Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Stanley walked out of his car. He had to go back to work, pressing buttons all day. He worked a 9-5. He usually stayed later though, never wanting to deal with the depressing aurora of his life. His wife left him. It sucked.

Walking into the big building, he looked up again. It was a pretty tall building made entirely of glass windows. Walking in waving to Mariella at the front desk, he approached her.

"Hey, how are you Mari?" He asked, a quiet monotone voice ringing through his ears.

"I'm doing great! How are you? how's it at home?"

"It's...It's fine. Hey, would you like to come over to mine later?" Stanley leaned forward on her desk, looking at her with a raised everbrow.

"Yeah, of course! That's a great idea! I'll bring some flowers!~"

Stanley smiled and nodded. Mariella is one of the only things keeping him going. He went to the elevator, pressing the button. In a few seconds, the door opened and Stanley stepped in. As soon as the doors were closing, he heard something.

"Wait! Wait! Please open the door! Keep it open! Please!" A British voice rang out, and Stanley put his hand in between the door to prevent it from closing.

"Thank you, so so much! What... What's your name?"

Stanley looked at him for a few seconds. He was kind of cute. Short grayish brown hair with his eyes framed by a rectangular pair of glasses. Fancy suit with a yellow tie...

"Oh. Uhm. I'm Stanley." He said, looking away from this man's body before he started turning red.

"Hello Stanley! My name is Nathan, and thank you so much for keeping the door open. I'm late for a meeting already and I can't be any more late so... thank you."

Stanley smiled and nodded. 

"I hope you don't end up late. I have to get to my office. What floor do you need to be on?" Stanley said, looking back up to the name in front of him.

"Oh, I need floor 47."

Stanley looked at him for a little bit, shocked.

"...That's going to be like 5 minutes." Stanley looked at the British man, baffled.

"I know! I take the elevator every day. My legs aren't really used to... walking that much." The man awkwardly chuckled, smiling at the younger man.

As the elevator doors closed, the soft elevator music started playing. Stanley started swaying side to side, trying to find something to do rather than just standing here awkwardly with this man.

A few seconds passed, and then Stanley heard something. He heard some humming. He looked at Nathan raising his eyebrows smiling. As the humming continued, Nathan looked back at Stanley before adding something to his humming.

"Stan-ley!" Nathan said, smiling at the man looking at him, before continuing to hum along.

In the next few seconds, Nathan started humming other things, while swaying back and forth with the other man. 

Stanley kept looking at Nathan, smiling. He wasn't sure how old this man is, or even what role he is.

"So... what's your job? Your position?" Stanley asked, smiling at Nathan.

"Oh! I... can't really disclose that information. Let's just say I'm high class." He said, softly smiling at Stanley.

"That's fine. I'm just an office worker though, pressing buttons and stuff." Stanley said, turning back to the elevator door.

"Oh. That's.. cool." He didn't seem to know what to say, but with his age, he'd assume he was trying to find a response that's "hip".

"...So.. how old are you? You don't have to respond, just curious." Stanley asked him, looking back up at the older man.

"Well, I'm about 43..." He said, looking down.

"I'm sorry, what? Only 43??" Stanley asked, wide-eyed, before realizing how rude that could come out as.

"Sorry, I mean, no offense, you just look way older... I'm really shocked that you're just 4 years older than me."

"No, no! It's fine, I get that a lot. If anything, you also look younger than you actually are." Nathan said, turning to Stanley again and smiling softly.

"Oh... thank you! That's... I'm surprised you'd be nice after I just said something sort of rude.." Stanley awkwardly laughed saying this, leaning a bit more towards Nathan. He was an... interesting man.

"Mhm. I don't tend to take things to heart."

A few awkward moments of silence, before Nathan started humming again.

"Hey... Stanley. You're quite an interesting man. Is it fine if I get your... number?" Nathan asked, turning back to Stanley. 

"It's completely fine if not, I'm not sure if it comes off as weird or not. I mean, asking for the number of a guy I just met- It's, it's a bit weird... Don't take this in a different way or anything! I'm not like... interested... Well- Okay, now I'm just ruining this. I'm sorry." Nathan was almost out of breath by the time he finished.

"Nathan... it's.. It's no big deal. Don't worry. My number is 427-432-2845." Stanley smiled at him, writing it down on a piece of paper in his pocket just in case.

"T... Thank you. I'm uhm..." Suddenly, the elevator stopped and the two realized it'd been 5 minutes.

"Oh. This is my stop, thank you Stanley for being my entertainment. It was... nice to meet you." Nathan said, feeling a bit flustered.

As the elevator doors opened, Stanley smiled at him. Nathan began walking out, before Stanley called for him.

"Hey, Nathan! Call me if you want something professional, or maybe something a bit less than professional!~" Stanley smirked and winked at Nathan, and before Nathan could answer Stanley, the elevator door closed.

Stanley smiled to himself, putting his hand on his face. That was when he realized he was also blushing intensely.

He sighed.

"Now to wait for a call..."

Chapter Text

"Holy shit" was the only thing going through Nathan's mind at the meeting.

All the other 20 guys and gals in there were discussing something about the budget and how they went over it, something unimportant to Nathan. Atleast, at the moment.

He was in charge of paying for all the entertainment and keeping employees in the business, but that man... That man... Stanley. He didn't know that he could... Well, he hadn't wanted somebody like that so bad in.. since high school. He kept thinking about the way he swayed back and forth, the way his long bony hands held each other...

"Sir? ... Mr. Vestri."

The man with the thick British accent (even worse than Nathan's...) was calling for him.

"Uhm, hello. Yes. What was the question?" Nathan replied, stuttering between 'hello' and 'yes'.

"You keep spacing out. Stop that. The question was, how can we cut down on the budgets?" The man- which he later figured out his name was George- leaned forward.

"Uhm... well, we could stop having parties every 2 weeks." The meeting continued on, and Nathan's mind wandered...

After a few more minutes and people trying to grasp Nathan's attention, the meeting ended. Still in a stupor, he exited the meeting room.

"Nathan!" A woman with blonde hair in a ponytail called after him, waving.

"Hello. I don't seem to recognize you." Nathan said, eagerly waiting to leave the conversation.

"I'm Mariella, and I'm here because the leader of this meeting said she wants to see you later." The woman- Mariella said, smiling.

"Of course, I'll see her soon." Nathan said, before nodding and leaving.

He obviously wasn't going to see her soon. He decided that instead, he would much rather wait until after lunch. Walking to the bathroom, he opened the door and walked in before going up to the mirror. Looking at himself, he sighed. 

...And thought of Stanley.

He found himself immediately blushing while looking into the mirror, and sighed. Taking off his glasses, he splashed his face with water, hoping it'd at least help him a little bit. It didn't. When he looked back up, he was redder, so he just got a towel and wiped his face. 

Putting the glasses back on, rather vivid imagery of them together flushed his mind.

He groaned, holding his head in his hands.

Stanley laughed, talking to Mariella.

"And then- you won't believe this- I said he could call me for professional or unprofessional reasons! I flirted, for the first time in ages!" Stanley smiled, holding onto Mariella for support while laughing his ass off.

"No way- are you kidding me??? That was the guy who I said needed to see the Curator? Dude, no wonder he was spacing out all the meeting!" Mariella barely choked out the words while laughing even harder than before, her ponytail bobbing up and down at her violent laughter.

Stanley and Mariella were outside on their little break. It was a "smoke break" for everybody who did smoke, but since they didn't, they might as well hang out with the rest of everybody.

After a few more seconds of wildly laughing and trying to get a few more words out but failing miserably, Stanley talked again.

"Wh- Wha? Do you think he's interested?"

"Do I? Stanley, he immediately ran into the bathroom when I finished talking to him!" She said, face looking both confused and shocked.

"No way... do you think he..?-" Before Stanley could finish his sentence, the man they were talking about came outside.

The second he walked out, both Stanley and Mariella hid behind a tall plant of some sort. As they carefully inspected him, they watched him pull out a box of cigarettes, light it, and lay back against a wall.

"...Not gonna lie, that's kind of ho-" A second later, Stanley was cut off by Mariella slapping him.

"Stanley! No sexual innuendo until after work!" Mariella shouted, before lowering her voice a bit.

"I mean, we can't have you get... stiff on work grounds!"

Stanley held his face where it was slapped, and pouted. 

"Yeah- Well, I wasn't going to do or say anything about it!" He whisper-shouted back, looking every now and then at Nathan, hoping he couldn't hear those two.

"Still! I can't have you leave me alone, all by myself, with all these smokers! If anything, I'll get some lung disease..." 

"As if, you'd probably get lung disease from snorting wood." Stanley laughed out, smiling, until his face dropped.

"And you'd get some sort of throat disease from sucking too much dic-"

"Hello Stanley, hello... Mariella." Nathan said, behind Mariella.

"Hello..." Said Stanley, as Mariella turned back and almost jumped.

"...You didn't hear that did you?" Stanley asked, before awkwardly smiling.

Chapter Text

“Just a little bit, but I’ll forget it if it’s better for you.”

Stanley chuckled awkwardly, and Mariella looked Nathan up and down.

“Interrupting anything? Or is it okay if I join you guys for a chat?”

Mariella made some excuses about needing to go back to finish touching up an email, and eventually it was just Nathan and Stanley in a secluded spot.

“You don’t mind if I smoke here, do you?” Nathan asked, already pulling a lighter out.

“Nah, I really don’t. Might even ask you for one later.”

Nathan lit up his cigarette quickly, inhaling. He exhaled away from Stanley’s face, but his eyes still lingered on his face.

“How did the meeting go? Are we getting any raises anytime soon?” He leaned forward, reducing the distance from half a dozen feet to five.

“Stanley, you don’t even know my job, but even you know I can’t disclose that.” Nathan took another drag of his cigarette, tapping the rest of it off.

“No… I guess not…” Stanley then extended his hand forward to Nathan, motioning to ask for the cigarette.

Nathan gave it to him, watching Stanley’s lips as he put it in his mouth, how it looked.

He knew he found the man attractive and he hadn’t had anybody to get together with in a while but… it couldn’t have been that bad, right? Could it have been just Stanley? He continued looking at Stanley’s lips, before he joined reality once more and realized he was talking to him.

“…do you do anyways? If you’re so higher up and fancy, and all.” Stanley gestured Nathan up and now, definitely motioning more about the expensive suit.

“Oh, I just manage- uh- mostly entertainment? It seems useless to have that as an entire position, but it gets the bills paid. I help with the office parties, though we will have to start cutting back on those…”

Stanley scoffed, got one last puff of smoke out, and gave it back to Nathan.

Nathan immediately put it to his lips, inhaled, and exhaled. He didn’t even mean to do that so quickly, now he came off as desperate- he thought.

“You handle the office parties? How come I never see you at any?” Stanley was getting closer, and Nathan could smell the taller man’s cologne.

“I usually stay in a corner, outside, or I’m at home reading. I’ve been to a few in the past years, like the holidays ones.”

People were leaving now, going back to their jobs. It seems the break was coming to an end, but still the two men stayed talking to each other.

“Well, listen. If you ever want to talk- for any reason- call me, hm?”

From out of his back pocket, Stanley drew a card. It was surprisingly a very nice one, with all his contacts. On the other side was a picture of… a bucket.

Very interesting man, this Stanley.

“Leaving me so soon?” The Brit stated, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

“If I don’t leave now, I’ll get in trouble.”

“Not if I have anything to say about that.”

The sudden protective voice was a surprise for both Stanley and Nathan, but the ladder seemed to be more shocked by it.

————————————————————

Stanley took that comment to heart.

Maybe lower than his heart too…

But he couldn’t leave this man now, not when the shorter man talked to him like that.

“All right, fine… Just this once. Tell me about yourself, hm?”

Listening attentively, Stanley watched the other man curiously while he spoke. Upon observation, he gets really excited about interests. Especially when he leaves behind his nervous persona.

“Well- I’ve been working here for about, psh, 12 years? I have a sister named Curie, (Stanley thought that was weirdly similar to Mariellas’ current situation-ship, if he remembered the name correctly,) and in my free time I like to draw blueprints!”

Stanley nodded while smirking. He wanted to further ask about the man, but he heard the familiar voice of Mariella shout-

“Get back to work you two! It’s been almost 5 minutes! People are gonna start asking for those files, Stanley.”

He turned to the older man, waving apologetically.

“Listen, I’d love to talk more, but-“

“No, no, I get it Stanley, of course. I have your contact information, don’t I?”

The brunette warmly smiled and started to head over to the back of the boring building, Mariella rolling her eyes and wagging her finger in dismay.

As the two walked in- Nathan heading his separate way- Mariella grasped onto Stanley’s arm.

“You sly dog! It’s been barely a day, and he already had puppy eyes for you! Did you see the way he was standing?”

Stanley grinned, the blush coming to his ears the more he spoke-
“Listen, for all I know, it’s just in a friendly way. He’s shown no interest, okay? Sure, he’s a handsome man and just my type… But I don’t even know if he’s queer!”

Mariella stared at him for a long, hard second.

“…Maybe you were too busy thinking about his plump thighs wrapping around your head, but he’s the most flamboyant man here. You’re aware of that, no? Or are you that blind?”

With a playful smack and an ‘ah-ha!’ from his best friend, Stanley begun to turn the corner to his desk.

“I’ll talk to you later, okay? Tell me about your not-date tonight!”

An objection from the blonde- loud enough for some coworkers to scowl at her- and Stanley tried to get back to work.

Of course tried is the right word, he’s been thinking about that Nathan. He would for a while, so he tried to reserve that time for later.

For now, this stupid damn email…