“We already do that, too.”
Nico frowned. “No, we don’t.”
“We go out to eat all the time. We go clubbing. We go to the arcade. We go to the movies. We go to bars.”
“As friends,” Nico insisted.
“Tell that to my wallet,” Mal teased.
“I pay,” Nico cried indignantly.
“When?” Mal challenged. “When do you pay, Fidget?”
Nico pouted. “I’m sure I’ve paid sometimes.”
“Never. Not once.”
Nico shook his head. “That…that can’t be right.”
Mal tipped forward and bit Nico’s nose. “It is. But that’s fine. I prefer it this way.”
“Fine,” he admitted. “You pay all the time.”
“Dates,” Mal confirmed smugly.
“Okay, but boyfriends…spend all their time together,” he said, clearly grasping at straws.
Mal snorted. “We live together. Short of taking you to work with me, I don’t know how much more time we can spend together without ending up on one of those weird shows likeMy Strange Addiction.” Nico was quiet, but Mal could still hear the wheels turning in his head. “Nothing’s changed. I’ve always put you first. I’ll continue to put you first.”
“You say that now, but you’ll get annoyed with my crazy.” Nico said it like it was inevitable. “I’ll probably do something likemake you have your location on all the time so I know where you are when we’re not together. Not because I think you’ll cheat but just because I’ll need to see you, to know that you’re…alive.”
“When have I ever been annoyed with you? Ever?” Mal asked softly.
“Never,” Nico admitted, voice barely a whisper.
Mal sighed. “Nobody matters to me more than you. You and my brother are the single most important things in my life. I’ve been your boyfriend since the day we met. It just took you a little time to catch up. And I don’t care if you track me. Hand me my phone, I’ll download an app right now. Honestly, we should have done that already. I like knowing where you are, too.”
Nico played with Mal’s fingers between them. “Just so we’re crystal clear, you’re not allowed to sleep with other people. I’m jealous.”
Mal scoffed. “That was you, Fidget. Not me. I haven’t been interested in anyone but you since the second I laid eyes on you.”
Tears sprung to Nico’s eyes. He tried to blink them away, his embarrassment obvious. “Can I tell you something?” Nico asked, voice thick with unshed tears.
“Anything.”
“I lied. I’ve never even kissed any of those guys I went home with. I would get there and then they’d try to touch me and I’d get cold feet and run,” he confessed.
Mal’s heart rate accelerated. “Why?”
Nico met his eyes. “‘Cause they weren’t you.”
Mal cupped the back of Nico’s head, closing the distance between them to bring their mouths together in a soft kiss that lingered. When they separated, Nico followed Mal’s lips, giving a pitiful little whimper before kissing him again. Mal exhaled through his nose, groaning as Nico opened for him instantly, his tongue dipping inside.
“Can we just do this?” Nico asked. “Can we just stay like this for a little bit?”
Mal made a noise of affirmation, gathering him into his arms until they were pressed against each other, Nico throwing a leg over Mal’s hip. They kissed until Mal’s lips felt bruised, until he was dizzy from it. He quickly grew addicted to the sound of their lips meeting and parting, to Nico’s tiny gasps and broken breaths, to the way Nico clung to him like a life preserver.
There was no expectation, no promise of something more.
