As a White Knight on His Steed (CrissColfer)

"Are We Having Our First Fight?"

Chapter 21 – “Are we having our first fight?”

Monday, July 21, 2008

Falling asleep naked with his boyfriend on top of him had seemed romantic to Chris the night before, but when he woke up Monday morning he had a somewhat different perspective.  The alarm was blaring and Chris couldn’t reach it from where he lay, pinned under Darren’s still sleeping form.  He jostled Darren awake.  “Darren.  Alarm.  Morning.  Get up.”

As Darren groggily rolled off him, Chris grimaced.  His whole body was stiff from being held down in the same position all night, his stomach was covered in crusty, dried come, and the hair at the side of his neck was slightly damp from where Darren had apparently been drooling on him.

Chris groaned as he shuffled toward the bathroom.  He did a cursory job of cleaning himself up, then returned to the bedroom to find that Darren had gone back to sleep.  “Dare, come on,” he said, shaking his boyfriend’s shoulder.  “We’re going to be late for the round up.”

“Mmpf.  Five more minutes.”

“Dare, honey, have you looked at yourself?  You’re going to need those five extra minutes to make yourself decent enough to be seen in public.”

Darren grumbled, but got up.  He stared bemusedly down at himself, scratching absently at the dried come on his belly.  “Hmmph.”

By the time the boys made it to the corral, Zach and Robert were already mounted up and waiting for them.  “Rough night?” Zach asked, smirking.

Chris could feel his face heating up as Darren blithely answered, “Fantastic night.”

As the day wore on, Chris found himself feeling increasingly concerned about Darren’s cavalier attitude.  When they returned to their bunkhouse after dinner, Chris said, “I want to talk to you about something.”

“Baby, we can talk any time.  But this is the first chance I’ve had all day to kiss you.”

Darren reached for him, but Chris held up a hand to stop him.  “Dare, I’m serious.  We need to talk.”

Darren’s expression went from playful to alarmed in a heartbeat.  “That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s nothing bad.  I just think we need to re-establish our ground rules about not sleeping together on work nights.”

“How can you say it’s nothing bad and then say that you don’t want me to sleep in your bed anymore?” Darren cried.  “That’s the definition of bad!”

“I didn’t say I don’t want you to ever sleep in my bed.  Saturday nights, when we’ve got plenty of time, and we don’t have to be up at the crack of dawn, we can still sleep together.  I just don’t want to have a repeat of this morning.  I felt really bad about making Robert and Zach wait for us like that.”

“We were ten minutes late.  Big deal.  They didn’t mind.”

“It was fifteen minutes, Darren.  And that’s not the point, anyway.  The point is, I promised David and Ryan that we wouldn’t let our relationship interfere with our work.”

“I’m sure they don’t even know we were late.  It’s not like Robert and Zach are going to run and tattle on us.”

“Again, Darren, not the point.  David and Ryan trust us, and we have a responsibility to them.  Do you have any idea how lucky we are to have these jobs?  I don’t want to screw this up.”

“Chris, baby, you’re overreacting.  Why do you have to take things so seriously all the time?  The world’s not going to end if you’re not perfect.  Just relax a little.”

“Well maybe you don’t take things seriously enough,” Chris said, a little more sharply than he’d intended.  The sudden hurt in Darren’s eyes pierced his heart, and he immediately softened his tone.

“Dare, honey, I love that you’re so easy-going.  It’s one of the reasons I think we work so well together.  But I’m not like you.  If I feel like I’m being irresponsible, I’m going to feel guilty, and I hate that feeling.  And if our relationship is interfering with my ability to do the best job I possibly can, then I’m afraid I’m going to end up feeling bad about myself, and feeling resentful of you.  And I really don’t want that to happen.”

“This is because I drooled in your hair last night, isn’t it?”

Chris let out a snort of laughter, and the tension between them instantly evaporated.

“Are we having our first fight?” Darren asked.

“If I say yes, does that mean we get to kiss and make up?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Well, then, yes, I guess we are.”

Darren took Chris’s face in his hands and brought their lips together for a tender kiss.  Pulling back slightly, he gazed directly into Chris’s eyes.  “You know I’ll always love you, right?”

“I know.  And I’ll always love you.  Even if you do drool in my hair occasionally.”

“So where does this leave us?”

“Well, for the rest of the summer, I really do think it would be best for us to only sleep together on Saturdays.” 

At Darren’s disappointed look, Chris added, “But the summer’s already half over.  And once we’re at Michigan, we’ll just have to make sure not to enroll in any 6 AM classes.”

“They don’t offer any 6 AM classes.”

“Well, then we’ve got nothing to worry about, do we?  Now come on, we’ve still got a little while before we have to leave for the campfire.  Let’s make the most of it.”

“Now that, I won’t argue with.”

End Notes:  I didn’t want to portray Chris as being too rigid, but I’ve seen several interviews in which he talks about being very disciplined when it comes to his work.  What do you think?  Would being in a relationship with Darren make him loosen up, or would he still feel the need to be ultra-responsible?  I’d love to hear your ideas – please review!