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Moving in with Felix hadn’t been too hard. They were undoubtedly very, very different people with very, very different ideas on what a living space was supposed to be like, but Sylvain had known this already. He’d known Felix all his life; he knew his home philosophy better than anyone else.
Sylvain had seen the apartment he’d shared with Dimitri and the conditions they’d lived in were– particular to say the least. There was something about their apartment that had always bugged every single one of their friends. Maybe it was the mattresses on the floor. Maybe it was because they didn’t even bother buying a kitchen, since neither of them cared about cooking. Maybe it was the fact that they had hastily torn down the wall between their bedrooms to use them as a bigger sparring area.
They had two huge bathrooms, though. That was nice.
So, yeah. He was prepared for his utter ignorance of house décor.
( “I want something for my swords.”
Sylvain hummed. “Makes sense. What else do you want?”
Felix blinked at him, his expression clearly spelling out what else would I need. “A cat?”
“Felix, cats are not furniture.” )
But that was okay. If anything, it meant that Sylvain had free rein on what to make their house look like, because Felix couldn’t care less as long as his basic needs were implemented somehow. His swords looked really cool on their living room wall, and that was good enough for him. And, admittedly, Cally was the most adorable ball of fluff Sylvain had ever seen, so the cat had been one of the greatest additions to their home. He also really liked clawing at Sylvain’s calves, because he was a little shit like that. Sylvain loved him.
Sylvain was also prepared for Felix’s general untidiness. He’d been aware of the classic Fraldarius Floor Closet System since the first time he’d met the family – Glenn had been a master at it and his godawful legacy still lived on, may he rest in peace – but that wasn’t too hard to handle either. Felix didn’t have many belongings anyway. It took Sylvain ten minutes tops to put everything back where it belonged – which annoyed him, because what does he put his crap on the floor for then.
( “Why is your sword on the floor, Felix?”
Felix shrugged. “Easier to grab. Wastes less time than walking to the rack.”
Sylvain gasped dramatically. “Do you want me to cut my super sexy feet on it?”
“Sounds like a you problem. Also, if you say your feet are sexy ever again I’ll stab you myself.” )
But that was okay too. He had known all of this when he’d asked Felix to move in with him. It wasn’t all bad– Felix had even attempted to use their kitchen, and he hadn’t burnt it down in the process. He’d seen him sweep the floor, once. He hadn’t said anything about any of the things Sylvain had bought to decorate their place.
He had forbidden the compilation of kind-of-slightly-blasphemous Seiros art prints Sylvain had gotten from unknown sources, but that was it. Felix was making an effort – because he cared, and Sylvain was very proud of him.
All in all, it was okay. It was good.
However.
Sylvain was not prepared for the horrible and nightmare-inducing bottle he spotted in their shower.
“What is this, Felix?”
His boyfriend was lying on the sofa, petting Cally softly as he absentmindedly scrolled on his phone. Okay, that was cute. Very cute in fact, and Sylvain would’ve melted right then and there if– Goddess, was he smiling? He almost considered dropping the subject. Almost.
“Looks like my shampoo,” Felix answered, looking up from his phone for a second before going back to his screen again. The cat meowed.
Sylvain shook his head. “No. It’s a… a three-in-one abomination, that’s what this is.”
Maybe it was dumb– no, scratch that, it was definitely dumb. Realistically, Sylvain knew there was no need to argue over shampoo. He didn’t care about what shampoo other people used. He was friends with people who bought three-in-one shampoo. He could handle it.
But in his home? That was betrayal.
Felix put down his phone and was now frowning at him. “What about it?”
“It’s an abomination,” Sylvain repeated, as if that was self-explanatory.
It was, for normal human beings.
“It does its job.”
It wasn’t, for Felix Hugo Fraldarius.
Sylvain closed his eyes and reminded himself of all the things he loved about Felix. He was his best friend. He’d stuck with him through the worst periods of his life. He loved Sylvain, for some reason. They promised to die together. He had a really nice ass.
“No it doesn’t,” he retorted. “I’m officially banning it from the Fraldartier estate.”
That did it. Felix gaped at him.
“First of all, that name is ridiculous. Please never use it again,” he started, putting the cat down. Cally was not pleased.
“Secondly, this is hardly an estate.” He got up from the sofa.
“Also, you’re completely insane. This is stupid.” He walked up to him, staring at the incriminating bottle in his hand. Sylvain added Felix’s scrunched up face and frown to the list of things he loved about him.
Maybe he was weird.
“It’s a three-in-one shampoo, Felix!” He raised the evil concoction and pointed at it, hoping that would get his point across.
It didn’t.
“What the hell are you being so dramatic for?!”
“It's in my blood, dude, I'm literally a Gemini!”
“I don’t know what the fuck that means!”
Sylvain sighed. He made a mental note to text Annette later. She would love to bug Felix about astrology – and he would listen, because it was Annette and he didn’t know how to say no to her. Nobody did.
“Felix. Babe. Honey. Sweetheart–” he started, ready to list a million more terrible pet names. Felix made the most disgusted expression Sylvain had ever seen on any living being. “I’ll buy you decent products to wash your hair with. And you will use them. Please?”
Felix looked exasperated. “Why?”
“Because I can’t spend the rest of my life with someone that doesn’t know the difference between actual shampoo and conditioner from three-in–”
“What.”
It was then that Sylvain noticed that, for once, Felix was looking at him in the eyes. He hated that – he rarely ever made eye contact with anyone, and Sylvain treasured the times in which he could gaze at him so directly and upfront.
Felix was staring straight at him with his lips slightly parted – and he wasn’t frowning anymore. His expression was unreadable, and Sylvain didn’t know what to make of it. Did he say something wrong? He probably did. He did that all the time.
“What what?” He asked, uncertain.
“What did you just say?”
“I said that I can’t spend the rest of my life with– Oh. Uh.”
He put down the bottle.
Well. That was definitely not how he expected this conversation to go down. All Sylvain wanted was to fuss over some stupid shampoo, annoy Felix for a bit, hopefully win the petty argument and move on with his life. Possibly without three-in-one shampoos in their house.
He did not want to talk about feelings. Feelings were dangerous – even if he knew he was safe with Felix. The idea of actually settling down with someone forever still triggered his fight-or-flight response and he didn’t need to have a meltdown in front of his boyfriend – who was still looking at him expectantly.
So, naturally, Sylvain picked flight.
“Right. Um. The supermarket, yeah? I gotta go to the supermarket.”
Felix, bless his soul, seemed to understand. He nodded, still staring at him with those same unreadable eyes. “Yeah.”
“I gotta buy the shampoo.”
Felix nodded again. “And the conditioner.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
Their communication skills were astounding.
“And, um, throw this bottle away while I’m gone?”
Felix had not, in fact, thrown the bottle away while he was gone. It stood untouched on the table where he’d left it, looking uglier and more ominous than he remembered it.
His boyfriend was on the sofa with Cally again; he looked deep in thought, biting on his lower lip as he pet the cat.
Sylvain was fine. He did not have a meltdown while he was outside, which was an improvement from the usual – he really needed to thank his therapist for the tips they’d given him on how to handle these situations. It might have taken him a while longer to come back home, but he was ready to handle this like an adult. So what if he considered staying with Felix forever? Hadn’t they promised to do just that way back when they were kids?
He had always known what he truly wanted. Maybe his hopes and dreams for the future had been tainted with the ones his father had for him – but, deep down, they remained unchanged.
He did want to spend the rest of his life with Felix. And he was okay with Felix knowing this fact. He trusted him more than anyone else in the world.
It was fine.
“I hope you like pine scents,” he said, dropping the shopping bag next to Felix – carefully, so that the cat wouldn’t startle. Sylvain was pretty sure that the little guy glared at him as he did so, but he didn’t move from Felix’s lap.
“I do,” Felix replied, peeking into the bag. After inspecting the contents – he seemed pleased enough – he looked at him again, displaying what Sylvain had dubbed The Concerned Fraldarius Frown. “Are you okay?”
Sylvain could’ve answered. He was fine. “Let me wash your hair,” was what he blurted out instead. Maybe he wasn’t completely fine yet.
Confusion spread over Felix’s face. And– was he blushing? “What?”
“I could show you how it’s done?” Sylvain offered. Goddess, it sounded stupid even to him.
Felix blinked. “I know how to wash my hair.”
So much for being a smooth talker. Sylvain wanted to die.
He was about to apologise, but–
“If you really want to.”
Sylvain inhaled. “Oh,” he very intelligently observed – and he couldn’t help but notice that Felix’s cheeks had gotten redder. “I do! Great. Yeah.”
“Then let’s get this over with.” As he said that, Felix gently picked up the cat and mumbled a soft sorry before putting him down. He then grabbed the bag with the hair products and strode to the bathroom, jerking his head towards the door. Sylvain grabbed a chair and followed.
Cally, unfazed after the third time Felix stopped petting him, simply walked to his bed disregarding both of them.
“Sit here,” Sylvain gestured once he’d positioned the chair in front of the sink. “Put your head back and relax.”
Felix snorted. “What are you, a hairdresser?”
He let his hair loose, and Sylvain was horrified to see that it barely moved from the position it was in. He sighed.
“I lived with very hair-obsessed ladies for years. One learns this stuff after a while.”
Especially if he, too, was a hair-obsessed guy.
“You can’t tell me Ingrid cares that much.”
Sylvain turned on the faucet and moved Felix back towards the tap, letting the water flow over his hair. It was greasier to the touch than Sylvain expected. He sighed again.
“She doesn’t,” he agreed, “but Thea and Hilda definitely make up for that.”
Felix hummed, closing his eyes. The sound of the water flowing comfortably filled the silence as Sylvain delicately massaged his roots with the shampoo. He couldn’t help but smile when he realised that his boyfriend was leaning into the touch; his features looked as relaxed as they did when he was asleep and he really, really wanted to kiss his unwrinkled forehead.
He didn’t dare to disturb it.
“What in the world possessed you to buy that three-in-one crap anyway?” he asked instead, once he was done washing the shampoo away. He grabbed the conditioner.
“Dimitri uses it. I stole it from him.”
“Dimitri washes his hair?”
Felix shrugged. “Sometimes, when it hasn’t rained in a while.”
Sylvain rinsed his hair again.
“I see,” he said, like a liar.
After making sure all the conditioner had been washed away, Sylvain turned off the faucet and patted his hair with a towel. And then, finally, his favourite part of this entire endeavor: combing.
He couldn’t quite point out what excited him so much about combing Felix’s hair. Perhaps it was the fact that he’d never really gotten to do that before – it felt more intimate than just washing it, he figured. He let his fingers run through the dark locks, carefully disentangling the knots.
Felix was mostly quiet. Mostly. Sylvain heard him moan faintly, once, and it took everything he had not to drop the damn comb right there and then.
“Aw, you’re liking it, aren’t you?” he grinned, even though Felix couldn’t see it.
“Don’t say anything.”
Sylvain wished he could see the face he was making.
Once he was done combing through the rat’s nest, he plugged in the hair dryer and started blowing it gently – Felix probably didn’t care, but he still wanted to make sure not to damage a single strand.
“There you go,” he said once he turned off the hair dryer. “I can’t believe your hair always had the potential to be this soft and you withheld it from me for so long.”
“Tragic,” Felix deadpanned, looking at himself in the mirror. “It does look nice,” he admitted.
“Infinitely better than before,” Sylvain agreed. He then made a face when Felix grabbed his hair tie and tried to put his hair up again. “Hey, I wanted to play with that for a little longer!”
He pouted. He knew Felix couldn’t resist his pouts.
“Ugh, fine,” he conceded, and Sylvain’s hand found his way to his hair again. He could get used to that, he thought, as he stroked it; he wondered if Felix would let him take care of his hair again.
“Sylvain.”
He stopped playing.
“Thank you. I–” Felix stopped abruptly, inhaling deeply. He looked conflicted, as if he didn’t know exactly how to word his thoughts. He’d never been the best at it, especially not when it came to expressing his own feelings.
Sylvain shot him an encouraging look. “Yeah?”
“I also want to– to spend the rest of my life with you. If you’ll have me,” he blurted, looking at the bathroom tiles. All Sylvain could see was Felix, instead.
“Of course,” he breathed. His voice had never sounded more sure. “Forever, Fe.”
If someone asked Sylvain what the best kiss he’d ever had was, he would’ve said, without a doubt, that it was this. It was just the same as any other time he’d kissed Felix. Maybe a little worse, because he was pretty sure he cried a little bit into it.
But it was the first time in his life that he saw a very clear future waiting for him. A bright one, with Felix by his side – for the rest of their days.
King Shit!: Good evening, Sylvain! This is Dimitri. I hope you are well. I apologise for texting you instead of Felix, but I believe he blocked me after I broke his sword during our last sparring session.
King Shit! : Would you kindly let him know that I found an incredible offer on a yearly supply of five-in-one hair and body products? Five-in-one! I have already paid for it and mailed half to your address.
King Shit!: I hope you have an amazing rest of the day! Regards :-)