Chapter Text
Tony sat still as quietly as possible while Jeff relentlessly worked on whatever gadget he was fixing up at the moment. It was one of those nights where they would both stay up at such late hours until Tony's eyes physically couldn't keep themself open and he would pass out somewhere at 1AM or 2AM while Jeff pulled a gruesome all nighter like usual. But Tony didn't feel like falling asleep so easily, not tonight. For he was far too anxious to do so and not exceedingly tired. He squirmed and fidgeted in his chair, the overstrung boy was once again abnormally quiet.
"Are you alright?" Jeff had adverted his eyes over and noticed Tony's shuffling, promptly putting his screwdriver down temporarily.
"Oh, yes. I'm alright, no need to worry about me my good pal." Tony gave off a sheepish smile and a shaky thumbs up. Jeff shrugged and resumed to his half broken invention. He was quite focused and didn't want to lose his concentration so effortlessly. A few minutes had passed before Tony finally opened his mouth to speak again.
"Hey Jeff, did you mean all that stuff you said just a few nights ago?" Jeff once again put his rusted tools down but this time, he actually bothered to turn his head to look towards Tony's direction. From Tony's view, a faint reddish colour had crossed his cheeks.
"Hm? Well of course I did, every last word." Jeff reassured Tony while clearing his throat. He couldn't handle the eye contact, swiftly looking the opposite way in just seconds.
"They were really heartfelt and I don't think I expressed that enough, I'm sorry." Tony shamelessly apologized.
The truth was, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Those sentences ran through his head nonstop and there were no brakes to put an end to it. They were the sweetest things Tony could've possibly been blessed to hear and he wanted Jeff to say them over and over again to him with his beautiful voice. Tony was just so stunned at the moment, the right words were physically impossible to be formed when sitting in the flowly tall grass. He pondered if those were truly normal things to say to your best mate or if he was just overthinking it again and should just brush it off like it was nothing. Jeff always had a weird way with words when he was able to correctly get them to spill out of his mouh and Tony made sure to cherish them when the times did fortunately come. But this one was peculiar, the way Jeff expressed it was far more deep and it seemed to really come from the bottom of his heart and not his intellectual brain.
"Oh don't be sorry, I thought you should hear the truth anyway." Jeff nervously scratched the back of his neck. He wanted to carry on with his odd junk but he couldn't for some reason. Not anymore. So instead, he sat tightly, barely making his limbs move a single muscle. Now, they were both sitting awkwardly and neither of them wanted to look at each other in the eyes.
"Jeff... I don't think I can keep this from you any longer." Tony randomly muttered. It broke the weird fiddly silence they had.
"I'm sorry?" Jeff's head immediately perked up, obviously very curious on what he meant.
"It wouldn't be right if I bottled it up inside me forever so I should get it out now." Tony thought a million different routes far too deep inside his head, whether he should back out right now and quickly tell him that it was nothing. Or if he should blirt out everything all at once to get it over with. Either way, there seemed to be one path that was just right and it had a 50/50 chance of everything turning out the way Tony wanted it to. At this point, he was more than willing to risk it all. He couldn't contain it, he wasn't able to hold it all in anymore as it was getting too frustrating each and every second he didn't say all the things he had been meaning to for all the years they've spent together.
"Okay... You know you can share anything with me so go right ahead." Jeff reminded his friend once more. Tony only glanced around the dorm for quite some time. He mustered up everything into a ball to get the littlest courage he could've gathered up. No point on turning the steering wheel now. Tony sighed heavily as he felt his entire body tense up, suddenly he could feel and hear everything. He felt every part of him turn hotter than ever, his face glowed a bright cherry red. Butterflies with the largest wings you could've imagined flapped constantly from the depths of his stomach and his hands shook from a fervent feeling of fear and anticipation. He heart couldn't have beated any faster than how it was racing currently.
"Jeff, I uhm, I like you."
"Oh, I like you too Tony, was that not clear before?" Jeff tilted his head in confusion.
"No not like that, I love you..."
"Uh huh, I love you too Tony." Tony groaned in irritation. He totally ignored the fact that Jeff could be the most oblivious boy you could run into so you had to make some things more clear and detailed for him to fully understand the concept.
"You're not getting it."
"Getting what?" Jeff honestly was getting a tad bit nervous on what he was trying to desperately state. Then all in a swift motion, Tony leaned forward, curling his arms around his shoulders and kissed Jeff softly. Oh how his lips were softer than anything, delicate like a first snowfall. Tony melted into the kiss and felt absolutely weightless, like every pound he had inside him had mysteriously vanished. It was so effortlessly sweet and divine, it only made him crave more. He never wanted to leave this, ever. Tony eventually backed away from his roomate, releasing a velvety sigh to say what he had been dying to this entire time and to finally knock some sense into the big brain of Jeff's.
"Oh Jeff, I'm in love with you! I have been for years. I'm in love with your scruffy overgrown bowl cut, I'm in love with how your glasses perfectly match your face shape, I'm in love with each and every freckle you have all over your body, and everything in general. I know you probably don't see me in that way but I do, I took in those heartwarming paragraphs you said about me that night and all the times you came to comfort me and I never let them go. I appreciate the little things you do for me and they mean so much to me and my heart. I don't care if anything I say is corny, it's all true. I absolutely adore how you compare me to the universe, it's so whimsical and thoughtful since Astronomy is one of your dearest passions. You're so diligent and considerate and you make my heart flutter everytime I'm around you, my beating golden heart you tell me I have. I can't control it. I've admired you for so long and I don't plan to stop. It's perfectly okay if you don't feel what I feel... I just don't want to lose my best friend. You are everything to me. I love you."
It took only a few seconds to realize just what Tony had said and done.
"Oh my. Oh I am so sorry, I shouldn't have done that. Jeff I sincerely apologize, I don't know why I thought that was a good idea and-"
"I do."
"Huh?" Tony was about to hide his very much flushed face with his boater hat but what Jeff had uttered made him stop.
"I do love you." He awkwardly spat out, his blush couldn't have been anymore deeper than it already was.
"You... do?" He was absolutely stunned. He couldn't tell whether he wanted to cry tears of joy or to bounce around in excitement. A smile creeped up and engulfed the bottom half of his face. Tony felt like he'd been swept off his feet and been smothered with love in all the right ways. He was so ecstatic that he could've exploded, his heart probably would've came to a halt. All Jeff had done was say two words and it made Tony feel like the world's most luckiest and purest boy in all of history. He wanted to stifle him in kisses again and again but feared he'd suffocate him too much.
"I don't know how what I said the night I took you to see the stars didn't make you realize it, but I do." Jeff chuckled affectionately.
"And I don't know all the subtle hints I gave to you over the past few years didn't make you suspect I felt something a bit more than what we had."
"You've been giving me hints?" Jeff was taken aback.
"Very much so but that doesn't matter anymore." Tony smiled widely, so much to where his cheeks physically hurt but he didn't care. He loved this boy more than anything and nothing else mattered. So many things and opportunities opened up for him but the first thing he went for was the tighest hug he could offer. His hands caressed through his unkempt blond locks and pulled Jeff ever so close to him, letting a few happy tears roll down his cheeks. Jeff gladly took him in his arms and passionately held him just the way Tony liked it. The colours of their blush that tinted their cheeks matched perfectly. Tony squeezed him slightly, not wanting him to ever leave his presence and to stay by him for all of eternity.
"This is quite peculiar, I actually really wanted to say this as well but I was rudely interrupted." Jeff rolled in eyes in annoyance.
"Weird, me too. You know, by that photographer kid."
"Hm, I'm suprised he didn't burst through our dorm door to ruin this confrontation." Jeff teasingly joked. Tony giggled before staring affectionately at the love of his life.
"Mhm. Oh Jeff, I love you."
"I love you too." There was a brief moment of silence.
"Would you like to see the stars?" Jeff asked.
"I already am."