Chapter Text
Imp and Skizz were in his apartment. The first people to visit his apartment since he moved here, and he didn’t know how to feel. The gymnastics routine in his stomach had not stopped the entire drive here, and if anything, it kicked up a notch now that they were here. In his apartment.
“I’ll grab my things; you can make yourselves comfortable.” He rushed into his bedroom, grabbed a duffel bag, and tossed random clothes into it. He grabbed some things from the bathroom, making sure he got everything essential, then paused to catch his breath.
It’s a totally platonic sleepover with my coworkers and their dogs. That’s all. Totally platonic. Right?
There was a knock on his open door, and he turned to see Skizz leaning against the doorframe.
“Nice place you got here! We should’ve invited ourselves over sooner.”
Tango laughed; it sounded tense in his ears, but he hoped the other man wouldn’t notice.
“Yeah, it’s nice having people over! It’s been a long time since I had anyone else in my space.”
“You got it all smart home-ificated too, right?”
“Sure do! I can control it all from my phone or by voice. It’s hooked up to a Raspberry Pi and controls all the lights. But also the smart vacuum and the TVs and everything and…” He trailed off, noticing that Skizz was staring at him with a big goofy grin.
“Dude, that’s so cool. You’re so smart.”
Tango felt a flush burn up his neck again, and he was saved from responding by his phone buzzing as a series of texts came in.
DO NOT ANSWER: Why didn’t you answer the phone this morning?
DO NOT ANSWER: Were you staying with someone else?
DO NOT ANSWER: Did you meet someone new?
DO NOT ANSWER: Why don’t you move back home Tangy~
Tango shoved his phone in his pocket and ran his hands over his face, pressing his fingers into his eyes.
“Hey man, everything good?” Tango could hear Skizz walking toward him, putting his hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah, all good,” Tango said, not removing his hands from his face, “Just a lot going on recently.”
“You wanna talk about it?”
Tango took a deep breath, sighing it out, “Maybe tonight.” He dropped his hands, finally looking up at Skizz, worried about the pity he knew he would see in the other man’s face. But Skizz was looking at him with genuine concern and caring. No pity. Not yet.
“Let’s get outta here. You all packed up?”
Tango grunted in the affirmative, slinging his duffel bag over his shoulder, and followed the other men out of his apartment.
They ordered some Chinese food, Skizz insisted on paying for it, and watched a football game. Tango didn’t care about football at all, but he did like watching Imp and Skizz get so invested in the game. After the game, a loss for the team they were rooting for, they settled into a comfortable silence.
“Hey, Top, did you want to talk about it?” Skizz and Impulse were sprawled on one side of the couch, looking across to Tango at Skizz’s words.
Tango took a deep breath, feeling knots in his stomach at the prospect of finally talking about it.
“Yeah, I guess.”
***
Tango and Penny met at a party in college. His roommate was hitting on her friend, so, as a good wingman should, he was distracting Penny. And it was so easy. She was pretty and funny, and soon Tango completely forgot that he was supposed to be wingman-ing at all. They dated all through college. She helped him through his imposter syndrome and hyped him up before every career fair, and he stayed up late with her when she procrastinated on her essays and needed to pull an all-nighter to get them done before class. They graduated together, picked out their first apartment together, adopted a dog together, started their lives together.
Tango, thankfully, got a good job as a data engineer right out of school. Penny had a harder time; she was hoping to become a journalist, but hadn’t heard back from any of the applications she’d sent out. She ended up taking care of the apartment, cooking and cleaning, and Tango felt like the luckiest man in the world.
He hit it off with his team immediately. They went from work friends to video game buddies to best friends. They hit it off with Penny, too. It was the perfect life - everything he had dreamed of.
Until it wasn’t.
Five years after graduating, Tango had saved enough to buy a ring. He was shopping around, hadn’t committed to anything yet, but was hoping to propose by the end of the year. He came home one night, greeted at the door by Benji, and called out to Penny, but there was no response.
“Penny? Are you home, dear?” He kicked his shoes off, absently petting the dog, set his bag by the door, and wandered back to the bedroom. It wasn’t the first time that Penny had been asleep when he came home. She loved an afternoon nap. And napping she was. With his coworker.
They were snuggled together in his bed, hair a mess, clothing strewn about the room, barely covered by the thin sheet.
He felt his stomach sink, but quietly closed the door, left the apartment, and drove around town for another half hour. By the time he made it back home, the lights were on.
“Penny, sorry I had to work late.” He called out as he opened the door.
“No worries, Tangy! I’m glad you’re home.” She met him at the door with a kiss, but Tango turned his head away.
She pouted, but didn’t say anything about it.
“I didn’t have the energy to cook today, so I ordered some food. I hope you don’t mind.”
“That’s fine, dear. How was your day?”
She started telling him about this and that, Mrs. so-and-so’s kids, and the deals at the store, and the yoga class she went to.
“When were you going to tell me that you’ve been fucking Jason?”
She froze, “What are you talking about, Tangy? I would -” she laughed nervously, “I would never!”
“Don’t lie to me, Penny. I thought we were past keeping secrets from each other.”
She sighed, but didn’t say anything.
“Fine, you don’t have to tell me. I’m going to go stay somewhere else tonight.” He stood up from the table.
“Wait!” Penny grabbed his hand, “Wait, Tangy, let me explain. We were just fooling around; it didn’t mean anything. You’re the only one I care about! Please don’t leave me.”
Tango didn’t remember much more of the conversation. He remembered Penny crying, Penny sobbing, as he packed up a bag and drove to a hotel. He called out of work, used his time off for the first time, and scheduled a meeting with his manager for next week to turn in his two weeks' notice.
A month later, he interviewed with Impulse, got ready to move across the country, and said goodbye to Penny for the first and last time.
***
Tango didn’t look up at the other two as he told his story, just absently petting the dogs curled around him and staring into space as the words poured out of him.
“Anyway, I guess I wasn’t the best boyfriend in the world, so maybe I had it coming.”
“What the fuck do you mean, ‘had it coming?’” Tango could hear the outrage in Skizz’s voice. “If she wasn’t happy, she should have broken up with you like a regular well adjusted person! Not sleep with your best friend.”
Tango let out a little chuckle, more of relief that the story was done and told than for any humor, and finally looked up at the other men. Impulse shifted closer to Tango, just Prim between them on the couch.
“Have you talked to her since then? Do you want to talk to her?” Impulse put his hand over Tango’s, where it rested on Prim’s back.
“I’ve called her a few times. But, I, uh, I don’t think they’ve necessarily been productive conversations.”
“Yeah, no shit.” Impulse squeezed his hand, “I can’t believe you’ve talked to her at all. I don’t think I would be able to talk to someone again if they did that to me.”
“Yeah!” Skizz chimed in, “They’d be dead to me. And since you’re our friend, she’s dead to me. How ‘bout that.”
Tango laughed, for real this time, and squeezed Impulse’s hand back, “Thank you guys. It does feel good to talk about it. I’ll be honest, the whole team said I was in the wrong, so I guess I just believed them.”
“Well, they’re dead to me too.”
They sat in silence for a while, the dogs gently snoring as they dozed off under Tango’s hands. Impulse hadn’t let go of Tango’s hand, gently rubbing his hand the same way he had the night before, and Skizz had moved over to lie his head in Impulse’s lap. It all felt stupidly domestic, and a peace settled over Tango that he hadn’t felt in a long time. It was, of course, interrupted by his phone ringing.
He had left it on the coffee table, out of his reach, penned in as he was by the dogs, so Skizz reached out to grab it.
“‘Do not answer’? Is that her?”
Tango sighed, “Yeah.”
“Dude, you had the sense to rename her 'Do not answer' and then kept answering the phone? What the hell?”
Tango sighed harder, “Yeah.”
Skizz hung up on her, “Well, tonight we’re listening to the part of you that had sense.”
“Is that why you’ve been overworking yourself? To avoid her phone calls?”
“Yeah, that’s part of it.” He normally would have left it at that, but something about the evening compelled him to keep talking, “It’s just been lonely. Really fucking lonely. I haven’t lived by myself before now. At first, the smart home setup kept me busy, but since I finished that up, I haven’t had anything to keep my mind occupied.”
Skizz looked at Tango, upside down in Impulse’s lap, and wiggled his eyebrows, “I can think of ways to keep you occupied.”
Even Tango couldn’t miss the implication of Skizz’s words. The gymnasts in his stomach were back, and Tango felt his jaw drop, hyper aware of Impulse’s hand in his own. He heard some kind of strangled noise emerge from his throat as he stared at Skizz.
“I think you broke him.” Impulse stage whispered to Skizz, bending over to press a kiss to his cheek before raising Tango’s hand and kissing the back of it as well. “Well, we should probably head to bed. We still have work tomorrow.”
Skizz groaned but got off the couch, calling for the dogs to follow him. Impulse pulled Tango up, but released his hand as they made their way upstairs. Tango paused at the door to the guest room, looking over his shoulder to see Skizz and Impulse making their way into their own room. He felt a familiar pang of loneliness, but not as bad as it was most nights.
“Good night, guys. Thanks again.”
The other two men turned, smiling widely. “Good night, Tango.”
***
Tango woke early the next morning, briefly disoriented from waking in an unfamiliar space, before he remembered the events of last night. He tried to reconcile what Skizz had said last night, what Impulse had said the night before that, with his own feelings. He already felt like he was taking advantage of their kindness; he wasn’t going to attach any weird feelings to them just because he was lonely. This was all in his own head, right?
He took a quick shower - what kind of house had ensuite bathrooms for a guest room? - and got dressed, keeping his mind on work and decidedly not on the men whose house he was in. He checked his phone and saw a text from Penny.
DO NOT ANSWER: No answer again? :(
He swiped it away without opening it, feeling stronger after talking to Imp and Skizz about it, and made his way downstairs towards the sound of breakfast cooking.
“Good morning, Tango!” Impulse called out from the kitchen where he and Skizz were making breakfast, “Food is almost ready, but coffee is ready to go. Help yourself”
“Good morning. Is there anything I can help with?”
“Nah, Top,” Skizz chimed in from the stove, “You just sit over there and look cute.”
Tango scoffed, feeling a blush rise up his cheeks as he made himself some coffee. He perched on a stool at their island and watched the two men work around the kitchen. They moved around each other in that easy way that only comes after knowing each other for a while. Tango felt a pang of jealousy at how comfortable they were, how soft and domestic the whole situation was.
They ate breakfast together, chatting about nothing important, and made their way to work. Today was code freeze, so the last-minute crunch kept Tango’s mind off the other two men, at least as much as it could. They still ate lunch together; he and Impulse still helped each other talk through any issues they ran into; and he still had to clarify requirements with Skizz, but it was all strictly work-related. He banished all the thoughts from the day prior, all the nonsense about holding their hands or sitting closer to them or even just staring a little bit too long. He could be professional at work while living with them.
At least while they were in the office.
“I don’t know about you, Tango, but I’m beat. Maybe we order in again tonight?” Impulse asked him as they walked to their car.
“That’s fine with me, but I’m still buying.”
“Yeah, we know,” Skizz poked him in the side as he said it, causing Tango to yelp in a most un-manly fashion. The other two laughed at him as he tried to reclaim his dignity.
“Are you laughing at my super manly battle cry?”
“Super manly, super brave.” Impulse choked out between his laughter.
They ordered Mexican food from the same restaurant where they had their first dinner and watched YouTube videos late into the night. At some point, Tango’s phone rang again and, with a look from Impulse and Skizz, he hung up without any hesitation.
“Hey, Top,” Skizz started, he was sitting right next to Tango on the couch, their knees touching, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but, uh, Dipple Dop and I are, um, pretty fond of you.”
Tango felt a tightness around his heart. Fond?
“Fond?” Impulse chimed in from his other side, “All the words in the world and you choose fond?”
“Yeah! I am fond of Top.” He turned back to Tango with that goofy, endearing smile on his face, “And we were kinda just wondering, how you felt about us?”
Tango felt his breath catch, remembering Skizz’s almost proposition the night before, and had to remind himself to breathe.
“I mean, you guys are pretty much my only friends.”
It was silent for a beat, all the air seemed to have gone out of the room.
“Fuck it,” Skizz said under his breath, “Tango, I really want to kiss you.”
Tango’s mind went blank; all he could think about was kissing Skizz, kissing Impulse, kissing them both, and them kissing him back. He heard a sort of ‘uh-huh’ escape from his throat, and then Skizz was kissing him.
It was tentative at first, almost like Skizz was still asking for permission, but Tango quickly pushed forward, deepening the kiss. One hand drifted up to grab Skizz around the neck, the other tangling in his hair. Tango felt himself pull up onto his knees, desperately moving closer to the other man. Skizz’s hands were on his hips, holding him close. He had thought all kisses were pretty much the same, expected kissing anyone to be like kissing Penny, but he was wrong. Kissing Skizz felt like fireworks. Like all of the man’s energy and personality, his exuberance was pouring into him.
He broke out of the kiss, breathing hard, to see that Impulse had come up behind him. Skizz chuckled, his hands gently squeezing Tango’s hips.
“Dude, you’re a better kisser than I thought.”
Tango flushed red again, still trying to catch his breath.
“You think about kissing men other than your boyfriend?”
“Just you, Top.”
“Hey,” Impulse wrapped his arms around Tango’s waist, “It’s my turn now.”
Impulse gently spun him around, so he was practically straddling the other man, and pressed their lips together. If Skizz’s kiss was fireworks, Impulse’s was the warmest, coziest blanket. He was enveloped in the overwhelming feeling that Impulse really did care for him. They kissed slowly and softly, but that didn’t stop Tango’s heart from pounding or the blood rushing in his ears. He shifted in Impulse’s lap, suddenly hyper aware of his legs around the other man, of hands slipping up under his shirt, and that he hadn’t been laid in months.
He pulled away to catch his breath, and Impulse turned to Skizz.
“You’re right. 10 out of 10 kisser. Maybe even better than you.”
“You better watch yourself, I’ll have to remind you how great a kisser I am.”
Impulse stuck his tongue out at Skizz, who seemed to take it as a challenge. Without moving Tango off Impulse’s lap, Skizz wormed his way between them to kiss Impulse. Impulse kept one hand on Tango’s hip, keeping him steady, but the other wrapped around Skizz to pull him in closer. Tango couldn’t help but laugh. He felt giddy, his heart seemed to swell up as he watched the other two kiss. He threw his arm around Skizz and leaned in to kiss the back of his neck, peppering little kisses around the man’s ear, relishing in the small gasps Skizz made against Impulse’s mouth.
“Ok, man, that’s not fair! How am I supposed to prove I’m a better kisser if you’re distracting me!”
“Maybe my kisses are distracting because I’m the better kisser.” Tango all but whispered in Skizz’s ear. He felt the other man stiffen before he sat up.
“Now, that’s definitely not fair.” Skizz’s gaze was heated as he looked at Tango.
Tango’s breath caught as Impulse’s thumbs slid down his hipbones, tugging at the waistband of his jeans.
“We don’t have to do anything tonight if you don’t want to,” Impulse said, his thumbs still rubbing circles into his hips, “We can take things as slow as you want.”
Tango felt a rush of affection surge through his chest at the care of the other men, the warmth adding to the heat already building in his body.
“I don’t know if it was clear from, like, everything about me, but I’ve been in a bit of a dry spell, and I’m not looking to keep that going.”
A smile split Impulse’s face before he pulled Tango in by the front of his shirt to kiss him again.
***
Tango loaded the last of the boxes into his car, cracking his back as he stood up straight. His one-year lease was finally up, and he was getting the last of his things to take back to Impulse and Skizz’s house. Our house. He hadn’t been spending much time in his apartment over the last half of the lease, but it was nice to have the extra space when they were figuring out their relationship. Now he was more than ready to get out of there.
He drove the last load over to the house where his boyfriends were already unpacking the other boxes he had brought over earlier. He carried in the last few boxes, Prim and Kevin getting tangled around his legs and threatening to break his neck, meeting Impulse and Skizz in the living room.
“Welcome home, Top!” Skizz grabbed the boxes from Tango’s arms, pressing a quick kiss to his lips.
Tango leaned over Impulse, where he was trying to get the Raspberry Pi set up again, and gave him a quick kiss.
“It’s good to be home.”