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Hanging out with his best friend had never been stressful. It’d always been wonderful, always been perfect, and always worth the long ass drive across town. Michael never regretted leaving the boys home with each other to go visit his best friend until that night.
Jack had left.
Cursing, he wished he’d never left home. He said goodbye to Lindsay quickly, explaining that something had happened. She understood and sent him on his way with a promise to bail him out of jail as long as he didn’t provoke the fight. Perfect best friend, really.
He sent quick texts to everyone, but the only one who responds is Ray. Frowning, he calls his puerto rican on his long drive home, leaving the phone on speaker and still texting at red lights. He knows he shouldn’t but he can’t be bothered to care when it’s the middle of the night and Jack is fucking missing.
For the first time, he wishes he’d stayed home even if Gavin had planned a night with Jack and Ray. Then he could have chased after the man immediately and had him back home already. Jack wasn’t allowed to just leave like this it wasn’t fucking fair. He keeps trying to get the man to answer on the drive home but he gets nothing.
After he hangs up with Ray, he tries calling. No answer for that either.
Michael feels like he could kill a man by the time he gets home. He’s worried, he’s panicked, and he’s furious. He doesn’t even know he’s muttering about the ways to kill a man until Gavin mumbles that rope would leave a lot of evidence. Biting his lip to keep from saying more disastrous things, he brings Gavin and Ray close to him and just holds them there to remind him that they’re still here. That this is really happening and not just a nightmare.
He should have seen this coming. He’s had friends with depression and suicide attempts before- he knows the signs. Jack had been displaying them for months and Michael had no idea how to fix it. How to counsel his boyfriend when he wasn’t a fucking psychologist. It made him sad that no matter what they seemed to do, Jack just kept getting worse. And now the man was missing, possibly to do something stupid. Please, if there is a damn God, let Jack answer him.
He doesn’t, but Geoff and Ryan come home and seem to know where he is.
They get in the car without much fuss and the way there is silent until the reach the front door. Then there’s some loud gasps because it’s open. Michael could fucking cry. He warned Jack not to leave so late, people were terrible and now..now..
Now Ryan was saying Jack was alive and fine.
Tears of relief actually do slip by but he still wants to deck the man for leaving. He refuses to go near Jack until he sees the man, still asleep, wrap his arm protectively around Gavin. It tears apart his will at the seams and he finds himself claiming the other side of his runaway boyfriend as the exhaustion of emotional distress claims him.
When they’re both awake, he manages to get Geoff to sit back so he does have room to deck the asshole. He pulls himself together and kisses the spot he just hit because Jack is okay. He leaves the room with his arm twitching to punch again and finds himself drawn into a cuddle pile. He doesn’t relax until the sound of Jack’s laughter fills the air.
Michael doesn’t smile until they’re back home and Gavin hits Jack in the stomach with the key he left behind. The punch doesn’t really do much to the older man but it’s funny to watch Gavin start to apologize only to stop and say that he deserved it for leaving it behind. He doesn’t let the man out of his sight when they get home, except when he has to piss. That’s only because Gavin follows him into the bathroom and refuses to leave. For the first time since this whole mess started, Michael laughs.