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“Are you really gonna wear THAT?”
They’re in their dorm room, for once more opposite than similar. One in black, and one in white. One standing tall, one slouching down in his desk chair, fingers laced casually behind his dark head.
“What do you mean, am I really gonna wear this?” Link asks. “It’s a classic. It’s comfortable, it’s cheap, it’s stylin,” he gestures down the length of the bedsheet toga, showing off how it drapes over his toned chest. “Don’t be mad just ‘cause you didn’t think up anything this good.”
Rhett looks at his friend skeptically. “And if you lose it? What’re you gonna sleep on then? And aren’t you gonna be cold, walking around with no clothes and sandals in October?”
“I’m not gonna lose it! And it’s not that cold, brother. It’s only like 75 degrees outside. I’ll be totally fine” Link huffs. “And I won’t have no clothes! I’m wearing boxers under this. I’m not totally stupid”.
That's debatable, but Rhett doesn’t feel like arguing the point right now. He glances at the way just one of Link’s nipples is exposed, brown and small and slightly oval shaped. He can imagine how it’ll pebble as soon as Link steps out into the cooler night air, going hard and prominent against his chest, practically begging Rhett to reach out and touch them, pinch and kiss them, bite them.
He turns away quickly and grabs his Wesley mask (a black bandana with some holes cut into it), slipping it over his head and tying it securely. It’s just a part of his costume. He has to put it on at some point. It has nothing to do with hiding the red flush he could feel heating the tops of his cheekbones.
“Whatever man. While you’re freezing your ass off and stumbling around naked like a fool I’m going to have girls falling at my feet to be my Princess Buttercup.” He says smugly, sitting on his bed to lace up his boots.
“Girls? The only things that will be attracted to your ugly mug are Rodents of Unusual Size!”
Rhett throws one of his black gloves at Link, and Link throws a pencil at Rhett, but they’re both laughing. Chucking the glove back at him for good measure (which Rhett only just manages to dodge) , Link rises from his chair and grabs a golden laurel off his desk. Rhett has seen ones like it before at frat parties and on sorority girls.
“Who’d you get that from then?”
Link grinned at himself in the mirror while situating the paper crown-like ornament on top of his hair to his liking.
“Katie R., you know from Multivariable? She’s Alpha Omega Epsilon. She’s in my study group, and when I mentioned that I didn’t have a costume for the party but that I was trying to think of something she suggested the whole thing.”
Rhett snorts, but otherwise abstains from commenting as he stands and straps his rapier around his waist. Link seeming satisfied with his coiffure, they head down the stairs and out into the quad.
As they push out the door, a gust of cold wind smacks right into them, making the leaves at their feet skitter across the sidewalk. Rhett can see the instant Link registers just how cold it is, the moment he regrets his decision, but he knows he won’t turn around and grab a jacket or change into something more reasonable. No, that would mean that Rhett had won, and Link would never allow that to happen, not if he could help it.
Rhett could call him out; he’s definitely shivering, and his arms are clenched closely to his sides to keep the warmth in. But that leads down a dangerous path, one where Rhett might offer to help warm Link up, and just how he might do that...he walks a little faster, forcing Link to nearly jog to keep up.
---
They get to the party and it’s crowded, more crowded than Rhett was expecting. In addition, not that many people are dressed up, despite it being advertized as a costume party. For all his giving Link a hard time for being lazy about his costume, Rhett now kind of wishes he hadn’t put so much work into his own. Or that he had at least left the sword.
Link spots Katie standing with a cluster of other Alpha Omega Epsilon girls, and he nudges Rhett in the ribs with a grin.
“I’m gonna go show Katie how well my costume turned out. Want her to know how appreciative I am of her help and all that” he says with an exaggerated wink. “I’ll catch you later, brother!” he calls over the heads of the crowd, already halfway across the room as he struts towards the sorority girls.
For want of anything better to do, Rhett heads toward the kitchen where the drinks are being mixed and handed out. Here they do have at least a little holiday spirit going; they have a great big punch bowl full of some sort of orange bug juice, hand-shaped ice cubes floating in it. A girl who Rhett vaguely recognizes but can’t remember the name of is standing by the bowl with a ladle and stack of plastic cups.
“Can I get you a glass? I’m warning you, this stuff is strong enough to knock the entire wolfpack on their hindquarters!” She teases, poised to pour.
He makes a ‘go on’ gesture and says, “I’ve spent the last few years building up an immunity” before taking the glass with a wink. He’s not sure she got the reference, as she just giggles, but he hopes so.
They chat for a little bit and he discovers that he shared a class with her last semester, and that her name is Emma, and that she’s a Math major. Unfortunately, a new wave of guests floods into the kitchen and Emma is forced to return to her punch duties, so Rhett makes his way back out into the fray.
Honestly, the party is kind of boring, and after his brief interaction in the kitchen Rhett mostly sticks to the periphery with his cup in hand. He does manage to play a round of beer pong (which he won simply by value of height), and a game of ‘Never Have I Ever’ (“You really never missed a single day of church? Ever?” --“Nope” -- “You're so lame, dude”), but it isn’t the crazy costume party he had been hoping for.
By around midnight thirty the crowd inside starts to thin, people trickling out in pairs and trios. Rhett is ready to leave and has just made the decision to get up from his comfortable spot on the couch to go find Link when he rather suddenly finds himself with a lapful of the man.
A rather undressed lapful.
“Rhett!” Link exclaims happily, throwing his arms around his neck.
Rhett leans back against the couch, startled. Sure, he and Link might be more physically affectionate than most dudes were with each other, but it was always when they were by themselves, and nothing like this. Link pursues him, determined to tuck himself under Rhett’s chin it seems.
“U-Uh, hey there buddyroll. Where’s your toga?”
“He lost it.”
Rhett pulls his concentration away from the way Link has started to nuzzle gently into his neck to look at the stranger who had spoken.
“I’m Alex. This one here’s probably had twice his weight in rum and cokes, and he lost his toga AND his shoes in a game of strip poker.”
Alex looks caught somewhere between amusement and embarrassment on Link’s behalf, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly but still grinning crookedly.
“I know the winner was parading around in all the won clothes at once like some sort of demented fashion show, so I don’t know where his stuff has gotten to now, but I’m sure it’ll turn up tomorrow or in a few days. In the meantime, you should probably get him home to sleep that off.”
Alex nodds his chin at Link, who is currently giggling in Rhett’s lap, rubbing his hand back and forth over the shorn texture of Rhett’s buzzed head.
Rhett nods to Alex in thanks and then gently pushes Link out of his lap onto the couch. He stands up, stretching a little before reaching out to haul Link up as well.
“Okay buddy, it’s time to go home.”
Link isn’t too steady on his feet, so Rhett slings an arm around his waist and places Link’s arm over his shoulder, allowing Link to put some of his weight on Rhett, and for Rhett to take over steering the both of them out of the building. Alex hovers behind, watching to make sure that Rhett can manage.
As soon as they get outside, Rhett sees that some people have taken the party outside with them and there are both empty bottles and broken glass on the ground littering the sidewalks that lead away from the building.
Shifting Link’s weight slightly, Rhett notes absently that his laurel has started slipping down his forehead, and that it’s slightly crumpled on one side. It’s disorderly placement and slight destruction doesn’t detract from the way the gold glow accents Link’s dark hair in the light of the campus street lamps, though.
Rhett shakes his head to clear it.
“Welp, I guess I’m gonna have to carry you. There's too much glass on the sidewalk, you'd cut yourself up.”
Link doesn't seem to get the picture, frowning at Rhett in confusion.
“Come on, bo. Gonna give you a piggy-back-ride. Hop on up.” Rhett crouches awkwardly and coaxes his friend onto his back, and with a little shoving from Alex, they manage to get him up.
After readjusting Link’s hands so they’re no longer strangling him, Rhett sets off down the path, glad that Link was able to figure out wrapping his legs around Rhett’s waist without further direction. He can feel Link squeezing his torso gently with his toned thighs, and knows if he looks down he’ll see his little toes wiggling in the cold air.
Link is drunk enough that he doesn’t really feel the cold despite his state of undress, it seems. Link is talking about Katie, and how good his drinks were, and how his poker game went, but Rhett isn’t really listening. Rhett is focusing on not dropping his friend and putting one foot in front of the other, not the feeling of Link’s face buried in his neck, his moist lips brushing the skin there repeatedly as he mutters quietly about the inane activities of the evening.
Link breaks his own ramblings with a small gasp.
“Oh! This is just like when Fezzik has to carry Wesley! But wait, you're Wesley. So how can we both be Wesley? Rhett, we can’t both be Wesley, maybe I should carry you...” Link trails off.
“I’m Wesley, and you're Princess Buttercup. Now quit yer mumbling...it tickles” Rhett says gruffly, hoisting the younger boy a few inches higher.
---
Finally shouldering into their room, Rhett huffs out a sigh of relief. Boy is damned heavy.
Letting go of Link’s legs, he says, “Okay Buttercup, your horse has arrived at the castle, or whatever. Time for you to get down and get your sorry ass to bed”
“Mmmm, you’re the best Rhett” Link mumbles, sliding down Rhett’s back to land gracelessly on the floor.
Thankfully, without further prompting, Link stumbles his way over to their bunk. However, instead of crawling up the ladder like Rhett expects him to, he flops down on Rhett’s bed, face first into his pillow.
It’s a tempting sight he makes, and Rhett lets him lay there while he strips down to his own boxers, throwing his costume haphazardly towards the hamper.
Sidling up to the bed, he gently pulls the laurel off of Link’s head and murmurs, “Come on man, you gotta sleep in your own bed”.
Link’s face scrunches up in a way that Rhett refuses to think of as a adorable. “Nuh uh. ‘S cold. I don’t gotta sheet”
“I told you not to, not my fault you lost it Buttercup”
“yeah yeah, whatever.” Link tugs sleepily on Rhett’s arm.
“I’m the princess and I wanna sleep here ”.
Rhett hesitates for a moment, trying to figure out if Link means for him to sleep in the same bed or not. But when he tugs him again, more insistently, Rhett allows himself to be pulled beneath the covers.
It’s a tight fit and he ends up spooned around Link, his knee slotted between Link’s. One arm is under the shorter boy’s head while the other is carefully wrapped around his small waist.
Although they’d been pressed against each other like this before -- just in their boxers and nothing else-- when they wrestled, something about it being in the dark in bed makes it different.
Rhett can feel every inch of where his and Link’s skin touch, where Link’s pelvis nestles against his crotch with only two layers of cloth between them.
“Rhett?”
“Yeah?”
“This is nice.” Link mumbles, pulling Rhett's arm more firmly around himself. “We should do this, like, every night.”
Rhett isn't entirely sure Link will feel the same way the next morning when he has sobered up, but he can't help but grin as he presses his face into Link’s hair at the possibility.
“As you wish.” He whispers, pressing a gentle kiss to the dark strands beneath his lips before drifting off into dreams of riding into the rising dawn on a handsome white horse, Link by his side.