50 Shades of James

Breakfast

Eddie sighed and rolled his eyes. It couldn’t be helped. Bracing himself to be yelled at, he rapped loudly on the door he stood in front of.

“Aleks! Wake the fuck up! It’s almost noon!”

No response. Wait—there was a faint shuffling inside of the room, a few thumps, some more sounds of movement—and finally the door opened, revealing a mess of transformer pajamas and bed head.

“Fuck you,” floated out from under the mass of hair. “I was tired.”

Eddie giggled. “Yeah, I can kinda see that. You weren’t that late last night, were you?”

Aleks flicked his hair to the side, giving his friend the full view of his jaw-cracking yawn. “Nah, I wasn’t late…just tired. I dunno. What’ve we got to ea—Chef, stop fucking licking my toes!”

Eddie laughed as the dog slobbered all over Aleks’s bare feet, and even Aleks cracked a smile, grumpy as he was. The Russian knelt down and wrapped his lanky arms around the bulldog and hoisted her up, where she happily started licking his chin instead.

            “Ick…c’mon, girl, let’s go see what’s for breakfast.”

            Eddie trailed behind his friend and dog to their shared apartments’ small, but functional, kitchen. He relaxed into a chair by the table as he watched Aleks put down Chef and retrieve a box of cereal, two bowls, and (haphazardly) two spoons.

            “Wanna help out and get the milk?” Aleks grunted as he let all of the stuff he was holding clatter down onto the table top.

“Nope,” Eddie replied, leaning back and giggling. Aleks rolled his eyes and took the milk out of the fridge  and put it on the table as well, muttering “asshole” under his breath.

Eddie snatched the box of Cheerios and started to pour the honey-flavored food into a bowl, humming a tune. He looked up to see Aleks watching him with a raised eyebrow. “What?”

“Someone’s cheery today,” Aleks grabbed the cereal box as soon as Eddie put it down.

“Yeah, well, I’d’ve thought you’d be more cheery today.” In went the milk.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Aleks asked, pouring his own milk as Eddie dug into his Cheerios.

“Noshen!”

“What?”

Eddie swallowed the mouthful of food blocking his words. “Nothing!”

“Are you still on about my supposed ‘date’ last night?”

Eddie shrugged and inhaled another spoonful of cereal, giving Aleks a look that said, you tell me.

            Aleks sighed and took a spoonful of his own. He’s just going to shut me out completely, Eddie thought. I mean, I shouldn’t have spied on him, but he’s my best friend! And there’s no way he would tell me that he’s going out with J—

            “You were right.”

            “What? Ow!” In his shock, Eddie bit his tongue. “Fuck! Sorry, what?”

            Aleks smiled a little at Eddie’s little mishap, but caught his friends eyes with a piercing gaze. “You were right. I went on a date.”

            Eddie stared back. Aleks was actually opening up to him? A whisper of guilt floated in the back of his head.

            Aleks looked down uncomfortably at his bowl and stabbed at some Cheerios with his spoon. “I just wasn’t really all that sure if it was gonna work out and stuff, so I didn’t want to tell you. And I don’t...you can’t meet them yet. It’s just…it’s still early, you know? And I think if what me and this person have continues, I want it to be serious. But I still have to figure out if it’s gonna get that far. So that’s why I didn’t tell you.”

            Aleks had broken the dam on Eddie conscious, and shame flooded through Eddie as his brain picked out how Aleks specifically used gender neutral terms. God, what had he done? Aleks was going to tell him, even if not all at once of course Aleks was going to tell his best friend what was going on, and Eddie had been stupid and assumed he wasn’t and invaded his privacy.

            Eddie was startled out his thoughts by Chef’s nails catching on the hem of his pants, and realized Aleks was waiting for a reply.

            He smiled stiffly, feigning ignorance of everything but what Aleks had told him. “Yeah, that’s fine, take your time. Figure things out. I’m here to listen whenever, chico.”

            Aleks smiled, a sincere smile, as he carried his empty bowl to the sink. “Thanks, man. Can you clean this up? Since I got everything out in the first place. I’m gonna get dressed and jet to the Creature House.”

            “Yeah, yeah, no problem,” Eddie told him absentmindedly, as he thought about what a horrible friend he was.

            Aleks thought about what a great friend Eddie was as he pulled into the driveway of the Creature House. His phone buzzed twice in his pocket as he turned the key in the ignition. “Hold on, hold on,” He muttered as he rummaged through his pockets for the slim device. Finally, he managed to locate it, and pulled it out to see the display screen lighting up with a notification that he had a text from Kevin.

AN: Sorry for this shitty filler chapter, but it's necessary. THANKS SO MUCH TO MY BFF CHLOW FOR HELPING ME BOUNCE IDEAS FOR THIS CHAPTER. It probably wouldn't have been finished in time to upload today if it wasn't for her. Plus, she writes as well, so you should all go check out her stories! I'm dedicating this chapter to her, so it'll be easy to just click her name and go to her profile.  And thank you guys for all the amazing messages I've been getting on Tumblr! You're all the best <3

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