Through the Screen novel Chapter 116

it's an escalation of events, to say the least, that has caused the pair to land in a. . . compromising position. the faintest trace of the argument that occurred earlier had completely vanished somewhere along noah's arm that wrapped around abel 's shoulders in tight hesitation and abel 's head that rested on noah's chest in bitter nostalgia—but right now they are so close to each other it's almost hard to breathe.

their closeness had progressed without context with each minute into the movie, with each glide of noah's fingers over abel 's arm. right now, abel is partially if not completely on top of noah, his left leg tangled between noah's, his fingertips learning the pattern of his torso and his cheek pressed firmly against noah's chest.

noah is occupied with the task of untangling the copper mop on top of abel 's head, one of his arms wrapped around his. . .friend? husband? lover? there were a lot of questions that were unanswered. amongst those questions were some that fit into their current situation, that absolutely needed to be answered before noah can stop himself from doing something more than just touching abel 's hair—but the muscle in his mouth refuses to move as per his will. it does that at the best of times.

it takes the buzzing of noah's phone for them to even notice the time—it was almost time for dinner and adrian's name was flashing on his screen in a sour reminder.

"hey, yeah i know it's late i'll be coming in—"

"stay," abel interrupts in a small voice, pushing his face deeper into noah's neck to hide the pink that decided to dust over his cheeks in an abundance of colour, humiliation and heat.

"huh?" noah tilts his head a little to look at him and abel purses his lips, moving away so he can look at noah and repeat the agonisingly pleading words again. he really can't let noah leave so soon.

"stay," he mumbles. "please,"

"stay?" noah repeats, swallowing the reluctance in his throat. "like the night?"