Archive of Our Own ^beta

Richard, Ezra, and Jules walked into their hotel room. Or stumbled, in the case of Jules. It had been a quiet ride to the hotel after the party. Jules drunk, Richard with a broken hand, Ezra still shell-shocked about his dad’s heart attack, and all of them still coming to grips with what the man - Max - had told them. 

Jules, without further ado, tripped over to the couch and collapsed. Rich heard her soft snoring almost instantaneously. 

“How much did she even drink ?” he asked Ezra jokingly. 

“You were the bartender, you tell me.” 

Richard could tell Ez was out of it. “Hey man,” he said, putting his good arm around the brunet’s shoulders. “I’m real sorry about your dad.”

Ezra nodded. “Thanks, dude.” He pat Rich’s hand absently.

Rich smiled at him - not his movie star smile. Softer, sadder than that. He wasn’t trying to dazzle Ezra anymore. The other man was clearly completely immune to his charms (which was infuriating). He moved his arm and Ezra walked towards the dresser, pulling off his sweater vest. 

“Ez, why do you wear those things? They make you look like your gramps dresses you,” he smirked. 

“I’ll have you know, Ken Doll, that my grandfather’s a very sharp dresser.”

This was what Rich liked about Ezra. The easy banter between them. Ezra would not take any of Rich’s crap. Never did and never would. 

“So you and Maddie…” Rich said softly. 

Ezra kept his back to him but stilled, startled. “She asked me to dance. Asked how I knew about Pottsville. Nothing to be concerned about. I - I can still see Ava in there, but only barely.” His shoulders slumped and he turned to face Rich. “She’s Maddie. Ava may be a small part of who Maddie is, but they’re not the same.” 

The blond nodded. He felt something weird in his gut, like a knot had loosened. He shook his head, trying to lose the thought. “I somehow understand that. Like you always say, keep our lies close to the truth. Maybe all her personas are just different parts of her that she, I don’t know, brings to the surface. None of us got the whole picture of her until now.”

Ezra looked at the floor with a half smile. “We’ve been around each other too long. We actually understand one another.” He started unbuttoning his shirt. 

“Never thought the day would come,” Rich replied with a grin. 

“What about the, uh, the wig thing? How did that go?” 

“Actually? I wasn’t sure I’d pull it off. But I did. I broke up with Alice.” 

“Do you feel better?”

Rich shook his head. “It’s just a slow, continuing thing. Meeting you helped, dumping her helped a little, seeing firsthand just how easily she fakes emotion helped a lot. And hurt a lot.”

Ezra nodded and sat on the bed Richard wasn’t sitting on, facing him so their knees almost touched in the space between the two twin beds. “How… how did I help?”

“Oh, don’t be getting a big head about it now. Just seeing someone else she duped. Someone smart. Made me feel a little less alone. Less pathetic. Not that you’re not pathetic,” he added lamely. 

“Well, meeting you helped me, too. And yes, that did hurt to say,” he said with a smirk. 

Richard rolled his eyes melodramatically. “I bared my soul to you and this is how you repay me? I’m hurt, Ez.” He put his hand to his chest, but forgot it was his bad hand until he had already hit it against his chest. He winced at the pain. 

“Gosh, that Max guy got you good. Let me see that.”

Richard put his hand on Ezra’s. Ezra looked at Rich’s hand carefully, moving it around gently to inspect it. The soft movement made him wince and Ezra looked up. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s ok. I’m fine.” He focused on Ezra’s white undershirt to keep from thinking about his hand. The man was fairly muscled, which was surprising to Richard. 

“Looking at my abs?” Ezra asked softly, still looking at Richard’s hand. 

Rich blushed slightly. “What abs?” He responded softly. 

Ezra had a half smile. “I think just the finger is broken.”

Rich nodded. “Wouldn’t be my first broken finger.”

They sat quietly for a moment, Ezra still holding Rich’s hand in his. “What I said earlier about you helping me…”

“Yeah?”

“I did mean it. I was trying…” he stopped for a second and shook his head. “This is hard to say. But I was trying to... kill myself. You came by with a purpose and I realized… that’s what I needed. A goal. So… thanks.”

Richard nodded slowly. He put his other hand on Ezra’s. 

Ezra looked from their hands up at Rich. “Maybe you aren’t… you know… entirely insufferable.”

Richard grinned at Ezra. “Well what can I say? It’s part of my charm.”

“Whatever,” Ezra said with an eye roll. 

Richard looked back at their hands and took a deep breath. “Ez… when you were dancing with Al - uh - Maddie… I was sort of jealous.”

“Yeah I know. You and Jules both. You’re awful at-“

“No, no. That’s not… not of you. I wasn’t jealous of you.”

Ezra’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

Rich took another steadying breath. “I was kind of jealous that… uh… she was so close to you like that. It’s stupid and I’m sorry for saying this but I’m kinda falling for you.” 

Ezra stayed silent, staring down. 

“Come on dude, say something,” Richard said nervously. “I mean it could be just from being around each other so much and -“ 

Ezra cut him off by putting a hand on his chest. “Richard…” 

Rich moved closer to Ezra. “I’m gonna possibly hate myself for this tomorrow,” he whispered. “But can I kiss you?”

Ezra gaped for a few seconds before making an effort to compose himself. “Yeah,” he finally choked out. 

Richard leaned forward slowly, giving Ezra time to back out if he changed his mind. If that happened he’d probably walk into the deep end of the pool holding a bowling ball. But he tried not to think about that. 

Finally Ezra took a quick breath and met Richard half way, pressing their lips together firmly. 

They sat like that for a second, kissing each other almost awkwardly, before Rich pulled away. The men sat in silence for a moment until Richard broke it. “I’m… I’m sorry, dude. I don’t know what came over me and-“

Ezra put a hand up to stall Rich. “Hey. I kissed you. And if you don’t mind, I would like to again.”

Rich nodded. “No - yes - I don’t mind -“

Ezra shook his head and kissed Rich again. This time was softer than the first for a little while. Before long, though, Richard started deepening their kiss. He put his hands on Ezra’s shoulders and pushed the other man backwards until Ezra was on his back on the bed. Rich pulled away and looked down on him. 

Ezra smirked at him and grabbed his belt loops, pulling Richard down to him. 

“Easy, tiger,” Richard said thickly. 

“I thought you like it fast,” Ezra replied. 

Rich grinned down at him and slid his hands under Ezra’s under shirt, slowly in order to avoid hurting his injured hand. 

“And I thought you were scrawny,” he whispered, trailing a hand over Ezra’s abs. 

Ezra chuckled and pushed off Rich’s vest. Then he began to unbutton Richard’s shirt.

“Enjoying yourself?”

Ezra nodded. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a grunt from behind them. 

The couple looked up to see Jules flopping over. “Took you idiots long enough,” she said with a voice slurred from both drink and exhaustion. “Driving me crazy,” she sighed. Then she rolled over and started snoring. 

Ezra and Rich both reddened and moved away from each other. 

“We should…” Ezra started. 

“Yeah,” Richard replied, not sure what Ezra was going to say. 

“I’m gonna shower,” Ezra said, standing up. 

Richard nodded and watched the other man walk into the bathroom. He sighed. “Dang it, Jules,” he murmured. 

“What did I do?” Jules slurred from across the room, half asleep. “Stop your fun? Look, there are some things I do not need to see.”

Rich snickered. “Well what did you mean it took us long enough?”

“I mean you two have been heart eyeing each other for forever. Gonna make me barf. I thought you’d already figured out you liked each other.” She scoffed. “Idiots. What would you do without me?”

Richard opened his mouth to offer a few suggestions, but Jules put a hand up to stop him. “Whoa. It was rhetorical. Please don’t tell me what you’d be doing if I weren’t here. I am begging.” 

Richard smiled. “Night, Jules.” 

“Night,” she said while yawning. 

They were both asleep by the time Ezra came back into the room. He smiled and put a blanket over where Jules landed on the couch and brushed his hand through Richard’s hair on his way by. “Night, you two,” he whispered before going to bed himself.