"Do you want to go hang out with Lev?"

"Always." 

"Are you feeling up for it with the hangover?" he says, worried.

Pause. 

"....I'm not sure. Maybe just cuddling is a better idea?" 

He kisses Sasha's forehead.

"It's okay. The three of us can always hang out tomorrow."

Sasha's mother comes in to take away the plates and does not remark on her son being in bed naked with a man five years older than him.

....that's nice. That's really nice. 

Maybe Sasha should curl up in Asher's arms. Maybe he should fall asleep again. 

When he wakes up Asher is still there, scribbling incomprehensible figures onto a piece of paper with one hand and cradling Sasha with the other. There's a bowl of hot chicken soup near his bed.

Honestly what he really wants right now is a glass of water that is 90% ice. 

But he eats the chicken soup anyway. 

Asher kisses his forehead. 

"Guess what I got you when you were out."

"Is it chicken soup?" 

"Nope," he says, "that was your mom, who is really chill. --I got you Lev's and your favorite food."

With a dramatic gesture he presents Sasha with a cup of ice.

"I love you." 

Crushed ice makes a really, really satisfying cronch sound when he chews on it. Asher is so good. 

"Maybe now that your parents are so chill you and Lev and I can all go on a trip. Wherever you want to go."

"Maybe!" Cronch cronch cronch. "I'm not sure where I'd want to go, but that's. A really nice thought." 

Asher continues to snuggle him and cover the page with incomprehensible scribbles.

(It is probably math, although some strange kind of math that doesn't have any numbers in it.)

Lots of math doesn't have numbers in it. And lots of math is incomprehensible, Sasha's kind of dumb. That's normal. 

Asher stays with Sasha for a couple more hours and then leaves; he has plans with Lev. 

(Asher always has money for whatever he wants and never seems to have to work; he might be busy because he got caught up reading a book, or because he has plans to hang out with someone, or because he has tickets to go see a play, but never because he has a job. Sasha doesn't know what Asher's job is.)

Probably he's a programmer or something, it has weird hours and pays well and Asher's good at math. He knows they've talked about it, he's just too dumb to remember what they said. 

All day and the next morning, Sasha's parents call him 'Sasha' and 'son' and 'he'; they don't make any comments about his unfinished homework or his missed curfew,  their comments about his hangover are limited to concern, and their comments about his nice boyfriend Asher are limited to wanting him to come over to dinner sometime so they can meet him since he's so nice to their son.

(Sasha doesn't remember mentioning Asher to his parents.)

....huh. 

Well, whatever happened, he approves. He goes to school (he's still so tired but he can't not go in) not having done any of his homework. 

As usual since he started dating Asher this semester, his teachers' eyes seem to slide over him; they don't bother to collect the homework and they don't notice when he sleeps in class.

He does his best to concentrate. His best.... isn't very good. (His grades are better than ever so he must be doing something right — but he's kind of dumb anyway and he's so tired.) 

And after school he meets Lev out front. 

"Asher says you had a great time this weekend."

"Asher's right." 

Lev kisses him. "I remember my first time at one of Asher's parties. Well, sort of. Everything's kind of blurry."