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“Valentine’s Day blows!” John Laurens stormed into his best friend’s apartment and collapsed on the couch with an irritated groan. He brought a hand up to his curls and brushed them back out of his face before realizing he didn’t get a response. “Yo, Ham. What the hell?”
“Hello to you too,” a dry tone responded and John sat up to see Alexander. It wasn’t all that hard to find him; he was sure that he had been in that exact spot when he left the night before. In fact, he was pretty sure that he had been wearing those same clothes (although, in Alexander’s defense, John wasn’t sure he owned more than one sweater). The dark circles under his eyes that seemed to be a permanent feature were more prominent to the point where he looked like someone had transformed him into a panda or punched him in the face or something. The second option wouldn’t have been all that shocking, but it still rubbed him the wrong way.
“Jesus,” John stood up and sat across from Alexander. “Have you moved in the past twenty four hours?”
“Yes, of course,” Alexander’s voice softened as he flipped through his file in front of him. “I have to present this to the DA tomorrow and… and I-“ He trailed off to straighten his reading glasses, still not raising his gaze away from the file in front of him.
“What is it?” John questioned gently. Alexander shook his head with a disgruntled hum before clicking his pen closed. Open. Closed. Open. “Ham. C’mon.”
“It’s stupid,” he said quickly, breathing out a quick laugh and still refusing to lift his gaze. Closedopenclosedopenclosed. John felt like he was one of the few people that knew what the ruthless lawyer was like when he was nervous, but fidgeting wasn’t one of his normal ticks. Incessant talking was, and Alexander was being oddly silent. The strangest thing, however, was that he’d never describe any of his thoughts as being ‘stupid’.
“No, it’s not,” John reached out to rest a hand on Alexander’s wrist, mostly to stop the incessant clicking. “Why don’t you get some rest, okay?” He cracked a gentle smile and ran the gray fabric in between his fingers gently. “We can binge Teen Wolf and eat ice cream and laugh about my pathetic attempts at forming human connection on this shitty holiday until you pass out.”
“John, I-” Alexander whispered, finally tearing his gaze away from the papers to look at him. His eyes shone with unshed tears and John felt his heart drop. He wanted to abandon his other plans in favor of taking his best friend into his arms and doing everything he could until he was smiling again. Of course, their platonic relationship didn’t allow for three quarters of the things John wanted to do. “I’m going to lose this case and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“You’re the best lawyer there is, I don’t buy it,” John took the opportunity to slide the folder towards him and hop to his feet. Alexander grabbed at his hands and tried to stand up, but his exhaustion overruled his desperation. “There. This folder is mine until you get some rest.” He was expecting more of a fight and felt a pang of guilt at the defeated look on Alexander’s face. “Dude, c’mon. You might be brilliant but you’re still a human being that needs at least an hour of sleep per night. I’ll give your case back once you take a break to drool over sexy werewolves with me. Okay?”
“Okay,” Alexander agreed, surprisingly quickly. “But first, I want to hear about your vendetta against Valentine’s Day. You said it blows, right? Which is a highlight for some people, by the way.”
“You suck,” John groaned, his cheeks flushing a light pink color.
“I might if you gave me my folder back,” Alexander teased, his voice dropping slightly as he leaned a little closer to John. As glad as John was that he was lightening up so quickly, he really wished he wouldn’t take it out on him. He was sure that Alexander could see that his blush creeping down to his chest, hear his heart skip a beat as he sucked in a quick breath of air.
“Yeah, I-“ John paused and forced himself to tear his gaze away from Alexander. Sometimes he hated how blunt his best friend was. “I should’ve seen that coming.”
“You’re making this too easy,” Alexander’s head rested gently against his shoulder. John wasn’t sure if he meant the dumb innuendos or John’s flustered reaction to them. He breathed out a nervous laugh, which broke off when Alexander placed a quick peck to his cheek. He could feel his face burn under Alexander’s lips and had to force himself that his best friend was just an affectionate person. Or into torturing him, he wasn’t 100% sure. “Why is Valentine’s Day so terrible? I think it’s sweet to watch couples try so hard for a day.”
“Yeah, well,” John rolled his eyes with a soft sigh. He wasn’t sure how much he should reveal or why he had gone to Alexander’s house in the first place, since he was one of the main reasons why he wasn’t enjoying the day. “Maybe if I was a part of one of those couples. Or at least hooking up with someone but no one was interested.”
“Valentine's Day one night stands are terrible,” Alexander agreed. John remained silent and stared down at his hands, suddenly very interested in the faint freckles dusting his thumb. “Okay. If you don’t want to be alone, I can be your Valentine. We can do anything you want.” John’s gaze flew towards Alexander, looking for a flirty smile or a cheesy wink or some other indication that he’s just pulling his leg. Instead, he was met with earnest, wide eyes and an almost shy smile. Which wasn’t a word that John thought he’d ever use to describe his best friend.
“What about your case?” John asked, glancing down at the folder he was still squeezing in his hand.
“If the court doesn’t take my side, then they’re dumb,” Alexander shrugged, grabbing John’s arm to wrap it around his shoulders. “What should we do? I can buy you a giant bear and we can fly to Paris and whisper love poems while staring at the Eiffel Tower.”
“I’d rather stay here like this,” John confessed quietly. “After everything, a quiet night in with you sounds like the perfect Valentines Day.”
“It’s not right that you have to spend it with me,” Alexander reached for the remote and flickered on the TV. “You’re gorgeous, any guy would be lucky to have you as his Valentine.”
“I’d take you as my Valentine in a heartbeat,” John shrugged, not thinking too much of his statement before Alexander sat up and knocked his arm away. John realized the implications of what he just said and sucked in a sharp breath. “I mean. I. Uh.”
“John,” Alexander turned to face him, resting his elbow against the top of the couch and leaning his head against it. John wanted to run back to his apartment and lock himself in his room, never to return. “I feel the same way.”
Alexander had that look , the one that always made the truth come tumbling out of John.
“I don’t think you do,” John whispered, his gaze falling down to Alexander’s lips for a fraction of a second before rising back up to meet his eyes.
“Any guy would be lucky to have you as his Valentine,” Alexander repeated, “including me. I’d be absolutely thrilled, actually. But I didn’t want to make things weird between us so I stayed quiet.” John just stared blankly back at him; he was sure that he had fallen asleep and his unconscious thoughts had altogether given up on being subtle.
“You mean,” John started tentatively, once he figured out how to make his vocal chords work again, “romantically?” His voice fell to a whisper at the word and he sighed gently.
“I shouldn’t have said anything,” Alexander said softly. “Mulligan and Lafayette kept telling me to go for it, but I didn’t want to rush into anything and ruin what we already have. Oh my god, I’ve been spending too much time around Burr. Who ironically ‘rushed into something’ with a married woman. I’m worse than Burr, John, I-“
“Alex,” John cut him off with a giddy laugh and Alexander whirled towards him. He hated being cut off; everyone else did that to him but John. “Can I… can I kiss you now? I would just go for it, but that ‘shut him up by kissing him’ trope always fucked me up.”
“Yes,” Alexander answered before his lips brushed gently against John’s. The spark seemed to permeate through his entire body and sparked his heart into overdrive. He felt Alexander’s hand rest on the back of his neck, reaching up to brush at his curls. His subconscious thoughts weren’t this creative. The kiss was sweet and tender and John could feel his heart fluttering. His first fumbling kiss with a girl in an unsuccessful attempt to prove something to himself, any lust blinding kiss he’d shared with a guy when a buzz was enhancing his senses enough to not care who it was, didn’t compare to this. The kiss broke all too soon and Alexander pulled away with a small smile. “Happy Valentine’s Day, my dearest Laurens.”
“Shut the fuck up, Ham,” John mumbled before pulling him into another kiss.
John had a fleeting thought that, as Alexander sat up and moved a hand down his back to pull him closer, maybe Valentine’s Day wasn’t so terrible after all.