Prompt fill: Jealousy
Pre-romantic pairing
AJ x Niko
Aj didn't actually think much about it, when he posted it.
It was just a silly little story post on instagram. He had done a few of the q&a's, and one of them had been the question 'when are u gonna grow'.
At that time he had been with Chunkz and let him take a picture of him from a higher up perspective. Just before he clicked on the shutter button, he said something that made Aj look up at him adorably sad.
In the resulting picture, he was pouting and captioned it 'sad now :(' before adding 'Lmaoooooo' as well, considering the caption had nothing to do with the q&a response, and everything with what Chunkz had said to him.
He thought it looked a bit butters but Chunkz had actually squaled after taking the picture and mumbled something about a kitten before booping his nose and then pressing Aj's face into his chest cuddling him tightly.
Aj had been stunned silent for all about two seconds before struggling in his friends hold and laughing disbelieving.
"What the hell, man!" Aj exclaimed, looking up disgruntled and a bit confused.
Chunkz was laughing and raised his arms in surrender, "sorry brother, that was cute aggression."
Aj shook his head snorting, "there ain't no such thing, you shmuck."
Chunkz had smiled down at him, booped his nose again, and then proceeded to laugh as Aj tackled him to the floor.
But that's not the point, anyway. The point is that it was a silly picture that resulted in silly banter between brothers and apparently a few silly fan posts from various accounts that were agreeing with Chunkz's silly cute aggression theory, much to his infuriation.
But that wasn't exactly news, his fans had done crazier things, that was minor.
It definitely didn't explain why Niko was so ticked off about it.
Since he had arrived back at their house with Chunkz, he had been weird about it. Starting with asking if that post had been intentionally and then pulling a face when Chunkz told him the story of how the picture was made and his cute aggression.
He even went so far as to roll his eyes displeased when Aj complained about the nose-booping and the cuddling.
Then, to Aj's everlasting confusion, Niko had turned around and went back into his room, without as much as a 'see you'.
He hadn't responded to Aj's called out "Niko?"'s and even Chunkz's "brother?" didn't do anything. He just walked away and banged the door shut.
Aj won't lie and say that didn't hurt at all because he knows he's a bit emotionally stumped, but even he can admit that it doesn't feel too good, being ignored by his best friend and secret crush for seemingly no reason.
So now he was sitting with Chunkz in their living room, scrolling through some more replies of the q&a and debating from where they should order dinner.
"Are we ordering for Niko as well?" Aj asked Chunkz after a few minutes. Just because he was a bit confused about Niko's attitude didn't mean he wanted his friend to feel left out.
Chunkz looked up from his phone and got off the couch. "I'll go see if he's up for dinner."
Aj put his phone down as well for a moment, "I can go look as well!" It surely wouldn't hurt to check up on Niko and maybe he would tell him what was going on.
But Chunkz was already walking towards the door, "nah, it's fine. Be right back."
Aj frowned to himself and tried to search for something in the stupid picture that would give him a clue as to why Niko was so upset about it.
In the hallway, Chunkz was shaking his head, making his way towards Niko's room. He knocked once before opening the door and walking inside.
Niko was walking around his room, cleaning some things up, throwing laundry into a basket with a bit more force than necessary.
Chunkz raised a brow and closed the door behind him. "You're done throwing your tantrum and being rude to your best friend so we can talk about what the fuck has been bothering you or you need some time still, to act like a toddler?"
Niko looked up at him annoyed and rolled his eyes. "You know, Aj doesn't like when you touch him, especially his face. Maybe respect that and keep your hands to yourself."
Chunkz opened his mouth in surprise, but Niko wasn't done. "Maybe you think you're special or something, but Aj only likes when I boop his nose."
Now, Chunkz began to grin widely, which only seemed to piss Niko off even more. "What?"
Chunkz smiled, "You know it kinda sounds like you're jealous, Niko."
Niko stopped dead in his track. "I'm not!" He spluttered.
"M-hm." Chunkz nodded, taking a seat on Niko's made bed.
"That's not- I'm not-" Niko fumbled for words before letting his head drop.
Chunkz patted the bed next to him, and Niko sat down, sighing heavily. "It's just-" He breathed out slowly. "I'm not jealous! It's just that Aj's so open with you lot and the fans, but this was always between us!"
Chunkz looked sideways at Niko's profile. "The nose-booping?" He asked carefully.
"Everything!" Niko replied miserably. "He only does that face when I said something he doesn't like as a joke, the nose-booping is only a reflex. I thought- I thought that was mine. Like ours. Our thing. That he doesn't look at anyone like that. Only me."
Niko turned to Chunkz, looking like a disgruntled puppy. "And certainly not you and your stupid cute aggression. Who even says that, you're brothers! Back off and don't make him post those pictures for everyone to see!"
Chunkz looked at Niko, somewhere between offended and amused. "You know what I said to get him to look like that?"
Niko crossed his arms infront of his chest, frowning. "What did you say to him?"
"He was bugging me on purpose, so I took his phone and told him I would text you to not give him any cuddles today, because he was misbehaving."
Niko's mouth fell open slightly and he breathed out a "What?"
Chunkz shoved his shoulder and grinned. "He was looking like that because he was thinking of you, idiot. And like you said the nose-booping is reflex, man. He's like a baby kitten looking like that."
Niko nodded at that sympathetic and smiled slowly.
"And about the posting- Niko, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even register that he makes that face when he's with you."
Niko looked down sadly and Chunkz shoved his shoulder again.
"Not because he don't like you, brother. He was bare mad when I booped his nose and he's all smiles and shit when you do it!"
Niko looked at him hopefully. "Really?" Then he seemed to remember something and got up, cleaning his room again, slower this time. "I still don't like Aj that way, because I wasn't jealous so it doesn't even matter, what else you want."
Chunkz leaned back on the bed and pulled out his phone to order some food for the three of them.
"Listen brother, I don't actually care right now about your denial thing, you got going on, but I'm going to order us some food, while you go out there and apologise to Aj for being a dickhead."
When Niko opened his mouth to discuss, Chunkz added, "next time you make him cry, I'm rocking your jaw. Brothers or not."
Niko gasped horrified. "I made him cry?"
Chunkz nodded seriously and hoped Aj would forgive him the little lie. "He was devastated over you. You have time to make up for it, til I'm done ordering."
He raised his phone again and watched Niko rush out of the room, to smother Aj in cuddles.
On his way out he heard him mumble, "gonna replace your stupid touch with mine. Booping his nose, what were you thinking."
~the end
[1353 words]
[The most annoying thing is not being able to write angst and smut during Fluffebruary cuz damn I need the hurt and the spice. But again, hoping in the holidays I have enough time to update the other book with stuff like that. Hope you enjoyed haha. Also I put the pic this is inspired by in that thing for pictures at the top.]