Blink

Realignment

My thanks to silentdescant for the much, much needed beta.

Scott wakes up lying on his side hugging Mitch's pillow, in a phenomenally good mood despite the fact that Mitch himself has clearly already gotten out of bed. It takes him a moment to realize why he's in such good spirits all by himself and before he's even had caffeine. Then the date sinks in; it's the first day of the rescheduled world tour. They have a concert in LA tonight and then they're immediately heading out on the bus for seven weeks of shows across the US with a brief detour into Canada. He's going to get to perform. On a big stage. With production and lights and screaming fans and four of his best friends beside him and a bunch more of them behind the scenes.

Fucking finally.

However, it also means he has to get up and finish packing at some point this morning. Which, ugh.

He debates joining Mitch in the shower, then remembers Mitch was planning to shave his legs this morning and the one time he made the mistake of trying to interrupt that process was more than enough. So instead he gets up, puts on some boxers, and meanders over to the exercise equipment in the corner of the room.

His shoulder has about as much mobility as they expect him to regain at this point, which is thankfully nearly all of it, although he still struggles with strength, endurance, and discomfort at the edges of his range. His bone is fully healed, realigned perfectly, however the muscle damage he took means things like push-ups and chin-ups might be off his list of manageable exercises forever. Which kinda sucks because he was once pretty good at both. But he's got an array of dumbbells, pulleys, and resistance bands set up, all of which let him strength train everything with minimal risk to his shoulder, provided he uses them properly. Farah recommended the whole set up and worked with him to develop routines that have helped a lot. Honestly, between the gear and a new treadmill they keep upstairs, he's looking more snatched than he ever has in his life.

The other bonus is Mitch unexpectedly likes the new strength-training gear too, to the point where he's also using it regularly. He's not trying to bulk up to the extent that Scott has, but his new toned look is fantastic. Scott often spends the 5% of the time that he's not thinking about sucking Mitch's dick thinking about licking his way up Mitch's more sharply defined v-line and six-pack instead.

First world problems, right? If the first world was located in a gutter as deep as his brain.

In other news, Scott really likes Farah and her suggestions. She's pretty much surpassed healthcare provider status at this point and is solidly in the friend category for him. He's going to miss her a lot while he's away, although they've scheduled a few FaceTime follow-ups and she's helped him sort out a travel set of resistance bands and weights small enough to use in the back lounge of the bus or in a hotel or dressing room. Between those and the equipment in hotel gyms, he should be good to go for maintaining his PT needs on the road.

He and Farah got along well from the start; her sense of humor meshes well with his, and frankly almost anyone would have been a welcome improvement after Jessica. But there'd been a moment, brief yet memorable, where they'd really connected. He'd had an appointment with her the morning of November 9th, right after the election. Scott had been exhausted; he'd stayed up late watching the results, growing more and more nauseous as the night wore on. He'd barely caught two hours of sleep, and it had been restless and anxious at best. So when he'd entered the clinic, shell-shocked and sleep-deprived, he'd met the eyes of someone just as tired and uneasy as him. It had only lasted a few seconds, that silent empathy for the differing yet relatable uncertainty in what the future now held for them, openly gay or obviously Muslim.