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The song Reach For Me from Smash is practically written for Sprace:

“Tonight when the bright stars are burning high over Manhattan, all washed out in neon and hidden from view. But when the power goes out and you look up from Brooklyn, will you reach for me reaching out for you?”

Please tell me it’s obvious for everyone else too

#sprace #spot conlon #racetrack higgins #newsies fanfiction #smash

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What Sarah and David Jacobs would wear to pride

#davey jacobs #sarah jacobs #Newsies #this was taken at the auckland pride parade and I love it #david jacobs

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My Conditioning chapters aren’t showing up in the tags that I tag them in? Does anyone know why?

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Conditioning part 3/6

Part 1, part 2, can also be found on AO3 here 

Smut under the read more

Davey remembers the walk to the apartment, with Katherine’s hand in his. He remembers a loud yell of his name coming from the other side of the room when he opened the front door, and Jack barrelling towards him - only tripping twice on the way. He remembers the bone-crushing hug in which Jack enveloped him, and having a jello shot unceremoniously shoved in one hand and a beer in the other. He remembers several more beers and some cups of wine being pushed in his direction as the night progressed. And from there it got a little foggy.

He’d never really been a party-goer, mainly because he never had a big group of friends to go to a party with. But now he knew Jack, and Jack had a worryingly big group of friends. Davey and Katherine were invited to what Jack described as an “intimate soiree”, with a mere 20 college boys and their partners racing to see who could blackout first, or vomit, or both. The beer pong table was in full swing when they arrived, and was crushed an hour later when a spectator dived onto it in protest of cup positioning.

The drinking games quickly devolved into being less physical, but more embarrassing - most notably, a game of Never Have I Ever in which a guy named Spot stared Jack down, stating “never have I ever had my mom walk in on me mid-orgasm while my girlfriend was fucking me with a strap-on.” Jack lunged across the circle to throttle Spot, who Katherine and Davey would learn later was Jack’s brother. The rest of the circle was too busy laughing incredulously to stop him, but thankfully Spot was strong enough to shove his brother off him, and hold him down while he forcefully poured a shot into Jack’s mouth. He did have to drink for that one, after all.

After deciding that no one could truly beat that round of Never Have I Ever, a guy named Race proposed the classic Seven Minutes in Heaven. Placing an empty wine bottle in the centre of the circle, he slurred out the rules. “I will be the one spinning the bottle at all times, none of that ‘swapping turns’ bullshit. You don’t have to tell anyone what happened in the 7 minutes, but we’re allowed to ask questions and tease you. You can pass on your turn at any time, for whatever reason. You can either let me spin the bottle again or you can select someone to go on your behalf. But the punishment is that you have to kiss me. You can interpret that however you want,” he added a wink for emphasis, while Spot next to him grumbled about that addition. “As this is my humble apartment, you can use the linen closet at the end of the hallway, the final door on the right. But please no bodily fluids on the linen. Except for mine and Spot’s.” Race lent over and placed a smacking kiss on Spot’s cheek, followed by Spot pushing him away with a grumble that sounded a lot like ‘get off’a me’. Apparently Spot was not as flirty of a drunk as his boyfriend.

Most of the boys appeared to be good friends, so a fair amount of banter was exchanged when certain pairs were chosen to retreat to the closet. A few rounds had gone by, and mini games of truth and dare erupted during each 7 minutes. Thankfully Davey and Katherine managed to stay out of most of the trouble, except for Davey being dared to twerk to My Hear Will Go On. It was as embarrassing for everyone to watch as it was for Davey to do it. Katherine managed to get a shaky and laugh-filled videographic record.

Race’s phone suddenly blared to life with the end of his 7 minute timer, so he shot up and sprinted to the closet, yanking the door open. The two boys, Crutchie and Elmer blinked with the sudden influx of light, but were leaning casually on the walls opposite each other. Their clothes and hair looked the same as when they went in, so there was no evidence of any hanky panky, but their friends teased them anyway. However, after Crutchie’s threat of hitting the next person to tease them with one of this crutches, the group acquiesced. Apparently everyone had experienced that, and they were not keen to experience it again.

The pair settled back into their places in the circle as Race reached for the bottle, spinning it with a sharp flick of his wrist. Various voices piped up with who they thought it would land on as it started to slow down. As it halted, Race let out a low whistle as he saw who it stopped on: Jack. Not missing a beat to tease his boyfriend’s brother, Race goaded, “whoever it lands on next is gonna be a lucky lad or lass, Jackie-boy”

“Just fucking spin it, Race,” Jack retaliated, sick of Race’s shit.

Race made sure to kiss the bottle for good luck before he spun it, and everyone waited with bated breath to see where the bottle slow down. When it finally stopped, everyone looked up at the same time to see where it stopped, and a roar erupted. For once, it wouldn’t be a same-sex partnering in the closet, because it landed on a girl. Katherine.

A shocked Katherine stood up with shaking legs. The only people she knew here were Davey and Jack, and now she was about to be locked in a closet with one of them while her boyfriend was on the other side, who was most likely being teased for the entirety of it? Suddenly she was unable to pinpoint if her queasiness was due to the quantity of alcohol she had consumed or a sudden rush of nerves. As she made her way through the circle and towards the closet, she heard a yell of “wait!”

Whirling around, Jack had stood up with his arms outstretched and commanding the attention of the others in the room. “As I am a great friend and an even better roommate, I will be passing my turn to my good friend Davey.” Jack walked towards Davey and extended a hand to help haul Davey to his feet. Placing a shove on Davey’s back, the taller boy stumbled towards Katherine, and she caught him with a hand on his shoulder. As Davey was trying to stifle his giggles over the situation, Jack’s voice could be heard yelling again. “Now come here, ya little -“

He strided across to Race, pulling him up to his chest. Utterly shocked, he couldn’t stop himself being dipped down low by Jack, and had a smacking kiss placed on his lips by the forfeiting party. Before Spot could yank the two of them apart he dropped Race unceremoniously to the ground and yelled, “that’s how you do it, boys!” Race was still too shocked to move as the circle burst into cheers and laughter, and Davey saw it as his cue to escape with Katherine down the hall.

They could hear shouts in the distance behind them, mainly Spot placing threats on Jack’s life, and Race teasing Spot about how much better of a kisser his brother was. As they slipped away, Race could also be heard yelling about setting a timer, so it was clear that the couple’s departure didn’t go completely unnoticed.

Katherine threw the door open and Davey followed her into the unlit and cramped closet, shutting the door after them. Katherine was leaning against the left wall, Davey on the right, and opposite the door were the shelves with sheets and towels stacked as neatly as Race could get it. There was about 2 feet of distance between the two of them if they stood against the walls, but they quickly closed it. The combination of the alcohol and the time pressure intensified their situation - if they were going to do anything, it had to be fast.

She pulled Davey in by his belt loops, forging their lips together with fire and a hint of wine. Their reasonable level of inebriation meant that they didn’t mind the clashing of teeth or tongues without a high level of finesse. But given that their friends were on the other side of the door, they had to keep the noise down, muffling their moans into mouths, jaws, necks. She wove her fingers into her boyfriend’s hair and pulled back, earning herself a groan of pleasure and the curve of his neck laid out in front of her. Katherine kissed and nipped down to the collar of Davey’s t-shirt, his soft chest hair tickling her lips. Without warning, she moved her hands to Davey’s hips, pushing him back against the wall with a dull thunk.

Conscious of time slipping away from them, Katherine dropped to her knees in front of Davey. The slats on the door allowed a minimal amount of light to seep into the tiny closet. In the low lighting, Katherine caught Davey’s eye as she pulled her hair into an extremely sloppy pony tail, yanking on it to ensure that it would stay somewhat in place.

Happy that she remembered to bring a hair tie with her, she nearly ripped Davey’s zipper apart by pulling his pants down to his knees. He gasped at the sudden freedom and pushed down his underwear too, hyperaware of the ticking clock. Only half hard, Katherine put herself to work. She mouthed hot kisses into his thighs and hips, her hand busied with stroking her boyfriend to his full length. Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, Davey shoved half his fist into his mouth to muffle his whines and groans. He was desperate for Katherine’s mouth to swallow him whole, but thankfully he hadn’t consumed too much alcohol - in fact, it was helping him get harder quicker.

Katherine could feel him growing in her hand, but before she could place her mouth on his hard leaking cock, Davey engaged in measures that he had never done before. He wrapped his spare hand around the base of her ponytail, and physically made her mouth move from biting his hipbone to sucking his cock. He pushed her towards it, and like a good girlfriend, Katherine opened her mouth and swallowed as much as she could while Davey pushed her further than they had gone before. And she loved every second of it.

Davey moaned loudly through his fist as the sweet relief of Katherine’s mouth encapsulated his dick. Seeing him take control of the situation turned Katherine on more than she would care to admit, and could feel her panties getting damp. The alcohol left him without inhibitions - normally he avoided touching her when she was giving head, too afraid to pressure her into doing anything. But uninhibited, all his filthy desires were being revealed, and she would be lying if she said that she didn’t want to learn more about them.

He was using his vice-like grip on Katherine’s hair to command a relentless pace, that resulted in Katherine somewhat choking every so often. Whether it was from her own spit or Davey’s length, they neither knew nor cared. It was a turn of events that Katherine didn’t expect her experiment to take, but if anything, it should strengthen the relation between her hair and giving blowjobs. If Davey controlled how the two were connected, it should make the relation more salient and therefore stronger. But only time would tell.

If the way Davey’s legs were shaking were any indication, he wasn’t too far away from climaxing. But there were other signs too - a slight salty tang that landed on Katherine’s tongue, the way his cock started twitching more in her mouth, and Davey’s breathing and moaning becoming more laboured and fractionally louder. So intently focused on his own bliss, his grip on Katherine loosened a little, allowing her to regain some control. She pulled back and focused on the tip of Davey’s highly sensitive cock, running her tongue over the ridge between tip and shaft, teasing the slit, and enrobing it in open-mouthed kisses. She placed a firm hand on Davey’s hip, forcing him back into the wall - not to stop him from bucking into her mouth, but to stop him his legs from buckling under him from the force of his orgasm.

Not 10 seconds of teasing later, Davey let out a prayer of muttered curses and he nearly keeled over Katherine’s back. She deftly moved from tentative teasing to having half of Davey’s cock in her mouth, perfectly in sync with his climax exploding in her mouth. Gagging slightly at the potency of the taste, she swallowed it down after Davey extracted himself from her mouth - alcohol heightened his sensitivity, and he couldn’t handle that much stimulation post-orgasm. He quickly tucked himself back into his underwear and pulled his pants up, redoing the zipper.

Gaining control of his breathing, he reached a hand out to his girlfriend and pulled her up and into his arms. Davey placed a soft kiss on her hair line for a moment, before Katherine tilted her chin up and gently kissed her boyfriend. He was still blushing from his first taste at dominance, the darkness of the closet couldn’t hide this newfound side to him.

Without warning, the door was yanked open by Race with a shit-eating grin. His other hand was holding his phone which was blaring the ringtone indicating that the 7 minute timer had finished. The couple blinked from the sudden influx of light, reflexively trying to shy away from it.

“Come on out lovebirds, your time is up!” Race hollered with a level of enthusiasm not typically reserved for the non-closeted participants in this game.

Katherine smiled reassuring up to her boyfriend, and held his hand in hers. She pulled him out of the tiny closet and started down the hallway, but was stopped in her tracks by Spot’s voice.

“She obviously gave him head.”

Spluttering in reply, Katherine was caught completely off guard. Could the rest of the group hear them? Was someone standing outside the whole time?

“Look,” Spot continued, “Katherine’s lipstick is smudged - hint number 1. Her hair is up in a ponytail - obvious sign that Davey’s a hair pulling kinky bastard, and hint number 2. Most damningly, hint number 3 is that Davey’s shirt is tucked in and caught in his zipper. His zip had to be undone for that to happen. The only conclusion is that Katherine gave the best head of Davey’s life and he forgot how clothes work.”

Glancing back at her boyfriend, his observations were spot on. And even if they weren’t, Davey’s bright red blush told everyone in the room that Spot was 100% correct.

Race took a second to absorb that information, before an utterance of “fuck me, you’re right,” could be heard. He begrudgingly sauntered over to his boyfriend, and slapped a $10 note into Spot’s hand. They had clearly bet on what the couple would get up to in the closet, and they didn’t want to know what Race’s condition of the bet was.

Katherine tugged on the hair tie and allowed her thick hair to cascade over her face, hopefully to hide the raging blush on her face from being exposed in front of her boyfriend’s friend’s group of friends. Oh well, they may know about the closeted trial, but no one else knew about the experiment.

#newsies smut #davey jacobs #katherine plumber #katherine pulitzer #conditioning

[this-is-big-lady]

Guys, a dude that I’ve been chatting with on tinder (who is friends with my best friend’s boyfriend) just asked me out for coffee on campus. I think Swipe Right is coming true

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The fact that you like my writing when you’re so amazing is like mind blowing to me, thank you so much! 💛

I’m like hella bored my man, do you have any fics or anything you recommend??? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

*kevin price voice* this is the moment i was born to do

anyway i’m gonna recommend just fics that are newsies and sfw but if you’re looking for anything different, let me now!

one of us by @gracetrack-higgins is seriously such a good newsies college au!! it has it’s fair share of angst, but this fic stole my heart, man. so true to college life! (also has a sequel in the works)

it all comes back to you by @thefactsofthematter is high-key the inspiration behind my own javid fake dating au (i think i talked about this already but… i’m gonna mention it again because it’s SO GOOD)

swipe right by @this-is-big-lady is another college au (what can i say, i know what i like) and it’s just full of flirty jack (aka my WEAKNESS) and it had such a good ending like wow. just wow.

mountain ridge camp for boys by @timetogoslumming (again) but this is definitely the best newsies fic out there, if not the best fic generally. characterization on point, good plot, satisfying ending. god i love this one. (also has a sequel in the works)

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I live half an hour from the Hobbiton set in New Zealand and I have NO DOUBT he would be just like every tourist we have coming through on the way to Hobbiton/Middle Earth. We love ‘em, but it’s all they ever talk about oh my god. To everyone who lives here, it’s just Matamata. But to him, it’s where the Hobbit was filmed!!!!!

Davey Jacobs would absolutely be the biggest Tolkien nerd of all time. He’s written lengthy papers on the history of Middle Earth, can quote all the movies by heart, and has read the Silmarillion seven times.

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Conditioning part 2/6

Part 1, can be found on AO3 here Smut under the read more 

During a break from school, Katherine and Davey decided to spend the holiday at Davey’s home. Katherine got a chance to meet Davey’s family, and Davey got time to catch up with his loved ones. It was also an opportunity to spend time together outside of the stresses of school, and what better way to do this than by visiting a museum.

Davey’s family lived in a small town, around an hour from the nearest city, where the museum was situated. It was hosting a travelling exhibition on World War 2 and the allied forces which Katherine desperately wanted to see. So the couple piled in Davey’s old pickup truck and headed off in the morning, wandering around the exhibition and the rest of the museum until closing. Katherine’s favourite part was the uniforms, specifically the “lemon squeezer” hat that the New Zealand soldiers wore, and Davey enjoyed deconstructing the propaganda and recruitment posters.

Filled with new knowledge and fascination, Davey started the drive back home. Around a quarter of the way into the drive, they had to veer onto a side road that would take them back to Davey’s hometown. However, Davey was so caught up in conversation with Katherine that he wasn’t paying adequate attention. Coupled with the fact that he hadn’t driven for most of the year while he’s been away at college, he stalled the truck. Exclaiming a couple of expletives, he flicked the hazard lights on and jumped out of the car, yelling at Katherine to get into the driver’s seat and guide the truck off the road while he pushed.

Thankfully it was a quiet night and no cars passed them while they got the car safely off the road, but Davey was considerably out of breath once he got into the passenger’s seat. Katherine proposed that he called his parents to alert them of the situation while she called a tow truck, but Davey had a better and much cheaper idea. Once he gained his breath back, he pulled out his phone and called his dad.

“Hey dad, funny story. I accidentally stalled the truck on the turn off back home and it won’t start, I think the battery is playing up again. I was wondering if you could drive out to us and tow us home? We can get a tow truck if you can’t.”

Katherine thrummed her fingers against the wheel as she waited to hear if she was going to ask her parents how much the auto insurance covered for towing, and could see Davey biting his thumb nail, a nervous habit.

“Thank you so much dad, I’ll see you in an hour,” Davey brought the phone away from his ear, stabbing at the hang up button and and breathing a sigh of relief. Turning to his girlfriend, he explained, “Dad is going to tow us home with a tow rope, he just has to get everything sorted at home and will be out here in an hour.

“Well that’s good news,” Katherine agreed sympathetically. “But, uh, how are we gonna kill the hour?”

“We could play eye spy?” It was Davey’s favourite game to play with his family in the car when he was younger, but Katherine would rather die than play it, as she made very obvious with a disgruntled huff.

“Or we could christen my car,” Davey uttered with an alluring lilt in his breath. “I had it all through high school, but I never exactly had the experiences that a typical teenage boy would have in his car.”

Katherine couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing as Davey leant over, brushing her hair to the side as he placed a hot open-mouthed kiss on her neck. But it didn’t sound like an awful idea. She looked down to her adoring boyfriend and suggested a challenge that was sure he’d never turn down. “I’ll race you to the backseat?”

Davey jumped out of the car and slammed the door shut behind him, with Katherine following suit on her side. She laughed in disbelief, surprised thst they were about to play out every cliché from every high school movie. Both of them hopped into the backseat, sidling up next to each other. Davey reached over, entwining their hands together as Katherine looked over at him, her eyes giving away her want.

Shifting his gaze up from where their hands sat in Katherine’s lap, Davey caught her eye. His lips quirked up into a half smile and he leant in, exchanging the kiss that he was desperate to give her the whole time he was driving. He could feel her eyes flutter closed, her eyelashes tickling against his. They stayed like that for a while, swapping gentle breaths and heartfelt kisses. These are the times in which the couple felt truly alive. Nowhere to be, nothing to do, other than to simply enjoy each other’s company. There was a certain level of peace and intimacy they could only achieve when they were together like this - Jack might call them saps, but they loved it.

And sometimes that intimacy increased, such as when Davey slid his hand under Katherine’s loose fitting t-shirt and she retaliated by cupping him over his jeans. As they were doing right now. He could feel the cotton and lace of her bralette, as it’s ‘more comfortable than a bra for long drives,’ something Katherine would explain to him later. However, the feeling of the button of his pants being opened and the release of pressure from his zipper being drawn down had distracted him. His hand faltered as Katherine reached a hand past the waistband of his boxer briefs, and he outright moaned as she wrapped a hand around his shaft.

Katherine’s lips broke with Davey’s as she smirked, bending down to place gentle kisses on his jaw as she languidly stroked her hand up and down Davy’s quickly stiffening cock. The sounds coming out of his mouth were delicious, and she needed more.

Pulling her hand out of Davey’s pants, her boyfriend loudly whined and keened. They were on the side of the road - if they were caught, they could face heavy consequences. He could make all the noise he wanted, as long as it wasn’t loud. So she quickly silenced him with a frustrated snap of “do you want me to gag you?!”

Davey spluttered in response, face going bright red and saying neither affirming nor denying the proposal. “We’ll come back to that one, I guess,” Katherine noted, somewhat interested in Davey’s true response would be to that question. “For now, lie down.” The pickup truck was a tight squeeze, with hardly enough room to fit the two of them. Katherine reached around the passenger seat, finding the lever to move the seat forward and pushing on the seat back. She shunted it forward as far as if could go, meaning she could settle down into the footwell as Davey lay on the seats.

Too tall for the length of the seats, Davey had to awkwardly cramp up, and Katherine was seated on the floor by his knees. He had no idea what was going on, but his girlfriend was objectively too far away. As he reached for her, his hand was swatted away, and was instead asked to help with getting his pants around his ankles. Never one to deny his love of anything she wanted, Davey lifted his hips up and pushed the pants past his sharp hipbones, allowing Katherine to pull them down the rest of the way.

The cool air sapped his skin of warmth, but Katherine’s hands burnt like stinging fire against his thighs. She placed kisses above the elastic waist of his underwear, softly nuzzling the dark hair that grew there. In the small space, the smell of sex was amplified and was driving the pair crazy. Katherine mouthed at the hardened bulge in Davey’s underwear, causing her boyfriend to throw this head back, and bash it against the arm rest on the door.

Katherine tried to hide her laughter as Davey groaned, holding the crown of his head in his hands. While Davey was distracted, she hooked her fingers into his underwear, dragging it down as she whispered, “I’ll kiss it better, baby.” As his leaking cock was revealed, she placed a kiss right on the swollen tip, sucking up the bead of liquid that had gathered there. Davey’s sounds had changed from pained to pleasure, letting curses flow freely from his lips.

She pulled back and Davey’s eyes followed her. She yanked a hair tie off her wrist, bringing together all her hair in a sloppy high ponytail. Gentle tendrils of hair fell out the bottom, tickling the nape of her neck. Davey had never truly seen her with her hair up - she always kept it down when studying, claiming that the slight curl to her hair got knotty if she tied it up for more than an hour. Nevertheless, he loved it. He could clearly see the sparkle in her eye, the blush on her cheek, and the subtle silver studs in her ear that he gave her as a gift for her last birthday. She was beautiful with her hair off her face, and that fact that she was about to go down on him was just a bonus.

She placed calculated licks to the intersection of head and shaft, making Davey sob and grab onto the headrest. It took every inch of self control to not buck his hips up when Katherine enveloped him whole, and is rewarded with her sinking down as far as she can go. It’s an awkward angle, his cock is naturally straining towards his belly button and she’s trying to swallow it from the side. Davey can’t help but praise her for her efforts. She hummed her thanks around his dick, and he has to think about his sociology report to stop himself from exploding right there and then.

Bobbing her head a couple more times, she tried to elicit another groan from Davey, but to no avail. She slowly detached herself, locking eyes with her boyfriend as he looked up in confusion as to why she stopped. Her saliva glistened in the ambient light, and used it to slick up her hand when she wrapped her fingers around where her mouth had just been. She cut off the questioning from Davey before it had even started with a question of her own.

“Is there…” she stopped, swallowing to clear her hoarse throat. “Is there anything you like? When I, ya’know…” A blush rose furiously to her cheeks. She’d never explicitly discussed sexual preferences with Davey before, but it seemed like having his cock in her hand seemed like an appropriate time.

Trying to avoid embarrassment, Davey attempted to keep his voice even. “I’d like it if, uh… if you played with, well, my balls.” Katherine nodded, taking in this new information and figuring out how to incorporate that.

Muttering a quiet, “okay,” under her breath, she returned to her previous position. She allowed her hand to drop down to the base of Davey’s dick as she enveloped him once again, her tongue flattening out to lick up his mouthwatering musk. As she started to move her head, her hand dropped further down to hold the two spheres in her hands, her fingertips dancing across them.

A hiss was pushed through Davey’s teeth at the addition of his new sensation. He’d done it for himself plenty of times, but there was something about having his sweet and ferocious Katherine doing it for him. He knew that his orgasm wasn’t too far away, and he was going to enjoy every damned second of Katherine’s fingers and hands and mouth until it arrived.

She’d never experienced anything like this before. Davey’s balls weren’t as firm as his cock, and the loose skin gave her plenty of movement to drive her boyfriend crazy with. He especially seemed to enjoy it when her nails carefully raked across the underside, if the yell of her name was proof of anything. She wrapped her free hand around the bottom of his shaft, keeping it in place so that she could increase her ministrations. The added stability meant she upped her speed and lost some control. Taken over by enthusiastic want, she was practically choking herself, the sound of her reflex to gag filling the truck. Her saliva was dripping onto her hand and she could feel Davey’s nuts tightening in her hands.

Her loss of her usual reservations was going to both of Davey’s heads, only furthering his lust. She was dedicating so much energy and effort, taking in as much of him as she comfortably could, and choking on the rest that she couldn’t. Davey always admired how mouthy she was, unafraid to state her opinion or throw an insult at someone her deserved it. This was a new development as to what her mouth could do, and he adored her all the more for it.

Moments later, Davey could feel that familiar rising sensation of his climax, and Katherine could feel the balls she was holding grow even tighter.  He choked out, “cum, I’m gonna cum,” as Katherine pushed the head of his cock as far back in her mouth as she could manage. A shout and a cry erupted from Davey as he came, spurting his warm and thick liquid straight into Katherine’s throat. She’d figured out that if she got it as far back as she could, it wouldn’t fall on her tongue and she didn’t have to taste it. Davey just thought that she was trying to deep-throat him. It was a win-win.

After Davey’s cock had finished twitching in her mouth, she released her hold on his base and balls, pulling off with a pop. His eyes were still screwed shut and his breathing was laboured from the force of his orgasm, so she peppered feather-light kisses on his thighs until he opened his eyes to look at her. She heard his raspy voice say her name, calling her to him. As she leaned across the seat, she pulled on the hair tie holding her ponytail in place, and let her hair fall out. It cascaded onto Davey’s face as she placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. He laughed, complaining that it was tickling his nose. She pulled it out of the way and threw it over her back, and snuggled into Davey’s embrace. She let her head rest on Davey’s shoulder, and he pressed a light kiss into her loose hair.

The time that Davey’s dad was meant to arrive ticked closer, so the couple resigned themselves to climbing back into the front seats. Once Davey had his pants back on and Katherine had readjusted where the passenger’s seat was, they settled into the seperate seats and held hands, trying to regain them same closeness they shared mere minutes ago. Davey still had a blissed out smile plastered across his face and Katherine had to cross her legs and squeeze her thighs together to relieve her itch that had built up in the backseat. If it was too cramped to comfortably go down on Davey, there was no way they could make it work for her. They’d just have to wait until they got home.

Katherine was glad to note that the second trial had gone just as well as the first. She was intrigued to see if Davey’s behaviour would come under the simple control of a hair tie, because it was working well so far.

I'm heading into the second half of my uni semester after a couple of weeks off, so I can't make any promises on how often I'll be updating. I'll try to make it as often as I can, but if not, I'm busy actually studying Pavlovian and operant conditioning rather than writing smut about it! Reblog, like, comment, or message me if you’d like to - or all of the above! Love you all, see you for part 3 (which I’m SUPER EXCITED for!)

#davey jacobs #katherine pulitzer #newsies smut #newsies fanfiction #conditioning #katherine plumber

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Do you reckon you could do like a fic about Kiwi Newsies? I remember seeing your posts about them and loving them!!

I reckon I could, I’d love to! Any suggestions (from anyone)?

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okay listen: modern! race and albert have absolutely sat in trolleys and had someone push them at each other like a jousting match (i speak from experience, it hurts)

You just know that Spot is pushing Race and Finch is pushing Albert while Romeo looks on as a judge for deciding the winner/a lookout for if anyone comes to tell them off. Spot/Race normally win because have you SEEN Spot’s arms?!!!(And pls don’t damage your lovely little head!)

[this-is-big-lady]

Conditioning part 1/6

aka. 5 times Katherine trained Davey to associate pony tails with blowjobs and the 1 time he realised what she’d done - Can be found on AO3 here

Katherine was a smart girl. She studied hard and learnt quickly, but she was more of a hands-on learner; theory gets lost on her if she doesn’t have a real life context to ground it in. That’s how she found herself in a class about the psychology of behaviour and learning, she thought that surely something about behaviour had to be immensely practical.

Oh how wrong she was. It was equation upon equation, the principles of behaviour narrowed down to basic experiments with simple animals, and very little to do with humans. However, one thing caught her eye: Pavlovian conditioning. The concept that when pairing together two stimuli, one of which causes a natural response, the previously neutral stimulus will be able to elicit the response associated with the other stimulus. The classic example was presenting a dog with meat when a bell is rung - eventually, just the bell will elicit the same salivation that the meat causes. But it wasn’t just limited to dogs, was it? An idea was hatched in her head - maybe she could condition Davey, her boyfriend.

Katherine and Davey had been introduced through their mutual friend, Jack. He said that the two of them were “insufferable nerds,” and they should go make each other happy with their nerdiness, rather than “making him miserable”. Jack set them up on a study date after learning that they were both taking Introduction to Sociology last semester, and the rest was history. They’d been together for a little over 4 months now and were happily leaving Jack out of their academic conversations. Neither of them had expected to find a significant other so quickly into their first year of college, but they were overjoyed that they did.

Their days were filled with classes and coffee fuelled study sessions in either the library or the campus cafe, leaving the nights free for cuddling in their dorm rooms and sharing links to journal articles for assignments. While Davey’s dorm was a shared room with Jack, Katherine lived in a different building. She lived in a ‘pod’ dorm - six seperate single rooms joined onto one bathroom, with six pods sharing one common room. Katherine had the privilege of privacy that Davey did not have. Which is why tonight, the couple could be found in Katherine’s room.

They lay together on the bed, legs intertwined. Davey’s right arm was thrown around Katherine, whose head was resting on her boyfriend’s chest. Davey’s laptop was set up on the left side of the bed with an innocuous documentary about domesticated cats playing. Five minutes in, Katherine was losing focus, she was instead toying with the fabric of Davey’s shirt and focused on the sensation of him running his fingers through her hair. Ten minutes in and her gaze was drifting upwards to his jaw, where he had forgone shaving this morning in a rush to be on time to his 9am class. Fifteen minutes in and her lips were locked with Davey’s, laptop and documentary all but forgotten.

Despite being horny college kids, they’d never gone further than this. Heated making out, a bit of grinding and over-the-clothes touching had been added for good measure, but nothing more. However, Katherine was going to change that tonight. Not that Davey knew about that.

Davey gently broke off the kiss, mumbling something that sounded like, “laptop, gotta move”. He reached out and closed the top of it, trying to place it on the floor beside the bed and failing miserably due to Katherine lying on him. Giggling a little at his strained effort, his girlfriend took the computer from his grasp, scooting a little to the edge of her bed and placing it down on the carpet. When she turned back to Davey, she could see his bottom lip being held between his teeth, his gaze lingering on her neck and the collarbone she had exposed when leaning over the edge.

The lust held in his eyes made Katherine surge forward, hands cupping Davey’s jaw and kissing him fiercely. Davey’s hands settled on her waist, holding her tightly to the side of his body as her left hand dropped to his shoulder, and her right migrated to his hair. A sharp pull on his hair made Davey go slack-jawed, a groan escaping his parted lips as his head was forced back. Using the new angle to her advantage, Katherine kissed and nipped her way down Davey’s chest, the left hand pulling the collar of his t-shirt to the side. This meant she could give the same treatment to his collarbone, placing a hard bite just below it, causing Davey to hiss through his teeth and dig his nails into her waist. Relenting, she removed her teeth and placed a gentle kiss on the area to sooth the angry red marks, feeling the boy below her breathe a sigh of relief.

A mischievous glint was in her eyes as she lifted her eyes to look at her boyfriend. Drifting her focus between Davey’s face and the sliver of skin that was showing above his jeans, she asked “can I take your shirt off? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” His eyes widened with a hint of shock, and after a beat of silence, he nodded. He didn’t trust his voice to not crack and show his desperation but god did he want to see Katherine out of that shirt.

She lent towards him and left a chaste kiss on his lips before sitting up on her shins, encouraging Davey to lean up as well. When he did, she peeled his shirt off his body and used a flat palm on his chest of push him back on the bed, the other hand throwing the shirt into some corner of the room. His chest was lightly toned and didn’t catch as much sun as his arms. Katherine raked her eyes to the small trail of hair that disappeared into his jeans, and a smile tugged at her mouth to see his zipper straining more than usual.

Reaching down to her own shirt’s hem, Katherine pulled it off with nonchalance, throwing it to meet Davey’s. Her boyfriend’s face flushed immediately to see her in just plain black bra, his eyes darting between her half smile and the satiny fabric. His right hand ghosted up her sides, brushing her hair away from her shoulder to fiddle with the strap, gently pushing it off her shoulder.

Not quite ready to take it all off, Katherine captured Davey’s hand in hers, bringing it up to her lips and pressing a tender kiss to his knuckles. the couple locked eyes and Davey moved his hand to gently stroke Katherine’s cheek and then cup her chin. He whispered a semi-choked, “come ‘ere,” before pulling her down to his level with a hand on her back.

Sinking down into a passionate kiss, Katherine rearranged herself to be lying with one leg between Davey’s, the other on the outside of his hip. She could feel his bulge pressing into her stomach, mirroring the hot wetness she was feeling in her own jeans. Lost in thought about the future steps ahead, she nearly missed the heady feeling of Davey’s tongue brushing against her own until she released an involuntary moan. She loved to savour these movements, their kisses. Their first one in the sociology section of the library, the celebratory ones when Davey got the highest mark in his class, and the lazy reward kisses for getting another practice exam question right. It just so happened that the kisses she most enjoyed had been getting dirtier and dirtier in the recent past

Thinking about dirty things, Katherine snaked her hand down Davey’s chest, digging her nails in to leave five red lines leading to her destination. Davey whimpered into the kiss, not expected the subtle sting of pain. Upon heading that delightful sound, Katherine started the pepper Davey’s cheeks and jaw with kisses whilst running a finger just below the waist of Davey’s jeans. He shuddered slightly at the sensation, with gasping breaths and flushed cheeks. She puled away slightly, playing with the dark hair below his bellybutton instead of his waistband, and teasingly bit Davey’s earlobe. He groaned out a gravely, “oh fuck,” and Katherine could feel his words shoot straight to the pressure between her legs. Davey was teased by his friends for hardly ever swearing, so to elicit that kind of moan from him was an achievement in itself.

Katherine could wait any longer. She used her free hand to push herself up into Davey’s line of vision, and mustered up enough confidence to ask what she needed to ask. Locking eyes with her boyfriend, she inquired, “hey babe, can I take these,” which she emphasised with a solid tug at one of Davey’s belt loops, “off?”

He blinked once, twice, and then nodded. Katherine excitedly began to kiss down his chest, and made it half way before Davey found his voice. “Only if you take yours off too.”

Somewhat shocked at his bravery, Katherine looked up at her blushing boyfriend and smirked. “Of course, babe.”

Hopping off the bed, Katherine allowed Davey enough room to strip off on his own and managed to catch the corner of his eye as she shucked her pants off also. As she threw them aside, she could feel a broad and warm hand trail up the outside of her thigh, making her jump a little. Davey chuckled a little at Katherine’s surprise, and rested his hand at the delightful intersection of where her hip and thigh met, softly kneading it a little. It was intoxicating for Davey to see her so exposed, solely for him. Little did he know, it was time for her master plan to unfold.

Climbing back onto the bed, Katherine threw her leg over Davey’s chest and she sunk down, straddling him. The boy groaned upon feeling her heat settle on his stomach, his hands fluttering up her thighs to settle on a firm grip on her waist. His eyes raked up her body taking in her simple matching black bra and panties - practical and chic, nothing could’ve epitomised his Katherine more - until he saw what she was playing with on her wrist. A plain brown hair tie. She slipped it off her wrist only to be pulled open by her fingers, and tipped her head backwards to fan all her hair across her back. She lifted her arms up, bending at her elbows to pull her hair together, forcing her chest forward in the process. Davey audibly gulped.

Collecting all of hair at the crown of her head, Katherine tilted her head back towards Davey. This forced him to make eye contact as she wrapped the hair tie around the newly formed pony tail, pulling each half in opposing directions to ensure it was held stably. The high ponytail swished around her shoulders, dancing on the collarbones Davey so desperately wanted to mark as his. But before he got the chance, Katherine reached back between her legs, finding the waist band to Davey’s briefs, and snapped it against his skin. It didn’t hurt, but was enough to get his attention.

She cocked an eyebrow, and simply questioned, “may I?”

Swallowing his nervousness, Davey met her intense gaze and confirmed, “you may.”

Lifting her weight off Davey to sit beside him gives her the room to remove the tight, navy blue briefs. This was uncharted territory for both of them, they’d both never had any sexual partners and were relying heavily on their own personal experiences and what they had seen online. After the underwear was discarded on the floor, Katherine managed to get a good look at her loving boyfriend - he was neatly groomed, flushed pink like his face and upper chest, and what Katherine. God he was sexy. She let her hand trace lightly up his thigh to elicit some of those breathy moans that she had quickly become addicted to. She encircled the base of his cock, languidly dragging it up his length to give a couple of experimental tugs downwards. She didn’t expect it to twitch so strongly in her hand, nor the loud moan of pleasure to come from Davey.

His head was thrown back in bliss as his hands gripped the sheets, too focused on the pleasure that Katherine’s hands were causing him. Those hands that he had started at for hours, writing reports and study notes, finally doing everything he’d wanted. And what bliss it was.

A knee pressing between his thighs broke him out of his reverie, as did a hand pushing his legs apart. Katherine was trying to settle between his legs for a better vantage point, and he let her. She clambered over his legs to settle down on her shins, and made searing eye contact with Davey. She maintained it as she positioned his cock at an easier angle, licking her lips, and taking the head into her mouth.

If Davey thought her motions with her hands were bliss, he now knew what heaven felt like. The warm, silken feeling that enveloped him set all his nerves on fire, and caused Katherine’s name to fall out of his own mouth. He felt her tongue swipe over the very tip and lap at the salty taste that was pooling there, and was sure that he could happily die right then and there.

Katherine must’ve sensed Davey’s enthusiasm, because she continued to lap at the area just below the head of his dick that contained a pleasurable bundle of nerves, according to various websites. They must’ve been right, as Davey let out a strangled cry and gripped the sheets so hard his knuckles were going white.

She wasn’t an idiot, she knew Davey wasn’t going to last long - this was his first time receiving a blowjob, after all. She decided to stop torturing the boy and get on with it, she could find out what really made him tick at a later date. She slid further down until she had at least three inches in her mouth and her hand enveloping what was left. It was clear to her that Davey was trying this best to even out his breathing, and was failing. She pumped his cock with relentless enthusiasm, and was encouraged by Davey’s gentle whimpers and moans.

Her mouth and hand worked in tandem for a couple of minutes, alternating between a fast and slow pace in an attempt to find what might work for Davey. He seemed to like it right in the middle: slow enough that he could look at his incredible girlfriend and take in the sight of her, but fast enough that he could feel his climax climbing. Releasing a hand from its grip on the bed, he reached out to gently stroke her cheek and push a stray piece of hair behind her ear. He could feel the rising sensation he always associate with an oncoming orgasm, and needed to tell her. “Kath, I’m gonna, uh…” he murmured, fading out at the end. It’s not like he’s never used the word ‘cum’ before, but he never had with Katherine. It just seemed so, vulgar? Nothing more explicit than the actual reaction she was about to elicit from him though.

Like a trooper, she never broke stride. She simply nodded in understanding and didn’t cease her pace. Her dedication did nothing but cause Davey’s orgasm to build faster and stronger. With a gasp and an undefinable shout, Davey’s orgasm hit him with its full force. Katherine’s mouth was flooded with a salty tang and another flavour that was distinctly Davey, and she hollowed her cheeks to suck every last drop before she swallowed it all down. She gave a couple of teasing swipes of her tongue to the head once more, causing Davey to jerk and pant for air. She pulled off with a pop, leaving a soft kiss on Davey’s hip. His skin tasted vaguely salty from sweat, but nowhere near as saline as what she had just tasted. Katherine was content - the first trial was a success and they had both throughly enjoyed themselves.

Pulling her hair out of the pony tail, Davey looked up this goddess with fanned out hair and pulled her down towards him. He enrobed her in his arms, resting on his chest to hear his heartbeat steadily slow down. When he had regained his breath, he tipped her face up towards his and pressed a soft and caring kiss to his lips, which she happily reciprocated. Once Davey had completely recovered, he leaned into Katherine’s ear and whispered a lust-filled, “it’s time for me to return the favour.”

Guys, I am so excited for this. Lets just say I got bored during my behavioural psychology lectures at university and I dreamed this up. I love the idea of the very smart Kath being able to pull the wool over Davey's eyes, despite being super smart himself. Kath/Dave are super underrated in my opinion, so look forward to 5 more chapters with the two of them! Feel free to like, reblog, leave comments, and send me messages. I love all of you!

#davey jacobs #katherine plumber #newsies smut #newsies fanfiction #katherine pulitzer #conditioning

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Would anyone be interested in any type of continuation of my Swipe Right series? Maybe one shots of how Race and Spot or Kath and Sarah got together? Or Jack and Davey after the story ends? Or Crutchie using tinder for himself? Or another amazing idea you have that you wanna let me know about? Let me know!

I have another mini series coming up that I’m super excited about, the first part should hopefully be out before tomorrow!

#updates from mack #pls let me know #i have a list of upcoming fics and i wanna add fun stuff between them when im not being slowly killed by assignments

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okay but like do you think kiwi! newsies au medda larkin would help run akl civic theatre??

Totally! She worked her way up from a smaller theatre (like the Pumphouse on the shore) and whenever she can she invites back all the kids met in smaller community theatre to come backstage at the civic to see how everything runs in a proper big theatre. She helps keep the youth theatre community thriving in Auckland because of it. And all her comp tickets? She raffles them off on her social media because she wants people who couldn’t normally see live theatre have the chance to. Kiwi Medda is the best Medda

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a concept we all need to consider: albert playing field hockey

He always got way too into it and ended up with huge grazes up his legs from falling over, he was pretty proud of his battle scars. He vehemently hates playing goalie because the last time he did he ended up with a mild concussion because “it’s an all girls team, I don’t need a helmet.” Will defend hockey to the ends of the earth as a cool sport, despite most of his friends thinking it’s pretty lame(Thank you for this, your asks always make me smile and i needed that today ☺️)

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This reached 100 notes?! What?! Thanks to all of you guys who have read this - it means so much to me! ❤️

My place?

Smut, anyone? Davey Jacobs x female reader This is very explicit, so only read this if you’re comfortable with that! Can also be found on AO3 here

You waved your keycard above the lock on the door, the light flashing green accompanied by the sound of the door unlocking. Pushing it open, you reached out and slotted the card into the slot which triggered the lights to turn on. You could hear Davey chuckle behind you, stating “it’s like a hotel in here!” with a sense of wonder in his voice.

“I thought the same when I moved in too,” you shared Davey’s giggle remembering your first night in your studio. “the novelty wears off though when you have to pee at 2am and have to come the front door to turn the lights on though.” Davey smiled at the thought and let out a huff of laughter, and looked around the tiny room. It wasn’t much, but it was home. A little kitchenette, closet, and desk lining the right wall, a bed on the left, beside the small seperate room for your bedroom. But the view was amazing, looking over the city and the various cranes building an assortment of new skyscrapers.

Davey wandered over to the window, watching the twinkling lights of the city and the harbour in the night. You leant on the kitchenette counter, and took a deep breath. It wasn’t like you to bring guys back to your place, but hell, tonight was a night full of “wasn’t like you”s. Taking a deep breath, you steeled your nerves and took three quick steps so you were standing behind Davey. Three light taps on his shoulder. He turned to look at you, and you stepped in so you were flush with his chest, a hint of a smile on his lips. Your hand snaked its way behind his neck, fingers tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck.

After looking into his eyes for a split second, you nearly lost the bravery you worked up for yourself, but thankfully the liquid courage kicked in as you leant towards Davey, closing the space between the two of you with a kiss. His lips were warm and felt like heaven under yours. You could feel his eyelashes on your cheek as his eyes fluttered closed, and his fingers starting to touch the middle of your back. Your other arm wrapped around his waist, your palm flat against his back. One of his hands moved around to hold your waist, and his other hand mimicked yours by holding the back of your neck, allowing Davey to deepen the kiss.

Keep reading

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As a big Jersey Boys fan, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend fan, AND Ben Fankhauser fan, I was so excited when I stumbled upon the video on this page of Ben singing Cry For Me - one of my favourites from Jersey Boys and its sung so beautifully!

#Ben Fankhauser #jersey boys #crazy ex gf #frankie valli

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Swipe Right part 10/10

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9 can be found on AO3 here

C’est fini. It’s done. I never thought that I could’ve dragged out this silliness for 10 chapters, but hey, here I am! I love my two boys very much and I’m sad to see the end of them, but I can’t wait to write more for those of you who have liked my writing.  Enough rambling, lets get on with it!

A yell of his name alerted Crutchie to Davey needing help. His roommate had been calling out for him all afternoon for varying reasons, and as much as he loved Davey, he was starting to get annoying. He let the fork that he was drying drop down into the sink with a faint plop, drying his hands on the dish towel. Grabbing the crutches propped up to the sink, he headed towards Davey’s room, yelling out a confirmation that he was on his way.

He didn’t expect the sight he was greeted with in Davey’s room, but he couldn’t say he was surprised. Davey was sitting on the floor, surrounded by various shirts and jeans and shoes, radiating an air of confusion and panic. He could hear Crutchie stifling a laugh from the doorway, and whipped his head around to see his friend.

“Crutch, you gotta help me,” he pleaded, scrambling for the invitation laid out on his bed. “The dress code says ‘smart casual’ - what does that even mean?!” Crutchie couldn’t blame the guy, this was his first important date and was stressed out enough about that. Throw in the fact that it was an incredibly public date and there would be teachers there judging and assessing his face (well, Jack’s representation of his face), Crutchie was surprised that he wasn’t more nervous.

Navigating around the slew of clothing on the floor, Crutchie headed over to the bed, and made a spot for himself. From here he could direct Davey, while being out of the way of the fabric bombsite. “It means dressy, but not a suit and no sneakers. Get that nice pair of dark jeans you got a couple of months ago and pair it with a dress shirt.” He watched on as Davey sorted through the pile of trousers that had formed on his desk chair until he found the jeans in question, and placed them next to Crutchie. “See, that was easy! Now, pick a dress shirt.”

“I think that may be easier said than done, Crutch,” he said, as he swept his hand around the room. The shirt seemed to be what Davey was stuck with in the first place - he had one on practically every surface of his room.

“What one do you like the most, the one you feel the most comfortable in?” Crutchie could see Davey’s eyes immediately jump to a shirt still in his closet, but after a moment’s hesitation, he turned his attention back to two shirts hanging off his bedroom door. One was a plain pale blue shirt, the other a dark crimson red.

“I’ve been staring at both of these for half an hour and I can’t decide between-“

“I don’t care about them,” Crutchie cut him off, about to give Davey a much needed push. “Get out that shirt in your closet. The one you looked at straight away.”

Davey grumbled a little, a slight pink dusting his cheeks at being caught out, but diligently pulled the shirt out by its hanger. “It was a joke Hanukkah gift from Les-“

“It’s perfect, Davey!” Crutchie clapped a little out of excitement, he had never seen Davey wear this shirt before, and it was just so Davey. A black shirt with a pink floral print, featuring green and brown rattlesnakes weaving between the flowers. Crutchie told him to pair it with a pair of black boots and he was set to go. The fashion advisor was quickly shooed from the room to allow Davey to change, and was waiting out in the living room for Davey to show him the final product.

A few minutes later, Davey’s door creaked open and he slipped out into the living room, smiling shyly at the floor. Letting out a low whistle, Crutchie assured Davey that he looked as good as he must’ve felt in his outfit, even making the blushing guy do a twirl for good measure. For the first time in college, Davey was radiating confidence, and it made him so proud to be able to see how much his best friend had grown over the past few weeks with Jack. He sent Davey into the bathroom do his hair - they spent an hour together this afternoon watching hair tutorials, so if Davey yelled out for help this time, Crutchie was sure to throttle him. Occasionally the odd profanity was muttered from the bathroom but he exited after a while looking a lot tidier with his hair pulled back from his eyes, and a lot more nervous. He flopped onto the couch next to Crutchie, and watched some mindless afternoon television to avoid thinking about the upcoming date.

Despite it being 4:45, Davey constantly checked his watch, counting down the 15 minutes until Jack was due. At 4:50 he was up and pacing, double and triple checking he had his wallet, keys, and phone on him. At 4:55, Crutchie ordered him to sit down and chill out - they were both being driven crazy with Davey’s panicking. Crutchie turned the television off, and the pair sat in an uncomfortable silence permeated with only the sound of Davey’s bouncing leg, until a knock was heard against the door frame.

Davey practically jumped out of his skin as he sprinted to the door, skidding to a stop and yanking it open as fast as possible. Jack stood behind it, slightly shocked at Davey’s abruptness. But the shocked expression quickly melted into Jack looking stunned after taking in Davey’s appearance. He was drinking in the way the soft flowers brought out a hardness in his jaw, how the slim fit of his jeans clung to his legs, and the tiny amount of added height he got from the boots. Jack was in way too deep with this one. After a few beats of silence, Jack managed to choke out a short sentence.

“Wow, Davey, you look… incredible.”

Jack’s words made Davey smile, and he struggled to form a sentence of his own. “You look, uh, pretty… handsome. Pretty handsome, not like, yeah…” He could hear the words coming out of his mouth but seemed to lose all control of them halfway, opting instead to take in the view of Jack in a light blue shirt rolled up to his elbows, black chinos, and his favourite Doc Martens - which had been polished to hide all the scuffs on them. Jack somehow looked even better than Davey had expected, and he didn’t know how that was possible.

A few more moments of silence passed between them, before a voice from the couch could be heard calling out to them. “Alright lovebirds, get a move on. You don’t want to be late!”

Jack made way for Davey as he stepped through the door, going to close it behind them as he yelled out with a hint of irritability, “thanks mom!” A vague call of ‘use protection!’ could be heard as the door closed, both boys opting to just ignore it. As they started heading out of the apartment complex, Davey turned to Jack and apologised. “I’m sorry about him, I love him to pieces but he can be a pain in the ass sometimes.”

Jack snorted a little, mumbling out, “are you talking about your room mate or me?”

“Definitely my roommate,” Davey’s affirmation was lilted with a laugh. “I’ve been friends with him since high school. But maybe after I’ve known you for 5 years I can say the same thing about you!” He nudged his shoulder with Jack’s as the duo laughed, the idea of spending years together hovering in the air between them as they walked. “But he’s a good guy, maybe you can meet him one day.”

Looking over at his date, there was a glint of of something in Jack’s eyes that he couldn’t quite identify. “Yeah Dave, maybe I can.”

Jack was leading them down to the restaurant area of the city - since they studied on the main city campus, it was only a few streets away from the central business district and all its delicious restaurants. Davey was idly nattering away about piece he had prepared for his journalism exam about the student housing market as he was pulled to a stop by Jack. They were standing outside a bright little restaurant with retro style vinyl booths and a jukebox tucked in by the door. The neon light in the window read ‘Burgers’, as did the sign above the door.

“We’re here!” Jack exclaimed as he opened the door for Davey. Now, he wasn’t expecting a 5 star restaurant, but maybe something a little bit fancier than a burger place for a first date? But Davey did have to admit, it was very Jack. The sound of The Supremes floated out of the jukebox as Davey stepped foot into the diner. It was a bit of an assault on the senses - bright blue walls with red and white booths and seats, the mixture of music and sizzling fries filling his ears, and the unmistakable smell of burgers on a grill. Jack placed a hand on Davey’s back as he walked ahead of him, which snuck around to hold Davey’s waist as Jack asked for his reservation. Davey could feel his brain short circuiting as the waiter guided them towards the booth in the back, but was thankful to get his thoughts back as they sat on seperate sides of the booth.

The waiter placed the menus in front of them, and hurried off to collect the food for another table. Skimming the menu, Davey only noticed one thing. “They sure do have a lot of burgers here. I didn’t even know there were this many kinds of burgers…” Beef, chicken, pork, venison, fish, vegetarian, vegan, not to mention the sides, desserts, and drinks.

“I know, that’s why I love it! I made it my mission to eat through the whole menu when I first arrived in town. It took half a year, but I did it!” Jack smiled proudly at Davey, and Davey was unsure if that was something that someone should really be proud about. But here he was anyway, on a date with a giant nerd who loved burgers. And he found himself thinking that he wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.

“Do you have any recommendations?” Jack’s eyes lit up at the question, quickly naming his favourites - the buffalo chicken, the pulled pork burger, and surprisingly the vegan supreme. After a couple of minutes of silent deliberation, Davey decided on the vegan supreme and Jack’s choice was the Nemo -  Davey asserting that it was an awful name for a first burger, and Jack arguing that he was going to order two, purely out of spite.

As their giggles over the burger names died down, they were able to place their order. Thankfully Jack only ordered one burger, but he did also order a chocolate milkshake for them to share, insisting on having two straws.

“Are you seriously insisting on making us a walking cliché from every high school movie ever?” Davey scoffed as the waiter left them to give their order to the kitchen.

“Yes I am. I know you didn’t really date in high school, so I am making it up to you now. You can thank me later,” Jack finished his sentence with a wink, making Davey blush involuntarily and roll his eyes.

“You are impossible, you know that right?” All Jack did in reply was shrug his shoulders and smile broadly at his exasperated date. Of course he know that.

They shared small talk while waiting for their food to arrive, mainly chatting about the exhibition that they were about to go to. Essentially, the class’ project brief was to create a piece exploring the human condition - some people decided to do room studies and draw the interesting things they found in bedrooms of people they knew, one student drew all the things he put in the trash over a month, but the one Davey was most excited to see - other than Jack’s of course - was the student who snuck into social psychology lectures and illustrated the experiments that the class studied. Jack refused to say anything about his own project, preferring for Davey to see it for himself and let Jack explain it in the moment, something that was frustrating Davey to no end.

As time seemingly slipped by, the full plates and milkshake glass - with two straws - were placed in front of them. Davey went in for a sip of the milkshake, but Jack yelped and made Davey stop. He had a hand deep in his pocket, fishing around for something. “Hang on a sec’, Dave… got it!” He brandished his phone in front of Davey’s face, and told him then he could now take a sip. He was little confused by his date’s actions until he saw Jack turn on the front-facing camera on his phone and captured his own straw between his teeth - Jack wanted a selfie of the two of them and their shared chocolate milkshake.

Davey couldn’t help but groan, and mutter, “you are really making a cliché out of this, Jackie.” Nevertheless, Davey obliged and posed for the selfie, taking a quick taste of the milkshake, which was divine - he understood why Jack came here so often now.

While he was drinking, Jack caused Davey to choke by asking, “Did you just call me Jackie?” He tried to duck his head away from Jack’s gaze out of embarrassment, uttering a small confirmation under his breath. “Because it was really cute, Davey.” The poor guy was ready to combust out of embarrassment and overwhelming happiness that his crush just called him, or at least an accidental nickname, cute. If he looked up, he would’ve been able to see the pure adoration in Jack’s eyes, but he chose instead to pick up his burger and take a bite.

And he was surprised. Typically, vegan meals are as close to kosher as he can get in a typical restaurant, but the vegan burgers he’s had before haven’t been this good. No wonder a happy meat eater like Jack recommended it! He groaned in appreciation as he chewed, managing something that sounded like, “this is incredible,” before swallowing. “Thank you for the recommendation,” he said with a heavy dose of appreciation.

Jack swallowed his bite before replying with a flirty brag, “What can I say, I’ve got incredible taste,” a threw a wink Davey’s way.

He was sure that he would be dead by the end of this date by the amount of times Jack made his heart skip a beat. Or at least, his face would be stained red for eternity.

Like a true gentleman, Jack paid for both himself and Davey, despite Davey’s protests. As Davey was watching him pay, he noticed a a smudge of sauce on his chin. He tried to tell Jack this as they were heading back outside, but they couldn’t quite hear each other as they walked past the blaring jukebox. Davey decided to simply cut out the middle man, swiping a thumb against his chin. Both boys stilled at the contact between them, hovering in the open doorway - Davey on the outside of the restaurant and Jack on the inside. That feeling Davey got when Jack touched his hand weeks ago was back, and it was as intoxicating then as it is now.

Davey felt his mouth go dry as he tried to explain, “you had, uh, a bit of sauce, on your chin…” His hand was still there, cupping Jack’s chin. He really didn’t want to move it, but the shock still wasn’t budging from Jack’s face. “See?” he asked, a little overeager at his excuse, showing the red blob on his thumb to Jack.

Smiling and holding onto Davey’s thumb, all Jack could say was the first thing that came to mind - “You’re an angel, Dave.” Acutely aware of the customers grumbling behind him about the door being open, he stepped towards Davey and allowed the door to swing closed behind him. He took his proximity to Davey into his advantage too, and licked the dried sauce off Davey’s thumb, eliciting a shriek from his date.

“Jack! That’s disgusting!” Davey grimaced, but at least the awkward tension was broken.

“Quit your whining, I was saving it for later! Now come on, we don’t want to be late.” Jack could see Davey wipe his hand against his jeans as they started to head towards the gallery. He didn’t look too pissed off, but actually rather amused. Jack was glad about that, he definitely didn’t want to agitate Davey, especially since they were about to go see a project in which he was a pretty big part.

They mostly walked in silence, Jack was preoccupied with an uncomfortable nervous feeling settling in his stomach. He was suddenly doubting his choice to pull out all the stops for Davey. His teacher told him that it was a great idea and showed great ‘artistic vision’, as he put it. And as a piece of art, it was good. But when Davey was staring back at his own face as an oil painting? Maybe not such a brilliant idea. But all Jack could do is wait and see his reaction - and the anticipation was killing him.

Beside him, Davey could practically hear the cogs turning in Jack’s head. And he understood. He felt the same way before going into exams, and this was an exam of sorts for Jack. He’d normally just plug some headphones in and tune out the world, but Jack could hardly do that while he was walking with him. So he did what he would want Jack to do if he was walking to an exam - Davey took Jack’s hand. It was a little dry from scrubbing all the little paint flecks off them, but Davey had no complaints. It was Jack.

And it was Jack who slowed down a little as he felt Davey’s hand intertwine with his own. Both boys looked down at their linked hands with a soft smile on their faces, and he could hear exactly what Davey was trying to say with the little gesture. I’m here. Don’t worry. The electric feeling at their point of contact died down to a soft buzz as they kept walking, and was doing more to comfort Jack in this moment than Davey would ever understand. He softly caressed him thumb across Davey’s as a silent thank you, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a wider smile grace his date’s face. God, what he wouldn’t do to keep Davey’s smile there forever.

As they neared the student gallery, Jack dropped Davey’s hand and turned towards him, smoothing out his shirt. “Do I look alright?”

You look perfect, handsome, like a dream come true, Davey wanted to say. “Of course you do, stop worrying,” he settled for, as he helped Jack readjust the collar of his shirt. He dropped his hand to Jack’s bicep, and gave it a gentle squeeze that he hoped was comforting. “Now go in there and knock ‘em dead.”

Jack took a deep breath, and took a moment to appreciate the sweet boy that this crazy project helped him to find. With Davey following behind him, Jack turned on his heel, walking to the door and holding it open for Davey. Heads inside turned to see who was entering, a few students raising a hand to wave at Jack, who was right behind Davey. A deep voice to the right of them asked if they wanted a beer or a glass of wine, and Davey turned to face the stranger. He was an older man, probably not a student, and wore very round, very statement-looking glasses. Davey politely refused the drink, and then man moved his gaze to Jack.

“Can I grab his one then, Specs? If he’s not gonna have it?” The older man, Specs, Davey presumed, let out a chuckle at that.

“Sure thing Jack, just make sure Davey holds it for you. It’s a strict ‘one drink per person’ tonight.” Jack grabbed two glasses of white wine, and handed one to Davey. Jack whisked Davey away from the drinks table, and answered an unasked question that he knew Davey had.

“Specs is the coordinator slash teacher of this course. His real name is Spencer, but we just call him Specs, it’s easier.” Davey just nodded and looked down at his wine. That was one question he had, but not the most pertinent one.

“But how did he know my name?”

“I, uh, well…” Jack stammered. It was an easy explanation of course, so why was he nervous? Probably because he didn’t want to give away the fact that he had to spend hours with Specs discussing the painting his was doing of Davey, and of only Davey. “I obviously drew you for this whole thing, and he must’ve recognised you from my drawing. And I obviously named the drawing after you.”

As the students and their guests mingled in the foyer, waiting for the last people to arrive, Davey was introduced to a few of the other students in Jack’s class. They had some strange names, like Finch and Jojo and Romeo, and even weirder nicknames, like Mush and Buttons. But then again, he lived with a guy named Crutchie, so he wasn’t really one to judge. At least with such different names, Davey was sure that he’d remember them.

Slowly the din in the room quietened, thanks in part to Specs hitting an empty beer bottle with a spoon he must have found. “Hi everyone, welcome to all the students here tonight showcasing their work, and to their friends and family that have come to support them. I’ll keep it brief since I’m sure you all want to see the art, but for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Spencer - although you may hear the students call me Specs - and I run this course every year. It is centred around drawing, but you will see some artistic license being taken with that brief as you walk around. I have a note here from Finch that you’re welcome to pick up paper from the pile slash sculpture - and I use that word very loosely - that he created, as there are drawings on every page.”

Jack nudged Davey and whispered, “That’s the one with all the drawings of the rubbish.” Davey just let out a soft ‘oh’, as he tried to keep listening to Specs’ speech and ignoring the warm breath that was ticking his neck when Jack spoke.

“… Some artists posed as students from other classes - “

“Romeo and social psychology,” Jack clarified.

“… And some went above and beyond the brief,” Davey noticed a rather poignant glance that Specs shot Jack on that statement, to which Jack just tipped his head back and downed the rest of his wine. What the hell did that mean?

“And you can see all of that for yourselves. Happy viewing, everyone!” Specs stood aside and pushed open the gallery door to a round of applause from all present, which Jack took as his cue to exchange glasses with Davey. His previous one didn’t last long at all, hopefully it helped calm him down enough that this glass would last the rest of the night.

As they stepped through, The were immediately greeted with Jojo’s piece on the life of a student. She’d copied every form she had to fill out in order to apply for tertiary study, and her loans, also including a bunch of receipts from the local art supply store, and drew one thing on one piece of paper every day - varying between conversations she had overheard on campus to a gorgeous bird that frequented the window frame of the class’ studio space. The explanation she gave on a board next to the drawings stated that although studying comes with a huge financial burden for a privilege that’s seen as compulsory by many, the beauty in the opportunity is often overlooked because of it. Her work had seemed to grab a big enough crowd for the meantime, even explaining some of the finer nuances to those who wanted to listen. Davey and Jack kept moving though, Davey desperately trying to find Jack’s section, and Jack desperately trying to fight the nerves of Davey finding his section.

But Jack’s nerves were relieved for a moment when they found Romeo’s artwork. Davey had always found social psychology interesting, why people did he things they did. That’s why he studied journalism, so he could recount tales of people to a wider public, without all the science-y stuff that psychology required. He found himself particularly enraptured with a rather gory picture of the famous murder of Kitty Genovese. Over 30 people heard her murder taking place, and no one did anything about it - one of the great tragedies of social psychology’s research. So incredibly engrossed, Davey didn’t even notice the shutter clicks coming from behind him as Jack took photos of him. He looked so damned cute with the inquisitive look that would grace his features whenever he was studying or learning something knew, and Jack could never permanently capture it. Until now. As Davey was chatting Romeo’s ear off, Jack had time to finish his next glass of wine and set it on a table in the corner. Davey could’ve talked to Romeo about his time in social psychology until they got kicked out of the gallery, but that was not why he was here. He was here to support Jack, and after passing on his admiration and congratulations to Romeo, Jack swept Davey off to the next collection.

They slowly wandered around, taking in and discussing the art, until the pair turned a corner and saw Jack’s name and his explanation board. Jack could practically feel his heart jump into his throat as he searched for Davey’s hand again. He found it, and after a chuckle from Davey, he was told, “loosen your grip, Jack. You don’t want to strangle my hand.” And thankfully for Davey’s circulation, he did.

Jack’s project consisted of 9 drawings, 6 in the first section and the other 3 placed on the walls around a dead-end corner. Davey started walking forward to check out the first drawing on the left, ignoring those on the right wall - they could come back to them after they went around the corner. It was all in greyscale, except for the bottom right hand corner coloured with reds and oranges and yellows - the actual corner was even burnt off. As he scanned the rest of the drawing it seemed eerily familiar, until he checked out the name plaque underneath, which simply read, ‘Race’.

He couldn’t help but let out a laugh that echoed a little too loudly in the gallery. Of course Jack found Race on tinder, that boy would flirt with a bush if he had the chance. And he had seen Race drunk enough times to know that he always found a chance.

Extremely confused at Davey’s outburst, Jack asked, “Why are you laughing?”

“Did you ever notice that both Race and I have the same high school listed in our tinder bios?” It took Jack a couple of seconds to make the connection, and then his jaw dropped.

“Wait, you and Race went to high school together?!”

“Yes, you idiot!” Davey exclaimed, smacking Jack’s arm lightly. “Let me guess, he told you about his smoking habit, thus the burn in the corner?”

Jack just stood there, dumbfounded, for a moment, before nodding. “Yeah. I guess you really do know Race.”

“And I guess he’s too busy with that Sean guy he’s been seeing to come to the gallery tonight.”

“Sorry, did you say Sean?” Jack questioned, not quite believing what he was hearing.

“Yeah, why?!”

“No reason.” Jack just shook his head and smiled in disbelief. So his roommate was in a casual relationship with his date’s friend from high school… damn, Jack really needed to get out more.

Davey kept pulling Jack along to the next drawing. The one adjacent to Race’s had a crowd of one in front of it, and Jack stood next to her in the middle, with Davey flanking his other side. The other admirer spoke up to the pair who had just joined, noting, “Apart from screwing up my name, Jack, I’d say it’s a pretty good representation.”

The girl stood proudly, Sharpie in hand, and had just finished writing ‘Plumber-‘ into the name plaque which now read, ‘Katherine Plumber-Pulitzer’.

So this was the famous Katherine that Davey had been freaking out about. And he couldn’t deny what Jack had told him, she was gorgeous. But he would be able to gather that just from the drawing too. On the wall, Katherine’s thick brown hair blurred into the suffocating black background with two pairs of piercing eyes, “to represent your overbearing parents”, Jack explained to her. Her eyes were larger than what was strictly proportional for the drawing, but it allowed Jack to draw a silhouette of a girl reflected in her eyes, “to show your crush on that girl in your class… Sarah, wasn’t it?” The final touch was newspaper headlines decorating the collar of her shirt, because “that’s obvious, you’re a journalism student, like my Davey here.”

“You study journalism too?” Davey could feel Katherine’s sharp eyes trained on him, so he shook himself out of his drawing-induced reverie.

“I, yes. I do. But I’m a year or two below-” His affirmation made Katherine light up, and he could see why Jack wanted to draw a woman as beautiful as her.

“Oh hush,” she said, cutting off his explanation that his skills are a few years behind hers. “We’ll have to chat about it sometime, I’m sure Jack can give you my number.”

Leaning over to envelop Katherine into a hug, Jack whispered a thanks into Katherine’s ear for showing up. Jack hadn’t told Davey the entirety of what happened in Katherine’s portrait sitting, and what they discussed. They spent nearly the whole time discussing their respective crushes, and Katherine managed to convince Jack to ask Davey to be his date for the showing tonight - as long as she asked her art history girl out for coffee. And she did so after their next class, so Jack had to hold up his end of the bargain. He didn’t have the guts to do it himself, but knowing that Katherine was going to be there to ensure that he did gave him the push he needed. The last thing he wanted was the very intimidating Katherine Plumber-Pulitzer after his head for being too afraid to ask the incredible Davey Jacobs on a date.

“Now go!” She laughed, while pushing Jack out of the hug. “You have more art to show this boy! It was lovely meeting you, Davey.”

“You too, Katherine,” Davey called, as Jack held onto his arm and dragged him along to the next drawing.

They stopped a couple of steps later, in front of a drawing that looked nothing like a person - at first glance it just looked like a pair of sticks. Davey turned his head and asked Jack, “I thought you were drawing people, not still life?”

“I did. Look at the title.”

And Davey did.

‘Charlie “Crutchie” Morris’.

It quickly made sense. They weren’t sticks, they were Crutchie’s crutches. This was also the only drawing with an extra explanation beside it, stating, ‘Artist’s Note: I got talking to Crutchie one day through a mutual friend, and asked if he’d want to join my project. Upon accepting, he had one condition: that I didn’t make it a piece redeeming his ‘humanity’ despite his disability. Crutchie is a person who is happy to use his disability as a strong identifier for who he is, but understands that not all disabled people do this. After all, the nickname that his friends call him, and insisted that I call him, is based on his disability. After talking with him, we both decided that to best represent him, we weren’t going to downplay the importance of his disability for Crutchie. Instead of drawing his portrait, I drew his crutches, one of the most important things in his life. This is how Crutchie wanted to be represented, as he recognises that this is often the first thing a stranger sees about him. And he’s already asked to have this drawing framed for his living room when the showcase finishes.’

Davey could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, and tried to furiously blink them back. It was such a touching representation of his best friend, and the fact that Jack would create something so beautiful effected him more than he’d care to say. With a quiet voice that surprised Jack, Davey asked, “when did you meet Crutchie?”

“On Sunday, I found some flashcards you left at my place before I left to meet Katherine. I came over to your place to give them to you, but you weren’t there. Crutchie said you were at the library studying, and invited me in to have a chat. We got talking, and that drawing was the result. I invited him tonight, but he didn’t want to intrude on our date.”

Bursting into astonished giggles, Davey was genuinely surprised that Crutchie - widely known as being too excitable to ever keep a secret for more than a couple of hours - didn’t tell him this earlier. “That bastard,” he whispered under his breath, and a slightly shocked look on Jack’s face showed that he heard Davey’s mutterings. “He helped me get ready tonight and he isn’t tell me that he was a part of this! I gotta get a photo of this.”

Turning his back to the drawing , he pulled up his phone and yanked Jack into the shot. Posing so that the crutches could be seen between him and Jack, Davey snapped the selfie of the unlikely trio, and sent it off to Crutchie without a caption. That boy was going to get an ear full and a giant hug when Davey got home.

Jack was able to see that Davey was ready to move onto the next drawing, so he took hold of Davey’s hands to halt him. Standing in from of him and taking a shaky breath, Jack looked Davey dead in the eyes. “Just so you know Dave, this next one is a bit bigger than the rest. And it means a lot of me.” The sincerity in Jack’s eyes scared Davey a little, so he nodded and intertwined Jack’s fingers with his in a bid to calm down the artist. Davey could see Jack’s shoulders sag a little as he sighed, a little bit of tension melting away with the contact. Uttering, “let’s go,” Jack pulled Davey around the corner and braced himself.

Davey knew that his drawing must be coming up, but he was too occupied thinking about the anxious artist beside him. So when he saw a large canvas on the wall, he didn’t think much of it. Honestly, he thought they wandered into someone else’s space, because Jack was only doing drawings on A3 pieces of paper. It was only when he took a couple of steps forward to drink in the details did he let out a gasp.

The painting was of him.

It was a canvas around the same size as A0 paper, with a deep blue background. His portrait was painted face-on, his green eyes crinkled at the corners and stood out in contrast to his pale skin with a fair smattering of freckles. His mouth curved gently upwards in a contented smile, while a gentle wash of pink adorned his cheeks. Of course Jack had to paint him as the blushing fool he was. A light blue kippah was perched on top of his black hair - Jack managed to make his hair look much more styled than Davey could ever achieve. But what truly caught Davey’s eye was the centre of the painting. The painted rendition of him was wearing the same black button up shirt that he wore to Starbucks the first time that him and Jack met, with one vital addition. On the right side of Davey’s chest, there was a heart outlined and filled with the rainbow, and a white Star of David in the centre of the colourful heart. Above where real Davey’s heart would be.

It was beautiful.

The way Jack captured his nuances - his right shoulder was pulled up slightly higher than his left, a habit from carrying a schoolbag that was too heavy - to being able to seamlessly incorporate such important information - his Judaism and his sexuality - blew Davey away. It was far more than he ever expected. He was planning on a simple coloured sketch that took an afternoon or so to complete, with a couple of the details they talked about to be incorporated in subtle ways. The thought of being the painted canvas centrepiece of a drawing exhibition never crossed his mind. Until a few moments ago.

“I remember you telling me,” a gentle voice from behind him started, “about how you were now ‘pretty happy to say that you’re a gay Jew’, and that’s what struck me the most from your portrait sitting. So I wanted that to be the focus. The muted background and your dark shirt were meant to bring focus to this incredibly generous and bright and fulfilled heart that you have. A place for two things that have been discouraged in the past, and well, the present, to live harmoniously. That’s something I really admire about you, Dave.” He could feel Jack’s arms wind around his waist from behind him, as Davey clamped a hand over his mouth, still in shock that Jack actually painted him.

“And I couldn’t capture all that in just a drawing, so over the span of a couple of weeks I convinced Specs to let me bend the rules and paint a portrait of you instead. I had to find a way to make your eyes shine as much as they do when you’re reading a new back, and a way to show how you blush when I flirt with you, and how important both your religion and sexuality is to you. And the only way I could find to do that was with paint and a big-ass canvas. All I can hope is that this isn’t way over the top and scaring you off.” He felt Jack let out a self-depreciating laugh and drop his head against his shoulder. It took a lot of guts for Jack to do what he did. He took a huge risk, placing both the grading of an assignment on Davey and heralding his admiration - and dare he say, adoration? - for him in public. And who was Davey anyway? Just some random guy on a dating app, that an algorithm helped Jack find, that placed their fate on a simple swipe on a screen. It was a slightly ridiculous situation that they were in, but one that also felt incredibly right.

Turning his back on the painting, Davey enveloped Jack in a tight hug, holding onto his shoulders as Jack gripped his waist. They just stood there for a few seconds, drinking in the comfort of being so close to each other. Davey gently murmured in Jack’s ear, “It’s perfect, I love it. Thank you.” He pulled back slowly, and placed a soft kiss just under Jack’s cheekbone. Davey could feel Jack’s eyelashes flutter against his skin, and Jack’s arms gripped him tighter, prolonging the moment by keeping Davey close.

Letting his arms drop to Davey’s elbows, Jack asked, “you really like it?” Ignoring the way his voice cracked in nerves, he was overjoyed to see Davey nod.

“Of course I do, Jack.”

“And it’s not too much?”

“Not at all, it’s amazing. I mean, I’d normally ask you to buy me dinner before you did something like this, but you already have!” Davey giggled as Jack looked down and nudged his shoes against Davey’s - a modified nervous habit of scuffing his own shoes.

Davey cast his gaze down to see what Jack was doing with his feet, as he heard Jack take a shallow breath. He saw Jack lift his hand from its location holding his own arm, and he tucked a finger under Davey’s chin. He used this hand to push Davey’s chin up, making Davey look into his date’s eyes.  They stood in a heavy silence for one, two, three seconds, before Davey saw Jack’s eyes flicker down to his lips. Another second passed before Jack lent in. Another second passed before Jack’s eyes closed. And then Davey felt Jack’s lips against his.

It wasn’t his first kiss, but it was his first kiss that truly mattered. With someone that truly mattered. Jack’s lips were slightly chapped and pushed softly against his, moving slowly. Their noses bumped together as Jack moved his other hand to Davey’s back, the pressure grounding Davey in the moment. It made their chests touch, and Davey hoped that Jack couldn’t feel the strength of his heart beats through his shirt. He could feel Jack’s gentle exhales dance across his cheek and Jack’s hint of stubble tickled his jaw line. He brought a shaky hand up to caress the painter’s jaw, making him sigh into the kiss.

Upon hearing Jack’s contentment, Davey started to smile, effectively ending the kiss. No longer being able to kiss him, Jack pulled back as his date ducked his head to hide his broad smile from the gorgeous man that just kissed him. Jack pressed a tender kiss to Davey’s forehead, taking advantage of the taller boy’s downwards gaze. Davey dropped his hand down to Jack’s waist, and lightly squeezing it in a way that he hoped expressed his complete joy and gratitude for the selfless artist.

They stood still for a few moments, Jack pressing his forehead against Davey’s, his arms wrapped around Davey’s torso while the other place his hands on Jack’s waist. They were breathing into the small the gap between them, the sound of their own heartbeats loud in their ears. Out of nowhere, Jack muttered, “I have an idea” - whether to himself or to Davey, the other boy didn’t truly know. Jack pressed a chaste kiss to Davey’s forehead, whispering, “stay right here,” as he extracted his arms from Davey’s. He turned quickly on his heel and darted around the corner, and a yelp of, “Katherine!” could be heard. An unintelligible but brief conversation followed, and not 20 seconds later Jack came back to Davey.

He walked past his date, grazing a hand against Davey’s, and strided up to the painting on the wall. There was a faint pop sound and Jack bent down to the wall next to the painting, an unpleasant squeaking sound filling the space. Staring quizzically at the back of Jack’s head, Davey had no idea what was going on. Until Jack stepped back with a huge grin on his face, and gesturing for Davey to step closer. As he did so, he could see that Jack had taken Katherine’s sharpie from her and written on the name plaque next to Davey’s painting. More accurately, he had striked out ‘Davey Jacobs’, and wrote two words above it.

My boyfriend

Jack’s confident smile and the pride that was radiating from him would’ve made Davey swoon if he wasn’t still dealing with the after-effects of Jack’s glorious kiss. He just tipped his head back and laughed at exactly how much he’d fallen for this ridiculous man. And he didn’t regret a single bit of it.

The warm and fuzzy feeling that was spreading through his body gave Davey the confidence to step forward, experimentally wind his fingers through the hair at the nape of Jack’s neck, and close the gap between the two of them. Jack cupped Davey’s jaw in his hands and Davey grabbed at the loose sections of the shirt on Jack’s back, other people in the gallery be damned. Their lips moved in a silent harmony with each other, quiet breaths and noises of appreciation shared between the two of them. It was only their second kiss, but they were already learning how the other’s lips moved and how they felt under each other’s fingertips, and it was enough to make them realise how much they had been missing out on until now.

Tinder got Jack a boyfriend and an A on an art class assignment, and it got Davey a boyfriend and a giant painting of himself to hang in his apartment. And neither of them would’ve wanted it any other way.

#javid #davey jacobs #Jack Kelly #jack x davey #jack x david #tinder au #newsies fanfiction #I MISS MY BOYS ALREADY #crutchie morris #katherine plumber #katherine pulitzer