Arin wakes up before Dan does. He sits up gently, slipping out of the bed and trying not to wake the older man. He notices that all of the cats occupy the bed as well, and he shakes his head with a smile. He grabs his phone off of the nightstand, checking the time. It's already noon, so he might as well stay up.

Before he leaves for the bathroom, Arin takes a picture of Dan and the cats and sends it to Suzy, making sure to be quiet on his way out so that he doesn't disturb any of them.

In the bathroom, he brushes his teeth, uses the toilet and then strips down for a shower. He starts with a cold one because it usually wakes him up, but he eventually gives in with a sigh and switches the hot water on, basking in the warmth as it cascades over his skin.

When he gets out, he wraps a towel around himself before grabbing his phone and dirty clothes and heading to his bedroom. He dries off, gets dressed, checks twitter, and heads downstairs.

It's weirdly quiet in the house with Dan still asleep. Arin goes and checks the mail before he settles himself down on the couch as he hears his phone go off with a reply from Suzy. He smiles at the screen when he sees it and lets her know how things are going. She asks if he's made any progress with Dan, but truthfully he hasn't even tried and he admits that to her. She warns him that if he doesn't at least try to figure out something, she's going to kick his ass. He laughs when he reads it and tells her that he would willingly let her.

He feels bored after she stops answering, probably getting busy, so he decides to put on the TV. There's nothing that interests him on right now, so instead he just decides to text Ross and Brian and see what they're up to, if they're busy, asking if they want to come over to hang out and have lunch with him and Dan and maybe go somewhere. Brian replies with a "sure, be there soon", and Ross with a "you're up already? lmao" before he agrees to come as well.

Arin also texts and invites Matt and Ryan, though he doesn't hear back from them right away. He wishes he could ask Sean to come, but he doesn't think he's still in the area, although he might be. In any case, Arin gets up in the meantime and starts the coffee for Dan and then heads upstairs to wake him. He steps into the room quietly and makes his way to the edge of the bed, giving the older man a gentle shake or two.

"Hey, Danny, wake up," he says, shaking him a little harder. Dan groans and tries to roll over and ignore him. Arin laughs. "Wake up, ya doof. We're gonna have company so get your butt up and get dressed."

"I don't wanna," Dan whines, but it's muffled by the blankets. Arin's phone chimes, and he checks it to see that Matt has replied at least, saying that they'll be over in about an hour. He shakes Dan again. "Noooo..."

"Ross, Brian, Matt and Ryan are all coming for lunch and to hang out, so get up, Avidan. Don't make me tickle you or something, because you know I fuckin' will, dude."

Dan sighs and rolls back over, blinking up at Arin with sleepy eyes and a cute smile. "Fine, fine, I'll get up," he utters back in defeat. Arin shakes his head at him and backs away as Dan sits up in the bed, rubbing his eyes. "What time is it?"

"A little after noon," Arin answers, turning on his screen and texting Sean to ask if he's gone back home yet or not. "Everyone is coming to eat and hang out and maybe we'll go somewhere, play mini golf or go bowling or do karaoke or something, I don't fuckin' know yet. I'm gonna make a salad for lunch before they get here if you wanna help me cut some shit up."

"Mm, fun," Dan chuckles, stretching before pushing away the blankets. Arin forgot that he's barely dressed and his eyes immediately lock onto Dan's showing skin. He flushes before he looks away and back at his phone. "Do you mind grabbing something out of my duffle bag for me to put on?"

"Sure," Arin replies, trying to sound distracted with other things even though he isn't. He pockets his phone and walks over to where the duffle bag sits on the floor, unzipping it and pulling out a random shirt and a pair of Dan's jeans. He tosses them to Dan, who catches them and stands up. "I'm gonna leave you to get dressed, but by the way- dude, you know you can use the shower, right?"

Dan giggles a little, his wild mess of curls bouncing as he bends down to step into his jeans. "What the hell are you trying to say, Arin? That I smell or something? Well fine then, fuck you. That's mean."

Arin laughs, leaning against the wall. "I'm just saying," he hums as he shrugs, crossing his arms. "I do still have a shower. You still can use it. That's why it's there, man. I'm just letting you know in case you might want to, I don't know, not smell."

Dan rolls his eyes and purses his lips, fingers stopping before he can fully button up his jeans. "I might actually take you up on the offer," he says, flinging his shirt over his shoulder. "There's still towels in the cabinet, right? Behind the bathroom door?" Arin nods, and so does Dan. "Alright, cool, I'll be downstairs in a few minutes."

He disappears into the bathroom, so Arin heads downstairs to make the salad. He chops up most of the veggies and cooks up the chicken first. His phone buzzes in his pocket as he dices up the tomato, startling him. The knife slips and accidentally jabs into the palm of his hand, slicing part of it and drawing blood.

"Goddammit, son of a fucking bitch," he swears loudly, reaching for his phone. The text is from Sean, letting him know that he's still around but will be leaving tomorrow morning to go back to Brighton. Arin one-handedly texts him and asks if he wants to hang out and have lunch with everyone, probably making too many typos but hoping that his auto-correct fixes them all.

With the text sent, he heads upstairs, stopping in front of the bathroom door to knock lightly. He doesn't get a response, so he knocks again but harder.

"Yeah?" he hears Dan call out from the shower, but the noise mostly drowns him out. "Arin?"

Arin opens the door a crack. "Hey, can I come in?" he asks, but before Dan replies, he pushes the door further open. "Sorry man, I didn't know if you could hear me or not."

Dan's head pops out from behind the curtain. "What do you need?" he questions as Arin opens up the medicine cabinet, rooting through and looking for the bandaids. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just accidentally cut myself because my phone scared the shit out of me," he grumbles, sighing once he finds the bandaids. He closes the medicine cabinet and meets Dan's eyes briefly in the reflection of the foggy mirror. "Don't worry, it's not that bad. Suze and I don't keep our first aid stuff in the downstairs bathroom though, so I'm sorry for fuckin' barging in and shit."

"Arin, I swear to god," Dan starts as he disappears back behind the curtain, sounding almost disappointed in him, "If I have to take you to the hospital again and explain it all to Suzy, I'm standing back and letting her kick your ass this time."

"She's already gonna kick my ass at this rate," Arin mumbles, shaking his head. Dan doesn't hear it, the sound of the shower drowning out Arin's voice. The younger clears his throat and speaks louder when he talks next. "I don't need to go to the hospital."

"Lemme see it," Dan utters as he looks out from behind the shower curtain once again. Arin steps closer, uncurling his fingers and looking down at his hand. There's a smallish cut there by his thumb, but it must be pretty deep since blood is gushing everywhere. "Jesus Christ, Arin, what the fuck?"

Dan reaches out and takes Arin's hand into his own, looking and trying to see how deep it is. The younger of the two winces and tries to pull his hand away as Dan's finger touches too close to it, but the older man doesn't let him.

"It's not really that bad, right?" Arin asks him even as a drop or two of blood fall to the tiles. "It's just bleeding a lot, but I've dealt with worse so it'll be fine with just a fuckin' bandaid or something, right?"

"I don't know, but here," Dan says as he pulls Arin forward until his hand is underneath the shower spray, letting the water wash away the blood down the drain. "I can't see with all this blood everywhere, so let's just rinse this off."

Dan hums a little and Arin finds himself blushing, unsure of where to look without seeming weird or making things awkward, so he just settles for looking at the water hitting his hand to be safe. When the area is clean enough to see the cut better, Dan inspects it for a moment and then gently lets go of Arin's hand.

"Just put some neosporin on it and a bandaid and you should be okay," he tells him as he fixes the curtain, "I mean, I'm not a doctor but- whatever, you know, just be careful, dude. I swear, if Suzy comes back and you're more fucked up than when she left, she'll actually murder me."

They both find themselves laughing at that. Arin returns to the medicine cabinet to get the neosporin before he stops at the open door. "I'm gonna leave you now and go finish making this. Hurry up, because Sean might be coming too."

"Oh, really? Sweet, I'm almost done."

Arin nods, forgetting Dan can't see him. He closes the door on his way out and heads back to the kitchen where he left his phone. Sean has already texted him back saying that he'd love to come and see them before he has to leave so he'll be around soon.

Arin bandages himself up and finishes cutting up the ingredients for the salad, making sure to keep everything separate since they all don't like the same things. On the countertop he has a bowl of lettuce, bags of fresh baby spinach and raw broccoli, shredded carrots, diced tomatoes, bell peppers and onions, pre-cooked cubed chicken, chopped celery, and then other toppings like cheese, dried cranberries, nuts, bacon bits, etc.

He feels super good and accomplished with it all ready, and just then he turns when he hears Dan's footsteps as the older man descends down the steps.

Arin grins at him. "What took you so long?" he asks as Dan makes his way over. "I thought you'd just said you were almost done!"

"Oh, sorry, I was just jerkin' off," Dan jokes in response, but Arin rolls his eyes. "You know, the usual."

"Liar. You've told me you don't do that in the shower because your legs get too weak."

Dan holds up his hands in defeat. "Ah well, right you are, my silly baby bear, you got me. The boring, truthful answer is that the water just felt really good, like... I'm not gonna lie. It was like a warm, wet hug."

Arin waves his hand around, dismissive. "Whatever, just come check this shit out, dude," he utters, gesturing for Dan to come closer, the older laughing as he does.

"I hope none of what we're eating has your blood on it," Dan starts, but whatever he's going to say next dies immediately when he sees everything that Arin has gotten ready for lunch. "Whoa, babe, you really went all out. It actually looks so fuckin' good."

Arin's heart beats faster at the pet name, almost wishing that he could get a hug from behind and a kiss on the cheek right about now. "Well yeah, I mean... thanks," he says, looking at everything with his hands on his hips. "Everyone is coming over so why not? I might make chicken parm tonight for us too depending on when everyone wants to go home and when we get back if we do go out."

"Mm, hell yeah," Dan sighs dreamily, moving to the fridge to get a drink before he takes a seat at the island. "I'm so hungry and everything sounds so good, you don't even know. When are they supposed to be getting here again?"

Before Arin can answer, Brian lightly knocks on the front door and then just walks in. "Speak of the devil," the youngest of them all laughs as Brian walks into the kitchen. "Hey Brian, I made salad."

"Hey Bri," Dan murmurs with a grin and a wave. Brian nods at the both of them, standing in the kitchen with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey guys, why so much food?" the oldest man asks before he takes a seat at the island beside Dan, patting him on the back in a half-hug. "Where's Suzy at?"

"Well," Arin starts as he gets Brian something to drink, "Ross, Matt, Ryan and Sean are all supposed to be coming over too and I don't know if Sean is bringing his girlfriend Evelien or not, but I made enough so we could all eat and then maybe we can go out and do something. And Suzy is at her twin sister, Jean's house. She won't be back for a couple more days."

Brian nods wordlessly and thanks Arin as the drink is passed to him. They all sit and chat for awhile until Ross arrives and they explain to him why they're waiting and what the plan is. He sits on the kitchen floor and plays with Otto, only somewhat participating in the conversation.

Matt, Ryan and Sean all show up at the same time. When Arin answers the door, he greets them and leads them inside. Everyone puts together their own salads the way they like and find somewhere to sit down and eat, chit-chatting in between bites.

"So..." Sean utters after he puts his bowl into the sink, sliding up next to Arin, "What are we doing now? Got any plans?"

"Mm-" Dan swallows his bite before he speaks. "Well, Arin suggested mini-golf, bowling or karaoke. I'm fuckin' cool with any of them honestly." At that, Ryan and Brian both nod in agreement.

"Honestly," Matt pipes up from his spot beside Ryan on the couch, "I could go for bowling or karaoke, but I suck at mini-golf."

"I agree," Ross chimes in as he helps himself to some more salad. "I'm leaning more towards karaoke though because that's always fun. And the bowling alley food and drinks tend to be more overpriced so it just kinda sucks."

"So we're going with karaoke?" Sean asks as he looks at Arin, and Arin just shrugs in response. "Cool, I think it's settled then; karaoke it is."

With the decision made, they all file out into two separate vehicles- Arin, Dan, Brian and Sean in one, and then Matt with Ryan and Ross in the other. Traffic isn't that bad this time of day, so they get to the place quicker than they had expected to and find somewhere to park before they all head inside together.

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