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February 2nd, 1981. It was currently 3:30 am. The sound of crunching of the snow and heavy breaths were the only sounds heard in the otherwise quiet neighborhood. In the middle of the sidewalk stood a freezing Finney Blake, covered head-to-toe with his coat, mittens Gwen knitted for him, a scarf his mom gifted him, and one of Robin’s hats that the aforementioned boy didn’t know Finney had in his possession. The teenager was taking his sweet time in the snow, as he had just ran across town to end up in his boyfriend’s neighborhood.
Technically speaking, Finney shouldn’t be seeing Robin. The bandanna wearing teen was grounded for getting suspended from all the fighting he’s done the past month. When Robin had called Finney about it, he wanted to yell at his boyfriend for getting himself grounded through his birthday, meaning they couldn’t celebrate it until a week afterwards. That is what led the boy to make the journey to Robin’s house, holding a pudding cup, two spoons, and a candle with no lighter.
The crunching noises of the ground had come to a stop as Finney arrived at the window that led to Robin’s room. Walking closer, he started to knock on the window, a light tap so he wouldn’t scare his boyfriend. After a bit with no sudden movement, Finney tapped again, this time with a little more agency. As the time passed some more with nothing, he grew impatient. Throwing all his manners out the window (pun not intended), Finney started knocking rapidly at the window with a lot more force and consistently, making it hard for Robin to ignore. With the window being opened finally, Finney hadn’t been able to process the movement and accidentally punched the birthday boy’s stomach, a lot harder than what he thought he had.
“Oh my god, I didn’t mean to- are you alright?” Finney started speaking a mile a minute as he apologized to Robin, who was waking up and realizing it wasn’t Moose who decided to take advantage of the teen while at his weakest, but instead his lovable boyfriend who doesn’t know his own strength half the time.
“Finney.” Robin stated, making the boy look up and make eye contact with his boyfriend, “Stop apologizing. What are you doing here?”
Finney had raised the pudding cup to Robin’s eyesight with a meek expression on his face, making the birthday boy laugh at the makeshift cake for the two. “Happy birthday?”
Robin took Finney’s face into his hands and gave the boy a simple, yet sweet, kiss on his cheek. A thank you lingered in the kiss as he pulled away to see Finney’s cheeks start to dust with a pink hue that had mirrored his own.
Finney and Robin were sitting on the floor of Robin’s bedroom, a position the two boys have found themselves in many times. The candle was placed in the pudding cup while Robin had his lighter that was his dad’s before he inherited it, and lit the candle. Finney softly sang happy birthday, with the pudding cup in one hand and the other hand occupied by Robin’s hand. When he finished, Robin blew the flame out and took it out, licking the pudding off of the end. The two sat in silence as they shared the pudding cup, when it was broken by Robin.
“Why?” Finney looked at him in surprise. “What?”, he said in shock.
“I mean, why come out here at,” a pause as Robin looked at the time, “3:45 am, you know your dad would kill you for being over here this late, even more so knowing I’m grounded. So, why?”
Finney looked at Robin, a sparkle in his eye as he looked at his boyfriend, recounting the many dates they had, kisses they shared, and everything in between.
“Well, why not?” Finney replied, simply shrugging. As silence enveloped the two once again, Finney took another bite of the pudding when Robin let out his thoughts into the quiet atmosphere.
“I love you.”
Time froze. Finney’s eyes comically jumped out his head, the spoon stuck in his mouth. Robin, or as a matter of fact none of them has ever said those words before. The words have bounced off in his head before, even before they shared their first kiss, but he could never say it. He was too scared to say it, scared it would be too soon, or Robin hadn’t felt that at all and he doomed their relationship. Those words hung in the air.
Robin snapped his fingers in Finney’s face, “Finney?”, and with the call of his name, Finney jumped-hugged Robin and took the both of them to the floor. The boy started peppering Robin’s face with kisses everywhere, and the one getting attacked with love started laughing. The two stayed in that position for a while, basking in their love for one another. The giggles died down and Finney placed his ear on Robin’s chest. The beating of his lover’s heart lulled the boy to a calmness, letting his eyes droop a bit. As he allowed himself to fall deeper to the confines of sleep, knowing he will be grounded by the time he got back home later that morning, Finney took Robin’s hand in his own.
“I love you too.”