Chapter 33

Joshua and Henry put the well-timed delivery to use, both slowly limping over to the spare bedroom, closing the door behind them.

The room was mostly bare, with a bed and desk, not even a chair to go with it. It was a room that was barely used, Gin was the only person to have used it before when he had gotten into a fight with his girlfriend. It was clear the room was empty because it was of no use. The only distinctive feature was the large piece of poster paper stuck to the wall with the intricate flowchart scrawled in Gin's messy cursive.

As Joshua sat down on the bed, Henry set his crutches aside and slowly staggered to the was on which the plan had been stuck. It took him a little time since he could only raise one arm, the arm of which hand a sliced palm, however he eventually managed to get it down, rolling it up and pushing it between the leg of the desk and the wall to keep it from unfurling. Once done, Henry also sat on the bed, taking his shoes off and easing his legs up so he could be more comfortable.

He noticed Joshua was sat more formally, something he would have left if it hadn't entailed his injured ankle on the ground.

"Come and sit back properly so you can rest your ankle." As Henry spoke, he reached back for one of the two pillows.

Seeing that it wasn't much of a suggestion and no longer having the energy to cause a fuss – all of a sudden he had been hit with exhaustion, not surprising after the eventful morning – he nodded, taking his shoe of and pulling himself up until he had his back against the wall. Henry reached forward towards him, lifting his leg and placing the pillow under the bandaged ankle.

With the two men now comfortable, Henry talked.

"So, obviously our plan has been a bit of a flop so far. We have not done a thing to convince our parents that we are developing a relationship. It's actually a little miraculous they don't doubt us."

Joshua couldn't help but scoff at Henry's words, not because they were wrong, but because of how much of an understatement it was. They hadn't even tried to talk about the plan. Essentially, they dumped it on Gin, who in turn got the two drunk.

"Honestly, if it weren't for our bad luck and all those incidents, we would have already failed." Once again, Henry had told a hard truth.

"Honestly, I can't say I am a fan of it, but we agreed to get married and lie to everyone about our relationship, about being gay. Yet, so far, we haven't done anything. We've been lucky so far, but I don't know how long that will last. Definitely not long enough for us to succeed."

"You're right. We have been lucky, but things are progressing. If we don't get an act together, we might not even last until the marriage. And I don't really want to bring it up, but with what we pulled last night…"

Joshua didn't have to finish, both men grimacing. They had forgotten about it over the course of the eventful evening, but it really was too shameful.

"Yeah, we have to get some work into this. Before it falls apart."

They were silent for a moment, wallowing a little in self-pity, before Henry spoke again.

"Anyway, I only really realised it today, but pretending to be in a relationship actually entails, you know, acting like we are in a relationship." He watched the other man's face go a little grey, wholeheartedly agreeing. "Mn, same. I don't think I could live with myself if it took it that far. Like I said before, I mean no offence by it, but no, acting like a couple with a man is, well…"

"Impossible. Haunting, even. Believe me, I feel the same. So, what are we going to do about it? How do we pretend to be a couple if neither of us can bring ourselves to act like one?"

"That is why I wanted to talk. I already did a little something with my brother just now.

"He was prying a little, and I realised something. Clearly our families don't know us nearly as well as we thought – I mean, innocent, gay virgin… I know you understand that – and they seem to dote on us a little too much. Also, they are already convinced we will get together in reality, they are a little biased. So, I may have manipulated the view they have on us, just a little, to serve our purpose a little easier."

Joshua had been listening quite casually before, but now he had his whole attention set on the blonde man; he could only wonder.

"So… let's just say they probably think we are shy and feel embarrassed talking about relationships with our families. So, no matter how we act, they will probably think we are just toning it down out of embarrassment." Henry let out a nervous laugh, it sounded worse when he said it out loud. "The good thing is that we could act like friends and they would believe it's romantic… but…"

"But now their image of us has moved further away from them just thinking we're innocent gays. You made it easier to lie to them by deepening the lie."

"When you put it like that, it sounds horrible."

"It is, we've gone from lying about our sexuality and relationship status to us lying about our persons as a whole."

"Gah! It felt like a good idea at the time."

There was a moment of silence, Joshua shaking his head as he leant back against the wall, eyes so heavy he let them close. "It isn't a bad plan. In fact, it really is quite convenient. I can't say it's ideal, but it's clever and it really could work."

"Really?" The slight excitement in Henry's voice made the older man open his eyes; he didn't expect to be met with Henry's face lit up. The 23-year-old suddenly looked like a teenager, Joshua's lip curving up a little in amusement. He had not expected that reaction.

"Mn, it's not bad. I could have never thought of something like that on the spot."

Henry had no idea that he was like this, but he found himself thoroughly enjoying being praised by someone. Of course he has had superiors praise him, but it was not quite the same, they all worked for his family, he couldn't take it as sincerely as they had probably hoped. Joshua's praise, however, made him want to get praised more by others.

They continued to discuss things, agreeing that they would have to actually start meeting more often; regardless of whether their behaviour in front of their family had been explained, it would do no good if their families did not see they spent time together. While Henry could get away with it, Joshua lived and worked with his family, he had no escape. If he did not go out, they would all know.

Another thing they agreed on, by which point exhaustion had started to heavily weigh on them, was that they needed to actually get to know each other for any sort of fake relationship to become believable. Their discussion didn't get much further than the two agreeing on the point.

By the time the curry was complete, the doorbell rang. At the same time. Penelope came out of Henry's room, so well rested the left side of her face were filled with sleep marks. The smell of the curry had woken her up. She went to open the door as Samuel put the last of the dishes in the sink, inviting in Archer and Meera.

"Someone slept well," Archer joked, the girl just groaning and nodding.

"She just woke up. I don't even know if she's fully awake yet."

Before Archer could reply, Meera asked, "Why did you make curry? Henry's coming home tomorrow night, you know he hates leaving too many leftovers."

"I made what I could with the ingredients he had, he can barely move, let alone cook for himself. Joshua had to help him change tops."

"What!"

It was at that moment Samuel realised he had never messaged about that interaction, he had been too busy cooking and keeping his presence to a minimum, and then the super-receptionist had distracted him. "Honestly, it was really cute. Henry struggled a lot to get my sweater off so Joshua offered a hand. And then Joshua started to feel bad about how badly Henry got injured saving him, but Henry didn't seem to know how to cheer him up and kicked him instead. It was really fun to watch."

"Enough of your brother complex," even though his wife had said that, she was only joking. It wasn't long after marrying into the family she found herself just as overprotective of Henry as her husband, she was just a little more mischievous when it came to handling Henry, prone to useing underhanded methods as opposed to her husband's sweet words.

"Speaking of those two, where did they go?"

"Spare room, I think they wanted to talk without me around, they probably get embarrassed around us. Although, that was a couple hours ago now."

With that said, the four siblings found themselves going to the spare bedroom, Archer lightly knocking on the door. When they got no answer, Penelope pushed the door open.

The picturesque view they came to find to find was the two beautiful men slouched side by side against the wall, Henry's head on Joshua's shoulder, the other man having rested his own head against the younger man. Both had blissfully fallen asleep mid conversations, the events of the day finally catching up with them.

Of course, Meera snapped a picture, sending it to the family group chat, the one excluding the new couple.

But after that, they were left in peace, both men in for a surprise once they woke up in the position they had left themselves in.