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“You really need to stop you’re worrying,” Mitchell said with a laugh, his face scrunching up in to a childish grin. “You’ll turn grey, and I know how much that would kill you, you vain bastard.”
Anders glared at him from where he was pacing and tried to act offended despite the fact he knew Mitchell was speaking the truth. The cocky twat was sprawled out on the sofa flicking through channels on the TV looking very pleased with himself.
“Everyone looks vain to you Dracula.”
“Just because I look devastatingly handsome in whatever I wear doesn’t mean you have to get snippy.”
Anders knew he had a point; he let his eyes wander across the long length of Mitchell’s body clad in his usual plaid and leather. He even had the fucking gloves on.
Mitchell’s voice was softer this time he spoke. “I know you’re nervous man, but your family ain’t gonna care. They won’t care that you’re screwing a guy, they’re gonna be ecstatic you’ve been screwing the same person for more than a week if anything. Trust me.”
“Trust you? Last time I trusted you I ended up with food poisoning and a tank of dead fish.” Anders spat out the words a little too harshly, but he was still pretty upset about the fish. He loved the little guys.
(In all fairness, Mitchell had gone out the next day and bough him some new fish plus a model coral reef which he’d had his eye on for months. That and the three rounds of phenomenal of make-up sex had gone a long way in helping him to forgive.)
In his musings Anders had missed the vampire cross the room with his unnatural speed and before he knew it there was a pair of skinny arms wrapped around his waist and a bony chin balanced on the top of his head. Anders’ scowl only grew at this, despite the way he secretly loved the way Mitchell held him sometimes, he absolutely hated having his height emphasised.
“My lickle God is scared.” Mitchell crooned, his soft lilting accent drifting down. He elbowed his boyfriend in the stomach and ran into the kitchen.
Laughing at the way Mitchell grimaced slightly at the pain; Anders pulled the garlic out of the cupboard and threw it at the vampire. It hit its target and smacked Mitchell square on the forehead, his face crumpled as well as the rest of his body. He looked over at his unmoving boyfriend for a few moments before realising they hadn’t actually talked about the whole garlic plus vampire issue and whether it had any truth.
“Shit.”
He made his way over as quickly as he could without looking like he was panicking, and kneeled down next to the lanky body.
“Mitchell?” he said tentatively, while poking him in the side repeatedly. “Mitchell?!” he repeated, louder this time - panic starting to trickle in to his voice.
He started shaking Mitchell in earnest, before he started to feel him quiver slightly. Anders immediately thought he was having some sort of fit so he did the only rational thing and backed the hell off and shrieked. That was until he saw the way Mitchell’s face was screwed up not in pain, but from the silent laughs that were wracking his body.
“You dick!” Anders squeaked his voice still high and strained from the panic. “You absolute piece of un-dead shit!”
Mitchell was still laughing, the wanker.
“I can’t believe you thought … the garlic … had got me… you feckin’ idiot.” He managed to say between gasping breaths.
Anders couldn’t help but pout (and kick Mitchell in the shin) “I thought you were seriously hurt!”
At his words Mitchell eventually stopped giggling.
“I’m sorry.” He didn’t look sorry, but the smirk on his face said that the apology didn’t really mean that much but he had other plans for how to make it up to Anders. “Come down here and let me apologise properly.”
He didn’t even have the dignity to look put out; Anders just sank to his knees with a filthy grin and joined his boyfriend on the floor, hoping to forget about what he had to do later that day.
Indeed later that day Anders found himself sitting at the bar at Mike’s anxiously tearing up a coaster while Mitchell sat next to him happily drinking his beer and chatting away to Mike about god knows what. When Mike went upstairs Mitchell turned to him and gave him a pointed look.
“Stop ya feckin’ worrying or I swear to God I’ll dump your prissy arse.” The soft look in his eyes meant that he knew Mitchell was only saying it for effect, but still Anders knew he had a point. He had to get it over and done with.
A few shots of Dutch courage later and Axl, Olaf, Ty and strangely Zeb all ambled in to the bar together. His family (and the tag along) all settled themselves around the bar, helping themselves to drinks. Even though they all knew what Mitchell was no one seemed to act any different around him – how could they when they’d faced more danger from their own kind? Anders was glad they’d just accepted him as his (first ever) best friend. In all honesty Anders suspected they were more shocked about the fact Anders had a friend rather than the whole thing about him basically being a blood sucking corpse.
“What’s so important then Anders?” Mike’s bored voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and he felt his courage draining away as all eyes were on him.
They were never going to stop taking the piss after he told them.
“Um, well.” He started (superbly eloquent – god of poetry his arse) “The thing is I have a confession, a sort of announcement to make.”
He took a deep, shaky breath and tried to assess the situation around him. Olaf was staring at him, or rather staring through him which wasn’t exactly new. Mike looked bored, bordering on pissed off whereas Axl and Ty were the only ones who looked remotely concerned. Even though his focus wasn’t on him Anders was acutely aware of Mitchell’s presence beside him, a fact which slightly comforted him. Again, he took a moment to steady himself before revealing the biggest secret he’d ever held.
“Guys, I like cock.”
For a moment there was a silence so heavy he swore he could feel it closing in around him, or maybe that was just the panic. The silence only lasted a few moments however, before he heard: one snort (Ty), one dramatic sigh (Mike), one clap (Olaf), one laugh (Axl) and then one genuine gasp (Zeb).
“This isn’t news you twat.” Axl managed to say between laughs.
“You don’t have to be an oracle to see that coming.” Olaf added with a small smirk. Anders couldn’t believe it. After all this time, after all of his fucking gay panic and all of the strength it had taken for him to even consider coming – they had known? Where was the justice in that?
Anders spun on his heels with a murderous glare when he heard Mitchell burst out in to a fit of giggles beside him. He didn’t waste any time or thought before pushing his boyfriend off the stool he was precariously balanced on. The vampire either didn’t notice or didn’t care; he was too busy trying to catch his breath.
“You fucking knew? Coming out is supposed to be a big deal you know!” he knew he sounded like a petulant child, but at that moment he couldn’t quite bring himself to care.
Ty had a wicked smile on his face that Anders did not like one bit. “It wasn’t hard to figure out, you know what they say – you are what you eat.”
“And you’ve always been a dick.” Axl finished, looking very pleased with himself. Anders couldn’t even think of a smart reply, he just waved his hands at them and made a very pissed off noise.
“Besides,” Mike who had been unusually quiet until now piped up. “You weren’t exactly subtle with your ‘friend’ over there.”
“Oh my new friend has been kicked out that’s why he’s staying with me in my one bed flat.”
“Oh I’m wearing my new friend’s top? What an embarrassing accident.”
“Oh I just haven’t really been in the mood to hook up with every single woman I see lately ya know?”
“Over compensating? I don’t know the meaning of the word.”
As his family all made fun of him, doing frankly inaccurate and offensive impressions, Anders felt himself giving up. He groaned and put his head on the wooden top of the bar. Stupid insightful family beating him to his own coming out.
Anders had almost forgotten about his hysterical boyfriend when he heard a low Irish voice next to his ears.
“I really like your brothers.”
“I swear to god if you don’t stop giggling I will burn every single pair of your filthy gloves as soon as we get home.” Anders contemplated for a moment before adding. “As soon as we get home and we’ve had a spectacular round of post coming out sex.”
Mitchell laughed loudly once more before grabbing Anders hand and all but dragging him out of the bar. Not before waving goodbye to his new best friends. Anders tried his best to remain pissed off and broody, but as a sense of relief washed over him he couldn’t help but let a small smile spread across his face.
He shouted his goodbyes and left, but not before hearing one last shout from the bar that unmistakably came from Zeb.
“AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS?”