Work Text:
It’s the look of concentration that creases on Sean’s face, as he pours over his screen. Kevin stands in his doorway, a cup of coffee in hand on offer, and can see Sean’s profile, illuminated by the monitor and the tube lighting. The way his brow furrows slightly, lips slightly pouted, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, one leg bouncing lightly under the desk. Kevin feels the words rise in him, swell inside his chest and make his heart thud, press against his lips in urge to escape.
“I love— that thumbnail,” he says instead.
Sean turns, blue eyes alight and crinkling when he smiles at the sight of him and Kevin’s lips quiver to say it.
“You’re too cute,” Sean replies as Kevin crosses to plop in a chair beside him and hand him the mug.
Sean sips appreciatively then drops a kiss to Kevin's cheek. “Perfect.”
——————
Kevin strums his guitar, glancing at the chords on his screen for confirmation. As he gets the groove he starts to sing along, the words soft and melodic. He croons to the love song, fingers tripping on the strings occasionally.
As he strums the last chord, humming out the final note, movement shifts in his periphery. Sean stands in the doorway, a soft grin on his face. “Ah, now that was lovely, Kev.”
Kevin can’t help the way his cheeks heat. Sean is bathed in the sunlight streaming in the window behind Kevin, leant against the door frame, a tshirt and lounge pants, hands pressed into his pockets, and bare toes pressed into the carpet. Kevin feels the words fill his mouth, ready to spill out.
Says instead, “Was tired of the sad songs.” He glances down at his guitar then rushes on. “Needed something nicer to sing you.”
Sean’s smile pulls wide and he crosses the room to sit beside him, the sun casting him in gold, and his eyes sparkling in the light as he turns to face him.
“Sing it again?”
——————
Kevin sits on the sofa, legs pulled up to his chest, his long form condensed, fiddling with a cushion, the tv alight with the chosen film. Sean walks in with a bowl in one hand and a blanket in the other, slides next to him and drapes the blanket across them and places the bowl of popcorn between them.
“What flavor’d you make?” Kevin is shifting to lean himself into Sean, chest warm from their closeness.
Sean snatches up the remote and a handful of popcorn with a sideways smirk. “Unflavored. Your favorite, you absolute loon.” He pops the handful of popcorn in his mouth at once and presses play and Kevin feels the words rush to the forefront with a swell of tenderness.
He quickly grabs a handful and swallows the words down along with the popcorn as he snuggles close. “I do love styrofoam.”
He wakes some time later to find the room dim, aglow only with the light from the tv, his cheek damp with drool. He blinks sleepily and realises his head is pillowed in Sean’s lap, a hand threaded through his hair. Sean is scritching at him absently, gaze still focused on the film from what Kevin can tell, and sleepily, the words rise unbidden, his lips parting.
The breathy movement draws Sean’s notice and he combs his hand through Kevin’s hair gently. “Hey, sleepyhead.” His voice is teasing, but low and soothing.
Kevin’s mouth falls shut and he lets himself purr happily in response as Sean combs through his hair again.
———————
When Sean presses in, breath hot and hands insistent, drawing high, needy moans from him with fingers that know just where to go, Kevin knows he can’t say it. Not now. It feels too quid pro quo now. But he feels it. Now, when Sean seems to be everywhere at once, covering and filling Kevin so completely the words simmer unspoken.
He manages to keep them in, even as he shouts Sean’s name, stars in his eyes.
In the moments after, as they lay together, breath mingling, sweat cooling, legs still entwined, he feels the words swell in his throat again. Sean presses his forehead to his and grins wolfishly at him before kissing him. He knows he’s gone pink as the kiss ends, wants to whisper them but it’s too cliche. Then Sean is rolling away from him to get cleaned up and throwing an offer for him to join over his shoulder. Kevin doesn’t hesitate to follow, the words swallowed back down as the bathroom door shuts behind them.
———————
Kevin isn’t sure where he got this idea to cook for Sean, but it wasn’t his finest. The pan on the stovetop is smoking, its contents charred, and he’s thrown open a window to vent the kitchen. He’s just surveying the damage when Sean leans against the arch into the kitchen.
“How’s it goin’?”
Kevin half laughs. “‘Bout as well as you’d expect. Might well be having bread and rum tonight.” He gestures to the fresh bread he picked up from the shop. The one ingredient he couldn’t ignite.
Sean grins from across the room. “Dinner of champions.”
Kevin groans and sketches a hand up his jaw. “Hope you actually think that because I'm not being dramatic here.” He picks up the cover on the pan momentarily and a small plume of smoke puffs out before he quickly replaces the lid.
Sean giggles. “Sorry, Kev. Guess cooking isn’t your strong suit. That why you're always asking for others to feed ye?”
Kevin groans again and shoos him from the room, promising dinner still.
Later, Sean walks into the living room, as directed by Kevin’s text, and feels his eyebrows rise.
Kevin has pulled the coffee table in and the cushions from the couch onto the floor for seating. There’s a still wrapped burger on a plate at each of their places side by side, a small bowl with several packets of ketchup, a tall glass filled with fries between their plates and in the center, a larger bowl with several more burgers as well as another glass and a single red rose.
“I was going to make cheese toasties with the bread but I was honestly a bit afraid to turn the oven on.” Kevin is perched on the couch, looking anxious, two drinks glasses in his hands. “So I figured, what can’t I burn down the house with? Take away. Or in this case order in. Well, I say I can't burn the house down with it, I nearly decided to light a candle for the center and--”
He’s still babbling as Sean sits next to him and takes the glasses from his hands and places them down, the scent of rum and coke drifting by. He presses his lips to Kevin’s mid ramble, pulling his bottom lip between his and lingering. When he pulls away Kevin’s lips give chase before his eyes flutter open.
Sean smiles warmly at him. “I love you.” He says simply and earnestly, then he slides down off the couch and onto the cushions on the floor in front of his plate.
Kevin’s heart thuds, lips desperate to tug into a smile, but feeling caught out for some reason. He blushes, his lips parting to respond but Sean is already beginning to unwrap his meal. He grins back at him when Kevin hasn’t moved.
“Joinin' me?”
“I love you, too,” Kevin rushes on, sliding down next to him, breath and movement all at once. Sean grins broadly at him, hand squeezing his under the table.
“I know.” Kevin’s blush blooms to flush down to his chest, but then he’s grinning and tucking into his food, elbow knocking Sean’s, who is chattering about the fine dining set up Kevin had done, casually dipping a fry into the ketchup across the table by Kevin’s plate.
Kevin waves his burger at him. “Sean, you have your own ketchup.”
Sean shoves the offending fry in his mouth and bats his eyelashes. “Yeah, but you love me so you’ll share, won’t you?”
Kevin groans and knocks their shoulders together, grinning.