And Maybe That's Alright

Fond

"What if we had, like, a virtual dinner date?" Clay suggested suddenly one evening while on call. George had to pause the code he was running through and patching in order to give him a confused look. Virtual dinner date? "Think about it! We're on call all the time so it won't be that new or different. You could go get dinner and I'll get lunch while on call and It'll be like a date." He elaborated nervously, feeling rather silly now that he'd said the words aloud. To give himself credit, It sounded like a good idea in his head.

George decided to spare Clay any additional embarrassment and smiled, resuming the code as he spoke. "I'd like that. Wouldn't it be awkward talking to my phone in public though? People are going to stare." He questioned in return, imagining the plethora of dirty looks he's sure he'd receive.

Clay shrugged nonchalantly, however. "Not really. People care about strangers a lot less than you'd think they do, you'll be fine." He reassured breezily, plucking his phone from the desk and snapping photos of a select few pages in his notebook. He sent them off to the band group chat before switching off his phone and closing the notebook, shifting to take in and watch his boyfriend's softly focussed expression with a warm sense of fondness. George's lips were lightly pouted in thought, eyebrows low over his eyes.

"What are you working on?" He switched the subject to quell any of George's remaining nerves - they'd talk about the idea later -, crossing his arms on the desk and settling his chin on top of them. George glanced back and forth between where Clay was making himself comfortable and the code for a moment with a smile, discreetly pushing something on his desk further back into the camera's blind spot to ensure it was hidden from view.

"Just patching some code, making sure it runs smoothly." He replied with a faux nonchalance that Clay picked up on but decided to let slide. It didn't seem all that important at the time. If it was something bad, Clay was sure he'd know from George's reactions alone. This time, he was happy to let George keep whatever secret he had.

"New plug-in?" Clay continued instead and watched as George's smile grew, tips of his ears heating to a soft pink. George bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from breaking into a grin. Clay decided that whatever the secret was, it certainly couldn't be bad if it had George smiling like that.

"Sure, something like that." He replied, pursing his lips in an attempt to will away his smile. It didn't work, but the effort was there none the less. Clay decided that maybe he wouldn't let George have this secret. He wanted to know.

"It's not a plug-in? What is it then?" Clay asked, tone laced with confusion, and picked his head off of his arms. George didn't bother stopping his grin this time as he looked over to the screen that held his boyfriend.

"That's favouritism, Dreamy, I can't just give out spoilers like that." George mimicked with a shit eating grin and Clay groaned, dropping back onto his arms. George laughed to himself happily. "How is the album coming along anyway?" He followed up by way of changing subjects.

"I just sent off some drafts to the band, waiting on them for feedback and ideas." Clay said by way of answer and George nodded. There was a soft silence for a moment before George broke it once more.

"How many songs?" He asked and Clay laughed. "Come on, please?" George begged, only making Clay laugh harder. At the end of the day, George would always be a fanboy before anything else and Clay was more than elated for that fact.

"Maybe six or seven so far? I don't know whether I actually want publish the last one or not." Clay finally caved and said, to George's pure glee. George decided he'd worked on the code long enough for now, it was running relatively smoothly and he still had more time to continue editing it later, so he saved and closed it, bringing his entire focus to Clay.