Work Text:
“What might this be for?” Jeff asked, hovering over Ness like a ghost preparing to possess him. He pointed to the bandages on his arms, a symbol of his hauling effort from the heat of battle.
Ness felt elected to dodge the question, because knowing Jeff, he might get concerned. It wasn’t a big deal anyway. “Nothin’ special. I picked a fight with someone and had to get bandaged up.”
“Where?” Jeff pressed on. The world was safe, ever since they saved it from Giygas’ clutches, so what made Ness feel the need to pick a fight with someone?
Ness carefully pried Jeff’s hands off the back of his neck. “Nowhere special,” and, reading his mind, he said, “I just… don’t wanna get rusty, is all.”
Jeff clicked his tongue. “We’re dating, you shouldn’t feel obligated to keep secrets from me.”
“I ain’t keepin’ secrets from you,” Ness retorted with the flick of a wrist.
“You sure about that, now?”
“Of course,” Ness said softly, lips puckered into a smile. He unfurled his bandages, revealing a number of scars plastered on his arm. He examined the scars with a scowl; he expected those wounds to heal by now! Upon surveying them, he grabbed the bandage from before to cover them back up until he noticed Jeff squeezing his hand.
Speechless, Ness looked up at Jeff, displeased. Jeff steadily took his hand off of him, and embarrassment sizzled into his expression. “Tell me about them.”
“Huh?”
“Your scars,” Jeff said, “tell me about them, if you will.”
Ness got up and dusted himself off, then put his hands gingerly on his hips. Even PSI couldn’t predict what Jeff was about to say next. “Whaddaya mean by that?”
Jeff laughed at Ness’ evident heedlessness. “Well, clearly, my boyfriend is hiding some things from me.”
Ness repressed his thoughts on teasingly using PSI on him, focusing on his statement. He never found himself one to harbor secrets, let alone keep them. It took him too much brainpower to have a secret altogether! He knew himself more than anyone, and he knew that whatever Jeff was getting at was utter nonsense.
“I don’t know any secrets, if that’s what you’re gettin’ at.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me that you got hurt?”
“I wanted to save myself some trouble by not worrying you,” Ness said, “and it’s not like you have healing PSI.”
Jeff sighed. “Hmm… I guess you have a point there. But you still have to tell me how you got those scars.” He continued to point at his arm.
“Fine, if you insist,” Ness said. “I really don’t have any bad memories associated with ‘em, so sorry to disappoint ya on that.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Jeff said. “As long as you’re okay with showing them off, I-”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ness said, then grimaced at the rigor of his statement. “...sorry.”
“It’s no problem,” Jeff said dismissively.
“Anyways,” Ness continued, retracting his bandages once again, “as you know, I got them from a fight I was in about a week ago… I think.”
“You don’t remember?”
“I’d like to see you try to remember what you had for breakfast yesterday, if you think you’re such a genius.”
Jeff raised a finger. “I can, actually: a bagel with cream cheese.”
Ness caught himself staring daggers at Jeff, though he clearly didn’t mean it. He forgot how seemingly perfect he was, aside from the fact that he was inept at accurately predicting social cues, though Ness was no exception.
“I… take it all back.” Ness cupped his hand beneath his chin, laughing heartily. Jeff did the same, then wrapped his arms around Ness, drowning out his laugh. It caught Ness off guard, but he returned the gesture, his heart melting at the warmth of Jeff’s touch. He closed his eyes, recalling what he was originally doing.
One of his eyes snapped open, looking down at his arms, exposed but not painful. Not only were there scars, but he noticed some small bruises, and of course his veins running along his skin, proving that he was still alive. It was good to know, as someone who had escaped the brink of death many times than he’d like to admit.
Jeff snapped him out of his reverie, either by motioning his hand towards his face or calling his name. Ness threw his hands up in defense, though gradually put them down once he realized that he, his boyfriend of all people, wasn’t a threat.
Ness faced his arm once again. “Sorry about that. Anyways,” He ran the tip of his finger along his skin. It felt cold and barren, untouched for days. He wasn’t concerned about it, but it was something to keep in mind. “I think I remember using PSI Shield enough times to get a bruised arm. Two bruised arms, in fact!”
“You shouldn’t be proud of that,” Jeff cautioned.
“It’s fine, don’t worry!” Ness said. As if there was anything about him to worry about.
“I am going to worry about it. We’re dating.”
Ness leaned back into a cushion, eyes fixated on the light hanging above them. “You have a point there…” Was there anything Ness and Jeff could bicker about without Jeff coming out as the victor?
“Anyways,” Ness said, “I’m not goin’ to show you, but I do have some scars on my back and chest.” He pointed to his spine.
“As in—”Jeff pointed to his chest in a stabbing-esque motion—“like a stab wound?”
“You got it.” Ness said. “I got the one on my chest during my fight with Frank… as for the one on my back, I’d say it’s more figurative.” He started laughing despite the look of scorn on his face.
Jeff shifted his weight. “Is that all, now?”
Ness nodded. “Yep. I told you, I don’t have many secrets.”
“I wouldn’t have thought so.”
“Then why’d you suspect me of keepin’ secrets?”
Jeff adjusted his glasses, smiling softly, making Ness feel like he was melting through his seat. Jeff ruffled his hair a bit, long enough for him to twirl it through his fingers. It made him realize how fluffy his hair was.
“Knowing you, I’d suspect anything such as that,” He said with a relieved sigh. To Ness, he sounded like a knight in shining armor, visiting him in a castle from a faraway land in an attempt to save him. Ness continued to daydream while listening to the final half of Jeff's statement. “You tend to not tell me things at first, and I’m glad that this one accusation isn’t true compared to the others I’ve had.”
Ness’ face grew hot, and he did nothing to make those feelings dissolve, feeling like his wildest fantasies were coming true all at once. Jeff gazed at Ness’ scorched face, realizing that he was no longer focusing on his words.
“Hey, Ness?” Jeff asked, trying his best not to panic. Seriously, why did his face look like that? “Is something wrong? Why is your face doing… that?”
“You…” Ness said, feeling as if his mouth uttered the word without Ness’ say in the matter.
Even though it was one word, Jeff was taken aback. “Pardon me?”
Ness diverted his eyes, blowing hair out of his face. “You heard me!”
“I don’t understand,” Jeff said. “That doesn’t explain why you were-”
“Have you ever been in a relationship in your life?” Ness asked, snorting. “I was blushin’, you big, lovable idiot!”
Jeff was rendered speechless after that. How could he be unaware of such a common emotion, especially when it came to the endeavor that is love?
“I see,” He said, adjusting his spectacles once more. “And I’m not that big…”
“Well, you’re tall,” Ness said. “How about that? Is that accurate enough for ya?”
Jeff smiled underneath those glasses of his. “I guess so.”
“You guess? I thought you were sure about everything!”
Jeff was caught off his guard once he felt Ness’ hands rope around his shoulders, hands swinging around his ankles. He noticed him smiling, continuing to blush. Jeff found himself doing the same, in spite of himself.
“I may know about a lot of things, but this feeling… this feeling called love… it’s more foreign than I ever calculated it to be.”
Ness pulled himself away as he held Jeff’s hand. “That’s okay, I feel that way too! Maybe we can figure it out together?”
“Perhaps,” Jeff said, looking up at the light above Ness. “How do you suppose we do that?”
Ness shot him a thoughtful expression. “Well, since we don’t know a lot about our feelings, we could… as you’d say… articulate it! Together, yanno? So we won’t be alone when figuring ourselves out.”
“And you’re sure this will work?”
Ness beamed. “Of course, dude. Sure, you may not be an expert when it comes to bein’ a social butterfly, but I’m not either! We’ll take baby steps. That way, it’ll surely work!” He stopped for a moment. “You trust me, right?”
Jeff smiled back. Of course he did, why wouldn’t he? If anything, Ness was the only person he trusted his secrets with, other than Tony back in Snow Wood.
He squeezed Ness’ hand, drinking in the silence in perfect contemplation. “Of course I do, Ness, what else do you expect from me?”
“Well, I expected you not to trust me due to how I can be sometimes.”
“Just because you do things like looking through trash cans and trespassing over prohibited property doesn’t make me any less trustful of you. You’re thinking of Poo, if anything.”
Ness laughed. “Yeah, he does call me out on things like that sometimes. But hey, at least it’s all in good fun.”
“True.”
Ness felt himself being pulled closer, only for him to realize that Jeff had his arm enveloping his upper body. He let himself sink deeper in Jeff’s arms, smiling whilst closing his eyes.
Jeff never felt another body up against him like this, feeling Ness’ body heat spread across one side of his body, his head falling onto his shoulder, albeit too short to reach it. He smiled warmly, an all too familiar feeling encompassing him.
He was right. They were going to figure themselves out together. Because that was what a relationship was for, right?
Before he could answer his own question, he felt someone’s lips meet his own.