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Nox felt a bitter chill run down his spine. He sat up from atop Chase’s pillow and looked at the giant human sleeping next to him. After eagerly convincing Nox to sleep with him the previous night, Chase had hogged the blanket all night. He laid flat on his back, arms bunched up where he squeezed the bundle of fabric.
Nox didn't mind much during the night. He'd already been granted a wish, so the little key could make no complaints. Sleeping with a giant Chase. The thought alone sent butterflies loose around his stomach, and by the time it was actually happening, warm feelings left him too fuzzy to even consider being cold.
Since morning had arrived, however, the cold had forced its way into the key’s body. The chill of night time was still settled over the room, the sun not yet having warmed the day up as it crawled past the horizon. He begrudgingly complied to daybreak’s beckoning, draping a close to his wonderful night of sleeping with Chase.
Movement tugged his attention towards the sleeping giant. Nox looked at Chase, whose head laid flat against his pillow. He hadn't yet let the novelty of seeing Chase at this size wear off. Quite honestly, he wasn't sure it ever would. Everything felt too big, after all. This giant world, his giant feelings, and… a giant Chase. Nox could never let go of a novelty this huge, no matter how small the hands hanging on were.
An idea crossed his mind.
It was a horrible, awful, terrible idea. Too often did bad ideas cross his mind. Nox would consider sleeping with Chase to be one of those bad ideas… but only Nox knew that his fantasies didn't end there. He'd take these thoughts to the grave with him, of course, but the lists of thoughts were just as long as his feelings were big.
He kept staring, unable to tear his eyes away from his boyfriend. Nox could only make out the human’s side profile, which was sideways laying down no less, but the more he stared, the more his idea trickled in to invade his thoughts. Nope, nope, nope. Absolutely not.
But he could.
Wanting to do anything romantic with a giant must be disgusting. To want a giant to do romantic things to him- Chase would surely be appalled. But… Chase was his boyfriend. And Nox was cold. He’d already begun playing out scenarios and logistics for his idea. If it went wrong, he could deflect and blame Chase. It was his fault for stealing the blanket, obviously. Besides, how was Nox supposed to know that Chase only liked him as a human? (Nox already knew. He'd assumed as much before they'd even met in person, but he could feign ignorance. He'd play into his denial because it hurt to acknowledge what he knew must be true)
Nox bit his lip, feet moving the distance to get closer to the human. It was strange how much easier it was to move than to speak. He could force a foot forward, but to ever ask for such things would catch words in his throat till he choked. Maybe words would resign himself too intensely to his own thoughts. They'd force him to share those thoughts with someone else. The thoughts would ransack his mind, and his mind would be plagued by every twitch in the other’s expression, dreading the reaction to his own feelings laid bare. Should he ever explain just a piece of his mind, then it'd leave the rest up to interpretation. He's weird. Gross. And he couldn't even defend himself against another’s assumptions, because he hadn’t even convinced himself that he wasn't gross.
But the thoughts in his mind were as sweet and enticing as candy. Disgustingly so, they beckoned him closer, till their allure surged too pungently to ignore. Having already slept with Chase, Nox’s fantasies felt too close to ignore any longer. He gambled his dignity for a chance at another wish, ducking his head under the soft fabric of Chase's shirt.
And was it soft. More so than even the shirt, Nox felt Chase’s skin. Perfectly smooth– sensitive, uncalloused and soft as any stomach would be. His hands sunk into the thin skin of Chase’s midriff. It radiated heat, which trapped under the fabric and created an entire cavern of warm air to melt in.
The key swallowed down his trembling nerves and continued crawling up the human’s side. The twitch of muscles under his feet enthralled him, reminding him that the entire expanse he stood on was Chase. All of this was Chase.
Nox kept burrowing under the human’s shirt until he found his way to the chest. He curled up against it, feeling the sway of breath and rhythm of a heart beneath him. The key's thoughts spared no time in shaming himself. He shouldn't feel this good pressed up against a human– under the human's clothes– He felt horrible.
Or at least he would have, if not for those very same things being the most incredible feelings of his life.
“What are you doing?”
Nox stiffened. His curled up pose tightened, as if he could squeeze himself out of existence entirely. “What does it look like I'm doing?”
“Um, I don't know, it looks like a tiny lump moving around under my shirt.”
“Mm…” Nox had been dreading this. He reviewed all of his deflections and sassy retorts he’d been preparing, but saying them out loud would be much harder than just planning them out in his head. When the key finally spoke, the words barely emerged. They were quiet, struggling to sequence themselves past a single word at all. “...Was cold.”
Chase hummed. “I thought keys didn't feel things as much as humans.” Nox could feel the vibrations in Chase’s chest as he spoke. It rose and fell, following the cadence of the words.
“We don’t. But we like feeling.” It was amazing every time: the way Chase so easily quelled the key’s anxieties. And this… every movement, every breath– the soft skin under his fingers… “You feel nice.”
“Well you feel cold. I was totally warm and cozy before you slipped yourself in like an ice cube down my shirt.” Nox could feel the heartbeat under him picking up pace. The thought of that made him smile. How was this stupid human so good at this? He let his words guide him as if it were nothing, whereas Nox sat there tripping over his thoughts before he could even consider turning them into words. Even as Chase's heart raced, he could never fail to be charming, could he? “You don't say,” Nox mumbled. He buried his face into the warmth below him, as if it could put out the smile creeping up his features.
“You can't do this to me," Chase whined.
“Mm?”
“You- me- I just- you know–”
Nox stared at nothing and considered the human’s words. He considered the way that that human’s heart had sped up since he crawled onto him. He considered that this human was his boyfriend, and he considered all those horrible fantasies he felt ashamed for thinking of at all about a human.
“Yeah. Yeah, I know.” Maybe their fantasies weren’t so far apart after all.
“Oh come on!” Chase pouted. Nox quickly covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. Chase was just so cute-
The key’s eyes widened as the collar of Chase’s shirt was carefully lifted. Light filtered into Nox's cavern as Chase peered inside, eyes finally landing on Nox, whose already red face seared with a darkening blush.
“Oh my gosh. You look like a tomato. Wait no. You're a cherry tomato. Awhhhh…” Chase struggled to restrain a smile.
Nox didn't fail to notice how beautiful his eyes were. Paired with that giddy, adorable, poorly hidden grin– the key couldn't handle the heat on his own face. “Man. Man. Why do you make things so hard for me?” Between his racing thoughts, it occurred to Nox to scoff at those words. Chase spoke them so brazenly, apparently ignorant to how he was affecting Nox. “We've only ever… in books… you know…” The key’s breath hitched
No, Chase definitely had no place to speak about difficult Nox made things for him. Not when he could say that in the midst of the key's fantasies bubbling back up.
Before Nox could beat his thoughts back into submission, the human’s fingers were slipping under his shirt to wrap around the little key. Nox’s thoughts exploded; he couldn't even begin to push them back into place when the only thing on his mind was how warm the fingers holding him were. Being completely surrounded by the soft skin of Chase's hands– He was lifted into the air, just above Chase’s face to be admired. The key couldn't discern if the overwhelming dizziness he felt stemmed from the vertigo of being picked up or the heat refusing to leave his face. His gaze kept flicking from the human's eyes, to his hair, to his lips, and back to the face as a whole as he registered how beautiful it was. He glanced one more time at Chase’s lips as they began to speak. “But you make it so hard not to.”
Nox turned his head away, trying desperately to evade the human’s gaze. He couldn't handle locking eyes with him any longer.
“Nox. You are 3 inches tall. You cannot keep up the mysterious nonchalant persona when you are the size and color of a used red crayon right now.” The key flinched. That was not why he was avoiding eye cont- his aggrieved thoughts cut off as he was pulled closer to Chase’s face. “You are the cutest thing I've ever seen.” Nox strained his neck, as if he could pull his face away any further. He could feel the human's breath. Every word he spoke, warm air floated past his body.
He couldn't look at Chase, because he knew how intensely those eyes would be staring back at him. Warm fingers wrapped around his body. Hot breath ghosting the side of his face. The only thing to hold on for leverage being the very hands of the person driving him crazy. Nox squeezed his eyes shut, because he knew this all felt so much better actually happening than his imagination ever supplied.
One glance. Nox spared one glance back at Chase, and the anticipation snapped. Giant lips pressed into the key’s body, trapping him between gentle fingers and a gentle kiss.
The moment lasted an eternity. Lips smothering his whole body, a pair of hands held Nox deathly still in a long, ginger, yet exhilarating embrace. By the time the human pulled back, Nox was mourning the fact that this moment couldn't last the rest of his life. He stared up, and up, however far above his head at the lips that just kissed him. They curved into a smile, one that left the key’s eyes wide and words lost to his own trembling breath. Then, his entire world shifted. Nox could feel his body flipping as Chase rolled to his stomach. The human pressed him against the bed, smothering Nox’s entire face in another kiss.
Something about it was both terrifying and exhilarating. To be held by someone so much larger than him. To have gone all his time as a key curled up, bracing himself in fear of impact, only to now look up and entrust his life to a being so large and dangerous– but so sweet and with a smile so sugary he'd been left on a sugar high.
Incessantly, Chase pressed more kisses into Nox. Being pushed further and further into the mattress, soft pillows beneath him and warm lips above, the moment had a sense of surrealness akin to a fever dream. By the time the human finally let up again, Nox had to pant to catch his breath. He stared at Chase intently, as though he still needed to fully acknowledge that this was real.
Nox steeled his resolve and spoke a quiet, “You stopped.”
His boyfriend smiled at that. By now, Nox didn't expect anger per se, but surely something cheeky or teasing– he simply figured whatever expression crossed the human’s face would make him regret the words. And it did. Just not quite how he'd expected it to. A soft smile, just as disgustingly sweet and soft as his lips had been that entire morning, crossed Chase’s face and made the key’s heart stop.
“You're little,” he spoke. Nox flinched, those words being a stark contrast from the loving sentiment plastered on the human's face. “Chase, you're in no place to be-”
“No. Nox. We’re not in a book. And I'm kissing you. I'm kissing you, and you're little, and you're the cutest guy I've ever seen-”
Nox’s face felt hot. “And?” He cut Chase off, too doubtful of his own ability to stay calm to endure another word.
“And I love you.”
There it was. How could Nox not be terrified of that? He wasn't used to those words, much less the way they made him feel when they escaped Chase’s mouth.
The human laid his head down on the bed next to Nox. He could see the way his features exuded pure admiration, and it made Nox hope that he wasn't the only one who enjoyed this giant fantasy of his. That intense yet excruciatingly gentle gaze– Nox felt cherished, loved. Remembering the way it felt to have those lips cover his entire face at once, it made the key want to cover his face and scream like some silly schoolgirl. To be this real, this intense, this big- he’d be lying if he said it didn’t feel so much better than kissing in a book ever did. With that thought, he stared at Chase’s soft smile and decided he’d already passed the point of letting his shame get the better of him.
“Y’know it doesn't only have to be books…”
“Mm?”
Nox looked away. “You should kiss me outside of them…”
For a moment, Chase fell silent. Nox almost felt scared that he'd said something wrong before his boyfriend spoke back up.
“I can do that.”
Suddenly, the giant was leaning over Nox once more. He kissed the key again– this time, less gentle, as if Nox’s own affirmation had broken whatever boundary was holding Chase’s self control together before. His lips moved over every inch of Nox’s body like they didn't already smother him with sheer size alone. They dragged over him, refusing to leave his body before moving to place another kiss. The key squirmed under the pressure, being pushed further and further back into the pillow he was pressed against. Every time he moved to push back at Chase’s lips the human would hum. Soft giggles escaped his mouth, and with it came hot breath. It snaked around Nox and pushed sensations into him that he’d never thought he'd feel before. Then, as though taunting the key for thinking it couldn't get any worse, the human’s tongue slipped out and pressed against his body. It dragged over him with every kiss, the feeling so intense and unrelenting that Nox felt he had no dulled sense in the body of a key.
Finally, yet so dreadfully, Chase pulled away. Nox dared to open his own eyes to look up at him. They each caught their own breaths, and as the human panted, the hot air continued to surround the quivering key.
Nox stared. As did Chase.
“You're beautiful.”