renaissanceman | [ for brooke ]

Entry tags:

brokeback,
brooke

[ for brooke ]

"All right, try this one," says Priestly, cutting an end off the chocolate banana loaf and holding it out to her.

His baking class is over for the term, which means Priestly feels ready to add a few new items to his repertoire, both here at the compound and down at the Winchester. After all, baked goods do well at breakfast, and who doesn't like dessert? Dessert is like his in with... well, whatever he needs an in with. The cool parties or whatever.

"Do you think it needs more banana?" Bananas they have a lot of. Chocolate, not so much. "Do you think I should try a banana coffee cake? I bet I could do that." Already he's scanning the counter to see if he has all the necessary ingredients. "So what was that you were saying about the thing that happened? Oh, hey, don't choke or anything, you can swallow before answering."

Heh. Swallow.

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Brooke's spoken of so many things in quick succession that she honestly can't remember what she stopped on for banana bread, which is just fine because she's far from done.

"Well," she says around her mouthful, "you know how there's like, a serious shortage of proper bathtubs around here? Sometimes I like to sneak over and use the guys', you know?" She licks a bit of chocolate from the end of her thumb and keeps going. "It's never in use, since none of you seem to believe in the healing power of a bubblebath. Except this morning it wasn't. I threw back the curtain and there was this adorable curly haired man there, playing with a toy sailboat." She grabs the bag of flour from Priestly's hand to mimic a sailing ship. "Just like that!"

"You mean a kid, right?" says Priestly, reaching for the bananas now that his hands are free and breaking off a couple from the bunch. "Like, a little kid, not a grown up? Not that there's anything wrong with toys in the bathtub, if you're into that kind of thing. Just, you know, usually a different kind of toy, once you're not five anymore. So what did you do?"

"No! A grown man!" Brooke's eyes unfocus a little at the memory. "He was cute, too. I asked if he minded sharing, but he looked like he was going to cry."

"Now that's just a weird thought," he says, breaking himself off his own piece of the banana loaf and trying it out. Hmm, maybe a little too dry. "I mean, you'd think a cute, naked guy in a bathtub would be hot, not, you know. Crying and playing with toy sailboats."

"Well, I would," says Brooke, digging her toe into Priestly's butt when he swings it near enough. "What's your excuse?"

Priestly's usually quick with the one-liners, but if there's one thing that gets him flustered lately, it's this. "Hey, a guy can speculate," he says finally, looking for the coffee beans and glad for an excuse not to have to meet her eyes. "If I was naked in a bathtub it would be hot."

When he turns from the cupboard, Brooke is right there behind him. "You're blushing," she says, backing him up against the counter. "Or you're allergic to bananas and I should take you to the clinic, but I think you're blushing."

"I'm not allergic to bananas," says Priestly, looking anywhere but right at her. "And I'm not blushing! It's just hot in here. I've been baking, and you're not helping by talking about naked guys in the tub. Wait. No. That didn't come out right!"

Brooke folds her arms beneath her breasts and stares up at him. "Priestly," she says evenly. "You're blushing. You don't..." She drops her arms all at once and moves back to perch on the countertop, giving him his space.

"You don't have to tell me." But her eyes are sliding to the blush staining his neck, curiosity plain in the set of her mouth.

"Yeah, you say that," says Priestly. Sure, she says that, but then she goes and uses advanced interrogation techniques. Like looking at him and waiting. "So Yorick and I might've gotten drunk this one time and made out in the jungle. Possibly."

The words sink into Brooke's insides like a block of ice. "He didn't say anything." And it hurts. Yorick tells her everything, and Priestly nearly just, and it isn't like they were keeping this from her so much as keeping it to themselves, but Brooke can't seem to stop staring.

"When?"

"At a party? The, uh, the island council thing," he says. "He was having a bad day. We stole some wine. It was... but I'm totally not gay! We were just drunk. And kind of horny. Okay, wow, words keep coming out of my mouth but they're not making it sound any better."

Brooke sits quietly until the stream of word vomit comes to a halt, and then sits quietly some more.

"But...did you talk about it?" she asks finally. "After?" Did they like each other?

"Hell no," says Priestly. "Are you kidding me? No. Okay, this is weird now, right? This is gonna be weird. Cause I did it with a dude. Except not "it"! I mean, no way, we just." He sort of mimes jacking off, embarrassed and half-hearted.

"I think that counts," says Brooke with a tiny smile. "Priestly." She holds out her hand to where he's fidgeting. "Come here."

"Why?" he says suspiciously. "What're you gonna do?" But he doesn't even think about not accepting her hand. Even if he does snag another slice of banana loaf for a bribe, just in case.

Brooke draws him close enough to empty his other hand, holding both gently inside her own. "Have you ever down anything like that with another guy before?"

"What? No!" he says quickly. "No way. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with it, if that's what you're into."

Brooke squeezes his hands. "I think you might be a little into it. Did you have a good time?"

"Well yeah, we--" He mimes a handjob again, this time taking one of her hands with him. "Of course it was a good time. Kind of hard not to be, unless the sex was really bad. Which it wasn't."

"So, to recap...you were both drunk and horny, but decided that you could skip the part where you'd normally go looking for a girl." She pauses, as much to let that sink into her own brain as his. "And you both enjoyed yourselves."

"More or less," says Priestly. He thinks there were some declarations of friendship in there too, but the wine makes the experience a little fuzzy. "At least, I think he enjoyed it. He didn't say he didn't enjoy it."

"Oh Priestly." Brooke pulls his head down to hers, an exasperated sort of fondness moving her to kiss his cheek. "You need to talk to him. He's your friend, and if you want him to stay that way, you need to talk. If you want him to be more, you need to talk." She pulls back. "Either way, you need to talk."

"Talk about it?" he says. "Really? We don't need to talk about it. It was just, you know, one of those things. We're totally fine with it. It's not weird at all."

"For you!" Brooke throws up her hands. "He could be totally smitten and you'd never know! What if he thinks you're ashamed, and that's why he hasn't brought it up." She sticks her finger dangerously close to Priestly's nose. "One of you is going to have to stop being such a boy about all this."

"Dude," says Priestly, finally looking her in the eye, "we are both boys. That's sort of the point. Now c'mon, are you really gonna make me talk to him? Wouldn't you rather I baked you more stuff?"

"I'm not asking you to talk to him for my sake," Brooke murmurs, and for a moment her expression is strangely defeated.

She's seen the way he looks at Yorick sometimes, and the both of them deserve every happiness, with each other or not. Brooke just can't help but wonder when her stupid, hopeful heart is going to release the idea that she'll find something like that for her own.

"Is there any more chocolate?"

He finally grins at her again. "I've been hoarding it," he confesses, like it's a big secret. "I'm learning to seduce people with desserts. Do you think it's working?"

"Well, I'll do just about anything to get it right now, but if you withhold it, that's more likely to mean me kicking your ass."

Brooke smiles sweetly at him. "Does that count?"

"It, uh, it counts for something," says Priestly, and lets it go at that. After all, Brooke's way out of his league. "I could go all-chocolate all the time? Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting?"

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[ for brooke ]

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