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“Spencer, please?” Derek pleaded, offering his smartphone like it was some sort of evidence. “You’ll be the best boyfriend ever if you say ‘yes.’”
“Explain to me again what we’re doing?” Spencer sighed, rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand sleepily as he accepted the phone. Through a yawn and bleary eyes, he watched one of those videos in which the two people, presumably a couple, seemed to do a dance in time to the swells of the background music. “You want to dance?”
“Well, yes,” Derek rubbed at the back of his neck and glanced somewhere off side, in the vicinity of Spencer’s Squishmallows. “But it’s, uh, it’s a TikTok trend. You know, the app with the short videos and all the weird dances.”
“Um, okay, I guess?” Spencer yawned again and pulled the blob-shaped calico cat Penelope had given him into his lap to rest his chin on. “I dance with you all the time, why is this one special?”
“You know how Penelope has been trying to get me to do those funny videos with her? Some of the dances and-and we went out for dinner the other day and each picked restaurants with rock-paper-scissors! You remember?” Derek shifted on the bed, and Spencer nodded sleepily, leaning against his own shoulder as he snuggled into the soft fur of the cat.
“I do indeed remember,” Spencer’s eyebrows drew together. “I have an eidetic memory; of course, I remember. You want me to do these dances with you? Like Penelope?”
“And I’d like to post them, on the internet,” Derek fidgeted again, and Spencer leaned forward to press his forehead against Derek’s bicep. When the other man caught the hint and began combing through Spencer’s hair, he hummed and relaxed against his boyfriend.
“Sure, I don’t mind,” Spencer shrugged below careful fingers and squeezed the cat against his chest, his own rubbing little circles against the cat’s black spots.
“Really?” Derek sounded so excited, his entire body stiffening up like he was trying not to wiggle. It was endearing, and incredibly sweet how excited Derek was to do what? Do a silly little dance, with Spencer. Even though he knew very well how the younger man had two left feet and struggled not to trip over them while walking, let alone trying to make his limbs cooperated with a choreographed dance.
“Yeah, sure, I’ll do my best,” Spencer hummed happily, his eyes slipping shut as he got comfortable bent in half over a stuffed animal, his neck bent at a strange angle as he snuggled into Derek.
“C’mon then!” Derek couldn’t keep the enthusiasm out of his voice, though Spencer scowled at the sudden loss of his very comfortable pillow, and blinked open bleary eyes when Derek rained down a torrent of soft kisses against his face. “Let’s go! You’re going to need practice!”
“No, I won’t!”
Spencer was wrong. He had two left feet and barely enough coordination to keep himself from smacking Derek in the face when the older man tried to spin him, and he would most definitely need all the practice he could get before this video made its way onto the internet, forever.
“No, no, it’s your right arm up, then your left,” Derek chuckled as he played the music again. Spencer was getting just a little bit sick and tired of hearing the same thirty second clip of Dancing in the Moonlight over and over and over again, though he enjoyed Derek’s warm palms against him as he gently corrected his form and spun him around.
“So right arm up,” Spencer threw his arm in the air, eyes screwed up as he played the song in his head again and tried to sync up the flailing of his limbs to the parts in the music. Derek laughed with his whole chest, a deep, unfiltered sound and Spencer pouted. “Come on, I’m trying!”
“I know, I know,” Derek grinned between guffaws. “It’s just so cute.”
“Let’s try it again? Slowly?” Spencer pleaded, grasping for Derek’s right hand. “Without the music this time?”
“Sure thing, pretty boy,” Derek hummed, eyes all soft, warm affection as he stepped back into Spencer’s personal space. “Okay, so it’s your right arm up, then your left arm out, then I’m gonna grab your right hand and then your left, alright?”
“Yup!” Spencer bounced on his heels and took his place in front of his boyfriend with an unnecessary look of intense concentration. Derek just laughed, and hummed the clip in Spencer’s ear, much to his chagrin.
“You stop that!”
“Make me!”
Somehow, Spencer managed to control his limbs enough to get to the point where Derek insisted his clumsiness was ‘endearing’, though he had the sneaking suspicion his boyfriend would have said that all along, and not necessarily ‘embarrassing.’
“You still okay with me putting this on the internet?” Derek asked over his shoulder as he set up the camera by balancing it against three paperbacks and a stapler atop the TV stand. Spencer bit his lip and hummed affirmatively, fidgeting with the cuff of his sweater as he rocked back and forth on his heels.
“Relax, pretty boy, it’s just for fun, and for the purposes of showing off my beautiful boyfriend to the people of the internet.” Derek gently lifted Spencer’s chin and pressed a kiss to his forehead, a thumb stroking at one cheekbone tenderly, and Spencer’s eyes fluttered shut, a happy hum low in his throat.
“Yeah, ‘m ready,” Spencer quirked a smile up at Derek’s excited grin and glittering eyes. “Sorry in advance if I smack you again.”
“No problem, pretty boy,” Derek threw back his head and laughed. “I knew what I was signing up for when I asked you to dance with me.”
“You’ll regret that, when you inevitably get a bloody nose again,” Spencer chuckled wryly, but Derek looked so pleased, his calloused palms warm against Spencer’s fluttering stomach.
“Yeah, well, if you don’t give me another bloody nose, we can get Indian from that place ‘round the corner you like so much,” Derek wagered, leaning his chin against Spencer’s shoulder, and wrapping his arms entirely around the skinnier man, coaxing a delighted hum from his throat.
“Deal,” Spencer acquiesced, dropping his head against Derek’s shoulder, and closing his eyes to savor the warmth his boyfriend seemed to permanently exude.
Spencer only came close to smacking Derek in the face twice and was over the moon about it, his stomach fluttering enthusiastically when his boyfriend dipped him dramatically.
Derek’s smile was warm and oh so bright and Spencer couldn’t help but tilt his chin up to brush their lips together.
And he fucking dropped him.
“What the fuck, Derek?” Spencer groaned through hiccupped laughs, scowling up at his boyfriend through an amused half-glare. “I thought I was the clumsy one!”
“’M so sorry, Spence!” Derek offered him a hand, genuine worry in his eyes. “I got distracted!”
“You owe me ice cream for that disrespect!”