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The semester was about halfway done, and Wylan’s first experience with midterms had left him completely stunned. Under the impression that he’d lose marks simply for not having enough time to do all the questions, he’d signed up for accommodations and miraculously been granted them.
Wylan and Jesper had picked this school because it had an exciting new science building as well as a track team that had competed in international events, but Wylan ultimately assumed he wouldn’t qualify for accommodations. That they’d see his marks from high school and see he did just fine, see that on paper, he actually didn’t have trouble at all.
But they’d given him more time. He’d gone to his professor’s offices during their hours and gotten extra help. He’d been emailing them. He’d talked to them in the halls. Wylan was known and he was celebrated and he was seen. To go from a high school that shamed him for being himself to a university that celebrated it had definitely made it seem too good to be true.
Wylan was always waiting for the downside. Speaking of worst possible scenarios happening, Wylan was waiting for his roommate to come back from his metaphysics class. This wasn’t the worst thing, but he was thinking about something bad happening.
He’d been rooming with Matthias Helvar for a little over a month and a half now, and they could not have a conversation to save their lives. Wylan, being himself, assumed he did something to make him uncomfortable. He knew he was a quiet and courteous roommate but maybe that was the wrong move. Was that so abnormal of a teenage boy that he freaked Matthias out?
The door opened and Wylan squeaked like he’d been caught trespassing when he was standing quietly in his own room. Matthias ducked through the doorway, he wasn’t quite as tall as the doorframe but he clearly was somewhere, maybe back home. Wylan spun around to look at him, because he’d been rehearsing his lines and maybe that was not very teen boy of him either.
“Hi! Hey, um!” Wylan practiced the hesitance too, trying to make the interaction as organic as possible, making it so unbearable to have. Matthias took his headphones out as he registered Wylan was actually talking to him, and he blinked blue eyes at his roommate. “I’m gonna be spending the night at a friend's place, so y’know. Don’t wait up.”
Was that a weird fucking thing to say? Do you say that to a roommate? Wylan had never had a roommate before. It was just him and his Dad in a two bedroom house before he moved all the way across the country for school. Matthias didn’t seem phased by the contents of the conversation, still hung up on Wylan talking to him.
“Yeah, cool,” Matthias offered, an awkward smile appeared on his face and Wylan gave a wonky one back. Alright. Maybe it was fine because they seemed to be on a level playing field. That Matthias was just as socially awkward as Wylan. “At Jesper’s?”
Wylan batted his eyes because he hadn’t prepared a script past this point. Matthias was fucking going off script. A script he didn’t know even existed but still, he’d betrayed Wylan by not knowing his lines.
Matthias had met Jesper quite a few times, and Jesper could talk to anybody in the entire world and win them over. Of course Matthias knew who his roommate’s boyfriend was, this wasn’t a weird question, it was quite logical.
“Oh! Actually, um, Nina’s!” Wylan had been so graciously invited to movie night by Nina Zenik, a girl he sat next to in organic chemistry for hours at a time. This was his first official overnight hangout with anybody but his boyfriend, so Wylan was buzzing with nervous excitement that made him want to throw up a little bit.
“Cool.” Matthias repeated, shrugging his backpack off of his shoulders and setting it down by his desk, apparently done with the conversation. Okay. Sure, cool. Wylan picked up his bag from his bed, where he had double and triple checked he had all his stuff while he anxiously waited for Matthias.
Was it just Wylan or did Matthias have a very physical reaction to the mention of Nina? Like maybe Matthias was the one who was going to be sick. Maybe that’s how they’d bond. Throwing up together. Wylan’s eyebrows furrowed at the thought, there has got to be a better way to become friends with Matthias, but wow he was desperate.
“Super cool, see you then.” Wylan looked over his shoulder at his side of the room which was so clean it almost looked like an IKEA showroom. He just didn’t want anything to be out of place, what if mess stressed Matthias out? It certainly drove Wylan wild.
“Sure, take it easy.” Matthias offered a soft nod as Wylan opened the door and shuffled out. He tried to wave and shut the door at the same time, almost closing his hand inside. Wylan didn’t know what a nod meant but he didn’t get a lot of things. He assumed it was all good because Jesper did it sometimes, and if Jesper did it, well he had nothing to worry about.
Wylan at university meant Wylan reinvented himself, which just meant not hiding what he had to back at home. He was out and he’d started dressing the way he wanted to and he didn’t have to hide every time he impulsively got a piercing now.
Of course his helix piercing that Jesper did when they were in high school was still his favourite, he’d also gotten his lobes pierced. Two happy little lobe piercings lived alongside his helix piercing and the other ear just had one for now. He had recently gotten into dangly earrings and hoops instead of just studs.
Wylan couldn’t believe he could just walk around campus and nobody cared what he looked like or what he was doing. Going from a high school of 400 students to a university of 15,000 completely rocked his world. He was still getting used to it, he didn’t know if he ever would. But it was kind of fun, in a really frightening way.
He didn’t really like being scared but he’d agreed to watch horror films with Nina and her roommate Inej tonight. Wylan convinced himself that if he said no he’d never make any friends, despite this being the first semester of his university career. A few scary movies probably wouldn’t hurt, most likely. Wylan had never tried, he didn’t know the threshold.
As he was texting Nina that he was just down the hall, the door to her room flung open enthusiastically and Wylan jumped back thinking something was wrong. But that was just Nina’s way of telling him to come in and there was no need to knock or anything. Kind of like a beaded curtain, their doorway had gold and silver stars hanging from varying heights.
Wylan softly passed underneath the stars, moving to close the door behind him before he registered the music coming from a record player and the light scent of a candle breezing towards him. This made complete sense to him that this was Nina’s room.
“Hiya, Wy, make yourself right at home.” Nina called from her spot on Inej’s bed, sitting in front of her roommate as she shaped her eyebrows for her.
“Hello, hi,” Wylan gave a tiny wave to Inej who was too scared to move while Nina was this close to her with her tiny pair of scissors. “I love this throw, very soft looking.” He put his bag down beside Nina’s dresser and she looked over her shoulder at the polite boy who didn’t know the etiquette of being in a girl’s room. He’d only been in one boy’s room, and he knew what to do in there.
“Go ahead and crawl in, roll around like a dog in the grass, what’s mine is yours.” Nina wanted to reiterate that Wylan could do whatever the hell he wanted in her room and it’s fine because they were practically besties.
Wylan did not crawl in and roll around, he just sat down and softly petted it. It was kind of like the rug in his room. He wondered if Nina would be weirded out by Wylan just going around their room touching stuff, feeling out for the best textures.
“Wylan, I can’t see so you have to tell me if I have no eyebrows left.” Inej was putting all her trust in Nina and then employing Wylan to tell her the truth about whether that was a good decision or not.
“Eyebrows still very much there, just…more pointy?” Wylan tilted his head because he was not so well versed in the technical terms of this sort of thing. “Sharp? Defined, probably defined is what I mean.” He offered helpfully and Inej took this into consideration.
“Alright. Thank you for the update.” Inej had been telling Nina they needed a handheld mirror for this and Nina kept saying she’d buy one but then forgot and it was eyebrow day again. “I’m so jealous of your lashes, mine grow straight down.”
“Lashes?” Wylan poked at them self consciously even though he’d been given a compliment. He hoped it was a good thing anyways. He wasn’t so good at the things that seemed like you should be happy but then ended with not so happy things. “Have you seen how Nina puts on her false lashes?”
“Let’s not bring me into this.” Nina brushed a few hairs off of Inej’s cheek and then blew at the few that got stuck on her forehead. She leaned back and laughed in absolute glee, she’d done it again, made Inej’s eyebrows look gorgeous without spending a single cent.
“Nina leaves her lashes everywhere, I have a heart attack every five steps because I swear it’s a spider infestation.” Inej complained as he scooted off her bed and went to the floor length mirror propped up against the wall between both their beds. “Oh wow, Nina! They look so pretty!” She leapt to give her a hug and Nina was already there expecting it.
As Nina pet at Inej’s long dark hair, Wylan smiled brightly at the casual display of friendship. He got to thinking if this was just a girl thing or if maybe one day Matthias might feel close enough to hug him.
“You were already so pretty, my darling Inej.” Nina cupped her face in both hands and both of them giggled. “Wy? Do you want an eyebrow slit or something? I can shave off your tails too?”
“My tails?” Wylan’s brows scrunched, hands flying up to touch them. Nina snorted and flopped onto Inej’s bed, smacking at the mattress until Wylan got the memo to change locations. “Oh, may I?”
“Of course Wylan,” Inej was thrilled he had asked though, easing down on the opposite side of Wylan as he sat down softly. “These bits at the end.” She poked at the tails of his eyebrows and he opened his mouth in understanding. Sure, that made perfect sense.
“I think I’m okay for now.” Wylan smiled when Nina brushed through his eyebrows with the tiniest little brush he’d ever seen. “Can I ask you something though? I’m just curious…”
“Anything in the whole wide world, Wy-bear.” Nina put her eyebrow spoolie and tiny scissors away in their little case. She rubbed at Wylan’s shoulder encouragingly as if he was going to ask a question that altered the very course of their lives.
“I was just wondering how you get your eyelids all sparkly like that, with the glitter right here…” Wylan pointed at Nina’s makeup and she gasped, hands covering her mouth.
“Is this an invitation to do your makeup?” Nina was over the moon, because she’d been saying for weeks to Inej that Wylan had the perfect bone structure if he’d just let her get her grubby little fingers on him.
“Just the little glittery part…” Wylan whispered, not sure he was ready for a full face, or terribly convinced the feeling of stuff on his skin would be good for him.
“And after can you pleaaase show me how to contour?” Inej eagerly rested her head on Wylan’s shoulder and his heart leapt in his chest. Casual display of friendship. Wylan smiled small and shy before turning to Nina when she brushed his hair away from his face so she could see what she was working with better.
“Nina Zenik is high in demand tonight,” Nina purred, batting her lashes at the both of them as she got up to collect her makeup bag. “Why of course my darlings, there is enough of me to go around.” She snatched up a blindingly glitter-covered bag from her dresser and began digging through it.
“I’ll help,” Inej offered, gathering a handful of hair clips from her bedside table and pinning Wylan’s red gold curls away from his face. “Look at these, so cute right? I’ve got butterflies and stars and flowers.”
Wylan looked at her palm covered in sparkly little pastel clips and he gasped. They were cute. He touched where they sat in his hair and he smiled again, he didn’t know why but he just felt so overjoyed.
“Before,” Nina leaned back on the bed with her phone in both hands and took a photo of Wylan pre-makeover. Inej gasped when she saw the camera and leaned in so their heads softly bonked, closing her eyes as she grinned. Nina took another photo and visibly melted. “You guys are so cute I hate, hate, hate you.” She plopped down in front of Wylan, tilting his chin up so he caught the light better.
“Send me that later,” Inej whispered, putting the excess hair clips back on her table and taking it upon herself to look through Nina’s makeup bag. “Ooh, group chat. We need a group chat.”
Wylan was going to lose it, he’d never ever been in a group chat before. He also wasn’t sure if Inej knew about his inability to read, that he couldn't do it super well and he opened his mouth to talk about it.
“Wy-bear prefers audio messages so I reckon we can start a thing, where we pretend we have a podcast or we’re famous vloggers.” Nina was one step ahead of him and his heart just about burst out of his chest. She hadn’t said it in a way that made Wylan feel like a burden, she hadn’t even said that he couldn’t read, just said this is what works for him and so of course they’d do it.
“Now I’ve got to brainstorm a group chat name and a podcast name.” Inej had her work cut out for her, but she wasn’t mad at it at all. She rested her head on Wylan’s shoulder, deep in concentration. “Neenlannej?”
“Isn’t that a makeup brand?” Wylan mumbled, surprising all three of them because how on earth did he know that? Where and why did he retain that? He’d made Nina snort and cover her mouth with one hand.
“Literally, Laneige will shut us down!” Nina giggled as she swiped primer over Wylan’s eyelid and showed him the packaging. A weird little purple tube thing that came with an applicator, the design immediately confusing Wylan. “How about Wynanej?”
“Well that sounds like a question.” Inej added and Wylan laughed happily, eyes following Nina as she picked up several palettes of glittery eyeshadows.
“What colour do you want, Wy?” Nina showed him the eyeshadow like it was a hand of cards, moving them so he could see the colours sparkle and change. “I’ve got red-berry-wine, orange-umber-terracotta, yellow-lemon-sunflower,” She dropped her hands, out of breath. “The rainbow, I’ve got the rainbow.”
“I like this purple.” Wylan pointed at the palette and Nina squealed, showing it to Inej who gasped. They all agreed it was a good purple, magnificent in fact.
“I love when a man knows what he wants.” Nina gave a small wink before ditching all the other palettes in a pile and opening up the purple one. “The glittery thing I do, I call it, ‘faerie waking up covered in dew’ and basically glitterize my face so it looks wet.”
“Is glitterize an actual word?” Inej liked it nonetheless, she’d add it to her vocabulary, but wasn’t sure how often it’d come up. “Innilan?” She jumped back into squishing their names together and Nina laughed breathlessly.
“Innie-land? Belly button town, population just us.” Nina loaded her finger with the purple and began tapping it onto Wylan’s eyelid, immediately pleased with the result. “Okay, group chat, we just pick an emoji to represent ourselves? I call faerie.”
“Way easier, yes.” Inej seemed to be doing this already, tapping their contacts into her messages and creating a group chat. “I’ll do the little tulip! Wylan, what’s your favorite emoji?”
Wylan had a lot of favourites. He liked to use them in place of typing or speaking. He was wondering what could accurately describe himself.
“I’ll do the teddy bear, for Wy-bear.” Wylan knew that Nina was trying to make a silly little nickname but he’d never had a nickname like this before. He wanted to remember his first nickname given to him by his friends.
“We are so perfect.” Nina closed the palette and opened up a little compact, a glittery highlighter that she put on her pinky so she could reach Wylan’s inner corner. “This is where the magic happens.” She tapped it on and Inej, who was nearly hanging off the bed to watch the reveal in real time, gasped.
“Oh, Wylan, that’s so gorgeous on you.” Inej didn’t know how else to express it, so she put her hand to her chest. “With the purple, it’s so lovely.” She leaned toward Nina when she beckoned her over and she patted some into her inner corners too.
“We’re matching!” Nina wiped her fingers clean on the inside of her dress, the way she always did, because she did not have time to wash her hands. “Now we obnoxiously take selfies and make it everybody’s problem. They will see us hang out.”
Inej brushed the hair clips from Wylan’s hair and then put them in his palm, smiling warmly.
“Keep them, I have so many. They come in packs of like 20, I do not need 20.” Inej closed his hand around them so he couldn’t say no and he tucked them into his pocket so he wouldn’t forget them.
Nina fluffed his hair back into place, tucking it behind his ears so they could see all his piercings and she gasped, catching sight of the new pieces he was wearing.
“Ugh, so cute, the little dangly pearl is so you.” Nina tilted his chin to the side so Inej could see and she was once again stunned.
“So, so, lovely. You know, I’ve always wanted dangly earrings but I get so self-conscious.” Inej murmured and Wylan blinked, he had no idea somebody as breath-taking as Inej worried about something like that. “Just, what if it doesn’t fit me? Or it looks like I’m trying too hard? Does it scream, me?”
“So? Wear what you want when you want. Not your problem. Look good, feel good.” Nina offered, shoving her makeup haphazardly into her bag and chucking it onto her bed so they could all fit on Inej’s bed and in the millions of photos to come. “I don’t know about dangly earrings but I will take one for the team and scream your name, any day.”
“Oh, stop it.” Inej flushed all the way to her ears and hid behind her hands. “Now we have to wait until I calm down to take selfies, sorry Wylan, you do look so pretty. We have to show you off.”
Wylan had never taken photos with anybody other than his boyfriend before, and he’s never been posted to another account other than his either. Never in his life did he think he’d just have friends. Have friends and have normal teenage experiences with his friends. Wylan just thought he’d never get to be a kid, never get to be 18, never get to leave town and be accepted.
Nina had an impressive following, so Wylan was a bit intimidated, but she didn’t tolerate any sort of negativity or hate, so he was reassured pretty quickly. Wylan sat staring at the posts Nina and Inej had both tagged him in as she began her lesson in contour.
Inej was a great student and asked lots of questions, stuff about undertone and face shape that Wylan had too much trouble keeping up with. Instead he hovered around the comment section of Nina’s post, so pleased when he saw heart emojis from people he didn’t even know. Then he’d switch to Inej’s post, more personal and private, and he’d sigh in bliss.
He is so glad he said yes to coming to movie night. It hadn’t even occurred to him that the marathon hadn’t even started yet, and this was just prep for it.
Nina had turned the music up after she cleaned up all her makeup, stretching her arms over her head as she danced around the room happily. Inej laughed loudly when Nina did an excessive amount of hairography, with so much beautiful brown hair it was hard not to.
Wylan was perched on Nina’s bed, touching her throw blanket again and using it to ground himself. He was still nervous and excited and a little throw-uppy. But he’d have to hold it in because these were his friends and everything was completely fine.
He watched Inej join in on the dance party, and she could really dance. Graceful was putting it lightly, she was heavenly. She’d been a ballerina all her life. Wylan grinned when Nina attempted her version of ballet, she could do the spins but not much else. He was offering them a little round of applause when the door opened and his boyfriend of all people poked his head through.
“Pardon the intrusion, I come bearing gifts.” Jesper announced, scoffing when Nina snatched the boxes of food right out of his hands and got to setting them up on the dresser. “Hi Nina.” He deadpanned, rolling his eyes when she shooed him away with a hand.
“Hey, Nej.” Jesper gave Inej a warm smile and she smiled back, she’d gotten very fond of Jesper very fast, most people were. But he was like a little brother, and it brought her comfort she didn’t know she needed.
“And hello, hello to my baby.” He crossed the room to get to Wylan and then froze in place when he noticed Wylan’s eyelids were purple and sparkly.
“You didn’t tell me you were coming…” Wylan whispered, narrowing his eyes in a sort of playful suspiciousness. Jesper had gotten a better look at his eye makeup because of it and he opened his mouth to uselessly form words but nothing came out.
“I invited him cause I wanted food but didn’t want to get it myself and I thought it’d make you feel a little better about spending the night.” Nina offered around a mouthful of a cheesy breadstick. Jesper had carried pizza around campus dutifully, if ordering pizza meant he got to spend the night with Wylan he had no problem doing an errand or two.
“Pardon my french but fucking hell,” Jesper could not take it anymore, he grabbed Wylan by both sides of the face tenderly and lodged a knee between Wylan’s legs so he was forced to softly part them. “Sorry, you are so, so stunning right now, can’t focus like a little bit.”
Wylan flushed all the way up to his ears and down to his chest, helplessly squeaking when Jesper pulled him in for a kiss. He was not really used to doing this kind of thing in public, semi-public? Around people. Jesper in university meant Jesper thriving, meant Jesper doing whatever he wanted, and what he wanted was to kiss his pretty boyfriend.
“Oh, wow,” Wylan gasped out when Jesper pulled away, his boyfriend guided his head around so he could get a better look at his makeup. “Now I can’t focus.” He mumbled, more talking about being kissed like Jesper was starving for him and then having him move on like that wasn’t the case.
“You better get it out now, cause if I see a blanket wiggling suspiciously while we’re watching movies I’m gonna start stabbing people.” Nina looked over her shoulder mostly at Jesper, because she would not put it past him to not-so-secretly touch his boyfriend under a blanket. “We will be eating though, so, dinner and a show if you’ll share with the class.”
“I am not sharing with the class.” Jesper rolled his eyes magnificently, leaning in to kiss Wylan’s neck a few times and then pulling away, apparently focused again. “And you are not gonna eat all those. Those are for sharing.” He got off up the bed and Wylan fell onto his back, staring at the ceiling all fuzzy-brained.
“There they go again.” Inej joined Wylan on Nina’s bed, her plate full with food that she was planning to share with him. “So? You gonna wear more makeup if it means Jes will eat you up?”
“Not you too.” Wylan groaned, he rolled over onto his side and pulled his knees to his chest. Don’t think about it, Wylan, do not think about it. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly and took a deep breath. “Maybe. Not because, um, that, I just feel a little…more? Like, more myself. More Wylan-esque.”
“Wylan-esque is brilliant.” Nina hopped onto her bed right beside Inej and took a huge bite of her pizza, moaning happily when it touched her tongue. “I can give you some stuff I’m not using.”
“That’s great, baby.” Jesper was referring to Wylan feeling more comfortable as himself but hey, free stuff was also great. He crawled onto the bed beside Wylan and Nina kicked Jesper softly, making him smack her away like her foot was an unwelcome mouse. “Then you can teach me, I think eyeliner would change my life.”
Wylan tried to focus on eating, he really did, but the idea of Jesper with eyeliner on did unspeakable things to him. It clicked because this must be what Jesper was feeling right now. The reason he kissed him breathless and then went about his day, because yeah, that had to be indecent exposure what Wylan wanted to do to a Jesper wearing eyeliner.
“Wy-bear, I can hear you drooling.” Nina laughed, pawing at the remote to the projector she’d gotten specifically for movie night and turned it on. “So before this can turn into an orgy, I am putting on a family friendly film.” She put on Ring and Inej nearly screamed.
“Oh, I hate this one, my brother used to chase me around the house pretending to be her.” Inej complained, snuggling right up into Nina and pulling the throw over her legs for added protection.
“He has good taste.” Nina nodded sagely, resting her head on Inej’s in a bit of reassurance. She’d joke to ease the tension but she’d never want to genuinely frighten Inej, never want to ruin her night for the sake of watching a movie.
“I also kinda hate it.” Jesper whispered into Wylan’s ear so only he could hear him, and Wylan peeked through his lashes to look at him. Concealing a smile, Wylan scooted closer so he was half laying on his boyfriend’s lap and Jesper hooked his arm over his chest, holding him tight.
In typical horror moving watching fashion, every ten or so minutes Inej’s shoulders shot up in fright and Wylan startled because the bed moved and Jesper yelped because he was so into the movie he forgot his surroundings existed. Nina let out a cackle when this happened, very pleased with herself. The horror movie marathon was clearly her idea, and tormenting her friends was an added bonus.
Sometimes, Nina would grab Jesper by the shoulders at the same time as a jumpscare and he’d nearly shit himself. Or she’d make an unnerving noise that made Inej close her eyes and cover her ears with her hands, trying to drone it out. Wylan would burrow further into Jesper whenever he got scared, but with each fright came the wave of happiness and thrill and relief.
Maybe to them they were just hanging out and watching movies together, but to Wylan he was in a room with people who cared about him for the first time ever. He didn’t have to worry for once in his life. He didn’t have to rehearse his lines or his reactions. He could jump when he was scared and Inej would be right behind him, squealing in shock. He could complain that Nina was evil for this and she’d thank him. He could nuzzle Jesper and his hand would already be combing through his hair, keeping him closer than close.
“Why’re you texting Matthias Helvar?” Inej’s shocked voice broke the silence. Jesper and Wylan traded glances before looking over at Nina, who was the only one left to be accused. She was quiet for a second, twirling a piece of hair around her finger.
“Sadako’s right there, look out!” Nina dramatically gasped out and all three of them startled, Jesper actually yelling in fright and Inej screaming at the shock of it all which caused Wylan to laugh so loud that all the sound combined might as well had been a fucking sonic boom.
When there was a knock at the door Nina leapt off the bed with cat-like agility and Jesper, who had been leaning against her legs like she was a chair, flopped onto his back. Nina casually leaned against the doorframe as she explained to the dorm’s Resident Assistant that no there were no boys in her room and yes, she knew it was quiet hours and yes, it was lights out but they’d seen a spider and it was soooo big and scary but it was dead now.
Wylan spent the next five minutes giggling into Jesper’s chest, not even having the energy to climb up onto the bed because when Jesper fell, so did half of Wylan’s body. His legs had slipped off the bed and he was weakly on his toes as Jesper attempted to yank a very wiggly, liquid version of Wylan back onto him.
“I think we broke Wylan.” Inej’s smile could be heard as she spoke and Nina already had her phone recording for future black-mailing possibilities. Wylan was not even trying to help Jesper, he was just gasping for air because he’d laughed until he cried.
“Did you guys get him drunk before I got here?” Jesper huffed but he was grinning anyway, giving up on pulling him by the wrists and instead wrapping his arms around Wylan’s waist and easily hoisting him up onto the bed again. “There you go, jeez, absolute silly goose behaviour.”
“He looks like one of those ferrets…weasels? Your boyfriend is a rodent.” Nina did a swan dive into her bed, narrowly avoiding slamming her leg down on Jesper’s face. She scooped Inej up in a big hug, and Inej went willingly, hugging her roommate back.
“Mmmmm, neither are rodents.” Wylan offered, pressing his cheek to Jesper’s and basking in the warmth of his skin. “They’re something called Mustelidae, think otters, minks, martens, even wolverines.” He whispered in an earnest attempt to be helpful and Nina’s eyebrows furrowed.
“Fucking nerd.” Nina ruffled Wylan’s hair fondly and he flushed bright red.
“Wolverines? Really?” Inej was fascinated, because she for one didn’t think of a weasel or an otter and also thought of a wolverine. “Is it like…how they’re shaped?”
“Noodles?” Jesper asked, and Wylan laughed happily, nodding his head.
“Uh huh, noodle shaped with short legs.” Wylan let Jesper roll them around so Jesper was sitting up and Wylan was half-laying between his legs, head on Jesper’s chest.
“Now are we ready children? We’ve got 20 more minutes then it’s time for The Exorcist.” Nina reminded them that this was a marathon, and even though they’d so bravely made it through three quarters of a horror movie, there’d be more to scream about.
As the night went on their two separate cuddles had turned into a cuddle pile. Wylan squished between Jesper and Nina, and Inej on Nina’s other side, more half-asleep than anything.
“Put a hand on me and I’ll bite it off.” Nina commented when Jesper’s wandering hand, that had been moving from person to person to offer a soft comforting squeeze, made its way to Nina’s calve.
“It’s a friendly hand.” Jesper defended, but he settled it back on Wylan’s knee instead.
“Quite friendly, even if it does tickle.” Inej added, blinking sleep out of her eyes as something gory was happening on screen. Jesper’s hand had stroked Inej’s arm before it attempted to go for Nina, and was rejected.
“Not his fault physical touch is his love language.” Wylan whispered, not so much tired as he was ridiculously relaxed. Who knew he’d be able to be calm while watching movies about gruesome death and torture.
“The same way my love language is hitting you in the head really hard with a hammer.” Nina batted her eyes prettily and Jesper grabbed at one of her pillows, pulling it around his head as some sort of protection.
“Does this mean you don’t love me?” Inej couldn’t recall being hit at all, and Nina put her finger up to further explain herself.
“I have a different language for everybody. My darling Inej gets cuddles and can eat food off my plate,” Nina noted that this was a big deal, because she was territorial about food but Inej sometimes just had the stomach for a few bites. “Wy-bear gets excessive compliments and free favours for life.” This was important because Wylan was too nice and or too anxious to ask anything of anybody. “Jes gets hit in the head with a hammer and words of affirmation that I do not like him.”
“Wow, that really means the world to me.” Jesper abandoned using the pillow as a helmet to instead smack her so hard with it there was a loud thump.
“Can’t we all just get along?” Inej cradled Nina’s head but Nina was more concerned with getting her hair back in order, Jesper had hit her where it hurt.
“No, I do not like him.” Nina said matter-of-factly as if she didn’t invite Jesper over in the first place. Of course she hid the fact she wanted him to be there by blaming it on Wylan. Wylan would like Jesper to be there so he forced her hand and Nina had to ask him to come. When Wylan had absolutely no idea Jesper had been invited.
“I am confident I like him enough for the both of us.” Wylan was afraid that Nina was going to retaliate and smack Jesper in the face or something. He was going to play nice and remind Nina that he really, really liked Jesper.
“No fucking kidding,” Nina scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Absolutely no contest. You like him too much, he could stand being brought down a peg.”
“I think it’s lovely.” Inej added and Nina looked wounded, betrayed, but not enough to stop hugging her.
“It is lovely, my Wylan’s love keeps me going everyday.” Jesper proudly bragged, leaning down and kissing Wylan on the top of the head a few times.
“Booo! Love stinks!” Nina complained like she didn’t really love everybody cuddled up on her bed right now. As if she hadn’t let them into her home, her sanctuary, and asked them to spend the night. As a big believer in energy and auras, she was picky, but she was not going to admit that, least of all to Jesper Fahey.
“But we love you anyways.” Inej leaned her head against Nina’s and she couldn’t even pretend it didn’t completely melt her.
“Not me.” Jesper said pointedly, and Wylan looked up at him with his big blue eyes. “Okay, I do.” As if Wylan had held him at gunpoint to say it instead of just blinking.
“This is my first time like…having friends. So, I really love you.” Wylan said it and then was immediately caged by Jesper’s body protectively as Nina flung herself to pile onto Wylan. Of course Inej joined in and Jesper was fighting to stop them from squishing Wylan.
As Wylan laughed happily, covering his mouth with both hands to stop them from getting in trouble, his eyes flickered over Jesper hovering over him like this was war and not movie night. He swallowed his laughter the best he could as Nina scrambled over Jesper desperately, trying to rip him off of Wylan so she could get to him.
Inej was doing her best to support Nina but Nina and Jesper’s dedication to the bit was certainly something to gawk at. At one point Nina actually started biting Jesper and Inej had to splutter in confusion.
It seems the two of them had telepathically decided to start playing zombie apocalypse right on top of Wylan. Wylan stared at Inej over Nina’s shoulder, who was just as lost as him, and they shrugged at the same time.
Whatever. Wylan hadn’t laughed this hard in a long time, or maybe ever. He couldn’t stop himself from loving them, and he never, ever wanted to. No matter what happened, Wylan hoped he’d always have them as his friends. His first friends.