Lifeline (Scomiche)

Nine

Scott locked the apartment door behind him and hung the keys on the wall, the sight of Mitch sprawled across the couch staring at his laptop welcoming him home. The brunette looked over when he heard the door open and pulled out an earphone, propping himself up on his elbows and giving Scott a lazy smile.

"Hi, handsome."

"Hey!" Scott made his way into the kitchen for a glass of water, leaning against the counter to watch Mitch as he drank from it. "What's up?"

"Not much. My anatomy grade's supposed to be posted on blackboard today so I'm just waiting."

"You've just been waiting all day?" That sounded ridiculous, but he never knew with Mitch. It was 3pm and waiting for a test grade to post sounded to him like one of the worst possible ways to ever spend a Saturday. Mitch just rolled his eyes as Scott made his way to the couch, sitting right next to him to get a peek at his laptop screen.

"No, stupid, I did other stuff too. I had a pretty great day, actually."

"Yeah?" Scott wiggled out of his khakis and let them fall to the floor in front of the sofa, leaving his branded Walgreens polo on over his boxers. He leaned back into the couch to get comfortable, letting Mitch lay his cheek on his now bare thigh. Scott let a hand wander to Mitch's head and ran his fingers through his hair, happy to be able to touch him. "What did you do?"

"Well, Zain's mom had to go out somewhere so she left him with me for a few hours. She gave us money for ice cream and I took him to Baskin Robbins and then the park, so that was fun. Now I'm just watching Netflix."

"Babysitting and movies, cool. Wait, Netflix?"

"Yeah, Kirstie gave me her password."

"Oh." Scott watched as he switched tabs and logged back onto blackboard to check his grade, safely assuming that it still hadn't been posted when Mitch sighed dramatically. Scott stretched his legs out, tired from standing behind a register since so early in the morning. They needed to get out of the apartment. Now that he was done with work, he couldn't imagine just sitting around for the rest of the day while Mitch obsessively refreshed the page waiting for his results.

"Hey, wanna go to Kroger? The kitchen is nearly empty and we need a few other things too. You down to come with me?"

"Um, yeah! Yaay!" Mitch sat up and flipped his laptop shut, setting it to the side and plugging it into its charger. He pushed himself off of the couch and picked Scott's pants up off the floor, folding them as he skipped off to the bedroom. Scott smiled at his quick change of mood and forced himself up too, following behind him.

By the time he got to the bedroom Mitch was already standing in front of the closet, hitching a tight pair of jeans up over his legs. Scott collapsed onto the mattress and watched Mitch as he squinted at his options, distractedly buttoning his pants as he stared into the closet. He picked up one tshirt before switching it with another and pulled it over his head, layering it with his long black cardigan before he was finally content with his outfit. He strolled off to the bathroom and dabbed some concealer under his eyes, wanting to look nice and awake for their trip. Once he was happy with himself he made his way back to the room and bounced onto the bed, laying down across from Scott who was still sprawled on his stomach watching him. He rubbed between Scott's shoulder blades, wanting to gently coax him into getting up already.

"Hey, put some pants on. You can't go to the grocery store half naked, Scott. That's weird."

He smirked, shoving his face in the comforter. "Not as weird as you dressing all the way up and putting makeup on to buy eggs and milk."