Work Text:
There is a new crescent moon shaped scar next to Jesper’s lip.
“What's this?” Wylan asks, and for once in his life, Jesper jerks away from Wylan’s feather light hands. Wylan sighs.
“I thought you said you weren't going out with Kaz this weekend,” Wylan says, and disappointment shrouds his features.
“He asked,” Jesper replies, not explaining any further, and he manages a smirk. “You know you're a part of the Dregs, too, merchling.”
Wylan rolls his eyes, ignoring the nickname. “Only because I have to be. I don't throw myself into danger every night.”
“He asked,” Jesper repeats, a little more desperately.
The corner of Wylan’s lip turns down. “You could have said no. He wouldn't have killed you.”
Jesper shrugs. “He might.”
It's true. Kaz is remarkably ruthless for a high schooler. Then again, he does run a six person gang of similarly talented teenagers.
Wylan opens his mouth to reply, but the school bell rings and the teacher at the front of the room starts talking.
Jesper pulls out his notebook and starts taking notes, mostly just to read them to Wylan later.
Wylan’s notebook stays in his backpack crisp and unopened, blank.
Kaz Brekker had saved Jesper's life, and neither of them forget debts very easily.
But the reason that Jesper finds it difficult to refuse Kaz (and, by extension, Inej) is less about the debt, and more about love.
Neither Jesper or Inej deserve Kaz, Kaz with his vicious jawline and gloved hands, but they are drawn to him regardless.
Though, much to Jesper’s bitterness, Kaz is hopelessly hopelessly straight (Jesper isn’t blind; he sees how Kaz looks at Inej) and Jesper is hopelessly hopelessly not.
Wylan makes everything different.
Wylan helps him drown in cheery bickering rather than Kaz’s chilly silence, Wylan’s golden curls a complete contrast to Kaz’s darkness.
Wylan is why Jesper is glad that his only talent other than sharpshooting is writing, because he could pen stories and sonnets from his moments with him.
Wylan is the reason Jesper wonders whether he's even in love with Kaz in the first place.
“Read it again,” Wylan demands softly and Jesper flips the pages back to the beginning of the notes. Wylan’s toes brush against Jesper’s thigh from where he's sitting on the other side of the bed. Jesper thumps his head against the wall behind him.
It's been an hour since Jesper’s father’s grocery store—the one he lives above—closed and Jesper has already read through the notes twice.
“I think you just like listening to my voice,” Jesper teases and Wylan’s cheeks redden—Jesper relishes in how easy it is to fluster him.
“Maybe,” Wylan says, and crosses his arms over his chest. “Read.”
Jesper reads, and when he goes to sleep that night, he dreams of sunshine instead of crows.
“Jesper, are you free tonight?” Kaz asks. His voice is gravelly; for the hundredth time, Jesper cannot believe that he's a high schooler like the rest of them.
(Jesper can't believe he’s a high schooler either. He runs the streets of Ketterdam at night with the rest of them, and comes back to school in the morning and work at his father’s grocery store in the afternoon.)
Jesper avoids Kaz’s bitter coffee eyes.
“Wylan and I have something planned.”
Kaz nods. “Ah. I'll ask Inej,” he says and turns away, cane thumping as he goes down the hallway.
It should make Jesper jealous; it doesn't bring anything but relief.
He calls Wylan. “Dinner's on me.” A pause. “It’ll be like a date.”
He can almost hear Wylan’s blush.
“So, is this?” Wylan asks. They're sitting on a park bench, ice cream cones in their hands.
Jesper raises an eyebrow. “Is this what?” He licks a stripe off of Wylan’s mint chocolate chip. Wylan pouts and takes a chunk off of Jesper’s peanut butter.
“Is this a date?” he clarifies, looking down at his sneakered feet.
Jesper winks. “If you want it to be.”
He's not thinking of Kaz, who’s probably off swindling kruge off of some traveling businessman.
He's thinking of Wylan, who’s next to him, shining hair and eyes and lips.
“I do,” Wylan says, and then looks up into Jesper’s gray eyes. “Do you?”
“I'm not in love with Kaz anymore,” Jesper replies, and somehow, it answers the question.
“Oh?” Wylan says, smiling.
Jesper takes another lick of Wylan’s ice cream.
The next night, Wylan rips the notes out of Jesper’s hands and replaces them with a book. “Read.”
Jesper lifts an eyebrow. “Read?”
“Yes, Jesper, read,” Wylan says, exasperatedly. “I can't do it myself, can I?”
He mumbles something else that Jesper can't catch. “What?” Jesper asks.
“Is your vocabulary limited to one word questions?” Wylan shoots back and sometimes Jesper wonders why the Dregs had turned him from a sophisticated merchant’s son to a trash talking criminal. Wylan was surprisingly good at the latter.
“What did you say?” Jesper amends.
Wylan scowls and blushes. “I like your stupid voice, alright?”
Jesper halts for a second, fingers halfway through turning a page, before his face splits into a grin. “Alright.”
Jesper reads, and Wylan’s head finds its way into his lap. Jesper absentmindedly runs his fingers through Wylan’s curls, and only realizes that Wylan is asleep when he looks down to see if he's listening.
Something untangles in Jesper’s heart. Wylan’s eyelashes fan over his cheekbones and his hands are curled in the bottom of Jesper’s shirt, knuckles brushing feather light against his dark skin.
Jesper doesn’t have the heart to move Wylan. He leans his head against the wall and tucks his toes into the bedsheets and watches Wylan until he falls asleep.
The first time that Kaz comes to school without his gloves on, he's holding Inej’s right hand.
At lunch, Nina laughs and congratulates them. Jesper teases Inej and Wylan grins and Matthias scowls like he always does.
“Me and Nina, Brekker and the Wraith, who's next?” Matthias grumbles under his breath and then stops suddenly.
Four pairs of eyes flick to Jesper and Wylan.
Jesper smirks and grabs Wylan’s hand under the table.
Later, he swears that, just for a second, he saw Kaz smile.
The others don't believe him.
Jesper continues reading the book.
“How about you read it?” Jesper asks (pleads) a few more chapters through. “We’ve been working on your reading.”
“Nah,” Wylan says, looking up at Jesper. “Like I said, it's your voice.”
Jesper suddenly feels like kissing him, but he restrains himself, and opens the book again.
Somewhere between the parts where the love interests meet and where the love interests kiss, Jesper changes their names to Jesper and Wylan.
When the characters kiss, Jesper just goes on reading.
Wylan looks up at him with his shining shining eyes.
“Are we dating?” Wylan asks after Jesper’s finished reading, and sometimes, Jesper decides, he hates him.
“Didn't you ask me this already?”
“That was about a single date. This is about dating.”
“Then you’ll remember what I said to you. Same thing applies.”
Wylan’s eyebrows scrunch together. “You're shit at this.”
Jesper has the decency to look offended for a second. “Hey.”
“We’re apparently dating but you won't do anything about it.”
Jesper crosses his arms, but there's a smile forming under his tongue. “What do you want me to do about it?” Jesper says back, even though he has a pretty good idea of what he wants to do to Wylan.
“This,” Wylan says and he sits up, positioning himself so he's kneeling in Jesper’s lap.
He puts his hands on Jesper’s cheeks and presses his lips to Jesper’s.
Wylan kisses gently but insistently, like he's never done it before. He probably hasn't. It thrills Jesper a little bit, that he's Wylan’s first kiss, that Wylan wants him like this.
“Come on,” Wylan whispers after a few seconds. “Do something.”
Jesper kisses him back.
“Jesper,” Wylan says between kisses and it's the best way that Jesper has ever heard his name. “You sure that you're not in love with Kaz?”
Loving Kaz had never made him feel like this, had never let him feel like this.
“Positive,” Jesper replies in a dry voice and Wylan smiles, settling into Jesper’s lap and wrapping his legs around Jesper’s waist.
“Wylan,” Jesper hisses as Wylan kisses down to Jesper’s jaw.
“This is fun,” Wylan whispers.
“I hate you,” Jesper whispers back.
“No, you don't.”
“No, I don't.”
Wylan moves his lips to the crescent moon shaped scar near Jesper’s mouth.