Berrybog Boys (BxB)

Chapter VIII: The Wine

Having friends was awful, Nils decided looking at Sinead and Bernadette standing in his doorway with wine and cake.

"You have a-" Alexander tried to ask, before being interrupted.

"I have a bunch of friends who don't respect my privacy," Nils growled, failing to hide his annoyance. Glaring at the two women harder than it should be possible to glare at someone bringing you baked goods and alcohol, he continued, "I told you we'll be at the bar on Friday."

"Don't look at me. I told her we should give you two some alone time." Sinead shrugged, giving Bernadette a pointed look.

"Nonsense!" The young woman chose to ignore it, instead letting herself into the house and handing Alexander the bottle of wine she was holding. "Unless we interrupted something?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows at them.

"What are you talking about?" Alexander took a step back. He was not an expressive man by nature, but at that point his confusion at the strange woman and her suggestion was visible from outer space.

"I mean, you two weren't-"

"He knows what you mean!" Nils shouted, feeling his soul leave his body. Next time he's buying an abandoned house, it's going to be in the middle of the ocean, where nobody will ask if he and his straight best friend were fucking five minutes ago. "We weren't!"

"Why would-" Alexander tried again.

Nils was not having any of it. In fact, he was not having any of anything. Nobody in this goddamn house was allowed to finish a single sentence anymore, or so help him god. With more determination than brains, he grabbed Alexander by the arm and started to pull him towards the kitchen.

"Wine! We'll open the wine! Alcohol!" He yelled, looking back at the women, "Make yourself comfortable!"

Ignoring Bernadette's 'Where?', Nils shut the kitchen door behind himself and Alexander and leaned heavily against them, hiding his face in his hands. He took a few deep breaths, trying to stop his heart from escaping from its chest cavity.

"Nils," Alexander asked when the shorter man seemed to calm a little, prompting Nils to peek at him from between his fingers. "What did you do?"

***

Quietly, as to not be heard by the women in their living room, Nils told Alexander everything that transpired on that fateful evening in the bar. The entire time he was looking at his friend for any sign of emotion, but the other man's face remained blank.

For a while, when Nils finished his story, Alexander remained silent. Finally, after what felt like eternity, he asked, "Is this why that woman called me 'your' Alexander?"

Nils blinked slowly. As far as possible replies went, it wasn't that bad. "To be fair, she probably wanted to say 'your boyfriend'."

Alexander hummed in response, tapping one finger against his lip in an elegant gesture that Nils found terribly distracting. "What are you planning to do now?"

"Hm?" Nils tried to focus on his words instead of where they were coming from. "Wait, you're not mad?"

"There are worse rumors than being your boyfriend"

"There are?"

Alexander gave him an 'are you kidding me' look. "Yes, although right now the list of them is getting shorter. Your plan?"

"Oh. Right." Here it goes, the ultimate make or break idea. "I was thinking. About maybe. Pretending to be together? You know, just for a while."

Nils looked at Alexander with anticipation, expecting him to get offended or maybe straight up leave the house and walk into the ocean. Instead, the taller man kept looking at him with an unreadable expression. Half convinced that he broke his friend, Nils started to say, "This is stupid, forget I-"