Work Text:
“Where’s your ring?” On instinct, Jeff glanced down at his left hand where his engagement ring usually sat, unsurprised to see the item missing, but frowning at the empty space all the same. His fiancé had done well; he’d chosen Tungsten for the band itself, a metal that would be durable for the long hours Jeff spent working on cars in the garage. Knowing Jeff wasn’t one for much flash, he had opted for a row of smaller diamonds instead of a massive one, allowing the accessory to be understated yet still stunning nonetheless. Since getting it, Jeff had only taken the piece off when getting his hands wet or when he was asleep, and not even always for the last one.
When Alan’s betrayal had been revealed, there had been a moment when Jeff had contemplated giving him back the ring. It had been barely more than a passing thought, a moment of hurt as he stood in the backyard with all of their friends around as Babe announced that not only had Tony shown himself in person, but that he had Alan hostage and that Alan had willingly subjected himself as a guinea pig for the power-gaining serum. If Alan could keep something this huge from him, what else would he be unwilling to share? He had diminished the idea nearly as fast as he had it, pushing his feelings to the side to focus on formulating a plan to get their three missing team members back and taking down Tony for good this time.
A few weeks later, once they were sure that Tony wouldn’t be coming back this time, Alan had tentatively asked if he wanted to think about looking at venues. Jeff, his heart breaking, said that he wanted to put their engagement on hold.
‘I think we still have things to work through…’ He had muttered in the near-silent house. ‘Plus Charlie’s still not awake yet…I still love you, and I want to get married but...I just don’t think we can right now.’
Alan, though visibly devastated, had nodded before reaching over and grasping both of his hands in his.
‘Then we’ll wait.’
Over the coming months, they had both actively worked on their communication and their personal issues, which turned out to be two sides of the same coin: Jeff had never been good at asking for help or relying on others. Alan felt like a failure if he didn’t feel like those closest to him could rely on him. And both of them hated feeling like a burden. They spent many nights talking about expectations going forward and what a healthy relationship between the two of them actually needed to look like. Between talks, tears, laughter, kisses and everything in between, they rebuilt their relationship from the ground up and when Alan brought up wedding planning again nearly a year later, his voice timid and his posture nervous and shy, Jeff grinned and pulled out a stack of wedding books from where he’d hidden them in the hall closet for that precise moment.
“Alan took it to a jeweler to get cleaned a few days ago.” He offered his brother while still glancing at his empty hand. “I thought it looked fine, but he said it looked duller than usual. I think he’s just stressed about our meeting with the astrologer this weekend and looking for other stuff to focus on. He’ll probably give it back to me tonight.”
“Is that why I saw him scrubbing the air vents in his office today?” Jeff rolled his eyes as he fastened the buttons at his wrists.
“Probably. I think once we have the date picked out, he’ll calm down and go back to normal.” He glanced back up at the bathroom mirror, surprised to see the wistful expression on his brother’s face. He turned around to face him directly.
“What?” Charlie shrugged.
“Last week you met with the monks, next week the astrologers, I just never thought you’d want to go the traditional route for the wedding. I figured the two of you would just go down to the courthouse on a random Wednesday or something.” Jeff ran a hand through his hair, waving his other one in exasperation.
“You know how old school Lhung is. He’s got this idea in his head that if we don’t do it the “right” way, it’s not gonna count or something. I tried to tell him how absurd that was, but then he started showing me pictures of locations and samples of invites and flower arrangements, and he gets so excited and his eyes get so…” Jeff trailed off. Charlie nodded in understanding.
“I’m happy for you, you know that, right?” Jeff gave him a look before brushing past him and back into the bedroom, heading to the closet to grab his shoes.
“I know. If you weren’t, you would have told me a long time ago. Why?”
“Nothing! Just feeling...sentimental, I guess. Who would have thought that the once impenetrable emotional walls of my little brother would be torn down enough that he wants to get married?” Embrassed, Jeff tossed a sneaker in the direction of Charlie’s voice, triumphant at hearing it connect with its target and the undignified sound the other let out at the impact.
“You say that like you aren’t already married.” He said as he exited the closet, his black dress shoes in hand. Charlie glared at him as he continued to rub what was surely a sore spot on the back of his leg. “Not our fault, you guys beat us to the punch.”
“Once my memories came back, it didn’t feel like there was any reason to wait. For what? The next big bad monster who wants to kill us to pop up?” Jeff let out a hum and crossed his arms disbelievingly.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it’s just cause you two are competitive dicks and wanted to be first.” Charlie pretended to shrug as if it meant nothing, but the sides of his mouth lifting gave him away.
“P’Babe and I were together before you and P’Alan.” He pointed out. “And I’m the older brother. Technically speaking, me getting married before you is just logical sense.” Jeff rolled his eyes but said nothing as he checked his pockets for his wallet and his keys before heading down the stairs, Charlie not far behind him.
“Thanks for driving me again, Phi.” Charlie quickly brushed the thanks off as they both put on their shoes and made their way out of the house.
“No problem. I had errands to run on this side of town anyway. Plus, dropping my brother off for his date with his fiancé feels very much in the older sibling playbook. if it wasn’t for my pushing, you two wouldn’t be together in the first place-”
“You mean meddling?”
“North and Sonic were the ones who were meddling. I gave P’Alan gentle hints about things you liked and places you went. I pushed. There’s an important difference and that’s why I am your Best Man.” Jeff jokingly shoved him to the other side of the car, but made no move to deny the statement, sending them both into fits of giggles as they tumbled into the vehicle and pulled out of the driveway and into the night.
“And Phi’Charlie said he and Phi’Babe are thinking about seeing if they can knock out one of the walls for more space in the living room and I said, ‘You’d have more room if you removed the literal car’ but he refused.”
“Uh-huh.”
“...and then I asked if they considered moving if space was becoming a concern, and Phi’Charlie said he didn’t think anywhere else would ever feel like home.”
“Hmm.” Jeff glared at the other male across the table and had to resist the urge to pick up one of the dinner rolls and throw it at him. He hadn’t seen much of his partner the past few days, the elder leaving their house early and coming back late. The season was only a few weeks away, and Pete had been securing them meetings with new possible sponsors left and right. With the meetings always taking place in the evenings, Alan had been going into the garage early to compensate.
(Alan had suggested that Jeff come to the meetings too, but Jeff reminded him that 1) Someone needed to stay back to run the garage, and 2) he legally wasn’t an owner yet, so he didn’t need to be there. Alan pointed out that changing that would be as simple as two signatures on a piece of paper, but Jeff had refused, saying that it would make more sense to wait until after the wedding, something that their insurance lawyers also agreed on, much to Alan’s annoyance and the amusement of everyone else.)
One of the implements they had agreed on when they were repairing their relationship was trying to do at least one date-ish activity a week, whether it be going out for meal, doing an activity together, or even something as simple as watching a movie at home. Sonic had mentioned this specific restaurant a few days earlier during one of the team meals (one of his influencer friends said the drinks were some of the best in the area), and twenty minutes later, Jeff had gotten a text from an unknown number saying they were looking forward to seeing him at his reservation. He had turned to look at Alan, who had paused in the doorway just long enough to send a wink his way before exiting out the door. He had downplayed his excitement in front of his brother, but Jeff really had been looking forward to their date. He hated going to bed without Alan and waking up in the morning to find him already gone. Of course, they saw each other at work, but they’d been too busy at the garage for any discussions that didn’t revolve around the business or wasn't race-related. He knew his lover wasn’t ignoring him on purpose, and whatever had him so invested in his phone was probably important for all of them, himself included, but he couldn’t help but feel peeved at the piece of plastic and metal that was holding his partner’s focus.
“I’m also thinking of dying my hair neon pink.”
“Yeah, yeah, sounds good.” Jeff’s glare turned sharper (not that Alan had even looked up to see it) and now he had to resist throwing the roll and kicking the other underneath the table.
“Kenta also said that Kim’s in love with Babe and is planning on coming back so he can steal him away from Charlie.”
“That’s-wait, what?” Alan said, his face finally rising to look at Jeff. “Kim would never do that to Kenta or Charlie. Plus, Babe definitely isn’t his type.” Jeff scoffed and leaned back in his seat, annoyed.
“Ohh, so you can hear me. For a minute there, I thought you’d either lost your hearing or that I was boring you.” Alan tilted his head in confusion.
“Why do you say that?”
“I’ve been here for ten minutes now and you’ve barely looked up from your phone. I ordered our drinks and when I asked what kind of appetizer you wanted, you pointed at the only one with shallots in it, even though you hate those. I even moved all of your silverware out of reach, and you still didn’t notice. ” At that, Alan did rightfully look guilty, and though Jeff did feel vindicated, it didn’t make him feel any better.
“I’m Sorry Nuu. I didn’t mean to make you feel like I don’t want to be here with you. The meeting went well and I’ve been trying to arrange another one as well as relay stuff to Pete since he’s out of the country.” Just as Jeff had assumed, it was work-related and it would in fact benefit them all, but it still didn’t help the sting of being ignored. “Let me just…” Alan looked back down at his phone and quickly typed out another message and about a minute later, he flipped it face down onto the table and held out his hands, and Jeff slowly leaned forward in his seat so he could slide his own into them. “There.” The elder said, rubbing the backs with his thumbs. “All done. And I am all yours.” Jeff pursed his lips, unsure.
“No more work talk tonight?”
“You have my word, baby. You have my full attention.”
“Are you implying there are times I don’t?” He joked. Alan chuckled.
“Nuu, you’ve had it since you walked into the garage asking for a job.” Jeff stuck out his tongue.
“Sweet talker.” Alan shrugged at the attempted dig, bringing Jeff’s left hand up to his mouth and kissing the place his engagement ring usually sat.
“Doesn’t make it less true.”
“Oh yeah, Dean said he wants to move out. Found an apartment in the same building as North & Sonic’s. Same floor too.” Alan had stayed true to his word and hadn’t picked up his phone the rest of the meal. They had laughed while stealing bites off of each other’s plates, traded stories over a bottle of wine, and had argued for five minutes about which dessert to get before getting both. Jeff let out a hmm as they pulled into the driveway and unbuckled their seatbelts.
“Makes sense.” He glanced over to see Alan staring at him in surprise and couldn’t help letting out a laugh. “What?”
“How does him moving out make sense? It hasn’t been that long since the accident. What if he relapses or something? Remember the fainting spells he used to have?”
“Lhung, it’s been over a year. He was back working at the garage like two months after he got out of the hospital, and the last time he fainted was over six months ago. Plus, you just said North and Sonic are going to be down the hall. It’ll probably be the same distance to their front door as from the guest room to ours.” Alan stared at him for a few seconds longer before letting out a sigh.
“I guess.” Jeff watched him for a few seconds before exiting the car. He moved to the driver’s side and opened the other’s door since it didn’t seem like Alan would be doing it himself anytime soon. The elder looked dejected and reluctantly rose to his feet and got out, taking the key with him and shutting the door before leaning back against it. Jeff stepped close enough to grab the lapels of his jacket, gently shaking him until he finally looked up to meet his eyes.
“You know,” He started softly. “You can just say that you’ll miss him. There’s no shame in that.” Alan let out a breath before letting his head fall back.
“It’s just…I knew he wasn’t going to stay forever, but I guess I didn’t think about the fact that that meant he’d eventually leave.” Jeff nodded. Alan had never fully forgiven himself for everything that happened with Dean and still felt responsible for his incarceration and for his feeling the need to risk his life to prove his loyalty to X-Hunter. Even with assurances from Dean himself that it was not his fault in any shape or form, Alan still felt slightly to blame, and while Jeff hated that nothing any of them said seemed to fully erase the mentality, he was proud of his partner for being honest about how he felt instead of pretending and bottling the feelings up.
“Well, everyone has to spread thier wings at some point.” He offered. “The fact that he feels confident enough to move out is just proof that it's his time. He wasn’t living with you before he went to jail, right? So this is actually just him getting back to a real normal.” Alan grimaced, his hands in his pockets as he mulled over what Jeff just said. Finally, he dropped his shoulders, nodding slowly in agreement.
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
“And everybody knows that if anything happens, they can always come here whenever they need and you need to learn to trust that they will.” Alan nodded again, his hands coming out of his pockets to land on Jeff’s hips.
“You’re right, Nuu.” Jeff hummed, pleased. “I guess this is a good thing."
"I'm glad you agree."
"Yeah. Besides, this means we can go back to having sex in the kitchen without fear of Dean walking in.” Jeff gasped.
“We have never done that!”
“Wouldn’t this be the perfect time to start?”
“We cook food there!”
“We eat food on the dining room table, and we’ve definitely had sex on that.” Jeff felt his cheeks turn red and he tried to push away from the other male, only for his lover’s arms to tightly wrap around his waist and pull him closer. “Come on Nuu,” Alan muttered, his lips just brushing the top of Jeff’s ear. “Just think about it. The sun setting through the windows, you stretched out on the counter, me and my super strength taking you apart…”
“Lhung!” Jeff sputtered, breaking free of the embrace. “The neighbors!”
“I don’t mind giving them a show.”
“I do!” Alan moved to make a retort but paused, removing one of his hands to reach into his back pocket. He pulled out his phone, and whatever he saw on the screen had the teasing expression immediately vanishing from his face and being replaced with a much more serious one. He pulled away from the embrace and moved towards the front steps, stopping just before the first one and turning around to face Jeff head-on.
“Teerak,” He started. “You know how much I love you, right?” Jeff, confused at the sudden energy shift, nodded once. “Good. Well, I, uh, I did something-Nothing bad, I swear! It’s just, well, the last time I tried to surprise you it didn’t go well and I messed it up, but this time I had help, so really if anything is wrong with it it’s not my fault-”
“P’Alan, what-”
“Do you trust me?” Jeff hesitated slightly answering, but when the older male reached out, he easily stepped forward and slid his hand into the other’s. Once again, he nodded. “Then will you close your eyes, for me? Please?”
“Lhung…”
“Please?” Jeff tried his best to muster up a glare but found himself unable to sustain it in the slightest in the face of his lover’s brown eyes and clearly hopeful expression. He dutifully did as he was asked and immediately felt Alan move to stand behind him, maneuvering them up the stairs and inside their home. He assumed that whatever surprise Alan was so nervous about would be in the bedroom, but instead of being turned towards the stairs, he felt himself pulled towards the living room instead. He could feel both of Alan’s hands on his shoulders as he was shuffled forward (wait, was that another set of footsteps? In the…kitchen? Maybe?) until he lightly hit the glass door that led to the backyard. Alan quickly undid the latch and the duo stepped back out into the warm night air. The elder kept moving them forward, and just as Jeff was sure they would hit the edge of the pool, they stopped once more.
“Don’t open your eyes yet.” Alan muttered. “Before I show you, I owe you an apology.” Jeff, now more confused than ever, tried to turn around, but Alan’s grip on his shoulders remained steady.
“What do you owe me an apogy for?” He asked, exasperated.
“Do you remember when Charlie gave Babe the promise ring and you stopped me from proposing in the garage?” Jeff nodded. “You said that you did want me to ask, but not until after the skill-nifiier drug was complete, and that you wanted to look nice when it happened. You only asked me for two things, but I was so caught up in my own ego and the power surge that I just did whatever I wanted.” Jeff’s breath hitched as his heartbeat picked up, terrified of hoping that what he thought was about to happen was actually taking place.
“Alan…”
“I don’t regret proposing to you, never. I can’t wait to marry you. My only regret is that I didn’t give you the proposal you wanted or deserved…but if you’ll let me, I want to give it to you now.” At that, Alan stepped back and Jeff, unable to wait any longer, blinked his eyes open, letting out a gasp as he looked around.
The entire backyard had been lit up in a mix of candles and fairy lights with long yards of white fabric being draped from the top of the house to the massive trees at the edge of the yard, creating arches across the property. The pool’s edges were covered in red rose petals, while in the middle in white ones were the letters A and J intertwined. He looked down and realized he was standing not on the regular grass but within a circle of beach sand, and when he turned around, his heart practically stopped upon seeing Alan, the love of his life, looking up at him from his position down on one knee, a familiar ring box with a familiar ring in his hand.
“Right here is where you told me about your powers for the first time.” Alan started. “When I invited you over for lunch that day, I only wanted to check in with you, see how you had been settling back in at the garage. You said that everyone who knew about your power ended up afraid of you and that you didn’t want that to happen again. You said…you said that I helped you believe that there were still good people in the world, that not everyone wanted to take advantage of you or had a hidden motive. That I made you comfortable.” Jeff nodded, remembering the day clearly. He had already decided to tell Alan about his ability long before he had arrived at the house. Though there had been a part of him that had been terrified of being wrong again, he had still powered through the confession, positive that trusting the older man would be worth it. “I had already liked you at that point, but hearing you say that, it made me greedy. I already wanted to be around you, but after that, no amount of time spent with you was enough for me. I told you at the skate park that I didn’t want somebody to be “Alan’s Boy” because I only needed you. I told you in the tub that I was going to be your first and your last, and I meant it as much then as I do now.
“I’ll always regret how I got my strength and healing but without them, either of us may have died in the warehouse that day.” Jeff swallowed harshly at the reminder of what had almost been a reality. It had taken weeks after the event for him to stop having nightmares of hearing the gun go off, Alan’s expression as they both realized he was hit, those horrifying seconds when they had stared at each other in fear and anguish as they told each other “I miss you” and waited for the elder to take his final breath. Thankfully, in real life, he hadn’t but in all of Jeff’s nightmares, he had. Jeff would wake up thrashing, his eyes blurred with tears and drenched in his own sweat as he fought out of dreams where he had felt Alan’s heart stop under his palms. And each time, Alan would carefully wrap himself around him, whispering reassurances while gently but firmly holding Jeff’s head to his chest, his ear right over his still beating heart so that Jeff could hear it.
“I’m sorry I lied and I hurt you.” Alan continued, forcing Jeff out of the memories and back into the current moment. “I'm sorry I left you worried and alone for days. I’m sorry I asked you to lean on me and then refused to do the same in return. I’m sorry I made you doubt the strength of our relationship so badly that you wanted to wait to get married. I can tell you sorry every hour of every day until the end of time, and it will still never make up for it, but just know I will spend the rest of my life making sure you know how grateful I am that you still want to be at my side. My life was good before we met, but you being in it made it complete. I used to think there was something wrong with me because my other relationships never worked out. Now I know it’s because it was always supposed to work out with you. Jeff, you are the best thing to ever happen to me, and I know that every iteration of my soul feels the exact same way in every universe, in every timeline, and in every reincarnation cycle. My baby, my teerak, my ai’nuu…will you make me the happiest man in the world by saying you’ll marry me?”
Jeff stared in disbelief, all of his emotions overlapping each other: Surprise at Alan having managed to get this all done in the time they’d been at dinner, Joy because this had been exactly the kind of over the top and romantic speech and proposal he had been expecting and had longed for the moment the other brought up the idea, Nervous because how could anything he ever did in his life going forward even begin to repay whatever deity had decided he was worthy of this life, Anger that his adoptive abuser had almost robbed him of this moment, this life and this man twice, and most consumingly of all, an all burning, soul shattering, and never ending amount of pure Love for the person who in only a few short years had gone from his nothing to his everything. Eventually, Jeff managed to wrangle all of his feelings back down enough to speak, the question rolling off his tongue shocking even himself:
“You lied to me about getting my ring cleaned?”
“No I didn’t!” He squawked, rising to his feet at the accusation. “Look at it! It’s been cleaned! Plus, I had to have a reason to get it away from you. I didn’t want to just take it because then you would think it was missing and I thought you’d be so worried that you wouldn’t want to go to dinner anymore and I couldn’t just ask for it and I had to make sure we would both be out of the house so the guys could come over and set everything up-”
“Yes.”
“Huh?” Jeff threw his head back and laughed before taking a step forward so they were only inches apart.
“I said...yes, I’ll marry you.” He’d barely finished getting the words out before Alan yanked him forward into a hug so tight Jeff momentarily feared his ribs breaking, but even so couldn’t find it in his heart to tell the other to ease up, squeezing him back as tightly as he could. Eventually, they pulled back enough for Alan to pull the ring out of its box and replace it on Jeff’s finger where it rightfully belonged, just as bright as it was the day he put it on him the first time. He met Jeff’s eyes.
“This one was better, right?” Jeff laughed, nodding furiously.
“This one was perfect.” Unable to resist it any longer, Jeff surged forward to meet Alan in a kiss, which the other enthusiastically responded to. Jeff’s hands naturally wandered, one of them ending on the other’s neck while the other one found its way to Alan’s back. Alan’s own were no better, both of them firmly on his hips with the edges of his fingers making thier way beneath Jeff’s shirt. Jeff had just rubbed the spot behind Alan’s ear that always had him rushing to get them undressed as soon as possible, when the other pulled back, regret clearly written all over his face.
“As much as I like the direction this is going, we should probably stop, otherwise, the team is going to get a show.” Jeff blinked in confusion. He moved to ask his fiancé (god his fiancé, and yeah sure, technically they’d been engaged for over a year now, but this time is the one that really counts) what he was going on about, but was stopped as rustling and laughter started to come from the surrounding shrubbery. Alan rolled his eyes. “Alright, you all can come out now.”
“Finally. My legs were starting to cramp.” Jeff watched in mild horror, slight embarrassment, and mostly a heart full of love as out of the bushes fell North, Sonic, Babe and Charlie, his brother rubbing his knees while his brother-in-law let out a groan.
“Well at least somebody wasn’t standing on your foot the whole time.”
“P’Babe, you were standing in the perfect recording spot! I asked you to switch with me like three times!”
“If I had switched with you then I would’t have been able to see! Nobody told you to be a giant.”
“Hey! Don’t talk about my boyfriend like that! If you’re gonna call him a giant, put the word pretty in front of it!”
“What are you all doing here?” The question stopped the foursome in thier argument, all of them turning to stare at Jeff as if he had grown a separate head.
“Of course we’re here. Who do you think set all of this up?” Sonic answered with a huff. “You saw what Lhung did the first time, no way he would have been able to pull this off by himself. Ai’North and I also set up four different cameras so we could capture it from every angle, so you can watch it back as many times as you want, something Lhung absolutely did not have the foresight to think about the first time while that chip was frying his brain.”
“I’m right here.”
“Besides,” Charlie interrupted. “Even if we hadn’t been asked to be on set-up duty, we wouldn’t have missed this for anything.”
“Pete and Chris send their love.” Sonic continued. “Pete tried to move around their schedule in Berlin, but their speech times couldn’t be changed. And Kim’s got a race in less than 48 and was worried he and Kenta wouldn’t make it back to Korea in time, but they’ll see us in a few weeks at the expo.” Jeff nodded in understanding before pausing, his head tilting slightly.
“Where’s Dean?”
“Had to finish the cake.” The group turned at the sound to see Dean coming from inside the house, grinning and wheeling out a large sheet cake on a small cart. Before returning to the garage, Dean’s doctor had suggested that the male look into some sort of low-impact physical therapy, and one of the things he had suggested was taking a baking class to help rebuild the muscle control in his hands and arms. To everyone’s surprise-his own included-Dean turned out to have a knack for baking, and now none of the team’s celebrations were complete without one of his creations. On the cake Jeff could make out individual frosted versions of all of loved ones underneath a banner that said “Congratulations to Alan and Jeff (For the 2nd Time)”. As they all argued over whose drawing looked more like the real-life version, Charlie pulled away from the others to stand beside Jeff.
“Would you have believed me if I said this was going to be our lives five years ago?” He whispered. “Me married, you planning a wedding, completely free from Tony and with a real fa-”
“Family?” Jeff finished for him. He shook his head. “Still hard to believe now. I never wanted a partner or even thought about getting married. I always assumed my powers wouldn’t make a relationship worth it…not till Lhung.” He glanced over, unsurprised that instead of looking at him Charlie was staring at Babe.
“Yeah,” He said on a sigh, not even attempting to downplay his soft expression. “I get the feeling.”
Later that night, after they had taken far too many pictures, had video calls with Pete, Chris, Kim and Kenta, ate far too much cake, and everyone had finally been ushered out the door (Dean had said he’d be spending the night with North and Sonic to give them privacy to celebrate properly), Jeff couldn’t even attempt to keep the smile off his face as he lay besides Alan in their bed, the other male rewatching the video of the proposal for the upteenth time.
“I have to admit Sonic was right.” He said with a sigh. “The multiple camera angles were a good call. Look at how cute you were when I said I wanted to be with you in every life. Ooh, we could get that shot blown up for the wall…” Jeff cleared his throat, the other snapping to look at him. Jeff crossed his arms petulantly.
“You know, this is the second time in one night that you’ve been blatantly ignoring me for your phone.” At that, Alan scoffed.
“To be fair, the first time was because I was making sure everything was going right for a surprise for you, and now, I’m literally watching a video of you.”
“To be fair,” he countered back. “The surprise wouldn’t have been needed if you hadn’t messed up the first time. Besides…wouldn’t you rather interact with the real me over the one on your phone?” The elder paused as he thought it over before turning back to the device in his hand, the edges of his lips curling just slightly.
“I don’t know…the Ai’Noo on my phone is pretty adorable...” Jeff hissed his teeth.
“Well, the Ai’Noo in your bed wants his husband’s undivided attention.” Between one breath and the next, Jeff found himself no longer sitting up on the mattress but instead lying back on it, one of Alan’s hands on his chest firmly holding him down.
“Call me it again.” Jeff blinked in surprise at both the sudden shift in his lover’s tone as well as the change in his position. Alan leaned down towards him, his face void of expression but his eyes large and waiting. Jeff was about to ask what he was talking about when it finally hit him, and he couldn’t help throwing his head back in laughter.
“Lhung, seriously? Is me calling you that gonna be a thing for you now?”
“Call. Me. It. Again.” Under normal circumstances, Jeff absolutely would have opted to tease his partner for much longer before giving in to his whims, but he was far too high on adrenaline, warmth, and just plain love to do so and if saying one little word seemed like it was going to speedrun them in a certain direction, well…
“Husband.” He whispered, deeply pleased when Alan moved even closer so their faces were just inches apart. “Husband,” Jeff repeated louder, fully enjoying watching the full body shiver that went up the other’s spine at the title. “Husband.” Alan let out a groan as if he had been punched and dropped his head into Jeff’s neck, the younger male barely holding in laugh as he reached up to gently grip the strands of hair at the back of the other’s head. “Husband. Husband. Husband. Husband. My husband-” Jeff found his tangent come to an abrupt stop due to the fact that his lips were suddenly fully occupied. Just as he’d craned his neck to deepen the kiss, he heard a loud thud from the other side of the room.
“What was that?”
“My phone.” Alan answered quickly, leaning down to scrape his teeth behind Jeff’s ear. “Needed to free up my hand.”
“So you threw your phone?” The man in question shrugged.
“I’ll get a new one.” He offered easily, using his newly emptied hands to grab the edge of Jeff’s nightshirt and tug it up his body and over his head. His own soon followed, and he moved his body back down to lie directly against his partner’s. “Right now, my husband needs my full attention and what kind of husband would I be if I ignored him?” Jeff briefly contemplated complaining more about the needless device throwing, but concluded it wasn’t important and that he could tease him about it in the morning. For now, the only thing he wanted to do was lean into the joy that the seven-letter word seemed to bring out in the love of his life.
“Definitely not a husband that I’d want to be marrying.”
“And we simply can’t have that.” Jeff smirked, his hands moving back up to wrap themselves around Alan’s neck and tugging him close until not even a thin sheet of paper could fit in the space between thier bodies. With his teeth brushing the edge of the other’s ears, he whispered words that he knew would have sent a version of himself from a few years ago running for the hills, but now all they did was warm him from the inside out.
“Does my husband want to give me another present?”
Before he had left for the night, Babe had joked that the two of them shouldn’t worry about being late to the garage the next day and that he’d use his keys to open up. Jeff had rolled his eyes at the implication.
The next day, when he and Alan slithered into the space well after noon, Jeff hadn’t been able to meet the racer’s eyes. And while it had been partially due to embarrassment, it had mostly been because he had hardly been able to tear his own away from looking at Alan, who always seemed like he was looking right back.