Chapter Text
Jesse's phone rings waking him from a dead sleep. They had a week of chasing one incredibly pretentious arms dealer all around the island. Heather took the kids to the mainland to visit her folks and introduce them to her new boyfriend. So returning to a blissfully quiet house he beelined it to his bedroom and was out before his head hit the pillow. So hearing the loud trills of his phone when he wasn’t on call was confusing to say the least.
“Mmh hello?”
“ …Jesse”
“Kai? What’s up? You okay?”
“shit..I’m- I- I shouldn’t have called, its like 2 am and I know Heather has the kids for the next week…god, I -“ sighing Kai says ‘Coffees on me tomorrow.. I shouldn’t have bothered you with this ”
Shaking the last vestiges of sleep from his brain, 2 things register for Jesse. One, even more awake now, Kai’s not making a lot of sense and Two, Kai sounds really..scared.
“Hey Kai, it’s alright I’m not mad man, you okay though? You sound rattled.”
Kai started to reply that yes he’s absolutely fine, when he just gives up before the words even leave his mouth, knowing Jesse wouldn’t have bought his lame attempt at walking back the last 5 minutes anyways. “…no I’m not..um.. I’m not okay. Would you mind.. that is.. could you come over?”
This has Jesse booking it out of bed, phone in one hand grabbing his car keys with the other and locking his from door before Kai can take it back.
“ I’ll be there in 10 minutes, okay? How about you make us both some tea until I get there?”
“Yeah okay, I can do that.”
He sounds so small, it pushed Jesse to speed up just a bit more.”
7 minutes later Jesse's walking up to the front door of Kai’s “bachelor pad”. Knocking and trying to shake the worry he’s currently feeling for his newest teammate.
Kai opens the door in black sweatpants and an unfairly tight t-shirt. Looking equal parts hot and dazed. (but Jesse will unpack the first half of his observations later)
“Hey.”
God Jesse just wants to hold him for as long as he needs to feel better. Already making a game plan “operation make Kai feel safe” (working title) is a go!
“Hey. Want to sit down on the couch? Did you already drink your tea?”
“Oh, yeah sure. I’ll go grab your mug, make yourself at home.” Kai’s retreating back to the kitchen before he can even ask what kind it is.
So he goes in to the surprisingly cozy living room, taking it all in, its somehow everything and nothing like he thought it wauld look like. Not that he thinks about Kai or Kai’s apartment often. What he’s a cop, he’s naturally curious.
“All I had was peppermint, hope that’s all right.”
“My favorite flavor”
Kai chuckles a bit at that, and sits closer than Jesse thought he was going to, he’s very aware of the heat radiating off of his friend body. It’s distracting to say the least, but this isn’t about him right now.
“Want to tell me what it was the got you freaked out to the point where you called me at 2 am on a Wednesday technically Thursday?"
Kai’s quiet for a while after that, but Jesse can wait him out, He’s got nowhere he has to be tomorrow and doesn’t think he’ll be going back to sleep anytime soon.
“…I had a really… God this is so embarrassing! I never should have asked you to come over! I should have just hung up after I knew you were okay! But it felt soooo real, I couldn’t shake-“
Jesse puts his tea cup down on the coffee table before wrapping his arms around Kai and tugging on him until he’s resting comfortably against jesses chest until he’s basically on top of him. He feels the younger man relax in small increments in the next 4 minutes. Running his hands through Kai’s curls and waiting for him to talk.
He’s almost drifting back off to sleep before he feels more than hears a deep sigh coming from the body on top of him. Then so quietly he wouldn’t be able to hear him at all if not for their close proximity he hears Kai say, “ I had a dream that you died. I couldn’t save you and you died. I woke up terrified and was calling you before it even clicked that I was doing it. I just really needed to hear you voice, to know for sure that you were fine.”
“God Kai I’m so sorry you had to see that. But I’m fine babe, seriously your brain was just being a giant asshole. Probably didn’t help that you saw me get shot 10 hours earlier that day.”
“You were wearing a vest”
“Yeah I was. But your body doesn’t always get the memo that something bad didn’t actually happen.”
“Jesse you got shot!! Thats bad with or without a bullet wound! FUCK I thought you were dead before we realized you were just winded!!”
This time Jesse is the one sighing, not a put out sigh though, more of a “ shit, I can’t even be mad at you for yelling at me cause I would be doing the same things if the roles were reversed” sigh.
“Hey look at me,” he says softly. Kai looks up at Jesse and they make eye contact for the first time that night. “ I’m okay, okay? Some scrapes and bruises are the worst of it. Didn’t even crack a rib.”
Kai’s silent for a beat before saying “you called me Babe”
Now at that, Jesse freezes. He had to replay their conversation before it sinks in that he very much should not have said that.
“..yeah”
“Why?”
“It kind of just slipped out, we can forget it if you want to. Chalk it up to a late night with a brain to mouth filter malfunction?”
”We could. I don’t want to ignore it though, just want to know where your heads at right now.”
Jesse takes a deep breathe and steels himself before calm saying “ I guess I was mostly thinking that the guy I have feelings for was-”
“Freaking out over the idea of you being gone?”
“Yeah, that.”
Kai moved his hand up Jesse's chest before stopping right over his heart. The same spot that's covered in blotchy bruises because some ass hat decided that attempted murder was on his bingo card that day.
“I like you and it’s getting harder and harder to pretend like my feelings for you are strictly platonic.”
“Me too. Just for the record. I’m pretty gone on you myself or I wouldn’t be having dreams replaying one of my greatest fears hours after I thought I lost you…”
“maybe next time you could just try dinner and a movie like a normal person.”
That actually does get a laugh out of Kai. “ Yeah I’ll keep that in mind”
They’re lulled in to a gentle silence again, this one far less tense. Jesse starts rubbing his hand down Kai’s back in slow strokes, when he feels his unfairly attractive colleague..boyfriend..person.. pull himself up so he can kiss him softly.
Electricity flows through them both as they get swept away by the best first kiss either of them had had before.
“Wow.” They both say a the same time once they pull away enough to breathe and regain some of their composure.
“Want to try sleeping again? I can hold you so if you have that dream again you’ll know I’m right next to you breathing easy?”
“ I definitely don’t see myself ever turning you down on that offer bad dreams or not,” Kai says blushing slightly.
Jesse just kisses him again.