Lie Like You Mean It

“Mina! They’ve multiplied!” Michael squealed when Zero and I joined them in Mina’s room. He was pointing at Zero’s neck, or more specifically, the two new bites on his collarbone that I put there not even two hours ago. Then he ran over to Mina and jumped into her arms and cowered like he was scared.

“Oh, Dearest, I’ll bet Zero wanted him to put them there.” Mina cooed, cradling Michael to her. They both laughed at that even though it was true.

Zero shrugged off their comments and asked, “Well, what are we here for?”

I, however, wasn’t able to help but become embarrassed so I ended up hiding half of my body behind Zero and grasping onto his shirt timidly.

“Aww… Nickybear, don’t be scared!” Mina said, making me roll my eyes at her.

“But Mina! He’s so cute when he’s embarrassed!” Michael squealed. Then he freed himself from Mina and made his way over to me like he was going to hug me.

Until Zero stepped in. “Stop. Right. There.“

“Aww… I just wanna hug him!” He pouted defeatedly as he looked to Mina for help.

“Michael, there’s nothing you can do. You know how Zero gets around Nicolas.” She stated like it was obvious and she didn’t even use my ‘nickname’.

“But seriously, you guys. What are we doing?” I questioned curiously.

Mina grinned wildly and said, “The best cliché couple thing – watching a scary horror movie that Michael pirated!”

I smiled at this, I loved horror movies; they were the best thing ever. But Zero groaned in obvious annoyance. Then, seeing my expression, he shook his head and said, “Whatever Nicolas wants is fine with me.”

Mina crawled to the TV at the end of her bed and opened the DVD player. “We’re not watching it in the living room?” I titled my head, confused.

“Psh… of course not! But my bed is too small so we’re sitting on the floor.” She announced, turning the TV to face the open space on the floor. Then she and Michael made us stand outside the room as they yanked all the blankets and pillows to make a more comfortable spot on the floor for us.

Zero sighed like he was tired, forcing me to ask, “What?” I spoke quietly so that Michael and Mina couldn’t hear.

He looked down at me and bit his lip nervously and then I knew something was wrong. “I uh, I don’t like horror films…”

That made me laugh out loud. I mean, really? Him? Be afraid of scary movies? He looked like he belonged in a scary movie himself and yet he didn’t like them? “Why don’t you tell them?” I asked as the chuckling subsided.

“They already know.” He said exasperatedly.

“Then they’re-”

“Wanting us to cuddle or something?” He cut me off, completing my sentence for me. Then he rolled his eyes. “Yeah, probably.”

I groaned and hung my head. “And videotape it?” I was afraid of the answer.

“No.” He breathed, ruffling my hair a little bit. “I know he says that a lot, but he never actually does it. I think they want us to do this so that we can get used to having other people see us show affection for each other.”

I blushed at the thought of showing affection towards Zero, of all people, in front of people. “O-oh…” I mumbled as I messed with a loose string on my shirt.

“Do you want to?” He asked.

“Huh?” I asked, confused, there were a few things out of the things he said that could’ve applied to the question.

“Err… cuddle and… stuff. I mean, you have been getting bolder about that kind of thing.”

“Y-yeah wh-when we’re a-alone.” I whispered embarrassedly. But I knew he was right. I showed a side of myself that I’d never seen before when I was with him. The need to dominate would just come over me and me wanting to be the dominant one might have been dangerous if Zero wasn’t so submissive all the time for me.

Then there was the fact that Zero would get shy or subservient and meek when we were together. Normally you think he’d never let anyone have any power over him whatsoever, but it was different and it left me to wonder if we weren’t acting like ourselves around each other or if we had hidden personalities that only showed themselves around the other.

“I know, but…” He trailed off suggestively and his face made me believe that making out or something during the movie was what he wanted.

I let out a defeated sigh. “Okay, let’s do it. Let’s make them sorry that they ever pulled this.” I smirked evilly up at him.

He met my grin with one of his own and placed a hand on my cheek, leaning down to press our lips together in a short, chaste kiss. But it set something off in my stomach that felt like a jolt of electricity. It was strange because I’d never felt something like that before even though we’ve kissed quite a few times before. But I shrugged the thought away as Zero’s lips fell from mine.

Okay, so I didn’t really shrug it off, in fact, it bothered me… a lot. It bothered me because I didn’t understand it and because it had never happened before. I don’t think it could’ve been a bad feeling because I (and I’d never admit this to him) liked his kisses. But the confusion from it wasn’t particularly great.

“You guys coming?” Mina called from inside the room.

We glanced at each other and shared a smug look before walking back into her room, shutting the door behind us. Michael selected play movie and sat back on the blanket-bed.
I didn’t realize just how many pillows Mina had until I saw them all against the wall. Michael caught me staring at all the pillows and grinned, saying, “Mina has a pillow fetish!”

At that comment, Mina tackled him on the blankets. “Yeah, but you so love my pillows.”

“Pfft… You realize how that sounded right?” Michael started cracking up as she laughed along with him. Obviously she meant it to sound perverted.

“So… what are we watching?” I asked timidly, making my way to awkwardly sit on the furthest side of the makeshift mattress.

“Uh… I can’t remember the title but it’s about… uh… lemme think… oh! This one chick’s parents die and like she sees their faces everywhere when she’s out in public. Or something like that.”

“Sounds like a mental disorder rather than horror.” Zero sighed as he sat down between his twin and me.
Mina opened one of her drawers and pulled out a huge bag of skittles. Michael gasped at that site. “You had skittles and you didn’t tell me!?”

Then he pulled up his legs to his chest and buried his face in his knees and pretended to cry. “Hush up, it’s starting.” She ordered him. He instantly sobered up and stopped fake-crying, releasing his legs from his arms to allow room for Mina to sit in his lap.

“I get the skittle-bearer!” He cried, squeezing Mina firmly to his chest, rocking her from side-to-side. She rolled her eyes exasperatedly and opened the bag and dug out some skittles, throwing them at Michael, who caught most of them and picked up the ones that got away from the blankets.

“Now shut it and watch your damn movie.” She grinned up at him.

A little bit through the movie, Zero had snaked his arm around my waist, pulling me over to him. I responded by grabbing onto him and wrapping my arms around his back and resting my head on his chest at an angle so that I could still see the TV screen.

Then there was a screech from the movie where something scary had happened, but I wasn’t paying attention because of Zero’s tightening grip on me. He burrowed his face in my hair to hide. He really was afraid of horror movies. It took everything I had not to start laughing. Not just because it was ironic, but because it was cute. It’s okay for me to think that, right? It’s alright for me to find him cute now, isn’t it?
It had to be normal to find him attractive or cute or handsome, whatever the fuck he was. He was my boyfriend after all. Okay, so it was still weird for me to say I (a guy) had a boyfriend. I always kind of assumed I’d just find a girlfriend even though I didn’t really take much interest in dating people. But it didn’t really matter anymore because I was happy with Zero, which was something I never expected to feel with him.

Zero let out a squeak as a face appeared in the window on the movie, accompanied by a shriek of sudden music. He hid his face against my neck, his nose pressed against the skin there.
Mina and Michael let out a giggle at Zero’s fear. I however suppressed any need to laugh I had and snuggled him closer to me. Yes, snuggled, but I say that for lack of a better word to describe it.
Mina was still sitting in Michael’s lap, staring intently on the movie. I guessed they weren’t one of those couples who use movies as an excuse for a heavy make-out session or something like that. Either that, or they were really into the movie.

Zero didn’t take after his twin, however because he was keeping to our agreement as he pressed a kiss into my throat. He left feather light kisses all around my neck, causing my breath to hitch in my lungs. I shut my eyes and let him pull me on top of him. His lips ghosted over the hollow of my neck before coming up my jaw line to meet my mouth. I pressed back into the kiss, smiling as I felt Mina and Michael’s eyes on us as they snickered. Then there was a loud noise from the TV which caused Zero to break the kiss to gasp out of surprise and turn to the TV to see what had happened.

That made Mina and Michael break into a bigger fit of laughter. “Aww… what a turn off, huh?” Michael said, still laughing slightly.

Zero pushed him a bit and then wrapped his arms back around me. I repositioned myself so I could see the TV again because apparently we weren’t going to get to follow through with the plans while Zero was distracted by the movie. But it was okay because I liked how he hid himself (or attempted to) when there was a scary part in the movie or when he gripped me tighter when the music escalated into a screech.