Work Text:
"What'cha doing?"
Jayden frowns when he looks up from where he's sitting on the couch and sees Antonio standing in the doorway.
"What are you doing here?" Jayden asks him. "I thought you went to the double-feature with the others."
Antonio shrugs and makes his way into the room. "Naw. I thought I'd stay here and keep you company."
Jayden usually has no problem hanging out with Antonio, but tonight is different. "It's not like you to miss four hours of Godzilla films and you can still catch up with the others if you leave now," Jayden points out, but Antonio plops down on the couch next to him and throws an arm over Jayden's shoulder.
"And let you sulk here by yourself?" Antonio asks. "Not a chance!"
"I'm not going to be much fun," Jayden warns him.
"Nonsense!" Antonio says, smirking. "We can make our own fun!"
The mischievous look in Antonio's eyes sets off all sorts of alarm bells in Jayden's head. "What are you planning?"
"I'm just thinking: I don't think I've ever made you my patented Catfish shots," Antonio answers with a wicked grin.
"You want to drink?" Jayden asks, surprised.
"Yep," Antonio says, standing and making for the door. "Wait right here. I have some whisky in my room."
Once he's out of sight, Jayden groans and buries his face in his hands. He knows that Antonio is trying to cheer him up, but he also knows that this is an absolutely terrible idea.
Antonio comes back balancing two bottles and two shot glasses. He deposits them onto the table, takes a seat next to Jayden and then rubs his hands together. "Time to get to work," he says, pouring out two shots which happen to be golden in colour.
"I don't drink," Jayden tells him, though that's not strictly true. He actually does drink with Ji sometimes, but he never has with the rangers.
"You don't drink with the others. You'll drink with me," Antonio says with certainty. The declaration startles Jayden when he realizes that Antonio is right.
"Here." Antonio hands Jayden a shot and takes one for himself. "On the count of three."
Jayden frowns at the liquid in the glass but tosses it back at Antonio's command. It tastes like peaches and Jayden grimaces at the burn. Antonio laughs and pours Jayden another shot.
"You're not going to get me drunk," Jayden tells him, knocking it back.
"I just want you to tell me what's got you so upset," Antonio says and all of a sudden he sounds less playful and more serious than he did earlier.
"It's nothing of importance."
Antonio rolls his eyes, and takes Jayden's shot glass to refill it. "Yeah, that's why you're acting all depressed."
"I'm not depressed," Jayden retorts. The words roll off his tongue quickly, without thought, and he knows the alcohol is beginning to affect him.
One of Antonio's eyebrows quirks upward as he downs a shot of his own. "Oh? Then what are you?"
Confused, Jayden wants to say. Surprised. Instead he swallows another shot and asks, "Why should I tell you?"
Antonio grins and loops an arm around Jayden's shoulder, pulling him firmly against his side. "Because I'm your best friend in the whole wide world and you can tell me anything?"
Antonio is warm and Jayden presses closer to him instinctively. He feels strangely comfortable sitting with Antonio like this, and the realization causes him to curse himself for agreeing to drink with Antonio in the first place. He was right: this was a terrible idea.
"Oh no, no, no," Antonio says, putting his glass down so he can use his newly freed hand to tilt Jayden's chin up. "You're sulking again. Remember the point of this was to keep you from being miserable."
"I think you've had too much to drink," Jayden tells him.
"And you," Antonio says, moving away from Jayden to pour him another shot, "clearly haven't had enough."
Jayden downs the shot. He's starting to feel buzzed and a little sleepy, and he knows he'll cut himself off soon. Although he could use his symbol power to wipe the alcohol's effects from his system, he'd rather not have to.
"So what is it?" Antonio asks him. He's got his chin in his hand and his elbow propped on his knee, and he's watching Jayden carefully. "Why did you stay back tonight? And don't you dare try to tell me you were planning on training. I won't buy it for a second."
Jayden can't help but think back to a few hours earlier when Emily had asked them out to the movies. Jayden had been ready to say yes until Antonio had clung to his arm and said, "You have to come! I can point out all the good parts to you!" It was then that Jayden had realized that the thought of sitting next to Antonio in a dark theatre while Antonio leaned against Jayden's side and whispered his own commentary in Jayden's ear was maybe just a little too appealing a prospect.
As silly as it was, this was what had given him pause. Because Jayden has always liked Antonio, but somehow, when Jayden wasn't paying attention, Antonio had gone from someone Jayden liked to someone Jayden liked. A lot.
Jayden had decided to stay behind on his own to give himself time to process the possible implications of this new discovery.
Jayden is well aware of how spectacularly his plan has backfired by this point.
"I wanted to do some thinking," he says at last, placing his glass on the table.
"About what?"
You, he thinks, but doesn't say.
A moment passes and Antonio sighs into the silence. "What is it?" he asks again, gentler this time. His concerned expression makes Jayden look away. "Please tell me so I can help."
Jayden wants to laugh at the irony of the entire situation. "Have you ever liked someone?" he asks, and the words are out of his mouth before he can stop them. "And then realize one day that maybe you've been in love with them for a long time and just didn't know it?"
"Oh." Antonio starts suddenly. He frowns and then pours himself another shot as he asks, "Are you in love with someone?"
Jayden watches Antonio throw his head back and wonders if there's any possibility that Antonio feels the same way.
"I like your room," he says in lieu of answering the question. Antonio blinks at him.
"My room...?"
"I've lived in this house my entire life. Everything in my room has its place. I make sure it's always clean and orderly," he says, aware that he's rambling. He's beginning to feel warm all over. "You've barely lived here two months, and you've already made your room your own. It's clean too, but it's different. Things don't always have a place and that doesn't seem to bother you at all."
A smile slowly stretches across Antonio's face as he listens to Jayden. "You saying I'm messy?"
"I'm saying I like that you're messy." Jayden leans forward to rest his head against Antonio's shoulder and closes his eyes. He feels tired, but in a good way, and he feels more relaxed than he has in a long, long time. He thinks that maybe the shots weren't such a bad idea after all. "Thank you for staying back with me," he says.
Antonio sounds happy and his breath is warm against Jayden's ear when he says, "It was no trouble. I wanted to spend time with you." Then he feels as much as hears Antonio take a deep breath before he asks, "Jayden, are you in love with me?"
Jayden knows that the question should bother him -- that it should make him tense and panic -- but instead he shifts until his closed eyes are pressed against Antonio's collarbone. Antonio's shirt is soft against his skin. He takes a deep breath of his own.
"I didn't know," he admits. "Until today, I didn't know." He wonders what it means that he's told Antonio this. He thinks that it says something that he trusts Antonio so absolutely that he tells him things that he would keep carefully hidden from anyone else.
Antonio moves under him, and then Jayden feels fingers in his hair. "Okay," Antonio says, like it's that simple.
Jayden leans into the touch, and it's then that he realizes why he doesn't drink with the others. He doesn't want anyone to see him when he's vulnerable like this, but Antonio is different. He feels like he can safely let himself give up control when Antonio is with him.
Antonio hums, gently pulling on the hair at the base of Jayden's skull until Jayden lifts his head. "Look at me," Antonio says.
Jayden obeys, blinking his eyes open to find Antonio looking back at him.
"I'm going to kiss you now," Antonio says, grinning, and then there are warm lips against Jayden's own. Antonio brings his hands up to frame Jayden's face, his thumbs brushing softly against Jayden's cheeks.
Something warm seems to tumble out of Jayden's chest. It spreads throughout his entire body all the way through to his fingers and toes, and Jayden knows the warmth he's feeling has nothing to do with the alcohol. It's then that the magnitude of what's happening hits Jayden: his childhood friend, who he just realized he's in love with, is kissing him.
"Stop it," Antonio says, pulling back just enough to look Jayden in the eye.
"Stop what?" Jayden asks, genuinely confused. Then the fear hits him -- the fear that maybe Antonio doesn't want to kiss him after all.
Antonio groans, exasperated. "Seriously. Stop overanalysing everything and kiss me back."
Although Jayden knows that he should be worrying about what this means for them, he tells himself to follow Antonio's advice. He lifts his own hands to Antonio's hair and helps Antonio slot their lips together.
It feels comfortable and easy to kiss Antonio, and Jayden isn't sure why he's surprised -- he has always been comfortable around Antonio. Jayden is content to let Antonio lead for awhile and the kisses remain fairly chaste until Jayden nips gently at Antonio's bottom lip. Antonio makes a noise in the back of his throat that sounds both surprised and happy, before he deepens the kiss, coaxing Jayden's mouth open with his tongue.
Minutes later, Antonio is the one to pull away. He tilts his head to the side to study Jayden's expression. It's something Antonio has done a hundred times, but this time it feels intimate in a way it never has before. "You really okay with this?" he asks Jayden.
Jayden doesn't know if Antonio is asking about the kissing or something more, but Jayden knows that he's alright with whatever this is between him and Antonio. The answer is so simple that Jayden isn't sure why he was worried. The truth is that he has never minded Antonio coming into his life and making it messier.
"I'm good," Jayden says and means it. Antonio grins and Jayden leans in to kiss him again.