Chapter 19 – Estimated Timeline of the Relationship

@gottiewrites 31/08/14

I’ve been pulling too many all-nighters recently, and need some time to get my head on straight. So here’s a post I had saved in my drafts, to tide you all over until I can get a real update written tomorrow.

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As I mentioned in the Introduction, it’s hard to know the exact timeline for when Nathan and Rob started dating. Based on the facts that we do have, I want to present my best, most informed approximation of the series of events that formed their relationship, from when they first met to now.

Some of this is extrapolated from observed events, making logical assumptions about what happened. Other things are just for fun. All my sources are in the footnotes. If something isn’t referenced, it’s probably just my personal headcanon. My aim here is to give as complete a narrative as possible, with a little artistic licence. This isn’t a fic (I haven’t written one of those in a long time), but it’s pretty close.

Please comment with your own headcanons below!

February 2013

Rob and Nathan meet for the first time.¹

Rob is new to professional acting, and Nathan is an older, well-established actor, who is new to LA. Comfortable around a TV set and crew, he takes Rob under his wing and shows him the ropes. They probably message a lot in the early days, getting to know each other as Rob asks questions about the industry.

Before the script reads, they meet at Nathan’s apartment to rehearse. Rob borrows a pair of trunks and joins Nathan in the pool, playfully throwing their lines back and forth as they swim, getting into the minds of Jayden and Fang.²

March 2013

Filming begins.³

As Rob gets used to the new industry, he relaxes. He becomes more chatty and flirty, teasing Nathan like we see him do in interviews.⁴

Rob has been out since he was a teenager, so I imagine he’s open with everyone on set about being gay, even if he isn’t allowed to come out publicly to the press. When chatting to Nathan, he mentions his old ex-boyfriend from UCLA, who he broke up with just before he graduated.⁵

I imagine that Nathan thought he personally was straight at this point. He’d only dated women until then, and he was in his thirties.⁶

Maybe his attraction to the younger man was all subconscious: he didn’t know he liked Rob in that way. He just liked spending time with him, on and off set. It might have taken him by surprise, how much he wanted to hang out with Rob.

Rob is interesting and funny, and Nathan realises that he has a charismatic personality as well as good looks. He’s clever too – he offhandedly mentions his college degree. Rob has hidden depths, and Nathan finds himself wanting to know every one of them.

April 2013

By now, Rob and Nathan are spending almost every day together, even when they aren’t filming. Rob holds a housewarming party for his new house in mid-April, and Nathan brings a six-pack of beer and Krispy Kremes.⁷

They get drunk together, hanging out by Rob’s new pool until long after the last guest drifts home. Tipsy and warm, they peel off their shirts and go skinny dipping in the pool, laughing and splashing each other. Rob drapes his arm over Nathan’s shoulders, grinning up at the sky as he floats on his back.

May 2013

Filming ends on the first season of Loch & Ness.⁸

They are contracted to appear at press and publicity engagements when the show premieres in November, but they don’t have any major work commitments until then, in four months’ time. For the first time, they aren’t going to see each other every day.

After a week, Nathan starts pining after Rob, and realises just how much he likes the man. Maybe he texts him with pictures of his food and updates on the bad LA traffic, just to stay in touch with him. Rob always replies straight away, sending back anecdotes and pictures of his own. It becomes the best part of Nathan’s day.

When Rob asks Nathan over to his new house for the weekend to hang out, he is relieved, but he doesn’t know why. The whole weekend he feels extra clingy, following Rob around and touching him a lot. He can’t help it.⁹

One night when they’re drinking and playing pool, Rob mentions a guy that he’s casually dating. Nathan felt a twinge of jealousy that he can’t explain. He must have reacted a bit oddly, because Rob never mentions any men after that. Nathan worries for a while that Rob thinks he’s homophobic, and that’s why he’s stopped mentioning it. But Rob talks about hot guys a lot, and that doesn’t bother Nathan. Rob seems to know that he just doesn’t want to hear about guys that Rob is actually dating.

June 2013

Rob starts auditioning for other roles, just in case Loch & Ness is never renewed. Nathan films a few guest appearances on shows where he has recurring roles. Rob meets him for lunch, bringing bacon subs and cold beer, which they share in the sun.¹⁰

Nathan probably finds himself staring at Rob’s skin, which is turning golden with a tan from all their trips to the beach; the fine hairs on his arms bleached a pale blonde by the sun. Rob’s arms are covered with dark tattoos in black lines of Celtic rope, curling up and over his shoulders.

There’s a flower on his calf, in remembrance of his grandmother. One night he tells Nathan, over a gradually-warming beer, that she died when he was eighteen. He got the tattoo straight after the funeral. He never got the chance to tell her that he was gay, and regrets it. Nathan hugs him, silent and unsure what to say. Rob holds him for a long moment, sighing against his neck.

August 2013

Rob dyes his hair blonde for the summer.¹¹

Nathan helps him dye it, rubbing the peroxide into his short curls and massaging his scalp. Rob teases Nathan, asking him if he wants to go blonde too, but Nathan refuses. He does let Rob shave his undercut, neatening up the hairs on the back of his neck with his clippers.

September 2013

The first season of Loch & Ness airs on RBC. Rob is suddenly thrust into the spotlight and becomes famous overnight. The success is beyond anything he could have imagined; far more than the few hundred fans he had on LiveJournal. Nathan, who has always been a smaller, C-list actor, is envious at first. But his envy turns to pride as he realises how much Rob flourishes under the attention, how natural and charismatic he is with the press. He is relieved when Rob makes it clear that he still wants to be Nathan’s friend, and isn’t interested in going off with the bigger, flashier actors.¹²

By now, the fandom for Loch & Ness is getting huge. People are starting to recognise Nathan in the streets every single day. He’s starting to feel famous, really famous – like a real actor, not just someone acting bit-parts to pay the bills. He knows that he owes a lot of his fame to Rob, who takes him to all the right parties, and gets him papped and in the public eye.

The publicists at RBC make him a Twitter and teach him how to use it. He’s never really used the internet, but he follows Rob and Anya and the rest of the cast, and reads their tweets slowly and carefully.¹³

When he starts writing his own, it’s a shock how many replies he gets, and how quickly they come in. But then Rob replies to his tweet and sends him an encouraging DM: ‘you got this, buddy’,¹⁴ and Nathan understands, all of a sudden, why people do this.¹⁵

He makes Rob take a photo of him in the pool, the next time they hang out. Rob manhandles him, positioning him to get the best pose, pushing his sunglasses up into his hair, tugging his swimming trunks an inch lower on his hip.¹⁶

When they choose a photo, Rob pretends to swoon over how hot he is. Nathan can’t help but notice that Rob emails one of the other pictures to himself, a version which they decided showed too much thigh to go online.¹⁷ Nathan doesn’t mention it.

October 2013

In preparation for filming Season 2, Nathan starts working out a lot, to get back his thick, muscular tone for his role as a werewolf.¹⁸

Feigning reluctance, Rob agrees to work out with him, running on the treadmill while Nathan lifts weights. Nathan finds himself watching the sweat spread across the back of Rob’s tank top, eyes lingering on the flash of abs when Rob lifts up the shirt to wipe his brow.

He wonders why he notices these things about Rob, when he never looks at other men at the gym. Rob will tease him, squeezing his growing muscles in appreciation, saying he’s ‘a bear, not a wolf’. Nathan doesn’t know why he likes it.

I think Rob starts flirting a lot more at this point, picking up on how flustered and flushed Nathan gets when he does. He has probably started to suspect that Nathan is bi, and starts slowly feeling him out, one step at a time.

Rob touches his shoulder, wipes crumbs off the corner of his mouth, holds eye contact for longer and longer periods: teasing Nathan until he is so flustered he can barely speak. He drapes an arm over his shoulder when they were drinking with friends, jokily saying he is holding out for someone like Nathan. He declares that none of the other guys in LA can match up to his wolf.

Once day, Rob finds a handmade silver ring in a box of his old college stuff, and jokingly kneels down to give it to Nathan. Rob doesn’t talk about his past much. There’s something there which he keeps to himself. But the ring is an offering; an explanation.

Nathan rolls his eyes and puts it on a finger on his right hand. When he goes home, he ‘forgets’ to take it off. Rob never asks for it back, even though Nathan catches him staring at it sometimes. Nathan finds himself tracing its shape when he’s alone.

January 2014

Filming starts on Season 2, and suddenly Rob and Nathan are spending all day, every day, together again. The show is getting huge, and the excitement and pressure builds on set every day.¹⁹

Still Rob is flirting: constantly now, every time he sees Nathan. Calling him ‘babe’, telling him that he looks hot, that he wishes he were his boyfriend.

It’s a genuine mistake when Nathan accidentally posts an unread text message from Rob on Twitter, which begins ‘Hi babe’. At that point, Rob calls him things like that so often that it doesn’t even occur to him that people would think that he and Rob were dating. To him, it’s just the kind of thing that Rob does.²⁰

He’s mortified when it becomes huge news. He’s always been a consummate professional, and these headlines are not professional, not at all. RBC are not happy, and hurriedly pack Nathan off to media training, to help him deal with his new A-lister status.

February 2014

Rob is told by RBC that he needs to find a ‘girlfriend’, to dispel the rumours about his sexuality. Nathan tries to explain that they really aren’t dating and that it was just a joke, but his publicist advices him to stop talking and find a girlfriend too.

It’s more of a request than a demand, like it is for Rob, but Nathan still makes a half-hearted effort to find a date on Tinder. He goes on a few dates, but there’s no fizzle with any of the women.²¹

He always goes over to Rob’s house afterwards. He’d rather be hanging out with him.

Rob is quiet and miserable, furious about the closeting. After his ‘dates’ with a younger actress, he’s nothing like his usual jokey, happy self. He stops flirting with Nathan, and it feels like something precious and vital has been stolen away.

Nathan begins to resent the management at Loch & Ness. For the first time, his gratitude at being chosen for such a big role turns into annoyance. Rob should be allowed to be happy, with whoever he wants to be with. He cares about Rob’s happiness more than he suspects he should.

March 2014

Rob is cast as the romantic lead in a gay indie film. He glows with delight, sharing every detail with Nathan. Nathan is happy for him, even though it means Rob will leave LA for six weeks for filming. When he tells Rob he’ll miss him, Rob asks him to come with him. Nathan has the time off, and they can hang out in-between shoots.

Nathan agrees without even thinking about it. He suggests they can ‘celebrate their one-year anniversary’, as they first met a year ago. He squeezes Nathan’s hand and shoots him a secret smile.

April 2014

They spend a quiet, relaxing time in Denver together, and even find time for a brief road trip when Rob has a few days off.

Nathan finally watches Loch & Ness Season 1 all the way through for the first time, and is surprised by how much chemistry he can see between Jayden and Fang.²²

He pauses the screen and stares at his own face, barely recognising himself. There’s so much heat in his eyes when he looks at Jayden, more than he’s ever seen on his face before, even in his wedding photos with his ex-wife.

They fly home for some publicity engagements. When a fan at a panel at ComicCon asks Nathan if he is single, Nathan can’t stop himself looking at Rob. He doesn’t know why; they aren’t dating. Rob looks back at him, expression unreadable. Suddenly losing his voice, Nathan shakes his head.

He is mortified afterwards. He wishes he was as funny and charming as Rob during press events. For some reason, he can’t make himself glow like Rob can. Rob looks like he belongs on a stage. Nathan looks like he should be packing up the set afterwards.

May 2014

Rob asks Nathan if he wants to come on holiday with him during a break from filming, to get away from all the press engagement they’ve had recently. Nathan agrees immediately.

He lets Rob make all the bookings, struggling to understand the websites. Rob kisses his cheek, affectionately amused. He calls Nathan his ‘old man’, even though he’s only two years older than Rob. Then he asks if Nathan wants one of his highly complicated English cups of tea, which Rob has finally learnt how to make correctly (Nathan has very exacting standards).

Nathan realises, all of a sudden, that he is in love with Rob. He hasn’t dated anyone in a year, and now it’s finally hitting him that there’s a reason for that. He wants to be with Rob. For a year he hasn’t been able to think about anyone but him. He decides that while they’re on holiday, he’s going to ask Rob to date him.

June 2014

The room they’re staying in at the hotel in the Maldives only has one bed.²³

Rob holds himself back from making lewd jokes to the receptionist, but Nathan has to pretend to have a coughing fit to hide his laughter, because he can see the jokes in his eyes.

The first night, they’re too exhausted to do more than collapse into bed. But the next morning Nathan wakes up early and brings back breakfast in bed from the hotel buffet. He steals a rose from one of the bouquets in the hotel reception and takes it up. Rob wakes up to the smell of fresh coffee.

They eat in bed together, comfortable enough together that they don’t need to talk. After they’ve eaten, Nathan reaches out and takes Rob’s hand, stroking his thumb over his fingers, twisting it over to rub his palm. Rob leans against his shoulder and sighs deeply.

They pull on swimming trunks and spend the day on the beach. Rob falls asleep leaning his head on Nathan’s stomach, under the shade of the parasol.²⁴

On the walk back to the hotel, they hold hands. After a long, slow dinner, they walk down to the beach and walk through the surf. Nathan pulls Rob closer and kisses him, thigh-deep in the ocean, under the moon and stars.

July 2014

When they get home, Rob calls Nathan his ‘boyfriend’ constantly. He’s careful in public, but on set or at home or with their friends, he’s all over Nathan. He tells him, between kisses, that he thought he’d be waiting forever – that Nathan would never realise he was in love with him. Nathan can hardly believe his luck.

They’re warned again by RBC that they absolutely aren’t allowed to go public until Loch & Ness has finished airing. An email about it is followed by another message about a touchy-feely photoshoot they’ve got to do for publicity for the new season. Nathan feels like he’s getting whiplash.

Rob drags Nathan into a tattoo shop one night, after they meet up with Anya for drinks. He demands that they get matching tattoos, and Nathan finds that it’s impossible to resist. He suggests stars, for the night they first kissed in the sea. They design them together, and whenever Nathan sees his tattoo on Rob’s skin, he can’t help but thrill with pride.

He expects his family to be surprised when he tells them that he’s dating Rob, but they all know already. His sister tells him that she guessed at Christmas. He blushes, for the first time since he was a teenager, when she teases him about it.

August 2014

Nathan moves in with Rob. He keeps the apartment so that it looks like he still lives there. He’s petrified that something will come out about their relationship, and RBC will fire him.

Rob’s house is bigger than Nathan’s old place, but with all of their possessions mixed up together it seems too small. They start talking about getting somewhere together. Somewhere big enough for a dog, an office, a garage for his many cars, and maybe a nursery one day. Nathan is older, and he’s ready to have kids. Anya has two little toddlers, and they’re so much fun to mess around with in the pool.

Nathan is surprised when Rob agrees: he wants kids with Nathan too. He’s waited for him long enough.²⁵

So . . . yeah. That’s what I think happened. This may be full of assumptions, but I feel that it conveys the true emotions of the relationship between Rob and Nathan, even if it gets some of the details wrong.

Argh, this is an embarrassing chapter to post. It’s a lot more sensitive than my normal chapters. Be gentle.

– gottie

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Footnotes