Work Text:
Adam hums a little tune to himself as he juggles the keys and the mail. He knows it would be easier if he waited until he was through the door and had both hands free before flicking through the envelopes, but he’s spent so much of his life as a compulsive multi-tasker, he can’t give it up now. Bill, junk, medical appointment for Ben, coupons, notification of an upcoming show…
He turns the key and shoves the heavy door open with his shoulder, then lets it fall shut behind him, still checking the cast list and thinking about tickets. And then he realises - he’s hearing voices.
Well, it’s not that odd to hear voices in their apartment, especially if Ben’s already home. He could be on the phone with a friend. He could be watching television. He could be running through some footage to check the edits.
It’s slightly more unusual that the front room is dark and empty and the sound of voices is coming from the bedroom.
Adam hangs his keys on the wall hook and sets the mail in the little wicker basket on the shelf. He bends down to unfasten his shoes and then stacks them neatly in the closet cubbyhole. Only after that does he curiously proceed towards the bedroom.
The door is partly open. If it were closed and locked, he’d leave Ben to his privacy, but since it’s not, he should probably announce that he’s home.
Adam pushes the door open.
He stops.
Stares.
Ben’s there, on the bed. Not quite in the bed. The bed’s unmade, sheets all tangled up, Adam’s weighted blanket in a mound at the end. Ben’s wearing only house clothes, shapeless black t-shirt and the old green pants with the stains they could never get out, things he’d never be caught wearing in public anymore. But he is clothed, and he’s not under the covers. And he’s not alone.
Sam is sitting next to him - Sam’s long legs spread out across the mattress that Adam and Ben share. Still dressed, even his feet covered by those dumb fluffy socks he favors, but his face is flushed, his cheeks pink, his lips wet. Ben looks much the same, his mouth parted, his fingers in Sam’s hair. Anyone looking at the scene can tell at once that they’ve been - kissing isn’t even the right word, not with Sam’s eyes so bright. Necking. Making out. Snogging. A dozen words and all of them sound completely stupid when he’s standing here faced with his partner and their boss.
“What. The. Fuck.” Adam’s fingers twitch at his sides.
Ben presses his forehead against Sam’s for a moment before turning to look. “Hello, Adam. Why don’t you come take a seat?”
Adam’s voice shoots up so high it nearly cracks. “What is he DOING here?!?”
“Joining us,” Ben says, tugging Sam in to lean against his shoulder. “Isn’t that obvious?”
“Yeah, Adam,” Sam grins. “I thought you went to some sort of fancy school, like Yale, or something? Didn’t they have entry requirements? Basic if-then logic?”
Adam struggles not to burst into hysterical laughter. “This is insane. I am officially going insane.”
“Come on, Adam. This was your idea. We talked about this,” Ben says. “It’ll be fun.”
“What do you mean we talked about this???”
Ben doesn’t just roll his eyes, he rolls his whole head around. “We did that secret kink quiz, it said we were both into threesomes, you’ve been talking my ear off about it ever since. So here we are! Get with the program. You’re being rude to our guest. You’re ruining the mood.”
Adam feels veins throbbing in his head. "WHAT kink quiz? That didn’t happen! That never happened!"
Sam bites his lip, looking over at Ben. “Should we -?”
“Shh. Don’t worry about it.” Deliberately turning away from Adam, Ben begins to kiss and nuzzle against the length of Sam’s neck. Sam’s eyes drift closed as he groans quietly.
Adam just stands there, his mouth hanging open, unable to think of a single thing to say. His words are useless. He has no power here. And - God damn it - he’s starting to be turned on by that.
Ben drags his tongue all the way up Sam’s neck to his ear before turning again to smirk at Adam. “Come here and get on the bed. I’ve been saving the fun part for you.”
“What…” Is there any point in arguing anymore? “What fun part?”
“Unwrapping our present!” says Ben with a smile. “Lift your arms, Sammy. Come on, up over your head.” Dutifully, Sam lifts his arms straight up into the air, his thumbs touching. Ben rewards him with a lingering kiss. “Now, Adam, you lift his shirt. But slowly, slowly. It’s too nice a job to rush.” He winks.
This is happening. This is really happening. He takes slow steps to the bed, on the opposite side to Ben, his knee denting the mattress next to where Sam’s sitting. His fingers take hold of Sam’s hem, feeling the softness of the blue fabric. Slowly, slowly, he draws it upwards, revealing Sam’s skin little by little, like some sort of old-fashioned peep show curtain. Flat stomach, pink nipples, defined chest, mostly hairless except for the little tufts under his arms… Just looking at him makes Adam suddenly desperate for a glass of water. “God, you’re gorgeous,” he mutters as he pulls the shirt off Sam’s arms.
Sam’s color is too high already to blush further, but his head falls forward, his hair hiding his face.
“So fucking hot,” Ben agrees. “I want every inch of you in my mouth.”
“Mmmmnnnh,” Sam says intelligently.
“Help me out here, Adam,” Ben says, and brings his lips down to wander over the bare expanse of Sam’s chest. Sam’s breathing gets louder.
No one’s looking at Adam now. Hesitantly, he brings his face closer to Sam’s body. He can smell the floral scent of the shampoo Sam insists on using as body wash. Delicate, like Sam isn’t, except he is in a way, right here in Adam’s bed, his chest trembling as Ben teases him, moving his mouth around while avoiding the tightening nipples. Adam kisses Sam below the collarbone, feeling the warmth of his skin. Slowly, he works his way down, wondering at every moment if someone’s going to tell him to stop, enough, the joke is over - but that moment never comes.
Ben has one of those pretty little points in his mouth now, no doubt doing obscene things with his tongue, and Sam gasps and squirms back against the headrest. Not to be outdone, Adam latches onto Sam’s other nipple, sucking in hard, instantly rewarded by Sam’s whimpering.
“That’s right,” Ben pulls away to murmur, voice low and hungry. “Just let yourself melt, Sam. All the way down. Such a sweet boy, so good for us.”
"I’m - I’m - " Sam’s panting now. Adam’s tempted to use his teeth, but no - Ben wants Sam relaxed. Just tongue, then, working the peak back and forth as his hand slides over Sam’s stomach, exploring the v of his abdomen but not yet letting his fingers dip below the band of his shorts.
Ben’s everywhere now, darting like a fish, touching and tasting, mouthing against the muscle of Sam’s bicep, humming into his side. Faced with so much physical contact, Sam’s arms tremble erratically, and he slides further and further down the headboard as he loses the control, or the desire, to hold himself up. At last he lies there, fully prone, tangled in the sheets he hasn’t yet kicked loose.
Adam looks down at Sam. For a moment he is struck again by the incongruity, to see him lying there - in their bed, Sam’s blonde hair spread across the pillows Adam shares with Ben - but before he can think anything else, Adam feels Ben’s fingers brush his cheek.
He looks up. Their eyes meet.
Ben slides his hand behind Adam’s head and pulls him in, meeting him in the middle for a deep, hungry kiss.
Whatever else is happening here, whatever they’re doing with Sam in between them, Adam knows that he, himself, is cherished and desired. Always.
He feels Sam’s hand flapping weakly against his side. “Want to see you,” Sam mumbles, tugging at Adam’s shirt.
Ben grins. “Yeah. I think it’s time we get a lot more naked.”
Heart pounding too fast to even think of feeling cold, Adam slides off the bed and shucks his clothing, casting it aside without even caring where it lands. He can deal with that later. It doesn’t matter now. Not with Sam - trusting, virginal Sam - spread out before them like an offering. He climbs back up onto the bed, lying next to Sam but not quite touching him, giving his friend the chance to take a good look before things go any further. “Is this all right?” he whispers.
Sam reaches for Adam again, this time letting his hand stroke along Adam’s pale chest, fingers gliding over his ribs. “Mmmm,” he smiles.
“Hurry up,” says Ben where he stands on the other side of the bed, gloriously naked and impatient.
Adam laughs. He presses in against Sam’s side, both of them breathing hard at the increased contact even with the buffer of Sam’s shorts still between them. “I’ve wanted this for a long time,” he admits. "Wanted to see you, make you believe that I - "
“You talk too much,” says Sam, petulant.
Adam shuts him up with a kiss.
It’s a little clumsy - they’ve never done this together before, they haven’t found their rhythm, and Adam’s honestly not sure Sam’s kissed a man at all before today - but it’s honest, open. Sam rolls towards him, his big hands pressed to Adam’s back, and they keep kissing, not even slowing down when Ben finally joins them on the bed and wriggles in behind Sam, trapping him deliciously between them. Only when Ben bites down on Sam’s neck hard enough to make him yelp do they come apart.
Sam clutches at Adam, shoulders shaking. “I want… I want…”
“Shhh,” says Ben. “We’ve got you.”
In wordless agreement, they roll Sam onto his back again and tap him to lift his hips so that they can work together to slide off his shorts and reveal, in full, what they’ve only before glimpsed the outlines of.
And then it’s three in a bed, skin against skin, hope and heat and yearning and all of them working together as if it had always been planned this way…
~~~ earlier ~~~
“Isn’t this unfair to do to Sam?” Adam asked. “Making him think that he’s doing something wrong by tricking me into it? He cares a lot about being ethical.”
“But he’ll take any chance to troll you,” Ben smirked. “Making you splutter is, like, one of his top ten activities that don’t involve muscle strain. He loves it.”
“Almost as much as you do, baby?”
Ben grinned and gave him a quick kiss. “Look, you know what Sam’s like. If we approach him directly and invite him to join us in bed, he’ll get all worked up about how he’s our boss and it’s an inappropriate power differential and blah blah blah. The more we try to convince him, the more he’ll talk himself out of it. And if we tell him that we love him, he’ll run for the hills. We have to set it up like a joke. Like a game. Getting one over on you will distract him long enough to let him pretend he doesn’t know what’s really happening.”
“What if he actually doesn’t? This could blow up in our faces.”
“We’ll be watching him the whole time! This is for him. He can call a stop at any point if he doesn’t want to go on. But I’m telling you as an expert, he does.”
Adam leaned back against the pillows. “How much are you willing to bet on that?”
“I am willing to wager ten dollars.”
“What? Ben!!!” Adam shot up again. “That little? You’re not sure at all?!?”
“That’s how much cash I have in my pocket,” Ben yawned. “Gambling is a moral weakness and I’m not supposed to encourage you.”
Adam’s shoulders drooped. “This is true. This is true.”
“Look, it’s going to be great. I promise. All you have to do is come in, be shocked and a little bit outraged, then reluctantly give in, and then boom! We’ve got a poly relationship.”
Adam chuckled. “You make it sound so easy.”
“I trust your acting skills.” Ben snuggled close. “I promise you, this is going to work. It’s what everybody wants, even Sam. He just doesn’t know how to say it. We’re doing this for his own good, really.”
~~~ earlier ~~~
“Isn’t this unfair to do to Adam?” Sam asked. “Making him think that you and I would… behind his back?” As usual, he struggled to put words to anything having to do with sex or relationships.
Ben smiled lazily. “We’re not doing anything behind his back. We’re doing it right in front of him. That’s the whole thing. It’s a show for him and he’s part of it. We’ll tell him it was his idea. If he doesn’t want to be gaslit, he shouldn’t be so much fun to gaslight.”
“Ehe.”
Ben leaned forward. “Look, you know what Adam’s like. He’s always trying to take care of everyone, and he’s so busy worrying about other people that he forgets his own needs. He’ll only do big things for other people’s good, never his own. He would never ask you for something like this because he’d be too worried about upsetting you - or me. It would stress him out. We’re doing him a favor, getting all the setup and the guilt out of the way. All he has to do is relax and enjoy it. And he will. After he panics a little.”
“What if he really panics?”
“Then we stop! I’m not going to do anything more than kiss you without his buy-in. This is supposed to be fun. If anyone’s really not having fun, we call a halt. But I’m telling you as an expert, Adam will be into it.”
Sam ran a hand through his hair, smiling awkwardly. “Well, you know him best.”
“And you’re about to know him a lot better.” Ben licked his lips. “Besides, it will be really funny.”
~~~ earlier ~~~
“I’ve seen the way you look at Ben,” Adam said.
Sam almost choked on his water. “What?”
“Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’ve been there. I have so very much been there,” Adam smiled. “I just wanted to say - I understand. You don’t have to hide it.”
Sam looked away. “I - Without confirming anything, I should say that I would never interfere in y’all’s relationship. You’re my friends, and -”
“Whoa, whoa.” Adam held up his hands. “I’m not accusing you. That’s not what this is. I’m trying to talk to you.” He waited for Sam’s attention before continuing. “Ben and I have made promises to each other. We’re committed. That doesn’t mean we’re exclusive. I don’t own him. If it happens that one day - I’m not saying you should, but - if it happens that one day the two of you decide to explore things, I’m not going to be mad. You can make your own decisions. Both of you.”
Sam was silent for a while. “Does Ben know?” he asked at last.
Adam shrugged. “Who can even tell with him? Look, you know what Ben’s like. Half the time he thinks the whole world loves him and he’s eating up the attention. Half the time he’s worrying about making one wrong move and alienating everyone forever. And he tells the same jokes either way.” He shook his head fondly. “I don’t know if he’s noticed. I’m not asking him about it. It’s not my job.”
“But it’s his job on the line,” said Sam. “I’m his employer. I would never… It can’t happen.”
“That’s fair,” nodded Adam. “It’s totally up to you. All I’m saying is… if the opportunity comes up, don’t be afraid to take it. I think it might do you both good.”