Chapter 62

Henry's mind was blank.

With the ongoing trauma from the initial marriage meeting combined with the pure absurdity of the current situation, he did not know what to think? His brain had been speeding ahead all evening, and now it had come to a grinding halt as he found himself frozen in shock.

Joshua on the other hand… he looked down at the situation that had played out in front of him, and as much as he wanted to laugh at the bewildered expression upon the younger man's face, he was far more tempted to throw himself out of the apartment window out of pure shame.

His translucent skin immediately turned a deep red, and all he could really think to himself was 'is this not a little too much like the scene I read earlier…'

Ah, he really did want to throw himself out of the window now, because remembering the scene, the entire thing played out in his head once again, he felt himself react a little more. If his face got any hotter, it may have started giving off steam.

Although, lurking in the back of his mind was his recognition of how popular this trope was in BL novels, especially as an event to get things moving physically.

Thankfully, even if his brain was filled with a jumbled, embarrassed mess, Joshua's brain was at least functioning, which meant that even if Henry had not even thought about moving, the older man had.

With a sigh to try and hide his embarrassment, even if it was all too clear on his face, he lightly shoved Henry's head back, just hard enough to finally snap the younger man out of it. "Don't stare like that, it's unnerving." Joshua then walked pasted and sat himself down the sofa, bringing his knees to his chest so he could at least pretend he was in a decent state.

Henry blinked a couple more times before, turning back to Joshua, his mouth slightly agape. Despite having been explicitly told to stop staring, he was back to looking at Joshua with wide eyes.

Despite the furious blush that went down to his shoulders, Joshua's face was still relatively impassive considering what he had just gone through. However, the long Henry stared, the more of his thin skin was chipped away until he found himself melting in shame. The 24-year-old buried his face into his knees, suddenly seeming almost half his age. He really did lose his composure far too much around Henry, for some reason the amazing your man was like a harbinger of bad luck.

"I said stop staring!"

This time, the shock behind the stare was not quite the same. Earlier it had been… well indescribable.

But this time, it was more of a stare of amazement. At first it was down to the way Joshua handled it, there was just something very adult about how despite his embarrassment, he just went and sat down. He collected himself so quickly, it was, in his opinion, quite amazing. That, however, quickly morphed into a different sort of amazement when Joshua's front suddenly crumbled.

The older man was curled up in himself and his body had an almost unnoticeable tremor. In the moonlight, his red ears were almost glowing, and the blush on the back of his slim, pale neck grew darker. Meanwhile, he was subconsciously rubbing his big toes together. The image now was the complete opposite of the grown-up air that he had exuded earlier. It was the same type of cute reaction a teenager, normally the rebellious kind, would make when embarrassed to such an extent that bitter words and actions no longer sufficed.

Yet despite the youthful action, there was still a sense of self-assurance around the man. Henry was not sure how to describe it. Even though he was clearly embarrassed, so much so he felt the need to hide his face, he still seemed very self-assured. Especially for someone who's friend had just caught him literally face first with an erection.

Meanwhile, there was the blond man himself, he had started acting like a crazy person purely because his frustration was getting too much.

Not that he was aware that Joshua had been equally as determined to hide his condition.

Without meaning to, Henry's amber eyes found themselves back on the other man's neck, the blush now extremely vivid. A passing curiosity entered his mind… just how far down did Joshua's blush go? His translucent skin meant that even slight temperature change would become apparent, meaning there was a high chance that his body was also blushing to an extent.

Should he start hitting his head again?

But Henry could justify the thoughts. The man was by no means picky whenever it came to his one-night stands, but he definitely had a thing of ethereal beauties that blushed easily, the more they blush the better. There was just something breath-taking about the aesthetic to him. Obviously, this had only ever been towards the other sex before, but as much as he wanted to hit himself for thinking it, the curiosity was not the most insane. Not only was Henry backed up to hell, but the man sitting in front of him was the literal definition of ethereal beauty, and that was just a matter of fact.

Even though he kept staring, Henry's one-tracked mind slowly found itself thinking back to the aforementioned ethereal beauties the young man had slept with, and how they blushed… and what came after…

Eventually, after feeling the burning stare for long enough, Joshua turned to his left with a glare, only to realise that the other man was not really looking at him. The stare was unwavering, but there was absolutely nothing present behind them. In fact, they were even more hazy than before, enough that Joshua realised that it was not his own mood altering his perception.

Henry's tanned skin had a certain glow to it, almost like he was bathed in a rose-tinted light. With how distracted he was, the young man had not accounted for how he was sitting, leaning back on his hand, leaving his own arousal now visible to the other man. His tongue flicked out, licking his lips to whatever memory was playing in his head.

The only problem was that, if you ignore the fact that the Henry was not really looking at anything, his eyes were still boring into Joshua.

Joshua picked up one of the two cushions and threw it at the younger man's face, bringing him out of his fantasy.

The first thing Henry saw the expression of embarrassment and irritation that was on Joshua's face. It was only then he became conscious of his 'staring'. Immediately, he donned a sheepish face, not sure what else to do. "Sorry, I was… preoccupied…"

"You don't say."

An odd silence followed as the conversation promptly died.

The longer the silence went, the more conscious the younger man got, it not taking long for him to lay the cushion he had been hit with on his lap in an attempt to seem composed.

Now what were they going to do.

While Joshua sat there impassively, internally lamenting the whole situation, Henry seemed to be physically melting from shame. He had the whole situation repeating in his mind, and all he could think was what an idiot he must look like.

It was noticeable enough for the other man to put his lamenting aside, this whole situation seemed to really affect the younger man.

In the end, Joshua sighed again.

"As awkward as this is, you really don't have to be too embarrassed. It's a pretty natural occurrence." Joshua felt a little hypocritical saying the latter part, and somehow Henry caught onto it.

"Firstly, we're not hormonal teenagers, even then I was never this bad. And, tell me if I'm wrong, but somehow I don't believe this was ever a usual thing for you."

Joshua just averted his gaze.

"Exactly." And the conversation died again.

This time the silence was not so awkward, but it was incredibly tense. Both had been exposed and neither could calm themselves down. Henry once again entertained the idea of sucking up the embarrassment and just sorting himself out, as did Joshua, yet neither had the conviction to go ahead with it.

With neither of them capable of a string of thoughts anymore, all either man would do was occasionally glance towards to the other, looking away before any eye contact was established. Even they were not aware for how long this went on for before the inevitable happened: they locked gazes.

Joshua stared at the younger man. Before Henry had seemed to have a hazy, alluring air around him, but now it was a blatantly erotic expression mixed with a dash of embarrassment. The older man could only find himself empathising with him. Of course he was aware that his own expression would not be much better, especially with how insufferably hot his body felt.

It was like every part of his body was burning hot. Forget the fact he had never been pent up in his life, this was the first time in his whole life that he had ever wanted to have sex to this terrifying extent. There was this animalistic urge to push down the first willing girl he could find and have his way.

The man's face said it all and more. If Henry was able to think in his current condition, he would have found himself shocked at the expression. However, all that he could think now was how the man sitting in front of him clearly understood his current desires. Henry was seconds away from throwing everything they had worked for out of the window just to satisfy himself.

It was the latter realisation that made Henry realise they could not just leave it like this.

"I don't think I can hold back anymore."

"You shouldn't need to hold back."

Henry was not sure what shocked him more: the fact he finally spoke, that Joshua replied instantly or what his reply was. "So…"

"Well, this is your home so it feels a little awkward to suggest it, but is it really such a big deal if we jerked off in different rooms? It feels a little strange that we both would know, but it's better than both of us suffering like this. Plus, again, it's your home so you really shouldn't feel the need to hold back on my account."

"So… we just… jerk off…?" Henry felt conflicted between relief and awkwardness.

"Tch, don't make it weirder than it has to be, it's not exactly easy to suggest it." A crack appeared in Joshua's collected demeanour.

Henry had not even realised the other man had put up his calm face until the embarrassment started to peak through. It made him feel strangely better knowing that the other man was also find the whole thing awkward; somewhere in his mind, the younger man still had Joshua set up as the definition of a perfect human being, even after having seen otherwise multiple times.

They seemed to have reached a consensus, but neither moved first. It was almost as if whoever made a move first would lose. Obviously, there was no competition, nor should there be in this situation, yet the two prideful men kept waiting for the other to make the first move.

Once again, it was Joshua to crumble first, making the other realise that a quick defeat was perhaps part of his personality, a surprisingly cute trait for the 'perfect' man.

"I'm borrowing your bathroom!" With a simple exclamation, Joshua jumped up and rushed straight to the common bathroom. The door slammed and locked behind him. Everything was so fast that Henry was left craning his neck in the direction of the bathroom door.

After a couple seconds of silence, the sound of the lock sounded again, followed by the door opening an inch. In the dark, Henry watched as a slender, pale hand with a slight pink flush grappled the wall for the light switch. As soon as it was found, the switch was flipped, and hand shot back in like turtle hiding in its shell. The door was closed softly this time and locked again.

Henry slowing found himself smiling, a laugh escaping him. Joshua really could make him feel more at ease regardless of the situation, intentional or not. Still laughing, he shook his head and pushed himself off the floor and heading towards his own room.

Meanwhile, Joshua was slowly sliding down the bathroom door, face burning red in pure shame this time. He made a complete idiot of himself. And what he hated more was that despite all the shame, his lower body was still equally as demanding as earlier, perhaps even more.

Now all he could think about was that he was about to masturbate for the first time in almost seven years, in his fake fiancé's spare bathroom of all places. The whole thing was so embarrassing and awkward, it was surreal. Ah, could he really do this? He was horny enough for it, that was for sure, but he felt a little too thin faced about the whole thing. The idea of jerking himself off made him want to cringe. He looked down at himself and found himself biting down on his bottom lip. The internal conflict was overwhelming.

That was until he heard a low moan.

At first Joshua was convinced he was going insane, because it should be impossible for him to hear anything even if it was Henry, the whole apartment was well soundproofed. That was until he heard it again and found himself looking at the extraction fan in the wall. It took him a split second to realise that the two bathrooms were back-to-back to share the same water and waste system, it would not be surprising if the exhaust system was also shared.

The whole apartment was soundproofed, except the bathrooms.

That was the last straw for the man, the other clearly had gotten over the embarrassment of the situation that had arisen… pun unintended. Joshua felt like a food for holding himself back out of pride.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, Henry had completely lost himself in the audio pornography recording blasting in his highest quality headphones. He did not even remember where he really was, let alone all the awkwardness that had taken place earlier. He just let himself drown in his own desire and pleasure.