Boy/Boy Problems

Trying and failing to act casual.

Once the money men were satisfied Teddy's only job was to be seen. Luke was busy prepping for promo and Rah was knee deep in reworking the plan for his third album release now that it was his big coming out album. Teddy could never get any writing done when he was in LA, it was like whatever part of his brain wrote songs shutdown the moment he entered the city, so Teddy threw himself into being seen and it was actually kind of fun.

Teddy was having such good time playing celebrity he totally forgot that in between interviews Luke was doing the same thing he was, being seen. It was important that the world knew they were both in the same city at the same time. There were only a few places people actually wanted to be seen at any given moment so Teddy probably should have guessed they'd run into each other at some point. Maybe if Teddy had been prepared, it would have been slightly less awkward.

Teddy's first instinct when he saw Luke walk through the door of the restaurant was to hid behind the potted plant next to him. Thankfully he managed to curb that instinct just in time and remain standing, which was good because the plant would not have hidden him from view at all. His next idea was to try to act casual, which might seem reasonable but anyone that's ever tried to deliberately act causal knows it is impossible. The moment you tell yourself to act casual all sense of reality melts away and you suddenly have no idea where to put your hands. What did you do with your hands before? Who knows. You sure don't. Whatever you end up doing with you hands, usually holding them in a really uncomfortable position, always looks noticeably strange, which is the opposite of casual. That's how Teddy looked when Luke saw him.

While Teddy played a role, Luke was an actor and he was really a rather good one. He barely flinched at the sight of Teddy trying to look casual and failing. Teddy saw the flicker of discomfort though, that was an unfortunate side effect of knowing Luke as well as he did, Teddy could no longer believe the lie. He saw the truth in Luke's face even when no one else could. A momentary flicker of real was all it ever was and then Luke was walking towards Teddy smiling like he'd never been more pleased to see anyone in his life.

Teddy tried not act as shocked when Luke pulled Teddy into his arms. It was just a hug, but it lingered and they weren't supposed to be seen together yet, that wasn't part of the plan. Teddy very much liked plans, and Luke knew that. Teddy and Luke touched a lot when they were alone, or with friends, but it was never something they'd done in public so for Luke to just walk up and hug him was just strange.

"What are you doing?" whispered Teddy, plastering a smile on his face still unsure of what to do with his hands.

"We're being watched," said Luke, his hand resting softly on Teddy's shoulder in a seriously distracting way. Teddy somehow managed to ignore the warmth of Luke's hand look past him to see the gaggle of girls pointing excited in their direction. He gave them a small smile and waved watching the excitement that ensued.

"Shit," Teddy said turning away from the window so they wouldn't be able to read his lips as they'd been known to do.

"They were unusually giggly when I spoke to them," said Luke with the good humour of someone who'd been caught in this situation before. "Should have guessed they knew something I didn't."

"I always assume they know something I don't," replied Teddy with a resigned sigh, chancing another look to see six different phone camera's pointed right at him.

It wasn't their fault. Not really. He'd come to this place specifically because there was a good chance fans would find him there. That was part of the plan. They were part of the plan and they were doing their job perfectly, it wasn't their fault that both Teddy and Luke had turned up at the same place at the same time. That wasn't part of the plan, that was just another example of the universes twisted sense of humour. Of course it probably could have been avoided if Teddy hadn't been ignoring Luke's texts since he arrived in LA, but everything's easy with the benefit of hindsight.