Work Text:
The work day had gone on like any other, despite it being Halloween. The only difference was that everyone came in wearing a costume, even Harcourt. She went as Barbie, wearing the iconic blue bodysuit and rainbow leg warmers. Chris showed up as Cordell Walker - the original Chuck Norris version, of course - although everyone guessed he came as a “guy from Texas”. Adebayo was dressed as Red from Us, complete with a pair of gold scissors. Economos came as the eleventh doctor, wearing the famous red bow tie and tweed jacket. Adrian wanted to do a couple’s costume with you, and suggested both of you going as Peacemaker. You declined, and opted to go as Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Obviously, you were Obi Wan, and he was Anakin.
You had a rather boring workload. It was mostly paperwork and mission resorts to fill out. Adrian made it more tolerable. He sat next to you, eating out of a fun size package of M&Ms. More than a couple of candy wrappers littered your desk, most of them belonging to him. The room was relatively quiet, with just the clacking of keyboards, occasional chewing noise, and a clock ticking that you’d drowned out long ago.
Adrian tossed his empty wrapper onto the desk and reached into the plastic pumpkin for another treat. You grabbed his wrist to stop him, causing him to pout at you.
“You’ll get a stomach ache,” you told him, bringing his hand away from the bowl. “Drink some water and eat something healthy. There are baby carrots in my lunch bag if you want them.”
“Boo, you’re no fun,” he complained. “Amber would never tell me not to eat candy.”
The clacking of keyboards stopped as all the attention in the room was diverted to you and Adrian.
“Who?” you asked, knowing the only Amber he knew was the woman he and Chris had a threesome with before you started dating.
“Amber Calcaterra,” he confirmed.
“Dude, shut up,” Chris told him.
“Why? It’s true. She lets me do whatever I want,” Adrian said.
“I didn’t realize you still spent time with Amber,” you said. You hated him comparing you to someone else, especially someone he’d slept with and apparently kept seeing without letting you know. But then again, it was Adrian. He probably didn’t realize why that would be a big deal to you, and it’s not like he was still sleeping with her.
“We hang out a lot ,” Adrian continued. “Usually we fuck.”
You stood corrected.
“Adrian Chase!” Adebayo shouted, scolding him like a mother.
You decided to take a calmer approach.
“Ade, that’s not a funny joke,” you said, putting your hand on his thigh.
Adrian put his hand over yours and smiled at you, flashing his pearly whites and showing off his cute dimples. “It’s not a joke.”
You refused to believe that Adrian was cheating on you, and that he was admitting it so casually in front of the team.
“Dude, are you fucking serious?” Economos asked.
“If you’re joking, I need you to tell me right now,” you said, squeezing his leg.
“I’m dead serious.”
A no signal sound effect went off in your brain as you stared dumbfounded at Adrian. You felt unsteady in your seat, like you could fall over any second.
“You’ve been cheating on me?” you asked, your voice surprisingly steady.
“Yup! I have been the whole time we’ve been dating.”
“It’s been almost a year,” you said. Your jaw wavered, your eyes watered, and your face rushed with blood. “And this whole time you’ve been fucking someone else?”
“Pretty much,” he said.
“Jesus fuck, Vig,” Harcourt muttered.
“What? It’s no big deal. I was just fucking her on the side because you’re so bad in bed, babe,” he said.
“Dude, seriously, stop talking,” Chris said.
“Bad in bed? Bad in bed? Are you fucking kidding me, Adrian?” you shouted as you stood up, your chair falling over behind you. “How do you not think our sex life is fantastic? I have done absolutely everything you’ve ever wanted. I’ve tried every one of your kinks, most of them more than once.”
“And I appreciate that, but Amber is just better.”
Your mouth gaped open as the world spun around you. You leaned over and put your hands on your desk, gripping it so hard your knuckles began to pale. “Oh my god, I’m gonna throw up.”
“Maybe you had too much candy,” Adrian said.
Something snapped in your brain. You stood up straight and the world stopped spinning.
“One year,” you shouted. “An entire year-”
“Almost one year,” he corrected you.
“I wasted a year of my life loving you when you were busy fucking someone else. I thought we were happy. You were the love of my life. And you’ve been cheating on me this whole time? Do I mean fucking nothing? Am I really so unimportant to you? Because you’ve been my everything. I wanted to fucking marry you one day, Adrian.”
“Oh, shit,” Adrian said, his eyes widening. He stood up and put a hand on your shoulder but you shoved him off. Adebayo left her desk and came over to you, wrapping her arm around you. You buried your face in her shoulder and tried not to cry, despite feeling like you were about to break down and never be put back together.
“I think you should leave,” she told him.
“No, wait, I- wait!”
“Go,” Adebayo said.
“Sweetheart, please listen to me,” Adrian said in a soft, soothing tone that he rarely used, as he ignored Adebayo completely. “I was trying to prank you. My brother and I used to prank each other all the time on Halloween. It’s a family tradition and you’re my family, so I wanted you to be a part of it.”
You pulled your head off Adebayo’s shoulder to look at Adrian. He seemed sincere, but then again, you would do anything to believe he wasn’t sleeping with someone else.
“I need you to be honest with me,” you said. “Is this a prank, or did you cheat on me? And don’t you dare lie to me, because I will find out.”
“It’s a prank,” he said. “A stupid, not funny prank.”
You stepped forward, your feet feeling heavy, and left Adebayo’s side to fall into Adrian. You wrapped your arms around his waist and buried your face in his chest. You couldn’t stop yourself from crying anymore. You sobbed into his chest, holding onto his costume with a death grip. He rubbed your back and rested his chin on the top of your head.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Adebayo asked him. “How did you think it would be a good idea to pretend to cheat on your girlfriend?”
“I don’t know! I saw a bunch of YouTube videos where people cheated on their partners and it always worked out in the end so I thought things would be fine.”
“Those are staged you fucking moron,” Harcourt said. You hiccupped as you sobbed against Adrian and held on even tighter. Harcourt sighed, and changed her tone to speak softer. “Take Y/n home.”
“But her work day isn’t over.”
“I’m her boss and I say she’s done,” she said. “Now go home. I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about.”
- -
It took three hours for Chris to get back to you. You’d asked him to text Amber and ask when the last time she saw Vigilante was, just in case Adrian had lied. When she finally responded to him, Chris told you that they’d only had sex once and that was during a threesome.
He didn’t cheat on you
The prank was still shitty tho :/
You stared at the texts from Chris as you laid on your side in your bed clutching your phone. The weight of not knowing lifted off your shoulder, but your chest still felt tight, and your stomach knotted. You knew Adrian was still in your apartment, waiting in the living room for you to come out. You didn’t want to leave your bed, though, so you texted him to come. The moment you sent the text, you shut off your phone and put it down.
The door creaked open and Adrian’s light footsteps sounded on the floorboards. He sank down onto the bed, shifting the mattress, and his hand met the indent of your waist.
“Can we talk now?” he asked.
“I’m mad at you,” you responded.
“I know.”
You sat upright and turned to face Adrian. “What the hell was all that?”
He stared at you with wide eyes and his mouth agape.
“Seriously, what the hell? You pretended to cheat on me, then said it was because I’m bad in bed, and did this in front of all our friends while I was at my job!” you shouted.
“Sweetheart,” Adrian said, putting his hand over yours. “I owe you an apology. I crossed a line. I shouldn’t have done what I did. I was wrong. I love you and I’m sorry. Your feelings are valid. If you wish to express them, I would like to listen.”
You pulled your hand away from his and glared at him “That is the most bullshit, generic ass apology I have ever heard.”
“I really am sorry!” he said. “I didn’t know how to properly apologize because I’ve never made you so upset before. I didn’t want to fuck it up and make things worse, so I googled what to say.”
“I don’t want the Hallmark cards of apologies, Adrian. I want you to…”
“To what?” he asked. It was difficult for you to look at him. He looked like a deer in headlights, giving you the urge to comfort him even though he was the one who messed up. “I’ll do or say whatever it is you need me to.”
“I need you to understand why I’m upset without me saying it,” you said, feeling defeated.
“Well how am I supposed to do that?”
“By trying.”
Adrian turned his head to the side and knit his eyebrows together. You could tell that he was thinking. The gears turning in mind were practically audible as they whirled. Suddenly, he sat upwards, and looked at you with complete shock.
“When Peacemaker-”
“Are you fucking serious?” you cut him off.
Adrian held his hands up in surrender. “Please hear me out. I swear it’s relevant.”
“It better be,” you begrudgingly agreed. “Go on.”
“When Peacemaker came back from prison, I thought he was replacing me with his new teammates,” Adrian continued. “Over time, I started liking you guys, but at first I was really jealous. I felt like I wasn’t needed or cared about. I didn’t want Chris to replace me as his best friend. When I told you I cheated on you, even though it wasn’t true, you still felt as bad as you would have if I really did cheat. You were hurt and betrayed.” Adrian’s voice broke and tears brimmed in his eyes, a sight you had rarely seen. “I hurt you. I’m so, so sorry.”
He reached out and touched your face. This time, you let him touch you, even leaning into his touch. He leaned forward like he was about to kiss you, but stopped just before he met your lips and pulled back.
“Sorry,” he said. “I know you’re pissed-”
“Kiss me,” you told him.
Adrian smiled softly before leaning in again. He kissed you tenderly and lovingly as he held your cheek. Gently, he pushed you down on the bed, climbing over you. His free hand went to your thigh, pulling your leg up so he could slot himself between them. You broke the kiss as he flushed his hips with yours.
“Wait,” you said.
“What is it?”
“Am I really bad in bed?” you asked.
“No! God no. Babe, you’re incredible,” Adrian said. “I was just saying that to rile you up. I wanted to make you mad, not sad. It was so stupid.”
“Did you mean the other thing, though?”
“The other thing?”
“That I’m your family?” you asked.
“Of course you’re my family,” he said, smoothing your jaw with his thumb. “Sweetheart, you’re my home. You’re my favorite person in the world.”
“Even above Peacemaker?”
“Even above Peacemaker,” Adrian confirmed. “I want to marry you too, by the way. Someday. When we can afford a dope ass shotgun wedding.”
“You want to knock me up before we get married?” you asked.
“What? No, why would you ask that?”
“You just said you wanted a shotgun wedding.”
“Yeah, a wedding with shotguns,” Adrian said.
“That’s not what a shotgun wedding is,” you said with a laugh. Adrian smiled at you, his cute dimples appearing on his sweet face.
“I love your laugh,” he said.
“I love when you make me laugh,” you said. “I love you, Adrian, a lot. That’s why what you did today really sucked.”
“I swear, I’ll never make you feel like that again.”
Adrian went to kiss you again, but you turned your head to the side. “Ade, I don't want to have sex.”
“Oh,” he said, sounding disappointed. He moved to your side instead of above you. “That’ll change our whole relationship, but if you don’t want to have sex anymore, then we don’t have to. I don’t need sex. I just need you.”
“I meant right now, goofball,” you said, making his smile return. “We are definitely having sex again, just not tonight.”
“Phew!” he said, wiping his brow. “I don’t know how I would’ve handled being celibate.”
“It’s a good thing you don’t have to find out,” you said, pressing yourself against him. You snuggled up against his side while he wrapped his arms around you and kissed your forehead.
“We’re going to be okay, right?” he asked.
“We already are.”