Treachery.
That's all he felt as he looked at Travis. That's all he knew as he watched him and the other man kiss.
They didn't know he was there.
The second thing Mitch felt was an uncontrollable anger, swirling with his sense of betrayal and all he could do was whisper, "Travis?"
It didn't make him feel any better when Travis leapt off of the brunette. It didn't help that the man was particularly attractive. He didn't feel any less betrayed when Travis looked at him, almost sorrowful.
Mitch was frozen to his spot in the doorway, and his eyes were glued to the terrible scene before him.
"Why?"
Travis ignored his question and instead asked his own. "Mitch, how long have you been here?" he approached him gently, but Mitch backed away.
"I saw enough."
Mitch hated himself when his voice cracked on the last word. He needed to stay strong in front of Travis. He looked up at his boyfriend and regained a small amount of confidence. Mitch frowned at the other man's expression. Travis looked almost afraid. Of what, Mitch didn't know. "Mitch, this isn't what you think it is, this is all a misunderstanding—"
"Why?" Mitch asked again, but in a stronger voice. Travis looked at him in shock. Mitch swallowed back tears and asked again. "Why, Travis?"
"I wasn't, you don't understand, we weren't—"
"I think I understand well enough, Travis," Mitch's voice was louder this time, angrier. He sounded cold, even to his own ears.
Travis seemed to give up trying to deny what he did. His shoulders slumped and he looked down at the floor, appearing defeated.
Mitch advanced upon him. "What have I ever done to you? Why would you do this?"
Why would you break my heart?
Suddenly, Travis's head shot up, startling Mitch. His expression was livid. "'Why would you do this?'" he imitated in a cartoonish, squeaky high voice. Mitch flinched at the mocking in his tone. "Why? Because you spent so much time with Scott, and talked all about Scott, and everything was just Scott! Scott this, and Scott that. I was sick of it, Mitch! I still am!" Mitch stared at him, tears gathering in his eyes. Another burst of anger gave him the bravery to shout back at Travis. "He's my best friend! You should have said something, you should have done anything but—" he broke off, unable to state what Travis had done out loud.
Mitch fought back the tears and whispered, "It's over, Travis. We're done."
Travis's expression went from angered to almost terrified. "No, Mitch, we can work through this—" Mitch turned on his heel and practically ran out of the apartment, the tears finally making their appearance. "Wait, Mitch! We can fix this!" Mitch didn't respond.
He was slow enough to hear the brunette say, "You cheated on me? For two years?" And that was enough to send him sprinting down the street towards his own flat.
He was there in fifteen minutes flat, and as soon as he had slammed the door behind him he started to sob. He slid down the wall and onto the floor and curled into himself, his face buried in his knees and his shoulders shaking with the force of his crying.
"Mitch?" Scott called from the kitchen. "You okay?"
Mitch couldn't bring himself to respond. Of course he wasn't okay; he was feeling terrible. He wasn't okay at all. "Mitch?" Scott's voice was closer this time. Mitch heard footfalls as Scott went to him. "Mitch! Oh my gosh, what happened?" Then, suddenly, warm arms were around him and he was being pulled into a hug. Mitch tensed and then relaxed into the embrace, sobbing into Scott's shoulder. The comfort was just making him cry harder.
He still couldn't bring himself to speak.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Scott's voice asked from somewhere above him. Mitch shook his head into Scott's shoulder, his eyes squeezed shut. "Okay," Scott's voice was gentle and understanding and Mitch couldn't help but notice the way it vibrated within his friend's chest; he could feel it from his place against Scott's shoulder. Scott spoke again, and Mitch reveled in the sound. It was comforting.
"How about we go watch a movie? I'll cook popcorn. You could have some shredded cheese," he joked. Mitch didn't laugh, but he nodded. It'd be something to take his mind off of Travis.
By the time his sobs had faded into the occasional sniffle, he was wrapped in a blanket with Scott beside him looking through their cardboard box of movies. Scott made an interested noise as he pulled out a colorful movie case. "Does Chicago sound good?" Mitch nodded. "Yeah," his voice was hoarse. "Yes, it does sound good."
Scott put the movie into the video player and returned to his place next to Mitch, grinning. "I love this movie!" Mitch allowed a small smile to grace his expression. "I know."
They sang along to all of the songs, Scott particularly passionate, and Mitch began to feel like maybe the world didn't hate him after all.
Sometime in the midst of watching the musical either Mitch or Scott or both had moved and they had somehow ended up basically cuddling by the time the movie ended. As the credits started to roll and they both tore their attention from the movie, they realized what they were doing and practically leapt apart. "Um, uh, I'm going to go, uh, to the bathroom." Scott awkwardly said, blushing. Mitch nodded enthusiastically. "I'm going to go to bed."
They went quickly to their designated areas, each roasting in their embarrassment.
Mitch slid into bed and lay there, staring up at the ceiling. He had felt something stir up in him before they had leapt apart, something that he used to feel with Travis. What if Travis was correct? Not in his ways, but in his assumptions? Mitch though about all the times he had felt something with Scott, and he reflected upon what he realized was his favorite memory.
Mitch snuck through the apartment quietly, planning an ambush on Scott, who was currently making a… cake? Cookies?
He rounded the corner to where Scott had his back turned and smiled. This was way too easy.
"Rah!" Mitch yelled, jumping out of his hiding place. Scott let out a girlish scream and flung flour everywhere – and everywhere happened to include Mitch's face. "Pfft!" Mitch spat flour out of his mouth as Scott laughed at him, practically dancing in his mirth. "That was so karma! That's why you don't mess with Scott!" he smirked at Mitch smugly. Mitch scowled at him and wiped flour off of his cheek. He glared at Scott playfully and picked up a bottle of whipped cream from the counter beside him.
"You'll pay for this!" he said in his best villainous voice and he sprayed the white substance all over Scott. Scott laughed and said heroically, "I'll win this battle, evil one!" He then proceed to douse Mitch with a bowl of milk. "Eww!"
Scott threw eggs at Mitch and Mitch in turn squeezed syrup on Scott, and soon it was a full out food fight. Eventually, though, they ran out of baking ingredients. "We should probably save the rest of the food for eating," Scott said dryly, a little out of breath. Mitch laughed and nodded, before noticing something that really bothered him.
"Scott, you've got whipped cream right there," Mitch pointed towards the corner of his own eye. Scott wiped at a spot way off from where Mitch had said. "No, right here," Mitch pointed to the same place as before.
Scott rolled his eyes and wiped the wrong spot again, saying, "I've got food all over me anyway, Mitch." Mitch just sighed to express his annoyance and stepped forward. "Here, just let me get it." He licked his thumb off and wiped at the correct spot slightly below Scott's eye. Instead of pulling away after the deed was done, he remained close, finding himself entranced by Scott's blue eyes. "There, got it." He said absentmindedly.
They stood there for who knows how long, Scott with an unreadable expression on his face and Mitch with a surprising desire to kiss the blonde.
Mitch smiled at the memory. Yes, that was definitely his favorite.
Suddenly, it dawned on him. The realization hit him, hard. He was in love with Scott. Travis was right. He sighed and let his arm flop against the bed. All he could do was hope that Scott was in love with him also, because he sure as Hell wasn't going to ask.
A few weeks and two more intimate encounters later, Scott arrived to the same conclusion.
He had found himself admiring Mitch from afar, finding him attractive, and having moments where Mitch was just so adorable he had to kiss him. In these moments, he usually left and went somewhere else. He'd had some pretty close calls in the kissing department.
He had been mulling over this for some time, and finally realizing he was in love with Mitch, he had decided to go to Kirstiefor advice.
He decided to tell her right away.
"Kirstie, I'm in love with Mitch," he said. He expected a number of things: Kirstie dropping her coffee in surprise, Kirstie's eyes widening with shock – at least some sort of a surprised reaction. What he wasn't expecting, however, was what actually happened.
Kirstie screamed, yes, she actually screamed, with glee, a huge grin on her face. Scott stared at her, eyes wide. She raised her eyebrows at him, still grinning. "Finally, you realize!" Scott was perplexed.
"You already know?"
Kirstie threw her hands up in barely contained excitement. "Of course I already know! Everybody knows, Scott, it's not exactly hard to miss!" her eyes were as wide as saucers. "Well, everyone except you two, but now at least one of you knows!" She pointed at Scott, who didn't know what to think. "How do you know, though?"
Kirstie rolled her eyes. "It's just the way you to look at each other, the lingering touches, the way we never see you apart. You're practically joined at the hip!"
Scott spluttered. "What?" He didn't know what to do with this new found knowledge. He thought he'd been telling ground-breaking news. It was certainly shocking to him. "Alright, I still don't see how you knew before me, but I'm just going to ignore that. What I need to know is what am I supposed to do?"
"You ask him out on a date, of course!" Kirstie practically squealed. Scott recognized her excitement as fangirling. He'd done it many times himself, over Beyonce.
He frowned at her. "But what if he says no?"
Kirstie's koal-lined eyes widened again and she put one of her hands on Scott's knee. "Trust me, he won't. I know." Scott squinted at her, suspicious. "How do you know?" Kirstie rolled her eyes. "Because he's just as obviously in love as you are, Scott!"
Scott knew he was in trouble as Kirstie began telling him what to do.
Mitch sighed from his spot on the couch, an episode of Friends playing on the TV. Scott had been gone for at least four hours now, shopping for groceries, of all things, and Mitch was feeling just a little bit lonely.
Wyatt jumped up on his shoulders, his small claws digging through Mitch's shirt and into his skin. "Ow!" he laughed as he lifted the kitten off of himself. He held the sphinx out in front of his face. "We need to get you declawed." Wyatt meowed and wriggled, trying to get out of Mitch's tight hold. He laughed and set the cat down, who proceeded to race around the house energetically.
Mitch watched him with mild interest. Scott was really taking a long time to get the groceries.
Mitch was just about to resign himself to another episode of Friends when Scott came in. Mitch looked over to the doorway eagerly; a 'hello' on his lips, but all he got was black blur heading towards Scott's room. "Hey!" Mitch called after him. "Where are the groceries?" Scott slammed the door to his room in response. Okay. Go ahead and be like that.
Mitch returned to watching his TV show, trying not to feel too offended. This episode was one of his favorites anyway.
Not fifteen minutes into the show, however, Scott reappeared in – wait – was that a suit?
Scott smiled nervously as Mitch openly gawked at him, unashamed in his staring. Scott should definitely wear suits more often. He held out a rose, which Mitch took, shocked. What the Hell?
"Um, Mitch? I need to ask you something," Scott blushed probably about four shades of red. It was overwhelmingly adorable. Mitch resisted the urge to say, 'anything for you' and went with the response that would creep his friend out. "Yeah?"
Scott walked over and turned off the TV, even though he had Mitch's undivided attention. He took a deep breath. "Alright, Mitch, I know this may be a little soon after your break up with Travis," Mitch felt a small amount of sadness. "But I'm still going to ask you anyway. Will you… uhm… uh…." Scott recomposed himself, blushing an even darker shade of red. "Mitch, would you want to, maybe, um, go on a date with me?"
Mitch grinned, happiness flooding through his entire being. "Would we be going on this date as boyfriends?" Scott smiled in return.
"If that's what you want."
Mitch stood up and walked over to Scott, so that his nose was just touching Scott's chin.
"Even if I'm still in my pajamas?"
'God, he's adorable.' Scott thought, and he bent down in a moment of bravery and kissed Mitch, who kissed back just as eagerly. They broke off only when they could hold their breath no more, lips red, and Scott said, "Yes, even if you're still in your pajamas."
They kissed again, this time, long and gentle and slow. "You know," Mitch murmured against Scott's lips. "I think I love you."
Scott smiled into the kiss. "I think I love you too."