Strangers At The Alter

35

Trigger warning: Brief mentions of abuse

When Remington's brothers arrived, they had Larisa and Shy with them, too, and Remington opened the door, stepped aside to let them in. He hugged Emerson first, who whispered, "It's so good to see you. You had me worried."

"Thanks, Em," Remington whispered back.

He hugged Sebastian next, and the elder said in a voice no softer than his usual, "I'll kill that man." 

There was no questioning who he was talking about. Remington hadn't expected them to be fine with Andy, but he had hoped they'd at least give him a chance, like he had. Andy wasn't going to harm him or anyone unless they truly deserved it, that much was obvious. "Please don't," Remington said. 

"Give me one good reason why that man deserves to be alive." 

"He saved my life. He hasn't laid a finger on me. He gives me food and a comfy bed and my own bathroom. He takes me out shopping and he buys me clothes and music. He saved my life." 

"He didn't save your life." 

"He did." 

"How?" 

"Some guy gave me sepsis, Andy saved me." 

"Which guy? Andy? Andy gave you sepsis and then took you to hospital, and that means he saved your life?" 

"He didn't give me sepsis. Stop assuming everything bad is because of him." 

"It is because of him." 

"If you're gonna be like this, I'll make you leave." 

"Don't be ridiculous. We've come all this way to see you, we're not leaving." 

"Right, well, learn some manners, then. And Andy's back from work later, so be nice, alright?" 

"No. Why would we?" 

Remington shook his head and left them in the doorway, went through to the kitchen to make tea. The topic of Andy was dropped for the time being, and instead they discussed Shy and Emerson's engagement, Larisa and Sebastian's wedding planning, and a bundle of useless subjects. 

When the front door banged, Remington got up from where they were sat in the living room and approached Andy, who was visibly stressed. "My brothers," he said in a voice just above a whisper. "Maybe try and avoid them." 

"Still wanting me dead?" 

"Yep." 

Andy hummed, yawned, and hung his jacket up. "Alright. I'll stay out of you way. If you need anything, you know where I am." His phone buzzed in his pocket and he groaned and ignored it.

Remington nodded, though felt bad about pushing him out of his own living room. "Sorry." 

"No. Don't. I appreciate you warning me, really. I have some new designs to work on, anyway." 

"Okay." Remington wasn't convinced. It sounded like the last thing he wanted to do was work on the designs.

"Don't look so guilty, it's not your fault. Enjoy your time with them, don't even think about me." 

"But-" 

"I'll still be here when they're gone, and then you can tell me all about it." 

"Okay." 

Andy bent down to untie his laces, and the living room door opened. "Oh, fuck," he whispered, anticipating the verbal abuse that would hit him. 

"Oh, it's you," Emerson said sharply. "Didn't crash your car yet?" 

"Emerson, shut the fuck up," Remington demanded, grabbing his shoulders and pushing him back into the living room. He looked at Andy, gave him an apologetic look, and shut the door. "Just leave him alone, he's done nothing to you." 

"He stole you from us!" 

"That wasn't his choice. I'm not talking about this anymore." 

For the most part, they obliged and Andy was left out of the conversation, and each time he was brought up, Remington just didn't respond.

Hours later, once they had gone to bed, Remington knocked on Andy's door and waited for it to open. When he did, it was by an exhausted looking Andy, who said, "What's up?" His voice was low and soft. He looked about ready to drop dead.

"Just wanted to say goodnight to my technically-husband."

"That's very sweet." Andy pushed a hand through his hair. "How're your brothers?"

"Massive dicks." 

"That gene must have missed you." 

Remington shook his head, smiled. 

"You wanna come in? I'll show you these designs. I'm sure you'll have some useful ideas on how to improve them. The last line you helped me with have already sold out." After receiving a nod, Andy stepped aside, closed the door behind Remington. "Here, sit on the bed. I'll get my laptop." He sat beside the younger with the device and brought up a drawing program with three sketches, roughly coloured and labelled. "Do your worst." 

Leaning in, Remington studied them. "That one with the corset," he said. "What if you took away the sleeves?" 

"Oh, good idea. One sec." 

"How do you even come up with these designs?" 

"I just do. I don't know. Sometimes I get inspiration from other outfits, or things that have nothing to do with clothes at all. You know. Flowers, animals, even architecture. Anything, really." 

"It's very impressive." 

Andy turned the screen towards Remington once he had erased the sleeves. "You have a good eye. Looks much better now." 

Remington hummed. He was leant against Andy's shoulder now, gazing down at the screen. "It's all you," he mumbled. The heat and closeness of Andy was making him sleepy. 

"Nonsense." 

"How's your new finance director? That's the one you were interviewing for, right?" 

"Yeah, uh, she's...I don't know. It's complicated." 

"Oh no." 

"She does the work, but she also does a lot that isn't associated with the work. Mostly googling me." He closed the laptop and yawned, said, "It's been a long day." 

"Well, I wasn't gonna say anything, but you look awful." 

Andy chuckled, resting his cheek against Remington's head. "Guess I'll have to be just boss man for the time being." 

"No, you're still hot." 

"Mm, thank you." 

"I'll, uh, leave you to go to bed." He started getting up, but Andy pulled him back down, held him around the waist. 

"Stay," he murmured. "Just for a little." 

Remington melted into his arms, sunk down into the bed, closed his eyes. "What about just one sleeve?"

"Shh. My brain's shut down. Tell me again tomorrow. You're staying with me, I need to hold you." 

They were lying on the covers rather than beneath them, but that didn't seem to matter. "You're so soft," Remington whispered. "All that boss man stuff, I almost fell for it." 

"Shh." 

"Your arms are so nice." 

Andy hummed into his hair. 

They were both comfortably asleep within ten minutes, Andy waking hours later because he was cold and pulling the comforter at the end of the bed over them. Remington woke at the movement and Andy shushed him, pulled him against his chest, and they fell back asleep quickly.