Chapter Text
Robby wakes up to the smell of well seasoned beef and a strong hunger, he sits up way too fast and his whole body feels stiff and sore. He groans, clicking his back with a twist before putting his boxers on. He gets up with the goal to drink some water, his throat dry and sore, but as he ventures out of his room, he starts to hear noises from his kitchen.
He's a little shocked to find Dennis at the oven in his boxers, bent over and checking whatever is in there. Mind still lethargic with sleep, he hadn’t even thought about last night before he spotted the blond. He runs a hand over his face.
"What time is it?" His voice is rough, and it almost feels painful to speak.
Dennis snaps up at the sound of his voice; he looks over his shoulder before turning back to switch the oven off.
"Oh, hey, sleepy head. It's-" he checks his watch, "-twelve, and dinner time." He turns back to Robby. "If you're hungry?"
Robby yawns, walking up beside him to fill a glass with water, chugging it before answering. "I could eat."
Dennis smiles and bends over to take a tray out of the oven. "Great."
"You need help?" Robby asks, though the salad already prepared on the counter indicates there isn't much left to do.
"Uh, no. You just sit down, Robby. Must be sore; I was pretty rough on you."
Robby blushes at the casual mention of Dennis dominating him, he really did feel sore. It was probably the most he's worked out in years, apart from being on his feet all day.
"Feel like I've been run over by a truck." He says as he slowly lowers himself onto the couch.
Dennis huffs a laugh at him as he places a plate onto the coffee table in front of him. "Promise I'll go easier on you next time."
"N-no! No, that's okay... you don't have to do that." He blurts out.
Dennis smirks at him, and Robby relaxes when he realises he was joking. Dennis turns back to go into the kitchen to make his own plate. When he returns, Robby looks at his plate. The young doctor made lasagna with salad, and the attending moaned when the flavours hit his tongue.
"It's delicious. Thank you, Dennis."
The subordinate gives him a beaming smile. "You're very welcome."
"So..." Dennis starts after a while of silent eating. "Are we going to talk about it?"
Robby waits to swallow his bite before asking. "Talk about what?"
"All of it? Any of it?"
"Do we have to?"
"No, but I'd rather we did."
Robby sighs. "Okay, what do you want to talk about?"
"...did you like it?"
"Hmm." He hums in agreement.
"Words, Robby."
"Yes, did you?"
Dennis smiles at him softly, "I did... was there anything you didn't like?"
Flashes of Dennis calling him a good girl appeared in his mind, making him squirm a little under Dennis' scrutiny. He didn't dislike the term per se, which was made abundantly obvious when he came untouched to it, but he was a little weirded out by his reaction. How was it that Dennis just knew the exact things to say to him to turn him on, even when he himself wasn't aware?
"...there is something, isn’t there?"
"No, uh," Robby shakes his head, as if he could will the thoughts away, "I just- I just learnt a lot about myself last night."
Dennis nods in understanding. "Did it help you get out of your head?"
"Oh yeah," Robby leans back in his seat, "haven't felt that high since college."
Dennis huffs a laugh at him, "well, I'm glad I could help. Want to do this again sometime?"
"Yeah, tonight?"
Dennis grins, "might want to give that ass a break."
"We could do other stuff, couldn't we?"
Robby's eyes follow him as Dennis stands up from his seat; plate in hand, he leans down to place a soft kiss on his lips.
"Maybe, if you ask nicely." He whispers, mere millimetres from his lips.
Robby lets out a shaky breath. "Please?"
Dennis chuckles and moves away to place his plate in the kitchen, Robby's eyes follow him.
"So well-mannered already." He remarks proudly, returning back to Robby. This time he places a hand in his hair, gripping the strands as he kisses Robby deeply. Another hand runs down his chest, greedily caressing before cupping and squeezing his pectoral muscle.
Dennis detaches from his lips with a whine from Robby, "I should leave soon; it's getting late." He places a peck on his lips before leaving the room. Robby can hear him move around in his room as he gets dressed.
"Lasagna's in the oven; put it in the fridge before work, okay?" He says in the hallway, clothes back on.
"Yes, sir."
Dennis bites his lip. "Good boy, see you tomorrow, Robby."
"Bye." He calls out before Dennis shuts the door behind him.
Robby collapses on the sofa and wakes up late, causing him to rush through his morning routine. He barely has time to look into the mirror before leaving, but he makes sure to place the lasagna in the fridge even before brushing his teeth, which he does in the shower to save time. When he gets dressed in his room, he notices a note on his desk. At closer inspection he realises it's Dennis' number; he pauses his frantic dressing to casually place his number in his contacts and message him a short 'hi.'
When he notices the time, he rushes out of the house with his shirt half-way on, he places his feet into his shoes without tying them and grabs his jacket off his rack. It had started to get a little cold lately now that autumn was in full bloom. He puts his shirt on quickly in his car before peeling off.
He's met with a lot of shocked faces as he walks into the Pitt, which he assumes is because of his unusual tardiness. He doesn't even make it to his lockers before Dana stops him at the desks.
"Jesus, Robby. What happened to you?"
"Do I look that bad? I just had a late morning." He says, confused.
"Ew," Trinity says from where she sits behind Dana, turned towards him at her desk.
"Stop marking your territory, bloodhound." She swats Dennis' arm from where he sits beside her. Dennis looks up at her perplexed his expression melts into a sheepish grin when he turns to see what she's looking at. He had to admit seeing Robby covered in his dark marks was thrilling even if Robby's eyes were wide and his face frozen in fear.
The attending's mouth drops open and closed... and open again. Before he turns and leaves, heading straight for his locker. Abbot finds him there, head hanging at his locker as he rethinks his life. He's a little out of breath when he arrives, and he immediately bursts out laughing so Robby knows he heard the news and ran to find him.
The other attending bends over, hands on his knees as he laughs with tears in his eyes. "Someone took my advice, huh?"
"Very funny, Jack." Abbot wheezes. "Seriously, I can't walk around like this. Maybe I should go home."
"I'm sure-" he snorts. "I'm sure one of the girls carry foundation on them."
Robby groans, first he gets feminised by his subordinate, and now he's wearing make up at work, great.
"There's only two women that could colour match and I doubt Mel even knows what foundation is." He checks his phone to see if Dennis has messaged him back, and his heart jumps when he sees a notification from him.
Got Trinity's foundation meet me in the bathroom.
"Well, can't hurt to ask Santos." Abbot says.
"Somehow, I doubt that." Abbot barks out a laugh and leaves.
Dennis is standing by the sink counters when he arrives he jumps back to sit on the counter when he sees Robby enter. Dennis huffs a laugh at his appearance. "It's not funny." Robby sulks as he walks up to him to stand between his open legs.
"It is a little funny, I mean how did you completely miss the mirror today?" He jokes as he gently applies the foundation with a sponge.
Robby can feel tiny sparks of pain with every dab, and he groans, "Jesus, Whitaker. Is there any skin you left unmarked?"
"Sorry, I guess I got overly excited." He apologises, not really meaning it as he starts to dab Robby's Adam's apple. "It's really hot, though."
"Oh, yeah? You like that, freak?" He teases, squeezing Dennis' hard thighs.
"Hmm, like I've branded you."
Robby shivers. "Fuck, you're demented."
Dennis smirks. "You love it."
"...so, I'm guessing Trinity knows everything."
The doe-eyed man looks up at him through long lashes. "I didn't tell her about last night, I promise."
Robby sighed. "It's alright, I'm pretty sure Dana and Abbot have known for months now."
Dennis' brows furrow as he returns back to his job, dabbing foundation into Robby's neck. "You told them?"
Robby huffs a laugh. "No, I guess I haven't exactly mastered the art of subtlety."
The young doctor snorts. "That's putting it lightly." He puts the sponge down on the counter, grabbing his attending's chin; he moves his head from side to side, examining his neck. "There we go, good as new."
Robby moves back to let Dennis jump down. He checks his neck in the mirror. "Wow, that's... impressive. You do this a lot?"
"Hmm, was never really a fan of foundation, felt too heavy."
"So... yes?" He asks, eyebrow raised. Dennis moves out of the way when another person enters the bathroom, not paying them any mind.
"More than an average guy, I guess." He shrugs, turning towards the door to leave.
Before Robby gets a chance to ask more about Dennis Whitaker wearing make up; he had a million questions, his subordinate speaks again.
"Robby." He draws out suspiciously, once they've left the bathroom together.
"Yes?"
"Have you noticed Mohan acting differently lately?"
The attending pinches the bridge of his nose. "Oh g-d, this isn't another Langdon situation, is it?"
"No! Well- well, I don't think so, I hope not." He says, tilting his head to the side as he thinks back on all their interactions recently.
Dennis liked Mohan, she knew how to be firm but kind, and she had been a big help on his first day. He didn't want to get her in trouble with Robby, especially since they seemed to constantly have some conflict, but he had started to notice some odd behaviour. Particularly this morning when Trinity had implied that he had given Robby those hickies, Mohan had been one of the few people nearby within earshot.
Dennis had spun around in his chair after Robby's departure, checking to see if anyone had heard them, when he saw Mohan smiling hard towards Santos and Whitaker. Which wasn't particularly weird, but when she dropped her smile and briskly walked away the second their eyes met, Dennis found her behaviour to be rather odd. Almost as if she was hiding something.
"Just don't worry about it, and try not to touch your neck or, you know, sweat; Trinity didn't have any setting powder."
"Okay?" He stands there, perplexed for a few seconds as he watches Dennis walk away from him. When he turns, he catches Perlah staring at him behind the desks, she looks away when their eyes meet and turns to say something to Princess who looks up at him and quickly looks away.
He shakes his head when panic begins to rise in his throat, as if he could banish his thoughts. There hadn't been that many people around this morning when Trinity loudly announced that they were fucking, surely it hadn't gotten around that fast. Yeah, Abbot immediately came running to him, but that was hopefully just because Dana had told him. The anxiety is easier to shrug off than he had anticipated, not that he had thought much about the possible repercussions of sleeping with his coworker in the past couple of hours or had somehow predicted this morning.
But still, given the past few months of mental torture surrounding his... feelings towards a certain blond-haired farm boy, he's surprised at how much easier it is to shake off the thoughts of impending doom. Eyes are constantly on him throughout the day, which shouldn't come as a surprise anymore; word gets around here fast, but as the day goes on it bothers him less and less.
It helps that every time he sees Whitaker now he gets a warm, fuzzy feeling in his gut rather than his usual sick twist of guilt, and self hatred. The memories of last night flash in his mind every time he catches someone staring at him, causing butterflies in his stomach to erupt, engulfing the fear.
Dennis admits he hasn't been exactly on his A game today, at least in the doctor aspect, because he's certain he's close to cracking the case behind Mohan's weird behaviour. Which might be a false impression, because all he's really noticed is her avoidance of him. Not that he's really tried to approach her at all, but he'll often catch her talking to someone that'll have a different, but big reaction. When she catches him unabashedly staring, she just lowers her gaze and swiftly walk away.
It's not until twelve o'clock that he notices a few of those same people she had spoken to had been hovering around Ahmad's office. Curiosity gets the best of him, and he tries to catch a glance of the whiteboard through the window blinds. He only manages to make out a few words from the board before he's interrupted.
Situationship
Javadi
$15
Platonic
Langdon
$20
Dating
Mohan
$10
There's a separate column dedicated to time ranges; some even date all the way back to the night they all went out for drinks at that bar.
"Can I help you?" Dennis jolts at the sound of Ahmad's voice from behind him.
He spins around to face him. "Oh- I, uh, I wanted to place a bet?"
Ahmad purses his lips, eyebrow raised like he doesn't quite believe him. "Yeah, somehow I doubt that."
"But-"
"If you'll excuse me, I'm quite busy." He proclaims, opening his office door to shut the blinds, before closing the door behind him.
"I-" Dennis sighs.
He had almost given up his investigation until Trinity had joined him at the desks whilst he was charting.
"Trinity.. have you noticed anyone acting weird lately?" He asks her, turning slightly in his chair to face her, searching her face for any kind of reaction.
She has a face propped up on her hand, eyes staring blankly at her screen. She doesn't even appear to hear him. "No, why?" She asks, sounding bored.
So, Dennis tells her in a hushed voice, about Mohan's odd behaviour all day, about the secret conversations everyone seems to drop when he's nearby, about the post it notes on Ahmad's board and his response when he'd ask to place a bet.
Trinity snaps up in her chair when he's finished. "Oh my god! They're betting on you! And no one thought to include me!"
They hear a snort to the right of them, and turn to see Dana, chewing her gum, and shuffling through folders, with a cheeky grin. "You're just figuring that out now? Jesus, it's a miracle you kids got through medical school."
"Did you place a bet, Dana?" Dennis asks. He hadn't quite processed this new information, but he still felt like he was in detective mode.
"God, no. That'd just be unfair, I sensed something before that board even went up."
"Wait, so everyone knew except me!?" Trinity exclaims at the same time Dennis asks.
"Because of me?" He suddenly feels almost self conscious about his past behaviour.
Dana ignored Trinity's theatrics, "well, neither of you were subtle, but no. It was mainly Robby, I mean.." she lowers her voice, "the man is not very... touchy.. and yet." She shrugs.
"I told you." Trinity says in a sing-song voice.
"So everyone knows?" Dennis asks, turning back to his screen in front of him.
"Apart from me, apparently." Trinity moans, typing away on her keyboard again.
"Why would we tell you? Obviously you'd know given... whatever you call this relationship." Javadi comments, having seemingly appeared out of thin air in front of their desks at some point in the conversation. She waves a hand in between them, brow furrowed as she seems to be genuinely lost for words to describe the duo.
"We're roommates." Trinity states at the same time Dennis says.
"You mean friendship?" Dennis looks at her from the corner of his eyes, to find her grinning at her screen.
"The lady doth protest too much."
"Ew, never call me that again."
He looks back at Victoria, who despite herself is smiling at their antics. "She loves me really."
"You wish, Fuckleberry."
"So.." Victoria starts, leaning closer to them, voice lowered. "Was I right?"
Dennis thinks back to her bet, and finds he doesn't really know what to call his relationship with Robby. They had, after all just started.. whatever it is they had started, and Dennis wasn't entirely sure what Robby wanted out of this. More importantly, he wasn't sure what he wanted. Yes, his sexual attraction to his boss had been the main driving factor of this flirting experiment, but his admiration for his attending had always been a staple in his attraction towards him.
Dennis hadn't grown up in a household where showing emotions was allowed, not without mocking and threats. It was bewildering to have a man so kind, so respected and seemingly put together; collapse in front of him. Granted, the pittfest would have been a hard day for even the strongest wills to endure, but there was something so enticing about having such a strong authority figure display flaws, and vulnerability. Even if he had pushed him away seconds after accepting his help.
So, maybe, Dennis thought, his attraction to Robby wasn't entirely sexual, and perhaps there was room for more.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Victoria." He says.
Javadi rolls her eyes, and Trinity gives him a look of disbelief.
"Santos?"
"Don't look at me, he hasn't told me shit. Which kinda defeats the whole purpose of excluding me from your little betting pool, doesn't it?"
Victoria scoffs, mumbling, "Unbelievable," under her breath as she walks away from them.
"So, are you ever gonna tell me?" Trinity asks.
"Didn't think a lesbian would be interested in my sex life."
Santos dramatically places a hand on her chest. "Wow, so small minded. I'll have you know I've read yaoi, and I watched heated rivalry with you."
"Yeah, for all of ten minutes, before turning the tv off, because it was 'the most godawful acting' you've ever seen."
"I take that back, I'm sure it's hard to be good at acting when your story plot is essentially a wattpad fic."
"It wasn't that bad."
"Really, Dennis? A mostly loyal situationship between two men that goes on for years? Could it be more obvious that it's written by a woman?"
Dennis snorts, "okay, you got me there."
"Ugh, and that episode with the random gays made me want to kill myself."
"Still watched it though." He reminds her, turning back to the computer in front of him.
She shrugs. "What can I say, I'm a sucker for trash. I used to love Twilight too before my frontal lobe developed."
"And it's still growing, imagine all the new things you'll come to hate." He mocks, mouth open in sarcastic excitement.
"Oh, the possibilities." She threatrically exclaims with a smile.