Opal had never seen Ronan dress like that before. He was tugging at a tie in the mirror, carefully adjusting it to the right length. He finally stopped and stared at the complete outfit. Black dress pants, a dark blue dress shirt, black tie, and black shoes. This was a far cry from what he normally wore, even for out in public. He took a deep breath, grabbed a coat, told Opal to behave, and slid into his BMW.
Adam's class let out at 4:25pm. Ronan arrived outside his dorm building around 4:15pm and leaned near the door, a bouquet of roses in hand. The dorm was co-ed, and everyone passing by smiled knowingly at him, wondering which girl he was waiting to surprise. Jones hung out by his car, snapping the occasional photo of couples sharing gifts and kisses. He took a few of Ronan, a clearly uncomfortable man waiting outside a dorm to surprise someone. He couldn't wait to snap the moment that he handed over the flowers and wanted a play by play of pictures.
Ronan glanced at his watch, 4:26pm. Adam would arrive any minute now. He straightened himself up and took a deep breath. When Adam rounded the corner, his face flashed with surprise and then joy. He barely kept himself from running into his boyfriend's arms, striding over to him to give him a kiss. Ronan silently handed him the flowers, turning shades of pink. Adam couldn't stop smiling, and it spread into a laugh. "Get changed. We're going to dinner." Ronan was brusque, and Adam grinned even more.
"What are you doing here?" Adam let them into the building and steered them down the hall to his private room.
"What's it look like, dumbass? I'm taking you out." Ronan held his hand, his entire body tense. It was a Thursday afternoon, not a time when he would normally visit. But it was a special occasion.
Once in Adam's room, Ronan slumped on the bed. He watched as Adam put down his bag of books by his desk and walked over to his closet, now full of professional looking clothing – a far cry from his current jean and t-shirt look. He pulled his shirt off as he mentally sorted through his options. He felt arms wrap around him and a soft kiss on his neck. Then, cold air as Ronan retreated to his spot against the wall with hunger and appreciation in his eyes. It didn't take long for him to dress after that, with Ronan helping him to straighten his tie. "How do I look?"
Ronan took a deep breath. "Perfect." He guided Adam back out to his car. Adam waved at a person here and there, a few looking at him in surprise. Adam was not anti-social by any means, but he didn't seem like the type to be heading out on a date on a weeknight, Valentine's Day or not. He was incredibly dedicated to his studies and job. Once they settled into the BMW, Ronan guided the car through the college streets and towards town.
They chatted about Adam's classes while Ronan drove them to a nice looking restaurant. Adam's mouth gaped open. "It's Valentine's Day! We couldn't possibly get in." Ronan smirked and got out to open Adam's door.
"You underestimate me, Parrish." They approached the host and Ronan casually stated, "Reservation for Lynch." The host nodded and led them to a secluded booth, which seemed to be what the restaurant was made of besides the bar. Adam looked at Ronan completely in shock as he realized how far in advance Ronan must have planned this night. The flowers, the clothing, the restaurant… they were far too cheesy for Adam to have suspected, though he knew that Ronan was a closet romantic. Adam was even more surprised when the waiter showed up with food and drinks without them ordering. "I put in our drink orders on the phone before I picked you up. They're doing a Valentine's Day special of a 3 course fondue dinner."
"I've never been to a place like this before." Adam was quiet, taking it all in as the server placed warm cheese dip in front of them with a variety of items to dip in it. Once alone again, he slid his hand onto Ronan's. "Thank you." It was quiet but forceful, saying all the things Adam couldn't put into words about this night. He had no idea how he could repay Ronan in kind.
"It's for me, too, you know." It was barely a whisper, closer to a breath in Adam's ear. When he turned to Ronan, however, Ronan was dipping a soft pretzel into the cheese. Adam just smiled and started onto his portion.
By the time dessert came around, they were starting to feel full. They were also laughing. They'd talked about The Barns and Adam's classes, about recent and upcoming movie releases and TV shows. They'd talked about nothings and everythings and made jokes about what they would've done with a fondue set at Monmouth Manufacturing.
The drive back to Adam's was in comfortable silence, with Ronan's hand on his thigh the entire drive. Ronan walked Adam to the door of the dorm building, prepared to give him a long kiss goodnight and let him get on with his homework for the following day. It was already 10pm and Ronan had taken up most of his free time unexpectedly. But Adam continued holding his hand, pulling him into the building behind him.
"Don't tell me you bought sexy lingerie for tonight, Parrish." Ronan's tone was sarcastic and light at the same time. Adam laughed and shook his head, opening his door. Once inside, he loosened Ronan's already loosened tie and started unbuttoning his shirt. He slowly slid it off, revealing on his shoulders the borders of his tattoo. Ronan was speechless and then shocked when Adam went and hung his shirt and tie up before doing his own. Puzzled, he watched Adam return to him and lightly cup the side of his face. Ronan's eyes closed and he turned his head down to kiss Adam's coarse palm. Adam's breath was shaky when he leaned down to kiss Ronan in a series of soft kisses. He pulled him onto the bed, wrapped his arms around him, and leaned his head onto the shaved head of his boyfriend.
They held each other in silence, listening to each other's heartbeats and breaths, neither willing to break the moment. The clock slowly ticked by and Adam's breathing slowed as he started to drift into sleep. Ronan started to carefully detangle himself from Adam, but Adam's arm snaked out and pulled him back. Adam kissed his neck and whispered, "Don't go." It was all that was needed to make Ronan stay. They fell asleep, Adam's arms around Ronan's and his head against his shoulder.
In the morning, Adam woke early as he usually did. He liked to give himself plenty of time to get ready for class and relax a bit. His class didn't start until 9:35am, but he got up around 6am. This morning, instead of getting out of bed, he snuggled in deeper, waking up Ronan in the process. He grumbled. "It's fuck o clock in the morning, why are you awake?" Adam smiled and kissed Ronan, tracing the outline of his tattoo. When Ronan rolled over, Adam practically pinned him down, kissing him. Neither of the boys were good at expressing their emotions verbally, so Adam poured every ounce of appreciation, desire, and love into this kiss and Ronan returned in kind. His kissing turned downward, kissing along his jaw onto his neck, and Ronan sighing into it. He didn't make it much further down onto Ronan's chest before he was pulled back up to Ronan's mouth. Their relationship had a strange balance of dominance, rarely fighting for it with Ronan being the dominant one in public and Adam in private. Yet in this moment, neither was willing to give up their power and give into the other.
It was 8am by the time Adam climbed out of bed, pulling languid limbs from the covers. Ronan kissed his lower back when he sat up. "If you keep doing that, I'm never going to get to class on time."
"Then skip. It really isn't that hard to do. Trust me, I'm an expert." Ronan talked into his skin, and Adam's stomach did flips.
"And I'm not one to start." He turned and kissed Ronan, pulling him into a sitting position as well. "I'm going to take a quick shower and get dressed." Adam didn't have a private bath, so he threw on a pair of pajama pants and grabbed his shower supplies, leaving Ronan in the bed. Adam did shower quickly, dwelling on how he had not slept as little or as well as he had the night before since living on campus. He dried off and dressed in a haste, wearing a faded pair of jeans and a band t-shirt that may have been Ronan's. He returned to his room, hair still damp, to find Ronan dressed and wearing his clothes. "You know, if you wanted to do a style makeover, we could've just gone shopping."
"Shut it, you shit. I didn't exactly plan a sleepover and I don't want to wear those today." He gestured towards the dressy clothing he had worn the day before and Adam had helped discard.
"Aw, and here I was waiting for you to do the walk of shame back to your car." Adam's smirk was testing and jarring. Ronan stared him down. He slowly walked towards Adam, but Adam didn't flinch. He stood there, smirking at his frustrating and impossible boyfriend. Ronan reached him, and just shook his head.
"Let me walk you to class. Then, tonight you can text me about how your classes went." Adam continued to smirk and walked towards his class, hand in hand with Ronan. Hours later, he got back to his dorm and an envelope was taped to it. Inside the envelope were pictures of Ronan, nervous and then confident and then handing Adam the roses. A note simply read, "I thought you should have a copy. -J" Adam grinned and opened his door, eager to call Ronan. He put the pictures next to the flowers.