fly | madderton

SIXTEEN

Taron glanced along the hallway before knocking on the door in front of him. Two short raps, two long. It was his top-secret code to get Richard to let him in. Of course, Richard had a peephole and was fully capable of answering doors, so would probably let Taron in no matter how he knocked, but secret knocks seemed cooler.

The door in front of him swung open, and Taron was quick to step in before he could even register the state of the man in front of him. "Oh- Rich, what's up?" He spoke softly, ensuring the door was pushed shut before he laced his arms around Richard's neck.

"Nothing, baby. It's nothing," Richard whispered back. Taron took a moment then to take in how Richard looked, and exaggerate dragging his eyes over his husband's body. Shirt untucked, tie uneven, and puffy red skin around his eyes. Yeah, certainly looked like nothing.

"Come on, sit down." Taron gently took Richard's hand and pulled him to sit on the end of the bed so that he could get to work undoing Richard's tie. "Are you gonna tell me, or what? I can't help if you won't say anything."

Richard shrugged, pushing his hand through his hair with a little more force than necessary.

"I don't know... I don't even know why I'm so stressed. Really, I- It's stupid. I don't expect to win, so all I've got to do is walk down a carpet and eat a fancy dinner, but for some reason... I don't even know."

Taron nodded along to Richard's rambling, too focused on perfecting the bow tie around his neck. Even though he'd been nominated, and the show had been an international hit, Richard still couldn't quite wrap his head around the fact that there was a chance he could actually win a Golden Globe. Best Actor, none the less.

"You know, you might win," Taron said, glancing up briefly just in time to catch Richard's eyes widening.

"That doesn't help! That means falling up the stairs, and then I've got to stand up in front of all of those people, stuttering over some words for too long until they start playing the music, and then I've got to awkwardly leave someone out of my speech like I've forgotten about them!"

"You've been a stage actor, there's no way you're scared of standing up in front of people."

Richard shook his head, looking down at the shaky hands in his lap. "That's not me, though. I've got a script, and a character to play."

Taron nodded, cupping Richard's jaw and pulling it up so he could meet his husband's eyes. "Okay.. Well, I'll give you a character. And we'll write you a script, okay? Even.. We'll just do a list of names of people to thank, so it's not a lot to read."

Richard smiled a little, tilting his head to kiss Taron's hand. "You're the best, T.. I don't know how you put up with me, half the time."

"Me neither." Taron grinned, leaning in for a chaste kiss. Richard laughed softly against his husband's lips, shaking his head. "Tonight, you're going to be cool, confident Richard. Best actor in that room, who loves going up on stages to receive awards."  Taron continued speaking as he moved to pick up the complementary hotel notebook and pen from beside the phone. "You can get started on those names, and I'll fix your hair. Sound good?"

Richard nodded, that faint smile growing ever so slightly as he started to scrawl names down on the notepad. Taron slipped his jacket off and carefully set it over the chair before going into the bathroom and returning with a can of hairspray and a comb. He was pretty sure they practically had negative time to get down to the car, so wasted no time in getting to work fixing Richard's hair.

"Eyes," Taron murmured, laying his arm over Richard's closed eyes anyway as he sprayed the product onto his hair. "..Perfect. How's that list going?"