Chapter Text
Boogara: okay first off, our date was a fucking blast
Boogara: second, fuck off it was a moment of panic
Adam read his texts with a sigh, flopping back onto his bed.
He wanted to do anything but head to work today, but he knew that Ryan would come and drag him out of bed if it was necessary. Hell, he probably wouldn’t even drag Adam, Ryan’s strong enough to just pick him up and carry him to work. Which is… kinda hot, when he thinks about it.
Adam laid still as he stared at the ceiling for a few moments before finally rolling off his bed and falling to the ground with a loud thump.
What a great way to start the day , he thought to himself before pushing himself up and getting ready for work.
Time seemed to soar as Adam got ready, and in no time at all Adam found himself walking into the BuzzFeed offices with his book bag, which contained his personal camera, laptop, and necessary flash drives for work, slung across his shoulder.
“Hey! Adam! How was your date? Did anything spicy happen?” a voice called out from across the room.
Adam recognized the voice as Steven’s and began to quickly walk away from him.
However, he soon felt a pair hands on his shoulders and resigned himself to the fate of having to make shit up about dinner with Ryan to please Steven. Steven, who at this point had turned Adam around to face him and was grinning like a madman.
“Yes, things were very spicy. I stabbed Ryan and left, finally fulfilling my contract with Shane, our resident demon, and gaining all the power I need for world domination,” Adam said, voice flat as he stared into Steven’s eyes.
“Wow! That sure does sound exciting… but not exactly what I had in mind… Any kisses happen? Did any dick touching occur?” Steven asked, a mischievous look appearing on his face.
“No. Stop.”
“What? I’m just asking if some friendly dick touching with your date, nothing more!”
“Please, never say dick touching again. Just- Just refer to it as sex, I beg of you.”
“But dick touching sounds more adventurous and fun!”
“No. It sounds like you're a 9-year-old who has no idea how sex works.”
Adam watched as Steven’s mischievous look turned into a full-blown smile, soon followed by a large laugh that seemed to fill the room with joy. Adam, unable to stop himself, joined in the laughter, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth while doing so.
“Oh man, you’re so right. I’ll refrain from ever using dick touching again,” Steven chuckled, “But, no, really. How’d the date go? As one of your best food buddies, I feel entitled to know.”
Adam shook his head and ran a hand through his hair.
“It- It was alright, I guess. Nothing exciting really happened. But- uh- Ryan did panic and tell the waiter we were engaged instead of on our first date, so that was really amusing…” Adam trailed off, not sure what else he could really say without giving away the fact that it really was not a date.
Steven appeared to light up at the idea of Ryan saying the two were engaged. He quickly put an arm around Adam’s shoulder and brought him close, much to Adam’s despair.
“Ooo, looks like he’s in for the long run, lover boy! I think you just found yourself someone who wants to stay with you as long as he can,” Steven declared, bringing up a hand to Adam’s hair and messing it up even more than it already was.
Adam pushed Steven away from him and grumbled as he attempted to fix his hair.
“He panicked. Nothing more- you know Ryan. He does a lot of wild things when he panics. Mostly screaming, so I guess I got lucky there,” Adam retorted, finally believing his hair to be in a presentable condition.
“Hm, yeah, you kinda got a point there. Then again, usually Shane is also there so you got lucky in that he wasn’t there to egg Ryan on. Also, speaking of Shane…” Steven paused and quickly grabbed Adam’s arm and dragged him into a nearby call room that was empty then quickly closed the door.
“So, okay. I know that you’re dating Ryan now and everything. Well at this point most of the office knows. Anyway uh, Shane is like, super pissed at you. Like, even more pissed than that one time the new intern grabbed Ryan’s ass causing Shane to ‘accidentally’ pour the entire pot of hot coffee over the poor guy. I still feel sorry for that kid… Anyways, Shane won’t say why he’s pissed at you? But, uh, he’s been prowling around your desk area with a really murderous look, so I wouldn’t go there if I were you,” Steven said, dropping his bright smile to stare at Adam with a concerned and serious expression.
Adam felt the blood drain from his face and his heart drop to his stomach as Steven talked. He really did not think his actions through, otherwise, he probably would have done all he could to avoid this situation. He took a shaky breath and then rubbed his face, hastily making a decision before his anxiety could stop him.
“Fuck, okay. So, shit. Uh, Steven? Can I let you in on something? That you have to promise not to tell anyone?” He asked, rocking back and forth on his feet.
“Uh, yeah? Sure? What’s so important that I can’t tell anyone?” Steven asked, head tilted to the side as he stared at Adam.
Adam’s heart stuttered as he stared back at Steven. Maybe he shouldn’t tell Steven about the entire fake relationship. Yeah, that’s a bad idea, Ryan would get super pissed at him too. He just had to quickly find something else to say.
“Well, you- you see… I, uh, I kind of taunted Shane?”
Well, it’s not a lie and should hopefully get Steven’s attention enough for him to not catch onto the entire fake relationship.
“You- What? Why? That’s probably the dumbest thing you could ever do, you realize that- right?!” Steven exclaimed, looking astonished.
Adam hunched down a bit and took a step back from Steven. His breath caught in his throat, not expecting the statement from Steven to hurt so much.
“Right… Sorry,” Andrew muttered, looking down at his feet. He then felt arms wrap around him and pull himself into a hug.
“I- no. Sorry, that was really harsh. Sorry. I just can’t believe that you would taunt Shane more after he just found out that Ryan was going on a date with you. What did you even say to Shane to get him so upset?” Steven asked, gently rubbing Adams back.
Adam melted into Steven’s chest, then gently wrapped his arms around Steven to return the hug. The room sat still and quiet for a few seconds as he figured out how to phrase what he’d done.
“I- uh, I called Shane a coward. Told him that him being too afraid to make a move would- will- is? Uh, leaving him in the dust as everyone moves ahead towards a new time. Also in the heat of the moment I, kinda, maybe, very obviously insinuated that Ryan was just a toy for me to play with?” Adam spoke quickly into Steven’s chest, hoping that maybe Steven wouldn’t hear what he just said since it would be very muffled.
“Why the fuck would you do that?!”
Or maybe Steven would hear everything perfectly fine. That’d worked too.
“I don’t know? I just… got carried away in the uh, joy of dating Ryan.”
Adam felt Steven stare down at him, appearing to notice his hesitance in stating that he was dating Ryan. Yet, much to Adam’s relief, he didn’t comment on it.
“That… is so wrong on so many levels. You realize that right?”
Adam nodded slightly, unable to move his head much as he was still hugging Steven. Steven seemed to notice how little Adam could move finally let go of the hug and took a few steps back.
“Okay. Well, shit. We’re going to have a long talk about all this,” Steven paused, waving his hand in a circular motion as he figured out what to say, then continued with, “shit later today, okay?”
“Okay… After work, you can come to my place and we’ll talk more,” Adam said, fixing his slightly crumpled clothes.
“Okay. Good. But right now- we have Shane wanting to kill you as a problem. What’d we’re going to do, is that you’re going to stay here and work. You have your laptop on you, I assume, so you should be alright for now. I’m going to keep an eye on Shane and text you if he starts to come towards your area, and then you’ll hide. Hell, I’ll just send you regular updates on things around the area, okay?” Steven said, pulling out his phone and typing something in it.
Adam opened his mouth to reply when Steven’s ringtone rang, and he seemed to nod in satisfaction.
“Okay, I got some people helping me out. They don’t know about all the stuff you said about Ryan. They just don’t want to see you die by Shane’s hand- Oh! Oh jeez, sorry just realized you were going to speak, sorry. What were you going to say?” Steven asked, rubbing the back of his neck with guilt.
“I was just going to say okay… I should be good to go with what you say. And if I need anything you can probably go onto my computer and send them to me,” Adam replied.
“Great! I’m going to go and get back to work. Just, be careful man. And also text me before leaving this room, alright?”
Adam nodded and set his bag down on the table that was in the center of the room.
“Uh, thanks, Steven. This… really means a lot to me,” Adam said as Steven opened the door.
“It’s nothing, Adam. Really, I just care about you as one of your best friends! Now take care, bye!” Steven said, closing the door behind him as he left.
Adam smiled to himself and then went and locked the door before sitting down on the couch in the room.
It was finally time to get to work.
Starry Eyed Steven™: hey, uhh, i know you and ryan are like dating now
Starry Eyed Steven™: so i think it’s probably for the best i tell u this, so like,,, ryan is straight up trying to flirt or uhh seduce andrew? i can’t tell which,,, he’s,,, really bad at it tho