Issac rolled over in bed, trying to hide from the sunlight that filtered through a crack in the curtains covering the french doors in his bedroom. He groaned as last night replayed in his head. God. How embarrassing. It wasn’t that he cried. His parents were scholars who had taught him that emotional outlets were natural. The issue was that Issac had wanted to be cool in front of his new roommate.

Now, there was no way that Markus would think that. He probably thought Issac was just a jellyfish. No backbone. His brain pushed the words Markus had said before Issac ran away like a distressed princess. “You waited until the end of the night to lose it, too. I think that means you’re pretty fucking strong,” the man had said.

Issac rubbed a hand over his face, and reluctantly sat up. Maybe Markus didn’t think he was weak. He groaned and flopped back onto the bed and thrashed his arms and legs around, pushing his blankets off the mattress in the process. Then, he stilled and sighed.

“Fucking get up and face it, Ice,” he growled at himself. “Get your ass up, get a shower, and get dressed. You can always try and apologize for your behavior with food.” He’d noticed how much Markus had liked his dinner. The guy would probably forget everything and even offer to marry him if he made an even better breakfast. Proper motivation applied, Issac got out of bed and went to the ensuite to get ready.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Markus was doing his morning exercises in his room. Push-ups, sit-ups, squats, lunges, planks, anything that didn’t require equipment. All of a sudden, his stomach let out a ferocious rumble. Until then, he hadn’t noticed his room had filled with the most incredible aroma.

His arms gave out, and Markus belly-flopped as he focused on the scent. “Is that... is that... bacon?”

After a couple of tries, where he tripped himself and tried to take out his shoulder with the doorjamb, he made it out of his room and down the stairs. He didn’t even bother to put a shirt on. Because bacon. His biggest weakness. Mmm, bacon.

He followed his nose to the plate of bacon sitting in the center of the kitchen island. Ink stayed honed in on the dish and licked his lips. His stomach roared in anticipation. Because bacon.

A hand came into view sitting down Japanese styled rolled egg. Then it placed down a plate of country styled potatoes with fried eggs on top. His roommate’s voice softly entered his ears, “Good morning.”

Markus forced his eyes away from the beautiful stack of bacon to look at Issac. The guy was trying to look anywhere but at him, with a slight blush on his face. Issac cleared his throat before continuing, “I’m afraid breakfast isn’t the healthiest, but it should be tasty.”

“Bacon,” Markus said intelligently.

This made the vlogger finally look at him. He blinked owlishly for a moment before breaking out with a “pfffft.” Issac seemed to lose his awkwardness at Markus’s lack of vocabulary. “Okay, let’s eat.” The guy took a shovel-like spatula and expertly shoveled some country potatoes with two eggs onto a plate. Then he grabbed a small pair of tongs and put six slices of bacon on the plate. He sat the offering in front of the seat closest to where Markus was standing, before plating his own food.

Markus sat at the table and grabbed a piece of bacon. He didn’t wolf it down as Issac was probably expecting. No. Bacon was meant to be savored. Ink took a small bite and chewed it slowly, his eyes closing in bliss. He hummed his appreciation and took another bite. He was officially in heaven.

Once Markus had finished his first slice of bacon and taken a drink of water, he was able to move his focus away from that all-encompassing perfection on his plate long enough to really look at his roommate. The guy took half the amount of food for his plate than he’d given Ink, but he hadn’t actually taken a bite yet. “What’s wrong?”

This little online celebrity took a deep breath, then looked up at Ink’s face through his lashes. How could someone used to being within everyone’s focus be so shy? He toyed with the fork that sat on the table in front of him. “I just wanted to apologize for my behavior last night.”

Markus gently placed his fork on his plate, put his elbows on the table, and threaded his fingers together in front of his lower face, as he watched Issac. “You have nothing to apologize for.” Markus knew his serious face probably made him look overbearing or scary, but this wasn’t something he would ever smile and shrug off. “Your reaction was perfectly normal.”

Issac smiled weakly in response. He picked up his fork and played with a piece of potato before poking the yolk on the fried egg that sat on top of the pile.

“Besides,” Markus continued, still watching Issac like a hawk, “I might not care what you do if you keep feeding me bacon. Jaywalk? Fine. Crank call people? If you really want to. Grand larceny? Whatever. Murder? … Well, you might have to fix me double portions of bacon for that one.” He said all this with his serious face still in place.

Laughter bubbled up from deep inside Issac, and at last, the boy relaxed, and the awkwardness disappeared.