Work Text:
EVANS: Are we ready? Are we good?
STAN: Wow.
EVANS: That is so bright.
STAN: It is very bright.
[indistinct chatter off-screen]
EVANS: No, you don’t have to-
STAN: Oh god. You’re making them move the-
EVANS: You don’t have to move it! [beep] I feel like I’m sweating already.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Oh god. Can I have some water?
STAN: Here. You -- you do have a list of demands.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: Watch out for this one, my god.
[quick cut to cheery music, clips from the behind the scenes]
[title card: Variety Studio Actors on Actors]
EVANS AND STAN: [grinning at each other]
EVANS: I’m here to interview you.
STAN: I did hear something about that.
EVANS: Did you?
STAN: A little something…
EVANS: How long have we known each other for?
STAN: A very long time.
EVANS: We met during auditions for The First Avenger, which was-
STAN: Well.
EVANS: What?
STAN: Actually…
EVANS: [laughs] Seb! No. I don’t wanna hear that.
STAN: Actually I did meet YOU earlier than that. Maybe a bit… a bit earlier than you think.
EVANS: I swear to god I don’t remember this.
STAN: I saw you at a club in Manhattan. New York City.
EVANS: Yes.
STAN: You were… coming out of the bathroom.
EVANS: I still don’t think that was me!
STAN: Oh, it was you. I remember those strong -- you know. The strong shoulders.
EVANS: Oh yeah?
STAN: That’s how I know you. All that up top.
EVANS: Just up top?
STAN: Well you barely have anything on the bottom!
EVANS: You are selling me out here!
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: God, some real secrets coming out here today.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Anything else you want to tell me?
STAN: I have something.
EVANS: Oh?
STAN: You’re very funny.
EVANS: Thank you [laughs]. Listen, he’s got no ass, but his jokes are alright.
STAN: Oh come on. What’s with the face!
EVANS: I don’t think I’m funny!
STAN: You’re VERY funny.
EVANS: Wow, I like this. I think I should interview you more often.
STAN: I tell you things all the time! The other day I said you had a very nice smile.
EVANS: You did say that.
STAN: Great friends…
EVANS: [nods]
STAN: A very good choice in… in… significant other.
EVANS: Who?
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Significant other, huh?
STAN: I’ve heard some stories about him.
EVANS: Ohhh, you said it! Boom.
STAN: That’s only the first part!
EVANS: There are a lot of reveals to get through today [laughs]
STAN: That’s the old show business!
EVANS: That’s right [laughs]
STAN: Are you going to introduce me?
EVANS: Introduce you?
STAN: Wow. A very good significant other who has to introduce HIMSELF.
EVANS: Wait! Wait a minute!
STAN: This is what it feels like to be left behind.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: Well, here I am.
EVANS: Sebastian Stan!
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: You are right. We probably should have introduced ourselves.
STAN: Should I do you?
EVANS: Sure.
STAN: Welcome to… to Chris. [grins] Evans.
EVANS: We are here for a reason.
STAN: That’s what I’m hearing!
EVANS: I think I am actually sweating now.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Can you tell?
STAN: You are a little bit.
EVANS: Oh god.
[cut]
STAN: I have all these cards over here with things written on them.
EVANS: I think they were trying to make it easier on us.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: This one says to talk about how our relationship began.
STAN: That…
EVANS: Is a very long story.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: We’ve been together for a while. This has been a long time coming.
STAN: The specifics…
EVANS: Listen, it was a whole process…
STAN: I would say 2013. Right? When we came back?
EVANS: Yeah. We came back for the second film.
STAN: Oh, it didn’t take very long after that.
EVANS: [laughs] No.
STAN: But officially, it was when?
EVANS AND STAN: [together] 2014.
EVANS: December 2014. But you say January 2015 because-
STAN: God, I hate that it was on Christmas!
EVANS: [laughs] You hate our anniversary being at Christmas.
STAN: That was very… a very Chris Evans thing to do to me. All those months and you had to come to me on Christmas!
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: A very thoughtful confession.
EVANS: Oh god. Let’s not get into that.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: We were co-workers for a very long time.
STAN: Co-workers.
EVANS: And I think we had a certain kind of chemistry…
STAN: Oh it was chemistry alright.
EVANS: [laughs] It was there from day one.
STAN: Day one?
EVANS: Yes! Day one, Seb.
STAN: That’s a very interesting thing for the man who didn’t remember me to say!
EVANS: [beep]
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: This is something I will never live down.
STAN: This day one is news to me! To my memory, I would say we met in January for script reads. They were trying to find Bucky, and they already had you! Then there we were in London, all of a sudden, six months later, and there you were-
EVANS: [laughing, covering his face with the question cards]
STAN: “Oh, we finally meet!”
EVANS: I did not say that, Seb.
STAN: You did. You said it! You came to me, and you put your nervous hand out, and you said, oh!
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: We finally meet! And so I said-
EVANS AND STAN: [together] We met at the script read!
EVANS: But you know what?
STAN: What?
EVANS: I will never forget it, because it was so embarrassing. It’s seared into my memory.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: One of many moments in our relationship where I have made a fool of myself.
STAN: Oh, tons.
[cut]
EVANS: It was a learning experience.
STAN: That’s for sure.
EVANS: And it was not always easy.
STAN: [nods in agreement]
EVANS: There’s a definite learning curve to this kind of thing, but there’s no way of knowing what that is until you’re already in it.
STAN: Yeah.
EVANS: I truly believe there’s no one else I could have done this with.
STAN: [smiles]
EVANS: It is a lot of hard work. Really hard [beep] and sometimes just when you think things are letting up, they get [beep] again.
STAN: The thing about it is, the more popular you get…
EVANS: You have to keep refocusing on these things you’re doing.
STAN: All those things. At a certain point, it’s… [sighs] You start covering yourself up because it feels like the right thing to do at the time.
EVANS: And we both made that decision for ourselves before we ever met each other.
STAN: It’s not an easy thing.
EVANS: No. And like you were saying, you have all these people in your ear when you’re young and you don’t know any better, and you are the one making those calls for yourself. And that’s great, but it can also get out of control really fast.
STAN: God, yeah.
EVANS: And all these decisions you made when you were, you know, 20, 21 years old, when you thought the cool thing to do was be the guy who, well, whatever, but you make that choice when you’re a kid, and you’re still living within those confines as you move through the rest of your life.
STAN: Thinking your career in 2008 was going to be it forever.
EVANS: Oh, god. Tell me about it!
STAN: It’s a decision you have to make for yourself, but when you put it out there so early, it’s… it is very easy to get wrapped up in the wrong thing. All of that comes back to you. I think we both learned that.
EVANS: The hard way, yeah.
STAN: [sighs]
EVANS: It’s hard to change your public image once it’s out there. You know? Established careers by extremely talented people have gone up in flames for less.
STAN: God, what a nightmare.
EVANS: So when we… we put a lot of work into our relationship.
STAN: Hard work.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: [grins]
EVANS: All that hard work, you got it.
STAN: And you can do that all you want, but it doesn’t mean… there’s pressure under all those things.
EVANS: Oh yeah. It’s one thing to [beep] a co-worker, oh [beep] can I say that?
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Here, let me say that again [laughs] because it’s one thing to have a, what, like, a fling or whatever with a co-worker, right?
STAN: [nods]
EVANS: But building a life with someone is-
STAN: Not so easy.
EVANS: Not so easy. You can’t do that with someone you don’t care about.
STAN: What’s the point?
EVANS: Remember how we used to fly all over the place to see each other?
STAN: I do remember that. I have very good memories of that.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: The funny thing is, working for, for, you know, a big company, sometimes people will say, oh, this and that, it’s this person’s fault, or-
EVANS: They’re silencing you!
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: If anything, that made it easier.
STAN: Oh god. Months and months of work, never having to make up an excuse.
EVANS: Right. We had a reason to be in the same place more often than not.
STAN: [grins]
EVANS: What a hardship, seeing you every day.
STAN: A… a charmer.
[cut]
EVANS: I got another one for you [holds up card]
STAN: Oh, make it good.
EVANS: When you look back at your early career, did you ever think you’d get here?
STAN: No.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: There was never that thought!
EVANS: Yeah.
STAN: I thought I would just… just live in Chelsea, and, you know, keep my… my way of life.
EVANS: How was that?
STAN: What?
EVANS: Living in Chelsea.
STAN: In some ways it was interesting. I don’t know what I was doing, but I was having a great time.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: That was four or five years before we met...
EVANS: You were doing movies by that time.
STAN: Just here and there. Nothing like, you know. What we do.
EVANS: No.
STAN: It seems [laughs] it seems like a different life now! Like a story that happened to someone else.
EVANS: I think that was when I first moved out here. Right?
STAN: I wasn’t with you!
EVANS: Was that?... It must have been 2007.
STAN: I was over there! [points in opposite direction]
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: That was right after your first, your first couple big ones, right?
EVANS: That was Fantastic Four, sure.
STAN: During the era of the paparazzi and, what was it?
EVANS: Les Deux.
STAN: God. So great.
EVANS: I hated it!
STAN: Now you post on your… you know. You put your pictures up and like things and share your funny videos.
EVANS: Nobody wants to see messy celebrities anymore.
STAN: No! God, no.
EVANS: That was what you did, though. When I first moved here, I would go out and it definitely wasn’t like it is now [laughs] nobody gave a shit about me. I think at one point we were paying people to take my picture. So embarrassing!
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Because that’s the racket you ran, right?
STAN: Things were different where I was.
EVANS: It was a million dollar a night industry. I only got caught in the fringes of it, but god [squints] I hated it. I hated it!
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: New York had better parties.
STAN: Oh, the best.
EVANS: But even after that first round of success, you know, it changed some things. I bought my first house. Scott moved out here with me.
STAN: Your brother.
EVANS: We, you know. We really lived it up.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: And when I look back at that time now, had it not been for our relationship, I don’t think I would have protected myself as well as I did in the years that followed.
STAN: Yeah, sure. I think we both used to do that.
EVANS: We did.
STAN: Even while we were shooting the first movie.
EVANS: Yeah.
STAN: I felt very strange after that movie came out.
EVANS: [nods]
STAN: Thinking, you know, are you going to be the one…
EVANS: Who sells me out to TMZ [laughs]
STAN: It was always a possibility!
EVANS: Can I tell you a secret?
STAN: Of course.
EVANS: You’re the only person I’ve ever sent a picture of my [beep] [beep] [beep] to.
STAN: Oh god [laughing, covering face]
EVANS: That’s romantic. Right? Am I right?
STAN: I don’t know about that…
EVANS: It is. It is, babe!
STAN: One day I’ll sell my whole collection.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: Chris Evans... one of a kind photographs. Well… well lit.
[cut]
EVANS: I would say we make a great team.
STAN: Well…
EVANS: Excuse me?
STAN: Your brother Scott and I do get you every time.
EVANS: You cheat! You cheat together!
STAN: Lisa and I have also been known to give you a run for your… your money.
EVANS: I was talking about work! And life!
STAN: I’m talking about empty those pockets.
EVANS: Wow.
STAN: [laughs] Actually, I’m talking about card games.
EVANS: We make a great team there, too.
STAN: You’re very competitive.
EVANS: I was going to say something nice about it.
STAN: Oh, say that.
EVANS: No way! Get out of here.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: [aggressively flips through cards]
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Oh, I do have one here for you.
STAN: What does it say!
EVANS: It says I think it’s very interesting that you always win Monopoly. Care to say something about that?
STAN: Gotta get that thimble.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: I actually am mad right now.
STAN: I can tell.
EVANS: [looks at producer behind camera] And he does cheat with my mother.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: [aggressively shuffles cards again]
STAN: Chris is always the banker.
EVANS: Yes! I am. I am! And it’s for a good reason.
STAN: It’s very easy to sneak a little… a little hundred. A little fifty!
EVANS: He charms his way into my pockets.
STAN: I’ve told you this before!
EVANS: People are going to think you’re being serious.
STAN: I am serious! I’m leaving with your fortune and the dog.
EVANS: My fortune!
STAN: All that… all that Fantastic money.
EVANS: If you want what I made from that, I think I have most of it right here… [pretends to dig wallet out of front pocket]
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Superhero movies weren’t what they are now!
STAN: You’re telling me! I think I bought a coffee with my first paycheck!
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: That’s why I had to move in with Captain America.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: Just two men, sharing a… a four story walk-up in Bed-Stuy.
EVANS: Two Brooklyn boys.
STAN: [smiles]
EVANS: [holds cards up to block face] Do you think they were…
STAN: [mouths] What?
EVANS: [quietly] Buddies.
STAN: Buddies. War… time… buddies.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: Just two friends.
EVANS: Good friends.
STAN: [laughs] I’m not gonna have a job after this.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: [reaches for water]
[cut]
EVANS: This card wants me to ask you what your first impression of me was.
STAN: The card says that?
EVANS: [flips the card around]
STAN: That’s a very interesting question.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: [glances at camera] What is the rating for this show…
[indistinct chatter off-screen]
EVANS: Oops.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Cut to me talking about [beep] guys and [beep] [beep].
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Did you seriously say PG?
[continuing chatter off-screen]
STAN: She said PG!
EVANS: Wow.
STAN: Better… better watch my words. I’ll speak very carefully.
EVANS: I can’t tell where this is going.
STAN: I’m going to say something mean, and then I’m going to say something nice.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: Actually-
EVANS: Oh my god, Seb.
STAN: Actually [laughs] the first impression I had of you were those pictures. Those pictures… do you remember?
EVANS: Which? What?
STAN: You know what’s very funny? I’m just remembering this part now.
EVANS: Seb!
STAN: This was that night in Chelsea!
EVANS: [groans]
STAN: No, let me add this to… what I said before, because I was out with friends! [pulls out phone and unlocks the screen] I was out with friends, and they were talking all this about… about this guy. An actor!
EVANS: You are killing me with this story.
[producers audibly laughing off-screen]
STAN: God, can you… can you put this so everyone can see it?
EVAN: Seb!
[STAN shows the camera his phone -- pictures of EVANS circa 2004]
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: I’m red. I can tell. I can feel it.
STAN: You look great! Look at him. This was the picture my friend showed me that night, and then I banged into that arm coming out of the bathroom! My god. Can you believe that?
EVANS: [smiling, still embarrassed]
STAN: I thought you were very… handsome. In that club.
EVANS: I was probably [blocks side of mouth with card] druuuunk.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Okay, you can put your phone away now.
STAN: Oh I have other ones I can show!
EVANS: No way! No way. No way, Seb.
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Can I talk about you now?
STAN: [grins] Sure.
EVANS: The first impression I had of you -- wow.
STAN: [smiles]
EVANS: We were in London, and it was the first day of stunt training. I was so nervous. So nervous. I just remember the fear, being homesick. Then-
STAN: Then you met me for the third time!
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: You were very charming.
EVANS: [laughs] It didn’t feel like it!
STAN: You were. I thought oh, this Chris Evans…
EVANS: [smiles] I have very fond memories of that time.
STAN: It was a unique thing to be doing. The other movies I did were… well, they were all of this and that, scheduling, on location, big crew, lots of cast, but that First Avenger… it was so different. We were in a bubble.
EVANS: Very insular. Me, you, Hailey, Dominic, our whole cast and crew. It was just this family we had, because very few of us knew anybody.
STAN: I came by myself!
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: Somewhere out there Anthony Mackie is making a joke to himself.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: I’m going to check my phone when this airs.
EVANS: God. I wish I had an embarrassing picture of you to show everyone.
STAN: Oh, they’re only one Google away! You don’t have to look too hard!
EVANS: [laughs]
[cut]
STAN: When I told my friends we were doing this, they asked me, why now?
EVANS: It is a good question.
STAN: I said, I don’t know! [laughs]
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: I think there are… there are too many reasons to list.
EVANS: Yeah. Where do you even start with something like this?
STAN: We were talking about it a few years ago.
EVANS: That’s right, we were. It’s been a slow process. As a public figure, you’re kind of, you know. Commodified. When you make a decision like this, god, it’s this long, arduous process. I remember the first person I told was my publicist.
STAN: That was eight months ago.
EVANS: Eight months ago! It goes through all of these channels, your whole team, everyone in your business. My financial advisor [laughs]
STAN: He said, I do not advise this!
EVANS: Let me do a couple more things first!
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Then, you know. Up the ladder, down the ladder. Then the strategy starts.
STAN: Your mom wanted you to go tell Kelly Ripa, for some reason.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: Some nice… morning news.
EVANS: That was the whole other thing! Then you got the commodification of dropping the bomb. Who gets to make the money first? What do you do after?
STAN: It really is a whole process [sighs]
EVANS: We’ve taken our time with it. I think, with any relationship, you want to make sure you’re very comfortable in what you’re doing together. Because once it’s out there…
STAN: It becomes a little bit of something for everyone.
EVANS: That’s right.
STAN: All of that is… it’s the reality of it. That was where we went back and forth for a long time, thinking… maybe we can just keep it to ourselves.
EVANS: But that isn’t the reality of it.
STAN: [shrugs]
EVANS: Because, and this goes back to what we were talking about before, there’s that established public image you build up over the years. For me, for us, specifically, it was true, because you know, that is the nature of the beast.
STAN: A lot of money going into these movies.
EVANS: A lot of money. You and I, specifically, had hit a sweet spot in that sense, you know, we got to this place where we were straight enough-
STAN: [suddenly laughs]
EVANS: I mean it!
STAN: I know! I know, it just, it sounds…
EVANS: This is it, Seb.
STAN: I’m listening.
EVANS: We were straight enough for, you know. Popular audiences. What?
STAN: What?
EVANS: You’re giving me a weird… Seb!
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: [holds cards up to block STAN]
STAN: Hey!
EVANS: [laughing, hiding behind cards]
STAN: I want to see you!
EVANS: Get out of here.
EVANS AND STAN: [fumbling around with cards]
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: [laughs]
[cut]
EVANS: I want to finish my answer!
STAN: Finish it!
EVANS: Ready?
STAN: [grins and raises eyebrows]
EVANS: [laughs] It was a balancing act. Part of that was overcorrecting, fumbling our way through it… but you hit the right note enough times, suddenly you’re everyone’s boyfriend.
STAN: The man who belongs to the whole world.
EVANS: Yeah.
STAN: That is funny. You said the word for that the other day.
EVANS: What?
STAN: When it’s one-sided…
EVANS: Parasocial.
STAN: Oh, that’s it. This phenomenon! It’s very… you know, you meet these people, and they know you.
EVANS: Yeah.
STAN: They do, really. Every part of yourself you put out there, they see it. Then the pieces you keep to yourself become very… very private. Because whatever you put out there, it goes. It goes off, and everyone runs through it, you know, I like this about him, or I don’t, and I believe this, or I don’t, and by the time it comes back to you, it isn’t yours anymore.
EVANS: Yeah.
STAN: I think I pushed back against this more than you did. You wanted to do it.
EVANS: [shrugs]
STAN: Which is very funny to me, because historically, you know… I’ve had to get better about it, but historically, I’m very out there. You’re not.
EVANS: Yeah.
STAN: But the things I keep to myself, you know, they’re… they’re mine.
EVANS: [gently smiles]
STAN: It was never a question of -- you know. After all that?
EVANS: [smiling bigger]
STAN: [laughs] After all that, I knew we were staying together.
EVANS: Yeah.
STAN: I’m not worried about breaking peoples hearts five years down the line.
EVANS: Oh, we for sure have at least ten in us.
STAN: [laughs] Just ten?
[cut]
STAN: What is next for you, Chris Evans?
EVANS: Are we talking tonight, or?...
STAN: This card doesn’t specify!
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Well, what sounds good?
STAN: What’s that place on Laurel Canyon?
EVANS: [gasps] Oh, with the ribs?
STAN: Yes. My god.
EVANS: That answers that question. Next!
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: I have a final one for you. This one is from me.
STAN: Say it.
EVANS: When are you going to tell me your middle name?
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Why the mystery, Seb? I wanna know!
STAN: I did say-
EVANS: You said you would one day! Here's your chance, babe!
STAN: [laughs]
EVANS: Get ready. Put it on the record.
STAN: Oh, on the record?
EVANS: What? What is it?
STAN: I'll tell you later! It's very good. You'll... you'll like it.
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: You will be... I think you will be surprised.
EVANS: What does that mean!
STAN: It's all very mysterious. I'll tell you. Maybe ten more years down the line, if we make it that far, apparently!
EVANS: [laughs]
STAN: My god, all these plus ones I won’t be able to get out of now, and you want to know my middle name?
EVANS: That’s the luck of the draw, doll!
STAN: [laughs]
[fade out to cheery music, white text on a black background]
[title card: Variety Studio Actors on Actors]
*
It’s dark by the time they leave the studio.
“Did you call Mike back?” Seb asks, looking through all the missed notifications on his phone.
Chris stretches one arm all the way out the window to poke the security code into the gate that will let them out.
They’re way out in Glendale, a valley full of nothing but production lots, fenced in compounds, and glossy black luxury cars. It’s so green and manicured, the haze of the grey city out in the horizon looks violent.
“Mike?” he asks, looking confusedly over at Seb as they wait for the gate to open. Seb doesn’t look up from his phone. “Did he call me?”
Seb just shrugs. “Christine said he did.”
“I’ll call him when we get home.” It’s been a long day, but Chris wouldn’t mind cracking a beer and sitting outside for a while. They’re both quiet, just the gentle sound of the car accelerating as Chris hits the first merge to the freeway. Then he abruptly announces, “I don’t remember anything I said.”
He means it, too. The second those lights went on, everything went blank.
“You were very charming,” Seb laughs. “They said we did great.”
Chris doesn’t believe people like Seb believes people. He makes Seb laugh again as he says, “It’s their job to say that!”
“Well, I thought you were very handsome.” Chris will take his word on that. “Thank god for those cards.”
First Chris laughs, then he cuts himself off to groan and squeeze the steering wheel.
“It was so weird,” he finally settles on saying.
Seb reaches for his free hand, and Chris lets him take it, as he adds, “A little out of the body, right?”
“Yes!” That’s exactly it. At one point Chris felt like he was up in the ceiling. He starts laughing again, this time a little hysterical. “Well, I can’t believe we did that!”
He feels Seb pick his hand up and bring it to his mouth. Chris’s eyes are on the road -- mostly -- but he glances over with a smile when he feels Seb smack a kiss to the flat part of his thumb and then the side of his wrist.
“Guess that means it’s serious,” Seb teases. “No going back on me now, Evans.”
With a grin, Chris glances over, eyebrow raised. “Is that a proposition?”
“What? Going back on me? I got another direction you can go.”
“Oh I thought you were asking for something, maybe a little something for that finger.”
The truly horrified look Seb gives him sends Chris off into hysterical laughter.
“No thanks,” he says politely.
Chris laughs some more and dramatically yanks Seb’s hand over, folding his elbow over Seb’s whole arm and pressing Seb’s knuckles against his nose.
They sit quietly for a little while. When their exit comes up, Chris switches across six lanes of traffic to get there, and then tries to figure out where they’re going when the exit ramp suddenly becomes an intersection.
“It’s this left right?” he asks, still holding onto Seb’s arm with the hand not on the wheel.
Seb leans forward to squint up at the street signs. “I think the next one.”
“I wonder if they’ll let you in like that,” Chris laughs, glancing over.
They left all their fancy clothes with wardrobe back at the studio, so Seb is just in sweats and a t-shirt. This place they ordered dinner from is way fancy, Seb took him for the first time a couple months ago and they’ve gone back for just the ribs a couple times since.
“They better!” Seb shoves his hips up off the seat, and Chris glances over, gaze automatically going to his dick. “These are Balmain!”
Chris squints and looks back at the road. “Who’s that?”
“You know what Balmain is.”
“How do I know that?!”
“Someone has definitely put you in it before. Maybe even me.”
“Fuck, is this it?” Chris belatedly flips his turn signal on.
“It’s right there.” Seb points across the street. “Oh there’s a spot.”
Chris dips them into the loading zone right outside the restaurant and flips the locks open.
“I’ll be right back,” Seb announces, grabbing a hoodie out of the back seat before he pops the door open and climbs out.
Chris idles at the curb, staring at nothing, and -- yeah, it’s what Seb said. A little out of body. God, they’ve been planning this for months, and now it’s done, and in a few weeks everyone is gonna know about it.
He startles when Seb tries to open the door again, and then knocks on the window for Chris to unlock it.
“Wow,” he says a minute later, taking one of the two bags Seb hands over. “Damn, that smells good.”
Seb drops into his seat and gets the door shut again. “I’m so hungry!”
“Where should we go?” Chris asks, pulling the paper bag open with one curled finger. He peers inside, and oh yeah, there they are. Seb takes the bag back and sticks them both between his feet on the floor. “Mulholland?”
Seb gasps and looks over, wide-eyed. “Oh yeah.”
They drive out of downtown LA and back to the hills. Ten minutes in, Seb cracks the box of fries open and alternates between holding one out for Chris and eating them himself. Chris leans over and opens his mouth and laughs when Seb sticks a fry in it.
The place they usually park at is actually pretty close to home. It’s got the best view of the city and reminds Chris why he does what he does every time he sees it.
“Remember the first time we came up here?” Seb asks, reading Chris’s mind, as they twist around another hairpin into a curve. He laughs and adds, “You were so nervous!”
Chris laughs too -- because he was. That was when he asked Seb to move into his place here. It took him at least a month to work up the nerve and 5 seconds for Seb to say “yes.”
“I never lived with anyone before!” Chris defends himself, grimacing when someone comes around the corner and abruptly blasts them both in the face. “God, why do people leave their fucking high beams on?”
Seb laughs. “You know what it is?”
“What?”
“Maybe we were a little slow to start, but we really kicked it into high gear. It was just one year, and there I went, from a handsome New York bachelor to a man with a significant other and his orange dog.”
Chris sneaks a smile his way. “A bachelor who was only getting one dick.”
“Hey, that was necessity,” Seb says back dramatically. “Why would I be looking around for some when I had the best on speed dial!”
Chris grins and shifts around, giving himself a little more room. “Did I ever tell you this? The last guy I fucked was right before the second movie -- he looked like you, actually.”
“How much like me?”
“Well, I missed you more after.”
Seb sounds genuinely touched as he laughs and says, “Aww. You should have said that in the interview!”
“What?” Chris is scandalized. He rolls into a parking spot and pushes the engine button dramatically. “No way!”
Laughing, Seb starts digging out the food, putting the ribs open on the dashboard, balancing the rest of the fries and the box of salad on the console. Right as Chris is about to ask if he got drinks, he pulls out two cans of something fancy with paper lids.
“Are you worried what people will think?” Seb asks a few minutes later, and there it is, the question they’ve been avoiding asking each other all day, and here Chris is with spicy rib sauce all over his face and both hands. “What they’ll say?”
Chris squints down into his food. He finally answers a, “Yeah.”
“Me too.” Seb looks over at him, those big eyes in the dark. “I think I’m scared.”
It’s not easy. Chris offers a soft smile, eye contact, and sucks his thumb off before he reaches across to squeeze Seb’s shoulder.
“I am too,” Chris says softly. “It’s fucking scary, Seb.”
Seb is still looking at him. “If something happens and it’s really bad…”
“Then we’ll figure it out.” Chris lets go of Seb’s shoulder, and goes back to his ribs. This is the easy part. Cause that’s all there is. The only option is to get through it. “These shoulders are pretty strong at holding stuff up, you know.”
Laughing, Seb raises his eyebrows and says, “Oh, I do know.”
They both go quiet, grins on their faces, and get back to eating. Chris dumps half of the salad into the container of regular ribs in his lap, and then stretches to do the same to Seb’s spicy rib. He also takes another spicy one while he’s over there.
“I think the hard part is like…” Chris trails off and stares into the distance, the lights, the same view he’s stared out at forever. He grimaces as he tries to think. “The hard part for me is going to be people who are critical of you.”
Seb looks at him, surprised. “Of me?!”
“Yeah.” Chris laughs at the grimace on Seb’s whole face. “It’ll happen.”
It’s an understatement. All the people who are convinced they’re going to marry Chris will be sorely mistaken when all this gets out there.
“Hmm,” Seb says to that, chewing on a rib.
Chris smiles over at him, fond. He is very protective of Seb and he knows the hardest part about all of this is going to be white knuckling it through the first couple of months. He’s going to have to stop drinking -- or have someone take his passwords away from him when he does, just in case.
“On the plus side,” Chris says, waiting until Seb looks over at him. “Now I don’t have to take Scott as my date all the time.”
Seb laughs at that, and easily replies, “Oh no, don’t let me interfere with that plus one.”
“Babe,” Chris crabs, and Seb laughs again.