title: night kisses // pairing: cyrus x jonah //.5k words (drabble)
written for 30 days of jyrus: day 2
(I am not really a writer, I don’t practice writing much, so I would appreciate little to no criticism)
Jonah had never felt this peaceful and safe in his life.
Under the darkened sky, he lays with his arms around the only person his age he is truly comfortable with, just enjoying the night. Away from everything that makes him feel anxious, confused, and guilty.
Jonah focuses on breathing the cool, fresh air as he places his forehead on the other boy’s neck. This is what ‘intimacy’ is. He had heard it before, and he was told it meant “being able to feel vulnerable with someone while still feeling safe”.It confused him at the time, but now there is no confusion. Only understanding and comfort.
“Jonah?”
Cyrus turns in Jonah’s arms, facing him and trying to find his eyes in the dark. His voice is raspy and quiet, as he hasn’t spoken for a while.
“Yes, Cyrus?” Jonah responds carefully, not wanting this conversation to ruin the perfect atmosphere.
Cyrus buries his face in Jonah’s neck, and with his lips next to Jonah’s ear says, “You’re the best thing to ever happen to me.”
Cyrus says it with so much raw honesty that Jonah almost cries on the inside, although his body tenses up and freezes. He lets out a breath carefully, and takes another one in. After a few more breaths his body finally listens to him and relaxes.
Cyrus was patient through Jonah’s attempts to calm himself, but he still waits for an answer, and Jonah can almost feel him starting to worry that he went too far, too fast.
Jonah moves back from Cyrus so he can try to find his eyes. He needs Cyrus to not only hear, but completely understand what he is about to say.
When they are face to face, Jonah moves in closer, their noses almost touching. He stares deeply into the other boy’s eyes before he speaks.
“You’re the best thing to ever happen to me, too. I would be nothing without you. I trust you completely, in ways that I have never trusted anyone else.”
He lets his words linger in the crisp air for a handful of seconds, his eyes closed in the wake of his confession, before moving his hand to caress Cyrus’s cheek. He finds it wet, from silent tears let out by the boy.
“Happy tears?” Jonah hopes.
Cyrus nods, and for some reason, Jonah is now in danger of crying as well.
The moment hangs in the air, and it feels almost like time has frozen, stopped just for them so they could live in this moment of happiness and love for just a little longer before reality would hit. Jonah feels as if there is one more thing he has to do before time starts moving again.
“Can I kiss you?”
This time when he nods, Cyrus give a verbal response as well.
“Yes.”
Even though Jonah was the one who asked, they both lean in to press their lips together softly. It is glorious, amazing, like waking up--
Jonah wakes up.
Later that day he is walking down the hall when he hears Cyrus call out to him.
“Hey, Jonah!!!” Cyrus waves enthusiastically with a big smile on his face.
“Hey, Cy-guy!” Jonah returns with a pleasant, happy smile.
However, when he turns away his face is all worry. What would Cyrus think about Jonah’s dreams? He would probably be freaked out at best and grossed out at worst.
Jonah resigns himself to never telling the other boy. What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
(NOTES: For anon. I have been working on this since March, but mostly neglecting it and I’m sorry.)
“Come on, she is definitely into you.”
“She is not.”
Clary blushed as she angled her head down and covered her face with her arm. She had never been this embarrassed in her entire life, and she could tell that Simon was enjoying watching her squirm.
“You come in here every day, you flirt with her, she flirts back, and then you act like there is no way she could ever like you back,” Simon said, a little too loud for Clary’s liking.
Clary shushed him and pressed her finger to his lips, glancing over to make sure that the cute barista didn’t hear Simon’s big mouth.
“I do not flirt when I talk to her,” Clary whispered, glaring at her best friend. “I just…. appreciate her.” She said the last part in a whisper, angling her head down.
Simon chuckled, shaking his head. “There is a difference between respecting a good worker and being in love with her.”
Clary groaned, covering her face with her hands. She knew it wasn’t love anyway, but she was not willing to discuss her romantic feelings here, possibly in earshot of the girl she… appreciated.
“Let’s not do this here. I will figure it out later,” Clary offered in way of compromise.
Simon raised an eyebrow. “You will?”
Clary took a sip of her coffee, swallowing harder than necessary. “Of course.”
Simon didn’t believe her, and in his defense, neither did she. She was new at this, having crushes and admitting it to herself. Until recently she had convinced herself that she didn’t like girls at all, because how could she? Being gay was so… rare. And for other people, people who were different. Not for her. Being gay didn’t seem like an option until recently.
Now that she had accepted herself for who she was, she was in love with the idea of finding love, but that doesn’t mean she knew what she was doing. At all.
“So what you are saying is, you like this girl but can’t tell if she likes you back.”
Clary groaned and plopped onto Magnus’s couch, Chairman Meow still in her arms. Magnus was making tea for the both of them, and couldn’t see her from the kitchen, but had listened to her account of the previous day’s events with interest.
“You make it sound so… normal,” Clary complained, softly stroking the hair on the top of Chairman Meow’s head.
“That’s because it is.” Magnus entered the room, two tea cups in his hand, and sat on the couch next to Clary.
Clary let out a puff of air and shook her head. “It doesn’t feel normal. Not at all.”
“It wouldn’t.” Magnus carefully sat the tea cups on the glass table in front of them before taking a breath to explain. “Not knowing whether or not your romantic feelings are reciprocated is very common. Almost every person understands how that feels. But if you have never experienced it before yet personally, it can feel quite overwhelming.”
Clary absorbed Magnus’s words carefully. Truthfully, they made her feel better. And of course they did, that’s why she was here. Magnus always made her feel better, no matter what. But feeling better about not knowing how the cute girl feels doesn’t change the fact that she has no idea how the cute girl feels.
“So what do I do?”
Magnus drank his tea slowly, seeming to ignore her. When he pulled the tea cup away from his lips he closed his eyes, swallowing before letting out a satisfied noise.
All of a sudden he was halfway across the apartment, slipping on a jacket. One second later he was almost to the door. “Come on, Biscuit”.
“Wait!” She set Chairman Meow beside her on the couch and grabbed her own jacket, struggling to get her arm through one of the sleeves as she chased after Magnus.
“You have got to be kidding me”
They were at the coffee shop, the one that the cute girl works at. Clary cursed at herself for telling Magnus which coffee shop the girl worked at, and wondered if it was too late to just turn back around and pretend she didn’t even follow him here.
“Relax, Biscuit. She isn’t going to bite.”
“So is this the part where you tell me I can only know for sure by asking her if she likes me?”
Magnus chuckled. “I thought about it, but I thought it would be more fun and less likely of rejection if you just interact with her normally and I tell you if it looks like she is interested to me.”
Clary let out a sigh of relief. “Oh thank god. This is why I love you.”
Magnus grinned and they entered the shop together, joining the line of people waiting to order drinks and baked goods.
“So what do you normally order here?” Magnus asked, but Clary barely heard him because she spotted her. Maia, her name was, it was on her nametag pinned to her apron every day. She looked absolutely gorgeous, her look of concentration when finishing up the drink she was making and her bright smile when she gave the drink to the customer at the serving counter. Her dark curls looked magnificent, and they were so her that Clary couldn’t imagine her without them. The woman turned to look at another receipt to see what she had to make, and Clary couldn’t help but appreciate the graceful way in which Maia moved, every movement purposeful and-
“It’s our turn, Biscuit.”
Somehow they were now at the front of the line, in front of a nice looking man at the register. He was waiting patiently, and thankfully didn’t seem irritated by her brief disconnect from reality.
“Your usual?” He asked.
She nodded, grateful. “Plus a black coffee for my friend.”
She smiled at Magnus as she handed the cashier her card.
Magnus leaned over to speak into her ear as the cashier charged her. “Now it’s time to work your magic on the pretty girl.”
Clary elbowed him in playful retaliation, but became serious as she took her card from the cashier and thanking him. Magnus gently guided her over to where Maia was making drinks, squeezing her shoulder in order to comfort her.
“Heyyy, Clary. What’s up?”
Maia had a big smile on her face, eyes fixed on Clary. Clary tried her hardest not to blush as she got closer to the counter.
“I’m doing fine. I mean good! Everything is great! How are you?” Clary failed at her mission not to blush, but attempted to keep her cool in the way of body language, leisurely leaning against the counter.
Maia laughed, turning her visual attention to the drink she had in her hand, picking up chocolate syrup to drizzle into it. “I’m doing great, too. Well, now that you’re here.” Her voice was sweet, and slightly confident.
At this point, Magnus had begun shaking his head, laughing. Clary swatted at his arm, trying to get him to stop. “What is your problem?” She whispered.
“That is so clearly flirting, I just don’t know how you can possibly misread that.”
Clary just rolled her eyes. “It is not.”
Magnus coughed. “Yes it is.”
Clary turned towards the counter. “Are you flirting with me?” She blurted out.
Maia was standing there, full attention on Clary with both of her ordered drinks in her hand. She looked confused more than anything.
Clary mentally kicked herself for completely ruining this situation. She could never come back here now. She would never have any drink here again, she would never see Maia again, she will just take her shame and shove it into another coffee shop, somewhere free from future embarrassment.
“I thought my flirting was obvious.”
Now Clary was the confused one. Simon was right all along? They had really been flirting the whole time?
“No-- not to me.” Clary said, trying to pull any memories of Maia flirting with her from her brain.
Maia looked kind of concerned now, her eyes becoming somber. “Does that mean you weren’t flirting with me?”
“No! I definitely was,” Clary clarified, smiling.
Maia grinned. “So, do you want to go for dinner tonight? I get off at 5.”
Clary swallowed. “Dinner as in…. A date?”
Magnus audibly groaned, both hands running down his face.
Maia laughed, shaking her head. “YES. A date.”
Clary also laughed at herself, feeling completely clueless. “Well, in that case, I will come by around 5.” She grabbed her drinks and walked away, elbowing Magnus when he started laughing again.
