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Placing a freshly done Tom Collins on the bar counter, Nate sent to a customer one of his charming smiles that always wins him a few additional bucks to the tips. The guy smiled back and winked before taking his drink and sliding toward the young barman a black plastic card, no doubt with daddy’s money on it. It took a lot from Nate not to roll his eyes.
Well, at least, now Nate had a nice gold bracelet chain. He took it quickly but carefully when this guy was desperately trying to flirt with him.
When the nameless man disappeared somewhere in the back of the room, Nate wiped the counter and after checking that there were no potential customers, fished out his phone from the pocket of his black pants. Swiping the lock screen, he opened the file which Sully had sent him a few days ago about the priceless diadem that was lost a few decades ago, but the man somehow found a hint with the potential place where it could be. If an old, barely readable piece of paper with some old Italian riddles could be counted as a hint for a potential place.
Their chances weren’t really high.
Nate was hooked anyway.
After all, who wouldn’t want to go for a treasure hunting, which would probably turn out as a failure, with a man whit a trust issue, at whom you might or might not have a little crush on in size of America? Needless to say, Nate was ready to completely dive into the mysterious history of this diadem, and then disappear for another month with Sully in search of this treasure, completely ignoring what a rational part of his brain was telling him.
He was so absorbed into the legend he was reading, that when his co-worker clapped him on the shoulder, he all but jumped, nearly dropping his phone in the process.
“Hey, Drake, who are you texting with?” Josh smugly asked the young man, who nearly had a heart attack two seconds ago. “You look so sad, what, your babe isn’t responding?” the man continued in a teasing tone.
“Oh, ha-ha,” Nate rolled his eyes pocketing his phone.
“Ah, let him be, Josh,” Sara – the second barman for tonight – intertwined with a wave of her hand. But after a short pause added slyly. “Nate is just missing his handsome boyfriend, who didn’t come here tonight.”
Nate actually opened his mouth to respond, when the girl’s words started to make sense in his head, confusing him to the bone.
“What are you talking about, Sara?” he asked eyeing his two colleagues suspiciously. Because, he really had no idea what she was talking about, sure if he was in any relationships, he would know this. Right? Has she mistaken him for someone else? “I don’t have a boyfriend or a girlfriend for this matter,” he shook his head like it would help him to prove his point.
“Sure, you don’t,” the girl gave him an unimpressed look. “We saw the two of you together, acting all sweet and in love, I nearly threw up,” Sara teased him, but that wasn’t helping Nate to understand what she was talking about. Seeing his facial expression, Sara continued in a fake annoyance. “Oh, come on, don’t try to play stupid. Whenever this guy is here you are always talking to him, you literally had spent your whole last shift chatting sweetly with him, don’t look at me like that I know what I saw,” she stopped him before Nate could start to argue. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he had a valid suspicion of who Sara was talking about. “And I know for the fact, that all his drinks are always on a house,” she pointed out and Josh snorted.
Nate closed his eyes, and asked, just to be sure.
“How does he look like?”
“You know,” she sang dreamily. “A little bit older, a black leather jacket.”
“Did you really just quote Camilo Cabello on Sully?” Nate groaned rubbing the hand across his forehead.
Sara squeaked in excitement, hitting Josh’s hand a few times.
“Finally, we got the name!” she did a small celebratory dance and then turned to Nate, who was looking at her with his eyebrows up. “Because I actually got tired of calling him ‘Nate’s older, yet, extremely hot boyfriend’ all the time,” she said, making it look like she was scolding Nate for it.
“He is not my boyfriend,” he argued crossing his hands.
There was silence and Josh with Sara quickly looked behind him, before giving each other a knowing smirk. Nate didn’t manage to ask what was that about when a painfully familiar voice sounded from his back.
“Hello, sweetheart,” Sully greeted him with, no doubt, his sinful smile, which had been chasing the younger man in all his dreams for the last four months.
Josh and Sara busted into tears from laughing as Nate was praying for the floor to open and swallow him whole. He sent them a death glare before turning to the man.
“Sully, hey,” he smiled, looking at him slightly lost, trying not to be affected by the new nickname. “Why are you here?” he asked trying to play it cool.
“Why I am here?” the man arched an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you come to me? I was waiting for you the whole evening,” Sully argued making Nate knit his eyebrows in confusion.
“What? What are you talking about? I’m supposed to come to yours tomorrow,” Nate pointed out but as he said it, it sounded more like a question. He looked around and waved at Josh and Sara so they would go and stop eavesdropping, as they had satisfied looks at their faces.
Sully leaned on the bar counter.
“No, you were supposed to come today, on Thursday,” the man responded, apparently ignoring the fact that Nate was at work.
Nate paused for a second.
“Sully, it’s Wednesday,” he announced with a slight worry detected in his voice. Nate tilted his head and made a small step toward the man, taking a closer look at him. Apart from looking as handsome as always, Nate could tell that Sully was paler than usual, and there were some dark bags under his hazel eyes. “Are you feeling okay?” Nate asked, and placed his hand on the man’s forehead. His eyes widen as he whisper-shouted. “Holy shit, you’re burning hot!”
A lazy smile crawled on the man’s face as he responded.
“Not as hot as you, sweetheart,” Sully swung slightly as if he would fall in any moment but caught himself pretty quickly.
Still, he scared Nate damn well. Wracking his brain, to come up with any ideas what to do, he turned to his co-workers, who still were enjoying the show.
“Cover me, please,” he pleaded. “I need to take him home,” Nate gestured to the Sully who now was half lying on the counter in an awful cough seizure.
“No problem,” Josh nodded and moved to the new client before they would leave.
“Yeah, take care of your boyfriend,” Sara winked and before Nate could respond with something witty, went away to help Josh.
Taking a deep breath, Nate went to the staff room and grabbed his things, when he returned back to Victor Sullivan, he helped the man on his feet, leading him through the staff exit.
As they were riding in the taxi to Sully’s apartment, Nate let Sully lean on him, and take a quick nap. The younger man was tapping his fingers over his knee, trying to calm down and not to worry about the man next to him.
He was doing a poor job at this.
When they finally reached the apartment, and Nate survived the embarrassment of taking the keys from the front pocket of Sully’s jeans, he led the man inside, closing the door with his foot.
“Come on, let’s take you to bed,” Nate whispered, more to himself as Sully’s state was similar to the man to be drunk on five bottles of whiskey.
That, however, didn’t stop him from responding and commenting on everything that Nate was doing.
“Straight to the bed? We will not even pretend to watch Netflix first?” the man asked with a fake innocence as he was trying and failing to take off his jacket.
Nate took a ragged breath, trying to ignore how this comment was making him feel. Instead, he helped Sully with his jacket and sneaked his hand around the man’s waist, moving in the direction of the bedroom.
After he sat Sully on the bed, he went to the bathroom to take the first aid kit the man was keeping there and then go to the kitchen for the glass of water.
Going through all the medicines the man was having, Nate finally found something useful, and after mixing the powder in a glass with water and grabbing a few more pills along with a thermometer, returned to the man. As he entered the bedroom, he was met with Victor Sully Sullivan fighting and losing in the fight with his own t-shirt. Placing everything on the nightstand next to the bed, Nate reached to help him.
“Hey, hey, let me,” the younger man whispered, earning the attention of the other one.
“Oh, you came back, sweetheart,” Sully smiled and Nate ignored the flip his heart had made in his chest. After some minutes the t-shirt was tossed off, Nate sat on his knees settling between the man’s open legs to help him to take off his shoes. Taking into account, all that Sully told him during this evening, Nate really should have seen this comment coming. “Aww, kid, you look so good on your knees for me.”
Nate choked on air as he looked the man straight in the eyes, his cheeks burning red.
“I,” he rose his index finger to point at the man. “I’ll let that slide due to your fever, Sully,” he promised, face still red, as he continued to work on the man’s shoes.
After finishing undressing Sully, Nate gave him clothes to sleep in, and if he looked a bit longer on the man’s firm chest, well, no one had to know that. It was a curse and a blessing at the same time when Sully proved that he was in no shape to dress by himself. Another ten-minute passed, before the man was ready for the bed, it could have been done sooner, if Sully wasn’t determined to pull Nate to lie in the bed with him every few seconds.
“Here, take this,” Nate said, giving to the man a glass with medicine.
Sully took it without complaint and chug it down in one go.
“It probably is the worst cocktail I had ever had, kid,” Sully wrinkled his nose at the taste. “What they taught you in your fancy bar? This tastes like shit!” the man complained as Nate was taking the glass away from him, giving him a thermometer instead.
“That’s probably because, this is not a cocktail, it’s a medicine,” Nate snorted, rolling his eyes. He applied slight pressure on the man’s shoulders, pushing him to lie on the bed. Once satisfied, he pulled a blanket up to Sully’s chin and sat down on the bed next to the man. “Try to sleep, Sully,” he muttered running his hand through the man’s short dark locks.
The man was out in less than two minutes, and Nate carefully got up from his place. After taking away the thermometer, the younger man was not surprised why Sully was acting the way he was, the temperature was around one hundred and three Fahrenheit
Sully shifted on his bed, letting a low whine at the loss of the contact with the younger man, but didn’t open his eyes, eventually falling back asleep. Nate smiled softly, looking at the sleeping man, and after leaving a light kiss on the forehead, quietly left the room.
***
Sully felt a horrible headache as he slowly started to wake up. He shifted around, trying to find a more comfortable position to come back to sleep, but now it was impossible. The headache was getting stronger and stronger with each passing moment, so there was no chance he could survive it without pills.
Be damned this hangover.
That was the only reason, why his head could hurt so much and his throat was so sore. Well, apparently, yesterday he had a great time. Too great because he couldn’t remember a damn thing about it. Not the moment when he started drinking, not the face of his one-night stand. Reaching with his hand, he tried to find a person who he had spent his night with, but to his surprise the bed was empty.
“Hmm,” he hummed in confusion and slowly rose his head. Indeed, there was no one, but on his nightstand was a glass with some fizzy liquid. Exactly what his head needed right now.
After another ten minutes, when the pain in his head wasn’t so sharp, he made a decision to get up. To his surprise, he was dressed in his nightclothes. To say that it confused him even more, was like to say nothing at all.
As he opened the door, he immediately was met with some muffled noises and an amazing smell of something edible. All this was coming from the kitchen, and the man made his way in that direction. Sully wasn’t extremely happy when his one-night stands were staying for breakfast, but he should at least see a person he was with the last night.
However, as he entered the room, he stopped dead in his tracks. Because Nathan Drake, the kid, in nothing but Sully’s t-shirt and hopefully his own boxers was in his kitchen, humming to some song that was playing quietly from the radio, as he was preparing something on the stove.
‘No, oh, fuck, no,’ run through Sully’s mind as he debated whether he should leave before the younger man saw him or face the music.
“Are you gonna stay there all day, or will you come in already?” Nate said with clear teasing in his voice, making the decision instead of him. Turning off the stove, Nate spun around to face the man. “Sit down, the breakfast is almost ready,” he waved at the round white table where two cups of steaming coffee, some cutlery, and a bowl with cut fruits were placed.
Sully nodded slowly, still trying to come to the terms with the fact that yesterday, he got so drunk, he slept with the man that had been on his mind for weeks, and now couldn’t remember a damn thing about it.
“There you go,” from his train of thoughts him pulled Nate’s cheerful voice as the younger man placed a plate with scrambled eggs in front of Sully, then did the same for himself. He went to the stove one more time and returned with another plate full of crispy beckon. “Bon Appetit,” he laughed, but instead of sitting, came closer to Sully and placed his hand over the man’s forehead. “How are you feeling?” Nate asked with concern.
Sully couldn’t take that anymore.
“Please, tell me we didn’t have sex,” he pleaded, looking at Nate in desperation.
Nate’s smile faltered as he knitted his eyebrows in confusion.
“What?”
Was it a hangover telling, or did the younger man sound hurt? Sully decided to think about that later, there were some important things to discuss.
“Why are you wearing my shirt? No, scratch that, why are you even here?” Sully asked feeling as panic started to build up in his chest.
To his absolute astonishment, Nate threw his head back in delight, laughing softly.
“Relax, Sully,” he said, coming to sit in his place. “We didn’t, I slept on the couch, don’t worry.”
“Then why?” the man asked making an uncertain gesture with his hand at Nate.
“Oh, so, you don’t remember how you came to my work, with a fever, and made me leave early so I could take you home?” Nate asked faking the shock, pressing his hand to his chest dramatically. “And how then, I took you to bed, helped you with your clothes, and made you drink your medicine?” he continued picking some beckon with his fork.
Sully didn’t remember any of this. It still wasn’t explaining the fact that Nate was wearing his clothes.
“And the t-shirt?” he asked taking a cup of coffee from the table and gesturing to his piece of clothing.
To Sully’s astonishment, Nate blushed before responding.
“Ah, this,” he started chewing on his bottom lip. “Hope you don’t mind?” he shrugged and then elaborated. “After you threw up on me when I was checking on you in the middle of the night, I really needed to change into something less smelly, I also grabbed a shower,” Nate admitted rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
Like Sully could be angry at him after what he had just heard.
“Holy Faberge, kid, I’m so sorry!” he apologised, hiding his burning face in his hands.
“It’s fine, hope you feel better,” Nate said returning to his meal, Sully followed his example, but mid-bite he suddenly remembered.
“You cooked?” Nate nodded slowly while chewing. “But there wasn’t-”
“Wasn’t anything in the fridge?” Nate finished for him and snorted. “Yeah, I know, that is the reason why I went to the small shop across the street, I will later go to the market to buy everything for the chicken noodle soup, and something for dinner. You don’t have anything edible in the kitchen, do you live only on take-outs?” he asked incredulously, Sully could only shrug being too busy with the knowledge that Nate was planning on staying and cooking for him.
“Are you sure we didn’t have sex?” he asked instead, making Nate chock on his coffee. “You are so nice to me,” Sully added when Nate restored his breathing.
“Would it be such a bad thing?” the younger man muttered to himself and then louder said. “I’m sure, Sully. I may be into a lot of things, but sleeping with someone in your state is not one of them, I wouldn’t try anything while you were sick,” Nate declared trying to sound nonchalant.
Oh, so it was not a hangover.
Both of them returned to the breakfast, but Nate’s last statement was playing on repeat in Sully’s mind again and again. He was trying to ignore it, but after five minutes in silence, he snapped.
“So, if I wasn’t sick, you would try something?” he asked and Nate groaned quietly.
“Sully, just drop it,” the younger man pleaded, but Sully wasn’t done.
There was a possibility that his unrequited crush on this cute handsome man wasn’t so unrequited, of course, he wasn’t done.
“Admit it, kid, you like me,” he teased because that was who he was.
Nate took a ragged breath through his nose.
“I will neither deny it nor will I confirm this,” the younger man deadpanned looking at Sully trying to control his facial expression.
Luckily for the man, Nate had no idea that he was an open book. It wasn’t handy during the treasure hunting but now worked just perfectly.
Nate’s blush told him everything he needed to know.
“Come on, kid,” Sully wanted to tease him some more, but Nate outstripped him.
“Not a ‘sweetheart’?” he asked in fake surprise. “Why? I liked it so much when yesterday, you called me this all the time,” the victorious smile the younger man had on his face was making Sully pause for a moment to gather his thoughts.
I did what?
“Come again?” he asked in a small voice and Nate hummed in confirmation.
“Yeah, along with the comments about how good I look on my knees for you,” he added taking a piece of apple from the bowl.
This time it was Sully who blushed, but then something hit him, Nate just admitted that he liked it when Sully called him ‘sweetheart’, that was really all he needed to hear. Clearing his still slightly sore, not for the reason he was thinking, throat, he took a solid three minutes before speaking again.
“Look, hypothetically speaking,” he started and Nate looked at him. “If I asked you to have dinner with me, would you say ‘yes’?” he asked hoping that he was reading everything right.
Nate move his plate away from himself and leaning on the table with his elbows, responded.
“Well,” he hummed pretending to be deep in thoughts. “I think, yeah, I would,” the man shrugged. “Hypothetically speaking,” he added looking back at the man with a teasing smile.
“Okay, good,” Sully nodded, sighing in relief.
“But for now,” Nate started, making Sully’s eyes snap open to look at him, waiting for the sentence. “Finish your very real breakfast, so I can put you in your very real bed, and no,” he stopped Sully with the movement of his hand, cutting, no doubt, a filthy comment. “Not for the reason you think, I told you, I’m not into this. You are gonna take your medicine, go to bed, and have very needed rest. Our dinner stays hypothetical until you get better,” the younger man announced crossing his hands.
Sully wanted to argue, but by the look, Nate was giving him, he knew it was pointless.
So, he agreed.
After they had finished with food, Sully went back to his room. The headache was coming back, and his throat was killing him, and despite the fact that he had only woken up, he was dead tired too. As he lay down, Nate pulled the covers over him.
“Stay?” Sully asked quietly, catching the younger’s man soft hand, and immediately feeling embarrassed.
But Nate only smiled kindly and took a seat right next to him.
“Of course, Sully,” he whispered, and that was the last thing Sully heard before falling back to sleep.