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“Are you awake?” The first thing Nicholas hears through the speaker of his phone. He's still half in a dreamland, eye shut, his limbs are refusing to move. Maki sounds nervous and that is what makes him wait for the explanation instead of just ending the call right away.
“No,” he mumbles, and it takes him a few more seconds to clear his throat. “Why the fuck are you calling me,” he pauses to look at the time, “at fucking ten in the morning?”
He has no plans for today, obviously because it's Saturday, and he has his legal day off. First in two weeks, actually. So now he's really irritated and wants to sleep. And he doesn't know what Maki should say to make him not hang up.
“It's an emergency, Nico,” he almost whines, and Nicholas frowns at the sound of his voice. “I think we should kiss.”
Well, maybe Nicholas is still sleeping. Maybe his brain is just making it up. Right? There's no way Maki just said what he said.
“Bye, call me when you're not high, alright?” Nicholas is about to click on that red button, when he hears swearing.
“I'm being serious right now, I'm not high, what the fuck?”
Yeah, of course he's not. It's a basic thing to call your best friend in the morning and tell them this shit.
Everyone is doing this on a daily basis.
Nicholas groans, rolling on the bed to lie on his back, eyes fluttering shut as he takes a deep breath.
“Bro, that's- Did you hear what you just said?”
“I said that we need to kiss,” Maki sounds like he's explaining something really obvious.
“Yeah, no shit,” Nicholas clicks his tongue, annoyed already. “Context?”
Maki must've done something incredibly stupid, because there's no way he just woke up and decided to do all of this. Out of boredom.
A few seconds there's no answer, and Nicholas even opens his eyes to check if the call is still on. It is, Maki's just silent.
“I just thought why not. We've never done this before,” he's probably shrugging as he always does when he offers all sorts of crap. “Haven't you ever thought about it?”
“I did. Just right now. About punching you in the face,” Nicholas mumbles, running his hand through his bleached hair. “No but for real- Are you serious?”
His sleep fades into the air as he sits up straight on the bed.
Maki hums in the response. “I am, Nico. I know it sounds weird, but I just want to know how it feels to kiss you. Is this bad?”
He asks genuinely, voice small, and Nicholas suddenly feels guilty. His best friend is now probably overthinking everything, there's no place to joke.
Which is strange, because that's literally their way of communicating – joking, teasing and bickering.
“As long as you know you're gay, there's nothing wrong in thinking about kissing a man,” Nicholas says, biting the inside of his cheek. “You know it.”
“I do,” Maki lets out a nervous laugh. “But really… Have you?”
Nicholas doesn't know what to say.
Because he thought about it more than once. He thought about kissing Maki more times than he should’ve, because they're best friends.
Still every time Maki says something hilarious, laughs so hard he starts leaning onto him, every time there's no space between their bodies, Nicholas starts panicking.
He enjoys Maki's presence a bit too much, he loves it when he's coming over and they're just spending some time together. He hates it when he can't fall asleep after that, thinking about hundreds of what if’s.
What if he'd just kissed him the moment they got a bit drunk and started bickering about something stupid?
What if he'd just said what's in his mind when Maki asks jokingly: “Bro, what's wrong?”
What if-
“You wanna come over?” Nicholas blurts out and shuts his eyes immediately, heart starts pounding.
“Like- Right now?”
“Yeah, right now. You're literally living two floors above.”
Maki takes a deep sigh, and Nicholas starts to regret his words, but then he hears an unsure: “Alright? But you- Make sure to brush your teeth.”
“What?”
“‘Cause I'm really gonna kiss you,” Maki says and then everything Nicholas can hear is the beeping and his own heartbeat.
What the fuck.
Nicholas sits for a minute or so, not moving at all, eyes glued to the screen of his phone. Then he cusses under his breath and gets up, heading to the bathroom.
He's really doing this. He's- Are they going to kiss?
Nicholas’ head feels heavy as he starts to brush his teeth, looking at the mirror and blushing even more, because why's he so flustered?
He doesn't bother to make his hair look neat, because that's not gonna happen. He fell asleep with his hair still wet, so now he has no choice but to deal with the result.
His pajama looks dumb, but Maki loves it. He literally bought it for him, so of course he does.
When the door opens quietly, Nicholas can feel the heat spreading up his neck. They know each other's codes, so yeah, Maki doesn't even think about knocking.
No manners, but at least he's hot.
“Nico?” He says as soon as he takes off his shoes and smiles widely. Nicholas is already standing in front of him, arms crossed, head tilted to the side. “Oh, are you seducing me?” Maki raises his brow, bites on his lip, his gaze sliding up and down.
Nicholas just huffs and rolls his eyes.
His pajama t-shirt just slides off his shoulder and he's really sick of fixing it, so-
“Haven't you seen my shoulder before?”
The look Maki gives him makes him shiver. He has never seen him like this before.
So frank and confident.
“You look hot in this,” Maki says while taking a step forward.
No way he really means it. Nicholas is in this fucking pink pajama with Pokémon characters on it. He looks stupid, silly and probably tired. Everything but hot. Maki is clearly out of his mind.
“You sick.”
“I’m not gonna say something cliché,” Maki chuckles. “I know you thought about it.”
Nicholas wrinkles his nose and shrugs briefly. “Maybe?”
Another step, and there's no space between them now. Maki bites on his lip, not knowing what to do with his hands, so he just puts them on Nicholas' waist.
It makes both of them inhale sharply.
So intimate.
“You probably thought I was gonna say something like,” he squints and pouts, and Nicholas can't help but his gaze flicker down to his lips. “I'm sick because of you? Right? Or maybe… That you should cure me?” He swallows visibly. There's a pause before he says: “We're crazy.”
It comes out almost like a whisper.
“You're crazier,” Nicholas licks his lips. “You called me and- It's your fault.”
He gasps when Maki leans down and captures his lips in a kiss. His whole body relaxes, legs suddenly go numb and he feels like he's about to fall.
But Maki holds him firmly, hands still on his waist, squeezing and stroking, pulling him closer.
It's their first time kissing each other, but it feels like they've done this million times before.
“You didn't answer though,” Maki mutters under his breath, leaving a kiss on Nicholas' cheek, making him frown.
“If I haven't- Do you think I'd be standing here and kissing you?” He clicks his tongue, wrapping his hands around Maki's neck. “Hell, when did you become so buff,” he mumbles and looks him in the eye. “Do you think you can lift me?”
“You're not even my lifting weight, of course I can.”
And something snaps in Nicholas' mind. It's hot. It's attractive.
Maki's attractive.
Nicholas kisses him again, bites his lips and licks them right after. He feels Maki's hands under his t-shirt, exploring his back and chest, brushing over his hard nipples.
Fuck it, he thinks and pulls back a bit, breathing heavy.
“Wanna shower together?” Nicholas lets out breathless, and almost screams when Maki scoops him and lifts him in his arms in a bridal style, as if he weighs nothing.
He didn't know he'd enjoy being manhandled that much.
Now he knows.