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It’s about time for it (them?) to come out, really. Fans have been talking anyway, as they do, and interviewers start to pry when Charlie starts getting more comfortable with the band.
“In everything but writing, he’s part of the band now, really,” Dan explains to all of them with a smile. “He keeps refusing to accept the official invitation because of his solo music. Or maybe he just doesn’t like all the interviews.” And then he’s off on a tangent spouting praise about More Stately Mansions and the new music Charlie’s been writing and showing him, telling the woman that everyone should listen to it, until Kyle gives him a look and he shuts up for a bit.
And then, one early morning, Dan signs into the wrong Instagram account.
A blurry candid of Charlie, passed out in Dan’s bed, spreads like wildfire around the Internet. Dan goes to the bathroom, humming quietly to himself, completely unaware of the fallout that’s unfolding. When he gets back into the bedroom, his phone’s lighting up with hundreds of urgent notifications.
“Shit.”
He sets the phone down on the bedside table, heart hammering in his chest, and carefully touches his boyfriend’s shoulder.
“Charlie,” he murmurs, rubbing circles into the man’s arm with his thumb until he blinks awake. Charlie’s initial look of confusion morphs into a soft smile as his eyes focus on Dan.
“Mornin’,” he mumbles, pushing himself up on his side and reaching up to pull Dan back into the bed with him. He goes willingly with a small huff of laughter, curling his arms against Charlie’s side and humming at the warmth that embraces him.
“Morning, sleeping beauty,” he replies into Charlie’s shirt. He groans into the fabric, and Charlie’s arm comes up behind him and drags slowly across his back.
“What’s up? No sleep again?”
“I kind of…” There’s no point in beating around the bush, really. “Kinda outed us to Instagram.”
“Ooh,” Charlie teases knowingly. “Feeling confident today, are we?”
“It was an accident!” he defends, nudging his nose into Charlie’s chest. “Didn’t mean to. You just looked nice, and I wasn’t signed in properly…”
He feels more than hears his boyfriend laugh, the soft vibrations surrounding his mind and pushing away all of his doubts about the post.
He turns, reaches over to check his phone, evaluate the damage- but then he’s being pulled away from the nightstand and back into Charlie’s embrace.
“Put the damn thing down, for once,” Charlie says into Dan’s hair. “Everything is going to be okay.”
And, because Charlie’s there to pull him back into the night with him, it is.