#first world problems truly. anyway. a short drabble before i get back to finishing ch5 <3

[johnslittlespoon]

There we go!

Now- John would either be flabbergasted or impressed. I cant really decide. Lmao

bikeriders clip for context | LOL okay when i saw this teaser yesterday, i was thinking about whether leaving!bikeriders au gale would have pulled stuff like that when he was younger, and a scenario immediately popped into my head; here's a little drabble :-)

we've established that when john and gale first starting seeing each other, john's pretty shy regardless of his impulsivity and not–at–all–discreet thirsting over gale. he's probably very respectful of gale's privacy, not prying a lot despite his curiosity when gale dodges certain questions, scared of being 'too much.'

but a few months in (maybe less knowing him), once john starts to figure out what buttons he can push and which ones he shouldn't, and once gale proves to him (many times) that he's not going to blow up at him or leave him when he messes up or they have arguments? it's game on in terms of making himself at home when he's at gale's place, and clinging to gale like a sloth, and being stubborn and nosy and less guarded, etc.

so one day he's at gale's house, and gale unexpectedly ends up busy with something; maybe he has to get on a lengthy phone call with some parts supplier for the shop, or a guy from the club shows up to chat. either way, john's left to entertain himself, and he's come straight to gale's from college so his laptop's dead in his bag and his phone's plugged in at the table charging. he decides to do a little snooping out of pure boredom.

nothing too out of line, and he's not looking for anything in particular, just trying to pass time, but he stumbles across a stack of newspapers in a drawer of gale's bookshelf that are dated back to like a decade and a half earlier, and of course this catches his attention, because people usually don't hold onto newspapers unless there's something interesting in them, right?

he sits himself down cross legged on the floor next to the drawer and pulls out the first paper and begins flipping through, scanning for anything interesting, and then he sees it:

'gale cleven of casper, wyoming was arrested and charged with 18 traffic violations, but not before reportedly running through 7 stoplights, hitting speeds over 85mph in two 20mph school zones, and causing damage to 4 municipal vehicles as a result of the pursuit.'

john reads it over three times with wide eyes, trying to imagine his gale being so reckless. he thinks about the gale that says "safety first" or "helmet on" every time john gets on the back of his motorbike, and the gale that can hardly handle letting john drive his bike around an empty parking lot under his watchful, nervous gaze, and he laughs to himself in disbelief, feeling like he's just stumbled upon a gold mine of information.

but gale walks into the living room, fondly asking "what's got you giggling in here?" before his eyes land on john and his box of papers. john feels guilty for about half a second before he's swept back up in his shock and excitement, waving the newspaper around and exclaiming "eighteen traffic violations? a 2500 dollar bond??" with unbridled glee, cackling at the defeated expression on gale's face.

"john–"

"–municipal vehicles? what, did you hit cop cars?"

"–i left you alone for twenty minutes–"

"–gale, c'mon, you gotta tell me the story now, you can't just leave me hanging!"

"you're the one who went snooping," gale grumbles, but john can tell he's close to caving, so he puts the newspaper back in the box and pulls himself to his feet, bouncing over to gale and placing his hands on his arms to walk him backwards to the couch.

he knows he's won when gale allows himself to be pushed down onto the couch with a resigned sigh, and john grins like a cat that's got the cream as he settles himself in gale's lap, waiting eagerly.

and gale can't even pretend to be mad.