Work Text:
i. wondering if you knew i was enchanted to meet you
Jace had a problem.
The problem was 5’5” with perfectly coiffed dark curls, with an endless supply of designer clothing and the nicest ass Jace had never seen. He sat in the front row of their lecture hall, all long legs and musical laugh and lovely neck surrounded by pearls. He liked to chew his pen (blue, of course, to match his blue heart shaped notebook where he took perfect notes Jace suspected were in cursive) when the professor was talking, and whenever he asked a question his voice made Jace chub up in his jorts.
Jace’s problem? His lab partner was the most beautiful man to ever exist.
Jace was stuck in the Quantitative Analysis class to fulfill his “science with a lab” requirement. His friends had all gotten into the animal science class, but the slots had been full by the time Jace’s enrollment time came around. So now he had to take a fucking chemistry class, which he hadn’t taken since damn high school, but he was already a senior. He was planning the easiest semester ever after this–he would not take a lab during his senior spring . His advisor told him to just suck it up and get the lab over with, so here Jace was, all alone in some science class that he knew he had a high chance of failing.
So, needless to say on the first day of class he was already pissed off. Jace felt extremely out of place–the building was in a totally different part of campus than all of his business classes were, and the rest of the people in the class all already seemed to know each other. Jace walked in and snagged the last seat in the very back row when he saw him.
He was someone that Jace had never seen before–which wasn’t surprising, KLU was a huge school. But Jace figured he would remember seeing someone like him. The boy that sat in the front row of Quantitative Analysis lecture was exactly Jace’s type. He was hanging around two equally as attractive girls with dark skin and white hair–the same shade as Jace’s mom and dad, though he tried not to think about that while checking them out–and if Jace wasn’t so intimidated by how hot the three of them were he might have gone and said hello.
Instead, he spent the entire first lecture staring dumbly at the boy and not at the teacher, staring at the way his legs looked in the little skirt he was wearing or the pearl bracelet around his delicate wrist or the clips in his hair or–
Well. You get the picture.
Jace spent the entire first week of classes drooling over this boy, whoever he was, all without knowing his name or his major or anything else about him. He kept coming up with excuses not to introduce himself–oh, he was late so there was no time to talk to the boy, or the boy was too busy with those two girls and he didn’t want to interrupt. The list was getting so long it was honestly ridiculous, and frankly embarrassing, but Jace was maybe just a tiny bit scared of humiliating himself in front of the cutest boy he had ever seen just to go down and say hello. So that was how Jace’s first chemistry lectures in years went–that is to say, badly–because he spent far more time watching the cute boy in the front row than learning any chemistry at all. He was in trouble, and it was all this boy’s, his problem’s fault.
To make matters worse, part of taking science with a lab was the damn lab. Lab attire was strict–long pants, no loose clothing, no open toed shoes. Jace couldn’t imagine they would give a group of 15 or so undergrads chemicals that could actually kill them, but reading the safety information before he came to lab had really set him on edge. His lab section was Thursday morning, so t he grabbed a shitty latte from the cafe on campus and made his way to the fifth floor of the science building to meet his doom.
The lab section only had a fourth of their lecture–only 14 people went into each lab section, taking place on different days of the week. But Jace’s luck turned around when he walked into the room for their first lab–the boy that Jace had been admiring for the past week and a half was in his lab section, and he was alone. The boy was standing by himself, looking out the window.
Grow a pair, Jace told himself firmly, and he walked over to introduce himself.
“Hi,” Jace said softly. “I’m Jace.”
The boy turned around, arching his eyebrow. “Hi, Jace. I’m Luke. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Do you… uh, not have a partner?” Jace asked awkwardly, then cringed. Smooth, Jace, he inwardly groaned, but to his surprise Luke shook his head, his lovely dark curls bouncing with the movement.
“Nah,” Luke said easily, smoothing out invisible wrinkles on his blue top. “My friends are in the Tuesday lab section.”
“Would you maybe wanna…?”
“Are you a chemistry major?” Luke asked, reaching into his tote bag to pull out a notebook. When he flipped it open, Jace caught a glimpse of the procedure and background information that he had fucked off last night, and it was color coded.
“I’m in business admin,” Jace mumbled. “Just taking this for the lab credit.”
Luke sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “So you don’t know anything about chemistry? Did you even do the prelab?”
“I know some,” Jace awkwardly switched his weight back and forth from foot to foot, realizing this was not going how he wanted it to. He had no idea what was wrong with him–he had never been this nervous around a boy before. “Listen, if you don’t want to–”
“No, no,” Luke finally said. “It’s fine. But you have to do everything I tell you to.”
A grin spread along Jace’s face. He gave Luke a little mock salute, who just rolled his eyes.
“What do you want me to do first?”
Luke, as it turned out, was not just a pretty face. Once Jace had grabbed them both safety goggles– which, first of all, ew– he had Jace running around the lab, getting him different glassware and chemicals. They were doing a titration, whatever the hell that meant, and it involved slowly streaming a base into an acidic solution until the solution turned pink. Or something. Luke observed him like a hawk as he added the phenolphthalein (fee-no-thay-lean, Luke had said it) and then they set up the contraption together.
“You want the solution to have just a kiss of pink,” Luke explained. “Like, essentially clear, but if we held a white paper up to it it would look just slightly colored. Or else the results won’t be accurate.” Then he gave Jace a little smirk, wiggling his fingers. “If you go all the way to makeout magenta, you’ve gone too far and the results are ruined.”
Jace blushed, ducking his head. All the talk about kissing had made him pay far too much attention to Luke’s lips than what he was actually supposed to be doing. So of course, Jace got the shit to “makeout magenta.” Luke sighed, dumped the solution down the drain, and didn’t let him near the bench for the rest of the morning. He got put on data recording duty instead, which, unsurprisingly, he fucked up too. Jace had just made a data table with too many columns when he groaned, frustrated, and moved to tear the page straight out of his notebook.
“What are you doing?” Luke looked horrified as Jace ripped the page out and threw it into the garbage can. “You can’t do that.”
Jace shrugged. “I messed up on it.”
“That’s illegal,” Luke said, voice still pitched higher like he was genuinely upset. He pushed his goggles up so they were resting in his curls, and oh, how was Jace supposed to pay attention to what he was saying now? “If you mess up in a lab notebook, you have to cross it out and initial it. You can’t tear pages out. That’s obstruction of data.”
“I can assure you it is not that deep,” Jace mumbled under his breath. “Sorry,” he said louder, turning to Luke. “My bad. Any other stupid lab rules I should be aware of?”
“They aren’t stupid,” Luke stressed, rolling his eyes. “It’s important for lab safety.”
“Are you a chemistry major?” Jace asked finally, attempting to change the subject from his widely growing list of laboratory failures. “You asked if I was, but didn’t tell me what you are. You seem to know a lot about this shit.”
“It’s my minor. I have a double major in marine science and business administration as well. I’m assuming you're a senior and that’s why I haven’t seen you in business classes?”
Jace wolf whistled. “A double major and a minor? What are you planning on doing with all of that?”
“Well the minor is just because I’m interested in it,” Luke corrected, then knocked Jace’s hand away where he had started to turn the knob on their titration. “Stop that. Let me do it. But the marine science and business is for my future at Driftmark Inc. My grandfather was the one to suggest marine science–general marine knowledge will be very useful working at a company so involved in shipping and living on an island someday. That’s the hope, anyway.”
Jace watched as Luke’s steady hand brought their next solution to an exact kiss of pink. Jace dutifully wrote down the value of solution used. “I never would have guessed business from you. You’re so…” He waved a hand up and down Luke’s form. He somehow made lab attire seem glamorous. Jace couldn’t imagine him applying to Driftmark Inc. one day, hoping to work in an office. It was strange.
(It made him all the more grateful that his mother’s company would become his by default. He could fuck around all he wanted in school, and the job would still be waiting for him.)
“I don’t know why everyone is always surprised that I’m smart,” Luke said, a mock pout on his face. “Now can you clean out this beaker? I want to leave.”
“I’m not surprised,” he protested. “You just seem like you would be more… into something else.” Jace cleaned off the beaker and passed it to Luke, who set it on the drying rack. They were done so they pealed off their gloves (fucking nasty) and waved goodbye to the TA.
“Here, let me give you my number in case you have any questions on the report or we need to compare results,” Luke reached into his tote bag and pulled out the latest iPhone–of course–in a light blue case encrusted in pearls. For some reason, Jace was immediately sure that the pearls were real. Jace tossed his own phone–red, clear case, because he was normal– to Luke and numbers were exchanged.
“Thanks for your help today,” Luke flashed him a smile, tucking his stuff back into his tote bag. “You weren’t nearly as hopeless as I thought you might be.”
“Hopeless?” Jace gasped, pretended to be offended. “I am very good at following orders.”
To his surprise, Luke blushed. Jace tripped over his own feet when he saw it. Luke recovered quickly. “We’ll see about that. I might have to pick a new partner next week so that I can get more done.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
They had reached the bottom of the stairs. Luke turned to go one way. Jace’s car was the other.
“Oh,” Luke realized where he was turning, and gave him a smile. “Well, it was nice to meet you. I’ll see you next week, yeah?”
“If you haven’t replaced me by then,” Jace joked. Luke laughed, waving over his shoulder. Jace couldn’t say that he didn’t watch him go.
It was later that week, mere hours before their lab report was supposed to be due, that Jace realized just how fucked he actually was. He didn’t understand a fucking word of it, and it wasn’t just because he had spent the entire week doing nothing but staring at Luke. No, he just didn’t understand chemistry, he didn’t understand the experiment, and he was going to fail. Jace groaned, running a finger through his curls and reaching for his phone. It was time to call in the big guns.
Jace
This is Luke right? I am about to kill myself over this lab report LOL
Luke (From Lab)
omgggg stop haha what’s up? also yes this is luke this is jace right?? 😋😋
Jace
Haha yeah. Would have been embarrassing if I got the wrong number. But I’m super confused on the analysis question on whether we would get higher or lower results if we didn’t dry the unknown or whatever.
Luke (From Lab)
oh no prob!! yeah so basically u have to think about like the weight of the water right, so if we didn’t dry the sample it would have more water in it and therefore weigh more. so we would get a systematically low result because that mass we measured is so high BUT not all that mass is made up of the KHP. does that make sense?? sorry im not the best at explaining sometimes haha
Jace
Can I be honest those words meant nothing to me
Luke (From Lab)
😭😭😭
my hopeless lab partner 🫶
here, would it be okay if i call u for a sec??? i think i can explain better over the phone
Jace
Sure. Call whenever.
“Hi,” Luke’s voice was a little tinny through the phone, but it flooded through Jace like wildfire.
“Hi,” Jace answered, moving to sit at his desk. “I’m so sorry about this. You really did get stuck with a hopeless lab partner.”
“No, no,” Luke was quick to reassure. “I like having someone to boss around in lab so it all works out fine for me. Besides, you aren’t hopeless. You should see me in an English class. Then we can talk about hopeless.”
“You? Bad at something? I find that hard to believe. I’m pretty sure you’re the smartest person I know.”
Luke was silent for a moment. “Thank you,” he finally said, incredibly sincerely, and Jace could imagine the soft smile that was probably crossing his face. “That’s really kind of you. Now, let’s talk about this lab report. Let me try and explain it again.”
To his credit, Luke did stay on the phone with him for nearly an hour trying to explain the three discussion questions they had to answer. He was a patient and diligent teacher–it was not his fault that it just wasn’t clicking for Jace no matter what he tried. By midnight he had something to turn in at least, which was more than he could say before he grew the balls he needed to text Luke, so he was happy. And when they hung up Luke had told him good night in a soft, sleepy voice, and Jace couldn’t help but feel like whatever bad grade he was going to get on the report was so, so worth it.
***
- hold me up sometimes, we’ll be just fine
Jace was having a bad morning.
His alarm hadn’t gone off, so he had woken up 10 minutes before lab was supposed to start. He was out of granola bars and didn’t have time to make or grab something so he was starving, and he didn’t have time to shower so he knew his hair was probably greasy. He definitely hadn’t done the prelab last night–he had meant to do it in the morning. All Jace could think about was seeing Luke, hoping that would make his disaster of a morning worth it.
But when he climbed up to the fifth floor (of course the elevator was out of order), everyone was crowded outside the lab instead of inside of it. Jace frowned, catching Luke’s eye. He was wearing incredibly form fitting yoga pants and a sweater, and Jace’s shoulders dropped just from the sight of him.
“Hey,” Jace said, walking over to him. “What’s going on?”
“I guess there’s something wrong with the lab,” Luke answered. “They can’t let us in until it’s fixed. Are you okay?”
Suddenly self conscious of his less than put together appearance, Jace shuffled back and forth. “Just a rough morning, that’s all.”
Their TA finally came out into the hallway, closing the doors behind her. “I have some good news and bad news. The chemical spill… we won’t be able to clean it up in time. So lab today is canceled.”
Murmurs started through the hallway. Jace smiled, then hesitated. He had really been looking forward to seeing Luke today.
“So that means you all will have to find time this week to come in and make up the lab,” the TA continued. “I know it’s a pain, but I’ll send out an email with sign up slots and we’ll make it work. Any questions?”
The excited whispers turned into groans. Jace glanced over at Luke, but his face was impressively blank. The TA went back into the lab and closed the door behind her, and their classmates immediately started to file back towards the stairs. Luke turned to leave too but something In Jace’s chest swelled, and he felt a bolt of courage.
“Hey,” Jace held out a hand to stop him. “I was wondering if maybe you wanted to get coffee or something? With me? It’s okay if you already had something planned, but I figured we have, like, five hours free so…”
Luke adjusted his tote bag, then a smile spread across his face. “I would really like that.”
Jace’s shoulders sagged with relief, and he flashed Luke his best smile. “Yeah? We can go to that little coffee shop just down the street from here, if you’re okay with that.”
Luke pretended to contemplate for a moment before his little grin turned into something more devious. “Sure. But you have to buy for making me redo our standards last week.”
Jace gave him a little mock salute, which made Luke giggle. The weather was pleasantly warm for the end of September so they walked, making idle chit chat as they went. He paid for Luke’s iced lavender matcha latte and plate of cookies without batting an eye and soon they were seated across from one another, huddled in a small booth in the corner of the shop.
“So annoying that we will have to come make the lab up,” Jace began after a beat of silence. “Like, I’m a busy man. When do they think I’ll have another free four hours?”
Luke laughed. “Well, text me when you want to go in. I need someone to order around in the lab.”
Jace’s heart clenched. Yeah, it was only to help him, but Luke wanted them to come make up the lab together. It was enough to make him grin into his own coffee. “I’m actually going home this weekend, so do you want to go for Monday or Tuesday?”
Luke held up a hand, and dug in his tote bag until he pulled out a lovely planner–blue, of course–and flipped to the next week. “I could do Monday after lecture,” Luke said, grabbing a pen to write it in. “Where are you from?”
“Monday is fine,” Jace agreed, stealing a cookie from the plate in front of Luke. Luke gasped in mock outrage, but made no move to stop him. “I’m from Dragonstone. It’ll just be a quick trip home but I haven’t seen my family since the beginning of the semester, so it’ll be nice.”
“Dragonstone? No way. I’m from Driftmark,” Luke held out a fist, and Jace sagely bumped it against his own. “Island buddies,” Luke joked, making Jace snort. It was nice to have something in common–he had known Luke was planning to work at Driftmark Inc. someday, but to know he was actually from the island itself was refreshing.
“Do you have siblings?” Luke asked. Jace nodded excitedly. This was something he could talk about for hours.
“So, I got my mom and my dad, who are both these crazy platinum blonde health freaks. We still have no idea where my brown hair comes from. But I have a younger brother, Joffrey, who is seven years below me. I guess he was named after one of my parent’s friends, so technically his name is Joff Junior, but we usually call him JJ or just Junior. Then I have two even younger brothers who are seven and five–Aegon and Viserys.”
“Four boys in the house?” Luke cringed playfully. “I genuinely cannot even imagine. I’m an only child, it’s just me and my dads. But I grew up pretty close with my cousins Baela and Rhaena, who I’m sure you’ve seen in lecture. They're like my sisters.”
“I bet you’re fucking insane at painting nails,” Jace said without thought, then he slapped a hand over his mouth in embarrassment. Luke just laughed.
“No, I totally am,” he held out his hand, where his nails were painted white with little butterflies on them. Jace had noticed them, but had been trying not to stare. “Did these myself. Not bad, huh?”
“They look nice,” Jace managed. Luke rolled his eyes.
“Not just nice. If this whole college thing doesn’t work out for me, I’ll just go get a job at a nail salon. I’d make millions. You should let me do yours sometime.”
“I don’t know how the guys in my frat would feel about that,” Jace laughed. When Luke gave him a little pout, Jace relented. “But who gives a fuck what they think. You can do my nails at any time.”
Luke pumped his fist in the air, and it was so unlike him the Jace choked on his sip of coffee. Luke stuck his tongue out at him in relation. Jace blushed.
So, was this a date? He wanted to ask, but he held his tongue. They were lab partners, nothing more, and Luke was the most beautiful, wonderful man he had ever met. He would not mess this up by getting a rejection. That would make lab so awkward for the rest of the semester.
(It was not because he was scared, Jace insisted. He asked people out all the time. Why would this be any different? No, let the record show he was not scared to ask out Lucerys Velaryon. He was holding his tongue to make sure their lab partnership stayed intact.
No other reason.)
“Oh my gosh, you will never believe what happened to me in my chemical oceanography class yesterday,” Luke began, and Jace pulled himself out of his thoughts. Luke looked so cute when he was animated, going on about how this girl in his class had told him that this guy in their class had the most mesmerizing eyes she had ever seen, but Jace guessed the guy overheard and now the class was awkward? It was hard to track the story sometimes, with the way Luke’s long fingers wrapped around the straw of his drink or the way his lips moved when he talked. But Jace laughed and interjected when he was sure he should, and he left their three hour long impromptu coffee session feeling lighter than he had all semester.
After that, the floodgates opened. He and Luke were friends.
Their text conversations no longer revolved around trading answers from the lab reports. If Luke saw a dog he thought was cute, he would send a photo along with some emojis. It made Jace grin every time, fighting down the urge to kick his feet back and forth from how happy Luke made him. On Monday in lecture, Luke had waved him over to sit with him, properly introducing him to his cousins, Baela and Rhaena. They were stars of the volleyball team, Jace found out, which was why they weren’t in their Thursday lab session to begin with. Jace figured he should probably go to one of their games and cheer extra loudly as a thank you for their part in his becoming lab partners with Luke.
Their first exam for the class was fast approaching, and Luke had managed to rope Jace into his, Rhaena and Baela’s long study sessions in the library. They were fucking serious about it too–they booked a private room with the floor to ceiling whiteboards and the three of them filled the entire room with their picture-perfect handwriting and notes. Jace felt like he learned more in 10 hours locked in that room with them than he had the entire semester. When they took a break for dinner, Baela ordered them two large pizzas and they devoured the entirety of it while Luke painted Jace’s nails, as promised. Rhaena had laughed so hard her Sprite came out of her nose when she saw him–insisting that the painted nails clashed directly with his polo and khaki shorts. Jace didn’t care though. Luke gave them to him.
Jace barely passed the exam. Luke got a 99. Some things couldn’t change no matter how hard they tried.
Luke had cooed over his score, promising to study with him even harder for the next one. Jace didn’t have the heart to tell him that he had spent most of the exam distracted by the new brand of perfume Luke had decided to wear that day. He suspected Baela and Rhaena were both onto him though, with the way they laughed behind their hands. Whatever. He didn’t need them on his side.
They did a string of labs involving gas chromatography. Luke found it exciting. Jace considered killing himself. The leaves changed, Jace’s business classes breezed by, and Luke seemed to grow lovelier every day Jace knew him. It wasn’t really a crush anymore–whatever it was had grown deeper, and the ache in Jace’s chest when his fingers brushed Luke’s in lab only grew.
“Do you have any plans for Halloween?” Luke asked him one morning during the final week of October They had just finished their lab and Jace had only fucked up once–a record for him, and Luke had given him a fist bump as a reward.
“Probably just gonna go to whatever the hell party my frat is throwing. Why do you ask?”
“Well,” Luke shifted awkwardly, timid in a way he wasn’t typically. “Baela and Rhaena are hosting a party at their sorority house. If you wanted to come. With me.”
“Oh,” Jace breathed. “Oh. Yeah, no, I would really like that. That sounds really fun.”
“Yeah? I can text you the address and stuff this weekend. It will be a costume party and they usually have drinks and stuff so it should be fun.”
“Do they know you’re inviting me? I don’t want to get on Baela’s bad side.”
“It’s Rhaena you should be worried about,” Luke teased, but he shook his head. “And they do know. They like you fine, Jace. Unclench. It will be fun.”
The girls both whooped when they saw him the next day of lecture, talking over each other with excitement for the party. When he couldn’t provide them with an answer for what he was going to be for Halloween the three of them all made fun of him again (something Jace was becoming quite familiar with, although he wished he wasn’t) and told him if he wasn’t dressed up for the holiday he would be denied entry. Luke told him he should dress as a business major that was failing out of chemistry. Jace whacked him upside the damn head.
(And Luke’s laugh had followed him all morning. He tucked it safely inside him, next to the soft brushes of Luke’s fingers against his or the way his eyes sparkled when he talked about his family. The way he had smiled when Jace let him paint his nails, or how he stuck his tongue out just the slightest amount when he was concentrating.)
Fuck. Jace had it so bad. It was a serious, serious problem.
True to his word, Luke sent him a string of what Jace assumed to be every Halloween related emoji along with an address and a time. Jace didn’t have any halloween costumes laying around, but he borrowed a bandana from one of his frat brothers and figured it would be good enough. He had know doubt that a Halloween costume to Luke would function more as a fashion show than anything else, so no matter what Jace picked he would feel underdressed. Such was life.
He decided to drive to the party because it was cold as fuck that night and he didn’t feel like getting an Uber. It meant he wouldn’t be able to drink, but Jace figured that just being in Luke’s presence would do more than enough for him. When he arrived at the sorority house, the music was already blasting and the place was packed wall to wall with people. Jace had to search for ten minutes before he came across Luke, dancing with a man Jace didn’t recognize in the living room. When he saw Jace, Luke lit up, waving off the guy and walking over to Jace immediately.
“Hi,” Luke yelled over the thumping of the music. He looked so lovely (as always, Jace’s mind supplied helpfully), wearing a tiny blue dress with a black belt and a pair of thigh high white boots that were making Jace salivate. “What the hell are you supposed to be?”
Jace gasped in mock offense. He looked down at the white button up shirt with the top three buttons undone and the cutoff jean shorts he was wearing. He had even splashed out and tied the red bandana he had stolen from the guy in his frat around his curls. “Are you fucking kidding? I’m a pirate.”
Luke looked offended. “The fuck? I invite you to a party and you show up in that? I’m going to kick you out.” Then he smiled cheekily, rolling his eyes. “Whatever. Baela’s gonna make fun of you though. Want something to drink?”
“I have to drive back after this,” Jace answered. “So no thanks.”
“Nah, we have water too. Come on,” Luke laced their fingers together to pull him through the crowd, and Jace felt like he had stuck his head in a furnace. He must have still looked struck dumb by the time they made it to the kitchen because Baela, standing by the punch bowl, did, in fact, laugh at him.
“Nice costume,” she teased him. “I’ve seen dogs with better Halloween costumes than you.”
“Dogs have overly excited owners to dress them. What are you guys?”
Luke scoffed. “Maybe you can’t tell without Rhaena in her pink. But come on–my blue dress, Baela’s green dress?” When Jace shook his head, expression blank, Luke put his hand to his forehead dramatically. “Baela, save me. He doesn’t know the Powerpuff Girls.”
“I think you’ll survive,” Baela ruffled his hair. “I’m gonna go find Rhae. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Luke laughed, grabbing a shot from the table and knocking it back without so much as wincing. When he noticed Jace staring at him he grinned. “She hates it when I drink a lot. So sometimes I do it just to piss her off. She thinks I turn into a slut when I’m drunk.”
Jace blushed, grabbing a water bottle from the counter, taking a long drink to try and stop himself from overheating. When it was apparent he wasn’t going to answer Luke rolled his eyes.
“Come on. Let’s go dance,” with one hand, Luke knocked back another shot, then laced his fingers through Jace’s again to pull him out of the kitchen, where the music was still blaring. Luke wrapped his arms around Jace’s neck, and tentatively Jace placed his hands on Luke’s hips. Luke gave him a smile so wide it was blinding.
The song changed, and they danced.
If you could even call it that–it mostly consisted of Luke grinding up on Jace while Jace tried not to die. A girl Jace didn’t recognize came by them and handed Luke another shot, but Luke was already so fucked that he spilled half of it down his front before he giggled and drank the rest. It was endearing, but Jace knew he probably should stop Luke from drinking any more if he could.
“Let’s play spin the bottle!” Someone yelled from across the living room, and Luke cheered, grabbing Jace’s hand and pulling him to the center of the room where people had already started to gather.
“It will be fun,” Luke insisted, plopping down in the circle and pulling Jace down with him. Baela and Rhaena emerged from the kitchen and yeah–now that Jace saw the three of them together, it was easy to tell that they were a set. Luke leaned over to smack a kiss to Rhaena’s cheek when she sat down next to him. She raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t protest. Someone brought over an empty beer bottle, and they began.
Jace had never played spin the bottle stone cold sober before. He had to admit, it made the game far less enjoyable when every time the bottle span he sent a silent prayer to whatever god was listening that it wouldn’t land on him. The game picked up when Beaela’s spin landed on none other than Rhaena, and everyone cheered at their kiss that was way longer than necessary, and looked suspiciously well coordinated for people who had supposedly never kissed before. When they pulled apart, Luke grabbed the bottle. Jace held his breath while it spun.
By some divine intervention–Jace didn’t know if it was good or bad–the bottle landed on him. Luke looked down at the bottle, then up at him, then a grin spread across Luke’s face. Jace was certain he was blushing.
Luke pounced on him. He was practically on top of Jace before Jace could even blink, his hands in Jace’s hair and their lips almost brushing.
“Okay?” Luke asked softly, and the second Jace nodded, Luke connected their lips. Jace melted. They were as soft as he had imagined, sweet tasting beyond the stale taste of alcohol in his mouth. Luke sighed happily and Jace took it as an invitation to deepen the kiss, tilting Luke’s head to get a better angle. Their tongues met and Luke moaned, tugging Jace’s hair to beg for more. Jace gave it to him. They kissed frantically for what felt like an eternity before someone cleared their throat. Jace separated their lips, embarrassed by how carried away he had gotten.
Luke pulled away from him, breathless. His eyes were shining, lips still red and wet and bitten and he giggled.
“Luke,” Jace breathed, reaching up to brush a finger along his cheek. “Lucerys.”
“You’re a better kisser than my ex,” Luke whispered, almost reverently. “Excuse me,” he pulled away from Jace, shot Jace a smile, then promptly emptied the contents of his stomach onto the floor next to them.
“Luke,” Rhaena cried out. “Luke, how much have you fucking drank?”
“All of it,” Luke groaned miserably, rolling over so that he wasn’t lying in the pile of vomit. Baela stood, exasperated, whispering something to Rhaena before ducking into the kitchen.
“Okay, the party's over,” Rhaena said decidedly. “Everyone out. Now.”
The people around the circle groaned and moaned but did as they were told, slowly starting to trickle out of the house. Rhaena was fretting over the carpet while Baela was already starting to clean up empty cups. Luke couldn’t even sit upright.
“Hey,” Jace said to Baela. “I can take him home. I haven’t had anything to drink tonight.”
“Fuck, I love you,” Baela groaned. “We’re gonna be in so much trouble if we can’t get this all cleaned up. Are you sure it's cool?”
“I can assure you it’s no problem.”
Baela smiled, waggling her eyebrows. “We all saw that kiss you shared. I bet it's no problem.”
Despite himself, Jace flushed red. “It wasn’t like that. He’s drunk.”
“I’m sure,” she said breezily, but didn’t elaborate. “Here, hand me your phone. I’ll put his address in your Google Maps. It isn’t far. Your car is here right?”
He nodded, passing off his phone. When she handed back the phone she kissed him on the cheek as a thank you, then scurried off to help Rhaena clean up. Jace looked at Luke still sprawled on the ground and sighed.
“Hi, Luke,” Jace knelt down on the ground in front of him. Luke opened his eyes, blinking at him blearily. His eyes made Jace want to melt. “I know you feel pretty bad right now, and I’m sorry about that. But I need you to help me, okay? You need to stand up so I can get you home.”
“You’re really cute,” Luke whispered to him, like it was a secret. Then he giggled. Jace sighed again, getting two hands under Luke’s armpits and tugging.
“C’mon, up,” Jace insisted, and finally Luke cooperated, swaying on his feet and leaning heavily into Jace’s side. Jace got him all the way out to his car and into the front seat before Luke spoke again.
“You should kiss me again,” Luke whined, leaning over the gear shift to blink at Jace with his doe eyes. “You’re funny and my favorite lab partner ever. Ever ever. Like, that I’ve ever had. And you smell nice.”
“You are so fucking drunk,” Jace laughed, trying to keep his eyes on the road, but his insides were twisting uncomfortably. “You are going to be so embarrassed tomorrow.”
Luke pretended he didn’t even hear him. “I wish there was a place where I could tell everyone how good of a lab partner you are. Like that place where you can leave mean reviews for your professors. But about lab partners. And I wouldn’t be mean. Well,” Luke hiccuped, then giggled. “Maybe I would be a little mean. You’re kind of dumb sometimes, but you always do what I tell you to, and you have nice eyes.”
“What, like RateMyLabPartner.com?” Jace teased, but when he glanced over at Luke, Luke’s eyes widened and he nodded frantically.
“Jace, can we code a website? I want to leave you a 4.5 star review. Wait, 4.8. No, 4.7,” Luke frowned. “I think I have to throw up again.”
“I better get five stars after this,” Jace grumbled, but flicked his blinker on, pulling over to the side of the road. Luke opened the door as fast as he could and emptied his stomach again into the grass. It was gross, but Jace couldn’t complain. At least it wasn’t inside his car.
After he wiped his mouth and sat back down Luke was subdued, dozing against the window. The rest of the ride to Luke’s apartment passed in silence. When they arrived, Jace dug around in Luke’s little bag before he found what he assumed to be the key to his house. He came around to Luke’s side of the car but Luke was so out of it Jace knew immediately that he wouldn’t be able to walk into the house.
“C’mere, love,” Jace said softly, helping Luke wrap his arms around his neck, then lifted him into his arms, grunting at the weight. Jace unlocked the door and tried his best not to snoop around his apartment. He adjusted Luke in his arms, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. Luke just sighed sleepily, nuzzling into Jace’s neck. Jace stopped breathing for a moment, closing his eyes. He had to get a grip.
Jace got Luke into his bed, getting him out of his boots and at least under the covers before letting himself out and locking the door behind him. God, this wasn’t lab partners anymore. He wasn’t even sure if it was friends anymore. But whatever it was, the side of his neck where Luke had touched it burned, and he drove home on top of the world knowing what Luke’s lips felt like against his own.
Even though he knew it didn’t mean anything.
Of course, in the morning, after passing out and sleeping like the fucking dead, he woke up to a string of texts from Baela and Rhaena asking if he made it home okay and if Luke was safe. He felt guilty for not answering those last night, but he made sure to hit them back right away and assure them everything was fine. His finger hovered over his conversation with Luke, where Luke had also messaged him that morning.
Luke (From Lab)
ohhhh my god lol im so fucking embarrassed about last night 😭😭 thank u sooo much for taking me home tho!!! let me treat u to brunch plssss to say thanks i feel so bad
Jace
LOL. Don’t worry about it. Are you feeling better?
Luke (From Lab)
loads!! drank lots of water and took an ibuprof i’m unstoppable now 💪 soo up for brunch or not??
Jace
Sure. Where to?
Luke (From Lab)
wanna go to mellie’s?? their grits are so good lolll
Jace
Grits? Jesus. I’m not going if you’re going to order grits right in front of me.
Luke (From Lab)
fucking baby. i’ll meet u there in 20??
Jace
Aye aye, Captain.
Luke (From Lab)
xxx
Unsurprisingly, Luke looked so put together that if Jace hadn’t seen him throw up twice he would have never guessed that Luke had even left his house the night before. He had an honest to god fur coat on, curls pulled back with a white bow and Jace wanted to eat him whole. He wondered if he should bring up the kiss, or wait for Luke to do it.
“Hi, hi,” Luke smiled when they sat down together. “You’re looking at me like I grew an extra head or something. How bad was it?”
“Bad. You were so fucked last night,” Jace laughed. “I’m surprised you even remember that I took you home.”
“Oh fuck off,” Luke whined. “But no, I don’t. I texted Bae this morning to say thanks and imagine my surprise when she told me it wasn’t even her. Apparently she had to clean up my fucking puke or something.”
“You definitely threw up,” Jace said sagely. “But you don’t remember anything?”
Jace’s heart thumped so loudly he was sure Luke would be able to see right through him. Their kiss, Luke telling him he was a better kisser than his ex and admitting that he liked him as a lab partner, it was all gone. Luke shook his head.
“Not after I took those shots in the kitchen. I’m sure I said some super embarrassing shit.”
“Oh, you don’t know that half of it,” Jace said, regaining his footing. It was fine. Their kiss didn’t mean anything, anyway. It was fine. “You told me I’m the best partner that you ever had and that I should code a website called RateMyLabPartner.com just so that you could tell the world how great of a lab partner I am.”
Luke groaned, covering his face. “Oh my god. What did I say I would rate you?”
“You didn’t come to a conclusion before you made me pull over so you could puke again,” Jace said dryly. “But I think you were about to land on a 4.7.”
Luke nodded sagely. “Definitely no higher than that, unless I was being held at gunpoint.”
“I’m knocking a whole star off of your rating because you’re so damn bossy,” Jace whined. Then he shut up as the waiter came to take their order, and his jaw dropped as Luke looked Jace right in the eye and ordered two bowls of grits with extra cheese and extra butter.
“Oh, you’re getting two stars for that,” Jace said in horror once the waiter had left. Luke laughed, and the world righted itself again.
***
iii. i wanna make you drive all night just because i said maybe you should come over
Jace woke to his phone blaring his ring tone. He reached for it blindly, scrambling with the password before bringing it to his ear, not even bothering to check the caller ID.
“Hello?” He slurred, rubbing his eyes. The other end was silent. “Hello?” Jace tried again. He strained his ears, hearing shaky breathing.
“Jace?”
“Luke?” Luke’s voice was soft and broken—he had clearly been crying. Jace sat bolt upright in his bed, wide awake. “Are you okay? Where are you right now?”
“I don’t—I don’t know,” Luke started. Jace cursed, putting his phone on speaker and setting it on his desk while he began pulling a shirt on. “I was at this party, and my ex…” Luke trailed off—he didn’t have to finish for Jace’s nose to flair, a bolt of anger coursing through him.
“Don’t move, sweetheart. I’m gonna come get you, okay? Send me your location but don’t hang up the phone. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Luke whispered. He sounded so broken and scared. Jace was going to fucking tear through whoever did this to him. He tried not to let his anger show as he spoke gently to Luke, murmuring anything that came to his mind as he got in his car, plugging in the location Luke had sent. It led him to a group of college student townhomes about 5 minutes from Jace’s apartment. The area seemed vaguely familiar, but none of that mattered when he saw Luke.
Luke was clearly dressed for a party—his hair looked divine, held back by little blue butterfly clasps. He was wearing what Jace knew to be his favorite thigh high white boots and a baby blue skirt. But one of the sleeves had clearly been ripped off his shirt, and his makeup was running. He was shivering in the cold and Jace felt his heart clench painfully in his chest.
“I’m sorry,” Luke said softly when he got in the car, dumping his backpack into Jace’s backseat. “I woke you up and made you come all this way—”
“It’s nothing,” Jace turned to him, grabbing one of Luke’s hands in his. “Are you okay? Do you need anything? My apartment is literally five minutes from here, or I can drive you to wherever you need to go.”
Luke chewed his lip. Jace had never seen him this withdrawn, and it was making Jace feel off-kilter. “Can we go back to yours? If it’s not too much trouble? Mine is kind of far and I just want to…” Luke sighed, pulling his knees up to his chest, going silent. Jace clenched his jaw. He was pretty sure he broke about every driving law in the books getting back to his apartment, but it was nearing 3 AM and he had a beautiful boy in his passenger seat that needed to get somewhere safe immediately.
Jace grabbed Luke’s backpack for him when he pulled into his parking spot, leading Luke up to his apartment. He was grateful for the fact that he had just done his laundry and cleaned up that weekend. Luke looked around the space with a neutral expression. It wasn’t huge–just a one bedroom, one bathroom that Jace’s parents had gotten for him when he moved to King’s Landing. But it was his.
“Here,” Jace stepped into his room, rummaging through his drawers to pull out a pair of sweatpants and a shirt. He pressed them into Luke’s arms, who still hadn’t said a word since the car. “The bathroom is right through here. You’re welcome to the shower or anything you want. You don't have to take my clothes, but I thought they’d be more comfortable.”
“Thank you,” Luke said quietly. “For the clothes. And for. Um. Everything.”
“Hey,” Jace gently placed a hand on his arm. “You don’t have to take me. We’re friends, right? ‘S what friends are for.”
“Friends,” Luke said softly, then he turned, going into the bathroom and locking the door behind him. Jace stared at the door after him for a moment before letting out a breath. Luke was fine. He was okay. Whatever had happened to him, it was over now. Jace would never let someone hurt him ever again.
Jace had just got down some extra blankets for the couch when the door to his bathroom opened and Luke emerged. Jace’s breath caught in his throat–Luke was wearing Jace’s clothes, his sweatpants rolled at the bottom and the white shirt practically hanging off of one shoulder. Jace swallowed heavily, blinking several times to try and get himself under control.
“I, uh,” he cleared his throat awkwardly, hoping Luke hadn’t noticed his wandering gaze. “You can take my bed if you want. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“I don’t want you to sleep on the couch in your own home,” Luke said gently. “I don’t mind sharing the bed if you don’t. Or else I can sleep on the couch.”
“No, no,” Jace reassured quickly, his cheeks inflamed from the thought of Luke and him in bed. Together. “My bed is big. It’s fine.”
Luke nodded, quietly crossing the room and crawling into the bed, the side against the wall. Jace followed him, shuffling around until he was staring at the ceiling, Luke beside him facing the wall. The darkness felt stilling, the quiet rise and fall of Luke’s breathing doing nothing to calm Jace down. What had happened to Luke? Jace clenched his fist once against his side, then unclenched it. If Luke wanted to tell him what had happened, he would.
“Jace,” Luke said quietly. “Can you just… hold me?”
A lump formed in Jace’s throat. “Sure,” he whispered, then rolled over onto his side so that he was facing Luke’s back. Loosely, he wrapped an arm around Luke’s torso, and when Luke made a little noise of contentment in the back of his throat, and Jace took that as permission to hold Luke a little tighter.
“It was my ex boyfriend,” Luke finally said, not turning around to face Jace. Jace took a deep breath, closing his eyes. He didn’t speak for fear of scaring Lucerys, but he could fear the anger once again simmering under his skin. “He… he’s been on my case ever since we broke up last semester. It just wasn’t working, you know? For tons of reasons, but he seemed to focus on the one where I told him he wasn’t good to me in bed.”
Jace couldn’t help it–he snorted. He covered his mouth up in shock when he realized what he had done, but Luke laughed softly too. “Yeah. So not good in bed. But he cornered me tonight, saying all this stuff about making me like it. I took a sip of my drink and it tasted kind of funny. I socked him in the nose after that, got out from between him and the wall, dumped the drink in the grass and ran. I called you. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Bile rose in Jace’s throat. He squeezed Luke a little tighter, thinking about what might have happened if he took even one more drink from that cup. “Oh, darling,” Jace mumbled, rubbing a soothing hand on Luke’s hip. “I’m so sorry, fuck. I’m so glad you called me. You can always call me, okay? I will always, always take care of you.” Jace made a mental note to ask who the guy was in the morning, figuring he could go pay him a little visit that weekend. “At least you punched him. Did you get him hard?”
Luke giggled, the sound music to Jace’s ears. “I think I got blood in his eye patch. I’ll probably get an angry call from his mother tomorrow, but I don’t care. I could press charges, you know. My dads are super important. Maybe we could take him.”
Jace tuned Luke out, the gears in his head beginning to turn. His… eyepatch? Then Jace sat up, jostling Luke.
“Oh my fucking god,” Jace whispered. “Aemond’s boyfriend that he’s been complaining about for the past two years at every family function. ‘Beautiful, but not much going on,’ he always used to say. Are you fucking kidding me.”
“You… know Aemond?” Luke asked, then frowned. “He called me dumb?”
“You’re not dumb,” Jace reassured without a second thought. “You’re the smartest person I know. But oh my god, I fucking knew I recognized the neighborhood when I came to pick you up.”
“Jace,” Luke crawled over so that they were facing each other, the blankets tangled around his waist. He looked so beautiful in the pale moonlight, in Jace’s clothes, that Jace almost lost his train of thought. “Can you start over? How do you know my ex boyfriend?”
“He’s my fucking uncle,” Jacaerys groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “He’s such an asshole, oh my god. He was fucking dating you, the most perfect person in the entire realm and he had the audacity to complain about it? To fucking drug you? Luke, I’m gonna kill him.”
“Your uncle,” Luke said dryly. “Gee, yeah, because he mentioned his nephew super often while we were together.”
Jace bit his lip, glancing at the clock. It was pushing 3 AM and they had lab in the morning, but he didn’t think either of them would be sleeping much anytime soon. “My family is kinda… split in half? My mom is super cool and stuff, but after her mom passed away her dad remarried. So she has these four half siblings that are our age, and she doesn’t get along with her stepmom at all anymore. They live here in King’s Landing. We live on Dragonstone. We don’t really interact unless we have to.”
“Sounds complicated,” Luke flopped back against the pillows. The color had returned to his cheeks, and his eyes were sparkling again. Jace felt a part of him unravel, satiated by the sight of Luke nestled on his pillows, looking happy and himself again. “Can’t believe he complained about me to his family. What else did he say about me? Anything juicy?”
Jace tried to wrack his brain. He only saw his deranged uncle about twice a year, and he made a point of tuning out whatever he had to say as often as he could. “I think he called you a bimbo once.”
Luke perked up at that. “He thought I was hot enough to be a bimbo?”
Jace laughed at that, laying back on the pillows beside Luke. There was a moment where neither of them spoke–Jace holding his breath. He hadn’t meant to put them in such close proximity, but to Jace it just felt right. After a beat, Luke scooched closer, resting his head on Jace’s shoulder. He tilted his head up so that their eyes met, and Jace nodded. It’s okay.
“You’re way too smart to be a bimbo,” Jace teased. “No matter how beautiful you are.”
Beside them, Luke’s phone lit up with a phone call. Perfect timing– Aemond flashed across the screen, and Jace growled in the back of his throat. He reached for the phone instinctively, ready to answer and tell Aemond that he was about to ruin his life, but Luke glared at him.
They let the phone go to voicemail.
“I don’t want to deal with him right now,” Luke explained softly. “I just want to go to bed.”
“Alright,” Jace agreed easily. Internally, he began planning. Their semester was over in three weeks–when he went home, he could speak to his mother. They had no proof that he had spiked Luke’s drink since Luke had dumped it, but Rhaenyra would believe him. They could make it so Aemond was blacklisted from every major company, that every employer knew his name and face. Aemond would regret ever meeting Luke by the time Jace was done with him.
They adjusted in the bed, back to their original position with Jace spooning behind Luke. Luke passed out almost immediately, and Jace felt guilty for keeping him awake. He fumbled with his phone for a moment, making his alarm from before he had gone to pick up Luke was still set before wrapping both arms around Luke. Sure Luke was asleep he pressed a kiss to Luke’s head.
“I like you so much, do you know that?” Jace whispered. Luke’s breathing remained steady. “I like you so fucking much, but you’re beautiful and smark and perfect and I’m just me. Why does it have to be so complicated? Why do I get so nervous around you?”
Luke didn’t answer. Jace sighed, hugging him tighter. Maybe someday, Jace thought. Maybe someday I’ll look at him and just know that he feels the same. Maybe he’ll look at me the way that I look at him–like I hung his stars and his moon and his sun.
Maybe. Jace shut his eyes tight. Unlikely. Impossible. If I just–
He slept.
Luke was a mess in the morning.
His hair was all tangled and he drooled in his sleep. When Jace’s alarm went off he panicked, scrambling out of bed and rushing around Jace’s room.
“I don’t have any clothes with me,” Luke groaned. “And if I go back to my apartment to get clothes we’ll be late. Oh, fuck.”
“Have you done the pre-lab?” Jace asked. “We have the first day of our big project today. And don’t sweat it. You can totally borrow some of mine. Mi closet es tu closet, or something.”
Luke gave him a withering look. Jace held his hands up playfully, as if he had been caught. Luke dug through his closet though, groaning after each vintage band tee or polo or pair of cargo shorts.
“Why don’t you have anything normal?” Luke pouted, and Jace came up behind him. He tossed Luke a plain blue shirt, then bit his lip.
“My pants probably won’t fit you great. You’re gonna have to rock the sweatpants I gave you last night.”
Luke grumbled and groaned at that, but when they were finally ready to leave the house Luke surprised Jace again by wrapping him in a quick hug.
“Thank you,” Luke said, uncharacteristically shy. “For… you know. You didn’t have to do any of this. So thank you.”
“You can leave me a good review on RateMyLabPartner.com,” Jace teased. “But seriously, Luke. It’s no problem. Anytime you need me I’m here, okay? No matter what.”
Luke just nodded, clearly overwhelmed. Jace rubbed his back a few times, letting Luke breath until he was calm again before they left, heading towards the grueling day in lab they had ahead of them.
(And yes, of course Luke had gotten the pre-lab done. They had barely stepped foot onto the fifth floor before he was barking orders at Jace to start grabbing the supplies they needed. And no –Jace didn’t get anything done in lab that day. He was too busy looking at the way he could see Luke’s collarbones from where Jace’s shirt was slightly stretched out. Every time Luke passed him to get a new beaker or more MilliQ, he smelled a bit like Jace and it made him insane. He spent the entire first day of their two-week lab practical half hard in his pants and essentially brain dead. Not his finest moment, but hey. Who could blame him?)
After that, the week crawled by. Luke wasn’t in lecture on Friday, and when Jace texted him and asked where he was Luke just responded with a ‘ugh sorry, can u send me the notes? also thank u so much for yesterday. ur the best xx”. Baela and Rhaena didn’t know where he was either–both assumed he must have gone home early for the weekend. Jace tried to make his notes extra neat to send to Luke after the lecture, but his picture was just met with two laughing-crying emojis and an immediate text to Baela’s phone asking for her notes instead. Jace tried not to feel offended by that.
Luke returned on Monday looking refreshed and happier than Jace had seen him in a while. He had gone home, he told Jace, and it was just what he had needed to help him finish out the semester. Their lab finished a week earlier than the rest of their classes, so before Jace knew it he and Luke were holed up in Jace’s bedroom the night before lab preparing for the final part of their lab practical.
“So, it’s like a compilation of everything we’ve done, right,” Luke was explaining, his immaculate notebook in front of him on Jace’s bed while Jace laid next to him and tried to pay more attention to Luke’s notebook than the new little flowers Luke had on his nails. “We’re going to get this energy drink, and make a set of standards before we run it through UV/Vis. THen we can compare the values of caffeine we find in the energy drink to the standards and find out if the bottle was lying about the amount of caffeine in it.”
“I like your funny words, magic man,” Jace mumbled. Luke sighed and whacked him lightly on the side of the head.
“God, how are you even passing this class right now? Wait, are you passing this class right now?”
Jace shrugged non-committedly. “So, when we make our standards we have to write our own dilution scheme, right? How do we know which one to pick?”
Luke gave him a grin, flipping the page in his notebook to a fully calculated dilution scheme, complete with diagrams. Jace’s eyes widened.
“I could fucking kiss you,” Jace sighed happily. “Oh my god. 5 stars on RateMyLabPartner.com.”
Luke laughed, ducking his head. He might have been blushing, but it was hard to tell in the low light. “It’s easy. You just have to use the molar values–”
“I’m going to stop you right there because I will not understand a word and I don’t want you to waste your time.” Jace reached over to his desk, grabbing his own piece of shit notebook and quickly scribbling down the basics of the dilution scheme Luke had written. “Is that all we needed to get done before tomorrow?”
“I think so. You made data tables and everything?”
“Mhm. Just how you showed me.”
Luke yawned, nodding. “Good. It’s getting late, I should–”
“You can stay,” Jace said in a rush, then cringed. “I mean, if you wanted to. You’ve stayed before, and it’s already late, I can just take you to lab in the morning if you want. Or else I can drive you home, like, no pressure.”
“Stop overthinking it,” Luke laughed. “I would love to stay, if you’re sure it’s okay.”
Jace’s head almost fell off from nodding so fast. They fell asleep just as they had the last time, Jace cuddling Luke, and Jace promised to himself then and there that he would ask Luke out if it was the last damn thing he ever did.
Jace’s resolve only hardened when Luke sheepishly asked to borrow more of Jace’s clothes. For the second time Luke went to lab smelling like him, and Jace was only a man. He diligently helped Luke prepare the set of standards Luke had so meticulously calculated the night before, but his mind wandered. Luke could be your boyfriend, he told himself. Just fucking grow a pair.
Fuck it.
Jace was the heir to one of the most important companies in the realm. He had dated before, fucked before, made many people very happy before. He was his mother’s son and a grown man and he could do this.
Do you want to be my lab partner forever? Jace wrote on the top of the page of his notebook. Then he glanced over at Luke and frowned.
And also my boyfriend, he scribbled underneath as an afterthought. Then, because he was nervous and a little too head over heels for his own good, he neatly made two little boxes underneath, one marked ‘yes :D’ and the other marked ‘no :(’. When Luke came back over to record their final value Jace slid his notebook over to Luke before he lost his nerve. He waited anxiously while Luke read the writing, then as his eyes widened once he realized what it said.
“Oh my fucking god,” Luke breathed. He looked up at Jace, then back down at the notebook, then back up at Jace again. His expression was unreadable. “Oh my god. Are you fucking with me right now?”
“Uh,” Jace said intelligently. “I’m not sure what you want me to say right now.”
Luke laughed, running a hand through his hair in disbelief. “I wait all semester for you to ask me out and this is how you do it? You have got to be joking.”
“Can you just check a box?” Jace said. Then he frowned, Luke’s words registering with him. “Wait, all semester?”
Luke laughed again, snatching Jace’s pen from his hand and drawing a heart in the box next to ‘yes :D’. Jace stared at him in shock for a moment.
“Excuse me for a sec,” Jace managed, then he darted out of the classroom. The second the door shut behind him he let out a whoop, pumping his fist in the air. He fucking did it. The hottest, funniest, most perfect man in the entire world just agreed to be his boyfriend.
“Fuck yes,” Jace yelled into the empty hallway, his cheeks red and sore from smiling. It took him several minutes to calm down, and when he came back into the room it was to stares from all of his classmates. Whoops. The doors were probably not soundproof.
“Are you done?” Luke asked cheekily, and Jace gave him a sheepish smile and shrug.
“The man of my dreams just agreed to be my boyfriend. Can’t I be excited? Are you not excited?”
Luke just rolled his eyes, but Jace knew that he was fighting down a blush. “Whatever. Now come copy down our results so we can get out of here on time.”
Jace moved to grab his notebook, but his eyes caught on the note at the top. Carefully, he began to tear the page out but Luke let out an outraged gasp at the action.
“How many times, Jace?” Luke said exasperated. “You can’t tear pages out of your notebook!”
“You’ll thank me when we can frame this and hang it up at our wedding,” Jace said dreamily. He hugged the paper to his chest while Luke squeaked, embarrassed. His face flushed, and he looked so adorable that Jace wanted to kiss him.
Oh my god, Jace thought. I fucking can.
Jace wrapped an arm around Luke’s waist, searching Luke’s eyes for any sort of protest. When he saw none he leaned down, planting a kiss on Luke’s lips. He was pretty sure someone using the other hood gasped, but Jace didn’t give a damn. He backed Luke up until his back hit the lab bench, grabbing a fistfull of Luke’s hair and deepening the kiss. Luke let out a little moan and Jace was addicted. Behind Luke, the volumetric flask (and Jesus, how badly had Luke conditioned him, that he knew that name even while making out with the cutest boy he had ever met?) rolled off the bench, crashing to the floor and shattering. Their solution they had spent three hours making splattered at their feet. Luke looked at it in shock, then back at Jace.
“I’m giving you one star on RateMyLabPartner.com,” Luke whispered, his breath ticking Jace’s skin.
“Baby, I’m sor–”
To Jace’s surprise, Luke threw his head back and laughed. “Are you just gonna stare, or are you gonna kiss me again?” Luke asked. “I already got the spectrometry values in my notebook.”
“You’re wonderful,” Jace whispered. “God, you’re fucking perfect. Think I’m in love with you.”
Luke was still laughing as he grabbed Jace’s hand and stepped over the broken glass on the floor. “Come on. I think we may need to go to the bathroom to get paper towels for that.”
“But there’s paper towels over– oh,” Jace caught onto Luke’s mischievous little smirk, and Jace followed him out of the room. God, he couldn’t stop smiling. He was the luckiest fucking man in the entire realm. “My boyfriend is a genius.”
“And mine is an idiot,” Luke said happily, hands immediately tangled back in Jace’s hair once they had stepped into the hallway. “Just the way I like him.”
Luke went on his tiptoes to kiss Jace. Jace met him halfway.
Jace’s problem was solved, he supposed. Luke was his.
Thank god for Quantitative Analysis.