counterpoint

waiting for daylight to start

blurb: one minute, they're setting up their equipment to film a special video during the fury of a burgeoning thunderstorm outside their window, and then the next minute, the world turns dark and out comes brett's voice, shaking in a way eddy's never really heard before. "eddy?"

→ ig request: power goes out and one of them is afraid of lightning

warnings: expletives

title from midnight moon by oh wonder.

• • •

eddy's always believed that his best friend fears no man nor thing. he's said it before in a video, even—brett is the bold one out of the two of them: the one who never hesitates, the one who jumps in without a second thought to take control of a situation.

the thought has never crossed his mind that brett yang could possibly be afraid of lightning.

one minute, they're setting up their equipment to film a special video during the fury of the burgeoning thunderstorm outside their window, and then the next minute, the world turns dark and out comes brett's voice, shaking in a way eddy's never really heard before. "eddy?"

"yeah?" he blinks a few times, pointing his head where he thinks his friend had been standing a few seconds ago. the sky is painted indigo, the waning sun taking its light with it down over the horizon, and so the room is almost pitch-black, save for the dim light of their gadgets. it's just their luck that both their phones are dead, too.

eddy takes a step forward and immediately stubs his toe against the leg of the table. "fuck—you okay?"

"y-yeah, i'm," and then brett trails off as the gentle pitter-patter of rain against the roof begins pounding down with greater force, and wow, that's loud. eddy almost doesn't hear his next words over the cacophony. "i'm okay."

there's a tremor, faint but there, in the way his friend had voiced his statement. "you sure, bro?" eddy maneuvers himself around the table, choosing his next blind step across the floor carefully. "man, this wasn't the plan at all," he begins, offering up words as a diversion to whatever's getting brett all worked up. "guess we'll just have to reschedule that sexy scene in the rain, huh?"

the answering chuckle starts off trembling, but the other man's voice—"what the hell, man?"—remains firm, thank god. eddy just has to get to him from the other side of the room, and in the mess of equipment they've left lying around, the floor's practically a minefield. "i think i stowed a flashlight somewhere in those drawers near you; can you check 'em for me?"

silence, and then a scraping sound: wood against wood. "nah, nothing here. you think it might be—"

the world shudders, the dark sky lighting up in bright streaks outside their window.

there's a strangled sound in the room, like a feral animal, and it takes eddy way too long to figure out that the mangled noise is coming from his best friend.

"fuck!" the curse comes out piercing into the open, like knife through butter. with that, eddy jolts into action, moving through the shadows, and it is with the next shot of lightning that he sees where brett had tumbled down into: half-sprawled under the table, messy black hair just barely peeking out of the jacket he'd flung over his head.

"oh god," eddy whispers, crouching down. he's near enough to hear brett whimpering, and it hurts the very heart of him to encounter such a thing.

in the space between one clap of thunder and the next, they breathe in silence, eddy's fingers clinging to the fabric of brett's sleeve. through the thin cotton, he can feel the shorter man shake minutely.

"brett."

"i'm fine."

"brett."

"i'm fucking fine, okay—"

eddy doesn't let him finish his sentence, quietly enveloping the smaller man within his arms, blocking out brett's view of the window and the lightning beyond with his own body.

sudden warmth blooms against the storm's cold.

it occurs to eddy that this hugging thing he's doing probably isn't welcome, and shit, now he feels the embarrassed blush coming on. still, it wouldn't hurt to actually ask. "is this helping?"

brett breathes deep against his chest. eddy just barely manages to resist the shiver down his spine. "mmm."

oh. "is this. . . okay?"

"mmm."

eddy heaves a sigh of relief; so he's actually welcome to stay right where he is. he most definitely does not intend to waste this opportunity.

they don't let go of each other. even when the storm's fury subsides for the time being and the lights flicker back on again, they don't let go of each other. it is only when the morning comes, skin warm like sunlight with the body heat they share, that they finally come apart.