For your boys: 9. What annoys each member of your otp about the other? Do they tell them? Do they compromise/work it out?
Hi anon and thank you for your question!
We've seen them arguing about how to fold and do laundry but that's just a silly moment! There are more serious things that they're annoyed about.
For John, the thing that annoys him the most is Gale holding grudges. It happens also in the fic, when John apologizes for having flirted with a girl while drunk and Gale says he's forgiven only to then throw the whole thing back in his face during their big, serious argument.
John hates it because he feels like Gale's not being honest with him, keeping secrets and maybe even secretly hating him for things John thought were resolved — it could lead him to not trusting Gale anymore because clearly Gale doesn't trust him, so why should John? It also plays in the whole miscommunication thing that defines the early stages of their relationship.
As they progress in it, wanting to build together something sure and lasting, John tells Gale that this is a problem for him; Gale tries to avoid doing it and he finds it easier and easier going forward because they're resolving their communication issues and he learns that if he's actually pissed off about something he can just say it plain and clear to John so they can work on it together as the thing happen, and he won't use it as further ammunition in a future fight. Of course sometimes he still does it, but it annoys John way less since it's only once in a while and Gale always apologizes afterwards.
For Gale, his problem with John is the fact that he doesn't take care of himself, like at all. He doesn't sleep, he's always straining his bad knee and never has ice or hot packets on him when he needs them, he rarely limits himself when he's drinking, etc.
Gale sees those things as him effectively gambling with his life/health, and in addition to the fact that he worries about him because he loves him, it actually triggers him a little so he often tries, as gently as he can, to ask him to be more careful.
The final straw is one night at the theatre when the Hundredth is rehearsing for their new play after The Tempest and John is so agitated and nervous about it (he's afraid he's been a one hit wonder, the fight with his dad is quite recent) that he hasn't been sleeping at all and at one point he stumbles and falls on stage, hurting his bad knee — not badly but enough to scare everyone (I might actually write a Drabble about this moment, thanks for the inspo!).
That's when Gale decides it's time to fix at least his sleeping habits. It takes a while but eventually they manage to have him sleep normally most of the nights, and all the other stuff gets resolved along the way; John doesn't feel the need to drink so much to feel sleepy/numb enough to sleep, his joints ache way less, and with a sane dose of reminders from Gale he always has ice and whatever he needs for his knee. He still has bouts of insomnia, especially when an opening night is getting closer, but he can manage the stress and the lack of sleep way better!
This also becomes a problem later in their life, when they find out John has an heart condition that could bring him to a stroke if he doesn't keep it monitored. Gale almost loses his head trying to keep him safe and healthy and John promises he'll stop acting for a while to get all checked up after he's finished with his current show, but when he tries to jump to a new one anyway Gale gets really angry at him; when they settle this fight, John agrees that he should be more conscious and careful about his health and tries to do his best.
Bonus: John also hates how short Gale sells himself, especially about his acting, and makes a great effort to make him understand he's good and worthy of the praise he gets!
Thank you for this question, I really love picking those little theatre men apart 🥰🥰
