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If Jesper had had his way about it, he would have asked out the cute pianist after a few meetings, bought him a drink if he wanted it, and maybe everything would have ended up going decently well.
Of course, that wasn’t what happened.
Nina and Inej had dragged him out to a bar for his birthday, all of them dressed in some amalgamation of clothes pulled from his closet. Jesper himself was wearing a green suit that was covered in sequins that made him look like a walking disco ball and an absolutely horrid fedora with blinking lights that Nina had unceremoniously plopped onto his head while they had walked out the door.
Needless to say, he was completely smashed in no time.
At some point during the night, Jesper had wandered away from where Nina and Inej were sitting to explore the bar a bit. It was more like a pub, really – it served food and was a lot bigger than your standard hole-in-the-wall bar.
What really caught Jesper’s attention, though, was the full-size piano that had been shoved into the corner. It was currently being played by someone he couldn’t see very well, but could hear quite clearly. They were quite good, some Elton John song or another floating above the chatter of the crowd in the bar.
Of course, that was when Jesper’s drunken brain decided that he needed to go say hello to the mystery piano person.
Before he knew it, his feet were moving across the floor toward the piano just as the song ended. He could see the piano player as he got closer, a guy who looked around his age with curly ginger hair who was shuffling through a stack of sheet music.
“Hello,” Jesper slurred, leaning against the piano with some difficulty. “You’re very good at the piano.”
The piano player looked up, slightly startled. “Thank you,” he responded in a bemused tone, taking in the sight of Jesper leaning on his piano. “And you are… very drunk.”
Jesper nodded slowly. “I am. But! It’s my birthday, so I think I’m allowed to be drunk.”
That made the piano player chuckle. Jesper noticed then that his eyes were a beautiful blue. “Happy birthday, then. Are you having fun?”
“Yeah, I’m out with my friends and stuff. It’s great.” Jesper shrugged, grinning. “My night just got a whole lot better though.” He winked at the piano player, who blushed.
“Well, since it’s your birthday, you get one free song request. Unless I don’t know the song, then you’ll have to pick another one.”
Jesper thought long and hard about that, tapping his fingers against his face as he did so. After a while, he pointed at the piano player and simply said, “Queen.”
“Alright,” the piano player laughed. “Which Queen song?”
That was another very hard question for Jesper, who took a long moment to think again before answering, “Don’t Stop Me Now. A classic.”
The piano player nodded, and was about to say something else when his attention shifted to something behind Jesper.
“Jes! There you are!” Inej’s voice called from behind him. Jesper turned just as she reached him and tugged on his sleeve. “We wondered where you had wandered off to.”
Jesper turned and stumbled slightly towards Inej, a result of her pulling on his sleeve. “I was just having a very pleasant conversation with the piano player, ‘Nej.”
“Should have known that you would already be making new friends,” Inej grinned at him. “Come on, your cake arrived, we need to sing Happy Birthday.”
Now distracted by the promise of cake, Jesper let himself be led back to their table without resistance.
He hummed along to the Queen song being played the whole way back.
When he woke up the next morning in Inej’s flat, Jesper was consumed by the pain of his hangover and the fear of what he didn’t remember.
“Inej, please tell me if I said anything horribly embarrassing to that piano player last night,” he said for the umpteenth time that morning since he had remembered some of the hazy details from the night before. “I’m begging you.”
“And I’m telling you that I don’t know,” Inej told him from behind her enormous mug of coffee. “I didn’t hear anything that you said to him before I dragged you away. You still don’t remember?”
Jesper just groaned, burying his face in his hands. “What if I go there again when I’m sober? And I end up liking the guy and ask him out on a date? What if what I said while drunk ruins my chances before I even have them?”
Nina sat up from her position on the couch, looking way too cool for that time of morning with the pair of sunglasses on her face to combat the effects of her hangover. “You know, you could just take the initiative and go apologize,” she noted. “Go buy him a drink for his trouble or something. It wouldn’t hurt to at least try.”
So now Jesper was here, tapping his foot against the side of the barstool he was sitting on and awkwardly fiddling with the sleeves of his jacket because he hadn’t wanted to get any sort of drink before he offered the piano player one. His hangover had mostly gone away, but he still felt somewhat shitty. No matter – he’d just have to do his best to seem normal, something he was used to doing by now.
Dancing In The Moonlight was being played at that very moment, which he thought was a bit ironic – it was the middle of the day, and there certainly weren’t very many people dancing. In fact, the pub was mostly empty, the crowd for the lunch rush not quite there yet.
The piano player was there when Jesper went over once the song had ended, but didn’t look up from his sheet music when approached. “Sorry, I don’t take song requests.”
“Oh, um, I’m not requesting a song.”
The piano player looked up at him then. When he didn’t say anything right away, Jesper took the opportunity to speak up again.
“I, uh, was here last night? And I kind of remember talking to you while really drunk. Honestly, I can’t remember much, but…” Jesper trailed off, noticing how the piano player was peering at him, but kept going. “Anyway, I just wanted to apologize for anything I said or did while drunk. If I bothered or interrupted you, I’m sorry. You might not remember it either, but…yeah.”
Jesper had to keep himself from shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot as the piano player stared at him for a long moment, brow furrowed in concentration. “Oh yeah! You were the sparkly one,” he said, the realization dawning on his face. “With the- with the hat.”
Oh good, Jesper thought morosely, he remembers me. “Yeah,” he sighed. “That was me.”
The piano player just waved him off. “It’s alright, really,” he chuckled lightly. “Honestly, I’ve had worse. You were tame compared to some of the women who come in here.”
“I still feel bad, though,” Jesper protested. “I just- can I buy you a drink or something?”
“I’m not allowed to drink on the clock,” the piano player countered with a bemused smile.
“Non-alcoholic, then. Or food, it’s almost lunchtime.”
The piano player stared at him for a moment longer, as if appraising him, then spoke. “I’ll take a drink, then,” he decided, standing up from the bench he had been sitting on. “It’s about time for my break, anyway.”
Slightly surprised, Jesper nodded. “Sounds good. I’m Jesper, by the way.”
“Wylan.”
Wylan ordered a Shirley Temple, which Jesper had never had before but decided to try. It was a fizzy, fruity affair, which was right up his alley.
“So,” Jesper started, poking at a cherry that had sunk to the bottom of his glass, “I suppose you get a lot of people trying to get you to play the song you want?
Wylan chuckled lightly, nodding. “Yeah, all the time. It’s always a big hassle, especially if they’re drunk. I’ve gotten used to it by now.”
“Is there a song that everyone tries to request that you’re just utterly sick of?”
“Piano Man.”
Jesper raised his eyebrows at that. “Billy Joel? But he’s, like, the songwriter for piano.”
“But everyone wants Piano Man,” Wylan pointed out. “I’ll do Vienna, I’ll do New York State of Mind, I’ll even do Uptown Girl, but I refuse to play Piano Man. Taking this job has made me hate that song.”
That made Jesper laugh, trying not to choke on his drink. “I can see how it could. You’re completely justified in hating it, then.”
The rest of their conversation went on like that, falling into an easy rhythm. Jesper learned that Wylan had been playing in that pub for about two years, that he had a degree in Fine Art in addition to being a musician, that he also played the flute – something that Jesper found mildly hilarious.
“Why don’t you play the flute instead?” he joked. “I’m sure that people would get a kick out of that.”
Wylan just rolled his eyes with a smile. “I don’t think flute music would fit in at a pub. Besides, more songs are written for the piano than the flute.”
It seemed to Jesper that almost no time had passed when Wylan checked the time and sighed, “I’ve got to get back to work.” He looked back over at Jesper with a small smile. “It was nice talking to you.”
“You too,” Jesper grinned. “Maybe I’ll see you around?"
Wylan slid off of his barstool and shrugged, smile growing. “Maybe you will.”
He waved as he went back to the piano, and Jesper waved back, something stirring in his chest that he couldn’t quite place.
Jesper went back to the pub as often as he could from then on, if only for a chance to talk to Wylan again. The third time that Wylan came over to talk to him during a break, he asserted that, “I swear, I’m not stalking you.”
Wylan had just laughed. “It’s alright. It’s nice to have a friendly face to talk to, anyway.”
If Jesper came in more frequently after that, neither of them said anything about it.
It quickly became apparent to Jesper that Wylan was very talented in his musical ability. He performed a wide variety of songs that appealed to the range of patrons at the pub, oftentimes not needing to look at his sheet music.
Once, after a particularly enthusiastic rendition of Mamma Mia, a particularly drunk sounding heckler yelled, “Play something good for a change!”
Without looking down at the keys, Wylan stared daggers at the man and started to play Rick Astley instead.
Jesper was still laughing when Wylan came over to where he was sitting at the bar a few minutes later. “I think that’s the only appropriate way to handle a heckler asking for a song.”
“Nothing like a Rickroll to get someone to be quiet,” Wylan agreed, grinning.
They ordered drinks and talked for a bit, then fell into comfortable silence that seemed to come naturally between the two of them. Jesper watched Wylan out of the corner of his eye until his restlessness set in again and he sat up and turned toward him.
“Hey,” Jesper said, poking Wylan in the arm in an effort to stall for time. Despite his spontaneity, he wasn’t very good with saying things on the fly.
Wylan turned his head, a small smile appearing on his face. “What is it?”
Jesper glanced down at his shoes for a moment before proceeding. “I was just wondering if… if you’d like to go out sometime. Like, on a date. Or… something like that.”
Almost fearing the answer, Jesper waited until the silence became unbearable before looking up.
Wylan was staring at him with a surprised look on his face, cheeks a bright pink with his lips parted slightly and eyebrows very nearly disappearing underneath the curls that fell into his face.
Saints, Jesper wanted to kiss him right then.
“I’d—”
They were both startled by a timer suddenly ringing from Wylan’s phone. Wylan quickly turned it off and sighed.
“I’ve got to get back to work,” he said, looking up at Jesper. “But… well, here.” He pulled a pen out of his pocket and scribbled something on his napkin, which he slid across the bar to Jesper. “We can… figure something out that works for both of us. Sound good?”
Jesper glanced down at the napkin to find a phone number and a smiley face written on it. He grinned brightly and looked up at Wylan, who was already looking back expectantly. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s great.”
“Good.” Wylan slipped down from his stool and gave Jesper a bashful smile. “Be seeing you.”
Jesper could only wave as Wylan went back to the piano, looking back down at the number written on the napkin with the biggest grin on his face.
Maybe he hadn’t ruined his chances after all.
They decided on a diner that Jesper knew, a retro themed place that played oldies all the time. It was nice, but not too fancy, a good place for a first date.
Jesper was outside the pub early, which for him was right on time. He was nervous as all hell, but he tried to calm himself down. What was there to worry about? It would just be like all the other times he had hung out with Wylan, except now there was the opportunity for more. Then again, he didn’t know what Wylan expected of it, so that –
“Jes!”
The sight of Wylan running over to him with a bright smile on his face wiped every worried thought from Jesper’s mind.
“Hey,” Jesper grinned as Wylan came to a stop next to him. “Ready to go?”
Wylan nodded, bumping his shoulder against Jesper’s. “Lead the way.”
The walk wasn’t very long, only a few blocks, but even then it felt like the blink of eye to Jesper, and soon they were sitting down in the little diner.
“This place is lovely,” Wylan commented, looking around for a moment before turning his attention back to Jesper. “Do you come here a lot?”
Jesper shrugged, passing one of the menus they had been given to Wylan while taking the other for himself. “Decently frequently,” he answered. “Although I’m surprised that they haven’t kicked me out yet. One time I put enough money in the jukebox for eleven plays of the same song, but I put one different song in the middle to mess with everyone that was also listening.”
That made Wylan laugh, a sound that Jesper desperately wanted to hear again. “Maybe I should do that one night at the pub if I’m feeling particularly annoyed with my boss.”
“That sounds like a great idea.” Jesper was about to say more, but stopped when he saw the way Wylan was frowning down at the menu. “Is everything alright?”
Wylan shook his head slightly, closing the menu. “No, everything’s fine, it’s just…” He stared down at the menu for a moment before looking up again and tapping the menu. “Could you… could you tell me what it says on here?”
Despite the questions he obviously had about it, Jesper just nodded. Whatever it was, Wylan couldn’t read the menu, and if he wanted to tell Jesper the reason why, it would be on his own time. “Of course,” Jesper smiled reassuringly. “Anything you need.”
Wylan smiled back, looking relieved. “Thanks. I really appreciate it.”
They fell back into conversation again, first discussing the food options before moving on to other topics, only pausing at the arrival of their waitress and their meal. It felt just like any other time they had hung out, except now they had no time limit and Jesper could flirt now (which seemed to always make Wylan blush, much to Jesper’s delight).
During a lull of comfortable silence, Jesper found himself staring at Wylan. He hadn’t allowed himself to do it before, not wanting to seem strange, but now he could drink in every detail without repercussions: the way Wylan’s ruddy gold hair curled about his ears; how his eyelashes fanned out over his cheeks when he blinked; and the many, many more freckles that revealed themselves under closer inspection. Jesper couldn’t get enough of it.
It was a long moment before Wylan looked up and realized that Jesper had been staring.
“What?” he asked, an incredulous smile on his face. “What is it?”
Jesper shook his head a little, smiling back. “Just looking at you.”
A blush arose on Wylan’s cheeks as he smiled wider, looking down bashfully at his fries.
Saints, Jesper thought, smiling himself, I’m really head over heels for him, aren’t I?
It was dark out when they finally finished their meal, and Jesper turned to Wylan, fidgeting with the hem of his jacket as he struggled with the feeling of nervousness creeping up on him again.
“Can I… walk you home?”
The smile Wylan gave him was soft and warm, like the feeling of being wrapped in a blanket. “Of course,” he said, reaching over to carefully take Jesper’s hand. “I’d like that very much.”
Jesper beamed back at him, squeezing Wylan’s hand in response. “Lead the way, then.”
They walked to Wylan’s place like that, hand in hand as they fell into an easy rhythm of conversation. Wylan was one of those rare people who picked up enough random knowledge on various topics to keep up with Jesper’s fast-track way of thinking, taking his abrupt changes of subject in stride.
Wylan lived in an older apartment building, all brick and stone and iron fire escapes. Jesper reckoned that it must have been quite nice back in its heyday, but now it was drab and covered in ivy. It was in a part of town that was cheap enough for the college postgrad students, but not spacious enough for the families with young children. In short, it seemed like a nice, peaceful place to live.
“Well, this is me,” Wylan said finally, squeezing Jesper’s hand as he stepped up onto the staircase leading up to the door. He was standing on the second step up, making him eye level if not taller than Jesper, and smiling down at him. “I had fun. We should do this again.”
Jesper nodded. “Me too. I can call you. Or, well, you can call me if that works better for you. And if you don’t have time to call, I’ll be there the next time you’re playing, so we’ll see each other eventually even if neither of us can call—”
His rambling stopped in its tracks as Wylan leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. “Goodnight, Jesper,” Wylan smiled softly, giving his hand one last squeeze before letting go. “I’ll be seeing you.”
Jesper stood there in stunned silence for a moment before remembering how to speak again. “Goodnight,” he called after Wylan, who was ascending the steps up to the front door of the apartment building.
Wylan looked back at him over his shoulder as he opened the door, giving him one last smile and wave before disappearing into the foyer.
Jesper felt like he was going to melt into a puddle of cartoon hearts right then and there, and felt that way the rest of his walk home.
The details of their second date were hashed out over a shared plate of fish and chips in between Wylan’s shifts, the rest of the pub bustling around them with the lunch rush.
“I vote that you get to choose the place this time,” Jesper said, halfway through chewing a fry. “After all, I was the one who suggested the diner because I knew it well.”
Wylan shifted in his seat, poking at a piece of fish as he thought. “Well… there’s this art museum I’ve always wanted to visit,” he suggested. “I know not all people like art, or museums for that matter, but it might be fun to go.”
Jesper grinned, already excited. “I’d love that. Let’s go.”
They went to the museum on a weekend with balmy weather and lots of sun, light shining through the windows as they walked through the exhibits together, arm in arm. Jesper enjoyed listening to Wylan talk about the different paintings, rambling on about art movements and painting styles and a thousand other things. Whenever he paused, Jesper would ask questions and encourage Wylan to keep going, wanting to learn more about another thing that brought him joy.
Sitting on a bench amidst the rose bushes planted in the sculpture garden, Wylan tugged Jesper down into their first proper kiss, a soft, gentle brush of lips that felt as warm as the sun shining down on them.
“What was that for?” Jesper murmured with a grin once they had broken apart.
Wylan flushed a light pink, smiling bashfully. “For a perfect second date.”
“What, the first one wasn’t perfect for you?”
Wylan just rolled his eyes playfully and nudged Jesper in the ribs with his elbow. “It was,” he clarified, “But that was a first date, and this is our second.” He paused, pursing his lips in slight confusion. “I’m not making sense.”
“You know, if you’re kissing me, you don’t have to make sense,” Jesper grinned, wiggling his eyebrows at Wylan and bumping their shoulders together.
That made Wylan laugh and kiss him again, which made all the sense in the world.
“Are you free on Saturday?” Jesper asked one evening at the pub when Wylan joined him during his break.
Looking puzzled, Wylan nodded. “I am. Why?”
Jesper grinned. “I’ll take you out to dinner. Somewhere nice, so we have an excuse to dress up. How does that sound?”
“That sounds amazing,” Wylan beamed, flushing a soft pink. “What time?”
“Does half-past six work for you?”
“Perfect.”
In terms of how fancy dinner dates went, it was a success. Along with the novelty of dining in such a place, they had their own sort of fun: Jesper found great joy in reading the stranger items on the menu out loud to Wylan, and Wylan, chuckling, had to drag the bread basket away from Jesper and hold it hostage until their food came.
When they emerged from the restaurant, a chill in the air sent a shiver down Jesper’s spine. He felt Wylan tuck himself against his side, and when Jesper looked down he found Wylan already smiling up at him.
“It’s still early in the evening,” Wylan noted. “We could go do something else, if you wanted.”
Jesper raised an eyebrow at him. “Maybe we can go back to your place and watch a movie?”
The grin the Wylan gave him was almost bright enough to light up the dimly lit street. “And have hot chocolate?” he asked hopefully.
Jesper can’t help but grin back. “Anything you like, sunshine.”
They stumbled back to Wylan’s apartment, not because they were drunk but because they just couldn’t get close enough. Wylan had wrapped his arms around Jesper’s middle, practically leaning on him as Jesper had an arm around Wylan’s shoulders to keep him steady as he tried not to step his toes as they walked.
Wylan eventually untangled himself to unlock the door to his apartment, tugging Jesper inside by the hand and turning on a lamp to cast a warm glow over the living room.
Jesper didn’t look around the room until Wylan let go and headed into the kitchen. The place looked cosy, small but not cramped despite how full it seemed with Wylan’s belongings. Along with the frumpy looking couch, there was a keyboard with a stack of sheet music, painting supplies and sketchbooks piled in a corner with drawings and paintings stuck to the wall above, and a portrait of a woman that he assumed was Wylan’s mother.
“Take a look at what’s in there,” Wylan called from the kitchen. “I like all of them, so pick whatever you want to watch.”
Jesper crouched down to look in a bin of DVDs, pulling it out of the shelf below the television to flip through them. The collection was eclectic and in no particular order. Multiple Disney movies, La La Land, Mozart, a couple of rom-coms including The Holiday, and, in a perfect box set –
“Planet Earth?”
Wylan had reentered the small living room with their mugs of hot chocolate and gave him a bemused smile. “Really?”
“I’ve never seen it, but I heard it’s good.” Jesper flipped through the multiple DVDs in the box set, each for a different ecosystem, then looked up at Wylan. “You get to choose which episode, though.”
Wylan thought for a moment, picking up a blanket and unfolding it as he did so. “I like the Jungles episode,” he finally decided. “I think that one’s my favorite. So that one.”
Grinning, Jesper put the DVD in the player before joining Wylan on the couch. The two of them curled up under the blanket with their respective mugs as the episode started. Wylan tucked himself against Jesper’s side without hesitation, which prompted Jesper to wrap an arm around him and pull him impossibly closer.
The documentary was calming, despite all of the bright colors and cacophonous sounds of the jungles it showcased; maybe it was calming to him because of that. They watched it in comfortable silence, sipping from their mugs of hot chocolate while Jesper fiddled with the fabric of Wylan’s sleeve.
“Hey, look,” Wylan said after a while, pointing at the screen. “It’s you, Jes.”
Jesper turned his attention back to the screen to see a bird-of-paradise with black and bright blue feathers, hopping around for all the world like an overexcited fan.
He chuckled. “Is that what you think of whenever you see me?”
Wylan shrugged. “Pretty much.” He gently nudged Jesper with his elbow, a small grin on his face. “However, unlike that other bird, I do find you attractive.”
Jesper nudged him back, smiling as he felt his cheeks warm. “Flatterer.”
That made Wylan giggle, and he scooted even closer to Jesper, resting his head on his shoulder. Jesper kissed the top of his head before resting his cheek against Wylan’s curls, sighing as he did so.
The rest of the episode was spent in warm silence, with each of them occasionally commenting in nothing more than a murmur, each time they spoke becoming quieter and quieter until Jesper suddenly found himself dozing off.
He woke up a short time later to the film already over. Shifting slightly, he found that Wylan was fast asleep with his head still on his shoulder. Jesper marveled at the way Wylan looked as beautiful in the dim glow of the screen as he did in full sunlight.
Carefully, Jesper carefully turned his head to look around for the remote. He found it on the coffee table next to the couch, but it was too far for him to reach without moving.
He glanced back down at Wylan. Still asleep. Jesper was going to have to move to grab the remote, but he didn’t want to disturb Wylan while he was sleeping. Gently, he wrapped his other arm around Wylan’s middle to keep him propped up and slowly leaned forward to grab the remote.
Jesper was almost to the remote when Wylan made a soft snuffling noise, causing him to freeze where he was. He knew he had to have looked completely daft, stock-still and leaning forward with one hand stretched out towards the remote and the other wrapped around a sleeping Wylan. Nina would have laughed at him.
Wylan shifted, turning his head more and pressing his face against the side of Jesper’s neck, then sighed and relaxed again. Suppressing a shiver at the feeling, Jesper started moving again and was finally able to grab the remote. He leaned back against the couch again without incident and started to try and figure out the remote. Luckily, the power button looked the same as the one on his own remote in his apartment. He pressed it, and the room was plunged into darkness.
Jesper knew that if they slept sitting up like they currently were, both him and Wylan would be sore and achy in the morning, so he shuffled down the couch until he was able to lie down all the way with Wylan nestled against his chest. He pulled the blanket up over both of them, adjusted the throw pillow underneath his head, and wrapped his arms around Wylan before closing his eyes.
He was almost asleep again when he felt Wylan move, arms shifting so that one was resting next to him on Jesper’s chest and the other tucked along Jesper’s side before he relaxed again.
There was still a small, fond smile on Jesper’s face as he drifted off to sleep.
Jesper woke slowly the next morning, vaguely aware of the warm weight settled on top of him. He shifted slightly, not wanting to get up just yet, and one of his hands clenched around the fabric of a nice shirt that wasn’t his. The weight on his chest stirred and something soft tickled his face.
He finally opened his eyes, and smiled to himself at what he saw.
Wylan was still curled up asleep on his chest. From Jesper’s vantage point, he could see the way Wylan’s eyelashes fanned out over his cheeks, one of which was squished against Jesper’s chest. It had been Wylan’s hair that had tickled his face when he moved, given how much closer to him Wylan had shifted during the night.
Slowly, so as not to disturb Wylan in his sleep, Jesper lifted a hand and ran his fingers through Wylan’s soft curls. It calmed him, running his hands through Wylan’s hair, even though he had only gotten a few opportunities to do it before. But now he had all the time in the world – at least until Wylan woke up.
He was gently twisting a curl around his finger when Wylan stirred again. He pressed his head back against Jesper’s hand, humming softly as his eyes fluttered open. His brow furrowed after a moment of staring up at Jesper, eyes darting around the room.
“Did I fall asleep during the movie?” Wylan murmured confusedly.
Jesper grinned, chuckling quietly. “Yeah,” he responded. “I fell asleep, and when I woke up, it was over and you were asleep. I didn’t want to disturb you, so I turned off the TV, laid down with you, and went back to sleep.”
Wylan nodded, smiling to himself as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “I usually fall asleep during movies. I probably should have warned you beforehand.”
“I don’t mind. Really.” Jesper shrugged, pushing Wylan’s hair out of his face. “I got to spend time with you.”
Wylan looked at him for a moment, an inscrutable expression on his face, before patting Jesper on the chest and sitting up a bit. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please.”
Wylan had slid to sit down on the other end of the couch when Jesper sat up and stretched his arms over his head, giving him a good view of the blush now creeping across Wylan’s cheeks as he stared.
“What?” Jesper looked down to where Wylan was staring, the bottom of his shirt slipping down again as he lowered his arms. “What is it?”
“You have a… a tattoo,” Wylan stammered, his face steadily getting redder.
“Oh, that?” Jesper grinned, lifting the bottom of his shirt to show the lower half of his stomach and the waistband of his pants. He did indeed have a tattoo; two, to be exact. On the inside of where his hipbones jutted out, he had had two revolvers with intricately patterned handles tattooed onto his skin; their barrels were pointed downward, and they had been set low enough that the tips of them were hidden below the waistband of his pants.
Somehow, Wylan turned an even darker shade of red as his eyes widened, gaze following the tattoos down past the waistband to where the tips would be.
Jesper got the feeling that Wylan had momentarily lost the ability to think, so he gently prompted him, “Coffee?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. Right.” Wylan stood and hurriedly shuffled into the kitchen.
Chuckling to himself, Jesper remained on the couch for a moment before following him.
The kitchen in Wylan’s apartment was almost the size of a postage stamp, but was packed to the brim. A toaster and microwave occupied the same corner as the coffee maker. A roll of paper towels was propping up a cereal box next to a nearly empty bowl of fruit. The singular window had a tall table pushed underneath it with two equally tall stools, but the roll of foam on one corner of it signaled that the door of the fridge bumped into the table whenever it was opened.
Wylan was fussing with the coffee maker as Jesper came into the kitchen, two mugs and a carton of sugar already set on the counter next to him. Jesper figured he knew what he was doing, given that it was his kitchen, so he elected to perch on one of the tall stools and look out of the window. He could barely see the harbor, just a thin sliver of blue peppered with miniscule boats. The sun was already shining through the fog, and Jesper could tell that it would burn away the fog by noon.
“Coffee’s done,” Wylan’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. He turned from the window to see Wylan holding a coffee cup, the other one still sitting on the counter. “I don’t know how you take your coffee.”
Jesper grinned and slid down off of his stool. “That’s perfect, darling, thank you.” He kissed Wylan’s cheek as he crossed the kitchen, already reaching for the sugar.
As he was stirring sugar into his coffee, Jesper felt eyes on the back of his head and turned to see Wylan watching him with an unreadable expression on his face. “What is it?”
Wylan looked down, his fingers tapping against the side of his mug. After a long moment, he finally spoke up again. “Well… we’ve been on three dates,” he said, sounding almost hesitant.
“We have,” Jesper agreed, going back over to the table and sitting across from Wylan. “And all three were very lovely and a good time.”
A pink tinge emerged on Wylan’s cheeks as he glanced up at Jesper with a small smile before looking down again. “I guess what I’m trying to say is… where do we go from here?”
Somehow, Jesper had expected that, although not quite this soon. He had expected to run into Wylan at the pub again and possibly have the discussion after they had had a few drinks and were heading home.
But here they were, having it now.
“I mean, we could always go on a fourth date,” Jesper started. “We can go on as many dates as you want.” He reached over to where Wylan’s hand was resting on the table and covered it with his own. “But… I really like you. We can do whatever you want, as long as I can spend time with you.”
Wylan looked up at him, the sunlight coming in through the window catching his eyes and making them sparkle. There was a small smile on his face, as if he was trying to hold it back but failing miserably. Carefully, Wylan turned his hand over to take Jesper’s, still smiling at him.
“Alright,” Wylan said quietly. “Then… maybe we could try dating dating? Like, as a couple.”
Jesper grinned, a warm feeling blooming in his chest. “Boyfriends?”
That made Wylan blush pink and smile wider. “Yeah,” he nodded. “Boyfriends.”
Bringing their clasped hands up, Jesper pressed a kiss to the back of Wylan’s hand, letting it linger for a moment. “Then let’s do that.”
They sat like that for a long while in comfortable silence, the rays of sunlight creeping further across the table as the sun rose in the sky. Quiet and peaceful was never something that Jesper thought he would enjoy, but he had never wanted to stop time in a single moment quite so fiercely as he did now.
“You know,” Wylan said, breaking the silence, “You could come stay over tonight, too. Are you going to come for my set at the pub?”
Jesper smiled again, squeezing Wylan’s hand. He could imagine it already: waiting for Wylan to finish his set for the night, walking home together, then falling asleep together after a long day. The thought made something warm bloom in his chest. This was a step towards evenings together becoming a regular part of his life, and really–
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”