Chapter Text
They’d mentioned they might hang out. Some of the guys. So naturally Barry was in his room.
‘Sebastian, you do realise for people to think we’re together, they have to actually see us together, right?’ Hunter snarked standing in front of the bed, arms crossed impatiently. Barry huffed.
‘Yes I realise that, so we can do that tomorrow!’
‘No, they literally invited us to go hang out with them, this is the perfect time to act like we’re close in a casual setting. What’s the problem?’ Barry could hear the annoyance in his voice, he sighed.
The problem was that the idea of hanging out with them still stressed him out. Sure, they’d hung out before, but it was always ‘come watch a movie’, or ‘come study with us’. There was always something else to focus on, and when there wasn’t, he would fuck it up. He’d say something stupid or act too differently and Barry never knew how they were going to react.
Hunter sighed at the lack of response, jumping down onto the bed making Barry bounce slightly.
Barry understood his irritation, he had basically forced the boy into this situation to start with. He was sure Hunter would much rather be hanging out with the others than sat there on his bed. But Hunter had insisted that they spend as much time together as possible.
It was just that, Barry was a scientist at heart, being back in his teenage body wouldn’t change that, and social situations were too unpredictable. As much as he was sure that Hunter would love to drag him down the corridor to Wes’ room where they’d be hanging out, Barry couldn't stop the feeling that his heart was gonna beat out of his chest, or that his head would explode with the amount of thoughts buzzing behind his eyes.
So they sat there, idly playing on their phones.
Wow real fun, Barry, good job.
As if to make matters worse, that thought was drowned out by voices coming up the corridor. The two both perked up slightly, there was no way they could avoid hearing them, the group of boys all together were so loud. It didn’t even seem like they meant to be, they just naturally had this energy that made all want to talk. Barry felt a kind of ache in his chest, wishing he could just go out there and join them, but he knew he'd be too awkward.
‘Wait I’ve got an idea!’ Hunter jumped up, startling Barry out of his thoughts.
‘Wha-‘
Before he could even ask what Hunter was doing pressing his ear against the door, he was cut off by a moan.
Barry’s jaw dropped as Hunter started making vulgar noises.
‘Oh my god!’ He laughed at the absurdity of the situation. Hunter turned to him, grinning, gesturing for him to start as well.
So that’s how they found themselves sitting next to each other, backs against the door making the most obscene moans and 'Oh God's you’ve ever heard. Hunter seemingly getting a huge amount of entertainment out of trying to find the filthiest way to say Sebastian's name.
They heard the boys quieten down as they got closer to the door and then giggling awkwardly as Barry let out an ‘Oh fuck!’, after that it appeared they’d quickly moved on down the corridor not needing to hear anymore.
The two looked at each other, not able to hold in their own laughs at what they’d just done. Barry briefly wondered how he could feel completely comfortable pretending to have sex with someone he’s barely known for 2 months but not hanging out with the warblers who he’d known for years.
‘Wait, isn’t this just gonna make them think I’m still sleeping around?’ His brows furrowing.
‘Not ‘sleeping around’ necessarily, I overheard Wes earlier saying you were probably trying to hook up with me.’ Hunter explained as if that justified what just happened.
‘Oh great! So now they’re gonna believe that completely.’ He said, not really annoyed but at the very least confused.
‘No, they weren’t gonna believe you were suddenly abstinent anyway, but we can show them that this isn’t just some hook up.’
‘Ok… so how do we do that?’
-
The warblers settled down, sitting in various places around Wes’ room accepting that they wouldn’t be seeing Hunter and Sebastian.
So with that in mind, they were surprised when Hunter knocked on the door looking like he’d tried to tidy up his appearance in a hurry and failed. His shirt was tucked unevenly, and his tie was slightly askew, which on anyone else would look normal. Hunter, on the other hand, was a stickler for uniforms being perfectly neat, the amount of times he’d halted a rehearsal to make someone tuck their shirt in was ridiculous. It was something he’d picked up at military school. Uniforms meant exactly that, unity, they meant that everyone was in the same boat whether they liked it or not. So to see him now, was a startling comparison.
Hunter made his way across the room, sitting next to Flint. The two had briefly spoken about work out routines and Hunter considered that bonding.
‘Did he kick you out?’ Nick asked, watching him from his place, practically draped over Jeff’s lap.
‘What?’
‘He does that sometimes, doesn’t want people to get attached.’ Nick continued, and Hunter thought he could hear some smugness in his voice at them knowing Sebastian better than him.
Hunter had begun to understand Sebastian’s desire to dispel these kind of ideas people seemed to have about him. It appeared to him that everyone thought they knew the boy. Hunter was apprehensive himself starting this scheme with Sebastian, having heard his fair share of rumours within the first few days of being there. But nothing he’d heard seemed to be true.
Sebastian was kind, and hesitant, nothing like the person that had been described to him. Hunter didn’t get the slightest impression that the other was trying to sleep with him either, heck Hunter had to convince him just to pretend they were only 10 minutes ago.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Hunter responded, he truly didn’t. But for the sake of the plan Hunter managed to make himself look embarrassed, allowing the warblers to assume they were right.
He’d had the idea to try and make it seem like they were overcompensating to not be found out. After all, Sebastian was apparently known for talking about his sexual conquests. The only reason he wouldn’t want to brag about it this time was if it meant more than just a casual hook up.
With all of this in mind, Hunter took great satisfaction in the looks of surprise on the warblers' faces when Sebastian knocked on the door a few minutes later. The door opened to an equally unkempt looking boy, Sebastian self consciously patting down his hair, having not even bothered to fix his uniform. Without much to say, he sat down opposite Hunter, like they actually couldn’t sit further apart from each other without one of them leaving the room.
Barry took a breath of relief as he sat down, pretending to be interested in what Trent was saying next to him. He’d spent a full minute stood outside the door, well just next to the door, he didn’t want them to see his shadow and think he was weird for just standing there. He just couldn’t help himself from getting nervous again. But he had to come, ‘It’ll help the plan,’ Hunter had said. Barry had sighed begrudgingly realising that Hunter had actually managed to convince him to leave his room.
When he was younger, probably around his freshman year, Iris would tell him every time he felt like he couldn’t bring himself to go into school, ‘It’s like an acting exercise, you just focus on what you want from the scene and then you’ll know what to do.’. Barry never really liked that explanation back then, he wasn’t one for drama, but Iris seemed to like it. So there he was stood outside, repeating Hunter’s words in his head, ‘we’re gonna act like we don’t want them to know.’.
we don’t want them to know
we don’t want them to know
we don’t want them to know
‘Sebastian?’ Barry immediately looked up.
‘Yes?’
‘We asked what you think?’ David said slowly.
Shit.
Barry looked around the room, trying to get some kind of idea what they were talking about, he caught eyes with Hunter across the room.
When it seemed like no one was gonna enlighten him, Hunter spoke up.
‘About Miss Morgan being pregnant?’ Barry sent him a grateful smile.
we don’t want them to know
He looked away quickly remembering what they were supposed to be doing, before realising what had been said.
‘Miss Morgan’s pregnant?’ He asked confused.
Some of the boys laughed, it was clear he hadn’t been listening.
‘That’s what we’re wondering.’ David finally explained.
’She can’t be, you guys are stupid.’ Thad remarked.
‘Dude she ate like a full plate of just tomatoes today at lunch, you know who else does that, pregnant people.’
‘Why are you watching her eat lunch? That’s so weird.’
And like that the attention was off him again. Barry was glad for that.
Even so, he could still sense some people watching them, the warblers hadn’t quite let go what they’d heard in the corridor yet, settling on suspiciously watching the two boys every now and then. He tried his best not to look over at Hunter, honestly he did but he just couldn’t help himself.
They made eye contact across the room and a little laugh burst out of Barry which he tried to contain thinking about what they’d just done.
Hunter did the same.
‘What?’ Nick asked immediately, the two having grabbed the attention of the rest of the guys.
‘What?’ Hunter repeated, his face going completely neutral as though he hadn’t just been laughing, Barry might have been impressed if he wasn't under the scrutiny of all the warblers.
‘You both just laughed.’
They spluttered.
we don’t want them to know
Barry felt his cheeks heating up at being caught, he hadn’t actually meant to laugh but weirdly Hunter didn’t seem annoyed.
‘Uh no- I was just- I remembered a um, a joke, an inside joke.’ Barry said grasping for some kind of explanation.
‘With each other?’ Wes asked slowly, eyes narrowing.
‘No, um, with some other person.’ Barry answered unconvincingly.
‘Yeah, same.’ Hunter backed him up. Barry looked over at him confused at why he was agreeing. Even Barry could see that his response wasn’t the slightest bit believable.
Nonetheless, they nodded together unconvincingly.
It wasn’t until later that he got some kind of understanding.
‘I thought we didn’t want them to know!’ He’d hissed outside Hunter’s door not wanting the rest of the corridor to hear. Hunter chuckled from his doorway.
‘No, we were just acting like we didn’t want them to know.’
‘That’s the same thing.’
‘No, we want them to know, but we don’t want them to know that we want them to know, they have to think that we don’t want them to know.’ Barry closed his eyes, pinching at the bridge of his nose.
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
Hunter chuckled.
‘It does, trust me.’
Hunter said goodnight quickly and closed his door, leaving Barry to walk back to his room confused.
‘God I really hope he knows what he’s doing.’