burning_smile | (no subject)

Good grief, he had it bad. He set his hands on Dirk's shoulders for a moment and just smiled at him, fondly to the point of sickeningly sweet. "I'm an expert at sweet and dorky," he offered, moving away to get at the soup in Jade's crock pot. "How hungry are you?"

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Jake paused at the counter and gave Dirk a horribly mothering look of ~~stern fatherly disapproval~~ worry, shaking his head and tsking softly. He wasn't allowing all these feelings to get in the way, right then, not when Dirk was sick. He'd pretty much come to terms with the fact that he and Dirk were friends with benefits forever anyway. He pulled down a good-sized bowl from a cabinet that Dirk wouldn't have been able to reach and filled it carefully with steaming soup. He set the bowl on a plate to make it easier to hold, and brought it to Dirk with a spoon.

"You want some... crackers, or something? Something to give it a little more substance."

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"Water, apple juice, orange juice, or uhh... What is that, pineapple mango or something crazy and exotic, gram likes to keep things interesting." He opened the fridge and frowned into it for a moment, extracting a container of juice. "Mango Pineapple White Grape. It's like they took all the fruits they just happened to have and put them in a blender for no reason and decided to bottle and sell it."

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He shook his head again and put the complex juice back in the fridge, pulling out the apple for Dirk and pouring himself a glass of water. He set them both down on the table and rifled around until he came up with a slender baguette, which he cut into smaller pieces and brought one over for Dirk and one for himself. He sat down and held them both out.

"End, no end? Preference?"

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"Dude no you can get french bread at any supermarket," Jake said, gnawing absently on his own piece of bread. "Gram likes Italian food though, so we usually keep some on-hand."

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He chewed thoughtfully for a moment, giving Dirk a sort of comical expression.

"Faux fancy," he repeated. "You're funny."

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He tried to not watch Dirk like a hawk, paying attention to every nuance of his movements, but it didn't really work. And it wouldn't have really been obvious if it weren't for the fact that he wasn't eating his bread for all his staring.

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And it wasn't really until then that he realized he was even staring, and he shook himself out of it, munching his bread belatedly.

"Sorry, I didn't really sleep much earlier, I must be spacing out." Which was true, but he was also staring.

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"Bec would find us," he said idly. "Like Lassie."

And then he fell silent, spacing right the hell back out munching on his bread. He supposed it was a bit of a lie that he wasn't letting feelings get in the way. Because that's pretty much where his brain was.

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He'd gotten used to the friends with benefits thing. He was okay with that. But now he was stuck on feelings, because they were definitely there. And it was pretty obvious, too. He clung and he cared and it would only be a matter of time before Dirk figured it out. He needed to back off. But how did one accomplish that...?

Finishing his bread, he frowned a little at Dirk and then back to the table. If he were honest, he didn't really want to back off. Maybe he'd be better off waiting until Dirk was feeling better and trying to actually discuss this with him. They were adults, after all.

"I mean how awful could it be," he wondered out loud, fully not meaning to actually speak his thoughts.

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He shook his head to clear his thoughts and turned sharply to Dirk, frowning.

"What?"

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"--Oh. Right. Yes." He pinched the bridge of his nose under his glasses. "Bugger."

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"If you're not back at a normal body temperature neither of us are going anywhere," Jake muttered, giving Dirk a pointed look.

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