GARY JOHNSON (HAWKE) + LUCAS DARBY (FENRIS)
G | COMPLETE
The idea of a waterpark had sounded outstanding. Gary was easy as far as outings went. If there were people and some kind of activity, he could make do. Even if he didn’t enjoy said activity, he could always get a kick out of making fun of said activity or just meeting new people in his sometimes – and often inexplicably – charming way. In case of wandering around a park with Lucas and both of them only half-dressed, Gary didn’t even need to mock the people trying to subtly extract wedgies out of their cracks as they exited the giant slide in front of them.
“Have I mentioned this is a really good look for you?” He smirked, head tilted to give Lucas an obnoxiously fond look. They may have been new to the dating part of this thing they were doing, but the looks were nothing new. “You have, pardon the cheesiness, a sun-kissed glow going on right now and it’s really really working.” In comparison, Gary was valiantly ignoring the fact that he hadn’t put sunscreen on himself since the first application as they climbed out of the car. It was fine. He’d be fine.
Lucas’s skin loved the sun. Spending time outdoors all summer long had given him a nice golden tan that he usually kept up well into the fall. The only reason he remembered to put on sunscreen at all was because he had spent too much money on tattoos to let them get faded before their time. He didn’t tend to think about sun protection much, which meant he wasn’t much help when it came to reminding Gary not to fry himself.
Which he definitely looked like he had done. They’d been out all day, and it was becoming clear that Gary wasn’t looking pink just because of the heat or screaming their way down waterslides.
“I’ll take the compliment, cheese included,” Lucas replied, giving one of those faint smiles that usually only Gary got to see. He wasn’t generally an emotionally effusive sort, which was a large part of why it had taken years of friendship before he had actually responded to one of Gary’s half-joking pick-up lines with something other than an eyeroll or a snort. “And while I’m all for seeing you without a shirt, I’m getting a little worried about how much sun you’ve gotten. Should we stop in one of these little gift shops and buy you some white people sunscreen to put on?”
“White people sunscreen,” Gary cackled. The hand he slapped over his heart as he laughed left a temporary flash of a white handprint against his skin and stung like a son of a bitch. He held back a hiss of pain, but the wince was pretty obvious. A sensible individual would’ve said yes, sunscreen is a splendid idea. Gary wasn’t sensible. Cynical enough to know it was probably much too late to save himself, yes. And definitely stubborn enough to put off what he really needed, which was to put on a shirt and go home.
“No, no, concern appreciated, but what we really should do is finding something terrible and greasy to stuff in our faces.” Gary stroked a hand up Lucas’ sun-warm back. It was a delight that he could do that now, but he was still carefully finding the line of what was okay in public. “What is it about swallowing gallons of chlorinated water that always makes me hungry enough to eat a horse?”
Lucas didn’t think “stay out in the sun some more” was actually the best idea, but he always preferred to let people make their own choices. He also had Gary’s same tendency toward cynicism--the ship of sunburn had already sailed, so they might as well get a funnel cake. Besides, most of the vendors of food had some kind of shade available, and that couldn’t hurt.
“I don’t know, but I was trying to decide how many extra miles I’d have to run tomorrow to justify two funnel cakes right now,” Lucas said. “So, yes. Food. Deep-fried amusement park food.” He didn’t move away from Gary’s hand; he leaned into the touch a little, in fact. It was nothing that anyone but Gary would notice, but it was significant, given how disinclined Lucas typically was toward public displays of affection unless he’d been drinking. He was still getting the hang of this “be in a relationship” thing.
It was nothing that anybody but Gary would notice, and boy did he. His smile somehow grew brighter and softer at the same time. Less dopey grinning, more smiling with the full weight of his heart in his eyes. He got ahold of himself quickly enough, but not before he risked pressing a light kiss to Lucas’ damp shoulder.
“I think we’ve done enough exercise already today to take care of the calories, but if you insist on torturing yourself with that thing called running, I suppose I won’t stand in your way.” Snorting a quiet laugh, he twisted away from Lucas to walk backwards in front of him like the idiot he was. He just wanted to look at him while he talked! Looking down and sideways always gave him a little crick in his neck. “In fact,” Gary announced cheerfully, “I think you’ve burned enough calories just looking hotter than the sun that stopping at two funnel cakes would be a waste. Unless they’re the ones with all the strawberries piled on t—“
All the talking with his hands ended abruptly as a child - apparently on his way to put out a fire - bowled him over from behind. He landed hard on the cement path. Because of course he did.
Lucas winced at the fall, immediately kneeling beside Gary to check on him. “Are you all right?” he asked, his eye-rolling comment on that cheap hotter than the sun line completely forgotten. It had looked like a painful fall - and an entirely avoidable one, but the experience of natural consequences seemed to eliminate the need for pointing that out. As much as Lucas genuinely did want a funnel cake, it was looking more and more like time to go home before Gary somehow caught fire and fell into a dumpster.
“Uugh,” Gary groaned. He rolled to try and sit up, but mostly ended up leaning against Lucas. If he ignored the throbbing in his ass bone, surely it would go away. “I’m fine. I’m great.” He raised a hand at the kid who was running away already, clearly undamaged. “Good luck with your future career as a linebacker!” He turned to Lucas and frowned. “...Is it the linebacker who sacks people? I don’t know, whatever.”
Waving a dismissive hand, he pushed himself back up to his feet. The world spun a little, but righted itself in no time. “Where were we? Ooh, funnel cakes!”
Lucas was still watching him with concern. Gary didn’t look concussed, but he didn’t look completely with it, either. Lucas placed a hand lightly on his arm, ready to come to the rescue just in case Gary took another crash.
“Funnel cakes, and then home,” he said. “I think after we get powdered sugar all over ourselves, we’ll have had enough fun for today.”
Under Gary’s cavalier exterior beat the heart of a stupidly insecure individual. He was usually very good at hiding it under sarcasm and misdirection, but Lucas often got to see more of the unfiltered him than anyone else. Poor guy.
“Oh,” Gary frowned. He blinked a few times and then looked away towards the food vendors. “Okay. Sure.” They hadn’t had the best luck with dates. He really shouldn’t overthink that, seeing as they always had a good time anyway and Lucas certainly seemed to enjoy his company, but again - stupidly insecure individual. His mood took a tiny little nosedive.
“Sorry I’m…,” he gestured vaguely at his sunburnt chest. A mess? “…Me. But funnel cakes make everything better and I’m not ashamed to lean into that.” With that, he smiled self-deprecatingly and hooked an arm around Lucas’ elbow to tug him towards the funnel cake cart.
Lucas frowned. Sometimes he felt like he was always doing this--he tried to help, and he just ended up saying the wrong thing and making it all worse. All he’d meant was that he wanted to be sure his boyfriend was safe and wasn’t hurt and wasn’t going to get hurt. They’d splashed around plenty, there was no reason to not just go spend the rest of the day indoors.
“I didn’t say there was anything wrong with being you,” he said, even as he allowed Gary to take him toward the grease and sugar. “I was just worried about you.”
“No, I know.” Gary winced, rare embarrassment scrunching his features. It cleared when he sent a fond smile Lucas’ way. ‘You just…wouldn’t need to be worried if I wasn’t - occasionally - a little bit of a disaster? Not that I don’t appreciate it.” He didn’t love the self-pitying direction this had taken, so he shrugged and got them into line. His skin felt like it had gotten a thousand degrees hotter in the last few minutes anyway, and his energy levels were draining fast. Hoping to lighten the mood, Gary held up a finger and lifted his eyebrows with mock seriousness.
“On the plus side, any sensible sunscreen-wearing adult you could be dating couldn’t do this.” He pressed his finger to his sunburnt chest and drew a heart. The impression stayed white on his reddened skin for an impossibly long moment and then faded away.
Lucas chuckled and went up on his toes to kiss Gary’s cheek. It wasn’t much of a public display of affection, but for Lucas it was huge. He didn’t tend to be publicly demonstrative, and even less so in a crowd of strangers--partly because he was just naturally reserved, partly because he always figured around 50/50 odds that there was a violent homophobe in visual range.
“You’re perfect just the way you are,” Lucas said, just loud enough to be heard over the noise around them. “And we’ll get some aloe for you on the way home.”
The chuckle alone was enough to make Gary brighten. The kiss nearly made his heart seize up in his chest. He smiled slow and wide and then sagged into a goofy slouch, head tilted to properly heart-eyes at the man next to him.
“Marry me.” He abruptly found the line moving forward and an attendant fixing his bored stare down at them. “Not you,” Gary clarified, straightening up. “Of you, sir, I only ask for four of your finest funnel cakes.” He turned, hoping Lucas had already forgotten the moment where his big dumb heart leapt out of his big dumb mouth, and said, “How many do you want?...Kidding. Do you want toppings or just the powdered crack?”
“Just strawberries, no chocolate sauce, and I’ll marry you but proposing in a funnel cake line does not get you out of doing something with some actual romance to it.” The words all came out with equal weight, strawberries, chocolate sauce, and marriage. It didn’t even occur to Lucas to say no, though, or even that Gary was only joking. ‘Joking unless you say yes, in which case I was serious’ was classic Gary. Gary wouldn’t ask him to marry him unless he meant it. And after years and years of Gary being the number one person in his life regardless of if romance was involved, saying yes seemed a perfectly sensible thing to do.
Gary gaped at Lucas for a solid minute. His mouth opened then closed, then repeated the process until finally color flushed into his cheeks and he smiled. It was arguably the dopiest he’d ever smiled at Lucas – and that was saying a lot. Lucas was right; he wouldn’t joke about marriage. He’d never tossed those words anyone else, even as much of a flippant shit as he could be. Lucas was and always had been special.
“I…wow. Okay.” Gary turned to the attendant. “Did you get that? Strawberries-no-chocolate on two. Just the crack on mine. And if you have any romance back there…” He made a show of peeking into the food cart, but the attendant just rolled his eyes and turned his back to face the deep fryer.
“Tough crowd.” Gary’s focus rolled inevitably back to the man he’d just accidentally proposed to in a funnel cake line. He smiled like he couldn’t quite be sure this wasn’t a feverish dream brought on by sunburn.
It was definitely happening, Lucas was realizing around the same time. Very slowly, like a sunrise, a smile was coming to his face. Lucas didn’t tend to be a smiley sort - Resting Bitch Face didn’t even begin to cover it - but this was a special occasion. He’d just gotten engaged in the funnel cake line.
“You don’t really have to redo your proposal,” he said. “We can always just try to scare up romance for a wedding instead.”
It was a good thing the attendant hadn’t handed over four plates full of funnel cake yet, because they’d have ended up on the floor as Gary clapped his hands over his heart.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in a minivan - that face.” He shook his head, dropping his hands away to step in close, as close he dared without leaping over the PDA line. It took some serious effort, though, and he still ended up with Lucas’ biceps under his hands and their foreheads touching. “No, no. Too late. You get both now. And just think about what you’ve gotten yourself into, will you? Double the romance. Are you…”
He swallowed. Nothing in him said this was a bad idea but that cynical voice in the back of his mind that said so, moron, how will proposing to your boyfriend of only a few months backfire stupendously? His eyebrows crinkled together. “Are you sure you want to sign on for all of that?”
“I wouldn’t have said yes if I didn’t,” Lucas replied. If he didn’t want to marry Gary, he could have just laughed the proposal off--it was an offhand question in the funnel cake line, asked by a man who could very well be under the influence of sun poisoning. He could easily have chosen not to take it seriously, and Gary would have rolled with that. Judging by his reaction, Gary clearly wasn’t expecting that Lucas would give him a real answer.
“Anyway,” he added with a shrug, “I signed on for life with you years ago. I’ve been yours ever since the day you invited me to your mom’s place for Christmas so I didn’t have to go home. I’d have tagged along behind you anywhere you wanted to go even if romance and sex had never come into it.”
The attendant stuck his hands out the tiny window with two plates of strawberry-covered funnel cakes, but he was ignored for the moment. The moment being Gary staring at Lucas with his heart pounding so loudly, he was sure everyone in a five foot radius could hear it. Probably not the three kids that went shrieking by, kicking up water puddles at them as they passed, but still.
“Lucas…” He sounded dazed and a little giddy, and okay maybe he was suffering from a teensy tiny bit of sunstroke. But that only meant he was more likely to say exactly what he was thinking. “I wanted to invite you to stay forever even then. God, three months in I was daydreaming about us retiring somewhere sunny, wherever there was good enough wine and no smell of fish in the air.” Gary huffed a laugh and shifted his hands to cradle Lucas’ face, stroking his thumbs across his cheeks.
“You have always been the best thing that ever happened to me.” His mouth twisted with the inevitably dark joke. “Admittedly, you didn’t have a lot of competition, but still. Right to the top.”
Lucas closed his eyes a moment, just letting the feeling of being so completely loved sink in. He’d spent most of his life without that; sometimes he was still taken by surprise when he caught Gary looking at him like that. They’d both had some rotten luck over the years, but now they were here, together, and they were going to get married.
And their funnel cakes were ready, as indicated by the loud sigh from the kid hawking the sugar-covered dough. “Look, guys, this is adorable, but we’ve got a line here.”
Lucas glared at him, but he leaned past Gary to take the funnel cakes, two paper plates pinned in each hand. He wasn’t one to torment service workers, even if they were ruining what little romance this proposal had. He was in fact already smiling again when he looked back at Gary. “How about we finish this by getting covered in powdered sugar?”
Gary quietly gasped and reached for the second pair of plates the funnel cake guy stuck out the window once Lucas had claimed his. “I’ve had this dream,” he whispered overdramatically. Only then did he spare the attendant a wink as he juggled his plates and paid for the food. He might even have apologized for holding up the line but it was a distracted mumble at best. He had other things occupying his mind.
“Lead the way, fiancé,” he smirked, more tender than snarky. “I’d follow you anywhere, too, after all.”