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 Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 3:05 pm
"It's not your fault," Jace said firmly. "So don't apologize. Just. I mean, what else was I supposed to do? It's not right when you're not by my side. There's just certain facts in the universe, and that's one of them. So. Yeah. I should have bought one while you were gone," he said suddenly.
"...But you're going to eat one. And I'm going to record it. And then I'm going to send it to all of our friends. And play it on your wedding day. I'm the only one allowed to give you a rough time. So."
He nudged him with his elbow but kept his eyes on the television, just nodding once.
"If anyone else gives you trouble, you have to tell me. Anyone. Family or not."
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Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:02 pm
“I will; I was careful, I tried to be careful anyhow.” He murmured. “We can’t do anything about Uncle; I mean short of getting Holden to bring his brother out there. That might be entertaining.” He shook his head. “But I will, Uncle was…Uncle. He has the opinions he has, and he has standards. We’re just too city for him in the end. You know how that goes, and after she’s out of here, we can see if he made a mark, ok? But, in the meantime, you get to decide if I do the world's hottest chocolate, the chip, or like… the doom peanut. They did a video I saw with the peanut, some dude ate like three of them it was kinda epic.”
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Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:56 pm
"Don't you hate peanuts?" Jace scoffed, but he had already pulled up a few pages on his phone and was skimming the options, all the while trying to imagine Holden's brother out on the farm, in his wrestling outfit. Wrestling a horse. Enjoying it.
...That was too much half-naked man in his imagination.
He brushed his loose hair out of his face and huffed, as if to shake away those thoughts. "I'm not going to risk spending all that money just for you to hate it. I'm going to start you off with the chocolate, I think, and we'll go from there. If you do good with that one, then we'll do the chip--and maybe the peanuts. If you've survived the rest."
He glanced to his brother, as if he could somehow sense marks hidden beneath clothes, but he had to resign himself to just wait.
Wait, and then they could take care of everything. And eat everything. And go back to normal.
And then, one day, have a better, brighter 'normal' to go back to.
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Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:31 am
“Yeah, I do, but I could also just like, suck off the hot stuff; I bet that would be fun to record for my apparent future wedding.” He smirked. “Fine, though, chocolate first, but not the white chocolate one! White chocolate is awful on the best of days; I don’t need peppers added to it.” He glanced back, gazing for a moment at Jace and where he was looking before lifting a hand to knock a knuckle against his shoulder. “Hey… It’s not that bad; it’s nothing like what he did to you that one summer.” He smiled like that made it truly nothing. “And I’m crazy lucky, having a brother who’s already looked into places, who has friends who even put up with me.”
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Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 5:43 pm
Jace’s jaw clenched, the only indication that there was something brewing below the surface. He wasn’t going to touch it. Some things were best left alone. One summer, all summers. The past was gone and done and he had the present to worry about, the future.
A few seconds passed after Xander spoke and Jace still didn’t speak.
But then, something in his brain clicked back on and he shook his head.
“...Xander, please. I don’t want to hear about you sucking off anything,” he sighed, and reached a hand up to rub at his face. He dragged the skin of his cheeks down, leaving sunken, open eyes, and a look of pure exasperation.
“Win the lottery and then tell me you’re lucky. Until then, I don’t wanna hear about it.”
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Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2020 8:21 pm
“Hey, you can talk to me, man; I’m sorry, you look like you’re sitting on thoughts again; we can’t have that.” He knuckled a hand into Jace’s shoulder. “And HEY now, I haven’t even dated anyone; you’ll be the first to know if we’re heading in what direction, I guess. I’ll try and leave the details out of it for both our sanity, though, eh?” “If I win the lottery, I’m showing up with something ridiculous to ride away into the sunset with you and our friends with though, like…I’ll be the next person to own one of those VW busses repainted to be the Mystery Machine, or… a Jurassic Park Jeep, whichever one will hide the dents from whatever Mom throws after us.” He grinned.
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Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 7:17 am
Jace looked a mixture of horrified and insulted at the insinuation that he would have to hear about his brother in a relationship, but he'd always had the expectation of truth from him--for better or worse.
For a brief moment, the thought appeared in his head--if money wasn't an issue, if they could just ride away and do whatever they wanted. If the family business wasn't on the table, if everyone's expectations weren't a factor.
...But then, he couldn't throw away all of this work. And everyone's expectations would always be a factor.
"Keep dreaming," he insisted, because if Jace couldn't get completely out of this reality, he didn't want Xander to have to commit to it too. "...We'll see what the future holds. But lottery or not," he leaned over to brush shoulders with Xander--the only hint of physical comfort he was willing to offer while being so soft, and even then it sort of like it was just a gruff shoulder bump, "I'll always have your back."
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