A Cross Examination of a Disgrace and Syrup with Honey

Two Birds, One Wrench

Nate was woken gently by a hand shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes and noticed the room was still dark, before the smell of coffee filled his nostrils and Dana's face became barely visible next to him.

"Good morning, honey," she said softly. "You'd better get up if you want to join Garrett on his crazy Black Friday crusade."

"What time is it?" He sat up against the pillows, rubbing his eyes, confused.

"Almost five in the morning," Dana said, putting a cup down on the bedside table. "Garrett wants to be out of here before six. Earlier, if possible, so you have to start moving."

"Sure, I'm coming," he mumbled, still a little sleepy.

Dana chuckled as she left the room. Nate reached for the lamp switch and turned the light on. He felt as if he had just gone to bed, even though he had slept so well. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept that way. The house was mostly silent. He could hear what he assumed was Derek snoring in the distance and something that suspiciously sounded a lot like a hair dryer, likely coming from Garrett's bathroom.

He started sipping his coffee, hoping it would help him get rid of his drowsiness. The bed was warm and comfortable and he didn't see the appeal of getting out of it to go fight his way into crowded stores, but Garrett was really excited about going and that was all that mattered to Nate.

Just as he was about to put down his empty coffee cup, Garrett leaned against the doorway, completely dressed and quirking an eyebrow at him. He looked fantastic and Nate almost choked on the last drop of coffee he was swallowing. How did he look like that at five in the morning? He definitely couldn't be real and Nate felt extraordinarily underdressed under his scrutiny in only sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt.

"I see you made a lot of progress while I was finishing up in the shower," Garrett teased with a smirk.

Nate felt the urge to cover himself up completely with the blankets. "I-I'll be ready in ten minutes, I promise. Just need to take a quick shower, then throw some clothes on and do something about my hair, it's--"

"Don't," Garrett interrupted, narrowing his eyes a little as he studied Nate intently. "Don't gel your hair down. The curls look cute on you."

It was way too early to blush this much, Nate thought as he cleared his throat. "Um, thanks."

"You're welcome. I'll be downstairs having breakfast. Come down when you're ready!"

Nate showered very quickly, decided to leave shaving for when they were back because they would be late if he did it now, put on jeans and a black hoodie--it was too early to have fashion sense, he wasn't Garrett--and then stood in front of the mirror with a bottle of gel in his hand, trying to decide what to do. He finally put the bottle down, fingered the curls into some sort of order and, praying for the best because he knew how wild his hair could be, went downstairs to find Garrett.

Garrett was about to take a bite of his wheat toast when Nate came into the kitchen and suddenly he dropped it onto the plate. It wasn't the first time Garrett noticed just how gorgeous Nate really was, but right now he looked so natural, so perfect, so accessible that Garrett was starting to wonder if he wasn't about to have a heart attack because it couldn't be normal for his heart to be beating that fast.

Nate looked down at himself, self-conscious. "I know this sort of falls into the completely unfashionable category, but, uh, I figured we would be walking around a lot today and I wanted to be comfortable."

Garrett just kept looking at him, mouth slightly open. He just couldn't tear his eyes away.

Nate started tugging at the hem of his hoodie. "Okay, fine, I'll go get changed."