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Jess doesn’t care about football. Duncan’s the one who’ll rush in immediately after he gets home from a job and turn the TV on while cannonballing onto the couch, ignoring the fact he’s sitting not even two feet away reading a book.
But Jess can’t really complain, not when when Duncan leans over really quick to peck him on the lips or the cheek during a lull in the game, whichever he manages to get lips on. There are a couple of times when Jess’ eye has been the victim of a kiss, but Duncan’s a good enough boyfriend to look embarrassed and apologize, ignoring the game to make sure Jess hasn’t gone blind from his carelessness.
So Jess doesn’t like football, but he’s happy to put up with it for Duncan’s sake, because that’s what you do for the people you love.
That doesn’t mean he has to like it when the Super Bowl rolls around and Duncan’s got their apartment full of guys from his crew. They’re polite, but they’re loud and some of them don’t seem to get that he’s being sarcastic when he asks if they need anything before he goes, because he’s got a shift.
“Chips and some beer?” One of the guy says, but Duncan’s already shaking his head to silently explain that Jess hadn’t meant it.
“See ya when ya get home, babe.” Duncan calls, giving a little wave from the couch as Jess shut the door behind him, hearing the hooting and hollering from Duncan’s friends.
‘Neanderthals.’ He thinks with a roll of his eyes as he heads down the stairs and out of his apartment to his beat up LTD parked out front with Duncan’s white work truck.
Duncan keeps suggesting they get a new car, one that Jess doesn’t have to worry about breaking down on his way to work in the Walmart a town over, but he just shakes his head and says that they’ll put that cash towards something better. Like a house of their own.
Not that Jess has said that out loud. He doesn’t want Duncan to think he’s rushing him into anything, but the one-bedroom apartment that used to be Jess’ isn’t exactly what you call home. Not that he’d know much about that. Because between bouncing from relative to relative, and living with his free-spirit of a mother, he never really had a place to call home. It wasn’t until a couple years ago that his Uncle Luke had taken him in, given him a job at his diner and really pushed Jess into doing something with his life. So now he’s working two jobs in the hopes of being able to pay for a couple semesters at the local community college.
Jess is also grateful for Uncle Luke, because if it hadn’t of been for him, he wouldn’t have that big ol’ goofball of a boyfriend upstairs either.
Goofball being the perfect word to describe Duncan, because Jess isn’t even a couple of hours into his shift when he feels his cellphone buzzing in his back pocket. And since there’s only one person that could be bugging him right now, he ignores it until he takes his break and promptly spits the water he’d been drinking out.
Duncan’s in the hospital.
Duncan and his stupid friends had somehow managed to break his arm in the span of four hours. And Jess is betting that it had something to do with way too many drinks and them doing something they shouldn’t have.
So he has to tell his supervisor he has to leave because there’s been a family emergency, and by the time Jess gets there Duncan’s high as a kite on pain medications.
“Jess!” Duncan exclaims excitedly with that goofy smile of his, waving his uninjured arm back and forth as if to flag him over. As if Jess was going to miss him with that mess of wavy curls and the Eagles jersey he’s been trying to hide for the past couple weeks just to fuck with him.
Jess still lets out a sigh of relief, because it doesn’t look that bad. Sure Duncan’s arm is in a cast, but it could’ve been worse. A broken arm is better than a broken neck.
“Hey, the hell happened to you?” Jess asks, brown eyes looking him over for any other injuries as he runs his hand over Duncan’s hair, concern evident in his voice as he tries his best to sound annoyed.
“I broke my arm!” Duncan says as he beams, pointing to the cast keeping his arm in place before leaning into the petting. Even if he wasn’t high on painkillers, Duncan would’ve pressed into his hand. Jess’ favorite thing about Duncan is that he’s overly affection at the best of times and gives as good as he gets. As long as there wasn’t an Eagles game on.
“I can see that, but how?” Jess asks, because there’s no point in yelling at a guy who’s drugged off his ass.
“I went long and the couch got in the way...” Duncan says with a pathetic sounding mumble.
“Ever think that maybe football’s played outside for a reason?” Jess says with only a hint of sarcasm. Duncan’s still injured and deserves a little sympathy. He looks around for a nurse, wanting to get Duncan discharge and home as soon as possible.
Super Bowl parties were definitely going to be added to the long list of things Duncan couldn’t do for a long long time.
“Yeah…” Duncan says, obviously agreeing with him before giving Jess this big puppy dog look as if realizing that Jess was currently supposed to be at work.
“Aw jeeze, your shift isn’t over for another couple of hours- I’m sorry, babe.” Duncan starts, but Jess waves it off. “It’s fine, I’ve got days.” He says, because as much as Jess hated working at Walmart, he liked the steady ten bucks an hour it provided. That, and the fact that all he had to do was greet people and stock shelves.
“You, on the other hand, might wanna call your boss tomorrow and let him know you’re screwed for the next couple of months.” Jess says as he helps Duncan sit up. He’d find a nurse on the way out. He doubts they’d want to keep him over night for something as simple as a broken arm.
“Oh man- I forgot about work!” Duncan groans, leaning on Jess once he was off the hospital bed and out the door, using Jess as a crutch.
Thankfully after getting Duncan’s prescription, they’re allowed to go home.
Which is a complete mess when Jess opens the door, mentally sighing. He’d clean it up later. Right now he had to get Duncan out of his clothes and into something a little more comfortable so he could pass out for the next six-to-eight hours while the pain killers worked their magic.
“Alright, easy- Watch your step,” Jess says, helping him all the way to their bedroom before letting Duncan flops down. Making sure that he didn’t land on his arm after getting him changed into a pair of sweats and an old t-shirt.
“You alright there, big guy?” Jess asks, making sure Duncan could breathe from where he had his face smooshed into pillow. All he got in response was a weak groan and a thumbs up. “Alright, I’ll be in the next room if you need me.” He says, but lingering in the doorway when he hears Duncan shifting onto his back. “Yeah?” He asks, expecting him to ask for something.
“C’mere for a second,” Duncan says, motioning for him to come back into the room.
Jess raises his brow curiously but moves back over to his side, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and placing a gentle hand on Duncan’s stomach, rubbing it in soothing back-and-forth motion like he knew he liked.
“I love you,” Duncan murmurs, looking up at him with big brown eyes.
“I know you do, Duncs. I love you too.” Jess says with a little quirk of his lips, eyes softening and leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead. “Now sleep. You’re gonna feel like shit in the morning.” He teases, moving his hand from his stomach to his hair, petting wavy curls.
“Yeah, okay… but stay a little while.” Duncan murmurs, and how could Jess argue with that?
“Alright, scootch over. You’re taking up my side.” Jess says softly, watching as the injured man wriggles to get far enough onto his side before Jess curls up against his side, leg carelessly draped over Duncan’s and a protective arm wrapped around his waist. He shivers, feeling Duncan run his uninjured hand up and down his back, almost as if comforting him now.
And it isn’t until Jess lays his head on Duncan’s shoulder that he realizes how emotionally exhausted he was.
“M’glad you’re okay…” Jess mumbles, filling the comfortable silence. “But don’t pull that shit on me again… Alright?” He adds, wanting to make sure he never had to get a message like that again.
“I won’t.” Duncan murmurs, sounding seconds away from nodding off but his hand still a steady weight on Jess’ back. Reminding Jess that he was home. And that aside from a cast, he was alright.
“Good.” Jess mumbles, before Duncan’s softly starts to snore, medicine finally getting the better of him as Jess shifts closer and shuts his eyes.
The cleaning could wait until tomorrow.