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The sun shines through the trees as Karl skips rocks alongside the river. His high score is four skips, though he’s hoping to beat that today.
His heart sinks when his next pebble flies a measly two skips before sinking into the pond’s mossy depths.
But the feeling of disappointment doesn’t last long as he hears familiar yelling noises. He peeks.
Sure enough, when he swivels around, he can see George, Dream and Sapnap in the near distance, sprinting through the woods.
It wasn’t long before the group sat out of breath in front of Karl. There wasn’t really a winner to the race as Dream and Sapnap argued who had gotten to Karl first.
“I totally got here first,” Dream insists.
“No way, I know I did,” Sapnap argues.
“What? No way you were totally behind me – right George?”
“Come on, George was not close enough to us to tell.”
“Sure he was! Right George?” George rolls his eyes, as if to say, don’t involve me in your dumb shit. “Fine then. Karl, what do you think?”
Karl hesitates. He honestly hadn’t been paying attention. “Um…Sapnap?”
“Of course you would choose Sapnap,” says Dream.
Karl feels heat rising in his face at the comment. He prays he doesn’t look like a tomato.
“You’re just salty,” retorts Sapnap smugly. He slings an arm around Karl, which definitely doesn’t help the whole blushing situation. “You definitely saw me win, right?”
“Yup! For sure,” Karl squeaks. Sapnap smirks and pinches his cheek, which is pretty hot, so at least there’s a silver lining to this awkward situation.
Dream and George share a knowing look.
“We could swim,” Karl gestures to the pond behind them trying to take the heat of the moment away.
The rest of the group nods their heads in agreement and the rest of the day was spent in the sun. The air was filled with laughter. Despite the water being cold Karl still felt the warmth of his friends.
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As the years passed they started hanging out more and more in each other's yards or the park nearby. Now they are about to start their second year in a week. So much has changed since they were kids. Now they have more friends and Sapnap has grown more handsome since then, his hair is kept a bit longer and he wears looser clothes.
Sapnap does take guitar lessons now, Karl would say he is pretty good. Every time Karl hears him he is always impressed with the progress he makes.
Karl himself has a ukulele that he sometimes breaks out to duet with him sometimes. He always enjoys playing with Sapnap. It always feels like their special thing that none of the others do with him.
Dream hasn’t changed all that much but his hair is now kept long enough to where it can be a curly mess at times. But it suits him, it almost feels weird to see him with short hair. Dream also ended up picking up roller skating, it wasn’t something any of them thought he would try. But he ended up getting a pair for Christmas from his grandparents after mentioning it once.
It was pretty funny watching him try and learn. But he has gotten pretty good to the point where his legs are strong and he can keep up with the group when they go skating or biking around town.
George also didn’t change too much. The thing that probably changed most was that he got a piercing of a silver moon in his left ear. While Dream matched with him and got a sun piercing in his right ear.
The piercings started as a joke then at some point they actually did it, they look pretty good on them. They do tend to match for a lot of things so it was only a matter of time before they started matching earrings too.
Quackity is the newest person to the group when they met him a few years ago. He is pretty funny, and is definitely the chaos in the group.
This Monday was their final free sunny afternoon and the group was laying around in Quackity’s front yard. Just passing a football around in a circle.
“This is our last summer before college starts. We should do something” Quackity exclaims as he throws the ball to George who caught it and continued the game.
“We could go to Walmart,” George offers.
“Sure that sounds good, but what will we do at Walmart?” Sapnap asks.
George shrugs.
“Helpful,” Quackity deadpans.
“We could take some of the carts and race them,” Karl cuts in.
“I’m in,” Dream agrees, throwing the football to Quackity.
“Alright but I bet Karl and I would totally win,” Sapnap says as he slinks his arm around Karl and Karl feels a light blush dust his cheeks.
Karl smiles as he wraps his arm around Sapnap. “Yeah, we will win!”
“No way! We are better than you idiots,” George protests as he gestures to himself and Dream. Mischief and challenge glittering in his eyes while a bright smile on his face.
Karl laughs. “Yeah right”
Quackity jumps up. “Alright, let's go and settle this”
The group starts towards the Walmart leaving the football on the front lawn.
When they got to Walmart the parking lot was big. It wasn't a busy day so most people were parking closer towards the front of the parking lot. But that's the best it leaves the back totally open for their race.
“Karl help me get the carts,” Sapnap gestures as he starts walking to get some from where they were.
Even though Karl loved spending time with the rest of the group he loved spending time with Sapnap alone. He liked hearing him laugh and just be physically closer with Sapnap. Of course it wasn’t uncommon for him in general to be close with Sapnap for the rest of the group like that. But with Sapnap it was different.
The times they have cuddled for hours on the couch while watching something while the other idly plays with their hair. Or moments where it just feels like they are the only people in the world and that's all that matters.
“We will totally win,” Sapnap nudged Karl’s arm, breaking him out of his thoughts.
“Of course, you can push me in the cart.”
Sapnap nods, “I can try.”
“I’m sure you will be able to,” Karl says, allowing his hand to brush against Sapnap’s.
When they get the carts they quickly get them back to the rest of the group.
“Finally that took you guys forever,” Quackity complained.
“It didn’t take us like two minutes.”
Dream takes the cart from Sapnap and George quickly hops inside the cart.
Karl hops in the cart for Sapnap to push him.
When they get lined up in a makeshift track they get ready on Quackity’s word.
“Go!”
With that they start and booth match in speed for the most part until Sapnap starts to speed them up, passing Dream and George. Karl cheered “Go Sapnap woooo!”
The two kept up with one another the race ended up being pretty close between the two but in the end George and Dream won.
“Rematch we will totally win this time” Sapnap challenged
“Bet” Dream nods
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Today was Karl’s birthday party and he was excited to spend time with his friends, especially Sapnap. His parents were gonna let him take a few of his friends to a restaurant of his choice. He doesn’t know what to pick yet. But he will figure it out.
The ringing of his phone brought his attention to his desk where it was charging. He rushed over and saw it was Sapnap calling. He answered quickly “Sapnap!”
“Hey, Karl.”
The way he said Karl’s name always made him feel light and floaty.
“Happy Birthday,” Sapnap chirps. Karl can hear the smile that lines his voice.
“Thanks.”
“I have a pre-party present for you.” Sapnap tells him.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah and I will be by soon.”
“Alright sounds good.”
“See you soon,” Sapnap spoke with excitement lining his tone.
After Karl hangs up the phone and then decides to quickly get ready. He changed into the best jeans he has and a band shirt. Brushing his hair and teeth but his hair was a tad frizzy and wasn’t working with the brush. In the end Karl gave up and just hoped for the best.
When the doorbell rang Karl ran downstairs and when he reached the bottom he saw his mom let Sapnap in already. He was wearing ripped jeans and an anime shirt with his baseball cap. He was wearing the shoes Karl got him for his birthday last year, they were originally white but were decorated with anime characters poorly painted on with stickers to try and cover up the biggest mistakes. It always made him smile whenever Sapnap wore them.
“Karl,” Sapnap smiles, waving him over excitedly while holding a medium sized bag with happy birthday written on it and the top being covered by pink and purple tissue paper.
“Sapnap! Is that my present?” he asks while leading Sapnap to the living room.
Sapnap nods “yeah” when they both sit on the couch Sapnap hands the gift to Karl.
Karl could feel Sapnap’s gaze on him as he pulls off the tissue paper to reveal a box in the bag surrounded with candy and chocolate bars. When he pulls the box he sees a black shirt and a can of monster. Karl decides to open the box to reveal some pokemon cards and a Charizard plush.
Karl’s heart melted at the gifts Sapnap knew him well and the thoughtfulness of them made him just love him more if that was possible at this point. He turned to look at Sapnap who looked so happy and excited when he saw Karl’s face. Karl quickly pulled him into a hug and he felt Sapnap pull him closer; it just made everything better.
When they broke from the hug they decided to just hang out together until that evening when the rest of the group would be coming by.
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They were all sitting in Karl’s living room. They had just returned from the restaurant and opened presents and were about to watch a movie. Dream and George were sitting side by side with Quackity sitting next to them. With Karl and Sapnap sitting on the other side of Dream.
“What movie should we watch?” Karl asks.
“We could watch a Studio Ghibli film,” Sapnap suggests.
“We could but I think we should pick a random movie for fun,” Quackity says.
“Okay but where?” George asks.
“I don’t know uhhhh Netflix?” Quackity shrugs.
Everyone else nods their agreement with Quackity’s idea. So Karl picks a movie at random from the home screen.
The movie turns out to be okay, not bad but not good either. But the movie had its moments so the first portion was spent making fun of how low quality the movie turned out being.
Then they started thanks to George playing uno. They played various games into the night and the air was filled with laughter and jokes. The best birthday Karl could ask for, being surrounded by his friends and just doing whatever they want to do.
By the end of it all Quackity was asleep on the couch while Dream and George were cuddling asleep on the other couch. Leaving just Karl and Sapnap awake at 1:30 am.
“Hey Karl, can I tell you something?” Sapnap asks, his voice low and quiet.
“Yeah of course what's up?” Karl asked turning to meet Sapnap’s eyes though it was hard to tell in the dark.
“Okay… Karl I really like you and it’s okay if you don’t feel the same but I just thought you should know,” Sapnap tells him while fidgeting with his bracelet. If he was blushing Karl couldn’t tell in the dark.
Karl felt himself get lighter Sapnap liked him back? This really was the best birthday gift ever!
Karl gently touches Sapnap cheek forcing Sapnap to meet his gaze. “And what if I did like you back?” He could feel his own cheeks get warmer.
“What if I kissed you?” Sapnap asked, leaning in every so slightly.
Karl pulled Sapnap into a kiss, and he felt the sparks fly.
When they pulled apart Karl felt the warmth on his face.
Suddenly Sapnap broke the silence between them. “What are we?”
Karl felt a smile grace his lips. “Boyfriends, if you wanna be.”
Sapnap felt his heart beating in his chest, the electric feeling of Karl’s lips still on his own. “I do.”