#also i imagine it took SO much convincing to get jules to play cards

[mrtequilasunset]

I imagine a day off is very precious to an officer of the RCM.

[leviwesley]

Levi had followed the route to Jax’s house so many times that he didn’t even have to think about it anymore- his feet moved, as if on their own accord, and brought him to his best friend’s door. That night, it was especially convenient, as he had spent the whole fifteen-minute walk lost in thought, going over all the words (which he had previously rehearsed in front of a mirror, however embarrassing that may have been) and all the different outcomes he could imagine. He couldn’t remember himself ever being that nervous as he raised a shaking hand and rang the doorbell.

He immediately heard footsteps running down the stairs and was soon greeted by two blue eyes and a pair of black pigtails, around a foot below him.

“Levi!” the little girl exclaimed and wrapped her arms around his waist with what he could imagine was her full strength, which was admittedly not that much.

“Hey, Julie,” he replied with a grin and a loving pat on the girl’s head. She had known Jax’s sister since she was in diapers and he called him over to help him babysit when their parents were busy and if he was being honest, it was the closest thing to a little sister he ever had. He had spent so many hours listening to her rambling about everything they did at kindergarten and how her teacher told her she had a great voice and the drawing she made of a fairy playing the guitar. He had even bought her a flower that one time that he made him a card on Valentine’s Day, full of little hearts and pink glitter.

“Hey, Levi,” said another voice, coming from the kitchen, followed by a head peeking from behind the door. “I’d come give you a hug, but I have to watch the food and it seems like Jules has that covered,” the woman said with a laugh.

“Hello, Mrs Evans, thank you for letting me stay over,” he said, as he always did on nights like that one. Julie had now pulled away and was tugging on his hand, leading him towards the staircase.

“Honey, you’ve been staying over for ten years,” Mrs Evans shouted from the kitchen in order to be heard, “you can stop thanking us at some point. Dinner will be ready in ten!” was the last thing he heard before he disappeared on the first floor.

“I will sleep with mom because dad is working and you can have my bed!” Julie said excitedly as she pulled him towards the closed bedroom door. That was how it had been for years, but ten-year-olds tended to make every bit of information sound new and shocking. “I’ll come say good night though!” she reassured him before heading into the door on the opposite side of the hallway.

He entered the room (one side black and grey, with posters of rock bands on the wall, the other pink and bright with a Disney princesses’ duvet on the bed) as he had done hundreds of times before, but this time his heart was beating a little too fast, skipping a beat when he saw Jax sitting on his bed, his fingers absent-mindedly running up and down his guitar in a melody that didn’t make much sense but still sounded beautiful. That skipped heartbeat was the cause of his distress and what he wanted to talk about.

“Hey,” Jax said, barely lifting his head from the instrument. His hair, usually held down with a little too much gel, was in his natural curly glory, a few strands that had grown a bit too long falling in his eyes. Levi wanted to step closer and tuck the curls back, but he couldn’t do that- so instead he just collapsed in his friend’s desk chair.

Not getting a reply to his greeting was enough to make Jax look up at him, a curious look on his face. “You okay?” he asked, stopping his jamming momentarily.

“Yeah,” he said, with a small sigh. For someone that had gone over the dialog a million times in his head, he was really running short on words. “I mean, I think so? Anyway, we need to talk,” was the best he could do, as he stood up and sat on the bed with him.

He took off his shoes and crossed his legs on the mattress, trying to put the mess of words that flooded his head into coherent sentences. He took a deep breath, looking down at his hands and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to faint, scream or throw up. Probably a little bit of everything. The guitar had stopped and he could feel Jax’s now definitely worried look on him and that, combined with the ticking of the clock on the wall, reminding him of all the time he was wasting, could be enough to drive him crazy. “I think I like you,” he said abruptly and it felt like a huge weight had been lifting off his chest, just by uttering those words.

The boy looked at him with a questioning look, trying to understand where that was coming from. “We’ve been best friends for more than a decade, I think it would be kind of weird if it turned out you’ve hated me all along,” he commented, his grey eyes scanning Levi’s blue ones in search of something that could justify this weird behavior.

“No, you don’t understand,” Levi said, his voice coming out more exasperated than he intended. He reached forward and took the guitar away from Jax, mostly as a reflex because he needed to do something with his hands, laying down on the floor next to the bed. “I like you,” he stressed the word as much as he could, this time with no doubt in his voice.

Jax froze in place for a long moment, narrowing his eyes, and Levi could feel the tension slowly killing him. He saw him open his mouth, as if to say something, before closing it again and he thought that’s it, he is looking for a nice way to kick me out of his house, I’ve ruined everything. “Are you fucking with me?” Jax asked after all, ending Levi’s thoughts of destruction. “Levi- you’re straight,” he added matter-of-factly.

“Well, that’s what I thought too!” He really did. He had never felt this way for a boy before. Actually, he had never felt this way before, period. Sure, he had had a couple of girlfriends with whom he had had a good time and he had convinced himself that the lack of butterflies in his stomach, as they called it, was just because he still hadn’t found the right one. The problem was, he finally realized, that ‘the right one’ was probably his best friend. “Look, I know that this is weird, and that I am probably ruining our friendship as we speak, but I swear to God, if I kept this shit inside me for one more day I would fucking explode.” He was rambling and he was swearing and for some who had it together as much as Levi did, that was never a good sign. “I will understand if you want me to leave and if you don’t want to speak to me again, but I needed to get this off my chest-” and now he was also aimlessly moving his hands around, gesturing to things that weren’t there “-the other night, when you were playing at that bar, at some point you winked at me- hell, I don’t even know if it was me you were winking at, and the things I felt were not what you’re supposed to feel for your best friend.” It was all coming out unstoppable like a flood now and it felt strangely exciting and cleansing at the same time. He had spent one too many nights staring at his ceiling wide awake trying to think about the proper way to handle this when it suddenly hit him- in any other similar occasion, he would just talk to Jax, so that’s what he was going to do this time too.

He realized he had moved closer to Jax on the bed as he talked, the guitar not there to separate them anymore, and now his whole body was shaking, expecting an answer. He tried to force a part of him to be just a little bit proud for having the courage to do this, because the nervousness he was feeling was definitely not healthy.

But he didn’t get a reply, because the door suddenly swung open and two familiar pigtails appeared from behind it. “Mom says dinner’s ready!” Julie sang.

“Jules, knocking!” Jax snapped, looking like someone had just forcefully woken him up from a deep slumber.

“I am not going to knock to get into my own room!” the girl snapped back, to remind them that, despite her cuteness, she was definitely Jax’s sister.

Making it obvious that she wasn’t going to leave until they followed him and because they knew that one of Mrs Evans’s biggest pet peeves was food going cold, they went downstairs in small, unsure footsteps, not daring to look at each other. Levi numbly replied to the woman’s questions as they ate, trying to act as if everything was okay, but stealing glances of Jax, who never turned his head to his direction the whole time, whenever he could.

Jax excused himself as soon as it was acceptable to do so and Levi followed seconds after, certain that Mrs Evans was wondering how on earth he left his chicken wings half-finished. He went back to the bedroom, where Jax was now standing with his back turned to him, and closed the door behind him. “So?” he asked, feeling as if he was on trial for something and was about to be sentenced with the death penalty.

He saw Jax’s shoulders go up and down as he exhaled heavily. “You are such a fucking idiot,” he heard the boy say and there was something in his voice he couldn’t quite decipher. So, he did fuck up and ruin a decade of friendship. Suddenly, he couldn’t wait to put his shoes back on and walk back to his house, probably scream a little into his pillow and bang his head into the wall- actually it would be quite useful if the earth just opened up and swallowed him whole-

But then Jax turned around and he saw what that thing he couldn’t decipher was- a smile. A wide toothy grin of pure bliss he wasn’t used to seeing on his friend’s face, broody rock star façade and all, but when it did appear it was always around him.

That smile somehow left Levi even more confused than before- for someone as smart as him, he was really bad at taking hints. “…should I go?” he asked, looking for a simple, clear answer.

Which he more than got, as Jax covered the distance between them in two big steps and brought his lips to his. It was not a passionate kiss- far from it. It was unsure, as if both of them were waiting for the other to pull away and it was hesitant, scared of all these newfound things they were feeling- and it was the best kiss Levi had ever had. “I’ve been in love with you since seventh grade,” Jax whispered in the air between them as he pulled away barely an inch, one of his hands reaching behind Levi’s back and locking the door, “so don’t you dare go anywhere.”

That blissful smile that had been so confusing for him moments earlier suddenly made sense, as it mirrored itself on his lips. His heart was exploding again, but this time in a good way, in the best way possible. And there were those butterflies, he could swear, a whole swarm, dancing around his stomach, making him want to hold into Jax and never let him go as the boy pecked him on the mouth once again.

“Is this… okay?” Jax asked, suddenly appearing self-conscious, worried he was being too forward- for all he knew Levi could just be confused about the things he was feeling and not want to act upon then. But the kiss he received in reply was far from unsure, far from hesitant and far from just a peck. Their lips collided and Levi’s hands found themselves tangled in Jax’s hair, running through those curls like he had wanted. Any space between them was eliminated as Jax moved even closer, Levi’s back touching the wooden door.

Jax rightfully took that all as permission to move his lips lower and leave a trail of kisses along his jawline, his neck, pulling his shirt a little lower so he could reach his collarbone. Levi himself was surprised by the low groan that escaped his lips at the contact. To his dismay, Jax came back to eye level, but with a look he had never before seen on his face. “That groan,” he said with a sincerity that was frankly a little scary coming from him, “was the hottest sound you have ever made.”

Levi chuckled, unable to believe that that was actually happening, that it was possible to feel this happy and carefree –and aroused. “Which means,” he said, cupping Jax’s face and running his thumb across his cheekbone, “that you were doing something right. So who told you to stop?”

Jax looked at him for a second, probably just as shocked as Levi from this sudden bossiness neither of them knew he possessed. “A week ago you thought you were straight, so don’t fucking boss me around,” he replied, but it was obvious that he was more than content to oblige. But this time, despite how hot he found Levi’s attempt to take over, he had to remind him who was in charge. So he bit and sucked on his neck while he forced his knee between Levi’s legs against the door, creating more friction than the boy could handle, earning him something between a moan and a whimper.

“Guys?” they heard a voice from outside and they froze in place. Jax quickly brought one hand to cover Levi’s mouth and the other to his own lips, gesturing for him to be quiet, as they heard Julie’s footsteps approaching the door. “I am not coming in because earlier you yelled at me, but I wanted to say goodnight.”

“Goodnight, sis,” Jax said, trying and succeeding to hide just how breathless he was, and slowly uncovered Levi’s mouth to let him speak.

“Goodnight, Julie,” Levi repeated, doing his best to sound calm and collected. They waited for the footsteps to go away and for the door of the other bedroom to close and also a few seconds after that just to be sure- before bursting out laughing.

What had just happened seemed so surreal, but in the best way possible. Jax’s head rest on his shoulder as they let tears of joy drip from their eyes and from all the imaginary scenarios he had played out in his head the past few days, this had to be the best one by far.

“Come on,” Jax said as the waves of laughter died out and intertwined their fingers, pulling him towards the bed, “you don’t have to sleep on that pink atrocity tonight.”

Well, that was something he could definitely get used to.