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It was a wonder how they had ever gotten here, with Victor’s arm tied securely above his head with some jump rope they had discovered in his garage, his ankles tied likewise to the ends of his bed, and Felix’s heart beating a mile a minute.
It had all started because Felix couldn’t keep his hands to himself.
When he had first met Victor, Felix had been delighted first to have a new neighbor and then, eventually, to have a new friend. Some might even argue first friend. It was nice to have someone to babble on to endlessly about the topics that other had scorned him for or called him weird for liking. The very first time Victor had smiled at one of his stupid jokes it had been like a shot of pure joy straight to his soul.
It was exactly because he was so grateful for this friendship, that Felix knew he couldn’t let Victor know about this secret of his.
Tickling was something Felix had enjoyed ever since he was little, happily falling into the arms of adoring relatives and friends who would poke and tease him throughout the years. At the time he had assumed nothing of it, and it wasn’t until years later that he realized the extent of his love for the concept.
Time also brought along the realization that not only did he enjoy being on the receiving end of those teasing pokes, but he enjoyed being the one to give them out as well. He remembered clearly the moments when peers from his childhood had foolishly revealed this weakness to him and the moments afterwards when he would jump on them and take advantage of this newfound information.
It was never weird to him. For Felix, tickling simply served as a tool to bring people greater laughter than any dumb joke could. Not only that, but he enjoyed the playful aspect to it as well; it was fun.
He was also aware that not everyone enjoyed this liking of his, and so he tried to be respectful for the most part when he was around others. With certain people though, it was difficult to resist.
He was quickly finding that Victor was one of these people. A shy, stumbling mess of awkwardness transported into the body of a teenage boy with one of the cutest smiles Felix had ever seen—it would almost be a crime not to tickle him.
He made it so easy, too. Victor jumped as fingers suddenly dug into his sides, a laugh startling from his lips quite against his will. “W-What are you dohoing?”
“You were spacing off again,” Felix answered dryly, continuing to poke up and down his sides with steady resolve. “Thinking about Benji again, no doubt. Which hey, I get it, we’re young, we’re hormonal, but also I need to finish this assignment and I can’t do that with a partner who can’t focus.”
“Ihihi cahahan’t fohohocus lihike thihis e-eheheither!” Victor protested, not denying his earlier statement. He crumbled easily under Felix’s skilled hands. “Nahaha, stahahahap!”
“Are you going to help me build this stupid DNA model?”
“Yehehehes!”
Reluctantly, Felix pulled his hands away and Victor slowly pulled himself back together, tugging his shirt down. “That wasn’t fair,” he pointed out, but a leftover smile tugged at his mouth and it took everything in Felix not to jump with him another tickle attack.
Another time Victor was reaching for the leftover bag of chips in the cupboard after inviting Felix over for movie night. As he stretched his arm up to grab them, his shirt tugged upwards and revealed his hip, tauntingly exposed in the position. Before thinking through his actions, Felix had snuck a hand over and squeezed the spot, prompting a sudden yelp from Victor as his arm came snapping down.
“Don’t do that,” he warned nervously. Felix held up his hands in surrender, a silent agreement. Victor eyed him suspiciously, but the chips were still there waiting to be retrieved and so he brought his arm back up. Almost immediately after he did, Felix’s fingers were digging torturously back into the spot and Victor squeaked, twisting back and banging into the counter behind him. For about a minute or so they played this game of Victor attempting to grab his chips and Felix easily thwarting his actions, till eventually Victor gritted his teeth through his giggles and managed to snag the bag.
Time after time the charade continued, and Felix soon found himself sneaking in tickles at any available moment, unable to help himself. Coming up behind him and goosing his sides as a greeting, poking his ribs whenever he wasn’t paying attention, playfully squeezing his knee if he wouldn’t get out of his seat, fluttering fingers over his socked foot if he was talking too much during a movie. It was almost a given by then, to the point that Victor would start giggling the moment that familiar smirk graced Felix’s lips.
“What?” Felix asked innocently. “I’m not even doing anything!”
“You’re going to,” Victor said, his arms coming down as a shield as he eyed him with an apprehensive grin. “I can tell you are, you always dohohoho, nohohoho!”
“You’re right,” Felix agreed, managing to wiggle fingers under his arm and delighting in the accompanying shriek. “I totally was.”
Time after time this happened, each time the tickling lasting longer and Felix growing more lax in his reasons for doing so. Victor was bound to eventually catch on to what was happening. Felix really should have seen the question coming, but it still caught him by surprise when it came.
“W-Wahahait, stahahahap!” Victor pleaded, squirming wildly against the couch one evening as Felix tweaked up and down his sides once more. The reason for the attack was lost to both of them by this point. “I cahahahan’t, plehehehease!”
That was Felix’s cue to back off, and he did so respectfully, waiting for the other to catch his breath once more.
“Why do you always do that?” Victor grumbled, rubbing his sides fiercely to rid himself of the phantom sensations. “It’s like you’re obsessed with tickling me or something.”
Anxious heat prickled up Felix’s arms and turned his cheeks a bright red. He turned away, his chin on hand as he forced his focus to the wall adjacent them. “That’s ridiculous. You’re ridiculous.”
Noticing his friend’s sudden discomfort, Victor sat up and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey. What’s up?”
“Nothing’s ‘up’,” Felix scoffed, shrugging off his hand. “I’m fine. Let’s just turn the movie back on. I think we’ve missed half of it anyway by this point.”
“Felix.”
Another hand on his shoulder, firmer this time, as Victor turned him around to face him. “I know something’s bothering you. You can tell me things too, you know. I’m always coming to you for advice, it’s only fair we reverse the situations every once in a while.”
Felix stared into the trusting eyes of his best friend and a knot of worry tied itself in his stomach at the prospect of speaking the words Victor wanted to hear. “I don’t think you want to know. It’s kind of weird.”
“That’s okay,” Victor assured him.
“Like, really weird.”
“Okay.”
“Like, really fucking weird actually—”
“Felix.” Victor spoke his name once more, enunciating the syllables empathically. “It’s okay, really. Whatever it is, I’m not going to judge you for it. You didn’t judge me for being who I am, so why would I do that to you?”
Felix blew out a puff of air, falling backwards on the couch and rubbing the heels of his hands into his temples. “Okay. Okay. Um. How to start…. I sort of like… er, tickling. I like tickling.”
Victor blinked, processing the words. “I—”
“Like, specifically tickling other people,” Felix continued, not wanting to hear Victor’s response just yet. “I guess I also like being tickled myself, though that’s a whole other thing.” He chuckled anxiously. “I’ve known for several years now and I never told anyone because… well, it’s weird. Yeah. So, uh, that’s why I’ve been tickling you so much. Not in a weird way!” he quickly added, springing back up on the couch. “I’m not, like, into you or whatever. Not that that would be bad, I’m just, you know, not. It’s not like, a sexual thing or anything, either. I just like the concept. Specifically when applied to other people. So… yeah.” Felix clapped his hands together definitively, having said what he needed to say. “And I understand if you never want to talk to me again and hate me forever now.”
Victor had been staring at him with furrowed brows for his entire confession, and now that he was finished he did something that Felix never would have expected. He smiled. As if he wasn’t going to drop him as a friend forever. He blinked, assuming he was having eyesight problems, but there Victor was, still smiling reassuringly in his direction.
“Is that all?” Victor asked, chuckling a little. “I thought you were going to say you ate children or something horrifying like that from the way you were talking.”
“I… what?” Felix had never been so nonplussed in his entire life. “You’re not freaked out by it?”
“I mean, I guess it’s a little strange,” Victor admitted with a small shrug. “But hey, who isn’t strange? And I guess a part of me understands.”
“You… like to tickle people too?” Felix asked, confused.
“No, no. I mean, a little I guess. I just meant that sometimes when you would tickle me I wouldn’t… entirely hate it.”
“No?” Felix asked, the first sparks of hope igniting in his chest. The thought that Victor might like being tickled just as much as he liked to tickle others would be a dream come true.
“No,” Victor agreed, blushing and fidgeting with his hands. “It’s kind of fun actually.”
Felix didn’t want to push his luck. He really didn’t. But here was Victor, openly coming to him and saying that not only did he not think Felix was a complete weirdo for liking tickling, but he might actually enjoy it too. There was no way he could pass up an oppurtunity like that. Before he could think through his next words, he was already blurting them out in a harried rush.
“Do you want me to tickle you?”
Victor paused, startled by the sudden request, but after a couple, heart stopping moments, he finally replied. “Yes.”
Fifteen minutes later, Victor tugged nervously on the jump ropes, eyeing the other doubtfully. “What do we do if it gets to be too much?”
“We could have a safe word,” Felix suggested, and Victor rolled his eyes at the term. Felix poked his side for the gesture and Victor yelped, immediately attempting to pull his arms down but finding them stuck. He swallowed, a thrill of nervous excitement shooting through him. “How about mango? You say mango, and everything stops. That sound okay?”
Victor nodded, wrinkling his brow at the word choice but otherwise saying nothing. He braced himself as Felix moved closer, raising his hands above him. “You ready?”
“Y-Yeah—ahahahaha!”
Victor’s words were cut off as Felix spidered his fingers gently under his arms, going slowly at first so as not to overdo it. Victor tugged at his arms but found them fully secured; he wasn’t going anywhere. “E-Ehehehe, ah! Wahahait! Thahahat tihihihickles!”
“I know it tickles, dummy,” Felix replied, rolling his eyes affectionately. “That’s kind of the point.”
Having such a sensitive spot targeted right away was getting to Victor and he squirmed back and forth on the bed, attempting to dislodge his fingers. No matter what he did, however, the tickling continued. Eventually he gave up on trying to get away, bursting into a round of breathless giggles.
“Having fun?” Felix asked.
Victor gulped down precious breaths of air before dissolving back into laughter. “A-Ahahaha, yeheheheah!” He was, surprisingly. He hadn’t been completely sure how to feel about the situation, but as much as his body screamed at him to rid himself of the devastating sensations, a larger part of him never wanted it to end. “A-Ahahare yohou?”
Felix drilled his fingers into the spot right above his ribs, grinning at the accompanying shriek. “Definitely. So where else are you ticklish?”
“U-Uhuhuhum, eheheheverywhere?” Victor answered unsteadily, watching as Felix raked nails down his sides, the touch edging almost towards his back. Victor arched off the bed, inhaling sharply. Felix repeated the motion and Victor squeaked, tugging at his arms.
“That’s interesting,” Felix mused. He changed his tactic to wiggling fingers down his sides, making sure to tease at the small of his back as he moved down. Victor burst into giggles, squirming desperately to escape the touch. “I wonder if this means your back is ticklish?”
Victor flushed, turning his gaze away. “N-Nohoho. B-Behehesides, yohou’ll nehehever gehet t-the chahance to fihind o-out!”
“Is that so?” Felix attacked his sides once more, but this time he managed to wedge his fingers under his sides, slipping his hands beneath his t-shirt, and teasing at the skin of his lower back.
“Fuhuhuhuck!” Victor yelped, curving his back upwards in an attempt to avoid the touch. Unfortunately for him, that only made the spot easier to reach. “Shihihihit, shihihit, shihihit, stahahahap!”
“God, I didn’t realize backs could be so sensitive!” Felix exclaimed, delighted at his discovery. “You’re like a walking tickle spot, man!”
“Shuhuhut uhuhuhup!” Victor pleaded, the electrifying touch of nails too much for him to handle. “Nahahat thehehere!”
“Hey, all you’ve got to do is put your back down,” Felix informed him, quite unhelpfully. “Can’t tickle you then.”
“B-Buhuhut ihihit tihihihihickles tohohoo muhuhuch!”
“I don’t know, kinda sounds like a you problem to me.”
“Jeheheherk!”
“Such a filthy mouth.” Felix clucked his tongue disappointedly. “I think you’re being highly presumptuous for someone in such a helpless state as yourself.”
Without warning, Felix withdrew his hands and latched them onto his knees instead. Shocks of feeling traveled up Victor’s legs and he shrieked, shaking and writhing rapidly on the bed as he fought to withdraw his knees from Felix’s grip. “Nahahahahahahat fahahahahair! Ahahahaha, nohoho, stahahahap!”
“Do you apologize for calling me a jerk?”
“B-Buhuhut yohohou’re beheheing a jeheherk!” Victor protested.
“Alright. You asked for it.”
The feeling of Felix’s nails dancing over his knees sent him into a whole new level of hell and he burst into a round of uncontrollable giggles and squeals, trying to yank his legs out of the way. “Wahahahahahait! Wahahahait!”
“Are you gonna say sorry?” Felix asked, possibly enjoying himself a little too much. But could you really blame him? “Because I’m not gonna stop until you do.”
It took another thirty seconds before Victor finally caved, scrunching his face up all the while as he attempted to fight the sensations. “Ohohokay, fihihihine! I’m sohohorry!”
Felix gave his knee one last squeeze before stopping. “Okay, okay. I guess I can give you a break.”
Victor slumped back against the bed, his chest heaving. “Oh my god,” he muttered, grinning tiredly. “That was intense.”
Felix watched the rise and fall of his chest and his flushed cheeks. “I didn’t… I didn’t go too far, did I?”
Victor quickly shook his head. “No, no, you’re good. I mean, I didn’t use the safe word, did I?” Felix had to admit that was true. “It just… really tickled.” He blew out a puff of air incredulously. “Like, I had no idea I was that ticklish.”
“Most people don’t,” Felix agreed, relieved that the other was still okay with this. “Do you want me to keep going?”
Victor nodded nervously, watching him in anticipation. “Y-Yeah, just… not too hard, okay?”
“Of course.”
Felix turned his attention now to his feet, tugging at his socks to pull them off. From behind him, he heard the anxious trill of Victor’s voice. “H-Hold on. Are you starting there?”
“Well… yeah,” Felix agreed slowly, confused. “It’s one of the few places I haven’t tested out. I don’t think I’ve ever fully explored how ticklish your feet are either; it’s not exactly an easy place to reach. But judging off your reaction, I’d say it’s a fair bet to say that they’re pretty sensitive?”
Victor pressed his lips together in a line, refusing to respond to the question. His silence was all the answer Felix needed. Felix finished pulling off each sock, throwing them discarded across the room. Slowly, he dragged his finger down the length of his left sole. Behind him, he heard Victor’s audible gasp. He traced little spirals like that for a moment before growing bored. He gripped Victor’s toes, pulling them back so that the foot was fully exposed, and started gently spidering his nails over the vulnerable sole.
“AhahAHAHAhahaha, fuhuhuhuck, pffft, shihihit!” Victor’s foot jerked back instinctively, but the jump rope kept it in place. “Gah! W-why dohohoes thahahat tihihickles sohoho muhuhuch?!”
“Someone did it to me once, years ago,” Felix informed him, keeping his touch light but unrelenting, the perfect combo of unbearable sensation. “Tickled like hell. I figured it would work on you as well. It seems my efforts have been well rewarded.”
Victor was going to lose his mind if he didn’t cut it out with that particular method. His other foot compensated for the trapped one by jerking wildly in its restraints, curling its toes in the way its partner wanted to. He gripped the headboard tightly, needing something to hold onto.
“You know, it’s kind of fun watching you lose your mind like this,” Felix commented, shooting him back a grin. “You always were fun to tease, but I never realized how entertaining it would be to watch you turn into this babbling mess of laughter.”
“Ohohoho m-my gohohod, shuhuhut uhuhup!” Victor whined, squeezing his eyes shut. “Dohohohon’t tehehease!”
“Why?” Felix moved his nails up to the ball of his foot and Victor yelped. “Is it bothering you?”
“Yohohou ahahare thehehe wohohohorst!” Victor groaned. “Ohoho fuhuhuhuck, ihihit fuhuhucking tihihihickles!”
“Yeah, you might have mentioned that.”
Victor allowed him to torment him a minute longer, but once Felix discovered how effective scribbling under his toes was, he finally broke.
“Ah! No, no, nohohohoho, ohohohohokay, stahahahap, stahahap! Mahahango!”
Felix jerked back as if bitten and Victor curled his toes gratefully.
The two methodically went about the process of removing the ropes and five minutes later Victor sat cross-legged on the bed next to him, arms wrapped protectively around his torso.
“I’m sorry,” Felix said after a moment, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “I didn’t mean to… ah, go as far as I did. I guess I got kind of carried away.”
“Don’t worry about it!” Victor assured him, with the beaming grin that made Felix want to tickle him to death all over again. “It’s why we had a safe word in the first place. I guess I’m just more ticklish than I had originally thought. Besides,” he added after a second of hesitation. “I kind of enjoyed it actually. And I wouldn’t be… entirely opposed to doing something like that again.”
Felix’s eyes widened. He had assumed at best this would be a one-time thing. Never in a million years did he think Victor might want to do it again. “Really? You’re not kidding with me?”
Victor shook his head, smiling shyly. “Not all the time, of course. But I think I wouldn’t mind having a repeat of today. If you’re cool with it.”
“Are you kidding? Of course I am!” Felix reached over and wrapped Victor in a hug before the other had time to react. Victor blinked, startled, but after a moment he hugged him back.
“Hey Victor?” Felix mumbled into his shoulder, tightening his grip slightly.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks. For being cool with all this, I mean.”
Victor paused before smiling softly. “Of course. You’re my best friend. I would never think any part of you is weird.”
Felix was never able to express how much those simple words meant to him.