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"hey Aiden? Where is my spare phone?" James asked his boyfriend as he patted his own pockets after putting his phone with the black case on the charger. He even glanced around the bed itself for a bit. Aiden peeked into the room and smiled, almost smirking, a bit in a mischievous way.
Aiden just chuckled for a moment as he watched his boyfriend check under a pillow, then another pillow, then the blanket, and then under the lamp for some reason. He clearly wanted the phone for more Instagram scrolling. Or perhaps a tiktok dance.
"You mean the one with the cracked screen and the sticker of a capybara on the back?" Aiden asked, leaning against the doorframe. He crossed his arms, his split-dyed hair falling over his eyes in a messy wave of blonde and black. He didn't answer immediately, instead letting the silence stretch just long enough to watch James give up on the bed search and turn around with a hopeful, slightly desperate expression.
James sighed, his curly black hair bouncing as he shook his head. "Yes, that one. I need to check the old messages from my cousin, I think I left a link to that dance video in the chat." He stepped toward Aiden, his movements fluid and relaxed. The room felt small and warm, smelling of laundry detergent and the lingering scent of the coffee they'd shared an hour ago.
Aiden chuckled, stepping back into the hallway to lure James out of the room. "Follow me, then. But you have to promise not to complain about how much the screen glitches." He led the way toward the living room, his gait light and playful. James followed closely, his hand instinctively finding the small of Aiden's back, a familiar touch that grounded them both.
They navigated the clutter of the apartment, passing a small side table where a guest book from their last trip to the coast sat gathering dust. Aiden suddenly stopped by the TV tray, where a half-finished puzzle of a mountain range lay scattered. With a triumphant grin, he reached behind a stack of coasters and pulled out the battered phone. He held it aloft like a trophy, he smirked as he tried keeping it out of James's reach.
James reached forward with a small smile as he watched his boyfriend try to keep the phone away from him. He didn't even have to jump; he only had to shift his weight, leveraging the few inches of height advantage that always made their dynamics a bit lopsided. He grabbed his phone triumphantly, His own chest brushing the other man's shoulder, and easily plucked the device from Aiden's outstretched hand.
"Victory is mine," James declared, though the victory was short-lived as he stared at the screen. He pressed the power button, and the display flickered with a violent, jagged line of neon green that sliced through the middle of the wallpaper. He groaned, leaning his forehead against Aiden’s shoulder. "You were right. This thing is fighting for its life."
"Told you so, babe. You still have the one in the pink case though. Its in one of your drawers." Aiden said while hugging James's arm. He had a small smile as he glanced at the broken phone. "Why do you keep these anyway? You have the money to get new ones."
"Because it has character, Aiden. It has history," James murmured, his voice muffled against Aiden's shoulder. He didn't move away, instead letting himself sink into the embrace, the tension of the search dissolving into a quiet, humming contentment. He scrolled through the glitchy screen, the neon green line shifting as he moved his thumb, making the text look like it was being viewed through a shattered prism. It took three tries to unlock the device, the screen unresponsive to the first two taps, but eventually, the chat with his cousin flickered into view. Aiden snorted at his attempts.
After a while, James actually did through that phone away. He had rummaged through all his drawers until he found the pink phone to use, it being in much more pristine condition. The grinned triumphantly like he did when he grabbed the other one from Aiden and then went to the couch to plop down beside him.
"Found it!" James cheered, holding the pink phone aloft like a holy relic. When he sat on the couch, the fabric letting out a soft huff as he leaned his entire weight against Aiden. He navigated to the link from his cousin with a triumphant speed the old phone could only dream of, immediately casting a chaotic, high-energy dance tutorial onto the living room TV.
They started the evening with the intention of learning the footwork, but the ambition faded as soon as the first upbeat track hit. Instead of standing up, they stayed tangled together, the screen transitioning from dance tutorials to a rabbit hole of unlikely animal friendships and deep-sea documentaries. Every few minutes, James would point out something absurd, a pufferfish with a grumpy face or a baby goat, a sweater, and various other things.
A video about random bioluminescent beings was a turning point As the screen bathed the darkened living room in rhythmic pulses of electric blue and neon violet, the high-energy chaos of the dance tutorials felt like a lifetime ago. Aiden's head had migrated from James's shoulder to the crook of his neck, his breathing slowing into a steady, rhythmic cadence that mirrored the drifting movements of the creatures on screen. Aiden felt the weight of James shifting, the other man’s slight facial hair tickling his forehead, and he found himself leaning back into the cushions, his own eyelids growing heavy.
He tried to focus on the narrator's voice, but the words began to blur into a low, soothing hum that sounded more like a lullaby than a science lesson. Every time James let out a tiny, content sigh, Aiden felt a pull of gravity, dragging him deeper into the soft fabric of the couch. He reached out blindly, his fingers brushing against the pink phone resting on the cushion between them, and clicked the screen off. The sudden plunge into darkness didn't startle them; it only served to make the silence of the apartment feel more intimate, wrapped around them like a heavy blanket.
Soon enough, the two drifted off into a peaceful sleep. The house was quiet once again and the only other noises were the sounds of the couple's breath as they slept.