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Alex could feel Charlie's gaze heavy on him. He took one careful, deliberate breath, trying to dismiss the prickly feeling building up on his skin.
He wasn't sure when the staring fest had started, but it had become a steady layer of attention over the last five minutes or so. Every time Alex sneaked a side glance, eyes diverting from the episode they were supposed to be watching, he was met with Charlie's gaze intent on him. It was highly distracting — no Doctor Who marathon could compete with that.
With a huff of breath, Alex leaned over to grab the remote from the coffee table. “Alright, what is it?” He asked, pressing pause and turning to meet Charlie's gaze fully.
Charlie blinked, somehow managing to look innocent in the blue light coming from the TV. “What is what?”
Alex raised one eyebrow, unimpressed. “You were staring. You've been staring for a good couple of minutes now — c'mon, spit it out. What's on your mind?”
Charlie hesitated only one second before seemingly deciding it was pointless to deny. “Well, since you asked... I've been thinking.”
“That's always kinda dangerous,” sighed Alex, amused despite himself.
“Remember when we were at school last week and I just happened to find out you were a huge fan of my glasses?” Charlie went on conversationally.
Here Alex flinched a little, self-conscious. He'd been waiting for this shoe to drop.
Of course, he remembered — not only such discovery had led to a fantastic make-out session in an old abandoned music room, but the image of Charlie in glasses (now perpetually burned into his brain) had stuck with him for at least two long cold showers just this week. So how could he forget — honestly, how could he forget how delectable Charlie had looked with that square, black frame bringing out his beautiful eyes?
But also, how could he forget that he had agreed — perhaps a little too enthusiastically — to let Charlie in on his (very explicit) thoughts about him with said glasses?
“In my defense,” started Alex, trying to gather back whatever remnants of dignity he had to endure this conversation, “I wasn't exactly thinking straight that day when you made me agree--”
“I made you?” Echoed Charlie, way too amused for Alex's liking. “What do you mean-- did I force you to sign your name in blood or what?”
Alex chose to ignore him, as well as the flush that was slowly creeping up his neck. “--when you made me agree to tell you what I thought when I first saw you in glasses,” he stated, eyeing Charlie with no small amount of wariness. “So I was hoping you'd see it was unfair to hold me to that promise.”
“I'm sad to say you hoped in vain,” said Charlie, not looking the slightest bit sad. On the contrary, a cheeky grin raised to his lips and didn't seem likely to be dropped any time soon. “I don't think it's unfair at all — actually, I'm very interested to know.”
Alex huffed out a distressed breath, feeling the first hints of embarrassment reaching his cheeks. “Charlie,” he scolded, clueless as to what line of argument he could follow to save face this time.
Much to his surprise, though, he didn't need to elaborate. “But that's not where I was trying to get to,” said Charlie.
Alex blinked, looking at Charlie bemused. “It wasn't?”
“It wasn't,” confirmed Charlie, his eyes twinkling with barely concealed amusement. “Though it brings me great pleasure to know you didn't forget about it, and as a man of your word, I'm sure you'll follow through with your promise--”
“Shut up, Charlie,” Alex rolled his eyes, fighting back a grin. “What were you thinking about then?”
“I was thinking,” started Charlie, light-toned and pensieve-looking, “how would you look, wearing glasses.”
Alex blinked yet again, this time paired with a head tilt to better illustrate his confusion. “Me?”
“Yes, you,” nodded Charlie with a smile. He shrugged. “Just curious. You seemed so ecstatic about me wearing them, I kept thinking how you'd look too.”
“I don't own a pair of glasses, though,” Alex frowned, doing his best to ignore the use of ecstatic as a word to describe his reaction after seeing Charlie with his specs. (A very appropriate use, as dismayed as he was to admit it.)
Charlie shrugged again, his face the image of casual. “Well, I do happen to have a pair upstairs sitting on my desk, if you'd be willing to give it a try.”
Alex just stared at his boyfriend for a moment; then he felt his lips giving into an amused grin. “Charlie St. George,” he drawled, “Is this a sneaky excuse to get me to come upstairs with you?”
Charlie didn't even try to fight the smirk that rose to his lips. “In my defense,” he echoed Alex's previous words, “one more episode and I would invite you upstairs anyway, so no,” he chuckled, leaning in to press his lips affectionately to Alex's forehead. “I really just want to see what you look like wearing my glasses.”
Alex hummed, eyes falling shut as he enjoyed Charlie's steady breath ruffling the hairs at the top of his head. “You just completely misused the term 'in my defense', you know that, right? You don't say that just to admit your second intentions right after.”
Charlie hooked one finger under Alex's chin to lift his face. His light blue eyes were full of fondness when he stared into Alex's darker ones. “In my defense, I never tried to hide my intentions from you.”
There was little Alex could reply to that, even if he'd wanted to. (Which he didn't. Pressing his lips to Charlie's seemed more important at the moment.)
Alex blinked once, twice, then squinted his eyes hard before blinking yet again. “I can't see shit,” he protested heartily.
Charlie's delighted laugh came from the left, where his blurry face hovered someplace above his shoulder. “That's because you don't need them,” he said wisely, and Alex more felt than saw the blur of his hand lifting, fingers delicately adjusting the useless piece of accessory on Alex's face. “You look really cute in them, though.”
Alex snorted a laugh through his nose, lifting his unseeing eyes to the blur that was Charlie's face. “Cute-- are you kidding me now. What am I, a fucking toddler or something?”
“No, you are my very cute boyfriend who doesn't take well to compliments, it seems,” said Charlie unbothered, leaning in to nuzzle at the line of Alex's jaw affectionately.
Alex's eyes closed of their own accord. “That's not it,” he protested, even knowing there was some truth to Charlie's words. “It's just that cute wasn't the first thing that came to my mind when I saw you wearing these. Not even close.”
“Is that so?” Mused Charlie thoughtfully. His lips followed the path he'd just traced with the tip of his nose; he pressed light kisses along the line of Alex's jaw. “Please do tell — what was the first thing that came to your mind?”
Alex could feel his coherence leaving him with every press of Charlie's lips — along, apparently, with his self-consciousness. “I just thought you looked so fucking hot,” he heard himself saying, one hand lifting to tangle into Charlie's soft hair.
He felt the curve of Charlie's smile against his neck, and heard the humor in his voice when he said, “Are you serious? You know most people would focus on the sports thing — the jersey or the armband, even the helmet, something like that.”
Alex snorted a laugh. “Well, I'm not most people,” he snarked, hand tugging gently on Charlie's hair to maneuver him into a kiss. “Come here.”
Charlie hummed his appreciation in the back of his throat and complied. One of his hands lifted to cradle Alex's nape and the other braced their weights against the mattress as he leaned slowly over Alex. The older boy followed his motion without breaking the kiss — that is, until Charlie's glasses got in the way.
Alex cursed, moving away when the stupid thing smashed against his cheekbone, and Charlie laughed at the askew appearance of the item on his boyfriend's face.
“This probably wasn't one of your best ideas,” Alex grumbled, hand lifting to take the glasses off his face so they could go back to kissing properly.
But Charlie beat him to it, adjusting the specs back on Alex's face to have one last look. “We'll agree to disagree, then, because you looked the cutest,” he announced, finally removing the glasses and dropping them on the nearest pillow. He turned back to Alex with a satisfied smile. “Worth it.”
“Shut up, Charlie,” said Alex, but he was barely holding back a smile of his own as he pulled Charlie back into another kiss.
About half an hour into a very enthusiastic, very mindblowing make-out session, they were interrupted by Charlie's dad arriving earlier than expected from work, the sound of his car rolling into the garage startling the two of them. Charlie had let out an unusual curse and jumped to his feet so fast that Alex only saw the blur of him reaching out to pull the door open as quickly as he could. The whole situation had Alex laughing for a good five minutes.
After such a close call — Charlie's dad had Alex in high consideration, and that was something they did want to keep, thank you very much —, they had resigned themselves to lay side by side against Charlie's headboard (“doors open, boys”, as usual), chatting idly while scrolling through their phones.
“I didn't know Jessica was back on Instagram,” said Charlie absentmindedly, stopping his scrolling to peer closer at his screen. “She just posted a throwback.”
“Yeah, she's over her social media detox phase, apparently-- let me see,” Alex leaned closer to look at Charlie's phone screen. “Oh fuck, that's what she chose to make a comeback? Can't believe she's bringing back this old shit, for fuck's sake.”
“What do you mean?” Asked Charlie, amused at his boyfriend's aggravation as Alex all but pulled the phone out of his hands to go over the carousel of photos himself. “It's just a throwback, let her be nostalg-- oh my God, Alex, is that you?”
“No, it's not,” said Alex, too defensive to sound sincere. That and, of course, his fast scrolling away from Jessica's post didn't help Charlie buy his answer at all.
Charlie grinned.
“You're a terrible liar — give me back my phone, Standall!” Charlie threw himself over Alex, minding his leg while they scuffed playfully over the possession of his phone.
Despite his limitations, Alex was a fierce opponent, even if not a fair one. Charlie yelped, somewhat undignified, when Alex tickled him to keep him away from retrieving his device, and Alex's following snort of laugh was the only thing that distracted him enough to allow Charlie to grab his phone back from Alex's grip.
“Now,” said Charlie triumphantly, “let's see what you were trying to hide.”
“Charlie, come on,” tried Alex half-heartedly. He made a weak attempt of a lunge but Charlie flung his arm across Alex's chest to keep him away. His other hand held his phone safely away from Alex's reach, thumb working to scroll back to Jessica's post that Alex had dismissed.
“No, sir, I have good reason to take a look at your old self, if you're that keen to try and hide it from me, for whatever reason. Honestly, though, you've seen all my embarrassing pictures from childhood, I have no idea why you're so reluctant to--” Charlie's voice was cut short as he located the picture he was searching for. He blinked, speechless for a moment, aware that he was gaping inelegantly as he stared at a younger, skinnier, much blonder Alex on his phone screen.
Current-Alex grunted loudly by his side, throwing one arm over his eyes dramatically not to look at the picture. “Shit. I really expected to keep you away from this phase of mine for a while longer.”
Charlie didn't reply. He didn't think he had the words.
He was too distracted paying attention to the slightly fuller plans of Alex's face a couple of years ago, to his bleached blonde hair, to his not-so-haunted eyes, and, specifically, to the piece of jewelry that adorned Alex's pretty nose.
Alex lifted his arm from his eyes to look at his boyfriend with a frown. “Charlie?” It wasn't that common of an occurrence to have Charlie so quiet for over thirty seconds straight.
Charlie let out a heavy breath. “God, Alex-- you,” he said, very emphatically.
But that didn't enlighten Alex at all. “What? What is it?” He asked, propping himself on his elbows, insecurities kicking in. “What's the problem?”
Charlie turned around to look at him. “You,” he said, managing the feat of sounding awed and accusing at the same time, “had a nose ring.”
“Um-- yeah, I did?” Alex faltered, not quite knowing how to decipher the dissonance between Charlie's expressions. “I dropped it a while back, though. Couple years now, I think.”
Charlie turned fully towards him, free hand reaching to cup his cheek and examine his boyfriend's face closely. “Why did you drop it, Alex?” He asked, sounding hurt. “It-- you looked--”
Alex blinked, taking one second longer to assess Charlie's reaction correctly. He tilted his head. “You liked it?”
Charlie dropped his phone on the mattress to cup Alex's face with both hands. “You had a nose ring,” he repeated as if that alone explained everything.
In a way, it kind of did.
Alex's lips twitched, trying to hold back a grin. “You did like it, didn't you?”
“Yes,” answered Charlie fervently, open and honest and straightforward as always, not one drop of self-consciousness in his tone, and Alex kind of envied him for that — until Charlie's grip shifted to his jaw, his palms resting there to turn Alex's face towards him. Charlie's eyes traveled over his features — eyes, nose, cheekbones, lips, back to his nose, and then to his eyes again before he addressed Alex once more. “You think you could, you know. Wear it again just once, just so I could see it?”
Despite himself, Alex felt a smirk rising to his lips. “That's your version of my thing with your glasses, isn't it?”
“Probably, yeah,” Charlie muttered, one hand adjusting to fit snugly against the side of Alex's neck as he leaned down to press a light kiss against the corner of his mouth. “I wore my glasses for you.” Another kiss. One knee deftly sliding between Alex's, and Alex's breath stuttered in his chest. “Wouldn't you do the same for me?”
“Charlie-- your dad's home,” Alex said, despite his fingers clutching eagerly at Charlie's forearms to pull him closer.
“I know,” he mumbled, right against Alex's ear. He nicked on his earlobe, slowly dragging the pull of his teeth, his thigh pressing up further against Alex. “We won't be long-- but you'll wear it, won't you? Just once. I just need to see it once.”
There was very little Charlie could ask of him in moments like these that Alex would say no to — and Charlie knew that, his teasing, annoying, exasperating piece of a boyfriend knew that very well, and took unashamed advantage of it.
Well, Alex couldn't say he was actually that bothered about how things usually turned out.
“Yeah, whatever you want,” he whispered back, straining to press a kiss to the underside of Charlie's jaw that had the younger boy sucking on a breath and grinding his hips down against Alex's instinctively. “I'll wear it for you. Now get away from me before we get caught, you kinky fucker.”
Charlie hummed, pleased. “Takes one to know one,” he said lightly, pressing a strikingly contrasting chaste kiss to Alex's lips before rolling away. His chest was heaving a little, Alex could see, not so different from himself — and he was satisfied to see they were both on the same level after moments like these. Charlie seemed to gather all his strength to put more distance between them, but his hand remained on Alex's face, thumb caressing the underside of his jaw gently. “I'll take you up on that soon, be warned.”
Alex grinned, sprawling comfortably on Charlie's bed once more. “As long as you wear your glasses,” he shrugged.
Charlie's lips curved upwards. “Deal.”