Touch (4/?)
Title: Touch (4/?)
Author: coquilleon
Pairing: Tyler/Jeremy
Based on: TV series
Spoilers: None
Disclaimers: I do not own The Vampire Diaries.
Jeremy wonders sometimes if they can make this work. Make them work.
Like right now, he is sitting at a table in the Grill, nursing a soda, and watching Tyler simultaneously ignore him and play pool with Matt. Well, ignore isn't the right word. He and Tyler did arrive together, which would have been odd before, but once everyone had gotten over the initial surprise of the two of them getting along, they had all gotten fairly used to it, and didn't really look twice anymore. So, no, Tyler wasn't ignoring him. He was just... not acting the way he usually did when they were alone.
And Jeremy gets it, he does. For one, he doesn't expect Tyler to treat him exactly the way he does when they are alone. That would no doubt call for a warning on indecent public behavior from the sheriff. And he doesn't expect them to be all touchy feely (they aren't really that touchy feely when they're alone, except on those few occasions when Tyler will rub his thumb on the inside of Jeremy's wrist or touch the small of his back. But to Jeremy, those little things seem like either unconscious actions or little experiments Tyler has set up in his own mind.) And Jeremy doesn't want to be... cuddled in public or anything. He wouldn't mind kissing though. Not that hes all for PDA, but he enjoys kissing Tyler so much and he would like the freedom to do it where ever he wanted. But he knows that this is out of the question. Not just because Jeremy certainly does not want to be outed, again, but also, even though he's lived in this town for his whole life, he doesn't know the views on two males kissing in public. Which may sound like an odd thing he should know, but Jeremy bets that if you were to ask any member of any town how fellow neighbors would react to two males kissing at the local hangout spot, they'd have an answer right away.
But Jeremy doesn't know how this town would react because, honestly, Jeremy questions if they would even notice. There are vampires who reside here, there are strange faces that arrive seemingly out of nowhere (also mostly vampires), people are dropping like flies, and all the while no one bats an eye, besides the Council of course. Jeremy has never heard one person ask what kind of 'animal' it is exactly that is attacking these people and ripping their throats out. Their town is relatively small, and close knit. It's not like it's New York City or anything, and frankly the death toll is way to high for such a small place. But still, no one questions...
But it would just be his luck, wouldn't it, if people noticed that Tyler Lockwood pressed his hand briefly to Jeremy's lower back. The school would be in a tizzy.
He watches Tyler some more, tilting his head to the side as Tyler rounds the side of the oak table, bends over slightly, and hits a red ball into a corner pocket. He straightens up, and his eyes slide over the table first, before he looks up to see Jeremy watching him. Before they left Jeremy's Tyler had warned him against being too obvious (this didn't sit well with Jeremy. Not because he doesn't agree, but because he's heard that warning before, from Vicky, and he hated it then.) Jeremy guesses he will get a talking to about his staring when they get back in the car, but he's not too worried. By the look of Tyler's slight smile as his gaze slides back down onto the green table, Jeremy figures he's not in too much trouble.
Jeremy looks away and smiles into his glass. He loves the private smiles and looks between them. He loves having this little secret right now. He didn't much enjoy it before because he hated having to sneak around, but once his family knew he had to admit he'd felt much better about it. The people who know now are the one who need to know and Jeremy is satisfied with that, but he wonders when that won't be enough anymore.
And that is where his problem lies.
Because even though he might not want to be touched and grabbed and doesn't mind not being kissed in public for right now, he knows that it will be a problem later on (he has no doubt that they will keep this relationship going for a while, surprisingly enough) and become a strain on their relationship. He knows one day this sneaking around will cease to be exciting and new and just become stressful. He knows that one day he and Tyler (probably known to be 'best friends' by then) will be out with friends, and Jeremy will have to leave a bit earlier than Tyler. He will automatically lean over to kiss the other boy goodbye, remember he can't, and the whole thing will no doubt end in an awkward bro hug.
They don't hold hands now, nor do they really want to, neither one of them really being hand holders, but one day they'll be comfortable enough with each other to want to, but they wont be able to. Not in Mystic Falls anyway, and Jeremy still has three more years to go.
Jeremy dwells on this last thought. Three years. They'll definitely know how they feel about each other and where they stand in three years, because now, they still aren't sure. Jeremy knows how he feels about Tyler. Or at least knows how Tyler makes him feel - way too happy. Way too comfortable, and passionate, and crazy. He gets these insanely strong urges to touch him sometimes. Just the need to run his fingers through his short hair, or tug on his shirt, or kiss his neck, and he has no idea why. And he supposes that's what they're both trying to figure out now. Why the change.
But honestly, Jeremy isn't really concerned about figuring out the 'why' right now, not as much as he was in the beginning, and certainly not as much as Tyler is. Jeremy knows how hard he's trying, how hard he thinks about this whole thing. Trying to figure it all out, trying to figure Jeremy out. He looks at Jeremy sometimes as if he is a puzzle. Jeremy pretends not to notice. He likes it when Tyler looks at him like this.
Despite his somewhat morose thinking, Jeremy has hope. He'd expected Tyler to push him away immediately. He'd thought Tyler would stay far away from him; to either figure what the hell was going on, or just as a means to push Jeremy away entirely and deny the whole thing never happened and would never happen. But Jeremy had been pleasantly surprised when Tyler stuck around while trying to work through whatever was going through his head. He feels a warm buzz go through him at this thought. Tyler liked him enough to stay, even when he was so confused...
Jeremy is pulled out of his thoughts by a gentle hand on his shoulder. He looks up to see Elena looking down at him. Behind her, Jeremy can see Damon and Stefan sit at the bar and start bickering about something. "Hey Jere. You okay?"
He nods up at her, and gives a small smile. "Yeah, why?"
"No reason. You just looked miles away."
"Oh, yeah. Just thinking." She looks concerned, and lifts her eyes discreetly to look over at where Matt and Tyler were finishing up. Jeremy's smile widens slightly at her inquisitive manner. "I'm sure. Promise."
"Alright." She doesn't look totally convinced, but she squeezes his shoulder and smiles back down at him. A flood of warmth fills Jeremy, again, quite suddenly and he finds himself wrapping an arm around her thin legs and hugging her to him. She smells like she always smells, like her strawberry shampoo, and light perfume, and he is so grateful for that in this moment it almost overwhelms him. God, I am becoming such a girl.
Elena gives a surprised, happy laugh, and hugs him back. When they pull away her eyes are bright. "What was that for?"
To make up for his brief lapse in emotional control, even for him, he shrugs and says nonchalantly, "No reason. Just thought I'd give the every five years hug. I might be a little early." Elena laughs. He knows she sees right through him, but she lets him have this one, and scratches the nape of his neck gently before throwing out the customary "don't be home too late" and he gives the customary "yeah yeah yeah."
He watches her walk over to Stefan and Damon and step smoothly between their argument. She says a few words, kisses Stefan, and apparently says something cheeky to Damon because he gives her that sarcastic smile he gives when someone gives him lip. Jeremy watches as Elena looks away to speak to Stefan again, and his own eyes narrow as he watches Damon's expression morph slowly from sarcastic to hungry as he takes Elena and her shining eyes in.
Hm.
Then Damon's gaze is suddenly meeting his, but a second later a body slides in next to Jeremy and he turns his head to see Tyler. Jeremy's heart and stomach gave an involuntary tug at the sight of him, and he has to pry his eyes away from the other boy's to look at Matt, who is now blocking Damon from view.
Tyler's body heat, so naturally high, is distracting him, and he has a hard time concentrating on Matt saying he should have joined the two of them for the last game. "Next time," he says and Matt nods in response. Tyler and Matt proceeded to talk about football and Jeremy allows himself to drift off again. He isn't expected to participate in this conversation, and he is glad for it. He'd rather focus on the way Tyler feels against his side, and how he smells, and how Jeremy can feel his body shift and move, and that he knows how that body shifts and moves and looks without any clothes on at all-
There is a hand on his thigh. "Jere?"
"Hm?" He looks over at Matt, trying to ignore how his knee is scorching under the heat of Tyler's palm.
"I said do you want anything? I'm going up to get food." He hadn't seen Tyler's hand move to rest on Jeremy's leg and therefore probably doesn't understand why Jeremy stares blankly at him for five seconds too long before blinking and saying in an oddly clogged voice, "No, no I'm fine."
Matt looks like he wants to say more but instead he just shakes his head, stating that he'd be right back. His exit from the seat reveals Damon staring straight at their table, a smirk on his face. Jeremy knows he sees him and Tyler being together as some joke, and his annoyance flares.
Jeremy feels a nerve in his cheek twitch. Instead of getting angry, though, he just narrows his eyes slightly, and looks into Damon's eyes for a moment longer, before shifting his gaze to rest on Elena, only to look back at Damon with a raised eyebrow.
Damon wets his bottom lip slightly while holding Jeremy's gaze. He feels Tyler's hand squeeze his thigh in question, but Jeremy doesn't look over at him. A minute or two passes of this staring contest; soon Jeremy sees Damon's nostrils flare slightly before he rolls his eyes, and twists back around in his seat to face the bar.
Jeremy allows himself a small victory smile, and turns to look at Tyler.
( Part Five)
Author: coquilleon
Pairing: Tyler/Jeremy
Based on: TV series
Spoilers: None
Disclaimers: I do not own The Vampire Diaries.
Jeremy wonders sometimes if they can make this work. Make them work.
Like right now, he is sitting at a table in the Grill, nursing a soda, and watching Tyler simultaneously ignore him and play pool with Matt. Well, ignore isn't the right word. He and Tyler did arrive together, which would have been odd before, but once everyone had gotten over the initial surprise of the two of them getting along, they had all gotten fairly used to it, and didn't really look twice anymore. So, no, Tyler wasn't ignoring him. He was just... not acting the way he usually did when they were alone.
And Jeremy gets it, he does. For one, he doesn't expect Tyler to treat him exactly the way he does when they are alone. That would no doubt call for a warning on indecent public behavior from the sheriff. And he doesn't expect them to be all touchy feely (they aren't really that touchy feely when they're alone, except on those few occasions when Tyler will rub his thumb on the inside of Jeremy's wrist or touch the small of his back. But to Jeremy, those little things seem like either unconscious actions or little experiments Tyler has set up in his own mind.) And Jeremy doesn't want to be... cuddled in public or anything. He wouldn't mind kissing though. Not that hes all for PDA, but he enjoys kissing Tyler so much and he would like the freedom to do it where ever he wanted. But he knows that this is out of the question. Not just because Jeremy certainly does not want to be outed, again, but also, even though he's lived in this town for his whole life, he doesn't know the views on two males kissing in public. Which may sound like an odd thing he should know, but Jeremy bets that if you were to ask any member of any town how fellow neighbors would react to two males kissing at the local hangout spot, they'd have an answer right away.
But Jeremy doesn't know how this town would react because, honestly, Jeremy questions if they would even notice. There are vampires who reside here, there are strange faces that arrive seemingly out of nowhere (also mostly vampires), people are dropping like flies, and all the while no one bats an eye, besides the Council of course. Jeremy has never heard one person ask what kind of 'animal' it is exactly that is attacking these people and ripping their throats out. Their town is relatively small, and close knit. It's not like it's New York City or anything, and frankly the death toll is way to high for such a small place. But still, no one questions...
But it would just be his luck, wouldn't it, if people noticed that Tyler Lockwood pressed his hand briefly to Jeremy's lower back. The school would be in a tizzy.
He watches Tyler some more, tilting his head to the side as Tyler rounds the side of the oak table, bends over slightly, and hits a red ball into a corner pocket. He straightens up, and his eyes slide over the table first, before he looks up to see Jeremy watching him. Before they left Jeremy's Tyler had warned him against being too obvious (this didn't sit well with Jeremy. Not because he doesn't agree, but because he's heard that warning before, from Vicky, and he hated it then.) Jeremy guesses he will get a talking to about his staring when they get back in the car, but he's not too worried. By the look of Tyler's slight smile as his gaze slides back down onto the green table, Jeremy figures he's not in too much trouble.
Jeremy looks away and smiles into his glass. He loves the private smiles and looks between them. He loves having this little secret right now. He didn't much enjoy it before because he hated having to sneak around, but once his family knew he had to admit he'd felt much better about it. The people who know now are the one who need to know and Jeremy is satisfied with that, but he wonders when that won't be enough anymore.
And that is where his problem lies.
Because even though he might not want to be touched and grabbed and doesn't mind not being kissed in public for right now, he knows that it will be a problem later on (he has no doubt that they will keep this relationship going for a while, surprisingly enough) and become a strain on their relationship. He knows one day this sneaking around will cease to be exciting and new and just become stressful. He knows that one day he and Tyler (probably known to be 'best friends' by then) will be out with friends, and Jeremy will have to leave a bit earlier than Tyler. He will automatically lean over to kiss the other boy goodbye, remember he can't, and the whole thing will no doubt end in an awkward bro hug.
They don't hold hands now, nor do they really want to, neither one of them really being hand holders, but one day they'll be comfortable enough with each other to want to, but they wont be able to. Not in Mystic Falls anyway, and Jeremy still has three more years to go.
Jeremy dwells on this last thought. Three years. They'll definitely know how they feel about each other and where they stand in three years, because now, they still aren't sure. Jeremy knows how he feels about Tyler. Or at least knows how Tyler makes him feel - way too happy. Way too comfortable, and passionate, and crazy. He gets these insanely strong urges to touch him sometimes. Just the need to run his fingers through his short hair, or tug on his shirt, or kiss his neck, and he has no idea why. And he supposes that's what they're both trying to figure out now. Why the change.
But honestly, Jeremy isn't really concerned about figuring out the 'why' right now, not as much as he was in the beginning, and certainly not as much as Tyler is. Jeremy knows how hard he's trying, how hard he thinks about this whole thing. Trying to figure it all out, trying to figure Jeremy out. He looks at Jeremy sometimes as if he is a puzzle. Jeremy pretends not to notice. He likes it when Tyler looks at him like this.
Despite his somewhat morose thinking, Jeremy has hope. He'd expected Tyler to push him away immediately. He'd thought Tyler would stay far away from him; to either figure what the hell was going on, or just as a means to push Jeremy away entirely and deny the whole thing never happened and would never happen. But Jeremy had been pleasantly surprised when Tyler stuck around while trying to work through whatever was going through his head. He feels a warm buzz go through him at this thought. Tyler liked him enough to stay, even when he was so confused...
Jeremy is pulled out of his thoughts by a gentle hand on his shoulder. He looks up to see Elena looking down at him. Behind her, Jeremy can see Damon and Stefan sit at the bar and start bickering about something. "Hey Jere. You okay?"
He nods up at her, and gives a small smile. "Yeah, why?"
"No reason. You just looked miles away."
"Oh, yeah. Just thinking." She looks concerned, and lifts her eyes discreetly to look over at where Matt and Tyler were finishing up. Jeremy's smile widens slightly at her inquisitive manner. "I'm sure. Promise."
"Alright." She doesn't look totally convinced, but she squeezes his shoulder and smiles back down at him. A flood of warmth fills Jeremy, again, quite suddenly and he finds himself wrapping an arm around her thin legs and hugging her to him. She smells like she always smells, like her strawberry shampoo, and light perfume, and he is so grateful for that in this moment it almost overwhelms him. God, I am becoming such a girl.
Elena gives a surprised, happy laugh, and hugs him back. When they pull away her eyes are bright. "What was that for?"
To make up for his brief lapse in emotional control, even for him, he shrugs and says nonchalantly, "No reason. Just thought I'd give the every five years hug. I might be a little early." Elena laughs. He knows she sees right through him, but she lets him have this one, and scratches the nape of his neck gently before throwing out the customary "don't be home too late" and he gives the customary "yeah yeah yeah."
He watches her walk over to Stefan and Damon and step smoothly between their argument. She says a few words, kisses Stefan, and apparently says something cheeky to Damon because he gives her that sarcastic smile he gives when someone gives him lip. Jeremy watches as Elena looks away to speak to Stefan again, and his own eyes narrow as he watches Damon's expression morph slowly from sarcastic to hungry as he takes Elena and her shining eyes in.
Hm.
Then Damon's gaze is suddenly meeting his, but a second later a body slides in next to Jeremy and he turns his head to see Tyler. Jeremy's heart and stomach gave an involuntary tug at the sight of him, and he has to pry his eyes away from the other boy's to look at Matt, who is now blocking Damon from view.
Tyler's body heat, so naturally high, is distracting him, and he has a hard time concentrating on Matt saying he should have joined the two of them for the last game. "Next time," he says and Matt nods in response. Tyler and Matt proceeded to talk about football and Jeremy allows himself to drift off again. He isn't expected to participate in this conversation, and he is glad for it. He'd rather focus on the way Tyler feels against his side, and how he smells, and how Jeremy can feel his body shift and move, and that he knows how that body shifts and moves and looks without any clothes on at all-
There is a hand on his thigh. "Jere?"
"Hm?" He looks over at Matt, trying to ignore how his knee is scorching under the heat of Tyler's palm.
"I said do you want anything? I'm going up to get food." He hadn't seen Tyler's hand move to rest on Jeremy's leg and therefore probably doesn't understand why Jeremy stares blankly at him for five seconds too long before blinking and saying in an oddly clogged voice, "No, no I'm fine."
Matt looks like he wants to say more but instead he just shakes his head, stating that he'd be right back. His exit from the seat reveals Damon staring straight at their table, a smirk on his face. Jeremy knows he sees him and Tyler being together as some joke, and his annoyance flares.
Jeremy feels a nerve in his cheek twitch. Instead of getting angry, though, he just narrows his eyes slightly, and looks into Damon's eyes for a moment longer, before shifting his gaze to rest on Elena, only to look back at Damon with a raised eyebrow.
Damon wets his bottom lip slightly while holding Jeremy's gaze. He feels Tyler's hand squeeze his thigh in question, but Jeremy doesn't look over at him. A minute or two passes of this staring contest; soon Jeremy sees Damon's nostrils flare slightly before he rolls his eyes, and twists back around in his seat to face the bar.
Jeremy allows himself a small victory smile, and turns to look at Tyler.
( Part Five)