Chapter Text
Monday
Isaac was not drunk. Despite the dangerous amount of alcohol he had consumed in the last six hours and the warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of his stomach, he was not drunk. In fact, he was so good at handling his alcohol that he decided to take another sip of Guinness from his half empty glass. He was so god damn sober that after missing his mouth he immediately recovered and redirected the drink into his mouth with minimal spillage! Isaac looked to his right to see Arthur TV looking as if he was in a similar predicament. He looked to his left and was flash banged with the harsh light from George's camera in his face.
He made some sort of stupid comment about the weather (they were inside) and smirked around the table. He was totally playing up his drunk-ness for the camera. Yeah that was it... Thankfully, the other three men he was with were equally as (so not) drunk as him and found his joke immensely funny.
Isaac felt the smile stay on his face in contentment, he felt a sense of peace he hasn't felt in a while. That feeling wasn't just because of the alcohol coursing through his body, it was because he was spending time with his best mates whilst filming for their new group channel which was going really well. 'Friends From Work' was the realised version of the dreams he had had when he was younger about having a job that he truly loved and felt passionate about. As much as the videos they made were all stupid and unserious, they all genuinely put work in.
The fact that everything was going so well made him a little giddy with excitement. It also (mixed with those gross shots he did an hour ago) gave him a boost of confidence.
The four boys were currently out filming a pub golf video, and literally nothing had gone wrong - which was unusual. Normally at least a couple things would get messed up like, one of them would do something embarrassing or someone would forget an important section of the video, things like that. Not today! Absolutely nothing was going wrong.
"Isaac," a hand waved rapidly in front of his face, "Stop day dreaming mate we're going to the last pub." Arthur Hill stood with his arms crossed, he was weirdly sober. Hilly was typically one of the first to get battered.
"Finchyyyy," Isaac slurred, "Why so serious?" He cackled at his own words but stopped slowly when he saw his friend's deadpan expression. Okay maybe he was a little more drunk than he thought. At least he wasn't the only one, TV was currently attempting to lick George's elbow.
"No I swear you're not supposed to be able to feel it when someone licks your elbow!"
"Arthur stop being a freak."
"No I'm not lying it's scientific! I'm truthing right now bro!"
George laughed at him and then in a high pitched voice said, "It's scientific!" Arthur groaned and stuck his tongue out.
"Get that tongue away from me you fiend." George quipped. Isaac grinned as he got up from his seat to join the boys at the door. It wasn't too late, probably around 10:45pm by the looks of the sky.
Arthur Hill walked to the front of the group, complaining bitterly to the camera that he hated them all and was going to go start a group channel with some monks instead. It wasn't a long walk to the final pub, but it was enough time for George to decide he was going to point a camera in their faces.
He spun the lens to face Isaac and Arthur, who were walking side by side.
"So boys, are the rumours true?" He quirked an eyebrow and put on a typical movie journalist-voice. Isaac didn't really know what the hell he was in about but went along with it.
He flung his arm around Arthur's waste dramatically and pulled him closer, "The rumours are all true, we are getting married tomorrow." He wiped an imaginary tear from his eye.
Arthur had stilled slightly but didn't move away. He just laughed sheepishly. George panned the camera back to himself at a weird angle, "There ya have it folks, they really are madly in love. Now over to Finchy with the weather-" George jogged forwards to catch up to Arthur Hill.
Isaac watched the man move away and smiled again. God he was so plastered. He kept grinning to himself for another moment before his little trance was once again interrupted, this time by the other Arthur.
Arthur had cleared his throat awkwardly next to him. Isaac looked over and saw his friend looking at him with an unreadable expression. His eyebrows were furrowed but not angrily more... inquisitive. He wasn't smiling but he also didn't look upset. Then Isaac dropped his gaze and saw that his own arm was still resting around Arthur's waste, and he had been walking like that for a good two minutes with out noticing.
He quickly pulled away as is he had been pinched and the strange expression on Arthur's face faded into a blank one before quickly switching to jovial. "You've got a girlfriend mate I know I'm hot as hell but don't get ahead of yourself there." He joked easily.
Isaac let out a half-hearted laugh and stared down at the hand that had just been resting gently on Arthur's waste. An awkward silence settled over the two men, but before either could break the tension the two in front of them came to a halt in front of what Isaac assumed was the final pub.
The rest of the video went great, but for some reason Isaac didn't feel warm and fuzzy-drunk anymore, he felt a little ill.
.......
Tuesday
The next morning Isaac woke up at 9am with an insane headache and absolutely no memory of the weird feelings he'd had towards the end of the filming session last night. He wasn't usually one to get drunk to the point of forgetting things, but he supposed he really was enjoying himself last night so he must have just gotten carried away.
Isaac glanced to his bedside table and smiled. Alyssa knew him so well: she had carefully placed a glass of water, a can of coke and a packet of ibuprofen beside his phone. Jeez he must have seemed really fucked up when he came home. As he reached for the coke he saw a notification ping on his phone- 'Angry Minion; please tell me I'm not the only one who's really fucking hung over right now' Isaac smiled wider and picked up the phone instead.
.......
Wednesday
The next time Isaac saw Arthur was at 8:30am the next day. He had woken up in bed next to his girlfriend to the sound of knocking on their door. She grumbled and rolled away from him, so he pulled himself out of bed, threw on a random shirt and walked to the door. Isaac still felt a slight dull ache in the back of his head from the other day, but ignored it as he made his way through the apartment. He yanked the door open groggily, ready to scribble a hasty signature for a delivery driver, but was met with familiar brown eyes staring at him. Arthur had one eyebrow raised slightly and seemed to be mildly concerned.
"Uhm?" Isaac was not really conscious yet: he was not a morning person. Arthur was very much a morning person.
"Bach it's 8:30."
"Thanks for letting me know, I've always wanted a human clock." He grumbled.
"We are supposed to be at the studio in 15 minutes." Isaac frowned for moment. Then the realisation hit him, "Ohh shit."
Arthur laughed and punched him on the arm gently, "It's fine don't worry, it won't be the first time we're a little late."
Isaac mumbled something about 'clothes' before dragging Arthur through the doorway and speed walking past the now-awake Alyssa into the bedroom. Alyssa smiled awkwardly at Arthur, who smiled equally awkwardly back. Despite the strong friendship between him and Isaac, Arthur didn't really know the man's girlfriend very well. He did really try to get to know her and they were quite similar so it really shouldn't be as hard as it was to spark up conversation... but she didn't seem as keen on getting to know Arthur. He frequently got a weird vibe that she didn't like him for some reason.
Arthur brushed off these feelings in favour of it just being his lack of social skills and cleared his throat, "Sorry for busting into your house so early." He grinned sheepishly. She laughed quietly and responded, "It's okay if you hadn't shown up neither of us would have even woken up- must have forgotten to set alarms or something."
Arthur nodded, "Yeah honestly I'm so bad at timings I do that all the time. Isaac's usually pretty time conscious though...?" He trailed off, not wanting to come off as nosy.
"Oh. Well, you know..." Alyssa shrugged and laughed off the weird tension.
God Arthur really felt guilty now. He felt like he was being weird and making his best friend's girlfriend uncomfortable. He knew he hadn't done anything wrong but... it felt like he had.
His little nervous moment was interrupted by Isaac busting into the room now fully clothed and looking ever so slightly less asleep than before. "Sorry about that Arthur-" he cut himself when he saw his girlfriend stood next to the doorway, "Sorry for waking you up Lissa," he kissed her on the forehead. "I'll see you later."
"Bye boys." Arthur restrained from letting out a little breath of relief as he stepped out of the house after Isaac. As they got into the lift and Isaac started babbling about some story he wanted to tell on the podcast, Arthur silently resolved to sort out the weird tension between him and Alyssa. Isaac had been dating her for over two years. That added onto the fact that they lived in the same building and he and Isaac worked together meant he'd see her a lot more than just when she came along to group hang outs and events. 'Can't be that hard.' He thought.
.......
They arrived exactly 16 minutes late to the studio, which in Arthur's books 'didn't even count as late anyway'. Recording the podcast went as it usually did, except Isaac was being slightly quieter than usual. He was really trying to keep up his typical weird, loud vibe but he just couldn't. Isaac could also tell that Arthur had noticed his slight shift in demeanour (because of course he had) and was taking the lead on most of the conversations. The man across from him kept throwing him subtle glances, as if checking on him in between sentences.
Isaac wasn't sure why but he really just wasn't feeling it today. He still had small tense aching sensation in the back of his head, and his brain felt clouded and fuzzy. Maybe he was coming down with something.
After they finished up recording the episode and Jaba left them to tidy up a couple things, muttering something about 'bloody chippo fuckin asking me to sort out every audio issue under the sun-' as he left. Isaac dropped his head back against the wall behind him and sighed. He felt the couch dip beside him and opened his eyes to see Arthur sat facing him with that one-eyebrow-up expression he had on his face when he came to the door that morning.
"Bach are you okay? You seem a little out of it today."
Isaac ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah I dunno' I'm just... tired? I don't really know I've managed to sleep in and woke up with the same headache from yesterday. I think I might be getting ill or something."
Arthur tilted the corners of his lips down sympathetically, "Aw no, that would suck." He frowned slightly knocked his knee against Isaacs'. He wasn't sure why, but he stared a little too long at the spot on his leg that Arthur had made contact with. There was a tiny little tingling sensation that shot up his leg at the touch. He blinked aggressively and looked back up to Arthur.
"I'm sure it's nothing, probably just over did it a bit on Monday."
Isaac nodded in agreement and huffed. He had definitely overdone it on Monday.
Arthur slapped his hands on his knees and stood up. "Right we should probably get on with that." He jammed a thumb towards the jumbled pile of crap on the table across from them. Isaac laughed and got up to help. The task at hand probably should have taken them maybe ten minutes maximum, but Arthur seemed to have transitioned into stupid mode and was doing everything in his power to make Isaac laugh instead of actually tidying.
Isaac loved how well Arthur knew him. He had noticed him acting a little off and just automatically changed how he behaved to make Isaac feel more comfortable. Isaac smiled warmly at his friend who was currently doing a terrible impression of Danny Aarons if he was a hobbit. He wasn't quite sure how the fuck Arthur had gotten to this stage but he just grinned and joined in anyway.
When Jaba walked back into the room to grab his laptop, the two didn't even notice him because they were too busy dying of laughter about some weird shit. Jaba rolled his eyes and left them to it.
.......
Isaac didn't get home for a while as he spent the majority of the rest of the day in the Fella's studios. He had two meetings, one about the future of the podcast and touring, and the other about boring numbers stuff. Arthur was more into the numbers, he was more into the creative side of things. By the end of the more business-orientated meeting, Isaac was about ready to go collapse. He knew that he was only feeling like this because of how messed up his head was that day, but he couldn't help but feel a little guilty for letting Arthur handle a lot of the talking once again.
When he mentioned it Arthur just brushed it off and made some stupid comment about being the 'alpha' of the podcast. Isaac snorted and forgot about his over-thinking.
After the meetings, Isaac stayed a little longer to get some editing done while he had a free quiet space. By the time he got home it was evening and Alyssa was heating two bowls of leftover pasta in their kitchen. Like clockwork, Isaac pulled her in for a side hug and kissed her on the head. They sat down and told each other about their days over dinner and then quietly got ready for bed.
It was nice. Alyssa was like Isaac's rock, she made him feel like he had purpose and stability. And he loved her, of course.
Although... sometimes he felt like he wasn't really bringing anything to the relationship. He felt as if what used to be new and exciting had melded into a more idle and- almost bland coexistence-? Woah. Hold on. He needed to stop overthinking everything. God. That's enough big words for today.
These weird almost guilty feelings that he was doing something wrong or that he wasn't enough were infrequent, but when they came it lead to a good couple hours of staring at the ceiling in bed trying to push them to the back of his mind. He knew that Alyssa loved him, and he loved her back - obviously - they'd been dating for almost three years... and yet he still felt like something was off.
He knew that he should really speak to Lissa about it, but he didn't want to make her worry that he wanted to break up or something crazy. Plus, he didn't even know how to quantify these feelings into words, so he just left it.
.......
Thursday
When Arthur woke up to his alarm, he found himself automatically going into his contacts to text Isaac. He wasn't quite sure why but he was one of the first things that he thought of when he woke up but he just shrugged and typed in his passcode. Arthur yawned and tapped onto the contact 'Hot sexy Italian man'. He still hadn't changed it from when Bach had nicked his phone and named himself that in his contacts. In fairness, it was pretty funny, however he really should change it as it'd look a little strange for someone with no context.
Arthur bit back a laugh and then typed out his message:
'Hey man, you feeling any better today? Don't want you to miss out on me absolutely destroying your ass in mariokart later.'
Within a minute Isaac read his text and started typing.
'no I really wouldn't want to miss you destroying my ass either 😉😏'
Arthur laughed out loud at that and felt a slight blush heat his face-
...the fuck?
Why is he blushing at his best friend just joking around? Arthur physically shook his head and attributed his weird reaction to having just woken up. "Too early for this shit." He muttered. Then he texted back.
'Don't make me blush'
'I'm going tell Alyssa.'
'nooo what the hell you traitorrruhh'
'Sorry man, I've actually got morals you see.'
'boringh 😒'
Arthur really needed to stop grinning so hard. He was going to split his face in half if he continued like this.
'Okay fine. I suppose I won't tell her. 🙄'
'thats the spirit'
...
'just to clear up any confusion I am so going to win in mariokart'
'Fuck off you're so bad at mariokart.'
'NOT TRUE I am the KING of mario'
'Alright buddy, whatever you say.'
'die'
.......
Arthur did in fact destroy Isaac and everyone else in Mariokart that evening. Arthur, Isaac, George and Arthur Hill had all congregated at Chris' apartment to hang out and play video games with out having to worry about recording it all for content. As much as Isaac loved filming, it was nice to take the pressure off and just have a genuine hang out.
"George can you move the fuck up, I'm literally falling onto the floor." Arthur Hill was whining dure to the fact that George had just won at Wii tennis and he was a very sore loser.
"Gosh sorry my ass is just soooo big." George got up from the couch to let Hill move up and then wiggled his ass in his face before sitting down again. Hill put his head in his hands dramatically.
The couch was not small: there was about enough room for four of them to sit on it comfortably (Chris was perched on the arm of his own couch - he hadn't even bothered trying to fight for a spot on the couch). Despite this fact, Isaac found himself squished up close to Arthur. Their shoulders and legs were pressed together and Arthur had his knee against Isaac's.
Isaac wasn't sure what it was about their knees touching, but it was something that Arthur kept doing and for some reason it made him feel... something. He was a little confused by the sensation and just made up some bullshit in his head about having overly-sensitive knees.
Midway through an intense game of CoD, Arthur moved his knee away from Isaac's. The man glanced down at the lack of contact and looked up to Arthur's face with what he realised was a little hurt expression. God why was he being so weird about his knees. Arthur glanced away from the screen to make eye contact with Isaac who was staring at him.
When their eyes met, Arthur did that little eyebrow raise he always did, but didn't break the eye contact... until the moment was brought to a jarring end by Arthur getting shot dead because he wasn't paying attention for five seconds. Arthur shouted to everyone about how Isaac had totally sabotaged him but the other three just laughed and batted him away, Hill and George still focused on the screen.
A second later, Isaac felt Arthur gently rest his right leg entirely on top of his thigh instead of putting their knees back together. Neither of them looked at each other this time. Isaac knew that this was an entirely normal thing and wasn't sure why his heart beat was suddenly so quick. Physical touch was something that their friend group was very comfortable with, this was normal. He stared down at where Arthur's foot dangled between his and felt the man relaxing his leg fully onto his own.
God why was he suddenly so warm. He snapped himself out of it and stopped acting like a weirdo. He quickly glanced to either side of him and none of the boys seemed to have noticed his small heart attack. Isaac was honestly surprised Arthur couldn't feel his heartbeat through their touching thighs - it felt like his pulse was hammering through his entire body.
He was glad that he wasn't currently playing the game with the rest of them because he really didn't want to draw any attention to that little moment he'd just had. George and Chris were bickering about something over his head and both Arthur's were locked in on the game, occasionally shouting instructions to each other.
Despite the noise and chaos around him, Isaac let his head drop back onto the sofa and closed his eyes. He didn't have that headache anymore, but he still felt all weird and jittery. He felt so weird and overwhelmed, it was like Arthur merely resting his leg on him had caused him to suddenly become aware of every piece of clothing touching his body. Isaac was so tired from all the shit he'd been doing this week mixed with his fuzzy brain that he felt like he could fall asleep right there on the couch surrounded by his very loud, currently shouting friends.
A couple minutes later, Arthur was mid conversation with Chris when he felt warmth on his shoulder fluffy hair tickling the side of his face. He stilled mid sentence and turned his head awkwardly to look at Isaac, who appeared to have somehow fallen asleep on his shoulder. Hot breath tickled the back of his neck gently, making the hairs there stand up. Arthur felt heat rising up his neck but forced himself to look away before it got to a point that could be perceived as weird.
He turned back to Chris, who was eyeing him with a half amused half suspicious look. Arthur put on a goofy grin and got Chris to take a picture of Isaac sleeping to use as blackmail (he had his mouth open).
They ended up turning the tv off after that game finished and transitioned into a hushed chat so as not to wake up Isaac.
"I swear to god if this guy drools on me I'm going to smash his head in." Arthur joked.
George rolled his eyes, "Oh shut up, we know you'd like that."
"Eughhhh George."
"Hey," George put his hands up, "Am I wrong though?"
Chris snickered and agreed. Arthur told them to fuck off and threw another glance at the still sleeping Isaac. Even with his mouth wide open, he somehow managed to look good. Honestly Arthur was a little in awe of the man's looks sometimes-
Pause. Why was he thinking about how attractive Bach was as he slept on his shoulder? Arthur screwed his eyes shut for a second, as if trying to clear his mind of these weird thoughts. Chris threw him a quick side eye before returning to quietly insulting Hill.
A little later in the evening George, Hill and Chris moved into the kitchen to get some food and left Arthur on the couch with Isaac knocked out cold on his shoulder. When Arthur said he'd stay sat so that Isaac didn't get wake up, Chris called him a sweetheart and George called him a pushover. He just stuck his tongue out at them and watched them all move out of the room.
Once it was just him and Isaac alone the air seemed to become heavy and tense, Arthur felt like he was suffocating a little. Isaac's head was nestled into the crook of his neck and he had now turned his entire body towards Arthur, both knees pressed against the side of his leg now. He was snoring very quietly - not loud enough for any of the others to hear, just loud enough for someone who's ear was very close to his mouth to hear. Arthur knew that this was a little more physical contact between them than was the norm, but he still felt that his reaction was... weird.
There was a fluttery pit pooling in his stomach, he cheeks were flushed and his fingers kept twitching. Despite this he tried to stay as still as humanely possible. He knew that his friend must be extremely tired to have fallen asleep mid-hang out. Arthur had noticed Bach acting a little different lately but there was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. Unless Isaac was keeping things from him. Arthur didn't think he would unless he had a pretty good reason, so he brushed off the worry.
Isaac shifted and tilted his head to face slightly away from Arthur's neck and made a little 'hhhmmm' noise. Against all of his better judgment, Arthur reached up and pushed a stray curl of hair out of Isaac's face. The man's eyelashes fluttered slightly at the contact, but he didn't wake up. Arthur pushed another bit of hair behind his ear this time. He was now facing Isaac directly, and was ridiculously close.
He knew this was weird and that he was probably crossing one too many boundaries right now but he just couldn't help it. He didn't understand why but the only thing that he could fathom doing in that moment was touching his best friend's hair. As the realisation of how intimate this little scene was hit Arthur a bit harder, Isaac grumbled and opened his eyes.
Their faces were mere inches apart and Isaac was staring into Arthur's eyes with an intensity that neither of them really understood. It's cliche but those few seconds felt like slow-motion to Arthur. He felt like he'd been caught doing something he really shouldn't, but Isaac didn't look mad or upset. His eyes were wide and pupils dilated so wide his brown eyes looked almost black. His eyebrows had furrowed slightly and he had blinked a few times as if trying to discern whether he was imagining Arthur or not.
Neither of them moved.
Arthur could feel Isaac's slow breaths on his face as he stared at him with a look akin to intrigue... mixed with something else that Arthur couldn't quite grasp.
He noticed, being closer than they had ever been to each other before, that Isaac's eyes had what looked like little flecks of gold around his pupils.
Arthur felt a bit sick.
The moment was promptly broken by the sound of glass shattering and George Clarke loudly swearing from the kitchen. The sound felt like noise cancelling headphones were being ripped from Arthur's ears and suddenly the silence was so fucking loud.
Both boys ripped their eyes off each other and looked down at the floor. Isaac sounded like he choked on his own breath before quickly moving himself firmly away from Arthur.
Arthur glanced over to the man but he was looking straight down at his own knees and rubbing his eyes with tiredness. Arthur quickly moved his gaze back to the hand that had just been stroking Isaac's hair. Whilst he slept. On his shoulder.
Oh god what the hell where they doing.
Arthur was going into panic mode.
He had definitely just crossed a line that he didn't even know existed, and that was bad enough in its own, but when Isaac had woken up to their faces being inches apart, he hadn't moved. He stayed. It had felt like something passed between them that neither understood and Arthur was freaking the fuck out.
He would have preferred it if Isaac had looked disgusted, pushed Arthur away face first and gone back to playing mariokart or something. Literally anything except what had just occurred, because Arthur had liked it.
He liked it a little too much.
Just as Arthur started to panic about how awkward he had definitely just made things, the other three burst back into the room with crisps and snacks, laughing and talking as of Arthur wasn't actively dying in front of them. Yeah that was actually valid because he wasn't dying but... he felt like it!
For the remainder of the night Isaac acted like nothing had happened and so did Arthur. Technically nothing had actually happened but Arthur felt like 100 things had happened all at once and he was too slow to catch a single thing.
Damn he was being so dramatic... right? Yeah he was totally just being dramatic everything was fine. Everything was so fine.
When they all left later, he had said bye to the others and walked a little further with Isaac alone. Isaac acted completely normal and was talking animatedly about some weird concept for his next video.
Arthur was trying really hard to act normal but every time he caught Isaac's eye he felt like he was seeing right into his brain and reading his mind. Ugh he was actually going fucking crazy.
Once the two arrived at their building and reached the staircase, Isaac finally stopped talking. Arthur hadn't really caught anything he was saying, but he could tell Isaac was trying a little too hard to act normal, conversations were never as one sided as that whole walk had been for them.
Isaac stood a few steps up from Arthur, where they were about to part ways. Isaac would go and slip into bed next to Alyssa and Arthur would get into his empty one, alone with his racing brain.
Isaac coughed and scratched the back of his head. Then he looked into Arthur's eyes once more before mumbling something along the lines of 'goodnight, see you...'
Arthur put on a weak smile and said, "Goodnight." Isaac looked at him for a second longer, as if he was about to say something else. Then he nodded, turned around and walked away, up the stairs.
Arthur wasn't sure why but he suddenly felt like crying. He was so god damn confused about everything he was feeling. The keys shook in his hand as he unlocked the door and tumbled into his apartment. He kicked off his shoes, quickly locked the door and flung himself down onto his bed.
He felt like he had just done something really wrong.
He felt like he had really liked it.
He felt like he was going to do something stupid and ruin the best friendship of his entire life.
He felt like he could pass out right then and there fully clothed due to how exhausted he suddenly was. So he did.
A couple floors up, Isaac was in bed next to his beautiful, loving girlfriend, staring at the ceiling and thinking about his best friend. He didn't know what the fuck had happened but he knew that something had just shifted, that a line had been crossed and Arthur felt it too. Isaac kind of felt like Arthur knew something that he didn't. It was weird. It was really fucking weird.