This chapter turned out to be...pretty long! I didn't intend for it to be that way, but that's just what happened.

If Charlie had to marvel at one thing and one thing only about he and Steven's newfound romantic relationship, he would marvel at how easily he and Steven seemed to slip into the whole action of dating each other (though, wouldn't he like to marvel at the way that Steven's lips feel against his own or the way that he can now slink up behind Steven, hook his arms around his waist, and place his chin onto his shoulder without needing any justifications for it at all).

Charlie and Steven already live together, already know little quirks about each other that are miniscule and colossal at the same time, but the way that they slide into this new type of relationship requires something more than that. Charlie thinks that they have to relearn each other with new eyes, which is something he's very proud of thinking, as it sounds exactly like something Todd would think of, and Todd is really good at that sort of thing. But, for the life of him, Charlie can't physically see himself learning all about Steven all over again except in a romantic context.

One day, Charlie and Steven kiss for the first time, and then, it feels like they jump from that point to knowing what kind of cues the other gives when they want some of the other's food and wouldn't mind all that much if the other fed it to them in no time at all.

Steven and Charlie still work on planning Neil and Todd's wedding; though, now, sometimes, when their hands brush together as they're flipping through the wedding notebook, they kiss each other. And then, maybe, they don't quite get back on task for a while after.

—

All that Steven is trying to do is watch TV and drink the cup of hot chocolate that he made for himself. That's really it.

Except, he can't. Because Charlie is sitting right next to him, tapping at the keys of his laptop with an unnecessary amount of force and occasionally cussing under his breath or making frustrated noises. "Charlie, you've been working on that for over an hour. Please, cut it out."

"No, Steven, I've been trying to work on this for weeks! I just can't get this right."

"I don't understand how you can get a best man's speech wrong."

"You just can, Steven."

"I wish you would let me read it."

"No! It's not done yet!" Steven sighs.

Steven and Charlie sit in (relative) silence for a while, Charlie still clacking away and Steven trying to pay attention to the show that's on. Then, Steven has an idea.

"Remember how Neil looked that one day when Mr. Keating made Todd create a poem on the spot?"

"Um…yeah? Why?"

"Write about that." Charlie's angry clacking stops, and he looks over at Steven. "That was the moment that we knew that Neil was head over heels, wasn't it? I think that's a perfect thing to write about in a best man's speech." Charlie grabs Steven's face and kisses him on the lips, noting the brief taste of hot chocolate he experiences.

Charlie doesn't say anything, but he goes back to typing as Steven looks at him. Feeling Steven's stare, Charlie says, "I know what to write now, thanks."

After a few moments of quiet, Steven smiles and says, "Remember what Neil was like the first time he and Todd said they loved each other?" Charlie laughs, already looking much less stressed than he did just a few minutes ago.

"Remember what Todd was like? I thought that he was going to burst; he was just…smiling all the time."

"…You saw that too?" Steven asks.

"Yeah, but don't tell anyone. I have to keep up my image." Steven laughs.

"Whatever, Charlie."

—

For once, Charlie and Steven have both gone to bed before midnight. Both of them have to get up early the next morning, Steven for work and Charlie for class, and they've somehow both decided that whatever work they have to do can wait. It helps, too, that Neil and Todd's wedding plans are basically done, and Steven and Charlie are in that stage between planning and worrying that everything goes as planned.

Charlie is in a deep sleep when his text tone for Knox (which is part of the chorus of Carly Rae Jepsen's I Really Like You, something that is very startling to hear in the middle of the night) sends him jerking awake. His arms fly out and knock his phone off of his nightstand, to which Charlie lets out a few choice curses as he fumbles around for his phone on the floor. Charlie squints at the bright light that his phone gives off when he finally does retrieve it, but he manages to see that it's around three in the morning, and he resolves to kill Knox for deciding that now would be a good time to text him.

Charlie unlocks his phone so he can read the text from 'Lovesick Puppy', mumbling something like, "Fucking Knox," under his breath as he does so.

Knox had sent him a picture of himself in a medium gray suit for the wedding with a caption relating to being a groomsman and ending with #sexaaayyyy. Charlie stares at the picture for a moment, trying to decide if Knox took the picture earlier and just now thought to send it or if he actually took the picture this early in the morning. Neither explanation really justifies being sent a text like this at this time of day, but Charlie just wants to try to make some sense out of Knox's thought process. Charlie tells him to fuck off and sets his phone back on the nightstand. Then, he remembers that, in all of their tizzy over Neil and Todd, he and Steven hadn't gotten suits for themselves.

Charlie could have talked to Steven about this the next day, but, with how dazed he is at being woken up in this way, that idea doesn't quite cross his mind, and he thinks that telling Steven about this right now sounds like a pretty solid idea. So, Charlie gets out of his bed and pads across the apartment to Steven's room.

Charlie throws himself onto Steven's bed once he gets there, which causes Steven to wake up and flail around, kneeing Charlie in the thigh and nearly elbowing him in the face. That's approximately the moment that Charlie realizes that this is a bad idea and that he could have talked to Steven later in the day.

"Charlie, what the fuck?" Steven asks, smacking Charlie in the shoulder and trying to chase away his feelings of terror.

"Um. I realized that we haven't gotten our suits yet for Neil and Todd's wedding."

"Charlie, I almost broke your goddamn nose."

"I kind of doubt that you actually would have broken my nose, but I do realize that this was a bad idea, and I'm gonna go back to bed!" Charlie tries to backtrack out of Steven's room, but Steven grabs him by the arm. Charlie looks at him in confusion.

"Oh, no," Steven says, "if you're gonna come in here and wake me up when I have," he checks his phone, "two and a half hours left to sleep, then you're gonna do what I say. And I say that you come over here and lie with me because it's fucking cold." And, well, there might be other reasons too.

Charlie slides into bed with Steven, having to press himself nearly flush against him because of the size of the bed. In the morning, Charlie will realize that it was the first time that he and Steven had slept in the same bed together, but for now, he just relishes in how warm Steven is as he falls asleep.

Steven has to leave before Charlie's alarm even goes off, and Charlie can't help but to feel a little upset about waking up alone, but in the kitchen, there's a big heart that wasn't there the day before drawn on the whiteboard on the refrigerator, and Charlie tries not to feel too fluttery.

—

Steven and Charlie arrange a Skype call with Neil and Todd 40 days before the wedding. 40 days exactly: Charlie has been counting.

When the image of Neil and Todd appears on Charlie's laptop screen, the two of them look as calm, collected, and happy as ever, and…Charlie and Steven don't understand.

Admittedly, Charlie and Steven are probably a lot more worried about the wedding than they would be if they were merely guests rather than actually planning the wedding, but neither of them thinks that they're worrying in an amount that is entirely unreasonable. Both of them can agree, though, that the amount that Todd and Neil are worrying is entirely unreasonable. Mostly because they don't seem to be worrying at all.

When Charlie mentions the fact that there are 40 days until the wedding, Neil says, "Oh, really? That's exciting!" Charlie, brow furrowed, blinks a few times. After deciding that Neil is absolutely serious, he throws his arms up and walks out of frame.

"What's up with Charlie?" Todd asks, seemingly just as lax about his impending wedding date as Neil. Steven opens his mouth to answer, but Charlie comes stomping back into the frame to answer for himself before Steven has a chance to say anything.

"What's up with me is that your wedding is in 40 days, and you're so calm about it! Me and Steven have probably gone over exactly what's going to happen about five times, and you guys are just…letting everything happen!"

"Well, yeah," Todd says, "I'm just…happy when I'm with Neil. I'm happy that we're getting married, but I'd just be happy being with him, you know?" Neil looks surprised for a moment then kisses Todd slowly and softly, looking at him with loving, loving eyes when they pull away. Steven and Charlie exchange glances, and they both know that they have to make this wedding as close to perfect as possible.

"Do you guys have your vows written out yet?" Steven asks once Neil and Todd are through with their moment.

"Oh," Todd says, "I started working on my vows a few days after we got engaged. I still tweak them every now and then, though."

"Oh my God, Todd," Neil says, "I only started writing my vows a month and a half after we got engaged!" Steven and Charlie both have the urge to say, 'Only?'.

"Speaking of vows," Todd says, "I hear that you two are dating."

Two thoughts run through Steven's head, then: one, he knew that he and Charlie should have told everyone about their relationship before they put it on Facebook, and two, speaking of vows?

"Speaking of vows?" Steven says in a small, small voice, his face, along with Charlie's, turning red. Neil snickers behind his hand at the entire scene.

"Todd's just bitter because he owes me ten bucks," Neil tells them. Todd huffs.

Deciding to ignore the fact that Todd and Neil were betting on his and Steven's relationship status (though, one would be hard pressed to find someone who hadn't been betting on Neil and Todd's relationship before it started, including Steven and Charlie) in favor of combating the heat in his cheeks, Charlie says, "Yeah, we are dating for your information, you nosey assholes."

"If you had only waited until after the wedding," Todd says with a sigh.

—

Neil and Todd's wedding invitations come in the mail a few days later; they're adorable and well illustrated like Charlie and Steven knew they would be. They put their invitation into the box that they keep the rest of their items of note in (their high school diplomas, their birth certificates, etc.), the same box that Charlie has joked about being a 'gold mine of entertainment' for when they're 'old and decrepit'. Steven thinks that Neil and Todd's wedding invitations will definitely be things to smile about in the future, though, Charlie's teasing or not.

—

Steven is leaning against the wall of Charlie's room, occasionally looking horrified, but mostly just looking smug. If Charlie wasn't trying to actually be productive, he'd probably be rivaling Steven's smug expression with an irritated one. Charlie finds an old, crusty sock in the back of his closet, sniffs it, wrinkles up his nose, and then throws it at Steven, knowing fully well that the crust on it is cum. "Charlie!" Steven yells and then, after looking a bit closer at the sock (but not touching it), says, "Is this sock fucking cum stained?"

"Yep," Charlie replies from inside of the closet.

"Charlie."

"Well, I mean, it's not like you've never seen my cum before."

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No," Charlie admits, pulling out several empty chip bags from the closet and throwing them into the garbage bag that has been brought into Charlie's room for the task of cleaning. Ugh, Charlie thinks, I haven't cleaned a room since high school. "I can't believe that you got me to do this."

"I told you I'd give you a massage."

"Yeah, that's the worst part! If you told me four years ago that I would, as an adult, willingly clean in exchange for a massage, not a blowjob or sex or anything like that, I would say no fucking way!"

"Well, I mean, I could give you a blowjob too," Steven tells him. Charlie looks at him, and he feels a jolt of something he's afraid to place a name for. Steven offers him a smile, which Charlie readily returns, and he thinks that that's so bizarre because he threw a cum stained sock at Steven just a few minutes ago, and he's still willing to give him a blowjob and smile at him like that.

Steven moves away from his spot against the wall and walks around Charlie's bed. "Do you think that we're gonna be able to move this bed frame by ourselves? Because I really don't want to deconstruct and reconstruct it."

As Charlie combs his fingers around in his closet to make sure that there aren't any more wrappers or empty snack bags, he says, "Don't you like to deconstruct and reconstruct things, you nerd engineer?"

"Ah, yes, deconstructing and reconstructing bed frames. What a riveting and fascinating task." Charlie flips him off as he stands up and moves away from his closet. He crouches down to look under his bed and groans.

Charlie digs the trash out from under his bed, and Steven sighs. "Charlie, if there are stains under there when we move the bed, I'm seriously going to lecture you about the fabric composition of carpet, and, like, ants or something." Charlie stuffs the mass of trash into the trash bag and then stands up. "Throw the cum stained sock in there while you're at it," Steven says, "I don't want to touch it." Charlie rolls his eyes but does as he says.

Charlie puts the garbage bag in the trashcan outside and then helps Steven move the mattress off of the bed so that they can move the bed frame more easily. They discover that there aren't any stains underneath the bed, for which Charlie is thankful for for reasons that have everything to do with Steven Meeks.

"Fuck," Steven says when they're at the door, "how are we gonna get it across the wood floor without scratching it?"

Charlie and Steven end up putting a blanket under the bed frame and carefully pushing it across the apartment into Steven's (It's our room now, not just Steven's, Charlie thinks, and that makes him feel giddy) room.

The two of them tie the two beds together and then make their newly sized bed with their new, appropriately sized sheets. Charlie throws himself out on the bed when they're done with it, grinning from ear to ear. He spends some time basking before he drags Steven down onto the bed with him and kisses him without having to worry about falling out of the bed if either of them moves around more than just an inch or two.

Charlie starts to kiss along Steven's neck and his fingers have somehow slipped into his hair when Steven says, "So, do you want the massage or the blowjob first?" Charlie groans and untangles his fingers from Steven's curls.

"Give me the massage first so I'm not all disoriented during the process." Steven kisses along Charlie's jaw and gets him to take off his shirt. "Look at how much space we have!" Charlie says once he lies down, moving his arms all across their new bed. Though, Charlie goes quiet once Steven starts to massage him.

The reason for this is because Steven is really good at giving massages, for which Steven doesn't really have a reason for (Steven had been surprised the first time that Charlie had told him he was really good at giving massages, as Charlie was and is the only person he's ever massaged). It's very easy for Charlie to get lost in his own head when Steven massages him.

Steven's phone buzzes in his pocket, and he unlocks it and sets it along Charlie's spine so that he can read his newest text while he massages Charlie. "It's from Neil again," Steven tells Charlie, and he hums in response, "he's thanking me for talking him out of getting roses for the wedding."

"He thanked me just because the other day. Todd's trying to get him to chill out."

Steven says, "What kind of flowers do you think we should have when we get married?" and both of their hearts stop. "Forget I said that," Steven says a little too fast. Charlie doesn't say anything, but God, how is he supposed to forget about that?

—

It all starts with the radio that Steven had made and put in their kitchen. Steven had programmed it so that it would turn on at a certain time in the morning and play a calm, soft song that Steven knows the name of and Charlie doesn't before switching to Charlie and Steven's favorite radio station.

On this particular morning, it's a nice temperature outside that just touches on cold. So, naturally, Steven and Charlie are thoroughly entwined when they wake up in the morning. They wake up around the same time, and a love song drifts through the apartment from the radio that Steven made, and Charlie just thinks that that's so cool, even though Steven made a radio in high school too with Gerard. Charlie brushes some of Steven's hair out of his line of sight.

Waking up next to each other rather than practically on top of or under each other is still a fairly new experience, but both Charlie and Steven think it's wonderful so far.

"This is so sappy," Steven says, even as he's staring at Charlie like he's the most important thing in the world. He turns away after a few seconds, burying his face in his pillow. Charlie kisses him on the shoulder.

"Do you wanna shower together?" Charlie asks.

"No, I'm too groggy for you to jack me off. Especially when I'm in a slippery environment." Charlie snorts.

"'Slippery environment'."

"Charlie, did you know that I don't like you?"

"What if I promise to keep my hands to myself?" Steven sighs as if he's allowing something tedious to happen.

"Fine. But, if you can't keep your hands to yourself, you have to go out and buy me my favorite chocolates."

"Done deal."

Charlie, to his word, keeps his hands to himself in the shower, but certainly not his eyes. He thinks that he might just buy Steven some of his favorite chocolates anyway, though.

He realizes that he knows what Steven's favorite chocolates are without Steven telling him, and that Steven knows that he knows. That's not all that surprising considering how long he and Steven have known each other and the fact that they've been living together for a while, but….

Charlie knows a lot of things about Steven, now that he thinks about it as he and Steven are hanging out on the couch after leaving the shower and scrounging around the kitchen for suitable breakfast food. He knows that Steven had an intense fear of a lady that lived on his street when he was five because of these looks that she gave people, and he knows that Steven likes bumper stickers but thinks having too many is tacky (and Charlie knows that that's a jab at him too). He knows what type of chocolates are Steven's favorites, what his favorite restaurant is around town and in general, and he even knows what type of gum makes Steven's mouth feel numb. He knows a lot of physical things about Steven too now, like just how to scrape his teeth across his throat to make him make this noise that makes Charlie's dick and heart pulse and throb. None of these things are revelations in that moment—some of them he's known about for a while, even—, but Charlie's…never exactly thought about them before.

Well, until now. Charlie taps at a little spot at the top of Steven's back absently as he thinks and says, "I like this freckle right here."

Steven says, "I was barely aware that I had a freckle there until you mentioned it." And that's…something.

The rest of the world seems to get shoved into the background with the force of that statement, and Charlie only thinks, Oh, God, I'm in love with him! He stands up without a clear plan of what action he wants to take afterward. Steven looks at him, and Charlie knows that he can either sit back down and act like he didn't just have a major fucking realization or he can run. Somehow, Charlie gets caught between the two options, and he just keeps standing there, wordlessly, staring at Steven and having Steven stare back at him.

"Are you okay?" Steven asks, and with that, he's effectively chained Charlie down; he has to confront this right now.

Charlie sits back down and cuddles Steven close to him. "I have to tell you something," he says, "give me a minute." He closes his eyes and thinks for a bit, letting the warm feelings caused by cuddling Steven wash over him. As he gets closer and closer to opening his eyes and telling Steven this fact that makes him feel excited, frightened, and spacey all at the same time, Charlie feels his heartbeat start to go faster and faster, and he wonders if Steven can feel it too.

He wonders if Steven feels it too.

"I love you," Charlie says, too fast and too shaky. He doesn't want to have to repeat those three words; he's not even sure if he could because it suddenly feels like he can't breathe.

"Oh," Steven says, and Charlie lets out a frustrated breath. "No, no, give me a second; shut up, Charlie." Steven takes a moment. "I mean, I kind of knew that…maybe…but…" Steven is smiling, and Charlie can suddenly breathe again, "do you wanna know when I figured out that I loved you?"

"You…love me?"

"Yeah," Steven replies, looking bashful, which Charlie can't understand because he's so happy, "I love you." Charlie lets out a whoop of triumph and kisses Steven, practically just smashing their lips together because he feels so excited.

"Tell me the story," Charlie says, smiling wide.

"Remember when you went to that shitty furniture store by yourself just to dick around, make fun of the quality of the furniture, and send me annoying texts? Well, you sent me this one next to an ugly ass chair because the 'lighting was right', and it fucking was, and you were adorable, and…I realized that I was in love with you. And I freaked out a little bit and ignored your texts for like two hours."

"You dick! That's why you weren't texting me?"

"That's the reason," Steven tells him with a lopsided smile, and Charlie kisses him gently before trying to cuddle him impossibly closer.

Let's be honest: Knox Overstreet is the epitome of the song I Really Like You.

Honestly, when I first started writing this story I didn't plan to do more than just vaguely mention sexual acts, but then, the cum stained sock thing happened and I basically said fuck it, and that's the story of how lines like "...like just how to scrape his teeth across his throat to make him make this noise that makes Charlie's dick and heart pulse and throb" snuck in here.

I'm thinking that the actual wedding will be in the next chapter, and I'm sort of scared of how long that one will be to be honest. We'll see what happens, though!