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Joel didn't generally go to the library. He lived in a small town, so therefore it was a small library, and the thing about small libraries in small towns is that they're usually pretty loud and filled with small children. Joel was fine with kids, but really, it's better to study without people screaming in the background.
Unfortunately for him, however, his home had recently become quite similar to the library in that there was always lots of screaming. So he supposed maybe the library would actually be the best option for studying. For once. Less stressful when the people screaming weren't screaming at you.
Except that there was somebody sitting in the study area. Somebody that was very distinctly Scott fucking Smajor.
Joel fucking hated Scott, always making him feel weird things, but it was whatever. Joel was too tired to start a fight.
He plopped down in the seat next to Scott. Scott glanced up and waved, Joel glared back and opened up his textbook. Joel studied for a bit, reading through his textbook and taking notes. But the Great Salmon Scam, as well as just history in general, hadn't ever been too interesting to him. He couldn't help but sneak a glance at Scott beside him every few minutes.
Scott seemed to just be scrolling on Instagram, because of course he was. Why would he ever be at the library to actually, like, read? Or study, since it was the study area? Or do literally anything aside from just sitting there and looking pretty? Er- pretty stupid. Not just pretty.
“Can I help you?” Scott glanced over at Joel, raising an eyebrow. Joel must've been looking too long.
“NO!!” Joel said, far louder than he meant to.
“So are you just going to stare at me, then?”
“N- No! I just- um,” Joel stammered, scrambling to find an excuse as to why he was being weird. His eyes landed on Scott's nails, painted a bright blue. “Of course you're wearing nail polish, cause you're such a fucking f-”
“Give me your hand,” Scott said.
“What?”
“GIVE ME YOUR HAND RIGHT NOW JOEL, IT'S A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH,” Scott screamed.
This earned them a few confused glances from some of the library's patrons, but it was fine.
Bewildered, and kind of scared, Joel offered his hand to Scott, who quickly grabbed it in his own. Scott then went to digging around in his bag for something, holding tightly onto Joel's hand.
Joel stared at Scott's hand. He gave it a few experimental squeezes. It was warm, and soft, and Joel could feel Scott's pulse, steady but fast. Scott said something. Joel didn't hear it. He was too focused on how much Scott's nails perfectly matched his bright blue hair, and looked good against his skintone. Which honestly sounded creepy, but whatever.
Scott's free hand waved over Joel's eyes, bringing him back to the present.
“Joel.”
“Oh- sorry- um. What did you say? I wasn't listening.”
“I know you weren't,” Scott smirked, and void if Joel didn't want to kiss slap that stupid grin off his face, “I said, what color? I've got every color of the rainbow, plus pink and black.”
“Color for what?” Joel had the sneaking suspicion that he'd just missed something.
“Your nails, dumbass.”
“Woah, wait-” Joel tried to pull away. Scott's hold on him remained strong. “I didn't agree to that! I'm not- I'm not a stupid fa- fairy like you!”
“If you don't choose for yourself, I'll choose for you.”
Joel stared at him for a moment. Then he sighed, dropping his head down against the table. “Green. I guess.”
“Aw, I hoped you'd fight it a bit more,” Scott mused, “I would've made us match.”
“No.”
Scott chuckled softly, and Joel felt his hand be gently splayed out on the table. Some odd shaking sound came from Scott's side of the table, though Joel dared not look up to see what it was.
Something cold brushed against the nail of Joel's pointer finger. Joel shuddered, “Feels weird.”
Scott giggled, “You can look, you know. Probably less weird that way.”
“Ugh,” Joel groaned. Despite his complaint, he did prop his head up on his non-captive hand.
The cool brush swiped over Joel's pointer finger a few times, before moving over to his middle, then his ring finger, and then to his pinkie. Then, Scott moved Joel's thumb for easier access, and that was painted as well. Joel watched it all intently.
Once all of the nails on Joel's right hand were painted, Scott sighed. “Well, I won't torture you too much. You can go back to doing whatever you were doing.”
“Oh- wait- really?” Joel's eyes widened. He was mostly relieved, but…maybe a little bit disappointed? For some reason??
“Mhm. You can get it off with a bit of rubbing alcohol.” Scott sounded kind of sad
“Wait- but- don't you have to do the other hand? And do multiple coats, or, or something?” Joel blurted after a moment of hesitation, clapping his un-painted hand over his mouth the moment he realized he'd said it.
Scott immediately brightened up, a genuinely happy smile spreading across his face. Joel had seen that smile on Scott's face many times, but never really directed towards him.
“You'd really want me to?”
“No- of course I don't want you to! I'd- I'd just look weird with only some of my nails painted!” Joel wasn't blushing, what are you even talking about? It's not like he thought Scott's smile was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen or anything like that.
“Mhm,” Scott raised an eyebrow, “Gimme your other hand.”
Joel obliged, and Scott splayed down Joel's hand in much the same manner as he had the other one.
“Then after this one, we let both hands dry for about ten minutes, and then a second coat.”
“I gotta deal with you for like 30 minutes?!”
Scott laughed, “Oh, hush. You had your chance to get out of this.”
Joel rolled his eyes, smiling. His face kind of hurt from how much he'd been smiling, now that he'd thought about it. Since when did he ever smile around Scott?
Scott began painting Joel's nails again, and this time, Joel didn't watch. Well- he didn't watch his hand. Rather, he stared intently at Scott.
Scott was squinting at Joel's hand, like he could barely see it, his brows were furrowed and his tongue was stuck out slightly. He was focusing extremely hard on not messing up. Joel remembered absently that Scott was one of those people who had glasses, but refused to wear them.
Scott's eyes darted up, meeting Joel's, “What're you looking at?”
“Nothing.”
“Are you looking at me?”
“No.”
“Is it because you think I'm pretty?”
“What- NO!”
“Sure,” Scott swiped Joel's skin with the brush rather than the nail on accident, though Joel could swear it was malicious.
“I'm not- I'm not gay, Scott,” Joel murmured.
“Mhm,” Scott nodded. It felt like he was mocking him.
“I'm not!”
“I'm not doubting that, I've seen you kiss Lizzie.”
“Good. Yes. Thank you.”
“Bi, on the other hand…”
Joel made an unintelligible squawking sound.
Scott glanced back up, both eyebrows raised, “Are you having a stroke?”
Joel didn't respond. Scott went back to focusing on Joel's nails. It was an awkward sort of quiet, only interrupted by a baby crying in the children's library.
“I don't get it,” Scott said, startling Joel out of his stupor.
“Don't get what?”
“You.”
“What- What about me?!” Joel sputtered.
“We have a nice moment, and for a moment I think maybe you actually like me, but then you just start spewing homophobic nonsense again,” Scott capped the nail polish bottle and got his phone out, “Ten minute timer, then I'll do a second coat.”
“Wh-”
“And it's not just that! I know you're fully supportive of Gem, so what's the big deal with it being me?”
“It's- it's different with Gem!”
“‘Cause she's a girl, I'm guessing?” Scott tilted his head.
“No! Because- because she's family!” Joel's voice cracked a bit. Scott couldn't keep himself from chuckling.
“Void, you're adorable,” Scott hummed.
“That's not- it's not the point!”
“Then what is the point, Joel?”
“I- I- I don't know!” Joel rested his face in his hands.
Scott stayed quiet, and void, that silence felt oppressive.
Joel peeked over his fingers, looking at everything but Scott as he sighed, “I don't know, okay?”
Scott gently took Joel's hands in his own, prying them from his face and gently resting them back on the table.
“You're gonna smudge the polish, and then I'm gonna have to do another coat, “ he whined. He offered Joel a small, sympathetic smile that made Joel want to punch him in that stupid perfect face of his.
“Yeah. Sorry.”
The rest of the time between coats finished fairly quickly. Joel just watched Scott the whole time, not caring that it was kind of creepy. Scott would stare back every so often, but he'd gone back to scrolling Instagram.
Then, Scott's timer went off, and Joel automatically extended his hands so Scott could get to them.
Scott glanced down at Joel's hands, frowning. He looked back at his phone, then up at Joel, and proceeded to repeat the triangle of glances a few more times.
“So…?” Joel tilted his head.
“Hmm?”
“Timer?”
“Oh, right, yeah, sorry. I just found a cool design I could do on your nails, but I'm not sure if you'd like it or not,” a smirk grew upon Scott's face, “Since painted nails are for fairies and all, and a design is probably even gayer.”
Joel leaned over the table, trying to catch a glimpse of Scott's phone. Scott easily lifted it out of Joel's reach, being much taller than him, and Joel found himself actually growling at this predicament. Scott cackled at this, and Joel immediately felt his face heat up. He sat back down in his seat, straightening his back as straight as it could go.
“Awww,” Scott cooed, “Good boy.”
“I am not a- my band is literally called-” spluttered Joel, unable to find the words.
“I think I'm just gonna do the pattern and surprise you,” Scott said absently.
“I- I- ugh,” Joel gave up on even trying to respond.
Scott dug into his bag, pulling out a tube of black nail polish. Joel raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
Scott unscrewed the cap of the black polish, and brought the brush to Joel’s fingers once more, Joel shuddering the moment it touched his nails.
He watched with rapt attention as Scott began to meticulously paint a checker pattern across Joel’s green nails with the black polish.
“It’ll probably be messy," Scott warned, “I usually just do plain colors for myself, so I’m out of practice. Too much of a hassle.”
“You’re literally just doing this to torture me then?”
“Exactly,” said Scott with a delighted grin.
After finishing Joel’s left hand, Scott wordlessly gestured for his right. As Scott painted, again Joel found himself paying more attention to him than he’d ever wanted to in a million years-- no, make that a billion. Or maybe a trillion. A zillion?
Scott had three freckles underneath his eye, and thinking of his eye again reminded Joel that Scott needed glasses. His glasses were round and shiny blue, if Joel recalled correctly. Joel always thought they looked nice on him. Or- at least, made him look somewhat nice. Oh, who was he kidding-- Scott was hot. And that thought made him want to vomit.
“Why don’t you ever wear your glasses?” Joel blurted.
Scott paused in his focused brushstrokes and glanced up at Joel, confusion evident on his face.
After a few moments, it became clear Scott wasn’t going to respond without further elaboration.
“Sorry, dunno where that came from. ‘S just, you’ve got that stupid squint all the time, cause you can’t blummin’ see!” Joel rambled, not being able to stand the quiet with Scott just looking at him like that, “And it’s not that I care if you can see or not, but you look a lot less ugly with your glasses on. Not that I’m saying you’re pretty! You’re delusional if you think that!”
Scott tilted his head. “Hm.”
“Blummin’ heck, just get back to painting!” His face felt hot. He was blushing. Again.
“Can’t,” said Scott, with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Why not?”
“I’m done.”
Joel’s eyes widened, “Already? How can you be done already?”
Again, Scott shrugged.
“So…that’s it, then?”
“Mhm. Well- you have to wait for them to dry again, but other than that.”
Joel looked down at his nails, actually looked at them, rather than just a passing glance. He had to admit, they looked nice. Bright green, with meticulously painted black checker-board squares. Scott had alternated their sizes on each nail. Was it weird that Joel thought they looked cool? Probably.
Scott cleared his throat, causing Joel to jump in surprise.
“Like ‘em?” Scott asked, face in an undecipherable expression.
Joel hesitated for a moment, before saying in an incredibly small voice, “They’re alright, I guess.”
“Yay!” Cheered Scott, “I knew you’d like them!”
Before Joel could even register what was happening, a strong arm pulled him against Scott’s side. Scott forced his hand up to display the painted nails to his phone camera, taking a selfie of the two of them.
Just as soon as he’d done it, Scott released Joel and began typing away on his phone. After a few moments, Joel’s phone dinged, and he remembered, sheepishly, that he’d forgotten to silence it. Before he could take it out, Scott grabbed his arm again.
“I’m gonna head home, don’t smudge the polish, m’kay?”
Joel blinked. Then nodded rapidly.
“Byeee!” Scott waved, somehow already halfway out the door.
Joel flipped him off.
-
Hours later, at home, Joel finally had a chance to check his phone. Scott had tagged him on Instagram.
Joel’d forgotten he had Instagram, quite frankly. Gem made him download it at one point.
The post Scott had tagged him in was the selfie from earlier, with a caption of, “Bad boys defy gender norms 💙💙💙” It already had over a hundred likes. Fuck, Joel was never going to hear the end of this.