Work Text:
One coat.
Evan carefully took his brush, dipped in a crème blue polish and dragged it along his short and squared off nails. It was one of his favorite polishes, Rainstorm by Sinful Colors, which was his go-to shade of blue. He accidentally had a little too much on the brush this time, but it was okay because he could just transfer it to the other nail.
He clenched his right arm, trying to keep it steady. It was usually his non-dominant hand, but since his left was in a cast, it would have to work for now. Jared, however, was not making this any easier for Evan. He was pacing around the room, messing with every knick-knack, and picking up and talking about every book on his shelf.
Two coats.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but Jared hasn't ever been at Evan's house while he was painting his nails. It was an unsteady task for Evan without a distraction, and even harder with a good one. At least Jared stopped making fun of his nail polish collection around sophomore year, and learned to pick out colors that would suit Evan's outfit on the occasion.
"What color are you painting them today?" Jared asked. Evan heard him jump onto his bed, with the cheap creaky mattress replying too.
He turned around in his spinning desk chair to respond to his friend's question, making sure his wet nails were separated so they wouldn't smudge before they dried. However, in the last moment, the plain edge of his cast bumped into the open bottle- knocking it to its death in a million glass pieces all over his floor, with a fragrant blue blood left behind.
Smudge.
Evan scrunched his head back into his body like a turtle, closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at his mess. It was just a little thing, but he didn't know where to start with his mess.
"Hey Hansen?" Jared waved his hand in front of Evans face, back and forth a couple times. "You alive in there?"
"No."
"Want some help?"
Evan nodded hastily, not even considering what his version of 'help' was set out to be. Slowly, he opened his eyes to Jared leaving his cramped space, then coming back with a roll of paper towels. He started to wipe up most of the bigger globs on the hardwood, trying to scrub at the stains but realizing it was a lost cause.
After throwing away a handful of paper towels, he asked, "Do you have nail polish remover stuff? That shit my mom spills on the bathroom counter and the smell sticks for weeks?"
"Um, Acetone?"
"Yep," Jared said, popping the p. Evan took a large bottle of the stuff out of a cluttered drawer filled with things and papers he didn't ever remember putting in there. He handed it to him willingly, who put some of the product on a towel to work on until it disappeared. "Should I even try to get it out of your cast?"
"It's, i- it's on my cast?"
"It's not too bad." Jared paused for a moment, letting his thumb land over the bandaged limb. "Can I sign your cast? I didn’t get a chance to at school.”
Evan remembered him specifically denying that opportunity but denied it in his head.
“You’re not, really, joking like at school right?” He was shot a glare. "Oh! Yeah I have a um, sharpie, but it's in my pocket, butI'm not sure if my nails are dry y-yet."
"Relax," Jared said, pulling a purple sharpie out of his friend's drawer. He positioned himself on the bed again, pulling Evan's spinning chair into proximity. He carefully wrote out his full name in tiny print, right above the spill.
Evan smiled fondly at this, or more specifically the heart over the ‘i’ in Kleinman and the smiley face next to it. Though, he looked down at his hand, realizing his self done manicure wasn't even salvageable at this point. He frowned, going through his basket of polishes to pick another color for today.
"Can I pick your color?" Jared said clearly.
"Yeah, I, I guess so." The container was snatched out of his lap, loudly stirring through the tens of colors. Finally, he picked out a newer green one he had gotten from his mom on his birthday that he hadn't opened yet.
"Could I paint it too? Um, you just seem like you're having a problem with it. With your cast and all." Evan nodded in reply, realizing he didn't have much of a choice. Jared held his sweaty hands around his, which were bony and stiff, trying to hold them in place. "I'm not squeezing them too tight, am I?"
"You, you could be a bit gentler, maybe." Evan lied. He really liked having their hands joined, and Jared messing around with his fingers, even if it was a little gay.
"You're such a baby, Hansen."
"I know, t-trust me." Evan knew he was joking, chuckling back at his comment. Jared was always much nicer when it was just them, rather than when they were at school.
Jared smirked at that, while he made the first stroke of the pale green on his finger, keeping a loose grip on his hands. He rubbed them back and forth, while he continued to do the first coat on the rest of his fingers. "Do you want me to do your other hand too?"
Evan's accessible hand had a pale yellow that was beginning to chip. He nodded in response, but quietly mouthed for him to leave the same color on. While Jared painted his nails, they fell back into their groove of talking about classes, extra curricular, and of the like. He focused on working on the nail beds, trying to not overflow the palette before it dried. He sometimes did that, which was understandable for a first time job, but quickly scooped it onto the underside of his messily trimmed nails.
"Uhm, Jared?"
"Yeah?"
"I think when you wiped up the corner of my nail onto yours, it accidentally got on your, you know-" Evan kept his hand of wet nails on the desk, taking his casted hand and tried to wipe his cheek with it. "F-face."
He was too far away though, so Jared hopped off the bed yet again, bending to his friend's height in the chair. He pushed up his glasses falling victim to the slope of his nose, letting Evan brush it off. Though most of it was sucked up by his cast, for a moment his hands pressed into his bumpy teenage cheeks, letting his own face flood with pink for no evident reason.
Evan held for a moment then lingered another moment too long before he realized what he was doing. "I-I, just sorry."
"Why do you apologize all the time?" The room was silent without even a delayed response from Evan. "Your hands are smooth. Your nails are probably dry now, by the way."
"Oh! Um! Thanks, I guess. And whatever you say, on the nail thing." He wavered.
Jared was still level to Evan's eyes, so he moved his newly painted hand back up to his cheek, running his thumb along his temple too. This unconsciously escalated down to his neck soon. He wondered if he still had that scar from when he fell in the fifth grade, that was so so big and gruesome for a couple weeks.
There was something in the conditioned spring air that made Jared's nose twitch, making his glasses go down again.
However, there also something that had developed inside Evan's head, where a bead of confidence made him try to push up his glasses— with his own face. It was probably really stupid and the kind of think no one could play off as a joke, but their noses glided like against each other with the brown frames poking into his cheek bone, but it was playful and relaxed.
Jared was the first to smile into the kiss, leading the way with a false experience that Evan only hoped he could latch onto. He moved up onto his friend’s desk chair, holding his hands on the others hip, leaning back into it.
Though, he might have leaned a little too far. Within milliseconds, the chair fell over onto its side, leaving Evan on the ground with Jared atop. This made them burst into a fit of laughter that was equal between the two of them, rather than one laughing at the other.
“Y’know,” Jared whispered, “You’re a pretty cool guy Hansen.”
Evan blushed worse than earlier in reply, dangling his arms around his neck. This time he searched the back of it, and came to feel he did still have that scar from falling off his skateboard, trying to make him think he was cool with a quick trip to the emergency room (tears were a bonus).
“I think, you might, I think, you’re a cool guy too, Jared.”
“Insanely cool?”
“That’s, it’s pushing it.” They both giggled relaxing back into each other full of blissful equality.