Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Can you pretend to be my date so my parents will shut up?”

Ethan blinked, looking at Remus in confusion as he slowly lowered his cup back on the table.

“What?”

Remus groaned, looking up at him from where he was holding his head in his hands.

“Now that Roman has found a boyfriend my parents keep not so subtly asking when I’m finally gonna bring someone home, so I need you to pretend to be my partner during Thanksgiving break to get them off my back. Please? You’re literally the only one I can ask who is also free during that week.”

Ethan fought down a wince at Remus’ words -it wasn’t a secret that he wasn’t exactly on good terms with his family, but having it so blatantly pointed out to him still wasn’t pleasant.

“Sorry,” Remus sighed, “but still, please? I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll even stop stealing your deodorant if you ask me to.”

“Well, how can I say no to that,” Ethan rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping from his words. Then, he turned to look at Remus, and immediately realized his mistake.

Remus had brought out the puppy dog eyes, and if there was one thing Ethan couldn’t resist it was the way the other pushed his lip forward and looked at him all wide-eyed and pleading. God, why did he ever believe anything good would ever come out of Remus’ friendship with Patton?

Ethan sighed, sagging on his seat as he sent his friend a half-hearted glare.

“Oh, alright you sewer rat,” he finally agreed, looking everything but pleased. “But you owe me big time, you hear me?”

“Hell yeah, thank you so much, E!” Remus cheered, jumping up from his seat to throw his arms around his friend. “I knew I could count on you!”

Ethan grumbled something under his breath, turning his head to the side to hide the faint blush on his cheeks.

An entire week pretending to be his crush’s boyfriend without outing their scheme or losing his mind? Oh yeah, he could totally do that.

(Spoiler alert: he very much could not, and lying to himself was not going to change the reality of his situation anytime soon.)

Surprisingly enough, Ethan managed to survive most of the week without letting his gigantic crush on Remus compromise their ruse. It helped that the entire family seemed to focus more on the other couple present, with Roman and Emile being all sweet and romantic at any chance available and making what felt like the entire house aw in delight.

Ethan was pretty sure he was going to get cavities by the end of the week because of them, but at least he didn’t have all that attention focused on him.

The Incident went down on the Friday after Thanksgiving, with everyone chilling around the house and half-heartedly munching on leftovers after spending an entire day eating enormous quantities of food. Ethan had to give it to them -if there was one thing the Grimm family excelled at, it was cooking.

Remus and Ethan had been chilling on the floor in front of the couch when everything started.

Roman, who had been sitting just a few feet away from them, had suddenly perked up as the firsts note of “Can’t help falling in love” flowed out of the speakers, grinning from ear to ear as he jumped on his feet. He reached up to gently grab Emile’s arm, pulling his boyfriend up with him in a flurry of giggles before guiding him in a slow dance around the living room.

Ethan watched them with an amused smile, noticing how Roman was murmuring the lyrics just for Emile to ear as they dance around with equal, smitten smiles on their face. If Ethan were a little more childish, he would have probably gagged at the sight. As it was, he knew he could count on his dear (fake) boyfriend to properly express their feelings, fighting down a chuckle as Remus fake-gagged to his heart’s content.

“Remus, hush,” his mother called from the couch, a smile on her face as she looked fondly at the dancing couple.

“You should invite your boyfriend to dance too!” Ryan -Remus and Roman’s little cousin- piped up, grinning innocently at them from where he was playing on his switch.

Ethan stiffened just slightly, feeling a twinge of panic come to life in his chest -dancing with Remus to such a romantic song? He was pretty sure he would end up doing something very stupid like act on his feelings, and he was not quite ready to face the following rejection just yet.

“Ry, I’m pretty sure Roman might kill me if I were to steal his spotlight right now,” Remus shot back, using the arm he had around Ethan’s shoulder to give him a reassuring squeeze.

Ethan felt his heart skip a beat at the small gesture, once again melting inside at the way Remus did everything in his power to keep him from anything that could make him uncomfortable.

“You still want to, though!” Ryan snickered.

“Never said I didn’t,” Remus answered, rolling his eyes at his cousin’s attempts to embarrass him.

Ethan knew it was all fake. He knew Remus was just playing the part, that there was no truth in his words. And yet, he couldn’t stop the way his heart fluttered at the other’s words, eyes widening just slightly as he looked up on instinct.

Big, big mistake.

Remus stared back, blinking down at Ethan in surprise. Their faces were barely inches apart, mismatched eyes drowning in green as Ethan’s heartbeat thundered in his chest. He couldn’t help the way his eyes flickered briefly to Remus’ lips, their breaths intermingling with how close they were.

God, he really wanted to kiss Remus. All he needed was to lean up just a little bit, to erase those few inches left and get it over with.

“Ew, are you two gonna kiss??”

Ethan reeled back, almost falling with his back to the ground with the force of the sudden movement. Remus looked at him in confusion and something else shining in his eyes, making Ethan’s heart do somersaults in his chest as his mind reeled with a thousand thoughts.

“I need-” he choked out, ignoring the sudden worry in his friend’s gaze as he stumbled to his feet. “Sorry, I think I need some air.”

And he walked out of the room, barely keeping himself from running towards the back porch until he was out of sight.

God, he should have never agreed to this.

Ethan didn’t turn around as he heard the door that led to the back porch slide open, keeping his eyes fixed forward while hugging his knees closer to his chest.

“Can I ask you something?” Remus asked, sitting down beside him.

“You already did,” Ethan muttered in response, not quite able to stop the twitch of his lips as Remus’ laughter filled the air. Damn him and his hopeless crush.

“No but seriously, can I?”

Ethan sighed, shrugging. “Yeah, I guess you can.”

“Were you going to kiss me, back there?”

Ethan stiffened, still refusing to look at Remus as he picked at the hem of his pants.

“I…” he started, searching for the right words. On one side, he could deny everything, blame it on wanting to keep up with their ruse until he could maybe convince himself of it too. But on the other hand… he was getting tired of lying.

“I didn’t want our first kiss to be a lie,” he finally whispered, low enough Remus had to strain his ears to catch it.

Silence filled the air, stretching on for the longest seconds of Ethan’s life. And then, Remus chuckled.

“And what if it wasn’t?” he asked, making Ethan’s head snap up and whip around to look at him.

“What…?”

“Honestly E, you should be the one with the braincell between us!” Remus grinned, eyes twinkling under the setting sun in a way that made Ethan’s heart stutter in his chest. “Man, and here I thought I was being too obvious!”

Ethan’s mind was reeling , trying to get his head around the meaning of Remus’ words.

“But- You-” he tried, waving his hands around in frustration as he tried to formulate a coherent sentence.

Remus chuckled, reaching out with one hand to cup the other’s cheek. “Can I kiss you, E?”

Ethan froze, words dying in his throat as he processed the question. Then, he nodded, cheeks flaming red as he subtly leaned into the contact.

And then they were kissing, soft and sweet as the sun slowly fell over the horizon just in front of them. Ethan clutched at Remus’ shirt, sighing through his nose as he melted in Remus’ arms.

“So,” Remus murmured once he drew back, grinning from ear to ear, “ready to head back in, boyfriend?”

Ethan hummed in thought, suddenly leaning forward to steal another quick kiss before pulling back with a smirk.

“Why, boyfriend, I believe I am.”