Work Text:
Bobby grinned at his girls as they perfectly executed the last spin of the choreography for their newest single, or well, their single that was going to be a surprise premiere at their next show.
“Great!” he said, clapping his hands to emphasize his words “This is going to be an even bigger hit than Golden, just you wait!”
Mira rolled her eyes at him “Bobby, nothing’s going to top Golden for a while.”
“I don’t know, What It Sounds Like got pretty close after— everything!” Zoey said, bouncing slightly on her feet.
Bobby pulled out his phone, glancing over the current charts “Yep, still sitting at number three, just behind—well, you know, and two spots under Golden!”
He still wasn’t sure what all had happened with Saja Boys, he honestly didn’t remember a lot of it, but Soda Pop was still sitting pretty at number two, even with their disappearance.
Which, he still was a bit annoyed at the girls for setting up that whole stunt with the breakup without telling him, but it was fine. It had turned out fine.
Rumi shifted slightly, and Bobby tried to hide the way he frowned.
She’d been off, since whatever had happened with Saja Boys, with their lead singer. He’d known there’d been something between them, there’d even been a ship—!
But of course, the band had disappeared, and Rumi was showing off new scars.
Bobby still wasn’t sure how he hadn’t known about them, or why Rumi had been hiding them for so long. It didn’t matter, of course. She was still one of his girls, one of HUNTR/X.
“I’m sure we’ll break our record at some point,” Rumi said, looking away for a moment. Bobby stepped up onto the stage, going over to her.
He put a hand on her shoulder “Of course we will! You girls are the biggest thing this side of— well, anywhere really!”
He laughed, and Rumi smiled at him.
“Thanks, Bobby.”
Bobby grinned, before backing away with a spring in his step.
“Well, that’s all for today, go rest up girls, you absolutely deserve it!”
Mira rolled her eyes at him, of course she did, but Zoey grinned right back at him.
“I think that means it’s time for couch!”
Bobby smiled to himself as the girls started up their chant of “Couch! Couch! Couch!”
He knew they were going to get distracted, just like they always did, either by fans or songs they just couldn’t put down, but he hoped they’d actually take a break. Of course, he had made sure they didn’t work at all during their three month hiatus, so it wasn’t the end of the world if they did a bit of work after hours.
His girls walked off stage, Rumi yelling over her shoulder “Get home safe, Bobby!” as they left.
Bobby hummed to himself as he started tidying up their practice space. This was their private studio, so he didn’t have quite as much work to do as he did when they were using a public venue, but it was still worth it to reset the lights and audio equipment to make sure they were like the techs expected them the next day.
He turned the lights out, locking the doors behind him. He pulled out his phone, seeing that he’d gotten a text message from his boyfriend. It was just a picture of a cat, which he had to have found online.
Bobby smiled to himself, before sending a heart emoji in reply. Honestly, for all that it had taken Jelly forever to get comfortable with using cellphones, his messages were one of the best things about Bobby’s days.
The best being, of course, HUNTR/X, his girls, and Jelly himself.
He’d spent the day with his girls, and now it was only a short car ride before he got to decompress with Jelly.
***
Bobby was humming under his breath as he opened the door, one of HUNTR/X’s songs. They were his group, after all. His boyfriend still preferred Saja Boys, which was something that Bobby honestly adored about him—
“I’m back!” he called, slipping his shoes off and setting them by the door.
He could hear ‘Soda Pop’ blasting from the kitchen, which meant it was a safe bet Jelly had started cooking dinner.
For all he’d needed to catch Jelly up on most modern tech and pop culture, he’d turned out to be really good at cooking. Like, good enough Bobby thought he should open up his own restaurant, or at least manage one that used his recipes. They had enough money to pay for it—
He stepped into the kitchen, smiling softly when he saw that Jelly’s hair was still in the braid Bobby had put it in that morning. Years of working in tandem with stylists to get the girls show ready had let him pick up a few things.
His boyfriend was putting the finishing touches on dinner, and to Bobby it looked like he’d decided on something simple tonight. Sometimes, Jelly was in a mood to make something complicated, which always turned out amazing, but his simple dishes were just as good.
The food he was currently scooping into the bowls looked to be barley and chicken in some sort of sauce, Bobby had no idea how to identify what it was. He’d never been great at cooking.
He was sure it would taste amazing, though.
He reached out to tap Jelly on the shoulder, causing his boyfriend to jump and turn to face him.
“Ah! I didn’t realize you were home,” he said, a slight warble to his voice as he turned down the music.
Bobby frowned, taking one of his boyfriend’s hands “I scared you, didn’t I?”
Jelly winced, before nodding.
“Sorry,” he said, before tugging his boyfriend down for a hug. Jelly relaxed into it, just like he always did, slumping down and letting Bobby take more of his weight.
They stayed like that for a moment, before Jelly pulled back.
“Let me finish the food, and we can—ah, watch? One of the old Idol Awards.”
Bobby grinned, before walking backwards towards the door, pointing at Jelly as he did so “You got it, we’ll get through all of them in no time—”
He ran into something solid and warm, and startled, looking up to see Jelly was right in front of him, his arms wrapped around Bobby.
“You were about to run into the wall?” Jelly said, his voice lilting up like he wasn’t sure himself.
Bobby twisted to look behind himself, seeing that he had, in fact, been about to walk into the wall.
How had Jelly moved so fast, though—?
Jelly took a step back, something almost panicked on his face “I didn’t want to you to get hurt!”
Bobby smiled at his boyfriend “Well, thanks for making sure I didn’t. I’m sure the girls wouldn’t appreciate it if I got a concussion or something!”
Jelly laughed, though in that nervous way he always did when Bobby brought up the girls. He was pretty sure his boyfriend was slightly intimidated by them, honestly.
Which, well, made sense. For all that Bobby had been with them from beginning, he’d also done a very good job of making his girls larger than life.
Bobby turned on his heel, making sure to look where he was going this time. He didn’t want to have a repeat incident.
He could hear it as Jelly turned back up the music again, though it was now playing the song that the Saja Boys had performed at that concert, the one Bobby still didn’t really remember. A few of people had been recording, and while the video had turned out really weird, the audio had been fine. He was pretty sure the Pride had taken to calling their last song ‘Your Idol’, if he remembered right.
Bobby sat down on his couch, grabbing the remote to turn on his TV. They had just hit the older Idol awards, back before HUNTR/X had been on the scene, so they were almost through the backlog. That way, when this year’s came around, Jelly would have full context for the history of it.
Also, Bobby really loved watching through the old shows of different groups and analyzing what worked, what didn’t, how they could be improved—
Something nudged his shoulder, and he looked up to see Jelly holding out a bowl to him. He smiled as he took it.
“Thanks! This looks really good, you really should consider the restaurant—”
Jelly sighed as he sat down next to Bobby, curling up and tucking his feet under one of the pillows.
“It would be too much. I don’t have any—I’m not good enough,” he said.
Bobby just knew that his boyfriend had tears in his eyes. He needed to change the topic right now, he hated it when he cried—
He needed to comfort him.
“Hey. Your food is great, I love it, but why don’t we start watching the Awards? You always love seeing all the older groups who’ve retired by now.”
Bobby risked a glance over, seeing that Jelly was smiling at him. Success!
“Yeah. Yeah I do.”
Bobby hit play, the opening starting to play, before digging into his food. It was great, and the sauce ended up being spicy, which he loved. And, this time Jelly had managed to remember that his spice tolerance was ridiculous, and toned down the spice to something Bobby could actually handle. He would bet his boyfriend’s was spiced much more.
He focused back on the show, seeing that Jelly was equally enthralled. This had been one of the shows where there’d been ten or so groups competing, and actually having a good chance, so the whole thing had taken upwards of three hours to get through, what with multiple songs per group and breaks to reset the stage.
It made it really interesting to analyze, and Bobby barely noticed when he finished his food, and Jelly gently took the bowl from his hands.
He did notice, however, when Jelly laid his head down on Bobby’s lap.
His boyfriend was still entranced by what was on screen, which currently was one of the older idol groups, quite a large one, they ran on an academy structure if Bobby wasn’t mistaken—
He shook his head slightly. Right, boyfriend’s head on his lap.
Bobby smiled softly as he untied the yellow ribbon at the end of Jelly’s braid, before starting to unweave the braid. He combed his fingers through the long black strands as he watched the show.
He already knew which group won which award, of course, it was practically his job to know the industry and its history, but Jelly had never seen it. His boyfriend’s little gasps and smiles as he saw the group he’d grown attached to win Best Artist were adorable.
The end credits started to play, and Bobby leaned over to kiss Jelly on the forehead. His boyfriend looked up at him with love, before shifting slightly so he could kiss Bobby on the lips.
“Bed?” he asked.
Bobby grinned “Yeah, bedtime.”
Jelly smiled back at him, before standing up. He held out a hand to Bobby, which he gladly took.
They walked over to their bedroom, and Jelly headed into the bathroom. Bobby sat down on their bed, a smile still on his face.
He really hadn’t expected to find someone like Jelly, especially not in the aftermath of that concert that ended so—
He hadn’t expected he’d have any sort of relationship before the girls retired, or he did. The hours and travel being a manager took wasn’t great for relationships, and most people would’ve been stressed out and felt neglected—
But Jelly was fine with it. He loved Bobby’s job, and he loved Bobby.
And honestly? That was all that Bobby really wanted. Someone who accepted both him and his job, because there was no way he could give it up.
Jelly came out of the bathroom, and Bobby hurried to get ready for bed. He was pretty tired, after all.
And, going to bed meant cuddling with his boyfriend. Which was generally amazing.
By the time he came out of the bathroom, Jelly was already curled up under the blanket, his hair fanning out around him. They really should start braiding it before they went to bed, but well, Bobby really liked messing with as he was falling asleep.
Also, Jelly had told him he preferred it down, it was just that the braid made it a lor easier to cook and do anything else he wanted to without his hair getting in the way.
Bobby pulled back the blanket and got into bed, Jelly immediately curling around him, his legs thrown over Bobby’s and one of his arms pulling Bobby closer.
Bobby laughed slightly, before winding a lock of Jelly’s hair around his fingers.
“Sleep well, okay?”
Jelly smiled, before reaching over Bobby to turn out the light.
“It’s easier with you here.”