Work Text:
The first time Arin almost kissed Dan was an accident. He had just put the game into the Wii U and walked back to the couch, tripping over a cable that was lying on the floor. He fell forwards onto Dan, who thankfully reacted quickly enough to catch him, holding his friend up with strong arms. Arin noticed that there were only a few inches of distance between their faces, and for a few seconds he looked into Dan's eyes, and Dan looked back into his.
"Uh..." Dan licked his lips nervously and moved his head backwards. Arin felt the blood rushing into his face and stumbled up.
"Thanks for catching me, bro," he said, trying to hide his nervousness by laughing. He ran his hands through his hair and sat down next to his friend carefully.
Dan laughed too and grabbed the gamepad. "You're welcome."
Arin cleared his throat and gazed at Dan for a second before he took the pen and notebook from the floor to write down the start time of the recording. When he pressed the button to start it, he looked over to his friend one more time, curious about the kind of expression on Dan's face. But Dan was looking at him, so Arin blushed hardly again and looked away quickly.
+
The second time Arin almost kissed Dan was less of an accident. Arin was raging because he had tried that Mario level about thirty times already, but he still died on the same enemy, over and over again. At death number thirty-one he groaned loudly. At death number thirty-two he shouted "Oh, come one man! I can fucking do this!"
"It's okay, big cat." Dan tried to soothe him.
Arin felt something in his stomach when his friend spoke the pet name. "No, it's fucking not!" he shouted as the death-music of Mario sounded through the room for the thirty-third time. Dan just laughed loudly, and Arin couldn't help but laugh too when the enemy killed him yet again.
"It's fucking impossible!" Arin groaned and let his upper body fall against his friend's. The weight almost pushed Dan down.
"Woah there." Dan petted Arin's arm gently. "People already beat it though."
Arin turned towards Dan and buried his face in his friend's shirt. "I'm not people though. I can't do it, Dan," he grumbled into the fabric.
Dan chuckled. "Wow, if the lovelies could see you know..."
Arin breathes slowly and backs away from Dan's shirt, looking up and almost closing the space between their faces. "Yeah, but they don't," he whispers, and he could see his friend swallow.
"Well, uhh, should I- should I try the level?" Dan suggested, breaking the awkward silence. Arin sat upright on his spot again and practically threw the controller into Dan's hands.
"Yeah, yeah sure," he stuttered.
+
The third time Arin almost kissed Dan, Arin was snacking on some Fruit Loops while Dan played a rather hard Mario level.
"Wow, I'm working my ass off here, and you're just eating," Dan commented, and sighed.
"What, 'you jelly?" Arin teased him.
Dan grunted. "Well, yeah! I'm hungry as fuck! Gimme one," he commanded and opened his mouth widely. Arin grinned and put a Fruit Loop between his own front teeth and moved closer to his friend.
"There you go," he mumbled and as Dan flickered his eyes away from the TV screen to look at what Arin was doing he almost jumped of surprise.
"Woah, Arin! What are you-" The younger man gestured Dan to take the snack out from his teeth, and Dan made a disgusted face. "No thank you."
Arin's expression fell into a frown and he almost gave up before Dan could say "Alright, because you're so nice to me." and Arin's heartbeat quickened as Dan leaned forward. But before his friend could get the snack from in-between his teeth, they could hear Mario dying and both started to laugh out loud, Arin choking on the Fruit Loops in his mouth. He coughed a few times and swallowed it.
Dan simply said "Well, thanks for the offer anyways." once they had calmed down.
"You can still have it," Arin joked, and he was relieved when Dan laughed at the joke. "You know, taste the rainbow."
"That's Skittles," Dan said in-between his laughter, and Arin joined him, laughing breathlessly.
This was almost as good as kissing Dan.
After that Arin put the snacks away.
+
The fourth time Arin almost kissed Dan, Dan was lying on the couch, arms and legs spread out, using all the available space. Arin turned off the console because they had finished their recording session, and just turned around when Dan stretched his arms, groaning loudly. It made Arin feel funny inside, especially when he saw Dan's shirt slipping up and showing his friend's belly. The moment was soon over, and Dan yawned very audibly.
"Man, playing video games sure is hard work," Dan said and rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. Arin walked over to the couch and gestured his friend to move because he wanted to sit down too, but Dan did not show the slightest inclination to move.
"Get your butt out of the way!" Arin said, playfully hitting Dan's hips. Dan just smirked.
"Make me."
Arin returned his friend's grin. "Well, I'm just going to sit down then," he warned, acting as if he was actually going to sit down on Dan's pelvis. When his friend still didn't move though, he lost his balance trying to stop sitting down, and fell on his side, directly onto Dan's upper body. It knocked the air out of Dan's lungs, and after a few seconds the older man took a gulp of air.
"Woah, Arin." Dan's voice was hoarse. It sounded very attractive, Arin thought to himself, and raised his body in the air, hovering over his friend.
"Well, this is your fault." Arin said, pretending to be angry, but he couldn't help but chuckle when he looked into Dan's face beneath him. Then he could feel Dan's arm on his side, gently pressing against his shirt. His friend's eyes were wide open, his lips formed a shy smile.
Arin held his breath and lowered his head slowly, getting closer to Dan's. He had already closed his eyes, ready to kiss Dan when Dan suddenly tickled his side. Arin laughed out loud, hurrying to get off his friend, to safety.
"You're a meano!" Arin exclaimed jokingly. His mind was working on high speed, wondering if he had just imagined the moment between him and his friend. Dan sat upright on the couch and had a mischievous grin on his face.
"I know, I'm such a tease."
+
The fifth time Arin almost kissed Dan, he finally knew that Dan was really into it.
His friend had just ended the episode with saying "Next time on Game Grumps!" and Arin was scribbling down the time of the recording into his trusty notebook, when Dan turned around and wouldn't look away from Arin. Arin, of course, noticed his friend staring at his side, and couldn't help but smile. He put the paper and the pen away and slowly turned his head around. Dan was grinning from one ear to another.
"What is it?" Arin asked curiously. His heart fluttered at the sight of his handsome friend looking at him like this, and he bit his lip nervously. "What's wrong?"
"Nothin'," Dan said, finally looking somewhere else, but the grin was still on his face. "I was just wondering..."
Arin blushed. "About what?" he asked carefully.
"Well, I've been teasing you for a while now. I was wondering when you're going to try it again."
Arin's eyes widened, his heart beating quickly in his chest. He wasn't talking about- Was he? "W-What do you mean?" he stuttered.
"Oh, you know." Dan turned to face his friend again. "And also, I can't really wait any longer." He grabbed Arin's shirt and pulled him towards himself. Arin was so surprised that he couldn't breathe. He felt Dan's hands slowly moving up the sides of his body, then his friend grabbed his hair and leaned forward so that their foreheads were touching. Dan's eyes pierced into Arin's, which made Arin's stomach turn, but in a good way.
Arin wondered how fast his heart could beat, because his definetely had never beaten this fast. Especially since Dan now started moving his lips closer to his own, ever so slowly. He closed his eyes and-
He heard the door of the office open, and both Dan and Arin shuffled away from each other as quickly as possible. Arin turned around and saw Ross, who seemed to have noticed nothing, sitting down in front of the PC and starting to work. Arin exchanged a quick glance with Dan, who was fumbling around with his shirt, and cursed Ross in his mind.
Then they started recording another episode of Mario Maker awkwardly, because there was really nothing much more they could do.
+
It took three episodes of Game Grumps and half an hour for Ross to leave the room. Arin didn't even notice - he had just made a list of games they could play on the channel based on suggestions on twitter. Dan had helped him, but now he was taking the notebook out of Arin's hands and put it on the small table next to the couch. Arin refused to let go of it at first, but how his friend looked at him made it really clear that that wasn't his choice.
Dan sat down on the couch again and - after a quick glance towards the door (Arin now finally noticed Ross' absence) - shuffled closer to Arin, snuggling into him. Arin chuckled nervously, hoping that Dan didn't hear his heart beating very fast, and didn't really know what to do, so he just wrapped his arms around his friend.
"Mhhh," Dan hummed. "Is this weird for you?"
"N-No," Arin choked out. He began stroking Dan's arm softly. His friend hummed again, and then backed away.
Dan ran his fingers through his locks and raised an eyebrow. "So?"
"So?" Arin repeated. He noticed that he was still holding his arms awkwardly and quickly put them to his sides.
"So - finally do it." Dan began to grin.
"Oh- oh, okay," Arin stuttered. He touched his friend's hip timidly and shuffled a bit closer. "Wait - you're not joking, are you?" he asked worriedly.
Dan smiled encouragingly. "Arin..." So Arin closed his eyes and slowly pressed his lips onto Dan's. Finally. And they were really soft and tasted good, too. Arin deepened the kiss, wanting to taste more of his friend, and Dan kissed him back just as strong. The older man's hands wrapped around the back of Arin's neck softly, pressing his fingertips in, pulling him even harder towards his lips. Dan parted his lips, and Arin let his tongue in, moving it over his friend's teeth, first slowly, then quicker and more passionate.
Suddenly, Dan pushed Arin backwards onto the couch. Their lips lost each other for a moment in which both men breathed heavily. Before Arin could say something, anything, Dan already threw himself on top of his friend and continued kissing him. Arin sighed into his mouth, and found his own hands in Dan's hair. He could feel Dan's lips transform into a smile and ended the kiss for a short moment to look at Dan.
"This is super fun," Dan breathed out before Arin could say anything, so Arin chortled and smiled broadly.
"Yeah, it is." Shortly after he spoke the words, his friend pressed their lips together again, this time slowly and with love. Arin made sure to hold him really tightly, so that he was as close to him as possible. After a minute or so, Arin deepened the kiss again, too impatient to not continue, and he slipped his hand under Dan's shirt and brushed over his friend's belly. Dan laughed into his mouth and began putting kisses on Arin's cheek, then neck. First softly, then, after a while, more passionate, sucking bruises into his friend's neck. Arin moaned quietly, which made him giggle, so Dan stopped sucking his neck and just lied down on top of Arin, cuddling into him. His friend put his arms around him and let out a shaky sigh.
"You're really cute," Arin dared to say.
Dan grinned (which his friend couldn't see). "Thank you, Arin. You're cuter."
"Aw." Arin put a kiss on Dan's cheek and sighed again. "I know."
And they both started to giggle.