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☁ Baek Cirrus ☁
At some indiscernible point, the sky had darkened into a deep indigo. The main source of light in Cirrus’ room, and also the one scorching his retinas, was the harsh glow of a computer screen. A lamp on his desk also cast a dim light through the room.
“I just don’t get it,” he groaned, leaning back in his chair. “This is the worst formatting I’ve ever seen, and I’ve done so many shitty group projects.”
In his periphery, he could see a dark-haired boy look up from his camera and then put it down. Skylar swung his legs over the edge of the desk, where he’d been perched, and hopped down.
Cirrus heard his footsteps shuffle behind him, and then felt his chair tilt as two hands rested on the back of it. He looked straight up, Skylar’s face upside down as those large brown eyes blinked down at him.
“Skylar, you beautiful angel, help me,” he whined. “How the hell did Gyeongmin fuck this up so badly? Is it even possible to make the margins look like that?”
The other boy sighed, his lips turning up in a small smile.
Cirrus knew that look well. It was the one Skylar made when he was exasperated, but his vulnerability to seeing something he thought was cute weakened him.
Skylar released the chair, moving to lean down and grab the computer mouse.
It was impossible to pay attention to what the other boy was doing when he was hovering so close. Cirrus could practically feel the warmth radiating off of him. Skylar’s hair tickled his ear, his chin brushing against his shoulder. He would’ve turned his head to look directly at him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Their faces would be only an inch apart then, and it’d completely derail any willpower he had to keep working on this lousy assignment.
After just a minute of clicking around, Skylar let go of the mouse. Cirrus almost cried when the other boy straightened up, standing too far away now.
“There you go,” Skylar said, his voice gentle. “It wasn’t as bad as it looked, actually.”
Cirrus spun his chair around, staring up at the other boy with a smile.
“Has anyone ever told you,” he said in a low tone, “the way you handle Microsoft Word is utterly, devastatingly alluring.”
“Ugh, stop that, you procrastinator,” Skylar responded, grabbing his chair and spinning him back around. “Finish your work, it’s already way past your bedtime.”
Cirrus sighed. The other boy wasn’t wrong. He leaned forward to type something, then stopped and looked back. Skylar was still standing there, but his glasses were in his hand and he was rubbing one eye.
“Skylar,” he said. “Go change and lay down.”
He felt slightly guilty. He was at least partially responsible for keeping both of them up so late, Skylar keeping him company as he worked.
“Yeah, I might, actually,” Skylar sighed, tugging the loose tie around his neck over his head. Cirrus realized that they’d both still been wearing their school uniforms for way too long. They’d gone to his house directly after class, and then he’d completely lost track of time.
Cirrus watched as Skylar turned and walked over to his closet.
The first couple of times the other boy had borrowed clothes when he had slept over, he’d been so obviously awkward about it. Now, it seemed completely natural for him to wander around Cirrus’ space.
He really loved this development.
Even when it meant that Skylar had found embarrassing things. Like the multiple graphic tees that’d been hiding in the back of his closet for years that had L from Death Note plastered across them. Trying to explain to Skylar why he’d bought and treasured those when he was thirteen helped him belatedly realize that L had been his first real crush - not that he’d known what it was at that time.
No - he couldn’t think about that eccentric, charming detective from his past right now. Cirrus forced himself to swivel back around. He just had to power through this last stretch and finish this damn paper. Then, afterwards, he could celebrate by hugging the hell out of Skylar.
After a few minutes, he heard footsteps behind him. Skylar walked past the desk into his field of vision.
Cirrus tried his hardest to keep staring at the essay that he was close to completing. His eyes inevitably betrayed him after a few seconds.
Skylar had on one of his plain, short-sleeved shirts. It was a couple of sizes too big for him, like most of the taller boy’s clothes were, almost fully obscuring the shorts he was wearing. That made it all the more painfully cute.
These days, he’d developed a growing need to witness Skylar wearing his things. He wasn't exactly sure when it started, and he felt pretty certain it wasn't going to end.
The dark-haired boy wandered over to his bed, where Candy was curled up partially under the blankets, asleep. She perked up a little as he climbed onto the mattress next to her, and Cirrus could see the boy’s face fall in utter dismay. Skylar leaned over, apologizing for waking her and giving her a light kiss on the head.
This was a grave injustice. Skylar was wearing his clothes, in his bed, having the most adorable interactions with his lovely dog. He was laying with his head on Cirrus’ pillow, looking completely comfortable. Everything about the situation was screaming to him that this beautiful person was his and Cirrus wanted to go over so bad. But he was confined to his desk.
He could tell, as he went back to typing, that Skylar was staring at him.
It made him feel strangely self-conscious. He felt pretty confident that the other boy thought he was attractive, but some part of him wanted to know exactly what Skylar was thinking about.
When he glanced over ten minutes later, finally done with the hellish assignment, the other boy’s eyes were closed. It seemed like he might be asleep.
Cirrus turned his computer off and quietly got up, trying to make quick work of brushing his teeth and changing out of his uniform.
He turned off the lamp and padded over to the bed. Even in the silver moonlight alone, Skylar looked ethereal. It was actually kind of heart wrenchingly suspenseful trying to get onto the bed, because he knew he’d probably wake him up.
He managed to climb between Skylar and Candy. The moment he stopped moving, both of them opened their eyes and turned to look at him.
“Fuck, I’m the worst,” he groaned softly, feeling guilty.
Candy was forgiving though, just making a cute little sound and going back to sleep almost instantly.
“You finished?” Skylar asked quietly.
Cirrus turned to face him and nodded, reaching out and brushing some of the hair falling into the other boy’s eyes away.
“The only thing that kept me going was looking at the cute guy in my bed, wearing my clothes,” he grinned.
Even in the dark, the redness blossoming on Skylar’s face was obvious. Cirrus gently ran his fingers across one of his cheeks. He liked it when he made Skylar react like this.
“You’re always such a sweet talker,” the dark-haired boy said, extending his arms and pulling Cirrus into a hug.
He buried his face into Skylar’s chest, wrapping his arms around him. The other boy smelled like him.
“It’s all completely true,” he looked up at Skylar. “You do realize that as long as you’re wearing one of my shirts, you could get away with anything? I’d be too distracted by how adorable you are to notice.”
“Well, I have borrowed some hoodies I wasn’t actually planning on giving back,” the dark-haired boy admitted. “Maybe even your favorite pair of socks too.”
Cirrus squeezed him, feeling unreasonably happy.
“Your powers are terrifying,” he sighed into the other boy’s chest. “I’m begging you, please never stop stealing my clothes, take them all.”
Skylar snorted.
“Sure, but only if you stop talking and close your eyes now,” he said, resting his chin on the top of Cirrus’ head. “I’m falling asleep.”
“Deal,” the silver-haired boy said, feeling a wave of sleepiness roll over him too.
“Wait, one last thing,” he whispered a moment later.
“Mm?” Skylar sleepily hummed.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” Cirrus said.
The dark-haired boy hugged him tighter.
“I’m glad you’re here too,” he replied.
The last thing Cirrus thought before he fell asleep was that he had to remember to get Skylar to wear one of those Death Note shirts. It’d be glorious to witness.
㋛ Lee Ji-gyeom ㋛
As usual, Ji-gyeom was extremely fucking bored.
He had never cared about school to begin with, so his priority was finding literally anything else to do. It made him kind of nervous, actually, to sit right next to Skylar. The other boy was always paying attention, taking such detailed notes with a precise focus.
Meanwhile, he was just yawning and doodling stick figures on the margins of his notebook. His eyes kept straying around the classroom.
Did Mr. Lee always look this exhausted, or was it progressively getting worse? Had the classroom ceiling always had that crack in one of the tiles? Was it possible that the tree closest to the window had somehow gotten a foot shorter? And was that Cirrus’ fucking ridiculous mathlete’s club shirt from their middle school?
Wait - what?
He turned and stared at Skylar with a bewildered look. Yeah, it was that shirt. He hadn’t seen it in almost three years.
It had been a bit of a running joke between the three of them. Ji-gyeom and Chan-il had both been there to witness Cirrus lamenting nonstop about being forced to join a math club. He’d been super embarrassed to have to wear that shirt the day of their competition. Ji-gyeom had roasted it just enough that he would remember it. Now, that shirt was an artifact of those hilarious times.
But he didn’t get it. Skylar hadn’t gone to their middle school, right? How would he have gotten that specific shirt? Had he just totally overlooked him the entire time? Had Skylar been in that same math club?
His eyes widened as he realized Skylar was now looking at him with a confused look.
“What’s up?” he whispered.
Ji-gyeom sheepishly waved his hands. “Nothing, sorry,” he said, turning back to his notebook.
Now he was too embarrassed to ask Skylar point blank. What if he really hadn’t noticed him and it was just him being clueless? The last thing he wanted was for the other boy to view him as a traitor for having completely forgotten him.
There was one way to tell, though. The back of the shirt had everyone in the club’s names on it. Most of them had been people who Ji-gyeom actively avoided - or maybe it was the other way around since he sucked at math.
He tapped his foot impatiently while he waited for class to end.
Mr. Lee had put him in the front of the room because he knew he would play games on his phone last semester, right? He hated that he couldn’t anymore.
After a lifetime of waiting, the bell finally rang.
“Fucking finally, it’s been ten years,” he sighed.
Skylar smiled. “It was a little boring.”
A little boring. It was mostly endearing now, but he really didn’t understand the other boy at all sometimes.
“Wanna help me with a project before our next class?” he asked, grinning at Skylar.
After a brief moment of hesitation, the other boy shrugged. “I mean, sure, I guess? Depends on what it is.”
“I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out a way to get free snacks from the vending machine,” he triumphantly said, keeping his voice low. It was true. He’d spent all of last night constructing a complex invention that he had in his backpack. He needed a lookout to make sure no teacher caught him, though.
He could kill two birds with one stone and look at the back of that shirt while they were at it.
Skylar made a face. “So, stealing then?”
He laughed. “Can you steal what’s rightfully yours in the first place? C’mon, let’s go.”
The two of them trudged over to the vending machine. On the way there, Ji-gyeom purposely lagged behind, trying not to be obvious about what he was looking at.
He was able to read the names in chunks. Geum Seungri, Hu Yoon, Dae Bon-hwa, Ryu Eun-Hee, and on they went. He saw Baek Cirrus at the bottom and snorted. There was definitely no Yeon Skylar on that list.
He sighed in relief. So he hadn’t just edited Skylar out of all of his middle school memories.
It wasn’t until he had one arm in the vending machine slot, using the three hangars he’d taped together into a stick with a hook on the end, that he realized yet another more important thing.
If Skylar hadn’t been a part of that club, let alone at their middle school, why did he have that shirt at all?
The last he’d heard, Cirrus had kept it for the sentimental value and refused to give it to either Chan-il or Ji-gyeom.
Had Skylar stolen it somehow? He seemed to be opposed to stealing as a concept earlier, but maybe that was all a nefarious act. Nah, this theory seemed highly unlikely. Besides, how and when would he have pulled off a theft like that? He’d had to have been at Cirrus’ house, sneaking around his closet, which would be noticeably weird.
Had Cirrus willingly given it to him, then? But…why? What connection did Skylar possibly have to it?
This was really strange, he thought, successfully toppling a bag of chips out of its holder. It instantly got stuck halfway in between the glass and the metal of the shelves.
Should he just ask Skylar about it? It felt a little weird to randomly bring up the fact that the other boy was wearing Cirrus’ shirt, though.
“A teacher’s coming, hurry it up,” he heard Skylar hiss at him, pulling him out of his thoughts.
He sighed, forced to retreat for now. He’d just have to get those chips and answers some other time.
☺ Kim Jiwon & Jeong Yoochan ☻
“Okay, do Ji-gyeom now,” Jiwon said, leaning on the shoulder of the dark-haired boy sitting next to him on the grass and smiling. The two of them were hanging out and talking under one of the larger trees on the campus after school.
Yoochan snorted. “Okay, okay,” he replied, and they both stared across the school courtyard. Ji-gyeom was animatedly talking to Skylar at one of the outdoor tables. Skylar’s back was turned to them.
He cleared his throat and used a dramatically different voice that was an approximation of what Ji-gyeom sounded like.
“Hey Skylar, you’ve gotta listen to this,” Yoochan intoned as he watched the other boy’s mouth moving in the distance.
“I’ve masterminded a plan. You won’t believe it.” His voice took on a triumphant note. He and Jiwon watched as Ji-gyeom spread his arms out while talking and laughing at something. “Tomorrow, we’re hopping onto our unicycles and robbing every bank in the city using the power of friendship and some duct tape. I promise it’ll work and we won’t get caught.”
Ji-gyeom suddenly awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, looking sheepish. Yoochan continued. “This time, I mean.”
Jiwon started snickering, shoving his arm and then grabbing ahold of it. “Damn, you’re pretty good. I thought you were really Ji-gyeom for a second.”
His gaze turned to the boy Ji-gyeom was talking to. “Okay, Skylar next.”
Yoochan tilted his head. “Hm, this one’s a little harder since he’s not really facing us, but I’ll try.”
Skylar did less talking than Ji-gyeom, but eventually he did start gesturing as though he were talking too. Yoochan’s voice dropped to a low pitch.
“Ji-gyeom, listen here you little shit. I’m sick of your crappy ideas. You either go with the jetpacks instead of the unicycles like I told you, or you’re a dead man,” he growled. At the table, Skylar’s head turned and he had a pleasant smile on his face as he kept talking. “See how chill I am about killing for fun? Don’t make me take off this fancy jacket and kick your ass.”
Shaking Yoochan back and forth and almost spilling the carton of juice in his hand, Jiwon burst into laughter.
“Imagine if Skylar actually talked like that, holy shit,” he chortled. “I’d pay a million dollars to see him go feral on Ji-gyeom, but he’s just too sweet to do that, isn’t he?”
They both chuckled for a bit.
Then Jiwon frowned.
“Wait a second,” he said slowly, staring back at the two other boys at the table. “That fancy jacket you mentioned, doesn’t it look weirdly familiar?”
Yoochan also looked over. Now that Jiwon pointed it out, he had definitely seen that jacket before. It would’ve simply been an unremarkable, nice jacket, except for the fact that it had a very distinct silver snake embroidered onto the back.
“Oh yeah, that’s Cirrus’ jacket,” Yoochan said automatically. “He wears it to soccer practice sometimes. I’ve never seen one like it. It’s cool, isn’t it? When I asked to try it on I immediately got shot down, though.”
After a moment, his eyes widened. “Wait a second. That’s Cirrus’ jacket,” he said, furrowing his eyebrows.
“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Jiwon said slowly. “Skylar wearing his super edgy exclusive jacket.”
He tapped a finger to his chin. “Come to think of it, I could’ve sworn I saw Skylar wearing a sweater the other day that I had suspected was Cirrus’ too. Aaand, speak of the devil.”
The two of them watched as Cirrus emerged from the side of the building, looking around. His eyes grew wide the moment he saw Skylar, striding directly towards him with an almost eerie smile. He slid onto the bench beside the dark-haired boy, their shoulders brushing.
At the table, Cirrus turned and stared at the side of Skylar’s face with a focused look. He responded to something. Then he raised his hand, placing it on the other boy’s back. He kept it there even as Skylar started talking to Ji-gyeom. His eyes kept returning to the side of Skylar’s face.
“I would tell you to do a Cirrus impression, but…” Jiwon chuckled. “Just spectating is way more entertaining right now.”
“Dude,” Yoochan said. “How was I supposed to know that I needed to seduce him just to try on that jacket? You think it’s too late now?”
Jiwon sighed dramatically. “So I’m not enough for you anymore?”
Grinning, Yoochan reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him closer.
“Nah,” he said. “You’ve always been the only one for me.”
“Good,” Jiwon said softly.
Yoochan’s eyes widened as the other boy’s cheeks started to bloom with a rosy hue.
He’d thought they were mostly joking around, but now…well, now he thought his face was feeling a little warm too. Were they slowly getting closer to each other, or were his eyes just zooming in?
They both jumped apart as they heard laughter echo loudly across the courtyard. Yoochan felt like he had just run a marathon, grateful for the distraction before he started acting really weird.
“Who the hell made that sound?” Jiwon said, and the two of them stared over at the table.
Cirrus had an arm around Skylar’s shoulders, looking unusually happy.
“I think…it might’ve been Cirrus,” Yoochan said, awed. “He’s even blushing.”
“Damn. I wish people knew how much weird shit we see and hear around this school just by sitting around for five minutes,” the light-haired boy said.
“For real,” Yoochan snorted.
Well, as bizarre as it was to see how differently Cirrus had been acting these days, he thought this was a really good development. He and Skylar weren’t the most obvious match, but when he thought about how happy they looked around each other, they made perfect sense together.
♬ Seong Chan-il ♬
Photography club meetings were often the highlight of his day. Everyone in it was great, he felt comfortable in the space, and the feedback from his peers helped him evaluate just how much progress he’d made. He was slowly getting better at taking pictures.
There was one ongoing thing intriguing him, though, that wasn’t really related to photography at all. Three weeks ago, Skylar had shown up to the meeting wearing a white baseball cap with red lettering on the front.
He was like seventy percent sure that he had seen Cirrus wearing that exact same hat. It was kind of funny that Skylar had coincidentally bought the same one, but he didn’t think that much of it at the time.
Then, two weeks ago, the dark-haired boy had walked in wearing a blue jacket that was too large on him. They’d been sitting next to each other at the table in the club room. Skylar had reached out to hand Chan-il his camera, and he’d realized that there were yellow stripes on the cuffs of the sleeves.
Huh, he thought. He was eighty percent sure that Cirrus had worn that jacket at least a dozen times on various occasions. Again, it was kind of funny that Skylar had coincidentally bought the same one in a size too large. He was starting to think there was something going on.
Last week, he had hung out at Ri-in’s apartment pretty late in the evening, the two of them chatting in her room, when Cirrus showed up. He was just giving her a study guide from their math academy, so he didn’t hang out with them for very long. Chan-il had trailed after Ri-in downstairs to say hi.
“Thanks for giving this back! You saved my life,” the pink-haired girl exclaimed, taking the packet of papers from him.
“I had to leave in the middle of probably the worst movie I’ve ever seen to deliver this to you,” Cirrus said. “You better remember how much I do for you.”
When Chan-il reached the door, Cirrus greeted him. Underneath his jacket, he was wearing a white shirt that had a colorful illustration printed on the front. It looked like the right size for him. The words underneath it were cut off by his outer layer of clothes, but Chan-il knew exactly what it would’ve said.
Skylar had won a photography competition that a local university had hosted last year. Part of the prize had been a t-shirt. More specifically, that shirt. He’d offered it to Chan-il at the time because they accidentally sent him one that was too large. It didn’t feel right to take someone else’s prize, though, so Chan-il had told him to keep it.
Unless Cirrus had suddenly become a master photographer, secretly entered the same contest, at the same time that the university just got lazy and copy pasted the design from last year, with the cherry on top being him winning out of all the contestants, there was a ninety-nine percent certainty that the shirt was Skylar’s.
Ironically, the shirt that Chan-il was currently wearing was one of Ri-in’s. Was it almost a crop top on him? Yes. Did he wear it because it was his girlfriend’s and she had told him it was cute? Also yes.
“Hey Cirrus,” the orange-haired boy had said cheerily.
Then he had stepped forward, crossed his arms, and smugly smiled as he continued, “I see that you’re here at ten o’clock after saying your movie night was interrupted. You’re clearly wearing Skylar’s shirt. Even an amateur could infer that you two were together tonight. It’s also sweet that you two are swapping clothes all the time. It turns out I was basically a genius for suspecting it from the start. I have officially deduced that you two are one-hundred percent into each other.”
Cirrus had a proud look in his eye as he fist bumped him. “Wow Chan-il, I always thought you were smart, but you truly are an amazing detective. You caught me! I’ll confess that I’ve been madly in love with Skylar this whole time.”
Okay, that’s definitely not what happened after he had greeted Cirrus. He’d just said hello and then the other boy had left. Chan-il had a fun time imagining that situation play out, though.
The one thing that he did get out of it was confirming that the hat and jacket he’d seen Skylar wearing were definitely Cirrus’.
At this week’s photography club meeting, when the dark-haired boy walked in, Chan-il noticed that he was dressed in his own clothes this time. He was a little disappointed that he didn’t have more clues to pick up on, since it was pretty entertaining putting the pieces together.
However, when Skylar had opened his backpack and placed some items on the table as he looked for a pencil, Chan-il’s eyes had immediately been drawn to the green scarf that was neatly folded.
Well, there it was, he thought to himself. He could’ve pointed it out to Skylar, or asked him about it. But he felt like that might be overstepping right now. He supposed that it was okay to just appreciate these moments silently, until Skylar and Cirrus were ready to openly talk about it.
☼ Yeon Skylar ☼
The weather had been getting chillier as summer faded into autumn. Although he didn’t particularly care for cold weather, Skylar still enjoyed gazing out the cafe window up at the trees.
The leaves were starting to bloom into fiery reds and oranges. It was a nice contrast to the overcast sky, he thought, his hand absentmindedly rotating his mug of hot chocolate in circles.
He’d come here to do some studying, but he knew that regaining his focus was likely a lost cause.
He turned back to his laptop and closed it. It was starting to get cold in the cafe, especially as the temperature outside lowered as evening drew nearer. He should probably pack up and start walking home. He’d underdressed for this weather, since it’d been so warm in the morning.
Frowning, he stopped for a moment, something nagging at him. What was it? He realized that there was a repetitive noise coming from the window that wasn’t stopping. The tapping sound persisted, and he eventually swiveled his head back around with a mixture of annoyance and curiosity.
He came face-to-face with a passerby and jumped in surprise, nearly falling out of his chair. As his pounding heart started to settle down, he gave the person smiling at him through the glass the middle finger.
Cirrus looked delighted. He pressed his thumb and index finger together, making a small heart.
He knew that his face was likely red, but Skylar tried to seem unfazed anyway, turning back to the table and sliding his laptop back into his bag. He zipped it up.
A moment later, the chair across from him scraped against the ground.
“Fancy running into you here,” Cirrus cheerily said, plopping down and leaning forward on the table. He was wearing casual clothes, a black hoodie and some sweatpants. “I didn’t expect you to be here.”
“You nearly gave me a heart attack,” Skylar sighed, looking up at him.
The other boy laughed. “I know, it was adorable.”
When he saw Skylar’s scowl, he held his hands up defensively. “I didn’t mean to, really. I walked up, but you were so focused on something else you didn’t see me.”
Well, it was true that he had heard tapping and ignored it for a while. It had been a little funny. Plus, it didn’t hurt that Cirrus was cute.
“You’re a menace,” he said. He didn’t mean to say it so gently, but he was distracted with studying the other boy’s face.
When had he last seen him? Was it yesterday afternoon? Sometime around one or two-thirty? It felt like it’d been a lot longer than that.
“I know we were supposed to meet up later,” Cirrus put an elbow on the table, propping his chin up with a sigh and looking into the other boy’s eyes. “But why would I wait three whole hours when you’re right here, right now?”
“That makes sense,” Skylar absentmindedly said, reflexively starting to smile because the other boy was smiling now too. The cafe was still cold, and he suppressed a shiver, crossing his arms so he’d feel a little warmer.
He could worry about the temperature later. What was important right now was that Cirrus’ eyes really were captivating to look at. Making eye contact still made him nervous, especially with the pressure of the other boy perceiving him in return, but sometimes it was worth the awkwardness.
“Um…I was gonna go home now,” he finally said. “Do…do you wanna walk with me?”
He wasn’t sure why he felt so shy about the question. They walked to Skylar’s apartment all the time, it was hardly a big deal, but for some reason it felt like he was asking for something special. Like a date.
Cirrus’ cheeks were a little red. “Yeah, I’d really like that,” he said, as though they both weren’t already guaranteed to walk together. After a second, he started tugging his hoodie off.
Skylar frowned as the other boy stood up and walked towards him. He blinked in confusion as Cirrus leaned down, pulling the glasses off of his face. He started to object, reaching up to get them back.
“Hey, first of all, we’re about to go outside, so you should keep th-mmph.”
He hadn’t expected to get enveloped in warm fabric. He sputtered a little as his head emerged back into the open, the other boy tugging the hoodie down. Cirrus was smiling at him. He reached out, sliding the hood off of Skylar’s hair and gently sliding the glasses back on.
“Wait a second, you’re gonna get cold out there,” Skylar tried to protest. “I’ll be fine out there, so-“
Cirrus sighed, softly putting a hand on the top of the other boy’s head as he spoke, as though it were some kind of magical method to make him cooperate. It did kind of work, since Skylar stopped talking.
“Skylar, I know that you’re colder than I am. I want you to wear this. Seriously, it’ll make me really happy.” He smiled. “I have long sleeves, don’t worry.”
He was already defeated, wasn’t he? Skylar’s heart was pounding once again. He sighed and tugged his arms through the hoodie, fully tugging it on.
Cirrus withdrew his hand.
“W-well…thank you,” Skylar said softly, wanting to put the hood up so that the other boy wouldn’t witness how hot his face felt. “I do feel a lot warmer.”
Seeing the look on Cirrus’ face briefly distracted him from how flustered he felt. It was something wide-eyed between awe and satisfaction.
They both stared at each other for a long moment.
Then Skylar blinked and stood up, grabbing his backpack and slinging it on. He was really glad that the other boy had shown up.
“Let’s hurry before it gets colder out,” he said, leading the way towards the cafe door.
Cirrus followed him out onto the sidewalk.
If the taller boy hadn’t given him the hoodie, Skylar knew that he’d be freezing his ass off. It didn’t fit him very well, the sleeves and hem were too long, but that just made it more comfortable. It had bonus features too, like being incredibly soft and smelling really, really nice.
He wondered when he started becoming so aware about how clothes smelled, especially when they belonged to Cirrus.
“You look really good right now,” Cirrus remarked as they walked beside one another.
They both made eye contact for a second and then looked away, faces red.
Skylar felt a strange, elated urge to yell. There was so much pent-up energy that was still completely new to him and he could barely contain it.
“Also,” the taller boy smirked down at him, quickly recovered. “I think I might freeze unless I’m holding hands with a boyfriend. Know of any cute ones?”
Although it felt like his chest was already on fire and those pick-up lines were terrible, Skylar reached out. He slid his hand into Cirrus’, intertwining their fingers and smiling.
It was really, really warm.