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Adrian loved it here. Their home on the beach. He tried to get outside everyday, which is why, this morning, he was sitting on the edge of their deck with his toes in the sand. Leaning back on his hands, coffee cup next to him and his head tilted towards the sun with his eyes closed.
“Adrian?”, he hears, hesitantly, from a voice he vaguely recognizes.
He opens his eyes to look at who it is, and is effectively brought out of his daydream.
“Linc”, he says nonchalantly. Damn, really. Of all the people who could’ve been running on the beach by their place. Figures.
“What are you doing here?”, Linc asks. Adrian thinks it’s obvious, given the early morning time and that he’s only wearing shorts and has coffee, but he responds anyways, “I live here”.
“Oh nice, didn’t know surfers made that much”, Linc chuckles. Adrian thinks he’s trying to be funny. He isn’t.
Unfortunately, for Adrian, his good hearted nature wins out and he responds, “What about you?”
“Oh, the hospital I work at isn’t far and I crashed at a friends last night, so I figured I would run on the beach this morning”, he shares.
“Hmm”, Adrian says back.
“So not surfing anymore, Deran stop sponsoring you?”, Linc questions.
That has Adrian sitting up and his need to defend Deran comes roaring to a head. To explain that he’s not surfing because
he
fucked up. That if it weren’t for Deran he wouldn’t be here. But, he doesn’t owe Linc any sort of explanation, so he just says, “Had some family things to take care of. Had to take some time off”.
“Gotcha”, Linc responds, “How is he, Deran?”, he asks.
Adrian’s pretty much over this conversation, but he doesn’t think Linc is asking to be malicious. And he certainly doesn’t know they’re living together, if his curious eyes are anything to go by. And he probably hasn’t spoken to Deran since the Ox thing anyways…
He just raises an eyebrow instead.
Linc sighs. Good. “Just asking because you seemed close, and I’m pretty sure he was lying when he said what you guys had was a long time ago, so…”, Linc trails off.
Huh
. Now Adrian must have a confused look on his face. Deran didn’t talk about him. To anyone. Except his brothers. Although thinking back to that dinner at Smurf’s and how she seemed to know they wanted to live together…
Linc must sense his confusion because he goes on, “I could tell how he felt about you that day at the restaurant”.
“How he felt about me?”, Adrian asks. Ugh, he thinks. Stupid mouth. He knows how Deran feels about him. So why is he attempting to get some validation from a stranger? A stranger who used to sleep with his boyfriend…
“Yeah man, it was pretty obvious, dude loves you”, Linc responds. Adrian can’t help it, he smiles. Love, there’s that word again. It’s been floating around in his head for Deran since they were young. It’s taken on many forms, over the years. But he thinks, now, that they finally got it right. Got them right.
“Yeah I can see you do, too”, Linc states. At Adrian’s confused look, he continues, “love him, I mean”.
Oh, yeah. He does. But the first person he says that too, will be Deran. Not Linc. So he just smiles and shrugs.
They’re joined, unknowingly, by a sleepy looking Deran, who opens the patio door and steps outside, wearing only his black boxer briefs. Adrian’s favorite. Adrian turns, and nearly swallows his tongue. Definitely Adrian’s favorite.
Deran’s rubbing his eyes, when he says, “So this is where you ran off too. I was gunna make breakfast”.
Linc clears his throat. Right, Adrian thinks. Not alone. “Deran,” he says. Pointing his head towards Linc.
That wakes Deran up, who comes to an immediate halt and nearly crashes into a patio chair.
“Linc”, Deran says.
“Hey man”, Linc responds, “so how long have you guys lived here?”.
“A while”, Deran says, clipped and short.
Oh no, that won’t do, Adrian thinks. He does not want grumpy Deran. Not when he wants to lick the sweat off his chest and tumble back into bed. Decision made, he stands up and turns to Linc, “nice seeing you again, but we have things to do”, Adrian says. He’s walking towards Deran now. Grabs his hand and starts to pull him back inside.
Linc takes the hint, and says back, “Yeah, see ya”. And then he’s gone.
“What was he doing here?”, Deran asks him once they’re inside.
“Running on the beach, stayed with a friend”, Adrian replies, as he reaches for Deran’s hips.
“What did you guys talk about?”, Deran asks. He’s not mad, just curious. He puts his arms around Adrian.
“Nothing really, surfing”, Adrian says back, as he begins kissing Deran and dragging him back towards their bedroom.
He knows, of course, that he should tell Deran how he feels. He wants to tell Deran how he feels. Needs to. That this declaration of love that’s been bubbling away near the surface, for longer than he cares to admit, will eventually overflow. But not today, and not brought on by someone who he definitely never wants to see again.
No, when the moment comes, it will be them. Just. Them.