summary: jon refuses to let go of his stoic persona, even on his birthday. tim takes matters into his own hands.
a/n: my motivation is gradually running out but it’s at least longer than some others. for ‘surprise’! for context, this takes place after the recording of jon’s surprise party found in early s5.
[this is a sfw tickle fic!]
See, Tim knows that Jon naturally always seems like he wouldn’t know fun if it slapped him in the face. But, being Jon’s friend before the archives, he knows that it wasn’t always this bad. He knows Jon’s only putting on a persona, he’s just not sure why.
He hopes that, with his friends and enough wine, Jon would be willing to crawl out of his shell a bit more. Which—Jon’s certainly more talkative than usual, but he still manages to keep his composure throughout it all. Tim’s disappointed when Jon goes back to his office for all of a few seconds before he remembers that the door is unlocked.
“Boss!” cries Tim as he stumbles in, hurrying over to the desk and slinging an arm around his friend’s shoulders.
Jon sighs. “What do you want.”
See what he means? “I’ve been thinking,” Tim announces as he takes his arm back in favour of resting his elbow on the desk, shoving papers aside to make room. “You’re too uptight.”
Jon quirks an eyebrow. “How so?”
“Well, y’know,” Tim says, “you’re always acting like you’ve got a stick up your ass. And as your best friend,” he ignores Jon’s skeptical look, “I think you should let loose a little!”
Jon turns back to his desk. “Why should I do that?”
“You’ve got a fun side to you, believe it or not,” says Tim, prodding Jon’s chest. “I’ve seen it.”
“I’ve no clue what you’re talking about.”
Ah, so Jon is going to be difficult. That’s alright. Tim’s dealt with him before, after all.
And, see, one of the many things Tim’s learned about him is that it’s actually quite easy to get Jon to open up; in theory, at least, because it only works when Jon is in a good mood—by his standards, of course.
So, at Jon’s refusal, Tim does the only thing that comes to mind: he reaches out and scribbles his fingers on Jon’s stomach.
The reaction is immediate. Jon jerks backwards as he starts to laugh, not having enough preparation to be able to pretend it doesn’t affect him.
“T-ihim!” he gasps, choked out in between uncharacteristic giggles.
“This is your own fault,” says Tim, pinching Jon’s lower ribs. “Better keep it down, you don’t want Martin knowing how ticklish you are, do you?”
Whenever eduardo hits or is even more of an asshole then usual to Jon, he wrecks the shit outta him as a way to apologize since he knows Jon enjoys tickles
