Work Text:
He’s finally going to do it. He’s finally going to ask out Kel.
Sure, it will be over the phone and he’d much rather confess in person but living four hours away from each other makes that pretty difficult. Plus, Aubrey has been up his ass the past month, teasing him constantly about his little (read: major) crush on his best friend. So, he’s finally doing it.
He just needs to start the call. That isn’t the hard part as the two boys have been calling each other almost every day for at least a month now. The anxiety of what he’s about to do is what’s actually causing him to hesitate.
It’s Kel, for Christ's sake! What’s the worst that can happen? Oh, right, Sunny thinks, dismally, he can just tear my heart in two.
In his pessimistic sulking, he didn’t notice accidentally hitting the call button or the faint dial tone coming from the speaker. He only noticed when Kel started shouting his name to get his attention.
Almost fumbling the phone out of surprise, Sunny lifts the cordless handset to his ear and quickly apologizes, “Sorry, I didn’t know I hit call.”
Kel just hums and shifts into a more comfortable position. “What’s on your mind?”
“What?” Sunny freezes, repeating what he’s said in his head. He’s said a total of eight words; there’s no way Kel suspects anything. “W-what do you mean?”
“Well, you’re pretty aware of your surroundings usually so for you to not notice you started the call must mean something’s up,” Kel explains and then adds, “Plus you just stuttered. You only do that when you’re nervous.”
“I see…” Sunny trails off.
Kel shifts again before saying, “You know you can trust me with anything, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” Sunny exhales. This shouldn’t be this hard. He takes a long, deep breath and blurts out, “Do you want to come for a visit?”
Kel laughs, a bright and beautiful sound. “Yeah! It would be so fun to chill with the whole gang in the city,” he says before asking, “Why were you nervous about that? Did you think we would say no?”
I guess I was pretty vague, Sunny thinks. He moves the phone to his other ear and clarifies, “No, I mean just you.”
“Just me? What do you mean?” Kel says, still not understanding.
“I mean If you’d like to visit. Like, just you and me.” Getting a bit frustrated with himself, Sunny sighs and just bluntly says, “I’m asking if you’d like to go on a date with me, Kel.”
“Oh…” Kel replies, breathlessly.
And then there’s silence. Absolute silence; not even the faint breathing Sunny can typically hear when there’s a break in the conversation. Sunny starts to freak out, spiraling about how he’s messed up the one good thing in his life. He then hears Kel repeat himself with another, longer oh.
In what felt like forever to Sunny but was probably about ten seconds max, Kel finally speaks up, “Sunny, wow! I didn’t know you felt that way about me.” Kel chuckles and Sunny can already imagine it; ‘I’m flattered but…’ or just a straight up ‘I’m sorry,’ so Sunny decides to beat Kel to the punch.
“It’s fine,” he retorts, hurt. “You don’t have to let me down easy and I definitely don’t want you to say yes out of pity. So just hurry up and reject me already.” Sunny braces himself for the cold, hard truth.
“Reject you? No, Sunny, why would you think that?” Kel says, confused but continues, “Of course I’ll go on a date with you!”
Now it’s Sunny’s turn to be stunned silent.
“I’ve actually liked you for a really long time,” Kel explains and Sunny can imagine him scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. “You were my first crush in fact! I just never thought you rolled that way, you know?”
Sunny scoffs, unable to see how anyone could think of him as straight. “Everyone thought me and Basil were dating for a while,” he counters.
Kel laughs fondly and responds, “I guess, but those were just rumors and I knew you had a crush on Aubrey as a kid.” Sunny blushes as he remembers his very obvious and blatant crush on the former black-haired girl.
Before Sunny can respond, Kel suddenly exclaims, “Wait, if I like you and you like me, does that mean we’re dating now?”
“Only if you want to.”
“Uhm, hell yes?” Kel says as if the answer is super obvious, which at this point, it sort of is. “Do you want to?” he adds.
Sunny laughs lightly, “Yes, I would very much like to, Kel.”
“Then it’s decided! We’re officially boyfriends!” Kel declares, no doubt jumping around his room in excitement.
“Wow,” Sunny whistles, letting that information settle.
“Yeah, wow,” Kel repeats, amazed.
They continue to talk for a while. Well, more like Kel continues to chat enthusiastically about anything that comes to mind while Sunny listens attentively, hanging off his every word; every word of his now boyfriend.
Sunny smiles blissfully, feeling a warmth fill his chest before remembering why he called in the first place. Sunny waits for a pause in the conversation and then says, “So, you never actually answered my question but do you want to come over for a visit, specifically for a date?”
“Dude, this is perfect! I just got my license so I could drive myself if my parents let me borrow the truck. When is this going to happen?”
Sunny taps his chin, thinking. Four hours was a long drive so Kel should probably sleep over at least. He finally says, “I was thinking you could stay for a weekend or something so it’s worth traveling the four hours.”
“True,” Kel agrees, elongating the word. Sunny then hears shuffling from Kel most likely covering the receiver of the phone and then him shouting okay. “That was my mom, says it’s dinner time. I’ll ask her and dad and let you know, okay?”
Cheeks starting to hurt from how much he’s been smiling, Sunny replies, “Yeah, talk to you tomorrow?”
Kel hums, “Yeah, tomorrow.”
“Okay, I’ll let you go then. See you.”
“Bye, Sunshine.” And then Kel hangs up, right after he called Sunny the cutest thing in the world.
Sunny turns crimson and falls over on his side on top of his rumpled bedsheets. He grabs his pillow and smashes his red face into it, hugging it tightly to his chest in a fetal position. He rolls around a bit before sighing, laying on his back, and staring at the ceiling, pillow discarded at his side.
He has a boyfriend now. A boyfriend named Kel. Sweet, funny, handsome Kel.
He covers his face with his hands and quietly giggles, unable to fully comprehend everything that just happened; Kel actually likes him romantically, said yes to dating, and if his parents agree, they’ll go on their first date.
Right, the date, he thinks.
Sunny yawns, suddenly overcome with fatigue. All that excitement must have made him tired. I’ll plan something out later, he concludes as he turns to his side and falls into a relaxed sleep.
Days later, Sunny awakes to loud, booming thunder. He shoots up in bed, gasping and clutching his chest. He looks around, grounding himself, and begins to calm down. Then, he realizes why he had woken up.
No, no, no, no, NO, he thinks.
Why is it storming? He checked and then doubled checked the weather channel on TV just to make sure this weekend was good for the date. There was only a ten percent chance of light rain; what changed in those two days when he first checked?
He runs out to the living room to check how long it’s going to continue raining and turns the TV on, or tries to at least. He presses the button again and then a third time, but nothing happens. The power must be out.
Sunny looks above the fireplace, noticing the time on the analog clock; already well past 9 a.m. Kel must already be on his way by now. Not that Sunny could even call Kel to warn him of the violent storm rampaging the city outside. Stupid cordless phone.
Though, maybe one of his neighbors has a corded phone that he could use. Then again, if Kel already had left as he suspects then there would be no point if he can’t actually answer the phone.
Being Friday, his mom is probably already at work and he confirms it when he sees her bedroom empty and her shoes missing from their usual spot by the front door. Making his way to the kitchen, he turns on the battery-powered radio and scans through the channels until he lands on one giving the updated forecast.
Sunny’s face falls even more. They’re predicting the rain to continue all of today and even tomorrow. So much for him and Kel going to the park to have a nice picnic. Maybe they can improvise and have a cozy picnic inside. Sunny can already see it; cuddling under massive amounts of blankets while nursing a nice cup of tea and enjoying the cute finger sandwiches he made the night before.
At the thought of food, his stomach rumbles, so he goes over to the fridge to grab a light breakfast. When he opens it, he’s not met with the cool blast of air that typically accompanies opening a refrigerator. Instead, he feels no drop in temperature at all. As he has no idea when the power actually went out, it’s probably already been over the recommended time for food to remain safe in an unpowered refrigerator. All the food inside is likely spoiled by now.
Sunny actually collapses. It’s like the universe is trying to ruin his first date with Kel. As if to make matters worse, his doorbell rings. Sunny turns his head sharply toward the door, flabbergasted. There’s no way Kel is already here. That would mean he left around 6 a.m. There’s just no way, Sunny decides. It must just be a neighbor checking in on him or something.
He picks himself off the ground and goes to answer the door. As he swings the door open, he’s immediately ambushed. “Sunny!” his assaulter cheers as he’s tackled to the ground. Sunny groans in discomfort under the weight of the larger person and hears a quick sorry as the other lifts completely off of him.
Looking up, he sees Kel with a sheepish smile and his hand outstretched, waiting for Sunny to latch on to help him up. “I may have been a bit too excited to see you,” Kel says as he pulls Sunny up and checks if he was hurt in the fall. When Kel doesn’t notice any visible wounds, he flashes Sunny a dazzling grin.
Sunny had been trying to keep his emotions under control, but after all his planning burst into flames, he just couldn’t do it. Standing in front of Kel in his wrinkled pajamas, the dam finally cracks under the pressure Sunny put himself under. He just wanted this date to go perfectly.
He barrels into Kel, burying his face into the taller boy’s chest and fervently clutches onto the back of his shirt, balling his fists into the soft fabric. Sunny lets out a loud sob, muffled slightly as he bites down on his lip, trying to hold the tears back.
Kel, initially surprised by the contact, wraps his arms around the smaller, distraught boy. He calmly rubs long strokes up and down Sunny’s spine while comforting him with quiet phrases of ‘I’m here’ and ‘let it all out.’
After about ten minutes of riding the wave of his emotions, Sunny releases the other boy from his vice grip and leans back, noticing he’s now seated on the couch. Kel must have guided him over sometime during his breakdown.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Kel asks as he grabs Sunny’s hand and holds it in his warm grasp, gently rubbing his thumb in soothing circles.
Sunny sniffles and whips his non-prosthetic, puffy eye with his free hand. He takes a deep breath before confessing, “All my plans for the date are ruined.”
“Not all of them,” Kel says gently, watching Sunny look up in confusion. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
Sunny laughs bitterly. “You are, but it’s still raining so having a picnic in the park is a no-go. The power’s out so we can’t even stay in and watch a movie. And, finally, we have no food.”
“No food?” Kel gasps. “Then what’s that?” he asks as he points to a fruit bowl on the kitchen counter.
“You know what I mean,” Sunny responds dejectedly, not even bothering to look where Kel pointed.
Kel sighs and Sunny can’t help but feel hurt. Of course Kel is already fed up with me, who wouldn’t be? Sunny thinks, looking down while trying to hold back the next round of tears. Kel seems to notice and quickly speaks up.
“Hey, hey, hey, look at me,” Kel says gently, lifting Sunny’s chin to look into his eyes. “I don’t know what going on in that head of yours right now, but I’m just happy to be here. It may not be what you planned, but I like spending time with you no matter the circumstances, okay?”
Sunny returns Kel’s gaze, searching for any deceit. When he finds none, he simply nods, not able to form a coherent sentence that could effectively explain how much Sunny appreciates the taller boy.
Kel doesn’t seem to mind, though, as he smiles and adds, “Now, let’s see if we can fix you a nice, big mug of some calming tea.” Sunny nods again as he allows Kel to lead him to the kitchen, their fingers still intertwined.
“You have a gas stove top, so we should be able to get a flame going with some matches,” Kel explains, searching the cabinets for what he needs with Sunny close behind.
When he finds everything, he fills up a pot with water from the tap and tells Sunny to pick out the kind of tea he would like. After placing the pot on the counter beside the unlit burner, he grabs a match and lights it, placing it between the grabbers of some tongs. He then turns one of the dials of the stove, letting the click, click, click permeate the apartment as gas releases, and carefully lowers the lit match.
The burner comes to life with fire and Kel turns to proudly smile at Sunny. He places the pot of water on the now lit burner and asks if Sunny has picked out his tea. Sunny hands the tea canister to him as Kel takes an infuser filled with the loose leaves and places it in an empty mug. He then repeats the process for his own mug.
As they wait for the water to boil, Kel suggests Sunny find some blankets and something cozy to do, like read a book or play a handheld game. When Sunny doesn’t move, Kel grabs his hand again, emboldening Sunny to usher Kel around to go find the items his boyfriend had discussed.
They find everything easily and finish making the tea, Kel liking his with at least three tablespoons of sugar while Sunny simply just likes it with a bit of milk. They move to the living room and set their mugs on the coffee table as Kel sits on the cushions they placed on the ground. He leans against the couch and pats the space between his legs prompting Sunny to take a seat and lean back into Kel’s chest. As they get situated, Kel wraps his arms, blanket and all, around the smaller boy before adding, “See? Isn’t this nice?”
Sunny hums in agreement and reaches for Kel’s mug, handing it to him, and then grabbing his own. They sit there in comfortable silence as they drink their tea, Kel occasionally rubbing his cheek against Sunny’s hair. After a while, Sunny grabs his handheld and plays a game as Kel watches from behind.
After about an hour of just enjoying each other's company, Kel speaks up. “You know, we can still do some of the things you had planned.”
Sunny looks up from his game and turns his head back toward Kel. “What do you mean?”
“Well, we can’t have a picnic, but we can still go to the park. You have an umbrella?” Sunny nods, closing his handheld after making sure he’s saved his progress. “And you haven’t had anything to eat, either, right?” Kel continues. “Then, we can also stop somewhere to eat!”
“Food does sound nice…” Sunny admits, clutching his empty stomach.
“Go get dressed, okay? I’ll clean this up,” Kel says and points to their mugs. Sunny untangles himself from the blankets and Kel’s arms and stands up, stretching his arms over his head. He looks back at Kel and sees him mirror Sunny’s stretch. He catches a glimpse of Kel’s mid-drift as his shirt rides up and Sunny looks away, his face reddening.
He coughs into his fist and hastily says he’s going to go get dressed.
He enters his bedroom and closes his door, leaning back against it and slapping his cheeks. Get a grip, Sunny. He washes up in the connecting bathroom and brushes his teeth. When the approaches his closet, he picks through his wardrobe of mainly black, white, and gray, and finally decides on an outfit.
When he’s finished changing, he heads back into the living room and sees Kel standing by the front door, hands behind his back. As Sunny nears the other boy, Kel reveals what he’s holding; a single white rose. Sunny gasps, taken aback.
“I meant to give you this earlier but now’s as good a time as any,” Kel explains bashfully.
“I love it,” Sunny exclaims, pushing forward to hug Kel. He then takes the rose from Kel’s hands and admires it silently, taking in the aroma of the fresh flower. “Let me go get a vase,” he says and turns to go find what he needs.
Rose thoroughly placed in some water with some pennies at the bottom of the tall vase, Sunny grabs the large umbrella from the side closet and smiles lovingly at Kel while taking his hand in his own. “Let’s go,” he says as he unlocks the front door and then locks it behind them when they both exit the apartment.
They make their way onto the city streets and Sunny opens the umbrella before handing it to the taller boy. They walk side by side, sharing the umbrella as they walk toward their first destination, somewhere to eat.
They find a quaint deli and are quickly served as they make their way in and order. Sunny goes to claim a booth and place their food down while Kel fills the plastic cups they were given with each boy’s preferred choice of beverage. They make light conversation, Sunny asking about Kel’s drive and Kel rambling about this and that as they eat their sub sandwiches and just enjoy the comfy atmosphere of the shop.
Cleaning up after themselves, they exit back out onto the street and resume their previous positions of walking together. Sunny points out the froyo shop he had planned to take them to after the picnic and Kel determines that dessert is just what they need.
Kel gets a triple chocolate monstrosity extravaganza while Sunny gets classic vanilla with some strawberries and mochi on top. They continue their conversation as they sit in the cool A/C of the shop and savor their frozen treats. Sunny would feed some of his yogurt to Kel if he wasn’t so flustered, so they just take small scoops of the other’s dessert themselves.
They finish up and continue their travels to the park, Kel swinging their joined hands between the two of them. As they reach the main entrance of the inner city park, Sunny notices it’s completely empty. Not surprising as the rain doesn’t permit most outdoor activities without getting drenched.
Kel hands the umbrella to Sunny with a mischievous grin on his face and dashes forward out into the rain, jumping playfully into the air. Sunny stares, shocked before laughing affectionately as he closes the umbrella and runs to join Kel.
They bound around in the already long-since formed puddles and try to splash each other, Sunny using the umbrella futilely as a makeshift shield even though he’s already soaked to the bone.
In his attempt to get around the umbrella, Kel trips and slides to the muddy ground. Sunny freezes before they both erupt into hysteric giggling. The shorter boy walks over to Kel and holds his hand out, only for Kel to grab on and tug, pulling Sunny down to join him on the ground. Sunny falls onto him, hands slamming into the mud on either side of Kel’s head and essentially straddling his abdomen.
Mouth open in a silent O and water dripping from his face, Sunny looks up into Kel’s eyes. Kel’s pupils are blown wide and Sunny notices his Adam‘s apple bobbing up and down as he takes a large gulp. Without thinking, Sunny automatically leans in to give a chaste kiss.
His brain must have short-circuited because when he realizes what he’s done, Sunny urgently shoots up off of Kel only to fall back down on his ass, mud now covering his backside and forearms. Kel sits up and they stare at each other, eyes wide, both not believing what just happened.
Kel is the first to start moving again. He shifts onto his knees and crawls over to Sunny before breathlessly saying, “Can we do that again?”
Sunny laughs and nods, wrapping his arms around Kel’s neck to go in for another, deeper kiss.
“So, how did you get sick?” Aubrey asks Kel, sitting at the edge of his bed. She came over to help Kel get over his cold but really she just wanted him to spill the juicy details of his date with Sunny.
“Well, we went to the park while it was still raining cats and dogs, played around in the mud, and maybe had our first kiss?”
She gapes, “You did not.”
Kel flushes red or maybe it’s just his fever. Nevertheless, he nods in confirmation.
“Morons, all of you. I’m surrounded by morons,” Aubrey admits, fed up as she shakes her head in disbelief.
“But we’re your morons,” Kel giggles and leans into her, wrapping his long arms around her waist.
Aubrey pushes him away, complaining that she’ll get sick as well but Kel catches the gentle smile on her face. “Though, It was a really good kiss,” he adds. “Tongue and all.” Aubrey shrieks and pushes him away forcefully. Kel falls out of bed, landing on the carpet, and just laughs in utter delight.