Chapter Text
There are a variety of little physical details that define anyone's living space - things you just fall into the rhythm of, know to adapt to, navigate around. Jess was used to his own front door - rough, stubborn, hard to get open without any kind of sound.
The Griffins' door, thankfully, was not that. Cody had stabilized a little bit on the drive over - they might have to work a little on the theory behind it, but Jess was willing to credit that to the fact that he'd gotten about a gallon of water down. So he was pretty sure Cody could safely make it upstairs, even though he still walked carefully behind him.
"Cody?"
Jess winced as Sharon's voice came down the hall, but he gathered his courage to reply.
"Hi Mrs. Griffin!"
"Oh, hey Jess, is that - ?"
"Yeah, it's both of us." Cody's voice was slightly dulled, but Jess hoped it wouldn't betray too much. "Jess is gonna stay over if that's OK?"
Fortunately, Sharon didn't seem to feel the need to come and get any visual confirmation. "Yeah, that's fine. How was the dance?"
"Good!" Jess replied for both of them, somewhat quickly. "G'night!"
"Night Mom." Cody followed up feebly.
By whatever merciful stroke of luck allows you to safely walk your drunk merman best friend up the stairs to his room, Jess was grateful that the same universe allowed for his human mom to just let things slide.
"Night guys. Love you."
As they reached the top of the stairs, Cody gave Jess a devious-ish grin over his shoulder, acknowledging that close call with a mostly-silent giggle. Jess just rolled his eyes and gently pushed him inside, and carefully closed the door.
It couldn't have been more than a few seconds - in the time it took Jess to turn back around from closing the door, Cody had walked over to his bed and pulled off his sweater, and was similarly-casually undoing his belt.
Jess immediately spun back around, cheeks going red. On the other side of the room, Cody actually chuckled, choking slightly on a hiccup.
"You can look, y'know."
Eyes still fixed on the poster on the back of the door, Jess just gulped as he heard the jingle of Cody's belt buckle hit the floor. "Nah, it's....you're changing..."
"Jess, it's literally just boxers, anyone who ever came to a swim meet has seen all o' this already." He laughed again - Jess heard him toe off his shoes and kick them semi-smoothly into the closet.
There was some logic to that. Jess wished someone could tell his heartbeat that, but all things considered, it was no different than a bathing suit.
By the time he'd turned around, Cody had flopped down on his bed, splayed out like a starfish and staring at the ceiling. As Jess tentatively walked over, Cody sat up and looked himself over again.
"It's good I didn't get any feet scales, that would've been gross with the dress socks." He frowned as he looked down, wiggling his toes.
"Uh, yeah, right." Jess just fidgeted with his dad's keys, spinning them on his finger....and losing his grip, accidentally flinging them right into Cody's chest.
"Damn, sorry - "
"You throwing stuff at me now Professor?"
"Nah, sorry, I didn't - "
"Hmmmmmmmm." Cody picked up the keys and started spinning them similarly, giving Jess a kind of dopey, teasing grin. Jess just raised his eyebrows, waiting.
"I'll need those back y'know, I should get home."
Even if it maybe didn't look like it, Cody's next move was completely and honestly accidental. The key ring flew off his finger, sending them somewhere into the laundry basket on the other corner of the room.
"Oops."
Jess just gave him an amused-exasperated smile. "OK, I'll go - "
"Nah, now you have to stay." Cody snickered, leaning back on his pillows and giving him a teasing look. Jess looked back over at him and put his hands on his hips.
"I d'know if I should be taking advice from the drunk merman right now."
Cody propped himself up on his elbows, legs still stretched out in front of him. "You're right, you shouldn't leave me alone then."
Jess was just tired enough - and concerned enough about Cody's wellbeing - that that teasing grin had almost no effect on him.
Almost.
Kind of a surprising reversal of just a short 48 hours ago - Cody in Jess's room, staying the night to watch over him, now with the roles reversed - or close to it. Cody wasn't in any state to be taking care of anyone else right now, anyway.
As if reading his mind, Cody just patted the bed beside him and scootched over to one side. "C'mon, just like, what, two nights ago?"
Slowly, Jess walked back over, doing his best to keep his eyes on Cody's, and not...well, not anywhere else. Comfortable and confident as ever, Cody was still stretched out on the bed in just his boxers.
"You want me to stay over?"
"Uh, duh. C'mon." Cody semi-clumsily moved on the bed to put himself under the covers on one side, and pulled back the other side, looking at him expectantly. "My bed's bigger, you'll have your whole own side this time."
"I...I didn't bring pajamas." Cody might have more liberal ideas about appropriate sleepware (or lack thereof), but Jess was staunchly a pajamas guy. And however incredibly embarrassingly-interested certain parts of him were in the concept of sleeping next to Cody with not-alot-of-clothes, he wasn't about to entertain such thoughts right now. Or ever.
Cody just pointed to the chest of drawers with the same lazy smile. "You know where they are." Jess didn't need any further prompting - he quickly found a pair of pants and T shirt and made straight for the door. Cody might be pretty cavalier about changing - or rather, not changing - in front of him, but with everything going on in his brain right now, Jess was pretty sure he'd need some extremely cold water to the face to survive the night.
"OK, I'll be back in a sec."
Cody shifted flat on his back and held his hands up to see them better, spreading his fingers against the outlines of the stars on the wallpaper. With the extra water and reassurance he'd gotten from Jess on the drive back, he'd managed to relax and let the scales to go down, and luckily, no signs of that changing anytime soon.
He just felt so, so exhausted.
"Hi." Jess said awkwardly as he closed the door behind him. The hair at the top of his forehead was wet, and his glasses had two little droplets on the left lens. Cody wasn't quite trusting his own memory in any great detail, but it looked like Jess's face was a little less red. Guess that was what cold water did to humans.
"Hi." Cody replied, smiling at him. "Could you get the lights?"
Jess flipped the switch, leaving just the small nightlight and the fish tank.
Cody patted the bed beside him again. "C'mon, I'm tired."
"You could've gone to sleep while I was gone." Jess rolled his eyes, his voice teasing as he walked over. Cody's old T shirt was big on his small shoulders, and the hems of the pajama pants fell down past his heels, but he looked comfortable and warm enough.
Jess awkwardly sat down on the open side of the bed and was only just swinging his legs up and under the covers when Cody slid closer and pulled him into a tight bear hug, leaving both of them laying back on the pillows.
"Yeah, but then I couldn't do this."
Taking a deep breath - gosh, the surprises of the night just kept coming, between almost-kissing Heather and Cody waiting to go to sleep until he could hug him - Jess reached down and haltingly pulled the covers up over both of them. Cody didn't let go, just shifted closer, cuddling him close in the same pose from two nights - or maybe a whole lifetime, as far as Jess could gauge - ago.
"Glad to oblige."
Cody then pulled back slightly, propping himself up to look at him. The nightlight was close enough that Jess could see his expression - somewhat worried, his eyes wary, looking at him closely. This close, Jess actually noticed how wide Cody's eyes could dilate - guess that would be the merman low-light vision.
"You're OK, right? I didn't hurt you?"
"What? N-no, it's all good. My ribs are feeling better."
Cody started to settle back down, but propped up again, like his thoughts were catching up to his body. Guess that would be the alcohol.
"Is - is this OK? I'm not...I'm not trying to come on to you or anything, just - "
"Yeah, yeah, totally. It's fine."
Same as before, that clarification was only slightly disappointing - but Jess knew better than to delude himself like that. Better to have things spelled out.
Cody looked at him for a long several seconds, like he was deciding. Jess just laid there, heart pounding, awaiting his verdict.
"OK, cool."
Apparently that was enough of a decision made - Cody immediately laid back down and snuggled Jess close, closing his eyes and putting his head on the pillow with a contented smile. It seemed like only a few moments before he was quietly snoring, chest slowly rising and falling against where Jess was hugged tight.
This was still extremely new and wild and gosh what had he done for the universe to give him two nights like this at all, nevermind in the same 72 hours?!?
And even though Jess knew that this was definitely a fluke, a twice-in-a-lifetime experience, he still could let himself enjoy how comfortable, how easy, how right it felt to tuck his head into Cody's shoulder, to let their breathing and heartbeats slow down together, to drift off to sleep, soft and safe.