Work Text:
Valentine's Day, you love it or you hate it. Maybe you could care less about it. Bryce was usually one of those people, maybe since he's only celebrated it once or twice in his life. But just he never saw the big ordeal of having to have a valentine.
Well, what better time than ever to be horribly inexperienced when it came to really any sort of romance than the first Valentine's with his boyfriend? The day had come much sooner than he anticipated, the only reason he even remembered was because Kylie had mentioned how it sucked she had to work most of the day on Valentine's tomorrow. Since then, it was all he could think about. So now he was sitting in his car after work, having absolutely zero clue what he was going to do. He did want to try and do something special though, the two didn't exactly get to have a lot of romantic outings or anything lately. Unless you call sitting on the bed, eating leftovers, and watching crappy TV romantic. Some might, but, he wanted something more, something actually nice.
Thing was, he didn't exactly own anything fancy to wear, nor did he have a lot to spend on a fancy restaurant. He felt completely lost with what to do, he so badly wanted to ask someone but the few people he knew who, one, even celebrated Valentine's Day, or two, knew well enough to ask. He thought it'd be pretty pathetic to ask anyone about this, but he also really didn't wanna mess this up. He only knew one guy he could go to for advice on this, unfortunately. Bradley. The guy had a relationship, knew somewhat what he was doing, and sort of knew Liam. Seemed like his only bet at this point, he just had to put aside his pride and ask for some advice.
bbrrrinnnggg...
....
brriinnnnggg...
"Bryce? What's up?" Bradley questioned, Bryce never called him, not out of the blue anyway.
"Hey, Brad, I-" Bryce began before he got cut off.
"Woah, woah- did someone die?" He interrupts, sounding a little concerned and surprised.
"...What? No?"
"Oh. What is it then?"
"Why did you immediately go to someone being dead??" Bryce hesitantly asked, having no idea why that was Bradley's first assumption.
"The last time you randomly called me and used the name 'Brad' was when one of our old friends from college died! I assumed something serious happened."
"Okay, well, no one died. But, I do really need your advice on something." He sounded nervous, a bit embarrassed to be asking about this.
"Alright, sure, what's up?"
"Do you uh- know what you're doing for Valentine's Day?"
"Hate to break it to you man, but I'm kind of busy." He teased, only thinking Bryce might've been serious a little.
"No! I mean—" Bryce paused for a second to sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and pointer finger in slight irritation.
"I meant, I don't know what to do for Liam."
"Ohhh, right. Well..." Bradley pauses to think for a minute before speaking again, shifting the phone to his other hand.
"You could take him out for dinner? Seems pretty fool-proof."
"Yeah... But, anything that fancy I don't exactly have the money for."
"What about making dinner?"
"I guess, we always do that though." Bryce felt a bit defeated, he was really at a loss here. He just wanted to make tonight special, after everything with ONE and working hard to get their lives back together, they haven't had time to do anything nice.
"You could try to y'know make it more romantic, make something you know he likes." Someone calls for Bradley in the background, making him let out a soft sigh.
"Alright, I gotta go, good luck with that though. I'm sure whatever you do will be fine."
"Okay, thanks, cya.." Bryce reluctantly hung up, groaning in frustration. How did people do this every year?
Maybe Bradley was right, he could just cook something. He thought about how he could "make it more romantic" and after some thinking, he made a small list of things to grab on his way home. Candles, a lighter, flowers, some sort of treat, tilapia, and some butter since they ran out yesterday. They already had some vegetables, and he decided on getting some fish as the main part of the meal. They didn't eat it too often since it was a bit more expensive, but he thought it'd be worth it. It was cheaper than going to a restaurant though, that's for sure.
He texted Liam that he'd be working about an hour late tonight, just so he'd have an excuse to be out late. He could've just said he was heading to the store but he felt like it was way too obvious.
Upon arriving at their local grocery store, it was rather busy, with a bunch of people rushing around to get last-minute gifts. Bryce was now one of those people, it made him feel a bit bad for putting it off for so long, but the best he could do now was just get it done.
The shopping trip was fairly quick luckily, thank god he was able to grab one of the last packages of tealight candles. Only thing they didn't have was the right flowers, tulips. It felt like they had every other flower except them. He really didn't want to settle for anything else, it felt important to him to make sure he got the perfect flowers. He made a last resort trip to a floral shop, his hopes were pretty low considering it was the day before Valentine's, but it was his only hope. Upon arriving the baskets of flowers outside were completely empty, making him really lose hope. He went in anyway, praying he'd get lucky.
All of the roses of every color were completely gone inside too, petals littering where they used to be. They seemed to carry some other flowers though... Sunflowers... daises... a few lilies... and- Tulips! All the red ones were gone, probably as some people's replacement for red roses. But, there were a few bouquets of orange tulips, making Bryce let out a sigh of relief. He grabbed one of them and walked over to the cash register to pay for them, making awkward small talk with the cashier as he paid.
Bryce felt pretty happy on the drive home, pretty confident in his plan now. He just had to hide everything from Liam when he got inside, which might be a bit tricky.
Upon arriving home, he set the bag of stuff outside beside the door; planning to distract Liam and then put stuff away. He unlocked the door and walked inside, greeting Liam and giving him a small forehead kiss.
"How was your day?" Liam asked, a soft smile on his face as he looked up at Bryce.
"Nothin' crazy... Pretty tiring but what's new? How about you?"
"My day was good! I wasn't able to get off early tomorrow though which sucks..." He sighs, feeling rather disappointed. He really wanted to spend more time with his boyfriend on Valentine's.
"Me neither, I'm sure we can do something when we're done work." Bryce was honestly a bit relieved Liam had to work normal hours, it gave him a bit of extra time to set dinner up.
That makes him remember the groceries sitting outside the door, he had to get them inside before either someone took anything or before the fish went bad.
"Hey uh, you've got something on your face right here-" He says pointing to his cheek. "I think you should go check it out in the mirror."
"Oh, what?" Liam mumbled slightly as he got up to go look, confused about what he could've gotten on his face.
Bryce quickly grabbed the groceries from outside the door, rushing to put them away. He had left the flowers in his car since the only place he could really hide them was a small closet or in a cabinet and given they'd probably die without any light, so the car was his best bet. He planned to sneak a vase and a bottle of water out to his car later, not wanting the tulips to die without water either. He had this vase Liam bought a little while back which rarely had anything in it, he thought it'd be the perfect thing to put the tulips in.
"Bryce, I don't see anything on my face..." He says as he walks out of the bathroom, still feeling confused if not more so.
"Hm? Oh- y'know I think it rubbed off." Bryce shut the fridge door quickly, having just gotten the last item in the back of their fridge.
"Alright..."
"I'm gonna make some dinner, leftovers sound okay?"
"Yeah that's fine, I'll uh- get plates out."
The evening went normally, Bryce had gotten the tulips water after going out to "grab his wallet" from the car. He couldn't for the life of him find the vase Liam had bought, which was weird considering his apartment wasn't big. How could he lose something like that in practically a single room? He managed to find a pitcher someone gifted him years ago, he's honestly never used it until now, what would he need an entire pitcher for? Well, other than a last-minute alternative for a vase. Aside from the whole vase struggle he managed to get the pitcher and a bottle of water out to his car, setting the flowers in the pitcher of water and tucking it in a safe spot on the floorboard of his car.
As soon as the clock struck 4 pm Bryce didn't waste a second clocking out as fast as he could, in fact, he may or may not have forgotten to leave his apron at work... He really wasn't supposed to take that home with him. Oh well, half the workers didn't wear it anyway.
He got home quickly, rushing out of the car so he could start setting everything up. He tripped over a parking curb from being lost in his head trying to figure out what his game plan was to get this done in time. As soon as he entered the building's door he realized he had forgotten the flowers, making him quickly walk back to the car; there were a handful of flowers on his back car seat but he didn't pay any mind to it right now. He tripped on the same damned curb on the way back again, almost dropping the vase of tulips. He luckily balanced himself before completely tripping, cursing under his breath. He got into the elevator, pressed his floor number, and impatiently waited for the doors to open. He fumbled with his keys as he finally got to his front door, turning the doorknob and opening the door.
Bryce froze, standing there in a mix of shock and confusion. The room was littered with candles of various sizes, the lighting dim but warm. A few sat on the windowsill, others lining the table and kitchen counters. The oven was on with something in it, making the whole apartment smell nicely of garlic. The vase Bryce had been looking for was in the middle of the table with a assorted red bouquet. Suddenly Liam came out of the bathroom, pausing upon seeing Bryce.
"What are you doing home already???" Liam asked, not thinking Bryce would be home for another hour.
"I-I could ask you the same thing!" Bryce was genuinely a little stunned, all of this completely taking him by surprise.
"What happened to not being able to get off early?"
"I might've lied, but I wanted to get home before you to surprise you..." He was a bit disappointed it didn't work out as he intended.
"Well, you still definitely surprised me..." Bryce walked over to Liam and gave him a small kiss.
"I kind of had a similar idea in mind, seems you beat me to it though huh?"
"Sorry about that."
"Hey, don't apologize; here, I got these for you. You kinda beat me to the vase too." He says as he motions for Liam to take the pitcher of tulips.
Liam looked down at the orange flowers with a smile on his face, maybe it was a small gesture but to him, it was one of the sweetest things he'd ever gotten. It was a nice sense of normalcy for once.
"Thank you..."
He set the pitcher down on the table before cupping Bryce's face in his hands, rubbing his thumb on the latter's cheek.
He just admired him for a moment, as cliche as it was, he felt like the luckiest guy in the world.
He pulled Bryce down slightly to kiss him before peppering the man's face with small kisses, he planted one last kiss on his nose before pulling away to look up at him.
Bryce's cheeks were beet red, a stupid grin plastered onto his face as he tried to get over how flustered he was. The night didn't turn out like he thought it would, but he had to admit he liked this so much better.
He wanted some revenge though, he carefully grabbed Liam's face and placed kisses all over it; the other's soft giggles only fueled him to kiss more.
"O-okay okay! I get it!" He said through small laughs, his face turning about the same shade of red Bryce's was. He had to admit the feeling of Bryce's kisses was addicting.
"I don't think you do..." Bryce teased as he kissed Liam a few more times, leaving a final one on his lips.
Maybe he wasn't good with romance but he knows there's no one else he'd rather figure it out with.