Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Loves Company ❯ Brushing Up ( Chapter 6 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Kita and Subu-chan 
Drinks and theories. What does a toothbrush have to do with anything?! With love to Hana and Catti and Dubhghall!!!
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Police / Mystery | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.06.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 435 | Status: Work In Progress
Drinks and theories. What does a toothbrush have to do with anything?! With love to Hana and Catti and Dubhghall!!!
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance / Police / Mystery | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.06.2007 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.3K | Visits: 435 | Status: Work In Progress
Chapter Six-Brushing Up
A/N-Thanks for all the reviews. They kept me from throwing up my hands and telling Akita she could finish the damned thing herself. It was not going well for a while there. Things seem to be getting back to normal. Akita’s happy. It’s Easter, so she’s been sneaking lots of chocolate. But at least she’s not getting home at midnight anymore so I’ll look the other way. Dubhghall, you’re forgiven for not reviewing sooner. Glad you like the new story and hope you continue to enjoy. And it’s okay that you like it better than the first one. That means we’re improving. But we still want to see more of your stories. (I saw your homepage!! *giggle* Can I live there too? It’s a Drake and JJ happy place!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!)*sighs* You see what I mean about the chocolate? Thanks Catti-chan, Hana-chan and Dubhghall for reading and reviewing. Enjoy…
Disclaimers still apply. (Oh, and Hana…? FLUFF!!!)
“JJ?”
“The last three name. Repeat them for me.”
“Uhm - Trieg, Hayle, and Selas.” Drake regarded his partner with a quizzical stare.
JJ quickly sorted through the stack of files he was holding and pulled out one, dropping the others back onto the table. He flipped the file open and scanned it with a sudden intensity that surprised the hell out of Drake. He wasn’t used to JJ looking so serious.
Kellie set the glasses down on the table and regarded JJ with an amused expression. “He’s got that look like you get when something’s got a hold of you. The one that says, ‘I’ve got an idea and I’m not resting until I pin it down.’ Greg used to love it when you pulled that expression.”
Drake blinked at the mention of the first partner he’d had when he’d been promoted to detective. “Huh?”
Kellie laughed. “He used to say whenever you got that look the case was as good as solved. Said you were better than a whole forensics team at putting the pieces together into a whole when all anybody else saw were just disconnected bits that made no sense.”
Drake frowned. “Really? He used to just tell me to quit daydreaming.”
“Did you honestly think he was going to tell the rookie detective he was doing as good as men that had been on the job for years? He always told me that you were going to be one of the best he’d ever trained. I think he was right.”
Drake colored and turned to regard JJ, who was still reading intently.
“JJ, hate to break it to you, but those guys are dead or behind bars. Not much chance of one of them being our killer.”
JJ ignored him, poring over the file with studied intensity.
“I swear if you don’t tell me what you’re thinking…” Drake folded his arms.
JJ blinked, as if drug out of deep concentration, and showed the file he was holding to Drake. Drake read the name on the folder and regarded his partner with a uniquely singular expression of doubt. “JJ, he’s dead. Hope you’re not going to try and convince me his ghost is trying to get revenge for Richmond putting him away. I don’t think it works that way.”
JJ scowled at him. “I know he’s dead, idiot. But the name…”
“What about the name?” Kellie leaned over JJ’s shoulder to read. “Oh, I remember that one!” She exclaimed. “Trent Hayle was convicted on nine counts of fraud and embezzlement. He was sent to prison and died ten days later in a riot that broke out. His wife stormed into the courtroom a week after his funeral and started accusing Richmond of murder. Claimed he’d sent her husband to prison to be killed and that he’d murdered her baby. Took three bailiffs and a clever stenographer to stop her.”
Ignoring the wide-eyed stare she got from the two detectives, Kellie tapped he bottom lip thoughtfully. “If I remember right, her family claimed a history of mental illness and had her admitted to a psychiatric hospital upstate. Turned out she’d been three months pregnant and had miscarried from the stress.”
“How do you know all this?” JJ asked.
Kellie looked sheepish. “I was in the courtroom at the time of her dramatic entrance. Had a couple of parking tickets and a speeding ticket to take care of. I saw the whole thing and I kept up with the news afterwards.”
At Drake’s disbelieving stare she shrugged defensively. “What? I can’t have a few tickets? I’m old, hon, not dead. I’ll only stop getting into trouble when they put me in the ground.”
Just then a large group of uniforms from the precinct crashed into the bar with loud greetings. Kellie grinned, rose to her feet, and waved a greeting. “They say there’s no rest for the wicked, eh? Then I must be wickeder than most. Oi, Melville, you keep your hands off the help! You so much as look at Danni for the rest of the night and I’ll smack you right back into the academy!”
Drake and JJ were left to look on in bemusement as the lean woman proceeded to smack the uniform upside the head and prove to him that you did not mess around in her bar. JJ giggled as the cowed Melville was dragged off to the pool table by a group of his buddies.
Drake sat down and sipped his wine. “So. What exactly bit you earlier?”
JJ frowned at the folder in his hand and leaned back in his seat. “Call it a hunch.” He said. “The rune that I told you about? The one in Merrick’s hand? The symbol on it was hagall - ‘hail.’ ”
“That’s not a whole lot to base a case on. Besides, Trent Hayle is dead. Kind of hard to murder people when you’re six feet under.”
“I know that!” JJ snapped. He stopped and blinked uncomfortably. “Uhm, sorry. I don’t know why I did that. What about the wife, then?”
Drake shrugged. “Let me look it up.” Blessing Kellie for having the foresight to have a wireless connection in the bar, he did a little searching. “Looks like Melanie Hayle just got a slap on the wrist for the hysterics in the courtroom. Her family pled mental illness and any charges that might have been filed were dropped. She was shipped off to a psychiatric hospital near where her family lives in Poughkeepsie. According to this, she’s still there. She snapped completely under the strain and spends her days rocking and drooling. Her personal doctor’s report states that she has all the mental capacity of a four-year-old with severe autism.”
“How bout the rest of his family, then? Maybe one of them carried a grudge for his death.”
“Parents are deceased. One older brother who’s in the navy, stationed in Okinawa. He’s been there for four years. No other siblings.”
“The wife’s family then?”
Drake continued the search. “Her father’s on the board of the hospital where she’s at. Her mother died ten years ago from a severe dose of alcohol poisoning. She was a heavy drinker. One baby sister that died of SIDS* when Melanie was three. Two older sisters, both married and living out of state.”
JJ frowned into his wineglass. “There’s something. I don’t know why, but I’m certain this is connected to our case. But I don’t have any evidence…” Frustration made his tone sharp.
Drake reached across the table to ruffle JJ’s hair. The familiar motion was as much to soothe his own nerves as it was to comfort JJ. He was still a little uncomfortable with the new state of their relationship. Not that he would say or do anything that would risk losing JJ. Just the thought of that was enough to tie his gut into knots. He was just nervous, he concluded. This was all new to him.
“I believe you, JJ. Remember, I’ve had those hunches before. There’s something connecting the two cases. We just have to figure out what it is.”
JJ glanced up at him and gave him one of those heart-stopping smiles of his. God, how had he never noticed the sudden luminosity that lit those blue eyes and the way his smile seemed to light up his entire face. His heart thudded painfully in his chest and he hid an embarrassed flush by glancing at his watch.
He didn’t have to feign surprise when he saw the numbers on the digital display. “Crap! Did you know it was past four?”
JJ glanced at the clock above the dark wood bar. “No. At least you’re off today.”
Drake frowned at his slender partner. “What about you? I thought you were off too?”
JJ shrugged. “I already promised to cover for Leon on graves again. I’d forgotten in the excitement.”
Drake scratched his blonde head. “Well, at least you have some time to get some rest before tonight.”
JJ gave him another smile that hit him squarely in the pit of his stomach. Drake blinked at the force of his reaction. How was it a simple smile from JJ could move him like nothing else? He wasn’t used to this. He needed to think… but every time he did, he wound up confusing himself even worse. Then JJ smiled at him and he stopped thinking altogether.
JJ drained his wineglass and gathered the files in neat piles. “I’ll have to get these back to archives tonight when I go in.”
Drake nodded numbly, his gaze caught by those slender, strong fingers neatly sorting papers. His mind was dragging up images of those same fingers dancing over his skin earlier. His body reminded him that they’d been interrupted before things had gone very far. Drake shook his head, desperately trying to shake the image. God, he was acting worse than a horny teenager!
JJ lifted his gaze and spotted the strange look on his partner’s face. That and the instinctive reaction of covering up the growing bulge in his pants made JJ laugh softly. He caught one of Drake’s hands and dropped a kiss on the palm before Drake could react. By the time he had actually thought to stiffen, it was over and JJ was sitting chastely opposite him, no sign that he had been holding his partner’s hand a moment ago.
A yawn caught Drake by surprise and he glanced up into JJ’s face at the slight man echoed it. Even JJ’s irrepressible energy was showing signs of wear as he allowed himself to droop over his now empty wineglass. His tie was loosened and his suit jacket rumpled. He knuckled an eye sleepily and Drake found himself wondering just when the word ‘adorable’ had become part of his vocabulary concerning his partner.
“Ready to call it a night?”
JJ yawned again and offered him a sleepy smile that made his stomach tie itself in yet another knot. “I think I’d better be. If I don’t get at least a couple of hours of sleep, I’m going to be fair useless.”
“C’mon.” Drake rose and left a couple of bills on the table, more than enough for the beer and wine and a generous tip for Kellie and Danni. A hand caught his arm before he took a step.
Drake looked down into Kellie’s concerned eyes. “You stay right here until you can prove to me that you’re sober enough to drive.”
Drake frowned but a sharp look from the woman made him think twice about opening his mouth. “You prove to me that you’re safe behind the wheel or I call you a cab, Drake Parker!”
Drake relented and patiently took every field sobriety test Kellie could pull out of her hat. The only reason she didn’t sic a Breathalyzer on him was because she didn’t have one. JJ giggled at him, and a couple of the others cops chuckled, but no teasing comments were directed his way because every single officer in the place knew Kellie would do the same for them before she would let the first one leave her place to drunk to get home safely.
Only when she was satisfied, did she let him and JJ leave, surprising both of them with a kiss on the cheek. “You two be good to each other now.”
Drake turned beet-red and JJ grinned unrepentantly. With those last words, they left the bar, JJ shivering as the cold night air bit right through his jacket. Drake sighed and shed his leather coat, handing it over to JJ. Anymore, JJ wore the damned thing more than he did.
He cranked the heater when they were both in the car, watching as JJ relaxed with a sigh. “You’ve got to be cold-blooded or something,” He said teasingly. “I’ve never known anyone to be as bothered by a little drop in temperature as you.”
JJ scowled at him and suddenly glomped him. Drake yelped as icy fingers pressed against the back of his neck and his ribs as JJ slid a hand under his shirt. “Why, you…” Laughing, he struggled free of the clinging embrace and poked JJ in the ribs. JJ was extremely ticklish and he struggled to escape Drake’s repeated prods, giggling madly.
“Drake… he-he-heh… stop that! Ha-ha… stop!” JJ grabbed Drake by the ears and pulled him down into a sudden kiss. Maybe he was more drunk than Kellie thought he was, Drake mused distantly as he meshed his tongue with JJ’s. But that was okay, because JJ was giving him a buzz that beat out beer any day of the week. JJ’s hands slid up under his shirt, quickly warming against the heat of his skin and Drake stifled a soft sound against his mouth as nimble fingers found his nipples.
When he pulled away, he was breathing hard and the bulge in his pants far more uncomfortable than it had been in the bar. “JJ…”
JJ sighed and pressed a kiss to the end of Drake’s nose. “I know. We’re taking things slow. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to jump you right here and have ‘hot monkey sex’ in the front seat of your car, but we both know I won’t.”
Drake heard the suppressed disappointment in JJ’s voice. “Uh, you… uhm, you wanna stay at my place t-tonight? I-it’s closer. Not as nice as your place, but closer.”
JJ smiled at Drake’s nervousness. “Only to sleep. You’re not ready for things to go that far and I’m not going to push it. Besides, I do have to go to work tom-tonight.”
Drake’s heartbeat settled back into its normal rhythm and he smiled down at JJ. “Why do you have to be so damned logical about it?”
JJ laughed and cuddled against Drake’s side. “Because I’m right. Even when I’m wrong, I’m still right.” He didn’t add the niggling thought that was chasing itself around in his head; the knowledge that if he pushed too hard that he would be afraid of losing Drake.
Drake sighed and settled an arm around him. They drove back to Drake’s shabby little apartment building that way, both of them loving every minute of it and utterly unwilling to admit it to the other.
Drake let them into his place and frowned at the cluttered confines of his own living room, contrasting it mentally with JJ’s high-end and almost obsessively neat apartment. It felt woefully inadequate compared to JJ’s place.
JJ seemed to sense the downward direction of his thoughts and tucked himself against Drake’s side again. “So do you have a toothbrush I can borrow?”
Drake shook himself out of his melancholy and nodded. “Yeah. In the cabinet above the sink. There’s a whole cupful of them still in the plastic.”
JJ frowned playfully. “Do I even want to know why you have a collection of toothbrushes in your bathroom? You have a bunch of boyfriends I don’t know about?”
“What? You’re my only boyfr - uh…” Drake stuttered to a confused halt and looked at JJ out of wide eyes.
The smile JJ gave him was warm enough to melt the polar icecaps. He slid his arms around Drake’s waist and looked up at him. “Boyfriend, huh? I think I like being called that.”
Drake sighed and relaxed against JJ’s embrace. “It’s really weird thinking of us in those terms. But… I guess that’s right. It feels right at least.”
The kiss they shared was warm and searching, and neither of them pushed it too far. Finally, JJ drew away with a laugh. “We’ll never get any sleep at this rate. Let me go brush my teeth.”
Drake nodded slowly. “Yeah. Give me your jacket. I’ll hang it up so that it doesn’t wrinkle any more than it already is.”
JJ turned over his jacket and went to go brush his teeth. He glanced out to see Drake hang his jacket neatly, smoothing out the worst of the wrinkles as he did. He found the cupful of toothbrushes; each still sealed in a plastic bag and brushed his teeth. An arm came into his line of sight, holding one of Drake’s old t-shirts, the kind that had been washed so many times it was soft as suede. “Here. You can wear this to sleep in.”
JJ accepted it with a smile and finished changing clothes as Drake stripped and remade the bed. He leaned against the bathroom doorframe and enjoyed the view of Drake bending over to smooth the sheets.
“I just have to ask. Why do you have a whole bunch of spare toothbrushes?”
Drake continued to work, his ears tinged pink. “Uhm, Jillena was a dental hygienist. She always had a purse full of the things. She’d leave them all over when she went digging in her purse for something. After the third time of sitting on one, I finally gathered them up and put them in the bathroom. It was safer that way.”
A/N-Thanks for all the reviews. They kept me from throwing up my hands and telling Akita she could finish the damned thing herself. It was not going well for a while there. Things seem to be getting back to normal. Akita’s happy. It’s Easter, so she’s been sneaking lots of chocolate. But at least she’s not getting home at midnight anymore so I’ll look the other way. Dubhghall, you’re forgiven for not reviewing sooner. Glad you like the new story and hope you continue to enjoy. And it’s okay that you like it better than the first one. That means we’re improving. But we still want to see more of your stories. (I saw your homepage!! *giggle* Can I live there too? It’s a Drake and JJ happy place!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!)*sighs* You see what I mean about the chocolate? Thanks Catti-chan, Hana-chan and Dubhghall for reading and reviewing. Enjoy…
Disclaimers still apply. (Oh, and Hana…? FLUFF!!!)
“JJ?”
“The last three name. Repeat them for me.”
“Uhm - Trieg, Hayle, and Selas.” Drake regarded his partner with a quizzical stare.
JJ quickly sorted through the stack of files he was holding and pulled out one, dropping the others back onto the table. He flipped the file open and scanned it with a sudden intensity that surprised the hell out of Drake. He wasn’t used to JJ looking so serious.
Kellie set the glasses down on the table and regarded JJ with an amused expression. “He’s got that look like you get when something’s got a hold of you. The one that says, ‘I’ve got an idea and I’m not resting until I pin it down.’ Greg used to love it when you pulled that expression.”
Drake blinked at the mention of the first partner he’d had when he’d been promoted to detective. “Huh?”
Kellie laughed. “He used to say whenever you got that look the case was as good as solved. Said you were better than a whole forensics team at putting the pieces together into a whole when all anybody else saw were just disconnected bits that made no sense.”
Drake frowned. “Really? He used to just tell me to quit daydreaming.”
“Did you honestly think he was going to tell the rookie detective he was doing as good as men that had been on the job for years? He always told me that you were going to be one of the best he’d ever trained. I think he was right.”
Drake colored and turned to regard JJ, who was still reading intently.
“JJ, hate to break it to you, but those guys are dead or behind bars. Not much chance of one of them being our killer.”
JJ ignored him, poring over the file with studied intensity.
“I swear if you don’t tell me what you’re thinking…” Drake folded his arms.
JJ blinked, as if drug out of deep concentration, and showed the file he was holding to Drake. Drake read the name on the folder and regarded his partner with a uniquely singular expression of doubt. “JJ, he’s dead. Hope you’re not going to try and convince me his ghost is trying to get revenge for Richmond putting him away. I don’t think it works that way.”
JJ scowled at him. “I know he’s dead, idiot. But the name…”
“What about the name?” Kellie leaned over JJ’s shoulder to read. “Oh, I remember that one!” She exclaimed. “Trent Hayle was convicted on nine counts of fraud and embezzlement. He was sent to prison and died ten days later in a riot that broke out. His wife stormed into the courtroom a week after his funeral and started accusing Richmond of murder. Claimed he’d sent her husband to prison to be killed and that he’d murdered her baby. Took three bailiffs and a clever stenographer to stop her.”
Ignoring the wide-eyed stare she got from the two detectives, Kellie tapped he bottom lip thoughtfully. “If I remember right, her family claimed a history of mental illness and had her admitted to a psychiatric hospital upstate. Turned out she’d been three months pregnant and had miscarried from the stress.”
“How do you know all this?” JJ asked.
Kellie looked sheepish. “I was in the courtroom at the time of her dramatic entrance. Had a couple of parking tickets and a speeding ticket to take care of. I saw the whole thing and I kept up with the news afterwards.”
At Drake’s disbelieving stare she shrugged defensively. “What? I can’t have a few tickets? I’m old, hon, not dead. I’ll only stop getting into trouble when they put me in the ground.”
Just then a large group of uniforms from the precinct crashed into the bar with loud greetings. Kellie grinned, rose to her feet, and waved a greeting. “They say there’s no rest for the wicked, eh? Then I must be wickeder than most. Oi, Melville, you keep your hands off the help! You so much as look at Danni for the rest of the night and I’ll smack you right back into the academy!”
Drake and JJ were left to look on in bemusement as the lean woman proceeded to smack the uniform upside the head and prove to him that you did not mess around in her bar. JJ giggled as the cowed Melville was dragged off to the pool table by a group of his buddies.
Drake sat down and sipped his wine. “So. What exactly bit you earlier?”
JJ frowned at the folder in his hand and leaned back in his seat. “Call it a hunch.” He said. “The rune that I told you about? The one in Merrick’s hand? The symbol on it was hagall - ‘hail.’ ”
“That’s not a whole lot to base a case on. Besides, Trent Hayle is dead. Kind of hard to murder people when you’re six feet under.”
“I know that!” JJ snapped. He stopped and blinked uncomfortably. “Uhm, sorry. I don’t know why I did that. What about the wife, then?”
Drake shrugged. “Let me look it up.” Blessing Kellie for having the foresight to have a wireless connection in the bar, he did a little searching. “Looks like Melanie Hayle just got a slap on the wrist for the hysterics in the courtroom. Her family pled mental illness and any charges that might have been filed were dropped. She was shipped off to a psychiatric hospital near where her family lives in Poughkeepsie. According to this, she’s still there. She snapped completely under the strain and spends her days rocking and drooling. Her personal doctor’s report states that she has all the mental capacity of a four-year-old with severe autism.”
“How bout the rest of his family, then? Maybe one of them carried a grudge for his death.”
“Parents are deceased. One older brother who’s in the navy, stationed in Okinawa. He’s been there for four years. No other siblings.”
“The wife’s family then?”
Drake continued the search. “Her father’s on the board of the hospital where she’s at. Her mother died ten years ago from a severe dose of alcohol poisoning. She was a heavy drinker. One baby sister that died of SIDS* when Melanie was three. Two older sisters, both married and living out of state.”
JJ frowned into his wineglass. “There’s something. I don’t know why, but I’m certain this is connected to our case. But I don’t have any evidence…” Frustration made his tone sharp.
Drake reached across the table to ruffle JJ’s hair. The familiar motion was as much to soothe his own nerves as it was to comfort JJ. He was still a little uncomfortable with the new state of their relationship. Not that he would say or do anything that would risk losing JJ. Just the thought of that was enough to tie his gut into knots. He was just nervous, he concluded. This was all new to him.
“I believe you, JJ. Remember, I’ve had those hunches before. There’s something connecting the two cases. We just have to figure out what it is.”
JJ glanced up at him and gave him one of those heart-stopping smiles of his. God, how had he never noticed the sudden luminosity that lit those blue eyes and the way his smile seemed to light up his entire face. His heart thudded painfully in his chest and he hid an embarrassed flush by glancing at his watch.
He didn’t have to feign surprise when he saw the numbers on the digital display. “Crap! Did you know it was past four?”
JJ glanced at the clock above the dark wood bar. “No. At least you’re off today.”
Drake frowned at his slender partner. “What about you? I thought you were off too?”
JJ shrugged. “I already promised to cover for Leon on graves again. I’d forgotten in the excitement.”
Drake scratched his blonde head. “Well, at least you have some time to get some rest before tonight.”
JJ gave him another smile that hit him squarely in the pit of his stomach. Drake blinked at the force of his reaction. How was it a simple smile from JJ could move him like nothing else? He wasn’t used to this. He needed to think… but every time he did, he wound up confusing himself even worse. Then JJ smiled at him and he stopped thinking altogether.
JJ drained his wineglass and gathered the files in neat piles. “I’ll have to get these back to archives tonight when I go in.”
Drake nodded numbly, his gaze caught by those slender, strong fingers neatly sorting papers. His mind was dragging up images of those same fingers dancing over his skin earlier. His body reminded him that they’d been interrupted before things had gone very far. Drake shook his head, desperately trying to shake the image. God, he was acting worse than a horny teenager!
JJ lifted his gaze and spotted the strange look on his partner’s face. That and the instinctive reaction of covering up the growing bulge in his pants made JJ laugh softly. He caught one of Drake’s hands and dropped a kiss on the palm before Drake could react. By the time he had actually thought to stiffen, it was over and JJ was sitting chastely opposite him, no sign that he had been holding his partner’s hand a moment ago.
A yawn caught Drake by surprise and he glanced up into JJ’s face at the slight man echoed it. Even JJ’s irrepressible energy was showing signs of wear as he allowed himself to droop over his now empty wineglass. His tie was loosened and his suit jacket rumpled. He knuckled an eye sleepily and Drake found himself wondering just when the word ‘adorable’ had become part of his vocabulary concerning his partner.
“Ready to call it a night?”
JJ yawned again and offered him a sleepy smile that made his stomach tie itself in yet another knot. “I think I’d better be. If I don’t get at least a couple of hours of sleep, I’m going to be fair useless.”
“C’mon.” Drake rose and left a couple of bills on the table, more than enough for the beer and wine and a generous tip for Kellie and Danni. A hand caught his arm before he took a step.
Drake looked down into Kellie’s concerned eyes. “You stay right here until you can prove to me that you’re sober enough to drive.”
Drake frowned but a sharp look from the woman made him think twice about opening his mouth. “You prove to me that you’re safe behind the wheel or I call you a cab, Drake Parker!”
Drake relented and patiently took every field sobriety test Kellie could pull out of her hat. The only reason she didn’t sic a Breathalyzer on him was because she didn’t have one. JJ giggled at him, and a couple of the others cops chuckled, but no teasing comments were directed his way because every single officer in the place knew Kellie would do the same for them before she would let the first one leave her place to drunk to get home safely.
Only when she was satisfied, did she let him and JJ leave, surprising both of them with a kiss on the cheek. “You two be good to each other now.”
Drake turned beet-red and JJ grinned unrepentantly. With those last words, they left the bar, JJ shivering as the cold night air bit right through his jacket. Drake sighed and shed his leather coat, handing it over to JJ. Anymore, JJ wore the damned thing more than he did.
He cranked the heater when they were both in the car, watching as JJ relaxed with a sigh. “You’ve got to be cold-blooded or something,” He said teasingly. “I’ve never known anyone to be as bothered by a little drop in temperature as you.”
JJ scowled at him and suddenly glomped him. Drake yelped as icy fingers pressed against the back of his neck and his ribs as JJ slid a hand under his shirt. “Why, you…” Laughing, he struggled free of the clinging embrace and poked JJ in the ribs. JJ was extremely ticklish and he struggled to escape Drake’s repeated prods, giggling madly.
“Drake… he-he-heh… stop that! Ha-ha… stop!” JJ grabbed Drake by the ears and pulled him down into a sudden kiss. Maybe he was more drunk than Kellie thought he was, Drake mused distantly as he meshed his tongue with JJ’s. But that was okay, because JJ was giving him a buzz that beat out beer any day of the week. JJ’s hands slid up under his shirt, quickly warming against the heat of his skin and Drake stifled a soft sound against his mouth as nimble fingers found his nipples.
When he pulled away, he was breathing hard and the bulge in his pants far more uncomfortable than it had been in the bar. “JJ…”
JJ sighed and pressed a kiss to the end of Drake’s nose. “I know. We’re taking things slow. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to jump you right here and have ‘hot monkey sex’ in the front seat of your car, but we both know I won’t.”
Drake heard the suppressed disappointment in JJ’s voice. “Uh, you… uhm, you wanna stay at my place t-tonight? I-it’s closer. Not as nice as your place, but closer.”
JJ smiled at Drake’s nervousness. “Only to sleep. You’re not ready for things to go that far and I’m not going to push it. Besides, I do have to go to work tom-tonight.”
Drake’s heartbeat settled back into its normal rhythm and he smiled down at JJ. “Why do you have to be so damned logical about it?”
JJ laughed and cuddled against Drake’s side. “Because I’m right. Even when I’m wrong, I’m still right.” He didn’t add the niggling thought that was chasing itself around in his head; the knowledge that if he pushed too hard that he would be afraid of losing Drake.
Drake sighed and settled an arm around him. They drove back to Drake’s shabby little apartment building that way, both of them loving every minute of it and utterly unwilling to admit it to the other.
Drake let them into his place and frowned at the cluttered confines of his own living room, contrasting it mentally with JJ’s high-end and almost obsessively neat apartment. It felt woefully inadequate compared to JJ’s place.
JJ seemed to sense the downward direction of his thoughts and tucked himself against Drake’s side again. “So do you have a toothbrush I can borrow?”
Drake shook himself out of his melancholy and nodded. “Yeah. In the cabinet above the sink. There’s a whole cupful of them still in the plastic.”
JJ frowned playfully. “Do I even want to know why you have a collection of toothbrushes in your bathroom? You have a bunch of boyfriends I don’t know about?”
“What? You’re my only boyfr - uh…” Drake stuttered to a confused halt and looked at JJ out of wide eyes.
The smile JJ gave him was warm enough to melt the polar icecaps. He slid his arms around Drake’s waist and looked up at him. “Boyfriend, huh? I think I like being called that.”
Drake sighed and relaxed against JJ’s embrace. “It’s really weird thinking of us in those terms. But… I guess that’s right. It feels right at least.”
The kiss they shared was warm and searching, and neither of them pushed it too far. Finally, JJ drew away with a laugh. “We’ll never get any sleep at this rate. Let me go brush my teeth.”
Drake nodded slowly. “Yeah. Give me your jacket. I’ll hang it up so that it doesn’t wrinkle any more than it already is.”
JJ turned over his jacket and went to go brush his teeth. He glanced out to see Drake hang his jacket neatly, smoothing out the worst of the wrinkles as he did. He found the cupful of toothbrushes; each still sealed in a plastic bag and brushed his teeth. An arm came into his line of sight, holding one of Drake’s old t-shirts, the kind that had been washed so many times it was soft as suede. “Here. You can wear this to sleep in.”
JJ accepted it with a smile and finished changing clothes as Drake stripped and remade the bed. He leaned against the bathroom doorframe and enjoyed the view of Drake bending over to smooth the sheets.
“I just have to ask. Why do you have a whole bunch of spare toothbrushes?”
Drake continued to work, his ears tinged pink. “Uhm, Jillena was a dental hygienist. She always had a purse full of the things. She’d leave them all over when she went digging in her purse for something. After the third time of sitting on one, I finally gathered them up and put them in the bathroom. It was safer that way.”