Thumb Rings and Ballet Slippers
Here he was again, wrapped up in sheets with strong arms around his waist and stubble kissing his neck.
It had begun with Quaxo glaring up into the hurt face of the boy that shouldn't have been allowed to grow up, he'd not wanted to get angry but sometimes it seemed like that was all he could do in response to the older male's stupid slip ups. Tugger had forgotten the milk, it wasn't exactly cause enough for him to get angry but then when the bearded man was making his way to the kitchen, his hands in his pockets and his saunter in full swing, he knocked over a lamp. It wasn't any lamp, it was an incredibly expensive crystal piece that Quaxo's Uncle had bought them as a home-warming present and the edge of it hit the corner of the table before slapping the carpet, a chunk taken off the bottom.
"For God's sake," Quaxo said exasperatedly, getting on his knees and picking up the lamp and sighing over the break.
"Oh shit," Tugger said, his voice raised an octave nervously, "I mean, it's not so bad? I never liked that lamp."
The attempt at humour was the last straw, Quaxo felt his jaw clench and his patience wear out.
"Oh just shut up, will you?"
He looked up and saw Tugger's breath hitch like a half-gasp, his brow furrowed and his hands clenched into fists. Quaxo sighed again before returning the lamp to the table and standing slowly, Tugger averted his gaze and looked down at the floor.
"Sorry, I didn't realise it meant so much to..."
"It didn't," Quaxo said flatly, "It's just really expensive."
There was a pause, neither of them moved and Quaxo just stared the wilting flower down before rolling his eyes and crossing the floor to him. Tugger was a good head taller, his form poured over the younger who kept his distance at first but then advanced so he could give the other's hand a squeeze until Tugger looked up from the carpet and into his face.
"Look, I didn't mean to-"
"I know."
And that was it. There were no apologies, no drawn out explanations for the magician's little blow out, no raised voices or tears. Tugger let himself smirk, as he often did, and Quaxo gave a dry chuckle in response before swatting at him playfully. His hand was caught, as it always was, and he pretended to struggle to retrieve it as the other one raised it above his head so he had to stand on his toes and they were eye-level. They laughed for a little while, as it was impossible to not laugh in Tugger's presence sometimes, and it took him approximately four seconds to press their lips together.
So here he was again, he glanced lazily over to the bedside table where Tugger's phone was ringing and sighed a little at the name.
"Your brother's calling," he said, burrowing his head further into the pillow. He felt the frame beside him move slightly and the arm from around his waist tighten, bringing Quaxo flush to the other's bare chest.
"He can wait," the words were mumbled into Quaxo's hair and moved down his spine making him turn to face the smiling face of his house mate.
"When you asked me to live with you I didn't think this would be a part of the deal," the smaller teased lightly, his hands on the chest of his companion.
"It wouldn't have been if you weren't adorable," Tugger retaliated with raised eyebrows, "So bless your boyish charm, eh?"
He should really have got up, he had things to do, milk to buy, a little sister to visit and Tugger should have really rung his brother back but they didn't. They never did, they let themselves get enveloped in each other's warmth and Quaxo found himself slowly drift off, the other's lips on his forehead.
He needn't have worried about his sister anyway, she wasn't worrying about him at all as she walked, hand-in-hand, with her date from a little Chinese place where she'd laughed and recounted stories that made her out to be far more interesting than she actually was and began to get progressively more smitten with the boy opposite her.
Plato was funny, he was gentle in the way he spoke and generous to the servers and with the tips he left. A true gentleman. He had three brothers, he was the second oldest but had taken on the role of big brother whilst the eldest was in America, illustrating for a big comic book company. He wanted to be a P.E teacher but was taking a year from training to just relax so right now he was helping at the local nursery and gym, singing songs with toddlers and motivating unfit people to run faster. When she'd told him that she danced, he got excited and revealed that he used to dance up until he was eighteen but had stopped when uni work got far too much to handle and she'd felt her cheeks flush as she wondered how she'd found someone so compatible with her by chance.
He bundled her onto a bus and she suddenly felt a jump of panic, it was drawing to the end of their date. Had she done okay? Did she pass? She did everything she'd usually do on a date, had pressed her knee against his lightly 'on accident' and brushed his arm with her hand when she was speaking or when he made her laugh. She'd never been nervous, had always wanted to impress but never had been nervous.
He sat next to her, after paying for ticket back naturally, and turned with a little crooked smile. He was sat a little closer than he needed to be, she could feel their legs touching lightly in a way that sent electricity through her body and made her smile widen.
"This was fun, right?" he asked, she could see he was nervous too and that set her at ease slightly.
"It was fun," Victoria confirmed, "You really didn't have to pay for... everything though."
She laughed and he smiled a little too, "It's okay. You can pay next time."
Plato stopped a little, as though he had said something he shouldn't have and she felt her chest tighten as she played with her hands and smiled coyly.
"I mean, if you want there to be a next time," he corrected himself, making her giggle a little and touch his hand with hers, it was almost the same size.
"I'd like there to be a next time," she said gently, "And maybe a time after that. But what about now? I mean, I can't let you go home after buying everything for me so maybe you could come in for a bit, try my room mate's tea before making the trek to your house. As a repayment?"
He had been watching her very carefully, been analysing how she spoke softly and brushed the inside of his palm with her thumb, how her words were laced with that pretty smile and her eyelashes looked longer than they had before. A smile broke and spread across his face,
"That seems fair. Your room mate doesn't happen to be that famous magic big brother of yours, does he? Because I don't want to be at any risk of intoxication from poisoned tea."
She laughed, "No. The room mate is the midget opera singer and she's a sweetheart, honestly. She won't hover either, she was more excited about me coming on this date than I was."
"Should I be offended?" he teased, arching a brow.
"Not at all, she just doesn't have much to do nowadays," she responded with a grin which made him laugh too, he threw back his head when he laughed and showed each of his very straight teeth that were just a little bit too big for his mouth and his eyes squinted slightly so you couldn't see them beneath the masses of eyelashes. He was really, very attractive.
The bus ride home was short and full of little teases and jabs, he'd call her posh and she'd liken him to a schoolboy, they kept their hands held all the way there and only really noticed when Victoria went to grab her bag that she'd put by her feet, they acknowledged it with little chuckles before leaving the bus and of course, he thanked the driver as the doors shut behind them. The walk was shorter but it was colder now so she shivered and held her arms close to her and he watched helplessly as he'd not worn a jacket he could chivalrously drape over her shoulders. Instead, he bit his lip and draped his arm around her shoulder, watching her face for any inclination that she was uncomfortable and smiling when she giggled and placed a hand on his lightly as a silent thank you.
"Here we are," Victoria said as they stood outside her flat building, all shyness that had been dispelled suddenly rushing back to the both of them.
"Here we are," he repeated with a wry smile as she turned so that she stood opposite him.
There are certain expectations after a date that are pushed on to us from the age we're old enough to cuddle on the sofa and watch a chick flick with spoons that look like shovels of ice cream being pushed down our throats, especially after a date as typically sweet as this one an in concurrence with this convention, Plato shyly bent down and went to kiss her. She felt the blood rush to her face and her cheeks flush pink but instead of kissing her on the lips, as he was meaning to, he stopped half-way and transferred it to her forehead. It was so childish, so precious, she couldn't help but laugh before moving her lips to his and chastely pressing them together.
"You really are a wimp," she whispered as she pulled back and he laughed bashfully before mumbling,
"So tea?"
He was led to the door, their hands laced lazily together. She gave him an encouraging grin over her shoulder as she fumbled with her keys.
"She might be passed out," she mumbled as she put the key in the door, "So we'll creep in, okay?"
As she lay her hand on the handle to let them in, his darted out and clutched at it. She blinked down at them for a while before looking up at him, trying to comprehend the sudden urgency in his gesture and all he could do was shoot a smile at her.
"It feels like I'm meeting your parents," he said, a chuckle dancing on his words, "I feel like I should have bought a gift."
Victoria laughed back, "I'm sure she won't mind. If she starts to get agitated, I'll distract her with something shiny and you run, okay?"
He gave one last bark of uncertain laughter as she opened the door and bit back a smirk as he started to inhale the thick scent of honey and tea. At first, Victoria hadn't known how to react to the flat smelling very much of Jemima, it didn't feel like she'd had as much of an impact on her new living space as her friend but now she'd grown to appreciate it. She used to associate honey and tea with Jemima, now she associated it with home too. She shut the door quietly behind him before kicking off her shoes, he imitated her and stood there in his socks on her floor and it just fit. He looked right there, his being there was enough to make everything seem warm and from the way he scrunched his toes into the carpet, she guessed he knew that he looked right too.
There was a light buzz of sound in the next room, signalling her room mate's presence and she gave Plato a little wink before walking forward and into little lounge with her date on her heel.
"We have a visitor," Victoria practically sang before her eyes widened in surprise as Jemima obviously had another visitor too.
It was dark now so the lamp was on which gave the room an orange glow, the television was turned off and her friend wasn't in her armchair, instead sat there was a shirt that had lazilly been thrown over it and another shirt lay just adjacent to it. Jemima was strewn on the sofa, her dark hair pressed against the cushions with another's hand wrapped in it, her eyes wide in shock at Victoria's appearance and her lips pinker than usual. She lay underneath a taller, muscular frame and had her legs wrapped around it's hips and her hands in it's hair as though she was mimicking it's gestures. Said entangled person jumped and pulled away from her so they could examine her cute face and mumble,
"Are you okay?"
It was a masculine voice but had an element of gentleness to it and Victoria swore she'd heard it before. She'd seen those hands before too, she'd seen them wrapped in the same dark hair and with a sudden start she immediately recognised the man her friend was wrapped around.
Jemima laughed nervously, "So this must be Plato! Nice to um, meet you."
Oh Plato, he still managed to nod politely at her despite her compromising positioning and chuckle as she loosened her legs' grip on her partners hips and sat up, moving her hair away from his hand, before attempting to make herself look more presentable despite her tousled hair. Victoria began to laugh though she suddenly felt incredibly stupid for bringing her poor date home, what would he think of her now? She caught Jemima looking apologetically at her but couldn't find herself to be mad at her room mate for such a risqué first introduction, she was just concentrating on getting her and Plato out of the flat as soon as possible.
"Nice to meet you," he replied with a grin, "You're not what I was expecting. Victoria painted you to be a little housewife that made tea all day."
Victoria's eyes darted up to Plato's face, he was being so good-natured about it, he still smiled and acted impeccably towards her. The only shred of embarrassment was the pink in his cheeks and the way he'd make a little nervous laughing noise every so often. Jemima stared at him in awe too, a little disbelieving smile on her lips.
"Well, she's usually right," she shrugged "Just today went different, I can make tea if you'd like."
The figure looming over her shifted before looking awkwardly at his hands, Jemima put her hand on his shoulder briefly before coughing awkwardly.
"This is, um," she watched his face for any sign of discomfort before looking over at Victoria with a wry smile, "Well. Victoria, you've met Munkustrap."
((A/N: Ahhh! This took longer than usual to do! Sorry about the wait and thanks for being patient with me. Also, sorry for the cheesy cliff-hanger ^^' Thanks again to everyone reading and reviewing, they do make my day c: ))