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“Fuckin’—Arin, help me out here!” groaned Dan as he walked up the stairs to the apartment, cradling a large box in his arms. They had picked out a decently sized apartment on the second floor of the building with a balcony. Although the view was beautiful, walking up the stairs with enormous boxes for several hours? Not very fun, they had to admit.
Arin turned back, a much smaller and lighter cardboard box in hand, and flashed the most shit-eating grin that he could muster. “Nah, I’m good!” he replied, turning to move forward briskly up the stairs just to add salt to the metaphorical wound.
Dan rolled his eyes and muttered a curse under his breath. Soon enough he finally managed to lug the heavy box up the stairs. He dropped it on the floor just in front of the stairs with a thud – thankfully, there wasn’t anything fragile in there – and stood up straight. “Why did I decide to move in with you?” he wondered out loud as he popped his back, and heard a somewhat muffled laugh from inside the apartment.
A moment later Arin walked outside, a stupid smirk still remaining on his face. “Because you loooove me!” Despite the fact that he had before purposely ignored Dan’s pleas for help, he (after a moment of consideration [should I continue being an ass or should I be nice?]) did lean down and pick up the box with surprisingly more ease than the scrawny Dan, bringing it into the room that would soon become the bedroom.
Walking back out of the room, he was about to exit the apartment once more before Dan stopped him. “That was the last box, I think,” the older explained when he noticed Arin’s confused expression. Arin mouthed ‘oh’ but proceeded to the door only to close it. The loud sound of the door closing echoed through the room that was empty minus the boxes, the two people inside of it, and a pair of bean bags that Arin had preemptively brought up the day before, as he predicted the couple would likely be pretty exhausted from dragging things up a flight of stairs in the heat of southern California.
This prediction turned to be true, he realized as he sunk into one of the bean bags, letting out a soft sigh. Dan followed suit shortly after him, kicking off his pair of shoes before collapsing into the unoccupied bean bag next to the first. Due to the close proximity of the two chairs, he was able to reach for Arin’s hand and entwine their fingers together, squeezing the other man’s hand gently.
They sat in silence for a few moments, just laying in the bean bag chairs next to each other with the only noise being their breathing, before Dan mumbled softly, "You know how I said earlier that I had no idea why the fuck I was moving in with you?"
Arin sat up slightly from his slumped over position in the chair. "Yeah, what of it?"
"Well," Dan said after a short pause, "just so you know, I was completely kidding. I'm pretty sure the reason why I'm doing this is because I kinda love you a lot."
Arin hesitated for a moment, a slight blush staining his cheeks pink. "Fuckin' gay ..." h e teased. He leaned over to plant a gentle kiss on one of Dan 's cheeks. "I love you too, though."
Before Arin could pull his face too far away from Dan's, though, Dan pulled him in closer and cupped his face as he properly kissed his boyfriend. There was no real weight to it — even if there was, both of them were tired from carrying stuff up a flight of stairs for hours that day anyways — but it was still incredibly sweet. They were both giggling when they parted after a few seconds, Arin resting his forehead against Dan's.
"If calling me gay was an insult," Dan breathed, smiling, "then it wasn't very effective. That's a bit of a known fact."
"Very true," Arin replied, giving Dan one last additional peck on the cheek before slumping back in the chair. "I mean, the way you were yelling my name the other n-"
He was cut off by Dan's hand clamping over his mouth as he laughed. Arin quickly began laughing too, although it was muffled by the hand covering his mouth. He stuck his tongue out in an effort to get his boyfriend's hand off his mouth; his efforts weren't in vain, as Dan made a disgusted noise, whipping his hand away from Arin's face and wiping it off on his shirt. "Fucking gross!" h e laughed, attempting to scoot the bean bag away from the other's.
They spent a moment together laughing their asses off, Arin reduced to a coughing mess, heaving for breath, until soon their laughter began to die down and they were left panting, an occasional chuckle escaping them still. Dan had half-fallen off his bean bag chair but when he stood up, rather than returning to his own space, he shoved Arin half to the side and cuddled up next to him.
For the next few minutes they sat in comfortable silence, just enjoying each other's presence, half-curled up next to each other. Arin wasn't sure of how much time had passed before he dozed off, wasn't even aware that he had fallen asleep, he only knew that some time later his eyelids fluttered open when he heard Dan softly singing some sort of tune. It took a moment for him to register what it was; the theme to The Last Unicorn.
He shifted a little bit next to his boyfriend, and looked up when he heard Dan say, "Hey, Sleeping Beauty. How was your nap?" He must have noticed the subtle movement against him and realized Arin was awake.
Arin smiled sleepily up at him. "Good," he murmured, snuggling in closer to Dan and yawning softly. He felt Dan's lips press softly against his forehead and his small smile transformed into a grin.
"That's good, I didn't want to wake you up because you looked so peaceful."
"It would have been fine, fuckin... you're probably starving, it's like..." Arin quickly pulled out his phone from the pocket of his jeans and saw that it was almost a quarter til 7. "6:45ish, yeah. Do you wanna just order pizza?"
Dan nodded, and his stomach growled as if it was cued. "That'd be great right now, honestly." They both stood up, Arin groaning softly as he stretched his stiff muscles. Dan grabbed his phone from his pocket and started dialing a Pizza Hut that was fairly close to where they were, they'd noticed as they were touring the neighborhood. It wasn't more than five minutes before he was thanking the place and hanging up; in that time, Arin had the time to drag one of the bean bags outside when he noticed that the sun was about to begin setting.
The older walked out onto the balcony, watching Arin try to figure out the best place for the bean bag so they could watch the sun setting while they waited for the pizza. "You enjoying yourself out here?" h e asked, seeing Arin jump slightly when he realized Dan was there.
"This is only making my back hurt more and even though it's cooling off it's still fucking hot but I feel like it's probably going to be worth it," Arin replied with a smile as he stood up straight, wiping the hair out of his face. "How long till the pizza's here?"
"About half an hour, plenty of time for you to beej me if you'd like." Dan said this in a joking tone, adding a wink for good measure, but he found himself being backed up against the wall, pinned against it. They were both quiet for a moment; j ust when Arin would have ordinarily gone in for a rough, sloppy kiss, however, he instead gently kissed the end of Dan's nose. This came as a bit of a surprise, and Dan giggled, wrapping his arms around Arin's waist and kissing him briefly with a smile. "You nerd, I fuckin' love you."
Arin grinned and grabbed Dan's hand, dragging him over to the bean bag and plopping down in it, Dan doing the same next to him when Arin moved to make room. As they watched the sun slowly but surely begin to sink beneath the clouds together, the sky becoming stained with gold and orange and crimson, an idea slowly formed in Dan's head. He stood up for a moment to reach into his pocket and grab his phone, choosing some random song and setting it where he had just been sitting. Arin flashed him a confused look before Dan beckoned him up, helping his boyfriend up by offering his hand. He silently pulled him into a loose embrace, one hand draped around Arin's shoulder and the other planted on his waist.
"We seriously slow dancing, Avidan?" Arin asked, glancing up with a smirk on his face.
"Fuck you, I'm trying to be romantic.
"Well, I never said you weren't being romantic, I just wasn't expecting you of all people to offer to do that." They didn't really do much more than sway in place, but soon Arin was resting his head against Dan's shoulder, sighing contently. He heard Dan quietly humming the lyrics to the song as it progressed, the sky slowly growing darker as they stayed on the balcony, their embrace soon becom ing a sil houette against the dark sky.
The romantic moment was kind of shattered, however, when the piercing tone of the doorbell rang out through the apartment and traveled to the balcony. "I'll get that," murmured Arin as he regretfully slipped away from Dan to answer the door and accept the pizza. Dan heard a quiet exchange between the two as Arin fished out his wallet and paid the driver, along with a somewhat generous tip. Soon enough he returned back to the balcony with two medium pizzas in hand. He set them on the ground next to the bean bags where the two settled themselves again, opening the boxes and grabbing a slice each at first. At one point, Dan slumped to the side a bit, his head resting against Arin's shoulder as he continued to hum to the music around bites of pizza.
Of course, actually beginning the process of unpacking would be rather chaotic, and after that they would go back to pretty much their daily routines of going to record, running around town to buy this or that in between episodes. But the upside? They'd get to spend more time together each day, which neither man could really turn down.
And plus, for now, they were perfectly content with laying together in a small beanbag, chatting idly with each other as they ate crappy pizza and watched the stars. Because the only thing that really mattered was that they were together.