Chapter 31

In his Voice

Jeremy woke up to the setting sun peering through his window. He smiled to himself once he saw that Tyler was practically draped across his body. Jeremy had to admit that Tyler was one helluva cuddle-buddy. Damn, it didn't matter how long they had been together, the thought of him cuddling with his former bully was still hard to believe sometimes.

Cautious of not waking Tyler, Jeremy slipped gently from underneath him and put on his boxers and pants. Jenna and Elena still weren't back yet so he just left his chest bare as went down to the kitchen.

He took the time to cook something for when Tyler woke up.

The silence gave Jeremy time to think about all of the chaos that had happened earlier that day.
Did Michael really have the guts to not only go to Jeremy's home but confess his "feelings" for Jeremy? Was he serious?

Jeremy couldn't help but wonder about Michael's sincerity on the subject. He barely even knew Jeremy. Sure they had a fun time at the Grill over pool and their conversations but had Jeremy make that much of an impression?

It all just stormed around in Jeremy's head. That was the guy that Tyler had cheated with and now he was having thoughts of Tyler's boyfriend?

Jeremy wanted to feel disgusted. He wanted to feel angry. He wanted to have the urge to take a pan and beat Michael across the head with it but – it was-, there was something in his eyes. Something in his voice. Jeremy loved Tyler, that wasn't going to change. But...– he couldn't stand how twisted it all was. Any normal person would have joined the lunatic who was hurling carrots at the guilty party but all Jeremy was thinking about was if Michael had actually meant it.

Even if he had, Jeremy thought, it wouldn't have changed anything.

Finally Tyler woke up from his deep slumber. His hand blindly searched for the body he fell asleep against but nothing was there. His eyes opened sleepily and tired as Tyler groaned out softly while he stretched. He pulled on his clothes and looked out at Jeremy's window looking for Jenna or Elena's cars – nothing. He was glad. It would've been a little awkward for Tyler to have woken up in the youngest Gilbert's bed the way he did.

The delicious smells flowing from the kitchen to upstairs drew Tyler out like a bunny to fresh carrots. The sight of Jeremy cooking with his shirt off was the real reason Tyler's mouth started to water.

Without warning Jeremy felt two warm hands stretch out onto his back and curl themselves around Jeremy's chest. At that moment all thoughts he had before went away like water down a creek. Jeremy's head involuntarily rolled back exposing his neck for it to be kissed by Tyler's warm mouth. In one swift motion Jeremy put down the utensil he had in his hands and reached behind him to draw Tyler's front closer against him.

His maneuver only caused both of them to exhale deeply and moan softly. With a hot kiss placed on Jeremy's shoulder, Tyler let him go and leaned against the counter to watch him cook.

"Hey sleepy head", Jeremy smiled.

Tyler didn't say anything in response, he just leaned closer and kissed the younger male deep and carefully. Even when Tyler didn't know he was doing it, he'd kiss Jeremy slow sometimes so that it'd sink in that he was actually able to do that whenever he wanted to. Usually though, it wouldn't last for long because Tyler ended up smiling at the thought that Jeremy kissed no one else but him. It may have been territorial but Tyler didn't care; he had it bad for Jeremy, and that – was worth smiling about.

"You like ravioli right?"

"Mm-hmm", Tyler answered as he walked over to the table.

While Jeremy was busy with the ingredients to make the sauce, Tyler picked up the notebook lying under the table near one of the chairs.

"Hey Jeremy...", Tyler paused still looking at the cover.

Once the sauce was on the flame Jeremy turned to see Tyler holding up a spiral notebook with Michael's first and last name written on the front of it.

Jeremy's breathing choked up in his throat a little.

"What's this doing here?" Tyler asked curiously.

He only had three seconds to decide on what he was going to say. Jeremy ran the options over in his head. Be honest and see where it gets him or try what Tyler always does when he thinks Jeremy's fixing to get mad: kiss and have sex with him until he forgets what it was to be mad about in the first place.

It was obvious Jeremy couldn't escape from physical evidence so he opted for honesty; and besides, what exactly was Jeremy guilty of in the first place?

So Jeremy answered as casually as he could, "Elena had him over to work on a project they were assigned. Her teacher made them partners so he came over to work on it with her." Jeremy turned back around to stir his sauce. "He didn't stay long though, he kinda ran out of here."

"Wait, you said he... he ran out?"

There was only so many times Jeremy could pretend to fiddle around with the already cooked food so he threw his utensils in the sink and turned to face Tyler entirely.

"I think you'd run out too if someone had beat you with a notebook and threw carrots at you," he had to let himself chuckle at that one. "Guess through all of the excitement, he left that here."

Tyler clamped his eyes shut tightly and shook his head a little from side-to-side as he placed the notebook onto the table. Did he just hear Jeremy correctly?

"Who did what now?" He asked confused. He knew anything having to do with Michael Tyler didn't want to make Jeremy any more mad about it than he already was so Tyler didn't dare raise his voice or anything. Even if he wanted to, the information baffled him too much as it was.

Jeremy cleared his throat before answering, "Well, Elena brought him over so they could do their project, she noticed something was up with me and Michael so she asked me about it. And I – ...told her the truth. She was furious so she slapped him with her notebook until I got the chance to stop her. And uh", Jeremy stopped mid-sentence to read Tyler's face for any emotion; just confusion. "He uh, he said something that Elena blew her lid over so she– um, started throwing the baby carrots. Y'know, the ones you saw earlier on the floor and outside." He sucked in a deep breath of air and drawled out, "all her."

If circumstances had been different, Jeremy would've whipped out his camera and took a picture of his boyfriend's face. Priceless.

The words shocked Tyler into silence.

"What did he say?" Tyler asked as he absorbed all the details.

Jeremy let out the deep breath he found himself holding and figured what the hell, might as well bite the bullet and get the rest out. He honestly just wanted the whole thing to go away; which Jeremy was pretty certain would because after Elena's outburst Michael would be out of his mind to come back again.

"Look, don't get mad okay. It's not a big deal, he said what he had to say and after that he left. Things just really need to get back to how they were, so I'll answer your question but after that, we're gonna sit down, eat this ravioli, and watch a movie, okay?" Jeremy said sternly.

To be honest he really was sick of the whole thing, even his thoughts earlier about whether Michael had even meant it went away. Jeremy wanted Tyler and Tyler had nothing to be mad about so he'd tell him the truth and they'd be done with it.

Tyler bit his bottom lip softly hoping whatever he was about to hear wasn't too bad.

"While Elena went in the other room he said that he was starting to – ...for some reason, like me. But look, he said he wasn't going to do anything else and that all he wanted to do was apologize again and then it'd all be over. So it's not even a big deal. I'm sure he's just confused anyway."

Once Jeremy had stopped talking Tyler took a few moments to respond. After he realized exactly what Jeremy said Tyler couldn't help but laugh faintly.

"You're serious? He came over to your house and was brave enough to admit that?" Tyler's laughing grew a little stronger once Jeremy started picking up the humor and chuckled softly.

"That wasn't even the craziest part, Elena went crazy, ran around the corner and started hitting him with all of these carrots. She didn't even give him time to take everything. I mean, I kinda felt bad for him."

When the two finally stopped laughing Tyler hugged Jeremy from behind him and breathed against his neck, "Jeremy I'm sorry – about everything."

Tyler had already apologized a hundred times before but this time Jeremy heard it in his voice. So forgiving Tyler wasn't hard to do anymore. Jeremy turned to hug him. He could feel Tyler nuzzle against his neck and knew from past experiences that this would only lead to one thing. But since he'd cooked already it'd have to wait.

In between Tyler's kisses and the hands over his body, Jeremy tried to resist. "Okay, okay. Let's eat first, then we'll go upstairs", apparently Tyler didn't hear him because before Jeremy could say otherwise his and Tyler's shirts were on the floor and Tyler had already drug him half way to the stairs.

Thoughts?

*Thank you SO much tvdfan09 for your suggestions; hope you enjoyed it!
I'm not really a fan of this one but I had to finish the Michael thing.
If there's any confusion, Michael is officially gone from the story.
Unfortunately I've ran out of ideas for our lovely Jyler so I'm going to try & write the ending as best as I can.
It's going to take multiple chapters though so I hope they turn out how I'm hoping.