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The day had been long and boring, and Peter was glad to slide off his pack, and sluggishly drag himself up the stairs, and collapse on his bed.
He hated days like this, bullshit calls of ghosts, which equated to nothing more to faulty wiring or air conditioner problems. They really didn't even get paid much for it, a small fee for their time, but that was all.
The whole day, Ray had been unnecessarily excited. Bouncing in his seat, driving a bit too fast, and having a sort of pep in his step. Peter couldn't understand how happy he was doing the most boring work, he must have had something going on, but Peter didn't really care all that much.
When they had arrived home, Ray had quickly left the firehouse, not even bothering to take off his flight suit. Maybe the others had mentioned where he'd gone, but Peter's brain had shut off about six hours ago, so he had no clue.
Peter lay on his bed for a minute, arms resting at his sides, staring at the ceiling. He sighed and shut his eyes. No matter if they were saving the world from a vengeful god, or catching rats scratching up attics, Peter would be exhausted.
He absent-mindedly lifted his arm up onto his chest, and bolted up when he got a nasty slimy surprise.
Goddamn spud!
Peter had been so out of it when he had returned, that he didn't even notice Slimer's hug. Now he knew why the others chuckled under their breaths.
He pulled off his boots, then unzipped his ruined jumpsuit and bunched it up on the floor, not caring enough to toss it into the nearby laundry basket.
He fell back onto the bed, and turned onto his stomach, snuggling his face onto the pillow and hugging it. He wasn't going to get up until one of the guys got him up for dinner, though if Ray made it, he might stay asleep. Though he was most likely still out wherever, so it was probably Egon making dinner. The blonde could cook pretty well.
Peter started to drift off, embracing the softness of the pillow, the colors under his eyes dancing in his vision and his thoughts going fuzzy. He had nearly reached the bliss of sleep, until heard the door smack the wall, and excited footsteps head towards his bed.
“Hey Peter!”
His thoughts came back into focus, and the beginnings of his dream faded back into the darkness of his mind. He felt a pang of annoyance in his chest. Ray really couldn't be ignored, he didn't give up easily.
“What?” Peter muttered into his pillow, not feeling like looking up at the redhead, trying his best to send a message.
Ray sat down onto the bed with a soft thump, and started to gently shake Peter. His hand was trembling, most likely from excitement, Peter thought.
“You won't believe what released today, Peter!”
He couldn't see the younger man's face, but Peter knew that he was beaming.
“What? Evil Dead II? Ray, I don't care how much you bribe me, I'm not watching that with you.” Peter muttered.
“No, that comes out in two weeks,” Ray chuckled. “I'm talking about the new Captain Steel issue!”
“Who?”
Ray huffed. “Peter, don't you remember a couple of months ago? When Captain Steel and Doctor Destructo flew off the pages of the comic, we had to help catch Destructo to stop him from taking over New York City.”
“Ray, I usually don't remember breakfast.” Peter lifted his hand up and sarcastically waved.
The redhead exhaled and went quiet for a second. Peter hoped that meant he could sleep now, but within thirty seconds of that thought, Ray started pushing him again.
“What, Ray?!”
“Peter, we have a cameo in this one! As a thank you for helping him out, Wolfmen, the creator of Captain Steel, added us to the story! How awesome is that?” Peter could hear Ray's smile in his words. It was cute, but he didn't have the energy to match the redhead's.
“Ok, thanks for sharing, now let me sleep!” Peter grumbled, pushing the sides of the pillow to his ears. This could wait until after his sleep.
“But, Peter, don't you wanna see what happens?”
“No.”
“Aw come on, I bet they portray you accurately!”
“Not now, Stantz.”
“Please! You'll love it”
“Go bother Slimer with it.”
“I already did!”
“Well, bother him again!”
“He's not really that interested in it!”
“I don't blame him!”
“Please just give it a chance!”
The brunette was not in the mood to deal with this.
“LOOK!” He yelled, lifting his head from the pillow ever so slightly to be heard. “Go bother Egon or Winston PLEASE! I've been tired all goddamn day, and all you've been doing is bugging me about your stupid comic and not giving me a moment of peace! Just SHUT UP and leave me alone!”
The words seemed to ring in the stale air, and Peter felt a bit uneasy waiting for the redhead's response, or lack thereof.
“Sorry.”
Ray's voice, which had been so cheerful, seemed to have shattered into a pained whisper, and once it had left his lips, Peter went cold with regret.
“I'll leave you be, Pete.”
Fuck, what had he done? The redhead had done nothing wrong. It's not his fault Peter was having an awful day. He had every opportunity to make his day better, but he didn't take it, Ray was just trying to share something he loved.
He heard Ray start to walk off, and Peter knew he needed to fix his mistake. He got up from his bed and ran up to the younger man, who was about to exit their room.
“Ray, wait!” Peter yelled, grabbing Ray's shoulders, spinning him around.
Ray looked up at the brunette, his green and brown eyes glazed over with tears, his mouth slightly agape. Peter's heart shattered.
“You know what, I think I'd love to see your comic.” Peter said quietly, softly smiling. “I bet I look great.”
“Really?” Ray's voice had a hint of confusion and doubt. “I thought you wanted me to go.” He trailed off a bit with his last few words, not making eye contact with Peter.
“Look, I was being a dick, Ray. Just cause I had a bad day doesn't mean I should've taken that out on you. Besides, Egon and Winston are making dinner, I think they're busy.” It came from the heart, but Peter was unsure if the redhead would accept.
Ray stayed quiet, still not looking at him, which seemed to confirm the brunette's worries. Peter sighed quietly. He wasn't good at apologies, but maybe he could try using the ol’ Venkman charm on him. It was risky, it only worked on around half the girls he used it on, but Ray was different. He knew him much better than any woman, but it was worth a shot.
“Hey.”
Peter gently held Ray's chin in one hand, and tilted his head towards him. With his other hand, he wiped tears off of Ray's freckled cheek. The redhead's eyes widened.
“I'm sorry, Ray. I'm sorry I yelled at you, I'm sorry I made you cry,you didn't deserve that.” His words got quieter as each one left his lips.
Peter looked down at Ray's soft lips, his heartbeat increasing at a rapid rate, butterflies fluttering. Oh how he craved to kiss him, to leave him breathless and flushed, to cuddle with him, and make him feel so incredibly loved. But, he knew it was best to wait, not to take advantage of him in such a state.
Ray's pale skin was now flushed red, his lips slightly parted, his multicolored eyes wide and sparkling like precious stones. He gave the brunette a smile.Fuck, Peter thought, He's adorable. He moved his hand to Ray's cheek, caressing it.
“It's ok, Peter. I get you've been having a rough day, it happens. I wish we had more actual cases, too.” Ray cooed, placing his hand on top of Peter's, leaning into the touch. “I think it's getting to everyone.”
“Except you, Tex. I've never seen a grown man so excited for a comic book. I think it's honestly pretty cute.” Peter joked, fluffing up Ray's hair.
“I guess it is,” The redhead giggled, wrapping his arm around Peter's shoulder. “So,” He held up the comic up to Peter. “Wanna read it with me now?”
Peter smiled, “Of course.”
Ray grabbed Peter's hand and excitedly dragged him over to his bed, jumping onto it, and landing on the sheets with a soft oomph. Thank god that they had replaced the mattresses a few weeks ago, otherwise it would have felt like straight wood. Ouch.
Peter scooted up towards the head of Ray's bed, laying back on the soft pillows, arms behind his head. Ray sat closer to the foot of the bed, cross-legged, comic in hand. He opened it up to the first page and started reading, but only got to about the third word before he was interrupted by the brunette.
“Y'know you can come a little closer, right?” Peter smirked, beckoning the redhead closer. “I can't see the pictures from all the way over here.”
Ray grinned and scooted closer towards Peter, then opened his comic and started again to narrate it, beginning to weave a tale of epic proportions. That's what Peter assumed anyway, as he wasn't really paying all that much attention to it. Instead, he was too busy looking at the man reading it. Ray was so cute when he was rambling about comics.
“Look at this Pete! They have a whole page dedicated to our history!”
Peter looked over Ray's shoulder to see, and was pleasantly surprised. He actually looked quite nice! Or as nice as one can look in comic book form, though they did get his eye color wrong, but Ray was happy, so he could let it slide.
The comic was actually more interesting and enjoyable than Peter originally thought it was, some of the lines even got a little chuckle out of him. The most enjoyable part, however, was when Ray had let his guard down and Peter had decided to hug him from behind, holding him and snuggling his face into the redhead's neck, which he could feel warming up.
It was obvious that Ray knew what was going on, his narration stuttered at points, and his voice shook a bit. He could hardly get through the big fight scene, he was so flustered. How adorable.
Ray was about to get to the final moment, the big climax, the scene everything had led up to, and Peter decided this would be the perfect time to be an ass. Just before the redhead was going to turn to the final page, Peter went all in, gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, his lips only slightly brushing up against Ray's soft skin.
Ray abruptly stopped reading and let out a gasp, shivering at the touch and leaning into it. He turned to look at the brunette, who had a smug look plastered on his face. Looking at the redhead's flushed face, Peter knew the ol’ Venkman charm had worked, as it did most of the time.
“Oh Peter…”
He expected Ray to maybe give him a soft kiss back, or perhaps caress his face. What Peter didn't expect was for Ray to turn around and kiss him back so hard that they both fell over onto the bed. He wouldn't have guessed that in a million years.
Peter fell flat on his back while Ray fell onto his stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs, their lips parting in an awkward manner.
“Oh geez, I'm sorry.” Ray murmured, looking at Peter with his sweet multi-colored eyes, his face beet red.
Peter smiled, and rested his hand on the redhead's cheek, gently caressing it.
“It's ok.” He murmured, wrapping his arms around Ray and pulling him on top of him, their lips connecting again. They were so close together that he could feel Ray's heart rate increase tenfold.
Peter wondered if Ray had ever been kissed like this before, he was less experienced, his kisses soft, but awkward, not knowing how to stay connected. It was absolutely adorable, and Peter wanted to take advantage of that.
The brunette held Ray tightly in his arms, then broke away from the kiss, and before the redhead could respond, he flipped him over, and got on top of him, pinning his hands down to the pillow. He preferred to be on top, after all.
Ray was speechless, his lips slightly parted, ginger hair messed up, his eyes wide. His flushed skin dotted with freckles sort of reminded Peter of a watermelon, but that wasn't really a sexy thing to say, so he kept it to himself.
“Holy shit.” Ray whispered, using a rare profanity, which usually never left his lips. Yup, Peter had got him all right.
He went right back to kissing the redhead, letting his hands go, and started moving his kisses from Ray's lips to the rest of his face, the tip of his nose, his cheek, and his jaw. Ray responded favorably, holding Peter close and letting out soft gasps.
Peter's hands decided to wander, landing at the edge of Ray's sweater, which he then snaked his hands underneath, feeling up the redhead's soft, warm skin. Ray shivered at the feeling of the brunette's fingertips gently touching his skin.
Peter was ready to take this to the next level, and started to try and take off Ray's sweater, but the creak from the door stopped him in his tracks.
“Hey, uh, dinners ready.”
Peter got up off of Ray faster than he ever moved before.
It seemed that in the midst of their embrace, that they had both seemed to forget that they were not the only ones who lived there, and now Winston was standing by the door, an expression on his face that Peter couldn't really decipher, his furrowed brows seemed to indicate confusion, but his eyes looked too tired to even care all that much, yet his words seemed slightly amused.
“Ok look when you two are finished, come get dinner. You should probably come quick though, cause Slimer's been bothering over me and Egon all evening.” Winston said, turning away from them and heading back out to the hallway.
“Also it's your turn to do the dishes tonight, Peter!” He announced as he entered the hallway.
“Ok!” The brunette yelled back.
Peter and Ray sat on the bed in an awkward silence, Ray covering his face with his hands and Peter stared down at the comic book on the floor, reading the back of it. It wasn't the first time Peter had been caught getting intimate with someone, but this was a first. Getting caught making out with his coworker by his other coworker, eh, he'd done worse. Mark that one off the bucket list.
Ray, however, was super embarrassed, his head in his hands. Peter patted him on the back.
“Hey, Ray, don't worry. I've been caught doing worse,” He said nonchalantly, comforting the redhead. “And that time it was my dad who saw me.”
Ray chuckled quietly, and lifted his head up. “I remember that story, your dad tells a watered-down version of it every time he visits.”
“Wait till you hear the real thing.” Peter winked at Ray, and playfully hugged him, getting a smile out of the redhead, who kissed his cheek. What a sweetheart.
“Well, I think we've spent enough time here, ” Peter said, getting off the bed and straightening his shirt, “You heard Winston,” He offered his hand to Ray, who happily accepted. “We don't want the spud eating our food, now don't we?”
Ray laughed as the pair walked out together hand in hand, ready to have the most fun awkward dinner conversation they'd ever had.