VICTORY DANCE ?

          jake raises a dark brow, pursing his lips as he watches the guardian, before he shakes his head. “you know somethin’? this is unbelievably uncool. i feel like you’re telling me to be safe or something. it’s weird.” he nudges quill with his foot, not quite able to look at him, “you sure do do it a lot. sucks that gamora won’t do it with you.” 

          “i am sitting still!” and almost on cue, jake shifts a little more, before scrunching his nose in thought. “man, this blows. hurts like a bitch.” the thought of the graveyard sounds a lot more appealing than spending another night in the cleanest dumpster he can find, so jake blows on his wound, reading the look in connors eyes with a nod. “uh-... yeah, man. sure. how.. far is it?”

          he shifts both legs away when he feels the bed shift as quill sits, and the pixellated noise of gunfire comes from his console as quill talks. for a short time, jake doesn’t respond, before he grunts, and pauses, turning his head to peer at quill with a furrowed brow. “fine. i guess. if i think of it, or whatever.” he turns properly, sitting up and squinting at the screen of his game, but not hitting the pause button again. “..did you have to do that on-... yondu’s ship?”

          he peeks back over his own shoulder, amber eyes cutting holes into quill as he speaks. “she ran into gamora when she was leaving! she nearly got a hole shot through her! what am i supposed to do, just hole up and be celibate on this ship for life? some rolemodel you are for that.” and with that, there’s a little startup noise from a game- jake’s clearly taken a page from groot’s book when it comes to quill trying to talk.

          “god, you are so fucking gross. get out of my room, please. it was ONE space girl, and she’s probably too scared of gamora to come back.” he sounds a bit grumpy about that fact, rolling over and turning his back to quill as he talks.

          “yeah, sure, how old is he? i could get used to babysitting.” his smile is sun-bright, something that felt so plastic under the slight twist in his stomach- it was always himself he was talking about, because there wasn’t anyone else to brag about. that’s another downside to being alone, he guesses. “i guess i don’t really know any different then. like, i know kind of different, people i know wanna hang out all the time, but... y’know, like, siblings are different. i can see it with like, my best friend, rich? i see it with his older brother and stuff. dude’s scary, but they’re like that-” he links his little fingers together to seal his point. “-y’know?”

          it startles him, and he twitches, before shrugging. “...yeah, you are. uh-.. i just- i guess i wish i did. i used to want a little sibling all the time.” he neglects to bring up that’s it’s probably better for his theoretical sibling that they didn’t exist at all, especially with the kind of upbringing jake’s done for himself.

          “see, i don’t mind alone. sometimes alone is good.”

          jake scrunches his nose in thought as he looks at rich, eyes squint shut for a moment, before he shrugs. “yeah, i guess. then you’re kind of an asshole for being good but not meaning it or whatever.” he gasps over dramatically when he’s shoved, and nudges rich back, shaking his head. “man, i give myself shit about my appearances. i’m free game for everyone. shit’s important to me, you know? plus nobody knows the real me, ‘cause everyone thinks my shit is fake one-hundred percent of the time.” he snickers, but when he voices it out loud, he notes how... weirdly concerning it is. “how about you, huh? what’s your appearance?”

          JUST  WHEN  THE  CLOCK  STRIKES  QUARTER - PAST ,  jake  comes  crashing  in ,  disoriented  and  clearly  out  of  his  element .  his  hair  is  still  a  bedhead  worthy  mess ,  and  he’s  rubbing  sleep  from  his  eyes ,  visibly  suppressing  a  yawn .   “  hey -  hey ,  sorry  i’m  late ,  i -  fell  asleep ,  and  i  didn’t  mean  to .   i’m  not  usually -  it’s  not  my  thing  to  be  late .  sorry .   uh -  ”   another  yawn ,  rubbing  his  eyes  only  pronounces  the  dark  shadows  beneath  his  eyes .   “  yeah ,  sorry .   you  okay ?  ”

me:

          “  WOW ,  ALRIGHT  ELI .  ”   hurt  feelings  .  ):

          JAKE  LAUGHS ,  moves  his  hand  and  links  his  little  finger  with  hers ,  shaking  their  hands  for  a  moment ,  smiling  softly .   “  baby ,  can  we  not  talk  about  that ?   bad  vibes .  ”   he  mumbles ,  kissing  the  side  of  her  head  again .  “  that  was  kind  of  a  mean  thing  to  do ,  yeah .   y’could  have  just  talked  to  me ,  chlo .  ”

also me: :/

          AFTER  LAST  NIGHT ,  and  finally  managing  to  push  chloe  away  from  him  once  and  for  all ,  jake’s  exhausted .   an  hour  into  the  drive  back  home ,  and  his  snooze  on  alice’s  shoulder  is  disrupted  by  a  jump -   he  scrunches  up  his  face ,  and  yawns .   “  mm -  hey .   hi .   how  far  away  are  we ... ?  ”   he’s  trying  really  hard  to  push  his  nose  into  alice’s  shoulder .     @laststops .