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It had been his mom’s idea, to go to North Park Funland amusement park. The summer holiday was dragging on, and he could feel the tension brewing in the house between the family from him and his brother being around so much more than usual.
Not that he thought a family day out would help. Ever since his brother turned ten he was getting more and more insufferable, but that didn’t hold a candle to how much Kyle wanted to just start a fist fight with his dad at every other opportunity.
The day started fine. Ike was in good spirits, and between the two of them managed to bully their mom onto the log flume. For the first time in a while Kyle was glad his brother seemed to be so tall for his age as it got him on more rides than he might be allowed, and the pair were running onto them despite their mom asking them to slow down.
Then his parents started to bicker. Gerald kept checking his phone, and Sheila was losing her patience with it. Kyle could see Ike was starting to lose interest in the park because of it.
And then he saw a scare house. One of the new attractions that had opened that summer. Kyle knew some of his friends that had gone earlier that month.
Ike asked for company. Sheila looked almost green at the concept, and Kyle could see Gerald pull a face of disapproval at the concept. He spoke before either of them could make it worse.
“I’ll go.”
He wished he hadn’t opened his mouth.
“I didn’t think you’d like haunted houses,” Ike said as they got through the front door. “You pull that face whenever I ask you to play horror games.”
“I don’t dislike them, there’s just better things I could do with my time.”
Ike scoffed. “Whatever you say, bro.”
It was... unnerving.
He could tell they’d put a lot of effort into the house. The atmosphere was chilling, and there were special effects round every corner. The first time he jumped out his skin, Ike laughed at him. The second time, Ike looked a little pale in the face himself.
They managed a solid five minutes before a sudden rattle of chains distracted Kyle. He gave a yelp at the noise, spinning round to find them on the ceiling, a few hanging low and grazing the top of his head.
When he turned back round, Ike was gone.
“Shit,” Kyle muttered. “That little shit drags me in here the fucking bails...Ike! Ike, where are you?!”
He stepped forward further, gritting his teeth as he now went through the maze on his own. He liked to think he was a brave person, but without his little brother there to put a brave face on for, he could feel the dread creeping in.
He reminded himself of where he was. It was a scare house. It was full of special effects and actors. Just normal people like him, except instead of being a customer of the house they were hired specifically to try scare him.
He was too tense. Something was bound to break.
He stilled when he felt it. A flutter across his shoulder. A heavy presence behind him that he hadn’t noticed until he felt the flutter become firmer. Fingers wrap round each shoulder as someone leant in and breath danced across his neck.
“Boo.”
He moved without thinking. Spun round and landed a solid punch into the face of his assailant.
“Shit!” he swore out once the person reeled backwards, hands flying to their face as they stumbled back and doubled over, groaning at the floor. He stood there, fingers splayed wide, completely useless. “Oh my god I can’t believe – I'm so sorry, I’m so, so sorry – are you alright?!”
“I’m - fine,” the person grit out. “Just give me-!”
“Holy shit please look up let me check if it’s okay?”
The person stood up. A new wave of horror hit Kyle, this one different than before.
It was Craig Tucker.
He’d recognise that face anywhere, even under a few layers of makeup. He spent too many classes making sure they were sat close by so he would have an excuse to make conversation and look at the other boy. Too many newspaper club sessions sat in the seat perfect for gazing across the room to where Craig sat to admire the well-shaped jaw, the slant of his eyes, the curve of his nose.
He would never forget the look of this face. He was utterly mortified.
“Craig?!”
“Uh, yup. That’s me.”
“What the fuck were you thinking?!” Kyle hissed as he struggled to decide if he wanted to get closer. In the end his desire to survey the damage he caused won out over his pride, and he moved close to see if he could see any damage. At least he hadn’t given him a bloody nose. “Where does it hurt?”
“Uh, my eye?”
“I can’t see properly in here.”
“We should probably leave,” Craig nodded ahead of them. “There’s an emergency exit door up ahead. Don’t want you assaulting any other staff.”
Kyle huffed out, but put his tail between his legs and agreed to go without any argument. He went to follow Craig towards the door and was thrown for another loop when he felt a hand slip into his own.
He jumped out his skin, feeling embarrassment and joy wash over him all at once. Was – was Craig holding his hand? Holy shit. Coming into this scare house was the worst idea he’d ever had.
Craig glanced over at him and in the dim lighting, Kyle swore he could see a smirk.
“I never pegged you for such a scaredy-cat.”
“Shut up,” Kyle bit back with a glare. “Just get us out of here please?!”
He let himself be guided out the house, finding an emergency door with a dim light above it, nearly obscured by the décor that hung from the ceiling. Craig took hold of the handle and pushed, finally releasing them back into the day.
Kyle expelled a breath as he saw the light of dusk, sun setting but still out, brightening his world as opposed to the darkness of the scare house. People were milling about. He could hear the sound of laughter again.
Craig squeezed his hand and asked, “are you alright?”, and he was immediately brought back to the bigger issue at hand.
“Uh, yeah, I’m - I should be asking you that,” Kyle insisted as he withdrew his hand. As much as he was enjoying the contact, he also absolutely hated the contact and the way it was making his ears burn red. Heartbeat in his throat. “How’s your eye?”
“Painful.”
Kyle dared himself to step closer. He couldn’t really tell if there was any bruising yet from the black paint smudged around Craig’s eyes, but he could see how red his eyeball had become, bloodshot and watery. He used the excuse to reach out and take Craig’s chin between his index finger and thumb, tilting his head to get a better look that he really didn’t need.
“We should get some ice for it,” Kyle offered. “In case it bruises or swells.”
Craig nodded once. Kyle took a step back and looked around for the closest food cart.
He guided the way this time, but he didn’t take Craig’s hand. It was one thing for Craig to do it to him in a place that was kind of designed to be maze-like, but it was another thing entirely from Kyle to do it in an open space where they could both clearly see where they were going.
Though he thought about it. Oh, boy, did he think about it.
Because this was Craig Tucker. Craig Tucker, who Kyle had been so not subtly crushing on for about a year. Craig Tucker, who Kyle absolutely wanted-but-didn't-want to ask out on a date sometime maybe to the local museum where they could talk about important stuff and give him chance to show off how smart he could be, when so many times in front of Craig he stumbled over his words and made a fool of himself.
Craig Tucker who he punched squarely in the face.
He was so, so fucked.
Kyle sat him down on a bench ahead of the truck, somewhere quiet where as few people as possible would notice what had happened, before going over to the food stand he’d beelined for and asked if they had any ice available. They handed it over as they tried to follow him to where he was, curious about what it was for.
He arrived back to Craig with a handful of napkins and a plastic cup filled with ice. Craig was still sat there, pushing the heel of his hand against the skin around his eye, smudging his makeup further.
“Uh, I have-?” Kyle held up the two items. Craig looked up at him and he thought he might melt into the stormy gaze. Even if it was half flared red. “Do you want me to...?”
Craig nodded once. Kyle prepared his items.
He wrapped two pieces of ice into a napkin and steeled his nerves in preparation of getting close to Craig. He stayed standing and slouched over as he positioned himself. He felt his cheeks begin to warm up at the way Craig angled his face towards him, waiting.
God, why the fuck did it have to be Craig?
“Why the hell did you scare me like that?” Kyle asked as he pressed the makeshift icepack to the wounded area.
“I thought it’d be funny,” Craig admitted. “I saw when Ike ditched you, and how high strung you were.”
“Oh, yeah, hilarious.”
Craig smirked, one eye blocked, but the other crinkling at the edge. “It was.”
“How? I punched you in the face!”
“Yeah, and then like, freaked the fuck out. ‘Oh my god, are you alright?’”
Kyle flushed at the bad imitation of his voice and glared. “You’re a jackass. I was worried about you.”
“Well, you were the one who punched me, so I’d hope so.”
“I should’ve left you there,” Kyle muttered as he focused in on the task at hand and attempted to block out the feelings stirring in his gut at having that teasing smirk directed at him. “If I knew it was you I would’ve.”
“Would you?”
He didn’t respond. The smirk only widened.
“I didn’t know you were working there,” Kyle said as he attempted to break the embarrassment decorating his face.
“It’s extra cash for the summer. Seemed like an easy gig. The guy who runs it said I’d be good because I’m tall and don’t give a fuck about other people being comfortable.”
Kyle rolled his eyes as he tried to hold back his smile. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
There was a lull of silence. He started chewing on the inside of his lip as he struggled to keep his eye on the ice and not on Craig, who was so clearly staring at him. He wished he wouldn’t. Kyle hated the way his face looked when he was flushed red. It made his freckles look weird.
“I’m...sorry about punching you in the face.”
“Don’t be.”
Kyle finally met Craig’s gaze. Craig, who’s smirk widened into a toothy, cheeky grin that sent Kyle into a dizzy spin.
“I’m not sorry about scaring you.”
Kyle tried to glare through the smile threatening to break out on his face and landed another, much weaker punch into Craig’s arm.
“You’ve got a pretty mean right hook.”
“You don’t even know which arm I used.”
Craig shrugged. “Not really.”
“I’m sorry you had to find out by a demonstration.”
“It was kind of impressive.”
Kyle quirked a brow to disguise the pride rising in his cheeks. “Did I knock out some braincells too?”
“Maybe.”
Once he’d looked properly at Craig’s face, he struggled to look away. There was the remnants of a smile there as the grey eyes watched him and for a moment Kyle really was worried he might’ve given Craig a concussion.
His usually well styled hair was a mess. It was probably the least composed he’d ever seen Craig. From the raggedy, cheap costume to the dark locks that spring out all over the place, and the cracked makeup made to make him look ghostly and sunken.
Kyle new better, though. Even intentionally Craig could never look ugly.
Craig was still staring at him. Silently watching. His hands were in his lap, but Kyle moved one knee forward just a touch, and then his leg was bumping into Craig’s. Craig made no effort to move. He even looked like he might say something.
“Kyle!”
The sound of his name drew his attention away from the attractive face. He turned to see Ike running over to him, with a girl following behind. He thought it might be Henrietta, but she was decked out even more extravagantly than Craig was.
“I lost you!”
“You ditched me you mean,” Kyle scolded as soon as Ike was close enough. The boy came to a skidding stop next to him. “What the fuck, dude?”
Ike had the audacity to grin. “I wanted to know how they were getting the chains to rattle! Because it looked like they were doing them individually, but that’d take way too much work.”
Ike stopped, only long enough to look from Kyle to Craig, and his smile began to fall.
“Did...you punch an actor?”
Kyle blanched. Craig laughed.
“Bro, dude, what the fuck?”
“Don’t what the fuck me you little shit, you ditched me!”
“That doesn’t mean you can punch the actors.”
The girl, who up close Kyle decided was definitely the goth girl Henrietta, arrived behind Ike at a slower pace and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m sure Craig deserved it.”
When Kyle looked back to Craig he felt suddenly a little self conscious about the fact he was the one holding the steadily melting ice against Craig’s face, stood close enough that their knees touched. If Craig’s hand had been on him in anyway, it would’ve looked...
He felt heat rising from his neck up his face once again.
He pulled back the makeshift icepack and Craig angled his head again while Kyle checked the damage. It looked a little less irritated, maybe. He was struggling to concentrate with Henrietta and Ike hovering so close by.
He cleared his throat and dropped the now wet napkin in Craig’s waiting hand. “It looks better.”
“Thanks,” Craig nodded and finally stopped staring at Kyle in favour of inspecting the napkin. Where it was dark from the makeup that had transferred over.
“I should probably,” he gestured towards Ike. “Get back to babysitting.”
“Sure, yeah, I have work to do.”
“Try not to scare anyone violent.”
Craig shot him a lopsided smirk that had him weak in the knees.
Kyle managed to tear his eyes away to address Ike instead, who was watching the exchange with a bored expression. Not unlike Henrietta.
“Let’s go find mom and dad, before they find out you ran off and I...”
“Woke up and chose violence?”
“Yeah. That.”
Kyle exchanged one of the most awkward goodbyes he’d ever had to suffer through with Craig, who still seemed to be staring at him in a way that was starting to make Kyle think he really did have a concussion.
--
Craig did have a black eye the next day. At lunch when Kenny asked him how he got it, he pointed straight to Kyle. He suffered through a torrent of teasing from them as he tried to explain how it happened, with Craig interjecting his very biased opinion on periodically.
Stan found it positively comical. That it was just Kyle’s luck in love to wind up punching his crush in the face. Kyle was glad that at least one of them found it funny.