Worst boyfriend
Mac had returned the car without any mention of what was hiding in the glove compartment or under his seat so he considered it a good sign.
All she had said when she had had him drive her home was plausible deniabilityand he had tried not to slide his hands up under her skirt and take her 'vcard' right there on the side of the road.
Things had been a lot calmer since he'd earned his mug;, even D&D Thursday had gone well. Not a single mention of explosives and how good he was at them, just movie quotes and trying to pretend that the Grahams weren't getting a divorce.
He sat down on the couch next to Dick, drinking his coffee out of the 'muff dive' mug just to piss him off.
"So you already have plans for V-Day?" Dick asks, eyeing the mug.
Everything in him freezes.
"Fuck."
"God you have got to be the worst boyfriend ever." Dick shakes his head and leans forward to pack his bong.
"Like you can talk. You promised Madison a pearl necklace for her birthday last year and what did you give her?"
A smile spreads across his face, "I didn't say what kind of pearl necklace and besides I never forgot Valentine's Day."
"Fuck, fuck, fuck."
"Yeah and you guys have been together long enough for her to actually expect something fancy and meaningful and shit."
He stands up, pacing the length of the room, absently drinking his coffee.
What was he going to do? Dick was probably right; he was probably expected to do something significant. They'd been dating almost six months now...surely that qualified for a fancy dinner date... God! On Valentine's Day! He'd never get a table anywhere now...
Unless...
He pointed at Dick, "Are you still fucking that red head?"
Dick looks up at him and shakes his head, "I haven't fucked a wife in like three months, I'm reformed. Besides, even if I was, I doubt she could get you a table at her husband's restaurant. That's not really how affairs work Beav..."
"Fuck." He grumbles and continues his pacing. He's too worried about his upcoming win as the 'worst boyfriend in the world' to say anything against the lapse into the old nickname.
"What am I going to do? How could I forget?"
He freezes mid step and remembers how Mac had asked if they were doing anything on the weekend, the light in her eyes as she ensured him that she had weaseled her way out of babysitting for her brother.
Christ for being so smart he was awfully thick.
"What's going on?" Logan's voice cracks across the icy reprieve.
"Dipshit forgot it was Valentine's Day Monday."
"Ooo." Logan visibly cringes, "Rough."
"What am I supposed to do?" He turns to them both and notices that Logan is eyeing his mug with a smirk. He puts it down on the coffee table, "No seriously, what am I supposed to do?"
Dick makes a frustrated noise and leans back into the couch.
He shouldn't be asking Dick. He doesn't want to have to, but he was completely at a loss. The weekend is a day away and he has to pull out something amazing.
"Just take her to the midway and win her some stuffed animal." Logan offers and it doesn't sound like a terrible idea.
He was a very good shot; he could definitely win something at one of those stands...but was it classy enough?
God, what's wrong with him? It doesn't need to be classy, it's Mac and God love her, she didn't give a shit about his name, or how much money he was rolling in with his new company and his trust fund.
"What are you doing?" He asks Logan, who is now looking at the muff dive mug and side eyeing Dick.
"Pizza and Say Anything at the suite..."
Logan looks up at them and shrugs, "What?"
"You hate Say Anything." Dick supplies with that deadpan that Cassidy loves.
"No one hates Say Anything." Logan is quiet for a long moment, "Okay, so Hannah really likes it and is trying to make a convert out of me." He shrugs and, trying to take the attention off of his plans with the girl that he is so obviously trying not to fall for, he asks about Dick's plans.
He just shrugs, "Party?" But before he can turn his attention back to the bong, that's sitting packed and ready, his eyes drop to the mug and a strange, sad look flickers across his face.
It's one in the morning on Friday when he's shaken awake.
The bed is heavy with Dick's body as he pushes Cassidy further into the bed and gets in next to him.
It's not the first time Dick has slept in his bed with him, but it's been years. The last time, he's sure, was when dad got the divorce from the last girl that Dick actually thought of as mom.
The last time he had slept in Dick's bed had been... Little league...
He shakes the memories away. Woody is useful, and he won't be around long enough to outlive his usefulness if he had to set the whole fucking town on fire.
"What are you doing?" He asks, his voice thick, as Dick pushes his own pillow into the space next to his own.
"Take her to the symphony."
"What?"
"Take her to the symphony." He repeats, settling into his bedding without permission.
He doesn't mind it nearly as much as he pretends to. No matter how much of a dick he had been, there had always been something comforting and secure in the feeling of Dick's inordinate amount of body heat rolling into him.
"The symphony?"
Dick rolls towards him, and holy fuck there can't be any beer left in the house. He rolls his brother back onto his side.
"She'd like the symphony, spend the day going to museums and shit, then go to the symphony. It won't matter what you eat...she won't care...she's good like that."
Dick sounds pathetic, planning out a date for the girl he loves that he can't partake in.
"Yeah she is..."
"Just don't fuck her." He asks quietly, "No fucking allowed." Dick pulls the pillow down to his chest to manhandle and he's kind of glad for it. He's not sure he could stand a night of cuddling with his brother, at all, and certainly not when he smelt like a brewery.
"And why is that?" He can't help but ask. This is just ridiculous he can't just come in here, drunker than he's seen in a long while, take over his bed and tell him not to have sex with his girlfriend because he's in love with her too.
"Because she loves you and you guys should lose your virginity together and be this perfect awkward beautiful nerdy mess...doves and shit." He tells him, and it's the saddest, sweetest thing he's heard come out of Dick's mouth in a long time.
"Dick..."
"Mmm..."
He can't believe he's about to say this, but something in how sweet and sad and pathetic Dick is being, trying to seek comfort with him just, pulls the honesty out of him.
"I'm not a virgin..." He braces himself for the barrage of questions, who? When? Mac? But his words are met with a strangely, natural silence, "Dick?"
He sits up to look down at his brother and he's out cold.
Maybe it's for the best. It was in everyone's best interest to forget exactly the 'who' and when and why of it. Veronica was much happier thinking that she had only been with Duncan that night; plus, it meant she stopped looking into that night, which was good for him.
Win win.
He settles back into bed, and lets the sound of Dick's breathing and the heat of his body send him back to sleep.
He wakes up with Dick's arm flung across his hips. It's a heavy, almost nice feeling, it had felt a lot nicer when he'd been half asleep and thought it was Mac.
Oh shit he hadn't had one of those dreams about Mac, had he? He doesn't feel wet, so that's a good sign... He pushes up onto his elbows to look down at himself.
Nope.
No evidence of any sort of nightly activity or even the need to relieve some stress this morning either. Something that was more or less new to him, frozen from the waist down had made puberty a strangely vacant time; until Cindy with her blood hair, dark blue eyes and dubious morality.
A low moan vibrated across the bed, and Dick's fingers gripped his hip hard.
Looking at him, he looks oddly pained, so at least he isn't having one ofthose dreams. Dick is face down, so for all he knew, he could be about to fuck the mattress into submission.
"Dick?"
He whimpers and pulls him closer and he curses the slight frame he had inherited from their mother. He feels like a rag doll, but the look on Dick's half exposed face is all pain and fear, so he'll allow it.
He puts his hand on Dick's back, rubbing slow circles there like one of their early mothers had done, or maybe it had been a nanny. Whoever it had been, it seems to work, Dick releases him and rolls over, taking all the blankets with him.
He gets out of bed and immediately buys tickets to the symphony.
What? It's a great idea. He had to buy a box but she'd love it, so it was worth the extra money. What did he care, as soon as he squashed incorporation he'd be rolling in even more money than he currently was.
You're going to need a black dress for Saturday
He sends her a quick text message as he makes one last effort to wake up Dick.
Nothing.
Let him sleep off his stupor, if he was in a bad enough place to comfort cuddle then let him have the day off.
Slutty or classy?
Is her first response, and he loves it.
Classy?I mean unless you want to have sex at the symphony,I mean I got a box we could work it out
He doesn't even get the phone all the way to his pocket before Blondie burst loudly across the room, finally stirring his brother.
She's calling him?
He answers the phone, his stomach twisting as his mind flips through all the possibly horrendous ways she could say no.
Seriously!
She doesn't greet him, there's no casual preamble, like its not a big deal to her what he told her, she's not even hiding the excitement in her voice.
"Yeah...I mean we could not go if you'd pre-"
No! No let's go!
God, how cute is it possible for one person to be? He didn't even get a chance to make some joke suggestion for her to bat away.
This might be the second best idea Dick has ever had in his life, because, well obviously, his best idea was deciding that they were too fucking rich to have to take a bus that smelt of death a second time.
"So you like it then?"
shit, I have to go.I'll see you soon
She hangs up before he gets a chance to say anything in return.
"So you're taking her to the symphony?" Dick grumbles into the pillow.
"Yeah..." The air in the bedroom feels thick and awkward, "Thanks Dick...I know it's weird for you-"
"Whatever." He replies quickly and rolls over again so his back is to him, "Get out of my room, dork."
He doesn't bother telling him he's in the wrong room, he just leaves for school. Let him figure it out on his own.
If things went south he was going to have to start figuring things out on his own anyway, and if they went well, well he was still going to need to figure shit out on his own.
He loved his brother but he was getting awfully tired of being this smarter sidekick bullshit.
"So...did you want to stay the night or just drive back?" He asks, not looking at her, leaning against the locker next to hers. His heart is doing that marathon thing, and he's sure that the blood in him has reached his face.
Blushing like a fucking virgin.
Mac is quiet for a little too long and he looks at her. She's stopped mid action, her textbook half out of the locker, her eyes fixated somewhere between him and the locker. Her skin is flushed and she's biting her lip.
God stop being so cute. People are going to start noticing how hot, cute and smart she is, and try to steal her from him.
"It'll be late right..."
"Yeah..."
"We should probably stay the night...you know for safety reasons." She looks up at him finally. Her eyes feel deep, he nods in agreement.
"I'll sort something out." His voice seems to have some effect on her because the blush worsens. What is she thinking about? About what might happen tomorrow night in the hotel room...the hotel room he needs to book right, the fuck, now.
He leans forward and kisses her cheek, "I'll go sort it out. I'll talk to you later." He tells her quickly before rushing off.
He gets pulled backwards into a washroom, and he doesn't need to see her to know that it's Veronica.
It's her office
"Word around school is your taking our girl to the symphony tomorrow for Valentine's Day."
He rolls his eyes, why is she pretending like she hadn't heard it from Mac?
"Yeah... And?"
"What are your intentions with sweet Cindy?"
Sweet Cindy? Nothing, marriage and an island far, far away from the crazy, sinful place that was Neptune. But he didn't want to fuck her and forget her like Veronica's hard look would suggest.
Bad Cindy he would fuck in a heartbeat, but there was nothing in the world that would make him forget her. Hurt her.
Never.
Veronica, on the other hand, he had no troubles hurting. Fuck he'd hurt everyone but Mac...and maybe Dick... Maybe.
"What do you want from me Veronica? I love her and we are over the age of consent. So yeah go solve a mystery or something."
He has his hands on the door to rejoin the rest of the student body when Veronica's voice hits him again.
"Have you told her that yet?"
"It's none of your business, Veronica."
"Just tell her, idiot." She says with a sigh, "This is Neptune, good things don't last."
The words hit him a little more than she, no doubt, meant it to, but he sinks his teeth into his lip and leaves her 'office'. He has shit to do.