Chapter Text
“... Johnny. Johnny. Johnny!” Johnny’s eyes widened as he felt a hand come down on his shoulder and shake him. “Are you even listening to anything I’m saying?” “He’s too busy wishing he was that girl Gyro’s with.”
Johnny whipped his head to glare at Diego. “No I am not asshole-” “How many girls does that make this week?” Johnny pulled away from his friend's touch as he looked down at his coffee, not wanting to answer Hot Pant’s question but doing it anyways in his head.
Third. It was the third girl that Gyro had taken on a date this week. The long haired male had always a flirt, even when they were teenagers, but lately he seemed to mess around even more, and he’d be lying if he said it didn’t make him jealous.
Hearing his friend sigh he looked up, only to see them looking directly at him. “Johnny, how long are you going to hang onto this crush? This guy doesn’t even seem worth it.” The blonde felt himself fidget a little under their stare, reaching up to nervously toy with his beanie. He opened his mouth to give some half-assed excuse but was (thankfully) interrupted by Lucy finally arriving. She greeted everyone before slightly frowning.
“What’s up with the sour mood?” Hot Pants tilted their head towards the window and Lucy looked across the street, where Gyro was seated with his date. The blonde woman gasped and launched herself at Johnny.
“Oh hun I’m so sorry! He doesn’t deserve you in the least.” Johnny felt his hand go back up towards his beanie and he awkwardly patted her shoulder, uncomfortable with the pitiful energy the group had created.
“God, quit babying him. He's a grown ass man.” Hot Pants elbowed Diego in the side but Johnny, for once, was thankful for his crude personality. He already has to deal with strangers pitying him, the last thing he needs is for his friends to start doing the same. Lucy finally pulled away, looking over Johnny's face before her eyebrows raised in the way they always do when she has an idea.
“You know, I think I have just the solution for you. Let’s go out tonight! My friend’s throwing a party and who knows, maybe you could find someone there. If not then at least you get to have a good time.” The blonde male thought it over in his head for a few seconds.
“Free alcohol.” “Okay, I’ll be there.” Lucy did a small cheer and his friends across the table smiled at him, happy he was giving it a chance.
---
Later on that day Johnny found himself getting ready. Or well, trying to get ready.
Gyro kept texting him, practically blowing up his phone ever since Johnny told him he was going out. He even asked if he could tag along but was rejected. He was going as a distraction from the long haired male. He absolutely cannot be there. Johnny ultimately decided to put his phone away and finish getting ready, ignoring the way it buzzed twice as he put it on the charger.
After finally getting dressed he wheeled himself over to the full mirror in his room. He wore black ripped jeans, a black cropped fitted turtleneck and his favorite blue lipstick. He gave himself a small smile before going back over to his phone and seeing a text from Hot Pants saying they had just arrived. Johnny took a shaky breath before heading out.
---
As he approached his friend's car he could already hear them whopping and whistling and he couldn’t help but grin. “Johnny! You look so pretty!” Lucy gushed over him reaching over to touch his hair “And finally! No beanie.” Johnny laughed and swatted her hands away from him as he felt Hot Pants hand on his shoulder. “You do look pretty good Johnny.” Before he could say thanks Diego butted in, “Hmp! Goes to show you can do much better than that loser.” Lucy smacked at Diego’s arm but Johnny kept a small smile on his face, knowing that was just his way of complimenting him.
The group made their way into the car and Johnny glanced at his phone before muting Gyro’s number for the night.
---
When they finally got there, Johnny was starting to feel a twinge of regret. There were a good amount of people here already. He turned on his phone and saw no messages on his screen, reminding him that he had muted Gyro. He swiped his screen up and went to click on the messages app just to check when Diego opened his car door, waiting for him to get into his chair. Oh yeah. He was here to have a good time, not think about Gyro. He shut his phone off.
As they entered the large house he felt himself loosen up; people were laughing, there’s free drinks, and he was here with his friends. Tonight was going to be about having a good time. The group made their way to a large couch as Lucy made her way to the kitchen to get them drinks, evidently familiar with the house.
As he lifted himself out of his chair and onto a seat, he could feel someone staring at him and when he finally sat down and looked up he locked eyes with a tall man wearing a cowboy hat. He looked a little silly, but handsome nonetheless.
The stranger smiled at him and Johnny coyly smiled back before looking away. “Already catching someone’s eye?” The blonde looked back to Diego and Hot Pants, who were both smirking at him. “He’s been looking at you since we came in. You should go talk to him.”
“Talk to who?” They turned to Lucy as she handed them their drinks. “That guy over there in the funny outfit. He’s been staring Johnny down this entire time.” The blonde woman glanced over before giving a happy smile.
“Oh that’s Tim! I second that Johnny, go talk to him! He’s the sweetest guy you’ll ever meet. I bet he’d treat you real good.” There was an unsaid meaning in what she said. He’d treat you better than Gyro.
Johnny pressed the rim of his bottle to his lips, thinking it over when he felt a dip in the seat next to him. He turned his head to see who it was and was met with the face of the handsome stranger looking down at him. Tim talked without moving his eyes from Johnny, “Lucy, why don’t you introduce me to your friends here?”
Lucy suppressed a giggle as she glanced at Diego and Hot Pants. “Well, this person over here is Hot Pants, this is Diego,” Tim dragged his eyes away from the man beside him and looked at Hot Pants, smiling and shaking their hand as well as Diego’s. “And that is Johnny.” Tim looked back down at him before grabbing his hand and bringing it to his mouth, softly kissing his knuckles. “It’s nice to meet you Johnny, I’m Tim.”
Johnny couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. He was really corny, but it was cute.
“Oh! This is my song, come here I know this great uh, three people dance!” Lucy gave Diego and Hot Pants a pointed look, and the three of them got up, very blatantly leaving the two of them alone on the couch. Johnny shook his head at the obviousness of it and took a drink from his bottle, feeling Tim put his arm over his shoulder.
Tim leans onto him before asking “So, what’s a pretty boy like you doing at a party and not at home with a boyfriend?” Johnny feels a bit of heat rise to his face, this guy sure is a sweet talker. He laughs a bit before turning to face him, “I don’t know, I guess I just haven’t really found the right guy.”
Tim locks eyes with him and moves his arm from the back of the couch to the smaller man’s waist, “You sure?” Johnny thinks his face must have gone completely red from the way the taller male smiles down at him.
Before he can respond he hears his name being yelled in a familiar voice. Gyro. What was he doing here? All Johnny can do is stare in disbelief as the man he came here to get away from comes bounding towards him, a telltale stumble in his step. “Johnny! Finally I found you, why weren’t you responding to my texts?” He pouts at him, before his eyes land on the hand grabbing his waist, and his eyes trail up to Tim, who’s looking at him with a bit of irritation.
Gyro makes an equally as irritated face back at him, “... And who the fuck are you?” Johnny blanches at his rude tone and scrambles to apologize for it as the male besides him responds, “I’m Tim. Johnny, I thought you didn’t have a boyfriend?” He looks down at him, eyebrows knitted together in confusion and disappointment and Johnny feels himself pale even more. “I don’t! He’s my friend. Just friends. That’s all. Nothing more.”
Tim sighs and starts to detach himself from Johnny. “Uh huh… Well why don’t you two friends talk this out. I have to go talk to Lucy.” He gets up and makes his way towards the small blonde woman and her friends on the dance floor, tapping the former on her shoulder.
“Tim! Hey, why are you here? Where’s Johnny?” She looks up at him in confusion, “You didn’t tell me there was… Competition.” He moves over so the couch is more visible. This gains Hot Pants and Diego's attention, and the three friends look over to where Johnny’s sitting.
With Gyro.
Lucy squawks at the sight, looking at her friends before looking back at Gyro and Johnny and noticing something. “It almost looks like…” She trails off, but Tim continued for her. “It looks like a couple arguing, doesn’t it? I thought that was his boyfriend the way he looked like he was gonna rip my face off for touching him.” Hot Pants spoke up, “What the fuck. Johnny’s always talking about how they’re just friends.” Tim let out a sarcastic laugh, “Well does “Gyro” know that?”
The group of friends share a look amongst themselves, coming to a silent agreement before looking back at the two on the couch.
—-
Johnny watches Tim leave before voicing his own sigh and rubbing his temples with his fingers. Gyro always did this with new people, even Diego who was literally in a relationship! The couch dipped next to him again, but this time it wasn’t some hot stranger. No, it was his stupid, hot best friend. Johnny looked at him to see him donning a strange expression, and looking at the floor.
“Gy-” “So who was he?” Johnny startled at the rough tone, Gyro still looking at the floor. “Since we’re “just friends” what was he? More than that? A nightstand? Boyfriend?” The shorter blonde stared at him with wide eyes, “What? What the hell are you going on about?”
Gyro’s face twisted into another unreadable expression as he finally looked up at him. “His hands were all over you, Johnny!” Johnny kept his eyes on him, his own face contorting in confusion. What was he getting so worked up about? “I don’t understand why you’re so mad. What are you trying to get at?”
Gyro’s hands clenched and unclenched over their place on his knees and he sighed, “I just… Don’t like feeling like you’re hiding stuff from me. You wouldn’t respond to my texts and then I get here and some random guy’s touching you. So what, now you’re hiding a boyfriend from me?” Johnny could tell that wasn’t the complete truth, but he didn’t feel like wrestling it out of him.
This argument has dragged on too long already. He sighed before grabbing his phone out of his back pocket. “I turned my phone off for the night,” He held his finger against the power button and their faces lit up from the screen turning on. “And I’m not hiding a boyfriend from you. I met Tim not even 15 minutes ago.” Gyro still didn't look convinced. “So why’d he have his hand on you like that?”
“You go on dates almost everyday and you’re telling me you don’t know what flirting is? I thought you had game Gyro.” The man next to him rolled his eyes but Johnny could already tell the fight was over. “Oh my bad, I had no idea you were such a flirt Johnny.”
Johnny looked back at him and deadpanned, “I’m a vixen.” He couldn’t keep the smile off his face any longer, and just like that, any semblance of an argument is dispelled. Arguments with Gyro are rare and quickly resolved, but they're always weirdly intense.
Gyro’s eyes dropped down to the area not covered by his shirt, “You look good... Hey, how come you’re dressed like this?” Johnny blushed at the compliment and his tone, it almost sounded like he was asking why he didn’t dress this way when they hung out.
“Did you drink before you got here?” Gyro’s eyes glanced at the skin not covered up by his shirt again before he gave a sheepish smile. “A little. I couldn’t help it! You had me so worried when you wouldn’t respond. How’d you know?”
Johnny shook his head “It doesn’t matter. Go to the kitchen and get us something to drink, we might as well.” The taller blonde nodded happily and got up before quickly turning back around. “Make sure that guy doesn’t take my spot.”
Once he started making his way to the kitchen Johnny let himself sigh into his hands. He could tell Gyro had drank because he always acted a little weird with him when he was tipsy, almost like he was trying to flirt, and it was also the only time Johnny would see him lose his cool like that. It did nothing but fluster him in the moment and make him overthink in the morning.
The blonde raises his head and looks over in the direction his friends were in, and finds all four of them looking back at him. He mouths a ‘sorry’ and they wave it down but his eyes linger on Tim. Maybe he could ask Lucy for his number, he really did seem nice-
“Hey! Quit looking at that idiot.” His head snaps up in surprise just in time to see Gyro glaring at Tim across the room, before looking down at him and smiling sweetly. “I don’t like him.”
Johnny’s mouth hangs open slightly, “Well you don’t have to be rude to him.” Gyro shrugs “Whatever. Teach him to stay away from you.” Johnny felt his eyebrow twitch in disbelief, realizing maybe Gyro drank a little more than he had let on.
Gyro opens their bottles and settles in close to Johnny so their thighs are touching and the smaller blonde sighs, “If I had known it was gonna turn out like this I would’ve just hung out with you instead.” Gyro hums happily and reaches a hand down to ruffle Johnny's hair. “Yup! Now you’ve learned your lesson.” They drink in silence for awhile before he finally piques up,
“How’d you find out where I was?”
---
Hot Pants and Diego push a drunk Johnny and Gyro towards Lucy’s car and into the backseat. Lucy quickly ushers the other two into the car as well. “Hurry up! I don’t want to get in there and they’re like making out or something because they think they’re alone.”
They all clamber in and to their relief they aren’t kissing, just leaning against each other quietly. That’s all they do the entire ride, but Gyro keeps his arm around Johnny’s waist until they get to his apartment.
When they get there Hot Pants gets out to get Johnny's wheelchair, and decides to bring them both up to his apartment, feeling like the duo was too out of it to even remember the floor number to get on.
After getting back into the car the three stay parked there for a minute, seemingly all thinking the same thing. Hot Pants is the first to break the silence. "So," they start, "we all saw that shit right?" Lucy hums and taps on the steering wheel.
"Those two are dating and they don't even know it. Disgusting." And for the first time that night, Diego isn't hushed