Jonas fiddles with the hem of his shirt, resolutely not looking up at Mikael. To face them now, after what he just said… He’s kind of hoping for the floor to just swallow him whole to save him any further embarrassment in front of his crush and the second best person he’s ever known (the best being Even, of course).
“Jonas, can you look at me?” Mikael asks, and Jonas tries, he really does. But he can’t. So he shakes his head and hangs it lower, his chin practically hitting his chest.
“I didn’t mean to say that.”
“Didn’t mean to say what?”
“You know, that…that I like you.”
Mikael rests a hand on Jonas’s leg, and Jonas looks away, off towards the window. A bird flys by and Jonas tries to tell what sort of bird it is, just by looking. “Of course you meant to say it. You asked to speak to me privately, brought me in here, said you had to tell me something, and then told me you liked me and that you’ve liked me for a couple of months now. What part of that was accidental?” They tease, and Jonas feels his cheeks light on fire.
“Okay, I meant to say it,” he concedes, looking back down at his lap, where Mikael’s hand is still resting. “But I wouldn’t have if I’d known you didn’t feel the same. I don’t…I don’t want to make things weird between us. This friendship means more to me than anything, and I’d rather have you in my life as my friend than not in my life at all. So, can you just promise me that nothing will change? Please?”
Mikael’s hand moves, this time to Jonas’s jaw, right where his neck meets it. “Jonas, look at me. Please.” When Jonas doesn’t move, Mikael moves their hand to Jonas’s chin, lifting it and forcing the eye contact. Mikael is smiling, Jonas realizes, and butterflies erupt in his stomach. “Can I kiss you?”
Jonas’s brain short circuits. “Can you… Huh? Can you what?”
Mikael laughs, “Can I kiss you?”
Dumbly, Jonas nods, already leaning in. Mikael leans in too, and their noses bump together from their lack of experience in kissing each other, neither of them sure which way to go. But they figure it out, and Mikael’s lips are so soft, and Jonas never wants to stop kissing them. He wants to stay in this exact position forever and a day.
Mikael pulls back first, running their thumb over Jonas’s bottom lip. “Can I kiss you again?” Jonas asks immediately, and the smile that crosses Mikael’s face is so beautiful that Jonas could cry. (He makes a mental note to call Isak after this is over because holy shit, this is a religious experience, and it’s all thanks to Isak that he even agreed to tell Mikael about his feelings in the first place.)
“Sure,” Mikael whispers. “As long as you don’t mind if I take you out for dinner tonight, too.”
“Okay,” Jonas nods, smiling so wide that his cheeks hurt. “Now kiss me again.”