Jem’s POV

My eyes strain as I looked over the computer screen for the fourth hour straight. I was staring at the words app on the computer that I almost never used but it was now covered with every piece of information I could find about this new drug. Who created it, who was distributing it, who was actively trying to get it and who was on my side and trying to keep off their streets. The few of us who were against this damn thing had called a temporary truce and were all sharing information just trying to figure out how we could get rid of all of it. 

Still, considering how new the drug was and I was the only one the only person who had seen the affects up close it was mostly just me handing out information hoping people would do the same when new intel came out. It was a stupid plan but I was willing to try it at this point if it meant keeping people off that drug. 

My eyes stung, my back ached from hunching over for most of the day, and arms felt like led after the two hours of sleep I managed to get last night. I was bone tired but I couldn’t stop now. 

I had sent a description out on the guy who had stabbed me and a few of the guys I had called the truce with had a few ideas on who the guy could be and now I was putting names through a database I might have broken into. So far all the names had been a miss but I still had a few more to go through. 

“Jem you need to get dressed,” Dev’s rather annoying voice said from the doorway of my office. He was leaning against the opening and staring at me with a small glare.

“I have plenty more time,” I dismissed, my eyes still glued to the laptop. 

“You have to leave in five minutes and you’re still in sleep pants,” he pointed out. 

“It’s going to take three seconds to change.”

“There’s a stain on that shirt.”

“Okay so 10 seconds.” I heard movement and seconds later my laptop was closed, Dev’s big hand rested on the top, his shirt was missing and his wet black hair was plastered in front of his face, his upset glare trained entirely on my face. 

Alright, I’ll admit it. He was hot. It was times like these I remembered I used to love him and I remembered why. Always so caring. 

“Get up, get dressed, and then leave. I’m sure Andrew has been waiting for this all day. Don’t keep him waiting.” A smirk worked onto my face as I leaned back in my chair. 

“And what if I don’t want to?”

“We aren’t playing these games when you have a boyfriend,” he scowled as he stood up to his full height. His sweat pants hung low on his hips and a nicely shaped dick print stood out against the grey fabric. His stomach was tight and his muscled arms are crossed against his chest. 

If someone had told 14 year old me that prissy, privileged, weak ass Dev was going to turn like this I would have laughed in his face. 

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Come on Dev, don’t ruin my fun. We won’t fool around anymore but don’t take away my teasing if you’re still going to try and go all Dom on me looking like that. I mean you’re a walking sin right now and you expect me to hold my tongue when you talk to me like that? That’s just not fair.”

Dev only rolled his eyes as he took the laptop off the desk and began walking away. 

“Get dressed and get out of here before I hand cuff you to that desk with nothing to do.” A loud fake moan escaped my mouth as I stood up from the desk and began heading to my room to change. 

“That better be a promise,” I yelled back. 

Before long I was standing in front of Andrew’s door waiting for him to open it. I was dressed in a decent pair of jeans and a shirt that clung to my body hoping that Andrew wouldn’t try to out dress me considering I didn’t tell him what we were doing. 

“You’re early,” Andrew said breathlessly as he opened the door to let me in. 

“Yea sorry about that. Dev all but pushed me out the door when he saw I was still working,” I said as I stepped into the living room and shut the door behind me. “He didn’t want me loosing track of time.” Andrew only smiled and rolled his eyes. 

“Well get comfy, I’m not quite ready yet.” He didn’t wait for me to respond before he turned back in the direction of their bedroom. 

I only nodded to myself as I looked around the living room to see Patrick sitting down on the couch watching some nonsense TV show that Andrew no doubt got him hooked on.

“You’re back early,” I said as I sat on the couch next to him. 

“Nothing to do at the office so I figured I’d head home. I’ve done what I can about that drug but other than officers patrolling I can’t do anything until we actually catch someone who has it and call them into questioning.” I hummed but after staring at my word document for hours with no new leads I was done talking about that stupid thing. 

“What are we even watching,” I asked as I stared at the TV, a few cartoon dogs running on screen. 

“I don’t even know,” he sighed looking defeated. “Andrew had it on before I got in and said I couldn’t change it and now I‘m just listening to it as background noise."

“This is made for children,” I point out but he shrugs. 

“Andrew likes a lot of weird shows like that.”

I hate the fact that he had been living with me for months prior and didn’t know that. 

“So where are you two going?”

“Just to get some dinner, maybe so ice cream if I can talk him into spending more of my money.”

“That sounds nice,” he said with a smile that seemed pretty real but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. 

“You could come with us, I’m sure Andrew wouldn’t mind.”

He looked like he was fighting with himself a bit. 

“I mean this is your day. I don’t want to get in the way or anything.” I could only roll my eyes. 

“Patrick you couldn’t ruin anything. If you want to come then come with us. If you don’t want to then don’t. It’s completely up to you and Andrew.” 

“Am I even dressed well enough to go out with you?”

“You see how I’m dressed. You’re practically wearing the same thing.”

“That doesn’t mean anything to you. You bought us to a five star restaurant in jeans. I don’t trust your fashion sense.”

“Just because I chose not to dress up once doesn’t mean I can’t when I need to.” Patrick didn’t seem convinced. 

A few minutes later Andrew walked into the living room wearing black jeans and a red shirt with red shoes looking like he was proud of his of decisions. 

“Alright I think I’m ready.”

“Is it alright if I come along,” Patrick asked a bit timidly. Andrew’s face just lit up in response. 

“Oh my god yes,” he said way too excitedly. “It’s been forever since we’ve had a real date!”

“Why,” I asked as I led both of them to my car. “You two literally live together. I figured you be going on dates every night.” Andrew blushed a bit as he crawled into the passenger seat while Patrick climbed into the back. 

“We don’t like going out all that much,” Patrick admitted. “On our common days off we usually just stay around the house and catch up on cleaning.”

“That’s deeply depressing.”

“Well it’s not like you and your friends go out on common days off,” Patrick scoffed. 

“That’s because we don’t want to, not because we’re cleaning.”

A little while later we were pulling up to the restaurant. It was just a little ma and pa place at the edge of town but it was one of my favorites. Andrew looked just as excited as always when we pulled up while Patrick just seemed to be happy to be here. 

“So we’re supposed to be catching up,” Andrew said after we sat down and ordered everything. “What all have you been up to other than that?”

“We both know I do much other than that,” I teased as he danced around the subject of my work. “What about you? Anything interesting going on in the world of Andrew?”

“Not really,” he admitted. “I mean the two of us bought the house but that’s really it. The setting up part was fun though. I learned that Patrick refuses to use overhead lighting and would rather just have natural light if at all possible.”

“Not really a surprise,” I said with a shrug. I had noticed that back when they were still living with me. 

“White light is the devil and overhead light is too damn bright,” Patrick defended. I had missed this mindless banter, it was nice. 

When the food start coming out the conversation turned more serious. 

“How have you been doing,” Andrew asked, his voice becoming far too serious for my liking as a hard stare glared into my soul. 

“Fine I guess. Before last week nothing major had been going on so that helped. It’s mostly been trying to keep Barrett under control and with me leaving I see that being an uphill battle for a while. I think he stopped taking his stabilizers.”

“That’s unfortunate but I’m not asking about Barrett right now. The past few months couldn’t have been easy. You were pretty used to us living with you before we left so it had to affect you at least a little bit.”

“It took some getting used to and I didn’t love having to back to sleeping alone but it was fine,” I was lying through my absolute teeth but it didn’t seem like Andrew could really tell which I was thankful for. 

I paid the check to which Andrew was not pleased with and soon we were headed back to their house. Andrew did in fact not let me pay for ice cream and said he was too full for it anyway. 

“So now what are we going to do,” I asked as I plopped down on the couch because I was not watching anymore stupid episodes made for children. 

“Maybe we could have a little fun,” Andrew said as he looked up at me with teasing eyes. My side had been healing up pretty nicely after all. A smirk took over my face as I let my eyes slide over to Patrick. 

“Are we going to have a little fun Patrick?” He gulped. 

Filler

Last updated February 3, 2024