Chapter Text
Bojan steeled himself before knocking on Jere’s door. He had no reason to feel this nervous. Jere was just his friend, and they were going to a concert together. Nothing to be nervous about. He raised his fist and knocked.
After some shuffling from inside, the door swung open to reveal Jere, shirtless. Bojan tried his best not to stare but he knew his blushing probably gave him away regardless.
“Bojan, hei! Come in, come in.” Jere beckoned Bojan inside and shut the door behind him. It seems he had caught Jere in the middle of getting ready.
“Are you ready?” Jere asked as Bojan followed him into his bedroom. He threw open the closet and began rifling through his clothes. Bojan sat on the bed.
“Are you?” Bojan asked in return, his voice pitching up at the end. Jere gave a breathy chuckle at that.
“Yes, yes, I’m almost ready. I just need to get a shirt and put makeup,” Jere said, pulling a tank top out of his closet that had clearly at some point been a regular t-shirt.
“This one is good?” Bojan nodded affirmatively. Jere slipped it over his head and shut his closet door. He then made his way over to his dresser.
“Do you want some makeup?” He offered up the eyeshadow palette in his hand. Bojan considered this for a moment before responding.
“You do yours first, I may need a little help,” Bojan said. “I’ve tried to do my own eyeliner and it always looks like absolute shit.”
“So you saying mine looks good?” Jere asked, a little strained as he was leaning over his dresser to get closer to the mirror behind it.
“If I had to make a blanket statement I’d say so, yeah.”
Jere leaned back to admire his handiwork, and Bojan could see him grinning in the reflection.
“You think I look pretty?” Jere then asked, a devilish look on his face as he leaned back in to add some more eyeshadow. Bojan was at a loss for words for a moment. He searched for a way to turn his true thoughts into a witty comeback.
“Yes, but not as pretty as me,” he decided to say. Jere met his gaze in the reflection and stuck his tongue out. He leaned back again and then, seemingly deciding that he looked good, turned to Bojan with the palette and a little bottle of liquid eyeliner.
“Your turn now.” Jere took a few steps over from the dresser to the bed so that he was standing with his knees almost touching Bojan’s. Bojan thought he was going to kneel down in front of the bed, but instead Jere gently pushed Bojan’s legs closer together and sat on top of them. Bojan’s nose ghosted Jere’s shirt and his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest with how hard it was beating. Then, all of a sudden, Jere pushed him down flat on his back and scooted up even farther, so that their hips were nearly aligned.
Bojan tried to school his face and act normal, but it was proving difficult. Jere let out a small chuckle.
“What?” Bojan asked.
“Your eyes,” Jere said, mimicking the way Bojan’s had (apparently) bugged out of his head. Bojan scoffed and looked away.
“Whatever, just do the makeup.”
At that, Jere grabbed the eyeshadow palette and grabbed Bojan’s chin, forcing his face back upward. He leaned over so that his face was hovering over Bojan’s and began to apply the pigment.
The little brush went back and forth, back and forth. Jere’s pinky finger rested right on Bojan’s cheekbone for stability. The skin under it felt abnormally warm. Bojan felt thankful that he had his eyes closed; he didn’t know if he would be able to handle looking at Jere’s face in a position like this.
When Jere finished with the eyeshadow, he moved on to the eyeliner.
“Be still,” he instructed. Bojan all but held his breath. If Jere stopped more frequently than he needed to so Bojan could breathe, he didn’t notice. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the weight from on top of him lifted. Bojan opened his eyes to see Jere putting the makeup away and preparing last-minute things before they left.
“Thank you,” Bojan murmured, not trusting himself to speak any louder.
“Of course!” Jere said with a smile. “Now let’s go, we will be late!”
…
The two of them had been meaning to do something together for a while, so going to a concert during one of the first warm weeks of the year seemed apt. The concert venue was an outdoor one, and not too far away from Jere’s apartment, so they walked. They arrived in record time and joined the crowd in the field in front of the stage.
The concert started amazingly as well. Everyone there was super hyped, and both Bojan and Jere seemed to be having an amazing time, screaming and shouting with glee. When the first drops of rain began to fall no one noticed due to the energy of the space. But soon it began to rain harder. In a lull between songs, Bojan turned to Jere.
“It’s really starting to come down now. Do you want to go?” he asked. Jere shook his head.
“It’s only some water, never hurt anyone,” he reasoned. Bojan was glad he didn’t want to cut their date–not date–outing short, so he didn’t say any more. The two of them went right back to jumping and screaming and waving their arms.
By the time the concert was over it was pouring buckets, and the crowd had thinned significantly.
“Thank you all for staying, even in the rain,” the artist thanked the remaining fans. Bojan looked over at Jere to make sure he didn’t lose him in the quick moving crowd and noticed that his makeup was running.
“Hey, hey, are you alright?” he asked Jere in a low and calm voice. Jere cocked his head.
“I’m fine, why?” The look of confusion in his eyes, combined with the tilt of his head and the fact that he was utterly soaked stopped Bojan in his tracks for a moment. He looks so cute; I could just squish him! He thought.
“Your makeup is running, I thought you were crying,” Bojan explained. Jere brought his hand up to the spot right under his eye and rubbed. Upon seeing his finger come away black, he smiled.
“Maybe we pretend we get dumped,” he suggested.
“We?”
“Your makeup is running too.”
Bojan lifted his own hand to his face and saw it come away with makeup as well. He chuckled and was about to agree with Jere to pretend, when he saw him shudder.
“I think we should start heading back.” Bojan tried to lightly cajole Jere into heading home.
“Awww, you have no fun!” Jere complained.
“What?! I know how to have fun!” Bojan protested.
“Then we pretend,” Jere said again, taking Bojan’s hands and making an over-the-top pouty face. “Bojan, she leave me!” he joke-sobbed. Bojan tried not to bust out laughing. He took a deep breath.
“Jere, my boyfriend left me too,” he proclaimed in a joke-watery voice. Jere sucked in a breath.
“Boyfriend?” he murmured. Bojan froze. He hadn’t explicitly told Jere he was bi, but it was kind of an open secret at this point. Why was he so nervous, then?
“Yeah, my boyfriend, that bastard he dumped me!” Bojan plowed on. Jere seemed to forget his surprise at this and continued with the game as well.
“My boyfriend dumped me too! He say he love me, and then he leave!” Bojan noted the sudden switch from girlfriend to boyfriend, but he didn’t say anything.
“Jere, I’m so sad,” he said, falling to his knees, dragging Jere with him. Jere fell with a little uf! noise in front of him.
“I’m sad too. Maybe we will cry together,” Jere said, pressing his forehead against Bojan’s. In the torrential downpour, the respite from the rain created by the dam of their two foreheads pressed up against each other was welcome. Instead of fake-crying, or doing anything else, the two of them just stayed like that, breathing in each other’s breath and staring into each other’s eyes.
“Boyfriend?” Jere asked again. “That’s what you say?”
“Uh-huh.” Bojan felt a knot form in his stomach. What was he thinking?
He didn’t have much time to wonder, though. Jere closed the gap between them, putting his lips on Bojan’s. He brought his arms up to Bojan’s upper arms and pulled him close. Bojan was in shock for a moment, but realized that oh, I like this a lot, and deepened the kiss. All of those weird nervous moments started to make sense as he brought his own hands up to Jere’s neck and the back of his head. The two of them stayed like that, kissing each other breathlessly in a field that was now entirely their own in the pouring rain. Until Jere started to shiver.
“Jere, you’re shaking,” Bojan pointed out. The muscle tee made him look wildly underprepared now in addition to making him look rather small. Bojan stood, pulling Jere up with him. Jere didn’t even argue this time, which made him slightly worried.
“C’mon, let’s go home.”
“Was it that bad?” Jere finally said with a laugh. Bojan laughed as well, but only to hide how worried he felt.
“We can kiss more at your place. Let’s get out of the rain.”
With that promise having been made, Jere seemed much more willing to comply. The two of them high-tailed it back to Jere’s apartment, giggling and laughing the whole way but slowly losing steam as they got closer.
They both walked back into Jere’s bedroom, and Bojan realized that he didn’t have a change of clothes. Jere seemingly came to the same realization, because he handed Bojan a t-shirt and began to dig around in his dresser.
“You can borrow,” he said. “Don’t worry.” He pulled out two pairs of sweatpants and immediately began to take off his clothes. Even though the two of them had just had a lengthy make out session, Bojan still felt as if he was seeing something he shouldn’t and turned around.
“Don’t pretend you don’t want to look,” Jere said in a teasing tone. Bojan felt the blush rise in his face and was grateful he was turned the other way.
“It’s not that,” he lied. “I just didn’t want to flash you. My underwear's soaked through.”
When Bojan turned around again, Jere was gone. He hadn’t left, though, because Bojan could still hear noise from inside the apartment. When he found Jere, he was wrestling with some pile of winter gear and other miscellaneous things to try and get a space heater out. Jere was sorely losing.
“Here, let me…” Bojan offered, crouching to remove the items looped around the base of the heater, making for easier removal. When they finally got the heater free of its prison and plugged into the wall, the two of them sat together in front of it, huddled underneath some throw blankets and, of course, up against each other.
Jere shuddered again. Bojan brought his hand up to Jere’s shoulder opposite him.
“You alright?” he asked.
“I am,” Jere responded, a sniffle punctuating his words. Bojan was skeptical but didn’t say anything. “I had fun today. With you.”
“I had fun today with you ,” Bojan replied, a smile evident in his voice.
“You said we will kiss again when we get back,” Jere reminded him, moving to sit up straight.
“You’re right, I did,” Bojan agreed, leaning in to make good on his promise.