Page 17 of You're Ours

It was one of the every other Friday nights where Tyler was busy watching his niece, so Jackson had decided to catch up on emails while Sky replayed one of his cozy game obsessions.

Jackson had never really seen the appeal. Sky, on the other hand, had been playing games like these his whole life, and yet still celebrated almost every time he paid off a mortgage or unlocked a new recipe. Sometimes Jackson would sit with him on the couch, and he’d loyally lift his head from his phone, book, or laptop to approve of each of Sky’s new pieces of home decor or congratulate him on a well-caught fish. He figured since he was in the other room, he was excused from this now, so he scrolled through a report before attaching it and sending it off for final review.

“Oh! My god!” Sky called again.

Jackson felt his eyebrow twitch up, but he forced himself to begin drafting an agenda for his Monday morning all-hands meeting.

“Jackson!” Sky shouted, and Jackson finally looked up, right in time to see Sky running into the bedroom.

He was an absolute vision, wearing nothing but his floral print robe, silky boxers, and fuzzy raccoon socks. Emails immediately forgotten, Jackson closed his laptop and placed it off to the side.

“What is it, love?” he asked, arms spreading open to catch Sky as he lunged into bed.

“I was scrolling social media, just minding my own business–”

“Stalking Tyler,” Jackson corrected.

Sky huffed and gazed up at him. His cheeks were pink, which meant he’d probably broken out the wine to go along with his cozy night in. Given the overly sweet smell on his breath, Jackson guessed it was Moscato, and he’d probably had a lot of it.

“Minding my own business!” Sky said, a bit louder this time. “When I just so happened to come across a status update from Tyler.”

Sky brandished his phone in the air, and Jackson grudgingly accepted it–and was nearly blinded in the process. “Sky–we’ve talked about how bad this is for your eyes. Are you sure you won’t give night mode a try?”

Sky glared up at him and dramatically threw an arm across his face. “A hundred million years ago, man discovered fire–”

“There is absolutely no way it was a hundred million years ago. I’m pretty sure dinosaurs were still alive then,” Jackson said, as he fumbled through Sky’s settings until he could at least lower the brightness.

Sky shoved Jackson’s chest, succeeding in doing very little except dislodging himself from Jackson’s lap. “Okay, mister ‘I do finance but also have a strange amount of history trivia knowledge.’ When did man discover fire, then?”

Jackson squinted at him. “Maybe ten million years ago?”

Sky snatched his phone back, quickly cranking the brightness all the way up, before typing in his question. Jackson realized this was probably going to take the rest of the evening, so he pushed his laptop farther away and gathered Sky back up in his arms.

“It was actually two million years ago,” Sky said, proudly shoving his phone in Jackson’s face.

“Okay, so I was close at least.”

“I don’t think eight million is very close,” Sky said, shifting around until his back was against Jackson’s chest and he could hold the phone up so they could both see it. “I think if you gave your boss a budget and said ‘it’s close,’ and you were off by eight million–” Sky let out a shriek as Jackson tickled his sides. “Jackson! You know tickling is just going to end with us touching all over each other, and then fucking, and then I’ll never get to show you what I accidentally saw on Tyler’s profile!”

Jackson sighed and wrapped his arms around Sky’s middle. That was exactly what he’d hoped would happen. He didn’t use social media very much and wasn’t terribly interested in keeping tabs on Tyler. Would he enjoy seeing a picture of him with his adorable niece? Absolutely. But if Tyler wanted to show them, he would send it in their group chat like he had the previous time he babysat.

Sky held up his phone, and Jackson squinted at it. It wasn’t a photo of Tyler or his niece—or anyone else, for that matter. It was a relationship update.

It read: “Tyler Nielson is in a relationship.” Underneath, it showed that Sky was one of the two hundred plus people who had liked the update, and it had over seventy-five comments. The first comment was from Clara Nielson-Brenner and said, “Rooting for you, baby bro!” and had fifty likes. The next comment was from Stephanie Nielson-Brenner and said, “Wishing you nothing but happiness and fulfillment.” Underneath that, Tyler had responded with, “Why are you both on social media on date night!” and Clara had responded, “Why are you on social media with our daughter!”

Jackson had a stupid grin on his face, and when he glanced down, he saw Sky was smiling as well, but a very small one. Jackson’s smile faltered, and he shifted Sky in his arms to they could face each other. “That’s good…right? He wants to be public about the fact he’s taken?”

Sky nodded, but his knuckles turned white against his neon blue phone case. “He does…and yet, we still haven’t met his sister.”

Jackson tipped his head to lean against Sky’s. He had, of course, noticed this as well. He’d noticed a lot of things, like how it had been over two months and they hadn’t once been invited out to Tyler’s place. Or that Tyler would often catch a game or grab a drink with friends after work, and he hadn’t invited Jackson or Sky to join.

However, he also noticed other things. Like how Tyler had left a pair of pajamas in their hamper two weekends back, and the previous weekend, he’d thanked Sky profusely for washing them but had then proceeded to wear them the whole weekend because he hadn’t brought another pair. When Jackson found the familiar checker print pants in their hamper a second time, he’d smiled to himself all the way to work. He’d also noticed that Tyler had all of their favorite foods saved in his meal delivery app, and this weekend, he’d promised to cook for them, even though he admitted he only knew a handful of recipes and they were all Clara’s. He’d known, without asking, that Jackson would prefer shepherd's pie over pot pie, and he’d known to switch out the peas for green beans for Sky. He’d even offered to pick up Sky’s favorite wine–although after tonight, maybe he wouldn’t want to drink the rest of the weekend.

While Sky definitely had anxiety, he fought it tooth and nail and, for the most part, maintained a relatively positive outlook on life. The caved-in posture and dull look in his eyes was new and a little concerning. It could be the wine talking, or it could be insecurity clawing its way into his sweet partner.

“I don’t think that’s entirely unexpected,” Jackson said slowly. “We know he’s had a bad run of relationships, so perhaps he–and also maybe Clara–are taking things slow and not trying to rush into anything until everyone is ready.”

Sky gently rubbed his head against Jackson’s.

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