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Cody had the occasional bad habit of not being able to keep his mouth shut. Most of the time, he was able to keep his thoughts inside his head, but sometimes, whenever he was under the influence, tired, or just completely out of it, his brain-to-mouth filter stopped working completely. Typically, the things that he blurted out of his mouth were just dumb, something that Noel would tease him about later.
Unfortunately, this was not one of those times.
Cody was tired. He'd been going to the gym every day for the past week to try to get back in shape. He'd just finished his last set when Noel texted him, asking if he wanted to hang. Cody, still running off of adrenaline, had agreed and made his way over to Noel's place after taking a brief shower at the gym. By the time Noel invited him inside and sat on the couch next to him, he was exhausted, the adrenaline having left his system.
Noel hadn't noticed, thankfully. Cody would've felt bad if he had, knowing Noel would've offered to take him home so he could get some rest. As tired as he was, he wanted to stay. Their schedules had been pretty busy lately, leaving them little time to hang out outside of recording podcast episodes. Cody didn't want to ruin the one off day they had together by leaving, so he fought through his fatigue as he listened to Noel ramble.
Noel paused his story to tug at his shirt collar. "Man, is it hot in here, or is it just me?"
With no hesitation, Cody said, "It's you." Instantly, his face grew red and he bit his tongue harshly to stop himself from saying anything else.
Noel blinked, as if he wasn't sure he heard him quite right. "What?"
"What?" Cody responded as nonchalantly as possible, as if he hadn't just called his best friend hot.
Noel's confused look shifted into one of amusement. "Did you just call me hot?"
"No, not like that! I just -- I meant that I'm not hot, it's just you. I didn't mean, like, sexy hot. Not that you're not sexy, because you are -- fuck." Cody slapped a hand over his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut, wanting nothing more right now than to be struck with one of Zeus's lightning bolts.
Noel snickered at him. He grabbed the hand that was glued to his mouth and peeled it away, gently linking their fingers together. Cody opened his eyes, looking between confused and terrified. Wordlessly, Noel leaned in and placed a soft kiss on his lips.
"I think you're hot too, dumbass," he mumbled, a hint of laughter in his tone.
Cody chuckled and pulled him in for another kiss. "Thanks."
For once, his malfunctioning brain-to-mouth filter paid off.