Work Text:
"Dan, I love you." Arin his hands clench in front of him anxiety and dread running through his veins. It feels like ages before Dan even reacts at all to what Arin has said.
"Arin..." Dan falters looking at Arin in desperation. Things had been going so well they had just finished a 4 hour grump sesh and now arin was throwing this curveball at him. What was he supposed to do? "What am I supposed to say to that?" He whispers gesturing vaguely at nothing. Arin dips his head tears threatening to pour out of his eyes.
"I needed to tell you. I couldn't keep up the act anymore. All of our jokes and what not felt too real," Arin looks up eyes shining with unshed tears, "Dan I couldn't hide it anymore I'm sorry." Finally the tears fall and dan makes a pained noise at the sight.
"Arin... I- I think you need to find a new not-so-grump." Dan says his eyes filling as the words leave his mouth. Arins mouth drops open a shocked pained gasp escaping his lips. Arin wavers where he stands suddenly not able to keep his knees from giving out from under him. He quickly grabs onto the couch next to him and tries to catch his breath.
"You can't be serious." He whispers almost to himself. Dans lip wobbles.
"I think it's best if I leave." Dan replies slowly backing away to the door his mind racing with a million thoughts.
"Dan please... I’ll hide it, I won’t bring it up, please don’t leave I can’t do this without you," Arin begs reaching for Dan desperation clear in his voice. Dan shakes his head tears dangerously close to falling.
"No Arin I can’t. I can’t do that to you. I’m sorry." And with that Dan turns and leaves the room barely giving Arin time to process what had just happened.
"Dan," arin calls his voice cracking, "please..."
-------
Dan makes mad dash for the office doors barely even hearing his fellow coworkers call after him. He practically sprints to his car and slams the door as he falls into the driver's seat. The tears that had been so close to falling in front of Arin escape their prison and fall freely down his face. He jams his keys into the ignition and takes off. He eyes are blurry as he drives. He drives for awhile barely knowing where he was going before a sudden red light has him slamming on his breaks and taking a staggering gasp of breath. The tears are still pouring down his face as he realizes what he's just done. One fist hits the steering wheel and then another and suddenly he's pounding on the steering wheel as sobs crash through his body.
-------
A week passes since Arin told Dan he loved him and a week since Arin went home to Suzy and sobbed his soul out to his wife. She held him and rocked him and assured him everything would be okay. Matt and Ryan still upload the pre-recorded episodes, but they were running very close to being out of material. Arin had told the office Dan quit out of personal reasons to save Dans reputation. Arin was dreading telling the lovelies that Dan had left. They’d be devastated. It would be a Jontron all over again. Arin had wanted to make a video and just upload it and be done with it but Suzy suggested a livestream instead. Matt and Ryan agreed to the idea and setup a camera and microphone for arin in the 10mph room. Arins stomach twisted and turned for the 2 days leading up to the set time for the livestream. Arin had tried multiple times to contact dan but to not avail. He didn’t dare go to his house in fear of him no longer being there. Suzy was nothing but supportive of her hurting husband and assured him she’d be in the other room while he streamed. He just hoped he had it in him to go through with it.
-----
It had been a week since Dan left the office and he couldn't bring himself to answer the desperate texts and phone calls from Arin asking him to come back. His girlfriend became more and more worried about him as the week progressed but still Dan refused to talk about it. Everytime she would gently bring it up Dan would gaze at her with tear filled eyes and say he couldn't. It hurt her to see him hurting and she wishes desperately that he'd talk to her. But what can you do when someone is hurting to spectacularly?
-----
“He told me that he loved me and I walked out on him.” Dan had finally cracked after being prodded for the hundredth time for an answer. Ashley stand there her arms slack at her sides. Her face the perfect depiction of shocked confusion.
“You walked out on him ?” she repeated her eyebrow raising in question. Dan looked at her with desperation in his eyes. He was clearly struggling with himself. Ashley sighed crossing the room and bringing Dan into a hug. “I love you Daniel but you are an idiot. You should have at least talked to him about it. He's probably hurting just as much as you are if not more. He loves you Danny as a friend and as more he would never intentionally hurt you. What are you so afraid of?” she asked running her hands down Dan’s back in comfort.
“I love him too.” Dan whispered burying his hand into her neck. She felt a sob come from him and hugged him tighter.
“Talk to him Danny. Before it’s too late.”
-----
Arin sits in front of the camera and mentally prepares himself to deliver the bad news. Suzy gives him a small thumbs up from the doorway. He takes a breath hits the start stream and waits 10 seconds before he starts talking. Susy closes the door a second later.
"Ahem hey there lovelies. It’s a me Arin haha. Um apologies for the random livestream. I'll wait a bit for more people to filter in before I explain what’s going on. Hi je$$icarabbit237 how’s your day going? Hello freshtaint34 awesome username dude. How you guys doing today? There’s quite a few of you guys here now so I guess I’ll start. Hello, my name is Arin, I am grump on the popular youtube channel Game Grumps. I... love doing game grumps. It's the best job in the world I couldn't imagine doing anything else... I don't know how to say this... so I guess I'll just say it... Dan... Dan decided..." Arin suddenly can’t breath he's watching the chat suddenly explode with question marks and assumptions about what's going on. He sees multiple comments saying that Dan's leaving grumps and it pushes him over the edge. A sob escapes him and looks back towards the camera. "Dan’s leaving Game Grumps. Fuck guys I'm so sorry I don’t know what I'm going to do without Dan. There's nothing I can do I didn't know this would happen. Dan’s not-" and suddenly the door slams open and Dan’s standing in the doorway his hair wild and his eyes wide. Arin shoots up from his chair his mouth hanging open.
"Dan!" Arin calls his voice cracking. He sees his employees standing behind Dan their eyes wide with concern Suzy standing not far behind not sure what to do. "Dan what are you-?" Before he can finish Dans striding across the room takes Arins face in his hand and-
Kisses him.
In front of thousands of people.
In front of the office.
In front of suzy.
On stream .
Oh shit .
Dan pulls away tears streaming down his face. He pulls arin into a hug next tight enough to slightly make it hard to breath.
"Arin I’m so fucking sorry. God, I’m so sorry. Im such a fucking idiot. I never should have walked out on you. I'm so sorry please forgive me. I want to talk to you please can we talk?" Dan babbels pulling away fully. Arin is still staring at him with his mouth open not sure what to do he then glances at the laptop on the desk and reality slams into him.
"Dan I'm streaming." He says for lack of anything else. Dan jerks and whips his head to look at the setup.
"Oh shit." Dan says aloud. Arin laughs in surprise. He quickly looks at the door and sees Suzy standing there with a hand over her mouth and her eyes shining. She motions to turn of the capture and Arin complies.
"Um... I’m sorry lovelies. I guess we will let you know what happens in like 5 hours or something. Um... bye?" Arin turns off the stream as the chat explodes. Dan is standing there his face red in embarrassment.
"Dude, I’m sorry it slipped my mind." He says ducking his head. Arin stares at him and can’t help his heart from skipping a beat.
"Its okay I think we should talk though. Away from prying eyes?" Arin suggests motioning towards the office. Dan nods the grabs Arins hands.
"I need to talk to Ashley. Is it okay if i meet you at your house in like 35 minutes?" Dan glances between Arin and Suzy. Suzy nods her head to show she’s okay with it.
"35 minutes." Arin agrees pulling away from Dan and walking over to suzy. He kisses her on the forehead then turns to his office. "Hey, um, if you guys want to go home you can. I’ll most likely be gone for the rest of the day. But if you stay just make sure you log your work properly. I’ll see you tomorrow."
Slowly his friends and colleagues file out as dan give his arm a squeeze and leaves the building. Suzy shakes arin a small bit a smile on her lips.
"Come on, Ar. Let’s go home and talk okay?"
----
35 minutes later Dan, Arin and Suzy are sitting in Arin’s living room in tense silence. Suzy is sitting by Arin with her arm wrapped protectively around his waist while staring daggers at Dan. Arin is staring at Dan too with a much more open expression waiting for him to start. Dan looks at the them and sighs wringing his hands together.
"I’m sorry for kissing your husband in front of like a million people scuze." Dan apologies. Suzy’s gaze softens and a small smile graces her beautiful face.
"I appreciate the apology but you should be apologizing to Arin." She replies rubbing her hand down Arin’s side. Dan nods and catches eye contact with Arin.
"I’m sorry for kissing you in front of like millions of people dude." Dan gives him a lopsided grin and Arin can’t help but smile back.
"It’s okay, dude. But try to refrain from doing it again, okay? Don’t wanna kill the lovelies," Arin jests his eyes sparkling in amusement. Dan seems to relax at the banter and leans forward gently asking for arins hands. Arin takes them and gazes at dan curiously.
"I’m really sorry, Arin. I shouldn’t have just walked out on you like I did. I was scared and didn’t know how to handle it. I forgot that it was you, Arin, my best friend in the whole wide world and that i had nothing to be afraid of. You spilled your guts out and I walked away and for that I will forever be sorry. I absolutely don’t deserve you or your forgiveness. I was scared because I didn’t want to admit that I felt the same way." Dan paused glancing between arin and suzy who both had a starstruck look on their face. Dan blinked in surprise. "You guys, okay?" He asked gently. Suzy sniffed and wiped at her eyes, arin did the same but rubbed his with his arm.
"Im okay dude. It's just a lot to take in but…” Arin looks at Suzy who rolls her eyes in amusement and tilts her head in a go ahead motion. Arin smiles and slides of the couch and walks over to dan who watches him in confusion. Arin gets on his knees in front of dan and gently takes his hands. “Could you… tell me? Out right?” he asks so softly, dans heart melts.
“Of course big cat. I love you. I’m sorry for not realizing it sooner.”
-----
They spend the rest of the night together just chatting and being close. Ashley is invited over a little later to talk about the whole thing. Ashley arrives with two big bottles of wine and 4 glasses. While Dan and Suzy prepare dinner in the kitten ashley has a chance to take arin aside and ask him some questions.
“Do you really love him?” she asks without malice. Arin gives her soft smile.
“Absolutely. He's hard not to love. He has a smile like the sun and a laugh that sounds like music. He's an extraordinary person. I love him so much.” Arin gazes at Dan as he shuffles around the kitchen nothing but love in his eyes. Ashley smiles and gently touches his arm.
“I’m glad, I really am. He did nothing but sulk for a whole week I’m glad he finally got off of his ass and talked to you.” they share a secret smile as Dan walks into the living room with his glass of wine in his hand.
“Dinner is almost ready I hope you guys are hungry cause I am fucking starving!” he shouts dramatically taking an even more dramatic sip of his wine. Arin laughs out loud and cant help but feel like the luckiest person in the world.
-----
The next day the grumps decide to check their internet feeds. The lovelies had since blown up all forms of their social media. They were still going crazy over "The Kiss" as they so lovingly put it. They decided to record a short video explaining the situation and reassured everyone that dan was not in fact leaving. Once the video goes up Dan glances at Arin and ducks his head in embarrassment. Arin fixes him with a puzzled look.
"So... I'm not sure what happens now." Dan admitted rubbing at his neck. Arins gaze softens and a smile graces his lips.
"Well... if you want we can start slow. We can be boyfriends if you want. I am absolutely 100% gay and in love with you so just about anything is okay with me." Arin finished a grin stretched across his face. Dan laughed a hearty laugh and took arins hand in his own.
"I’d very much like to be your boyfriend and for the record I cannot wait to get inside your asshole." Dan grinned evilly while Arin sat in shocked silence. He then pushed Dans shoulder and loudly laughed.
"You can't say that that's my line!" He chuckled gazing at Dan with love and affection. Dan gazed at Arin feeling overwhelming love fill every part of him.
"I love you, Arin."
"I love you too, Dan."
----
"You ready to record some gigity goo grumps?"
"Abso-fuckin-lutely baby."
“Welcome back to Game Grumps! I definitely penetrated Dan’s sweet sweet butthole!”
“Arin!”