Chapter Text
Julian and Irwin have been together for a lot of time.
“Five years, 2 months, 4 days and 18 hours, to be exact!”
Irwin smiled as he answered his brother’s question excitedly. The velvet couch bounced in response to Irwin’s sudden burst of energy.
To which Steve replied,
“Right... Have you guys hugged?”
Irwin raised his eyebrow in confusion.
“Obviously? All the time?”
Steve continued,
“Alright, have you two...”
“STEVE.”
Steve laughed as his brother elbowed him in the side. His face was red, that’s for sure.
“Do you say goodnight to each other before bed?”
Irwin nodded reluctantly, still extremely red in the face from Steve’s previous potential question.
“Okay, when was the last time you guys kissed?”
Irwin opened his mouth to speak, but stopped halfway. He, strangely enough, couldn’t remember the last time. Julian and Irwin did kiss once, of course, but that was ages ago, back when their relationship was still new.
Now, it was hard to tell if either of them were comfortable with it. Irwin hasn’t thought about leaning over and giving Julian any kisses for a long time, and Julian might’ve not either. It was hard to tell, since they seemed content with just laying with each other and cuddling.
Yet, Irwin knew that everytime they hugged, there was a longing inside of him that wanted more. There was that feeling of wanting to reach over to Julian’s face and give him little pecks on his cheeks, lips, ears, nose... Anywhere.
It was hard not to long for it.
So the question Steve had posted left itself in Irwin’s brain for a long time. A very long time.
-
“...Irwin? Irwin? Hello?? Animal freak???”
Julian snapped his fingers in front of Irwin’s eyes repetitively to wake him up from his daze. He was resting his head on Irwin’s lap, as per usual, like they always did on his bed. The other man snapped out of his trance of thought when Julian started to pat him on the shoulder aggressively.
“Oh? Sorry, Julian... I was thinking.”
It prompted Julian to sit upright and face the other man on the bed.
“You better not be thinking of other men...”
Irwin laughed subtly and replied while reaching for his hand. Their hands always fit together at the best times.
“Of course not. You know I love you. It’s just something Steve said...”
Julian backed into the mattress again, sighing in relief, still holding onto Irwin’s hand.
“What’d he say? Don’t tell me he asked you weird stuff...”
Irwin laughed at him.
“No! No, of course not. It’s just...”
Julian’s head tilted in anticipation for the answer.
“He asked me when was the last time we kissed.”
To which Julian’s rolled his eyes at, like it was the most obvious question of the year.
“We’ve done it a bunch of times, haven’t we? What does that idiot know anyway?”
Irwin placed his hands into Julian’s hair to play with it.
“You sure? Name the last time you and I kissed.”
Julian stuttered. He didn’t remember.
“See?”
Julian sighed in exasperation.
“Well, what’s stopping us from doing it right now?”
Irwin stopped the hair teasing and stared at his boyfriend.
There wasn’t anything stopping them at all.
And that resulted in a small smooching fest among the two, exchanging ‘I love you’ words to each other.
But why did it feel so unnatural for Irwin?
-
After that day, they returned to their normal cycle of hugging and cuddling and saying ‘goodnight’, much to Irwin’s slight dismay.
“Okay, so you made an improvement, great, then what?”
Steve sat across from his brother at the dinner table, pointing the pancake-pierced fork at him.
“Put that down. Well, we just did the same things we always did, hug...and all that...”
Irwin bashfully played with the cut-up pancakes on his plate.
“You and him have the lamest relationship ever.”
Irwin rolled his eyes.
“Even Joni and I grab little kisses in public. You ever tried that, vanilla man?”
Steve mocked as he dipped the pancakes on his fork in the syrup pool of his plate.
Maybe Irwin could try that. Maybe.