Two: Jake

The scene in the hotel room turns out pretty much exactly the way Jake assumes it would. That doesn't mean he's not disappointed, but Marley's sadness and embarrassment trumps his disappointment.

"I'm sorry," she says.

"Nah, don't be."

Marley sighs. "But you spent so much money on this room."

Jake could explain that he got a part time job teaching dance, because if there's anything a single parent taught him it's that you lavish someone when you love them. He could explain that basically his only cost was the hotel room, because all her other presents have been bought by Ryder. But the more they talk about money, the longer the discomfort lasts. If he makes a joke, they'll both feel better. So he does. "No, I didn't. I just snagged a key card from the maid's cart and tried every door until one opened."

Her eyes go wide. "Are you serious?"

"No," he admits. Marley laughs and shoves his shoulder. "Come on." He takes her hand. "Can we at least make it back downstairs for another dance?"

She nods and he stands. "Let's go."

Jake leads her towards the door. It's the first time he's been in a hotel room without having luggage, and he can't help but reflexively check that he's got the key card, like he'll be coming back from the swimming pool in twenty minutes. But Marley gives him a frustrated little sigh. "Wait. No. Just - wait. This isn't what I want." She drops his hand, pulling her along, and he watches her in confusion.

"What do you want, then?"

In answer, Marley shoves him against the door and kisses him savagely. Jake can't say that he's never been kissed like this before; he's not sure it's hyperbole to say that he's been kissed in every way there is. But he's definitely never been kissed like this by her. Marley's always been sweet and gentle. Into it, but letting him make the moves.

Now her sigh is soft and satisfied. "Better."

"Uh," he stammers when she pulls away a few inches. "Uh, do you still want to go dance, or-?"

Her eyes glitter as she runs her gaze down his body and back up to his mouth. "Actually, I think I want you to take your shirt off."

Jake does, because you don't argue with a girl when she's like this. He's got no idea what changed in the few short feet between the bed and the doorway, but he's gonna go with it and enjoy. The energy in the room crackles as he makes short work of the buttons on his shirt and tosses it on the desk. Her hands are on his chest in seconds, kissing him hard, and he lets out some kind of helpless noise that makes her groan.

"And now I think you should take your pants off. Then take the condom out of wherever you stashed it. And then we'll see how well you do."

That's when Jake's fears get the better of him. It's a sudden explosive mess in his head, a combination of we were going to be different, and I've never loved the girls I've had sex with, and especially Ryder told me she deserves better than this. It all serves to kill his sex-buzz. It's not that he doesn't want it - god, no, that's not it at all. He just has to figure out how this is different than the way things have always been with other girls before he makes the same old mistakes, all over again.

"I'm gonna take like five minutes in the bathroom, all right?" Please let her say she understands. If she doesn't want him to, he'll have to insist, and then it'll get weird and -

"Sure. I'll be waiting. You want to take off my bra when you get back, or are you willing to let me to deal with those frustrating clasps that every teen sex comedy says guys don't understand?"

Fuck. She's just perfection in five feet six inches. "I want to touch every bit of you. You decide if that includes your bra, or - not. But I seriously -"

Marley flaps her hand. "Yeah, yeah. Go."

Jake locks the door behind him. He's not sure what she thinks he's doing. Gargling, maybe? But if his breath was bad, hopefully she would have told him earlier, rather than dealing with it for the last forty-five minutes while they made out. Whatever she thinks, what he's actually doing is pulling out his phone and texting Puck. For all that Puck is a shitty role model in a dozen different ways, he's had enough sexual disasters that his sex advice is pretty intelligent.

He's not sure what exactly his problem his, so he just closes his eyes and lets his thumbs go, in the modern age version of the free association writing they used to do in grade school. Jake opens his eyes on a sent OMG HOW U FUCK SOME1 U LUV? and thinks it's accurate enough. There's maybe a little stuff mixed in about what if she's not the only one you love - but none of that matters, because Marley's what he has, and he is sure as shit not going to screw that up.

ur allcaps hurts my eyes

Okay, that's possibly the most annoying, useless thing Puck has ever said to him. Including when they were road tripping from California back to Lima and Puck couldn't let himself fall asleep, so he just talked about whatever, and Jake got a fifty minute monologue on the various cheat codes of Mario World.

AWNSER THE Q DICKNUT

what? your allcaps is blinding

If Jake didn't have such pressing business on the other side of the door he'd storm back to the reception floor, find his half brother, and punch him in the eye. Fucking jerkoff.

answer. the. question. .

better. well, sams currently sucking my dick. wanna ask him?

Jake stumbles and catches himself against the door. What the fuck. Working on the assumption that Puck's not joking, this is an entire world of not cool. An uncool world with no cheat codes, so he can't get the fuck out. For one, Sam's dating Brittany, and as far as Jake knows Puck and Kitty came together, which means they're both cheating. Which means that Kitty is going to get even crueler than she normally is, and Brittany's probably going to cry, and Glee's going to be awful.

Two, since when is Puck suddenly bi? Jake knows he's a child of the twenty-first century and his automatic response is supposed to be I don't care, but... he does. He really does. Not because of the actual gay part; Puck can stick his dick in whatever gender he wants. Jake cares because they spent a full week together - two days on the road, three with Puck sleeping on Jake's floor because his Ma got temporarily furious when he suggested she meet 'the other woman' for lunch - and in all that time together, Puck never once thought that was something that Jake might want to know?

Or maybe Puck just has a cheating kink. Jake's heard stories, he's heard literally hundreds of stories, and if they're true the only woman that Puck hasn't enticed into cheating at some point is Shelby Corcoran, his kid's adoptive mom. Maybe Puck's getting off on going behind Kitty's back, and it doesn't matter who it's with, Sam was just the closest person on the dance floor.

On the third hand... it's possible that Puck's straight, and just happens to be having sex with another guy. And if that's true, if that's a thing that people do... maybe Jake could do the same?

Abruptly, things feel a lot less scary. Immediately upon realizing this, Jake also realizes that he's fucking pissed. He picks up his phone and stabs at the keyboard with determination.

what the fuck r u doing?

No. Of course he couldn't do the same. He loves Marley. It doesn't matter if he loves anyone else, if he loves a guy but he's straight and other straight men he knows are having gay sex, because bottom line is that would hurt Marley, and he promised Ryder. He promised that he would never hurt her. He wouldn't want to hurt her. But he could maybe see it happening. Except that he promised Ryder, and if that vow is the only thing of seriousness Jake can have with him, then he'll keep it to his dying fucking day.

dude i can literaly hear u freakin out from 3 rooms away. brother superhearing like a dogwhistle

Jake snorts. wut did u expect?

206. come in, chillax, go back to marly when ur panties unbunch

Okay, so obviously Puck just said all this stuff to make his night more interesting. There's no way he'd invite his half brother into a room where he's having sex. Jake twitches. How could he be related to such a jackass?

Jake opens the bathroom door. Marley's on the bed, looking confident in a way she wasn't at all the first time she was on it. Jake wants to want to go over and ravish her, but he's just feeling too much.

"Are you ready now?" she asks, with an air of impatience.

"Mar, I am so ready, I just - I need like five more minutes. I will be right back. I promise. I just. I got a text and I have to -"

Her eyes narrow as she advances on him, and he stumbles backwards a few steps. "Five minutes, or you'll be paying before this zipper comes down."

And yes, that's incredibly, confusingly hot. It's just not quite enough to take him past all this shit in his head. It's like sediment, usually it's on the bottom, bothering no one, and then some asshole comes in with a stick and suddenly all the grit is floating through the water and the only thing Jake can do is wait for it to settle back down. If he spends that time yelling at Puck for being a cockblock, so be it.

But that's not what happens, because when Jake knocks firmly on the door of room 206, the person who answers the door is not Puck, nor Sam, but Brittany. Other than the men's tuxedo jacket hanging loosely off her shoulders, she is completely naked. He has no idea where to look, so he settles on her lapel, which is smudged with lipstick.

"Do you have a top hat?"

That, at least, he can answer. "Uh, no."

"My beautiful unicorn didn't have one either."

Sometimes the best way to handle Brittany is to keep talking to her and pretending that she's not confusing the hell out of you. "Yeah. Sorry about that? Is my brother here? He said I could come by?"

"I really shouldn't let you in without paying me in top hats. Like a troll. Except goats are boring and they poop. A lot."

And sometimes the best way to handle Brittany is to ignore her completely. Jake slips into the room past her, careful to not touch any part of her that would be considered cheating in a court of his peers. That's when his brain fragments. There are people everywhere. People doing things people normally do in private. And two of those people are his brother and Sam.

"Holy shit, you're-" Jake flails a hand at them, while his face flames with embarrassment. Puck is suddenly missing all of the facial hair he'd had going into the wedding, but that's not what's so surprising. It's that there's a guy kneeling between his legs, and that guy is definitely Sam, and Sam's mouth is doing things to Puck's junk that Jake had no idea Sam wanted to do to any guy. Jake spent the first sixteen years of his life as an only child, but he's pretty sure watching that doesn't fit normal sibling etiquette. "Uh... should I be here?"

Puck's face is languid and relaxed as he turns his grin on Jake. "You know, the first time I met Sam, I asked if he could fit balls in his mouth. Turns out he can."

"LIke you didn't know that before tonight," calls Blaine. Jake swivels his attention toward Blaine, but stutters to a halt as he realizes Blaine is straddling Mike's lap, while Kurt is leaning against the wall on the other side of the room, looking completely calm about this. He's not even paying attention to what Blaine is doing, which is involving fingers and both his and Mike's mouths and absolutely zero shirts. Kurt, meanwhile, is talking with Finn, while both he and Brittany are helping Finn out of his tuxedo jacket.

Jake looks around for someone who isn't doing something sexual that he can ask what's going on. Unfortunately no one fits that parameter. He lowers the bar to isn't actively penetrating someone with something, which gives him a few possibilities. Given the choice between Rachel, who's completely nude but not rubbing up against anybody, and Santana, who's still wearing her dress but is keeping Quinn occupied with both hands and one thigh, he chooses the former.

"I'm trying to figure out what's going on here," he says. He wonders if Rachel is going to expect him to join in.

Her answer is cut off by a loud knock, and Brittany peels herself off of Finn to answer it. Jake can only think, half-hysterically, that it must be the hotel staff, citing them for violating fire code. Too many people in one room. Too many naked people in one room. Would people count as more or fewer if they weren't wearing flammable clothing?

But it's Artie, and by the time he's rolled fully into the suite Brittany is sitting on his lap, with his hand on her stomach, stabilizing her. The room is a chorus of hellos, at least from the people whose mouths aren't occupied. But it's Santana who speaks the loudest. "Thought you might not show. Since you were dancing all night with red-dress-bleach-hair-huge-eyebrows."

Artie looks completely serene. "Her name is Betty. No need to be bitchy, of course I wouldn't pass you all up. At the very least, I got my girl-sexin on; I still need my guy-sexin."

"You better be here for more than Puck-dick!" Mercedes shouts from the bedroom, where the door stands open.

Artie throws his arms wide, causing Britt to wobble and clutch at his neck, laughing. "I love all my peeps!" he declares.

"Okay, no, seriously," Jake hisses. "What is going on?"

Rachel smiles. "It's simple, really. As Artie said, we love our peeps. It was Mr Schue's wedding, but it's a reunion for all of us."

"Finn, we might need a second batch later," calls Tina from the other room. "I tried a piece on Ryder's nipple; he's really into it."

Jake's head whips around to stare wildly at the open door. "He - what?"

"Maybe you should check on him." Rachel doesn't appear to be more than a little bit concerned, but Jake isn't spending a lot of time reading her body language. He pushes past naked Rachel and the two girls into the bedroom, wondering desperately who else he was going to find in there besides Tina and Mercedes and -

Ryder. Ryder is on the bed. Ryder is on the bed and his shirt's gone, too, just like Blaine's and Mike's, and Jake can't see Ryder's face because it's obscured by Tina's hand, slowly tracing the contours of his lips with a piece of ice. Ryder's back is arched, his shoulders on the pillow and his hips rolling under the pressure of Mercedes' hand, holding him down.

It takes Jake a few seconds to realize somebody's asking him a question, and a few more seconds to realize he's been standing there, completely fixated on Ryder's writhing body, for something like a minute and a half. Neither Tina nor Mercedes look upset by his presence, but Tina pauses, standing up as she sets the ice down on the table next to the bed. "Hey... Ryder?"

The sound he lets out is somewhere between a groan and a mumble. Jake feels it in his gut, the muscles of his stomach tensing, anticipating Ryder's next noise. Tina chuckles.

"Jake's here."

Ryder's neck snaps up hard enough for Jake to wince in sympathy. Immediately his eyes lock with Jake's, which does nothing to alleviate his anxiety, because now he has to worry about Ryder's reaction to him being there, in addition to Ryder's reaction to this, period.

Ryder slowly props himself up on his elbows. "I thought you were with Marley?"

"Yeah, well, I was," agrees Jake, "until my brother invited me into this - I don't even know what to call it."

Mercedes shrugs. "Group marriage without the marriage? Since my grandma needs me to get married in the church, and there's no way they'd allow for this."

Tina side eyes her, arms crossing neatly under her bared breasts. "Cedes, a good half of us don't even believe in the concept of marriage. Including Pilsbury, apparently. Besides, marriage means constant connection. Most of us aren't even in the same time zones."

"Okay, point."

Tina mimes a curtsey, pulling at her skirt of air as she squats slightly.

"So I guess...it's a party then. We're a party. Because we all have busy real lives and obligations, but we get together sometimes and have fun and-"

"Chow down?" Tina offers before bursting into giggles.

"So, an orgy, then?"

Tina turns her glare onto Jake. "That doesn't account for half the amount of feelings we've got. I'm sticking with party."

"That works for me, I guess?" Jake looks quizzically at Ryder, who's remained silent through this discussion. "And... how'd you get here?"

There are an especially awkward few silent moments moments in which Jake watches Ryder consider this question. Finally Jake adds, unhappily, "I mean, maybe you've been part of this all along and you just didn't tell -"

"No!" Ryder reaches out and clutches Jake's arm. Jake stares at it for another long moment. He wonders just how many moments they might have tonight, and the idea distracts him so much he barely hears Ryder answer his question. "No, I ran into Finn in the hallway, because... because I was out there."

Even if it's obviously not the whole story, Jake accepts this answer. But he can't help but clutch onto the twist of wild hope in his gut. Because if it isn't the whole story, there's something else going on here, and maybe - if Ryder is here, in this room, maybe some certain things he thought were beyond possible... might not be?

Mercedes is taking TIna by the hand and gathering her things, including the ice bucket. She holds it up, grinning. "Need a refill. I'll bring it by in a few. We don't hold much with closed doors around here, but you guys are still new; you can have however long you need."

Tina backs out of the room, to the accompaniment of wolf whistles behind her. She gives them a sunny wave as she shut the door. "Bye!"

The room is abruptly quieter, though the sounds of the party still filter through the door. Ryder avoids Jake's gaze for about five seconds before he seems to give that up and sighs.

"You're not freaking out?"

"No," decides Jake, after a minute. "I thought I might be for a little while when I saw Sam and Puck, there, but... no. I'm not."

"I know what you mean." Ryder appears to be completely unselfconscious with his shirt off. It's not as though Jake's never seen Ryder without his shirt; far from it. But the context of this occurrence layers on a whole new awareness. Because Ryder's body is kind of stupidly awesome. Jake's a dancer, after all; he really knows awesome. Ryder clears his throat. "So, uh... what Puck and Sam were doing. That... doesn't gross you out?"

Jake could honestly say he's never watched two guys doing what Sam and Puck were doing, probably rather enthusiastically. If you don't count porn, he adds in his head, but he's not at all sure how to say that without giving away everything he's afraid to explain about himself and why he's in this situation. At least he can answer this question. "No. Doesn't gross me out. Not that I'm super interested in watching my brother get head, but..." He attempts a noncommittal shrug, which hopefully will camouflage his fluttering heartbeat and ragged breathing. This whole night is playing havoc with his ability to stay calm.

Ryder nods slowly. "I can't say that was high on my list of things I really wanted to watch, either. But that room..." He pauses, looking downright perplexed. "That room was full of things I never thought I would want to watch. And, I gotta say, some of them were pretty hot."

"Yeah?" Jake almost whispers it.

"Unexpectedly." His eyes slide from the door back to Jake. "Okay, like, if I don't say this I'm never going to tell you, and after everything I saw tonight, it seems almost stupidly tame by comparison. I ran into Finn in the hallway outside your room. Yours and Marley's."

"What, were you listening at the door?" Jake means it to come out like a joke, definitely not as serious as it sounds, and absolutely not so hopeful. But Ryder just sighs again.

"No. I mean, yeah. Kind of. I don't want you to think it's about me being jealous, because it's not. I don't begrudge you guys what you have, I think it's awesome. Can I...?" He sits up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, and Jake automatically sits next to him, close enough for their knees to bump. He sees Ryder make a little reaching gesture, and grabs his shirt for him, handing it over. "Thanks."

"So you're not jealous?" Actually, watching Ryder with Tina and Mercedes was a little wake-up call. Jake realizes he'd been clenching his teeth to see Ryder on a bed with somebody else, anybody else. "Because you'd be totally justified, if you... have a thing for her."

"I have a thing for her," Ryder agrees. He pauses, takes a breath, and adds, "Not just her."

Jake looks unhappily at the door. "Tina? I think she's single, or as close to that as she can be if she's involved with this party - "

"Not Tina." Ryder's interruption is aggravated, but his cheeks flush as he puts his hand on Jake's knee. Jake's eyes widen. "Not Tina," Ryder repeats, more softly.

"Oh," he whispers, "I - um."

Ryder gives him a tiny smile. "Still not freaking out?"

Jake doesn't have any context for how to handle this, but he knows what his heart's been telling him for weeks, and freaking out is definitely not what it's doing. But he also knows Marley's waiting for him in the other room, and assuming that she doesn't hate his guts by now for ditching her, she's already got dibs on his heart and his body and everything else in this equation.

"No," he says, "not freaking out. But I think Marley would need to give me permission to do anything more than that."

"Oh, fuck," mutters Ryder, blinking. Jake feels Ryder's hand contract on his knee, and he tries not to like it, but he can't quite suppress the gasp that's forced from his mouth. "That's - well, a lot more than I expected from you."

"Yeah, I guess I didn't expect to find you shirtless on the hotel bed being worked over by two half-naked women, either."

Ryder's blush deepens. "It was just, they had this ice, and Tina - and I said I didn't really get it, and she said you have to try it, and I said..." He trails off, shaking his head. "I liked it," he finishes helplessly.

"I could see that." Jake's reply comes out low and a little bit rough, and Ryder's shivery, wide-eyed response is enough to mitigate the embarrassment he feels at that. Hesitantly, he puts his hand on top of Ryder's. I want to use that ice cube on you next, is what he wants to say, but he settles for, "It looked kind of awesome."

"Yeah, but the thing was, there were a dozen other things I could have done in this room, with a dozen different people. Literally. But I didn't want that. Maybe I could have, if I hadn't - if I didn't have - a thing."

"For Marley," prompts Jake, because the squirmy, breathless feeling in his chest tells him he knows exactly what Ryder is going to say, and he just wants to hear him say it.

Ryder's eyes close, almost like a wince. "For the two of you."

He said it. God, he said it. "Wow."

He opens his eyes again, cautiously. "Wow, not meaning, get away from me?"

Jake nudges Ryder's hand until he turns it over, and clasps it in his firmly. No room for ambiguity here. "I'm holding your fucking hand. What do you think?"

Ryder's wide smile takes over his face. "You're... really?"

"Oh, for god's sake," Jake sighs, and reaches over to hook Ryder's head with one hand, pulling him in for a kiss. It's almost perfunctory, but the way Ryder responds, Jake's left tingling and immediately wishing he hadn't started something he can't finish. He has to wiggle his fingers a little to get Ryder to let go the death grip he has on his hand. He decides he's going to need to use words. "Look, being in love with the same girl is just the start. You're my best friend. I trust you. Okay, so I've never done stuff with a guy before, but that doesn't mean I ever totally ruled it out either, and... there are feelings here."

"Feelings?" Ryder appears to be hanging on his every word. It's giving Jake courage, to see him looking at him like that.

"I don't know what they are, but they're there, and they're important. Important enough that I don't want to do stuff like that -" He gestured at the room outside. "- with anybody, until I figure it out."

The realization dawns on Ryder's face. "Is that why you're in here instead of with her?"

"Partly. I didn't want to mess things up with Marley. I promised you I wouldn't."

"You promised - me?" Ryder looks flabbergasted.

"Yeah. I didn't want it to be just another lay. Marley's special. So I came here looking for some advice from Puck." He sighs. "Except now I've taken so long, she's probably going to dump me anyway."

Ryder hauls on their joined hands until Jake practically falls into his lap. He lets go of Ryder, startled, and his arms automatically go around Ryder's, and Ryder's hugging him hard. Jake immediately relaxes into it. It feels so fucking good, he can't even express it.

"I'm not going to let that happen," Ryder promises. "Not because of me. She loves you. And you guys deserve to be together."

Jake feels unreasonably choked up by this sentiment, but there in the curve of Ryder's arm, he has a hard time thinking about anything other than warm and strong and firm. It's so monumentally different than being held by Marley, and so impossible to equate the two. He tries not to dwell on the idea that maybe, possibly, he doesn't have to. That maybe, possibly, he can have them both.

It's enough to inspire him to break his own rule again, groaning as he presses his lips to Ryder's. He feels Ryder's hand on his rib cage like a promise. He knows he shouldn't, that he's promised himself to Marley, and yet he finds himself rationalizing it. If she wants us both, it's not really cheating. Yeah, he knows it's bullshit, but the taste of Ryder's mouth is making it hard to focus on just how much bullshit it is.

"You," Ryder says, and Jake stops to listen, hovering close beside his jaw. "I really wanted... well, tonight, I had the chance to kiss another guy?"

Probably several, Jake thinks, but he's not going to interrupt to be snide. He nods, trying not to feel unreasonably possessive, eight seconds into this thing with Ryder.

"And I didn't want to," Ryder goes on. "Not because I didn't want to, but... because it wasn't you."

Jake can't help but smile. "God, Ryder. You're just so freaking sweet. Talk about two people deserving to be together. You're the one who saved Valentine's Day for me and Marley. Without you, we would have been a mess. Even if she doesn't know it yet, she's in love with you, too."

"She is?" His eyes, brown and attentive, are riveted to Jake. Jake licks his lips.

"Yeah," he says, barely above a whisper. "She - she really is."

Ryder's not budging from where his arms are around Jake, and Jake's slowly inching backwards onto the bed until Ryder's head is against his on the pillow. Oh, this is so not anything like getting up and leaving to go back to Marley. It takes Jake another couple minutes of contact with Ryder before he realizes why he's doing it - and then he just feels stupid for not realizing it before. Something about witnessing a 12-some opens a person's mind, he supposes.

"Come with me," he urges. "Back to the room. We need to talk to Marley about this together, all three of us."

"Just- can we just wait one minute? I just want -" Ryder stops begging mid-sentence to kiss him again. "Please. If it doesn't work out, I want - god, Jake, I want -"

Another kiss, and yeah, Jake's willing to concede this. He thinks it could work, he's willing the three of them to work, but if it doesn't... fifteen minutes of making out is better than nothing.