The Grand Gesture

part 2

{Purple Rain by Prince}

It's 6:15pm on Saturday and Ben is getting ready to leave to go pick up Joe from the airport. He has been looking forward to this all week and today has just seemed to go by so slow. He's had about six cups of coffee and doesn't know what to do with himself. He was so glad he convinced Joe to stay with him; they are gonna have a lot of fun this weekend.

He leaves for the airport at 6:30. He knows he's going to be early but he can't wait any longer. He's driving to Heathrow and his stomach is flipping the whole car ride. He has no idea why he's so nervous to see his best friend, but he pushes it aside and keeps driving.

After all of the confusion regarding parking and finding the proper terminal and gate, Ben is finally at the right spot. The mixture of his nerves going crazy and all of the caffeine in his system were not working well together. He stands up to wait for the older man to come walking down the long hallway. He begins pacing, drawing in the attention of others, but he doesn't care.

After what seemed like forever (about ten minutes) Ben looks out the window and sees a plane rolling up to his gate. And just like that, his nerves get even worse. Jesus, calm down.

Soon after he sees people getting off the plane and Ben feels like he's about to throw up (in a good way).

Before he knows it, he sees Joe. The first thing he notices is what he is wearing: a navy blue t-shirt and that black and gray letterman jacket; his favorite look on him.

Joe hasn't noticed Ben yet due to him fumbling with his luggage since the second he stepped off the plane. Ben has a smirk on his face and there's no hiding it. He reaches in his back pocket and grabs out a piece of paper. He unfolds it and stands there holding it up.

Joe finally looks up and when he sees Ben standing there his face goes blank. All Joe is thinking about is what an idiot he must've looked like. And to Joe, it looks like Ben is laughing at him. Great.

When he snaps out of his embarrassment, he notices that Ben is holding a piece of paper with "Mazzello" written in his oddly nice handwriting.

Even though it was literally the bare minimum that Ben could do, Joe couldn't care less. The fact that he did something, he was here, and he was going to be living with him for the weekend was already more than enough.

"What a grand gesture," Joe said, not skipping a beat. No matter what mood he is in, Joe doesn't miss a chance to be sarcastic.

"You want a grand gesture, huh? Well I'll have to give you one."

Joe was slightly confused. He already missed his chance- unless he was going to do something back at his place, and who knows what that would entail. Damn. Ben really is hard to read.

"Let's see it then," he retorted, causing Ben to chuckle, which made Joe join him.

They get to Ben's car and they begin driving back to his loft. Ben hands Joe the aux cord, expecting him to play Somebody to Love or something of the sort, but Joe goes a different route. Ben was surprised by the choice, although he shouldn't have been. He hears the first cords of Purple Rain playing and he looks over at Joe to see him still looking at his phone screen with a small smile on his face. This is the song that Joe sang karaoke to in Japan and dedicated it to Ben. He loves the 'Hardzello' thing that they do on Instagram because he is truly speaking his mind when he posts their pictures and makes his jealousy comments.

"Nice choice," Ben said softly, knowing exactly why he played it. Joe looked up at him and they both just smiled shyly at each other. They are listening to "their song" in silence, just taking it all in. They each have their arms on the arm rest between them, pressed against one another. Both of them notice the contact and it is all they can think about, but neither of them are showing it on the outside.

They enjoyed about the first half of the song that way, until Joe had to return to his old self. He turns up the music to a deafening volume and begins screaming along with it. Ben is getting a kick out of it and decides to join in.

They pull up to a red light when the song is about over. At this point they're yelling at the top of their lungs. The song ends and they burst out in hysterical laughter.

When the laughing starts to die down they look at each other and the spark was undeniable. They are making full on heart-eyes at each other and neither one of them can look away. Luckily, the car behind them started honking, signaling for them to begin driving again, which caused them to break it off.

Ben knew what just happened, but didn't think anything of it. He figured if something were to happen between them, then so be it. Joe however- he would be thinking about it for hours to come, analyzing every millisecond.

They move past their moment, for now, and Joe does exactly what Ben suspected earlier. Queen.

"Okay. Are you ready?" Joe asks.

"Ready? For what?"

Joe doesn't reply but instead just plays the next song. Bohemian Rhapsody.

"Oh bring it on!" Ben says enthusiastically.

They get through the whole song, taking turns in the operatics section, especially the Galileos, and they continue the trend.

They finally arrive at Ben's loft and Joe is ready for bed after a long day of flying.

Joe takes in everything he is seeing. Surprisingly, this is his first time in the boys home. Everything was extremely clean and it all matched peculiarly well. The walls were an eggshell color, the furniture was all black leather, and all of the tables and shelves were a glossy black shade.

"So, uh- I hate to cut this party short, but where am I sleeping?" Joe asked minutes after walking in the door.

Ben takes him down the hall and goes to open the door, but stops suddenly.

"Brace yourself."

"Brace myself for wha-"

Ben opens the door and out comes a medium sized beagle, running straight to Joe. He kneels down to pet her and she starts licking his face to no end.

"Frankie!!! Hi girl! Hi! Hello!" Joe's puppy voice was extremely amusing to Ben, considering he has never seen this side of Joe.

"Okay, love birds. Calm down."

Joe looks up at Ben from the floor and raises and eyebrow. "Jealous?"

"Shut up. Thats your room." And with that he goes to the kitchen.

"My room? Didn't know I was moving in permanently."

Ben turns around slowly. "Watch it." He turned back and opens the fridge to grab two waters.

Joe stands up and raises his arms as a sign of surrender. "Yes sir," he said mockingly.

Bens face was still in the fridge when Joe said that, and he was so thankful it was because it brought the biggest smile to his face. For some reason, hearing Joe say yes sir brought him the slightest amusement, and he knew it wasn't in an innocent way.

"Alright so listen. I know you've had a long day so if you want to go to sleep thats fine because I'm quite worn out too. My room is the one right next to yours if you need anything, and bathroom is across the hall."

"Yes sir!" Joe said, keeping up the sarcasm. If Joe keeps this up, Ben might just have to do something about it.