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noah sighed, mildly annoyed.
it was late into the night by now, and he had been roped into another hang out with cody from the promise of "entertainment".
from how chaotic it was, he was right.
first, the brunette tried to make them some food.
keyword word: tried.
cody scratched the back of his head, looking at the bananas, pepper, sugar, and all of the other ingredients sitting inside the cabinet. with a shrug, he pulled five things out of it at random.
“this should be fine, right? yeah, definitely,” he mumbled, opening everything up. “don’t worry, dude! i’ll satisfy your hunger!” he winked.
noah raised an eyebrow as the other dumped it all together, banana peels and all.
no way was he going to eat any of that.
he wasn't sure what cody had been trying to cook. the ingredients didn’t help in identifying it, either. cody said he was sure that the “pretty okay cook", which had obviously been a lie, and had actually never opened a cook-book before in his entire life. not even a digital one.
“trust me, noah! i know what i’m doing!” he grins, and dumps way too much sugar in- wait, sugar? “you’ll be so impressed by this, blown away, even. the codemiester got this!”
eventually, and unsurprisingly, it started a fire. noah was left to put it out while cody panicked before finally opening all of the windows.
they both stared at the bubbling pile of “food”.
it was both burnt, raw, and boiling.
noah slowly turned towards cody.
“what were you trying to make?”
“an omelette,” he poked at the glob of an attempted meal with the end of his wooden spoon. it made a gross squelching noise. they winced.
noah didn’t even remember seeing cody put eggs in it.
“…i’ll order take out.”
after a fulfilling and delicious pizza and ignoring cody’s request of pineapple as a topping, they played a few rounds of video games. the host, being an absolute "pro," or as he said, somehow lost to noah. every. single. time. he shrugged it off, shaking noah's hand as to not be a sore loser even as he glared at the tv.
he stared at cody's teal eyes. they were still holding hands. he was mildly surprised cody hadn't immediately let go. npah realised he was staring straight into his eyes and swiftly averted his eyes and attention.
so what if he occasionally stared into his close-dude-friend's eyes? it's not as if he was in love with him or anything.
obviously.
he pushed that thought aside as cody started talking.
"let's play another round, okay? i'll totally destroy you this time!"
try to his word, cody beat him. not because he was better than him, but because noah thought his determination was cute and went easy on him.
he was ecstatic and noah didn't have the heart to tell him he could have destroyed him at twelve different points in the game but was too focused on the way he laughed, or his pretty teal eyes-
he mentally hit himself.
not the time.
seeing as cody almost zero self awareness, it shouldn't have come to a shock when he somehow fell and broke the tv.
he has no clue how it happened. one second, all was well, and the next the tv was lying on the ground. broken.
cody insisted it was fine and he'd be able to get a new one easy but noah wasn't so sure. he sighed, letting him off.
"you're an idiot, cody."
"...haha...sometimes."
"..."
the sat in comfortable silence, staring at each other.
"...wanna play around on the keyboard with me?"
"no, dude, you press those other keys!" cody laughed, gesturing to the keys noah was supposed to be pressing.
"why is this so complicated?" he mumbled, doing it all wrong.
for the last hour and a half, cody was trying to teach noah how to play on the keyboard.
…and failing.
every direction he gave went through one ear and out the other as noah somehow clicked everything but what he had asked of him. instead of being frustrated, he smiled his tooth-gap grin and continued to try and guide noah through a few nursery rhymes.
he was frustrated on why he kept failing, and let out a sigh, dropping his hands. without realising, he smacked a nearby water bottle off the table and onto the ground. it started to spill all over the floor.
“shit,” he quickly got down, picking the water bottle up hastily to stop it from spilling more. some of it got on his sweater vest. he let out an annoyed groan.
cody let out a snort, squatting down with noah. he pulled out tissues from his pocket, wiping up the water. as he finished up, their hands grazed each other.
noah’s eyes opened as he hastily pulled his hand away, mumbling a soft “excuse me,” before hastily going to the bathroom.
while definitely not panicking, he
“uhm…you
they stood in awkward silence. noah stared out the window again. cody, being born from a pretty rich and stable family, lived in a nice area. it was a house on a hill. the view out of the window was filled with nature. there was a small forest and lake not far from it.
to put it simply, it was a pretty sight.
he turned towards cody, making eye contact. his eyes were as blue as ever. for whatever reason, cody was blushing, making noah's cheeks heat up in response. he quickly looked away, hearing the other let out a soft and nervous laugh.
but the view inside was prettier.
soon, cody decided he was bored of trying to teach noah the keyboard, and ran off to the kitchen. noah followed with a sigh, wondering what exactly would happen next.
when he came in, he didn’t expect to see cody already halfway through a chocolate cake.
startled, he watched the teen happily eat away.
“what the hell are you doing?”
“eating?”
“…an entire cake?”
“well, yeah. it’s good! want some?”
“no, thanks. i’d rather not eat something you’ve smothered your face all over.”
cody shrugged.
“suit yourself!”
at one point, as in when he realised maybe he shouldn’t let him eat all that sugar, he decided enough was enough and dragged cody away from the mess.
“alright, that’s enough. jesus…did you have to eat that much?”
“it’s not my fault it’s so delicious-”
“whatever you say, sugar addict.”
the sugar seemed to have gotten to him, seeing as cody was more energised than usual. he wouldn’t shut up, asking noah a dozen question in a row, before eventually hitting his sugar crash.
by then noah had already dragged him to the couch, deciding he wanted to watch a movie instead.
half way through the thing and they ended up cuddling.
“hey, noah…”
he hummed in reply, waiting for him to continue.
“do you think i’m unlovable?”
noah turned to him in surprise, blinking.
“where did that come from?”
“sorry, uhm-i was just thinking about it earlier and, like, it feels like no one’s ever liked me, you know? i was just wondering if there’s a problem with me or something, haha…but uhm…i guess maybe i’m wrong? but at the same time i wouldn’t be surprised if i really was the problem, i’m kinda weird- you know what? forget i said any of that.”
they went back to silently watching the tv. or, cody did.
noah kept his eyes on cody, staring at him.
he contemplated saying something. what would he say, tho? that he’s been in love with him for the past year?
no, that’s crazy. he’ll just get his heart broken, which would be enough for his heart to stop beating from sheer embarrassment.
he watched cody fidgeting nervously, not paying mind to it.
maybe he should just go for it. what’s the worst that could happen? cody’s a nice guy, it’s not like he’ll shatter noah’s heart.
“i don’t think you're unlovable.”
cody looked up at him in surprise. he seemed to have forgotten about what they were talking about.
“what? you don’t?”
“yeah. you’re a geek, and a wannabe ladies man, and a loser who definitely doesn’t get told he is one often enough, and-“
“relax on the insults, would you? it’s hurting my ego…”
“right. sorry. but, aside from all those flaws-“ cody light heartedly glared at him “- you're a pretty great guy.”
“i am?”
“you are.”
cody hummed, putting his face back down on noah’s shoulder. it reminded noah about the fact they were cuddling, making him a bit more nervous then he originally was.
“how?”
he raised an eyebrow at him.
“how? how what?”
“how am i a, ‘pretty great guy?’”
“is this your plot to make me compliment you? because you could i’ve just asked nicely and maybe-”
“you know wouldn’t just, compliment me cuz i asked-“ which, maybe, was true, “-but, i’m just curious. what’s so great about me? i mean, asides from my awesome keyboard skills.”
noah thought to himself, turning away.
there wasn’t anything specific that came to mind when he thought of cody.
he was good at keyboard and maths, and he was a generally fun person to be around. only when he wasn’t being a wannabe ladies man. but that wasn’t entirely true. noah thought it was cute how hard he tried to be liked, tho it was just as sad.
cody was pretty determined, and didn’t really start any fights. he was the kind of guy to avoid conflict, even when dealing with shitty people (sierra, sierra, sierra.)
“you’re,” he paused as the other turned to him, arms still around his waist. “…you.”
he let out a snort, smiling, showing off his tooth gap. noah had always liked that tooth gap. it fit him.
“that’s the best you got? you were thinking for like, ten whole minutes.”
“i…love you.” he whispered.
“what?” cody tilted his head at noah, confused. “did you say something?”
noah quickly turned his head away. shit.
“nope. you must be going insane.”
“but i swear i-“
“you heard wrong.”
“…okay.”
once again they sat in silence, this one less comfortable then the last.
“hey, noah?”
“yeah?”
“i love you.”
“…i love you too.”
but he had a feeling cody would never love him like he did.