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"Mom, we're going into my room to go play games!" Ailmar had called out, taking Sully happily by the hand, leading him where they needed to go.
"Okay!" His mom called back, Ailmar hearing the TV unpause before he shut his bedroom door, persuading Sully to sit on his bed as he went up to his TV, plugging in something.
It was just another sleepover, a regular occurrence for the both, but this time it was different. Sully brung a sleeping bag, meaning Sully would be able to sleep in Ailmar's room instead of on the couch like usual, making Ailmar more excited than usual.
Which was why he was so proud to show off his dad's old Playstation 2, sitting next to Sully with the controller as it turned on.
"Wow, where'd you get this?" Sully asked, watching the boot animation.
"It's my dad's. He said since he doesn't use it anymore, I could have it instead. Right now I'm just trying to get through this, like, 'Sonic Collection' thing. You wanna play a game off that?"
Sully just nodded in response. Ailmar smiled as he selected the first Sonic game and started a new game, handing the controller over to Sully.
Ailmar helped him with figuring out the controls before he truly started the level, telling him which button was to jump and all of it, before Sully started, taking his sweet time even though the game was all about rushing through.
Ailmar just watched with a sweet smile, not believing it. "Y'know, you're supposed to be going fast, not trying to get every ring." He simply commented.
"But they help me not die." Sully argued back.
"Yeah but you really only need maybe five rings for that. Not 100." Ailmar snickered.
"Hey, I'm the one playing, so you can shut your mouth."
"Okay, okay." Ailmar shut up indeed, watching him play until he finished the level, finally.
"That was fun!" Sully exclaimed. "You don't mind if I play another level, right?"
"Yeah, go ahead, I'm getting something to drink." Ailmar said, getting up to exit his room as he snuck into the kitchen quietly. He got a glass of water and ice before taking a quick peek into the fridge, finding nothing he wanted and wandering back to his room to see Sully was already on level three.
Ailmar took a large gulp of water before putting the drink down on his desk, moving back to his seat beside Sully, just watching him play, both getting sucked into the game.
When they were five levels in, they realized how far they'd gotten and how it'd been maybe thirty minutes now of Sully just playing while Ailmar just watched. Sully paused the game, saved his progress, and handed the controller back over to Ailmar.
"I've had enough of that now, fun though." He simply commented.
"Yeah, I think I'm done with it too now." Ailmar replied, getting up and waking over to the console, turning it off along with the TV, and putting the controller right back on top of the Playstation.
Ailmar just sat back down, not really sure on what to do, Sully just staring at him as he just stared at the blank tv.
"Hey." Sully started. "You finished that science homework, right?"
"... I forgot!" Ailmar quickly panicked. "I haven't even started! Is it long? Damn it…"
"Hey, hey, no need to worry! I'm here to help you." Sully smiled, patting his back.
"But, wouldn't that be boring? You can go back to playing Sonic while I do it."
"Nah, it's fine. I like to help anyways!"
"Yeah, you do... Thanks."
"No problem."
And with that, Ailmar got up, walking over to where he had put his backpack and zipped it open, quickly taking out a folder full of his work and a pencil, sitting back with Sully, taking out the homework.
At first, Ailmar was doing nicely on his own, Sully peeking over his shoulder to see what he was doing. But, finally, Ailmar hit a problem he didn't know the answer to.
"What the hell is a vacuole? I swear we didn't learn this!" Ailmar muttered under his breath, chewing on his pencil in frustration as he tried to remember.
"No, I'm sure we did, you were probably just zoning out again. Here, let me help." Sully tried grabbing the pencil, which Ailmar willingly handed to him, of course wiping off his spit first before he did.
Ailmar watched as Sully scooted closer to the paper, drawing a poor diagram of a plant cell, pointing an arrow to the largest organelle he drew. "That's the vacuole." He explained. "Does that help?"
"Kinda?" Ailmar replied. "I mean, I remember that, but I still don't remember its function…"
"Well, it's basically like a large storage tank for water and possibly energy, thinking about it like that usually helps me because it's so big in a plant cell right? And it's usually blue, so I just think, like, 'big water tank'!" Sully tried explaining.
"... Oh! Wow, that's pretty cool. I'll have to start doing that then, thanks dude!" Ailmar smiled, taking back the pencil and writing down the answer.
"Of course. Just tell me when you need help again."
And they stayed like that for a while, Ailmar doing well until he hit a problem he forgot the answer to, Sully giving him a quick explanation to help him remember, an ongoing cycle until Ailmar was finally done.
As he was putting it away back into his backpack, he apologized. "Sorry I had to do homework while you were here and kinda waste our time together. I promise I'll make sure it won't happen again."
"No, no, it's fine. I like helping you out anyways, gives me a refresher on this stuff, haha."
"Really? Oh, well then, maybe next time I'll forget to do all of it." Ailmar teased, zipping up his backpack again.
"If you ever do that, I'm never helping you again."
"Oh c'mon!" Ailmar hopped back onto his bed, punching Sully lightly on the shoulder. "You wouldn't help your best friend? Wow, so mean!"
"Well, maybe that best friend is trying to cheat and he wants to uphold his morals." Sully smirked, brandishing his teeth.
"Cheating is not the same as helping!" Ailmar exclaimed, a smile on his face as they were clearly both joking.
"Is too." Sully stuck his tongue out.
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Is not!"
And on and on they went, until they were both giggling messes.
They both sighed once they stopped, trying to calm down. It was silent in the room, only their slight huffs and puffs being heard, the two of them close yet not enough to touch.
It was here when Ailmar's stomach started to tingle, a soft feeling he didn't realize until now.
And then he started to become aware of what he was feeling, fear immediately taking him over as he tried to ignore how fast his heart was now beating and how his stomach was starting to hurt.
"That was fun." Ailmar rushed out, hoping his panic was hidden well. "But uhm, I'm kinda hungry, so I'll just go get myself something to eat!"
As he got up, he felt a hand holding his, looking back at Sully, trying to ignore the chill that went up his spine from the simple touch. "Could you get me something too?" Sully just simply asked, soft smile on his face.
"Oh!" He thought Sully was gonna ask him about his sudden panic, thankful he hadn't, maybe he's better at hiding it than he thought. "Of course." And with that, Sully let go, letting Ailmar leave the room to go to the kitchen.
Once in the kitchen, Ailmar had leaned over the sink in there, closing his eyes as he let his stomach slowly settle down, just trying to get these thoughts out of his head.
Behind him his mom had come in, seeing him lean over the sink, expecting the worst. "Honey?" She started, a soft tone in her voice. "Are you feeling okay?"
He was startled, and his panic set back in as he looked at her with a fake smile, nodding his head as he explained. "Yeah, I just got a bit of motion sickness from one of the games we played, so we took a break. I'm going back to my room soon though, no need to worry."
"Oh. Okay sweetie. Have fun then." And with that, she patted him on the back, grabbing something from the fridge before she left, Ailmar letting out a sigh of relief as he finally calmed down moments later.
He looked in the pantry, seeing crackers. Crackers, crackers were easy to get and filled him up quickly, he likes crackers. So, he grabbed the whole box, returned to the room and opened the box after he sat on his bed.
"Oh, crackers huh?" Sully asked as Ailmar opened an individual package of them.
"Yeah, don't wanna fill up too much before dinner after all." Ailmar replied, handing Sully some before stuffing his own mouth.
"Aren't you worried about the crumbs that'll get in your bed?" Sully stuffed as many crackers as he could fit into his mouth.
Ailmar quickly swallowed before he spoke, coughing a bit from the dryness before going on. "It's ok, I can sleep with 'em, and I'll wash my sheets tomorrow."
"Okay." Sully mumbled, mouth filled to the brim with crackers.
And so, they continued until Ailmar decided that they probably shouldn't fill up on only crackers, trying to put the box on his nightstand, not wanting to go to the kitchen again so quickly.
"Heyyy, I'm not done!" Sully complained, trying to grab the box, stopping Ailmar from putting it down.
"We can't just eat crackers dude!" Ailmar held it out of his reach.
"I don't care, I'm still hungry!" Sully smiled as he tried to take the box as Ailmar kept putting it out of his reach.
"No, we still have dinner!" Ailmar smiled back, before being pushed down onto the bed by Sully, the sudden movement baffling him enough for Sully to take the box, hovering over his stomach, legs on both sides of Ailmar.
"I win!" He celebrated his victory, eating another cracker with a smile.
"Ahhh, fine, just eat whatever you want…" Ailmar admitted in defeat, watching him hover over him, before realizing what kind of position they were in, his stomach threatening to explode from the feelings this was giving him.
"Maybe don't eat them over me though? You might get a crumb in my eye or something…" Ailmar made up the poor excuse, not wanting to feel whatever it was he was now.
"I don't care." Sully simply smirked, continuing.
"It's getting uncomfortable to sit like this, my head's gonna hurt when I get up if I continue laying like this." Ailmar complained, pushing Sully lightly but not enough to actually move him.
"That's what you get for denying me my right to eat as many crackers as I want." Sully got close to his face, eating another cracker, teasing Ailmar.
And the tease was just a bit too much.
Ailmar held his breath at how close they were, not caring if he was spitting in his face, hot embarrassment rushing into his face. It felt like he was bursting into fire.
"You okay dude?" Sully asked, putting the crackers on the nightstand finally. He put his hands on his knees now, slight concern on his face.
"Yeah." Ailmar exhaled. "Yeah, I just got lost in my own head again."
"About what?" Sully asked, curious, now taking his hands away from his knees to instead rest underneath his head as he put his elbows on Ailmar's chest, making sure not to crush him though.
"About…" Quick, Ailmar, think. Think up something else other than your burning desires for your own best friend. "The homework. Worried maybe even with your help that I still got a lot wrong."
"No way you did. I'm the best at science, you remember? It's basically the only class where I can keep an A for the entire year. So, don't worry!" Sully smiled, trying to help him.
Ailmar tried to nod with a light smile of his own to show he appreciated the effort. But with his nod, he had hit their noses lightly from how close they were.
Ailmar's eyes immediately went to Sully's nose, seeing just how close he was. It was beginning to hurt his stomach noticing these things. Meanwhile Sully's eyes widened at the funny little feeling it left him, staring at Ailmar's nose, before his eyes turned to Ailmar's eyes.
They both just stared, before Sully spoke up.
"Did you just give me a nose kiss?" Sully blurted out, not thinking.
"A… No, I didn't… I didn't mean to, I'm sorry…" Ailmar was embarrassed, this was too awkward for him to handle. He hoped Sully didn't hate him, he hoped Sully wasn't thinking he was weird or anything, he didn't wanna lose him to this silly interaction.
Maybe they just needed something to distract them, maybe another game. Just something else to distract him from the word kiss before he puked.
"No, no it's ok. It was, uh… Cute." Sully realized what he had said, panicking himself now. "BUT LIKE! Not in a romantic way or anything! I mean like, these are platonic usually and it was nice and… You know???" He didn't really know how to phrase it, embarrassed himself now.
"Uh, yeah, yeah. I know." Ailmar looked away.
"Unless, you… Want it to be romantic…?" Sully asked without thinking, looking away too now.
"What are you talking about Sully?" Ailmar questioned, looking back at him, fear seeping into his features. "We're both guys, it… Can't be romantic..."
"Oh… You're right… I guess…" Sully looked disappointed now, putting Ailmar into a panic, his head asking a million questions a minute.
Was Sully gay? Did Sully like the nose kiss? Did he actually want it to be romantic? Did he want more than a nose kiss? Did he like him? Could they date? Could they really date? What's God thinking about him now for thinking these things?
But right now, he was most panicked about making Sully upset, his mind fogging up, throwing away his worries to undo whatever he did to make him disappointed, he couldn't handle him being disappointed because of him.
"NO." He bursted out, catching Sully off guard and making him look him directly in the eyes. "I was just… Joking. Of course I want it to be romantic. It doesn't matter if we're both guys, we can… Do what we want! I…" Ailmar gulped.
"I love you Sully, no matter what!"
Sully was now the one holding his breath, just looking at Ailmar, Ailmar looking back.
Ailmar messed up, he knows he did. Now he knows Sully might find him disgusting. What if he was joking and Ailmar misread? What if he never wanted to see him again? Did he deserve it for being this wa-
"I love you too." Sully said, quietly.
Ailmar stopped thinking, just staring, the both of them just in the moment together.
"I love you Ailmar, no matter what…" Sully smiled a goofy smile, looking the happiest Ailmar had ever seen him.
Ailmar smiled back, the panic and guilt behind his feelings gone for once, soaking in the tingles and joys he was feeling deep into the reaches of his brain, his blood, his everything.
Then, Sully leaned in quickly, putting his lips to Ailmar's.
Neither knew to do a real kiss, they only knew the ones they gave to family members, but that didn't matter. They were kissing in their own special way, lips pressed together as burning was exchanged between the both of them.
They held there for a while, just staring at each other, before Sully slowly pulled away, the both of them letting go of the breaths they held.
"I've never kissed anybody like that before." Sully let out the first thing in his mind, intoxicated with the feelings Ailmar had been feeling for maybe the past hour now.
"... Me neither." Ailmar commented, surprised that he just had his first kiss, no, that they both just had their first kiss.
Then, realization set in, and Ailmar was tearing up at the sudden fear plaguing his heart.
He just kissed another boy, and God had watched him from his eternal resting place, and now he was going to Hell all because he couldn't keep control of himself. He held onto the bed below him like his life depended on it, heart beat rising as he lost his breath, the water in his eyes stinging him.
"Hey, dude. Dude! Are you okay?" Sully was immediately concerned, his elbows off his chest and his hands holding Ailmar's cheeks firmly, making him look into his eyes.
"We're going to Hell!" Ailmar yelled, thankful the TV was too loud for him to be heard, tears rolling down his face. "We're going to Hell for this. I never should've said anything! Now we're both doomed to go Hell all because I said something! It's not fair. IT'S NOT FAIR!"
"Hey, hey, calm down okay?" Sully calmly said, pressing their foreheads together, shaken a bit from the sudden yelling himself.
And so Ailmar tried to calm down, tried to just focus on Sully being there with him. But that just made it worse, thoughts going to and fro inside his head at the speed of light, more tears being produced.
"We're not going to Hell, okay dude?" Sully started, gripping onto his cheeks tightly but not enough to cause pain. "I know it's scary. But God doesn't hate us, we're his children. He wouldn't hate us for something as uncontrollable as love, right? Otherwise, nobody would love like us if he truly didn't want us."
Ailmar listened, he listened carefully to what Sully was saying, starting to calm down, his grip loosening and his thoughts coming to a halt.
"He doesn't hate us…?" He simply asked, voice cracking.
"No, of course not. You can't control your feelings, and neither can I. It's just another part of ourselves, a part God loves because he loves us as wholes, no matter what. He loves us, no matter what kinds of parts we have." Sully slowly started to let go of Ailmar's face, before he felt hands on his, forcing them to stay there.
Finally, Ailmar had calmed down, tears no longer running down his face, his breathing alright now, his heart beat alright, everything was alright, he was alright. "You're right…" He whispered, throat hurting. "I'm sorry for… Doing that. I… Don't know what came over me."
"It's ok. I'm here for you, no matter what." And with that, Sully pulled their foreheads away again, giving him another kiss.
Ailmar felt weak, melting into it, before Sully pulled away, hands still on his cheeks, opening his eyes slowly.
"... Thank you." Ailmar said, not only talking about helping him through this moment, but every other moment too, for loving him and allowing him to love him. But, he keeps that part to himself.
"You're welcome." Sully replied softly, as if knowing exactly what was unsaid.
It was silent after that, before finally they pulled away from each other, slowly Sully's hands left, and he was off of Ailmar, and once again they were just sitting side by side on Ailmar's bed.
Sully just watched his feet play with one another, while Ailmar wiped his lips before staring at the blank tv once again.
"... Does this mean we're dating?" Sully asked out of nowhere, still watching his own feet.
Ailmar hadn't thought about that, fear creeping in the back of his head at just the thought. But, he ignored it, instead clearing his head best he could to answer.
"Only if you want to be." Ailmar replied.
"I do, I really do." Sully smiled, slowly snaking his hand towards Ailmar's, before he intertwined their fingers together, squeezing his hand softly. Ailmar squeezed back.
"Me too."
And with that, Sully gave him a kiss on the cheek, a smirk on his face. "And since we're dating, there's more of where that came from.~" He teased.
Ailmar flared up at it, hand slightly shaky from pure happiness, smirking back, about to tease him back.
But before he could, they heard a knock on the door, the two of them quickly getting away from each other, Ailmar wiping his face off of the kiss before his mom peeked inside with a smile. "Kids, dinner's almost ready, so why don't you come help me by clearing the table?"
They both just nodded in response. She walked away once getting the confirmations, the two looking at each other afterwards, slightly embarrassed that they were almost caught while having such an intimate moment.
Then, they realized they had all night to do whatever they wanted, both enjoying just the thought of that.
"Maybe later we can do… Boyfriend stuff? Whatever that is?" Sully questioned, getting off the bed, his hand held out for Ailmar to take.
"Yeah, we can do that. Whatever that is. " Ailmar took his hand, Sully helping him stand up.
The both of them shared another quick kiss, faces smiling widely as they exited the bedroom, stomachs filled with butterflies and thoughts filled with a pleasant buzz.
And for the second time ever, Ailmar wasn't struck with a sudden sickness, nor guilt, nor fear, nor anything negative like it, due to his own feelings.
Instead, he felt truly comfortable for the first time.