1. THE FUCKING GRADUATION

I can’t wait for this fucking day to be over.

The thought sat behind Noel’s ribs as he walked back to his seat with a forced smile in place. The dean had shook his hand like they were old friends while handing him the certificate. Cameras kept flashing while applause rolled through the auditorium. But Noel didn’t feel happy. He had no idea why.

Law school graduation was supposed to feel like freedom. He wasn’t so sure of that anymore.  The law degree was supposedly ‘In the bag’ and yet, all he felt was the familiar knot that always lived in his stomach. He just wanted to go home.

Noel found Benjamin easily in the crowd. His dad’s face was lit up with that proud, exhausted smile that always made Noel’s chest ache. The same smile that said I gave up my youth for you and I’d do it again. At least, that was how Noel interpreted it. It didn’t help that it was mostly true.

After the caps had been tossed and the crowd started thinning, Benjamin pulled him into a hug that smelled like the same cologne he’d worn since Noel was a kid. Then he pressed a kiss to Noel’s forehead like he was still ten years old and scared of the dark.

Noel groaned. “Dad. Come on.”

Benjamin just laughed, the sound was warm and unbothered. “What? I’m proud of you.”

“I’m twenty-two,” Noel said, pulling back with a groan. He kept his voice low, sarcastic, the way he always did when the guilt started climbing his throat. “Not twelve. I have a caffeine addiction now. You and Uncle Gabe can stop with the forehead kisses and the babying. I’m a grown man.”

Benjamin ruffled his hair anyway. “You’ll always be my sweet boy, Noel. Deal with it.”

In the car on the way home, Benjamin glanced over at a red light. “Gabe’s coming by tonight. Thought we’d throw something on the grill and celebrate properly.”

Noel let his head thunk against the window. “Of course he is.”

He loved uncle Gabe. Truly. Platonically. But there was always something in the air whenever he was around and Noel would rather choke on glass than name what it was. He refused to even address it.

At home, Noel escaped upstairs the second they walked through the door. His room hadn’t changed much since undergrad—law textbooks stacked like a defensive wall, a couple of faded posters, and on the bed, waiting like it had been expecting him, was Gabe Junior.

The battered green dinosaur plush stared up at him with its one remaining eye. Stuffing poked out of a tear in its left arm. Noel had named it that when he was a kid. It was a stupid form of rebellion. He had stolen alcohol from his dad’s cupboard to “know how it tastes.” Gabe had caught him and told on him to his dad. Noel held a grudge for a few days after that and refused to talk to Gabe. To make it up to him, Gabe bought him this stupid plush toy and some treats and because Noel wanted to be a brat, he’d named it Gabe Junior. When uncle Gabe had asked him why a plush toy was named after him of all people, Noel had simply said, “Well he’s cuter and he won’t tell on me like some people would.” And just like that, the name stuck. 

Noel dropped on the mattress and picked the toy up, turning it so they were eye-to-eye or eye-to-missing-eye to be more accurate.

“Well?” he said. “We did it. Law school is over. Yay, I guess. It’d feel much better if you remove the fact that I still don’t know what the hell I’m doing with the rest of my life.”

Gabe Junior’s single eye stared at him and for some reason, Noel took it as being judged. 

“Don’t give me that look,” Noel muttered. “I know graduating doesn’t magically fix anything. But it’s something, right? Proof that I’m not completely useless.”

He imagined the toy’s dry and unimpressed reply in that voice he had given it in his head. You’re still running from the same thing you’ve always run from.

“Shut up,” Noel told it. “You’re a stuffed animal. Your emotional intelligence is that of a stale potato. I don’t need life advice from you. Or anyone else for that matter”

He set the dinosaur down but didn’t turn it away. It felt too much like admitting defeat.

“Gabe’s coming over,” he added after a moment, his voice quieter. “Barbecue. It was dad’s idea. Try not to look so smug about it.”

Downstairs later, the backyard smelled like charcoal and summer and the beer Benjamin always bought for these things. Gabriel arrived looking like he’d stepped straight out of a courtroom even in casual clothes—sleeves rolled to his forearms, an expensive watch catching the last of the light, dark hair perfectly in place. Composed. The kind of handsome that made people do double takes and then pretend they hadn’t.

“Congratulations, Angel,” Gabriel said the second he saw him, the nickname rolling out low and warm like it always did.

Noel’s jaw clenched. Heat crawled up the back of his neck before he could stop it. “I’ve told you a hundred times not to call me that.”

Gabriel didn’t even look up from where he was helping Benjamin with the grill. “Then stop looking like one.”

“I have tattoos, that shows that I’m grown up.”

“Tattoos that you got impulsively. Also, you always turn red when you’re angry so I don’t think I want to ruin my fun by stopping.”

Noel muttered a curse under his breath and turned away before the flush could deepen, but he caught the small, knowing curve of Gabriel’s mouth anyway.

The evening went as easy as it could. Noel let himself relax and just exist in the familiar rhythm of the three of them. 

Then, as the sun dipped and the plates were mostly empty, Benjamin dropped a bomb.

“I’ve got some news,” he said, looking between them with that same proud smile. “Noel’s internship is already lined up. Sterling & Pierce Legal. He’ll be working directly under you, Gabe.”

Noel’s eyes squinted, he wanted to believe he’d heard wrong.

“What? Dad…no. I can find my own placement. I don’t need you arranging—”

Gabriel’s expression went carefully neutral, but his shoulders tightened under the rolled sleeves. “Ben, that’s generous, but the firm’s been slammed. And with Noel being… family, it could get complicated.”

Benjamin waved it off like he was swatting a fly. “Nonsense. You two already know each other better than anyone. It’s the perfect fit. Noel gets real experience, you get someone you can actually trust. It’s settled.”

Noel opened his mouth. Closed it. Then opened it again. 

Across the table, Gabriel met his eyes with an unreadable expression. Then Gabriel gave a single, resigned nod.

“Fine,” he said quietly. “We’ll make it work.”

Later that night, alone in his room again, Noel picked up Gabe Junior and stared at the plush toy like it had personally betrayed him.

“It’s just an internship,” he told the dinosaur firmly. “Don’t look at me like that. Nothing’s going to happen. He’s Uncle Gabe. For fuck’s sake. It’s work. That’s all it is.”

The one-eyed stare felt accusatory in the lamplight.

Noel flipped the toy face-down on his pillow. “Asshole.”

He didn’t sleep well. He could not bring himself to close his eyes for a full hour.

He had no idea why. This was uncle Gabe. His dad’s best friend. There was absolutely nothing wrong with interning at his firm. In fact, it was perfect timing. And yet, it felt like the worst possible idea in the history of ideas.

The next morning Gabriel was back early, folder in hand, looking like he hadn’t slept much either. It was probably because of work. No, it was definitely because of work. Noel refused to believe that Gabe couldn’t sleep for the same reason as him. 

“Orientation packet,” Gabriel said, holding it out. “Read it before Monday. Inside is the dress code, building access and other important stuff.”

Noel reached for it without thinking. Their fingers brushed and Noel froze with his eyes wide. 

No. No. No. No. No.

But  it was already too late. The same tiny spark of electricity that he recognised so deliciously shot up his arm. Blood rushed south and he almost felt dizzy.

And this. This was the reason why the internship was a bad idea.

Fuck.