Work Text:
Peter closed the door of the garage and the noise of the wind died down to a bearable volume. He let out a long sigh of relief and stared for a moment at the snow the wind had carried into the garage while Peter had parked his rental car. For the past half hour of his drive or so, he had been worried that driving out to the cabin after the storm had already started might have been a mistake after all.
But now he had reached the safety of the cabin, and all those worries were pushed away. The garage wasn’t cozy warm, but it was still much warmer than outside in the storm. Bob had already been at the cabin since the morning, the first of them to arrive as every year, so the heating and most likely also a fire in the fireplace had been running for hours before the storm had even started.
That was also the reason why Peter had dared to drive through the upcoming storm, because he hadn’t wanted to leave Bob alone here. They had come to this cabin to spend time together—just the three of them—in the past two years as well after Jupiter and Bob had left LA to go to college. They might not have taken any money for their adventures as private investigators, but there were still clients who showed their gratitude in other ways. The use of this cabin in the middle of nowhere in Canada was one of those things they had happily accepted.
Peter left his luggage in the car for the time being and went to search for his friend and a warm cup of tea or cacao. It had been warm in the car, but the garage door wasn’t electric, so Peter had needed to leave the car to open the garage. Those two or three minutes out in the storm had been enough to make his fingers feel frozen and stiff.
“Bob?” Peter called out into the silent cabin.
“Pete? I didn’t think you or Jupiter would still make it!”
Peter found his friend in the living room, sitting in an armchair in front of the fireplace with a stack of papers in his lap.
“As if I’d leave you alone out here in this weather!” Peter protested with a laugh.
“Did you really drive through this storm?” Bob asked with a worried frown.
Peter shrugged. “It wasn’t that bad yet when I started. And again, I didn’t want to let you be stuck out here all alone. I was lucky with my flight, though. It was one of the last that got permission to land, the rest was rerouted to other airports. Jupiter’s flight was canceled outright, though. I talked to him when I was waiting to get my car at the airport. Depending on how the weather will be tomorrow he might fly out to LA right away instead of coming here.”
Bob nodded. “Makes sense. We should’ve probably all canceled when we heard about the storm.”
Peter grinned and sank into the second armchair. “I don’t mind being stuck here with you for the next five days. I don’t think we’ll be able to do any cross-country skiing like the last two years with this weather, though. But just five days of relaxing and catching up will be great.”
The truth was that Peter was pretty happy about their circumstances. Spending time with Jupiter and Bob had become very precious since they had all gone off to college in different parts of the country, and even more so since the Lakers had drafted Peter and he had to juggle his classwork around the sometimes very tight schedule of the team. And while Peter missed Jupiter fiercely, there was a different kind of longing involved concerning Bob. So, part of him was of course sad that Jupiter hadn’t made it to their annual winter retreat, but a much bigger part of him already cherished the chance several days alone with Bob would give him.
Peter pointed at the papers in Bob’s lap. “Did you really bring work with you?”
Bob laughed and held up the first page so Peter could read the title. “No work.”
Peter’s eyes grew wide. “Wait, is that my story?”
“It is,” Bob said. “And it kept me captivated for most of the day. I barely noticed the storm in time to close the shutters because I was so distracted.”
Peter blushed. He hadn’t really intended to let anyone read the story. It was a relatively new hobby, and the only reason Bob had gotten hold of the story was because Peter had shared the wrong link when he had intended to share a cloud folder with pictures with Bob. He hadn’t noticed the mistake until two days later, when Bob had thanked him for sharing the story and asked about the pictures.
“I’m not sure I believe you with the amount of sticky notes you left in there!” Peter muttered and sank deeper into the armchair.
“They’re color coded,” Bob said. “Depending on what kind of feedback you want I’ll take out the colors you don’t want. Or you don’t need to deal with any of my annotations at all.”
Peter huffed. “I’ll think about it.”
But now he was curious about every single thought Bob had about his story, so he would probably accept all of Bob’s annotations eventually. Once he had gotten used to the idea that Bob had actually read his story and taken it seriously.
“Did you already have dinner?” Peter asked eventually.
Bob pointed at the papers. “I told you, I was very distracted.”
Peter huffed. “Okay. Then we can cook dinner and talk about anything but that. You do know I didn’t intend for you to read the story, right?”
Bob laughed again and put the printed-out story on the armchair after he stood up. “You sent me the link. I had already started reading before you told me it was an accident. It’s hardly my fault that you wrote a story I couldn’t stop reading.”
Peter sighed and decided that this fight wasn’t worth it, mostly because it was clearly already lost.
***
“The storm is still going strong,” Peter said in the morning, when Bob finally found his way out of his bed.
Bob hummed and turned to the pot of coffee Peter had already prepared. He didn’t know when Peter had turned into a morning person instead of sleeping until it was time for lunch. The separation during their college time had been the best decision for each of them individually, but in moments like this when he didn’t know something about Peter or Jupiter anymore, Bob sometimes regretted the choices they had made about it.
During their last year of high school, when the three of them had prepared their college applications, they’d had a very long debate about going to college together or separately. Right at the beginning the plan had been to stay together because they hadn’t been able to imagine being separated. Of course, then their acceptance letters had arrived, and they could’ve all gone to the same college, but it hadn’t been one of the colleges that would have given any of them the best path for their education. So, in the end, they had decided to concentrate on what was best for the future each of them was working towards and had chosen three different colleges.
“Did you look up the forecast before you drove out here?” Bob asked.
With the storm they had no reception at all, so they couldn’t look up any updates about the storm or anything else. It was one reason why they had originally chosen this place for their yearly retreat. Out in the middle of nowhere with barely any reception even with good weather had finally broken the curse they had suffered under during most of their childhood. When they hadn’t stumbled into any kind of case their first year here—and they had been fully prepared to stumble into some oddity going on and chasing after the solution of that riddle for old time’s sake—they had decided to make an annual tradition out of it. Though, with Jupiter and Bob approaching their final exams the following summer, they might need to find another week for this retreat other than the week right before Christmas.
“Could last for more than a day,” Peter said, sounding much too awake and too ready to start the day. “I told you, we aren’t going skiing this year.”
“When did you become a morning person?” Bob complained as he finally took the first drink of his coffee.
Peter chuckled. “I pretty much didn’t have a choice once the Lakers had drafted me. You already complained about this last year, Bob. And I think exactly with the same tone and the same disgruntled frown.”
Bob huffed and retreated into the living room with his coffee. That really was just another reminder how little time they spent together now. He didn’t have time to get used to any of Peter’s or Jupiter’s new habits, and the same was true for them with his own new habits. It grated on his nerves with Jupiter, but with Peter it somehow felt like a deep wound.
Maybe it was Bob finally planning his life after college with his bachelor’s degree just months away now, that made him so wistful about the changes in his relationships with Jupiter and Peter. At the end of high school, it had seemed to be impossible for them to grow apart, and now he was contemplating moving back home finally, and that made him realize how much home would’ve changed.
Peter left him to his morning ritual of getting through two cups of coffee before Bob was really ready to have any kind of conversation. They ended up eating the breakfast Peter had prepared in silence in the living room with Bob mostly staring into the fire that Peter had started in the fireplace, by the state of it at least an hour before Bob had gotten up.
“You’re going to move back to Rocky Beach in the summer, right?” Peter asked while they were busy cleaning up the kitchen afterwards.
“That’s the plan,” Bob agreed. “Or anywhere between Rocky Beach and LA. I don’t think I can afford living space in LA, and I don’t know if I want to deal with the traffic, to be honest.”
Peter laughed. “LA traffic sucks. But living halfway between campus and our training center is making it a little more bearable. Even if I’m not at the campus a lot because I just don’t have the time for it.”
“I’m not going to work for any of the local newspapers, so my place of work isn’t much of a consideration,” Bob said. “Or at least, not full time like Dad does. I want to write about the kind of things that will keep me away from my home base for weeks or even months at times.”
“I have your article from the National Geographic in a folder at home,” Peter said with a grin. “Can’t wait to add others to that folder, too.”
Bob laughed. “I barely wrote any of it!”
He liked to tell people that he didn’t know how he had ended up on that expedition in the summer, though the truth was that it had been another contact Bob had made together with Peter and Jupiter during one of their cases. He didn’t even correct some of the people in his classes who assumed it had been a contact created through his father, mostly because he didn’t want any of these people to look too closely at his old hobby. He didn’t need anyone to get the idea to start writing about it, and he could name at least five people at the top of his head who’d happily pursue that story.
Bob had mostly been settled with the basic research of the expedition and otherwise been delegated to take care of the little things that kept an expedition running—looking for hotels the team could rent rooms in, making sure they had transportation, providing coffee or the beverage of their choice for everyone. It wasn’t the kind of work he wanted to do, but he was painfully aware that it was part of the learning experience. And he had learned a lot during those two months in the summer even with mostly being settled with the menial work no one else wanted to do.
“Your name is still on that article as one of the co-authors,” Peter said. “It’s just fair that I have a collection of your publications if you insist on reading my stories. Which won’t be published. Don’t even start that argument.”
Bob grinned and kept his thoughts to himself. One day he would convince Peter that his book was worth putting out there for everyone to read. But he was prepared to wait with that argument for a little while. That Peter had written a story at all—after Peter’s hatred for English had been nearly as big as for math back in school—was still startling. And another point on the long, long list of things Bob hadn’t known about his friend.
“I really hate how many things there are that I don’t know about you anymore,” Bob said with a frown and closed the dishwasher.
Peter sighed. “Right? And it just crept up on us out of nowhere. I hate it, too, by the way.” He leaned against the kitchen counter and watched Bob intently. “You know, my apartment is pretty big. And I have two whole guestrooms that are only ever used by you and Jupiter anyway. You could just move in with me.”
Bob laughed. “That’s a crazy idea, Pete.”
“I miss you,” Peter said quietly.
Bob turned to him fully and his breath caught in his throat because there was something else in Peter’s gaze. Something that took Bob right back to the last night he had spent in Rocky Beach before moving out all the way to the other side of the country into his dorm room while Peter had stayed behind in Rocky Beach. A night they had spent together, sharing an intimacy they had been dancing around for most of the last two years of high school without ever following that pull between them.
Bob shook his head with a sad smile. “Nothing has changed, Pete,” he whispered. “I just told you, if everything goes to plan, I’m not going to spend a lot of time at home between research projects.”
“I have changed,” Peter said. “Or rather … I’ve grown up from the pretty narrow view I had of the world and myself back when I was eighteen.”
Bob frowned silently. That last night in Rocky Beach still lingered in Bob’s memories even now. Bob had been driven by a silent desperation that night while they had spent hours getting to know each other in a completely new way, learning how the other felt and sounded and tasted. At first because of the knowledge that he wouldn’t see Peter again for months, when he had still been convinced it wouldn’t be the only night they would share. Then, later, after they had been lying beside each other, content and sated but with no desire to actually sleep, and Peter had started to talk, telling him he couldn’t imagine having a long-distance relationship, that desperation had turned into something different. There really hadn’t been any argument Bob could’ve come up with, and so he had accepted that it would be one night only and he had been sure to use the remaining hours of the night accordingly. It had made their good-bye at the airport the next morning all the more a bitter-sweet one.
Peter stared at him, then he lowered his head with a sad smile. “And you changed, too, of course. You just pointed out that we don’t know everything about each other anymore. I guess I missed—"
Bob interrupted him by taking the two steps that separated them and leaned against the counter right beside his friend, so their shoulders pressed together. He laced his fingers with Peter’s and asked, “Tell me what changed for you.”
Peter took a ragged breath and squeezed Bob’s fingers tightly. “I … I was a selfish prick, really. I mean, I really couldn’t see myself having a long-distance relationship back then, but part of me also hoped you’d … stay, I guess. And I know how fucked up that was, okay? I’m glad you didn’t understand what I was aiming for, or that you just ignored it.”
Bob chuckled. “No, I really didn’t understand that you were somehow hoping for me to change my plans at the very last second. I don’t think I’d have spent the rest of the night with you if I had understood it. So, I’m glad I didn’t because I still consider that the best night of my life.”
Bob watched Peter out of the corner of his eyes and was happy when he saw that remark put a smile on Peter’s face.
Peter pressed his shoulder a little more against Bob’s and blew out a breath. “Yeah, agreed. As I said, I’m really glad you didn’t see through my stupidity back then. I know it was selfish. I mean, I could’ve just followed you as easily, right?”
Buck shrugged. While he had been accepted to UCLA, too, Peter hadn’t been offered a sports scholarship anywhere near Bob’s college. Maybe Peter’s memories were betraying him here about how easy it would’ve been for him to follow Bob.
“Anyway,” Peter continued. “I’m not that selfish little prick anymore. And I’ve learned other things about myself, too. I’d rather know you’ll come home to me from your adventures eventually and enjoy the time we do have together as much as possible than not have you at all.” There was a moment of silence where Peter inhaled deeply. “If that’s still on the table at all, I mean.”
Bob thought he had been very clear about that over the past couple of minutes, but maybe he hadn’t been clear enough for Peter. So, he turned without letting go of Peter’s hand until he stood in front of Peter, watching him for a moment with a warm smile. Then he leaned in for a kiss and Peter met him eagerly and hungrily.
“This clear enough?” Bob asked with raised brows and a sly grin.
“I don’t know,” Peter said, grinning widely and grabbing the front of Bob’s shirt with his free hand. “I might need some more of it to really drive the answer home.”
Bob chuckled and leaned their foreheads together. “We got nearly five whole days to ourselves. I’m sure I’ll be able to convince you during that time.”
Peter laughed and pulled Bob back into another kiss.
***
When Peter woke up on the third morning in the cabin, he pulled Bob a little tighter against his chest with a grin and settled in to just stay exactly where he was until Bob woke up. Or maybe, if Peter got bored at one point as he had done the previous morning, he’d find a way again to wake Bob that would distract him immediately from any morning grumpiness.
Maybe if the really great weather that had followed the storm held for the approaching day, they might be able to go on a little tour and enjoy the mostly still untouched snowy forest. The storm had finally subsided in the morning for their second day here. So, they had spent most of the hours they’d had daylight shoveling snow. Eventually, a snow blow would find its way to the cabin, they knew that from previous years, but the area right in front of the house and the garage still needed to be plowed by hand.
Bob sighed and turned his head to press his face against Peter’s bare chest, startling Peter out of his musings for the day ahead. “You being a morning person all of a sudden really might turn into a problem.”
Peter laughed. “Nah, I’m not worried about that. I haven’t even done anything to wake you up yet! Maybe you’re naturally turning into a morning person, too.”
Bob huffed.
“This might sound a little mean,” Peter murmured, “but I’m kind of glad about the storm and that Jupiter’s flight was canceled because of it.”
Bob chuckled. “I’ve had the same thought. You wouldn’t’ve brought up the topic if Jupiter had been here with us. And I honestly thought everything was said about the topic.”
Peter sighed. Bob was right, of course. Especially as it hadn’t really been Peter who had broached the topic, at least it didn’t feel that way for him. Peter’s offer to turn his guestroom into a room for Bob had been utterly honest and without any goal to pick up where they had left off in that last night before Bob had gone to college. It had been Bob who had made that connection, and Peter had just taken the opportunity instead of correcting Bob’s assumptions about his intentions.
“I’m sorry for how stupid I was at 18. Though, maybe I needed these past couple of years to learn some things about myself.”
“I’m pretty sure being stupid at the age of 18 is just par for the course,” Bob said. “I’m sure if we asked our parents, they’d have a whole book full of things they’d call us stupid for at that age.”
Peter laughed. “Yeah, but most of those things would be about our cases. Let’s never ask them about it. And especially not Jupiter’s aunt and uncle.”
“Agreed,” Bob said. “Is learning that maybe a long-distance relationship might not be as horrible as you thought the only thing you learned about yourself?”
Peter took a moment to contemplate his answer. “Do you remember how Jupiter teased me last year when we were here about not dating? That somehow, he had ended up enjoying his social college life much more than I do?”
Bob laughed loudly and nodded. To be fair, that whole conversation had started with Bob and Peter teasing Jupiter about the fact that he had finally found his interest in dating and doing a lot of it. Peter hadn’t taken Jupiter’s teasing back to heart, though it had made him start thinking about some things later on when he had been alone in LA again.
“He was right, of course, though I’d still argue you were Mr. Popular all along, not me,” Peter continued. “I haven’t been on a single date since you left LA. Because I just didn’t have any interest in it. Jeffrey helped me figure some things out about that.”
Bob huffed and muttered barely audible and still with a lot of disdain, “Jeffrey.”
Peter grinned, glad that Bob wouldn’t see that. He had always been amused by Bob’s dislike for Jeffrey—or rather his dislike for the time Peter spent with Jeffrey. At least Peter wasn’t the only one with a little bit of a jealous streak. He felt very much the same about anyone Bob had ever mentioned going out with, especially over these past couple of years.
“Yes, Jeffrey,” Peter said and knew he hadn’t managed to keep his amusement out of his voice when Bob slapped him playfully with the hand that had so far absentmindedly been caressing his side. “You know I was with him at the Pride parade in LA the past two years. I could hardly talk with you about the fact that I didn’t have any interest in dating anyone or even just hooking up with someone because I was and still am in love with you.”
“You could have,” Bob said and shifted until he could press a kiss against Peter’s lips. “And just for the record, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired hearing you say that.”
Peter huffed and rolled his eyes. “Sure. I should’ve just come online for one of our video calls and started talking about my lack of any kind interest in dating or sex because the only person I want is you. After I was the one who told you long-distance wouldn’t work. That would have sounded so great, and it wouldn’t have led to an argument at all.”
Bob laughed. “It would’ve probably led to an argument. But you could’ve just started with ‘I changed my mind about the long-distant thing’. That would’ve set the right tone from the beginning.”
Peter sighed. “Yeah, maybe. Didn’t seem that easy in my mind. Especially as you have been very actively dating.”
Bob shook his head and watched Peter with a soft smile. “I wouldn’t call what I’ve been doing dating. I have very much enjoyed myself whenever the opportunity arose. Or when I just felt like it. But that was about sex, not about falling in love or finding a partner to build a life with. I somehow never saw a reason to work on getting over being in love with you.”
“Lucky me.”
“Very lucky you,” Bob agreed. “So, you spent the last—what exactly? Couple of months? Year?—talking Jeffrey’s ears off about your undying love for me?”
Peter laughed. “A little, maybe. He has been telling me for a while that he won’t shy back from locking us in some closet until we get all that sorted out. But no, we mostly talked about different sexualities and how they present themselves and all that. I think what fits me the most is demisexual. And having a term helped a great deal, because I could look up what other people shared about their experiences.”
“I hate to admit it,” Bob said slowly, “but I’m glad Jeffrey was there to help you figure that out. And I’m glad the snowstorm beat Jeffrey to it. The times when I felt comfortable hiding with you or Jupiter in some crammed closet to spy on people or hiding from them is long past.”
Peter laughed. “I’ll tell Jeffrey exactly that. That he was beaten in his match-making meddling by a snowstorm.”
“Being snowed in in a huge and very luxurious cabin is much more comfortable than being locked in a closet,” Bob said. “Jeffrey should take pointers for such plans from nature in the future!”