Sweaters & Cigarettes (35 page)

He chuckles as he looks up at Theo,
nodding at the washcloth in his hand.

"We should probably just throw
this away."

Theo lets out something between a
groan and a sigh, weirdly not feeling even slightly disappointed at the blowjob
he apparently just missed out on, to be honest.

"Seriously?" he says
breathlessly. "Not only are we in someone else's house, in their bathroom,
now we're ruining their stuff?"

"Oh, come on," Max says,
looking around for a place to put the used-up and stained washcloth.
"Worth it."

Theo rolls his eyes, while slightly
clumsily zipping up his pants and making sure there are no traces of his
activities anywhere on him. He is a bit drunk, though, and absently feels like
he wouldn't really trust his own judgment and observational skills right now,
anyway. But still.

"I guess," Theo murmurs,
before leaning back against the wall, feeling immensely satisfied, and Max
turns to him. He's not the same level of drunk as Theo, probably much more so
actually, and he smirks mischievously.

"Oh, I just love corrupting
you," he says smugly, and Theo scoffs, as Max spots a trashcan and drops
the stained washcloth into it, before closing the lid.

"Fuck you," Theo murmurs
affectionately, and Max gives him an approving glance.

"Now, there's an idea,"
he says, and Theo just looks at him for a moment, a slight frown on his face.

"Huh?" he says dumbly,
and Max moves in closer, putting his hands on Theo's hips.

"Fucking me," he says,
with a completely straight face, as usual. He leans in closer, his piercing
brushing against Theo's lips, and Theo mirrors Max and puts his hands on those
hips, feeling them move slightly closer to him. "I like that idea."

Theo doesn't reply. Instead, he
just swallows hard, eyes half-open and looking straight into Max's stunningly
blue ones.

"You do?" he finally
says, voice low and a bit hesitant, and Max hums in confirmation.

"I do," he says, in that
unusually low, smoky voice. He gives Theo a light kiss. "Having you inside
me, making me moan... Can't say I haven't thought about it."

He kisses Theo again, but Theo just
feels somehow too stunned to reciprocate properly. Max doesn't seem to notice,
though; he's oddly dazed and unfocused, and Theo is reminded of the fact that
he has been drinking. Theo has, too, but not as much as Max, and it's getting
increasingly obvious. Not that Theo really minds.

"You fucking me," Max
murmurs, moving one hand up to Theo's face and slowly sliding his pierced
tongue along his bottom lip. It makes Theo shiver. "Yeah, I've thought
about it. It's made me come, thinking about it."

Theo makes a low, strangled sound.
Alright, he might be used to Max's way of talking, by now, but he still has
some trouble with this. Mostly because it still makes him uncomfortable, while
it simultaneously makes him so very turned-on, and he swallows hard, tightening
his grip on Max's hips.

"You want that?" he hears
himself say in an intoxicated murmur, and Max groans against his mouth.

"Yes, I do," he replies,
moving in closer and pressing up against Theo. "I really do."

He kisses Theo again, slowly,
deeply, and Theo swears he's getting hard again, just from hearing Max say
these things. And this kiss isn't helping, neither is the alcohol, and god help
him, he feels like he just might give in to Max's wish, right here and now,
regardless of the circumstances, and regardless of the fact that he has never
done it before. He just really wants to. Suddenly, he really wants to do it, to
take Max like Max did with him, that night at the motel, and he absently slides
his hands down to Max's ass, pulling him closer.

He could do it. They could, they
could do it right now, and Theo wouldn't care about the consequences. All of a
sudden, it's all he can think about.

That is, until Max suddenly jerks
away, blue eyes wide.

"What?" Theo says, but
Max doesn't reply. Instead, he claps his hand over his mouth, eyes dazed,
unfocused, and slightly panicked, and it only takes another second for Theo to catch
on.

"Oh," he says, surprise
coloring his tone, and he glances around quickly, before using his hands to
steer Max over to the toilet, where he opens the lid. And almost immediately,
Max falls to his knees and throws up.

Theo just stands there for a moment,
confused, before shaking his head, as though trying to sober up.
Oh
.
Well, that was unexpected.

He doesn't dwell on it, though.
Instead, he crouches down beside Max, and gently rubs his back, trying to be of
some kind of comfort, and after a little while, Max takes a deep, heaving
breath. He groans.

"I'm sorry," he mumbles,
leaning over the toilet seat, and Theo sighs softly.

"It's fine," he says.
"Don't worry about it."

Max just groans again.

"No, I'm gross, and I totally
killed the romance," he says, before looking up at Theo. Those blue eyes
are still dazed, his face pale, and he looks positively pitiable. "Thanks,
though."

Theo quirks a small smile, still
gently rubbing Max's back, not mentioning how they both probably know that the
previous atmosphere wasn't so much one of
romance
as one of
drunk,
hormone-fueled passion.

"You're welcome," he says
softly, and he gets the tiniest, affectionate smile, in return.

It takes another few minutes before
Max feels better, during which Theo thinks about what they were actually doing,
earlier. Before the very sudden, and almost hilariously abrupt mood shift.

He was ready to do it. Seriously,
he felt completely ready to do it, to have sex with Max, to simply take him, right
here and now, in this bathroom, in someone else's house. It feels a bit
surreal, and on some level, he's glad it didn't come to that. He's pretty sure
he wouldn't have wanted the first time to be in a place like this, not like
that, and he's pretty sure Max wouldn't have wanted that, either. He's somehow
glad that the whole thing was interrupted.

Not that he's glad Max isn't
feeling well, and puking his guts out, but still.

Eventually, Max feels better, and
Theo gets a washcloth (a different,
clean
washcloth), soaks it in cold
water, and holds it against Max's forehead. His skin is clammy, and he glances
at Theo, while sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall, a somehow
confused, almost suspicious look mixed in with his affectionate expression.

"You're still here," he
murmurs, so low that Theo can barely hear him.

"Of course, I am," Theo
says, using the cold washcloth to gently dab Max's face. Max actually closes
his eyes a bit, letting out a soft sigh.

"That feels really good,"
he mumbles, nearly slurs. "I've never had anyone take care of me like
this, before."

"No?" Theo asks, and Max
very slowly shakes his head, as though to keep himself from making any sudden
movements, lest he throw up again.

"No," he says. "Not
that I usually get shitfaced and throw up, but it happens. And when it does,
I'm usually alone."

Theo doesn't reply right away.
Instead, he's hit with a sense of sadness he has felt before, one that makes
him want to pull Max as close as he can and make sure he never has to feel any
kind of loneliness or pain, ever again.

"How you feeling?" Theo
asks after a while, and Max groans, opening his eyes.

"Like shit," he
practically slurs. "But better."

Theo gives him a small, fond smile,
one which Max tiredly returns.

"Maybe we should leave,"
Theo suggests, and Max frowns.

"But it's not midnight,
yet," he says hoarsely, and Theo checks his phone. Sure enough; it's not
even eleven o'clock.

"So?" he says, putting
his phone back in his pocket, and Max keeps his frown.

"It's New Year's Eve," he
says tiredly, and Theo sighs.

"I don't care," he says.
"We're getting you home. Come on."

Max weakly protests a few more
times, complaining about how they need to do New Year's
properly,
but
Theo still manages to get him off the bathroom floor and out into the hallway
outside. As soon as he exits the bathroom, Max's arm slung over his shoulders
and Max leaning against him, he's met with looks that range from concerned, to
confused, to somehow impressed, and he manages to navigate through the crowd
and down the stairs.

Cassie spots them as they make
their way to the front door, and Theo explains to her that he and Max are
leaving early, making her pout slightly.

"But it's not even midnight,
yet," she points out, and Theo cocks his head.

"Yeah," he admits,
"but we're making that sacrifice. You staying?"

Cassie makes a face, looking a bit
mischievous, actually.

"Well," she says, "I
think I've got a pretty good shot at a New Year's kiss with that girl I've been
talking to, so..."

Theo raises his eyebrows slightly.

"The brunette?" he asks,
and Cassie nods. Theo gives her an impressed look. "She's hot."

"So hot," Max agrees
drunkenly, and Cassie smiles at him.

"Yeah, I know, right?"
she says, looking up at Theo. "Well, happy new year, guys."

She gives Theo a kiss on the cheek,
before doing the same with Max, and she gives them a sly smile.

"Wish me luck," she says,
before hurrying off through the crowd to find the girl she was talking about.

Theo watches her go, a fond smile
on his face. He and Max then make their way into the hall, where they soon find
their coats, and quickly make their way out the front door.

It's freezing outside, and Theo
immediately feels himself sober up quite a bit. Max, however, isn't responding
quite the same way.

"I'm sorry," he says,
leaning slightly against Theo, but no longer with his arm over his shoulders,
as they make their way along the street outside the house. "I don't
usually drink so much. I think someone spiked my drink."

Theo raises his eyebrows slightly.

"Someone spiked your alcoholic
drink?" he asks pointedly, with a small, teasing smile. He knows that
spike
can refer to a number of things here, but Max seems to forget that, and
groans.

"Well, you can spike it with
more
alcohol, can't you?" he retorts lazily, and Theo cocks his head.

"I suppose," he says.
Then he takes Max's hand, lacing their fingers together, as he plants a soft
kiss by Max's temple. "But it's fine, either way. Don't worry about it.
I'm just glad you're okay."

Max sighs heavily, and by the time
they're about a block away from the house, at a rather quiet part of the
street, he suddenly stops walking. Theo stops, as well, and turns to look at
him. Max seems to deliberate for a moment.

"I love you," he
eventually nearly slurs, and Theo quirks a small, fond smile.

"I know," he says,
placing himself in front of Max, so that they're face to face. "I love
you, too."

But Max just shakes his head then,
looking down at Theo's chest, rather than his face, while moving up his hands
to grip Theo's jacket..

"No," he says, sounding
oddly determined. "No, you don't understand."

He exhales sharply, frowning, as
though thinking of what to say.

"I
really
love
you," he settles on, "
so
much."

He tugs on Theo's jacket slightly, a
strange, almost pained expression on his face, eyes still fixed on Theo's
chest.

"And you―" he
swallows hard. "I'm a mess. I'm not...
good
. And you're still
here."

He moves his hands to Theo's
shoulders, as he says it, his upper arms, touching his chest experimentally, as
though checking to see if Theo is still actually corporeal, still real.

"It doesn't make sense,"
he murmurs, and Theo feels a confused, somehow sad, frown settle on his face.

"Hey," he says, moving
one hand up to Max's face, so that he can tilt it upwards, finding those blue,
drunken eyes with his own. "I'm not going anywhere."

Max grits his teeth slightly, and
Theo is honestly shocked to see that those eyes are a bit glossy, shining with
actual, impending tears, and he just stares for a moment, somehow confused.
Then, he pulls Max closer and puts his arms around him, feeling him lean into
him and reciprocate the embrace.

"You
are
good,"
Theo says, moving one hand up to stroke Max's hair, as he feels his boyfriend
pretty much cling to him, fingers digging into his jacket. "You're
amazing. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I want to be
with you."

He kisses his hair.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"But why?" Max's voice
sounds oddly thick, now, slightly muffled against the scarf around Theo's neck.
He sounds confused, almost angry, and Theo swears he can hear those tears
threatening to spill over. "It doesn't make any sense. Why would you want
that?"