Chapter Text
Chapter 8
When the bell rang and Martin finally had come back to the teachers' lounge, Benedict had prepared an amazingly looking lunch with about everything Mr. Freeman enjoyed. He had cut everything necessary into pieces and put it in small bowls and on plates, which almost made it look like a tapas. "Would this satisfy your needs?" He grinned slightly before he crossed his legs.
“Holy sh- when did you have time to do all this shit man?!" Martin gaped at the food before he turned his head back at Ben again. “Stunning.” He slowly sat down as he blinked a few times.
"When I left your room I had 20 minutes left to buy this and came back with 5 minutes left. In that time I cut everything and awaited your arrival. And as always no meat at all, unlike last time I tried to be kind.." He chuckled slightly and too had a look at his food, although he had studied it while waiting for him.
“Alright, alright Sherlock. I get the idea, but really, as always you overdid it." Mr. Freeman chuckled shortly but quickly started to eat, this all definitely looked too good.
"Only the best for the biggest prick I know." He grinned and ate a bit of it as well but mostly kept looking at how Martin enjoyed it.
“Yeah right. So have you thought about when you're going to move in?” He usually would look at him with a bit of a grin on his face; however this time he looked quite serious. He had been waiting a long time for him to move in, but Benedict never seemed to really be wanting to do it or so. He might not be ready yet, although Martin has waited for more than 1 year already.
"You nagger." He grinned and took an olive. "You know what, I bloody will move in with you. Tomorrow after school I'll be on your doorstep with loads of crap and we'll see if you still enjoy my company that much when I'm around you all. the. time." He had a slight smirk playing on his face as he sipped from his tea.
“As long as you bring everything with you. We’re not going to move back and forth. I’m sure your mother will be pleased."
"Oh come on, you know her. She'd hug me 5 minutes non-stop, crying and all."
“Can I film it? Oh we were watching baby pics last weekend by the way. I can't believe she kept them from me for two years." Martin took a sip from his tea. “Anyways, I'll clean my house if it's that necessary at all. Unlike lazy-ass Armitage I do take care of my house."
"She showed you those?! Oh that's deeply embarrassing.. And no you cannot film it." Ben chuckled and nodded. "He should've stayed with his parents, they could teach him to clean up again." He grinned a bit again.
“Richard staying with his parents.. I bet he rather chases some cute bloke's ass , I don't know, but to me he seems a bit of a fuck around. I feel sorry for lee" Martin mumbled before he ate again.
"I heard something interesting, tell me more." Ian walked in and looked surprised at the food. "How lovely, you guys prepared lunch for me!" He chuckled and took an olive from the table before he put it in his mouth. "Very tasty, which one of you picked the olives?"
Martin facepalmed but laughed. “I should have known the moment I said ass" He looked at Ian and gestured to Ben. “He did, handsome and a good cook.. or well yeah, you know what I mean.”
“Something definitely smells delicious in here." He too walked in and it only was a matter of seconds before he too snatched an olive.
"A very fine taste you've got Mr. Cumberbatch,” Ian’s gaze turned over the table with food. “but just to be sure, I need to.." He took a thin slice of bread and put a piece of French cheese onto it before he took a bite from it. "Hmm oh definitely sure!" He fed the other piece to Stephen and sat down beside Martin. "Of course we don't want to interrupt your little lunch, but you were talking about Mr. Armitage and quite a bit happened from the reactions of everyone at school, am I wrong?"
“Oh very, very fine indeed.." Stephen sat down beside Ben after he got a coffee for himself and Ian. “I heard he did a little gobble in here."
The others slightly startled at Richard’s sudden arrival when the man basically interrupted Stephen’s sentence. “I didn't gobble in here and could we all just drop the subject please? You're all putting Mr. Pace off, the poor sod just came here at his second day." Richard mumbled, obviously looking quite cranky. He also nearly kicked a chair in two when he burned his hand on the coffee.
“Well, I arrested your bandits and brought them to the big boss." Martin followed Richard’s movements with his eyes while eating further non-stop.
"Why is Lee so affected by it? He seemed like quite a strong man to me and being in a relationship is only something to celebrate, isn't it?"
“We’re not in a relationship!" Richard now slammed down his mug. “I didn't pleasure myself here and I just had coffee with him cause it was his first day; for the records, I only dropped him off at his place.” He gave all of them a serious look before he walked out.
Ian shared a look with Stephen to get a confirmation of what he thought the reason was why Lee was upset about. When both without a word had confirmed it, he got up. "I'll have a word with him, enjoy your lunch." He smiled friendly and followed Richard. "Mr. Armitage, I'm very sorry for putting you off like this. You know it wasn't my intention t.." He looked surprised as he heard Lee in the bathroom and even more when he saw the man walk out in sports clothes.
"I think they fit perfectly don't worry about it." Lee said a bit louder and made sure everything fit well before he walked out and looked surprised at Mr. McKellen as well. "Good.. Afternoon?"
Richard stared at Ian, tiredness shown in his eyes. He rubbed his face for a moment as he shook his head. “It's not your fault, these kids just: they never stop." He sighed and looked at Lee as well before he faced Ian again. “I'm going to take him out for a run, he could use some distraction, and as do I." He let his gaze return to Lee now. “Ready to go then?"
"I'm sure that'll do both of you well, have fun alright?" Ian gave both of them a smile and walked back to the others again.
“Yep, ready. And we will." Lee walked out with him. Together they ran in quite a relaxed tempo, both too tired to speed it up.
“Everything alright?" Stephen leaned backwards in his chair, obviously being curious about their current situation, since Martin has been having quite a hard time.
Ben gave Martin a look and just nodded slowly. "Yes. We're both fine, apart from the fact that the children are terrible today. You?"
“Ben is moving in with me tomorrow." Martin gave him a look and grinned as he munched from a piece of bread.
“Really! Well that was about time wasn't it.” Stephen gave Ian a smile when the man had returned.
“Did I hear that correctly? Oh congratulations!" Ian sat down again and took a sip of his coffee. "What does your mother think of it Ben?" He chuckled slightly and crossed his legs.
Martin chuckled as he heard Ian his words and gave Benedict an amused glare. “I told him she would be really pleased."
"It seriously sounds like you all visit her daily, creeps." Ben chuckled and put some pesto on his bread before he ate it. He held his hand before his mouth as he spoke further with a slight smirk on his face. "I think it'll break her heart."
“She contacts me daily, so in fact she is the creep?” His smile didn’t really disappear, and as the matter of fact it only got worse when he continued. “I wanted to film it but Ben said I couldn't.” He now continued with an obviously sarcastic tone in his voice. “I don't understand why not?”
“Shame indeed.. Say darling, what time is tonight arranged?" Stephen had the need to know it right now and didn’t really care whether the others knew it or not. He was looking forward to it.
"Oh I wrote that down somewhere.. Give me a moment!" He grabbed his bag and took out his notebook, then he flipped through a few pages. “Ehmmm… 8 PM, though he promised me he had all evening and night in case we'd want to re-schedule it."
“Good, they say he's one of the best." Stephen now gave the other 2 a look before he smiled a bit as well. “How old did you say he was?"
Martin frowned at Stephen and stopped eating, already feeling quite full, although he wished he could eat it all. “How old is who? What are you up too this time?"
"Yes Mr. And Mr. Gossip, tell us more about your little adventure." Benedict chuckled and leaned on the palm of his hand.
"42 if I'm not mistaking.." He shared another look with Stephen while giggling slightly, as if Ben and Martin didn’t exist.
“Oh very nice and young indeed at least I don't feel entirely like a pervert.” Stephen broke the eye contact to look back at the others. “But if you boys must know, we hired a gigolo for tonight, what was his name again.. Blue panther, right?"
"Something like that yes.. I believe I've still got his card, thanks to that bloke who gave it to me in the pub." Ian started searching in his bag.
“Something with a colour.." He tried to look into Ian’s bag as well but chuckled when he noticed the other two were staring at them in surprise and perhaps confusions as well.
"Ah here it is, it wasn't an animal. Royal blue is his name."
“Let me see that dear.” Stephen grabbed the card and frowned. “Your eyes need to be checked once again.. It says Royal black."
"Love you too, I’m not wearing my glasses that makes it unfair. Show me again." He took his glasses out of the collar of his vest and put them on.
“See? Here: royal black." Stephen pointed at the name when he handed over the card and grabbed another olive after that.
“Ah right.. Well at least I was close." He put the card back in his bag and looked back at Ben and Martin. "We'll tell you how it went in case you guys are curious."
“I don't think we want to know such things about our own colleagues." Martin kept frowning slightly although it was quite interesting for him to hear that from them.
"Just tell us whether he was good or not that's all we need." Ben chuckled slightly and finished the last piece of bread.
“Obviously he can't be as good as me." Martin heaved up his chest a bit but also laughed when Stephen burst out in laughter.
"Oh yes! I mean definitely. You should become one and beat that guy with your skills, I'll join you!" Benedict now laughed as well and shook his head a few times.
"I definitely would pay to see that!" Ian laughed only more until he tried to catch his breath and after that, he drank up his coffee.
“Now wait, I need a pimp.. So you'll have to be mine, hm?" Martin looked at Ben once and he finished his tea.
“I would even give up some real gold for that." Stephen chuckled and stood up. “Time to continue the lessons, the sooner done the better.”
"The bell will always ring the same time darling, whether we arrive there 5 minutes too early or too late." Ian smiled, closed his bag and got up. "Pleasure talking to you guys, see you tomorrow probably, Stephen and I will directly head home after our courses." They left together and went home together. After dinner they started preparing themselves for their visitor.
"What about some champagne? I'd like to spoil him a bit." Ian chuckled and grabbed a bottle of champagne which they have kept for a long while already but never dared to open.
Stephen tried to lighten the mood more by making it more of a romantic atmosphere and grinned over his shoulder at Ian. “Go ahead, maybe he'll be more willing to do more than what we pay for if he had a few drinks." He hummed as he checked if everything was in place. “I wonder how he'll look like."
"Next time we'll let Benedict come over and prepare a tapas for us and our Royal black.." He chuckled and had a look at his phone after he sat down on their couch.
“Those indeed were delicious. Martin is a lucky twat, good thing he knows it though." Stephen grinned but hopped up when the doorbell rang. “He's here!"
"You go get him tiger, I know you want to." Ian sat more up and quickly grabbed 3 champagne glasses from a closet which stood beside the couch.
The tall man in front of the door took a deep breath after he took calming pill which he always used before doing this. He patiently waited patiently for the door to open up.
“Very well dear." Stephen tiptoed to the front door, frowning a bit when he saw a familiar face, one that seemed really startled. “Richard, what are you doing here?"