#wardingwatson

"Ryan. Wake up." Ryan groaned into his pillow and reached behind to swat at the hand poking him in the side. "Ryan, seriously wake up."

"Why?" Ryan whined as peeked one eye open to look at the other body in his bed.

Ray sat cross legged next to him.  He obviously hadn't been up for very long himself. His hair was sticking out at odd angles and his eyelids drooped with sleep. He had a steaming cup of something - it smelled like coffee - cradled between his hands and pulled close to his chest.

"There are people in your kitchen," Ray said. "Go deal with them."

"What?"

Ray just blinked down at Ryan.

The longer they watched each other, the more awake Ryan became.

Now that he wasn't focused solely on drifting back off, he could hear the murmur of voices and soft laughter.

Ray didn't seem worried about the visitors, just a bit put out by the interruption, so Ryan figured he wasn't being robbed.

He let out a sigh as he pushed himself up.

He leaned over the side of the bed to grab the pants he'd discarded the night before.

"Who is it?" Ryan questioned as he stood and pulled them on. He yanked the belt out of the loops and set it on the nightstand. He didn't want to deal with it when he was just going to be changing again later.

"Meg and Ashley." Ray set his coffee down in the space between his legs before holding his arms out for Ryan. "Kiss before you go. In case they turn out to be here to murder you and I never see you alive again."

"I don't know that I'd exactly put it past them," Ryan mused.

He pressed his palms against the mattress, leaning over to press his lips against Ray's. Ray settled both of his hands on Ryan's cheeks as they kissed. They kissed was slow and sleepy, neither of them awake enough anything heavier.

"Mmm," Ray hummed when they pulled apart. He bumped his forehead lightly against Ryan's before dropping his hands to his coffee. "Alright, off to your death you go now."

"Promise me you'll cry if they do?" Ryan joked as he straightened up.

"I will drown myself in my grief," Ray assured. He lifted his cup to his hand and took a long sip. He wiggled two of his fingers in a shoo gesture. "Now go. It's Saturday and I have plans for you that I can't carry out unless they leave."

(-------------------)

When Ryan stepped into the dining room, he took a moment to examine the picture his two best friends painted.

Meg was seated at his table with her knees drawn up to her chest. She wore nothing but jeans that hung low on her hips and a yellow lace bra. A bowl of what looked like coco puffs sat in front of her. Ashley was sitting on his counter-top in skimpy pajama shorts made of lime green silk and a black tank top. She cradled a mug of coffee to herself in much the same manner as Ray had.

"Why are you in my kitchen without your clothes on?" he questioned. He walked past Meg, making way to the coffee maker settled beside Ashley.

As he poured himself a cup of whatever Ray and Ashley were drinking, Meg gave a thoughtful hum. "You know, it's a long story."

"Give me the short version."

"Meg was being a jerk so I flipped her cereal bowl and she ended up with milk all over her," Ashley explained. She took a sip of her drink before continuing, "My washing machine is broken so we came over here to wash her shirt."

"Why didn't you go to Meg's house?" Ryan demanded.

"Your place was closer," Meg said.

"You're place has more clothes," Ryan shot back. "You could have just showered and changed instead of waiting for your shirt to go through the washer and dryer."

Meg gave him a small, vaguely wicked, smile. "But, Ryan, we wouldn't get to bug you if we'd gone to my house."

He lifted his coffee cup to his lips. He took a long drink before saying, "I hope you know your presence isn't going to stop me from going about my day."

"What do you have planned that we could possibly be interrupting?" Ashley questioned.

"Rigorous morning sex," he deadpanned. "So while normally I would indulge you, today I am really rather eager for you to get the fuck out."

"You know, I've always wondered if Ray was quiet in bed," Meg teased. "Michael's definitely a screamer and well, I know exactly what Gavin sounds like. He's the only lad I can't figure out."

"And you never will, You may be my girls, but that's one experience I am not sharing with you." Downing the rest of his coffee, Ryan set the cup on the counter. He patted Ashley on the cheek as he went to make his way back to his room. "You've got about thirty minutes before Ray's coffee kick in. Finish your laundry by then."

Meg called after him, "You're no fun!"

Stars on Your Skin

She fixed the shawl again after gracefully dropping down the ender brick fortress wall and ran through the flickering shadows, deeper into the nether chasm. She carried no torch and avoided the glow-stone clusters, afraid that any light may reveal her presence. After passing some carefully placed blocks of netherack, she disappeared into a cave that twisted downwards for a few minutes until it reached an impromptu dead-end. What should have been a pitch dark pit, was a room bathed in an unnatural purple hue as a pink, spiraled mist spilled out from the lit Nether portal stuck inside a wall.

The closer she walked towards the portal, the louder the rush of her blood became and the light vibrations that tickled her flesh initially started to stab her body like sharp needles. Yet the uncomfortable sensations didn’t begin to compare to using the portal. Phasing through a rip in space was a very unpleasant experience.

Like a vague dream lost in the first few seconds of consciousness, every time she passed through she could only remember the heat of a greater fire that went down her throat like refreshing water. In those short seconds, she was both nowhere and everywhere, with just a fluid wave of stars moving around and under her. And then the stars were lost underneath grass, dirt, and obsidian block. She’s dizzy, she’s always dizzy whenever she goes through the portal, and there were dark clouds obscuring the universe hovering above her head. The forest was cold and moist, a drastic difference from the intense heat of the Nether. She’s still not used to the change despite her frequent visits and her stomach twisted with nausea.

For a while she remained still as her body gradually adjusted and listened to wildlife move around her. She could hear the hiss of a few giant spiders crawling in the trees and the growls of the undead, their laden feet loudly crunching the dead autumn leaves underneath. Beside the portal, she dug into the dirt till she found a chest and removed a diamond sword and a well-worn map. Messily, she pushed the dirt back on top and strapped the weapon to the hilt on her belt; she would not need it for the monsters in the dark. She walked through the forest down a memorized path not marked by anything than underbrush and felled tree trunks till she reached the outskirts of clear land. In the distance she could see the light of a large village painting the murky night horizon and headed towards it.

It was a large settlement that seemed to multiply in length each time she came to the Over-world. She remembered when it first appeared and there had only been one wooden house and then how the next time she came up, there had been more than five and a wooden fence littered with torches to ward the creatures that lurked in the shadows. Now, the wooden houses were lost behind the stone towers and walls, which, despite its impressive length, looked like small mounds beside the monolith that disappeared into the clouds. There used to be a watchtower, but after a nasty creeper incident, it was left to ruins just near the outskirts of town.

It wasn’t much of a tower but a raised platform with a gradually crumbling cobblestone wall. Moss had started to grow over its stone and rubble was spread around its frame. However, there was a small section that was still stable enough to use. A room only accessible by ladder, it’s ceiling was mostly missing with a wall to the village and view to the East forest.

Laying at the center where two men; the lankier of the two wrapped around the bulkier one, his smile just barely visible in the dark and their hushed conversation indiscernible under the gusts of wind. As she stepped closer to the pair, the whispers went silent and the bulkier one shifted up into a sitting position.

“You sure took your fucking time,” He said, ignoring Gavin’s soft “no don’t get up” as he stood up to face her. “We were just about to leave your ass.”

There was no weight to his threat as he stepped up and gently grabbed her face, pulling her closer for a loving kiss.

“Happy to see you too bitch.” She said with a light smile, before kissing him again.

Gavin, having sat up by now, crossed his arms as a shiver went through him. “I am here too, you know, and demand attention.” When neither made any move to separate, Gavin cleared his throat loudly and added. “I know I’m not the only one freezing my arse off here and there are a couple of ways we can fix this issue.”

The couple broke apart at that, Michael let out a snort. “Fucking needy –“ But was eager to pull Gavin into a heated kiss. She knelt at his other side and pressed a kiss against his neck, grinning at the groan that fell from his mouth at the heat that radiated off her lips. She pulled away and Gavin immediately whined at the loss. “Lindsay, please –“ But he was cut off with a kiss to his lips.

They continued this way for a while, slow yet heated, catching up on the months missed since her last visit, till they lay spent, curled against each other. Michael and Gavin curled at each of her sides, soaking in the unnatural heat that rolled off her skin like sweat after a hard day’s labor. The clouds had disappeared and the stars peaked out in beautiful swirls that the Nether could never hope to replicate. Underneath the eyes of the universe, she felt alive.

They talked for hours, drifting between drowsy conversation and quiet moments of unconsciousness that never seemed to last more than a few minutes. She wouldn’t fall asleep, couldn’t, she wanted to watch their relaxed faces and memorize every detail, every freckle that marked their flesh.

And with war on the horizon, she wasn’t sure she’d ever have this opportunity to do this again.

However, time was a cruel entity and the threads of the sun’s light started to creep into the sky, chasing the universe away. With heavy reluctance Lindsay started to pull herself away, careful not to wake either of her boys lying beside her. She had just sat up when Michael started to rouse, his half-lidded eyes immediately on her, his hand moving to partially wrap around her body.

“Stay.” His voice was rough from sleep, his grip tightening. “Please.”

It was hard to say no to his wide look, to the vulnerable pleading behind his words and her heart ached. “You know I can’t.” She whispered back, petting his messy hair lightly. “I’ll be back soon though.”

“Fucking liar.”

She looked away at that, but didn’t make any moves to push his arm from her waist. She felt him his body inhale deeply and then shift till his side was against her own, arm dropping from her waist to wrap his other around her lower back. They watched the sunrise without really taking it in.

“How long is it going to be this time?” He said.

“Longer than I would like. It’s going to be a fucking mess.”

“Yeah? How pissed is the King?”

She let out a frustrated sigh. “Pissed. He’s coming up here with enough vengeance to make it rain lava from the sky. Michael, he’s going to destroy every nearby town before anyone will be able to stop him, including this one.”

Michael’s grip tightened momentarily and then relaxed, whether for her own comfort or for his, but any sense of comfort she had left her at the determined expression on his face.

“Don’t you dare.”

‘What?”

“I know what you’re thinking,” She pointed at his face. “I don’t want you fighting in this.”

“But you’re fighting in the war.” He pointed out. “I’m a Warrior, Lindsay, I’m not going to let some hot headed monster destroy my home!”

She smacked his arm roughly. “That hot-headed monster is my dad and I’m the princess and General of the Nether Army – of course I’m fighting!”

Gavin made a small pained noise and both went quiet for a second. Lindsay collected herself and continued in a hushed tone. “It’s going to be bad Michael and I don’t doubt that you’re capable enough to survive a war like this, but Gavin isn’t.” She put her hand on top of Michael’s, squeezing it gently. “I need you to protect him too.”

“You’re asking a lot from me.”

“I know.” She said. “But I need you to do this, please.”

“Lindsay I’m not sure-“ However, whatever he was about to say was cut off with a near scream as Gavin jolted awake. Lindsay’s hand was instantly rubbing against his back and Michael hovered across her to grasp at one of Gavin’s hands.

“Hey – Hey! It’s okay, you’re here.” He started when Gavin started to sputter out an incoherent sentence.

“Breathe in and out.” Lindsay followed.

After a few minutes, the worst of the night terror disappeared and the frantic look in his eyes fell back to exhaustion.

“Was it the dragon nightmare again?” Michael asked softly.

Gavin shook his head. “Just fire.” He said, his voice hoarse. “Lots of fire and screaming.”

At that Lindsay gave Michael a worried look. It was never a good sign when Gavin had prophetic nightmares, especially one as severe as this one.

Michael looked conflicted.

Mistaking their silence for something else, Gavin tried for a reassuring smile (which came out more as a pained grimace). “I’m fine.” He said. “I’m already forgetting the most of it.” However, judging by the cold sweat still clinging to his skin and the beat of his heart thundering against her side, he was lying.

Michael shook his head. “Okay.” He said this looking at Lindsay, then at Gavin he repeated. “I’m glad you’re better now. I don’t want to have to deal with your whiny ass this early in the morning.”

Gavin made an indignant noise, reaching past Lindsay to roughly push Michael to the floor with a curse. He was smiling the entire time and the tension in his shoulder lightened when Michael let out a loud ‘you didn’t’ before moving to get up and tackle Gavin. Lindsay watched for a few seconds, laughing, before shouting ‘dog pile!’ and jumping on top of the boys – much to Gavin’s displeasure.

It was a nice distraction that seemed to dispel most of the tension that had built alongside the rising sun. It didn’t make it easier when it was time to part, but when her eyes met Michael’s and he gave her the smallest of nods, mouth set in a grim line, she found her a sense of determination burn inside her.

Her boys will be safe and that is what mattered.

So when they finally parted and she walked back through the meadow and the forest till the obsidian portal loomed ahead, Lindsay was tucked back away, hidden underneath the layers of fire. She will return in a literal blaze of glory, the forest around her will be nothing but ash and the meadow a cindering battleground. The watchtower will be her perch and it will melt under her talons as the monolith collapses under the red sun. She will let out a screech to her armies and fly ahead; for she is a phoenix and her feathers are fire that falls like rain on the cities below.

Hopefully, eventually, they will meet again after the rains have extinguished the cinders. It might be in another place, in another time, or, maybe, not ever again. For humans have a rather short wick and phoenix’s can never die.

She was an ever-expanding star, whose flames stretched everywhere and nowhere, reaching for a dream that was lost a long time ago. But sometimes, she can still remember the cold stone on her back and her two lovers pressed against her, with freckles that danced on their skin like the universe that hovered above them.

Summary #2:

Ray finds himself with a small problem when he finds a name on his skin and a pretty face to associate it with.

Warnings:

Possible shitty writing, but otherwise should be fluff

Word Count:

2882

Small Crushes

Ray had a small problem. It was a blonde problem, the type of problem that wore dirty jeans with giant holes in them and made weird space noises as he jumped around in the sandpit alone. The type of problem that seemed too busy staring up at the sky than at the tiny Puerto Rican bent over his Gameboy in front of him until he’s already run into and over him.

“Get off me!” Ray pushed at the older boy’s chest, who let out a loud yelp when Ray’s foot kicked into his upper thigh. At one point, a hand roughly pushed into his stomach before they managed to detangle themselves. Immediately, Ray scrambled to grab his Gameboy from the dirt, rubbing it furiously against his shirt. He let out a sigh of relief when there weren’t any new scratches. He frowned, opening his mouth to yell at the kid to “Watch where you’re going next time!”

“Uuuuuh…”He said instead.

Turns out, the tiny problem was also three inches taller than him and he was pretty too, which was kind of unfair.

Said problem looked worried despite the dirt smeared across his face from the collusion. He wrung his dirty white shirt with his Band-Aid covered hands and looked over Ray, probably for any scrapes or bruises.

“Are you okay?”

“Ummm.” Ray didn’t know what to say when the other kid leaned forward, swallowing hard when his eyes widened with concern. “Hey your face is getting real red. You’re not getting a fever too, are you?”

Ray swallowed again.

It was suddenly really hard to think of the right thing to say and he did the only thing he could do; say the first thing that came to his mind.

“Maybe you should put your face on my face and see!”

Maybe he shouldn’t have shouted that.

“Um.” The other boy blinked owlishly back as a light blush spread across his cheeks. “Umm,” He repeated, wringing his shirt even more, nervously looking down at his feet and then back up at Ray. Ray’s face felt like it was on fire, his stomach felt weird, and the sudden urge to run-away was super appealing. “Forgot I said that,” He pressed his Gameboy tightly to his chest and didn’t waste a second turning on his heel and running the other way.

“Where are you going?!” He heard the other boy yell.

“Don’t follow me!” Was all he screamed back, before he ran back to the auditorium and crawled under a cafeteria table. He stayed there for a while, watching the door, waiting for the other kid to run through, but after a few minutes Ray shifted his attention back to his Gameboy.

He was halfway through a gym boss when he noticed it the letters on his arm, letters that had not been there this morning. Frowning, Ray paused the game and twisted his arm, lifting the sleeve, only to let out a small gasp of shock.

This could only mean one thing.

/-/

“And that’s why I need your help.” He finished.

Michael seemed to consider him carefully; he twisted the pencil around his desk in thought, beside him Gavin looked puzzled. “Isn’t he a fifth grader?”

Ray shrugged and started to idly spin the book they were supposed to be reading in circles. “Does it matter?”

“Well, it makes it harder to ‘woo’ him when you both don’t have a single class together.” Michael loudly pointed out.

“Keep your voice down!” Ray hissed, quickly looking to see if their teacher was nearby. Luckily she was on the other side of the room, too busy talking with another group of students to notice.

Michael kicked at the rungs of Ray’s desk. “I am keeping my voice down.” He said quietly.

“Are you sure he’s the one?” Gavin stared at the name partially hidden by Ray’s shirtsleeve. “Maybe it was there the whole day and you never noticed?”

Ray shook his head. “It has to be him.” He lifted up the sleeve to show them the name, but he didn’t really see their reactions, as he was too busy tracing over the letters as well.

The name wasn’t all that long or big, but it wasn’t too small either. It wasn’t like the cool cursive his mom had for her soul mate’s name and it wasn’t really that foreign, just a very simple ‘James’. The ‘J’ rested on his shoulder and when he dropped the sleeve again, only the ‘s’ was visible.

“It’s gotta be him.” He said again.

/-/

They had spent the better day thinking up plans to get the fifth grader to notice Ray. Short from outright declaration, the fact that they were a grade apart made things difficult. “You just need him to notice you.” Michael said between bites of his peanut butter sandwich. “Maybe you should just go up and talk to him.”

Ray finished his capi-sun and scrunched up his nose. “No, that would never work.”

“You could always put yourself in a situation where he has to notice you?”

“Like what?”

The table went silent, thoughtful munching filled the air.

“Do they do any activities in aftercare or do you just go outside immediately?”

“Well,” Ray kicked his legs out thinking for a second, and then nodded his head. “We do have to sit through this role-call thing and my seat isn’t too far from his maybe I can…” He brought up an empty palm and he frowned. “I don’t know…”

“You could sit at his table.” Michael suggested. “He’ll definitely notice you when you’re sitting next to him.”

Gavin nodded. “You could even take his spot! He’ll have no choice but to notice you.” The two boys looked proud over their idea.

Ray pressed his lips together. “I don’t know.”

“You could always shout at him agai-“

“I really regret telling you that.”

/-/

It didn’t go quite as planned.

The minute Ray got into aftercare, he lingered near James’ table – he didn’t want to sit down too early, but he didn’t want to appear suspicious either, so he sat at the table beside it. He wasn’t there for long, between nerves and the arriving students; Ray must have sat in every other chair around James’ chair. A lot of the other students were starting to give him weird looks, especially when he would frantically search around to see if he was in the room before scooting closer to the chair. Ray, however, was too preoccupied to notice this.

Ray finally sat at his chair as more students filed in and the tables started to fill up. From across he could see Tina at their table, mouthing a ‘what are you doing’ or ‘watermelon spring’ – he doesn’t know, he couldn’t read lips – and could only shrug back in response. Surprisingly, none of the fifth graders at the table seemed to really question why he was here – sure he got funny looks, but so far no one’s told him to ‘get lost’ or ‘take a hike’ or any other directionally challenged statements.

Yet, as the room filled up, Ray was hit with a thought he hadn’t considered before; what if he didn’t come to school today?

Cold sweat started to cling to his skin; he wouldn’t be able to pull this off again, he realized. Sure they may not say anything now, but someone will notice what he’s doing, someone will call him out. He should have thought of this, but how would he have prepared, they didn’t even have any classes together.

“and if you twist it the right side it will-“ Omph!

The boy, James, went very quiet and Ray, oh god, his face felt very, very red. One of the other fifth graders that had been walking with him was grinning madly.

James hadn’t even seen him, he hadn’t seen him sitting at his chair and now…

The other boy still hasn’t gotten up from Ray’s lap and his weight was crushing his legs. Ray couldn’t help but take in how warm the other kid was and how easy it would be to press his forehead against his upper back. His head just barely touched his back when a loud voice interrupted and the heat was gone.

“What’s going on here?” A teacher had stormed up to the table; she looked at Ray and then at the two fifth graders who hadn’t sat down just yet, her eyes narrowed at James’ friend. “What did you do Geoffrey?”

“Nothing,” He said.

She eyed him for a moment before looking at Ray. “Why are you sitting in James’ spot?”

“Um.” His face was getting progressively hotter. “Ummmmm.” He roughly twisted his shirt.

“Yeah, why were you sitting in my chair?” James asked.

He must have looked like a fish because his eyes were wide and his mouth was gobsmacked and his face was going scarlet. He didn’t know what to say and everyone was starting to look at him, starting to whisper, and James was looking at him all funny.

He stood up so sharply that the chair’s legs scraped loudly against the floor. “I’m going now!” He shouted, looking past the teacher and James. “I’ve made a mistake and goodbye!”

He ran back to his table, sat down and promptly slammed his head against the table with a loud THUNK. The whole cafeteria was quiet and then slowly murmurs picked up and the teacher started the role call and Ray decided that Gavin was stupid and he was stupid and he was stupidly never going to try that again.

He spent most of the day hiding. After the teacher privately talked with him, he spent most of his time hiding behind the playground near the shady trees with his Gameboy. Tina kept him company for most of the day, till she was picked up, and now that he was alone with most of the other students gone, the worst of the day seemed to melt under the hot sun.

“Hey.” Nevermind, they came back, they’re back and so is he. Ray gulped and looked up at James who was just standing outside the shade. “Sorry about what happened earlier.”

“Wasn’t your fault,” Ray dug his heel into the dirt, twisting it around to make a hole. “I was the one who got mixed up.” He watched James shoes shuffle in the dirt, waiting for him to leave, but instead he came closer and crouched to look over Ray’s shoulder.

“Is that pokemon?” He asked, pointing at the screen. At Ray’s nod, he sat down, leaning his shoulder against his. “Can you show me how to play?”

“You’ve never played pokemon?”

“Nu-uh.”

“Wow, that’s horrible.” Before James could protest, Ray unpaused the game and pulled up his inventory. “Don’t worry, I’m the master of pokemon, I’ll teach you.”

They spent a good part of the day under the shade and the embarrassment from earlier faded from Ray’s mind.

/-/

They started hanging out more after that.  Most of the time, Ray would show Ryan (he liked the name Ryan more than James) his Gameboy games and they would play for hours till one of them was picked up. Sometimes Ryan would get Ray to play pretend with him and while Ray wasn’t a huge fan of running around in the dirt, it was kind of fun when he had someone else to play with. Ray had his hands held in front of him, his plasma gun was low on ammo and the aliens were moving in. They already conquered the slide and were headed to their base; the monkey bars. Ryan was seated on top of the bars while Ray stood on the stair bars.

“They’re flanking on the left!” Ryan shouted and Ray twisted his gun towards the right and made laser noises. “No, the left Ray! Your other left!”

“I am!”

“That’s your right.”

Ray dodged a stray foot from above and smacked Ryan’s leg. “Watch it!”

“Sorry.”

Ray shifted directions and the threat was quickly dispatched. He looked up to Ryan who had a concentrated look on his face. The older boy shifted, and stood up on top of the bars. “I think we can move in if- AH!” Almost immediately, Ryan lost his footing and fell onto the ground.

“Rye!” Ray hopped down and ran over to his friend. He’s seen the movies and immediately checked for any broken arms. His friend waved him off and sat up. “I’m fine,” He said, then let out a pained hissed. “Just a bunch of scrapes.”

Ray frowned at the blood spilling from his arm and knees. “We should go to the teachers.”

“Yeah,” Ray helped him up, grabbing at one of the arms and hoisting him to his feet. When he didn’t scream in agony and fall down from a broken leg, Ray let go of his arm and walked beside him as they headed back to the cafeteria.

There wasn’t that much blood. They cleaned up his arm and put a small Band-Aid over one of the cuts and were swabbing his knee when he saw the letter ‘R’ peaking out from under the jeans. Ray stared at the letter and then up at Ryan who was too busy talking to the teacher to notice Ray’s reaction. He suddenly wanted to know what his soulmate’s name was. He needed to know this information now. He looked up at Ryan’s face and swallowed again; he wasn’t sure if he’d have the guts to ask him directly though. He’ll just have to play innocent.

Once the teacher left, Ray pointed to his exposed knee. “What’s that?”

Ryan frowned in confusion and pointed at his knee for clarification.

“Yeah,” Ray nodded. “That.”

“That’s my knee.” He said each word slowly.

“No! Not that, that.”

Ryan squinted his eyes at Ray and then looked back down at his knee, searching for whatever Ray was talking about. Impatient, Ray let out a frustrated huff. “The letter. When did you get that?”

At that Ryan froze, face turning a pink hue. “Oh, yeah, that.” He looked away from Ray and scratched at the Band-Aid on his knee. “It’s just a name.”

“Whose name?”

“Why does it matter to you?”

Ray crossed his arms. “I’m just curious!”

“Okay, then what’s the ‘s’ stand for?”

That caught Ray off guard. He blinked for a second before he remembered the ‘s’ on his arm. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

“It’s a name.” Ray clarified.

“Yeah,” Ryan pressed. “Whose name?”

“I asked you first.”

Ryan crossed his arms. “Well I asked you second.”

“Exactly!”

Ryan shook his head. “Second is better, first is worst, you gotta answer first.”

Ray stared at Ryan for a long moment, before kicking his chair. “That’s stupid. I asked you first and you got to answer.”

“How about we answer at the same time.” Ryan pushed Ray’s chair back with his own foot; this was an easy task seeing as Ray was very light.

Ray pretended to think about it for a second, tapping his finger against his chin before shaking his head. “No! Now answer my question.”

“Ugh! Okay, fine.” He looked away again, his face gaining more color each second. He mumbled the name under his breath. Ray lightly punched his arm. “That’s cheating, speak up!”

Ryan grumbled for a second, but let out a smaller sigh. “I said it’s,” He gave a shrug, biting his lip as he hesitated for a second. “The name is Ray.” Then almost immediately he asked: “Now you’ve got to tell me yours.”

“Ray?”

His face felt like it was on fire and, for some reason, he felt like he’d never stop grinning.

“Ray you’re kind of scaring me here.”

“I knew it.” He pushed a finger against Ryan’s chest. “We’re soul mates!” Ryan’s eyes went wide. “Um.”

Ray quickly lifted up his shit sleeve. “See! I got your name when you crashed into me. You’re knee must’ve hit my shoulder.”

“This is weird.” Ryan leaned forward, touching his own name written on Ray’s arm. It made his skin tingle and the best description Ray could think of was warm. “Not bad, but definitely weird.”

“You know what this means?”

“What?” Ryan pulled away and Ray’s skin felt cold again.

“We have to be boyfriends.”

Ryan’s face went red and his eyes went wide. His voice went high as he spoke. “Th-that’s a bit sudden, right?”

Ray frowned. “Do you not want to be my boyfriend?”

“That’s not what I said, I just-“ Ryan let out a nervous laugh and started to twist the hem of his shirt. “This is a lot.”

“Oh.”

“Maybe we can just go slow? Like friends and then see where it goes?”

Ray leaned back in his seat. He was more than a little disappointed, but then again he wasn’t really sure what boyfriends did anyways. He kicked his legs out in thought and pursed his lips. “Okay. We’ll be like friends with benefits.” He pointed at Ryan’s name. “The benefit is that we know we’ll be friends for a long time.”

At that Ryan smiled, nodding his head. “Yeah, that’s sounds about right.”