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“I can’t believe this,” whispered Gus.
Shawn made an exaggerated shushing noise, much louder than Gus’ whisper had been. Gus shushed him back, their mutual shushing interrupted as the door to the room outside of the closet they were currently hiding in opened. Shawn put a hand over Gus’ mouth a fraction of second before Gus made a sound of surprise as his sister walked across the room. Gus gripped Shawn’s shoulder to stop him from moving. Joy was obviously looking for him, her phone in one hand and sample menu of the Guster family’s pre-Christmas dinner he was supposed to be helping her plan in the other.
They stayed frozen like that until she left, heading outside, hopefully in the direction of the beach, since a search of even the resort’s jetty area would give Gus enough time to come up with a believable excuse as to where he’d had to rush off to.
“You could always tell her we had a case,” said Shawn, who couldn’t literally read his mind even though he would sometimes say the response to Gus’ thoughts like that, unprompted.
“A case at a resort?”
“Crimes happen at resorts all the time!” said Shawn.
“And they called us instead of the police?”
“People do that all the time too,” said Shawn, “especially in places as nice as this! Maybe we’re the new house detectives!”
“And what if she finds out where we’re staying?”
“I don’t see why that would be a problem,” said Shawn.
“You booked the honeymoon suite ,” said Gus.
“You didn’t have a problem with the honeymoon suite last night,” said Shawn.
“You were- I was at a disadvantage,” said Gus, feeling his face flush with heat. “You were- You were using your wiles on me.”
Shawn grinned, leaning a little closer to Gus in the small space, one hand over Gus’ shoulder like they were leaning against school lockers. “You didn’t seem opposed to my wiles at the time.”
Gus put a hand on Shawn’s chest. “ Not while we’re literally hiding in a closet.”
Shawn made a face, but he nodded, so Gus counted it as a win.
Gus peered out the tiny crack in the door. “It’s probably safe to-”
The door opened. This time it was Gus’ turn to muffle Shawn's sound of surprise as Mr Spencer came in, a towel over his shoulder and heading towards the beach. He paused at the doorway, looking back over his shoulder. Gus held his breath, still pressed close enough to Shawn that he could feel Shawn do the same.
Just as Gus was on the edge of what he was sure was a stress-induced heart attack, Henry shrugged, heading outside.
“Oh my god ,” whispered Shawn.
“What is he doing here?” whispered Gus, emphasising the disaster of the situation by poking Shawn in the shoulder.
“I don’t know he… he…” Shawn’s eyes went a little distant. “He won some kind of competition. The precinct holiday fundraiser. He’ll be back home by Christmas day.”
“So will we ,” said Gus. “That’s why we organised this- which, I don’t know if you remember Shawn, but this is supposed to be a couple’s getaway vacation-”
“It is!”
“You promised romance ,” continued Gus.
“ Well …” said Shawn, waggling his eyebrows.
“Making out in a closet is not romance Shawn.”
“It could be!” said Shawn. “And we could have had romance at home but you didn’t want to tell your parents about us yet.”
“Neither did you !” said Gus.
“And have my dad spend the entirety of the holiday season bouncing between interrogating me and giving me-” Shawn shuddered theatrically. “ Knowing looks ? No thanks. That’s going to be a new year problem.”
Coming from anyone else, that kind of statement would have been hurtful, but that was the advantage of dating someone you knew as well as yourself - not only did Gus know the intention behind it, he was in exactly the same boat himself with his sister following him to the resort. The second their families knew about their relationship they would be in for several dozen versions of an are you sure you want to do this conversation, which put a real dampener on the holiday spirit. It was, as Shawn said, better to let it be a new year problem.
Plus, and he would never, ever admit it to Shawn, but it was fun to have this kind of a secret, to sneak around with Shawn and feel the added thrill of it every time Shawn made eye contact with him on a case, to be able to make Shawn ( Shawn !) blush by raising an eyebrow in response. It couldn’t last forever - he wouldn’t have wanted to hide their relationship forever - but being a little secret bubble with Shawn for a few weeks without having to explain it to anyone else was pretty damn good.
“Okay,” said Shawn. “The coast is-”
Joy opened the door, apparently having given up her search outside and heading back into the hotel. Gus’ stomach sank - she was heading towards the restaurant instead of the lobby. He didn’t need Shawn’s powers of observation to tell him that that meant she was probably planning on staying at least the rest of the afternoon.
Gus pinched the bridge of his nose. He could feel a tension headache coming on.
"This is all your fault!" hissed Gus.
"How is it my fault!" Shawn whispered back. "You asked me out!"
"You could have said no!"
"Gus don't be a half finished popsicle, how could I say no to you?" said Shawn.
Gus made a face, because he wanted to keep being mad at Shawn but it was kind of hard to do that when Shawn said things like that. Shawn, sensing Gus was wavering by using the powers endowed to him by thirty-odd years of friendship, upped the ante - he reached out and took Gus’s hand.
Gus gave Shawn a look to communicate that Shawn was using an unfair advantage (knowledge of Gus’ deeply held love of hand-holding in regency romances). Shawn made a face back to argue against the accusation (he just liked holding Gus’ hand!). Gus narrowed his eyes. Shawn wrinkled his nose, his fingers flexing against Gus’. Gus huffed a breath. Shawn grinned.
“Gus, I’ve been in love with you forever,” said Shawn, his voice soft. “Why would I ever turn you down?”
Shawn smiled, squeezing Gus’ hand. Gus, despite his better judgement, squeezed back. He’d never listened to his better judgement when it came to Shawn anyway.
“That’s exactly the kind of attitude that has gotten me into trouble since preschool,” said Gus.
“I’d like to keep being in trouble with you forever-” Shawn started to say.
Gus put a hand on Shawn’s chest. “Do not propose to me while we are literally in a closet .”
“Okay, but-”
“It would not make for a good story Shawn,” said Gus.
“I thought I was supposed to be the psychic,” said Shawn.
“So use your powers to get us up to our room,” said Gus.
“Right away,” said Shawn, waggling his eyebrows.
“So we can avoid being seen Shawn,” said Gus, folding his arms over his chest.
Shawn gave him a look.
Gus unfolded his arms. “And for- the other stuff too, maybe. We are on vacation.”
“And I do have wiles,” said Shawn.
“And you do have wiles,” agreed Gus.