Work Text:
"What was that saying again?" Jack asked, his sunglasses glinting in the summery Berlin sun.
"Sprechen Sie Englisch?" Gavin answered- although his lilt wasn't perfect, it was fairly good for how long it had been since he'd had a German class.
"Fucking Gavin, master German expert." Michael rolled his eyes.
"Michael, I took three years of German in high school." Gavin told him, sounding offended.
"Sprechen Sie Englisch. Got it." Ryan repeated back.
"Ryan, how the fuck are you so smart?" Lindsay asked, listening to his perfect inflection and memorization.
"I'll write it down when we get to the hotel, Lindsay. I'll probably need it, too." Geoff helpfully added from the driver's seat.
"Thanks, Geoff." Lindsay laughed. She tucked her ombré red hair over her left shoulder and looked at Michael.
"We might be fucked, Linds." He sighed.
"C'mon, boi, I'll be with you the whole time."
"Oh, God." Michael and Jack said in unison, causing the whole car to laugh.
"Aaalright, boys. We're approaching our first authentic German experience." Geoff pulled into a large inner-city hotel with citizens milling around and lots of German writing and speech surrounding the car.
"Shit." Michael cursed, looking around at all of the crap he didn't understand.
"We might be fucked." Jack laughed nervously.
"Don't worry, I specifically chose a hotel that was not only fucking beautiful, but where I knew the employees would speak at least a little bit of English."
"That helps, I guess." Lindsay heaved a sigh.
"Also, for added protection--"
"Like, for sex? Geoff, please! I have my wife here!"
"Ha ha. I got you boys a surprise."
"A surprise?!" Ryan's voice cracked excitedly.
"Geoff, you've already brought us to bloody Germany." Gavin countered.
"And got us fucking hotel rooms." Michael added skeptically.
"Plus the tickets!" Lindsay helped.
"Okay, okay. It's not that good." Geoff rolled his eyes. "Actually, you guys might hate me." He rummaged around in his bag for a second and extracted a bundle of differently colored t-shirts. "For Ryan, for Michael, for Gavin, and for Lindsay." He handed them each shirts in distinct fluorescent colors.
"What about me, Geoff?" Jack asked good-naturedly.
"Yours is different, Jack." Geoff pulled out two more shirts, one lime green and the other lemon yellow.
"'If found, please return to Geoff'?" Michael examined his bright blue shirt with white print outlined by black decorating the front of his shirt.
"What does mine say?" Jack asked, unfolding his vibrant yellow one. "'I'm not Geoff, but I'll take them'. Oh god, Geoff." Jack chuckled.
"'Unfortunately, I'm Geoff'." He held his up, showing it to the car. They all laughed, pleased at Geoff's clever planning.
Gavin immediately pulled his neon purple shirt over his head. "It fits!" He grinned happily.
"Sooo... We have to wear these the whole trip?" Ryan asked, eyeing his vivid red shirt not quite as happily.
"Yeah, this isn't exactly my style, Geoff." Lindsay giggled, running the soft material of her eye-hurtingly pink top through her fingers.
"Shut the fuck up, Lindsay." Michael retorted, pulling his own shirt over his head.
"I mean, I'm grateful," Geoff humphed from the front seat, feeling unappreciated. "But it's not something I'd wear daily, Geoff..." Lindsay finished guiltily.
"Fuck it, I'm wearing it." Ryan tugged the cotton over his head.
"Jack?"
"Hell yeah, I'll wear it!" Jack answered Geoff excitedly.
Everyone turned to stare at Lindsay until she broke.
"Ugh, fine, I'll wear it!" But she laughed, not really mad.
"Great!" Geoff clapped his hands triumphantly. "Now let's go get unpacked and we can go out on the town!" He hopped with surprisingly childlike vigor out of the van and shut the door after himself once he'd retrieved his bag.
"Well, shit." Lindsay mumbled as everyone else got out, one by one. She watched as Gavin, the last one out, jumped onto the pavement with heaps of excitement.
"You coming, Linds?" Michael asked, keeping the door open as she resigned to tugging Geoff's gift over her head.
"Yeah." She sighed, watching her coworkers and their enthusiasm. She glanced down at her attire again and back at her husband and his smile, and decided it wouldn't be that bad to wear it- after all, it was only one week.