What's Next? || Ant x Stephen

The Next Step - Chapter Thirteen

Right now, Stephen was sat in a chair, at a table full of producers, executives, co-producers, the lot. They were all planning the new series of catchphrase.

No one has asked Stephen a question in a good 30 minutes, so to be honest he was daydreaming right now, whilst everyone else was sorting out the things that had nothing to do with Stephen.

He was then snapped out by Jake nudging his arm as the meeting was coming to end.

"So we will start filming around mid to late November, and then it will be on tv's by around early December" the main producer, Darren, said as everyone nodded, and Stephen was just starting to get back to this world, so to say, he just nodded along hoping Jake would explain whatever he missed or didn't understand afterwards, he's usually pretty good in meetings, he always listens and always chimes in when he's able to or when he has an idea, but his head has been elsewhere since his talk with Jake, he's been so excited to ask Ant to move in with him.

"Now there's a new executive on this series, so everyone be nice" Darren joked around, as if they were still in school, making everyone laugh. But Stephen hadn't noticed anyone new in the meeting, he saw everyone who's been working on catchphrase from, practically, when it started back up. He glanced around the room once more, still failing to see anyone new, Stephen just looked down to the floor as he waited for Darren to introduce the new executive.

"Michael!" Darren said, as Stephen's head shot up from the floor.

Michael! As in Michael from the PR meeting. Michael, the guy who tried to talk Ant and Stephen out of coming out. That Michael?! Stephen was in complete disbelief, and discomfort. He did NOT want to work with that man.

Looks like Stephen would have to deal with the executive for a while.

As the meeting ended, he left the room, and started to make his way down to the lobby of the ITV studios, trying to avoid talking to anyone, especially Michael, he stopped for a moment and grabbed his phone out of his front pocket, his head was focused on his phone as he was messaging Ant.

Stephen:
'Hey, just finished the final meeting, I'm about to head off'

After he sent the message, he put his phone in his pocket and continued walking. As he passed the executive, neither one of them said anything, Stephen gave him a very small smile, just so he didn't have to speak to him, but hoping things would be civil, but Michael gave him a very judgemental look. Stephen tried so hard to just ignore or forget about it and focus on asking Ant to move in with him, that was the most important thing right now, he needed to focus on that. Not Michael.

Stephen was stopped by a few other people, just wanting to talk, and after about 15 minutes, he finally excused himself so that he could get home. He quickly left the studio and made his way home, pumped with adrenaline. As he was driving home, his brain was going through different types of scenarios, about how this might play out., and he had done this a few times since the idea of asking Ant to move in with him came up.

The drive was only about 20 minutes, but those twenty minutes for Stephen was a long time to come up with about a hundred different bad case scenarios. Some where Ant just flat out ignores him, some where Ant laughs and say no, some where they break up, so so many and most of them definitely wont happen.

He finally drove into his street and parked outside his house, he sat in the car for a moment, just to breath, he didn't know why he was so nervous. He was only asking Ant to move in with him, not like he's proposing, not yet at least...

Eventually, Stephen got out of the car, and made his way into the house.

"Hey, I'm home!" Stephen shouted through the house as he opened the front door, he dropped his bag by the door, took his jacket off and hung it on the coat rack next to the front door. He made his way into the living room looking for the older man, when he heard him shouting "I'm upstairs" Stephen did a quick 180 and made his way up the stairs. He went into his bedroom to see Ant tidying up, he stopped in the door way and then leant on the frame "Didn't you tidy up yesterday?" Stephen said teasingly "Well, if you kept it tidy I wouldn't have to clean up so often" Ant teased back, as Stephen gave a comically offended look on his face.

He stood up properly after leaning on the door frame and walked over to Ant "But if I did that, then how would I annoy you?" Stephen said laughing "I'm sure you'd find a way" Ant said, as he turned around to face the younger man, who had a cheeky smirk on his face "Your right, plus I already annoy you quite a bit" Stephen said as he placed his arms around Ant giving him a hug and a peck on the lips. "You do indeed."

Ant and Stephen then made their way downstairs, when Ant asked Stephen how the meetings went, and he wasn't sure whether or not to tell him about Michael, as they got downstairs they made their way into the kitchen, looking for what to make for dinner. "It was... Interesting" was how Stephen explained the meetings today, Ant gave him a confused, yet curious look "What does that mean?" Ant asked, Stephen made his way over to the cupboard and grabbed a glass, he filled it up with water and took a big sip, before continuing. "Well, we start filming in around 2 weeks, then will be out towards the start maybe mid December" Stephen started as Ant continued to look in the fridge to see what they had there to cook. "And... there's a new executive on the show this year" Stephen finished, that caught Ant's attention, he slowly turned around to see what Stephen facial expression was in that moment. Seeing the smile on Stephen's face fade, gave Ant his answer as to who it was "No? It's not is it?" Ant asked sounded protective "Yep, I've got to work with Michael for the next few weeks" Stephen said taking another swig of his water. "Your joking?! Do they not remember what he said to us, I mean he-" Ant started, but mid-way through getting interrupted by Stephen "Jake told them, before the meetings, before they announced he was 'joining the team', he tried to get them to choose a different executive but they wouldn't budge. He said, that they said 'we would just have to learn to get along' or something like that" Ant's face got more and more annoyed. He did not want Stephen working with that dickhead. The guy who doesn't even try to hide the fact he's homophobic or that he doesn't accept the boys.

"Why don't we order something? It's been a long day and I'm kind of craving Chinese" Stephen said, swiftly changing the subject, Ant didn't want to push to much tonight though so he just nodded and grabbed his phone. He order the food and then they decided on a movie to watch.

*TIME SKIP*

It was around 9:30 when the movie finished, and Ant was lying down with his head on Stephens lap, whilst Stephen played with Ant's hair. Ant had started talking about work and how excited he was for Christmas and the smile on his face made Stephen forget about all his worries, he was in love with that smile Ant had, and the way his eyes lit up when he was happy and without even thinking he said "Move in with me" Ant's face turned to surprise, he looked up at the younger man, who had just realised what he said. "I mean... If you want to, It's fine if not. I shouldn't have said anything, just forget it" Stephen said in a panicky tone, Ant sat up and huffed out a laugh "Okay!" Ant said as Stephen looked at him confused "I want to move in with you" he said as Stephen's smile grew 10x bigger. "Yeah?" Stephen said as Ant grabbed his hand "Yeah!"