Work Text:
The plush eiderdown of their bed at the Barns is the biggest culture shock every time Adam comes back from Harvard. His bed in his dorm is fine - there would be a scandal among the parents of his peers if it was anything but - but it’s nothing in comparison to what’s at home. It’s a decadence that actually made Adam feel sick the first time he stayed over as it triggered his insecurities about whether he deserved it.
Adam thought the bed was dreamt up but Ronan assured him, cockily, it was the best money could buy. Adam wasn’t allowed to complain because it was for them not him. It took month before he let himself enjoy it.
He’s lying on his left side, deaf ear squashed into the brushed cotton of the pillowcase. The whole thing should be making him sweat to death in the Virginian heat but the Barns is effortlessly cool. He’s never seen or heard an AC anywhere around the farm but the temperature is naturally frigid in a pleasant way. Adam has always ran hot so he’s in nothing but boxer shorts anyway. He’s got nowhere to be – no job to get to, no class to rush for, no tick box exercise in socialising.
He’s propped a textbook against the pillow. It cost more than he is willing to admit too and he resents every penny of it. He scoured for a second hand edition that might be cheaper but the college insisted on the most up to date publishing. It’s written by the professor who is running the course and the whole thing is a rigamarole of self-congratulatory academia.
They’ve been taking it in turns now that Ronan can travel. Adam comes home to the Barns every major holiday and Ronan comes up to Harvard every other weekend.
Despite travelling the distance on his bike he prefers it this way, with the creature comforts of the farm house, rather than the alien clinical feeling of the hotels Ronan books. He feels less guilty about ruining the sheets here as well because he can wash them.
He skims over another arrogant vanity argument and scoffs. “Idiot.”
“What’d I do?“ The bed dips behind him as Ronan slides in. He’s been outside because he smells of sunshine and grass. He kisses the nape of Adam’s neck in an affectionate greeting.
“Not you. I took an economics class this semester.” He holds the textbook up a little for Ronan to see before flopping it down closed on the floor.
“Why? Did you want to understand Declan on a fundamental boring level?” Adam snorts into his hand. Ronan has a way that makes every worry seem trivial in the grand picture. He really needs that now. He needs Ronan being Ronan to put the world into perspective.
“I just didn’t realise it’d be such a circle jerk you know. Citing colleagues and patting each other on the back. I think it’s just pissing me off they’ve never actually experienced the bottom end of what they’re prattling on about.”
Ronan kisses his bare shoulder in a familiar pattern over all his freckles and moles. It’s not to instigate anything but soft and comforting. Adam knows he’s wounded by money. His soul may never recover from the struggle he faced to get where he is now. He’s still consistently on his guard whenever anything remotely comes up about finances.
An economics class was probably a stupid idea for his anxieties but it made the most sense for his graduate transcript. Sometimes Adam hates his analytical mind. “This textbook cost $400, which I know is child’s play to you and Gansey, but that’s a serious chunk of my stipend.” He’s letting his insecurities betray him and he can feel himself coiled like a snake wanting to strike if Ronan rises to his bait. It’s been a while since he brought up Ronan and Gansey’s wealth as a defence. He doesn’t want to argue he just wants to feel like he’s not the odd one out for once.
Ronan doesn’t rise to it and rubs his thumb into the tense muscle of his shoulder blade. “I know.”
Some of the tension bleeds out of Adam, he can feel it melting into the mattress beneath and getting soaked up by the soft material. “Sorry.” He mumbles hoping Ronan gets it. “All that money and there’s nothing in it I didn’t hear from one of the old guy’s working the factory line.”
Ronan’s hand rests lightly on his knee.
“Take the core concept of scarcity for example. He makes a big hullabaloo about it as if it’s some revolutionary discovery.” Adam powers on. Too fired up to rest now. He doesn’t even know how early it is. Late enough Ronan’s fed the animals but early enough the sun is teasing through the curtains. “Things run out but people still want those things. Fucking groundbreaking. A caveman worked that out the second his family went hungry he didn’t need a degree from Oxford.”
He feels Ronan’s laugh reverberating through his back. His hand is tracing lazy strips on his thigh. “Tell me more.” He asks and Adam doesn’t need an invitation because he’s spent weeks keeping it to himself in tutorials and around his snobbish cohort.
“They talk about macroeconomics - the bigger picture - as if it’s completely detached and theoretical. How could employment affect a town? Fucking hell, could you imagine people being unemployed? The horror. You mention the people in these scenarios and they shut you down. That’s micro, Parrish, that’s individual decisions. As if anyone chooses for a factory to close in a factory town and condemn their family. Individual decisions don’t get you into absolute poverty.” Ronan’s hand moves from toying with his thigh to ghosting over his crotch through his shorts. “And, um, and surely the decline of industry is a macro issue regardless…. What are you doing?”
It’s very obvious what he’s doing with his wandering hand. The ghost touch has turned into a massaging squeeze. “Groping you. Keep going.”
Adam puffs out a noise that’s almost a laugh. He’s not sure how he got here. “Is me ranting turning you on?” He deflects. The pressure feels so good and his body responds to it encouragingly.
“Mmhm. Keep talking, brainiac.”
His mind reels for something to talk about. What was he talking about? Oh right his obnoxious college professor who’s a school of thought purist. Pleasure flows through him as Ronan’s hand works his cock hard through his shorts. Ronan kisses the bump at the top of his spine which makes Adam’s eyes close. He has to breathe through it before he can talk again.
“M-my point is I think it’s completely misguided to try and separate the two because it’s the people that really get affecte-fuck.” Ronan’s exploring hand moves from outside Adam’s shorts to inside. His head is fuzzy and he must use his brain power not to buck into his hand. “People are the important part.” He finishes pathetically. He’s forgotten what point he’s making anyway.
Ronan’s thumb rubs over his sensitive tip gathering dewy precome. “Ronan.” He’s panting. When did he start panting? Probably around the time Ronan pulled him out of his shorts to get better access.
Outside the window an animal bays in the fields behind the house. It’s grounding. He’s here at home a place where he’s safe from the judgement of people that would look down on him if he was to talk like this freely in the hallowed Harvard halls. He tries again. “You can’t separate people and money.” It’s not the most elegant point he’s ever made but it’s mostly coherent.
Ronan pulls his hand out his shorts and Adam hears himself whine. His hand is presented to him. “Spit.”
It’s testament to how far gone he is already that he doesn’t bitch Ronan out about getting actual lube and simply spits into his waiting palm. His hand is back this time with extra lubrication and its heaven. His feet tangle in the sheets without his permission.
“So what would you suggest to this professor for him to improve?” Ronan asks, he can feel his smile against the back of his neck, and he sounds so cocky that Adam is horrendously turned on over it. Ronan is not as open about his desires as Adam but he knows that he drives Adam wild when he’s confident and arrogant.
“Uhh…” he doesn’t care about economics right now he cares about getting Ronan to do that twisting thing again with his hand. “He should, uh, oh God.”
Ronan laughs. The bastard.
He abandons Adam’s dick to massage his balls - something that always drives Adam senseless because of how sensitive they are. By the time his hand is back on his dick Adam is mindless with want and need.
Ronan’s mouth traces his good ear. “You were telling me about economics.” He reminds.
What a stupid thing to be talking about right now. “Wha’?” his mouth is thick. He’s so fucking close. So so close, if Ronan just does that one more time he’ll get there.
Ronan does something unholy with his fingers and Adam grips the sheet. Fuck.
“What’s two add two?”
What?
Adam gasps. The room is so hot and he’s sweating. “I don’t fucking know. Stop asking me shit.”
Ronan laughs again, his mouth sucking on skin, and Adam bucks into his hand to increase friction. He pulls his mouth back to speak. “One more question, Parrish.”
Jesus fucking shit what now? He can’t believe he’s this far gone from a fucking handjob. Its not like he’s sex starved they fucked the night before.
Ronan whispers directly into his ear, “Do you want to come?”
That is a question he knows the answer too. “Yes! Fuck, yes.”
Impossibly Ronan ups the tempo of his strokes and it takes seconds before Adam is coming, coating his own stomach. His toes curl and he says Ronan’s name like a swear word. It’s the only word that matters anyway.
He lies there panting pressed against Ronan’s chest. Ronan tucks him back into his shorts carefully and wipes his hand on the cotton sheets. Adam is too fucked out to complain about it being gross but it’ll come back to him in a little bit.
“Christ, you’re sweaty.” Ronan complains as if he wasn’t the reason for it with his body pressed against Adam as he worked him over under the covers.
Adam swats lazily at Ronan’s hip in response. His bones feel like mush and he might be melting into the mattress, it’s glorious.
After the silence of the room stretches out into the sound of their breathing going back to normal Adam asks. “What was that for?”
Ronan nuzzles his nose on the sweaty skin at the back of his neck. “You seemed tense and in your head and shit.”
The ridiculously expensive textbook is lying on the floor with its pages crinkling abandoned without care. Good, that’s what it deserves, Adam thinks bitterly.
“I didn’t…” Ronan falters, which Adam wasn’t expecting. He half turns to see what’s written across Ronan’s face. “I can’t help you with all that smart shit you know, I’m not Gansey or Declan, and it’s so hot when you’re showing off how much of a brainiac you are but man, I don’t know what to say back.”
This isn’t Ronan being self-conscious about his intelligence but about being left behind by Adam’s life changing focus. A familiar dance between the two of them that Adam thought was getting better now Ronan had helping the other dreamers to focus on. In the same way Ronan doesn’t know how to talk about Adam’s classes, Adam doesn’t know what to say to soothe this insecurity of his. They’ve discussed it time and time again but words don’t always work for them and most of the time physicality is a better language between them.
Adam shifts until he’s lying on his back and manages to pull Ronan down into a kiss. The sheets are damp with sweat and come but Adam doesn’t care. It’s heated and messy and full of the reassurances he can’t make his mouth say out loud.
He wants to say you’re the only one I want to talk to about this but instead his mouth asks, “did you get off?”
Ronan groans into his mouth. His face flushes now that the attention is on him. It’s a cute quirk he’s never managed to get rid of and Adam is so grateful for it. It makes him feel powerful and in control in a way that satisfies his soul.
Right now, it’s not about that. it’s about reassurance. It’s about the two of them being close in a way only they can with each other. Adam’s soul touched Ronan’s soul, and he’ll never forget the way that feels. He knows what Ronan needs.
He uses his hand to find out for himself, and as expected Ronan is still hard. “Lynch, do you want to fuck me?”
Adam could probably count the number of times they’ve switched in bed so Ronan tops on two hands. They’ve both enjoyed it in the past, but Adam takes a long time to relax into it that they usually just fall into a natural rhythm of Adam on top in their frantic flurry of touching each other.
Ronan’s reaction is instantaneous. A grin blooms over his face as he trips over how quickly he says yes. Adam’s heart thumps at how wanted Ronan can make him feel. Ronan launches himself over to the bedside cabinet – all of Ronan’s movements are purposeful and powerful in some way. The way he occupies his body is fascinating to Adam who’s spent a lifetime uncomfortable in his. Where Adam hangs back to calculate the outcome of every situation, Ronan throws himself headfirst into it.
He flops back down clumsily next to Adam clutching a quarter full bottle of lube. “I swear that was full last time I was here.” Adam jokes.
Ronan flashes him a lazy grin. “Yeah, well, I jerk off a lot when you’re not around.”
Adam feels himself heat up. “Yeah?”
Call it egotistical but there’s nothing he’d rather hear about right now.
Ronan ducks his head shyly but it’s mostly for show. “You always sound so fucking good on the phone. If you haven’t noticed, Parrish, I like it when you talk.”
Adam’s spent dick throbs at the thought of Ronan touching himself on the other end of the line. He can only talk about his own experiences, but he spends a lot of time in the shower jerking off as well, and when he’s away from him anything can get him keyed up.
While Adam was distracted fantasising Ronan was coating his fingers with the lube and warming it up in his hand. Adam resists the urge to call him a gentleman.
He feels giddy, the combination of the post orgasm high and the fact he couldn’t imagine doing this with anyone else but Ronan. The way they fit together and bounce off each other is perfect. He shifts his leg so his knee is bent allowing Ronan more access to him. The sheets are already ruined so they may as well thoroughly wreck them.
“Let me know if you want me to stop or whatever.” Ronan says, his fingers press against Adam entrance. Despite trying to warm it up the lube is still cold versus the fire in Adam’s skin. Adam does sarcastically call him a gentleman then as he pushes a finger in.
Ronan kisses the inside of his thigh in response. There’s some fucking animal – natural or dreamt he doesn’t know – making noises outside the window somewhere past the break in the trees. His life isn’t lecture halls and study breaks, it’s him and Ronan together in the world.
He lets the sound and scents wash over him as Ronan works him open with his fingers. Cautious in a way he’s never been about anything before. The orgasm has helped to loosen Adam up so he can lay there and the act of enjoy it.
Pleasure waves through him as Ronan curls his finger into his prostate. “Shit, that’s good.”
Time passes in kisses. His mouth. His neck. His stomach. Wherever Ronan can get his mouth on he presses a kiss against it. His skin is sweaty but it does nothing to sway Ronan’s wandering lips. Adam is hard again but the time Ronan is done opening him up. God bless being in his twenties. Ronan goes to lube up his own cock but Adam swats his hand away to do it for him. He takes his time coating him in it and jerking him at the same time. Ronan’s face always wears everything he’s feeling on it. Right now he looks the same as when he’s drunk, blotchy red skin and sheening with sweat. Adam can picture that he doesn’t look any better. He feels desperate. “Ronan.”
This time when he says Ronan it means please.
Ronan tosses the lube bottle away and it rolls off the bed and hits the floor abandoned. His hand is tacky with lube as it grips Adam’s side but he doesn’t care. He wants to feel as close to Ronan as he can, he wants to feel known.
For once Adam doesn’t have the words for it. At least not in English. “Ronan. In perpetuum et unum diem.” Forever and one day. It still wouldn’t be enough, Adam suspects.
“In perpetuum.” Ronan agrees breathlessly. He’s always seems a little awed when Adam tells him how much he loves him. Silently Adam vows to tell him more so it stops shocking him.
They move together when Ronan pushes in. It hurts a little because of the intrusion and the fact that Adam is perpetually tense but the pain melts away as quickly as it came because Ronan is careful. He kisses Adam through it and waits until he’s melted back into the plush mattress before he moves.
It’s a fast, inconsistent pace, Ronan is sloppy with it but it everything that Adam needs and wants. He’s already come once but every slam into his prostate has him hurtling toward the edge again.
In any other context begging and acting desperate would make his skin crawl but right now he catches himself begging Ronan to fuck him harder, to make him come again, anything, everything.
“Shit, Adam. I- I can’t last.” Adam feels smug that Ronan is wrecked from fucking him. He grips the back of his neck and gives it a squeeze to reassure him that it’s more than fine.
“Me either, baby. Fuck, it’s okay. Come in in me.” He digs his heels into the back of Ronan’s calves. He feels Ronan tense. He moans and Adam feels that too, rumbling through the both of them like they shared it.
Ronan’s hand is back on his dick and he jerks Adam off through his own orgasm. Adam shudders in his grip and his second orgasm is even more intense than the first one that melted his brain. He says a lot of things in a ramble, mostly about how much he loves Ronan, all of it true.
Ronan lies collapsed on top of him panting. They’re sticking together with sweat and come. It’s disgusting and Adam loves every second of it. It’s going into his mental bank of material to take into his dorm room showers with him when he’s back to college.
Ronan makes the decision to move and flops down next to him on the bed. The sun has lit up the room to declare it afternoon and Adam’s other basic urges are coming back to him; namely he’s starving. He’s now also behind on his study schedule. Which reminds him to peer down at where everything fell earlier.
“Fuck.”
“What’s wrong?”
He picks up the economics textbook off the floor but his suspicions are confirmed. It’s sticky from the lube spilled down it. He shows it to Ronan who laughs loudly.
“At least you’ll think about me.” Ronan laughs as Adam uses the corner of the ruined sheet to wipe off as much as he can from the cover. He glares listlessly at Ronan. Great, now he’s going to get a Pavolovian response every time he has economics and gets a boner when he handles the textbook.
At least it’ll make college more interesting.