Work Text:
Richard had come to expect a lot of weird happenings at the Hacker Hostel. He had walked in on drug deals, Gilfoyle’s Satanic rituals, and even an orgy or two in the house. He had sort of gotten to the point where he figured nothing could really disturb or upset him.
He turned out to be wrong.
“Jared? What’s going on?”
Jared looked up from his spot on the floor, white-faced and shivering. “I’m sorry,” he blurted. “I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault. I’m so sorry.”
“What are you talking about?” Richard looked down and saw, sitting at Jared’s feet, was Richard’s laptop. There was a long crack across the screen, and a cluster of pixels had died at the bottom. “Oh, shit.”
“I’m so, so sorry,” Jared continued. “I tripped on a cord and it fell. I’m so sorry. I’ll do anything. I can replace it if you want. I’m just so, so sorry, Richard, I didn’t mean to. It’s all my fault.”
Tears had started to gather in the inner corners of Jared’s eyes and he was shaking so hard Richard could practically feel it through the floor. His eyes were wide, either from fear or in desperation to keep from crying, and his bottom lip was trembling.
“Woah, okay, Jared. Hey.” Richard knelt down and extended a hand towards Jared, hoping to give him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, but Jared flinched, his arms flying up in front of his face. “Holy shit, Jared, are you okay?”
“Sorry.” Jared dropped his arms. The very thin veneer he had managed to hold up began to break down, and he curled into a ball. He laid his head on his crossed arms. Richard could hear tiny sniffles.
“Don’t be sorry, I’m just… seriously, are you okay?” Richard gently laid a hand on Jared’s back. “It’s really not a big deal, I mean, I drop my computer like once a month. Everything’s backed up, it’s not like I lost everything. I can just take it into the shop.”
Jared raised his eyes slightly. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, yeah, of course. Don’t worry about it. I mean, come on, have you seen this place?” Richard forced a huff of a laugh. “Shit gets broken here all the time.”
Jared slowly began to relax and uncurl. “O-Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Thank you, Richard. I’m so sorry. I’ll pay to get it fixed.”
“You really don’t need to. It’s fine.”
“Please, it’s the least I can do.” Jared stood, brushing off his khakis. Richard stood beside him. “I should get back to work.”
“Hey, no, come on. Take a minute. What the hell was going on over there?”
Jared smoothed his shirt and adjusted his cuffs. “I was just a little bit panicked. I thought I had completely destroyed your computer and that you would be angry.”
Richard shrugged. “I mean, even if I had been, what did you think I was gonna do? Hit you?” The very idea actually made Richard laugh. The closest he had ever come to hitting anything was when he sprained his wrist on a punching bag in middle school. He sobered when he realized Jared wasn’t joining in. “Holy fuck, you thought I was going to hit you?!”
“Not really. I wasn’t exactly thinking about it. It was just instinct. It made me think about… Well, it frightened me for a moment. But I’m okay, Richard, really.” Jared wiped his eyes. “Please let me go back to work.”
“I’m just sorta confused. What, did Gavin Belson smack you around for knocking things off his desk?”
“No, not at all.”
“So…?”
Jared sighed. “The last time I broke something that important, I woke up in the hospital with a head wound, three broken ribs, and a punctured lung. So I get nervous when something breaks. Please, just don’t worry about it, Richard. It came and went, and now I’m fine.”
The two stood silently, watching each other. Jared didn’t seem willing to push Richard out of the way to get back to his computer, and Richard wasn’t willing to let him go. Richard shook his head, bewildered. “Jesus, Jared,” he murmured.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so dramatic. I just wanted to explain.”
“You didn’t sound dramatic, you sounded… Christ. I’m… I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
Richard shook his head. “I don’t get how you do that. How you put that kind of stuff back in the box, you know?”
Jared shrugged. “It gets easier after a while.”
Richard exhaled softly. He looked into Jared’s eyes and, for a moment, felt entirely filled with awe. The phrase “this is one tough motherfucker” drifted vaguely through his head. He never thought that he ever say that about Jared Dunn – lanky, awkward, painfully courteous Jared Dunn – but there he was, completely amazed by this tall, gawky, doe-eyed and deer-skittish man who had just spent several minutes completely collapsing and rebuilding himself.
“I really should get back to work,” Jared said, but his voice had lost some of its crisp, business-like quality. A slightly blush covered his cheeks, and Richard realized he was staring at him like some kind of creep.
“Oh, yeah, sure, duh. Sorry.” Richard went to move out of the way, but hesitated. “I just gotta say… you know, you’re a pretty amazing guy.”
Jared beamed. “That’s kind of you to say.”
Richard shrugged. “And just so you know, I-I would never hurt you.” He felt his face grow warm. “I wouldn’t hurt you, and I wouldn’t let anyone else hurt you either. I just – I just hope you know that. If anything like this happens again, you can talk to me. I’ll take care of you.”
Richard almost winced at how that sounded. Oh my God, you just told a grown man that you’ll take care of him. What am I, his sugar daddy? He probably thinks I’m a totally creep. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to take it back. He did want to take care of Jared.
Jared swallowed thickly. “I know. Thank you, Richard.”
Richard finally stepped to the side, allowing Jared to walk past him. He closed his eyes. God, why can’t I just stop being weird for like 8 seconds? I probably completely freaked him out.
That thought – and all other thoughts for that matter – stopped abruptly when Richard felt a pair of soft, thin lips press against his temple. “I’ll take care of you too.” Jared’s voice was soft and low in his ear, and his warm breath against Richard’s neck caused an involuntary shiver.
Richard opened his eyes when he heard the front door open and Erlich’s voice echo through the hall. Jared had already begun working at his computer.
Richard brought his fingers to his temple, gently touching the still-tingling skin. If Jared hadn’t looked so pleased with himself, he would have thought it had been his imagination.