Blink hated working at the video store. Day after day, he had to deal with stupid customers who bombarded him with moronic questions, and who tried to scam the store out of money. And for this, he was paid barely minimum wage.

The store was overstaffed, so his hours were being cut. It was absolutely ridiculous. It was bad enough when they were at full staff, and he was only getting twenty hours a week, but now some new guy had transferred in. Who made up the dumb rule about having to accept transfers anyway?

He sighed, and tried to stop glaring in the general direction of the schedule, and instead concentrate on the tapes that he was supposed to be running. He didn't understand some of the movies people rented. Seriously, Eurotrip as one of the heaviest rented titles? Did people have any taste at all?

Honestly, they really didn't. At least not the ones from this town. As he finished placing the last of the crappy movie returns on the shelf, another group of tapes were thrown into the drop box. Blink grimaced. It wasn't like they were coming into the store to rent anything anyway. He'd barely done any business all morning. And he had this new guy coming in to train any minute.

He headed back behind the counter and waited. Soon enough, the new guy… Michael, according to the sheet, entered the store, wearing the hideously ugly purple shirt that Hollywood Video insisted all its employees be subjected to. However, Blink noted in surprise, this guy made the shirt look good. Something that Blink didn't think was at all possible.

In fact, the guy was hot. Not that Blink was interested in a relationship at the moment. And anyway, the guy was probably straight.

No… He was too hot to be straight.

"You must be Ryan, right?" the incredibly hot boy asked him. It was all Blink could do to nod. His mouth suddenly went dry, and he knew he had to be making a fool out of himself. It was a good thing that nobody else was in the store to see him act like this. "I'm Michael," Hot Boy continued. "Just transferred from upstate."

"Yeah, I know," Blink managed to say. "And call me Blink, almost everyone goes by nicknames here. The manager is a bit… weird."

"Isn't that against policy?"

"Yeah, but it's a store joke. It's because this one customer kept calling Ron by a stupid nickname. So we all started using them, so he wouldn't feel all alone." Blink gestured to his nametag, which was clearly labeled 'Blink'. "The other side has my real name on it," he added.

"Oh. So I should probably come up with something then."

"We could call you Mush, because everyone is going to want to turn you into that, for stealing our hours." Blink winced as the words came out of his mouth. Open mouth, insert foot, he thought to himself. He had been planning to tell the new guy that he was screwing everyone else over… but he didn't want to insult the hot (and hopefully gay!) boy. But, as usual, his mouth had operated without input from his brain.

Amazingly, Hot Boy didn't seem to hate him for his harsh words. In fact… was he blushing?

"Yeah," he said quietly, hanging his head in shame. "The manager told me that you guys were all going to be mad. Look, I didn't make the rule… I didn't know you were full staffed when we moved here."

"It's okay," Blink told him. Honestly, he was shocked at how fast his anger was fading. He was known for his short temper… It was how he'd gotten into the accident that was the source of his nickname.

"Eh, I still feel shitty for it. And Mush… I guess that works. It'll be a good reminder anyway." Hot Boy smiled, and Blink melted.

The sound of the metal detector going off alerted Blink to the fact that they were still in public, and they had customers to attend to.

"Right," he said briskly, trying to sound as shift leader-like as possible. "Have you clocked in yet?"

Mush nodded, looking rather amused at Blink's attempt to sound authoritarian.

"Good, there's a drawer for you right next to mine," Blink pointed at one of the terminals. "Go log in."

Blink moved to his own terminal, and promptly managed to get into an argument with a customer about late fees. The woman was rattling off story after story about why her movies were two days late. Blink eventually ended up deleting the late fees just to get the woman to shut up already.

He spent as much time as possible checking to see how Mush was doing. After all, that was his job. To make sure that Mush had been properly trained, and could function well enough at the store. Which he could, apparently his old store had trained him well enough. Still, Blink left his drawer open, but didn't ring himself, preferring to watch Mush as he worked.

The rush ended quickly, and Mush looked over at Blink nervously. "So how'd I do?" he asked.

"You did great," Blink told him. "You don't really need any training, so you should be fine from now on."

But still, as the shift passed, he kept his eyes trained on Mush. When they were both ringing, they spent their time talking to each other, and learned that they both had a similar sense of humor and similar interests. When he had to run tapes, he barely paid attention, because watching Mush was much more interesting.

By the time the his replacement got in at six, Blink had learned to distinguish between Mush's real smile, the one that he had flashed at Blink when they'd first met, and the "oh god, you're such an idiot, please leave now" smile that he would give to the customers who were harassing him. While both smiles would make anyone melt, Blink resolved to make Mush use the other smile as much as possible.

After Blink clocked out, he headed to the back office, and hung his purple shirt on the rack, leaving him only in a wifebeater. He picked out a movie and headed to go check out.

"Having a good first day?" he asked Mush.

"So far," Mush replied. "Everyone here seems nice enough." He grinned at Blink.

"Good." Blink smiled back, and handed Mush his movie.

"When are you working next?" asked Mush, looking steadily at the computer screen as he worked.

"Tomorrow," Blink answered. "Six to close."

Mush looked up briefly and nodded. "I'll be in at eight," he said.

"Cool." Blink smiled, and Mush returned the favor. "It'll be nice working with you again."

Had it been his imagination, or had Mush been checking him out?

The next week went quickly. Blink and Mush ended up working together often, and they got along well. The two would spend their shifts chatting, and talking about everything, and mocking the customers who would come up with the strangest requests. Blink admired the way that Mush still managed to smile, even while customers ranted about how it was the stores job to have in every movie at all time. Mush seemed to find Blink's ability to keep a straight face even while customer's showed the greatest amount of ignorance known to man. Who would have thought that the concept of a movie special was so difficult to grasp? And while Blink still thought that Mush was incredibly hot, he now liked him as a person as well. But he was still too scared to ask anything of Mush… he'd been rejected before, and he didn't want to lose Mush's friendship.

But after one shift, everything changed. Blink had taken the morning shift, and had absolutely no plans for the evening. So he'd gone to rent a movie. He normally would have made Mush check it out, but this particular movie would have revealed way too much about Blink's sexuality, so he moved over to the next terminal and handed Rain his movie, hoping that she wouldn't comment.

Unfortunately, she didn't cooperate.

"Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights?" she asked in disbelief. "Jesus, Blink, I knew you were gay, but this is ridiculous. I love Dirty Dancing, but even I won't watch the bad sequel."

"It's not like I'm paying for it, Rain," he muttered, glancing over at Mush, who was staring back at him. "He was hot in Y Tu Mama Tambien. And shut up about that, will you?"

Rain raised an eyebrow, followed Blink's gaze, and then rolled her eyes. "Sure thing, hon. You go enjoy Dirty Dancing with the ugly guy. Although, Patrick Swayze does make a cameo, so maybe there will be a point to watching it."

Rain handed him his movie, and Blink began to leave, but paused when Mush called his name.

"You're watching Dirty Dancing 2 tonight?" Mush asked.

"Yeah," Blink blushed.

"I'm done at eight… mind if I join you? It'll be a lot more fun if you've got company for it."

"Sure!" Blink squeaked out. "I think I'd like that."

"Awesome," Mush's smile nearly lit up the store, at least to Blink's eyes. Blink quickly gave him directions to his house, and left feeling rather confused, and hopeful. They'd never hung out outside of work before. And… Mush hadn't even asked him until after hearing Rain's comment about Blink's sexuality.

Blink rushed home, and found a note on the table saying that his parents had gone out to dinner with another couple, and they wouldn't be back until midnight. Blink grinned. He would be alone with Mush. Of course, then it sunk in. He would be alone with Mush. Rushing into the living room, he quickly straightened the place up and removed anything incriminating from sight. He rushed his laundry and a stack of magazines into his bedroom, and made sure that he'd hidden all his baby pictures. As soon as he was satisfied with the room, he took a quick shower and got dressed in a pair of nice jeans, and a wifebeater like the one he'd worn the first day that he'd met Mush.

At eight o'clock, Blink opened the front door, and sat down at the table to wait for Mush. By ten after, he was getting nervous. Of course, there was no guarantee that Mush would even get out of work on time, and he did have to drive over. And it wasn't like this was a date anyway. They were just two friends hanging out. Blink tried to remember that.

Finally, Mush's beat up '95 Toyota pulled into the driveway. Mush got out of the car, and Blink saw he was still in uniform. It never ceased to amaze him how hot Mush could make that uniform look.

"Hey," Mush greeted him after Blink opened the door. "Ready to watch the bad movie?"

"Yep." Blink led Mush into the living room. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"Just a soda would be fine," Mush replied, taking a seat on one of the couches.

When Blink returned with two cokes, Mush continued, "I'm glad you let me join you. I was too scared to rent this myself. I figured everyone would probably question my… you know."

Blink winced. This didn't sound like it was going so well.

And Mush just didn't let it drop. "After what Rain said to you and all…"

Blink sighed. "Rain just forgot that you didn't know. I'm not officially out at work, but Rain had a thing for me, so I told her."

He turned away from Mush, taking a seat on the rocking chair. "I'm sorry… if you want to leave, I'd understand."

He risked a glance over at Mush, and saw the authentic smile that he loved so much slowly fade away. "What, you think I'm some sort of… Jesus, Blink, don't worry, I'm not like… I'm gay."

"What?" Blink thought he'd been hearing things. Mush had probably said, "I'm Jose," or "That's cliché," or "Bird of prey," or "For you I'll pray," except that was stupid and no one used sentence structure like that, even if it did rhyme with… that thing he thought Mush had just said. But… there was no way that Mush had actually just said that he was gay.

"I said I like boys. I'm just not… out at home. My parents don't know yet, and I don't know if I'd ever be able to actually tell them. And it's not exactly something I tend to publicize. But after hearing what Rain said to you… I was hoping that you were…"

Blink smiled. "I was hoping that you were… but I didn't want…" he trailed off. "So, movie now?" he asked quickly, desperate to change the subject. He really shouldn't have been so nervous, this was what he wanted after all. Mush was gay, and from the sound of it, he was interested in him. Of course, he also had an urge to kill Rain for interfering, but that could wait until later.

"Sounds good," Mush answered.

After putting the DVD in, Blink moved to go back to rocking chair, but Mush called for him to stop.

"You don't have to sit all the way over there, you know," he said suggestively, patting the cushion next to him.

Blink bit his lip nervously, and then went to go join Mush on the couch.

He reached for the remote, but Mush stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"We should talk," he said quietly.

Blink nodded, and put down the remote. "Yeah. We should… I don't know."

"I really like you, Blink. I mean, I asked Rain, and she said that you were single, and I was hoping… maybe we could go out sometime?"

"Remind me to kill her," Blink muttered. "You realize that by asking her, the entire store is going to know by tomorrow morning, right?"

Mush blushed. "Yeah, I sorta got the hint that she was a bit of a gossip. But… I'm hoping that it could be worth it."

Blink looked at him, his good eye filled with hope. "You would do that? Come out…"

"I've never met anyone like you, Blink. We could have something special. I'm willing to risk it… at least at work. I'm not ready to tell my parents, I don't know if I'll ever be. But if you're willing to accept what I can offer, it'll be a start."

"I'm willing to take whatever you'll offer," Blink told him without hesitation. He knew how hard it could be to come out, and that not everyone had a family as accepting as his was. If this was all Mush could offer for now, he would take what he could get.

Mush leaned towards him, kissing the side of his neck. "Just relax," he breathed into Blink's ear, before capturing Blink's mouth with his own.

They never did get around to watching the movie. Although, considering what movie it was, that was probably a good thing.

Author's Notes: Happy birthday B! (Studentnumber24601 for those of you who don't know) This is written for your blink week contest, and dedicated to you. Thank you so much for being there for me, and for being such an awesome friend. I hope you have a wonderful year, because you deserve the very best. And I'll see you in a week.

Many thanks to Gothic Author and Joyce83 for beta reading.