ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ｔｗｅｎｔｙ－ｆｏｕｒ ⁽ᵃ ˡⁱˡ ⁿˢᶠʷ⁾

Once the boys opened their gifts, Mikey receiving tons of money and gift cards, he walked his presents to his room. His favorite was clearly from Jasper, but he didn't admit it to him. All he did was awkwardly look to him after opening the candy, merch, and shirts, nodded, then moved onto the next gift.

He pushed open his door and stop dead in his tracks, lips pursing together. His best friend was laying on his bed, a leg bent and his phone raised above his head as a video played. The voices of his relatives followed him up the stairs and were loud even with his door shut.

Mikey awkwardly set the gifts down on the floor and stood in his room, blatantly staring at Jasper. He asked in a tone that contradicted his thoughts, "what are you doing here?"

Jasper's eyes slowly moved to meet his and they were cold. He didn't show any emotion. "Because it's also Max's birthday. Not everything is about you."

"No shit," Mikey huffed, rolling his eyes as if that was a stupid answer.

The older twenty-one year old cocked his head to the side and dropped his phone onto his chest. He questioned bitterly, "oh really? Because it seemed like you thought so the other day?"

Mikey exhaled and dragged a hand over his face, frustration making itself home in his bones. He knew that it wasn't going to be pretty between them at the moment. He really wanted to go back to how they were, but he was stubborn and didn't like admitting that he was wrong and apologizing. Mikey would rather act like it never happened and move on, but Jasper was a talkative person and liked talking things out. So that's what they ended up doing, just maybe not civilly.

"I didn't say it was about me. I only asked you why you were here." Mikey eyed Jasper who was sitting up and into a crisscross position.

He told Mikey, "any other time it doesn't matter, so why now? Is it because you don't care about me anymore, Michael?"

"Jesus, fuck, Jasper. Stop being petty! I told you I puked, so I wasn't in a good mood."

"That doesn't matter. You only ever think about yourself, and even right now it's all about you. You haven't even apologized for then!"

Their voices grew louder each sentence, but the other voices in the house drowned them out. You'd only hear the two if you were to be upstairs, but there was a bathroom downstairs so there was no need for anyone to come up the stairs.

Mikey complained, "that is not true. If you sat down and thought about what I do, you'd know I care. Why do you always twist my words!"

"Well, when you're telling me you don't care, it comes to be a different situation. But still, you are incapable of apologizing for something that was rude. I don't know how I've stayed your friend."

"I'm sorry," Mikey raved and stepped closer to his friend who had stood up at some point. He'd rather not lose his best friend than keep his pride and not apologize. "Look, Jasper, I'm sorry for saying that. I care about you and don't want to lose you."

The younger of them slowly raised his hands and set them on Jasper's cheeks. He licked his lips and continued speaking.

"Listen, I'm sorry I was a fucking asshole and was insensitive. You didn't deserve that and I understand if you're still mad at me. Fuck, I'd still be if I were you, Jasp."

Jasper closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against his best friend's. He let a long sigh slowly and held onto Mikey's wrists. His chest hurt from how hard his heart was beating, but he pushed that aside and stepped closer. He bit his lip and said with his and Mikey's faces mere inches apart, "Fine," he he whined. "But I'm not necessarily mad at you, more or less irritated and frustrated in more ways than one."

Mikey snorted and tried out something he had been thinking of in the very late hours of the night, boldly cupping Jasper through his jeans. The gasp that came out of Jasper and Mikey's name slipping through his lips, warning the younger one of what would happen—them completely changing their friendship; they'd never done anything else but Mikey sticking his dick in Jasper's ass, so this was foreign and completely new for both.

"If your frustrated," Mikey whispered huskily into Jasper ear, "let me help. We shouldn't do anything else with all these people here since it'd be sus."

Jasper breathed our shakily, "okay," and leaned into Mikey who slipped his hand between Jasper's unbuttoned jeans and boxers. The younger one backed them up against the wall and beside Mikey's dresser, hiding them away from sight if someone would walk in and so they weren't in the middle of the room.

Mikey could feel his best friend quiver under his hand and he felt proud about it. Jasper had his bottom lip between his teeth, his eyes half-lidded and tilted to the ceiling, and little sighs came from his mouth. There was a lit spark between the two and Mikey had to stop himself from leaning down and kissing Jasper's neck.

He kept his friend (if you could call them that) close to him and found his own type of pleasure in hearing the sound that came out of Jasper's mouth: a moaned, "shit."

When Jasper came undone around Mikey's delicate hand, he tilted his head forward to lean on Mikey and clenched his jaw, suppressing Mikey's name from falling from his lips. He didn't want to make this anymore awkward than it could be. But when a knock sounded from the door both boys stilled, Mikey's hand casually wrapped around Jasper's dick, and the latter felt like a deer caught in headlights. His heart was pounding and his fight or flight mode was in flight; he wanted to bolt, but he stayed still because Mikey stepped closer to shield his friend, affectively pressing their bodies together, just in case someone walked in.

Mikey called out, "what?"

"Can I come in?" Mikey and Jasper identified it as Aiden's voice, both sagging in relief, and Mikey refused. Aiden groaned before asking knowingly, "is Jasper in there?"

"Yes." The oldest balm looked proud of his answer and Jasper found himself forcing a grin down.

They heard the second oldest Balm boy talk to himself before he walked away and Mikey grinned at Jasper. Mikey's hand slipped from Jasper's pants and he wiped his hand off with a tissue, handing another to his best friend.

And before Jasper could say anything out of embarrassment, it was written all over his face, Mikey assured him, "shut up, don't say anything—I like seeing you cum."

"Are you okay?" Jasper stared at Mikey's own crotch and he nodded.

"You can do whatever you want next time."

The open response left a heated burning in both boys' stomachs and they stepped away from the wall. Mikey quickly apologized about his attitude from before, but stepped out of the room before Jasper could say anything. He was left to fix himself with a beating heart and a warm feeling blooming in his chest, a totally different feeling from when he walked into the Balm household hours ago.

When they stood at the top of the stairs next to each other, Mikey offhandedly told his best friend, "I liked your gifts the best, but my favorite of them was just now." He smirked at Jasper and pulled away from him, disconnecting their shoulders that were pressed together and taking his head off Jasper's shoulder, and continued down the steps, leaving Jasper to unravel what he'd just said.

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So here we are. This is what I planned to happen for Mikey's birthday. Now all we have to do is get them to kiss 😹 (which won't be too long, fear not). Also, it's my birthday!!!!!!!

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