Work Text:
"Can I see your teeth?" Skeppy asked while Bad was mid-sentence.
Bad stopped talking, blinking at the man sitting at the foot of his bed. "Umm, can I ask why?" He tilted his head in curious confusion. He supposed he didn't mind the request, not really, he was just curious as to what he wanted to see. They were just teeth.
Skeppy shrugged, "they look sharp." As if that were an answer. Bad furrowed his brows as an almost unbelieving smile appeared on his face.
"Well, yeah. I'm part demon, they're not gonna be completely human," Bad explained, a small quirk of his lips indicating a hint of amusement. It was silly, and he already forgot the initial start of this conversation as he looked back down at his notebook.
That is until Skeppy was at his side, and he felt the man's tan hand on his left cheek as he was forced to turn and look at the diamond hybrid. "Oh!" He squeaked, Skeppy's face being much closer than what he was used to it being. His cheeks began to feel hot.
"Just let me see," he requested again, though it was more of a demand as he pulled the other's bottom lip downward with the pad of his thumb. His expression was one of curiosity and focus, fixated on Bad's mouth.
The demon swallowed, growing flustered at both the proximity of the other man and the hand actively trying to coax his lips to part. Skeppy wasn't exactly shy when showing affection, he's learned from hanging around the man and a couple of his friends every so often. Typically though, he'd only seen Skeppy share playful nudges and sometimes hugs with others, never getting this close and personal to the point their faces were inches apart.
His heart began to pick up speed. This didn't feel friendly at all. Though he couldn't say he hated it.
"Geppy, I—euh—" he couldn't even finish his thought when Skeppy's thumb dipped into his mouth, prying his jaws apart and leaning in closer to get a better look. Bad would have snapped his teeth shut if it wasn't for Skeppy's immediate tracing of his thumb over Bad's canines. It took all his willpower in that moment to not bite Skeppy's thumb clean off. He didn't want to hurt Skeppy, but the intrusion was sudden and he wasn't sure how to feel about it.
So he pushed the younger man's hand away instead, luckily the diamond obliged and followed Bad's movements. "Sorry," he said immediately, his own cheeks heating up slightly as he realized just how close he moved toward the demon. He made no move to get away, however. He stayed where he was, just with his hand hovering in the space between him and Bad. "I didn—didn't think.. I wasn't thinking," he said with an awkward chuckle, hoping to alleviate some of the tension with amusement.
Bad put his hands up and shook them to reassure Skeppy, "no, it's okay! I'm not mad, don't worry, just.. didn't expect it." It was the truth, but something was missing. Usually he was very against people touching his face. He thought it was gross, he didn't know where their hands have been, but with the diamond he wasn't exactly repulsed by it. He could still taste the salt from Skeppy's thumb when he ran his tongue over his teeth.
The two men sat in silence for a few a minutes, both of them looking off to opposite sides. There was something in the air between them; it felt heavier. Just barely, but enough to tell.
"Do you.. still wanna see?" Bad asked cautiously, keeping his gaze at his socked feet that stayed planted on the floor. Skeppy looked up from the folds of the sheets he was staring at.
"Y-yeah! If that's okay," he said, failing to hide the excitement in his tone. "I'm sorry again for sorta forcing you, by the way," he reiterated. He thought it necessary, even if Bad didn't seem all that mad about it.
The demon shrugged, "'s okay." He turned his head toward the diamond, his body following suit soon after until they were facing each other completely. His left leg and tail were the only things hanging off the bed. Bad jerked his head to the side to get his bangs out of his eyes; it didn't work, as per usual. He leaned forward a little, his right palm being his anchor on the bed as he opened his mouth slowly. His face was heating up again as Skeppy took a closer look. He moved his eyes away from the man in front of him, hoping he wouldn't notice the honeyglow on his cheeks. He felt vulnerable in a way, but he didn't mind it. Not in front of Skeppy.
Skeppy hardly wasted any time, leaning forward and scanning his eyes over the other's teeth, namely his canines. It looked like he had eight of them in total; his premolars replaced by a second, slightly smaller set. The shape of them were reminiscent of a dog's, if Skeppy had to describe them. They were more pronounced than a regular human's, and Skeppy could tell even when the other had his mouth closed. That was what interested him in the first place.
The diamond reached his hand back up again, but paused and asked, "can I touch you?" He made himself flustered this time, "er, you know what I mean.." his cheeks puffed out as he waited for an answer. It was his turn to be flustered.
Bad was a little caught off guard by the wording, but couldn't help but chuckle at the other's embarrassment. With his mouth still open, he opted to a nod rather than verbally respond. And then Skeppy's right hand was cradling his left jaw again, his thumb rested on his cheek as he pulled the demon closer.
"They're not too sharp," Skeppy commented as he moved his thumb to run it over the taller of the two canines on the bottom left side of his mouth. The one on his upper jaw grazed his knuckle before Bad opened his mouth further. It felt.. weird, having someone barehandedly touching his teeth, inspecting them. It was like being in a very intimate dentist's office.
Skeppy moved onto the other side of Bad's mouth, gliding over his bottom incisors with his right thumb until he got to the other cuspids. "Cool that you have extra ones," he mumbled, pressing the pad of his thumb into said 'extra' tooth. "They're not too sharp.. how bad do you think it'd hurt if you bit me?" he said without thinking. Something stirred in Skeppy's stomach at the thought of that. Bad scrunched his brows slightly, eyes squinting down at the man who was playing in his mouth. Up until then, he was rather relaxed for a man who had thumbs and fingers feeling through the grooves of his teeth. He tried saying something, but all that came was unintelligible humming from the back of his throat.
"Huh?" Skeppy forgot Bad couldn't speak properly like this. "Oh, sorry," he finally removed his fingers from the other's teeth with a nervous giggle. "What'd you say?"
Bad took a moment to move his jaw around, flexing the muscles around there to help the soreness that came from holding it open for so long. Skeppy's eyes were locked on the movement, watching as Bad ran his tongue over his teeth. It was mesmerizing. For some reason..
wiping a bit of dribble from the corner of his lips with the back of his hand. "I said, that's a random thing to say," Bad finally answered, but he didn't seem too weirded out by it. "Obviously me biting you is gonna hurt, definitely more than a regular human bite," he said like it was something being questioned.
Skeppy rolled his eyes at the obviousness of the statement, a smile beginning to form on his lips. "Yeah, duh," he said Skeppy wiped his fingers on his pants to free them from the remnants of Bad's spit. "I was just asking how strong of a bite you have!"
"Well I don't know, I don't go around biting people, Sgeppy," Bad began smiling as well, he always found Skeppy's to be quite contagious. They both giggled a little, Skeppy moving to playfully push at Bad's shoulder. That was a more friendly touch; something he was used to, could react to with ease. Though Bad wondered vaguely if maybe it could be more. Their giggles died down, and they were still facing each other.
They sat in silence for a bit then, both of them searching for words to say. Skeppy found something first, "that was kinda weird, wasn't it?"
Bad thought it was. It wasn't everyday that your friend asked to look at your teeth so closely. Bad had a cousin who was in school to be a dentist, not even she asked to take such a close look at his teeth, and dentists were much weirder about teeth than most people. At least from his experience. "Yeah, it was," Bad agreed. There was a nearly imperceptible wince from Skeppy. Bad made sure to hold no judgement in his voice. "Why'd you do that?"
Skeppy's face reddened slightly, looking everywhere but Bad's face. "Um, well.. actually no, why'd you let me," he deflected, both not wanting to answer and wanting to hear Bad's. He can't imagine himself saying yes to a request like that. Well, maybe if Bad were to ask.. but Skeppy's weird, they established that.
Bad opened his mouth to answer, brows furrowed like he was about to play into their usual joking banter, but then he stopped. His face softened in thought. "I don't know," he answered truthfully, "I guess I knew you wouldn't.. do anything? Or something? Does that make sense?" He knew it didn't, but he asked anyway.
"Aww," Skeppy's lips curled into his signature mischievous grin, "you trusted me!" His voice was higher than normal, a playful tone in his words as he poked at Bad's arm. It made the demon's ears burn.
"N-no! I mean, if you look at it that way, I guess, but that's not.. whatever, you're the one who was messing around with my teeth!" He brought the subject back around the the initial start of this whole debacle, though Skeppy stayed giggling. "Why'd you do that?" He sounded more accusatory this time, just wanting to change the subject as quickly as possible.
Skeppy's giggles dialed back as he rested a hand on Bad's shoulder. He shrugged, "j'st wanted to." He looked coyly at the paler man, snickering when his eye twitched.
"Geppy, that doesn't make any sense! Why would you want to look at them? You didn't change your major to dentistry or something, did you?" He questioned further, the vague answer simply not cutting it for him.
When he only got more non-answers, he let out an exasperated, "Geppyyyyyy!" The diamond giggled at the way the other said his name. He knew that Bad could pronounce it correctly, has on multiple occasions, but for some reason this little nickname was used the most by the taller. "Is it just something you do to all of your friends?"
"Hmhmhmm, no," he giggled again, bringing up a sweater paw to hide his slowly reddening face. "Just you," he said boldly, dropping his hands and leaning in toward the demon.
"Just me?" He asked for clarification, to which he got a nod in response. That was.. interesting. "Why?"
Skeppy shrugged again, "I dunno, man. I just think you're neat." This wasn't the first time he's flirted with BadBoyHalo, if you could even call it that. It wasn't his usual choice of wording, but he thought Bad would appreciate it. Even if he's so very oblivious to any of his advances.
But Bad doesn't miss the wording, not this time. Skeppy thinks he's neat. Not his teeth or anything, but him. As a whole person. It was stupid, but he could feel butterflies swarming around in his stomach. "You mean my teeth?" He tried to give Skeppy an out, some way to say it was a mix-up, that he didn't mean it in that way.
Skeppy doubled down, "no, you in general. You're a neat guy, BadBoy. Your teeth just add to that." As Skeppy leaned forward, Bad leaned back. His face was glowing with blush and his heart rate was picking up.
"I think.. you're neat too, S'geppy," he said cautiously, trying to manage deep breaths in order to calm down. The diamond in front of him made that hard; with his sultry brown eyes, daring smirk, the diamonds encrusted on his skin glinting just slightly from the sunlight streaming in from the window behind Bad. It was golden hour, the sun setting.
With a gulp, he stopped moving away, making it so Skeppy could actually get closer. He didn't know exactly what the shorter man was planning, but was it stupid to hope it was a kiss?
Their breaths intermingled as Skeppy just started to close the gap between them when the door burst open, and a distracted Foolish came walking into the dorm. "Man has it been a long day! Three exams down, two more to go— oh," Foolish finally caught sight of the two on Bad's bed. Well, Skeppy was on the bed. Bad himself was standing rigidly a couple feet away from the furniture and Skeppy. His notebook and pencil had fallen to the floor in a clatter, his face was beet red and his eyes were blown wide in a way that looks like he just got caught with his hand in a cookie jar.
Looking at Skeppy, he was also a bit tense, but much less so than Bad. He had one leg crossed over the other, leaning forward so his chin was rested on his fist. He looked just a little ticked off.
"Did I interrupt something?"
Skeppy opened his mouth to answer, but Bad beat him to the punch, "no, not at all! Skeppy was just leaving. Finished up our assignments and I am tuckered out! Yep, nothin' to see here, goodbye Skeppy, goodnight!" He insisted and started ushering the diamond out of his and Foolish's dorm in a hurry. Skeppy made protests as he was forced to gather his stuff and leave, but Bad managed to strong-arm him out the door, all but slamming it once he was out.
A sigh and "goodnight, Bad! Foolish!" Was heard before shuffling behind the door. Bad let out a breath he didn't even realize he was holding.
He wasn't out of the woods yet, though. He looked to Foolish who stood there with a cheeky smile on his face. Bad blinked, schooling his terrified expression into something more neutral, nonchalant. He stood straighter and flicked his hair out of his face. "What?" He asked cooly.
Foolish shook his head, arms crossed, "BadBoyHalo, you dog!" His expression was one of almost pride, a smug smile as Bad pieced together what the shark must've been thinking.
"What? No, I— it's not what you think!" He tried to save himself, but Foolish put his hands up to placate him.
"No, no, no, I know what you were up to. You and Skeppy are—" two hands slapped over Foolish's mouth, making the taller man laugh behind them.
"Me and Skeppy are friends! Nothing was going on!" He hissed, brows furrowed and nostrils flared. His face was red again. He removed his hands from Foolish's face, a stern yet embarrassed expression on his own.
"Alright, whatever you say, Bad," Foolish said smugly. The way he said it told Bad that he didn't believe him at all, making him groan and slap a hand to his forehead.
"Oh my goodness, this is so embarrassing, just— I don't wanna talk about this," Bad said, brushing past Foolish to pick up his things from the floor.
"Aw, c'mon, it's nothing to be ashamed of," Foolish said slyly, shrugging off his backpack and setting it on the floor next to his bed. "I'm glad you're putting yourself back out there, you really need it," he continued, taking out a notebook and textbook. He should probably get studying for his next two tests.
"I am not talking about this right now," Bad said with a growl. It was one of warning, one that lost any bite to Foolish after the years they've known each other.
"Fine, fine, whatever. Just sayin', he seems to like you a lot," Foolish whistled as he got set up at his desk.
"Shut up," Bad lamented and stuffed his notebook into his bag for the next day. None of his stuff was due tomorrow anyway.
Foolish snickered before diving into his studies, leaving Bad to clean up in silence. The silence gave him a moment to think. The more he thought, the less he wanted to. He laid down in his bed with a sigh when he was all done cleaning up, pulling out his phone to see a few messages from Skeppy. They weren't angry or anything, a simple 'cya 2moro' and the usual emojis he sent. His cheeks tinged red, though it was more subtle this time.
"Do you really think he likes me?" Bad asked, almost too vulnerable for his best friend's liking.
Foolish turned in his seat with the most deadpan expression. "Dude. I just walked in on you two probably about to kiss or something. Pretty sure he likes you."
"We weren't!" Foolish rolled his eyes and went back to his textbook. "Whatever... Thanks," he mumbled and pulled up a game on his phone. He needed to be thinking about anything but Skeppy in that moment.