Work Text:
"how long will you take, Panda?" Evan enters a, not so large, but very atmospheric studio with two cups of coffee from a coffee shop.
"only Barty is left, i promised him a tattoo for convincing the class president not to report my absence from class," Pandora takes her cup from her brother’s hands.
"you shouldn’t have skipped class then," Evan rolls his eyes and sits on a black couch.
"come on, I’ll be quick," Pandora answers to him and picks up her phone to check the time and answer some customers.
22:14. It’s already late and Rosier should’ve been home long time ago, but there was the last customer - Pandora’s friend, with whom they study together in the university. And Evan, kindly, was waiting for his sister, because he promised to give her a ride home.
"Doraa!" the friend the twins were waiting for, finally enters the studio.
"Barty!" Pandora immediately runs up to Crouch and hugs him(even though they only saw each other this morning at the art history lecture).
"and this is?.." Barty nods in Evan’s direction, eyeing him up and down.
"Evan, my brother, i’ve told you about him!" Rosier crosses her arms on her chest.
"fuck, right," Barty approaches Evan and extends his hand, "Barty."
"Evan," he shares the extended to him hand and smiles at his new "friend".
He saw Barty in the photos with Pandora and Regulus, but in real life he was even handsome. Dark strands of hair fell over his face, partially covering his brown eyes. Crouch was smiling, shaking Evan’s hand, and his nails were painted black, his fingers covered with rings and a snake tattoo on the middle finger of his right hand, and on his wrists many bracelets shined. In Evan’s humble opinion, Barty was very handsome. And his hands.. He wished he could feel them on his thighs.
"you’ve got to know each other and that’s enough, i wanna go home," Pandora waves her hand in front of her brother’s eyes, causing him mumble something unclear and step away from Barty.
"if you don’t know what you want to do yet, i’ll strangle you," threatened Pandora.
"i’m quite offended, here," Crouch opens his bag and takes out a little black notebook with many stickers on it.
His fingers quickly flip the pages and stop on the one he needs.
"wow," Pandora smiles approvingly and hands over the notebook to its owner, "i’ll go find the red pigment," she kneels down and starts digging through one of the drawers of her table, while Barty sits on the couch, waiting.
Pandora’s eyes are burning at this job, even when she always complains about how tired she is, but doing tattoos - is a personal paradise for her, a peaceful process in which she plunges headlong and doesn’t want to come up.
"are you going to the uni tomorrow?" asked Crouch, taking off his hoodie, under which she had a black shirt(but while he was pulling off the hoodie, it pulled up and Evan nearly choked on his coffee at the sigh of his torso).
"well as tomorrow," Pandora snorts.
"you already have more absences than me," Barty laughs, adjusting his shirt.
"i’m going to smoke," Evan says, looking away from Crouch and leaves the studio.
"you’re leaving, but you’re not helping me?!" Pandora calls after him, preparing the materials.
The next hour was spent in a very cozy atmosphere. While Pandora was doing Barty’s tattoo, he was telling her about his adventures in the uni while she wasn’t there. It didn’t hurt, Crouch just felt a slight tingling sensation. A black branch with red flowers and fallen petals slowly wrapped around his left wrist.
The idea came up quite by chance when he was bored and lying in the couch in his rented apartment. It’s not like it means anything, just beautiful. That’s what you could say about most of his tattoos. Except of the cat’s paws on the back of his head. This tattoo is dedicated to his beloved cat, Regina. Barty found her three years ago, in august before his first year of uni.
"The streets are quiet and just a few lights are on in the houses. Everyone is either hanging out in clubs or already asleep. Barty doesn’t know how many hours he’s been walking. He only has a black backpack on his shoulder and a small suitcase on his hand. He ran away from home after yet another fight with his father, who had forbidden him from studying design. And now where is he supposed to go? Call Regulus? Perfect timing — middle of the night. Maybe Dorcas? Though he’d rather hold off on that — waking Dorcas is actually scarier than waking Regulus. Crouch checks the time on his phone and ends up calling Regulus.
The phone rings..
One..
Two..
Three..
On the fourth one, Black’s husky from sleep voice can be heard on the other end.
"Fuck, Barty, why are you calling me in the middle of the night? " Regulus answers sleepily.
"Reg, well.. there might be something you i wanted to say.."
"spit it out."
"i‘ve kinda ran away from home and i don’t have anywhere else to go," Crouch lets out a nervous chuckle, and Regulus sighs.
"are you an idiot?"
"maybe a little bit."
"my parents definitely won’t let you stay with me," as much as Regulus wanted to help his friend, he couldn’t, "call Dorcas."
"yeah."
"and text me tomorrow if you’re alive."
"okay, sorry to bother you," Barty smiled, Regulus really cared about him, just in his way.
He didn’t get an answer, Regulus hung up on him and went back to sleep. Later, Crouch called Dorcas and she let him stay at her place for some time. And Barty, already cheerful, walked down the streets with his headphones to his friend’s house. Through the loud music, he heard a distant meow.
"huh?" he takes off his headphones, leaving his suitcase on the road, went to look for the source of the sound.
A black cat was meowing pitifully in a box near the trash (and as it turned out later, it wasn't even a "he", but a "she"). Apparently, her, now former, owners had thrown her out. For what, though, wasn’t clear. Just a regular cat. Quite a cute one, actually. Even looked a bit like Regulus.
"hey, little one," Barty crouched down in front of the black cat and picked it up from the box.
"what kind of idiots threw you out?" Crouch turned the cat around in his hands for a moment, but there was no collar. "well, I think Dorcas won’t mind, let’s go," Barty said as he took the black fluffball, who meowed happily in his arms, and headed toward Dorcas’ place."
"all done, take a look," Pandora takes off her gloves and stars cleaning the work space, while Barty examined his new tattoo.
"thanks, Dora!" Crouch smiled and take a photo of his wrist, posting it to his Instagram story.
"where the hell is Evan? has he been smoking for the entire hour or what?" Rosier grumbled to herself and took out her phone.
where are you?
on my way
gonna tell me where you disappeared to?
Regulus texted me, we met up to but Dorcas a gift
hurry up, i want to sleep:(
Pandora put her phone aside and gets back to he’s conversation with Barty. Meanwhile, Evan was saying goodbye to Regulus.
"you heading out? " Regulus asked, sipping coffee from his mug and glancing at his friend.
"yeah, I promised to take Panda home," Evan replied, slipping his phone into his pocket and putting out his cigarette in the ashtray.
"Barty’s with her, isn’t he?" Black asked, tucking a stray lock of black hair behind his ear and taking out his phone.
"yeah," Evan’s mind involuntarily conjured up the image of Crouch again, even though he’d been trying his best to forget him, which is exactly why he went with Regulus to help pick out a birthday gift for their friend, even though he had bought his own ages ago.
"he’s your type, isn’t he?' Regulus asked casually, without even looking at him.
'what?" Rosier thought he’d misheard, even though his hearing was just fine.
"i asked if Barty is your type," Black smirked, "did you like him or something?" he looked up at Evan.
"no," Evan got up from his seat and quickly said goodbye.
"don’t take too long, or they’ll lock the dorms," Black called after him, almost shouting.
***
"finally you showed up," Pandora puts on her sweater and takes her backpack, ready to go home. "come on, even Barty already left."
"how did it go?" - Evan asks on their way.
"fine," Pandora yawned, "i’m just really tired."
Street lamps lip up the dark streets of London. A few passer-by walked along the sidewalks, quietly chatting. Pandora had fallen asleep, resting her head on her hand. Evan turned on the music, just not too loud, so he wouldn’t wake up his sister.
"we’re here, wake up," Evan places a hand on Pandora’s shoulder.
"yeah," Pandora said. rubbing her eyes and getting out of the car.
She was renting her apartment with her girlfriend-Lily Evans. Lily studies in the same university as Pandora, only she is one year older and they study at different faculties. They met when Rosier was in her first year, and a teacher asked her to move some papers to other class, but she got lost and Lily helped her.
"Lily, i’m home!" Pandora yelled as soon as she stepped into their apartment, and Lily immediately ran to her.
"finally, i thought you’d spend the night in the studio," Evan’s throws her arms around her neck and kisses her on the cheek, "Evan, hi!" she goes to Evan and hugs him too.
"hi, Lily," Evan yawns as he pulls away, "i’ll be going now, i’ve done my duty - brought her home safely."
"bye-bye, thanks for the ride home!" Pandora hugs him the last time and takes off her sneakers to finally enter the apartment.
***
Evan, Regulus, and also their friend Dorcas, study together at the faculty of psychology. Rosier and Black share a room in the dorm. Regulus just doesn’t want to see his family, and Evan’s there for him. Dorcas is lucky enough to have a small apartment near university, where they have most of their parties.
"can we skip the rest of the classes?" Evan groans after two-hour lecture.
"yeah, and then we’ll get kicked out," Regulus crosses his arms and skeptically looks at his friend.
Evan rolls his eyes, sighing with disappointment.
"we only have two classes left, you cat handle it."
"Evan, Reg!" Dorcas, who has been detained after the lecture as the president of the class, runs up to them, "do you remember what day it is tomorrow?"
"your birthday," the two replay.
"exactly!" Meadowes smile, "that’s why we’re going to my place to celebrate it after classes!"
"are Pandora and Barty coming?" Regulus asked, to which he receives a nod.
"obviously! Ev, you’re finally going to meet him, ‘cuz I think you’ve never met, i’m sure you’ll get along just well."
"well, actually, Dora already has already introduced us," Rosier answered, slightly blushing, what makes Regulus chuckle.
"are you okay?" Dorcas didn’t exactly understand what made Regulus laugh.
"he’s fine, he’s just fallen in love with someone," Regulus still laughs, earning a slap on the back of his head from Evan.
"really? who is it?" Meadowes shakes Evan by his shoulders.
"nobody, Reg is just joking," Rosier tries to brush it off, but fails.
Regulus is already laughing his head off as Dorcas tries to get Evan to spill the tea. So they walked like that for about five minutes before leaving the building, because there was still an hour for the next class.
"if i tell you, will you leave me alone? it’s Barty," Rosier breaks down and gives up after this five minutes of Dorcas’ interrogation.
"what?" Dorcas stops and looks confused at her friend, shifting her gaze to Regulus.
"Barty went yesterday to Dora’s studio for his tattoo, and Evan was there, ‘cuz he promised to give her a ride home," Regulus pushes his friends towards the exit, explaining everything to Dorcas on their way. "that’s how they met."
"love at first sight?" Meadowes walked slowly beside him, one hand on Evan’s shoulder.
"let’s not talk about it," Evan runs his hand through his hair, ruffling his blonde curls.
How could he fall in love with a person, who he’d only seen in photos before and knows nothing about him? Evan doesn’t believe in love at first sight. At least he didn’t before. But then he met Barty. And his world turned upside down.
They walked in silence to their favorite cafe near their university. It was a small, cozy place where they could drink coffee between lectures.
"oh, come on, you have good chances," Dorcas covers Evan’s hand with he own as they waited for their order and Regulus to finish smoking outside.
"we met once!"
"and so what?" Meadowes frowns.
"so what what? " Black approaches their table and sits across his two friends.
"Evan thinks he has no chance with Barty!"
"well, they’ve only met once," Regulus raises one eyebrow in question, which earns him a kick in his leg from Dorcas.
"idiots."
Finally they got their order: black coffee for Regulus, green tea for Evan and a latte for Dorcas. And some desserts too. The three of them agreed on that here are the best desserts in while London.
"well, can you tell me something about Barty?" Evan finally decides to know at least something about Crouch.
"why would we? we should play 'never have i ever' tomorrow," Dorcas suggests.
Before Evan could respond, he receives an Instagram notification. From Barty(they followed each other last night). Evan couldn’t hold a smile and immediately takes his phone.
barty_crouch: 🔥
Did Barty just sent him a DM?
"he seriously didn’t find a better time to start talking to you? " Dorcas rests her head on his shoulder, peeking at his phone.
"what is it? " Regulus asks curiously.
Instead of an answer, Evan gives him his phone.
"what an idiot," Regulys sighs and starts typing something back.
"what are you doing?" Evan quickly snatches his phone from Regulus’ hands.
"don’t thank me," Black shrugs.
"Reg, fuck, " Evan covers his face with his hands and places the phone aside to avoid seeing Barty’s respond.
evanrosssier: can this be considered as an invitation to a date?
barty_crouch: well, you can, how about today? in an hour, if you’re free
Evan takes his phone as soon as he sees a notification.
evanrosssier: i’m free
barty_crouch: i’ll send you the address
evanrosssier: the address of what?
barty_crouch: you’ll find out)
After a few minutes, Rosier received the address. Looking at maps, it was some kind of apartment building.
"it’s Barty’s apartment," Dorcas said as she looked at Evan’s phone.
"what will you do there?" Black chuckles.
"fuck off," Evan kicks him under the table.
"that means, we’re all going to help you get ready!" Dorcas says enthusiastically, despite Regulus’ annoyed expression.
***
Evan runs around the room and throws all the things around, and Regulus rolls his eyes in annoyance, because he's probably the one who’s going to have to clean it all up. Dorcas shakes his head in disapproval, saying a short "change" to which Rosier throws the remaining clothes in the closet.
"what about this one?" they settled on grey jeans, white loose shirt and converse.
Dorcas hung a couple of chains on his jeans, picked some rings and undid the top buttons of his shirt.
"isn’t that where we started?" Black looks at Dorcas, who carefully brushed Evan’s curls.
"of course not!" Meadows’s frowns and moves away from her friend to admire her work, "all done, you’re ready to get your man."
"yeah," Evan pulls out his phone and looks at the time, realizing he’s almost late, "i’ll be going, wish me luck!"
"good luck!"
"wear protection!" yells Black, what causes a pillow thrown to him from Rosier.
***
Evan was a few minutes late, but Barty just smiled and took him by hand, leading him into his building. They weren’t talking, because Evan’s mind was a chaos, because Crouch, for god’s sake, took his hand.
Barty didn’t let go of his hand for a moment. They took the elevator to the last floor, and Crouch led him to the roof. Evan didn’t really understand what they were doing here, but he wasn’t even thinking about it. Barty’s hand was warm, and Evan’s the opposite. It might have been because Rosier was wearing just a shirt, and it was already evening.
"aren’t you cold?" Crouch lets go of his hand and takes out a pack of cigarettes, offering them to Evan.
"no," Evan smiles nervously and took the offered cigarette and lighter.
"smoking kills, you know?" Barty took a drag and exhaled, staring ahead.
"falling in love hit harder," Evan whispers, hoping Barty didn’t hear him.
But Barty did.
"what?" Barty pretends he didn’t hear and turns to face Evan.
"I’m saying that Pandora told me many times to quit smoking," Evan quickly says, smiling foolishly.
And conversation starts on its own. They sat near the edge and Barty takes out two bottles of bear from his bag. They were waiting for the sunset together. Crouch thought it was romantic, and Rosier just liked being near him.
The sun slowly sinked down the horizon, and the blue sky was turning orange, smoothly transitioning to yellow and pink. The wind was blowing through Evan’s curls, and Barty couldn’t help but stare at him. Evan slightly trembled from the cold, wishing he had brought a jacket.
"here," Barty took off his black leather jacket and hands it to Evan.
"what about you?"
"i’ll live, but you’re already trembling from the cold," Crouch smiles, seeing Rosier’s embarrassment.
They laugh and chat about everything and nothing, as if they knew each other for ages. When in fact, only a couple of days. But Evan is already head over heels in love with him. Okay, now he do believe in love at first sight.
Evan, without realizing it, laid his head on Barty’s lap and closed his eyes, telling another story. Barty’s hands buried in his blonde curls, twirling them between his fingers or just ruffling them. They weren’t drunk, only a little bit.
"and then he failed me, do you imagine that!" Evan was telling Barty some story about his teacher from last year, but Barty, to be honest, wasn’t really listening,
When you’re talking to someone you should look them in the eyes, right? Barty’s gaze wasn’t exactly there.
"are you even listening to me?" Evan snapped his fingers in front of Barty’s face and stood up, sitting beside him.
There was no answer. Barty leaned closer Evan’s face, reducing the distance to minimum. It wasn’t a gentle kiss, but rather an awkward one, as they were just getting to know each other's mouthes. Barty’s hand cupped Evan’s chin, titling his head to deepen the kiss. Evan can confidently say that Barty kisses better than anyone he’s ever kissed before. His brain completely stops working, and Rosier climbs onto Barty’s lap without breaking the kiss. Barty can’t get enough from Evan, and Evan tries to get as closer as closer as possible. Barty’a hands wrap around Evan’s waist, squeezing gently. As they eventually pulled away, Evan couldn’t hold his laugh, still with his hands on Barty’s neck.
"are you alright?" he asks after receiving a confused look from Barty.
"no, you’re driving me crazy."
Barty leans over for another kiss, exploring Evan’s body, getting under his clothes and down to his thighs, squeezing them through his jeans. Rosier buries his fingers in Barty’s hair, moving even closer.
"lets go to my place, or I’m sure you’ll freeze to death," Barty pulls away first, breathing heavily.
Evan stands up from his lap, looking at the notifications on his phone. Regulus asks how’s their date going. He’ll respond later, if he won’t forget.
Barty’s apartment was cozy. Evan got comfortable on his couch, and black cat immediately runs to him, lying down.
"it’s Regina," Barty sits down and caresses the cat.
Evan quickly got along with Regina.
Other notifications are coming to his phone, but Evan has set it on the silent mode. So Pandora, Regulus and Dorcas agreed that everything was fine. And everything really was fine. Even better.
Who would’ve thought that it would turn out this way?
And Evan is sure that this is not just a one-night thing. Evan is confident in Barty. And Barty is confident in Evan.
The rest of the evening was filled with endless hugs, kisses and flirting.
The next day, they’ll get drunk at Dorcas’ birthday party and fall asleep together somewhere on the floor.