50 Shades of James

Rumors

             When Aleks emerged from the bathroom, freshly clothed, James’s room was empty. Like he usually did when thinking, he made to flick his hair—forgetting that he had just taken a shower and sending water drops flying around the room from his damp locks.           

               “Shit, shit, shit,” He muttered, grabbing a towel from the bathroom counter and darting around. He carefully wiped the computer equipment down first (James would kill him if it broke!) before continuing to the furniture, and dabbing at where the drips had soaked into the bed spread.

            “Aleks!” A muffled shout floated up from downstairs. Geez, he barely ever got a break. Throwing the towel into James’s sink, Aleks grabbed his discarded clothes and headed towards the source of the voice.

            “Hey, man, you took a shower here?” Eddie was at the bottom of the staircase, grinning at his best friend.

            “When did you get here?” Aleks asked back as he struggled to keep the messy ball of fabric from overflowing out of his arms as he descended. His focus on the clothes left his feet distracted and his toe skidded over the edge of a step, and he fell in an explosion of cotton.

            Eddie managed to sidestep the incoming Russian, but he still got hit by the clothes—including a pair of Pikachu boxers to the face.

            “Fucking—” Eddie pulled the underwear off of his head and tossed it on top of the man who’d fallen flat on his face. Luckily, his jeans had fallen before him and cushioned his fall.

            Aleks groaned and slowly pushed himself up. Now his knees and hands hurt from trying to catch himself. Great. He did a quick once-over, assessed that he hadn’t hurt himself too badly, and flicked his head up to glare at his giggling friend.

            “Are you okay, man? I mean you just fell down the stairs…but man, Aleks, it was funny as fuck…” Eddie dissolved into giggles again.

            “Asshole…laughing at my pain…” But Aleks couldn’t help but smile as well. Eddie’s laugh was just infectious like that. “Help me pick up all this shit.”

            “Alright, but I’m not touching your undies again.”

            “Hey, I think James took my car. Can I use yours to go home and you can take mine back when he comes back?”

            “Yeah, sure. Keys are on the hook by the door. Here—take your shirt.” His friends giggled followed him down the hallway as Aleks made to leave with his various articles of clothing more securely packed under his arm.

            Eddie calmly walked into the kitchen, zeroing in on his target: the fridge. He pulled open the chrome door and surveyed his options. He licked his lips as he spotted some leftover Chinese takeout noodles behind a few beer bottles.

            “Anything good?”

            He jumped at the sound and hit his head on the fridge door. Cursing his karma for laughing at Aleks, he swung around to see Ashh sitting at the counter with a smile.

            “Ashh! What are you doing here?” Eddie exclaimed. “I haven’t see you in forever! Hi!”

            Ashh laughed. “Just hanging around. I miss you nut heads sometimes, you know.”

            Eddie’s eyes widened. “Oh! Ashh! I need to talk to you! You were in the closet with Aleks when we played that game, right?”

            Ashh squirmed in her seat uncomfortably. “Uh…yeah…why? He doesn’t have mono or anything, does he?” Her hands went to her lips and alarm creased her forehead.

            Eddie giggled. “No, no, nothing like that! But maybe I shouldn’t tell you, but he seemed pretty interested in you after whatever you two did in that closet. He’s been all self-conscious and acting all love-sick ever since.”

            “Aleks has a crush on me?” Ashh recoiled, blushing madly. “And you want me to…?”

            “I mean if you don’t like him like that…be gentle? But I mean if you do, you know, que paso, que paso. Just trying to help a brother out, y’know?” Eddie grinned.

            “I…ah…” Ashh’s cheeks and nose were redder than a clowns. “Um…the thing is, I kind of have a…thing…with Seamus right now.”

            “Oh.” Eddie’s laughter dissipated and he adopted a seldom seen serious expression. “So, uh, this conversation never happened, right?”

            “Right!” Ashh replied quickly. “So, uh, how about that food?”

AN: The plot thickens! Eddie mistakenly convinces Ashh that Aleks likes her...hmm...

I don't know why the font changes after the first paragraph, and I don't know how to fix that, so. Thanks for bearing with how long it took this to be uploaded--school is killing me, I swear. Also, keep you eyes out for a special NovaHD one-shot tomorrow for my friend's birthday! (shiftychaos.tumblr.com. Wish her a happy bday!)

For updates, go to the ’50 Shades of James’ tag on tumblr (you don’t need an account!). To talk to me or to send fanart, you can message me on here, email me at Therealsabertoothtigress@gmail.com, or message me on my tumblr, captainthief.tumblr.com. For a compilation of updates, fanart, and milestones, go to captainthief.tumble.com/50. On tumblr, I follow every person who’s read this story and reply to pretty much everything I get asked (unless my inbox eats it). Thanks again for reading!