Work Text:
Two sweaty bodies slumped back into the bed, forced to stick way too close to one another because of how narrow the bed was. Gold ran his hand through his matted hair and glanced over towards Lance’s well-toned body. He felt the gnawing of guilt eat at him and quickly turned his attention to the popcorn ceiling.
“Ethan?”
“Hm?” He answered lazily.
“I like you.”
Gold blinked a couple times as he tried to register the words that Lance had just uttered out of his mouth. He suddenly shifted to his side, his eyes bored onto Lance’s own golden coloured eyes.
“What uh, what do you mean…?” Gold asked slowly. His voice trailed off as he tried to understand what was happening at the moment.
“It’s exactly what I just said. I like you. Have been for a while now, probably since the semester started?” Lance explained with a small smile. He reached out and gently ran his fingers on top of Gold’s warm cheeks (warm from the sex or from the confession was anyone’s guess).
“But…” Gold wanted to sit up but he made no move to do so. “You’re my English TA, and I’m your student?”
Lance nodded slowly, his eyes still not taking it off of Gold.
“I don’t understand.”
The older man laughed, the low husky tone of his voice sent shivers down Gold’s spine.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to think too hard on it, Ethan. I probably should have found a better way to tell you, but I thought now was as good as any.”
Gold just stared at Lance, his eyes tried to search for a flaw, a mistake somewhere on Lance’s facial expression to prove that everything Lance had just said was a mere lie. It was impossible that Lance of all people would like him, right? Gold has always been the person to pine after someone he liked, there was no way someone would like him. He was just him. Ethan Gold.
“Just think about it,” Lance said as he gave Gold a reassuring smile.
~oOo~
Gold had just arrived back to his place and threw all his dirty clothes into a pile on the bathroom floor. He quickly turned the shower faucet and stepped in, covering his mouth to prevent himself from shrieking at the frigid cold waters that sprayed all over his body. Once the water started to warm back up, he sighed into the feeling. He pumped out the lotion and scrubbed it vigorously on his body. The water continued to pelt his body, cleaning it from any shame and guilt that was still boiling inside of him.
Once done, he turned the shower faucets back down and stepped out. A soft cream coloured towel wrapped around his lower half as he pushed and flattened his hair down with his hands. He felt his skin prickled with goosebumps when the droplets of water rolled down his back from doing that.
The steam from the shower had fogged up the mirror, so Gold used his still wet hand to wipe the mirror in order to see himself properly. He squinted and reeled back when he saw his neck and chest was riddled with hickeys.
“Shit…” He cursed.
Minutes passed by as Gold finished up in the bathroom. All dressed and dried (his hair was still slightly damp, but he didn’t mind), he headed into the bedroom and whipped out his phone. It was already a quarter to three. He quickly swiped, unlocked his phone, and opened up the group chat he had with his friends. The little keyboard stared at him with vigour. He scowled because to him, it felt like the keyboard was mocking him for his unforgivable deed.
“Ah, fuck it…” He quickly typed out what had just transpired but immediately deleted it. He continued to write it out again but had also deleted that too. This went on for minutes until the time flashed that it was three.
Gold’s nimble fingers quickly typed out short messages to the group. He was just about to toss it to the side when he saw the messages from Lance.
“Fuck.” Gold opened up the text thread and immediately felt himself burn up.
He read the messages from Lance over and over again and tried to push the giddy feeling in his chest back down. He gently nibbled on his bottom lip, his index finger tapped at the side of his phone as he tried to figure out what to write back. The swelling happiness inside of him kept creeping back up and he finally caved. He was too exhausted to fight back the urge and replied. Of course, that meant that the conversation continued, but he didn’t mind. He had already slept with the man!
“Damn, Lance really is serious about me.” Gold hummed as he read the giant block of text that Lance had sent him. His words were so forward and to-the-point. But it was also laced with respectable and mature languages that Gold had forgotten that Lance was his English TA. He read the text over and over again before he replied. His eyes flickered up to the small time stamp on his phone and realized that it was nearing three-thirty. His eyelids felt heavy and dropped every time he tried to look at his screen.
“Okay, one more text and I’m going to sleep,” he said to himself. His fingers typed out a ‘good night’ before he plugged the charger wire in and tossed it aside. He would just have to deal with the aftermath of his friends and the whole Lance situation in the morning--or at least at a more reasonable time.