(if you wanna) piss off your parents • a brance story

18, crazy

"happy birthday to you," the crowd cheers, "happy birthday to you! happy birthday vance, happy birthday to you!"

"happy birthday, amore." vance's mother smiles at him, clapping her hands slightly to show her excitement. "where's my other son?"

"bruce? he has a baseball game so he couldn't make it. which sucks." the blond replies, stretching his neck and letting it crack before sitting down and taking the knife in his hands. he was surrounded by his mothers friends and with his friends, but the house was booming because of the italian women arguing over the best food to make at home.

it's a birthday, for fuck sakes. he slowly starts to bring the knife down to the cake, but hes met with two warm hands on his shoulders. he flinches, whipping around with the knife still in hand.

"bruce? i thought you couldn't make it?" he says, shocked.

"i only said i had a baseball game so i could go get you your gifts. happy birthday babe." he grins, before being pulled away by vance's mother to introduce him to all of her friends.

he can hear bruce's awkwardness in his voice and it makes him snort, taking the knife and finally cutting the first piece of cake. he places the ice cream cake onto his plate, before grabbing bruce's arm.

"how big?"
"excuse me?" he asks, red coming to his cheeks. oh lord. here we go again.

"you fucking weirdo, how big of a slice! get your head out of the gutter my god."
"you don't believe in god."
"how big, yamada?" he glares, and bruce uses his hands to make a size to continue to speak with all the italian women asking him questions.

he continues to slice the cake, making sure there's enough for everyone. laughter fills the room, and the time flies by until vance can finally open his presents.

"you have to open mine upstairs tonight."
"tonight?"
"im sleeping over! your mom and mine agreed!" he grins, sitting down next to him and interlocking their hands. gross, the butterflies are back. a whole night with bruce? what the fuck is he gonna do?

"open mine!" his aunt says, handing it over. it's a blanket, hand knitted it looked like, but it was extremely soft. "buon compleanno bel ragazzo!" she says.

"i love it, thank you." he replies, laying the blanket across him and bruce. 'how romantic of you,' he thinks.

this process continues over and over, cheery italian women laughing at the gifts his friends got him.

"you fucking douche." vance laughs, and bruce sees stars. god did he love that laugh. he loved that laugh like coffee with too much sugar and milk on a cold morning. he loved that laugh like waking up in the morning and not feeling tired.

time continues to fly, and bruce suddenly ends up in vance's room and the house is quiet.

"well?" vance asks, lying down with his arms out, and bruce gives him a confused look.

"where's my hug at?"
"no you fuck. my gift?"
"oh!" he laughs, jumping off the bed and grabbing the bag full of wrapping paper. "here you go!" he grins, sitting back down and moving over until he laid down next to him.

vance sat up slightly, pulling the paper out of the bag and pulling snacks out one by one, his smile growing.

"how'd you know?" vance asks, pouring the gifts out onto his bed. sour patch kids, chocolate bars, lays ketchup chips, wait what? "how the hell did you get ketchup chips?"

"i ordered them from canada for you!" bruce grins. of course he did, he's in love with vance for lord sakes. "happy birthday, vance hopper." he grins and after he says that vance's mom walks in and vance quickly presses a kiss to his forehead.

"you are so cute!" she says through her accent, clasping her hands and closing the door.

"thank you, bruce yamada." he finally answers.
"that's not all! hold on!" bruce laughs, sitting up and grabbing something from his jacket pocket. "now it's happy birthday." he finishes as he fishes a box out of the pocket.

he hands it to him and vance slides the top off, eyes widening. it's a iron guitar pick necklace with a b engraved in it.

"i love it." vance laughs, reaching around his neck to put it on.

"it's for our show, of course. so you cant go anywhere without wearing it or the people will get suspicious."
"the people, huh?"
"yes, the people."
-
crickets chirp, but not in a it's quiet way, in a it's 2am and bruce is in the same bed as vance and vance is in a black tank top with shorts and he can see every muscle on his toned back because of the moonlight shining into the room.

it's hot and smells like vance everywhere, so he decides to crack open the window. he sits up, a groan following as he crawls over to the end of the bed to slide the window open. he's met with cold air hitting his face and he couldn't be more happy in that moment.

he felt like he was burning up, bruce's cheeks and ears were on fire and he couldn't do anything to stop that feeling. this wasn't supposed to happen. not at all. it was supposed to be quick. a few months, act heartbroken for a few weeks, and be over it. but now he didn't know what to do. if this were to end bruce would go crazy.

his feet hit the ground and he walks out, shutting the previously slightly open door behind him as he goes down the stairs to get a glass of water. he doesn't bother to turn on the lights, just using the moonlight to light his path to the kitchen. but when he sees the yellow light coming from the kitchen, he realizes vance's mother is there.

"bruce, amore. what keeps you?" she asks, her sentence not very grammatically correct but he didn't mind.

"nothing mom, it's not important."
"per favore, what troubles you?" she softly says, opening the cabinet to grab him a glass.

"it's vance."
"what did he do? did he hurt you?"
"no, mom. never! i just really like him. i don't want to lose him."
"why would you lose him?" she asks confused, handing him the glass and bruce walks to the sink to fill it up.

"i don't know. i just overthink a lot. hes so perfect, you know that?" he pauses, taking a sip of the cold water that wakes him up but also calms him down. "the way he speaks to you and his other family is so nice, his accent comes out when he says specific english words. like 'together,' or 'damnit' it's so cute. and his nose flares when he laughs, and his eyes disappear too."

"save this for my son. he'd like to hear these."
"no he wouldn't, he hates when i compliment him."
"he loves it. he's told me."

vance's mother is lying, and he can tell, but he wants to keep her happy, she's such a sweet woman.

to that, he takes himself and his glass up the stairs and slides into bed again, taking a sip of his water before placing his glass onto the side table.

"were you just talking to my mom?" a voice asks from the darkness.

fuck, he woke vance up.