Sweaters & Cigarettes (11 page)

"No," he says, watching the
foamy water swirl down into the pipes. He hears Riley sigh softly, and he looks
over at his little brother. His expression is sad and slightly disapproving,
and Theo is reminded, like he always is, about how precocious Riley can be.

"Don't give me that," Theo says,
wiping down the counter with a dishrag. "You know how they get."

Riley murmurs in agreement.

"I know," he admits. "But you
really should tell them. If not, they're gonna find out from someone else, and
then they'll be really pissed."

Theo looks over at him, and Riley starts,
eyes wide.

"Not from me!" he clarifies, a
bit frantically. "You know that."

Theo knows it's true; Riley would never
sell him out like that.

Riley relaxes in his seat.

"I'm just sayin'," he says, and
Theo cocks his head, before putting away the dishrag.

"I will tell them," he says,
looking at Riley. "But I figured, you could meet him first."

Riley smiles a bit then, and Theo smiles
back. Regardless of what his parents would say about him dating someone like
Max, he's very happy that at least Riley is on his side.

The doorbell rings, and Theo practically
jumps, instantly nervous. He shouldn't be, though; Max coming to his house
shouldn't be such a huge deal, especially not now. Max is his boyfriend, after
all.

Boyfriend
. Theo's heart skips a beat, as he makes
his way to the front door.

Riley stays seated at the kitchen table,
but Theo knows he can hear anything that happens out in the hall, so he tries
to play it cool when he opens the door. That plan fails completely, though,
because as soon as he sees Max, it's like he physically has to stop himself
from letting out a pathetic sound of pure joy and stunned affection.

"Looks like I got it right," Max
says, as Theo opens the door, glancing up at the house. "Awesome."

He turns back to Theo, who just stands
there for a few seconds, hand on the door handle. Max is wearing his black
trenchcoat, hands in the pockets, and he raises his eyebrows, with a small
smile.

"You gonna let me in, Davis?" he
says smoothly. "Freezing my ass off, here."

Theo reanimates, then, pausing for a
confused moment.

"Uh," he says eloquently.
"Yeah."

He steps back, allowing Max to step over
the threshold and into the warmth of the hall, and Theo closes the door behind
him. He swallows dryly, confused as to why this makes him so nervous.

Theo barely has a chance to lock the door
and turn back around, though, before Max's hands are on either side of his
face, pulling his mouth to his own, and Theo widens his eyes in surprise for a
moment. But the moment fades away very quickly, and he's relaxing against Max's
body, absently moving his hands to rest on his hips. Max's coat and shoes are
already off, and his hands are chilly against Theo's warm skin. Even his lips
are cool, the piercing even more so, but Theo doesn't mind; it just makes him
want to warm Max up, and fast.

Max pulls away after a moment, keeping the
kiss rather soft and chaste, and Theo just exhales, softening his posture a
bit. Why was he nervous, again?

"You okay?" Max asks, quirking a
small smile, and Theo nods.

"Yeah," he says softly, before
remembering where they are. He lightly takes Max's hand. "Come on."

Max doesn't seem the least bit anxious
about being in a new place, merely looks around with slight interest, as they
eventually make their way to the kitchen, Theo leading the way. There, they
find Riley, still sitting at the kitchen table, and he looks up as they enter
the room, straightening slightly in his chair.

"Riley," Theo says, lingering
with Max by the doorway. "This is Max. Max, my little brother,
Riley."

Max nods at Riley.

"Hey," he says, and Riley looks
at him for a second, before speaking.

"Hi," he says, but that's it.
Theo then waits patiently for another couple of seconds, as Riley eyes Max up
and down, very quickly, with a look of detached, neutral interest. It doesn't
faze Max, who is used to it, although the complete lack of judgment or distaste
on Riley's face is something Theo is pretty sure he's less used to.

Riley frowns a bit, as his gaze lands on
Max's face.

"I like your piercings," he
says, and Theo actually raises his eyebrows slightly in surprise. He glances at
Max, who keeps his eyes on Riley.

"Thanks," he says, and Riley
nods.

"Got any more?" he asks, and Max
hesitates for a moment, before simply opening his mouth and rolling out his
tongue. Riley looks slightly surprised, at the sight of the tongue piercing.

"Cool," he says weakly, as though
he really means it, and Max cocks his eyebrows, closing his mouth. Riley seems
to deliberate for a second, before he turns to Theo.

"So, can you feel that?" he
asks. "When you make out?"

Theo starts blushing furiously, hoping that
it's not as obvious as it feels.

"Riley!" he says, in lack of
anything else, but his little brother just shrugs.

"What?" he says. "Just
curious. Can you?"

Theo opens and closes his mouth, instantly
very uncomfortable. And then, Max makes it worse by turning to him, an
over-nonchalant look on his face.

"Yeah, Theo," he says, eyebrows
slightly raised. "
Can
you?"

Theo glares at him, but Max just smiles
mischievously, until Theo sighs in frustration.

"Yes, I can," he mutters,
glancing at Riley. "Happy?"

Riley smiles in a way that seems reserved
for teasing his big brother.

"Yeah," he says, and Theo shoves
his hands into his pockets, pulling his shoulders up a bit in discomfort. Max
chuckles.

"Don't be like that," he says, with
a tone of fondness that Theo isn't quite used to hearing, yet. "You know
you like it."

Theo shoots him another glare, but the
sincere, albeit slightly teasing, smile on Max's face makes him relax a bit,
and he exhales.

Riley clears his throat a little bit, and
Theo looks over at him. He's wearing that precocious look on his face, eyebrows
slightly raised.

"You guys go ahead," he says.
"I've got homework, anyway."

Theo feels a bit embarrassed at his words,
but grateful, and he gives his brother a small nod, before turning toward the
staircase. Max follows right behind him, but gives Riley a small salute, before
climbing the stairs to Theo's room.

It's only when Theo opens the door to his
room that it hits him; he has never had a guy in his room, before. Well, he
has
,
but not like
this.
He has never had anyone in his room before, that he
feels this way about. This is a first, and he tries not to fidget too much, as
Max enters and looks around.

"Hm," Max hums absently, blue
eyes scanning the walls. Theo becomes almost uncomfortably aware of the rather
extreme geekiness of the place, with posters ranging from
Star Wars
and
Batman
,
to
Gattaca
and
The Fifth Element,
and he hopes Max won't pay too
much attention to the miniature Mjölnir he got for his birthday a couple of
years ago; it's a tiny replica of the hammer belonging to Marvel's Thor,
serving as a kind of paperweight, on his desk. Maybe he should have hidden
that.

"You really went for it, didn't
you?" Max says, and Theo fidgets uncomfortably. Then Max looks at him,
though, quirking a small smile. "I like it."

Theo lets out a barely noticeable breath
of relief.

"Thanks," he says, with a tiny
hint of sarcasm, and Max's smile widens a bit.

It's weird, Theo thinks, how he barely
ever sees Max smirk at him, anymore. He still does it, sure, but more often
than not, he just smiles. Just smiles, properly. Like he's happy.

"The nerd-thing is actually pretty
hot," Max admits, making his way over to Theo, who's standing pretty much
in the middle of the room. "It's all kinds of interesting."

Theo scoffs, smiling. He nods.

"That's good," he says, hands in
his pockets, and Max nods too,  as though agreeing with himself.

Theo looks at Max properly, then, just
takes in his features, his body, the way his black hair looks like it has been
messed up from chilly wind. And then he sees it, and he widens his eyes just
the slightest bit.

Suspenders. Max is wearing suspenders,
black ones, thin and inconspicuous, over a black, long-sleeved t-shirt, and
attached to his black skinny jeans. Theo swallows, surprised at how much he
likes the way it looks on him, honestly shocked at how hot he finds it.

Theo doesn't say anything, at first, just
looks at Max, before slipping his finger underneath one of the black, elastic
straps.

"You're wearing suspenders," he
says dumbly, murmuring, eyes on Max's chest.

"I
am
wearing
suspenders," Max confirms. "What about it?"

"You've never worn that before."

"Actually, I have," Max points
out, cocking his head slightly, thinking. "You've just never seen it."

Theo doesn't immediately answer him.
Instead, he just keeps staring, fiddles with the strap lightly between his
fingers.

"It's hot," he says, to his own
surprise, and he can practically sense Max raising his eyebrows.

"Did you just say it's
hot
?"
he asks, as though honestly surprised, but at the same time wearing a teasing
smirk.

Theo blushes slightly.

"Yeah," he says. "So?"

Max half-shrugs, and Theo looks up at him.

"No reason," Max says, smirking.
"It's just that you've never said that before."

Theo doesn't reply right away, simply
frowns.

"What?" he finally says.

"You've never said that before,"
Max repeats, as though amused at Theo's confusion. "You've never called me
hot, before. Or my clothes. Or anything, for that matter."

He doesn't say it bitterly, more like it's
an interesting observation, but it still takes Theo by surprise.

"I have," he says defensively,
but Max just shakes his head.

"Nope." He sounds completely
certain. "Not once."

Theo racks his brain, before realizing
that
damn it
, Max is right. Of all the billion times he has thought
about just how hot Max is, it never occurred to him that he wasn't actually
saying it out loud. He has never actually
told
Max that. And he suddenly
feels weirdly embarrassed, especially seeing as how Max has told him exactly
what he thinks about Theo's appearance, on more than one occasion.

Theo looks down awkwardly, smoothing along
the suspender strap between his thumb and forefinger, absently.

"Well, I guess I figured it was
obvious," he mutters. "Self-explanatory."

Max chuckles.

"It's fine," he says. "I
don't need you to say it, or anything."

Theo swallows hard.

"I do think you're hot," he
says, eyes still on his fingers, fiddling with that strap. "Like,
really
hot."

He adds some proper emphasis on
really
,
simply because it still baffles him how someone like him ended up with someone
as hot as Max, and he continues, his gaze now trailing up along Max's chest.

"Everything about you is
gorgeous," he mutters, as though not confident enough to say it outright,
despite how true it is. "Everything."

He finally, hesitantly, looks up at Max's
face again, meeting those dark blue eyes with his green ones. Max looks oddly
surprised, frozen. Theo is pretty sure there's even the smallest hint of fear,
there.

"You're beautiful."

Theo has only seen Max look even remotely
nervous or uncomfortable once or twice, maybe three times. It's rare enough,
that he can barely believe it when it happens. Like right now.

Max doesn't say anything for several
seconds, just stares at Theo, blue, black-lined eyes slightly widened, as
though honestly shocked. Then, finally, he clears his throat a bit and puts on
a typical Max-expression of charming nonchalance.

"I guess that sounds pretty
good," he says lightly, "now that I think about it."

Theo understands that he's trying to ease
the tension, or at least, whatever tension Max seems to be feeling, at the
moment. But he can't help himself.

"It's true," he says instead,
with a completely serious, straight face. And Max is visibly affected, as
though surprised for a second time. This time, though, he looks almost
confused, and just stares at Theo for another moment, before actually glancing
down at the floor.

"Fuck," he mutters, his voice so
low that Theo can barely hear him. "You really mean that, don't you?"

Theo is surprised at his reaction, even a
bit confused.