Work Text:
michael looks at me as i pull him up the stairs, after completely shouting at charlie less then two seconds ago, it's came to the attention that quite a few people have eyes on us. the feeling i get isn't too far from the feeling i got when a whole crowd of people saw me and him kiss 2 months ago. i slightly laugh at this and flip him off.
when we've got to the top of the stairs, michael is already leading himself to my room, based on how much he's been at my house, he's memorized where everything in my house is, almost like he lives here.
once we enter my room, i shut the door and lock it, i know charlie's friends would never mean to walk into my room, but currently i really don't want people knowing me and michael are dating, i'm even yet to tell charlie me and michael are dating.
well, i think we're dating? we've never really made it official yet, it has been almost three months since we kissed, and we've definitely kissed since then, but i don't think we know what we are at this point. i think that's okay, though.
mum, dad, and oliver have been out of the house all day, they went to theme park with oliver so everyone could decorate for the party, aled, tao, charlie, and me, spent the afternoon putting up decorations, from what i know, the others brought extra food and drinks, michael made cupcakes for everyone.
'so.' michael says as he falls onto his back on my bed, looking up at the ceiling.
i lay down and look over at him.
'after charlie opens his presents and has cake and stuff, d'you just wanna stay up here?'
i nod.
theres a few minutes of silence, i look up at the ceiling.
in the corner of my eye i can see michael looking and smiling at me.
my phone starts buzzing, i sit up and grab it, charlie texted me.
—
charlie
hey we r going to open presents rn
oh yeah and also have cake
ok
me and michael will be down in a second :)
read at 18:48
—
michael looks at me with a questioning face.
'we're going downstairs, charlie is gonna open gifts and have cake.'
michael nods and gets up.
he opens the door for me but again says nothing.
'you alright?' i ask him as we walk down the hallway towards the stairs.
'yeah.' he smiles before hugging me. he gently kisses the top of my head.
we walk downstairs, i watch charlie open presents, michael got charlie a kit for annotation for books and also one of his favorite books that michael had told him about and charlie was interested in. i got charlie a llama plushie, out of all things, which he seems to be treasuring with his life.
then we all sing happy birthday to charlie, i help him pass out plates to everyone, then we've sat down, michael decides he has to be as close to me as possible and everytime he takes another bite of cake he gets frosting on his nose, i wipe it off because everyone is talking to eachother so nobody seems to notice me and michael, it sort of feels nice to be like this with him. around so many people, yet they don't notice.
when we've finished eating cake everyone seems to calm back down, everyone moves to the lounge so i get a bottle of diet lemonade, michael gets us some vodka.
we return to my room, we decide to see which one of us can chug our vodka first, michael wins, surprisingly, he says it's because when he went to parties everyone would ask him to do it.
we lay down on my bed and look at eachother, michael brushes some hair out of my face.
'do you want to go downstairs and get more vodka?'
'i'm alright.' i grab his hand.
'you can, if you want too.' i add.
'i don't think i really want to be drunk right now.' he laughs.
'me either.'
he wraps his arms around me and nuzzles his head into the crook of my neck. it's really hard not to smile when he does this.
he kisses my neck and i laugh. i like when he does that. it's comforting in an odd way.
'are you sure you don't want to go downstairs?' i ask. 'i don't want to like.. take you away from the party.' i sit up and michael does the same, we move to rest against the headboard of my bed.
'i'm alright.' he says as he puts his hand over mine. 'i mostly came here to be with you.'
i don't know how to respond so i kiss him.
'you look amazing.' he says quietly.
'you do too.' i smile and he hugs me.
'do you have any plans for tonight?' i ask suddenly.
'uhh, not really. i just was gonna come to the party and probably leave around 10ish.'
i look over at the clock. 8:42.
'could you — er.. stay here?' i ask.
'what do you mean?'
'like.. spend the night. mum and dad arn't going to be home for a few more hours and i'm sure charlie won't notice.'
he looks at me, almost with a surprised look on his face.
'you don't have to.' i add. 'i just —'
'yeah. i can.' he smiles.
i nod.
he keeps looking at me.
'what?' i ask.
'you don't — you don't usually ask stuff like that.'
'ask what?'
'sleeping over.'
'well — i mean.. i guess we've only known eachother for a few months.. you know?'
he nods.
'i've been really wanting to.' i say. 'i know we did, once. that one time at becky's — but that wasn't — we weren't dating at that time.'
'yeah.' he says. 'i understand.'
'do you want to?' i ask. 'sleep in my bed with me?'
'i'm fine with it, as long as you're comfortable.'
i smile. 'yeah. i am.'
he kisses my cheek. i ruffle his hair, which feels different.
'you didn't put any product in your hair?' i ask.
'nah, i didn't think i needed it.'
'you always use products in your hair for parties though.'
he tries to laugh it off, but i can see through it.
'did you expect this to happen? sleeping over?' i tease.
he looks away from me.
'maybe..' he says, just loud enough for me to hear it.
'OH MY GOD.' i laugh.
and then he starts laughing.
'you know i am going to tease you about that for the rest of your existence, correct?'
'that's why i didn't want to admit it.' he drags out the t in 'it'.
'is that why you wore a tshirt?' i laugh.
'maybe..'
'oh my god.'
i grab my phone from my nightstand because it vibrated again, it was a notification from my blog. after checking my phone i see michael on his phone looking at something smiling.
'what?' i ask.
'nothing!!' he shoves his phone in his pocket.
'what???' i ask again.
then he takes his phone out and shows me a photo. it's of me. from just a minute earlier, on my phone.
'DELETE THAT.' i laugh and try and take his phone from his hands, somehow, he's able to get it from me and shove it in his pocket before i'm able to grab it.
he smirks at me. i flip him off.
'how are you able to do that so fast??'
'practice.' he winks.
'YOU HAVE MORE??'
'SHUT UP.' he yells, looking away flustered.
i laugh. but then it comes to me that i do the same thing, except when he's like. not actually able to notice, which is hard, but sometimes when he takes naps while he's at my house i'll take a picture of him. it's quite embarrassing, but sometimes it comforts me, looking at them when i feel upset or lonely. oh my god, thinking about that is so embarrassing.
'i wonder what the others are going to do.' michael says, changing the topic of the conversation.
'i've heard charlie planned a sleepover or something, i mean, it's their friend group, why would they not have a huge sleepover party for charlie's birthday??'
'that's true.'
i yawn.
'are you tired?' michael asks.
'oh my god,' i say under my breath. 'i just yawned, but your answer to that is always.'
'then we're sleeping at 11.' he says proudly.
'that's like 5 hours before i usually sleep.' i groan.
'well it's a wednesday night and you have school tomorrow.'
'what are you now, my mum?'
he laughs. it's actually quite easy to make him laugh.
i look over at the clock, 9:56, somehow we've been talking for an hour. michael notices it too and smiles at me.
'i like talking to you.' he says. 'it's amazing how much you have that you tell me about and it's crazy that i still don't know all of it.'
'i like talking to you aswell.' i look at my lap. michael brings my head back up to kiss me. then he caresses my cheek for a moment.
then he changes how he's sitting to sit looking at me. he goes back to caressing my cheek and kissing me. then i kiss him. he puts his hand behind my neck. you can sort of understand where this is going. sometimes he does this, just when the mood is right, properly kissing me. like the way nick and charlie do. he knows how it makes me flustered as shit.
when he leans away from me he starts bursting out laughing.
'YOUR FACE!!' he laughs. 'IT'S SO RED.'
'stop screaming how much of a loser i am.' i look away.
'you like it when i kiss you like that?'
'hasn't it been made clear five times?'
he laughs more and pulls me into a hug, and pretty much pulls me onto his lap so i am as close to him as possible.
'how was your day?' he asks.
'meh. it was okay. how was yours?' i put my hand on top of his and in response he intertwines my fingers with his own.
'it was okay, too. i was really excited to see you.'
'i was too.'
michael smiles at me.
theres silence for a few moments, i put my face in the crook of his neck.
'would you like to dance?' he asks 'like the time we did at the solitaire party.'
'don't remind me about that solitaire party, but—' i think for a moment. 'yeah, i'd love to dance with you.'
i get off of michael's lap and then we get off my bed, he grabs his phone and turns on a random playlist and puts it at a volume where we can both hear but it isn't too loud. he takes my hands and then we're moving across the floor of my room as if it's a dance floor. we avoid random 'objects' in my room, mostly old diet lemonade cans i'm too tired to throw away. this is so dumb but so enjoyable. michael seems to know how to do everything. he changes up the dance every new song.
after a few songs we've danced to i begin losing count. i start zoning out.
it's only when michael has accidentally trips the both of us when i focus back into reality, michael has fell on top of me and is laughing.
'oh my god, i'm sorry, i didn't mean for that to happen.' he rolls off of me.
'are you okay?' he asks.
'yeah, i'm fine, are you?'
'yeah.' he looks over at me and smiles, his face, bright red.
'that was fun.' i say.
'yeah.' he gives me a giant smile before scooting closer to me to kiss me.
i sit up, he does aswell.
'how long were we even dancing for?' i ask.
'long enough to make me sweaty.' he laughs as he wipes his forehead.
he stands up and helps me up.
as soon as i stand up he pulls me into a huge embrace and pretty much lifts me up. he smiles a huge smile and starts laughing.
'you're so easy to pick up.' he says.
i mumble an 'i hate you' into into his shoulder, he carries me to my bed and gently, and when i say gently i mean gently puts me on my bed, then he sits down and immediately grabs my hand.
i glance at the clock. 10:44, how were we talking for an hour more? was it the dancing part that took up so much time?
'do you want to get ready for bed?' he asks, noticing i was looking at the clock.
'you're really stuck on the going to bed at 11:00 thing' i laugh.
he's silent for a second.
'you don't have to. i didn't mean to come off as forcing.' he breaths out.
'you didn't.' i say as i look up into his eyes. 'i think you're right, honestly, i really should start sleeping earlier.'
he gives me a soft smile and i lean up to kiss him.
'i'll go downstairs and tell charlie goodnight.' i say as i stand up. 'that way you can have a few to get ready for bed.'
he nods.
the second i walk out of my room i hear screaming from downstairs, god i forgot how soundproof my room is.
i walk downstairs and into the living room, charlie, nick, and his friends have seemed to just start watching a horror movie. i stand there for a good three minutes until charlie finally notices i'm in the room. he mumbles something to nick before getting up.
'are you alright?' he asks as we make it into a part of the room that we can actually hear eachother.
'yeah, i was just going to tell you i'm going to bed.'
'isn't it only like, eleven?' he asks.
'yeah, but michael said i should probably sleep early tonight.'
charlie raises an eyebrow at me. pretty much asking if michael was staying the night without asking it.
'he went home an hour ago.' i lie.
'ohh. i didn't even notice. could you text him and tell him thanks for coming and stuff?' he asks.
'i will.'
'okay.' he smiles at me. 'goodnight, tori.'
'goodnight.' charlie returns to the couch and i head back upstairs.
i smile to myself. thank god my lie worked. i don't know what i would've done if i had to tell charlie that not only michael was sleeping over, he was sleeping in my bed with me.
once i've entered my room, michael has not only taken off his jacket, but he's also made my bed, put my empty diet lemonade cans in my trashcan, and also plugged in my computer.
'how do you clean so fast?' i ask.
'magic.' he smiles proudly.
i don't know how to respond, so i don't.
'i had to lie to charlie and say you weren't staying over. so i'm not sure how you'll be able to leave without charlie seeing you.' i mumble.
'maybe you could make up an excuse to leave a little later then him?'
'that's a good idea.'
'i know.' he grins.
another moment of silence. it happens alot.
'thank you for cleaning my room.' i say as i sit down on the bed.
'of course.' he smiles and then kisses my forehead.
i get up again and grab a random pair of pajamas from my dresser.
'i'm going to change and stuff.' i say. again, michael nods in response. i go to the bathroom, i rinse off the makeup from my face and then wet my hair so i sort of feel clean. i change into my pajamas and then brush my teeth. then i return to my room. michael is in the same spot.
'you look pretty.' he smiles.
'all i did was change my clothes and take off my makeup.' i laugh.
'you always look really pretty.' he mutters softly.
i put my hand over my face and look away.
'holy shit.' i whisper under my breath. he laughs.
i walk and sit back down on my bed, michael ruffles my hair. i scoot back to where the opening of the covers are and lay down, michael follows, doing the same thing. i'm laid down in the spot closest to the wall, he lays on the spot on the edge. i, luckily, have a double bed, so michael is easily able to lie down. charlie has a twin bed, and i honestly don't understand how him and nick are still able to share it. it sounds like hell.
michael turns his body to turn off my bedside lamp and then we're in complete darkness. i have the urge to turn to face him, so i do. i bury my head into his chest, one of my arms is around behind his back and my other is resting on the back of his neck, gently caressing his hair.
'i had a good afternoon with you.' i say.
'i did too.' he lays a few kisses on the top of my head.
'do you want to come over after school tomorrow?' i ask.
'yeah.'
michael begins rubbing my back with his arm thats around me. i smile at this.
theres a few moments of silence.
'i love you.' i say, just loud enough for him to hear.
and then the second i say that i realize what exactly i just said. holy fuck. maybe charlie wasn't overreacting when he was scared to tell nick he loved him.
'sorry.' i say immediately. 'i didn't mean to say that so soon holy fuck.'
'you don't have to apologize.' he says. 'i love you more. let's go to bed. it's too late to stress about this, i love you more.' he repeats.
i smile.
'goodnight.' he says. i look up at him and he looks at me. he kisses me. 'i love you so much. i've been wanting to say that for awhile now.'
'i love you too.' i say. 'goodnight.'
and then it's as if the light in my brain turns off. i listen for the scratching at my window. theres nothing. all i hear is the breathing of the person i love. there is nothing to bother me. i think this is a feeling i've never felt before. i can finally sleep and not feel paranoid. i'm finally at peace.