His boyfriend (holy fuck) smiled at him with that cute shine of his, Eric’s heart stoped for a second to take a good picture of it in his mind and responded with one of his own, offering his hand to the other boy in the room.

“You never known, I may have more power than I show.”

Buddy rolled his eyes. He’ll follow his Star Wars references most times, but would never lose the chance to mock him a little for it, even if both enjoyed the movie more than anyone else they knew. 

Sighing, Buddy took his hand and kissed his fingers before rolling on his back, laying on the floor as he looked up to his seilling.

“I’m going to fall asleep if the light doesn’t return soon.” He said while yawning, Eric crawled over to him, taking his position at his side. Buddy looked at him. “What do you think my parents would think if they find us sleeping when we were supposed to be studying?”

“And what would they say if they find us like this?” Eric took his hand, Buddy interlaced their fingers together and smiled at him, leaning to his face to steal a small peck from his lips. “Or doing that?”

“Not much,” Buddy reminded him, then kissed him again and sighed on his shoulder when his nose nuzled on his neck. “I don’t think they would notice, to be honest.”

Things like this made Eric think about his own parents and wonder if everyone else’s were just plain horrible. It made him realize how fortunate he was, in a way, to have people that actually cared about him, even if Red’s methods were something too out of his mind.

Buddy’s parents worked hard, maybe too hard for their kids’ good. His real parents were basically his siblings and ever since Eric was introduced to them, he was more sure every day of this little hiden fact.

Right now, they were alone in the big house, with only his sister Lydia in her room and their housekeeper in the kitchen with the cook. Whatever they did in this room, would remind only between them.

“Buddy?” He called him softly, his boyfriend made a sound to indicate he was listening but sounded too far away to remind awake for too long. “You know you are not alone, right?”

“Of course.” Buddy answered. “My siblings are too annoying to forget.”

Eric laughed at that, looking down at his face. His eyes were closed and his respiration even. Eric kissed his hair and smiled at the happy hum he was answered with.

“I mean, you have me.”

“You have me, too, Eric.”

“I mean–” He cut himself, thinking about it and the eight months together. Eric licked his lips and continued. “I mean, I love you.”

Like awoken with cold water, Buddy looked down to him as he lifted his upper body, his eyes big and mouth slightly open in wonder. Yet, no words ever left his lips, he slowly relaxed into an adoring grin and leaned down to his lips, kissing Eric lovingly, like if it was the first time.

Eric kissed back, one hand going to the back of his neck as both of Buddy’s craddle his face. It didn’t matter how many times they did this, there was seriously nothing else like this.

“I love you, too.” Buddy finally said, kissing him again without leaving oportunity to speak.

Buddy blinked a couple of times, swallowing before looking at Eric with a small smile. “I bet she’s been seeing in color her whole life.”

“Uhm,” He sighed, his expression had changed from excitment to pain in seconds and Buddy reprimended himself for that. “Not really. I don’t know why… I mean, I know. Sight starts changing during puberty if you find your soulmate, blah, blah, blah. But ever since we started “going out”… Well, none of our sights changed, you know?“

“I’m going to risk sounding like an asshole,” He said, Eric looked at him immediately with amusement sparking in his eyes.

“You already do.”

“Oh, hush!” Buddy pinched his nose with a frown, making him laugh. The sound made him smile and fill his lungs with Eric’s smell, suddenly he started to recognize another color, it made the greens seem less bright and he slowly recognized it as the blue of his identification chart. “As I was saying… Have you thought maybe you are rushing into conclusions?”

“What you mean, man?”

“That maybe you are not each other’s soulmates and that’s why nothing has happened.”

“But– but–” Eric started to struggle with his words, Buddy smiled a little, like trying to comfort his friend and himself, too. The soulmate system was flawed. Not everyone got to be their soulmate’s One and this was his case, maybe it was Eric’s, too. “I like her, for real.”

“Yeah, you two not being soulmates doesn’t mean you don’t. Or that she doesn’t.” He tried to ammend his doings. “Just that… you won’t be seeing in color.”

“But I am!”

Student’s murmurs died down at Eric’s outburst and Buddy looked around,praying for the ground to swallow him or for a cat to eat Eric’s tongue. As much as he liked the boy, Eric was too dramatic to help a conversation out in public.

His cheeks went red and Buddy smiled, that had been the first color he saw, two days after he met Eric. According to the chart his parents bought him for this very special occassion, he still had a few colors and convinations to uncover, and the most time he spend with Eric, the more he saw.

“Boy, why I’m always so loud? I hate myself sometimes…” He murmured and Buddy looked up at his face, wanting to correct him and tell him there was nothing to hate about him. But he didn’t. “Anyway, what I was trying to say is… I am. I’ve started to see in color.”

Buddy smiled at that. “Yeah? What do you see?”

“Red.” He smiled a little. “Brown and… black? It’s not like the black of the normal, you know… Like, your hair.” He signaled. “I can see it, it’s totally black. And your eyes are brown.”

“Well, it’s only a matter of time for her to start seeing in color, too.” He said, not wanting to truly think about it.

Eric went silent then and didn’t had a chance to speak as their teacher came in and started to put their work for the day in front. Buddy sighed, trying hard not to think how Eric’s colors seemed to be all his, just like when he had started to see in color, too.

The red of his cheeks, the brown of his hair, the green of his eyes, and now the blue of his favorite hoodie.