#plum holiday binge write day 1

[petitloup]

Down With Love

12 DAYS OF WHATEVER HOLIDAY YOU CELEBRATE SEASON IS actually late because I had PhD applications to submit but I’M MAKING TODAY DAY 1 so here is a nurseydex ficlet for you all!

Nursey recognizes Dex’s steps before he reaches their door, and makes a spur of the moment decision to leave his music on.

“Dude, are you… is that Judy Garland?”

Nursey has spent the better part of the afternoon lying in bed. Exams are over, his papers are in, all that’s left is Winter Screw, and Nursey is dateless. So he’s made the executive decision to put on some of the stuff his moms play around the house and just chill.

“Yeah bro. Love that woman.” Nursey can’t see Dex’s face from where he’s lying with his eyes closed on his bed, but he can hear the judgmental silence. “Why, you hating on my girl Judy?”

“Where am I? What year is it?”

The questions seem rhetorical, but Nursey cracks one eye open to glance up at his roommate. Dex looks mystified, squinting at the phone on Nursey’s beside table.

“Down With Love?”

“It’s my hashtag mood right now, brah. I’m over it with dating. It’s no bueno. I’m not doing it anymore. Judy’s wild though and as a gay icon, I feel justified taking her advice.”

“Oh.”

Nursey blinks up at Dex, who appears to be struggling with something.

“What’s with the face?” He starts to say, but Dex cuts him off.

“But Winter Screw is coming up.”

“Uh, yeah,” Nursey says, feeling lost, “and I don’t really want to spend it with someone I don’t know and don’t like.”

Dex snorts a laugh, “Yeah, your date last year was kind of shit, wasn’t it?”

“Like you don’t know. Who was it walking back to the dorms early with me after Mark got kicked out?”

“The rest of the night was decent,” Dex shrugs, and Nursey scowls up at him.

“You’re only saying that because you beat me three times at Mario Kart.”

Dex smirks at him. “Rematch this year?”

Nursey laughs, and then sighs. “Yeah, probably. At least it’ll give me something to look forward to.”

Coat hung up and bag draped across his chair, Dex runs a hand over the back of his head and glances at Nursey, looking apprehensive. “So what’s with the new dating theme?” He eyes the phone again. “I thought you were going out with that chick in your lit class today?”

In the background, Judy Garland is throwing shade.

Down with eyes romantic and stupid,

Down with sighs, down with Cupid,

Down with love, take it away away!

Nursey props himself up and shrugs a shoulder. “It was fine, but I wasn’t that into it.” He’s not really sure how much information to give here. Dex rarely asks about his dating life, usually he just purses his lips and nods if it comes up, says something like “have fun,” and then fucks off to class or wherever computer nerds go to get shit done. Nursey knows he pays attention enough that there’s a pattern. If the date went badly, they always end up watching Stranger Things or Sense8 together later, knees bumping against each other and plates of pie in their laps.

He also knows that if the date goes well, Dex is nowhere to be seen. Presumably so he doesn’t have to hear about just how well it went. Nursey figures that’s just the way he is. Dex is kind of a weird dude, old fashioned or whatever. So if he doesn’t want to hear about hookups, that’s his business.

But now, Dex is asking.

“Right,” Dex nods, “so now you’re going to Screw alone?”

“I guess. Pretty sure everyone else has a date.” Nursey wonders where this is going.

Dex flushes slightly, and that’s not unusual – Dex blushes so easy that finding new ways to turn their resident lobster-boy red is practically a team bonding activity  – but it wasn’t even an embarrassing statement.

“Do you not have a date?” Nursey asks, curiosity getting the better of him. “Because brah, you should have said something earlier. I could totally hook you up with someone. That girl, Katie, in my bio lab is going alone. Do you like blondes?”

Dex is getting progressively redder, and Nursey sits up completely to watch.

“I don’t want a date,” Dex says quickly, then makes a face. “I mean, I don’t – it’s just. It’s like you said. I don’t want to go with someone I don’t know and then have a shitty time.”

Nursey nods slowly, “Right, exactly. So why the lobster impression?”

In freshman year, the glare he gets would have rubbed him the wrong way, but Nursey just shoots him a lazy grin instead. “Seriously. What’s the sitch?”

“Don’t fucking quote Kim Possible at me you jackass.”

“You’re a redhead, you’re hyper-competent, you could totally pull it off.”

“Fuck off.”

“Nah, I’m good,” Nursey says, flopping back down on his mattress and choosing to drop the line of questioning. If its important, Dex will bring it up eventually. In the meanwhile, Judy’s done her piece, and the playlist has moved on to the next song. He closes his eyes again, and can hear the pause before Dex goes about unpacking his bag, changing into his standard worn-in waffle-knit Henley and sweats.

“Want to watch an episode of something?” Dex says, like clockwork. Nursey sits up and makes space for Dex to sit down.

“Yeah, man. Lemme go grab some pie.”

By the time he gets back upstairs, Dex has their normal set up laid out. Two blankets – they aren’t good at sharing, Dex gets all weird and gives Nursey the whole thing – and two pillows, with Dex’s laptop perched on a chair by the edge of the bed.

The bathroom door opens and Dex steps out, face still slightly pink, grabs a plate from Nursey and settles onto his side of the mattress.

They make it through an episode and a half before Dex speaks again.

“So,” he says, clears his throat, and then starts again. “So if you don’t have a date…” He trails off, and falls totally silent. The episode plays for another minute before Nursey cave.

“If I don’t have a date?”

“Yeah, uh. We could, like. Go together, since I mean. We’re going to end up back here playing Mario Kart together anyways, right? Like you said.”

Nursey needs a moment to parse through that, and isn’t totally sure what he’s looking at.

“Yeah,” he says slowly, “makes sense.”

They’re both quiet. Eleven is on screen, so it should be interesting, but Nursey is distracted.

After another minute or so, Nursey reaches out and presses the spacebar. The sound cuts out.

Probably against his better judgment, Nursey just has to ask. “Poindexter are you asking me to go to Screw with you?” He looks over, and Dex is staring at his pie, his face a bright, flaming red in the light of the screen.

“I mean, that’s not. We don’t have to–”

“No, man, I want to, but I just want to. Make it clear, I guess?”

Dex gnaws on his lower lip for a moment, and looks up at Nursey from under his eyelashes. He seems to notice Nursey’s gaze still fixed on his mouth, because he licks his lips, and then looks a little surprised.

“Yeah. I guess I am.” Dex’s voice is soft and low. “If you want me to, at least.”

Nursey looks between Dex’s eyes for a moment, and then smiles, a small, tentative thing. “Yeah. I guess I do.”

Dex smiles back for a moment, and then his face drops seriously. “Not that there’s anything wrong with Judy Garland,” he says, “but I think I prefer Sinatra’s love songs better. Besides,” he says, reaching forward to hit the spacebar again, “I think Sinatra tried to kill off Woody Allen. He may not be a gay icon, but that’s got to give him some points.”

Nursey bursts out laughing, and leans in a little when Dex sits back. Their shoulders brush. Their knees bump. And Nursey’s got a date to Screw.