WRAPPED AROUND YOUR FINGER

Timmy’s perpetual adoration of Alex’s tummy started the day he had lifted up his t-shirt and Timmy had found a surprise, something new waiting just for him. They had been away all winter, as it always happened, because no matter how determined Timmy was to become a farmer, there was no way his fathers would’ve let him if he didn’t graduate first. Winters usually were long periods of time Timmy could discern from the rest of the year because first it was cold, second he was in Lima, and third he didn’t get to see Alex if not through a computer screen. Sure, there was Santana, but she had the habit to stop being a relevant detail the moment Alex started blipping on his radar, so in that moment, when Alex had pulled up his t-shirt, she was as far away from Timmy’s mind as she could possibly be.

Alex had gotten his bellybutton pierced during the winter. He hadn’t told him, obviously. He wanted it to be a surprise – that’s what he told him as Timmy stared at him, breathless and speechless, his eyes wide and his lips parted.

The picture got stuck in his head to the point that, to this day, if only he had the skills, Timmy could draw the piercing in details, going just by his memory. There was a tiny, shiny butterfly hanging over his bellybutton, as if flying upon it, and three small chains, all in different lengths, hanging down the rounded shiny stone coming out of his navel. The little chains curved ever so slightly following the gentle curve of Alex’s tummy, and ended up in three more rounded gems that swung and swung with each and every movement Alex made.

“Do you like it?” Alex had asked, his lips already curling in an amused smile, because he already knew the answer.

Timmy hadn’t find it in himself to speak. He had dropped to his knees, like a fucking worshipper, and had started kissing his tummy, holding his hips in his hands, his eyes closed and his expression lost as his lips opened and closed over Alex’s bellybutton as if he was making out with it.

“You’re ridiculous,” Alex had chuckled, passing his heavily ringed fingers through his messy hair in gentle caresses that softened up his mocking words.

Timmy knew he was right. He had also understood, right from that moment, that he was hooked, and that was something he kept carrying with himself even when he had to go back home in winter, even when he ended up with Santana for the umpteenth time. Alex got him hooked, he was attached to him no less than the little gems he used to decorate his navel.

Truth is, he’s at a loss when it comes to Alex. He overwhelms him like nothing has ever done in his life, there is no thought, no event, no person that ever had quite as much of an effect on him as Alex was able to do, apparently without even much of an effort. He never needed much, sometimes it was a piece of clothing he would have never expected him to wear, or words he had never expected to hear from him, a new hairdo, a new piercing.

He’s got thousands of them, sometimes Timmy forgets how many. Eyebrow, nose, lips, tongue, nipple. And, of course, his bellybutton. To this day, that’s still Timmy’s favorite.

Alex knows, of course. He’s constantly covered in jewelry of every kind, but only for the navel piercings he keeps a box separate from all the other jewels. Simply because he has so many they just don’t fit with the others.

He only had a couple, in the beginning. He would alternate them according to the way he was dressed and how much he wanted men and women to turn their heads to watch him as he walked down the street that day. He only started buying more of them when he saw the effect they had on Timmy, how easily they confused him.

Despite being raised in a very open-minded family, there are a few concepts Timmy’s never been able to wrap his head around. He is accepting of everything, but some things he just doesn’t understand. He accepts them without understanding them, knowing that there are things that don’t need to be explained to be good. Alex is one of them, the way he deals with his body being probably the thing Timmy understands less and likes more in the whole world. Alex is confusing because he lives his femininity to the fullest without being actually feminine, and because the way he looks is never the plain sum of the things he’s wearing or the way he dolled himself up. He can wear pants and look exactly like a girl, and then wear a skirt and look nothing short of the sexiest guy Timmy’s ever seen. He’s shameless in his gender fluidity, he’s the first not to want to define himself, limit himself, and he makes it impossible for people to place him in a group or the other because ultimately he loves fucking up people’s brains, he loves the way they stare when they can’t for their lives make out what he is.

In Timmy’s eyes, he knows that, that look of confusion is always just the prologue for a look of adoration, and he likes that look so much that he learned as early as possible how to create the conditions for it to be replicated every time he wanted to see it.

Letting some weird jewel hang above his stomach always is the easiest one. When Alex doesn’t want to make an effort dolling himself up enough to make Timmy’s brain explode, he knows he can always resort to the navel piercings.

Today, he’s sporting a couple of cherry shaped jewels, something Timmy can’t even imagine himself or any other boy buying, let alone wear. The two cherries are red, the leaves green, they hang from his bellybutton like fruits ripe for the taking.

Alex’s lying down on his bed, the top he’s wearing pulled up just enough to show the piercing. It’s late in the afternoon, that annoying, boring hour in which it’s too late to have a snack and too soon to have dinner, and he’s got his eyes closed, his head tilted on one side. He’s listening to music through his ear-buds, the volume high enough that Timmy can hear it in a distant buzz, though he can’t make out what it is – and even if he did, he probably wouldn’t know the band or the singer anyway, Alex only listens to weird and obscure music, people whining in the mic at very high-pitched tones and so on.

He doesn’t want to disturb him, and he’s not even sure Alex would like to have him all over himself as he is now, still sweaty and covered in hay and dirt after the long hours of work out in the fields, but he keeps staring at those cherries popping out of Alex’s bellybutton and honestly, how is he supposed to stay away from that?

So he climbs on the bed, making it shake underneath his weight. Alex laughs, amused, but doesn’t open his eyes. Either he was expecting him, or he has known he was there all along. Timmy laughs too, lying down next to him and sliding down his body, only stopping when he’s close enough to Alex’s navel that he could kiss it if he just pursed his lips. In fact, he does, and Alex chuckles.

“You stink,” he says, opening his eyes and looking down at him and he takes off his ear-buds, “You could’ve taken a shower.”

“Yeah, that was the plan,” Timmy nods, “Until I saw you.”

“Ah,” Alex relaxes underneath him, his fingers now combing Timmy’s hair, taking their time to pull out some hay from it or untie the knots they encounter along the way, “So it’s my fault you couldn’t keep your hands off me.”

“Yes,” Timmy nods, “Precisely.”

“That’s so sexist,” Alex laughs, amused.

“It would be, if you were a girl,” Timmy smirks, “But you’re not. It’s one of the perks of having a boyfriend, I don’t have to worry about those things.”

“You’re still condoning rape culture, though,” Alex replies, stretching like a lazy cat underneath him, “It’s not the victim’s fault if you can’t keep your hands in your pockets.”

“Yeah…” Timmy whispers, placing a small, dry kiss right on Alex’s navel, “Where’s the victim, here? Please, point it out for me.”

“I would, if you were looking,” Alex chuckles, genuinely amused. Then his eyes soften, those incredible pools of summer sky blue, and Timmy feels the change in his voice and it compels him to look up at him. “Hey,” Alex says, greeting him as if they were just meeting.

“Hey,” Timmy answers, “Can I kiss you down here for a couple of minutes?”

Alex lets out a full, wholehearted laugh that makes his belly shake a little, and the piercing tinkle like a little bell. Mesmerized by the sound and by how stunning he looks, laughing like that in the pinkish light of the sunset, Timmy smiles widely, thinking it clearly, he’s hooked, he’s hooked, he’s hooked forever, wrapped around his finger like an invisible wedding ring.

“You do what you want, Timmy,” Alex finally answers, leaning in to kiss him on his lips before going back to his music, his closed eyes and his early evening nap, “Just wake me up for dinnertime.”

Timmy nods, bends over and starts kissing his belly, gently and sweetly as he’d do if he was kissing his lips while he was drifting off to sleep. He kisses around the piercing, on top of it and underneath it, feeling Alex’s skin turn warmer with each kiss.

When Alex’s parents start calling them for dinner, he takes the liberty of ignoring them for almost two full minutes, before he starts waking him up. He knows he won’t get angry about it.