fluffy hangster headcanon (so sorry you're not feeling good!):
before they're really together but after the ice has thawed a little, jake and bradley start doing movie nights. it happens on accident, because during the last big dagger hang they wouldn't stop talking through every little scene of the matrix and they get banned from group nights. so jake turns up at bradley's door and they hang out by themselves. they bitch and chirp at each other the whole way through waterworld, getting progressively more tipsy as one movie turns into two (when they can agree on what to watch next - no, bradley, field of dreams is not THAT good of a movie and oh like PATTON is better???), and once they really get going jake ends up staying at bradley's way too late, every time. they have so much fun with it and the time goes so quickly that they often kind of... fall asleep on the couch together, crashing during a lull in the middle of movie number 3.
it's a little weird that first time waking up at 4 AM slumped next to jake with a crick in his neck, but it happens again the next weekend so bradley doesn't read into it that much. he starts to expect jake showing up here during the week and the way their knees knock together where the couch cushions dip in the middle. he gets looser with the way he throws his arm over the back of the couch, surprised when he has to fight off the impulse to reach out and touch the soft hair at the back of jake's neck even when he's talking such incredible shit about keira knightley's teeth (how dare he).
that is UNTIL jake has a rough week, or a training mishap, or a bad deployment that he literally just got back from and he looks positively exhausted dragging himself across bradley's doorstep. and like. dude. john wick can wait. go home, sleep in a real bed or something. but jake grumbles and waves him off, and who is bradley to argue? jake sits up all night, quieter than usual, fighting to stay awake on bradley's couch but not oblivious to the way he's being watched when he doesn't rise to bradley's usual taunting.
see, because... movie night is the only time jake can ever really touch bradley, and he needs it real bad tonight, not that he'd ever say it. but maybe bradley leans a little closer and jake's too tired to pretend he doesn't want to chase the heat bleeding through bradley's thin t-shirt so he just collapses into his side, and bradley pulls him down to horizontal with him half-lying on his chest.
in the morning, jake will bitch about how he can't believe bradley let them both sleep here, they're way too old for this and his back is fucked now, and bradley will get up and toast some bagels while jake showers. he'll give jake the less-burned one and jake will narrow his eyes and say "hm" like he forgives him and bradley will smile even though his own bagel tastes like charcoal. but for now, bradley just closes his eyes and pushes his hand up through jake's hair.
honored to be gifted this in my inbox – once again, no notes at all, the intimacy of touch you don't ask for but receive
