Chapter Text
Thoughts were ringing in his ear as he made his way to the school cafeteria with Red. Naturally, Ash knew his friends, well, their friend’s reaction won’t be anything terrible. Nothing bad, necessarily, but still. His hands slightly trembled and the pace of his walking was hesitant and slower than usual.
The familiar noise of chaos erupted from the cafeteria, people running and getting told off by the teachers, lunch ladies scooping the daily unidentifiable gooey mush into plates for students.
“Red! Ash!” Branzy yelled from where he sat, practically glued to Clown.
Ash immediately retracted his hand from where it was brushing Red’s when they were walking side by side, making his way over to the table and sitting in the single seat between Branzy and Roshambo, leaving Red behind.
“Uh, yeah. Hi guys,” Ash mumbled from where he sat, trying his best to not stutter.
It’s going to be fine. They aren’t going to judge. Look at the way Branzy and Clown are just, snuggling, which was disgusting, when they were supposed to be having lunch. Honestly, don’t they know what public decency is?
A silence spread through the table, the background nose of screaming still happening.
“Holy crap, who are you?” Zam said from where he sat next to Subz, “What is wrong with you bro?”
“What?”
“You- You’re not Ash-WHY ARE YOU NERVOUS??” Zam was nearing the verge of panicking, “Is…is the world ending or something?”
“Nah, Ash just wanted to let y’all know we’re dating,” Red said, scooping a bit of the mush into his mouth before spitting it out immediately.
A tangible silence filled the table again, Branzy even sat up from where he was canoodling Clown and Ash’s world seemed to freeze. Damn Red. Why the fuck did he just say that? He wasn’t ready. Sure, they had said they would tell their friends today but-
Ash’s brain might’ve been panicking because he rescinded in the most eloquent way he could, “Dating, no, uh- yeah.”
“Took you guys long enough,” Clown immediately went back to cuddling with Branzy, treating as if nothing had ever been said.
“And I thought it was big news too,” Zam let out a sigh, settling back into his chair.
Ro nudged Mapicc, “Told ya,” Mapicc reluctantly passed him a wad of cash.
“W-what the fuck?” Ash was confused, but he wasn’t stupid, “Were you guys betting on when we would get together?”
“Took damn longer than I wanted to,” Red said, playing around the mush and refusing to eat it.
“Broo- We knew you were together months ago!” Zam spoke again, teasing them
Now both Ash and Red were confused, leaving Zam also confused.
Zam rambled, “What? You guys already got together by the end of the Christmas party last year and it's like mid-May right now, did you guys think we wouldn't notice?”
“You guys were not subtle either! We were thinking when you would tell us!” Branzy giggled.
…Together since the Christmas party? Not subtle?
“Like, ‘Me and Ash are gonna go early,’ really, Red?” Laughters were let out around the table, “We don't even want to know what you guys did when you left.”
Gobsmacked, Ash tried to get his side of the story out, “Red and I- ugh, we didn't even-”
“‘ We didn't even’” Parrot mocked, “Yeah, guess who had the misfortune to see you guys kissing in the back alleyway near the house?”
“Ok first of all, we said no homo,” Ash tried to argue, “We were just being bros.”
The laughter seemed to increase and Clown just his head into Branzy's shoulder, which was shaking because of the aggressive laughing, “If I say no homo to Clown right now, are we really gay?” He got out between his hysterical borderline cackling.
“Nah, according to Ash, you guys are ‘just bros’,” Said Parrot, sending Ash a glare, “What was your excuse for making out on the couch during the New Years party?”
“I crossed my fingers,” Ash blurted out, blushing spreading to his face. During that moment, he thought those were pretty platonic.
“Ash, would you let me kiss you if I crossed my fingers and said no homo?” Branzy snickered out and made kissing noises. Everyone ignored how Clown seems to pull Branzy closer.
“Wha- no, I'm dating Red now .”
“Okay, so you would've let me kiss you when you weren't dating Red?”
“C’mon Branzy you have Clown, why are you trying to kiss my boyfriend?” Red said, coming back from throwing his lunch away and pushing Roshambo aside to sit with Ash.
“It's not that I really want to kiss Ash, I mean, look at Clown!” Everybody at the table let out a groan at how lovestruck he looks when speaking of the person literally coddling him. Branzy only smiled brightly at that.
“Still, will you?”
Ash stayed quiet for a second. No, he would not have wanted to kiss Branzy because he was his friend …
His hesitation was enough for Branzy, “See? Whatever stuff you were doing with Red was not platonic !”
“Well, we started dating just last week-”
That seemed to get a bigger reaction out of the group. A spoon dramatically dropped back to the plate of mush, Zam’s jaw dropped, Ro let out a loud groan and passed the wad of cash back to Mapicc whose eyes were wide but accepted the money; Parrot only looked mildly irritated.
“SO YOU GUYS WEREN’T TOGETHER??” Zam screamed, getting shushed by a teacher nearby, so his voice lowered, “ You guys weren’t together this entire time?? ”
“You’re telling me kissing in a back alley way is because of no homo, making out on the coach was platonic, ” Parrot looked like he was having the worst possible migraine, “How about the time we went to the mall and you guys just held hands the entire time-”
“I mean, Ash’s hand was cold and I was just being a gentlemen by warming them up-”
“The one time we went to a café, you guys literally ordered the valentines special milkshake and shared it-”
“Inflation is real and sharing is caring-”
“When did you care-” Spep squeaked out, only to be immediately ignored by Parrot, Ash and Red collectively.
“ With the fucking couples straw-”
“We’re saving the turtles by reducing the waste two straws create-”
“That one semester end party to celebrate the end of finals, we played truth or dare and you just ended up snuggling each other-”
“Well, the air-con was surprisingly effective-”
“And the day after you guys left together, Ash came to school with love bites on his neck-”
“I swear these mosquitoes be getting insane these days-”
Mapicc hands back half of the stack of cash Ro gave him.
“Can we just accept the fact you guys were dating from the beginning?” Zam spoke up from where he was intently listening to the whole thing.
“NO!”
Ash slammed his hand on the table and ignored how several other tables of students stared at them now.
“We were being platonic , were not- weren’t dating back then!”
Several of their friends rolled their eyes.
“You guys were dating whether you like to acknowledge it or not” Vitalasy said.
“Yeah, you guys were the last to find out,” Clown added on.
The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. Ash didn’t even realise how much time they spent on this, but he was not going to let them get the last word in.
“We. Weren’t. Dating. Until. A. Week. Ago. That’s it! That’s the truth .”
Ash let out a huff as Red took his hand and led them away from the cafeteria.
“Yeah they definitely weren’t dating.” Parrot said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.