Chapter Text
Misha drifted into consciousness with his head under a blanket and his arms wrapped around someone else. He lay there, basking in the warmth radiating off their body. He didn't bother to open his eyes before letting out a contented sigh and burrowing his face deeper into the space between the mystery person's neck and shoulder. He was lazily trying to recall what had happened during the previous night, but he was so comfortable that he simply couldn't be bothered to wake up fully and figure it out.
He was forced to face reality far sooner than he would have liked, because he felt a hand on his shoulder shaking him awake. Blearily he raised his head and glanced around the room. It was empty apart from him and Noel, who was sitting beside him on the mattress and looking concerned. "Good morning," Misha mumbled, smiling sleepily.
"Morning," Noel whispered. Misha's eyes flickered to Noel's lips. Yes, he remembered what had happened now, and the last time he had felt so happy was when Talia had agreed to marry him. Misha watched in silence as a blush rose on Noel's cheeks. The other boy went to climb out of bed but Misha reached out and grabbed his wrist, tugging him closer so he could bury his head back into Noel's shoulder. "Misha, what are you doing?" Noel murmured, and Misha wrapped his arms tighter around the other boy's waist.
"I'm just happy," he whispered back. He felt hands on his face and suddenly he was being pulled back up to meet Noel's gaze.
"Did you mean what you said last night, then?" Noel asked. His voice was shaking.
Misha grabbed one of Noel's hands and held it tightly, rubbing his thumb along Noel's wrist. "I meant every word, poet," he promised, watching as Noel's eyes softened with relief.
Noel's mouth opened and closed as though he was going to speak but he hesitated for a moment before steeling himself. "Can I kiss you again?" he asked, face going red.
Misha didn't bother responding as he leaned forward and captured Noel's mouth with his, rising up onto his knees so that he could thread his arms around Noel's neck. His head was swimming with happiness as Noel let out a quiet sigh and leaned into the kiss. He let his fingers drift into Misha's hair and tangle in his curls. Still, it wasn't anywhere close to long enough before Noel pulled back and studied Misha's face, eyes contemplative.
"What?" Misha asked, laughing.
Noel smiled shyly. "Nothing. I just can't believe what's happening."
Misha sat forward so that his knees were pressed against Noel's and brushed a thumb along his cheekbone. "It is not so hard to believe. You are by far the most beautiful boy in Canada. Anybody would be lucky to kiss you."
He knew that he had said something wrong when Noel's eyes shuttered and he pulled back a bit. "Is this just kissing, then?" Noel asked. His voice was tight, as though he was forcing the words out of his throat.
Misha frowned. "Is that not what you want?" He had tried last night to confess something more than attraction to the poet and Noel had run off. Now all he wanted was to take as much attention as Noel was willing to give him, and hope that it would turn into more in time. But now Noel was removing his hands from Misha's hair and picking at his red nails, eyes downcast. "Noel, talk to me," Misha tried.
"I don't know, Mish," Noel muttered. "I guess that after last night I was hoping that maybe we could be more than just friends who kiss each other. I don't know if I could handle whatever we are at the moment."
Misha felt as though he was frozen to the spot. "Oh, poet," he breathed. His heart was pounding. "There is nothing I want more in this world than to be more than friends who kiss with you."
Noel glanced up and studied Misha's gaze. "You wouldn't want to be my boyfriend," he said with a tiny smile. "You'd have to watch the Blue Angel with me every weekend, and paint your nails and let me win at every game we play."
Misha's hands were shaking and he could barely force the words out past the ball of happiness in his chest. "I will do all of those things and more," he promised. "Believe me, Noel Gruber, I will do anything for you if I get to call you my boyfriend."
Noel's eyes were shining and a huge grin spread over his face before he reached out and pulled Misha's face to his. "Of course you can call me your boyfriend," he whispered. Misha grinned stupidly into their kiss, wrapping his arms around Noel and pulling him impossibly closer. He could feel Noel's hands shaking as they slowly travelled up and down his back, tracing the moles that he hadn't even known were there.
Misha only stopped when he heard Noel's stomach grumble. He pulled away and laughed at Noel's embarrassed smile. "Come on, poet, we should find the others," he said, grabbing Noel's hands to pull him into a standing position.
"I love hearing you call me that," Noel murmured and Misha's grin grew impossibly wider.
"And I love that I get to call you it, my poet." He pulled Noel out of the living room and followed the quiet clattering coming from the kitchen. Noel dropped his hand right before Misha pushed the door open, causing him to turn around in confusion.
"I don't think we should tell the others yet," Noel said. "I mean, for one thing, Ocean might actually faint or blow up or something, and I kind of like the idea of it being our secret, at least for a little while."
Misha frowned. If it was up to him, he would shout the news to everyone in Uranium, especially his friends, but he forced himself to shrug. He knew he wasn't exactly Noel's type, but surely Noel wasn't embarrassed to be attracted to him? For the first time, he found himself considering changing into a plainer shirt. "If you say so, Noel."
He opened the door to a scene right out of a Hallmark movie. Constance was standing by the kitchen stove cooking pancakes with Penny sitting on the countertop next to her and swinging her legs. Ocean was standing there with her arms crossed, glaring at Penny, and Ricky was sitting at the kitchen table with his crutches leaning against his chair.
As soon as the door opened, Ocean whipped around to face the boys. Her face was flushed red with embarrassed outrage, but from the calm way that the rest of the choir greeted them, it was clear that she had not yet told anyone what she had seen the night before. Once again, Misha felt grateful for the change in Ocean's character that had been brought about by the accident. Before the Cyclone she would have had no qualms telling everyone what she had seen, without even realising that she was being cruel. She wouldn't have said it to out Misha or to embarrass them, but to complain about what she had had to walk in on. Now she might be feeling the same way, and no doubt Misha would be getting an earful from her later on, but the rest of the group was still living in ignorance.
"Morning, sleepyhead," Constance said cheerfully. Noel had gone to sit next to Ricky and Misha thought about following him, but seeing the two of them attached at the hip might finally tip Ocean over the edge. "Did you have a good rest?"
"Uh, yeah," Misha said, leaning over to examine the pancakes she had already made.
"You were still asleep when the rest of us woke up, and Noel said he didn't have the heart to wake you," Constance continued. "So we figured we'd make breakfast and if you still weren't up we'd have to drag you in here by your feet."
Penny giggled and continued swinging her legs. "Yeah, was long night," Misha said awkwardly. His cheeks flushed as Ocean made a quietly disgusted squeaking noise and flounced off to sit at the table.
Constance tracked her best friend's movement in confusion. "Oce, are you okay?" she called.
"I'm fine, just hungry," Ocean said tersely. She had chosen to sit as far away as possible from Noel, Misha noticed.
"Well, the food's nearly ready," Constance said. "Misha, will you bring these pancakes over to the table? And Penny, you can bring over the fruit you cut."
Misha picked up the plate of pancakes and made his way over to the table without another word. He was still far too tired to deal with Ocean having an internal battle, when all he wanted to do was be alone with Noel again. He made to sit down next to his new boyfriend, but Ocean let out another squawk. "Misha, you can sit over here," she said. "Penny already claimed that spot."
Misha glanced over at Penny, who was looking at Ocean in blatant confusion, but shrugged. He'd let her win this battle. "Okay, Ocean. Sorry for trying to steal your spot, Penny."
"Yeah, you'd better be," Penny deadpanned. "I would have fought to the death for that spot." She rolled her eyes at Ocean's antics.
Constance washed her hands at the sink and came over to sit next to Misha, across the table from Noel. Misha made eye contact with Ricky, who he was sitting across from.
What's Ocean's problem? Ricky signed, and Misha rolled his eyes and shrugged. He pulled a pancake from the stack onto his plate and starting picking at it half heartedly, trying his best not to glance over at Noel.
Surely Noel wasn't embarrassed by him? Yeah, he didn't exactly fit the mold of Noel's dream boyfriend, who was supposed to be French, and suave, and tragically romantic, with soulful dark eyes and a penchant for smoking cigars. Noel wanted someone who would write poetry for him. Instead, he was stuck with a Ukrainian with a drinking problem without a poetic bone in his body. Yes, he wrote raps, and yes they rhymed, but he knew exactly what Noel thought about his music.
He was forced out of his miserable thoughts by Constance, who was tapping him on the shoulder. "I was just telling Noel that I had planned for us to go to the park today, if you'd like that?" Constance said.
Misha blinked at her. "Yeah, okay."
"Come on, Misha, you could at least try to sound excited," Ocean said, rolling her eyes.
"I am," Misha replied. "I am just tired from last night."
That shut her up. Misha watched with delight as she let out a disgusted shudder and turned back to her food.
"What happened last night?" Penny asked, twirling her fork in her hand. She had obviously spotted Ocean's visceral reaction to Misha's excuse, and found it hilarious.
Misha couldn't stop his eyes sliding to Noel, who had his head down and was industriously cutting into his pancakes. "Nothing, I just struggled to sleep."
Penny nodded slowly. "Okay." She went back to her pancakes, grinning to herself.
"So we can start getting ready whenever you guys are finished eating, okay?" Constance said. She clearly had no idea what was going on, and just wanted to get Ocean and Misha out of the house while they were acting so strange.
With five people helping, clearing up after breakfast was light work. Misha grabbed the clothes he had brought from the living room and ducked into the bathroom to change. Noel was still being distant, but he was hoping that maybe the two of them could sneak off in the park and steal a moment or two for themselves. Misha unbundled the t-shirt that he had brought with him and stared at it contemplatively. It said ORIGINAL GANGSTA on it and sported a skull wearing a baseball cap. He still thought it was absolutely wicked, but found himself zipping up the hoodie he was wearing over it when he would usually leave it open, just in case it freaked Noel out.
While Misha was brushing his teeth, he saw the door open out of the corner of his eye and jumped back in shock as Ocean ducked in and locked the door behind her. "What do you want?" he asked, mumbling past a mouth full of toothpaste.
"A, that's gross," Ocean hissed. "And B, I'm here to talk about Noel."
Misha gestured for her to wait while he spat his toothpaste and rinsed his mouth. Ocean spent the few seconds looking disgustedly at the ceiling. "What about him?" Misha asked defensively.
"I don't think you understand what you're doing with him," Ocean said, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring. "We all know how much of a hopeless romantic he is, and if you're just using him to get over Talia then you're being horribly cruel." Misha opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off. "I think you should stay away from him before you hurt him more. He was already upset this morning, I could see it."
"I think you need to stay out of my business," Misha snapped. "What I do with Noel has nothing to do with you." He made to open the door, but Ocean jumped in front of him.
"Misha, come on, you can't seriously be this much of a jerk," she cried. "What gives you the right to treat Noel as some sort of... of toy, just because he has a crush on you?" Misha scoffed angrily and tried to get past her again, but Ocean planted her hands against his chest and shoved him back. With a jolt of surprise, Misha realised that she had tears in her eyes. "Why won't you listen to me?" she demanded, teetering on the edge of raising her voice. "Surely you care about Noel enough to understand that you're hurting him?"
Misha couldn't help it. At the thought of hurting Noel, his eyes started to sting and he leaned against the wall for a moment. Ocean noticed, and her furious gaze softened. "Ocean, I know you care about Noel," he said quietly. "And I promise, I would never do anything to hurt him. Last night was best night of my life in a long time." He looked up, and saw her staring dumbly at him, so he tried to continue, but no more words would come out.
Finally, Ocean tentatively reached out and touched his arm. "I'm sorry," she forced out. "I just got so worried. I've known Noel since pre-K, and I really do care about him a lot. And the way he was acting this morning scared me, especially because I knew what happened last night. He's just been through so much already in school, and we're like his family, and I was so afraid that you had done something to ruin it." Misha frowned, and her grip on his arm tightened. "But I know you wouldn't. Especially now, when I saw the way that you looked when you were talking about him. I shouldn't have doubted you." Her hand dropped back down to her side and she gave him a teary grin.
Misha was shocked. An actual apology from Ocean O'Connell Rosenburg? He had to be either dead again or dreaming. "It is okay," he said quietly. "Even I am scared about way Noel was acting today." Ocean was looking at him with concern, and suddenly he couldn't hold it back anymore. "Noel is my boyfriend now, but he said to keep it secret," he admitted guiltily. He knew he shouldn't be telling Ocean, but she hadn't told anyone what she had walked in on last night, so he was sure that he could trust her. "I would prefer to tell people, but he does not even seem happy about it. I worry that he is maybe too embarrassed? For a while, I avoided him after the warehouse because I was ashamed of the passion I felt when I was around him. I think he is feeling the same. I know I am not... ideal boyfriend, but I am scared that he will change his mind about me. I do not know what I will do if I have come this close to happiness and have to leave it behind."
His eyes met Ocean's beseechingly, hoping that she would understand. "Oh, Misha," she breathed, awkwardly grabbing her hands in hers. "Noel would never feel that way about you. Trust me, from the way he looks at you, he's absolutely head over heels. But I know him, and the way he thinks, and I'm sure he's absolutely terrified right now." She seemed to realise that she was still holding Misha's hands, and dropped them. "He's never been in a relationship before. You were his first kiss, and it wasn't even on purpose. Of course he's going to be worried."
Misha's head was reeling. Why hadn't he thought of that? He looked down at Ocean again, surprised by just how much he loved her. Yes, he cared for all of his friends, but he had never considered his relationship with Ocean particularly loving, even after the Cyclone. But now, seeing how deeply she cared about Noel, and apparently, about him, he was almost overwhelmed by his gratitude for the girl. "Thank you, Ocean," he said, and meant it.
She laughed, a bit awkwardly, and it turned into a surprised gasp as Misha reached out and wrapped his arms around her in a brief hug. She barely had time to hug him back before he had disconnected again and was leaving the bathroom to find Noel.
Unfortunately, Misha's plans were thwarted by the rest of the choir. They were all ready to leave and standing outside in a group, and Misha could tell that it was going to be considerably harder to get Noel alone than he had hoped. He didn't even have the chance to talk to him on the walk over, as Noel had been pulled into conversation with Constance. Instead, Misha walked with Ricky. He also seemed to be able to tell that something was going on based on how he kept looking over at Misha and chuckling to himself. He wasn't able to sign while walking with his crutches, so Misha did all of the talking. He had finally watched the Harry Potter movies after Ricky had begged him to for weeks, and found himself talking about his favourite characters. It made him smile to see Ricky's face light up every time Misha stated an opinion that he agreed with.
When they got to the park, Ricky was clearly tired. Penny offered to sit with him on a bench so he could rest, and pulled out a comic book that she had brought for this exact reason. Constance wanted to build a snowman, and Ocean suggested that they make it into a competition and let Penny and Ricky be the judges.
"Oh, please!" Constance gasped, her eyes shining.
"Well, you're going to be my partner, Connie," Ocean said immediately. "I don't think I could stomach working with someone as unimaginative as Misha, and I couldn't let him drag you down with him either."
Misha glared at her, but she just grinned and flicked her eyes towards Noel, who was standing there with his gloves off, once again picking at the nail polish on his red fingers. "So you're landing me on top of Noel?" he asked, smiling. Ocean had an unusual manner of showing affection, but it was sweet in some strange way. "That is tragic," he continued, making his way over to stand beside Noel, who glanced up and smiled wanly at him.
Constance and Ocean had already huddled together to start discussing their design, and Misha suggested that he and Noel wander over to a clump of trees and bushes to collect materials. Noel frowned. "Should I not stay here and start working on the base?" he asked, but Misha shook his head and grabbed Noel's hand to pull him along.
Noel followed with minimal complaining, laughing to himself. "What do you want, you weirdo?" he asked, but was cut off by Misha glancing around to make sure no-one was looking and then pulling him in for a kiss.
Every single time their lips met it was like a firework went off in Misha's chest. He felt Noel gasp against his mouth and felt wool brushing against his skin as Noel cupped his face in his gloved hands. Misha was glad that Noel was so steady on his feet, because he already felt like he might fall over after one kiss. But eventually he forced himself to pull away. "I did not bring you here for kissing," he said seriously, watching as Noel dazedly brought a hand up to brush against his own lips.
"Huh?" Noel mumbled, and Misha couldn't help but smile.
"I wanted to talk to you about something," Misha said. He could feel his heart pounding. Oh God, please let this go well, he begged silently. "At first when you said you wanted this to be secret, I worried that you were embarrassed by me." Noel opened his mouth to say something, but Misha quickly continued. "But now I am worried that you think I was not serious about what I said last night." He reached out to grab Noel's hands, staring at him earnestly. "I want to tell you that every time I am with you, I feel like my heart will stop from pure passion. You are all that I think about when you are not around. And when you agreed to be my boyfriend, I thought that I would die again from happiness."
Noel was still standing there with his mouth open, so Misha reached up to brush a hand against his face. "Oh, Mish," Noel breathed, his eyes brimming with tears. "I don't know how I could be the poet when you can say things like that. I never meant to worry you, and you could never embarrass me. God, I think you're perfect. You're more than perfect. Every time I'm near you I wish that I was a better poet, because you inspire masterpieces. You're like an angel, and I would be nothing but proud to call you my boyfriend." The tears in his eyes spilled over as he gazed into Misha's face. "The only reason I wanted to keep this a secret is because I was worried that you might come to your senses and change your mind about me."
Misha couldn't help but laugh, although he felt more like crying. "Noel, кохання, I could never change my mind." Noel reached out and threaded his fingers through Misha's hair, and Misha felt dizzy with joy as he leaned in and captured Noel's lips with his own. Noel's breath warmed his skin as they stood there, wrapped in each other, forgetting all about building their snowman.
They were pulled out of their reverie by Ocean's voice for the second time. This time she was standing near where they were, but had the good sense not to come any closer. "Everyone's wondering where you guys vanished off to," she shouted. "You'd better grab some sticks or something if you want your little cover story to be even the tiniest bit believable."
Misha pulled away from Noel and stared at him, still giddy with happiness. "We are coming," he shouted out, and Noel snorted with laughter. God, Misha wanted to catch that sound in a bottle and drink it.
"Come on, you idiot, we'd better get something while we're here," Noel laughed.
"I already have everything I could possibly want," Misha told him seriously.
Noel stopped what he was doing and looked over, mouth open. It seemed Misha had shocked him into silence. Good. He planned to do that a lot.
"I meant sticks," he mumbled, and Misha laughed.
"I know, poet," he murmured, making his way over to a tree and scraping back some snow to find a few and pick them up. They walked back over to where Constance and Ocean were already done with the base of their snow man, and dumped a pile of sticks and stones in front of it.
"About time," Ocean said primly, standing up from where she was crouched and dusting her hands off.
"I don't know what you two were doing in there, but those sticks better be something special," Penny called over from the bench. Constance hastily stifled a giggle.
"I don't know what you could be talking about," Noel shouted back, before kneeling down in the snow and forming a ball to start their snowman. Misha did the same, but took careful aim with his ball and hit Penny right in the middle of her back. He quickly spun around and dove to the ground, making it look like he had been kneeling there all along.
"Who did that?" he heard her shriek, and had to hold back a laugh. Noel was very carefully not looking over at him lest he give the game away, so instead Misha started to actually work on their snowman. "Don't think I'm going to forget about this," Penny growled from behind them, but still Misha did not look over.
"Okay, guys, we have three minutes left," Ocean said after a little while. She and Constance were nearly finished, while Misha and Noel had yet to stack their snowballs on top of each other.
"What?" Noel shouted. "Nobody said anything about a time limit!"
"Actually, we did," Constance admitted. "I think you guys were still looking for supplies."
"Stop talking and help me, Noel!" Misha said in a panic. He lifted his snowball on top of Noel's while Noel held them steady. They were both approximately the same size, but there was no time to build a head, so they would have to make the most of it.
"You do the face, and I'll do the arms," Noel ordered, rushing over to the pile of sticks while Misha picked out a handful of roughly evenly sized rocks. Two for the eyes, one for the nose, six or seven for the mouth...
He stood back to admire his work and grimaced, but they had committed. As a finishing touch, he pulled off his own baseball cap and positioned it on top of what was supposed to be a head.
"Time's up!" Penny shouted. She helped Ricky up and they made their way over. Misha frowned protectively as Ocean looked over at his snowman and laughed.
In fairness, Constance and Ocean had clearly taken this competition seriously. Not only was their snowman vaguely proportionate, they had gone so far as to make a tail and a seashell bra and turn it into a snow-maid.
Penny and Ricky walked around the snow-maid and conferred briefly with one another in sign language. Then they walked over to the next one. To their eternal credit, they did make an attempt to judge the competition fairly. They walked around, studied it from all angles and had a lengthy discussion together before they felt ready to announce their judgement. Misha rolled his eyes as he stood next to Noel to listen.
"Well, I think it's pretty clear who the winner is," Penny said, glancing over at Noel and Misha. "Well done, Ocean and Constance. You each win a stick of your choosing from that pile over there, as well as eternal bragging rights and just the knowledge that you are infinitely better than both Noel and Misha in every way. Well done."
Misha spluttered indignantly. "What?" he shouted, shaking his head. "This is so unfair! We have been robbed!"
"Come on, Misha," Penny said flatly, although she was grinning. "Theirs is art. Yours looks like an egg."
In a flash of genius, Misha crossed his arms and scoffed. "Yes, is Bad Egg. My YouTube persona."
Ocean laughed out loud. "Nice try, Misha. Maybe next year," she said, pouting at him.
Noel was hanging off Misha's arm, laughing. "I agree with Misha," he said. "I think we won."
They were all laughing, and Misha was struck by just how much his life had changed. If they all died right now, would he still be considered the angriest boy in town? Almost definitely not. No, he thought contemplatively as he crouched to make a snowball. He was so happy now, he couldn't even picture the person he had been before the Cyclone. And as his snowball arced through the air and hit Ocean perfectly in the face, he thought that things were only going to get better from here.