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Snuggles the stuffed dog was currently being used as a pillow, Jesper’s cheek pressed against the soft but worn fur and he may or may not have been drooling. He slept like a log, especially in the comfort of his own bed, and even better when he was hungover and most especially when his boyfriend of seven or eight months was sleeping across from him.
Wylan had woken up first because he slept like he was waiting for a natural disaster to strike and had to scurry out of the house at a moment's notice. Lately he’d been waking up in his boyfriend’s bed quite a bit, and he still got really, really embarrassed over it. Being shy only lasted so long when your head was pounding and your mouth tasted gross.
They’d gone to a party thrown by Nathan, a boy on the track team with Jesper, somebody he’d known sort of well since 7th grade. His parents were out of town and so naturally, he invited the track team and his little sister had invited everyone she knew from soccer. The house was full of maybe sixty kids, unsupervised kids.
At this point in his highschool career, now that he actually got invited to parties, Wylan had been drunk a few times and he knew what to expect. His head hurt quite a bit more than usual, and there was almost an added discomfort. It was like there was a soreness.
Wylan searched for his phone under the covers and then under the pillows, instead finding Jesper’s. He opened up the camera and inspected himself. Messy unruly curls and a small tired frown and eyes heavy with sleep. He looked exactly how he thought he would. Just with the addition of a little clear gem pierced into his helix.
He could have screamed. He definitely did something, because Jesper’s head perked up like he was being woken up by the aforementioned natural disaster.
“Okay?” Jesper was trying to ask if Wylan was okay but he didn’t have the capabilities to talk properly right now. His voice was rough with sleep and Wylan probably would have appreciated it more if not for the panic bursting in his gut.
“No. Not really.” Wylan didn’t super know how to navigate being scared and frustrated at the same time, so it just came across as him being pissed.
Jesper’s eyebrows furrowed, sitting up in bed and glancing down at Wylan who was staring at himself in the camera. With a careful hand, Jesper smoothed his fingers through Wylan’s hair and scratched at his scalp.
“What’s the matter, Wy?” Jesper was acutely aware that Wylan was not paying any attention to him, still staring at himself like he was his worst enemy. “That cannot be good for you.” He slid his phone out of Wylan’s tight grip and tossed it onto the end of the bed somewhere.
“You have to take this out.” Wylan turned his full body to Jesper and frowned, gesturing frantically at his new piercing. Jesper glanced over Wylan’s face a few times, still getting used to angry-fearful-demanding Wylan.
“Ah. Fuck.” Jesper stopped memorizing the scrunch of Wylan’s nose to see the small fake crystal catching the light. That indeed was a fresh piercing on his boyfriend’s ear. “I don’t want to infect you.”
“You did this to me.” Wylan grumbled, he didn’t have any memory of this happening but he was just so certain.
“What? Me?” Jesper scoffed, he touched his thumb and index finger to Wylan’s chin to turn his face toward him. He looked at the piercing a little closer, it was a miracle that Wylan hadn’t been sleeping on it all night.
“Jesper, there is no way in hell, sober or blackout that I had the guts to stab myself.” Wylan had his evidence, that he knew himself and knew he could never give himself a piercing.
“Stab you? Please don’t say I stabbed you.” Jesper begged Wylan to switch up his wording, that was not what happened. Technically, sure, but not a great way to describe a romantic evening with his lover.
“You stabbed me and my dad is going to fucking kill me.” Wylan buried his face in his hands, a loud shuddering gasp spilling from his throat. It was time to panic.
“Shit. Fuck. Wylan.” Jesper was without a doubt, wide awake.
…
When a game of Two Truths and a Lie turned into a screaming match interrogation about who cheated on who, Jesper and Wylan made eyes at each other and decided to sneak away from the crowd. Wylan weaved around a group of the track team boys jumping to defend their friends honor while Jesper dodged the girls on the soccer team fully prepared to start a physical altercation.
They came together a little ways down the hallway, fingers brushing briefly before Jesper took the initiative to slide his hand between Wylan’s. It was hard to decipher how much of Wylan’s flushed face was due to Jesper touching him or how much hard strawberry lemonade he’d consumed.
Wylan could not stop giggling when Jesper went from holding his hand to grabbing him by the waist with his other hand and spinning him around. The two of them slow danced shakily down the hallway, Jesper humming a small song out to drown out the literal fight happening in the next room.
Before Wylan knew it, he was no longer being spun around the hallway but was sitting down on a bed and the door was closed behind him. Far too dizzy for his own good, he held his face in both hands, sighing tiredly.
“Wy?” Jesper slid his hand over Wylan’s cheek and he leaned into it, giggling giddily when he was offered a sip from the bottle Jesper had been nursing for the past half hour or so. Wylan titled his head back and hummed happily, a big fan of when alcohol didn’t taste like alcohol but something fruity and sweet.
“I’m so sleepy.” Wylan huffed out, sitting cross-legged on the bed and looking around the bedroom they found themselves in. Jesper took a swig and then left the bottle on the desk, on the opposite side of the drunk-spectrum and full of energy.
“I don’t think Mandy will mind.” Jesper motioned for Wylan to lay down and take a nap but Wylan processed that they were in a girl’s room, in Nathan's little sister’s room. The room had black and white tapestries on the walls, records next to them with dried roses and stacks of necklaces hanging from hooks.
“Mandy.” Wylan mumbled, eyebrows furrowing as he looked at Jesper who eased himself down on the end of the bed and pushed his hair away from his face. “Septum piercing Mandy?” As in the reason Jesper had come back to school last year with his nose pierced.
“Uh huh.” Jesper fell onto his back and sighed, stretching his arms over his head. “Nathan and I snuck her into a bunch of metal shows last summer.” He said casually and Wylan tried and failed to not look bothered by not knowing something about Jesper. Granted this was the summer before they got together, Wylan still didn’t like it, and was too drunk to regulate any emotions.
“So you were hanging out a lot…?” Wylan cleared his throat, not entirely sure if he wanted to rant or cry. Jesper knew lots of people, more outgoing and sociable than Wylan would ever be, this was not new knowledge. This just didn’t usually extend to after school, or summer.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Jesper looked up at the slasher movie posters plastered all over the ceiling and rolled over on his side to stare at Wylan all quiet and bothered. He watched Wylan search for something fuzzy on the bed, the blanket Mandy had was all the wrong texture and was clearly not helping.
“Do you think she’s pretty?” Wylan didn’t realize what he was feeling until he said it. Of course he was jealous. A girl who listened to the same music as Jesper had spent all summer with him and pierced his nose. Maybe it was just Wylan being insecure about every fucking thing ever but he just couldn’t help it.
“Sure.” Jesper shrugged, not taking the hint that he probably shouldn’t say a girl was pretty in front of his boyfriend. Wylan rolled his eyes, lying down on the bed with a loud thump and facing away from Jesper pointedly.
“Then maybe you should go hang out with her right now.” Wylan huffed, blaming the childishness on the one too many drinks he had. “And maybe you can tell her how pretty she is. Also that she’s cool and you trust her enough to do your piercing. Maybe also add that you guys have sooo much in common.” There, he got it all out, and he was feeling much better. He rubbed sleep out of his eyes and focused his gaze on the closet, one door open. “A cat, Jesper, they have a cat!”
Wylan was in a much better mood, too good a mood to even realize that Jesper had been uncharacteristically quiet. He sat up to get a better look at the ball of fur curled amongst the laundry only to see Jesper rummaging through Mandy’s school bag.
“Jesper?” Wylan blinked his eyes, crawling to the end of the bed and attempting to get up to stop him from what he assumed was some sort of theft. “I don’t think you should be going through her stuff, that’s kinda icky.”
“No, no, the bag was already open.” Jesper breathed out, pulling his hand out of the backpack and showing Wylan the little plastic piercing gun. “She brings it to school and does all sorts of piercings in the bathroom, like $20 a piercing.” He mumbled like he got a bathroom piercing done.
“Jesper.” Wylan squeaked out when Jesper handed him the gun to inspect, just a cheap piece of plastic that Mandy had bought off of Amazon. “Ok…and what do you want me to do?” He was grabbed by the waist and positioned so Jesper could sit beside him, facing him so Wylan was between his legs.
“I want to prove to you that I love you and only you.” Jesper mumbled, arms wrapping around Wylan’s middle as he leaned in and rested his head on his lightly. “I wanna hang out with you, I think you’re the prettiest, you can give me 20 piercings. Sorry, Wy, I’m sorry.” He softly nuzzled Wylan, apologizing for things that had happened before they met properly and started dating. With a small sigh, Wylan leaned into Jesper’s chest and snuggled him back.
“Don’t be sorry, I’m sorry.” Wylan had his ear against Jesper’s chest listening to his heartbeat for about ten seconds before he had a great idea. “How about you pierce me? Then I can like, wear your love around.”
“Or I could just give you a bracelet or something.” Jesper pulled away at the thought of giving Wylan a piercing, not a big fan of hurting him or possibly infecting him or doing something they’d both regret in the morning.
“No, I need like a physical reminder.” Wylan explained, handing Jesper the piercing gun and tucking his hair behind his ear hurriedly. “And it has to be where my dad can’t see, but take your pick, Jes.” He babbled and Jesper grabbed the piercing gun with one hand and touched Wylan’s ear with the other.
“Are you super sure though?” Jesper rubbed his fingers up to the top of his ear, wondering if he should risk telling Wylan about clip-on earrings to try and change his mind. “If I hurt you I’m going to like actually kill myself.”
“You won’t because you won’t hurt me.” Wylan dutifully held his hair back while Jesper settled his fingers against his helix, leaning back and forth to make sure he wouldn’t mess up the placement on top of potentially infecting him. “And I love you and you love me and this is proof.”
“Absolutely.” Jesper shook all the doubt out of his head because surely he could do a perfect piercing with a shitty piercing gun because he loved Wylan and he was confident in that. Jesper was absolutely sure he loved Wylan, and so, even though he was so drunk he was losing eyesight, he gave him the piercing like he asked.
…
“Listen, even drunk, I knew better than to pierce you where your dad could see.” Jesper approached a panicking Wylan and brushed his curls over his ear, proving it was a completely hidden piercing. “See? You can’t even tell,” He let Wylan weakly bat him away, sighing loud as Wylan scrubbed tears off of his face and struggled to breathe.
“It was stupid, how could you let me do something so stupid?” Wylan tugged his hair over both of his ears harshly and Jesper weakly pried his fingers away so he would stop hurting himself.
“Well, if I recall, it was proof of my love.” Jesper grabbed Wylan by the face and rubbed away the last few tears that he missed. “You’re okay, I promise, look when I pierced my nose I hid it from my dad for months.” He mumbled, and Wylan pulled back from his touch gently, scoffing.
“Okay, well I don’t think Colm makes it a hobby to beat you senseless.” Wylan knew it was a low blow but he didn’t know what else to do. He was an animal backed up into a corner and Jesper just happened to be there.
“He will not find out.” Jesper enunciated every word, lowering his gaze to stare right into Wylan’s terrified blue eyes. “Please, I would never put you in harm’s way, you’ve gotta believe me, baby.” He reached out, placing a hand on Wylan’s knee tentatively and giving it a small squeeze.
The silence was unbearable but necessary. Wylan reflected on what he had just said in a bout of terror and what Jesper just said to try and make him feel safer. He opened his mouth to form words, then closed it again and swallowed the lump in his throat. His cheeks flushed, warm and fuzzy.
“What did you just call me…?” Wylan slid his hand to rest on top of Jesper’s and it was his turn to get hot, clear his throat and avoid eye contact.
“Did I say that out loud?” Jesper turned his face away from his boyfriend and shrugged his shoulders, like the pet name meant anything other than him loving him. “I’ve been calling you that in my head for months, sorry, I probably should have checked with you.”
“I like it, it’s cute,” Wylan whispered as he intertwined their fingers, rising on his knees and giving Jesper a small kiss on the cheek. “I didn’t mean to be so mean to you, I just got so scared…” He added, voice small until Jesper pressed their foreheads together and they sat like that for a minute or so.
“I’ll keep you safe…” Jesper said softly, because it was a big promise but he wanted more than anything to fulfill it. Wylan giggled, the promise was the sun warm against his skin and bliss tumbling through his belly. He tilted his head to kiss Jesper when the door swung open.
“Boys, I can’t keep reminding you to keep the door open.” Colm Fahey knocked at the same time as he turned the knob, stepping into the room just in time to see his son jump to his feet and abandon Wylan on the end of the bed. “Jesper Llewellyn Fahey, you’re hungover, again.”
“Door open, don’t be hungover.” Jesper gave his father a weak thumbs up and Colm rolled his eyes, no matter what he said he just couldn’t convince his teenage son to listen to him. “Good morning, by the way.”
“It’s half past noon,” Colm crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head in disapproval. Senior year and his son was getting hungover almost every weekend. “Wy, I can cook up some brunch if you’re hungry.” He ignored his son in favour of his well-mannered boyfriend, giving him a warm smile and gesturing down to the staircase.
“Good afternoon, sir.” Wylan gave a small smile back to his boyfriend’s father. “Thank you, maybe a little later.” Because he was much too polite to ask for something even when offered.
“No brunch for me?” Jesper scoffed, scratching at his stomach with one hand as he offered Wylan the other and helped him to his feet. “I’d like sunny side up eggs please, and Wy would love an omelet.”
“One omelet coming up.” Colm knocked on the doorframe a few times before turning around and closing the door just halfway. Jesper shook his head, wrapping both arms around Wylan tightly and burying his face in his neck.
“I’m so hungover it’s not even funny.” Jesper mumbled, squeezing his eyes shut as the thumping headache just got worse the longer he was on his feet. “Can I have some of your omelet?”
“If you call me baby again, yeah.” Wylan spun around in Jesper’s arms so he was facing him and he grinned when Jesper tried to hide how embarrassed he was. He pressed his hot face into Wylan’s shoulder so hard that they’d lost balance and Jesper was laying on top of Wylan on the end of the bed. “You’re gonna squish me to death…”
“Oops, my bad, baby,” Jesper had said it out of habit again, said it without planning to, and he snuggled into Wylan’s neck, concealing a horrified whisper-scream. “I don’t know, Wy, in my head I’m like ‘he’s my baby,’ or ‘that’s my baby’ but saying it out loud is so. Is it weird?”
“I don’t think it’s weird.” Wylan wrapped his arms around Jesper’s neck and felt the butterflies churning in his stomach demand attention. “It makes me feel special…I like being yours.” He had to do some soul searching later, because he was going to listen to his gut right now. “Do you think your dad will get suspicious if he hears the shower?”
“Why would he get-” Jesper lifted himself up so he was hovering over Wylan instead of squishing him flat against the bed. “You’re kinda insatiable.” He noted, turning his head to eye his door that was not legally allowed to be closed anymore. “If calling you ‘baby’ gets you like this perhaps I should not say it in public, Wylan.”
“I’ll get used to it.” Wylan mumbled, hooking both legs around his boyfriend’s waist and yanking him forward so he was forced to press against him. “Who’s Wylan? I’m your baby.”
“You’re going to get me lectured.” Jesper grumbled, but how could he be anything but thrilled when Wylan was clinging to him tight. “Cold shower, baby, cold as fuck.”
“Whatever.” Wylan snorted when Jesper rolled them over and used the momentum to stand up, Wylan secured in his arms as he scurried to the bathroom.
“It’s not whatever, it’s me getting the fucking ‘talk’ again. He’s given it like five times.” Jesper made a mad dash for the bathroom when they were in the hall, preferring a lecture post-shower with his boyfriend instead of before. “Also we gotta stagger when we leave the bathroom. Like five or ten minutes between, just a convincing fake shower length.”
“You are so paranoid.” Wylan shut the bathroom door behind them and flipped the lock. “I think you can survive, it’s nothing you haven’t heard before.” He pulled Jesper’s shirt over his head and Jesper reached for fresh towels from the linen closet tucked behind the door at the same time.
“Imagine your fucking dad talking to you about cock and balls, Wylan.” Jesper rolled Wylan’s shirt up slowly, cupping his newly pierced ear protectively as he undressed him. Wylan would have been more appreciative if Jesper hadn’t just said what he did.
“Ew, Jesper, ew, fucking ew.” Wylan didn’t need the cold shower anymore, he pulled a face and let himself shudder violently. “Why would you say that to me?”
“Because we suffer together.” Jesper said like it was obvious, yanking off Wylan’s single sock because he had lost one in between going to bed and waking up. “When you agreed to date me you agreed to mutual suffering, as a token of our sweet, sweet love.”
“How romantic.” Wylan mumbled, shimmying out of his pants and turning to the shower so he could get the water running. “Wait, can I take a fucking shower?” He pointed to his fresh piercing as Jesper kicked his pants onto the floor, blinking his eyes at Wylan.
“I don’t fucking know, why would I know?” Jesper raised an eyebrow, sniffling as he approached Wylan and inspected his piercing.
“Because.” Wylan reached up and softly yanked Jesper’s septum piercing, making his boyfriend scrunch up his nose and catch his wrist tenderly.
“Well I shower everyday, sometimes twice with track.” Jesper stepped into the running water, because it was just going to waste now. “I turned out just fine.”
“Uh huh.” Wylan watched water soak his boyfriend as he stood directly under the showerhead, he knew Jesper was going to spit water at him yet didn’t move when he did it. “Jes, spitting on it would not fucking help.”
“C’mon I got good aim, I wasn’t even close.” Jesper complained, making grabby hands at Wylan who climbed into the shower, keeping his side with the piercing completely out of reach of the water. “A half shower is so wild, what if I just did this?” He put both hands around Wylan’s ear and Wylan laughed so loud it echoed in the bathroom.
“And this isn't wild?” Wylan couldn’t stop grinning if he wanted it, yanking the shower curtain closed behind him and looking up at Jesper hogging all the warm water. “Holding my ear the entire time is not fucking wild, Jesper?”
“Do you have a better idea? I do not see you contributing to our mutual braincell fund.” Jesper could stand here holding Wylan’s ear all fucking day if he asked him to. He didn’t have anywhere to be on Saturdays and if he did, he’d cancel. Boyfriend duty was more important, and ear-piercing-protection was serious.
“My idea was the half shower.” Wylan pushed Jesper’s sopping wet hair away from his face and giggled when Jesper was so overcome with affection he had to sneak a kiss. “Plastic wrap my ear, that’s another idea.”
“You could’ve mentioned this before I got naked and wet.” Jesper shamelessly watched droplets of water drip down Wylan’s chest and Wylan just shrugged. “I’ll just ask my jolly old father to deliver plastic wrap to us.”
“Perfect, and you can get the ‘talk’ at the same time. What an efficient use of your time.” Wylan gave a small dramatic gasp, just to be a sarcastic little shit on purpose. He couldn’t help but smirk when Jesper scoffed at him and dropped his hands in favour of grabbing Wylan by the waist.
“I’ll show you an efficient use of my time.” Jesper mumbled, as unhappily as he could sound with his beautiful boyfriend sharing the shower with him.
“Oh no, exactly what I wanted, what a shame.” Wylan grinned from ear to ear when Jesper’s hand came up to tangle in his hair, his wordless attempt to tell Wylan to stop talking now. “How’s the cold shower going for you? I can’t imagine pulling my hair helps.”
“You have got to shut up.” Jesper didn’t have anything more eloquent to say, because Wylan had the gift of making Jesper be at a complete loss of words. It’s not like they needed to talk anyways, their mouths found other stuff to do quite quickly.
And they staggered the bathroom exits. And Colm Fahey made an omelet and sunny side up eggs. And there was no ‘talk’ about what may or may not have happened while brunch was being made. And Wylan’s piercing was just fine, they googled it later and showering was allowed.
Wylan's piercing continued to be fine, while his greed to be claimed as Jesper’s continued to grow. He didn’t have to prove to anybody that he loved Jesper and Jesper loved him. Anybody could see the gravitational pull they had on each other.
The way that Wylan had entered Jesper’s orbit and made a home for himself there. That being Jesper’s boyfriend made so much sense to him, like chemistry and sightreading. Wylan didn’t even have to think, he just knew, knew he was Jesper’s.
And he knew Jesper was his, letting Wylan in and sharing sides of himself nobody else knew. Knew Jesper Fahey had never called anybody else baby. Knew that he actually wasn’t ever going to get used to it, and he didn’t want to.
Wylan was smart enough to know Jesper was always going to make his stomach flip. The tiny gem sitting on top of his ear wasn’t really about love as much as it was about trust, about being a part of each other.
About Wylan having Jesper even when he wasn’t hanging out in his kitchen listening to Colm lecture him about the dangers of underaged drinking. Even when Colm left Wylan out of the lecture when he was just as much hungover because it must have been Jesper’s fault for tainting him.
That Wylan wasn’t going to be lonely when he was sent to his room the second he got home. Before he met Jesper he was just living, not really being alive. This was being alive. The promise of being known and loved and accepted and safe, it was Wylan finally being alive.
Life was so much more than he’d ever imagined, life had just started, and it looked so, so good.