You || Krii7y

19. Kasey

John wakes up with a jolt the next morning. He furrows his eyebrows as he realises these aren't his bedsheets and this isn't his room. The events that had occurred the night before come flooding back and he smiles to himself as he savours the memory of Jaren's lips against his own, against his neck, his stomach and even further south.

As he turns himself to face his sleeping companion, the ache comes back too. He winces. He's sore all over. He looks at Jaren and sees he isn't much better either. His neck is littered with hickeys turning more shades of purple than John thought possible and he can even make out a number of bite marks. He smirks at Jaren's sleeping form; he's rather proud of himself. He gazes at him as he sleeps, admiring how adorable he looks at rest.

His moment of appreciation for Jaren's beauty is interrupted by the loud ringing of his phone, which scares Jaren awake, eyes wide and clearly stunned. John flips himself quickly and picks up the phone, if only to silence it.

"Hello?"

"John, hey!" It's Kasey. "What are you doing?"

"I- er, just woke up." Jaren shuffles closer and wraps his left arm around John's bare torso. He smiles lazily at the man on the phone, who removes the phone from his ear and turns the call to speaker.

"-tell me you've gone to see Jaren by now. I've given you an entire twelve hours so you'd better have gone over or else I've got Jaren's number on my screen right now and I'm not afraid to-"

"Kase!" John laughs, joined by Jaren. "I told him last night. He's right here." He hands the phone to Jaren, turning it off speaker.

Jaren puts the phone to his ear and grins. "Hi Kasey." John presses a kiss to his temple and smiles at him.

He hears Kasey squeak. "Jaren, my love. My heart is crying with happiness. This means you two are good, right? Please say yes because I don't think I'll be able to take a no."

"We're good. We're better than good." Jaren beams at the blonde-haired man lying in his bed. He never thought he'd ever be able to have this and yet, here John is. His.

"So freaking cute. Are you two doing anything today? You know, besides each other?" She coughs but is unable to hold it and starts laughing. Jaren, however, feels himself turn as red as the scratch marks he can see on John's back as he gets out of bed. Shit, he'd really clawed him up.

"No, we're not doing anything," he retorts.

"Then meet me for breakfast at the little café by your house. I want to see you both. Please," she begs, dragging out the 'please'.

Jaren sighs as he lifts himself out of bed. He grimaces at how sore he is. His legs feel like jelly as he stands. "Alright, we'll see you there in... a half hour?"

"Yep, see you both soon!"

Jaren hangs up and looks at John, who has finished changing into some clothes of his that Jaren had stolen from his house a number of weeks ago.

"We're meeting Kasey at the café in thirty minutes."

John doesn't even question it, just nodding and smiling silently at Jaren, his eyes shining.

Jaren waves a hand in front of his face from the opposite side of the bed. "What?"

"I love you, Jaren."

The butterflies in Jaren's stomach explode and he grins a face-splittingly wide smile. "I love you too, dork." He walks to John and wraps his arms around his torso, allowing his eyes to close as John kisses his forehead.

************************

They leave Jaren's house, surprised at how bright it is out. The café isn't far and so they choose to walk side by side. After barely a minute of being outside, John grabs Jaren's hand and laces their fingers together, giving Jaren's a squeeze as though he can't resist touching him. Jaren looks down at their interwoven hands and grins.

The smile falters when he catches sight of his reflection in the window of a store. His neck looks like he got into a fight where his assailant solely targetted his neck, beating it to a purple pulp. The hickeys bloom from under his shirt all the way to his jawline. He gasps and turns to John.

"John!" he hisses, pointing to his neck. "The fuck is this?"

The blonde shrugs and continues walking, biting his lip to stop himself from laughing. "They're hickeys. You might remember that last night my lips were attached to your neck when we-"

Jaren punches him. "Fuck you," he whispers to John.

"I know you want to but not right now. We're in public, see?" he explains exaggeratedly.

Jaren says nothing, rolling his eyes and flipping him off. Though John is being rather irritating, Jaren's face breaks out into a grin when he looks over to find him looking back at him with glee. He's missed this idiot more than he could ever say.

Almost exactly thirty minutes after their phone call with Kasey, John pushes the door to the café open, Jaren right behind him. They don't have to look very hard for Kasey as she spots them from her table and immediately waves.

"John, Jaren. It's so good to see you together." She stands to hug them, John first, who she holds close. Jaren would feel jealous but something in him tells him there is no reason to worry. It's his turn for a hug next and he hugs her as hard as she hugs him as she squeezes him. She pulls away to look at him properly and he sees her sight fall to his neck, her mouth dropping open.

"Oh my fucking God, John. You've butchered the poor boy." She winces as Jaren turns his head to show her the other side as he and John take a seat opposite her.

"Hey, just marking what's mine," John shrugs.

Jaren chokes as he processes John's words. Kasey snorts and lets out a laugh; a pretty, honest sound.

They all pour over the breakfast menu and order some food: John gets himself some chocolate chip pancakes; Kasey gets a hot chocolate and a croissant and Jaren, starving, gets two of the appetising blueberry muffins he'd seen on the way in as well as some toast and a glass of orange juice.

When their food arrives, Jaren's takes up a lot of the table. "Easy there, cowboy," John chuckles as Jaren stuffs one of the muffins into his face. His eyes flutter closed as he hums.

"That's some good shit," Jaren says, his voice muffled by the food. Kasey and John laugh as he thrusts the muffin at John. "Try it."

John sighs and plays along, taking a bite. "You're right, dude, that is some good shit!"

Jaren offers Kasey the other untouched muffin but she raises a hand. "I'm okay, thanks. I'll take your word for it."

They continue eating silently for a moment before Kasey puts down her mug and smacks her lips. "So, boys." She smiles innocently. "Forgive my curiosity but... who topped?"

Jaren's inhale of breath is so sharp he starts to wheeze. John looks at him, concerned, and pats his back.

"Kasey, if you could not kill him, I'd appreciate it. I sort of like him and want to keep him around."

"I apologise. Although with the number you've done on him, I'm not sure how much more of that he can take." She grins devilishly at the pair, who laugh.

They continue eating and talking, Kasey animatedly recounting the events that led her to realise how 'freaking in love he was with you even before he started dating me.'

Jaren giggles quietly when she finishes talking. "Um... I'm sorry I stole your man?"

Kasey laughs, reaching over and placing both of her hands on top of his. "Jaren, you can't steal what was yours in the first place."