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The sound of the front door opening came at the least convenient time, making both Alex and Tom freeze.
“I latched my door,” Alex mumbled against Tom’s neck.
It made Tom relax a bit, but not completely. “Yeah, I remember. Any chance it’s Jack?” Alex shook his head, and Tom groaned. “He just couldn’t have waited five more minutes, huh?”
Technically, they could just wipe their hands, fix Tom’s binder and pretend nothing was going on, but—
“Whatever. I’m not going downstairs looking like that.”
“I mean, last time you stayed in your room he thought you were mad at him.”
Alex grinned. “At this point I’m just really curious if he’s still going to ask questions after I told him. Like, what’d he say? What were the two of you doing up there? Take a wild guess. Or I can just say homework and stand there like I expect him to believe me. He’ll just make a fool of himself if he tries to press that—” His eyes went round, and he hid his face on Tom’s shoulder to muffle an uncontrollable giggle. “Oh no. Oh god. He—dude, I swear, he brought his boyfriend—”
Tom laughed too, as quietly as he could. “I mean, imagine dating him—”
Alex tried to shove him, but with his both hands still under Tom’s t-shirt it rather came off like tickling. “Shut up. I mean— I think I heard them talk a couple of times, he and this guy with an accent. Didn’t make out the words, but, you know. He only talked to me in that voice when I was a baby. You don’t talk to your coworkers like that, so they’re totally dating.”
“My point still stands—”
“Shh!”
The two men’s voices were quiet, barely enough to confirm the guest’s accent, but judging from them and the footsteps the two were going upstairs. Alex’s jaw hung open.
“You’ve got to be kidding me— Look, man, can we take this to your place or something?” Tom gave him a confused look, and Alex felt his cheeks heat up. “That’s not the door of his study,” he explained in a mortified whisper. “That’s the door of his bedroom. Do you want to find out how soundproof this floor is?”
“Shit. Right. Okay um—” Tom wiggled free, still grinning, and zipped up his jeans. “Okay, let’s go. Mom will make us eat lunch first, though.”
“Horrible.” Alex tucked his t-shirt in and sat up. “Thanks for the warning.”
“I know right? Okay, can you do the hooks for me?”
Alex snorted wildly. “Hook them up for you, huh?”
“Shut up!” Then his eyes stopped on something Alex couldn’t see on himself. “Um. Maybe you should wear a turtleneck or something.”
Alex rolled his eyes—for fuck’s sake, they’d talked about this—but he was still too hot all over to even think of arguing.
The house was thankfully still quiet when they creeped downstairs, hands clasped over mouths lest their laughter took over. Alex grabbed his keys and shouted “I’m gone!” before dashing out of the door.
“Have fun!” Tom added—not loud enough to exactly be heard upstairs, but Alex shoved him just in case.
Alex made sure to come back home by dinner like a good kid, hands clean and hair combed. Jack was in the hall, looking for something in her bag, and looked up at him the moment he came in. “Hi,” she said quietly. “Tell me something—did you two get in a fight?”
“No.”
“You sure? Huh. Okay then.”
Alex grinned—his impish mood was still with him. “I can go fix that?”
She snorted. “Please don’t. He’s been so nice and quiet. Takes a miracle to get him in such a good mood, really—”
Ian was in the kitchen, fixing himself a sandwich. Alex peeked through the door to assess the miracle. The next moment he had to retreat before their eyes could meet, and bite his lip real hard to keep the laughter down, for whatever time that day.
Ian was wearing a turtleneck too, one he never wore to work, and it wasn’t doing a very good job at—
Oh well.