A New Outlook (Astronomy Tower)

[Jory Addison]

"Maaaybe," Jory said, grinning over at Jamie. "What? You said I was just alright." He could tease right back, and he would. The music changed again, but Jory wasn't paying attention to the sound anymore. It was merely background noise while he paid attention to the easy back-and-forth between the two of them. "If I'm just alright, then so are you."

[jamie]

"Fine." Jamie said, relaxing his face and bringing his hands down to his sides. He kept laughing until his stomach muscles grew sore. He grew serious, but still kept the lightness in his eyes. "No, you're a lot of fun to be around, Jory." He bit his lip to keep himself from going on because he knew if he kept talking, he wouldn't stop. Jamie never was good at compliments, neither giving them nor receiving them. It wasn't that he didn't like to give them, he was just bad at it.

[Jory Addison]

Jory bit his lip lightly and looked over to see that Jamie was doing the same. "So are you," he said, then pulled his eyes away and looked down at his knees. He swung his legs a few times before tucking his feet up against the wall, and he gently tossed his wireless to the soft landing of his back of things. Then he settled his hands on the windowsill and curved his fingers around the lip. It was nice to hear things like that from Jamie. His eyes made their way up to Jamie again. "I like your smile," he said, then immediately dropped his eyes again.

[jamie]

Jamie's cheeks burned...was he blushing? That was impossible, he never blushes. He turned his head to the side as an automatic reflex in order to hide the rosy tint of his cheeks. He caught himself, though, and turned his head to looked at Jory. "I like you--" Jamie said. He had meant to say I like your...well, actually no. He said what he meant. He liked everything about Jory.

[Jory Addison]

Jory forgot completely that he had tried to convince himself that he didn't. He felt heat spread over his chest and clear up to the tops of his ears. He blushed easily, but it generally took a little more than one simple sentence to make it reach so far. A broad smile pulled on his face, making his eyes shine brightly as he looked back at Jamie. "You're cute when you blush," he said, bringing a finger up to lightly touch Jamie's cheek.

[jamie]

Jamie brought a hand up to his cheek, which felt red hot underneath, and tried to wipe the blush off of his face, as if such a thing were even possible. "I am not blushing." Jamie said ignorantly. Even as he said it, the light touch of Jamie's fingertip sent even more heat shooting through his face and as he thought it only made his face turn a brighter shade of red, he blushed even more deeply.

[Jory Addison]

Jory grinned and brought his hand back down. "You so are," he teased. "It's, like, all the way up here," he said, picking his hand back up to touch Jamie's temple lightly. "You're so worse than me." That was a lie, of course, but most of Jory's color was hidden by a shirt, not that he would exactly mind showing it off.

[jamie]

Jamie looked at Jory, who was also blushing. "That is so not true, "Jamie said shaking his head and laughing again. He poked Jory's sides again, knowing that was where he was ticklish. Despite that he knew he was blushing, he wouldn't admit it. Even though it was obvious, he still refused to believe it.

[Jory Addison]

Jory's elbow tucked protectively against his side again. His sides weren't the only places he was ticklish, but they were definitely the most accessible. It wasn't like Jamie was going to randomly take away his shoes to tickle the bottoms of his feet. "You just don't wanna admit it," he claimed. "Trying to distract me with tickling, so not fair."

[jamie]

"It's not?" Jamie said laughing. He poked at his sides some more, trying to get around his elbows. Eventually, Jamie gave up and rested his hands by his sides. He had to catch his breath after having laughed so hard. Jamie pushed a few stray strands of hair away from his face. He made a mental note to get a hair cut as soon as possible, it was getting too shaggy.

[Jory Addison]

Jory had given up trying to keep his elbows down after a bit and had started trying to get Jamie's hands, and when Jamie stopped he shifted and brought the leg that was furthest from Jamie up to rest his foot on the edge of the windowsill. He wrapped an arm around it loosely and rested his cheek on his knee to look at Jamie. He rather liked Jamie's hair. "You didn't freak out that time," he pointed out, his eyes sparkling softly.

[jamie]

Jamie's laughter died down and his brow furrowed. "Yeah," He said, "I'm sorry about that," He was referring to their meeting in the corridor and classroom. At the time, Jamie had been confused and terrified of what might happen if anyone saw them. And yet, he couldn't stay away. Here, in the Astronomy Tower, Jamie had no doubts. He was comfortable and having fun and he told himself that if anyone barged in, he wouldn't even care. It wasn't like he was doing anything wrong. He was just hanging out, and even if there was more it still wouldn't be wrong.

[Jory Addison]

Jory smiled softly and he reached up to lightly brush at Jamie's hair, then moved that arm to join his other around his leg. "It's okay. I...get frustrated really easy, and I kept thinking about how it had been when Lyric had told me he couldn't touch me sober. It's just....we had sex, and then you...and it just made me think of Lyric..." He closed his eyes and shook his head. It had felt like the same thing happening all over again. He took a deep breath and released it slowly, mumbling sorry.

[jamie]

Jamie closed his eyes for a moment, letting Jory's light touch send electric shocks through his entire body, but then it was gone. "Lyric was a jerk," Jamie said. He had half a mind to call him something else, but refrained. It occurred to Jamie that he acted similarly to Lyric, though maybe not as extremely. "And so was I." He admitted sheepishly. "I'm so sorry, Jory. I don't know what was wrong with me." He said look at Jory hopefully, his apology was sincere.

[Jory Addison]

Jory opened his eyes and caught Jamie's eyes. He managed a small smile. "Well, you're not being a jerk now," he said. "Thank you." He did like Jamie, even if they had gotten off to a rocky start. It seemed like things were better now, since they were able to actually talk about this, unlike last time. Jory tended to be very bad at talking about things without getting insanely frustrated.