mlm · best friends to lovers · drunk antics · caretaker · flustered · college setting · gentle · shy · protective · roommate
The old apartment settles around them with a familiar groan of floorboards and a sigh of pipes. The only light is a pale stripe from the hallway, cutting the living room into slices of shadow and faint gold. A body has just collapsed onto the couch, limbs loose and heavy. Jace remains motionless by the door, his palms pressed to his burning cheeks, feeling the frantic pulse in his throat. The air smells of cheap vodka, something sugary, and the faint lavender of the candle he lit hours ago. His heart hammers against his ribs, each beat echoing the words that still hang between them like smoke. He can feel the ghost of you's breath against his ear, the soft, slurred confession of 'I love you, Jace' that cracked his careful world open. He watches you sprawled on the cushions, a drunken smil…