originally posted january 10th, 2024
J slaps the back of Yuri's head. "Stop filming TikToks. Gimme your jacket."
"I'm not making TikToks," he says, elusive.
"OK. Stop beefing with kids on TikTok, then. Jacket."
"I'm not doing that, either."
"Give me your jaaacket. You don't need it."
Yuri tucks his phone away and looks at J, big-eyed. His lip trembles in a fake pout. "Yes I do. It's so cold. I'm so chilly. I'm chillymaxxing."
"Shut the fuck up. You do not. You don't even work like that, you don't need to be warm. Give it." They tug at Yuri's hood, kind of playfully but also way too aggressively. Yuri slaps their hand away, lurching back from them.
"But I'm sooo cold. I think I'll keep it."
"Give it, asshole."
"No."
Yuri gives up once J leans across the hard plastic seats and onto him, fumbling with the zipper on his coat. He shoves them.
"Okay, okay, chill. Here." He hands it over.
J burrows into the jacket, hood up, like one of the kids on those Alaskan wilderness survival shows. The reality TV ones that dads like. They go to put their headphones back in.
"Hey... you owe me."
"Ok."
"I want something in return."
"No."
Yuri raises an eyebrow. The only one visible through his stupid bangs. "C'mon. It's only fair."
"That's not equivalent."
"Yes it is. It's like paying for food."
"Paying for food is just money. I need blood to live, actually. There's a difference."
Yuri falls over J, into their lap and over their arms so they can't see their phone in their hands anymore. He wraps his arms around their neck. They glare at him.
"Pleaseee?"
"You're so annoying. No."
"You're abusing me. You suck."
"Ugh... Yeah, I'm abusing you because I hate you so much. Go away."
"Kill yourself."
"Maybe I will."
Yuri plants a kiss on J's face, annoyingly wet and sloppy and with an exaggerated mmmmwah sound. J recoils, shoving Yuri away from them. They wipe their mouth.
"Dude, ew! You're so gross!"
"You like it."
"No I don't! You only do it when you want something." But they sigh, and they're already rolling up the sleeve of their jacket. "...You're the freaking worst."
Yuri smiles smugly.
"Don't make that face. I said it's not equivalent, and I mean it. You gotta buy me a special little treats."
"Fiiine."
"And stickers. And a new shirt."
"You're so greedy," Yuri remarks.
"Says you." By this point, J's given up trying to roll up their sleeve, and instead opted to unzip the jacket and pull their arm out so Yuri can reach it. They take off their glove so that their wrist is free. "Whatever. Get it over with. Asshat."
They turn and lean on the window of the train, glaring out at the quickly moving landscape outside. It's snowing. The window is cold. J grumbles to themself and adjusts the way they're sitting so that their hood is protecting them from the cold.
Yuri holds J's wrist in his hands, running his thumb down their visible veins. They slap his hand, red-faced.
"Be normal."
"I am normal."
"Stop touching me like that, then. You're not freakin' Edward Cullen."
"You liiike Edward." Slowly and with purpose, Yuri drags his sharp black nail across J's wrist. They only wince a little, sucking in air through their teeth.
"But I don't like you."
Raised scars on J's skin suggests that this has happened before, many times— Yuri grins at the texture of them as he presses on their wrist, on both sides of the cut he's made, which quickly fills in with blood.
"Nice," he comments. J doesn't respond. They're pouting.
And, with that lack of response, Yuri shrugs and puts his mouth over J's wrist.
The sensation is sort of strange. It's just bleeding, but almost quicker— Yuri's spit has some fucked up quality that prevents clotting, or something like that. It's kinda gross, with his mouth all over their wrist.
J looks around, kind of nervous, their eyes flitting over the other passengers in the train car to make absolutely sure that no one's watching, that no one's seeing what's happening. They're spared any humiliation, because no one is looking. They're all busy on their phones. One is on a loud video call with some long-distance relative.
J looks down at Yuri. He looks back up at them.
"What?" Somehow he's gotten half his face covered in J's blood.
"How are you incapable of eating without making a mess of yourself? It's been three seconds."
"Uh, 'cause being covered in blood is sexy."
"Ew. No it's not."
"You think so," he says, smug. J groans.
"You're so gross." They cover their eyes with their free hand. "Don't look at me."
"Fine," says Yuri, except J isn't paying attention to him anymore.