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It is either very late or very early as Eric Bittle finishes editing the latest of his vlog entries. As he pokes his head out of his door, he can’t see any other lights on in the Haus, and decides that it would be safe to try out the recipe that he wants to tell his viewers about next- he has to make sure that the rest of the boys are sleeping. Eric would never admit to this, but he is not always spot on when he tries new recipes, and he sometimes needs to try them a few times before perfecting them. When he really thinks about it, he realizes how silly it is to keep his trial baking a secret from his teammates, but Eric decides that he’ll ignore logic. He has a reputation to upkeep after all.
Tip-toeing down the stairs, making sure to avoid all the spots on the stairs he knows groan at even the slightest touch, Eric makes his way to the main floor before stopping at the bottom step, his breath catching slightly in his throat. There is a dim glow coming from the living room and a faint stream of dialogue that Eric cannot quite make out. He would not have been surprised if one of the boys, probably Ransom or Holster, had left the TV going. What makes him stop so suddenly are the, though still hushed, much louder responses coming not from an electronic device, but someone in the room. Straining his ears, Eric tries to make out what is being said, but can’t recognize any of the words being said. He steps gently into the living room.
“Jack?” Eric says softly, his voice barely above the volume of the television.
Sitting on the disgusting green couch is Jack, who at the sound of Eric’s voice, jumps a minuscule amount in his seat. Scrambling a little, Jack grabs the remote and pauses the screen.
“Bittle!- What are doing awake?” Jack stops for a beat before regaining his captain’s voice. “You should be asleep. We leave for a roadie tomorrow.” Eric studies the halted movie on the TV screen. What is on it is definitely something that he hadn’t expected Jack to be watching.
“I don’t know Jack,” Eric whispers, trying unsuccessfully to restrain a small laugh. “What are you doing watching Pocahontas at three in the morning? Kinda like the pot callin’ the kettle black, don’tcha think, Captain?”
For a moment, Jack stares at Eric, blank faced, before a slight blush creeps across his cheeks, visible even in the low light against his pale skin. To Eric, Jack looks like he can’t decide if he wants to respond to the question, and Eric immediately feels guilty for laughing. “I couldn’t really sleep. So I came down here.”
“Oh.” Eric pads quietly across the scratched wooden floor and settles softly on the arm of the couch, his socked feet resting on the empty cushion on the end. For a moment, silence fills the room. Eric keeps his eyes fixed on Jack, who he notices is sitting tensely for such an ungodly hour. “Still, I guess I never pegged you as a Disney fan,” he says.
Jack sits back a little on the couch. “I’m not really… This is the only one I ever watched as a kid.”
“Oh?” Eric intones, brightening slightly.
“Yeah,” Jack continues, finally letting go of his vice-grip on the remote. “I thought that Native American history was interesting.”
Eric leans forward a little, resting his elbows on his knees and gesturing at the TV. “So you kept the VHS?” Eric studies the screen for a moment in the absence of Jack’s reply, before he notices something. “Wait,” he says slowly, “this is an extra scene… Oh my god, Jack, you have the anniversary DVD!”
Jack lets out a little laugh at Eric’s chirp, and Eric is relieved to hear it. “Alright, Bittle, you got me.”
Against his better judgment, Eric slides down onto the filthy couch next the Jack. “No, no, no, I didn’t say it was a bad thing! I guess I just didn’t expect it is all.” Eric can feel Jack relax a little into the cushion beside him. Jack gives Eric one of his little lop-sided grins, and Eric hopes that Jack can’t see his own face go red.
“So then, what are you doing up at this hour, eh Bittle?”
Eric sighs. If Jack’s secret is out of the bag, he might as well let his out. “I need to practice the next recipe I’m covering in my blog. It’s a lil’ bit complicated, and I can’t let the boys know if I go and mess it up the first couple of rounds.”
Jack snorts. “I never thought I’d see the day I hear Eric R. Bittle say he doesn’t know how to bake something.”
“Hey now,” Eric whispers, giving Jack a light jab in the arm, “I didn’t give you a hard time ‘bout your DVD.”
Jack smiles a full-blown smile, and Eric can feel his face heating up even more. “No, and I guess that’s fair, eh? So,” he continues, “are you going to get at it?”
Eric settles more deeply into the couch, ignoring his disdain for the stained piece of furniture. “You know, I think I could actually go for some Pocahontas.”
Jack leans back, picking up the remote again. “You can stay if you want, but you won’t understand any of it; it’s in Quebecois.”
Eric smirks. That explained why he couldn’t make anything out earlier. “Please, Captain. You think I DON’T know this movie front and back? You underestimate how connected to the Disney girls I was as a child.”
Giving a small laugh, Jack presses play. As the movie goes, its foreign dialogue somewhat calming to Eric, he thinks of something. “Jack,” he says, “were you talking to the movie earlier?”
Jack’s face flushes red again. “Sometimes I point out the historical stuff that’s wrong in it to myself.”
Eric chuckles, patting Jack’s arm. “Don’t worry Captain. Your secret’s safe with me.”
By the end of the movie, Eric’s eyelids droop heavily against his eyes, and he struggles to keep them open. During one instance of prolonged eye-resting, Eric feels Jack’s hand rest lightly on top of his own. Eric decides to keep pretending to sleep, and before he knows it he stops pretending as Jack’s breathing slows to match his own.
For the rest of the semester, Jack always sneaks downstairs into the kitchen after he hears Eric recording his vlogs from across the hall. In turn, Eric checks the living room late nights before games for Jack, always making sure to bring his laptop ready with a new Disney movie, always in Quebecois. And they always keep each other’s secrets from the rest of the team.