The terrible thing about chugging a bottle of water before bed was the inevitable need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night—the things you did to keep yourself hydrated. Pulling the sheets back, Jasper padded his way into the bathroom to stop himself from sleeping with a full bladder. When he did, he went back to Jeremiah's room and got himself back under the sheets.

     He stared up at the ceiling, and seemingly refused to take off his glasses as his situation fully set in at two in the morning. Glancing over, Jeremiah was dozing peacefully with his pillow propped up by his hand underneath it, snuffling away as he slept. To keep himself from being overcome with a certain feeling, Jasper turned onto his side and faced the door instead. But as he did so, he felt Jeremiah scoot closer to him and wrap his arm around Jasper's middle, breathing a content sigh of relief when he was comfortable again.

     Jasper's next breath got caught in his throat, careful not to wake the boy that was sleep-spooning him. Jeremiah was so close that Jasper could sometimes feel Jeremiah's nose nuzzle itself into the back of his neck, making him stiffen up yet relax simultaneously at the action. It was subtly electrifying and dizzying all at once. Jasper let out a slow breath as he found himself relaxing into his hold, waiting for sleep to take over and knock him out.

     Breakfast was normal as usual—Jeremiah manning the stove, Steven annoying the everloving fuck out of him, and Jasper coming down the stairs and being the last to eat because he slept in (if you considered sleeping an extra half hour "sleeping in").

     Jasper sat at the island again, grabbing a clean bowl from the drying rack and popped open the box of Cap'n Crunch, laughing under his breath as he heard Jeremiah humming to himself while he flipped the fried egg that was in the pan. "You sound chipper, today, Jere."

     "When does he not?" Steven butt in before going back to munching on his cereal.

     "I was just remembering how much of a dork you look like when you sleep," Jeremiah countered, turning around to brandish a plate so he could get his egg out of the pan, moving on to add salt and pepper, as well.

     "Should I tell Alexa to start playing 'Eyes on Fire' by Blue Foundation?" Jasper asked sarcastically. Somehow, he knew that Jeremiah understood his reference and he saw it click once Jeremiah scrunched his nose at him and said, "Not like that, you weirdo. I just meant that you slept with your glasses on, so you're a nerd even when you're conked out."

     "And yet they were neatly folded and sitting on the bedside table next to me when I woke up this morning." Jasper took a knowing bite of his Cap'n Crunch, waiting for Jeremiah's next move.

     Jeremiah leaned in, and pushed Jasper's glasses up so they could sit properly on the bridge of his nose. "That's because I didn't want them to break, silly." He winked at him after, casually turning his attention back to his forgotten fried egg, cutting into it and taking a bite. Jasper sat there lamely, unfortunately struggling to come up with a response. He shouldn't have been all that surprised, considering that Jeremiah had the ability to render most people speechless with just a single look.

     "Hey," Jeremiah spoke up, "I was thinking of heading into town today to go pick out a gift for Belly's birthday tomorrow and I was wondering if you wanted to come?"

      Jasper nodded. "What time are you thinking of leaving?"

     "Around noon. Shouldn't take us too long to find something."

     "Sounds good. I should be ready by then."

     "Cool."

Jasper wasn't sure if he should've felt so comfortable walking around the house in nothing but a pair of his high school basketball shorts. His hair was also sticking out in a few places as he shook out the majority of the water from his shower and ran a towel through it, making him look like a half-naked porcupine. He came out of the bathroom with a toothbrush in his mouth as he went back to Jeremiah's room to finally look for a shirt to wear before he and Jeremiah headed out on the town.

     Entering the room, Jasper was met with Jeremiah's tan back, muscles gliding as he threw on a plain white t-shirt, fluffing his hair out after he pulled it down. Jasper was glad he remembered he had toothpaste in his mouth or else he would've choked. He must've made some sort of noise anyway because Jeremiah turned around, plastering on a lazy smirk once he saw who was standing in the doorway. "You like what you see?"

     "Yes, Jeremiah, you're a very pretty boy. Is that what you wanna hear?" Jasper groaned, remembering the banter they had going on the night of the book signing.

     "Like music to my ears. But I must say, Wilde, you don't look too bad yourself." Jeremiah gave Jasper a heavy once over, Jasper gulping at the action but doing nothing to shy away from the attention he was being given.

     "Yeah, well, it was either this or spend the rest of my high school career being shoved into a locker." Jasper crossed his arms, shrugging nonchalantly, and may or may not have been subtly flexing his biceps. "Now, if you're done ogling and objectifying me, I'm gonna put on a shirt."

    Jeremiah opened his mouth to respond but shut it promptly afterward and left Jasper to finish getting dressed, brushing his shoulder against his as he reached the door, closing it behind him. Jasper let out a humored hmph and finished getting dressed.

     The beach town of Cousins was something pulled out of a magazine or Pinterest board. As Jasper had already noticed, everything was either clean and white or covered in sand, some places sold upscale dinner sets while others had handmade blown glass and terracotta clay pots. Jasper and Jeremiah's first stop was a boutique next to Whale of a Time, the bookstore they were in the other night. A bell rang over the tops of their heads as they entered, and they started looking around for the perfect gift for Belly's birthday.

     "Is there really anything that you have in mind? Like, say, a shirt or a hat or a book?" Jasper asked, walking around and messing with the jewelry in the dishes and on the racks, mildly intrigued by the bracelets—maybe he could pick something out as a gift for his mom for her book signing.

     "I know she has a charm bracelet that she wears all the time," Jeremiah replied from somewhere over, flipping through shirts on the rack, "maybe I can get her a charm."

     "Good idea, maybe you can find one over here." Jasper nodded his head over to the table he was standing near. Jeremiah soon came up, scanning the table in hopes of finding something. He picked up a few that caught his eye, looking over one and the other. There was a charm that stood out—one in the shape of a key, small, gold, and delicate. Jeremiah held it up between his fingers to exmaine it, smiling in triumph as he found the perfect gift. With that, they went to check out and headed out of the shop debating whether or not they wanted to eat lunch afterward, settling on eating something when they got back to the house.

"How do you survive in this house when you have nothing but snacks stockpiled in your cabinets?" Jasper asked, shutting the door to the cabinet. "And you can't even touch half the ingredients in the fridge because they're for Bells's birthday dinner."

    Jeremiah raised an eyebrow, surprised. "How'd you know it was Belly's birthday dinner?"

     "Dude, there were literal sticky notes stuck to the cling film that said: 'Do not Touch'."

      "You did not just fucking say cling film. You sound like an uptight Brit."

     Jasper simply shrugged in response. "Calling it saran wrap is stupid."

     "Saran is the brand name. It's like saying Kleenex or Chapstick."

     "Why not just call it tissue and lip balm? You don't actually call cough drops Halls, do you?"

     Jeremiah shook his head, not even being able to believe what he was hearing. "So if you need to look something up, what do you turn to?"

     "The internet," Jasper answered slowly, as if it were some trick question. "This is how capitalism gets you. It gets you hooked on brand names. That's why everyone chooses Google over Bing."

     "Have you considered that Bing also has an ugly interface?"

     Jasper pointed a finger. "Hey, don't knock it. You get a cute wallpaper and a fun fact at the bottom."

     Without thinking, Jeremiah quickly reached out to bite it, making Jasper yelp at the sudden action. "Dude, what the fuck?"

     Jeremiah mimicked Jasper's simple shrug, tilting his head and adding on his signature lazy smirk into it. After a moment, he let something out that almost resembled a sigh. "Wow, you really have no idea how cute you are, do you?"

     "I mean," Jasper started, once again under the scrutiny of Jeremiah's heavy gaze, "I have some idea. My mom thinks I'm pretty, that's all that matters, really. And why the sudden subject change? Could you just not stop thinking about my ridiculously hot and athletic physique from this morning?"

     "Ha, ha. Very funny." Jeremiah huffed out a laugh. "You know, it's not very good for your ego to constantly brag about your physical appearance."

     Jasper's eyes widened at what just came out of Jeremiah's mouth. "Wha- you're the one who brought it up! You're not allowed to gaslight me!"

"You're coming over tomorrow for breakfast, right?" Jeremiah asked as he opened the front door to let Jasper through when they called it a night.

     "Isn't it Belly's birthday tomorrow? That seems more like a friendly, familial occasion, I wouldn't want to intrude," Jasper remembered.

     Jeremiah couldn't help but to huff. "Dude, it's just pancakes. And besides, you practically helped choose the gift I got for her. I can't take all the credit."

     "I feel like this is just a really long-winded way of saying that you want me there," Jasper smirked.

     "Shuddup." Jeremiah pressed a kiss to Jasper's cheek before telling him, "Good night and see you tomorrow, bright and early" before promptly shutting the door in his face.

     All Jasper could for that moment was stand and stare at the front door.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

happy new year !! no i didn't forget about them but my writer's block was a bitch and a half this past year so rip to all the updates i was excited but couldn't get around to write bc i'd just end up staring at my google docs

anywho, if you've noticed, recastings have been mad bc 1. gavin casalegno is a zionist and so is milo (i was gonna recast jasper anyway bc milo didn't look good with curran bc they kinda look like siblings #TO ME) so curran walters (credits to stcpidcupids ! ) and felix mallard have taken their places as jeremiah fisher and jasper wilde disrespectfully bc anyone rooting for the extermination of palestine can rot !

i hope you enjoyed the chapter regardless !

they're so theopeter coded jesus christ they really are losers (affectionate !!) in every universe oh my god