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The credits rolled as the film came to a stop, Ben cautiously lifted his head that had been buried in Callum’s side in an attempt to block out the scary shit that was going on on screen. This always happened when Callum picked the movies, every fucking time.
“That was- good.” Callum’s voice came out harshly as it met the silence of the room, neither had spoken the whole film so to hearing his voice took a bit of getting used to.
“Mm, yeah, we’ll have to watch the sequel.” His voice was shaky as he replied, and he cursed himself. Callum would definitely pick up on that. Crap. But it turned out that the older man hadn’t, he was too busy agreeing with an eager head shake, but was that fear he saw in his eyes?
They sat there for a bit longer, Ben knew what was keeping him from moving away from the couch and up the stairs. And that was the off chance of finding a bloodied corpse behind a door or in the shadows. Callum was probably just waiting for Ben to go to.
There were two things he could do, he could either let Callum go wait upstairs alone, and turn the lights off and have to run upstairs in the darkness in the way you never grow out of. Or he could wait upstairs, leave Callum to do the lights. Oh god, but then he’d be alone in the bedroom wouldn’t he? Lexi always says monsters don’t live under beds-
Fuck, why couldn’t they have watched a comedy or something?
He took a deep breath, noticing that Callum was still sat still by his side, almost like he was stuck there. Ben was a Mitchell for gods sake. After some negotiation in his mind, he decided which option was the slightly less terrifying. Slapping an arrogant hand down on Callum’s thigh, he almost didn’t notice the way he jumped so high he nearly touched the roof. How can he daydream after a movie like that? What is wrong with his man. “Babe, I’ll go wait upstairs, you want to turn the lights out-”
“-you can turn them off if you want, ill go keep the bed warm or summat.”
“No, no. I’ll go do that, you sort the lights.” He got up hastily, not wanting to be left downstairs in the dark.
“Or I could go upstairs and you could do the lights.” Callum spoke quickly, Ben couldn’t understand why.
“Or we could go with the original plan, where I wait upstairs and you do the lights.” Ben was not-so-subtly rounding the couch now to the hallway, Callum jumped up from the couch before running a not-so-casual hand through his hair.
“How about we both do the lights? That way, none of us have to wait all lonely upstairs in bed, or having the boring task of lights.” Both chose to ignore Callum’s lame excuses, they were justifiable enough for the situation, and Ben was about to jump at the offer, before cooling it down and deciding to go for the unbothered vibe.
”Yeah, sure. That works for me I guess.”
The two men stood staring at each other for a minute, both nodding and making little efforts to actually turn of said lights, but Callum, brave as ever made the first move.
“If you do the kitchen, I’ll do in here?”
Ben wanted to protest, along the lines of how it didn’t seem fair that the lights Callum needed to turn of were in the room he was already in, but that would be making it obvious. So instead is smiled a tight smile, before shuffling carefully into the kitchen.
When he reached the small room, that is when his movements became frantic, dashing towards all corners of the kitchen he turned off the multitude of lamps, he’d never noticed how many there were until he had to turn each and every one of them off in a situation where removing the light source was the last thing he wanted to do. Over his loud banging and quickened breaths, he thought he heard similar noises coming from the lounge, but came to the conclusion that it was best not to think too much about the noises going on in the rest of the house at this given time.
The room fell into near complete darkness, the only fraction of light that remained was the last lamp in the lounge, one Ben thought for a second Callum was tentative to turn off. He was wrong of course, because soon he heard the click of the switch and all light vanished.
Ben bolted then, the darkness creeping up at him and ticking his bare ankles, making an attempt for the hallway so he could climb the staircase, what he hadn’t expected was for Callum to be doing the same thing. Only noticing when he fell against a hard obstacle.
“FUCK! Callum???”
“BEN WHAT THE ATUAL HELL!”
The two men screamed at the same time, each other’s words blurring against the others. Followed by a clearing of their throats as they both made the silent agreement to pretend that didn’t just happen.
Callum stepped back, placing a hand in the small of Ben’s back as he led him to the stairs, “Ladies first and everything.”
Ben spluttered, turning around and scrambling to get behind Callum, “No no, ever the gentleman me, up you go, Cal.”
They swapped places again, Callum’s hot breath against his ear once more, “No, no, I insist!”
“We could both- walk up together? Saves an argument?”
“For the best I think, Ben.”
The two men shuffled up the narrow stairs shoulder to shoulder, bumping an stumbling their way up to the top, hands brushing against each others fingers.
Once they reached their bedroom, Callum’s hand brushed frantically against the wall for the light switch while Ben huddled tight into his mans side. He was cold. That was why. No other reason. Once the room lit up, both fiancé’s looked left to right, although they would have denied it had they been asked. Silently agreeing the coast was clear, they slipped into their room, Ben climbing into the bed without even thinking of what could be under it, and Callum switching on both lamps at either side of the bed, before quickly turning off the roof light.
Callum joined Ben on the bed, enveloping him up in his arms and bringing his to lie on his chest.
“Not sure I can be bothered watching the sequel actually, Cal.”
“Yeah-” Callum cleared his throat, flattening Ben’s hair against his forehead with his palm, “I’ve seen scarier.”
Both Callum and Ben nodded as they lay quietly on the bed.
Not ready to turn the lamps off, just yet.