His eyes blinked, opening for only a moment before squeezing shut at the onsault of light. Fighting the slight sting in his eye, he began to survey the unfamiliar room around him. Judging by the painted walls and large expensive look of the room, Mason guessed that he was back at the Tyler’s place. 

The events of the previous night quickly flooded back into Mason’s mind and he let out a loud, drawn-out groan. The irritated reaction was the first thing to come to mind since it was the most effective way to distract from the blush on his face.

The first place his brain went was his conversation with Mark the night before, and he immediately wanted to die a million times over. Everything else that happened, the fun, the laughs, his friends making fools of themselves among a couple hundred people, it all took a back seat to Mark’s words.

You really have no idea how sexy you are?

“Well, I know exactly how sexy you are,” Mason muttered to himself, quickly groaning and burying his face into the pillow below. Actually saying those words to Mark? Mason would never. But fantasize over having the chance to dirty talk and maybe even . . . kiss Mark? Mason could do that all day.

However, Mason did not feel like being in his friends' guest room with an awkward boner. Chances were that Jasmine would barge in if it got later in the day and Mason was not up for going through that.

With a soft sigh, Mason sat up and shuffled his way off of the king bed. The sheet thingies —that he had never learned the name of— brushed against his cheeks as he stood up and he wiped at his eyes as he headed for the bathroom.

A spare toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste rested next to the sink, and Mason made full use of the items. He thought he had probably been brushing for too long as the entire time he scrubbed at his teeth, he thought of Mark.

Mason’s mind drifted as he relayed the events of the previous night. He probably could have been lazily scratching at his teeth forever if his hand hadn’t slipped, jerking him and forcing him to stand up straight.

Without the option of another pair of clothes to wear, Mason made his way downstairs in the slightly rumpled and now inappropriate outfit from the previous night. He was adjusting and attempting to fix his hair on his way to the kitchen when he came face to face with Mark.

The two froze in their tracks, staring at each other with startled expressions that were otherwise undecipherable. A beat later Mark cracked a smile and patted Mason on the back.

“Hey man, you rest well?” Mark asked, his wide smile and easy smile dropping some of the tension from Mason’s body, while also confusing him a ton. “Was probably hard to since we partied for so long.

Mason began to play along with the “forget anything ever happened” idea and smiled with a nod of his head.

“More of the opposite actually. The moment my head hit the pillow, I was gone.” Mason told him, gaining a sound of understanding from Mark. Mason briefly considered an idea that popped into his head.

If he played this correctly, he could move this situation further in his favor, eliminating any chance of awkward tension messing with their relationship in the future. Mason decided to go for it.

“You know, it is a bit hard for me to remember some of the stuff from later into the night.” Mason lied, shaking his head as he brought this hand up to his forehead. “I think it might be because of how tired I was but I think I’m forgetting some stuff.”

Mark seemed confused for a quick second before the cheery and pleasant expression reappeared on his face.

“Honestly, same, I don’t remember most of the night either. I mean, I don’t think I saw you until we were back in the car again.” Mason mentally freaked out, frustration building inside of him despite the fact that this was what he wanted. He pretended to be pleasantly surprised.

“Oh, yeah? Then I guess not huh.”

Mason and Mark stood in the awkward silence for a moment, neither of them moving to leave the room or continue the conversation. Mason bit at his lips, unknowingly drawing Mark’s eye down to the movement. Mark took a sudden step forward, pausing when he heard someone bounding down the stairs.

“Good morning boys!” Jasmine greeted her early morning personality a stark contrast to Mason’s dark and dishevelled look. Jasmine stopped beside the two of them, looking between them as she let out a sigh. “My biological twin and brother from another mother under the same roof once again. I love having you over, Mason. It’s like we’re all one big happy family again.”

Mark made a sassy remark to his twin's words for no apparent reason, and Mason’s genuine yet tense smile said enough for him. There was so much more that Mason wished to say, so many things he wished to clear up. But, Mason decided that it would be a better idea to simply keep things as they are and roll with it.

Despite the chaotic thoughts running around Mason’s brain, he managed to have a nice morning with the twins. As Mason expected, their mom cooked and her wonderful food managed to cheer Mason up that much more.

It was shortly after twelve that Jasmine made the drive to drop Mason back at home. It didn’t take too long to get to his place from hers but Mason still felt bad having her drive him and waste her precious time.

Mark had stayed home, relaxing instead of joining Jasmine on the ride. When they pulled up to Mason’s house, he was happy that Mark had decided to stay back. That way, he wasn’t there for the words that left Jasmine’s mouth.

“Mason,” She’d called out, stopping him before opening the passenger side door. Mason looked back at her and she wore a gentle yet concerned smile. “You know, if there is anything going on between you and Mark, or you are having trouble with your feelings, please know that you can talk to me about it. I know I’m his sister but if I need to, I can be your friend first.”

Mason’s first reaction was to huff, dropping his head to hide his expression and cover his embarrassment with annoyance. 

“Nothing is going on Jasmine, I’m fine.” He told her, averting his eyes out of fear that she would see the lie in his eyes. Jasmine didn’t get upset with Mason’s disregard, leaning forward slightly and widening her eyes. It showed the sincerity in them and Mason felt it necessary to look back at her again.

“I’m serious. You don’t have to tell me anything now, just know that I’ll be here for you.” Mason didn’t respond, but the nod of his head and serious expression on his face gained him a smile from Jasmine. “Alright, bye. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, Jazz,” Mason replied, sending her a soft smile.

—————

“Make sure that you are imitating the number of compressions and practicing using the valve at the same time,” Lorraine instructed, reminding them as the valves were being passed out. “It is important that you take this seriously because as soon as 1 hour from now you may need to know how to perform this correctly. You never know when this skill might be needed.”

Mason wrung his hands together, eyes moving everywhere in the room except for the area near the boy seated on the floor next to him. Mark didn’t make much of Mason’s refusal to look in his direction—let alone at him—and began to focus on repeating the instructions in his head. 

Today’s lesson had been over some basic first aid information and now they were practicing CPR. Most practiced on dummies and left it at that, but Lorraine wanted to add an extra step where her students practiced on each other. No pressure would be added of course as trying to pump the heart while it is already pumping is a terribly bad idea, but she wanted them to practice breathing into the valve.

There was almost no way for Mark to hurt Mason through this activity, but he still felt it was his responsibility to make sure that Mason was completely safe.

Looking over at the side of Mason’s face, Mark felt a surge of care run through him. Just knowing that Mason existed made Mark want to do everything he could to keep him here and keep him safe. Mark decided to cool down on his protective instincts and focus on what Lorraine was saying.

“Now that you have finished working with the dummies, you should feel comfortable with the tempo and confident in breathing along with it.” She said, smiling as her employees went about with the breathing valves.

In a couple of minutes, all of the valves were passed out, and Lorraine went to give the next instructions.

“So, decide which one of you will be lying down first and we can start-” Lorraine got interrupted by a man who raised his hand as he spoke. 

“Um, excuse me. My partner and I didn’t get a valve.” He told her, to which Lorraine’s eyes widened almost comically. She turned to her employees who quickly went to their table to get another valve. But, there were none on the table.

Two of them then went below the table and began sifting through any boxes or containers there. One of them finally stood up and turned to the pair with an apologetic expression.

“There are none left.” She stated, voice leaving no room for possibility. The frown on Lorraine’s face deepened and she rushed over to the table.

“That doesn’t make any sense, I ordered the exact amount for the number of pairs that we would have.” Lorraine said aloud, voice low to the point where the boys suspected that she didn’t want them to hear it. After looking thoroughly herself, she came back up with a sigh of her own.

“I’m sorry, I think that she is right.” Lorraine’s eyes went to the floor as she put her hand up to her mouth with a thoughtful expression. 

Mark’s went back to the pair again, he noticed how the man kept glancing at his partner awkwardly and how his partner was shifting and wringing her hands from the attention on her.

Mark glanced at Mason who had a sad expression on his face, obviously feeling bad for the pair himself. Then, Mark’s eyes went to their valve, the piece of equipment still resting in its plastic wrapping, completely untouched.

“Maybe you two can mimic the breathing or continue on the dummies if you’d like.” Lorraine offered, to which the man’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. Mark’s body jumped into action, his mind made up.

“They can have ours.” Mark offered, standing up and walking over to the pair. Lorraine seemed pleasantly surprised but Mark knew he had made the right decision when he had seen the relief on the girl’s face.

“Oh —uh— alright.” Mrs. Adams sputtered a bit as she tried to rearrange her thoughts, and Mark walked back to his seat, completely relaxed. Mason didn’t seem upset about it, and the bit of the unease Mark had about the entire situation fell off of his shoulders. “Okay, how about I give out the general directions and the two of you can substitute the breathing step however you feel comfortable.”

Mark nodded, and he and Mason sat and listened intently as she explained the simple instructions. Mark turned to Mason with a smirk on his lips.

“So partner, what do you reckon we do about this here situation?” Mark asked, gaining a choked laugh from Mason.

“Well, you are going to be practicing first. It's whatever you want to do.” Mason replied, a casual smile falling on his face. In reality, he was completely freaking. The idea of getting so close to Mark’s face with the valve between them had been bad enough.

Now, because of Mark’s generosity —which was crazy cute and sexy by the way—, Mason would have to stare up at the man with only a couple inches between them and nothing blocking his lips from the green-eyed boy’s.

It was going to be pure torture. Mark accepted the challenge. When Lorraine announced for them to get into position and set the timer, Mark was smirking at his plan.

Mark imitated the chest compression, but his face was closer to Mason’s body than it usually would be as he was applying any real pressure. Mason’s eyes were glued to the ceiling with unnecessary intent.

The only way he was going to get through this without kissing the living daylights out of Mark was by focusing on everything, except for that boy and his lips.

When it was time for Mark to breathe into his patient, he lowered his face until his nose was nearly touching Mason’s. His plan was to tease Mason, making his friend uncomfortable by getting so close to him every time but never actually bothering him. Mark wouldn’t do that since he knew Mason wasn’t really into him like that. 

Mark pulled back, imitating the compressions again, and Mason sucked in a deep breath with the renewed space. His heart had stopped when Mark had gotten that close. Being that close to Mark was so much better yet so much worse than Mason ever expected. He wondered how he would ever get through a whole round of it.

Mark came back in, planning on getting close and making Mason uncomfortable again. But, unlike the last time when his eyes had stayed on Mason’s cheek or neck, his eyes accidentally caught Mason’s.

The connection in their gazes’ hit Mark like nothing else and his mind was suddenly back on what had happened two nights prior. The Sunday after it had happened, Mark found it easy to lie about forgetting it when it was still stuck in his brain. He had never heard how Mason reacted to his words that night, and he continued to think about it. 

But, it had also forced him to acknowledge that Mason really was sexy. Mark thought that it was a casual observation, but the moment he truly thought about it, the more he realized that it was true.

His eyes, his face, his hair, his voice, his legs, his torso, his ass, his voice, his ass. It all attracted Mark in a crazy way that he had never acknowledged until that night at the bar.

And now, with his face only inches above Mason’s, Mark was reminded of all of those things again. Every last thing that had Mark guiltily tightening in his shorts. Mason’s eyes flitted between each of Mark’s, confused since the boy above him hadn’t moved despite the timer signaling for him to switch to the compression again.

“Mark-”

Warmth.

That was the first word that came to mind. The warmth of Mark’s lips pressing against Mason’s was like nothing he had experienced before. His toes curled and fists clenched at the tingles of awareness that ran through his body. Mark Tyler had his lips on Mason. Mark Tyler was kissing him.