Work Text:
“Oh my god, you can’t fill in the background with blue. It looks… you know…”
“What? What do you have against blue?”
“I think black would be so much better. Then you have the font in white and it looks so much more elegant--“
“And boring, yeah. If it was up to you everything would be black and white or black and grey. I know you love black but it doesn’t work. Just because you want the words to stand out, the background doesn’t have to be boring!”
“It’s not boring!” Andrew says, running a hand through his blond hair to keep it behind his ear.
“Look, you shouldn’t have accepted to do this project with me if you aren’t going to agree with any of my suggestions. I have a lot of things to do as it is and I don’t have time to argue. We need to be a fucking team. You know what that is?”
In that moment Stiles receives a text alert again, the third since they got to his room, and he knows who that ringtone belongs to.
“Yeah. I know what that is and I also know that if you can’t lose time arguing with me, you don’t have time to answer all those texts.”
“For your information, I wasn’t going to answer. I’m just gonna tell him that I’ll call him later, okay? Just give me a sec.”
“Whatever.” Andrew holds up his hands in resignation.
Stiles grabs his phone from the table and texts a few words quickly. “There. Done. Happy now?”
“I—“ Andrew starts but before he can continue there’s another text followed by two more after that.
Stiles grabs the phone and reads the texts.
“Sorry, I think I should call him. It’s… you know, it’s important.” Stiles says, getting up. “It’ll just be a minute and I’ll be right back. Why don’t you check what I’ve done with the next picture and you can tell me everything you want to change?”
Andrew snorts. “Very funny. Yeah, I’ll check it out.”
Stiles leaves his room and comes back five minutes later.
“Sorry, that took longer than I thought. Have you checked it out?” Stiles sits down at his desk again and leaves the phone on the right where it was before.
“So, who is Jackson?” Andrew asks.
“What? Why?” Stiles frowns.
“Why? Because he was texting you the other day when we met at my house and I saw it was him who just texted you and you just left to call him. I’ve known you for what? Three months? You know all my friends, so I don’t know… is this a friend I don’t know about?”
“No, he’s not a friend. He… he’s my boyfriend.”
“You have a boyfriend? Really?” Andrew says with disbelief.
“Yeah. Is that so difficult to believe?”
“I…” Andrew hesitates. “I didn’t mean it like that?”
“Then what did you mean?”
“I thought you and Jake… you know, I thought you and Jake were an item?”
“What?” Stiles says louder than he intended, obviously surprised.
“So you’re not together.”
“Are you kidding me? Of course we’re not together! Absolutely not! Why the hell would you even think that?”
“Because you’re always together… at the library, having lunch, at the party the other night… you know-–“
“There were a lot of people at that party… and I also have lunch with you and many other people…”
“Yeah, but I saw the way he was talking to you… looking at you at the party… the guy is totally into you. I’m not the only one who thinks you two… you know…”
“You aren’t? And who else thinks that?”
“Michael, Shane, Sarah, Ian, Pamela… probably everybody at that party, I can’t be sure. People have a lot of imagination, I guess.”
“Shit.” Stiles hides his face between his hands for a few seconds. “What’s this? High school?”
“Oh no. I’m pretty sure high school is nothing compared to college.”
Thank god Jackson is living so many miles away from here and he won’t find out.
“So, what? Every time I meet someone I’m supposed to say. Hi, I’m Stiles and by the way, so, I have a boyfriend.”
Andrew snorts. “Yeah, that’s pretty much how it works.”
“Well, that’s crazy.”
“Yeah, welcome to crazy.” Andrew says, opening both arms. “But now that I know, I’ll simply spread the news and you won’t have to worry about it. But maybe you should tell Jake anyway because I have the feeling that he’s gonna be disappointed.”
“But we’re friends, okay? Just friends.” He’s actually the first friend he made when he arrived at college and the idea of anything going on had never crossed his mind.
“Yeah, but how do you know that he doesn’t want more?”
The truth is that what Andrew is saying makes sense. Maybe it was stupid not to tell anybody but it just felt too personal information at first and later it never came up.
“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll tell him. But I don’t think he’s going to care.”
“So, who is this mysterious guy?” Andrew asks, licking his lips.
“He’s not mysterious.” Stiles smiles. “He’s just not in Beacon Hills, that’s all.”
“He isn’t? And where is he?” Andrew asks obviously curious.
“He’s at Berkeley University.”
“Berkeley? What’s he studying?”
“Yeah… He’s studying law.”
“A future lawyer, huh…”
Stiles nods. “Yep.”
“So, he’s there and you’re here and what? You’re gonna be doing this long-distance thing until the end of time? Is that what you mean?”
“Not until the end of time obviously… but yeah, until we can be together… eventually.”
“So, you think that it’s gonna work? This long-distance thing you have going on.”
“Can you please not call it a long distance thing. Berkeley is just two hours from here… it’s not like he went to another country. And we talk every day… we communicate, you know.”
“Oh yeah, I’m aware of your correspondence. Now I get why he sends you all those texts.”
“That’s only because he’s nervous right now. He’s got all these finals coming up and he’s pretty much freaking out. He’s afraid of fucking up his first year which I totally understand because I feel the same way. So, I wish he was here… and he wishes I was there… and yeah, it sucks because I miss him but it is how it is…” Stiles runs his right hand through his longer hair. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy, so…” Stiles waves both arms. “I know I can’t complain.”
“But if you miss him why don’t you go and visit him or why doesn’t he come here? I mean, you have the weekends…” Andrew says matter-of-factly.
“Because we both agreed that we needed to focus during the first term… and he’ll be here for Christmas in a couple of weeks, so I think we’re good and now is not the right time.”
“Okay, can I see a picture of the guy?” Andrew waves his right arm.
“What for?” Stiles says before he realizes it sounds kind of lame.
“What for? What do you think? To see what he looks like… just curious…” Andrew shrugs.
“Fine,” Stiles says, shaking his head and grabbing his phone to find some picture. He’s not sure what kind of picture to show him but he really likes the pictures he took during their graduation because Jackson looked amazing with that suit and the tie so, he chooses one of those.
“Here.” Stiles hands him the phone. “That’s him. That’s Jackson.”
“Oh shit.” Andrew raises his eyebrows. “This is the guy?” Evident disbelief in his tone.
“Yep.”
“Okay. Now I understand why you are doing the long, I mean…” Andrew waves his right arm. “The short distance thing. The guy is fucking hot. I mean, I’m straight but I’m not blind…”
“Firstly, please, don’t call him the guy. His name is Jackson. And secondly, don’t worry, just because you say he’s hot, I’m not gonna think you’re any less straight. He thinks he’s everybody’s type, you know? He’d actually be offended if you didn’t think he’s hot.”
“Are you telling me he actually thinks that?” Andrew asks amused.
“Oh yeah, absolutely. But in his defence I have to say that it’s probably true.”
“Well, even if it’s true it doesn’t sound like the right thing to say, don’t you think?”
Stiles snorts. “Yeah, he’s not… most of the time, he doesn’t care what people think. But he’s changed… and he’s more… I mean, he’s not exactly how he used to be.”
“You know you’re not making a lot of sense, right?”
“Yeah, probably. It’s just…” Stiles waves his right arm. “It’s complicated.”
“And how did you two meet, is that also complicated?”
“No, that’s not… we met at school but we weren’t even friends at first… okay… maybe it is actually complicated. But we’ve been together for more than a year now and that’s been pretty simple in comparison.”
“More than a year?” Andrew asks surprised.
“Yeah, a year and three months.”
“Shit. I’ve never had a girlfriend for more than two months. How did you do it?”
“How did he do it?” That must be one the weirdest question he’s ever been asked.
Stiles snorts as he thinks about what to say.
“I don’t think I did anything. Do you even have to do anything? All you have to do is like the other person… trust him… accept him the way he is I guess.” Stiles says running a hand through his hair. This conversation is feeling more and more surreal.
“So, you trust him completely? That’s why you don’t think he could cheat on you or something?” Andrew asks with curiosity.
Stiles knows perfectly well what Andrew means because it’s the same thing he thought when he almost broke up with Jackson but he tries not to think about it.
“Look. I know what you are thinking. You’ve seen his picture and I get it, you know? I’d probably think the same. But you don’t know anything about him and this long distance thing, because yeah, it is a long distance thing… he’s the one who convinced me to give it a try when I tried to break up with him.”
“So you wanted to break up with him?” Andrew raises his eyebrows.
“Yeah, I did. Not one of my finest moments. But it’s like you said, I thought, you know… I guess I wanted to make it easy for him and I didn’t think it would work either… but…”
“But you didn’t break up.” Andrew finishes for him.
“No, I didn’t. Because I love him and he loves me… and I knew he was right… it was one of the most stupid ideas I’ve ever had. And the thing is that nobody knows me as well as he does and yeah, he can be a lot of things but he’s never lied to me. He can be brutally honest and we are totally different… but that’s also probably why we work, you know? And that’s also why I know I can trust him.” Of course, he can’t mention he knows that Jackson’s wolf needs him but his wolf isn’t really the reason why he trusts him, so it doesn’t really matter.
“Okay, I admit that since my last girlfriend cheated on me, I’m still going through some trust issues… so good for you, man. Maybe I’ll be able to meet him when he comes for Christmas.”
“Oh, I’m sure you will. But we need to finish this thing if we want to study for the final, so will you please tell me that you agree with me? I’d like to get some sleep tonight.”
“Okay, okay. That’s fine. Just leave it. I guess blue doesn’t completely ruin it,” Andrew admits smiling.
“Hallelujah,” Stiles smiles. “I could kiss you on the mouth right now.”
Andrew snorts. “Yeah. Somehow I don’t think Jackson would like that very much.”
Stiles licks his lips as he changes the picture for the next one.
“You don’t know half of it,” Stiles says, smiling.