Work Text:
Arcade Fire - Song On The Beach
—
“Listen, I know you don’t fucking like… anything, but I think you might like the beach.”
“No thank you,” Adam replied calmly as he scrolled from the comfort of his couch.
Nigel gently lifted Adam’s chin with a finger and smiled. “Tell me darling, have you ever been to a beach?”
“When I was a kid, with my parents.”
“And? Did you enjoy yourself?”
“Not really. It was hot and I didn’t like the feeling of sand on my skin.”
Adam cringed when he was reminded of the gritty sedimentary texture nestling between his toes. He could almost hear the crunching sounds beneath his feet and it sent a shiver down his spine.
“Well, what if I carried you from the shore to the water? Then your feet wouldn’t touch the sand.”
Adam finally put down his tablet and stared at Nigel with great intensity, knowing how persistent the older man could be when he wanted something.
“Why do you want to go to the beach?”
“Because I want to go swimming while the weather is still nice, but I want you to be there. I want to experience it with you, Adam.”
“We have a bathtub, you know…” Adam suggested with a sly grin, tapping his fingers on Nigel’s arm in an attempt to distract him.
“I know, but I can’t go fucking swimming in the bathtub. We can do other things in there though…”
Frowning slightly, Adam asked in earnest, “Would it make you happy if we went to the beach?”
“It would make me very fucking happy, darling.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
—
Nigel realized after twenty minutes of trying to coax Adam out of the car that he wasn’t going to change his mind.
It left him feeling a bit defeated after all the effort they had put into getting Adam to the beach in the first place.
“You sure about this? You came all the way down here and even put on sunscreen. And we got you those special sandals at the mall. In fucking Jersey.”
The beach wasn’t as busy as it usually was during the daytime, but there were enough bodies around to make Adam anxious. He also felt sticky from the sunscreen and sweat mixing together on his skin, which made it difficult for him to move freely.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
Nigel sighed. Though he didn’t want to make Adam uncomfortable, he wasn’t going to waste a trip to the beach either.
“I can’t leave the car on for that long so you’re going to have to crack the windows. Is that okay?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Then I’ll see you in an hour, I guess.” Nigel kissed Adam affectionately; a wave of sadness washing over him. “Thanks for coming, I know it’s hard. Maybe next time you’ll actually get out of the car and swim with me.”
“Okay.”
Nigel forced a smile and rolled the windows down, slapping the car door to let Adam know he was heading out to sea.
Adam nodded and pulled out his tablet.
The first half hour went by rather quickly, with Adam reading articles and exploring the latest photos from the Mars Rover and various telescopes. But after finishing his rounds online, Adam became antsy. Restless. Impatient. He started to notice how hot the car was, even with the windows all the way down.
As Adam focused his gaze outwards onto the beach, he saw Nigel swimming back to shore, his toned, muscular body glistening in the sun. Shaking a mop full of messy, wet hair, Nigel returned to the towel he’d laid down earlier and flattened himself on top of it. Once he caught his breath, Nigel saw a beautiful woman setting up next to him and sparked a conversation to fill the silence.
From afar, Adam observed the interaction with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach; unable to articulate the feeling but understanding that it bothered him deeply. He didn’t particularly like how close the woman was sitting next to Nigel or the way she would fan her hand towards his shoulder. And though Nigel kept his distance, he laughed along with her vibrantly. Reciprocally.
Before he knew what was happening, Adam had closed the windows, grabbed the keys, and marched off in Nigel’s general direction. He was too emboldened by passion to acknowledge the streams of sand flowing in and out of his shoes or the heat of the sun beaming through his clothes. There were far more pressing matters that needed to be dealt with. Swiftly.
“Nigel,” Adam gritted between calculated breaths; hands hardening into white-knuckled fists.
Nigel’s head snapped backwards when he heard the all-too-familiar voice enter his vicinity. “Finally decided to venture out of the car into the real world, darling?”
Adam didn’t budge.
“Ehm, this is uh, the love of my life, Adam,” Nigel introduced with a faint blush, gesturing towards the woman with a nervous smile, “What was your name again?”
“Maya,” she spat flatly at the pair.
“Well it was nice to meet you, Mary — Maya, but I believe it’s time for us to get going.”
“Goodbye Maya,” Adam stated robotically, sending her off with an indiscernible wave.
As they walked away, Nigel wrapped his arms around Adam and placed placating kisses all over his ears and neck.
“So are you ready to go swimming now, my little butterfly?”
“No.”
“Do you want to at least take off your shirt?” Nigel inquired as he playfully pulled at Adam’s clothes.
“You were flirting with her.”
Nigel stopped in his tracks at the latent accusation, his eyes and lips twitching in amusement. “I was not flirting with her.”
“It looked like you were laughing a lot.”
“Are you jealous?” Nigel teased with raised eyebrows, trying his best to lighten the mood. “I mean sure, I fucking laughed… but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“It’s hard for me to read people, but I know you don’t laugh like that with anyone else but me. And you were laughing that way with her. You seemed excited.”
Nigel couldn’t help but laugh at the behest of his best wishes.
“I just swam for like, thirty minutes—”
“Thirty four minutes, to be exact.”
“I swam for thirty four fucking minutes and I was feeling fucking amazing, alright? What do they call it? Runner’s high?”
“But you weren’t running.”
“It’s just a saying, Adam. People get a natural high from working out. Anyway, I was being polite. I was excited, but not in the way that you’re thinking. I wasn’t sexually excited. That’s reserved for the only fucking person in this whole fucked up world that I give a fuck about, and that person is you.”
“That’s not entirely true. You get sexually excited by the dancers at your club and by the actors on TV. You also watch a lot of—”
“Hey, we watch those same movies together so don’t pull that shit with me! What I’m trying to say is — you’re the only person with whom I’d want to act on those feelings with. I may look sometimes, but I would never touch. The same rules apply at the club. Do you understand?”
After pondering for a moment, Adam simply nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
Nigel had to try one last time.
“Now are you absolutely sure you don’t want to go for a quick dip before we leave?”
“I guess I could.” Adam ran his hands along the hem of his shirt and bit his lips, dainty fingers dancing dangerously at the tips. “But it’s hot outside, so I’d probably have to take off my shirt… in front of the whole beach.”
Nigel’s eyes narrowed at the oddly seductive way Adam was moving. “So?”
“Are you okay with that? Me taking off my shirt?”
“Of course I’m okay with it, Adam. Why the fuck wouldn’t I be? Do you think I expect you to go swimming in a three-piece suit?”
Adam shrugged and lifted his shirt, his taut stomach peeking beneath the fabric as his lips parted briefly, tongue darting out to lap at the dryness. Nigel immediately encircled his arms around Adam and held his shirt in place.
Suddenly the idea of everyone at the beach gawking at Adam’s body almost made Nigel fly into a rage, and they both knew that the devil on his shoulder had won this round.
“What are you trying to do?” he pontificated, body temperature steadily rising.
“I’m trying to take off my shirt so I can go for a swim like you suggested, but you won’t let me.”
Nigel unraveled himself from Adam and raised his hands in the air as a truce.
But when Adam reached for his shirt again, Nigel’s hands instinctively locked around his body.
“On second thought, I remember you making a comment earlier. Something about being hot and tired. We should leave before traffic hits anyway.”
“I never said I was tired,” Adam quipped, Nigel’s discomfort not lost on him.
“It’s almost time for dinner, isn’t it?”
“Not for another six hours.”
Groaning, Nigel knelt down in front of Adam and pointed towards his back.
“I’d suggest you hop on if you don’t want fucking sand in your shoes.”
Adam growled with triumphant laughter as he wrapped his arms around Nigel’s neck and his legs around Nigel’s waist, allowing himself to be piggybacked to the parking lot like a prince.
“Fucking little shit sometimes, I fucking swear…”
“I know.”
Nigel then felt Adam’s ornery smile forming against his cheek.
“The things I do for you…”
“I came to the beach like you wanted me to. You said that would make you happy.”
Chuckling to himself as he bounced Adam in his arms to get a better grip, Nigel finally relented.
“You’re right. I am happy.”
“Good.” Adam tightened his hold. “What do you want to eat for dinner? I think I’m too tired to cook tonight.”
“Besides you?”
“Besides me.”
“Do I get a choice here?”
“I’ll consider it.”
“Halal food.”
“Mmm… No.”
Nigel rolled his eyes. “Figured. Thought I’d shoot my shot anyway. Pizza?”
“You know I don’t like greasy foods that I have to touch with my hands.”
“How about sushi? You can use chopsticks or a fork to handle the food.”
“Raw fish? Now you wanna become a fish because you visited the beach?”
Nigel smirked at Adam’s benign attempt at a joke.
“They have more than raw fish, you know. There’s grilled chicken skewers and fried rice — you like fried rice.”
“I do like fried rice. But if we go to a Japanese restaurant, are you going to flirt with all the waiters?”
“I will if it makes you act like this,” Nigel scoffed, devouring Adam’s jealousy as if it were the most delicious delicacy known to man.
Not appreciating the criticism at his expense, Adam furrowed his brows and flared his nostrils, biting the back of Nigel’s neck in a targeted attack.
“Okay, okay, okay! You fucking win!” Nigel screamed in submission, running to the car in an attempt to escape the remainder of Raki’s wrath.
“Okay,” Adam whispered fondly, nuzzling against the angry red bite mark he had just created.