It was immensely frustrating that the universe kept them from doing much of anything outside of sleeping in the same bed together, but she could be patient. Or, at least, she was trying and that’s what counted.
When she finally visited, it was at the prompting of James, who’d visited earlier, because he’d made a comment about how Levi looked like he’d go crazy if he was left alone with Chase for too long. Which, admittedly, Jade found amusing because she couldn’t tell if it was the good kind of crazy or the bad kind of crazy.
It was late afternoon and Jade knocked on Chase’s bedroom door tentatively, before turning the doorknob and pushing it open. “I hear someone needs a checkup?” She asked, clearly teasing with the grin she wore on her pale pink lips. She leaned her weight against the door as she looked at Levi fondly, toeing off her flip flops by the entryway and strode across the room.
Because it was Jade and because she didn’t know how not to be tempting, she was wearing a pair of white cut off shorts and a purple tank top that clung to her frame. She didn’t bother waiting for him to respond, striding over to the bed and nudging him over with a knee as she sat next to him.
“How’s your head?”
xxx
The days blurred together easily when all Levi could do was sleep and eat. Thus far, his attempts to convince Chase to bring his laptop over for him had gone mostly ignored with the excuse of his not needing to stare at a screen when his brain was healing. Levi understood that, but his boss surely didn’t, and neither did the restless spirit that was slowly but surely rousing to his bettered health. Everything about Chase’s room smelled.. well, it all smelled like Chase. It was a fact that was both alluring and completely and utterly frustrating. He’d taken to walking outside for smoke breaks as often as he could make the excuse for, especially since he’d been cut off abruptly from the energy supply he’d been using to dampen his pain.
A nicotine buzz was the best he could scramble together on his own.
By the time he heard Jade’s knock on the bedroom door, Levi was buzzing with the prospect of her visit. It had to be Jade, because Chase didn’t knock and no one else bothered, but he was still beaming clumsily when she walked through the door and plopped down next to him.
“Tender, but healing,” he mumbled at her as he scooted a bit to the side to make room for her. One arm uncurled from the blankets and hooked quickly around her waist, so he could half-curl his long body around her where she sank into the sheets. “He’s not as carefree about starseeds as Xe, so I’m just.. toughing it out the old fashioned way.” He seemed more aware of himself, in large part due to the dampening of the dizziness and vertigo, but few things touched the constant headache drumming inside of his skull.
“You miss me yet?”
xxx
It was easy to lean into him when his arm snaked around her waist and tucked her close. "He probably has his reasons," she mumbled, shifting so she could press her cheek against his chest and loop her own arm loosely around his torso. Jade herself didn't think too much about the energy orbs or starseeds, having rarely needed a reason to consume any. Most of her injuries, save for her calf, hadn't been severe enough to warrant it. Not like Levi's.
"You should have told me though, I could have brought something with me." She hadn't thought to bring the jar or any of it's contents with her. Hindsight, she supposed.
Without thinking, she pressed her nose against his neck and inhaled deeply. It'd been strange to go so long without ending up in one of their beds together and she missed the way he smelled. Her sheets had stopped smelling like him and she refused to verbally admit how disappointing that was. Of course, there was a stronger scent clinging to Levi that Jade noticed immediately and she shifted so she could press her nose against the pillow.
"Whoa, the bed smells really nice. I mean, so do you but -"
xxx
“He would have known, it’s just easier not to -”
The smile she had pulled from him with her face against his neck slipped, and Levi tensed immediately at her words.
Of course the bed smelled nice. She wasn’t supposed to notice, though.
Before he could stop himself, a frown tugged at one corner of his lips and he purposefully looked away from her face, shifting his eyes from the dip her nose made against the pillow next to him. The arm around her had tightened with the rigidity of his muscles and he played it off by simply pulling her closer to him, so that he could feel her flush against the length of his body.
It wasn’t that he was jealous of Jade’s approval, but simply that he knew all too well exactly how pleasing it was. He had been reminded again and again and again - every moment he lay in bed but, too, every time he left it and returned to remember it.
“Yeah, everything ******** smells like Chase..”
The sourness in his words could have been written off as his usual grumpiness, except that there was a lingering sulkiness and a slight pout at the corner of his frowning lips. He let his eyes stare overhead at the ceiling fan whirling lazily above them, as if it had personally insulted him. Maybe his mother too.
The arm around her shifted so that he could press his hand flat against her hip and the fingers shifted her shirt until he could slip them just beneath the hem, finding skin to touch.
“I haven’t been able to get it out of my nose.”
xxx
It was easy to notice the way he tensed, especially when he stopped midsentence and Jade couldn’t keep the intrigued grin from her face. It grew when she caught sight of his frown, twisting in the bed to look at him and press the palm of her hand against his chest. A hum escaped her when he pulled her flush against him and she couldn’t keep from pressing lips against the column of his neck.
“So what you’re telling me,” she started, sliding one of her legs between his, “is that you like the way he smells enough to be mad about it.”
She sounded incredibly smug as she traced red painted nails along his chest. “Come on, it’s a great smell. Like, unfairly so. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying it.” Of course, Jade didn’t understand that Levi liked Chase but had a dislike for Labyrinthite. She liked both Xenotime and Porsha, but it wasn’t hard to see Levi’s relationship with his general was vastly different.
“But, I mean, if you want to get under his skin maybe. We can make his bed smell like us instead,” Jade suggested, with a slight shrug. She assumed that if Levi was sleeping in Chase’s room that meant Chase was sleeping elsewhere and would probably wash the sheets later but it was still tempting.
xxx
It was hard to stay completely irritable when he heard that tone in her voice and felt her shifting so that she could interlock their limbs. It was familiar and comforting in a place that he felt entirely out of place in and despite himself, the pouty frown faded to a curl of his lopsided smirk. The acid eyes dropped to meet hers and the spark of his irritation drowned in the blues.
“It’s complicated.” The words were whispered between them and punctuated by the arm around her waist tensing slowly. Chills were prickling along his bare skin from the nails she was using to draw patterns into his chest but his eyes didn’t break beneath the playful attention. “And hard to explain.”
More than hard to explain. Levi had known Chase for a very long time, even if he didn’t necessarily know him well. There were layers and layers to peel back and dissect before Levi could even begin to explain what he liked.
The arm that had been tensing around her waist finally locked into the dip at the small of her back and pulled her, with ease, on top of him. It was more strength than he’d had in a wild and he meant to test it, at least if the pleased edge to his smirk was any indication now. He leaned his head up from the pillow just enough to bring his face closer to hers, closing the distance and dropping his gaze to her lips.
“But I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”
At the end of the day, the intoxicating woman sprawling her weight along his body was much more important than the phantom crush he had never even bothered to chase.
xxx
“You could try me,” Jade quipped, squeaking when he finally pulled her on top of him. “I’m a really good listener,” she hummed, shifting so her knees pressed into the mattress on either side of his hips and sat up a little when he leaned forward. Blue eyes drifted to his mouth because, metallia did she like that lopsided smirk of his, then up to meet acidic green. “I mean, I don’t think I could blame you. I haven’t spent much time around the guy, but he seems attractive once you get past the whole, brooding and hiding half my face behind a menacing hood sort of thing.”
That made her wonder if most generals liked uniforms that gave them hoods. Would her hat turn into one? Would Levi get one? She sorta hoped not, but also had to consider that pushing a hood down or discarding a head piece could be really fun and attractive, sometimes.
“Aw, Levi,” she practically purred, dipping her head to press her lips against his eagerly, hands sliding up his chest with one slipping around to the nape of his neck and the other sliding into his mossy locks. It was blissful, really, getting to kiss him and not be so fearful that it would be too much and that she’d aggravated his injuries. They still had to take it easy, she knew, because he wasn’t recovered, just better, but god did it feel good to be able to kiss him more like the first time and not like the last time.
“I’m kinda curious about it all though,” she teased, because she did want to know about this complicated thing Levi may or may not have for his general. “Though, I’m sure you could convince me to focus on something else.”
xxx
Levi’s eyes closed as their lips connected and he let himself, finally, drown in her kiss. As her fingers slid through his dark locks, the lanky man uncurled his arms from her waist and let his long hands ghost down the length of her ribs, inching very slowly. They skirted past the hem of her shorts as he let his lips press harder back against hers and came to rest, at last, once they shoved into her back pockets.
When he let his head drop back to the pillow, finally, he seemed a little winded but pleased. Definitely pleased. He cracked an eye above his lazy, contented smile and watched her curiously. If he knew anything about her, it was that she simply wasn’t going to let this go, and despite wanting to be annoyed about the subject, he actually found her curiosity and openness to be endearing.
With a playfully annoyed sigh, his weight shifted. His face was amused, even for the slight dizziness the change in his position had rewarded him with. The smile dipped and hid in the hollow of her throat.
When he spoke, the breath fanned out warmly against her skin -
“I don’t like the brooding, or the hiding.” A pause. “Or the authority.”
He drew his lips up the line of her neck, drawing a lazy trail to her ear.
“We were almost friends once,” he murmured, just before he pressed those wandering lips beneath her ear lobe. “It’s just complicated.”
It was hard not to shiver when his fingers ghosted down her ribs or to keep from humming against his mouth when his hands slid into her pockets. A content sigh left her when he settled back and caved, like she’d hoped he would. She shifted slightly, just to tease him, then pushed herself up with her hands splayed across her chest while he talked.
xxx
“Brooding can be sexy,” she mused, looking contemplative when she licked her lips. “Authority is also kinda hot, let’s be real.” Jade certainly found an appeal in someone else taking control. “Hiding depends on context, come on Levi you’re not really giving me reasons why you shouldn’t be crushing on him.”
Her head ducked down and she kissed a line down his neck, starting at the curve of his jaw and stopping at the curve where his neck slid into his shoulder. “Things are often only complicated if you make them so,” she mumbled against his skin. She started to shift lower when there was a knock on the door and her head shot up immediately.
Neither of them were given a chance to say anything when the door creaked open and there was Chase, with his hand on the doorknob and his body leaning into the door. “Hey,” he said not registering that Jade was in the room, straddling Levi until his whiskey-eyed gaze lifted and he looked at them. “I - “ he stopped, blinked once then lifted his brows in surprise, otherwise he didn’t look too shocked by the scene.
They might’ve, given that he was only wearing a pair of basketball shorts that hung low on his hips and his hair was less styled than usual, damp with sweat. The muscled planes of his torso and arms were coated in a slight sheen of sweat and he frowned when Jade’s gaze met his.
“I need clothes,” he said knowing what he interrupted and, frankly, he wanted to shower and while it didn’t bug him when it was just Levi stuck in his room, he wasn’t keen on doing so when his girlfriend was there too. “I don’t recommend hooking up with your girlfriend right now, you’ll probably aggravate your injuries because you’re not very good at self-control.”
With that he strode across the room to the dresser, pulling out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt because he could shower later.
Jade didn’t bother hiding the fact that she was watching him cross the room appreciatively before she leaned in, mouth near Levi’s ear, “okay, definitely hot. I can’t blame you for being mad about it.”
xxx
“It’s more than just complicated,” Levi began, letting his eyes drift shut partially as she trailed down his skin. He wanted to be annoyed with her, but then his skin shivered in the wake of her lips and he found it difficult to be anything more than pleased. “It’s -”
The knock on the door clipped the words about to pass the man’s lips and Levi found himself frozen, helplessly, in a doubly-whammy of an awkward situation. A very beautiful woman he wanted to do terribly unspeakable things to was straddling his waist in his General’s bed and said General had just strolled into the room looking unfairly appealing, making it difficult to hide the outright stare. Luckily, it could be passed off as a deer in headlights sort of surprise. Mostly.
He cleared his throat as he ripped his eyes away from the man and dropped them to stare, instead, at the line where Jade’s thigh met the frazzled edge of her cut-off shorts. Those bits of damaged fabric splayed across her skin were suddenly the most interesting thing in the world, except for perhaps the perfect imprint of Chase’s abs in his thoughts. But, true to form, Labyrinthite reminded him who was lurking beneath that unfairly appealing skin with a recommendation of what he shouldn’t be doing. The arm around Jade tightened and his body went tense beneath hers.
Couldn’t he just be Chase for a ******** day?
All Levi wanted was to not be reminded every second of his day that he was Domeykite. Loyalty or not, he would only defend the Earth for whatever cause they had chosen if it meant he got to still live in it. Dying was still better than being condemned to a soldier’s life and a soldier’s life alone. The body beneath Jade’s relaxed as Levi, at last, recognized his own spiraling anger because of the way it was making him dizzy. Which meant Labyrinthite was probably right about sex - which forced him to draw a deep, steadying breath. All he really wanted to do was smother himself under a pillow.
It was only Jade’s passing remark that forced a smirk onto his lips and his eyes rose, at last, to glance sidelong at hers. He wanted to deny her words, but he couldn’t lie. He was pretty ******** mad about it.
“She’s on top and all,” one hand rose and motioned to Jade from knee to shoulders before he steeled himself and looked out at the man shimmering in such a perfect glean of sweat that he just wanted to -
Levi swallowed and forced the smirk Jade had inspired more fully onto his lips, adding humor to his words so that he might defuse the tension at least he was feeling. “I’d hardly be doing any work..”
xxx
“You’ll have to tell me about it some time,” Jade cooed, rolling off of Levi in one smooth motion even if she still snuggled up to him with a hand on his chest. She put on her best, I’m innocent face when she turned her attention back to the man across the room, being completely shameless in her appreciation for his body even if Levi was eager to hide his.
“Don’t worry boss man,” she said, voice carrying across the room as she settled her arm behind his head. “I’ll be on my best behavior. No funny business,” she promised even though it was very disappointing, frustrating at this point, really.
“Unnecessary exertion during recovery will only prolong it,” Chase retorted, breezing past Jade’s comments with a singular arched brow. It was clear that he didn’t believe her, but also that he expected her to respect him and trust that he knew best. Or rather, he expected Levi to keep his girlfriend in line.
His head tilted in consideration before he leaned back against the dresser. “You want to go back to work don’t you?” It didn’t take a genius to know that Levi wanted out of the house but something, fear perhaps, kept him in bed like a good boy. “Now, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave because I need to shower and he needs to rest.”
Jade sighed, gave Levi a look before sliding out of bed and choosing to lean across it to kiss him sweetly. “Okay, okay. No need to ask me twice. But you and I,” she tapped him on the nose and grinned, “will need to talk about the whole label thing okay.”
xxx
Well, his attempt at making Chase act like anything other than a barely concealed General of the Negaverse failed royally and he dropped his head back to the mattress in irritation. He bit back the dramatic sigh he wanted air but followed Jade with his eyes, watching her as she slid off the bed at the other man’s command. It felt like she had only just gotten here and that was incredibly unfair.
It was getting easier and easier not to actually like Chase at all, at least.
The bright green eyes raised to meet hers just as she leaned in to kiss him. As she pulled away, a defiant grin pulled at the corner of his best scowl until he broke into a stupid smile at her taunt.
“Sure, labels. Mm-hmm.”
He wrinkled his nose playfully at her gentle fingertap before he leaned back into his pillow again. The acid gaze gave her one last, lingering once-over to print carefully in his memory - the only thing he’d have to satisfy him until he could leave bed without permission.. Of course, he could facetime her later, but it just wasn’t the same. The playful smile faded to something almost affectionate as he finally brought his gaze back to her eyes, lingering on the deep blues fondly. He really was sad, he realized, to see her go.
“I think you have videos to edit anyway, hm?” Maybe if he just ignored Chase until he went into the bathroom, he could fall asleep without having to talk to him at all. An arm rose and he waved his fingers towards the door in a teasing get-along motion, though it was half-hearted. “So go on.”
xxx
Chase looked as if he was going to open his mouth and say something, perhaps relent and allow Jade to say but his mouth stayed shut and he merely watched them with an expression that was clearly a mix of confusion and possibly reminiscence. He hadn’t had a girlfriend in years, not anything that was legitimate at least, and he’d be hard press to consider anything he was doing with anyone as something more than casual.
And, considering the whole concussion incident was the reason he knew about Levi’s girlfriend, Chase was beginning to wonder if he focused too much on the militaristic sides of some of his pack. Perhaps it was time to start being more invested in their day to day, at least in the case of Levi. The others were...less of a mystery ultimately. None of them, not even Archer, were as guarded around him as the mossy haired man in his bed.
So, he resigned to wait against the dresser until the lady took her leave.
“I’ll come visit when the warden lets me okay,” Jade promised, trying not to frown at the idea of actually leaving. Levi needed to see a happier side for now, lest he die of sexual frustration, so that’d be what she gave him. It did, however, mean that she might have exaggerated the sway of her hips when she walked towards the door. And, she was utterly shameless when she leaned against the entryway and gave Chase a once over again, glanced at Levi and tossed him a wink after biting somewhat seductively down on her lip. “Catch you two handsome boys later,” she purred waggling her fingers at them both before slipping into the hallway with the door shutting behind her.
With Jade gone, Chase had returned the clothing to the top of the dresser and pushed off of it, striding across the room to the bed. Without a word or warning, he was pushing back damp mossy strands of hair so he could press the back of his hand against Levi’s forehead. It was slightly warm, which Chase had expected given the situation he had walked in on.
“After I shower, I’d like to check your wounds again. You appear to be healing properly but I don’t want to take any risks and I’d rather wait until the heat of your activities subsides.” From there, Chase turned and strode towards the bathroom, tugging the door open smoothly.
xxx
It was easy to ignore Chase and how unfairly appealing he was when Jade was doing such a damned good job at distracting him herself. The acid eyes followed the exaggerated sway of her hips with more alertness than he had watched anything in days and he found himself actually smiling around a breathy laugh at her wagging finger and terrible tease. She was never going to let this go.
But then Chase was there, too soon, touching him before the heat of Jade had even left his body. Having his General touch him should have dissuaded the passion flooding in his veins, but that General also didn’t know the truth. The hand on his head was perfectly platonic, but the muscles he could see sculpted beneath the thin sheen of sweat and the sweet musk that lingered made Levi shift beneath the blankets, wanting to push the touch away and drag the man down to him all at once.
No, the last thing he needed was for Chase to get handsy. Levi wasn’t a man used to resisting his own temptations and he’d been doing a great deal of it lately.
“I’m fine,” he mumbled after the man as he began to cross the room, though he knew absolutely nothing would make Chase change his mind about the check-up. The tops of his cheeks and ears were almost permanently flushed, but he only accepted the sheer and absolute frustration that had set his nerves to tensing already. Being stopped from enjoying his time with Jade was one thing, but to have been stopped by Chase in such a predicament was absolutely another. Especially now that Jade wasn’t around to keep his thoughts preoccupied.
He heard the bathroom door click shut and groaned to himself. Maybe if he could fall asleep before Chase got out, he’d just leave him alone.
felyn
