Work Text:
The world was falling in.
Well, probably not the entire world, but the cave was at least.
Something had gone terribly wrong, somewhere between them wandering through the entrance to check out some weird glowing mushroom and now, something had gone terribly wrong.
“ C’mon Cay run!” he shouted, tightening his grip on Caleb’s hand when he lagged.
“I am running!” Caleb huffed from behind him, breathless and panting “we are not going to— Scheisse! ”
Over the sound of the rocks tumbling behind them Fjord heard a sickening crack and then Caleb’s hand was pulled from his grasp. He cursed, whirling around to see Caleb down on his hands and knees in the silt, and jolted backwards without thought. He dropped to his knees in front of him as Caleb sat back, wrapping his hands around his already swelling ankle. Fjord reached out, unsure about what he was even going to do when Caleb looked up at him, a grimace on his face.
“Go, what are you doing?”
“Caleb” he started, glaring at him “I’m not just gonna—”
There was another loud rumble right above them, and Fjord dove forward without thinking, knocking Caleb back and hovering over him as stones began to rain around them. His heart was pounding, watching the way Caleb’s eyes went wide, an ill-timed blush spreading across his cheeks as Fjord got into his personal space. He winced as a rock bounced off his hip, that was going to bruise... assuming they even got out of here.
Fuck. They were going to die here.
Blood rushed in his ears as time seemed to slow, staring down into blue eyes. Now was definitely not the time to be thinking about how ridiculously gorgeous those eyes were. They were about to fucking die for the gods sake!
“Fjord...?” Calebs hand came up to cup his jaw, worry painted clear on his face “what—?”
Adrenaline and fear coursed through him as Caleb’s eyes searched his face, and something snapped. If he was going to die in this stupid cave, he was going to die doing something he had been dreaming of for years.
“Fuck it”
Fjord leaned down and kissed him.
Caleb gasped against his lips, arching so his chest pressed against Fjords as his other hand tangled in Fjord’s shirt. Fjord had about 10 seconds to revel in the way they fit together, the taste of Caleb’s coffee on his tongue before something very hard smacked into the back of his head and everything went black.
---
There was something beeping next to him, it wasn’t loud exactly, but it was annoying. He groaned, pressing his hand over his eyes in an attempt to block out the low light that had begun to filter through his lids. Where was that even coming from? Wasn’t he in a cave?
Wasn’t he dying?
“Caleb!” he shot up, eyes snapping to his right when someone gasped next to him.
A woman in clean pale pink scrubs was standing next to him, eyes wide and confused before she shook her head and smiled at him.
“Well, hello there Mr. Stone, we wondered when you would re-join us”
“I—where?” he couldn’t seem to quite get the words out, even as the room came more into focus “How did I get here?”
“You’re at Nicodranas General dear, you were brought in with your friend after the collapse of a tunnel system on the coast”
“Caleb?”
“He’s fine, don’t you fret” she looked at one of the beeping machines, nodding at whatever she saw there “and you are too, looks like the clerics got you all fixed up”
They were fine, alive and fine and not dead. He took a slow breath, feeling the buzz of anxiety leech out of him. The beeping on the machine slowed slightly, and the nurse smiled at him again.
“You’ll be free to go as soon as we get you unhooked dear”
It didn’t take long before he was free of the little cords and sticky patches that had been keeping track of his vitals. It turned out he had been out for nearly a day, it had taken the rescue team a while to dig them out. Caleb was alright, the nurse assured him, though she couldn’t tell him too many details. He had managed to throw up the dome after Fjord had been knocked out, keeping them safe until the rescue team had gotten there. The moment he was able to he was moving down the long hospital hallway, feeling a bit like an idiot for not having thought of the dome in the first place and desperate to see that Caleb was okay for himself. He stopped at the door she had indicated, taking another calming breath before he knocked.
“Come in!”
He pushed the door open, feeling his shoulders relax when he saw Caleb sitting up on the hospital bed, Beau standing next to him. Caleb’s ankle was wrapped, and he could see bruising along his leg where they had cut his jeans, but he was smiling. It was a tired smile, admittedly, but it soothed the remaining worry in Fjord’s chest.
“Hey man, you’re up” Beau narrowed her eyes and looked him over “all good?”
“All good, the clerics patched me up”
“Maybe you can convince this dumbass to let them deal with him too”
Fjord crossed the room, looking at Caleb curiously as he dropped his eyes to his lap, but there was a stubborn set to his jaw that Fjord recognized. He sighed, he knew how Caleb felt about strange clerics (and hospitals in general) and knew this was a losing battle.
“Let’s just get you back to your place so Jes can fix you up, yeah?”
Beau groaned as Caleb looked up at him with a sheepish grin, gratitude clear in his eyes. It didn’t take long to get them all sorted out and bundled into Beau’s Jeep on the way back to Caleb’s apartment. As it turned out, he had a mild concussion along with his broken ankle, and his memory of the cave in was fuzzy around the edges. Now that the danger had passed, and he knew they would both be okay, Fjord’s mind slid back to the kiss. Embarrassment and worry gnawed at him as Beau drove, would Caleb remember? Once the concussion was gone would he be angry? Had Fjord fucked up their friendship?
By the time they had gotten to the apartment he was a complete mess. He still held out a hand for Caleb when they parked though, helping him down from the Jeep and holding him steady while he got his crutch in place. Luckily Jester was waiting for them at the door, greeting them with a sympathetic little whine when she caught sight of Caleb. She shepherded them into the little kitchen, identical to Fjord and Beau’s one floor above, and set to work.
“Will you stay for dinner?” Caleb asked quietly, looking up at him through pale lashes “we had planned for pizza”
“Ah—actually I gotta... um...” Fjord pulled his eyes from Caleb’s face and tried to send Beau a very clear help me look “we—”
“Workout” she said simply “Fjord’s behind, he owes me a full set”
“Yup” he popped the P nervously “that, we have that”
“Oh...” Caleb furrowed his brow as Jesters sparkling magic washed over him, closing up the scratches and fading bruises “I... if you are sure”
“Yup! Glad you’re alright Cay, bye Jes!”
He grabbed Beau's arm and steered them both out of the apartment, making for the stairs automatically. He let her go when she yanked her arm away at their apartment door so she could unlock it. He paced the kitchen as she pulled out leftover pizza, rolling her eyes when he shook his head and pointed to the beer instead. She pulled out two, cracking them open with practiced ease before hopping up onto the counter and raising an eyebrow at him.
“So? What the fuck was that about dude”
He took a swig of the beer, running his free hand through his hair anxiously as the anxiety buzzed under his skin again. How was he supposed to explain this one? It had been so stupid .
Fuck it, okay.
“So...” he started, his hand already lifting in preparation for the awkward gestures to come “so okay, so you know how sometimes you’re like, about to die right?”
“Sure...” she raised an eyebrow, taking a very skeptical bite of her pizza
“Okay so you’re about to die, and you’re with one of your very best friends” he was talking faster now, but he couldn’t help it “and you maybe sort of have had a thing for this friend for literal years—”
“We’re talking about Cay right?”
“Shh let me finish...” he paused, setting down his beer and feeling his face heat up “but yes.”
“Kay, go on”
“So you’re freaking out, cause you’re about to die , you know”
“For sure”
“And you figure... fuck it!” he threw his hands up, and she smirked at him “We’re gonna die! I’m not gonna die without kissing this person”
Beau choked on the sip of beer she had just taken, eyes going wide, but he barreled on.
“So you do it, y’know, you kiss them! You kiss them because you’re about to die and fuck it and fear and adrenaline and they’re just so fucking gorgeous, and you can’t help it!”
“Because... fuck it”
“Yes! Yeah, yup exactly”
There was a moment of almost silence, the faint buzzing of the old fridge the only sound as she stared at him. He watched as she downed the remaining half a beer, wiped her mouth, and sighed.
“Okay, the way I see it you have two options.”
He collapsed down onto the barstool and dropped his face into the palms of his hands.
“Oh, thank the gods.”
“You two haven’t actually talked yet”
“No, we were sort of busy with the aftereffects of almost died and my complete freak out, which you saw ”
“Fair enough” she shrugged “okay so, option one: you sack up and just tell him how you feel. Y’know, the thing I've been telling you to do for literal years” He glared, and she rolled her eyes in response. “Or option two: you just say nothing, and then if he asks about it, you play it off like “ oh I panicked” and continue to be a little bitch about it forever”
“I’m not being a little bitch about it”
“You are, but you could stop doing that by talking to Caleb”
He glared at her, but she continued to level one of her very best “I’m right and you know it” stares at him until he groaned and dropped his head to the counter again. He heard the sound of another beer being popped open as she sighed at him.
“I just... what if he’s freaked out? What if he doesn’t — ”
“You’re never going to know until you ask,” she tapped his beer and he looked up to see her expression had softened a bit “and besides, even if he doesn’t want to date you, Cay isn’t the kind of guy to cut someone he cares about off for something as dumb as a kiss”
“Yeah... yeah I guess you’re right”
“I usually am, yeah”
He choked on a laugh, flipping her off as she smirked at him. He had to admit it though, at least in this case she was probably right. He would just have to dig up some courage and actually talk to Caleb about this at some point.
Maybe.
At some point.
Fuck.
----
Fjord wakes to a pounding on his door.
Not the door to the apartment, that would have been strange enough on its own but no, the pounding is on the door to his bedroom . He sat up, scrubbing the grit from his eyes and flinching when the door was thrown open, letting a bright beam of light into the otherwise dark room. He would recognize the figure silhouetted in his doorway no matter how groggy he was.
“Cay?”
Caleb shut the door with a decisive click, crossing the room with purpose and tugging the chain on his bedside lamp with a bit more force than necessary. Fjord blinked in the shifting light, shoving his hair back out of habit and squinting up at Caleb where he stood next to Fjord’s bed. He looked just short of wild, still dressed in his rumbled sleep clothes with his hair loose around his shoulders and serious furrow to his brow. His chest was heaving, hands balled at his sides; but where most people would see anger, Fjord saw nerves. He reached out instinctively, jumping when Caleb pulled his arm out of reach.
“We have to talk”
“I — well sure Cay, but what...” he looked at the little clock on his side table and frowned “it’s like 2 in the morning darlin’”
“Yes, this couldn’t wait”
“Alright, okay” he sighed, scrubbing his hands down his face and crossing his legs before patting the bed in front of himself “you might as well sit down Cay”
This conversation was going to suck, and not just because he was trying to force his brain into a wakefulness that it really wasn’t ready for. Caleb hesitated for a moment, but dropped onto the bed, mirroring Fjords cross-legged position. Fjord waited, watching the way Caleb worried his bottom lip, fidgeting with the blankets for a moment before he nodded.
“You kissed me”
Fjord looked down at his own hands in his lap, Caleb didn’t sound angry perse, but the underlying confusion in his tone was almost worse.
“I did, yeah” he sighed “I...”
“Then you ran away”
He looked back up, eyes snapping to Caleb’s out of habit when he registered the sharp edge to the tone now. He furrowed his brow, nodding uncertainly.
“I want to know why”
“Why I kissed you?”
“No, why you ran away”
“I... well I panicked I guess” he rubbed the back of his neck, “I wasn’t sure how you were going to react and I just... yeah, I panicked”
“You couldn’t have just talked to me?” Caleb sounded hurt now, and Fjord reached for him without meaning to, wrapping a hand around one of his “we have been friends for years Fjord, I thought—we have always been able to understand each other before”
“Caleb...” he trailed off, unsure of what to say in the face of Caleb’s searching expression “I’m sorry Cay, really I am, I didn’t mean to—”
“Sorry for what Fjord?” that stubborn set was back to his jaw, a frown tugging at his lips, but Fjord could still see the hurt there “Sorry for kissing me? Or for running off instead of just talking to me?”
“Both? No, wait—” he backtracked as Caleb’s breathing hitched “not — I’m not sorry for kissing you. I mean, I’m sorry for kissing you the way I did, without asking or checking in or anything first but—”
Caleb let out a frustrated huff before yanking on Fjord's hand and pulling him into a rough kiss. It was sloppy, the angle off and neither of them really ready for it, but Caleb’s free hand came up to grip the back of his neck and Fjord’s heart jumped in his chest. Caleb pulled away, resting his forehead against Fjord’s with his eyes closed for a moment before he opened them and smirked.
“There, now we are even”
“I — you... yeah?” Fjord internally cursed his own inability to string words together, but as always Caleb seemed to understand.
“ Ja , you ridiculous man” Caleb shifted forward on the bed, pressing their knees together “you must be blind if you haven’t seen how badly I have wanted to do that”
“Show me again? Just to be safe”
Caleb laughed, his breath warm against Fjord’s skin and eyes warmer where they locked on his. He leaned in, slower this time, and brushed a kiss across Fjord’s lips. Fjord chased the contact, hand coming up to cup his jaw as he laced the fingers of their joined hands together properly. Caleb’s fingers flexed against the back of his neck, and Fjord sighed into the kiss, pulling him closer until he was perched on Fjord’s lap. They stayed there, trading warm kisses in the golden light of his old lamp, fingers brushing over warmed skin. Eventually they slid down in the bed, Fjord tugging the blankets up over them as Caleb curled in close against his chest.
“Talk in the morning?” Fjord whispered into the warm skin of Caleb’s temple, carding his hand through soft auburn hair “stay with me?”
“Yes, to both questions” Caleb sighed against his neck “we will have to hide here until Beauregard leaves, unless we want to deal with her teasing”
“Hmm...” Fjord smiled, slipping a hand up under Caleb’s shirt to press against his spine “I think I’m alright with that”
Caleb yawned, shifting in the bed and hooking a leg up over Fjord’s hip, and seeming for all the world like they had been doing this forever.
“Fjord?”
He could hear Caleb fading, and smiled at the sound, humming in response as the warm fuzzy feeling filled his chest.
“I like kissing you much more when we are not about to be crushed to death”
“Agreed darlin’, this way is much better”