Work Text:
“You’re seriously never going to run out of museums to break into, are you?” the drummer questioned curiously, an amused smile growing on his face.
The skater turned with a grin. “In Los Angeles?” He clasped his hand into Alex’s free one and let their arms swing between them. “Never.”
It was relatively late in the evening, likely the latest date night they’d experienced, to Alex’s knowledge. The time around them seemed to always pass quickly when he spent time with Willie; and oh, how he wished it would slow down just for them.
They always alternated between date night locations — Willie began in a museum on their first and continued the trend whenever it was his turn to choose. No museum was reused twice at the same time of day. He often used them to attempt tricks using his board, jumping over large, long obstacles that seemed hazardous to lifers, and almost always lending the skateboard to Alex for some practice. And while he wasn’t very good at it, Alex quite relished holding onto Willie for support.
Alex’s date nights consisted of nearly empty parks and people-watching, both taking turns in creating life stories for each passerby. Or, on the occasions when the park was closed, summoning his instrument and teaching Willie a thing or two about playing on a drumset, or reading sheet music. The skater liked this — he may not have been better on the drums than at skating, but Alex’s hovering proximity was a great motivation to continue learning.
Tonight was Willie’s turn, so he chose a science museum. He led Alex through the sealed glass doors and watched his expression shift into one of awe. The glass ceiling painted the luminous, star-filled night sky above their heads, with hung copper and bronze decor swirling delicately down from the roof.
“It’s cool, right?” Willie asked with a coy grin.
Alex stared above. “It’s beautiful…” he murmured, his eyes brilliantly reflecting each visible star. “When was all of this built?”
“‘Couple of years ago,” Willie replied as he stuck his free hand into his shorts’ pocket. “I’ve only been here once, when it first opened. It was pretty gnarly, I’ve gotta say.”
Alex examined the interior more carefully. He noticed the various exhibits and decorations taking over the ground floor, leaving little to no room for using a skateboard. “But isn’t it too cramped to skate in here?”
Willie grinned. “Who says we’re skating?”
He moved onward with the nervous drummer still attached to his hand as he navigated the building. They passed aquariums filled to the brim with the clearest water and fish swimming jovially inside, replicas of white space shuttles hung overhead and displayed on the ground, and slightly aged, off-white fossils of prehistoric creatures until the pair eventually reached what appeared to be a giant, black dome.
“I think you’ll like this,” Willie remarked before stepping through the doors. Alex followed close behind curiously, combing his hair away from his eyes and taking a seat on a curved bench pressed against the black wall. The other boy sat directly beside him, leaning in close as he glanced over. “You ready?”
Alex sent back a small smile. “Ready.”
Willie flicked his hand toward the top of the room.
The pitch-black dome vanished behind the sudden appearance of vibrant, gleaming lights, each forming the shapes of scattered stars freckled across the roof and planets rotating ever so gradually around the large, scintillating holographic sun in the center of it all. Little asteroids floated smoothly in bunches at a time, all gliding noticeably together in a belt between the planets Alex recognized to be Mars and Jupiter.
He liked stargazing. He’d get distracted in the park by gazing up into the indigo sky every now and then. And, evidently, it did not go unnoticed by Willie.
After what seemed like an hour of silence, Alex slowly shifted his focus from the scene overhead to the boy sitting next to him. Willie gazed back expectantly, the side of his face illuminated by the fake stars. As the moments passed, he began to grow visibly anxious. Was Alex disappointed? Oh, he really didn’t mean to disappoint him —
His train of thought derailed unexpectantly with a mental bang! as he felt the brief, delicate peck of Alex’s lips on his own. His face flushed a deep crimson, the reaction quickly reflecting on the other boy’s face. He wasn’t disappointed; he was debating.
They gazed at each other momentarily before Alex’s hand subtly slithered back into Willie’s hand. “Thank you,” he spoke, with the most honest, loving smile the skater had ever witnessed.
He couldn’t help but smile back.