"Man Up"

1... 2... 3... and go!

(no pairing)

There was an after party and the crowded room was full of SNT crew and cast.
The two presenters were talking and drinking from their glasses while waiting for their dinner to arrive. The happy faces of crew and producers were calming them. They were always high on adrenaline during the shows.

There was a collective gasp and applause coming from a corner and Ant smiled turning to his best friend with one eyebrow raised. "Steve's showing off again" which got a scoff and a smile from Dec,"when is he not?"

They finished their drinks in silence and got up to join the room.
Ant made his way to the small laughing crowd in the corner. Dec followed him, having nothing better to do.

Stephen was doing a coin trick for a crew member and the look on her face was making others laugh. The trick wasn't hard to understand or maybe he did it for both of them so many times that they eventually figured it out. Advantages of being friend with a magician, Ant thought.

"Stop doing cheap tricks for them, do a big one and I call you for my daughter's birthday party this year" Dec said laughing.

"Cheap? How dare you? And you already booked me for the entertainment part"Stephen winked at him cheekily. That made the crew laugh and Dec groan in fake annoyance.

A man walked up to them and annouced the dinner was ready and all the crew fled the room as if the room was on fire.

The boys decided to eat in private and Stephen being his picky self chose that as well.
"Come eat with us Steve" Ant suggested and Dec nodded grabbing his wrist not giving the man an option.
Once they were in the room they sat heavily on the couch and rested there for a minute.

"I can sleep without eating" Dec mumbled and stretched his back and arms like a cat.

Ant opened his pack of food and looked over at his almost asleep friend while licking the sauce from his finger. "Yours is chinese though"
Dec opened his eyes and shook his head few times sitting straight" nope, I can't sleep without eating" he got ready to dive into his food fully alarm. That made Ant laugh fondly as he started eating as well.

They were busy enjoying their food when the lack of comments got their attention. Stephen was eating slowly and smelling and examining everything before putting them in his mouth. Ant was sure he was eating them only because he was hungry, otherwise he wouldn't touch them. Or maybe he wanted to try new food for once. That made him smile to himself.
"Stevie try this" Ant showed him an oyster which was on his own plate. he encouraged, cracking through prickly crab shells with his bare hands. "It's great."

Stephen looked at the raw oysters sitting directly in front of him and making him remember all his excuses not to eat these seemingly disgusting creatures. Seeing his look of disgust Dec jumped in "looks bad but tastes good"

"Looks so disgusting, there is no way in hell I can..." he stopped himself from gagging and looked away from them.

"Come on man just eat them, you don't have to chew or even do it with your eyes open" Ant said challengingly while chewing on his crab.

Dec was giggling at his slight green face. "Try it with a suace, here..." and he handed Ant the saucer to pass it to Stephen.
Ant put some sauce on two oysters and nudged him "together?"

Stephen gave them a frown and looked at the oysters Ant was holding, hoping and praying that it wouldn't taste as bad as it looks. go big or go home, right? If he was honest he wanted to go home but he would never hear the end of it by them.

He reached forward and grabbed one of the shells , and gulped it down after Ant's cheerful "1...2...3...go!" . He waited for the revulsion to take place, the nausea, but was surprised when that didn't happen. The slight taste of something unfamiliar was going to make him gag but he fought it. It was actually good. And he wouldn't admit it infront of them. The amount of things they would try to feed him would be frightening.
He washed it down with his drink and showed his empty mouth to them.