Better Off In Love (Peterick Au)

Or Something

Being the PR genius that she was, Hayley immediately arranged for a cute couple photo shoot to announce the new pairing's official status. Thanks to the boost that their mysterious relationship status had given to both of their popularity, they managed to easily land the cover of Out magazine.

Hayley stood, flicking through her phone and waiting for her friend to arrive at the shoot. At the sound of the door swinging open, she looked up to see the couple walking in hand in hand, and couldn't help but smile. She'd had to pay Lynn $50 dollars thanks to Hayley's bet that the pair would take another couple of months to figure out that they liked each other. The fact that Lynn's intervention had helped them get together felt a little bit like her cheating, but Hayley had decided to let it slide this time because she quite liked Lynn. No homo or anything.

After saying a brief hello to Hayley, she introduced them to the team for the day. The photographer was a pale young man with purple hair and a rainbow coloured necklace, named Awsten, and his assistant (and, they all suspected, boyfriend), was a brown haired man with striking blue eyes named Geoff.

The wardrobe department for the day seemed to consist of one tiny woman, who introduced herself as Chrissy. Her chocolate brown hair bounced around as she flitted between racks, quickly pulling together complementary outfits for the pair.

She handed Pete hangers with a plain black t-shirt and black skinny jeans on, an outfit Patrick had seen him in a thousand times over the years. Clearly they were going for a casual theme for now. Patrick was given a denim button up shirt and skinny jeans that seemed almost identical to Pete's. Chrissy leaned up on her toes to tap the black fedora on Patrick's head.

"Keep that on, it brings the outfit together,"

She ushered them into another smaller room to change, which they promptly did. Standing in their relatively simple outfits, you could tell the clothes were some fancy designer from the quality and fit of them. After a quick glance up and down, Chrissy deemed them acceptable, instructing them on how to get to the makeup artist.

When they entered, there was a man who told them they could call him "Brian, Trixie, whatever," prompting Pete to call the him Whatever and earning him an exasperated look. Whilst doing their very minimalistic photo shoot makeup, Brian explained that at night he was a drag queen who was just waiting for his big break.

"I can do so much better than this," he told them. "Like, I'm sure neither of you want 'cut a bitch' contour for your lovey-dovey cover shoot, but I'm fucking good at that and not lovey shit, and maybe that's why my boyfriend left me,"

Brian gave a contemplative sigh, not noticing as the couple exchanged a look of barely concealed amusement mixed in with confusion, unsure if that was intended as a joke. Dabbing Patrick's concealer one final time, Brian stepped back.

"I guess you're done, for now. You should probably head out and see what Awsten wants you guys doing,"

After giving their thanks, Pete took his boyfriend's hand and lead him back out to the main studio.

Awsten spotted them come in and smiled at their physical affection. They made their way to stand on the clean white backdrop, fingers still intertwined.

"I guess we can start with you two holding hands, then, if that suits you?" Awsten asked, switching between looking at the couple and the camera's viewfinder. Geoff was adjusting the lighting, glancing over at Awsten as they seemed to silently communicate what needed to be done.

When he was satisfied with the conditions, Awsten began to snap some shots.

"Just... Smile at each other for me... Perfect! Aren't they adorable Geoff?"

Geoff only rolled his eyes at that, making both Pete and Patrick laugh. A bright flash signalled that another photo had been taken, and Awsten looked at the shot with a smile.

"That's a good one," he nodded to himself. "Hey, G, can we switch to the grey backdrop?"

After a quick scene change, they were instructed to lean back on the floor, and give their best "model faces". Pete had made the team laugh with the jokey OTT faces he'd been pulling, before settling into just being his natural pretty self, as Patrick had told him to. Their photographer made small noises of approval every so often, and Geoff was standing by a laptop looking over the shots so far with a smile on his face, which both men took as a sign that they were doing okay. It wasn't like this was their first shoot or anything, but covers were always more stressful because you needed that one perfect shot to draw people in.

Having the other there definitely calmed both of their nerves, and when Awsten asked if he could get some shots of them kissing, both of them forgot the camera was there at all. Pete's hand was hovering around the hem of Patrick's button up when Awsten called out that they were done for the day. Both blushing, they stepped apart, looking out at the others in the room.

Pete caught Hayley's eye and she gave a jokingly unimpressed look as she headed over.

"Some of us want to be bitter and single in peace, and here you two are being all gross," she shook her head as Brian gave a distant shout of "Amen" from the other room.

After getting changed back into their own clothes, making sure they had their scarves and everything, and saying their goodbyes to everyone, Pete, Hayley and Patrick all headed out of the cold of the outside world together.

"Now seems as good a time as any to ask..." Pete piped up, his voice slightly muffled by a grey scarf almost covering the lower half of his face, "What was it you two were talking about the night of the label party? You were driving me mad when you wouldn't tell me,"

Hayley only laughed as Patrick looked mildly confused, clearly not recalling that segment of the night.

"This dude here," she lightly poked Patrick's arm, "Told me he just might still have a crush on you,"

Pete smiled at that, and Patrick found himself flushing red, even though he'd told Pete his feelings himself.

"I didn't tell you because I thought that'd be spoiling the surprise. And I kinda assumed you'd figure out that you liked each other eventually, which you did, so really you should be thanking me,"

"Thanking you for what exactly?" Pete questioned, and Hayley tilted her head to the side in thought.

"Honestly? I'm not entirely sure, now you ask..."

Patrick laughed at the two friend's silly conversation, content with the way Pete's warm hand was wrapped around his, fighting off the bitter chill.

It was quite easy to spot when they'd come to Hayley's car. She hugged them both goodbye before sliding into her bright yellow convertible. Thankfully the top was up, because it felt like it was going to snow any day now.

Patrick and Pete walked to the other side of the car park in silence, their hands swinging back and forth between them. They made it to Patrick's car and jumped in, Patrick turning on the heaters to max without a second thought. Pete leaned over the centre console and pressed a quick kiss to his boyfriend's lips.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"I'm warming you up," Pete smiled.

"Ah, yes, I'm so glad I have a super hot boyfriend to be my personal heater," Patrick joked, before kissing Pete again.

"You don't seem to be arguing," Pete defended.

"Oh, I have absolutely no issues with you wanting to cuddle up with me any time," Patrick smiled gently at his boyfriend.

"Good. Are we going to yours or mine?" Pete wondered out loud.

"Do you want to watch a movie or something at my place?"

"I'll take 'or something'" Pete murmured, kissing Patrick's jaw softly. Patrick hit him on the arm.

"Do you want to watch movies or not?" he said, not allowing himself to get distracted by Pete again.

With an exaggerated sigh, Pete nodded his assent, and Patrick turned his attention to pulling out of the car park, headed through the grey early evening back home.