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It was three years ago, but Lars still remembers the moment that Ronaldo asked him out… in his own, weird way.
Not one for simply stating his feelings like a normal person, Ronaldo decided that he needed to use a special tactic to get Lars to notice him.
“Well, you were always at work or had your headphones in,” Ronaldo says defensively. “It was hard to talk to you.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Lars says, but he smiles.
So rather than sending Lars a love letter in the mail or giving him a bunch of flowers (Lars hates flowers, but the gesture would still be there), Ronaldo thought up his own strange way to declare his love for Lars.
He worked out when Lars left the Big Donut in his lunch break, and set up his vantage point. He climbed onto the roof of one of the tallest buildings in town, and waited for Lars to appear, sauntering out of the Big Donut with his headphones on. And then he put his megaphone to his mouth and suddenly, all everyone in the town square could here was:
“LARS!” Ronaldo screamed, his voice echoing. “I LOVE YOU! WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?!”
Everyone jumped, especially Lars. He pulled off his headphones and stared all around him, trying to locate the source of Ronaldo’s echoing voice.
“LARS!” he yelled again.
Lars looked up at him, his eyes widening. He blushed. “What the hell are you doing?!”
“I’M DECLARING MY LOVE FOR YOU!”
Lars slapped his hand against his forehead. And then he ran away.
And Ronaldo realised that this hadn’t gone to plan, and ran back to work. When Dad asked him where he had been, he just shrugged.
“Well, what did you expect?” Lars says, staring at Ronaldo as he slumps on the couch, his feet propped up on the coffee table. “You embarrassed me.”
“Yeah,” Ronaldo says, blushing. “I kinda embarrassed myself too. I just didn’t know how else to tell you.”
For the following few days after his disastrous attempt to ask out Lars, Ronaldo avoided him. Lars seemed to be avoiding him too. He didn’t talk about it, and, thankfully, neither did anyone who witnessed his failed declaration of love.
But then, one day, Lars came to visit him after work. Ronaldo went down into the hallway to find an awkward Lars chatting to his dad.
“Hey, Lars,” he said, blushing.
Lars blushed too, avoiding eye contact. “Hi. Uh, can we talk?”
“Um… sure,” Ronaldo said. “Wanna come to my room?”
Lars nodded, and they headed up to the room Ronaldo shared with Pee Dee. Thankfully, his brother was around Steven Universe’s house, so he had the room to himself. He sat down on the bed, and Lars chose the chair in the corner.
“So…” Lars said, looking at the poster about aliens stuck on the wall above Ronaldo’s bed. “About the other day…”
Ronaldo chuckled awkwardly. “Yeah, about that…”
And then Lars said something totally unexpected. “Did, did you mean it? You we’re just making me look stupid?”
“No, no, of course not!” Ronaldo said, a bit too loud. “It was one hundred percent serious, man. I just didn’t know how else to say it.”
“So you screamed at me from the rooftops,” Lars said.
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s about it.”
“So, you really do… fancy me?”
Ronaldo looked at him. Lars was blushing, looking anywhere but at Ronaldo.
He nodded again. “Yeah, of course I do. I really love you, Lars. Do… do you wanna go out with me?”
Lars sighed slowly and finally made eye contact. And then he smiled. He blushed furiously, but his smile was genuine. He had such a lovely smile.
“Yeah, let’s give it a try,” he said.
“Awesome!” Ronaldo cried, lunging forwards to give Lars a hug.
“But no more rooftop speeches, okay?” Lars said.
He grinned, nodding. “Of course.”
He was so happy.
And now, over three years later, he still grins at the memory. Lars pretends to gag and Ronaldo raises his eyebrows.
“Don’t mock that beautiful memory, you philistine,” he says.
Lars frowns. “What the hell does that mean?”
He laughs. “I don’t really know.”
“You’re so embarrassing,” Lars says, but he smiles and slings his arm around Ronaldo’s shoulder.
“I know,” Ronaldo says, grinning. “But that’s why you love me.”
And Lars doesn’t say anything to disagree.