Chapter Text
Consciousness begins to pull at Jimmy very slowly. His eyelids are still heavy and his body aches— he still feels exhausted. Sleep is calling to him stronger than his desire to start his day.
It doesn't help that his bed feels more comfortable than usual too; his blanket is softer and heavier than he remembers, which is probably just his brain tricking him into going back to bed, but it's definitely working because he can't bring himself to open his eyes and wake up. He's warm and comfy— he can't even remember the last time he felt so safe .
Screw it! He can put off his duties for a little while longer! Nothing big is going on in the Cod Empire right now, it wouldn't hurt for him to go back to sleep for a little while longer.
He nestles his face into his pillow and freezes in place as he feels it rise and fall.
Pillows don't usually breathe.
His eyes snap open, adrenaline instantly dissipating his drowsiness. His head is resting on a pale chest— oh god whose chest is this?? They're breathing evenly, which means they were probably still sleeping, so he won't have to deal with any kind of confrontation just yet.
Scared of waking them, he glances up without moving his head. He's unable to see their face, but his breath hitches in his throat at the sight of cyan hair.
Oh god he's sleeping on Scott.
Oh god Scott is shirtless.
Panic rises in the back of his mind.
They were full on cuddling— Jimmy quickly realizes that his "blanket" is actually just one of Scott's wings draped around him. He feels trapped, and he has no clue how he even ended up here in the first place because he's definitely in Scott's house.
He tries to think back at what happened yesterday but draws a blank— he can't remember anything from the previous day.
That didn't specifically mean anything though! Surely there's a perfectly sound reason as to why he's shirtless and spooning with another emperor, right??
Surely they didn't…
Oh god.
OH GOD.
DID THEY??
He wasn't particularly sore anywhere specific; his muscles kind of ached though… so if Scott's a bottom— wait, no no no think of other things Jim, this isn't helpful! If they did do that, why wouldn't he remember?? Surely he would remember something like that .
He wouldn't just forget that! His memory isn't that bad…
Unless they were drunk??
He's never been big on drinking, so he doesn't doubt that he could get drunk on elven wine… and he did have a lingering headache.
Oh god they did, didn't they??
He has to go. He has to leave before people realize he's not home and come looking for him. He… he can't be seen like this or he'll never live it down!
But he also doesn't want to wake Scott because… that's gonna be an awkward conversation and he is not ready for that right now.
He starts slowly peeling his limbs away from Scott, pausing and holding his breath any time Scott shifts or makes a small noise. He feels like he's defusing a bomb or something because one wrong move and he'll have to face his problems.
Just as he manages to untangle their legs, he hears Scott take a sharp breath. He freezes in place, scared to move a muscle in fear that he'll fully wake him.
He waits a tense few seconds before Scott lets out a sigh and rolls closer to Jimmy, fully wrapping an arm around him and pulling him to his chest.
Oh he is so screwed.
His plan of quietly slipping away is most definitely not going to work at this rate, he really had no choice but to wake him.
He takes a moment to mentally prepare before nudging Scott's shoulder, "Scott?"
His breathing stays steady.
Jimmy takes a breath before he shakes his shoulder with a bit more force this time, "Scott."
"Hmm?"
"Scott, wake up."
Scott defiantly pulls Jimmy in closer, "Mmm no."
Jimmy tenses at the closeness and that seems to make something register in Scott as he quickly pulls away from him and sits up, "oh I— shit ."
Jimmy sits up and scoots away so he's sitting almost halfway off the bed. He looks over to see Scott flushed and looking away from him.
Oh god they definitely did.
"Listen, Jimmy I—"
"Nope!"
Jimmy can't deal with this right now, he has to leave . He stands abruptly and stumbles out of his room without a second thought. He hears shuffling behind him as he bolts to the stairs,
"Jimmy?? Jimmy where are you—"
He puts all of his focus on the stairs and tries not to trip over his own feet. He stumbles at the last step and just barely manages to catch himself on the railing to stop himself from landing flat on his face.
He recovers and almost makes it to Scott's front door before an icy hand grabs his wrist and stops him in his tracks
"Jimmy please , just—"
He refuses to look at Scott, he just feels bad. He's pretty sure he's pieced together what happened yesterday and he's just… not strong enough to face it right now. Glancing anywhere but Scott, he notices his elytra has been hung up nicely by the front door. Perfect.
He rips his arm away from Scott and snatches up his elytra before pushing open the front door.
He is very quickly reminded that he is, in fact, shirtless, and very much not dressed for being outside in the snow. Immediately he's hit with a gust of freezing air that makes his face and chest sting.
"JIMMY WAIT!"
No, nonono he has to go, he has to—
He pushes through the chill that's seeping into his bones and makes a break for it, haphazardly buckling the harness to his elytra on while he sprints away.
Scott doesn't follow him.
Freeing one of his emergency rockets fastened to the harness, he takes off into the sky. The wind rips past his face until it feels raw, but he doesn't slow. He has to get home, that's the only thing on his mind.
Eventually he glides far enough away from the mountains that air warms and he can take a moment to breathe.
He feels awful.
Scott probably hates him now too.
After not too long, he finally sees the walls of the Cod Empire on the horizon— finally , he'll be home and safe and nobody will even know about what happened. He'll be off scot-free, literally. He cringes at himself, that's… in poor taste considering the circumstances.
He quickly scans the area to see no citizens out milling around— it's probably too early for that just yet. Honestly, he has no clue what time it is but he can only assume it's early. Regardless, he's just glad that nobody's around to see him flying around shirtless and in wool trousers that he doesn't remember owning.
He lands in front of his house and quickly slips inside, pressing his back against the front door as soon as it clicks shut. He sighs and slides down to the floor. Adrenaline mostly worn off now, his exhaustion begins creeping back and making his limbs feel like lead. At least he made it home without any issue—
"Oh Jimmy you're— wait, where's your shirt??"
He snaps his head up to see Lizzie frozen in the doorway to his kitchen.
Oh no.
"Oh! Haha! Lizzie! What are you doing in my house??"
She stares down at him blankly, her expression unreadable, "well I was waiting for you to come home to visit and share some news, but whatever you have going on is probably more interesting."
He feels utterly trapped under her gaze— doesn't really help that she's towering over him as he sits on the floor. He scrambles to his feet and starts shuffling towards his bedroom, "Oh haha! Well it's nothing important really, now if you'll excuse me—"
Lizzie swiftly blocks his way and stares down at him, "So where were you off to shirtless at 5:30 in the morning?"
"Nowhere important, please move."
She shifts her weight onto the other foot, "Oh no way, I'm not letting you go until I get an explanation."
Jimmy's patience is running thin as he full-on glares up at her, "well it's none of your business! I'm not a kid anymore, I'm allowed to have my secrets!"
Lizzie's face falls at the outburst and she momentarily falters before pausing. She stares intensely at Jimmy's face, seemingly analyzing him for a moment before grinning wildly, "Oh my Gods— OH? MY GODS? JIMMY??"
Jimmy feels his face heat up under her incredulous gaze. He quickly ducks away and manages to slip past her as she doubles over laughing.
It quickly morphs into full-on cackling at Jimmy's embarrassment, "DID I CATCH YOU DOING A WALK OF SHAME???"
"Nope! Nope! Get out of my house!"
He practically sprints to his room and slams the door behind him. Despite there being at least three walls between them, he can still hear her cackling from outside when she finally decides to be merciful and leave his house.
Embarrassed and exhausted, Jimmy collapses onto his bed and buries his face in his pillow— actual pillow this time, on his bed in his house. He sighs, shifting to try and get comfortable. A voice in the back of his head reminds him how comfortable Scott's bed was, and he uses all of his willpower to ignore it as he slowly manages to fall back asleep.