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Karl has a huge bowl of skittles on his kitchen counter, neatly positioned next to his kettle like one might have a bowl a fruit. It somehow seems like a very Karl thing to do, Sapnap thinks. He didn't notice the bowl the last two times he visited Karl, so he thinks it must be a new addition.
Sapnap likes skittles a lot, and he finds himself grabbing a few every time he walks through the kitchen. Karl brings it with them when they settle down by the TV to watch Adventure Time or to play Mario Kart, and they take turns reaching over to snatch candies from the bowl.
On his third night at Karl's house, after returning from a long day of filming with MrBeast, they sit together on the couch to watch High School Musical and Sapnap suddenly notices that Karl doesn't just grab skittles from the bowl without looking, like he does.
"You're only taking the red skittles!" Sapnap exclaims, drowning out Troy and Gabriella's romantic duet on the screen in front of them.
"Yeah, 'cause they're the best, Sap." Karl responds, as though it's obvious, as though it's logical.
"You can't just take them all! Then I don't get to have any strawberry ones."
"Well, they're my skittles, Sapnap. I can have whichever ones I want. You can always go buy your own skittles, if you want to have red ones."
Sapnap grumbles a little but drops the matter, though he does dig through the bowl to find a red skittle, making defiant eye contact with Karl as he puts it in his mouth. They maintain eye contact as Sapnap chews the skittle, revelling in its sickly sweet strawberry flavour. As he swallows it down Karl breaks eye contact and turns deliberately back to the TV screen. Sapnap notices that his cheeks are almost as red as the skittle he just ate. For some reason, all he can think is that he wants to kiss them.
They don't talk again for the rest of the movie.
It's during a stream that he first notices that Karl's mouth is tinted red, and he realizes that it must be from the red skittles he saw him sucking on before they started streaming. Karl is painting Sapnap's nails, a shiny dark purple colour, and as his tongue pokes out of his mouth in concentration Sapnap notes the unnatural redness of it. He wonders if Karl's lips taste like strawberry. None of the viewers seems to have noticed- the colour doesn't show up as brightly on the camera- but they do notice Sapnap's flush.
'Aww, Sapnap's blushing!' He reads in the chat, and tries not to cringe, carefully keeping his eyes away from Karl's red mouth and focusing instead on a Survivor poster on the wall behind the computer. After Karl finishes painting his last nail, he runs his fingers lightly up and down Sapnap's hands and gives him a soft, almost fond smile, which makes Sapnap fight off a shiver.
"Gorgeous." Karl murmurs, in a tone of voice that doesn't sound so genuine as to be odd, but not quite like a joke either. Sapnap smiles back at him, commenting, "You did a good job," and they chat with the viewers for another half hour or so before Karl wraps up the stream.
Even though Sapnap doesn't love having painted nails- they make his hands feel clumsy and delicate and the urge to pick at the dried polish is almost overwhelming at times- he keeps the nail polish on after the stream.
Over the next few days, Sapnap and Karl stream a couple more times, film some TikToks while skateboarding, and just spend as much time together as possible. Sapnap is loving it, but his flight home- which is coming up fast- is looming over his head. He's slowly becoming aware of just how much he enjoys being around Karl.
He can't stop thinking about how badly he wishes he could just stay here, with him. It feels so right to wake up to Karl toasting them pop tarts, eat dinner with Karl curled up next to him on the couch, head on his shoulder or occasionally his lap, and go to sleep with Karl's soft 'goodnight' lingering in his ears and the knowledge that he is just down the hallway lingering in his brain.
Sapnap also can't stop thinking about how right it would feel to kiss him, hold him tight in his arms as they drift off to sleep, tell him how much he loves him.
How much he loves him. Sapnap has been in denial about his feelings for so long, but he finally can't fight the truth anymore. He knows he's completely, head-over-heels, irrevocably in love with Karl Jacobs. He can't help but think that if it hadn't been for those damn red skittles and Karl's damn red lips, he might have been able to keep ignoring his feelings.
But as it is, he can't stop staring at Karl- the bright blue and pink of his perfectly painted nails, the gentle curve of his jaw, his fluffy hair that Sapnap wants to thread his fingers through so badly. Karl seems to catch him staring a few times, but doesn't comment on it, only offering Sapnap bright smiles or the occasional shoulder bump.
The night before Sapnap is heading back to Florida, he and Karl are sitting together on the couch playing Animal Crossing, the bowl of skittles on the table in front of them and Karl's head resting on Sapnap's shoulder. His arms are wrapped around Sapnap's midsection, clasping the switch controller over his chest.
Sapnap's stomach is full of butterflies, a mixture of Karl's closeness and the sense of urgency that has grown on him with the knowledge that it is their last day together. Trying to soothe his unreasonable nervousness, he grabs a handful of skittles, dropping a few in his mouth and letting the tangy sweetness melt on his tongue. He's still holding some skittles when he feels Karl intertwine their fingers, half slipping his hand into Sapnap's and causing a thrill to shoot up his spine. But Karl is just snatching a red skittle from his hand to eat himself.
"Hey!" Sapnap cries, putting down his controller to reach for Karl's hand. "I was going to eat that! You can't just take candy out of someone's hand."
"I just did!" said Karl gleefully, grinning at Sapnap before he slowly slides the red skittle into his already reddened mouth, his cheeks hollowing as he sucks on the candy. Sapnap can't tear his eyes away, sudden desire coursing through him like a wave and leaving him feeling light headed and dizzy. He quickly puts his remaining skittles in his mouth and grabs the bowl from the table, holding it close to his body.
"Don't you think I deserve to have some strawberry skittles too, Karl?" He asked, sticking out his lower lip in a pout.
"Nope!" Karl responds with a giggle, snatching another red skittle from the bowl and popping it into his mouth. His lips are so red. Sapnap finds another red skittle- which isn't particularly easy, given that by now Karl has nearly eaten all of them- and holds it hostage in front of him.
"Well too bad, because I'm eating this one." He says, or rather tries to say, because Karl quickly surges forward, halfway into Sapnap's lap, closing his lips around Sapnap's fingers and pulling the skittle into his own mouth. In that moment, Sapnap's mind goes entirely blank aside from the thought that Karl is the most gorgeous person he's ever seen, and he breaks.
Sapnap surges forward and crushes his mouth against Karl's already parted lips in a desperate, open-mouthed kiss. He does taste like strawberry. Or maybe that's just the skittle, which Sapnap somehow has managed to swallow.
There is a terrifying moment, a few seconds after Sapnap reacted without thinking and kissed Karl, when his sanity comes back to him and he realizes what he's done and that Karl isn't kissing back.
But then Karl's hands are curling into his hair, tugging him closer, and they're tumbling back against the couch, warm bodies pressed together as they kiss like their lives depend on it. At some point, Sapnap hears a clatter as the bowl of skittles crashes to the ground, and he sees a rainbow of candies spill across the floor in their own personal red-free pride flag. Sapnap pulls back slightly, just far enough to catch his breath, and Karl stares into his eyes, a huge grin on his face.
"Sapnap," He breathes, "I've wanted you to do that for so long. I- I didn't think you liked me like that."
"God, Karl." He whispers, feeling the other boy's warm breath fan across his face. "I love you."
There's a moment of silence and Sapnap feels his blood run cold, thinking he's gone too far, too fast, now Karl will definitely be freaked out-
"I love you too." He hears, and then Karl is kissing him again.
Sapnap ends up postponing his flight back to Florida.