So you think you're in control
Title: So you think you’re in control
Pairing: Ernests Gulbis/Novak Djokovic
Other character: Mario Ancic
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 2,490
Warning: appearance of nipple tassels
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and this is a fiction.
Summary: Novak thinks that he is the one in control in his relationship with his boyfriend.
Author’s note: Dedicated to the_limousine who enjoys Haagen-Dazs (and nipple tassels, hopefully).
Ernests woke up after a good night’s sleep when he felt familiar fingers caress around his eyes.
“Hum… Morning, Nole.” He opened an eye to say ‘hi’.
“Morning, baby. I got you some eye cream.” Novak identified the cream that he was using.
“Ice cream?”
Ernests sprang up from the bed only to spot a small container on his boyfriend’s lap that read ‘super defensive anti-wrinkle eye cream.’
“Ah, I thought you said ice cream.” All the excitement sank in his mind and he lay down on the bed again.
“Don’t frown, Ernie. That’s why I got you this.”
Novak put a generous amount of cream between his eyebrows where Ernests used to frown a lot.
“But there’s no ice cream.”
“It’s chilly these days, Ernie. Ice cream is for summer.”
“It so isn’t! Ice cream is enjoyable throughout the year, no matter which season it is. I can prove it to you if you get me some.”
The Latvian winked, knowing that the spiky head died for such a gesture. He couldn’t even count how many things he had gotten from Novak with a simple wink.
“Fine. If you start smiling, I’ll get you some ice cream today.”
“Yay! I love you!”
Ernests grabbed his boyfriend’s hand that was on his face and started kissing the lean fingers.
“This is so alarming, you know. Anybody with enough money to buy ice cream could lure you so easily. A perv could load up his truck with ice cream and you’d walk right into the middle of it without thinking twice.”
“That’s not true. I only eat Haagen-Dazs and it’s not cheap to load a whole truck with it.” Ernests pointed out as if it made things less alarming.
“How safe I feel.”
Novak’s mouth shut tight as he felt the curly head suck on his index finger.
“Too bad I only have ten fingers.” His voice dropped. He was getting turned on.
“Don’t worry. I’m pretty creative as you might already know.”
Ernests put on a smile that didn’t look too innocent and Novak knew that he was going to spend a very happy morning.
“Eh… exactly how much money do you spend each month on unhealthy items such as ice cream, jelly beans and… gummy bears?”
Mario adjusted his glasses, surprised to find out that his client had a serious case of sweet tooth. He had decided to take up Novak’s offer of becoming his accountant until he could play professional tennis again and he found out that he was pretty good at it. He had always liked numbers and it was nice to feel useful.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not the one who’s digesting all that. I like my body to be as lean and flexible as it is now. Like this morning, I had to bend against…”
“Okay! Okay. I don’t need that much information to be your accountant. That’s rather for Ernie. I assume that he got you wrapped around his little finger but seriously, he likes gummy bears? What kind of adult eats gummy bears?”
“Yeah, I made that same face when he was all shy, telling me how much affection he had for those little bears.” Novak chuckled.
“Ah. I told you that you got yourself a baby as a boyfriend.”
Mario remembered half an year ago when Novak had knocked on his door with what was supposed to be good news.
“Hey, his baby fat is almost gone now. I don’t feel guilty for doing stuff to him anymore. You see, the other day, we even tried a few…”
“Again! Too much information for an accountant. They’re not supposed to be that close to clients, you know.”
“But you’re close to Ernie and me.”
“Yeah, unfortunately.” Mario joked and took off his glasses.
“So… any useful financial advice?”
Novak looked at the display screen of his cell phone. Ernests had left him three messages, all of them asking what had happened to his much anticipated ice cream.
“Look, Mario. I’m not wrapped around his pinkie finger. I’m the one who is in control in this relationship.”
Novak showed his Croatian friend the pleas that his boyfriend had left.
“Please come back home ASAP with ice cream, sweetheart. Please!”
Mario read the last text message with as much emotion as possible. He knew that he had talent for acting.
“He says ‘please’ pretty often. So cute.” Novak put his phone back in his jeans pocket.
“You really think you’re in control? Just because he says ‘please’? Ahaha…”
The twenty five year old couldn’t stop laughing at his friend’s naïve idea.
“Why are you laughing? Of course I am. Perhaps ice cream and sweets aren’t the best means of control but it works.”
“Nole, I never thought you were the delusional type.” Mario shook his head.
“I am not. And you don’t know how much he begs when we…”
“All right! Let’s say that you’re the one in control. It doesn’t cost me anything so I’ll just take your words for it.”
Mario lightly punched the Serb in the shoulder as a friendly gesture and got up with his account file before Novak would feed him graphic details of his physical encounter with his boyfriend which would only make him wish that he had a boyfriend of his own.
“Now get out of my house and go back to yours. The fourth text might be rather threatening.”
Mario kindly opened the door for his guest and Novak trotted off to his house, right across the street.
“Ahahaha…”
Novak couldn’t resist laughing as he spotted a figure sitting on the steps of the front porch. He had expected Ernests to jump out of the house when he pressed the door bell but the ice cream addict had better plans.
“Ernie!”
He swung the bag of ice cream up in the air and saw Ernests’ eyes and mouth grow wide.
“Come and give me a kiss!”
Novak opened his arms and took a glimpse back at Mario’s place. He could tell that the Croatian was looking outside the window.
“Ahh!”
Ernests knocked him to the ground while he had his head turned.
“They were right when they called you a baby-faced assassin. You could easily enjoy your ice cream on my dead body with such a happy face.”
“I don’t kill boyfriends who are faithful so you don’t have to worry.”
Ernests snatched the bag from Novak’s hand and examined the contents.
“Uh, do you think you could check on your precious ice cream after helping me get up? You’re crushing me.” Novak complained from beneath the big bones.
“Hmm?” Obviously, Ernests had other priorities.
“Ernie, you’re sitting on another male body in broad daylight in the middle of the street.”
The Latvian jumped up immediately and looked around to see if anybody was in sight.
“Phew, I should’ve waited inside.”
“Yes, you should’ve. Anyway it was good to see your face a few seconds earlier.”
“Aww, I love you too.”
Ernests helped his boyfriend get up and gave him a quick peck on the lips before running inside with the ice cream bag securely in his arms.
“Hey, wait for me!”
Novak ran after the twenty one year old and closed the door behind him. It was clearly a bad move to let Ernests grab the ice cream bag that easily.
Half an hour later, Ernests was in the bathtub filled with hot water, blissfully enjoying vanilla ice cream that his boyfriend fed him with the biggest spoon they had in the kitchen.
“Yum!”
He took another mouthful of ice cream and closed his mouth a little slowly, aware of the fact that Novak wouldn’t be able to resist ice cream flowing down to his chin. As expected, the Serb’s lips were quick to catch the dribbling and Ernests smiled with satisfaction as Novak kept licking the corner of his mouth even when the ice cream had all gone.
“I love it when you do that.” He informed the twenty two year old and took the spoon from him.
“Here. Open up, ahh-. It’s best to have ice cream in a hot tub when it’s chilly.”
Novak opened his mouth and thought that vanilla had never felt better. He was more of a chocolate type of person but he was capable of eating almost anything as long as it was Ernests who was feeding him.
“So, you said that there are many ways to enjoy ice cream in autumn. What other ways do we get to try today?”
Normally, Novak would have been more interested in going underwater and explore the fantasy land attached to the lovely curls but he was intrigued by what Ernests had said earlier.
“Hmm…”
Ernests licked the spoon clean and realized that he didn’t quite like the coldness of the spoon. He wanted something else to hold his ice cream for him.
“I have an idea which you might like better than this one. You get to be fully involved, body and mind!”
The Latvian pulled the plug out and picked up the shower head. They needed to move to get onto the next idea.
“Hey, where are those nipple tassels? The ones you got from that HEAD ad.” Ernests asked as soon as they moved to the bedroom.
Novak was throwing on a clean T-shirt, having no idea of how Ernests wanted him.
“I threw them away.” He answered, feeling much better about the horrible things that he had to do to sell a few racquets.
“Eh, no. I picked them up and stashed it somewhere.” Ernests got up and started looking inside the drawers.
“You picked them up? Why would you do that? They’re not even yours!”
“I like them! They look good on you and I wouldn’t mind some decorations on my plate.”
“Excuse me…?”
Novak learnt soon enough what Ernests had meant when his T-shirt went flying across the room by hands that didn’t belong to him.
“Om nom nom, what a feast.”
His thighs were being used as ice cream cones and he had to shiver every five seconds. Ernests had finally found the tassels in the bottom drawer and had handed them over but Novak had been stubborn and had only held onto them.
“Ernie, I’m freezing. Can’t you see me shaking?” Novak whined even though he didn’t want Ernests’ lips to leave his body.
“Oh? I thought you were shaking because of pleasure! Don’t worry, sweetie. I can make you hot. Just give me three minutes.”
Novak knew what was coming when his legs were opened a little further and he cursed himself for not having the will to stop his boyfriend.
“Ah, how delicious.”
Ernests wiped his mouth with the back of his boyfriend’s hand and straightened his back. It had been a while that he had delighted himself with a lovely combination of Haagen-Dazs and Novak.
“Vanilla’s not too bad, right?” He hadn’t forgotten to give spoonfuls of ice cream to his dear plate.
“I suppose.”
Novak made a mental note to buy more vanilla ice cream as soon as possible. It had been a pleasant time for him as well despite the patience that he had to display to get Ernests’ attention.
“Well, I need to burn all these calories now. Will you help me, please?” Ernests took off his boxers and crawled on top of the familiar body.
Novak opened his legs in his own this time and looked away. Mario’s voice rang in his ears.
‘You really think you’re in control? Just because he says ‘please’?’
“Is something bothering you, Nole?”
Ernests propped himself up on his elbows to take a good look at the annoyed face.
“If you’re not willing to help me, I can burn them in a different way.”
“No, no! I’m very willing!”
Novak hated the desperate tone in his voice but Ernests had only been warming him up. He would be damned not to go through with the really good part.
“Really? Hmm…”
“Yeah! See? I’m all excited, thinking about it. Just don’t make me shake these tassels.”
“Oh. Bah, I was looking forward to that part.”
Ernests made a sad face and Novak closed his eyes. There was no way he was going to do it ever again, even for his lovely boyfriend.
“Well, I’ll just go jog or something then. I wonder if Marat or Tomas would be up for a jog.”
The twenty one year old got up from the bed and Novak gritted his teeth.
“Okay, ok! You win! You’re the one in control!”
Ernests swallowed his laughter and yelled a cheerful ‘Yay!’ in his mind but as soon as he saw the main face of HEAD shake those wondrous tassels in front of his face, he burst out laughing.
“Ahahaha…”
“You don’t get to laugh! You’re the one who’s making me do this!”
“Bwahaha… too bad you’re good at tennis. You could’ve gotten other jobs,” Ernests said in between giggles.
Novak couldn’t take it anymore. He took off the horrendous tassels, threw them in the wastebasket and slammed his foot in it to make sure that they couldn’t be used again.
“Ahahaha…”
Ernests took pleasure in watching his boyfriend display an enormous amount of rage which rarely happened.
“I didn’t know that you had such harsh feelings towards them. They’re just tiny decorations.”
“These are so not tiny! And if you love them so much, why don’t you wear them?”
Novak looked like he was going to explode and Ernests knew that he had reached the limit.
“Fine. I’m sure we can still have a great time without them. Come back to bed, will you?”
The Latvian got back on the bed and patted the soft sheets.
“Nole… please?”
Novak wished so bad that he had the willpower to walk out of the room and save whatever was left of his dignity, but somehow he was headed to the bed and soon found himself on his back, willing to do anything for love again.
“Stop smiling in my face, Ernie. You want to burn calories? You’d better get started.”
“My pleasure!”
Ernests leaned over his boyfriend and gave him a quick hug. He was going to make sure that the pleasure would be more balanced between the two than from the ice cream session.
“Lift your hips, please!”
Ernests asked with a pillow in his hands while Novak pouted at the jolly voice. He had been a fool to think that, all this time, he had been in control.