Chapter Text
“I need help,” Darlin blurted out, barely in the room.
David looked up, instantly forgetting the paperwork on his desk. He was first and foremost floored by that particular string of words coming from that mouth. Darlin never asked for help. If they were stuck in a beartrap they would sooner gnaw off a limb than ask for help. So, his second reaction was a mix of fury and a need to know who the hell had crossed them so badly that they would ask.
Darlin huffed when he didn’t say anything, obviously flustered and uncomfortable. With a growl they turned to leave.
“Sit,” David snapped. It sounded angry, but he was honestly horrified they’d think he’d ignored their request. They would go back on it just as quickly as they’d said it—he knew that.
Darlin hesitated and then finally sat down across from him at the desk.
David almost sighed in relief. “What do you need?”
Darlin whined and dropped their head on his desk.
David stared. If they weren’t possibly in danger, he would think this was hilarious—he would definitely enjoy Darlin being this whiney on most days. “What—”
“I’m dating this guy,” they said, voice echoing off the desk.
David frowned. “What did he do?”
Darlin groaned. “Nothing. Everything. I don’t know.”
David frowned harder. “What the fuck are you talking about? Did he hurt you?”
“What?” Darlin lifted their head, face pinched in confusion. “No. He’s…nice.”
David exhaled hard and sat back. “Jesus.” Thank god. Darlin had bullshit taste. They usually picked partners like they were looking to punish themself for something. Fortunately, they never lasted long.
“Never mind,” Darlin said, already out of the chair and bolting for the door. They were out before he could realize how he’d handled this wrong. Fuck.
David got up and followed. He caught up before they left the building. They had started to open the door and he came up behind them, slamming it shut again and keeping his hand there. Darlin sighed. Instead of turning to look at him though, they just thumped their forehead to the surface. “It was stupid. Please just let me go and forget I said anything.”
“No.”
Darlin turned around, leaning their back into the door and looking up at him. “What? Why not? You hate relationship conversations.”
David curled his lip. “No. I hate gossip. Is this gossip?”
“No,” they mumbled.
“Who are you dating?”
Darlin sighed. “Elemental guy. I ran into him at this hotdog place. We ended up talking. I thought it was friendly.”
“So, you don’t want to be dating him?”
“No, that’s not it. It started off as friends and he needed a place to crash so I said he could rent the extra room in my—”
“You’re living with him?” David tried to keep his voice even, but a little wave of panic was rising in his chest. Darlin never lived with any of the people they’d dated, as far as he was aware. They had always maintained a solid line between the assholes they dated and the places they felt safe. The idea of them having no easy escape from them…
“Yeah, that’s not really the problem.”
“What’s the problem?”
Darlin groaned. “It was friendly and then it was kind of flirty and then he’s inviting me to go to his games and sometimes we just hang out and I think we might be dating…”
“Why do you sound so confused?” It was pissing him off. He didn’t understand what the problem was.
“Because he’s so nice! He’s a good person. And I don’t… I don’t know what I’m doing. And he…” They blushed and looked at the floor.
What did he do? David wanted to demand but he knew it would come out in a growl and that wouldn’t be helpful. He waited, staring back at them and still holding the door shut so they had no hope of escape until they explained.
Darlin groaned. “He’s nice,” they said again. “I don’t know what to do with nice. I’ve never been with nice. I’m not even sure if we’re dating or if he’s just really really fucking friendly.”
David stared. “He’s nice?” he repeated.
Darlin glared and looked like they might try to bolt again.
“Are you… Have you two…” Fuck. FUCK! He did not want to have this conversation. But he couldn’t ignore their obvious distress. David growled but asked. “Have you two slept together?”
The length of the pause suggested the answer even before they squirmed, gaze going anywhere but directly at him. “I mean, yeah…but that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t casual, you know?”
David tried very hard not to react or even think about that in any detail. So, they were sexually involved. Check. “And you can’t tell if you’re dating or just…friends with benefits?”
Darlin nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s the problem.”
He bit back all impulses to tell Darlin how dumb they were. They were being really vulnerable with him and he wasn’t going to mess that up. He also wasn’t going to screw up any opportunity to help them. “Is he sleeping with anyone else?”
Darlin thought about it and then shook their head. “I don’t think so.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
David thought about it for another few seconds and Darlin actually waited, patient now that they were hopeful he’d help. “Okay. We have a barbecue on Saturday. You’re going, right?”
Darlin looked dubious. “Yeah…”
“Bring him.”
“That’s a pack thing.”
David nodded. “Yeah. Bring him. Either he’s your friend and roommate, in which case we should meet him, or he’s your boyfriend and we should definitely meet him.”
Darlin’s face pinched. “I never bring anyone to those.”
David sighed. No, they hadn’t. In fact, Darlin had always been careful to keep their partners away from the pack. He didn’t miss why, either. Darlin wouldn’t have trusted any of those partners near pack. “Bring him. We’ll figure it out.” One way or the other. He would figure out what this problem really was and how to help Darlin. If doing that was putting the fear of the whole Shaw Pack into this asshole, then so be it.
“Fine,” Darlin sulked but agreed.
It was a lot faster than David had expected, but he certainly wasn’t going to argue with it.
Darlin sighed, dragging a hand through their hair and tugging nervously. “Can I go?” they griped.
David rolled his eyes and stepped back, letting them open the door and escape. He stood there for a while in their wake, going over the whole mess of a conversation and still not sure what the hell was going on. Were they really that unsure if they were dating the guy? It wasn’t like Darlin to care. It wasn’t like them to not just ask if they wanted to know something. Were they scared?
Darlin came home. When they opened the door, the smell of rosemary and onions reminded their stomach it was empty.
Music played somewhere inside the jungle of houseplants.
The apartment had slowly but surely become unrecognizable since Huxley moved into the guest room.
That was reason to think they weren’t really dating, right? They still had their own rooms. Couples didn’t usually keep their own rooms. But…they always slept together, it was just sometimes in his room and sometimes in theirs. And they seemed to move freely between both.
“Is that you, tough stuff?” he called from the kitchen.
Darlin shrugged out of their jacket and hung it up. “Yeah,” they called, hoping he couldn’t hear the way the nickname made their face feel warm. They stepped out of their boots and walked to the kitchen. He had textbooks and notebooks on one side of the dining table. He’d been worried about leaving his things out when he first moved in. He’d just needed a place to crash back then. But Darlin had assured him they didn’t care where he left his books, or his clothes, or his plants. And that was when the plants started arriving. Darlin always noticed a new one. Sometimes he rescued ones left to brown and die in windows on campus. A few Darlin had been sure were dead, but somehow he brought them back.
They came around the corner into the mouth of the kitchen. He was a big man and now the little kitchen looked tiny. He’d showered recently, his hair still wet, and he hadn’t bothered to put on a shirt. His joggers hung on his hips and Darlin had to make a decision to look away—to turn to the fridge to get something to drink. He was taking something out of the oven and it smelled amazing.
He did that sometimes—made food. And he always shared. In fact, he made food for both of them. He’d even figured out what Darlin liked and didn’t like, which was wild since Darlin barely cared enough to figure that out.
Darlin couldn’t make food. The best they could do was order in, which they did to try to feed him in return because that was what people did, right?
“Everything okay?” he asked, worry in his voice.
Darlin blinked, realizing they were frowning in thought. “Oh. Yeah. Just tired.”
Huxley nodded, shaking off an oven mitt. He’d made a quiche. He’d made it before and Darlin loved that fucking quiche. He put it on the counter and grabbed something from the refrigerator, uncapping the bottle of water and holding it out to them. “Here. If you want to shower before we eat you totally can.”
Darlin took the water, grateful when he came closer to deliver it and stayed in their personal space. He casually fingered the hair out of their face like he was getting a look at them. Darlin could never quite meet his gaze when he was looking at them like that—like he was really seeing them, caring to catalogue and check for any signs of something amiss. “Thanks,” Darlin whispered before downing some water, pretending to themself that that was what they were thanking him for.
“Anytime, dude. Hey, after we eat, do you want to crawl into bed early? We can put on a movie or something and just chill?”
Anyone else and Darlin would assume that was a weird sort of pick-up line. They had, in fact, assumed that the first time he said something like that. They’d been dead tired that time and figured he wanted sex anyway. They’d been less than happy about it but gone along with it anyway. At least he’d sort of asked. None of their previous partners would have. But when they’d finally crawled into bed that night, Darlin had reached for him—ready to get it over with so they really could sleep. Huxley had caught their wrist and gently pulled their hand away from him. He’d moved them until he was spooning them, his body flush to theirs but no arousal pressing against them. He’d kissed their temple and asked if they wanted him to sleep in the other room, like he really would and he wouldn’t even be mad about it. Darlin hadn’t been too tired then to really be surprised, just shaking their head and grateful to be held.
Huxley never tried to take anything from them. He was just there with them. They had great sex but they even had a great time when there was no sex involved. It was all very confusing. “Yeah, that sounds good,” Darlin admitted. “Really good, thanks.”
Huxley smiled.
Darlin leaned into him, kissing him, savoring the way his arm curled around their back and gently tugged them up against his body. They stayed close even when the kiss broke, just hanging on to each other. “So…” Darlin forced themselves to say something. If they didn’t, they might not at all. “There’s this barbecue thing I have to go to on Saturday. Do you want to come with?”
He squeezed them a little tighter and they were so close that they could hear his heart beat faster.
“You don’t have to. It was just an idea and you probably have stuff to do.” They let go of him, ready to step back and retreat to the bathroom to shower, but Huxley kept hold of their hips, not quite letting them go. And he looked… happy. He looked really happy.
“What? No. I’d love to go. Is it a work thing or…?”
“It’s a pack thing.” They hated the heat that rose up their neck to their cheeks.
Huxley obviously tried to temper his grin but it seemed impossible. “Cool. Should we bring anything?”
Darlin blinked. It had never even occurred to them to ask. They usually just showed up late, ate whatever food David put in their hands, stayed until it was dark, and then went home. Did people bring things? There was always a table of food. “I…don’t think so?”
Huxley laughed. “That sounds a lot like a question, dude…”
Darlin rolled their eyes dramatically and pushed out of his hold, walking toward the hall. “I’ll ask, okay?” They stopped at the mouth of the hall and looked back at him. He was still smiling, standing there in his sweats and nothing else. He’d already showered but… They bit their lip, not quiet looking at him and not quite smirking when they asked, “Wanna join me?”
Huxley bit his lip, smile changing but never vanishing. “Absolutely,” he closed the distance between them, practically chasing Darlin down the hall and into the bathroom.