"No."
"Jeff-"
"No."
Nick sighed as Jeff wrapped himself even tighter around him, squeezing as hard as his lanky body would allow.
"Come on, Jeff… It's only one summer. I'll be back before you know it."
"…no."
Shifting around in Jeff's octopus-like grasp to re-gain control of his arm, Nick began rubbing small circles into the blond's back. In all honesty, Nick had just as little desire to leave Jeff as the other had for him to go, but he was only going to be gone for the summer break. Besides, Nick hadn't seen his cousins in years, and France was actually pretty cool when your tour guide was family.
"It won't be so bad, Jeffy. I mean we've got Skype, texting, Facebook, and oh man, snapchatting you from Europe will be literally the best."
"You won't have time for that."
"Of course I'll have time for you."
Nick sighed again as he heard Jeff start sniffling, and placed a gentle kiss to his temple before pulling him close again.
"Jeff, love-"
"I'll just really miss you, Nicky."
Nick squeezed him tightly and kissed his shoulder.
"I know, Jeffy. I'm gonna miss you too. So much, so, so very much."
They stayed like that for a while. Nick placing soft kisses wherever he could reach, and rocking Jeff back and forth as the other boy hiccupped and exhaled shakily.
Eventually Jeff reluctantly unwound himself from around Nick in favor of digging his palms into his eyes, pulling away from the brunet slightly. He rubbed at them, trying to keep the tears threatening to spill out at bay. Taking a deep breath, he smiled at Nick wobbily before any previous image of contentedness is ruined by another hiccup bubbling up from Jeff's throat.
"Ugghh, god I'm so sorry," he drawls out, voice raw and rubbing at his face again, "I know I'm being stupid, it's just-"
"You're not being stupid."
Jeff gives a reluctant but grateful smile to Nick before continuing, "It's just such a long time, Nicky. And I won't be with you at all. I know you'll call me a lot and all that good stuff, but I can't hug a phone call. So um, if you don't mind…" he began trailing off, curling up against Nick once more and tucking his head under his boyfriend's chin, "I'm just gonna start making up for that right now."
Nick's smiled softly, leaning back to lie down on his bed and wrapping his arms around Jeff tightly to pull him along. "Nah, I don't mind at all."
He brought up a hand to run his fingers through the blond's hair, and about ten minutes later, Nick feels Jeff's breathing even out, and knows the other's fast asleep.
Shortly after, Nick gets an idea.
When Jeff woke up from his nap, he blearily opened and closed his eyes, looking aimlessly around the room before settling on a smiling Nick.
"Wha-?" he mumbled, groaning and rolling off of his boyfriend before stretching himself out and falling slack again, eyelids already threatening to close once more.
"Good morning, sunshine." Nick teases, laughing softly at his ridiculous behavior, and then harder at the way the blond's eyes bulge at his remark.
"It's morning?!"
"No, Jeffy," Nick grinned, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek before launching out of bed, "but it is time for you to get up."
Jeff pulled his pillow over his face and groaned loudly.
"Nu-uh. None of that." Nick said, disappearing into the closet for a moment before returning with both pairs of their shoes. "I let you sleep for three hours," he began, lobbing one of Jeff's shoes at the offending grumbler, "and now I want to go somewhere." He finished, its match following close behind.
Jeff let out a muffled 'oof' with the impact of each shoe, but when he liberated his face from the underside of the pillow, it only expressed confusion.
"Three hours?" he ventured, disbelief evident.
"Yep."
"I slept for three hours?"
"Yep."
"You let me sleep on you, for three hours?"
"Yep."
"Oh..." Jeff trailed off guiltily.
"Don't worry about it, I wasn't super bored or anything." Nick amended, catching the look on Jeff's face from where he was pulling on his shoes.
"No?" Jeff asked, and then it was Nick's turn to look guilty. The brunet paused in the tying of his laces, and pulled Jeff's phone out of his pocket, handing it over to him with a sheepish and definitely suspicious smile on his face. Jeff stared at him as such before taking and unlocking the proffered device.
"Why were you playing flappy bird on my phone?" he asked, when immediately met with the start screen.
"I, um, I wanted to see if I could beat your high score."
Jeff stared at him in horror.
"You didn't."
Nick coughed nervously. "Check."
After a few seconds of tapping away at the screen, starting a new game and then purposefully dying so as to see the new record score, Jeff's expression turned murderous.
"278."
"Yep."
"My new high score is 278."
"Yep."
"It used to be 64."
"Yep."
"Nicholas. Duval."
"Yep..?"
"I am going to murder you."
Nick would have laughed, but something in his boyfriend's eyes led him to think that maybe he was serious, so instead he let out an indignant squeak and rushed straight out of the room, one shoe left untied in favor of preventing his death.
"Nicky, get back here!" Jeff shouted after him, pulling on his own shoes.
"Nick!" and just like that Jeff was out the door and in pursuit.
One legendary foot chase involving parkour, and the near-assault of several other students; and an agonizing conversation in which Jeff stressed his extreme displeasure with Nick's 'backstabbing flappy-antics' later, and they were finally on their way.
The car bounced lightly going over a speed bump as they exited the Dalton parking lot, and Nick smiled sunnily at his boyfriend before switching on the radio. Jeff glared back, twisting his phone around between nervous hands.
"Jeffy-" Nick began, catching the other's peculiar expression, but Jeff shut him down immediately.
"You are despicable."
"Come on, Jeff. I said I was sorry. It's just a stupid game, that's it."
"It's a trust thing."
Nick stared at Jeff incredulously.
"Are you serious? Because, if this is about you not wanting me to mess with your phone or something, I didn't think you would mind so much, otherwise I wouldn't have done it..."
Nick cut off when he heard Jeff giggle lightly. He raised an eyebrow, glancing at him again to see Jeff with his head in his hands, a dumb little smile gracing his features.
"Uhm, Was it something I said..?"
"Nicky, I love you so much."
"Well, that's good, I guess, considering that I love you too and it would suck if the dumbest game in the world messed that up for me…"
Jeff laughed, and waived his phone around. "Nick, if I didn't want you to ever touch my phone I wouldn't have taught you my password."
Nick smiled unsurely, feeling better but still not quite understanding. "I suppose that wouldn't make sense, would it."
Jeff leaned over in the car and kissed Nick's cheek quickly. "I just think it's funny that you're worried about offending me, when I'm just pissed because there's literally no way I'll ever beat this high score." He laughed, gesturing to the device, "I'm actually going to have to give this disease up."
Nick laughed too now. "Good. I was starting to think that eternally flapping bird was taking my place in your heart."
"Maybe it should. I'll bet it would never beat my high scores just to spite me."
"You're just jealous because you're crap at that game and I'm the master."
"Sure, Nick, sure. Now, where on earth are you taking me?"
Nick smiled, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel absently as he drove.
"Now that, Jeffy, is a secret."
"Build-A-Bear?" Jeff asked in disbelief as they stood outside of the store. He looked to Nick with a raised eyebrow, but the brunet only smiled and squeezed his hand before dragging him inside.
"Yeah. Just, hear me out here," Nick said as they came to a halt in front of the bear selection area, "Earlier, you said that you couldn't hug a phone call, and I thought 'oh, well you can hug a bear', and I know it's nowhere near the same thing, but maybe if-"
"But Build-A-Bear?"
"-Maybe if we each made each other a bear that was like ourselves only in teddy bear form, it would be nice anyway. Like, 'I know you're not really here with me, but you still are in spirit.' I just thought it would be nice to have something when I started missing you. So shoot me." Nick took a deep breath as he finished, face red from both blushing and the rant.
Jeff forced any expression of condescension out of his face when he realized what Nick was doing, and how important to him it evidently was. He looked thoughtful for a moment, and glanced over at the display of assorted animals and bears.
"Hmm…"
"'Hmm'?" Nick urged, suddenly feeling incredibly self-conscious about the whole idea, "You have to give me a little more than that here. Just, as long as you don't laugh-"
"I think that brown one on the right would be a good choice for you," Jeff said, squeezing Nick's hand before letting go to retrieve one of the aforementioned bears from the container of unstuffed ones in the display. "See?" he held out the limp bear with a smile, "Its fur is the same color as your hair."
Nick grinned, mentally letting out a sigh of relief when he realized that Jeff wasn't going to laugh at him. He took the proffered bear with a laugh and a kiss. "So it is."
"Now what about me?" the blond asked, turning back to the shelves of bears. Nick followed him, and paced back and forth along the line, inspecting each one carefully before looking back to Jeff with a frown.
"It's no use, Jeffy," he started, feigning despair. "None of these are anywhere near cute enough to be you."
Jeff turned a tomato red and shoved Nick back playfully. He turned back to the bears, partially to keep looking and partially to hide his blushing, before picking up an unstuffed, honey-yellow one with a brown nose. "How about this little guy? He's close enough, right?"
Nick eyed the bear carefully, looking back and forth between his boyfriend and the limp toy before giving the former a satisfied smile. "Okay, yeah. Your letter of recommendation made him pass the cute test."
Jeff let out a deep breath and smiled back nervously, hugging the unstuffed bear tight. "Oh thank god. Now that I've picked him up, there's no way I could've put him back in the bin."
Nick eyed him amusedly. "And why is that?"
Jeff looked down at his shoes, feeling himself turn red once more. "I'd be too worried about hurting his feelings…"
Nick let out a sharp laugh, and Jeff jumped to defend himself. "Children's books!" he spluttered, "Corduroy Bear, Velveteen Rabbit! Those books messed me up!"
Nick pulled him into a hug, shoulders shaking from muffled laughter.
"They were awful!" The blond insisted, "All those toys wanted was to be loved! Why would anyone read a book like that to a kid? 'Oh, but they were happy in the end!' No! You wouldn't read a kid a book about a puppy that gets shot, but it's okay, because it goes to puppy heaven and was happy in the end, would you?"
Nick squeezed him tightly before pulling back, smiling at the taller boy affectionately. "Oh Jeff…"
"Would you?"
The brunet laughed. "Come on," he said, grabbing Jeff's hand to drag him off towards the stuffing machine. "Let's bring the us-bears to life and then get them into some clothes before they're arrested for streaking."
"Wait, you wouldn't though, would you, Nicky?"
Nick just shook his head, dropping Jeff's hand as he ran the rest of the way. The blond huffed, following after with the intention of making his displeasure at the very serious question being brushed off known, but by the time he's within grumping range Nick is already tucking the spout of the stuffing machine into the back of the dark brown bear.
Nick grins at him as he approaches before turning back to the bear with an expression of mock horror. "Jeff! We're losing him! Get the defibrillator!"
Jeff rushes the rest of the way there, instantly matching his over-the-top persona, and shouts, "3… 2… 1… CLEAR!" before stomping on the machine's peddle.
They watch as the fluff in the contraption's interior tosses and tumbles about, slowly filling up the bear, and maintain their hospital façade.
"Come on, Nickbear! Don't give up on me!" Jeff yells, going through the motions of an awkward approximation of CPR on the toy.
"No!" Nick pretended to cry, "He's too young to die! Hold on, Nickbear! Don't go into the light!"
"Doctor, wait!" the blond exclaimed when the bear was finally stuffed, "I think he's stabilizing!" He stepped off of the peddle, and Nick held the bear up in the air.
"Sir? Can you hear me?" the brunet stared at the bear intently, waiting for an answer. "Doctor," he turned to Jeff with a crestfallen expression, "He's still unresponsive."
"Well, that's because…" Jeff trailed off, trying to find something to say to keep the game going, before spotting the tub of little stuffed hearts on the side of the machine. He picked one up, holding it high in the air with an exaggerated gasp. "His heart is missing!"
"Oh my god!" Nick exclaimed, gasping as well, and looked at the bear with even more dramatized horror than before. "Doctor Sterling… I think someone needs to take away our licenses."
"That is probably true," Jeff conceded, allowing himself a small laugh before returning to his ER persona, "But this patient needs our help now. Prepare him for the heart transplant!"
Nick turns the bear so that the open stitching on its back is facing up, and holds it out to the blond shouting, "Quickly, Doctor! He's losing blood!"
Jeff reaches out to slip the little heart into the bear, but just as his fingers touch the fabric on the open sides of the stitching, Nick lets out a loud beeping noise, causing him to jump backward.
"Doctor Duval! You are jeopardizing this operation!"
"Incorrect, Doctor Sterling. Haven't you played"Operation"? You're not allowed to touch the sides!"
Rolling his eyes, Jeff goes to insert the heart again, this time avoiding the sides. The stuffing is fairly difficult to dig through, and it takes a long moment of fishing around before the heart is deposited into an appropriate area of the bear's chest.
"Quickly, Doctor!" Nick shouts when Jeff finally removes his hand. "We have to stitch him up, his vitals are dropping!" The blond examines the loose strings in the bear's back for a moment, hopelessly pulling on a few before staring at Nick with a dumbfounded expression.
"I was never trained in this area!"
"Ahhhhhh!"
"Ahhhhhh!"
They stood in the store, screaming at each other for a solid thirty seconds before Jeff felt a tap on his shoulder and let out a legitimate yelp of surprise. He turned around, and both boys flushed red enough that they could have replaced the tomato on Veggie Tales without anyone telling the difference.
A store employee, roughly their age, stood before them, her eyebrows quirked in a mask that was equal parts amused and annoyed.
"Yeah, I'm going to have to ask you guys to stop that. You know, the screaming thing," she said, gesturing between the two of them. Jeff stuttered out an apology, shifting back and forth on his feet, but the worker just shrugged. "It's cool, I don't really care, I mean, I was on break anyway. It's just that this is a children's store. Some moms or whatever were complaining about the noise and 'two delinquent teens over by the stuffing machines scaring my children'."
Jeff attempted to apologize again, but it came out strangled from his embarrassment, and Nick put a hand on his arm before jumping in with a polite, "Sorry, we didn't mean to interrupt your break. We'll keep the noise down."
The girl shrugged, eyeing them carefully for just a moment before gesturing to the transplant patient now lodged under one of Nick's elbows, still awaiting the conclusion of his intense procedure.
"Can I help you guys with that?"
Jeff nodded gratefully as Nick passed the bear over. "We figured out most of the steps, but the stitching was out of our skill zones, I guess."
She laughed. "You guess? You were literally just screaming in each other's faces- No no, don't apologize," she interjected when Jeff opened his mouth to do just that. One last tug, a knot, and a quick snip of scissors, and she held the bear out again, smiling a little as Jeff snatched it up into his arms. "It's funny. ER doctors are not actually something I've seen anyone do yet. I get a lot of 'It's aliiiive!'s, but at this point it's not even kind of creative anymore. You put on a good show."
"Uhm, thanks…" Nick stopped to read her nametag, "Lisa. Thanks, Lisa." He grinned, starting to feel less embarrassed. Then the unstuffed, honey-colored bear still tucked under Jeff's arm caught his eye. "Oh, hey!" He tugged it free and held it out to the girl. "Would you mind making this one up too?"
Lisa shrugged. "Not at all," she said as she took it from his hands and began stuffing it at the machine. "Though, I'm pretty sure that even if I did, I'd have to anyway. This is what I get paid for. And, technically, you guys shouldn't have been using this clunker by yourselves anyway. No customers are, though I think that rule's just to keep children from goobering them up." She had the bear stuffed almost instantaneously, and was pulling it off of the machine already.
Nick grinned despite himself. "Not a huge fan of kids?"
"It's not the kids I mind," she laughed, holding out the bear along with another one of the stuffed hearts from the bin. Nick takes both gratefully, and goes to put the heart in before being stopped by an "Ah, ah, ah!" from Lisa. He halts, confused, before the employee holds her right hand up in oath.
"Repeat after me: This is my friend. I picked him, I stuffed him, I brought him to life."
"You're kidding me."
"Nope. This is the part I hate, and because you 'delinquents' interrupted my lunch; I'm making you take part in it."
Jeff giggled beside him, and Nick sighed, holding his hand up as well to recite the pledge.
"This is a toy bear. I kind of picked him out, though it was mostly Jeff, Lisa here stuffed him, and contrary to what Toy Story implies, there is no chance of him coming to life."
"Aww, Nicky, way to ruin the bear's dreams," Jeff teased, bumping their shoulders.
Lisa snorts, putting her hand down with a shrug. "Close enough." Nick does the same, and then she gestures to the heart. "Kiss it, so your beary best friend will know that you'll love it forever."
"Oh, come on," Nick groaned, "We didn't kiss the last one's heart, I think this guy'll be okay."
The now thoroughly amused employee simply raised her brow. "Actually, I'm pretty sure that the last bear's going to live a life void of both love and all feelings of belonging."
Nick turns to Jeff for support, only to find him staring down at the brown bear with big eyes full of horror and despair, which the blond then turned on him. "Kiss the heart, Nicky." Sighing, the other boy caved, and kissed the plush thing carefully before putting it inside the bear's chest.
"Awesome." Lisa exclaimed, snatching the bear out of Nick's hands and stitching it up even more quickly than the last, before handing the stuffed memento back. "Okay, this has been fun, but I still have half a subway sandwich waiting for me in the back rooms, and only fifteen minutes left on my break. I can trust you guys not to make a mess or traumatize any more children, right?"
Jeff and Nick exchanged sheepish looks before nodding in reply.
Lisa clapped her hands together, already backing away. "Sweet deal. And for the record, you two are an adorable couple."
The pair blushed a brilliant red, but before either could call out words of thanks, or any response at all, the spunky employee had disappeared.
"Okay…" Jeff laughed nervously, before holding up the brown bear in his arms and bumping the honey one in Nick's with it. "Clothes, now? Before they get charged with public indecency?"
"Ah, yes. Of course," Nick laughed, bumping their shoulders together before heading off to the miniature clothing display. "Youth these days, with their texting and streaking."
The two stopped in front of the wall of toy-scaled outfits, taking in their selection and feeling slightly overwhelmed.
"Damn," Nick mumbled, "These bears have way more clothes than half of the people I know."
"True, but I also suspect that half of the people you know don't have access to mermaid and Darth Vader costumes, or consider such things acceptable casual wear," Jeff smirked, gesturing to some of the more ridiculous articles.
"I don't know, Jeff. I feel like everyone should have crazy costumes in their closets. I mean," Nick started, taking up and holding the aforementioned mermaid costume in front of the bear meant to be the blond himself, "I think you could totally rock Ariel."
The brunet's laughter was cut off by a sharp elbow to the ribs, and Jeff snatched the yellow bear away, giving Nick the brown one. "Haha, no. How about you dress your bear?"
Nick feigned offence, holding the brown bear close and pacing down to the other end of the display, muttering about how no one appreciated his humor. Jeff watched him go, rolling his eyes affectionately before he turned to the miniature clothes in front of him.
There really were too many choices. The blond tapped his chin thoughtfully as he looked the assortment over, but quickly became overwhelmed as he took in the seemingly never ending supply of frankly ridiculous bear-sized clothing. Looking down at his own outfit, and recalling his wardrobe at home, Jeff quickly snatched up a tee shirt and plaid button down that bore eerie resemblance to clothing that he actually owned. Seriously, Build-A-Bear? Seriously?
He hummed to himself as he dressed the yellow bear, and was quickly joined by Nick, who was grinning ear to ear.
"Aw!" the brunet cooed, leaning over to inspect Jeff's handiwork, "Jeffbear is so cute!"
Jeff smiled, spotting a tiny gray beanie and tugging over the bear's ears last minute.
"Yep, he's pretty perfect," Jeff said, inspecting the bear himself before adding a teasing, "Like me."
Nick didn't miss a beat.
"Like you."
Jeff blushed, ducking his head slightly to hide the small smile on his face, muttering. "You're a dork, you know that?" He turned to face the shorter boy, but was met only with an ear-to-ear grin, and couldn't help but smile back as well. Then his eyes fell onto the bear in his arms.
"Nicky, no."
"It's perfect!"
"Nicky-"
"But Jeff," Nick whined, holding up the brown bear that was currently clad in a very familiar black costume, complete with cape, before grinning, "I'm Batman."
"Nick…" Jeff sighed, trying to hold back his laughter. "We've talked about this. You are Batman, but only on Halloween and at costume parties, remember?"
"Jeffy…" Nick bemoaned as the blond tugged the bear from his arms and pulled its mask off. "Halloween is only once a year!"
"I know Nicky, I know." Jeff sneaked a quick kiss to the top of the brunet's head before fetching more suitable 'Nick' clothes -a hoodie, tee, and cap- and changed the bear into those instead. "But, if nickbear wears the Batman suit all the time, it won't be too long before everyone figures out your secret identity, don't you think it?"
"I guess…" Nick grumbled, finally conceding. He gave nickbear a good long look, before huffing slightly and grabbing jeffbear to hold close to his chest. "At least nickbear is cute."
Jeff laughed outright, bumping their shoulders together as he moved to drag Nick to the checkout counter. "Of course he is, Nicky. He's based on you." Nick coughed to hide his blush, following the blond.
"Who's the dork now?"
"Shush."
After approximately seven minutes; and thirty-seven knowing looks from the checkout worker, as well as Lisa, who had finished her break just in time to make kissy faces at them from by the machines; they were on their way back to Dalton, the proud and incredibly dorky new owners of nickbear and jeffbear.