The Grand Gesture

part 3

{Make You Mine by PUBLIC}

It's Sunday morning, the day of the BAFTAs. Joe wakes up and opens his eyes, startled at first, not recognizing the room, but a couple seconds later he remembered: he was in Ben's guest room. He rolls over to grab his phone and check the time when he hears a loud bang and a muffled "shit!"

He gets out of bed and starts making his way out of the room to see what the young lad was up to.

When he makes his way to the kitchen he sees the countertops absolutely covered with stuff. He squints to look harder, because he still isn't fully awake yet, and he notices a lot of food. He's making breakfast? He snaps out of his thoughts when Ben greets him.

"Good morning sunshine. How'd you sleep?" sarcasm was apparent in his tone but Joe didn't care. It brought a smile to his face.

"I slept fine but I feel like a zombie," Joe answered. He grabbed a seat at the bar in front of Ben so he could sit down and still carry on a conversation.

"Yea you're not looking so hot, mate." Joe looked up at Ben to see if he was serious but he saw Ben looking at him, trying to hold back a chuckle.

"Okay fuck you."

"Alright, I'm sorry I'm sorry. You are beautiful as always. Better?"

Joe was just going to ignore the fact that Ben just called him beautiful. He is clearly just messing around with me. Right? Yea he is.

"Nice save." Joe returned.

After a moment of silence Ben spoke up. "I just wanted to tell you that you were supposed to still be sleeping, and this was supposed to be my grand gesture. You ruined it. Thanks a lot."

"Oh shut up. I was just messing around. I don't need a grand gesture... So, do you even know how to cook or am I going to have to jump in and save you from burning the place down?"

"I'm offended that you just asked that," Ben mocked. "But yea you might have to help me." Joe gave a quiet laugh and looked down and shook his head at the blonde. That didn't surprise him whatsoever.

Joe stands up and goes to walk down the hallway.

"Where are you going?!" Ben yells to him.

"To piss! Wanna come?" Joe laughed at himself. He somewhat wanted Ben to join him, not for the pissing part, but being in a bathroom together, that could get interesting.

Ben raised his eyebrows. How funny would it be if I actually followed him. He decided against it and continued making his french toast breakfast.

Joe returns, but this time he joins Ben behind the counter. "What can I do to speed up the process?"

"Uhm," he looks around. "You can grab the fruit and wash it then start cutting it."

Joe does as he's told and grabs the bowl and takes it to the sink.

Joe looks up at Ben and he is so concentrated on what he is doing, and to Joe it is one of the cutest things in the world. While he's washing off all the berries, he is also staring at Ben, and he's being very obvious that he's doing so. Ben noticed and he smirks. "You think they're clean yet?"

Joe snaps out of it and turns off the faucet. "Right right." He goes to the spot opened next to Ben, even though there is a whole other empty counter.

"I'm just taking the piss, Joe."

"Yea, I know," he laughs awkwardly and starts cutting the fruit.

While Ben is mixing and Joe is cutting, their arms are brushing against each other, just like in the car.

Ben looks down at their arms and his face turns soft. All he can think about is how much he likes the sensation of Joe's skin on his.

Joe looks out the corner of his eye and sees their arms grazing each other. He smiles. All he can think about is how much he likes the feeling of Ben's skin on his.

They each notice the other looking at their arms and they make eye contact. They both know what the other is thinking but don't know how to express it to one another. Ben looks back down at what he's doing and Joe does the same. A few moments later, he puts his hand on Joe's and gives it a light squeeze. This was him confirming his feelings to Joe without having to say anything verbally.

Joe has no idea how to respond or what to do. All he can do is smile, but Ben saw it, and that was enough.

They knew they just brought their relationship to the next level, and although they were ecstatic, they had no idea what it meant for their future. They didn't want it to ruin their friendship but there was also no denying that there was feelings involved.

All Joe was thinking about was his life after this weekend. Joe would be flying back to New York Tuesday morning so he was scared to get himself into anything.

They finished making the meal and ate it together; they talked about small things and looked lovingly at each other the whole time.

They finish their meal and realize it is 11:30am.

"Shit, we gotta get ready to meet Gwil. We have like two hours until we said we would meet him," Ben reminded Joe. He gets up and grabs both of their cleared plates and puts them in the sink to worry about later.

"Right, well damn, what ever will we do to make the time pass?" Joe says jokingly.

"Shut up," Ben said through a laugh. He playfully punched Joe in the arm. "Get dressed."

Ben jumps up and walks to his bedroom. Joe was left in silence, watching the empty path he just walked, missing his presence already. Shit. This is going to be an interesting weekend.