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When Tobin first makes his TikTok account, he doesn’t expect much to come of it. He knows that he won't receive as good of numbers as the teenagers that made the app popular, and he’s okay with that.
But to his surprise, one of his videos goes semi-viral on the For You page and he gains a lot of traction. It’s not one of his best videos (it’s literally just him walking through his and Leif’s shared apartment before he walks into his bathroom and points his camera at the mirror to reveal him holding his friend’s pet ferret he’s been taking care of while an audio clip from Keeping Up With the Kardashian plays), but it does numbers .
Tobin ends up pulling Leif into making videos with him (read: begging Leif to appear in videos). His favorite is the one where he bribed Leif with footing the entire grocery bill for the week instead of splitting just so Leif would ask him to “sweep the house.” Leif was sitting on the couch scrolling through his phone when he fulfilled Tobin's request only to have him enter the living room from his bedroom wearing a paintball mask and carrying his paintball gun. The video showed Leif sighing in exasperation as Tobin exclaimed, “You told me to sweep the house!”
Eventually, he gives in and participates willingly. It was great until Tobin’s followers started shipping them. Tobin knew Leif never read the comments since the notifications went to Tobin’s phone, but he was still worried that once he found out that Leif might stop making videos with him.
And then Tobin starts agreeing with the comments saying they would make a cute couple. He’s not sure what to do about them, so he tries to ignore how his heart races when Leif looks at him and smiles. Or when they end up scooting closer to each other while playing video games and sharing takeout on Saturday nights. Or when they work together to play subtle pranks on their coworkers, like hiding Zoey’s pens in the nest above the conference room.
They continue making TikToks, and Tobin continues secretly pining over Leif.
At some point, Leif gets really invested in their hobby and starts making a list of video ideas, so when he suggests they try the challenge where they throw weighted blankets at each other and try to make each other fall, Tobin agrees immediately. He picks up a cheap, fifteen pound weighted blanket on his way home from work and has to Uber back to the apartment just to get it there.
They move their living room furniture to make room and move the breakables out of the living room completely just in case things go badly. Tobin sets up their phones in different places so they have different angles, and Leif sets up the tripod and camera he uses for his vlogs so he can document the making of the TikTok. He’s positive there’s going to be some great outtakes and bloopers. When they’re done setting up, Leif does a short intro for his vlog before they start the actual challenge.
It starts off pretty mild. They’re throwing it pretty lightly to test out the waters. It’s Leif that suggests they should throw it harder to get better results, and Tobin suggests they try different ways of throwing it.
First, Tobin crouches down into a squat so the blanket will completely cover him. It causes him to drop like a fly. “Dude!” Leif yells, holding out the word.
“That was awesome!” Tobin finishes for him.
They try out a few different techniques, like bunching it up into a ball before throwing it or getting a running start before chucking it, but then Leif gets another idea. They stand face to face, about a feet apart, each holding an end of the blanket. On the count of three, they threw the blanket into the air and stepped closer to allow it to bring both of them down.
Except, Tobin miscalculates and steps too far forward and knocks his face on Leifs, their lips briefly colliding in the process. He doesn’t get time to react to it before the blanket overtakes them both and he finds himself sprawled out on the floor, limbs at awkward angles.
Leif groans from underneath him, and Tobin immediately starts scrambling to free them from the blanket. If Tobin thought it was hard to breathe underneath the weight of the blanket, it was even harder looking at Leif catching his breath, his hair messed up from the impact.
Before he accidentally does something to embarrass himself, Tobin jumps to his feet and runs to grab his phone to see how it looked on camera. Leif stands behind him, their shoulders brushing. From the angle his phone captured, it’s perfectly clear that their lips touched and they basically kissed.
Tobin glances up to see Leif’s reaction only to find him already looking at him. Leif’s eyes flicker to his lips then back up to his eyes. He’s taken by surprise when Leif places his hands on either side of his face and pulls him in for a kiss, a real kiss. Tobin kisses back, because he’s not an idiot , and pretty soon they’ve ended up making out on the couch.
It’s Tobin that pulls away first. When he doesn’t say anything, Leif asks, “Did I misread the situation?”
“That depends,” Tobin answers. “Did you kiss me because you thought I wanted you to kiss me? Because if you kissed me because you thought I wanted you to kiss me and not because you actually wanted me to kiss you, then you may have misread the situation.”
Leif raises an eyebrow and says, “Tobin, I have no idea what you just said.” He pauses before continuing, “I kissed you because you looked at me like you wanted to kiss me and because I wanted to kiss you. ”
“Well now that we’re both on the same page,” Tobin’s voice died down as he wrapped his fist around the collar of Leif’s button down and pulled him back to their position they were previously in.
Later that night, when the TikTok has been edited and posted (including the kiss), Leif is going through the footage caught on his camera to decide what will go in his daily vlog. He’s sitting at the end of the couch that’s now back in its original place with his laptop sitting on the armrest. Tobin is asleep with his head in Leif’s lap, hugging one of the throw pillows as he lightly snores.
Leif briefly thinks about keeping the footage to himself, but he knows that he loves Tobin and he’s not afraid to share their relationship online. And his vlogs are password protected, so he doesn’t have to worry about negative feedback from strangers.
He titles the vlog “Accidentally Kissing My Best Friend” and posts it before waking up Tobin to move him to sleep in an actual bed. In his sleepy daze, he doesn’t bother changing into pajamas. As Leif turns off the lights and starts to head to his room across the hall, he hears Tobin mumble and extend his arm so it’s reaching for him.
“Stay,” he mumbles. Leif hesitates but realizes he probably won’t be able to sleep in his own room anyway given that his mind is consumed with thoughts of Tobin, so he crawls into his bed, still in his clothes from work. He falls asleep holding his best friend, perfectly content despite the unconventional clothes he’s sleeping in.
Less than a month later, Tobin moves into Leif’s room completely, and they turn his old room into an office. It’s got two desks so they can both code from home, some comfy chairs by the window that overlooks the city, and a place for Leif to record and edit his videos.
As far as things go, Leif’s pretty sure his life is perfect and only getting better. Tobin just can’t believe he realized his best friend is the love of his life through TikTok. He’s pretty sure he won't stop making them for a while.