Work Text:
andrew wasn’t good with feelings.
he didn’t like it when someone had the audacity to come into his life and make him actually care about them, or give him a moral consciousness. he didn’t want someone to hug him, or tell him he was loved, or give him another reason to smile. he wanted peace and quiet and to just get on with life.
maybe that’s why he avoided steven every day of his life.
he didn’t like how steven’s smile made him happy. he didn’t like how it warmed him up. he didn’t like how friendly he was, even to those who didn’t like him too much. he was thrown off by his happiness; his laughter was like church bells and it freaked andrew out.
however - as steven’s personality often led to him growing attached to those who avoided him - he got to know the younger man. What started off as a cup of coffee delivered to his desk in the morning with a friendly smile ended up with the proposition of lunch together. steven’s bubbly attitude and bright outlook was starting to, annoyingly, rub off on andrew, and he agreed immediately. the real trouble, however, came when he noticed how pretty steven was.
they were just finishing lunch, at the end of their drinks, when andrew found himself staring at the man sat across from him. steven was deep into a story about some sort of terrible editing mistake, but andrew couldn’t have been less concentrated on the fable of forgetting to save. his eyes just seemed so much brighter, so much more hypnotic, than normal. it wasn’t like a drunken state of attraction, not like he assumed most of his attractions were. they were sober, but steven still looked so goddamn pretty in the lighting of a warm day. his smile was so bright and friendly, and his skin was so pristine and clear. it was like he was a china doll, like he could break at any moment.
andrew was stuttering and falling over his words as he tried to offer friendly advice to the man across from him. steven’s reaction was just a bubbly laugh and a slight shake of his head. the way his laugh sounded, in that moment, was equal to any gospel song ever written; no voice, nor instruments, would ever compare to the vocals of his giggles.
andrew had to stop himself from staring once again, as his attention had steadily drifted to the complex array of colours in steven’s eyes. the dark browns mixing together were absolutely beautiful to andrew. the chocolate mixture should’ve been framed and worshiped, in andrew’s opinion.
it might have been the soft kiss that steven left him with afterwards that kept andrew giddy as he drove home, or the fresh coffee in him, but neither guess was better than the other. all andrew knew was he was looking forward to work the next day.