"THE SNOW'S STOPPED."
Wylan groggily lifted his head up (from Jesper's chest - he blushed) to see Nina peering out the window curiously.
"Are we still stuck inside though?"
She tried the door. "Yep."
"Then let me sleep." He rested his head back against Jesper's chest and decided not to think too hard about it. Moments later, darkness flitted back into his eyes and he fell silent once more.
#
"Wake up merchling." Two large hands were on his shoulders and they were being shaken. Groaning, Wylan fluttered his eyelashes and twisted around to see Jesper's familiar grin. "The door's still jammed, but on the bright side Paja made coffee and gave us all membership cards."
Wylan gave him a confused thumbs up as he crawled off the other boy's lap. "Coffee?" he mumbled tiredly, stretching out various limbs that were stiff from the sleep. As his hands grasped vaguely in the air, his shirt rose and Jesper gave his partly revealed waist an interested glance. Turning red, Wylan immediately dropped his position.
"Coffee," Wylan said instead, and shuffled his way to the coffee counter as fast as he could. Thanking Paja, he desperately grasped his coffee between both hands and drank deeply, taking in as much as possible without burning his mouth. Finally pausing for a breath, he tilted his head backwards and finished it off with a single swig.
Low applause filled the room when he was done. Wylan sheepishly lowered his head and gave them all a smile as Nina showed him the picture she had taken of him drinking the coffee.
"That." Matthias said with no little respect, "was impressive."
As Wylan was learning, the word 'impressive' for Matthias was synonymous to him finding a golden unicorn that doubled as Matthias' nephew in the Saharan Desert.
Muttering a thanks, he shot a grateful look to Paja as another cup of coffee made its way in front of her. This one he drank slowly, giving the cup of coffee a look not unsimilar to worship.
"You look like you just discovered religion," Jesper said promptly and caused Wylan to almost spill scalding hot coffee on himself.
"Jesus!" Wylan said jumping, quickly putting the cup onto the counter. "Jesper you almost made me spill this on myself."
"I'd give you my shirt to wear then," Jesper said flashing him a wink. Wylan gave him an exasperated look, which he was pretty sure looked more fond than anything else. "And then-"
"-do not finish that sentence," Wylan interrupted Jesper. "There are others in this room."
"Thank you," Kaz said, once again appearing out of nowhere. Wylan inhaled sharply, but aside from that kept still. I'm getting used to it, Wylan thought triumphantly. Beat that mafia!
"Anyways," Jesper shifted his focus, peering anxiously at the door. "How long have we been in the Dime Lions?"
Nina shrugged, pulling out her phone. "Um... Inej you have anything?"
Inej checked her watch, "Around sixteen hours in total, but we spent nine hours in the main building," she explained, "and we just slept for roughly four hours."
Wylan quietly let out a curse. "My sleep cycle is completely screwed up," he muttered under his breath. "And for once, I can't blame college. What time is it anyway?" he asked, raising his voice.
Matthias slipped out his phone. "Three o'clock in the morning," he said making a face. "But hopefully we'll get the all clear sign and be allowed to leave this place soon."
"I wouldn't be too happy," Kaz warned. "After all, even if it doesn't start snowing again we have to worry about getting out of this cafe. The door's jammed."
"Matthias can just un-jam it," Jesper said dismissively. "He's such a strong, handsome guy." At this Jesper turned toward Matthias and fluttered his eyelashes. Wylan stifled a snicker at the blonde's look of extreme discomfort.
"Can't Inej just help us get out?" Paja asked loudly, over the newest clamor of voices.
Inej made a face. "I have extremely advanced gymnastics training," she told her apologetically. "I can't guarantee that any of you can replicate that without injuring yourself."
"That archetype is sweet though," Wylan whispered to Jesper. "The fact that Kaz has a cane and Inej is super flexible."
"Right?" Jesper whispered back. "That's what we've been telling them for years!"
"Stop whispering."
They both shot a glare to Kaz, who didn't hesitate to return it.
"Fuck!" they suddenly heard and Wylan snapped his head to see Nina at the window again. "God-fucking-dammit, the snow started up again!"
"Nooo," Jesper cried dramatically, falling to his knees. "Not again! Oh goodbye world! Goodbye family! I shall forever miss you as I am stuck in these hell-damned four walls for the rest of my life! I may never see the su-"
Wylan chose to turn a blind eye as Kaz kicked him.
#
Three excruciatingly painful hours later, Jesper made a marvelous discovery.
"We have alcohol!" he screamed suddenly, bolting up from behind the counter. In his hands were two (very) large bottles of whiskey and Nina let out another victorious whoop.
"No," Matthias said firmly. "When we get drunk, bad things happen."
Mom friend, Jesper mouthed obviously to Wylan. Wylan tried not to snort too loudly at that.
"I say we drink it," Inej said in a surprising turn of events. "Those who wish not too, don't have too."
"Absolutely not," Kaz said sharply, backing Matthias. "Have you all forgotten what happened on the night of Incident That Shall Not Be Named #27,389? Or for that matter, Incident That Shall Not Be Named #19, 539?"
They all shuddered unanimously, and Wylan and Paja exchanged similarly befuddled looks.
You ask, he mouthed to her.
No, you ask, she mouthed back. They're your friends.
Yeah but they're also completely insane.
You choose to date on of them, you ask about their crazy events.
That was not in the terms and conditions sheet!
There was no terms and conditions sheet dumbass.
Okay, there practically was. It wasn't physically there, but you could imagine it.
"As amusing as that exchange was," Kaz drawled, "no, the whole point of naming it 'Incident That Shall Not Be Named' is because we never speak of it again."
"But," Nina tempted Paja, "if you get us drunk we might!"
"Alright," Paja shrugged. "Let's go bitches. Grab a bottle and we'll play Never Have I Ever. Or Truth or Dare, which one?"
"Let's not," Matthias deadpanned. "How about 'Let's Kick Out the Barista?"
Paja scowled at him. "What about 'Let's Kick Out the Blonde?"
"Nina, I'm being bullied," he said in response, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend. "Nina, save me. I am being bullied by a bully. You bully."
As the two began to heatedly make out, everybody else rolled their eyes and reached for a bottle of whiskey.
#
The next couple of hours went by in flashes.
He was pretty sure he had seen Matthias and Kaz (the two straightest people he had ever met, hands down - and this included his father and Professor Rollins) make out on top of a table. He wasn't sure which part of the statement was more shocking.
He was pretty sure Nina had flirted with everything she had seen (this included the chairs, the table, and a half filled cup of coffee that still had her lipstick stains on the side of it).
Inej had flat out disappeared sometime into it and then reappeared later with two of her shoes gone, as well as featuring Kaz's gloves on both of her hands. Her hair was also mussed, and he didn't want to think about what had gone on in the storage closet he was (pretty sure) they had their grand adventure in.
Paja was lying on the counter completely dead to the world.
And Jesper had... well..
Wylan groggily stared around the room where they were all laying in positions that looked vaguely uncomfortable in some way or another. Kaz had his legs stretched out onto the couch next to him, Matthias was leaning against the wall in a position that looked extraordinarily military-esque, and Nina was right next to him reducing the effect by having her face in a cup of something he didn't want to think about. Jesper was (Wylan blushed at what he was pretty sure they had spent the majority of their time drinking doing) holding two pens in a way that looked like he was wielding two guns instead, and somehow had a fidget spinner on his head that was still weakly twitching.
Inej was gone.
Also, to top it all off, his head didn't feel like murder. Which was new. And completely unexpected. And a little unsettling.
"Coffee?"
"Jesus Christ!" Wylan screamed, jumping a good five feet into the air. "Oh my God - Inej! I thought you were gone!"
Inej, who was now serenely sitting on the counter Paja was (still) lying face down on handed him a large cup which he gratefully drained.
"Oh my God," Wylan muttered, "we're going to have hell to pay when the owner of his coffee shop is notified about everything we drank."
Inej sent him a small smile. "Actually, I'm pretty sure we could get sued but we'll cross that bridge when we get there."
Wylan incredulously raised an eyebrow at that explanation. "We could get sued?" he asked. "Oh man, I'm going to have to ask my... " his mouth twisted, "dad a favor."
"Oh, Van Eck right?" Inej asked calmly. "My apologies for looking into you by the way, but we had to make sure Jesper was getting involved with the right person. I applaud you for your sixth grade science trophy."
Wylan's cheeks burned at the mention of Jesper. "You looked into me?" he asked. "I didn't think anybody that wasn't ex-Interpol and not in a ridiculous crime movie/novel did that anymore to their siblings boyfriend."
Inej sent him a small smile. "Don't worry - you checked through no problem. And to be fair, Van Eck to just Eck is a little..."
"Stupid?" Wylan finished. "Yeah, my mother's last name is just a little painful to use so it was the only other option."
"I understand," Inej said, lightly clapping a hand on her shoulder. "If you want, I can track her down for you."
"You know about tha..." he trailed off. "You know what? I'm not going to ask about how you know about that. What I am going to say is that I'm good, and maybe I'll ask later but for now I'm good."
Inej sent him a small smile that reassured him more than somebody who had looked into his life and knew most of his personal secrets should have.
"Also," she said, switching topics, "I noticed you and Jesper had some... enthusiastic fun last night." A corner of her mouth tipped up with amusement and Wylan's cheeks dyed red.
"In my defense," he replied looking down, "We were both incredibly drunk."
"I know," she said smirking. "Your lips are still swollen."
Wylan promptly choked on his coffee and needed Inej's help to get it down. "Hey, Kaz was no saint either okay?" he said defensively on his way back up. "I saw him make out with Matthias on a table for a good fifteen minutes, and then I'm pretty sure you two had sex in the storage room."
Inej arched an eyebrow. "And you know this because?"
Wylan ducked his head with embarrassment again and protested, "Okay you know what? I was completely within my right to notice what's going on around the room. And to be fair, Kaz and Matthias making out drunk is possible one of the most unexpected things to ever happen."
"Right?" Inej agreed. "They're so straight."
"So does that mean you two have made up?" Wylan asked hesitantly, unwilling the poke the bear.
She sent him a small smile. "I believe being stuck in a campus building for several hours doesn't leave much space for two people to continue being angry at each other. We've..." she paused. "We've still got our issues, but hopefully one day we will figure them out."
Wylan nodded, giving her a serious look. "For what it's worth, I'm rooting for the two of you," he told her honestly. "I really hope the two of you figure it all out."
She smiled tiredly. "One day. Now," she clapped her hands and gave Wylan an anticipatory glance. "How did it feel to make out with Jesper for four hours straight?"
Wylan's face flushed bright red. Oh dear god.
*
a/n: this chapter isn't my favorite *winces and makes face* because of how choppy it was, but i hope you enjoyed it? don't worry - there's going to be details on the whole jesper/wylan making out front (not sure about how good it is, lmao) but there will be details coming to you guys in the next chapter.
sorry about how long it took to update this! my sibling's been going around the country (well, we've been avoiding the south because the chances of the kkk dragging her out of bed and burning her on a cross trump education just the slightest) but i've been touring colleges with my family for the past four days and only got back home last night at like, three, exhausted to the bone. so, today i dragged my ass to update and lo and behold, we have our chapter, choppy as it may be.
thanks for reading (and i just remembered this function exists so please vote if you like it?),
mercy