So, He Lost At Pool, Deliberately!
Title: So He Lost At Pool, Deliberately!
Rating: G/SFW
Warnings: TW for mentions of abuse, injury, anxiety (Brief)
Word Count: 1726
Fandom: Be More Chill
Ship: RichJake/Arson Bros
Summary: Based on this prompt
Notes: I should totally be asleep,,, but here's this! (Ticklish!Rich)
After the squipcident, it took a while for things to return to their normal states. Nobody was the same, nor would they ever be the same again, but other than the obvious problems that were still faced, most changes were for the better. Other than Rich and Jeremy's underlying anxiety and mental illnesses left by the squips, Jake was on of the few people left with long-term issues from the incident.
Jake's legs had been badly injured, and his house had been burned down, resulting in him living in a shelter for a few months, as well as being on crutches. Rich, of course, had visited him every day, each time expressing his guilt and sorrow to Jake for the things he had done. Rich brought jake food, and clothes every day after work.
Sometimes, Jake would notice bruises on Rich's body, and he'd lightly brush over them, every once in a while a burn or cut would make itself known as well. This cycle went on for a while, Jake living in the shelter, Rich bringing him things, Rich apologizing, repeat.
It wasn't until Jake's crutches were off, Rich showing up with a giant bruise covering the left side of his face, his eye swollen shut, that he finally asked Jake if he wanted to buy and apartment with him.
Rich had been working as many hours as possible, and doing as many "odd-jobs" as possible, for the last 4 months, and he was ecstatic to finally be able to leave his abusive father.
Jake agreed right away, holding back tears when he seen the bruised face of the boy he had grown to love, and soon enough, they were paying for their very own apartment.
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At first, Jake and Rich were awkward to say the least.
In the apartment, when both of them were home, they would awkwardly dance around each other, sharing the occasional small talk or head nod. It took a week or so, but they quickly warmed up to living together.
Considering the fact that they were best friends, and had undoubtedly seen each naked far too many time to count, it didn’t take long, and soon enough they worked like clockwork.
They would go to school together, go home, Rich would cook dinner, Jake would clean, and then they’d watch a movie together.
Life seemed to be getting better and better by the day, for both of them.
——————————————————————————————————— After a few weeks of living together, Rich and jake had grown closer than they had ever been. They were basically attached at the hip 24/7. Jake had used up some of the remainder of his parents' money to buy a car for the two of them, so at this point there was really no reason for them to be apart.
They were closer than either of them had known possible, but both of them loved it.
One day, during one of the few moments in which jake and rich weren't together, Jake found himself at school, talking to Michael. Since the squip accident, everyone was friends, which made jake happy. He had grown closer with Jeremy and Michael, and he got to know Chloe, Brooke, and Christine in different ways than before.
On this particular afternoon, Michael and Jake were sitting outside behind the school, watching Jeremy and Rich finish up their gym class.
Jake cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck before speaking up, "hey.... can I ask you a kind of weird question?" He said, looking into Michael's direction without meeting his gaze.
"Yeah, of course! Go for it Jake," Michael responded, cheery as usual.
"When did you uh.... know that you liked Jeremy...... like... that," Jake stuttered out, finally looking Michael in the eyes.
"Well... Jeremy and I have been friends for 12 years, I guess after a while I just kind of new that my feelings for him weren't feelings of only friendship," Michael stated
"I guess I knew because of the way he stared to make me feel when I looked at him, or when he smiled, or laughed. I know it sounds like the cheesy shit ever, and i swear I'm not high, but I just knew.
“And while we're still on the topic, yes I totally think you should ask Rich out. I see the way you guys look at each other dude. Just go for it, put yourself out there." Michael finally finished. By this point, Jake was blushing a rather bright shade of red, as he attempted to stutter out a response.
"T-thanks Michael, but I don't think he feels the same. It's okay though, it wouldn't be the first disappointment I've ever had."
"Dude, he feels the same. Just trust me."
———————————————————————————————————
That weekend, Jake had gone out to get some groceries while Rich stayed at the apartment cleaning up. At this point, it had been 9 weeks since they had moved in together, and Rich still felt guilty for the situation that happened with Jake's old house. So, Rich decided to surprise Jake with a new addition to their apartment, that may make this home feel more like Jake's last one.
There Rich was, anxiously pacing the apartment, waiting for his delivery to arrive.
As time dragged on, Rich felt as if he needed to stall Jake a little more, worried that the surprise would arrive too late, so, he phoned Jake and asked him to run another errand for him.
"Hey, sorry Jakey-D, can you run to the pharmacy and pick up my meds? I forgot to pick them up the other day after school and I just ran out." "Yeah, yeah, of course Rich, I'll see you in an hour."
———————————————————————————————————
An hour and a half later, Jake arrived back at their apartment, scrambling to get his key despite all of the grocery bags he was holding.
He opened the door, walking in with his head down. "Hey, can you help me with these-" he began, noticing it was oddly silent. Still looking down, he placed the groceries on the island in their kitchen, placing the car keys in the bowl.
At this moment, he decided to see why it was so silent. Looking up, his eyes were met with the sight of a spotless apartment, and right in the middle, a pool table, even better than the one he used to have.
"Hey..." Rich began, a small smile on his face, "I wanted to make this place feel a little bit more like home for you, how do you li-" before Rich could even finish what he way saying, soft lips were on his, and strong arms were around his body.
"It's perfect," Jake told him, their noses touching while they came up for air. "Right now, everything is perfect." Big smiles spread across both of their faces as they separated to put away the groceries.
———————————————————————————————————
An hour later, after the both of them had calmed down, Jake suggested the idea of christening their new pool table.
"Let's play... but why don't we make this interesting?" He began "how about, loser gets a punishment of the winner's choosing?" He challenged, looking at Rich.
Once he got a nod of approval, they began their game. Putting on their poker faces for the next few hours.
———————————————————————————————————
2 hours and a beer or two later, the boys had played many, many games. Oddly enough, Rich had won most of them.
After winning his fifth game, 5-2, he ran around the apartment, screaming and shouting about his victory.
Jake, of course, wasn’t about to let Rich gloat, so he waited until Rich came running near him again, and grabbed him by his waist.
With a yelp, Rich started to fight to get out of Jake’s gasp, but the taller boy had already started to pull them onto the floor. Jake, knowing Rich’s weakness, wiggled his fingers into the ribs of the stronger boy,in order to get him on the ground completely.
In seconds Rich was on the floor, collapsed in a heap of giggles.
“jahahahake nohohohoho!” Rich giggled out, batting at Jake’s hands.
Jake just smiled, fully pinning Rich.
Having recently learned of Rich’s ticklishness, Jake set to work right away, wiggling his finger’s against Rich’s sensitive ribs.
“Jahahahake Ihihihihihim sohohohohohory,” Rich giggled out, struggling under Jake. Rich didn’t mind tickling, but Jake was always ruthless.
Jake smirked, looking down at Rich and laughing along with him. “No can do Goranski. I think I need to teach you a little humility.”
Jake trailed his fingers a little higher, tickling the shorter boy’s neck and ears, causing him to emit high-pitched giggles.
“Stahahahahap,” Rich pleaded, pushing at Jake’s hands.
“No can do, you’re bragging even though you know how good I am at pool,” Jake slipped out, not realizing his mistake.
“Ohohohohohoh my gohohohod dihihihihid yohohohou lehehet mehehe wihihin!” Rich squealed out as Jake spidered over his tummy.
“Yeah, I couldn’t let you just keep on sulking, yeah my life was fucked for a little but it wasn’t your fault, now stop your moping,” Jake teased.
Then, He was asking Rich what his favourite fruit was and Rich was thrown into loud belly laughter.
“nohoHOHOHOHO DOHOHONT,” Rich screeched, bucking hard against Jake’s hold. Jake’s fingers were skilled, and poor Rich was just too ticklish for his own good.
This went on for a while, Jake telling Rich that he would not stop until he heard cries for mercy,so Jake decided to go in for the kill.
One of Jake’s hands found it’s way to Rich’s knees, the other finding it’s way under Rich’s arms.
“NOHOHOHOHOHOHO MEHEHEHEHEHERCY IHIHIHIM SOHOHOHOHORRY! ILL NEHEHEHEHEVER BRAHAHAHAHAG AGAAHAIN!” Rich screamed, struggling hard from underneath Jake.
The taller boy kept it up for a minute or so before Rich was able to grab his wrists. Jake rolled off of the boy, rolling onto his side on the floor to look at him.
Giggles slipped from Rich’s lips as he calmed down, also rolling onto his side to face Jake. Rich leaned into Jake, giving him a kiss on his cheek, stroking his thumb against the taller boy’s face.
“Thank you,” Rich said, looking into Jake’s eyes.
“No, thank you.”
And they fell asleep there, on the floor looking into each other’s eyes, no more pain or troubles for the night.