Work Text:
“Cigarette?” Ron asks, standing in the dark entrance behind Carwood, causing him to jump slightly and then he recognize Ron’s voice, turning with a smile.
“You know I don’t smoke.” Carwood chuckles. Ron steps into the light, revealing his face, which was painted black with a big, evil smile with sharp teeth painted all the way up to his ears.
“Thought you might have changed your mind.” Ron shrugs, coming up to behind Carwood, who was doing his own scary makeup for the haunted house they both worked at. Carwood was assigned to be a zombie today, which was the first time he was working in a different room than Ron.
“Nope.” Carwood says with a chuckle, putting the finishing touched on his zombie look before turning around and looking Ron in the eye.
“You look gross.” Ron says, wrinkling his nose.
“Yeah, you look real hot yourself.” Carwood teases back, but he wasn’t completely joking. Ron my have his face completely painted, but his eyes were still bright and attentive, with his hair slicked back and shiny from the product. He was wearing a loose-fitting tank top, that showed off his arms. Carwood felt extremely overdressed in his long sleeve plaid shirt, which was ripped into shreds along with his dirty blue jeans.
Ron grins back, reaching out to ruffle up Carwood’s hair. “Looked too perfect.” He explains, brushing another strand of hair out of his face.
“Do you wanna go out for drinks after this?” Carwood asks suddenly. He sees Ron a lot at their work, but they’ve never hung out at all outside of work, and Carwood was incredibly curious to see what he was like.
“So you don’t smoke but you do drink?” Ron questions, putting a hand on the arm of Carwood’s chair and leaning over him. It was more of a casual gesture, but Carwood wasn’t able to stop his heart from pounding.
“I don’t drink a lot, but I do enjoy it on occasion.” Carwood shrugs, looking down at his watch.
“It’s almost time to start.”
--
It was a rainy night, which means low turn out. Even though the haunted house was completely inside, a lot of people came for the outdoor karaoke and the haunted hayride.
Carwood was sitting down on top of one of the tables, swinging his foot in boredom. Every couple of minutes someone would walk through and he’d have to go into character, but because he was alone in the room he felt like falling asleep.
He wished he was still paired with Ron, because at least he would have someone to talk to. A lot of the other people who worked there were under the impression that Ron wasn’t very talkative, but Carwood knew that he was actually pretty chatty, Ron was just very picky about who he talked too, and he definitely didn’t like big groups.
The light above the door blinked three times, which they used to signal someone coming through. Different numbers of blinks meant something different. One blink, be as scary as possible. Two blinks, there were little kids or people who were really scared so back off. Three blinks, small group. Four blinks, large group.
Carwood stands up with a sigh, getting ready to scare the people, when the exit door slams open and Ron jumps out. Carwood jumps, and puts a hand over his heart. “Ron!” He shouts, hitting the man in the chest.
Ron laughs at Carwood, and it’s in that moment that Carwood decides that he never wants to hear another laugh again besides Ron’s.
“Sorry not sorry.” Ron smirks, stepping into the room. “How are things?”
“Good.” Carwood nods, hopping back up on the table. Ron joins him, moving the fake decapitated head to make room.
“Bored?” Ron asks, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. Carwood shrugs, watching Ron take a long drag before exhaling the smoke through pursed lips.
“You just miss being with me.” Ron says, reaching forward to push the hair again out of Carwood’s face. Carwood’s breath catches in his throat, feeling Ron’s fingers linger against his skin for a moment too long.
“Ron.” Carwood says breathlessly, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall.
“Carwood.” Ron whispers in reply, putting a hand on Carwood’s knee, slowing moving it up higher until “You’ve got people coming through. Two blinks.”
Ron leaves the room as suddenly as he left it, and Carwood swears he didn’t even see the door open or close. Carwood takes a deep breath, feeling his heartbeat return to normal.
--
Carwood is sneaking up behind Ron, who was attempting to scare him for all the times that Ron has gotten Carwood. Ron was at the sink, rubbing his face with a towelette, attempting to get off the heavy facepaint.
“You can’t get me.” Ron says suddenly, causing Carwood to jump.
“How do you do that?” Carwood yells, finally moving forward out of the hallway he was attempting to creep down. Ron only responds with a sly smile, handing at a towelette back so Carwood can start to wash his face off as well. Their face paint was horrible to get off, especially the paint in their eyebrows and beards. It had to be waterproof, because they didn’t want to sweat off their scary faces while working.
“Where are we going for drinks?” Ron asks, throwing his towelette in the trash.
“Um, I was thinking the one down on Lane Street, but wherever you want to go works with me.” Carwood shrugs.
Ron nods, attempting to fix his hair is the mirror, reminding Carwood of earlier when Ron was fixing his own hair.
“Listen, Carwood, if I have overstepped my boundaries…” Ron says, trailing off.
“No!” Carwood shouts, shaking his head. “No.” He says again, calmer.
Ron nods, biting his lip. He steps closer to Carwood and takes the towelette out of his hand, wiping the rest of the face paint off of his cheek. Ron throws the towelette into the trash and puts the hand back on Carwood’s face, rubbing his cheek.
“Please.” Carwood whispers, leaning forward and opening his mouth slightly. Ron presses forward, his lips connecting with Ron’s. Carwood fists his hands onto Ron’s shirt, holding him in tight to his body.
“Do you still want to go get drinks?” Ron asks, not pulling away from Carwood’s lips.
“No.” Carwood chuckles, pushing his lips back against Ron’s.