1.
2007
It's late. They've been burning the midnight oil to get next week's batch of articles written, and once Sarah cracked open the first of their celebratory six packs, things just get messier from there.
Jake is about three beers deep, buzzed just enough to be smiling a lot and laughing whenever anyone says something half-funny. Amir is still on his first, though it looks like it's really getting to him, which, okay, he's definitely never drunk sixty beers if he seemingly can't make it through one.
Amir is leaning against his shoulder, and Jake is tipsy enough to not push him away, even as Sarah and Pat attempt to corale them into their weird circle with the rest of the late workers. It isn't until Jake sees the bottle in the middle that he understands what's happening.
"No, no, no," Jake laughs, but Sarah shakes her head.
"Come on, Jake!" Sarah smiles, and Jake imagines her spinning the bottle and it landing on him, and quickly changes his mind, grinning and shaking Amir awake where he'd dozed off on his shoulder.
Sarah goes first, and Jake watches the bottle spin in slow motion, like he's underwater, until it slowly, painfully creeps forward, past him, coming to a stop in front of Amir.
Just his luck.
Amir grins, shooting a wink at Jake like he's doing something Jake would approve of, then leans across the circle, meeting Sarah in the middle for a disgusting makeout.
Okay, so it's less of a makeout and more of a quick peck followed by ooohs from everyone, but that doesn't make the betrayal sting any less.
Amir settles back into his position in the circle, squished up next to Jake, and reaches forward to spin the bottle, twisting so hard that it spins off its axis, rolling toward the outskirts and coming to a stop dead centre on Jake.
Just his fucking luck.
Before he can even open his mouth to say no fucking way, Amir is leaning forward, warm lips connecting with his own. He's so far into Jake's personal space that he barely has to move, just nudges his head a little closer and then suddenly they're kissing. Jake is too caught off guard to do anything other than just sit there, but it's over quickly, even if Jake is sure he lingered against his lips way longer than he did for Sarah, which— well, Jake isn't sure if that's better or worse, but it's certainly something.
Jake doesn't pay attention to the rest of the game. He kisses Hallie, which is a little awkward, and then can't stop himself from watching Amir the rest of the night, hoping for some reason he can't figure out that no one else gets to kiss him.
2.
2009
It's gonna be a whole new decade.
The night has entered the homestretch now, countdown edging closer and closer to midnight, and Jake looks out, surveying the bar. It's getting down to the wire and he still hasn't found a girl to kiss when the ball drops. Most people are already coupled up, with minutes to go, and there's so few stragglers that Jake could count them on one hand. A girl at the bar, sipping a martini on her own. An older woman sitting in a booth alone. Amir pushing through the crowd towards him, knocking a drink out of a clearly underage college student's hand as he does.
Jake rolls his eyes. "Man, I told you to leave me alone."
"I know, but Jakey, it's almost midnight." Amir says, gesturing with his hands like there's an urgency to his words. "If the new year starts while I'm alone that means I have to stay alone for the whole year, and I don't think I can do that, Jake, I really can't."
"Go find someone to kiss then."
"Woah, woah, woah, kissing?" Amir whispers, looking around like he's afraid he might get caught. "Jake, you know I've never hooked up before."
"That's not what hooking up means," he says absently, shaking his head, "and I know you've kissed people before, Amir."
"Never on the lips!"
"Yes on the lips!"
Amir just shakes his head like Jake is the one being ridiculous. "I don't know, man, I think I'd remember something like that."
Jake gives up on trying to reason with him, turning his attention to the ticking countdown on the tiny bar TV. Less than two minutes to go. Fuck, he's gonna start another year without a new years kiss.
"What are you looking at?" Amir leans into his eyeline, unperturbed by how the bar patrons start to get rowdier as the clock ticks down.
Jake points to the TV. "The countdown. It's almost the new year."
"I thought you were all about finding someone to kiss for the new year?"
He takes a sip from his drink. "I'm not all about it, Jesus, I mentioned it one time—"
"You haven't stopped talking about it since I got here!" Amir squeals, and Jake has to close his eyes to fight against how grating his voice is.
"Look, I just thought it would be nice to kiss someone at midnight. That's all."
Amir nods, quietly, like he's actually thinking about that. "Right, right, yeah."
The bar gets so loud he can't hear what Amir is saying anymore, as everyone grabs onto their new year's kiss and starts counting down from sixty. One minute to go. Jake downs the rest of his drink and gets ready to leave. Tonight was a bust, just like last year.
Amir leans over to yell into his ear. "When it hits twelve, then it's officially 2001?"
"That's not even a little bit correct." Jake yells back, not sure if Amir can even hear him. "When the number hits zero, then it's 2010."
There's only twenty seconds left.
Amir nods. "And that's when you get the new year's kiss?"
"Well, yeah, but that's if you have someone to kiss."
He nods like he understands, even though Jake is fairly confident that he doesn't.
The countdown hits ten seconds, and the bar gets even louder than it was before. Jake turns and drops his empty glass onto the table behind him, sighing. He joins in at the five, at least wanting to be part of something, and when he turns around on the two, Amir is right there.
"Happy new year." He says, and pulls Jake into a kiss by the lapels of his vest.
He can barely hear the cheers of people screaming happy new year over the blood rushing in his ears at the feeling of Amir's lips on his, rough and fast, and by the time Jake even really registers it's happening Amir has already pulled away, forcing himself into a nearby group and singing Auld Lang Syne, loudly getting most of the words wrong.
He thinks back, briefly, to that time they played spin the bottle in the old office. That weird feeling of something that settled in his chest that he was too young and naive to identify. He's older now, and smarter, sort of, and he has a nasty instinct that he knows what the feeling was. He knows what it was then, and what it continues to be.
It's scary enough that he just shakes his head, and goes to order another drink. He doesn't need to deal with that right now.
3.
2011
He hates that he feels bad for getting Amir fired. Amir deserved it. All he did was tell the honest truth, that Amir is annoying and hard to work with and never gets anything done. It shouldn't have left such a gaping hole in his life to work without him.
But it did. So here he is, helping him get his job back by making a show pilot so good even Alan Avery would have to love it.
Ace and Jocelyn is Amir's project, through and through, which means the writing can sometimes be... rough. The characters do not have clear motivations or goals, and in the script Amir originally handed him he has forgotten to include dialogue, so it was just a hundred pages of solid scene direction. Jake doesn't mind though, not that he'd admit it. He's just happy to be working with Amir again, even if he did murder a turkey in cold blood.
The shoot isn't going well, exactly, but Amir seems to think it is, so the day has been okay, even if he has committed near countless crimes in the name of his "art". It's been long, and exhausting, and Jake is happy to be going home at the end of the day even if Amir follows him (not that he'd admit it, but after the last few days, especially if Amir follows him). He insists that he has to have a good place to edit, and the only good place he knows is Jake's apartment, which sounds believable enough that Jake is too spent from the day to bother arguing.
Amir settles himself on Jake's couch, opening his laptop, and Jake slowly sits down next to him, watching. He's not even put down the camera yet when he turns to Jake, eyes serious.
"I, uh— thank you, for today, and for— for everything."
"Hey," Jake smiles, bumping his shoulder, "it's okay. I'm glad I could help."
He nods, eyes narrowed, like he knows what he wants to say but isn't sure how to say it. "I really mean it. Thank you. You're a good man, and I'm— I'm lucky to have you in my life. Even if it's just as my co-astronaut accountant."
Jake frowns. "What do you mean?
He shakes his head, eyes screwed shut. "Nevermind. Forget about it, it doesn't even matter."
"Is this because I wouldn't say you're my best friend?" Jake asks, and Amir doesn't respond. When he speaks, it's in a whisper, hoping not to set Amir off. "Obviously you're my best friend, man."
He nods, but still doesn't smile, face set and eyebrows furrowed. "Best friends. Right."
It's unusual for Amir to not jump at the chance to hear Jake call himself his best friend, and Jake starts to worry. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing," Amir shakes his head, but still looks so sad it almost makes Jake's heart ache, "I just— I, uh— I'm scared to say it, but I think we both know."
Jake's breath catches in his throat. He does know. This whole experience has brought it to the forefront of his mind, though he's still not allowed himself to fully accept it yet. It's like a ghost, hanging around the edges of his peripheral vision, waiting in the wings for the inevitable day he lets his guard down a little too much.
It seems like today's the day.
"Know what?" He says, because he does know, but he needs to hear Amir say it, even if he doesn't know how he'll feel or respond when he does.
Amir meets his eyes for the first time in what feels like ages, and his gaze is piercing. "That I'm in love with you."
Jake opens his mouth to respond, not knowing what he's going to say, but Amir leans forward, capturing his lips before he can answer.
He rests a hand on Jake's chest, right over his heart, and as he moves closer to deepen the kiss he slides it up to thread into the hair at the back of Jake's neck. Jake gasps, and barely has time to be embarrassed because Amir tilts his head and licks into his mouth and it feels so right. He moves his hand up Amir's thigh until it's resting on his hip, just skirting under the edge of his worn t-shirt, cold fingers against warm skin sending a bolt of electricity down his spine.
Amir moves his hand back down Jake's chest, thumbing at his collar, and places a lingering kiss at the edge of his jaw, nose nuzzling the soft juncture of his neck. Jake sighs, hand moving up into Amir's hair, when suddenly Amir pulls back, grinning and shuffling away.
"That's perfect, I think we got it." Amir smiles, turning back to his laptop.
Jake's brain is running ten seconds behind, and it takes him a while to form the words. "Got what?"
"The scene." Amir says like it's obvious, shaking the camera in front of Jake's face. "It was great, by the way. Ace and Jocelyn needed something a little more... steamy."
"You were recording that?"
"Obviously. Why else would we do that scene?"
"I thought—" Jake cuts himself off, mid-sentence. No way can he tell Amir that he thought he was serious, because then he has to explain that he was being serious, that he meant what he said, and he can't even reconcile that with himself, let alone Amir. "I thought it was just a rehearsal."
"No way, Jake-ay, Ace and Jocelyn never do rehearsals." He laughs, and Jake forces himself to laugh too, thoughts swirling. "Plus, I figured you'd only wanna do the kiss shot one time, so—"
"Yeah, yeah," Jake nods, standing up, "I'm, uh, I'm gonna go to bed now, just because— it's been a long day, right?"
Amir nods, smiling, not taking his eyes off his computer. "Sure thing, bromeo. I can't wait to show this to Alan. It's gonna be so awesomesauce."
Jake is already halfway to his bedroom by the time Amir stops talking. He can deal with this tomorrow, or, hopefully, never. Alan is gonna rehire Amir (because even if he doesn't like the video, Jake is just going to blackmail him), and then everything is going to go back to normal.
4.
2013
"Hey girl, are you a Prius? Because you seem extremely reasonable."
Jake watches and tries not to laugh as the girl throws her drink in Amir's face.
"Woah!" He cries out as she walks away, turning back to Jake at the bar. "Not that reasonable, I guess."
"You get that that didn't make any sense, right?"
Amir huffs. "How so? A Prius is a reasonable vehicle."
"Sure buddy." Jake rolls his eyes, patting him on the shoulder.
The whole "going to the bar to pick up girls" thing hasn't been going great for them so far, but New York is a big city, full of so many girls, and there has to be at least two somewhere that are willing to talk to him and Amir.
He spots two girls, easily a six and an eight, maybe even a nine, sitting at a table in the corner, giggling to each other on the same side of the booth, and Jake elbows Amir, pointing them out to him.
"Hey, you see those girls over there?"
"Yeah," he follows Jake's gaze over to them, clearly not getting it, "what about 'em?"
"Do you know why they're sitting on the same side of the booth like that?"
He shrugs. "Because they're lesbians?"
Jake rolls his eyes. "No, idiot, it's because they want someone to come sit on the other side and talk to them."
"Are you sure?" Amir says, looking hesitant. "They could just be lesbians."
"They're not lesbians, dude, they're hot girls just waiting for a couple of studs like us to go over there and show them a good time. Right?"
Amir shrugs, unconvinced, and Jake grabs him by the elbow to steer him towards their booth.
"Hello, ladies," he says with his best suave smile, sitting opposite them and pulling Amir down next to him, "we just noticed you from across the bar, and, can I just say, you ladies are looking stylin'."
"Uh, thanks," the six says, glancing across at her friend, "no offence, but we were really looking to just enjoy a quiet drink together."
Jake nods. "Of course, of course. We just came over to see if you hot babes were looking for some company."
"We're not," The six says, glancing across at the eight point five again, "we just sort of wanted to spend some time together."
"I get it." Jake nods.
"We're lesbians." The eight says, and Jake stops nodding.
"Right," he mumbled, but Amir cuts him off, talking over him.
"We know," he says, grinning and throwing an arm around Jake's shoulders, "we're gays. Gay people."
"You are?" The six asks, though she looks sceptical.
Amir nods. "Yeah. we just thought maybe you'd want some mlem wulw solidarity, or something."
She smiles slightly, still not onboard but less uncomfortable than she looked before. "Oh, well, okay."
"Great," Amir laughs, leaning forward over the table before turning to Jake, "honey, I'm gonna go get us some more drinks, okay?"
Jake opens his mouth to protest, but Amir surges forward, planting an extremely awkward kiss right on his mouth, before getting up and scurrying over to the bar.
"Your boyfriend seems nice," one of the girls says. He isn't even looking at them anymore.
"Yeah. He's okay." Jake leans over out of his seat to try and see Amir at the bar, but he can't. "Excuse me," he says, and the girls look relieved, but he pushes himself up out of his seat towards the bar where Amir said he was going, and sees him heading right for the exit instead.
He's halfway down the street by the time Jake catches up.
"Hey!" He yells, and Amir spins to face him. "What the hell was that?"
"It was embarrassing is what it was," he mumbles, and Jake can't help but agree. "I had to get out of there, man."
"That's fair," Jake nods, laughing, "I guess it was sort of a good save."
Amir shakes his head, bumping their shoulders together. "I told you they were lesbians, Jake."
"Yeah, you called it," Jake mumbles, "what was that stuff you said about, like, mleh weh?"
"Don't worry about it," he says, and Jake can tell that he's steering them towards the closest McDonald's, but lets him anyway, "it's just gay people stuff."
"Why do you know so much gay people stuff?"
Amir goes quiet for a long moment, and something clicks for Jake.
"Oh," he mumbles, "I, uh— I wouldn't have made you come out to bars with me to get girls if I knew."
"It's okay," he says, quiet and serious in a way Jake rarely sees him, "I like girls too."
"Cool," Jake says, as they round the corner to the D's, "that's, uh— that's cool."
"Yeah?"
Jake nods. "Yeah, dude, it's, like, 2013. It's fine. I'm just happy you finally told me."
"I feel like I probably told you at some point," he says, eyebrows furrowed, "like, I just feel like it came up."
"What, like when you tried to marry me?"
"Tried?" He laughs, pushing open the door to the D's, "succeeded, my friend. That certificate is legally binding."
"You're joking about that, right? Amir? Buddy?"
5.
2015
"Jake. It's for art."
"Absolutely not."
"This is my masterpiece, Jake, do not ruin this for me just because you feel like being a diva roach."
"I am not filming a graphic sex scene for our web series, Amir."
"Simulated sex!" He shouts, and everyone on set turns to look at him. "Not real sex!"
Jake rolls his eyes. "It's real nudity!"
"So?"
"So? I don't want to be naked on the internet, Amir, this is supposed to be PG."
"It is PG!" He cries, gesturing around at the cameras, "pretty good!"
Jake pinches the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. "You think this is pretty good. Amir, you cut off your dick this morning."
"And?" He gestures, expecting Jake to finish the thought.
"And?" Jake shrugs "And what?"
"And! It's for the art!"
Jake sighs, growing frustrated. "Listen, you already have full frontal, full backal, and an explicit castration scene. What could possibly be added to the art by us having sex on camera?"
"Simulated, Jakey! As in we would be simulating each other!"
"Okay, well now I'm starting to think you don't know what the word simulated means."
Amir rolls his eyes, like Jake is the one being ridiculous. "Uh, I don't know what it means, because I'm not a friggin nerd, okay?"
"Okay," Jake starts, carefully, "but you get that you not knowing what it means makes me want to do it even less, right?"
"Come on Jake, just french with me a little bit. Honestly? That's honestly the least you could do, considering."
Jake narrows his eyes. "Considering what?"
"Oh, so now you're not even considering? You— you— you foul man of me."
"What?" Jake asks, but just as quickly realises he shouldn't have. "You know what, it doesn't matter. I'm not doing that."
"C'mon, Jake, please! This is for our glory. This is gonna be huge, it's gonna be a blockbuster, Jakey, we gotta cash in on those gay dollars that the indie shit makes!"
"If it's gonna be huge then why do we need to cash in— you know what, nevermind. I'll kiss you one time if you'll wrap filming afterwards." There's been enough casualties for one day, and if Jake has within his power the ability to stop there from being more, then it would be a disservice not to.
Amir nods, so aggressively his face wobbles. "Absolutely, of course. Just one french. Two french, for filming purposes—"
"One kiss. A peck. That's it, or I'm out."
"Okay! Okay, fine, god, okay."
Amir gestures at a nearby cameraman to start recording, and the second the red light comes on Amir slams into Jake, so aggressively it pushes him back a few inches. He's doing this weird thing with his face, puffing up his cheeks like he thinks thats how a kiss in supposed to look, and slams his face against Jake's so hard Jake can feel his nose crack.
After two seconds Amir pulls away, shooting a thumbs up at the cameraman. Jake just stares at him, mouth open.
"What?" Amir asks, eyes wide and innocent.
"What the fuck was that?" Jake says, trying keep his voice down but feeling it get high and squeaky none the less.
Amir just shrugs. "It's called stage kissing. You have to make it look good for the camera."
"You almost broke my freaking nose, man!" Jake lifts a hand to his nose, which is fine, but definitely could be broken. Amir has no idea how to not break a nose. "And no way that looked good on camera. You headbutted me mouth first."
"It's called acting, bozo," Amir rolls his eyes, "you better get used to it. We're gonna be stars!"
+1
2017
It's been two years since their movie got them fired by Sam, and life goes on.
Jake has been struggling to find work, since he has basically no references, and his portfolio consists of two scripts and a handful of Ace and Jocelyn episodes. It's not been easy, settling in to their new life, but Amir seems to have enough money to tide them over no matter what happens, not that Jake knows why or how. It's been easier for him to get jobs, not that Jake understands why people seem so eager to hire Amir and practically throw money at him, but he bagged a gig as something or other at some big company that he barely ever goes to. As long as they keep paying him, Jake is over trying to convince him to actually go to his job.
So they live in their muffin apartment, and Jake spends the day writing articles and scripts and whatever he can think of and trying to get anyone at all to read them, while Amir bothers him and writes episodes of Ace and Jocelyn and occasionally goes to the job Jake doesn't understand. It's... domestic, sort of, even if Jake doesn't feel like he does enough to justify being a stay at home boyfriend, especially when he's not even a boyfriend.
He writes, and he goes out for jobs, and he busks tables sometimes to feel like he's contributing, and he comes home to Amir, who's always there, waiting for him. Two years of this, almost, and what at first felt like a nightmarish transitionary period now feels like coming home.
It's been a long day. Nine long hours of staring at a pilot he can't seem to write, unmoving from the couch apart from to piss and get coffee and snacks. What he has so far sucks, even if he thought the original idea was pretty good.
This is one of the few days where Amir actually goes to work and Jake doesn't leave the muffin, and when he hears the key turn in the door he has to stop himself from jumping up to greet Amir. It's hard being on your own all day.
Amir drops his work bag in the entryway with a heavy thud that makes Jake wince, and approaches with soft footsteps to where Jake is camping out on the living room sofa.
"Hey," he says, dropping a brown paper bag on the table, "long day?"
"You have no idea." Jake shakes his head, but he's smiling because against all odds he's happy to have Amir home. He gestures to the bag on the coffee table with a socked foot. "What's this?"
Amir shrugs off his jacket, dumping it in the middle of the floor even as Jake rolls his eyes, and flopping down onto the couch next to him. "Takeout. Figured we could use a little pick-me-up."
He rips open the side of the bag and pulls out Jake's all time favourite takeout, macaroni and cheese with lobster and some crazy five cheese mix that they serve at the slightly fancy Italian a few blocks from Amir's new work. It smells incredible, and Jake knows it tastes even better, grabbing the fork Amir produces as soon as he offers it, digging in and moaning with how good it tastes.
"Oh my god," Jake moans, not even trying to stop, "thank you so much. I love you. I needed this so bad."
Amir laughs, leaning forward to grab a sharebox of chicken mcnuggets from the bag before settling into the couch next to Jake, smiling at him. "I had a feeling. You've seemed pretty... down, these last few days."
"It's just this script, I can't get into it." He shakes his head, shovelling mac and cheese into his mouth. "It's just not exciting."
"You should write some Ace and Jocelyn's," Amir grins, swallowing a chicken nugget whole, "they're so fun. We should make, like, a full series. It would be awesome."
Jake nods, deep in thought. "Yeah. Maybe we should."
"They get a lot of views when we upload them," Amir continues, saying we when he's been doing all the work on the Ace and Jocelyn episodes for almost a decade, "but that doesn't fucking matter, because they're so fun to make."
"What if we did?" Jake says, mid-mouthful. "What if we actually made good Ace and Jocelyn episodes?"
"They're already good," Amir rolls his eyes, "but we could make better ones. Like, with production value and shit, and better cameras."
Jake smiles, feeling excited about a project for the first time in a while. "Hell yeah. We'll start writing them tomorrow. It can be, like, a sexy reboot, except we actually keep what makes the originals good."
"That's awesome," Amir says, dropping another nugget into his mouth, "I love you too."
Jake stops with his fork halfway to his mouth. "What?"
"You said it, before, and I forgot to answer, but I'm circling back," he grins like he's being totally normal, eating another nugget, "I love you too."
Jake furrows his eyebrows, thinking. He doesn't remember saying it, but he might have. It's true, after all. He loves him. He has for ten years, if he's being honest with himself. He loves him, he loves him, and he doesn't want to hide anymore, even if it's scary. Even if Amir is the one good thing in his life; he has to believe that things will be okay no matter what.
"Amir?" Jake says, softer, placing his takeout bowl of pasta on the coffee table and leaning back into the couch so they're face to face.
"Jake?" Amir asks, voice barely louder than a whisper.
Jake leans forward, closing the distance between their lips.
He's kissed Amir before; quite a few times, actually, upon reflection, which is weird. It's not like he doesn't know what it's like, but this feels... different. It's not panicked or worried or forced, it's right. All this time, ten fucking years, and it feels like it's all been leading up to this, this one moment, this one point of connection that seems so obvious. Amir reacts immediately, like he'd been expecting it, hand coming up to rest in his hair and Jake tugs him closer, not even caring about the nugget grease Amir is inevitably getting in his hair. It's perfect, it's messy, it's everything Jake has never let himself imagine it would be, and when he pulls back, after a while, Amir makes a disappointed little mewl.
Jake just laughs, feeling lighter than he has in years. "I love you," he says, because he means it.
"I love you too," Amir grins back at him, and Jake leans down to kiss him again, "my Jake."
"You're my boy," he says, kissing the words into Amir's jaw, "you've always been my boy."
"Boy friend?" Amir asks, and Jake laughs. "I'm just joking. You're already my husband. It's nice to finally start enjoying our matrimony."
"There's no way we're legally married," Jake says into Amir's neck, and he giggles like crazy from the tickle of Jake's beard, "I wasn't even there."
"You don't have to be there, Jake, that's the wonder of modern technology."
Jake laughs, pulling Amir closer, watching as he smiles wide and his eyes light up from behind his glasses. His mac and cheese is going cold on the coffee table, forgotten.
They're ten years in, but it feels like a new start. Like this is the beginning, all over again.
Jake can't wait to see where they go.