teach me gently on how to breathe || tradley/brad

قوي

A shiver runs down Brad's spine automatically after he steps off the bus into the cold, dark world. He rubs his fist over his eyes and stretches, still groggy from his unintentional, twenty minute nap in the vehicle. A smile tugs on his face as he feels a familiar arm wrap around his shoulder before he's comfortably pressed into the warmth of Tristan's side. He likes to think he fits perfectly there, like the seventeen-year-old's body was specifically created so Brad could snuggle into him.

"Just so you know, my house isn't very outstanding," Tristan informs the younger boy the hundredth time as they walk through a dark neighbourhood. They'd already had a debate about it in the bowling alley, Tristan arguing that he'll rather the two of them head to Brad's house instead of his own. But the sixteen-year-old isn't ready to take a boy that isn't Jack or Drew home yet.

Brad shrugs at his repeated words, leaning more into Tristan so that the blond's practically carrying him down the street. The older boy looks down at the sleepy boy under his arm and chuckles. "So cute," Tristan comments causing Brad's cheeks to redden.

The two boys stop at a small, yellow house. The driveway's free of vehicles, and the house looks so plain it seems as if there should be a 'for sale' sign on the lawn. Brad assumes that's mostly because of his own overdecorated house, crowded with unnecessary indoor and outdoor furniture due to his mum's strange, furniture obsession. But Brad likes the house. It reminds him of Tristan, and how everything about him screams minimalist.

Tristan unlocks the door into darkness before he flicks on a light and the inside of the house is illuminated. The house mostly consists of cardboard boxes littering everywhere the brown-eyed boy looks. The only furniture in the living room is a couch facing a blank wall, and a little, ugly Christmas tree with no ornaments, left for dead in a corner. "My dad's too lazy to take it down," the blond explains, sheepishly smiling down at Brad who's shamelessly still attached to his side. The younger boy just chuckles. Tristan carelessly kicks off his leopard print shoes at the front door and pulls the smaller boy along with him into the kitchen.

"I'm so sleepy," Brad mumbles, resting his back against the counter.

"I still don't understand why you didn't just head home to get some rest," the older boy states.

"Because I wouldn't have been able to be with you." Tristan smiles at the tiled floor, his cheeks cutely reddening at the curly-haired boy's reply. A smug smile spreads on his lips. Why is he so perfect? Brad questions himself, tightening the seventeen-year-old's large jacket around his body.

The blond casually pulls a wine bottle off the counter. "Fancy wine?"

"I don't know." Brad looks down at his hands, fiddling with the zipper on Tristan's jacket. "There's a lot of calories in it."

"It's fine." Tristan smiles and sets it on the counter. "I get it."

"Well, maybe a little wouldn't hurt," he decides after a while, because he thinks it'll be quite romantic, and he ignores the fact he really doesn't (and shouldn't) want to consume more calories than he's forced to, but he looks into Tristan's blue eyes, and somehow his thoughts are automatically silenced.

Minutes later after the curly-haired boy discovers wine tastes terrible, he sprawls his body out on Tristan's comfortable bed, like its his own, as the older boy unties his shoelaces and sets his worn out Converse shoes beside the door. The blond's bedroom is as empty as the living room, only decorated with the bed the curly-haired boy doesn't think he'll ever be able to move away from and an unplugged computer pushed into a corner. But despite how empty it looks, it's still cozy. Well, at least his bed is.

Brad shamelessly crawls under the blue sheets. "I'm staying here," he informs him. "I'm staying here forever, and I'm never leaving."

"Fine by me." Tristan plops down on top of the blankets, lacing his long fingers through Brad's curls and smiling down at the smaller boy snuggling into his bed. "How are you able to be this adorable?"