Work Text:
Rhett held up the envelope and fluttered it up and down in Link’s face like a hummingbird looking for someplace to settle. “You see this, yet?”
“No!” Link exclaimed, unsure. Production had wrapped for the day twenty minutes ago, before he'd wandered back to their office.
“We got invited to Mike Eastman’s wedding.”
“What?” Link balked excitedly. He frantically reached for the embossed cardstock wedged in between Rhett’s forefinger and his thumb. He latched onto it at the right angle and took hold, cheerily. “You’re kiddin’!”
“Why on Earth would I kid about somethin' dumb like that?”
“I thought he hated us. Well. Maybe he still does." Link asked, eyeing the paper, “No plus ones?”
“Since when do you bring a plus one to a wedding? You usually clean up,” Rhett exclaimed. “And what girl that you’ve dated in the last five years would willingly have flown back to Buies just to go see some failed punk drummer turned car salesman tie the knot?”
Link gave him an unpleasant look. “He invited us to his wedding, Rhett. That’s a little harsh.”
Rhett looked skeptical. “We have no idea how many random jerks he invited. Could be two of hundreds. Plus the last time we spoke to the guy he was telling us to go to hell. You really don’t remember any of that?”
“I don’t know, it’s been a while,” Link hedged. He held a hand to the back of his neck. “I thought he was jealous we were gonna move to California. Since he was stuck there.”
They both were silent while Rhett still gave an unimpressed look and shook his head again.
“I take it you don't wanna go?” Link asked, holding the invite tight to his chest.
“No,” Rhett denied as though it should be obvious. He looked over at the invitation again and saw the date. He slammed his eyes shut in frustration. "When is Labor Day this year?” He cringed. "It’s always the first week of September, ain’t it?” Rhett questioned.
“Probably. Why?” Link responded.
They'd already planned to be in North Carolina the same week.
+
“Can’t we just send a gift in the mail?” Rhett posed, fed up for the hundredth time since they'd RSVP'd "yes" to the wedding. He was partway through transferring his things from an overstuffed duffle to his nice touring suitcase that had been noisily and reluctantly pulled from storage, along with Link's, given the amount of things accumulating in his most commonly used travel bag had become unsustainable. "It's not too late."
Considering the Eastmans leased the shuttles that people took to and from the airport to the Best Western (the nicest hotel in the nearby vicinity), there was a zero percent chance Rhett and Link could return to Buies for so much as an afternoon without it getting back to him that they could've gone to the wedding but still elected not to.
Once a small town, always a small town.
It was all, as far as they could see it, pretty unavoidable.
Rhett was, however, still pathologically suspicious of anyone contacting them at this point in their careers, out of the blue. Most the people they trusted and remained close with had helped them along the way.
“It is too late. You know that they'll still hear that we were in town and they’ll be terrible to our parents all winter. Remember what happened the first year after we left?”
Rhett shuddered. He remembered fielding many a guilt-ridden phone call where his mother told him that because they moved not long after they'd had a falling out, resulting in Mike quitting the band, somehow Rhett and Link became the mean ones that had forced him to stay.
They figured there was some expectation that since they would already be home, they should pay tribute to their humble beginnings and attend. Be the bigger men.
Whether that was a self-imposed rule or not remained to be seen.
“Well, I’m rubbing my butt on whatever we give them,” Rhett said, plainly.
Link shrugged because he wasn’t sure what else he could possibly say in response to that.
Across the room, Rhett finally finished stuffing his clothes into the pleated compartment as it closed securely under his full body weight, then pulled the heavy zipper around the edges. “What?!” he demanded.
They bought a fig-colored crock pot off the registry. Both rubbed their jean-clad butts against the ceramic appliance while it's still in the box.
Link wrapped it in silver paper and added a bow.
+
Link was first to finish getting ready and made his way back downstairs to where Rhett’s parents were watching SportsCenter together. They'd offered the boys their house to get ready since there was more space and bathrooms than the hotel.
“You look so nice, sweetheart!” Rhett’s mom said sweetly, tapping Link’s shoulder in appreciation before she sat back down with a freshened iced tea for her and her husband. “Doesn't he clean up nice, hun?” she inquired of Rhett’s father, who was distracted by the commentary onscreen.
“Oh, you look like a thousand bucks,” Mr. McLaughlin declared, earnestly. “Don’t tell me if that’s how much ‘ya spent on that suit, though. I’ll have a fit.” He maintained a smirk at the clear effort that Link had put into his attire. Link understood. He had felt less done up for The Tonight Show. It did feel a bit like those movies about going back to a high school reunion, in a way, so he wanted to impress any other friends from school they weren’t anticipating to show. Link checked his watch to see that they still had fifteen minutes before they really had to hustle to get there on schedule. Mr. McLaughlin smirked. “He'll be down, but not a second before you've got to leave. His mother's the same way.”
Rhett's mother rolled her eyes at the comment, playfully. She turned to Link, determined to change the subject back to his hair. “It makes you look your age. Brushed back like that,” she explained. He had it partly slicked back like George Jones. He based it particularly on the cover of one of his favorite albums, Color of the Blues. He had stumbled across his old copy in the record collection at his mom’s place and drawn inspiration. He’d been in charge of picking the music for their much more tame, three-person Labor Day cookout, the night previous, while Rhett grilled and she set the table. "Very distinguished."
Rhett was, admittedly, tasked with much larger challenge of taming his curly-cue mop-top in a way that would withstand the excessive heat and hour-long ceremony. It was only recently that he’d stopped cutting it short enough to blow dry his bangs straight.
After their Labor Day brunch at the McLaughlin’s, they were off to the wedding starting at 3:00 PM. The following day they would be back for his nephew's tenth birthday party, the original reason for flying back home in the first place.
Rhett banged around in the hallway long enough for Link to look towards the stairs and catch his descent. Rhett looked great. Probably in the realm of the top five times he’d ever seen him so put-together. All the others were at award shows, from what Link could recall, off-hand.
“You ready?” Rhett asked, adjusting his tie clip so it stayed hooked into his dress shirt.
“Don't you dare! I’ve been waitin’ on you,” Link teased.
Mr. McLaughlin chuckled at Link razzing Rhett.
Link hustled over to grab the gift, lifting with his legs, and lugging the hefty object before Rhett could strain his back trying to do so himself. The last thing Link needed was for him to find an excuse to leave him solo on the dance floor for the night. He needed a partner there more than most places and couldn’t risk losing him.
“See y’all tomorrow,” Link crowed, following Rhett out the door.
“Have fun, you two!” Mrs. McLaughlin called cheerily at their retreating forms.
Rhett lingered to be sure the storm door was pressed all the way shut. He was cynical as to whether that request would be doable, given the history, but both men walked casually towards the truck they were borrowing from the McLaughlins in the humid afternoon air, ready to try.
+
“Here we go, here we go,” Link chirped, taking the small eggshell-colored card in his hand and shoving it at Rhett. “Table 11,” he announced.
The ceremony had gone off well with only the one hitch, as expected.
They ducked out early, from their place in the back of the groom’s side of those congregated, and took off before they could get caught up in any of the elbow rubbing that was to be expected of the guests who mingled out front. Otherwise, they would have ended up in the receiving line and neither one wanted to have any extra words with the bride and groom than necessary lest the videographers that lurked around everywhere had quite the potential scene to capture.
They stopped to get ice cream and keep themselves busy while they waited for the second half of the day’s plans to begin on time, two hours from the end of the ceremony. For a solid hour, they were running ahead of schedule. Then, just as quickly, they were twenty minutes behind, after that time was spent trying to spot clean off the single batch chocolate fudge from Link’s dress shirt’s left cuff.
When they did finally stroll in, cuffs clean as a whistle, guests were already making their way from a cocktail hour on the veranda towards the dinner tables inside the ballroom the reception would take place in for the remainder of the night.
Link had first shuffled over to plop their medium-sized box on the table where the gifts were being received. Then they sought out their seating assignment.
When they got to the table, they noticed a couple other recognizable faces scattered throughout the venue. In their immediate vicinity, a few distant cousins and coworkers of the bride politely chitchatted with them about the heat wave. Everyone was eager for the dancing to start and there to be a polite reason to excuse themselves from the sparse conversation.
The bridal party made their entrances and took their seats.
The speeches were over quickly and the first dances began and ended in a flash, but just as the DJ started playing something Rhett and Link recognized enough to dance to, their dinner was served. Both were compelled to eat something before it got cold.
They’d barely finished a few bites when Mike showed up, suit jacket off, sleeves rolled, crouching behind both Rhett and Link.
“You guys showed!” Mike boasted loudly, clearly already having had his fair share of liquor earlier in the night. “I didn’t think you would show, but I’m so glad you did!” he shouted again, to be heard over the noise of the crowd. “Jenny said you would.”
Rhett and Link both spared a glance at the beautiful bride as she shared a close conversation with a group of cousins and aunts, across the room.
“It’s amazing to see you both!” He reiterated his thoughts. “I’ll come by later and catch up! Means a lot that you came!”
Rhett and Link smiled through the rest of their meal and got up to groove only once they’d cleared their plates.
+
“That’s my cousin Valerie over there,” Mike explained. He’d returned to sit next to them at some point and after a brief recap that he’d felt like an ass for the way they left things and the cold shoulder he gave them at his dumb, now estranged parents behest, things felt like old times. He’d moved on to telling them how he met Jenny volunteering to clean up a highway his dealership adopted. He had big plans to go all-electric by 2025. Rhett had plenty to say about the topic and it stretched on until they’d finally said all they could. During the lull, Mike’s attention strayed to the edge of the room. “She’s got her girlfriend here, tonight. That’s part of the reason I wanted to invite you guys.”
Rhett frowned, not sure what he meant. “When I got all squirrely in high school, it was because my cousin had just come out to her parents, without my knowing it yet, and had caused quite a stir in my family. Anyone they were remotely suspicious of was completely banned from my life for, at the time, no reason at all. I probably could’ve figured it out, if I’d tried harder, but I was real nervous about still being able to afford Duke on my own, so I kept my mouth shut. I really regret that now.”
Link nodded, sipping from the tall glass of ice water from off to his right.
“They told me to stop hanging out with you two and I just went along with it. Should never have done that,” he bemoaned. “Maybe I would have figured things out faster, for Val, too, but I didn’t. I took the easy road and that was my mistake.”
Both Rhett and Link nodded in understanding. They’d made similar mistakes all throughout their youth and young adulthood and couldn’t begrudge him much of any of it, once he’d began explaining.
“Then, later, when I heard you moved to LA? I couldn’t believe it was all true,” Mike delved further.
“True?” Link asked, confused.
“Well, you were the first gay couple that I knew. You know, technically. Without even knowing it. Not ‘til… well, you know. I screwed up. But, I don’t know if I’d have been as accepting of Valerie without you setting that example. I thought it was wrong or dangerous to be associated with you, I guess. I can’t even tell you what I was thinkin’ at the time. You were my friends and I… I didn’t think it through. But, once I heard about Val, my parents couldn’t force me to do that all again. She refused to come home without her girlfriend. You’d already left for school, by the time I could save up to go visit her. I talked to her and we worked things out. I got my head on straight. But when I told my parents, we had a whole blow-up and I haven’t really talked to them the same since.”
“They here?” Link asked, realizing that was a tough question, but all he could think to ask.
“Yeah, but they’re still icy with me over it. It’s dumb, dude, real dumb.”
“Yeah, sounds it.”
Rhett remained stoic, staring back and forth between Link and Mike, face indiscernible.
“So, I just want to thank you. Couldn’t really settle on how to do that, but then I met Jenny and she said I had to invite you to show you that I’m a different person. So, sorry, for having been the ones to bear the brunt of it. It wasn’t right. But know that Val got my support nearly from jump because I had already heard all the arguments before. Hell, I made some of 'em. It wasn't gonna happen again. She was like a big sister to me, you remember.”
They both nodded.
“I couldn’t do that to her and I shouldn’t have done it to you, either,” he reiterated.
Link braced a hand on his shoulder in agreement. “Thanks, man.”
Rhett stared between them, aghast.
“Glad we were able to help her,” Rhett finally mumbled, holding a terse smile.
“Okay, I’ll swing back once before the end of the night, but I want to see you back on the dance floor before you leave. We need some of that classic Link Neal boogie woogie chaos up in that mix, if you ask me.”
Link gave a begrudging smile and shook his head, modestly. Once Mike had left, Rhett turned to Link. “Why are you smiling?” Rhett admonished, confused.
“What, I think that went better than expected. He apologized for being an ass. Sounds like his wife's a real keeper. Kind of a nice pin on an evening we thought was gonna be pretty unpleasant. You're mad?”
“He thinks we’re together together,” Rhett pointed out, blankly.
“Everyone here does, from the sound of it,” Link said back.
“That’s awkward.”
“Why’s that?”
“I just tried to get his other cousin’s number,” Rhett said, nodding over towards a tall, athletic brunette that was still on the floor with another group of girls.
Link chuckled. “Tried?” Link wondered, sounding amused.
“It’s a work in progress,” Rhett assured him. “I laid the foundation.”
Link shook his head. “Listen, man. If him thinkin’ we're together is what helped him sort his life out, you really wanna take that away from the guy?”
Rhett stared at Link, puzzled. As though his opinion on the topic should be obvious.
“He just got married," Link added.
“And what about our lives?” Rhett pushed back. He felt cornered by Link not immediately losing resolve when presented with such a preposterous idea. “What if that gets around?”
Link chuckled at that. “What on Earth do you think hasn’t already been said?” He held his sides and tried to settle himself when Rhett didn’t find the same humor in it. “People can believe whatever they want to believe, it don’t bother me none. What has or has not happened between us is no one’s business but our own. Let 'em think we're married, too.”
“I guess,” Rhett hemmed, holding his jaw in his hand. “I guess it’s legal now and everything.”
“Been legal in San Francisco,” Link pointed out. “Off and on.”
Rhett nodded. He looked down over his outfit and straightened his tie.
“I guess he must think we’re dressed really sharp, then,” Rhett wondered. “You know, ‘cause gay guys care about fashion. Or whatever.”
“Riiiight,” Link said, agreeing. He struck a slight pose, pursing his lips, then ruffled a hand through his coif in a way that ensured it still stayed flattened back.
“And their hair,” Rhett teased back. He ran his pointer fingers down his own sideburns in solidarity. He took a second to survey Link’s new do once again. “You really should keep yours styled like that. It looks really slick.”
“Does it?” Link wondered, happily. The falseness of the indulgent back and forth fell away with the earnestness of his compliment as the music shifted to something contagiously happy.
“It does.”
“Wanna dance?” Link asked. He cringed at the awkwardness, given the fact that he assumed people would expect them to dance with each other, given the circumstances. He presumed Rhett might reject his offer outright.
Instead, Rhett proffered his hand and they walked together out onto the floor in a tacit mutual agreement that the show must go on.
+
Later, after they’d been wiggling around beside one another along to beat of various wedding reception classics, the music slowed down to a crawl.
“C’mon, man,” Link scolded, maneuvering in such a way that Rhett eventually was compelled to settle his hands on Link’s waist and stand still. They swayed to the rhythm. “Why’re you actin’ like this is such a big deal?” Link reasoned. “We did this at junior prom, didn’t we? Tryin’ to get the same doofus to see us and laugh, back then.”
Rhett gave a nervous laugh, also, no doubt, recalling the same night.
Across the room, Mike and his bride were spinning in slow circles, facing the opposite direction at the moment.
“Feels different,” Link admitted, snuggled up against Rhett’s front, his arms around Rhett’s tall shoulders. “Usually, I’m the one leading, when I dance, so this is actually pretty relaxing. Honestly.”
Rhett blew air, disbelieving. “Must be nice.”
Link huffed. “What are you — just because I — here,” Link stammered. He wrestled Rhett’s grip from his hips and shifted either arm onto his own shoulders pointedly. “Nothin’ stopping me from taking over as the lead.” Link sighed, taking small pleasure at that. Rhett eventually stopped resisting and let his hands meet behind Link’s head. “But you gotta ask.”
Rhett shook his head like this wasn’t something he’d have to worry about in the future anyway, so why bother taking it into much consideration. Still, his arms went further slack when the song shifted to another ballad and he had to commit to the decision to stay held. Link pulled him slightly closer, more tightly gripping around Rhett’s narrow waist.
After another minute passed, Rhett’s hold further solidified. “I see what you mean,” he pointed out, quietly, afraid his voice would carry over the less noisy room and the romantic music. “This is a lot less cumbersome than when you’re trying to dance and lead at the same time.”
“See?” Link insisted. “Feels good, don’t it?”
“Yeah,” Rhett agreed. “It’s probably primal instinct, or something,” he rationalized. “Like I can’t get hurt if you’re watching my back and covering my front, you know?”
“Yeah,” Link said, understanding. "'Course, there’s the other primal instinct that goes hand in hand.”
“Oh?” Rhett asked, looking clueless. “And what might that be?”
“Uh, dancing that’s more horizontal in nature, you know?”
“Oh,” Rhett blurted out, huffing a laugh. “Hah, yeah, didn’t mean that.”
“Right,” Link agreed, gripping him tighter. He felt Rhett finally relax some, allowing his upper body to fully lean against Link and be guided to and fro.
He breathed out and Link felt the passing air tickle his upper ear. He kinked his neck, pleasurably, allowing the shudder the feeling produced to pass through his body.
“His cousin is looking at me,” Link said, quietly, finally picking up on the set of eyes that had found his from across the dance floor. Link could tell the two people dancing together were women and that likely meant Mike’s relative or her girlfriend had noticed the other same sex couple on the floor.
“Which one?”
“Not the one you’re trying to go home with, if you’re wonderin’,” Link mocked.
“Please, I gave up on that. Can’t have — " Rhett trailed off.
“Can’t have what?” Link’s mind blanked, wondering what he could possibly be about to say.
“Can’t have people thinking I’m a cheat,” Rhett explained, rushed. His eagerness to change the subject to something else as soon as possible very evident.
“Oh, come on,” Link cajoled. “People would just assume we had some kind of arrangement.”
“Arrangement? ”
“Yeah, I mean if we have to pretend to be married or whatever, why can’t I be the cool husband who lets you go hook-up with girls?” Link posited, logically. “Or other guys? Anybody? You’re coming home to me, after all.”
“Puh-lease, like you could handle me spending the night with another person. You could barely spend that week-long trip to Joshua Tree apart. You called me halfway through to see if we could get food.”
“Just breakfast, Rhett,” Link admonished, like it was obviously not that big a deal. From what Rhett could recall of the event, he drove an hour out of the way to attend that breakfast.
Rhett shrugged.
“I’d let you do whatever makes you happy, okay,” Link said, resolutely, returning back to the original topic. It was so sincere that it halted the good natured joking where it had paused.
“I might just be an all or nothing kind of guy,” Rhett told him, still draped over his upper body.
“Your back okay?” Link asked, quietly. He wanted to stay like this for as long Rhett could stand it but equally wanted to prepare himself for when his friend drew back. It was perhaps the longest they’d ever hugged and a part of him wanted to set as impressive a record as possible if this might be the last chance to. “This angle ain’t hurtin’ it none?”
Rhett didn’t say anything at first and Link worried he’d sped things up towards disengaging. Instead, Rhett's body shook as he answered, “No,” softly.
Betraying their decision to prolong the closeness, the music changed to something upbeat and fast, prompting the crowd either off the floor or back to a moving and shaking appropriate for the tempo.
Rhett and Link used the tone shift as an excuse to head back to their seats.
There was a lingering tension that returned to their seats with both men. It was hard to be that close for so long and not address it, but neither wanted to be the first.
“You guys heading out?” Mike asked, sweaty and eager to dissuade them, from the looks of it. “I don’t want you to go without saying goodbye!” He clapped Rhett on the back and nodded at them both truthfully.
“See ‘ya, Mike! Thanks for havin’ us,” Rhett told him, short and to the point. Mike nodded, understanding not to argue the decision any further. Rhett was as stubborn when they were bandmates as he remained, now. Mike looked mildly disappointed, but Link didn’t entirely mind that. From the dismissive look on Rhett’s face, neither did he.
“Yeah, and thanks for being great role models for Val, too. I know she watches your show, she mentioned it once or twice,” he advised.
Link genuinely grinned at hearing that. “We’re honored,” he said.
“For me, too,” Mike added, hastily. He was red in the face from the liquor, the dancing, and the subject matter. “Thanks for being you.”
Both nodded and watched as Mike got up to leave them, returning to a group of groomsmen mingling on the edge of the dance floor.
“See? Not so bad,” Link repeated.
“Could be worse,” Rhett admitted.
The shuttle to the hotel was short and they were back at their room within the hour.
+
Link used the complimentary face towel around his shoulders to wipe the remaining moisture from his face and the toothpaste edges around his mouth. “I’m all finished, if you want in.”
Rhett nodded and hopped up from where he sat on the bed. He grabbed his toiletry bag and headed to the small ensuite bathroom. He’d already changed into his pajamas during the time that Link was brushing his teeth.
When he finished, Link had shut off the floor lamp on the far side of the room. Rhett didn’t need anything over there, at this point, so he merely appreciated the thoughtfulness.
“You want the TV on?” Link wondered, the remote set between their separate beds, on the small, mahogany side table.
“No,” Rhett breathed, slipping into the bed to Link’s right. He turned over and looked at Link. He had ibuprofen and a small plastic cup of water filled with cubed ice from the vending machine bucket.
“Want an Advil?” Link asked, kindly.
“Yeah, maybe I will,” Rhett said, laying on his stomach, he pushed himself up on his forearms. He reached over to grab the container that was still open and shook a pill out onto his hand.
“Water?” Link offered. Rhett accepted the half-empty cup and tried not to finish it off while he swallowed. “You still pissed?”
Rhett tutted, trying to downplay his reaction from earlier and the week leading up to the event. “Hehhhh,” he moaned in faux amusement, shifting, he switched directions to face the windows and parking lot beyond them. He settled with his back to Link, turned on his right side.
“C’mon, you know I had to ask how you thought it went. That’s our thing.”
“That’s your thing.”
“Well, here I am sayin’ I think it went okay,” Link supposed. “You don’t think so?”
“It went fine,” Rhett concluded, firmly, his voice tired and still wobbly with the liquor that burned deep in his belly.
“He was apologetic,” Link pointed out. “It was better than if he'd been a complete ass about it.”
“Yeah,” Rhett groaned, all air, heavy. “He really cleared the bar with that one.”
Link shrugged since it was a fair point, but he still found his low expectations to have been more than met.
“You two are such good role models,” Rhett said, using an exaggerated accent and a deeper tenor than his natural one. He was doing his best to mimic Mike’s earlier sentiments.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Link wondered. “Aren’t we tryin’ to be? Least for some people?”
“By the way, I still assume you’re both gay! Just going to state that like it’s a fact,” Rhett pushed on, ignoring Link's point.
“Yeah, that part wasn’t great.”
“Yeah.”
“So, who’s the guy and who’s the girl in your relationship?” he continued, purposefully playing up the sound of stupidity in his voice.
“Rhett,” Link warned. “Now, he didn’t even bring dumb stuff like that up.”
“He was thinking it though,” Rhett insisted.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” Link said, wary.
“He’s an idiot, you ask me.”
“Well, I guess,” Link admitted. “But, a well-intentioned idiot, is all I mean.”
“Whatever, man,” Rhett harrumphs, further settling himself to relax on his side. “I’m just glad it’s over.”
“Yeah,” Link concluded in agreement. “I kinda like that it got us to slow dance, though. I might bring that back with us to LA as a new tradition.”
Rhett sputtered a laugh.
Link was undeterred. “It was nice! Did you not find it nice? Like a long, zen hug or something. I got to go boneless and just… be rocked back and forth like a baby.”
Rhett chuckled. “Kind of hard to go boneless when I would’ve crushed you.”
Link tsked at him, mad that he hadn’t given into it or said something, in the moment. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously. I was just standing there, trying not to put too much pressure on you, trying to keep us both upright, and tryin’ not to watch everyone watch us.”
Link nodded. He was sad that Rhett hadn’t gotten to experience the feeling of being enveloped and relaxed as he had in turn. Link, realizing he was still more drunk than he originally thought, formulated a quick plan before he could talk himself out of it.
He stood up and shuffled over to Rhett’s bed. Laying down behind Rhett, the other man flinched spectacularly, shouting out in surprise, as if Link had stepped on his toe. “Link!” he yelped.
“C’mon, you deserve to get a taste of it,” Link said, playfully. He grabbed Rhett’s shoulders from behind and held on as the larger man twitched around, attempting to shake him off.
“Link, what are you doing?!” Rhett shrieked. Eventually, he worked out that Link was not going to easily be shaken off and his shoulders hunched forward in a way that was resigned to it but notably unhappy about it. “Can you please let go of me?”
“No,” Link spat at his tense back, determined. “Not ‘til you get a chance to see what I got out of it.”
Rhett groaned. “We aren't even dancing like this. I don’t know what you’re trying to do here.”
“Hold you,” Link said as though it were obvious. “Got to rock you back and forth like a big baby, too.”
Rhett sighed, melodramatic. His shoulders were still tense, but he seemed to give up some of the reticence at Link’s persistence. He was used to not putting up a fight when he was this set in his thinking.
Link proceeded to sway back and forth in a poor imitation of dancing, horizontally, in every sense. Rhett eventually relaxed further, laughing at Link’s failed attempts to get them to move in the way he intended. Due to Rhett’s size, Link was making a lot of the swaying movements on his own and Rhett merely laid stationary like a giant boulder.
“This isn’t even what we did before. We’re facing the same direction,” Rhett said, dismissively.
“And who’s fault is that?” Link grumbled, trying his hardest to get Rhett’s side to bend or flex at all with the movement.
Rhett sighed and after another few long seconds of movement failed to be initiated despite Link's attempts to jostle him, Rhett shifted and started to turn the other direction. Link stopped, laying back, allowing Rhett to slowly shift under the thin top sheet until he faced Link. Laying this close, they were suddenly almost cheek to cheek, in the dimly lit room. “Ok, get it over with, then.”
Link sputtered, taken aback by the change, he tried to maneuver himself back into a position that didn’t feel overly intimate. Put off by the closeness of his own making, Link shifted so his head was higher up, nearly touching the headboard. Rhett remained still as he resituated himself.
Then he put his arms around Rhett in much the same way Rhett had done for him on the dance floor. Rhett’s head could now rest comfortably on his upper chest, his crown tucked under Link’s chin.
Rhett settled and laid his head against Link’s soft t-shirt. He closed his eyes. Link didn’t begin his jostling movements, this time, he simply kept his hold on Rhett firmly as the other man tried to get comfortable.
After a few seconds passed, Link wondered, “Isn’t it nice?”
Rhett hemmed and hawed, still tense enough to not see the big deal, he gave a slight groan of protest, but stayed flush against Link as requested. After another minute or so, it was too tiresome to maintain that level of resistance and his muscles did finally relax. Link felt the slight change in posture and gripped him tighter.
Rhett blinked a few times, dazed at how quickly things transitioned to feel normal and even welcome. He felt safe and tired and loved. He was also still a little tipsy, he figured.
“Rhett?” Link asked, some time later.
“Hmm?” Rhett hummed, drowsy and content.
“Good night,” Link whispered.
Rhett didn’t know what prompted Link to say that, but his eyes fluttered shut and he fell asleep, anyway.
+
They woke up, tangled, but still flush against one another. Link was now the one tightly held to Rhett’s chest.
When Rhett’s eye ticked down to check on Link, he found that he was already awake, and presumably trapped in his clutches. The top of Link’s forehead was so close that Rhett couldn’t look anywhere else. He could count the few odd strands of gray that Link hadn’t yet redyed or plucked. He tallied four of them before Link shifted enough to disturb their casual spooning and notice that Rhett was also awake.
Trying to lighten the mood and take the responsibility for the situation off Link’s plate, Rhett jokingly pointed out the truth. “I think that’s the best night sleep I’ve had in years.”
Link muttered a laugh, sensing he was being humored.
Rhett could tell he was embarrassed in the sober light of day, to have been so adamant about trying this, the night before. He pulled Link close and kissed the top of his forehead, reassuring the other man that he didn’t hold it against him, as he playfully pushed him away.
Link paused, then, looking up at Rhett. He stared with such a look of abject terror, it made Rhett’s insides twist. “What?” Rhett asked, eventually, quiet.
“I don't... I – I thought you were going to kiss me on the mouth, there, for a second,” Link said, voice soft enough they could both hear a pin drop at the same time.
“No, just the top of y'r head, on instinct. I would never kiss you like that. Unless you me wanted to,” Rhett said, matter-of-factly. It was his turn to pause and look down at Link, shaken when he followed the logic of Link’s assumption. “Wait. Did you want me to?”
Link stared up at Rhett, frozen, unable to confirm or deny a thing. As his eyes ticked down from Rhett’s to look at his lips, Link started to nod as Rhett leaned forward and connected their mouths. Link groaned in shock, despite knowing what was coming.
He melted further into Rhett’s arms. Their tongues tied with countless words yet unspoken and they danced together like that, arm in arm, for hours.