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Lukas watches as Jesse paces in front of the fireplace. He mutters under his breath as he walks back and forth, back and forth. He had barely even said anything to Lukas after he entered the room, only telling Petra to check on the others.
Now it’s just the two of them.
Jesse finally comes to a stop, standing in front of the flames of the fireplace and crossing his arms. Lukas takes the opportunity to be at his friend’s side, giving him a comforting pat on the shoulder.
Honestly, Lukas just wants to drag Jesse to bed so he could rest. He wants to brush away Jesse’s worried expression with gentle hands, to smooth out the furrow in his brow with a lighthearted joke, but Lukas makes himself hold back. He can’t risk complicating things, not when Jesse is already so stressed.
“How’re you holding up?” Lukas asks quietly. He watches the fire solemnly, frequently stealing glances toward Jesse.
Jesse lets out a frustrated sigh. “I’ve been worse,” he replies. “It’s just…there’s got to be something I’m missing. One detail that could solve this whole thing. If I could just find that missing link…” Jesse trails off, clearly still lost in his thoughts.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. End knows everyone already has plenty of faith in you. Wouldn’t hurt to have a little faith in yourself,” Lukas says with a comforting smile. Jesse seems a bit more encouraged, but he lets out another tired sigh.
“But what if I can’t figure it out? I don’t want everyone’s faith to be wasted,” Jesse says. His emerald eyes are trained on the fire before him and a worried frown is present on his lips.
“Then we figure it out together,” Lukas says, finally getting the courage to meet Jesse’s eyes, and wow, what a sight. The firelight frames Jesse’s face, highlighting his features and making him seem even more gorgeous. His brown hair glows in the light, coloring it a warm caramel. And his eyes. His eyes. They’re so bright, so full of emotion, emotion that only Lukas can see, emotion that Jesse has decided to share with him and only him, and it’s overwhelming.
Lukas’ arms move without his permission, wrapping themselves around Jesse’s shoulders, gently pulling him closer. After a moment of hesitation, Jesse returns the embrace and buries his face in Lukas’ shoulder despite being the taller of the two.
“Thank you,” Jesse says after a moment, slightly muffled. He seems to deflate, like all the pressure and stress was suddenly sucked out of him.
“No problem,” Lukas replies softly. He absentmindedly plays with the hair at Jesse’s nape, eliciting a content hum. Lukas finds himself glad that Jesse can’t see his face, because it’s surely bright red by now. Despite himself, Lukas sighs and continues to run his fingers through Jesse’s hair. Lukas tries to convince himself that he isn’t selfishly enjoying this for more than friendly reasons. He finds himself feeling guilty anyway.
The moment doesn’t last forever though, and eventually Jesse pulls away. He still stays close, keeping his hands at Lukas’ waist. They make eye contact, but it doesn’t feel awkward. Instead, Lukas allows it to linger, feeling warm and relaxed. Jesse’s emerald eyes scan his own, searching for something. Suddenly, Jesse bites his lip nervously and looks away.
“Sorry,” he says.
“For what?” Lukas asks, confused by the sudden change in demeanor.
“I just…” Jesse huffs. “Can I do something stupid?”
“Uh, sure,” Lukas replies without really thinking, heart thundering in his chest. “What is it?”
“This.”
Jesse leans in and kisses Lukas. It’s a soft, barely-there press of lips, and Lukas stops breathing for a few moments. Jesse pulls back before Lukas’s brain can properly reboot, and he immediately mourns the loss.
“I’m sorry, I should’ve–” Jesse begins to apologize, but Lukas leans in and cuts him off. At first he just ends up kissing Jesse’s teeth, but then Jesse all but melts against him.
Lukas can’t help the pathetic noise he makes in the back of his throat—he’s on autopilot right now, fully content to lose himself in the sensation of lips on his and hands on his waist pulling him closer.
Lukas’s own hands come up to cradle Jesse’s face, seemingly of their own volition. Jesse shivers and makes a little sound that Lukas wishes he could bottle up and keep forever.
One of Jesse’s hands comes up to remove Lukas’ goggles from his head so he can run his fingers through his hair and Lukas’s legs nearly give out underneath him. He pulls back for barely a moment to regain his balance and suddenly Jesse is lifting him up, hands hooked under his thighs. Lukas yelps a curse and instinctively wraps his arms around Jesse’s neck to avoid falling backwards.
“Show-off,” Lukas mutters fondly. Jesse’s face splits into a cocky grin that Lukas promptly kisses.
Jesse maneuvers them toward the brick of the fireplace, propping Lukas up against the wall. Lukas feels dizzy with the feeling of Jesse pressed so close to him, and uses his legs that are now wrapped around Jesse’s waist to pull him impossibly closer. Jesse makes another noise that Lukas never wants to forget, tilting his head slightly to deepen the kiss and—oh.
Jesse must sense Lukas’s hesitation and pulls back just enough to rest his forehead against Lukas’s own. Lukas keeps his eyes stubbornly closed, some part of him afraid of the possibility of being met with disappointment if he opens them.
“You okay?” Jesse murmurs. His voice is low and a bit rough, his breath ghosting over Lukas’s kiss-slicked lips. The novel sensation sends a shiver through Lukas and finally compels him to open his eyes.
Despite his fears, Jesse’s eyes are half-lidded and dark, pupils nearly eclipsing his emerald irises. There’s something like rapture in his expression that leaves Lukas feeling breathless with the weight of it, of knowing that he’s the cause of it.
“I’m in love with you,” Lukas confesses quietly. He doesn’t mean to say it out loud, and shuts his eyes against the embarrassment. He turns his head into the crook of Jesse’s shoulder in an attempt to hide his face. Awkward silence stretches the moment into an eternity until Jesse finally responds.
“I think I love you too.” He says it like a revelation, like a world-shattering epiphany.
Lukas looks up suddenly at that, searching Jesse’s eyes for any ounce of mistruth. Jesse leans in again.
“I love you,” he whispers. As soon as Jesse says it, Lukas makes a squeaky little sound that he’s sure he couldn’t replicate even if he wanted to. It takes no effort at all to capture Jesse’s lips again.
This time the kiss is desperate and hungry, like it was the last kiss they’d ever have before the world ended. It felt like the universe was focused into this one point, and nothing else mattered to Lukas except the man who was pressed against him, the strong hands under his thighs, the teeth lightly nipping his lips–
And then the door opens.
Jesse and Lukas turn in tandem toward the noise, frozen in mortification. Petra stands in the doorway, eyes wide and mouth hanging open in shock.
A few things happen at once: Petra starts to apologize, Lukas tries to explain that this wasn’t what it looks like (a blatant lie), and Jesse abruptly backs away from Lukas, dropping him in the process. Lukas can’t quite manage to get his feet under him in time, and ends up falling on his ass with an embarrassing yelp.
“Shit, sorry,” Jesse says, and offers a hand to help Lukas up. Lukas briefly considers turning down the help, but that would probably be more suspicious. Jesse pulls him up, but keeps his distance, looking anywhere except at Lukas.
“Okay, so,” Petra starts awkwardly. “Ivor told me to get you guys since you were taking so long. Probably should’ve knocked. That’s on me.”
Lukas hides his face in his hands in humiliation. He’s very close to simply walking into the fireplace behind him. Anything to put him out of his misery.
“But, um, congrats, I guess.” Awkward silence reigns for a long moment.
“You…don’t seem very surprised,” Jesse says haltingly. Lukas looks up at Petra with pleading eyes, but she doesn’t seem to notice.
“I mean it was a long time coming, wasn’t it?” she says. “Lukas has been making eyes at you since–”
“Okay!” Lukas interrupts, loudly. “Tell Ivor we’ll be out in a bit, Petra.” Please stop talking, I beg of you, his tone says.
Luckily, Petra gets the hint this time. “Yep, okay, got it. I’ll just…” she backs out of the room, closing the door behind her slowly. Her footsteps retreat, but Lukas can still hear her shout, “Ivor! You owe me ten diamonds!”
“So,” Jesse says slowly. “That happened.”
Lukas finally looks at Jesse directly, and is immediately flustered by the sight. His hair is all mused, a dark flush on his cheeks made brighter by the firelight. He really wants to kiss him again.
“She’s going to be insufferable,” Jesse sighs. Lukas snaps out of his daze at that thought.
“She better not tell everyone,” Lukas says. “Guess Ivor already knows, though,” he adds.
“How did Petra know?” Jesse asks. There’s a hint of a smirk on his face. Lukas turns away and busies himself with picking up his goggles from where they’d fallen to the ground instead of answering.
“Lukas,” Jesse drawls teasingly. Lukas sighs in resignation. He knows he’s not getting out of this. Jesse was nothing if not persistent, and Lukas was particularly susceptible to capitulation where Jesse was concerned.
“Petra’s good at reading people,” Lukas mutters. “And I…haven’t exactly been subtle, to be honest.”
“Really?” Jesse says incredulously. “I didn’t notice anything.”
“Yeah, well, I was careful to not be so obvious around you,” Lukas explains. He puts his goggles around his neck and tries to smooth down his hair. “I figured you wouldn’t appreciate me liking you…like that.”
“Lukas,” Jesse says seriously. The sudden shift in tone makes Lukas look back at Jesse. “Even if I didn’t return your feelings, I wouldn’t hate you for liking me.”
And that was the root of it, wasn’t it? With a friendship with such a…unique start, Lukas wasn’t ever fully sure how secure their relationship was. Lukas wasn’t willing to test those foundations, not when his friendship with Jesse was potentially on the line. So he told himself that just being friends with Jesse was more than enough, and hid any indication he wanted more.
“Intellectually, I know that the fear was irrational, but…” Lukas trails off, unsure of what he wants to say. Jesse comes closer, taking Lukas’ hands in his own.
“It worked out in the end, didn’t it?” Jesse says gently, a soft smile on his face. Lukas can’t help but smile back.
“Guess so.”
Jesse leans forward, planting a chaste kiss on Lukas’ lips. Then he grins and pulls Lukas towards the door with their still-joined hands, and Lukas is helpless to follow.
“Ready to solve this murder mystery?” Jesse says brightly.
“Obviously,” Lukas says with a laugh. I feel ready for anything.