Work Text:
“C’mon, Blink, it’ll be fun!” Mush insisted, jiggling his leg from where he sat on the bus stop’s bench. “It’s not like there’s anything to be scared of. It’s just me and my parents, and you know they love you. I mean, they’ve practically adopted you at this point. So please?”
Blink sighed, his breath coming out in a sharp puff of vapor in the cold air. “I dunno, Mush. Wouldn’t it be kinda… invasive?” He murmured, furrowing his eyebrows and glancing over at Mush.
“Invasive? Are you kidding? You’ve been coming over to my house for, like, a thousand years. You have a key. Nothing you could do would be invasive.”
Blink stayed quiet for a few moments, nervously mulling his thoughts over. “Okay, but… this is, like, a religious thing, and I’m not Jewish. I don’t wanna make it weird. Or… uncomfortable. Something like that.”
“You won’t. I promise. My parents would love to have you there.” Mush paused, his tone shifting to something more careful. “Look. I know you and your mom haven’t celebrated anything since…”
“Since Dad died.” Blink finished for him.
“Yeah. Since that. So I figured you’d miss it. And my Dad makes really good latkes. Oh- and there’s gonna be chocolate. Like, shitty gelt chocolate, but chocolate.” Mush finished his thought with a hopeful grin, cocking his head as he looked up at Blink.
Blink frowned for a few moments, but his resolve quickly crumbled under Mush’s gaze. In truth, he couldn’t deny anything his best friend asked of him, so he knew it really wasn’t worth pushing it further. “Okay, okay, fine. I’ll come.”
Mush beamed at him as they stepped onto the bus, clapping Blink on the shoulder as soon as they sat down. “Great! I’ll walk over and get you before dinner, okay? Oh, man, it’s gonna be so much fun, we never have people over for Hanukkah. All my Mom’s family lives way far away, and, you know, we don’t talk to Dad’s family, so…”
Mush rambled on as the bus pulled back into the street, and Blink couldn’t help the fond smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Mush only stopped talking when they were back home, and the two boys split off at the elevator of their apartment building, each heading opposite ways down the hall.
“I’ll see you later tonight!” Mush called with a grin and a wave, before disappearing through his front door. Blink raised his hand in return, and took a slow breath before stepping into his own home.
As usual, the apartment was quiet and dark. Blink couldn’t hear the TV, so his mom wasn’t home; as such, Blink opted to do his homework in the kitchen, so he could fix himself a snack beforehand.
These days, the apartment was silent nearly all the time, save for the sound of the TV. Blink’s mom wasn’t a cruel person; not by any means; but since his dad’s death, she’d grown distant, and cold, and paid much less attention to Blink than she had in his younger days.
Absently, Blink reached under his patch and traced the scar there as he thought of his dad. Vague images flashed through his mind; a rainy day, heavy traffic flow, loud music blaring from the radio, bursts of laughter, squealing tires, crunching metal, a sharp pain in his eye, a crushing pain in his chest-
Blink forcefully shook his head to clear his thoughts, and sat down to start on his Algebra work.
A few hours passed and Blink had finished all his work. He was stretched out on the couch, watching SpongeBob on the TV at a low volume. He wasn’t paying attention; his mind had drifted back to the accident and his dad, and eventually to the holidays his family used to celebrate together. He was lost in a memory about Christmas morning, years ago, when he was jolted out of it by a knock and a voice at the door.
“Blink? I’m coming in!” Mush called from the other side, stepping through the door a moment later. Blink shut the TV off and pushed himself off the couch, straightening his shirt up as he stood. “Hey, Mushy. Time for dinner already?”
“Yup! Mom told me to come grab ya. You ready to come over?”
“Yeah. Just gotta make sure the lights and TV and shit are off, and everything’s locked.”
“Word. Hurry, though, a bitch wants latkes.”
Both Mush’s parents greeted Blink with tight hugs, and he was immediately passed a plate so full of food he almost didn’t know what to do with it. Blink’s initial anxiety quickly wore off as the Meyers joked and laughed around the dinner table, and eventually, he joined in.
The Hanukkah celebrations themselves filled him with a soft, warm type of feeling that Blink hadn’t felt since his last Christmas. Watching Mush’s dad light the candles, hearing Mush’s family recite prayers and songs (which, kindly, Mush’s mom taught Blink the words to), and, especially, the joyful, sparkling light in Mush’s eyes all made Blink’s heart feel full and light.
Afterwards, Mush’s parents went to cuddle in the living room (which Mush teasingly insisted was gross, cause you guys are old,), Blink and Mush ended up back at the kitchen table, playing dreidel.
“Shoot, man, I don’t know how you keep winning so much! You’re gonna take all my gelt!” Mush exclaimed, as Blink spun his fourth gimel and dragged the chocolate coins on the table towards himself.
Blink shot him a lazy grin, unwrapping one of the coins and popping it into his mouth. “Guess I’m just better at this than you, Mushy man.”
“Nah. Beginner’s luck.” Mush gently kicked Blink’s shin under the table, still grinning.
The two lapsed into a comfortable silence, smiling warmly at each other. Slowly, Mush reached over the table, and his fingertips grazed over Blink’s knuckles. Blink let them linger there for a while, before stretching his own fingers out and wordlessly threading them into the spaces between Mush’s. Mush blinked slowly, his eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks as Blink rubbed his thumb back and forth along Mush’s hand.
And then Mush’s mom walked in, and the boys jerked their hands apart, Blink shoving his under the table and Mush fiddling with the dreidel. If his mom noticed the sudden change in energy, she didn’t say anything.
Instead, she fixed Blink with a gentle smile. “Your mom just called. She wants you to head back home before too long. School night and all.” She reached out and ruffled Blink’s hair before continuing. “Feel free to come over again tomorrow night if you want to, okay sweetheart?”
“Yeah. Thanks, Mrs. Meyers.” Blink smiled with a quick nod. “I’ll… think about that.”
“Please do. Goodnight, Louis.” She turned to look at Mush before she left, and added, “You should head to bed soon too, Nick. I don’t want you staying up past midnight again.”
Blink stood up and shoved the rest of the gelt in his pocket, and Mush groaned a little, idly spinning the dreidel on the table. “You really gotta go home now?”
“‘Fraid so.” Blink responded, loosely crossing his arms. “You know how she gets when I get home later than she expects.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Mush hopped up from the table, dropping the dreidel down in the middle of it. “I’ll walk you over.”
Blink said a quick goodbye to Mush’s dad as they left, along with another promise that he’d think about coming over again the next night. As soon as they were in the hall of the apartment building, Mush silently hooked their pinkies together, and the boys stayed like that as they walked towards Blink’s apartment. Their shoulders occasionally brushed together as they went, and neither one spoke until they stood in front of Blink’s door, and turned to face each other.
Mush was the first one to break the silence. “That was fun. Thanks for letting me drag you over.”
“Thanks for inviting me.” Blink fell silent again for a moment, before reluctantly unhooking his pinky from Mush’s. “So, uh… tomorrow, too? You want me to come over at the same time?”
“Yeah. I’d really like that.” Mush smiled.
Neither boy made a move to increase the distance between them. They stood close enough that Mush swore he could count every freckle on Blink’s face, even in the shitty fluorescent lighting. He reached out and slowly ran a hand up Blink’s arm, stopping to rest it on his shoulder. Blink responded by gingerly, almost hesitantly, placing a hand on Mush’s waist, and both boys stilled again.
The silence grew heavy, and finally Blink stepped backwards. “So- yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow. Meet you out front for the bus.”
“Yeah.” Mush breathed, stepping back and jamming his hands in his pockets. “I’ll… yeah.” He bit his lip, furrowing his brows for a moment before breaking into a small, nervous-looking smile. “Night, Blink.”
“Night, Mush.”
Late that night, both boys lay in bed, the weight of all the unspoken things between them weighing heavily in their chests. Separately, they both rolled over and picked their phones up, sending texts to each other at the same time;
“I really hope u come back over tomorrow night”
“i think im gonna come back over tomorrow”
Both boys laughed to themselves, and sent back a final reply before rolling over and going to sleep.
“Okay, good. Gn for real now”
“gn mush”