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Avery crept down the stairs early one morning- like,
early
early, like they had to stay quiet to confirm that Mason wasn’t in the kitchen yet, early. They wanted to stay in bed longer, a lot longer really, but knew that if they stayed within the warmth of Graves’ bedsheets much more, they wouldn’t be able to get coffee downstairs without also getting caught walking out of Graves’ apartment early enough in the morning to imply things. There was always the choice to just get dressed and leave, skipping the coffee, or get dressed, get coffee, and just hang out with the cats, but Mason would probably still find it suspicious that Avery was there that early, when Avery was more often late than on time and more often on time than early.
But it didn’t matter what other choices there were, what Avery could have done or maybe should have done, because as it stood, it was
early
early, and Avery’s brain wasn’t exactly working yet (as if it ever really did), and Avery was rubbing their eyes as they stepped down the stairs, clad in their ‘
oh you
’ pajama shirt and colorfully funky pajama shorts and mess of hair that heavily implied the uh, ‘activities’ that they and Graves had gotten up to the night prior, already tasting that sweet caffeine rush that they’ve come to rely on in the mornings. Some of the cats, playing with something over in the corner, lost focus on their toy, ran up to Avery and rubbed up on their legs- somewhere in their clouded mind they made a mental note to give the cats some scratches before they went back upstairs.
Rubbing their eyes as they rounded the corner and opened the kitchen door, it took a second for them to freeze in their tracks as they registered that there was someone in the kitchen,
two
someones, in fact, who looked just as shocked as Avery felt.
Hayes sat on the counter, with one hand interlaced in Landry’s hair, and Landry standing in front of him between his legs with hands gripping Hayes’ thighs. He looked absolutely mortified, face redder than the tomatoes on the counter next to him, gripping Landry’s shirt collar with a grip-strength Avery only thought Mason capable of, and pulling Landry toward him like he’d been poisoned and Landry’s lips had the only antidote. Landry, usually calm and able to work through most situations thoughtfully and rationally, had entered fight-flight-freeze mode and landed on freeze. He just stared down Avery with complete panic.
None of the three had time to start fumbling over excuses yet, as the jingling of keys and hum of voices getting louder and closer to the kitchen’s back door caused heads to turn.
“M’ gonna have to wash it off when we get inside.”
“I know, but I couldn't resist! You just look so cute-”
The door swung open to reveal Mason and Finley, hand in hand, with lipstick kiss marks plastered on Mason’s cheek that color matched to Finley’s very obviously smudged lipstick. The two joined the party and also froze, taking in the situation.
Avery’s eyes only got wider, Landry became even more frigid somehow, and Hayes looked damn near about to cry. Finley, in true Finely fashion, slapped her free hand over her mouth.
The three parties stood frozen in a standoff, soaking in the situation and waiting to see who would make the first move. Similar thoughts ran through everyone’s heads:
Landry and Hayes are dating??? Mason and Finley are dating??? Avery and Graves are, at the very least, hooking up???
A good thirty seconds passed by until the awkwardness of the situation was just too much to bear. Avery tried to break the ice but tripped over their words, though thankfully Mason was able to handle the situation as best as someone could given all the secret information that was just revealed to basically everyone.
“Avery, go upstairs and get dressed. Landry and Finley, clean the tables for opening. Hayes, make us all some coffee. I’m… I’m gonna wash this off, n’... make breakfast.” She nodded at each person as she assigned them their individual tasks.
And, like a brick being thrown into a river in the middle of winter, the ice broke harshly but effectively, and they all went about their respective duties in complete silence.
__
Breakfast was eerily quiet. Reese’s eyes darted around the table to each of them, his eyebrows furrowing closer and closer together as he got more and more confused and felt more and more left in the dark. The first sound in the last couple hours was him inhaling to ask a very important question:
“Did something… happen?”
And suddenly, all the noise that hadn’t happened earlier was happening now as everyone tried to explain some fake scenario or give some excuse that Reese wouldn’t end up believing but really wouldn’t care about in the end.
Avery, for once, just minded their own business and chowed down, thinking about how Reese is going to have a meltdown knowing he missed out on this morning once he hears the story someday in the far, far future.