Work Text:
Life is butter yellow light seeping through his kitchen window when he arrives back home. He’s wrapped in his big puffy coat and his nose is ruddy and freezing and his hands are stuffed into his pockets and his Mom greets him in the threshold. The kitchen is candlelit and kind to him and his socked feet pad against the tile like a happy cat because he has slipped his shoes off by the door because he is home.
Life is ketchup on his spaghetti and feet tucked under his legs at the dinner table and then tucked under his Mom’s hands on her lap as they watch television before bed. It’s the red sweater under his pillow like an oath and each fingertip tap against his clunky keyboard and every thought something warm and welcomed.
Life is deep, content sighs every morning and eyes that still sparkle no matter how tired and a skip in his step and love songs in his headphones on the bus. It is every wildest daydream and every dream come true and every leaf that dances past his eye-line through the window, reminding him that so many things begin anew.
Life is the gravel crunching beneath his feet and air biting at the backs of his hands because he forgot his good gloves again and watching huddles of hugging bodies flock inside before the bell.
Life is the boy in the cream coloured sweater with the smile that shook Sweden. Kicking his feet under the lunch table, sharing his textbook in class, stealing his kisses in the locker room. Holding his hand, holding him close, closing that gap for good. Nothing lodged between them now. It’s closed curtains and warm bare skin and goosebumps and gasps and quiet. And it’s loud. And it’s soft. And it’s worth it.
Life is never wanting to stop being sixteen years old and in love with everything. He’s not sure anything has ever felt so good for anybody. He wonders if love feels so heart-twistingly lyrical and painstakingly beautiful and good and right and new for every person falling for the first time. For every person that falls again everyday. For everyone falling for everything. He hopes so.
Life is sweeter than before. There is something to be learned everyday, and always something to be shown for it. There are two hands to hold and arms to fall into and one heart learning every beat of his own, and singing and dancing along, and getting it right.
Life is not apologising for taking up space. Reaching every top shelf and catching every fall and keeping the warmth in. Happy cries and hazel eyes and hushed laughter like a secret only the stars are in on.
It’s two boys and their bravery changing what a life in love means at all, a sweeping revolution born in a little dorm room that bleeds out in purples and pinks for all to see, to watch, to wonder, yet still, remarkably, absolutely obviously, remains just theirs.