five plus one times

Chapter 1: Anxiety

Authors Note: Hi! I don't know if you guys remember me, but I deleted all my fics off here, but I'm determined to make a comeback! I posted this on Archive already, so I thought I'd post it here too and see what people think about it.
Basically how this fic will work is that there will be six chapters in total, each taking place in a different period of Scott and Mitch's friendship. So, this chapter takes place while they were on the Sing Off and the next chapter will take place in 2014, and the last chapter in 2020.
Please leave comments if you want! Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

"You better hurry and come back soon, Mitchy," Scott pleaded, voice muffled through the low quality of the phone speaker. New and better technology, his ass. Mitch cradled the phone to his ear, against his shoulder as he fumbled with his bags, cursing lightly under his breath. "I miss you.." he teased.

"Yeah, I miss you too, cutie," Mitch teased. He shifted the grocery bags to one hand, trying not to drop his phone, while he reached in the leather bag slung around his other arm for his car keys. Being on the Sing Off competition, Pentatonix had been staying in a hotel together with a lot of the other contestants, and due to the limited number of rooms and the multitude of people, (and a relatively low budget), Scott and Mitch had been forced to room together.

But Mitch wasn't complaining. There had been a brief, and relatively dark, period of his life where Mitch had lost Scott's light as the older boy had gone off to college. There had been short and inconsistent iChat messages, but other than that, they hadn't communicated much. That was until Scott had called Mitch one fateful night in a hurry, urging and begging the dark haired boy to reunite the Trio and audition for an acapella singing competition show called 'The Sing Off.'

And now that they were in the throw of it all, Mitch had found something to be passionate about, had performed in front of thousands of people, reignited his friendship with Kirstin, made new friends with Avi and Kevin joining the trio, and had spent long nights holding deep conversations with Scott, and testing the boundaries, the limits, of their newly ignited relationship. He felt his face grow red with embarrassment at the memory of Scott's strong arms around him as they fell asleep in the twin bed, legs intertwined. Everything was thrilling and new and beautiful.

So now, here Mitch was, returning his groceries to the car, groceries that Scott had sent him to fetch since the blond hadn't been feeling too well this week. Still fumbling with his keys, he almost didn't notice the group of men walking up to his car, loud and boisterous and reeking of alcohol. He could feel his heart rate quicken, blood rushing as the group of men (there were about four of them) cross the sidewalk, wander through the parking lot, and stop by Mitch's car. Why were they here? Mitch could feel his mouth go dry, fear striking his heart.

"Hey," one of the men said, a tall brunet.

"Scotty, I gotta go," Mitch said hastily. He barely heard Scott's little 'okay hun', before he hung up on him. If they wanted trouble, Mitch would have to be ready to give them whatever they wanted or call the police.

One of the men, a blond, leaned against Mitch's car. He felt surrounded now, and his heartbeat began to race even faster. Oh God, don't make me have a panic attack right now. "You're Mitch, right? From Pentatonix?" The brunet said.

He nodded hastily, his mouth becoming dry. It was dark outside and he hadn't been able to get a good look at their faces yet, but now that he allowed his eyes to meet theirs, he recognized them and he felt his body still with relief. The four men were fellow Sing Off contestants, belonging to one of the many large and all male college age acapella groups in the competition. Mitch hadn't talked to them much but they had seemed friendly enough when he first met them. But this didn't mean he would let his guard down.