Whether it was the sound of Del slightly snoring in his sleep, the groans of Wesley every time he had to steal blankets back from his boyfriend, or Lawson's fears about his date with Sean, Lawson didn't know. All he processed when he woke up Saturday morning was that he had barely slept the night before.

It was a bad start to his day, but he was positive it would be the only bad part about it, since the girls concert was that afternoon and he couldn't wait to go see them. This motivated him to get out of bed and start getting dressed, but he was stalled nearly a minute in by his phone ringing loudly.

Wesley and Delaney were still tangled intricately in the other boy's bed, and they boy groaned at the sound. Quickly, Lawson answered, smiling at the sight of his mother's name. "Hey mom. I'm just getting ready and then I'm gonna head home. It's at eleven, right?"

"It is," she confirmed, but there was something in her voice that made Lawson frown.

"What's wrong, mom?" He questioned, trying to be quiet for the sake of his sleeping friends, but he figured Wesley was probably eavesdropping at this point. "Are the girls alright? Is it Cyble-"

"Yes, it's Cyble," She confirmed, and Lawson dropped his head. "She started bleeding last night but she didn't want to get her shot so she didn't tell us, so we had to take her to the hospital this morning to get a transfusion. They want to keep her here for a while, so we'll probably miss the concert, and even if we get home in time, she needs her rest. We told Luna she could still go but she doesn't want to do anything without her sister". His mother sounded exhausted, even more tired than him, and Lawson's insides turned with worry.

"It's alright, mom. I understand. Do you need me to come home and help out? An extra set of hands around the house might be nice," Lawson offered.

"Ah, sweetie, thank you, but I don't think that's such a great idea. You know how the girls get riled up when you come, and-"

"It's alright mom. I completely understand," Lawson assured with a small smile that he didn't feel inside. "Just... keep me updated, and call me if you need anything. Alright?"

"Of course... I'm so sorry, Lawson. I know you were looking forward to this, and we were really looking forward to seeing you".

"It's alright, mom. I'll come visit soon. I just want Cyble to be alright, so take good care of her". They exchanged goodbyes then, since his mother's attention was being demanded by something else, and he flopped back down onto his mattress.

The day was suddenly free for himself. He had a paper to write, but he had been planning on starting that on Sunday, and he currently didn't feel motivated to do anything academic. Instead, he crawled back into his blankets and fell asleep.

When he woke up again, the bed on the other side of the room was empty, and it was silent. Happy to have the room to himself to sulk, Lawson rolled over and checked his cell phone for any messages, sighing when he saw none. He had been hoping someone would reach out to him and see if he wanted to do anything for the afternoon, but he figured he had already shared his plans with his close friends, who assumed he was currently busy.

He sent a simple message of what are you up to today? To Reese, Kye, and Nathan, leaving out Sean since he was already aware that the boy was working that afternoon. Also, he was still confused about the lack of kissing at the end of their date- which Wesley had confirmed to him as weird, very weird- and he was worried it meant that Sean hadn't had a good time with him the night before, and perhaps he didn't want Lawson to talk to him. The lack of texts that morning could be suggestive of that, since they typically exchanged messages at all waking hours of the day.

It didn't him long for all three of the people he had texted to respond.

Kye: Concert

Reese: Kye got us tickets to a concert tonight so we're leaving soon to drive to Jacksonville

Nathan: I'm getting lunch with my parents and then spending the day with them. Why?

Lawson didn't bother to respond to any of the messages, instead dropping his phone into his pile of blankets before climbing out of bed and finishing the process of getting ready that he had started earlier. His last two options were to go to the library to work on his paper, or stay here with Del and Wesley, which he knew both boys wouldn't mind, but he still didn't want to be in their way for the entire day. There was also the idea of going to play tennis that came to mind, but his body was tired and sore from his time on the ice the night before, and he didn't really want to play.

The library it was.

Lawson left his room immediately after dressing, figuring it would be better to leave before Wes came back and protested him doing homework on a saturday. It was a mentality that Wesley had attempted to force on him multiple times, and it was clearly shared by many others, since the library was nearly empty when he arrived.

Naturally, he took a seat at the table him and Sean always worked at, and then paused, allowing his mind to wander to the other boy for just a minute. They had such a great night together, or so Lawson had thought. If only Sean had kissed him the night before, or maybe if Lawson had the courage to do it himself, then his stomach wouldn't feel like this; tight with doubt.

As he sat in his usual chair, Lawson acknowledged the fact that he probably wasn't going to be able to think of anything to write for his philosophy paper if he kept getting distracted as easily as he had been. The paper wasn't due for another three weeks, so he had time to work on it, but he was struggling to find a topic to write on. Clearly, he had many different opinions with all the papers and topics they discussed in philosophy, but Lawson couldn't choose a single one that he had enough to say about to fill an entire paper.

Of course, writing a paper you didn't have a topic for was difficult, so Lawson typed out a shitty nonsensical paragraph before deleting the document and putting his head on the table. He wondered if this was the worst day of his life, but then he recalled that day when he was eight that his biological father came to visit and his mom cried. This wasn't nearly as bad as that, but it was still pretty bad, so Lawson packed up his things and decided to go back to his room and sleep the day away. That way he wouldn't need to be sad in public, and he could ignore Delaney and Wesley.

He hadn't have been gone for long, twenty minutes at most, so he was surprised when he opened the door to his room to see Wesley sitting at his desk working on something as Delaney stretched out across the bed. They both looked up at the sound of the door opening, and Wesley's eyebrows shot up. "You look terrible. Is the whole kiss thing from last night really bothering you that much?"

Lawson didn't respond, only raised a hand to flip off his roommate, which made Delaney chuckle. Then, he tossed his backpack on the floor and climbed into bed, pulling the covers over his head so Wesley knew not to bother him.

Despite his plans, Lawson didn't sleep. He found himself unable to, so instead he closed his eyes and focused on taking deep breaths, hoping they would be able to relax him a little. This only continued for a minute before there was a grunt somewhere else in the room, and then Lawson and his burrito of blankets were being assaulted with a pillow. "Stop Lamaze breathing weirdo and talk to me about what's wrong".

Groaning, Lawson pushed his blankets back and glared at his roommate, who had moved back to take a seat on his bed next to Delaney. "I'm just having a bad day".

"I'm sure you didn't make it any better," Del scolded while reaching up to pull on Wesley's ear. The other boy made an unpleasant screeching noise in response.

"He's being all mopey and sad because he didn't get dick the night before, and he needs to know it's pathetic," Wesley defended, swatting at his boyfriend as Lawson blinked slowly.

"I didn't want to have sex with him, I just wanted him to kiss me. Like... on the mouth," Lawson corrected and the two boys stopped fighting to look at him. Surprisingly, it was Delaney who responded.

"You know, maybe you should talk to him about it before you let it ruin your life, and your relationship," he advised, and Lawson dropped his eyes as he thought about this for a minute.

"That's not the only bad part of my day. My sister got sick so they didn't have their concert today, which I was excited to go to, and I just want to talk to my mom, but she's busy, and everyone else is doing things, and I can't write my philosophy paper, and I miss Sean but he's working-"

"Why don't you text him?" Wesley cut in softly. "I mean... that's never stopped you before. I think you're not texting him because you're still freaking out about last night, but you'll also feel much better about everything if you reach out to him and talk, because even though you didn't make out last night, you still like him".

Lawson looked at his roommate for a minute, simply blinking slowly at the other boy, and then he sighed and reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone, since he knew Wesley was right.

Lawson:

How's work?

"There," Lawson concluded, shutting off his cellphone. "Are you happy?"

"Are you?" Wesley shot back, and Lawson was surprised that he was, actually. Having actually reached out to Sean made him relax, since he knew now he didn't have to wait around anxiously for the other boy to do it.

"I'm-" Lawson cut off when the phone in his hand began to ring, and he looked down, surprised to see Sean's name on his screen. "Oh". Ignoring Wesley's questionative look, he answered. "Hello?"

"Hey," Sean greeted, voice smooth and Lawson dropped down onto his back to stare at his ceiling as he listened to it. "I was just thinking about you when I got your message".

"Oh?" Lawson asked, voice teasing without him meaning for it to be. "All good things I hope".

"Of course," Sean confirmed. "Works fine by the way, since you asked. Really boring, actually. How's your day been? Was the recital cute?"

"I didn't end up going, actually. My mom called me this morning to tell me Cyble had to go to the hospital to get a blood transfusion so they weren't going to make it, which sucked," Lawson explained, not even hiding the disappointment in his voice.

"Ah, that does suck. How was the rest of your day then?"

"Shit," Lawson grumbled, bringing a hand up to run it over his face. "It fucking sucks".

There was a pause, then a humm, and finally Sean said, "I think I know something that will make it better". Before Lawson could even asked what the hell he was talking about, the line dropped, and he pulled his phone back to look at the screen.

During the phone conversation, Wesley and Del had engaged in their own conversation, but immediately Wes's attention moved back to him. "Well?"

"He hung up on me," Lawson answered shortly. He wasn't upset with Sean for the abrupt ending. The other boy was clearly up to something, and Lawson hoped it involved them seeing one another, since he thought that would have a positive impact on his mood.

"Well that's not a good sign," Wesley grumbled and Lawson just shook his head.

"It wasn't like a mad hang up".

"Huh?" Not wanting to explain, Lawson put his phone down and rolled over in bed to face away from he two other boys, pulling his blanket up over his shoulder. "I swear, he's not usually this grumpy. You don't need to worry about me living on a hostile environment, Laney. I promise". There was a scoff, and then a soft slapping noise and Wesley began to laugh. 

Lawson wasn't exactly sure how long he laid like that, thinking about Sean as Wesley and Delaney had a soft conversation a bed over, but it had to be over an hour before he was pulled out of his trance by a knocking at the dorms door. It wasn't difficult for him to guess who was knocking, and he made to get out of bed, but Wesley beat him to it, happily skipping to the door.

With his exuberance, he threw it open, and it banged loudly against the wall, causing Lawson to flinch, and Delaney to call him an idiot. "Mean," was all Wesley said to his boyfriend before turning to give Sean his attention.

He was standing in the doorway, just looking at Wesley with wide eyes. Lawson noticed that he was still wearing his work shirt, and he also had a Togo box clutched tightly in one of his hands. "Well hello," Wesley greeted pleasantly, leaning against the door frame and smiling at Sean, who looked past him to Lawson for a second. "Would you like to come in?"

"Uh, yes?" Sean said, seeming unsure and Wesley laughed.

"Don't look so scared, Sean," he taunted before moving out of the doorway and climbing back into his bed with Delaney. All three of them watched Sean as he entered the room and slowly shut the door behind him. When he turned back around, he addressed Wesley again.

"So... you're the roommate than?" He asked, and Wesley laughed. Lawson frowned in confusion before recalling Wesley explaining briefly meeting Sean the night of that party, when it seemed the boy did not take to him flirting with Lawson well.

"I am," Wesley confirmed. "Does that make you feel less threatened?"

"Leave him alone, Wes," Lawson grumbled and Sean looked at him again, eyes very wide. "Did you really find him threatening though. Him?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wesley protested loudly and Sean smiled, eyes still glued to Lawson.

"I was kind of threatened, but I thought he was hitting on you right in front of me and I think I'd be threatened if anyone did that," Sean admitted with a small shrug and Lawson grinned at him.

"Probably was hitting on him," Delaney grumbled, speaking for the first time since Sean entered. The boy's eyes went over to him for the first time, and then widened slightly as if surprised he had missed him. Sean's mouth parted, but before he could ask who Delaney was Wesley was crawling into his boyfriend me lap and pressing his lips into his cheeks.

"Of course not, Laney. The only person I ever hit on is you," he claimed, and Lawson coughed loudly at the lie. Wes frowned. "Okay, So Nathan sometimes... and maybe Kye because it makes the short one mad, but neither of them are serious options for me". Delaney looked less than happy with Wesley at the moment, but his expression softened when his boyfriend cupped his face and said, "at the end of the day, I'm always yours".

When Delaney pressed a kiss to Wes's mouth, Lawson averted his eyes, looking instead at Sean who was already looking at him with raised eyebrows.  "Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"Ahh, well, it was very slow, and I'm apparently very persuasive," Sean admitted, and Lawson hummed, bringing his eyes down to to box in Sean's hand.

"And what is in there?"

Without a word- but with a large smile- Sean handed the box over to Lawson. "It's what's going to make your day better," Sean assured, and Lawson just looked up at the boy, silently for a minute because didn't he know that he had already done that by just being there? "Come on, open it. Before it gets cold".

The first thing Lawson noticed when he opened the box was that its contents smelled wonderful. The second thing he noticed was that they were French toast sticks. Immediately, Lawson raised his head to look up at the other boy who was grinning down at him. His eyes felt damp. "Sean".

"See," Sean said, moving forward to climb into Lawson's bed to take a seat next to him. "All better". More than anything, Lawson wanted to kiss him, but he still wasn't sure it'd that was something he was allowed to do, so he instead opened a syrup cup slowly so he didn't spill on his bed.

"I can't believe you spent money on breakfast food for me," Lawson said, voice small for only Sean to hear. The other boy made a thoughtful noise.

"Yeah, I know. It's totally against my morals," Sean teased and Lawson chuckled before dipping on of the sticks in syrup and bringing it up to his mouth. Sean leaned towards his and rested his chin on Lawson's shoulder, blue eyes boring into the side of his face and warm breath hitting Lawson's neck. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Surprised, Lawson's eyes quickly shot to the side, but Sean was far too close to him for his eyes to focus so he looked ahead again. Was he talking about the kiss? "Talk about what?"

"Why your day sucks," Sean responded, and Lawson sighed loudly, since they were clearly on different pages.

"It just does, I guess. I don't know. I had nothing to do and everyone was busy but... it's better now, so thank you," Lawson admitted, voice a whisper so Wesley couldn't eavesdrop on their conversation. Sean lifted his chin so Lawson could see his smile.

"Good". With a sigh, Lawson leaned back against the wall behind his bed, ignoring the uncomfortable angle and the way his body immediately began to slide downwards.

"So Sean," Wesley said from the other side of the room, "have you met all of Lawson friends now?" Lawson tuned out the conversation- he figured Wesley wasn't dumb enough to bring up Lawson past fling with Nathan- and instead brought his full attention to the food in his lap, and the boy pressed against his left side, keeping him warm.

After a minute of eating, Lawson huffed and sat up against the wall again, back into his original position, only to begin slipping once more. It was something he could ignore until he was almost horizontal, and he righted himself again with a little whine.

Sean cut his conversation with Wesley to laugh at him, and then reached out to grab Lawson's hip. "Hey, move forward a bit".

"That doesn't work, I've tried that," Lawson protested, and Sean gave him a patient just do it look, so Lawson scooted forward on his bed. Not even a second later, Sean was sliding into the space between him and the wall, guiding Lawson to lean back against him. "Oh, I see". There was a flush that was fighting to make its way into Lawson's face, but he instead stuffed his mouth with another French toast stick and pretended he didn't notice the look Wesley was giving him.

Briefly, Lawson was concerned that Wesley would say something about the two of them and make Sean uncomfortable, but fortunately all his roommate said was, "let's watch a movie!" Before climbing off of his bed and fetching the remote, which he tossed to Delaney. "Chose something good or I'm disowning you".

"I have been a constant in your life since we started walking Wes, I'm pretty sure you would die without me," Delaney claimed, eyes on the television as his boyfriend joined him back in bed. Lawson was expecting Wesley to be offended by Del's words, but instead he looked thoughtful.

"Hey," Sean said into his ear, and Lawson turned his head to the side in his best attempt to look at the other boy. "Are you okay with me being here? I know I kinda just showed up and you're already having a bad day so if you didn't want me here-"

"Sean, shut up," Lawson instructed, and then, before the other boy could freak out, he said, "if I didn't want you here, I would tell you, okay?"

"Okay," Sean agreed, and Lawson looked forward after giving a small nod, bringing his attention to the television where the movie Delaney had chosen was beginning. Before Lawson could really focus thought, Sean's hands were moving to slide around his waist, pulling their bodies even closer together, and his chin dropped down to rest on Lawson's shoulder again.

With a soft noise of content, Lawson easily relaxed into the boy behind him, who in response slightly turned his head to press his lips against Lawson neck, right below his jaw. Oh shit.

Lawson tensed, so Sean tensed, and then Wesley was talking to them, only getting out, "this is like a-" before Delaney unceremoniously stuck his fingers in Wesley's mouth to quiet him, eye glued on the screen.

Taking a deep breath, Lawson tried to relax back into Sean, but the other boy just hummed thoughtfully in his ear before pressing his lips to that spot again, this time sucking lightly. This time Lawson tensed, trembled, and then reached a hand over his shoulder to push lightly at Sean's head. The other got the message and ceased his menstrations, but mumbled a, "I guess I'll have to keep that in mind," to himself.

***

By the time the movie ended, Delaney and Wesley had long since left to go eat dinner, and Sean's hands hand somehow found their way under Lawson's shirt, holding his hips with his thumbs carefully brushing over the bare skin. It made Lawson feel warm, especially when Sean's fingers spread out to brush over his stomach for just a second before wandering back.

Despite all of this, their hushed conversation was quite casual, discussing everyone else's plans for the day and the fact that Sean still hadn't really met Reese and Kye.

It was about ten minutes after the move ended- probably thirty after Del and Wesley had left- that Sean laughed at something Lawson had said, and then retaliated with a breathless, "would you like to go out again next weekend?"

The idea of another date brought back the unease Lawson felt after the one the night before. Still, he answered, "yes," because clearly had had read way too much into that. Sean was there with him, afterall. For a minute, the room was quiet, and Lawson couldn't quite place the tension.

"What is it, Lawson?" Sean questioned eventually, voice very low as he leaned over enough to be able to see Lawson's face. "Do you not want to or something?"

"No! I do!" Lawson assured, unable to prevent the rise in his voice. "I really really do". He searched out Sean's hand under on his shirt and laced their fingers together, squeezing tightly. Blue grey eyes narrowed, as if doubtful.

"Why'd you sound so unsure at first?"

Slowly, Lawson's eyes moved away. "Well, because... because I wasn't exactly sure if you'd ask again if I'm being completely honest. I mean... I think when you showed up today I realized that you probably were going to, but I mean... before that I wasn't sure and I guess I just wasn't thinking".

"What?" Sean asked, and Lawson pulled away from the other boy so he could turn around and face him. "Why wouldn't I ask you again?" His eyes got very wide. "Did you not have a good time last night?"

It was clear that Lawson was going to have to explain his dilemma if he didn't want Sean to freak out, and he felt his cheeks heat a little with embarrassment. "No, Sean. I did," he assured softly, and the other boy looked down at their clasped hands. "It's just..." fuck, "I don't know. You know how last night I told you I'd never been on a date before so I didn't have any expectations?" Sean nodded his head. "Well, I thought that was true, but at the end of the night I realised I may have had some preconceived notions of how our date was going to end".

Immediately, Sean's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You wanted me to put out?"

"Oh my god, Sean! No!" Lawson demanded, and then he began to laugh at the ridiculous idea. The sound made Sean's lips curl up at the corners. "No. That's... that's not it. It was... just.. Ugh, why is this so hard?"

"Just say it, Lawson".

"Kissing. I guess. I just thought... I don't know. You kissed me kind of like I was your mother, and I don't want to be your mother. I want to be your boyfriend... you know?"

Sean grinned as he said, "Really now," and Lawson raised his fist to punch him in the shoulder, resulting as Sean rolling onto his side and clutching the area while laughing.

"Sean," Lawson groaned, exacerbated and the other boy sat back up, grin still in place. His hands came to rest on Lawson's shoulder.

"Okay, Okay. I wasn't trying to make you doubt me or my feelings for you. I just thought that maybe it would be better if we waited a bit, so I didn't rush you, and you didn't think that's all I wanted from you, because honestly Lawson, with all this pent up sexual frustration, the first time we kiss, like actually kiss, is going to be really intense, and as cheesy as it sounds, I want that moment to be special. I respect you far too much for it not to be," Sean promised, one of his hands coming up to rub at Lawson's jaw. "I really like you, Lawson. Really really like you, and I don't want to fuck everything up by going too fast and making you uncomfortable".

"You don't make me uncomfortable," Lawson assured, leaning forward to press his forehead into Sean's shoulder. "I understand. I want it to be special too". Hands began to run up and down his back soothing him into relaxing against Sean.

"So... does this mean you'll go out with me again?" Sean asked after a comfortable silence. Lawson laughed happily.

"Of course," he confirmed.

"Okay... actually no expectations this time?" Sean teased and Lawson scoffed into his neck.

"I didn't realize you weren't going to kiss me," he grumbled and Sean's body shook beneath his with laughter.

"I suck".

"You really do," Lawson conferences before leaning his full weight onto the other boy, pushing him backwards onto the pillows with Lawson's sprawled out on his chest. "I'll forgive you if you take a nap with me".

"Ahh, well I suppose," Sean teased with a mocking sigh and Lawson turned his head to sink his teeth into Sean's shoulder. "Ouch!" They laughed until their eyelids got heavy.