This one takes place sometime after Let’s Not Pretend It’s Love, but before Make the Most of the Night. Written while listening to Grow a Pear.

Joey/Axel

“Look, we’re not gonna fuck anymore.”

Joey dropped his beer.

Axel had come over with a case of lifted PBR to drink while they watched the game. He’d been planning this conversation for maybe a week, but blurted out the base line before the first touchdown had been scored. He and Joey had been, for lack of a better phrase, fuck buddies for a few months now, and recently, the older man was acting weird. Wanting to just spend time with him, outside of bedrooms and crime scenes. Holding onto him even after the sex was done. It was getting way too personal. Like Joey liked him now, or something. And the way he was looking at him…

“But, what did I do? Dude, you gotta tell me what I did! Or do you just…” His eyes fell away from Axel, down to where his fingers were fiddling with a hole in his jeans. “Did you, like, find someone else?” Axel’s eyebrows shot up his forehead.

“Joey, whoa. Hold the fuck on. You’re acting like we’re dating.” Joey’s dark brows knitted together in confusion. “Oh my god, you think we’re dating.” 

“Well, what would you call it?! We rob banks and blow shit up, then come back here and fuck, then order pizza!” Joey moved his hands a lot when he talked, but now he was practically flailing. “And it ain’t like I’m even your first boyfriend or anything, you should know how it works by now!” Oh, not right.

When they first hooked up, Axel made it perfectly clear that they weren’t to discuss Owen. Owen wasn’t even a topic anymore. He wasn’t a Rogue, he wasn’t in the cities, he was gone. He’d abandoned Axel, so Axel was forgetting him. By hopping into bed with someone who was dedicated to the Rogue mindset.

“I will fucking cut you if you bring him up, Joey. I will fucking cut you and leave you for dead in your own living room.” Axel threatened, hand shaking as he pointed at his soon-to-be-former lover. Joey winced, scratching the back of his head. Sore subject. Right.

“Look, Ax. I just…I don’t know what I did wrong. Maybe if you told me what I did, I could-“

“This is what you did, Joey. You’re trying to spin this into something it’s not. We’re fucking. We’re not dating. I’m not your boyfriend.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Axel found himself pinned to the couch, the larger man hovering over him with his hands on his shoulders.

“Shut up. Just…shut up! You came to me, Axel! The pretty legacy left you to pal around with a jailbait blonde on the other side of the law, so you came to me. He made you feel like shit so I, I tried to. Tried to.” Joey sat back on his knees, the anger leaving his features, the hurt staying behind. “I was gonna fix you, dude.”

Axel wriggled out from underneath him, the momentary arousal from seeing Joey about to go full berserker completely gone.

“And that’s where you screwed up. I don’t need fixing. And I definitely didn’t want to talk about it. You’ve been going bitch on me, Joey. We’re still bros, but we’re not fucking anymore.” Before he left Joey’s rat-hole of an apartment, he threw out a final parting shot. “I had a boyfriend, and that shit didn’t work out. I don’t think I’m supposed to do the emotions thing, okay? I’ll call you.”

As he stepped out into the sunlight, Axel took off his glasses and slipped on his mask. It would be cruel to call Joey in less than a month.

He’d drop by tomorrow.