Chapter Text
The sun spilled warm and soft-edged across the floor of the flat, glancing off dust motes as they floated toward the ceiling, bathing David in light. Patrick lay awake beside him, eyes following the planes of David’s face, tracing the edges of skin that weren’t buried into the pillow like he was committing it to memory. A smile graced Patrick’s face as his gaze landed on David’s mouth, and he leaned forward to press a kiss onto it.
David stirred awake, just registering the feel of Patrick’s mouth against his own, and smiled against his lips. A hand crept up to cup the back of Patrick’s neck, but on its way, it snagged on some cellophane.
David pulled back, bewildered. “What—”
“Happy anniversary, sweetheart,” Patrick murmured with a smile, brandishing the flowers he’d picked up from a florist in Elmdale early that morning.
David furrowed his brow. “That’s not for another month.”
Patrick shook his head, still smiling. “Not the real anniversary. The fake one.”
David squinted at Patrick like he’d started speaking another language.
Patrick laughed. “A year ago today, in Viv and Ayami’s kitchen, I told them we were dating. And it was the best accident of my life.”
David felt an overwhelming swell of affection at that, and his mouth twisted to keep it contained. He pulled Patrick back into his space instead, sighing into his mouth and pouring all the words he couldn’t get out into a soft kiss.
Patrick responded in kind, deftly placing the flowers on the nightstand behind David’s head and wrapping himself around David. They whiled the morning away like that, tangled up in each other, enjoying their first morning in Patrick’s new apartment in sun-warmed bliss.
Later, when they couldn’t ignore their stomachs anymore, they padded into the kitchen together and traded glances over the rims of coffee cups as the bread toasted and the eggs fried. Patrick stood over the pan to prod at them every once in a while, and David pressed himself in behind him, tucking his chin over Patrick’s shoulder to watch his progress.
“You know what I still think is funny?” David murmured. Patrick hummed his response. “How it took us, like, three months total to tell Ayami and Viv that we actually weren’t together because we were so afraid of their reaction, and then when we finally did, it was just, like. Nothing. No big deal. Three months of anxiety for no reason.”
Patrick snorted. “To be fair, it wasn’t for no reason. I think we had a perfectly reasonable reaction to their mistake.”
David scrunched his nose up. “Mmm, would we say that faking a relationship for a month and a half, then deciding to make it a real one, and still waiting another month to tell them the whole story is reasonable?”
Patrick made quick work of plating the eggs and then turning in David’s arms to face him, a smile playing on his lips. “You complaining?”
David chuckled. “Not anymore.”
“Mhmm,” Patrick murmured before leaning in to kiss him again.
“But also, I do disagree with something Ayami said when we told them,” David qualified.
“What’s that?”
“She just waved off our lie and called it a ‘victimless crime,’” David said with a flair of his hands, “but I’m pretty sure I was the victim there.”
Patrick grinned, fondness warming his gaze. “Yeah, David? Were you the victim?”
David crept his fingers up Patrick’s arms and rested them on his shoulders. “I mean, to be expected to look at you and touch you, but not kiss you? Pretty sure that’s a hate crime.”
“Are you gonna have me arrested?” Patrick joked.
David rolled his eyes and shook his head with a smile. “No, I wouldn’t let them lock you away.”
“Good to know,” Patrick said, pressing another soft kiss to David’s lips. “But speaking of getting locked away…” He slipped out of David’s arms briefly to grab a plain white envelope out of his desk drawer. Patrick crowded back into David’s space and handed it to him.
David looked down at it with a raised eyebrow. “Um, are you having me arrested? Or...summoned?” He squinted down at the envelope suspiciously.
Patrick grinned, a little guilty. “Maybe that segue could’ve used a little work.”
“Mhmm.”
“So, this is a key to this apartment. I want you to have it,” Patrick murmured, turning the envelope in David’s hands and allowing the key to slip out into his own.
David looked down at it, amazed, like it was a fallen star. “Are you sure?” he asked quietly, meeting Patrick’s eyes. He felt like he was asking a million questions at once, all his little anxieties folded into those three words, but Patrick understood. Patrick took those little anxieties and swept them away, not just now, but always, every single time. To David, it felt a little like magic. To Patrick, it felt a lot like love.
“I’m sure, David. I want you to have access to this place whenever you want. Whenever you need.” Patrick pressed the key into David’s hand and closed David’s fingers around it before pressing a kiss to his fist.
“You mean whenever you need,” David returned with a suggestive eyebrow waggle. Patrick laughed, catching on.
“That too,” he said, pressing the words into David’s cheek.
David savoured the touch for a second, luxuriating in it, before finally being able to whisper, “Thank you. For trusting me.” With this key, with his heart, all of it. He knew Patrick would understand.
“Always, David,” Patrick whispered back.
The eggs were a little cold and the toast a little stale by the time they managed to extricate themselves from bed for the second time that day, but it didn’t matter. For them, there would be time for indecision, for lazy mornings, for sprawling afternoons, and after the sunsets and the teacups and the hikes up mountains, it would have been worth it after all.