It's valentines day, and John and Edward receive a packet of love hearts from a fan in New York.
After a long day of walking around the streets in New York, John and Edward found themselves in Times Square, talking to a small group of fans that had somehow located them. The twins didn’t mind, though. They enjoyed talking to fans, especially when in small groups. The atmosphere was nice, and they felt at ease surrounded by neon lights, the buzzing sound of traffic and people passing by.
After a good 20 minutes of taking pictures and chatting, the twins decided it was time to head back to their hotel. Before they left to catch a taxi, a fan with long, blonde locks approached Edward.
“I almost forgot! Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d give you these”, she said bashfully, and handed over a plastic packet to Edward.
“What is this?” Edward heard his twin ask, sneaking up behind him.
“Love hearts?” John read out.
“They’re those sweets that have little messages on; I love you, stuff like that.” the fan said. “Have you tried them before?”
“Oh.” Edward caught John’s eye for a split second but turned back his attention to the fan quickly. “I think we’ve seen those before but we haven’t tried them. They look really cool, thanks!”
And with that, he gave her one last hug, waved goodbye to the group and hopped into their taxi, which would bring them back to their hotel.
The taxi weaved its way through the winding, honking blocks of traffic. John was rambling about something while scrolling through their twitter feed but Edward was only half-listening as he stared through the window in wonder.
How many Valentines days will we go through without having dates? Actually, when Edward thought about it, he didn’t care at all. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t want to spend time with anyone else but John; he didn’t need anyone else but John. In the end of the day, John completed Edward, so why would he need someone else in his life when John was already his everything, if more, even? He wondered whether John felt the same.
“Ed’ard!”
“What?”
“What are you thinking about?”
“How amazing my hair still looks after all we’ve been through today.”
“Come on, tell me!”
Edward looked into his brother’s caring eyes, feeling the desperate want to spill out his heart for him, but of course, he couldn’t. Instead, he gave him a grin and turned his head to continue to look through the window.
“It’s nothing, John. Really.”
Edward then received a playful punch in his arm from a nosy John and he had to giggle. He knew John didn’t believe him entirely, but he knew however when to stop asking questions.
No, Edward really didn’t mind spending Valentines with John, because imagining himself spending time with anyone else but his twin simply didn’t seem right. He smiled to himself but couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if John actually found someone else one day, and his smile dropped as he felt the walls of his heart grow tight. This sensation, he was oddly familiar with.
Edward loved sharing things with John, and he thought of John sharing something with someone else but him made him feel awfully envious just thinking about it. Maybe he was selfish, he thought. But truth is, he didn’t care, at least not at the moment. For now, John was happy, and Edward’s only, which was all he could ask for. If only they could stay like this forever.
He decided that he had to distract himself from thinking further on, so he pulled the packet containing the candies out of his bag and held it in his lap.
“John, do you want to try these?” Edward asked.
John took his eyes off the iPhone screen to look at his twin. “Okay.” he replied, and watched Edward as he ripped the packet open and curiously pulled out one piece of candy. Edward regarded it for a moment, then his face split into the kind of grin that made John inquisitive.
“Seems like I’ve taken yours by mistake.” he held out his hand and uncurled his fingers, and lying in the center of his palm was a white disk, the sweet John assumed, though he had never seen this kind before.
“You’re crazy?” he read out and picked it up. “If I am crazy, you know you are, too.”
Yeah, crazy for my brother, Edward thought to himself as John popped the candy into his mouth.
“Hm, they taste pretty good!” John murmured. The sweet was somehow sour but sugary at the same time and a little fizzy on his tongue, making it tingle. Sliding the tips of his fingers, one by one, into his mouth to lick the sugar dust off, and slowly pulling them out glistening, he noticed Edward looking at him strangely.
“Ed’ard?”
Edward looked away quickly. Was that a blush? John questioned, but Edward interrupted his thoughts by holding out the sweets.
“Your turn.”
John obediently slid the next love heart out of the packet and it was his turn to smirk.
“This one is yours, Ed’ard.” He passed the love heart over.
Edward felt his heart flutter. “You’re gorgeous?” he read, before he ate it. John heard it crunch briefly in his mouth as he chewed.
“Yup you’re right, I am gorgeous.”
Edward’s breath smelled like sugar and it somehow made John happy. He had to laugh.
“Your go now,” he told Edward, still smiling. But Edward looked serious as he pulled out the next love heart and showed John what it said.
All yours.
“John,” Edward told him earnestly, “you’re always the first person I think of when I wake up in the morning.” He wasn’t sure where his words came from and neither why he was telling him this. Maybe it was a part of the game.
John’s eyes widened, though. He certainly didn’t know what to say.
“Yeah... I’m lying almost right next to you.”
But I’d think about you anyway. I think about you all the time, Edward willed himself to say. How hard could it be? Just to get his mouth to shape the words, just to take a steady breath and jump right into the deep end. He wanted to do it but with every second that passed, the moment slipped further and further away like water running through his cupped hands. He barely registered the rustling of the love hearts packet until he felt John flick another sweet into his lap. Next to Edward’s ear John leaned forward and whispered. “Catch me.”
Edward hadn’t even realized that they had arrived; neither that John had already paid the driver, and was now opening his car door. He scrambled out, racing towards the hotel. Edward shoved the “catch me” love heart John had given him into his mouth, grabbed his bag and, of course, the packet of remaining sweets, and flung his door open, chasing after John.
Since John had already occupied the lift, Edward decided to take the stairs, determined to be faster than his lazy twin. He stumbled and almost lost his footing, as the adrenaline pulsing through his body tried to make him move up faster than he actually could. But by the time he had run up to the 6th floor, John had already gotten inside their hotel room. Edward threw his bag down, kicked of his high-tops and leapt into the bedroom. He launched himself at his brother, pushing him down on John’s bed, gasping for breath.
“Caught you,” he panted, and they lay there for a while. Edward’s blood roared in his ears. He could feel his own frantic heartbeat hammering in his chest and he could feel the steady thump of John’s accompanying it.
“Ed’ard… you gonna get off me anytime soon?” John asked eventually.
“Too comfy…” Edward whined but seconds later he sat up anyway and pulled another sweet out, hoping he would be able to pay John back for making him run like that.
“Hug me,” he read out. “That’s too easy.”
“Tough luck, Ed’ard,” John grinned and pulled him into a hug. He breathed in deeply, absorbing Edward’s familiar smell. John felt as though they fitted here and he nuzzled his nose into Edward’s neck, feeling the arms draped around him tighten their hold protectively, possessively. It was amazing and John didn’t understand how it worked, but a hug from Edward made him feel calmer when he was stressed and cheered him up when he was sad. In other words, for John, home was in Edward’s arms. He wondered whether Edward felt the same.
John heard the rustling of cellophane as Edward pulled the next sweet out of the packet behind John’s back with unhurried, lazy movements, not letting go of his brother until suddenly, he pushed him away.
“What is it?” John asked, concerned.
Edward showed him what the love heart clamped between his trembling fingers said.
Kiss me.
“Oh.” John stared at Edward, and then he started rambling.
“Just skip that one, I mean, these sweets are obviously meant for couples. Take another one, I don’t mind. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. I mean of course you don’t want to… mmpf.”
John’s eyes widened as he suddenly felt Edward’s mouth pressed against his own. He was so shocked that at first he didn’t even realize what was happening. He forgot to breathe but after a couple of seconds he felt his eyes slide closed as he concentrated on the feel of Edward’s lips. Edward had closed his eyes as well and moved his hand to the back of John’s neck, threading it up through his hair. He let the sweet packet, clutched in his other hand, drop to the floor and he twined his arm around John’s back.
The kiss only lasted a few seconds before Edward pulled back.
“I’m s-sorry,” he muttered immediately, looking away but not removing his hands.
“You…”
There was a moment of silence where Edward only could hear the sound of himself breathing nervously.
“You should be, Ed’ard.” John finally replied, and Edward felt his heart drop to the bottom of his chest, believing that he had made the worst mistake.
“You pulled away far too quickly”, John complained. “I didn’t get the chance to enjoy it.”
“I…What?”
As soon as Edward understood, John leaned forward eagerly and Edward met him halfway. Their lips joined and Edward was suddenly aware of his heart thumping in his chest, just like before, only this time he hadn’t been running.
Their mouths meshed together slowly, lips trapping each other, tasting bliss. John was surprised to hear himself moan quietly and he felt Edward grin delightedly into the kiss. Edward slipped one hand into the top of John’s shirt, and it was such an upholding feeling, one that John knew, at least from then, he had desired for a long time. He didn’t bother anymore to disguise his shiver of delight.
Both twins lost all sense of time as they sat there in each other’s arms, overwhelmed with love with flushed faces and pulses that kept on racing. Occasionally, Edward would stroke John’s hair and John would eagerly pull his brother even closer. Finally, finally they had found each other and neither twin was in any hurry for their first kiss to end.
And the half-full, half-crushed packet of love hearts lay forgotten on the bedroom floor.
