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Mike had a lot of nicknames for Jeremy; Jerebear, Jere, Babe, Baby, etc. But, he had one that stuck even before they were dating, and it became a staple in their relationship. It also was the reason Chris and Fritz had a betting pool on when they would announce their relationship. And, to be completely honest, it started as an accident.
“You’re so pale, dude,” The night guard said glancing up from the cameras to look at the other boy’s face.
“I’m not tha-that pale,” Jeremy replied, rolling over to the right door to check the light. They continued their work for another ten minutes before Mike grabbed the shorter’s cheeks, leading the pale face to glow red in the poorly lit office.
“Wh-What the hell, man?” He managed to get out through the burning sensation that flooded through his cheekbones and ears.
“Your face is like, perfect , how is it like that?” Mike asked, genuinely intrigued, as he brushed a thumb over his cheek.
“Du-During the summer my fre-freckles come out-out,”
All Jeremy could do was blink and try not to think about Mike’s hand placement. He had only recently discovered that his feelings for the older guard weren’t exactly the most platonic.
“You’re like a porcelain doll,” Mike snorted and removed his hands before continuing his laughing.
“I am not a porce-porcelain doll, are you-you calling me weak?” He exclaimed, elbowing Mike in the arm before slumping over the table again.
“Whatever porcelain doll,”
Jeremy let out a groan and tried to continue with the rest of the night like normal.
The more the two worked together and hung out, the more the nickname stuck.
“Hey porcelain doll, how was school?”
“This is not sticking,”
“Porcelain doll! Boss needs us to replace cups, so get your ass over here,”
“Fuck you,”
The nickname gradually got shorter the lazier Mike became. Once when the two were on their break during dayshift, the pair sat next to each other on the small green couch.
“Porce doll, can-”
“What the hell , is-is ‘porce’ Mi-Mike?”
“Porcelain is too long of a word now will you please hand me the damn can-”
He removed his head from Mike’s shoulder and handed the object to him, before resuming his position and shutting his eyes.
Mike had a lot of creative ways to shorten the name, most of which led Jeremy to groan or make a snarky comment at him, but to be frank Mike didn’t care; He was making Jeremy laugh.
“Hey, P-Doll let’s go!”
“Porcey, could you hand me the-”
“I’m picking you up for work in 10 minutes, okay Lain?”
That went on for a good few months before the day when Jeremy was half asleep on Mike’s arm in his apartment. Mike glanced at his watch before reasoning in his head that he should probably take Jeremy home, or else his mom may file a missing person report. He looked towards the boy on his arm and couldn’t help his hard exterior dissolve away as to how peaceful he looked. The bangs messily resting on his forehead, the soft layer of freckles coming in after being exposed to the summer sun more, his legs curled behind him; It was all just too much to take in. He really did look like a porcelain doll.
Even though it pained every part of Mike’s body, he used his other arm to lightly shake Jeremy to wake him, before softly speaking.
“Hey, Doll we-”
The words rolled off his tongue so naturally, that he almost didn’t realize how affectionate of a name he gave until he replayed it in his head. His breathing hitched, worried the younger might be grossed out or mad, but the only response he got was a slight stir of the brunette’s hair.
“I have to take you home, your mom will kill me if you aren’t back soon,”
Jeremy’s eyes fluttered open, before using Mike’s thigh as support to sit up. He yawned and rubbed his eye before making hazy eye contact with Mike again.
“Okay,”
Mike felt his heart stop as he tried to stand on his own for the first time in hours, ignoring the numb feeling in his arm.
The nickname stuck, and from that day on Mike continued to call Jeremy “Doll”. It wasn’t long before the other two caught on.
“Hey Doll?” A voice yelled from the other side of the vacant pizzeria. Jeremy set the boxes he was holding down and yelled back.
“Yeah Mike?”
“Your mom just texted me she’s leaving early, so you’re sleeping at my house tonight,”
“Why’d she tex-text you?”
“I dunno, maybe she likes me better?”
Jeremy snorted in response before shaking his head and resuming his task of unpacking boxes. The other two night guards in the room made eye contact before the ginger finally spoke up.
“Jeremy?”
“Yeah, Fritz?”
“When were you gonna tell us you and Mike are dating?”
The box the boy was previously holding fell clean out of his hands.
“Uhm, wha-what?”
“Were you just gonna, not tell us?” Fritz asked, giving a small laugh and picking up the plastic cups on the floor Jeremy had just dropped.
“We-We aren’t dating, guys,”
The blonde and ginger both stopped in their tracks and looked the most confused in the room.
“What?” Chris asked, standing up looking just as confused as his best friend.
“We aren’t-”
“Doll, you ready? I clocked us both out, also, take my damn jacket or else you’ll be freezing the whole way back,”
Jeremy’s face burned as Fritz covered his mouth to hold in a laugh. Chris was not short of falling apart, but managed to get a few words out.
“Okay, Jere, we believe you,”
Mike stood perplexed before Jeremy grabbed his arm and moved towards the entrance, not before flipping the pair off out of sight. Fritz and Chris were left in a huge laughing fit before they could finally make out words.
“How long do you give it?”
“ Max two months, Jeremy can’t hold shit in that long,”
“Doll, c’mon help me with this,”
“Jere, Jerebear, Doll, listen to me,”
“Whatever, Doll,”
Everyone who met the pair knew them as Mike and his Doll; Whether they knew about one, neither, or both of their feelings. Even Jeremy’s
mom
would casually use the name to tease Mike (“Doll’s in his room, I think he’s sleeping,”). No matter what their relationship was, Jeremy was Mike’s Doll, and they both loved it. Neither would change anything for the world.