#day11

You expected to be opening the door more than three times tonight. The stream of children you’d prepared for never came, the porch light spending most of the evening glowing for no one. You don’t know what changed from last year. Nothing in your decor changed. Your light was on. You thought you did everything right.

You sit cross-legged on the living room floor, back resting against the couch, a massive plastic bowl of fun-sized candy between you and Levi. The clock on the wall ticks a little too loudly for a night that was supposed to be full of laughter and doorbells and sugar-rushed chaos.

“Three groups,” you say, peering into the bowl, fingers idly stirring through the brightly colored wrappers. “We bought enough candy to supply an entire neighborhood, and three groups came.”

Levi sits beside you, one arm draped lazily over his knee, the other already halfway into the bowl as he fishes out a handful without even looking. His expression is almost resigned. “Your optimism was misplaced.”

You huff softly, nudging his leg with your feet. “Last year was busy.”

“This year isn’t,” he replies simply, already unwrapping a piece of candy.

You spend the next few minutes in silence. Your shoulder brushes his, your knees bump together occasionally as you both dig through the pile like children left unsupervised. The soft crinkle of wrappers becomes the only soundtrack to your disappointment melting away.

You start making little piles without thinking—your favorites, the ones you tolerate, the ones you absolutely refuse to touch and will either end up giving to Levi or keeping them until they expire—and somewhere along the way, you notice Levi doing something that surprises you. He picks something out, pauses for half a second, then places it in your pile.

You don’t say anything at first. Then it happens again. And again. You peek at him, trying to be subtle about it. You’re anything but when the curiosity hooks into you like this. He continues like nothing’s happening, calmly sorting, occasionally popping something into his mouth, gaze fixed somewhere in the middle distance.

You pick one up from your pile, recognizing it instantly, smiling a little. “Oh, right. You hate these,” you say lightly, tossing it up once before catching it. “Good thing they’re my favorite.”

Levi doesn’t respond immediately. Then, after a moment, he says. “Actually, they’re my favorite too.”

Your hand freezes where it is. “What?”

There’s an awkward pause and Levi goes very still. Then he says, almost grudgingly with a grimace, “You were not supposed to know that.”

You get that weird feeling in your stomach that only happens when he accidentally lets something slip through the cracks of his composure, when you catch the hidden sides of him that he won’t just hand over, the sides that you have to notice to receive.

You look down at the pile again, then back at him, then back at the candy, and it clicks. You gently ask, “So you’ve been giving me your favorite this whole time… because they’re my favorite too?”

He shrugs, like it’s nothing. “Your happiness is more important.”

It’s so casual, so offhand, and completely unceremonious that it actually hits harder than any other thing he could have possibly said. Your heart jumps, a warm feeling running fast through your veins until it feels like it might spill over if you don’t do something with it. So you act.

You unwrap the candy in your hand—the one he gave you, the one he apparently loves—and instead of eating it, you lean closer, gently pressing it to his lips.

“Open,” you say, smiling.

He gives you a faintly annoyed look, but you know he isn’t actually, not when his ears are just a little red, not when his gaze flickers away for half a second before returning to you. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Maybe. But open your mouth.”

He pauses, then he opens it. You place the candy inside, fingers brushing his lower lip just enough to make his breath hitch. You don’t give him time to recover before you lean in and kiss him, tasting sugar and something distinctly, undeniably him.

“Thank you,” you whisper against his mouth when you pull back.

Levi sighs, eyes rolling as he tries to regain control. “It’s candy.”

You settle back beside him, smiling to yourself as you reach into the bowl again. The bowl is still mostly full, but somehow, the night doesn’t feel so empty anymore.

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