Work Text:
Gaetan is dropping in on his brother at his swanky, newly minted, downtown office. He’s unannounced, mostly because he likes to push Aiden’s buttons, but also because he’d gotten bored sitting at home on his day off. He’s the only one waiting for the elevator and once inside he presses the button for the fourteenth floor. Someone else manages to slip through the doors before they close though.
He’s broad shouldered, in faded jeans and a t-shirt with paint stains dappled across it, vibrant red curls pulled back in a messy bun with a phone pressed to his ear.
“Unbunch your panties, Wolf, I’m gettin’ on the elevator right now,” he rumbles. “If this death-trap fails, my blood is on your hands for bein’ so impatient.” He leans over and pushes the button for the twelfth floor. “Whatever, see you in a minute.”
The man tucks his phone into a pocket and leans back against the wall. He seems to be the picture of relaxation, as though his teasing on the phone was merely that, except both of his hands have a white-knuckle grip on the railing behind him. Gaetan doesn’t miss the wavering breath as the elevator jerks into motion, but he minds his own business.
Now, Gaetan has never had the best of luck. It still surprises him, though, just how shitty it can be.
There’s no real warning before they’re plunged into darkness, their upward movement stops abruptly and the emergency lights kick on in the span of a minute.
“Well, fuck. ” This is not how Gaetan wanted to spend his afternoon.
He doesn’t notice until he’s sent his brother a text, for lack of any idea of what else to do about being stuck in this fucking elevator, but his companion has sunk to the floor.
He’s hunched down over his own knees, shoulders trembling and jerking with his too-quick breaths. Gaetan is thrown back in time for a moment and remembers seeing Aiden like this. Seeming too small and frightened to be the same larger-than-life big brother Gaetan had always known, even bruised and battered as he was from taking the brunt of their father’s frustration. It made him realize, at six years old, that everyone needs a little help sometimes.
Gaetan crouches down in front of the man and taps his shoulder gently. He flinches with his whole body, falling back to sit against the wall of the elevator and stare at Gaetan with wide, panic-stricken eyes.
“Easy there, Red,” Gaetan says. “Gotta take some deep breaths, yeah? We’ll be outta here in no time,” he tries for reassurance, keeps his voice low and even. “My brother works in the building as head of security, I sent him a message so I’m sure he’s already working out a solution.”
The man just shakes his head and squeezes his eyes shut, still gasping for air.
“ Hey ,” Gaetan says sharply, to get the man’s attention refocused on him, “ deep breaths, big guy. In your nose, out your mouth, slow it down. I don’t need you passin’ out in here.”
Gaetan intentionally exaggerates his own breathing until his companion begins to notice. It takes several stuttering tries but the man finally slows his breathing enough that Gaetan doesn’t have to worry about him hyperventilating. He’s still visibly tense, anxious; eyes scanning the edges of the room reflexively, as if looking for an escape.
Gaetan flops down beside him, “Got a name?”
“It’s Gweld,” he rasps.
“You claustrophobic or is it just elevators in general?”
“Both, though it’s usually considered rude to ask strangers personal questions,” Gweld rumbles out, a little uptick at the corner of his mouth that looks a bit like a smirk.
“True, but you could have just told me to go fuck myself so you must not be terribly bothered with me asking,” Gaetan points out, cheeky smile firmly in place. “What’re you here for?”
“Came to pick up my niece, missed my brother’s call this morning, didn’t get it until about an hour ago and I was all the way across town or I’d have been able to pick her up from his house instead of getting on this piece of shit to pick her up from his office,” he nearly growls.
“Perfect storm, huh? If it makes you feel any better, I just wanted to drop in and bug my brother. I could be at home binge watching Netflix and drinking beer,” Gaetan says wistfully. “How old’s your niece?”
“She’s nine, little menace, too,” he chuckles. “What about you? Any other siblings, nieces, nephews?”
“Nah, it’s always just been me and Aiden. Parents have been gone for a handful of years now,” Gaetan shrugs.
“Got three brothers, Geralt, Eskel, and Lambert, two nieces. Ciri, who I’m supposed to pick up for the day, and Eskel’s daughter, Diedre, she’s four. Me and Lambert tend to trade off on babysittin’ duty but he couldn’t leave work today.”
“Looks like you came from work,” Gaetan teases, eyeing the paint stains across Gweld’s barreled chest.
“Painting my own place, actually,” Gweld comments. “I’m an engineer for the subway line.”
“ Fancy .”
“If you say so,” he laughs, “what do you do for work?”
“I’m a sleazy journalist,” Gaetan declares, smile growing at the rumble of Gweld’s continued laughter.
“At least you’re honest.”
“Honesty is a virtue, Red, or whatever that saying is,” Gaetan says airily. “Found out at a young age that I was pretty good at finding information,” he shrugs, “so I ran with it.”
“To each their own,” Gweld agrees.
It’s incredibly easy to sit on the floor of a locked down elevator and talk to Gweld, far more comfortable than it should be to find himself leaning against the man’s side, head dropping to rest on his shoulder as they ramble back and forth. Gweld is relaxed, successfully distracted by Gaetan’s presence, and neither of them notice the two hours that pass until the elevator jerks and rises for a moment.
The doors ding open as the pair gets to their feet, there are several firemen, two security guards from the building, and both of their brothers waiting for them in the seventh floor hall.
Aiden cuffs Gaetan over the back of his head as soon as he’s within reach, Geralt spews apologies at Gweld as they’re taken to a vacant office nearby and checked over by a pair of EMTs. Once they’re given the all clear, everyone is escorted down and out of the building. They find out that there was a major power failure that caused some kind of malfunction with the elevator’s emergency protocols and kept it from restarting once the power came back on.
“Where’s Ciri?” Gaetan overhears Gweld ask his brother once they’re all safely on the first floor, (via the stairs, Gaetan may never get in another elevator again after this fiasco).
“Triss took the rest of the day off, came and got her shortly after they told us the elevators were all stopped. I’m really sorry again, Gweld.”
“Would you stop apologizin’? It’s fine,” Gweld insists for the hundredth time.
Aiden comes over and distracts Gaetan from eavesdropping on the rest of Gweld’s conversation.
“So, little brother, where are you headed?”
“Probably home, didn’t have any plans today anyways,” Gaetan shrugs.
“Want some company?”
“Don’t make it weird, Aiden, I’m fine,” Gaetan dismisses and ignores his brother’s shit eating grin.
He makes it to his car before he hears his name being called and turns to find Gweld striding over to him.
“You busy?” he asks, sounding slightly out of breath.
“Uh… no?”
“Let me buy you lunch? As thanks for- you know- helpin’ me out earlier.”
Gaetan eyes him, debating.
“And just because I- well, I don’t want you to just be some guy I met once… So, I thought, lunch and maybe we could- uh, trade phone numbers, just to talk sometimes and-”
“Hey, Red,” Gaetan interrupts, even though watching the big oaf stutter through that was positively adorable, “I’m craving pizza,” he says thoughtfully. “Are you driving or am I?”
Gweld’s even cuter when he’s red-faced and grinning as he drops into the passenger seat of Gaetan’s car.
Maybe his luck’s not so terrible, after all.