Work Text:
Life is full of surprises.
Deniss and Stéphane were sitting on the coach. One of them starring at his iPad, searching for the newest Star War fanfic on AO3 (he wouldn’t tell you which pairing he’s reading), and the other scrolling down his Instagram page and liking every other post with a speed that would surprise professional game player. It was snowing outside but cozy and warm inside. They hadn’t had time to take down the Christmas decoration yet, but they would do that later—which means, after the Euros, which means approximately two months after Christmas. But who cares? After all, it was necessary to keep their spirits at a Christmas level. (spoiler alert: no Christmas spirit after the Euros, sad)
Deniss was usually quiet at this time of the night. Usually he would do whatever he wanted with his iPad for one hour after finish washing dishes, and then he would go to bed at 9, since he normally got up at 5:30 in the morning. But tonight, something was different. Stéphane had noticed Deniss giggling for the past ten minutes and he had no intention to stop. Stéphane grew curious and took the iPad from Deniss’ shaking hands (due to the giggling). He himself had not been a big reader of anything, really. Stephane preferred to see things LIVE, like ballet, Flamenco, and skating. Well, music was something different. But he had always been amazed by the degree Deniss sunk in the fictional world, who could stare at the thin air for half an hour after reading a depressing story. And Stephane was more than willing to learn more about the thing that attracted his boy so much, at any time.
Stephane glimpsed at the iPad--it was another AO3 fanfic.
He tried very hard not to laugh at his boy's pass-time but froze when he scrolled up to the first few paragraphs of the story.
He froze for ten seconds, reading the intro and tags for three times, and bursted into laughter. He turned to Deniss and saw him starring back with a smutty face. Seemed that his golden (haired) boy had anticipated his reaction. Stephane raised his eyebrows, creating a perfect I-don't-know-what-you-are-doing-but-you-better-tell-me face (or what Deniss called it, 'the coach face'). After living together for two and half years, he can tell Deniss was expecting something more from him.
“Oh, nothing “, Deniss smiled like a cat who successfully stole fish jerky from his owner’s cupboard, “just continue reading, the best part is waiting for you.”
Stephane rolled his eyes and turned back to the iPad. This story was in English and was not long, even for someone like Stephane. But still, it took him 10 minutes because he had to come back to the previous paragraphs again to make sure he was understanding the story correctly. He turned to Deniss again with an indescribable expression—a mixture of entertainment, resignation and frustration: “You’re really bored, aren’t you, mon armour?”
Deniss tried to conceal his gloating face by shrugging, “I didn’t force you to read it, you know. It’s just your curiosity. And I think as my finance, you should share my suffering a little bit.”
Stéphane wanted to roll his eyes for 100 more times but he chose not to do so. According to his experience, that would only give Deniss more satisfaction. “Come on, I just feel that the online speculation about our PRIVATE life become more and more ridiculous! And people’s understanding about me! Do I seem like the type who would endure the pain of unrequited love for more than two years while living with my pining subject under the same roof?” Deniss gestured so dramatically that he almost fell off the sofa, “I would be a saint to do that! And why they are portraying you as robot insensitive to human emotions? You’re the one who can deal perfectly with you ex-es!”
“I know, I know. Remember the fanfics about me and Brian? Oh and the one with me and Evgeni? Or basically with anyone?” Stephane tried to calm his boy down, “and we know that these lovely writers knew that they were just creating stories, not reenacting reality.”
Deniss sighed, “Of course I know, and you KNOW I love reading fanfics even about myself. But sometimes it’s frustrating because I have to stop myself from commenting about the REALITY of our life. Well maybe in the numerous parallel universes this story will become THE REALITY, but not in this universe—I know, I won’t rant more about quantum physics.” Deniss affectionately took Stephane’s hands, which made Stephane shiver a little (because of his guts told him something bad was going to happen to his heart): “Oh Steph, why can’t you love me? Is it because I don’t have a PhD degree, or because I can’t speak French, or because I’m not tall enough? Or because my face is not long enough?”
Stephane immediately regretted telling his lovely student to watch soap operas to practice his acting skills for the Iron program. He had already seen numerous memes on line comparing Deniss with a famous blond actor--still, to his standard, no Oscar for Deniss yet. But what had been done was done. Now he was left for next few years or even decades to regret his decision. He quietly swore that he would think thoroughly before encouraging Deniss to develop any new skills.
But the golden boy didn’t mean to stop: “Oh and poor Chris, he must be sneezing for the past half hour in his beautiful little house. You do realize that we need to compensate him by making more pastries for him, right? I’m running out of fresh cherries and blueberries, so we need to go shopping tomorrow. But really, thanks to him, you won’t be the one playing the bad guy. You know, the womanizer-slash-manizer who played with the innocent boy’s heart?” Deniss sighed dramatically again. “He’s really your true friend.”
“Yeah, yeah you’re right mon chéri.” Stephane patted Deniss’ back like he did with his cats, “Just……next time, don’t read thing like that this late at night. You’re giving me some bad, bad inspirations….” But Deniss’ simile only deepened with an evil hue. He leaned to reach for the ring hang by a sliver chain on Stephane’s neck: “Don’t worry, Steph, we will have so much time after we come back from Minsk.” Deniss comfortably lied into Stephane’s arms, “you just need to be patient, you know….”
Stephane casually stroked the dark golden threads, and silently swore he would find a better entertainment for Deniss tomorrow.