Chapter Text
These years truly felt like they might be the best of his life. He just got a new piercing. The band was making some great new songs, even if they still hadn’t settled on a name. He finally had his own car. Maybe by the start of the next year he would’ve paid it off in full. School had started again, for the very last time around.
Gary was eagerly looking forward to his future. He had a sneaking suspicion things could only keep on getting better from here on out.
Though again, his present wasn’t too shabby either.
Andy’s body crushed his against the wall. He was all warm and solid and still smelling of grass and sweat after his rugby training. They had both finished their respective types of after school activities and enjoyed the spare time to share in some additional activity before they’d have to part ways. As per usual, they had set out to get the most out of whatever time they had.
He smiled. Andy still kept on trying to kiss him nonetheless.
So Gary contained his happiness in order for them both to fully utilise the opportunity before their time would be up. Andy’s tongue slid into his mouth and they both moaned at the contact. Fuck, he had missed this. He grabbed the other’s face and tried to pull him closer still. Andy’s steady hands meanwhile drifted down his shoulders, sides, to his ass, and hitched him up.
Gary opened his thighs so Andy could better slot a leg underneath him. They fit together perfectly. It felt a bit like coming home.
They pressed closer. He could feel his friend’s dick was already growing more interested as they continued their mutual appreciation for one another.
He draped his arms over Andy’s shoulders and allowed for himself to get lost in the kiss. He knew he had lucked out immensely with the way things had developed between them. Whether he deserved it or not, this was just the best. Right here and now, it was just the two of them. He and his friend. Boy… Best friend. Boy best friend, safety blanket and occasional hookup during whatever stolen moment they could get, in between school and home life.
Yeah, life was pretty incredible. Gary wished he could feel like this forever.
He wasn’t sure how many minutes had passed until somewhere down the hall a door fell shut and Andy drew back, instantly on alert and entirely focused on the disturbance.
Fuck. Both of them pulled straight back into the normal world, as it were. They listened for a few more seconds with bated breath.
The sound of the slam still echoed, but no footsteps followed. That didn’t seem to help ease Andy’s general apprehension.
Gary made some noise of complaint which went entirely unacknowledged.
“Come on, man,” he whined, tugging on his hookup’s collar and licking at his earlobe. To no avail. He pressed his crotch against Andy’s, half hard cock still clearly noticeable even through the layers of clothing keeping them apart. His friend only flashed him an irritated, slightly anxious look in response.
“Just shush for a sec.”
“Hey,” Gary tried again, “come on, relax. There’s no one out there, yeah?”
He now leaned back a bit and stroked the sides of Andy’s face, coaxing him to focus his attention again where it was most wanted. The other stayed wary and on edge for a few more torturous seconds, but it was obvious no more sounds would follow from the other rooms nor the hall just outside. They were safe. They were alone.
Realising this, Andy sighed deeply. Again he leaned into his taller (and very grateful, excited) friend, but all the heat and urgency had evidently seeped from him now. This felt more like an embrace for the sake of seeking comfort. Gary paused for a moment, but then resolved to endure it. Patted the other on the back. They might still return to business once the initial fright had passed. The endless well of post-rugby adrenaline had never let them down before, anyway.
“Sorry,” Andy finally said. “I just thought… though I know by now, everyone’s left but still, if anyone were to find out about this-”
“We wouldn’t want that,” Gary agreed wholeheartedly.
And it seemed as though Andy might say something in response, geared up to do it even, but then his hesitation lingered and the resolve petered out into simply more silence. The moment passed. Instead of answering he only clutched at Gary again, with a deliberate resolution. Hands fisted in the fabric of the other’s shirt, rather than cupping his ass like before.
Pretty sure his dick was flagging, too. Gary had to salvage this fast if he still wanted to hold out any hope for getting off.
Almost robotically he ran through the motions, estimating the right combination of actions needed to still make this work. Carding his fingers through Andy’s hair. A kiss to the forehead. Applying a genuinely compassionate tone to his voice but all the while making sure they stayed close together, should that more physical connection between them spark back to life.
“Hey, you wanna take this into the Beast?” he suggested in a hushed voice. “I could take us somewhere more private, anywhere you wanna go. Plenty of woods and fields for us to take cover.”
“What about your place?”
Gary stiffened - not in the fun way. Just the mere thought of going home to his mum and her boyfriend. With the expectation of their eternally unreciprocated banter as he would bring Andy back to theirs again and they’d disappear upstairs together. And then of course once Andy had made himself scarce, their insufferable playful comments which would follow. The oh so fun stretches of family time he would have to endure as they made their double entendres and exchanged glances and tried to get Gary involved with these inside jokes as though they could all together relate when whatever they had wasn’t anything close to this special thing between him and Andy, and really, who were they to think he wanted to bond with them over that type of shit anyway, as though either of them could ever understand…
Shit, whatever this thing between them was, he barely even could make sense of it himself.
Andy picked up on his complete rejection of that idea, and took his defeat in stride. “Fine. My house, then?”
Gary hesitated. That was hardly any better.
Sure, if he had to make the choice he would prefer they go to the Knightley’s over his own house any day of the week. But at times it was still hard. He would be spared the tongue in cheek type of joking about their intimate friendship, thank fuck. But their open and natural kindness towards them both often proved harder to shake. As though the Knightleys actually could see and understand the effect they both had on each other, and just approved of it completely. As though he was actually good for Andy. As though they’d want to keep him around as a part of their family for some time to come.
Their patient, friendly and quietly indulgent acceptance of him as though he might belong there, indefinitely, at times made Gary break into a cold sweat.
The more he thought about it, the more complicated and mixed up this thing became.
He better not get too hung up on it. Better to avoid that if at all possible.
“The smokehouse,” he decided at last. It wouldn’t be the most clean or comfortable place for them to go, but they’d get warmed up quickly anyway. And at the very least there would be zero chance of interruptions happening over there.
Andy sighed, and stayed exactly where he was. Gary was starting to run out of ideas as to what else he was supposed to do, then. So he looked the other in the eye, and oh, that was a mistake.
It wasn’t the first time he had seen that particular look on his friend. He’d seen it during more than a couple of their sleepovers. Hidden in the half dark. Andy quietly, secretly looking at him as he practised on the guitar, just the two of them in his room. Or at school, while joking to Pete until he’d forgotten all about some dickhead bullying him. Side by side at the family dinner table and listening to some ancient story they’d both definitely heard before but still didn’t want to interrupt, just happy to be there and to hear it.
Gary didn’t much like seeing it now especially, as they were all alone and either of them might say something they’d come to regret. He had to cut that short, and fast.
“So uh, anyway. Either we’re gonna get this thing going or I am off. I do have other shit to get to, you know.”
And thank God, Andy’s eyes gradually lost that unbearably soft and genuine expression until he was fully back to his normal, teenage self.
“Fine. Fuck the smokehouse, though. I don’t feel like getting an STD from that place.”
“Heyyy don’t worry. You can get one from me right here.”
“Gary, that is not actually-”
“Are we doing this or not?”
Andy sighed in defeat, knowing it would be pointless to argue any further.
“Yeah. Sure.”
“Well, come here then.”
And so Gary welcomed him back in his embrace, and their kissing picked up again. He pretended not to notice if this somehow felt different. Slower. More meaningful. Whether it actually was or not, after a few minutes he could clearly feel Andy’s cock grow stiff again all the same.
God, what a relief. Crisis averted. No more worrying about what it all meant. Where it was going. Whether this thing between them actually did mean this much to Andy. Whether Gary wanted it to. The massive responsibility that would come along with that, if this was all for real. Whether he was personally ready or even capable of reciprocating that feeling, or if he would only be bound to disappoint and ruin this for them both.
The kiss grew more heated. Andy moaned into it. Fingers fumbling, Gary unbuckled the other’s belt for easier access. They were seventeen and life felt like one big, exciting rush. He would do anything in his power to keep it that way.