Work Text:
The thoughtful members with foresight, like EJ and Harua, had considered things like this ahead of time and decided where to stand.
Nicholas had not done that. He didn’t really have a problem with things around him being ambiguous, uncertain, as of yet undefined.
“Oh, are we like this?” he said, as Harua knelt over him, sliding a thigh between his knees and leaning his weight on it, dangerously close. “You sure?”
Whatever he and Harua were these days was one of those nebulous maybes floating undisturbed around him. He hadn’t bothered to pin it down. It didn’t really matter. They were together however they felt like it in the moment.
Sometimes that was Harua taking comfort in him like a big brother, the way he had back during the audition. Sometimes it was Harua grounding him like a kite string when his many interests led him off into the weeds and wilderness, reminding him where he belonged and what he needed to be doing there. Sometime Nicholas teased him, sometimes Nicholas encouraged and cheered for him, sometimes Nicholas simply enjoyed his company and the closeness of being chin to shoulder, arms to waist, head to lap.
It wasn’t like there wasn’t room for this in there somewhere. He just hadn’t really thought about it yet.
But Harua probably had. Harua almost certainly had.
So it made sense to just ask him outright.
Harua paused, a hand’s breadth away, forearms braced on Nicholas’ chest and hands brushing his neck and nape, careful to avoid his hairline. “We weren’t, before, but we could be now,” he said. “If you want. Or it could just be this once, if you’re not into it.”
Was he into it? Could he be?
His hands had slid up the outsides of Harua’s thighs, he realized, steadying him now with a good grip on his thin, muscled hips. Harua’s knee was barely a hair away from danger. Harua was looking down at him at a slight angle with calm intent, settled within himself, not even nervous.
Sure, he decided. They could be this.
“C’mere,” he said, and had a split second to grin before Harua made good.
It was warm, and leisurely, and comfortable. He’d been so close to Harua so many times already, skin to skin; this hardly even felt like more. A minor expansion of territory covered. The inclusion of something new but not strange.
Harua sighed through his teeth and sank into him, letting himself have a minute to enjoy himself properly, which Nicholas appreciated and approved of.
There wasn’t much reason to cut this new element back out again, he didn’t think. It didn’t feel dangerous. Just easy.
“Go on back, everyone’s getting bored,” he said eventually into a small reluctant gap. He smiled lazily. “We can pick it up again later if you feel like it.”
Harua sat back on his heels, looking pleased and at ease. “I might,” he said. “We’ll see.”
—