Prompt - Nick and Jeff find out about Sebastian's 'little' crush on Hunter.
Summary - His mission's supposed to be simple. All he has to do is sneak into Hunter and Sebastian's dorm room, look for anything suspicious, and report back to headquarters. But nothing's ever that simple with the Warblers, is it?
Notes - This was so fun to write. I'm not sure why Jeff turned out to be so crafty and manipulative. He's a sneaky one, that one. I think that the ending was a little anti-climatic, but whatever. I couldn't help throwing the hot nameless intern into the mix; I absolutely adore my HNS. He's just so precious! I hope you guys like it!
"You're lying. What did you really find in their dorm?" Jeff accuses, crossing his arms across his chest. "There's no way you're telling the truth!"
"I am telling the truth," Nick huffs, running a hand through his tangled locks. "I have proof. Look!"
He hands Jeff his phone, the picture of Sebastian's letter to his sister displayed on the screen. Jeff gives him a skeptical look but amuses his boyfriend. It takes him a couple of minutes to read it; Sebastian's messy scrawl even harder to decipher in the poor resolution of his camera.
"And you thought I was lying," Nick sniffs, obviously put off by Jeff's lack of faith. "So, now what's our course of action?"
Jeff strokes his chin thoughtfully, a contemplative look on his face. That's a good question. Where do they go from here? Confronting Sebastian about his crush would probably result in injury, and he definitely doesn't want to take that route. Jeff speaks from experience when he says that getting hit by a lacrosse stick is painful; he still has bruises from last time.
"We talk to Hunter!" he decides, nodding to himself.
"Jeff, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, this is Hunter we're talking about." Nick looks absolutely terrified, wringing his hands nervously. "I could die!"
"Nice to know you care," Jeff says sarcastically. "Man up, Three! We've lived through Wes' temper tantrums; this is nothing!"
Nick has to admit: Jeff does have a point. Hunter's military background pales drastically in comparison to Wes' mother hen tendencies. The brunet relents with a sigh.
"If I die, I want dibs on the nameless intern. In writing."
"Fair enough."
"This was a bad idea," Nick says to his boyfriend, eyeing the bow in Hunter's hand wearily. "Maybe we should try another time."
He turns around to leave the gym, only to stopped in his tracks when Jeff lets out a forlorn whine.
"Please stay, Nicky. Do you know how much this would mean to me?" he sniffles, shooting the brunet his most pitiful puppy dog eyes.
Nick's left eye twitches as he finds himself returning to his boyfriend's side. Damn his weakness for blond, blue-eyed boys!
"Hi Hunter!" Jeff greets, bounding up the junior's side cheerfully. "What's up?"
"Practicing," Hunter informs, nocking an arrow onto his bowstring. "We've got a tournament coming up. What brings you guys over here?"
He raises the bow and draws back the bowstring in one fluid movement, his eyes narrowed with concentration as he aims.
"I was thinking about joining the archery team." Jeff sounds so convincing that Nick almost believes him. Well, he did until he remember why they were here in the first place.
"That's awesome! We could use more people on the team." Hunter releases the bowstring, and Nick watches as the tip of the arrow embeds itself into the center of the target. "Do you have any experience shooting a bow and arrow, Jeff?"
"Yeah, my parents bought me one when I was younger. I used to shoot it all the time in our backyard. It's been a while though. I stopped using it when my little brother was born. You know how parents are."
"I know what you mean. Mom didn't let me play with my sister until my eighth birthday," Hunter laughs, turning around to face the pair. "Hey Duval. I didn't see you there. Are you thinking about trying out too?"
"I would, but I'm not coordinated enough for archery. With my luck, I'd probably end up shooting the arrow backwards."
"That's too bad," the junior gives him a sympathetic smile. "Archery's not for everyone. It took me months until I could shoot an arrow without popping myself with the bowstring."
They stand there for what feels like hours, talking about archery. Nick can safely say that he's never been more bored in his life. Even Wes' hour-long lectures were more interesting than this - and that's saying something.
"So, what do you think about Sebastian?" Jeff asks after nearly an hour of chatter.
"What about him?" Hunter tilts his head to the side.
"What do you think about him?"
"Seb's a great friend. He can be a bit of an asshole sometimes, but he tries. He really does. Most people just don't realize it."
Nick doesn't miss the way Hunter visibly brightens as he begins to talk about his roommate. Could it be possibly that he had feelings for Sebastian? It would make sense if he did. They were joint at the hip, even more so than Wes and David had ever been.
"Duval!" the Warbler looks up at the sound of his name, blanching when he recognizes the speaker to be Sebastian. "Come here. I need to talk to you."
"Hey Seb!" Hunter waves at his friend - no, his potential love interest. Great, now Nick's starting to sound like some lovestruck teenage girl.
Sebastian waves back, a small smile on his face. However, it fades almost as quickly it arrives. Nick approaches him cautiously, prepared to run straight out the door lest the situation call for it.
"Look familiar?" he asks, holding up the letter Nick had found the night before.
"Wha…..What?" Nick forces a laugh. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Really now?" Sebastian raises a brow, tucking the letter back into his blazer. "Then what do you have to say about this?"
He reaches in his pocket to pull out another object. This time, it's a small square of cloth. A handkerchief, Nick realizes. His handkerchief. The one that had his initials stitched into the corner. Crap, he must have dropped it when he had dropped to the floor last night.
"Is that a handkerchief?" Jeff asks as he walks up to the pair. "Who the hell carries around handkerchiefs anymore?"
"Apparently, your boyfriend."
"Lots of people do," Nick says defensively.
"Yeah, like my great-grandfather," Sebastian snorts. "So, Duval. What were you doing in our dorm last night?"
"Nick was in our dorm last night? But I don't remember him com - he broke in, didn't he?" Hunter turns to glare at the shorter Warbler. "That would explain why we couldn't find the key the other day."
"Idiot!" Jeff whispers. "You weren't supposed to get caught!"
"You knew about this?"
"Wha - What? Of course not!"
"Jeff, don't lie. You're just as responsible as I am!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"STOP THE CONFLICT!" Thad bursts into the gym, the double doors slamming loudly behind him. "What the hell is going on here? I could hear you four down the hall!"
"Those two broke into our dorm room!" Sebastian points accusingly at the two Warblers in question. "And they won't even tell us why!"
The former councilman raises a brow, "This ought to be good. Care to explain yourselves?"
Nick makes to speak, but Jeff intervenes before he does. The blond goes into great depth, ignoring the exasperated look Sebastian gives him.
"-We thought that Sebastian acting more suspicious than usual, so Nick turned to me and said, 'we should look in their dorm. Something's not right here.' So, I went along with it," Jeff shrugs.
"Jeff, I'm pretty sure that was you." By now, Nick's realized that trying to correct his boyfriend is futile, but he tries anyway.
"That's not how I remember it."
"Well, that's what happened."
"Is there a point to this?" Hunter interrupts boredly, shifting his bow restlessly. "Because I really need to practice for our tournament."
"To make a long story short, Sebastianhasacrushonyou. Well, this was a nice chat. Let's go, Nick!" Jeff grabs his boyfriend by the arm and drags him out the door.
"I'm going to kill him," Sebastian mutters. "Jeff is going to die."
He glares at his shoes, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Hunter openly gapes at him, and it's obvious that out of all the things that could've been said, he definitely hadn't been expecting that. Thad slowly inches toward the door, "….I'm going to leave now," Sebastian announces.
Just as he's about to exit the gym, a calloused hand lands heavily on his shoulder. He stops but doesn't turn around.
"Hey."
"So, is this the part where you tell me that you're not interested? Because if you are, I've already done it for you." Sebastian's voice is impassive, but Hunter can tell that he's upset.
"Not at all," Hunter murmurs. "Turn around. Please…..?"
Sebastian takes in a deep breath and obliges, unsure of what to expect. Suddenly, Hunter's all up in his personal space. He's so close that if Sebastian really wanted to - and he really does, he could kiss him.
"I like you too."
"So, do you think it worked?" Jeff asks from his place underneath the bleachers. "I can't see anything."
Nick turns his head, flinching when a stray cobweb brushes his cheek. Someone should seriouslytake some time to clean these things; they're all kinds of disgusting. A loud clattering sound fills the gym, catching their attention. Jeff scrambles to get a better look, accidentally sending his boyfriend sprawling on the ground.
"Only for you," Nick mutters, stifling a shriek when he catches a glimpse of the biggest freakin' spider he's ever seen. "J-Jeff!"
He slaps the blond's arm frantically, "Jeff!"
"Nick, you have to see this! Hunter's kissing him! God, I feel like a creeper." When Nick hits his arm particularly hard, Jeff looks at him irritably. "What is it?"
The shorter Warbler shakily raises his arm to point at the - the monster spider from Hell. Jeff pales, the blood draining from his face. He wraps his arms around his boyfriend's neck and whimpers,
"Jeff, I'll make you a deal: if we make it out of this alive, we'll share the hot nameless intern."
"Deal."