If Kieran had been thinking earlier, he may have thought better of suggesting they do an afternoon activity that involved him — staring at Jude every few seconds for a lengthy amount of time. And it felt like Jude was looking back too, looking at him kneeling on the floor. All of this while Kieran was painting the shape of Jude's body on his couch, from a lower angle, and thinking about the exact way his body settled on it. So — it was a lot, and Kieran was trying to remain as focused as possible on painting, because if he thought about everything else too hard he was going to lose his mind.

The worst part was that this had been his idea.

He switched paintbrushes so that he could start on Jude's hands on the book, and the curve of his perfect neck. And — oh, right. Twenty Thousand Leagues. He'd asked about the book, so he should have focused on it more. "Yeah," Kieran said with a grin, "I haven't finished it, though — but I like his other stuff, so I think I'll like this." Jules Verne was a muggle, or Kieran was pretty sure he was, but he wrote interesting books — fun books.

Kieran swiped his thumb across his cheek to move hair out of his face, leaving a streak of gray paint on his cheek.

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