@anthelias cont. from [ here ]
after pushing together some of his furniture and building a half-hearted attempt at a FORT, he lays beside woojin. under the blanketed roof, he’s curled up on his side, head propped upon sandwiched palms, from where he quietly admires the other. soft music plays in the background, and he’s enjoying the CALM after the long day had taken it out of him, but most of all, jude is appreciative of getting this, whateverLITTLE time he can spend with woojin in the chaos of their tangled, t e e m i n g academic lives.
he watches quietly. the steady rising and falling of his chest and the landscape of woojin’s profile ( one worth studying so closely, by the way ). every climb, every dip, from his forehead to his chin. and maybe he’s is burning holes into the side his head with how hard he’s been staring, but it makes woojin turns onto his side to face him, which is a WIN for the ever eager ‘ attention monopolizer. ’ woojin even spoils him by assuming a similar position and giving him a full view of his face. his already softened features BLOSSOM an expression that jude can only loosely translate to acurious ‘ what ? ’ an unspoken question, to which he responds to with a small, cautious smile that surfaces to his lips with a soft-spoken “ nothing. ”
and then when he least expects it, woojin’s hand reaches out ever so slowly, so G E N T L Y towards him; he doesn’t flinch and allows him. his cheeks warm up almost immediately to his touch and it prompts a yearning for woojin, even when he’s RIGHT THERE, right next to him. slowly but surely, jude is coming to terms with the magnitude of his feelings, and he can’t even BEGIN to fathom them. all he knows is that he wants this feeling to last, and hold onto it for as long as he can.
jude can’t take his eyes off him and leans into his warm palm, even when he’s TICKLISH to to his cold fingertips. but that doesn’t stop him from kissing those very fingers when he gets the chance to. this time, jude’s expression reflects an equally curious ‘ what ? ’, to which woojin responds with a silent answer hidden somewhere behind his g l o w i n g smile. to this, jude moves closer & kisses him before settling to lay comfortably CLOSER to him, compared to the arm’s span at which he was before.
–– –– he wonders, if they can ( please ) just stay in their blanket fort for the rest of eternity.
when was the last time that woojin had done s o m e t h i n g like this? he can't
remember—might not even say he ever HAS . his guardians had never been
ᴇᴀɢᴇʀ to indulge in his i m a g i n a t i o n ;; they ᴅ ᴇ ᴀ ʟ ᴛ with it, but they were
ready for him to start to learn. for every picture book that he had, they tried to
slip a WORKBOOK in, as if he wouldn't notice that he was doing m a t h instead
of reading a ( story ). but after enough BERATING && IMPLORING, woojin supposed
that anyone would eventually succumb && give themselves over to academics.
so when jude asked him if he had ever built a ＦＯＲＴ out of blankets, he
blushed && said ɴᴏ, he had never done it before—but he was e a g e r to learn.
there were so ｍａｎｙ things that he had started to learn from jude &&, of
course, it had been fun to but it also reminded woojin just how small his life had
been before. part of it had been ( sᴇʟғ-ɪᴍᴘᴏsᴇᴅ ) : the DIFFICULTY of getting out
of bed, the f e a r of intimacy ( if he was going to be honest ) . but his own family
had kept his world a bit small, keeping his nose turned down to books—though
looking back now, woojin wonders if they had done it on PURPOSE or it was a
ｃｏｎｓｅｑｕｅｎｃｅ of the values they themselves were raised on.
he doesn't want to think about that, though, && despite expecting to be
a n x i o u s about the ᴘᴏssɪʙɪʟɪᴛʏ of the blanket falling on his head, he felt—
ｐｅａｃｅｆｕｌ. it's one of those rare things for him to feel, but he's finding
that he can associate that feeling more && more with jude.
speaking of jude, he can most d e f i n i t e l y feel his eyes on him—though he
doesn't look at first, more shy than anything. but then he's turning over to face
him && he can't say for sure what moves him to, but he reaches out to run his
fingers along his cheek. he feels a ｓｈｉｖｅｒ run up his spine when jude
leans into his touch—&& he knows that he wants to be here. they both do.
&& when jude moves closer, when he looks at him like that, he has a feeling that
he knows what's next—but he never ｂｅｌｉｅｖｅｓ he's right. but then jude
is leaning in to kiss him && he blushes, still never getting used to the gesture.
the smile remains on his face as jude moves in closer && he lets his own arm rest
ｃｏｍｆｏｒｔａｂｌｙ around jude. “ is this good? ” he asks softly, resting his
head ever so close to jude's && thinking about a kiss of his own—but too shy as
always to make the first move.
