Work Text:
Truth Be Told
"Hey," Michael says, closing the door behind him. "You beat me home."
Eric is lounging on the couch. "That's what happens when one person goes somewhere else first and the other person comes straight here."
He's almost surprised he can say it without grinning. "Really? I didn't know anybody came straight here."
"Ha, ha. That's a good point. In fact, along those lines, I outed us to Christine Phillips."
Hopping on one foot, Michael stops removing his shoe and leans on the couch to avoid falling. "You what? To the clandestine services grad?"
Eric smirks. "Yep. She's a smart girl, though; since I'd been pretending to hit on her two seconds earlier, she didn't take me seriously."
He's stuck between wanting to laugh and wanting to splutter some more. He manages something like a snort. "But you outed us in the middle of HQ."
"She said she had a boyfriend. I said I did, too, and looked right at you. It isn't a big deal. I'm just telling you because I thought you might get a kick out of it."
He sits beside Eric and fiddles with his watch. "Was anyone else around?"
"Nobody who would care." Rolling his eyes and leaning his head against the back of the couch, Eric lets out a sigh. "I know it was dangerous, but I couldn't resist."
"Eric . . . " Michael waits for him to look over first but decides to let him off the hook. "I know exactly what you mean, and I'm jealous."
Eric finally looks at him again. "Jealous." His tone says a lot more than that one word. It says, Excuse me, but don't you wanna rethink which one of us gets to be jealous? Huh?
"Yeah." He smiles. "You got to tell someone, and I didn't."
- end -