Work Text:
Gordon stared at his hands, fingers tapping in time with the melody running through his head. His mind was racing, possible lyrics all running through. None were good enough. They either made no sense, or were just... empty words. Sure, they could work if he was desperate to finish, but Gordon wanted his songs to be meaningful (though, that's nearly impossible when your job requires you to fit frog puns into the songs you write.) He knew Mr. Bungee could be expecting it to be finished at any time, but he couldn't bring himself to write some repetitive piece of shit, knowing it would haunt him for the rest of his career.
Suddenly, Gordon was brought out of his thoughts by a pair of hands gently placed over his own, making him jump slightly. He looked up and his gaze was met with his lover's, his eyebrows furled slightly in concern. "Everything alright, Gordo?" Roger spoke softly, worried that if he spoke any louder it would stress his boyfriend out even more.
Gordon sighed and ran one of his hands through his hair. "Yeah. Everything's fine, babe. I'm just stressed about work, as always."
Roger interlocked their fingers, squeezing Gordon's hand slightly, hoping it will provide his boyfriend some comfort. It killed him to see Gordon like this, working himself to a point where they couldn't even go out without his mind being back at home with his work. Usually, Roger would just leave him alone without having to worry, knowing he would eventually come to bed (and maybe it was at three A.M., but at least it happened ) when he finished his song or was too tired to continue. But lately, Roger would wake up to find him passed out at his keyboard, music having been scribbled onto the pages due to the exhaustion.
Roger rubbed small circles onto Gordon's hand with his thumb and exhaled slowly. "I'm really worried about you. You can never focus on anything but writing songs. It's not healthy."
"I know, Roger, and I'm really sorry. It's just... Mr. Bungee has been putting a lot of pressure on me recently, since the holidays are coming up. And writing for Bungee is especially fun when the songs have to be about a holiday you don't even celebrate." Gordon replied, looking away to escape his lover's concerned gaze. "Besides," he began, "it's not like I can focus on anything normally."
"But this is different. You're constantly working. You barely sleep, you forget to eat, all you do is write... It scares me, Gordo."
"Yeah, well, blame Bungee." Gordon disconnected their hands and crossed his arms. He avoided looking at his disappointed lover by staring at the front of the restaurant, distracting himself by watching people enter. A few moments later, though, a familiar face walked in and Gordon swears he almost had a heart attack. "Speak of the devil..."
Roger turned slowly, trying to see what had his boyfriend so shocked, and Roger barely recognized him. Mr. Bungee stood at the entrance, a kid (maybe eight years old) standing next to him.
Roger spun back around and lowered his voice to a whisper. "We can leave if you want to. I don't want anything uncomfortable happening, and I remember you saying that Mr. Bungee's homophobic..."
Gordon stared blankly for a moment, then burst out laughing (which scared the hell out of Roger, because that was definitely not the reaction he expected.) "Well... He's not really homophobic. I meant it as more of a... 'I'm gay and he's inconveniencing me' kind of thing. He knows I'm gay."
Roger's face flushed slightly, but then he let out a laugh, drawing the attention of a couple of tables around them. Gordon grinned, his lover's laugh ringing in his ears. "Well, the offer still stands." Roger said in between laughs.
"I mean, we shouldn't just go because he's here. He might not even see us." Gordon replied, focus wandering back to his fingers, which were still tapping on the table, but now they were in a quick, repetitive pattern.
As if on cue, Mr. Bungee turned his head and locked eyes with Gordon, who quickly looked away so he was staring out the window beside him, out onto the street. "What the fuck." Gordon said under his breath. "Is this some sort of punishment? Is this because I turned that pastor away while I was in the hospital? I can't believe God is antisemitic."
Roger laughed again and placed a reassuring hand on Gordon's arm. "I take it that changes your mind, then?"
Gordon let out a sigh and nodded slightly. The pair stood and started walking towards the entrance, Gordon close behind Roger, in a quick attempt to hide. But of course, because the universe apparently hates Gordon , Bungee and his son had been heading out to their table at the same time they were attempting to leave.
"Gordon! Hey!" Bungee said, despite how much Gordon tried to show that he didn't want to talk to him. His son stood beside him, obviously annoyed at his father.
Reluctantly, Gordon spun around. "Hey, Bungee." He replied, the stress that's been piling up in his brain clear in his voice.
"You alright, Gordon?" There was a clear concern in Bungee's voice, which almost surprised Gordon. "You seem exhausted."
Gordon was confused, to say the least. Bungee never asked questions like this when they're at work. "I've just been working on those songs you need soon."
"Well, don't stress yourself out too much about it. I know it's hard for you, since you're Jewish, but I wanted them to be written by the best writer we have." Bungee smiled at Gordon, and said a quick goodbye, and continued walking through the restaurant (to the relief of his son, who looked bored out of his mind).
Seeing Gordon almost frozen in confusion, Roger quickly grabbed his boyfriend's hand once again and led him out of the restaurant. "That was... weird." Gordon finally remarked once they were outside, beginning the walk home.
"I thought it was nice. Bungee seems like a really good boss." Roger replied.
"Exactly, Roger. He's never like that at work. He's constantly reminding me of deadlines and needing more songs than I can write at one time and--" Gordon cut himself off before he could continue, getting more and more stressed. Roger squeezed his hand to bring him back from his almost-rant.
"Maybe he gets just as stressed about work as you do, and it makes him frustrated." Roger offered. He didn't know the full extent of how bad Bungee was at work, but, seeing as how mistaken he was about Bungee's 'homophobia', he couldn't be sure if what Gordon told him was accurate or not.
"Who knows. Let's just drop it. I don't want to even think about Bungee for a whole month." Gordon said, which made Roger laugh slightly. He smiled up at his lover, not thinking about writing at all for the first time in weeks.