Chapter Text
Julian sat on the couch adjacent to the television, like he always did when he had days without a pressing case to pursue at the law office. His main purpose is to, reluctantly, help Irwin calm his grey cat that hated him as he did his job. He didn’t mind though, it allowed him to rant and have some company. They were good friends after all. Best friends, even.
Still, there was something off about Irwin these days, Julian had noticed. Since the whole incident with that one animal hunter, whose name Irwin never bothered to remember, he’d noticed that Irwin started to space out more around him, completely lost in thought. He didn’t think too much of it, though. Maybe he was thinking of the animals, maybe he was thinking about his bank account, or maybe he was thinking about Steve.
Irwin knew full well what those thoughts were about, though.
-
“And that’s all the clients for today.”
Irwin took off his white coat and started to unloosen his tie, when he noticed that Julian was still in his house, even at 9 p.m. The angry grey cat was sound asleep in the small pet’s bed next to the couch that Julian sat on, while Julian himself turned his head to look at Irwin when he entered the room.
“Oh, you’re back,” He aloofly stated in response to the other. He barely moved an inch, though. He still stayed on the couch, despite the fact that it was already so late. This left Irwin slightly bewildered, even though he enjoyed his presence lots anyway.
“You’re not leaving?”
“Nah. I’m too tired to walk, and my parents know I’m here and they don’t care much anyway,” As Julian lazily uttered those words, Irwin felt a familiar feeling in his stomach. That twisting feeling that made him feel slightly giddy whenever Julian was near, whenever Julian smiled at him or quite simply when Julian did whatever.
“So you’re staying?” Irwin inquired, with a tone that seemed slightly cheery. Whoops. He did not mean to sound that happy about it. What was there to be so happy about? And it wasn’t as if Julian hadn’t stayed over before, heck, he did it quite often when he felt a bit too lazy.
“Yeah. I’ll sleep out here.”
Irwin affectionately smiled when Julian turned back to look at his phone.
That was before he ran off towards his room, smacking his forehead in embarrassment.
-
Irwin could barely sleep that night, considering he had a million thoughts running through his mind.
'He probably looks really fine sleeping... No, shut up’, ‘Should I tell him that Steve’s room is open?... No, bad idea..’, ‘I wonder if he’s asleep yet..’ and ‘Is he feeling cold?’ were some statements occupying a large majority of those thoughts.
So he decided to get up and see what Julian was doing. Just for a quick while. With his pillows and covers. Wearing one of his childish alpaca-themed t-shirts and with another in his hands, as silly as it may seem. (Luckily, he knew exactly how to explain himself wearing these, “I didn’t get the childhood I wanted, so I’ll helped myself when I could!”)
No big deal. He just wanted to check on his friend. Nothing else. He totally didn’t plan on admiring how pretty Julian was asleep.
“...Damn it.”
-
He’d already assumed that he was awake beforehand, but was still quite surprised to find him awake and staring into his phone at 3 in the morning.
“Julian?”
Irwin stepped towards the other man, who jolted up in shock when he heard his name being called out of the blue. At the devil’s hour, no less. He sighed in relief when he saw that it was just Irwin standing at the doorway.
“Jeez, you scared me. What’s up?” Irwin couldn’t bring himself to say what he wanted to, which was a simple ‘I just wanted to check on you and give you some spare clothes.’ Was he just tired? It couldn’t be, considering he never sleeps early anyway. Was he... nervous? He did feel slightly jittery and his hands did feel a little clammy.
So he sat down at the side of the couch where Julian’s feet were pointed at, throwing down the pillows without saying a word.
He seemed pretty dazed. As usual.
“Uh, hello? Irwin?”
“...Can I stay with you out here?”
He wanted to shut himself up so badly at that moment.
“...”
“...”
“...Sure. Your animals are creeping me out anyway.”
Irwin smiled and pulled some pillows to pass to Julian, along with the shirt. Julian stared at the shirt for a quick moment before walking off to put it on, uttering a simple, “You’re insane.”
He knew that. Of course he did.
Because ultimately, Irwin had fallen for his best friend. And he had no way out of it.