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They've come to an agreement........... kind of.
After that last whole thing, Cellbit had been trying (and failing) to act like how he normally was around Roier. Both of them try to pretend that that whole night never happened. (Though, the pretending part is mostly coming from Cellbit, Roier is just acting like he normally is.)
Luckily, the children didn't seem to feel the tension (if you can even call it that) from their parents. Richarlyson and Bobby keep being each other's best friends without a care in the world, and, if he's being totally honest, it totally looks like the only one who still cares about that night is him.
The point is, it has been a week since that night, and Cellbit can slowly see that everything is coming back to normal. Cellbit and Roier continue to flirt with each other, the children happily trying to not really subtly imply that they want both of their dads to date each other.
Everything was perfect.
Until that fateful day, the day that Bobby passed and the week after.
__________
Cellbit stands mutely in front of Roier's and Jaiden's house. His fingers gripping the communicator while he stared at the door, waiting patiently for Roier to come out of the house. He knows he can always warp, but the thought of inviting himself into Bobby's part of the house makes him feel uneasy.
But soon enough, the mechanical iron door opens, and, standing in front of him is Roier, who, Cellbit immediately noticed, is still wearing the same clothes the spider hybrid wears when he forced the other to take a shower a couple of days ago.
But that's not even the most worrying part about his appearance. His hair is a mess, his usually neatly placed bandanna looks like it's about to fall out if he were so much as touch it, and there are dark circles under his eyes so dark that they can rival Cellbit's own.
In short, he looks like shit.
But, instead of voicing any of his thoughts, he simply smiled and said, " Good morning, Guapito."
It's almost midnight right now.
Roier only looked at him tiredly, but he managed a small smile nonetheless. "Good morning, Gatinho. Now come in."
And Cellbit doesn't need to be told twice.
______
After Bobby's death and Jaiden disappearing to grieve at her own place, Cellbit has noticed that Roier has become much more subsided than he ever was before. His eyes have that bone-deep tired look that even sleep can't erase if Cellbit looks closely at him, and although to outsiders, he may have acted unaffected, but, Cellbit knows him enough that he can tell that the other's coping mechanism is through humor.
And also, he has been neglecting taking care of himself, spending most of his day staring blankly at the ceiling, his mind far away. So Cellbit has tasked himself with the task of reminding Roier to take care of himself so the spider hybrid wouldn't forget, much to the faux annoyance of the other.
And, as much as Cellbit wants to hide it, he can't deny that being so close to Roier practically every day makes his heart skip a beat and his face warms up.
Deep down, he knew that he had fallen in love with Roier. He had realized it a while ago. But he forced the feelings down as far as he could. Because he knows that what Roier needs the most right now is love and support from a friend, not romantic love, and Cellbit is honestly totally fine with it.
Now, sitting on his couch, Cellbit could see the disorganised state of the house, and before he could make a comment about it, Roier slowly emerged from the kitchen with two cups of lukewarm tea in his hands.
"Sorry for the messy house, kinda hard to clean the house when you kid literally died." Roier joked, and instead of looking at him weirdly like the others when he joked about it, Cellbit smiled and joked back.
"Whoa, is this the Guapito who drills into my head every time we meet that I need to clean myself and that my room looks and smells like shit?"
Roier snorts, and Cellbit's smile widens as the tension in the spider hybrid's shoulder begins to loosen. "Ey! Pendejo! Give me a break! I have the excuse of grieving. What's your excuse for your shitty smelling office room, eh? Culero?"
Laughing softly at the other's dramatics, Cellbit slowly lifts his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, you got me, you won this round, Guapito. The truth is.....I don't have any excuse for my office this time."
Looking satisfied with himself, Roier smiled and asked, " So, Gatinho, what brings you here? Is it to make sure that I don't die? Or do you have something else you want to talk with me about?"
Shrugging, the cat hybrid answers semi-truthfully. "Honestly, a little bit of both, but I mostly just wanted to see how you're doing in the past couple of days."
Slowly drinking his lukewarm tea, Roier hums. "Well, as you can see, it's the same as any other time you visited my house last week. Just the same old house with a shitty smell and a cup of lukewarm tea awaiting you."
Cellbit hums thoughtfully, his mind thinking about how to approach the question on the tip of his tongue. But in the end, he decided to be blunt instead.
"Guapito, did you eat anything today?"
The spider hybrid furrowed his brows at the question, seemingly trying to remember if he had actually eaten anything, but from the way his stomach suddenly growled and his face burned red, Cellbit could guess the answer pretty quickly. So, instead of waiting for the other's answer, he decided to get up and lay out a hand towards Roier and said, "I haven't eaten anything either, wanna make a sandwich with me?"
Without much reluctance, Roier stood up and took his outstretched hand into his own and tiredly nodded.
_______
The sandwich making is a quiet affair, both of them too far tired to make something fancy, but the two of them are still fairly satisfied with their first meal of the day.
Now, after much convincing and jokingly bullying about him smelling like shit from Cellbit, Roier has finally given up and decided to take a shower, so now Cellbit is sitting on the couch, thinking about the request he's about to make.
He had known that he had fallen in love with Roier for about weeks now, but he knows that confessing now is an awful idea, what with Roier still grieving and what he's about to do, he knows that it's not a viable option at the moment.
Because It's been almost a month since Felps had disappeared, and Cellbit knows that he has not made much progress in rescuing him, he simply has too little information right now, and the Federation don't seem to be intending to releasing him any time soon.
And, as much as he hates to admit it, he knows that he's stuck in a stalemate right now and he desperately needs a breakthrough.
So he makes a plan. He's gonna pretend to betray everyone to be able to infiltrate the Federation. But, the problem is that he needs a believable enough excuse so that he wouldn't look suspicious.
Luckily, in a couple of days, him and Forever will talk to Cucurucho in hopes of trading their illegal items for a chance to revive Bobby, and, on Cellbit's plan, he will instead betray Forever and trade those items for Richarlyson's sole parenthood instead. It's a flawed plan, for sure, but it's the best motivation he has at the moment, so sadly, it'll have to do for now.
But with that plan ahead of him, he knows that he will have to convincingly betray his friends without them or the Federation thinking that he's acting, and that, unfortunately, comes a problem.
He's a good actor, he can probably fool them if he has a good enough excuse, but the problem is that he will need to be alone without anyone on his side for however long it takes for him to infiltrate the Federation, and he will, selfishly, miss Roier's company, and he also dreaded the thought of Roier hating him.
So now, he's sitting here, mentally allowing himself one last night with the other, because he knows that attachment will only hinder his plan going forward, he needs everyone to hate him.
But, just for tonight, he allowed himself to be just a little selfish.
The sound of Roier calling his name quickly snapped him out of his thoughts. Cellbit looks up from his gaze on the floor, and feels his cheek immediately reddened as he drinks in the sight in front of him.
Roier, freshly out of the shower, is wearing a t-shirt that absolutely highlighted his biceps as he wore a short boxer that does an excellent job at showing him Roier's big ass that the other is so proud of.
Roier awkwardly cleared his throat, and Cellbit felt his face burn even more when he realized he was staring the whole time. He immediately tore his gaze from the other and coughed awkwardly as well.
But instead of making any comments about it like he had feared, Roier only sat down on the couch and said, "I thought that you'd leave by now, like you normally do, is there something else you need to say, Gatinho?"
Cellbit took a deep sigh and said, "Yeah, I have a request to ask you if you don't mind."
At Roier's slow nod, Cellbit moves his gaze onto the floor as he quietly whispers.
"Guapito, can I sleep here with you for tonight?"
He waited for a reaction, but a few seconds passed, and there was only silence, so Cellbit took another deep breath and looked up.
Roier is in complete shock, his mouth opens slightly and there are pink streaks on his cheek that makes Cellbit realize what the offer may have sounded like to the other.
The cat hybrid jumped to immediately clarify. "I-It's not like that, I promise! It's just that I've been getting nightmares lately and I always sleep better when there are other people and Richas and his dads have been really busy recently and I remember that you don't like to sleep alone so I thought it would help, y-you know??"
A minute passed by, and Cellbit finally looks up just in time to see Roier shrugging in faux nonchalant, his face is still pink as he answers in a lighthearted tone. "Sure, you can stay for the night, Gatinho, but, just be warned that the bed here is not big like your ones at your house, okay?"
Cellbit nods, and both of them stand up to start to go to Roier's room.
(It wasn't until the cat hybrid sat on the bed that Cellbit belatedly realizes that he and Roier will sleep on the same bed, just like that night again.)
________
Now, lying down with Roier next to him, Cellbit can now feel how bad of an idea this was, what with him betraying everyone and everything.
But still, he couldn't deny that being this close to Roier made butterflies bloom in his stomach and his heart pang even more at the thought of betraying him.
Looking over where the spider hybrid to see if he's asleep, Cellbit feels his eyes widening a little as he sees Roier staring straight at him with an unreadable expression on his face.
The detective was about to comment about the staring when Roier suddenly said, "Gatinho, can you hold me until I'm asleep?"
Cellbit stares at the other, trying to make sense of the spider hybrid's expression, and, after a few seconds of staring, Cellbit realized that Roier looks tired, even more so when there's no light on him, and the cat hybrid immediately understands the desperation in Roier's face, he needs someone to hold him, badly.
So, without another word, Cellbit scoots closer to Roier as the other turns around, becoming a little spoon as the cat hybrid wraps an arm around his waist.
Cellbit hums as Roier tiredly sighs and he relaxes into his arms, and, before he knows it, a comforting purr emerges from deep inside his chest and his now appearing tail is slowly wrapped around Roier's leg, much to the cat hybrid's embarrassment.
But instead of pointing it out, Roier only hums in contentment at the soothing sounds, and, to Cellbit's suprise, Roier slowly lifts his hand up to gently scratch his ears where he has took off his goggles, and, predictively, the detective's purr get even louder, and he feels the spider hybrid's chest rumbled in silent laughter.
If this was any other person, Cellbit would've already told them to stop, but embarrassingly, he only feels himself melting into the other's body. His normally chaotic mind is blissfully silent for the first time in a while.
So, instead of telling him off, Cellbit took a deep breath and hugged Roier tighter. He feels the other tenses up as his breath hitched, and Cellbit's ears droops down as he feels like he has done something he shouldn't.
But before he can pry his arm around the other's waist, he feels Roier relaxed again and uses the hand that's not busy scratching his ears to place it on top of his arm, a clear request to stay.
So Cellbit stops, his face is burning red and and his heart is beating so wildly that, for a second, he's gonna have a heart attack, and he knows that Roier has definitely realised how fast his heart beat is by their close proximity.
Sighing softly to himself, Roier unexpectedly retracts the hand that's scratching Cellbit, and before he can complain, pulls him impossibly closer to Roier and, for the first time since they hugged, turns around so that they're now face to face again, their foreheads touching as they stares at eachother.
Cellbit feels his breath catch in his throat as he stares at Roier.
Roier is staring at him with a small smile on his face, a lovely smile that makes Cellbit fall in love all over again. His six eyes open as well, showing their beautiful ruby color, and, distantly, Cellbit realizes that this is the first time he has ever seen all of Roier's eyes.
They're the most beautiful thing Cellbit has ever seen.
Right now, this is the only time Cellbit is glad that he's a cat hybrid, because his night vision is the only reason he is able to see how beautiful Roier is right now.
A hand on his cheek pulls him out of his thoughts just in time to see Roier pulling himself even closer so that their noses are touching now, and Cellbit can feel Roier's breath on his skin.
Cellbit shivered at the feeling as he looks deeply into Roier's eyes. His mind right now is screaming at him to take the lead, close the last bit of distance between them and finally do the thing that he has fantasized about for the last week, and clearly, Roier is waiting for him too, because he has an unmistakably hopeful expression on his face.
But Cellbit immediately reminded himself of the mission in a few days, and he mutely answered Roier's unspoken question with a slight shake of his head.
Before Roier could feel disappointed, however, Cellbit immediately took the hand on his cheek and gave it a little kiss.
"I'm sorry, Guapito. You don't understand how badly I want to kiss you, but I don't think I can right now, and, I know it's a selfish request, but can you please wait for me?"
Cellbit looks closely at Roier's face to watch his reaction. A few seconds passed, the other's face is flashing with many emotions that are too fast for Cellbit to identify before it settles on a small smile as Roier answers his question.
"Sure, but don't make me wait too long, pendejo! Or else I'll go and find another person to kiss!" Roier joked, his eyes shining with humor, and and Cellbit feel his love for the spider hybrid grows impossibly deeper as he gently nods.
Even if he knows what Roier said has been a joke, Cellbit still reassures him, "I know it's a joke, but I want to let you know that you can decide not to wait for me any time you want, I'm not gonna force you to love me, and you are not belongs to me either, so if you decided you wont wait anymore, just tells me, okay? I would never want to make you feel like you have any obligation to wait for me, Guapito."
Smiling wider, Roier quickly hugged him tightly as he tucked himself into the cat hybrid's neck and whispered out a happy 'I know.' And that's how the conversation ends as they blanket themselves into a comfortable silence.
Cellbit feels his exhaustion catching up on him as his eyes slowly close, and the last thing he feels is gently scratching his ears once again.
He knows what will happen soon, and he prays that he won't lose Roier with what he's about to do.
And that was his last thought before he succumbed to his exhaustion and let sleep consume him completely.