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“Allister Bird you fucking idiot” said Lister to himself after waking up drunk in an unused storage room.
Lister was drunk and completely lost. Obviously.
“Where the hell am I?” he groaned, his head throbbing as he lifted it up off the ground.
Lister had an unfortunate habit of waking up drunk in random places. As you would expect, there are only ever downsides to this. Like the throbbing headaches he wakes up with, having to remember where the fuck he was and what happened, and worst of all, having to face either Rowan or Cecily’s wrath. He just hoped it wasn't a show day so he’d only have to deal with being yelled at by one of those two people.
But after a few minutes of trying to remember what happened, he remembered the unfortunate fact that it was in fact a show day. Fuck.
Lister is obviously not supposed to drink or smoke on show days. He shouldn't really be drinking or smoking any day according to most people (especially Cecily), but what the hell, he did not care, and what were they gonna do about it? And hey, at least he wasn't smoking right now. He definitely had been drinking thought, proven by the massive headache and empty vodka bottle lying next to him on the floor.
So… what was he gonna do about that? Most of the memories had come flooding back already so he knew mostly where he was and what happened. Kind off. He had snuck off for a quick nap after soundcheck and must've been drunk from the vodka he'd been sipping all afternoon.
Lister tried to stand up, which quickly proved to be a mistake as his head pounded with the reminder that he was gonna be in big trouble soon.
But not if he could keep this a secret right? He could totally make it to whatever performance they were doing in time without getting in trouble right?
Just don't let Cecily find out you've been drinking.
Just don't embarrass yourself or your bandmates.
And do not accidentally tell Jimmy you have a crush on him.
Easy.
____________
After taking a few seconds to get used to standing up, he decided to check his phone.
He completely ignored most of the messages from Rowan, Cecily, etc, but one message at the top of his screen immediately caught his eye. It was from Jimmy of course. Who else’s simple text message would make his heart flutter like that?
He pressed on the button and the message appeared.
Jimmy: hey you better not be dead
Lister responded
Lister: Hello i’m not dead
just fell asleep somewhere
Jimmy: drunk?
Lister: maybe a little tipsy
Jimmy: we’re on in 15
shit. shit shit shit thought Lister.
Lister: I know
Il be there
Might be a bit lost tho
Jimmy: Lister……
Lister: it’ll be fine
Jimmy: want me to come and find you?
He answered yes in a heartbeat. How could he say no?
Lister: I'm in an empty storageroom somewhere
Jimmy: i’ll come look for you
Lister: What you wearing for the show
JImmy: um clothes
Lister: pity
Jimmy: fuck off
After a few minutes, Jimmy appears in the doorway. Has the door been open the whole time? But he couldn't think of small things like that when he was staring at Jimmy Kaga-Ricci. God he looked beautiful.
“Hey” he said smiling.
They made quick small talk as they walked down the hallways of the building, looking for wherever the hell they were supposed to be right now. Lister was not actually sure and was just blindly following Jimmy.
God, he could not keep his eyes off him for one second.
He probably should have though, as Jimmy stopped very suddenly, just before turning the corner, almost making Lister fall over.
“Be careful,” he whispered, peeking around the corner quickly.
“What's wrong?” whispered Lister.
“People.” replied Jimmy.
“Oh”
Lister peered around the corner to see a bunch of very excited looking fangirls wearing The Ark merch to the left of the corridor.
“Shit.” said Jimmy, looking at Lister with wide eyes, “What do we do?”
Lister considered the options for a second then pointed in the direction of the fangirls. No point in going back. They can deal with a few fans.
They try to quickly walk by, but as expected, the girls stop them, excitedly asking questions, taking photos, saying how much they loved them, the usual.
“Excuse me” says Jimmy, politely, trying to pull them both through the small crowd “but we really just need to get through.”
The girls don't move, still rambling on about the usual. Jimmy just starts taking pictures with them and answers a few quick questions, hoping it will go faster that way, as there aren't really many of them.
As they're almost through, one last question comes up. “uhhh… sorry if this is too personal jimmy,” nervously asks a fan, “but we really want to know, is Jowan real?”
Jimmy doesn't say anything and looks even more nervous and even a bit scared now.
Lister just gets angry. He’s jealous. And upset. Jealous and upset that the fans are all obsessed with Jowan and not Jister. Or Limmy. Maybe they don't ship Jimmy and Lister due to the lack of good ship names. Thinking about that just makes him more upset.
“No.” he snaps. “Theyre not together, Jimmy and Rowan.”
He did not mean to do that. Or didn't mean to say it in that tone. shit shit you're supposed to be nice to the fans.
The fans all look disappointed and a bit speechless. Lister grabs Jimmy’s hand and pushes them through. He leads them both down random hallways not knowing where he's going. They walk in silence for a bit. why is this place so confusing and weird? where are they?
He realizes Jimmy was supposed to be the one leading them, as he is still a bit tipsy and has no idea where he's going.
“oh ummm” he mumbles as he stops them.
Jimmy practically reads his mind. “This way?” he points in the other direction.
After walking another thirty seconds, they stop. At the end of the corridor is an angry looking security guard, standing in front of the door of what is most likely their dressing room.
“He looks angryyyyy” Lister points out the obvious. “Where do we go?”
“No point in going back, or we'll just get even more lost.” says Jimmy.
“alrighty”
They both approached the security guard.
“Umm, excuse me” Jimmy asked nervously, “can we get past? We need to be in the dressing room like, right now.”
“Now tell me,” he snarled, “why would I let some random teenagers back there?”
They looked at him in shock for 2 seconds.
“Umm because we're performing very soon??” answered Lister, already getting very angry for the second time in 5 minutes.
He stared at them for a bit, without saying anything.
“We're part of the band! THE Jimmy Kaga-Ricci and Lister Bird of The Ark??” waving between him and Jimmy.
“Do you really think im dumb enough to fall for that?” he asked. “Scram kids, I need to do my job.”
Nobody moved for a few seconds.
“Ok,” he said impatiently, "I've been told that a group of fans managed to get themselves backstage, and I assume you're part of that. I was being nice by letting ya’ll go away on your own but I'm afraid I'm going to have to escort you out of here.”
They both look at each other in a panic. But there's also a mutual, understanding, look. Then Lister grabs Jimmy’s hand and they both sprint away from the security guard.
He yells and runs after them, but they don't look back. They run and run for a bit, looking at each other, laughing, hand in hand. Lister swerves them around a corner and pulls them both into a cupboard.
There is really not much space. They’re pretty much squished together, only accompanied by their heavy panting from running so fast.
“If we wait here for a couple of minutes, he’ll go away,” said Jimmy breathlessly.
Lister simply nodded, but wasn't sure if Jimmy saw, thanks to the dark.
It was very dark. Except for the faint light coming from the cracks in the cupboard door, which shone every so slightly on Jimmy’s magnificent face.
Lister could not stop staring at Jimmy’s magnificent face
Jimmy and Lister were in a small, dark cupboard. Together.
____________
They needed to stay quiet.
Jimmy was doing fine at this, but Lister was trying desperately to slow his racing heart and breath.
He and Jimmy's faces were mere inches away from each other.
It would be so wonderful. So easy to just lean in and kiss him.
Lister was in love. fuck.
He couldn’t even think straight or reasonably. He didn’t even really want to think reasonably. So he went for it.
He couldn’t care less about what could happen later. He would sacrifice it all for just one second of kissing Jimmy.
“heyyy” said Lister gently, playfully patting a hand on his shoulder.
“i think the security guard is gone” replied Jimmy, “we’re alright now.”
Lister just cupped his hand on Jimmy’s cheek.
Jimmy didn’t move. He could practically hear his heartbeat speed up a bit, but it was still nothing compared to Lister’s racing heart.
fuck this is a mistake he thought to himself.
No. No more thinking. Just do it.
Lister leaned in, tilting his head as he pressed his lips against Jimmy’s.
Jimmy seemed to be ok with this. Great even. He even cupped his hand onto Lister’s and his other trailed along Lister’s back.
The kiss deepened, Jimmy’s hand finding the hem of his shirt, Lister’s hand thrusting into Jimmy’s hair.
Lister broke apart the kiss for a moment.
“do you wanna… maybe… find a bigger, more private place?” he said in between breaths.
“yes” Jimmy replied quickly. “wait… no. we can’t.”
Lister’s hopeful face turned to a frown.
“The show starts in a few minutes.” Jimmy explains. “we have to go… like now.”
“oh. yeah. yeah yeah” Lister says as he opens the doors and pulls them both out.
“i’m really sorry Jimmy. oh god. i really shouldn’t of done that. oh god - ”
“it’s alright,” interrupts Jimmy. “let’s just get going.”
They walk together in awkward silence before quickly finding the dressing room.
Lister mindlessly goes through the next motions of people yelling at him about where he’s been, the makeup people touching up his face, the performance…
It’s all pretty easy, something they’ve all done many times before.
But Lister just can’t stop thinking about Jimmy.