29 Like Sugar | Chapter Twenty-nine

Jared had known that when the day to ask Darnell the important question came, he would be nervous, but he didn't know he would be this nervous. His nerves were eating him from the inside out. He felt nauseous and had shivers running through him. He wasn't even sure he would be able to get words out of his mouth if he tried.

It was a Saturday evening and he had taken Darnell out today. He had wanted things to be special and romantic, but he had a feeling he ruined things with how paranoid he was acting throughout. Jared sighed, wishing things had gone the way he had planned it in his head. They were supposed to have gone to the aquarium together, and then the local fair before heading for dinner at a nice place, but they only went to the aquarium and Darnell insisted they head back to Jared's place because the man didn't look too well.

It was around half past seven in the evening now, and Darnell was taking a shower while Jared sat in bed with the ring case in his hands. He had showered before Darnell, wanting to have some thinking space. Jared opened and closed the ring base, licking his bottom lips as he kept trying to decide if giving it to Darnell was a good idea. No, he wasn't asking Darnell to marry him or anything. He was asking Darnell to move in with him, and he'd give him the ring he had been too paranoid to hand to him on their first actual date. He guessed that they could now be called couple rings.

Jared kept looking at the box in his hand and was unaware of the door to the bathroom creaking open. He only looked up when he heard the younger man humming. Darnell gave him a smile as he tried to dry his hair, moving towards the queen sized bed before sitting right next to Jared. Jared had hidden the jewelry box away, so Darnell couldn't guess what was going on.

The older man tried to return Darnell's smile in an equal manner, but his heart was in his mouth, and he couldn't breathe properly. The whole thing was nerve-wracking, and he was starting to think that it might have been a better idea to ask Darnell through text.

"Do you still feel sick?" Darnell asked, leaning forward as he looked into Jared's eyes. Jared looked away, shaking his head before rubbing the back of his neck. Darnell wasn't wearing any clothes, and even though Jared saw him naked almost every day just looking at him made his face warm up and his heart chime.

"Then what is it?" Darnell pressed, moving to touch Jared's thigh. The older man was just in a pair of shorts and nothing more. "Hmm?" Darnell kept insisting, rubbing his thumb in circles on the man's skin.

Jared opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He sighed, shaking his head. "I'm sorry," he muttered to a confused Darnell. He just felt bad for ruining everything. It was supposed to be romantic and memorable, but here he was shriveled up in a ball of anxious, and not being able to at least finish the rest of what he had planned.

"I don't understand. Did something happen?" Darnell asked when Jared covered his eyes and took in deep breaths. Why was this so hard for him to do?

"Yeah," Jared sighed before swallowing his fear and reaching behind him to get the jewelry box. "In sorry I couldn't make things more special. I'm just really nervous," he apologized, showing the box to the younger man. Darnell's eyes were fixated on the box as Jared opened it to reveal the rings. The young man stared at them for a while before licking his lips and looking down at his hands. Jared's heart rate increased. He couldn't understand why Darnell had gone so quiet.

"I'm twenty..." the young man trailed, and Jared was a little lost. "I love you a lot, but proposing kind of freaks me out—"

"It's not that," Jared said, cutting Darnell off. His voice was shaky and riddled with tenseness, and his hands that he used to hold up the little jewelry box were shaky. Of course, trust me to just show him rings without being specific. He yelled at himself in his head, frowning before shaking

"I'm sorry, I'll do this again," Jared muttered, watching Darnell's confused look as he closed the box.

"I want to do two things today," he started after taking in deep breaths. "I wanted to ask you if you wanted to move in with me," Jared said, not wanting to meet Darnell's face. He feared the expression the man might have on, "and I wanted to give you this ring — they're couple rings — they're not what you think they are. I won't be doing anything like that soon, don't worry," he went on, feeling the tone of his voice change from word to word in his sentence. A little part of him knew that Darnell would say yes. He had asked Yves to ask the younger man about it, and Yves had given him positive responses. The thing was that fear wasn't always rational, and right now his mind was bombarding him with overdramatic 'what if he says no?' scenarios.

"Did you finally pick up on the fact that I wanted to live with you?" Darnell asked in a small voice, and Jared blinked, looking up.

"What?"

"I'm here most of the time, and I've taken over half of your closet and bathroom cabinet," Darnell said before giving Jared a sweet smile. "Of course, I'll move in with you," he muttered, reached his hands out to pull Jared into a hug. "I like living with you a lot." Jared couldn't start to express the relief and joy in his chest. He felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He hugged Darnell back, before pulling away to press a kiss to the man's full lips. Darnell hummed, deepening the kiss as he moved around until he was straddling Jared.

The rings had been forgotten and they had landed beside Jared on the bed.

"Wait," Jared said, covering Darnell's mouth before taking his hand away. "What about Nathalie?" he asked, remembering his friend's protective housemate.

"She'll be okay with it," he said, moving to play with the hair on Jared's chest. "It's not like she's had much time for me anyway. She's been seeing someone recently," Darnell mumbled. Although he sounded a little upset, the small curve in his lips told Jared that he was happy for her.

"Who is it?" Jared asked without thinking, before blinking and shaking his head. "Sorry, I guess that just came out." It wasn't his business to know. He wasn't very familiar with Nathalie, so why probe into her business.

"It's alright," Darnell said, his eyes still fixated on Jared's chest. "It's our landlord." Jared blinked, and then he blinked again. His mouth had cone lose a bit and he was staring at Darnell with both a confused frown and a mouth opened in shock.

"Your landlord?" Jared could vividly remember Darnell mentioning the man was a pain to be around and interact with.

"Yes. Strange, I know, but they had a talk one night when I was at your place — our place," he corrected himself, smiling, "And I think they sorted somethings out and now they're sort of dating."

"That's interesting," Jared said, making Darnell laugh.

"I guess."

They were quiet for a while, and it wasn't until Jared reached out for the rings that had fallen on the mattress beside him that a little of the tenseness from before returned.

"Do you like it?" Jared asked, showing Darnell the rings in the box. They were simple silver bands that could be worn with anything and worn anywhere. Darnell nodded, taking the smaller one he assumed to be his from the box before testing it. He grinned, reaching out his hand to the side so that he can stare at it.

"I love it," Darnell said, making Jared relieved. "Wear yours," he said almost immediately, taking out the other ring from the box before reaching out for Jared's hand. He helped the man put it on before he laced their hands together in a loose hold.

"I love you," Jared muttered, making Darnell blink in surprise. Jared almost never said those words first, and Darnell started to feel his stomach churn with happy butterflies.

"I love you too," he said in reply before they let go of each other's hands and started to kiss again. Darnell let out a small confused gasp when Jared pulled him off his lap and placed him on his back on his bed.

Jared moved on the bed too, hovering over the man as he kissed his face, his chest, his stomach before moving to hold the man's butt as he pressed hot kisses between his thighs. Darnell was making those sweet noises he usually did, and when Jared looked up the sight of him wiggling and trying to hold on to anything that would keep him from tussling made Jared's heart warm up.

"You're so adorable," Jared said, and Darnell went on to confuse the man by giggling.

"What's so funny?" Jared asked as a little frown took form on his face. If it was back when they first meet — back to when his paranoia meant everything, and everyone was out to make him feel bad about himself, Jared would have felt Darnell was laughing at him, but that wasn't the case here. He just wanted to know what had made his boyfriend so amused.

"Yves' says that all the time," Darnell replied, making Jared even more confused. "He keeps asking me how to act cute, and I kept telling him that's not a thing, but he keeps insisting that I give him hints. He said Austin would like it if he was a lot softer...?" Darnell seemed confused, so he stopped talking.

"I'm not making sense," he said after a while of silence, giving Jared an apologetic look and Jared just beamed at him, wondering how someone could be so wonderful and sweet. He kept kissing between Darnell's legs, cupping the man with his palm from time to time before moving to tease the man's tip with his tongue. The cute bucks Darnell did with his hips and the labored breathing the man had turned Jared on. He kissed up the length of the man, coaxing him with his tongue before guiding him to his mouth and sucking gently. Darnell moaned, reaching between his legs to hold on to Jared's hair. It was a bit painful, but Jared endured it until Darnell came and eased up. He wiped his mouth of the little bit of cum he couldn't swallow before running his hands up and down Darnell's legs.

"I'm so lucky," he muttered, more to himself than to Darnell as he moved to run his hands up and down the man's waist. "I'm so, so, lucky."

Darnell moved to sit up before moving to press a kiss to the man's cheek. "I'm lucky too. I love you."

They kissed for a while, their hot breath's fanning each other's faces as they knead each other's skins, touching and petting until they decided they couldn't leave it at kissing anymore. Darnell pressed a kiss to Jared's cheek before getting up to look for the tube of lube they had stashed in the study desk's drawers.

They hadn't been planning to sleep together today, but it seemed like they couldn't keep their hands off each other. Jared helped Darnell loosen up, and soon the two were joined together like two puzzle pieces, moving together in unison as they enjoyed each other's bodies.

Somehow, things evolved into them cuddling each other and talking. Jared finally brought up the invitation he got to his sister's house for the holidays and Darnell accepted the invite, talking about how it would be nice to see Jared's family. There were loose discussions about when Darnell would fully move in, and how college was going for him. But mostly, they just talked about mundane things. It was a nice thing. When talking to someone you completely value time with, any discussion could be a bonding moment.

And that was what they were doing; bonding and enjoying each other's company.