LOTF: Before and After

Phase 3: Chapter 31

Just over an hour before Jeffery Langley came up to bed, his son and Jack finished their work in the kitchen and headed off to Ralph's room for the night.

Ralph stopped in his tracks as he opened his dresser drawer, turning around to face Jack. "Can you not look while I change?" he requested.

"You do realize I saw you half naked on the island and that I've touched pretty much every part of you you're telling me not to look at" Jack pointed out.

"You can't compare any of this to the island" Ralph decided as he turned to rummage through his drawer. "Plus, I don't have your confidence."

"Well, you should" Jack smiled smugly as he approached Ralph, throwing his arms over the boy's shoulders, and around his neck. "I mean, look at you."

Ralph stared judgmentally at Jack as he tried to ignore the increased pounding in his chest as his body temperature spiked. "Oh, come on" Ralph scoffed after a moment, his face turning red.

"Fine" Jack continued to smile as he lifted his hands off Ralph and up in surrender, taking a couple steps backwards. "I won't look... for you, not for me" his mesmerizing wit making Ralph's knees shake.

Jack turned around as Ralph stripped out of the baking ingredient covered clothes and pulled an oversized pyjama t-shirt over his head, followed by pulling on a pair of flared pyjama pants. Jack turned back around as Ralph tightened the hell out of the elastic waistband as tight as it would go.

An unsettling feeling formed in the pit of Jack's stomach as he watched, guilt overwhelming his conscience as he tried to suppress the knowledge that he was directly responsible for the weight loss Ralph experienced in the last month on the island. Due to his ongoing diet of fruit and pepperoni slices and lack of physical activity, Ralph still hadn't regained most of the weight back yet. He was almost as thin as Jack was naturally, the blond realized. He'd gained a couple pounds back over the past six months, but not enough to keep his pants up unaided.

"Here" Ralph said as he reached back into his pyjama drawer, tossing Jack a pair of pyjama bottoms similiar to the ones he himself wore.

"Thanks" Jack said, peeling the blazer off before undoing the buttons on his white shirt. Ralph watched with fascination as Jack pulled the top off down his arms before undoing his dress pants. Ralph didn't even blink as Jack finished changing. The blond looked up and smiled at Ralph's lack of subtlety.

Ralph's eyes shot up to meet Jack's as the older boy approached him, wrapping his unclothed arms firmly around the brunette's waist. "You enjoying the show?" he joked in a hushed, intrigued tone.

"What?" Ralph's eyes went wide with embarrassment. Jack just laughed a little as he pressed his forehead down against Ralph's, feeling the way the younger boy's breathing became heavier and less controlled in an instant.

"Nothing" he smiled, his face mere inches in front of Ralph's. "Nothing at all."

Ralph wanted to stay there like that forever, his arms hung loosely on top of Jack's, who held him with a force and certainty Ralph could never possess, their foreheads pressed together as his heart
panicked with ecstasy inside his pounding chest.

"Jack?" Ralph struggled to form the word, his voice quiet and unsteady.

"What is it?" the older boy whispered, his warm voice sending shivers down Ralph's spine.

"I need you" Ralph whispered quietly, tightening his grip around Jack as he attempted to pull him even closer.

Jack felt himself start to lose control too, fighting the urge to let himself go the way Ralph could. Jack had always grappled with maintaining control, holding himself above what he expected of others, insisting that he always had to be the strongest, the most powerful, to never show any sign of weakness.