Nico wants to touch him, just to solidify his realness. He wants to reach out and brush the slope of Jason’s cheeks, follow the uneven hills of his eyebrows, feel the ridges in the bridge of his nose. He wants to brush his thumb under Jason’s eye where he’s got smudges of purple, like he hasn’t been sleeping well, to feel the soft swell of his skin there. He wants to ruffle the thread-golden mess of Jason’s hair, not because he thinks it would be soft (he doesn’t, in fact he’s sure Jason’s hair would feel rough and prickly under his palm), but because it’s somehow strange for a hockey player like Jason to keep his hair cut so short. Nico wants to double triple check it’s not just his imagination.
The shaved sides with a puff of gold on top do suit Jason, but Nico’s biased - he’d still think Jason Grace was kissable even if he had a goddamn Kaner mullet.
(little snippet from chapter three of my Jasico hockey AU. the chapter is tentatively titled "The Horse from Mulan", though I'm considering changing it even though I love the exchange that that comes from)