Thomas had been told that it was incredibly obvious when he had feelings for someone. His ex, Silvester, fucking bastard though he was, had certainly known that Tom was smitten and been all too quick to act on that. Nowadays that whole relationship was a thing to be incredibly regretful about but Tom couldn’t help but wish that his current crush was as quick on the uptake about matters of the heart as he was when it came to, well… almost everything else.
“Professor Ez keeps trying to find me someone ‘cute.’” He tipped his head back against the chair that was altogether too small for him; his gangly limbs spread out awkwardly. “Dunno, it’s nice that he cares so much but I wish he hadn’t got it into head.”
“I daresay he’s developed an almost fatherly affection for you, Thomas,” Gale said, voice soft but expression obviously conflicted. “May I ask what initiated his enthusiastic mission?”
“Ah, well…”
Tom could feeling himself turn a shade pinker; he’d already been a little flustered because Gale had been acting so very, very Gale before this turn in their conversation, and that always did manage to make Thomas feel like a fucking teenager getting butterflies in their stomach for the first time, but the way things were going… today might be it. Outside of Silvester, who had been the one to do the asking out, the few previous relationships he’d had sorta happened without either having to do any kickstarting so Tom didn’t really know how best to go about the matter. Just a direct approach would be best, right? That’s what he’d spent ages mulling over but he wasn’t actually sure if it would be true when it came to this particular man. Maybe it was. Or not. This was so stupid.
“When I started wearing my hoodies down, and was feeling a bit… odd about it, Karlach gave me my beanie as a kinda in-between thing.” He tugged at it now, drawing the line of it just a touch further down his forehead. “You know, something to hide in when I really needed it, but not so much?”
“A very kind gesture. It has truly been a delight to see you starting on the journey to loving yourself anew!”
Never mind ‘pink,’ Thomas was fairly certain he was as red as his own hair right now. How in the nine hells did Gale not fucking know what he was currently doing?
“Well, I guess you could put it like that,” he muttered, trying and failing to sink further into his chair. “Anyways, we were all in drama at the time, Prof was there, and I said, trying to be fucking funny, that in the beanie and the fitted shirt I was wearing that all I needed was a big glass of wine to fit in well in the bars Professor’s fond of, already being the lovelorn poetry guy. That gets him interested, suddenly everyone’s fielding questions about my love life and I, uh, told them I was interested in someone.”
It was impossible to stop himself from feeling really anxious about the way Gale reacted to that. Thomas glanced over and watched as Gale’s brow knitted, eyes tightening for a moment, and gods fucking damn those gorgeous deep brown eyes were more expressive than any he’d ever seen before. For a moment that particular thought was a complete distraction.
“I see,” replied Gale eventually, now looking rather put out and sounding a little… downcast, fuck, which brought Tom right back down to earth. “Why, exactly, did such a revelation encourage Professor Deschain to try and find you a partner elsewhere?”
“Think it was the part where I said the guy I like is too good for me, and—”
“They are not!”
The outburst was so quick and sharp that it startled Thomas for a moment. He stared over at the now embarrassed Gale, who looked caught between his own fluster and a very firm level of indignancy. Oh. Well, that was probably a positive sign, wasn’t it? And it wasn’t like it was the first time Tom had seen Gale get so fired-up on his behalf. Happened a lot actually.
“You don’t even know who I’m talking about, Gale,” Tom said, something soft snaking through his nerves and bringing a smile to his face as he spoke. “Can’t claim it’s not true if you don’t have that little nugget of information.”
“I may be lacking in knowledge of your potential paramour, Thomas, but I do know you.” Gale was so overwhelming earnest in manner, as he leaned forward. “That’s all I need to know to be certain I’m correct.”
“Gale…”
“You cannot convince me otherwise.”
“Yeah, I get it, but…”
The story was barely finished but it’d have to wait, because the reason for the whole tale was suddenly urgent and necessary. Thomas pulled himself up into a better posture, attempting to sit in a more comfortable manner despite the chair’s extreme resistance to it, and rubbed his arm. This was mortifying, and no matter how much the evidence pointed towards Gale reciprocating Tom’s feelings that didn’t mean it was absolutely certain, right? He took a deep breath, looked at an increasingly concerned looking Gale, and then looked right back down at his hands. Spoke up. Or tried to, before being beaten to the punch.
“I know you are not fully comfortable yet with too much praise, so I shall not regale you with the full list.” Gale shifted his chair to get closer to Tom and, with a little hesitation, place a hand over Tom’s wrist. “But you are most certainly worthy of it, and I hope that whoever has caught your eye knows how… how special you are.”
Fuck. That was… was that a confession? Sort of?
“If you wanna be sure that they do I can leave for a bit so you can have that conversation with yourself,” Thomas blurted out, so overwhelmed with feeling that he could barely gave himself a moment to think the approach through. “Won’t take long. Heard you’re a very convincing guy.”
That was… direct, right? Maybe not. Certainly hard to miss the point this time, and indeed, understanding and a level of surprise that was absolutely not justified at all flooded Gale’s lovely face in an instant, along with a rather impressive blush. He shifted his hand to grasp Tom’s hand instead, took a moment to think, and then?
“Oh.”
Had Thomas managed a miracle and rendered Gale speechless? That was new… and heartwarming. Silly too. Tom still felt overwhelmed but happy with it now. He could deal with the aftermath of the pointless amounts of anxiety he’d been feeling if it meant adorable boyfriend, and that was what was happening here. It was. It absolutely was and that inner voice of his could shut the hells up.
“Don’t know how you’re so shocked, Gale,” Tom said breathlessly, smile widening though his cheeks were still flushed, and shifted his own chair so the space between their knees was now barely an inch in size. “Or how I was so worried, either. Outside of class and drama I’ve spent almost all my spare time with you these past few weeks, and you’ve been just as keen as I’ve bloody been about our not-dates.”
“Yes, you are quite correct.” Gale looked shy but pleased as the (obvious) reality of their situation settled in, finally finding his voice. “But I can now most empathetically insist you trust in my expertise on the matter of whether or not your partner is too good for you.”
“Partner, huh.”
“That… is the case now, isn’t it?”
Tom pulled his hand back but not to shrug Gale’s off; he grasped it instead as he pulled, tugging Gale in closer so he could kiss him rather than throw in something like a ‘duh.’ It was only intended as a single light press, a gentle first kiss, and so it was, but… the next one wasn’t. He’d severely underestimated how much Gale’s eagerness for that moment would crash through the awkwardness that had led to it and wow, okay, yeah, yeah, true, they’d had so many actually-dates-in-hindsight, done so much to already act the couple without making it official, and, when he thought about it, so many lingering moments where that kiss had been almost there that it made sense this would happen, huh. So, so much build-up and doing almost everything ‘partners’ would do. Had Tom himself been as bad about being slow on the uptake?
That was the other part of ‘Thomas in love’ according to his sister. It was obvious when he was in love… and it made him kinda. Foolish.
“Oh, fuck…”
Which now left him sat in Gale’s lap (a much more comfortable chair all told) and not quite sure when he’d gotten there. He remembered the pulling back, the soft question murmured into his mouth, settling in… just not when it had happened. Did it matter? There’d been a lot of kisses, maybe it didn’t matter when. Just that there had in fact been a lot of kisses. And that there was now a hand in his hair, his hat was gone, and the curls were being played with. Just. Yeah!
“I hope that is a very positive kind of profanity?” Gale was staring up with adoring eyes, radiating pure sincere joy in every line of his body. “I confess I am rather out of practice.”
“Yeah,” Tom said quietly, barely able to get a handle on himself. ”Just… yeah. Up for more practice if you’d like to do that all again, though.”
“Gladly.”
Professor Ez would have no reason at all to continue his search for someone cute now, huh. It was going to be fantastic, letting him know.
(If he could find a moment between kisses to spare).