ax_main | Warren and Jean-Paul

Simon's been gone one day. His boyfriends could be coping better. But at least they do better together than alone.

Jean-Paul hadn't been able to fall asleep for more than a half-hour at a stretch. It was one in the morning. Not even raining.

He sighed and rolled onto his back. Concentrated on his breathing. Tried to relax.

A painless, jerking spasm twitched from thigh to instep. He swore and rolled onto his side, giving in to the urge to check his phone. Simon's text from hours ago was still there, stiff and brief. It sounded like Simon in on-duty mode. Small wonder, given who he was trying to impress. But it was enough to let Jean-Paul know he was fine.

Jean-Paul switched off the phone and flopped onto his back again. Fuck. He wondered if it was too late to beg Warren to stay with him.

When Warren had kissed his boyfriend (the one still in town...) goodnight earlier, he'd promised himself he wasn't going to be a whiny brat and ask to stay with him. For one, he didn't want to start falling apart immediately after Simon left. A few days at least would be more respectable. And for another, he didn't want to give the impression he thought JP couldn't handle a night alone. JP wouldn't thank him for it, and Warren would feel bad about it, and they had to just keep going on like nothing was weird even if they were missing a big part of them. A third of it, in fact.

But by midnight, Warren's wings ached from lack of sleep and the hard work he'd put them through earlier in the day trying to assure that just this thing wouldn't happen.

Jean-Paul was probably asleep.

But Warren couldn't. He looked at the clock one more time. Then stood and slipped silently out of the room, locking it behind him for the sake of Scott's paranoia, and proceeded down the hall in nothing but his boxer briefs. Then knocked--quietly--on Jean-Paul and Simon's door. Feeling like an idiot child and too tired to really care.

The door opened a second later.

Jean-Paul had most certainly not been asleep. If the speed of the door opening hadn't been a dead giveaway, the circles under his eyes would have been.

The two faced each for less than a second before Jean-Paul literally swept light-boned Warren off his feet, kicked the door shut, and flew him away to his bed for a grateful crash landing.

"I was hoping it was you," Jean-Paul muttered, face pressed to Warren's chest.

Warren shifted so his wings could hang off the bed, allowing him onto his side with them splayed out behind him, stretching. He put an arm around Jean' Paul's neck and the other around his waist, pulling him in tight. "I shoulda just asked if I could stay. I didn't know if it'd be insulting or..." He chuckled. "Dumb thought."

"Really dumb. Super dumb. Almost a dumb as me not just coming to get you last night." Jean-Paul sighed deep. "Stay, all right? Until we have Simon back."

"Love to." Warren echoed Jean-Paul's sigh unconsciously and kissed his hair. Usually, it was all three of them or just JP and Simon sleeping in the same place, by virtue of them being roommates. Warren had stayed with them since JP's kidnapping, sure, but it Simon had been the more... useful of them, again by virtue of them being roommates.

If he was honest with himself, Warren was glad he'd get the opportunity to show Jean-Paul he was dependable in that department, too. Even if he knew Jean-Paul already knew that. Demonstrating it was better.

Didn't make him feel any better about Simon leaving, but, "It'll help me feel less insecure." He chuckled slightly, though the sentiment was real.

Jean-Paul laughed against his skin. "And what can I do to help you feel less insecure? That sounds like you're being neglected, angel."

"Never." Warren was still smiling, now just as much at the feeling of Jean-Paul's chuckle as at the conversation itself. "It's just me making Simon's stuff about myself. I feel shitty even thinking it let alone saying it.

"It's hard to... realize you can't be enough, sometimes."

"It is," Jean-Paul agreed. "I had to learn that with Jeanne-Marie. But maybe that's for the best."

"It definitely is." Another, smaller sigh from Warren now. "And I don't really want to be anyone's everything. That seems... not healthy. And more responsibility than anyone needs.

"Can't shake the feeling it'd be nice if I could be, though. Even if I know it's unrealistic and terrible."

"Want to pretend for a while?" Jean-Paul murmured. "For a night? A couple of weeks? A week in Montreal? Be my prince for a bit?"

"I like the direction this is going." Warren chuckled again and pulled back just enough to look at JP. "And I could definitely use a vacation. With you. In Montreal."

"Be careful..." Jean-Paul smiled and scootched up far enough that he and Warren were finally eye to eye. "Raymonde will probably put us to work. The bistro will have the most beautiful greeter in all of Canada for the lunch rush."

"Who, you?" Warren smirked and then, unable to resist, what with the proximity, kissed him.

Jean-Paul lingered in the kiss, fingers tangled in the bed-mess gold of Warren's hair. But, eventually, "You, flyboy. I'm actually safe to have in the kitchen."

Warren laughed. He didn't even want to consider what kitchen-safe wing-nets would look like. Beard nets were horrifying enough. "I know--I just wanted to hear you say it. He'll also have the prettiest line cook in Canada, though?"

"Marisol will be flattered to hear you say that." Jean-Paul drew him in for another kiss. "So. Tomorrow, then? Run away with me?"

Briefly, the 100 emails and voicemails that'd be waiting for him when he checked back into what he considered "office time" flitted through Warren's mind. He promptly kicked them aside. It was summer, he was seventeen, and this boyfriend, at least, he could distract from his troubles. "See, now that sounds like the healthy kind of romantic I should be indulging in. I'm so in. Raymonde won't mind? Should we get a place? Or would that be, like, insulting?"

"It's polite to give him the chance to refuse. Which he won't," Jean-Paul informed him. "But at least we can stay in my old room if it's just the two of us, and not take up the living room floor."

It would be strange, to be there without Simon. And yet, Warren was already looking forward to Montreal again. It was bias in part, how the place screamed "Jean-Paul", but it really was a beautiful city. And, "Hell, everyone could use an escape from weird. You always have the best ideas. I can't wait for the sun to come up."

"Mm." Jean-Paul snuggled up, actually relaxing for just about the first time he'd realized Simon was leaving. "Don't speak too soon. Sharing a bed with you is a good thing."

"Truuuuue." Warren grinned. He was too comfortable to start anything now (not that he'd ever turn it down if it was on offer...) but also, "Though waking up with you is a good thing too. Funny, you being the one to remind me to slow down."

"Oh, hell no. I'm reminding you to enjoy yourself, featherbrain." Jean-Paul tugged his hair gently. "And that's something I have to do for you almost as much as I do Simon."

"That's what you get for saddling yourself with two workaholics." Warren grinned, and his eyes had brightened at the hair tug... just a little. "I'm easier to convince, though. Just slap a collar on me."