Chapter Text
“Are you gonna go talk to her or are you just gonna fucking keep staring?” Michael says to Gavin as they stand in the office kitchen, grabbing a snack and some redbull, getting ready for the next LP taping.
“I am going to keep staring, and hope she gravitates over here.”
“You fucking idiot,” Michael murmurs, he then turns in her direction and shouts, “Hey Y/N! Come here!”
-----
Your head pops up as you hear Michael shout your name. You look over to the kitchen to see Gavin punch him in the arm and then throw his arms up in the air. You turn back to Chris.
“Looks like I’m needed over there, we’ll talk later though okay?”
“Yeah, sure, just don’t forget, you owe me a drink! Especially after waxing me.”
“I don’t know, do I really owe you a drink for those 4 hairs?”
“Those are not the ones I’m referring too, think lower. Plus you got some good groping action in while oiling down my body.” You laugh.
“Well I didn’t want you to get an infection, so of course I had to put the oil on, but I’ll AIM you later about a time.” You give a little wave then walk over to the kitchen. “What’s up Michael?”
“Was just wondering how you were doing, being new and all. Being on camera for your first time last night, ripping out Brandon and Chris’ chest hairs.”
“Oh man, Brandon had it rough huh? Poor guy, he was so nervous!”
“Have you seen Gavin though? Lookit this fucker, he’s like a goddamn bear!” Michael turns and lifts up Gavin’s shirt, Gavin lets out a squawk and pushes Michael away.
“Get off!” You laugh.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t volunteer to get it done, that would have hurt like a mother fucker Gavin. Hell, I think Brandon is still holding an ice pack to his chest every so often.”
“Jesus.” Gavin rubs his chest.
“Oh you bunch of babies; girls go through that all the time, in more sensitive places.” You wiggle your eyebrows at them then laugh as they cover their junk.
“So you seem to be getting along as the newbie okay.” Michael leans against the counter looking over at you.
“Yeah, it’s really easy to just fall into a... what’s the word I’m looking for?”
“Camaraderie?” Gavin supplies.
“Yes!” You point at him with a smile on your face. “Camaraderie. Like, I don’t even feel like a newbie. First day I was here someone shot me with a ton of nerf darts, Barbara drew dicks all over my white board, Jon was in my face with his camera, and I found about 35 pictures of Ray on my phone when I got back from lunch.”
“Yeah, never leave that unsupervised around here. If Ray doesn’t get to it Barbara will.”
“I have learned that and now it never leaves my body.” You take your phone out, showing it off. “But I gotta get back to work, those emails aren’t going to answer themselves.”
“Hang on a sec, what are you doing after work?”
“Tonight? Nothing...why?”
“Well, Lindsay and I were going out for bevs with Gavin, and he has a thing about being the 3rd wheel, you wanna come with us to keep him company?” Gavin stares into the back of Michael's head, eyebrows furrowed and mouth in an exaggerated frown.
“I get off around 5, is that okay?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind hanging around here for about half an hour or so, we can all just drive together.”
“Sounds good, so I’ll just come hang in the AH office when I get off.” You wave at the both of them and walk back to your office.
-----
“You are welcome.” Michael turns to Gavin. “What is that fucking look on your face? Did she see that look? Jesus you’re lucky she decided to come at all to hang out with your dumb ass.” Gavin just throws his arms up again, picks up his drink, and stomps back to the AH office. “WHAT?!”
-----
“I don’t see why you’re upset; you're going out with her tonight.” Ray looks over at Gavin.
“It would have been nice if I were the one to ask her though, and we’re not really ‘going out’ Michael invited her to keep me company like I’m some kind of child.” Gavin slams the tray into his Xbox with a little more force than normal.
“Dude, one day that’s gonna break. And who cares how it came about; the ends justify the means, right?” Michael sits down, facing Gavin. “Just suck it up and enjoy tonight.”
------
Chris:: So, drinks tonight?
Y/N:: Sorry, you missed that opportunity by about 5 minutes, going out with Michael, Gav, and Lindsay tonight.
Chris:: Tomorrow then?
Y/N:: Dude, I cannot handle drinking 2 nights in a row, my liver would kill me. How about this Friday? We can go catch a movie and then drinks? 22 Jump Street is coming out then, oh! Or How To Train Your Dragon 2. Your choice (tbh I’m gonna see both of them this weekend anyway).
Chris:: HTTYD is gonna be packed with kids, how about 22 Jump Street?
Y/N:: It’s a date...or you know, a deal...
Chris:: I’ll check times and get back to you before Friday.
Oh god why did you say date? It’s not a date! Is it? Did you just make a date with Chris?
-----
“I just made a date with Y/N for this Friday.” Chris turns in his chair and faces Brandon.
“Dude, are you sure you want to date her? Did you not hear her cackle as she ripped your happy trail from your body?” Brandon rubs at his chest.
“Yeah but did you see her smile? She has the greatest smile, and her laugh is amazing.” Brandon just sighs and goes back to work.
-----
Y/N:: Gavin...are you busy?
GavinoFree:: No, what’s up?
Y/N:: Hey - are you okay with me coming along tonight?
GavinoFree:: Of course!
Y/N:: You just seemed kinda...off when Michael asked me along. I don’t want to get in the way of anything or something like that.
GavinoFree:: What in the world would you get in the way of?
Y/N:: I don’t know! You guys just spend a lot of time together and now I’m the newb intruding on bev time.
GavinoFree:: Nah, you’re fine. Say, what are you doing this weekend?
Y/N:: Friday is booked, work and then Chris and I are heading out to 22 Jump Street and then drinks after, and Saturday I’m heading off to HTTYD 2.
GavinoFree:: Oh, so you have a date Friday?
“She has a date Friday with Chris already!”
“Dude I told you you shoulda asked her out earlier!”
Y/N:: I don’t know? No one really said the word ‘date’. Well, okay I did, but not in that sense.
“WAIT! If she doesn’t think it’s a date is it really a date?”
“How the fuck should I know?!”
“Michael!” Gavin wails.
“Gavin!” Michael wails back, mocking him. Gavin puts his head down on his desk and moans.
“What the fuck is the matter with him?” Geoff walks in, stopping to stare at Gavin. “Is he broken?”
“Y/N made a maybe date with Chris.”
“A maybe date?”
“Apparently she doesn’t think it’s a date? I don’t know dude.”
“Well, shoulda been quicker on the draw little buddy.” Gavin groans again.
-----
“Barbara.” You spin in your chair to face your temporary office mate. Joel and Adam were taping again and with RTX fast approaching Barbara needed to get out of her office to get any decent work done.
“Yeah?”
“If you agree to go out to a movie and drinks with someone, but you don’t use the word date...is it really a date?” Her laptop snaps shut and she leans forward, eyes bright.
“Who?”
“Uh...Chris.”
“Is dinner involved?”
“I’d assume we’d get something at the theater...oh my god it’s a date isn’t it?”
“Sure sounds like it, but hey, you could do worse than Chris.”
“That’s debatable, what are we talking about?” Lindsay walks into the room and plops down on the sofa next to Barbara.
“Y/N has a date with Chris on Friday.”
“But she has a date with Gavin tonight!”
“WHAT? I thought I was just joining you guys for bevs!”
“To keep Gavin company, as a date, come on woman, keep up.”
“Jeez Y/N, leave some guys for the rest of the single ladies.”
“Both of you get out of my office.” They collapse against each other in a fit of giggles.
“Adam and Joel are both single, you want me to set you up with them?”
“Never mind, I’ll get out of my own office.”
------
“So then fucking Gavin goes to jump over the bowl of popcorn, and it’s a fucking disaster.”
“I was watching that whole time with my eyes covered. I thought for sure one of you would completely eat shit in the worst way possible. And then when you had Jon on your shoulders! Jesus. I was laughing so hard I was crying, all while freaking out that you both would fall.”
“They were both so far gone I don’t think they would have felt anything.” Lindsay leans over the table and mock whispers at you.
“So wait, did you know you’d be working with us when that was going on?” You nod, looking over at Gavin.
“Burnie let me know like, a week before that? That once I was done with school for the year he’d bring me on as full time office manager to help out Scarlet since you guys are expanding. I was just sitting on my couch going ‘oh my god they are seriously going to die before I can meet them!’. And seriously, if I wasn’t in fucking Colorado I would have driven over with a first aid kit just in case.”
“Well we’re only like 5 minutes from the hospital now, so there’s that!”
“I just feel like you guys will use that excuse to do more dangerous things!”
-----
Half an hour later, right when everyone was starting to feel nice and tipsy, Michael and Lindsay stand up.
“Alright guys, we’re off.”
“What?!” Gavin squawks.
“Gavin, we’re flying to Australia tomorrow, we got shit to do in the morning before we leave. This was our goodbye bev session, remember?”
“It completely slipped my mind.” Gavin stands and gives them both a hug.
“You, don’t think I’m leaving without a hug from you.” Lindsay comes over to you and pulls you up into a tight squeeze. Michael wasn’t as touchy, he waves goodbye, puts his hand on the small of Lindsay’s back, and they head out. You lean back in your chair shaking your head.
“God, Australia. So exciting.” Gavin leans forward, elbows on the table, and looks across at you.
“Have you been out of the states?”
“Nope, just Texas, Colorado, and the occasional trip to Florida for Disney World. I’d really like to travel though. Hoping to save up some money with this job, maybe head out next summer somewhere.”
“If you could only go one place, where would it be?”
“That’s a tough one,” you lean forward, putting your chin in your hands, “I really want to go to Italy, and Greece, oh and Egypt.”
“That is not one place.” He laughs and takes a drink of his beer.
------
Gavin looks across the table at her, her face was flushed and she had the cutest grin on her face. She covers her face with her hands and laughs.
“I know it’s not one place, but I can’t choose! Those are my top 3 out of state places though.”
“And in the states?”
“I wanna cruise to Alaska.”
“Really?” He crinkles his nose.
“What’s wrong with that?!”
“Just...being on a boat, in the middle of the ocean, with a ton of other people, it doesn’t seem appealing to me.” She crinkles her nose as well.
“Yeah, I do kinda like, have this fear of the boat just...not working while I’m on it, you know?”
“OH GOD YES. That’s so bloody terrifying.” His whole body shivers. “And then if there are giant waves? Have you seen those videos of just people being thrown around in the dining hall, the tables and chairs just sliding across the room hitting people and trapping them?” She gets up off her seat slightly and leans closer to him.
“Is it funny that despite all that I still wanna do it?” He looks into her eyes, they were twinkling with excitement and she still had that grin on her face.
“How much have you had to drink love?”
“Probably more than I should have since it’s a Monday night.” She giggles and sits back down, she picks her phone up off the table and checks the time. “And it is waaaaay past my bedtime.” Gavin takes his wallet out from his back pocket and throws some bills on the table.
“Come on, let’s go get a cab.”
“Gavin, I can pay my half of the bill...”
“Nah, just, think of this as a welcome to RT thing.”
-----
Gavino:: So, are you as hungover as I am?
Y/N:: Uggghhhh
Gavino:: I will take that as a yes.
Y/N:: ugggggh They warned me not to go out drinking with you guys. Not with my baby liver.
Gavino:: Eh, it’ll get used to it.
Y/N:: So what time do Michael and Lindsay take off?
Gavino:: Their plane leaves at 9 for L.A., so they’re gonna be leaving I think around 6:30. I’m sure they’ll tweet about it, you follow them on twitter right?
Y/N:: I don’t have twitter...I’m not a big social media person. I have a facebook, but I just have friends and family on it, and hell, I’m barely on it. Do you know how many times my mother has to call me and be like “Y/N! Check your facebook!”
Gavino:: We have got to get you a twitter at least, to keep up with everyone else.
Y/N:: Okay, but you have to raise $100,000
Gavino:: Easy. Lazer Team is already ahead of that. Do it.
Y/N:: lol, I’ll think about it.
Gavino:: I have to go tape an LP, but if you need help, just let me know.
Y/N:: If it even happens, I said I’d think about it. Have fun!
-----
“Hey Y/N, what’s up?” You look up from your computer to see Chris in the doorway, hands in his pockets.
“Hey, you have a twitter, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Good, grab that chair and come over here and help me.” He grabs Scarlett’s chair and wheels over to you.
“Scarlett still out?”
“Yeah, ankle is still messed up, she said she should be back soon though. Okay, so I talked to Gavin earlier this morning and he said I should get a twitter. But, I have no fucking clue what I’m doing.”
“Have you signed up yet?” He leans over, looking at the screen.
“No, I don’t even know what user name to pick.”
“Well I just use my name, your name is unique enough that you could use that.”
“Okay” You fill out the signup thing, Chris looking over your shoulder the whole time. You press signup when Chris leans over to you.
“Say Cheese!”
“What?” -click- “Chris! Did you just take our picture?” He leans back in his chair with a smile on his face.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Well, you know how some parents will throw their children into the deep end of the pool to teach them to swim?”
“Yeah....?” You squint at him as he taps at his screen.
“Well, welcome to the deep end.”
“What did you do?” He leans back in his chair, a big ass grin on his face.
“You’ll see. Now log in.” You turn back to your computer and slowly log back in. “Why the fuck do I have almost 200 followers Chris? Is this revenge for your happy trail because it will grow back. I’m sorry I laughed.”
“Go up to the search box and put in @ChrisDemarais, okay and click on it.” His profile pops up on your screen. “Scroll down just a bit...” And there it sat, the picture of you looking like a deer caught in the headlights, a big goofy grin plastered on Chris’ face as he leans in behind you.
Chris Demarais @ChrisDemarais - June 9
Everyone welcome @Y/N, the new RT office manager! She’s new to twitter, be nice, she might wax me again if you’re not.
“You asshole.” You whisper, Chris laughs.
“Now click follow.”
“I don’t think I want to. I look horrible in that photo.”
“You do not. You look adorable. Now click follow, and then go to ‘following’ and then you can follow everyone at RT.”
“I uh...don’t know everyone yet. I mean, I know most of the people here, but there’s still some I haven’t met yet, or whose names slip my mind right now.” Chris puts his arm around the back of your chair.
“Then it’s a good thing I’m here isn’t it?”
-----
Gavin walks down the hallway to the manager’s office, the LP went well, they pulled in Kdin to take Michael’s spot, and now he was gonna go talk Y/N into setting up a twitter, and then help her set it up. He jovially knocks on the door and then opens it to the sound of her laughter.
“Hey Y/N! Chris.”
“Gavin! Look!” She spun her screen around. “I got a twitter. Chris helped me.”
“I felt like I was helping my mother set up her account.” She laughs and punches his shoulder.
“Shut up. It wasn’t that bad. You’re the one who sicced your thousands of followers on me.”
“Revenge for the fallen hairs!” Gavin takes his phone out of his pocket as they talk back and forth, he opens twitter and sees he has a several new followers, but he was only looking for one. She wasn’t too far down; he tapped on her name, bringing up her profile. She had literally hundreds of followers already, but was only following about 100. He scrolls down until he came to her first, and so far only, tweet.
Y/N @Y/N 5m
Of course @ChrisDemarias had to post the WORST picture of me, here’s a better 1.
He clicks the picture that went with it and her smiling face filled his screen, Chris’ smiling face right behind hers. He frowns down at the screen.
“What’s the matter?” His head snaps up to look over at her.
“Oh, phone was just taking a little long to load, ah, here it is. That’s a good picture of you.”
“You shoulda seen the one Chris took. It was awful.” Chris sighs and looks over at her.
“It was not awful.” Gavin clicks on Chris’ name and opens up his picture. It was not awful.
“Y/N, this is not awful.”
“CHRIS?” They all turn to the door at the sound of Brandon’s voice ringing through the hanger.
“Whoops, guess I better go.” He hops out of his chair and practically runs out of the room.
“Really though, this isn’t awful.” Gavin holds the phone up, then walks over and sits in the chair Chris vacated.
“You both are dorks it is so bad.”
“I do not believe you could take a bad picture.” She looks at him, blushing, and then looks back at the screen.
-----
“There, I think I’m following everyone here at RT now.” You lean back in your chair and look at the screen. You had hundreds of notifications of people still following you, some of them asking you questions, you sigh and look at them all. “How do you do this?”
“Do what?”
“Handle all this...” You wave at everything on the screen.
“Pfft, I don’t. I mean, sometimes I’ll look at it, but I mean, there’s just so much, so I don’t. Sounds callous, but I can’t be expected to read the hundreds of notifications I get every hour.”
“See, that’s why I never bothered with social media. Makes me feel like I have to deal with everything. This is gonna be another facebook, I can feel it.”
“Well at least your mother won’t be calling you up telling you to check it.” You laugh.
“Yeah.” You sigh. “Well I guess I better get back to work, it’s piling up with Scarlett gone and me being a newb.”
“Right, I will leave you too it then.” Gavin gets up, waves at you from the door, and walks back to the AH office.
-----
“So, how’d it go?” Gavin’s head thumps on his desk.
“Chris was already in there with her, he helped her set it up, they were laughing and being chummy.”
“Yeah, I saw the pictures. I hate to say it Gavver’s, but I think Chris got this one.” Gavin lifts his head up and looks over at Geoff.
“You really think so?”
“Christ you look like I just told you your dog got ran over. Maybe Chris doesn’t have her yet! Who knows! Jeez, just stop looking like that.”
-----
The rest of the week went by fast, Scarlett came back to work on Wednesday, and she let you off to go and watch The Patch be recorded live, then Thursday and today everyone was busy with RTX stuff. You were so ready to get off work and go out to the movies, have some drinks, some good company. Chris has been in and out of your office all week to just chat and hang out, you knew he was flirting, he was completely obvious about it, but you weren’t sure how you felt about him yet. I mean, yeah, he was cute, he was nice, and funny, charming even...
“What’re you thinking about so hard over there?”
“What?” You shake your head to clear it and look over at Scarlett.
“You practically had steam coming out of your ears, everything okay?”
“Yeah, just ready for the day to be over.”
“Excited for tonight?” She grins over at you. You feel a blush creep up your neck. “You are! Chris is a good guy.”
“Yeah, but you know, interoffice dating...”
“Hello! Do you see where you are? Ashley and Burnie? Jack and Caiti? Michael and Lindsay? Miles and Aaryn?”
“Technically 2 of those aren’t interoffice, and Miles and Aaryn knew each other before RT.” Scarlett just waves her hand around, “And if it doesn’t work out? I like this job, but I’m 100% replaceable. Chris is working on the script for Lazer Team! And he does like 100 other things around here.”
“I think you should just go for it.”
“That’s what you always say.”
“And has it ever steered you wrong?”
“No.” You grumble and go back to work, watching the clock tick down.
-----
“Ladies! How are we this evening? Scarlett, how’s the ankle?”
“Still hurts like a son of a gun Chris, but at least I’m up and sorta walking.” She gestures over to the crutches in the corner. “You here for Y/N?”
“Yup, movie starts soon and we got some driving to do, hoping there isn’t a lot of traffic.” He drops down on the couch and looks over at you.
“I will be done in just...a second.” You finish typing your email, send it off, then start shutting your computer down. “Freedom!” You throw your arms up in the air as Chris and Scarlett laugh, and then grab your purse. “Alright, let’s go.”
-----
“Oh my god I nearly pissed myself laughing. I gotta run to the bathroom real quick before we leave.” Chris watches her practically sprint to the bathroom. That was a fantastic movie, but he spent more time watching her out of the corner of his eye then actually paying attention to the movie. She was laughing so hard at times she had to wipe tears from her eyes. He looks down at his watch, it was a little after 8, he was trying to think how long it would take to get to downtown when he feels someone walk up beside him. He turns.
“Oh hey Gavin.”
“Chris. You waiting for Y/N?”
“Yeah, she’s in the bathroom.”
“You guys catching the 8:30 show then?”
“No, we got the 6 o’clock one.”
“Oh, that’s early. Thought you guys woulda picked the later one.”
“Gavin!” She walks up to them, smile on her face. “Fancy seeing you here. You here alone?”
“What? No, Geoff and Griffon are getting popcorn and stuff.” He turns around to see Geoff and Griffon looking over at them. Chris and her wave and the Ramsey’s wave back.
“So what are you guys here to see?”
“That 22 Jump Street, was it any good?”
“Dude, it was fucking hilarious. I highly suggest going to the bathroom first and not drinking a lot though.”
“You ready to go Y/N?”
“Yeah, it was great to see you Gavin, have fun!” She links her arm through Chris’ and they walk out the door chatting and laughing.
-----
“Would you just look at him?”
“Oh honey he looks so sad. Like she just kicked his puppy and then laughed in his face about it.”
“I told him, I freaking told him to talk to her as soon as he went all moony eyed. Now we’re going to have a depressed Gavin on our hands.”
“Yeah, until he finds another girl. Gavin bounces back pretty quickly husband, don’t forget.”
“He’s still an annoying little shit until that happens though - and with Michael gone for 2 weeks...”
“Come on, let’s go get him and then get into the theater.” Griffon puts her arm through her husband’s and pulls him over towards Gavin.