Mason finally sobered up, but by then Mark was prepping their tools because Lorraine announced that, if everyone was finished, they would move on to blood pressure.

Mark locked away any nerves he had, knowing that the last thing he wanted to do was take away that light mood Mason had by showing his nerves. Mason had a smile on his face the entire time that he and Mark quietly listened to the instructions and organized the tools. 

After ten minutes, the two were trying to get a good handle on getting each other’s blood pressure. Mason had gone first, messing up the placement several times and later having trouble with the tightness.

But Mark was patient all throughout, and Mason felt little embarrassment because Mark continued to smile at him no matter what he did. He finally got the hang of checking for the systolic and diastolic visually so he gave the stuff to Mark to let him have his turn.

Mason was actually surprised. Mark, who was usually the most calm and composed guy that he knew, had his hands shaking as he tried to get Mason’s blood pressure. If you simply looked at his face, he looked calm and collected like always, but his hands were shaking and he was muttering to himself through everything he did.

“ . . . one inch above the brachial artery, the arrow pointing to the center of the elbow.” He would mutter to himself as he adjusted the strap of the sphygmomanometer. Mason was getting a bit uncomfortable, but even more than that, he was worried about Mark. “Do not wrap the strap too tight or you will put the patient in discomfort, but not too loose or you won’t get the reading. Test tightness using your . . . ”

Mark carried on like this until it was time for him to pump air into the strap, but he was fumbling with the device so much that he couldn’t even get one squeeze in. Mason finally had enough and rested his hand on Mark’s.

“Hey, Mark, calm down.” Mason whispered, head lowered to Mark’s ear. “It’s fine to mess up and not be perfect. It’s fine to make it too loose or too tight or even hurt me a bit. Just don’t be so wound up about it. No one is asking you to be perfect, alright? I’m the last person that wants you to be ‘perfect.’”

Mason moved back from the side of Mark’s face to find Mark staring at him with wide eyes and an awe-filled expression. Mason giggled softly.

“A perfect guy would never have made that weak joke.” That comment got a grin on Mark’s face again, and Mark sighed heavily when he realized that fact.

“Thank you.” He told Mason lowly, still a bit embarrassed over needing the pep talk in the first place. Mason shrugged with a small smile.

“No problem.” Mason said nonchalantly. “It’s what friends do, right?”

Mason regretted the comment almost as soon as he had made it. It caused an odd feeling to rest at the bottom of his stomach, and a tenseness fell between him and Mark. Mark got back to work, his hands still shook slightly but it was much less than before and he stopped muttering the instructions to himself.

It took Mark a few tries to get it right, but overall he was able to get comfortable faster than Mason. Mason, still worried that Mark might tense up again at any moment, let Mark move onto listening with the stethoscope and writing down the official numbers. Mark felt more nerves but with the confidence from having gotten down the hardest part, he felt more comfortable to jump right into it.

It took him less than ten minutes to get the final number and two practice readings, and after he had finished, the tension literally fell off of his shoulders.

“Oh thank God.” Mark had whispered, gaining a cute chuckle from Mason that Mark certainly heard. Now that Mark’s job was over, he began to make a few jokes with Mason again.

It was probably the least helpful thing he could have done since Mason needed the silence and time to focus, but Mason never complained. He enjoyed Mark’s jokes way too much to complain. It took Mason a bit of time, but he was finally able to get a number on Mark. 

“I can hear something! Finally! That took me forever, no thanks to you.” Mason grinned, complaining about Mark half-heartedly. Mark could tell that Mason wasn’t really upset, but he still felt guilty over it. Seeing this, Mason quickly blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “Well, to make it up to me, you’re gonna let me try a few extra times on you. I’m gonna need all the practice I can get.”

“Alright. I guess it’s the least I can do.” Mark tried to play it off as if he didn’t care, but Mason noticed how the smile slowly came back on to his face. “So, nurse Mason. Is my Blood Pressure okay? Or is it just too high from being around you?”

Mason sputtered out a laugh while his face grew red. Mark started to laugh at his embarrassment and Mason’s shocked smile turned into a deep pout.

“Stop that, how in the world am I going to get it if you stay gross stuff like that?” Mason asked him, using his free hand to cover his overly warm face. Mark’s smile dropped and his face turned serious.

“I didn’t think it was gross.” He said seriously. Mason was taken aback until Mark burst into laughter again. Mason huffed, hitting Mark on the shoulder before he went back to mastering the act of taking blood pressure.

Mark became a bit easier to deal with once Mason was in the middle of taking it, probably aware of the fact that Mason needed silence to get it. Mason was feeling confident at this point. He had three readings that were all almost the same number. He guessed that he was probably on Mark’s actual blood pressure and had gotten it right.

Mason unwrapped the strap, not wanting to irritate or squeeze Mark’s arm too much, allowing his arm a little break. The two talked and, like always, laughed a bit while Mason gave Mark’s arm a break.

“Do you want to switch to my other arm?” Mark asked, noticing how Mason was still eyeing his right arm as if it were an injured bird. 

“Uh, maybe. If your right arm is too uncomfortable.” Mason responded, eyes glued to Mark’s arm. He swore that it looked redder than his left arm. “I don’t have any problem with-”

Mason cut himself off when weight was suddenly thrown across his back, and arms were wrapped around his neck. He was not unaccustomed to such greetings, he had picked it up himself after being friends with the Tyler family for so long (aka Mark, Jasmine, and their siblings), but was curious as to who would do it in this setting. It all made sense when blonde hair started falling into his eyes.

“Have you missed me, babe?” Gabe asked Mason, his puppy dog eyes paired with his pout only making Mason laugh. Mason nodded his head, smiling up at the guy only inches away from his face.

“I sure did. I have been dying to see your messy, dirty hair and permanently dishevelled clothes.” Mason told the man, grinning when he snapped back and clutched his chest as if shot. 

“Ugh, that hurt, baby.” Gabe complained, rubbing at his chest while wincing. “I really didn’t know that you hated me like that. I thought that we were together forever. Couple goals for life.”

Gabe grinned as Mason giggled over his dumb words. Gabe threw his arm around Mason again, nuzzling his nose into the smaller man’s neck only for Mason to swat him away. Mason sighed with a soft smile, turning back around to look at Gabe properly.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be practicing with your partner?” Mason asked, smiling with one of his cute eyebrows raised. Gabe looked away from the adorable little man, thinking of how he could make it sound not so bad while also seeming as if he didn’t care.

“Well, he wanted to get some practice done on himself and I wanted to come and flirt with the cute little brown boy I’ve been eyeing all week.” Gabe said, sending his perfect smile Mason’s way.

Mason ignored the compliment, getting right to the point.

“You weren’t doing any work, were you?” He asked bluntly. Gabe didn’t even blink.

“I touched the thing once before realizing that I would never figure it out.” Gabe admitted, shaking his head as he thought back to his experience less than half an hour prior. “Dealing with those thermometers was hard enough but this sphygo-gomo-momo-mommy thing is just ridiculous!”

Mason burst out into laughter after hearing Gabe try to pronounce sphygmomanometer, and was still laughing even as he began to set it up around Mark’s left arm. Mason looked up at Mark’s face for the first time in several minutes, frowning in confusion when he noted the blank expression that he wore.

Mason wasn’t sure why it was there but tried not to dwell on it as he went to take Mark’s blood pressure again.

Mason started the process of taking Mark’s pressure, giggling quietly to himself at the flirty jokes Gabe continued to make. Mason then frowned in confusion when he heard the thump much sooner than usual. The diastolic pressure came faster as well.

Mason pulled the earpieces out of his ear quickly, writing down the new numbers in a rush before frowning when he compared them to his other ones.

“Mark, your blood pressure is higher than usual.” Mason told him, seeing the surprise on Mark’s face before a blush began to grow on his cheeks. 

“D-don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’s nothing.” Mark told Mason quickly, shooing away Mason’s fretting hands from his arm.

“But, did I do something wrong? Did I make it too tight?” Mason began to ask, throwing all of his worries and questions at Mark in an instant. “Did I stress you out or something? Are you okay?” 

Mark began to tear the equipment off himself, speaking to Mason gently to get him to calm down. Mason began to finally let the numbers go and pack everything up, so Mark sighed before looking up at Gabe.

Mark glared heatedly at the man, while he then started to look at Mark with a cheeky expression. Mason did not notice the exchange that would have explained the spike in numbers, and Mark quickly turned his attention back to his friend.

Mark would get that jerk out of Mason’s life. He just had to figure out how.