Work Text:
Rhett sat out in the carpark, gripping the steering wheel hard and staring at the side of the building. He wondered if Link was in there yet. He had been surprised but relieved to receive a text message from him that morning letting him know he wasn’t able to carpool with him today.
He had been rehearsing this moment all weekend and hadn’t managed to come up with a good game plan. Well, admittedly not the entire weekend. He had spent most of the weekend in a state of disarray, headphones glued to his head, hand down his pants, multiple times, in a variety of places. Jerking off more times in two days than he had all week as a teenager. Well. Almost.
He had even driven into the hills, nostalgic country music accompanying him on the drive, almost like a date. He’d parked in a secluded spot, reclined his seat a little and had let Link take him with him over and over as he watched the sun set through the windscreen, hoping no one would hear his cries. He had lain in the dark after the sun had slipped below the horizon, his hand finally still, his breathing slowly returning to normal, listening to Link’s quiet voice repeating, I’m dead.
And when he hadn’t been letting himself be utterly occupied by the other man, he was obsessing about how he was going to behave when he saw him today.
He had even considered calling in sick. But, that would have only delayed the inevitable. And, technically Link didn’t know that he had listened to the recording. Seventeen times. It wasn’t so bad. Only six of those times ‘actively’. Well. Around six-ish.
He could pretend he hadn’t. He generally had a very good poker face, managing to convince most people of almost anything. But Link wasn’t most people. And just thinking of his name lately, caused his body to shiver a little.
He glanced into the rear vision mirror, noting the haunted excitement in his eyes and admitted that that was not going to be an option.
Feeling like a kid heading to the principal's office, he finally got out of his car and headed into the building, avoiding their office for now, instead walking into the kitchen. He didn’t have to be alone with him right away.
Stevie, Jen and Alex were already in there talking animatedly about their weekends over cups of coffee. Their conversation paused briefly, all turning and smiling up at him.
“Hey, boss.”
“Morning.” He started, realising that he could barely meet their eyes. “Is, uh. Is Link in yet?”
Stevie frowned at him a little. “He didn’t pick you up?”
“Uh, no. He, ah, couldn’t for some reason today.”
“Well, no. He’s not in yet. We thought he was with you.”
Before Rhett can feel any relief, a firm hand lands on his back, startling him.
“Who was with you?”
Link’s smooth voice takes his breath away, throwing him back into the recording he knows almost word for word. He coughed a little, tripping over a greeting as the other man continued past him, hand sliding warmly across his back, as he made his way through the loitering crew members and stopped at the coffee machine.
“You,” said Jen. “Rhett was just saying you guys didn’t come together.”
Link turned, and looked up at Rhett smirking the smallest amount, before directing his attention to Jen. “Ah, no. No, we didn’t. I had to uh, go solo this morning.”
He reached for a mug, focusing on getting the machine underway. The only sign he was even remotely stressed was the slight tremor in his hands. But that in and of itself, didn’t really tell Rhett anything.
“How was your weekend, Jen?” Link asked without looking up.
“Pretty good. How about yourself?”
“Oh. Mine was great. Feeling quite accomplished.”
“Oh?” Stevie joined in.
“Hmm. Was, um. What’s the word?” He turned and leaned back on the counter, his hands gripping the surface looking around the room calmly. Enjoying holding the floor. “Catharsic?”
“Cathartic.” Rhett corrected automatically, looking over at Link, realising immediately that he knew full well the correct word, seeing the amusement dancing in his eyes at effortlessly leading Rhett.
“Yes. That’s it. Thanks, Rhett. A cathartic .... release. I feel like...a new man.” he beamed, before pushing his body off of the counter by his hips, letting his hands slide over the surface and turned back to his mug, stirring it carefully and added, “How about you, Rhett? You have a good time?”
“Ah. Yeah. Good.” he pulled his gaze away from watching Link’s hands. “ Yeah. I uh, better get started on, uh. You know. Stuff.”
“I’ll see ya in there, man. I wanna catch up with Lizzy and Chase first.” Link said as he made his way out of the kitchen. “See ya later, team” he added over his shoulder to the rest of their crew.
Rhett watched him go trying to slow his mind, and control his thoughts and stop himself trailing after him like a puppy.
“Wow, he’s sure in a good mood!” Alex commented, grinning. “Think he got laid?”
“Definitely!” Stevie and Jen chorus.
They all laughed loudly, aside from Rhett, who spun on his heel and slipped out before they could see the blush creeping up his face and down his body. He chose to believe the crew were laughing with him, not at him. Realising his speedy exit likely appeared quite comical to them.
He shook his head, muttering to himself as he made his way to their shared office. Realising as he closed the door behind him that there was no way he was going to get any work done today.
He logged into his computer, hovered his mouse over his email client, feeling himself blushing even more. God, this one was only for his work address. He was mildly relieved he hadn’t ended up with a raging hard on just looking at the icon.
Pavlovian response aside, he really needed to sort his shit. He let his hand drop back to his lap. He needed to come up with a plan.
He jumped up and left the office as fast as he could. He successfully avoided seeing Link again, got into his car and started driving. He couldn’t stay there all day freaking out. He needed a plan. And until he had one of those he needed distance between himself and the object of his obsession.
Link entered their office a good half hour later relieved to find it empty. Despite his easygoing demeanor earlier, in truth he had been trying to avoid Rhett as well. It was one thing to gently tease him in a room full of people, but a whole other ball game sitting across from one another in isolation.
The reality was it had been he on his knees fucking himself while moaning his need to the other man and judging by Rhett’s reaction to him in the kitchen, he had definitely listened to the recording.
And, he also knew Rhett’s response hadn’t been one of automatic nausea. He was too beautifully shy and nervous for that. Of course, he had been fairly confident of that or he would have never sent it. Their livelihood and friendship were at stake. This could never be just an amusing pornographic flirtation.
But it maybe could be for a little while.
So. Where did he want to take it now. Should he wait for Rhett? Or had he waited for Rhett for quite long enough?
He bypassed his desk, lying back on the couch, and cleared his mind of all boundaries. He looked up to the ceiling, letting his vision blur out of focus and listened to his thoughts, letting any and all possibilities float through his consciousness, smiling gently once he found a rhythm he liked.
“Hmm… the things you do to me, Mr McLaughlin. What could I possibly get you to do for me?”
Link was startled awake by rough shaking sometime later.
“Wake up, Link!” Judging by Rhett’s tone, it was likely he had been trying for quite a while to wake him.
“Woah. Where’s the fire?” He pulled himself into a sitting position, trying to meet Rhett’s gaze. The bright sunshine behind him making it hard to make out his features. “There isn’t a fire is there?”
“No. No fire. But, we need to talk.” Rhett stood beside the couch looking down at him, his tone all business.
“Hmm. Well, let’s grab a coffee?” he slipped his glasses on but was still unable to tell exactly where Rhett was looking. He found it very unsettling.
“A private talk.”
“Ok. Well, I am still gonna need a coffee.” Wanting to regain the upper hand, Link stood quickly without waiting for Rhett to make more room for him, their bodies ending up mere inches apart.
Although the height difference was significant at such close quarters, Link still felt like he was towering over his best friend, Rhett stumbling back a step, making a shocked almost squeaking noise at Link’s sudden movement towards him and the resulting close proximity.
He smiled as he moved past him towards the office door.
“Come on, man. What’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing. I uh. Just. Nothing.”
Link led the way to the kitchen, trying to figure out what he was going to say during Rhett’s big talk. He had hoped Rhett would just let it slide a while before a confrontation, but maybe he was more rattled than Link had anticipated.
Rhett followed along behind Link, unaware that he was intently watching his ass move, licking his lips unconsciously and had completely forgotten what he wanted to talk about and what his objections had been.
Once they both had a mug in hand, Link lead them to a fairly communal table.
“Link, I really want to talk to you privately.” Rhett kept his tone fairly light, not wanting to draw attention to them, but he was frustrated at Link ignoring what he had said five minutes before.
“I know. And, we will,” replied Link in a gently placating voice. Apologetically adding, “But, I want um. I want to tell you a couple of things first, and I can do that here?”
Rhett watched him blowing on his coffee and sat heavily across from him.
“Alright. If that’s what you want, what are you wanting to say?”
“I wanted to ask if you checked your email this weekend?”
Rhett jerked in shock, “What?! You want to ask me that, here?”
“Yup.” Link sipped his drink, watching the other man over the lip of his mug. Hoping his glasses didn’t steam up from the heat of his beverage undermining the whole effect. “I will take that as a yes?”
“Yes,” said Rhett. The location too public to elaborate much further than that.
“And, you want to talk about it?” Continued Link.
“Well, I think we should.”
“Hmm.” Link lowered his mug, appearing to consider Rhett’s reply.
Rhett looked down at his own mug, trying to figure out his thoughts. Forcing them to sit here meant he couldn’t just blindly rant his indignation and discomfort. Was Link doing that on purpose?
“I think, that sometimes we talk too much, Rhett.” Link glanced around the office space as he spoke.
His voice dropping close to the quieter seductive tones of the recording as he met Rhett’s gaze, and asked, “Did you like it?”
Rhett felt himself turning bright red.
He contained his automatic response to avoid and deflect. Instead, he glanced back at Link. Feeling his body responding to the other man’s confident and calm manner. The ease in which he had casually manipulated Rhett and their environment to his advantage.
“Yes,” he said quietly. He voice trembling a little on the single syllable.
“Good. Me too,” he sat back in his chair, not paying any particular attention to the nervous giant across the table from him. Feeling utterly wired, hoping that he looked relaxed to other staff that might come by.
After a slight pause he continued, “I think that it’s a good idea to keep personal emails out of the workplace? What do you think?”
“You don’t want to talk about it?”
“Not really. I did a lot of talking. I guess, if we really, really have to we can. But. It would be good to, ah, put that conversation on hold for a little bit. What do you think?”
Rhett was slowly feeling calmer, maybe Link was right. If he wasn’t panicking about it, maybe Rhett didn’t need to either. “Can I think about it?” he asked
“Of course, Rhett. I’m not telling you what to do. Yet.”
Rhett looked back at Link sharply. His blush intensifying.
Link’s slow smile made him feel weird in his stomach and he heard himself sigh “Gosh.” before he had even known he was thinking it.
Link’s smile widened before he moved his attention away from Rhett again.
“Uh. Would you?” Rhett started before his brain had a chance to catch up with his words.
“Hmm?” Link looked at Rhett steadily as he took another sip of his coffee, his heart rate picking up significantly. God he sounds so undone, he thought. He loved it. He concentrated on keeping his breathing calm, watching Rhett struggle through.
“Would you. Uh. Tell me.” Rhett shifted around in his chair uncomfortably, hoping he would not be overheard, praying no one was watching him. Although he kept his tone as casual as he could, even he could hear the hint of need in his words. “Uh, what to do.”
“Yes.” Link stated without hesitation.
They looked at each other. Both searching the other’s face and eyes. Both a little shocked at the outcome of the non-talk so far.
“I would like that,” Rhett said quietly.
“Good. We should get some work done then, now that’s out the way.” Link stood up, moving around the table behind Rhett. He leant down slowly beside him, one hand flat on the table beside him, the other on the back of his chair.
Rhett fought his impulse to move away from the intense closeness and instead concentrated on not smiling like an idiot.
“I do think though, Rhett,” Link began quietly, his breath on Rhett’s neck. That low sexy voice again. “If someone sends you a nice long message, you really should reply in kind, don’t you?”
“Of course. Yes.”
“Within a week is reasonable I think.’
Rhett nodded quickly, unable to make words.
Rhett slumped in his chair once the other man stepped away, the tension he had been holding flowing out of him in a rush.
“I’ll forward the details.” Link stated as he walked out of the room back towards their shared office.