Work Text:
Just as skipping class or dog-ears in his books, one-night stands were entirely out of character for David Jacobs.
In fact, in his barely 21 years of living, he has had not more than one single one-night stand, mainly due to too much alcohol and an unendurable heartache. And even then, it at least hadn’t been with a stranger. That probably didn’t make the situation any better, but at least he didn’t endanger himself by following some random guy home.
He and Darcy never told anyone. Davey wouldn’t say he regretted it. Still, he didn’t feel too proud of himself the next day, waking up in a bed that wasn’t his own, with barely any memory of the foregone night. Darcy felt the same.
They spent almost two hours in a semi-awkward conversation about how to handle whatever happened last night between them. Both of them had been extremely drunk, and neither had romantic feelings for the other.
The real reason—David was painfully aware of this—was both of them suffering from a severe case of lovesickness, which they hoped to overcome by sleeping with the next gay man they came along.
Darcy had confessed that he had fallen for one of his straight friends. David finally admitted that he fell in love with his best friend, Jack Kelly.
It had been an odd situation to discuss your unsuccessful romantic love life with someone you slept with the night before. But at least it made Davey say it out loud. He had utterly fallen for his best friend and was terrified of screwing up their friendship because of it. Especially if one considered the circumstances under which Davey got drunk and eventually hooked up with Darcy.
It happened at Katherine’s birthday party. Katherine was a friend of theirs; she and Darcy had known each other since their early youth, and Davey befriended Katherine through a class they both attended. Katherine then kind of integrated into Davey’s friend group.
And now, during her birthday party, she and Jack publicly announced that they started dating.
Davey would never forget how nauseous he got and how that announcement felt like a kick in the gut. And how his nausea worsened when he realized that he couldn’t just deny it anymore. Deep down, David had known for a while. He just had tried his best to suppress it in every possible way. Denying his feelings any longer couldn’t be healthy. He just had to admit it to get over it finally.
Today, he and Darcy could laugh about their mishap. And once in a while, Davey got to whine about his feelings for Jack to Darcy, who wasn’t that involved in Davey’s core friend group and hence made a great person to vent to.
That made Darcy one of three people to know. The second one was Spot Conlon, a friend Davey knew from high school. Spot was dating Race, Jack’s brother, which was how David got introduced to Jack Kelly in the first place. They then grew closer over the art class Davey had to take for credit despite his inability to hold a brush properly. Jack, the self-proclaimed amateur artist, was the only person David knew who could help him to pass this class. David disagreed with the amateur part; He’d rather say Jack was truly gifted.
To this day, Jack loved to stress (in the most affectionate way) how bad Davey was at drawing and how he had to go over more than one of Davey’s drawings to save his grade.
Spot had been in Davey’s life for quite some time, yet they never got as close as Davey and Jack did in just a few months. It wasn’t on-brand for Davey to have these intense friendships. Except when it came to Jack; to Davey, it was almost impossible not to form a strong bond with Jack Kelly.
However, Spot and Davey still could read each other like open books. It took Spot approximately two weeks to figure out why David had been all mopey and anti-social since Kath’s birthday party. At first, David was embarrassed about how easily his friend could see through him. If Spot could find it out that easily, Jack would get behind it in no time.
But then again, Jack seemed pretty busy in his new relationship, so he didn’t seem to pay too much attention to changes in Davey’s behavior towards him.
David’s sister Sarah was the third person to find out. People say since they were twins, they must share a brain, which sometimes might apply to them, but most of the time, they were polar opposites. David was an introvert; Sarah was an extrovert. David would never skip even one class; Sarah once missed three days to go on a spontaneous road trip with Albert, Jojo, and Smalls. Etcetera, etcetera.
David also always texted people before he came over to visit their dorm or apartment; Sarah tended to show up at their doorstep without warning. That was exactly what happened a few days after Kath’s party when Sarah knocked on Davey’s dorm room door.
She didn’t even ask to come in. She just turned the doorknob and let herself fall onto Davey’s bed. Davey barely looked up from the assignment he was typing on his computer at his desk; this had happened plenty of times before.
“You have a crush on Jack,” Sarah stated after a few moments of silence. It wasn’t even a question. It was just a fact, and she announced it as if she had read about it in one of the textbooks for her biology class.
“What? I don’t,” Davey immediately shot back and looked at her. She returned his gaze.
“Sure you do. You wouldn’t have looked at Jack like he announced that someone ran over Hedwig when they told us they were dating if you were not in love with him.”
(Hedwig was the cat they had when they were kids. She stayed at their parents’ house when they moved out for college.)
David tried to argue with her, already with a random excuse and explanation in mind, when she just kept talking.
“Davey, it’s okay. I just want to bitch about something, and I guess you’d understand me best in this. I have a crush on Katherine.”
She kept talking for approximately one hour, another trait of hers. About how unfair she found it and that she regretted not having made a move earlier.
Things turned out rather well for her when Jack and Katherine broke up after less than two months, deciding to be better off as friends. Not much later, Sarah finally made a move, and she and Kath had been dating ever since.
David Jacobs did not have such luck. Jack dated some people here and there, never really anything serious, and Davey just watched from the side as his best friend.
Just as skipping class or dog-ears in his books, one-night stands were entirely out of character for David Jacobs.
However, some mornings, you wake up and realize you broke character last night. That was the case the morning when Davey woke up with Darcy, and it was the case this morning.
He knew immediately because he usually did not wake up on somebody’s chest. Yet, today, he did, in a bed that was a bit broader than the one in his dorm room, naked skin pressing against his own. His eyes were heavy, and a throbbing headache set in the second he tried to open them for the first time. So they remained closed for another handful of seconds.
What were the straight facts?
It was a Friday morning, that he knew for sure. Yesterday had been Thursday. Jack’s roommate Charlie, lovingly (even though slightly problematic) called Crutchie by the friend group thanks to his disability, had gotten a call in the afternoon confirming his top surgery date in a few months, so he invited the whole group to celebrate on a Thursday night. Davey was one of the few who had been stupid enough to schedule one of their classes on a Friday morning, so nobody had any objections. Even though Davey’s class wasn’t until 10 am, he probably should still get up soon and investigate where he was to ensure he’d be back on campus on time.
(He heavily doubted to have overslept massively. Usually, it would be considered late for him if he woke up later than 9 am.)
The last night was everything but clear in his head. A thick fog sat on most of the memories. Davey knew from previous hangovers that most of his memories would come back over the next few hours. Still, it nagged him that he didn’t know how he ended up in this bed and, most importantly, with whom.
As already mentioned, today was just really an out-of-character day.
He did remember that he made out with someone; he just didn’t have a face to the mouth on his own. Well, of course, he made out with somebody. How else would he end up in bed with them?
He did not remember leaving Jack’s and Charlie’s shared apartment, but that didn’t mean anything. He hoped that wherever he was, it wasn’t too far away from campus.
David had his life together most of the time. He really had. His grades were good, and his dorm room was clean. He probably didn’t get enough sleep at night or had one or two cups of coffee too much per day.
But at this very moment, he seriously wondered how anyone could consider him a reliable and responsible adult. Now that he woke up on a Friday morning with a throbbing headache in a bed that wasn’t even his own.
He knew there was no way around getting out of bed eventually, no matter how much his head felt like it was about to explode. Another wave of the pulsing headache went through his brain when he opened his eyes to the bright light that shone through the window.
He had to blink a couple of times until he stopped seeing spots and sat up, away from whoever’s chest he had been lying on until now. It was almost embarrassing that it took him a couple of seconds to recognize the room he had stayed in, given how often he fell asleep and awoke on this mattress.
Davey blinked in disbelief and rubbed his eyes. He surely must hallucinate.
On this out-of-character Friday morning, he woke up in Jack Kelly’s bed. Bare-ass naked. Implying...
At first, he seriously considered just running away as quickly as possible. That was his first thought. His fight-or-flight response was always flight. But a rustling blanket announced the person next to him to be awake, probably through the movement on the mattress or whatever. Davey really couldn’t care less about the reason right now.
In disbelief, he slowly turned his head to find Jack beside him, rubbing his face, his eyes still closed.
Davey felt his mouth go dry over the shock.
Given that they had been best friends for almost two years, David had often slept in Jack’s bed. The bed wasn’t too small, so neither bothered to get the spare mattress. It leaned against the living room wall in case Race, Spot, or anybody didn’t want to go home after a night of chatting over one or two (or five) beers.
Davey usually refused to sleep in the bed when he knew the sheets hadn’t been washed within the last two weeks. For one, he knew Jack tended to sleep around if he wasn’t in a relationship. But also because Davey had a mild dust allergy and didn’t enjoy waking up with a clogged nose first thing in the morning.
Why did he think about this right now, though? A possibly clogged nose really wasn’t his biggest problem right now.
He watched Jack, beautiful Jack—his hair messed up from the pillow (and probably from Davey’s hands)—blink a few times before his eyes focused on Davey.
More than pathetic stammering didn’t seem to leave Davey’s mouth as he tried to break the silence. Jack, too, didn’t say anything; they were doomed if Jack had nothing quick-witted to say.
David’s next instinct was to cover himself. Or rather, the parts of his body that hadn’t already been hidden under the blanket. It wasn’t until he tugged on the blanket that he realized this was not his brightest idea, considering they shared the same blanket. If he got more fabric, that meant that Jack got less.
Luckily (because otherwise, Davey might have just gone up in flames spontaneously), Jack grabbed the blanket’s edge quickly enough to prohibit more than his thigh from sticking out.
“Jesus Christ, Dave, just use your words,” Jack laughed in a raspy morning voice.
“That’s not—” Davey tried to justify himself while he felt his face heating up, “I didn’t‒” Dear God, how did Jack’s morning voice sound this pleasing, and Davey’s sounded like he was going through his voice break?
“What time is it?” he eventually managed to get out, his fingers still clutching the blanket. Only one phone, Jack’s, was to be seen on the nightstand, and for some reason, Jack didn’t have any other clocks or alarms anywhere in his room.
Without turning away from Davey, Jack reached for his phone, looked at the screen for a split second, and knit his eyes back to Davey again.
“Nine,” he gave back. His eyes scanned David and lingered on a particular spot on his neck for a short moment.
That gave him one hour until his class started, but it would take him at least 30 minutes to get to campus with public transportation. He probably would want to stop by his dorm, get changed quickly, and grab his notes for class. In short, he needed to leave within the next couple of minutes.
“I have to get to campus,” he brought out; his mouth still felt dry, and words were hard to form and articulate.
“I told ya not to schedule a Friday class.”
“I know you did, and I gladly ignored you because I’m not bothered by Friday classes,” Davey avoided Jack’s eyes as he spoke, “Normally, I mean.”
Jack’s lip pulled into a smirk again.
“You’d rather stay here with me. Is that what you’re saying?”
Dave consciously decided not to reply to that comment. Because, God, yes, how badly he would want to snuggle up against Jack’s chest again and sleep for another two hours cuddled up against the other man. But he knew it was not meant to be and that Jack was only joking to ease the tension.
Because that was what Jack was doing, right?
“I gotta get dressed,” David announced and sat up a bit more, letting go of the blanket his fingers had clutched onto until now, “Can you close your eyes so I can change?”
“You’re joking, right?” Jack asked amusedly, “Dave, there ain’t nothing to see I haven’t seen yet.”
“You can’t just say it like that!” Davey felt the blush creeping up his cheeks again. He probably looked like a tomato now, assuming by how hot his face felt.
“Why not?” Jack laughed, “T’s the truth!”
“God, Jackson, just look away, please!” Davey pleaded.
“Okay, fine,” Jack eventually agreed (maybe because Davey never called him by his full name as a joke) and squeezed his eyes shut, “Go.”
“No peeking,” David said in a small, high voice as he climbed out of the bed, his eyes scanning the floor to locate his clothes.
“I would never,” Jack gasped in an exaggerated offended tone, his hand dramatically placed on his chest.
‘Fucking Christ,’ Davey had to remind himself, ‘this is not the time to drool over Jack’s naked torso.’
“Can I open my eyes now?” Jack asked after a handful of seconds. By now, David at least found his underwear somewhere around the foot of the bed, alongside his jeans. Where the fuck was his shirt?
“You’re so impatient,” he sighed, “Yeah, fine. Have you seen my shirt?”
“I think it came off first,” Jack squinted, probably trying to recall his memory. (The thought of that only made Davey mildly uncomfortable. Thank you for asking), “Check the floor by the door.”
Davey, his face heating up again, looked around to find his nice button-down shirt crinkled in the corner.
“Got it,” he informed Jack, not daring to look at him again.
“Glad to help. You need anything else? A kiss goodbye, maybe?”
David rolled his eyes, still facing away from Jack. Although, he really just tried to look annoyed to cover his heartache.
“So, uh,” he started while picking up the shirt and trying to smooth out some of the creases with his hand, “What do you remember? Because I pretty much blacked out.”
“I’m not blacked out at all,” Jack said innocently as if that didn’t imply that he very much remembered explicitly what happened between the two of them.
“I’m gonna regret this, but care to fill me in, at least?” David still couldn’t look Jack in the eye, especially now, fumbling with the belt between his fingers.
“We were on the balcony,” Jack started to tell with a confident grin plastered on his face.
“Why were we on the balcony?”
“Well, first we did Tequila shots altogether, and I went outside to smoke, and you just couldn’t be without me too long,” if even possible, Jack’s grin became cockier with every word.
Davey sighed. Nothing good ever came from him watching Jack smoke.
“Yeah, great, go on.”
“Then you, young sir, told me, and I quote: You’d need me.”
“That is completely out of context,” Davey protested, fumbling with the buttons on his shirt. Parts of the memory slowly started clear up inside his brain, “I told you I needed you to stop smoking at some point because I don’t want to lose you, because—”
He then stopped abruptly. Oh shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
He now remembered pretty clearly what exact words he chose. He had said because I am in love with you. He declared his love to Jack; there was no other way to interpret these words.
And considering Jack’s impression, he knew this just as well as Davey did.
“Because you’re too important to me,” Davey finished the sentence, hoping Jack would let it slide.
He did not because he wouldn’t be Jack Kelly if he did.
“Really?” Jack laughed, crossing his arms in amusement, “That’s what you said?”
“Jack, please—” Dave looked away once more.
“Because one of us must be lying, and I am damn sure it ain’t me because I know what I heard.”
“Jackie—”
“I am pretty sure you said that you—”
“I know what I said,” David shouted. He looked up again to find the smile on Jack’s face dying, “I know I said this, okay? It must have been the vodka or anything. I don’t know. Let’s just talk about this later today, okay?”
He kneeled to tie his shoes.
“Sure,” Jack hesitated for a second before he responded to Davey’s sudden outburst, “There’s nothing to talk about. It happened. We were both drunk. It was a one-time thing, right?”
Dave looked up to meet Jack’s face. There was a change in his tone. He didn’t sound sincerely amused anymore; this was now his playing-it-cool mode.
“Well, I still think we should talk about it. I’ll text you after class?”
Slowly, Jack nodded, “I think your stuff’s in the kitchen.”
“I’ll look there, thank you,” Dave replied quietly. The entire atmosphere in the room had changed within seconds. If he were being honest, no matter how annoying Jack had been, he’d rather have this kind of Jack than the one he changed into after Davey’s harsh words.
“Talk to you later?” Davey reassured himself again, his feet already dragging him towards the door.
“Dave?”
“Yeah?” he turned around, now fully facing Jack again. Dave knew he had to leave if he wanted to make it to class in time, but he just couldn’t. His gut told him to stay for at least another moment.
“Was this just a drunken mistake sorta thing to you?”
All of a sudden, Jack didn’t sound like himself anymore. Instead, he was bitter and sad.
“Was it to you?” Davey said faster than he could rethink it.
“I asked first.”
If he had the choice, it wouldn’t be, David thought.
“It doesn’t really matter, doesn’t it?” he dodged.
“It wasn’t to me,” Jack said after a short silence. He swallowed, “But if it was to you, then‒”
He didn’t get much further. Davey quickly walked over to the bed again to press his lips softly against Jack’s.
Jack almost desperately pulled him in close, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and holding onto the back of his neck with his other hand. Davey’s mind flooded with memories from the foregone night, how Jack kissed him, smelling like cigarettes and cheap booze. But he pushed them aside because he was kissing Jack Kelly again right now, and this was everything he could comprehend right now.
It was too goddamn hard not to give in to the urge to push Jack back into the sheets again and continue where they stopped last night. Still, Davey really had to leave, no matter how much he wished for this to happen. His own goddamn sense of responsibility wouldn’t let him enjoy every part of it.
They parted again, breathing heavily against each other’s faces.
“So you said my phone and my wallet are on the kitchen counter?” he gasped.
“That’s what you’re thinkin’ of right now?!” Jack asked, out of breath but with the smile back on his face, “Out of all things?”
“Jackie, I told you, I have class,” Davey tried to defend himself and placed his hand on Jack’s, still lingering on his chest, holding onto the button-up shirt for dear life.
“You’re the most boring person on earth,” Jack leaned in to press another short kiss onto his lips, “I can’t believe you’d rather go to class than make out with me.”
“I didn’t say I want. I said I have to,” Dave replied, “We’ll talk about this after class, alright?”
Pouting, Jack gave in and nodded eventually.
“Fine. Go get your A.”
As Dave turned to leave, Jack playfully slapped his butt. This man was going to be the death of him.
“Hey!” he called out, spinning back around. Jack had his hands raised in defense.
“Hey, hey, hey, you can’t blame me! Have ya seen yourself? Now go!”
Davey’s heart was still pounding like crazy when he quietly closed the door to Jack’s room behind him. The kisses still lingered on his lips, and he almost jumped when he saw Charlie sitting in the kitchen with a steaming mug of tea.
“Hey, Dave,” he greeted him with a little wave, “Looking for your things?”
“Uh, yeah,” Davey nodded and spotted his belongings in a bowl, with a handful of keys, wallets, and other stuff belonging to Charlie or Jack.
Jack, who he just kissed. Sober. Yeah, Davey definitely wouldn’t be able to focus at all during this class.
“I just started to clean up, so I put them there,” Charlie explained, “Feel free to stay and help clean up, but well, you seem in a rush,”
“Yeah, my class starts in,” he glanced at his phone, “Shit, 40 minutes. I got to go.”
“Have fun,” he called after him, chuckling, while Davey rushed towards the door.