Avery and Adam and then Avery and Gabe?
A/N: This fic is setting up more than one future situations; I feel like I keep tangling everyone up more and more and I need to unsnarl it before it's such a mess I can't get out of it. But messy is fun, so buckle up.
“My entire family’s here; so let’s play it cool, okay?” The voice - Adam’s voice - spoke from Avery’s right as he stood at the bar, waiting for the Coke he’d ordered. When he started to turn his head, Adam hissed. “I said be cool!”
“Since when is looking at the person you’re trying to talk to not being cool?” Avery huffed, facing forward again and feeling kind of stupid. “Most people would call that polite.” His soda arrived and he held it up in what he assumed was Adam’s line of sight. “See? I’m not even drinking. And anyway, you’re the one who came up to me. Maybe your mom’s watching us right now, wondering if she should plan a double wedding.” Sure it was a little snarky, but Avery didn’t care that much. He figured he’d the right, really. For being such a good sport and all the. . . you know.
He and Adam had hooked up twice since they’d decided to be “friends with benefits” - once at Avery’s apartment and once at Adam’s. Neither had resulted in a sleepover, and Avery assumed he’d already been plenty cool. This kind of setup wasn’t his normal thing, after all. But he was willing to make an exception if it meant keeping Adam coming back. The man was interesting, funny, infuriating, engaging, egotistical. And oh yeah, hot as hell and fantastic in bed. Avery could not get enough of it.
Now Adam snorted. “Luckily I’ve got Gabe in front of me for my mother’s attention in that arena. If I were to ever decide to get married I think she’d faint dead away.” There was a laugh in his voice. “And then wake up and smack some sense into me.”
Avery was surprised enough to forget he wasn’t supposed to be looking at Adam. “Your mom doesn’t want you to get married?” He assumed all mothers wanted to see their children paired up - his own mother certainly did. She cared less about the fact that Avery gay than his being single. Not that sleeping with Adam Calder was likely to change that anytime soon. Still, did he really mean he didn’t ever want a relationship?" The question slipped out before he could stop himself. “Never?”
“What do you think?” Adam rolled his eyes. He lowered his voice. “Our little arrangement is the most time I’ve ever spent with the same guy, and that includes Miah.” He glanced casually around the room while he kept talking. “And not that it’s not fun, but we have to be careful.”
“I’m always careful,” Avery scoffed. “And you promised me you are too.” He frowned at the thought that maybe Adam hadn’t been honest about that, although it didn’t seem like something he’d do. He’d been as insistent as Avery had about condoms.
“That’s not what I meant about being careful; of course I practice safe sex . . .” Adam began, but Avery was still talking.
“And you know I haven’t been with anyone else, of course,” he reassured the other man. Not that that should have been a surprise - Adam knew Avery’s opinion on one-night stands. Still, he looked shocked anyway.
“Since when? I mean, you’ve got to have at least done something, right?” His eyes searched Avery’s. “Made out in a bathroom stall? copped a feel under the table while flirting over drinks?”
“We made out in an alley,” Avery pointed out. That had been before the two of them had decided to do whatever they were doing now. When the thought of sleeping with Adam Calder - just for the sake of the sex - had offended him out too much to even consider it. So what had changed? Avery still wasn’t sure. He just knew that right now, it was enough.
“Well we can’t have that, Morrison. You’ve got to get yourself, well, if not laid, then at least some type of action.” Adam was still talking, and it took Avery a few seconds to catch up.
“I am getting laid; I thought we just established that,” he pointed out. It usually didn’t bother him that Adam’s brain seemed to work on overdrive a lot of the time. When he said something Avery couldn’t follow he’d ask Adam to “dumb it down to my level,” which was a signal for Adam to lecture that he wouldn’t be sleeping with Avery if he was dumb. But this time he felt oddly annoyed.
“Not only with me, Morrison. C’mon.” Adam cuffed him on the arm. “You can’t put your dick in only one basket, you know.”
Not when the basket had made it crystal clear this wasn’t going to be a longterm picnic, he meant. Avery understood that. And he didn’t need to be reminded all the time.
“So you’re sleeping around then?” he asked bluntly? “I hope you change your sheets first.”
“You know I don’t have anyone else over, at my place,” Adam shot back. “And just so you know . . .” He stopped abruptly, mouth snapping shut.
“Just so I know what?” Avery retorted. “Cause I’m not sure I do.” Honestly, it felt like they’d just taken about ten steps back, to where they’d been right after they’d met. And he had no idea why. Three days ago they'd made pancakes in the morning and Adam had even stayed around after breakfast long enough to lecture Avery about the finer points of something or other on C-SPAN.
But now Adam was shaking his head. “Just because I happened to have not been with anyone else in the past few weeks doesn’t mean . . .” He stopped talking again.
“Is that what this is about?” Avery finally thought he understood, and now he was kind of pissed off. “Don’t tell me, the great Adam Calder hasn’t bedded anyone new in the last month and he’s worried he’s lost his touch.” Avery made a derisive gesture. “Since we know I don’t count since I’m a sure thing.”
When Adam didn’t immediately disagree, Avery nodded with perverse satisfaction. “Thought so.”
“C’mon, Morrison; don’t tell me you expected me to be . . . exclusive.” Adam seemed to have regained his composure. “That’s not how this works.”
“As you keep reminding me as if I don’t know.” Avery began rethinking his decision not to drink tonight. He took a step back. “Go then. Find someone else to go home with; I’m sure Rory and Noa both have friends you can hit on.” He pretended to think. “I guess cousins are out of the question since you’re related to half of them?”
“Fuck you.” Adam put down his empty glass and put his hand on Avery’s arm, and then smirked when Avery shivered. “Don’t let yourself get too attached, Morrison. He squeezed his bicep. “We’ll talk next week and I expect you to have a story for me. Because I certainly will.” Before Avery could think of a proper response, Adam disappeared into the crowd.
Avery knew better than to go after him, even if just to tell him off. This was Rory and Noa’s engagement party; there was no way Adam was going to pick up anyone here. He was just being all talk, like always.
So Avery did his best to put Adam Calder and his impossible charm and piercing blue eyes out of his head. For a while he succeeded. There were speeches and food and Avery sat with some of the other FBI agents who’d been invited and made jokes about the fact that their boss hadn’t been invited. Everything would have been fine if he hadn’t caught sight of Adam across the room, chatting up a kind of skinny dude Avery was pretty sure played on Rory and Gabe’s soccer team. He almost scoffed to himself because he remembered Gabe saying that the guy didn't have a sense of humor; no way Adam would be interested in someone like that. Except he was smiling, and listening attentively to whatever the man was saying, and fucking leaning in to put his hand on the guy’s shoulder and Avery had to get up to go find Gabe and confirm that this soccer player really was an idiot.
It was getting late; Avery could have very easily said his goodbyes to Noa and Rory and their parents and gone home without looking like he was ducking out early. But Adam was still here and still flirting and Avery refused to give him the satisfaction of being scared off or something.
Gabe and Logan were sitting together at a table and no one else was there. Perfect. He just had to remember to play it cool. No one knew about his and Adam’s arrangement, and of course it had to stay that way.
He just didn’t expect the couple to look so glum.
Logan greeted him with half a smile and then turned to her boyfriend.
“Gabriel, I swear it’s okay; the party’s almost over anyway,” she pleaded. “Let’s just go.”
Gabe shook his head gingerly. “Not . . . without help,” he said in a strained voice. “Where’s Jeremiah?”
“What’s wrong?” Avery didn’t wait for an invitation but took a seat across from Gabe. Now that he was on the same level he could see how pale he was, and there was a tightness around his lips that was almost a grimace. “You look like hell.”
“Headache,” Gabe ground out. There was a glass of ice sitting next to him and he lifted it to press against his forehead.
“Migraine,” Logan corrected. “Which he hid all night instead of telling me so I could run to his place to get his rescue meds.” She may have been scolding her boyfriend but there was no heat to her words; in fact she was talking so quietly Avery had to lean forward to hear her. Not that it was likely to help in the bright and noisy restaurant hosting the engagement party.
“So why don’t you leave?” Off to his right Adam was ushering the soccer player towards the exit and laughing at something the man had said. Well, fine. If that’s what he wanted. It wasn’t like they had any agreement or anything. Other than to meet up occasionally for sex and sparkling conversation. No strings, no promises.
He might have gone on like that, thinking of all the reasons it was perfectly fine for Adam to have left with a guy who wasn’t Avery, if Gabe’s groan hadn’t brought him back to the present. It was clear he was feeling worse, pressing his fingers into his eyes and almost resting his head on the table while Logan rubbed his back.
“Did you tell me why you haven’t left?” Without waiting for an answer, Avery tugged on Gabe’s arm. “Really, dude, you look terrible. Let’s get an Uber. Adam’s already out there; maybe you can take his.” That sounded reasonable and not at all like he wanted to check out the guy Adam was going home with, right?
Gabe lifted his head and peered blearily at him. “Adam’s working on a hookup,” he croaked, wincing when a new song began playing over the restaurant’s speakers. “I’d rather puke here than get in the . . . middle of that.” He swallowed hard and put his head back on the table.
Avery had no answer that wouldn’t give something away. Gabe hiccuped and Logan’s eyes grew panicked.
“Can you help me get him home? I’m not strong enough when he’s this dizzy and I can’t find Jeremiah.”
Gabe looked up again. “He leftwithDrew,” he slurred. A string of saliva dribbled out of the corner of his mouth. “Fuckithurts.”
Logan wiped his lip with a napkin. “How you were paying attention to what Jeremiah and Drew were doing in the middle of a migraine is beyond me.” Gabe shrugged.
“Issa distraction,” he explained, and then gagged softly into his hand. “They were upset. Not . . . Hurulp! . . . not talking.” The burp was more like a gag, and Avery and Logan both stared warily at each other. It was clear that if Gabe was about to puke, it was going to happen all over the floor.
When Gabe gulped again but then blew out his breath, Logan huffed with amusement. “And now you’re the relationship expert?” She ran her hand through Gabe’s hair and he leaned against her. “I mean, you’re absolutely right. I’m just surprised you picked up on it.”
“I pay attenshunn.” Gabe paused, breathing heavily through his mouth again. “But . . . yeah . . .” He trailed off and grimaced. “Can we go now? Head’s killing me and - “ he stopped and burped into his fist. “I’m . . . really nauseous.”
“No shit. Bathroom?” Avery asked briskly when Gabe’s next burp turned wet. He directed his question to Logan since Gabe was back to digging his hands into his eyes. “Or street? Either’s fine but he needs to throw up before we put him in an Uber.” Avery had plenty of experience accompanying someone vomiting in a car and it was never pleasant. And even though Gabe would be a lot easier to transport than a drug addict there didn’t seem to be much of a chance that he’d make it home without getting sick. Better to get that over with first. And hopefully not on the floor of the restaurant.
“Should we tell his parents?” Avery had been briefly introduced to Rachel and Dan Calder earlier but hadn’t really gotten a read on either of them. Adam had once mentioned that Gabe’s personality was a lot like their father’s and Noa and her mother were best friends - except when they were butting heads - but no one knew who Adam took after. The last time they’d been together he’d joked to Avery he was one of a kind.
But now Adam was off proving how unique he was to some other guy and Avery had to stop obsessing over it or he was going to ruin the entire thing. And anyway, he had a bigger issue to deal with right now.
“Don’ . . . don’ tell my mom n’ dad,” Gabe groaned around a gag. “Please.”
“I already asked,” explained Logan. “But he doesn’t want to make a scene at the party. He’s been faking it all night, somehow.” She leaned in and kissed Gabe’s bicep. “We’re going to get you home, sweetheart.”
Not for nothing was Avery an FBI agent. He’d been scouting the restaurant and had located what looked like a second entrance into the party space. “There,” he pointed. “That door goes outside and we don’t have to walk through Gabe’s family.” He poked Gabe on the arm until he looked up. “It’s about ten steps and you have to make it, okay?” There was no reason to give him a choice, since they didn’t really have any other options.
Gabe gave a tight nod and lurched to his feet, jaw set. He stared fixedly at the door for a few seconds, and then squeezed his eyes shut.
“We’ll guide you,” said Logan quickly, and together they ushered Gabe across the ten steps. Avery didn’t look to see if anyone noticed how much Gabe was swaying; he wasn’t prepared to explain to some random Calder or Landis cousin that no, Gabe hadn’t been drinking.
The door let them out on a side street at the back of the restaurant, and Gabe’s throat was bobbing by the time they were fully outside. He stumbled over to a tree and pushed his forehead against it, breathing hard.
“It’s okay, you can puke now,” Avery reassured him. Seriously, he wasn’t sure how the guy was still upright. He was pulling at his hair and cursing softly under his breath - each fuck fuck fuck sounding like a tiny pained explosion.
“It’ll hurt,” he groaned, leaning forward to drool onto the sidewalk. Avery understood that even the act of spitting was painful. He grimaced in sympathy.
“Is there anything we can do?” he asked Logan. “I don’t get migraines.”
She shook her head. “Just have to wait it out.” She rested her hand lightly on Gabe’s back. “He doesn’t want to throw up because it’ll hurt but pretty soon he’s not going to have a choice. “C’mon sweetheart. I know it’s going to suck but then you’ll feel better and we can take you home, okay?”
In response, Gabe retched and slammed his hands to the sides of his head.
“You can order the Uber now; he’s about to throw up,” Logan directed Avery. “Bend forward, Gabriel,” she ordered, pushing his shoulder. “Don’t puke on your shoes.”
“Will if I want,” shot back Gabe, before retching again, and Avery snorted.
“Does he always joke before he throws up?” he asked Logan.
“Only when he’s feeling stubborn,” she said fondly. “It means this isn’t one of his worst migraines though. That’s a good thing.”
“Not that good,” mumbled Gabe. He braced his hands on his knees and finally threw up, his back arching with the effort. Almost immediately he began to crumple, and just in time Avery grabbed him around the waist to keep him from falling forward into the tree.
“Oh god that sucked,” he slurred. There was a string of saliva at the corner of his mouth and when he raised his hand to wipe it away, it was shaking.
“Hang in there,” Avery urged as Gabe slumped against him. “Are you done?”
“He’s not,” Logan answered for him. “He’s still nauseous.”
“Logan knows everything,” Gabe agreed. His jaw quivered and he jerked forward to let out a string of burps that first turned wet, and then productive. This time he threw up mostly liquid, and then gagged emptily, moaning with discomfort in between heaves. When he finally stopped he gazed dazedly around as if he wasn’t entirely sure where he was.
“You okay there? Uber’s two minutes away,” Avery told him. His own back was starting to ache from holding up Gabe’s now nearly dead weight. No way Logan could have handled him alone.
“Dizzy.” Gabe’s voice was thin. “Not gonna puke again. Yet.”
“Well then it’s time to go home.” Their car pulled up and Logan tugged Gabe towards it. “Lean on Avery so you don’t fall over.”
“Have you always been this bossy?” Avery manhandled Gabe into the car and handed the driver the stack of twenties Logan had given him. “He’s fine; just a headache,” he assured the man, who was watching Gabe warily as he slumped into Logan’s side and buried his face in her shoulder.
“I like to think of it as caring,” Logan said smugly. The car jerked as it pulled away from the curb and Gabe muffled a burp against Logan’s sleeve. “Like, I’m very carefully going to tell the driver to please try not to jerk the car so much because it upsets my boyfriend’s head.”
“Upsets his stomach more,” gulped Gabe. “M’ getting nauseous again.”
Avery sighed. “Won’t be the first time I’ve been puked on in the back of a speeding car,” he commented dryly. “Only this time I’m not getting paid for it.”
“I’ll pay you,” Gabe mumbled. He swallowed hard and began rubbing his temples. “How much longer?”
“Three blocks; you can make it,” Logan told him. “As much as I’m sure Avery wouldn’t mind you buying him a new shirt, I doubt he wants to strip naked right on the street.” The Uber jerked to a stop in front of Gabe’s building and he groaned.
“Yeah cause Adam’s not here,” he choked out, gagging. He stumbled over to the curb and leaned forward again as the Uber sped off, probably wanting to get as far away from Gabe and his stomach as possible.
“Hey, I can leave you right here to sleep in a puddle of puke,” Avery quipped as Gabe heaved up a pathetic stream of bile. “I’ll take Logan upstairs and, you know. Not try anything at all.”
“Sorry. Kinda.” Gabe straightened up again. “You’re lucky I’m not as nosy as my sister.” His voice had gotten clearer; he seemed to be feeling somewhat better after that last round of vomiting. At least he wasn’t swaying so much.
Logan had apparently come to the same conclusion. “Help me get him upstairs and then you’re free to go,” she promised Avery. “But we definitely owe you one.”
“Any time; I’m just glad I was here.” Avery waved off the thanks. It wasn’t like he had any place to go anyway - other than home. He didn’t say that, of course. Nothing more pathetic than a lonely guy whose friend with benefits had decided to go home with someone else. “Text me tomorrow and let me know how he is,” he told Logan at Gabe’s door, and then leaned in to give her a hug. “Bossy is good, you know.”
“So they tell me,” she commented, hugging him back. “Thank you.”
Avery squeezed her shoulder and then walked back to the elevator. It wasn’t that late, so he decided to take the subway home. It would be slower than an Uber but again, he didn’t have anywhere else to be.
