand managed to lean down and pick it up before she could grab it. "Stop throwing food!" he laughed as he straightened up again and set the half a rectangle down on the table, out of Kraw's reach. "Put it in your mouth instead. Are you done eating yet?" he asked, nodding toward Joel's plate. Brand had barely even touched his own, but he was still too hyped up to do so.
Joel looked at his mostly finished plate. “Almost,” He said. Within a few more forkfuls he was done. “Are you not going to eat?” He asked when he was lifting his plate and glass of water and standing up to head for the kitchen.
"I'm not super hungry right now." Still, Brand scooped up some bites of fried rice and ate one last eggroll before getting up. He took his beer and plate over to the kitchen counter and started putting the boxes of food away and out of Kraw's reach. Then he covered up his plate in saran wrap and stuck it in the fridge with the rest. He wasn't sure when Keegan was coming home, but it was probably going to be pretty soon. Once all that was done, he turned around to check on Joel's progress as he finished off his beer.
Joel pretty much cleaned his plate with a last mixed forkful of food. He rinsed of his plate, chugged down the rest of his water and then filled the cup again and chugged it down before both went into the dishwasher and he finished helping put the containers away. He grabbed the last of the trash and stuck it in the trashcan. “Your dad doesn’t understand true hunger like we do,” He said with a sigh as he looked down at the dog.
Kraw just tilted her head at Joel. Brand let out a good-natured sigh and tossed his now empty bottle into the bin for recycling. "Yeah, you both share the hunger for dog treats, we get it." He stepped over and grabbed Joel loosely by his wrist. "C'mon," Brand said, tugging him toward the hall.
"Clearly we get the finer parts of life where you don't,” Joel mused as he followed at Brand's lead along the hall. He was blushing less now, but there was a bit of a stupid grin on his face though.
“I think I'm okay with my low class lifestyle, in that case,” Brand smirked. He smiled wider when he saw Joel’s grin and ducked his head as he led the way to his room. (Brand wasn't really thinking about the fact that Joel still hadn't taken a shower since coming home from the gym.)
Joel was scarcely clothed really since he had been on his way toward the shower originally. He wasn't worried about showering at all just then so much as he was nervous about being a novice in regards to this new situation.
Kraw followed behind them, but Brand closed the door before she got a chance to enter the room. Brand made Joel sit down on the foot of the bed and then put his hands on Joel’s shoulders. Brand leaned down a little to look at him, smiling a tiny bit. “You really, really sure you wanna do this?”
Joel looked up at Brand and nodded. “Yes,” He answered while wondering if this was something Brand was going to continue to ask him in the future. Just because he maybe felt embarrassed that he wasn’t entirely sure who should do what, exactly, at the moment and felt like a total novice - which was a ridiculous thought in itself - didn’t mean he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do it or not.
Brand’s smile widened a little bit, but instead of responding he leaned in to kiss him. He wasn't sure when he was really gonna be sure this was real, but this stuff was a start.