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antilocaprine · 1 year

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Kiss promt 18 frenreylatta

More poly parings!

(Kiss Prompt List)

18. ...as encouragement.

“Okay, okay, okay, shut up,” Gordon says, even though no one else is talking. Benrey watches him out of the corner of his eye from where he’s sprawled across the couch, Switch in hand. He’s glad he had Animal Crossing loaded up before Gordon came barreling in, because it means he’s not getting clobbered by enemies in-game as he tries to keep track of what Gordon’s going on about now.

“We’re, um, we’re listening,” Tommy says from behind the couch. He’d been doing something in the kitchen - and whatever it was, it’s probably good that Gordon distracted him, because it was starting to smell like smoke.

“Okay,” Gordon says again, both hands in his hair. “I just - I know I’m gonna fuck this up somehow.”

“But you, um, you know the whole presentation,” Tommy says.

“Yeah, I do now,” Gordon scoffs. “But as soon as anyone starts asking questions, I’m gonna blow it!”

“So don’t let ‘em ask questions,” Benrey mumbles at his screen. “Easy.”

‘No,” Gordon huffs, pacing in front of the couch. “Not easy! These are the big guys, okay, the mucky-mucks, the - the -”

“The big kahunas?” Tommy suggests, and Gordon points at him.

“Yes! That! I can’t tell them to shut up!”

“Sure y’can,” Benrey shrugs. “Bet no one ever does. They, uh, won’t know what t’do with it.”

Gordon snorts. “They’ll know what to do with me. They’ll fire me.”

“They’re not going to fire you,” Tommy says soothingly, like he’s trying to calm a frantic horse. “They asked you to make the presentation, so that means - that must mean they trust you, and, and they think you’re the best person to do it!”

Gordon buries his face in his hands and groans. Benrey takes the chance to look up and give him a solid once-over. He’s fully dressed, but his suit shirt is wrinkled and he’s still in his socks. His suit jacket and tie are tossed haphazardly over the big easy chair, the one that’s extra wide so two of them can fit in it - or all three, if they balance just right. Benrey glances over the back of the couch and meets Tommy’s worried gaze. Gordon needs to leave in the next fifteen minutes in order to be on time, which means they need to work together to build enough of a scaffolding to hold him up as quickly as they can.

Tommy goes first. Tommy always goes first - he was the one who started this whole thing, watching Gordon and Benrey dance around each other, listening to Benrey whine and letting Gordon complain, both of them always circling back to him until he finally snapped and explained their own feelings to them, and then everything had made perfect sense.

“Mr. Freeman,” Tommy says, and Gordon straightens, because Tommy only calls him that when he’s being serious these days. “Listen. You’re - you’ve got everything you need to, um, to succeed. You have your powerpoint, and you know how to start - how to set it up. If they ask you questions, you know the answers, because you - Mr. Freeman, you know this subject inside and out!”

“Backwards and in high heels,” Benrey mutters as his villager shakes a cherry tree.

Gordon huffs a strained laugh. “I’m no Ginger Rogers.”

“Maybe not,” Benrey hums, glancing up and winking. “But y’got better legs.”

“I - really? I really doubt that,” Gordon scoffs, but his cheeks are pink, so Benrey will take that as a win.

“Gordon, you’re - you’ll do fine,” Tommy says, stepping around the couch and picking up Gordon’s tie from the chair. He slings it over Gordon’s shoulders and loops it under his collar. Gordon heaves a sigh and drops his head to rest on Tommy’s shoulder.

“M’just…really nervous, guys,” he mumbles.

Benrey frowns at Tommy over Gordon’s head. The presentation is important - if the board likes it, they’ll accept Gordon’s team’s project and he’ll get a big bump in pay - but it’s not the end of the world if the board picks another project instead. Gordon won’t actually be out of a job - he’s just being dramatic and stressing out over his own anxieties.

Tommy raises his eyebrows, and Benrey grins and slides his Switch under the couch. There’s really only one good way to quickly get Gordon out of his head when he’s like this.

Benrey rolls off the couch and tackles Gordon, who yelps in surprise and flails as Benrey tips on his heels and collapses back onto the couch.

“What - Benrey!”

Tommy grins down at them and walks around the couch to lean over the back, elbows on the headrest as Gordon kicks in Benrey’s grip. Benrey twists his hips and wraps his legs around Gordon’s. He’s already got one arm in his grip, and when Gordon reaches back to try to dislodge him, he whips his hand around Gordon’s wrist quick as a snake and locks it across his torso.

Gordon subsides, panting. “Really? What are you, an octopus?”

Benrey ducks his head and nuzzles the back of Gordon’s neck. He’s a bit squashed, but he’s sturdy and doesn’t need to breathe as much as the other two. Besides, he likes having the weight of another person grounding him. Or better yet, two people.

“Tommy?”

“Sandwich time?” Tommy grins down at him.

“Tommy - Tommy, no, I don’t - oof!” Gordon huffs as Tommy eels over the back of the couch and flops his long limbs over the both of them, sandwiching Gordon in between.

Benrey sinks further into the cushions under their combined weight, and unlinks his legs from around Gordon’s thighs to hook his heel over the back of Tommy’s legs, tangling them all together. Gordon wheezes and cackles, and Tommy grins down at him and smacks a kiss to his cheek.

“See? You just have to relax, and you’ll be fine,” Tommy says. Benrey buries a smile in the crook of Gordon’s neck where it meets his shoulder. He feels it when the tension bleeds out of Gordon, leaving him boneless as he takes a breath. Tommy rises and falls on top of him as his lungs inflate, then heave out a deep sigh.

“Okay,” Gordon says quietly, and Benrey releases his arms so he can wrap them around Tommy, dragging Benrey’s hands with him, squeezing them into a three-person hug. “All right,” he says, this time into Tommy’s shoulder again. Tommy tucks his chin over Gordon’s shoulder and Benrey tilts his face up to kiss Tommy’s nose. Tommy giggles, and Gordon chuckles as well. Their shaking sends vibrations through Benrey, buried at the bottom of the heap, that feel almost like a purring cat - but a really big one. A tiger or something. Do tigers purr? He’ll look it up later.

“Feel better?” Benrey asks, and Gordon tips his head back onto Benrey’s shoulder and squints at him sideways.

“Annoyingly, yes,” he says. “I hate that this works.”

“You love that this works,” Benrey smirks. “And you love us.”

“Shut up.” Gordon’s ears are flushed red, and Tommy laughs brightly as he rolls off the couch.

“C’mon, up an’ at ’em,” Benrey groans as he heaves Gordon upright. Gordon’s socks skid on the carpet, but Tommy catches and balances him as Benrey unfolds himself from the dent in the couch cushions. They got an extra-big, extra-springy one on purpose, though. It’ll be fine.

Benrey grabs Gordon’s jacket and Tommy runs his hands over Gordon’s shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles. Gordon sighs as he lets Benrey slide the sleeves on, tugging the lapels. Tommy tucks Gordon’s tie in and beams at him.

“You’re gonna kill it, Mr. Freeman,” he chirps, and Gordon chuckles.

“Can I get a kiss for luck?” he asks, glancing between the two of them.

Benrey purses his lips. “Don’t need luck. Everything’ll, uh, go perfect.”

Gordon rolls his eyes “Kisses for encouragement, then?”

Benrey hums and raises his eyebrows at Tommy, who pretends to think it over before nodding decisively.

“I think we can - I think that’s acceptable,” he says, and he and Benrey lean in together. Tommy has to bend down a touch, and Benrey has to go up on his toes to make it work, but they each kiss one of Gordon’s cheeks at the same time.

Gordon is grinning softly when they pull back, and drops his head to kiss Benrey on the lips before tipping his chin up to do the same to Tommy. “Thanks, guys,” he says, sounding much more settled.

“Whatever,” Benrey mumbles, his face hot, and shuffles back over to the couch to retrieve his Switch. Tommy and Gordon laugh, then Gordon looks at his watch and makes a high pitched noise as he darts for the door.

“Don’t worry,” Tommy yells out after him. “You’ll do great!”

Gordon yells something back, but Benrey misses it. That’s probably for the best. Tommy closes the door with a sigh and retreats to the couch. Benrey pulls his legs up as Tommy flops across the cushions.

“He’ll be okay,” he says quietly, “right?”

Benrey glances up at him, then tips over to lean on his shoulder as his character races down a path after a beetle. “Yeah, ‘course,” he says, as reassuringly as he can. “He’ll be fine.”

This is proven true when, three hours later, Gordon slams the door to the apartment open with a shout of “GUESS WHO JUST GOT PROMOTED!”

Benrey whoops, and Tommy cheers from the kitchen, but his shout is shortly followed by a hollow crump of sound and a billow of black smoke. “Oh - oops!”

Gordon drops his arms with a wordless exclamation, then stares as Benrey reaches behind the arm of the couch and hurls a fire extinguisher into the smoke.

“Ow,” Tommy yelps, quickly followed by “Thanks Benrey,” and a hiss of foam.

“Why do I even try?” Gordon sighs, and goes to open the windows. Benrey watches him from the couch.

“‘Cause it’s worth it?” he hazards.

Gordon looks over his shoulder, taking in the thinning smoke, Tommy’s sheepish smudged face emerging from the kitchen doorway, Benrey still lounging motionless on the couch. He smiles ruefully.

“Yeah, you know, it is. It really, really is.”

Tommy hands the empty fire extinguisher to Benrey, who tilts it at an angle to salute him with it before dropping it back on the floor.

“Wait,” Gordon says slowly, stepping away from the open window and squinting at the ceiling. “Why didn’t the smoke alarms go off?”

“Oh, Benrey ate the batteries,” Tommy replies casually as he flaps a dish towel at the remaining wisps of smoke.

“Benrey did WHAT?”

Cackling, Benrey dives off the couch and makes a run for the back of the apartment, Gordon hot on his heels and cursing him viciously. Behind them, Tommy laughs like a sunrise, and Benrey decides that, yeah, whatever else he has to put up with, these two are worth it. This is worth it.

#hlvrai #my words #kiss prompts #snippets #askbox #todaytomorrowgiraff #swearing #frenreylatta #small kitchen explosion #anxiety #i've never written this pairing before so hopefully it felt natural #yes more poly pairings i agree #can it be a pairing if it's more than a pair of people though?#poly groupings #hmm. needs workshopping.#very little proofreading so hopefully there aren't any dumb typos #smart typos are allowed though

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