Work Text:
Dear diary:
Hello, dear diary. I know I always come to you to talk about rocks, but today, I have to tell you something important. But it’s a secret!
It’s about Wallace. Yes, my best friend. I always drop his name, because he’s always by my side even if he complains that his clothes get dirty picking up rocks, but this time I want to talk about him, and that...
Dear diary. I don’t know how to say this. I can’t tell anybody else, and when I don’t know who else to talk to I talk to Wallace but he can’t ever know I wrote this!
The thing is that...
Wallace is so cute.
The cutest! Ah!
Wallace is so, so, so cute I could cry.
I feel so special whenever he’s around, whenever he says my name, whenever we play together. The other day... he even held my hand as we played and I felt butterflies in my stomach, then he looked me in the eyes, and flipped his hair (it smelled like watermelon), and told me I was his best friend and I— I arrested!”
Dear diary... I think I’m in love with Wallace. I like him so, so, so much!
But I couldn’t ever tell him, I think he’s got a crush on Sarah, one girl of our class, because he’s always complimenting her on her dark curls and cute dresses, and I couldn’t ever wear a dress to impress him or Daddy would get mad at me.
Also, I’d be so embarrassed if Wallace knew all of this, that my heart screams when he gets close to me, that I’d like to be his boyfriend.
Dear diary, can you just imagine it?
If Wallace was my boyfriend, I’d grab his hand every day, and I’d buy him all the candies and chips he wanted me to with the money my Daddy gives me, and I’d give him my favorite rocks, and I’d play songs on the piano to him, and we could maybe kiss.
I’ve never given my first kiss, but if Wallace was my first kiss I’d be too happy. I wish Wallace kissed me.
The other day I had a dream in which Wallace gave me a very special rock, and then he hugged me. And then the other day I watched this movie in which two people got married and... dear diary, could you imagine if that were me and Wallace?
Anyways, I’m running out of space on the sheet so bye-bye dear diary! Don't tell anybody about this!
It was almost as if he had the tiny voice reciting all these rushed, cheesy, wishful words as he stared at himself in the mirror: fixing the last details of his hair, getting some flowers back into place, ironing with his hands whatever wrinkle left in his attire.
Almost like he could fathom it, like if he turned around he was going to find his best friend laying on his tummy as he swung his feet back and forth and wrote happily on his diary, he got out of the room, heading to the garden, all decorated with flowers matching his hair, and once he approached it, right there, he glimpsed the comforting silhouette of his father.
“You ready?” He asked, amused.
“Don’t give me that look,” Wallace pouted. “It’s an important day, I had by all means to take my time with myself.”
“Alright. I’ll tell everyone to prepare and take their positions. I’ll join you shortly.”
Like that, Juan drifted away from him, heading to the inner garden, leading to one balcony, where everyone was waiting on him. And as Juan’s last indication was also translated into him taking his position, Wallace walked a couple steps more, until there he was:
Steven.
Fidgeting the rings on his fingers, playing with the flower on his ever so elegant formal attire, moving his feet restlessly, speaking to himself lowly, like he had the habit to.
Like this was a classroom, and the crowd a bunch of messy schoolers ready to make a joke out of everything they said in their exposition for the teacher, Wallace approached his friend, Steven, and his eyes softened in utter relief.
“Wallace, you’re here.”
“Again.”
“I’m glad you are here now, I was getting quite nervous all on my own.”
Side grinning, disarmingly, Wallace replied, “well, Stevie, by all means if you’re regretting this we can still run.”
His friend pouted, “why would I want to run? Does this mean you don’t want to do this with me anymore?”
“When have I left you alone ever, Steven? I follow you everywhere, even to your caves where all my clothes get dirty.”
Rolling his eyes, Steven looked up to him to reply, “you once ran away because you came across a simple bug.”
“Steven, that didn’t look like a bug.”
“Whatever you say.”
They stopped for a second to look around them: this surely was one scary crowd to face, if Wallace had to be absolutely honest, so, out of instinct, he reached for Steven’s hand and held it, wrapping lovingly, maybe too lovingly his rough fingers with his.
He saw him, small, jumpy and stiff Steven sigh deeply, squeezing his eyes shut, to then, simply ask him:
“Before we do this, Wallace... is there anything you want to confess?”
Was there anything left unsaid worth to be said now?
Could there be something Steven, his very best friend, still didn’t know?
And the reminiscence of his little, playful, joyous voice hit him once more, and… maybe... there was something.
Chuckling softly, returning the squeeze of the hand, Wallace nodded:
“There’s in fact something I never told you, Stevie.”
“What is it?”
“First of all… Don’t get angry at me.”
Blushing, his hand starting to sweat right there and then, soaking Wallace’s one, Steven puffed and took a deep breath, “why would you choose to confess something bad? I was asking for something cute…!”
“Guess I have to confess my crimes at once and this is about the perfect chance to.”
“Is it really that bad? Something that will change this?” His friend asked then, tightening the grip as he verbalized the last word.
Wallace felt his lips shaking, of pure amusement, of nervousness, he didn’t quite know yet.
“Okay, Steven. I’ll let you know at once.”
“Maybe I don’t want to know it anymore.”
“Just… See... once, when we were 7...”
“What?”
“You invited me over for lunch, and we were in your room when your Dad asked you to go downstairs. You took a while, so I got really, really bored, and I saw you left this... notebook, over your desk, and...”
The way in which Steven immediately got what he was talking about was funny at best, absolutely freaking hilarious at worst.
“Wallace, you didn’t—”
“Steven, I—”
“No, no, Wallace, you didn’t—”
“I read your secret diary.”
Steven’s face became a lava worth color when he finally spat these words, “you did what?!”
He wanted to cackle so bad that it turned out in wishes to cry.
“I read your—”
“Why?!”
“I mean!” He shook his head, their twining hands getting sloppier each time as now he was also sweating. “You always showed me what you wrote there, you once wrote an entry cursing your dad there and asked me for funny insults to add, but one day you didn’t even let me grab your diary to save it in your bag, and well... I was curious.”
“Wallace,” he meant these worlds seriously. “How far did you get?”
“It was all rocks, rocks, our insults list, more rocks, rocks...”
And if Steven, for a little second got loose on his place thinking that this was over, Wallace added one last thing:
“And... an entry that had… drawings.”
“No fuck.”
“Of two hearts...”
“I’m going to kill you.”
“With our names on them...”
“Wallace!” Steven growled, looking away totally embarrassed. “Why?!”
“And it was written... I recall it...”
“Wallace—”
“ Hello, dear diary. I know I always come to you to talk about rocks, but today, I have to tell you something important. But it’s a secret! ”
“Wallace!”
“It’s about Wallace. Yes, my best friend. I always drop his name, because he’s always by my side even if he complains that his clothes get dirty picking up rocks.”
“Shut up, gosh!”
“But this time I want to talk about him, and that...”
“Why the fuck did you memorize it!?” He asked, absolutely scandalized, shaking his head furiously.
Was Steven laughing? Was Steven crying? Was Steven getting hysterical and about to have a seizure right here?
“It’s not done yet,” and he got back to a Sootopolitan rite worthy solemn voice. ” Dear diary. I don’t know how to say this.I can’t tell anybody else, and when I don’t know who else to talk to I talk to Wallace but he can’t ever know I wrote this!”
“Stop.”
”The thing is that... Wallace is so cute.”
“Stop!”
“The cutest! ” And he made his best impression of Steven’s sweet, 7 year old voice. “Ah!”
Surrendering, Steven bent forward to hide his face on Wallace’s chest, as he laughed fully, trying to hold back actual tears.
“Why do you know it by memory?! Why the hell do you recall it so well? Why?!”
“Steven, every time I got back to your house I read that entry over and over again.”
And that was such an odd thing to admit, but it was Steven, anyways, there was nothing about him that Steven didn’t know yet.
“You gotta be kidding me.”
“I mean, you wrote some other entries about me, very flattering I must add, but nothing could top that one. I memorized every single word of it and sometimes I recited it when I was alone at home, I patted myself on the back every time for my excellent memory.”
“Why are you so weird?” Steven exclaimed, holding on tight to him. “Why?”
“Weird? I simply memorized every single word of that entry. Was it love or just that you fed my 7 year old ego like no one else before? I still don’t know.”
Steven hissed, shaking his head, “you ask yourself that now we’re here, for real?”
“I mean... I was certainly flattered, and it was funny being friends and knowing my presence caused such effects on you, sometimes I held your hand on purpose because you were so adorable when you got all stiff and shy… but as you see, I never acted on it.”
Shaking his head madly, Steven spat, “you were so rude doing that! Are you telling me that… I spent all those years pining for you in silence and you knew it…?”
“To be fair,” Wallace added with a rather apologetic grin. “It was only funny for a while, because, well… when we grew up you started to date girls, and for a second I thought I simply misunderstood it all.”
That was when Steven puffed, “rather than I forced myself to lay eyes on other people since someone couldn’t get to terms with their feelings.”
At the rather playful pout appearing on Steven’s face, that same pout that had always been there, Wallace placed both his hands on his shoulders, and said, “again, I didn’t know if it was love or that you were the cutest thing my eyes had ever seen while crushing on me and that boosted up my very needy ego.”
Giving in, like Steven always did when it came down to him, breathing a bit better, his face getting back to a softer shade of pink, he added, “for now, Wallace… Can we say it was love? Please?”
Here he was again, after all these years: teasing Steven for the very hell of it. Sometimes it sunk hard that maybe they hadn’t changed at all from those clumsy 7 year olds experiencing all these gorgeous, fresh emotions for the very first time, and right now, as Steven reached out for his hand, and twined their fingers together… Wallace got the sickly feeling of discovering him again, feeling like this was the first time he ever saw Steven, like the arrow was crossing his heart again, wrapping him tight around Steven’s finger, making him instantly fall on his very knees for his best friend, his lover, his…
It became inevitable at some point; Wallace bent over, aiming at Steven’s lips, which he kissed lovely as he remembered himself reciting the entry of his diary, as he heard tiny footsteps approaching him, as he heard himself shutting with a dull noise the diary, as he listened to the little, high pitched, sweet voice saying ‘I’m back, Walls!’
The kiss broke off when Wallace chuckled at the tender memories, and this was his turn to squeeze his lips, blink very quickly, shaking his head almost in scandal:
“It’s always been love, Stevie,” he whispered too lowly, like they were still at elementary plotting things behind everybody’s backs. “Maybe I was too little to understand it… maybe I was too young to dimension it… maybe I was too silly to get back to you sooner, but… you know how the world’s never been that much of a nice place for me, how I’ve struggled, how I’ve been slept on, looked down, underestimated… how they’ve judged me, how they’ve criticized every little thing I am…”
And before he could keep going, he placed a very gentle kiss over Steven’s right eyelid, and as he loved it, as he wouldn’t ever get over it, his friend got stiff, and then remembered where they were, what they were about to do, and went loose, enjoying this.
“But… All along, I’ve been important to you . If one hundred people thought I was ugly, my best friend Stevie thought I was the cutest. If one hundred people thought I was silly, my best friend Stevie thought I was special. If one hundred people couldn’t care less about my feelings or my dreams… my best friend Stevie went all flustered around me and wrote such cute things about me.”
“Wallace…”
“All I’m trying to say is that… your love, Stevie, worked me through so many things… even when I wasn’t sure about it anymore, even when you started seeing other people, and I got busy on my own thing and we didn’t talk much anymore… I was on stage, being the kid with the Feebas, having all those glares ready to tear me apart, and thinking that… once you thought I was the most special boy in earth and the one you wanted to kiss you and hold your hand and be your boyfriend, and that, that simple fact… made me feel worthy enough to face the rest of the world.”
“You t-truly mean it, Walls…?” Steven asked, his voice breaking down a bit.
“Maybe this is another thing I forgot to confess before, yes… but… even if I shouldn’t have done it, I know… reading your diary fueled me so many years past that day, and if I got places it was because I had my number one fan, Stevie, always cheering on me in the most honest of ways. And… I’m glad that feeling never got lost, that even if I was a narcissistic brat who used your words to feed their ego… you still tried to get to me. Thanks for always trying it with me, for never losing your hopes, for keeping me by your side all this time.”
And, Wallace couldn’t help it when he saw Steven’s eyes watering; he shed a couple tears himself, as well, because life was wonderful, because miracles existed, because he had lost many things in translation, but one had always remained the same, and it was the one he’d been scared all along that could get lost.
“I love you so much, Wallace, you have no idea of how much I love you, and be sure that those feelings I had for you as kids only grew stronger and stronger with the years, you’ve shown me that life only gets better and better and…”
“Guys?”
How embarrassing. Juan left them alone for 5 minutes to check everything was ready, and he came back to them crying and babbling how much they loved each other.
“Ayo,” he clasped his hands. “Save the tears and cheesy words for the vows! What are y’all going to say if you’ve already said it all, then?”
“Don’t worry, Juan,” coyly, playing it up, Steven wiped his eyes. “I planned an incredibly embarrassing story using rocks as metaphors for my vows. My revenge for Wallace teasing me all these years will come to a completion today. And now, more than ever, I'm fueled to execute it.”
“I can barely wait,” and he crossed his arms. “Now, I told you, call me Dad, since now you’ll be my son.”
“Okay, Dad.”
“Dad, please, stop! How am I not supposed to cry if y’all already call each other Dad and son?”
Patting his back gently, Juan laughed, “hang on a bit, drama queen. Again, save your tears for the ceremony, we gotta make it unforgettable!”
And then, Juan turned to face Steven:
“Come on now. Everyone’s waiting on us already and we gotta get there before man Joseph bursts down in tears.”
And the three of them walked together until they were almost at the garden, where Joseph was waiting, waiting for them to get gathered so each could walk their respective son to the shrine.
And as they walked, and Wallace glimpsed in the crowd all those faces from back when Steven got to his life, to the in between, to now, his chest beaming with pride, his eyes watering up every now and then, he knew one thing for sure:
He was so thankful that he ever read Steven’s diary. If he was here right now… he owed it to Steven’s kind words, to his innocent declarations, and all of his unconditional love displayed in the shape of penmanship and crayon drawings.
And again, like this was his favorite song he knew all the words to, he started reciting it mentally, until they were at the shrine, the gorgeous view of the Sootopolis crater behind them, and between some commands from the priestess, some silence and some people taking positions for the rite, Wallace very lowly recited it to Steven, what was easily his favorite part about that diary entry that changed his life:
“The other day I had a dream in which Wallace gave me a very special rock, and then he hugged me. And then the other day I watched this movie in which two people got married and... dear diary, could you imagine if that were me and Wallace?”
Steven snorted very discreetly, as this was him marrying nothing more and nothing else than the Sootopolitan guardian and the ritual demanded solemnity.
Ah… how life changed. Who would have thought that such innocent wishes would end up becoming real?
Lowly, trying to save his pride, smiling from ear to ear, Steven said:
“I won’t ever forgive you for reading my secret diary. That was a rude intrusion to my privacy.”
“I’m so sorry, Steven, for reading your diary in which you said you wanted to marry me…”
Blushing again, furiously, talking through his teeth as he seemed like he could combust, Steven answered, “how incredibly rude of you to make fun of me and my childhood dreams. Maybe running now ain’t a bad idea.”
“Oh no, Stevie, by all means forgive me and let me make it up to you.”
“What will you do?”
“Whatever you want, Stevie. I disrespected your privacy so, whatever you want me to do to make it up to you will be fair for me.”
“Okay…” and those gorgeous silver eyes stared at him, showering him in tender love and compassion, in that confidence and reassurance that had worked Wallace through this messy blur of experiences called life. “I’ll forgive you, only if you… spend the rest of your life beside me, and let me call you my husband.”
Smiling the widest he had done probably in an entire lifetime, Wallace nodded, ready to turn to the priestess and seal their fates, and wearing his heart up his sleeve, ready to deliver it to Steven with full trust that he’d treat it with care and listen, he swore:
“I’ll be more than pleased to make every single word you wrote in your diary become true.”