Entry tags:

007 works at starbucks, fiction

every home was like alcatraz
title// every home was like alcatraz
rating// nc-17
fandom// chuck
pairing// bryce larkin/chuck bartowski
word count// 5650

part// one.

In college, sex was easy. Uncomplicated.

Tri Kappa keggers. Pledge week. Naked mile runs. Strip poker with Sigma Phi.

Bryce had it all.

Had his future laid out before him and Chuck Bartowski laid out beneath him.

--

It's three weeks into the first semester.

They meet on campus, football and C++. Chuck smiles, mentions Zork. Bryce laughs, mentions EverQuest. Mentions Jill. Chuck's attention is his.

Bryce says he'll introduce them. Chuck fumbles, wide arms stuffed with books for classes that Bryce is in. Chuck's awed disbelief holds Bryce's interest.

Conner and Jacob tell him that Jill went back to her room. Chuck eagerly trails, nervous and gushing.

He seems half in love and he hasn't even met her yet.

Bryce is intrigued, wonders if it's really that easy.

--

Bryce lives on the third floor. Students are still unpacking. Boxes are piled up like a bad Tetris game.

Jill's door is open and has a dry erase board nailed to it. Not here, pwning newbs is written in bright green marker. Her roommate, Angie, is sitting crossed legged, on the floor, playing Silent Hill.

Bryce knocks. "Yo."

Angie doesn't look up. "What up, Larkin?"

"Jill around?"

"Nah, she's in class, dude. Fuck." Her screen goes black. Game over. "Who's the stick?"

Chuck blinks, startled. "Stick?"

Bryce laughs. "This is Chuck. Just met him. Wanted to introduce him to Jill."

Angie laughs. "Bryce Larkin, international stray cat collector."

Bryce nudges Chuck's shoulder. "But I don't take them all home with me, now do I?"

--

Bryce has a class at quarter past eight. Chuck's in the same class. They hang out in Bryce's room until they have to walk to the computer engineering building.

They're both scholarship kids, Bryce for athletics, Chuck for academics, engineering majors. Chuck wants to own his own software company. Bryce wants to be an accountant.

"Super, you can work for me. Be there when I make my first billion." Chuck's smile reaches his eyes. They've spent three hours talking about nothing.

Bryce isn't used to that.

"Tell me about this Zork thing," he brings up on the way to class.

Chuck begins talking, animated. He uses his hands, expresses himself. He backtracks often, gets swept up in side-stories.

Bryce likes listening to Chuck talk. He lets him.

--

Chuck surprises Bryce the next morning. He's outside Bryce's door, hands shoved deep in his pockets. Bryce's on his way back from track practice. They run every morning before seven a.m.

Bryce is half asleep, but still managed to outrun the entire team.

"Hey!" Chuck bounces on the balls of his feet. "I know showing up here is a little weird, but I had a few hours to kill before class and I don't really know-know anyone here, so I was wondering if you—"

"Yeah," Bryce interrupts. "Just gimmie ten to shower."

"Super, I'll just wait, uhh, I'll just keep stand—"

"Get in, Chuck."

--

Having Chuck in his life feels odd, comfortable. Their common interests have them unified. They like old videogames, 70s crime movies. Science fiction. Bryce loves Star Trek; Chuck loves Star Wars.

Chuck promises to learn Klingon; Bryce watches Episode I. Bryce corrects his pronunciation, Chuck apologizes for Geroge Lucas. Chuck waits for him after track practice and Bryce takes a forty minutes detour to walk with Chuck to his dorms.

To Bryce it feels inevitable, like gravity.

--

There's something different about Chuck, something that Bryce can't pinpoint immediately.

It makes Chuck intriguing, fascinating. Something Bryce wants to further experiment with. He's too nice a guy to be completely genuine.

Bryce wants to be there when he cracks Chuck open, lets it all spill out.

--

It takes a week and two days for Chuck to finally meet Jill. They're in the same economics class.

Jill's bag breaks, her books spill out. Chuck rushes in to save the day. Jill winds up with a bump on her head and Chuck's number stored in her phone.

Bryce likes Jill. She's into Animé and comic books and knows Elvish. She always wears her long brown hair in a high ponytail and pushes her bangs behind her ears. She has bright pink glasses and a tongue ring with a neon yellow ball.

She's sarcastic, sharp. Unapologetic and funny. They all eat lunch in the cafeteria after they spend the afternoon cheering for Bryce at his meet. She orders a cheeseburger and fries and makes fun of the bandages on Chuck's fingers.

"Nintendo is a serious health risk! Ask my sister, she's in med school."

"Whatever, newb. Pass the vinegar." She winks. Chuck smile touches his eyes.

Bryce's eye twitches. He feels jilted.

--

They grow closer as the weeks drag on. Midterms have Bryce and Chuck's heads pressed together in the library. Chuck helps him with the more complicated problems, the ones he missed sleeping in or for track meets.

"One more, buddy. We're almost done." Chuck remains optimistic. Bryce is perpetually amazed with how much information Chuck can remember off the top of his head. Phone numbers, calc equations, Python coding, birthdays.

After their last exam, Bryce's track friends drag him to a pub. Bryce drags Chuck. He texts Jill, tells her he'll have him back in one piece.

Get him smashed, Larkin she texts back. Bryce considers it a carte blanche. "It's what Jill wants." He shows Chuck the message whenever he pushes a shot towards him.

Somewhere between the beer pong and the beer bong, Bryce pulls Chuck out of the pub by the collar of his shirt. They hold each other up as they bump into walls and set off car alarms.

When Bryce wakes up the next morning, he and Chuck are in a baseball diamond, passed out against home plate. Chuck's hand is against his lower back. Bryce's fingers are tangled in Chuck's hair.

Chuck is already awake.

He's looking right at Bryce.

--

Jill and Chuck go to San Francisco for a weekend. Time alone.

Angie tells Bryce that Jill spent the Friday buying lingerie, The Cure's Disintegration and the 1978 Battlestar Galactica.

"Had it not been for the lingerie part, I would swear she's gonna fuck him this weekend."

Bryce laughs because she does.

He skips out on movie night and doesn't leave his room until Chuck gets back.

--

Bryce realizes things aren't ok three days before the end of the first year.

He's in Chuck's room, across his bed, calculus book lying open on his chest.

He's watching them.

Jill has Chuck between her legs, her chin on his head. She's quizzing him, braiding his curls with purple elastics from Angie's braces.

Every right answer has Jill kissing him, cheering. Chuck's lips are smeared with her chapstick. He's smiling, whispering to her, has her giggling.

Bryce realizes he's been clenching his jaw when Jill asks him what time it is and talking hurts. "Half past."

"Shit, I gotta get going." Jill groans, detangles herself from Chuck.

Chuck moans as he stands. "But how else am I gonna learn all this without you quizzing me?"

"Well, I guess you're failing." She hip checks Chuck. "You coming, Bryce?"

He wants to stay. He wants her to leave.

"I think Bryce is sticking around. I foresee a long night of antiderivatives and differentials." Chuck smiles as he pulls the elastics out of his hair.

"Gross. Call me after, ok?" Jill pulls on Chuck's red hoodie. Her hair sticks up from the static. Chuck brushes it down and kisses her forehead.

"Absolutely."

Bryce gets up, hugs her at the door, waits for Chuck to kiss her goodnight.

When the door closes, Bryce fists Chuck's shirt, yanks him hard, kisses him.

Chuck kisses back.

--

They try to talk about it.

Chuck ends up on the floor, Bryce ends up with Chuck's tongue in his mouth.

Belt buckles are unhooked, zippers pushed down. Bryce's fingers slide under the elastic of Chuck's boxers, skim wiry curls. He's torn between devouring Chuck's mouth, needing more contact.

Chuck whimpers, dick filling out thickly. His hand cups the back of Bryce's head, forces more pressure, rubs up, slides the hard outline of his cock against Bryce's, takes.

Bryce almost loses it. Messy, graceless. Chuck's cell suddenly rings, plays What is Love?.

Jill.

Twenty minutes later, they find themselves drinking lukewarm coke and eating pizza in Jill's dorm. They're on opposite sides of the couch.

--

It happens after the end of the first year. Pats on the back, handshakes, see you laters. Students pile into plains, trains and automobiles, head home.

Bryce takes the latest flight possible. It corresponds to the time stamped on Chuck's train ticket. Jill's already in Vermont, Angie in New York. They're in Chuck's room as Dave, his roommate, drags his luggage out the door.

Chuck's sitting on his half packed suitcase. He's avoiding Bryce's eyes, keeps talking. Nervous chatter; filler to keep sound in the room. He gets up, starts aimlessly picking up trinkets, puts them right back down.

"Are we ever gonna talk-talk about, y'know, this?" Chuck waves at the space between them, sounds mildly hysterical. He passes a hand through his hair, makes it stick up.

Bryce licks his lips.

It's quick. Bryce is up, body close to Chuck's, pushes him against the wall. He slides his knee between Chuck's legs, hooks his hands around Chuck's neck, tests a hypothesis. Experimentation.

Bryce learns Chuck has a sensitive back, that he likes it when Bryce bites his neck. He learns that Chuck's stomach flutters at the slightest touch, that he growls when jerked off quickly.

Bryce learns that twisting right under Chuck's crown has him buckling, that his come tastes like black licorice, that he loves the way Chuck says his name like he's dying.

The next morning, Chuck's on a train to Los Angeles, Bryce on a plane to Connecticut.

Bryce doesn't brush his teeth. Tastes like Chuck the entire way home.

--

Bryce spends the break fantasizing.

The separation makes the need gnaw at his insides, makes him feel empty.

He's tense, filled with reckless energy, energy he puts into running. He beats his old records, runs ten miles in thirty-one minutes, flat.

part// two.