Originally inspired by Coran Gray's song 'Wish you were sober' but it just ended up being more word vomit than anything.

I wrote this a bit ago, but wasn't sure if I wanted to like put it on the internet

c

Bruce had, stupidly, let Vance drag him to another college party. He would never understand how in their freshman year he already knew at least two people in every frat in the entirety of LA.

"Hey! Dude!" Someone calls out, seemingly to Bruce. "Hey, could I help you?" Bruce asks once the person catches up to him. "I'm one of Vance's friends, he was raving about you, and I wanted to know why he was so obsessed with you." The guy, who is either Cole or Dylan since he mentioned being one of Vance's friends. "Oh, okay, what was he talking about?" Bruce asks, trying to find a way to have a conversation with someone who's clearly had one too many.

"Mainly how cute and kind you were, he's kinda gay when he gets drunk. Oh, also I'm Dylan!" The guy, who he now is sure is Dylan, says laughing slightly when he mentions Vance being gay. Bruce would've laughed with him if they were still in highschool, hushed quiet nights when their roommates were out can complicate a few things.

"Hey, you okay dude?" Dylan asks when Bruce stays silent. "Yeah, sorry, I just have an essay I forgot about. I'm gonna go get Vance and probably leave." Bruce tells Dylan, speed walking away before Dylan can respond.

Bruce's troubles in finding Vance seem a lot more difficult than typical, he can hear Vance's voice but can't find which room he's in. "Bruce?" A familiar voice calls out, not familiar enough to be Vance but familiar enough to be one of his friends. "Griffin?" Bruce calls out, turning around. "Hey, dude!" Billy calls out, appearing beside Griffin. "You guys are in town?" Bruce asks "We told you guys last week we had two weeks off because o.... Did you forget?" Griffin says, voice cutting out slightly from the loud music. "Yeah, sorry, why are you guys at this frat party though?" Bruce asks "Finn's in this frat!" Billy responds, informing Bruce of information he clearly wasn't aware of.

"Ohhh! Anyway, have you guys seen Vance?" Bruce asks "Yeah, he's with Finn! Vance was doing a keg stand like twenty minutes ago and that's when we last saw him." Billy replies. Bruce knows that twenty minutes would've had enough time for Vance to get upstairs and be somewhere where he can't see him. "Thanks, I'm getting tired so I'm gonna go find Vance and probably head out soon. Great seeing you guys, we should hang out before you leave town!" Bruce says, receiving bye's from the 'friends' (everyone knows they've been dating since middle school, but they aren't technically out yet.)

He can hear Vance and Finn now, he knows which room they're in as well, but they seem to be talking about someone and Bruce is nothing if not curious.

"Just tell them!" Finn encourages, getting a "No, absolutely not!" from Vance. Whatever they were needing to tell someone, Vance is not for it, at all. While funny, Bruce just wants to leave and pass out, so he opens the door. "Vance, can we leave, please?" Bruce asks, already knowing the answer. "Yeah, of course, bye Finn. Also say hi to Robin for me." Vance replies, gathering his stuff.

"You okay? You typically don't wanna leave till closer to midnight than this." Vance asks, getting into the passenger seat of his own car. Already knowing that Bruce won't let him drive. "Yeah, 'm fine. I ran into Griffin and Billy by the way. And your friend... Dylan." Bruce replies, clearly trying to change the subject since he never wants to talk about Vance's friends.

"Oh, cool." Vance says after a few minutes, clearly also not wanting to talk about his friends. "Yeah, he called you kinda gay." Bruce informs, keeping his eyes on the road. "Oh."

"My roommate's out for the week." Vance informs, closing and locking the door behind him. "Okay, so?" Bruce replies. "Y'know you could like..." "I could...?" Bruce eggs him on, clearly wanting Vance to admit it for once. "You could like...Stay here for the week." Vance finally says, and Bruce, if only for a second, considers it. Consider's taking him up on his offer. And he probably would've if Vance could ever offer or even just say these words when he's sober.

And even though this isn't a rare occurrence, spending quiet moonlit nights with Vance and laughing when they were definitely only staying up because they were each scared that once they woke up the other would be gone. It still hurts, it hurts, that Vance can't tell Bruce anything even close to an 'I like you' when sober. Always hushed words, and mutters, under his breath that Bruce knows he isn't supposed to hear.

"Sorry. I can't." Bruce tells Vance, swallowing a lump in his throat he wasn't even aware of. And Vance's face visibly drops, "Oh, okay. Why?" Vance asks. "You know why. This isn't fair." Bruce replies.

"If you're set for the night, I think I'm going to head out." Bruce says after a few minutes of silence "Please. Please don't." Vance halfway pleads, mustering up as much courage as he can have right now.

"Why? So when we wake up we can awkwardly make breakfast? So when we wake up you can tell me you were 'so drunk you barely remember'?" Bruce asks, trying and failing to keep his voice from cracking.

And right now, Vance wishes he could take back the party's wishes he could take back only asking him to stay when Bruce thinks he isn't sober, wishes he could reach forward and wipe away his tears and Bruce thinks he's being genuine.

"Bruce. I'm sorry. Okay, I am. I don't want to hurt you, ever. And I know that that's all I do on nights like these. But, please just stay tonight." Vance asks, he knows it isn't fair to Bruce. He knows that, but he doesn't know how else to spend those types of moments with Bruce. "Why?" Bruce replies, they can both hear how Bruce is on the brink of crying. Bruce hasn't cried in front of him since Bruce figured out he was gay and didn't know how to tell people, it went unspoken that his 'crush' was Vance

"Call me tomorrow. If you can, I'll come back over and stay the week." Bruce says, Vance nods as a response. Vance would take anything and everything Bruce would offer him at this moment.

"I'll call, I promise." Vance mutters out when Bruce is grabbing his keys and phone. Bruce either doesn't hear him or just doesn't know how to respond to that, because he doesn't answer and just grabs the last of his stuff and leaves.

Should I call him?

Yes, you've been in love with him since he indirectly confirmed his feeling for you

I think you should, but if you aren't ready, then no. But Bruce isn't going to wait forever.

I know, I'm aware what I'm doing isn't fair. I'll call him around 8am after I've had my breakfast.

Goodluck!

Did he tell his friend's he'd call Bruce around eight A.M.? Yes. Is he having severe second thoughts right now? Yes.

Vance eventually calls, and waits patiently for an answer. One ring, two ring, if Bruce didn't answer Vance couldn't be mad at him, he's been the wors-

"Vance?" Bruce groggily asks on the other end of the line, Vance has clearly awoken him from sleeping. "Yeah, sorry if I called too early. I just didn't wanna chicken out." Vance replies, worry settling in him. "No, no, it's fine. I guess I just wasn't expecting you to like actually call." Bruce explains.

"Yeah, that's fair. If you don't have plans, I can make you some breakfast?" Vance asks, expecting Bruce to shut him down and deny him like he's done so many times to the other. "Uh, yeah, sure. I stole your car last night so I'll just drive over." Bruce replies, audibly surprised at how adult Vance is being for once. Instead of expecting Bruce to constantly get the hints, he's communicating what he wants.

"Okay." Vance says, not sure what he's okay with as he wasn't listening to what Bruce was saying, just idly listening to Bruce's calm tone that he gets in the mornings.

A few minutes later, a knock sounds through his apartment, he greets Bruce at the door and invites him in. "I don't really want breakfast right now, can you just make me coffee?" Bruce asks once he gets in through the door and sets his stuff down. "Yeah, of course, same way as last time?" Vance asks, walking over to the kitchen. "Mhm." Bruce replies.

"So." Bruce says once Vance hands him his coffee. "Yeah." Vance agrees. "Are you sure?" Bruce asks, worried Vance will change his mind. "Yeah." Vance confirms. Even without saying they each knew that now it wouldn't just be wordless encounters when one of their roommates would be out.

Even if Vance didn't truly know what this would bring, he wouldn't trade this for the world, he would be okay with anything that this could possibly bring. And would be more than okay if Bruce never lost that spark of happiness in his eyes he gets now when he looks at Vance.

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