Work Text:
“Hey! Is that your car?” Robby called out. He had his work bag slung over his shoulder, his voice echoed in the parking garage.
“…No?” A man stood next to an expensive car, brick being tossed back and forth between his hands.
“Are you going to break the window?” Robby asked cautiously, it suddenly dawning on him the man could throw the brick at him.
“There’s a dog inside.”
Robby inched closer, peering into the window. A medium sized dog sat on the front passenger seat, panting. It was mid-July, the weather was sweltering.
Robby shrugged, “Okay.”
He took a step back as the man lifted the brick and brought it down on the back passenger window. It took several hard hits until the glass finally cracked. He was careful not to send shards flying towards the dog.
The man snaked his arm through the window to the passenger door, pulling manually at the lock. Robby pulled the door open and the dog gratefully hopped out of the car.
“I have water in my backpack,” Robby pulled his bag off and retrieved his banged up hydroflask. Jack had been teasing him for years to get a new one but why should he, it held the water just fine.
He watched as dog lapped at the water.
“You should get out of here. The owner of the car probably won’t like to come back to their car smashed.” Robby said carefully.
“I can’t take the dog.” The guy’s hands softly pet the top of the head.
“I-I’ll take it.” Robby winced. He doesn’t know why he said that. He’s never even owned a dog.
“Are you sure? I can help pay for it. I’ll text you.”
“Sure, here’s my number.”
True to his word, Pope started texting Robby. Robby almost blocked him when he said his name was Pope, thinking it was spam.
But he learned Pope worked as a maintenance worker for the city of Pittsburgh, doing odds and ends. When Robby worked his 12 hour shifts, Pope would go to his house to let the dog out. On the weekends, they’d walk the dog together.
Pope’s apartment on the bad side of town didn’t allow for dogs. About six months in, Robby needed to go out of town for a medical conference, he let Pope house/dog sit for him. Afterwards, Pope never quite left.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･˙⋆✮
Pope was strange, Robby realized. Not in a disconcerting way but odd enough. He would drop little bits of his past without meaning to or elaborating.
“Dog, sit.” Pope held a treat in his hand.
“We should give her a proper name, you know?” Robby chided from where he sat on the couch, feet up.
“She likes it though, she always listens when I call her Dog.” Pope argued back. Dog sat obediently, her tail thumping until Pope dropped the treat into her mouth.
“Hey, you’re the expert. I never had a dog growing up.” Robby didn’t look up from his medical journal.
“I didn’t either. My brother had two dogs, they were mean though. I think he used them to fight.”
“Are you close with your brother?”
“Brothers, I have three. And a sister. She died though.” And he promptly turned out of the living room.
The next time, they were at the vet for Dog, and she was giving Robby a hard time. She shied away from the door, curling at their feet. She pulled at her collar and leash, making little choking sounds until Robby finally just let it slip to the floor.
“She keeps pulling at her collar. Even when we’re walking.” Robby thought aloud. “Maybe we should get a shock collar.”
“No.” Pope disagreed. He paused a moment. “Those are inhumane you know, they hurt.”
Robby sent him a questioning glance.
“My mom used to make me wear one. She’d padlock it to a wood post outside and shock me.” He spoke almost fondly of it.
“What? Why?” Robby asked trying but failing to hide his shock.
Pope shrugged. “I was probably being bad.”
Robby shrugged off his jacket and kicked his work bag to the corner by the front door. Normally, Dog would be bounding up to greet him. The only exception was if Pope was home; Dog liked Robby, she loved Pope.
Robby opened the door to the backyard, Pope was futzing with the grill, on his back. Dog was wriggling in the dirt beside him.
“You don’t have to fix everything, I can do stuff too.” It was teasing. It was also not true. Robby didn’t possess a handy bone in his body.
“Oh this is easy. My brother used to own a bar, I’d fix stuff all the time for him.” Pope didn’t even bother to look up at Robby.
“Alright Bob the Builder, what do you want for dinner?”
“There’s a shepard’s pie in the freezer, I think.”
“Yes, chef.” Robby grinned, he turned back inside to rummage through the freezer. There was a black plastic bag tucked in the corner. It almost looked like leftovers. Which would make much more sense that what it was.
Robby poked his head out the back door again.
“You can’t keep cash in the freezer,” Robby called.
“Why?”
“I mean I guess you can… but why would you?”
“Most people don’t check there.”
“Most people don’t rob houses.”
Pope paused. “You’d be surprised.”
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･˙⋆✮
Despite all the growing pains of a new relationship, things were going well. Robby thought so. He was on his way out the door in the morning when Pope stops him.
“I won’t be home for dinner, my brothers are in town.” Pope spilled out quickly.
Robby froze for a second. Pope pressed a chaste kiss to the side of his cheek, he looked Robby up and down a couple of times.
“Oh, um okay. Is everything alright?”
“Sure. I mean yeah. I just won’t be home to feed Dog.”
Robby nodded once and continued out the door.
Pope wasn't looking up when Baz brought it up, cruelly. “So you and Robby, huh?” He was on his third beer.
“Yeah.” Pope didn’t look up, he was shoveling food in his mouth. Ever since he was a child, he had food insecurity. Always convinced someone was going to take it from him.
“You guys fucking?” Baz pushed. Deran and Craig gave each other a look. J cleared his throat pointedly.
“No.” Pope finished his plate. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“You should, he’ll get bored.”
“Leave him alone.” J sipped from his own drink.
“I mean, he’s right.” Craig offered. “Haven’t you guys been together for like 6 months?”
“8.” Pope shook his head no when the waiter offered him another drink.
“So, almost a year and you have no interest in fucking him?” Deran joined the jeering.
Pope set his jaw. “I didn’t say that.”
Baz snorted into his beer. “Then what are you saying? Guy waits eight months, he’s either a saint or he’s getting it somewhere else.”
Pope’s chest started hammering.
Craig leaned back in his chair. “I’m just saying, man, normal people—”
“He says he’s fine with it.” Pope protested weakly.
But now all of them were looking at him. Pope hated that. Hated feeling cornered. Hated feeling like there was a right answer he didn’t have. Hated feeling like they were all in on something he wasn’t.
Baz laughed once. “He’s fine with it because he’s getting it somewhere else. Doesn’t he work at a hospital? There’s probably new young and hot doctors there every day.”
“Ironic, Pope does maintenance, and he’a a fixer upper himself.” Craig added on.
Pope’s chair scraped harshly against the floor as he stood. The restaurant suddenly felt too loud, too tight. Every clink of silverware dug under his skin.
“I gotta go,” Pope said. His voice was flat, dangerous in the way it got when he was trying very hard not to explode.
“He was just joking, Pope.” J tried.
“It’s fine, I have to go.” He left before he did something he would regret.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･˙⋆✮
Pope’s feet walked him to the emergency room. He doesn’t know why. He didn’t even mean to come here. He bypassed the parking garage him and Robby had first met in.
The sliding doors opened for him.
“Sir, can I help you?” A shy nurse in gray scrubs came up to him.
“Is Dr. Robby here?” He asked. He had never visited Robby at work before. The nurse nodded her head past the main desk.
Robby was standing there, laughing. He touched the shoulder of a pretty woman. Her body language screamed familiarity.
“Did you want me to interrupt him for you?” The nurse asked when Pope still hadn’t made a move towards him.
“Huh?” Pope blinked hard, he rubbed his eyes. “No, that’s okay, I have a - um thing.” He stumbled home.
Pope buried himself under the covers. Dog whined a little from her spot. Robby never let her in the bed. Pope always did. Pope tapped his hand once on the duvet, before he had fully finished the hit, Dog leapt up.
Robby stumbled clumsily into the bedroom. He belatedly realized the hallway light was spilling into the bedroom into Pope’s eyes. He slammed the door shut with more force than he meant.
“Did you go out after work?” Pope asked, shaking away the sleepiness from his voice.
“Yeah, you said you were going out with your brothers.” Robby slipped out of his clothes. He and Dog locked eyes.
“I don’t like the dog on the bed.”
“Are you drunk?”
“Tipsy maybe, don’t worry, Al drove me home. We’ll need to get my car in the morning.”
“Who’s Al?” Pope sat up, hands in his lap.
“Oh shit- yeah sorry.” Robby struggled a little with his sleep shirt before just forgoing it completely. “Baran, she’s that attending I always talk about.”
“Hmmm.” Pope waited until Robby had settled. Dog had returned to the floor. Pope leaned in, roughly grabbing Robby’s face and kissing him. It was clumsy and awkward, their teeth gnashed against each other.
Robby’s hand shot out and stopped Pope’s, where it was lowering towards Robby’s waistline.
“Stop. Pope, stop.” Robby twisted and swerved Pope’s attempt at another kiss. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing, nothing. I just thought that’s what you wanted.”
“Why would I want to have sex with you right now?” Robby thumped his head against the pillow. “Shit- I didn’t mean it like that.”
Pope had already pulled his hands away, twisting his body away so it wasn’t touching Robby’s.
“Pope, wait, stop I didn’t mean it. Come here.” He held his arms out, invitingly.
“I have to work early tomorrow. Can I take Dog with me?” Pope disappeared deeper into the covers, still not touching Robby.
“Yeah, of course. You don’t have to ask, Dog’s your dog too.” Robby stared straight up at the ceiling. Neither of them spoke for a minute. “I didn’t even know you wanted to have sex.”
“I don’t but I thought you did.”
“You don’t owe me that, Pope.” Robby rubbed at his face. He wishes more than anything in this moment he was sober. He couldn’t think straight.
“But you do want to have sex…” He sighed. “And if I don’t give it to you, then you’ll find someone who can.”
Robby snored softly beside him.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･˙⋆✮
The drive to PTMC to drop Robby off at his car was silent. Dog whimpered slightly from the backseat. Pope usually let her sit in the front seat with him.
“Can we talk about this?” Robby asked as Pope turned into the parking garage. “About last night?”
“I can’t be late for work.” Pope threw his car into park. He wouldn’t look Robby in the eyes.
“Okay, sure. How about dinner tonight? Your pick.” Robby went to kiss Pope before thinking better of it.
“I don’t care, you pick.”
“No. I want to go where you want.”
“I don’t have a preference.”
“Figure one out, text me the address. Bye, Dog.” Robby shuffled out, scratching Dog on the head between the headrest. He closed the door to Pope’s car.
They ended up at some 24/7 diner. Pope had arrived first. He sat nervously on edge, picking at his fingernails.
“Hey, nice place.” Robby greeted as he pulled off his coat and sat opposite of Pope. “What looks good?”
Pope hadn’t even bothered to look at the menu yet. He opened the plastic menu, scanning half-heartedly.
“How was work?”
“Good. Really good actually.” Pope smiled. “The church should be done in a couple of weeks.”
“That’s great. Look Pope-“
“Can I get you guys anything to drink?” A pretty young waitress stepped up. Her hair falling perfectly around her face. Pope swallowed a little tensely.
“Two waters, thanks.” Robby replied, noticing how as her smile increased, Pope’s decreased.
Robby waited until she had walked away before turning to Pope. He pushed the menu gently out of his grasp.
“Look Pope, I like sex.”
Pope’s spoon clattered against the table. Whatever he was going to say was cut off.
“But I like you more. Like a lot more. To the point that I don’t care if the most you ever want to do is hold hands.” Robby kept going.
“I like that you can fix the unfixable. I like that you somehow always know when I have a bad day. I like that you replicate my grandmother’s recipes to the point I think I like your version better. I like that you let me leave the tv on at night.”
Pope’s eyes crinkled a little at that.
“I like that you broke a car window for a dog you couldn’t even keep. I like that Dog likes you better than me.” Robby huffed a laugh.
“I like that you can still love a guy like me, jaded and mean. I like that you can still love even after everything you’ve been through. I like that your greatest strength is your love.”
Pope looked at him for the first time all day.
“I like that you don’t have to earn my love, I like that you’re already the easiest person I’ve ever fallen in love with. I like coming home to you and I want to continue to for the rest of my life.” Robby suddenly clammed up. Embarrassed.
The waitress came back and placed two cups of water on the table.
“You boys ready to order?”
Pope was still staring at Robby.
“Uh,” Robby laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “Pope?”
Pope looked at the waitress without taking his eyes fully off Robby. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “I know what he wants.”