Archive of Our Own

“You know if you’re not careful,” Sapnap murmurs – his voice is low and husky and Karl preens under the change. “You’re gonna get that sweatshirt absolutely ruined. And you’ll have to wash it.”

Karl, who is already two fingers deep in himself and has his cheek pressed so hard to the bed that he’s nearly cross-eyed cries out, “ No.”

“Mm, you know I’m right.” There’s a slight shift from the other side and Sapnap is suddenly closer, his voice warmer in Karl’s ears. “If you cum on my sweatshirt, I’m not gonna be there to make it smell like me again, Kars. You need to be careful.  

He looks down at the sweatshirt, the purple one he’d stolen from Sapnap just hours before he’d left – looks at the way it falls down his small body and wraps him up like an oversized hug before he looks to the monitor on the other side of his room. Sapnap looks absolutely wrecked – his hair standing up and his cheeks pink, he’s long since abandoned his shirt and there’s a movement from his arm that truly could only mean one thing.

“You just need to come back,” Karl whispers, but pulls the sweatshirt up so his pink, hard cock is exposed for the camera once more. He bites his lip and wraps a small hand around the base, gives it a squeeze, and mumbles, “Nothing feels the same without you.”

Sapnap is in his ear again, and Karl can see the way he leans forward to get closer to the mic. He’s thankful that he’d remembered his AirPods before he’d started the call because Sapnap’s voice sends shivers down his spine when he says, “Go get the toy then, baby. The one I sent.”  

It’s a little embarrassing how desperate Karl had been for the toy – a silicone replica of Sapnap’s cock for him to use whenever he’s feeling particularly lonely or particularly empty. He takes it out of its prettily wrapped box, unties the ribbon, and tosses it to the side to pull the item out. It’s thicker than what he remembers – having been almost two months since he’d last been with Sapnap – and Karl sighs at the way it feels so, so heavy in his hand.

He stares at it and Sapnap, cheeky and warm, mumbles, “Go on, baby. Put it in your mouth. You know that’s what you want.” He flushes and glances up, catches Sapnap’s eye in the camera and kitten licks the tip. His pink tongue swirls around the head, and when he closes his eyes, Karl can almost remember what Sapnap tastes like, what he smells like. It’s almost as if he’s here.

He runs a hand down his torso and wraps it around his cock, squeezes it at the base and swallows down a moan that quickly simmers to a whimper at the base of his throat.  

“What are you being quiet for?” Sapnap asks. Karl blinks open lazily, soft smile on his lips and spit pooling on the end of his tongue as he laps at the toy. “Only one that can hear you is me, sweetheart. I wanna hear you. Be loud for me, come apart for me.” 

He reaches behind him and brushes his hole, already open, “Wish it were you.” He lines the toy up with his entrance and sinks down slowly, inch by inch, until a small, barely noticeable gasp slips through Karl’s lips when he bottoms out. 

“Yeah?” Sapnap has rolled his desk chair back, his thick, hard cock visible in the window on the camera. Karl aches to touch it - to twist his hand around it, to take it in his mouth and gag on it. He aches to wake Sapnap up in the morning while he’s still soft, take him in his mouth and roll it across his tongue until he’s heavy and hard and Sapnap is threading fingers through his hair, grunting his name and mumbling good morning to you too, sweetheart. 

If it were anyone else, Karl might have found the way Sapnap has himself presented to be arrogant - one leg on the edge of the desk, an arm behind his head, his other stroking slowly up and down his cock, balls bobbing up and down and up and down as if he has all the time in the world for this. 

“Promise me,” Karl whispers, “when we see each other again, you’ll remind me what it feels like to taste you.” His thighs quiver as he begins to bounce on the toy - slowly at first and then desperately. He leans back, lifts one leg in the air and fucks the dildo as quickly and deeply as he can while he shoves his face into his shoulder and inhales deep. 

Karl’s orgasm creeps up on him, pools in his belly until he feels like a rubber band about to snap. He holds off for as long as he can and when he lets out an aching plea of please, Sapnap whispers Karl’s favorite phrase into his mic. 

“Cum for me, bunny.”

Long after they’ve ended their call and Karl has had a chance to shower, answer a few work emails, and scroll his socials, he slips into his favorite set of blue silk pajama shorts and a matching top. He crawls into bed and curls up next to a stack of books and his laptop and when his internet slowly, but finally connects, he loads Discord and calls Sapnap. 

He’s thankful that it’s just a voice call, for Karl can’t feel a dip of shame in his stomach when he slips Sapnap’s hoodie over his head once more. He always misses him, but it’s been hurting more lately and the smell of the soft fabric has been his only form of relief. 

They talk for a long while, but as the night gets later, they grow quiet and eventually, Sapnap screen shares Valorant. If it were anyone else, Karl might’ve grown bored after a while. RPG games had never been his favorite, but Sapnap likes the company - likes telling Karl ‘ look at how fucking stupid this idiot is, what the fuck, have they ever held a fucking controller? Piece of shit’ and Karl has never been one to tell him he’s not in the mood. At this point, when Karl has been so busy he can barely stand and Sapnap has been just as, any time spent with Sapnap is time cherished. 

The glow of Karl’s laptop in his bedroom is soft, but cold in the way it makes everything look blue and pale and dull. A rainbow of colors flashes behind his closed eyes and Karl starts to slowly slip under, wrapped in a pile of blankets and curled protectively around his laptop. It’s July second and it’s hot, even in Karl’s quiet, new house.  A new house that doesn’t have Sapnap’s memories painted into the walls like the old one did. A new house feels barren and a bit like a wasteland, but it’s home and it’s close to work and it’s starting to feel less and less like a miserable decision he made when he was lonely one night in May.  

Karl is just on the verge of sleep when Sapnap says, soft and warm through the crackling of the call on his computer, “You still with me?” There’s a few clicks of the keyboard on the other end and a bit of shuffling followed by the squeak of a computer chair – Karl can picture it so clearly. Sapnap bundled in one of his sweatshirts, probably one from the new Pride line and likely because Dream keeps their house colder than Karl keeps his own. He’s probably got dark circles beneath his green eyes from a lack of sleep or stress, and his hair is longer than it was when he was here, grown in places that let it fall more evenly across his forehead. If the video call from earlier is anything to go by, it’s long enough now for Karl to really tangle his hands in it. 

“Yeah, ‘m still here.” He's overworked and exhausted – the ache in his bones sits so deep that Karl can’t seem to get enough rest anymore. He works long days at the studio and even longer nights while he’s been trying to kickstart a return to streaming. Everything is off, yet nothing has really changed except Karl feels empty. Disconnected. “Just listening.”

“Listening?” The tapping on the keyboard stills and Karl wraps his own sweatshirt tighter around him – it still smells like Sapnap – cool and fresh and if Karl closes his eyes tight enough, it almost feels like a pair of thick arms wrapped around his shoulders.

“To you. You mumble when you think.”

“Turn your cam on.” He hesitates at Sapnap’s request, considers peeling himself out of the sweatshirt but the call for facecam comes too quickly and Karl has never been one to make him wait. The initial glow of the screen is even brighter and when Karl’s eyes finally adjust, there he is – warm and soft around the edges and just like Karl had thought: wrapped in a white sweatshirt. “Hey pretty.”

Karl wiggles his fingers in response but remains quiet. He drinks Sapnap in like it’s the first time he’s been able to see him in weeks (it’s not – they facetime every few days and Snapchat more than enough, but he still likes to admire his boyfriend). Karl takes in the pretty golden flecks in his eyes and the way his nose slopes gently, he takes in his four-day-old stubble and the way Sapnap scratches at it with dull nails like he always does when he’s trying to wait on it to grow out a little longer.

“Hi, handsome.” Karl tucks his pillow tighter under his head and slips his arm under to prop himself up a little higher. “You haven’t streamed in a while. Your stans are going rabid on Twitter.” It’s only half true – Sapnap hasn’t streamed in nearly as long as Karl – the long-distance blues seem to be getting the better of both of them in the recent weeks. “Remember when you left my place and said you were really excited to stream more?”

A pink flush fills Sapnap’s cheeks and Karl lets out a gentle giggle in response – he settles into his covers and tries not to wish himself into another moment in time when he could be sitting on his Sapnap’s lap instead.  

“Just… haven’t felt like it much lately. Been tryin’ to get out in the sun and…” a loud laugh echoes against Sapnap’s walls and they both flinch. It’s nice, they’d agreed, that Dream has found something special in George in the same way they’d found it in each other, but it doesn’t stop the pain when their laughter gets spread across every social media platform. They’d both grown tired of it in the recent weeks and Karl still has yet to ask if Dream had done any actual confessing of his feelings yet. He doesn’t bother bringing it up now, either.

“Do you have any plans for the fourth?” Karl asks, soft and whispered, pulling Sapnap back in with a warmth that only they can give each other.

“Fireworks, I guess. I was trying to convince Dream to go to Disney but he’s all ‘let's wait for George’ this and ‘no, George should be here’ that. Gonna drive me crazy when I actually have to…” his voice trails off and a flash of guilt seeps into Sapnap’s expression. He means no harm by the jealousy, but it’s there, dripping off of every word and Karl shoots him a comforting smile.

“Just gotta give them a chance, Nick. George wants to see you too, you know that. You guys can go out and do your own thing and it’ll be good. You’re gonna love living with them, maybe they’ll be more bearable once they’re in person and they can sort out…” a peel of laughter interrupts their conversation and Sapnap lets out an irritated sigh.  

“Have you told him about us yet?” His voice jumps an octave in curiosity and Sapnap gives him a sheepish look. Karl doesn’t mind waiting, but at some point they know they need to tell their friends, their family, and eventually their fans. “It’s alright if you haven’t, but at some point Dream is gonna wonder why we spend so much time on a call every few nights.”  

They talk a little longer while Sapnap waits for his next lobby to be filled and Karl keeps his eyes glued to the way Sapnap moves – it’s relaxed and casual and he falls more in love with every noise, habit, and phrase that comes out of his boyfriend’s mouth.  

“You should get some sleep, Kars,” Sapnap says, his eyes trained on his opponent on screen, “You’ve got that long drive to Myrtle Beach tomorrow.” When Karl lazily blinks his eyes open, Sapnap is staring at him, a small smile hidden in the corner of his mouth.

“What?” Karl flushes and Sapnap shakes his head.

“Just thinkin’ about the next time I see you. I’m gonna kiss you until we both turn purple. That’s a promise.”

“Deal. I wish you could come with me.” He’s teetering on the edge of sleep, fingers twisted into his sheets and body curled around his laptop. Karl’s eyes droop. “Wanna watch you turn into a lobster on the beach.”

“Next year. We’ll celebrate the Fourth together next year.”

Karl is asleep before he can respond, but he makes it a promise to himself. Next year.

Morning comes too early, but Karl is on the road just as the sun breaks the horizon and the sky splits open into an array of yellows and oranges. It’s quiet but Karl knows that it won't be that way for much longer. He hits his first bout of traffic just as his phone starts to ring. The caller ID on his Tesla shows a picture of Sapnap and Karl.

“What’re you doing calling me at seven in the morning?”

“Wanted to make sure you got on the road safe.” His voice is muffled, and Karl wonders if he’s lost his phone in the tangle of his sheets.

“Been on the road for an hour and a half already, it’s been quiet.” There’s more rustling on the other end and Karl flinches when it echoes against his speakers. The heaviness that sits in the silence of their conversation makes Karl’s skin crawl – it feels empty, hollow, like a void he hasn’t quite managed to fill. He decided long ago that deep voids lead to nasty breaks. “Did you know the sixth of July is national kissing day?”  

“You just happened to know that off the top of your head?” The ding of a car door being opened on Sapnap’s side crackles through his speakers.  

“No, nimrod. I just… looked up national holidays a few days ago for stream ideas and that one caught my eye. Another holiday we don’t get to spend together.” He thinks of asking Sapnap about all of the new noises – it’s clear he’s in a car when he hears the engine rumble to life on the other side.

“You got any plans for celebrating?” Sapnap teases, light and happy – his voice waking up with him and so obvious in the way he’s in a different mood than the night before.  

“Oh yeah ,” the standstill traffic he’s been stuck in inches forward, “I’ve got a hot date with this handsome guy named Luke. You wouldn’t know him, but god is he hot.” Karl giggles, “Some might even say he’s smokin’.”

“Oh? Should I be jealous?”

“Probably. He’s pretty handsome.” The click-click of a blinker on the other end of the phone is what finally pushes Karl over the edge, “Are you goin’ somewhere? I thought you’d just woken up?”

“Just for a drive. Wanted to go see the beach.”

“Be careful. Floridian drivers are crazy.” The exit for Myrtle Beach is two miles ahead of him and Karl has driven this strip of I-95 enough times to know that if he keeps going straight, it’ll take him straight to Orlando. “Hey Sap? I’m gonna let you go. I gotta call Jimmy about something.”  

He misses his exit.

When Karl finally arrives in Orlando seven hours later, he parks his car a few blocks down the road from Sapnap and Dream’s house and considers the consequences of his last-minute decision. The palms of his hands are sweaty enough to leave marks on the leather of his steering wheel and his heart is lodged so deep in his throat that he feels like he can see his pulse behind his eyes with every passing second. 

Was this a bad idea? Did I make the wrong choice? Am I even making the right decision? Are we actually a thing or did I make this up? What if he didn’t want to see me? What if he doesn’t like surprises?

He sits there for twenty minutes. He counts each car that drives past and watches a young family walk their Golden Retriever down the other side of the street. He catches the moment the street lights blink to life just as the sun licks the horizon and eventually, slowly flickers out and leaves Karl in the dark of night. It takes everything he has to put the car in gear and pull back on the street and in the few minutes it takes Karl to find Sapnap’s home, he’s finally relaxed enough to breathe.

He wants this. He's always wanted this. Happy endings and real love and all the sappy bullshit the movies he grew up watching spewed at him whenever they got the chance. Now that Karl finally has that, he’s not letting it go. Four months had been too long since he’d been hugged, kissed, loved on, and his body aches for the comfort of warm hands on his hips. The house is just as Karl imagined it’d be – stereotypical in Floridian style with its boring white walls and blue-green hurricane windows. The roof is a deep, slate grey and the greenery out front is perfectly cut and shaped in a way that only a ridiculous homeowner’s association would approve of.

Karl steps out of the car and locks the door before he takes the front stairs two at a time. He doesn’t give himself a moment to hesitate before he rings the doorbell and rocks back on his heels.

This is it. This is the moment. He’s gonna open that door any second and he’s – Karl’s thoughts stop the moment his eyes land on the man in front of him. “Clay?”

“Karl?”

It’s not Karl’s first time seeing Dream, although it still feels like a punch to the gut whenever he does. He’s handsome and Karl has never been one to deny that fact about someone, especially when someone like Dream is so conventionally handsome. Tall, broad shoulders, messy blonde hair, and a cute nose – but this isn’t the man Karl has come for.

“Is Nick here?” Dream lifts an eyebrow and opens the door wider, a silent invitation for Karl to step inside.

“Uh, no. He’s- he left like earlier this morn- what are you doing here? I thought you were at Myrtle Beach this weekend?” Dream’s voice is laced with confusion and Karl chuckles at the way his voice tilts upwards with his question. He drops his bag onto the kitchen counter and looks over his shoulder at his friend.

“I mean, I was going to be, but…” He doesn’t know we’re dating. Right. “My birthday! I got tickets to Disney. For my birthday. And he mentioned you’d been withholding from letting him so I… I volunteered. Obviously. I love Disney, you know that.”  

Dream rubs an anxious hand against the back of his neck and laughs, whistle wheeze and all. “He’s in South Carolina.”

“He’s where? ”

“What do you mean you’re at Dream’s house?” Sapnap’s voice crackles on the other end of the phone and Karl, who is both exhausted and stressed from the long drive, tries not to cry. Karl, whose legs ache from sitting so long and who could use a long shower and a nice sleep, swallows down a sob that sits at the base of his throat.

“I’m at your house, nimrod. I bought tickets for us to go to Disney next week and everything. For my birthday. Granted, I bought them this afternoon when I stopped for lunch, but still. ”

“You… you what?"  

“Yeah,” Karl sits perched on the edge of Sapnap’s bed, forehead pillowed in his hand and phone tucked between his shoulder and his ear. The room smells just like he remembers Sapnap smelling like – green and cool with a hint of florality that, even now, tickles Karl’s nose.  His room isn’t messy, not in the way most people think it might be, but it’s certainly not clean and Karl can see the thin layer of dust on Sapnap’s bookshelf from where he’s sitting. “It was meant to be a surprise. For the fourth. And national kissing day. Granted, a surprise I decided on this morning but…. ”

“Karl, you idiot,” the insult is followed by a laugh, and he knows it’s meant with little ill intent. “You’re so fuckin’ dumb. I had this whole surprise planned – you were gonna film with Jimmy and he was gonna surprise you with me and now you’re- you’re not even here!” The next laugh that follows sounds exhausted – worn down with time and waiting.  

“We really should’ve planned this better, huh?” Karl falls back onto Sapnap’s bed and rolls into the left side, his body sinks into the little divot made by the kind of person that sleeps on the same side of the bed night after night.  

“Why don’t you get some sleep, Kars?” Karl bites back a whimper at how broken Sapnap sounds, he swallows it down and shoves his face so deep in Sapnap’s pillow that all he can smell and taste is love.

“Stay with me.” His voice cracks and Sapnap coos in response, warm words tumbling out of his mouth and through the speaker on Karl’s iPhone that sound a lot like ‘it’s okay baby’ and ‘take a breath, Karl. Calm down for me.’ “I’m not tired yet. I just… want to hear your voice.”  

The car blinker on the other end of the phone clicks in time with Karl’s heartbeat and he melts deeper into the comfort of Sapnap’s bed. The line falls silent for a few minutes until Sapnap clears his throat. “Hey baby?”

Karl hums in response, eyes trained on the framed picture of them on Sapnap’s bedside table. It’s tucked neatly towards the back and is one of the few pictures of them that the world has yet to see. In it, Karl is wrapped around Sapnap, chin hooked over his shoulder and temple pressed against his cheek. It’s a poorly timed selfie taken mid-laugh if the crinkles next to Sapnap’s eyes are anything to go by.

“There’s lube in the drawer next to my bed.” The phrase comes out so casual, so meaningless, but it’s as if Sapnap knows immediately what Karl needs, even without being here. His cock jumps at the thought – permission. “I’ve gotta go check into the hotel I found for the night, set your alarm?”

“You’re…. “ Karl’s body aches to be with him, to be wrapped around him in a cold hotel room somewhere in South Carolina. To be opened by thick fingers and fucked so deep into the mattress that his thighs shake for an hour afterward. He wants to be told what to do, how many fingers to put in and how fast to move. He wants to be pinned down and told ‘ no, don’t cum until I say’ until he’s weeping and begging for it.

“I’ve gotta go, Kars. Some of my bigger shirts are in the bottom drawer of my dresser if you want one to sleep in.” He ends the call with I love you.

Karl opens himself slowly, desperately with one finger slicked up with the lube he grabs from the back of Sapnap’s bedside table drawer. It smells like artificial strawberries and Karl wonders if it was by choice or accident that it tastes the same way his Chapstick does.  He takes his time, one finger after another until he’s open and desperate and aching for release. Karl cums on his belly, taking care to not ruin Sapnap’s red sheets or oversized comforter when he does.

He feels raw, open, and sore when he finally climbs back into the bed dressed in a soft, oversized Houston Cowboys shirt. Karl is just on the edge of sleep when his phone chimes.

Lost en Route Diner and Truck Stop. Only about a three-hour drive from my place. Meet there at noon?

Karl flushes and wonders if Sapnap knows what he’s just done, wonders if Sapnap wishes he had stuck around on the call to hear Karl moan his name into his pillow.

Noon sounds good. Love u.

Love u more.

Karl wakes to the chime of a text message with an address the next morning, just when the sun has barely broken through Sapnap’s blinds and while he’s still barely gaining consciousness. He stumbles into the shower and spends far too long washing every inch of his body with Sapnap’s soap and shampoo, lathers himself until he smells like everything he loves and as if it’ll be the last time he gets to be here, in Sapnap’s space.

Karl leaves a note on the fridge that says ‘ thanks! See ya in a few hrs. Text nick!’  

He pulls into the truck stop with caution a few hours later, confused at both the neon of the little diner in the background blinking at him and the way the twenty eighteen-wheelers are lined up quietly at the other end of the parking lot.  How did he find this place?

He circles the lot for five minutes before he spots Sapnap’s jeep secluded and tucked under a tree at the far end of the lot.

Karl has been through a lot of things. He’s grown up, he’s gone to college, he’s had friends hurt him and he’s had his trust broken. Karl has lost family members to illness and accidents, and he’s held the firstborn of his best friend just days after the little guy was born. In everything – in all of Karl’s short twenty-two years he’s been alive, he’s felt a lot of things, but he’s never quite felt the rush of love that swarms his body when he finally lays eyes on Sapnap after four long months apart.  

He barely pulls into the parking spot before he’s shifting the car into park and yanking his seatbelt off. He gets twisted in the belt just as the door opens and the smell of familiarity washes over him moments later. Karl melts into his seat as soon as the voice, sans static, is in his ear. “Kars, got yourself all twisted up, huh?”

Just like that, Karl is home. He’s pulled out of the seat by a pair of strong arms and a soft, “ you’re even lighter than I remember ” pressed into the collar of his shirt as he wraps his long legs around Sapnap’s waist.

“God,” Karl hiccups into Sapnap’s shoulder, “ God.”

“Most just call me Nick, but I guess God works too.” Karl slaps Sapnap’s shoulder, a wet giggle slips from his throat. They stand like that, wrapped around each other, and pressed against Karl’s Tesla for what feels like hours until their heartbeats have finally fallen in time with one another.

It’s when Sapnap finally sets Karl on the ground that he finally feels like this is real and like he’s connected to the Earth once again. A hand slides into the hair at the base of his neck, twists a long brown lock around a thick finger while Sapnap says, “Hope this was okay. Figured we could grab something to eat and decide where to go from there.”

“Nimrod,” the nickname slips out of Karl’s mouth like a memory – and while it hasn’t been that long since Karl’s last called his boyfriend it, the word feels warmer around the edges when he watches Sapnap roll his eyes in response. “I bet they have the best pancakes in Georgia here.”

“It’s rated three stars, Karl.” And he’s certain that the rating is correct when he looks over Sapnap’s shoulder at the pink and blue diner in the distance. The façade looks just like something out of the sixties with its baby blue walls and checkerboard black and white floors. The outside is wrapped in a shitty excuse for aluminum siding that he can already hear tinkling away from the pitter-patter of the oncoming afternoon storm.

They haven’t kissed yet, Karl realizes. His stomach twists with nerves as his fingers pull Sapnap closer by the hem of his black t-shirt. “You haven’t held your promise, you know.”

A smirk pulls at the corners of Sapnap’s lips as their eyes meet once more, something swirls dark and heady behind his green eyes that Karl knows too well. It lights a fire in his stomach that burns away any nerves that had been festering there, angry and jumbled. “I know I haven’t.”

“I can’t believe you’re withholding my–” Karl doesn’t get a chance to finish his sentence when he’s pulled in by the back of his neck and a finger looped in the belt of his jeans.

“As if I would withhold something I promised you, my little love,” Sapnap murmurs against the apple of Karl’s cheek. “As if I could force myself to wait any longer.”

When Sapnap pulls back just enough to cup Karl’s cheek with his hand, he pulls him in slowly and Karl savors every moment their breath mingles between them until Sapnap finally presses his lips against Karl’s. They kiss slowly, lazy and with no need to rush through the few quiet moments they get in their hectic daily lives. 

For once, it’s just them, their phones forgotten in their respective cars and their responsibilities put aside. Karl loops his arms around Sapnap’s neck and nips at his lower lip when he tries to pull back. He tastes like April – like the memories forgotten in the wall of his old house, like stolen kisses between takes and like chocolate easter candy bought on discount. Sapnap tastes like home.

They end up in the truck stop convenience store when Karl tells Sapnap “Lets get matching tacky Georgia shirts to wear to Disney.”  

Sapnap has never been one to say no to Karl. They wander for a while, picking up trinkets here and looking at snacks there. In the end, neither of them really find anything worth buying. Mostly, they spend their time kissing between their moments browsing and when they’re in a particularly secluded spot, they spend their time-pressed against a wall with one of their hands exploring places they only have memories of.

“It’s been so long,” Karl leans back against Sapnap’s chest, pressing his ass into the front of his jeans when he feels how hard he is for Karl. “We could – your jeep is so big. There’s no reason why we can’t just…” his voice trails off, laced with irritation.

“Karl,” the voice in his ear is low, warning. He knows he’s barking up a tree. “We should eat and get back on the road, we don’t- you know I’ll take care of you when we get home.”

“But Nick…” Karl says in his best, prettiest whine, and soon Sapnap’s hand slides up from where it’s been resting on Karl’s lower belly to wrap gently around his throat. A rush of air tickles the back of his neck and Karl knows he’s won.

Sapnap mutters slow, lazy, “Are you still open from last night?”

If they weren’t in the middle of a convenience store, tucked between two aisles of chips and a fridge filled with sweating, barely-cold beer, Karl might’ve told him to check for himself. He bites his lip and slips a hand behind him, palms at the bulge in Sapnap’s pants and says, “ Yeah. Made sure of it this morning, too.”

“Ah.” There's a hint of a laugh at the end of the word, and Karl turns his pink cheek into his shoulder to hide the way the embarrassment creeps down his neck. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you that I almost forgot what a desperate little slut you are for me. Couldn’t even wait till we got back home, huh? Till I could open you up slowly, with my mouth and my fingers and make you–”

“ Nick,” Karl cuts him off, “ Don’t.”

“Don’t what , my little love?” He twists Karl around and presses him against the shelf. “You came all the way out here open and needy and now that I agree to give you what you’re fuckin’ begging for… you just decide it’s too much?” Karl’s eyes flicker to the left where a couple has just turned the corner. They pull away just enough to seem casual as the couple gets closer and Sapnap says, “Go get the keys to the restroom. I’ll meet you at the entrance. It’s at the back of the building.”

He kisses Karl’s shoulder and steps around him, nods a quick hello at the other couple and when the door chimes, Karl knows he’s alone. He waits a painful five minutes in line and buys a cheap gas station rose when the cashier demands that a purchase must be made to use the bathroom. He makes it out the front door three dollars poorer but his step now in line with the jingle of a set of keys.  

When Karl rounds the back wall outside, he spots Sapnap leaning against it, arms crossed and a smile dancing in the corners of his lips.

“For you. We only have fifteen minutes. The cashier made a point of telling me.”

Karl holds up the rose and Sapnap laughs at the sight of it. He takes it with a careful hand and gives it a sniff. “Somehow I think this might live forever. Magical gas station powers or something.” He’s already pressing in on Karl, hands grabbing at his ass and lips pressed to his neck. Karl tries three times to get the key into the lock before Sapnap takes his hand and guides it in slowly. “Nervous, baby?”

“Shut up .” The door opens and they tumble through. It’s dirty, but Karl expected nothing less of a truck stop just outside the Florida state border. There’s a pile of dirt in the corner mixed with a handful of cigarette butts and a few shredded condom wrappers . The tile on the floor is so yellow that it doesn’t even bounce a reflection back when Sapnap flicks on the fluorescent light overhead. It reeks of day-old shitty beer and unsanitary, dirty water but Karl barely has a chance to take notice of it when he’s pressed against the porcelain sink, ass hitting the edge and a small oof slipping from his lips.  

“We don’t have long,” Sapnap says, fingers already popping the button on Karl’s jeans and pushing them down as far as they’ll go. Karl gasps – he hadn’t worn anything underneath and when the warm, humid air rushes against his hard cock, his hips rut upwards at the feeling. “No underwear?” Sapnap’s hand is thick and rough when it wraps around Karl’s cock, the pad of his thumb smears the bead of precum that’s pooled at the tip.

“Why would I?” He smirks and Sapnap shakes his head in response. “Knew what I wanted before I even fell asleep last night.” Karl jumps up on the edge of the sink and uses the toe of one foot to slide his jeans off. They dangle from his left leg, but Karl doesn’t try to get them off the rest of the way – he’d sooner die than let his jeans touch the dirty floor. “C’mere, you oaf.” Two thin, long legs wrap around Sapnap’s waist and pull him closer, “I’ll make it up to you when we get back to Orlando. At least two full days of just fucking. All day. Wherever.”

“You talk too much.” Sapnap silences him with a kiss, a drip of laughter seeps between their lips and Karl melts into his lips. Their kisses are sloppy and rushed, tongues sliding against one another and teeth clacking as Sapnap pulls a packet of lube from his pocket and Karl pushes his black track shorts down just enough to free his cock. It’s thick and heavy and fits perfectly in Karl’s delicate little hand.  

Sapnap slides an arm under Karl’s thigh and hikes his leg over his shoulder. The cold porcelain of the sink digs into his lower back but the thought slips from his mind the moment a warm, thick finger presses at his hole.

“What I wouldn’t give to taste you right now.”

A husky grunt follows Sapnap’s sentence and Karl, already so open and twitching to be filled bites back with “ you talk too much.” Their eyes meet and Karl knows he’s done it – he watches the soft smile on Sapnap’s face slide into a smirk as the grip on his thigh grows tighter. He’ll have a set of bruises on his pale skin in a few hours but that’ll be nothing compared to the feeling he’ll get from driving home filled with cum.

Sapnap bites Karl’s calf and wraps his free hand around the thick base of his cock. He gives it a squeeze and taps the head against Karl’s hole. He feels exposed like this – legs up and pressed against his stomach. Sapnap presses his thumb into Karl and it gives way easily, fluttering nervously while he fights the urge to grind his hips back on it. If he does, there’s a good chance he might fall off the sink .

If it weren’t for the lock on the door, Karl might’ve been more nervous for someone to see him like this, for someone to see him so desperate and open.

His toes curl when he says, as slow and even as he can, “Are you actually gonna fuck me or are you just gonna tease me all day?”

Sapnap strokes his cock a few times, slips two fingers into Karl and stretches him slowly. “Don’t wanna hurt you.” The head of his cock is an angry red when Karl takes it in his hand and runs his thumb up its length. He pulls Sapnap forward by it, a gentle tug until he can line it up with his hole.

Sapnap pushes into Karl at an agonizingly slow pace, each inch pushing forward so slowly that Karl’s head falls back against the cracked mirror and he lets out a little, desperate yelp at the way it rings from the sudden motion. His heel digs into the base of Sapnap’s spine, urging him closer, urging him in. “ Please. Fuck me, Nick. Please.”

A harsh, loud smack lands on the pale inside of Karl’s thigh. “Knock it off, I’ll fuck you good when I’m ready to. I don’t want to hurt you.” Sapnap grabs Karl’s chin and pulls him in for a kiss. “I’ve got a few weeks to really make sure you’re taken care of.”  

Karl mewls, “ Nick.” It’d been four long, desperate months apart filled with his own fingers, crackled, static moans and orgasms that felt good, but nothing that felt quite like this. Nothing that felt as good as a warm body. Sapnap’s warm body. Karl clenches around Sapnap’s cock and rolls his hips down, “Move, please.”

Sapnap’s hips snap forward and Karl, unexpecting and overwhelmed, lets out a helpless moan at the way his body slides so easily against Sapnap’s. His fingers grab at Sapnap’s shoulders, pressing deep and digging in against the soft, worn fabric of his black t-shirt. His cock slaps his belly with every thrust Sapnap makes, trapped between their bodies and flushed red from the friction of the shirt against the sensitive tip.  

“You feel so…” Sapnap pulls Karl even further forward and he catches himself on the edge of the sink with two hands planted behind him before he can slip to the floor. “I swear you were made for me.”

Karl’s elbow gives out and the sink startles to life when his shoulder hits the knob. He gasps as the water seeps into the back of his shirt and Sapnap, flush and sweaty, laughs at the way they both seem to lose themselves in his thrusts. Sapnap has never been a selfish lover, but Karl sometimes wishes he were – if only to get him deeper, and faster, and harder than where he’s at.

“Please, faster, please!” Karl’s fingers twist in Sapnap’s shirt and pull him forward. They meet in a messy kiss, Sapnap’s lips sliding against Karl’s slick with spit and sweat and eventually trailing down to his neck. He sucks and nibbles and bites a trail of deep, dark purple marks down the hollow of Karl’s throat, hips snapping as fast and as hard as they can. “I’m,” Karl gasps just as Sapnap adjusts them once more, the angle perfect to nail Karl’s prostate every time his cock sinks back in.  “I’m not- I’m gonna…”

“Cum for me, pretty. You don’t have to wait. Whenever you want.” Karl hides his face in Sapnap’s neck and wraps a hand around his cock, gives himself two sharp, fast twists before he’s cumming, spilling sticky line after sticky line of cum across his shirt. It clings to the fabric and drips down his cheek.    

His orgasm simmers deep inside him, warming his legs and arms, causing his toes to clench with each continued thrust from Sapnap until he feels like jelly – happy and satiated. Karl uses his index finger to swipe the bead of cum from his cheek and presses it against Sapnap’s lips. A soft, teasing tongue licks it away and Karl flushes when Sapnap’s hips stutter forwards. Karl doesn’t question it when Sapnap bends the knee off of his shoulder, yanking Karl’s jeans all the way off and tossing them over the paper towel dispenser. It’s messy and he’s sweaty and Karl lets out a sweet, desperate moan when Sapnap pulls Karl forward and off the sink. He slips out of him without warning and pushes at Karl’s shoulder until he’s squatting on the ground, balancing carefully on the toes of his sandals and aching, tender thighs.

“Wanna fill you up like you deserve when I can properly fuck you later. Open. This is all you get for now.” A thumb presses against Karl’s lower lip and pulls his jaw down while he tips his head back. If they were anywhere else, Karl would be on his knees, desperately choking on Sapnap’s cock, but he settles for sucking on Sapnap’s thumb and batting his eyes.

Sapnap pulls his hand from Karl’s mouth and slips it through his long, brown locks. He twists his hands in his hair and yanks his head back, exposing the length of his throat and making his mouth fall open even further. He strokes his cock quickly, soft little huffs following each upward movement, fingers pulling harder at Karl’s hair until he’s cumming in long, white spurts.

It splatters across Karl’s lips, slipping down onto the soft of his tongue and across the long line of his jaw. It slips into his hair, clings to the longer pieces that hang in front of Karl’s soft, grey eyes. Finally, just as two loud, angry knocks slam against the thin metal of the door, Sapnap gives one final, lazy twitch, a thick line of cum falling heavy across Karl’s nose and eyelid where it drips off of his long, delicate lashes like teardrops.  

“Just a sec!” Sapnap pulls Karl’s to his feet and takes a moment to drink the sight in. Karl feels fucked out, warm around the edges and thrumming on the inside when Sapnap says give me your foot, step in, there you go as he helps him get dressed once more . He buttons Karl’s pants with practiced ease and steadies him against the edge of the white porcelain sink.  

A louder set of knocks come and Sapnap says, once more, “Give me a damn second, I’ll be right out!” He snaps a picture of Karl on his phone before he warms a thin, brown paper towel in the sink and wipes Karl’s face off. Sapnap tucks himself back into his shorts and kisses Karl one last time before he pushes the door open and tosses the set of keys in the general direction of the convenience store clerk with a smile, “Thanks, man.”

They’re nearly to their cars when Karl remembers the gift he’d gotten Sapnap, “Did you lose your flower?”

“Did you really think I’d forget?” He pulls the cheap rose from his back pocket and gives it a spin between his fingers before teasingly tapping it against the cum stains on Karl’s shirt. “Plan on keepin’ this for a long time. Bit of a keepsake now that we’ve had sex in a truck stop.”

Karl hums and slots his fingers with Sapnap’s. “We should’ve checked for a glory hole. That would’ve been a fun one.”  

They don’t rush back to Orlando. The weather rolls in angry and sudden and Karl, having not eaten since lunch the day before, convinces Sapnap to eat at the diner on the other side of the parking lot. The food is barely warm and the seats are hardly comfortable, but they get to share the same side of a small booth with a window view and that’s enough for the both of them.

When they finally stroll out of the diner, their stomachs filled to the brim with pancakes, apple juice, and a shared piece of peach cobbler, it's nearly three in the afternoon and the skies have grown a heavy, deep gray. The clouds swirl in dizzying circles above them, the air fizzles in a way that should be startling, and a clap of thunder sounds just as they get halfway to their vehicles. Every nerve in Karl’s body tells him they should go back inside, but Sapnap pulls him forward, his pace slow and unrushed. The sky opens above them and a wave of ice-cold rainwater pours down in angry sheets. They’re both absolutely drenched by the time they reach their vehicles and while Karl is shivering and ready to change into something warm, he looks over to find Sapnap with a soft, dopey grin on his face.

“We’re getting soaked!” Karl yells, a crack of thunder echoes overhead and his ears ring from it.

Sapnap lets out a laugh and pulls Karl into his arms, his lips pressed against the shell of Karl’s ear when he says, “That’s the whole point, little man. Dance with me.” When Karl looks down at Sapnap, he drinks in his expression – soft around the edges and so at ease with life. He looks happy and it becomes apparently obvious to Karl, at that moment, that he might have something to do with that.

The words bring back the flash of a memory from all those months ago in Karl’s old house, in front of his old streaming setup, in front of nearly two hundred thousand viewers and all their closest friends. While Karl had been climbing Sapnap’s chair like a monkey and while a little bead of feelings had already begun to dig its way into his heart and settle there.  

Dance with me, Karl had said. Sapnap, shy and closed as tight as a clam, giggled and rolled his eyes.

Dance with me.

They slow dance in the rain until the storm has long passed and the sky has bloomed into a wild shade of pinks and reds and oranges. They dance until Sapnap has run out of songs to hum in Karl’s ear and until their clothes have begun to stick to places in more than one uncomfortable way. They dance until Sapnap finally pulls back and says, “Let’s go home.”

When they get back to Orlando, Karl doesn’t see Dream for three days. He and Sapnap spend two of them tucked in the warm space of Sapnap’s sheets, sometimes alternating to the shower when either of them grows sick of being sticky and sometimes to the desk when Sapnap feels like playing Valorant. It isn’t until nearly midnight on the third day, after they’ve spent most of it exploring Orlando together, that Karl finally sees Dream.

“Karl?”

“Clay?”

“What are you doing here? I thought you went…. “ Dream’s voice trails off when Sapnap steps through the front door, three bags filled with tacky, off-brand Disney merchandise in his arms and a soft smile on his face.

“I think I left the bag with the lube in the front seat, can you go grab it?” He looks at Karl like he’s hung the moon, a warm smile on his face and looking so desperately in love with him that it makes Karl’s head spin. He sees Dream instantly and gives him a wave. “Oh, hey man, I thought you were heading to your parents’ place?” 

Dream sinks back into the couch and after Patches has curled up on his lap, Karl catches the moment his eyes flicker from the marks on Karl’s neck to Sapnap’s face. “Are you guys fucking?”