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“Hi, you’ve reached Monty Montague. Please leave a message after the tone.”
Percy frowns. It’s unusual for his call to go straight to voicemail, and even when it does happen, Monty rings him right back, apologizing for his butter fingers. Although to be fair, the accept and decline button are very close together, and Percy likes to flatter himself with the thought that Monty gets all flustered and frantic when his caller ID pops up on the screen.
Needless to say, Percy’s a little miffed when he waits for a call back from a silent phone. He was planning on surprising Monty with dinner tonight, but needed to sort out the timing. With Monty’s freelance work calling for inconsistent hours, it’s hard to predict when he’ll be home. It’s not until he hears a beep from the car behind him that he realizes he’s overstayed his welcome at the stoplight. Percy settles for tossing his phone into the passenger seat, resolving to just make it home first and figure it out from there.
Unfortunately when Percy pulls into the driveway, Monty’s car is already present. He sighs at the prospect of his ruined plans, but tries to sneak in the front door anyway, hoping to at least catch Monty off guard. The lock catches softly behind him, and he slips his shoes off neatly next to Monty’s, which as expected, are tossed haphazardly near the welcome mat from the direction he can only guess to be the sofa.
“...yea it’s a little hard sometimes, not gonna lie.” Percy’s ears perk up at the sound of Monty’s voice. It seems to be coming from the kitchen, and he’s just about to swoop in and ask exactly what part of him is hard and if he could do anything to help, when he realizes Monty is on the phone with someone else.
“He actually just called. I think he’s on his way home.” Percy knows it’s wrong to eavesdrop, but he can’t help it when the love of his life just mentioned him, preceded by the statement that it’s hard sometimes. He backs up right behind the edge of the door frame, watching Monty stare out the far window.
Exactly what’s hard? Is Monty talking about living with him? He’s asked time and time again if this is what Monty wanted, told him he didn’t have to, understood that a whole other life was thrown away for this chance. Yet Percy finds himself annoyed at the fact that Monty is lamenting these complaints to someone who is not himself. If Monty is unhappy, especially because of the circumstances surrounding Percy’s disability, he should be the first to know. And now Percy is debating whether to bring up the topic later tonight and if he would actually have the strength to let Monty leave him.
He’s so busy playing out a whole hypothetical scenario in his head that Percy only retains fragments of the next sentence.
“...the smile..so hard to…” His smile? What was wrong with his smile? Percy quickly ducks into the hallway mirror and smiles at himself, closely observing his appearance as he turns his face side to side. He tries again, this time with no teeth showing. Was this better? Maybe he should smile more? Or less? Monty is definitely more of a pessimist than him. Perhaps his smile is too happy-go-lucky for Monty’s taste?
Percy shakes his head at himself, fully registering how absurdly stupid he sounds right now. Monty loves him, he loves him, he loves him he loves him….Percy repeats the mantra in his head, gearing up to confront Monty in the next moment, until he hears a sharp laugh from the kitchen and doubt begins to knock him down once again.
His heart is pounding in his ears as he struggles to catch the rest of the conversation.
“Felicityyyy” Monty whines, drawing out the last syllable of her name. Percy only feels slight relief when he learns that it’s Monty’s sister on the other end. “Okay, okay, I get it, you hate it when I talk about kissing.” He pauses for a moment and Felicity’s muffled voice starts again, only to be interrupted within the second by Monty’s jumble of words.
“But he’s just so cute, you know? And then when he smiles I can’t help but smile either but when I smile I can’t kiss his goddam lips and then it’s just like we’re smooshing faces or something. Is this how you felt when kissing Dante? You should try kissing for real sometime. Maybe you’ll like it if it’s not with dead fish lips.”
There’s an audible beep as the line goes dead. Monty yanks the phone away from his ear, staring in disbelief through the device as if his glare could be transferred through space and time and delivered straight to his sister for hanging up on him. Percy resists the urge to snicker and reveal his hiding spot. He really needs to tell Monty to stop picking on Felicity for her sexual decisions—or rather, lack thereof. While Monty insists they’re just sibling quarrels, Percy sees how uncomfortable Felicity gets under Monty’s teasing.
Now that the call is over, Percy finally has time to process everything he’s just overheard. Whatever it was about him, it was good , right? Listening to Monty gush about kissing him was quite fun, and he wishes he had his own phone in hand to record Monty saying it. He could’ve made it his ringtone, or even better, his morning alarm every morning.
Percy squares his shoulders, deciding to make his presence known. He creeps up just behind Monty, slipping his arms around his waist, resting his chin in the dip of his shoulder. Their height difference really proves itself useful in moments like these. Monty starts but quickly twists sideways to press a kiss to Percy’s cheek.
“Too busy smiling to be kissing me huh?” Percy beams at Monty, his hair drooping down around the both of their faces. Monty draws back, surprise evident in the way his eyes widen and brows rise up.
“How much of that did you hear?” His voice rings with a slight sense of alarm, the fear of being caught shines as a red, embarrassed blush, quickly spreading from his cheeks down his neck.
Percy tilts his head back and forth nonchalantly. “A little bit. Why? Did you not want me to?”
Monty turns around fully, slinging his arms around Percy’s neck. He opts to bury his face in the collar of Percy’s shirt-which was actually Monty’s originally- and let the fabric muffle out his confession. He wants to say I could kiss you to ends of the earth and never get tired of it. Or maybe explain that whenever he kisses Percy, his lips naturally curl up into a smile and then he can’t stop smiling, giddy with happiness. The problem is, kissing and smiling are two completely different mouth shapes, and it’s quite hard to do both at the same time. So Monty must choose, whether to kiss or smile, and oh it’s so goddamn hard because both are such natural instincts when it comes to Percy.
“You know, I was gonna surprise you with dinner tonight.”
Monty doesn’t move his face from its hiding spot, and Percy can feel him breathe against his skin. “You still can.”
“Mmm, I don’t know if I want to anymore,” Percy teases. “You almost gave me a heart attack with that phone call. I thought you were gonna leave me at first.” The joking tone sways a little, and Percy’s insecurities begin to poke through.
Monty finally looks up. “Perce…” He brushes his long curls out of the way before leaning in to kiss him. It’s slow and soft and Percy’s favorite kinds of kisses and he can’t help but melt into Monty’s arms.
They pull apart, eyes still closed. Everything has come to a quiet standstill, and it feels like those early mornings when the sun has just risen, when the world has yet to grow loud and busy and you can lay there for a little while longer and let your heart fill up with love by just being .
“I’d never leave you,” Monty whispers, “not for the world.” And it’s a simple statement, one that he’s said many times, one that means something every time.
Percy leans in to kiss him again, but stops just before their lips are able to touch. “I love you,” he murmurs, “more than everything.” He can feel the corners of Monty’s mouth start to curve up and he takes this moment to capture his lips in another deep kiss.
Monty eventually breaks away, giggling, the remnants of his pointless rant to Felicity still replaying in his head.
Percy grins knowingly. He’s sure he looks something akin to a lovestruck puppy, unable to look away from Monty, eyes heavy lidded, a lopsided smile plastered over his face. “You’re cute when you’re happy.”
Monty flushes, visibly trying to keep his cool. “You make me happy.”
Percy squeezes him tight. They let the moment seep into their bones, storing this day away in their infinite collection of memories that will always, without a doubt, give them goosebumps and warm their hearts at the same time. It’s the kind of moment that’s synonymous with pure joy and love, the kind that they guard with every fiber of their being and every breath of their body.