Chapter Text
"Dr. Jones to the examining room, please."
"Emily, quit with the shit, we're not that fancy here!" Michael shouted to the receptionist as he pulled on his dumb lab coat over his curly auburn hair. He hated wearing the thing, it was restrictive to his movements and he looked too snobbish. If he was president, he would make it illegal to wear these things, he promised himself.
Emily gave Michael the finger discreetly as he walked past her desk to the examining room, but he noticed. He just gave her one back right in her face and she giggled quietly.
"Alright, what do we have here?" Michael asked as he ambled in. He always said this; doctors on TV did all the time, so he figured why the hell not. He took a clipboard from the counter, checking it intently, making sure he looked professional.
"Dumbass here tripped over his own feet and sprained his ankle." Said a voice, slightly annoyed albeit fatherly from behind him.
"You left your stupid sprinkler right in front of the door!" Came a distinctly British voice.
This caught Michael's attention and he glanced up to observe his client.
A tall, slightly intimidating man with sleeve tattoos, bags under his eyes, and dark hair stood with his arms crossed by a young man around Michael's age, who had ruffled brunette hair as if he just got out of bed, tanned skin, and a shirt about two sizes too small for him.
"I'm your doctor today, doctor Jones, but honestly, just call me Michael."He stepped forward to shake hands with both of them. "Having to call me 'doctor' is kind of fucking stupid."
They laughed, and Michael grinned. He appreciated when his clients weren't stuck up about the kind of informal way they ran things around here.
"I'm Geoff, and dumbass is Gavin."
"Nice to meet you both. Now can you tell me what actually happened?"
Gavin shot a furtive look at Geoff, who was apparently refusing to tell it for him.
"Well," Gavin sighed. "Geoff left the lawn sprinkler right in front of the door--"
"It was at least five feet in front of it!"
"And so I tripped over it and now my ankle is most likely sprained."
"Again." Geoff added.
"How many times has it been, Gavin?" Michael asked, putting on his doctor voice.
"Uhh..." Michael watched Gavin look around the room, trying to remember. Geoff rolled his eyes.
"It's been twice on this ankle and once on the other. Apparently they were all my fault, but that's just bullshit."
"Hey! That rug was dangerous!"
"No it wasn't! Your fucking stupid self just refused to walk around it!"
Their banter was highly amusing and Michael found himself smiling.
"Well then how do you explain the time you tripped me? Is that not your fault now too?" Gavin retorted, a smug look crossing his face as if he'd won the argument already.
"Okay, c'mon, you know I didn't mean for you to sprain your fucking ankle when I did that. I said I was sorry!" Geoff said, almost pleadingly.
When Gavin opened his mouth to say something back, Michael took this as his cue to continue his doctoring and break up the argument.
"Okay. So, you know the procedure for sprained ankles by now, then?"
"Yeah." Gavin said grumpily, not wanting to go through it again, even though this time it seemed as though it was his fault.
Michael told Gavin to sit back on the chair so he could examine the ankle.
"Now, let me see... It seems like just a grade 2 sprain, so all you will need is a splint and some exercises that you can do at home." Michael told them, pointing at the swelling.
"Can you still walk on it?" He asked, judging by the amount of swelling that he most likely could.
"Yeah. But he made me carry him for the grade 3 one." Geoff answered, sighing at the decidedly unpleasant memory. "Even if you do weigh like 8 pounds." He added enviously, and it seemed almost true. He was pretty fucking skinny.
Gavin laughed at this. It was a nice noise, his racking giggles ebbing into little squeaks. Michael found himself staring at the attractive man; his adorable laugh was like sunshine.
He quickly looked away and down at his clipboard again when he realized Geoff was giving him a suspicious look.
"So, um, come back in here and we'll get you in your splint, okay? Geoff, would you like to come too?" Michael asked, a small part of his brain hoping he'd say no.
"Nah, he knows how the fuck this goes. He's a big boy now." He said sarcastically, causing Gavin to give him a dirty look.
"Alright, so just follow me back here, Gavin." Michael led him back to the other room, secretly enjoying that he could have some time alone to get to know Gavin. Geoff walked out of the room, presumably going to the waiting room.
"So, how long have you been a doctor?" Gavin said as he plopped down onto the bench to wait.
Michael scratched his chin and thought. He had taken the bare minimum amount of college you can have to become a doctor and then applied for this job, which he has luckily gotten.
"Well... I'd say almost a year now."
"So that's why I've never seen you here before!" Gavin exclaimed, realization striking him.
"Do you honestly hurt yourself that much?" Michael asked, knowing the answer before Gavin spoke.
"Yeeeeah." Gavin smiled cheekily. "Going to the doctor won't be so bad now, though." He winked at Michael, who's face turned deep shade of pink even though he laughed.
"We'll probably be seeing each other more often, then." Michael said, hoping this was true.
"Most likely." Gavin agreed, bouncing slightly in his seat.
"Or maybe you should just be more careful and you wouldn't have to pay a huge ass doctor's bill every other month." Michael said, reminding him that he did indeed need to pay for all this. "We don't have free healthcare in this shit country, y'know."
"I wouldn't mind." Gavin grinned slyly. Michael turned around to hide his smile as he searched for a splint for his ankle.
"So, where do you work?" Michael asked.
"Oh, it's a place called Rooster Teeth. We make an animated series called Red vs. Blue. But mostly we play video games a lot." Michael spun around at this.
"You guys play video games at work?" He said, his voice cracking.
"Yeah." Gavin grinned. "It's top."
"That's pretty fuckin' sweet." Michael said, impressed.
"It's pretty much my dream job." Gavin said, sighing happily.
"What games do you play?"
"Oh, lots of different things. Any game we can get our hands on. A lot of GTA, Minecraft, and every new game we can get." Gavin told him happily.
"This place is actually kinda boring." Michael told him, gesturing around the building. "I love video games more than this dumb shit, actually."Michael mused, mostly to himself.
"Maybe you should come visit us!" Gavin chirped, swinging his legs back and forth.
"Maybe I should." Michael said, mulling it over. "So, is Geoff your...?"
"Dad? Ah, I get that all the time, with the way we act. Nah, he's my boss. But I live with him and his wife and kid, since he works at Rooster Teeth too. I have a separate little house, though, so I mean, I get privacy."
"He's the boss of the whole company?" Michael asked, intruiged.
"Nah, just for our little branch of the company. We're part of the Achievement Hunters. Me, him, and three other guys. We're great friends, we just play games, make videos, and edit all day."
Michael sighed enviously. "That sounds fucking amazing."
"It is. I'm not sure we're hiring right now, though, but I mean, you're always welcome to come see us." Gavin smiled kindly at him, his eyes betraying a twinge of sadness at his new friend's inability to work with them.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I have a great paying job in the field I actually majored in. So, y'know, I'm lucky, I guess." He said, smiling despite the unhappiness bubbling uncomfortably in him.
"Now, come here, I need to get fix your ankle." Gavin stuck his leg out helpfully. Michael took the time while he was attaching the splint to converse with Gavin about games. They talked about their favorites, ones they didn't really like, and the new and upcoming ones they were excited for.
Michael realized he just liked listening to Gavin's voice. He had to admit, it was rather cute how Gavin said his name: 'Mi-cool'. His British accent also butchered other words, like 'ball', he noticed. He said it like 'bowl' but insisted it still sounded like 'ball', much to Michael's amusement. It was also pretty hilarious to hear him stumble halfway through a sentence and then trail off, apparently just giving up on the words he was trying to say.
He learned Gavin really liked Peggle, something Michael had never played, and was very excited for the Titanfall, something Michael had.
"Geoff and I were so excited for Peggle. It's one of our favorite games." Gavin said happily.
"I've never played." Michael said thoughtfully, finishing fixing the splint on.
"Maybe you can come over and we can teach you sometime!" Gavin offered, looking over his new ankle splint. "It looks good! Let's go show Geoff." He said, already hobbling out.
As he limped to the door, he didn't notice the edge of the examining bench jutting out and caught his foot on it, tripping ungracefully. Luckily, Michael was beside him to catch his arm before he fell hard to the ground.
Michael smiled, barely holding in his laughter. Gavin bounced up brightly, smiling as well. "Sorry, didn't see that there." He patted Michael's arm lightly and started off for the door again.
"Geoffy! I got my ankle fixed!" Gavin yelled as he opened the door to the waiting room.
"Thank god, that took forever." Geoff whined, standing up.
He and Gavin walked over to the receptionist's desk to discuss payment. Michael stood behind the desk as well, hoping to talk more with Gavin.
"Geoff, Michael said he likes games as well. We should invite him to the office some time to hang out and just faff about." Gavin told him, beaming at Michael.
"Is that so? We should definitely do that. It sounds fuckin' fun." Geoff said, also smiling warmly at Michael.
"Yeah, but he's never played Peggle." Gavin said, suddenly serious.
"What? Really?" Geoff asked incredulously when Michael shook his head. "Well then we definitely need to have you over so you can experience the heavenly bliss that is Peggle."
Michael laughed, happy that he made new friends. "Yeah! Sounds fuckin' great!" Geoff went back to talking with Emily, so Gavin immersed Michael in another conversation about Titanfall.
As Geoff finished up figuring out the payment, he turned to Michael and stuck out his hand to shake.
"Thank you, Michael." Michael grinned and shook his hand brightly.
"Well, it is my job to fix dumbasses up." He told him. They laughed as Gavin fake-pouted and quickly dissolved into squeaky giggles.
"We'll probably see you soon, whether it's to fix his sorry ass or to play the greatest game ever made." Geoff told him, turning around to leave.
"Alright, see you around!" Michael called, waving back at a bubbly Gavin who was walking backwards out to keep waving at Michael. He ran into Geoff though, and tipped, almost falling until Geoff caught him, muttering, "Dumbass."
Michael laughed quietly, watching the unlikely pair drag each other out the door. He looked down at Emily, who was sitting beside him, and caught a smug smile on her lips.
"What?"
"Nothing." She turned away, hiding her growing grin.
"Oh, shut the fuck up." Michael said, turning a delicate pink. He moved away from her desk, knowing full well what she was smiling about. Michael Jones definitely had a new crush.