[Fic] Bradley/Colin - What’s a boy to do; when all the pretty girls can’t measure to you
Title: What’s a boy to do; when all the pretty girls can’t measure to you.
Author: slowdead
Pairing: Bradley/Colin
Rating: R
Genre: AU, fluff, romance
Word count: ~3.700
Disclaimer : This never ever happened, Colin and Bradley belong to themselves and this is pure AU. I’m also not making any money with this.
Summary: I got this request; Setting: first-time meeting; AU, where Bradley works in a cinema and Colin is a movie-critic for his college newspaper. However since he's fallen for Bradley, Colin's kinda forgotten that he's supposed to review only some of the movies, and not every last one of them. And I got bonus points if I could fit a popcorn fight and as many currently showing/upcoming new movies titles. I hope I did it justice!
Notes: Written for roguemouse because she’s awesome and I love her. (There are no spoilers for movies in this fic.)
Bradley works in the movie theater almost every night except for Mondays and Tuesdays. At first he worked in the popcorn stand but recently he’s been either selling tickets or appointing people to their seats. The cinema he works in offers all the new movies for a decent prize and since it’s close to the University for Arts it attracts a lot of college students.
Bradley’s always polite and he always smiles. Bradley’s smile is really honest and totally goofy; his teeth aren’t completely straight and Colin sometimes can’t think anymore when he’s staring at them.
And for some strange reason Colin has found himself falling head over heels for this guy he only knows by name because he wears a name-tag.
Colin is fucked, he knows he’s fucked. He’s never been in love in his twenty years on this planet and now his hormones decide to make his body do strange things whenever he’s around the guy who sells him his cinema tickets.
Colin likes to think he’s fairly level-headed and so he tells Katie that he probably isn’t even in love. How can he know what that feels like anyway if he’s never felt it before? There’s just no way to be sure. Katie just smirks and shakes her head before she starts singing Colin and Bradley, sitting in a tree…
They don’t really talk that much, except for a please and a thank you whenever Colin buys a ticket. And every week Colin goes to the cinema with a plan to say something so witty and smart that Bradley will want to get to know him immediately; because he just said the most interesting thing anyone in the world has ever said to Bradley.
But then he’s looking in those blue eyes and all he can do is sheepishly utter the title of the movie he wants to see that week.
This week is no different and instead of the lame: ”How about that snow, huh?” Colin had been practicing the whole tube ride to the cinema, he finds himself mumbling: “A Christmas carol, please.”
“One?” Bradley asks. Colin nods solemnly, disappointed in himself but determined not to let his failure ruin this once-in-a-week chance he has of being around Bradley for about a minute or so.
“You know,” Bradley says suddenly, “Girls love this sort of thing, it’s a great movie to take a date to or something.”
Oh no. Colin doesn’t want Bradley to think that he’s one of those sad loners who never goes out on a date and who is forced to watch movies along because he has no friends. Colin has friends.
“Oh, I’m not here to watch the movie.” Colin blurts out quickly. Wait that’s not right. “Well no, I am here for the movie, of course, but I’m writing a review for my university’s newspaper.” He quickly adds. “A date would just… distract me.”
And fine, so maybe he is one of those people who never goes on dates, that doesn’t mean Bradley needs to know this.
Bradley, who’d been looking at him in mild amusement, suddenly completely lights up. “You’re a movie critic?” He asks, “That’s so awesome.” And there’s that goofy grin again, and for a moment Colin can’t breathe.
Colin’s never been called awesome before. (He likes to pretend Bradley said: “You’re so awesome Colin Morgan,” instead of just praising what he does. It works strangely well.) He watches A Christmas Carol in a daze.
It’s his mistake to tell Katie as soon as he gets home, he can see the train wreck happening before he’s finished telling her how Bradley called him amazing. Because instead of laughing she’s just smiling; not a happy smile though, a sort of Oh poor Colin I pity you so smile.
Colin’s smile falters and he points at her: “Don’t start.”
“I wasn’t… I’m -that’s great, Colin.” She says, smiling a more honest smile now. It doesn’t make him feel any better though.
The next week Colin is too busy trying to think of something to say to Bradley that’ll make him call Colin awesome again that he almost misses the opening he’s given. “Excuse me?” He asks, feeling like a complete ass for not listening.
“Avatar,” Bradley repeats, “Great choice, it’s a great movie.”
“Oh, yeah.” Colin says, staring down at the ticket Bradley just gave him, “It wasn’t really my first choice though.”
“Yeah?” Bradley asks, giving Colin his change.
“Whenever movies get called the next best thing I get a little worried.” Colin says.
Bradley shakes his head and smiles, “Well, it might still surprise you.”
Colin wants to say more, wants to ask Bradley why he liked the movie, wants to ask him if he has a girlfriend (or maybe a boyfriend,) wants to ask him where he lives and if he likes his job (and yeah about a hundred other things.) But then the man waiting in line behind him gives a soft cough and Bradley’s started looking a little uncomfortable so Colin just grabs his tings and leaves with a short nod.
The movie isn’t what Colin had been expecting (at all) which is, in this case, a good thing. In all honesty the worst thing about it are the loud teenagers in the theater, (that’s exactly why he always goes to the last screening, but apparently even that doesn’t always protect him from noise.)
Colin leaves the t with a head full of sentences; Whenever he’s just seen a movie he’s always full of inspiration for his articles. He usually doesn’t go to bed on movie nights until he’s already written down at least a first version of the article. He doesn’t take notes during the movie like some others movie-critics do, (he thinks it’s a little disrespectful and it makes you miss too much of the movie anyway.) Colin does usually scribbles down notes during the tube ride home though, when everything’s still fresh in his memory, but a particularly clever opening sentence lodges it’s way in Colin’s brain and so he sits down in the foyer and digs out his notepad.
That probably wasn’t the best idea though because before he knows what’s happening he’s writing down whole parts of the article already and he really should do that at home on his laptop, his hand’s starting to cramp up a little already. Colin’s just about to put his stuff away when someone comes to stand in front of him.
“So, how did you like it?”
Colin looks up and gulps. He recovers fast enough though: “Uhm, I actually really liked it.”
Bradley grins, smug; and all of a sudden his smile doesn’t look that goofy anymore. “Ah, I told you, didn’t I.” He says.
“Yeah.” Colin agrees, dumbly.
“You know, I thought movie critics were supposed to be free of all prejudice?”
Colin chuckles, “Uhm, well what can I say? We’re only human so I guess that’s inevitable…”
Bradley seems to think about that, stares down at Colin for a moment, “I still think you got to work on that, mate.” He nods.
Colin, as on automatic, nods back. “Yeah, I’ll try.”
Colin goes home but doesn’t tell Katie how Bradley sought him out after the movie and came to voluntarily talk to him while Colin wasn’t even giving him money or anything. He’s pretty sure Katie would twist it around to make it seem like Colin’s still delusional (which he knows he is, he just doesn’t need Katie pointing it out in vicious ways.) He simply kisses her cheek goodnight and gets to writing.
Colin really can’t help but go back a couple of days later to see Nine. He wasn’t exactly told to go and see Nine but even though he liked Avatar he still thinks Nine could be more appropriate for the students (not counting the visual effects guys,) since it deals with directors and actors.
The things is really, Colin won’t know which one is more appropriate until he’s seen both movies, won’t he? And that way he can present the newspaper both articles and then they can choose for themselves. Everybody likes a little initiative in their writers, right?
“It’s not Sunday today, right?” Bradley chuckles.
“Oh no, it’s Tuesday...” Colin says lamely. An uncomfortable feeling that maybe he could get caught or something starts spreading through his belly. “I need to do two movies this week.” And he isn’t sure why he said that, why he lied (like he’d been lying to himself) when he could have just told the truth and said that he’s been wanting to see Nine from the moment he heard about it; that he’s just a film student watching a movie tonight.
But then that dateless-loser idea comes up again and Colin liked it better when Bradley thought him reviewing movies was pretty awesome.
Colin always thought that people who work in a cinema have at least a little interest in movies and everything that has to do with it; but with Bradley it’s something else entirely. He talks to Colin about the movie, they talk about Rob Marshall and all the actors in the movie; and then they start talking about other movies and other directors and Colin’s just never met anyone before who can keep up with him when it comes to that kind of stuff and who can look pretty while doing so.
By the time Colin gets home that night his head is so full and he feels so inspired that instead of a news paper article he writes a 5.000 word paper for one of his classes about Nine and the history behind the movie.
“He’s blonde, has blue eyes and he’s the guy who sells Colin movie tickets. He works at the source;” Katie tells Angel, “Of course Colin’s got a crush on him.”
Colin glares at Katie.
“Aw, but I think that’s really cute Colin.” Angel tells him.
Colin flushes slightly, “I’m not sure cute is what I’m trying to go for here.”
“No,” Katie tells Angel, “Lately he’s going for sexy; he spends the money he should be spending on our groceries buying clever shirts.”
“Clever shirts?” Angel asks in a tone that suggests that she knows she shouldn’t.
“Yeah,” Colin says, “They say: Bite me, Katie.”
“No, that’s not what they say.” Katie shakes her head, “They say: Bite me, Bradley. But in a sexy way.”
And that’s the reason he’ll never ever take any of his friends to go and see a movie with him in that cinema.
“Sherlock Holmes,” Bradley repeats after Colin. “Ah lucky you, I haven’t got the chance to see it yet; I hear it’s great.”
“Oh, well, I’m just here to laugh at Robert Downey junior’s accent.” Colin jokes.
Bradley grins, “I bet he did a marvelous job though.”
“Yeah,” Colin agrees, “You should sneak in once the movie starts and watch it with me.” Oh wow, he did not just say that.
“Ah, I wish I could,” Bradley says, “But I’m still on the clock; this might surprise you but there are actually camera’s everywhere in this place, keeping an eye on the staff.”
“Very big brother,”
“I don’t even know why I still work here,” Bradley says, but he’s full on grinning by now, “Well except for all the free movies. And popcorn.”
“You get popcorn?” Colin asks incredulous.
“All I can eat, mate.”
“Maybe I should fill out an application or something.” Colin says.
“Oh yeah,” Bradley’s grin turns softer, “You’d fit right in!”
Colin gets sick but comes back the next day anyway, he doesn’t think sitting at home with nothing to do would help him get better sooner anyway. Besides, he brought enough Kleenex with him and he’s fairly certain he won’t get anyone sick as long as he sits a couple of meters away from the other cinema-goers.
He approaches Bradley’s register and Bradley gives him the biggest grin Colin has ever seen. Colin actually stops walking for a second, thinks about turning around and checking if there’s someone else in the foyer with them, but then figures that even if there was someone else he still got there first and therefore should be helped first.
The smile is for Colin though, and Bradley holds something up for Colin to see.
“Huh,” Colin stares down at the paper, “My article on Sherlock Holmes.”
Bradley grins, “Yeah, my sister’s a student at UL so I asked her to bring me a copy of their paper, but you weren’t in it so I explained her how you write movie reviews and she, my sister is very rude by the way, called me an idiot and said you were probably a student of the University for Arts.”
Colin nods dumbly, can’t keep the smile of his face.
“So I told her to go get me a copy of that one and so I read your article and mate, you’re really very good, you never told me!”
“Yeah? You thought it was good?” Colin asks, happy.
“It’s very good, you’re a lot wittier on paper than in person you know.” But Colin knows he’s just teasing, and even if he wasn’t that would still be okay.
“Wait,… you went through all that trouble just to read my article?” Colin asks.
“Aha, no see, this is the brilliance of my plan: I made my sister go through all that trouble.” And he’s grinning like that again, in that smug way that makes Colin unsure whether he likes polite/sweet Bradley more or mischievous/evilish Bradley. (There’s no denying that the evil one is incredibly sexy.)
A couple of days later he goes to see Where the wild things are.
This is beginning to become problematic but he just can’t seem to be able to stay away. He’s already written three articles for the newspaper this week, a newspaper which is actually not being published for the next couple of weeks since it’s Christmas break. As he’s said before: he’s fucked.
And for the first time since this started Colin feels a burst of regret over lying to Bradley. But then Bradley grins at him and throws a hand full of popcorn at him as he walks up to the popcorn stand and all Colin can feel anymore is regret and raw want.
It’s also the first time since they’ve started talking that Colin goes home without a smile on his face, and with a heavy heart instead.
Bad things always come in threes, that’s what they say right? After burning his toast and getting a flat tire that afternoon Colin is now staring at a redheaded girl who’s holding out her hand to take his ticket.
“Uhm…” he starts, but he’s fairly certain there’s no way he could ask what he’s been dying to without looking like the biggest loser ever. (Why the hell isn’t Bradley here?)
So instead Colin just keeps quiet and hands his ticket over, looking back one more time to see if maybe Bradley’s walking around doing some other job or something.
“I hope you enjoy the movie, sir.” The girl says as she lets Colin in the theater; he doesn’t even have it in him to do anything but grunt in return.
Colin has been feeling increasingly bad about this whole Bradley-situation. At first he’d thought it was really cool to see the person he liked so much whenever he went to see a movie. But then little by little it hadn’t been enough anymore and even though Bradley keeps talking to him more and more (which should make Colin happy,) Colin just keeps expecting more and more.
Even though he knows he’ll never get more.
Katie has started telling him off, saying people have to take chances in life and all those things best friends/flat mates are supposed to say when you’re pouting around all day long (even on your birthday.) But maybe she’s right…
“Didn’t take you for a Hugh Grant guy.”
Colin startles so badly that he almost bucks out of his seat and spills some of his popcorn on the way.
“Can I sit down?” Bradley asks and all Colin can do is nod dumbly.
Bradley wipes the popcorn off of the seat and sits down. Bradley isn’t wearing his uniform, but a pair of jeans and a red shirt instead. He looks pretty stunning. “Hi,” Bradley says, smiling warmly.
“Hi,” Colin repeats, wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans. “You’re not working today?”
“No,” Bradley says, “Took the day of to go on a date.”
“Oh.” Colin says. He thinks about asking how it went, but then again he really doesn’t want to hear about Bradley’s girlfriend. Colin picks at a small feather on his scarf. Colin isn’t sure how it got there, maybe from Katie’s special goose feather pillow, or maybe just from his coat or something-
“Colin,” Bradley interrupts Colin's thinking, “I just have to ask. Are you usually this slow or are you trying extra hard with me?”
“I’m…” Colin starts, but shuts his mouth again soon. He’s not sure he understands.
“Or do you think I’m particularly slow? It’s not nice to think that of people just because they’re working in a cinema instead of going to college, Colin.”
Colin stares.
“You’re not really watching Did you hear about the Morgan’s for your job, right? Just like you weren’t watching>Where the wild things are for school, right? And by the way, isn’t your university on break now?”
Colin is still pretty much rendered speechless, he simply gapes and prays that he’s dreaming. (Although most of his dreams about Bradley turn out a lot less horrible than this conversation.)
After another couple of moments of silence Bradley’s grin falters a little and he asks again: “Right?” Not that he gives Colin any time to answer though. Instead he leans forward and kisses Colin’s lips softly.
Maybe Colin is dreaming after all.
Bradley pulls back (way too soon) and the only thing Colin can do is produce a little disappointed groan.
“Right?” Bradley prods again and only now does Colin realize that he hasn’t actually said anything since Bradley sprung this all on him.
And now Bradley’s sitting there next to him, Colin's lips still tingling from the way Bradley just kissed him, and… Bradley’s starting to look quite worried. Colin realizes that he has to save things and so he nods, quickly, and whispers Yeah, yeah before leaning in and pressing his lips again Bradley’s.
And then the lights go out.
It takes a while for Colin to realize that he’s indeed opened his eyes again; and that they’re indeed still in a public place that likes to screen movies in exchange for money.
Colin stares at Bradley’s face -watching the lights of the screen bouncing off of them- and thinks about what it would be like to run his tongue over those teeth.
They sit there staring at each other, and grinning, for most of the previews. At some point Bradley sits back in his seat though and so Colin follows lamely (and somewhat disappointed that he can’t keep looking at Bradley’s smile.) And while he’s thinking about things that are disappointing right now anyway, being in the cinema instead of somewhere (anywhere really) where they can be alone is high up on that disappointing-things list right now. But then Bradley takes Colin’s hand and entwines their fingers; Colin doesn’t even remember what the word disappointing means.
The movie starts and suddenly Bradley’s leaning over, whispering in Colin’s ear: “Why didn’t you ever tell me, or ask me out or something. You’re so passive.”
Colin feels himself going red again, he keeps staring at the screen but Bradley’s not budging from his side so finally he mutters: “Because… I didn’t think you were interested.”
Bradley snorts and whispers: “So you are slow, or maybe just not very observant…” and with every word his lips slide over Colin’s ear. Colin shudders.
“You could have asked me out too, you know.” Colin says, because he needs to say something. (And why does he need to say something? Because he really needs Bradley to whisper in his ear and rub that thumb over his wrist again.)
“I wanted to be very sure.” Bradley whispers back, “And I needed to plan this and get the day off and everything.”
Colin turns his head, his lips millimeters from Bradley’s, when someone behind them starts yelling at them to be quiet.
Bradley pulls Colin out of his seat and to the back row of the movie theater; Colin’s stuff forgotten and left behind.
They spend the rest of the movie (which is about 100 minutes,) making out in the back like a couple of horny teenagers. Colin's pretty sure he's never had this much fun in a movie theater before.
Bradley’s lips are softer than Colin imagined they would be and his tongue mercilessly seeks out all the spots Colin didn’t even know would make him go crazy. Colin fists his hands in Bradley’s shirt and clings to him for a while, overwhelmed and more than a little excited. After a while though his hands start moving and find Bradley’s hair, they tangle in there as Colin runs his tongue over Bradley’s teeth, humming softly in contentment.
Bradley keeps shifting closer and closer until Colin thinks he might topple over any moment. Bradley’s hands soon find their way under Colin’s shirt; scratching, soothing and grabbing whatever skin they can reach.
When the lights go back on they get a couple of weird glares from the people leaving the cinema; Colin can’t really care when Bradley’s hands are still up his shirt (warm and familiar by now) -his lips red and swollen from the way Colin has been sucking on them.
“I like you,” Colin blurts out, “I really really like you. A lot.”
Bradley grins and leans back in, sucking on Colin’s bottom lip softly.
“Want to come home with me and… meet my flat mate?” Colin swallows nervously, “’Cause my back’s sort of killing me and your coworkers are staring at us.”
“They are?” Bradley grins, but doesn’t bother turning his head to check.
“Yeah,” Colin says, “They’ve started waving.”
“I guess we’ll leave then.”
From then on Colin starts spending a lot less time in the cinema and a lot more time in front of a television screen with a DVD and his boyfriend. He doesn't even mind that they don't even finish most of the movies they start watching.
Notes
[x] Title from the song All the pretty girls by fun; which I found in an awesome Bradley/Colin mix. If you're interested you can check out the fanmix here.
[x] The movies: A Christmas Carol | Avatar | Nine | Sherlock Holmes | Where the wild things are | Did you hear about the Morgan's?
[x] Yeah, I did choose that last movie because of the obvious, lame reference.
[x] Comments make me go insane with happiness; (they also make me write more, faster!)
Author: slowdead
Pairing: Bradley/Colin
Rating: R
Genre: AU, fluff, romance
Word count: ~3.700
Disclaimer : This never ever happened, Colin and Bradley belong to themselves and this is pure AU. I’m also not making any money with this.
Summary: I got this request; Setting: first-time meeting; AU, where Bradley works in a cinema and Colin is a movie-critic for his college newspaper. However since he's fallen for Bradley, Colin's kinda forgotten that he's supposed to review only some of the movies, and not every last one of them. And I got bonus points if I could fit a popcorn fight and as many currently showing/upcoming new movies titles. I hope I did it justice!
Notes: Written for roguemouse because she’s awesome and I love her. (There are no spoilers for movies in this fic.)
Bradley works in the movie theater almost every night except for Mondays and Tuesdays. At first he worked in the popcorn stand but recently he’s been either selling tickets or appointing people to their seats. The cinema he works in offers all the new movies for a decent prize and since it’s close to the University for Arts it attracts a lot of college students.
Bradley’s always polite and he always smiles. Bradley’s smile is really honest and totally goofy; his teeth aren’t completely straight and Colin sometimes can’t think anymore when he’s staring at them.
And for some strange reason Colin has found himself falling head over heels for this guy he only knows by name because he wears a name-tag.
Colin is fucked, he knows he’s fucked. He’s never been in love in his twenty years on this planet and now his hormones decide to make his body do strange things whenever he’s around the guy who sells him his cinema tickets.
Colin likes to think he’s fairly level-headed and so he tells Katie that he probably isn’t even in love. How can he know what that feels like anyway if he’s never felt it before? There’s just no way to be sure. Katie just smirks and shakes her head before she starts singing Colin and Bradley, sitting in a tree…
They don’t really talk that much, except for a please and a thank you whenever Colin buys a ticket. And every week Colin goes to the cinema with a plan to say something so witty and smart that Bradley will want to get to know him immediately; because he just said the most interesting thing anyone in the world has ever said to Bradley.
But then he’s looking in those blue eyes and all he can do is sheepishly utter the title of the movie he wants to see that week.
This week is no different and instead of the lame: ”How about that snow, huh?” Colin had been practicing the whole tube ride to the cinema, he finds himself mumbling: “A Christmas carol, please.”
“One?” Bradley asks. Colin nods solemnly, disappointed in himself but determined not to let his failure ruin this once-in-a-week chance he has of being around Bradley for about a minute or so.
“You know,” Bradley says suddenly, “Girls love this sort of thing, it’s a great movie to take a date to or something.”
Oh no. Colin doesn’t want Bradley to think that he’s one of those sad loners who never goes out on a date and who is forced to watch movies along because he has no friends. Colin has friends.
“Oh, I’m not here to watch the movie.” Colin blurts out quickly. Wait that’s not right. “Well no, I am here for the movie, of course, but I’m writing a review for my university’s newspaper.” He quickly adds. “A date would just… distract me.”
And fine, so maybe he is one of those people who never goes on dates, that doesn’t mean Bradley needs to know this.
Bradley, who’d been looking at him in mild amusement, suddenly completely lights up. “You’re a movie critic?” He asks, “That’s so awesome.” And there’s that goofy grin again, and for a moment Colin can’t breathe.
Colin’s never been called awesome before. (He likes to pretend Bradley said: “You’re so awesome Colin Morgan,” instead of just praising what he does. It works strangely well.) He watches A Christmas Carol in a daze.
It’s his mistake to tell Katie as soon as he gets home, he can see the train wreck happening before he’s finished telling her how Bradley called him amazing. Because instead of laughing she’s just smiling; not a happy smile though, a sort of Oh poor Colin I pity you so smile.
Colin’s smile falters and he points at her: “Don’t start.”
“I wasn’t… I’m -that’s great, Colin.” She says, smiling a more honest smile now. It doesn’t make him feel any better though.
The next week Colin is too busy trying to think of something to say to Bradley that’ll make him call Colin awesome again that he almost misses the opening he’s given. “Excuse me?” He asks, feeling like a complete ass for not listening.
“Avatar,” Bradley repeats, “Great choice, it’s a great movie.”
“Oh, yeah.” Colin says, staring down at the ticket Bradley just gave him, “It wasn’t really my first choice though.”
“Yeah?” Bradley asks, giving Colin his change.
“Whenever movies get called the next best thing I get a little worried.” Colin says.
Bradley shakes his head and smiles, “Well, it might still surprise you.”
Colin wants to say more, wants to ask Bradley why he liked the movie, wants to ask him if he has a girlfriend (or maybe a boyfriend,) wants to ask him where he lives and if he likes his job (and yeah about a hundred other things.) But then the man waiting in line behind him gives a soft cough and Bradley’s started looking a little uncomfortable so Colin just grabs his tings and leaves with a short nod.
The movie isn’t what Colin had been expecting (at all) which is, in this case, a good thing. In all honesty the worst thing about it are the loud teenagers in the theater, (that’s exactly why he always goes to the last screening, but apparently even that doesn’t always protect him from noise.)
Colin leaves the t with a head full of sentences; Whenever he’s just seen a movie he’s always full of inspiration for his articles. He usually doesn’t go to bed on movie nights until he’s already written down at least a first version of the article. He doesn’t take notes during the movie like some others movie-critics do, (he thinks it’s a little disrespectful and it makes you miss too much of the movie anyway.) Colin does usually scribbles down notes during the tube ride home though, when everything’s still fresh in his memory, but a particularly clever opening sentence lodges it’s way in Colin’s brain and so he sits down in the foyer and digs out his notepad.
That probably wasn’t the best idea though because before he knows what’s happening he’s writing down whole parts of the article already and he really should do that at home on his laptop, his hand’s starting to cramp up a little already. Colin’s just about to put his stuff away when someone comes to stand in front of him.
“So, how did you like it?”
Colin looks up and gulps. He recovers fast enough though: “Uhm, I actually really liked it.”
Bradley grins, smug; and all of a sudden his smile doesn’t look that goofy anymore. “Ah, I told you, didn’t I.” He says.
“Yeah.” Colin agrees, dumbly.
“You know, I thought movie critics were supposed to be free of all prejudice?”
Colin chuckles, “Uhm, well what can I say? We’re only human so I guess that’s inevitable…”
Bradley seems to think about that, stares down at Colin for a moment, “I still think you got to work on that, mate.” He nods.
Colin, as on automatic, nods back. “Yeah, I’ll try.”
Colin goes home but doesn’t tell Katie how Bradley sought him out after the movie and came to voluntarily talk to him while Colin wasn’t even giving him money or anything. He’s pretty sure Katie would twist it around to make it seem like Colin’s still delusional (which he knows he is, he just doesn’t need Katie pointing it out in vicious ways.) He simply kisses her cheek goodnight and gets to writing.
Colin really can’t help but go back a couple of days later to see Nine. He wasn’t exactly told to go and see Nine but even though he liked Avatar he still thinks Nine could be more appropriate for the students (not counting the visual effects guys,) since it deals with directors and actors.
The things is really, Colin won’t know which one is more appropriate until he’s seen both movies, won’t he? And that way he can present the newspaper both articles and then they can choose for themselves. Everybody likes a little initiative in their writers, right?
“It’s not Sunday today, right?” Bradley chuckles.
“Oh no, it’s Tuesday...” Colin says lamely. An uncomfortable feeling that maybe he could get caught or something starts spreading through his belly. “I need to do two movies this week.” And he isn’t sure why he said that, why he lied (like he’d been lying to himself) when he could have just told the truth and said that he’s been wanting to see Nine from the moment he heard about it; that he’s just a film student watching a movie tonight.
But then that dateless-loser idea comes up again and Colin liked it better when Bradley thought him reviewing movies was pretty awesome.
Colin always thought that people who work in a cinema have at least a little interest in movies and everything that has to do with it; but with Bradley it’s something else entirely. He talks to Colin about the movie, they talk about Rob Marshall and all the actors in the movie; and then they start talking about other movies and other directors and Colin’s just never met anyone before who can keep up with him when it comes to that kind of stuff and who can look pretty while doing so.
By the time Colin gets home that night his head is so full and he feels so inspired that instead of a news paper article he writes a 5.000 word paper for one of his classes about Nine and the history behind the movie.
“He’s blonde, has blue eyes and he’s the guy who sells Colin movie tickets. He works at the source;” Katie tells Angel, “Of course Colin’s got a crush on him.”
Colin glares at Katie.
“Aw, but I think that’s really cute Colin.” Angel tells him.
Colin flushes slightly, “I’m not sure cute is what I’m trying to go for here.”
“No,” Katie tells Angel, “Lately he’s going for sexy; he spends the money he should be spending on our groceries buying clever shirts.”
“Clever shirts?” Angel asks in a tone that suggests that she knows she shouldn’t.
“Yeah,” Colin says, “They say: Bite me, Katie.”
“No, that’s not what they say.” Katie shakes her head, “They say: Bite me, Bradley. But in a sexy way.”
And that’s the reason he’ll never ever take any of his friends to go and see a movie with him in that cinema.
“Sherlock Holmes,” Bradley repeats after Colin. “Ah lucky you, I haven’t got the chance to see it yet; I hear it’s great.”
“Oh, well, I’m just here to laugh at Robert Downey junior’s accent.” Colin jokes.
Bradley grins, “I bet he did a marvelous job though.”
“Yeah,” Colin agrees, “You should sneak in once the movie starts and watch it with me.” Oh wow, he did not just say that.
“Ah, I wish I could,” Bradley says, “But I’m still on the clock; this might surprise you but there are actually camera’s everywhere in this place, keeping an eye on the staff.”
“Very big brother,”
“I don’t even know why I still work here,” Bradley says, but he’s full on grinning by now, “Well except for all the free movies. And popcorn.”
“You get popcorn?” Colin asks incredulous.
“All I can eat, mate.”
“Maybe I should fill out an application or something.” Colin says.
“Oh yeah,” Bradley’s grin turns softer, “You’d fit right in!”
Colin gets sick but comes back the next day anyway, he doesn’t think sitting at home with nothing to do would help him get better sooner anyway. Besides, he brought enough Kleenex with him and he’s fairly certain he won’t get anyone sick as long as he sits a couple of meters away from the other cinema-goers.
He approaches Bradley’s register and Bradley gives him the biggest grin Colin has ever seen. Colin actually stops walking for a second, thinks about turning around and checking if there’s someone else in the foyer with them, but then figures that even if there was someone else he still got there first and therefore should be helped first.
The smile is for Colin though, and Bradley holds something up for Colin to see.
“Huh,” Colin stares down at the paper, “My article on Sherlock Holmes.”
Bradley grins, “Yeah, my sister’s a student at UL so I asked her to bring me a copy of their paper, but you weren’t in it so I explained her how you write movie reviews and she, my sister is very rude by the way, called me an idiot and said you were probably a student of the University for Arts.”
Colin nods dumbly, can’t keep the smile of his face.
“So I told her to go get me a copy of that one and so I read your article and mate, you’re really very good, you never told me!”
“Yeah? You thought it was good?” Colin asks, happy.
“It’s very good, you’re a lot wittier on paper than in person you know.” But Colin knows he’s just teasing, and even if he wasn’t that would still be okay.
“Wait,… you went through all that trouble just to read my article?” Colin asks.
“Aha, no see, this is the brilliance of my plan: I made my sister go through all that trouble.” And he’s grinning like that again, in that smug way that makes Colin unsure whether he likes polite/sweet Bradley more or mischievous/evilish Bradley. (There’s no denying that the evil one is incredibly sexy.)
A couple of days later he goes to see Where the wild things are.
This is beginning to become problematic but he just can’t seem to be able to stay away. He’s already written three articles for the newspaper this week, a newspaper which is actually not being published for the next couple of weeks since it’s Christmas break. As he’s said before: he’s fucked.
And for the first time since this started Colin feels a burst of regret over lying to Bradley. But then Bradley grins at him and throws a hand full of popcorn at him as he walks up to the popcorn stand and all Colin can feel anymore is regret and raw want.
It’s also the first time since they’ve started talking that Colin goes home without a smile on his face, and with a heavy heart instead.
Bad things always come in threes, that’s what they say right? After burning his toast and getting a flat tire that afternoon Colin is now staring at a redheaded girl who’s holding out her hand to take his ticket.
“Uhm…” he starts, but he’s fairly certain there’s no way he could ask what he’s been dying to without looking like the biggest loser ever. (Why the hell isn’t Bradley here?)
So instead Colin just keeps quiet and hands his ticket over, looking back one more time to see if maybe Bradley’s walking around doing some other job or something.
“I hope you enjoy the movie, sir.” The girl says as she lets Colin in the theater; he doesn’t even have it in him to do anything but grunt in return.
Colin has been feeling increasingly bad about this whole Bradley-situation. At first he’d thought it was really cool to see the person he liked so much whenever he went to see a movie. But then little by little it hadn’t been enough anymore and even though Bradley keeps talking to him more and more (which should make Colin happy,) Colin just keeps expecting more and more.
Even though he knows he’ll never get more.
Katie has started telling him off, saying people have to take chances in life and all those things best friends/flat mates are supposed to say when you’re pouting around all day long (even on your birthday.) But maybe she’s right…
“Didn’t take you for a Hugh Grant guy.”
Colin startles so badly that he almost bucks out of his seat and spills some of his popcorn on the way.
“Can I sit down?” Bradley asks and all Colin can do is nod dumbly.
Bradley wipes the popcorn off of the seat and sits down. Bradley isn’t wearing his uniform, but a pair of jeans and a red shirt instead. He looks pretty stunning. “Hi,” Bradley says, smiling warmly.
“Hi,” Colin repeats, wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans. “You’re not working today?”
“No,” Bradley says, “Took the day of to go on a date.”
“Oh.” Colin says. He thinks about asking how it went, but then again he really doesn’t want to hear about Bradley’s girlfriend. Colin picks at a small feather on his scarf. Colin isn’t sure how it got there, maybe from Katie’s special goose feather pillow, or maybe just from his coat or something-
“Colin,” Bradley interrupts Colin's thinking, “I just have to ask. Are you usually this slow or are you trying extra hard with me?”
“I’m…” Colin starts, but shuts his mouth again soon. He’s not sure he understands.
“Or do you think I’m particularly slow? It’s not nice to think that of people just because they’re working in a cinema instead of going to college, Colin.”
Colin stares.
“You’re not really watching Did you hear about the Morgan’s for your job, right? Just like you weren’t watching>Where the wild things are for school, right? And by the way, isn’t your university on break now?”
Colin is still pretty much rendered speechless, he simply gapes and prays that he’s dreaming. (Although most of his dreams about Bradley turn out a lot less horrible than this conversation.)
After another couple of moments of silence Bradley’s grin falters a little and he asks again: “Right?” Not that he gives Colin any time to answer though. Instead he leans forward and kisses Colin’s lips softly.
Maybe Colin is dreaming after all.
Bradley pulls back (way too soon) and the only thing Colin can do is produce a little disappointed groan.
“Right?” Bradley prods again and only now does Colin realize that he hasn’t actually said anything since Bradley sprung this all on him.
And now Bradley’s sitting there next to him, Colin's lips still tingling from the way Bradley just kissed him, and… Bradley’s starting to look quite worried. Colin realizes that he has to save things and so he nods, quickly, and whispers Yeah, yeah before leaning in and pressing his lips again Bradley’s.
And then the lights go out.
It takes a while for Colin to realize that he’s indeed opened his eyes again; and that they’re indeed still in a public place that likes to screen movies in exchange for money.
Colin stares at Bradley’s face -watching the lights of the screen bouncing off of them- and thinks about what it would be like to run his tongue over those teeth.
They sit there staring at each other, and grinning, for most of the previews. At some point Bradley sits back in his seat though and so Colin follows lamely (and somewhat disappointed that he can’t keep looking at Bradley’s smile.) And while he’s thinking about things that are disappointing right now anyway, being in the cinema instead of somewhere (anywhere really) where they can be alone is high up on that disappointing-things list right now. But then Bradley takes Colin’s hand and entwines their fingers; Colin doesn’t even remember what the word disappointing means.
The movie starts and suddenly Bradley’s leaning over, whispering in Colin’s ear: “Why didn’t you ever tell me, or ask me out or something. You’re so passive.”
Colin feels himself going red again, he keeps staring at the screen but Bradley’s not budging from his side so finally he mutters: “Because… I didn’t think you were interested.”
Bradley snorts and whispers: “So you are slow, or maybe just not very observant…” and with every word his lips slide over Colin’s ear. Colin shudders.
“You could have asked me out too, you know.” Colin says, because he needs to say something. (And why does he need to say something? Because he really needs Bradley to whisper in his ear and rub that thumb over his wrist again.)
“I wanted to be very sure.” Bradley whispers back, “And I needed to plan this and get the day off and everything.”
Colin turns his head, his lips millimeters from Bradley’s, when someone behind them starts yelling at them to be quiet.
Bradley pulls Colin out of his seat and to the back row of the movie theater; Colin’s stuff forgotten and left behind.
They spend the rest of the movie (which is about 100 minutes,) making out in the back like a couple of horny teenagers. Colin's pretty sure he's never had this much fun in a movie theater before.
Bradley’s lips are softer than Colin imagined they would be and his tongue mercilessly seeks out all the spots Colin didn’t even know would make him go crazy. Colin fists his hands in Bradley’s shirt and clings to him for a while, overwhelmed and more than a little excited. After a while though his hands start moving and find Bradley’s hair, they tangle in there as Colin runs his tongue over Bradley’s teeth, humming softly in contentment.
Bradley keeps shifting closer and closer until Colin thinks he might topple over any moment. Bradley’s hands soon find their way under Colin’s shirt; scratching, soothing and grabbing whatever skin they can reach.
When the lights go back on they get a couple of weird glares from the people leaving the cinema; Colin can’t really care when Bradley’s hands are still up his shirt (warm and familiar by now) -his lips red and swollen from the way Colin has been sucking on them.
“I like you,” Colin blurts out, “I really really like you. A lot.”
Bradley grins and leans back in, sucking on Colin’s bottom lip softly.
“Want to come home with me and… meet my flat mate?” Colin swallows nervously, “’Cause my back’s sort of killing me and your coworkers are staring at us.”
“They are?” Bradley grins, but doesn’t bother turning his head to check.
“Yeah,” Colin says, “They’ve started waving.”
“I guess we’ll leave then.”
From then on Colin starts spending a lot less time in the cinema and a lot more time in front of a television screen with a DVD and his boyfriend. He doesn't even mind that they don't even finish most of the movies they start watching.
Notes
[x] Title from the song All the pretty girls by fun; which I found in an awesome Bradley/Colin mix. If you're interested you can check out the fanmix here.
[x] The movies: A Christmas Carol | Avatar | Nine | Sherlock Holmes | Where the wild things are | Did you hear about the Morgan's?
[x] Yeah, I did choose that last movie because of the obvious, lame reference.
[x] Comments make me go insane with happiness; (they also make me write more, faster!)