House of Boys

Part 9

Waking up was a little different. Shawn was no longer beside you, and you heard some commotion coming from upstairs. Fuck. You'd slept in and now everyone was awake, and they were going to see you coming upstairs from Shawn's bedroom.

Straightening out your pyjama bottoms and heading up the stairs, you emerged to a semi-empty kitchen. Only one person stood in sight, and it was the only person that mattered.

Shawn was standing at the stove making what looked like blueberry pancakes, his bare back to you. You could see his muscles shift as his arms worked the spatula, his little bum filling out his grey sweatpants just right. You let your eyes roam a little longer, taking in his wild curls and faint birthmark on his left shoulder. Silently walking over to him, you snaked your arms around his middle and planted a soft kiss between his shoulder blades.

"Good morning," he said, groggy voice fading away as the clock displayed that it was eleven in the morning.

"Where'd everyone go?" you asked, resting your cheek on his soft skin. He smelled so good. Did he always smell this good?

"Out? I don't know, they mentioned something about some big project so I assumed they were going to the library to work on it," he responded, setting the spatula down on the counter and turning to face you. "You're up early!" he said, pretending to be shocked.

"Oh, shut up!" you said, lightly smacking his bare chest. "I was up late," you whispered, quickly wishing you hadn't mentioned the night before. Shawn's face fell a little, remembering everything. Shit.

"Right," he said, breaking eye contact and releasing you from his grip. He turned to face the stove again, leaving you standing behind him.

"You know, Shawn, I, I uh, I just want to say thanks, again. Thank you for everything," you said, bringing a hand up to rest on the small of his back. He shivered at your touch.

"It's no problem, I told you I was looking out for you," he sighed, still not meeting your gaze. "Always have been, always will be. I just wish you would believe me for once."

"I know, I know, Shawn. I'm sorry, I'm sorry I didn't believe you. It just seemed a little too-"

"Perfect?" he cut you off, looking over to you for the first time in a couple of minutes. A smirk laced his lips. He knew he was right, and you were gonna let him have this one.

"Yeah, perfect," you smiled, moving your hand to his side and running your fingers over his ribs lightly. He turned to you and dipped his face a little closer to yours, sunlight from the window cascading over his puffy eyes and lazy smile.

"So, you're gonna just trust me from now on?" he whispered, inches from your face. You thought about it for a second.

"I don't know. Are you in this or not, Mendes?" you challenged, backing away and turning around to begin setting the table.

Before you could get the cutlery drawer open, a strong hand grabbed yours, yanking you backwards and spinning you around. Heat shot up your arm as his grip tightened, pulling you flush with his chest and moving his hands to your face, cupping each cheek, fingers reaching your hair.

His chestnut eyes found yours, staring at you intently and slowly inspecting your face. A grin tugged at the corners of his lips as you placed your hands on his abdomen, feeling the warmth leave his body as a deep flush rose in his cheeks. You noticed a little scar on his face.

Barely audible, he whispered the words you'd said to him the first time you guys tried this.

"Yes, yes, a million times yes," and before you knew it, he pulled you into a kiss that lit a fire inside of you. This kiss was different from other kisses with Shawn. This kiss was real, it was certain. You were sure he was ready to try this with you, and it suddenly meant so much more. Explosions went off in your stomach as he tried to pull you closer into him, his hands reaching into your hair as you pushed up on your tiptoes, kissing him with all you had. Your hands pulled him against you as his tongue danced with yours, hot and sweet in your mouth. It wasn't until he smiled against your lips that you snapped back to reality, pulling away and opening your eyes to see Shawn in a new light for the first time.

You stared at him in awe for a few moments as silence enveloped the two of you, no words strong enough to describe the electricity you felt. His hand reached for your hip and snaked under your sweatshirt, gripping your bare side as he looked at you with the biggest smile on his face. A new smell entered your nose as you realized the pancakes were burning, and Shawn had no choice but to turn around and get the pan off the stove. Unable to detach yourself from him, you stepped behind him and planted a trail of soft kisses along his back, hands finding his sides as he tried his best to scrape at the charred pan.

Jumping at the sound of the lock being twisted, you quickly peeled yourself from Shawn before Brian, Ian and Matt had the chance to see anything. Phew.

Shawn turned to the door to give them a little wave as Brian shot back a smirk.

"We're not... interrupting anything, are we?" Ian asked, pointing his index finger from Shawn to you and then back to Shawn again.

"Us?! No! Nothing, really," you said, looking away and tucking a loose curl behind your ear.

"Good, because I wanna hear all about the date!" Brian said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

You looked up at Brian and then at Shawn, who had his arms crossed over his still-bare chest, waiting fro you to spill, wondering what on earth you were going to say.

"Umm, I don't think it's gonna work out," you finally said to Brian, shrugging your shoulders and averting your gaze.

Brian's face fell. "Oh, okay, shoot, I was hoping it would," he said, sounding a little upset. You weren't going to say anything about Shawn or the whole incident.

"Yeah, it's fine. I didn't want to go in the first place, and I kind of have my eye on someone else now, anyway," you trailed off, hoping Brian would drop it. You turned on your heel and headed upstairs to get changed, but more so to exit the situation. Nearing the top of the stairs, you could hear Brian muttering to Shawn.

"Hey, man, I guess this might be good, right? Now you can shoot your shot with her," he said, the rest of the guys agreeing.

"Yeah, something like that," you heard Shawn respond.

You smiled to yourself, shaking your head. If they only knew.