Love's Such An Old-Fashioned Word.

Jepha woke up in his familiar, luxurious bed alone. The cold sheets ghosting over his warm flesh; blood pulsating hotly through his system. He detested waking up alone when he had someone he could wake up to. He arose from the bed when he felt a bit of draft. He arched his back upwards, stressing his lower back muscles.

He saw his love sitting on the windowsill, hanging his feet over the edge with his bare toes barely touching the gray roof shingles. He had thrown some random shirt on to protect from the chill, but had it buttoned completely down, which made absolutely no sense to Jepha. In fact, now that he looked closer, it looked distinctly like he was wearing one of Jeph’s shirts.

Jepha put his arm around Branden’s waist in almost more of a friendly embrace. Branden flinched at the suddenness of the touch. Jepha’s fingertips tickled whatever sections of exposed epidermis that he came in contact with.

"Hey, you. Did I disturb your sleep?” Branden breathed out, placing his palms over the back of Jepha’s hands that were placed on his lower body.

“Not a bit,” Jepha said in a low, calm voice; nuzzling his cheek into Branden’s shoulder blade and letting out a content sigh that sounded almost like a heavenly-fucking-chorus to Branden, “I woke up on my own. I couldn’t feel you in bed with me, so I got up,” Jepha mumbled.

“So, technically, I did disturb your sleep,” Branden confirmed, smiling warmly.

“Well...yeah, I guess so, but it’s doesn’t matter.” Jepha reached a hand up and stroked the side of Branden’s neck that was opposite his arm. When he brought his hand down, he kissed the very same spot, “Hey. Can I sit here with you? You know, to keep you company and shit,” Jepha asked, releasing Branden, but keeping a hand on his sturdy shoulder.

“Do whatever,” he grunted dismissively. Jepha pushed the horizontally sliding glass window to the the left as to expand the wooden base just large enough to fit his body. Considering that the space was already cramped for the both of them, Jepha had to resort to sitting very awkwardly almost on top of Branden’s lap. Branden just laughed quietly at Jepha and slung an arm around his shoulder. Branden knew that he was the only one that understood and accepted Jepha’s different behavior. From the late-night compulsions he had to do the laundry, to the sometimes weird way he would sneak up on Branden inside the house at any time and tackle him into holding him or even making love to him. Those things, he didn’t complain about.

Jepha made a face at his love, but in a playful sort of way. Branden couldn’t stop smiling. His lover knew him best. Jepha knew that Branden would melt at anything that he found even remotely adorable about him. Not that he was a hard-ass or anything. It was just that Branden seemed like a bit of a gentle tough guy, if that made any sense. After they both calmed down, Branden refreshed his gaze at the night sky with Jepha clinging to him.

Twenty minutes of silence.

“Branden. Do you ever...want to know what it’s like to be with someone else besides me?”

“What? What do you mean by that?”

“Like, you walk by someone on the street and you feel like you want to be with them.” Branden furrowed his eyebrows like he didn’t get it, “Like sex, Branden.” Branden thought.

“No,” he said after a few seconds, “Because if I do it will ruin what bond I have with you. Especially since we are in a loving, sexual relationship. But, we’re so much more than that. I care about you so much I jus-I love you. I love everything you do. Sure, there’s some stuff about you that I get slightly annoyed with and don’t feel like dealing with, but that doesn’t matter. If there’s something that bothers you about me, it doesn’t matter. It balances it out. I mean, sometimes there has to be something you don’t like about someone you love. If there isn’t, you’ll end up detesting everything about them. Even though the little annoyances don’t matter, they are important to relationship building. In the long run, I love you more than anything and if I fight with you, it’s only for, like, two minutes if even that and it’s over some stupid thing that I can get past on my own.” Branden kissed Jepha’s cheek, “So, truthfully, no. I love you, you handsome fuck.”

“If I told you that you could, would you do it?” Jepha brushed Branden’s hair through with his bony fingers.

“Nope. Even with permission, it still violates levels of trust that shouldn’t be violated if you really care about someone the way I care about you.” Branden froze in horror, “Why? Would you want to?”

“No. I just had to know if you would.” Jepha rested his head on Branden’s shoulder as he tightened his grip on his waist.

“Hey, Jeph. You should go to bed. You’ll get cranky if you don’t have enough rest,” Branden suggested, still staring up at the stars as if counting each individual blinking speck of light amongst the vast darkness.

“Only if you come with me. You know I can’t sleep without you,” Jepha sighed, maneuvering out of the windowsill and back into the carpeted room with a difficulty.

“Okay. But, you’ll have to make me,” Branden ordered, folding his arms across his chest. Jepha scrunched up his nose and tugged sharply at Branden’s shirt collar. Er, rather, Jepha’s shirt collar. Branden lost balance atop the windowsill and fell a bit ungracefully to the floor.

“Fuck, Jeph! What the hell was that for?” Branden shouted at he crawled up from the floor.

“You said to make you, so I did. Now you’ve got to catch me,” Jepha giggled. Branden tried grabbing for Jepha in a death-grip, but he scampered away. He continued chasing the ridiculous Jepha around the room until he finally jump-tackled him onto the bed.

“See, I always get you,” Branden breathed heavily as he adjusted himself comfortably on top of Jepha. Jeph squirmed a little, then gave up as well.

“Well, it’s not like you’re never on top,” Jepha grinned cheekily.

“I love you,”

“Babe. Love’s such an old-fashioned word,” Jepha smiled as he quoted the lyrics of Freddie Mercury’s ‘Under Pressure’.

The rest of the night was theirs alone.