Work Text:
Jay hadn't been expecting Tim to have offered to help him when he had stopped by. Jay had been cleaning his house for the last two days. Sure he said it was spring cleaning but even then it was a lot to cover when he was the only one to live there.
So when Tim stopped by it caught him off guard. Tim had looked concerned at first, when Jay had answered the door dressed in an apron and instead of his hat he had a white bandanna wrapped around his head. He likely would have resembled Cinderella without the tattered clothes.
"Oh! Hey Tim, what are you doing here?" He asked puzzled, rubbing some dust off his cheek with his shoulder. His arms were filled with a kind of heavy box, so he couldn't use his hands.
"You've been rather quiet the last few days, so I came to check on you. Uh, Brian said to remind you about the game this weekend." He said quickly, past his surprise.
"Oh, sorry, I was cleaning. I do some spring cleaning occasionally and it takes me awhile, but I always finish in time for game." He stared at him for a moment making sense of that.
"You look like Cinderella like this." Tim chuckled, before gesturing towards the box, "Need some help?" Jay nodded.
"If you want to help you can." He agreed, a light blush coating his cheeks with the Cinderella remark.
Then the next thing he knew, Tim was helping him clean his house. It was a lot of fun having someone around to lend him a hand and the work felt like it went a lot faster, especially since Tim had the height that he didn't so Tim could easily reach the places Jay couldn't without a ladder.
Jay had taken a brief break while Tim was fixing Jays TV to make lunch for the both of them. He made some sweet tea and a couple sandwiches, carrying them out to the couch nearby where Tim was.
"Hey Tim, you can go ahead and take a break for lunch if you want."
Tim looked up from his work, wiping the sweat from his brow as he walked over to the couch to sit beside Jay, accepting the food. Jay set the glasses down on the coffee table.
"Thanks Jay. It looks good." Jay smiled at him.
"You've been a big help, I got a lot more done with you here to help me. It's also been a lot of fun." Jay took a bite of his sandwich rather happily.
Tim blushed lightly and glanced to the side, "Oh it's nothing." Jay wasn't sure what Tim was thinking about but he wasn't sure he should ask.
"So Alex doesn't normally help you with this?" Tim asked, breaking the silence. Jay shook his head.
"Not really. I don't normally ask for help when I do spring cleaning." He admitted with a light chuckle.
Tim smiled, it was a rare sight but one Jay always liked seeing since they became friends.
"I'll try and come by more often to lend you a hand with the spring cleaning then. You shouldn't be doing this by yourself, there's a lot for even you to be doing here." Tim offered causing Jays eyes to light up.
"Thanks Tim! That means a lot to me, really." Tim's cheeks turned a light red as he saw Jay's expression and he cleared his throat rubbing the back of his neck.
"It's not a problem." He reassured.
They ate quietly, other than the occasional question and comment, mostly about the upcoming game and LARP and planning when Jay could stop by to practice the pan flute some more at Tim's place.
After they finished eating, Jay carried the dishes into the kitchen and the cleaning resumed. It was still pretty late when they finished so Jay offered to let Tim stay the night so that he didn't have to drive home in the middle of the night.
Jay was in the process of making dinner just some red beans and rice with sausage but he was adding a side salad so he was cutting up vegetables to go along with it when Tim came into the kitchen.
Tim leaned over Jay to see what he was doing, his hands resting against his sides despite the blush on his cheeks. "Do you need any help?" Tim asked, causing Jay to pause and look up at him.
"No I've got it, I'm almost done." He reassured, smiling up at him despite the slowly deepening blush on his own cheeks. Tim was standing so close, close enough for him to feel how warm he was.
Tim's face was so close to his, and he paused in his cutting of the tomatoes. "Okay." Tim's voice had become a murmur and they just stood like that for awhile, staring at each other.
Tim slowly leaned in though and pressed his lips to Jays, kissing him softly and hesitantly. Jays eyes widened for a moment before they slowly closed and he returned the kiss. They held it for a short time, before Jay accidentally nicked his finger with the knife he was holding causing him to yelp and startle them both. Tim's eyes widened and he quickly grabbed the nearby towel wrapping Jays finger.
"S-Sorry!" He said quickly and Jay chuckled nervously in an effort to reassure him past the stars he was seeing from the kiss.
"It's okay. Cook's cut themselves all the time. I don't think it's a deep cut, um, I think I have a band-aid in the bathroom, medicine cabinet above the sink. There should be a small box." He said quickly, Tim hesitated and nodded slowly pulling his hands away from Jays before going to get the band-aid.
Jay waited, looking down at his finger, carefully sliding it under the sink to clean the cut. It really wasn't that bad and the bleeding had almost stopped. Tim returned with a dark band-aid with a glow in the dark ufo. "Here, let me put it on." Tim offered, taking Jay's finger carefully between his calloused fingers wrapping the band-aid around the cut. They both sighed in relief, their heads resting against each others. They were quiet for a moment before Jay stared up at Tim, blushing deeply again. "I should, um, finish dinner." Tim blushed deeply and nodded.
"I'll, uh, go wait on the couch." Tim agreed, slowly pulling away from him and stepping out of the kitchen.
Jay took a few minutes to get his thoughts back together and focus past the pulsing in his finger. He washed off the knife but set it to the side to properly clean later with the dirty dishes, then he picked up a clean knife and resumed cutting the fruit.
He finished making the salad and cleaned up the mess he had made in the kitchen, before making both plates and refilling their cups from earlier. He carried the plates out and set them on the coffee table before sitting next to Tim.
There was an awkward silence during dinner, and even a short while afterward, though it was only broken when Jay turned the TV on and let it sit there for background noise. He occasionally stole a glance at Tim, and he could almost feel Tim doing the same before Tim finally broke the silence.
"Sorry." He murmured, looking down to Jay, catching his attention again.
"Why are you apologizing?" He asked, staring up at him, his cheeks felt warm and his thoughts kept going back to the kiss.
"For kissing you like that." He continued, one of his arms were resting on the back of the couch while the other sat in his lap.
"You don't need to apologize for that." Jay admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. He wanted to lean against Tim, he looked like he was warm.
"I...Liked the kiss..." Jay added with a murmur, catching Tim by surprise.
"Really?" Jay nodded.
"Could I....?" Tim's words trailed off by Jay understood what he was asking and he nodded again. Tim smiled and Jays heart skipped a beat for the briefest moment as Tim leaned in and pressed his lips to his again.
Jay returned the kiss, the kiss felt amazing and the longer it held the more breathless Jay felt. It was only a soft kiss, but they held it for a long time. Tims arms had wrapped around Jay and he had brought him so much closer to him.
Tim smelled like cigarettes and the cleaner they had been using earlier, but Jay didn't mind. Tim broke the kiss first and Jay took awhile to catch his breath, his head resting against Tim's chest, listening to his heartbeat.
They stayed like this for the rest of the night.