"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU BACK?"

Mike's face is a mask of horror as he stares at Lee like he's just seen a ghost. His crutches and bandages are gone, but his leg's still wrapped up and his nose is scarlet.

Lee grins. "Bet you didn't expect me to come back, huh? You can't get rid of me so easily, Mikey. Don't worry, if you stay away from me and Jack, I won't have to hurt you." He leans back in his seat and casually flips Mike the finger. "Hope you missed me, because I'll be sticking around for a looong while."

"But---how---" Mike stammers, slack-jawed.

Pleasure hums in Lee's stomach. Not so tough now, huh? His gaze drifts over the rest of the class, drinking in the sight of Liam, Danny's other lackey---one tooth missing and one arm in a sling---and the lack of Danny himself, evidently still resting his broken ribs at home even though it's nearly been a month. It's exhilarating---seeing the boys who'd once towered over him, laughing as they'd burned their mark into his arm, cowering in the face of their former victim.

"I'll let you in on a little secret, Mike," Lee says, grin widening. "Money talks, bullshit walks. And I'm practically made of bullshit."

Before Mike can reply, twin blurs of red and white crash into Lee, a winded oomph escaping his mouth as two pairs of arms wrap themselves around him.

"Lee! You're finally back!" Cory all but wails, hugging him so tight Lee swears he hears a rib crack.

"We thought you died!" Jon yelps, only slightly less hysterical. His thick glasses hang off the bridge of his nose, knocked askew by his enthusiasm. Lee realises that even though the whole world's flipped over on his head, Jon and Cory are still the same---Jon with his messy blonde hair and checkered red flannel, Cory in yet another one of Jon's t-shirts, several sizes too big for his small frame. "I mean, we technically didn't, because Jack texted us daily updates on you, but still!"

"Hey, guys," Lee chuckles, affectionately stroking Cory's dark hair. "Unfortunately, I'm not dead. Not yet, anyway."

"No shit, Sherlock!" Cory hugs him tighter, and out of the corner of his eye, Lee notices Mike backing away slowly. He suppresses a smile. "And what do you mean unfortunately? Cabrón! Why didn't you text us? Mike was going around saying you got expelled and all that kind of shit and we really thought---"

Over Cory's heaving shoulder, Lee sends a withering glare Mike's way. Despite the facade of unfazed bravado that Mike tries to slap on, Lee doesn't miss the way his knees tremble.

"Mike's full of shit," Lee reassures them, gratefully accepting the hug that Jon gives him. "I'll be sticking around until we graduate, don't worry. Probably. Unless I drop out first. I really missed you lovebirds, honestly. Even though I'm pretty sick of you two making out around me. Makes me feel single as hell."

Cory sticks out his tongue at him mischievously. Jon just laughs, patting Lee on the back. "And you'll get to witness many more of those makeout sessions, because we're not stopping anytime soon."

Lee replies with a giant eye roll. "You guys are idiots."

"We're your idiots," Jon teases, batting Lee's cheek gently. "And don't worry, you'll get your revenge once you start making out with Jack."

A bright flush rises to Lee's face. If only you knew that we've already been making out. "Touché."

"Dios mío, he finally admitted it!" Cory declares triumphantly. "They are together!"

"We're not together!" Lee insists.

I...think? What are we, really?

He's never really thought about it before, honestly. Never thought about putting a label to the thing that is them. But what are they? Not just friends---he's sure friends don't kiss each other that way. Or maybe they're just friends and he's been overthinking this whole thing. Lee tends to overthink more than he likes to. But he knows they're not just friends. That's a line they've long trampled over and left in the dust.

Maybe they're just Lee and Jack, every syllable stitched together in the wake of their mutual destruction, forged with each other as they burn. Maybe Jack has rough hands and Lee has thin ribs and they all blur together in the amalgation of all their perfect storms. Of the paradox that is JackandLee.

Lee grins. "Not yet, anyway."

Cory smacks his arm and argues that at this point, he and Jack are practically married. Jon lets out a triumphant, "That's my boy. Go get your man!"

(It's good to be back.)

٩( ᐛ )و

"You know," Yumeko starts, cancer stick pressed to her lips. Grey smoke billows out around them, clustering around their heads until Lee's choking on his own tongue. "I'm kind of glad I'm able to smoke again."

"Well, I'm not."

"No one cares what you think, Leroy."

Lee rolls his eyes. "Jack does."

"And Jack's opinion doesn't matter, so that's irrelevant too." Yumeko's dark gaze softens. The pads of her fingertips seem to relax around her cigarette, spelling out a million things Lee's sure she'd never say to his face. When she snuffs out the flame and crushes the butt beneath her heel, something warm ignites in Lee's chest. "I'm...happy you're back. School was a lot...quieter without you. Not that that's a bad thing. Quiet is good."

Lee presses the back of his head against the wall, red brick bleeding into the sealed scarlet inside his skull. A soft chuckle escapes his throat, and he doesn't miss the way Yumeko's crimson lips turn up too. "Just admit you missed me, Yu."

"Never. I do miss Socks, though."

"You'll see plenty of her when I start spending the night at Jack's house. I'll probably have to leave her with you on those days, if you don't mind."

Yumeko pushes herself up on her tiptoes to gently rest her head against Lee's shoulder, ebony bangs brushing his neck. "Looking forward to it. Taking care of Socks is a hell lot easier than taking care of you."

"I'm worth the effort."

A snort escapes his best friend's mouth. "Dream on." Suddenly, a thoughtful expression passes over Yumeko's face, and she remarks, "Hey, are you and Jack actually dating or what?"

There it is again. That question. Are you two dating? Are you guys together? What are you?

Lee grins, a flash of teeth that comes out as more of a grimace. "It's complicated."

It's not, really. It's easy. But Lee makes it hard, like he always does. He knows Jack would date him in a heartbeat if he just said the word, but...something in him wonders if he wouldn't. If Jack's been lying all along. If he's tired of waiting. If he's tired of Lee.

The thought eats away at him like poison, acid seared into the fissures of his bones until they're bleached the colour of the sky before a storm. He knows it's not true. He knows Jack wouldn't have kissed him that way if he hadn't meant it. He knows Jack wouldn't have held him like he'd been holding the stars, large hands delicate around Lee's waist, so solid and yet so gentle. He knows Jack wouldn't have told him that he loves him.

And Jack does love him. Lee knows that much. Because Jack's never been one for pretty words, never been one for words at all---and yet, his voice rings clear in Lee's head, his whispered I think I've always been a little in love with you melting like sugar on Lee's tongue. There is a precariousness to his love, the results of the way Lee's always teetering on the edge, but it catches Lee every time he falls all the same.

"I---I have no idea, Yu," Lee finally admits when Yumeko's already been giving him the stink-eye for at least five minutes. "I...I don't know if I can do it. That relationship kind of thing. Commitment and all that---"

"Lee," Yumeko says firmly. "Jack is not your mom."

He's not going to walk out on you. The words go unsaid.

Lee tugs at a stray lock of hair that's wandered into his eyes. "I know, Yu, but what if he gets tired of me when I whine too much, or if we finally have sex and he realises he can probably count every rib in my body if he tries, or if I start seeing my new therapist and change completely and he doesn't like the change, or if he wakes up one day and just randomly decides he hates me---"

"Lee. Oh my fucking gosh. Are you stupid?"

Lee shuts up.

"Just to clarify, we're talking about the same guy here, right?" Yumeko sighs. "The guy who would rather gouge his eyeballs out than skip class but took off from school immediately the second he thought you were in trouble? The guy who probably even writes down his underwear for the day on his to-do list because he's just that anal but drops everything to take you to McDonalds the moment you ask? The guy who avoids affection like it's the fucking plague but must have told that he loves you at least sixteen hundred times?" By now, Yumeko's eyebrow is perched at her brow, nearly hidden by her bangs. "Yeah, I really don't think we're talking about the same guy here."

Lee's mouth opens, then closes. He's got nothing to say. On the rare occasions that Yumeko decides to get logical, there's no arguing with her. (Probably why she was top of their ninth-grade Business class.)

A smirk crosses Yumeko's face. "People can love you just because they want to, Lee. Stop waiting for them to say they hate you or you'll never enjoy your life." She sets her hand on his shoulder, squinting into the distance. "Speak of the devil. I'll give you two some privacy."

"Wait, Yu---" Lee starts, but his best friend simply hugs him gently, snatches another cigarette out of her pocket, and slips off. A glance at the direction she'd disappeared in reveals a broad silhouette striding towards him---a very familiar silhouette. And even though he's seen Jack too many times to count, known him even longer, Lee can't help the way his heart picks up in his chest, thud thud thud, too large for the confines of his ribs as they spill his waterspout feelings into the void, emotions burning like a thousand shooting stars as they leak into his veins. He can feel his pulse against every inch of his paper-thin skin, little origami butterflies dancing in his stomach.

He's seen him before. He'd seen him barely an hour before in class, in fact. Jack shouldn't be affecting him like this. But he does.

"Hi," Jack mumbles. The sight of him wrapped in a regular white polo instead of the crisp folds of his prefect's uniform is a shot straight to Lee's heart. The soft fabric doesn't seem to fit quite right on Jack's large frame, shifting here and there and clinging to his chest, his belly, his arms. It's too flexible, too moldable for Jack's daytime rigidity. "I know you and Yumeko sometimes hang out here, so I came here."

"You know me too well." Lee slumps against the wall, sighing. "You know, everyone keeps asking me whether we're together or what. I've been thinking about that a lot. I've been...thinking about us a lot." And he has. He's been thinking about what it would be like to wake up to Jack's face every morning and what it would be like to hold his hand every night and what it would be like if he could answer every curious Are you guys together? with Yes. Yes, we are. And what it would be like to pull Jack to his chest, place his heart in his hands, and kiss him like the world's about to end.

Jack tenses, one eyebrow quirking to the sky. "Where are you going with this?"

Lee's scared. Of course he's scared. Fucking terrified, in fact. But some things mean more than fear and terror and all the ghosts of his past. And every time he closes his eyes, all he hears is "I don't care if you don't love me back, as long as you let me keep loving you."

"Hey, Jack," Lee manages to get out, words fighting against the lump in his throat. He's so close. So close to running away and abandoning what they have, all because he's scared that Jack's going to leave. But...something tugs at every string in his chest, telling him to take a chance. To make the jump.

Lee dives off the edge of the cliff.

"Do you uh, want to---" he starts, palms clammy, words slurring together. There's concern in Jack's eyes, which spurs Lee on. "Fuck, I can't say it properly. Uh, want to try that whole...um, dating thing? I can't guarantee that I'll be a very good, um, yadda yadda and all that shit, but---"

He's cut off by Jack's arms wrapping themselves around him.

"Finally," Jack breathes, pressing his forehead into Lee's shoulder. Through the soft cotton of his polo, Lee can feel Jack's pulse, a rushing river over his nerves that leaves stardust wherever it travels. "Fuck---I've---I've wanted this for so long. I've wanted you for so long."

Jack wants me.

Lee melts into Jack's embrace, heartbeat flush against his ribs as he hugs him back. Everything is---raw, somehow, like the scrape of his yearning fingers against Jack's sides and the trickle of his blue-grey locks over Jack's cheek and the flicker of their twin flames as they collide, bridging the gap, threading moonshine over the great divide until Lee can float past it, buoyed by the promise of broken dreams stitched whole once more.

He presses his hand into Jack's, love line prominent against his palm as warmth rushes through every inch of his body. In the waning sunlight, Jack wears his heart on his sleeve, and he sews Lee's thumping myocardium right next to his. And Lee's okay with that. He's okay with---this, because even if the book of them has a sad ending, Lee wants to read their story anyway.

He kisses Jack's forehead softly, sugar on his lips and honey on his tongue. "You have me now," he murmurs, the boy he loves warm in his arms. "You've always had me."

And maybe Lee won't ever get the soft epilogue he would sell the stars for, but right now, right here, with Jack Sang's hand in his own, it's enough. This---here, them, this---is enough.

٩( ᐛ )و

Later, they go to Jack's roof to watch the sunset and stay to see the stars. Silver moonlight writes a rhapsody over Jack's face as Lee shifts a little closer and wonders how he got so lucky.

If he went a little nearer, he could twine their fingers together and spell their love story in the sky. But there's something about the raw innocence of their fingertips barely brushing against each other that makes Lee want to fall in love, so he does, casting all his fears into the night.

"Hey, Jack?" Lee asks. "You know what's funny?"

In the pale moonlight, Jack's lips curve up in a smile. "What?"

His stomach is a mess of butterflies. For once, Lee lets them consume him, swallowing him whole and drowning him in the sweet embrace of all the things he keeps running from. He lets himself stare into Jack's warm eyes for just a little longer, thinking about how there's a million things that could go wrong---and how he's willing to let the world burn as long as he gets to hold Jack through it all. How in the end, they're all just crackerboxes, too small to contain the love in their hearts, and Lee wouldn't have it any other way.

"When I went looking for a home..."

Jack's fingers finally find Lee's hand, thumb rubbing against Lee's palm. Love line, life line, fate line. A million little things. All the tiny pieces that make up Lee Hiew, coming together in the face of the storm that is Jack Sang. Perfect destruction that heals instead of breaks. "Yeah?"

Boys are hurricanes, and Lee is one now as he grins and tightens his hand around Jack's like he'll never let go. "I never thought it would be you."

HI DON'T REMOVE THIS FROM YOUR LIBRARIES BECAUSE WE STILL HAVE TWO BONUS CHAPTERS

anygays

i'm not crying

(yes i am)

AGSJSDHKDL so. we have reached the end. well, not the end, but kind of the end. as in, it's not the end of this book as a whole, but it IS the end of Crackerbox, the absolute trainwreck that i've somehow actually gotten kind of attached to. because i'm a hoe. and also because i've put this mf on two hiatuses and worked on it for like 8 months and it's kinda hard not to get attached to something when you've worked on it for 8 months.

thank you so so much for staying with me through the two aforementioned hiatuses, and through all my speedrunning and trolling. thank you for staying with Jack and Lee, the two chronic dumbasses who didn't catch on to the fact that they loved each other until like the second-last chapter because they're sTUPID. thank you so much for sticking with Crackerbox, and for giving me so much love and support even though i know me and my writing make you want to tear your hair out.

honestly, Jack and Lee are two dumbasses very close to my heart. especially Lee, since he's based off a lot of myself. and i'm honestly really sad to say goodbye to them, even though they've given me an INSANE amount of migraines. like i'm actually gonna miss them holy schist. (and also can we please get some ship name suggestions for them uwu)

i hope the ending was satisfactory! i rewrote it a few times because it felt a bit flat, and this is the version that i liked best (no but you have no idea how much content i cut out T_T) it's very non-dramatic for one of my endings, but ultimately, i think Crackerbox is considerably less dramatic than most of my usual books, so it felt right to give them a rather sweet ending that brought everyone back and title-dropped like hell. i tried to wrap up everything as best as i can, and overall, while i'm not entirely satisfied with the universe that i've created, i think i've done the best that i can.

NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT THE MF COMIC BECAUSE THE ART SUCKS BUT IT'S THE BEST THING I'VE EVER DRAWN

yes. so. the comic. it's like 6 panels including the end title card and it took me like 10 hours. (tbh, pretty short for one of my works, considering how the cover of this book alone took me 6 hours.) it was supposed to be an extra scene (not in text) but i loved it so much after i finished drawing it that i just HAD to add it into the book itself. ANYGAYS I ADORE IT but please let me know what you guys think of it! this is my first time like, seriously drawing a comic (even though it's only a few panels) and i'm really proud of it even though i can't draw hands for sh!t so my hands look like sh!t :D

as always, let me know what you think of this chapter, and of Crackerbox as a whole! (bonus chapter coming in 2 days btw!)

and again, thank you so much. thank you for your love, your support, your anger, your tears, your everything. thank you for sticking with my boys despite them being absolute basket cases, and thank you for sticking with me. thank you for reading Crackerbox. i love you guys so much 💙💖💙

xoxo, Alex