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Jim Kirk raised a questioning eyebrow at Hendorff. The larger boy was smirking as he pointed one thick finger over Jim’s shoulder. Jim twisted on the bench seat to look behind him. The cafeteria was teeming with hungry teenagers, all trying to fit as much socialization, food, and homework into the 30 minute lunch period as they could. Really, Hendorff could have been pointing at anyone, but considering their conversation up to that point, Jim had a pretty good idea who it was.
The dark-haired boy sitting two tables down was hunched over a biology textbook, jotting down notes continuously as his eyes scanned the pages. He was wearing plain blue tee shirt and light blue jeans. The thin-rimmed glasses that perched on his nose would have been stylish if anything else about him had said “stylish” in the first place. Leonard McCoy. Who shared Jim’s AP chem and calc classes. Who only acknowledged anything Jim said with a roll of his eyes and a scowl.
“McCoy?”
“Yep.”
“Aw, Cupcake,” Jim whined as he twisted back around. “Come on, the kid hates me.”
Hendorff shrugged, never losing his smirk. “You said anyone. I choose McCoy.”
Jim looked over his shoulder at McCoy again and sighed. He had said anyone, and Jim Kirk didn’t back down from bets.
“Fine. What’s the deal?”
Hendorff tapped his chin thoughtfully as the thought of the terms of their bet. Jim was seriously starting to regret having such a big mouth. I can get anyone to date me. I swear. I’m a stud. Anyone. Seriously. You point to someone and I bet I can date them. Jim rubbed his head as he watched Hendorff think. Way to go, Kirk.
“Three weeks. You have two weeks to get him to date you, you date him for a week after that, and then you dump him.” Hendorff grinned wickedly as Jim reached out his hand to shake on the deal. ”If you back out before the week is up, or he dumps you, you have to admit to being a loser in front of the entire school at the assembly.” Jim narrowed his eyes at the other boy but nodded with a grunt. They shook on it just as the bell rang. Jim swung his backpack over his shoulder and saluted Hendorff with two fingers. He had plans to make.
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Len jumped when a backpack thudded on the ground next to him. Kirk gave him an apologetic smile and slumped onto the stool next to Len without a word. Usually Len wouldn’t give a second thought to someone sitting next to him, but Kirk wasn’t exactly his favorite person. The guy was an arrogant smartass and always managed to get under Len’s skin as soon as he opened his mouth.
“What’s wrong with your seat?” He narrowed his eyes at Kirk who just raised an eyebrow and shrugged.
“This one looked better today.” Kirk shot him another smile before pulling out a notebook and pen. Len watched him in confusion for a few moments before turning back to his own notes. He was about to ask what Kirk’s game was when the bell rang and Mr. Spock stood up to start his lecture.
AP Chem was one of Len’s least favorite classes. Spock’s droning voice was hard to concentrate on and it was only made harder when Len realized he was waiting the entire period for Jim to be an asshole. Jim didn’t say anything though--he simply took notes as the lecture continued on and on and on, and even managed to keep from rolling his eyes at Spock’s overly technical explanations. By the time the bell interrupted, Len had nearly forgotten that Kirk was the person sitting next to him. He startled when he heard Kirk speak to him.
“See you in calc, McCoy.” Kirk gave him an easy smile and waved. AP Calc was their last class of the day and the only other class they shared.
“Uh, yeah. Sure.” Len had to admit he was thrown off balance. Kirk had never spared him more than a passing comment about the nerd in the corner. The guy was popular, good looking, and smart enough that teachers didn’t get annoyed by him. Why the hell was he talking to Len now?
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The next two days were pretty uneventful, except for two things:
1. Kirk was still sitting next to him in chem and calc, being oddly quiet and friendly.
2. Len was starting to realize that Kirk was really fucking attractive and it was really distracting.
It was Thursday and Len was sitting at his normal lunch table, poring over his AP Bio book and trying to ignore how conscious he was of the fact that Kirk wasn’t sitting at his normal place two tables away. It got a lot harder to ignore when Kirk plopped down across from him.
“Hey, McCoy,” Kirk said,reaching across the table and closing the book, “can I ask you something?”
Len gritted his teeth, but looked up. The blond had an easy half-smile pulling at his lips. He hadn’t moved his hand away from the book, managing to keep Len’s place and keep him from reopening the book at the same time.
“What, Kirk?”
“Are you gay?”
Len’s eyebrows shot up, threatening to disappear into his hairline. He searched Kirk’s face desperately for a hint of condescending humor that would give away a trap, but he couldn’t find anything. Kirk was looking at him with polite interest, waiting patiently for an answer.
“Yeah…” Len leaned back a little, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop. Kirk just nodded thoughtfully for a few seconds before flipping Len’s book back open. Len watched him warily before looking back down to try and find his place.
“You wanna get together and study later?”
The question caught Len completely off guard.
“What?”
“We have the chem and calc tests coming up at the end of next week. I was wondering if you wanted to study together.” Kirk made it sound like they did this all the time. Len stared at him incredulously.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” He asked. There was no point in denying something was up by now. Kirk hadn’t spoken a hundred words to him in all four years of high school and suddenly he wanted to start a study group?
Kirk was quiet for a long moment, studying Len’s face and seemingly mulling the question over. It wasn’t making Len any less suspicious. Finally he grinned and shrugged.
“I figured you were more likely to say yes to studying than a date.”
“A date,” Len deadpanned.
“Yes. That thing normal teenagers do, where they go out to movies and neck in the car.”
Len rolled his eyes, but did look Kirk over for another few seconds.
“You’re seriously asking me out on a date?” He sounded skeptical. Kirk nodded and leaned forward. He was smirking and it made Len’s skin itch in irritation.
“What do you say?”
“I’d say you were right about the studying.” Len expected Jim to frown or scowl or at least look confused, but the blond just grinned and smacked the table as he bounced up out of his seat.
“Great! Your house after school, then.” Kirk swung his backpack onto his shoulder and strolled back over to his normal table for the last ten minutes of lunch. Len stared after him, disbelief scrawled all over his face.
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Len was only half surprised when Kirk started to follow him home.
“How do you know I’m not busy?” Len scowled down at the ground as he tried to quicken his pace and leave Kirk behind.
“Well,” Kirk said thoughtfully, keeping up with Len’s increased speed easily, “you haven’t told me you were busy yet. You also haven’t tried to punch me. So, I figure I’m pretty much in the clear.”
Len scoffed and shook his head. Kirk was quiet as they continued the short walk to Len’s house. He was surprised that the guy could manage a comfortable silence. He was obviously used to constantly being on the move, but apparently that didn’t extend to the need to be constantly prattling on.
“You’ve been really quiet lately.” Len dug his key out of his backpack and slipped it into the door. There was a soft snick as he pushed the door open and let them inside. “You get in trouble for talking back?”
Kirk snorted and followed Len up the wide carpeted stairs that led to the his bedroom.
“Nah, just realized they weren’t listening to me anyway.”
Len gave Kirk a look that said he didn’t entirely believe him, but Kirk just shrugged.
“So, chem or calc first?”
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Things were actually moving a lot faster than he originally thought they would--not that he was complaining. Jim had expected it would take the entire first week just to wear McCoy down enough to get him to study with him. Yet here he was, sitting in the middle of the McCoy’s floor with their papers spread around them and ten days to convince the guy to date him.
Jim was leaning against Len’s bed frame, watching the other boy shift through chemistry notes. He had to admit, McCoy wasn’t nearly as nerdy looking as Jim first thought. He had a strong jaw and truly stunning eyes behind the thin wire frames. His shoulders were broad enough that Jim was starting to wonder why he’d never noticed them before. He smirked as he looked down McCoy’s body, lingering on his hands.
Jim’s focus was broken when they heard the door open and slam shut. Jim tensed instantly.
“Leonard!” A strong male voice called up the stairs.
“In my room!” McCoy called back, not bothering to look up from his paperwork. Jim tried to shift so the tension in his shoulders wouldn’t show as muffled footsteps sounded on the stairs. He gritted his teeth as a man poked this head through the door.
“Oh, you have company.” The man smiled at Jim and pushed the door all the way open. He was holding a medical skeleton on its stand. McCoy looked up at his father and Jim watched in amazement as the kid’s face lit up with excitement.
“Seriously?!” He hopped up to his feet and rushed forward to look at the model. “Dad, this is awesome! Thank you so much.”
Mr. McCoy was laughing. “I told you I thought I had an extra one.”
Jim realized he should probably have been confused by the exchange, but mostly he couldn’t help but watch as McCoy started looking over the model, eyes wide with excitement and mouth naming off bones a mile a minute. It was...surprisingly hot.
“So, who’s your friend?” The older man asked patiently as his son paused for breath.
“Oh!” He blushed and turned back to Jim with an embarrassed smile. “This is Jim Kirk. We have AP Chem and AP Calc together. Jim, this is my dad, David McCoy.”
David waved and smiled kindly. Jim waved back, hoping his smile looked only half as nervous as he felt.
“Nice to meet you,” he offered as McCoy dragged his new toy over to the corner of the room.
“You too, Jim. Let me know if you’re staying for dinner. Eleanor won’t be home for a while so it’ll be just us boys.” David smiled again and started back downstairs.
“Let me guess, you want to be a doctor?” Jim felt the tension easing out of his shoulders as David disappeared. He turned a teasing smile towards his study partner.
To his surprised McCoy just grinned.
“Yeah.”
“That’s pretty hot.”
Jim hadn’t planned to say it, but no one else needed to know that.
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“Hey, Bones!” Jim flopped down next to Len. It was Tuesday and it was quickly becoming apparent that Jim was planning to make this a usual thing. “How’d the Spanish test go?”
“Don’t call me that.” Len flipped through his chem notes absently. “And fine, thanks.”
“Want to get together again today, Bones?” Jim ignored the order completely, but Len already knew he would. Jim hadn’t stayed for dinner, but he’d come over after school the next day and seeing the skeleton again apparently had motivated him to give Len a nickname. Though in Jim’s defense, Len wasn’t really all that annoyed by it, and he had stopped calling Jim “Kirk” in return.
“Sure,” Len said lazily. “But I was going to go see a movie after school.”
Jim smirked and leaned in closer to him.
“Bones, are you asking me out on a date?”
Len rolled his eyes, but just barely managed to keep a blush of his cheeks. Jim had become less and less annoying over the last week. He was also surprisingly intelligent. Len assumed that Jim was in AP Chem and Calc so that he could put it on his applications to business schools. That’s what everyone else seemed to think too, but Jim was in almost all AP classes. AP English, German, Calc, Chem, Econ, Gov and Physics. The only AP class the kid wasn’t taking was his elective, which was, even more surprisingly, art.
Apparently, he wanted to be an engineer. Which, Len had to admit, was kind of hot. Jim also apparently loved sci-fi shows and murder mysteries. He was familiar with almost all the authors on Len’s bookshelf and got all of his references to old horror movies.
Over the last week Len had made the discovery that Jim Kirk was a closet nerd. He’d also taken to teasing Jim about it as often as possible. It was starting to feel like a friendship.
“Nope.” Len snickered when he saw Jim’s face fall from the corner of his eye. “But you’re welcome to come; we can study afterwards.”
“As long as we study afterwards. Scotty has been piling homework on us. I think he’s trying to keep us keep us busy while he rigs something in Spock’s office.” Jim eyed their Chem teacher. There was a notorious rivalry between the physics and chemistry departments at the high school. Spock’s classroom and office were the only things that hadn’t been touched that year and Mr. Scott seemed to have made it his personal mission to fix this.
“My parents have a dinner party tonight, but we could go to your house afterwards if you want.” Len was eyeing Spock’s desk nervously, the last time the physics teacher pulled off a prank, the entire wing had to be evacuated. He didn’t notice Jim tense.
“Nah, my parents don’t trust me to have people around when they aren’t home.” Jim’s voice was light and joking, but Len noticed how tight his eyes were when he turned to look at him.
“Oh, okay.” His brow furrowed, but he let it go. “Well, we could just see the movie and then study tomorrow.”
Jim’s face lit up again.
“So, like a date.”
“No. Like two friends going to a movie.” Len bit back a laugh when Jim started to pout. He probably should have been pissed that Jim only wanted to date him, but it was kind of fun watching Jim chase after him. It was also a lot of fun getting to know Jim, but he wasn’t going to look at that too closely. At least, not right now.
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Friday was coming to a close, and Jim was starting to worry that he wasn’t going to get a date out of Bones before the first two weeks were up. If it were up to him, he’d take as long as he needed to, but Cupcake had given him a time limit and it was drawing close.Ten minutes before class was over, a note flipped up onto Jim’s desk. It was folded neatly into a little triangle and had his name on it in Len’s writing. Jim bit back a snort. The guy could already have been a doctor on his writing alone.
The note was only two lines long:
So how about that date?
Movie night at my house?
Jim grinned and looked up at Bones, who was watching him with eyebrows raised. Jim winked and jotted back his answer.
What about the necking?
He saw more than heard Bones laugh, but he also didn’t roll his eyes or glare. That seemed promising.
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They couldn’t find a movie both of them wanted to watch, so the night ended up being more of a “what’s the stupidest tv show we can find” marathon. They were snorting and giggling over a bowl of chips as someone on the screen tried to do a backflip off a trampoline.
“You know,” Bones said, “I can’t figure out why you decided you wanted to date me, but I’m kind of glad you did.” He smiled at Jim and leaned against the his shoulder. Jim’s stomach clenched the same time that his heart flipped. He wasn’t sure which one was telling him he was an asshole, but he knew it was one of them.
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Jim smirked at Cupcake when the guy caught him holding Bones’ hand between passing periods. He gave a wink and held up one finger to show the day.
Hendorff didn’t need to know that they had actually started dating over the weekend. He didn’t need to know about the guilt boiling up in Jim’s stomach every time he caught Bones smiling either.
What had he gotten himself into?
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Jim stared down at the text, trying to decide how to respond.
Cupcake: You going to dump him publicly on Monday or be a pussy and do it through a text?
Did it have to be one or the other? Couldn’t he just do it in private on Sunday night? Jim groaned and dropped the phone to the floor, wincing when it made a loud thud. Bones looked up from his desk to where Jim was sitting on his bed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Cupcake is being an asshole.” Jim scowled but scooped the phone back up and deleted the text quickly.
“I don’t understand why you hang out with that guy.” Bones shook his head and spun his rolling chair around to face Jim fully. “He’s a muscle-bound prick.”
Jim snorted and grinned at his boyfriend. Fake boyfriend, temporary boyfriend, whatever.
“I don’t know, just kind of happened. He’s my friend now.”
“Would you go to him in the middle of the night?”
Jim’s brow furrowed as he looked up from his phone. Bones was watching him intently.
“What?”
“If something happened, would you go to his house at 2 o’clock in the morning because you know he’d be there for you?”
“No? That’s crazy. Who would do that?”
Bones shrugged.
“A friend.”
Jim stared at him until Bones started to shift uncomfortably.
“I’m just saying.” He turned his chair back around and started to type again.
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Thursday was a mistake.
Thursday should have been a day that Jim just went home after school. If he had just gone home, he wouldn’t be in this situation.
He wouldn’t be sitting on Bones’ bed with Bones straddling his lap. Bones wouldn’t be running his hands down Jim’s chest or sucking bruises into the skin of his neck. Bones certainly wouldn’t be grinding down his very obvious erection against Jim’s thigh and Jim wouldn’t be groaning and digging his fingers into Bones’ hips.
Jim had always been half-joking about the necking. He hadn’t seriously thought that Bones would want to make out with someone he’d been dating less than a week. Mostly he had said it to get a rise out of the prudish nerd he was trying to trick into dating him. Jim had seriously underestimated Leonard McCoy, because that nerd currently had his very skilled hands at Jim’s fly and the blond wasn’t entirely sure how he could have been so wrong about the guy.
Thursday was a mistake.
And Jim hated himself so much for that.
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Jim begged family plans as the reason he couldn’t come over on Friday. Bones seemed disappointed, but Jim was too afraid that he was going to make things even worse. The week was up and he was only two days away from having to break up with Bones.
Bones, who liked the same stupid shows that he did, was just as motivated about school and didn’t make fun of Jim for liking art and physics. Bones, who gave kisses that made lightning spark behind Jim’s eyes.
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Len groaned and grabbed for his phone in the dark. He knocked it off his dresser before he could get his fingers around it and swore in frustration. Finally he managed to snatch it off the ground by hanging halfway off his bed. He hit the blindingly green button and put the phone to his ear.
“Hermo?” Len cleared his voice and tried again. “Hello?”
“Hey, Bones.” Jim’s voice sounded tight and Len’s stomach dropped to his feet. Something was wrong. “Can you, uh, can you come open your door?”
Len scrambled out of the bed and ran down the stairs. He quickly threw back the deadbolt and opened the door. On the other side, Jim was standing with his phone still to his ear. He lowered it slowly and gave Len a weak smile. Len bit the inside of his cheek hard when he saw Jim’s split lip and the thin cut across his left eyebrow.
“It’s only one.”
Bones shot him a confused look.
“It’s only one in the morning,” Jim explained in a rough voice. “Not two. And it’s Saturday, so at least you don’t have to wake up for school.”
Len laughed despite himself and pulled the other boy into the house.
“What happened, Jim?” He led Jim into the bathroom and sat him down on the edge of the tub. He dug around in the medicine cabinet looking for the antibiotic cream and a bandage. Watching Jim in the mirror, he could see the bruises starting to bloom along Jim’s left cheek and under his jaw.
“Oh, you know,” Jim said bitterly, “my step-dad had a bad day at work.” He winced when Len carefully wiped a cloth over the cut to clear away the dried blood. Len didn’t say anything, but ran soothing fingers over Jim’s ear as he dabbed the ointment on the wound and covered it with a bandage. Jim was quiet while his boyfriend cleaned him up and got him a clean shirt to replace the one that was covered in dirt and blood.
He pushed Jim into the bed and crawled in after him, wrapping an arm around Jim’s waist and kissing the back of his neck softly.
“Thanks, Bones.”
“Anytime, Jim.”
Jim took Len’s hand from around his waist and put it around his chest instead, tucking Len’s hand under his cheek and nuzzling into the palm.
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Jim wasn’t at school on Monday, so the the bruises on his face had a little extra time to fade. Cupcake texted him a few times to ask how the break up went, but he ignored them. Instead, he just sat in Bones’ bed and kept his face pressed into Bones’ chest.
Len didn’t go to school on Monday so that his boyfriend wouldn’t have to be alone.
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Hendorff was getting pissed off that Kirk hadn’t responded to any of his texts. The entire school was gathered in the auditorium for the assembly, and Kirk hadn’t shown his face on Monday so he had no way to know if the guy broke up with McCoy or not. He was not wearing a dress to prom, so Kirk needed to either man up and admit he lost or show up so Hendorff could beat the shit out of him. He was about to text Kirk again when someone cleared their throat into the microphone.
Kirk was standing center stage with a confident smirk, but it looked like someone had beaten Hendorff to smashing in Kirk’s face. He would be impressed if it were McCoy, but the nerd was sitting a few rows in front of him and when a friend tapped his shoulder he turned around to give a shrug. Apparently McCoy was just as confused as everyone else.
“Hi, I’m Jim Kirk.” There were a few groans and a couple of Hi Jim’s from the audience and Jim just smirked. “So, I made a bet about three weeks ago. If I lost, I had to come up here and tell of you I’m a loser. Considering you all know about my massive ego, you can imagine how unlikely it is that I lost this bet.” He smirked at the few laughs that came out of that, but it faded as he continued. “Except I did. I’m a loser, not because I lost the bet, but because I’m an idiot and an asshole.”
Spock, who had been ready to jump up on the stage and stop Jim before he started to speak, made a movement towards the stage. Scotty grabbed the back of the Chem teacher’s shirt and pulled him back down into his seat.
“I made a bet with Hendorff that I could get anyone to date me. So he pointed someone out and I had to date them for a week and then dump them. ”
Hendorff bit back a snort when he saw McCoy stiffen, apparently Kirk hadn’t actually told the guy what was going on.
“But it turns out, I really don’t want to. So I lost the bet, because I’m going to be the one getting dumped.” Jim winced and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, Bones. I’m an asshole, and it took finding out that you were the only person I would go to in the middle of the night to realize just how much of prick I am.” Jim jumped down from the stage only to be grabbed by Mr. Spock and dragged from the auditorium.
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Len ignored all ten of Jim’s calls and all 30 of his texts. He deleted each voicemail and text message with a determined face and carefully averted eyes. He was furious. Completely furious.
No.
He was hurt.
He waited for Jim outside of the cafeteria the next day, but the coward didn’t show.
He ditched chemistry too.
And calc.
Three days later, Len wasn’t even hurt anymore. He was terrified. Jim wouldn’t pick up the phone, and all he could think about is what those text messages might have said.
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Jim came back the next week. He waved at Len weakly from across the parking lot and jogged over. Len honestly wasn’t sure if he wanted to hug the idiot or sock him. The scab on Jim’s eyebrow reminded him that hitting him probably wasn’t the best idea, but it didn’t really keep him from wanting to.
“Where the fuck have you been?!” Len threw down the books he was holding, feeling a little better when Jim winced at the sound. Jim rubbed the back of his neck and sighed.
“Guess you didn’t read my texts?” Jim’s face was tight and he looked tired, but seeing him had brought back the hurt and betrayal in waves and Len couldn’t find it in himself to play doting boyfriend.
“No. I’m kinda pissed at you. Did you get suspended for your little stunt?”
Jim shook his head slowly.
“Mr.Spock took me to the police to report my step-dad.”
Oh.
Shit.
“I…” Len faltered. With a sigh he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Jim’s waist, ignoring how his glasses crushed into his nose when Jim clung back. “I’m still really mad at you.”
“I know.” Jim’s voice was muffled by Len’s hair. “I fucked up. I know we can’t be friends either and I’m really sorry.”
Len frowned and rubbed Jim’s back softly.
“Why couldn’t be we friends?”
“You can’t be friends with your exes.” Jim sounded completely miserable.
Len rolled his eyes and hugged Jim tighter.
“Wanna bet?”
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Jim wrinkled his nose as he dropped another box on top of the growing pile in his apartment. He had one room back home; how did he end up with so much shit? With a sigh, he stretched his arms above his head and turned to go get the next box. He ran right into the solid mass of his roommate and fell back, knocking his carefully-stacked boxes to the floor.
He scowled up at the laughing man standing above him.
“Ha. Ha.” He shoved himself back to his feet and made a show of brushing himself off. “Real nice, Bones.”
Bones snorted and tried to get his laughter under control.
“Aren’t medical students supposed to be serious?”
“S-sorry!” Bones snorted again, fanning his face and trying to get himself under control. “I’m running on like, four hours of sleep.” Jim rolled his eyes and started restacking the boxes. He felt arms snake around his waist and had to fight back a smile.
“Nope, still mad at you. You knocked my boxes over.” He tried to shake Bones’ arms off, but the other man just tightened his hold.
“Aw, come on. I’ll make it up to you.” Bones kissed Jim’s shoulder and nuzzled into his neck. It had been two years since Jim made both the stupidest and the best bet of his life. Now he and Bones were moving into an apartment just a mile away from the school. Or at least Jim was moving in; Bones seemed to be goofing off.
“We still have half a truck of boxes to move, and your parents are still here.”
Classes had started nearly two months ago, but they had only managed to get all of their stuff down from Bones’ house this weekend. Apparently neither engineering students nor med students could be relied on to make plans outside of classes. They’d been living off of a futon and paper plates. It was worth it, though, considering how much bigger the apartment was than the dorm. Not to mention the added bonus of being able to live with each other.
Bones let out a long-suffering sigh but let go of his boyfriend’s waist. The idea of being caught by his parents--again--was apparently enough to convince him to wait.
Jim grinned and gave him a quick kiss.
“Come on.” he took Bones’ hand and lead his overtired boyfriend back outside. “The sooner we get done with this, the sooner you can nap.”
“Is nap code for blowjob?”
Jim snorted, again reminded that his nerdy boyfriend was not all he seemed.
“Sure, why not.” He stopped when he saw Leonora and David unloading things onto the sidewalk for Jim and Bones to come get. It was the same as when they moved into the dorms for the first time and a far cry from the garbage bag he imagined Frank would have thrown onto the ground outside their house as he wished Jim a good fucking life. But Frank was in jail, Jim had a family with the McCoys, and life was so, very, good.
He turned and pulled Bones into his arms, placing a firm kiss against the other man’s lips.
“I love you, Bones.”
Bones gave him a tired, but entirely genuine, smile.
“I love you too, Jim.”
Life was good.