Dust

You Know That (5)

A week passed. Ronan felt safe enough to go home, and so Phelan was no longer required to babysit him.

Legs pretzeled on a chair, Phelan sat in the library making notes for engineering that wouldn't be covered on the slideshow and trying not to fall asleep or think about Lionel and Bear. This was his fourth cup of tea in two hours and even though he'd only made it ten minutes ago, it was already empty, unlike his bladder. He'd be peeing like a racehorse later.

With a sigh, he gave up, packed his stuff away and went to pee before he left. Only, when he returned to the table to retrieve his stuff, Bear's lovely, familiar face was there.

"Hi..." Phelan said, unsure how he was supposed to behave.

Bear didn't look happy. "Walk with me."

"Yes, sir." Phelan murmured.

With long strides, Bear was already at the door a few moments before Phelan picked up his pace.

As soon as they were outside, Phelan lit up a cigarette, glad for it when they got to the campus park and Bear took a deep breath to begin.

"Which brother are you, Ronan or Phelan?" That was a bad sign. Bear knew that Phelan's brother was called Ronan and not Ambrose and that wasn't something Phelan'd mentioned to him before.

And then he realised how much of an idiot he was because all it would take was a quick Facebook search to figure it out.

He considered lying, telling Bear that he was Ronan so that this entire conversation could be postponed, but...

"Phelan," he blinked.

"You lied to us, didn't you..."

The disappointment on Bear's face made Phelan pause. He bit his lip, frowned. "I did."

"Will you tell me the truth?"

"I'm Ambrose. Ronan is just Ronan."

"I thought so." Bear nodded.

Phelan glared at his feet. "How did you find out?"

Bear gave him a look that Phelan didn't quite know how to read. "I'm an officer, you think I don't know how to follow up on incidents?" He sighed. "The woman that dances with you in Flow told me."

Phelan grunted, took a drag, and crossed his arms. "What does it matter? It's not as if we're actually together. I'm just the casual fuck you guys want every other week or so."

Bear's face darkened. "Don't you dare. You're more than that and you know it."

Phelan didn't know that. What the hell? Where had that come from? Phelan was their bootycall. The one they came to see when they felt like spicing things up in the bedroom. Where in the threesome clause had it said 'oh yeah, we own you now'? That wasn't what Phelan had thought was going on.

And apparently all of that was written on his face.

"Oh fuck," Bear hissed, "you didn't know that..."

"I didn't." Phelan confirmed.

With just a single step, Bear closed the space Phelan had put there and wrapped his arms around the man. To keep from burning either Bear or himself, Phelan dropped the cigarette.

How could Bear just forgive him for lying like that? Phelan hadn't offered any apologies or explanations or even an excuse, but Bear didn't ask for one. The hug said it all.

"We want you, baby," Bear whispered.

Just those words were enough to make Phelan forget all his worries.