A/N Heads up, I don't like this chapter. It was annoying to write, and even worse to edit.

Ever since Sean and him had started dating, Reese had been bugging him to bring Sean over some time, or to meet him and Kye for for lunch, but the second Nathan had mentioned Sean and Lawson spending the night into their group chat- created by Reese of course- the boy had become insufferable. At every hour of the day, Lawson received countless text messages begging him to let them meet Sean. Somehow, Lawson made it about a week and a half before giving in, and the messages thankfully stopped once they made plans to get coffee Thursday afternoon, after Lawson's morning class, and before Sean's night class.

There really was no reason for Sean not to meet his friends at this point, except of course for the fact that Reese would probably hit on him, which would make both Lawson and Kye want to punch the small boy in the face. When Lawson warned Sean of this the Tuesday night before, he had only laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm fine being hit on. I won't act on it if that's what you're worried about," Sean promised, eyebrows raised as he waited to see how Lawson reacted to this.

He scoffed and shot his boyfriend a you know that's not it look that made Sean laugh. "I don't think he'll try to take you from me, and I'm not worried about you leaving me for him. It's just annoying in general that he can't keep it in his pants". The expression Sean had in response made Lawson roll his eyes, and then snort, because keeping it in their pants wasn't something either of them had been that good at as of late.

In fact, ever since that night at Nathan's, they could barely keep their hands off of one another. Something about all of that pent up sexual frustration finally being released resulted in multiple sexual situations over the last week and a half- not that Lawson was complaining.

Lawson was thinking about how nice it would be to get out and go somewhere- that wasn't Sean's bed- when he pulled his truck into the parking lot of his boyfriend's building. He sent Sean a quick text before turning up the techno music on the radio and closing his eyes, enjoying the breeze from the open window.

It was his favorite time of the year in Florida, where the weather had finally cooled to the point that wearing a sweater outside didn't result in being drenched in sweat. Hell, holiday break was just over a month and a half away already. In less than two months, Sean would be returning home for break.

Lawson has been thinking about that a lot lately, but each time it came up he pushed the thoughts back, as he did right then. It was a good thing too, because Sean was pulling the passenger side door open not even a second later and climbing into the car.

"Hey," Sean greeted, and something was off about his voice, but Lawson didn't place it until after his boyfriend had kissed him and settled back in the seat.

"You look exhausted," Lawson blurted it before realizing that was probably rude. Thankfully, Sean just cracked a small smile, seeming amused. "Sorry, that didn't come out right, but seriously Sean, you alright?"

"I'm fine," Sean assured, pulling his seatbelt over his chest. Lawson must have looked skeptical, because Sean looked back at him and sighed. "Really, Lawson. I'm okay. I just didn't sleep well last night is all".

"Oh". Lawson frowned. "Well do you want to reschedule? I-"

"You," Sean interrupted with a smile, "would never hear the end of it". It wasn't hard to figure he was referring to Reese, and Lawson sighed in defeat. "I'm really fine. Coffee will probably help, actually".

Lawson didn't voice any more concern, but he did reach over and take Sean's hand as he drove, brushing his thumb over his knuckles as he hoped his boyfriend was keeping something from him for a good reason.

They were meeting Kye and Reese at some coffee shop in the nice part of town- the part Lawson didn't often go to and Reese grew up in- so it took a few extra minutes to get there, resulting in them being a handful of minutes late. Kye didn't seem to notice, but Reese made sure to tease him about it the second they sat down.

And then immediately after, all attention was on Sean, and between flirtatious complements- such as "you look cuter than I remember,"- that made Lawson want to punch Reese in the face, he was bombarded with questions. Lawson knew for a fact that Reese knew the answers to most of the things he asked, but he didn't interrupt the flow of the conversation, letting the overly tired Sean sip at his coffee and casually answer the questions that were thrown at him.

It was during one of Reese's flirtatious moments that Lawson picked up on a tension between the two roommates. Reese had just said, "that is so sweet, you missing your brother. Is he just as handsome as you," when Kye scoffed into his cup. Usually, Reese would ignore the other boy's distaste and continue on charming, but he seemed to be looking for a fight that afternoon, because he looked at Kye, eyes flashing as he asked, "is there a problem?"

"Why do you insist on hitting on everything that moves?" Kye questioned. "Like, he's dating Lawson, who has been glaring at you for the past twenty minutes if you haven't realized, so why don't you just let it be. He's clearly not interested in you. Not everyone is going to be".

With wide eyes, Lawson watched the interaction before shooting a look at Sean to make sure he wasn't uncomfortable with the situation. Thankfully, Sean seemed perfectly at ease, his eyes on the boys across the table, calculating.

"Yes, I'm aware of that Kyle," Reese said slowly, voice thick with venom. "It's been made very clear to me". Kye's eyes rolled and landed on Lawson's, and something in his expression begged for a change in topic.

"So, did you guys do anything this past weekend?" Lawson asked quickly. Since it was Reese and Kye, he figured they must have, but he had been a little preoccupied with Sean lately, so he hadn't yet had the chance to ask.

Kye looked out of the window, and Reese smiled, but it wasn't a pleasant or happy expression.

"Besides get blackout drunk?" Reese inquired. He sipped at his coffee then, and Lawson wondered what the fuck was going on with him. It wasn't abnormal for Reese to get drunk, but despite the image the boy liked to have for himself, he was responsible, and knew his own limits. Getting blackout drunk was something Reese assured Lawson he wasn't interested in.

"Did you go with him?" Lawson asked Kye, who was looking at his roommate, seeming far less than pleased.

"Of course I did. You think I'd just let him go out and be an idiot by himself?"

It was clear that there was something strange going on between the two of them, but Lawson felt like asking wouldn't be a good idea, at least, not right then, so he tried to ignore the jabs they took at one another from that point on.

Thankfully, Reese abandoned his flirtatious attitude for the rest of the afternoon, though along with that went some of his fake happiness that he often hid behind. Unsurprisingly, Lawson found the afternoon far more enjoyable this way, and when Kye checked the time on his phone and said him and Reese had to leave, Lawson found he couldn't believe they as already been there for well over two hours.

Somehow, Sean fit in with them just as easily as he had fit into everything else in Lawsons life. It made him feel inexplicably warm inside, knowing that he had picked someone to spend his life who his friends and family approved of. It was- woah.

They were watching Kye and Reese walk out of the coffee shop as Lawson thought this, and he froze, his eyes widening and coffee half way to his lips. To spend the rest of his life with? Was that what Sean was to him? Already?

They had only been officially dating for about two and a half weeks, but they had kind of sort of been a thing for a while before that. Even so, it didn't feel like a long enough time for Lawson to be feeling like that, but he couldn't deny the feelings he felt when he glanced over at Sean.

Concern. He looked so tired. Affection. He was so beautiful. Relief. He had met everyone important and he was still there.

Love. He was goddamn perfect.

Fuck.

Lawson's thoughts were interrupted when Sean turned to him, seeming unsurprised to catch him staring, and asked, "Are those two having sex?"

That was the last thing Lawson had been expecting him to say, and he was unable to hold in his surprised laugh. "What?"

"Kye and Reese. Are they screwing?"

"What? No. Of course not". Sean's eyebrows raised, and then he turned his head to look at the door the two boys had disappeared through a minute before.

"Well, they will be sooner or later," Sean claimed, and Lawson shook his head.

"Reese spends half of the time blainaly hitting on you, and you think him and Kye are going to hook up?"

"He was only doing it to piss him off," Sean claimed, and Lawson's eyebrows raised.

"How can you tell?"

Sean just looked at him blankly for a second before cracking a smile. "You know, I've been meaning to tell you this: you're really clueless". Without pause, Lawson delivered a soft punch into the other boy's shoulder. "Lawson, literally every time he said something to me he'd glance at Kye out of the corner of his eye to see his reaction. I think he was just doing it to get a rise out of him to reassure himself that Kye cared, which is why he stopped once Kye snapped".

They were silent as Lawson thought about it. It had never really occurred to him before- Reese liking Kye like that, and vice versa- but now that Sean had said something, he had to admit that it made perfect sense. "How are you so perceptive?" He eventually asked, and Sean just gave him a shrug and a tired smile.

"Hey, do you have anything going on for the rest of the afternoon?" Sean asked, blue eyes down on his long since empty coffee mug.

"I- no," Lawson answered, frowning a little bit. "Don't you have class?"

Sean groaned, and the next thing Lawson knew the boy had turned to him in his chair and leaned forward to press his face into Lawson's neck. "I just want to sleep," he claimed, and Lawson wondered if he had purposely avoided the question. "Please come back and take a nap with me".

There were so many things he could say. Why are you so tired? You're skipping class? I was actually going to edit that paper of yours you asked me to look at. But instead of saying any of this, he turned his face into Sean's hair and whispered, "okay".

***

The second they stepped into Sean's apartment, Lawson was being pulled towards the bed, which wasn't actually unusual given the last couple of days, but instead of fumbling with zippers while sucking at egar lips after they fell onto the mattress, Sean curled up against his side and pressed his face into his neck. His hands tugged at the front of Lawson's shirt lightly as he curled them into fists.

Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it, he doesn't want to talk about it, ignore it.

"Hey," Lawson said softly, ignoring his inner warnings. "Are you alright? Like, actually alright?"

Slowly, Sean's face turned up towards him, and his hand raised to brush his fingers over Lawson's jaw. "Yeah," he said, voice barely a whisper, before leaning down and capturing Lawson's lips with his own.

It was a very slow and sweet kiss, with a delicate incorporation of tongue and teeth at the proper times, but it wasn't enough to make either of them forget what their current problem was. Eventually, with a heavy sigh, Sean pulled back and dropped his head back on Lawson's chest before he could catch a glimpse of his kissed red lips. "I had a rough time sleeping night last night, but spending time with you makes everything better".

Unable to help himself, Lawson smiled and passed a hand through Sean's lightly tangled hair. "You know you could have called me".

"I know," Sean admitted. "It was just something I felt I had to deal with myself at the time, which was dumb because I couldn't sleep, and you help me sleep". Affectionately, Sean nuffield his face into the crook of Lawson's shoulder and inhaled deeply. "You're here now though".

"Is there anything else I can do?" Lawson questioned, just wanting to be as helpful as possible to his boyfriend. Sean had taken care of him so many times. It seemed time to return the favor.

That was one of the main reasons why Lawson immediately agreed when Sean asked, "could you read to me?" into his shoulder, as if embarrassed.

Another main reason was that he was completely, undeniably in love with the boy currently sprawled across him.