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Jack wakes up twice in the night, once to take a leak, and once for no good reason at all. Both times, Robby’s sacked out beside him, bleeding warmth into the sheets, looking weary but younger somehow. If Jack weren’t just this side of exhausted, he’d be tempted to kiss him, to reach out and touch. Instead, both times, he crawls back into bed and lets himself drift off again, soothed by the sound of Robby’s breathing. It’s been a while since someone else shared his bed, and it’s a comfort in and of itself to scoot close to the steady heat of Robby’s body, to fall asleep a hands-breadth apart from him, to know he could reach out if the impulse took.
When he wakes the third time he’s on alert before he’s done much more than open his eyes. Robby’s lying flat on his back, sheets clutched at his chest, staring at the ceiling. The lazy curl of his body in sleep is gone. He’s rigid, his jaw tight, and Jack sighs softly as he rolls onto his side.
“If you’re thinking of leaving, I’m glad you stayed,” he offers, voice rough.
Robby smiles mirthlessly, tightly. “I wasn’t about to run after you . . .”
“After I what?”
Robby’s cheeks heat, pinking up under Jack's gaze, and Jack, despite the surreal feel to the moment, finds it aggravatingly charming. Robby chews on his bottom lip and scrubs a hand over his face. “I just can’t believe this is how I end up in your bed.”
Now this is interesting, Jack thinks, and he picks at the sheet right by Robby’s shoulder. “So you’re saying you’d considered the other ways you might?”
Robby colors more deeply. “Point is, I fucking . . . collapsed into it. Dragged my mess right into your place and . . .”
“Back up,” Jack says. “I’m more interested in the first part.”
“First part?”
“The fact that you’ve been thinking about how you’d end up here.”
“Jack.”
“C’mon, man. You think I care about anything other than the fact you survived yesterday? You think I think less of you because you knew this is where you’d be safe?”
Robby pulls a face, squirms a little beneath the sheets. “This is just not . . . when I thought about it . . .”
Jack hums a little, pleased. “So you did think about it.”
“Yes, I thought about it, okay? I thought about fucking you and . . .” Robby stops short.
“Oh, that’s how it was gonna go?” Jack feels his mouth lift into a smirk. “You wanted this ass?”
Robby groans deeply before shifting to his side and looking Jack right in the eye. “Can we not?”
“I don’t think we can, actually.” Jack’s grinning now.
“We haven’t even . . .”
“Brother, I kissed you last night.”
“On my forehead.”
“You wanted me to go right for your dick?”
Robby huffs a breath of laughter despite himself, soft and helpless. “No. I just . . .”
“I’m not kissing you now.”
Robby looks affronted. “Okay.”
“Your mouth has to taste like ass, and I’m not getting my tongue in there to find out.”
Robby raises both eyebrows. “Because yours tastes of . . .”
“I’m just saying you should go brush your teeth. Now. I’ll follow.”
Robby’s expression hard to read. A little fond, a little exasperated perhaps. “Jack.”
“Michael.”
“This is not how relationships start.”
Jack makes a show of thinking that over, then drags himself closer, propping himself up on one elbow. “Our relationship did not begin last night.”
Robby opens his mouth to say something, but Jack quells the attempt with a raised eyebrow.
“Second, we can do whatever we want. We are grown-ass fucking men, Robinavitch, and who’s going to know? You about to call Dana, tell her I made you brush your teeth before I’d fuck you?”
Robby’s expression settles into something wicked. “Oh, now who’s fucking who, huh?”
“You’re missing the point.”
Robby’s gaze drops to Jack’s mouth, skims over his jaw and across his forehead, comes back to his eyes. “Asshole,” he whispers, and lifts his head to press a warm, close-mouthed kiss to Jack’s lips.
Jack’s whole body fills up with warmth. It’s ridiculous how gone he is over this guy. “You’ll find a spare toothbrush under the sink,” he murmurs against Robby’s mouth. “It’s still in its packaging.”
“I said what I said,” says Robby, but he pulls back and slips out of bed, and Jack rolls onto his back to watch him go, to savor the fact that he’s coming back.