Archive of Our Own ^beta

Davey couldn´t even tell whether or not Sarah had taken Jack up to the roof before, she probably had, honestly, because she was always up there doing the washing and well…it was the quietest spot there was around here. He wasn´t even sure just where those two stood in their relationship and if Davey was being quite honest he didn´t really want to know. It was foolish of him to believe that he could mean as much to Jack as his sister did and while Jack was never one to talk about his feelings he was aware that Jack did care for him, but in a different way than he cared about Sarah.

Davey always forced himself not to think about these things, and feelings, too much, because he didn´t want Jack to freak out and avoid him. He´d rather find himself heartbroken whenever he found the other boy outside in the fire escape waiting for Sarah than not being able to see Jack at all.

Back in the days Davey had come up here after school to read and study, after he had made sure to help his mother out a little of course, but these days he found himself disappearing up there ever so often to just hide away. Mostly when Jack came to visit and when it was clear to him that Sarah and Jack wanted some privacy. He really didn´t want to be the witness of some affection between them, no, thank you very much.

Something about today was different though, Sarah had been out late at work and Jack had come by, surprising Davey. Wasn´t he aware that Sarah worked late on the weekends? Of course he was, he had to be, and yet he was here and Davey was greeted with his lopsided grin as Jack put his head through the open window.

“Didn´t think I´d actually catch ya,” he smiled and Davey could feel himself blushing. He couldn´t help it, Jack had that effect on him, he´s had it from the day they had met.

“Well here I am,” he found himself saying as he closed the book he had been reading. Davey couldn´t remember the last time he had been alone with Jack and maybe, just maybe that was his own fault. He just didn´t want to be the third wheel when Sarah was around and being alone with Jack had become scary to him, scary because sometimes Davey wasn´t sure just how much self-control he had left when it came to the other boy.

“Yeah well ‘s just I haven´t seen ya around much the last few weeks and I figured I´d come by and see where y’ave been hidin’,” Jack replied as he looked back at Davey, who was still fighting off the blush and trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for being absent whenever the other boy came over to see Sarah.

“I´ve just been…studying.” Alright, that sounded fake even for him and Davey wasn´t even sure why he had come up with this lie, he had never been particularly good at lying in the first place and Jack had always been able to see right through him. It seemed as if he chose not to speak upon the matter though and Davey was thankful for that. “Up on the roof.” The fact that Jack wasn´t pressing on the matter, or so it seemed, might have been the reason why he told him in the first place.

“Well then let´s see why da roof is so much better than me,” Jack´s eyes met with his and he was smiling that totally irresistible smile and damn it, Davey was so screwed. He could feel his fingers shaking as they enclosed around the ladder that lead up to the roof. It seemed as if he was taking twice as long to get up there, especially with Jack following close behind and why couldn´t his best friend just have gone to see Sarah at work?

Once they had finally reached the rooftop Davey found feel his heart hammering against his ribcage and it only seemed to increase when he felt Jack hop onto the spot right behind him. Davey had always come here to hide away, between the flower pots and the clothes lines everyone used to hang up their washing. As a little boy nobody had caught him hiding behind his books, crying when some kids at school had called him stupid names and now nobody caught him biting back the tears when he had seen Jack stumbling in through the door, happy to visit Sarah.

It felt very stupid, but letting the other boy up here, taking him to a place that had served as Davey´s hiding spot for so long, made him feel even more vulnerable and he hated himself for that. “So…this is where I study. It´s…it´s less crowded and noisy, especially with Les around,” Davey then found himself saying, fiddling with the hem of his shirt as he turned around. “And most of the time you can see the stars from up here,” he pointed towards the sky, his eyes drifting to where his finger was directed. “It´s wonderful up here, really. You can just sit for hours and study and then you watch the sun go down over the city, watch how everything is being turned into gold and then the stars come out at night. You can even see certain constellations from up here.”

“Beautiful.” He heard Jack say then and he was about to agree when Davey turned to look back at the other boy and it wasn´t until then that he noticed that Jack hadn´t been looking at the sky at all. His eyes were fixed on Davey and there was that smile again, the one that made Davey´s stomach flutter and his heart skip a beat.

“Ya know I should paint ya more often Davey,” Another grin and a touch at his shoulder as Jack brushed past him and Davey was sure that at least half of New York could heart his heart beating right out of his chest.

Oh yeah, they were so going to miss dinner tonight.