Senseless

Calm

Understanding, Jake nodded and told her goodnight before making his way up to his room. He could, indeed, hear Jade speaking on the phone on the other side of the wall their rooms shared, but his words were muffled. The faint sounds were comforting as Jake began to get himself ready for bed, figuring that the call would take Jade a while to complete. 

Closing the door to his room, but not locking it, Jake got busy removing his clothing. He folded the garments and set them in his bag before heading into the bathroom. Switching on the light, he felt his heart give a little leap in his chest at seeing one of Jade's shirts neatly folded on the counter with a new toothbrush, still in the package, sitting on top of it. He'd brought his own, but had honestly forgotten it in the small pocket of his backpack. 

Is it bad that I want to use the one he's offering instead? He wondered. He didn't want to waste a clean toothbrush, but at the same time, he also didn't want to make it seem like he didn't appreciate the thought. 

Before he could talk himself out of it, he removed the brush from the packaging and used the toothpaste sitting neatly on the edge of the sink. He scrubbed his mouth more so than normal, though he didn't dwell on why. When he felt satisfied that his breath smelled good and he'd cleaned his teeth well, he rinsed his mouth and the brush, then set it beside the toothpaste and turned toward the shower. It was clearly more fancy than Adam's was, but the spigot dial and whatnot were still generally the same. 

He got the water started, then sat down on the edge, taking a moment to just relax as he tested the water temperature every few seconds. "Perfect." He said after a few moments. Standing up, Jake hopped into the shower right as he heard a knock sound on the door to his room. 

"Uh oh." 

Panicking, not wanting to make Jade wait at the door, Jake jumped back out of the shower and onto the non-slip mat right outside it. Snagging the soft, dark blue towel hanging on the bar to his right, he quickly wrapped it around himself and ran for the door. Skidding to a stop on the carpet, he hurried to swing the door open, only to see Jade half-turned away, about to head back to his own room. 

Without really thinking, Jake straightened up and smiled. "Hey," he said cheerfully, and slightly out of breath. 

Jade had seemed a bit startled at first, but as he slowly turned back to face Jake, his eyebrows began to go up. "I... hello, Jacob." He said, managing to stutter slightly as his eyes seemed to get caught on Jake's damp neck. 

Feeling heat warm his face at the realization that he was standing nearly naked in front of Jade, dripping wet, Jake really wanted to slam the door shut and go hide under the bed. He knew, however, that such a thing wouldn't be tolerated. He'd made a mistake by forgetting to at least dry off real quick or put on the shirt sitting on the counter in the bathroom. He wanted to at least hunch or raise the towel a bit to cover more of his upper half, but he forced himself to not fidget with it and instead stood a little straighter. 

"I, um... I heard you knock. Sorry, I had just gotten in the shower, sir."

They stood there for several silent moments before Jade opened his mouth to speak, only to close it and force a swallow that Jake watched bob the Adam's Apple in his throat. When Jade tried again another minute later, he managed to stammer out a decent response. 

"It's fine, I. We, my colleagues made me have an emergency meeting. They wanted me to come in but I told them I'd just Skype it..."

Jake waited for him to continue, mainly with the reason he knocked on the his door, but when Jade just continued to stare, Jake licked his lips and gave a tiny shrug. "Oh, well, that's okay, sir. I'm pretty tired so I was going to go to sleep early, anyways." He was only half lying, but he hoped that his words sounded genuine. He was tired, but at the same time, he had been eager to spend some time with Jade after they'd both taken a step back from each other to cool off earlier in the month.