Work Text:
Dave was halfway through a small bottle of tequila when he heard a persistent knock on the front door. The doorbell had been broken for as long as he could remember, but after all the other DIY failures, he hadn’t even made an attempt to try to fix it. It had been one of the many things Kris had rolled his eyes at him for.
The thing was, Kris was good at things like that, but he hadn’t offered to help, and Dave hadn’t wanted to ask for help and it had seemed stupid to pay someone to fix it. Too proud, too much of a man, as his momma said.
He’d thought they’d last forever once they’d taken that final step from friends to more, but then, a month ago to the day, Kris had left and hadn’t come back. There’d been no interaction whatsoever from him since that day, and Dave had done the only thing he knew how to—written music and gotten drunk. Sometimes he’d written music while drunk.
When the knocking hadn’t stopped after what must have been at least a few minutes, he set the bottle on the coffee table and stumbled a little as he got off the couch and headed to the front door. He didn't even bother checking who was outside before he opened the door. He could feel himself sway a little in place as he came face to face with Kris.
“You’re here?” It came out as a question, and Dave blinked and pinched himself simultaneously to make sure it wasn’t a dream.
“You gonna let me in?” Kris looked up at Dave under his lashes, hands deep in his pockets. Dave thought they might have been clenched into fist, judging by the outline.
Dave’s tongue suddenly felt too big for his mouth. He swallowed, nodded, made a stupid sweep with his hand into his, in hindsight, not at all presentable house.
Kris didn’t say anything as he saw the bottle on the coffee table, just looked at him again with that pained expression Dave had seen too many times to count. Kris sat down in his regular spot on the couch and grabbed the bottle, twirling it between his fingers.
Dave walked over, did his best to appear sober, but knew he was most likely failing, and sat down a cushion away instead of in his usual spot, while Kris’ attention was focused elsewhere. “I didn’t expect you or I would’ve … I don’t know what I would’ve done. Probably would’ve cleaned up? The place and myself.”
Kris made a noise, it came out like a mix between a sigh and a snort, a hint of laughter. He ran a hand over his face, looked over at Dave and smiled wryly. “I don’t want you to change for me, Dave. I never wanted that. That’s not what made me leave. I’m sorry.”
“I—”
“Please, let me finish?” Kris stood up and started pacing. “I think … I think maybe we started this too soon. And I think maybe, just maybe I gave up too easily on this. On you. On us. We were both lost, both broken, probably me more than you. Not that it’s a competition, you can’t measure things like that. I think, no, I know, that I’m better when I’m with you. This month has proved that more than ever, just ask anyone, really.”
“I—” Dave tried again, only to be steamrolled over by another rush of words from Kris.
This time he stood still, mere feet from Dave, but still far enough away that Dave couldn’t reach out and touch him without the risk of toppling over. “I know you’ve barely left the house since … since I left. That you haven’t really talked to anyone but Beth unless you were obligated to. In fact, if you hadn’t had the shows planned you wouldn’t have even left the house for food, would you? You have no idea how relieved I was, seeing videos of you with Archie, seeing you smile and laugh like that.”
“I—”
“Not finished.” Kris said through clenched jaws, before he reached over for the notebook on the coffee table. Dave had completely forgotten it was there, wanted to reach out and grab it back, but the determined look in Kris’ eyes stopped him. He watched as Kris flipped the notebook open to a random page, then another and another. “I’ve been miserable this last month without you. And by the looks of these—” he waved the notebook around “—so have you.”
Dave wanted to protest, but they both knew it would be a lie, and Kris might actually explode if he said something. He just nodded.
“So yeah, I made a mistake a month ago. A huge mistake. I’m really sorry, and I will make it up to you, with any means necessary. If you’d let me.” Kris took a deep breath and looked somewhere over Dave’s shoulder before meeting his eyes head on again. “Because, see, here’s the thing. I would rather be lost and broken with you than lost and broken and alone. We’re not good at being alone, David. Please, let me in. Give me a second chance?”
Dave stood up, the words were familiar, and through his drunken haze he had a feeling where this was going. By the tilt of Kris’ head, he was probably on the right track. Dave opened up his arms.
“Take me as I am?” The words were mumbled against his collar bone as Kris stepped up and hugged him.
“Yes.” The word was barely more than an exhale because Dave didn’t want to break the moment, didn’t want to risk this not being real, didn’t want to wake up in the morning only to realize that this to have been nothing but a dream, but Dave could feel Kris’ smile against his shoulder. Dave pulled back, because he had to see it. It was one of the things he’d missed the most over this past month. The memory he had of that smile didn’t begin to compare with the real thing. Dave really wanted to kiss that smile. So he did, because he could do that now. Again. Everyday. Forever, whenever, wherever.
(Well, maybe not exactly wherever–not just yet, anyway–they still needed to talk about that particular part of this. Iron out the details, be on the same page. Learn to communicate with words. They were songwriters, damn good ones at that, if Dave said so himself (and he did). And their families, friends and their managers loved them, they only wanted what was best for Kris and he, so he had a good feeling.)
o.0.o
Later, much later, when they were in bed, facing each other with their legs entwined and both of them were on the verge of falling asleep, Dave took Kris’ hand in his and kissed his palm. “So, I had this crazy thought. Since the new year is coming up and it’s all about starting how you mean to go on and all that jazz …” He waited for Kris’ nod. “How about we run away for a few weeks, take the world together?”
Kris’ eyes nearly closed, his grin was so big. Seconds later, all the air left Dave’s lungs as he was covered by Kris and kissed in a way that could only be described as filthy.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”