Chapter Text
Pink lipstick stains, cigarette butts
I lie in bed, I hate my guts
A day in the dark
A muddled afternoon, yeah
Barty pressed his cheek close to Evan as they sang into the same microphone. He could feel the buzz of the music through the vibration of the stage below him.
Oh baby darling how I long
To become your suicide blonde
He ran a hand through Evan’s platinum curls as he sung the line. Evan leaned into it, eyes meeting Barty’s, grinning as he sung.
To lie beside my Romeo
Oh what a wicked way to go
Evan’s fingers moved deftly on the guitar, he lifted a hand, twirled the pick in his hand before resuming immediately, he didn’t take his eyes off Barty the entire song.
•••
“Ah fucking hell look at the comments Bee.”
Evan was sat at the base of the sofa, scrolling through the comments on a video of their performance last night. He held the phone up to Barty on the sofa, who squinted before taking it and reading it out to the room.
“Skittlefiend57 says ‘omg Blarty and Evan! I’m so gone 4 them u guys’”
“Blarty?”
Regulus raised an eyebrow.
“We’ve been getting my name wrong all these years guys. Wow that’s a crazy thing to discover at 23.”
“Bad spelling aside, there’s way more. And it’s not all good stuff.”
Evan said and Barty looked back down at the comments.
“Barty and Evan are queerbaiting, they act so gay but they’re not dating. It’s all clearly faked to get attention. Fucking pathetic. Why thank you peenisonapizza. Glad to see you know us personally and can therefore speak on our behalf.”
“Don’t know why they’re obsessed with accusing a band with two trans guys of queer baiting.”
Evan pinched his furrowed brow and shook his head in disbelief.
“They don’t even care about the fucking music, just us and whether we’re dating or not.”
Barty laid down on the sofa, dropping one arm around Evan and resting his chin on Evan’s shoulder.
“Hey cheer up Rosie. They care about the music. There’s a few assholes but that’s a given. If they weren’t talking about us acting gay they’d be talking about whether my tattoos are real or fake.”
“Or some conspiracy theory that Reggie’s not actually lactose intolerant.”
Pandora chipped in.
“I’m not lactose intolerant!”
Regulus replied indignantly.
“Is that you talking or your obsession with chocolate?”
Dorcas rolled her eyes as she spoke. Regulus avoided her gaze as he mumbled out a half hearted response.
“Remus got me hooked on Tony’s chocolonely.”
While the rest of the group squabbled Evan leaned his head back against Barty’s shoulder, he pulled out his phone.
***
Evan.Rosier✔️
Hey everyone, I’ve noticed there’s a lot of speculation about me and @Barty.Grouch.JR and I wanted to say that it’s none of your business, you can think what you like but please don’t ask us or spam comment sections with theories. As always thank u so much for listening to our music, the skittles luv u x
***
Evan breathed in and passed the phone to Barty.
“You think this is good?”
Barty read it over and nodded.
“You’ve been really nice about it too.”
Evan huffed out a laugh.
“I was normal about, not my fault you would have said something like-“
“Roses are red, violets are blue, you are a cunt and I hate you @peenisonapizza.”
Barty took a small bow, flourishing his hand dramatically. Evan turned around and flicked him in the leg, which only succeeded in making him laugh.
“Ok I’ve posted it.”
Evan clicked post and watched as the ‘likes’ number quickly began to climb.
“Now I’m just not gonna read the comments on that post.”
Evan huffed out a laugh and Barty patted his shoulder.
“Good on you Rosie. Now who wants to watch a movie?”
Evan clambered onto the sofa next to Barty who leaned against him immediately, head resting on his shoulder.
“Rosie.”
Barty whispered.
“Yeah Bee?”
“Give me your phone. Look we both know it will bother you all evening not reading those comments if you have your phone on you. Just- out of sight out of mind, I’ll give it back to you once the movie is over but you deserve to have an evening off.”
Barty’s eyes were wide, expression genuine as he spoke. Evan hesitated then reached in his pocket for his phone.
“Don’t spam it with photos alright?”
A smirk spread on Barty’s face quickly, eyes sparkling.
“I make no promises Ev.”
Evan rolled his eyes but handed the phone over.
The movie was something Pandora had picked, something from the late 80s, a strange mix of fantasy, reality and meta theatre that Evan actually didn’t hate.
Still he drifted to sleep at some point watching it, the stress of the day had clearly gotten to him and something about the way the top of Barty’s head made for a great pillow probably didn’t help.
Either way he woke up to the feeling of Barty shaking him.
“Come on sleeping beauty, let’s get you to a real bed. Here’s your phone back.”
Evan rubbed his eyes and got up, stumbling to his room as thanked Barty in a half asleep murmur.
He got to his room and turned on his phone, wincing at the glaring brightness, turning it down quickly. He opened his photos app, just as he’d suspected his camera roll was filled with new photos.
He began to scroll through them. There was one of his friends, all waving at the camera. A zoomed in shot of Inigo Montoya‘s face on the TV screen from a funny angle. Himself, looking dumb, sleeping with his mouth slightly open. He scrolled to the next picture and stopped. Barty with that cheeky grin of his, curled up against Evan, flipping off the camera. Eyes twinkling in that way that always made Evan feel a little warmer, a little brighter. He fell asleep again dreaming of a body pressed against his in a hug, the hum of a movie no longer playing, soft hair tickling his face and mischief painted in big brown eyes.