Work Text:
“Yeah, so me and Simon, we were having a sleepover, right,” Chase explains, gesturing wildly with his hands. Nox thinks he does that overly much.
“A… sleepover?” Nox raises a questioning eyebrow, shifting his position on Chase’s bed.
“Huh? Wait, Buds, you’ve never had a sleepover before!” Chase is absolutely aghast, as if it isn’t obvious why his boyfriend hasn’t ever had a sleepover—he considers this for a moment. “Oh. Right. You had the whole… key thing, and the whole—”
“Yes,” Nox interrupted him, not wanting to think about his past mistakes. “What is the sleepover?”
“Sorry. Anyways, a sleepover is an extremely important experience that you need to have. It’s basically like, someone stays the night at your house and you do a bunch of fun activities!”
“Am I not already doing a sleepover with you, then?” Nox doesn’t want to pop Chase’s bubble, but he is making no sense right now.
“Nooo, It’s what you do at the sleepover,” With a sudden flame in his heart, Chase leaped over Nox and off the bed. “C’mon, c’mon, Noxxie! We have to make you the perfect sleepover!”
Nox gave a low chuckle, taking Chase’s outstretched hand. He couldn’t deny the sun when it shone this bright, for he didn’t want to see it dim. They ran down the stairs at the speed of total excitement—which is very fast. Chase, to Nox’s disappointment, untangled their hands. He ran to the counter and started to write a big list titled ‘Chase’s Ultimate Sleepover Guide’ on Deacon’s notebook that was ‘strictly forbidden’ for Chase to use. Nox would’ve teased Chase about how ridiculous he was being had he not looked so adorable, so he just leaned an elbow on the table and admired the blonde.
Upon finishing his magnificent list, Chase held it high up from where he was sitting right in front of Nox’s face so he could see it closely. Maybe a bit too close.
“Uhm…” Nox paused to push the paper away from his face. “How about you just show me.”
“Okay!” Chase was more than happy to do so. “First step: snacks!”
—
While Chase was trying to get at least one healthy snack, Nox was practically foaming at the mouth staring at rows of chocolate. Rich dark chocolate, creamy milk bars, the kind that melt in your mouth and turn you into a little puddle of bliss on the floor. Chase glanced over, a box of fruit in his hands.
“Get whatever you want, Buddy, it’s one of the joys of a sleepover,” He gave a soft smile and Nox melted just like his chocolate. Chase was just kind like that, and his stare made Nox’s knees feel weak. Since the grocery store wasn’t the place for staring at boyfriends, Nox turned back to the shelves. He settled for Chase’s favorite gluten-free brand, King Bar, and grabbed a value pack.
At the end of the shopping trip, Nox was pretty satisfied. His second time shopping in the modern era was a super success! Atleast, that’s what Chase said. Though he still didn’t understand how the two of them could eat so many snacks. But, whatever makes Chase happy. They checked out at the counter and headed back to the truck
—
“Step one: complete!” Chase looked at Nox with a big smile. “Now we need games.”
The two boys collected a plethora of board games, which a certain goth found completely confusing. Though, he couldn’t ever say no to Chase (this does not include waking up in the morning and socializing). Nox was sitting on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table and Chase’s head in his lap.
“That’s Twister,” Chase explained, pointing to a box. “We spin this wheel and it tells us where to go. I’m sure there’s a video online doing the wheel so we can play together.”
Chase gave his boyfriend a quick board-game crash-course over every board game to ever exist. He talked about all his favorites and least favorites and Nox didn’t hear a word. He promised himself that he’d listen to everything Chase said, because that’s what a good boyfriend does, but this monologuing was pointless and Chase was looking really pretty so Nox just kinda… got lost.
“And that’s Monopoly, but I hate it, too much thinking. That over there is Uno, it’s fun but I think it brings out the worst in people.”
“Does it?” Nox didn’t really care about the antics of ‘Uno’, he just liked hearing Chase’s voice. Full of passion, beautiful. He ran his hand through the blonde’s hair as he spoke.
After a moment, “Buddy?”
“W-what,” Nox was caught off guard, even though his eyes didn’t leave Chase for a second.
“You’re just, staring at me,” Chase laughed a bit, blushing. “Are you even listening?”
“Well, it was just so boring so I thought maybe your pretty face would help,” Nox shrugged.
“Buddyyy,” Chase picked up a pillow and hit him with it. The goal was a playful hit but apparently he over shot because Nox went tumbling into the pillows behind him and onto the floor. He glared at Chase with an unserious ‘how could you’ expression. Chase thought he looked kinda cute with messed up hair sitting in a pile of pillows. A pile of pillows…that’s it! How could Chase have forgotten?
“I have an idea!” Chase jumped up from his spot lying on the couch and ran to the staircase.
“What was that for? Where are you going!?”
Chase was already half-way up the stairs, “I forgot about the best part!”
“Ugh… he’s lucky he’s so beautiful,” Nox got up from the floor, blowing stray hairs out of his face. Great, now he looked a mess.
Chase came down the stairs a few moments later with a giant armful of pillows and blankets. Either he was short or the pile was tall because he could barely see anything while walking down the stairs.
“You are going to fall,” Nox rushed to help Chase, arriving just before the blonde’s foot caught on a sheet.
“AGH!” And Nox wasn’t ready so he ended up on the floor with an armful of Chase and covered in a million pillows. Chase got up on his forearms, laughing and staring dreamily. He almost just died yet he was happy because he got to be in Nox’s arms again. Chase-logic even left the creator himself confused sometimes. Nox couldn’t decide whether he was angry or not. Though he was also a bit puzzled, he wasn’t sure if sleepovers usually went like this.
“You saved me, my Prince Charming!”
“Well I wouldn’t have had to if you’d just asked for my help with the- t-the and I… oh,” Nox’s talking-to was interrupted very directly by Chase, who gave him a quick kiss on the lips.
“Now, let me show you my favorite sleepover activity: building a fort!”
Nox’s face was a deep shade of red, maybe a crimson, “Y-you said the last thing was your favorite?”
“I’m just very enthusiastic!” He got off of Nox and helped him up, “Sorry for all the, y’know, attacking you with pillows. We’ll have an organized session later.”
“We’ll have a what?”
—
“Anddddd… DONE! We have built the most awesomest pillow fort in the entire world!” Chase stood triumphantly in front of a pile of pillows and blankets. There were random chairs and couch cushions holding up blankets surrounded by a wall of pillows. It was the most absurd creation Nox had ever taken part in, but the darling little smile on Chase’s face made it all worthwhile. Nox felt like he could stare at sparkling brown eyes for all of eternity and never get bored.
Chase took Nox’s hand and dragged him into the fort. It was a tight space, they were barely inches apart. Nox was embarrassingly aware of this.
“Buddy…” Chase stared at him lovingly.
“Yes,” Nox had the same love-struck look.
Chase felt the need to squeal like a teenager in love—which he was—but he didn’t, so he settled for a big, dopey grin, “You’re so cute.”
Chase thought of cosplaying a lot of different couples with Nox, but a couple of tomatoes was not on the list. Nox desperately held on to the eye contact which he could finally hold. He reached his hands out to cup Chase’s face, twirling a strand of golden blonde hair with his fingers. They admired each other for a moment. Chase had always thought Nox was beautiful, but here, with messed up hair and blushing furiously, he was gorgeous. Chase found beauty in all the flaws, that’s part of why Nox loves him so much. He never made him feel less than. Nox felt so safe. He leaned in ever so slightly, and Chase did the rest, pressing their lips together.
Chase felt giddy and lovesick. He wrapped his arms around Nox’s neck and swung himself into his lap. They staggered a bit. For some reason Chase felt like laughing. Kind of a nervous and excited laugh. He started giggling like a little kid, shaking his shoulders and pressing his eyes shut even more. He broke the kiss and opened his eyes to stare at his lovely boyfriend. Chase's laugh had bewitched Nox and he was losing all sense. He pressed a million kisses all over Chase’s cheeks and nose and head. Soon they were both hugging and giggling and lamenting about how ridiculous this behavior was. Chase threw his head back and it caught on a blanket, and his elbow hit a pillow, and Nox’s foot tipped a chair and then everything was coming down in a pile of laughter and soft fabric.
“That was,” Chase laughed some more. “Exactly how a sleepover is supposed to go!”
“Oh, really?” Nox was enamoured.
“No, I’m not even being sarcastic, sleepovers are completely random all the time. Like this!” Chase picked up a pillow beside him and hit Nox as hard as he could.
“Ah! How dare you!”
The scene was a flurry of fabric and feathers and laughing faces and it was perfect. Though it wasn’t exactly an ‘organized session’ as Chase had promised. By the time they were done they were completely exhausted, sitting on the couch, cuddling up close.
—
Chase decided that instead of cleaning up their mess they should watch a movie, and so they did. They spread the coffee table with junk food plus fruit and got themselves into the perfect ‘movie cuddling spot’ (would Chase ever stop with the names?).
The horror movie wasn’t exactly horror, it was like scary but at the end you found out it was all a big prank, so hopefully Chase would be okay. Nox told him that he didn’t have to watch a horror movie if it was gonna be scary, but Chase insisted that he get the real sleepover movie experience. And so, they watched a horror movie.
—
It was the worst horror movie Nox had ever watched. It looked like its budget was two pennies and some pocket lint. That’s why Nox was very surprised when Chase jumped at every little thing, even Deacon coming downstairs to get a bag of chips.
“B-b-b-buddy is that killer guy gonna jumpscare us soon,” Chase was wrapped around Nox’s torso like a koala and Nox couldn’t say he didn’t like it, though it’d be more pleasant if Chase wasn’t shaking in his boots.
“Darling, I think we should just turn it off, if you’re this scared of it then-!”
“AGHHH OHMIGOSH!” Chase buried his face into Nox’s shoulder as some guy with a knife leaped on screen. Nox would’ve been scared if they up’ed their budget.
“Yeah I’m just going to… yeah,” Nox clicked the off button on the remote with much struggling and glanced at Chase’s trembling figure. He peeled him off his chest and set him normally on his lap. They were silent for a moment.
“Sorry…”
“For what, Chase?”
“This wasn’t exactly what a sleepover is supposed to be like.”
“Well…” Nox was worried, why would Chase suddenly be so self-conscious? “It’s not as if I know what a sleepover is supposed to be like, anyhow, and how else am I supposed to get used to this modern era if I don't… explore what it has to offer.”
“I know I just… I dunno. This whole situation has been really hard for you and I guess I wanted to help,” Chase leaned his head on Nox’s shoulder.
“It has been hard, very hard, and… well, I’m not good with words, but, you keep me going Chase. You’re my motivation. To me, one of the best things this world has to offer is you,” Nox stroked Chase’s hair, holding him close.
“Awhhh, how poetic,” Chase felt like he was in some sort of dreamlike trance.
“Don’t ruin the moment.”
Chase laughed. A laugh full of life and happiness that Nox wanted to hear forever, cherishing it as long as he lived.
“I love you,” Chase said.
“I love you, too.”
They fell into a peaceful sleep wrapped in each other's warm embrace, and maybe it wasn’t by the book, but it was perfect to them.