Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There were plenty of advantages that came with being in a relationship with Jack Kelly, David found.

Starting with the most significant difference from all his former boyfriends: No unpleasant surprises suddenly appeared two weeks into dating. After all, they had been friends for two years already. For instance, Jack wasn’t surprised when Davey awoke early in the morning when he was sleeping over. He was already used to it, so he said.
But well, now that they were dating, Jack regularly complained about the Davey-less bed he woke up to because David already got up and had his first cup of coffee in the kitchen. But there were worse things than a half-dressed Jack Kelly dragging him back to bed for cuddles.

Leading right up to another big plus of the young relationship: It’s been almost a month, and Davey was still swooning when lazy kisses turned into heated makeout sessions, when clothing came undone, and the outside world stopped existing for a few moments.
But see, it wasn’t only that Jack was ridiculously hot in Davey’s eyes; it was also that Davey was utterly in love with that man, and the sheer thought that Jack, beautiful, beautiful Jack, felt the same about him was enough to make David question everything he ever knew. Yes, fine, under normal circumstances, four weeks were not enough to know if you actually love somebody, but hell, this was Jack, his Jack, whom he’d been best friends with for two years. David just... wouldn’t say it out loud yet. Technically, he had said it when they first hooked up drunk, but that didn’t count since they both only had blurred memories of that night.

Whenever Dave woke up in Jack’s bed, finding his boyfriend—oh God Jack Kelly was his boyfriend—next to him, he found his heart swell and a warmth spread through his entire body. He wondered if Jack knew how angelic he looked in the faint sunlight that shone into the room through the blinds, with mussed hair and his face buried in the pillow.

Nobody knew about them yet. Well, except for Charlie and Darcy. They decided it that way together because Davey was too much of a realist to trust his fate like this. It took Jack approximately ten days of dating Davey to pulverize his worries, though. Dave had never seen his best friend so considerate, and he had never seen Jack put this much effort into a relationship. (And believe him, he had watched many of Jack’s previous relationships crash and burn.)
Most of the time, it was just David’s subconscious that still hadn’t entirely understood why Jack Kelly chose him out of all the people.
Anyway, after Dave finally accepted that this—that they—would either end in marriage or a major heartbreak, he was tempted to just scream it out into the whole wide world that Jack Kelly was his boyfriend and that he had never been this happy ever in his life.
Eventually, though, they decided to keep up the two-month thing. To grant them another two months of peaceful bliss without everybody viewing their relationship as a different, more fragile one.

The blanket rustled as Jack moved in his sleep, and a quiet whine escaped his throat as he felt for Davey’s body next to his. They fell asleep spooning (Jack usually insisted on being the big spoon; Davey assumed that that was because he needed to compensate for Dave being taller than him by almost two inches. Jack never recovered from that realization), but Jack’s arm somehow slipped off Davey’s waist at some point during the night. Now that Davey dared to turn around to gush over his boyfriend in the early morning hours, there actually were a few inches of space between them.
He let out a satisfied hum when his arm found its way around Davey’s waist again and pulled him close.
David wondered if his heart would ever stop racing like crazy in moments like these. It had been four weeks, and he still had not gotten used to how many cuddles Jack demanded on the daily. He obviously didn’t complain, though.

Jack’s skin felt hot under his fingers when David placed his hand on his naked hip.
Even before they started dating, Jack usually slept topless. The first time David had stayed overnight, he asked if Dave would be uncomfortable with it and offered to put a shirt on if so. Davey had responded that he didn’t mind because it had felt ridiculous to set up rules for Jack in his own home. Besides, back then, he truly didn’t mind. He only cursed himself a few months later, just when he found himself with a crush on his best friend.
Now, David was actually allowed to thirst over Jack’s body next to his; he was even expected to lean in close and touch Jack gently. And, oh boy, was he happy to obey.

His grasp around Jack’s hip tightened slightly as he leaned in closer and started to scatter soft kisses on the other man’s jawline.
The awaited reaction didn’t take too long. Jack let out another hum and started talking in a low tone.
“Mornin’,” he whispered with a raspy voice, sending shivers down Davey’s spine.
“Hey,” Dave replied quietly, letting off Jack’s jawline, now spreading tiny kisses on his entire face instead.
“What time is it?” Jack squinted his eyes at the lights shining through the window.
“Eight-ish,” Dave gave back and planted one last kiss onto the tip of his nose before he leaned back into the pillow, his face still turned towards Jack’s only a few inches away.
A red hue appeared on Jack’s face. It took Davey about one week to figure out that nose kisses had a 100% chance of making Jack blush, and now he had to use that knowledge whenever he got the chance.

“Yup, that’s too early,” Jack squeezed his eyes shut again, “Let a man sleep, Dave.”
“Would you rather wake up to an empty bed? Because I’m not gonna just stare at you sleeping for two hours,” Davey grinned and stole another kiss, this time directly from Jack’s lips.
“Why not?” Jack mumbled drowsily and pulled Davey into the crook of his neck, “I could stare at you for two hours.”
(Actually, Davey couldn’t think of a more pleasant pastime than looking at Jack forever.)

"You could not do that. You can’t even focus on your homework for longer than ten minutes,” Dave argued, ignoring the butterflies Jack’s words were giving him again.
“Not exactly the same thing, doll.”
“Oh god, pass,” Davey laughed, “You sound like a boomer talking to a waitress.”
The whole deal with the pet names was, indeed, a big hassle.
Apparently, if you’ve been friends for a certain time beforehand, it just feels weird to switch to the use of most pet names. Here and there, they tried out what felt right and what didn’t, but no name ever stuck permanently.
More than not, they both just mildly cringed and went on with their day.
A week ago, Davey called Jack Darling, and Jack nearly choked and laughed for a solid five minutes. So, maybe they’d just keep using their names for each other, just as it always had been.
Besides, if Davey was honest, Jack’s voice saying his name with such affection and sincerity could easily be his new favorite sound in the world.

“I’d totally hit on you if you were my waiter,” Jack yawned, “So.”
“That’s incredibly inappropriate.”
“Good thing you’re my boyfriend and not my waiter.”
“Say it again,” Davey shifted to face Jack again, bringing his hand up to his face, and gently stroked his cheek with his thumb.
“You’re not my waiter?” Jack gazed at him through half-opened eyelids.
“I’m your boyfriend,” he whispered, a wide grin on his face.

“You’re my boyfriend,” Jack smiled, “Now let me sleep. No distractions when I’m sleeping.”
“That’s funny. I’m pretty sure last night you said the opposite,” David smirked.
“Shuddup,” his voice cracked in the most endearing way as he quietly laughed into the pillow, “Stop trying to get into my pants.”
“Or what?” Dave asked innocently and shifted again to reach Jack’s neck with his lips, “Or you’ll never have me sleep over again?”
“I’ll never make you breakfast ever again,” he threatened but also granted Davey access.
“Guess I’ll have to learn how to cook,” Dave murmured.

Jack leaned his head back and pulled Davey closer. A hand slid into his hair. An almost silent gasp escaped his throat when David started to nibble on that one particular spot.
“You’re going to be the death of me, Dave,” he whispered as his other hand found its way underneath David’s t-shirt.

David, for whatever reason, usually preferred to sleep with a T-shirt or hoodie on. He genuinely could not tell why, and Jack had practically begged him to stop putting on his shirts again after sex, yet he just preferred a layer of clothing on his body when he slept.
He obviously knew that his pajama shirt would end up back on the floor the next morning nonetheless.
Jack’s fingers were cold and sent a tiny shiver down Davey’s spine.

Not much later, just as prognosticated, his shirt had joined Jack’s (which had been there since they went to bed last night) on the wooden flooring next to the bed. Of course, Jack used the split second that Davey had to let go of his neck to capture his lips in a deep, passionate kiss right after he threw the shirt through the room.
David couldn’t help but grin into the kiss and sighed blissfully into Jack’s mouth.

Smoothly, Jack rolled them over so that he was now hovering over him, his knee between Davey’s legs.
They parted the kiss, both out of breath, and David studied Jack’s face up and down. The blush around the nose that still hadn’t quite disappeared, the red lips, swollen and wet from kissing, and the softness and passion in his eyes.
Staring at Jack Kelly was simply mesmerizing, and he still could not believe his luck.

“Enjoying the view?” Jack asked with a smirk as if he was completely oblivious that he was the most beautiful human being on this earth.
“Oh, very much,” David panted before pulling him in again.

David Jacobs didn’t know how to cook. He knew how to make pasta or grilled cheese, but it didn’t get much further than that. He was mildly embarrassed about this fact.
When Dave was a teenager, his mother stayed home with Les, his Brother. So, she usually did most of the cooking for the Jacobs family. And when David went to college, he wasn’t too excited to cook in the shared kitchen, so he’d live off food from the dining hall or takeout.
Jack, on the other hand, loved to cook for Davey. He also made fun of him for not having that basic life skill. But he also always gave him cooking tips whenever they were in a kitchen preparing a meal together. While David claimed to be “too scared to ask, at this point” whenever his lack of cooking experience came up, Jack was the golden exception to that rule.

He, as he told David pretty early on in their friendship, started to cook for himself when he was barely even a teenager. Growing up in the system, he had to learn how to get along by himself. He wanted to reach a certain level of independence as quickly as possible, and being fearless in front of a frying pan with boiling oil was apparently part of that plan.
Even when Medda took him and Race in when he was around 14, it took him a while to get used to simply being a kid again.
Medda accepted that and taught him tricks on how to be safer in the kitchen instead. And she showed him a bunch of brilliant recipes.

Though, right now, David wasn’t entirely sure if Jack actually listened to the part about safety while making scrambled eggs because if he remembered correctly, it never was a good idea to cook without a t-shirt on.

“Don’t get me wrong,” David said as he entered the kitchen, his hair still damp from the shower he just took, “I love the view, but also please don’t burn yourself.”
“Hey, I know what I’m doin’!” Jack turned down the heat, “Pass me some plates, would ya?”

Davey opened one of the cabinets and did as asked.
“You know, Jackie,” he said as he stepped to Jack’s side, two plates in his hand, “I do think you’re attractive even when fully clothed. No need to get naked for that.”
“I mean, it helped earlier,” Jack winked as he took the dishware from Davey, who nudged him into his side.
“And I am sure Crutchie would appreciate it if we didn’t repeat it in the kitchen,” he gave back, ignoring the rising heat in his face.

“You’re so cute when you blush,” Jack laughed and turned toward him with a shit-eating grin plastered on his face after he turned the stove off.
“I hate you,” Dave gently pushed him away when he tried to lean in, “Go, get dressed.”
“Why?” Jack grinned, “Flustered?”
“No,” Davey lied, “I’d just rather not have Crutchie see the hickey on your shoulder.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t care.”
"Jackson—"
“Fine,” Jack gave in, still grinning, “I was getting chilly anyway. Be right back,” he pulled Davey in by the waistband of his sweatpants and placed a small peck on his cheek before he turned to leave the kitchen.
David’s heart was pounding when he looked after him, absentmindedly raising a hand to the spot where Jack’s lip touched the skin seconds ago. He smiled while placing the plates on the kitchen island, where a mug filled with steaming coffee was already waiting for him. Of course, Jack had memorized how he liked his morning coffee. Dave sat down on one of the stools.

It was only mildly embarrassing to Davey that he had actually given Jack a hickey. He was twenty-one years old, not some teenager. But listen, he had gotten carried away earlier this morning. Could you blame him?
Whatever Jack did to him was pure magic. There was no other word Dave could use to describe it. One look and David’s brain was shut down, and all he wanted was him and only him and—
See, David had never really been the... physical type. In a relationship, or at all, really. Yes, he had had sex. He enjoyed having sex. In past relationships, too. But this? This was a whole other level. It was like back at sixteen. But also much... easier.
They also laughed a lot together. In earlier relationships, Davey couldn’t remember ever having laughed during sex. It just felt out of place. But with Jack? Nothing felt out of place, ever. Dave didn’t have to think about what or how to do something. He just... did what felt right. He was carefree. Everything was light when Jack was around. And apparently, light enough for David to give him a hickey. Damnit.

The shirt Jack wore when he returned probably once belonged to David. Even before dating, they occasionally shared clothes simply out of convenience. Davey would stay over and borrow Jack’s hoodie; Jack needed a fancy button-up for an art show and would get one from Davey. It just made sense. Ever since they started dating, the lines between their wardrobes appeared to blur more and more. Davey didn’t mind. As long as Jack didn’t get any color stains on his clothes, he could wear his things for the rest of his life if it made him happy. (Who was he kidding? Dave would probably even forgive Jack that.)
It looked good on Jack, though. His body was a bit more toned than David’s, and the shirt sat a bit tighter on him.
“My eyes are up here,” Jack joked; only then did Dave notice that he had been staring.
“I was just trying to figure out if that’s mine or yours,” Davey lied and looked away. He knew that Jack wouldn’t buy it.
Jack snorted and sat down next to him, “Sure.”

“Do you think, at some point, people will figure out that we’re dating?” Davey asked as Jack started eating, “Our friends, I mean?”
“Because of a t-shirt?”
“No, I mean in general.”
Jack shrugged, “I dunno. We’re not acting different, really.”
Davey hummed. They didn’t do PDA, and what had changed other than them kissing occasionally, if they were being honest?

“I can’t wait to tell people, though,” Jack eventually said, “Like, I know we wanted to wait. We got a whole life ahead of us, so what is another month? But I dunno... You know what I mean?”
Jack gesticulated with the silverware in his hands, and Davey found it adorable.
“I know exactly what you mean,” Dave smiled, “I just don’t want it to be like... gossip. I’d like everybody to find out at the same time.”
“Like a big announcement?”
“I mean, not like an official announcement,” David shrugged, “Just like, let them know when we’re all hanging out anyway. Like you and Kath did at her birthday party.”

“The next birthday is Racer’s,” Jack annotated, “But Spot would kill us if we made this about us.”
“That’s another three months,” Davey added, “And your birthday isn’t until August. And there is no way we can keep it a secret for this long.”
“If this is about the clothes again, nobody will notice I’m wearing yours. Just drop it.”
“It’s not!” Dave laughed and playfully shoved Jack, “I just... I want to tell Sarah. She is going to be pissed if she finds out I haven’t told her.”

“I don’t mind if you tell her,” Jack shrugged, his mouth full of scrambled eggs, “She’s your sister. That’s different.”
“If Sarah knows, everybody knows. She can’t keep her mouth shut.”
“That’s true.”

They sat in silence for a brief moment until Jack retook the word.
“Hey, uhm, Davey,” he shifted in his seat and avoided his eyes, “Are you still worried about...”
Davey knew what he meant even though Jack didn’t finish the sentence. He knew he referred to Davey’s concerns on that emotional rollercoaster of a day a few weeks ago. The concerns of whether or not they would even last as a couple.
“No,” Dave replied confidently, looking at him with a smile, “No, I’m not. I mean, I was. Not anymore, though.”

“Good,” Jack looked back at him, “Because I want you to know, I never felt this way with anybody. And I know it’s still the honeymoon phase right now, and that’ll probably change at some point, but we’ll make it work. I just know we will.”
Their hands found each other, and Dave gave Jack’s hand a little squeeze. He hoped that he was right. And at the same time, he knew that he was.
“Anyway, don’t think I’m letting ya go anytime soon, Dave,” Jack leaned toward him and spoke in a low voice, “There is no way I’m letting go of the best sex I’ve ever had.”
“You’re the worst, Jackson,” Davey laughed, pushing him away, “There goes the romantic moment.”
“I actually think that was very romantic,” Jack grinned, looking quite pleased with himself.

Davey silently agreed with him. But he didn’t want to imagine the monster he would create if he ever told him.

“Hey, did I ever tell you that I’m sort of writing a book?” David asked while waiting for the sink to fill up with water.
At this point, it was pretty much a routine for them whenever they ate together. When it came to cleaning, Dave simply was the more precise between the two of them. (One of the reasons why Charlie was so happy about Davey and Jack finally being a couple probably was that he got to eat the leftovers of the food that Jack cooked regularly without having to clean the entire kitchen himself afterward.)

The question was more of a conversation starter than anything else. Of course, Dave knew that he hadn’t told Jack about the book. He hadn’t mentioned the book to anybody yet. Jack knew that he was writing things. Poetry, short stories, the occasional Lord of the Rings fanfiction. Of course, David was writing creatively; his minor was creative writing.
When they first befriended each other, Jack had bugged him a lot to let him read some of his stuff. Only later, when Davey found out about Jack’s dyslexia, did he appreciate the request even more. And, to be honest, it was only fair since Jack always shared his art with Davey. Still, sharing his work with people was always paired with anxiety, so he politely declined every time Jack asked until he stopped.
Uploading his things online anonymously? Totally fine. Reading it aloud in class or handing an assignment in? Not his favorite thing. Showing his work to a friend? Not if he could avoid it.
One day, a few years back, Sarah must have found one of his fanfictions online and subtly referenced it during supper. David had never been this mortified in his life. Well, except there had been this time he had written a love poem for his first boyfriend, and he gifted it to him for their three-month anniversary. However, they did break up shortly after David found out his boyfriend made fun of the poem with his friends.

“You are?” Jack asked and handed him another dish, “I mean, I knew you were writing something. You’re not as sneaky as you think you are. You close a Google doc on your computer whenever I enter your room.”
“To be fair, I do this when anyone enters the room. It’s not just you,” Dave said apologetically and dunked the plate underwater, “How come you never asked me about it?”
Jack shrugged and leaned against the counter.
“I mean, I thought it was some assignment or anything and that you don’t wanna be rude when we were hanging out. And then I just figured you don’t wanna talk about it. I respected that.”
“Oh,” Davey asked himself if Jack was simply amazing or if the bar from his previous relationships was just really low, “That’s so considerate.”

“Don’t be so surprised!” Jack nudged him with his hip, “You know me!”
“I’m not surprised!” Dave gave him a small laugh, “Thank you for being so thoughtful. I don’t really like sharing my work with people. It makes me feel weird.”
“Why?”
Davey shrugged, scrubbing his coffee mug, “I dunno. Once, I wrote a poem for my first boyfriend, and he mocked me for it.”
Jack stared at him, “Woah, that’s a dick move.”
“Right? To cut him some slack, the poem was awful, it—"
“That don’t matter. You don’t shit-talk something a loved one made.”
Dave snorted, “Honestly, it’s fine. We were both kids. I’d say I’m over it.”
“I’m just saying,” Jack raised his hands defensively, “I would never mock you for a love poem you wrote for me.”
“And that’s why you’re a better boyfriend than he was,” David leaned in and gave Jack a quick kiss, “But I already knew that.”

Jack put his arms around him and held him close. Dave’s hands were full of dishwater, and even though he had them in an awkward t-rex pose, some drops fell on Jack’s chest and stained his (their?) shirt.
“So... there are poems about me?” he wiggled his eyebrows, and Davey laughed.
“Of course, there are poems about you,” he giggled and put his soapy hands behind Jack’s neck, “And I’ll make sure that they never see the light of day.”
“I’m sure they’re perfect. I mean, you wrote ’em!” Jack’s voice was so gentle against his ear, and a shiver went down Davey’s spine, “Like poet, like poetry, or something like that.”
Oh lord, Dave got weak in the knees whenever his boyfriend (boyfriend!!!) said things like that.

He leaned in for another kiss, a proper one this time. One of his soapy hands found its place on Jack’s chest. When Jack hoisted himself up to sit on the kitchen counter, David smiled against his mouth; he knew that this was just Jack’s ego, not having accepted that he was a tad shorter than David. However, the new angle, admittedly, was nice. Dave stood between Jack’s legs, pulling him close with his hand on the nape of his neck. He felt fingers buried in his hair and gently tugging it, and when Jack’s tongue requested entry to his mouth, who was he to deny it?
It was moments like this when Davey just... knew. He knew that he loved Jack. And he knew Jack loved him. They were going to say it someday, maybe not in the near future, but they both knew. And for now, that was enough. He knew that he was going to marry Jack one day. Listen, if you know, you know. If David was being frank, he had never really believed in the whole the one thing. Then he met Jack. And they became friends. And they became more. And they became everything.

Dave slid a hand under Jack’s shirt, and Jack started to giggle.
“Your hand is cold,” he whispered against his lips because god forbid anybody ever find out that Jack Kelly was ticklish. (But Davey knew. Of course, he knew. There was nothing he knew as well as Jack Kelly)
“I want you to read my book,” Dave blurted out as he pulled back from Jack’s lips, feeling a bazillion butterflies in his stomach, “Only if you want, of course. You don’t have to. I know you don’t like to read, I just—“
“I would feel honored, Davey,” Jack cupped his face in his hands, “Thank you.”
“It’s long, though. I’ve been writing on it for about a year now, so...”
“I never said I’d be fast,” Jack chuckled, “But I would love to read it.”

“Promise you’ll be honest, though,” Davey looked down, then into Jack’s eye’s again, “Don’t say you like it even though it sucks. Don’t be nice just because I’m your loved one.”
“I promise.”
Neither of them addressed that he just implied that Jack loved him. But they both knew he did. And Davey hoped Jack knew that he felt the same.

Chapter Text

The friendship between Spot Conlon and David Jacobs surely was an odd one. But to be fair, Davey wasn’t entirely sure if any relationship Spot had could be considered normal. For the longest time, he wouldn’t even call them friends rather than just neighbors.
Davey’s mother, Esther Jacobs, was close friends with Dr. and Mrs. Conlon. They have been close friends ever since the Jacobs family moved into the neighborhood when Dave was little. The Conlon’s from then on invited them to their annual barbecue, which for some reason was the happening of July every year. That’s where Davey met Spot (Sean) Conlon for the first time. And since they were the same age anyway, they (and Sarah) hung out in Spot’s tree house from 4:30 until 11 pm every second or third (depending on Dr. Conlon’s work schedule) Saturday in July.

Then came the first day of high school, and they found themselves in the same homeroom. David was an anxious teenager who didn’t exactly have a big group of friends. So obviously, he flocked to the one boy he already knew. Spot didn’t complain. He acknowledged their bond, and that was it.
Spot just… wasn’t one to openly show his sentiment. Sober, that is. Give the man a drink, and he will start babbling with a sentimentality unknown to mankind. (Davey learned that when they stole liquor from the house to spice up the Conlon BBQ of 2016, and Spot hugged him for the first time after having been friends for three years.)
Anyway, they had each other to rely on. Throughout high school and throughout summers. Davey was the first person Spot came out to. Which marked the second hug they ever shared, and Spot threatened to send the entire football team after him if he ever told another soul that Spot Conlon could cry.

When it was time to pick a college, Davey decided on the one close enough to visit his family once in a while but far enough to have an excuse to move out. And yes, maybe Sarah choosing the same college might have influenced him. She was his twin sister, after all, okay?
Spot, too, chose the same college. David assumed it’d be for similar reasons. And then, during their shared graduation party, Spot nonchalantly told Davey that he picked the college so they would not be separated after their years together.
“I don’t care about school, to be honest with ya,” he had shrugged, “I’ll probably drop out. I just promised my moms I would try it for a year. I figured still having you around would make it suck less.”
That was the third time they ever hugged, this time initiated by David and merely tolerated by Spot.

Needless to say, Spot had a special place in Davey’s heart. So, even though they, by now, were part of the same friend group, they still regularly made an effort to get some Conlon-Jacobs quality time. And today, they got together for lunch.
Granted, it became less frequent after their freshman year of college. When Spot finally decided to drop out of college for good, their schedules didn’t align anymore. Instead, Spot now took on various jobs throughout the city to find his place in the world.
Currently, he was working as a personal trainer at a gym. At least, that was what he did the last time they spoke. Spot’s professional life could change quickly, so Dave knew.

Davey wasn’t too surprised to find Spot already sitting on one of the tables in the diner when he arrived. People (Jack) always said David was notoriously early, but Spot was on another level. Nobody understood why, least of all Spot himself.
“You’re late,” Spot greeted him with a sideglance at his Apple watch, “Is Jack rubbing off on you?”
“I’m not late,” Dave snorted. He knew for a fact he was almost ten minutes early, “You just always make it a contest.”
“I wouldn’t call you competition, though,” Spot scoffed, “This is the sixth time I won.”

Dave slid into the booth opposite Spot and removed his jacket. Spot stared at him with narrow eyes.
“What?” Dave asked after a few seconds.
“You look weird,” Spot said, not taking his eyes off him, “Something’s different.”
“Care to elaborate?” David asked and furrowed his brows.
“I don’t know. Something’s just… different,” Spot finally looked away. He started reading through the menu on the table as if they hadn’t been here a million times. Davey already knew what he would order.
“How’s work? Are you still working at the gym?” David changed the subject. Listen, at some point, you just get used to the out-of-pocket-things Spot said occasionally.
“Yup. I might stay there for another while. I don’t hate it yet,” he shrugged, “Though Race is annoyed I’m working some afternoons. But he’s pissed a lot right now, so it’s not really about me, I guess.”
“Why is he pissed?”
“He’s stressed with school. He wants to start his PhD this year, so he’s taking a shitload of classes.”

Davey nodded in understanding. Race started college the same year he and Spot had, and he finished his undergrad within two years, thanks to two Maymesters. Last summer, he had started his Masters. Jack had whined to Davey about how his younger brother finished school in half the time he would take. But then again, Race had an IQ of 147 and was probably going to be working for NASA before turning 25.
“He’s going to have a master's degree before he’s of legal drinking age,” Dave annotated, mildly amused.
“That’s what I said!” Spot waved around with his arms, “I don’t know what he’s trying to prove, to be honest. Sometimes, I wonder if I made a mistake by dropping out, but then I take a look at Racetrack’s homework, and I thank the fucking gods.”

The waitress came by and took their orders. They both ordered the usual, and she left again.
“How about you? How’s school treating ya?” Spot asked.
“Awful,” Davey snorted, “Next question.”
“Okay. Who’ve you been screwing?”
David started coughing, “Excuse me?”
“So it’s true!” Spot called out, “You’re fucking.”
“I’m–” he felt his face flush, “I’m seeing someone.”

Denying was pointless; Dave knew that. Spot would not believe him anyway.
“But you’re not getting some?”
“Jesus Christ, Sean,” Dave sighed, “Yes, I occasionally sleep with him, too.”
“Atta, boy!” Spot seemed satisfied with that reply, “Honestly, man, I’m just glad you moved on from your crush on Jack.”
“Yeah, me too,” Dave agreed with a small smile. After all, they did move on from a crush into a relationship, right?
“So, we know the guy?” Spot asked and wiggled with his eyebrows.
“I’d rather not talk too much about him yet,” David said truthfully, “It’s still very fresh. I don’t want to jinx it.”
“You don’t even believe in jinxes.”
“Well, he does!” That wasn’t even a lie; Jack, for some reason, was a very superstitious man.

“C’mon! I promise I won’t tell Race anything about this mysterious guy, a’ight?”
“Sean, we both know that’s a lie.”
“Pretty please?” Spot dramatically started pouting, “You never tell me stuff like this anymore.”
“Stuff like what?”
“Like, boys and stuff!”
“Who the fuck are you, and where’s Spot Conlon?” Dave snorted, “You hate talking about this.”

In fact, Spot hated talks about dating to the extent that he never officially told Davey about him and Race. He merely dropped it in a half-sentence. It was something along the lines of Medda invited me over for dinner sometime, I guess it makes sense now that I’m dating her son, followed by Davey choking on his milkshake.
(Would Medda invite him over for dinner, too, when Jack told her about him?)
“I hated seeing you mopey about the same person for ages. It’s a refreshing change to hear you’re finally getting some.”
“I wasn’t mopey,” David crossed his arms.
“You think so? Then ya didn’t see ya face whenever a Tinder message popped up on Jack’s phone,” Spot took a sip from his diet coke (the waitress had brought their drinks a few moments ago), “You looked like someone kicked a puppy.”

“Fine, fine,” Dave held his hands up in surrender, “That’s in the past now. I promise I’ll tell you more about him the next time we get lunch, okay?”
David knew that their schedules rarely aligned, so he should be able to stall until they had made it official.
“That’s gonna be ages,” Spot groaned, “You’re gonna be engaged by then.”
“Now you’re straight-up dramatic,” Davey deadpanned.
“All I’m saying,” Spot started rummaging in the gym bag under the table, “is that we just don’t get some good old Jacobs-Conlon-quality time anymore.”
He pulled out a little pill box filled with supplements. Spot had tried to explain to him multiple times how each pill helped him gain muscle, but Davey always forgot instantly.
“That’s because we’re adults with lives now and not kids with the same timetable anymore,” Dave explained, “But yeah, I know what you mean.”
He made a mental note to hang out more with Spot after finals.

“And because you got a new boyfriend and want to spend all your time with him,” Spot swallowed the supplements down with his diet coke, “What’s Jack saying to all of this?”
“What’s Jack got to do with this?” Davey asked a bit too quickly.
“He surely noticed that you cut his hours, hasn’t he? Does he know about the guy? Does he like him?”
Phew.
“He actually likes the guy a lot,” Jack had an above-average self-esteem anyway.
“So Jack approves of this?”
“He does. He just wants me to be happy,” Davey smiled.

“Absolutely disgusting,” Spot pretended to gag but quickly stopped when he saw the waitress approaching with their food. (He may be a little shit, but he wasn’t a monster).
“See! You hate talking about our love lives!” David felt like he had his point proven.
“A’ight, fine, I do!” Spot rolled his eyes and reached for the silverware on the table, “But Dave, believe it or not, I also care about ya. So you better not date a dick.”
“I promise you I’m not,” Davey reassured him, “Hey, how’s it going with you and Race? Other than him being stressed about school.”

“We’re good,” Spot shrugged, “I don’t know what to get him for our second anniversary next month.”
“I didn’t think you’d get each other things for anniversaries,” David admitted.
“We aren’t, but I wanna get him something, so he’s pissed that he got me nothin’.”
Davey decided not to tell him that he overheard Race talking to Jack about exactly this, with the same plan in mind. They were indeed an odd couple but also a match made in heaven.
“So nothing of high monetary value but rather something with a high emotional value?”

Spot snorted, “That man is getting nothing pricy from me. We thought about going ring shopping soon, that’s gonna be expensive enou-”
“You’re going to propose?!”

Chapter Text

”I need another break,” Jack announced five minutes into the study session.
“You just took one,” Davey barely looked up from the keyboard of his laptop.
“Yeah, and now I will take another one. I need a cigarette.”
“You do not need another smoke break. You just came back from the last one.”
“So what? This project is stressing me out!”
“I know how much you usually smoke, and it’s not this much. You’re just using an unhealthy habit to procrastinate,” Dave finally looked up from his paper. Jack had turned around in his desk chair and pouted at him.
“Pretty please?”
“Absolutely not. Your project is due in two days. Chop chop, Jackson.”

You see, Jack had many good qualities. Discipline was not one of them. Neither was time management nor the ability to work on assignments when there was anything (literally anything) else to do. And no matter who he studied with, he would drag them down with him. Therefore, Davey usually just avoided studying with Jack, at least when he had something to do that was of actual importance. However, the paper he had currently opened on his laptop only needed minor tweaking, and Jack had been struggling to finish one of his final projects for days and weeks now. So naturally, Dave agreed to play the bad guy. He was a considerate boyfriend, after all.
Interestingly enough, when Jack didn’t have his own homework, he was not much of a distraction for David. Sure, since they started going out, he occasionally asked for a kiss or tried to distract Dave in other mischievous ways. But other than that, or the occasional Reddit meme he just had to show Davey the very moment he found it, he was quite the delight to have around as study company.

As soon as Jack himself had work to get done, however, he turned into a stubborn child. It took much patience to get Jack to work, and while doing so, it was almost impossible to get work done yourself.
By now, Davey had at least some practice in it. It took months until he found the perfect balance between being gentle and being stern. (The gentle parts usually predominated, especially since they started dating.)

”I don’t want to,” Jack continued whining.
“You won’t be able to graduate this term if you don’t finish in time,” David reminded him.
“Well, then you could take summer classes, and we graduate together next semester,” Jack got up from his chair and crossed Dave’s small dorm room to flop himself onto the mattress next to Dave. He immediately took David’s arm and clung to it.
“I should have seen that one backfire.”
“Yup,” Jack nestled his head into David’s shoulder.

David sighed and carefully placed his computer on the bedside table. Jack buried his face in his chest and let out a noise of contentment, “Degrees are overrated anyway. Spot doesn’t have one, and he’s doing just fine, right?”
“I would have wholeheartedly supported you had you dropped out earlier, but you are not going to drop out two months before graduating.”
“Listen, Dave, if you don’t like me, just say so,” Jack seemed to suppress a jawn.
“I actually like you a lot, and that’s why I care about your education.”
“I’ll be fine. You become a bestselling author, and I get to be your trophy husband. Then we can be together all day, and I can paint while you write.”

David quite liked the thought. Not because of the prosperous future (okay, maybe a bit) but because Jack was there with him. How lucky he was. Lucky enough to have Jack as his boyfriend, to have Jack wanting to spend his life with him too.
“Hey, did I tell you what Spot told me at lunch the other day?” Dave just remembered that he had totally forgotten to tell Jack about that: “He and Race want to get married.”
“I mean, Race mentioned they talked about it,” Jack shifted to look at him, “Do ya know something I don’t?”
“Spot told me they’re going to pick out engagement rings soon. But he doesn’t have a solid proposal plan yet.”
“They’re probably gonna turn it into one of their weird bets. First one to propose wins or something,” Jack chuckled, “I can’t even imagine them throwing a wedding. I always imagined them just eloping, to be honest.”
David hummed in agreement.

”Have you ever...,” Dave hesitated, “What kind of wedding do you imagine to have one day?”
“Oooh, I wanna big wedding,” Jack looked up and beamed from ear to ear, “So you better write a couple of good books because it’s not gonna be cheap to make me your husband.”
David let out a laugh, “You know, if you finished your degree, you could get a job, and help pay for a big wedding.”
Jack chuckled, “How about you?” he asked and started drawing circles on David’s chest, “What kinda wedding do you see for us?”
“I don’t know,” he shrugged, ignoring the goosebumps creeping up his body, “I haven’t given it much thought.”
“C’mon Dave, you always worry about the future, but you haven’t thought about marrying me?”
“I mean, until last month, I would never have thought you would want to date me in the first place,” Dave said with a little shrug and absentmindedly brushed some hair out of Jack’s face.

Jack leaned towards him and placed a slow, gentle kiss on Davey’s lips. It made his whole body tingle, and David smiled against Jack’s mouth. When they parted again, Jack laid down next to him, facing his direction. Davey put his arm around Jack’s middle and edged closer so as not to fall off the narrow twin bed. (No other reason, really!)
They smiled at each other.
“Well, you had five weeks to think about it,” Jack eventually said and placed his hand on David’s jaw. His thumb drew patterns on the side of his face.
Dave snorted, “I haven’t thought about a wedding yet. I’ve thought about marriage, though. I’ve thought about a life with you.”
“I’d love a life with you,” Jack smiled, “I love… being with you. I think I haven’t been this happy in a long time.”

David knew that it was too early to say out loud that he loved Jack.
But this was Jack Kelly, who stole his heart with ease, and David never even saw it coming until it was too late. He obviously wouldn’t say it into Jack’s face right now. It’s only been five weeks, and he kind of wanted to wait for Jack to take that step first.
Well, technically, David already said it the night they first hooked up. But he had been drunk, so it probably didn’t count.

But at this moment, the thought just popped into his head. God, I love this man, it was written in neon letters and announced on a billboard in Davey’s mind, I deeply love this man with every fiber of my being, and I don’t think I will ever stop.
And if I am very, very lucky, neither will he.

”What are you thinking about?” Jack asked, “That’s your thinking-face.”
“I have a thinking-face?” Dave asked, amused.
“Yeah, and that’s the face!” Jack pointed at him, “Care to share?”
“I’m just looking forward to our future,” Davey replied (it wasn’t a complete lie), “Oh God, who’s going to propose? I might just become an anxious, stuttering mess.”
“Oh, I know,” Jack laughed, “I got it handled. Anything I should know?”
Dave thought for a second, “I want nothing big. I will cry, so be prepared for that, I guess?”
Jack snorted, “I knew that already.”
“Oh wow,” Davey playfully rolled his eyes and pretended to want to get up, but Jack pulled him close again. Now David was the one to be nestled in the crook of Jack’s neck.
“You think you can get away?” Jack joked and tightly put his arms around Davey, “‘Cause there’s no way I’m letting ya go. Like ever.”

”Stop being cheesy, you just don’t want to finish your project,” Davey laughed, “C’mon, you’re almost finished, aren’t you?”
“Nothing o’ that will matter when I’m your trophy husband,” Jack yawned and closed his eyes, “We might as well spend our time with better things.”
Davey looked at him for a few moments. Then, “Do you really think my book will be a success?”
“‘Course,” Jack said without hesitation, “I loved it. And you know how much I hate readin’. I thought we could talk to Kath. Maybe she knows someone who could publish it.”
“I haven’t even thought about that. That’s actually such a good idea.”
“I occasionally have one of those, y’know?”

God, what in heavens had David done to deserve this man in his life? What had David done to have Jack as his best friend, as his boyfriend, as his companion?
“And do you know what’s another good idea?” Dave propped himself up on his elbows, looking at Jack with raised eyebrows.
“Please don’t say it,” Jack whined and threw his head back in an overly dramatic manner.
“You go finish your project, and I finish my essay, and then we can lay in bed without feeling guilty about it!”
“Listen, Davey, if you feel guilty, that’s a you-probl-” Dave cut him off with a short kiss pressed on his lips.
“Break is over,” he then announced, climbed over Jack to get out of bed, and clapped his hands. “Chop, chop. I prefer my future trophy husband with a degree.”

Chapter Text

The mission for the night was not to blow their cover.
That was all that they had to do. It was definitely not impossible, but at this point, they had just gotten used to being affectionate whenever they sat next to each other.
Because of that, whenever they hung out with their friends throughout the last couple of weeks, they avoided sitting next to each other. That way, there was no accidental leaning into each other, reaching for each other’s hands, or any other sort of couple behavior.

Tonight, however, they wouldn’t be able to pull off that move because it would be just the two of them, Sarah and Katherine, and there was no way the other couple wouldn’t want to be seated next to each other.

Pretending it was. Pretending they were friends. Just friends.
It was a crumb of comfort that at least tonight, after the dinner, he’d sleep over at Jack’s apartment again.

If David was being honest, by now, it was just a principle they followed because they agreed on it. The thought of telling everybody about them dating in a few weeks still was kind of scary, but mostly because it seemed like a lot of explaining they would have to do.

It truly was not easy not to tell Sarah about the first relationship in a long time that actually gave Davey butterflies out of happiness and not plain anxiety. Because she was his twin sister after all, and additionally to that, she was one of the three people who knew about his crush on Jack in the first place.
When Sarah and Kath got together, he received a text message from his sister about one hour after their first kiss. Chances were that Sarah would be super pissed when she found out that her brother hid his relationship with Jack from her.
And not that he would enjoy upsetting Sarah on any other night, but tonight it would be even more disastrous because tonight he wanted to ask Kath for help with finding a publisher, and the worst thing he could do for that is bring up Kath’s girlfriend against himself.

It wasn’t too unusual for the four of them to grab dinner in that combination, especially since Katherine and Sarah got together. That was when they became a package deal, so it was almost impossible to hang out with Sarah without having Katherine included.
That was also when Davey started to bring Jack to these hangouts. Because after three times of him just third-wheeling the happy lesbians, he figured that he would have a much better time if Jack Kelly were present with them as well.
That earned an amused gaze from Sarah’s side. From then on, she referred to dinners like these as double dates, at least when talking to Davey without anyone else present. It drove him crazy, and she was well aware.

Still, this night, Dave could swear that she was sensing it. Even though he and Jack didn’t sit too close to each other. Even though there was no hand-holding. There was something in her gaze when she looked back and forth between him and Jack.
She didn’t say anything, though. So maybe, just maybe, David was seeing things that weren’t there.

What he indeed didn’t just imagine were Jack’s prompting gazes, seemingly urging him to finally ask Katherine for her help with the whole publishing thing.
But it just felt cheap to Davey to ask right away because even though they had been friends for years and it was perfectly normal to ask your friend for a favor, what if Katherine thought that David was using her for his advantage and—
Jack nudged his leg under the table, throwing another discreet glance at Davey. He nodded subtly, inaudibly asking for a bit more time. Sarah was currently telling them about some prick from one of her classes anyway, and David would hate to cut her off.

However, since he had been friends with Jack for a while, he knew there was no going back once he was on board with something. And even though the thought of sharing his work with another person he knew wasn’t too appealing, he knew there was no way around it. And Jack wouldn’t let him backpedal.
It truly was ironic, almost paradox, how one of David’s biggest dreams was to publish his work; still, he always felt uncomfortable sharing it with his friends. He couldn’t care less about the rest of the world because he knew his writing was decent at the least. But his close friends were a no-no.

After another 20 minutes, Jack appeared to have had enough.
“Ay, Dave,” he began loudly and nudged him visible to the girls, now with his elbow, “Didn’t you say you wanted to ask Kath about something?”
Davey swallowed.

“What’s up?” Kath asked with curiosity in her voice.
“Do you, uh,” his tongue felt heavy. He took a deep, reassuring breath, “Do you, by any chance, have connections to a publisher? For novels?”
“Well, duh,” Kath shot back almost immediately, “I could look through my Dad’s phone and give you a list of twenty names. Why?”
“I sort of wrote something over the last couple of months. It’s not perfect by all means, but I thought about getting it published at some point,” his voice sounded foreign to himself, and he honestly couldn’t believe that he actually brought up the courage to ask.

“Davey is being humble,” Jack cut in, “The story is amazing. I still gotta finish the last bit, but what I have read so far is incredible.”
“Jack, let me stop you right there,” Sarah threw in, “You read something? Voluntarily?”
“Hard to believe, I know,” Jack snorted, “But you would too if you started it!”
“What the hell did you do to get Jack Kelly to read?” Sarah now turned to Davey, her eyebrows pulled upwards. She eyed him suspiciously.
“I, uh, asked him for his opinion?” he explained truthfully.

“What length are we talking about?” Katherine got back on track.
“It’s a bit less than one hundred forty thousand words,” David recalled his last word count.
“And you got Jack to read all of that?” Sarah called out again.
“I still haven’t finished all of it!” Jack noted, “But I will! Soon!”

“That’s so much!” Katherine marveled, “David, you must be an excellent writer if Jack actually read a book of this length.”
Sarah muttered something under her breath that sounded an awful lot like or really good in bed, but David could only throw a flabbergasted glance at her before Jack started speaking again.

“Sorry, are you listening to what I’m saying? That’s what I’m telling you! The book is amazing, and I think Dave should publish it.”
“I could ask Bill,” Kath proposed, “He’s a good friend of mine. His father owns a publishing company. He worked closely together with my Dad when Bill and I were kids—”
“That would be amazing!” Dave cut her off in excitement. He then politely cleared his voice and smiled apologetically at Kath before he proceeded to talk, “Uh, sorry. Thanks, Kath. I appreciate that. Really.”
“There we go, now that wasn’t too hard,” Jack crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, satisfaction drawn across his face.
“Shut up, Jackie,” David scoffed, “Bill’s Dad could still say no.”
“Why the fuck would he do that?”

“Hey, wait, don’t you want to read something of it before you recommend me?” Dave turned his head to face the girls again.
“I’d honestly love to,” Katherine laughed, “I mean, Jack already sold it pretty well. I have no reason to believe he’d read something that wasn’t extraordinarily well written and plotted.”
“See, all you have to do is to take me to every meeting to gush over you,” Jack grinned and winked at Dave.

Maybe his dream wouldn’t be too unrealistic after all.

Chapter Text

A weak door knock made David look up from the flashcards he was working on. He sat cross-legged on the comforter of his bed, a thick book opened next to him and a highlighter pen in his hand. Usually, he used his desk to do school work because he had more space, because his work was neater that way, and because he knew it was confusing for the brain to work and sleep in the same place.
But truth be told, the preparation for finals was draining, and since the only task on his well-organized plate today was going over his flashcards, he decided to do that comfortably in bed.
As comfortable as it could be to sit hunched over a book instead of leaning back in his chair. But that logic didn’t need to make sense. Nothing made sense with finals nearing.

“Who is this?” Davey asked and put the cap back onto the highlighter pen. He knew for sure that it couldn’t be Sarah; she usually just stormed in and refused to knock (you know, like a normal person), or at least shoot a text before coming over.
“It’s me,” Jack sounded groggy from the other side of the door, “Can I come in?”
“Uh, of course, sure,” he put the pen aside and turned his head towards the door when he heard it swing open.

Jack didn’t just sound groggy, he looked completely exhausted.
“Woah, Dear, I mean that in the best way possible, but you look awful,” Dave said at the sight of his boyfriend, “What’s going on?”
“Rough day,” Jack mumbled, “I’m sorry, I know you need your alone time to study, and I won’t stay for too long‒”
“Hey, Jackie, it’s fine,” Davey quickly said and untangled, “Do you want to lay down? I’ll just…” he closed the book and put it on the floor beside his bed. The flashcards went to his nightstand, “Here you go. I can sit over on the desk chair if you need more space.”
“Nonono, stay right there,” Jack rubbed his eyes and stumbled over to the bed. With half-closed eyes, he gently pushed Davey back into the mattress to comfortably fit himself between Dave’s legs and rested his head on his chest, hugging his torso tightly. He let out a content sigh when he settled, his eyes finally fully shut.

Davey put his arms around Jack, burying one of his hands in Jack’s hair.
“So, rough day?” he asked, gently stroking Jack’s back, “How rough on a scale from one to ten?”
“Eleven. I hate college. I just wanna leave,” Jack groaned, “Fine, I don’t hate college, I’m thankful for the education and all that shit, but geez why did I think this elective might be a good idea?”

David knew exactly which elective was in question since Jack complained about it at least once a week around this exact time.
“You wanted to learn how to write an art column, in case you ever got the chance to,” David recalled.
“Yeah, and that was one stupid idea,” he grumbled, “I swear, Professor Pulitzer hates me. I don’t know why. He just... does.”
“It could be because you dated his daughter,” he noted, “But doesn’t Pulitzer hate everyone?”
“But he hates me in particular!” Jack raised one of his arms to rub his eyes with his hand, “That fucking bastard chose me today to read something out loud. He knows that I’m dyslexic, and he still made me read out this stupid paragraph, and then he made comments about me stumbling over words.”

“That’s awful,” David gave back and furrowed his eyebrows. He tightened his embrace around Jack, “I’m so sorry you must deal with this. It’s unacceptable for him to behave that way.”
“I don’t know why I even bothered to get diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD when this fucker just treats me like I’m stupid and lazy.”
“You know, if you want to, you could always report him to the board. I mean, he deserves it.”
“Eh,” Jack just shrugged. “I just feel like it’s not worth the effort. It’s just one semester, and it’s almost done. Why bother?”

David blinked twice and looked at him.
“Okay, who are you, and what did you do with my boyfriend?” he asked with knit-together eyebrows, “That doesn’t sound like something Jack Kelly would say. The Jack Kelly I know would never fail to seize an opportunity to battle Pulitzer.”
“See, you’re not wrong,” Jack looked up to him, his chin on Davey’s chest. The chin against Dave’s ribcage felt somewhat uncomfortable, but he didn’t care, “But you gotta remember, I’ll be outta here in a few weeks. Before I came to Medda, I didn’t even consider ever going to college because it seemed pointless. And now I’ll be graduating,” he shrugged again and pressed his cheek against Dave’s chest again, “I don’t want to risk anything. Feels ungrateful. I dunno.”

“Jackie, I hear you, but Pulitzer isn’t as influential that he could endanger your graduation,” Dave stroked his back in an attempt to soothe him, “The worst that could happen is that he lets you fail, and even that wouldn’t be the end of the world. You don’t necessarily need that class to graduate.”
Dave remembered the beginning of this year when he helped Jack pick out his classes because Jack felt too overwhelmed to do it alone.

“Wrong, the worst that could happen is that he sabotages the publishing of your book,” Jack corrected him, “He is friends with Bill’s Dad, and Pulitzer might—”
“Is that why you’re not reporting him?” Davey cut him off, “Because you don’t want him to mess with my book?”
“I mean, partially!” Jack avoided his gaze, and a light blush appeared on his cheeks, “He might! He’s an asshole!”
“Honey, please don’t worry about that,” he couldn’t help but feel a tad guilty, “Pulitzer worked together with Bill’s Dad years ago, and Kath said they aren’t really friends. Besides, why would he harm me just because he’s pissed at you? He doesn’t know we’re dating. It is none of his business, anyway.”

“I just know how much you want this,” Jack mumbled, “I don’t want to take unnecessary risks.”
“And I don’t want you to be miserable every week because of one stupid elective. I’m with you, no matter how you decide, but don’t do anything that you wouldn’t also do if it wasn’t for this book, alright?”
“I just want to fucking get this class over with,” Jack again hid his face in Davey’s chest. He then let out another groan, muffled by the fabric of David’s shirt. Jack’s breath felt hot on Davey’s skin under the t-shirt, and seeing Jack like this made Davey’s chest ache.

“Is there anything I can do for you?”
“You’re already doing your best at being a pretty comfortable pillow,” he paused for a second and then looked up, “Let me rephrase: You’re already doing your best at being a pretty and comfortable pillow.”
“Ha ha,” David rolled his eyes, “You look like you could use a few more hours of sleep.”
“You’re the one to talk, Dave,” Jack snorted, “I bet you already had four cups of coffee.”
“Rude,” Davey scoffed, “But I’m not the one of us who just entered this room looking like a zombie.”

Jack turned his head to the side and rested it against Dave’s torso again.
“I’m mean, you’re not wrong,” he gave in, “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Really? I thought you went to bed early. You texted me good night at like 9.”
“I wanted to go to sleep early,” Jack agreed, “Then my brain started to go crazy and wouldn’t let me rest for no apparent reason, so that was fun.”
“What happened?”
He shrugged, “I dunno. I was brushing my teeth, and all of a sudden, my mind was going like 100 miles an hour. You know, when your thoughts are so fast that you can’t even think them, really? And then I was super restless and exhausted at the same time, and I started stimming like crazy. It just... was a whole thing.”

“You could have called me,” Dave quickly said, but then noticed how forcing he sounded, “I mean— You are not obligated to do so. But if you need to, you can always—”
“Yeah, no, I know,” Jack stopped him and gently squeezed David’s hip with his hand, “I know I can count on you. It wasn’t as awful as it sounded. I’ve been through worse.”
“Not exactly the right way to ensure me of your wellbeing,” Dave said drily.
“I am tryna say,” he sighed tiredly, genuinely, physically tired, “If I ever reach the point I feel like I can’t handle it myself, you can bet your sweet butt that I’ll call you.”

David nodded and hugged Jack tightly. He knew that Jack was an adult; he was older than Dave, at least by a handful of months, and there was no reason to treat him like a child who couldn’t handle themself. They had known each other long enough for David to be sure that if Jack required help, he reached out to him. It had happened in the past already. Because he trusted him and knew David would be there for him and not leave him hanging.
Jack was his adult boyfriend, who had been through too many years of awfulness that made him mature way faster than it might have been healthy.

“Actually,” just when Dave thought he had fallen asleep, Jack raised his voice again, “Could you help me proofread some stuff?”
“Of course,” Dave quickly nodded, “Do you have it on you? We could do that right now.”
“I don’t, and I don’t want to move,” Jack denied and yawned, “How about Friday?”
“Urgh, I can’t do Friday. I’m going home over the weekend,” he pulled a face, “I promised Les to help him with a science project.”
“So you won’t be staying at my place this weekend?” Jack pouted, “Why can’t Sarah help? She’s the one to major in Bio,”
“That’s why she’s driving home in the first place, and she bullied me into joining because I haven’t been home for a while,” for the record, Dave found Jack’s pout simply adoring, “Believe me, if I had the choice between being at my parent’s house or in your bed all weekend, you know what I would choose.”

“Did ya‒ When did you last talk to your parents, though?” Jack asked, his eyes almost closed, “Did you tell them about us?”
“Uh, I did not,” David responded after a short hesitation. The last phone call back home was a few days back. He didn’t think about telling his parents about Jack. They obviously knew about Jack as a person because he had been over a couple of times, especially during summer, but they didn’t know about Dave and Jack being an item now. He just got into the habit of gracefully avoiding the topic of dating altogether whenever he was talking to his parents.
David just... didn’t particularly enjoy telling his parents about relationships. Not because they were unsupportive but mostly because it made him feel awkward telling his parents about his love life.

“Oh,” Jack nodded, “Well, that’s cool, I definitely didn’t tell Medda, soo…”
“You told Medda?” David looked at Jack with an amused grin, “When?”
“I didn’t tell her!” he defended himself, “She guessed. That woman is a witch or has some sense for that. Is that alright?”
“‘Course it is,” Davey leaned down and kissed Jack’s forehead softly, “Hey, it’s only eleven days until we tell the group.”
“You’re counting the days?” Jack teased him.
“Jackie, it’s simple math.”
“Still,” he scooted closer to tuck his head under Davey’s chin.

Soon, Jack’s quiet snoring was all that was audible in the dorm room. Jack’s snoring and the almost noiseless sound of Davey’s flashcards being looked at and turned around.
And the noise that Dave’s hand made when it gently stroked up and down Jack’s back.

Chapter Text

To nobody’s surprise, Sarah was late. She texted him that she’d be there at 3:30, but according to her location, she was at least another ten minutes away.
David told her to pick him up from Jack’s apartment because he had forgotten his laptop charger earlier. That wasn’t even a lie, even though Dave suspected Jack had hidden it Thursday night before Dave left, so he had to come over one more time before spending the weekend at his parents’ house. But well, whatever, it was an excuse well enough to explain why Sarah had to take the detour to Jack’s.
He felt increasingly guilty not having told her about him and Jack whenever he encountered his sister. Next week, the secret-keeping would finally end, thank God, but until then, he just had to sit through it.
They usually told each other everything. They always had. And actually, Dave couldn’t shake off this feeling that Sarah already knew. How she would know about it was beyond him; maybe he was just paranoid. And anyway, if Sarah knew, whether she found out some other way or he told her himself, everyone would know within two days. Sarah Jacobs was not known for keeping secrets.

When Sarah was about five minutes away, Dave, sadly, had no other choice but to peel out of Jack’s tight embrace (clingy Jack had insisted on another cuddle slash makeout session before Davey had to leave), causing the other man to let out a small whine.
“I’ll be back Sunday night,” David snorted as he walked over to his backpack and shouldered it, “It’s what, two nights?”
“Every minute without you is nothin’ but wasted time,” Jack sighed dramatically and stretched. Then, he sat up.
“You should start writing poetry,” Dave walked back over to him, “Now, are you going to kiss me goodbye or not?”
“Fine. Help me up?” Jack stretched out his hand, and Davey almost fell for it.
“Nuh-uh, you’re gonna pull me down with you. I’ll be awaiting my kiss right by the door, thank you,” he turned to walk towards the hall.
Jack groaned and jumped up (notice how he didn’t need any help?), “Why do you have to know me so well?”
To be loved is to be known, Dave thought, but he didn’t say it aloud. His phone vibrated, announcing that his sister was waiting for him in the car.

”’S’that Sarah?” Jack asked, leaning against the doorframe while Dave looked at his phone.
“Yeah, she just pulled up,” he stuck his phone into his pocket, “Seriously, you’ll be fine without me, right?”
He put on one of his shoes and held Jack’s arm for balance. Jack gently held him by his hip.
“Yeah, don’t worry about me, I’m just messin’ with ya,” he assured him, “I’ll just spend some time with my favorite roommate in the world,” that part he shouted over his shoulder toward the living room where Charlie was playing video games, “Maybe we’ll climb onto the roof and star gaze tonight.”
“See, that sounds like much more fun than helping a teen with a science project,” Dave let go of Jack’s arm when he finished putting on the other shoe.

“Tell him I said hi,” Jack helped him into his coat, “And your parents, too. Tell ‘em I’ll definitely come over a couple o’ days over summer.”
“Because you miss them or because you’re gonna miss me?” Davey teased him.
“Both, duh,” Jack opened the door for him.
“Have a nice weekend, Jackie,” Dave smiled at him, butterflies in his whole body just by looking at his boyfriend, “Be safe.”
“You too, Davey,” Jack returned the soft smile and leaned in for the promised goodbye kiss. He pulled Dave in by his waist and kissed him nice and slowly.
Another message (presumably by Sarah) forced David to let go after a few seconds.

“For someone who’s never on time, she surely is impatient,” he mumbled and leaned back in for one short last kiss. “Bye, Jackie,” he whispered and finally parted.
“Bye, Davey,” Jack gave his waist another squeeze and let him go, “Take care.”

“There you are,” Sarah greeted him when he opened the trunk of her car to put his backpack in, “I was about to come upstairs to check where the hell you were.”
“I always have to wait for you. I’m sure it didn’t kill you to wait for me for once,” Dave said defensively and climbed into the passenger seat.
“I’m not saying it did. It’s just so unlike you to let people wait,” Sarah typed their home address in her phone’s navigation system, “It’s also unlike you to forget your charger.”
“I think Jack hid it to annoy me,” Dave again felt like Sarah was hinting at things. And it drove him crazy.
“That sounds like him,” she nodded and pulled onto the street, “You two are spending a lot of quality time together right now, huh?”
“Well, he is my best friend,” David furrowed his brows, “I’m not spending more time with him than usual.”
That wasn’t even a lie if you didn’t count the sleepovers that became a norm rather than an exception.

“Huh…” Sarah nodded again, “If you say so.”
She damn knew that David hated those words.
“Listen, Sarah, I know you’re worried because I had a crush on him, but he’s still my best friend, alright? I’m not getting my hopes up where I don’t have a chance.”
“Okay, geez, calm down, Dave,” Sarah said in defense, “I didn’t say anything.”

A few moments passed in silence.
“What do you mean, the crush you had? Do you not have a crush on him anymore?” Sarah then asked.
“I figured that, after months of pining, it was time to move on from the crush,” Dave indeed did some Olympic-quality verbal gymnastics here.
“Is that… a good thing? I kinda was always rooting for you two,” Sarah admitted, “And now you just… moved on?”
Dave sighed, “It’s a good thing! Look, I cannot imagine a future where Jack is not my best friend,” friendship was the foundation of a long, healthy relationship, right?
“Alright, alright,” Sarah eventually replied, “We just… haven’t talked about it in some time. You haven’t mentioned it. I’m sorry for bringing it up.”
“It’s okay,” David felt his heart ache because, yes, he usually shared everything with his sister, and he could not wait until he could gush about his boyfriend to her all day long, “Let’s talk about something else.”

While he loved his family, returning home was always quite overwhelming. His parents always welcomed him warmly with some side comment on how he could call more often, and Les was being his grumpy teenage self. He was particularly grumpy this time, probably because he knew his siblings would force him to work on his project. Indeed, shortly after arrival, the Jacobs siblings sat around the table in the dining room, with books and papers scattered around and three laptops opened on different scientific websites. Dave didn’t feel like the best help (he could help with the wording later, but the pure scientific stuff was more of Sarah’s expertise), so when his mother asked for some help preparing dinner, he was the one to volunteer.
“It’s good to have you home for the weekend,” Esther said to him while stirring in the pot on the stove, “I feel like I haven’t seen you since January.”
“That checks out,” David admitted sheepishly without looking up from the pile of potatoes he was peeling, “I’m sorry, Mom. I got caught up with schoolwork, and I’ve been helping Jack a lot with some of his assignments, so he can graduate. And,” he hesitated, “actually, I’ve been meaning to tell you something.”
“Is it about you and Jack?” his mother asked and turned around to look at him curiously. Dave stared at her perplexed.
“No,” he quickly said, “Uh, I see how you came to that thinking,” well, he just mentioned him, “but there’s actually another big thing going on in my life right now.”

His mother tilted her head slightly with a questioning look.
“I wrote a book,” he announced with a smile that was almost proud, “Katherine is helping me to find a publisher… It will probably be another few months of work, but it’s a start.”
“David, that’s amazing!” his mother joyously exclaimed, “Just wait, you’re going to be a successful author in no time.”
He let out a laugh, “Jack said the exact same thing. It’s not that easy, you know? I first have to find a publisher, then I’ll have to edit multiple times; It’s only the first manuscript that I have so far.”
“David, everything will fall into place,” Esther nodded confidently and smiled, “I have a good feeling about this.”
“Me too,” David admitted for the first time. He just never wanted to jinx it, but there really was something inside of him that made him feel like everything would work out.

“So, what’s the other big thing?” his mother casually asked and turned to the stove.
“What do you mean?”
“You said the book was another thing going on in your life, and that implies that’s not all.”
Esther was the one David got his wit from; it was moments like this that he noticed that once again.
“Jack’s coming over for summer for some time,” Dave avoided the question (he really didn’t, though) and returned to peeling potatoes.
“What does that mean, precisely?”
“Mom, I think you know what that means,” he felt a blush creeping up his face.
“Jack is a decent young man with a heart of gold,” his mother said, “He’s welcome in this house at all times.”
“I’ll let him know,” Dave smiled, “Don’t mention it to Sarah yet. We’re gonna tell everybody next week.”
“My lips will be sealed,” she made the commonly known gesture to that saying, “But I wouldn’t be surprised if she already knew.”
“Yeah, I know…” Dave put the bowl with freshly peeled potatoes next to the stove and walked over to the sink to wash the starch off his hands, “And believe me; it’s been hard to keep it a secret. All I want to do all day is tell people how perfect this man is. It’s actually disgusting.”
Esther chuckled, and David rambled on, “No, Mom, you don’t get it, I think he’s… it. The one. I don’t want to rush things, and I want to be sure, but… If you know, you know.”
“Now, David, take one day at a time,” Mrs. Jacobs smiled and took his hands in hers, “And yet again, everything will fall into place.”

When Davey face-timed him after dinner, it only took Jack two rings to pick up. Dave’s heart skipped a beat when Jack’s beautiful face appeared on the screen.
“Missin’ me already?” Jack winked and put the phone up against the wall on his desk. He had a brush in his hand and paint on his fingers.
“Excuse me, you were the one to say that every minute without me is wasted time to you,” Dave leaned back into the pillow on his bed.
“I never said that. You must mistake me with your other boyfriend,” Jack shook his head and dunked the brush into what Dave assumed to be a cup of water off-camera. (He had watched Jack paint more than enough to know precisely what his station looked like right now.)
“Well then, I guess my Mom happily invited my other boyfriend over for summer. My mistake.”
“I’m sure he would love to, actually. How’s the rest of the family?”
“Les is behaving like a typical fourteen-year-old, and Dad wants to read my book because Mom told him about it because I told her about it.”
“Look at them being supportive!” Jack switched brushes, “How’s Les’ science project?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’m just there to proofread. Sarah appeared to have everything under control.”
“So you bailed?”
“I wouldn’t call it that. I helped Mom make dinner.”
“Weren’t ya supposed to help your brother, though?”
“Well, with the language.”
“And he’s not writing stuff right now, or what?”
“Fine, Sarah threw me out because I did my job too well.”
Jack let out a laugh, “So you were being annoying?”
“I wasn’t being annoying,” Davey huffed, “I pointed out that Les missed a comma, and Sarah said, ‘Nobody cares about the Oxford Comma,’ and I said ‘I care about the Oxford comma!’.”
“So, none of ya siblings appreciate how wise and helpful you are?” Jack teased him.
“Exactly. I knew you’d understand me. How was stargazing?”

“It started raining about ten minutes before we wanted to climb up, so we just played video games,” Jack shrugged, “And nooooow, I’m paintin’.”
“Show me?” Dave usually got to see Jack’s paintings eventually, but sometimes Jack didn’t show them until he deemed the art worthy to be presented. It was a whole thing.
“Bet you’d love that, wouldn’t ya?”
“I’m sure it looks great, Jackie. Show me? Pretty please?”
“You’ll see soon enough,” Jack assured him and dipped the brush into the watercolors again.
Dave studied him for a couple of seconds. “You’re pretty when you paint. I miss you.”
“I’m always pretty,” Jack winked at him through the camera.
“Well, yeah, but we already know what,” Davey wondered if he would ever get used to Jack flirting with him. As far as winking qualified as flirting.
“I miss you too,” Jack said, “Is this normal? I mean, we hung out earlier today. Why do I miss you again?”
“Because we… like each other a lot,” Dave replied simply. They both knew what he actually meant.

With a creak, the bedroom door swung open, and Sarah peaked in. “Hey Oxford Comma.”
“Oh, don’t get him started!” Jack snickered from the phone screen.
Les walked in with his laptop in hand. “We’re done. Proofread?”
“That’s not how you build a sentence,” Dave remarked. Les rolled his eyes. So did Sarah.
“Would you please proofread for me, David?”
“Go easy on him, Davey. He’s just a kid,” Jack said, rinsing the brush again.
“What Jack says! I’m just a kid, Davey!” Les nodded and walked over to the bed to trade his laptop for David’s phone, “Jack, I knew you’d be on my side!”
While Les hopped over to the desk chair to catch up with his brother’s ‘best friend,’ Sarah sat down next to Dave on the bed.

“Sooo, you called Jack?”
David nodded and started reading his brother’s project report, choosing not to reply.
“Did he forgive me yet for stealing you away for one weekend?”
“Well, before you picked me up, he said every minute without me would be nothing but wasted time,” Dave recalled, “But he would never admit to that if you asked him.”
“What an oddly intimate thing to say to your best friend.”
“I know, right?”
They exchanged looks. Sarah definitely knew. And David was certain she wouldn’t gossip about it until they made it official. Sometimes, their twin telepathy thing did work, after all.

For a couple of minutes, the room was silent, apart from Les and Jack talking on the phone. Dave made some notes on the report, and Sarah occasionally added something to Les’ and Jack’s dialogue.
“Alright, all done,” Dave finally announced, “I put some notes on the side. We can go through them if you want to?”
“That sounds like an issue for tomorrow, Dave,” Sarah took the computer from him and shut it down, “Sibling game night?”
“Yesplease! You won’t believe how bad Mom and Dad are in Mario Kart. It’s so boring to play with them,” Les jumped up from the desk chair and handed the phone back to Davey, “They’re almost as bad at driving as David irl.”
David huffed, both because of the joke at his expense and the actual vocalizing of an initialism, “I’m an excellent driver, thank you very much.”
“Sure thing, passenger princess,” Jack snickered, earning a loud laugh from Sarah.
“Wow, okay, that backstab we will discuss later tonight. I’ll call you back when I’m in bed, alright?”

“You literally just talked,” Les pointed out and furrowed his brows, “Why do you need to call again later today?”
“Because Jack and Davey are a package deal,” Sarah explained promptly, without allowing Dave to open his mouth, “They are sickeningly inseparable. It’s sort of like with Katherine and me.”
“But that’s different, Kath is your girlfriend.”

“Well, Lester, you’re right there. I am certainly not David’s girlfriend,” Jack agreed.
When David started coughing at that comment, Sarah was so kind as to slap her hand on his back a couple of times.

Chapter Text

Frankly, David sucked at picking out presents. The best thing he could come up with was a middle-price ranged package of watercolors, and that was only because he knew that Jack almost ran out of them.
His old colors had lasted him since Medda bought them for him a couple of years ago since he rarely used them to draw. But when he did, he always seemed so peaceful, and the resulting artworks had always been Davey’s favorites.

Two months weren’t even that big of a deal, probably. But Jack had insisted that they held a little celebration, between just the two of them, to acknowledge the milestone. It wasn’t until then that Davey remembered again how this was the longest Jack had ever been with someone in a committed relationship.
So, while they had everyone invited over for Saturday, they were by themselves on Friday night. Crutchie left them the apartment because he went to meet up with an old friend from High School who coincidentally was in town tonight, so it would be just the two of them, a nice dinner, a gift exchange, and a movie.
Neither of them planned to spend too much money, mostly because this anniversary was more of a symbolic event than anything else since tonight would be the last night they’d be dating in secret. Still, David felt bad when he watched Jack open the box with the paint. It just felt impersonal.

But the first thing that escaped Jack’s throat was a genuine laugh.
“Yeah, that checks out,” he said and smiled at Dave, “Open yours. It’ll make sense, I promise,” he added at his mildly confused frown. He then slid over the slim package that sat on the coffee table.
Inside was a card, David found, or rather a card-sized piece of the paper Jack always used to draw on, in a simple frame. Of course, Jack had painted him something. In watercolor, out of all materials, because he knew how much David loved his watercolor paintings.

It was just a simple drawing of two interlaced hands, but then again, David knew how much Jack (much like most artists he ever talked to) despised drawing hands and fingers.
In the top left corner, a text bubble was drawn, with an old text message written inside in Jack’s best handwriting:

Hey, this is David Jacobs. Spot gave me your number; he mentioned you maybe could help me. I’m taking this art class for credit and because I wanted to try out something new, and it turns out I really suck at it.

It was disgustingly cheesy, and Davey loved it. He loved it to death.

“How much did you have to scroll to dig out this text?” he asked and turned back to Jack.
“A bit,” Jack smiled, “You like it?”
“Jackie, I love it. I…” Dave looked down again, eyeing the drawing inside the frame, “It’s very sweet. Thank you.”

He carefully put the gift down on the table again and leaned toward Jack to kiss him.
“I didn’t misspell anything in the text, did I?” Jack asked against his lips, “I triple-checked, but I don’t trust my dyslexic self.”
“No, don’t worry,” David grinned, “It’s perfect the way it is.”
“Y’know, that’s sorta funny, I was boutta say the same thing about you!” Jack winked, he deadass winked because Jack Kelly never misses an opportunity to compliment Dave in the smoothest way possible.
“Shut up,” Davey laughed. He felt his face heating up already, “You’re so corny today.”

“It’s a special day!” Jack defended himself, “It’s two months, Davey! If someone told me a year ago that I get to be your boyfriend, I would've called 'em insane. And now it’s two months. And you’re not sick of me!”
“I could never be sick of you,” he leaned his forehead against Jack’s, “I’m very happy with how everything is going right now.”
Jack smiled as he gently brushed his thumb over Davey’s cheek, “Yeah, Me too.”

“But well, technically, this is our eight weeks and not our two-month anniversary.”
“You know, Jacobs, you’re lucky you’re hot.”
David grinned and leaned in for another kiss.

He still felt guilty for simply buying Jack something, while he appeared to have put in much more effort than Dave had. While Dave bought something in a store, Jack created something on a tiny canvas.
But David really had never been much of a crafter. He was a writer with heart and soul, and while he had written some poetry about Jack Kelly, there was really nothing good enough to be shared as an anniversary gift.
Though…

“I, uh,” he pulled back, earning a mildly confused look from his boyfriend, “I sort of have another thing. For you, I mean.”
“Sort of?” Jack asked and leaned back, “What do you mean?”
“Well, I wrote something. I didn’t think about giving it to you as an anniversary gift,” David explained slowly, “But I wrote something.”
“I finally get to see one of those poems?” Jack teased him. “I've told you before, and I will tell you again, these poems will never see the light of day,” Davey reached for the phone in his back pocket, “It's... I’ll just read it out, wait.”
Jack stared at him in anticipation while he opened the notes app.

Davey cleared his voice before he started reading, “I dedicate this book to Jack Kelly, my best friend, my partner, my companion, who was the first one to read this.
Who always believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself. Jack, who wouldn’t let me not pursue my dreams. Unknowingly, I already lived a dream just by being with him.”

When he looked up, Jack was still staring at him, now in utter astonishment.
“It’s all still up in the air, of course,” Dave quickly said as he locked his phone and put it down on the coffee table, “But I don’t know. A couple of days ago, I was working on something entirely else, and I just had these words in mind and wanted to write them down.”
“You’re… Davey, that’s amazing,” Jack’s voice was faint, and for a split second, David swore he saw a tear sparkle in Jack’s eyes.
“Are you crying?” he asked in disbelief, “Jackie—”
“Shuddup,” Jack laughed and wiped his eye with the back of his hand, “Allergies.”
“You don’t have any allergies,” he noted and took Jack’s hands, “So, you like it?”
“No, Davey, I very much dislike my boyfriend dedicating his book to me,” Jack snorted and squeezed his hands, “’Course I do!”
“Well, glad to hear that,” he laughed and leaned in again, “But well, I figured, before I get this printed in a book, we first should tell our friends about us.”

“Just checking in,” Jack searched for his eyes, “Are you ready to tell them yet? Or do you want us to wait for another week?”
“Are you joking?” David nodded eagerly, “Jackie, I can’t fucking wait to break the news to them.”

To everybody else’s knowledge (aside from Charlie), David was the first to arrive at Jack and Charlie’s place. The unsurprising truth was that he never left after their date last night and had been helping the actual apartment residents clean the place and prepare it for tonight. And he probably would help them clean it again tomorrow. The place would look like a garbage dump on Sunday morning; they were college kids, after all.
Slowly, guest after guest arrived, and the apartment became increasingly crowded but also increasingly full of life. It wasn’t like they had house parties every weekend, but their friend group usually had at least one bigger get-together a month. But many of them now were nearing the end of college and, therefore, busy with senior projects and papers. Soon, many of them would enter the reality of adult life. Some already had jobs and internships lined up, and a few would need to move out of New York. A weird feeling of nostalgia was in the air.

Jack, Davey knew, was still awaiting responses from a handful of potential employers. Some schools, but mostly other facilities for social and youth work. Of course, Jack Kelly grew up to help the troubled youth. David could not be prouder of his boyfriend.
There was a youth center from which he was particularly hoping for an offer. It was within a stone’s throw from Medda’s place, where Jack would need to move back to after he and Charlie graduated. It marked the end of an era, and Davey couldn’t quite grasp yet that the iconic duo departed after four years of housing together. But their landlord (who was a bastard anyway) had raised their rent again, so with heavy hearts, they had decided to move out and dissolve their shared living situation. Charlie already had a paid internship waiting for him (Dave didn’t even know these things existed nowadays) and considered returning to school out of state for grad school in a year or two.
David would lie if he said he hadn’t considered asking Jack to move in with him. But even though they had two years of friendship, foregoing the start of their relationship, suggesting to move in together after barely a couple of months of dating would probably make him look insane. The dorms were perfectly fine for senior year, too, right?
To be honest, David was just glad that Jack stayed in the area. Living with him or not, everything was better than a long-distance relationship between New York and New Mexico. When Jack was young, about six or seven, he fell in love with the city of Santa Fe after having seen it on TV. At the time, he was in yet another awful foster family, and he couldn’t really remember what even drew him to the city. He had talked about Santa Fe many times before he and Davey started dating, and Dave was frankly a bit anxious Jack would use his newly gained freedom after college to go west for real.
He didn’t mention it once, though, and David never asked him. They probably would have made long-distance work. Dave could see himself even moving across the country to build a life with Jack, even though he hated the heat and was prone to sunburns. Because what would David Jacob do, if not grow old with Jack Kelly?

“What’s on your mind, Dave?” Katherine sat beside him on the couch, a solo cup in hand.
“It’s weird to think about how many of us are graduating soon,” he replied truthfully, “I feel like we put adult life off for a while by attending college, but there really is no fleeing of it.”
She nodded in understanding, “So, just your typical existential dread?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” David shrugged and sipped on his own beverage. It was just lemonade; he was a lightweight and didn’t want to be hammered by the time he and Jack made their relationship official to everyone.
“So this is not the right time to give you updates about publishers?”
Davey nearly choked on his drink and started coughing a bit, “It’s no worse than any other time. What’s the news?”
“I reached out to Bill,” she began, “I sent him the blurb you prepared. He still owed me one, so he called his Dad on your behalf. He then sent me another phone number, another publisher, a daughter company as far as I understood it.”
“Katherine, you didn’t have to put that much work into it—” David just assumed that it went nowhere because, frankly, it somewhat sounded like she was just being sent from secretary to secretary out of disinterest on the publisher’s side.
“Shhh,” she cut him off, “I said I would help you, and I stand by my word. We’re friends, and let’s be real, my name is yet another advantage. Do you want to hear how the story ends?”
Dave nodded quickly and sat the lemonade down on the living room table.

Katherine inhaled, “Sooo, I called the other publisher and sent them the material you gave me. They’re interested. They want to meet you, and they asked about a manuscript.”
Davey blinked. Moments passed, during which he tried to grasp what Katherine just told him. He, of course, knew that this could mean next to nothing and that there was still no guarantee, but it was a big step nonetheless. And even though David was never one to dare to dream big and always mentally prepared himself for things to turn out badly, for the first time, he had a realistic hope that he would be an author one day.
“They…” he slowly repeated Kath’s words, “Want a manuscript?”
She nodded with a big grin, “They already requested your availability.”
“You’re going to come with me, right?” David practically begged, “Katherine, I cannot thank you enough for this.”
She didn’t have a chance to confirm nor deny her further help in the matter (but everybody and their mother knew that she would help without a question because that’s who she was as a person and friend) because David lunged forward to capture her in a grateful, tight hug.
“You’re welcome, Dave,” she laughed and hugged him back, careful not to spill her drink down the back of Davey’s shirt, “Of course, I’ll accompany you if you want me to.”

“I need to tell Jack. He’s going to freak out over this,” David quickly said when they broke away from the embrace, “Is he still in the kitchen?”
Where else would he be, really? Jack’s usual place during parties was the kitchen. That way, the balcony wasn’t far. It was usually the kitchen or wherever Davey was. …Also, he was nowhere to be seen in the living room, which was the only other possibility.
“Of course, you gotta tell Jack,” Katherine said with a small, knowing smile that Davey didn’t really interpret at that moment.

David abandoned his lemonade on the table and quickly left the living room. In the hallway, he almost collided with a somewhat drunk Racetrack but managed to move out of the way at the last second. Racetrack didn’t even seem to notice. He appeared to be on his way to join his boyfriend (fiancé?) by the beer pong table.
“Jackie!” Dave called out upon entering the kitchen, “Jackie, you won’t believe what Kath just told me.”
Jack sat on the kitchen island next to Charlie, talking to Elmer, Mush, and Specs. He seemed to have been telling some story (he was gesticulating like crazy, another thing Davey adored about him) but stopped and looked up immediately when Dave called out his name.
See, in this very moment, the joy about the newly received news made everything disappear aside from him and Jack. He pressed past the boys standing around Jack and Charlie in a semi-circle and stopped before Jack, his mouth pulled into a wide, wide grin. Jack looked at him in anticipation.
“They asked for a manuscript!” Dave called out loudly, although only meant for Jack to hear. (Everybody else, of course, heard it too because even though they ceased to exist in David’s mind, they were still all very much there in the room with them.) “They’re interested.”
Jack started beaming and threw his arms up into the air in an excited manner, “No way! Davey, that’s—”
But in all his joy, Dave didn’t let him speak but instead kissed him hard right then and there.

It took him a couple of seconds to return to reality, although now Jack appeared to be the one to get caught up in the moment. He eagerly kissed back and put his free arm (the hand attached to the other arm was holding a bottle) around Dave, holding him close. Jack tasted like beer and cigarettes. He always smoked more during parties; it was a social thing and also an alcohol thing, he once said. The distinct taste eventually reminded David that, in fact, they were not alone in the kitchen but surrounded by party guests.
Their lips parted on Dave’s initiative and he stared at Jack with his eyes torn open. A blush crept up his face, and he mentally prepared himself to look into shocked faces as soon as he turned away from his boyfriend.
Jack laughed and threw his head back, his arm still thrown around David’s waist, “A’ight, a’ight looks like we got some explaining to do,” he turned to look at their friends, who—didn’t even pay attention to them anymore.

Jack furrowed his brows, looking around the room. So did Dave. Charlie was on his phone (fine, he already knew; he didn’t need to be surprised); Elmer had moved to the bar and poured himself another drink. Sarah and Albert were right next to him; Davey must have overseen them when he stormed in. Mush and Specs were still standing right in front of them, talking to each other, not even questioning what they just witnessed between Jack and David.
“That’s…” Jack mumbled.
“Unexpected,” Davey finished the sentence.

Don’t get him wrong, Dave by no means had expected any negative reactions. He also didn’t particularly expect any unreasonable ecstasy, besides the usual We’re so happy for you two! But… well, he thought they would at least be a tad surprised. Any kind of reaction, really. This was supposed to be brand new information to them!
…Was it not?

Dave spun around to face Sarah, “You told people!” he called out, pointing at her, “You already told people about me and Jack!”
“No, I didn’t!” Sarah immediately jumped into defense, “Why would I? Besides, you didn’t even tell me.”
“But how—” Jack got interrupted by Race stumbling in, an emptied beer bottle in hand.
Race took one look at them, the arm that was still around Davey’s waist, and sighed, “Spotty, come’ere. They did it,” he called into the hallway and then turned back to them, “Ya just cost me 20 bucks.”
“Alright, enough,” Jack set down his beer and took a deep breath, “Oy! Kitchen, everybody, now!”

“What happened?” Katherine asked upon entering the (now slowly getting more and more crowded) kitchen.
“Jack wants more attention for kissing his boyfriend,” Sarah replied drily.
“Okay, who in here already knew that Jack and I are dating?” Dave asked everyone, his head probably a deep crimson shade of red. Everybody (this was not an exaggeration; every single person in the room) raised their hand.
“How?!” both David and Jack asked in unison.

“You’re not as subtle as you think you are,” Specs snorted, “I saw y’all kissing behind some building on campus.”
“I saw you holding hands after you left the restaurant when we had dinner,” Katherine admitted, “I didn’t say anything because I wanted to give you some time.”
“I overheard you talking to Davey on the phone,” Race deadpanned, “It was disgusting.”
“You should hear ‘em when they think I’m not home,” Charlie threw in, and Dave felt like he was going to combust spontaneously.
“I saw them making out on the balcony a couple of months ago,” Albert mentioned and stuffed another handful of chips in his mouth.
“Hey, actually, that was right before we first hooked up!” Jack mentioned with a small laugh. Dave nudged him in the ribs; this definitely was not going to be a topic of conversation tonight or ever, really.
“We thought you knew that we know,” Racetrack shrugged.
“Wrong,” Spot stood behind Race in the door frame. “You thought they knew, and now you owe me 20 bucks.”
“Wait, so you were messing with me when we had lunch together!” Davey put together, remembering back a couple of weeks, “You knew all along?!”
“Oh God, of course I was messing with ya,” Spot snorted, “If you don’t wanna be caught, maybe don’t let your boyfriend wear a hoodie you’ve had since high school.”
Dave threw Jack a short glance of ‘I told you so!’. Jack just shrugged, dismissing.

“Wait, that’s against the rules! We said no asking them about it!” Race turned and faced Spot (he also tumbled and didn’t fall only because Spot held him by his shoulders), “You sabotaged the bet!”
“What the fuck, you can’t expect me not to ask my oldest friend about his love life,” Spot argued back as they made their way back to the living room, presumably to finish their match of beer pong.
With them leaving, the kitchen meeting Jack had called seemed over. Some grabbed a new drink and followed them out of the room. Dave stared at his boyfriend.

“This went differently in my head,” he admitted and then turned to the side, “Hey, Crutchie, did you know about this?”
Charlie shrugged, “I didn’t say nothing. Nobody ever asked me about it, and I never brought it up.”
“I can’t believe nobody ever brought it up!” Jack huffed.
“Y’know, the world doesn’t revolve around you, Kelly,” Elmer snickered, “Some of us have our own lives.”
“Rude,” Jack snorted, “I need a cigarette,” he pressed a short kiss against Davey’s right temple as if to apologize for letting go of his waist now and hopped off the kitchen island, “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. I’m relieved, to be honest,” Davey replied, “I should talk to Sarah, though.”
Jack nodded in understanding and squeezed his hand before walking over to the balcony.

Sarah stood right outside the kitchen door in the hallway, talking to Katherine, who was the first one to see David approaching them.
“I’m gonna give you too some room to talk,” she simply said and left them alone in the hallway. Chatter from both rooms, as well as the music that was way too loud for 11 pm, could be heard in the seconds of silence between the twins.
“I’m sorry for not telling you earlier. Or at all, really,” Dave apologized sincerely, “I really wanted to, I swear. But the relationship felt so fragile in the beginning, I just wanted to… keep it safe. I’m sorry for hurting you.”
Sarah eyed him for a second. Then she opened her arms and took him into a tight embrace.
“I’m very happy for you,” she sounded genuine, and Davey relaxed a bit more, “Jack seems to like you a lot. I’m glad you found somebody like that.”
“I think he loves me,” Dave said with a small smile when they parted, “We haven’t said it yet, but… I don’t know, it’s just a gut feeling.”
“By the way he looks at you? There’s no doubt to that,” Sarah chuckled.”
Davey groaned quietly, “It’s sickening, right? I can’t believe we’re one of those couples now,” he laughed.
“I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time, David,” Sarah leaned against the wall, “Jack knows I’m gonna kill him if he hurts you, right?”
“Oh, he definitely knows that. I don’t think he’s going to hurt me, though. I think I’m going to marry this man,” Dave said in a low voice and with a smile on his lips.

Shortly after, Sarah joined the group in the living room, and Dave went back into the kitchen to find Jack (who was his boyfriend, by the way, have you heard yet?) still outside on the balcony.
It wasn’t terribly cold outside anymore, thanks to spring knocking on nature’s door, but a chilly breeze went through the streets, making it feel cooler outside than it actually was. When Dave closed the door behind him, Jack was about to stub out the cigarette and put it into the ashtray on the floor by the wall.
He started smiling when he saw Davey, “Twin talk went well?” he asked.
“Yeah, she’s not mad. She said to remind you she’s going to kill you if you hurt me.”
“Good thing I ain’t plannin’ on it,” Jack laughed and took Davey in his arms again, lifting him up and twirling them around. Dave laughed and held onto Jack’s shoulders before leaning in for a sweet, long, needed kiss.

“So, they want a manuscript?” Jack asked excitedly when they parted.
“Yes!” Davey beamed from ear to ear, “Katherine just told me. She phoned a bunch of people, and that’s where it ended up.”
“It’s amazing, Dave,” Jack gave him a little shake and then put him down again, “How’re you feeling about this?”
“Like I could take on the world,” he grinned, “Especially with you by my side. How are you feeling with everyone knowing already?”
“I’m a bit butthurt,” Jack admitted, laughing, “But I’m okay. I’m glad it’s done. I just want everybody to know that you’re my boyfriend,” he paused for a second, simply looking at Davey. His smile could light up the whole night sky, “Holy Cow, Dave, I just like you so much, I think I never liked anyone this much.”
David’s little heart jumped up and down in joy. “Me neither,” he replied with a big smile and ended the sentence in his mind, ‘I think I love you, Jack Kelly, and I can’t wait for what our future brings.’
But he didn’t say it aloud. Why hurry, when they had a whole shared future ahead, anyway?

Chapter Text

Whenever Davey didn’t spend the night at Jack’s place (which became more of a rule than an exception), they FaceTimed before going to sleep. Chances were, if they didn’t spend the night together, they also didn’t have much time to catch up all day. That way, they could share some quality time even during busy days.
Today was an exception because they had spent plenty of time together, yet they fell asleep apart: Medda had invited Davey over for Dinner for the first time since they became official.

Although he had met Medda before and had eaten at her table plenty of times, David couldn’t help but feel nervous. Additionally, he was just so goddam tired because a group project due on Monday had been standing between him and his good-night’s-sleep for days now. He was running on three hours of sleep and more coffees than he’d ever admit. Even Spot (who was invited too because Racer would have thrown a tantrum if Jack’s boyfriend was invited to Sunday Dinner, but his boyfriend wasn’t) had thrown him a couple of concerned glances.

Anyway, as expected, everything went well. Medda still liked him; they talked about how her shows were going, any job offers Jack had gotten, Race’s plan to graduate before fall and start his PhD, Spot’s promotion, and, of course, Davey’s book.
The meeting with the publisher hadn’t occurred yet but was coming closer and closer, yet another reason why Dave simply felt exhausted. And no matter how much he loved Medda, he was glad when all plates were emptied, and he finally could head back to campus. Jack would stay at hers for the night; he wouldn’t be moving back in with her for another month but wanted to start decorating his old room so the move would feel less harsh. And David would finally finish up with the project and get ten to twelve hours of sleep.

Later that night, ten to twelve hours turned out to be wishful thinking. Still, around 11:30, David finally closed his laptop, stretched, and called Jack. While he changed into his pajamas, they debriefed the dinner, and Jack assured him that Medda talked very fondly of him, even after he had left.
“She was worried you left ‘cause you thought you’re not welcome to stay overnight,” he said.
“Did you tell her that I had schoolwork to do?” Dave reassured himself because he couldn’t stand the thought he worried Medda for longer than necessary.
“Yeah. I told her you’ll stay over plenty when I move back in with her,” Jack chuckled, “Will ya?”
Davey yawned as he crawled under the covers and propped up the phone against his stuffed animal, “Probably. Less than I do now, I guess. I mean, what if we’re making out in the living room, and she barges in?”
“How’s that different from Crutchie?” Jack asked and attached another photograph with sticky tape on the wall off-camera.
“She’s your Mom. I’d feel weird. Don’t know,” another yawn, “You’ll just have to sleep over in my dorm room more often.”

“It’s temporary, anyway,” Jack reminded him, “And when I find a new place, you’ll get the spare key.”
Just ask me to move in with you, Dave thought, but considered it a thought of sleep deprivation. Moving in together after three months was nuts, wasn’t it?
“So I can come in to do your dishes while you’re still in bed?” he teased his boyfriend instead. His eyes felt very heavy, and he had a hard time holding them open now that he was lying down.
“Exactly!” Jack looked back onto the phone screen and caught a glimpse of Dave, “You look exhausted.”
“I feel exhausted,” he agreed, “My brain is mush. I might fall asleep soon.”
“Do you wanna hang up?”
“I didn’t say that,” David said and closed his eyes, “What time did Spot and Race leave?”

“Around 9. After you left, Mom started saying how great you are, and for the record, I agree, and how glad she is that we finally clicked because she always kinda saw it, apparently? So Racer just had to tell her about the party and how shocked we were that everybody knew already, and Spot—”
With his boyfriend’s voice in his ear, Davey felt himself drift away. He smiled at Medda complimenting him behind his back, and the rest of the story didn’t even reach his brain anymore.
“Dave?”
“Huh?”
“You still there?” There was a chuckle in Jack’s voice, which Dave found endearing.
He hummed in agreement.
“Because I think you’re falling asleep,” David was sure if he opened his eyes, he would find Jack smiling lovingly at him. God, he just loved this man.

“‘m not,” he mumbled.
“I’m gonna hang up now, okay Davey?”
David was too far gone to object. The line was silent for a moment.
“Good night, Dave,” Jack continued, “Sleep well, I miss you.”
Davey opened his eyes a slit. The phone screen was as bright as the sun in his otherwise dark dorm room.
“Good night, Jackie,” he mumbled and clicked on the screen to hang up in a second, “I love you.”

He hung up and put the phone on the nightstand. His eyes shut again he imagined Jack was there in bed with him, holding him close. He always slept better at Jack’s. In previous relationships, he never really enjoyed sharing the bed and falling asleep together. David had a really light sleep, so whenever the other person stirred, he woke up. For some reason, that didn’t happen with Jack. This was weird because he knew for a fact that Jack Kelly moved a lot in his sleep. It used to drive him crazy when they were just platonic, but ever since they started dating, he just slept through it. Maybe it was because he felt safe? Or because he had just gotten so used to sleeping over that—

David tore his eyes open.
Did he just tell Jack that he loved him?!

Frantically, he grabbed his phone.

11:49 pm
From Jack Kelly ♥️
way to end a facetime

11:49 pm
From Jack Kelly ♥️
ur adorable lol

Davey quickly called Jack again. When he picked up, he was still giggling (and was that blush around his nose?!).
“I—I did not mean to say that,” Dave rubbed his eyes and sat up, “Jack, stop laughing at me.”
“‘M not laughing at ya,” Jack snickered, “So what, you sayin’ you don’t love me or what?”
“I’m not saying I don’t love you. I just didn’t mean to say it just yet,” he explained slowly (he had a hard time forming thoughts between over-exhaustion and adrenaline).
“Davey, you’re so cute.”
“Jackson, take me seriously, please.”
“I just think this was the perfect ending for today.”

The supposed blush around Jack’s nose had vanished by now, and he sounded almost genuine.
“Care to elaborate?” Dave asked and propped the phone up again, now feeling wide awake.
Jack shrugged, “I dunno. You bein’ there for Sunday dinner, Mom gushing over you. And then you tell me you love me. Perfect day, I’d say.”
“I mean, I told you before,” Davey reminded him, although he mainly tried calming himself down with that thought, “The night we hooked up?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t count,” Jack argued, “We were both drunk.”

He didn’t seem freaked out. Phew. That had been David’s main concern.
“I think I’ve loved you for a long, long time, Jack,” he therefore admitted, “I just didn’t want to say it too soon.”
“Of course you have. Have you met me? What’s not to love?” his boyfriend winked at him.
“Your humbleness, for starters.”

They talked for another thirty minutes until Jack was in bed as well. When he awoke the following day, David wasn’t sure anymore who had ended the call or if their phones had just hung up in the middle of the night after both of them had fallen asleep.

Graduating college was always a privilege. God knows how different their lives would be now if Jack never ended up with Medda, who made college education possible. Where would they be if Jack wouldn’t have had that chance?
One thing was certain: they certainly would not be under time pressure now due to Jack’s horrendous time management skills, even on his graduation day.
Of course, it was just his (he being David, because it seemed like Jack could not give a flying fuck about being late) luck that Charlie’s and Jack’s graduation slot was the first one of the day. But well, cling together, swing together. If you’re in love with Jack Kelly, you get used to moments like this.

If it went David’s way, they’d have left about 10 minutes ago. But it didn’t go David’s way, so, therefore, Jack currently was eating his cereal, hair still dripping from his morning shower. He was in his underwear because, of course, he hadn’t gotten dressed yet, and no matter how much Dave enjoyed the view, he was getting increasingly more stressed with every minute passing.
Charlie was only a tad better, probably because he knew that Jack would make them late anyway. He already finished his breakfast and went back into his room to change a couple of minutes ago.
David, who was not the one graduating today, had already eaten, showered, shaven, and gotten dressed. And now he was waiting.

Realistically, they weren’t late late. But they definitely didn’t have as much time left as Jack was taking. They still had to account for traffic, and what if Jack’s rusty car decided to finally break down today of all days? (David hated that car with a burning passion ever since he had to drive it himself, and Jack had to tell him when to clutch and shift gears. But that was a story for a different time.)
When Jack finally put the spoon down and moved over to the sink, Dave stopped him.
“I can wash this. You can get dressed,” he ordered, throwing another glance at his watch.
“Davey, I promise we’ll be on time,” Jack said in an amused voice.
“Get dressed, Jackson,” Dave took the bowl from his hands and, in passing, pressed a quick kiss on his cheek.

He washed the spoon and the bowl thoroughly (let’s face it, he could take his sweet time while Jack was getting dressed) and placed them back into their designated places. The cabinets were much emptier now, with the move-out date coming closer and closer. Charlie already found a new place that he could get into next week. It was nice and not far from where they lived now. The housewarming party was already scheduled.
Jack didn’t have such luck yet, but he stated to be fine with living with Medda for now. She was his mother, after all, even if not by blood. Besides, the youth center Jack had applied at finally sent him an offer, and the location of Medda’s place was unbeatable, really.

Charlie emerged from his bedroom, the cap wonkily placed on his head and the gown a bit too big for his slim figure. His crutch—the limp was not as bad today as it usually was, and he got to fulfill his wish of walking on that graduation stage instead of wheeling—was decorated to match the cap; it was a sweet detail.
Half of their friend group was graduating today. David had known that before, and yet, it now seemed more real than ever. Oh dear lord, his boyfriend was graduating, too. They really had become adults faster than expected.

“Crutchie, you look great,” Dave said with a smile and closed the cabinet he just put the bowl in.
“Thanks, Davey,” Charlie said genuinely, “It feels weird. I’ll miss student life.”
“I thought you wanted to return for grad school,” David wondered, “Won’t that be the same?”
“Well, not with the same people,” Charlie admitted, “You guys made college what it was for me. Everything would be entirely different now if housing didn’t put me together with Jack.”
Davey nodded, “Yeah, that makes sense…” At the end of the day, everything tied back to some minor decisions, that had an immense effect. But Dave was way too nervous (why, anyway? He wasn’t even the one graduating!) to think further about the Butterfly Effect now,
“Look, I’m happy I get to have my own place. I’m genuinely looking forward to living alone,” Charlie said, walking over into the kitchen to sit down, “But living with Jack for four years was some of the best times of my life. You’re really lucky.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’ll get to live with him for the rest of your lives, probably.”
“Oh,” Dave finally understood what he meant, “Yeah, but not for some time, I assume. Three months is way too little time to move in together.”
“Maybe,” Charlie took off his cap to adjust the size in the back, “But knowing you two, it’s gonna be rather sooner than later.”

“Huh. Yeah, maybe,” Dave smiled to himself at the thought of living with Jack.

“The bastard’ll also drive you crazy, though,” Charlie laughed and put his cap back on, “You will never be on time for any function ever again.”
David groaned, “I know. I’ll go see how far he is.”
“See, that I won’t miss,” Charlie pulled out his phone, “That’s why I told him an earlier time. We don’t have to leave for another half hour.”
David spun around in the door frame.
“Crutchie, that’s great advice. Next time: Let me in on it. I’ve been in cold sweat for the last hour.”
With that, but also much more relaxed, he left the kitchen and walked over to Jack’s bedroom.

“I’m almost done,” Jack assured him upon entering. That was obviously a lie. He currently buttoned up his dress shirt. It was the only one he owned, a simple white one. For a change, it was not one he borrowed from Davey.
“Your hair is still wet,” he pointed out, amused.
“We just have different concepts of almost,” Jack shrugged and pulled his suspenders up (could this man become any more attractive?!)
“That’s nothing new,” Dave laughed and walked over to him to adjust his collar. Jack rarely dressed up, and in moments like this, it really showed.
“Do ya like me better in the blue tie or in the green tie?” Jack asked, pointing to the hanger dangling on the wardrobe’s handle.
“I always like you a lot, no matter what tie you wear.”
“Davey, blue or green?”
He took the blue tie off the hanger, “This one.”
“A’ight. Good choice. Reminds me of your eyes. Can you tie it, too, by chance?” Jack asked, but Dave had already gently placed it around his neck and got to work.
“I can read your mind, I suppose,” he teased him.
“Can ya? What am thinkin’ right now?”
“How great your boyfriend is, of course. Duh.”
“That one’s easy, I always think how great you are,” Jack leaned in and stole a quick kiss from his lips.

“Done,” David lowered his hands from the tie and let them rest on Jack’s waist, “How are you feeling?”
“I dunno,” Jack’s arms found their way around Davey’s neck, “Bit weird. Can ya believe I’m graduating? Me?”
“It’ll be weird not to walk into you on campus anymore,” Dave admitted and started swaying them from side to side for no apparent reason.
“Why are we dancing now?” Jack snorted.
Dave shrugged, “Felt like it.”
He pulled Jack into a hug, still swaying.
“How’re you feelin’?” Jack asked him, holding on closely.
“I’m going to be dating an adult man,” Dave laughed, “We’re not just a college romance anymore.”
“Well, if ya think I can spoil ya now, you’re wrong,” Jack joined his quiet laughter.
“It’s okay. I still love you,” Dave simply replied, loosening the hug, “Go blow dry your hair.”

Jack hadn’t said it yet. Davey, frankly, was not too worried. He saw the way Jack looked at him, and he’d known him for long enough to know what his body language meant. In every pulling close, in every cooked meal, in every lingering gaze was a small I love you found, so Dave was fine with Jack taking his sweet, sweet time with actually saying the words aloud.
He had fun saying it himself, though. He tried not to overuse them, but whenever he uttered those three magic words, Jack’s whole face lit up like on thousand suns. It was addicting.

“Urgh, fine! I just wanna stay in your arms all day,” Jack complained but eventually let go and made his way to the door.
“Wait, Jackie,” Dave called him back and, when he turned around, pulled him in by his suspenders to kiss him softly. (He’d wanted to do that since entering the bedroom.)

“See, they haven’t even started!” Jack called out as they entered the location. Charlie and David threw knowing glances at each other.
Dave, for his part, was just glad to have arrived eventually; rides in Jack’s car always gave him the worst anxiety. The check engine light had been on ever since they met two years ago; the doors sometimes didn’t lock properly. And don’t get him started on the hole in the roof that Jack had ‘fixed’ with duct tape.
Still, Jack loved that car, and he would not stop driving it until it fell apart. (Which, according to David’s unqualified opinion, would be the case within the next three months. But hey, he’d been saying that for many moons.)

The ceremony was beautiful. David’s chest swelled with pride when Jack walked across the stage and received his degree, followed by a couple of handshakes. With a flower bouquet in hand, he sat down again, just to jump up and cheer the loudest when Charlie was called up.
David and the rest of the group, of course, cheered on both of them with all that they had, Spot and Race being the loudest among them. Medda cried through the entire thing, just as she had done last year when Race got his undergrad. She probably would do so again later this year when he got his Masters Degree.

After the ceremony, they tried finding Jack and Charlie in the crowd, which was harder than they thought. Of course, in a group of caps and gowns, it was hard to make out specific people. Luckily enough, Medda always drew the most attention in a crowd in the best possible way. Therefore, Charlie and Jack quickly found their way back to them, now with a piece of paper and flowers in hand.
Before David even had a chance to give Jack a hug, Medda beat him to it.

“I’m so proud of you, Baby,” she called out, teary-eyed again, and took her son in for a tight embrace, after which she decided it would be picture time. That, too, happened exactly like that one year ago when Race graduated and would likely happen again in a couple of months.
She took pictures of Jack and Charlie with their degrees, a group picture. Katherine offered to take one of her and her son, which she gladly accepted. Cue another one with Medda, Jack, and Race, followed by one with all the boys. Charlie and the girls, Charlie and his parents. (They suddenly appeared out of nowhere; at least, that’s what Dave felt like. But maybe he was just too busy staring at his boyfriend.)

Finally, David and Jack took a picture together, marking their first interaction since Jack got off that stage. Careful not to destroy flowers or the degree, Dave finally got to take him in for the overdue hug.
“Are you crying?” asked Jack when they parted, and he finally looked closer at his boyfriend.
“Maybe,” David sniffed and blinked the tears away before he went in for another hug, “I’m just really proud of you, Jack. I’m so unbelievably proud of you,” he whispered in his ear.
Jack replied nothing until they parted again. Then, he smiled at him with this knowing smile he sometimes had before he would say something that made David feel all tingly again.

“I love you,” he simply said, and time stood still.
David didn’t even notice the flash from Medda’s camera. He just stared at him and then started grinning. Jack copied him almost immediately. They really just grinned at each other like two idiots who loved each other. That’s what they were, after all.

Spot wolf-whistled when Jack cupped Davey’s face and kissed him deeply, lovingly, but who even cares, right?

For years to come, their picture from Jack’s graduation would be one of Dave’s favorites. It hung framed in the hallway of their first apartment together, which they—just as Charlie prophesied—moved into not too long after.