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Anthony had thrown a small get together for him and some of his friends, so naturally Ian was going to be there. Anthony was never a huge fan of big parties, so he would much rather have a small group of friends over instead, Ian knew that. Most of the people here were more Anthony’s friends than Ian’s, people he’s met while they were apart. Anthony had tried to introduce his two worlds together, and even though Ian liked their company, he could still sense some awkwardness.
At first, when Ian had met those people, he was jealous. Anthony is an introvert, so back then they basically had the same friends. It was weird to see his best friend have inside jokes and be close to people that Ian didn’t know, but that worry faded away when their friendship grew stronger after the reunion, with Anthony making it clear that Ian will always be his best friend. And although Ian might want to be a little more than that, he was comfortable with where they were right now.
It’s gotten pretty late, and Ian was tipsy so Anthony hadn’t let him drive back home or even uber this late, he insisted on Ian sleeping over instead. Ian didn’t fight it much, Anthony did have an extra tooth brush for him here for when he’s staying. Ian tries not to think about it much.
Ian sat down at the corner of the couch besides Anthony, watching as he and his remaining friends played “magic the gathering”. He was getting a little drowsy, but he didn’t want to go to bed while the rest were still up. Anthony’s distracted by the card game, so Ian takes that opportunity to shamelessly stare at the other man. He notices how Anthony stares at him too, Anthony makes it way too obvious for anyone not to notice. But Ian wasn’t like that, he’d get shy immediately after Anthony would catch his eye, so he preferred to look at him when Anthony wasn’t paying attention.
He watched as Anthony played, the way he’d lean forward for the cards and the slight flex of his biceps at the movement. Ian loved it when Anthony would wear a short sleeved tee, it allowed full access to look at his tattooed arms, a little part of him wished he could trace his fingers along the lines of ink. Anthony cursed under his breath, seemingly losing, and Ian couldn’t help but imagine something else.
He quickly redirected his attention away, finally looking at the game at hand. It was late, and he was tipsy, and also possibly a little horny. And it was embarrassing that he was feeling this way while everyone else was here still. He decides that some water would probably do him good, so he got up from the couch and started making his way towards Anthony’s kitchen.
“Hey, where you going?” Anthony asked, always noticing when Ian would do something. “Are you sleepy? I can pause here and get you some stuff.” He says, and Ian’s heart flutters at how observant Anthony is when it comes to him.
“No no it’s okay, I’m just going for some water.” Ian clarifies, still walking to the kitchen.
He feels someone bump into him, and soon after he feels a cool liquid hitting his chest, he lets out an involuntary gasp. He looks down at his shirt, it’s wine. Red wine, and it spilled all over his white button up. “Shit..” he mutters.
“Oh my god, I am so so sorry!!” One of Anthony’s friends squeaks at him, making him look back up. “I was distracted so I didn’t see you walking! I’m so sorry, this is bad. Um, I can pay you for the shirt, shit, I’m sorry.” She rambled. Admittedly, after the initial shock Ian was a little pissed, it was his favorite shirt, wine on white isn’t exactly salvageable. But it wasn’t entirely her fault, he was distracted by talking to Anthony too.
“Hey, it’s fine.” He lets out, taking the tissues she handed him so he at least wouldn’t be entirely wet. “I wasn’t looking where I was going either, this isn’t just on you.” He reassured her, but she still looked really guilty.
“Hey, you okay?” Anthony asked, appearing behind them.
“Yeah I’m good, it’s just wine.” Ian answered, the tissues made the wine seep deeper into the fabric. Great, what did he expect?
“I’m so sorry.” She repeated, Anthony told her it was fine too and she finally left to join the others.
“Jesus, you are soaked.” Anthony laughed, looking at the state of Ian’s shirt.
“Yeah, just about spilled the whole glass on me. Now I smell like wine.”
Anthony giggled at him before speaking again. “Okay well, since you’re staying over anyway, I’ll get you some of my clothes to wear.”
“Okay,” Ian agrees, following Anthony into his bedroom.
Ian moves to sit down on Anthony's bed while he picks out some clothes for him, but Anthony stops him. “No way man! I just got the blankets washed!”
Ian groans, standing up. He could barely do so with how tired he was, but he wasn't gonna ruin Anthony's bed.
Anthony walks up to him a second later with the spare clothes and hands it to him. “Here you go, you can change over here or in the guest bedroom. We'll finish this round then stop the game, it's pretty late.”
“Thanks,” Ian watches as Anthony leaves the room and closes the door behind him before he slips into the clothes Anthony had given him. It was a pair of sweat pants and a dark colored shirt. Ian folds the pants at the end so they wouldn’t drag on the floor. The shirt was swallowing him, the sleeves too long and the hem of the shirt dragging down. It was comfortable though, and Ian could smell Anthony’s laundry detergent on it.
He decides that since he already got an out that he was just going to go to sleep in Anthony's guest bedroom. Or at least he tries to.
He rolls around in bed for a good thirty minutes he thinks, it felt closer to an hour honestly, but he still couldn't get much sleep.
He gets up and out of the room, deciding maybe drinking the water he wanted earlier could help. He hears some shuffling after doing so, so he steps back into the living room where he thinks Anthony is.
Standing there in front of the couch is indeed his best friend, he seems to be cleaning up the remains of the party, packing away the card game they had played. If Ian knew Anthony was going to be putting things away by himself, he would've stayed up longer.
“Hey, you need any help?” Ian asks, stepping into the soft light of the living room.
Anthony looks up at the sound, his mouth opens and closes immediately, whatever he wanted to say getting lost. Anthony stares at Ian for a good minute, and Ian almost thinks he hasn't heard what he said. Ian goes to repeat himself, but before he could do that Anthony clears his voice and finally answers.
“No it’s fine, you were pretty sleepy, I can do this myself.” Anthony said, tearing his eyes away from Ian and going back to the work at hand.
“I couldn’t really sleep anyway, so maybe this could help.” Ian answered truthfully, starting to help Anthony out. He was still a little weirded out by Anthony’s initial reaction, but he hadn’t said anything.
Not until Anthony’s eyes kept glancing at his every move while they cleaned that he decided to bring it up. Ian looked up and saw Anthony already staring, before looking away at the glass he was carrying.
“You okay?” Ian finally asks. “You keep staring.” He clarifies when Anthony furrows his eyebrows at him, god Ian always found it adorable.
“Uh- yeah, sorry.” Anthony says, his head going down. “You just kinda look adorable in that, is all.”
Ian’s mouth opens slightly, hanging agape. Did Anthony seriously just call him adorable? He was used to Anthony saying crazy shit about him, but that was usually in front of an audience or so unhinged that Ian could directly tell it was a joke. But he couldn’t right now. He raised an eyebrow at his best friend, expecting him to break, but he just shrugged.
“The shirt is so big on you, it looks cute.” He says, making Ian blush. He’s glad Anthony can’t really see it under the dim light of the house. Ian goes to bed that night thinking about what Anthony had said.
Ian doesn’t really think much of it, just about how it makes him feel to hear Anthony say things like that, but he thinks Anthony’s just being himself. That was kinda how he was anyway, he’d always throw compliments at people–especially at Ian–and act like it’s nothing. Because it is nothing.
At least that’s what Ian thinks before Courtney brings it up.
He’s sitting in the lounge, scrolling through his phone while he waits for the games video he’s supposed to be in to start shooting. Courtney approaches him, handing him the matcha he’d asked for when she went for a coffee run and sitting down beside him on the couch.
“Hey, thanks.” Ian thanks them before taking a sip of his drink.
“Hi buddy,” they say as they settle onto the couch, obviously about to start talking to Ian about something.
“What’s up?” Ian asks, turning in his seat and giving her all his attention.
“Something’s weird with Anthony,” they say, looking outside, where Anthony was talking to Amanda about something.
Ian turns his head to look too, Anthony notices that and gives him a slight wave and a big smile. Ian can’t help but smile back before turning towards Courtney again.
“What do you mean?” He asks, not understanding what they were referring to.
“He keeps staring at you,” she explains, “more often than usual, I mean.”
There had been some sort of silent knowledge between the two of them of Ian’s feelings. Courtney was one of the people here who he’d known the longest, and even though Ian was hard to read, Courtney was good at noticing. So when she tried to genuinely talk to him about his situation with Anthony when they first bought smosh, he didn’t exactly spill everything out, but he also didn’t deny much, having been too giddy about them reuniting to properly hide his more than platonic feelings.
So, every now and then, Courtney would bring up Anthony and their relationship. Ian always felt like they were in grade school talking about their crushes, but Courtney never pushed and Ian needed to let his thoughts about the matter out every once in a while, so it didn’t hurt.
“Well, everyone kinda stared today.” They said, touching Ian’s (Anthony’s) shirt as an explanation.
Okay, so Ian came to work in Anthony’s shirt. So what? He didn’t feel like driving back to his house before coming to work just to change, sue him! It was only the shirt anyway, since Ian obviously couldn’t wear his wine stained one.
They did pretty much have an opposite kind of wardrobe didn’t they.. that’s probably why it was so noticeable. Well, either that or the fact that Ian kept having to roll up his sleeves slightly so they wouldn't cover his hands.
“That shirt is Anthony’s, right?” Courtney asked, even though she already knew the answer.
“It is, yeah.” Ian confirmed with a sigh. “I stayed over last night and my shirt had wine all over it, so I just borrowed one of his.” Courtney raised her brows at him in a silent question. “No, we’re not dating.”
Courtney’s face fell slightly before recovering. “Not yet you mean.”
“Court–“
“Come on, he totally likes seeing you in his clothes!” Courtney says.
“Okay- what??”
“I think that” she points at his shirt. “Is why he keeps staring at you today, it’s totally doing something for him.”
Well, Anthony did call him adorable last night.
“You think so?” Before Courtney could answer him, Anthony’s in the room to call them for the smosh games shoot.
“Hey Anthony, what do you think of Ian’s shirt?” Courtney asks, Ian shoots her a look as if to say ‘what the hell are you doing?’ But Courtney doesn’t relent.
“Considering it’s my shirt, I think it looks pretty great.” Anthony says, flashing Ian a grin. Courtney smiles at him like they expected that answer. “Now come on, they're waiting for you guys on set.” And with that, Anthony leaves them alone.
“See!” Courtney says immediately after Anthony’s out of ear shot.
“See what?” Ian asks, genuinely confused.
“He’s so into it!! Did you not hear the way he said ‘my’?? It was almost like he was calling you his freakin’ boyfriend!!” She gushed.
Well now Courtney was grasping at straws.
“He just said the shirt looks good, which makes sense cause he bought it.” Ian says, still not understanding her point.
“Okay, sure, but why did he have to bring up that the shirt was his?? He wants people to know you’re wearing his clothes! He has some weird possessive shit going on.” Courtney says. That part Ian can’t really deny, he’s noticed it himself.
Anthony had been pretty possessive about him ever since they’ve reunited, like he wanted to prove to people that even though he’d been gone for years, he was still Ian’s best friend. Ian found it kind of hot, but no one needed to know that.
“Uh, yeah okay.” Ian shrugs. “He did say he found it adorable when I was in his sweater yesterday.”
Courtney gasped, hitting Ian lightly. “Ian, what the hell!! And you didn’t tell me??”
“I’m sorry?”
“Okay, well now we know for sure that he likes it, that freak.” Courtney jokes, before getting up to head towards the games set.
Ian thinks about what Courtney had said for the entire day. Look, he’s not stupid, okay? He noticed how Anthony was, how he’d always reach for him, always complimenting him whenever he had the chance. At first Ian kind of ignored it, dismissing it as Anthony trying to be a better friend after everything that happened, but it never stopped.
Ian eventually started leaning into it, and he’s pretty sure they’ve flirted a couple of times. He knew something was going on, but he also knew that both of them were too scared to address or do anything about the sexually charged tension between them. They owned the company now, what would happen if they dated and it didn’t work out?
And most importantly, what would happen to their friendship? Ian doesn’t think he could handle not having Anthony by his side anymore. He knows how Anthony is with his exes, god forbid Ian becomes one of them. He knows their friendship has to account for more though, Anthony wouldn’t just throw it all away just because they didn’t work out romantically. Would he?
Ian sighs, turning so he was laying on his back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
It would be unfair of them to never explore it though, right? All of their chemistry, the quick glances, stolen touches. Would it be fair to never act on it? To leave it as a what if for the rest of their lives and never explore a more romantic dynamic? He knows he wants Anthony more than anything, wants him to be his everything, but what does Anthony want?
Is he just messing around? Does he mean everything he says to Ian? Is he just bored and curious about his sexuality and Ian is the only one he thinks he could explore with? Ian had no way of knowing.
He thinks back to the night before and this morning at the office, to the way Anthony’s eyes kept glancing at his direction.
“you just kinda look adorable in that”
Ian remembers the slight rumble of his voice as he said it, so low and just for Ian to hear.
“he totally likes seeing you in his clothes
it’s totally doing something for him
He wants people to know you’re wearing his clothes! He has some weird possessive shit going on”
Ian bites down at his bottom lip in thought, Anthony definitely did like seeing him in his clothes didn’t he? He was pretty distracted behind the scenes when Ian was involved, seemed almost proud when someone would point out that Ian was wearing clothes that weren’t his. Courtney was right, it had to be doing something.
Ian’s eyes suddenly widened, a thought crossing his mind.
This could be the thing that would push Anthony to say something, couldn’t it? If Ian kept walking around in Anthony’s clothes, he’s bound to say something about it! Ian could tell it affected him, and he’s only worn them today. He’d probably be able to break Anthony if he did often enough!
God, he feels like a teenager. But he was too scared to say anything and so is Anthony until Ian does something about it. Sure, actually talking to him would be a hell lot easier, but at least with this he’d have a fail safe, he’s not committing to anything serious.
He starts subtle. If he immediately pushes to keep wearing Anthony’s clothes, the other was probably going to notice, and Ian would probably die of embarrassment if Anthony ever found out about his ‘plan’.
For his first attempt, he wears a short sleeved shirt when he and Anthony plan to hang out outside knowing the weather is going to be breezy.
They’re hanging out at a park nearby Ian’s house, Anthony’s always been a fan of painting outside, and Ian joins him sometimes. He watches as Anthony seemed to be painting the landscape in front of him, he takes a bite out of the food they ordered.
A soft breeze flew between them, and Ian took that as his chance to stage a shiver. Usually whenever Anthony notices that he was cold, he’s quick to offer him something to warm up, that’s part of the reason Ian did this. Ian is worried that Anthony is too focused on that painting, because he doesn’t say anything.
God this was humiliating.
Ian rubs his arms instead, trying to convey to the other that he was freezing his ass off. And he was. He was slowly regretting going with this as Anthony seemed completely unaware of his attempts.
Ian sighs, before another, harsher breeze hits, and Ian shivered again. Involuntarily this time!
That’s when Anthony redirects his attention away from the painting and towards the other man. “You cold?”
There we go, finally.
“Um, a little bit, yeah.” He says, biting back a smile at getting what he wants. “I didn’t realize it was gonna be this cold out, I guess.”
Anthony slips off his jacket wordlessly, just as Ian had thought he would, offering it to Ian. “Here you go, and before you say anything I’m perfectly warm without it.”
Ian takes it and thanks Anthony, before slipping his arms into the sleeves and settling into it comfortably. He looks back to Anthony to see him focused on the painting again, not paying him an ounce of attention.
Ian sighs softly and snuggles into the jacket he wore. It was big on Anthony as is so it was huge on Ian. Instead of Anthony’s detergent, he smelled his cologne instead. And another faint smell that Ian could only identify as Anthony’s. This thing might be affecting him more than it’s affecting his best friend.
Anthony only looks up at Ian when he’s busy with his food, smiling to himself at how adorable Ian had looked being completely swallowed up by his jacket.
Okay, so that clearly didn’t work. Anthony paid more attention to the pot of flowers in front of them than Ian.
Ian almost forgets about his plan for a few days, but Anthony’s words kept repeating in his head throughout. It doesn’t matter if Anthony didn’t notice that one time, he was painting! It was Ian’s fault for not pulling more attention towards himself.
Ian’s going through his clothes for something to wear to work, when his hand lands on one of Anthony’s sweaters that he’d forgotten here a while ago after sleeping over. Ian smiles to himself, his plan back in action.
He walks into the office with Anthony’s clothes for the second time in two weeks, people are probably gonna start getting suspicious, but he didn’t really care.
He goes through his day normally, or–as normal as he can be when he’s looking out for Anthony with every sound he hears. For some reason, his schedule today happened to completely clash with Anthony’s, not giving them much time to see each other at all.
He gets some looks through the day, but nobody really says anything. It was a tamer shirt this time anyway, more warm colors that Ian could wear, but Anthony had worn it enough times that they had to have noticed. Courtney definitely did, raising her eyebrows at him when she first saw him.
It was only during lunch break when he’d finally seen Anthony. He was eating on his own before Anthony slipped in the seat in front of him, greeting Ian. Ian greeted back and felt his heart flip as Anthony stared him down, clearly noticing the shirt.
“Is that my sweater?” Anthony asks, taking a bite of his food.
“Hm?” Ian feigns confusion, looking down at his outfit like he hadn’t deliberately picked it out. “Oh yeah, I guess it is.” He shrugs. “I was in a rush this morning, it was the first thing I grabbed.”
Anthony nods slowly, keeping his eyes on Ian before going back to his food.
“I’ll wash it and give it back to you,” Ian says, disappointed by Anthony’s lack of a reaction.
Anthony shakes his head. “No, it's cool. Fits you better than me.” He smiled.
Ian felt his face heating up. Considering it wasn’t Ian’s size, Anthony had to have meant that Ian wore it better. It’s a ridiculous claim because Ian thinks Anthony looks better than him in anything he wears, but Ian shuts up and takes the compliment this time. It was what he was aiming for.
Other than saying that while they ate, Anthony doesn’t seem affected at all throughout the work day. He didn’t sneak any glances his way or stare at him for too long, it was like he didn’t even care Ian was wearing his clothes. His plan wasn’t going too well.
And if Anthony stared at how the shirt would ride up Ian's skin whenever he would lean in too much, well, Ian didn't notice.
Ian clearly has to up his game, he wore Anthony's clothes on two separate occasions and Anthony barely even glanced at him! Ian huffed in frustration, leaning back into his seat.
Him and the rest of the office (including Anthony) were going out to a restaurant tonight, so Ian wore an outfit and thought about his plan during the car ride. It was so stupid wasn't it? Finding excuses to wear Anthony's clothes and get him to “break” when Anthony isn't even looking twice when Ian even does it. He was so pathetic. But for some reason he couldn’t seem to stop.
He walked into the restaurant, seeing an empty seat right next to the window and besides Anthony. Anthony flashed him a smile that always made Ian's heart flutter when he saw it. Ian returns it, greeting the rest of the group and making his way to sit in his place.
Everybody orders and they sit down eating their food and talking. Ian bites down at the sandwich he'd ordered, engaging with the others when needed. He turns around to look at Anthony when he starts talking, using that as an excuse to stare.
His gaze stays even as the conversation shifts, and he watches as Anthony downs his drink, his Adam's apple bobbing. Ian's distracted by the sight before a thought crosses his mind. The drink. Ian first wore Anthony's clothes when Anthony's friend had spilled wine on his shirt!
Anthony was wearing layers today, a soft sweater atop his black button up. If Ian spills a drink that stains his shirt Anthony will no doubt offer him the sweater, wouldn't he?
Ian held his glass of coke in his hand, staring down at it. Was he really considering this? He's ridiculous. Maybe a little unhinged. But Ian goes to drink it anyway, purposefully spilling slightly before he fakes his hand slipping and has the drink completely poured on him.
Oh god. That shit was cold. Ian felt like an idiot, but he couldn't back down now.
“shit.” He muttered, taking some of the tissues to try to make the situation less horrible. He didn't mean to spill the entirety of his drink onto himself!
“You okay?? There was a lot of ice in that.” Anthony says besides him, helping him with the glass.
Ian should crawl up and die. Why the hell did he even think this was a good idea?? He's going to blame the few drinks they've had earlier, he hopes his completely sober self wouldn't be as much of an idiot.
“I'm fine.. I'm–um.” Ian stammers, looking down at his shirt. The dark color of the coke is super obvious on his light yellow button up. “I think I'll go to the bathroom and try to clean up a little bit..” He mutters, getting up and trying to avoid the looks some of his coworkers sitting there had given him. He'd just made a fool out of himself, and for what?
He walks into the men's bathroom, worried about the fact that Anthony didn't offer anything and that he'll probably have to sit like this for the rest of the night. Maybe he'll just go home early.
That's when the bathroom's door opened and Anthony slipped inside, his sweater off and in his hand instead. Okay, Ian takes everything back. This was so working. He feels like he’s having mood swings and curses Anthony for making him this way.
“Hey, how's your shirt coming along?” Anthony asked, approaching him.
“Really wet.” Ian answered.
Anthony let out a laugh, Ian loved hearing it. “What's up with you getting shit spilled on you dude?”
Ian shrugs, and then Anthony's offering him his sweater.
“Here, good thing I wore two layers tonight huh?”
Yeah, good thing. Ian smiles and thanks him, but he doesn't take the sweater. Because then Anthony's going to leave, and Ian would've done all of this for nothing if it's even a little similar to the last two times he's tried.
Instead, Ian starts unbuttoning his shirt right then, in front of Anthony.
He could feel Anthony staring at him, his eyes taking in Ian's body. Ian tries his best to hold back a smile, slipping away from his ruined shirt and then taking Anthony's. Anthony clears his throat and looks away as Ian slips his sweater on, but it's useless, Ian already saw the way his gaze darkened when he saw him shirtless.
“Thanks again.” Ian said and smiled at Anthony. Anthony returned it, nodding awkwardly before they both returned to the table.
Anthony was losing his mind.
He’s known this about himself, knew that he liked seeing his romantic partner wearing his clothes, but Ian wasn’t that. And yet, Ian had worn Anthony’s clothes in the past weeks more than Anthony’s girlfriends in years.
It was messing with him, because he’s always associated sharing clothes with something you’d do in a relationship. He didn’t mind Ian taking his clothes, they were best friends and visited each other so often that their things got mixed up sometimes. But the amount of times it has happened lately is insane.
Seeing Ian in his clothes made it so hard for Anthony to bury the feelings he had for the other man. The way he’d look in it, with Anthony’s shirt a little too big on him, it made Anthony want to grab him and kiss him right then.
It all started when Ian walked back into the living room late at night asking Anthony if he needed any help, and Anthony had paused and stared before letting it slip that he thought Ian looked adorable. He’d beaten himself up about it after that.
But then it kept happening, and Anthony had to start avoiding even looking at Ian because he had no idea what other words would spill out if he stared at Ian long enough. He always wore his heart on his sleeve, so he was worried about his mere expression telling Ian everything.
It happened so often that Anthony started thinking Ian was doing it on purpose. That he found out about Anthony’s feelings about him and was trying to get him to say something without having to have an awkward conversation.
God, if that was the case Anthony’s going to have to dig a grave and bury himself alive. Was he really that unapproachable that Ian had to dance around it and form a whole plan to get Anthony to talk instead?
Well, it has to be on purpose. Because why the fuck is Ian sitting on the couch next to him in nothing but one of Anthony’s shirts and his own boxers.
Okay, so Ian had tried every excuse possible to wear Anthony’s clothes.
Even though he kind of failed the first few times, he started getting a reaction eventually after he slipped his shirt off in front of him, and he can tell Anthony’s into it, but he’s still not saying anything!!
Anthony stared at him, looked him up and down, even unconsciously licked his lips while talking to Ian, but he didn't say anything. I mean, come on, how naked does Ian have to be for Anthony to spill out his thoughts?
Ian is sitting on Anthony’s bed, staring at the wall while Anthony’s outside in the living room waiting for him. He’s staying over again, and of course he takes that as a chance to borrow some of Anthony’s clothes to ‘get comfortable’ while they watch a movie.
He stared down at the clothes Anthony had given him, sweatpants and one of his t-shirts with words that Ian couldn’t decipher. A thought flashes through and Ian almost shuts it down from how ridiculous it is, but he is getting desperate..
He thinks back to the time they filmed a video with Ian not wearing any pants, and how Anthony’s eyes seemed to keep drifting down to his thighs.
It wouldn’t be that weird for him to go out in just the shirt Anthony gave him and not the sweatpants, would it? It was pretty hot, and it’s not like Anthony has any problem walking around shirtless when he first wakes up.
Fuck it.
He unbuckles his belt and drops his jeans to the ground, taking the t-shirt and slipping it on. He stares at himself in Anthony’s long mirror, the hem of the shirt reaches below his boxers, completely covering his crotch. This should be fine, right?
He walks outside of Anthony’s bedroom and into the living room and hopes to god this gets something out of Anthony cause he has no idea what else would.
“Hey,” he says, walking into the living room and sitting on the couch beside Anthony on the couch, fixing his shirt self consciously.
The minute Anthony had seen him, his mouth fell open, and Ian watched as a flush took over his face. Anthony just stared at where Ian was, his brain short circuiting.
He turned away from Ian and pointedly looked towards the TV, his mouth slamming shut after he’d realized it was open. “Um, hi.” He croaks out, his voice breaking, and Ian smiles to himself. Anthony clears his voice. “You uh- ready to watch?” He asks, forcing himself to look at Ian. His eyes moving down to Ian’s thighs on their own accord before he willed himself to stare into his eyes instead.
Ian notices, getting himself more comfortable on the couch, no longer feeling self conscious. “Yeah, play it.” He answers, giving Anthony a smile and watches as the other struggles to return it.
As they watch the movie, Ian catches Anthony’s eyes going back to him every once in a while. He doesn’t think Ian is being a weirdo is he? If he did, he would’ve made a joke about Ian going commando under there, but he’d barely said anything ever since Ian sat down next to him.
He could see Anthony squirming beside him and trying to force himself to focus on the movie. He tries not to make it too obvious that he’s looking for Anthony’s reactions too.
The distance between them on the couch was already little, so Ian took that as an opportunity to brush his bare thigh to Anthony’s clothed one. Anthony flinched slightly, but recovered quickly and his leg stayed still. Ian swore he could feel a slight push towards him too.
Throughout the movie Ian tried to invade Anthony’s personal space. Leaning towards him and brushing their shoulders together, his hand holding Anthony’s arms when a scene is ‘too scary’, brushing away Anthony’s hair from his face.
Still, no matter how much skin contact or staring Anthony had shot his way, he was still avoiding saying anything. Ian sighs softly, Anthony turns towards him at the sound and Ian shakes his head as if to say ‘it’s nothing’ before shuffling on the couch so that his legs would be under him.
He looks down at the pizza box that’s sitting on the table in front of them, it’s a good distance away from where they were sitting that Ian would have to lean forward. He glances back at Anthony, before deciding to do it.
He leans forward, reaching for a slice. As he does that, he makes a show of arching his back, the shirt riding up slightly and revealing his ass that’s only covered by the boxers he’s wearing. He feels Anthony’s eyes on him, trailing down his back, then he leans back to the couch, taking a bite of his pizza and acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Ian feels Anthony’s eyes on him even as he settles down and focuses on the movie. He sees Anthony opening and closing his mouth from the corner of his eyes, like he’s preparing to say something. Ian feels satisfied, about time.
“Ian,” Anthony starts, and Ian’s heart flips in his chest. He looks back at his best friend, letting out a hum as a question.
“What are you doing?”
Ian freezes, not expecting that as a reaction. He settles deeper into the couch, pulling Anthony’s shirt to cover more of himself. He’s sure his face is so vibrantly red right now.
“What do you mean?” Ian asks, trying to save face by acting dumb.
“Look, there’s just no way you’ve needed to wear my clothes this many times in the past weeks. And- now this? What is this?” Anthony says, looking at Ian incredulously.
Ian opens his mouth to speak, trying to come up with anything to get him out of this. This is the most shamed he’d ever felt, he thinks walking down the street naked would be less humiliating.
“I don’t get what you’re talking about, I’m just trying to be comfortable.” Ian says, forcing a poker face. But Anthony doesn’t look convinced one bit.
“Ian, please?” Anthony sighs, turning to fully face Ian. “Can you tell me what this is really about without having to turn it into a game?”
It doesn’t seem like Anthony was budging, so there goes his plans of just acting like he was being normal. “Is that why you’ve been ignoring me?” Ian says, his embarrassment turning to frustration.
“What??” Anthony huffs out a laugh, like this was ridiculous to him.
“This whole time when I was “making it a game”” Ian says, doing air quotations mockingly. “you didn’t even bat an eye at me! You basically acted like I didn’t exist!”
“Ian- what??” Anthony lets out, so confused. “Buddy, I’m pretty sure I payed as much attention to you as I have for the past three years.”
Ian huffs, facing away from Anthony and sinking into the couch with his arms crossed. Not only did his plan completely fail, but Anthony was actively judging him for it. “You were supposed to pay more attention.” He mutters under his breath, making sure it’s loud enough for Anthony to hear.
Anthony stares at him, trying to figure out how to go about this. He licks his lips as they started feeling dry, he sneaks a glance down Ian’s thigh before staring at his face again. “Ian,” he starts, his voice gentle, it almost makes Ian want to hide.
Ian forces himself to look at Anthony, he knows he’s being hard to deal with, but Anthony was always able to handle him and his shit so he wasn’t too worried about it.
Anthony takes Ian’s hand in his and Ian almost flinched away. “Can you tell me what exactly you’re trying to achieve here?” He asks, his voice so calm it’s driving Ian crazy.
Anthony wants him to be direct? Fine, he can do that. “Do you like me?”
Anthony retreats his hand, and Ian tries to ignore how that stung. “Uh, why- where is this coming from?” Anthony asks, a nervous smile adorning his lips.
“Do you?”
Anthony doesn't say anything, looking in Ian's eyes for anything that would explain what's happening right now.
“It's okay, I'm sorry–” Ian starts, “it's just that– there's been this like, tension between us and I thought you could feel it too and it really felt like we were crossing the lines of friendship sometimes like I was pretty sure we've had flirty exchanges at least a couple of times, and I really like you and I thought you kind of liked me too since we were both um- both kind of came out in a way..”
“so um, courtney brought this thing up and obviously I was scared to say anything to your face so I thought trying to get you to say something would be less- um, I don't know, nerve wracking? But then this is happening and clearly what I wanted didn't work and I was wrong and I'm really sorry this is really weird I should've just– I don't know just told you or something, instead of- whatever the hell I'm doing right now. Um, I'm sorry, again. I promise I won't be trying anything or doing anything like- romantic adjacent to you, I just um, needed this cleared up, I guess. Sorry.”
Ian rambles, not giving Anthony any time to say anything. He doesn't hear the other man talk for a good minute, and he refuses to turn around and see his reaction, every second that passes just makes him more and more nervous. God, this should be fine- right? Friends have crushes on each other all the time! It's no big deal! At least, Ian hopes it isn't.
“Wait,” Anthony finally says. “You like me?”
Ian turns to face him, his brows furrowed. “Is this seriously the only thing you've gathered from what I've said?” He asks, and Anthony flushes.
“No! No, um.” Anthony rubs at his neck nervously. “I'm just.. relieved, I guess.”
“You're relieved?”
“I thought you were doing this to confront me without making it awkward!”
“What??”
“I thought–” Anthony fumbles with his hands. “I thought you were trying to like, trap me into telling you how I feel so you can let me down gently or something-”
Ian blinks, what the hell is happening right now? “How you feel?”
“Yeah, I- I like you too, obviously.” Anthony gives him a sheepish smile. “I mean, I thought it was so obvious that you were trying to get me to stop–”
“You think me flaunting around in your clothes is me trying to get you to stop liking me?”
“I don't know! I thought you thought it would make me uncomfortable or something!”
“I was pretty much trying to seduce you!”
“Clearly” Anthony remarks, looking down Ian's legs. Ian instinctively takes one of the couch's pillows to hide himself.
“Shut the fuck up!” Ian says, playfully shoving Anthony.
The absurdity of the situation finally catches up to them as they break into a fit of giggles. Anthony laughs so hard it looked like he'd stopped breathing.
After a good few minutes of them laughing about how ridiculous this whole thing is, it subsides into soft chuckles. “Jesus, we're really fucking stupid, huh?” Anthony breathed.
“So stupid.” Ian agrees, his face contorting into a giant smile.
“Soo… just to make sure we're not being stupid again. You like me?”
Ian feels his cheeks heat up, but the cat's already out of the bag. “I do..” He says.
“Like– you like like me?” Anthony asks teasingly.
“Can you shut up??”
“okay– okay I'm sorry.” Anthony surrenders, not looking sorry at all. “Um, I really really like you, Ian. Like- I'm honestly a little scared from how much I like you.” Anthony says earnestly, and it makes Ian's heart flip upon hearing these words. “I mean, I did think I made it obvious but I didn’t like- I didn’t think we were ever going to actually address it.”
“I really like you too.” Ian confirms, looking down at his hands. Anthony was being vulnerable, and Ian wanted to do the same. “Um, so what does this..” Ian trails off, not wanting to ask the ‘what are we’ question so soon.
“What do you want it to be?” Anthony asks, his hand going under Ian's chin and gently guiding him to look at him.
Ian stares into Anthony's soft brown eyes, feeling like he could stay like this forever. “I want to give this a go, try being together as more than friends.”
“Yeah? me too.” Anthony smiles, using his hand on Ian's chin to bring him closer and connect their lips into a kiss.
Ian kisses back immediately, closing his eyes and letting Anthony take control as he pushes him down onto the couch. Anthony's hands travel to his waist and down till the end of his shirt, before slipping a hand beneath it and feeling the skin there.
Ian giggles into the kiss, making Anthony pull away to look at him. “What?” He asks, a soft smile on his lips.
“You like it,” Ian says, giddy. “You like that I'm wearing your shirt.”
“God, of course I do.” Anthony groans on top of him, leaning down to press kisses along his neck, his hand traveling along the soft skin of Ian’s thighs. “I had to fight off jumping you for the past weeks.”
Ian smiles, pulling Anthony so their faces are close together. “So it did work.”
“It did.” He says, smiling against Ian's lips.