Work Text:
Even though it might not look like it, Amber and TJ are best friends. They live together, so it’s kind of impossible for them to not get along. They fight all the time, sure, but they always end up being best friends in the end. They’ll come home, have a heart-to-heart, and they’ll end the day with a sibling bonding activity.
Kind of like now.
TJ was on the floor of Amber’s room, sitting criss-cross applesauce. He couldn’t sit with “french fry fingers”—something Marty added onto the end of the saying—because his hands were otherwise occupied.
“Stop moving,” Amber huffed. “You’re gonna mess it up.”
“It’s not my fault, it tickles.”
Amber dips the brush back into the bottle of dark blue nail polish and wipes the excess on the side. “Well, suppress it or something. If you keep moving, the polish is gonna get all over your pants and your cuticles, and it’ll be really hard to get off when it dries.”
TJ rolled his eyes, “Jeez, when did nail painting get so complicated?”
Amber has been painting their nails ever since she learned when she was seven. He used to match with his sister, having the same colors and designs as her, and he even used to theme them with holidays, but that stopped when they went to middle school. TJ went into school one morning and watched some of the baseball players picking on a kid for painting his nails. He hid his hands in the sleeves of his hoodies for the rest of the day, and when he went home, he scrubbed his nails raw with acetone.
Now, years later, there’s no bullying that happens whenever a boy wears nail polish, because he’s the boy that wears it. He’s also the boy that’s next in line for the captain of the varsity basketball team at Grant High School. Not only that, but he’s also dating the school’s top member of the debate team, Cyrus Goodman. He’s more comfortable now than he ever has been.
He missed being able to have these moments with Amber. When she used to paint his nails, they would sit and talk for hours, making up stories, planning out their futures, just doing all sorts of stuff. This is the first time in years he’s actually sat down and asked her to paint his nails. It’s also the first time he’s ever gone to a Homecoming dance, so that’s another new development.
“I don’t think this matches my tie,” TJ commented. “It’s too dark.”
“Relax,” Amber said. “Once it dries, it’ll look a lot better, trust me. Do you want topcoat over these or no?”
TJ contemplated for a moment, “Sure.”
Now, instead of talking, they just sit in comfortable silence. Well, it’s not really silent, since Amber constantly has Natasha Bedingfield playing, but TJ listens to it so much it eventually just sounds like white noise.
“Okay, don’t try to do anything with your hands for a bit, since the polish is still wet,” Amber instructed. “If you do, it’ll do that thing where it smudges after it’s already half-dry, and that’ll be bumpy and crusty and just overall really gross.”
“Got it.”
“I thought about using my hairdryer to help dry them, but I don’t know if that’ll work, so just sit here. Sorry, that’s boring.”
TJ shook his head, “Nah, it’s cool. I have a documentary I have to finish, anyway.”
“Okay. I’m gonna do my topcoat while yours dry.”
They fall back into the comfortable silence from before. TJ uses the pad of his pinky finger to open Netflix and find the documentary he promised Cyrus he’d finish. It was more difficult than he remembered. He was careful, though, so he didn’t smudge any of the polish. He made sure to keep his hands flat on his lap, too, so he wouldn’t pick up any carpet fibers or cat hair.
After about twenty minutes of watching penguins shift in their huddles, TJ taps his thumbnail to make sure it’s dry. When his finger comes away clean, he looks to his sister. “I think it’s dry now.”
“Okay. Do you want a regular topcoat or one with glitter in it?”
TJ cringed a little bit, “Regular is fine.”
Amber nodded and unscrewed the lid to the clear topcoat. She begins to paint TJ’s nails with it, and TJ feels himself zone out while she does it. He never knew something like getting your nails painted could be so therapeutic. It was kind of strange because usually, people bite their nails to ease anxiety, not paint them. TJ was so worried about Homecoming that he almost told Cyrus he couldn’t go. His decision to ask Amber to paint his nails was something spur-of-the-moment, he didn’t really think about it. Now that he’s here, though, he can’t imagine how he’d be without her sitting him down in her room to paint his nails.
After a few minutes, Amber put the lid back onto the bottle. “And...there. Same thing as before, don’t touch anything. Once these are dry, you should be ready to go.”
Oh yeah—it was about twenty minutes until Cyrus came to pick him up. TJ was already in his suit, all he had left to do was put on his dark blue tie. His boutonniere was sitting in the fridge—he’s eternally grateful to Amber’s girlfriend Andi for talking her dad into making them for him. He doesn’t remember if Cyrus is supposed to pin it on him or if he’s supposed to put it on himself. It doesn’t really matter, as long as the pictures turn out nice and he has fun.
“Why aren’t you going?” He asked Amber. “You go to Grant, too, you could’ve invited Andi.”
Amber sighed, “Yeah, but I already went to her Homecoming, and I didn’t feel like having to pay for both. Plus, I get the house all to myself, which means I can watch The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants in the family room as loud as I want.”
TJ laughed, “You’re a dork.”
Amber wipes the pad of her finger over her thumbnail, “Check to see if your topcoat’s dry,” she said.
He does, and he smiles when he feels how smooth his nail is. “Yep, I’m good.” He hops up and dusts his pants off, and he heads downstairs to the kitchen. He grabbed the plastic container from the top rack of his fridge and goes to stand in front of the mirror in his hallway. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and pulls up the WikiHow article on boutonnieres. After a quick scan and a few misfires, he finally pins it correctly. He glances down at his pants, then fully looks down in horror after seeing just how much cat hair he got on his pants. He runs to the bathroom and grabs the lint roller and starts furiously rolling it over his pants. He puts it down and checks his hair in the mirror.
“TJ, you look fine,” Amber assured him. “Now, c’mon, he’ll be here any minute, and I want to get pictures.”
TJ nods and turns around, heading out to the family room. He stands in front of the staircase and does a few ridiculous poses while Amber snaps a few pictures and hypes him up. The doorbell rings and TJ immediately tenses up, adjusting his tie and brushing down his pants. “How do I look? Do I look okay?” he asked frantically.
Amber rolled her eyes, “TJ, please calm down. You have no reason to be nervous. Let him in!”
TJ walks over to the door and takes a deep breath before opening it. As soon as the door opens, though, all of the breath in his body leaves him. “Wow…”
Cyrus is standing there in a matching suit, wearing the same color blue tie. His boutonniere matches TJ’s—a white carnation with blue baby’s breath. In his right hand is a bouquet of white lilies. He offers TJ a sheepish smile, “Is it too much?”
TJ steps back and shakes his head, “No, no, it’s great, thank you.” He gestures for Cyrus to come in, taking the flowers when he does. “Oh, uh, I didn’t get you anything—”
“You didn’t have to,” Cyrus interrupts. “My step-mom always says that whenever you go to someone’s house, you always bring them flowers or fancy wine or a cheese platter. We can’t really drink wine, and I know Amber’s lactose intolerant, so I figured flowers were safe.”
TJ grinned, “Well, thank you.” He loves this boy, he really does. He moves to one of the side tables and opens the cabinet, searching for a vase. “Uh...Amber wants to take pictures before we go. I don’t know where she—”
“I’m here, I’m here!” She yells. Amber runs down the stairs in her pink unicorn pajamas, her yellow Polaroid in her hand. “I was gonna use my phone, but then my battery died, and everybody knows Polaroids make everything look better, so I just kinda thought—” Amber stops at the bottom of the steps. “Wow, Cyrus is really rubbing off on me. Anyway, if you want to post to your Instagrams, you have to give me your phone so I can take the picture.”
Cyrus shrugged, “Alright.” He pulls his phone from his pocket and hands it to her.
TJ finds a tall glass vase and puts the flowers in it. He takes a moment to admire the flowers, but something doesn’t feel quite right. “These...am I missing something?” He asked the group.
“Uh, water?” Amber replies. “I’ll get it.” She takes the vase from TJ and he yells out a “thank you!” in return.
The two boys stand awkwardly by themselves, and a strange silence settles over them. TJ can feel his nerves begin to come back from the way his fingertips tingle when he relaxes his hands. When he imagined high school, he thought of movies, with homophobic macho jocks and sunny days and unattainable happiness. This is different. TJ is happy, don’t get him wrong, but his happiness stresses him to no end. Of course, he’s out, but he still fears for what people will say to him, or even to Cyrus. Maybe he shouldn’t have painted his nails.
Cyrus places a hand on his shoulder, snapping him out of whatever trance he was in, “You okay?”
“Yeah, of course,” TJ said, feigning nonchalance.
Cyrus pursed his lips and shook his head, “No...Theo, I know that look, and it’s not good...what’s wrong?”
TJ’s eyes flitted towards the door and he bit his lip, “I dunno, I’m just...I’m nervous.” He quickly stuffs his hands in his pockets to prevent Cyrus from seeing his nails. “Like I know…I know we’re both out, and that people know about us, but I’m just—”
“Scared,” Cyrus filled in. TJ nodded slowly and Cyrus moved closer to him. “I get it, but…” He grabbed his wrist and pulled it from his pocket to hold his hand, intertwining their fingers. “We’ve been through too much to let what other people think about us rule our lives.”
“Yeah, that whole thing with Kira was…an experience, to say the least,” TJ said.
“And we're so much better than that,” Cyrus assures him. He rubs TJ's knuckles with his thumb, and TJ feels his face flush. He's absolutely weak for this boy.
Cyrus takes his left hand from TJ's right and furrows his brows. He moves it to inspect TJ's right hand. “Did you…did you paint your nails?” He asked.
TJ felt his stomach drop. Oh no, he hates them. Cyrus probably thinks he's super lame, why would a teenage boy paint his nails? He knew it was stupid as soon as he asked Amber to do it for him. He dropped his head. "Yeah…" he mumbled. He held his breath as he waited for an answer. When he wasn’t met with one, he just starts talking to fill the space. One of the many habits he picked up from Cyrus. “I can go and, like, wash it off if you don’t like it. Yeah, it doesn’t matter, it was stupid, anyway, I can—”
Cyrus cuts him off, “I love it,” he confessed.
TJ's eyes widened, "Really?"
Cyrus nods, "Of course I do! They look great, and they match our ties! What more could a guy ask for?"
TJ beams at Cyrus’ words, and he can't help but pull him into a tight hug. He’s never heard anyone so unfazed by the idea of him painting his nails. Of course, now it was starting to come back as a trend, but he remembers what people thought of it when he was younger. The boys in his class would ridicule him for having painted nails, and his dad would—nope, he’s not gonna think about that now. This is a good moment, a great moment, and not even his stupid dad could ruin it.
The hug catches Cyrus by surprise, but it’s nowhere near unwelcome—usually, Cyrus is the one to initiate hugs. He hugs him back, of course, and he brings his arms around TJ and squeezes him tight. He holds Cyrus like he’s his lifeline, like he’s the only raft able to keep him afloat in the ocean.
He hears the click of a camera beside him and turns to see Amber, holding up her Polaroid. "Sorry," she winced. "You guys just looked so cute. It’d be a federal crime if I didn’t take that picture.”
“Amber,” TJ hissed. His face flushed a deep red and he quickly removes himself from Cyrus. Leave it to his sister to embarrass him in front of his boyfriend.
Cyrus chuckled, “Teej, it’s fine. Thank you, Amber.”
Amber nods and moves onto the stairs. She puts her Polaroid down and holds up Cyrus’ phone. “Okay, quick photoshoot, or else you’re gonna be late!”
“Fashionably late is a thing,” TJ says.
“Yeah, but there’s such a thing as being too fashionably late,” Cyrus tells him. “Then we’ll miss out on all of the good snacks!”
TJ rolls his eyes and smiles, “Okay, we can make it quick.”
“Great!” Amber puts her Polaroid down and lifts Cyrus’ phone up. “Everybody smile!”