Chapter Text
Sun streams in from the high basement window, filling the room with light. Jeremy wakes first, frowning as he blinks sleep away, feeling how tense his neck and back were from falling asleep in the bean bag. Glancing over, Michael has his knees drawn up, feet off the floor, his arm laying across Jeremy’s shoulders. Jeremy takes a moment to marvel at his sleeping boyfriend, glasses askew and a look of utter peace painted across his soft features; partially masked by the ruffled hair that lays on his forehead. Jeremy slides down, leaving Michael’s arm resting on the beanbag and carefully gets up, moving delicately as to try and not make the styrofoam inside shift and wake Michael.
He stretches, long arms almost reaching the low basement ceiling, and tosses a glance at Michael’s bedside clock. The numbers glow ‘7:52 a.m.’ “Did we really stay up that late to have slept in so much?” Jeremy wonders as he locates the remote and turns off the TV, finally silencing the game they had left on the night before.
He hears Michael stir and turned his head, his neck twinging at the fast movement. “Mooorning,” Michael yawns, rocking himself forward to stretch, his hoodie riding up his back. Jeremy stares, his blue eyes taking in all of his boyfriend, who is practically glowing in the soft morning light that filters in through the dirty window.
“Aren’t I going to get a good morning kiss?” Michael whines, breaking Jeremy’s daydream with his lopsided smile.
Jeremy smirks, lazy butterflies in his stomach, and steps back over to Michael, who is now propped up on the beanbag. Michael dwarfs the beanbag with his large frame, whereas Jeremy practically gets eaten by it.
The two boys press their smiles together in a beaming kiss. Everything is so still, so good, like nothing else matters. Like they don’t have to face school again today. Like they don’t need to worry about finding themselves breakfast in 10 minutes. Like that assignment they’ve been stressing over doesn’t exist.
Jeremy places his hands on the beanbag, either side of Michael’s head, his fingers curling against the rough and worn fabric. This is rather than his usual spot of Michael’s chest, on account of him not currently having a binder on.
Michael notices this gesture and smiles again into their kiss, he appreciates Jeremy’s awareness of his dysphoria more than he could ever express.
Michael grazes his teeth on Jeremy’s bottom lip before pulling away. “If we wanna make it to school on time we’d better stop smooching and get ready,” Michael laughs, playfully pushing Jeremy with a hand to his chest as they get up from the beanbag.
Jeremy realises he has no clean clothes, as he slept in the previous day’s outfit, “I usually leave so much clothing at Michael’s by accident that there’s always something to wear,” he muses to himself. He finds a pair of his socks folded neatly on Michael’s desk amongst the strewn papers and empty candy wrappers, they’re grey socks with gameboy consoles on them. A gift from Michael that probably doesn’t help his nerd status but he loves all the same.
Michael notices Jeremy seemingly stumped that he can’t find any more of his own clothes at someone else’s house, “You need to borrow a shirt?”
“... I think so,” Jeremy replies, taking another glance around the room to double-check.
“Sure, lemme have a look.”
Michael hums as he saunters over to his dresser and digs for a suitably sized shirt for Jeremy.
He finds a shirt that for some reason he hadn’t given away after growing out of it. Flicking his thumb under the label, he checks the size. Medium, close enough.
Starting testosterone had significantly increased Michael’s bulk, and he has abandoned all of his pre-T clothing, disliking the way it looked as his torso and arms filled them out, he prefers his shirts larger to help disguise his chest anyway. Lucky he didn’t get rid of this one.
He tosses the shirt at Jeremy, who has shed the one he was previously wearing.
Michael knows that Jeremy is not all that confident about his body either, always concerned that he was too scrawny and slight to be attractive. Michael definitely doesn’t think so. He gazes at Jeremy in the soft morning light, admiring his pointed features, his long eyelashes, the way his ears stick out, he loves all of him.
“Wearing my boyfriend’s shirt to school? That looks pretty gay doesn’t it?” Jeremy snickers.
“I am gay, buddy,” Michael fires back jokingly. “At least it’s not one of my pride shirts.”
Nobody besides Jeremy ever saw Michael without his hoodie anyway, therefore nobody knew what shirts Michael owns, literally noone would know the shirt was borrowed.
Michael admires his handiwork at finding a shirt that would sort of fit. “Glad I didn’t give that one away” he thought to himself, his heart fluttering at seeing his own shirt hanging off Jeremy’s scrawny frame, the pale blue colour matching the rest of his outfit. There’s something really endearing about seeing Jeremy in it, honestly. “You can keep it.”
“Awe, thanks Micah, you almost ready?”
“Just lemme find a binder and shirt.”
Locating a galaxy print shirt, he tosses it on the bed next to him, finding a clean binder and socks in his dresser as well.
Michael, facing the wall, tugs his red hoodie over his head to put on his tan gc2b binder. After wrestling into it, he looks down, today is not a good chest day. Some days he feels so good in his binder, other days it does nothing to hide his chest from him. “Fuck’s sake,” he mumbles almost inaudibly, “and look at your belly.” His fingers splay over his stomach, the way it pokes out from under his binder bothering him. He sighs quietly, catching Jeremy’s attention from across the room.
“You ok?” Jeremy hums, looking up from his phone.
“I’m fine.” Michael plasters a manufactured smile on his face, Jeremy can tell. It’s not the beaming Michael smile, the one where it seems like you can see every single tooth and his nose crinkles up and his eyes shut tight, the smile reserved just for Jeremy. Nor is it the soft, lopsided, comforting smile, the one that can bring Jeremy down from any panic with its sincerity.
“It’s a bad body day, isn’t it?”
”Fuck. This kid knows me too well”
“Yeah,” Michael exhales, his tone indicating that he’s too tired for lying about feeling dysphoric right now.
Jeremy leaps towards him, banishing the dreary mood that filled the basement, bringing his face so close to Michael’s that they bump noses before falling into a kiss on Michael’s bed.
“You know what?” He says between kisses, completely disregarding that school starts in 20 minutes. “Let me tell you what I love about your body. And it’s a boy’s body, no matter what you tell yourself or what society tells you.”
“Oh man, Micah, where to begin?” he starts, biting his lip, making Michael blush.
Running his hands down Michael’s sides, he stops at his hips.
“Your belly, Michael!” He grins, making Michael blush harder, a little embarrassed at Jeremy picking out one of his known insecurities.
Jeremy leans down and places a kiss to Michael’s stomach, soft and gentle and warm against his skin. Sliding his hands to cup Michael’s waist, he continues to litter kisses across Michael’s stomach, on every stretch mark. He loves the way his hands fit perfectly on the fat on his boyfriend’s hips, the way he knows how to make Michael laugh. Michael loves the way Jeremy knows the rules he has for his body and respects them. He loves the way his hands fit around Jeremy's slender shoulders. It’s like they were made for each other.
Laying on him, Jeremy running his hands up Michael’s back, meeting the hem of his tank binder and placing his chin on Michael’s chest, they kiss again. Michael exhales under the weight of his boyfriend, conscious of his body being pressed into the mattress, but it feels safe and comforting.
“And Michah! Your--”
A text pings on Michael’s phone and Jeremy sighs, his spiel interrupted.
Michael huffs, trying to arc himself off the bed enough to pull his phone from the back pocket of his jeans, Jeremy realises and rolls off him, landing on Michael’s left, his right arm pinned underneath his boyfriend.
Message from Crissy; 8:30a.m.: Where are you?? I thought we were all gonna hang before first period?
“We’d better get going then,” Jeremy laughs, reading the text from his position beside Michael before pushes his boyfriend’s glasses back up his nose.