Into the Colors That you Seek [1/2]
In a galaxy far far away I once upon a time started writing an AU in which everyone was a pornstar. And then I made the big decision to leave bandom, thusly leaving the AU unfinished. There were a handful of people who knew about it and most of them forgot eventually except for one of my favorite people ever and she asked me to finish it and I told her I wouldn't even though I was really lying and I've been working on the end of it for about two months now. So this is a super late Christmas present for my darlingianplanet. Love you! ♥
Also! Love for thru_adversity for the super short notice beta work
And! (This is the last one, I swear) there is very very slight, reverse cowgirl for quirky_anecdote which I put in there as a promise from a long long long time ago and only just remembered. Holla.
Alex Gaskarth/Alex Grieco | NC-17 | side Alex/Jack, Jack/Danny etc etc
One way or another, Alex needs to pay his student loans. And then he meets
Grieco. Life as he knows it is over.
Danny gives Jack the line, “Here’s your pizza. Hey, this house is nice, I bet the bedrooms are huge.” He was dressed in a Pizza delivery boy outfit when he showed up. Alex was in boxers that hung low on his hips and he was hard because of course he was jerking off when the doorbell rang signaling pizza time. And now there’s a line of clothes between the front door and the living room floor, where Alex is riding Jack, chest to back. There’s porn playing on the TV, and Alex’s head tips back onto Jack’s shoulder, moaning low as Jack shifts his hips up.
“Hey, Jack, lean back,” Danny orders from where he’s standing next to Jeff, the camera panning in closer, more likely than not focusing on Alex’s dick, hard and curved up towards the left. Jack leans back onto his elbows, his own head tipped back while Alex sits upright, hips working as he rides him. “Yeah, like that. Louder, Alex.”
He doesn’t even look at the camera, just tips his head back and lifts his hips in an angle that really works, both for him and the camera, noises bubbling out of his throat. “F-fuck, I’m gonna-” Jack groans, back arching. He grabs Alex’s hips and then lifts him off, pushing him forward onto his front as he jerks off on his back.
The splash of come on his back is hot. Alex groans and pushes his hips back, ass raising in the air. “Alright, cut!” Danny says and Alex actually does whine because they’re done for the day and Jack just came on his back and he gets to go jerk off in the dressing room or something.
“Did you get the shots we need?” Danny asks Jeff, and the camera guy nods, scratching at his beard.
“Sure,” he says, so Danny follows suite and nods again, stepping onto the set where Jack is just lying on his back, staring at the director with eyes the size of the moon, chest rising and falling slowly as he recovers from his orgasm. Danny stands over them, glasses perched on the edge of his nose, not at all phased by the fact that they’re both naked and that Alex is (still) hard. “Tomorrow we’ll do the rimming scene, and then we just need to get the in between shots done and then it’s a wrap.”
&
The house that they do most of the shoots in actually belongs to Evan’s parents. Alex worries sometimes that they might come for a surprise visit and then find out that the house that they own is actually a giant pornography set, save for Evan’s office.
There’s a couch in his office, it’s really old and beat up and it was the first thing that they bought to put in the house. Alex sleeps a lot on it, in between takes because he doesn’t get enough sleep during the night since he’s usually busy doing coursework. He doesn’t bother knocking when he goes into the office, flopping down on the sofa with a muffled grunt. Evan doesn’t look up from the Mac he’s working on, low moans echoing through the room as he edits the sound. “There’s an envelope right there, there’s thirteen hundred in it,” he says, gesturing at the corner of his desk.
It takes Alex about ten minutes of dozing to get up, picking up the envelope and thumbing through the hundred dollar bills, thirteen of them in a stack. “Excellent,” he says, taking them out of the envelope and putting them into his wallet.
“Danny told me to tell you that the next thing he wants to shoot would be a teacher/student or TA kind of thing. He’s thinking either Jack or Vinny. You and Jack get like a million hits though, a lot of people seem to dig you two.” It’s not the first time he’s told him that, and it won’t be the last time. People seem to dig this ‘Jalex’ thing.
Alex wrinkles his nose, takes a couple of steps back and then falls onto the sofa, legs dangling over the edge. Jack is nice enough, but he’s a little too... loud, for his taste although not during sex. During sex, he’s kind of bizarrely quiet, but everywhere else he’s this loud fucking ball of energy that’s all legs and no brain to mouth filter. Also, everyone except for Danny is aware that Jack is practically in love with the director so either way, it wouldn’t work off set.
“Yeah, whatever works for me,” Alex says. He sits up, swings his legs over so the balls of his feet are planted on the floor. “I still have a bunch of coursework to do, so call me if you need me, yep?” They brofist and Alex bumps into Vinny on his way out, who says something about this girl he’s dating who knows a guy who’s got a roommate that Alex would totally be interested in.
“You’re still gay for pay?” Alex asks good-naturedly, leaning against a wall. He likes Vinny.
“Straight as a stick and all for pussy,” Vinny grins.
“Straight as a bendy stick, sure,” the taller man snorts, and then pats him on the shoulder. “Don’t set me up with your girl’s friend, I don’t need a boytoy right now,” he says, and then takes his leave, heading out to his car so he can go back to the dorm.
&
Alex meets him in the Starbucks on campus. He’s holding his psychology textbook in his right hand, holding a caramel macchiato in the other and trying to read and walk at the same time. He swears that he didn’t mean to bump into the guy and spill coffee all over his white shirt. “I’m sorry, shit, I’m so, so sorry,” he apologizes profusely. He’s so busy trying to apologize and make sure that he didn’t get any coffee on his textbook because it cost him like, a hundred and fifty dollars that he doesn’t look up to see who he spilt coffee on until he starts talking.
The guy shakes his head, says, “Don’t worry, I’ve done it before, it’s not a big deal,” and then smiles at him, open and honest and his teeth are really white too, they’re shiny and he’s really, really hot. Alex blinks dumbly at him.
“I’m Alex,” he says, closing his textbook and moving his now-empty cup into his other hand so he can hold his hand out to shake. The other guy’s hand is a little bit sticky from the coffee, but Alex takes it and smiles so wide that his face hurts.
“Hey, that’s my name too!” he says, and laughs, and he’s so cute and geeky and Alex thinks he might have a tiny crush on this guy. The handshake lasts a little too long, touch lingering longer than socially acceptable.
His mouth works before his brain can catch up with it, and before he’s aware of what he’s doing, Alex blurts, “Can I give you my number? I don’t even know if you like guys like that but I want to make it up to you for spilling my drink all over your shirt so I’d really like to take you out for dinner or coffee or som -” He’s cut off by the other Alex going, “I’d love to go out for coffee or something,”
Alex grins wide. His face most definitely hurts now. He licks his lips and then kneels on the floor, putting the textbook down and the empty coffee cup on top of it, fishing around in his messenger bag to find a pen. He pops back up, bag and book and coffee still on the floor, taking the other guys hand and writing the ten digit number on the back of his hand before he can say no or think better of taking a complete stranger out on a date. Right now, the guy could be a serial ax killer and Alex wouldn’t care less.
“I have a class to get to,” Alex says, dropping down again as he shoves the pen and his textbook into his bag, grabbing the Starbucks papercup. “But, you should call me. Really. Whenever. Except, not now. Because I have a class. But I’ll be done at like, four, so you could call me then if you’re not busy. But if you are you could just text. I don’t know.” The other Alex laughs, and he flushes. “I kind of ramble when I get nervous,” he says, scuffing the toe of his black Chucks into the dirt.
He nods, touches his shoulder and says, “It’s cool. Didn’t you have a class to get to?” Alex yelps and nods, kisses him quickly on the cheek before he can think better of it, and runs in the direction of his building.
&
He doesn’t text until ten o’clock that night. Alex waits feverishly by his phone, picking it up and checking it every five minutes. Evan smacks him over the back of the head at one point while he’s sitting in the office, eating Evan’s food and drinking his coffee. He doesn’t say anything, but flushes under Evan’s arched eyebrow and accusing gaze. “I think my phone is broken,” he informs his bff, glancing at the screen again as he waits for it to ring or a tiny little envelope to appear in the corner and show him that he has an unread text message.
There are papers all over his dorm room. He’s sitting crosslegged on the ugly grey sofa, papers and books open on the coffee table in front of him; on the cushions on either side of him; on the floor, when his phone buzzes and then falls over the edge of the table. Alex dives for it, knocking all of his papers into even more disarray.
hey its alex from earlier?
Alex saves the number into his phone before he replies. He also waits a further three minutes so it doesn’t seem like he was waiting next to his phone like a teenage girl in a late nineties sit-com. He sends back Hey 2 u 2. Watcha up 2? without looking and then slides his phone underneath a pile of papers, trying not to hold his breath or count the seconds between texts.
(There are one hundred and sixty four seconds between texts.)
makin mac n cheese. its the best food. u?
Even after the phone buzzes, Alex forces himself to wait at least two minutes and to finish reading the page (he actually reads the same sentence six times) before he pounces on his phone, smile worming its way onto his face before he’s even finished reading the text.
ill have to make it 4 u 1 day ;) stdying 4 my finals Alex struggles with the decision to put the ‘;)’ into the text. Is it too much? Will he read into it? Should he leave it out?
The reply he gets is almost instantaneous. def. how bout tomorow? ;)
Alex fights the urge to type back an immediate yes. He waits the customary two minutes, then types back, im free. ill txt u the address l8r? He grins widely, jumping over the back of the sofa and going over to the tiny cooker/kitchenette thing that he was lucky enough to get. He can totally make macaroni. He can.
&
“I can’t make macaroni,” Alex wails dramatically as he collapses on his sofa in Evan’s office. Evan barely looks up at him. He keeps typing on his macbook, eyes flickering over to his best friend. He resists the urge to sigh and ask if he’s been watching Gossip Girl again and if the ‘I’m-going-to-die-everything-is-so-tragic’ tone is strictly necessary. In playing the role of best friend since they were like eight, he doesn’t.
“Do I want to know, or should I leave it to imagination?” he asks, arching an eyebrow at Alex. He just groans and hides his face in his hands, dropping down to hide his face in the couch cushions.
“The pasta was overcooked. And then I burned the macaroni in the pan. And then we had to order pizza. On top of all of that I realized that I had no cash and he had to pay for it. There’s a reason why my diet consists of coffee and instant ramen.”
Evan is silent for a minute, staring at the computer screen before he looks up at Alex, closing the laptop with a professional click. “We?” Sometimes he wonders if Alex keeps him around as an employer, psychologist, or best friend.
Alex nods, looking up at his friend miserably. “We. I met this guy and he mentioned macaroni and cheese and I thought that it’d be cool if he came over and I made him some but it failed and I bet now he thinks I’m some sort of a dumbass.” He hides his face in his arms again and is silent for a moment until he looks back up and Evan and bursts out, “It wasn’t even like, macaroni from scratch. It was that Kraft stuff, in a box? The stuff my mom used to make? Boil macaroni and add cheese powder and milk and butter and it’s done.”
It takes years of being friends with Alex not to facepalm and walk away. “Did he say that you were a dumbass?” Alex shakes his head mournfully, eyes like giant pools of sorrow that’d make a lesser person or someone who hadn’t known Alex that long want to smother him in love and kisses. “Then he doesn’t think you’re a dumbass. There is a hickey on your neck that says that your date went fine so if you would just shut up and haul your ass down to Planet so he can cover it up and get you dressed in whatever it is that Danny needs you in today everything would be fine and dandy.”
He turns the puppy dog eyes up by ten, gives Evan the most sorrowful sigh ever and says, “You’re just exploiting my needy emotional state to make me shoot porn so that you can make money off of it.” Evan just rolls his eyes, makes a remark about how much he’s getting paid to do it, and then waves his hand at the door.
&
Ian takes one look at Alex’s neck, makes a noise in the back of his throat and then says, “So, who is it?” He pushes him down into the chair in front of the mirror in the dressing room, pulling out drawers and baskets filled with makeup to find the things he needs to cover up the love bite. He licks his lips, closing the drawer and opening another one. Ian swears that his makeup grows legs and moves itself around when he isn’t looking.
“This guy named Alex Grieco. He’s cute and funny and perfect and he probably thinks I’m a dumbass,” Alex says miserably, tipping his head to the side as Ian grabs his chin so he can cover it in green concealer first.
He says the exact same thing that Evan did (“You’ve got a hickey, how bad could it really have gone?”) and then pokes the lovebite, making it throb uncomfortably. Ian moves over, caps the green concealer and then rummages around, taking out three different tubes of foundation. “Look at me,” he says, turning a lamp on and directing it at Alex’s face as he squirts some out of each tube onto the back of his hand. He holds it up to Alex’s cheek, squints, twists his mouth to the side and then makes a tutting noise. “You need to get some fucking color, man.”
Alex snorts and says, “I spend all my time studying for finals and shooting porn, when am I supposed to go suntanning?”
The makeup artist shrugs, squirts something out of a fourth tube onto his hand and holds it up to Alex’s cheek, foundation-free hand grabbing his chin again and turning his face from one side of the other to make sure the color fits. He wipes the four different tones of foundation off with a makeup wipe, and then squirts more of the fourth tube onto the back of his hand, taking a sponge out of a box. “So who’re you shooting with?” Ian asks as he applies a thick layer of the foundation over the green concealer, blending it into the rest of his neck.
“Evan wanted me to do it with Jack, since we get a lot of ratings and he makes a lot of money on us, but Danny wanted me to do it with Vinny. It’s supposed to be a teacher/student type thing, yano? I’m the ‘hot young teacher’ and Vinny is the badass student or whatever,” Alex explains, tipping his head to the side as Ian focuses on hiding the hickey from the rest of the world.
He makes a noise in the back of his throat, and then says, “Oh?”
Alex nods. “Yeah, we’re shooting in the basement. Danny rented a desk and a chalkboard and stuff, so I mean. Desk sex.”
Ian picks up a small round box and a large makeup brush. “Fun,” he comments, blending powder over it. He bites his lip, takes a step to the left and then back to the right, examining both sides of Alex’s neck to make sure that it looks even. He walks over to the wardrobe part of the room, opening the closet to survey the clothes inside. “Danny said something about a hot teacher, right?”
Alex nods, twisting around in his chair to see what Ian picks out. He pushes some hangers to the left, and then to the right, picking out a white button down and black skinny fit jeans. It looks like something he has in his own closet. Ian makes a motion with one hand, telling Alex to come over so he can put them on.
“What are you wearing under your pants?” he asks, hooking one finger into the belt loop to pull him closer. It’d probably be a kind of sexy anywhere but here, but for one, this is Ian Planet and Alex isn’t even sure what team he plays for and for two, they’re in the makeup/wardrobe room of Evan’s porn emporium. Alex finds very little about the place sexy, actual sex aside, and not even that is all that sexy with the way it’s completely scripted out.
“Briefs, black.” He’s learned over the past year and a half of doing porn that it’s easiest coming into work with either a) black briefs b) white briefs or c) nothing on under his pants. Ian nods, folds the pants and the shirt that he has over his arm, and says, “Strip.” He moves over to the bins on the shelf, pulling one out and then another. When he turns around Alex is standing in white socks and black briefs, a bored expression on his face. Ian throws the clothes at him. He puts the clothes on, humming tunelessly. It doesn’t surprise him that they fit perfectly: Ian is really good at doing things like that.
“There’s a belt over the back of the chair,” Ian says, back over by the makeup station. He comes back to Alex with the same powder and brush as before, and then puts some powder on Alex’s face (“So you don’t look shiny on camera,” he explains, like he does every time.) and then produces a stick of chapstick out of his pocket. “Keep this. Why the fuck are your lips so chapped?”
Alex grins at Ian, takes the chapstick from him and smoothes some over his lips. He puckers his lips, batting his eyelashes at the other man. Ian’s hand connects with Alex’s forehead, pushing him backwards as he steps around him to the makeup counter. “Save it for the camera,” he laughs.
He picks up a pair of glasses off the table and hands them to the student-slash-pornstar. “Glasses make you look sexy,” he deadpans, and Alex puts them on, blinking at him through the clear glass.
“Awesome,” he says, and then the door swings open and Vinny walks in, looking down at his phone.
“Ian, hey, what are you doing tonight? I was thinking that we could -” he breaks off when he looks up to see Alex and grins widely at him. “Alex, hey. Danny wants to talk to you about lines or something. He’s in the basement.”
Alex nods; Ian says, “Alright, get out, I can’t handle this many people in here at once. I’ve gotta do Vin now.”
&
They shoot right up to where Vinny shoves everything off of the desk and bends Alex over it, saying, “I would really like to fuck you, sir.” Danny yells, And cut! and Jeff does his thing with the camera. Alex rubs his hips where they were pushed into the edge of the desk, turns around and gives Vinny a playful shove.“That’s gonna bruise, you fucker.”
Vinny shrugs, angelic smile on his face. “Danny told me to be ‘rough,’” he says, using air quotations around the rough. He grins widely, groping Alex’s ass. “Don’t pretend you didn’t like it baby,” he coos, pinching Alex’s cheek.
“Vegas! I need you in the dressing room to fit some things before the next shoot,” Ian says from next to Danny. Alex has no idea when he got there, but he’s good at that, standing in shadows and watching without anyone else knowing that he’s there.
He has no idea why things need to be fitted though: this is porn, they wear the clothes for ten minutes and then take them off and fuck naked for thirty. Danny stops Vinny before he leaves with Ian and says in a loud voice so that he’s sure Alex can hear: “I need you guys here tomorrow at four thirty. Alex, you’re done with class by then, right?”
Alex takes a second, runs over his schedule in his head and then nods. “Yeah, I’m done at three thirty, no worries.”
Danny nods. “Great, great. Shooting shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours,” he lowers his voice and nods at Alex, giving him the good to go. “Vinny, I was thinking we could start making shoots for the doctor/nurse one with Merrick in about two weeks, okay?” He heads out before the others do, Ian and Vinny talking to Danny about whatever it is that they’re going to need to do for their tape. He undresses in the dressing room and gets back into his own faded skinny jeans, checkered shirt and Chucks, leaving what Ian gave him folded over the chair.
They come into the room just as Alex hoists his messenger bag over his shoulder, and Alex grins widely at them. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says, bro-fisting Vinny and clapping Ian over the shoulder on his way out the door. He thinks that Vinny looks a little anxious about something, but puts it down to Danny wanting to do something weird for the camera again.
&
Grieco comes over again and again and again, and this time when he shows up on Alex’s doormat he’s holding a brown paper bag with both hands. He pushes past him and puts it down on the tiny table thing and says, “I hope you have pots, I’m making stir fry.”
“When you said you’d cook I thought you meant you’d order the pizza.” Alex blinks, moving out of the way and closing the door. His dorm is kind of ridiculously small, there’s barely enough room for both of them in the kitchenette. He hoists himself up onto the counter and watches him chop carrots and peppers and onions and chicken, and then fry it all together in the wok that he brought with him just in case. “I didn’t know you could cook.”
He looks up at him and winks. “Hidden talents, you know how it is,” Grieco says, popping a raw piece of carrot in his mouth. Alex knows all about hidden talents. Being a secret pornstar for one, could be a hidden talent. The carrot crunches, and Alex laughs, reaching out to catch his wrist so he can pull him close. He makes a protesting noise, squawking, “The food, it’s going to burn!”
Alex rolls his eyes, pulls him in between his legs and says, “I kind of really like you.”
The smaller man stills and tilts his head up, lip caught between his teeth before he smiles brightly and says, “I kind of really like you too.” He leans up and connects their lips together, a short, very chaste kiss before he pulls his way out of Alex’s grip so he can stir the food that’s cooking on the stove.
“It smells awesome,” Alex emphasizes, eyes wide as he nods. Grieco grins.
“Just wait until you taste it.”
&
They haven’t gotten to the whole ‘sex-stage’ of their relationship. They’ve done making out (they’ve done a lot of making out) and at one point it gets so far that Alex might have come in his pants (which he hasn’t done since he was fifteen, thank you very much.) He has to put a stop to the hickeys though, because Evan and Ian and Danny can all deal with one hickey which can easily be covered up, but once he comes in with most of the left side of his neck covered in dark, purplish-blue love bites, he needs to put a stop to it.
Alex grabs Grieco’s hand just as he walks out of the door, into the hallway so he can make his way back to his own dorm. “Can’t I please convince you to stay?” he asks, puppy dog eyes turned on full.
He shakes his head and turns around, kissing the corner of Alex’s mouth carefully. His other hand balances the brown paper bag with their dinner stuff against his hip. “I can’t, Matt needs me and I have to write the conclusion on my Theory of Music paper and I have a class tomorrow at eight.” Alex throws his pout into the mix, and he just sighs, laughs a little and kisses him again. “Maybe next time, okay?”
It doesn’t help that Alex is totally rocking a semi-boner. Up until about ten minutes ago they had been making out on the sofa, Grieco fitting in between his legs as they make out, hands wandering a little too far to keep it rated PG-13. Alex’s hand is up Grieco’s shirt, fingers teasing his nipples expertly. He’s halfway to getting the article of clothing off when his phone starts buzzing and falls off the table, only to keep buzzing on the floor.
Grieco pulls away from Alex’s mouth with a slightly wet sound; his lips are red and kiss swollen, and he answers his phone with a slightly breathless, “It’s Alex,” he says, and then, “Mmm? Mhm.”
He doesn’t really have anything else to do, so he sits up, Grieco still fitting nicely between his legs. Alex leans forward and starts pressing feathery kisses to his jaw line, nipping lightly with his teeth. Grieco laughs a little, turns his body in the other direction and puts one hand flat on his chest to push him away. “Alex, stop it,” he hisses, moving the speaker away from his mouth.
“No, yeah, I’m not doing anything important right now,” he says to whoever it is that he’s talking to on the phone, trying to push Alex away even though he’s ultimately bigger and stronger than he is. He weighs more them him too, so it’s an easy job to get him on his back as while he starts kissing his neck again.
“You could be doing someone really important,” Alex bites his neck, hard enough to leave teeth indents, and Grieco swats at his head, almost dropping the phone. Alex just bites harder and then soothes the mark with his tongue. “Of course I’m listening to you Matt, why wouldn’t I be?” Grieco asks, eyes stuck on Alex. He grins at him and then leans forward, running his tongue across the shell of his ear.
“Tell Matt to hang up and I’ll blow you,” he whispers, teeth grazing the cartilage, and he hears an indignant noise come through the phone.
“He can hear you,” Grieco stage whispers, and Alex hears almost clearly, damn right he can hear you, come through the phone. Alex snorts, biting at Grieco’s neck anyway. Grieco makes a noise that isn’t quite a moan, and he can hear Matt go, If that’s a moan I’m hearing I’m going to do what Paris did to Rory and move your stuff in the hallway and you’ll have to move in with your goddam boyfriend.
Neither of them deny the boyfriend thing. They’ve had seven and a half dates, but they’ve never quite talked about official titles. Alex thinks that he might like a title. Then he can officially call him his.
Which is how they end up at the door, Grieco trying to leave and Alex asking him to stay. “Matt needs me to help him with something and he threatened to kick me out, I have to go,” he laughs as Alex follows him into the hallway, backing him against a wall.
“Stay,” he says, nose nudging his cheek. “Please?”
Grieco sighs, one arm still wrapped around the brown paper bag. “I can’t, I have to do things, I want to stay but I can’t.”
Alex sighs, curls his hand around his wrist and then says, “Will you at least do me a favor then?” He gives him a soft smile, eyes laughing like he knows a joke that he doesn’t want to share just yet.
“That depends on what it is,” He says, eyes narrowing just a little bit. He tilts his head up, leaning back properly against the wall as he looks up at Alex. His eyes are warm like melted caramel, still laughing at his own inside joke.
“Will you be my boyfriend?”
&
Matt is sitting on the sofa, watching an Eagles game with a can of Budweiser beer in his hand when Alex bursts through the door and drops his stuff on the floor. “I have a boyfriend,” he announces, flopping down on the couch practically on top of his best friend. Matt throws him a quizzical look, shifting over a little to make more room. He takes a last swig out of the can in his hand and then leans over so he can drop it on the floor.
“Didn’t you have one before?”
Grieco rolls his eyes, swatting him over the head. “No, douchebag, we were just seeing each other. Now it’s official. He asked before I left.” Matt throws his arms up and yells all of a sudden, making him start in surprise. The Eagles scored a touchdown.
“Can I meet him? So I can tell him that if he fucks you over I will seriously maim him with a baseball bat?”
“No you may not maim my boyfriend with a baseball bat!” Alex trills, swatting him over the head. “I kind of like him un-maimed and whole so I would really appreciate it if you wouldn’t.”
Matt gives him an even look, one eyebrow raised. “My baseball bat is in the corner of my closet, so if he ever tries anything on you, yano.” It takes a lot of self-control for Grieco not to hit him again.
“I’m not doing anything with your baseball bat, no-one is doing anything with your baseball bat,” he emphasizes heavily. Matt arches an eyebrow at him with a defiant look, and he’s asking for it, he is, so Alex hits him.
“Fine, fine! I won’t I’m sorry,” he laughs, pushing him back, and Grieco is like, small, Matt can push him around easily. They both watch the Eagles game for a little while, Matt with a pleased expression because they’re winning and Alex... well he’s less pleased because he doesn’t support the Eagles but he doesn’t support the team they’re playing against, so. “So when do you want us to meet?” Matt asks gruffly about five minutes later during the commercial. He looks sideways at Grieco, sucking the silver lipring into his mouth.
Alex smiles wide. “Soon.”
&
“What’s his name again?” Evan asks with a mocking grin, holding a latte in both hands with ankles crossed underneath the table. Alex swats him over the head (a habit he started picking up from Grieco) and mutters something that Evan can’t quite make out. “What?”
“If you’re a dick to him I swear to God I will never, ever, ever do anything with Jack again and you can watch your ratings go down the drain because we are obviously your bestselling couple or whatever,” Alex threatens, kicking him under the table. It’s an empty threat, one that Alex makes all the time but never actually goes through with. Evan hopes. “I really, really need for you to be nice because it would be really awesome if you and him got along and didn’t hate each other.” His voice is a little bit softer this time, with a nicer tone to it. He needs for their best friends to get along.
Evan lets out a low whistle. “You really like this guy, don’t you?” He’s never seen Alex get worked up over a guy and his guy’s best friend like this; not with Rian or the Toby guy he dated when they were seventeen.
“Yeah, I kind of really like him and I don’t want to fuck things up so please, no biting, no overly geeking out on Toy Story or Star Wars or editing movies or sound programs or whatever. Be cool.” Evan opens his mouth to ask something but Alex cuts him off before he can even say it. “And for the love of God, do not even bring porn up. Don’t even think about it.”
Sometimes, Alex’s ability to know what he’s thinking is a little bit scary. “So, I take it you haven’t told him about your after school job?” he asks, quirking an eyebrow. Alex shakes his head.
“I just... haven’t figured out how to bring it up yet,” Alex explains, turning the plastic cup that’s housing a light caramel frappuccino that cost him six bucks. “It’s not like, you know, I can just bring it up over dinner. What am I supposed to say? ‘Can you pass the salt, and oh, by the way, I work as a pornstar so I can pay my bills and buy food?’” He shakes his head. That is not going to happen.
He barely manages to suppress a snort. “You have such little tact,” he says fondly, sipping his latte with a nod. “No, what you need to do is like, “I want to get out of school without debt,” and stuff. You could even play it up and say your childhood sucked and you sold your body to even get into uni in the first place!”
Alex gives Evan a long, unwavering look. “I grew up in a four bedroom three bathroom house with a pool and a basketball hoop, I hardly had a sucky childhood.” He’s planning on telling Grieco about the porn, he really is. He’ll quit doing it and get a real job if he has to. Alex might kind of be in love with him, even if he isn’t really ready to admit it yet.
&
“If I have to cover up one more hickey I am going to quit,” Ian threatens when Danny sends Alex to him, complaining about a bruise on his collarbone. Jack was leaning on him and being generally in his space and the director didn’t seem to notice “And if for some reason you are forced to get another hickey, say, at gun point maybe, can it be done on your neck because collarbones are hard to cover up?”
Alex bites his lips sheepishly and tries to make himself smaller in the chair he’s sitting in. Ian Planet’s temper is a little bit scary. “Sorry,” he says, and Ian just shakes his head, jabbing at the mark a little too forcefully. Alex winces.
“This is what, number six? In two weeks?” Ian asks, arching an eyebrow. The old ones on his neck that have faded to either light purple or green need to be covered too. “How much are you getting, exactly and would you tell me your secret?”
“Actually,” Alex admits, looking a little embarrassed. “I’m not really, uh, getting any. We haven’t gotten past second base.”
Ian pauses, looking up at Alex with his hand frozen over the pot of foundation. “Second base?
“Yeah,” Alex coughs. “Second base.”
“Wow,” Ian says, a low whistle slipping past his lips. He unscrews the lid to the foundation, applying it to Alex’s neck in even strokes. “Wow. I totally thought you were like, getting a lot. Like, more than a lot. I don’t know man, second base?” The smile on his lips isn’t quite mocking, but he raises an eyebrow at Alex through the mirror as he covers up the lovebite left by the one who apparently wasn’t quite putting out.
“It’s not that like, we don’t want to,” he starts, aware from the beginning how pitiful his excuses sound. “It’s just stuff always comes up, all of a sudden he’s got to go back to his dorm or a date gets canceled because of finals and stuff. You know.” Ian taps the side of his neck, telling him silently to turn his face so he can get a better light to work with.
“Sure,” Ian snorts. “Stuff gets in the way. I think he sounds kind of like a cocktease.” He shakes his head, just a little, putting down the foundation and picking up a powder brush and some powder. “How long have you guys been seeing each other now?”
Alex closes his eyes, thinks back a little and then answers, “Oh fuck, it’s two months next Wednesday.” He sits upright in the chair, stares a little wildly in the mirror and then twists around to look at Ian. “Are you supposed to do something for two months? That’s important right? Do I like, make him dinner or buy him jewelry or -“
“Alex!” Ian says sharply, interrupting him mid freakout session. “Firstly, don’t buy the guy jewelry, I’m eighty percent sure that that’s just offending. Secondly, I wouldn’t trust you to make me food so you could take him out or something?” He gives him a pointed look, one eyebrow raised. Alex wonders when the makeup artist got so wise.
“Ian Robert Planet,” he says, “Let me have your children. They’d be smart and good looking.” He stands up and grabs either side of Ian’s face, pulling him over so he can plant a kiss on his lips. Vinny happens to open the door and Ian kind of falls over, blinking rapidly. He raises an eyebrow and looks between the two, holding one of his caps in both hands. He opens his mouth and then closes it, looking slightly fishlike in the process.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” Ian says, looking the most un-composed that Alex has ever seen the makeup artist.
“Our makeup artist is a genius,” Alex says gleefully, giving said makeup artist a hand up. “He should be in the Mensa.” Ian brushes himself, color falling from his cheeks. “I have to go make some phonecalls, Vin, you’ll tell Danny that I’ll be like… five minutes won’t you?” He doesn’t wait for an answer, and is out of the door between one thought and the next.
&
Evan and Matt meet at the same Starbucks that Alex first spilled his coffee all over Grieco on. “Play nice,” he mutters to Evan when he sees his boyfriend approaching with a coffee in one hand, almost dragging the guy that Alex recognizes from pictures as Matt. “Please, for the love of God, play nice.” He doesn’t miss the way that Evan rolls his eyes, but he’s on his feet and planting a kiss on his boyfriend’s lips before the stress of their friends meeting kills him.
“Matt, this is Alex and his friend Evan, Evan, I’m Alex and this is my friend Matt.” He does this tiny wave of his hands, similar to a flail, and Alex manages to grab his coffee out of his hand before he manages to spill it everywhere. They all sit down, Alex and Alex on the bench and Evan and Matt on the chairs facing them. Silence stretches out over them and Alex finally says, “So Matt, Grieco tells me that you’re heading majoring in design technology?” Matt nods but doesn’t elaborate, stirring his Ice Blend with the straw. Grieco gives Alex a strained look. “He tells me that you’re good,” he presses on, desperate to get them to talk about anything.
Evan looks a little more interested in Matt when he hears his major. “Yeah, well... I guess so?” he sucks on his lipring and looks a little confused and then Grieco laughs, which makes Alex laugh and then they’re all laughing. “I mean, I do commissions for websites to make a little extra cash but I’m not like, great, or anything.” That’s all it takes for Evan to start throwing questions at him and Alex does his best to telepathically send if-you-even-think-about-asking-him-to-redesign-the-site-I-will-personally-kill-you-slowly-in-your-sleep vibes at him. Sadly, he doesn’t think it works.
They’re left out of the conversation, watching in silent awe as their best friend’s pick each others brains on coding and computers and things they’re both totally, completely lost on. “So... it wasn’t a failure,” Alex ventures afterwards, holding his hand while he walks Grieco back to his dorm. It's late October and it's starting to get cold, so Alex is a complete gentleman and gives Grieco the leather jacket he'd been wearing. It's too big on him, making him look like he's drowning in a jacket that fits Alex to a T because he has broad shoulders and can actually fill it out.
(Personally, Alex still thinks he looks totally smoking hot in his jacket, but that just might be some alpha male thing that has to do with seeing his boyfriend wearing his clothes.)
He lingers with him in front of his dorm room, knowing that Grieco's roommate Rian is probably inside with his girlfriend - who for some reason, reminds Alex of a bird. “I’m glad that they like each other,” Grieco says and he’s leaning against the door, back pressed against the wood with Alex’s arms bracketing him in on either side. It’s like the worst rom-com cliche ever invented and he has never wanted to be anywhere as much as he wants to be here. He smiles at him and nods his agreement, leaning down to catch his lips in a searing kiss that has him leaning up on the balls of his feet for more. Alex breaks away gently, leaving him with a group of smaller kisses that are shorter and shorter every time.
"You wanna come over tomorrow?" he asks, their lips still close enough together that Grieco can smell the mint from tictacs on his breath. Someone walks down the hall and catcalls at them; they ignore it. "We can order a pizza and watch movies." It's such a nice, simple idea, and Grieco smiles and nods, tipping his face up so he can kiss him again.
"It sounds like a date," he agrees, hand on the door knob. He pushes down on it and the door opens so he can take a step back into his dorm room where, sure enough, Rian and Cassadee are watching TVfrom the sofa. Alex pouts at him and Grieco laughs, stepping forwards again and kissing him once and then again and again, just for good measure. "I'll see you tomorrow," he says, and Alex says hopefully, "Text me?" Grieco snorts and blows a kiss at him and then shuts the door in his face, blatantly ignoring the way Cassadee is cooing at how cute him and his new boyfriend are
&
The pizza is ordered and at the door almost exactly the same time as Grieco shows up, proving Alex's point in that he can time anything perfectly, from ordering a pizza to robbing a bank - not that he's tested the latter of the two. The important thing is that he could do it if he ever needed to. By now he hadn't even needed to ask Grieco what he wanted on his half of the pizza - extra cheese, pepperoni and peppers, absolutely no olives or anchovies - and knew that if he wanted even a chance of making out later that he wasn't allowed to order olives or anchovies on his half either.
"That smells delicious," Grieco announces as Alex opens the pizza box, taking out two huge slices and putting them on respective plates. There's steam rising and he leans forwards so he can just smell the scent coming off of it. He burns his tongue when he takes the first bite of it, but there's strings of oozing, gooey cheese clinging to the pizza and it's so good that it practically doesn't hurt.
There are three slices left when they're done and Ghost Busters is playing on TV. Alex insists on saving the pizza because, "Pizza tastes even better cold and for breakfast." Grieco refuses to believe him on that because cold pizza? Gross. He dumps the plates into the sink in the kitchenette and shoves the pizza box into the fridge next to all of the other half empty boxes of Chinese takeout and Indian food and whatever other kind of take-out that's probably been in there for way too long.
It's not something that they plan, but then there's a half empty pizza box on the floor and Grieco straddling Alex's hips and they're making out enthusiastically, clicking teeth and too much spit, really wet but also really good. They're both panting when he pulls back for air and he hadn't exactly been aware of it until just now but he's hard - they're both hard - and rocking his hips forwards in these tiny movements, and Grieco notices the way that Alex's breath hitches just a little every time he does. "Can I -" he says, and then, "Is it okay if I stay the night?" Alex looks up at him, dark brown eyes darker than usual and lips swollen and pink.
He says, "Are you sure?" and they both know why, because this is kind of a big deal, they haven't slept together and they're both big boys, both got the birds and the bees speech when they were old enough to realize that kissing leads to touching and touching leads to... well. (Although their advantage is that they really don't have to worry about bees and flowers and Alex always thought that birds and bees were a strange analogy to make anyway.)
"Yeah," Grieco breathes. "I'm sure," and, "Want you." Alex surges up, both hands cupping either side of his neck, fingertips in his hair. He kisses him hard and soft at the same time, biting his lip and sending heat like molten lava through his blood. It's so typical of Alex; he isn't making a big deal out of this except that that's exactly how he is. Grieco pulls back, cups his cheeks and touches his lips, nose, cheekbones eyebrows with his thumbs and kisses them all, kisses him soft and sweet and says, "Relax, it's not like I haven't done this before." There's a few seconds where they just look at each other, judging out the situation and then Alex laughs and the tension that they'd build up breaks.
"Okay," is all he says, and then he lifts Alex off of himself and says less smoothly than he'd like to think, "Bedroom?" Grieco nods and shifts up onto his knees to kiss him again and at least another five minutes pass before they actually even manage to start moving, and even then it takes time, hands wandering as they try and keep their lips connected while they make the move. It's not even like it's a giant trip between the livingroomdiningroomkitchen and bedroom that his dorm room is equipped with, roughly the same size as his bedroom and bathroom were back home in baltimore. This way though, he lives on his own and his parents aren't just down the hall and he can have whoever he wants spending the night.
Off-camera, Alex doesn't actually get a lot of sex. For him, it's two entirely different things, one that he gets paid to do in front of large groups of people: directors and camera guys and makeup artist and lighting crew and sound crew and the other is private, personal, between him and (usually) one other person, behind closed doors for them and them alone. Even then, when the camera is rolling it's with people that he - for the most part - considers his friends and he knows them and, like. Sleeping with complete strangers he meets in a bar just really isn't his thing.
So having Grieco - having his boyfriend - laid out on his bed for him to touch and taste as he pleases, with nothing scripted out and planned and having to stop every few seconds because a light is wrong here and a camera angle needs to be changed there, well. It's kind of a thing.
He sighs, licking a stripe across his bare chest, taking in all this bare skin that's his to do with as he pleases, and he sucks light, just enough to leave a mark because if for any reason he should be walking around without a shirt on, Alex wants everyone to know that Grieco belongs to him. Alex tangles his fingers in the other Alex's hair as he kisses his way down his chest, dipping his tongue into his navel with teasing quickness. It's never been a particularly sensitive spot for Grieco before but when Alex pulls on it with his teeth and then blows lightly on the mark he arches up and moans quietly, a sound that Alex never wants to stop hearing.
Smoothing his hands up the insides of his thighs, he chases Grieco’s lips and catches the full body shudder that goes through him. Alex grins, kisses him and sucks teasingly on his tongue, making his hips arch up into him. “Yeah,” he pants, fingers scrabbling and curling around the back of his neck, tugging at the ends of Alex’s dyed hair. “Yeah, c’mon, please. He grins again, into his neck, and licks a hot stripe into the area in front of his mouth, teeth scraping gently across his skin. The world condenses down into the blur that’s Alex’s fingers inside of him, twisting and pressing him open, whispering words of God, so tight, gonna feel so good; want you so badly.
Inside, it takes Grieco a few minutes to adjust. Alex kisses him until he’s dizzy, until his fingers, curled in his hair, start twitching and he’s at the point where begging seems likely in his future. His kisses turn into smaller, shorter kisses, although they don’t lack in intensity. In the end it’s just their mouths brushing together while Alex thrusts shallowly. “Please,” Grieco pants, “Alex, please, need you to - need you harder.” His right hand grips his hip, thumb pressing into the bone while he does what Grieco wants, adding on this twisting thing with his hips that has him arching and seeing stars.
He fists one hand into the sheets, curves his fingers around the back of Alex’s skull with the other. His vision blurs at the edges, stares unseeing up at the ceiling and calls Alex’s name like it’s the last thing he’s ever going to do. Grieco comes with a low moan, without being touched, and Alex isn’t far behind him, kissing him deep and dirtyfilthy as he does.
They lie side by side afterwards, silent except for their breathing. Alex says, “Wow.” Grieco is inclined to agree.
To Part 2.