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They were lying down in Sebastian’s bed, Shane snuggled up against Sebastian’s back as he scrolled idly through his phone. Neither of them talking, merely enjoying the moment instead. Shane tightens his grip around Sebastian, nuzzling into his back while breathing slowly, on the verge of falling asleep.
“You know. You should pierce your ears.” Sebastian says, breaking the silence, phone now face down on the bed. Shane processes the statement for a moment, allowing himself to wake up a bit before answering.
“Hm…why suddenly?” He answers, wondering what brought it on.
“I just think it’d look nice on you,” Sebastian says, to which Shane laughs and pulls Sebastian backwards against himself. Burying his head in the crook of Sebastian’s neck, kissing it a few times out of habit. “No…really, imagine it.” Sebastian continues.
“Yeah?” Shane drawls, leaving a final kiss on Sebastian’s neck, before continuing to speak, right into his ear, “only if you do it for me.” Sebastian squirms in his grasp at the action, but Shane holds him steady as he continues to speak, “I want you to…okay? Really want you to.” He kisses against Sebastian’s jaw. “Please?”
“…Me?” Sebastian says, turning around, staring at Shane. “You sure?”
“Yeah. I’m sure,” Shane says. Sebastian brings a hand to Shane’s ear, rubbing the lobe. Shane hums and tilts his head to give Sebastian better access. “I mean…I want to look nice. For you. And it’s not a big deal, I’ve done way stupider shit.”
Sebastian sighs, allowing his fingers to trail downwards. Over Shane’s neck and torso. Until they stop, resting on his waist. “I just don’t want you to end up with an infection, because of me,” he says.
“Worst case we’ll just have to go on a date to the clinic,” Shane jokes. When it doesn’t lighten Sebastian’s expression he sighs, taking the hand resting on his waist and bringing it to his face, he rubs it against his cheek and Sebastian can feel the stubble against the back of his hand, then Shane kisses the palm.
“It’ll be fine…if you could do your own ears how much harder would someone else’s be? 'Sides…you’ve had practice now. Didn’t have that when you did it yourself.” Shane says.
Sebastian pulls his hand away and sprawls out on the bed, groaning in frustration, “no, it’s not the same thing, at all… I’ll do it but, if, it goes wrong… This was your idea, not mine.” Shane laughs at that, rolling over on his stomach to watch as Sebastian gets up, dramatically huffing and puffing as he searches through his drawers for something. Shane doesn’t ask, or get up to check, instead he lays there enjoying the view for a moment.
When he comes back Sebastian has a pack of long looking needles, a transparent box of jewelry, and some alcohol wipes. “I still have some needles from when I pierced mine because they only came in a pack, for some reason, anyway, right they’re from a while ago but should still be fine to use. I guess we could like, burn them a bit, or something if you wanted—”
“Not good? Like…the needles? How, wh— huh?” Shane interrupts Sebastian, staring blankly at the pack of needles in Sebastian’s hand, they look fine to him. When they make eye contact Sebastian laughs, crouching down beside the bed with his head buried in his knees. As he looks up and their eyes meet Shane also laughs, although he doesn’t understand what’s so funny.
Sebastian holds up the packaging, “see how it’s in a sealed little package? It’s because they disinfect them before so you don’t get like sepsis or some shit,” he turns the package around in front of Shane to show it to him. “They have a best before date, but I don’t know how much of that is like for legal reasons or if it actually matters. They’re still not past it so it should be fine, probably.”
Shane looks at Sebastian with a smile, his head resting on the palm of his hand, “Wooow… I feel so lucky to be in the hands of such an expert.” Sebastian looks unamused with his joke.
“The needles I have are 14 gauge, which is like, how thick they are. They’re a little bigger than your usual ear piercing, but it shouldn’t look too weird. They’ll look just like mine,” Sebastian puts down the needle. Putting his hands behind his ears to try to show off his earrings better. “And, they look fine, right? Or do you want them smaller? We could order new needles…”
“They look great,” Shane leans forward, giving Sebastian a quick kiss. “If piercing my ears will make me look…like that, what are we waiting for?” This time Sebastian blushes, standing straight up and walking back to the drawer, muttering something about having forgotten, something, Shane can’t make out. He can see Sebastian move the same three objects around the drawer before finally grabbing one of them and turning back.
“Whew, almost forgot these.” He holds out a pair of forceps, “wouldn’t want your piercings to come out crooked! Haha, nope!” Shane doesn’t comment on it, letting Sebastian futz around with the tools as he pleases until he’s satisfied and has calmed down. Although he loves seeing Sebastian blush he’d rather have needles stuck in him by a calm Sebastian instead.
“Alright, c’mere.” Sebastian pats the bed, next to him, and Shane moves over. Letting Sebastian maneuver him as he pleases. “Okay, just gotta,” Sebastian opens one of the alcohol wipes before wiping Shane’s earlobes down, meticulously, “and, then we just have to add some dots…so they’re a little symmetrical at least.” Sebastian then proceeds to hesitate for half a minute before making the first dot, looking at it from all angles he can think of before he nods, satisfied. “Alright…just one more…” The second dot takes a full minute. Quite different from the impression Shane had gotten of when Sebastian pierced his own ears, remembering Sebastian saying he ‘just winged it’.
When Shane is sitting there, forceps clamped onto one ear, needle with a silver stud inserted at the back in Sebastian’s hand, he feels calm but glancing up at Sebastian reveals a blank face. Staring at the needle in his hand. “Hey, why don’t we let it be? You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Shane offers. Although he’d been looking forward to wearing matching earrings with Sebastian, since the 5 minutes ago he realized it was a possibility, he didn’t want it if it made Sebastian feel bad.
“No… I just feel…really nervous. I can do it… I just need a second. It’s just, so different…from when I did it myself.” Sebastian says, Shane grabs Sebastian’s free hand, stroking it. He doesn’t say anything, letting Sebastian decide on his own. Although he didn’t want to push Sebastian he was an adult, he could make his own decisions.
Sebastian takes a deep breath, then loudly breathes out. “Alright, let’s do this.” It doesn’t hurt as much as Shane was expecting when Sebastian pushes the needle through in one fell swoop, although it feels a bit weird when he pulls it through, leaving the stud in the new hole. When Sebastian goes to fasten the back of it Shane hisses, finally feeling it. It isn’t awful, but it’s noticeably worse than the actual piercing felt. The second ear goes quicker, both more familiar with the process by now.
When he steps back Sebastian nods, looking down at his handiwork, he wipes his hands off exaggeratedly and then claps. “And, we’re done.”
Shane smiles up at him, still sitting on the bed. “I’m counting on you to change them, once they’re healed, now.”
“I’ll order you some earrings that fit you better first, none of mine quite capture that je ne sais quoi you have. But, yes, I’ll help you.” He rubs his chin, looking up at the ceiling, seemingly deep in thought. Shane raises his eyebrows.
“Oh, and what could my ‘je ne sais quoi’ possibly be?” Shane asks, to which Sebastian rolls his eyes.
“…How do you expect me to describe something that can’t be described.”
“Just thought you’d be able to come up with something, with that big brain of yours.” Shane says.
Sebastian chuckles, approaching the bed and leans down to kiss Shane. “Alright, I already said I’d buy you earrings and change them…no need to flatter me.”
Shane smiles, “whoops, caught me.” Then he leaves a quick kiss on Sebastian’s nose “I just can’t help myself when I’m around you.”