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 Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:14 am
The desire to slide his arms around Jace’s waist as though he could claim him then and there was enormously strong, his hands even drifted forward just a little, resting on hips and he let his face rest against Jace’s shoulder’s again. “Fair…” He said after a long moment. “I’d be jealous if… well… I’d be happy if someone made you happy.” “But I guess till you’re ready you’re stuck with me… us… all of us.” The idea of Jace looking elsewhere? Ouch… Not a topic he’d bring up again, he might have to wait and watch it happen but, for now, he’d be the one giving shoulder massages and marshmallow kisses…damnit.
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2021 4:48 pm
“Well, good,” he muttered tiredly. “I want to be stuck with you.”
What was the point of meeting new people, anyway? It’s not like he was going to go meet many people in school anymore, and his mother had probably already planned out the rest of all of his social interactions. He’d have to work carefully to create the exact persona he needed to succeed in this world. So the people he’d meet would be business and professional friends, and you couldn’t really trust any lawyer, could you? Not when most of them were competition anyway.
Another bite of food for him, one offered to Holden.
“If you guys can put up with me through this, I mean. Just don’t ever leave me, okay?”
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2021 5:33 pm
Holden took a breath, holding onto those words desperately. “I have no intention of it, you’d have to decide you were tired of me first. It’s a little known secret that I am -actually- a dragon, and I have claimed you for my hoard. So sorry…” He slid his arms around Jace’s waist then, hugging him for as long as he dared before accepting the next bite of food. “Absolutely trapped.” He said after he finished swallowing. “Stuck forever, it’s hopeless to try and escape.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2021 6:44 am
”Well,” Jace decided after a long moment. “...Alright. I suppose, if you say it’s hopeless, then there’s no point in fighting that.”
He squeezed the little bird Holden had placed next to him, fingers once more brushing across it’s soft fabric before he moved it closer and wrapped his arm around it. “...At least I’m in good company,” he decided, except, this was such a dangerous position to be in because he felt oddly safe?
Since when had he felt unsafe?
Why did this feel so different than going to bed at home? Why did this feel like he could go to sleep and sleep, and not worry about anything? Maybe it was just because he’d finished his test and he wasn’t going to have to go back to cramming, to working tirelessly just to consume every piece of knowledge in existence in an unreasonably short amount of time.
Holden’s arms around him were hard to explain, and while he kept one arm tightly wrapped around the bird, his other hand rested over Holden’s hand, fork forgotten somewhere on the tray with the food.
He felt full and fed, in a way he hadn’t really felt before, like it didn’t reach his stomach but it reached his heart, and maybe it was just really good coffee? But he liked it. He liked it a lot. He’d have to come back and ask for more coffee again, because he wanted this. He wanted to feel like this. Disappear into this on a bad day.
...But if he had this, how could there even be bad days?
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2021 9:06 am
“Good company is a very good start.” He said quietly, squeezing gently as he felt Jace’s hand over his own. “And you really shouldn’t fight dragons, they get a very bad wrap, we’re really a lot smaller than people seem to think, and these days we hoard other things than gold…” he continued the vague silly train of chatter because that felt safe in its own right. “That’s why it was crouching tiger, hidden dragon, you can’t tell me that a big dragon would be easy to hide…that’s just silly.” “I’m so glad you came here.” He added. Because saying ‘love’ was one of those dangerous scary words, the ones that felt as overwhelming, the only thing that could start to encompass how he felt around Jace. “…I’m going to have to make you more shirts since you deserve to be the best-dressed lawyer out there.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2021 4:04 pm
Jace could hardly question the ‘hoarding’, considering how many brushes and birds he seemed to have, but something about it just seemed so charming and so Holden.
“Alright. I won’t fight dragons,” he relented, but could really only imagine Holden as the fluffiest, birdiest of all little dragons. He would never admit to how endearing the imagery was. He wanted to squeeze this fluffy, birdy, dragony Holden, but he refrained, because what messages was he even sending here? How much of this was a dream and how much of it was real?
“Thank you for the warning. I’m glad I came here to get it. And the food. And the coffee.” And you.
“I took your shirt with me,” he said offhandedly, oblivious or just forgetful that Holden might have seen it. “For good luck. Very comfortable, very professional. I’ll wear anything you make.”
He eyed a poster of Callan across the room, though in an (albeit impeccably designed) uniform, and amended, “Almost anything.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2021 4:48 pm
A soft laugh from Holden against his shoulder as he shifted to see where Jace had turned, which was not unexpected. “What… you don’t think a wrestling or MMA outfit would go over well in a courtroom? What about just a Halloween party? Do you -know- how happy my Brother would be to train up the next generation? Someone to follow in his footsteps?” “One of these days, maybe the next time you have a day to yourself, I need to take you to the fabric warehouse, we can have you touch and see all the fabrics before I use them.” He sighed with happiness at the thought. He hoped that sort of idea wouldn’t be too dull, but he rather wondered if he wouldn’t find colors and patterns that wouldn’t immediately come to mind as fitting Jace, but that very much would. “I promise we could do other things too, just… “ He let his voice trail off and he sighed softly. “I think it would be nice.” He said trying to sound more confidant than he felt. He shifted so he could rest his chin on Jace’s shoulder and peer down at the bird that had been adopted as a good pillow. “I should let you keep that one, it looks right at home.” If he couldn’t be with Jace as often as he wished, then perhaps at least he could find little ways to be there all the same.
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2021 1:25 pm
Jace was halfway between a sleepy scowl and reaching for another bite of food when Holden offered the bird. “...Since when do dragons part with their hoard?”
It was a much better topic than thinking about Callan trying to train him, or him accidentally walking into the courtroom wearing a wrestling outfit. If he didn’t die of shame, his mother would kill him, and he couldn’t wait for the nightmares of such nature to start popping up now that he was going to sleep again.
“I know how much you love your birds. If I took this one, I’d have to replace it. Ugh, Xander would never let me live it down if I had cute things in my room. If my mother saw it…”
She’d judge him for that and think he was going soft. Like pillows weren’t supposed to be soft.
“He’d be safer here. I’ll just have to come visit him often.”
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Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2021 1:38 pm
“Hmmm…I like that idea better, I will hold him hostage contingent on your return.” He was pleased with the thought. “….Or…we dress it up in a tiny suit, and we put that in your room, and I keep you instead. If we made sure it was very polite, maybe it would take a while before anyone noticed.” “And if you tried to not come back for your bird I would uh…” He hesitated thinking. “Wrestle you.” He said at last. Which was not -especially- convincing since he was shorter than Jace, but he did sort of have an advantage at the moment. He could just… tip them both sideways. Desert could wait… movies and crop tops could wait… Holding Jace was an ‘as long as he could’ thing.
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:57 pm
Jace was quiet for a long moment, because there was so much there to unpack and he didn’t know where to start. He couldn’t say it, he absolutely couldn’t, but the idea of Holden working on a tiny suit for the bird made his heart beat strangely quickly. Jace didn’t like cute things, not unless you counted Holden and--
Wait, that was.
That was a very bold thought, considering. Everything. Had Callan spiked the coffee? Was that what this was? That’s what this was. Of course.
He was tired and now he’d had super coffee, super, spiked coffee, and he wasn’t thinking clearly. That was all.
(But the thought was still cute.)
He couldn't banish it from his mind.
That, or wrestling Holden. “...Did your brother put you up to this?” he asked, trying to peer over his shoulder. “Did he finally get to you, Holden? You were so strong for so long. You’re interested in wrestling, now? Is this what happens when I’m not around to get you out of the house?”
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2021 6:03 pm
Holden laughed. “I would agree to MMA, I will not join him in the wrestling ring.” He shook his head firmly and then shuddered at the thought. He laughed softly. “But yes, clearly you should come around more often to make sure that I am freed from his influence, one day you might come here and I might be dressed up like… like a Luchador, and then the next thing you knew, I’d… totally have you pinned.” “Well… for about as long as it would take you to scruff me like a cat and it really would be a short-lived fight. But we could have fabulous costumes and be VERY dramatic about it. Honestly, you could have such an interesting wrestling story. You could walk in a suit, tear away of course, and then just… boom, suddenly wrestling outfit. Something… noble, with purple because you suit purple VERY well. But you could bring a briefcase and smack people with it if it was for TV.” He wove the teasing story with tremendous amusement.
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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:53 pm
“I’d almost prefer you in wrestling, at least then I know it’s fake,” Jace grumbled. “I don’t want you in MMA, you might get hurt.”
He almost seemed like he was pouting about it, in his sleepy state, but somehow he managed to seem almost collected about it.
But, it was easy to be flustered when he was coming up with a story like that. “--But really, I think you’re putting too much thought into--into my whole ‘backstory’. I am going to have to come around more, I think you’ve been spending too much time with him and he’s getting to you. Luchador costumes, pinning me,” he paused and suddenly seemed even more flustered.
Flustered enough, even, that he had to rub his face. He reached for the coffee, desperately chugging it. “My mother would completely disown me, you know. She’d ban me from talking to you if she knew what colorful alternate universes you were putting in my head. I’ve been in courtrooms already and wanted to hit people with my briefcase, don’t tempt me with the chance to actually do it.”
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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2021 5:13 pm
“I could just do forms, you don’t always have to fight people,” Holden said to soothe the worry that he had instilled at the idea of him participating in the MMA events. “As far as hitting people with a suitcase, I can’t imagine being in the actual courtroom, I watched some televised proceedings and I wanted to hit some of them.” He grimaced and hugged Jace again. “Thankfully, you are more than clever enough to hit them with words. You’re going to be ….the….the verbal Martial Artist of the Courtroom.” He said trying to sound certain.
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Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 5:21 am
Jace was tense for a moment longer and then relaxed, like he simply didn’t have the energy to argue with Holden, and why would he want to? “I guess,” he said, and closed his eyes as he leaned back to rest against him again. “...I’m going to say something stupid,” he said, and he knew it was stupid, because he wouldn’t say it out loud in front of his mother so that meant it was probably bad that he’d say it, anyway.
But, he was tired. And he wanted to say it. He wanted an excuse for Holden to stay so close, to keep playing with his hair, to just be warm and pressed close.
He gave Holden a few seconds to brace himself for the stupidity, and when the words finally came they were quiet, like Jace couldn’t talk himself out of not saying them, but he didn’t want to say anything too loudly, just in case. “...Thank you for always believing in me,” he mumbled.
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Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2021 7:17 am
Holden tipped his head, trying to find anything in the words spoken that rang as something that might qualify as ‘stupid’… but he couldn’t. He considered just letting it be but instead… “I’m… waiting for the stupid part.” He murmured, squeezing lightly as he embraced the man who leaned into him. “We support each other, I don’t think there is anything stupid about that, I believe in you because I … because I care about you. You support me too! You wear things I -made, it makes me feel so special. So, if that was stupid, then I’m stupid too because thank you for being you, thank you for believing in me, thank you ….thank you for coming here.” He released a hand to draw it through Jace’s hair, just to feel the softness of it.
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