“And so then I was like… ‘What do you mean I’m manipulative?’” Roswel starts laughing harder, which only makes Griff laugh harder. Griff tips his head back against the couch, holding his stomach. He lifts his head after a moment, stretching out a hand to wrap his fingers around Roswel’s wrist. “’What do you mean I’m manipulative?’” he says again. His voice is a little high from his laughter. And then he finishes it—the punchline. “’I told you I wanted waffles from the very start!’”

They collapse into absolute hysterics. Griff is laughing so hard that it sounds like he’s crying—like he’s some old Jewish woman at the wailing wall. It’s weak, helpless, drawn-out laughter, and there are tears coming down his flushed cheeks. “Oh. Oh. I can’t breathe.” He sits up, pushing himself weakly up onto the edge of the couch and putting his face in his hands, still laughing hard enough to shake his shoulders. He starts to breathe a little more regularly little by little. “Whooo.” He lifts his head, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Oh, Jesus.” He lets out a slow, worn-out laugh—one that actually sounds like ‘ha ha ha,’ and flops back against the back of the couch. “Aaah.”

It feels good to laugh like this. To have someone to laugh with. He opens his eyes, rolling his head to the side. He reaches his fingers out, catching at Roswel’s sleeve and pulling on it lightly, drawing him up onto the couch with him. He wraps his arm around him loosely and leans back against the back of the couch again.

He slides his hand down Roswel’s arm and then slips under it, resting on his waist. His fingers barely creep under the hem of Roswel's shirt, as if seeking the comforting heat of his skin. They go no further than the narrow bit of skin just beneath the hem of his shirt, patient and comfortable. Griff looks at the box of pizza on the arm of the chair and reaches for it, picking up one of Roswel’s abandoned crusts. “Tsk tsk. Roswel Roswel Roswel, not finishing your pizza crust.” He takes a bite of it. “That’s where all the vitamins are, you know.”