I need more fics of these men!!! Like these babes deserved to get the girl and we were deprived of it dammit!! Like don’t tell me they had slim to zero game. I’m calling bullshit.
Following up to this poll from earlier (which I did spend a good chunk of my shift at work thinking about today), I have some ideas (which will certainly grow immeasurably in the blink of an eye)-
Blackburn is a vampire and Metal is a werewolf so they can have this conversation when they finally notice that something is up
Blackburn: Why do you smell like poison?
Metal: Why don't you smell like anything?
(Where werewolf blood is poisonous to vampires and both species have heightened senses)
This is not a new Metalburn idea because I started working on it ages ago and then stopped for reasons unremembered, but it's been on my mind again the past few weeks and then started to develop again. So here some of it is.
General idea is that they were married and are just splitting up and breaking the news to everyone, pre-canon (how far pre, I didn’t decide, but Nate is there in the bit that I did write). Nothing dramatic, no big fight, certainly no cheating, no secret keeping or anything like that. Just them realising (agreeing because they've been together so long that they can almost read each other's mind at this point) that they've grown apart, that they feel more like two friends living together than actually married now.
Everyone being a bit shocked because they just always seemed solid and they're still just Like That with each other. They're comfortable and joking and in each other's personal space and neither of them is crying or screaming about it. But time goes on. Belongings split. Both of them moving out (because that was *their* home and neither feels right about living there alone). And there's some melancholy, of course, because this was their lives for so long and now it's all changed and they're not quite back on an even keel immediately. But they're okay with each other.
Blackburn mostly throws himself even deeper into work to cope. Metal tries to move on with someone(s) new.
And then thw shenanigans ensue.
Fake dating because Blackburn casually 'forgets' to tell his parents that he and Metal are getting a divorce. Usually, I like for Blackburn to have good parents and thus to be an outlier who should not be counted on Bravo, team of Parental Issues because I think that it would be funny to call them out on that eventually ("What? You think you idiots have the monopoly on parental issues?". But imagine them not being so good on this occasion and Blackburn keeping his distance as much as he can. But then they're in town for one of their yearly (if that) visits and want to meet up, of course. Blackburn, in his infinite wisdom, decides that pretending that they're still together is a lot better plan than just telling his parents the truth.
Metal thinks he's certifiably insane. Even knowing the issues Blackburn has with his parents, this might be a step too far (curiously, his first issue is with how difficult it would be to pretend that everything is normal and to go back to acting like nothing has changed when upending their lives like that took a lot out of them--even if they did and still do agree it was right-- and not the fact that he has a new boyfriend).
Blackburn isn't asking this lightly. He knows that it's an insane thing to suggest, an even more insane thing to actually do. He knows that it would be hard. To pretend that everything is normal. To pretend that this hadn't stopped working. To act like they hadn't given all of this up and started going on with separate lives. But he's also fairly certain that whatever reaction he got from his parents would be worse. That he'd certainly end up feeling worse about himself at the end of the night and for every lecturing phone call he would get from them following. So he still asks, because at the end of the day, Metal has always been someone he can rely on, who'll support him, who is still the person who knows him best. Hell, Metal is still his best friend and if you can't ask your best friend for an insane favour, what can you do? (He's resigned to getting a resounding "no" in response, though, and he's fully prepared to behave like a grown-up and actually have that conversation with his parents and then promptly drop all contact with them until the lectures stop, if he has to).
Metal eventually agrees. Because it's just one night, right? Well, maybe two. But Blackburn's parents are going to be staying at a hotel so it's not as if they'd have to host them at the home they no longer even lived in together or even explain why they'd moved, if they worded things carefully enough. And then by the time that it came around for another visit, Blackburn would have gathered enough courage to actually tell them. Or they'd just pretend again because that might still be easier. Crucially, he does not tell his new boyfriend about this plan.
Also, Metal's lack of regard for his new boyfriend isn't because he doesn't like him (he does) or even that he's still holding a torch for Blackburn (he isn't), but moreso that he probably tried to move on a little too soon and he's still holding himself back from going all in because he knows that no matter how much time you pour into something, it can still just all go away again. Not that he realises this at the time, of course, I just want to point out that he's not doing this just because he's an asshole. Not that this excuses him, but it does explain.
Then judgement day arrives and Blackburn is at dinner with his parents. Metal is running late. Genuinely so (maybe there was traffic pr maybe he got unexpectedly held up at base after a mission, undecided). But, most importantly, Blackburn doesn't know that (maybe one of them doesn't have their phone, also undecided) so, of course, he starts panicking that Metal has changed his mind, that he's backing out, that he's not coming. So there's Blackburn in a blood pounding in his ears, palms sweating, shaky breathing panic (which probably leads to him not paying enough attention to his parents and getting another lecture about it), but eventually he makes peace with the fact that he's going to have to tell them the truth (not the whole truth because he's not stupid enough to admit to tonight’s attempted deception). Maybe he even gets as far as actually opening his mouth, when Metal finally arrives and Blackburn can breathe again.
Metal is full of genuine apologies (which Blackburn accepts a lot more easily than his parents do) because he definitely wanted to be on time, maybe even early if he could manage it, but things don't always work out like you plan.
Dinner passes, as painlessly as it can in these conditions. It's easy for Metal and Blackburn to slip back into old patterns. Maybe they sneak food from each other's plates. Finish each other's sentences. Share drinks. Pressed together all along their sides. Holding hands through most of the meal. Their biggest stumbling block is when Blackburn's parents clock that Metal isn't wearing his ring (he took it off almost to the second that they decided to split-- that was a fight on its own), but that was easily covered by him saying that he never wears it on missions and he's just rushed almost straight from base to make it here and it slipped his mind (in reality, his ring is probably in his safe back at home).
And then it's over. Blackburn is bidding goodbye to his parents and breathing easily again for the first time in hours. Metal stepping back to the suitable distance they try to keep from each other these days. Blackburn thanking Metal as profusely as he can and promising that he owes him for this. Metal doesn't intend to keep score. And that's it.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: SEAL Team (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eric Blackburn/Scott Carter, Eric Blackburn/Scott Carter/Mike Smith
Characters: Eric Blackburn, Scott Carter (SEAL Team TV)
Additional Tags: Mike is only mentioned, but that relationship remains central, Polyamory, Background Poly, past poly, Weddings, Past Relationship(s), Post-Break Up, Febuwhump, Febuwhump 2026, Sad, Sad and Happy, Heartbreak, Heartache, Heart-to-Heart, Swearing
Series: Part 19 of Universe of Trios, Part 4 of 2 Navy 1 Marine
Summary:
“Aren’t you gonna ask?”
“Do I have to?”
-
“I don’t mean that I don’t care.” Metal closed his eyes and sighed. “I just mean that I already know the answer.”
Mike.
--
Metal and Blackburn get home from their wedding, but, just like every other day for the last twenty years, there's someone still missing.
