![[I saw three ships]](../img/2009icon.png)
As Karl comes up on the front door, he shakes his head. Greenwood's a class act, from the tasteful and understated house to the well-used but brightly polished SUV. There's a wetsuit and a surfboard in the back; Karl will have to get himself invited to the beach sometime.
Bruce opens the door with a beer in hand and a wide, gracious smile. "Karl, glad you could make it."
The murmur of conversation from in the house drifts to his ears and he can pick their voices out easily—Zach, Anton, Chris, Zoe, John. First day on set and everyone already feels like family. He loves that kind of shoot.
After a short detour to the kitchen for a beer and small talk, Bruce leads him down into the den where everyone's hanging out, drinking beer and shooting the shit. Chris is telling a joke and Anton, Zach, and Zoe are staring at him raptly.
"You didn't really think I asked for a twelve inch pianist, did you?" Karl says as he walks in, and everyone looks up at him in surprise. "Christ, that joke is older than I am."
Zach laughs and shoves Chris over to make room on the couch. Karl sits between them obligingly.
"Thanks, Karl," Chris says dryly. "Never thought I'd remember the punchline."
"I think you'd be better off forgetting that joke altogether," Bruce says, and raises his beer in salute.
An hour and four beers later, Karl can hardly pull off the beer mat trick Orlando taught him. "I think it might be time to call it quits," he says, and tries to remember how he got here. He's pretty sure he didn't drive himself, but he's got keys in his pocket.
Bruce claps him on the back and takes his bottle out of his hand. "You're going to be sorry for that tomorrow—but why don't you sack out here? Chris and Zach are too," he says, nodding to the pair of them leaning on each other and dozing on the couch, "so you can figure out rides tomorrow."
"That'd be brilliant," Karl says, feeling more than a little guilty at getting too drunk to drive at the first cast get-together—at Bruce's house no less. These young kids are a bad influence on him. "I'm not normally this…"
"Much of an alcoholic?" Bruce asks. "Don't worry about it. First party, new shoot, just gives me ammunition for next week."
"Great," Karl says, rolling his eyes hard enough to make himself dizzy and following Bruce to a guest bedroom. He flops down face first and is too drowsy to undress himself within seconds.
"Shhhh!"
Karl can tell it's Zach and Chris by the giggling and whispers. If they haven't woken the whole house on their trip to his room, Karl will eat the very expensive down comforter.
"Shut up, you two," Karl whispers. "What the hell are you doing in here, anyway?"
He feels the bed dip as someone sits on the end. His eyes aren't adjusting quickly enough to be able to tell who yet.
"We just thought," Zach says, and then pauses, like he's not sure what they might have thought.
"Zach and I were discussing our castmates," Chris picks up, and judging by the direction of his voice, he's the one sitting on the end of the bed. "And deciding who we would pick as our on-set hookup."
Karl snorts and kicks off his shoes. "I thought that you two had already hooked up," he says, climbing under the covers and aligning himself with the warm spot he's already made in the bed.
The deafening silence just proves his ability to read this kind of thing hasn't slipped at all since Lord of the Rings. "Right, so you two have hooked up." He snuggles down a little deeper into the covers. "So do you mean who would you take individually, or who the pair of you would bring in as a third?"
His eyes have adjust enough to see dark shapes at the end of the bed, Chris sitting tensely and Zach standing right behind him, hunched over, looking ominous in the dark. "Sit, Zach," Karl orders, "you're making me nervous with the brooding."
Chris guffaws and yanks on Zach's arm, and the pair of them tumble onto the bed, effectively trapping Karl's legs. "And if you could keep the volume below fifty decibels, that'd be brilliant too," Karl says. Chris shushes Zach again and then giggles. Karl rolls his eyes. His castmates giggle.
"So I assume you want to tell me who you want to hook up with," Karl prompts. He has no idea how long he dozed for, but it was enough to give him the sharp edge of rational thought back, which is good, because if there's one thing he's learned over the years, it's that this type of negotiation takes focus, and he has to know a few things for sure before he runs it by Natalie.
"We thought you'd be able to work that part out by yourself," Chris says, and slithers up Karl's legs. The kid can be an utter goofball, but when he puts his mind to it, he knows what's sexy.
Karl puts a hand on Chris's chest and stops him before he can get any further. "Whoa there, stallion. Put a lid on it and let's have a talk about this first." He sits up, resting his back against the headboard before he grabs Chris by the biceps and pulls him up, depositing him on his right side. Then he pats the pillow on his left and leans forward, pitching his voice a little lower for Zach. "You too."
Zach feels skittish, and Karl's not even sure why he thinks that; he can't see much more than Zach's shadowy outline, and he's been too quiet to get a bead on so far. Maybe it's the quiet, or the hesitation at Karl's invitation, but Karl thinks perhaps he's not the one that's going to take the most to convince.
Zach eventually gets up and walks around the bed, sitting with one leg off the side and the other tucked under him—like he wants to be able to run if he needs to.
"You really discussed this? Between you?" He turns to Chris. "Or you steamrollered him into it?"
"Hey," Zach gripes. "I'm right here."
"All right," Karl says, turning back to him. "Then you talk."
Zach's a lot easier to see up this close, even in the dark. He's picking at something nervously with his fingers, and his head is down, like he's concentrating on his hands fiercely. "We did talk about everyone else. Anton—"
"Too young," Chris chips in.
"—John—"
"Too straight."
"—Zoe—"
Chris doesn't add anything, and when Karl glances at him, he shrugs.
"She's a little scary," Zach admits.
Karl laughs. "Anyone else make the cut?"
"Bruce is too old," Chris says, and Karl's about to protest when Zach puts a hand on his wrist.
"You're not old," Zach says. "Only a couple years older than us, anyway."
"Gee, thanks."
"Seriously," Chris says, and puts a hand on Karl's other wrist, and that's just about enough. He pulls his hands away and puts them up in surrender.
"So the fact that I'm married?"
Chris is the one who goes silent this time, and Zach sketches an equivocating gesture in the air. "I've heard things. About you playing for both teams."
"That was a while ago," Karl says, not that Zach's wrong. Nothing's tempted him since before he was married, though.
"So maybe we should go," Chris says, and makes to get up. Karl puts a hand on Chris's arm, a gentle pressure to keep him from standing. It's too easy, and he knows he's in trouble if they can play him so effortlessly.
"Ground rules," Karl says, and he can see Chris's flash of smile in the dark. "Number one, I clear this with my wife and she gets the final say."
"Like he said, maybe we should go." Zach kneels up and Karl grabs him and tries to pull him back down. He's a lot tougher to convince, and Karl grabs him with both hands and yanks.
"My wife and I have an understanding," Karl says, and leaves it at that. They have rules too, but the kids don't need to know that. Chris mumbles something unintelligible, and that seems to be the end of the subject.
"If we're in this, we're in it together," Karl continues. "If one of us can't or doesn't want to, the other two need consent to continue."
"Of course," Zach says, as if he is offended that Karl has even suggested anything else might happen. Chris is studiously silent.
"Work comes first," Karl goes on, before Zach can call Chris on whatever faux pas he just committed. "If this gets in the way, it's done."
Chris and Zach both vehemently agree, and Karl's feeling pretty good about this.
"All right," Karl says. "Most importantly, I like you both. This relationship is more than the sex, and if the sex ends, the friendship doesn't necessarily have to. Capiche?"
"Good to hear it," Chris says, and they both turn to Zach.
"Your wife…" Zach starts. He shakes his head and tries again. "We won't be making this a foursome ever?"
Karl laughs at the thought. "No. If you think Zoe is scary, Natalie'd make you piss your pants."
Chris smirks, and Karl cuts him off at the pass. "And don't you go getting any ideas, either."
"No ideas," Chris says, raising his hand. "I swear." He yawns, and Karl and Zach immediately follow suit.
"You don't mind if we sleep here?" Chris asks, kicking off his shoes. "That couch isn't really big enough for both of us."
"Yeah," Karl says, rearranging the pillows and lying back while he waits for Zach to remove his shoes. Chris curls up along his left side, his head on the pillow and his breath hot on Karl's neck.
Zach curls up on his right side, his head on the pillow as well, though he's more on his front than his side, and he flings an arm across Karl's belly.
Before Karl can protest, Chris twines his fingers in Zach's, and something twists in Karls guts right along with it. He puts a hand on top of theirs and sighs as they inchworm a little closer. It's going to be a long night.
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