Are we still friends? ( GORDON x BENREY )

I've got to know,

Gordon's fingers tapped against the steering wheel of his car rhythmically as he drove. Coomer had called him back later that first night with a date, time, and address. The GPS system called out every few minutes with instructions of where to go to end up at the address given to him. Gordon was too scared that his thoughts would run rampant, possibly causing him to bail, so he blasted music loud to drown any self-pitying out. He tried to play happy, upbeat music to get himself in a better mood than the one he had been in for the past few days.

It wasn't really working.

Anxiety ate away at Gordon's entire being, stripping him of the personality he had carefully constructed for himself over the years and leaving him with the hollow husk of his past self. He tried to seem happy, confident, and easy-going for Joshie but every time he was alone it was like he was ripping apart at the seams. Gordon blinked his eyes hard, trying to delete the thoughts from his head.

"Now arriving at your destination on the right." The robot female voice sang out. Gordon looked over, taking in the sight of Bubby and Coomer's house. It was a relatively-small, one story house in a nice suburban neighborhood. It was painted an off-white, sort of blue-ish color, with darker blue accents. There was a beautiful garden of peonies, hydrangea, marigolds and large flower bushes surrounding the outside of their house. Gordon would be jealous, but he knew that he would never be able to take care of plants (especially seeing as he could barely take care of himself, anymore).

He parked in their driving lot, taking a deep breath before forcing himself to exit his car. Immediately, a familiar face came bounding out of the front door and down the small stone path, coming directly at him in a blur of movement. "Mister Freeman!" Tommy cried, wrapping his arms around Gordon, pinning his arms in place at his sides. Gordon smiled widely, laughing at how excited Tommy was to see him.

"Hey, Tommy." Gordon chuckled, feeling happy for the first time in a while. "How have you been?" He asked as Tommy finally pulled away from the hug. Tommy was smiling wide, eyes shining with excitement and joy. Tommy bounced on the balls of his feet, grabbing Gordon's wrist and pulling him along to the front door. Gordon was used to Tommy not really answering questions, so he didn't repeat himself and instead let Tommy lead him to wherever he was being led to.

"Ah, hello Gordon!" Coomer cheered as the two bounded through the front door. Coomer was sitting on the couch beside Bubby. Darnold was also there, nestled comfortably into their expensive-looking loveseat. Coomer was dressed in a forest green sweater vest with a white button-up beneath it and loose black pants. Bubby was wearing a bright cyan turtleneck with a long black trench coat over it, and a dark brown belt holding up his black pants.

Darnold was wearing an orange long-sleeved sweater and beige cargo pants. Tommy was matching him, just with a bright yellow sweater and a long lab coat added on top of it. Tommy pulled Gordon to come sit next to him on the couch, free hand flapping about happily. Gordon couldn't help as his smile widened. He could feel some of his built up stress and weariness being worn off as he was surrounded by the smiling faces of his friends.

No—the Science Team were more than his friends at this point. They were family. Just like how Coomer was something like a dad to Gordon, he realized now that he was sitting with them in a homely environment that he saw all of them as some sort of family. Bubby was like a weird uncle, and Tommy like a younger brother (although he was a good few years older than Gordon). It made him feel at ease in his own skin, even if it was likely that his horrible feelings would return the moment he started up his car to leave. But, at the very least, maybe this meant he could start getting better.

It was true that Gordon hadn't really followed through with his promises yet. He hadn't hired a therapist or attempted to seek outside help. He always told himself he would do it soon enough, but never did. He didn't have the heart to tell Penelope that he hadn't, so she assumed that he had, naturally. It made him feel even worse but he didn't want to hurt her feelings by revealing the truth.