Title: Love You

Word Count: 577

Summary: Roger overthinks everything.

Pairings/Characters: Jack and Roger. Kind of ship-teasy?

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Come over around noon."

"Sure. Bye."

"Bye. Love you."

Roger's eyes widened and he hung up the phone, swallowing. It was a slip of the tongue. Jack had just… Jack was obviously extremely tired and maybe slightly delusional. Yeah, that was it. Jack was tired. Jack was tired and there really was no cause for Roger to be freaking out about this.

Okay. He would calm down. He was calm down and go to sleep after a bit of reading – maybe he'd finish up one of the books he'd started over the summer holidays – and then in the morning he'd forget everything and go over to Jack's around noon.

Oh God, what if Jack was gay and had actually meant it? Not that Roger had anything against gay people. He really didn't. But if Jack liked him then he might be more than a little freaked out. But Jack didn't like him. It had been a slip of the tongue. And plus, he could have meant 'love' like brotherly love. Yeah. Brotherly love…

Good lord, why was he freaking out this much? He didn't freak out like this when Maurice said 'love you.' Of course, that was Maurice, and Maurice was… well… Maurice. Maurice did that sort of thing. But Jack didn't.

Roger couldn't even focus on his book, so he just laid in his bed, not sleeping, staring at the wall and trying to not remember Jack saying 'love you.' He was overthinking this, definitely. Probably. Hopefully. There was seriously something wrong with him.

And Jack. There was also something wrong with Jack if he couldn't keep things like that from slipping out.

Roger could ask Jack about it tomorrow?

No, that was stupid. He'd risk looking stupid. Jack would probably look at him like he usually looked at Fatty-Piggy-Whatever the guy's name was, and then Roger would be stuck as 'the stupid one.' And he couldn't be the stupid one, he was the creepy one. He was the insane one. He was the mean one. He couldn't add stupid one onto that list, because he wasn't stupid, he was creepy and insane and mean and-

Okay. Deep breath. Deep breath. He could do this. He could handle this.

He barely slept at all that night. The next day, at 12:07, he showed up at Jack's house. Jack was finishing his lunch. "Want some?" the ginger asked, gesturing toward the half-full pan of macaroni and cheese. Roger shook his head.

Jack studied him, apparently found nothing wrong, and returned to his lunch. After lunch they went down to the park to torment small children.

Roger kept trying to find the courage to bring up the 'love you' from the night before, but couldn't find it. Eventually, when Roger passed up the perfect opportunity to push a small child off of a slide, Jack realized that something was amiss.

"What's going on?" Jack asked. Roger swallowed and shook his head.

"Nothing."

"Okay…" Jack said, looking closer at him. Roger leaned away. Jack looked closer. Roger leaned away. Eventually they ended up falling in a position that really didn't help Roger's mental health at the moment. "This is about last night, isn't it."

"Maybe. Now get off of me," Roger said. Jack rolled his eyes.

"It's just a habit, Roger. Don't overthink things so much," he said, sitting up. Roger sat beside him, immensely relieved. "Now are you ready to torment small children?"

OH GOD IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I'VE WRITTEN THEM.

IT'S JUST BEEN ROGER X MAURICE.

I'VE MISSED JACK X ROGER.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and that the beginning part wasn't too rambly for you. :3