Work Text:
Charlie’s POV:
“What are you doing?” He asked the cluster of poets that had their ears pressed against Todd and Neil’s door as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
“Shut up Charlie,” Pitts whisper-shouted at him before leaving the door and tiptoeing over to him. It was early in the morning, the lights not even on yet, but the glow from the rising sun shined through the windows.
“Why are you all listening on them?” He asked, honestly curious about what could be so fascinating that even Cameron got out of the dorm before they were supposed to. The other poets looked a little awkward as Pitts leaned towards his ear an uncomfortable amount and whispered with a weirdly wet voice words he’d never thought he’d hear.
“They’re having sex.” Pitts mumbled and he grimaced at the warmth of the other teen’s breath before his eyes widened as he processed the words. He stared at Pitts, mouth open in shock as the other boy nodded with eyebrows up in unease.
“Are you sure?” He asked in a breathy voice, positive that it was all just a prank, Neil and Todd weren’t together, Neil would’ve told him if they were.
“Absolutely,” Meeks said with certainty, “It woke me and Pitts up since we share a wall, Todd is very loud.”
“Oh god, I didn’t need to know that,” He said in disgust at the words, he really didn’t need to know that his friend and his best friend's apparent boyfriend was loud in bed. “Why the hell are you listening to them? Why aren’t you leaving them alone?”
“Well, when we heard them we didn’t really realize at first,” Pitts mumbled, face flushed, “Just heard grunting and I thought that maybe Todd fell off the bed again so we went over to see.”
“But then we were at the door and we had already woken Knoxious,” Meeks continued.
“Which woke me,” Cameron cut in.
“And we all came over to make sure they were okay, but then we heard…it.” The boys shivered as Knox spoke, “And it was just so surprising, we would’ve never came if we’d realized before, I swear. But it shocked us and I guess we all just kind of froze.”
“Well unfreeze,” Charlie whispered loudly, gesturing wildly with his hands at the dorm doors. “Stop listening to our friends having sex you bunch of pervs.” The boys all nodded and started shuffling around to their dorms, but staying in the doorways before falling silent.
“What should we do now?” Cameron asked from beside him.
“Go to sleep and wait for morning you moron,” He stated wondering why they were all still standing around.
“No, I mean about…them,” Cameron snapped, pointing at Todd and Neil’s door.
“We do nothing,” Meeks pipes up, “Todd and Neil’s business is Todd and Neil’s business, we shouldn’t get involved, we shouldn’t even know.”
“It’s my business if it wakes me up,” Cameron replies bad-temperedly, “I need sleep.”
“Look, maybe we can mention that they need to keep it down at breakfast or the next meeting,” Knox sighed, “But we got to be casual about it, bring it up naturally.”
“How the hell are we supposed to bring that up naturally?” Pitts asked, “it’s not like we sit around talking about gay sex often.”
“Maybe you don’t,” Charlie joked, ignoring the states that reigned from questioning to exasperation, “and I say we be blunt, Neil doesn’t understand the art of subtlety and I don’t think Todd is aware of subtext.”
“Why don’t we all just get ear plugs, the nurse has them in her office?” Meeks questioned which earned him a few glares.
“I’m not wearing ear plugs to drown out the sound of sex,” Cameron snarled, “I should be allowed to sleep in my dorm without needing ear plugs.
“No one cares about your damn beauty sleep Cameron,” He growled, “What’s important is that if we can hear them others can hear them and if a teacher catches wind of this…” He trailed off and immediately the other’s became solemn, they’re faces grim.
“They’ll be flogged.” Knox finishes with a somber town.
“Or worse,” Meeks adds sadly.
“And thrown out,” He adds finally, “so we tell them to keep quiet and say nothing to anybody else.”
“Better hope Todd learns to stay quiet.” Knox mumbles and he throws a glare at the tall boy.
“We should head back to bed,” He mumbles, but yet again no one moves, still just staring at each other until they heard something Charlie never needed to hear come out of his best friend’s mouth.
“Fuck Todd, why is it so big?” That was their que, all the poets scrambled back into their respective rooms at the sound of Neil’s moan, covering their ears as they went.
That morning Charlie prepared himself for what was to come, he knew the others would probably chicken out about talking to Neil and Todd about what they’d heard so he put on his big boy boots and the second Todd and Neil came down for breakfast lead the entire group to the docks instead.
Todd and Neil both looked desperately confused about why the other poets were shuffling their feet and avoiding eye contact, but he walked with his head held high towards the lake. He ignored the way Todd started whispering nervously to Neil halfway through and how Neil threw an arm around the boy in reassurance.
As they filled onto the docks, he stood at the very end so he could look clearly at all of them. The other poets were all red faced and clearly embarrassed about what was happening and to be completely honest so was Charlie. He’d never thought he’d have to tell Neil that he needed to keep quiet when having sex in the dorms. Mostly because he’d never thought Neil would be having sex in the dorms because Hellton was an all boys school, but oh well.
“I’ve brought you down here to tell you something important,” He spoke with his most announcement-like voice, trying to take away from the cringiness of the conversation.
“What’s up Charlie?” Neil asked, voice both concerned and utterly confused.
“You and Todd need to have quieter sex,” He blurts out, ignoring the shock that appears on Neil’s face and the utter horror on Todd’s because he was expecting that type of reaction.
“W-what?” Todd stuttered out, eyes so wide that they were actually bulging out of the blonde’s head, Neil stayed silent, mouth agape and eyes unseeing.
“I’m not saying y’all can’t get your rocks off, but please, we need sleep and if you two continue to be as loud as you were this morning then we’re never going to get any rest. Plus, I don’t wanna see you two have to face Mr. Nolan or y’alls parents, so if you two, mostly Todd, could keep quieter-”
“We’re not having sex,” Neil finally shouted, cutting him off before repeating in a quieter tone so no one nearby might hear. “We are not having…sex.”
“It’s fine Neil,” Meeks comforted the panicked boy who seemed to be hyperventilating, which was something he expected from Todd not Neil. Todd on the other hand was staring off into space, a small peculiar smile on his face that added to the sheer anguish present there. “We’re not going to tell on you or nothing, it’s fine, I’m glad you found someone, but just be quieter.”
“No, Charlie, it’s not, oh god,” Neil exclaimed, hands pulling at his hair. “Me and Todd are not and have not been having sex. We weren’t having sex this morning or any other times, why the hell would you think that?”
“We heard you,” He stated, confused why Neil was going through such great lengths to try and deny what they all now knew.
“What? When?”
“This morning, it woke all of us up, at like fucking six a.m.”
Neil stared at him for a second in bewilderment before realization dawned on the boy which prompted him to burst out laughing, which was a fairly odd reaction if you ask Charlie.
“We weren’t, we weren’t having, s-sex, we were just, oh my god, the, the, “ Neil’s speech was broken up by his laughter causing it to make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
“If you weren’t having sex what were you doing?” He asked incredulously.
Todd mumbled something, finally snapping out of whatever fog he was in moments before, face a bright red.
“What?”
“Putting in contacts.” Todd repeated louder, but still much too soft that if the poets weren’t straining to hear him. The poets looked between Todd and Neil in confusion, not understanding what type of game the two were playing.
“I’ve put in contacts before, it does not make that level of noise,” Meeks stated, eyes wide.
“It does when you have someone else do it for you,” Neil chuckled, finally straightening up and staring at the poets with a beaming grin.
“Huh?”
“My eyesight is getting worse, I’m going to need to start wearing glasses full time, but I can’t while acting. I was trying to put in contacts, but I hate gross stuff like eye fluid so I had Todd help me, which was very unsettling.”
“B-but all the stuff we heard?” Knox questioned.
“What exactly did you hear?” Neil asked, grinning wildly.
“Um, we’ll mostly just grunts and something about cold fingers and need more liquid.” Meeks replied, face looking like a tomato.
“We went to bed after we heard you ask why it was so big,” He said and that Neil did blush a little, “care to explain?“
“Todd’s fingers are really fucking cold, like all of the time, and having them prod at my eyeballs for like an hour wasn’t exactly pleasant,” Neil started as Todd looked mildly offended, “The liquid I was taking a night was contact solution and the grunts were just convinced frustration of the two of us because he kept missing and I kept pulling away. The thing that was too big was the contact, I honestly don’t know how people put them in everyday.”
So everything had an explanation, he should’ve realized by now that nothing that exciting happens at Hellton. Still, he couldn’t get over the way he so readily believed the other when they said Todd and Neil were together. As he watched the way Todd was looking at Neil with embarrassment and the way Neil was smiling at the boy he still felt like there was something they were keeping to themselves.
“So you two aren’t together?” He asks analyzing the way Todd tensed slightly and Neil’s smile grew fake.
“Nope, just blind,” Neil says brightly, putting on the perfect façade, but he knew his best friend and he knew when Neil was lying.
But it was fine, he would keep their secret for as long as needed.
As long as he didn’t have to hear what went on behind their closed door.