Archive of Our Own

Before him. Everything seemed gray, lifeless, just the same old same old, every day, for years. Fake friends, absent family, masked personality, I was a wreck. I never actually enjoyed making fun of others, the way I used to see it, it was a kill-or-be-killed kind of world. And it’s not easy when you’re considered prey. I was constantly tormented by Bria. I hid my interests and my true feelings and opinions because all that brought me was more bullies. It was better to be someone that I didn’t recognize than to be myself, even if that meant drawing in the wrong people. Then, I met him. I was a jackass to him when we first met, I’ll admit it, but even so, he seemed to forgive me, he even went through lengths to save me, even after I’d stolen a title from that he’d loved. At first, it was weird, no one is that nice. I’d wondered what his motive was, what he wanted from me, or what he was hoping to achieve by being so friendly, even when I taunted him about my victory he barely reacted, it was fun getting on his nerves but he never really fought back, he just took it, in fact, it was like he saw straight into my soul. He listened but he never seemed to show any sign that he cared. Once he just smiled and walked off. That was the trigger, after that, I couldn’t stop thinking about him, so when I saw him again when I was on an outing with Bria and her minions I took it as an opportunity to annoy the fuck outta him. I’m proud to say it worked! Though, I never would’ve expected me to be the one to help him that day. After Bria betrayed the both of us, I knew I had to do something, one look at him and I couldn’t stop myself from doing what I did next. Somehow, he befriended me, and he’s stood up for me ever since. Matt sat up, laying back on his bed frame, lost in thought. And now, for the first time, life doesn’t seem so gray anymore, it’s less dull, less boring, less..painful. Most of the toxic people that I used to allow in my life are gone. It was weird at first honestly, instead of being someone’s puppet I became someone’s friend. His friend. But lately, I’m not sure if I even want that. On one hand, I don’t deserve him, not in the slightest. On the other hand, I want him. Platonically, of course. He’s the reason my life is what it is now, I shouldn’t go ruining something with the single best person I have in my life. Something, that’s what we are. Just a platonic something. Matt turned his music up one, closing his eyes he listened intensely to the notes and the sounds they made, the lyrics pieced together along with it. Before him, Matt was nothing but a simple song, the same broken melody, repeating itself, for what seemed like an eternity. Then, he met him, and everything seemed to just click. He changed. They became closer, talked more often, and what used to be a simple song became something more, something, better. He took his broken melody and turned it into a symphony. And that symphony was loudest around him. Around Gus, that was when he felt the happiest. Matt lazily summoned his scroll to check the time, it read ‘6:00pm’, almost time to go out with him. He smiled at the thought and got up to get ready.

-

Before him, everything was, fine. Just fine. Although, others might have seen his life as perfect. But in his eyes, it was far from that. Perfect grades, amazing, powerful friend group, early graduate, yep, prodigy Augustus Porter had it all! At least that’s what most of everyone seems to think. Not many people realize I face challenges, same as everybody else. Hell, my dad is barely home because he is always so busy with work. Sure, my life was good, but it wasn’t all I’d hoped for. Everything was routine for me, school, straight A’s, H.A.S meetings, anything to be seen as successful, to be seen as worthy. I’d tried to be grateful for the life I had and the people in it despite the challenges I faced yet I couldn’t help but want something more. I want to be more adventurous, go to the human realm, meet new people of new cultures, and experience new experiences! But I was stuck on the isles, same old same old, every. single. day. Until of course, he crashed into my life. At first, it was threatening, sure I’d hoped and prayed for my life to change but I didn’t actually expect it to happen, nor did I think the Titan would send him someone so damn chaotic. When we first met, he immediately affected my day-to-day routine, by taking over my club, leaving a horrible first impression. Oddly enough, the idiot boy intrigued me, he was enthusiastic, slightly sarcastic, very very expressive and he seemed unafraid, but he also seemed mysterious in a sense, like there was more to him than just some jerk kid. I even kept his stupid fake human treasures, I wasn’t sure why at the time, but, I think things are starting to make much more sense now. I’d see him in the halls after he basically stole my lifeline, he looked smug every damn time, it got on my nerves, but I learned to ignore him, even when he purposely approached me. I realized fast that he wasn’t as smug as he seemed to be, just like a lot of others he was targeted by Boscha, and it wasn’t hard to tell he was one of the most common targets, I caught myself feeling bad for him, no one deserves to deal with Boscha’s bull. We didn’t talk again until I ran into him and a group of his so called friends. They turned out to be absolute jerks. I never would’ve guessed the stuck-up jerk I used to think was a nuisance would save me. For the first time, his mask slipped, and I got to see who he truly was, I even discovered we had more in common than either of us originally would’ve guessed. One thing led to another and we ended up meeting back at the graveyard every weekend. From there our relationship took off, he brought a chaos into my life that I feel I needed. He’s taken me to places I’ve never even seen in my dreams before. I used to have a bland life, I had little adventures, and I was so very bored and just plain tired. Now that he’s here, life isn’t so simple and bland anymore. What used to be a slow, lifeless beat of a song inside my soul became the banging of drums and strumming of guitars and then for some reason, the destruction of guitars…

Gus smiled remembering a video he’d shown him that was a complication of people destroying perfectly good guitars, he never understood why they did it, and when his friend tried to explain it never did him any favors. Although Gus would never do it himself, he began to understand why others did, it was the adrenaline rush, the excitement, happiness. Gus’ smile softened a moment. His simple bland little song became an oddly chaotic and mesmerizing symphony. He loved his life now, he loved him. Gus sat up in bed at the realization. He loved him. 

“Oh shit,” Gus muttered under his breath,

“I’m in love with Matt.” 

Gus’ scroll appeared in front of him suddenly, he grabbed it and saw notifications from the devil himself,

{
Loser: Wya?
Loser: Yk being late is my job right?
Loser: Hello??
}

“oh shit,” Gus repeated as his head fell into both his hands,

-

Matt checked the time on his scroll again(7:20), he had been waiting for Gus at the marketplace for about 20 minutes now, and it wasn’t like him to be late, not that he was worried or anything..that would be stupid. Gus was always so excited when Matt took him places, Matt has always been used to hopping from place to place, school to school, house to house, he never realized that some witches didn’t have that, some witches like Gus grew up in one spot their entire life and have never really seen anything beyond it, there are even some places within their town that Gus hadn’t ever seen before they met each other the most adventurous times Gus had were in the library. Matt chuckled at the thought. He vowed from the first time he took him out on an adventure outside of the graveyard that he’d continue to show him new places, since he loved it so much it wasn’t hard to get him to go along with it. And so today they were going to venture somewhere new, Gus always asks where but Matt knows better than to answer, after all, it ruins the fun! 

“I’m here!” Gus yelled as he ran up to Matt and attacked him with a hug, Matt resisted but gave up since Gus was stronger than he looked and his feet weren’t currently on the ground..

Gus released him and placed him gently back down on the solid ground with a small plop. 

“So, where to?” Gus said, getting straight to the point,

Matt smirked up at the taller witch,
“You’ll see~,” he said in a sing-song voice, as he turned around and took off, Gus followed close behind,

“I’m gonna get an answer out of you one of these days,” Gus said confidently, shooting finger guns at him,

Matt rolled his eyes but smiled at him,

“Sure you will,”

“Cmon at least give me a hint,” Gus offered, he got in front of Matt and started walking backward, Matt grabbed him by the wrist and stopped him from running into an elderly witch, the witch scowled and muttered something about ‘kids these days’ as she slowly walked away, using her cane to support herself as she went. Matt chuckled and continued,

“No.”

“Aw cmon, please?” Gus whined, this time at Matt’s side, 

Matt let Gus beg for a good five minutes before they were officially out of the marketplace place and they made their way into the forest, Gus stopped blabbering for a moment to look around, still walking alongside Matt as he went, he looked up and stopped suddenly, Matt turned around to find him looking into the gaps between the trees, sunlight peeked in through them and you could see the shadows of some of the leaves in the suns light, it was nice sure, but not where they were headed. Matt approached, Gus looked at him just as he stepped into a portion of the sun's rays. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something about the way Gus looked at him in that moment felt different, he looked into his eyes and he didn’t dare look away. Suddenly getting Gus to the mystery spot he’d picked out disappeared from his thoughts, Gus stepped towards him and into the sunlight that they now shared, face to face. Matt stood there, frozen, starstruck, he became aware of just how beautiful his friend was and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to retreat or stand still, the silence was comforting, calming, Gus smiled at him and Matt couldn’t help the quirk of a smile that spread across his lips. They stood there a while, neither wanting to say anything to ruin the moment, you could’ve cut the tension with a knife. Matt realized after a while that they’d been staring at each other for too long and so he cleared his throat quietly,

“Uhm, we should probably..get going-“

“Oh! Yea, totally, we should do that.” Gus rubbed at the right side of his neck and let out a nervous chuckle,

“Cool,” Matt said as he turned around and bailed,

“cool.” Gus repeated a bit quieter,

Matt cleared his throat again and they continued in silence, every now and then he looked back at Gus and they’d make eye contact again and end up looking away immediately. This went on for the last 15 minutes it took to get to the location, it was around 7:50 pm now, just in time,

“Close your eyes,” Matt spoke up suddenly as he turned around to face Gus. Their eyes locked again for a moment before Gus just closed his eyes without saying a word. Hesitantly, Matt grabbed his hand, their fingers interlocked and he took that as a sign to continue, he pushed through some leaves and there they were, the best spot to watch the sunset. Matt took him near the ledge,

“open them,” he squeezed at his hand,

Gus's eyes widened when they opened, they were near a wide ledge, and the ground was surrounded by beautiful small yellow flowers, and in the distance, you could see the sky, a canvas full of warm and bright colors colliding to form the sunset, Gus’ ear pricked up at the sound of running water, and low and behold, to the right of them was a beautiful huge blue beautiful waterfall. Matt watched him take it all in, wishing he knew what was going through his head,

“It’s beautiful,” Gus breathed, he looked at Matt again and smiled,

“I know,” Matt bragged, he sat down, dragging Gus down with him by his hand as he went, Matt let his feet dangle, Gus kept his distance but stayed close as if he was afraid Matt was going to just let go of his hand and leap off. Gus’ head hit Matt's shoulder and they lay there comfortably, watching the sunset and listening to the musical melody of the waterfall. 

“Thank you,” Gus said out of the blue, he didn’t attempt to look at him or repeat himself, he knew he’d heard him,

Matt's smile softened as the wind started blowing slightly harder, Matt piped up and tapped Gus on the shoulder, once he was sure he had his attention he took his hands and helped him to stand, Gus looked confused, Matt liked confusing him and so he only smiled and led him closer to the waterfall, the wind blew against them once more,

“What are we-“

“Ah ah ah! Listen,” Matt sounded way too excited to cut him off,

As the wind blew, the leaves began rustling, crickets chirped, the waterfall cascaded, and there was the occasional soundless whistling of the nighttime breeze, Matt took Gus's hand and guided it into the waterfall, Gus felt at it, feeling serene as the water rushed down his hand, he let out a breath and backed away from the water to turn and look at him. They locked eyes and everything, even if just for a moment, everything felt right. The world around them seemed to be playing a symphony of different sounds just for the two of them, Gus squeezed his hand tighter and moved closer, Matt watched him carefully, when he stopped they were mere inches apart. Gus lifted his chin with care, and when he finally kissed him, Matt kissed him back, leaning into the softness of his lips. The wind whistled louder, the crickets seemed quieter, and everything about this was perfect. When they finally parted, Matt jumped in his arms, Gus spun him around once or twice before they came to a stop. Matt leaned back to look at him,

“I love you.” Matt looked into his eyes, a sincere, goofy smile spread across his face,

Gus’ eyes lit up and without warning he kissed him again, quickly departing this time, much to Matt’s dismay,

“I love you too.”

“You do?” Matt blurted out

“Well I just kissed you didn’t I?” Gus laughed,

“How long?”

“What?” Gus blinked down at him,

“How long have you felt that way,”

“A while, but I never really realized until today, you?”

“Ever since I joined the illusion track,” Matt said almost too quickly,

Gus smirked at that confession and Matt gave him a playful push, Gus engulfed him in a tight hug whilst Matt pretended to put up a struggle.

“Who knew you were such a lover boy!” Gus teased as he attacked him with cheek kisses,

“Gus stoppp!” Matt laughed as he stumbled backward,

Matt and Gus fell to the floor in a fit of chuckles and laughter, Gus pushed himself off of Matt and threw himself to the side, they both turned to look at each other at the same time and burst right back out into a light-hearted laughter, once they collected themselves again Matt looked at him, his normal sarcastic expression was replaced by a soft smile and gosh did it suit him.

“Soo, what now?” Matt shifted onto his side, his head lying comfortably in one of his hands,

“We could kiss again..?” Gus had a cat-like smirk on his face and he made an odd up and down movement with his eyebrows, Matt cringed and threw both hands over his face to hide in, he peeked through his arms and slowly retreated,

“Maybe, you could be my boyfriend?” He muttered, his eyes darted from Gus’ eyes and to the floor a few times before he decided on the floor. 

“I’d love to be your boyfriend, Matty,” 

Matt went red and his eyes darted back up to look at Gus, he let out a breath and smiled up at him. 

“Does this mean I get my kiss now?” Gus sat up and pointed at his lips,

Matt rolled his eyes as he sat up, he grabbed Gus’ face and kissed him smack dab on the lips, it was a little messier than the last two that Gus had engaged and kind of aggressive but by the time Matt parted Gus looked like a lovesick puppy,

Gus grabbed Matt's hands that were still cupped on his face, he leaned into his touch,

“One more time?” 

Matt smiled,

“Okay dork, one more.”